Francis Wemyss, later Charteris (1723-1808), de jure 7th Earl of Wemyss, was the son of James Wemyss, 5th Earl of Wemyss and a stout Jacobite, and Janet Charteris. Francis changed his name to Charteris in 1732 after the death of his maternal grandfather. He studied at Eton and went on his Grand Tour, 1739-44. In 1745, he married Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of Alexander, the 2nd Duke of Gordon. He was a lifelong Freemason and in 1747 he was admitted to the Royal Company of Archers. Francis spent a large amount of his time on building ventures in Scotland, including Amisfield (to designs by Isaac Ware) near Haddington, Cameron on Loch Lomond, Retreat in Berwickshire, and Cambo in the East Neuk of Fife.

The title Earl of Wemyss should have become redundant when his father died, following the attainder of his eldest brother David in 1746 for his involvement in the Jacobite uprising. Despite this, Francis and his contemporaries continued to name him 7th Earl of Wemyss after his brother's death in 1787.

In 1784, Francis bought a c. sixteenth-century L-shaped tower house at Gosford from his Edinburgh-based accountant, Alexander Farquharson, for £16,500. Francis was a passionate golfer, and the surrounding land is thought to have been a reason for the purchase. Within six years, Francis decided to build a new house, west of the old house, that could adequately house his collection, along with a stable range. In 1789, he commissioned Robert Adam to make designs for the new house. The Adam office designs for the house are not within the Soane collection but they were engraved and published in George Richardson’s New Vitruvius Britannicus in 1802, and there are also several surviving client’s copies in the private Wemyss collection. The foundation stone was laid in 1791, but most of the construction was carried out after Adam’s death in March 1792 to a modified plan. The stables have also been attributed to Adam by Williamson and mentioned by King, however, the Gosford House guidebook (c.2010) states that the stables, along with the coach-house and offices were designed by the architect William Newton of Newcastle, at a cost of £3,521. The landscape, including the pleasure grounds, were laid out to a design by James Ramsay.

The Soane Collection has a group of unexecuted variant designs for a cottage with an adjoining gateway, and a gated entrance to the Gosford Estate. These drawings probably date from the same time that the Adam office was working on the house and can be confirmed by a letter from Adam’s Chief Clerk of Works, John Patterson, who mentions ‘Fair and Figured drawings’ for the ‘gates at Gosford’ in March 1791. There are additional drawings relating to these schemes, including working drawings, within the private Wemyss collection which also date from 1791 and a finished drawing for the gated entrance in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection.

Literature: National Library Scotland: MSS.19992-19993, Letters from John Paterson to Robert Adam, 1790-91; George Richardson, New Vitruvius Britannicus, 1802, pp. 13, Plates XLIV-XLIX; A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1922, Volume II, pp. 196-200; Index, pp. 15, 91; J. Hunt, ‘Gosford, East Lothian – 1’, Country Life, 21 October 1971, pp. 1048-1050; C. McWilliam, The Buildings of Scotland: Lothian, 1978, pp. 222-4; M. Sanderson, 'Robert Adam's Last Visit to Scotland', Architectural History, Vol. 25, 1982, p. 35-46; J. Macaulay, The Classical Country House in Scotland 1660-1800, 1987, pp. 159-161; A. Rowan, Robert Adam: Catalogues of Architectural Drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1988, pp. 21, 51; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, 2001, Volume 1, pp. 146-9, 398, 406; Volume 2, pp. 213, 218, 253-5, 258; C. Mosley (ed.), Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 2003, p. 4123; Gosford House Guidebook, c.2010, pp. 3-55

With thanks to the Arts Society Fund and the Art Fund’s Jonathan Ruffer Curatorial Grant which enabled archival visits in Edinburgh to support research for this scheme.

Louisa Catt, 2024