Chicheley Hall, Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, England is a country house built in the first quarter of the 18th century. The client was Sir John Chester, the main architect was Francis Smith of Warwick and the architectural style is Baroque. Later owners included David Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty and the Royal Society. Chicheley Hall is a Grade I listed building. History Earlier buildings A manor house on the site belonged to the Pagnell family of Newport Pagnell, but was donated by them to the church. Cardinal Wolsey gave the manor to Christ Church, Oxford, but it subsequently reverted to the Crown after Wolsey's fall and was acquired by a wool merchant, Anthony Cave, in 1545, who built a manor house in the form of a hollow square. On his death the house was left to his daughter Judith, who had married her cousin William Chester, son of Sir William Chester. Their only son Anthony was High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire for 1602 and created a baronet in 1620. The house then descended in the Chester family to the time of the English Civil War, when it was shelled by Parliamentary forces and eventually demolished. The present Chicheley Hall was built in the early 1700s on the same site. All that remains of the old manor house is one Jacobean over-mantel with termini caryatids, and some panelling in the new Chicheley Hall. Building the current hall: 1719-1724 The present hall was built between 1719 and 1723, with the interior fittings completed in 1725. The house was often attributed to the architect Thomas Archer, but more recent research suggests Francis Smith, who is thought to have designed it for Sir John Chester, 4th Baronet. After John Chester's death the house descended to Charles Bagot Chester, the 7th Baronet, a drunk and gambler, who jumped out of a second floor window in a drunken fit. Before dying of his injuries he bequeathed all of his estates, including Chicheley, to a distant relative and school friend, Charles Bagot, on condition he adopted the name of Chester. Charles' son Charles Bagot Chester, a gambler, rake and Member of Parliament, rented out the hall for many years. After his death the estate descended to the unmarried Charles Anthony Chester and from 1883 was again rented out to a series of tenants for the next 70 years. 20th century In 1911, the Hall was rented by Sir George Farrar, a