In 1810 a Mr William Kinglake of Taunton, a lawyer who was also a partner in a local bank, bought the park from the estate of John Hamnett, together with a twenty-roomed house called Wilton House, built in 1705, which is still standing. The gates of the house were at the end of the town's High Street, while its parkland stretched away from the town towards the Blackdown Hills, with chestnut trees and a stream. Kinglake was the father of the writer Alexander William Kinglake, who grew up at Vivary. The Kinglake family called the property 'The Vivary'.