Club house
The East India Club club house is situated on the west side of St. James's Square, London SW1. The first occupant of the house was Thomas Jermyn, 2nd Baron Jermyn (?1670-1676).[3] He passed the house on to Robert Villiers, 3rd Viscount Purbeck, who occupied the house for two years (1676–1678).[3] After Viscount Purbeck, a Swedish Ambassador occupied the house, followed by two successive Earls of Suffolk and the Earl of Romney.[3] The house was then taken over by Sir John Germain, 1st Baronet, the lover and, later, husband of Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk.[3] When Sir John died in 1719, he left the house to his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Berkeley, 2nd daughter of the 2nd Earl of Berkeley.[3] She was to occupy the house for no less than 50 years. When Lady Elizabeth died, the house went to George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville.[4] It then became the home of Admiral Vere Beauclerk, 1st Baron Vere[4] and then of his son, Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans.[4] In 1785, George Anson bought No. 16.[4] When he died in 1789, the house was passed on to his son, Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson.[4] In 1804, Viscount Anson sold the house to Edmund Boehm, a successful merchant.[5] Mr and Mrs Boehm were very active socially and hosted many dinner parties. On June 21, 1815, the Prince Regent (later George IV) was the principal guest at the dinner party. He heard the news of the victory at Waterloo at the house, where Major Henry Percy, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, presented the Prince Regent with four captured French eagles and Wellington’s victory despatch.[6] When Edmund Boehm was declared bankrupt, Robert Vyner became the owner of No. 16.[7] In 1825, Mr Vyner sold the house to the Marquess of Clanricarde.[7] During Lord Clanricarde's tenancy, he let the house for a time to the Marquess Wellesley.[4] In 1849, the East India Club Committee signed a lease with Lord Clanricarde.[8] The club bought the house from Lord Clanricarde in 1863. John Villiers (ca. 1591 – February 18, 1657) was the eldest son o Sir George Villiers of Brooksby, Leicestershire, by his second wife, Mary, afterwards Countess of Buckingham, and half-brother of Edward Villiers. George Villiers, first duke of Buckingham, and Christopher Villiers, earl of Anglesey, were his younger brothers. John was knighted on 30 June 1616, and in the same year became groom of the bedchamber and master of the robes to Charles I of England. Negotiations at the same time were begun by his mother for his marriage with a rich heiress; the lady selected was Frances, daughter of Sir Edward Coke and his wife, Lady Hatton, and Coke was required to give not only his consent, but a marriage portion of 10,000l. He refused to pay more than two-thirds of that sum, and was consequently called upon to resign his seat on the bench. Lady Hatton remained obdurately opposed to the marriage, but Coke gave way, and on 29 Sept. Frances and Villiers were married at Hampton Court, James I giving away the bride[1]. Lady Hatton still refused to make over her Dorset property to Villiers, and as compensation he was on 19 July 1619 created Baron Villiers of Stoke (today Coleshill, Buckinghamshire), and Viscount Purbeck of Dorset. The marriage proved a tragedy; Weldon reports Buckingham as having said that his brother Purbeck had more wit and honesty than all the kindred beside (Court of James I, p. 44), but according to Dr. Gardiner, he was weak in mind and body, and soon after 1620 completely lost his reason[2]. In 1621 his wife deserted him and went to live with Sir Robert Howard. In 1624 she gave birth to a son, Robert Danvers, and in October she was convicted of adultery. Eventually she died at Oxford, and was buried in St. Mary's on 4 June 1645. Purbeck, whose insanity was intermittent, married, as his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Slingsby of Kippax, West Yorkshire, and died without legitimate issue on 18 Feb. 1656–7 at Charlton, near Greenwich. The peerage became extinct, though the claim to it put forward by Robert Danvers was for many years a cause celebre.