SIR RALPH DUTTON 1ST BT.
Sir Ralph Dutton Bt. was the son of Sir Ralph Dutton Kt. (1601-1646), of Standish, and his wife Mary, the daughter of Sir William Duncombe. Ralph inherited the Sherborne estate on the death of his childless elder brother William in 1674/5, who had in turn inherited it from their uncle John ‘Crump’ Dutton (d.1656/7), so called on account of his suffering from a hunchback. It was Crump Dutton who had commission the striking Lodge Park at Sherborne, a sophisticated deer coursing grandstand and banqueting house, once thought to have been the work of Inigo Jones, but now believed to be by his sometime collaborator John Webb (1611-1672).

Ralph married twice; firstly Grizel, daughter of Sir Edward Poole of Kemble, Wiltshire, circa 1674, however she died in 1678, the year he was made a baronet, for the fee of £1100. In 1679 he married Mary, the heiress of Peter Barwick, physician to King Charles II. Sir Ralph was M.P. for Gloucestershire from 1679 until 1681 and again from in 1689 to 1698. Tragically Sir Ralph had inherited Crump Dutton’s love for gambling. His estate, presumably including his plate, was made over to his son in 1710 and he left Gloucestershire to live in Ireland where he died in 1721, succeeded in the baronetcy by his son John 2^nd Bt., uncle of James Lenox Naper/Dutton.

JAMES LENOX DUTTON
James Lenox Dutton was born James Lenox Naper in 1712 . He was the son of Irish landowner James Naper (d.1718) of Loughcrew House, co. Meath and his third wife Anne, the daughter of Sir Ralph Dutton 1^st Bt. (d.1721) of Sherborne Park, Gloucestershire. In February 1742/3, on the death of James Lenox Naper’s maternal uncle Sir John Dutton 2^nd Bt. of Sherborne Park James succeeded to the sizable Dutton estates. His uncle had not been sure which of his two nephews should become his heir. His eldest sister Mary had married Sir Thomas Reade Bt. of Shipton Court, Oxfordshire and they had a son John.

The convention of time suggested the son of the elder sister was the more likely heir, however, according to a tale recounted in the Connoisseur article on the family published in May 1911 (vol. 30, p. 12), shortly before he died Sir John called the two nephews to his bedside and engaged them in conversation on a number of subjects to gauge their character. He asked both men what they were reading. Reade replied he had no idea of the subject of his book beyond the fact it had a blue cover. In contrast Naper was reading a Latin grammar. Supposedly this settled the choice in Sir John’s mind and the Dutton estates passed to James.

James married twice. His first wife, Catherine Ingoldsby, was the daughter of General Henry Ingoldsby. She bore him a son who pre-deceased his father. Following her death he married Jane Bond (d.1776), the daughter of Christopher Bond and Jane Whorwood. The couple had three sons and six daughters, however, one son and two the daughters died young as recorded on James’s memorial by Richard Westmacott the Elder (1747-1808 ) in the church of St Mary Magdalene, Sherborne.

James employed the German born society artist Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) to paint the family in a conversation piece recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art. The scene depicts James and his wife Jane in mourning clothes seated beside a card table whilst their eldest son, later the 1^st Baron Sherborne, and his wife play cards. He clearly respected the silver he inherited form his uncle by retaining it rather than having it remade, however, he did ensured it was engraved with his and his wife’s arms. He and his wife both died in 1776. He was succeeded by his son James Dutton, 1st Baron Sherborne (1744-1820).