Cadogan : A Chelsea Family

The complete history of London’s Cadogan family, gathered in one volume for the first time.

In opening the Cadogan family archives, we find multilingual spies, evangelical clergymen, watercolor artists, and society ladies who defy convention for love. We find stories of affairs, illegitimacy, duels, and gambling. There are diplomats, courtiers, and confidantes. Woven throughout is the parallel history of Chelsea, as the riverside farmland estate transformed into a visionary Georgian town, and again into the recognizable red brick of Pont Street Dutch, surviving riots and near bankruptcy to become a thriving London community. Told with affection and humor, interweaving world events and private dramas spanning a thousand years, this book brings to life the story of one family that is also the story of the British Isles.

Celtic chieftains emerging from the mists of ancient Wales, the ‘battle-keen’ Cadogans play their part at Blenheim alongside Marlborough, on board Pellew’s Indefatigable, with Wellington at Mondego Bay and Vittoria; at Balaklava and Sevastapol; at Ypres, Gallipoli and El Alamein. But opening the family archives – private letters, diaries and albums – we also find multilingual spies, evangelical clergymen, watercolour artists and society ladies who defy convention for love; illegitimacy, duels and gambling. There are diplomats, courtiers and confidantes. They share their stories with institutions from Chelsea Physic Garden and the British Museum to the British Olympic Association and Chelsea Football Club; from the Gaiety Theatre and the Jockey Club to the United Nations and the BBC. Woven throughout is the parallel history of Chelsea: a riverside farmland estate transformed into a visionary Georgian new town, and again into the recognisable red-brick of Pont Street Dutch, surviving riots and near-bankruptcy to become a thriving London community. Told with affection and humour, interweaving world events and private dramas over a thousand years, this book brings to life the story of one family that is also to the story of the British Isles.