Gage family portraits: Hengrave and Firle Place

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Firle Place in Sussex is the seat of the senior branch of the Gage family, a junior branch of which inherited Hengrave Hall outside Bury St. Edmunds as a result of the marriage of Sir John Gage, 1st Baronet of Firle, to Penelope Darcy, granddaughter of Sir Thomas Kytson the Younger of Hengrave. Although in the usual course of events Hengrave would have been inherited by her eldest son, the 2nd Baronet of Firle (in which case it might still be in the Gages’ possession), Penelope settled it on her third son Edward, who was created 1st Baronet of Hengrave by Charles II in 1662.

Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Kytson the Younger, wife of Thomas Darcy, Earl Rivers and mother of Penelope

Penelope, daughter of Mary Darcy, wife of 1) Sir George Trenchard, 2) Sir John Gage and 3) Sir William Hervey, mother of Sir John Gage 2nd Bt Firle and Sir Edward Gage 1st Bt Hengrave

Sir Edward Gage, 1st Bt Hengrave

The Hengrave Gages became extinct in 1887 but, unlike the Gages of Firle, who conformed to the Church of England in 1714, the Hengrave Gages remained Recusants to the last. The Firle Gages consequently have little political interest attaching to them after 1714, and Firle Place itself, which would appear to have begun as an early Tudor house with a courtyard and great hall just like Hengrave, was remodelled in the early Georgian period by the family newly freed from Recusancy fines. However, the interest of Firle is in its paintings of members of the Gage family that were undoubtedly replicated at Hengrave but, since the sale of all the contents of that house in 1947, have subsequently been lost to the historical record.

Sir John Gage, Lord Chamberlain to Queen Mary I

Fortunately, there are engravings of a few of the paintings once at Hengrave to be found in John Gage’s History and Antiquities of Hengrave in Suffolk (1822) that can be compared to the paintings on the great staircase at Firle today. There is a full length portrait of Sir John Gage the Elder, Lord Chamberlain to Mary I, embedded in the 18th century panelling. This painting is posthumous, done in the early 17th century, and it is reproduced facing p. 228 in Gage, ‘From the original at Hengrave’. Presumably the one at Hengrave was likely to be a later copy of the Firle portrait, since it would make sense for the original to be in the possession of the senior line. At Firle there are also small portraits of Sir George Trenchard, Lady Penelope’s first husband, and Sir William Harvey her third and last. It is likely that these were reproduced at Hengrave in some form as well. Facing p. 224 Gage reproduces a portrait of Lady Penelope herself at the age of 14 or 15, a copy of which is on the staircase at Firle. However, judging by its style I strongly suspect that it is a copy of the late 18th or early 19th centuries from the original at Hengrave. Hengrave was, after all, Lady Penelope’s main residence. The portrait of Sir John Gage, 1st Baronet Firle on the staircase is similar to, but not the same as, the portrait Gage has facing p. 239, and the portrait of Mary Darcy, Countess Rivers (Penelope’s mother, who lived all her life at Hengrave and at her house in Colchester) was new to me entirely. It shows her late in life, wearing black with a single string of perpendicular pearls and a black brimmed hat. There is a full length portrait in the Great Hall at Firle of a lady in a violet dress holding a half opened fan, which is supposed to be Lady Penelope in her 20s or 30s, but the identification has not been established.

Sir John Gage, husband of Penelope Darcy

The arms of the Gages of Firle is Gage quartered with St. Clere, just as at Hengrave, but the Hengrave Gages evidently differenced their arms by the introduction of the red hand to the centre of the red saltire of Gage, signifying a baronetcy. Likewise, the crest of a ram was never used by the Hengrave Gages.

The tomb of the elder Sir John Gage in Firle church

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