Thomas Ripley, Scampston

Architect. Thomas Ripley was born to Leonard Ripley in 1682 and was baptized on 12 February 1682 in Rillington, [North] Yorkshire. It is likely he comes from a family of yeoman farmers with the same name who lived in Scampston. Although he began a man of humble origins, Ripley would soon make his way up through the government circles. The romanticized version of Ripley's rise includes a young boy walking to London and making a name for himself but it is more likely he did this the old-fashioned way, through his connections. Also living in Scampston was a man named Sir William St. Quintin, lord of the Treasury 1714-1717, who held multiple government positions. A supporter of Walpole, it is likely that St. Quintin introduced Ripley to Walpole. Ripley's connection with Walpole led him to marry one of Walpole's servants, whose name is unknown, and an appointment in 1715 to labourer in trust at the Savoy. It was this position that allowed Ripley's upward climb through the house of works, which was established to oversee the building of royal castles and residences. After this appointment, he quickly began to make his way up through the ranks. In 1721, he became Master Carpenter, in 1726 he was chosen as comptroller of the works, and in 1729 surveyor of Greenwich Hospital with the help of Walpole. http://theinvisiblefaces.blogspot.ca/2015/05/thomas-ripley-architect-and-pragmatist.html. Also: Father of Ann Ripley. Married Dorothy Pybus. On 17 November 1737 his first wife died and on 22 April 1742 he married Miss Bucknall of Hampton, Middlesex, an heiress said to be worth 40,000 Pounds. Ripley died at his house in Old Scotland Yard on 10 February 1758, aged 75, leaving three sons and four daughters. He was buried in Hampton, but no memorial survives. A portrait by Joseph Highmore is in the National Portrait Gallery and his Mastership of the Carpenter's Company (1742-3) is commemorated by a plaque at the Guildhall, London. One of his sons moved into a house he had designed on Streatham Common now called Ripley House, at 10 Streatham Common South. [Wikipedia]