Jump to content

Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, Inigo

From Wikisource
1400421Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 30 — Jones, Inigo1892no contributor recorded

JONES, INIGO (1573–1652), architect, son of Inigo Jones, was born 15 July (Wood, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, 1820, ii. 800, n. 7), and was christened in the church of St. Bartholomew the Less, West Smithfield, 29 July 1573 (cf. Collier, Memoirs of Actors, Shak. Soc., 1846, p. nv). The arras on the original frame of the Houghton portrait of the architect (see below), when first it came into the possession of Sir Robert Walpole, were: per bend sinister, ermine and erminois, a lion rampant, or, all within a bordure engrailed, or, and they are said to be borne by a Denbighshire family of the name (Addit. MS. 23073, fol. 45 v.) Inigo's father was in straitened circumstances; an order of the court of requests, dated 28 Nov. 1.589, records his default to repay a debt of 80l., and allows him to renew a covenant by which the debt, already reduced to 48l., was to be repaid 'at the rate of 10s. every month.' According to his will, made 14 Feb. 1596–7, a few months before his death, he was then a clothworker of the parish of St. Benet, Paul's Wharf, and he appointed his son, Inigo, his executor. He was to be buried by the side of his wife, in the chancel of the church of St. Benet; and all he possessed, after the payment of his debts, was left equally among his son and his three daughters, Joan, Judith, and Mary. The will was proved by Inigo 5 April 1597. The father appears to have been a Roman catholic, and Inigo adhered to that faith.

Vertue has preserved a tradition from Sir Christopher Wren, that Jones was in his youth ‘put apprentice to a joiner in Paul's Churchyard’ (Addit. MS. 23069, fol. 19), a statement that seems corroborated by Ben Jonson's caricature of him as a joiner of Islington in ‘A Tale of a Tub.’ It is a matter of more certainty that he was early distinguished by his inclination to drawing, or designing, and particularly for his skill in landscape-painting. His artistic promise recommended him to William Herbert, third earl of Pembroke [q. v.], at whose expense he travelled as a youth ‘over Italy and the politer parts of Europe’ (‘Life’ prefixed to Stoneheng Restored, ed. 1725; Lloyd, Memoirs, 1677, p. 577). Thomas Howard, second earl of Arundel [q. v.], who was thirteen years Jones's junior, was a later patron, but was too young, although he has been credited with the distinction, to assist him at the outset of his career (Addit. MS. 23069, fol. 19 v.) A landscape by Jones belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, formerly at Chiswick, is now at Chatsworth. ‘The colouring,’ says Walpole, ‘is very indifferent, but the trees freely and masterly imagined’ (ib. 23069 fol. 39, 23070 fol. 24 v.)

According to his own general statement, Jones while in Italy studied attentively the ruins of ancient buildings (Stoneheng Restored, 1655, p. 1). John Webb, his pupil and the husband of his kinswoman, relates that he spent much time at Venice, and was summoned thence to Denmark by Christian IV, who ‘first ingrossed him to himself’ There is an uncorroborated tradition that when in Denmark he built a palace for Christian IV, and a portion of the Fredericksborg has been incorrectly attributed to him, from its resemblance to the court of Heriot's Hospital in Edinburgh (Addit. MS. 23070, fol. 24 v.; Feldborg, Denmark Delineated, 1824, p. 88). But Webb is in error in stating that Jones came back to England with Christian IV in July 1606. He returned home a year and a half earlier. On Twelfth Night 1604–5, when Ben Jonson's ‘Masque of Blackness’ was presented at Whitehall by Queen Anne, he designed the scenes, machines, and dress, of which the first edition (n. d. 4to) supplies a full description. In August of the same year, 1605, Jones was entrusted by the university of Oxford with the direction of the performance of three plays, given in the hall of Christ Church, before James I (Leland, Collectanea, 1770, ii. 631, see also p. 646). Shifting scenery seems to have been then first employed in England. It is probable that it was borrowed by Jones from Italy, like the elaborate machinery which he used in the court masques. The ingenious scenic devices introduced by him into Ben Jonson's ‘Hymenæi, or the Solemnities of Masque and Barrier’ (twice performed at court January 1605–6), are commended by Jonson at length in the printed copy of 1606 (see Cotton. MS. Jul. C. iii. fol. 301). Jones took a similar part in the presentation at court of Ben Jonson's ‘Hue and Cry after Cupid’ on Shrove Tuesday, 1607–8, and of Jonson's ‘Masque of Queens’ on 2 Feb. 1608–9, in which Queen Anne acted. On 16 June 1609 payment was ordered to be made to Jones ‘for carrying letters for his majesty's service into France.’ A manuscript note in his copy of Vitruvius records his presence in Paris at the time (Addit. MS. 23073, fol. 51 v.) On 11 Dec. of the same year a warrant was issued for the payment to Jones and others of the money required for Prince Henry's exercises at the barriers (Warrant Book, ii. 125), i.e. probably for the feats of arms performed at Whitehall on Twelfth Night 1609–10 (Birch, Life of Prince Henry, 1760, p. 182).

When, on 4 June 1610, Jones arranged the performance at Whitehall of Samuel Daniel's masque, ‘Tethys Festival, or the Queen's Wake,’ his ingenuity, according to Daniel, surpassed itself. ‘In these things,’ wrote the poet, ‘wherein the only life consists in show, the art and invention of the architect gives the greatest grace, and is of most importance; ours, the least part and of least note’ (Tethys Festival, 4to, 1610; State Papers, Dom. liv. 74, liii. 4). No mention is made in the printed copies of the part which Jones took at the Christmas following in producing Ben Jonson's ‘Love freed from Ignorance and Folly,’ although the architect's bill of charges is preserved among the ‘Pells Records’ (P. Cunningham, Life, Shak. Soc., 1848, p. 10). The omission on Jonson's part is the first sign of a breach between Jones and himself.

Upon Prince Henry's creation as Prince of Wales, in December 1610, Jones was appointed his surveyor of the works (Harl. MS. 252, art. 2, fol. 12 v.) at a fee of 3s. per diem, to date from 13 Jan. 1610–11, and he held the office till the prince's death, 6 Nov. 1612 (Revel Accounts, Shak. Soc., 1842, p. xv). The prince employed him and Jonson to produce the masque of ‘Oberon, the Faery Prince,’ on New-year's day 1610–11. The poet again overlooks, in the printed copies, Jones's share in the representation, which is recorded in the roll of the privy purse expenses of the prince. According to some Latin rhymes by Thomas Coryat, Jones, ‘nec indoctus, nec prophanus, Ignatius architectus,’ took part with Donne, Christopher Brooke, Lionel Cranfield, and ‘Mr. Hoskins’ in a philosophical feast held at the Mitre on 2 Sept. 1611 (State Papers, Dom. lxvi. 2). Some verses by Jones figure in the eccentric introduction to ‘Coryat's Crudities’ (1611).

Jones was employed upon two of the three masques—those by Thomas Campion and George Chapman—which celebrated at court the marriage of the Palsgrave with the Princess Elizabeth in February 1612–13 (cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 3rd Rep. p. 281). Walpole assigns to Jones at this period those buildings ‘which are less pure, and border too much upon that bastard style which one calls King James' Gothic.’ But according to the roll of Prince Henry's privy purse expenses—the only accessible authority on the point—he was merely engaged on building work ‘at Richmond, St. James, Woodstock, and other places’ (Revel Accounts, p. xvi), and although the character of the work is unspecified it probably consisted of ordinary repairs (cf. State Papers, Dom. lxiii. 85).

In the summer of 1613 Jones set out again for Italy. In the course of the journey he stayed at Vicenza 23 Sept. 1613, at Rome 19 Jan. 1613–14, at Tivoli 13 June 1614, and, after visiting Naples, returned by Vicenza, 13 Aug. 1614, to London before 26 Jan. 1614–15 (manuscript notes in sketch-book at Chiswick, and in Palladio's Architettura at Worcester College, Oxford). At Venice he saw and spoke with Scamozzi, whose depreciation of Palladio he resented, and at Rome Villamena engraved his head in an oval; ‘for what end or purpose,’ adds Vertue, ‘I know not, unless he had demonstrated to them, in some buildings or works of his when there, how great a master he was’ (Addit. MS. 23069, fol. 46). There are, however, two buildings at Leghorn popularly attributed to him, a palace and the façade of the Duomo, of which a drawing, now in the British Museum, is wrongly assigned to his hand. While on this visit to Italy Jones not only carefully studied the buildings, pictures, and statues then held in greatest esteem, but purchased works of art for the Earl of Arundel (Tierney, History of Arundel, 1834, p. 424), as well as for the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Danvers (State Papers, Dom. lxxxvi. 132, lxxxviii. 9, xc. 145; Sainsbury, Rubens, 1859, pp. 279, 301).

On 1 Oct. 1615 Jones succeeded Simon Basil in the office of surveyor-general of the works, to which the reversion had been granted him 27 April 1613; he received 8s. per diem for his entertainment, 80l. per annum for his ‘recompense of availes,’ and 2s. 8d. per diem for his riding and travelling charges (P. Cunningham, Life, Shak. Soc., 1848, p. 18); but these fees appear to have varied during the reign of Charles I (Pells Issue Rolls; State Papers, Dom. ccci. 9, cccii. 94; Addit. MSS. 23077 fol. 1 v., and 23071, fol. 25). A warrant for his yearly livery, at a cost of 12l. 15s. 10d., is dated 16 March 1615–16 (ib. 5755, fol. 231; see also fol. 230), and a yearly grant of 46l. was made to him 3 April 1629, being the rent of the house which he occupied in Scotland Yard. The sum was payable to the heirs of Simon Basil, his predecessor, who had procured a lease of that part of the yard, hitherto the perquisite of the surveyor-general, and had built certain houses there for his private benefit (Audit Office Enrolments, ii. 464). To meet debts incurred by the office of works in the time of Simon Basil, Jones offered to forego his fees of entertainment, and persuaded the comptroller and paymaster to do likewise until the arrears were cleared (Webb, Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored, 1665, p. 123; cf. State Papers, Dom. cccxviii. 82). Jones discharged his duties energetically. ‘In February 1616’ he carried out ‘certain works in the Star-chamber’ (Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber), and in a letter dated 21 June 1617 the writer mentions ‘a design for a new Star-chamber, which the king would fain have built, if there were money’ (State Papers, Dom. xcii. 707). A model of this design was prepared (Accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber), and the plan is preserved at Worcester College, Oxford. The queen's house at Greenwich was also begun from his designs in 1617, but it was not finished till 1635 (Philipott, Villare Cantianum, 1659, p. 162). Between 1617 and 1623 the chapel of Lincoln's Inn was rebuilt from his designs (Dugdale, Origines Juridiciales, 1666, p. 234). It was the only building in which he essayed a Gothic manner, unless the church of St. Alban's, Wood Street, which was destroyed in the great fire, should be assigned to him. The proportions of Lincoln's Inn Chapel have been injured by additions in recent years. On 16 Nov. 1618 a commission was issued to the lord chamberlain, Jones, and others to reduce Lincoln's Inn Fields ‘to fair and goodly walks,’ ‘as by the said Inigo Jones is, or shall be, accordingly drawn by way of map or ground plot’ (Rymer, Fœdera, 1704–1732, xvii. 119). A prospect, painted in oil colours, of the fields, as they were designed to be laid out by Jones, is preserved at Wilton in Wiltshire. But the west side, known as Arch Row, alone appears to have been built under his direction (Cunningham, Handbook for London, 1849, ii. 483). Lindsey House, built for Robert Bertie, earl of Lindsey, with its façade of stone and its piers of rubbed brick work, still remains in the centre of Arch Row, and fragments of Jones's brick houses, bearing the rose and fleur-de-lys of the king and queen on their stone pilasters, may still be traced on the western side, between the arch and the south corner. Colin Campbell, who published the draught of Lindsey House in the ‘Vitruvius Britannicus’ (i. 49, 50), states that Jones ‘designed it anno 1640.’

The banqueting house (Birch MS. 4174) at Whitehall was destroyed by fire 12 Jan. 1618–19, and Jones was ordered to design a new building for the same site. The first stone was laid 1 June 1619. The work was completed 31 March 1622, at a cost of 15,653l. 3s. 3d., after considerable delay caused by the desertion of the workmen (State Papers, Dom. cxvi. 69, and Hist. MSS. Comm. App. 4th Rep. p. 310). Jones intended this banqueting house, which still remains, to form part of an immense palace which was to take the place of old Whitehall. The design of the projected palace has been preserved in many drawings and prints, which differ somewhat from one another. One series of drawings, apparently by John Webb, is at Worcester College, Oxford; other drawings, many by Jones himself, are at Chatsworth, or in Sir John Soane's Museum. The palace, according to the more authentic designs, was to consist of seven courts, including the famous Persian or circular court, disposed upon a rectangular plan, and the existing banqueting house forms a lateral portion of the east side of the great central court. A figured drawing at Chatsworth shows the fronts towards Westminster and Charing Cross to extend to a length of 1,280 feet, those towards the river and St. James's Park to a length of 950 feet, and the great court to be set out upon a double square of 400 feet (cf. Sainsbury, Rubens, 1859).

The single extant letter written by Jones records that he was a member of a commission (appointed in 1619, reconstituted in 1625, and continued till 1642) to control the plans of new houses with a view to reducing streets to uniformity (Rymer, Fœdera, 1704–1732, xvii. 143, xviii. 97; State Papers, Dom. passim, 1619–42; Hist. MSS. Comm. App. 5th Rep. pp. 38, 76). In 1620 James I while visiting the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton commanded Jones to investigate the history of Stonehenge. Webb found ‘some few undigested notes’ on the subject after Jones's death, and at the solicitation of Harvey the physician and of Selden issued in folio in 1655 ‘The most notable Antiquity of Great Britain, vulgarly called Stoneheng, on Salisbury Plaine, restored by Inigo Jones, Esquire, Architect-Generall to the late King.’ Jones's theory was that Stonehenge was a Roman temple, which, ‘if not founded by Agricola,’ yet was erected ‘in the times somewhat after his government,’ and was dedicated to the god Cœlus, and he noticed in the monument a mixture of certain proportions proper to Corinthian and Tuscan work, together with the plainness and solidity of the latter order. Dr. Walter Charleton [q. v.], after corresponding on the subject with Olaus Wormius, the Danish antiquary, condemned Jones's theory in ‘Chorea Gigantum,’ 1663, and Webb replied in ‘A Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored’ (fol. 1665), which is chiefly valuable for its many references to Jones's biography. The three treatises were published together in folio in 1725, with a life of Jones prefixed.

Jones seems to have ‘lost reputation’ by his scenery for Jonson's ‘Christmas,’ the masque performed on Twelfth Night, 1617 (State Papers, Dom. Add. xcv. 10). But he was again employed on Ben Jonson's ‘Masque of Augurs’ (Twelfth Night, 1621–2), and he constructed for Jonson's ‘Time Vindicated,’ 19 Jan. 1622–3, a scene which was ‘three times changed during the time of the masque’ (Sir H. Herbert's office-book, quoted in Collier, Annals of the State, i. 418). The poet omits in the printed copy all mention of the architect.

In the spring of 1623 Jones made ready, ‘with great costliness,’ two chapels at Denmark House and St. James's, among other preparations for the infanta (State Papers, Dom. cxliv. 11; Webb, Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored, p. 123; Parr, Life of Ussher, 1686, p. 89; Harl. MS. 5900, fol. 58). In June he and others arranged for the reception of the infanta at Southampton (State Papers, Dom. cxlvi. 85), and during his visit Jones was elected a burgess of the town (Hist. MSS. Comm. App. to 2nd Rep. pt. ii. p. 24). Jonson and Jones were again responsible for ‘Neptune's Triumph for the return of Albion,’ which celebrated the return of Prince Charles from Spain, on Twelfth Night, 1623–4 (4to, n. d.), and for ‘Pan's Anniversary, or the Shepherd's Holiday’ (Twelfth Night, 1624–5). Jonson omitted any mention of Jones in the printed copies of the former, but on the title-page of the latter Jones's name is placed before that of Jonson, a courtesy only paid him by the poet on this occasion. Jones helped to arrange the elaborate funeral of James I in Westminster Abbey on 7 May following (State Papers, Dom. ii. 55; Aubrey, Letters and Lives of Eminent Men, 1813, ii. 412).

In the winter festivities at court of 1625–6 Jones prepared not only Jonson's ‘Fortunate Isles and their Union,’ but also a French pastoral, in which Queen Henrietta Maria and her ‘demoiselles’ acted at Denmark House (Declared Accounts, Master of the Revels, 1 Nov. 1623 to 31 Oct. 1626; State Papers, Dom. xii. 4 and 93). The original drawings by Jones for the dresses of this masque are preserved at Chatsworth, together with a design for one of the scenes of the pastoral, dated 1625, formerly at Chiswick. The two masques presented early in 1631, ‘Love's Triumph through Callipolis’ (4to, 1630) and ‘Chloridia’ (4to, n. d.), were again by Jones and Jonson, but Jonson was not henceforward employed at court. In both the king's and queen's masques, ‘Albion's Triumph’ and ‘Tempe Restored,’ performed in the following year, Jones's coadjutor was Aurelian Townshend. Jones designed the scenery for the performance at court of Shirley's ‘Triumphs of Peace’ (3 Feb. 1633–4), Carew's ‘Cœlum Britannicum’ (Shrove Tuesday, 1634), Fletcher's ‘Pastoral Shepherdess’ (6 Jan. 1633–4), William D'Avenant's ‘Temple of Love’ (Shrove Tuesday, 1634–5), the French pastoral ‘Florimine’ (21 Dec. 1635, cf. Halliwell, Dict. of Plays), for which the working drawings of the stage and scenery are in Lansd. MS. 1171; Heywood's ‘Love's Mistress in the Queen's Masque’ (at Denmark House, 1636), and Thomas Cartwright's ‘Royal Slave’ (at Christ Church, Oxford, 30 Aug. 1636, and later at Hampton Court). With Chapman, who had dedicated his translation of ‘Musæus’ to Jones in 1616, Jones maintained a lifelong friendship; and he designed in 1634 the monument to Chapman's memory which is still extant in the church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London.

But with Jonson Jones's relations were far less amicable. In 1617 Jonson told Prince Charles that when he wanted words to express the greatest villain in the world he would call him an Inigo (Conversations of Jonson with Drummond of Hawthornden, Shak. Soc., 1842, p. 30). When Townhsend's ‘Albion's Triumph’ was produced in 1631–2 a contemporary letter-writer recorded that Jonson was discarded ‘by reason of the predominant power of his antagonist, Inigo Jones, who this time twelvemonth was angry with him for putting his own name before his on the title-page,’ apparently to the ‘Chloridia’ (Jonson, Works, ed. Gifford, 1816, i. p. clx). Jonson answered Jones's complaints in satires entitled ‘An Expostulation with Inigo Jones’ and ‘A Corollary to Inigo Marquis Would-be’ (Collier, New Facts, p. 49). In 1633 he proceeded to ridicule the architect in ‘A Tale of a Tub,’ under the character of Vitruvius Hoop. But Jones's influence led the licenser of the stage, Sir H. Herbert, to strike out ‘Vitruvius Hoop's part,’ 7 May 1633 (Malone, Shakespeare, by Boswell, 1821, iii. 232). The part of In-and-in Medlay, which was retained, was, however, intended to reflect on Jones, and in the entertainment to the king and queen at Bolsover on 30 July 1634 Jonson again scoffed at Jones in the character of Coronal Vitruvius. On 3 July 1635 Howell advised Jonson to suppress his satires, which he had contrived to circulate at court, since the king is ‘not well pleased therewith,’ and the advice was taken (Howell, Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ, 1655, i. 265, ii. 2).

Jones was throughout this period busily occupied in architectural work. The alterations and additions to York House, consequent upon its surrender by Bacon to the Duke of Buckingham in 1621, were chiefly carried out by Sir Balthasar Gerbier [q. v.], but in 1626, according to a drawing engraved by Campbell in the ‘Vitruvius Britannicus’ (ii. 28), Jones designed for the duke the watergate which still remains at the foot of Buckingham Street, Adelphi; and there is at Worcester College a design by Jones for a ceiling bearing the motto of the duke, and prepared either for York House or Newhall in Essex, where Jones carried out considerable alterations (State Papers, Dom. cxxxiii. 24).

Before the close of 1630 Jones was made a justice of the peace for Westminster (cf. ib. clxxv. 3, 94, cccclxxxv. 103, 113). On 21 Jan. 1630–1 he and others were directed to put into order the king's coins and medals, both Greek and Roman (ib. clxxxiii. 1). In Vanderdort's catalogue of the royal collection, the manuscript of which is in the Bodleian Library, several portraits, books, &c., are described as either purchased by Jones or presented by him to the king.

On 16 Nov. 1620 Jones had been nominated a member of an abortive commission to inquire into the dilapidations of St. Paul's Cathedral. Laud, bishop of London, procured a second commission, 10 April 1631 (Dugdale, Hist. of St. Paul's, 1658, p. 134; Rymer, Fœdera, 1704–32, xix. 272; Wilkins, Concilia, 1737, iv. 433, 486). Jones was subsequently appointed surveyor to the new commissioners, and undertook the office without salary (State Papers, Dom. ccxxxii. 14). The repair of the cathedral was begun in April, and foundation-stones were laid, the first by Laud, the fourth by Jones. The work was commenced at the south-west corner, and brought along by the south side to the west end. It proceeded under Jones's superintendence for above nine years, at a total cost of 101,330l. 4s. 8d. (Dugdale, Hist. of St. Paul's, 1658, p. 159). The etchings executed by Hollar for Dugdale's ‘History’ show the manner and extent of the recasting of the flanks of the cathedral, as well as the design of the western portico, which was of the Corinthian order, and among the most celebrated of Jones's works. A more authentic plan and elevation of this portico was published by Kent (Designs, 1727, ii. 54, 55). This portico was intended for the accommodation of those persons who had long frequented the nave of the cathedral, or Paul's Walk, and the charge of its erection was entirely undertaken by the king (Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 492). As the works proceeded the king resolved, in March 1637, upon the removal, not only of St. Gregory's Church, which abutted the cathedral at the south-west corner, but also of the hall and chapel of London House, so that a free passage might be made about the cathedral (Gent. Mag. October 1846, p. 384).

About 1631 Jones commenced, for the Earl of Bedford, the erection in brick and stone of St. Paul's Church and the piazza of Covent Garden, which extended round three sides of the square. The grant of the king's letters patent for the erection of the church was made 13 June 1635, but it was not consecrated until 27 Sept. 1638 (Harl. MS. fol. 31 and 32 v.). It was repaired by the Earl of Burlington in 1727, and having been destroyed by fire in 1795 was rebuilt by Thomas Hardwick [q. v.] in stone, but according to the original design. Of late years it has undergone alteration, and the body of the church has been refaced with brick. In the Crace collection in the British Museum are early views of the church and piazza (Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus, ii. 20–2).

On 14 Sept. 1632 the queen laid the foundation-stones of her Capuchins' church designed by Jones in the tennis courtyard of Somerset House (Harl. MS. 7000, fol. 336). The warrant for the payment in full of all charges incurred in connection with this work is dated 3 April 1637 (State Papers, Dom. ccclii. 12). This chapel, which appears to have been a distinct building from that commenced for the infanta in 1623, was destroyed, with the rest of old Somerset House, in 1775. The design of the screen and altar is engraved in a small undated folio of designs by Jones and others, which was published by Isaac Ware in the last century (pp. 28–30). At Worcester College, Oxford, are drawings of two designs for additions to Somerset House, dated 1638, one of which is marked ‘not taken.’ The great gallery at Somerset House was built from Jones's design after his death in 1662 (Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus, i. 16).

The queen's house at Greenwich was completed in 1635 by Queen Henrietta Maria, according to the date and name, which are still to be seen carved upon the front of the building. But drawings for this work at Chatsworth (formerly at Chiswick) are dated 1637, and Colin Campbell, who published the design of it in the ‘Vitruvius Britannicus’ (i. 14–15), states that it was executed in 1639. According to a plan at Worcester College the palace was intended to form the three sides of a quadrangle, of which the existing building was to have composed the central block of the central side. Some indication of these projected additions may be perceived in the parapet on either side of the house (see Salisbury, Rubens, pp. 217, 218, 222, 226, 230, 234).

The theatre of the Barber-Surgeons in Monkwell Street, London, was built by Jones in 1636 upon an elliptical plan, with seats and galleries of cedar-wood rising in four degrees. It was repaired by the Earl of Burlington about 1716, and was pulled down in 1782. The court-room which remains has been attributed to him (Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archæological Soc. 1883, vol. iii. pt. vi. p. 125; drawings at Worcester College; Ware, Designs, pp. 8–9). The church of St. Catherine Cree in Leadenhall Street is also popularly ascribed to him. The old church was taken down in 1628, and the present building was consecrated by Laud on 16 Jan. 1630–1 (see West and Toms, Churches of London, 1736, pt. i. pl. 9; cf. State Papers, Dom. ccclxvii. 88). In 1638 Jones was employed upon a new lodge at Hyde Park (ib. cccxc. 106), as well as upon the screen which formerly divided the nave from the choir of Winchester Cathedral. The stones of this screen now lie in the triforium of the south transept (cf. ib. cccxciii. 14; Designs, published by John Vardy, 1744, pl. 3). For three years no masque had been presented at Whitehall, lest ‘the smoke of many lights’ might damage the ceiling of the banqueting house, then lately adorned with paintings by Rubens; but at the end of 1637 a temporary room of timber ‘for that use’ was hastily erected from Jones's design, and ‘Britannia Triumphans,’ by Jones and D'Avenant (4to, 1637), was presented on the Sunday after Twelfth Night, 1637–8. The queen's masque, presented on the Shrove Tuesday following, was called ‘Luminalia, or the Festival of Light,’ of which the argument, songs, and description were published (4to, 1637) with Jones's name alone (cf. Wood, Athenæ, 1721, i. 498). On 21 Jan. 1639–40 D'Avenant's ‘Salmacida Spolia,’ designed by Jones, was presented at Whitehall, and was the last of Charles I's masques (4to, 1639). The working drawings for the stage and scenery are preserved in Lansdowne MS. 1171.

In 1641 the parishioners of St. Gregory, ‘by Pauls,’ complained to the House of Commons that Jones had demolished or caused them to demolish their church by high-handed proceedings, and petitioned that he should be forced to rebuild it. The charge was read in the commons for the third time, 19 July 1641, and was then transmitted to the lords, before whom Jones attended. He denied that he was guilty of the offence ‘in the manner and form’ in which it was expressed. But when the lords directed the commons to bring their witnesses before them on 13 May 1642, the latter declined, by resolution dated 11 May, to proceed by way of impeachment, and the matter dropped (Lords' Journals, 1641–2, vols. iv. and v. passim; Commons' Journals, 1641–2, vol. ii.; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. pp. 89, 109). On 12 March 1642–3 the lords granted part of the materials collected for the repairs of the cathedral to the parishioners of St. Gregory for the restoration of their church (Dugdale, St. Paul's, 1658, p. 173).

On 10 Jan. 1641–2 the king left Whitehall; and on 25 July, when the court was at Burleigh, he signed a receipt for 500l., lent by Jones (State Papers, Dom. ccccxci. 92). The reports of Jones, as surveyor of the works and commissioner for buildings, continued to come before parliament until 15 March 1642–3 (Lords' Journals, v. 52 b; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. pp. 38, 76). It was probably during this time that he and Nicholas Stone, according to a tradition preserved by Vertue, buried ‘their joint stock of ready money’ in Scotland Yard; but ‘there being an order come out to reward informers with half, four persons knowing the place, it was re-taken up again and buried in Lambeth Marsh’ (Addit. MS. 23069, fol. 11 v.). Jones finally took refuge with the Marquis of Winchester in Basing House. He was there during the siege, which lasted from August 1643 until 14 Oct. 1645, when Cromwell took the place by storm, and the inhabitants were made prisoners (Lloyd, Memoirs, 1677, p. 577; Faithorne, Art of Graving, 1662, sig. A, &c.; Carlyle, Letters and Speeches of Cromwell, coll. ed. i. 245; see also Hugh Peter, Relation of the Rifling of Basing House, London, 1645). Jones's estate was sequestrated; but he applied to the committee for compounding, 7 March 1645–6, when he urged that he had never borne arms against the parliament, nor had given information to the enemy, while he had absented himself from his house for three and a half years. On 30 May 1646 545l. was accepted as his fine, and 500l. for his fifth and twentieth part; and on 2 July an ordinance of the commons was confirmed by the lords for his pardon and for the restitution of his estate (Cal. Committee for Compounding, Dom. p. 112; Lords' Journals, 1646, viii. 342 a, 344 a, 350 b).

Jones was thus free to return to his profession. In 1648 the south side of Wilton House had been destroyed by fire, and was rebuilt by Philip Herbert, fourth earl of Pembroke, with ‘the advice of Inigo Jones; but he being then very old, could not be there in person, but left it to Mr. Webb’ (Aubrey, Natural History of Wiltshire, 1847, p. 84). Jones also built a grotto and the stables at Wilton, and the drawings are preserved at Worcester College and Chatsworth (cf. Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus, 1717–25, ii. 61–67). Jones's relations with the fourth Earl of Pembroke were far from inharmonious [see Herbert, Philip].

On 22 July 1650 Jones made his will, leaving property to John Webb, his pupil and executor, who married Anne Jones, his kinswoman; to Richard Gammon, who married Elizabeth Jones, another kinswoman; and to Mary Wagstaffe, widow, a third kinswoman, and to their children. He also made some small bequests to Stephen Page ‘for his faithful service;’ to John Damford, carpenter, among others; and to the poor of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields and St. Benet's, Paul's Wharf (P. Cunningham, Life, 1848, p. 49). He died unmarried, on 21 June 1652, at Somerset House, according to Vertue, and was buried by the side of his father and mother in the church of St. Benet, on 26 June. His monument, for which he left 100l., carved with reliefs of the porticos of St. Paul's Cathedral and the church in Covent Garden, was placed against the north wall of the church, was injured in the great fire, and destroyed when the church was rebuilt by Wren (Wood, Athenæ, ed. Bliss, 1820, ii. 806, n. 7; Addit. MS. 23069, fols. 19 v., 16; Register of St. Benet, Paul's Wharf). He is said to have built and occupied 31 St. Martin's Lane, London (Cunningham, Lives of Artists, iv. 134). At Charlton in Kent was a farmhouse called Cherry Garden Farm, stated to have been built by him for his own residence (Lysons, Environs of London, 1796, iv. 330); another of his residences is assigned to Staines.

Jones appears to have been dyspeptic. At the end of his copy of Palladio's ‘Architettura’ he inserted a prescription ‘for the spleen and vomiting melancholy.’ ‘This,’ he adds, ‘cured me of the sharp vomitings which I had thirty-six years.’ Webb justly wrote of him ‘that what was truly meant by the Art of Design was scarcely known in this kingdom until he … brought it into use and esteem amongst us here.’ ‘He was generally learned,’ adds Webb, ‘eminent for architecture, a great geometrician, and in designing with his pen (as Sir Anthony Vandyke used to say) not to be equalled by whatsoever great masters in his time for boldness, softness, sweetness, and sureness of his touches’ (Vindication of Stone-Heng Restored, pp. 8, 11; compare Add. MS. 23069, fol. 46).

His picture by Vandyck passed into the possession of Webb, by one of whose descendants it was finally sold to Sir Robert Walpole. This portrait is now at St. Petersburg with the rest of the Houghton collection (Add. MS. 23073, fol. 45 v.), and has been scraped on a small plate by Valentine Green. At Chatsworth is preserved the drawing in red chalks by Vandyck, engraved in Robert Van Voerst's ‘Icones’ (Antwerp, 1645). Wibiral notices five states of this print (L'Iconographie d'Antoine van Dyck, 1877, p. 99). From it the head of Jones in an oval appears to have been etched by Hollar for the first edition of ‘Stoneheng Restored.’ A study by Vandyck, ‘en grisaille,’ which was engraved by W. Holl for Peter Cunningham's ‘Life,’ and was at that time in the possession of Major Inigo Jones, a collateral descendant of the architect, seems to be identical with the chalk drawing at Chatsworth, and with the print in the ‘Icones.’ Another head, by William Dobson, was in the possession of Lord Burlington (Add. MS. 23068, fol. 15 v.) There have been many copies made of these portraits, both in painting and in stamp (ib. 23069, fol. 38). The print by Villamena has been already described; a doubtful portrait has been scraped by Spilsbury, from a painting by Vandyck (Bromley, British Portraits, 1793, i. 107); and an inferior print engraved by Thomas Sherratt, from a picture in the court-room of the Barber-Surgeons' Company. In the South Kensington Museum is a carved lime-wood medallion of his head (see also Add. MSS. 23068, fol. 28 v., and 23070, fol. 75; Sandrart, Academia Nobilissimæ Artis Pictoriæ, 1683, 2 pars, lib. iii. cap. vii. p. 241; and Peacham, Complete Gentleman, 1634, p. 154).

Jones's drawings passed into the possession of Webb, who bequeathed them to his son William, with strict injunctions that they should not be dispersed. But these directions were not obeyed. Some, in Aubrey's time, were in the possession of Oliver, the city surveyor (Aubrey, Letters and Lives of Eminent Men, 1813, ii. 411; Harl. MS. 5900, fol. 58). The Earl of Burlington formed a considerable collection of Jones's designs, many of which were published, in two volumes, folio, by William Kent in 1727. From Burlington these drawings descended to the present Duke of Devonshire, and have been lately removed from his house at Chiswick to Chatsworth. They consist of architectural drawings, with designs for the ‘frontispieces’ and scenes of masques; the sketch-book, filled with studies made in Rome in 1614; a ‘Vitruvius’ in Italian containing marginal notes in Jones's hand, and two folio volumes of drawings of dresses designed for the court masques.

The richest collection was formed by Dr. George Clarke (1660–1736) [q. v.], who purchased many drawings of William Webb's widow, and left all he possessed to Worcester College, Oxford, where they are still preserved. These include drawings and notes for what appears to be a projected work on architecture; as well as a copy of Palladio's ‘Architettura,’ Venice, 1602, filled with Jones's marginal notes. Such of these notes as are a commentary on the text of Palladio were printed by G. Leoni, with his English translation of that work, in 1715. Other drawings by Jones are in the Soane Museum; and four books of antiquities, drawn for the Earl of Arundel, were in the library of the Royal Society (ib. 23072, fol. 13). Many of the drawings in these collections are the work of John Webb, elaborated from the designs, and under the care, of Jones; but a judicious criticism has yet to decide how far certain of them are to be entirely attributed to Webb. A considerable number of works executed by that architect were adapted from the designs of Jones, after his death. Of these the chief are: the north-west block of Greenwich Hospital, 1664; Amesbury, Wiltshire, 1661; and Gunnersbury House, near Brentford, 1663, since pulled down. Bedford House, which extended along the north side of Bloomsbury Square, was probably the work of Webb, though it is commonly attributed to Jones (Wheatley and Cunningham, London, 1891, i. 143).

Among the authentic works of Jones which have not already been described are: Ashburnham House, within the precinct at Westminster, which remains one of the most beautiful examples of his art, although it was partly destroyed by fire in 1731, and has since received the addition of an attic story (Designs, published by T. Ware, n. d., pl. 6, 7, 23); the central portion of Cobham Hall, Kent, to which an attic story has also been added (Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. ii. pl. 29, 30); Coleshill in Berkshire, erected upon a quadrangular plan in 1650 (Ware, Body of Architecture, 1756, pl. 70–1, 78–9, 80, &c.; Neale, Views of Seats, 1818, 1st ser. vol. i.); and the Grange in Hampshire, which Walpole considered ‘by far one of the best proofs of his taste.’ The exterior of this house was wholly changed by Wilkins at the beginning of the present century (ib. 1819, 1st ser. vol. ii.). At Chiswick are the piers of a gate removed from Beaufort House, Chelsea, by the Earl of Burlington, which occasioned an epigram by Pope. They were built for Lionel Cranfield during his tenure of Beaufort House, 1619–25 (Wheatley and Cunningham, London, i. 141). The piers of another gate remain at Holland House, Kensington, but have been moved from their original position (Ware, Body of Architecture, pl. 122); and a third gate at Weybridge in Surrey, formerly belonging to the palace of Oatlands, was repaired and removed to a little distance by the seventh Earl of Lincoln, as an inscription upon it records (Brayley, Hist. of Surrey, 1841, ii. 384; Designs published by Vardy, 1744, pl. 1, 2). Jones was employed upon the rebuilding of Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire, and finished the east and south fronts, but was interrupted by the civil war in 1647 (Neale, Views of Seats, 1819, 1st ser. vol. ii.; Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus', vol. iii. pl. 8). Stoke Park, in the same county, was also begun by him; the wings, colonnades, and all the foundations were made by him (Add. MS. 23070, fol. 33; Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. iii. pl. 9). The gate and enclosure of the Physic Garden in Oxford was finished in 1633, being built by Nicholas Stone from the design of Jones, at the expense of the Earl of Danby. Nicholas Stone also built the porch of St. Mary's Church in Oxford, as some have thought, from Jones's design. Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire, the north front of which was erected from a design by Jones in 1638, is now in ruins (Neale, Views of Seats, 1826, 2nd ser. vol. iii.) Portions of Thanet or Shaftesbury House, which was built by Jones about 1645 on the east side of Aldersgate Street, remained standing till 1882 (Wheatley and Cunningham, i. 23). Wimbledon House, in the Strand (built in 1628 and removed in 1782), and the garden front of Suffolk (afterwards Northumberland) House, Charing Cross (destroyed in 1874), are also assigned to Jones.

Many buildings have been attributed to Jones with very slight authority. They include Chilham Castle in Kent, built for Sir Dudley Digges about 1616; Chevening in Kent (Add. MS. 23070, fol. 33); the tower of Staines Church in Middlesex, built in 1631, according to an inscription on the south side (Lysons, Account of Parishes in Middlesex not described in the Environs, 1800, p. 244); Rainham Hall in Norfolk, built for Sir Roger Townsend in 1630 (Chambers, Hist. of Norfolk, 1829, i. 543); Charlton House in Kent (Add. MS. 23073, fol. 41); the arcades in the inner court of St. John's College, Oxford, although the name of Jones does not occur in the accounts of the college building; Albins in Essex; the stables at Kensington Palace (ib. 23070, fol. 33); the garden front of Hinton St. George in Somersetshire, and the front of Brympton in the same county; Ford Abbey; the more modern part of Glamys Castle in Forfarshire (Sir W. Scott, Misc. Works, 1834–6, xxi. 97); Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire; the Gwydyr Chapel in Llanrwst Church, Denbighshire (Wright, Scenes in North Wales, 1883, p. 92), and a bridge at Gwydder in the same county (Cathrall, Hist. of North Wales, 1828, ii. 159); Ruperra in Glamorganshire, built for Sir Thomas Morgan in 1626 (Phillips, Hist. of Glamorganshire, 1879, p. 84); the fellows' building at Christ's College, Cambridge, 1642 (Willis and Clark, Architectural Hist. of Cambridge, 1886, ii. 203); Goldsmiths' Hall in Foster Lane, built of brick and destroyed in the great fire (Harl. MS. 5900, fol. 58); and two houses on the south side of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields (ib. 5900, fol. 57 v.).

[Manuscript collections of H. P. Horne, esq.; authorities cited; Peter Cunningham's Inigo Jones, a life of the architect (Shak. Soc. 1848); Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting in England, with the additions of Dallaway, ed. Wornum, London, 1849; Reginald T. Blomfield's series of papers on Inigo Jones in the Portfolio for 1889, pp. 88, 113, 126.]