Lord Charles Wotton’s mother, Catherine, the eldest of the four daughters and co-heirs of Thomas Lord Wotton, of Wotton in Kent, married for her third husband Daniel O’Neale, Esq., Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles II., to whom the grant of Belsize had been renewed in 1660. This lady had married, firstly, Henry, Lord Stanhope,[289] eldest son of Philip, first Earl of Chesterfield, by whom she had one son. Her second husband was Poliander de Kirkhoven, Lord of Hemsfleet in Holland, by whom she also had one son, Lord Charles Henry Kirkhoven, who, on account of his mother’s descent, was created Lord Wotton in 1650; to whom on her demise in 1667, without issue by Mr. O’Neale, her third husband, the grant of the manor and demesne of Belsize was renewed. Upon the death of Lord Wotton without issue 1682, his half-brother, Philip, Earl of Chesterfield,[290] obtained a renewal of the grant of the estate. Park states that after Lord Wotton’s death the manor had always been in the occupation of under-tenants. But though the manor might be so let, it seems quite feasible that the mansion and demesne should be retained by the owner. It is hardly to be supposed that the beautiful gardens and the house (which at some period in Charles II.’s time had been rebuilt) would be immediately deserted by the new proprietor. It appears not only possible, but extremely probable, that the second Earl of Chesterfield resided here at times until his death in 1713; and five years afterwards we find that the gardens required putting in order, a proof, I think, that intermediately they had been kept up and attended to. In one of Swift’s letters to Stella, dated September 7, 1710, three years before the death of the second Earl of Chesterfield, he tells her that ‘going into the City to see his old schoolfellow, Straford the Hombourg merchant,’ and turning into the Bull on Ludgate Hill, where they met, the latter forced him to go to dinner with him at his house at Hampstead, ‘among a great deal of ill company, Hoadley (afterwards Bishop) being one of them.’ But he adds, ‘I was glad to be at Hampstead, where I saw Lady Lucy and Moll Stanhope.’ And he notes on the 24th of the same month, ‘I dined to-day at Hampstead with Lady Lucy.’ True, he does not name Belsize; but neither does Pepys when describing Lord Wotton’s gardens. But Evelyn does, and says that O’Neale built Belsize House. Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield, is said to have sold his interest in the estate. It was either before or immediately after the death of this nobleman that it was let to Mr. Charles Povey, who appears to have been the first tenant. In 1733 we find the late Earl’s grandson, Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, obtaining a renewal for three lives of the manor and demesne of Belsize; and in 1751 he again procured a renewal of the grant.