Joseph Damer

Born into a wealthy family (his great-uncle was a money-lender in Ireland ), Damer was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge , and became MP for Weymouth in 1741 at the age of 21. He later represented Bramber in Sussex (1747) and Dorchester (1754). Damer was created Baron Milton of Shrone Hill , Tipperary , Ireland on 30 May 1753 and Baron Milton of Milton Abbey on 10 May 1762 .

He married Caroline Sackville, daughter of the 1st Duke Of Dorset on 27 July 1742 . Ten years later, he purchased Milton Abbey and embarked on an ambitious project to reshape the surrounding valley.

He replaced some existing buildings at the Abbey with a mansion house (designed initially by Architect John Vardy , then by Sir William Chambers , and completed by James Wyatt ) for his own use. Landscape Gardener Capability Brown was commissioned to remodel the surrounding grounds.

As a wealthy landowner Damer also set about the systematic removal of the neighbouring small town of Middleton and its residents. By 1780 , most of the residents had been relocated to a new purpose-designed and built model village, Milton Abbas, approximately half a mile south-east of the Abbey; the town's school was moved to Blandford Forum , seven miles away. The original town was razed to the ground and landscaped, most of the site disappearing beneath a new ornamental lake.

When his wife died on 24 March 1775 at the age of 57 he commissioned the Italian Sculptor Agostino Carlini to create a magnificent tomb to her memory in the Abbey Church.

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Joseph Damer

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