Henry Hoare II (1705–1785), known as Henry the Magnificent, was an English banker and garden owner-designer.
Family Henry's grandfather, Richard Hoare, was a goldsmith-banker and Lord Mayor of London. His father, Henry Hoare I, bought the ancestral estate of the Stourtons and built a Palladian villa designed by Colen Campbell. When his father died, Henry Hoare II was 20 years old. He was educated at Westminster School.Hutchings, V. p 49
Career Henry dominated the Hoare family through his wealth and personal charisma. He was a partner for nearly 60 years in Hoare's Bank. His nickname, "Henry The Magnificent", derived in part from his influence as a great patron of the arts, but more particularly because he laid out the gardens at Stourhead in Wiltshire, an estate bought by his father.Hutchings, V. p 51 In the thirty years after his mother died in 1741, he worked on the gardens at Stourhead, planning and planting what became a "masterpiece" of European garden design. In the 'school' of Poussin, it was said to be "more beautiful than any landscape put on canvas". The gardens were admired as a showplaceHutchings, V. p 55 and Capability Brown, the renowned landscape gardener, was well known to Henry.Hutchings, V. p 70 In 1734 he was elected Member of Parliament for Salisbury.Hutchings, V. p 50
He died in 1785 leaving Stourhead to the son of his daughter Ann (1734–1759), Richard Colt Hoare.Hutchings, V. p 85 His younger daughter, Susanna, became Countess of Ailesbury.
References
Further reading Hoare, Henry Peregrine Rennie, Hoare's Bank: A Record 1672-1955, 1932, new edition 1955 Hutchings, Victoria, Messrs Hoare, Bankers: A History of the Hoare Banking Dynasty, 2005