Editing Wimbledon, London (section)

===18th century===
The Osborne family sold the manor to [[Sir Theodore Janssen, 1st Baronet|Sir Theodore Janssen]] in 1712. Janssen, a director of the [[South Sea Company]], began a new house to replace the one built by the Cecils, but the spectacular collapse of the company meant it was never finished.

The next owner was [[Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough]], who increased the land belonging to the manor and completed the construction of a house to replace Jansen's unfinished effort in 1735. On her death in 1744, the property passed to her grandson, John Spencer, and subsequently to the first [[Earl Spencer (peerage)|Earl Spencer]].

The village continued to grow and the 18th-century introduction of [[stagecoach]] services from the ''Dog and Fox'' made the journey to London routine, although not without the risk of being held-up by [[Highwayman|highwaymen]], such as [[Jerry Abershawe]] on the [[Portsmouth]] Road. The stagecoach horses would be stabled at the rear of the pub in what are now named Wimbledon Village Stables.

The 1735 manor house burnt down in the 1780s and was replaced in 1801 by Wimbledon Park House, built by the [[George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer|second Earl]]. At the time the manor estate included Wimbledon Common (as a [[Heath (habitat)|heath]]) and the enclosed parkland around the manor house. Its area corresponded to the modern [[Wimbledon Park]]. The house stood east of [[St Mary's Church, Wimbledon|St Mary's church]].

Wimbledon House, a separate residence close to the village at the south end of Parkside (near Peek Crescent), was home in the 1790s to the exiled French statesman [[Charles Alexandre de Calonne|Vicomte de Calonne]], and later to the mother of the writer [[Frederick Marryat]]. Their association with the area is recorded in the names of nearby Calonne and Marryat roads. Directly south of the common, the early 18th-century Warren House ([[Cannizaro park|Cannizaro House]] from 1841) was home to a series of grand residents.