Editing Capability Brown (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:The grave of Capability Brown in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul, Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire.jpg|thumb|The grave of Capability Brown in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul, [[Fenstanton]], Cambridgeshire]]
On 22 November 1744 he married Bridget Wayet (affectionately called Biddy) from [[Boston, Lincolnshire]], in [[Stowe, Buckinghamshire|Stowe]] parish church.<ref>Rutherford. Page 32.</ref> Her father was an [[alderman]] and landowner while her family had surveyors and engineers among its members. They had eight children: Bridget in 1746, [[Lancelot Brown (MP)|Lancelot]] (known as Lance), William (who died young), John in 1751, a son in 1754 who died shortly afterwards, Anne who was born and died in 1756, Margaret (known as Peggy) in 1758 and Thomas in 1761.<ref>Rutherford. Pages 33, 35, 36.</ref>

In 1768 he purchased the manor of Fenstanton in [[Huntingdonshire]] in East Anglia for £13,000 ({{inflation|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=£|UK|13000|1768}}) from Lord Northampton. This came with two manor houses, two villages and 2,668 acres of land.<ref>Rutherford. Page 42.</ref> The property stayed in the family until it was sold in lots in 1870s and 1880s. Ownership of the property allowed him to stand for and serve as [[High sheriff]] of Huntingdonshire from 1770 to 1771.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.capabilitybrown.org/news/capable-sheriff|title=A Capable Sheriff|date=2016|website=Capability Brown Festival|access-date=12 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408051607/http://www.capabilitybrown.org/news/capable-sheriff|archive-date=8 April 2019|url-status=usurped}}</ref> He continued to work and travel until his sudden collapse and death on 6 February 1783, on the doorstep of his daughter Bridget Holland's house, at 6 [[Hertford Street]], London while returning after a night out at Lord Coventry's.<ref>Rutherford. Page 43.</ref>

[[Horace Walpole]] wrote to [[Lady Ossory]]: "Your dryads must go into black gloves, Madam, their father-in-law, Lady Nature’s second husband, is dead!".<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Horace |last1=Walpole |author-link=Horace Walpole |title=The Letters of Horace Walpole: Earl of Orford |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Ic1AAAAMAAJ&q=%22lady+ossory%22+capability&pg=RA2-PA331 |journal=Bohn's English Gentleman's Library |volume=8 |page=331 |year=1861 |location=Covent Garden; London |publisher=Bradbury and Evans; Henry G. Bohn |access-date=13 March 2012}}</ref> Brown was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and St. Paul, the parish church of Brown's small estate at [[Fenstanton]] Manor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jX4WBAAAQBAJ&dq=capability+brown+buried&pg=PA133|title=I Never Knew That About England's Country Churches|first=Christopher|last=Winn|date=4 August 2014|publisher=Random House|accessdate=22 November 2024|via=Google Books}}</ref> He left an estate of approximately £40,000 ({{inflation|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=£|UK|40000|1783}}), which included property in Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Lincolnshire.<ref>Rutherford. Page 44.</ref> His eldest daughter Bridget married the architect [[Henry Holland (architect)|Henry Holland]]. Brown sent two of his sons to [[Eton College|Eton]]. One of them, Lancelot Brown the younger, became the MP for [[Huntingdon (UK Parliament constituency)|Huntingdon]]. His son John joined the [[Royal Navy]] and rose to become an admiral.