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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
National
David Whitfield

Where did Nottingham Cottage - Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's first home - get its name?

It was once home to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge before it became Prince Harry and Meghan's first home before they moved to Frogmore at Windsor,

So what exactly is Nottingham Cottage?

It's a small home on the Kensington Palace estate in London, which the Duke and Duchess moved into on a temporary basis following their 2011 wedding.

In 2013 they moved into an apartment in Kensington Palace itself as their permanent residence, and Prince Harry then moved into their temporary home.

But what is the Nottingham connection?

The first building on the site of what is now Kensington Palace was built in 1605, for a lesser member of the gentry called Sir George Coppin. The village of Kensington, which was then well outside London, was chosen because it was supposed to be a particularly healthy location.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (Getty Images)

Coppin, who was in the inner circle at the Court of James I, fell from favour around 1619, and this was when his house came into the hands of Finch family, notably Sir Heneage Finch - who was to become the first Earl of Nottingham.

(A quick note on Earls: the title 'Earl of Nottingham' has been created seven times, and died out six times. So there have been seven first Earls of Nottingham over history, and Sir Heneage was just one of those).

The original 1605 building was knocked down and rebuilt and then, after the Restoration in 1660, rebuilt again and expanded by Christopher Wren.

Sir Heneage Finch actually became Earl of Nottingham in 1681 - and at that point that building became known as Nottingham House.

Eight years later the house was bought by William and Mary - the country's only ever joint king and queen - as their country retreat. It was bought from Daniel Finch, the second Earl of Nottingham, for a handsome £20,000, and was eventually renamed Kensington Palace.

However, the 'Nottingham' name lived on in Nottingham Cottage - which was also a Wren-designed building.

*Additional information from historian Dr Judith Rowbotham.

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