The Lauderdales held important roles at the court of the restored Charles II, the Duke being a member of the Cabal ministry and holder of major positions in Scotland, while the Duchess exercised significant social and political influence.

Bridget Cherry, in the revised London: South Pevsner published in 2002, acknowledged that the exterior of Ham was "not as attractive as other houses of this period", but noted the interior's "high architectural and decorative interest".

[7][6] It originally comprised an H-plan[a] layout consisting of nine bays and three storeys,[6] as shown in a 1649 miniature by Alexander Marshal,[10] but the lack of estate documentation makes it impossible to verify the names of persons involved in the design and construction of the house.

[13] Shortly afterwards William and his wife Katherine (or Catherine) engaged the services of skilled craftsmen, including the artist Francis Cleyn[15] and the painter Matthew Goodrich (or Goodricke),[16] to begin improvements on the house as befitting a Lord of the Manors of Ham and Petersham.

[13] In 1640 William was also granted a lease on the nearby Manor of Canbury, now in Kingston upon Thames, but in the run-up to civil war in 1641 he signed over the house to Katherine and his four daughters, appointing trustees to safeguard the estate for them.

These, including Ham House, were bought for £1,131.18s on 13 May 1650 by William Adams, the steward acting on behalf of Murray's eldest daughter, Elizabeth and her husband Sir Lionel Tollemache, 3rd Baronet of Helmingham Hall, Suffolk.

Her parents' activities during the Civil War had raised suspicion among both Royalists and Parliamentarians, and similar speculation attached to Elizabeth, which was heightened when she began a close relationship with Oliver Cromwell in the early 1650s.

[42] Already a favourite of the King, he was appointed High Commissioner for Scotland in August 1669 which, on top of his political influence as Secretary of State and participation in Charles's Cabal ministry, made him one of the most powerful men in the country.

It was decorated in the most advanced tastes of the day[48] and according to the 1679 inventory that it had "one Indian furnace for tee garnish'd wt silver",[52] a luxury at a time when tea was only beginning to be drunk outside of exclusive royal residences.

[60] However, Elizabeth also inherited her husband's debts including mortgages on his former properties in England and Scotland and her latter years were marred by a financial dispute with her brother-in-law, Charles Maitland, 3rd Earl of Lauderdale.

[64] The first phase is the original main house facing north-east to the river Thames, built in 1610 in the early Jacobean English renaissance style on a traditional H-plan for Thomas Vavasour, Knight Marshal at the court of James I.

[66] Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, in the London: South volume of the Buildings of England series, record the "not specially impressive" nature of the remaining doorway but are clear that Ham was built to an H-plan.

[68] The second phase of reconstruction is the ambitious expansion to the south or garden side of the original house by the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale in 1672 to display their high status in the court of King Charles II.

[3] The northern façade retains the Jacobean arched loggias[71] on either side of the front door and also includes an array of marble and lead busts, which continue into the flanking courtyard walls.

[90] Ham House's rooms display collections of 17th-century paintings, portraits and miniatures, in addition to cabinets, tapestries and furniture amassed and retained by generations of the Murray and Tollemache families.

Geoffrey Beard, in his study, The National Trust Book of English Furniture, noted the extraordinarily high quality of the Lauderdales' furnishing of the house, undertaken with "a lavishness which transcended even what was fitting to their exalted rank".

[103] The white plaster high relief oval swags of luscious fruit, flowers and ribbons, including the odd worm, contrasted with the elaborate frieze which was originally coloured blue and gold.

It was recorded as being moved to the prestigious Queen's Bedchamber shortly after its appearance in the 1677 inventory[113] and is considered the most impressive piece of furniture designed or bought for the house (with the exception of the State Bed, which no longer exists).

[114] The cabinet may have been made in the Northern Netherlands based on furniture inlaid in ivory brought back in 1644 by John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, the former Governor of Dutch Brazil for his home in The Hague, now called the Mauritshuis.

The bed was on an elaborate marquetry floor inlaid with the cipher and ducal coronet of the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale, their initials J, E and L entwined in cedar and walnut, a feature that repeats in the Queens's Closet.

Woven in Soho, London, the four wool and silk tapestries have narrow borders in the style of picture frames and are thought to incorporate several different images from works by the French painters Antoine Watteau, Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater.

[167] As his reputation grew he was commissioned by royal and aristocratic clients for larger projects including for Charles II at Windsor Castle,[170] interiors for the Earl of Exeter at Burghley House[171] and for William III at Hampton Court.

[174] The room also contains a portrait of Catherine Bruce, Mrs William Murray (d. 1649), by John Hoskins the Elder, a watercolour on vellum in an ebony travelling case, signed and dated 1638.

[50] Painted by Verrio[103] in oil on plaster in 1673/74, it is described by the art historians Peter Thornton and Maurice Tomlin as "decorated with one of the earliest examples of Baroque illusionism to have been executed in a domestic interior in this country".

[206] Louisa Tollemache, 7th Countess of Dysart, inherited the estate upon her brother's death and was acquainted with the artist John Constable, who completed a sketch of Ham House from the south gardens during a visit in 1835.

[216] Already the owner of his father's estates in Suffolk and Northamptonshire, he had also acquired 20,000 acres (8,100 ha; 31 sq mi) in Cheshire through his marriage in 1680 to Grace, daughter of Sir Thomas Wilbraham, 3rd Baronet.

[242] Following the 8th Earl's death, his son's creditors brought an action in the High Court against the Tollemache family who ultimately had to pay a sum of £70,000 to avoid forfeiting much of the Ham estate.

[243] Shortly afterwards, the 9th Earl, with agreement from the trustees, undertook extensive renovation of the house and its contents[244] and by 1885 it was again in a suitable state to host social activities, notably a garden party to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887.

[254] The arrival of Peter Thornton as the Keeper of the Furniture Department at the V&A led to a new approach in the management of the collection; efforts focused on arranging pieces within the house according to the documented history of the property, rather than treating individual items as simply part of the museum inventory.

[263] Since that time, the National Trust has invested in recreating the period interiors of the house by rehanging the collection and placing furniture according to inventory records as well as commissioning replica textiles based on archival descriptions.