Its first definite owner was Sir John Miller, 4th baronet, whose family had been prominent in Chichester first as justices of the peace and mayors then becoming members of parliament from the later 17th century.
[1]: 38 Sir John is believed to be depicted as a lesser figure in a 1759 painting by George Stubbs showing the 3rd Duke of Richmond out hunting (this hangs in the front hall at Goodwood House).
Apparently this was when the house was reoriented to face north (maps show the drive originally approaching from the south).
[3] Henriette was brought from France by his sister, Lady Louisa Conolly, in 1778 at age 5 to live at her Goodwood estate.
[1]: 265 His will named her the first beneficiary, receiving life tenure of West Lavant House and Park and other lands and farms.
John and Henriette’s only child, Charles (the traditional Lennox family name), was born in Lavant in January 1809.