[1] The house was built for Sir Thomas Jenner, Justice of the Common Pleas under James II, but is named after the Dowager Duchess of Montrose (widow of the 3rd Duke)[2] who lived there from 1837 to 1847.

[2][3] In the 1870s it was occupied by John Master, a retired magistrate from the Indian Colonial Service, his wife Gertrude, and his children.

[6] The house is located at a sharp right-angled bend on Petersham Road (part of the A307).

[7] Adjacent to Montrose House is Rutland Lodge, built in 1660 for a Lord Mayor of London.

A drawing of the rear of Montrose House was made by Wilfred Fairclough in July 1941 as part of the "Recording Britain" collection of topographical water-colours and drawings produced in the early 1940s during the Second World War.