Matthew Decker

The portrait at the FitzWilliam of Dirck on horseback in sand dunes with the Grote Kerk, Haarlem in the background may also be a view of Cornelius's bleaching-grounds.

[4] The herald Sir John Vanburgh in his 1716 confirmation of arms to Sir Matthew[1] stated that Dirck was a "son of Cornelius Decker of Haerlem in the Province of Holland, and other his ancestors who were natives of Flanders (and retired from thence into Holland on account of their religion, during the Cruel Persecution of the Duke of Alva Governour of the Spanish Netherlands, in ye time of Queen Elizabeth)".

[8] In 1719 he was one of the original backers of the Royal Academy of Music, establishing a London opera company which commissioned numerous works from Handel, Bononcini and others.

[9] He had worked for James Brydges[7] (later 1st Duke of Chandos) when the latter was in the Low Countries serving as Paymaster of the Forces during the War of the Spanish Succession and in 1719 with his help was returned unopposed as a Member of Parliament for Bishop's Castle in Shropshire at a by-election on 17 December 1719.

The house was first built by Sir Charles Hedges (died 1714), Secretary of State to Queen Anne, from whom Decker acquired it.

[20] Henrietta's brother (through whom Sir Matthew met his future wife[7]) was Henry Watkins (1666-1727) an army administrator and diplomat who served briefly as a Member of Parliament for Brackley in Northamptonshire, and who spent much time in the Low Countries and The Hague, described as a "dedicated servant and admirer" of the Duke of Marlborough.

[18] By his wife he had issue one son (who died young) and three daughters as follows:[10] Decker's fame as a writer on trade rests on two tracts.

The second, an Essay on the Causes of the Decline of the Foreign Trade, consequently of the value of the lands in Britain, and on the means to restore both (1744), has been attributed to W. Richardson, but internal evidence is strongly in favour of Decker's authorship.

He was buried at St Mary Magdalene, Richmond, where survives his monument (above a vault) against the external wall of the church, in the form of a broad-based obelisk (on which is affixed a baroque escutcheon displaying a relief of the arms of Decker impaling Watkins) topped by an urn, atop an antique Roman sarcophagus standing on a chest tomb base.