Bath Abbey, formally known as Priory Church, had an orchard which was given to the city by Edmund Colthurst in 1572. The land was then sold in 1612 to John Hall of
Bradford-on-Avon and was passed through the family for a century. It was not until 1711 that the Hall's estate went to Rachel Bayntun, who became Countess of Kingston. Her husband died in 1713, possibly of smallpox, and she herself died in 1722. Her son Evelyn succeeded to the Bath estate and the dukedom in 1726. Around 1732–1744,
Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, sold the old Bath Abbey Orchards land in Bath to John
Wood the Elder and his business partner James Leake who went on to design and construct housing and named the streets 'Pierrepont Place' and '
Pierrepont Street' in homage to Eveyln and the family; Evelyn continued to live in Bath, however, until his death. Residents in Pierrepont Place are still required to honour the annual payment of £4 to the successors of the Duke's estate as per the original lease agreement. The
Linley House, at 1 Pierrepoint Place, was named after the musician and manager of
London's Drury Lane Theatre (from 1774)
Thomas Linley, who lived there with his family. It was built around 1730 and has since been converted from residential use into offices. It is a Grade II*
listed building. Number 2 was built around 1740 and has a 19th-century shop window. and numbers 14 to 17 at the end of that period. ==Bath Society==