Following the Court of Chancery decree upholding Mary's will, a parcel of land in Bootham, York, was acquired from William Wilberforce of Hull (1690–1776), grandfather of the anti-slave trade campaigner
William Wilberforce, and building began. Wandesford Hospital was designed by Colonel James Moyser, a gentleman architect and an associate of
Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. There are two other almshouses by James Moyser, both in
Beverley: Ann Routh's Hospital and Tymperon House, which share several architectural features with Wandesford House, notably the giant arches and window style. Ann Routh's also features the same projecting
pediment, which contains a
cartouche. The builders of Wandesford Hospital included a carpenter, John Terry, and bricklayers Robert Kibblewhite, Thomas Dunn, and Richard Nestrop. John Terry is listed as working on the State Room in the
Mansion House, York, in 1725, and Richard Nelthorpe is listed as a plasterer there. The similarity of name suggests he may be the same person as Richard Nestrop. The house is two storeys tall, built in red brick with a tiled roof. The valley in the centre of the pitched roofs was covered over with a flat roof in 1967. The south-facing façade of the house is of seven bays under giant arches and with a deep plinth. A projecting central pediment contains a portrait bust of Mary Wandesford. The plain brick central door frame was given a timber doorcase in 1968, with a broken pediment above containing the
coat of arms of Mary Wandesford in a
lozenge. The rear elevation is simpler and lacks the arched recesses and the elaborate cornice of the front. An original rainwater head remains, bearing the date 1739. There are gardens at the front and rear, and originally, an orchard.
Bootham School, whose grounds lie behind the house, bought the orchard in 1957 for use as tennis courts. The interior ground floor has a central corridor off the entrance hall, and a staircase at each end of the house leading to an upper corridor. Initially, the ground floor was flagged throughout; however, most of the flagstones were removed, probably in the nineteenth century, and wooden flooring was installed along with some internal staircases. Until the 1960s, each dwelling consisted of a ground-floor sitting room, with a small range for heating and cooking, and a first-floor bedroom. There were no washing or toilet facilities inside until sometime in the 19th or 20th century, when the residents were able to share two indoor WCs and one bath. The house was remodelled in 1967–68 to create 12 self-contained flats, each with its own kitchen and bathroom. Four are
maisonettes and retain the 19th-century internal staircase leading to the bedrooms. From the beginning, there was a chapel where a chaplain held a service every Wednesday and Friday. The present chaplain takes communion once a month. ==Mary Wandesford 1655–1725== Mary Wandesford's grandfather, Sir
Christopher Wandesford (1592–1640) of
Kirklington, Yorkshire, was an MP who later became
Lord Deputy of Ireland. He acquired an estate at Castlecomer in County Kilkenny, where he built a castle. His grandson, Mary's brother Christopher, was created an Irish peer in 1707 as
Viscount Castlecomer. The family's wealth derived in part from coal mines in that area. The fifth Viscount, born the year Mary died, was made
Earl Wandesford in 1758, but the title became extinct in 1784. Mary was one of five children, the eldest daughter of Sir Christopher Wandesford and his wife Eleanor Lowther. She was baptised in the church at Kirklington on 23 June 1655. There is a portrait of her as a young woman inside Wandesford House, as well as the stone bust on the front of the house. She never married, and when she died in 1725, she was buried at Kirklington. A codicil to her will of 4 November 1725 states "I appoint that £5 be given into the hands of some that goes along with my corps [corpse] to the burying place, to be distributed to the poor people in the road as they pass along, or put into the hands of the minister or churchwardens to distribute as needful. I desire that there may be no state nor trouble in my funeral, but 6 of the poorest unmarried women in Kirklington may have white vales [veils] from head to foot prepared for them and white gloves, and carry my corpse into the church at the place where I happen to be buried. Let the white vales be such cloth as will do them service hereafter." (Reg. test. Ebor. LXXIX, iii, 1). ==See also==