Fine Plasterered Wall And Wooden Staircase At Mompesson House, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England Stock Photography

The Mompessons were an old Wiltshire family, recorded in the county from the early 15th century. Charles’s father, Sir Thomas, an ardent royalist, was an MP. Charles was for some years also an MP. The position of Mompesson House on the north side of Choristers’ Green in Salisbury’s Cathedral Close made it a very desirable place for the Mompessons to live. Originally the houses in the close had been intended for the clergy to live in but by the mid-17th century it became very fashionable for local gentry and professional classes to live there. In 1703 Charles Mompesson married Elizabeth Longueville and their union was celebrated with the addition of a decorative cartouche above the front door – their new joint coat of arms.