The Layton Collection

THE THOMAS LAYTON TRUST & LAYTON'S COLLECTION

Lease of property from the estate of Sir John Maynard

Sir John Maynard was an immensely wealthy lawyer and government official who died in 1690. He owned a Palladian mansion at Gunnersbury, which was demolished about 1800. His complex will which took about 20 years of legal wrangling to sort out. In the meantime, his executors were managing the property, in this case by issuing a new lease for land in Cornwall.

The Collection

Thomas Layton collected books, coins, and archaeological items (usually described as ‘antiquities’) for 70 years. In that time he had accumulated what has been described as “probably the largest collection of London antiquities ever amassed by a single individual”.

The vast majority of items are believed to have been bought at auctions. Some came to him from his men working on the river. His businesses provided opportunities for finds from dredging, building of bridges and embankments along the banks of the Thames, for which Layton paid good money. Even by the standards of the day Layton kept poor records of where items were found. Despite this, the collection is considered highly important particularly to archaeologists and pre-historians.