Somerleyton Hall

In 1240, a manor house was built on the site by Sir Peter Fitzosbert, whose daughter married into the Jernegan family. The male line of the Fitzosberts ended, and the Jernegans held the estate until 1604. At that point, John Wentworth bought the estate. He transformed the main residence into a typical East Anglian Tudor-Jacobean mansion. It then passed to the Garney family. The next owner was Admiral Sir Thomas Allin, a native of Lowestoft. He took part in the Battle of Lowestoft (1665) and the Battle of Solebay at Southwold in 1672. Eventually, the male line of that family also died out. In 1843, the Somerleyton estate was bought by the prosperous entrepreneur and MP Samuel Morton Peto.…