Stronach: /* Buildings designed and/or built by Leadbetter (incomplete list) */
== Career ==
Leadbetter’s career began when he was [[apprentice|apprenticed]] as a carpenter in 1719, and he worked for the next decade or so as a [[journeyman]] carpenter. By 1731 he had settled in Eton, marrying Elizabeth Hill (b. c.1709), daughter of a London timber merchant; and he worked as carpenter to [[Eton College]] from 1740. Leadbetter leased Eton College Wharf as his principal home and workshop from 1744. He was employed as a builder in his own right by the 1740s, and in the following two decades he worked both as a designer but primarily as a builder of many new country houses, hospitals and speculative urban development. In 1756 Leadbetter was appointed as surveyor of [[St Paul’s Cathedral]], and through this position also gained many ecclesiastical commissions.
Many of his buildings were built within a close distance of Eton.
<blockquote>He was an innovative and possibly influential planner at a time when the design of the British country house was undergoing rapid change. His country houses, though plain in their interior and external detail, are imaginative, varied, and above all practical in their planning.<ref>ODNB</ref> </blockquote>
As a builder he carried out the designs of other architects, notably [[Robert Adam]] and [[James Stuart (1713-1788)|James Stuart]].
Leadbetter’s patron was [[Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin|Francis Godolphin]], second earl of Godolphin, and through him, Leadbetter was introduced to and employed by the dukes of Portland, Marlborough, and Bedford, the countesses of Essex and Pomfret, Lord Foley, Admiral Boscawen, Sir John Elvill, and others.
== Personal life ==
Leadbetter and his wife Elizabeth had five children in their six or seven years of marriage, before Elizabeth died in 1737. Four of Leadbetter’s children died before him.
== Buildings designed and/or built by Leadbetter (incomplete list) ==
*[[Elvills]], Surrey
*[[Fulham Palace]]
*[[Hatchlands Park]]
*[[Langley Park (Buckinghamshire|Langley Park]]
*[[Newton Park]], Newton St Loe
*[[Nuneham House]]
*[[Radcliffe Infirmary|Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford]]
*[[Shardeloes]]
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Sources ==
*Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) entry by Giles Worsley
== External links ==
*[http://www.minervaconservation.com/projects/bathspa.html Newton Park, Newton St Loe]
*[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinday/1101089077/ Langley Park]
[[Category:English architects]]
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(Via Wikipedia – New pages [en].)