This house occupies part of the site of what was originally known as the Great House of Lyme Regis. Here lodged in the summer of 1773 William Pitt (1708-1778), first Earl of Chatham, the great War Minister of George II, and his son William Pitt (1759-1806), the great Prime Minister of George III. Also for some months in 1796-1797 it was the home of Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855) essayist & dramatist