The freehold of the Estate was created by the sale on 29 June 1622, of the land then located in St Martin-in-the-Fields, by Richard Wilson of King’s Lynn to William Maddox, who was a citizen and merchant tailor of London.

The freehold of the Estate subsequently passed to William Maddox’s son Benjamin, and then his son (also Benjamin) who inherited it as an orphan of five months in 1637. In turn he settled the Estate on his daughter Mary, who married Edward Pollen, as his second wife. They then joined with their one son, Benjamin, once he was 21, to break the trust, with Benjamin selling the freehold reversion of about one third of the properties on the estate, including all the houses in Hanover Square, Westminster. Once Benjamin’s daughter Ann died unmarried in 1764, the freehold passed to the Revd Thomas Pollen, the son of Edward Pollen by his first wife.

The Revd Thomas Pollen died in 1777 leaving no son (but two daughters), upon which the Revd George Pollen became the tenant in tail until in 1796 his son George Augustus reached the age of twenty one. George Augustus married but had no children, and was drowned in 1809 returning from Russia. Under the 1796 deed the Revd George became entitled to most of the estate on his son’s death and bought the rest from his widow. This enabled him, when he died in 1812 to leave the estate on trust for his five daughters. Two of his daughters were already married, Henrietta to John Boileau and Anna Maria to Major General Coote Manningham. His daughter Elizabeth never married whilst Harriet married Abraham Edward Gregory, and Louisa married John Haviland.

The descendants of the daughters remain on the Board of Directors to this day.