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Secondary sourcePaintingc. 1760s (remodelling); engraving later

The Rookery, Westcott

Rudolph Ackermann · c. 1760s (remodelling); engraving later

A hand-colored engraving of The Rookery, the Surrey country house where Malthus was born, remodelled by his father Daniel.

Malthus was born in this house, remodelled by his father, which shaped his early intellectual environment.

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Hand-colored engraving titled 'The Rookery, Seat of R. Fuller Esq.' showing a pale two-story classical country house with a central portico and tall windows, set on a grassy slope with a winding gravel path, tall trees on the left and right, wooded hills behind, a figure in red walking on the path, and several peacocks and ducks on the lawn.
Rudolph Ackermann, 'The Rookery, Seat of R. Fuller Esq.', hand-colored engraving.

About this source

What it is

This is a hand-colored engraving by Rudolph Ackermann showing The Rookery, a country house at Westcott near Dorking in Surrey. It shows the house as it later looked under a different owner, R. Fuller, who bought the estate after the Malthus family left.

The house, originally called Chertgate Farm, was bought and remodelled into a 'gentleman's seat' by Daniel Malthus, Thomas Robert Malthus's father, around the 1760s.

Why it matters

This was the birthplace of Thomas Robert Malthus, the economist. His father Daniel Malthus was influenced by Enlightenment ideas, including those of Rousseau, and the household atmosphere at The Rookery is thought to have shaped the young Malthus's early thinking. The family sold the house in 1768.

Look closer

  • What does the size and style of the house suggest about the family's social position?
  • Why might an artist choose to include peacocks, gardens, and a grand portico in this image?
  • This image shows the house after it changed owners — what does that tell us about how buildings outlive the families who first lived there?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Thomas Malthus on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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