Uppark, built c1685-1690, was the home of Sir Matthew Fetherstonehaugh, a wealthy 18th century MP. With several leading politicians he became involved with the Grand Ohio Company, a speculative venture established in 1769 to finance the setting-up of an American settlement to be called Vandalia, in what is now West Virginia. Fetherstonehaugh commissioned Henry Keene to erect a monument to the scheme in the form of a Gothic tower in the grounds of Uppark. The ruins of the Vandalian Tower still survive on the Downs overlooking Harting.