The 7th Marquess of Bristol spent a fortune of up to £35 million on drugs and died at 44 after selling the Ickworth lease

John Hervey was born at Ickworth House in Suffolk in 1954, the only child of the 6th Marquess of Bristol. In 1956 the family gave Ickworth to the National Trust in lieu of death duties and kept a 99-year lease on the 60-room East Wing. He received £1 million at 16 and £4 million five years later; his fortune was reported at up to £35 million^†. He succeeded as 7th Marquess on 10 March 1985. In 1988 he was jailed in Jersey for a year for cocaine possession and trafficking and served seven months. In 1993 he was sentenced to 10 months in an open prison and served five. In March 1994 most of Ickworth's contents were auctioned for £2.3 million. In April 1998 he sold the rest of the East Wing lease to the National Trust and moved to Little Horringer Hall on the estate. He died there on 10 January 1999, aged 44. The coroner recorded multiple organ failure due to chronic drug abuse. Most of the £5,000 he left went on his funeral^†. His half-brother Frederick, aged 19, became 8th Marquess. Frederick argued that John could sell only his own life interest and asked the Trust to sell him the remaining term. The Trust refused, and by 2001 the East Wing was a hotel. Frederick did not buy the lease back. In 2026 the National Trust owns Ickworth, the East Wing is a private hotel, and Frederick chairs the property company Bristol Estates.