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Egerton family, Earls of Bridgewater

This page summarises records created by this Family

The summary includes a brief description of the collection(s) (usually including the covering dates of the collection), the name of the archive where they are held, and reference information to help you find the collection.

Date: 1100-2000
History:

Thomas Egerton (1540-1617), natural son of Sir Richard Egerton of Ridley (Cheshire), was Lord Chancellor 1603-17, and was created Baron Ellesmere in 1603 and Viscount Brackley in 1616. He built up considerable estates in Cheshire and adjoining counties, including the Ellesmere estate in Shropshire (purchased from the feoffees of the 6th Earl of Derby) and properties in Denbighshire and Flintshire. In 1598 he inherited Tatton (Cheshire) and Worsley (Lancashire) from his brother-in-law, Richard Brereton. (Tatton later passed to a younger son of the 2nd Earl of Bridgewater). In 1604 he was granted Ashridge (Hertfordshire), which became the nucleus of a large estate in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.

John Egerton (d. 1649) succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Brackley and in the same year was created Earl of Bridgewater. He married c.1601 Frances, daughter and co-heir of 5th Earl of Derby (d. 1594) and purchased the Brackley estate in Northamptonshire (like Ellesmere a property that had passed to the Earls of Derby from the family of Strange). He also acquired property in Lincolnshire that had passed to the Earls of Derby through the marriage of the 4th Earl to a granddaughter of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. (These estates were alienated in the 18th century). The 4th Earl was created Duke of Bridgewater in 1720.

On the death of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater in 1803 his Ashridge and Ellesmere estates passed to a cousin who succeeded as 7th Earl of Bridgewater (see Cust, Earls Brownlow), but the Brackley and Worsley estates, together with the canal property and Bridgewater House in London passed to his nephew Lord Gower, later 1st Duke of Sutherland, with remainder to his second son, Francis Leveson-Gower (later Egerton), who was created Earl of Ellesmere in 1846. The Bridgewater Canal was sold in 1887, and the Worsley estate, to the Bridgewater Estates Company, in 1923. The Stetchworth (Cambridgeshire) estate, near Newmarket, was acquired by the 3rd Earl of Ellesmere, and the Mertoun (Berwickshire) estate by the 4th Earl (as Viscount Brackley) in 1912. The 5th Earl succeeded a cousin as 6th Duke of Sutherland in 1963.

Estates in 1883: 10,080 acres in Lancashire; 2,839 acres in Northamptonshire; 303 acres in Cheshire; about 100 acres in Staffordshire; worth a total of £71,290 a year.

Places:
  • Ashridge Park, Hertfordshire
  • Astley, Warwickshire
  • Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
  • Brackley, Northamptonshire
  • Bridgewater House, London
  • Bromfield, Shropshire
  • Bromfield, Denbighshire
  • Caldwell, Yorkshire
  • Chertsey, Surrey
  • Ellesmere, Shropshire
  • Frampton, Lincolnshire
  • Halse, Northamptonshire
  • Hawnby, Yorkshire
  • Hilton, Yorkshire
  • Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire
  • Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire
  • Liverpool, Lancashire
  • Pitstone, Buckinghamshire
  • Studham, Bedfordshire
  • Tatton, Cheshire
  • Whitchurch, Shropshire
  • Winston, Durham
  • Wollaston, Northamptonshire
  • Worsley, Lancashire
  • Wrexham, Denbighshire
  • Yale, Denbighshire
Sources of authority: Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996, p. 54.
Name authority reference: GB/NNAF/F86685 (Former ISAAR ref: GB/NNAF/F10707 )
Collections
Number Description Held by Reference Further information
1
13th cent-19th cent: Beds (Studham, etc), Bucks (Pitstone, etc) and Herts (Ashridge Park in Little Gaddedsden, etc) deeds, legal papers, manorial records and estate papers 13th-19th cent (Ashridge estate) and Egerton family papers 16th-19th cent, with manorial records for Bromfield (Salop) 1626-27 and Wrexham (Denbighshire) 1504-05 and estate papers for Lancs (Worsley, etc) 18th-19th cent, Salop (Ellesmere, etc) 16th-18th cent, Chertsey (Surrey) c1617-1795 and Yorks (Hawnby, etc) and Durham (Winston) 1748
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
NRA 9422

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27c]
2
16th cent-19th cent: Beds (Studham, etc), Bucks (Pitstone, etc) and Herts (Ashridge Park in Little Gaddesden, etc) deeds and papers 16th-19th cent (Ashridge estate) and Halse (Northants) manorial records 18th-19th cent
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
NRA 18363 Grover

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27f]
3
c13th cent-19th cent: Beds (Studham, etc), Bucks (Ivinghoe, Pitstone, etc) and Herts (Ashridge Park in Little Gaddesden, etc) deeds and estate papers (Ashridge estate)
Buckinghamshire Archives
See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27g]
4
15th cent-19th cent: Beds (Studham, etc) and misc Bucks (Pitstone, etc) and Herts (Ashridge Park in Little Gaddesden, etc) deeds and papers (Ashridge estate)
Bedfordshire Archives
NRA 30112 Cust

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27j]
5
16th cent-19th cent: Beds (Studham, etc), Bucks (Pitstone, etc) and Herts (Ashridge Park in Little Gaddesden, etc) deeds and papers (Ashridge estate)
Buckinghamshire Archives
NRA 16238 Egerton

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27i]
6
17th cent: misc Bucks (Ivinghoe and Pitstone) estate accounts and papers (Ashridge estate)
Buckinghamshire Archives
See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27h]
7
1799-1800: Berkhamsted (Herts) estate accounts (Duke of Bridgewater and W Wheeldon)
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
NRA 3507 Herts RO misc
8
1813-1827: Ashridge estate steward's diaries
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
NRA 18327

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27d]
9
12th cent-early 19th cent: Cheshire (Tatton, etc), Lancs (Worsley, etc), Lincs (Frampton, etc), London (Bridgewater House, etc), Northants (Brackley, Wollaston, etc), Salop (Ellesmere, etc), Warwicks (Astley), Denbighshire (Bromfield and Yale, etc) and Flintshire deeds, manorial records, estate papers and Egerton family papers, with misc deeds and papers for other counties and families
Huntington Library
NRA 24601 Egerton (Bridgwater)

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [33a]
10
1651-1662: misc Cheshire (Tatton, etc) and Salop (Ellesmere, etc) estate corresp
Shropshire Archives
NRA 21443 Whitfield

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [33b]
11
13th cent-1803: Lancs (Worsley, etc), London (Bridgewater House, etc) and Northants (Brackley, etc) deeds, manorial records, family and estate papers
Northamptonshire Archives Service
NRA 4357

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [33c]
12
18th cent: misc Lancs (Worsley, etc) estate papers
Salford City Archives
See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [33e]
13
1770-1771: Bridgewater Canal (Lancs and Cheshire) accounts
Salford City Archives
See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [33f]
14
mid 18th cent-1803: Lancs (Liverpool, etc) estate, Bridgewater Canal and misc Egerton family, legal and household papers
Salford University Archives and Special Collections
NRA 28500

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [33g]
15
c1764-1803: Lancs colliery records
Lancashire Archives
NRA 12638 NCB: Lancs
16
19th cent-20th cent: Lancs deeds and probate records
Lancashire Archives
See Annual Return 2004
17
1779-1797: Brackley (Northants) estate accounts
Northamptonshire Archives Service
NRA 21333
18
1629-1794: Halse (Northants) manorial records 1718-94 and Wollaston (Northants) estreats of fines 1629-50
Northamptonshire Archives Service
See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27k]
19
c1200-19th cent: Salop (Ellesmere, Whitchurch, etc) deeds, manorial records and estate rentals, accounts, corresp and papers c1200-19th cent and misc Egerton family papers mainly 17th cent
Shropshire Archives
NRA 37869 Cust

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27l]
20
1609-1616: Ellesmere (Salop) estate accounts
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies
NRA 7244 Capell

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [16a]
21
16th cent-early 19th cent: Yorks (Caldwell, Hawnby, Hilton, etc) and Durham (Winston) deeds, legal and estate papers 16th-early 19th cent, with Chertsey (Surrey) rent accounts 1732-39
North Yorkshire County Record Office
NRA 37278

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27n]
22
c1590-early 19th cent: misc Egerton family corresp and papers
Lincolnshire Archives
NRA 7193 Cust

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27a]
23
18th cent: Egerton family papers rel to the minority of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater
Manchester University: University of Manchester Library
NRA 30541 Egerton
24
1782-1807: Egerton family corresp, mainly of the 8th Earl of Bridgewater
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27p]
25
1811-1824: MS indexes of the Bridgewater MSS
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [27p]
26
1804: inventory of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater's plate
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service: Staffordshire County Record Office
NRA 10699 Leveson-Gower

See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [101a]
27
1960-1970: photographs of Worsley mines and The Duke of Bridgewater's underground canals
National Waterways Archive
See Annual Return 2017