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Brudenell family, Earls of Cardigan

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: 1200-1900
History:

By the 15th century the Brudenell family owned property in several Midland counties, including Buckinghamshire (Stoke Mandeville). The Deene (Northamptonshire) branch was established by the lawyer Sir Robert Brudenell (d. 1531), who in the early 16th century bought Deene, Glapthorne and Stanion (Northamptonshire), Slawston and Cranhoe (Leicestershire), Ayston and Wardley (Rutland) and much land elsewhere. He also acquired Stonton Wyville (Leicestershire) by marriage. The estates were consolidated by purchase, and Deene Hall was completed in 1570. Thomas Brudenell of Doddington (Huntingdonshire) (d. 1663) succeeded his uncle at Deene in 1606, sold outlying property in Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire in 1606-8, and was created Earl of Cardigan in 1661. His descendant, the 4th Earl, married in 1730 Mary, co-heir of John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu, and was himself created Duke of Montagu in 1766. The dukedom became extinct on his death in 1790, when the Montagu estates passed to the family of his daughter, Elizabeth, Duchess of Buccleuch, but the Brudenell estates devolved on his brother as 5th Earl of Cardigan.

Hougham and Marston (Lincolnshire) entered the family on the marriage in 1539 of Sir Thomas Brudenell to Agnes, heiress of John Bussey, and were sold by the 5th Earl to Sir John Thorold, 9th bt., in 1791. The Howley Hall (Yorkshire, West Riding) estate, including property in Wakefield, Headingley, Bramley and East and West Ardsley, was acquired through the marriage of Francis, Lord Brudenell, father of the 3rd Earl of Cardigan, to Lady Frances Savile, sister of the 2nd Earl of Sussex (d. 1671). The Rutland properties devolved upon Caroline Brudenell (d. 1803), wife of Sir Samuel Fludyer, 1st bt., and at her death on her younger son, George Fludyer of Ayston (d. 1837).

When the 7th Earl of Cardigan died in 1868 he was succeeded in the earldom by the 2nd Marquess of Ailesbury, but his estates passed to his widow with remainder to Robert Thomas Brudenell-Bruce (1845-1912), fourth son of the 3rd Marquess of Ailesbury, and then to his son George (who assumed the name of Brudenell only) in 1917.

Estates in 1883: 7,210 acres in Northamptonshire; 5,583 acres in West Riding of Yorkshire; 2,931 acres in Leicestershire, worth a total of £35,357 a year.

Places:
  • Ayston, Rutland
  • Bramley, Yorkshire
  • Cranhoe, Leicestershire
  • Deene, Northamptonshire
  • Doddington, Huntingdonshire
  • East Ardsley, Yorkshire
  • Great Oakley, Northamptonshire
  • Headingley, Yorkshire
  • Hougham, Lincolnshire
  • Howley, Yorkshire
  • Marston, Lincolnshire
  • Oakley Reynes, Bedfordshire
  • Slawston, Leicestershire
  • Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire
  • Stonton Wyville, Leicestershire
  • Wakefield, Yorkshire
  • Wardley, Rutland
  • West Ardsley, Yorkshire
Sources of authority: Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996, pp. 14-15.
Name authority reference: GB/NNAF/F87827 (Former ISAAR ref: GB/NNAF/F2351 )
Collections
Number Description Held by Reference Further information
1
13th cent-19th cent: Northants (Deene, etc) and Leics (Cranhoe, etc) deeds, family and estate papers 13th-19th cent, with deeds and papers for Beds, Bucks, Hunts, Lincs and Rutland 13th-18th cent and Yorks (Howley, etc) 14th-19th cent, etc
Northamptonshire Archives Service
NRA 34693 Brudenell

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [11a]
2
13th cent-16th cent: misc Northants (Great Oakley, etc) deeds
Northamptonshire Archives Service
NRA 4039 Northants RO misc

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [11c]
3
13th cent-19th cent: misc Northants (Deene, etc), Leics (Cranhoe, etc) and Bucks (Stoke Mandeville) deeds and estate papers and Brudenell family papers
Collection held privately: enquiries to Northamptonshire Record Office
NRA 34693 Brudenell

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [11d]
4
1737: Northants (Deene, etc), Leics (Cranhoe, etc) and Lincs (Hougham and Marston) rental
Northamptonshire Archives Service
5
1763, 1783: Deene (Northants) household accounts 1783 and inventory of the 4th Earl of Cardigan (Duke of Montagu) 1763
Northamptonshire Archives Service
NRA 23059 Montagu-Douglas-Scot

See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [70o]
6
1741: Hougham and Marston (Lincs) rental
Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre
NRA 30725 Brudenell-Bruce

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [12a]
7
14th cent-19th cent: Yorks (Howley, East and West Ardsley, etc) deeds and estate papers
Northamptonshire Archives Service
NRA 34693 Brudenell

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [11a]
8
1716: Howley (Yorks) library catalogue
Collection held privately: enquiries to Northamptonshire Record Office
NRA 34693 Brudenell

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [11d]
9
16th cent-19th cent: Yorks (Howley, East and West Ardsley, etc) manorial records and estate papers
West Yorkshire Archive Service, Leeds
NRA 34058 Dibb

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [11e]
10
18th cent-19th cent: Yorks (Howley, East and West Ardsley, etc) estate papers, incl leases and papers rel to mining and minerals
Wakefield Libraries and Information Services, Local Studies
NRA 23595 Brudenell

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [11f]
11
1714-1823: 5th Earl's executorship papers 1761-1823, with accounts of Lincs (Hougham and Marston) sales 1792 and papers rel to the governorship of Windsor Castle 1714-62
Northamptonshire Archives Service
NRA 4039 Northants RO misc

See HMC Principal family and estate collections A-K, 1996 [11b]
12
1606-1654: papers of the 1st Earl of Cardigan
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [98b]
13
1776: papers of the Duke of Montagu (formerly 4th Earl of Cardigan) rel to the royal princes
Collection held privately: enquiries to National Register of Archives for Scotland
NRA 6184 Montagu-Douglas-Scot

See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [70e]
14
1742-1792: personal and executorship of the Duke of Montagu
Collection held privately: enquiries to Northamptonshire Record Office
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [70n]