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Sidney family, Viscounts de l'Isle

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:

By the 15th century the Sidney family owned estates in Surrey (Alfold near Cranleigh), and in Sussex. These were sold in the early 16th century by Sir William Sidney (d. 1554), who received grants of property in the north and east ridings of Yorkshire. In 1539 he exchanged these for the Robertsbridge Abbey (Sussex) estates, which were retained until their sale to Sir Robert Webster in 1726. The Penshurst (Kent) estate was granted to him by Edward VI in 1552. Sir Henry Sidney (d. 1586), Sir William's son, was co-heir through his grandmother Anne, daughter of Sir William Brandon, to the last Brandon Duke of Suffolk and from him inherited property including the Cromwell family foundation of Tattershall College (Lincolnshire), with former Cromwell family manors in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire and elsewhere. This was largely sold to the Earl of Lincoln in 1574 and descended to the Earls Fortescue.

Sir Henry's son Robert Sidney (d. 1626) was created Baron Sidney 1603, Viscount Lisle 1605 and Earl of Leicester 1618. He inherited Leicester House, Westminster, and property in Warwickshire on the death of his uncle Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in 1588 and was bequeathed by Anne Dudley, Dowager Countess of Warwick (d. 1604), a claim to the Berkeley family estates in Gloucestershire, which gave rise to litigation but no permanent passage of property to the Sidney family. Through his marriage in 1584 to the daughter and heir of John Gamage, Robert Sidney acquired the Coity (Glamorganshire) estate, while in 1604 he was granted the honour of Otford (Kent).

The 4th Earl of Leicester was succeeded on his death in 1702 by three sons in turn as 5th, 6th and 7th Earls. The 5th Earl (d. 1705) and another son, the Hon. Thomas Sidney (d. 1728), married the sisters and co-heirs of Sir Robert Reeve, 2nd Bt, of Thwaite (Suffolk), thereby acquiring property in Norfolk (Ranworth, Panxworth, etc) and Suffolk (Thwaite, Monewdon, etc). On the death of the 7th Earl without legitimate issue in 1743, the family peerages were extinguished but the estates descended to Elizabeth, younger daughter of the Hon. Thomas Sidney and wife of William Perry (d. 1759) of Turville Park (Buckinghamshire). The Glamorganshire estate was settled, however, on an illegitimate daughter of the 7th Earl, who married Henry Streatfeild of Chiddingstone (Kent) in 1752; and some division of the Thwaite property occurred in connection with the claims of Elizabeth Perry's sister Mary (d. 1758, wife of Sir Brownlow Sherrard, 4th Bt). The bulk of the Sidney property, however, and the Perry estates in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (Chalgrove, Pyrton), with property in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire (Eardisley, Knighton) and Radnorshire (Old Radnor), passed to Elizabeth, the daughter of William Perry. She married, as his second wife, Bysshe Shelley of Castle Goring (Sussex). Her estates devolved upon the eldest son of this marriage, Sir John Shelley-Sidney (d. 1849), who took the surname Sidney in 1793 and was created a baronet in 1818. His son was raised to the peerage as Baron De L'Isle and Dudley in 1835. The 6th Baron was created Viscount De L’Isle in 1956. The Dudley inheritance, except for the Leicester House estate in Westminster, appears to have been disposed of in the 17th century and the family property outside Kent (eg Turville, sold 1796) to have been alienated by the early 19th century.

In 1850 the 2nd Baron married the daughter and heiress of Sir William Foulis, 8th Bt, of Ingleby Manor (Yorkshire, North Riding). Ingleby had been purchased in 1608 by Sir David Foulis, created a baronet in 1620, and the North Riding estate was extended by his son Sir Henry Foulis, through his marriage to the daughter of Sir Thomas Layton of Sexhow.

Estates in 1883: Yorks NR 4,896 acres, Kent 4,356 acres, total 9,252 acres worth £10,232 a year.

Places:
  • Abberley, Worcestershire
  • Ashurst, Kent
  • Aston Sandford, Buckinghamshire
  • Balsall Heath, Warwickshire
  • Battersby, Yorkshire
  • Baynards Castle, London
  • Bisley, Gloucestershire
  • Chalgrove, Oxfordshire
  • Coity, Glamorgan
  • Cranfield, Bedfordshire
  • Deeping Fen, Lincolnshire
  • Eardisley, Herefordshire
  • Hampton-in-Arden, Warwickshire
  • Ingleby Greenhow, Yorkshire
  • Knighton, Herefordshire
  • Leicester Fields, London
  • Leicester House, London
  • Leominster, Herefordshire
  • Long Itchington, Warwickshire
  • Michelmersh, Hampshire
  • Monewdon, Suffolk
  • Newlands, Glamorgan
  • Old Radnor, Radnorshire
  • Otford, Kent
  • Panningridge, Sussex
  • Panxworth, Norfolk
  • Penshurst, Kent
  • Poslingford, Suffolk
  • Pyrton, Oxfordshire
  • Ranworth, Norfolk
  • Robertsbridge, Sussex
  • Sexhow, Yorkshire
  • Sheen, Surrey
  • Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire
  • Tattershall, Lincolnshire
  • Thwaite, Suffolk
  • Tonbridge, Kent
  • Turville, Buckinghamshire
  • Monewden, Suffolk
Sources of authority: Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Guide to principal estate and family collections L-W, 1999
Name authority reference: GB/NNAF/F84370 (Former ISAAR ref: GB/NNAF/F10768 )
Collections
Number Description Held by Reference Further information
1
12th cent-20th cent: Kent (Penshurst, etc), London (Leicester House and Fields, etc), Sussex (Robertsbridge, etc) and misc Yorks (Ingleby Greenhow, etc) deeds, manorial records, household and estate papers 12th-19th cent, deeds and estate papers for Norfolk (Ranworth, etc) and Suffolk (Thwaite, etc) (Reeve family property), Bucks (Turville, etc), Herefs (Eardisley, etc), Oxon (Pyrton, etc) and Radnorshire (Old Radnor, etc) (Perry family property) and Warwicks (Balsall and Long Itchington, etc) 13th-18th cent, Glamorgan (Coity, etc) deeds and papers 15th-18th cent, Cranfield (Beds), Stoke Poges (Bucks), Bisley (Gloucs) and Leominster (Herefs) estate papers c1598-1606, Deeping Fen (Lincs) rentals 1765-66, Hants (Michelmersh) and Worcs (Abberley) manorial records 14th-16th cent, records of Tattershall (Lincs) college and estates 13th-17th cent and the Earl of Romney's Irish property c1675-1700, and Sidney, Perry and Reeve family papers 16th-20th cent, etc
Kent History and Library Centre
NRA 17989 Sidney

See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95a]
2
17th cent-20th cent: Penshurst halimote alias Otford Weald (Kent) manorial records 17th-20th cent, with rentals 1830-43
Kent History and Library Centre
NRA 18189

See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95b]
3
1632, 1660: Penshurst (Kent) household inventory 1632, with inventory of pictures and statues from Viscount l'Isle's house at Sheen (Surrey) 1660
National Library of Wales: Department of Collection Services
NRA 34361 Mansel Franklen

See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95j]
4
12th cent-14th cent: Robertsbridge Abbey (Sussex) deeds and papers
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95c]
5
14th cent: Robertsbridge Abbey (Sussex) register
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95c]
6
13th cent-19th cent: Yorks (Ingleby Greenhow, etc) deeds, manorial records, estate and Sidney, Foulis and Layton family papers 13th-19th cent, with misc deeds and papers for Bucks (Aston Sandford, etc) and Suffolk (Poslingford, etc) 16th-18th cent, etc
Kent History and Library Centre
NRA 11837

See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95a]
7
c1559-1709: Sidney family papers c1559-1709, incl corresp of Robert Sidney, 1st Earl of Leicester (d 1626)
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95e]
8
1572-1726: misc Sidney family corresp and papers
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95f]
9
17th cent-18th cent: Sidney family papers, incl wills, settlements and legal papers
Kent History and Library Centre
NRA 39835
10
17th cent-19th cent: Sidney and Perry family trust deeds, settlements, mortgages and related papers
Hampshire Archives
NRA 8990 Shelley Rolls
11
16th cent-17th cent: Sidney family papers 16th-17th cent, incl corresp of Henry Sidney (1641-1704), Earl of Romney 1674-91 and misc Leicester House (London) inventories 1644, 1677
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [80a]
12
1636-1637: letters of William Hawkins to the 2nd Earl and Countess of Leicester
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95d]
13
c1590-1600: poetical MSS of the 1st Earl of Leicester (d 1626)
British Library, Manuscript Collections
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95g]
14
1565-1570: Irish corresp of Sir Henry Sidney (d 1586)
Trinity College Dublin
NRA 19217 Trinity Coll Dublin

See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95h]
15
16th cent: corresp of Sir Philip Sidney (d 1586)
Yale University Libraries: Beinecke Library
See HMC Principal family and estate collections L-W, 1999 [95i]