Pleydell-Bouverie family, Earls of Radnor

The Des Bouveries (afterwards Bouverie) family was settled in Kent in the 16th century and bought Folkestone (Kent) from Sir Basil Dixwell in 1697. Sir William Des Bouveries, son of the eminent Turkey merchant Sir Edward Des Bouveries (d. 1694), was created a baronet in 1714, his son Sir Jacob Des Bouveries raised to the peerage as Viscount Folkestone in 1747, and his grandson William (1725-76) created Earl of Radnor in 1765. Property in London (mainly Whitefriars) was acquired in the late 17th century and an estate at Southampton Buildings, Holborn (Middlesex) bought from the 2nd Duke of Montagu in 1734.

Extensive estates in Wiltshire were acquired from the late 17th century, including Longford Castle near Salisbury from the 2nd Baron Coleraine. Property formerly belonging to Sir Giles Hungerford was purchased in 1718 from the 2nd Baron Lexinton, to whom it had passed through his marriage to Hungerford's daughter, Mary (d. 1703). This included Corsham, Coulston and Stanton St Quintin (Wiltshire) and Pucklechurch (Gloucestershire). By the marriage of the 2nd Earl (1750-1828) to Anne, daughter and heir of Anthony Duncombe (d. 1763), Baron Feversham of Downton (Wiltshire), further Wiltshire estates (Downton, Urchfont, etc) were acquired, together with property, subsequently disposed of, in other counties. The Wiltshire properties were extended by piecemeal purchases in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Estates in Berkshire (Coleshill, Shrivenham and Watchfield), Gloucestershire (Duntisborne Abbots, Ampney Crucis) and Wiltshire (Lyneham, etc) passed to the 2nd Earl in 1768 from his maternal grandfather Sir Mark-Stuart Pleydell, who had inherited Pleydell family property from his grandfather Thomas Pleydell of Shrivenham and the Coleshill estate from his grandmother Mary Pleydell, heiress of Sir Henry Pratt (who had purchased Coleshill in 1626). A Barbados sugar plantation and an estate in Ermington (Devon), inherited by Sir Mark-Stuart Pleydell's wife Mary from Colonel Robert Steuart, were apparently sold in the late 18th century.

In 1889 the Coleshill (Berkshire) estate, which had previously descended with the other family property, devolved upon Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie, brother of the 5th Earl; it was sold at the end of the Second World War. The Delapré Abbey (Northamptonshire) estate, acquired with property in East and West Ham (Essex) by the 1st Viscount Folkestone's marriage to Mary, heir of Bartholomew Clarke (d. 1746), descended to a younger brother of the 1st Earl. (The records of the Hungerford family of Farleigh Hungerford (Somerset) included in the collection are thought to have passed to the Earl of Radnor through the St John-Mildmay family of Dogmersfield (Hampshire), the 3rd Earl having married Anne St John-Mildmay in 1814.)

Estates in 1883: Wilts 17,000 acres, Berks 4,334 acres, Kent 3,266 acres, Gloucs 270 acres, total 24,870 acres worth £42,900 a year. (The metropolitan property is excluded.)