Brudenell family, Earls of Cardigan

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.