Catalogue description HINCHINGBROOKE COLLECTION

Records of the Montagu Family, Earls of Sandwich of Hinchingbrooke, Huntingdon

HINCH 1 Family wills, settlements, etc. 1739-1886 (see also HINCH 3/1,30)

1 - 20

HINCH 2 Deeds

1-90 Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire family estates 1751-1850

91-107 Other property in Huntingdonshire, 1793-1918 (see also HINCH 11/197)

108-141 Middlesex 1684-1819

142-165 Ireland 1749-98

166-169 Miscellaneous 1779, 1878-86

170-178 Fee farm rents & financial deeds 1773-1852

HINCH 3/ Trust deeds

1 Family trust book 1800-1807

2-8 Trust for William Poyntz 1762-68

9-28 William Drogo, Duke of Manchester Settled Estate (Irish) Trust 1856-68

29-30 Miscellaneous 1740, 1774

HINCH 4/ Manorial records

1 Brampton 1861-77

2-6 St. Neots 1836-73

HINCH 5/ Estate Papers (see also HINCH 7/12-21, HINCH 10 and 11/77-89, 96-140, 200-04)

1-8 General 1826-32

9-75 Hunts. estates 1833-1934

76-77 Gamekeeping records 1884-1916

78-116 Woods and underwoods 1814-84

117-144 Home Farm, Hinchingbrooke, 1849-1938

145-151 Improvement Schemes under Settled Lands Acts 1889-1904

152-167 Correspondence 1804-1924

168-184 Northamptonshire & Buckinghamshire estates 1771-88

185-223 Irish Estates 1848-82

HINCH 6/ Fee Farm Rents

1-75 Rentals and accounts 1798-1907

76-112 Correspondence 1862-1901

113-181 Litigation papers 1840-78

HINCH 7/ Family Papers

1-11 Official appointments 1690, 1750-1885

12-24 Financial c1790-1902

25-34 Burial and monument papers 1836-84

35-66 Correspondence 1766-1905 (see also HINCH 11/210-24)

67-79 Miscellaneous 1722-1947

HINCH 8/ Political Papers

1-175 County elections: mainly canvassing papers including land tax assessments, etc. 1767-1862

176-218 Borough elections including burgess lists 1765-1832, 1875-76

219-235 Cambridge University elections 1780-1825

236-249 Other parliamentary elections 1774-1807

250-253 Irish parliamentary elections 1772-75

254-255 Huntingdon Municipal Elections 1835, 1866

256-271 Loyal addresses, etc. 1775-1831

272-281 Miscellaneous, Hunts. 1768, 1831-83

282-295 Miscellaneous, elsewhere 1770-1850

HINCH 9/ Military Records (see also HINCH 11/90-95)

1-5 Lord Lieutenancy of Huntingdonshire 1788-1881 (see also HINCH 7/6, 8-9)

6-33 Volunteer corps 1794-1808

34-270 Hunts. Militia 1841-82

271-278 Corps of Gentlement-at-arms 1852

279-302 Regular Army 1840-83

HINCH 10/ River Great Ouse papers 1774-93, 1876-94

1 - 82

HINCH 11/ Miscellaneous

1-47 Hunts. Quarter Sessions 1783-1883

48-76 Borough of Huntingdon 1803-83

77-89 Huntingdon Borough waterworks 1881-82

90-95 Wartime and related matters 1932-46

96-114 Turnpike roads 1789-1813, 1877

115-135 Railway papers 1845-78

136-140 Portholme Aviation Scheme 1910-11

141-147 Poor Law 1835-82 (see also HINCH 11/210-11)

148-151 Huntingdon County Hospital 1873

152-176 St. Edward's Boys Home 1905-39

177-193 Ecclesiastical & religious 1794, 1853-1919

194-196 Huntingdon Fishing Association 1879-83

197-224 Miscellaneous 1767-1878

In this catalogue cross-references are sometimes given as, for example Hinch/3/1, Hinch 3/1 or even H3/1. The correct form is HINCH 3/1.

This comprises the estate and family records of the Montagu family, Earls of Sandwich of Hinchingbrooke House, Huntingdon, 1664-1947.

The collection contains many political papers of the family 1765-1876, records of the Hunts Militia 1841-1882, records of the Lord Lieutenancy of Huntingdonshire 1788-1881, and papers concerning Huntingdonshire Quarter Sessions 1783-1883.

Researchers should note that the bulk of the collection relates purely to Huntingdonshire. Most of the correspondence and papers of the 4th Earl, John Montagu (1718-1792), are held at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Other records still remain in the possession of the family, in Dorset.

In 1950-51 Colonel G.E.G. Malet, Registrar of the National Register of Archives, did further work on the 17th and 18th-century papers and in 1954-56 Colonel R.P.F. White and Mr S.D. Freer visited on behalf of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, producing a Report on the Sandwich MSS in April 1956. Although this report gives locations of the records at Hinchingbrooke (whether library, stables, etc.) some had by that time been deposited in the County Record Office and the remainder had been, or were shortly to be, transported to Mapperton House, Beaminster, the family's Dorset home.

Some Dorset estate records were also deposited in the Dorset Record Office in 1957-58, whilst the correspondence and papers of the Fourth Earl of Sandwich were listed in detail for the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts by Sir Edward Warner (presumably completing the calendar begun by Col. Malet). A small number of the papers listed in that report were sold at Sotheby's in 1985, and much of the remainder were purchased by the National Maritime Museum c1991-92. Substantial other personal, family, legal, and estate papers remain at Mapperton and are summarised in a futher Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission of 1987 by R.J. Olney. [by PCS, July 1995]

The following other records are related to this collection:

Acc. 223, 223A & 224 Plans of Sandwich estates in Huntingdonshire 1757-1826, 1883

Acc. 1087 Estate account book 1889 - 1945

Acc. 4037 Photograph album of 8th earl of Sandwich 1860 - 1904

Acc. 4098 outbuildings Estate papers, etc., including plans of Hinchingbrooke 1769 - c1880 and election papers 1768, 1796 - 1807

Lieutenancy files of the earl of Sandwich 1928 - 45

The following documents, books, etc in the County Record Office collections are useful for reference:

Acc. 4187 (pt) Sale particulars of Hinchingbrooke Estate 1919

Acc. 3928 (pt) Sale particulars of surplus furnishings etc. 1957

Photocopies of sale particulars of paintings and of surplus furnishings etc. 1957

1889/2-3 and Acc. 3982 (pt) Sale particulars of the Bolton Estate (Hinchingbrooke Home Farm and Cottage and, estates in Offord Darcy) 1963

Montagu family, Earls of Sandwich, of Hinchingbrooke, Huntingdonshire,

159 December 1955 & 6 December 1956

178 March 1957 (HINCH 7/67)

210 3 February 1958 (through Dorset Record Office)

796-798 27 November 1962 (HINCH 7/68-71)

2094 21 December 1971 (HINCH 11/90-95)

This catalogue is of the records deposited by Viscount Hinchingbrooke (the late Victor Montagu, Esq.) in what was then the Huntingdonshire Record Office in December 1955 and on 6 December 1956 (Accession 159) and in May 1957 (Accession 178), at the time of the family's imminent removal to Mapperton, Dorset, a few papers transferred from the Dorset Record Office on 3 February 1958 (Accession 210) subsequent to the deposit there of the family's Dorset estate records, four volumes probably received from the Hinchingbrooke estate office in November 1962 (Accessions 796-8), and several files relating to wartime matters etc. deposited by Mr Montagu's son the Hon. John Montagu, now the 11th Earl of Sandwich (Accession 2094).

The principal deposit, through the agency of Canon Bagley, Rector of All Saints and former County Archivist, was between 13 and 20 December 1955 and comprised 'about 8 boxes (large ones)' according to the County Archivist's journal. These came from the stables at Hinchingbrooke and are referred to as there in 1954 in the Historical Manuscripts Commission Report on the Sandwich Manuscripts. It was followed by "Two more boxes - or arks' on 21 December 1955. They apparently remained untouched until 17 October 1956 when Mr. Findlay, County Archivist, took 'a preliminary survey of the Hinchingbrooke boxes of which there are ten'. Four of these boxes, containing records relating to the Dorset estates, were returned on 6 December 1956 when an eleventh was transferred from Hinchingbrooke, arriving by Welfare Department ambulance. The returned records were removed to Mapperton and deposited in the Dorset Record Office in January 1958.

The main collection was originally listed by G.H. Findlay, County Archivist, A.C. Aylward, Clerk to Huntingdonshire County Council and F. Cossey, temporary archives assistant, in 1957. It is an inadequate and uneven catalogue, or rather amalgam of box lists, in little more order than they were stumbled across, the contents of each box being identified as dd Hinch 1 etc. The whole collection was consequently recatalogued, originally on cards, by Lesley Thomas, assistant archivist 1974-78. This latter catalogue has some shortcomings, and it has been with the intention of removing these and also re-incorporating a few documents which had been transferred in the interim to special collections of maps and printed posters, sale particulars, etc. that duplication etc. of this catalogue has been delayed. In view of the very long delay and the inconvenience of using a collection where the catalogue is not readily to hand it has now been decided to issue this in its somewhat unfinished state and to produce additions and modifications when time permits.

The records of the Earl of Sandwich have been recognised for more than a century as a collection of both local and national significance. Apart from five letters of the Fourth Earl published in Mundy's Life of Rodney (1830), the first published notice appears to be the note on sources concluding the article by J.K. Laughton on the first earl of Sandwich in the Dictionary of National Biography xxxviii (1894), though it is uncertain whether he actually consulted the papers cited or whether the note reflects the 'cursory survey of the manuscripts' which the Dictionary's joint editor, the industrious Sir Sidney Lee, is referred to as having made in the preface to Harris's Life of Edward Montagu (1916). It is possible also that Sir Charles Firth may previously have searched the manuscripts for one of his several DNB articles, most obviously that on Oliver Cromwell (1885), as Harris credits him with introducing him to Lord Sandwich.

Greater use was subsequently made of the eighteenth-century political papers by Sir Richard Lodge and Sir Lewis Namier (see Trans. Cambs. and Hunts. Archaeological Society, v. 201) and by Granville Proby for the 'Political History' in the Victoria County History of Huntingdonshire vol. 2 (1932). Proby described the collection as 'from a historical point of view, the most important collection of MSS. in the County of Huntingdon'. In his introduction to an article on Huntingdonshire M.P.s published in June 1946 (TCHAS vi, 218) he also referred to copies of 'Hinchingbrooke correspondence' which it was intended to make available at the 'County Muniment Room, Huntingdon' as well as at the British Museum. Presumably he was the transcriber (the typescript copies of burgess lists in HINCH 8/176 and his articles in TCHAS, v, 203-44), though the only transcripts of political correspondence in the collection or otherwise deposited in the Record Office are from the John Robinson papers in the Abergavenny Manuscripts (HINCH 8/287; significantly copies of these are also held by the British Library - see Guide to Locations of Collections, p.1).

• Hinchingbrooke, Huntingdonshire
• Hinchingbrooke, Cambridgeshire

For more details please consult the Hinchingbrooke Collection catalogue, available in the searchroom.

Office Library Victoria County History of Hunts, esp. ii, 22-61 (Political History) 62-66 (Montagu Pedigree) 135-9 (Hinchingbrooke)

'Reminiscences' by George earl of Sandwich (photocopy of typescript) c1950

'Memoirs of the Life of Admiral Montague' in Royal Magazine vol. 3 (1760), 296-300

The Life of Edward Montagu, K.G., First Earl of Sandwich by F.R. Harris, 2 vols., 1912

The Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu 4th Earl of Sandwich 1718-92 by N. Rodger, 1993

The Private Papers of John, Earl of Sandwich 1771-82 ed. G.R. Barnes and J.H. Owen (4 vols. Navy Records Society 1932-38)

The Fourth Earl of Sandwich, Diplomatic Correspondence 1763-65 ed. F. Spencer 1961

Dictionary of National Biography, s.n. Montagu

Complete Peerage, xi, 430-41

Burke's Peerage, s.n. Sandwich

History of Parliament 1715-54 ed. R. Sedgwick 1970

History of Parliament 1715-90 and L. Namier and J. Brooke 1964

Cambs and Hunts Leaders, Society and Political ed. E. Gaskell, 1911

Hunts & Northants, Historical, Biographical and Pictorial ed J. Grant c1912 s.n. Sandwich

Northants and Huntingdonshire in the 20th Century: Contemporary Biographies ed. W.T. Pike 1912, pp 7-8, 42

Whos Who in Beds and Hunts, 1936, pp. 146-8

Whos Who in Huntingdonshire 1959 - typescript notes incl. those on 8th and 9th earls

Chronicles of the Rowleys by Peter Rowley 1994

'Hinchingbrooke' in The Gentleman's Magazine Library ed Gomme 1894, pp. 319-21 (originally published 1798)

Topographical and Historical Description of the County of Huntingdon (Beauties of England and Wales) ed E.W Brayley and J. Britton (1808), pp. 459-75

Inventory of Historical Monuments in Hunts (R.C.H.M.) 1926, pp. 152-6

History of Hinchingbrooke (pamphlet) c1950-60

Hinchingbrooke House by P.G.M. Dickinson 1970

Hinchingbrooke House by R. Mitchell (c1980)

Hunts Post 30 June 1916 obituary of 8th Earl of Sandwich

Hinchingbrooke Documents ed R. Mitchell (stencilled typescript 1972)

Roger Mitchell, 'the Hinchingbrooke Fire 1830' in Records of Huntingdonshire 1977 pp. 9-15

W.N. Watterson, 'Excavations on the site of Hinchingbrooke Nunnery Church Records of Huntingdonshire 1966, pp. 21-23

Most of the leading members of the Montagu family of Hinchingbrooke played an active part in the local and national affairs of their day. Sir Sydney Montagu was a loyal follower of King Charles I, and represented Huntingdonshire in Parliament from 1640 until 1642; his son Edward was a successful commander in the Parliamentarian army during the Civil War, and helped to negotiate the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. From 1688 to 1832 the Montagus asserted the patronage of the two Huntingdon Borough seats and one of the county MPs.

The Montagu Family of Hinchingbrooke

The Montagu family originated in Northamptonshire. The grandfather of Sir Sydney Montagu of Hinchingbrooke, Huntingdon, was Sir Edward Montagu, a distinguished lawyer, son of Thomas Montagu Esq. of Hemington. Sir Sydney's father was Sir Edward Montagu of Boughton, and Sydney and his wife lived originally at Barnwell, Northamptonshire. It was not until 1627, when an elder brother, Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester, purchased the Hinchingbrooke Estate from Sir Oliver Cromwell in order to acquire the Forest of Weybridge that Sydney moved to Hinchingbrooke House. From 1627 until 1962, when the Tenth Earl of Sandwich sold the house and estate to the Huntingdonshire County Council, the house remained in the possession of Sir Sydney's branch of the Montagu family.

Most of the leading members of the Montagu family of Hinchingbrooke played an active part in the local and national affairs of their day. Sir Sydney Montagu was a distinguished lawyer, a Master of the Court of Requests to King Charles I and a loyal follower of the King. He represented Huntingdonshire in Parliament from 1640 until 1642, when he was excluded for disputing Parliament's right to govern without the King's authority. His son, Edward, was a successful parliamentary commander during the Civil War, and later became joint High Admiral of England. He helped to negotiate the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, and for this he was rewarded with the titles of Earl of Sandwich, Viscount Hinchingbrooke and Baron Montagu of St. Neots. Later, besides continuing his naval career, he negotiated the marriage between Charles II and Catherine of Braganza (1661) and acted as ambassador extraordinary to Madrid (1666). He was killed in 1672 when the English fleet was surprised by the Dutch in Solebay.

His grandson, Edward Third Earl of Sandwich, was Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Huntingdonshire. The Third Earl's grandson, John Fourth Earl, is perhaps the best-known of the Earls of Sandwich. He was a diplomatist and a Whig politician and statesman. He was a plenipotentiary at Breda in 1746 and assisted at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. Subsequently he was a Secretary of State, and, for various periods, including that of the American War of Independence 1771-82, First Lord of the Admiralty. The Fourth Earl was scandalously associated with the Hell Fire Club and John Wilkes, for whose disavowal he earnt the popular nickname 'Jemmy Twitcher'. He also sponsored and personally encouraged Captain James Cook on his voyages of exploration and consequently the Sandwich Islands were so named in his honour.

The Seventh Earl, John William, was Lord Lieutenant of Huntingdonshire, captain of the corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (1852), and colonel of the 5th Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps. Edward, 8th Earl, also pursued a military career and served as Member of Parliament for the borough of Huntingdon 1876-84; was Lord Lieutenant of the county in 1891; and was first Chairman of the Huntingdonshire County Council from 1889 to 1916. The Ninth Earl, George, the son of Rear Admiral the Hon. V.A. Montagu, was Conservative M.P for the southern division of Huntingdonshire 1900-6. He was Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum, 1922-46, and chairman of the County Council, 1933-46. He published an autobiographical volume and some volumes of poetry. His son Victor was Conservative M.P. for South Dorset when he succeeded to the title as Tenth Earl in 1962. He had been Baldwin's private secretary from 1932 to 1934, and was first elected for parliament in 1941. He renounced his title in 1964 to continue his political career.

The Montagus had enormous local influence on activities of all kinds, economic, and social, but it is for their political dominance that they were perhaps most remarkable. From 1688 until 1832 they asserted the patronage over the two Huntingdon Borough seats and of one of the county M.P.s. During the lifetime of the Fourth Earl their influence reached its zenith, but even after the Reform Act of 1832 their influence was formidable. Sir Sydney Montagu was himself M.P. for the borough between 1640 and 1642, and his son, Edward, represented the county in the various parliaments held between 1645 and 1657. Other members of the Montagu family often held one of the borough or county seats, and the immediate heir to the title, who used the cadet title of Viscount Hinchingbrooke, usually sat in the Commons as one of the local M.P.s. Between 1768 and 1792, and 1794 and 1814, one of the county seats was held by the successive Lords Hinchingbrooke.

[by Lesley Thomas, evidently incomplete]

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