Egerton family papers, approximately 1150-1803, bulk 1580-1803

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Summary

Creators:
Egerton (Family)
Abstract:
This collection contains the official, semi-official, and personal papers of six generations of the Egerton family of Great Britain. Also known as the "Ellesmere Collection," the papers span from 1150-1803 and include approximately 13,000 pieces with particular strengths related to domestic management, religion, politics, literature, law, and diplomacy from the late 16th through 18th centuries. The geographic scope of the collection includes all of the British Isles, the British Atlantic, and early colonial America, and foreign relations with Western Europe.
Extent:
approximately 13,000 pieces
Language:
English.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the official, semi-official, and personal papers of six generations of the Egerton family of Great Britain. Also known as the "Ellesmere Collection," the papers span from 1150-1803 and include approximately 13,000 pieces with particular strengths related to domestic management, religion, politics, literature, law, and diplomacy from the late 16th through 18th centuries. The geographic scope of the collection includes all of the British Isles, the British Atlantic, and early colonial America, and foreign relations with Western Europe.

The papers include the personal letters and papers of the family (although there are relatively few household and estate accounts), literary manuscripts, and the official and semi-official papers relating to offices held by various members of the family, particularly those accumulated by Sir Thomas Egerton, 1540?-1617, Baron Ellesmere and Viscount of Brackley, Solicitor-General (1581-1592), Attorney-General (1592-1594), Lord Keeper (1596-1603), and Lord Chancellor (1603-1617); Sir John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, 1579-1649, President of the Council of Wales (1631-1649); John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, 1622-1686, Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire (1660-1686); John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater, 1646-1701, President of the Board of Trade (1696-1699), First Lord of Admiralty (1699-1701), Speaker of the House of Lords (1697 and 1700); John Scrope Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater, 1681-1745, a Whig courtier under Anne and George I, and Francis, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, 1736-1803. Included are literary manuscripts (many of them presentation copies), which comprised the library at Bridgewater House. Also included are the papers of the Stanley family, earls of Derby related to the Egertons, through the marriage of Sir Thomas Egerton to Alice, widow of Ferdinando Stanley, the 5th Earl, including some material concerning the Isle of Man, of which the earls of Derby were hereditary lords. As well, the women in this family are well documented and represented within the papers, including Alice Spencer (1559-1637), Countess of Derby; Frances Stanley Egerton (1583-1636), Countess of Bridgewater; Elizabeth Cavendish Egerton (1626-1663), Countess of Bridgewater; Elizabeth Cranfield Egerton (ca. 1627-1663); Jane Paulet Egerton (ca. 1656-1716), Countess of Bridgewater; Elizabeth Churchill Egerton (ca. 1687-1714), Countess of Bridgewater; and Rachel Russell Egerton (ca. 1700-1777), Dowager Duchess of Bridgewater.

The collection also contains photocopies of some 1,600 manuscripts that the Egerton family chose to retain in their possession.

Biographical / historical:

Descendants of Sir Thomas Egerton, Baron Ellesmere and Viscount Brackley (1540?-1617), a noted jurist, statesman, and patron of the arts and literature, the Egertons were known as a politically and socially influential family. John Egerton, son of Sir Thomas Egerton, obtained earldom, and John Scrope Egerton was made the 1st Duke of Bridgewater. With the death of Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, the dukedom became extinct. The childless duke left the Bridgewater House in London, together with its famous library to his nephew George Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland. His son Francis Egerton Ellesmere (1800-1857) who assumed the name of Egerton, was created Viscount Brackley and 1st Earl of Ellesmere. He was known as a poet, collector and patron of scholarship, the first President of the Camden society. He retained the services of John Payne Collier, the literary critic and notorious forger. Collier published a catalog of selected items from the Bridgewater Library. He also acquired the collection of plays of John Larpent, Examiner of Plays, which he sold to the Earl in 1853.

Acquisition information:

Purchased with the Bridgewater library from John Francis Granville Scrope Egerton, 4th Earl of Ellesmere, through the agency of George D. Smith and Sotheby's of London, 1917.

When the collection was purchased in 1917, the Egerton family chose to retain some 1,600 manuscripts of personal or literary interest or value, but facsimiles of these items were subsequently provided to the Huntington and have been integrated into the original collection.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged according to the organizational system created at Bridgewater House prior to the collection's purchase by Henry Huntington, and reflected in the "Calendar of the Bridgewater and Ellesmere Manuscripts." Each item was assigned to one of numerous subject or genre categories, which were, in turn, grouped broadly into chronological periods as follows:

  • 1. To 1617 (the death of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere)
  • 2. 1617-1649 (the death of the 1st Earl of Bridgewater)
  • 3. 1649-1686 (the death of the 2nd Earl of Bridgewater)
  • 4. 1686-1701 (the death of the 3rd Earl of Bridgewater)
  • 5. 1701-1745 (the death of the 1st Duke of Bridgewater)
  • 6. 1745-1803 (the death of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater)
  • 7. Miscellany and undated. ca. 1200-1800.
Note: there are very few 19th-century papers.

Each item retains the permanent reference number assigned at Bridgewater House (either a simple "EL" number and/or, in the case of individual volumes, a combination of numbers and letters according to their Bridgewater House shelf marks). Although this organization is at times inconsistent and the subject categories in particular often overlap, both the assigned reference numbers and the general format of the ten-volume "Calendar" have been widely cited and, therefore, the decision was made to retain the present system.

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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