- ReferenceBW
- TitleBrownlow muniments
- Date free text1406-1897
- Production dateFrom: 1406 To: 1897
- Admin/biog historyThis collection falls into three sections:- Cockayne The Cockayne family came to Hatley (previously called Hatley Port) with the purchase of the manor in 1417 John, Baron of the Exchequer. The family also acquired land in Wrestlingworth. The estate remained with them till 1745, when it passed by marriage to the family of Cust, who took the name Cockayne Cust; and this family in the 19th century succeeded their relatives, as below. Bridgwater There is an early connection of the Egerton family with the county, most of it brief. It was mainly in the south, where they acquired a quarry at Totternhoe in 1607, which they retained; but Houghton Regis manor and advowson, which they acquired about 1615, was sold by them in 1654 to Brandreth. Similarly in the north they held Stevington manor for 2 years, 1616 -18; and bought some land at Milton Ernest from Lord St. John in 1623. On the death of Francis Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgwater, in 1829, his peerages became extinct, and his estates went to his great-nephew, John Hume-Cust (son of John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow), after his widow's lifetime - she died in 1849, and he then took the name of Egerton. Brownlow John Hume-Cust (Egerton)'s two sons succeeded respectively as 2nd and 3rd Earl Brownlow. But they left no sons, and the estate passed to the descendants of a younger son of the 1st Earl Brownlow, the Cockayne Custs of Cockayne Hatley; with the title of Baron (not Earl) Brownlow. The Cockayne Hatley property seems to have been sold between 1894 and 1910. The south Bedfordshire estate, on the other hand, was in the main a creation of the 8th Earl of Bridgwater and the 2nd and 3rd Earl Brownlows during the 19th century, as an outlying area of much bigger estates elsewhere. The various Studham manors were bought in 1808, 1815 and thereafter; and Totternhoe advowson about the same time. There was a considerable purchase in 1811 of lands that had belonged to Vaux and Gregory. Small purchases in the area continued up to at least 1801. (Note, however, also a Milton Ernest connection, 1864 - 9: V.C.H. iii,145; and Dunton Goyes manor and Dunton advowson, 1869 - 77: V.C.H. ii, 220, 222). Wrest connection The Wrest documents (BW1246 - 7) derive from the mother of the 7th Earl Brownlow, who was Ann Sophia Grey. For her marriage, see L30/9/9, 32, 52. The Miss Egerton who held Flitwick Priestley manor 1784 - 7 (see VCH iii, 286; and Russell register III, 331) may have been her daughter (see also L30/11).
- Documents deposited by Lord Brownlow, 1928-60
- Scope and ContentArea covered : Cockayne Hatley, Potton, Wrestlingworth, Eyeworth, Dunton, Biggleswade, Houghton Conquest, Houghton Regis, Leighton Buzzard, Billington, Totternhoe, Eaton Bray, Studham, Whipsnade, Kensworth, Caddington
- Archival historyWhen the Ashridge estate was sold, the documents of the Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire sections were deposited respectively with the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire County Councils and the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society; the deeds coming from the muniment room at Ashridge, and the maps from the reading room at Little Gaddesden. This was in 1928-9 and 1931. The deeds were in bundles.The documents for the Cockayne Hatley estate were received either from London or Belton in 1953, 1955-6, and 1960.
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- Level of descriptionfonds
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