Records of the Buckinghamshire estate of the Earls of Chesterfield (Stanhope family),...

AR 48/91(G)

The estates had previously belonged to the Dormer family of Wing and were inherited in 1709 by Philip Stanhope, later 3rd Earl of Chesterfield, on the death of his maternal grandfather Charles Dormer, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon. When the 3rd Earl of Chesterfield died in 1726, he left the Bucks estates to his second son Sir William Stanhope, M.P. for Bucks, who lived at Eythorpe House, which he spent large sums on improving and decorating

After Sir William's death in 1772, the estates passed to his elder brother the 4th Earl of Chesterfield and thereafter descended with the title. The 5th Earl was responsible for the demolition of Eythorpe House in 1810

The bulk of the estates was at Wing, including property in Wing, Ascott, Burcott, Crafton, Grove, Aston Abbotts, Linslade, Slapton, Stewkley and Wingrave and Rowsham. The other large concentration was at Eythorpe (Waddesdon) and Stone, with smaller holdings at Dagnall (Edlesborough) and Ilmer, and a few acres at Buckland

The estates were sold off during the 19th century. The Ilmer property was sold to Joseph Franklin, circa 1809 (see Land Tax Assessments). Eythorpe was eventually purchased by the Rothschild family of Waddesdon. The Wing estate was held by J.B. Harcourt in 1847 (see Lipscomb, History of Bucks, Vol. III, p. 523), and a sale catalogue of 1839 is referred to in the Handlist of Bucks Estate Maps (B.R.S., 1963). By 1860, it had been acquired by Lord Overstone, passing on his death in 1883 to his daughter Lady Wantage. She died in 1920 and the Overstone estate was then broken up

The four volumes in this bequest had passed with the Wing estate to Lord Overstone and were held at the Overstone Park Estate Office in Northants. On the break-up of the estate, the volumes were given in 1922 to George Hedley Harris, farmer of Long Moor farm, Aston Abbotts, one of the tenants of the estate [see D-X1099/6]; they were bequeathed to the Record Office by his daughter, Miss Dorothy Harris, who died on 18th March 1990