Stanhope of Chevening Manuscripts

The Stanhope papers proper consist of the correspondence, official and literary or scientific papers of the seven Earls Stanhope, but because of their family links, especially with Pitt and Grenville, and also their ultimate inheritance of the title of the Earls of Chesterfield, members of the family collected, purchased or had copies made of many records for other branches of the family and for the families of Pitt and Grenville.

The Stanhope MSS. form one of the most complex series of papers in the Centre of Kentish Archives, largely because of the activities of Philip Henry, 5th Earl Stanhope, the historian. During the life of the 5th Earl all the papers stored at Chevening were arranged by him partly in respect of his own researches and this 19th century arrangement has dominated the present catalogue

M Manorial records

T Title deeds

E Estate papers

A Accounts

F Family papers [limited to patents of nobility and heraldic items]

C Correspondence (Letters and Papers) [arranged chronologically by Earls and other members of the family]

O Official papers [arranged by Earls]

S Special collections [i.e. papers of the Banks, Grenville, Peel and Pitt families and also for a French aristocrat the Comte de Mornac and for Lady Hester Stanhope]

Q Ecclesiastical and charity

Z Miscellanea

P Maps and plans

<p>See also U1000/4, U1384 and U1450</p>

Deposited by the Administrative Trustees of the Chevening Estate, June 1971