Tufton family, Earls of Thanet

The Tufton family was settled in the Rainham district of Kent from the 12th century. Hothfield (Kent) was purchased c1542, and the family also acquired estates in Sussex (mainly near the Kent border) and other counties. Sir Nicholas Tufton, 2nd Bt (1578-1631), was created Earl of Thanet in 1628. The 2nd Earl married in 1629 Margaret Sackville, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Dorset by Anne, Baroness Clifford in her own right. Through her (who married secondly the 4th Earl of Pembroke) the Tufton family inherited former Clifford estates in the West Riding of Yorkshire (Skipton Castle, etc) and Westmorland (Appleby Castle, Brough, Brougham, etc, with the hereditary shrievalty of Westmorland), and the Sackville property of Bolebrooke (Sussex) (sold in 1770: see also Sackville, Barons Sackville).

Robert de Clifford, created Baron Clifford in 1299, and his nephew the 3rd Baron inherited the extensive estates of the Vipont or Veteripont family in Westmorland and elsewhere. The 1st Baron was also granted Skipton, Skelton (Cumberland) and other estates by Edward I. The 9th Baron (d. 1461) married Margaret, daughter and heir of Henry de Bromflete, Lord Vessy, through whom estates in the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire (Bromflete, Londesborough, Malton, etc) were inherited. The 11th Baron Clifford (1493-1542) was created Earl of Cumberland in 1525, and considerably extended the West Riding estates, notably by the acquisition of the Percy Fee in Craven and the Bolton Abbey lands. In the second half of the sixteenth century, however, there were extensive sales both of estates in Craven and of outlying properties. On the death of the 5th Earl of Cumberland in 1643 the Bolton Abbey and Londesborough estates passed to his daughter, who married Richard Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan and later Earl of Cork and Earl of Burlington (see Cavendish, Dukes of Devonshire), but the Skipton Castle and Westmorland estates passed to his cousin Lady Pembroke (see above).

On the death of the 6th Earl of Thanet in 1729 the barony of Clifford fell into abeyance among his daughters (for the Dungeness lighthouse dues, that passed to his third daughter, the Countess of Leicester and Baroness Clifford in her own right, see Coke, Earls of Leicester), but the bulk of the family estates passed to his nephew as 7th Earl. He married in 1722 Mary Savile, daughter and co-heir of the 2nd Marquess of Halifax (d. 1700), through whom, on the partition of the unentailed Halifax estates in 1742, some Derbyshire property was inherited. (See also Lumley-Savile of Rufford, and, for Savile properties inherited by the Boyle family, see Cavendish, Dukes of Devonshire.)

The 11th Earl of Thanet was succeeded in 1849 by his natural son Sir Richard Tufton, Bt, whose son was created Baron Hothfield in 1881.

Estates in 1883: Westmorland 17,093 acres, Yorks WR 11,953 acres, Kent 10,144 acres, Cumberland 86 acres, total 39,276 acres worth £45,937 a year.