Pelham-Clinton-Hope family, Dukes of Newcastle

Sir William Holles, Lord Mayor of London 1539-40, bought property in Middlesex (London, St Clement Danes) from c.1532, and purchased Haughton (Nottinghamshire) in 1541. These estates were extended particularly by John Holles of Haughton (1564-1637), who was created Earl of Clare in 1624. The family also acquired estates in Lincolnshire (Irby-on-Humber, etc), but these were later sold. Denzil Holles, younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Clare, acquired the Ifield (Sussex) estate, and was created Baron Holles of Ifield in 1661: his lands were inherited by the 4th Earl of Clare in 1694.

John Holles, 4th Earl (1662-1711), married in 1690 Margaret Cavendish, daughter and co-heir of the 2nd Duke of Newcastle, who died in 1691 (see Cavendish-Bentinck, Dukes of Portland). He was himself created Duke of Newcastle in 1694. At his death most of the Cavendish (Newcastle) estates passed to his daughter, but the Holles estates, together with the Cavendish properties of Nottingham Castle and Clumber Park (Nottinghamshire), passed to his nephew Thomas Pelham (later Pelham-Holles), 2nd Baron Pelham of Laughton (see Pelham, Earls of Chichester), who was created Duke of Newcastle in 1715.

This Duke of Newcastle, the well-known statesman, held both the Pelham estates in Sussex and the Holles estates, and also acquired Claremont in Surrey. Outlying Holles estates, however, in Derbyshire, Dorset, Hertfordshire, Kent and Wiltshire were sold to meet debts, and he made over estates in both Nottinghamshire and Sussex to his brother Henry Pelham (d. 1754, First Lord of the Treasury 1743-54). The Duke reacquired the Nottinghamshire properties in 1761, but Henry Pelham's other estates (lands in Sussex and the Esher Place estate in Surrey which he had purchased in 1729) were left to his daughters and co-heirs and dispersed by sale (see also below).

On the death of the Duke of Newcastle in 1768 Claremont was sold, and the remaining Sussex estates passed to his cousin and heir male Thomas Pelham of Stanmer (Sussex) (see Pelham, Earls of Chichester), but the Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Middlesex (Holles) estates passed to his nephew Henry Clinton, 9th Earl of Lincoln (1720-94), who also succeeded under a special remainder as 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne.

The old Lincolnshire estates of the Clinton Earls of Lincoln had been alienated following the death of the 4th Earl in 1692 (see Fortescue, Earls Fortescue), but the 9th Earl had succeeded in 1730 to other Lincolnshire estates (Baumber, Brinkhill, etc) acquired by his family since 1700, together with property in the Bedford Level (Whittlesey (Cambridgeshire), etc) and Surrey (Oatlands in Weybridge). In 1744 he married Catherine, elder daughter and co-heir of Henry Pelham (d. 1754) (see above), through whom he inherited a share of Pelham’s Sussex estates (sold, however, between 1767 and 1772) and most of his personal papers. The Bedford Level estates were sold before 1768, the Lincolnshire estates between c.1776 and 1789, and Oatlands (to the Duke of York) in 1788-9, but after his succession to the Newcastle estates the 2nd Duke extended the Nottinghamshire properties, making Clumber Park his principal seat, and also added to the Aldborough and Boroughbridge estate in the West Riding of Yorkshire, first acquired in the early 18th century. Between 1794 and 1806 the trustees for the 4th Duke, a minor, continued the expansion of the Nottinghamshire estates but disposed of the Clare Market (Middlesex) property.

The 4th Duke (1785-1851) married in 1807 Georgiana Miller Mundy, heir to further Nottinghamshire property (West Leake, etc). The Worksop Manor estate was purchased from the Duke of Norfolk in 1839 (see Fitzalan-Howard, Dukes of Norfolk), but largely re-sold in 1890. The Yorkshire estates were mostly sold in the 1830s. Hafod (Cardiganshire) was acquired in 1835 but sold (apart from its celebrated library) ten years later. In 1861 the 6th Duke (1834-79) married Henrietta, daughter of Thomas Hope of Deepdene (Surrey) and heir to estates in Surrey, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and County Monaghan (Castleblayney). These descended to a younger son, Lord Francis Pelham-Clinton, who took the additional name of Hope on coming of age in 1887 and eventually succeeded his brother as 8th Duke in 1928. (The Gloucestershire properties were sold in 1911.) Clumber was given up shortly before the Second World War. In the 1950s the 9th Duke settled in Wiltshire, acquiring the former Fane estate of Boyton, but papers relating to that and other properties in the south of England acquired after 1945 are not dealt with in this entry.

Estates in 1883: Duke of Newcastle: Notts 34,467 acres, Derbys 827 acres, Yorks WR 237 acres, Lincs 16 acres, total 35,547 acres worth £74,547 a year; Mrs Hope of Deepdene: Surrey 3,931 acres, Gloucs 4,893 acres, Warwicks 1,249 acres, Co Monaghan 11,700 acres, total 21,773 acres worth £22,138 a year.