Cust family, Barons Brownlow

The Cust family was settled at Pinchbeck (Lincolnshire) in the 15th century, and acquired further Lincolnshire property by marriage and purchase. Sir Richard Cust, 2nd baronet (1680-1734), married in 1717 Anne Brownlow, sister of Sir John Brownlow, 5th baronet, who was created Viscount Tyrconnel in 1718. Through this marriage the Cust family inherited part of the estates of Sir John Brownlow, 3rd baronet (d. 1697) of Belton (Lincolnshire). Sir Brownlow Cust, 5th baronet (1744-1807), was created Baron Brownlow in 1776 in recognition of his father’s services as Speaker of the House of Commons, and his first marriage, to Jocosa Drury, brought the Arthingworth (Northamptonshire) estate into the family. The Marnham (Nottinghamshire) property had been a late 17th century Brownlow purchase. A borough interest at Clitheroe (Lancashire), purchased in 1802, was sold following the 1832 Reform Act.

John Cust (1779-1853), 2nd Baron and (from 1815) 1st Earl Brownlow, married in 1810 Sophia, daughter and co-heir of Sir Abraham Hume. This marriage brought not only Hume property in Lincolnshire (Torksey and South Kyme) but eventually under the will of her uncle the 7th Earl of Bridgewater, a considerable portion of the Egerton inheritance, comprising the Ellesmere estate in Shropshire, the Ashridge estate in Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, and properties in County Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire (see also Egerton, Earls of Ellesmere).

On the death of the 1st Earl Brownlow the Cust estates were divided, part of the Lincolnshire estates, together with the Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire properties, passing to his younger son. On the death of the 3rd Earl in 1921 his estates passed to a cousin, Adelbert Salusbury Cust, formerly of Cockayne Hatley, a Bedfordshire estate inherited in the mid 18th century and subsequently used to provide for younger sons.

Estates in 1883: Brownlow: 20,233 acres in Shropshire; 11,652 acres in Lincolnshire; 11,785 acres in Buckinghamshire; 8,551 acres in Hertfordshire; 2,968 acres in Bedfordshire; 1,689 acres in North Riding of Yorkshire; 920 acres in Co. Durham; 536 acres in Berwickshire; 1 acre in Flintshire; worth a total of £86,426 a year. E.R.C. Cust: 14,868 acres in Lincolnshire; 1,993 acres in Nottinghamshire; 226 acres in Northamptonshire; 33 acres in Lancashire; 2 acres in Rutland; worth a total of £25,696 a year. H.F.C. Cust of Cockayne Hatley: 1,410 acres in Bedfordshire, worth £1,564 a year.