Cavendish family, Dukes of Devonshire

The Cavendish family became established in Derbyshire as a result of the marriage of Sir William Cavendish (d. 1557) to Elizabeth Barlow, heiress of Hardwick and later Countess of Shrewsbury. Chatsworth (purchased in 1549) and other estates were added to the Barlow and Hardwick properties, and these eventually all passed to William Cavendish, created Earl of Devonshire in 1618. He married as his first wife Anne Keighley of Keighley (Yorkshire, West Riding), and at his death in 1626 owned large estates in both Derbyshire and Yorkshire, together with properties in several other counties.

Over the next two hundred years the Yorkshire property was reduced, but the Derbyshire estates were consolidated, and Chatsworth House was rebuilt by the 4th Earl (created 1st Duke of Devonshire in 1694) between 1686 and 1707. The 4th Duke married in 1748 Charlotte, suo jure Baroness Clifford and heir of her father, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. Through her came not only the major part of the extensive Irish estates of the Boyle family, Earls of Cork and later of Burlington, but also the Craven (Bolton Abbey) and Londesborough estates in Yorkshire (West and East Ridings), inherited from the Clifford Earls of Cumberland, and property in Derbyshire and elsewhere inherited from the Saville family, Marquesses of Halifax. (Other Clifford and Saville estates, however, descended to the Tufton family, Earls of Thanet, and later Barons Hothfield). The Londesborough estate was sold by the 6th Duke in 1845.

Lord George Augustus Henry Cavendish, second surviving son of the 4th Duke, married in 1782 Lady Elizabeth Compton, daughter and heir of the 7th Earl of Northampton, and through her inherited estates in Sussex (including Compton Place near Eastbourne) and Somerset. Some outlying Cavendish properties, including Latimer (Buckinghamshire) and Keighley were settled on him, and he also inherited the Holker (Lancashire) estate from his uncle Lord George Augustus Cavendish, to whom it had passed from the Lowther baronets of Marske. Lord G.A.H. Cavendish was created Earl of Burlington in 1831 and died in 1834. His grandson, the 2nd Earl, succeeded his cousin as 7th Duke of Devonshire in 1858, bring back various properties into the main line of the Cavendish family, but Latimer and other estates were settled on the Hon. Charles Compton Cavendish, youngest son of the 1st Earl of Burlington, who in 1858 was created Baron Chesham. The Holker estate later passed to Lord Richard Cavendish, younger brother of the 9th Duke.

Estates in 1883: 89,462 acres in Derbyshire; 19,239 acres in Yorkshire (West Riding); 12,681 acres in Lancashire; 11,062 acres in Sussex; 3,014 acres in Somerset; 1,392 acres in Lincolnshire; 983 acres in Cumberland; 524 acres in Middlesex; 125 acres in Nottinghamshire; 28 acres in Cheshire; 26 acres in Staffordshire; 32,550 acres in Co. Cork; 27,483 acres in Co. Waterford and 3 acres in Co. Tipperary; worth a total of £180,750 a year.