Add MS 75301-75350

Early Spencer Papers.

Althorp Papers. Vols. i-l. Official, private, estate and household papers of Sir John Spencer I, of Wormleighton, co. Warw. and Althorp, co. Northant. (d.1522), and his descendants, chiefly Sir John Spencer II (d.1586), Sir John Spencer III (d.1599), Robert, 1^st Baron Spencer, and William, 2^nd Baron Spencer; 1329-1717, n.d. Including a few papers of Henry Spencer, 1^st Earl of Sunderland, son of William, 2^nd Baron Spencer, Robert Spencer, 2^nd Earl of Sunderland, and Charles, 3^rd Earl of Sunderland. For a detailed pedigree of the early Spencers, see George Baker, The History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton (1822-1830), I, pp.109-110. For an account of their acquisition and management of their estates in Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, based in part on these papers, see Mary E. Finch, The Wealth of Five Northamptonshire Families, Northamptonshire Record Society, XIX (1947), pp.38-65, 171-178. A group of related material, once part of these papers, is now Add. MSS.25079-25085. The main archives of the 2^nd and 3^rd Earls of Sunderland form part of the Blenheim Papers(Add. MSS. 61486-61490, 61491-61665). The remainder of the Spencer estate papers are held by the Northamptonshire Record office.

Fifty volumes.