Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos

1670–1735

Introduction

Cassandra Brydges, Duchess of Chandos (née Willoughby) was a highly literate aristocrat who has left behind a quantity of writings — journals, notebooks, and other material — none of it published in her own time. Her principal literary activity was devoted to researching the history of the Willoughby family, of Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire. This was written up, though left unfinished, in two volumes, which became separated for many years but were finally reunited in 1956 (*WiC 7-8).

She also had an extended correspondence with her family and social circle, and several hundred letters by her, as well as a number of letters to her, survive either in the originals or in copies she made in her principal surviving letterbook (*WiC 11).

The entries in CELM record the principal known manuscript volumes or collections of Cassandra Willoughby's writings. Other family papers, some possibly relating to her or her researches, are in public repositories, including notably the Wollaton Collection at the University of Nottingham and the Stowe Temple Brydges Collection in the Huntington Library.

Abbreviations

O'Day
Cassandra Brydges, Duchess of Chandos, 1670-1735: Life and Letters, ed. Rosemary O'Day (Woodbridge, 2007).

Verse

Being in a Melancholy Mood, upon Satisfaction ('Thou empty sound that long hast tir'd my Brain')

Poem of nine lines. Unpublished?

*WiC 1 1706
Autograph

Autograph copy, on one side of a single quarto leaf, the poem dated at the head Wollaton May ye 7th - 1706, and signed Cass: Willoughby.

Unbound miscellaneous papers of Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos, with a few relating to her written after her death, 20 items (48 pages) in all, on quarto, octavo and folio leaves or bifolia.

End of 17th-early 18th century

Among the Stowe Papers of the Brydges and related families, brought together at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks N through Z (STB Box 2 (2) [no item number])
Verses of the late dutchess of Chandos making upon the recovering of the small pox on reflecting how sensless she had been in that Distemper ('Like Lucifer with swelling pride I grew')

59 lines. Unpublished?

WiC 2 After 1735

Copy in an unidentified hand, on two conjugate quarto leaves, the poem subscribed Cass: Willoughby.

Unbound miscellaneous papers of Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos, with a few relating to her written after her death, 20 items (48 pages) in all, on quarto, octavo and folio leaves or bifolia.

End of 17th-early 18th century

Among the Stowe Papers of the Brydges and related families, brought together at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks N through Z (STB Box 2 (2) [no item number])

Prose

Family History

Cassandra Willoughby's An Account of the Willughby's of Wollaton, in two volumes, unfinished and unpublished in full. The greater part of Vol. I edited in HMC, Lord Middleton, Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire (1911), pp. 504-608. Volume II edited as The Continuation of the History of the Willoughby Family by Cassandra Duchess of Chandos, ed. A.C. Wood (Eton, Windsor, 1958).

WiC 3

An abridged history of the Willoughby family, based on of Cassandra Willoughby's genealogical work, in a neat cursive hand, followed (ff. 32v-43r) by tipped-in folded genealogies in another hand, 43 folio leaves, originally in contemporary vellum, now all mounted in a guardbook.

c.1766

Bookplate of Augusta Anna Brydges (daughter of Henry, second Duke of Chandos), dated 1766.

*WiC 4
Autograph

Autograph quarto booklet, written from both ends, on 18 leaves (plus a tipped-in leaf), in paper wrappers, containing: Copies of Letters from Thomas Ridgeway Earl of London=Derry & Cicilia his Lady To Sr Percivall Willoughby & his Lady concerning ye Match between my Grand=father & Grandmother. An: D 1610; a related note by Cassandra dated 6 January 1703/4; and Copies of Letters from Sr Percivall to his Lady before, & after they Married.

Unbound miscellaneous papers of Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos, five items in all.

End of 17th-early 18th century

Among the Stowe Papers of the Brydges and related families, brought together at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks N through Z (STB Box 2 (1) [unnumbered item])
*WiC 5
Autograph

A series of three autograph quarto booklets in grey paper wrappers, entitled An Account of ye Willoughby's of Wollaton taken out of ye Pedigree & old letters in my Brother Willoughbys study Decr - 1702 by Cass: Willoughby, with many deletions and revisions, covering family history from the 14th to early 17th century: the First Book on 40 leaves; the Second Book on 54 leaves; the Third Book on 46 leaves.

Unbound miscellaneous papers of Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos, five items in all.

End of 17th-early 18th century

Among the Stowe Papers of the Brydges and related families, brought together at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks N through Z (STB Box 2 (1) [three unnumbered items])
*WiC 6 Early 18th century
Autograph

Series of largely autograph papers relating, inter alia, to family history, including her copies or summaries of various family letters (from c.1564 to 1674), as well as of letters by my Father etc.; extracts from a book in French, signed and dated 1706; her copy of a 38-line poem Upon Writing -- by Mrs Finch (beginning Bless'd be ye man his Memory at least); extracts from devotional texts; and memoranda about Lady Chandos (not complaining of any pain like ye stone) and my Grandfar.

Unbound miscellaneous papers of Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos, with a few relating to her written after her death, 20 items (48 pages) in all, on quarto, octavo and folio leaves or bifolia.

End of 17th-early 18th century

Among the Stowe Papers of the Brydges and related families, brought together at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks N through Z (STB Box 2 (2) [no item numbers])
*WiC 7
Autograph

Volume I of Cassandra Willoughby's autograph family history, in her italic hand, including her copies of early family documents at Wollaton from the 12th century onwards, entitled An Account of the Willoughby's Of Wollaton taken out of the Pedigree, Old Letters & old Books of Accounts, in my Brother Sr Thomas Willoughby's Study Decr A: D: 1702 By Cass: Willoughby, ii + 198 quarto pages (plus a number of blanks), in contemporary calf.

1702

Among the papers of the Willoughby family, Barons Middleton, of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, of Middleton, Warwickshire, and of Birdsall, Yorkshire. Inscribed (inside the front cover) Miss Kearney and (p. i) H[?] Fn[?] Kearney 1785 and 43 Somerset Street. Portman Square.

Edited from this MS in HMC, Lord Middleton (1911).

*WiC 8
Autograph

Volume II of Cassandra Willoughby's autograph family history, in her italic hand, including her copies of family documents at Wollaton up to 1690, entitled The Continuation of the Account of the Willoughby's of Willoughby & Eresby in Lincolnshire And of the Willughby's of Willughby & Wollaton in Nottinghamshire Taken out of the Pedigrees, old Letters, Books of Accounts, & other Manuscripts, wch still remain in the Library at Wollaton, by Cassandra Dutches of Chandos, & Sister to the Right Honble Thomas Willoughby Lord Middleton, finished, 156 quarto pages (plus numerous blanks), in dark green morocco with the Chandos arms in gilt.

c.1730

Originally among the papers of the Willoughby family, Barons Middleton, of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, of Middleton, Warwickshire, and of Birdsall, Yorkshire, and restored to that collection in the 1920s. Bookplate of Augusta Anne Brydges 1766. Later inscribed (on a flyleaf) Willoughby Gardner. Item 3 in an unidentified sale catalogue, November 1922. A tipped-in letter by D. Webster, rare book dealer of Tunbridge Wells, to Willoughby Gardner, 9 March 1926, saying that this MS, which Gardner had purchased from Webster in Leeds, came from the Stowe Library: i.e. that of Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (1776-1839), first Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, of Stowe House, near Buckingham. Donated in 1956 by Mrs Isabel Gardner.

Edited from this MS by Wood.

*WiC 9
Autograph

Autograph copies by Cassandra Willoughby of accounts of the Willoughby family of Wollaton, dated 1513, 1553, 1587, and 1597.

Notebook, written from both ends, comprising eighteen octavo leaves of writing, a portion of another leaf, stubs of at least eight excised leaves of writing, and 29 blanks, in contemporary brown calf.

A series of financial accounts, principally compiled by Lettice Wendy, many since my Deare Husband Dyed, dating from 1673 to 1692; also with a loosely inserted one-page quarto letter to her worthy cosen signed signed by Lettice Ottley, from Pitchford, 20 December 1658.

c.1673-92

In the Gloucestershire Papers among the papers of the Leigh family, Barons Leigh, of Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, and Adlestrop and Longborough, Gloucestershire.

Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Record Office (DR 18/20/21/3 ff. [8v-12r])
Travel journal
*WiC 10
Autograph

Autograph travel journal, on 46 small quarto leaves, chiefly on rectos, with occasional brief memoranda on versos, in grey wrappers.

In Cassandra Willoughby's legible cursive hand throughout, entitled An Account of ye Journeys I have taken & where I have been since March 1695, recording details of her travels in England from 11 March 1695 to 29 April 1718, including numerous towns and country houses in Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Berkshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, and London.

In the Gloucestershire Papers among papers of the Leigh family, Barons Leigh, of Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, and Adlestrop and Longborough, Gloucestershire.

This MS edited in Elizabeth Hagglund, An Account of the Journeys I have Taken & where I have been since March 1695: The Travel Journal of Cassandra Willoughby, A Critical Edition (MA dissertation, University of Birmingham, 1996). Facsimile examples in Joan Johnson, Excellent Cassandra: The Life and Times of the Duchess of Chandos (Gloucester, 1980), pp. 50-1, 54.

Letters and Letterbooks

Letter(s)
*WiC 11
Autograph

Letterbook, autograph but for entries in another hand on pp. 242-4, comprising Cassandra's copies or abstracts of some 439 outgoing letters by her to various correspondents in her family and social circle from 3 August 1713 to 14 July 1735, 262 folio pages (and a few tipped-in leaves with copies of two letters by her and three to her added in a later hand, plus 57 blank pages), erratically paginated, in 18th-century calf, with the Chandos arms.

1713-35

Donated in 1936 by Winifred Myers, bookseller.

Edited from this MS in O'Day, pp. 69-327. A complete set of photostats of this volume, together with a 160-page typescript index with related genealogical notes made by Sir Ross Barker and given by him to Charles Collin Baker in 1945, is in the Huntington, STB Box 2 (3).

*WiC 12
Autograph

Autograph small quarto notebook cum letterbook, in Cassandra Willoughby's legible, cursive hand throughout, written from both ends, 50 leaves (including 26 blanks), in grey wrappers.

Including (ff. [1r-17v rev.]) her copies of fifteen letters by Cassandra Willoughby to her brother, Richard Child, Lady Child, Mrs Brabazon, Mrs Bullock, Mrs North, the Marchioness of Worcester, and two unnamed correspondents, six of the letters bearing dates from 1 January 1694 to May 1706; (ff. [2r, 3r]) her Reflection why all people fear Death, dated at Wollaton Au: ye- 18th- 1700; and (ff. [4r, 5r, 6r, 7r]) Why Children are not free & easie in ye Company of those they are subject to, as well as wth their equalls in youth, or servants.

c.1694-1701

In the Gloucestershire Papers among the papers of the Leigh family, Barons Leigh, of Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire, and Adlestrop and Longborough, Gloucestershire.

Edited in O'Day, pp. 331-41. Facsimiles of two letters dated 1696 and 1698 in Joan Johnson, Excellent Cassandra: The Life and Times of the Duchess of Chandos (Gloucester, 1980), p. 10.

WiC 13

Collection of 44 unbound letters written to Cassandra by various correspondents, 94 pages (chiefly quarto, on single leaves or bifolia).

Her correspondents including Ema Chamblayne (nee Brydges) (5), Lettice Cornwallis (24), Elizabeth Dawson (nee Brydges) (5), Anne Hoskyns Abrahall (nee Leigh), Mary Hutchinson (nee Scurfield), M. Jeffreys, Cassandra Molyneaux (nee Cornwallis), Katherine Bourchier Perrot (nee Brydges), Emma Cornwallis Robinson (nee Charlton) (6); the letters dating from 24 May 1726 to 6 January 1730[/1?].

1726-30

Among the Stowe Papers of the Brydges and related families, brought together at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

*WiC 14
Autograph

Two items.

One a fragment of an anonymous letter sent to Emma Robinson [7 June 1726] and sent on to Cassandra [8 June 1726], on an oblong 8vo strip of paper; the other an autograph letter by Cassandra, to Sr., on one side of a single quarto leaf, 28 May 1725.

1725-6

Among the Stowe Papers of the Brydges and related families, brought together at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

Miscellaneous

Drawing
*WiC 15
Autograph

A pencil drawing of a stately house, on a sheet of paper.

Endorsed in ink A drawing of Thoarsby by Cass: Willoughby.

Early 18th century

Among the Stowe Papers of the Brydges and related families, brought together at Stowe House, Buckinghamshire.

Facsimile of this drawing in O'Day, p. 342.

Contents