University Archives
Hotham family, of Scorborough and South Dalton
The first known ancestor of the Hotham family was William de Hotham (c.1100-1166). The family resided at Scorborough until the house burned down in 1705. They moved to South Dalton where the present house was built 1771-6. Estate papers begin in 1311 and personal papers begin with those of Sir John Hotham (1589-1645) and his son, also John Hotham (1610-1645). Sir John Hotham was the son of John Hotham, High Sheriff of Yorkshire. He served in the Thirty Years War and sat as MP for Beverley during the reign of Charles I. He was knighted in 1617 and became the 1st baronet on 14 January 1622. On 11 January 1642 Charles I appointed the Earl of Newcastle as Governor of Hull and Parliament appointed Sir John Hotham who believed he held the town in the 'king's authority signified by the Lords and Commons in Parliament'. This became a problem when the King demanded entry to Hull on 23 April 1642. Sir John Hotham refused him entry on the grounds that it would betray his commission to keep the town secure. He was declared a traitor. Letters to the Earl of Newcastle from Sir John Hotham and his son that are in the collection contain evidence of their ambiguous loyalties and their return to the king's fold in early 1643.
The Hotham papers also contain three copies of John Hotham's defence at his ensuing trial and the defence preparations of his younger son and lawyer Durand Hotham (DDHO/1). Sir John Hotham and his eldest son were executed on consecutive days at the beginning of January 1645. In addition to the trial material there is seventeenth-century printed material comprising political pamphlets and broadsides of the Civil War and Commonwealth period. Material from the early 1640s is about events in Hull, the legality of taking up arms and the Irish rebellion and pamphlets from the late 1640s and early 1650s include Leveller tracts and material relating to the Army and Regicide, the Engagement controversy and criticism of the Cromwellian regime. A comprehensive set of ordinances of the Long Parliament and Interregnum Parliaments survives for the late 1640s and 1650s (DDHO/2; List available). John Hotham, 2nd baronet (1632-1689) was MP for Beverley in 1678 and became embroiled in the Exclusion Crisis. He went into exile in 1684 and returned with William of Orange on 5 November 1688. He left much of the management of the family and estates to Lady Elizabeth Hotham née Beaumont (1633-1697) who continued in this role until her own death after disinheriting her son whose marriage failed. The estates and title reverted to a cousin, Charles Hotham (1663-1723), who became 4th baronet. He was colonel of the Royal Regiment of Dragoons. His second son, Charles Hotham (1693-1738), was colonel of the Horse Grenadier Guards. He was a friend of George II who made him Groom of the Bedchamber and in 1729 sent him as a special envoy to Berlin. Papers about his embassy survive. He was succeeded by another Charles Hotham (1736-1767); no personal papers survive from this generation and the title passed back a generation to Beaumont Hotham (1698-1771), and then his eldest son, Charles Hotham (1729-1794). He left a vast collection of circa 3000 letters beginning with examples from his father, mother and brothers while he was at school in Westminster. Charles Hotham's became an ensign in 1746 and, later, aide-de-camp of Lord Albemarle and then Sir John Ligonier. He was promoted to adjutant general with the rank of lieutenant colonel and he went with the expedition to St Malo to join Prince Ferdinand, remaining in Germany until the Peace of Paris. His correspondence and war diaries are an invaluable source for study of the Seven Years War and include the order of the day for the Battle of Minden in 1759 and correspondence to and from Lord Sackville and Lord Granby. After his return home in 1763, Charles Hotham paid court to George III, becoming Groom of the Bedchamber, and continued to be involved in military affairs. After 1772 he turned his attention to completing the family house at South Dalton and in his interest in the theatre. The papers include letters to him from Philip Kemble, Sarah Siddons and Eliza Faren. When he died the title passed to his younger brother, John Hotham (1733-1795), who was Bishop of Clogher, then Charles Hotham (1766-1811), William Hotham (1736-1813), who had served in the Navy in North America, the West Indies and in the Mediterranean and been awarded with an Irish peerage. His papers contain 23 letters from Lord Howe 1776-1780. He died without issue and the Hotham estates passed to the elderly Beaumont Hotham (1737-1815) and then his grandson, Beaumont Hotham (1794-1870), who was briefly in the Coldstream Guards before devoting his life to his parliamentary career and his Yorkshire estates. There are large numbers of nineteenth-century estate papers surviving. Other nineteenth-century papers of significance are those of Admiral Henry Hotham (1777-1833) and his wife, Frances Hotham née Rous (d.1859), and those of Sir Charles Hotham (1806-1855). Henry Hotham was captain of the fleet on the American station from 1813-14 and his papers include 29 letters of Sir Alexander Cochrane who left him in command of the blockade of the coast from Nantucket to Delaware. There are another circa 350 letters of naval orders, instructions and reports. In 1815 he was posted to the Mediterranean and his papers include instructions and correspondence about Napoleon Bonaparte's surrender to the Bellerephon, a ship in Henry Hotham's command. Papers of Frances Hotham include scrapbooks and correspondence and papers of their children and grandchildren include a letter from W E Gladstone and letters sent from Africa during the Zulu Wars and from New Zealand. The papers of Sir Charles Hotham (1806-1855) throw light on his naval career in South America and his brief time spent as Governor of the Australian colony of Victoria.
The papers of the Hotham family have arrived in several deposits and number some 25,000 items. The initial deposit contains the diaries and correspondence of members of the family before the twentieth century, as well as a vast number of estate papers including rentals, marriage settlements and wills, especially for Scorborough and South Dalton. The papers of the Thompson family of Humbleton are also in this initial deposit. Papers for other counties include some for Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire and Middlesex. Later deposits of papers are dominated by estate papers for South Dalton from the nineteenth century onward. [DDHO; DDHO(2); DDHO(3); DDHO(4); DDHO(5); DP/18-22]
An itemised catalogue of the correspondence of Sir Charles Hotham (1729-1794) is available in the Archives Reading Room.