University Archives
Langdale family, of Holme-on-Spalding-Moor and Houghton
The Langdales have lived in the area to the west of Beverley in the East Riding since at least the fourteenth century when Patrick de Langdale married Elena Houghton and inherited through her estates in Houghton and Etton. The estates at Houghton passed down through the senior branch of the Langdale family that started with Anthony Langdale until failure of succession forced their transfer laterally to Peter Langdale (d.1617) and his son Marmaduke Langdale (1598-1661) who held land at Holme on Spalding Moor. Marmaduke Langdale, a Catholic, was knighted by Charles I in 1628 and became a devoted royalist during the civil wars, fighting at Marston Moor and Naseby. He spent the 1650s abroad and in contact with the exiled Charles II and was made Lord Langdale in 1658. Copies of letters between him and Edward Hyde during this period are in the collection, as are extracts from his journals and papers which throw light on negotiations with the Scots in the late 1640s. His son became governor of Hull. The family continued to be recusants through the eighteenth century and after Houghton Hall was built in 1765 a mission was established for a Catholic priest. When Marmaduke, 5th Lord Langdale, died in 1778, the title became extinct and Houghton Hall descended to the senior male of the Langdale family and then his descendants through his daughter's marriage to Charles Philip, 17th Lord Stourton (1752-1815). Mary became sole heir and Houghton Hall passed to her third son, Charles Stourton (1787-1868), who changed his name to Langdale and built a Catholic chapel on the Houghton estates. His descendants inherited the Houghton estates and in 1926 the Houghton Estate Company was formed to continue their management. Charles (Stourton) Langdale's younger brother, Philip Henry Joseph Stourton (1793-1860) succeeded to Holme Hall and was a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for the East Riding of Yorkshire. In 1846 he built St William's College for training Catholic schoolmasters. The house and lands at Holme on Spalding Moor passed down through this junior line of the family. Philip Henry Joseph Stourton died in 1860 when he was succeeded by his son, Henry Joseph Stourton (b.1844). His daughter, Amy Mary Josephine (Stourton) Harford (b.1874) sold the estates in the 1920s and Holme Hall became a convent and then the Sue Ryder Home. The Langdale family papers have arrived in two deposits from the two branches of the family and embedded within them are the papers of the Irish nationalist, Henry Grattan (1746-1820), Colonel Dennis O'Kelly (1784-1830) of Irish horse-racing fame and James Scarlett (d.1798) and Eliza Virgo Scarlett (d.1821) owners of estates in Jamaica and South America (all separately-noticed). There are over 3000 items in total with estate papers for Bubwith, Holme on Spalding Moor, Molescroft and North Dalton dating back to the late medieval period. Estate papers for Houghton date from the eighteenth century. Wills include some for the Constable and Vavasour families with whom the Langdales intermarried. Nineteenth-century-correspondence is of particular interest for a study of Catholic affairs. Miscellaneous material includes two 1829 travel journals of a continental tour, an 1888 servants' wages book and a manuscript of a ghost story. [DDLA; DDHA]