The Yorke Family, Yorke family Earls of Hardwicke, and Bambridge family of Wimpole Hall
Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, bought Wimpole Hall in 1739 from Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford. The estate remained in the Yorke family until its sale, firstly to T.G. Agar-Robartes in 1891, and then to Captain George Bambridge in 1930, from whose widow it passed into the hands of the National Trust in 1976.
The Wimpole Hall collection (154/[R52/12]) comprises manorial records from 1400, with deeds and estate papers from the 16th to 19th centuries. An itemised list is available in the R52 searchroom catalogue.
Some further estate records and Yorke family papers from 1723 onwards have been received through the National Trust (R92/41, R93/62 and later small accessions), including a 1638 survey of the Wimpole estate (R77/1) and 19th and 20th century deeds (R103/044), these last not yet having been described.
Related papers at Cambridgeshire Archives also include: an estate book of the 4th Earl of Hardwicke (R99/14), 1834-1873; some late 18th century correspondence and papers formerly in possession of G.J. Yorke (408/); and two small bundles of letters (R53/8/1-2) of the 3rd Earl, 1824-1832, for which a list is available in the R53/ searchroom catalogue.
Cambridgeshire Archives holds only a very small proportion of the surviving papers of the Yorke family, the greatest collection of these being the Hardwicke Manuscripts at the British Library (Add. 35349-36278, Add. 45030-45047).
Listed records in this collection can be searched online on the Archives Catalogue in the left-hand menu.