The Harewood Archive

In March 2009 work began at West Yorkshire Archive Service cataloguing the papers of the Earls of Harewood. By Spring 2010 the archive will be made accessible online.

The collection has wide-ranging content of international significance – from the West Indian slave trade to the Indian Rebellion, from the beginnings of Florence Nightingale’s nursing career in London to the Crimea, from diplomatic relations across war-torn nineteenth century Europe, Russia, Turkey, the U.S.A. and South America to the misery of tenants’ lives on the Irish estates of the notorious absentee landlord the Marquis of Clanricarde.

As MPs in the Yorkshire constituencies, and through appointments as JPs, Deputy Lieutenants and to the West Riding Militia, successive members of the family maintained widespread influence across the county. There are papers concerning the Yorkshire Chartist disturbances and Poor Law riots in Huddersfield and Dewsbury. An extensive series of stewards’ correspondence and accounts recounts daily life on the Harewood estates, beginning in 1754 and continuing into the twentieth century.

The building of Harewood House itself, financed from the proceeds of the family’s sugar estates, is richly illustrated in architectural drawings by Robert Adam, John Carr, John Muschamp and Sir Charles Barry, its furnishings documented by the accounts submitted by Thomas Chippendale.

Work on the collection has been made possible thanks to an award from the National Cataloguing Grants Fund.

To keep up to date with work as it progresses, and see some of the highlights of the archive, visit our blog.

For enquiries about the collection please contact leeds@wyjs.org.uk