Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos

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 below 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, San Marino.

Peter Beal