Dr Lee Clatworthy

Dr Lee Clatworthy

HENRY TEMPLE, FIRST VISCOUNT PALMERSTON (1676-1757) THE MAN AND HIS HOUSEHOLD EXAMINED THORUGH THE BROADLANDS ESTATE PAPERS

This thesis examines Henry Temple (1676-1757), 1st Viscount Palmesron, via his personal papesr in the Broadlands Estate Papers on loan to the University of Southampton, UK. As the first biographical study of Henry Temple, this thesis draws together the established and the previously unexamined datae on his life researched primarily through the Broadlands Archive. Henry’s personal papers, including a set of twelve account books, provide the data he recorded over a forty-three year period between 1701-1757 (two volumes are missing). The transcribed entries relating to income and expenditure have been input into a bespoke Access® relational database to facilitate analysis.

This is a study of Henry Temple’s consumption of goods, money and services. Specific chapters focus on his houses, his household including his servants, health, medicine, travel, suppliers, clothing and mourning in the first half of the eighteenth century. The wealth of data in the archive repeatedly highlights the value of Henry Temple as a largely overlooked source. Compared to those members of the aristocracy so often quoted in historical texts about the first half of the eighteenth century, Henry Temple was a low ranking aristocrat who lived within his means, and who invested and spent wisely. This thesis contributes to histories of consumption and histories of elites as well as helping to fill a gap in the historiography of the early eighteenth century.