The Bridgewater Library was a family library, "the oldest large family collection in England to survive intact into modern times". The library was begun by

Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, (1540 – 15 March 1617), known as 1st Baron Ellesmere from 1603 to 1616, was an English nobleman, judge and statesman from the Egerton family who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor for twenty-o ...

at Tatton Park in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's coun ...

, and added to by his son John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater.

John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater PC (30 May 1623 – 26 October 1686) was an English nobleman from the Egerton family. Life He was a son of John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater and his wife Lady Frances Stanley. His maternal grandpar ...

also added to the library, and is said to have compiled a manuscript catalogue to it. Although the third Earl of Bridgewater "made some additions to the library ... the great period of its growth were now over". Most of the library was sold by the fourth Earl of Ellesmere to Henry Huntington in 1917 and now "forms the core of the Elizabethan and early Stuart collection at the

Huntington Library The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Mar ...

References

Libraries in Cheshire Private libraries in the United Kingdom {{England-stub Defunct libraries

See also

References