The Brabourne (Knatchbull-Hugessen) Archive

A vast archive of one of Kents great dynasties, providing a unique resource for researchers on a wide range of subjects from political and social to local history. There are thousands of documents, filling over 30 linear metres of shelving, containing extensive family correspondence, estate records, land deeds, rentals, bills and receipts, accounts, surveys, letters patent, genealogical papers, notebooks, diaries, and photographs. Highlights include five autograph letters from Jane Austen to her niece, Fanny Knight, wife of Sir Edward Knatchbull; an important collection of letters and botanical manuscripts by and relating to, Sir Joseph Banks, who married Dorothea Hugessen in 1779, and material relating to Lord Brabournes time as Viceroy of India in the 1930s. Illustrated at p.45 of AR