The Portland Archive
Mike Curtis explroes an important collection of papers from the Cavendish-Bentinck family, Dukes of Portland.
Earlier this year the Minister for the Arts, Richard Luce, announced that the Portland Archive had been accepted for the nation in lieu of capital transfer tax. Over the centuries the Cavendish-Bentinck family, Dukes of Portland, and their predecessors have accumulated a very large and important collection of legal, estate, personal and literary papers, ranging from twelfth-century charters to the papers of a Governor-General of India, a poet and two Prime Ministers.
The collection as a whole is one of the most important to have been acquired for the nation since 1973 under the in-lieu arrangements, the closest parallel being with the Blenheim Papers that were accepted in 1977. The Portland Archive, however, is larger and more diverse in character. Its acceptance has been possible under new financial arrangements announced by Lord Gowrie, Mr Luce's predecessor, in July 1985, enabling supplementary funds to be taken from the Public Expenditure Reserve.
The collection as a whole is one of the most important to have been acquired for the nation since 1973 under the in-lieu arrangements, the closest parallel being with the Blenheim Papers that were accepted in 1977. The Portland Archive, however, is larger and more diverse in character. Its acceptance has been possible under new financial arrangements announced by Lord Gowrie, Mr Luce's predecessor, in July 1985, enabling supplementary funds to be taken from the Public Expenditure Reserve.
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