Henry, Earl of Grantham, outlived his brother, William Maurice, whose fortune
he inherited and died in his 92nd year on 5 December, 1754, much respected for
his goodness of character and generosity of heart and purse. Having no living
son, Henry's titles became extinct and his fortune was left to his grandson, George
Nassau Clavering Cowper, Viscount Fordwich, heir to the 2nd Earl Cowper, with
adequate provision for the surviving daughter, Frances Elliot, on whose death in
1772 Nassau Cowper, as he preferred to call himself no doubt in fond and happy
memory of his maternal grandfather, became sole heir to the fortunes of the two
Nassau D'Auverquerque brothers, Henry and William Maurice and it is without
doubt for this reason that the Nassau D'Auverquerque papers came to be in an
English archive repository amongst the archives of the Cowper family and their
Herfordshire estates, now deposited in the County Record Office at Hertford.
Nassau Cowper spent virtually all his adult life in Florence settling there per
manently in 1759, thanks very largely to his grandfather's fortune, which gave
him a considerable annual income independent of his landed estates in Hert
fordshire, which themselves would not have supported his open-handed style of
living and his patronage of the arts and of learning. He lived for next thirty
years a life almost the very model of that of an English milord abroad in his
palace in Florence. It is almost certain that the Nassau D'Auverquerque Papers
went to Florence and came back to Cole Green after Nassau Cowper's death in
1789, together with the even more extensive accumulation of papers relating to
his life in Florence so this one English family archive has sidelights to throw
not only on Dutch but Italian history. It is perhaps of some interest to note that
when Cowper was created a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1778 a title
which this aristocratic pothunter had long sought his patent of creation speci
fied that he received the litle as surviving representative of the Counts of Nassau-
Ouwerkerk.
The papers themselves begin well before Field Marshal Henry's day and may
represent either the fragment of the archive of an earlier member of the family
or may, and this seems more likely, have been inherited by Henry and William
Maurice as military commanders and civil governors of Sluys and Dutch Flanders.
The quantity is not great nor, with one exception, do the contents seem of major
importance, in all they amount to some three bundles of copies of various formal
documents dating 1560-1650 roughly including some copy documents relating to
the Dutch West India Company and to the Spanish occupation of the Low
Countries c. 1550-1580, and one volume which is entitled 'Index van alle des Lands
Resolutien gevallen te Zedent Anno 1591 tot den Jare 1647 inclusiis'. This may
have more significance than the other papers and appears to be a list of the titles
of orders and resolution by the States-General, the Council of States and provin
cial governments dealing mostly with military matters. Whether this is a selective
index for the period or whether it is complete, I have no way of knowing but I
have brought some photocopies of selected pages and anyone who can throw light
on this volume or is interested would be most welcome to see these.
The group proper begins with the papers of William Ill's companion in arms and
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kinsman, Henry Nassau D'Auverquerque. His office as Master of the Horse, a
household appointment, is naturally well documented and since it had both an
English and a Dutch connection it may not be out of place to say a few words
about the records arising from Henry's administration of the royal stables. There
are many bundles of bills and vouchers for horses, livery and supplies purchased
in England and Holland, especially during William's visits to his native land; there
are accounts between Mr. Jollivet, who as Clerk of the Stables effectively managed
affairs on a day to day basis, and Henry, and his wife, Frances, who seems to
have received the money due to Henry in his absences. There are accounts, too,
between one Wiliet, who seems to have held the same position at The Hague as
Jollivet did in London, and Henry Nassau for the period 1691/2 dealing with the
same types of transactions as Jollivets' accounts. Wiliet's accounts are naturally
in Dutch and so are some of lollivet's, although the majority are in English and
French.
The organisation and administration of the royal stables are dealt with in two
volumes, one for Charles II s reign when the ill-fated Duke of Monmouth was
Master of the Horse and the other, 1688-1704, for Henry Nassau's tenure of the
office, in which are copies of warrants, letters under the Privy Seal and orders
from the Treasury setting out the establishment of the stables, the wage rates and
payments in kind to the staff, the normal and allowable heads of expenditure and
the sums allocated together with authorisations for extraordinary expenditures
not budgeted for in the normal estimates. At intervals and normally several years
after the money had been spent and received, Henry would present his formal
accounts of ordinary and extraordinary expenditures for final accounting and
allowance at the Exchequer. A series of quietus rolls covering the period 1688-1702
also survive there is one, 1692-1700, covering extraordinary expenditures in
England, Holland and Flanders and another specifically for extraordinary expen
ses in Holland and in 'the Camp' from 1st October 1691 to 31st December 1692
with a duplicate copy; yet another, 1692-1702, dealing with extraordinary purchases
of horses for the English and Dutch stables, 1697-1700.
I come now to three volumes, two of which are entitled 'Ordinaris Staat van Oor
log', the one for 1704, the other for 1705, and the third 'Extraordinaris Staat van
Oorlog 1705'. These contain the military budgets for the two years in question
and came into Henry's hands as Field Marshal commanding the armies of the
States-General. Arranged province by province, the 'ordinary' volumes contain
the estimated annual expenditure and budget for each full calendar month
throughout the year and the monthly quotas to be levied on each province towards
the cost of the war and the upkeep of the army. Within each province in turn,
expenditure is shown under the following headings in order, detailing the names
of officers, the numbers of men in each unit and the amounts to be paid for
cavalry, infantry, dragoons (Province of Holland only), Swiss mercenaries, per
sonal pay of senior officers, muster-masters, quards and amunition officers,
engineers in charge of fortifications, military police (including executioners),
chaplains and schoolmasters, pensions for wounded and the costs of garrisons in
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