The Tempest family of Yorkshire and Lancashire could trace its history back to the twelfth-century founder of the priory of Bolton. Sir Piers Tempest (born 1390s), who was knighted at Agincourt, was the founder of two major landowning branches of the family. By his wife, Dorothy, the heiress of Nicholas Hebden, he had at least six children, his eldest sons being Sir John Tempest (d.1464) who was knight of Bracewell and high sheriff of Yorkshire, and Roger Tempest (died pre-1469), who married Catherine, the heiress of Piers Gillot, lord of Broughton.
The descendants of Sir John Tempest continued to live at Bracewell. His son, Sir Richard Tempest (d.1489) fought at Towton and was buried at Giggleswick church with the head of his horse beside him. His grandson fought at Flodden and is reputed to have built Bracewell House. A junior member of the family built Tong Hall which stayed in the family from at least the late sixteenth century. Sir John Tempest (d.1693) 1st baronet was born there as was his younger brother, Pierce Tempest (1653-1712), the printseller and publisher of the Strand. Future generations of Tempests born at Tong tended to have army careers.
The junior branch of the family established at Broughton is the one for whom Hull University Archives has papers. Roger and Catherine Tempest's great-grandson, also Roger, married Anne Carr and had eight children. Their eldest surviving son, Stephen Tempest, was one of the first trustees of Skipton school. By his first wife he had two sons, the eldest of whom, Henry Tempest, purchased further lands in Broughton. He married the illegitimate daughter of Sir Ingram Percy, a younger son of the earl of Northumberland, in 1544 and their son, Stephen, built the manor house at Broughton in 1597. He was knighted by James I. He managed to have a total of circa 17 children by two wives. The children of his first wife were all girls, except one boy who died young, and so Broughton descended down through the eldest surviving son of his second wife. This boy, also Stephen Tempest, forfeited the estate at Broughton after serving as captain in the army of Charles I during the civil wars. His eldest son, another Stephen, died without issue in 1670 and the Broughton estates passed to his nephew, also called Stephen.
This Stephen Tempest (b.1654) was lord of the manor for 70 years and was responsible for greatly improving the house and gardens, building lakes and bridges, before his death in 1742. He was married to Elizabeth Fermor and they had eight children. The eldest, yet another Stephen, was author of the Religio Laici and died in 1744. He and his wife Elizabeth Lawson had eight children, at least two of whom died in infancy. The Tempests, both at Broughton and Tong, were longstanding recusants and two of Stephen and Elizabeth's daughters became nuns at Ghent. Another daughter, Mary, became prioress of the same convent. Their eldest son, Stephen Walter Tempest (b.1719) married the heiress Frances Olive Meynell. They died in 1784 and 1795 respectively.
Stephen and Frances Tempest had twelve children, at least five of whom predeceased them and two of whom died around the same time as themselves. Their eldest surviving son, another Stephen (b.1756), inherited not only through his parents, but also the manor of Colby in Lincolnshire through his great grandmother and some of the Lostock estates inherited by his wife, Elizabeth Blundell, whose father's will is consequently amongst the papers in the collection. When Stephen Tempest died in 1824, his two eldest sons were already dead and Broughton Hall and Colby Hall became the property of his third son, Charles Robert Tempest (b.1794). His correspondence is at the West Yorkshire Archives Service in Leeds, where there are also some genealogical notes and papers compiled by the antiquarian, Eleanor Blanche Tempest.
Charles Robert Tempest was high sheriff of Yorkshire and was created baronet. He died in 1865 unmarried and the family property then passed down through his younger brother Henry Tempest (b.1796) whose wife Jemima was the daughter of Thomas de Trafford. The papers of the family are largely of this generation and the next. Henry and Jemima's first son, Charles Stephen, died within two days of being born in 1831. Their second son, Charles Henry Tempest, was born in 1834 and married Cecilia Elizabeth Tichborne in 1862. In 1863 his son, Henry Arthur Joseph Tempest, was born and in 1864 his daughter, Ethel Mary, was born. Only three months later, in early 1865 his wife died. His second marriage ended in divorce and the divorce papers are in the collection. His son's financial affairs seem to have been a bit shaky and the Bolton estates eventually devolved to his daughter.
Ethel Mary Tempest married Miles Stapleton, 10th Lord Beaumont of Carlton Towers, in 1892. Her fortune is said to have saved the Carlton Towers estates and brought into that family home many of its most interesting paintings. They had only one child, Mona Josephine Tempest Stapleton, before her husband was killed in a shooting accident in 1895, the same year her father died. Thus, Ethel Mary's daughter, Mona, inherited the Bolton and Carlton Towers estates when less than a year old. The papers of Ethel Mary Tempest and her daughter are at DDCA3/15-16 and they are largely composed of papers to do with financial settlements including those of the estate of Charles Henry Tempest.
Mona Josephine Tempest Stapleton also inherited her father's baronetcy, becoming the 11th Baroness Beaumont in 1896 (letters patent at DDCA2/49). In 1914 she married Bernard Edward, 3rd Lord Howard of Glossop, who was the great-grandson of the 13th duke of Norfolk, and heir presumptive to the dukedom until his death in 1972. Their eldest son, Miles Francis Stapleton Fitzalan Howard (b.1915), inherited his mother's barony of Beaumont and his father's barony of Glossop and he succeeded his cousin as 17th duke of Norfolk.
