Tatton of Wythenshawe Muniments

Collection of medieval charters, deeds, estate papers and correspondence of the Tatton family of Wythenshawe, Cheshire. Documents relate chiefly to lands in Cheshire, particularly to Wythenshawe, Northenden, Northen Etchells, Stockport Etchells and Macclesfield, with smaller numbers concerning Aldford, Altrincham, Bowdon, Bredbury, Godley, Great Warford, Hale, Kenworthy, Knutsford, Pownall Fee, Romiley and Werneth, and a handful bearing on properties in Derbyshire, Flintshire, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire. In addition there are 17th-century letters and personal papers of the Tatton family, which includes invaluable material relating to the Civil War in Cheshire.

<p>The Library also has custody of part of the Egerton of Tatton muniments (EGT).</p>

The archive was donated by R.H.G.Tatton in 1953; he had originally deposited the material at the Library in 1925. Subsequent accessions were made in 1960 and 1962.

(Note: Nos. 1499-1500 were deposited by Col. R.H.G. Tatton personally on 28th February 1949)

The Tattons are one of the oldest families in Cheshire, and their estates have the distinction of being one of the very few in the extensive Hundred of Macclesfield which remained in the same family from as early as the fourteenth century to the present century. Wythenshawe itself was granted to Robert de Tatton in 1370 following his marriage to Alice, daughter and heiress of William de Massey. The Tattons held property in Wythenshawe, Northenden, Etchells, Macclesfield, as well as Altrincham, High Legh, Knutsford, Bowdon, Bredbury and Romiley. Robert Tatton (1606-1669) was a staunch royalist during the Civil War, who sustained a siege against parliamentary forces. The family were related to another important gentry family in the area, the Egertons, following the marriage of William Tatton (1703-1776) to Hester Egerton, daughter of John Egerton of Tatton in 1747 (she was his second wife). Their son, William (1749-1806), assumed the surname and arms of Egerton of Tatton. He was four times married, and succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Wilbraham Egerton (1781-1856), who took possession of the Egerton estates, while the Wythenshawe property passed to his second son, Thomas William Egerton (1783-1827). On succeeding to this estate, Thomas assumed the surname Tatton. Thomas Egerton Tatton was married to Emma, daughter of the Hon. John Grey, the third son of the 4th Earl of Stamford, of Dunham Massey. Their great-grandson, Robert Henry Grenville Tatton (b.1883) sold Wythenshawe Hall to Manchester Corporation in 1927.