Walter Family Papers

Manorial documents, deeds, family and estate records of the Walter family and their estates at Bear Wood, Wokingham, surrounding areas in south-east Berkshire, and adjacent districts in north-east Hants,

While these Walter archives contain comparatively little of a personal, family, or business nature, they do form an unusually complete picture of the formation and dispersal of a great 19th century landed estate.

<span class="wrapper"><p>Other records relating to the business of the firm, Messrs. Cooke, Cooper and Barry and the activities of its members as agents for the Walters in various capacities are catalogued under the mark D/ECb as archives of a firm of solicitors and not of a landed family. Some cross-reference to this other collection is necessary.</p> <p>Because of the scattered location of many documents in the offices of Messrs.Cooke, Cooper and Barry, it is possible that some documents catalogued under that collection may more rightly belong in this collection, but every effort has been made to assign Walter archives to their proper collection.</p> <p>Naturally the division cannot be applied in a clear-cut fashion and some anomalies may occur. This is particularly true of the political activities of John Walter II (d.1847), M.P. for Berkshire and Nottingham, since the records bearing upon his election campaigns belong not to the Walter archives but to the personal papers of his election agent, Francis Soames (founder of the firm of Cooke, Cooper and Barry).</p> <p>For papers on Bear Wood House and grounds see also D/EWal.</p></span>

The accumulation received from Messrs. Cooke, Cooper and Barry comprised the bulk of the muniments of title and estate papers of the Walter estate at Bearwood, the firm having acted as solicitor and agent for successive members of the family. For this reason, all those documents relating to the estate, its building up and eventual sale, have been treated as a unit and are catalogued here under D/EWl.

The careers of John Walter I, II and III, proprietors of The Times, who died in 1812, 1847 and 1894 respectively, are set out fully in the Dictionary of National Biography. John Walter II first began to build up the Bear Wood estate about the year 1817, and he and his son spent over £370,000 on land between 1840 and 1888. From about 1880 onwards there was a tendency to sell rather than to buy but the vast estate which had been created remained virtually intact until after the death of Arthur Frazer Walter (son of John Walter III) in 1910; then practically the whole estate was put on the market, in lots, in successive stages.