THE CAREW FAMILY OF BEDDINGTON: PAPERS CHIEFLY RELATING TO THEIR ACTIVITIES AS JUSTICES...

The bulk of this collection of papers has its origin in the activities of successive members of the Carew family as justices of the peace within the Eastern Division of the county comprising the hundreds of Brixton with Southwark, Wallington, Tandridge and part of Reigate (see piece 15).

The Carews had particular responsibility for the hundred of Wallington, in which their family seat of Beddington Manor was situated (for a brief account of the family and their extensive estates see the introduction to 281/-). Wallington hundred was linked with that of Brixton in the scheme of 1605 (piece 15) and the justices of the two hundreds were supposed to meet regularly at Croydon.

The largest group of papers relates to dealings between Court and County over purveyance - the Crown's right to levy food, fuel and transport at a price of its choosing to provide for the royal household. Following acrimonious disputes in the later years of the reign of Elizabeth I, the Queen had granted concessions to curb the excessive demands of her purveyors. Consequently the county's appointed compounders, chosen from among the JPs, would enter into an annual agreement with the Privy Council or Lord Steward's Department (the Officers of the Green Cloth, responsible for supplying the household) as to the quantities of meat, fodder and fuel owed by the county and the Crown's price for these. Once the details of this 'composition' had been settled contractors would be found to gather and deliver the supplies and a local rate levied to pay these contractors. The transportation of the royal household from palace to palace was achieved through the requisitioning of carts from local landholders, a system which was frequently abused and provoked much ill-feeling and which was reformed by James I on his accession in 1603. Despite these reforms of the system purveyance continued as a grievance well into the seventeenth century.

Further smaller groups of papers relate to the levying of men and military and naval supplies, the collection of taxation and benevolences, supervision of the administration of the poor law by the parishes and the licensing of victuallers and innkeepers under the Act of 1552 (5 & 6 Ed VI, cap.25). Piece 15 comprises a copy of a Privy Council scheme for the more efficient conduct of county government, 1605.

The volume also contains a single copy resolution of the House of Commons relating to Surrey's highways, 1714, when Nicholas Carew, later 1st Baronet, sat as MP for Haslemere, and some odd scraps concerning the family's estates and property dealings.

At the end of the volume is a group of original warrants from local justices and the lord lieutenant to the constables of the hundred and borough of Kingston from the years 1662 - 1663 (pieces 62-68). These papers form a discrete group in terms of date and place of origin and have no obvious connections with the Carews whose property and normal area of activity lay elsewhere. A related group of papers, 1662 - 1664, was acquired by the London Borough of Sutton in 1971 (ref Z/85/2/8-11).

Michael Page

DF239.1 June 1994

The papers in this volume have been numbered 1 to 68 in the order they are bound. However, in this list the entries have been grouped by subject

The Provisioning and Transportation of the Royal Household, 1593 - 1640

Organization of County Government, 1605

The Levying of Military and Naval Forces and Supplies, 16th cent - 1663

Rating and Taxation, 1622 - 1663

Administering the Poor Law, 1627 - 1704

Licensing, 1610 - 1662

Parliamentary Business, 1714

Papers relating to the Carew Estates, 1609 - c.1709

<span class="wrapper"><p>Other volumes were acquired by Surrey Record Office in 1971 (ref 281/-) but were subsequently broken down and the contents rearranged. At the same time further records were acquired by the London Borough of Sutton (see Z/85/-), including some loose pieces dealing with the provisioning of the royal household and the levying of taxation (Z/85/2/-), very closely related to the papers in this volume. Two of these pieces were marked as having come from Phillipps' volume 19284 as did a number of papers now part of 281/-. It is not known how or when the papers became so disordered as to bring about the physical separation of very closely related pieces. A further volume from Phillipps' collection was acquired in 1977 at Sothebys (2152/-).</p> <p>For further information about Sir Thomas Phillipps and his library see the introduction to 281/-.</p> <p>For further loose papers relating to the Carews' activities as justices of the peace and to their estates, 16th - 19th cent, not acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps after 1859, see 643/-; for estate and household records of the Carew family, 1508 - 1764, see 281/-, the introduction to which lists other related records; see Z/85/- for copies of further estate, personal and official papers of the family, 1493 - 1757, now held by the London Borough of Sutton; for an account book relating to repairs to Beddington House, 1649 - 1653, see 2152/-; for manorial and estate records of the Carews, c.1200 - 1821, acquired from Campbell, Hooper and Austin Wright, solicitors, in 1977, see 2163/-.</p></span>

Purchased from Sotheby and Co, auctioneers of London, in June 1974 (lot 3059 in sale of 26 June).

These papers had once formed part of the huge collection of manuscripts assembled by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872) at his house at Middle Hill, near Broadway, Worcs, and moved in 1863-5 to Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham, Gloucs. Phillipps acquired a large quantity of the Carew family archive which was dispersed on the break up of the family estates in 1859. Phillipps arranged the papers he acquired (somewhat haphazardly) and had them sewn into cheap board covers and the resultant volumes were numbered and briefly described in his catalogue. This collection of papers comprises one of Phillipps' volumes to which he had given the number 19268 and the title 'Carew of Beddington Papers, SQC XVI-XVII'.