Archive of the Fuller-Acland-Hood family, Barons St Audries

The collection consists mainly of 17th and 18th Century deeds with a few isolated title deeds ranging back to the 16th Century. For a collection of this late date relating to the properties of one family it has been thought advisable to adopt the summary form of descriptive catalogue instead of a detailed catalogue. The deeds were found bundled according to properties in Parishes, and the same arrangement has been preserved with some minor resorting to correct obvious errors. The deeds have been arranged alphabetically under parishes with the deeds of each property within the parish in chronological order. Properties in several parishes have been listed under the main parish with cross-references in the index to the others. For each property the covering dates have been given together with a detailed description of the property. It has been difficult in many cases to quote a typical set of abuttals in deeds ranging from the 16th to the 18th centuries so that students interested in topographical details are recommended to look at all the deeds of any particularly property. The descent of each property has been summarized giving the dates and the principal persons who have owned it. As each deed does not receive individual mention, an examination of all the deeds of any one property must be made if a detailed descent is required

Marriage Settlements SAU/1 - 9

Wills SAU/10 - 29, 1187 - 1188

Legacy papers SAU/30 - 43, 1189

Acland family papers SAU/44 - 48

Miscellaneous manorial Documents SAU/49 - 51

Estate papers SAU/52 - 67

Abstracts of Title SAU/68 - 72, 1190

Ashburnham SAU/1191

Premises in Battle SAU/73

Premises in Bexhill SAU/74 - 144, 1192 - 1198, 1262 - 1299

Premises in Brede SAU/145

Premises in Brenchley SAU/146

Premises in Burwash SAU/147

Premises in Catsfield SAU/148 - 293, 1199 - 1222

Premises in Clayton SAU/294 - 295

Premises in Etchingham SAU/296 - 314, 1223 - 1224

Premises in Etchingham and other places SAU/315 - 326

Premises in Fletching SAU/327 - 351

Premises in Hailsham SAU/352 - 361

Premises in Hollington SAU/362

Premises in Hooe SAU/363 - 657, 1198, 1225 - 1238

Including Manor of Hooe SAU/575 - 594

Premises in Little Horsted and Isfield SAU/658 - 659

Premises in Hove SAU/1239 - 1240

Premises in Hurstpierpoint SAU/1241

Premises in Lewes, etc SAU/660 - 694

Premises in Ringmer and Southover SAU/669 - 693

Premises in Sedlescombe SAU/1300 - 1307

Premises in Southover SAU/694

Premises in Ninfield SAU/695 - 811, 1242 - 1261

Premises in Pevensey SAU/812 - 872, 1262 - 1299

Premises in Ripe SAU/873 - 879

Premises in Salehurst SAU/880 - 881

Premises in Manor of Tillingham SAU/882

Premises in Wartling SAU/883 - 890, 1308

Premises in Westerham, Kent SAU/891 - 980, 1330 - 1333

Premises in Westham SAU/981 - 1059, 1262 - 1298, 1309 - 1324

Premises in Westmeston SAU/1325 - 1329

Legal papers: Ingrahams SAU/1060 - 1064

Legal papers SAU/1065 - 1069

Miscellaneous bonds SAU/1070 - 1105

Miscellaneous fines SAU/1106 - 1108

Miscellaneous papers SAU/1109 - 1186, 1334 - 1339

Records are open for consultation

Deposited in the East Sussex Record Office by Lord St. Audries on 13 September 1955

The Sussex estates of the Fuller family came to the Fuller-Acland-Hood family through the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of Frances and Henry Fuller, rector of Stoneham, co. Hants, with Sir John Palmer Acland in 1781

The Fullers were a notable family with many branches in Sussex including the Fullers of Waldron and Brightling whose fortunes were made in ironfounding. The collection listed below relates principally to the Fullers who lived at Parkgate in Catsfield for several generations. The first to establish the family there seems to have been Thomas Fuller I, who died in 1692. He had two sons, Thomas Fuller II, who died in 1720, and Richard, who married Jane, daughter of William Bishop of Sedlescombe. Richard is described variously as being of Battle and of Catsfield; he evidently settled at the latter place on his brother's death. His daughter Sarah married Thomas Fuller of Hooe (see settlement SAU/3,4); an example of the intermarrying of the Fullers which makes their relationships so complicated. Richard Fuller's son, Thomas Fuller III, was chiefly responsible for building up the family estates in the Catsfield area. He married Frances, daughter of Dr. Peter White of Lewes and his wife, Susan (nee Tettersall). The Whites were a family of standing in Lewes. Frances' grandmother Dorothy was a sister of Peter Courthope of Danny and the settlement on her marriage with Dr. Benjamin White in 1671 is among the collection (see SAU/666). The Whites owned property in Southover and no. 33, High Street, Lewes, known as School Hill House for which there is an interesting series of deeds from 1603 to 1722 which supplement the Terrier no.SAU/2426 of the East Sussex County Council. [See Sussex Notes and Queries, vol. 2, pp.243-4.]

These properties were settled on Thomas Fuller III and his wife on their marriage in 1722 (see SAU/691-693). There were two sons of the marriage, Thomas White Fuller IV, who died after 1736 and before 1740 (see SAU/882) and John Fuller. On her husband's death in 1734, Frances showed herself an energetic and capable administrator of her son's estates. She seems to have lived at Coomb in Hamsey with her brother-in-law John Bridger and her sister Mary [For pedigrees of the White, Bridger and Lewis families see the introduction to the Shiffner MSS in the East Sussex Record Office.]. John Bridger acted as trustee for the young John Fuller's estates [See correspondence of John Fuller with John Bridger in SHR/946-960.]

Frances Fuller married, as her second husband, the Rev. George Lewis of Westerham, co. Kent. Her connections with this family explain the presence of deeds dealing with this area in the collection. She and her second husband had one son, George Wenham Lewis. He married Mary, daughter of William Lutman, who by 1778 had died leaving a son, Wenham, who probably died in childhood (see SAU/945-953). The estates in Westerham, were mortgaged for £10,000 to John Fuller of Catsfield and Barnard Blake in 1778 (see SAU/945-953) and probably remained with the Fuller family on the death of George in 1797

John Fuller of Catsfield died unmarried in 1810, aged 85 [See an unsigned will of John Fuller, dated 1794, SAS-RF/11/28]. His sister Frances married Henry Fuller, rector of Stoneham, a son of John Fuller, M.P., of Waldron. The properties of the two branches of the Fuller family of Brightling and of Catsfield devolved on the children of this marriage. The eldest son, John Fuller, succeeded his uncle Rose Fuller of Brightling, who died in 1777. John had no heirs and the Bosehill estate was held in 1835 by Augustus Elliot Fuller, grandson of Thomas Fuller, a brother of Rev. Henry Fuller [Horsfield, History and Antiquities of Sussex (1835), vol.7, p.564. Fuller MSS. SAS-RF/Box 6.]. The Catsfield estates, as related above, were brought into the Palmer Acland family by the marriage of Elizabeth Fuller with Sir John Palmer Acland. Thus the separate estates of Brightling and Catsfield nevermerged into one holding

The first considerable group of estates in Heathfield, Hailsham, Wartling, Hooe, Ninfield and Bexhill was acquired by Thomas Fuller of Battle and John Fuller from Sir John Henden of Benenden, co. Kent, in 1650. In 1678 John Fuller of Hooe bought the manor of Hooe from William Penn of Warminghurst, esq., and Sir James Rushout. This remained in the hands of the Fullers of Heathfield and Hooe until 1788 when the Rev. Thomas Fuller sold it to John Fuller of Lewes and Catsfield [Victoria County History Sussex, vol.9, p.245.]. The Catsfield Fullers had earlier concentrated on buying up property in the area, for example the purchase of the Newington family lands in 1714 by Thomas Fuller ?II or III of Catsfield (see SAU/407-467). The manor of Hooe was held by Augustus Elliot Fuller in 1835 [Horsfield, History and Antiquities of Sussex (1835), vol.1, p.504.], but in the same year it passed to Sir Peregrine Fuller Palmer Acland, who sold it together with the manor of Broomham Parkgate in Catsfield, to Thomas Brassey, M.D., in 1864 and 1865 respectively [V.C.H. Sussex, vol.9, pp.242, 245.]

During the minority of her son John, Frances Fuller and John Bridger acquired the numerous properties of Richard Thomas of Lamberhurst in Etchingham, Ticehurst, Wadhurst and Lamberhurst. These deeds include title deeds of Birkham in Etchingham from 1317 to 1743 (see SAU/296-314) which together with the title deeds of School Hill House, Lewes, already referred to, are the most interesting items in the collection