THE CAREW FAMILY OF BEDDINGTON: DEEDS AND ESTATE RECORDS

Deeds and estate records of the Carew family of Beddington, Surrey.

A proportion of the MSS purchased were bound, but it seemed likely that four of the five volumes were no longer intact. The fifth volume, an inventory of Beddington House, made in 1764, has been listed as 281/3/1 and is bound separately. A note on its original binding is to be found incorporated in the repair note at the back of the volume. The other four volumes, which contained manorial and household accounts, have been broken down, as all the MSS were in need of repair, and the Phillipps format seemed to be entirely haphazard. Munby's description of Phillipps' method bears this out. His practice was to bind by subject. Lack of time and skill prevented the creation of any further order among the papers, and led to other errors. The papers forming the volumes 20103 and 20004, for example, would seem to have been sewn into the wrong covers, or to have had the wrong titles marked on them after binding. In complaining to Sir F Madden in 1862 of the extravagance of British Museum bindings, Phillipps proudly explained that "he bound his MSS at a cost of twopence a volume; his maidservant stitching the leaves together, and a man he employs putting on a paper or rough boards". (Quoted from Madden's 'Journal' by A N L Munby). The papers taken from these volumes have therefore been rearranged into a more logical order, together with a number of loose papers, and have been bound up in the order in which they are now listed. The contents of all four of the original volumes are to be found in 281/2/- and 281/4/-. The cover of volume 20103 has been retained as an example of Phillips' binding (ref. 281/6/1).

Phillipps' original numbers are now referenced as follows:-

Ph 19284: 281/2/16, 281/5/15-17

Ph 19318: 281/3/1

Ph 19495: 281/2/31

Ph 20004: 281/2/1-2, 4, 17, 21, 23-25, 27, 46, 48-49; 281/4/1-14, 17-21, 23-25

Ph 20103: 281/2/3, 5-6, 8-14, 18-20, 22, 26, 33, 35-37, 39, 42-45, 47, 50, 53, 55-56; 281/4/26-28

Ph 23941: 281/2/7, 15, 28-30, 32, 34, 38, 40-41, 51-52, 54

Ph 25225: 281/1/1; 281/4/15-16, 22

Ph 25573: 281/5/1-3

A full description of the format, order and construction of the original volumes can be found on the deposit file 239/1 in the original version of this introduction.

The remainder of the MSS found loose (which had survived as single sheets, or small groups of sheets) comprised the will and codicils of Sir Francis Carew, and receipts and releases for legacies paid, now listed as 281/5/1-19. This group has now been bound together. A note on the original format of the papers is to be found incorporated in the repair note pasted into the back of the volume.

The records have grouped into: a manorial rental for the Carews' manors, 1606 (281/1/1); manorial accounts, both collective and for individual manors, c.1508-1630 (281/2/1-56); a household accounts, 1560-1574(281/4/1-28); the will of Sir Francis Carew (d.1611) and papers relating to the execution of his will, 1610-1627 (281/5/1-19); and the cover of Phillips volume 20103, retained as an example (281/6/1).

<span class="wrapper"><p>For further records of the Carew family, all once forming part of Thomas Phillipps' collection, see 643/-, 663/- and 2152/-. Further records were deposited in 1977 by Messrs Campbell, Hooper and Austin Wright, solicitors (ref 2163/-).</p> <p>Part of the collection of Robert Cole, FSA, was sold by Puttick on 29 July 1861. The papers had presumably reached his and other hands after the break up of the Carew estates in 1859. Other accounts and papers, part of the same series, came into the possession of Henry Lambert in the early years of this century (see Surrey Archaeological Collections vol. xxxi) and are now deposited in Surrey History Centre (ref. G6/3). Yet others were in the possession of the Rev Thomas Bentham, one time curate of Beddington (see T Bentham, History of Beddington, London 1923, and Surrey Archaeological Collections vol. xxxii, p. 158).</p> <p>A rent roll of c. 1650 for the manors of Bandon, Norbury and Ravensbury is among the Halliday Collection, held in the Surrey History Centre (ref. 212/9/2). An account of Thomas Mabson for repairs at Wallington Place, Feb-Nov 1548, found its way into the collection of Sir William Minet, and is now held at the London Borough of Lambeth (Minet) Library, ref. Deeds 8996 (cf. 281/2/17, 18).</p> <p>An accumulation of correspondence of the Carew family, c.1590-c.1760 is among the papers of the Lenthall family of Abingdon, Berks, and is now in the Berkshire Record Office (ref. D/ELI). It was probably bought by Francis Lenthall (d. 1892) who is known to have collected books and documents.</p> <p>These letters have been calendared (see NRA List 70).</p> <p>Other personal papers and accounts are now held by the London Borough of Sutton and copies are held at Surrey History Centre under the reference Z/85/-.</p></span>

There are no access restrictions.

The Carew MSS were purchased at the Phillipps sales held by Sotheby on 14 June 1971, where they comprised lots 1403, 1404, 1405 and 1407.

The following information about Sir Thomas Phillipps is derived from A N L Munby, Phillipps Studies, 5 vols (1951-60).

Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872) was educated at Rugby and University College, Oxford. From an early age he collected books and manuscripts of every description. In a preface to a catalogue of his books, composed about 1828, he wrote "In amassing my Collection of MSS I commenced with purchasing everything that lay within my reach, to which I was instigated by reading various accounts of the destruction of valuable MSS."

The bulk of his extensive purchases, together with his unwillingness to incur what he felt to be unnecessary expenditure in printing the catalogue, and organising and binding his collection led to a good deal of inaccuracy and confusion. In theory each accession was briefly listed, numbered and incorporated into his catalogue on additional sheets. Each block of manuscripts was given a heading, stating the source whence it was acquired.

Not only, however, was the catalogue very slipshod, and full of printing errors. In a letter to Lady Selina Henry (30 Sep 1867) Phillipps confessed that over a thousand MSS had had the wrong numbering slips pasted to the spine. In addition, the catalogue, especially after 1863, was unable to keep up with the pace of new purchases, and lack of storage space prevented different purchases from being kept separate. By 1860 Phillipps' house at Middle Hill, near Broadway, Worcs, was full to overflowing. Family and guests dined in the housekeeper's room, and were forced to use Lady Phillipps' boudoir as a drawing room and sitting room combined. In 1863-65 further confusion ensued, when the whole collection was moved, on carts, to Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham; for the estate at Middle Hill was entailed and would pass to James Halliwell, Phillipps' son-in-law, suspected of having stolen MSS from Trinity College, Cambridge, where he had been an undergraduate, and thus the object of Phillipps' intense hatred.

When Phillipps died in 1872, four parts of the catalogue had been produced, and MSS to no.23, 837 had been listed. The index of sources, however, stopped part way through part 3, and many of the last entries were inexplicit in the extreme.

Numbers above 23,837 were added, in pencil, by Edward Bond of the British Museum, who undertook the probate valuation of the library, and afterwards by T Fitzroy Fenwick.

The Carew MSS purchased bear the following numbers: (sources have been added from A N L Munby's list): 19284 (Cole MSS); 19318 and 19495 (Ex Bibliis Miscellaniis); 20004 and 20103 (no source recorded); 23941, 25225, 25573 (numbers allotted after Phillipps' death).

The Surrey branch of the Carew family purports to trace its ancestry to the conquest through Gerald de Windsor, governor of Pembroke, who built Carew Castle. The name Carru is supposed to have been taken first by William, great grandson of Gerald, early in the 13th century, and the senior branch of the family is said to have settled in Devon and Cornwall about a century later.

Nicholas Carew (Nicholas de Carreu), head of the Surrey branch of the family, took a lease of the manor of Beddington in 1352. The reversion was conveyed to him in 1363. The manor of Norbury was in his possession by 1375, and the manor of Nutfield was conveyed to him, possibly in the first place as a mortgage, in 1380. The manors of Bandon and Ravensbury were added by purchase to the family's possessions during the next century, and the manor of Wartling in Sussex passed into the family through the marriage of James Carew to Eleanor, daughter and co-heir of Thomas Lord Hoo. (Nutfield had not passed to James Carew on the death of his nephew in 1467, but had been divided among his nieces.)

Richard, who succeeded to the family estates in 1492, was created a baronet in 1497. He was sheriff of Surrey in 1501. His son, Sir Nicholas, also held this office and sat as knight of the shire for Surrey in parliament. He rose to favour at the court of Henry VIII, who in 1531 visited Beddington, and hunted in his grounds. He had a place of honour at the christening of Edward VI in 1537, but in 1539 was attainted for his complicity in the Marquis of Exeter's treason.

During the lives of Sir Richard and Sir Nicholas, the family lands has been greatly increased. Walton on the Hill and Banstead manors, the property of Catherine of Aragon, were leased, and afterwards granted in reversion, to Sir Richard and Sir Nicholas in 1513 and 1532 respectively. Bletchingley passed into the king's hands on the attainder of the Duke of Buckingham in 1521, and was immediately granted to Sir Nicholas. Epsom, Horley, Sutton and Coulsdon, part of the possessions of Chertsey Abbey, were the subject of a further grant after the dissolution. The manors of Plumpton, Plumpton Boscage and Barcombe in Sussex were granted in reversion to Nicholas, before he succeeded his father, on the attainder of Francis Lord Lovell, the heir tail to the estates.

Only these last were allowed to Elizabeth Carew after the attainder of her husband, though she pleaded to be allowed Bletchingley also. The attainder was reversed in 1549, but the return of the lands to Sir Nicholas' son, Sir Francis, followed more slowly, piecemeal. Bletchingley, Horley and Wartling were never returned. In 1596 Sir Francis added to his possessions the manor of Wallington, the capital messuage of which had been in the possession of the Carew family since at least 1539.

Sir Francis died, unmarried, on 16 May 1611, leaving the bulk of his estates to his nephew, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, who took the name of Carew. The manor of Walton on the Hill was left to another nephew, Sir Francis Darcy, who alienated it to Sir Nicholas four years later. Coulsdon and Epsom passed to Sir Edward Darcy, an elder brother of Sir Francis, to whom the reversions had been granted by Elizabeth I in 1589. Sutton had also been granted in reversion to Sir Edward, but in 1609 was conveyed by Sir Francis Carew and Sir Edward Darcy to Sir Robert, Edward's son, in trust for Sir Francis Darcy for life, with reversion to Sir Robert.

The estates of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Carew, Beddington, Bandon, Wallington, Norbury, Ravensbury, Banstead and Walton on the Hill, descended in the direct line to Sir Nicholas Hacket Carew. He died in 1762, leaving two daughters. The manor of Banstead was sold, and the rest of the estates devolved on Richard Gee, a cousin. He assumed the name Carew, but died unmarried in 1816, leaving his property to his brother's widow, Mrs Anne Paston Gee, who also had no issue. She demised the estate to her cousin Sir Benjamin Hallowell, who assumed the name and arms of Carew, and died in 1834. His son Captain Charles H Carew inherited the estates, but debt forced the passing in 1857 of the Carews' Estate Act, and the sale of the properties in 1859.