Grenfell Family, Barons Desborough, of Taplow [Family and Estate Papers]

Deeds and correspondence etc. of the Grenfell family of Taplow House and Taplow Court, C16 - C20th.

The collection consists mainly of estate deeds concerning Taplow Court and other Taplow properties, dating from 1580 to 1909, and estate accounts and papers from 1849 to 1954, including papers for the Taplow Paper Mills. There are drawings and maps relating to the estate, and a printed map of the Taplow House grounds, which, dated 1808, is the earliest in the deposit. Much of the estate papers consists of correspondence, etc., of Charles Brown and latterly, F.A. Jones, solicitors, covering the period 1850 to 1886. Some refer to other family properties in Berkshire, Surrey and London.

Also included are some Bucks. militia papers of Pascoe Grenfell 1803, a volume of accounts concerning his Cornish mining activities 1793-1802, and another concerning a mining expedition to South America in 1825-26, and correspondence and personal accounts of Charles Pascoe Grenfell, 1806-67.

Title deeds.

D-GR/1 Taplow Court Estate 1580-1849

D-GR/2 Taplow Hill Farm 1737-1857

D-GR/3 Queen's Head Hotel, Taplow 1824-1909

D-GR/4 Close called Wittage in Taplow Manor 1848-1904

D-GR/5 Ockney Arms Hotel ("Skindles") 1852-1873

Pascoe Grenfell (1761-1838)

D-GR/6 Personal and official correspondence, including correspondence about militia. 1765-1838

D-GR/7 Account Books

Ore ledger 1793-1802

Wages ledger 1825-1876

Private ledgers 1818-1837

Miscellaneous papers, and plan 1806-1813

Charles Pascoe Grenfell (1790-1867)

D-GR/8 Correspondence 1806-1863

D-GR/9 Private ledgers 1828-1859

Journal 1835-1846

Bank Pass Books 1846-1867

D-GR/10 Board of Ordnance map of Lancs. - Cheshire and area, n.d. [pre - 1855]

D-GR/11 Printed books 1831-1859

Estate: Accounts, etc.

D-GR/12 Farm ledgers 1849-1952

Cash and Wage Accounts 1863-1889

Rent Books 1859-1864

Quit-rent ledger 1865-1931

Miscellaneous accounts 1877-1893

D-GR/13 Terriers 1877-1918

Estate: Agents' and tenants' business papers

D-GR/14 Correspondence and papers concerning Taplow Court Estate 1740, 1850-1954

D-GR/15 Maps and plan of whole estate 1818-1943

Estates outside Buckinghamshire

Berkshire

D-GR/16 Deeds, correspondence, papers and plans 1825-1919

South Norwood, Surrey

Correspondence and papers 1863-1891

Grosvenor Square, London

Tenancy agreement 1897

Taplow Paper Mills

D-GR/17 Correspondence, leases, plans, papers etc. 1839-1933

Household

D-GR/18 Household account books 1911-1934

Linen and Crockery Books 1887-1924

Cellar Books 1890-1937

Maidservants' Weekly Wage Book 1908-1933

Papers, plans, etc., concerning alterations to Taplow Court 1852-1903

Papers, plans, etc., concerning other buildings. 1904-1935

Papers concerning memorial inscriptions, and presentations 1909, N.D.

Gardening Book 1898-1959

D-GR/19 Sale Particulars

Buckinghamshire 1852-1937

Moath Farm, Canterbury, and Wingham Farm, Wingham (Kent) 1916

Henry Riversdale Grenfell

D-GR/20 Correspondence with Charles Venables of Taplow Mills, and papers concerning Liskeard (Cornwall) parliamentary election 1868-1876

Key to provenance of Documents

<span class="wrapper"><p>See also D 86.</p> <p>Records of the Panshanger estate are held at the Hertfordshire County Record Office in Hertford. They include the family correspondence used by Nicholas Mosley in his biography (1976) of Julian Grenfell (1888-1915), the poet, eldest son of Lord Desborough. (The Panshanger estate came to Lady Desborough on the death of her aunt Lady Katrine Cowper in 1913).</p> <p>See also (AR 17/57) Ref: P/m.7</p> <p>15 plans, sections and elevations of work to be carried out at Taplow Court, prepared by William Burn, architect (1789-1870) in 1856.</p></span>

AR. 51/52, 30/53, 35/53, 57/71, 11/76

The bulk of the collection was deposited in 1952-53 on behalf of Lord Desborough's younger daughter, the Hon. Alexandra Imogen Clare Grenfell, Lady Gage [A.R. 51/52, 30/53]. Following her death in 1969 some additional papers were deposited by Lord Gage in 1971 [A.R. 57/71]. To these have been added other miscellaneous items from Taplow Court received at various times through the intermediacy of Mr. A.H. Packe whose assistance is gratefully acknowledged.

Lord Desborough's diaries and some correspondence were deposited in the Bucks. Record Office by Lord Desborough's elder daughter, Lady Salmond, and are catalogued separately as D86. The remainder of that deposit [A.R. 57/71] consisting of correspondence of Pascoe and Charles Grenfell is now amalgamated with D-GR in this catalogue.

ACCESSIONS IN WHICH DOCUMENTS WERE DEPOSITED:

A.R.51/52. D-GR/1;2;3;4;5; 7/1-5; 9/1-14; 10; 14/1-2,4.6,13,15, 18-20, 26, 37, 44, 56, 61, 81-83; 15/8-14,18; 16/1,8, 12-13; 17/20; 18/1-15,17-18, 25-29, 35-39; 19/7/1 only.

A.R.30/53. D-GR/7/6-7; 12/1-10,12-13; 14/3,5,7-12,14,16-17,21-25, 27-36, 38-43, 45-55, 57-60, 62-80; 15/1-7,15-17,19; 16/2-7,9-11; 17/1-19,21-27; 18/16,30-32,34; 19/1-6, 7/2 only, 8-24; 20.

A.R.35/53. D-GR/14/84.

A.R.57/71. D-GR/6/1-73; 8/1-55; 11/1-4; 12/11.

A.R.11/76. D-GR/14/85-98; 18/19-24,33.

The Grenfell family's connection with Buckinghamshire dates from the association of Pascoe Grenfell (1761-1838; see D.N.B.) with Thomas Williams of Temple House, Great Marlow, in developing the mining industries of Anglesey and Cornwall. In 1794 Pascoe Grenfell strengthened the connection by purchasing Taplow House from the Earl of Thomond. It was sold on his death but some years later, in 1852, his son Charles Pascoe Grenfell (1790-1867) acquired the nearby 950 acre Taplow Court estate from the Earl of Orkney, and rebuilt the mansion. He was succeeded there by his grandson, William Henry Grenfell (1855-1945; see D.N.B.), a notable public servant and sportsman who was created Lord Desborough in 1905. In 1939 the Grenfells moved to their other estate at Panshanger, Herts., and during the war Taplow Court was successively a girls' school and a Red Cross hospital. In 1946 it became a telecommunications research centre and, after Lady Desborough's death in 1952, was sold to a private company. It is now (1979) occupied by the Plessey Company Limited.