CAREW FAMILY OF BEDDINGTON: PAPERS RELATING TO THEIR WORK AS JUSTICES OF THE PEACE...

These papers had once formed part of the huge collection of manuscripts assembled by Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792 - 1872) at his house in Middle Hill, near Broadway, Worcs, and moved in 1863 - 5 to Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham, Gloucs. The majority relate to the official and private business of the Carew family of Beddington, Phillipps having acquired a large quantity of the family's archives which were dispersed on the break up of the family estates in 1859.

Other papers appear to have no connection with the Carews and were presumably acquired by Phillipps piecemeal on other occasions.

This collection was acquired in the 1890s by Mr E F Gay, American economic historian, apparently at an auction of part of Sir Thomas Phillipps' collection. Mrs Davies was the daughter of Mr Gay.

The bulk of this collection relates to the activities of Sir Francis Carew (1530 - 1611) and his nephew and heir Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Carew (died 1644) in their capacities as justices of the peace for the Eastern Division of Surrey and deputy lieutenants for Surrey. The Eastern Division comprised the hundreds of Brixton, Southwark, Wallington, Tandridge and part of Reigate, the Carew family taking particular responsibility for the hundred of Wallington where their family seat of Beddington Manor lay (for a brief account of the family and their extensive estates see the introduction to 281/-)

The justices of the peace at this time were responsible for a wide range of administrative and judicial activities such as the provisioning and transportation of the royal household, the assessment and collection of taxation and supervision of the administration of the poor law as well as the suppression of crime and disorder. The deputy lieutenants, under the direction of the lord lieutenant, were responsible for mustering, training and supplying the militia.

The collection also includes papers relating to the Carew estates in Mitcham, Beddington and Chertsey in Surrey and to their properties in Sussex. A final small group of papers do not appear to be related to the Carews and are very miscellaneous in nature. These include sale particulars, deeds, a will and a tithe valuation as well as legal documents which possibly formed part of a collection of exemplars of formulas or case precedents.

DF595 Caroline Lovell/Sep 1999 revised M Page/May 2000

The papers fall into three main groups: papers relating to the Carews' work as justices of the peace and deputy lieutenants in Surrey; papers relating to the Carew estates; and non-Carew material of which the provenance is unknown. Within the first group, which comprises the bulk of the collection, the documents have been grouped into nine series, according to the nature of the business and arranged chronologically within these. The Carew estate papers have been arranged chronologically and the papers unconnected with the Carew family have been divided into estate and legal records.

<p>For further papers relating to the Carews' activities as justices of the peace and to their estates, 1593 - 1714, see 663/-; 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>

There are no access restrictions.

Presented by Mrs Godfrey Davies of Pasadena, California, USA, in March 1973.