ASHTON COURT

AC

ASHTON COURT

13th century -1935

AC/JS - Jarrit Smith Papers

AC/AS - Astry Papers

AC/WO - Woolnough Papers including Eldridge Family Papers.

AC/D - Ashton Court Deeds

AC/WH - Whitchurch Papers

AC/C - Correspondence

AC/E - Records of Estate Management

AC/M - Manorial Records

AC/S - Family Settlements etc

AC/F - Family Papers

AC/O - Public Offices

AC/PL - Maps, Plans and records of Estates

AC/Q - Plans and elevations of Cottages.

AC/Estate Office - Estate Office Papers.

AC/B Volumes

AC/MU Papers of Samuel Munckley

AC/36074 and 36214 - Miscellaneous Deeds Documents etc.

The Smyth family, substantial Bristol merchants, purchased the estate of Ashton Court, a few miles outside the city in Somerset, in 1565; their records range from the early 13th to the 20th century.

A system of cataloguing and numeration has been adopted to meet and reflect the interrelationship of the various parts of this collection. The main series of the Ashton Court collection, the records relating directly to the Smyth family themselves, has for the most part been catalogued. The whole collection is identified by the prefix AC/ to each numbered document; and for this, the 'core' of the collection, a numeration under class-letters, followed by bundle numbers and sub-numbers has been used: D = deeds, C = correspondence, M = manorial, etc., i.e. AC/M3/6 = Ashton Court collection: manorial documents: bundle (or section) 3: document 6. The 'core' of the collection is thus brought together as a coherent and easily recognisable unit, while still making clear its archival structure.

This 'core' or main series, however, constitutes only about one-half of the collection. The remainder is made up of 19th-20th century leases, and of various 'sub-series', of which the papers of Jarrit Smith form one. These sub-series consist of records brought into the Smyth family as a result of marriage. A succession of judicious marriages in the late 17th and 18th centuries increased the estates and wealth of the Smyth family very considerably. In each case the marriage brought into the family not only a sizeable inheritance in land, but also the documents relating to the lands concerned. The first sub-series is the collection of papers arising out of the marriage of Elizabeth Astry to Sir John Smyth (1659-1726). The second is the present collection, associated with the marriage of Jarrit Smith and Florence Piggott (née Smyth) in 1731. Further sub-series are connected with the estates brought into the Smyth family by the marriages of Jarrit Smith's two sons: John Hugh Smyth to Elizabeth Woolnough, and Thomas Smyth to Jane Whitchurch.

These sub-series are boxed and catalogued as separate entities, distinct from the main series of family papers. For this reason also they have a distinct system of numeration. In addition to the AC/ collection-letters, these documents all bear code-letters for the sub-series to which they belong, i.e. AC/AS for the Astry papers, AC/JS for the papers of Jarrit Smith. To follow these identifying letters with further class letters would have resulted in a number altogether too long and cumbersome to be practicable. The sub-series, therefore, are numbered in a straight numerical sequence, with clearly differentiated sections: i.e.,

AC/AS8 Family papers: Chester

AC/AS9 - 16 Law papers

AC/AS17 - 21 Deeds: Aust

AC/AS22 - 48 Deeds: Henbury etc.

These principal group numbers are followed, as necessary, by sub-numbers and sub-letters for bundles, files and individual documents in the normal manner. In this way, although the classification of the documents may not be so immediately apparent, the sub-series are kept together as units, and form distinct groups alongside the main series.

English

• <persname>Smith, Jarrit, 1692-1783, politician of Bristol</persname><famname>Smyth family of Ashton Court, Somerset</famname>
• <famname>Smith family of Ashton Court, Somerset</famname>
• <famname>Woolnough family of Bristol</famname>

17 subfonds