Family and Estate Papers of the Willoughby Family of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, Middleton,...

GB 159 Mi A-X

Family and Estate Papers of the Willoughby Family of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, Middleton, Warwickshire and Birdsall, Yorkshire; 12th-20th centuries

12th-20th centuries

Title deeds from the 12th to the 20th centuries form a major part of the collection. These relate to the family's main estates in Nottinghamshire, Warwickshire and Yorkshire but many other English counties are also represented and there is some material relating to Ireland, 16th-17th centuries. The collection also includes a number of cartularies covering the period 1258-1690. The most significant of the cartularies is that for the Abbey of Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, which records lands in Derbyshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire and includes copies of many documents of political and military interest. Other documents relating to title and land transfer can be found in the complementary group, catalogued as Mi 1-7.

Also present in the collection are series of manorial records including court rolls, accounts, manorial rentals and surveys. These relate particularly to Nottinghamshire, Kent and Warwickshire, but material relating to other counties is also included. There is also a significant group of manorial documents relating to the Peveril Court, which had jurisdiction in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and of which successive members of the Willoughby family were stewards. A considerable quantity of manorial records can also be found in the complementary group, catalogued as Mi 1-7.

The estate records include household accounts and inventories from the 16th to the 17th century, maps, plans, surveys and rentals. There is a large series of estate correspondence and associated papers. Within the series of estate papers and the series of vouchers and accounts, significant groups of correspondence can be found, including letters to Lady Emma Child (née Barnard, 1644-1725), the widow of Francis Willughby (1635-1672).

Relatively little family correspondence survives in this archive. A small correspondence series, dating from 1259, includes royal letters of signet. Correspondence concerning commissions and appointments etc. dates from medieval times through to the appointment of Lord Middleton to the Order of the Garter in 1957. A small category of official papers include some relating to the office of sheriff in Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, held by several family members; these include writs, accounts etc.

The large series of legal papers document the various legal cases and disputes in which several family members were involved. There is a rare group of accounts and other papers relating to coal mining from the 14th to the 17th centuries in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire and a small group of documents relating to a trading venture to Newfoundland in the 17th century.

Of particular significance are a number of medieval literary manuscripts, formerly part of the Library at Wollaton Hall. These include a 13th century textbook, including a grammar, and four 13th century French manuscripts including an omnibus volume of nine romances and fabliaux, with an important Arthurian text. Also from the Library at Wollaton Hall are a number of printed items, on a variety of subjects and ranging in date from the 16th to the 20th centuries.

Francis Willughby (1635-1672), father of the 1st Baron Middleton, was a noted mathematician and natural historian, and an original member of the Royal Society. The archive includes illustrations of birds, fishes and flowers collected by him and by his friend and colleague, the scientist John Ray. Herbarium specimens are preserved within some volumes. Willughby and Ray conducted other forms of research, including extensive investigation into the family's early muniments; many deeds in the collection bear identifying endorsements in their hands.

The volume compiled by the naturalist's daughter Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos, narrates the history of the family and contains transcripts of, or extracts from, many letters which have since been lost. A second volume of Cassandra's history, acquired separately from a private source, is listed for convenience within this catalogue.

The collection is divided into series according to form of material and arranged chronologically within sections. Some elements are described at item level. The bulk of the collection was listed originally in the 1940s at bundle level, and many descriptions are quite summary. In a number of areas, these descriptions have more recently been expanded.

English

624 boxes, 120 volumes

Estate records, literary manuscripts, correspondence, family papers, manorial records

These papers are part of the main Middleton collection acquired in 1947.

The papers provide the core elements within the larger estate archive of Lord Middleton, the bulk of which was generated in the course of the management of the family's extensive estate business. In subject matter and date, they complement other groups of papers in the Middleton archive, particularly the material separately catalogued as Mi 1-7. There are many areas of overlap between these groups, which are defined as separate collections because of the date and manner of their transfer to the University.