MEDLEY OF BUXTED PLACE AND CONEYBOROUGH IN BARCOMBE

This small group of five documents is clearly part of the archive of the Medley family, which seems to have survived intact at Buxted place until the end of the last century. The documents have the characteristic odour of cigars which is the hallmark of material from that source. The documents were deposited with the Sussex Archaeological Society and listed as HA 740-744

Several deeds and other estate documents were given to the British Museum with the political papers of the Earl of Liverpool; they now form BL Add Ch 56240-56315

The antiquarian collections of Henry Towner of Uckfield (AMS5896) and Charles Leeson Prince of Crowborough (AMS5897), who were collecting in the opening years of the 20th century, consist almost exclusively of documents from the Buxted Place archive, and the implication must be that standards of custody at that time were less than strict

In 1928 Lord Portman, the owner of the estate, deposited several hundred deeds with the Sussex Archaeological Society, which were listed by the rev Walter Budgen as PN 1-756 (Sussex estate) and PN 761-1430 (supposedly out-county, but including settlements and wills relating to the whole estate)

Other documents relating to the estate were deposited with the Sussex Archaeological Society by the owner's land-agent in the 1970s, and are still (1994) at the Society's library

Another group of documents, originally bought at the sale of the contents of Buxted Place in 1930, was deposited in 1987 and listed as AMS6270

The present whereabouts of the many component parts of the Portman archive were very usefully summarised by Richard Olney in the Annual Review for 1988-89 of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (HMSO, 1989), pp 25-27

An extended pedigree showing the descent of the Buxted estate was published in Sussex Archaeological Collections vol 47 (1904) opposite p 108; it is included as an appendix to the introduction of AMS6270

The documents in this list are arranged in the order of the acquisition by the Medley family of Buxted Place of the estates to which they relate

Documents deposited with the Sussex Archaeological Society in 1948 and transferred to ESRO 21 June 1981 (A 3127)