LETTER BOOKS

This series of letter books, amounting to almost 100,000 pages of correspondence, reflects the professional activities of Bennett and Company over a period of 100 years. The firm were agents for numerous major estates in south and east Somerset, as well as in Wiltshire, and the letter books chiefly comprise correspondence with tenants on these estates, with contractors employed to undertake estate work, and with estate owners.

Major estates managed by the firm at various times were as follows: Hazlegrove estate (Mildmay family), Brympton d'Evercy estate (Fane family), Kingsdon estate (Neal family), Milborne Port or Ven estate (Medlycott family), Hadspen estate (Hobhouse family), Chilton Cantello estate (Goodford family), Lottisham estate (Jenkyns family), Kingweston estate (Dickinson family), Yarlington estate (Wright and Rogers families), Alford estate (Thring family), and Maperton estate (Cox family). By the 1940s the firm managed the Southill estate, West Cranmore (Spencer family). In Wiltshire they managed the Stourhead estate at the beginning of the period covered by the letter books, and towards the end of the period managed the Sutton Veny House estate, Warminster (Major John Walker). The parishes referred to by the books include most in which these various estates had lands or other interests. In addition, the letter books refer frequently to The King's School, Bruton, Sexey's School, Bruton, Sexey's Hospital, Bruton National Schools, and to various other schools, organisations, and establishments in Bruton. Property sales, valuations, and other miscellaneous work of the firm are also copiously represented. Most letter books contain an element of personal correspondence, and four volumes (DD\BT/25/86-9) are entirely devoted to it.