Portal of Laverstoke

Includes: title deeds (mainly Ashe, Freefolk, Freefolk Priors, Laverstoke, Overton, Whitchurch), c1582-1905; estate papers (correspondence, abstracts of title, leases, papers re Laverstoke mills, Freefolk manor papers, sale particulars, surveys, maps and plans, etc.), 14th-19th centuries; legal papers (manor of Freefolk, court cases), 18th century; family papers (appointments, probate material, certificates, correspondence, etc.), and papers relating to family history and French ancestry of Portal family, 13th-19th centuries; papers re transport and public undertakings (Basingstoke canal, turnpike roads, Didcot Newbury and Southampton Railway, etc.), 18th-19th centuries; miscellaneous parish records (parishes of Freefolk, Laverstoke, Overton and Whitchurch), 18th-19th centuries

T1-191 Deeds of Title:

Ashe

Freefolk and Freefolk Priors

Laverstoke

Overton

Whitchurch

T192-197 Additional title deeds

E1-76 Estate

E77-79 Additional estate

L1-13 Legal

P1-6 Maps and plans

F1-31 Family

F32-35 Additional family

O1-2 Official

O3 Additional official

TR1-7 Transport

TR8-11 Additional transport

X1-12 Parish

X13 Additional parish

C1-2 Charity

Z1-12 Miscellaneous

Z13-25 Additional miscellaneous

The collection had been ordered and listed before accession, but the catalogue (Z11) was difficult, and at times, impossible to interpret

The list that follows is, therefore, a re-arrangement and classification rather than a new catalogue. As the collection had been arranged into bundles of documents referring to individual transactions of properties bearing mainly on the title to them, it seemed best to retain these 'original' bundles, rather than to destroy their continuity, and this policy has been followed as far as possible

However, certain items or bundles have been separated from their groups simply because the 'original' connection was not apparent to an outsider, or because they had been separated physically. In these cases, the emphasis was placed on classification in order that the completed list might be more functional for office and students alike