Savile of Rufford: Deeds and Estate Papers

The Savile Archives

The great majority of the archives comprise mediaeval, Tudor and Stuart charters, deeds and leases and manorial and related estate records of properties in some fifteen counties, the majority is west Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. The other records include family settlements, wills and legal papers, etc. regarding various subjects such as boundaries, enclosure, 17th and 18th century coal mining (Yorkshire), and Sherwood Forest (Nottinghamshire). There is an extensive series of manorial court rolls and papers for Yorkshire during the 16th and 17th centuries.

The collection includes an especially fine series of mediaeval charters for Rufford Abbey from the 12th century onwards (DD/SR/102 and 208). The majority of these have been edited by Professor C J Holdsworth and published in the four volumes of Rufford Charters (Thoroton Society Record Series, vols. 29, 30, 32 and 34, 1972-1981).

Other groups of note are a full and detailed series of kitchen and pantry books for Thornhill Hall and (later) Rufford Abbey from 1623 to 1681 recording all the food and drink purchased and consumed on a daily basis. (DD/SR/A4/1-24). For the 19th century there are diplomatic and personal letters and papers of Sir John, later Lord Savile (1818-1896) who served as British ambassador in Russia, Italy and elsewhere and who undertook notable archaeological excavations on the site of the Temple of Nemi near Rome (DD/SR/226). Unfortunately the collection includes very little political correspondence of the first Marquess of Halifax in the 17th century.

Following the sale of the Rufford Abbey estate in 1938 the house was taken over by the army during the 2nd World War and the archives removed for safety. They were catalogued by the National Register of Archives during the 1940s and 1950s, partly at least on the premises of the Public Record Office in London. The collection was then in a disordered state and was listed within the trunks and bundles in which it was arranged, which partly explains the somewhat idiosyncratic referencing system; this is not strictly sequential and occasionally includes letters as well as numbers, e.g. section 1 is followed by 1D, there is no 2 or 3, then follows A4, A5, then 6 but no 7 or 8, etc. These presumably reflect the numbers on the trunks or bundles.

The original catalogue was compiled on NRA standard forms written in pencil and pen, and these were not typed up by Nottinghamshire Archives until 1996-1998. Unfortunately because of the poor state of the original forms, the accuracy and sense of the descriptions cannot always be guaranteed.

Content Summary:

DD/SR/1/1-27 Court Rolls, Charters and Estate Papers: Yorkshire etc. 1261-1871

DD/SR/1D/1-23 Miscellaneous Documents. 1545-1852

[DD/SR/2-3] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/A4/1-52 Household Accounts and Pantry Books etc. 1623-1759

DD/SR/A5/1-11 Accounts and Rentals: Yorkshire etc. 1574-1711

DD/SR/6/1-8 Estate Accounts: Nottinghamshire 1730-1815

[DD/SR/7-8] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/9/1-168 Title Deeds and Leases etc.: Yorkshire 1439-c.1716

DD/SR/10/1-351 Title Deeds and Leases etc.: Yorkshire 1282-1715

DD/SR/A11/1-37 Title Deeds and Leases etc.: Yorkshire 1260-1566

DD/SR/B11/1-53 Court Rolls and Papers: Yorkshire 1323-1665

DD/SR/C11/1-3 Rentals: Yorkshire 14thC.-1555

DD/SR/D11/1-5 Subsidy Rolls: Yorkshire 1584-1589

DD/SR/12/1-102 Charters: Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, etc. 1284-1668

[DD/SR/13-14] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/15/1-19 Papers of Dowager Countess of Scarbrough 1797-1850

[DD/SR/16-17] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/18/1-217 'Lumley Books' 1633-1898 [Permanently withdrawn by owner, November 2010 / May 2011]

[DD/SR/19] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/20 Sherwood Forest Book: Rufford Abbey copy c.1216-c.1447

[DD/SR/21-25] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/26/1-269 Charters, Leases, etc.: Yorkshire 1238-1743

DD/SR/27/1-10 Charters, Accounts and Estate Papers: Yorkshire, etc. 1246-1854

DD/SR/28/1-10 Charters, Bonds and Estate Papers: Yorkshire etc. 1301-1852

[DD/SR/29] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/30/1-114 Charters, Accounts and Estate Papers: Yorkshire, etc. 1328-1851

DD/SR/31/1-40 Title Deeds and Leases, etc.: Yorkshire, etc. 1344-1859

[DD/SR/32-35] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/36/1-157 Charters and Title Deeds (Bundle labelled 'Thornhill'). 1216-1705

[DD/SR/37-101] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/102/1-221 Charters: Rufford, etc. 1146-1982

DD/SR/102X/1-16 Charters: Rufford, etc. 1146-1305

[DD/SR/103-200] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/201/1-32 Printed Maps (Artificial Collection) 1601-1873

DD/SR/202/1-51 Plans and Drawings (Artificial Collection) 1597-1885

DD/SR/203/1-4 Miscellaneous Drawings, etc. 1833-1880

DD/SR/204/1-28 Pedigrees 1550-1712

DD/SR/205/1-49 Estate Accounts: Yorkshire 1712-1760

DD/SR/206/1-16 Estate Accounts: Rufford 1741-1769

DD/SR/207/1-690 Title Deeds: Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, etc. 1430-1858

DD/SR/208/1-96 Charters: Rufford 1154-1516

DD/SR/209/1-330 Charters: Yorkshire, etc. 1255-1591

DD/SR/210/1-75 Vouchers 1664-1846

DD/SR/211/1-459 Accounts, Estate Correspondence and Papers 1574-1878

DD/SR/212/1-81 Correspondence, etc. 1639-1925

DD/SR/213/1-57 Manorial Documents 1273-1860

DD/SR/214/1-16 Schools and Charities 1642-1860

DD/SR/215-1-99 Household Accounts and Plans 1492-1877

DD/SR/216/1-16 Naval and Military (including Militia) c1640-1855

DD/SR/217/1-18 Enclosure and Boundary Disputes 1638-1853

DD/SR/218/1-35 Sport, Game and Poaching 1718-1858

DD/SR/219/1-33 Politics c1520-1838

[DD/SR/220] [No Documents with these References].

DD/SR/221/1-127 Correspondence 1639-1860

DD/SR/222/1-50 Ecclesiastical 1534-1860

DD/SR/223/1-13 Roads and Railways c1700-1860

DD/SR/224/1-5 Legal and Private Acts c1690-1840

DD/SR/225/1-165 Legal Papers and Family Settlements 1293-1874

DD/SR/226/1-24 Diplomatic and Personal Papers of Sir John Savile c1847-1889

DD/SR/227/1-137 Rentals, Terriers and Valuations 1396-1853

DD/SR/228/1-4 Lieutenants' Appointments 1715

DD/SR/229/1-16 Forest: Sherwood c1657-1841

DD/SR/230/1-2 Taxation: Nottinghamshire 1741, 1747

DD/SR/231/1-54 Miscellaneous additions 14th C.-1885

DD/SR/232/1-13 Seals and miscellaneous material c1481-1966

DD/SR/233/1-11 Rentals: Yorkshire c1572-1704

DD/SR/234/1-4 Charters: Rufford c1194-1363

DD/SR/234/5-53 Title Deeds etc.: Various Counties 1559-1701

DD/SR/234/54-116 Leases, etc: Various Counties 1490-1700

DD/SR/234/117-118 Court Rolls, etc.: Lincolnshire, Yorkshire 1594, 1615

DD/SR/234/119-120 Rentals, Valuations, Surveys, etc. 1546-1584

DD/SR/234/121-125 Legal Papers 1481-1718

DD/SR/234/126-132 Miscellaneous 1637-19th C.

DD/SR/235/1 Estate Accounts: Rufford 1837-1845

DD/SR/236/1-35 Stray items 1671-1847

DD/SR/237/1-22 Stray items 15thC.-19thC.

<span class="wrapper"><p>Related Collections also in Nottinghamshire Archives:</p> <p>DD.BO (Baker of Ollerton)</p> <p>Related Collections elsewhere:</p> <p>Further records can be found in possession of Dewsbury Public Library, Yorkshire; the Thornhill Estate Office, Dewsbury; the Earl of Scarbrough, Sandbeck Park, Yorkshire; the West Yorkshire Record Office (Earl of Mexborough, (MX) ), and in other repositories listed in the National Register of Archives.</p></span>

• <famname>Lumley-Savile family, Barons Savile</famname>
• <famname>Savile, Lumley-, family, Barons Savile</famname>

Accessible to all holders of a reader's ticket.

These documents relate to estates built up by the family in the West Riding of Yorkshire from the Middle Ages to the 17th century, and subsequently augmented by the inheritance of the former Rufford Abbey estates in Nottinghamshire in 1626 through marriage into the Talbot family, Earls of Shrewsbury. The records were removed from Rufford Abbey prior to the Second World War and subsequently catalogued by the National Register of Archives in London in the 1940s and 1950s. They were deposited in the Nottinghamshire Records Office (now Nottinghamshire Archives) in 1958 (Accession 315), with subsequent additional deposits added in 1960 (Accessions 384 and 391), 1974 (Accession 1396), and 1982 (Accession 2479). These were supplemented by smaller acquisitions made in 1982 (Accessions 2634 and 2597).

Rufford Abbey and the Savile Family

Rufford Abbey was a Cistercian house founded by Gilbert de Gant, Earl of Lincoln, in c.1146 on the eastern edge of Sherwood Forest between Newark and Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The community built up estates both locally and farther afield and ultimately owned some fourteen granges in the parishes around Rufford as well as in north Lincolnshire and the Derbyshire Peak District.

Following its dissolution in 1537 the abbey and its estates were granted to the powerful local magnate, George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, whose family subsequently converted part of the abbey buildings into a small country house and demolished the remainder. Following the death of the 8th Earl's widow without heirs in 1626 Rufford passed to Sir William Savile, bart., of Thornhill, Yorkshire, whose grandfather had married the 8th Earl's sister.

In the Middle Ages the Saviles were a knightly family based in the West Riding of Yorkshire. They gradually built up estates by marriages to the heiresses of the Tankersley, Eland, Thornhill and Soothill families. By the 16th century their main seat was at Thornhill near Wakefield, and they came to own extensive property in the Halifax-Huddersfield region on the western edge of the Pennines.

Thornhill Hall was destroyed during the Civil War and the family consequently adopted Rufford Abbey as their principal seat. Sir William's son Sir George Savile was raised to the peerage as Marquess of Halifax and became a prominent minister in successive Restoration governments, earning the nickname of 'The Trimmer', as he constantly trimmed his sails in accordance with the political winds of the day. He extensively enlarged Rufford Abbey into a major country seat in c.1679-85. Following the death of both the Marquess in 1695 and his son five years later the estates passed to distant Savile cousins from Yorkshire and subsequently through a torturous sequence of inheritance during the 19th century. Notable owners were Sir George Savile, 8th bart. (1726-1784) who was a highly respected MP for Yorkshire (and commemorated by a statue in York Minister) and John Lumley Savile, the 8th Earl of Scarbrough (1788-1856).

The Rufford estate was broken up and sold by the Savile family trustees in 1938. The abbey buildings were mostly demolished in 1956, and the restored ruins and grounds now form the nucleus of Rufford Country Park, owned by Nottinghamshire County Council.