Estate and Legal Papers of the Willoughby family of Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, Middleton,...

The collection is comprised chiefly of estate papers and deeds relating to the family's estates in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Warwickshire, Cambridgeshire and Hampshire from the 18th to the 20th century. There is a run of correspondence with Lord Middleton's solicitors regarding the settlement of the estates (1926-1928), and the subsequent founding of the Birdsall Estates Company. In some of these series, the records complement those already catalogued in Mi 3.

There is also a series of letters to Digby Wentworth Bayard Willoughby, 9th Lord Middleton and Eliza his wife; Godfrey Ernest Percival Willoughby, 10th Lord Middleton and Ida his wife; and Michael Guy Percival Willoughby, 11th Lord Middleton. These letters include a large number from the children of the 10th Lord and Lady Middleton, including Francis George Godfrey Willoughby and Henry Ernest Digby Hugh Willoughby who were both killed during the First World War.

Access to some series of personal papers from the 20th century is restricted.

The collection is arranged according to provenance and form of material (e.g. correspondence, estate papers) and listed chronologically within sections.

The papers were acquired in several separate accruals between 1964 and 1974.

This sub-group brings together legal and personal papers of the Willoughby family which have come from different sources, reflecting the fact that it represents a number of different accruals to the overall Middleton Collection. Estate material was generated both at Birdsall, Yorkshire, and through the activities of the family's London solicitors. Papers from these sources comprise the greater part of the collection. In addition, personal correspondence received by the family between 1890 and the 1940s is present. The writers are occasionally other family members, but many letters are from friends and general acquaintances and some concern official activities.