The Wright Papers, being the papers of the Marriot family of Yorkshire and Worcestershire,...

The collection consists chiefly of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century material. The earlier material concerns the settlement of affairs after the deaths of Rev. Randolph Marriott in 1782, and of Rev. Robert Deane in 1799, whose brother-in-law, Randolph Marriott (1736-1807), was executor. Correspondence of Marriott family members, chiefly Randolph Marriott and his wife Elizabeth, contains details of both personal and financial matters. These include attempts to clear the debts of Randolph and Elizabeth's son-in-law, Captain Yeoman, family news, business, and war in India (1789-1803). A small group of papers concerns goods, including groceries and silverware, sent by Mrs Marriott to her children in India. The correspondence between women in the family includes news of family and social affairs. There are also papers relating to family wills and settlements, and a number of account books and household inventories.

Correspondence, executory papers, accounts, deeds, inventories

The collection is arranged chronologically within six sections according to form of material (e.g. accounts, correspondence).

Photocopies and photographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only depending on the condition of the documents.

Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email: mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk). The Department will try to assist in identifying copyright owners but the responsibility for copyright clearance before publication ultimately rests with the reader.

Accessible to all registered readers.

The custody of the papers can be traced from 1908 when they formed part of the estate of Henry Christopher Marriott of Avonbank. They were sorted by his descendant L.B.L. Ottley, but remained at Avonbank with his daughter, Harriott Wynne-Marriott, until her death in 1942. The papers subsequently came into the possession of the Wright family, relatives of the Wynne-Marriots, who transferred them to Nottingham University Library in 1974.

The Rev. Randolph Marriott (c. 1698-1782), rector of Darfield, Yorkshire, was admitted to Pembroke College Cambridge in 1716, aged 18. He graduated BA in 1720 and was made DD in 1761. Married to Diana de Montmorency, daughter of the 4th Earl of Denbigh, he had seven children. The bulk of this collection comprises papers concerning the settlement of his own affairs, and the financial, legal and family affairs of his son Randolph Marriott (1736-1807), his son-in-law Robert Deane, and the children of Randolph Marriott junior.

Randolph Marriott (1736-1807) lived at Thirsk Yorkshire and was married to Elizabeth Wilson, by whom he had 11 children. He took a lease on a house in Worcester in 1804.

Robert Deane (c.1735-1799) attended Westminster School and St John's College Oxford. He became rector of Barwick in Elmet and of Kirk Bramwith, Yorkshire. He was married in 1773 to Hester Marriott. A brief notice in the Gentleman's Magazine (1799, 345) mentions his integrity and his work in the relief of debtors. The Marriotts appear to have moved to Worcestershire, where by the 1830s Major General Thomas Marriott was living at Avonbank, Pershore.