EARLS OF ONSLOW OF CLANDON PARK, WEST CLANDON: ESTATE PAPERS OF THE 4th AND 5th EARLS...

The collection includes a number of sale particulars, many of property in the immediate vicinity of Guildford, and not all owned by Lord Onslow, many maps and plans, and some papers of Arthur Bowles, acting as an umpire for enfranchisements of the Duke of Northumberlands's copyhold holdings.

1320/1-17 STOKE PARK ESTATE

1320/1-6 MANOR OF STOKE

1320/1/ Court rolls

1320/2/ Court papers

1320/3/ Rentals

1320/4/ Deeds and case papers relating to waste

1320/5/ Quit rents

1320/6/ Title deeds

1320/7/ MANOR OF STOUGHTON: DEEDS

1320/8/ ADVOWSON OF STOKE

1320/9/ PROPERTIES IN STOKE

1320/9/ Watford Farm, Stoke

1320/9/ Virgeloes and other houses in Stoke

1320/10/ STOKE LANE

1320/11/ STOKE ESTATE OF THE ALDERSEY, TURNER AND DYSON FAMILIES

1320/12/ LEASES AND PAPERS RELATING TO STOKE BEFORE THE FORMATION OF THE HILLIER FAMILY STOKE PARK ESTATE (1801)

1320/13-17 STOKE PARK ESTATE OF NATHANIEL HILLIER (1801)

1320/13/ Deeds

1320/14/ Leases

1320/15/ Stoke Park Estate: particular

1320/16/ Case papers

1320/17/ Historical notes and lists

1320/18-19 ESSEX AND NORFOLK ESTATES OF THE HILLIER FAMILY

1320/18/ SETTLEMENT

1320/19/ LEASES

1320/20/ NORTH AMERICAN ESTATE OF THE HILLIER FAMILY

1320/21/ HILLIER FAMILY: WILLS

1320/22-23 HILLIER WHOLE ESTATE MANAGEMENT BEFORE 1870

1320/22/ RENTALS AND ACCOUNTS

1320/23/ PLANS

1320/24-25 LOFTUS FAMILY ESTATES IN IRELAND

1320/24/1/ COUNTY WESTMEATH

1320/24/2/ COUNTY ARMAGH

1320/24/3/ BANKRUPTCY OF EYRE TRENCH

1320/24/4/ BANKRUPTCY OF HUGH HENRY MITCHELL

1320/24/5/ COUNTY DUBLIN

1320/25/ IRISH ESTATES OF GENERAL WILLIAM FRANCIS BENTINCK LOFTUS

1320/25/1/ Settlement, will and estate papers

1320/25/2/ Sale of the estates of General Loftus

1320/25/3/ LOFTUS FAMILY PAPERS

1320/26-33 THE FAMILY OF THE EARLS OF ONSLOW AND THEIR ESTATE BEFORE THE INHERITANCE OF WILLIAM HILLIER ONSLOW IN 1870

1320/26/ SETTLEMENTS, TRUSTS AND ANNUITIES

1320/27/ WILLS

1320/28/ WEST CLANDON, SEND, RIPLEY, PIRBRIGHT, MERROW AND STOKE NEXT GUILDFORD DEEDS, 1693-1784

1320/29/ LEASES

1320/29/ Send and other parishes

1320/29/ Woking and other parishes

1320/30/ RENTALS

1320/31/ RIVER WEY NAVIGATION

1320/32/ PERSONAL ESTATE

1320/33/ MANOR OF GUILDENHURST, SUSSEX

1320/34-462 THE ESTATE OF WILLIAM HILLIER FOURTH EARL OF ONSLOW (1853-1911)

1320/34-65 ESTATE IN SURREY AND ELSEWHERE

1320/34-43 Manorial enfranchisements

1320/44/ Land at Newlands Corner: agreement

1320/45/ Conveyances and exchanges

1320/46/ Land in the manor of East Bramley alias Tangley

1320/47/ Leases to Lord Onslow

1320/48/ Lease of Surrey property by Lord Onslow or his trustees

1320/49/ Woking Water and Gas Company

1320/49/ Telephone rental

1320/49/ Guildford, Kingston and London Railway

1320/50/ Essex tithe, nd [19th cent]

1320/51-55 Leases of Essex property

1320/56 Leases of Norfolk property

1320/57-58 Leases of property in Westminster, London

1320/59-61 Leases of property in the City of London

1320/62/ Leases of shooting rights in Surrey by Lord Onslow

1320/63/ Lease of shooting rights in Surrey to Lord Onslow

1320/64/ Leases of shooting rights in Essex by Lord Onslow

1320/65/ Leases of fishing rights in Surrey by Lord Onslow

1320/66-278 WHOLE ESTATE MANAGEMENT

1320/66-108 Accounts

1320/109/ Rentals

1320/110/ Particulars

1320/111/ Finance Act 1910 return

1320/112-122 Labour wage sheets

1320/123-125 Estate correspondence during the minority of William Hillier Onslow

1320/126-164 Estate correspondence between Lord Onslow, Arthur Bowles, steward, and others

1320/165-168 Letter books

1320/169-203 Letters to Arthur Bowles from tenants and others

1320/204-262 Arthur Bowles' letter books

1320/263 Copies of accounts

1320/264-272 Correspondence between F Smallpeice and A H Bowles

1320/273 Copy letters of J Jex Blake, Warren Farm

1320/274-277 Applications and references for posts

1320/278-388 MANAGEMENT OF INDIVIDUAL FARMS AND BUILDING SITES INCLUDING CLANDON PARK

1320/278-281 Clandon Park

1320/282-293 Allotments

1320/294/ Cropping books: Surrey

1320/295/ Cropping books: Norfolk and Essex

1320/296/ Newlands Farm and Newlands House, Albury

1320/297/ Chobham brickyard

1320/298/ Clandon Regis

1320/299/ Somersbury farm, Ewhurst

1320/300/ Pyrford Place Farm

1320/301/ Asparagus Farm, Pyrford

1320/302-303/ Lees Farm, Pyrford

1320/304 Papercourt Farm and Highlands Farm, Send and Ripley

1320/305/ Pendry's Farm, Send and Ripley

1320/306/ Slyfield Farm, Stoke next Guildford

1320/307/ Woking Park Farm

1320/308-309/ Hoebridge Farm and Roundbridge Farm, Pyrford

1320/310/ Burpham Farm, Worplesdon

1320/311/ Marsh Farm, Brightlingsea, Essex

1320/312/ Colchester houses and Bradley Hall Farm, Thorpe le Soken, Essex

1320/313/ Easthorpe Hall Farm, Kelvedon, Essex

1320/314/ Tendring Lodge Farm, Essex

1320/315/ Wick Farm, St Osyth, Essex

1320/316/ Hannan's or Hannams Hall Farm, Tendring, Essex

1320/317/ Thorpe Hall Farm, Haddiscoe and Thurlton, Norfolk

1320/318-319/ Ely House, 13 Charterhouse Street, London

1320/320/ Dacre Street stables, Westminster

1320/321/ Estate development: Newlands Corner estate, Albury

1320/322/ Estate development: Artington and Stoke next Guildford

1320/323/ Estate development: Guildford Park Estate, Artington

1320/334/ King's Hill estate, Sunningdale, Berks

1320/335-361 Inventories and valuations of farm stock

1320/362-364 Insurance policies

1320/365/ Case papers: various

1320/366-367 Case papers concerning Woking Sewage land omit further title 'correspondence re purchase of land ...'

1320/368 Valuations and related papers

1320/369 Windlesham Enclosure

1320/370-378 Sales and exchange of land; omit 'auction sale correspondence' subheading & include in CO4 description as below

1320/379 Receipted bills

1320/380-381 Estate history; omit 'whole estate general' level

1320/382-385 Local affairs

1320/386 Miscellaneous papers

1320/387 Schedules of deeds

1320/388 Messuage in Eversholt, Beds: deed not apparently connected with the estate

1320/389-440 OFFICIAL PAPERS

1320/389 Charities

1320/390-436 Voluntary Allotments Association

1320/437-440 Official papers: other bodies

1320/441-451 FAMILY PAPERS

1320/441-450 Family and personal expenditure

1320/451 Alan Legge, Lord Gardner: will

1320/452-456 Personal papers of William Hillier Onslow

1320/457 Countess of Onslow's papers

1320/458-462 Oddments

1320/ ESTATE OF RICHARD WILLIAM ALAN, FIFTH EARL OF ONSLOW, 1911-1945

1320/463-546 ESTATE IN SURREY AND ELSEWHERE

1320/463 Leases

1320/464-481 Clandon and London Estates: rentals and annual accounts

1320/482-497 Weekly and monthly estate accounts

1320/498 Correspondence incl relating to Merrow Downs

1320/499-501 Clandon Park Home Farm correspondence

1320/502 Countess of Onslow's correspondence

1320/503-515 Estate correspondence of Richard Lord Onslow

1320/516-531 Messenger and Morgan, land agents, estate correspondence

1320/532-539 Smallpeice and Merriman, solicitors, estate correspondence

1320/540-546 Walker, Martineau and Co, estate correspondence

1320/547-559 OFFICIAL PAPERS: CHARITIES

1320/560-564 PERSONAL PAPERS

1320/565-566 AH BOWLES, STEWARD: PERSONAL PAPERS

1320/567-575 PRINTED PAPERS

1320/567 CATALOGUES OF STOCK AND PRODUCE

1320/568 SALE PARTICULARS OF GUILDFORD ESTATE

1320/569 SALE PARTICULARS OF OTHER SURREY PROPERTY

1320/570 SALE PARTICULARS OF ESSEX AND LONDON PROPERTY

1320/571-573 SALE PARTICULARS NOT RELATING TO THE ONSLOW ESTATES

1320/571 Guildford

1320/572 Other Surrey parishes

1320/573 Property in Essex, Hants, Kent and Staffs

1320/574 OTHER PRINTED PAPERS

1320/575 ACTS OF PARLIAMENT

1320/576-577 PLANS

1320/576 ESTATE AND BUILDING PLANS

1320/576/1-21 Clandon Park and West Clandon

1320/576/22-35 Guildford Park Estate

1320/576/36-37 Dunsford Mill Bridge, Horsell and Chertsey

1320/577 ESTATE MAPS BASED ON ORDNANCE SURVEY AND PRINTED PLANS

<span class="wrapper"><p>For records of the Onslow manors and title deeds of their estate, 1424-1939, see G97/-; for political, official and family papers (chiefly of the 4th and 5th Earls), 1660-1968, see G173/-; for two Onslow family settlements, 1761 &amp; 1776, see 1186/-; for additional estate, and family and political papers relating to the 4th and 5th Earls, c.1709-c.1945, see 5337/-.</p> <p>Eleven large volumes of estate accounts are in an earlier deposit (G97/21/1-11), with some household accounts (G97/12/2-3).</p></span>

No document may be consulted for legal purposes without the permission of Lord Onslow.

Deposited by members of the Onslow family and their solicitors, Smallpeice and Merriman, between 1970 and 1972. The accession also includes some papers found at Clandon Park in 1977.

William Hillier Onslow was born on 7 March 1853, the only child of George Augustus Cranley Onslow (1813-1855). After his father's death, he was brought up by his mother, first at Alfresford, then at Dorking (for an account of his life, see G173/1/4-5).

From his grandmother Susannah Hillier (d. 1852), William Hillier had inherited not only the name, 'Hillie', by which he was known in childhood (see 1320/25/3/6) but, on the death of his grandfather, Thomas Cranley Onslow (1778-1861), her husband, the Essex part of his great-grandfather Nathaniel Hillier's estate (see plan 1320/23/7, 1320/576/- & 1320/577/-).

In 1859, on the death of Nathaniel's elder daughter Harriet Delap, the other half of the estate, the Stoke Park Estate on the edge of Guildford came, under Nathaniel's will, to Susannah's heirs. Mrs Onslow acted as William Hillier's guardian, using Norman and Appleby of Alton as agents, to manage all the old Hillier estates in Essex and Surrey (see 1320/22). There are also deeds of Mrs Onslow's Irish inheritance from her father, General Loftus (see 1320/24-25).

On 24 October 1870, three and a half years before William Hillier attained his majority and before he had matriculated at Oxford, the third Earl of Onslow died, a recluse, at Richmond. The records relating to the lands inherited by William Hillier Onslow from his grandmother and mother, 1232-1870, are listed under Section A. Section B comprises papers relating to the family of the Earls of Onslow and their estate before 24 October 1817.

William Hillier wrote an account of all the circumstances surrounding his succession to his great uncle's estates (for which see 1320/380). Very few records relating to what he then inherited, and which is here called the 'old' Onslow estate (see G97/-) remain to be included in this list, and some of those catalogued in section G97/26-33, may originally have been in fact, part of the Hillier estate deeds.

For the rest of his minority, and up to Lady Day 1877, the 4th Earl continued to use Norman & Appleby as agents, though he undertook from an early age a managerial role which he kept up throughout his life, even while holding public office and sitting in the cabinet. Only his period as Governor of New Zealand (1888-1891) caused a gap in the letters he wrote to his agent on estate affairs (see his own 'Estate History' to 1883, 1320/380 and also 1320/133-164).

Arthur Humphrey Bowles, whose family had had a connection with the Onslows for some time (see 1320/32/2), took up his position as agent on Lady Day 1877. He so continued for the rest of William Hillier's life. For the period 1877-1911, the records of estate management survive in quantity, and include all the in and out estate correspondence during a period of agricultural crisis and change, in an area, furthermore, that was feeling the pressures of Guildford's expansion. For records of this period of estate management see Section C 1320/34-462.

Onslow was the butt of criticism for preventing the development of Guildford (see 1320/382). This he stoutly rebutted in word (see 1320/383) and deed (see 1320/568). His concern for those less well-off is apparent throughout his life. Before becoming involved in national politics he met the plight of agricultural labourers by a vigorous attempt to improve their lot. Together with the Duke of Westminster he established in 1885 the Land and Glebe Owners' Association. He acted as its Honorary Secretary until, some of its aims achieved, it was wound up in 1887 (1320/421/2). Lord Onslow wrote a number of articles and booklets for the Association, including an 'Address to his Tenantry' (1886) (see 1320/422/1-2).

The mass of statistics and opinions he collected from landlords (c.450) and clergy (c.1023) all over the country during the writing of his book Landlords and Allotments (see 1320/420) is in this collection (see 1320/413-415) and is of considerable interest. Only a little could be included in the book. Records of the Voluntary Allotments Association are catalogued as 1320/390-410.

The 5th Earl (1876-1945) also had a public career in the diplomatic service, and he served with distinction in the First World War. He too, kept in close touch with the management of his estates, using the Guildford firm of Messenger, later Messenger May as agent, depending also on his solicitors Smallpeice, later Smallpeice & Merriman. During his absence on war service his wife took a large part in the estate management, as well as running Clandon Park Hospital (for which see G173/95/1-33, G173/206/1-5 and Zg 60). In the 1920s she ran the Home Farm (see 1320/492-498). The financial records and correspondence that survive for this period, Section D, are catalogued as 1320/463-564.