Snodhill Papers

Deeds, mainly of seventeenth and eighteenth century date, concerning the manor and castle of Snodhill and additional lands in Peterchurch and Dorstone. A few estate and farm papers, and papers and correspondence of the Powell family.

Part of the deeds of the early seventeenth century date, however, are not concerned with the manor and castle but with a number of small parcels of land acquired largely by members of the Philpotts family. They form interesting evidence for investment in lands and in the process of consolidation of holdings and enclosure of the open fields. The Prossers continued to add parcels of land in Peterchurch and Dorstone to the main estate, which is clearly described in the eighteenth century in series of mortgages and settlement deeds.

Although the main body of the deeds concern the Snodhill properties, the collection also contains material for the descent of others in Dorstone, Clifford and Craswall, mainly the interests of the Miles and Maddey families, connected by the marriage in 1671 of Posthumas Maddey with Elizabeth, daughter of James Miles. These are of considerable interest from the study of farms in a hill district.

The Prosser family interest passed to the powell family by marriage, and apart from a few items belonging to the estate and farms, most of the papers and personal records concern the Powells in the nineteenth century, and include material for their interests in an estate in Trinidad.

The manor and Castle of Snodhill in the parish of Peterchurch, had been granted by Elizabeth I to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester He sold it to and it remained for some years with a branch of the Vaughan family until bought in the mid-seventeenth century by Thomas Prosser of London in negotiations carried out by his brother Esa Prosser of St. Margaret's. The castle was by that time a ruin and Thomas Prosser settled to live at the house nearby known as the Court.