Legal Papers. "The Long Suit". viz. Suit between Sir James Thynne, eldest surviving...

Legal Papers. "The Long Suit". viz. Suit between Sir James Thynne, eldest surviving son of Sir Thomas Thynne [d. 1639] and his brother Thomas on the one part and Lady Katharine, widow of the said Sir Thomas and Henry Frederick Thynne.

This suit which came to be known as "The Long Suit arose on the death of Sir T. Thynne of Longleat who died on the last day of July 1639. He had from his first wife Lady Mary Audley, three sons, (1) John who died unmarried (2) Sir James, and (3) Thomas, afterwards of Richmond.

By his second wife Katharine Howard, who died during the progress of the suit, he had Henry Frederick, Theophilus, and Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Nott. Sir Thomas in his will dated on the day of his death, (a copy of which is in I. f.7), made Lady Katharine his executrix, and Lord Coventry with his son, overseers. He made Sir James his heir, and among many other bequests, left £20,000 to his daughter Elizabeth. He mentions that he had already provided for his widow and her eldest son Henry Frederick in the former's jointure. Most of the £20,000 was said to be in the house, in the shape of money, plate, etc. and the quarrel, at first, centred round this bequest. The rooms, of which Lord Coventry had the keys, were to be opened in the presence of Sir James, Henry Frederick, and others, among whom Lady Katharine was not one. On Sir James's refusal to consent to so public an entry into the rooms and on Lord Coventry declining to give up the keys to Sir James, the latter, with some friends of his own, broke open the doors and took possession of the money, plate, etc. Thus the suit began which lasted about 25 years. Lady Katharine died in 1650, and Sir James in 1670 without issue. His brother Thomas (d. 1666) left one son, "Tom of Ten Thousand" on whose murder in 1682, Longleat, etc. came into the hands of Henry Frederick's eldest son, Thomas, who subsequently became 1st Viscount Weymouth (Henry Frederick, who somewhere about the time of his father's death had married Lord Coventry's daughter, having died in 1680).

The seven boxes of documents consist of copies of pleadings, statements of case, depositions of witnesses, counsels' opinion, petitions, etc. etc. and are arranged in chronological order.