Lord Alfred Henry Paget (1816-1888) was the son of Henry William Paget (1768-1854), first Marquisof Anglesey and his second wife Charlotte, daughter of Earl Cadogen. Alfred was educated atWestminster School, became a lieutenant in 1834 and later joined his father's regiment, the 7thHussars, rising to the rank of general. He was chief equerry to Queen Victoria and clerk-marshalintermittently for some twenty-seven years between 1846 and 1874. He married Cecilia Wyndham(1830-1914), daughter of George Thomas Wyndham of Cromer Hall, Norfolk. At the time of her marriage,her guardians were William, Earl of Listowel and Maria Augusta, Countess of Listowel.
Lord and Lady Paget had a large family of six sons and seven daughters, including the Rt Hon. SirArthur Henry Fitzroy (1851-1938) and Admiral Sir Alfred Wyndham (1852-1918).
Following the death of Lord Alfred, the executors of his estate (including the 3rd Earl ofListowel and Lady Paget) established the Lady Alfred Paget Trust fund for the benefit of hischildren. The trust built up a modest portfolio of rented and mortgaged property in Middlesex. Italso invested in land in Rampton, Nottinghamshire following the sale of the estate by Colonel Eyrein 1893.
Colonel Henry Eyre was born in 1834, son of the Reverend Charles Wasteneys Eyre of Rampton andLucy Dorothy, youngest daughter of John Robinson Foulis of Helserton, Yorkshire. Henry was educatedat Harrow and Oxford and in 1861 married Kathleen (d.1899) daughter of Reverend Robert Machell ofBeverley, Yorkshire. They had a son, Gervas Malcolm, in 1862. Henry was a magistrate forNottinghamshire, a lieutenant of the Rifle Brigade and Lieutenant-colonel Commanding NottinghamshireRifle Volunteers. He served in the Crimea and India. Henry became Lord of the Manor of Rampton onthe death of his father in 1862. He also owned land in Tresswell, Nottinghamshire. He died inLincoln in 1904.
Eyre sold the greater part of the Rampton estate, comprising about 1,400 acres, at an auction atRetford in June 1893 arranged by Wynne and Son (solicitors) of 31 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. Themanor house and two farms were bought by Mr Cottham who in turn sold them to Charles R. Ellis JP in1902.
William Hare KP, PC, JP (1833-1924) the 3rd Earl of Listowel, was co-executor of Lord and LadyAlfred's estate and his name appears frequently in this collection. Hare succeeded his father,Vice-Admiral William Hare Windam, to the earldom in 1856. He married Lady Ernestine MaryBrudnell-Bruce and they had a son and two daughters. Hare was a lieutenant in the Scots Guards in1852 but was severely wounded in battle.