Webb estate records

Records of the manor of Wentsland and Bryngwyn, 1633-1951, including court rolls, 1633-1839, lists of tenants, 1633-1925, surveys, 1659-1704, stewardship papers, 1714-1944, vouchers, ledgers and cash books, 1827-1936, minutes and presentments, 1840-1925, correspondence, 1868-1939, and enfranchisements and extinguishments, 1876-1951; Wentsland and Bryngwyn estate title deeds, 1693-1912, and administration records, 1716-1951, comprising rentals, 1716-1946, maps and plans, 1774-1950, correspondence and letter books, 1805-1947, accounts, 1809-1951, sales particulars, 1815-1926, vouchers, 1853-1943, and other general papers, 1813-1949. Papers and correspondence relating to the development of the Wentsland and Bryngwyn estate, including papers relating to the exploitation of coal and iron at Abersychan, Monmouthshire, 1820-1932, coal and clay at Graig Ddu in the parish of Abersychan, 1840-1907, coal at Tyr Valentine in the parish of Trefethin, 1793-1916; ledgers, invoice books, etc., of the Graig Ddu Brickworks, 1840-1893, and Risca Brickworks, 1835-[c. 1910], and leases, including railway leases, 1817-1914, and leases of Pontypool Town Forge, 1770-1926, Pontypool Market, 1717-1896, and galeages accounts, 1836-1943. The archive also includes Webb family papers, 1834-1902, and papers relating to its Norton Court estate, Gloucestershire, 1766-1866, including title deeds, 1766-1863, accounts, 1832-66, and rentals, 1834-1862; Fettiplace of Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, family papers and papers relating to its Adwell estate, 1554-1897; Fettiplace family and Cleeve Prior estate papers, Worcestershire, 1787-1904, including title deeds, 1787-1859, and rentals, 1850-1877, and Parkes of Wyken, Shropshire, family papers, [c. 1849]-1900, and estate records, 1805-1890; and title deeds relating to properties mainly in Shilton, Berkshire, 1680-1837, Bledlow Ridge, Buckinghamshire, 1671-1813, Gloucestershire, 1785-[c. 1877], Herefordshire, 1713-1870, Middlesex and London, 1777-1878, and Shropshire (including Cheshire, Denbighshire and Hertfordshire), 1559-1847.

The manor of Wentsland and Bryngwyn is listed in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 as one of the possessions of the monastery of Llantarnam in Monmouthshire. In 1539 Henry VIII granted all the lands of the former monastery of Llantarnam to John Parker, one of the esquires of the king's stables. By 1552, John Parker had assigned the monastic lands to Walter ap Jenkin. In 1560 Elizabeth I granted the possessions of the monastery, and the lordships of Neath Ultra and Neath Citra, to William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, for £3199. The following year the earl received licence to alienate the manor of Wentsland and Bryngwyn to William Morgan (d. 1582) of Llantarnam, MP for Monmouthshire 1555-1571. William Morgan was succeeded by his only son and heir Edward Morgan (c. 1550-1633), MP for Monmouthshire 1586, who was succeeded by his son William Morgan, who also died 1633. His son Edward Morgan (d. 1653) was created a baronet in 1642, and is probably the Sir Edward Morgan who was MP for Monmouthshire 1614-1622. His estate was sequestered in 1651, he being a Catholic and a royalist, when the estate was worth £886 a year, of which Wentsland and Bryngwyn returned £55 a year. In 1654, Sir Edward Morgan, 2nd baronet, petitioned under the Recusants' Act of 1653 for the return of two parts of his estate, which had been sequestered for his recusancy only. On the death of Sir Edward Morgan 3rd baronet, in 1682, the estates were divided between his two infant daughters, as tenants in common of Edeligion, Pwll-pen, Magna Porta, and Wentsland and Bryngwyn. Ann Morgan (d. 1712) never married, while her sister Frances married Edmund Bray of Barrington, Gloucestershire, MP. The estates were partitioned in 1707, with the manors of Edeligion and Pwll-pen allotted to Ann Morgan, and Magna Porta and Wentsland and Bryngwyn allotted to Frances Bray. Frances Bray settled her manors in 1707 on her sons and daughters. Only two daughters left issue, Mary the wife of John Blewitt of London, and Frances (d. 1764) the wife of Thomas Fettiplace (formerly Bushell) of Swinbrook, Oxfordshire. Thomas and Frances Fettiplace were succeeded by their three daughters and coheirs, Frances, wife of Richard Gorges of Eye, Herefordshire, MP for Leominster 1754-1761, Mary (dsp?), successively wife of Blandy Shaw and George Kemeys of Maendy, Glamorgan, and Arabella, wife of John Webb of Cote, Gloucestershire, MP for Gloucester 1780-1795. A private Act of Parliament of 1810 partitioned Frances Bray's estates and manors. The manor of Magna Porta and the mansion house of Llantarnam were to pass to Mary Blewitt's heirs. This estate descended to Reginald James Blewitt, whose trustees sold the estate in about 1888. By the 1810 Act, the manor of Wentsland and Bryngwyn was to pass to the heirs of Frances Fettiplace, with a moiety each passing to the heirs of Frances Gorges and Arabella Webb. One fifth of a moiety of the manor of Wentsland and Bryngwyn passed to each of the five surviving daughters of Frances Gorges, that is Diana Frances Gorges (d. unmarried), Elizabeth (d. 1829) wife of Charles Henry Sheldon of Haute Fontaine, France (her second husband), Arabella (d. 1839) wife of John Gwynne (d. 1852), Meliora (d. 1843) wife of Deliverance Dacre, and Mary wife of Thynne Howe Gwynne of Buckland, Brecknockshire (his second wife). John and Frances Webb's (only?) son, Edward Webb (d. c. 1839), had a daughter Elizabeth Frances Webb, who died unmarried in 1877. A. N. Middleton of Newark came forward in 1864, claiming to be the son of Mary, the disowned daughter of the Rev Thomas Webb, a supposed brother of Benjamin Webb. Mary Gwynne's share was sold in 1871 to the Ebbw Vale Steel, Iron & Coal Company.

Arranged into the following sections: manorial estate; estate development [Monmouthshire]; galeages; legal papers; deeds relating to premises apart from Monmouthshire; Webb family papers; Parkes private papers; miscellaneous records; and supplementary list.

No restrictions

Deposit. It is Gwent Record Office's policy to withold information about donors or depositors in view of possible misuse.

Compiled by Stephen Benham for the HMC/NLW Family and Estates project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: Bradney, Joseph, Sir, A History of Monmouthshire (London, 1992 facsimile ed.), vol. 1, part 2b; Monmouthshire Record Office, Catalogue of documents relating to the Webb estate.

Hard copies of the 1967 catalogue are available at Gwent Record Office, National Library of Wales and the National Register of Archives. Most of the papers relating to the manor of Wentsland and Bryngwyn were deposited and catalogued in 1941. The 1967 Webb MSS catalogue does not include some 1941 papers of minor importance, but does include all the papers received since 1941. Therefore, for a complete list of the manorial records, the 1941 and 1967 lists should be used in conjuction. Further details relating to manorial records within the archive can be accessed on-line from the Manorial Documents Register .

Usual copyright regulations apply.

All records deposited at Gwent Record Office have been retained.

Accruals are not expected

There is a copy of the private Act of Parliament (50 Geo. III c.182) at the Gwent Record Office: D3655.1.