The following documents were deposited with the office in 1988 and were given accession number 1981. The bulk of the collection is made up of deeds and other documents for the manor of Glympton. There is a sizeable amount of correspondence relating to the Wheate family, who owned the estate in the seventeenth century; some of these papers relate to the Wheate family interests in Coventry.
Catalogued by Eleanor Roberts, January 1993.
Historical Background
The earliest deed in this collection is from the time when the manor was held by John of St John who inherited it in 1362, from another John of St John, probably his grandfather. He was succeeded by his brother thomas who died in 1432, and was followed by his granddaughter Clemence and her husband John Lydeard. They handed the manor to their son Thomas Lydeard (died 1480) who passed it to his son Anthony. Anthony Lydeard's second son Edmund inherited the manor on his brother William's death. Edmund sold the manor in 1547 to John Cupper.
John Cupper settled the manor in 1581 on his son Richard and his wife Frances, with remainder to his other son Thomas and his male heirs. Richard died in 1583 leaving only a daughter, Frances, who married a Mr Pollard and held the manor for her life. Thomas Cupper died in 1621 and in 1632 his son JOhn (with Frances Pollard's consent) sold the Manor to Sir John Sedley. Sedley sold it to William Wheate in 1633.
For more details on the estate see volume XI of the Victoria County History, pages 123-129.
Arrangement of sections in the catalogue
The property records have been listed first, and in some detail as they are all primarily pre 1450. They have been arranged in groups according to identifiable common characteristics, for example a common piece of property. Where possible place names have been identified and modern spellings used, otherwise place names are spelt as they are in the document. Surnames have not been standardised and are given as they are in the documents, even though this may mean the same person's name being spelt in several ways.
The court rolls are grouped together and arranged chronologically.
The later documents to do with the Wheate family and their occupation of the manor have also been roughly grouped together under headings based on their subject matter: Family business, the Glympton Estate, Rents and Tenants, Woodward vs Wheate (a dispute between the Rector and Wheate over tithes that seems to have escalated into a libel action), Customs and History of Glympton, Other Glympton Affairs, Other items with no confirmed connection to Glympton, Wheate family property in Coventry & Meriden, Warks.
Abbreviations
als. also
Bart. Baronet
dau. daughter
decd deceased
encl enclosed
ends. endorsed
esq. esquire
gent. gentleman
jun. junior
memd. memorandum/a
occ. occupied by
recd received
rev. on reverse of
sen. senior
sig. signed
All other abbreviations - months of the year, regnal years and English counties are standard.