Raymond Richards Collection

This material is held atKeele University Archives and Special Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 172 RR
  • Dates of Creation
    • [110-]-[195-]
  • Name of Creator
  • Physical Description
    • 44 linear metres

Scope and Content

Comprising groups of family papers, The Hatton Wood Collection, Lord North Papers, Meysey Thompson Muniments, William Davenport and Company papers and a miscellaneous collection.

Family Archives: The Chetwode family papers, number over 600 items and relate mainly to land transactions in Cheshire and Berkshire. A group of 150 pieces, principally dating from the fifteenth century, concern the town of Nantwich. An eighteenth century cartulary of the Chetwode muniments survives. Sixty items relating to the Fox family of Statham Lodge at Lymm in Cheshire are concerned with the sale of properties in Lancashire, Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Westmorland. The muniments of Polstead Hall, Suffolk, comprise some 200 deeds, letters and papers relating to Cambridgeshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Suffolk and the City of London dating from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The Meysey Thompson muniments consist of some 1,200 Yorkshire deeds and family settlements dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Smaller groups of papers relate to the Whitehouse and Wainwright families of Brierley, Staffordshire, and to the Bulkeley, Lyon of Appleton Hall and Hankinson families of Cheshire, the Devereux family of Hereford and the Smallwood family.

The Hatton Wood Collection: An important collection of medieval deeds.

Lord North Papers: An accumulation of 136 items relating to Lord North and Guilford, later 1st Earl of Guilford. Included are papers from the period when Lord North was acting as executor of William Moore (d. 1746) of Polesden, Surrey and as trustee for Miss Ann Jekyll. Miscellaneous correspondence, papers of various families and items concerned with local government, the armed forces and the colonies are also included.

Meysey Thompson Muniments: A collection of deeds and related papers relating to Yorkshire.

William Davenport and Company: A small eighteenth-century accumulation, records in 16 volumes dating from 1745-1797 the trading activities of a Liverpool firm, Messrs. William Davenport & Co. which was involved in the slave trade. Nine volumes contain invoices of cargoes and accounts for trading with West Africa in slaves and with the West Indies. The remaining volumes comprise a waste book,1745-1766; an entry book with copies of bills of exchange, two ledgers 1763-1775, 1788-1797; a cash book 1764-1775; a register containing details of nearly 3,000 bills of exchange 1769-1786; and finally an account book for beads and cowries,1766-1770. This last item has been used by archaeologists in Canada and the United States to date North American indian graves. In all 63 voyages are recorded.

Miscellaneous Collection: Cheshire items were of special interest to this collector. These include muragers' accounts for the city of Chester, 1800-1809; a sixteenth century notebook of customs and dues payable at Middlewich with lists of inhabitants; a commonplace book of Joseph Warburton of Bowden, 1707; an account book of the executors of Thomas Ekins of Chester, 1745-1753; three eighteenth-century account books relating to Titherington, deeds relating to Thelwall, 1777-1886; a Combermere cropping book; an account book of the Revd. John Parry's printing press in Chester, 1826-1837; James Hall's manuscript volumes relating to Nantwich, Acton, Dorfield, Wistaston, Audlem and Wybunbury; and five seventeenth century items from Prestbury respecting burying in wool, a practice enforced by the Burial in Wool Acts of 1667 and 1678.

Raymond Richards also acquired records of Battleshall or Battleswick Manor, near Colchester, Essex. These include manor court rolls dating from 1418-1792; transcriptions of court rolls; seventeenth century working papers of the courts; papers referring to specific properties; nineteenth century estate correspondence and deeds; and papers relating to manorial rights and duties.

Literary items in the collection include a fragment from a memorandum book of Henry Fielding reflecting his activities as a Justice of the Peace; part of a letter from Samuel Richardson to Susanna Highmore, c.1750; and a letter of Christopher Anstey, author of The New Bath Guide (1766), to his publisher Robert Dodsley have all been published. A holograph poem The Goose, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson survives on a single sheet torn from a notebook. A scrapbook compiled by John Anderson in 1870 with the purpose of displaying autographs includes letters from Charles Dickens, H. W. Longfellow, Maria Edgeworth, Leigh Hunt, W .H. Ainsworth and Harriet Martineau.

A group of letters from Edward VII to Lady Dorothy Nevill is preserved as is a made up volume of items such as seating plans and various kinds of admission tickets printed in connection with Queen Victoria's coronation in 1838. The latter may have been compiled as an official record by someone in the Earl Marshal's office or for private purposes. An album of largely unpublished photographs of the royal family, their relations and friends collected by Miss Hildyard, a governess to the children of Queen Victoria, completes the items of royal connection in the Raymond Richards Collection.

Of considerable interest to scholars is a minute book of the Society for the Improvement of West India Plantership (later the Agricultural Society) which runs from 1811-1816. The Society held monthly meetings when each estate was considered as well as the production of sugar and other matters. Other miscellaneous items of particular note are the building accounts for Blenheim Palace, January 1708, a group of letters, 1876-1879; some of which were written during the Afghan war, of William Simpson special artist to the Illustrated London News; and a release from the Bishop of Ely to Thomas Bycham of messuages in Ely, with the chapter seal, 1472.

The collection also includes several hundred prints, mostly portraits or of topographical interest, formerly held in the library of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres. Ephemera includes election posters from Wolverhampton dating from 1820 and 1848 and a group of 18th and nineteenth century playbills, mostly from the Theatre Royal, Chester and the Liver Theatre, Liverpool.

Reference: Keele University, Special Collections and Archives Raymond Richards Collection (http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/li/specarc/archives/richards.htm). Accessed December 2001.

Administrative / Biographical History

Mr. Raymond Richards of Birkdale and later of Gawsworth Hall, Cheshire. A Cheshire man, born in Gawsworth in 1906, he made a name for himself as a county historian and antiquary. He published Old Cheshire Churches in 1947, became Chairman of the Ancient Monuments Society and for 25 years was a trustee of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust. He died in Galworth in 1978.

Reference: The Times (10 October 1978).

Arrangement

The Raymond Richards Papers are arranged by the constituent collections. These include: Family Archives; The Hatton Wood Collection; Lord North Papers; William Davenport and Company; Miscellaneous Collection.

Access Information

There are no restrictions on access to these papers. Viewing is by prior appointment.

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased in 1957 from Mr. Raymond Richards of Birkdale and later of Gawsworth Hall, Cheshire. The collection, which had been deposited at the John Rylands Library, Manchester, was amassed over a number of years from many different sources and is heterogeneous in character.

Note

English

Other Finding Aids

The collection is listed. Finding aids may be consulted in Special Collections and Archives at Keele University, and at the National Register of Archives in London. Collection level descriptions also exists for the Lord North Papers (GB 172 RRN), the Meysey Thompson Muniments (GB 172 RRMT), and the Hatton Wood Collection (GB 172 RRHW).

Authority records exist for Raymond Richards (GB 152 AAR1978), and Francis North first earl of Guilford (GB 152 AAR1991).

Alternative Form Available

Raymond Richards: William Davenport and Company papers also appear on a CD ROM database: Eltis, D. et al., The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge University Press 2000).

Conditions Governing Use

There are no restrictions on the use of this archive, apart from the requirements of copyright law.

Accruals

Further deposits are not expected.

Bibliography

Works using the material

Reference: Harris, S.J., The Legh of Booths Muniments (c.1280-1808) The Study of a Cheshire Family through its Archive (Keele University PhD, 1999).

Reference: 'Hand-List of the Legh of Booths Charters in the John Rylands Library', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library (Volume 32, 1950).

Additional Information

English