Wiles Family: correspondence and genealogical papers

Clement Wiles had developed an interest in the history of the Wiles family by 1909, and continued to accumulate family documents and genealogical information until the 1950s. He traced the Wiles tree to Holywell in south Lincolnshire in the early eighteenth century. The sons of Henry Wiles (1729-1815), a gardener at Holywell, were an enterprising group. The eldest, James, settled in Jamaica as superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, and was in due course joined by his brothers Henry and John. All three became plantation owners. Henry's children were educated in England, and his son John (1812-1908) entered the Cambridge statuary business of his uncle John Gilbert (who had married Elizabeth Wiles). John Wiles married his cousin Eliza Gilbert, and carried on his uncle's firm. His fourth son Joseph Pitts Wiles (1849-1929) became headmaster of Warkworth House School in Cambridge, and a Baptist minister in Cambridge and Devizes. He and his first wife Mary Parker had a large family, of whom the eldest was Clement Wiles. Clement inherited a quantity of correspondence of James Wiles and his brothers, much of it written to their sister Ann in London, beginning in the 1790s, as well as letters and other documents of his grandfather John Wiles the statuary and his father Joseph Pitts Wiles. To this collection he added letters to himself from his mother, his aunt Elizabeth Ann Wiles, his brothers and sisters, and his three elder children. To many of the letters he appended explanatory notes, either on separate sheets of paper, or in pencil on the documents themselves. He reduced the length of some items (mostly of twentieth-century date), carefully noting in each case the number of words that he had excised. In his later years he compiled a hand-written volume entitled 'Family letters & records 1690-1956', incorporating an introductory survey, transcripts of all the original documents and of his notes, a detailed index of names, and a genealogical table.

The catalogue follows Clement Wiles' arrangement of the documents.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

The original letters and other documents, and Clement Wiles' explanatory notes, were presented to the University Library in 1967 by his family per his eldest son Dr G.G. Wiles of the University of Cape Town. A photocopy of 'Family letters & records 1690-1756' (Add.7721/193) was purchased from Mrs Gilian Wiles of Cambridge in 2001.

This finding aid has been converted from a catalogue created by S G Roberts in January 2016.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.