This catalogue describes those papers of the More and More Molyneux family of Loseley Park, Artington, which relate to parliamentary, national and international affairs between c.1536-1775. For a full introduction to the family, its estates and records see catalogue LM.
The following is a detailed summary of the contents:
LM/SECTIONC/1 SECTION C.1: PAPERS RELATING TO PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS c.1540-1775
Successive Mores represented the county of Surrey and boroughs within it from 1539 when Christopher More was returned as one of the two knights of the shire. More was returned again in 1547 when his son William was also returned for Reigate. William More subsequently sat for the borough of Guildford in 1553, 1554, 1555, 1572, 1589 and 1597, for the county in 1563, 1571, 1584, 1586 and 1593, and for the borough of Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1559. William's son George More also represented either Guildford or Surrey in 12 consecutive parliaments (Guildford, 1594, 1586, 1589, 1693, 1604, 1624; Surrey, 1597, 1601, 1614, 1621, 1625, 1626) and both father and son were appointed to many Commons committees; George, in particular, served on a number of occasions on the committee for privileges and returns which judged disputed elections. Sir George More's son, Robert (d.1626), represented the same two constituencies as his father, serving for Guildford in 1601, 1614 and 1621 and for Surrey in 1604 and 1624. The acquisition of the manor and hundred of Godalming, which included the manor of Haslemere, in 1601, gave the Mores a measure of influence over Haslemere borough's two parliamentary seats. Robert's son Poynings More, who succeeded Sir George in 1632, sat for Haslemere in 1624, 1625, 1626 and 1640 and for Guildford in 1628. After the Restoration Sir William More II represented the borough in 1675, 1679, 1680 and 1681 as did his uncle James Gresham in 1679. After Sir William More's death in 1684 the political influence of the family went into a steep decline, Sir William More Molyneux even failing to win a Haslemere seat in 1722. Only in 1754 was a member of the family, James More Molyneux, again returned for Haslemere; after his death in 1759 he was succeeded by his brother Thomas until the latter's death in 1776. The manor of Haslemere was sold in 1784, which curtailed the family's parliamentary involvement. Other letters and papers relating to parliamentary elections will be found in 6729/- and LM/COR/- [database available]; for papers relating to Surrey county and Haslemere borough elections, 1558-1740, see sections D.2 and D.3. Accounts of the parliamentary careers of Sir Christopher More and Sir William More and of those of Sir George More and Sir Robert More before 1603 can be found in S T Bindoff, The House of Commons, 1509-1558 (London, 1982) and P W Hasler, The House of Commons, 1558-1603 (London, 1981). Further information about Sir George More's career can be found in Roger Munden, 'George More, 1553-1632' in Surrey Archaeological Collections, vol 83 (1996). For the careers of the later Mores and More Molyneuxs as MPs for Haslemere see Basil Duke Henning, ed., The House of Commons, 1660-1690 (1983), Romney Sedgwick, ed., The House of Commons, 1715-1754 (1970) and L Namier and J Brooke, eds., The House of Commons, 1754-1790 (1964). Some of the papers below relate to periods when no More was sitting in Parliament. Their provenance is uncertain and they have been left here for convenience. Other letters and papers relating to the Mores' activities in the House of Commons will be found in 6729/- and LM/COR/- [database available]; for other parliamentary records relating to local Surrey affairs, see LM/1331/30-32, section D.5, for papers concerning an unsuccessful Wey Navigation bill, 1620s; and LM/1331/80-81, section A.3.7.11, for petition concerning inclosure, 1803; for copy of letter of King James I to Parliament, read in the Commons on 1 May 1604, advocating union of England and Scotland, see MS Lb.616 (Z/407 sec.3.2.4); for a collection of documents relating to habeas corpus, 1628, compiled by Poynings More, see MS Lb.683 (Z/407 sec.5.1.3). See also 5430/1 for articles of the charge of high treason against Thomas, Earl of Strafford, c.1641.
LM/SECTIONC/2 SECTION C.2: PAPERS RELATING TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EVENTS c.1536-1759
This section includes papers relating to national and international events, including news sheets and copies of accounts of major occurences such as military preparations in the Low Countries in the 1580s and the battle of Kinsale, 1601. Some of the papers may stem from the activities of members of the More family as members of parliament (for records pertaining directly to these activities see the preceding group, parliamentary affairs) and none can be related to an individual member of the family. As a group, they reflect the interests and concerns of a politically aware gentry family. For papers relating to the trial and execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, see section C.1 above. See MS Lb.335 for a discourse concerning the pretended match between the Duke of Norfolk and the Queen of Scots, 1571, and MS Lb.606 for an entertainment at Oxford for a Polish Prince, 1583 (both Z/407 sec.2.2.1); see MS Lb.344 and 607 for papers relating to the exploits of Francis Drake, 1585-1587, and MS Lb.614 for an account of Oxford University, 1599 (both Z/407 sec.2.2.4); for a letter from Sir Thomas Dale to Sir William Throckmorton describing his voyages in the South Seas, 1619, see MS Lb.667 (Z/407 sec.3.2.4); for a ballad describing the granting of degrees to favourites of King James I at Cambridge, in 1624, see MS Lb.676 (Z/407 sec.3.2.1); for a report of a battle between the Dutch and the French at Tobago, 1677, see Lb710-711 (Z/407 sec.6.2)