The subfonds EGR11 contains papers from Dunham Massey Hall which relate to the Cheshire and Lancashire estates of the Booth and Grey families. Records that relate to the Cheshire and Lancashire estates but are written in, or bear significant annotations in, the hand of a member of the Booth or Grey families, or contain other evidence that they were kept in the personal possession of a member of the families, are to be found within subfonds EGR3 and EGR4.
There is an important series of rentals and surveys, the earliest of which dates from 1499 (EGR11/1/1), and a record of an inquest rehearsing the descent of the barony of Dunham Massey in the fourteenth century (EGR11/5/1). However, the majority of items within EGR11 date from the period after 1700. They include eight bundles of vouchers for the estate and general accounts of Hugo Worthington, agent to the Earls of Stamford, in 1817-1819 (EGR11/2), and a folio abstract of deeds compiled in 1714 at the behest of George Booth, 2nd Earl of Warrington (EGR11/5/3).
From the late eighteenth century onwards the Cheshire estates of the Earls of Stamford were managed from the Stamford Estate Office in the centre of Altrincham. Consequently the vast majority of records from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that relate to the Cheshire estates were found there, rather than at the Hall, and these have been listed as a separate subfonds (EGR14). Neither the Altrincham Estate Office nor Dunham Massey Hall have yielded many papers relating to the Lancashire estates, which were separately administered from Ashton Old Hall and later the Ashton Estate Office. The majority of references to the Lancashire estates occurs in items such as rentals and accounts which encompass both counties.
Related Materials in Other Subfonds
Among the Manorial Records, EGR2, are three medieval extents or estate surveys for the barony of Dunham Massey, dated 1347 and 1411 (EGR2/1/1), and four detailed manorial accounts for the barony, 1362-3, 1412-13, 1413-14 and 1416-17 (EGR2/1/2).
Within subfonds EGR3, Papers of the Booth Family, are the following records relating to the Booth and Grey estates in Cheshire and Lancashire: a compendium of family and estate accounts compiled by Sir George Booth (1566-1652), 1648-52 (EGR3/3/3/2); two bundles of papers relating to the will of Henry Booth (1651-94), 1st Earl of Warrington, and to family matters, which also contain estate accounts, 1690s-1749 (EGR3/6/2/1-2); a rental compiled by George Booth (1675-1758), 2nd Earl of Warrington, 1743-5 (EGR3/6/2/10); an account book recording estate and household receipts and disbursements, 1757-8 (EGR3/6/2/12); six bundles of estate accounts and other papers of Mary Countess of Stamford, 1746-71 (EGR3/7/1/4-6, EGR3/7/1/8 & EGR3/7/1/11-12); and papers relating to the construction of the Bridgewater Canal, 1758-67 (EGR3/7/2).
Within subfonds EGR4, Personal Papers of the Grey Family, there are two series of estate papers belonging to the 5th and 6th Earls of Stamford, 1773-1819 (EGR4/1/8), and 1815-43 (EGR4/2/7) respectively. These largely comprise correspondence between the Earls and their agents for the Cheshire estates, Isaac and Hugo Worthington.
Among the Household Records, EGR7, are household consumption account books, which include accounts of the farming steward at Dunham Massey Hall, 1742/3-1841 (EGR7/1); farming steward's cash books, 1770-1831 (EGR7/2); farming steward's account books, 1774-1840 (EGR7/3); mill account books, 1780-1844 (EGR7/4); and four bundles of quarterly farming steward's accounts, 1822 (EGR7/12/1-4).