The following documents were deposited as accessions 2409, 2423, and 2678. Although they all refer to the property that eventually became known as the Shipton Court Estate, many of the deeds only deal with part of the estate. They are therefore arranged in groups based on commen properties, it should be noted that identifying the exact property referred to is not always easy. The earliest deed in the collection dates from 1690, but it was Richard Ellis, who came into a third share of the property by marriage c.1780, who built up the estate to something like its final form. Sir Chandos Reade also added to the property considerably during the 1850s. He had no surviving family on his death, and left the estate to Joseph Wakefield, on condition that the latter changed his name to Reade. According to the 1851 census for Shipton-under-Wychwood, Joseph Wakefield was the butler at Shipton Court!
The property covered by the estate borders onto the present A361 road from Burford, and includes land in both Shipton and Milton-under-Wychwood.
Catalogued by Eleanor Roberts, March 1992.