NERQUIS HALL ESTATE PAPERS

Nerquis Hall estate records including deeds, 1291-1867, relating to lands mainly in Flintshire, 1291-1867, Anglesey, 1440-1688, Caernarfonshire, 1500-1752, Denbighshire, 1511-1735, and Chester, mainly in Watergate Street, 1544-1738; estate papers, 1505-1804, including rentals, surveys, and accounts for Iddinshall and elsewhere in Cheshire, 1646-1666; correspondence, mainly relating to the Cheshire estate, 1613-1792; letters to Owen Wynne, Overton, relating to the Pengwern estate, 1797-1804; and plans, 1668-1884, including some colliery plans; family papers, 1577-1910, including marriage settlements, 1623-1765, wills, 1577-1837, correspondence, 1615-1818, Giffard family diaries, 1766-1789, genealogies of the Wynn, Pyndar, Giffard and Tringham families; legal papers, 1595-1908, including title disputes over lands in Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, Denbighshire and Flintshire, 1595-1673, and a dispute over the education of the daughters of John Giffard as Roman Catholics, 1768-1779; and business letters and accounts of Owen Wynne of Lombard Street, London, druggist, 1792-1800.

Nerquis (Nercwys) Hall was built by John Wynn in 1637-8. He employed Raphe Booth of Chester, a freeman, to build "a plot of buildeinge drawen by Evan Jones, Carpenter … in as good plight as a pile of buildeing was lately built and wrought for Evan Edwardes, esquire …" (item 1007a), which clearly indicates that the workmanship was to be modelled on that at Rhual which had been built for Evan Edwardes three years previously.

John Wynn himself is a somewhat shadowy figure. Although he features prominently in the deeds in this collection as a purchaser of lands, and is reputed to have been three times married to daughters of long-established local families, his connection with the various more illustrious branches of the Wynn family in North Wales is obscure. The pedigree in 'Powys Fadog' Vol. IV pp. 244-5 traces his descent from the Wynns of Copparleni in Flintshire, but the numerous documents in this collection from the early sixteenth century onwards, which relate to his ancestors of the previous four generations suggest that the family originated from Llanarmon yn Ial in Denbighshire. The early part of the pedigree on the following pages is based almost solely on the evidence of these documents. However, it is obvious that there must have been some connection with the Wynn family of Penhesgyn in Anglesey, from the numerous deeds and estate papers from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries relating to them, which form part of this collection.

The history of the Nerquis estate is complicated by its almost continual descent on the female side. John Wynn, the builder of Nerquis Hall, whose many acquisitions of lands in the neighbourhood formed the basis of the estate, had three sons, but the two eldest pre-deceased him leaving no issue, so the property descended to his son, Robert by his third wife, Anne Thelwall. Robert Wynn married Jane Goodman of Ruthin in 1643, and was sheriff of Flintshire in 1662. He had three daughters, to the eldest of whom, Anne, wife of Thomas Pyndar, esquire, the estate passed on his death. The many documents in this collection relating to Cheshire are present as a result of this marriage. Thomas Pyndar was the son of Sir Peter Pyndar, Bt. of Iddinshall, co. Chester, who was created a baronet in 1662 and was sheriff of Cheshire in 1681. Thomas and Anne Pyndar had one son, Paul, who died unmarried, at the age of twenty-three. The Nerquis estate then reverted to the heirs of Robert Wynn's second daughter, Mary Williams, and on the death of her son, Edward in 1737, to her daughter, Elizabeth, wife of Robert Hyde of Cattenhall, Cheshire. Their only daughter, Elizabeth, married John Giffard of Plas Ucha, Nercwys, in 1765. The Giffard family were staunch Roman Catholics. Despite the agreement made between them and Mrs Hyde before the settlement was drawn up about the religious education of any children of the marriage, and the inheritance of the estate, a bitter dispute on this subject broke out between the families after the birth of a second daughter. Elizabeth Giffard sided with her mother against her husband, who was accused of carrying off his infant daughters to France to ensure they were both brought up as Catholics. There is an interesting group of papers relating to this, including the narrative defence put forward by John Giffard in the Court of Chancery (item 1158). After the death of Mrs Hyde, the dispute appears to have lapsed and the Nerquis estate passed to John Giffard's elder daughter, Elizabeth, who died unmarried in 1842. By her will she bequeathed Nerquis to Rev. Maurice Wynn, who, in turn, bequeathed it to his nephew, Rev. Lloyd Fletcher of Gwernhaulod, who assumed the additional name of Wynne. He was succeeded in turn by his three nephews, the last of whom Philip Lloyd Fletcher died in 1906, the estate finally passing to his cousin Ll. W.H. Tringham. In the 1960s the Hall was sold to Mr & Mrs A.W. Furse who have devoted considerable time and effort to restoring the house and grounds.

In addition to large numbers of deeds for estates in Flintshire, Denbighshire, Anglesey and Cheshire and smaller groups for Caernarvonshire and Merioneth, the collection includes a number of interesting items. Among these are a group of plans and elevations for ornate outbuildings at Nerquis Hall, including an orangery, which date from the early 19th century when Miss Giffard was in possession (No. 938), a detailed survey of the estate in 1734 (No. 958), bills relating to the funerals of Edward Williams and Robert Hyde in 1737 and 1749 respectively (984), correspondence referring to reaction to the events of the Civil Wars in Cheshire (993) and to social and commercial life in Chester, 1766-75 (1070), 18th century journals of visits to Bath and London, (1074-8) and a scrap-book compiled by Julia Lloyd Fletcher containing press cuttings and leaflets relating to Nerquis and district, 1821-1883 (1087).

Arranged chronologically into the following: deeds; estate records; family papers; shrievalty; military; official; ecclesiastical; legal; business and miscellaneous.

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Compiled by Mair James for the HMC/NLW Family and Estates project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: James, Brian, 'The Great Landowners of Wales in 1873', National Library of Wales Journal, XIV (1965-6); Veysey A.G. (ed.), Guide to the Flintshire Record Office (Flintshire County Council, 1974); Flintshire Record Office, Schedule of Nerquis Hall MSS.

Hard copies of the catalogue are available at Flintshire Record Office, National Library of Wales and the National Register of Archives.

Compiled by Mair James for the HMC/NLW Family and Estates project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: James, Brian, 'The Great Landowners of Wales in 1873', National Library of Wales Journal, XIV (1965-6); Veysey A.G. (ed.), Guide to the Flintshire Record Office (Flintshire County Council, 1974); Flintshire Record Office, Schedule of Nerquis Hall MSS.

Collection level descriptions input by Frances Jones.

Usual copyright regulations apply.

Usual copyright regulations apply

All records deposited at Flintshire Record Office have been retained.

Accruals are not expected, but items are occasionally offered for sale and may be purchased.

Further papers relating to Nerquis Hall are Flintshire Record Office, D/BC, D/LE; National Library of Wales, Nerquis Hall Estate Records Papers; and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive.