Deeds and documents relating to property owned by the Brown family and purchased by James Worthington in Upper Broughton (Broughton Sulney), Nottinghamshire

Around 250 deeds and documents relating to Upper Broughton. Pending detailed analysis of the documents, it is considered likely that they all relate to land transactions, wills and other legal business involving members of the Brown family and the fields and other properties which made up Broughton House Farm or other family properties in Upper Broughton. The collection includes a conveyance of two messuages and an orchard in Upper Broughton to James Worthington in 1894, and a further conveyance of a messuage and blacksmith's shop in 1895. It is probable that all the earlier documents were gathered as proof of title and descent of these properties over the years until Worthington purchased them.

The latest items in the collection are dated 1914 and 1915, and are valuations of two separate properties following the death of James Worthington.

Broughton House on Top Green in Upper Broughton was a farm until the early 20th century. The last farmers there were the Worthington family. Before that, four generations of the Brown family lived there. One William Brown had a lace factory in Nottingham; others became farmers and their names feature on many of the documents. Other names that are scattered across the documents are Daykin, Gregory, Peit/Peet, Peach, Turner, Cross, Mackley, Robinson, Brett, Redfern, and Wright. One of the last members of the Brown family, Lydia Mary Brown, married Frederick William Redfern, a cloth merchant in Russia Row, London.

A paper label found inside the chest describes the contents as 'Old Deeds Relating to Estate at Broughton Purchased by Mr Jas. Worthington from Brown and Redfern's Trustees'. James Worthington himself died in 1914.

The collection is arranged in the order in which the History Group found and described the deeds.

Accessible to all readers.

This description is the only finding aid available for the collection. Copyright in the description belongs to The University of Nottingham.

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Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult.

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in writing on our Permission to Publish form (see the Reprographics Services part of our website or email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk)

Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

The deeds and documents were discovered in six paper bundles and loose inside a metal chest in an outhouse of Broughton House in 1975 by the new owner of the property. The chest was removed to the Old Rectory when Broughton House was sold on again, but was later given to the Upper Broughton History Group by Nick Connors, whose father had discovered it. In 2023 the members of the History Group worked to catalogue information from the deeds, helped by a grant from Rushcliffe Borough Council and assistance from Upper Broughton Parish Council. The deeds and documents were transferred to the University of Nottingham in October 2024.

Upper Broughton, also sometimes called Broughton Sulney, is a village on the border with Leicestershire. Manorial records relating to Broughton (Upper Broughton), Nottinghamshire, 1535-1589, are held within the Clifton collection (Cl M 1-41)