RHUAL ESTATE PAPERS

Deeds, 1331-1875, mainly relating to lands in Flintshire but including also deeds relating to the manor of Exhall, Warwickshire, 1629-1823; estate papers, 1646-1934, including rentals and accounts, 1666-1908, surveys, particulars and valuations, 1646-1845, correspondence, 1665-1915, plans, [early 18 cent.]-1934, and sale particulars,[late 18 cent.]-1832; family papers, [mid 16 cent.]-1915, including marriage settlements, 1584-1864, wills, 1668-1864, accounts and financial papers, 1661-1915, diaries of a continental tour, 1823-1824; papers of Field Marshal Sir Alured Clarke, 1759-1830, including copy journal of the legislative council of the province of Lower Canada, 1792-1793, and minutes as Commander in Chief of the East India Company, 1798-1801; deeds relating to lead mines in Flintshire, 1723-1763; and accounts and papers for lead mines on Mold Mountain, 1736-1742. Miscellaneous papers include a letter book, 1614-1624, of Richard Sackville, earl of Dorset, relating to Sussex military affairs.

The archive contains a group of documents previously held at the National Library of Wales, which have been amalgamated with the two deposits at the Flintshire Record Office.

This schedule is a completely revised and re-arranged list of the Rhual MSS previously deposited in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, and the two deposits made in the former Flintshire Record Office in 1958 and 1972. Major B.H.P Heaton, the owner of Rhual, had long wished to re-unite the collection as in many cases material in the one repository complemented that in the other. In 1985 it was agreed that the records held by the National Library since 1949 should be transferred to the Clwyd Record Office at Hawarden and it was decided to prepare a new schedule of the whole collection which would allow items of a similar nature to be brought together in a more logical arrangement. This has involved re-numbering of all the items, but the old references have been provided at the back of the volume so it is hoped that any minor inconvenience this may cause to researchers who had used the collection previously will be outweighed by the advantage of having all the material in one place.

The collection contains much important and interesting material of a very varied character. The diary of Nehemiah Griffith, 1715, which was published by the Chester Archaeological Society in 1909 is perhaps the best-known item, but there are other eighteenth-century diaries and a group of papers relating to elections in Flintshire in the 1720s and 30s which are of equal historical value. The collection is also rich in correspondence reflecting the official, religious and military interests of the Edwards, Griffith and Philips families and their concern for the future of Rhual from the time of the Civil War to the early nineteenth-century when financial pressures forced its much-regretted sale. Sir Alured Clarke, who bought back the greater part of it to restore it to the family, also left with them many of his papers including personal diaries and letters and some of his official journals relating to his military appointments in Canada and India.

Rhual was built in 1634 by Evan Edwards, secretary to Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset, a Baron of the Exchequer of Chester, and M.P. for Camelford. He was a member of an old-established Flintshire family which traced its descent from Hywel Dda. He was pre-deceased by his son, Thomas, and on his death in 1670 the estate passed first to his grandson, Thomas, and subsequently to Thomas's sister, Mary, who in 1688 had married Walter Griffith of Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire, a prominent Dissenter. Their eldest son, Nehemiah Griffith (1691-1738), a country squire of literary tendencies and an active Flintshire J.P. inherited the estate in turn but died unmarried. It then passed to his brother, Thomas, but he died in 1740, leaving an infant son, also named Thomas, who in 1764 married Henrietta Marie Clarke, sister of Field Marshal Sir Alured Clarke (c. 1745-1832). The latter had a long and distinguished military career, serving in Germany, America and India, and took an active interest in the affairs of his sister and her children, particularly in her eldest daughter, Henrietta Maria, who in 1792 married Frederick Philipse of Astley, Warwickshire, son of Frederick Philipse of Philipsbourg, New York, and in Edwin, her longest surviving son, who was killed at Waterloo in 1815. In the absence of a male heir on the death of Edwin Griffith, the Rhual estate was sold for division among his four sisters. Field Marshal Sir Alured Clarke bought it back in 1832 and gave it to his eldest niece, Henrietta Maria Phillips, in whose family it remained until 1915 when Lt. Col . Basil Edwin Philips, the last of the male line, was killed at Gallipoli. His daughter, Miss Margaret Gwenllian Philips married Commander Hugh Edward Heaton, R.N., and the estate is now in the hands of their son.

The collection contains much important and interesting material of a very varied character. The diary of Nehemiah Griffith, 1715, which was published by the Chester Archaeological Society in 1909 is perhaps the best-known item, but there are other eighteenth-century diaries and a group of papers relating to elections in Flintshire in the 1720s and 30s which are of equal historical value. The collection is also rich in correspondence reflecting the official, religious and military interests of the Edwards, Griffith and Philips families and their concern for the future of Rhual from the time of the Civil War to the early nineteenth-century when financial pressures forced its much-regretted sale. Sir Alured Clarke, who bought back the greater part of it to restore it to the family, also left with them many of his papers including personal diaries and letters and some of his official journals relating to his military appointments in Canada and India.

Arranged chronologically into the following: deeds; mining records; estate papers; family papers; official papers; election; legal papers; and miscellaneous.

Data Protection Act restrictions will apply to any items less than 100 years old that contain personal information as defined by the Act.

Please order documents using the alternative reference number (where provided).

Compiled by Mair James for the HMC/NLW Family and Estates project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: Veysey, A.G., ed., Guide to the Flintshire Record Office (Flintshire County Record Office, 1974); Burke's Landed Gentry (London, 1952).

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: Veysey, A.G., ed., Guide to the Flintshire Record Office (Flintshire County Record Office, 1974); Burke's Landed Gentry (London, 1952). Updated by Steven Davies at Flintshire Recortd Office, 2016; full catalogue input by Estelle Roberts.

Usual copyright regulations apply.

Usual copyright regulations apply

All records deposited at Flintshire Record Office have been retained.

Accruals are not expected.