Karen Sayers, Archivist, writes:
The Brotherton Collection contains an interesting series of 17th century surveys, rentals, leases and accounts connected to property and land in Yorkshire. Much of the material relates to administrative units of land known as manors and includes those of Marrick, Gilling and Settrington. The surveys and rentals contain the names of the tenants living and working on the land in the turbulent years of the English Civil War (1642-1651) and its aftermath.
The documents were generated by the partnership of Sir Robert Clayton (1629-1707) and John Morris (c.1627-1682), scriveners, merchant bankers and estate agents. A scrivener was a professional writer of documents. When Clayton and Morris’s papers were sold in the mid-twentieth century Lord Brotherton acquired some relating to Yorkshire. Other purchasers bought documents relating to their interests and the archives are now scattered. London Metropolitan Archives (Reference Code: CLC/B/050) and LSE Library Archives and Special Collections are two organisations which hold material.
Clayton and Morris established their partnership in London in 1658. They had both been apprentices to the scrivener, Robert Abbott (c.1610-1658), in Cornhill. When Abbott died, Clayton and Morris took over his business. Clayton, Morris & Co developed a mortgage security facility and lent money to Royalist clients to buy back land that had been sequestered, that is confiscated, by the Parliamentary government. The Company also carried out conveyancing, land valuation and estate management. Their partnership lasted until Morris’ death in 1682.
Sir Robert Clayton’s standing in Restoration society and court is reflected in his connections to the transatlantic slave trade, the plantations business, and colonialism. From 1658 he owned land in Bermuda where he controlled a plantation until at least the 1690s. Clayton was a leading member of the Royal African Company, a slave trading monopoly run by James, Duke of York, the brother of Charles II. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Clayton is not known to have critiqued the slave trade.
The deeds in our collection are of local interest telling us more about the ownership and occupation of land and property in Yorkshire. Some relate to the legal and financial affairs of landowners such as George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, (1592-1628), the favourite of King James VI and I, and the soldier, Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, (1612-1671). Many of the deeds, especially the surveys, rentals and particulars are useful for tracing the history of the people who lived and worked on the manors.
The tenants of the Manor of Gilling in North Yorkshire are listed in a rental with the rents they paid for houses and land in 1674. The names of the parcels of land often include words such as ‘beyond’ and ‘at’ indicating their spatial relationship to other land thus providing a geography of the manor. The rental specifies that William Allen occupied the bake house so we can speculate that he was the local baker. The rental for the Manor of Sutton upon Derwent, East Yorkshire, features a list of the tenants of Thomas Fairfax. We see that Thomas Coates rented a house and frontstead or garden along with meadows and an arable field.
The deeds are of interest to researchers of 17th century history particularly the period of the English Civil War. They also lend themselves to study by social historians and geographers. If you would like to visit and use our collections please see our Plan a visit webpage.
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