Anna Manthorpe, Archivist writes: We were very glad to get the support of the Friends of the National Libraries for the purchase of the catalogue of George Campion Courthope of Whiligh in Ticehurst, 1850. Such catalogues sometimes attract great attention from American institutions, so we were delighted to obtain this to add to the Courthope archive.
There was added satisfaction in that the purchase added to a family archive which had been scattered in quite recent times. The estate archive of the Courthopes of Whiligh is reasonably intact and was deposited with the Sussex Archaeological Society from whence it was transferred to ESRO in the 1980s. But the story of the family papers, correspondence and photographs is not a happy one.
In 1835 George Campion Courthope (1811-1895) inherited Whiligh along with the Sprivers Estate in Horsmonden, Kent. In 1841 he married Anna Deacon, the eldest of the ten children of the evangelical banker John Deacon and his wife Sophia, of Mabledon, Tonbridge, Kent. George and Anna also had a large family of eight children.
George and Anna's eldest son George John Courthope married Elinor ('Lina') Loyd, in 1876 and brought up their family of eight children at the Sprivers Estate. Their son and heir, George Loyd, (created a Baronet in 1925 and elevated to the peerage as Baron Courthope in 1945) sold Sprivers to his brother Robert in 1937.
On his death in 1966 Robert Courthope left Sprivers to the National Trust, with the proviso that his sister Joan could remain there until her death, which occurred in 1974. At some point after her death the massive amount of Courthope papers at Sprivers were dispersed by the dealer called in by the Trust to clear them.
Since then, the East Sussex Record Office (now East Sussex Brighton and Hove Record Office) has been extremely active in attempting to re-assemble the diaspora of papers. A considerable portion was purchased from a book dealer in 2004. Then a swathe of Anna Courthope's correspondence was bought from a philatelic auction in 2005, and in 2017 we received on deposit an enormous tranche of letters, diaries and photographs which had been purchased privately by an individual who had hoped to publish them, and subsequently given to the present owner of the Whiligh Estate by his widow. We have also purchased smaller items which have come up for sale.
George Campion Courthope was prominent as a JP and acted as Sheriff for Sussex in 1850. He was active in local and parish affairs, philanthropy and public health – he was on the original committee appointed to establish the East Sussex County Asylum, and a founder trustee of the Hastings Convalescent Asylum. He had a deep interest in education and donated the sites of two local schools. He and his wife Anna were both devoutly evangelical.
The library catalogue is compiled and indexed in George Campion Courthope’s distinctive hand, with later additions, probably by another family member. It is divided into the subjects Theology, Classics, History, Literature, Philosophy, Poetry, Science and Political Economy, Biography and Correspondence, and Travels and Voyages, reflecting the wide range of interests of its well-read author.
