Dr Janet Tall, Head of Archives, Learning & Development, writes: We are grateful to the Friends of the Nations' Libraries for enabling us to acquire a set of volumes which form part of the estate archive of the Seale family, a prominent Dartmouth family based at Mount Boone, Townstal (now the site of the Britannia Royal Naval College). They were descended from the Seale family of St Brelade in Jersey. In the 1720s the estate with its medieval mansion house was purchased by John Seale, Esquire, a wealthy London merchant who later augmented his fortune through trade with Newfoundland. His son John Henry Seale was prominent in Devon society, serving as MP for Dartmouth and a Deputy Lieutenant of Devon. Their influence spread across the town and surrounding area of Devon.
The account books record payments relating to the estate and are rich in detail, including the names of many local people. They give insight into the management of a varied coastal estate, with payments for boat building and for goods coming in by ship, including Jamaican rum and Spanish wines, as well as entries relating to local quarries and lime kilns. There are details of rents and entries relating to land management alongside information about the running of the house, and personal items purchased for family members. The Seales took their position in local society seriously, and the entries include ‘money for the Town of Dartmouth’.
The general account books are augmented by a volume relating specifically to rents, 1777, and a further volume of specifically household accounts entitled ‘Mrs Seal’s Account’, 1812. The collection also includes a small memoranda book, which gives a very personal insight into the inner thoughts and piety of a member of the Seale family between 1818-19. Described as ‘Confessions - Accounts’ the writer makes regular entries, often relating to their struggles with their Christian faith.
The Devon Archive Service holds the main Seale family estate archive (ref. 3889) and we are pleased to be able to reunite these volumes with the wider collection
