Robert, the son of Ralph de Alderstead of Merstham in Surrey, probably assumed the surname Pashley only on his marriage to Sarah, the heiress of an estate centred on Pashley in Ticehurst, in about 1265. His son Sir Edmund Pashley pursued a career in the common law. Among the collection is a charter of free warren on all his demesne lands in Sussex and Kent, granted to Sir Edmund in 1317; it is the earliest and most spectacular element of the collection.
During the 1450s the manor passed into the hands of the Boleyn family of Hever Castle in Kent. As well as a charter of feoffment of 1455, the collection includes court rolls compiled on behalf of its lords between 1455 and 1458. In 1540 the manor was sold to the May family of Combwell in Kent, in whose hands it descended until 1733. During the 1930s the owner placed the archive on deposit at Hove Library, from which it was withdrawn after a decade.
When in the 1960s a later owner moved away from Pashley, he took the documents with him but thanks to the FNL's grant they have now returned to East Sussex.
