Ralph Radcliffe, a Lancashire gentleman, bought the Carmelite Priory of Hitchin shortly after its surrender in 1539, and the family subsequently amassed a considerable estate in North-West Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire The archive includes over 200 medieval title deeds, court rolls, rentals, surveys, bailiffs' accounts and inventories, papers relating to the rebuilding of Hitchin, and many papers relating to the family's activity in the Levant trade in the 18th century. Delmé was added to the family name in 1802, when the estate was inherited by Anne, the wife of Emilius Delmé, in default of a male heir.
Item Provenance
The Delmé-Radcliffe family, of Hitchin Priory