Wendy Walker, County Archivist, writes: West Sussex Record Office (WSRO) is extremely grateful to the Friends of the National Libraries for their help in enabling the purchase of title deeds and associated papers relating to the Great House Estate in West Hoathly and the manor of West Hoathly Rectory. Dating from 1453 to 1964, this is a remarkably complete collection comprising several hundred documents.
It is rare that the entire archive of a small Wealden estate, with an unbroken title from 1524, appears on the market, which makes this a particularly significant acquisition. The collection includes title deeds and manorial records, 1453-1916, title deeds of The Strakes, West Hoathly, [1732]-1925, the court book of the manor of West Hoathly Rectory, a book of reference to a survey of the parish of West Hoathly by John and Henry Chilcott of Cuckfield in 1839, assessments for parish poor rate and Land Tax, 1743-1748, and estate and personal papers and correspondence of the King and Ridley families, 1794-1964. The documents provide a full account of the history of the manor and its changing ownership over the centuries.
The records in this collection represent an invaluable source for local and house historians, genealogists, social historians and others. Documents such as the West Hoathly Rectory manor court book, July 1700-July 1923, are an important record of local residents and property transactions over the course of two centuries, whilst material relating to West Hoathly school and the recreation grounds record important local changes. The estate and personal papers and correspondence of the King and Ridley families, 1794-1964, provide an insight into both the management of the estate and the lives of its owners.
This archive is further enhanced by the presence of documents produced as a consequence of its ownership by Anna Hooper, formerly Tidcombe, the wife of Robert Hooper, Attorney General of Barbados, on whose behalf the estate was administered by local agents between 1694 and 1716. Between 1716 and 1721 their dealings were examined in Chancery, which sheds welcome light on the estate during that period as well as on transatlantic communications.
Aside from a small quantity of documents at WSRO and the British Library there is nothing else in the public domain about the estate which makes the acquisition of this collection particularly significant. It means that this substantial manorial and estate archive will soon be accessible to researchers for the first time. The West Hoathly archive is an extremely important addition to the collections at WSRO and its acquisition would not have been possible without the generosity of FNL.
