This collection of over 150 letters and deeds dating from 1604-1777 relates to the Sandford family of Sandford Hall, Shropshire. The Sandfords are one of the oldest and most prolific of the county’s families, tracing their antecedents back to a Thomas ‘de Saundford’, a Norman lord mentioned as holding the manor of Sandford near Whitchurch in Shropshire in Domesday book.
The letters include information on a wide range of estate matters, such as the importation of cattle from Ireland, the trimming of hedgerows, and the relative merits of servants. There are also a number of items relating to the Civil War period referring to the King’s military activities. During the Civil War, the family were ardent royalists and Francis Sandford (1580-1654) was convicted of recusancy and spent much of his time in Ireland, where his wife Elizabeth’s family were related to the Earls of Meath. This may account for the fact that the collection includes a number of letters posted from Ireland. One of these is from the artist Mary Delany, née Granville (1700-1788), who was married to a Dublin-based clergyman; her connection with the Sandford family is currently unknown and further research will be required to fill in the connections.
This addition (now Shropshire Archives ref. 8736) will complement a larger family and estate collection from the Sandford family already held by Shropshire Archives and will be of particular value in filling in gaps in the records for the 17th and 18th century period.