| Ref No | MS 2126/3/5/f |
| Title | Correspondence |
| Level | Sub Series |
| Date | 1739 - 1958 |
| Description | The bulk of MS 2126/3/5f consists of a correspondence series (with related papers e.g. reports, accounts, memoranda, draft agreements and leases) previously known as "Estate Box 1&2". The material appears to have been kept in roughly chronological bundles in the estate office and earlier items have been carefully docketed by the agent or a clerk. The catalogue descriptions really heavily on these dockets and searchers should be aware that personal and family business sometimes discussed at the end of the letters is not always noted.
The series begins to thin out from the 1860s and items beyond this (up to 1920) may well represent a retrospective organisation of material carried out in the estate office ca. 1940. From this point small boxes and bundles of letters appear to represent incoming correspondence from discrete origins and later on a handful of letter books the outgoing correspondence.
Material in Estate Box 7 appears also to be a result of the ca. 1940 efforts to arrange the material. It covers the period 1813 - 1852 and was arranged very awkwardly by estate as follows: 1. Norfolk/Suffolk, 2. Suffolk, 3. Norfolk and Suffolk, 4. Culford, 5. Sidestrand, 6. Elvetham and London, and 7. London. As the agent for Edgbaston was also agent for all these other estates until 1894 this seems a somewhat erroneous division. Careful comparison of the letters in Box 7 and in box 1&2 appears to show that the division is not a natural one and they all initially formed one sequence. The divisions in Box 7 have thus been removed and each year from the Box 7 sequence now appears as an appended entry to that of Box 1&2. The latter are denoted by the phrase "Predominantly Edgbaston related" (up to 1852) and the latter "Predominantly related to Estates other than Edgbaston" as the start of the description field.
This Box 7 material contains an increasingly consistent set of papers which appear to have been related to an annual visit by the agent (predominantly Charles Yates) to the Norfolk and Suffolk estates in late winter/early spring. The visit was for an audit of accounts and the receipt of rents from tenants. The resultant paper work is split by each estate and comprises a "Memoranda of Business" (applications), a list of "Receipts and Payments" and a "Report" to Lord Calthorpe. |
| Related Material | See also: HRO material. Many letters in MS 2126/3/5f are the incoming correspondence of John Harris, agent to George Gough-Calthorpe. John Harris's replies may be found amongst the correspondence George Gough-Calthorpe at Hampshire Record Office 26M62/F/C1-C1419 1821 - 1862. Also in this Hampshire series, and in several separate bundles of correspondence, there are letters from Edgbaston tenants addressed directly to Lord Calthorpe. These bundles also contain lists of applications and accounts and are referenced:
*HRO 26M62/00/Box 24/Bundle 1789 - 1826
*HRO 26M62/00/Box 24/Papers 1814 - 1851
*HRO 26M62/00/Box 26/Correspondence 1820s [Largely John Harris to George Gough-Calthorpe. re monthly applications, reports of estate business, tenants letters, labour accounts, letter re sale of various estates and exemption under will of granting leases at Perry Hall 10 December 1823, 'the disquiet in Birmingham'28 December 1825, account of Oak Trees at Elvetham Park 1826, many comments on crops, rumours about the sale of Edgbaston in various forms]
*HRO 26M62/00/Box 28/Correspondence 1820 - 1830
[undated letters of George Gough-Calthorpe "for integration into main series of correspondence" i.e. HRO 26M62/F/C1-C1419. To George Gough-Calthorpe, Frances Carpenter, Lady Olivia Sparrow from various correspondents including John Harris, and Frederick Gough-Calthorpe]
*HRO 26M62/00/Box 25/Correspondence 1840s
[From tenants etc to Charles Yates re Edgbaston estate business and also Norfolk and Suffolk.]
There are also bundles of letters from later agents:
*HRO 26M62/00/Box 24/Letters 1882 - 1896. From George Edwards.
*HRO 26M62/00/Box 25/Correspondence 1915. Frank Newman, land agent and surveyor, to Rachel (Anstruther-)Gough-Calthorpe/S.M. Beale. [re financial matters. Death duty, taxes, loan repayment.]
The correspondence of George Gough-Calthorpe combines business, estate, private and family interests. Further personal material exists in the form of 4 printed diaries or 'Remembrances' with occasional brief manuscript entries.
*HRO 26M62/00/Box 28/Diaries 1823, 1825, 1826 and 1830. |
| Access Status | Open |