Eyre of Grove
The Eyre collection contains the papers of the Eyre and Harcourt-Vernon families of Rampton and Grove. The collection was acquired in 1946.
Documents in the collection are described in detail on the Manuscripts Online Catalogue. Access to the descriptions is also provided via personal name and place names indexes.
A related collection is the Papers of the Paget family (PGR). This includes records of the Manor of Rampton, Nottinghamshire, dating back to their ownership by the Eyre family.
Principal subject areas within the collection
The Eyre collection consists principally of title deeds to the estates inherited or purchased by the Eyre family of Grove up to the time of Anthony Hardolph Eyre (d 1836). There are references to estates in Bilsby, Asfordby and Huttoft in Lincolnshire, inherited from the Johnson family (17th-early 18th century); the Headon estate in Nottinghamshire inherited from the Wasteney family (17th-mid 18th century); small purchases of land in Headon, Upton and Thorpe (late 18th-early 19th century); the Adwick le Street and Laughton-en-le-Morthen estates in Yorkshire, sold by the Eyres in the 1760s; land within the manors of Rampton and Treswell, Nottinghamshire (17th-18th centuries); the Grove estate itself (17th and 18th century); and small purchases of land in Little Gringley, Ordsall and Treswell (late 18th-early 19th century).
Estate papers have only survived in a patchy series. Valuations of the Grove estate at the time of its sale from William Levinz to Anthony Eyre in 1762 are present, and there is one rental book dated 1799-1829, principally for the Grove estate only. An enclosure award for Little Gringley, 1807, is also part of the collection, as are a small number of late 18th century estate maps. The Wasteney family's patronage of the rectory of Headon is attested to in a small number of 17th century papers relating to nominations of clergy, and a copy of the churchwardens levy for Headon cum Upton in 1677.
Manorial records consist of Headon manor court rolls, 1500-1510 and 1576; pains and byelaws of the manor of West Retford and Grove, 1682 and 1702; a bundle of presentments and court papers for the manor of West Retford and Grove, 1755-1780; and two court books of the manors of Rampton and Treswell, 1789-1840, 1846, 1861 and 1863. There are also some late 18th-century papers relating to disputes about manorial rights in Upton.
A small number of marriage settlements and wills are included in the collection, including the will of Sir Hardolph Wasteney, 4th Baronet (d 1742), the will of Anthony Eyre (d 1748), and the marriage settlement of Anthony Hardolph Eyre and Francisca Bootle, 1783. The only other personal papers are nominations of Sir Hardolph Wasteney as Deputy Lieutenant for Nottinghamshire, and a Commission granted to him as Captain of a troop of horse or company of foot to be raised at Worksop, Nottinghamshire, 1715.
Apart from a few very miscellaneous papers, the only documents from the time of the Harcourt-Vernon family, owners of the Grove estate from 1836 to 1946, are a series of Royal Navy ships' log books of Captain Charles Egerton Harcourt-Vernon (1827-1872), detailing sea voyages made to Alaska, Australia, Bombay, the Eastern Mediterranean, Fiji, New Zealand and Valparaiso, 1849-1861 and undated.
Family history
Family members
Collections held elsewhere
No other repositories are known to hold archives of this branch of the Eyre family.
Useful published works on the Eyre family and their papers
- H.A. Johnson and A. Cox, 'The Architecture of Grove Hall, Nottinghamshire', in Transactions of the Thoroton Society, vol LXXXIX (1985), 75-85
- Sale catalogue of the remaining contents of the mansion [Grove Hall], by Henry Spencer & Sons, 1946 [King's Meadow Campus East Midlands Collection Pamphlet Not 177.D64 HAL]
- Sale catalogue of the Grove Estate including the residence Grove Hall, by Henry Spencer and Sons, 1946 [King's Meadow Campus East Midlands Collection Oversize Not 1.D34 KNI]
- Rev. Howard Chadwick, 'The History of the Manor of Rampton, in Nottinghamshire', in Transactions of the Thoroton Society, vol XXIV (1920), 1-38 [also available online, http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/tts/tts1920/rampton1.htm]
- Leonard Jacks, chapter on Grove in The Great Houses of Nottinghamshire and the County Families (Nottingham : W. and A. S. Bradshaw, 1881) [King’s Meadow Campus East Midlands Collection Not 1.D28 JAC] [also available online, http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/Jacks1881/grove.htm]
- John S. Piercy, chapter on Grove and the Eyre Family in The History of Retford (Retford: Longman, 1828) [King's Meadow Campus East Midlands Collection Not 373. PU] [also available online, http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/piercy1828/retford14.htm]
Next page: The Eyre and Harcourt-Vernon Families of Grove and Rampton: A Brief History