| Description | Archives of the Talbot family of Lacock.
Lacock Abbey and the village were owned by the Talbot family from the early 17th century.
The abbey was founded in 1232 by Ela, the Countess of Salisbury, who later became the first abbess of Lacock. The nunnery was dedicated to St Mary and St Bernard and was of the Augustinian order. It remained a nunnery until 1539 when it was seized by Henry VIII, and a year later it was purchased for £783 by Sir William Sharington as his first purchased estate. Sharington died childless in 1553 and the estate passed to his brother Sir Henry Sharington, whose daughter Olive Sharington / Talbot / Stapleton inherited Lacock and many other estates. Olive's grandson Sharington Talbot the younger inherited Lacock on her death in 1646.
Lacock remained in the Talbot family until 1944, when Miss Matilda Talbot presented it to the National Trust. The family continued to live there for several decades as tenants.
Material in this collection includes accounts of the Lacock estate, Lacock Abbey and the Talbot family; correspondence relating to the running of the estate and personal letters and papers, deeds and other legal items, wills, research notes, inventories, recipe books and photographs.
The collection includes records of the Davenport family, who married into the Talbot family, and their estates in Shropshire. Included in these documents are a large amount of material, mostly accounts and correspondence, relating to the East India Company, kept by Henry Davenport (died 1731). There are also some records of the Feilding family from the early 19th century, mostly account books and some earlier naval records.
The collection is divided into three sections: estate (1), household (2) and family (3).
The estate section is divided into four series: general (1), Wiltshire (2), Shropshire (3) and other (4). These are then each divided into: deeds and legal (A), manorial (B), rentals (C), surveys (D), maps and plans (E), accounts (F), correspondence (G) and other (H).
The household section is divided into five series: general (1), Lacock Abbey (2), Lacock village (3), Davenport House (4) and other (5). These are then each divided into: inventories (A), accounts (B), correspondence (C), staff records (D), farms and gardens (E), photographs, prints and drawings (F), history of buildings (G), building reports and surveys (H) and legal (J). For the village records, an additional subseries of oral history interviews has been created (K).
The family section is divided into four series: Talbot (1), Davenport (2), Feilding (3) and other (4). These are then each divided into: pedigrees (A), correspondence (B), diaries and journals (C), accounts (D), legal (E), politics and public office (F), patronage and societies (G), research notes (H), photographs, prints, sketch books and music books (J), recipe books (K), newspaper and magazine cuttings (L) and miscellaneous (M). |