| Description | Title deeds relating to Whitton 1721-1861, Rothbury 1731, Bedlington 1793-1857, Morpeth 1677-1801, Wooperton 1656-1844, Goldthorpe 1793-1797, Great Broughton 1732-1733; various leases and agreements 1750-1817; extracts from the Rothbury parish registers relating to the Wharton family 1653-1723; papers of William Wharton 1730-1759; the will of Hannah Wharton 1775; correspondence of Richard Wharton 1747-1794; papers of the Bates family 1770-1811; papers of George Burdon 1798-1817; will of Hannah Burdon 1812-1814; papers of William Burdon and his family 1806-1846; papers of William Wharton Burdon 1805-1870; miscellaneous papers 1730; letters from Alice Burdon 1940 and from the Duke of Northumberland 1972. |
| Administrative history | George Burdon, who owned property at Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire and whose father was recorder of Doncaster, married Hannah Wharton in 1760. When Hannah's brother Richard died in 1794 the Burdon family inherited the Wharton family property which lay principally in Northumberland (at Whitton and Rothbury, probably the original family home of the Whartons; at Bedlington and Bullers Green, Morpeth, acquired in 1677; at Wooperton, South of Wooller, acquired in 1728). There was also some property at Claxton near Stockton on Tees. The Wooperton property had been purchased with the help of money from the Clutterbuck family (William Wharton had married Hannah Clutterbuck in 1728). The family home of the Whartons in the late 17th century was Brockley Hall. From the 18th century the chief seat of the family was Hartford near Bedlington.
Successive members of these families have had various business interests besides their landed property. William Wharton in the mid 18th century, for example, was a collector of stamp duties. George Burdon had shares in the Newcastle Fire Office and in Team Colliery in the late 18th and early 19th century. William Wharton Burdon had interests in the Seaton Delaval Coal Company, a brewery in Bedlington, and the gas supply and other improvements in Weymouth in Dorset. |