| Document reference | ZDV |
| Title | FAUCONBERG (BELASYSE) OF NEWBURGH PRIORY ARCHIVE |
| Description | Title deeds including cartularies and schedules 1246-1432; title deeds relating to the Newburgh estate 1270-1921; Easingwold and Huby 1613-1848; Alne and Tollerton 1618-1688; Sutton on the Forest 1634-1669; Old Byland 14th century-1777 including Byland Abbey; Leake, Sigston, Silton and Kepwick 1294-1862; Yarm 1460-1819; Kirby Misperton and Pickering 1190-1667; Darcy family property in Brotton 1595-1607, Hornby near Catterick 1578-1600, Newton under Roseberry 1624, Nunthorpe 1624, Whorlton 1593, certificate of homage 1451; Wombwell estate including Ardelsy in Darfield 1767-1841, Smithley and Wombwell 1778-1779, Bolton on Dearne 1355, Royston 1841, Burton/Bretton Abbey estate 1725-1786; various locations in Yorkshire including Bolton in Craven (Bolton Abbey) 1539, Borrowby in Lyth 1602, Bramley near Leeds n.d., Brandsby 1240-1250, Great Broughton 1630, Gatenby 1594, South Holme in Hovingham 1608, Kexby 1594, Marton by Boroughbridge 1674, Myton 1563, East Newton 1692-1797, Northallerton 1200, Ripon and Aldburgh 1314-1599, Ryther 1597, Cornborough next Sheriff Hutton 1564, Swetton 1180-1200, Thorpe Arch and Walton Follifoot 17th century, York 1547-1611; County Durham including Auckland, Brancepeth, Butterwick, Durham including wills of John Lampton 1531 and Isabell Claxton 1533, Hartlepool, Henknowle, Pelton, Staindrop, Stanhope, Stockton, Wolviston 1270-1674; the estate of the Davenports of Sutton in Cheshire 1295-1776; the estate of the Bartons of Smithills in Lancashire 1250-1700; the Betham and Fowler family properties in Staffordshire and Warwickshire 1307-1734; West Yorkshire, Bramley c1225; South Yorkshire, Bolton on Dearne 1355; Cumberland 1653; Middlesex 1488-1855; Surrey 1725-1779; Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 1488-1649; Gloucestershire 1277; Lincolnshire 1591; Suffolk 1557-1841; Scotland 1240-1250; Ireland 1782-1801; Wales 1700
Belasyse family wills, settlements and mortgages including original deeds and related papers 1416-1824
Wombwell family wills, settlements, mortgages and law cases with personal, official and estate papers including original deeds and related papers 1764-1903
Estate and manorial records including general estate records 1680-1810; surveys 1755-1914; rentals and accounts 1608-1939; Easingwold and Huby 1620-1935; Alne and Tollerton 1611-1935; Yarm 1614-1815; Aldwark, Alne, Coxwold, Newburgh, Coulton, Oulston including Oulston brickyard account book 1851-1869, Yearsley, Husthwaite, Kepwick and Silton manors 1633-1847; Old Byland 1598-1889; Sutton on the Forest 1634-1792; County Durham 1700-1757; Lancashire, Cheshire, Stafffordshire and Nottinghamshire 1410-1761; account book of Arthur Palmer, steward(?) of Lord Fauconberg and (after 1700) of his widow at Sutton Court, Chiswick 1685-1708; Newburgh estate surveyors' notebooks - Easingwold c1840, drainage c1851-1861; office diary 1852; diaries containing notes on rents and rates 1873, 1877-1878; miscellaneous correspondence and papers c1820-1905; game book 1855-1923; drainage improvement deeds 1864-1871
Maps and plans covering Newburgh 1605-1875, Oulston 1722-1857, Thornton Hill 1723-1851, Coxwold 18th century-1853, Old Byland 16th century-1879, Thirkleby 1838, Husthwaite 1840-1878, Baxby 1840, Yearsley 1840-1875, Thornton cum Baxby 1840, Kilburn 1841, Oswaldkirk 1841, Oldstead 1846-1879, Angram Grange 1853, Brandsby 1862, Wass 1879-20th century, Over Silton 1840-1941, Cundall 1889, Sutton on the Forest 18th century, Danby in Cleveland 1840, Humberside 1841-1848, York to Knaresborough Railway line 1845, Hull to Malton and Northallerton Railway line 1846, Ryton 1844
Personal and official papers relating to Sir William Belasyse (d.1604) 1477-1604, Sir Henry Belasyse (d.1624) 1560s-1651 and Sir Thomas Belasyse 1st Lord Fauconberg (d.1652) 1560s-1651, Thomas Belasyse 2nd Lord Fauconberg (Earl Fauchonberg of the first creation) 1639-1712, 3rd Viscount and 4th Viscount (1st Earl Fauconberg of the second creation) 1653-1773, Henry 2nd Earl Fauconberg 1776-1801, Belasys of Brancepeth 1705-1770, papers of TE Wynn Belasyse 1802-1835, Julia Countess of Jersey (mother in law of Sir GO Wombwell 4th bart.) 1842-1893
Genealogical and heraldic manuscripts 15th century-1805
Trustee records 1608-1856
Legal papers, Belasyse v Wombwell 1563-1865; Exchequer case, Wombwell v Trinity College, Cambridge regarding the liability of Newburgh estate to pay tithes c1825-1838
Parish, militia and land tax records 1692-1903 including Oulston constables' assessments and Coxwold churchwardens' records
Miscellaneous records 1535-1940 including medicinal receipts, inventories of goods and Robert Pilkington's narrative. |
| Date | 12th century-20th century |
| Level | Collection |
| Catalogue status | Catalogued |
| Administrative history | Documents from Newburgh Priory comprise the archives of the Belasyse and Wombwell families and a substantial part of the archives of the family of Fairfax of Gilling. The MSS were examined by the Reverend WD Macray and Mrs SC Lomas on behalf of the Historical Manuscripts Commission who published a report on them in the Report on Manuscripts in Various Collections, vol II, 1903. This contained a large number of detailed abstracts and transcripts arranged, irrespective of provenance, in fairly strict chronological order, records of the Fairfax family being intermixed with records of the Belasyse family. By the standards of modern archival practice, this arrangement is confusing and misleading. The Belasyse and Wombwell families were closely connected, but the Fairfax family was not and so the records have been disentangled from the main collection. They are treated as an entirely separate archive: the Fairfax of Gilling Archive (reference ZDV(F)). Although there was a Belasyse-Fairfax marriage in the sixteenth century, there was no inheritance of Fairfax property by the Belasyse family through that or any later marriage to explain the presence of the archives of the Fairfax family at Newburgh. The Fairfax records were almost certainly taken to Newburgh by Lord Fauconberg as trustee and executor of Anne Fairfax daughter of the last Lord Fairfax of Gilling. He and his sisters were friends, neighbours and contemporaries of Anne and he became trustee of her settlement in 1782 and executor when she died in 1793.
The Belasyse family were settled in county Durham in the middle ages and took their name from (or gave it to) a place near Billingham. This property, with Wolviston close by, was granted to Durham priory in exchange for property at Henknowle near Bishop Auckland in 1379. Some mediaeval and a few later deeds of these and other county Durham properties are in ZDV/I/70.
It was not until the dissolution of the monasteries that the centre of the family's interests moved to Yorkshire. The brothers Richard and Anthony Belasyse acquired the site of Newburgh Priory and property of Byland Abbey from 1539 onwards. These properties were inherited by Richard's son Sir William Belasyse. Through the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Newburgh estate (in the townships of Newburgh Coxwold, Yearsley, Oulston, Thornton on the Hill, Angram Grange) and the Old Byland estate were enlarged and consolidated by the descendants of Sir William who were granted the titles of baronet in 1611, Baron Fauconberg of Yarm in 1627, Viscount Fauconberg of Henknowle in 1643, and Earl Fauconberg in 1689: this last title died with its holder in 1700 and was recreated in 1756. The principal title deeds of the estate at Newburgh and its close vicinity are listed under ZDV/I/5, and those of the Old Byland estate at ZDV/I/25.
In the vicinity of Newburgh the estate was considerably extended by aquisition of manors and lands in Alne and Tollerton in 1618 (ZDV/I/15), Easingwold in the 1630s (ZDV/I/10) and Sutton on the Forest in 1634 (ZDV/I/20). Further afield in the North Riding, property at Kirby Misperton near Pickering, including the manor of Lund, was acquired in 1599 (ZDV/I/40), and an estate at Kepwick, Silton and Cowesby was acquired in 1631 (ZDV/I/30). The Yarm estate began to be acquired about 1614 with the purchase of the manor (ZDV/I/35). The Belasyse family evidently had property and interests elsewhere in the North Riding for many odd deeds survive for various places and dates, but it is not always possible to determine the precise connection. Some deeds were probably acquired through a connection with the Darcy family of Hornby Castle: the sister of the first lord Fauconberg married Sir Conyers Darcy, later Lord Darcy, from whom Sir Henry Belasyse purchased the Yarm manor and estate. Deeds of Darcy family properties may have come into the hands of the Belasyse family at that time either by mistake or in relation to family settlements and trusts.
Profitable marriages extended Belasyse estates far outside Yorkshire. In 1622 a marriage to the heiress of the Barton family of Smithills brought estates in Lancashire, especially in the vicinity of Bolton (ZDV/I/80). In the later 17th century a marriage to the heiress of the Davenport family brought estates at Sutton near Macclesfield (ZDV/I/75) and probably also property in Buckinghamshire (ZDV/I/105) and Middlesex (ZDV/I/95). In the eighteenth century marriages of successive generations brought estates in the counties of Staffordshire and Warwickshire and elsewhere (ZDV/I/85). For some places it is not clear what is the precise connection with the Belasyse family.
On 23 March 1802 the second Earl Fauconberg died leaving three daughters. There was no heir to the earldom. His titles of Viscount Fauconberg of Henknowle and Baron Fauconberg of Yarm passed to his second cousin but became likewise extinct in 1815. His estates were divided between his daughters and disagreements about who should pay debts and charges on them led to a long Chancery suit. When the elder daughter died in 1825 without children the principal estate of Newburgh which had been her share passed to her nephew George Wombwell, the daughter of her sister Anne who had married Sir George Wombwell. The Wombwells had estates at and around Wombwell near Barnsley in the West Riding and in Suffolk. There was a long period during which various law firms were acting for various sets of trustees and various family members. Eventually the Newburgh Priory estate and some other parts of the original Fauconberg estates came to the Wombwell family, but between 1801 and 1825 there was much overlapping of interests between the Newburgh Priory estate and the Wombwell family estate, and the division between the archives of the two is not always immediately clear, since the documents have become confused over the years. Some attempt has been made to disentangle them but further investigation would probably reveal inaccuracies in allocation of some documents to particular categories.
The youngest daughter of the last Earl Fauconberg, Elizabeth, inherited the Sutton estate near Macclesfield. This part of the Belasyse estates therefore passed to her husband the Earl of Lucan. The second daughter Anne inherited the estates in Yarm, Old Byland, Over Silton, Nether Silton, Leake and Lund in Yorks and Henknowle and Copy Crook in Durham. When she died in 1809 they passed to her husband for his life and her son George Wombwell. The Yarm estate was very shortly afterwards sold by the Wombwells for £35,000 - the initial contract was made in 1812, but the conveyance was not finalised until 1819 (see ZIQ at North Yorkshire County Record Office). The Kepwick estate which fell to the eldest daughter Charlotte was put up for sale in 1805 and purchased by Joshua Crompton for £14,000: various complications over the family trusts, debts and titheable status delayed completion of all formalities until the late 1820s, and £3600 of the purchase money was retained in a trust fund until a dispute about tithes was settled (ZDV/I/30; see also ZCM). Silton remained in the hands of the Wombwell family until 1866.
The Sutton on the Forest estate, acquired in the early 17th century, appears to have been sold by the last Earl Fauconberg towards the end of his life: it was not part of the estates bequeathed in his will. (ZDV/I/20; ZDV/V/401).
Various younger children of the Belasyse family flourished in county Durham and elsewhere after the establishment of Newburgh in Yorkshire as the seat of the eldest representative. The younger son of the Richard Belasyse who acquired Newburgh for example inherited his father's estate at Morton in Houghton le Spring, and purchased property at Owton, all of which passed to his brother's younger son. A descendant of this younger branch of the family, Sir Henry Belasyse, was a professional soldier in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century and acquired Potto in the North Riding and Brancepeth Castle in county Durham. His granddaughter Bridget died unmarried in 1774 and left her Brancepeth estate to her fifth cousin once removed, Henry the last Earl Fauconberg (see ZDV/X/17 for personal and official records of Belasyse of Brancepeth and ZDV/V/50 for rentals and accounts of these estates). |
| Access conditions | Open |
| Copies | Parts of this collection have been microfilmed [MIC 0139, 0164, 0194, 0195, 0637, 0657, 0658, 0997, 1002, 1042, 1117, 1145, 1271, 1269, 1282, 1283, 1284, 1285, 1308, 1341, 1352, 1354, 1358, 1369, 1370, 1440, 1504, 1548, 1601, 1618, 1966, 1982, 1997, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2030, 2031, 2035, 2120, 2889, 2894, 3091, 3167, 3372, 3589, 3644, 3645, 3989, 3990, 4029, 4077, 4209]. |