Catalogue description WHITCHURCH PAPERS

Estates

General schedules of deeds 1813-19 and n.d.

Heath House, Stapleton 1425-1853 and n.d.

Wild House, Stapleton 1609-1646

Stapleton Rectory 1438-1834

Stapleton tithes, Kingswood Common 1668-1854

"Turtles", Stapleton 1599-1659

Land in Stapleton and Filton, inc. Micklemeade and Northway Hill, Stapleton 1653-1813

St.Augustine's Green 1740-1786

Downend, Horfield Manor 1752-1844

Glass Mill Leaze, Stapleton 1654-1766

Estate of George Tyler, Kingswood 1768-1790

Winterbourne Court Farm, Sturdon Common 1635-1822

Trinity Street, St.Augustine 1760-1817

Personal Papers

Walter family 1578-1786

Rowles family 1629-1674

Whitchurch family 1735-1848

Miss Jane Whitchurch 1757-1799

Chamberlayne family 1735-1791

Thomas Smyth 1764-1803

Thomas Smyth: Rebuilding of Heath House 1783-1784

Mrs.Jane Smyth 1796-1823

Mrs.Jane Smyth: Kingswood Chapel 1812-1820

Case of Robert Hardidge, debtor, tenant of John Smyth 1817-1821

Sir Jarrit Smith of Ashton Court had two sons, of whom the elder, John Hugh, married the Bristol heiress Elizabeth Woolnough in 1757, and the younger, Thomas, married Jane Whitchurch, heiress of the Heath House estate, Stapleton, in 1767. By the latter marriage Jane brought to the Smyth family the considerable estates of her mother's family, the Walters, in Bristol, Stapleton and Horfield, and also the wealth acquired by Joseph Whitchurch, her father, through trade. The Whitchurch papers listed here are those which came into the Ashton Court collection as a result of this marriage together with the personal papers of Thomas Smyth, which are linked with them.

Thomas and Jane Smyth began their married life at Mays Hill, Pucklechurch, where their five children were born between 1769 and 1778. However after the death of Sir Jarrit Smith in 1783 Thomas inherited from his father the Bristol and Gloucestershire estates of the Smyth family. This, together with his wife's property, made a fortune of some size.

It is not surprising therefore that Thomas thought it necessary to pull down the old Heath House and replace it with an elegant stone faced building of considerable importance, more suited to his status as a wealthy landowner. The papers resulting from the rebuilding of Heath House are included in this collection (AC/WH/20) and give a detailed picture of the work, undertaken by John Hensley of Bath in 1783 and 1784.

Two families linked to the Whitchurch family by marriage were the Walter family of Horfield and Stapleton, owners of Heath House since 1572, and the Chamberlayne family of Bristol. Most of the estates appearing in this collection originated from the Walter connection, but the Chamberlayne link does not seem to have been so fortuitous. Joseph Whitchurch, Jane's father, stepped in to rescue his nephew, Edward Pye Chamberlayne, from financial ruin, Edward having failed to make a living in the grocery business inherited from his father. (AC/WH/18)

The papers of Miss Jane Whitchurch, aunt to Mrs. Jane Smyth, form part of this collection. (AC/WH/17). Jane Whitchurch appears to have been a careful, God-fearing lady, who kept her accounts and her tax receipts meticulously. She lived in a house in Small Street, where she died, unmarried, in 1799.

Mrs. Jane Smyth herself was also a careful keeper of accounts, and among her papers is her household account book, covering the period 1808 - 1814 (AC/WH/21/1). After her husband's death in 1800 she was more than equal to the task of looking after her considerable estates, and as her letters show, was always ready to take any chance that came along for increasing or improving them. In addition, she owned the advowson of Stapleton Church, certain of its tithes, and also the right of allocating pews in the church.

She therefore had a great deal of influence on the village life of Stapleton. She was also able to delay the building of a chapel-of-ease at Kingswood, a proposal which she opposed as Lay Impropriator of the parsonage and tithes of Stapleton. The new chapel was not completed until 1821, after Mrs. Smyth's death. (AC/WH/22).