Catalogue description PAGET, MARQUIS OF ANGLESEY: DORSET AND SOMERSET ESTATE

Title to Property

Acquisition

Dispersal

Estate Management

Rentals

Surveys

Leases

Accounts

Rent receipts and disbursement accounts

Agents-in-Chief's remarks on accounts

Milborne Port lease accounts

Estate vouchers

Steward's charges

Estate correspondence and papers

Steward's notebooks

Family

Lord Paget's vouchers for a visit to Weymouth 1796

Elections

Official

Devon and Cornwall Deeds

The records in this archive were created mainly during the period in which the Paget family owned the estate, 1780 to 1854, but there are some 17th century deeds relating to the Boyle family and 18th century deeds and documents relating to the Walter family.

For other records relating to the Dorset and Somerset estate see D.484/15/1-10 which includes Stalbridge manorial court books 1781-1841 and Stalbridge surveys 1781 and 1811; D.1490/1 map of Stalbridge manor 1781-2 which relates to the written survey.

Paget family of Dorset and Somerset

The Paget family estate in Dorset and Somerset was an amalgamation of different estates acquired by Peter Walter during the eighteenth century. When Walter died in 1754 he bequeathed his estate to Sir Nicholas Bayley of Plas Newydd in trust to his eldest son Edward. Edward died in 1756 so the estate was held in trust to his brother Henry William Bayley Lord Paget, born in 1744. Following the death of Henry's father in 1782 the estate then passed to him. He was made 1st Earl of Uxbridge in 1784. Following his death in 1812 the estate then passed to Henry William 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, who became 1st Marquis of Anglesey in 1815. Following his death in 1854, the remainder of the estate passed to his eldest son Henry William, 3rd Marquis of Anglesey, who sold it soon after.

In 1780 the estate comprised Bradford Abbas, Clifton Maybank, Sixpenny Handley and Gussage St Michael, Kington Magna and Nyland, Manston, Marnhull, Stalbridge, Stour Provost and Todber, Stourpaine, Thornford and Wyke, all in Dorset; Charleton Horethorne, Cheriton, Henstridge, Temple Coombe and Coombe Abbas, Horsington, Kingsbury Regis, Milborne Port and Wyke, Maiden Bradley, Yarnfield, Stotford and Norton Ferris in Somerset and Wiltshire.

Parts of the estate were being sold as early as 1789. There was an important sale in 1825 when Clifton Maybank was sold as well as smaller sections of the estate. Milborne Port was sold in 1837, Charleton Horethorne and Temple Coombe in 1848, Thornford in 1849, Sixpenny Handley in 1850, Stour Provost and Todber in 1851, Bradford Abbas in 1852 and finally Stalbridge and the rest of the estate in 1854.

The Dorset and Somerset estate was run by a local agent or steward who employed bailiffs and gamekeepers. In turn the local agent reported to the agent-in-chief at Uxbridge House, London. The local agents were as follows: Thomas Harrison (in 1781), Robert James senior 1789-1803, Robert James junior 1803-1809, Samuel Foot 1809-1810, George Cox 1811-1813, William Castleman 1813-1844, though he was working for the estate from 1810, Henry Castleman 1844 and Edward Castleman 1844-1854. The agents-in-chief were John Sanderson 1791-c1810, Admiral Aylmer 1809-1814, John Sanderson 1814-1836, and Thomas Beer 1836-1855. Beer acted as the auditor or deputy agent-in-chief before 1836. He continued as agent-in-chief after the Dorset and Somerset estate was sold.

The assistant stewards or bailiffs included John Foot 1780-1809, Samuel Foot 1809-1811, Francis Woodhatch 1814-1815, Mr Moyle 1816-1817 and Henry Harding 1817-1818.

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