Catalogue description RECORDS OF THE WHITEHOUSE ESTATE, VOWCHURCH

Deeds, 17th-19th C., estate and personal papers, mainly late 18th-19th C.

An account of this Estate and its owners will be found in the booklet prepared by A. S. Wood "A History of the Whitehouse Estate and its Owners", available in the County Record Office.

Howorth family of Vowchurch, Herefordshire

Wood family of Vowchurch, Herefordshire

The history of the Whitehouse estate has been given by Mr. A. S. Wood in his pamphlet which is based on the records listed here. The property came to Epiphan Howorth, having formerly belonged to Rowland Vaughan of Newcourte, who is known for his work on the management of Flood-meadows, and thence descended in that family which acquired through marriage the manor of Burghill. Herbert Howorth became entangled in a series of mortgages and settlements. The complications of these were made the worse in that one of the mortgagees was the notorious Mansell Powell of Wellington who attempted here as elsewhere to defraud the rightful owners. The Howorth family died out in the direct male line, leaving the Whitehouse estate open to the claims of kin through marriage. After a series of lawsuits William Wood was able by 1791 to establish his claim, but was faced with further suits against William Downes who had acted for him but tried to take his own advantage. The papers in the ligh drawn-out case provide some of the most interesting material among these records, for they include a number of estate accounts, particularly for timber sales, as Downes was accused of wasting the assets of the property. Much timber was felled during this period of the Napoleonic wars.

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