Catalogue description WILSHERE ESTATE, 1806 - 1954

Rentals, accounts, correspondence and maps and plans, mainly 19th and 20th centuries, relating to the Wilshere estates in Welwyn, Hitchin, St Ippollitts, St Albans, Stevenage and Wymondley

Wilshere family of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire

[Accessions 1904 and 1968]

Deposited 1982 and 1983

Previous deposits relating to the Wilshere family and their estates in Hertfordshire are as follows:-

Ref. 57485-63611, 63744-63790 Documents relating to Wilshere estates, including Wymondley Court Rolls, deposited 1940 and 1947 [Accs 12 and 138]

Ref. 66987-66988 Further Wilshere documents deposited 1950 [Acc. 318]

Ref. 80086-80094 Further Wilshere estate papers deposited 1956 [Acc. 643]

Ref. D/EX 356 Grant of Arms to Thomas Wilshere, 1829 deposited 1974 [Acc. 1436]

These records of the Wilshere estates in Hertfordshire were transferred from Bedfordshire Record Office where they had been deposited by the Rt. Hon. Francis Pym M.P. The records had been stored at the Pym estate office at Everton, Sandy in Bedfordshire which the Wilsheres had used to administer their Bedfordshire estates. The Wilsheres had another office in Hitchin for their Hertfordshire estates but in 1953 most of their general estate administration was undertaken by their agents, Messrs. Eve and Son at the office on the Pym estate.

In 1934 the last surviving daughter of Charles Willes Wilshere, Miss Alice Wilshere, died and the estate was inherited by a great-nephew, Captain Gerald Maunsell Gamul Farmer. Under the terms of the will, Captain Farmer took the surname Wilshere. He established the family home, the Frythe, as an hotel until the outbreak of the 2nd World War when the house was requisitioned. In 1942 it became Admiralty Station 9 and many articles of war were invented and developed there. After the war Captain Wilshere let a large part of the estate, including the house, to Imperial Chemicals Industries Ltd. They relinquished their rights in the property in 1963 and the Frythe was sold to Unilever Ltd. In 1977 the house and grounds were bought by Smith Kline and French Laboratories for their U K Research Institute.

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