Catalogue description Saye

The Saye archives comprise the title deeds, legal and administrative records of the Lincolnshire estates which came into the Saye and Sele family by marriage, and which were subsequently sold.

The records in this deposit relate to estates in other counties as well as Lincolnshire, since the administration of those estates was closely connected with the Lincolnshire property. As it is neither desirable nor practicable to split the collection up further, however, the non-Lincolnshire material has been left in situ.

N.B. New style dating has been used throughout.

The family now holds land principally in Oxfordshire, and has deposited records relating to those estates at Oxfordshire Record Office.

No restrictions

• Gideon family of London
• Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family, Barons Saye and Sele
• Wykeham-Fiennes, Twistleton-, family, Barons Saye and Sele
• Fiennes, Twistleton-Wykeham-, family, Barons Saye and Sele

The history of the Lincolnshire estates can be summarised thus: Sampson Gideon, a wealthy merchant of London, began negotiating the purchase of a very large estate in the Bedford Level in 1762, the year of his death. The sale was concluded after his death on behalf of his son and heir, Sir Sampson Gideon (created a baronet in 1759, at the age of thirteen), though not without some acrimonious litigation. Sir Sampson married Miss Maria Eardley Wilmot in 1766, assumed the surname of Eardley in 1789, and was created Baron Eardley in the same year.

Sir Sampson's two sons died in his lifetime, so his three daughters became co-heiresses to the Bedford Level estate, as well as the manors of Spalding and Holbeach, and other lands in Lincolnshire and elsewhere. The eldest daughter, Maria, married Gregory, 14th Baron Saye and Sele, in 1794. Her father died in 1824, she in 1834, and the 14th Baron in 1844, when her son William, 15th Baron, succeeded.

The process of selling off the Bedford Level, Spalding and Holbeach estates was begun by Sir Sampson Gideon in the early 19th century, although his daughter Maria did inherit some of the Lincolnshire estates. They were finally all sold after the death of the 16th Lord Saye and Sele in 1887.

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