Catalogue description Ducie Muniments

A very important collection for the early history of the Manchester. The collection contains muniments of title, rentals, plans, legal records, agents' accounts and correspondence, and allied estate documents concerning the Reynolds, Hartley and Strangeways families of Strangeways near Manchester. It contains a wealth of information on Manchester properties, land, streets, general topography, bridges and railways. Included are 14th-century charters, which enable the early street patterns of Manchester to be reconstructed, and records such as Parliamentary Bills and Acts concerning roads, bridges and railways in the area. The documents relate to properties in Manchester (particularly Millgate, Hanging Ditch, the Corn Market, Parsonage, Market Street and Deansgate), the neighbouring townships of Cheetham, Gorton and Levenshulme, and the township of Castleton near Rochdale.

Among the papers of John Hartley are several relating to money collected in London for the relief of plague in Manchester and Salford in 1645, and of reciprocal aid from Manchester during the Great Plague. There are letters from the Merchant Taylors' Company (1654-55) relating to their school at Crosby founded in 1620. There are also papers relating to the Ashton Road (1836-9), Bury New Road, (1827-59), the River Irk at the bottom of Miller Street, and letters, tenders and plans concerning the railway at Chat Moss (1832-3) and Manchester and Leeds Railway (1837-47).

The Library has recently received on deposit the largest single collection in its charge relating directly to the history of this City. In the early township of THE DUCIE MUNIMENTS. Manchester the principal estate, apart from the manor itself, was that of Strangeways. For a considerable time held by a family of the same name, Strangeways passed successively into the possession of the Hartleys (mid-seventeenth century), the Reynolds (1711) and, through the marriage of Thomas Reynolds with the daughter of the 1st Lord Ducie, into the Ducie family. In August of last year, through the good offices of Mr. W. M. Blair, his agent, and Mr. Irvine E. Gray, Records Officer of Gloucestershire, this portion of the Ducie muniments was deposited with us by the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Ducie. Covering some seven centuries and consisting of 4,370 documents and papers and forty-three manuscript volumes, the collection contains a wealth of information concerning Manchester properties, land, streets, general topography and, to a lesser extent, bridges and railways. Conveyances of messuages and gardens in the main thoroughfares are numerous among the medieval items and many fourteenth century charters relate to Millgate, Hanging Ditch, the Corn Market, the Parsonage and, most frequent of all, the Market Stead and Deansgate. Strangeways itself is, of course, well represented. In addition to leases, grants and similar documents there is a considerable section consisting of rentals, accounts and allied estate documents from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, among them being papers of Robert Hedderwick and William Fermie, successive agents to Lord Ducie during the first half of last century, and documents concerning the law suit between the Hartley and Strangeways families respecting the same property. A collection of miscellaneous records (sixteenth-eighteenth century) of these two families contains some noteworthy individual bundles. Thus, amongst papers of John Hartley are a number (1645-53) respecting the money collected in London and Westminster for the relief of the poor of Manchester and Salford afflicted by the great plague of 1645 and the financial aid which Manchester, remembering this kindness, gave in return some twenty years later. Also not without interest is the original petition to Parliament by Hartley and other inhabitants of Manchester--over sixty of them add their signatures--for the relief of the ministry, so deprived of means of subsistence "that the Church is in great danger to bee deprived of their Ministers, who have run all hazards with us, in the tyme of warr and plague". Another small group consists of letters from the Merchant Taylors' Company written in 1654 and 1655 to their school at Crosby, founded in 1620. Other documents deal with roads, bridges and railways in the Manchester area. There are, for example, accounts, estimates, expenses, and similar records relating to Ashton Road (1836-9) and, more fully, Bury New Road (1827-59). A small bundle of letters, bills, diagrams and plans (1814-16) concerns the bridge across the River Irk at the bottom of Miller Street, while, amongst various papers relating to railways, are letters and tenders respecting the railway at Chat Moss (1832-3) and papers and plans (1837-47) dealing with the Manchester and Leeds Railway.

The Clowes deeds, held by JRULM, also have extensive material relating to Manchester in medieval and the early modern period.

The estate papers of the Ducie family relating to their Gloucestershire properties are held by Gloucestershire Record Office, Gloucester.

Reynolds Moreton family, Earls of Ducie

Transferred from Gloucestershire Record Office to the John Rylands Library in 1954.

The Ducie muniments originally formed part of the estate papers of the Earl of Ducie, which were deposited at the Gloucestershire Record Office. The Manchester (Strangeways) portion of the muniments of the Earl of Ducie of Tortworth, Gloucestershire was transferred from Gloucestershire Record Office to the John Rylands Library in 1954.

• Reynolds family of Strangeways
• Hartley family of Strangeways, Manchester
• Strangeways family of Strangeways, Manchester
• Manchester, Lancashire

Unpublished handlist.

The Ducie muniments consist of the estate papers of the Earls of Ducie relating to their properties in the Manchester area. The Ducie family originated in Little Aston, Staffordshire. Matthew Ducie Moreton was created Baron Ducie of Moreton in June 1720. His son, Matthew, 2nd Baron Ducie of Moreton, and 1st Baron Ducie of Tortworth died unmarried in 1770, leaving his title (Baron Ducie of Tortworth) to his nephew, Thomas Reynolds (2nd Baron Ducie of Tortworth), who then assumed the surname Moreton. His mother, Elizabeth, the daughter of the 1st Baron Ducie of Moreton, had married (as her second husband), Francis Reynolds of Strangeways, Manchester. The Strangeways estate had passed to the Reynolds through marriage into the Hartley family in 1711. The Hartleys had earlier acquired the estates through marriage into the Strangeways family. Strangeways was one of the most important estates in Manchester from medieval times.

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