Catalogue description BOSWORTH (HIGHGATE HOUSE) COLLECTION

The Bosworths lived at Highgate House in Little Creaton, actually in Spratton parish but closer to Great Creaton. The house was an inn on the main Northampton to Market Harborough road, malting, brewing and serving its own beer and providing limited accommodation to travellers. There was also a leasehold farm attached.

The family papers mainly span the 19th Century and are dominated by the letters of two successive and overlapping generations. Thomas Wright Bosworth, 1805-1856, his wife Matilda, nee Pearson, his unmarried sister Clara Bosworth at Cheltenham and his widowed brother in law, the Rev. John Owen of Thrussington, Leicestershire, form the focus of the older generation. In the second are Thomas Wright Bosworth's five children, his eldest son Thomas Jones Bosworth, b 1843, Henry Wright Bosworth of Loughborough, a solicitor, 1847-1908, Col. Arthur Bosworth of the West.Indian Regiment, 1852-1898, Helen Maria, Mrs Richard Worthington, b.1842 and Mary Louis, the wife of John Frederick Homan, rector of Chicklade, Somerset, b.1849. Also conspicuous are their older cousins, the two daughters of the Rev. Owen, Selina and Matilda, the latter marrying the Rev. Henry Smith of St. Albans. The girls were old enough to be prolific correspondents with their uncle and aunt. Their letters in particular paint a vivid picture of life in Thrussington and mention many neighbouring Leicestershire families they were on calling terms with. Arthur Bosworth's letters home. from Jamaica in the 1870s also stand out and he filled a book with notes on the history of the West Indian regiments. Arthur died of sun stroke in Sierra Leone in 1898. Thomas Jones Bosworth's wife Annie left a series of diaries between 1877 and 1890 and a journal of her childrens' progress through the years 1882 to 1909. Their son Thomas Owen Bosworth, a teacher at Northampton Grammar School, was a notable geologist but sadly few of his papers survive in the collection.

One non member of the family features significantly amongst the papers, the Rev. Thomas Jones, 1745-1845, who lodged on a permanent basis at Highgate House. Jones was curate of Creaton from 1785, curate of Spratton between 1810 and 1825 and was finally rector of Creaton from 1829 to 1833. He was an influential evangelical in the Church of England at a national as well as a local level who was instrumental in founding the first Bible Societies and who translated the Bible into Welsh. Amongst his papers are a notebook which includes the beginnings of an autobiography, and an 1811 census for Spratton and a diary for 1796-1799. Letters dominate again and are mainly addressed to Clara Bosworth between 1813 and 1840. Jones's biography was written in 1851 by the Rev. John Owen and a copy can be found in the Record Office library.

The collection includes papers from several related families as set out in the appended family trees and they naturally feature heavily in the correspondence. Thomas Wright Bosworth took his second name from his mother's family, the Wrights of Holdenby. Mrs Bosworth's father, Joseph Pearson ran a City business from Aldersgate Street and had himself married a Wright. Amongst the Pearson papers are letters concerning the death of a brother, George, in Spain in 1841. Preserved also is a little family history, a copy of a vivid report by Captain Richard Pearson of his engagement at sea with the American John Paul Jones in 1779. From the younger generation comes a double connection with the Worthingtons of Peckleton in Leicestershire, Thomas Jones Bosworth and his sister both marrying into the family. Matilda Owen married the Rev. Henry Smith, the son of neighbours of the Bosworths in Little Creaton. Smith became vicar of Christchurch, St. Albans and his autobiography of 1886 contains wonderful, descriptions of the Creaton neighbourhood, Thomas Jones and the Langtons of Teeton Hall as well as his own family. Letters from their children, the Rev. Henry Powell Owen Smith, vicar of Douglas, Lancashire and Mrs Luisa Isabella Salt occur in the main collection. Mrs Salt describes her time as a nurse in India in the late 1880s.

A large part of the archive relates to executorships and trusteeships held by Thomas Wright Bosworth mainly for the Abbott family who were cousins. These consist of the executorship of the late John Winns Abbott of Barby who died in 1828 and trusteeships for his sister Mrs Sarah Pearce of Daventry and London, 1828-1832 and his granddaughter Matilda Bosworth Abbott, later Mrs Thomas Langton of Teeton, 1840-1841. A long run of bills from Daventry and Barby tradesmen represent the winding up of J.W. Abbott's affairs.

Thomas Jones Bosworth managed the Teeton hall estate for Miss Louisa Langton and there is a series of informative letters from her about matters at Teeton between 1877 and 1885. These include a plan of the garden. Bosworth moved from Highgate to Cadeby in Leicestershire in 1883. Later they moved to Peckleton, then to Leicester and on to Northampton.

Contents

Bosworth family correspondence, deeds and other papers, 1767 - 1929

Deeds and papers relating to properties connected with the Bosworths: James Letts' will 1808 and the 'Lantspury deeds', 1660 - 1845

Peckleton estate accounts, 1899 - 1911

Related family papers

- Wright of Holdenby, 1777 - 1820

(Ann and Rebecca Wright, sisters, married Thomas Bosworth and Joseph Pearson respectively)

- Robinson of Finedon, 1826

- Pearson of Aldersgate Street, London, 1779 - 1840 (Matilda Pearson married Thomas Wright Bosworth)

Papers relating to executorships and trusteeships, and the management of estates by Thomas Wright Bosworth

- John Winns Abbott of Barby and Teeton. 1787 - 1840

- Mrs Sarah Pearce (nee Abbott) of Daventry and London, 1824 - 1832

- Matilda Bosworth Abbott, later Mrs Thomas Langton of Teeton, 1838 - 1842

- Joseph Buswall of Spratton, 1823 - 1849

- William and Georgina Davy, 1844 - 1856

- Papers relating to the management of the Teeton Hall estate by Thomas Jones Bosworth, 1877 - 1885

Biography of the Rev. Henry Smith of St. Albans, 1886

Papers relating to the Burton Over living. 1901 - 1917

Copy texts, notes and memoranda [for sermons], some by the Rev. Thomas Jones

Note: In the catalogue Thomas Wright Bosworth's name is abbreviated to Thomas Wright Bosworth, and his wife Matilda's to Matilda Bosworth. Their eldest son, Thomas Jones Bosworth's name is abbreviated to Thomas Jones Bosworth, and his wife Annie's to Annie Bosworth

Bosworth family of Little Creaton, Northamptonshire

Access to the Bosworth (Highgate House) collection should be arranged in advance through the Northamptonshire Record Office

Accession 1991/320

• Abbott, John Winns, d 1828, of Barby, Northamptonshire
• Jones, Thomas, 1752-1845, of Little Creaton, Northamptonshire
• Owen, John, of Thrussington, Leicestershire, clergyman
• Owen-Smith, Henry Powell, 1850-1909, of Parboid, Lancashire, clergyman
• Smith, Henry Powell, Owen-, 1850-1909, of Parboid, Lancashire, clergyman
• Abbott family of Barby, Northamptonshire
• Buswell family of Spratton, Northamptonshire
• Langton family of Teeton Hall, Northamptonshire
• Pearson family of Aldersgate Street, London
• Worthington family of Peckleton, Leicestershire
• Wright family of Holdenby, Northamptonshire
• Burton Overy, Leicestershire
• Caribbean
• Little Creaton, Northamptonshire
• Peckleton, Leicestershire
• Spratton, Northamptonshire
• Teeton, Northamptonshire
• Thrussington, Leicestershire
• West Indies
• Clergy
• Religious belief
• Armed forces
• Travel abroad