Catalogue description Bailward of Horsington Manuscripts

Deeds and papers of the Bailward family of Horsington

This deposit is a compact and straightforward archive accumulation, consisting almost entirely of deeds, for the most part in their original bundles, of the estates acquired by the Bailward family in Horsington and neighbouring parishes. In cataloguing the collection it seemed that the obvious and only method was to follow in chronological order the successive acquisitions by different members of the family and to this end the understanding of family relationships has been greatly helped by the depositor's booklet on The Bailward Family.

The family's interest in Horsington dates from 1787 when Samuel purchased the manor and its associated estate and this acquisition is treated first in the catalogue below. There follow in turn the deeds of his subsequent purchases and those made by his widow and his eldest son. The latter made his youngest brother his heir and hence the records and the estates passed to him to join the records of the properties he had purchased independently or was subsequently to purchase.

Earlier bundles of title deeds which could definitely be linked with particular Bailward purchases have been associated with or cross-referenced to the appropriate deeds (without disturbing original bundles), but inevitably some of the deeds could not be so linked, possibly because of ambiguity or change of place names or because of insufficient descriptive detail and these have been left at the end of the Horsington section.

The collection thus has a basic interest as dealing with the descent of the manor from the time of the Commonwealth and as showing the acquisition of an estate of moderate size by one family. Additionally, however, as the deeds often go back to this mid-17th century period they have much to tell of the parish and, in particular, its families over two centuries and the numerous wills help to fill the gap left by the wartime loss at Exeter. On the other hand it is unfortunate that there are no series of estate management, household or personal records to enlarge this picture.

Most of the major farms or houses can be identified on the 6" O.S. map and, where possible, lesser properties have been identified also by reference to the tithe map numbers.

1-18 Deeds of Horsington properties acquired by Samuel Bailward

19-24 Deeds of Horsington properties acquired by Samuel's widow, Anna Maria

25-66 Deeds of Horsington properties acquired by his eldest son, Thomas

67-97 Deeds of Horsington properties acquired by his youngest son, John

98-99 Deeds of Horsington properties acquired by his daughter, Elizabeth Sarah

100, 101 Deeds of Horsington properties acquired by John's son, Thomas Henry

102-115 Other Horsington deeds

116-149 Deeds of North Cheriton, Stoke Trister, Temple Combe, Wincanton, etc.

150-156 Misc. items

The documents listed as DD/DNL 157-159 belonged originally to the late Mr.F.de F.Daniel, who gave them to a former churchwarden of Horsington, who in turn passed them to his successor, the present depositor.

The deeds clearly formed part of of the main Bailward MSS previously deposited and would, under the normal course of events, have been listed in the section DD/DNL 25-66. Indeed, the deeds there listed as DD/DNL 38 and 44 relate to the same properties as DD/DNL 157 and DD/DNL 158 and 159 respectively.

It has not proved possible to make a positive identification of the houses involved, but from a check of the tithe map and the 1st. ed.6" O.S. it would appear that both formed elements of Throop Farm on the latter. Although the deeds call one of the properties Wilkenthroop Farm, this is probably not that so named on the 1st ed.6" O.S., as the latter was not Bailward owned at the date of the tithe maps and the field names do not seem to agree.

C/412, 421, 457, 1214, 1258

C/2372

s/2360

• Bailward family of Horsington, Somerset
• Horsington, Somerset