Catalogue description ESTATE RECORDS OF THE THELLUSSONS, BARONS RENDLESHAM

HB 416/A2/12 - reference number not used

HB 416/B1/61 - reference number not used

HB 416/A THELLUSSON ESTATES AND FAMILY

HB 416/A1 Trustees under the will of Peter Thellusson

HB 416/A2 Management and division of estates under the will of Peter Thellusson

HB 416/A3 Thellusson family

HB 416/B SUFFOLK ESTATES

HB 416/B1 Freehold

HB 416/B2 Mortgages

HB 416/B3 Maps

HB 416/B4 Manorial;

HB 416/B4/1 Rendlesham otherwise Naunton Hall

HB 416/B4/2 Bavents in Rendlesham

HB 416/B4/3 Colvilles in Rendlesham

HB 416/B4/4 Bavents and Colvilles in Rendlesham

HB 416/B4/5 Other manors

HB 416/B4/6 Manor of Burston, Norfolk

HB 416/B4/7 Sundry evidences relating to manors in Rendlesham and elsewhere

HB 416/C ESTATES IN HERTFORDSHIRE AND ELSEWHERE

HB 416/C1 Estate management

HB 416/C2 Correspondence etc

HB 416/C3 Tithe

HB 416/C4 Evidences of title

HB 416/C5 Duke of Newcastle's estate

HB 416/C6 Manor of Aldenham;

HB 416/C6/1 Court rolls and books

HB 416/C6/2 Surveys, rentals etc

HB 416/C6/3 Accounts

HB 416/C6/4 Copies of court rolls etc

HB 416/C7 Other manors

HB 416/C8 Maps

HB 416/C9 Estates in London, Middlesex and Sussex

HB 416/D WEST INDIES ESTATES

HB 416/D1 Bacolet estate

HB 416/D2 Las Cuevas estate;

HB 416/D2/1 Correspondence, reports, maps etc

HB 416/D2/2 Accounts

HB 416/D2/3 Printed material

HB 416/E MATERIAL UNCONNECTED WITH THE THELLUSSON FAMILY

HB 416/E1 Clutterbuck family

HB 416/E2 Edward Woodger

Section A relates to the administration of Peter Thellusson's estate, its division between the heirs in 1856, and thereafter to the management of the estates of the fifth and sixth Barons Rendlesham. HB 416/A1 contains conveyances to new trustees; HB 416/A2 deals with the administration and management of the Thellusson properties as a whole. This section also contains material concerning estates in County Durham, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Yorkshire. HB 416/A3 contains family memorabilia.

Sections B, C and D contain records of individual estates, arranged geographically. Related material in HB 416/A2 is cross-referenced in the catalogue. HB 416/B1 relates to Suffolk (apart from one Norfolk manor). HB 416/C1-C8 relate to Hertfordshire. HB 416/C9 concerns properties in London, Middlesex and Sussex. HB 416/D relates to estates in Grenada.

Section E contains material which is apparently not connected with the Thellussons.

Thellusson family, Barons Rendlesham of Suffolk

Records presented in 1989

Accessions 4927,6050,8534

The present collection was deposited by the British Records Association and by Messrs Jansons Solicitors of Portman Street, London WI, in 1979, 1980 and 1988. In 1989 the collection was converted into a gift at the request of Lord Rendlesham.

See also: Dictionary of National Biography' ('Thellusson'), and The Complete Peerage, ('Rendlesham').

Peter Thellusson (1737-1797) was born in Paris, the son of the Genevan envoy. In 1761 he married Ann Woodford of Southampton, and in the following year he moved to England and was naturalised. He made his fortune as a merchant, trading mainly with the West Indies.

In his will (signed 1796) he bequeathed £100,000 to his wife and children, but left land worth £4,500 a year, and personal property worth £600,000, to accumulate during the lives of his three sons and of such of his sons' sons, and his son' sons' children, as should be born at the time of his death 'or in due time afterwards'. The estate would then be divided between the eldest male descendants of his three sons.

The family tried to get the will set aside, but it was upheld by the Lord Chancellor in 1799 and by the House of Lords in 1805. An Act was passed in 1800 prohibiting such accumulating trusts, as it was feared that they could be a threat to the state.

When Peter Thellusson died, he had no great-grandchildren, so the trust expired with the death in 1856 of his last surviving grandson, Charles. Following further litigation, the estate was shared between Frederick William Brook Thellusson, fifth Baron Rendlesham, and Charles Sabine Augustus Thellusson. Because of legal costs and mismanagement of the estate, they shared only about £600,000, rather than the tens of millions which some had predicted.

The trustees built up extensive estates in Suffolk, County Durham, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire and elsewhere in England, as well as in Grenada.

Peter Thellusson's son Peter Isaac Thellusson was created first Baron Rendlesham in the Irish Peerage in 1806.

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