Catalogue description The Clough and Butler Archives

This record is held by West Sussex Record Office

Details of CLOUGH
Reference: CLOUGH
Title: The Clough and Butler Archives
Description:

It might appear that the archives in this collection lack homogeneity; that there are two principal families involved (Butler and Clough), with estates in Sussex and North Wales, and that there are properties elsewhere, particularly, large estates in Norfolk, of which the connection with either family is not apparent. This objection is valid, in that the archives available do not illustrate a complete family collection.

 

The value of this collection is that, besides enhancing our knowledge of local history, it connects with so many families in England and Wales of national importance. It is hoped that the arrangement and cataloguing of these archives have ensured, for all time, that, in the words of Arthur Hugh Clough,('The Silver Wedding' (part of 'Ambarvalia'); H. F. Lowry, A. L. P. Norrington, F. L. Mulhauser (eds.), The Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough (1951), p. 21, 1. 60.) they:

 

Shall gleam in glories of a deathless day

Date: (1356)-1896
Related material:

The following documents amongst the archives of His Grace The Duke of Norfolk, E.M., K.G., at Arundel Castle (Arundel MSS. D2532-2574) relate to the families of Butler and Clough:-

 

(a) 18 July 1780 Articles of agreement in respect of the intended marriage of Ann Jemima Butler, dau. of James Butler, late of Warminghurst Park, esq., dec'd,, and Martha, his wife (née Dolben), to Roger Clough of Glanywern, co. Denbigh, gent.; with marriage settlement 28 April 1781

 

(b) 4 Sept 1780 Articles of agreement in respect of the intended marriage of Patty Butler, dau. of James Butler, to Richard Clough of Glanywern, co. Denbigh, gent

 

(c) 6 Aug 1789 Deed of partition between the Rev. Roger Clough and Ann Jemima, his wife, and Patty Clough, widow of Richard Clough; with schedules of property

 

(d) 14 Jan 1805 Articles of agreement for the sale of Warminghurst estate from the Rev. Roger Clough and Ann Jemima, his wife, and Roger Butler Clough, their eldest son, to Charles, [11th] Duke of Norfolk, for £70,000

 

(e) 7 Aug 1805 Mortgage of Warminghurst estate from Charles, [11th] Duke of Norfolk, to William Ryder; with final release, 24 Nov 1806

 

The schedules in document (c) contain the following properties:-

 

SCHEDULE I

 

Manor of Pinkhurst; 19 freehold and leasehold and two copyhold tenements -

 

Several closes of land in Storrington 15a.

 

Nash Farm 61a.

 

Thakeham Place and Prickloes Farms 312a.

 

Manor of Chancton; several freehold and leasehold and three copyhold tenements -

 

Chancton Farm and buildings 379a.

 

Little Chancton Farm 150a.

 

Orchard at Spearhill -

 

Manor of Warminghurst; three leasehold and one copyhold tenements -

 

Warminghurst Farm 80a.

 

Four Cottages in Warminghurst -

 

Squinces Farm and buildings 223a.

 

East and West Boroford [sic.] Farms 204a.

 

Advowson of Warminghurst -

 

Warminghurst Place and Parks 200a.

 

Old House and Mill Coppices 8a.

 

Newhouse Farm and Buildings 88a.

 

Manor of Ashington; several freehold and leasehold and one copyhold tenement -

 

Rents of 100a. in Ashington -

 

Rents of lands in Wisborough. Green and Kirdford -

 

1720a.

 

Annual rent or value £1,211 4s. 8d.

 

SCHEDULE II

 

Heene Manor Farm 347a.

 

Chantry Farm 34a.

 

Manor of Broadwater -

 

Broadwater Farm 834a.

 

Decoy Farm 82a.

 

Manor of Storrington -

 

Kithurst Farm 239a.

 

Rowdell Place 263a.

 

Manor of Houghton -

 

Terls Coppice 73a.

 

Chalk Pits -

 

Great and small tithes of Houghton -

 

Houghton parsonage -

 

2201a.

 

Annual rent or value £1,403 14s. 10d.

 

The description of the properties referred to in the division of the estates is included in the following list which has been compiled from records at Arundel Castle as mentioned above:-

 

Manor of Pinkhurst in Billingshurst, Itchingfield and West Chiltington.

 

Messuage with barns, stables, gardens, orchards, arable, meadow and pasture called Kithurst (186a.) in Storrington, formerly in occ. of Edward Symons, now or late of John Sandham.

 

Messuage or farm house, with barns, stables, other outhouses, gardens, orchards, arable, meadow and pasture called Nash Farm (60a.) in Thakeham and Shipley, formerly in occ. of Isaac Dean, now of Thomas Dean.

 

Capital messuage, with barns, stables, gardens, orchards, arable, meadow, pasture and wood called Thakeham Place (210a.) in Thakeham and Warminghurst, formerly in occ. of Thomas Smith, now or late of John Lidbetter.

 

Manor of Chancton.

 

Mansion House called Chancton Farm (60a.) with lands, meadows, pastures and wood in Washington, Ashington and Wiston.

 

Lands and tenements called Trigolls (100a.) in Washington and Ashington.

 

Lands and tenements called Nutt Grove (60a.) in Wiston, and two closes of meadow called the Gores (8a.) in Washington, late in occ. of Ellis Geer and William Mardinor.

 

Manor of Houghton.

 

Messuage with barns, stables, outhouses, gardens, orchards, lands, meadows, pastures, woods and premises (200a.) in Houghton, formerly in occ. of Mary Tupper, widow, and Henry Peckham, now or late of Robert Drewitt.

 

Messuage, barns, stable, gate rooms, 130a. arable land in the Common Fields, close of pasture (4a.) called Gassons, meadow (10½a.) in the Common Mead, and 44 bullock leazes in the Common Brooks in Houghton.

 

Woodland called Hunts Down (140a.) and land called Hunts (3a.) formerly in occ. of Thomas Firth, then of Thomas Wilkins, now or late of said Robert Drewitt.

 

House and garden now or late in occ. of Robert Browne.

 

Three chalk pits, formerly in occ. of blank Ibbleston, John Nazon, Robert Beale, and Francis Cooper, now or late of Abraham Ibbetson, William Cooper, and Robert Greenfield, in Houghton.

 

Yearly quit-rents and chief-rents, £5 1s. 10d., to the manor of Houghton.

 

Manor of Warminghurst, with messuages, lands, etc., in the Town Mead and Town Field of Warminghurst, called Lee Wood; and messuages, lands, etc., held by copy of court roll of the said manor, formerly in occ. of John Mansel, Robert Burch, Richard Tye, William Adeane, John Bridger, William Tanner, Beatrix Tanner, and John Duke, called Prickloves, the Buttons, the Fulling Common; and cottages and lands, now or late in occ. of widow Penfold, Alice Slater, Edward Streater, Thomas Streater, Benjamin Belchamber, Richard Launce, and Richard Stringer, on Warminghurst Heath or Bowford Common, within the said manor, and waste or common called Warminghurst Heath and Bowford Common.

 

Messuages, farms, lands, tenements, stables, outhouses, malthouses, barns and buildings in Warminghurst or Shipley, called Bowfords, Uphedges, Downhedges, Jupps, Buttons Mead, Cuddocks, Hooks and Hedges, Watermans, Squinces, Knells and Bridgers, and lands belonging called the Ashington Ground, Squinces Lag, the Combe Mead, the Mill Field, the Mine Pit Field, Upper Combe, Beach Field, Squincy Coppice, Stubbs Field, Holme Tree field, Barn Field, Leewood Field, the Three Acre Coppice, Six Acres, Town Fields, Malthouse Croft, the Half Acres, the Pots, the Railfield, the Three Acres, the Clover Field, the Half Acre, the Two Acres, the One Acre Croft, the Great Mead, the Three Acres, the Barnfield, the Four Acres, the Ricksteddle Field, the Six Acres, the Culver Mead, Frankscroft, the Brook Field, the Twelve Acres, the Bushey Platts, the blank Croft, the Cowfields, the Eight Acres, the Lower Barn Field; (438a.).

 

Manor of Ashington; advowson of parish church of Ashington; messuage and lands in Ashington; quit-rent due out of lands in Ashington called the Hundred Acres.

 

Advowson of the rectory and church of Thakeham.

 

Closes and crofts called the Malthouse Croft, Dennis Garden, the Barn Croft, the Barn Plot, the Lower Orchard, (3a.) in Warminghurst, now or late in occ. of Stephen Inden and Richard Greenfield, with abuttals.

 

Messuage, barn, stable, 20a. land called Slatas Copyhold in Warminghurst, now or late in occ. of William Goble

 

Messuage, barn and half yardland (8a.) near Warminghurst Heath.

 

Capital messuage called Rowdell House (160a.) with barns, dovehouses, stables, coachhouses, edifices, gardens and orchards; with toft upon which formerly stood a windmill; furze and heath and coney warren (80a.) in Washington and Sullington; woods and underwoods (11a.) in Washington and Sullington.

 

Parcels of land called the Little Bowyers (16a.).

 

Parcels of land called Great Bowyers (28a.); Great Lease Field (17a.); Amblehurst Toft (24a.); Bland Field (12a.); Garden Field (7a.); Hammer Land (23a.).

 

Land called Bramley Field (16a.)

 

Land called Broomfield (22a.).

 

Lands called Redfields, Ings and Kites (20a.).

 

Meadow called Little Lease Field Mote (9a.)

 

Meadows called Island Meadow (3a.) and Hammer Meadow (4a.)

 

Coppices called Coledust Coppice, Ewhurst Coppice, Hawkes Wood Coppice, Caves Coppice, Flats Coppice, and Wyldeside Coppice (110a.); coppice near the garden (22a.); three ponds with the Laggs, near the said coppices (7a.) in Kirdford and Wisborough Green.

 

Land (40a.), sometime covered with water, called Kirdford Hammer or Hammer Pond; barn, lands, meadows and feedings called Staingates and Crofts (60a.) in Kirdford; lands and tenements called Jacks Land (30a.) in Kirdford; lands and tenements called Jacks Land (30a.) in Kirdford, now called Idehurst Farm, now or late in occ. of Robert Shotter.

 

Capital messuage in Warminghurst called Warminghurst Park, with outhouses, gardens, orchards and curtilages; advowson of rectory of Warminghurst; with parks and inclosed grounds (166a.). Arable, meadow and pasture called South Field, Upper Lewins, the Five Acres, next to the church, the Seven Acres, the Five Acres, next Ashington, the Trow Meadow, the Broad Meadow, the Fourteen Acres Meadow, the Eighteen Acres Meadow or the Long Lewins, Brick Field, the Culver Field, the North Field, the Mill Field, and Lobes Lee Coppice.

 

Water corn grist mill and mill ponds.

 

Manor of Broadwater, and farm in Broadwater, now or late in occ. of Nicholas Challoner.

 

Manor of Storrington, with messuages, lands, etc., in Storrington, Rudgwick, Billingshurst, Slinfold, Pulborough and West Chiltington; messuages and lands in Storrington, now or late in occ. of the said John Sandham; lands called the Marshes (20a.), land near Storrington Holt called Hill Field (9a.), land called West Clays.

 

Land called Taverners at Coolham (4a.).

 

Land in the Oat Crofts (2a.), land in Hawkes Field (1a. and ½a.), land in Middle Clays (½a.), in East Clays (½a.), late copyhold of the manor of Storrington.

 

Land in Champion Butts (1a.); land in Edward Symond's Butts (1a.); barn, with stable and gateroom; carthouse adjoining garden of messuage called Brown's and Wilton's.

 

Closes of land (23a.) in Storrington; Wood Mead (6a.), Three Fields in East Town (5a.), land called Spear Bridge (5a.), Longland (1½a.) and the Taints (6a.)

 

Three Closes (7a.) in Storrington; and piece of ground under Kithurst Hill called Welden Acre; arable land called Tenants in Storrington, formerly part of a coppice called Holt Coppice.

 

Messuage and 20a. land called Newhouse.

 

Three closes called the West Parkfield (20a.) abutting N. on Park Wood in Warminghurst.

 

Messuage, barns, buildings, farms, lands and tenements, called Clayton (40a.) in Washington.

 

Cottage, barn, farm, lands and tenements called Eme at Rock (21a.) in Washington.

 

Messuage, barn, garden and orchard called Heynes in East Clayton in Washington; messuage, barn, garden and orchard (6a.) in Washington and Sullington; closes (8a.) called Flushers in Washington and Sullington; messuage, barn, buildings and lands called Boords and Bowchies (36a.) in Washington; field called Rowdell Clays (1a.) in Washington; 2½a. land in common field of Washington.

 

In addition, there are court rolls of Warminghurst, 1415-83, 1502-46, 1555-77, 1581-1615, 1628-36, 1660, 1662 and 1726 (Arundel Castle MSS., M222-227)

Held by: West Sussex Record Office, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

Butler family of Warminghurst, Sussex

Clough family of Llwyn Offa, Flintshire

Physical description: 19 Series
Immediate source of acquisition:

The generosity of Mr. and Mrs. H.J. B. Clough in entrusting the care of these valuable documents to the West Sussex County Record Office should be realised and appreciated by every student of local history.

Custodial history:

It remains to account for the presence of certain archives whose place in the collection is not otherwise explained. The property in Hellingly, Selmeston and Ripe belonged to Richard Caldecot, who came from Sherrington in Selmeston and whose third daughter and coheir, Grace, married the second James Butler. The property at Horningbrook in Horsham belonged to Guilford Vinall, whose grand-daughter, Elizabeth Butler Marshall, brother of George Clough Marshall (see nos. 32-34), married Frederick Butler Clough. The deeds of the Norfolk, and East Meon, Hampshire, estates came to the collection through the Sharrock family, who married into the Marshalls; the Rev. George Marshall was son-in-law of Guilford Vinall and father of Elizabeth Butler Clough (see no. 3A). The Sharrocks had connections with the Beck family of Norfolk (see nos. 235 and 3A). Most of the Welsh title-deeds belonged to families with whom the Cloughs intermarried. The association of the Butlers with Sir Bernard de Gomme (see nos. 2 and 241) is somewhat obscure. The Dictionary of National Biography states that the latter owned property called Wadnall, or Waddenhall, in Waltham and Petham, Kent, and this same property was settled on the marriage of Roger Clough and Ann Jemima Butler (see no. 43). It is also noticeable that Sir Bernard de Gomme, and Prudence, wife of the first James Butler of Amberley, were contemporary and both of Flemish stock. (For the relationship between the descendants of Sir Bernard de Gomme and the Butler family, see the bibliography (p. ix), note 3.)

Administrative / biographical background:

The Butler family entered Sussex life in September 1648, when James Butler of London, merchant, purchased Amberley Castle and manor from the Commissioners of sequestrated estates, for £3,341 14s. 2½d. (Close Rolls, 24 Car. 1. p. 20 M.7. Quoted in detail in Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 17, p. 218.); the castle had formerly been leased by the Bishops of Chichester for periods of 21 years (see no. 110). The family continued to prosper during the Commonwealth and James Butler received enormous rights of fee-farm in 1652 (see no. 175), which perhaps indicate the beginnings of the family wealth. At the Restoration, the Castle reverted to the See, and it is likely (Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 62, p. 41n.) that a lease for 21 years was granted to James Butler in 1661; this lease would have terminated in 1682, at which date there is evidence that his son was granted a lease of the same duration from Bishop Guy Carleton of Chichester. In 1683 the lease was assigned to Sir John Briscoe of Great Harrowden, Northamptonshire, for £4,800, and the Butler family resided at Patcham, and at Michelgrove in Clapham, during the next twenty years; Grace, the widow of the second James Butler, afterwards lived at Rowdell House in Washington.

 

The third James Butler bought Warminghurst Park in 1702, from William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, who had acquired it in 1676 from Henry Bigland of Gray's Inn, London. Butler created a deer park, and built a new house to the south-east of the old one, which was converted into a farm building (Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 55, p. 79n.). The new house 'though it could boast of no architectural beauty ... had an appearance of grandeur, and was a very good specimen of a country gentleman's seat (E. Cartwright, The Parochial Topography of the Rape of Bramber (1830), p. 256.).' The property descended to Ann Jemima, the eldest daughter and coheir of the fourth James Butler, her two brothers having died in infancy. In 1805, the estate was sold to Charles, 11th Duke of Norfolk, by the Rev. Roger Clough, husband of Ann Jemima, who bought, instead, Bathafern Park in Denbighshire. On becoming part of the settled estates of the Dukedom, the house was pulled down and its pond and parks were converted into farm land.

 

There is little evidence of what either house at Warminghurst looked like. A drawing in elevation on an estate map (British Museum Add. MS. 37420; photograph in W.S.R.O., Add. MS. 2155.) by Francis Hill of Canterbury (1707) illustrates the old house, previously owned by William Penn. Until the present collection was deposited, our knowledge of the later house was restricted to two tinted views, each 10½ in. x 7½ in., executed by the water-colour painter Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1734-94), who was engaged by William Burrell,(For the story of William Burrell, and his connections with Grimm, see W. H. Godfrey and L. F. Salzman (eds.), Sussex Views (Sussex Record Society, 1951.) pp. viii, ix.) the antiquary, to illustrate the antiquities, churches and houses of Sussex. These views of Warminghurst are now in the Burrell Collection (Add. Burrell, 5673, fol. 35.) in the British Museum; the north view is reproduced in Cartwright, (Op. cit., p.256.) the south view can be compared with that by Mrs. Clough (see no. 236). It is a coincidence that the south views were both executed in the same year (1789), because, whereas the house is substantially the same in each picture, the pond is shown by Grimm as scooped out of the ground, and with a long precipitous bank like the edge of a gravel-pit, while the pond in Mrs. Clough's drawing is about on a level with the lower lawn, which is separated by only a small bank from the upper garden and house.

 

Mrs. Clough's view of Rowdell House (see no. 237) should also be compared with two views by Grimm, also in the Burrell Collection.

 

The Butler family were active in Sussex affairs. James Butler of Amberley was returned as M.P. for Arundel in 1678/9, 1679 and 1680/1; James Butler of Patcham was returned, 1689/90, and another James Butler in 1705. In one of the county seats, James Butler of Warminghurst was returned in 1714/5, 1727/8, 1734 and 1741, and John Butler (A John Butler was M.P. for East Grinstead, 1741/2.) of Warminghurst in 1747, 1754 and 1761. The latter gentleman has another claim to fame in the much-repeated story (The fullest account is in Sussex Archaelogical Collections, vol. 14, pp. 33, 34.) of his ghostly appearance at Warminghurst at the time of his death some distance away. In more concrete terms, his decease meant the election of a new M.P., and Lord George Henry Lennox was a candidate (see no. 6).

 

The list of High Sheriffs of Sussex (1129-1914) (Sheriffs of Sussex. 1129-1914 (Privately printed, 1914.).) shows that James Butler of Amberley was sheriff in 1653, and his son in 1677, and that a John Butler was sheriff in 1702. It has been pointed out (Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 81, p. 26n.) that T. W. Horsfield in his History of Sussex (vol. I, p. 380) states that William Wilson was appointed High Sheriff in 1653, but the quietus roll in this collection (no. 5) would confirm the appointment of Butler.

 

Among the distinguished families connected by marriage to the Butlers, the most interesting from the Sussex point of view, is the Rooper family. Edward Rooper, or Roper, of Eltham, Kent, married (see no. 39) Katherine, a daughter of the first James Butler of Amberley. Rooper's career (For his life, see Sussex Archaeological Collections vol. 15, pp. 74-82; The Earl of March, Records of the Old Charlton Hunt (1910); Earl Bathurst, The Charlton and Raby Hunts (1938); Victoria County History, Sussex, vol. 2 (1907), p.441.) was spectacular, and although not mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography, he was important enough to pose for Sir Godfrey Kneller. (A photograph of this picture can be seen in Earl Bathurst, op. cit., facing p. 17.) He was master of the celebrated Charlton Hunt, near Goodwood, in the days when its fame was national and its patrons royal, and in this capacity he became friendly with the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth. A letter (Published in Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 7, pp. 168-172.) from Bishop Guy Carleton of Chichester, describing the reception of the Duke at Chichester in 1679, recounts that no-one had met him or hunted with him, save 'Mr. Butlr of Amberly ... and his brother in law Rooper'. The latter was forced to leave the country after the abortive rising of 1685, but returned during the reign of William III and died while hunting at Findon, aged 84.

 

Katherine, one of the daughters of the second James Butler, married (see no. 40) Thomas Pope Blount, who was a son of Sir Thomas Pope Blount, the politician and author of Censura Celebriorum Authorum (1690), and a grandson of Sir Henry Blount, the traveller, both of whom are entered in the Dictionary of National Biography. The Blounts were connected by marriage to the Caesars of Bennington, Hertfordshire, of whom Elizabeth, possibly a grand-daughter of Sir Charles Caesar (A son of Sir Julius Caesar, who was a judge and Master of the Rolls. See D.N.B.) (an eminent judge and Master of the Rolls), married the third James Butler.

 

The Butler line terminated in two coheiresses, Ann Jemima and Patty, who married two brothers, Roger and Richard Clough (see nos. 43-46). The Clough family was one of the most distinguished and wealthy families in North Wales whose diversity of talents enlightened the years, from the days of Richard Clough, the Tudor merchant and partner of Sir Thomas Gresham, to the time of Arthur Hugh Clough, the poet and brother of Charles Butler Clough (see nos. 35-37), the inventor, who was Deputy Lieutenant and High Sheriff of Flintshire, and brother of Ann Jemima Clough, the first principal of Newnham College, Cambridge (see no. 10). Blanche Athena, a daughter of Arthur Hugh Clough, also became a principal of Newnham College (1920-23). To continue the name of Butler, most of the thirteen children of Ann Jemima and Patty Clough were given it as a middle name, and it has continued as such to this day in the main branches of the family.

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