| Admin History | Lord Alfred Henry Paget (1816-1888) was the son of Henry William Paget (1768-1854), first Marquis of Anglesey and his second wife Charlotte, daughter of Earl Cadogen. Alfred was educated at Westminster School, became a lieutenant in 1834 and later joined his father's regiment, the 7th Hussars, rising to the rank of general. He was chief equerry to Queen Victoria and clerk-marshal intermittently for some twenty-seven years between 1846 and 1874. He married Cecilia Wyndham (1830-1914), daughter of George Thomas Wyndham of Cromer Hall, Norfolk. At the time of her marriage, her guardians were William, Earl of Listowel and Maria Augusta, Countess of Listowel.
Lord and Lady Paget had a large family of six sons and seven daughters, including the Rt Hon. Sir Arthur Henry Fitzroy (1851-1938) and Admiral Sir Alfred Wyndham (1852-1918).
Following the death of Lord Alfred, the executors of his estate (including the 3rd Earl of Listowel and Lady Paget) established the Lady Alfred Paget Trust fund for the benefit of his children. The trust built up a modest portfolio of rented and mortgaged property in Middlesex. It also invested in land in Rampton, Nottinghamshire, becoming one of the mortgagees of the estate for Colonel Eyre.
Colonel Henry Eyre was born in 1834, son of the Reverend Charles Wasteneys Eyre of Rampton and Lucy Dorothy, youngest daughter of John Robinson Foulis of Helserton, Yorkshire. Henry was educated at Harrow and Oxford and in 1861 married Kathleen (d.1899) daughter of Reverend Robert Machell of Beverley, Yorkshire. They had a son, Gervas Malcolm, in 1862. Henry was a magistrate for Nottinghamshire, a lieutenant of the Rifle Brigade and Lieutenant-colonel Commanding Nottinghamshire Rifle Volunteers. He served in the Crimea and India. Henry became Lord of the Manor of Rampton on the death of his father in 1862. He also owned land in Treswell, Nottinghamshire. He died in Lincoln in 1904.
Eyre sold the greater part of the Rampton estate, comprising about 1,400 acres, at an auction at Retford in June 1893 arranged by Wynne and Son (solicitors) of 31 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London. The Lady Alfred Paget Trust, as principal mortgagee, received many of the proceeds. The manor house of Rampton and two farms were bought by Mr Cottham who in turn sold them to Charles R. Ellis JP in 1902. Further small estates in Rampton were sold in the later 1890s, until the money lent on mortgage was repaid and the transaction completed.
William Hare KP, PC, JP (1833-1924) the 3rd Earl of Listowel, was co-executor of Lord and Lady Alfred's estate and his name appears frequently in this collection. Hare succeeded his father, Vice-Admiral William Hare Windam, to the earldom in 1856. He married Lady Ernestine Mary Brudenell-Bruce and they had a son and two daughters. Hare was a lieutenant in the Scots Guards in 1852 but was severely wounded in battle. |
| Custodial History | The collection was acquired through the British Records Association by The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections in October 1999 from the London law firm of Farrer who had represented the Paget family's interests during the period covered by this collection. |
| Description | The collection comprises legal papers associated with the Paget family and correspondence accumulated by the family's solicitors in the course of representing family trusts, settlements, inheritance and property.
The collection contains the following groups of records, all relating to the Paget family unless otherwise mentioned:
Legal papers including mortgages and conveyances relating to land in the manor, parish and prebendary of Rampton, Nottinghamshire during the tenancy of the Eyre family and their predecessors, and including papers relating to the mortgage to the Lady Alfred Paget Trust, 1778-1893 (PGR 1);
Legal and estate papers relating to land in the manor, parish and prebendary of Rampton, Nottinghamshire, during the period after the sale by the Eyre family, and relating to the Paget family's mortgage interests and sales, 1893-1899 (PGR 2);
Legal papers and sale particulars relating to the Paget family's property in Middlesex including 35 and 37, Hampden Road, Hornsey, and properties in Haringey and Islington, 1914-1923 (PGR 3);
Legal papers, settlements and accounts of the estates and trusts of the late Lord Alfred Paget, 1868-1914 (PGR 4);
Legal papers, Estate Duty and Inland Revenue documents, marriage settlements and accounts of the estates and trusts of Lady Alfred Paget (née Cecilia Wyndham), 1868-1913 (PGR 5);
Other legal and family papers, 1847-1939 (PGR 6);
Subject correspondence files maintained by Farrer and Company (solicitors) relating to the family, its trusts and other interests, 1914-1929 (PGR 7). |