John Wilson of Broomhead Archive
Contains digital mediaDetails
Type of record: Archive
Title: John Wilson of Broomhead Archive
Classmark: MS 295
Creator(s): Wilson, John (1719-1783)()
Date(s): Mid 13th century-1942
Language: English
Size and medium: 255 vols, in 89 boxes (14 large vols not in boxes)
Persistent link: https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/6529
Description
The collection consists of original deeds, court rolls, manorial records, and other material, dating from the 13th century onwards and almost exclusively Yorkshire in character.
It includes:
(1) Papers, accounts and correspondence of the Wilson family, and of those families with whom they intermarried;
(2) Documents relating to the churches, parish and castle of Sheffield;
(3) Manorial records of Sheffield, Midhope, Rotherham, Gunthwaite, Almondbury, Cawthorn, Bolsterstone, Hallamshire, Penistone, Wakefield etc.;
(4) Parochial records of Bradfield, Ecclesfield, etc., and many abstracts of deeds relating to other Yorkshire parishes;
(5) Papers in law suits, mainly of the 16th century;
(6) Copies of genealogies of Yorkshire families;
(7) Miscellaneous copies of medical receipts, epitaphs, sermons, folklore, and other antiquarian notes, collected by Wilson, or copied by him from printed works.
The attached handlists detail only part of the collection. There are other deeds of the types listed above.
Biography or history
John Wilson was an antiquarian who lived at Broomhead Hall in the parish of Bradfield, near Sheffield. The Wilson family had lived in the same area for several centuries and extensive family archives formed the original basis for the collection, which was supplemented by acquiring or copying the papers belonging to other local families, such as the Kayes of Woodsome and the Bosvilles of Gunthwaite.
At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII granted the Manor of Rotherham to George, Earl of Shrewsbury. The Shrewsbury family lacked male heirs and the lordship passed to the Howards, the Dukes of Norfolk. It then descended to a junior branch of the family, the Earls of Effingham, in Surrey.
Provenance
Wilson's original collection was sold to Sir Thomas Phillipps in 1843, subsequently repurchased by the Wilson family towards the end of the nineteenth century. It was finally sold by them in 1953.
System of arrangement
The MS 295 catalogue is based on an historic inventory. The arrangement of material does not necessarily represent the original order of the archive and it is considered partly processed by an archivist. When making requests to consult, please be aware that there may be discrepancies between description and physical arrangement. The retrievable unit for this collection is file level.
Access and usage
Access
Access to this material is unrestricted.
On our website
Subject theme: Yorkshire
An overview of Yorkshire-related collections held in Special Collections at Leeds University LIbrary.