The Oxford Record Office now holds all the original Powys-Lybbe deeds. They were placed there firstly by Lady Rose probably after the death of her husband - he had bought Hardwick - and then joined by various deposits principally by my father and lastly a few by myself.
My father's deposits had been kept in enormous box, where, it seemed, our forebears had merely thrown anything they thought relevant.
No effort had been made over the centuries to catalogue, group or even read these documents. I am enormously grateful to the Oxford Record Office for their skill in transcribing them; while I was not convinced that a dusty store was quite the best place for these precious old documents when my father first placed them there, I am now convinced that he could not have done better. And it is for this reason that I added to it the last few documents that had come into my hands; there are not in the current edition of this cartulary, but they will be soon.
One word must be added: while the Oxford Record Office refers to this as the Powys-Lybbe collection, it is really the Lybbe collection. The Lybbes and their descendants centred their estates on Hardwick in Oxfordshire from the early sixteenth to the start of the twentieth century. The Lybbes died out in the 18th century and Philip Powys brought a handsome dowry to the rescue of the cash-starved estate by marrying the young Lybbe heiress. Philip was a youngest son so he held nothing of the Powys family charters, almost all sadly destroyed in a fire at Lilford in the third or fourth decade of this century.
There are also some deeds in the Southgate record office, from the Broomfield, Middlesex property of the Tash and then Michell family, inherited by Henry Philip Powys from his mother Louisa Michell in the first half of the nineteenth century. These are not in this cartulary.
Now for the cartulary itself, as prepared by the Oxford Record Office, with their reference numbers. I have not used the page numbers of their printed version, as I have introduced a limited HTML cross reference.
POWYS-LYBBE ADMIMISTRATION DETAILS
1 Manor Court Rolls and other Manorial documents.
ELVENDON - COURT ROLLS E1/M1/CR/1-35
ELVENDON - QUITRENTALS E1/M1/E/1-4
GORING - COURT ROLLS E1/M2/CR/1-15
GORING - RENTALS E1/M2/E/1-5
WHITCHURCH - TERRIERS E1/M3/E/1-2
HARDWICK - TERRIERS AND RENTALS
E1/M4/E/1-5
NORTHSTOKE - TERRIER E1/M5/E/1
PURLEY - COURT ROLLS E1/M6/CR/1-18
PURLEY - TERRIERS, SURVEYS E1/M6/E/1
TITLE DEEDS
2 MANOR OF HARDWICK AND HARDWICK ESTATE
E1/1/1D/1-93
3 MANOR OF ELVENDON E1/2/1D/1-34
4 MANOR OF GORING E1/3/1D/1-22
5 MANOR OF GOLDERS E1/4/1D/1-10
6 MANOR OF LITTLE PURLEY E1/5/1D/1-16
7 MANOR OF PURLEY MAGNA E1/6/1D/1-11
8 MANOR OF BENSHEAVES E1/7/1D/1-2
9 HAWE PLACE ESTATE E1/8/1D/1-16
10 GORING ESTATES E1/9/1D-15D
a) LITTLE AND GREAT APE CROFT
E1/9/1D/1-12
b) BEECH FARM E1/9/2D/1-10
c) BREDY’S BARN E1/9/3D/1
d) BLACKBIRD COTTAGE E1/9/4D/1
e) CLIFTONS E1/9/5D/1-4
f) FOX COVER FARM E1/9/6D/1
g) GORING HEATH - BRICK KILN LANDS
E1/9/7D/1-15
h) LADY GROVE FARM AND COTTAGE
E1/9/8D/1-2
i) NOVETTS LAND E1/9/9D/1-7
k) NUNNERY E1/9/10D/1
l) PARK FARM AND BOTTOM FARM
E1/9/11D/1-16
m) PUSCROFT CLOSE E1/9/12D/1-4
n) QUERNES FARMHOUSE AND COTTAGES
E1/9/13D/1-4
o) STAPMILLS E1/9/14D/1
p) COPPICES AND CLOSES IN GORING AND WHITCHURCH
E1/9/15D/1-11
Q) GENERAL UNSPECIFIED PROPERTY AND CLOSES IN COMMON FIELDS OF GORING
E1/9/16D/1-53
11 WHITCHURCH ESTATES E1/10/1D-15D
a) BEARDS E1/10/1D/1-3
b) BEECHES E1/10/2D/1-4
c) BOSDEN FIELD - BLACKMORE FIELD
E1/10/3D/1-10
d) CADING EYOTT BUTT E1/10/4D/1-4
e) CRABTREE ACRE E1/10/5D/1
f) HARDWICK FARM E1/10/6D/1
g) HEYHOUSE CLOSE OR CARTHOUSE
E1/10/7D/1-3
h) KESSELL’S FARM E1/10/8D/1-2
i) KEEP HILL E1/10/9D/1
j) LICHFIELD’S ESTATE E1/10/10D/1-16
k) LIVINGSCROFTE- PARKFIELD
E1/10/11D/1-2
l) MESNE LANDS E1/10/12D/1-3
m) MOORE AND EAST FURLONG E1/10/13D/1
n) MORE END FIELD E1/10/14D/1-5
o) OVERCLOSE E1/10/15D/1
p) PATHILL E1/10/16D/1-37
q) SMITHERS E1/10/17D/1-2
r) SPARHAWKES-SOUTHILLS E1/10/18D/1-15
s) LITTLE WOODACRE E1/10/19D/1-4
t) LAND, CLOSES AND COPPICES NAMED
E1/10/20D/1
u) WHITCHURCH - GENERAL UNSPECIFIED
E1/10/21D/1-25
12 ESTATE AT NEW & OLD WINDSOR, EASTHAMPSTEAD, BERKS
E1/11/1D/1-7
13 PROPERTY IN OTHER PLACES IN OXFORDSHIRE BENSON - GOULD’S FARM
E1/12/1D/1-3
14 CHECKENDON - MANOR AND OTHER PROPERTY
E1/13/1D/1-11
15 KIDLINGTON AND YARNTON E1/14/1D/1-2
16 MAPLEDURHAM E1/15/1D/1-2
17 MANOR OF RAWLINS ALIAS WOODCOTE
E1/16/1D/1
18 NORTH STOKE E1/17/1D/1-2
19 a) SOUTH STOKE - HOUNDCRAFTE E1/18/1D/1
b) SOUTH STOKE - NORTHGROVE E1/18/2D/1-2
c) SOUTH STOKE - CLOSES E1/18/3D/1-4
d) SOUTH STOKE - UNSPECIFIED E1/18/4D/1-2
20 MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS RELATING TO OXON PARISHES
E1/X/1-41
TITLE DEEDS OF OTHER COUNTIES
21 BERKSHIRE E1/19/1D-14D
a) ALDERMASTON E1/19/1D/1-2
b) APPLEFORD E1/19/2D/1-2
c) BRADFIELD E1/19/3D/1-2
d) BUCKLEBURY E1/19/4D/1
e) MANOR OF BULMERSH E1/19/5D/1
f) BURGHFIELD E1/19/6D/1
g) CHOLSEY E1/19/7D/1
h) HURLEY E1/19/8D/1
i) TILEHURST E1/19/9D/1-2
j) PURLEY E1/19/10D/1-4
k) READING E1/19/11D/1-4
l) MANOR OF LITTLE SHEFFORD E1/19/12D/1-2
m) SULHAM E1/19/13D/1
n) WALLINGFORD E1/19/14D/1-2
22 DEVON AND SOMERSET E1/20/1D/1-2
23 DORSET E1/21/1D/1
24 ESSEX E1/22/1D/1
25 HAMPSHIRE E1/23/1D/1
26 KENT E1/24/1D/1-2
27 LEICESTER E1/25/1D/1
28 LONDON E1/26/1D/1-7
29 MIDDLESEX E1/27/1D/1
30 SURREY AND HERTFORDSHIRE E1/28/1D/1-5
31 WILTSHIRE E1/29/1D/1
32 YORKSHIRE E1/30/1D/1-3
33 ENCLOSURES OF GORING, WHITCHURCH AND TILEHURST
E1/H/1-12
34 TITHE PAPERS OF VARIOUS PLACES
E1/T/1-21
35 PAPERS OF RICHARD THOMAS POWYS, DEAN OF CANTERBURY
E1/F/1-21
36 PROBATE E1/W/1-34
The material has been deposited with us at various stages in the last sixty years; the first deposit being in 1935, which was assigned the accession number 8. There was a further deposit in 1983, accession number 2122 and a final small deposit in 1991, accession number 3301. The first deposit in 1935 was catalogued under an old system. In this catalogue I have combined the three deposits and have introduced a completely new cataloguing scheme. The contents page at the front gives details of the order the documents are arranged in and the overall reference that covers that particular category of records and there is a page reference.