Title:
AUDLEY END ESTATE, SAFFRON WALDEN
Level: Category
Estate and Family records
Level: Fonds
AUDLEY END ESTATE, SAFFRON WALDEN
Scope and Content:
The muniments accumulated at Audley End, Saffron Walden, consisted of (1) the manorial documents and deeds of two large compact estates, one in Berkshire and the other in Essex; (2) the papers of no fewer than eight families which were connected with these two estates, and through a series of inter-marriages became centred on Audley End. The then Lord Braybrooke, in deciding on the proper disposal of these records, divided the collection as follows:

(1) Documents relating to the Essex estate, together with such papers of the Howard, Grey, Griffin, Whitwell, Neville, Aldworth, Bacon and Cornwallis as do not relate solely to Berkshire or are not of national interest, were deposited in the Essex Record Office and are listed here.

(2) Documents relating to the Berkshire estate, together with the earlier Neville and Aldworth papers, were deposited in the Shire Hall, Reading. These documents were examined and are briefly listed at the Essex Record Office before transfer.

(3) Documents of national interest, including (a) the papers of the Marquis Cornwallis, (b) the diplomatic papers of Sir Henry Neville and of Richard Neville Aldworth (from 1762 Richard Neville Neville) and (c) official papers of members of the Aldworth family as auditors in the Exchequer; were deposited at the National Archives; while papers relating to the lighthouses at Orfordness, Suffolk and Winterton, Norfolk were deposited at Trinity House. Many of these papers were first examined, sorted and listed at the Essex Record Office. See also List and Index Society, volumes 10, 11.

(4) Certain documents of family interest were deposited either at Cambridge University Library or in the Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

This summary catalogue, therefore includes a very large part of the original collection, the principal omissions being (1) the Cornwallis papers, and (2) the documents deposited at Cambridge. The greater part of the documents listed in the 8th Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission are among those archives deposited at the National Archives.

Among the records of the Essex estate, the manorial documents of Saffron Walden and district form a particularly fine series. They derive a special interest from the fact that north-western Essex retained its open-fields long after the remainder of the county was enclosed, and the detailed surveys have a peculiar value for that reason. The deeds, too, illustrate this feature of the country as well as showing the manner in which this estate was built up. The central series of deeds (see D/DBy T2) relates mainly to the Audley and Howard families and dates from the original grant of Walden Abbey to Thomas Lord Audley in 1540. In 1745 the death of Henry, Earl of Suffolk, resulted in the partition of the estate between three co-heirs. John Griffin Whitwell, son of one of these co-heirs, was granted a second share in 1749 by his aunt the Countess of Portsmouth on condition that he changed his name to Griffin and that she retained Audley End House for life. On her death in 1762, this Sir John Griffin Griffin succeeded to the main part of the estate and proceeded to make additional purchases. This process was continued by his successors until, with the purchase of the Earl of Bristol's share in the estate early in the 19th century, the original Howard properties may be said to have been reconstituted.

Sir John Griffin Griffin laid claim successfully to the Barony of Walden, 1784, and later became 1st Lord Braybrooke. Dying in 1797 without issue he was succeeded by his distant cousin Richard Aldworth Neville of Billingbear, Berkshire, the heir to the Neville and Aldworth estates. He too assumed the name Griffin, but his descendants did not follow this practice. The 3rd Lord Braybrooke married the daughter of Charles, Marquis Cornwallis, thus making a Suffolk connection.

This outline serves to indicate the extremely involved nature of the family connection and consequently of the muniments, a state not helped by second marriages of two of the heiresses involved between 1660 and 1700, and by the practice of assuming another name. Most confusing of all, Catherine, daughter of Ralph Grey, Lord Wark (Northumberland) married Richard Neville by whom she had two sons, Grey Neville and Henry 'Grey'; her daughter, another Catherine, married Richard Aldworth by whom she had Richard, who later adopted the surname Neville, after the death of his uncles.

Extract from catalogue number 354 issued by Myers and Co. (Booksellers) Ltd., 80 New Bond Street, London W1, December 1948.
47 BUCKS. Braybrooke (Richard Aldworth Griffin, 2nd Baron). 1750-1825. Statesman. A REMARKABLE SERIES OF UPWARDS OF 250 Autograph Letters Signed, Written from Wotton, Billingbear, Audley End, London, etc., 1780-1824, inlaid, to his kinsman James Grenville, Lord Glastonbury of Butleigh, with the latter's replies loosely inserted; a delightful correspondence touching on country life at Audley End and Stowe, Family and County affairs, George III and Queen Charlotte, Queen Caroline, death of the Princess Charlotte, Pitt and Fox, the Theatre, Sheridan, India and Tippoo, Buonaparte, Eton, Nelson, Wellington, etc. 3 volumes, folio, half red morocco
(Braybrooke was successively M.P for Buckingham and Reading; Lord-Lieutenant and Vice-Admiral of Essex and Recorder of Saffron Walden. His son was the first editor of Pepys).
The letters are from Lord Braybrooke, and would not therefore have formed part of the Audley End archives. Not purchased by the Essex Record Office.

Sotheby and Co., sale catalogue 27 February 1950.
250 BRAYBROOKE (Richard A.G., Lord) Correspondence with Lord Glastonbury, consisting of about 220 A.Ls.s. of Lord Braybrooke, 1780-1824, on political and international affairs, etc., numerous letters relate to the war in the Peninsula and follow Wellington's campaigns with anxiety, other letters refer to domestic affairs, the decoration of Braybrooke's house Audley End, an incident in Dover Street when Braybrooke was nearly shot by a youth, etc., all inlaid and bound, together with several draft letters of Lord Glastonbury, in 3 vols., folio, half red morocco (3).
These are letters written by Lord Braybrooke from Billingbear, and would not have formed part of the Audley End archives. The collection was acquired for Berkshire Record Office.