Memorandum book of the Owen family containing accounts and sermon notes [manuscript] 17th century-18th cenutry

England, 17th century-18th cenutry.

1 item ; 15 cm

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Great Britain -- England, -- production place.

272953 MS

From dealer's description: "3. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY [OWEN, Isabella (née Campbell); OWEN, Thomas (1641 - 1678); OWEN, Letitia (1696 - 1755)]. 17th - 18 th - century manuscript memorandum book containing accounts and sermon notes. [Borton and Condover Hall, Shropshire. Circa 1670 - 1750]. Original contemporary sheep stationer’s binding, rubbed and worn, covers detaching. Approximately 138 pages of text and accounts on 94 leaves. Arranged tête - bêche : 71 pages at one end; 67 at the opposite end INTRODUCTION ¶ The sense of a busy community interacting among themselves is palpable in this manuscript. The relations between social strata are largely financial, often mediated, and clearly presided over by the local ‘elite’. The busyness carries over into the form and content of the manuscript: many names appear that can also be found in local records; but there’s nothing ‘cut and dried’ about the arrangement or the sequence of material. Incongruities abound: sermons are sandwiched between accounts; the dates of some sections of accounts overlap; and some fairly clear clues to the location of the manuscript seem to be contradicted by a handful of references to another nearby location. If the book poses several mysteries, its relation to surviving records in the Shropshire archives raises the strong likelihood that further research will prove fruitful. Indeed, initial exploration helps to address – if not always conclusively – questions of provenance and attribution. PLACES AND PEOPLE Several references within the accounts tie the manuscript to the Shropshire parish of Condover (“to him to goe to Condouer – 0—2”, “pd to Mary Wood of Condouer for making him 7 bands”), and to nearby places such as Little Lyth, Lyth Hill and Withington (“to him when he went to ye great Lyth to dwell} –2—6”, “to him on ye first Sunday that hee came to Burton after he was gone to ye Leyth} –2—6”, “to him to goe to withington –2—6”). The geography seems clear; the chronology, as we shall see, rather less so. Names of people, too, find corroboration in the records, though sometimes partial. A note from 1679 reads: “Memord what my brother in law James Bowyer hath had on mee of his stock July ye 23d 79”, and the first entry on this page records a payment “to his brother Thomas Bowyer”; another entry, for “Novemr 19. 74”, reads “all ye Interest that was due in Octr last was past for 40l which was left to James Bowyer by his Sister Deborah Bowyer”. The Shropshire Parish Registers record a James Bowyer who was baptised in 1643 and a Dorothy Bowyer in 1645, and ancestry.com gives Dorothy’s exact location as Condover. However, we have been unable to connect Thomas or Deborah with Dorothy and James, despite the shared surname and proximity within the parish of Condover. As to attribution, the volume comprises three main sections: • Accounts written circa 1674-80 which we tentatively ascribe to Isabella Owen; • Sermon notes circa 1674-78 which we tentatively ascribe to Thomas Owen (1641-1678); • Financial receipts 1730-40 which we confidently ascribe to Thomas Kilvert. The strongest evidence we have for these concerns the last of them. Several pages in the centre of the volume contain copies of financial receipts from Thomas Kilvert (“Thos : Kilvert”) and others on behalf of Lady Letitia Barnston (“Dec: 21: 1740 recd of Richd Wood, one Pound fifteen shillings for his Tythe due to Me (now) Letitia Barnston”). Kilvert (great-grandfather of the famous diarist, Francis Kilvert (1840-1879)) was steward of Condover Hall; Lady Letitia (1696-1755) inherited the Condover estate from her father, Roger Owen after the death of her brothers, Thomas and Edward (having taken the title of Lady Barnston after her second marriage, to Trafford Barnston of Churton). NLS and Shropshire Archives hold a large collection of correspondence between Letitia and her steward, which arose from “her estrangement from her daughter”, who eloped and moved to nearby Shrewsbury, after which Letitia “lived in Bath, refusing to visit Condover”. Thomas Kilvert “took care of the estate, and his wife Mary, was responsible for housekeeping at Condover Hall” 1. [...]" Ordered from Dean Cooke, D9715, 2023-02-26, Cat. "Invisible ink" item 3.

272953