HOLFORD FAMILY [LAWYERS]

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 CLC/B/120
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: HOLFORD FAMILY [LAWYERS]
Date(s)	: 1661-[1750]
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 20 production units.
Name of creator(s)	: Various.

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Sir Richard Holford of Lincoln's Inn and Weston Birt, Gloucestershire (d 1718), to whom the majority of these papers relate, was called to the bench in 1689, made a master in Chancery 1694, and knighted in 1695.

Of the other members of the Holford family mentioned, Robert Holford senior (1686-1753), son of Sir Richard, was called to the bench in 1715, having already become a master in Chancery in 1712, and his two sons, Peter (b 1719), and Robert junior, followed the family tradition, the former becoming a master in Chancery in 1750 and the latter being admitted to Grays Inn in 1742.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Holford family, lawyers. Although the records relate to litigation in Chancery, they concern both the Holfords' professional activities as practising lawyers, and their private litigation as substantial landowners in Gloucestershire and Somerset and in connection with large sums of money which they placed out at interest.

The collection includes records relating to Sir Richard Holford's manor of Southover and Nyland near Wells in Somerset, 1667-1717 (Ms 15588). The division between these two professional and private fields of activity is indistinct, particularly in view of the known speculative practices of masters in Chancery with the funds of the suitors of the court.

Furthermore, a number of the papers of Sir Thomas Estcourt (fl 1660-80) appear to have become incorporated into the archive, probably having been transferred to Sir Richard Holford on Estcourt's retirement or death.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Records arranged by MS number, assigned during cataloguing at the Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to this collection rests with the City of London.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

This collection was deposited in 1975 by the R.I.B.A. having been found as a distinct unit among the Dorchester House papers there. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
November 2010 to January 2011.