Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    HY
  • Title
    Harvey of Ickwell Bury, Northill
  • Admin/biog history
    THE HARVEY FAMILY AND NORTHILL The Harvey family appear to have come originally from Norfolk and then London.In about 1637 Robert Harvey married Sarah Audley of Malmesbury, Wiltshire. Their son, Robert Harvey, father of John I, appears to have had business dealings at Godmanchester at some period, since some of the letters to him from his uncle Hugh Audley are addressed to “the Rope Mills”, Godmanchester (HY922). He is described as of Godmanchester, esquire, in HY672. He seems to have moved about a good deal, since as well as the Godmanchester connection his eldest son was born at Ipswich, and when he died he was living at Quainton in Buckinghamshire. Hugh Audley’s sister had married Robert’s father (see pedigree); Audley himself was a lawyer, and seems to have amassed a considerable fortune (HY751). Robert’s son John followed his great-uncle’s profession of the law, and was concerned in several law-suits with his relations. It was he who bought the manor of Ickwell in 1680, beginning the long connection of the family with Northill. He died in 1692, leaving a son John II and six other children. John II enlarged the estate in Ickwell by ten purchases including the College manor, the Rectory and tithes and two large holdings of 83 acres and 66 acres. John III, born in 1703, apparently only bought two small properties, and when he died in 1771, having no children, his nephew John IV, son of James Harvey of Old Warden, succeeded to the property. He bought only the one property known as Ladyfields, just before his death in 1793, when his son John V was his heir. The latter married Susannah Gibbard of Sharnbrook (see GA), and during his lifetime the purchase of the manors of Hartshorne and Blundells was completed, and the manor of Northill acquired. John V died suddenly at Rottingdean on the 20 June 1819, probably whilst hunting with the Brookside Harriers. A memorial stone was erected on the Downs between Swanborough and Seaford to mark the spot of his death, however, by 1969 only a fragment of this stone, known locally as the Harvey Stone, survived. In the 1960s there were some reports of people seeing the ghost of ‘Squire Harvey’ in the form of a horseman with a tri-corn hat and tightly waisted coat on the Downs. During the long minority of his son John VI the estates were administered by John V’s two able brothers in law John Gibbard and William Astell. Only one small purchase was made during this period. John VI came of age in 1836 and from then until his death in 1879 he made considerable additions to the family estate, the largest being the Fish Palmer property, Highlands and Sweetbriar farms and a farm at Thorncote Green. At a rough estimate, the Harveys spent over £16,000 between 1680 and 1700, nearly £5,000 in the 18th century, and over £68,000 in the 19th century on the acquisition of land in Northill. John Harvey VI married Annie Jane Tennant the daughter of Henry Tennant. He died in 1879 and she died in 1898. They had two children: John Edmund Audley Harvey (1850-1927) and Beatrice Susan Audley Harvey (c1855-1895). J E Audley Harvey served in the 42nd Highlanders obtaining the rank of Captain. He married Rosa Frances the 6th daughter of Admiral the Hon Keith Stewart CB on the 17 March 1873. Rosa died at Davos Platz Switzerland on 12 July 1880. J E Audley and Rosa had three children: Andalusia Beatrice born 1874, John, born 1875, and Marjorie Rosa Bayly born 1877. The Bedfordshire estate was sold in 1924 (see AD1147/16).
  • Scope and Content
    The collection is predominantly deeds for the property owned by the Harvey family in Bedfordshire and other counties. There are also some family papers. The properties MANOR OF ICKWELL AND THE FAIR The series begins with the Crown grant of the manor to John Barnardiston in 1543, and the Barnardiston family continued in possession of it until 1680, when it was sold to John Harvey. A capital messuage is mentioned in 1676, presumably the “old building” which the Victoria County History states as having now disappeared. John Harvey built himself a house there, parts of which remain. A lease of 1823 (HY636) describes the house and its contents at that time very fully. The fair on Ickwell green was granted to George Barnardiston in 1676 and sold by him to John Harvey in 1680. OTHER PURCHASE FROM BARNARDISTON These include the tithes and rectory (1682) and the Tithe House and lands (1706). Other portions of the original Barnardiston estate pass through two or three hands before being purchased by Harvey. MANOR OF HARTSHORNE ALIAS BLUNDELLS AND CARMENOS These two Caldecot manors became vested in George Mordaunt in 1588, and descended in his family through the Audley Britains to John Edrop, who sold them to Thomas Baker; the latter’s representatives conveyed to George Inskip in 1793, and he in turn to Harvey, the following year. Carmenos is mentioned separately in 1761. MANOR OF NORTHILL The deeds of Northill manor augment very little the description given in the Victoria County History. Certain parts of the Robinson estate were sold separately from the manor. Several of these were bought by Harvey at various later dates, one of which was Highlands and Sweetbriar farms. THE COLLEGE The most interesting single item in the collection is the mutilated “foundation deed” of the College of Northill. As can be seen from the copy Letters Patent, the parish church became collegiate in 1404 and the rectory manor was appropriated for the support of the college. The document of 1406 describes the events prior to the actual setting up of the College. By 1600, the Brown family had acquired the “manor of the dissolved college of Northill”, and Richard Brown sold it to Edward Osborn in 1610. The tithes, rectory and advowson were included in this conveyance, but apparently became separated later and passed to Barnardiston. The lease of the property in 1678 by Osborn’s son, Edward, has some interesting details (HY109). On his death in 1679, his “kinswoman” (VCH says grand-niece) Elizabeth, wife of William Hitchinson, came into possession of the property and sold it in 1702 to John Harvey. The property became known as College Farm. The map of 1634 (X1/39) seems almost certainly to have been once a Harvey manuscript, since the endorsement appears to be in John Harve V’s handwriting. THE FISH PALMER ESTATE The connection of the Fish family with Northill began presumably with the marriage of William Fish of Southill with Margaret Barnardiston in 1574. Their son Humphrey is described as of Northill, and the property he had there probably was his mother’s inheritance. He died in 1647, without children, and his nephew Humphrey (son of Thomas of Southill) succeeded him. A full account of the Fish estate is given in the marriage settlement of Humphrey’s son, Humphrey, and Anne Stillingfleet, daughter of the Bishop of Worcester (HY525), including the cottage and smith’s shop then occupied by Edward Aspital (Hospital) on Ickwell green formerly the home of Thomas Tompion. Humphrey II got into a good deal of financial trouble and in 1723 proposed handing over all his difficulties to his son, Humphrey III, who, however, died before his father in 1728. It was therefore, left to his brother Henry, who had taken the additional surname Palmer, to take over the encumbered estate, and he seems to have added a further debt by a mortgage to John Heaviside of £3,500. Henry Fish Palmer in his will left the estate to three of his sons and Heaviside, in trust to pay his debts and to be sold. His eldest son Charles came to an agreement with Heaviside that the debt owing to him was £8,450, but what action was taken concerning the payment is not apparent from the collection. John Harvey VI eventually acquired the property in 1842. ESTATES OUTSIDE BEDFORDSHIRE HERTFORDSHIRE These deeds are concerned with the purchase of two small properties by a branch of the Harvey family who lived at Hinxworth (William, brother of John III). HUNTINGDONSHIRE Deeds of properties in Great Stukely, connection with Harvey not apparent; also for 50 acres of land belonging to Robert Harvey of Godmanchester. LONDON AND MIDDLESEX Robert Harvey occurs in 1600, acquiring property in Clerkenwell and Islington. Other property in London seems to have been left to Susannah, wife of John Harvey V, by a Gibbard relation. NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, YORKSHIRE AND LINCOLNSHIRE Finningley Hall was the second seat of the Bedfordshire branch of the Harvey family. Hugh Audley and Robert Harvey bought the estate in 1650, when it comprised the manor of Finningley, Notts, those of Blackstone, Stockwell and Aukley, Yorks, and that of Wroote, Lincs. Parts of the property had belonged formerly to Cornelius Vermyden, probably in connection with his Hatfield Chase drainage schemes. Some of the more noteworthy of the estate papers concern Finningley, particularly the correspondence as to letting the Hall (HY903), the applications for the vacant living, which seems always to have been given to a member of the family (HY905-6), and the letters from Thomas Mowbray (HY907). WILTSHIRE In this county, the Bedfordshire branch of the family owned the manor of Bushton, bought in 1678, and West or West Cole Park, near Malmesbury, bought by Hugh Audley in 1629. FAMILY PAPERS A fairly extensive collection of these has survived, the more note-worthy items being the poll-book of 1715 (HY833); the muster roll of 1803 (HY832); game-book, 1799 (HY865); the correspondence (HY922-932), which contain many items of social interest; and the diaries of travel in Holland and Italy, kept perhaps by John Harvey II. See also Gibbard papers in GA, AD1147/16, X1/39, MA2.
  • Archival history
    The Harvey Manuscripts were deposited in the County record Office in three instalments. First in 1924, Colonel John Harvey deposited the Muster Roll (HY832); secondly, the small collection which was formerly X3/1-22 (accession number 1773), deposited by Lt. Col. John L Harvey MBE in April 1947. At this time it was stated that the remainder of the Harvey Manuscripts had been destroyed in the office of a London solicitor during the blitz of 1941. However, through the good offices of the British Records Association, the collection was discovered in the offices of Messrs Dawson on Lincoln’s Inn, and deposited in the County Record Office by Colonel Harvey in July 1947 (Accession 1791). Colonel Harvey also presented to the County Council the portrait of his great-great grandfather, John Harvey V, and the regimental banners which were for some time hung in the entrance hall of the Shire Hall (see CRC 1947)
  • System of arrangement
    The collection when received was in six boxes, most of the deeds being tied in bundles, with a few which had come loose. The arrangement of the bundles in the boxes was haphazard. A rough list had been prepared by the BRA, which shows the items not deposited. After cataloguing, some re-arrangement was found to be necessary, chiefly in connection with the Northill manor deeds, which had become confused with those of the College manor, through the latter being also sometimes referred to as “the manor of Northill”. The deeds of properties other than manorial were arranged in chronological order of purchase by Harvey.
  • Reference
  • External document

    HY Harvey of Ickwell.pdf - Harvey pedigree


    Fish pedigree.pdf - Fish & Fish Palmer pedigree


    Bromsall pedigree.pdf - Bromsall pedigree

  • Level of description
    fonds
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