Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    NC
  • Title
    Newton & Calcott, solicitors of Leighton Buzzard.
  • Date free text
    c.1620-1870
  • Production date
    From: 1620 To: 1870
  • Admin/biog history
    The first deposit by Messrs Newton and Calcott was made in 1937 and catalogued in 1946 (numbers NC1-145 of this catalogue). The practise was later sold to Austin and Carnley, when Mr Newton made a further deposit, 19 January 1956 (numbers NC859 to end). Finally, in May 1956, another deposit was made (numbers NC146-858), and these, together with the second deposit were purchased for this office. 4 books relating to Leighton Buzzard Enclosures were deposited in 1954 (NC1396-9). John Newton is first mentioned in the Bedfordshire Directories as a solicitor in Leighton Buzzard in 1853. In 1864 Newton and Whyley, solicitors, are entered. The firm of Newton, Calcott and Calcott was presumably formed between 1877 and 1894, when it first appears in the directories. The largest part of this collection consists of the title deeds of the How family of Aspley Guise, whose descendants, the How Whites, have made separate deposits of family papers in this office: see catalogue of HW. Briefly, the nucleus of the estate was the property of the Cartwright family (who were Quakers). By settlement or purchase this passed to Thomas How (also a Quaker), a fellmonger of Leighton Buzzard, who married Ann Cartwright. The elder son, another Thomas, squandered his fortune, sold part of his inheritance and borrowed so much to buy more property that his brother Richard, his chief creditor, was able to take over practically all his estate. This Richard, a very dominant personality and very active member of the Society of Friends, was set up in business by his father as a linen draper in London. Eventually his partner went bankrupt, the linen drapery business was ruined and old Richard retired to Aspley disappointed and relatively poor. But he had made a profitable marriage with the Briggins family and before the disaster had made several purchases and settled property on his children: this settlement had been made largely through his wife's very obstinate insistence which during their courtship had threatened to prevent the marriage. Richard's son in turn made a few more purchases, and lived a retired life at Aspley, writing innumerable , long, tedious letters in an incredibly spidery hand on many subjects of scholarship and gossip. The arrangement of the How deeds is not easy. When they arrived in the Record office they were in complete confusion. But this was only part of the trouble. The Hows acquired their property in various ways, and their numerous family settlements and secret takeovers and especially the sales of Thomas How II and the repurchase by his brother, have helped to obscure the titles in some places. They have always been interested in their own muniments, but while this interest has helped to preserve many of their deeds and papers, it has also helped to confuse them. One suspects that Richard How I and II and their children derived great pleasure from browsing through their "old writings", but even so meticulous a man as Richard II could not unravel the "mix'd deeds in the Round Baskett" (NC1371), perhaps he had been responsible for mixing them. Unfortunately some of the deeds (NC1200-1221) are still "mixed", and have not been related to the rest. Finally , the titles, where they can be worked out, are sometimes very complicated in themselves. This was a village where one can see the familiar pattern of the growth of the estate of one family in the 18th century at the expense of the smaller owners. In some cases the small independent estates had only existed for a relatively short time: they had been created by the sale in small lots of a larger estate in the 16th or 17th century, so their absorption by the Hows at a later date was simply a reversion to an earlier state. (For the sale of parts of the manor estate see HO2) This subdivision and subsequent re integration could cause some confusion, Much of the land sold on long lease, for example, was originally copyhold: the subdivision of the property of the Stratton family was most complicated (NC943-5, 950). (The long lease was also used to avoid the necessity of obtaining a licence to alienate from the Crown, from whom much of the property in Aspley Guise was held in chief. Sometimes mistakes were made, NC947-9, where leasehold which should have been assigned was conveyed as freehold, and a pardon had to be obtained later form the Crown). Many of the deeds have curious symbols endorsed. These are part of a code of numbers used by Richard How I and II. The other family which has left papers of personal interest are the Millards (NC430-788). in the late 18th century they were gentlemen living at Leighton Buzzard, and were buying property in Hollingdon, Soulsbury, Buckinghamshire. One tremendously long law case, which dragged on for over 20 years and may never have ended for all we know, produced a series of about 100 solicitor's letters. John Millard's first wife had been twice widowed when he married her in 1785. Her second husband, William Pancoust, a grazier of Sherrington, Buckinghamshire, had left her a legacy of £500: the next twenty years and more were spent in trying to get Pancoust's sons and descendants to pay this, and during this time the widow had remarried and died, and the solicitor had retired. Mullen, the solicitor, had always to be kept in good humour, one suspects, for in practically every letter he sends his thanks for various gifts of food. One hears that they were looking out for oranges in town in the summer., they wish each other many happy returns of the season at Christmas, there are some observations on method of travel. But on the whole these letters are far from being packed with interest. (Of much more interest are three letters from J Millard's sons about their business in London, managing a shop etc., NC761-3). However, though J. Millard's first marriage may have brought him little wealth and much trouble, the second marriage to the daughter of a gentleman at Milbrook was very profitable. The Millards were parish officers in Leighton Buzzard, churchwardens and overseers of the poor. A number of parish accounts have survived with their personal papers. Apart from a few miscellaneous wills and family settlements, the rest of the collection consists of deeds relating to Leighton Buzzard and its hamlets, the property of about 4 families: Twiddell, Franklin, Claridge and Bassett. The last family are the bankers, and under their name have been included the property owned in turn by Stone and Cumberledge and rented by the Bassetts as a draper's shop. In the later 19th century the Bassetts were one of the principal landowners in Leighton Buzzard, and 1871 directory speaks of "the bank of Messrs Bassett and Company, standing on the South Side of the Market Place" as "a handsome Gothic building, designed by Mr Waterhouse and erected in 1866". The Claridges were the carriers, who were purchasing a lot of small properties at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries.
  • Reference
  • Level of description
    fonds
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