Estate and Family Records
We hold many family and estate collections that together form an important historic resource for the history of Cheshire’s people and places from the medieval period onwards. Typical records included within these collections include early charters, title deeds, rentals, surveys, personal correspondence and diaries. These include:
- Aldersey of Aldersey (Cheshire Archives and Local Studies reference DAL)
- Arderne of Alvanley and Harden (DAR)
- Baker Wilbraham of Odd Rode (DBW)
- Barnston of Churton (DBA)
- Brooke of Norton (DBN)
- Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley (DCH)
- Crewe of Crewe (DCR)
- Davenport of Bramhall (DDA)
- Davies-Colley of Newbold (DCO)
- Delves Broughton of Doddington (DDB)
- De Trafford [Wilmslow estates] (DDT)
- Downes of Shrigley (DDS)
- Egerton of Oulton (DEO)
- Egerton of Tatton (DET)
- Finney of Fulshaw (DFF)
- Hayes Lyon (DHL)
- Papers of Colonel Hugh Robert Hibbert of Macclesfield (DHB)
- Leche of Carden (DLE)
- Leicester Warren of Tabley (DLT)
- Leigh of Westhall, High Legh (DLL)
- Mainwaring of Bromborough (DMB)
- Massey of Whitepool (DMW)
- Moore-Dutton of Tushingham (DMD)
- Needham [Kilmorey] (DNE)
- Shakerley of Hulme and Somerford (DSS)
- Stanley of Alderley (DSA)
- Toler (DTO)
- Tollemache [Cheshire estates] (DTW)
- Tomkinson of Willington Hall (DTM)
- Tyrwhitt-Drake [Cheshire estates] (DTD)
- Venables of Agden (DVA)
- Vernon and Warren (DVE)
- Wilbraham of Nantwich (DWN)
- Wilson of Sandbach (DWS)
Estate and family records can also be found within the records of solicitors.
The records of some Cheshire families are not held at the Cheshire Record Office. The records of the Booth family of Dunham Massey and the Cornwall Legh family of High Legh, for example, are held at the John Rylands University Library, Manchester.
The majority of the Grosvenor estate records are held at the estate office at Eaton Hall, Eccleston, Chester. We can usually arrange access to them in our searchroom. Please contact us for advice.