Latest news

Back to News

A Family Mix

Posted in Articles on 01 Mar 2022

We are pleased to have purchased a really interesting collection of papers of the Head, Best and Pottinger families, 1677-1938 (D/EZ198). They relate to a single line of descent through several female lines, starting with the Revd Head Pottinger of Compton (whose unusual Christian name was his mother’s maiden name). His only child, his daughter Eliza Head Pottinger, married the Revd James Wilkes Best of Chieveley in 1807. Their son was named Head Pottinger Best. 

The Bests owned some significant properties in west Berkshire. Donnington Grove (now a hotel) was built by Joseph Pettit Andrews of Shaw House in c.1763-1772, and sold to William Brummell in 1783. Brummell extended the estate by judicious purchases, and converted the house into a grand country house, where his son George, the famous dandy ‘Beau’ Brummell, grew up. Head Pottinger Best bought the house and estate in 1850, and the family lived there until 1936.

Plan of Bagnor Mill. D/EZ198/1/2/2
Head Pottinger Best purchased the leasehold of Bagnor Manor House in Speen in 1861, and Bagnor Manor in 1871. This estate included Bagnor Mill (now the Watermill Theatre) and you can read more about the mill in our highlight from 2020: https://www.royalberkshirearchives.org.uk/news/article/bagnor-mill  

The records include deeds and plans of these properties, and an unusually early and rather lovely little plan of Honeybottom Farm in Donnington, 1694. Another highlight is the photograph album of Mary Leigh Best, wife of Marmaduke Best, the last of the family. The photographs include quirky pictures of pets and children (perhaps nieces and nephews of Mrs Best), as well as harvesting scenes showing two men standing on top of a wagon load of hay and including women workers.

Black and White photo showing people standing around a large hay stack on a wagon. One person stands on top of the haystack. D/EZ198/5/3/5

Among the personal papers is a contemporary copy of a letter from the controversial statesman Warren Hastings at Lucknow, India, to a friend or acquaintance, a Mr Wilkins. The latter’s daughter Maria sent this copy to her cousin Jane Best of Donnington (Head Pottinger Best’s second wife) in 1863. The letter records the gift of a kettle in amusing terms: “As I have a greater regard for your health than you have, & I think it of too great value to the world to suffer it to be exposed to the noxious effects of a verdigris Diet, I request your acceptance of a Silver Tea Kettle & recommend that you either make an offering of your Copper one to the goddess Ganga, or convert it into Debtees & Dovees [sic], or to any other purpose but that of boiling water for your breakfast”.

Black and white photo showing a dog siting on top of a pony. D/EZ198/5/3/5

In 1779 the elderly Francis Best of Beverley, Yorkshire, wrote gloomily to his son Charles Best of London, noting “wee [sic] had ... Received your ... Congratulation on the Commencement of a New Year, wee are much obliged to you for your kind wishes of Succeeding Ones, but at our time of Life with the infirmities that attend fourscore, wee neither wish for, expect, or Desire many, but sit quite resignd, I’ll asure you, to what Providence is pleasd [sic] to order as best for us, only wishing that our Sufferings may not be too great before wee make our Exits”.  A few years later Charles’s brother wrote about trying the waters at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, but the waters would by no means agree with my Bowels”.

Letters to James Wilkes Best from his cousin Rosamond Robinson of York, 1844-1850, provide an interesting glimpse into the attitudes of well off families of the period. In 1850 she wrote, “We are all against Free Trade here ... but the mischief it has produced is trifling here, compared with that caused by railways, which have been the absolute ruin of thousands, and a serious inconvenience to almost every one, high & low, hereabouts”. She also announced her unexpected pregnancy with her 12th child; it would be ungrateful not to welcome this child of our old age.   This child, Emily Norcliffe Robinson, was to be Mr Best’s god daughter. Another letter, dated 22 November 1850, refers to a great County meeting in our Castle yard today, to get up a memorial to the Queen against the Papal aggression, that subject of all-absorbing interest”. This so-called aggression was the decision by Pope Pius IX to make England Wales an ecclesiastical province of the Roman Catholic Church.

Black and white photo showing a boy sat in the middle of a seesaw roundabout with a dog sat on each end. D/EZ198/5/3/5

It’s a fascinating collection of papers which we are pleased to be able to make available for research.  If you would like to see more, the catalogue can be viewed online and you are welcome to visit to consult the material. Everything you need to know about making a bookings and visiting us can be found on our website.