Catalogue description Family Papers - Wood of Brownhills.

The result of this process in terms of archives has been very complex. There are separate archives for each of the constituent sections of the estate and a considerable quantity of archives for the combined estates when it was in the multiple hands of many members of the Wood family. Many of the archives were ultimately received from descendants of the Woods of Henley Hall, Ludlow, and over the years the constituent parts have been very mixed up.

The sorting and arrangement of the archives have, therefore, been very difficult and whatever arrangement was adopted there was bound to be overlap and a considerable degree of uncertainty over to which section to attribute many documents: there are bound to have been errors. However, it was decided to attempt to divide the documents on the basis of the main constituent parts of the estate as recognised by the Wood family in the opening years of the 20th century.

The Wedgwood/Wood papers have therefore been arranged as follows:-

SD4842/13 Papers relating to the Brownhills estate of John Wood (1778-1848)

SD4842/14 Papers relating to the "Big House" and Red Lion estates of Thomas Wedgwood (1762-1826)

SD4842/15 Papers relating to the Bignall End [Hill] estate of John Wedgwood (1760-1838)

SD4842/16 Papers relating to the combined estates after the deaths of John and Thomas Wedgwood

Within the papers is a series known as the "Thomas Wedgwood [TW] papers", basically consisting of title deeds for many of the Burslem properties. These were identified and numbered ? by an antiquarian some time ago and largely fall within the SD4842/14 section.

• Wood family of Brownhills, Staffordshire

The Wedgwood/Wood Papers

The "Big House", Burslem, branch of the Wedgwood family, and the Wood family of Brownhills, Burslem, became linked by the marriage of Mary Baddeley, grand-daughter of John Wedgwood of the "Big House", to John Wood of Brownhills. Mary was heiress to two unmarried uncles, John Wedgwood of Bignall End and Thomas Wedgwood of "Big House", and the resultant estate in Burslem, Tunstall and Audley was very considerable. Far from failing to produce male heirs, the Woods produced many, and by the end of the 19th century as many as eleven members of the family had an interest in the combined estates (see simplified pedigree).

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