Catalogue description Pilkington of Chevet, Family and Estate Records

Deeds relating to Chevet, near Wakefield; building account of Chevet Hall, 1517; original bundles of papers relating to family and estate matters, and correspondence. [Former ref: Box 68-70, 70A; Outsize/12, 17]

The seat of the Pilkington family, later Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington family, Baronets, was at Chevet Park near Wakefield. Arthur Pilkington was created 1st Baronet (of Nova Scotia) in 1635. Sir William Pilkington, 8th Baronet (born 1775) in 1825 married Mary, second daughter and co-heir of Thomas Swinnerton of Butterton Hall, Staffordshire. Sir John Nevile, High Sheriff of Yorkshire, came into possession of Chevet by right of his wife, Elizabeth (widow of Sir Thomas Tempest), eldest daughter and co-heir of William Bosvile of Chevet. His great grandson, Henry Nevile of Chevet, had two sons, Francis and Gervase. The descendant of Francis Nevile (aged 73 in 1665), Anne Nevile, married Harrison Pilkington and died without issue in 1765. The descendants of Gervase Nevile (died 1676) inherited Chevet until the death of Rev Cavendish Nevile, upon whose death it reverted to his kinswoman, Anne Pilkington. There is a later family connection by marriage between the Nevile family and the Lister family, Lords Ribblesdale. The connection (if any) between the Nevile and Pilkington families of Chevet and the Butterfield family of Keighley is not yet determined. The small group of papers of Louis Butterfield were found embedded within the Nevile/Pilkington papers and have thus been left with them.