Catalogue description Archive of the Darby family of London, Markly in Warbleton and Leap Castle, Kings County in Ireland

The documents were found by the depositor beneath his chicken coops at Cralle Place in Warbleton. It is not known how they came to be there; the Darby family neither owned nor do they appear to have rented the property

The documents form part of what must once have been an extensive archive. The papers, most of which consist of correspondence from Darby's solicitors, Messrs Lambert of Bedford Row, Middlesex, and are heavily annotated by them and by Darby, concern the business activities of John Darby in London and his acquisition of lands in Warbleton, and further acquisitions of land in the parish by his son George

The Darby family originated from Gaddesby in Leicestershire and in the early 16th century they emigrated to Ireland, where they married the heiress of the O'Carrols of Leap Castle near Roscrea in Kings County (present-day County Offaly)

John Darby (1751-1834) was the fourth son of Jonathan Darby (1713-1776) and Susannah (died 1806), the eldest daughter of Robert Lovett of Dromoyle in Kings County and Liscombe House, Soulbury in Buckinghamshire. John was born in about 1751 and in 1784 he married Anne, the daughter of Samuel Vaughan of Golden Grove in Kings County

Both his uncle and elder brother, George Darby (died 1790) and Henry d'Esterre Darby (1748-1823), joined the Royal Navy and rose to the rank of Admiral; Henry fought alongside Nelson and distinguished himself at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. However, John Darby chose commerce as his career. He was in London from as early as 1780, where he traded in a partnership as [Joseph] Read, Rigby and [John] Darby, merchants from 31 Old Jewry, Cheapside. From 1783 to 1804 they appeared regularly in trade directories as Read, Darby and Company, merchants. Joseph Read seems to have died or retired in 1804 and the partnership dissolved, since from 1805 to 1811 Darby traded as Darby and Company at 7 Russia Row, Milk Street and from 1812 to 1830 as [John] Darby, [Alexander] Gibb and Company

The details of his trading activities are tantalisingly obscure: his uncles, Damer and Japhrt, were both Dublin merchants and two of his aunts married Dublin merchants. In a London trade directory of 1830, John Darby's firm was described as Irish Linen Factors. Correspondence between Darby and Robert Peel, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, in 1815 concerning the duties payable by packet boats between England and Ireland, shows his continued links with Ireland (BL Add MS 40245 folios 105, 107). Amongst the documents listed below is a single receipt, dated 1789, which relates to the United States of America (1), while 194 below refers to Darby's visit the United States of America

From about 1785 John Darby lived in or near his business premises in Old Jewry; his two eldest children, Susannah and Jonathan, were baptised at St Olave Old Jewry. From later in the 1780s until 1801 he lived at Cambridge Heath, Hackney in Middlesex, where he purchased several houses in the vicinity of his own (77). Several of his children were baptised at St John Hackney: William Henry on 14 December 1790, Christopher on 9 February 1793, Sarah on 18 November 1794, George on 5 April 1797 and Horatio d'Esterre on 31 May 1799. His youngest son, John Nelson (baptised 3 March 1801 at St Margaret Westminster), was an inspirational force behind the foundation of the Plymouth Brethren, with whom he subsequently broke, and founder of The Exclusive Brethren who were known as The Darbyites; see DNB and M S Weremchuk John Nelson Darby (1992)

From 1801 Darby was an under-tenant of William Colhoun at 10 Great George Street, Westminster. The house, now demolished, was one of a street developed by a local entrepreneur, James Mallors, in 1752-1753. Darby bought the lease from Calhoun in 1814, which was subsequently sold by his son George in 1837

In 1819, at the age of 68, Darby having decided to buy a country estate, chose Markly in Warbleton. the reasons for his choice are unclear: he does not seem to have had any obvious links with Warbleton before the purchase, although his friend (and from 1827 his son William Henry's father-in-law) Edward Jeremiah Curteis of Windmill Place in Wartling was indirectly related to the last owner of Markly's second wife, Harriet Luxford, and he may have been able to give John Darby some first-hand information about the estate. The estate had also come onto the market at an opportune time for purchasers of land, since England was entering an agricultural depression after the boom induced by the Napoleonic wars

The negotiations were protracted, not least because Darby insisted that no decision, however small, should be taken without first consulting him. His interference in these legal matters caused considerable friction with the vendors (see ACC 4919)

Markly had been purchased on 26 July 1692 from Thomas Bunce by Anne Hawksworth, widow of Edward Hawksworth, the son of the Rev Joseph Hawksworth of Burwash (buried on 24 April 1657) and Jane the daughter of Edward Polhill of Burwash; Edward was born on 20 June 1652, married Anne on 23 April 1677 and was buried at Warbleton on 14 July 1690. Ann was the only daughter of Edmond Cotton of Lincolns Inn, Middlesex (buried on 29 September 1656) and Dorothy (?the sister of John Roberts of the Priory in Warbleton, 1637-1688); she was born on 31 August 1654, died childless and was buried on 12 May 1737. In her will she devised inter alia to 'my kinsman Edward Hawes...my mansion house and lands in Warbleton, where I now dwell' (SAS/AN3678, AMS6149/7)

The Hawes family were resident at Robertsbridge in Salehurst by 1576 and were associated with the iron industry in that area. John Hawes (d 1576) was a collector for the Sidneys of Penshurst Place in Kent and the Hawes family held Robertsbridge Abbey on a long lease from them (CKS U475)

Edward was the son of the Rev John Hawes of Berwick and Alciston (1669-1743) and Frances the daughter of John Hay of Little Horsted. He was born on 2 April 1709 and married Ann, the daughter of Abraham and Martha Cooper (who were living with Ann Hawksworth when she made her will in 1732) at Chiddingly on 31 October 1734. Edward, who had been resident in Warbleton from about 1735, died on 19 October 1769

Markly was devised to trustees for sale and was purchased by Edward's son Robert. He was baptised on 19 January 1747 and was married firstly on 8 May 1771 to Martha Baker. She died in March 1784 and he was remarried in 1802 to Harriet Luxford, the sister of John Luxford of Highams in Salehurst. Robert in his will (AMS6149/18) devised Markly to his trustees for sale, subject to the life interest of his wife; he died on 5 December 1817 and she died on 2 December 1818. After extensive negotiations, Markly was sold to Darby in 1819

John Darby lost little time in further enlarging his estate in Warbleton. In 1821 he purchased Little Bucksteep (130a) in the north-east of the parish. The farm had been purchased by Thomas Bennett I from John Keys of Warbleton, miller and his wife Mary, the widow of Thomas Elliott of Warbleton, yeoman, on 11 and 12 June 1712 (ACC 165/100-102), and in his will made in 1755 he entailed to the male issue of his son Thomas Bennett. Thomas Bennett II's grandson, Thomas IV, sold most of the estate to John Darby in 1822 and the remainder in 1823. On the death of John Darby, the farm passed to his fifth son Horatio, and was sold on his death in 1855 to the tenant John Harris

Other purchases made by Darby within the parish included Little Crouches in 1825

On the death of his brother, Henry d'Esterre, in 1823, John Darby inherited the ancestral home of Leap Castle. In 1820 he had been granted an augmentation of his brother's coat of arms. He was a magistrate for the county by 1821. John Darby died in 1834 and his wife was buried at Warbleton on 7 January 1848, where there is a memorial window

Markly was inherited by John's fourth son, George. He was married on 29 November 1827 to Maria (b1801), the youngest daughter of Samuel Homfray (1762-1822) of Pennydarren in Glamorgan and Mrs Jane Bull (died 22 December 1846), the eldest daughter of Charles Gould Morgan of Tredegar in Monmouthshire, bt. George Darby attended St Catherine's College, Cambridge from 1816, where he obtained his BA in 1820 and his MA in 1823. He was admitted to Lincolns Inn on 30 June 1816 and was called to the Bar in 1821. Darby stood unsuccessfully for the Eastern Division of the County in 1832, but was successfully returned between 1837 and 1846. From 1846 to 1852 he was an Enclosure Commissioner, and a Copyhold, Enclosure and Tithe commissioner from 1852 until his death. He died at Down Street, Piccadilly in London on 16 November 1877

George had followed his father's policy of enlarging the estate; he purchased Downgate Farm in April 1828 and Priory Farm in 1829

By 1931 the Markly estate had descended to George's grandson, Walter George Darby. At this date the whole estate, excluding the house and park, was sold at auction (AMS6148/2). W G Darby died in 1938 and the Misses Darby, who occupied the house, moved to Heathfield

The house is now (1986) owned by Rosamund Ann Fisher, the wife of John Vavasseur Fisher, Baron Fisher and occupied by her son by her first marriage, James Fairbairn

For correspondence between John Darby's solicitors and James Philcox of Burwash, 1817-1820, see ACC 4919; for photocopies of the will of George Darby, 1878 and the 1931 sale particular, see AMS6148; for abstracts of the wills of members of the Hawes, Hawksworth and Darby families, 1576-1834, see AMS6149; for photocopies of a probate inventory of the contents of Markly, 1819 and a draft pedigree of the Darby family compiled in the 1960s, see AMS6320; for a photocopy of an unregistered manuscript pedigree of the Darby family in the Dublin College of Arms, see AMS6344

For a tinted south-east view of Markly by S H Grimm in 1785, see BL Add Burrell 5670 fo 72; for correspondence between Darby and Robert Peel, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, concerning the duties payable by packet boats between England and Ireland in 1815, see BL Add MS 40245 fos 105, 107; for the letter and order book of Admiral George Darby, 1780-1782, see BL Add MSS 38681-38682, and for letters from him to Lord Sandwich, 1773-1781, see National Maritime Museum; for letters from Admiral Henry d'Esterre Darby to Lord Nelson and W F Wyndham, 1799, see BL Add MSS 34910-34912; for letters from George Darby to the Duke of Richmond, 1835-1860, see West Sussex Record Office Goodwood Archives for correspondence and papers of John Nelson Darby, 1829-1882, and correspondence with B W Newton, 1840-1845, see John Rylands Library, Manchester

Summary of contents

Pedigrees of the Darby, Hawes and Bennett families (not included in AZA)

The groupings below reflect the general content of the correspondence, the divisions are not necessarily exclusive

AMS6146/1-62 Purchase of Great George Street, Westminster and negotiations to purchase premises in Old Jewry, London; 1784-1814

AMS6146/63-94 Prosecution of William Griffin for debt, trust monies of Judith Persode; 1815-1819

AMS6146/95-164 Purchase of Markly in Warbleton; 1819-1821

AMS6146/165-210 Purchase of Little Bucksteep in Warbleton; 1821 - 1822

AMS6146/211-214 Renewal of the lease of the house in Great George Street, canvassing for votes in Cambridge; 1824-1826

AMS6146/215-241 negotiations concerning the marriage settlement of George Darby and Maria Homfray; 1826-1828

AMS6146/242-282 Debts of the Rev Cole of Warbleton, further purchases in Warbleton by George Darby; 1828-1894

Documents deposited 9 Jan 1979 (ACC 2339), 28 Aug 1981 (ACC 2730)