Beschreibung:

IMPORTANT ARCHIVE OF A SCOTTISH FAMILY: The Rentons of Lamberton 1550 – 1739: Lamberton is a hilly area of Berwickshire, just north of the Scottish border and four miles north of Berwick-on-Tweed. It was part of the estate of the Renton family of Billie, but in the early 18th century the Rentons sold Billie to the Earls of Home, retaining Lamberton as their principal seat. A hundred years later the heiress to Lamberton married a Colonel Robert Campbell The Campbell-Rentons later moved to Mordington House, which the heiress sold in the 1970s. The archive consists of approximately 300 documents, mainly of the second half of the 17th century, with a few from the late 16th and several from the early 18th centuries. They relate to the Renton lairds of Lamberton and comprise details of law suits, bonds, the conveyance of debts, contracts etc. Other parties involved include the Earls of Dunbar, Home and Annandale and the families of Watson, Trotter, Yeoman, Brodie, Cockburn, Gray, Anderson, Learmonth, Blaw, Stirling and Udney. The documents are nearly all written on paper (a few on vellum) in Scots (a few in Latin) and in a neat Scots hand. They vary in size from small scraps to very long rolls made up of sheets of paper stuck together. They are numbered and tied in bundles. Of particular interest are: · Notarial instrument dated 1550, with an endorsement of 1574 (bundle 1). · Inquisition post mortem dated 1615 of David Renton of Billie, with a long list of lands (bundle 1). · Contract whereby James Renton of Billie sells Lamberton to John Renton junior of Cockburnspath, 1634 (bundle 14); · Contract whereby John Renton of Billie sells Lamberton to James Renton (damaged, date lost) (bundle 45); · John Renton of Lamberton’s account of his levy on the parishes of Berwick for the supply of horses (for the war), 27 July 1642 (bundle 16); · rental of Sir James Douglas’s and John Renton’s estates, 1640; 3 rentals of the estate of John Hay, returned by his factor Alexander Trotter, 1689-91 and 1692-95, one n.d. (bundle 16). All with lists of tenants, mainly cottiers. This collection forms an important case study of the legal and financial affairs of a lowland Scots landed family in the early modern period. As an archive, w.a.f., (c. 300 items) (1)