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Title deeds (many medieval), manorial, estate and other papers resulting from the acquisition of Norfolk and Suffolk estates by the ninth Baron of Writtle (Essex), Robert Edward Petre (1742-1801). He acquired the Buckenham Parva, Thetford and Croxton estates in 1767 via his wife, Anne, the daughter and co-heir of Philip Howard (brother of the ninth Duke of Norfolk) and also heir of her brother, Edward Howard, then deceased. Estates in and around Kenninghall in south Norfolk were also acquired in this way, but were, in 1771, sold back to the Howards.

The Dairy Farm estates in Langford and Stanford were purchased from Craven Ord in 1781, although Petre could barely afford the purchase price of £3,500. The purchase was only achieved with the aid of a mortgage loan of £2,000, secured on the Norwich, Croxton and Abbey Farms in Thetford, and with the further loan of £1,500 from the vendor, Craven Ord, on the security of the Dairy Farm itself. It was not until 1801 that the resulting debts were fully redeemed.

Two years later, in 1783, Bridgit Southcote, widow of Phillip Southcote, died, leaving Lord Petre both the executor of her will and its main beneficiary. In it, she devised to him her estates in Ashill, Houghton on the Hill, Pudding Norton and North Pickenham in Norfolk and also the Manor of Hildersham in south Cambridgeshire. The Pudding Norton estate, though entailed, was sold in 1805 and the proceeds used to purchase estates in Shenfield and elsewhere in Essex, adjacent to the Petre Family's existing holdings there.

In 1785, Petre purchased further estates in Langford, and, in 1797/8, consolidated his holdings in south-west Norfolk by purchasing estates, once the property of the Garrard Family, from George Nelthorpe Esq. in the adjoining parish of Ickburgh, alias Ickborough.

The tenth baron, also Robert Edward (1763-1809) nursed political ambitions via his patronage over the then notoriously rotten borough of Thetford in the first few years of the nineteenth century. Ultimately, however, he was out-manouvred in Thetford by his local rival, the Duke of Grafton at Euston Hall, just across the Suffolk border, and his influence eclipsed. Subsequently, Petre seems to have lost interest in his Norfolk estates, and after his death in 1809, his son, the eleventh baron, William Henry Francis, continued the process of disengagement from Norfolk.. Eventually, in 1816-17, a common recovery was suffered so as to bar the entail on the Manor of Ickburgh, thereby enabling the sale of that estate. In 1821/2, the remainder of his Norfolk properties (over 11,000 acres in all) were sold to the financier, Alexander Baring, for £142,000, thereby ending Petre's interests in the county.

The copyhold part was devised by Mary Fellows' will of 1762 to husband, Francis, and then to Thomas Scott. This, and the freehold part, then passed Holly/Bull/Wright and was sold to Edmund Buscall in 1798.

Documents include court roll copy of admission (Manor of Panworth Hall, Ashill) of Richard Berney to 13.5a land in several pieces in the fields of Ashill, 1720, and abstract of title (1731-1798) of Edmund Buscall to allotment of land in Ashill, nd [watermarked 1795].

Includes medieval and later deeds relating to estates in south and south-west Norfolk, but also to those in Assington, Santon Downham, Sapiston, Thetford and Gorleston in Suffolk, in Hildersham, Cambridgeshire, St Clement Danes in Middlesex [London] and in Rothersthorpe, Northamptonshire.

Dated in the chapter house of St George's Nunnery on Wednesday after the feast of St Gregory.

In 1461, Alan Mundford enfeoffed Simon Rolf and four others with the above property. In 1504, Simon Rolf and others enfeoffed Nicholas Hawker and three others. By 1612, the property was owned by William Cranhowse who then sold it to Robert Starling. It then passed Starling/Taylor/Apthorpe/Eastgate until in 1630, John Eastgate sold it to Robert, Margaret and John Nurse.

In 1588, Gabriel Bate sold the messuage called Tharmytage and eleven acres to Robert Asty. It then passed Asty/Wormeley/Martine/Ede. In 1626, George Eade devised it to his son Edmund Eade and in 1657, Edmund's will was proved, leaving his Ickburgh property to his only daughter and heir, Frances, wife of Edward Goffe.
Documents include probate wills of George Eade of Ickburgh, yeoman, 1626 and of Edmunde Eade of South Pickenham, minister of the Gospel, 1657. Also included are deeds re copyhold (Ickburgh Manor) two acres in four pieces,1641 and 1663 and leases of lands (ex Eade's), 1663, 1670 and list of [? manorial] tenants (manor unidentified), nd.

In 1594, Richard Chapman sold the property to John Bennett. It then passed Bennett/Manning/Barfote/Awdley. In 1667, Robert Awdley sold it to Thomas Goddard.

In 1616, John Kirkham sold the property to John and Jane Eastgate and they granted it to Richard Daynes and Thomas Eastgate (a younger son of John Eastgate senior) in trust for John Eastgate junior and his wife, Elizabeth.

In 1616, William Eastgate, son of William Eastgate deceased, was admitted to 6a. land and 1½ a. of meadow (parcel of 3a. of meadow). In 1629, John Eastgate was admitted upon William's surrender. The property passed to [his son] John Eastgate the younger who died leaving his son, Richard to be admitted in 1660 to it and the 15½ acres. The property then passed to Samuel Vincent in 1694, to Robert Partridge in 1700 and via his widow, Martha, to Henry Cocksedge in 1735. Henry Ord was admitted to the property in 1751.

Documents include letters from Nicholas Evenson, steward of Ickburgh Manor, to Henry Cocksedge re the procedure of his surrender and Ord's admission, 1751.

In 1626, George Wilthy, shepherd, inherited the property from his father Robert Wilthy. He then sold it to John Eastgate in 1643/4 and both he and his wife, Elizabeth, quitclaimed any future interest in it to John Eastgate in 1645.

In 1645, Ferdinand Williams sold the property to John Eastgate junior. Eastgate then sold it to Godward in 1651.

Thomas Snelling purchased the property in 1663 from William Bryand and sold it to John Plummer in 1672. It then passed Plummer/Moy/Clark/Lambert. In 1740, Robert Lambert devised his house and garden to his wife, Mary, for life and then to his 'kinsman', Robert Arnall. By 1761, it was the property of Thomas Clark who then, in 1761, sold it to James Nelthorpe.
Documents include copy of court roll (Honour of Clare) admission of Robert Lambert, 1723, and original will of Robert Lambord [Lambert], 1740.

Of a messuage and adjoining hempland next to the Towne Lane of Ickburgh to the east and abutting south on the common street and north on the field of Ickburgh, and also eight pieces of land, together 6a. 1r., of which the first (1a.) is next to a common mere to the east and is bounded to the north by Langford Way, the second (half an acre) is next to the town lands to the west and is bounded to the north by the common pasture, the third (half an acre) is bounded by Brockey Way to the west, the fourth (1½ a.) is bounded by Langford Way to the east, the fifth (1r.) is bounded to the east by a common place called The Eastlinges and to the west by Langford Way, the sixth (1a.) is bounded to the south by Mill Way and to the north by Langford Way, the seventh (half an acre) and the eighth (1a.) is a meadow next to the town meadow to the east and is bounded by the common river to the south.

The seventeen pieces are comprised as follows: the first (4a.) lies in Clipedall in two long furlongs and abutts the common to the south, the second (3r.) lies in the North Field and abutts west on Brockstey Way, the third (3r.) lies in the North Field and abutts west on Brockstey Way, the fourth (half an acre) lies in the same field, the fifth (1r.) lies in the West Field and abutts west on Walsingham Way, the sixth (1.5r.) also lies in the West Field and abutts east on Tuthill Gate, the seventh (1a.) lies in the West Field next to the town land to the south and to Brockstey Way to the east, the eighth (3.5 r.) abutts east upon Rackstey Way, the ninth (1a.) also lies in the West Field and abutts upon Blackstey Way to the east, the tenth (7r.) lies in the South Field, the eleventh (1a.) also lies in the South Field, the twelfth (1a.) lies in the South Field and abutts north on the Mill Way, the thirteenth (1a.) lies in the South Field and abutts west upon Brockstey Way, the fourteenth (half an acre) lies in the same field, the fifteenth (1a.and half a rod) lies in the same field, the sixteenth (1a.) is meadow and abutts the common river of Ickburgh to the south, and the seventeenth (half an acre) lies in the South Field and abutts north upon the Mill Way and upon the common to the south.