| Administrative History | The Evans family, cotton spinners and paper mill owners, purchased the Darley Abbey estate in the early 19th century. They extended their estates by buying lands in nearby Derby, Brailsford, Duffield and Allestree where properties included some formerly owned by the Mundy family. Amongst these was Allestree Hall. Bache Thornhill of Stanton in the Peak bought this from Francis Noel Clarke Mundy in 1795 with the intention of building a new house. It was sold uncompleted in 1806 to John Charles Girardot and subsequently finished to a new design. Allestree Hall was then bought by William Evans (1787-1856) for £36,000 in 1825. Eventually the property was inherited by Lionel G Gisborne who in 1913 sold it to Col. H A Johnson of Farnah Hall. In 1874, William Evans' son, Thomas William Evans (1821-1892) also acquired Burley Hill House and lands in Duffield through an exchange of lands with Lord Scarsdale. |
| Custodial History | These documents were transferred to Derbyshire Record Office in March 1978 by a London firm of solicitors via the British Records Association (BRA no 1776). A further item was accessioned in December 2023 having been found in the archive stores. It has been stamped on the inside cover with an old "Derbyshire County Records" stamp, which was probably in use as early as about 1911 (when the council occasionally took in historic records and stored them with the official county records of the council and the Quarter Sessions); the stamp continued to be used into the 1960s. |