| Administrative History | The Nightingale family is known to have been in the Ashover area in the seventeenth century. Thomas Nightingale (1666-1735) started the family's fortunes by smelting lead in a Cupola in Lea where he acquired property. His second son Peter (died 1763) inherited the smelting business and increased his property holdings in Lea and elsewhere. He was succeeded by his son Peter (1803) who ran both the business and the estate. Peter II died childless and both the business and the estate passed to his great-nephew William Edward Shore (1794-1874), whose grandmother Anne was Peter's sister. In 1815 WE Shore took the surname Nightingale. In the 1820s he rebuilt the house at Lea Hurst and bought an estate in Embley/Hampshire. His younger daughter was Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the nursing pioneer popularly known as "The Lady with the Lamp". WE Nightingale had no direct male heir and the estate and business passed to his nephew William Shore Smith (1831-1894) who took the surname Nightingale. William was succeeded by sons Samuel Shore (Smith) Nightingale (1860-1925) and Louis Hilary Shore (Smith) Nightingale (1866-1940). The estate was sold in 1946 although the business, Lea Lead Works, had ceased operation some time earlier. |
| Custodial History | The records were purchased by the Record Office in 1992. |