| Description | The records include title deeds for Allestree, Heanor, Mapperley, Shipley, etc. 1501-1895 and rentals 1796-1833, as well as various marriage and other settlements which detail acquisition of properties. There are title deeds 1520-1823 for out-county properties. For Shipley manor there is an abstract of title 1627-1716 and a survey 1805. Family business interests are represented in the records of Shipley Colliery, 1757-1874, and the Nutbrook Canal Company, 1879-1914.
Among the family papers, the account book of Hester Mundy (later Lady Newdigate) 1767-1772 includes names of servants. Edward Miller Mundy I’s accounts 1772-1781 include household and estate information, as do those of his second wife Lady Middleton covering 1782-1787. Edward Miller Mundy II’s cash book includes farm summaries 1824-1826. There are household and estate accounts for 1825. An account book 1682-1697 of Edward Mundy probably belonged to a brother of Gilbert Mundy, younger son of John Mundy of Markeaton, from whom the Shipley branch descended. The account book includes personal and household information and refers to living in Markeaton, London and Allestree. There are also plans for the garden of Shipley Hall by William Emes in 1772.
Correspondence from the 18th-19th centuries covers a range of personal and estate affairs, including colliery and canal interests, Heanor enclosure and family correspondence, including some from Australia. Admiral Sir George Miller Mundy’s naval career is well represented in the family correspondence, including a description of the capture of Le Furtet by HMS Hydra.
Edward Miller Mundy I’s second wife was the widow of the 4th Baron Middleton. It is probably through this connection that the records include correspondence and receipts relating to the estates of the 3rd and 4th Barons Middleton 1772-1783. A book of medicinal and household recipes from the early eighteenth century may also originate from the Middleton family. There is some correspondence from 1801 about legacies left by Hester Lady Newdigate, Edward Miller Mundy I’s sister.
A ledger recording merchandising or cargo space contracting in London 1661-1662 was later used to record rent receipts 1742-1779, but there is no clear connection with the Mundy family. |
| Administrative History | The Shipley estate came into the Mundy family through the marriage in 1729 of Edward Mundy (1706-1767), the son of Colonel Robert Mundy (1675-1709) of Allestree, with Hester Miller (d.1767). Hester was the only daughter of Hester Leche and Colonel Miller. Shipley had been acquired by the Leche family through the Strelley and Vavasour families in the sixteenth century, and was inherited by Hester Leche, and then her daughter Hester Miller. It was Hester Miller’s father, Colonel Miller, who built Shipley Hall in about 1700.
Hester and Edward’s eldest son was known as Edward Miller Mundy, as were his son and grandson. To avoid confusion, they are commonly referred to as Edward Miller Mundy I, II and III. Other members of the family sometimes used the surname Mundy, and sometimes Miller Mundy.
Edward and Hester had four children: Hester Margaretta (d.1800) who in 1776 married Sir Roger Newdigate; Nelly (1739-1813) who died unmarried; Millicent (b.1744) and Edward Miller Mundy I (1750-1822). After both his parents died in 1767, Edward Miller Mundy I inherited Shipley, although the estate was managed by his older sister Hester (later Lady Newdigate) until he reached his majority.
In 1772 Edward Miller Mundy I married Frances Meynell (1753-1783), the eldest daughter of Godfrey Meynell, with whom he had six children: Frances (1773-1797), who in 1795 married Lord Charles Fitzroy, second son of the 3rd Duke of Grafton; Edward Miller Mundy II (1775-1834) who inherited the estate; General Godfrey Basil Miller Mundy (1776-1848) whose son, Admiral Sir George Rodney Miller Mundy (1805-1884) had a distinguished naval career in the Americas, Baltic, Mediterranean and China Seas; Admiral Sir George Mundy (1777-1861), whose naval career included service under Lords Collingwood and Nelson during the Napoleonic war; Rev Frederick Mundy (1778-1846) who became Rector of Winston, county Durham, and Henry (1779-) who by the time of his father's death was living in Patna, India.
Shipley Hall was rebuilt in 1788 and in the same year Edward Miller Mundy I married his second wife Georgiana Middleton (d.1789), nee Chadwick, the widow of the 4th Lord Middleton, with whom he had one daughter, Georgiana Elizabeth (1789-1822) who married Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle in 1807. In 1811 he married his third wife, Catherine Barwell, the widow of Richard Barwell MP, with whom he had one son, Robert (1813-1892) who became a colonial governor in the West Indies and Central America.
Edward Miller Mundy I was active in local politics, serving as High Sheriff and as MP for Derbyshire for thirty-nine years. In 1803 he was appointed Colonel of the 2nd Derby Regiment of Militia and in 1817 he was a member of the Grand Jury at the trial of the men involved in the Pentrich Rebellion. His eldest son Edward Miller Mundy II, who inherited Shipley, did not follow in his father’s political footsteps but his grandson Edward Miller Mundy III (1800- 1849) served as MP for South Derbyshire. Edward Miller Mundy III was succeeded by his brother Alfred Miller Mundy (1809-1877) who had been Colonial Secretary for South Australia in the early 1840s. He and his son Alfred Edward Miller Mundy (1849-1920) both served as High Sheriff of Derbyshire.
The family’s main source of income was from property including collieries in Shipley, Heanor, Allestree and Mapperley. There was extensive coalmining in Shipley and in Heanor where the Miller Mundy and Charlton families were the main proprietors. The family also had property in Over Mayfield, Staffordshire, Sandon, Hampshire, Loxley, Warwickshire, London and other counties. Alfred Edward’s son Godfrey Edward Miller Mundy (b.1885) sold most of the estate to Shipley Collieries Ltd in 1923 and made his home in Hampshire. Shipley Hall was demolished during the Second World War. |
| Custodial History | The records were received in a number of deposits from the family and Derby Local Studies Library in 1968, 1978 and 1985. An additional donation of two photograph albums and a travel journal were donated by the descendent of Gladys Nicholl, former cook-housekeeper to the family, in April 2024. |