The Child-Jersey archive
The Hon. Margaret Elizabeth Leigh, Countess of Jersey (1849-1945)
Category
Archive Collections
Date
1715 - 1931
Materials
Collection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 773433
Summary
Papers of the Child and Jersey families, including a large collection of household accounts, legal papers, estate papers, plans, rentals, correspondence and maps of the Heston Enclosure Award 1818. London Metropolitan Archive received 13 accessions relating to the family archive after the National Trust purchased Osterley Park in 1949: LMA reference numbers: ACC/0331; ACC/0405; ACC/0435; ACC/0436; ACC/0506; ACC/0510; ACC/1128; ACC/1275; ACC/1401; ACC/2839; ACC/3076; LMA/4195; LMA/4446. NRA 1971, 1978 The Manor of Osterley in Heston was purchased by property developer Nicholas Barbon in 1683. Barbon conveyed the Manor to two co-mortgagees including the banker Sir Francis Child the elder (1642-1718). Child took possession of the Manor on Barbon's death in 1698, while his son Robert Child (d. 1721) bought out the co-mortgagee, so that the Child family owned the whole estate. The family expanded the estates by purchasing nearby Manors and commissioned Robert Adam to redesign the house. The estates and Child's Bank were inherited by Sarah Anne (1764-1793), daughter and sole heir of Robert Child (d. 1782). Under the terms of Robert Child's will the estates passed to Sarah Anne's daughter Lady Sarah Sophia Fane (1785-1867), who was said to have an income of Ł60,000 a year. Lady Sarah married George Villiers, the fifth Earl of Jersey (1773-1859) who took the name Child-Villiers in 1812. Osterley Park stayed in the Jersey family until 1949 when it was sold to the National Trust. In 1800 the Manor of Hayes was sold to the executors of Robert Child's will and was therefore added to Osterley and passed to Lady Sarah Sophia Fane and her husband the Earl of Jersey. They sold the Manor in 1829 to Robert Willis Blencowe.
Makers and roles
The Hon. Margaret Elizabeth Leigh, Countess of Jersey (1849-1945), creator