Battle Abbey Archives

This collection consists of two parts: the records of the Benedictine abbey of St. Martin at Battle, Sussex, dating before 1538, and the papers from 1538 onward, chiefly of the Browne family (1538-1721), Viscounts Montague, who purchased the Battle Abbey properties following the monastery's dissolution, and then the Webster family (1721-1857). The collection is particularly rich in monastic and estate accounts, court records, and deeds for lands possessed by Battle Abbey in Sussex, Berkshire, Essex, Surrey, and Kent.

The records prior to 1538 consist of a complete monastic archive, the product of one integrated religious institution. Document types include obedientiary and estate and manorial accounts; court rolls and other court records; deeds and charters; rentals and surveys, with related papers; and miscellaneous papers.

The papers created after the dissolution of the monastery consist of two major sub-collections, corresponding to Browne and Webster family papers, as well as of Cheke, Jorden, and Whistler. The bulk of this post-Dissolution material pertain to the Webster family, and deals with legal, financial, and estate matters. There is little correspondence. The latest document is dated 1778.

There are also two volumes (volumes 1-2) of paper slips containing handwritten descriptions of the items in the collection. These volumes, dating from approximately 1830, comprise a draft of bookseller Thomas Thorpe's 1835 published Descriptive Catalogue.

Note: many of the pre-1733 documents in this collection are written in Latin and/or with handwriting, symbols, and abbreviations that present paleographic challenges to most modern readers. The calendar of the Battle Abbey Archives (available as a PDF) provides full extracts, in English, of the substance of each document and in the case of charters includes all personal and place names found in the originals.