| Description | In 1689 Sir John Fenwick sold his Hexham estate to Sir William Blackett of Wallington, Northumberland. William was the third son of Sir William Blackett, a Newcastle merchant with interests in coal and leadmining. William junior became mayor of Newcastle in 1683 and was created a baron in 1684. He also served as an M.P. He purchased the Wallington estate and built the house at Wallington as a country home, his main residence being Anderson Place, a grand property in Newcastle. He was succeeded by his only son, also William in 1705. William died in 1728 and his estate passed to his nephew Walter Calverley, the son of Sir Walter Calverley of Elshot, Yorkshire with the proviso that Walter must marry his illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth Ord, and adopt the Blackett surname. The couple had no surviving children and upon the death of Sir Walter the Hexham estate passed to the Wentworth family of Bretton Hall, Yorkshire - Diana, sister to Sir William Blackett had married into the Wentworth family. Sir Thomas Wentworth son of Sir William Wentworth and Diana Blackett inherited the estate in 1777. He too added the Blackett surname to his own. He died in 1792 and left both his Northumberland and Yorkshire estates to his illegitimate daughter, Diana, wife of Colonel Richard Beaumont. Following the death of Diana Beaumont in 1832 the estate passed to her son, Thomas Wentworth Beaumont who purchased the Bywell estate in 1820. In 1848 the estate passed to Wentworth Blackett Beaumont, who was created 1st Baron Allendale in 1906. The estate remains the property of the Blackett-Beaumont family.
The collection has three main strands - records of the manors of the Hexham & Anick Grange, the records of the various estates and records of the leadmining interests of the family. The manors of Hexham and Anick Grange included substantial property in the Allendale and Hexham areas. There are a substantial series of records relating to the administration of both manors from the 16th to the 20th centuries. At various times the Blackett, later Blackett-Beaumont family owned estates at Bywell, Dilston, Dukesfield, Hexhamshire, Steel-Hall and Welton and there are records of each of these estates within the collection. The family also had substantial interests in leadmining in the North Pennines - they owned mines in the Allendale valley and leased mines in Weardale from the Bishop of Durham. The collection includes an important series of records relating to leadmining in the North Pennnines from the 18th to the 20th centuries. |