Add MS 78282-78290

John Stansfield

78282-78290. EVELYN PAPERS. Vol. CXV-CXXIII. Papers of John Stansfield, merchant of the Cliffe, near Lewes, and maternal grandfather of the diarist; 1581-1637. Stansfield `exported through Newhaven corn, iron, ordnance and timber, principally to London and ports in northern France and the Netherlands, and imported groceries, draperies . . . salt, wine, fruit, sugar and coal, much of which was then distributed from Lewes across the weald and downland, and to Brighton’ (Colin E. Brent, A Short Economic and Social History of Brighton, Lewes and the Downland Region, East Sussex County Council, 1976, p. 16). He married first (24 March 1597/8) Eleanor, daughter of Thomas Comber of West Allington (d. 1613), and secondly (1614) Jane, daughter Thomas Michell. He died 23 Feb. 1626/7. John Evelyn’s mother, Eleanor Stansfield, daughter of the first marriage, was her father’s heir and also his executrix (on account of her `wise and understanding husband'), thus accounting for the presence of these papers, which chiefly relate to Stansfield’s business affairs, in the archive. John Evelyn the diarist, who was Stansfield's godson as well as his grandson, lived in his household from the age of five and inherited certain property from him; see Evelyn, Diary, I, p. 7, and the will of Richard Stansfield, summarized in John Stansfeld, History of the Family of Stansfeld or Stansfield (Leeds, 1885), pp. 388-390. After his grandfather’s death Evelyn remained with Stansfield’s second wife (not his grandmother, although he calls her so) until he was sent to Oxford in 1637. During this period she remarried William Newton of Southover and they moved there from the Cliffe. She died in 1650. The small group of the Newtons’ letters in Add. MS 78282 may have been acquired by Evelyn after her death.

Nine volumes.