| Description | D/EE/7/1 - 123 Deeds, leases, abstracts etc.
D/EE/7/124 - 168, 378 Rentals, valuations, estate surveys etc.
D/EE/7/169 - 194 Letters
D/EE/7/195 - 208 Receipts, vouchers, bills, accounts etc.
D/EE/7/209 - 217 Sale particulars, catalogues, etc.
D/EE/7/218 - 230 Land tax, income tax, super tax papers
D/EE/7/231 - 238 Tithe papers (excluding maps)
D/EE/7/239 - 241 Settlements and marriages
D/EE/7/242 - 249 Wills and associated papers
D/EE/7/250 - 291 Hook Colliery papers
D/EE/7/292 - 306 Reynalton Colliery papers
D/EE/7/307 - 308 Printed material on coal mining
D/EE/7/309 - 319 Construction and repair papers
D/EE/7/320 - 323 Water supplies
D/EE/7/324 - 328 Fire and other insurance
D/EE/7/329 - 332 Notices to quit
D/EE/7/333 - 360 Maps and plans
D/EE/7/361 - 377 Miscellaneous
The Powell family made its first impact on history in Pembroke town and the neighbouring parishes in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Francis Green, (from whose papers most of the information in this introduction came), refers to the family as the Powells of Greenhill in the parish of Pwllcrochan. The early generations need not concern us here for none of the papers dates from the 17th century except the petition of Lewis March. He was a man from the Isle of Wight who, in 1671, married Mary, one of the daughters of Thomas Powell of Greenhill. Thomas Powell died in 1674. His grandson, also called Thomas, married, in about 1716, Ann daughter of Sir Phillip Harcourt of Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire. They had a son called Harcourt Powell who lived much of his adult life at Bedford Row in London. He was at one point in his career Member of Parliament for Newton, Isle of Wight. He appears to have had three illegitimate sons by a mysterious lady known only as Beata before his death in 1782. After Harcourt the family took to calling itself Harcourt Powell though the two names were never hyphenated. His second son, John Harcourt Powell, was baptised at St Margaret's Westminster in May 1762 having been born in the previous month. He married Lucy Grigby, heiress of Drinkstone Park Suffolk, soon after November 1785 and spent most of his subsequent life there, though when he was made Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1814 he was called John Harcourt Powell of Hook and Drinkstone Park. His son, also called John Harcourt Powell, became Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1851. He too lived at Drinkstone Park before dying in London on 15th February 1855, aged 63. His son, Thomas Harcourt Powell, who had been born in 1819, carried on the family tradition by becoming Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1864. Like his predecessors he seems to have spent little time in the county before his death in 1892 though he was clearly a substantial land owner. His nephew, John Harcourt Powell, who had been born in 1880 inherited the estate on Thomas' death, though the trustees had of course to be appointed because of his youth. Inevitably he became Sheriff in 1890. Soon after the end of the Great War he sold off almost all the estates in the county and the Harcourt Powell connection with Pembrokeshire virtually came to an end.
As well as owning large amounts of agricultural land the family had, during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, become coal owners with pits at Hook and Reynalton. Many of the items in the collection relate to coal mining, and they have been put into separate sections. There are many items in the RTM collection about the Harcourt Powell estate. |