| Description | Frederick Hancock was established as a solicitor in Shipston at least as early as 1850, according to White's directory of that year. The practice became Hancock & Hiron in 1855 and by 1884 was Hancock, Simpson & Hancock. By 1924 it had reverted to F. B. Hancock. This collection was deposited in August 1952 and the following list has been arranged in three main sections:
A. Hancock family papers (CR224/1-23), comprising personal, household and estate accounts, mainly of John Hancock of Stratford Heath (d.1831) and his widow.
B. Clients' and presumed clients' papers (CR224/24-59). Some of these at least had passed from the solicitor J. H. Clark, a predecessor of the Hancocks in Shipston and still listed as a practising attorney in Pigot's directory of 1841. They comprise accounts of tradsemen whose businesses, with the exception of Richard Wilks of Brailes, were located in Shipston (CR224/24-43); unidentified ledgers covering the years 1788-1812 (CR 224/44-45); several parcels of deeds relating to properties in Shipston and surrounding villages (CR 224/46-54); bundles of sale and other public notices dating from 1864 onwards (CR 224/55); and several estate maps (CR 224/56-59), including two by the Shipston surveyor William Insall.
C. Records of public and official bodies (CR 224/60-99). These include the bulk of the records of the Stratford and Long Compton turnpike trust from its beginnings in 1730 (CR 224/60-69); and parish highway surveyors' records inherited by Shipston District Highway Board (CR224/70-90), to both of which bodies Frederick Hancock acted as clerk. Finally in this section are placed a few tithe and enclosure records including a series of printed enclosure acts (CR224/92), mainly for Warwickshire parishes, and two volumes of the overseers of the poor for Long Compton covering the years 1914-1927 (CR224/98-99).
A further deposit from Hancock & Co. was received in 1959 (CR 609), which includes diaries and other papers of J. H. Clark. It is possible that Hancock took over Clark's existing practice in the 1840's, and with it his papers, or that the families intermarried. |