The records of this collection fall into two related groups: the records of three Huguenot families who came to England between 1685 and 1690 (ACC/2079/A-C); and the records of several successive firms of solicitors in which one of the descendants of those Huguenot families, P A Hanrott, worked (ACC/2079/D-F).
The collection is of interest for the study of Huguenot families, and contains a good deal of genealogical information (see for example the Gascherie family tree in AC/2079/A/1/24). Papers of the Gascherie and Chesneau families are arranged in four groups. The first group is the largest and consists of documents relating to a legal action brought by Madeleine Gashry on behalf of her mother Suzanne Gascherie, widow of Francois Gashry (see ACC/2079/B1), in La Rochelle to reclaim lands inherited by more distant relations on the death of her sister, Suzanne Gashry (Gascherie) in November 1762. The case required extensive proof of family relationships and copies of baptism, marriage and burial register entries were produced, as well as wills and marriage contracts and other legal documents relating to the lands in question (ACC/2079/A1/003-036). The case was conducted by agents in La Rochelle as Madeleine Gashry and her mother were in Amsterdam and The Hague at the time (ACC/2079/A1/001-002). Although these records partly relate to the Gashry family, they chiefly refer to lands held by Estienne Gascherie, Suzanne Chesneau, his wife and the inherited title of their daughter, Suzanne Gascherie, widow of Francois Gashry. Other records of the Gashry family are listed in section B.
The second group consists of other papers of Estienne and Suzanne Gascherie, including receipts for soldiers billetted on them in La Rochelle in 1685 (ACC/2079/A2/001) and a bond concerning a ship which may have been used to bring Estienne Gascherie to England (ACC/2079/A2/002).
The third group represents the papers of Brigadier Paul de la Gascherie, son of Estienne and Suzanne Gascherie, whose invention concerning sails and keels of ships won him a pension from the Estates General of the Netherlands (ACC/2079/A3/001). He worked all over Europe fitting his invention to ships of various fleets. He went to Moscow and Poland (ACC/2079/A3/016-025) and was in Portugal at the time of the Lisbon earthquake (ACC/2079/A3/008).
The fourth group of papers relates to the Chesneau family, principally the parents of Estienne Gascherie's wife, Suzanne Chesneau. They were French Protestants, and it would seem that Suzanne's father was imprisoned (if not even sentenced to death) during anti-protestant feeling in 1656 (ACC/2079/A4/001). This may explain the context of the exhortation written by Suzanne's mother to both her children, encouraging them to stand firm in the Protestant faith (ACC/2079/A4/003).
The records of the Archbishop of York's estates are interesting for a study of development of the Battersea and Wandsworth areas. The arrangement of the documents reflects these four aspects of their work. ACC/2079/F1 consists of general documents relating to the sale of the Battersea estates, the original deeds, precedents for the Archbishop's tenure of the estates, schedules of deeds and leases, and correspondence relating to more than one property. ACC/2079/F2 consists of documents relating to the Battersea and Wandsworth estates arranged alphabetically by tenant, as the holdings are not described fully enough to arrange them topographically. ACC/2079/F3 refers to the purchase of estates in Bishopthorpe and ACC/2079/F4 to the purchase of Lord Petre's house in Grosvenor Square.
There are also several items in the collection which do not appear to have any connection with the families or the solicitors' firms (ACC/2079/G). P A Hanrott collected a large library, and it is possible that these records were also collected by him.
