‘SHE HATH BEEN MOTHER, PHYSICIAN AUNT AND ALL TO HIM’: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE LOSELEY ARCHIVES AT THE SURREY HISTORY CENTRE

This essay considers the wealth of research potential of the Loseley Archives, held at Surrey History Centre in Woking. The collection, which contains over 12,000 items, is an eclectic one, containing correspondence, family settlements and wills, documents pertaining to estate management, petitions, depositions, and more. Roughly half of the documents date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and provide an insight into the lives and concerns of those in the middling and upper echelons of society.