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Bright Family

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[1980.0075] Papers of the Bright Family

Description

IdentifierUMA-ACE-19800075Extent175 archives boxes, 20 over-sized itemsLinear Meteragenot specifiedScope and ContentThe Bright Family Papers consists of personal, financial, commercial and legal documentation relating to the Bright and Meyler families, including deeds, indentures and wills; correspondence, letterbooks and extracts; journals, ledgers, cashbooks and summaries of accounts; estate plans and inventories; pedigrees, family trees, and copies of Parish registers; folios of artwork; photographs; and some supplementary printed material.
The earliest material in the collection consists of a will (1511) and two arbitration disputes (1532, 1592), the ‘feet of fine’ or court copies of two final concords (both in Latin, c.1610), and a number of indentures from the mid to late seventeenth and early eighteenth century.
The bulk of the collection dates from 1730-1840, and relates to the various commercial partnerships between the Bright and Meyler families and other merchants and traders in Jamaica and the West Indies. This material covers the management of plantations Meylersfield (also known as Cabaritta) and Garredu (Black Mount) and other Jamaican concerns that the Brights and Meylers were involved in. Specific documents and topics of interest include valuations, inventories and accounts relating to slaves, land and stock; detailed business accounts; correspondence describing daily life and business, including discussion of Tacky’s rebellion (1760), the Capture of St. Lucia (1778), fires (1780, 1782) and a hurricane (1780), governance, medicine and illness, and various plants and animals sent home to England.
The Jamaican correspondence includes significant holdings of letters between Henry Bright, Francis Bright, Richard Meyler, and Jeremiah Meyler and their various business partners, as well as very extensive correspondence from 1800-1830 between Lowbridge and Richard Bright and their Jamaican partners and representatives including David Duncomb, Benjamin Duncomb, William Savage, James Corne Pownall, John Shand, William Caldwell, and John Garnett.
Also well-represented is the management, sale, and purchase of English estates, particularly in the mid nineteenth century, including Ham Green, Welland Court, Flapgate, Abbots Leigh, and Brockbury. Correspondence and other documents relate to the settlement of tenants’ disputes, the collection and payment of rent and taxes, improvements and building work, and surveying and enclosure of land.
Correspondence and other documentation relating to family matters includes details of family marriages, deaths and inheritances, including extensive documentation relating to the inheritance dispute between Richard Bright and the Meyler family, and the genealogy of both families, as well as financial documents, accounts and correspondence regarding the estates of Henry Bright, Francis Bright, Allen Bright Sr., Benjamin Heywood Bright, Richard Bright, Lowbridge Bright, and of various other extended family. Other holdings relating to family and personal matters include love letters, letters of advice (particularly to Allen Bright Jr.), letters and accounts relating to medical issues, donations to charities, insurance, and other sundry payments and purchases. The collection also contains correspondence and other material relating to Henry Bright's time as Mayor of Bristol, to the activities of Gibbs, Bright & Co. in Australia (c.1870s-1900s) and family life in Victoria (c.1900s-1920s), to potential research interests for local historians such as an extended dispute over ministers in Castle Green (c.1720s), and extensive correspondence and details of purchases between Benjamin Heywood Bright and the bookseller Thomas Rodd the Younger (c.1820s-1840s).Archival HistoryThe Bright Family Papers have been catalogued in stages since 1980. The initial arrangement was based on an analysis of the contents of each box as received at the Archives. The initial control numbers given to each box, file, folio, or loose item reflected the box it came from. Control numbers were made by combining symbols, for example, BFP1/L1F1/1 which refers to Bright Family Papers Box 1, Loose items Folder 1, Folio 1. Common symbols used were BFPn, referring to Bright Family Papers Box n; Ln, referring to Loose Item n; SIn, referring to Single Item n; Fn, referring to Folder n; or Bn, referring to Bundle n; where ‘n’ is the folio number within the folder or bundle.
This arrangement illustrates the order in which the collection was discovered and housed when it came to the Archives, but no longer reflects the box arrangement as subsequent conservation rehousing has more than doubled the number of boxes in the collection. These numbers have been retained as previous control numbers for each of the over 10,000 folios in the collection, but folders, bundles and folios have also been top numbered when entered into the Archives database. Collection CategoryBusinessAccess StatusOpen for public accessRequest Access to RecordsRequest records from this AccessionSearch within this Accession

Item

Letter to Henry Bright, Merchant, from Francis Bright, Kingston, Jamaica

Copy: A Table of the Houses & Lands Belonging to the Poor of the Parish of Colwall

An Equal Rate of Assessment

Letter to Richard Meylor, Bristol, from Henry Bright, St. Christopher's, West Indies

'Messrs. Jeremiah Meyler and Charles Hall in their capacities to Thomas Hibbert Senior as surviving Attorney to Henry Bright and o[thers] of Bristol'

[Correspondence relating to the affairs of William Gordon and his Trustees and Creditors]

Abstract of letter from Lowbridge and Richard Bright to David Duncomb.

Letter to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, Muff Castle, Jamaica

Two letters to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, Leguanea, Jamaica

Letter to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, Leguanea, Jamaica

Letter to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, Muff Castle, Jamaica

Letter to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, Kingston, Jamaica

Two letters to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, Muff Castle, Jamaica

Letter to Lowbridge and Richard Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, Jamaica

Letter to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, Jamaica

Two letters to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, St Andrews, Jamaica

Letter to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, Jamaica

Two letters to Lowbridge Bright, Bristol, from David Duncomb, St Andrews, Jamaica

Plan

Map: Copy of the North Part of Pytts Estate in Colwall including Lytticks and the Upper House Farm

Map. Copy of the Plan of Brockhill Estate in Colwall

Map. Copy of the South or Centre Part of the Pytts Estate in Colwall including Nether Patch Farm and some Pieces belonging to Caorwith

Map. Copy of the South east part of the Pytts Estate in Colwall including Old Castle and part of the Upper House Farmes

Map of 'Hampne Green', [Near Bristol]

'Map of Evendine Lands in the Parish of Colwall belonging to Rich[ar]d Bright Esquire'

A Plan of the Two Pens in the Parish of Saint Catherine belonging to Henry Bright of Great Britian Esqr. Now leased to Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas. Surveyed 13 May 1766 by William Farquhars'

Image

(Left) George (David) Bright, and (right) Reginald Bright in dressing gowns on first storey verandah of house

Provenance

CreatorBright Family

Dates

Date1511-1974

Description Control

Previous System ID1980.0075State of ListFully listed

University of Melbourne Archives

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[1980.0075] Papers of the Bright Family