Letters, legal documents, land records, and financial records, primarily relating to several multi-generational property disputes between members of the Standish family of Duxbury Hall and their neighbors. Much of the material concerns Alexander Standish's lawsuit in the ecclesiastical courts against his neighbor Thomas Charnock regarding Charnock's use of Standish's burial plot; this material includes legal opinions and letters by Bishop Thomas Morton, Sir Henry Marten, and Henry Swinburne, as well as the legal verdict on the dispute. The collection also contains documents pertaining to other legal disputes, including a deposition by Standish and others of a neighbor's recusancy; a letter to Bishop John Bridgeman regarding a dispute over a church; and a letter by Bridgeman giving advice about a land dispute.

The collection contains one letter by Sir Christopher Standish, dated from the first half of the 1480s, concerning his attempts to enlarge the family estates. Other documents in the collection include a letter to Colonel Richard Standish from Henry Baldwin relating news of military activities following Scotland's proclamation of Charles II as king; a personal letter by Ralph Wilbraham reporting on the plague in London and complaining of the presence of "fryers and frenchmen;" and loans, bonds, accounts and receipts, and indentures.

Actions and defenses > England.

Administration of estates > England.

Burial > England.

Cemeteries > England.

Ecclesiastical courts > England.

Finance, Personal > England.

Inheritance and succession > England.

Land tenure > England.

Great Britain > History > Civil War, 1642-1649.

Great Britain > Social life and customs > 17th century.