University Archives
Courtney family, of Beverley
John Courtney was born in Beverley in 1734, the son of John Courtney of Wakefield and Elizabeth Bourdenand, née Featherstone. His father had been in the East India Company and served a spell as Governor of Surat. John Courtney was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. He inherited land and property in Beverley and the surrounding area from his grandmother, mother and from his uncle and aunt, Ralph and Margaret Featherstone. His diaries, which begin in 1759, are thus filled with local information about Beverley elections, the Minster, the Assembly Rooms, the East Riding Bank, the coffee house at the Blue Bell and so on. He married Mary Smelt (1740-1805) and they had at least five sons and three daughters all of whom receive mention throughout his diaries. John Courtney died in 1806. His eldest son, John Courtney (1769-1845), inherited his father's lands and became pluralist vicar of Goxhill in Yorkshire 1818-45 and Sanderstead in Surrey 1821-45, living well off tenancies and tithes. He married first Caroline Ferrers and then Sophia Elizabeth Catherine Poggenpohl of St Petersburg. There are circa 350 items in this collection including title deeds of the Featherston family, correspondence 1769-1828 including letters of the Smelt family, four journals ('Diary of Occurrences etc') for the years 1759-67 and 1788-1805, a letter book 1787-91, a book of rentals 1796-1806, a household account book 1804-6 and estate correspondence for John Courtney junior. [DDX/60]