University Archives
Warton family, of Beverley
The Wartons were rich Hull merchants who became the wealthiest family in Beverley in the seventeenth century. They were lords of the manor of Beverley Parks and Beverley. By 1657 they had a house built into North Bar. Michael Warton (1577-1655) outlived his son and his grandson, Michael Warton (1623-1688), inherited the estates, though they had been depleted through fines paid to Parliament for Royalism. His eldest son, Michael Warton (1649-1725), died unmarried and the estates were split up between the children of his two sisters in the eighteenth century. The papers comprise a seventeenth-century household account book which includes outgoings on apothecary's fees, quires of writing paper, servants' wages, estate accounts and rents as well as accounts for the funeral of Michael Warton in 1655. [DP/58, 64, 81]