| Description | The six volumes listed in this series were deposited by Major R.A. Dyott as an addition to his earlier deposits of family records.
Each volume consists of two or more smaller books, bound up together. The collecting of these books into bound volumes does not appear to have been done in accordance with any definite principle. While in some cases the smaller books that are bound up consecutively together are obviously connected with each other (see e.g. D.661/21/5/3/5), in other cases books quite unconnected with each other have been bound in the same volume and books which form a continuous series have been bound up in different volumes (See e.g. D.661/21/5/1 and D. 661/21/6/2). Cross references have been inserted in the lists where appropriate to reduce the difficulties caused by circumstances.
The nature of the six volumes is further complicated by the fact that some of the smaller books have been used for more than one set of entries. In many cases additional short accounts, memoranda, or rough jottings have been entered at a later date on pages that were left blank when a book was originally used. Anyone book may thus contain entries which vary widely in subject matter and in date. D.661/21/1/1 for example, was originally brought into use about 1632, and after having been used for various purposes in the 17th Century, was used again for a different set of accounts in the 18th Century.
In the following lists the contents of each volume have been described in turn. In order to prevent confusion the order in which the volumes has been listed is in accordance with the numbering placed on the spines of the volumes when they were rebound after 1945. This order, however, has no significance, and does not correspond with the chronological order of the varied accounts, etc., contained in the volumes. Within each volume, each of the smaller books has been allotted a number, according to the order in which it is bound into the volume. Within each of the smaller books, each separate account, or other group of entries, has been allotted a letter.
The greater part of the entries in the six volumes are accounts for household or estate purposes (often with estate and household business intermixed). It may be presumed that these accounts concern the estates, and households, of members of the Dyott family. In no case, however, is this clearly stated, and it is not possible to decide with certainty who the accountants are. Where the accounts deal with estate business, the size and location of the estates covered by the accounts is not clearly stated, though from references in the accounts it is often possible to discover where some at least of the estates concerned were situated. |