| Admin History | Introduction
The firm’s origins lie in the solicitor’s business of Robert Fuller Graham of Newbury, established in c.1824. Robert Fuller Graham (1802-1877) was born in Newbury to a woollen draper father, William Graham, a member of the Independent Church. He himself joined the Church of England, where his children were baptised.
Robert Fuller Graham was Town Clerk of Newbury; under-sheriff of Berkshire in 1838; and senior partner of what eventually became Graham & Sons, Cheap Street. His offices were in Market Place, Newbury, in 1863. His son Charles Arthur Graham (b. 1832) was one of his partners, by 1857, but appears to have died in 1863. Another son, Robert Fuller Graham junior (1835-1906) born in Newbury, was a clerk in the firm but had left it by 1868 to start a tea plantation in India with another brother, Birchall Graham, in 1872. In 1842 a possible relative, Thomas Graham of Mitre Court Chambers, Temple, London, acted as Robert’s London agent.
Alfred Campbell Bazett (c.1852-1898) was the son of the Revd Alfred Young Bazett of Pitcombe, Somerset (c.1815-1900) and came to Newbury in the late 1870s (by 1878). He and his wife Jane Elizabeth Knowles lived at Chilton Lodge, Speen, and he practised law from offices at 41 Cheap Street, Newbury. His first cousin Mary Leakey, nee Bazett, was mother of the pioneering palaeontologist Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (1903-1972). Bazett was in sole practice in Newbury from at least 1884 until his death in 1898.
The Bazett family continued to be associated with the firm for many years, with Alfred’s middle son Captain Frank Doveton Bazett (1882-1963) joining the firm in c.1906 and eventually becoming a partner (his older brother Hugo and younger brother Gilbert were both killed in WWI). Frank was mayor of Newbury in 1916 (when he was called to join the army) and again during the Second World War.
When Warren H Pitman (1860-1948) became a partner [c.1897–1899, and most likely immediately after ACB’s death], the firm became Pitman Bazett. The Pitmans had previously had a solicitors’ firm in London called Pitman & Lane (fl. 1878); then Pitman & Sons (fl. 1884). Warren was in private practice in London in 1897, and then moved to take charge at Bazett’s, presumably after ACB’s death.
The firm was known as Bazett & Pitman, Newbury, in the 1900s.
In the mid-20th century the partners are recorded at various dates as:
1949: Warren H Pitman [sic – he was dead by this date] and Frank D Bazett (at this date they also had an office in Reading, which appears to have closed by 1950)
1950: Frank D Bazett and Eric Hatch
1957: Frank D Bazett, Eric Hatch, Peter R Faulks (1917-1998) [father of the novelist Sebastian Faulks]
1965: Eric Hatch, Peter R Faulks, Michael J Hatch
1970: Eric Hatch, Peter R Faulks, Michael J Hatch, Robert S Aird, Miguel T Dennis
Later (some time before 1987) the firm moved to 34 London Road, Newbury.
By 1987 the firm was known as Pitman McCloy. In 2001 the firm merged with Penningtons, taking that firm’s name, and in 2007 it merged again with Thomas Eggar. In 2014 the firm moved to 8 London Road, Newbury.
Major clients
The Bucklebury Estate was owned c.1825-1874 by the Revd Winchcombe Henry Howard Hartley and in the 1880s by the de Palatiano sisters (later Elizabeth Ann Hartley de Palatiano of Bristol; Nina Katherine Webley Parry of Boncastle, co. Cardigan; Olivia Fanny de Palatiano of Bath; and Frances Oxenham Henrietta Santa Russell of Ardglass, co. Down). Bazett acted for the family from at least 1885 to 1889. The Donnington Castle estate came into the family in the 18th century by the marriage of David Hartley to the heiress Elizabeth Packer.
Another significant client was local charity Donnington Hospital, which owned property principally in Oxfordshire.
For papers of Robert Fuller Graham relating to the enclosure of Newbury, 1836-1846, see N/AP4. |
| Acquisition | Deposited in February 1964 (acc. 1001); December 1965 (acc. 1175); January 1966 (acc. 1193); November 1987 (acc. 4126)
Schedule of accessions
Acc. 1001: M2/3; P1, 6; O2/1-2, 5; T8/2; T8/4/1; T8/6; T8/7/1; T8/11, 14, 16, 19
Acc. 1175: B2/3-4, 7-8, 10, 12-14, 17-19, 22-23, 28-29, 34, 38-40, 49-53, 57-59, 64-67, 71, 75-76, 80, 85-87, 89; E2/1-5; E3/3, 5-6; F1/1-4; O3/1-3; P5, 9; Q1/2; Q1/3/1; Q2/2; Q3/1; Q5/2; T1/1; T2/1-2; T3/1-2; T4/1-2; T5/1-5; T6/1-3; T7/1-2; T7/3/1-3; T7/7-12; T8/1; T8/4/2-4; T8/5; T8/7/2; T8/8-10, 12-13, 15, 17-18, 21-25; T9/1; T10/2; T11/1; T12/10; T15/1; T16/1-8; T17/13/1-3; T17/15, 17-18, 20; T18/1-3, 5-6, 8; T20/1-3; T21/2/1; T21/3; T23/1-20; T24/1-3; T25/1-2; T26/1-2, 5; T28/1; T29/1, 4-5, 7, 11-12, 15-17, 19-25, 31, 33, 35; T31/1; T32/1; T33/1-3; T35/1; T36/1/4; T36/2/17; T36/9/17; T36/11/11-12, 15-16; T36/14/1; T36/17/7; T36/24/15-16, 18; T36/25/6; T36/28/14, 27-28; T36/29/16-21; T36/34/1, 3; T36/49/6-7, 10-11; T36/50/5, 7, 9; T36/57/1; T36/59/5; T36/60/1-2; T36/68/1-5; T36/71/2; T38/5-6; T39/4; T40/4-7, 13-14, 16-17; T41/1; Z4
Acc. 1193: B1/1-2; B2/1-2, 6, 9, 15, 24-25, 35-36, 55-56, 68, 70, 73, 90-93; E1/1; E3/1-2, 4, 8; E4/1-2, 4-6; E5/1-2; M1/1; M2/1-2; O1/1-2; O2/3-4; P13; Q1/1; Q1/3/2; Q1/4-5; Q4/1; Q5/1;T3/3; T8/20; T10/1; T11/2; T12/1-9; T17/1-12; T17/13/4; T17/14, 16, 19; T18/4; T20/4; T21/1; T21/2/2-4; T22/2-16, 19-53; T27/1-3, 5; T29/34; T30/1-2; T31/2; T34/1; T36/1/1-3; T36/2/1-16, 18-21; T36/3-8; T36/9/1-16, 18-27; T36/10; T36/11/1-10, 13-14, 17-22; T36/12-13; T36/14/2; T36/15-16; T36/17/1-6, 8; T36/18-23; T36/24/1-9, 11-14, 17, 19; T36/25/1-5, 7-15; T36/26-27; T36/28/1-13, 15, 17-26; T36/29/1-15, 22-30; T36/30-33; T36/34/2; T36/35-48; T36/49/1-5, 8-9, 12-13; T36/50/1-4, 6, 8, 10-11; T36/51-56; T36/57/2-3; T36/58; T36/59/3-4; T36/60-62; T36/63/3-10; T36/64-67; T36/68/6; T36/69-70; T36/71/1; T36/72-76; T38/1; T40/11, 15; Z2-3
Acc. 1001 or 1193: P2-4, 7-8, 10-12
Acc. 4126: B2/5, 11, 16, 20-21, 26-27, 30-33, 37, 41-48, 54, 60-63, 69, 72, 74, 77-79, 81-84, 88, 94-95; E3/7; E4/3; F2/1; O4/1-43; Q2/1; T7/3/4-11; T7/4-6; T8/3; T10/3-4; T13/1; T14/1; T18/7, 9-11; T19/1-4; T20/5; T22/1, 17-18; T24/4;T26/3-4; T27/4; T29/2-3, 6, 8-10, 13-14, 18, 26-30, 32; T36/24/10; T36/28/16; T37/1-5; T38/2-4, 7-8; T39/1-3, 5-6; T40/1-3, 8-10, 12; Z1 |