The solicitors records are available to view at Wigan Archives.
Solicitors records hold some of the hidden gems of our collections, including everything from property deeds, to turnpike records, mining company documents and workhouse papers.
The papers of Wright and Appleton contain those of Thomas Grimshaw, town clerk and coroner of Wigan between 1818 and 1835. The collections includes a list of militiamen in receipt of alms (1811), leases for shops and houses beneath the town hall (1764 - 1806 - the original Moot Hall depicted on the town seal and other insignia, including the old Wigan Grammar School badge), and the records of the Wigan Indigent Clothing Society. In Leigh, the records of Marsh, Son & Calvert include important documents relating to the foundation of the Leigh Poor Law Union and the workhouses.
Substantial collections of business records appear in Solicitors’ Collections and were retained as important legal documents, essential to the functioning of business operations.
The records of Peace & Ellis, Wigan, include files on various colliery (Abram Coal Co., Wigan Coal & Iron Co., Sankey Brook Coal Co.) and railway companies; Marsh, Son & Calvert contains documents concerning the Astley Estate Co., as well as brewing, malting and public houses in Bedford and Leigh.
- Bullough, Boardman, Knowles and Wilson, Wigan (D/DX/Bul)
- Dootson, Leigh (D/DX/Do)
- Heaton, Ackerley and Pigot, Wigan (D/DX/He)
- Lamb and Moore, Wigan (D/DX/La)
- Taylor, Bridge, Baron and Sykes, Wigan (D/DX/Ta)
- Witham, Weld, London (D/DX/Wel)