THE MILWARD EVIDENCES.
Can you, sir, or any of your correspondents, inform me of the whereabout of the "Milward Evidences," which were used by Shaw and Nash in their histories of the counties of Worcester and Stafford. The heiress of the Milwards, of Wollescott, married Hungerford Oliver, Esq., whose descendants, till about fifteen or twenty years ago, resided at the family seat of Wollescott (which had been in the possession of the Milwards before the reign of Elizabeth), and since then they have gone down in the world, and probably these valuable Manuscripts are destroyed.—C. J. D.
Answer.—The Milward family possessed good landed possessions and resided at Wollescote (called Ousecote in Nash) in the reign of Henry VIII. The last of the family bearing the name was Thomas Milward, Esq., who died in 1784. By his wife, Prudence, daughter of Captain Oliver Dixon, of Dixon's Green, Dudley, he had four daughters, viz., Elizabeth and Ann Milward, who died unmarried; Prudence, the wife of Mr. Hungerford Oliver, who had issue—the late Edward Oliver, Esq., of Wollescote, and others; and Mary, the wife of John Foster, of Leicester Grange, county Warwick, Esq. (Sheriff of Worcestershire, 18th George III), who had issue one child, John Foster, of the Middle Temple, who died unmarried. Mr. Edward Oliver succeeded to the property of his grandfather and the papers referred to by your correspondent. Being afterwards in embarrassed circumstances, he left Wollescote and resided in a distant part of the kingdom for several years. The papers, in sacks, were left at tenants' cottages, and by removal, damp, and other causes, became gradually lessened, until about twenty years ago, after Mr. Oliver's return to Wollescote, when he was induced by a relative, Mr, J. H. Dixon, of Oldswinford, to look over the papers with him, and they retained such as possessed any topographical or family interest, made extracts from some, and destroyed the rest. Mr. Dixon, who has made topographical collections relative to Stourbridge, Dudley, and some other neighbouring places, possesses, I believe, the few Milward papers remaining.