RESEARCH TEAM

 

HILLMAN & BOND

Solicitors of Lyme Regis (1897-1946)

​

COPY LETTER BOOKS

​

Introduction by Graham Davies, team leader December 2025

​

Three generations of the Hillman family were solicitors living in Lyme Regis during the 19th century. Robert William Hillman (1829-1900) was the last member of the Hillman family to be a solicitor in the town. He retired from active life in 1897 due to poor health. I believe this is when he took on Arthur Thomas Bond as a partner in the firm of Hillman & Bond, based at No.10 Broad Street. After Robert’s death in 1900, Arthur Bond carried on the firm as sole solicitor until his death in 1912. Harold John Ramsbotham took over and, again as a sole solicitor, ran the firm until he retired in 1946 when he sold it to Roper & Roper, a firm of solicitors from Bridport.

 

In 2008 the Museum received a donation of 30 Hillman & Bond copy letter books (1912-1944). In addition there was a single book from the practice of Robert William Hillman in 1893.The books were copies of the letters sent out from No.10. These letterbooks were comprised of thin, plain copying papers bound into a volume, each containing a thousand sheets. The letters gave an insight into the social history of Lyme Regis and tell something about Harold Ramsbotham. With this in mind, a long term project (2009-2014) was set up for the research team to read all the books and extract relevant information for the Research Team’s digital archive. On completion of the project, the copy letter books were transferred in 2014 to the Dorset History Centre.

​​

Managed by Diane Shaw and Graham Davies, the following team members were involved in the project:

  Penny Bartholomew, Barbara Bull, Judith Clarke, Roger Clarke, Julie Critchinson, Graham Davies,

Val Doney, Julie Faber, Malcolm Graham, Sarah Humphries, Julie Matthews, Jane Newby, Derek Perrey,

and Diane Shaw.

​

The files listed below represent the Research Team members' extracts and summaries of each of the these copy letter books, some of which are noted to be less readable than others. [Files marked "A" contain the addresses of letters sent in the file of the same name/timespan.] They provide a rich source of, for instance , personal information of interest to those researching family history, or of house sales and land transactions detailing the history of ownership as well as countless inconsequential gems such as the reason for Lyme's population in the 1911 Census being higher than expected: the Census authorities had included 473 persons on a battleship lying in the bay and 5 persons on a saling schooner in the harbour.

There will surely be something to catch your interest if you have time to browse.  ​​​​​