The Greater London Council Staff Dramatic Club began in 1903 as the School Board for London Staff Dramatic Club. From the start the club was administered by a small committee elected at an annual general meeting. The London School Board, established in 1870, was abolished under the 1902 and 1903 Education Acts and its work was assumed by the London County Council in April 1904. The club continued as the LCC (Education) Staff Dramatic Club or more simply the LCC Dramatic Club until 1965. In that year the provisions of the London Local Government Act of 1963 came into force and the newly formed Greater London Council began its work. The club was subsequently known as the Greater London Council (Staff) Dramatic Club.
A bond was a deed, by which person A binds himself, his heirs, executors, or assigns to pay a certain sum of money to person B, or his heirs.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Cuthbert Coates Smith of Herne Hill, engineer, and Bernard Edgar Aylwn of West End Lane, then Middlesex, engineer, traded as The Vaal Motor and Launch Company and were based at Eel Pie Island, Twickenham.
The Clitherow family first became prominent as merchants in the City of London in the 16th century, acquiring property in the parishes of St Mary Woolchurch and St Andrew Undershaft (see ACC/1360/021-022) as well as in adjoining counties.
In 1635 Sir Christopher Clitherow was chosen Lord Mayor of London. One of his younger sons, James Clitherow (referred to in the list of the records as James Clitherow {I}), born in 1618, was active as a merchant and banker by 1642, until his death in 1682. In 1670 he purchased Boston Manor in New Brentford from John Goldsmith, and extensively repaired the house which had been damaged by fire (see ACC/1360/028/1-8 and ACC/1360/440). On his death in 1682 James Clitherow {I} left Boston Manor to Christopher, his only son by his third wife, who was born in 1666. He also left a son, James, by his first wife, as well as two daughters, Jane Jenyns and Elizabeth Powel. On reaching his majority Christopher Clitherow continued his father's practice of holding money on deposit for relations, friends, tenants, and other (see ACC/1360/441-442). He and his father acquired additional property in Middlesex, mainly in the parishes of Ealing, Hanwell, Isleworth and Hayes. They also purchased or inherited from other members of the Clitherow family land in Pinner, estates at Langham in Rutland, Lolham in Northamptonshire, Keyston in Huntingdonshire, and fee farm rents in Berkshire and Middlesex.
Christopher Clitherow married Rachel Paule in 1689, who bore him fifteen children before dying in 1714. Christopher Clitherow's summaries of his personal expenditure 1699-1727 (ref ACC/1360/450-472) show his anxiety to control his expenditure on his large family. He established some of his younger sons as merchants in the City of London, or in the case of Henry, as an East India merchant in Bombay (see ACC/1360/341/12), but of these only Nathaniel, a mercer, lived long enough to marry.
On Christopher Clitherow's death in 1727, Boston Manor was inherited by his eldest son, James Clitherow {II}, who appears to have been brought up to be a country gentleman, completing his education at Oxford. In January 1731 he married Philippa Gale, one of the three daughters of Leonard Gale of Crabbet in Sussex. On the deaths of both her brother Henry and her father in 1750, Philippa Clitherow and her two sisters, Elizabeth Humphery and Sarah Blunt, each inherited a third share of their lands in Crawley, Worth, Ifield, Beeding, Steyning, and East Grinstead in Sussex, as well as of his other property. They also inherited the property of their relation, Henry Gale of Ifield, who had died in 1739, subject to an annuity to his wife, Mary. The Sussex property was owned in common until 1761, when it was divided between the heirs of the three sisters.
James Clitherow {II} died in 1752 leaving Boston Manor and his other estates to his elder son, James Clitherow {III}, who was born in October 1731. By making a careful examination of his financial situation on entering into his inheritance, he discovered that his income would be considerably less than he had expected, owing mainly to the generous provision made by his father for his wife and younger children (see ACC/1360/167/11). This induced him to keep careful accounts of his expenditure, adopting some of his grandfather's methods, and to take an active part in the management of his estates, including his mother's Sussex estates which she had handed over to him on his marriage in 1757 to Ann Kemeys. He also paid great attention to the orderly keeping and labelling of title deeds and other records and papers, relating both to his estate and to family affairs. The survival of so few expired leases amongst the Clitherow papers is probably explained by the family's practice of cutting up old leases and other deeds of no apparent value and using the blank side of the parchment as covers for books or labels for bundles of documents.
In 1781 James Clitherow {III} received an unexpected bequest from a neighbour, Martha Heddin of Isleworth, the last survivor of a large family of unmarried sisters and one brother, who had died childless. Rather than dividing her property amongst her numerous impoverished cousins, Martha Heddin sought to keep intact the estates accumulated by her family in the parishes of Isleworth, Twickenham and Heston, by leaving them all to one gentleman who already had substantial property. Her intentions were largely defeated by an Irish gentleman, Lieutenant Colonel Redmond Kelly, who after her death produced a bond for 5,000 supposedly signed by Martha Heddin. In order to satisfy his claims, James Clitherow had to sell much of the Heddin property. (For full accounts of this and an "epitaph" to Martha Heddin see ACC/1360/232).
His abilities, integrity, and reputation made James Clitherow {III} much in demand as an executor of wills and as trustee of his relations' and friends' affairs. The more notable trusts included those on behalf of his brother-in-law, Sir William Blackstone, who had married Sarah Clitherow in 1761; the Bourchier family of Hertfordshire whose property included shares in a lead mine in Brittany; his cousin's husband, Philip Barling, a surgeon, who seemed to be in constant financial difficulties in his old age; the Baker family, lessees of an estate in Saint Marylebone, during the minority of Peter William Baker, who subsequently married James Clitherow's daughter, Jane, in 1781; and the Feilde family of Stanstead Abbots, Hertfordshire. Paul Feilde was one of James Clitherow's fellow trustees in what was to prove by far the most troublesome and expensive of the trusts in which he was involved, that undertaken in 1774 on behalf of John Gardner Kemeys, whose wife Jane was the sister of James Clitherow's wife, Ann. Jane Gardner Kemeys had inherited the Bartholey estate in Monmouthshire from her father, Reginald Kemeys, while her husband owned a share in the Plantain Garden River Plantation in Jamaica. By the early 1770s he was so deeply in debt that the only way to avoid ruin appeared to be obtain a private Act of Parliament enabling him to vest all his estates, settled and unsettled, in trustees, who then mortgaged them in order to raise money to pay his debts. The trustees also lent money to John Gardner Kemeys to enable him to travel to Jamaica to take over direct management of the plantation. But he failed either to pay the interest on the mortgage himself or to remit money to his trustees, resulting in the mortgagees taking possession of all his estates both in Jamaica and in Monmouthshire in 1779. Legal action was taken against the trustees forcing them to raise further large sums from their own resources. On being forced to leave Bartholey, Jane Gardner Kemeys and her daughters sought refuge in Monmouth, with the help of friends and relatives. Her troubles were compounded by the elopement of her elder daughter, Jane, with a servant, Providence Hansard. After the death of John Gardner Kemeys in 1793, his son, John Kemeys Gardner Kemeys, after many years' endeavours and the passing of two further private Acts of Parliament in 1794 and 1801 finally succeeded in regaining possession of the family estates.
On the death of James Clitherow {III} in May 1805, his estates were inherited by his only son, Colonel James Clitherow {IV}. The original deposit from the Clitherow family contained very little relating to his management of the family property, although a ledger covering the period 1805-1820 was purchased as an addition to the collection in 2013. With two exceptions, the Clitherow papers do not contain anything relating to the many public duties which Colonel James Clitherow undertook in Middlesex, where he was a Justice of the Peace and Chairman of the Committee responsible for building the first county lunatic asylum for Middlesex at Hanwell (see MA/A/J1-J2 and MJ/SP/1827/LC/1-24).
Colonel James Clitherow died in 1841 leaving no children. He left Boston Manor and his other estates to his wife, Jane, for her life, then after her death in 1847, they passed to his cousin, General John Clitherow (1782-1852). A rental book covering the period 1841-1847 was purchased as an addition to the collection in 2013. Very little survives amongst the Clitherow papers relating to the tenure of the family estates either by General Clitherow or by his only son, John Christie Clitherow, who died unmarried in 1865. Ownership of Boston Manor then passed to his cousin, Colonel Edward John Stracey, the elder son of Emma Elizabeth Clitherow, daughter of Christopher Clitherow, who had married John Stracey of Sprowston, Norfolk, the fourth son of Sir Edward Stracey. On inheriting Boston Manor, Edward John Stracey adopted the additional name and arms of Clitherow in accordance with the terms of Colonel James Clitherow's will.
Edward John Stracey-Clitherow also inherited from his cousin the reversion to the Hotham Hall estate in the East Riding of Yorkshire, which had been settled on John Christie Clitherow in 1819. John Clitherow had in 1809 married Sarah, daughter of General Napier Christie Burton and his wife, Mary, who was daughter and heiress of General Ralph Burton of Hull Bank House, Cottingham, East Yorkshire. Their marriage resulted in the birth of an only child, John Christie Clitherow, in December 1809, but was ended by the Clitherow Divorce Act of 1819 (59 George III c.71). In 1822 Sarah Clitherow married Hugh Peters, who took the name Burton. In the same year she inherited Hotham Hall on the death of her brother, Robert Christie Burton. Ownership of Hotham Hall passed to Edward John Stracey-Clitherow on the death of Sarah Burton in 1869. Colonel Stracey-Clitherow, who had married Harriet Marjoribanks in 1846, on dying childless in 1900, left the Hotham estate to his nephew, Colonel John Bourchier Stracey, later Stracey-Clitherow, while Boston Manor passed to his younger brother, the Reverend William James Stracey, who assumed the name Stracey-Clitherow.
Little record survives amongst the original Clitherow Papers of Edward John Stracey-Clitherow's tenure of the family estates, or of his other activities, but a rental book covering the period 1865-1875 was purchased as an addition to the collection in 2013. Much more exists relating to his brother, William James, and to his brother's eldest son, John Bourchier Stracey-Clitherow, but their connection or interest in Boston Manor and Middlesex was considerably less than that of their predecessors. The Reverend William James Stracey-Clitherow did not inherit Boston Manor until he was aged almost 80. He retired in 1888 to 50 Portland Place in London, where he continued to live after he inherited Boston Manor.
His eldest son, Colonel John Bourchier Stracey-Clitherow took up residence at Hotham Hall in the autumn of 1900 and became much involved in the county activities of the East Riding, being commissioned a major in the East Riding Yeomanry in 1902 (ACC/1360/780) and helping to establish the Territorial Force Association of the East Riding of Yorkshire (see ACC/1360/781/1-87). In 1897 he had married Mrs Alice Gurney, who had four children by her first marriage: Laura, Lady Troubridge, Rachel, Countess of Dudley, Major Henry Edward Gurney, and Thomas Claud Gurney. In 1906 he married Muriel Frances Sykes, daughter of the late Mr C.P. Sykes of West Ella Hall, near Hull.
John Bourchier Stracey-Clitherow inherited Boston Manor on his father's death in 1912. In 1923 he sold the Boston Manor estate. Brentford Urban District Council brought Boston House and 20 acres of land, which they opened as a public park in 1924. On John Bourchier Stracey-Clitherow's death in 1931, he left the Hotham estate to his younger stepson, Thomas Claud Gurney, who in 1932 assumed by Royal Licence the surname and arms of Clitherow in lieu of his patronymic.
The insurance policy was taken out with The North China Insurance Company Limited, of 78 Cornhill, London.
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
A bargain and sale was an early form of conveyance often used by executors to convey land. The bargainee, or person to whom the land was bargained and sold, took possession, often referred to as becoming 'seised' of the land.
An exemplification was a formal copy of a court record issued with the court's seal.
A quitclaim was a deed renouncing any possible right to a property. The name comes from the Latin "Quietus Clamatus".
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The Hampton Court Gas Company was instituted in 1850 and provisionally registered in 1851 and 1852. Full registration of the company was obtained on 29 November 1852, after the completion of a deed of settlement, under the name of the Hampton Court United Gas Company, being a joint stock company for the purpose of supplying the parish and neighbourhood of Hampton with inflammable air or gas. The initial capital was £7,500 in 750 shares of £10 each, and the place of business was designated to be the Red Lion Inn, Hampton.
Office and works were built at Sandy Lane, Hampton Wick in the parishes of Hampton and Teddington. By 1937 the company had expanded the works in Sandy Lane, and the offices and showrooms were situated at Bridge Foot, Hampton Wick. Initially, gas was supplied to the parishes of Hampton, including Hampton Court Palace, Teddington and East and West Molesey in Surrey. By the Hampton Court Gas Act, 1867, the supply was extended to the parishes of Hanworth and Feltham, additional capital of £36,000 in paid up shares of £10 each was raised, and the company was incorporated under the name of the Hampton Court Gas Company.
The company continued to function under its board of directors until the nationalisation of the gas industry was implemented by the Gas Act, 1948. The board held its last meeting on 14 April 1949, and thus the company was deprived of its centenary celebrations.
The last area developed before the First World War was around Sudbury station, where the railway crossed the Harrow road just west of Wembley. The Copland sisters contributed by building a church, vicarage, and school on their estate, just west of the station. By 1852 there were nine buildings on the Harrow road between the 'Swan' and Sudbury station. Although as early as 1866 land in Alperton was offered to builders as being near Sudbury station, it was not until the end of the century that the area around the station was sold for building. After the death of General Copland Crawford in 1895, the Copland estate, then called Harrowdene estate, was open to development, mainly by the Conservative Land Co., and by 1897 many roads had been laid out on both sides of the Harrow road.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 198-203 (available online).
In the mid-nineteenth century the Scott Turner family lived at The Lodge. Horn Lane, Acton. Henry Scott Turner Esquire is listed as a private resident in Kelly's Middlesex Directories of 1855 and 1867. Cecil Turner remembered the house where he lived as a small child. "Went to Acton... Walked round Horn Lane and saw the gardener at the gates so got him to take me all round the garden and over the house- my earliest home- all looking sweet and comparatively unchanged-the house quite empty and the rooms where we played as children silent and solitary" (ACC/1385/009, 1 March). The Lodge was demolished in the first decade of the twentieth century, but the family maintained its links with the district, as the graves in neighbouring Perivale churchyard bear witness.
Soon after the death of her husband in 1871, Mrs. Turner and her three sons went to live in Uxbridge. Looking back in 1943 Cecil remembered his sixth birthday at Uxbridge in 1876 (ACC 1385/050) and on 22 June 1901 he visited "Southfield-my old home" (ACC/1385/008). Kelly's Middlesex Directory for 1882 lists a Mrs. Turner at 41, St. Andrew's, Uxbridge. The family's movements can be traced through the diaries, the first four being written by M.F.Turner, Cecil's mother. The Turners left Uxbridge on 24 June 1886 and, for the next two years Mrs. Turner lodged at a variety of addresses in London and paid extended visits to friends and relatives in other parts of the country. From 23 May, 1888, she took up residence at the Elms, Ealing, but by 1898 she and Cecil had moved to 99 Elm Park gardens, Chelsea. In 1919, they were joined by Cecil's brother Alec who had spent over two years as a prisoner of war in Germany. After the death of their mother in October 1931 the two unmarried brothers moved into the Vanderbilt hotel, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, where Cecil lived alone after Alec's death in December 1938. Happily, he wrote in 1955, "after 22 years of hotel life I am living in my home 9 Alexander Square, S.W.3" (ACC 1385/062). It was here that he wrote the last entries in his diary as he prepared to enter hospital for an operation in April 1956.
Plans for the construction of two reservoirs and diversion of the River Lea were drawn up by the East London Water Works Company, partly in Tottenham and Edmonton and partly in Chingford and Walthamstow. The works were carried out under the East London Water Works Act, 1897 and were intended to secure a greater supply of water for an increasing population and to provide a reserve of water in case of drought. The works were executed by Messrs. Pearson and Son and the formal opening ceremony took place on 8 June 1903.
The collection relates to the land holdings of Benjamin Eager of Old Brentford, a gardener, and his wife Mary.
Thomas Wentworth (1672-1739) became Baron Raby on the death of his cousin, the second Earl of Strafford, 1695, and was created 3rd Earl of Strafford in 1711. He married in the same year Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Johnson of Bradenham, Bucks. He is known to have held property in Twickenham in 1699 and in 1701 purchased a riverside estate there. (See ACC/1379/036ff for property transactions in manor of Isleworth Syon and ACC/0782/003 for similar transactions in manor of Twickenham.) Thomas, Earl of Strafford, died in 1739 and was succeeded by his son William, who died without issue in 1791. The property in Twickenham passed to Thomas's daughter, Lady Anne Connolly.
Watney, Combe, Reid and Co Ltd was formed in 1898 when a merger was negotiated between Watney and Co Ltd of the Stag Brewery, Pimlico; Combe and Co Ltd of the Wood Yard Brewery, Long Acre and Reid's Brewery Co Ltd, of the Griffin Brewery, Clerkenwell. Following the merger the company was the largest brewing concern in the United Kingdom, and was based at Watney's Stag Brewery in Pimlico.
The Stag Brewhouse and Brewery, Pimlico, was founded in 1636 by John Greene and his son Sir William Greene. In 1837 James Watney, a miller, bought a quarter share in the Stag Brewery, alongside John Elliot. From 1849 the firm was known as Elliot, Watney and Co. John Elliot withdrew from the business in 1850, remaining a partner in name only until 1858 when he retired. The firm became known as James Watney and Co. In 1885 Watney and Co Ltd was registered as a limited liability company.
Combe and Co Ltd was founded in 1722 by John Shackley in a former timber yard off Long Acre, London. In 1739 the business was acquired by William Gyfford who enlarged the premises, trading as Gyfford and Co. In 1787 the brewery was purchased by Harvey Christian Combe, a malt factor, but it was not until 1839 that the firm began to trade as Combe and Co. The Wood Yard Brewery closed in 1905 but the Combe family continued to take a major role in the management of Watney, Combe, Reid and Co Ltd.
In 1757 Richard Meux and Mungo Murray acquired the Jackson's Brewery in Mercer Street. When this was damaged in a major fire they constructed new premises at Liquorpond Street (now Clerkenwell Road). In 1793 Andrew Reid joined the business which became known as Meux, Reid and Co. In 1816 the Meux family left the business which changed its name to Reid and Co. The company was registered in 1888 as Reid's Brewery Co Ltd. On the merger with Watney and Combe it ceased to brew.
In 1956 Watney, Combe, Reid and Co Ltd decided that the Stag Brewery offered no further scope for expansion. Mann, Crossman and Paulin Ltd of Whitechapel was acquired to provide a new London brewery, and the company name was changed to Watney Mann Ltd.
The Isleworth Brewery, St John's Road, Isleworth, passed through various owners until it was acquired by William Farnell in 1800, thereafter it remained in the Farnell family. In 1886 it was incorporated as a limited liability company; and acquired Sich and Co Ltd of Chiswick. In 1923 it was acquired by Watney, Combe, Reid and Co Ltd.
Although bodies of volunteer horse had been raised during the reign of William III and at the time of the '45 rising, and for home defence in 1761, it was not until 1794 that the yeomanry was organised under the act of 34 Geo. III c.31. Following the early success of the French Revolutionary armies, the yeomanry came into being in 1794 to replace the cavalry regiments of the line which were drafted overseas. By 1798 every county and several large towns had raised troops of yeomanry.
After 1816 the Yeomanry were reduced, but unlike the infantry volunteers, were not disbanded. For many years until the establishment of county police forces, they played an important part in the maintenance of public order, being frequently called out to suppress riots and other disorders. In 1897 the number of men serving in the Yeomanry was 10,084.
On 20 December 1899, shortly after the outbreak of the South African war (1899-1902) The Times announced that the War Office had issued regulations with reference to Yeomanry in South Africa.: 'Her Majesty's Government have decided to raise for service in South Africa a mounted infantry to be named "The Imperial Yeomanry"'. Three thousand Yeomanry volunteered for service.
After the war, the Imperial Yeomanry School for Girls opened in Alperton Hall near Wembley to educate, board and clothe the daughters of the yeomen who were killed, permanently disabled or died from disease in the war. Later it was intended that similar benefits should be extended to the sons of these yeomen. Children, approved by the Executive Committee, of NCO's and men who had served or were serving in the Yeomanry in Great Britain and Ireland and who were in difficult circumstances were also to be included.
A church school was established in Cowley in about 1836, taking over a charity legacy for the education of poor children. In 1877 the school moved to new buildings in Church Road and, in 1891, to buildings in the High Street, which were enlarged in 1933-34. A new school was opened in Worcester Road in 1955. This took most of the juniors, although the High Street buildings continued in use for younger children for some time.
From about 1930 only juniors and infants were taught at the school. Older boys had gone to school in Hillingdon since 1890 and the older girls were removed from Cowley in the early 1930s.
Reference: The Victoria History of the County of Middlesex, Volume III, pages 176-7.
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The memorial service was held for the airmen of two Zeppelins which were shot down in the Potters Bar area in 1916 - one on 2 September near Cuffley and one on 1 October which came down in Oakmere Park. The latter Zeppelin contained renowned German airship commander Lieutenant Heinrich Mathy. The crews were buried in the local cemetery but were removed to the Cannock Chase German War Grave Cemetery in 1962 by the German War Graves Commission.
The Sessions Book for 13 February 1798 (MJ/SB/B/0456) confirms that a Sarah Evans was indicted, tried and found guilty of petty larceny and sentenced to transportation. Unfortunately the corresponding Sessions Roll is incomplete, containing no trace of her indictment. A Sarah Evans was also involved with Thomas Aris, keeper of the House of Correction, Cold Bath Fields, in an enquiry relating to her child by him (MA/G/GEN.458).
William, 1st Earl of Mansfield, died on 20 March 1793 and was succeeded by his nephew David. The plan of the Kenwood estate may have been drawn up in connection with the 2nd Earl's succession.
Henry 3rd Viscount Clifden succeeded his grandfather in 1836 and on his own death in 1866 was succeeded by his son Henry George the 4th Viscount.
An assignment of term, or assignment to attend the inheritance, was an assignment of the remaining term of years in a mortgage to a trustee after the mortgage itself has been redeemed. An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
During the 18th and 19th centuries Parliamentary Acts were used to enclose (fence off) common lands and uninhabited waste lands and entitle them to an owner. Common land was that which had traditionally been used by locals (commoners) for communal pasture or farming.
An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
A covenant or deed of covenant was an agreement entered into by one of the parties to a deed to another. A covenant for production of title deeds was an agreement to produce deeds not being handed over to a purchaser, while a covenant to surrender was an agreement to surrender copyhold land.
The Manor of Isleworth Syon was in the hands of Walter de St. Valery in 1086, having been granted to him by William the Conqueror as a reward for his support during the conquest of England. The family retained possession of the manor until 1227 when it escheated to the crown. In 1229 a full grant of the manor was made by Henry III to his brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, whose son Edward inherited it in 1272. In 1301, Edward's widow Margaret was assigned the manor by Edward I as part of her dower, but it reverted to the crown on her death in 1312. The manor was eventually granted for life by Edward III to his wife Queen Philippa in 1330. The reversion was included in a grant of lands to Edward, Duke of Cornwall, in 1337. In 1390 Queen Anne the wife of Richard II was given a life interest in the manor. Henry V held the manor, as Prince of Wales, but when king, separated the manor from the duchy of Cornwall by Act of Parliament in 1421 in order to bestow it upon his newly founded convent of Syon. It remained as part of the convent's possessions until the dissolution in 1539 when it fell into the hands of the Crown and was added to the Honour of Hampton Court. In 1604 James I granted the manor to Henry, Earl of Northumberland, in whose family it remained.
An 'indenture' was a deed or agreement between two or more parties. Two or more copies were written out, usually on one piece of parchment or paper, and then cut in a jagged or curvy line, so that when brought together again at any time, the two edges exactly matched and showed that they were parts of one and the same original document. A 'right hand indenture' is therefore the copy of the document which was on the right hand side when the parchment was cut in two.
A bargain and sale was an early form of conveyance often used by executors to convey land. The bargainee, or person to whom the land was bargained and sold, took possession, often referred to as becoming 'seised' of the land.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
John Newton of Old Brentford was a brewer, and several of the documents in this collection relate to public houses, including the Hand and Flower, Half Moon and Seven Stars, Six Bells, and Hare and Hounds.
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.
If a person died intestate (without a valid will) their money, goods and possessions passed to their next of kin through an administration (or letters of administration) which had the same form in law as a will.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
Lease and release was the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration (the thing for which land was transferred from one party to another, usually, of course, a sum of money).
An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.
A covenant or deed of covenant was an agreement entered into by one of the parties to a deed to another. A covenant for production of title deeds was an agreement to produce deeds not being handed over to a purchaser, while a covenant to surrender was an agreement to surrender copyhold land.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Joshua Alexander was a solicitor in the City of London who, like many in that profession, acquired personally small areas of land ripe for development. The estates were as follows:
Surrey: Old Kent Road Estate: Hyndman Street, Albert Terrace, Church Street, Bradshaw Street, Alexander Street, Frederick Street;
Peckham Estate: Selden Road, Cemetery Road, Lausanne Road, Lindo Street, Hathway Street;
Norwood and Dulwich Estate: Park Road, Rosendale Road.
Middlesex:
Whitehall Estate, Tottenham: High Road, Whitehall Street, Moselle Street, Love Lane, Charles Street, William Street;
White Hart Lane Estate, Tottenham: White Hart Lane, Love Lane, Alexander Street, Stamford Street;
Tottenham (misc.): West Green Lane/Philip Lane, Hanger Lane;
Hornsey Estate: Maynard Street, Middle Lane, New Road, Cedar Place;
Hounslow Estate: Trinity Place;
Edmonton: Edmonton Grove/Snells Park, High Road.
Essex:
Stratford Estate: Reform Terrace, Windmill Lane, Hawksworth Terrace, Waddington Street, Bennetts Terrace, Norfolk Place.
After Joshua Alexander's death in 1876, his son Lionel carried on the administration of the estate, to which the letter books testify. The family were Jewish. Some of the letter books of a personal and family nature, show Lionel playing a considerable role in Jewish institutions and charities. He also contributed articles and letters to the press, including the Jewish Chronicle, on Jewish subjects.
In 1872 a local board of health was established in Staines. This became an urban district council in 1894. The board was concerned with the town hall, commons, cemetery, highways, hospital, finance and drainage. Their first task was to provide a sewer system.
Part of the ancient parish of Staines lay in the tract of countryside known as the warren of Staines which extended as far as Hampton. This land was gradually encroached upon, but by 1844 there were still 381 acreas of common land, and 353 acres were preserved under the Metropolitan Commons Supplemental Act, 1880. The common lands comprised Staines Moor, Shortwood Common, Knowle Green and Birch Green.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 13-18 and pp. 25-27.
William Luck was a cabinet maker of Mabledon Place, Burton Crescent, Saint Pancras.
Letters patent is a document which grants for a set period the sole right to make, use, or sell some process, invention, or commodity.
The Hornsey Housing Trust was founded in 1933 by Margaret Hill, C.B.E. Its object was to convert houses for occupation by more than one family and to let them at low rents to help those on low incomes to find improved accommodation. Increasingly the trust provided homes for elderly persons. Hornsey Borough Council provided loans to assist in the purchase of property for conversion. After the Second World War, the trust joined with other charitable organisations to build homes, mainly for the elderly. It still continues to acquire properties for rehabilitation.
The trust is administered by a Committee of Management. A full time housing manager was first appointed in about 1945. Previously, this work and that of collecting rents was carried out by unpaid volunteers.
Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.
An assignment of term, or assignment to attend the inheritance, was an assignment of the remaining term of years in a mortgage to a trustee after the mortgage itself has been redeemed. An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The United Law Clerks' Society was founded on 14 April 1832 at a meeting of law clerks in the Southampton Coffee House, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane. Its purpose was to make mutual provision against the hardship of fellow law clerks who were overtaken with sickness and infirmity, and, on their death, the poverty of their dependants.
There were two funds, the General Benefit Fund, with assured benefits in sickness, old age and payments on death, and the Benevolent Fund (or Casual Fund) which was for discretionary grants.
The society developed its role as the oldest friendly society for law clerks becoming a health insurance society after the National Health Insurance Act was passed in 1911. Membership of the society was at first restricted to law clerks residing in London but in 1924 the society's operations extended to the whole of England and Wales.
The society was based at the Southampton Coffee House between 1832 and 1839, at which time it removed its meetings to the Crown and Anchor Tavern (at the corner of Arundel Street and the Strand) until 1847. Between 1847 and 1874 it used the Freemasons Tavern, Great Queen Street. By 1874 it had grown large enough to move into its own office at 3 Old Serjeant's Inn, Chancery Lane, and in 1900 it moved to its more permanent home at 2 Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn.
The society still exists as a registered charity providing grants and annuities in cases of distress to persons employed in the legal profession in England and Wales, and the widows and children of such persons. It is managed by a voluntary committee of trustees.
The Tottenham and District Gas Company was founded in 1847 as the Tottenham and Edmonton Gaslight and Coke Company. In 1914 it absorbed the Enfield Gas Company and became the Tottenham District Light, Heat and Power Company, and in 1928 it absorbed the Waltham and Cheshunt Gas Company, becoming the Tottenham and District Gas Company. Two years later the Ware Gas Company was absorbed, and in 1938 the Southgate and District Gas Company.
The Southgate and District Gas Company was formed in 1858 as the Southgate and Colney Hatch Gaslight and Coke Company. In 1866 it was re-incorporated as the Colney Hatch Gas Company, and in 1904 it became the Southgate and District Gas Company. It was finally taken over in 1938 by the Tottenham and District Gas Company.
In 1948 when the gas industry was nationalised the Tottenham and District Gas company came under the Eastern Area Gas Board which covered Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, the Isle of Ely, Norfolk, the Soke of Peterborough, Suffolk and parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Middlesex.
The first meeting of 'the Governors for erecting a Lying-in Hospital for married women in the City of London and parts adjacent and also for Out-patients in Phisic and Surgery' was held at the Black Swan Tavern in Bartholomew Lane on 30 March 1750. Mr Jacob Ilive was in the chair. The governors elected John Nix as the first secretary, Thomas Chaddock as treasurer, Richard Ball as surgeon and man-midwife and William Ball as apothecary. Slingsby Bethell subsequently became the first president of the hospital.
The hospital opened in May 1750 at London House in Aldersgate Street as the 'City of London Lying in Hospital for married women and sick and lame Outpatients.' The General Court of Governors decided on 6 September 1751 to admit no more outpatients and the second part of the title was dropped. The hospital moved in 1751 from London House into Thanet or Shaftesbury House also in Aldersgate Street. In 1769 the Governors decided to erect a new purpose built hospital. They leased a site from St Bartholomew's Hospital on the corner of City Road and Old Street and commissioned Robert Mylne to design the new hospital, which was opened on 31 March 1773.
The hospital was later known as the City of London Maternity Hospital and was closed in 1983.
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The Fox-Strangways family hold the Earldom of Ilchester and their family seat is Melbury House, Dorset. Through Ilchester Estates, the family own and manage many properties in Holland Park, London.
Stephen Fox-Strangways (1704-1776) was given the title Earl of Ilchester in 1756. He was the older brother of Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland (1705-1774), who purchased Holland Park Estate in 1768 from William Edwardes (later Baron Kensington).
Holland Park Estate remained under the ownership of successive Barons Holland until 1874, when it passed to their distant relative Henry Fox-Strangways, 5th Earl of Ilchester.
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Sir Charles Blackmore was born in 1880. He entered the Imperial Civil Service and was posted to Northern Ireland, becoming the Secretary to the Northern Ireland Cabinet between 1924 and 1939. He was knighted in 1932. In 1967 he died, unmarried, at his home in County Down. Blackmore was a noted collector of antiques, many of which were destroyed when his home was gutted by fire in the 1930s.
Constance Winifred Honey was born in England in 1892. She moved to Australia as a child and trained as a painter at the National Gallery School, Melbourne. In 1911 she returned to London and lived there until her death in 1944.
Obituary of Sir Charles Blackmore: The Times Monday, May 15, 1967; pg. 12; Issue 56941; col E.
Information about C W Honey from http://www.daao.org.au/bio/constance-winifred-honey/ [accessed Sept 2011].
Shortly before his death in 1666, the Reverend Dr William Spurstowe, Vicar of Hackney, built six almshouses near Church Street, Hackney, for six ancient widows from the parish of Hackney. His brother, Henry Spurstowe, completed his work by endowing the almshouses with two closes of pasture called Badbrooke's Meadows containing eight acres of land and one close of pasture called Peckwell or Pickwell Field containing eight acres, all of which (including the almshouses) were copyhold of the manor of Kings Hold. Henry Spurstowe transferred the almshouses and land to trustees by a deed of gift dated 22 August 1667. The deeds of gift was lost some time between 1754 and 1800 and no precise record of the terms of the trust remained.
The charity was augmented in 1773 by a bequest of £200 3% consols from Mr Henry Baker, the interest of which was to be divided equally between the almswomen, supplementing the pensions paid to them from the revenues of Spurstowe's Charity.
In 1819 the almshouses were rebuilt on the same site (later known as nos 1-11 (odd) Sylvester Path). The money for this was raised by selling the brick earth found in Pickwell or Pigwell Field to Richard Dann, the tenant of the charity's estate. At the end of his lease he was required to level and restore the field to agricultural use.
A scheme for the management of the charity was made by a decree of the Court of Chancery in 1835 in the cause "Attorney General v. Watson and others". Fifteen non official trustees were named by the Court and the Rector and churchwardens of the Parish of Hackney were made ex-officio trustees. The scheme laid down the procedures for the future election of trustees and almswomen.
In 1854 the Spurstowe's Charity estate was enfranchised. Agreements with neighbouring landowners, Sir William Middleton and Mr Thomas Wilkinson, in 1853, 1855 and 1863, allowed for the straightening of boundaries and the laying out of new roads and sewers in preparation for building. Most of what became known as the Graham Road Estate was developed in the 1860s and 1870s with houses, shops, and two taverns.
The Charity Commissioners approved a new scheme for the administration of the charity on 24 August 1877. This allowed the surplus income to be applied to the following objects:-
1) Out pensions were to be paid to not more than 20 poor ancient widows or unmarried women resident in the Parish of Hackney.
2) Pensions were granted to the ten poor widows resident in Bishop Wood's Almshouses
3) Convalescent treatment was to be provided for poor deserving inhabitants of Hackney.
Bishop Wood's Almshouses and Chapel, situated in Clapton Road, were founded by the will of Dr Thomas Wood, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, dated 11 November 1690. They were endowed with a rent charge from an estate at Bishop Itchington in Warwickshire, supplemented by half a fee farm rent from an estate at Wanley, near Richmond in Yorkshire, given by Francis Willes in 1842, and by consols bequeathed by Anne Ashpitel in 1870. In 1906 the Charity Commissioners approved a scheme whereby Bishop Wood's Almshouses were to be administered by the Trustees of Dr Spurstowe's Charity. For further information see ACC/1845/14.
Bishop Wood's Almshouses and Chapel still exist. Spurstowe's Almshouses were demolished in 1966 and replaced by new almshouses situated in Navarino Road, Hackney.
Alfons Barb was born in Vienna. He supported himself working as a goldsmith whilst studying at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate aged 25. He then worked as a museum director for several years until the Anschluss, when he was dismissed under the new racial laws. He moved to England with his young family in 1939 where, after time spent interned as an enemy alien and eight years working as a factory tool fitter, he eventually resumed an academic career. Barb joined the Warburg Institute in 1949 as Assistant Librarian and subsequently served as Librarian (1956-1966). He was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute from 1968 until his death in 1979. He was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society, and received the Austrian Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst in 1968.
Evelyn Mary Jamison was born in Lancashire, 1877 and raised there and in London. As a young woman she attended art school in Paris before going up to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Awarded a research fellowship by Somerville College, Oxford, she spent several years in Rome and Naples. Returning to Oxford, she became Librarian and Bursar (1907-1917) Assistant Tutor (1917-1921) and Tutor and Vice-Principal (1921-1937) at Lady Margaret Hall; she was also a University Lecturer in History (1928-1935). Jamison retired to London aged 60 to concentrate on her edition of the Catalogus Baronum (Baronial Catalogue). She continued to carry out historical research until her death in 1972.
Aby Moritz Warburg was born in Hamburg, 1866 to a wealthy banking family; instead of entering the family business, he devoted himself to the academic study of art, European civilization and the classical tradition; studied in Bonn, Munich, and in Strasbourg, focusing on archeology and art history; worked in Florence producing studies on single works of art and their wealthy patrons; spent time on the Hopi Indians conducting an ethnological study, 1896; founded the Kultur-wissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (KBW), to serve both as a private collection and as a resource for public education, 1921; visited the United States to document the Native Americans and their mystic traditions using photographs and text; hospitalized, 1921-1924; worked at the KBW, 1924-1929; died 1929.
Aby Moritz Warburg was born in Hamburg, 1866 to a wealthy banking family; instead of entering the family business, he devoted himself to the academic study of art, European civilisation and the classical tradition; studied in Bonn, Munich, and in Strasbourg, focusing on archeology and art history; worked in Florence producing studies on single works of art and their wealthy patrons; spent time on the Hopi Indians conducting an ethnological study, 1896; founded the Kultur-wissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (KBW), to serve both as a private collection and as a resource for public education, 1921; visited the United States to document the Native Americans and their mystic traditions using photographs and text; hospitalised,1921-1924; worked at the KBW, 1924-1929; died 1929.
The Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg grew out of the personal library of Aby Warburg. In 1921, with the help of Fritz Saxl, the library became a research institution in cultural history, and a centre for lectures and publications, affiliated to the University of Hamburg. After Warburg's death in 1929, the further development of the Institute was guided by Saxl. In 1934, under the shadow of Nazism, the institute was relocated from Hamburg to London. It was installed in Thames House in 1934, moving to the Imperial Institute Buildings, South Kensington, in 1937. In 1944 it became associated with the University of London, and in 1994 it became a founding institute of the University of London's School of Advanced Study.
Otto Kurz was born in Vienna, 1908 and studied Art History at the University there. He was a Research Assistant at the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg in Hamburg and the Warburg Institute in London (1933-1943), and subsequently Assistant Librarian (1943-1949) and Librarian (1949-1965) of the Institute, before becoming the Institute's Professor of the History of Classical Tradition (1966-1975). He was also a visting scholar at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1964) and Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University (1970-1971). He married Hilde Schüller in 1937. Died 1975.
Roger Aubrey Baskerville Mynors was born, 1903; educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford, of which he became a fellow in 1926; held chairs in Latin at Cambridge (1944-1953) and Oxford (1953-1970); research centred on Latin manuscripts, which he viewed in the context of European cultural history. He became a fellow of the British Academy in 1944 and was knighted in 1963.
In 1899 a large number of wallpaper firms came together under the umbrella title of Wallpaper Manufacturers' (WPM) and subsequently some of their products were sold under the trademarkCrown'. The archive therefore consists largely of wallpaper pattern books by a variety of manufacturers, collected as part of the group's working records.
Anthony Crossland, in his notable 1965 Woolwich speech, laid out the Government's vision for a binary system of Higher Education within the UK: i.e. universities and polytechnics, where the latter would concentrate on high-level vocational skills. He claimed that, whilst it is always sensible to build on what already exists if rapid expansion is to be achieved within limited resources, it is also important to offer an alternative channel to H.E. that is distinct from the established University system in a number of ways:
Distinct in traditions that have been inherited from its precursors in the non-university sector
Distinct in its adaptability and responsiveness to social change
Distinct organisationally
Distinct in the kind of students that it attracts
The City of London Polytechnic was formed in 1970 from an amalgamation of the City of London College, the Sir John Cass College and the Navigation College at Tower Hill and it was one of the first of the London-based polytechnics to be so designated. It was initially organised into 4 Schools:
The Sir John Cass School of Science and Technology
The Sir John Cass School of Art
The School of Navigation
The School of Business Studies
In 1972 it became one of the first institutions in the country approved to run a modular degree. In 1977 it took responsibility for the running of the Fawcett Library (subsequently renamed the Women's Library), the oldest established women's library in the UK. It merged with the London College of Furniture in 1990. In 1992 the Polytechnic was granted university status - and, with that, its own degree-awarding powers - by the Further and Higher Education Act of that year and was renamed London Guildhall University.
The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is the world's longest-established scholarly association dedicated to the furtherance of anthropology (the study of humankind) in its broadest and most inclusive sense. The present Institute was formed when the Ethnological Society of London and the Anthropological Society of London merged in 1871 to form the Anthropological Institute. Royal status was granted in 1907.