These papers relating to Middlesex local history were collected for their general or antiquarian interest and relevance to the subject, rather than having a united provenance (that is, being produced by the same institution or business).
These letters, addressed to Robert Bainbridge, Keeper of Hampton Court Park, are (except for the first two) from the Office of Works and are signed usually by the Secretary, Alfred Austin (1856-68) or George Russell (1869-70). These are all official letters requesting returns of the numbers of deer or of estimates of expenditure, giving approval for the acquisition of additional deer or for purchase of hay. Bainbridge died early in 1870 and the last letters are addressed to his son E. W. Bainbridge until the new keeper was appointed and to his widow stating that the Board had no power to grant a pension.
On 17th November 1967 the British Airports Authority unveiled a plaque at Heathrow Airport to commemorate the start of scientific mapping of Great Britain in 1784, the first baseline of the triangulation of Great Britain being situated close by.
The Court of King's Bench was founded circa 1200 to hear common pleas, although it came to specialise in pleas of special interest and concern to the king, such as those which involved his own property interests, or breach of his peace, or an error of judgment by another royal court. By 1675 the King's Bench was the highest court of common law in England and Wales, with jurisdiction over both civil and criminal actions. Civil business was conducted on the 'Plea Side' and criminal business on the 'Crown Side'. It was absorbed into the High Court in 1875.
Source: The National Archives Research Guides "Legal Records Information 34" and "Legal Records Information 36"
The turnpike system dated from 1663 when Parliament authorised the erection of toll barriers along the Great North Road. The principle was that each person should contribute to the repair of the roads in proportion to the use he made of them. A barrier was placed across a road and a toll taken from each road user except pedestrians; the monies were then used to support the maintenance and improvement of the road. Turnpikes were placed under the control of bodies known as Turnpike Trusts. By 1770 there were over 1100 Trusts, administering 23,000 miles of road, with 7800 toll gates.
From its inception until January 1930 this organization was known as the Middlesex Territorial Force Association. It then became known as the Middlesex Territorial Army and Air Force Association. In 1948 its name was changed to the Middlesex Territorial and Auxiliary Forces Association.
Dr. Edward Whitaker Gray (1748-1806) was a doctor who was also appointed curator of the natural history collections at the British Museum.
An extensive search in Ruskin's Diaries and in various Lives has failed to reveal the identity or place of residence of 'Dr. Gray'; he is presumably related to the Dr. Gray of the diploma, and is perhaps a relation of Ruskin's wife, Euphemia Gray.
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.
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.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Probate (also known as proving a will) was the process of establishing the validity of a will.
A declaration of trust named trustees to hold monies for an individual until that person came of age; at which time the control of the monies would revert to them.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The Augustinian canons of Holy Trinity, Aldgate owned land in Tottenham since the Middle Ages. Awlfield farmhouse was part of this estate. In 1619 the farm was leased out with demesne lands totalling 179 acres to Joseph Fenton, a barber-surgeon of London and the most substantial of the demesne tenants. Thereafter the farm was presumably leased, as in 1785, until in 1789 the house and 132 acres were bought by the tenant, Edwin Paine. The estate stretched westward across the Moselle, along the north side of Lordship Lane, thirty years later and was sometimes known as Church farm.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 348-355 (available online).
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).
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".
In 1618 Elizabeth, widow of Sir Thomas Berkeley (d 1611), the eldest son of Henry, Lord Berkeley (d. 1613), purchased the Manor of Cranford. Thereafter both manors remained in the possession of the Berkeley family until 1932. (fn. 81)
In 1810, on the death of the 5th Earl of Berkeley, the Berkeley estates devolved successively upon his two eldest but illegitimate sons, created Earl and Baron Fitzhardinge (d 1841 and 1867 respectively). The Fitzhardinge branch of the Berkeley family retained the estates until the death of the 3rd Baron Fitzhardinge in 1916, when they reverted to Eva Mary Berkeley, great-niece of Thomas Moreton Fitzhardinge Berkeley, the eldest legitimate son of the 5th Earl of Berkeley (d 1810), as the heir-general of the 5th earl. From 1866 to his death in 1882 Thomas Moreton Fitzhardinge Berkeley, the eldest legitimate son of the 5th earl, and de jure 6th Earl of Berkeley although he never assumed the title, is described as the chief landowner in Cranford. Presumably the Cranford estate was settled upon him as it reverted to Lord Fitzhardinge in 1882.
Between 1916 and 1935 over 350 acres of the estate were sold, the bulk being dispersed in 1932. This included the sale of Cranford House and park to the Hayes and Harlington urban district council in 1932; they resold it in 1935 to the Middlesex County Council, who leased it back to them for 999 years as an open space. The manorial rights are vested in the county council.
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. 179-181 (available online).
In 1246 the first inclosure for a park was made at Kempton. Later the park covered much of the area north-east of Kempton village and extended into Hanworth. During the Middle Ages the royal manor-house of Kempton may have stood within the park near the site of the present Kempton Park House. Part of the estate has been used as a racecourse since 1876.
In 1697 Sir Thomas Grantham, lord of Kempton manor, built 'a fair house' at Sunbury, and this was probably the first of many large houses which were built in the parish. Sunbury was almost the farthest upstream of the Thames villages which became popular with the upper and middle classes in the 18th century, and it never became fashionable in the manner of Richmond, Twickenham, or Hampton. A little colony of exiled Huguenots probably accounted for a fair proportion of the gentlefolk in the parish during the earlier years of the century. By 1816 it was possible for a perhaps over-effusive writer to comment on the 'long range of fine domestic structures' facing the river and to add that other 'ornamental dwellings of this splendid village' lay farther inland. Among the finest of the houses was Sunbury Place (now Sunbury Court and occupied by the Salvation Army), which lay farthest downstream towards Hampton. There was a house on the site by 1754, from which some features in the main block of the present building seem to survive. It had been much enlarged by 1816, when it was said to show four fronts with an ornamental pavilion at each corner. The pavilions have been demolished and wings have been added on either side of the sevenbay south front. The house is of red brick with stone and cement-rendered dressings and has a central pediment to the south front.
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. 51-53 (available online).
Enfranchisement was the process by which a copyhold title was changed to a freehold. Copyhold land belonged to a Manor and was, notionally, property of the Lord of the Manor. The Lord, through his steward, ratified any transfer of land by surrender of the transferring party at a manorial court and admission of the new owner. Gradually copyhold land was enfranchised until the Law of Property Act 1922 abolished copyhold status, converting all such land into freehold land which is said to be land held in fee simple, absolute in possession and subject to no conditions or uses.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
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.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
John William Couchman acted as surveyor and agent to the lords of the manors of Tottenham and Edmonton. He was a civil engineer (in particular of waterworks). Harold Seymour Couchman was his successor.
John Eliot senior (1683-1762) was born at St Austell, Cornwall, and was a successful merchant in Falmouth for some years before he moved to London, where he prospered with homes in Croydon and Bartholomew Lane, City of London. His son John (1707-1735) married Mariabella, the daughter of a wealthy tobacco merchant Peter Briggins, from whom he inherited property on which several houses were built in Bartholomew Close in the City. This became the Eliot family home, for it was a quiet and pleasant district, although in 1802 Bartholomew Fair was "Attended with unusual violence" (number 1371).
John Eliot inherited other property, including The King's Head Inn, Southwark, and property in Threadneedle Street and Mile End. The family appear to have retained the Falmouth House, and appear to have had an agent there to look after the business and estate interests. Eliot several times sent his grandson John (1735-1813) to attend to business and the West country Estates in or near Liskeard, Cornwall-Gormellick, Landazzard and Treworgey (see Nos. 116-156)-Topsham, Devon, and Ashmore Farm, Dorset, purchased by John Eliot in 1765 (see Nos. 157-3725).
A near neighbour of the Eliots was Robert Howard, metal and tin-plate worker of Old Street. The son of a brazier of Folkestone, he set up in London, and was one of many business and scientific men who borrowed money from John Eliot (III) the underwriter (see Number 929). His place of business was a large works, employing many local workmen, in Old Street on the site of the present Howard buildings; his daughter when an old woman wrote down her recollections of the works (Number 1709).
Robert Howard associated with A. Argand, the Swiss inventor of the standard oil lamp. The eldest son Robert spent some time at the Argand works near Geneva in 1788-9 and in his letters home he describes the lamps and the improvements, including the addition of the familiar double glass chimney, which it appears Howard effected on his own lamps (See Numbers 1297-1311). In later years the Howards paid an allowance to Argand and his daughter in their old age (see Numbers 1493-1513).
A daughter of the third John Eliot, Mariabella (1769-1852) married a son of Robert Howard, Luke (1772.-1864), who eventually inherited most of the Eliot property and was also a scientist of some note. Luke Howard served his apprenticeship with a chemist, Olive Sims, in Cheshire (see Nos. 1372-1377) and later founded a chemical manufacturing business at Plaistow (later moved to Stratford) in Essex, at first in conjunction with William Allen and then for a few years with Joseph Jewell. There are occasional references to the laboratory and to chemical experiments in Luke's letters and diaries.
Luke Howard, a member of the Askesian Society and elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1821, was especially known for his work in meteorology and for formulating the nomenclature of the clouds ( the familiar "cirrus", "nimbus", etc. ) Amongst other works he published in 1818 The Climate Of London (a copy of the enlarged 2nd. edition, 1833, is in the LMA library). He often noted weather conditions and barometer readings in his pocket diaries (see Nos. 1397-1406). This practice was also done regularly by an Eliot ancestor, Peter Briggins, in his diaries (see No. 2). Luke and Mariabella Howard lived at Plaistow near the laboratory when their children were young. Mariabella kept meticulous household accounts (Nos. 1394-1396) and also wrote charming letters to her husband and brother, mainly about the children. The eldest son was lively and needed a strict hand. At seven years old he helped his mother to bottle a cask of sweet wine, but "he tasted a little more wine...[and] a good deal of sugar off Mary's pies...and poor fellow he has smarted for his naughty tricks" (no. 1431). Mother was indulgent, but father recommended a rhubarb pill daily to cure his sweet tooth, and his grandfather insisted that he should not be allowed near the fishponds when visiting the cousins at Aspley.
Two of the sons followed early in their father's footsteps (Robert carried on the business, John became F.R.S) and as children on their seaside holidays at Folkestone they collected fossils, and seaweed to use as a hygrometer, while their sisters enjoyed bathing. While on such a holiday at Folkestone in 1812, Luke himself was questioned by armed men who were searching for a French General thought to be hiding in the neighbourhood (No. 1643). The daughters attended Quaker schools in Isleworth and Tottenham. There is no mention of the sons' schooling, but they may have attended the Quaker public school at Ackworth near Pontefract, Yorkshire, a school in which John Eliot (who lent money to the trustees) and Luke Howard were interested. Pontefract was the home of Luke Howards maternal relations, the Leathams. Later Luke purchased "The Villa" at Ackworth, which became his chief home (although there are no deeds of this property amongst his collection). Before moving to Ackworth, Luke Howard lived for a short time at Tottenham, Middlesex, and his son Robert lived there after his marriage to Rachel Lloyd, daughter of the Birmingham banker.
The Howards and Eliots and Peter Briggins were members of the Society of Friends. They normally attended the "Peel" meeting, which was handy for Bartholomew Close, but also went to Croydon and other places. John Eliot (III) and Luke Howard, in particular, attended meetings in various parts of Britain and sometimes abroad. They corresponded regularly with other friends, chiefly on religious matters, and also kept memoranda of meetings and matters of faith; many of the family papers consist of this type of material. A memorandum of John Eliot (III) describes his attendance before the Lord Mayor of London to answer his refusal as a Quaker to pay "Steeple house" rates; and the churchwardens of St. Bartholomew several times distrained upon his pewter-although apologetically, as Eliot and his family were good to the poor of the parish. Luke Howard was also afraid of destraint upon the laboratory. Church tithes, too, were refused on religious grounds and the "priest" personally attended the sheep shearing on the Eliot's Dorset estate, but "was uneasy at having to take it from a person who refused on religious grounds paying." Amongst essays on matters of faith is an article by Robert Howard senior refuting rumours that Quakers were hoarding corn during the shortage at the time of the French Wars. Luke Howard served on many Friends philanthropic committees.
Samuel Atkinson, by his will of 28 December 1679, left £600 for the purchase of land and the building thereon of an almshouse in Edgware for 4 poor parishioners, to be administered by trustees. An information for the settlement of the charity was filed in Chancery, 1682, and ordered the remainder of the £600 to be used to purchase lands for the use of the almshouse, namely Middlehurst Close and Redweele Close in Oakley, Bucks. A further endowment by the will of Thomas Napier, one of the trustees, of 1707 was used to purchase a close in Kenton, Harrow on the Hill. The almshouses were copyhold, held from All Souls College, Oxford, the lords of the manor of Edgware and Kingsbury.
James Charles lived at Kennet House, a large residence situated where Sudbury joins Harrow on the Hill. He was married to Julia Forrester. He was a Justice of the Peace.
These records, deposited by Messrs. Paine and Brettell of Chertsey, Surrey, solicitors, relate mainly to the purchase of Hanworth Park Estate by Henry Edwards Paine and Richard Brettell from the trustees of the will of Henry Perkins, the bibliophile, in October 1873, and the subsequent resale of the estate in smaller lots from then until 1882.
The collection includes documents which relate to the purchase of the Manor and Estate by James Ramsey Cuthbert from the Duke of St. Albans in 1810, and the sale of them by his son Frederick to Henry Perkins in 1828. On the death of Henry Perkins in 1855 the estate passed to his son Algernon as life tenant. He died without issue, so that in accordance with the Provisions of Henry Perkins' will the estate was sold by the trustees in 1873.
It had been the intention of Henry Paine and Richard Brettell to resell their purchase immediately as a whole, but they finally decided to split the part of the estate they had bought, - lots 1, 4 and 5 - into 19 lots which were first offered for sale in June 1874. They retained lot 3, the Manor of Hanworth. The sale of the estate took eight years, although auctions and sales were frequently arranged, and on occasions the price finally agreed on, was well below that originally asked. In April 1880, Richard Brettell conveyed his interest in Hanworth Park to Henry Paine in exchange for Paine's interest in lands jointly owned elsewhere, and in November of the same year the mortgage on the Estate was repaid.
The first and Largest purchaser was Alfred Lafone, who bought Hanworth Park House and surrounding land in the Park in 1874. Charles Pfander started purchasing land from the estate also in 1874, and James Scarlett bought "Queen Elizabeth's Gardens" in 1875. Many documents relate to the abortive negotiations for a sale to Jacobs Bradwell of Feltham in 1875. In 1878 Jasper Boswell bought 33 acres near the church yard opposite the land of Alfred Lafone, and in the next year Alfred Pullin Newman and his partner, William Hatch, bought much of the land Newman had leased with his brother since 1875. The final sale represented in this collection was in 1882, to Sidney Smith of Feltham, although correspondence relating to the estate continues until 1901.
The West Middlesex Water Works were established in 1806 to supply the Western Suburbs. They were originally proposed by Robert Dodd, a civil engineer, to supply the area around Hammersmith and Kensington. The company was incorporated in 1806 with a capital of £80,000. After a disagreement over the location of the works, Dodd resigned and William Nicholson took over in 1807 to oversee the establishment of a works at Hammersmith. Under an act designed to increase the capital of the company by £160,000, the area covered by the West Middlesex Water Company was extended to include the parishes of St James Westminster, St Anne's Soho, St Mary-le-Strand, St Clement Danes, St Paul's Covent Garden, Paddington, Marylebone, St Pancras, St George Bloomsbury and St Giles in the Fields.
In 1825 a pump was built to channel water to a new resevoir at Barrow Hill, near Primrose Hill. New resevoirs were constructed at Barnes in 1838 and in 1866 the company entered into an agreement with the Thames Conservancy which allowed it to draw an extra 4 million gallons of water from the river per day.
The company was taken over by the Metropolitan Water Board under the Metropolitan Water Act, 1902 (2 Edward VII, c.41).
Leasehold land is held by a lessee (the party leasing land from the owner) by lease (a grant of property to a tenant for a specified period, usually a term of years) from the owner. Leasehold land is not conveyed, it is assigned. Assignment is the transfer of a right, usually a lease, or a mortgage.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The Castlebar Estate in Ealing was established in 1423 by Richard Barenger. In 1650 it was purchased by Sir William Bateman, who held other land in Ealing, and left to his descendants. William Bateman (d 1797) and his children William (d 1820) and Mary (d 1833) were all lunatics and the estate was disputed among Mary's heirs. The estate was bought by Francis Swinden in 1854.
General Sir Frederick Augustus Wetherall (1754-1842) became tenant of the Batemans' and in 1817 bought the lease of Castlebar House, purchasing the freehold in 1824. By 1840 Wetherall held 47 acres of freehold, copyhold and leasehold land in the Castle Hill area. Castlebar House was owned by a Mr Bartholomew in 1897, when it was bought as a Benedictine monastery. It was used as a girls' school.
Another estate in this area, Castle Hill Lodge, was created in 1764 by John Scott, who combined various parcels of land to form an estate of 27 acres. The estate was purchased by Francis Burdett in 1773. In 1791 Henry Beaufoy purchased the house and made some improvements. It was sold in 1795 to Maria FitzHerbert, the morganatic wife of the Prince of Wales. She sold it in 1801 to the Duke of Kent, Edward Augustus, who gave it the name Castle Hill Lodge and commissioned further improvements. In 1829 the estate was purchased by General Sir Frederick Augustus Wetherall, the duke's aide-de-camp.
The estate remained in the Wetherall family, although it was leased out as Kent House, until 1870 when the house was sold to Thomas Harrison, and the land to Alfred Prest, Ebenezer Pearce and Charles Jones. Some of the land was later sold to the British Land Company.
The Lodge was a two storey property in a Grecian style with a portico beneath a pediment. Some of the fittings were sold in 1820 and 1827; but a new house was built by 1845, which became St David's Home in 1918.
From: 'Ealing and Brentford: Other estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 128-131 (available online).
Enfield Chase was enclosed under an Act of 1777. 'Chase' is another word for unenclosed park land, where hunting took place.
Lammas Lands became commons on Lammas Day (August 1st) when they were opened for common pasture until the spring.
The long-standing connection between the Wood family and the parish of Littleton began in the middle of the seventeenth century when Edward Wood, citizen and grocer of London, built his mansion house there. This remained the principal seat of the family until the house was destroyed by fire in December 1874, and Captain Thomas Wood removed permanently to the family estate at Gwernyfed, Brecknockshire, Wales.
The Woods were substantial landowners with property in a number of counties. The Middleham estate in Yorkshire was purchased in the seventeenth century and the estate at Gwernyfed was acquired in 1776 upon the marriage of Thomas Wood to Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir Edward Williams of Langoid Castle. In Middlesex the lordships of Astlam and Littleton were held by the family, and Captain Thomas Wood was lord of the manor of Littleton in 1906 (The Victoria History of the County of Middlesex, Vol. 2., 1911). The Littleton estate, comprising over 1250 acres in Littleton, Shepperton, Ashford and Laleham, was broken up and sold from 1892, although Captain Thomas Wood still owned much of the land in Littleton parish in the early twentieth century.
Members of the family followed careers, for the most part, in law, government, and the armed forces. The first Thomas Wood to live at Littleton (d 1723) continued his father's merchant business and held the appointment of Ranger of Hampton Court. His son Robert was a scholar and Doctor of Laws and, in the next generation, Thomas (1708-99) was Treasurer of the Inner Temple. His descendants entered the government, at home and overseas, often preceding this by military careers. Colonel Thomas Wood (1777-1860), Member of Parliament for Brecon for forty years, commanded the Royal East Middlesex Regiment of Militia for fifty six years and encamped with them at Aldershot in his eightieth year. His son Thomas (1804-72) commanded the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards in the early stages of the Crimean War, Prior to this he represented the County of Middlesex in Parliament, Thomas his son (b 1853) followed his father into the Grenadiers and saw action in the Sudan. Upon leaving the regular army he became a colonel in the Brecknockshire Rifle Volunteers and entered local government. Famous soldiers in the family include Charles Wood (1790-1877) who fought in the Peninsula, and at Waterloo, and his nephew General Sir David Wood (1812-94) an officer in the Crimean campaign and the Indian Mutiny.
Throughout the nineteenth century the family consolidated its position among the landed gentry by contracting alliances with the aristocracy. In successive generations three Thomas Woods married, respectively, the daughter of 1st Marquess of Londonderry, the grand-daughter of 4th Duke of Grafton, and the daughter of 1st Lord Tollemache. Colonel Thomas Wood and his wife enjoyed the friendship of William IV and Queen Adelaide and the King. nominated Wood to be one of his executors. Colonel Wood was host to George IV at Gwernyfed, and members of the royal family visited Littleton.
An estreat was a true extract or copy of an original writing or record, in particular of fines, entered on the rolls of a court, which were to be collected by the bailiff or other court officer.
The Court of Common Pleas was founded by King Henry II to hear common pleas (matters between subject and subject). It was the only Court where personal actions of account, covenant, debt and detinue could be heard. The Court also had jurisdiction to review and change the decisions of older courts. From 1187 the Court sat at Westminster. The Court was headed by a Chief Justice, working with a team of lesser justices (between three and eight in number at various times) and a large number of clerks. The Court was abolished in 1875.
On Friday 30 July 1714 Queen Anne suffered two consecutive violent convulsions; lasting from nine until eleven a.m. When she recovered consciousness, she could barely speak and it was clear she would not recover. She died on Sunday 1 August 1714 at the age of 49.
Ruislip Church School was founded in 1812. In 1862 the school was moved to a permanent building in Eastcote Road. A new, enlarged building was constructed on the same site and opened by Bishop Winnington-Ingram in 1931 (when the school was renamed). In 1968 the school moved to a larger site on Southcote Rise.
Information from http://www.bwi.org.uk/ (accessed August 2010).
The firm of Howards and Sons, noted as manufacturers of pharmaceutical chemicals, especially quinine and aspirin had its origin in the partnership entered into by Luke Howard and William Allen in 1798 (ACC/1037/1). Many printed works give the date as 1797 and it may be that the two men began working together after the dissolution of Allen's partnership with Samuel Mildred but before the formal deed of partnership was signed. Allen and Howard had their pharmacy at Plough Court, Lombard Street, City of London, under the management of Allen, and a laboratory at Plaistow, directed by Luke Howard, with the assistance of Joseph Jewell. The laboratory moved from Plaistow to Stratford around 1805, and on the dissolution of the partnership in 1807 (ACC/1037/2) Luke Howard and Joseph Jewell continued their manufacturing activity there. After a series of name changes reflecting the changes of partners (for which see ACC/1037/801/20/1) the style of Howards and Sons was adopted in 1856 (see ACC/1037/17) and used continuously from then on. The firm became a limited company in 1903. It was purchased by Laporte in March 1961.
Stratford remained the company's headquarters until 1898, when land was purchased in Ilford and new premises were gradually constructed. The first transfer there was of the work done at Hopkin and Williams' works in Wandsworth and other processes followed as buildings were erected until the final move to Ilford was made in 1923. The firm of Hopkin and Williams, manufacturers of fine laboratory and photographic chemicals had been purchased in May 1888 (for which see ACC/1037/92). They had offices and warehouses in Cross Street, Hatton Garden, and a manufactory in Wandsworth. In 1906 Howards set up the British Camphor Corporation for the synthesis of camphor from turpentine by Behal's process and the factory was built at Ilford (ACC/1037/743-753). Changes in world prices for raw materials and other factors led to the company going into liquidation in 1909. In the meantime Edmund White, general manager of Hopkin and Williams, had been working on the development of thorium and in 1914 a separate company, Thorium Ltd., was established to process the raw materials (ACC/1037/730-731). In 1915 Hopkin and Williams (Travancore) Ltd. was set up to mine monazite sand at a site in Travancore to secure supplies of the raw material to Thorium Ltd. (ACC/1037/732-735). A later successful development overseas was the purchase of the Sadarehe planatation in Java which was intended to secure supplies of cinchona bark for the production of quinine. Another company, James Anthony and Co. Ltd. (ACC/1037/790) was set up to run it, which it did until the planation was seized by the Japanese in 1943. War-time and post-war conditions made it impossible to revive production. In contrast the purchase of the Agatash plantation in British Guiana to grow limes for citric acid (ACC/1037/739-740) was a short-lived and unsuccessful venture.
The company had a long history of uninterrupted production and its products developed and changed over the years in large measure as the result of experimental work done by members of the Howard family and by their employees. It began by producing fine chemicals, many for the pharmaceutical industry, and by the 1830's Howard and Jewell's work on quinine was beginning to expand. For most of the remainder of the nineteenth century quinine production was the greatest profitable enterprise of the company (for which see ACC/1037/316-364 and especially B.F. Howard's treatise "Howards 1847-1947"). After the First World War it became clear, despite the success of Howards' Aspirin, that the company no longer led the market in chemicals for pharmacy, and a research laboratory was set up in 1919 to explore new fields. This resulted in the development of Howards' solvents and technical chemicals which became the mainstay of the company.
Charles Brown was a builder. He lived in Old Ford, and then Edmonton and Enfield Highway.
Charles James Sanderson lived at No. 4, Hornsey Lane.
John Gibson senior was until about 1720 a jeweller in Bow Street. In 1718 he inherited property at Bury Pond Hill in Pinner from an aunt, Elizabeth Darden (ACC/351/1032), and in 1720 his wife inherited Islips Manor Farm in Northolt, and property at Pinner Hill. She was Dorcas, only daughter and heiress of William Shower, and, through him, of her uncle, Sir Bartholemew Shower, recorder of London, who died in 1701 (ACC/1045/123-128). These properties had been purchased by Sir Bartholomew in 1695 and 1698 from the Clitherowe and Hawtrey families respectively.
John Gibson settled at Pinner, where he bought further properties, notably from Randall Page junior in 1721 (ACC/1045/103), and remained there till his death in 1745. After her husband's death Dorcas Gibson returned to London, settling in Stepney, and her younger sons, William and Bartholomew, became a haberdasher and grocer respectively in the City (ACC/1045/129-134). The eldest son and heir, John, was educated at Balliol and entered the church, becoming Vicar of Heston in 1750 and Bedfont in 1761. There is a complete set of official documents concerning his clerical career from letters of orders on his ordination as Deacon in 1740 to the certificate of his reading in as Vicar of Bedfont in 1761 (ACC/1045/154-176). He died in 1777.
The Gibson family were closely connected with the Stanton Family of Limehouse. Seth Gibson and Thomas Stanton became partners in the wholesale silk trade in 1706 (ACC/1045/141) and the association survived the removal of John Gibson to Pinner. The collection includes a group of personal and business papers of Richard Stanton and his brother Thomas Stanton junior who died in 1714. Besides articles of partnership, there are household and general accounts, 1706-1764 (ACC/1045/144-147), including rent accounts for properties in Rupert Street.
A surrender was the return of property held by lease or by copyhold to the lessor (the person leasing out the property) or the lord of the manor.
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.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The Middlesex Guildhall was the headquarters and central office of the Middlesex County Council. It was situated in Parliament Square, Westminster. In 1889 local government rearrangments meant that the Westminster area was moved from the county of Middlesex to the county of London. However, the Middlesex Guildhall remained there despite no longer being in Middlesex.
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).
A deposition was a statement providing evidence, taken down in writing to be read in court as a substitute for the production of the witness.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Harrow Manor belonged to the archbishops of Canterbury from the early middle ages until 1545 when Henry VIII forced Cranmer to sell the manor to him. Henry sold the estate to Sir Edward North. The North family sold the manor to the Pitt family, whence it came to Alice Pitt and her husbands, Edward Palmer and then Sir James Rushout. The Rushouts acquired the barony of Northwick in 1797. Harrow stayed in the family until the death of the 3rd Baron, Sir George Rushout-Bowles, in 1887. His widow left the estate to her grandson Captain E G Spencer-Churchill. He sold the land in the 1920s.
Harrow Manor described both the manorial rights over the whole area and the chief demesne farm in the centre of the parish. This farm was known as Sudbury Manor or Sudbury Court. The ownership of Sudbury Manor followed that of Harrow, hence the name Harrow alias Sudbury.
From: 'Harrow, including Pinner : Manors', 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. 203-211 (available online).
The Girls' Life Brigade was founded in 1902 by the National Sunday School Union. It aimed to encourage girls to become "responsible, self-reliant, useful Christian women". The movement was based at churches. Following a merger with other similar organisations, it is now part of the Girls' Brigade.
For more information see the Girls' Brigade website at http://www.girlsbrigade.org.uk/html/history.html (accessed June 2010).
The court of Quarter Sessions was the place in which the Justices of the Peace exercised their judicial and administrative functions for the county, and generated a variety of records from that role. Records were often deposited, filed (enrolled) or registered 'by statute' with the Clerk of the Peace, to be kept with the sessions records, and be available for inspection. These were records presented to the justices in a session, and certified before them, but which were not part of the normal sessions work, although sometimes it is hard to make the distinction. Indeed, statutes ordering the creation of these records often stipulated that returns or registers should be 'filed on the rolls of the Sessions of the Peace" or "be deposited with the Clerk of the Peace to be registered and kept with the records of Quarter Sessions"; which means in practice that many records which were created outside the normal sessions work are found on the sessions rolls (see MJ/SR), in the sessions books (see MJ/SB) or in the sessions papers (see MJ/SP).
The Andrews and Weall families were united by the marriage of Dr James Andrews, originally of Pershore, Worcestershire, to Margaret Weall of Hampstead, in about 1872. Trust funds for Margaret were set up under the wills of her great-uncles John and Benjamin Weall. She was also to inherit the residue of the real estate of Benjamin Weall which consisted of houses in Watford, Hertfordshire, and Headstone Farm and land in Pinner, Middlesex. Litigation was started by Margaret Andrews (ne Weall) against her trustees arising out of a dispute over law costs charged by the trustees to her estate. This resulted in a test case tried in the High Court, Chancery Division, 1889, in which Mrs Andrews was successful. The report in The Times called it 'a judgement of great importance and interest to trustees and their cestuis que trustent'.
The Monro family of Hadley were a cadet branch of the Munro baronets of Foulis. They settled in London in the late seventeenth century, providing a series of distinguished doctors who ran Bethlem Hospital throughout the following century, when the care of lunatics was far from fashionable. They also owned two private asylums, Brook House, Clapton, and the Palace, Much Hadham (ACC/1063/049-057 and 164-5).
James, the second son of Dr John Monro (1715-1791), entered the East India Company's service, becoming captain of an East Indiaman, and most of this archive consists of letters written by himself, his sons and his grandsons. Apart from those of Captain James himself there is a series from his eldest son James, who became a writer with the East India Company in 1806; from his son Edward who went to India; another group of papers relating to his son George, a midshipman who was killed in action on board the "Menelaus" in 1812; and numerous other letters and papers relating to this same generation of the family.
The youngest son of James's first marriage, Cecil Monro (1803-1878), entered the law, eventually becoming chief registrar of the Court of Chancery, and it was he who finally inherited the family home which Captain James had bought at Hadley. He was an antiquarian of some repute, editing The Letters of Queen Margaret of Anjou for the Camden Society in 1863; he was zealous in collecting details of his family history, which he incorporated into a "Family Book" (ACC/1063/001). There are also several documents relating to the disputed entail created by Sir Harry Munro of Foulis in 1776, which probably owe their preservation to Cecil Monro. The latter married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel Knight Erskine of Pittodrie, Aberdeenshire, which accounts for the presence of a few documents relating to that estate.
The largest group of letters are those written by Cecil's three sons, Cecil James (1833-1882), Charles (1835-1908), and Kenneth (1818-1862). The letters to their parents began when they were at preparatory school, and in the cases of Cecil and Kenneth continue until their respective deaths. All three were sent to Harrow and their letters at this period throw a vivid light on school life in the early Victorian era (ACC/1063/966-1146). Both the older boys went on to Cambridge, but Kenneth, who was not academically inclined, joined the Army and his letters continue from various camps in England and then from Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was posted in 1857 (ACC/1063/257-579). The climate there undermined his health and he returned home to die of consumption at Hadley, aged 24.
The rest of the letters centre round his eldest brother Cecil, who read classics and Mathematics at Cambridge and then read for the Bar. Before he could take up a career, symptoms of the family consumption manifested themselves in him too, and dictated that his winters be spent abroad in the more salubrious climates of Madeira, North Africa, or the south of France. His letters home to the family are full of the trials of an invalid expatriate: the difficulties of obtaining suitable lodgings, the vagaries of climates, the dependence upon unreliable mails from home, and the intolerable boredom. He was not, however, self-pitying, and the last-named problem he tackled by teaching himself languages, writing articles, and corresponding with learned men on a variety of subjects (including theology, classics, philosophy, mathematics physics, linguistics and politics). His correspondences included J. C. Maxwell, professor of experimental physics at Cambridge; Darwin's son-in-law Richard Litchfield; William Donkin, professor of astronomy at Oxford; C.M Ingleby, the Shakespearean critic; and Charles Tawney, registrar of Calcutta University. He spent the last years of his life at Hadley, a semi-invalid, dying in 1882 four years after his father. The letters virtually cease at this date, but there are a few written to Charles, the last just before his death in 1906.
The Court of King's Bench was founded circa 1200 to hear common pleas, although it came to specialise in pleas of special interest and concern to the king, such as those which involved his own property interests, or breach of his peace, or an error of judgment by another royal court. By 1675 the King's Bench was the highest court of common law in England and Wales, with jurisdiction over both civil and criminal actions. Civil business was conducted on the 'Plea Side' and criminal business on the 'Crown Side'. It was absorbed into the High Court in 1875.
Source: The National Archives Research Guides "Legal Records Information 34" and "Legal Records Information 36"
A militia force was raised from the civilian population of a county, in order to supplement the regular army in cases of emergency. In 1554 a muster of men from the hamlets near the Tower of London was ordered, including Bethnal Green, Poplar and Stepney, then separate, rural villages. By 1605 East London had become an official military unit with the name Tower Hamlets, and the right to muster the militia was held by the Lieutenant of the Tower.
Information from The London Encyclopaedia, eds. Weinreb and Hibbert (LMA Library Reference 67.2 WEI).
This collection of deeds relating to the manor of Mockings in Tottenham 1340-1653, provides useful information about the ownership of the manor. The manor originated in the grant made by Edward III to Richard Spigurnel in 1335 of a third part of the manor of Bruces in Tottenham. Spigurnel conveyed his property to John de Mockyng of Somerset, which transaction was confirmed by an indenture of final agreement of 8th July 1340 (the earliest deed in this collection). John de Mockyng died in 1347 leaving the property to his son John, who died in 1360. The Mocking family gave their name to the manor, as is shown by a deed of 1427 first describing the property as the ""manor called Mokking"".
About 1360, it came into the hands of Roger Shipbroke and his wife Margaret who settled it on their daughter Margerie and her husband Helming Leget. Their grandson Thomas inherited it in 1427 but mortgaged it to John Gedeney, a wealthy draper and alderman of the City of London. John Gedeney retained Mockings and also acquired the remaining two thirds of Bruces and the other two Tottenham manors, Dawbeneys and Pembrokes. The four manors remained united after this and passed to Gedeney's daughter and her husband, and their daughter Thomasina and her husband John Risley. The Risleys left no surviving children, and the manors were regained by the crown and granted to Sir William Compton.
It is perhaps worth noting that the holders of this property probably did not live in Tottenham themselves but may have "farmed" or leased the manors to other people. Helming Leget was described as "of Essex", and John Gedeney leased Mokkings to Thomas Remmy, a goldsmith, in 1442, when the manor was in the tenure and occupation of Richard Pigot.
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.
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).
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.
Bush Hill was a small estate in Edmonton with a house situated between the New River, Bush Hill and Bush Hill Road. The estate was held by Robert Waleys in the 1560s, and then by Robert Estry. Estry sold the property to Sir Hugh Myddleton, who constructed the New River while he was living there. He left the estate to his wife and younger son, who seem to have sold it by 1650. John Bathurst, a London alderman, owned it in 1664. His daughter sold it to John Clarke (d 1701), merchant of London. The estate passed to John's brother Samuel Clarke (d 1742), and then to William Clarke (d 1783) who left it to his daughters Anna Clarke and Mary Forbes. The estate was auctioned in 1784, when the house and 39 acres were purchased by John Blackburn. His son sold the estate to Isaac Currie, a banker from Cornhill. The Curries kept the estate until 1878 when they sold it to Horace Barry. After his death in 1908 the house, now knoen as Halliwick, was held by the Fenton sisters. In 1911 the house was purchased for use as a home for diabled girls, while the land was bought by builders.
From: 'Edmonton: Other estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 154-161 (available online).
Ealing College was founded in 1820 as a church school for boys, attached to Saint Mary's, Ealing. In 1879 it moved to larger premises and took both day pupils and boarders. However, its fortunes declined and in 1901 it was closed and the building sold. However, in 1925 nearby Acton College was re-founded as Ealing College (Upper School), a private school for boys.
The Reverend Ivor Roy Dowse, born 1935, was Chair of the Wembley History Society in 1970. As well as the history of Ealing College, he is also the author of "Brent Parish Churches : a short guide to the Parish Churches in the Rural Deanery of Brent"; "The pilgrim shrines of England" and "St. Andrew's Sudbury, Middlesex : the story of a modern church in an ancient parish".
The Autotype Company was founded in Brixton in 1868. The registered office was in the West End of London.
A new company was floated in 1870, also called Autotype Fine Art Company, and the premises moved from Brixton to Ealing. Manufacture of carbon paper continued in Ealing well into the 20th century, though by 1872 Autotype had already diversified in a variety of other photographic processes. By the late 1870s the company had grown to over 70 staff.
From carbon papers, Autotype moved into photogravure and by the first decade of the 20th century photogravure manufacturing represented over 25% of the company turnover.
The period between the two wars was one of intense diversification with photogravure representing nearly 90% of all sales. During the second war, Autotype undertook to do some work for the British government. One of the coating machines was dispatched to Canada for safe keeping, in case the factory in Ealing was bombed.
After 1946 Autotype expanded into the screen market and by the 1950s screen making materials were at the core of Autotype production.
By 1976 the Company moved to larger premises, in order to expand production, and chose a site in Wantage, south of Oxford. The old factory in Ealing was completely destroyed.
On June 14th 2005 Autotype International was acquired by MacDermid Inc. of Denver, Colorado.
Source of information: Company website at http://www.macdermidautotype.com/autotype.nsf/pages/europeaboutHistory