Major Blundell was a haberdasher and warehouseman, of Cheapside; later of Holborn Hill.
Francis Nicholls White and Company originated before 1858 as Robinson, Nicholls and Company of 13 Old Jewry, London. In 1863 the name was changed to Francis Nicholls White and Company, in 1866 to Nicholls and Leatherdale and, in 1885, back to Francis Nicholls White and Company. From its beginnings, the firm practised as accountants dealing only with insolvency matters; it also acted as proprietors of a debt collection business known as the British Mercantile Agency and of a number of trade associations. The practice continued at 13/14 Old Jewry Chambers until 1924 when it moved to 73 Cheapside; in 1954 it moved to 19 Eastcheap. In 1967 the firm amalgamated with Parkin S Booth and Company.
Francis Nicholls White and Company owned a number of trade associations formed as specialised branches of the agency, including the Paper Trade Protection Association. The aims of the association were to safeguard members against the risk of bad debts, to recover overdue accounts and to minimise the loss to members in insolvencies.
The Committee of London Clearing Bankers was based at 10 Lombard Street. It was formed in 1821 as the Committee of Bankers to oversee the London Clearing House (no records of the London Clearing House are held, except those of Bankers' Clearing House Limited). It also came to represent the interests of the London private and joint stock banks and later the "Big Five" clearing banks. It was renamed the Committee of London and Scottish Bankers in 1985. In 1991, it was subsumed into the British Bankers' Association.
The British Funeral Workers' Association was based at 23 Bride Lane (1917-1925), 7 Milford Lane (1925-1938) and St Bride's Institute (1939-1940). In 1920, the Association had seven branches in London, as well as branches in Portsmouth, Kingston and Southampton. From evidence inside the minute books, the Association may have become the National Union of Funeral and Cemetery Workers by 1963 (based in Wembley).
Founded in 1917 as the British Overseas Banks Association, the association's name was changed to British Overseas and Commonwealth Banks Association in 1964. It was based at 10 Clements Lane (1917-85), 38 Bishopsgate (1985-7), 8 Old Jewry (1988-9), 99 Bishopsgate (1990), 110-112 Fenchurch Street (1991-2), 91 Gresham Street (1993-4) and 35 John Street (1995-6). The Association was dissolved in 1997.
Brown, Shipley and Company, merchant bankers, of Founders' Court, Lothbury, originated with the establishment of William Brown and Company, merchants and shippers, in Liverpool in 1810, by William Brown. In 1814 William was joined by his brother James to form William and James Brown and Company. Joseph Shipley became a partner in 1825 and in 1837 the company changed its name to Brown, Shipley and Company. Although originally formed to act as agents for the American business interests of Alexander Brown (William and James' father), the company soon became involved in the exchange and credit business. Its merchant banking interests developed rapidly and by 1860 had become more important than its mercantile and shipping interests. Consequently a London office was opened at Founders' Court, Lothbury, in 1863, where the company has remained ever since. It changed its name to Brown, Shipley and Company Limited upon incorporation in 1946. The Liverpool office was closed in 1888. The surviving archive of the London office dates from 1864.
Until 1914 the company was a branch of the American company Brown Brothers and Company, and partners were individually members of both the American and English companies. In 1914 the articles of association were changed so that each company became a partner in the other. This arrangement became impossible after the Registration of Business Names Act became law in 1916 in England, and new taxation laws became effective in the United States, so on January 1st 1918 Brown, Shipley and Company withdrew from Brown Brothers and Company, and the latter withdrew from Brown, Shipley; but they continued to work in close co-operation as correspondents and agents.
In April 1900 the company opened an office at 123 Pall Mall to deal primarily with letters of credit for American travellers. Records of this branch are catalogued as Ms 20151-153 (CLC/B/032-02). The decline in the issue of letters of credit due to the growth in the use of travellers cheques led to the closure of the branch in 1955.
A publishing company was set up in 1960 called Butterworth and Company (Australia). Earlier records of Butterworths operations in Australia can be found under Butterworth and Company (Overseas).
R J Acford Ltd (Acfords) were a printing firm, specialising in legal printing such as the Law Journal. They were bought by Butterworths after the Second World War and sold off in 1974.
Camp Bird Limited was incorporated 8 September 1900. Its principal business was the Camp Bird mine, a gold mine in the Mount Sneffels mining district, County Ouray, Colorado, with a stake of £49,900 in the Camp Bird Mining Co, Denver, Colorado, acquired in June 1902. The company acquired substantial holdings in various Mexican enterprises, in particular the Santa Gertrudis gold and silver mines (1910). Revenue from the Camp Bird mine was decreasing by the 1940s, but in the meantime, the company's mining interests had expanded into Nicaragua, Canada, Australia, Nigeria, South Africa and Rhodesia. By 1952 66% of the company's total investments were in South Africa and Rhodesia.
In the late 1950s, an industrial and trading group in the electrical industry was built up and concentrated into the subsidiary Hartley Baird Limited. The parent company had become purely a holding company by 1958, but in 1960 Camp Bird Limited ceased to be a finance company and was restored as a mining house, with interests in Colorado, Canada, and elsewhere, the parent company becoming an investment company. A winding-up order was made on 7 October 1963.
Camp Bird's first registered office was at 3 Princes Street. It moved to 43 Threadneedle Street in 1902, to 1 London Wall Buildings in 1919, to 49 Moorgate in 1929, and to 39 Dover Street (Camp Bird House) in 1957.
A large number of Grahams companies, registered in Glasgow, were trading individually in Glasgow and elsewhere, including Portugal and India, as early as the late 18th century. Grahams Trading Company Limited, however, was incorporated on 29 July 1924, as general merchants and manufacturers all over the world, with a registered office at 7 St Helen's Place, EC3. It was an amalgamation of several of the older Grahams companies and the newly acquired "Portuguese companies". The latter, Abelheira Paper Mills Limited, Boa Vista Spinning and Weaving Company Limited and Braco de Prata Printing Company Limited, had all begun in the late 19th century and were registered in Glasgow but traded in Portugal through William Graham and Company, William and John Graham and Company, and William Graham Junior and Company, who acted as their agents and held title to the real estate in Portugal.
The Portuguese business of Grahams Trading Company Limited was held through West European Industries Limited. In 1947, the "Portuguese companies" went into voluntary liquidation, and the various mills and factories were gradually closed down and sold off in the 1950s. Grahams Trading Company Limited was taken over by Camp Bird Limited in 1957 and went into voluntary liquidation in 1960.
George Davis established himself as a commission merchant in 1852 at 4 Railway Place, Fenchurch Street. The firm became African, Australian, middle and far eastern export merchants. In 1860 Davis went into partnership with William Garland Soper (1837-1908). From 1863-76 they traded from 14 Fenchurch Street, and from 1877-81 from 10 King's Arms Yard, before moving to 54 St Mary Axe in 1882. On William Garland Soper's death in 1908, the firm was taken over by his son, William Soper.
The firm became a limited company in 1915. It went into liquidation in 1960. It was a subsidiary of Camp Bird Limited.
A large number of Grahams companies, registered in Glasgow, were trading individually in Glasgow and elsewhere, including Portugal and India, as early as the late 18th century. Grahams Trading Company Limited, however, was incorporated on 29 July 1924, as general merchants and manufacturers all over the world, with a registered office at 7 St Helen's Place, EC3. It was an amalgamation of several of the older Grahams companies and the newly acquired "Portuguese companies". The latter, Abelheira Paper Mills Limited, Boa Vista Spinning and Weaving Company Limited and Braco de Prata Printing Company Limited, had all begun in the late 19th century and were registered in Glasgow but traded in Portugal through William Graham and Company, William and John Graham and Company, and William Graham Junior and Company, who acted as their agents and held title to the real estate in Portugal.
An assets company was also formed in 1924, known as the Reserved Assets Company Limited. Its registered office also was 7 St Helen's Place. It was wound up in 1936 on the reduction and reorganisation of the capital of the trading company. West European Industries Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary, was incorporated on 26 March 1930. Its registered office was 7 St Helen's Place, moving to 5 St Helen's Place in 1947. The Portuguese business of Grahams Trading Company Limited was held through West European Industries Limited. In 1947, the "Portuguese companies" went into voluntary liquidation, and the various mills and factories were gradually closed down and sold off in the 1950s. Grahams Trading Company Limited was taken over by Camp Bird Limited in 1957 and went into voluntary liquidation in 1960.
The company began trading in 1896 and had offices at 88 Bishopsgate until 1911. From 1911 to 1936 it was at Winchester House, Old Broad St, and 1936-65 at 14-19 Leadenhall St. The company ceased trading in 1965 and amalgamated with Assam Frontier Tea Company in 1977.
Shirley Fielding Palmer founded the Guild of Saint Alban the Martyr in 1851, probably inspired by Newman's suggestion that laymen should assist clergy in densely populated areas. It was formed from lay communicants, clergy being admitted as associates, and aimed to assist them in maintaining and extending the Catholic faith, to defend the faith against attacks of error and unbelief and to support the independence of the English Church from the jurisdiction claimed by the Church of Rome. Within the Guild were grades of fellows and brethren and an order of Sisters of the Poor. The brotherhood was divided into sections forming separate brotherhoods under the superintendence of a master e.g. the Brotherhood of Saint John the Divine, Clapham.
Until 1945 Hornchurch was part of the Romford parliamentary constituency. The party for the Hornchurch Urban District Council area was the Hornchurch Central Labour Party, which sent delegates to the Romford Divisional Labour Party. In 1945 Romford was split into the Barking, Dagenham, Romford and Hornchurch parliamentary constituencies, and on 15 March 1945, Hornchurch Divisional Labour Party was formed. Hornchurch Constituency Labour Party is an alternative title for this body. As a result of the redistribution of parliamentary boundaries in 1969, the Hornchurch Constituency Labour Party ceased to exist in March 1971. Its successor was the Havering-Hornchurch Constituency Labour Party.
The King's Fund was established in 1897 as the Prince of Wales Hospital Fund for London for the purpose of raising money for the Voluntary Hospitals within a seven mile radius from Charing Cross. A letter by the Prince of Wales was published in 'The Times' on 6 February 1897 inviting subscriptions in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the reign of Queen Victoria.
The first distribution of grants by the Fund took place in 1897/1898 and amounted to £57,000 however, it was the intention of the Prince and the founding members of the first General Council that the Fund woud become a permanent body with sufficient captial to produce an annual income for distribution. On 1 January 1902 the Fund was renamed King Edward's Hospital Fund for London and in 1907 the Fund was incorporated by an Act of Parliament.
As the amount available for distribution grew so did the remit of the Fund. The initial seven mile limit from Charing Cross was extended in 1924 to nine miles and in 1940 to the whole of the Metropolitan Region. The Fund also began to include Convescent Homes in its annual distributions.
Thanks to its financial success, the Fund soon began to have a considerable influence on the work and administration of the London voluntary hospitals and its activities soon diversified into inspecting hospitals and encouraging a more rational distribution of health services across the growing expanse of the city, for example they were instrumental in the move of King's College Hospital to Camberwell, South London. The King's Fund also began to undertake a number of pan-London roles, for example by opening and operating a service of emergency admissions to hospitals and encouraging combined fund raising appeals. The Fund as part of the conditions of its grants required hospitals to submit particulars of their accounts and this led to the introduction of a uniform system of hosptial accounts. They also began to be the representing body of the voluntary hospitals in debates about health and welfare policy.
At the end of the First World War many voluntary hospitals were in considerable difficulty owing to lack of resources. A Hospital Commission was set up for the country to administer a government grant, with King Edward's Fund acting as the coordinating body for the London area. As a result, the Fund overhauled its own constitution into five main committees, Finance, Distribution, Hospital Economy, Revenue and Management. Several special committees were established in the 1920s to investigate various matters, including pensions schemes for nurses and hospital staff, provision of ambulances, and for road casualties.
The establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 led to a reappraisal of the work of the King's Fund. Instead of giving maintenance grants to the now tax-funded health service, it concentrated its resources on developing good practice in the NHS and opened a number of new services to provide training, learning and sharing opportunities for NHS staff including the Division of Hospital Facilities (opened 1948, became The Hospital Centre), the College for Ward Sisters (opened 1949), the Catering Advisory Service (opened 1950), th Hospital Administrative Staff College and the School of Hospital Catering (opened 1951) and the Staff College for Matrons (1953). The Fund's colleges were amalgamated in 1968 to become the 'King's Fund College' and in 1997 a change and leadership centre was established. Leadership development is still continued under the Leadership and Development Team.
Post NHS the Fund also became the home of numerous development projects to improve the quality of health care and opened a specialist health services library in Camden Town. The range of projects ranged enormously from investigations into the use of disposal goods in hospital wards through to the investigation into the design of the hospital bed-stead in the 1960s. In the 1980s, the King's Fund established a unit to analyse health policy issues and a service offering organisational audit to health services. It was also in this era that the Fund widened the scope of its activities to look at social care and public health becoming an influential organisation in health policy, pioneering the development of patient choice in the NHS, of partnerships between health and social care, and of the arts in health. It also began working to tackle health inequalities in London working with the Greater London Authority and other health agencies as well as continuing its work analysing national health policy and developing new ways of working in the NHS and social care services.
In 2008 the Fund was granted a Royal Charter which in effect gave a new set of governance arrangements, which include a modern version of the original objectives. Allowing the Fund to remain an independent and expert body able to exercise influence and use ideas to change health care.
The 1820's saw the foundation of two schools at the Oval, Kennington. After raising the necessary voluntary subscriptions, the boys' school opened at the end of 1824 and the girls' school in the spring of 1825. The name proposed for the schools was the Kennington and South Lambeth National School, but they were soon referred to as the National Schools or District Schools, even the Oval Schools. In reflection of the close links with Saint Mark's Church, the name was later changed to Saint Mark Kennington Schools. The school is now known as Saint Mark's CE Primary School.
The association began life as the Saint James Society in 1824, as its early meetings were held at Saint James Clerkenwell. In 1903 it expanded and became known as the London County Association of Change Ringers. In 1911 the association formed separate Northern and Southern Districts with separate officers but responsible to the overall association via its General Body officers and meetings - this situation lasted until World War II when the district operation was suspended. In 1929 the association had 'North Southwark Diocesan Guild' added to its title, but this was dropped in the early 1970s, and the title altered to London County Association of Church Bell Ringers.
Archbishop Temple's School was founded using a bequest of £24 made by Alexander Jones in 1660. In 1661 Richard Lawrence, a trustee appointed by Mr. Jones, bequeathed a property known as "Dog House Fields" for the school. In 1723 the school merged with another charity school and moved into new premises. In 1848 the school was again moved, this time to Hercules Road. The school could now accommodate 300 pupils. In 1904 another move was necessary due to the expansion of the railway. A site next to Lambeth Palace was donated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Frederick Temple. On the death of the Archbishop the name of the school was changed to reflect his contribution. In 1961 the school was merged with the local Archibishop Tenison's Girls School. The school was merged with other local schools in 1964 and in 1972 moved to a new site in Camberwell to accommodate the increase in pupils.
On Nov. 9th, 1855 a public meeting was held in Willis's Rooms, King Street, St James to inaugurate a public subscription in gratitude for Florence Nightingale's work in the Crimean War. £44,000 was raised, the Nightingale Fund Council was set up to administer this fund, and on March 13th 1860, A. H. Clough wrote on behalf of the Nightingale Fund Council to the President, Treasurer and Governors of Saint Thomas' Hospital about the possibility of founding a training school for nurses at the hospital. This was Florence Nightingale's idea as to how the fund could best be used.
The first fifteen Probationers arrived on July 9th 1860. They were paid a salary of £10 during the one year's course, with board and lodging provided. At the end of the year, if they were approved, they were entered on the Register of Certified Nurses, and employment was found for them. If they stayed in employment for a complete year after their training they could earn gratuities of £3 and £5. Instruction during the course was mainly practical, with the Probationers working in the hospital wards under close supervision. Considerable emphasis was placed on high moral character. From 1867 there were two classes of entry to the school: 1) Ordinary Probationers, who entered on the basis of a small salary and free board, as above and 2) Lady Probationers or Special probationers. These were trained specially for posts as Superintendents and Matrons of other institutions on completion of their training. They paid a sum of £30 for the year's tuition, and board and lodging.
One of the particular features of the Nightingale Training School was that nurses were trained not merely for Saint Thomas' Hospital, but with the clear intention that they be sent out in groups to other institutions to undertake nursing reform. The school had only been open two years when the first group went to Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and subsequent groups went as far as Canada and Australia, as well as to many British hospitals.
Technical education was vocationally oriented training held at junior and senior technical institutes. The encouragement of such education was thought vital to provide a skilled workforce and support the economy. The Association of Principals of Technical Institutions was a professional body for those working in this field.
According to Daniel Lysons in The Environs of London, "a free-school was founded in this parish about the beginning of the last century by Peter Hills and Robert Bell, and endowed with a small annual income for the education of eight sons of seamen, with a salary of 3 l. per annum for the master. The schoolhouse, which is situated near the church, was rebuilt by subscription in 1745. The endowment has been considerably augmented by various donations. In 1712, 220 l. was subscribed to purchase a ground-rent. Since this time benefactions to the amount of near 900 l. have been given, and the fund is now such as to enable the parish to clothe and educate thirty-three boys and twenty-two girls".
From: 'Rotherhithe', The Environs of London: volume 1: County of Surrey (1792), pp. 470-477.
The organisation known as "The Ranyard Mission and Ranyard Nurses" originated as "The London Bible and Domestic Female Mission" - a lay group of Anglican bible women founded in 1857 by Mrs L. N. Ranyard. In 1868 a nursing branch was added, and the title was changed to the "London Biblewomen and Nurses Mission". In 1952 the headquarters was moved from Holborn to Kennington and the organisation was then known by the title of "Ranyard Mission and Ranyard Nurses."
"The South Lee Benevolent Society and Nurses Fund" (see A/RNY/75-84) was supplied with the services of a nurse by the Ranyard Mission. In 1965 the nurses were taken over by the Boroughs, but the Home at Lewisham is still run by trustees.
The following information was sent to the Record Office in 1976, by Mr R. Crosfield Harris, Treasurer of the Ranyard Mission Fund:-
"In 1958 the Ranyard Memorial Charitable Trust was set up by an admirer of the work of the Ranyard Nurses, Mr A.C. Parker of Lewisham, for the building of a Nursing Home for terminal illness. With assistance from the Ogilvie Charities and other donors the Ranyard Memorial Nursing Home was built in Blessington Road, Lewisham, on land leased from the Merchant Taylors Company. It is managed by a committee responsible to the Trustees of the Ranyard Memorial Charitable Trust. These Trustees also administer the Ranyard Mission Fund - the funds of the Ranyard Mission and the Ranyard Nurses - under a Scheme of the Charity Commission. The income of this Fund, after paying pensions to retired members of the staff of the Ranyard Mission and Ranyard Nurses, is available towards the maintenance of the Home".
The Women's Local Government Society (also called the Society for Promoting Women as County Councillors) was founded in the late 1880s by Annie Leigh Browne as a network of Liberals, suffragettes and other like-minded women who believed that women should be allowed to play a greater part in political life, and who wished to challenge confusion created by the Local Government Act, 1888, which gave women the right to vote in local council elections but not to stand in them. Women had been given the right to stand for election to Boards such as School Boards, but the 1888 Act absorbed these bodies into the new Councils, meaning that women lost their places on the Boards. The Society was founded in London but encouraged the formation of regional branches.
The Society was involved in campaign work, legal challenges and lobbying which resulted in the 1907 "Qualification of Women" Act which allowed women ratepayers to be elected to Borough and County Councils. Following the passing of the 1907 Act the Society gave practical support to women standing for election. In December 1907 Reina Emily Lawrence, London's first female councillor, was elected on to Hampstead Borough Council after winning a by-election with a majority of 319 votes. She was supported by the Hampstead branch of the Society.
The Society stopped operating during the First World War, although it was revived in 2006-07 to celebrate the centenary of the 1907 legislation.
Some information from the website of the Women's Local Government Society, http://www.womeninlocalgovernment.org.uk/index.php?action=background (accessed June 2010).
Whitelands College School, founded in 1842, was attached to Whitelands College, founded in 1841, as a training college for women teachers, and taken over in 1849 by the National Society. They were situated in King's Road, Chelsea, on the corner of Walpole Street. The buildings of college and school surrounded a quadrangle, which, like the chapel, was used by both college students and girls of the school.
In 1917 the college was obliged to extend its premises and so the school had to be closed. A new school, Lady Margaret School, was opened at Parsons Green, with Miss Moberly Bell, who had taught at Whitelands, as head, but this was under a different council. In 1931 the college itself left Chelsea for West Mill, Putney, and the Chelsea site was developed as flats.
In the early 1900's the pupils of the school were daughters of doctors, officers at the Royal Hospital, shopkeepers and so on, from Chelsea, Kensington, Westminster, Battersea and Wandsworth. There was a kindergarten for both girls and boys, and of girls leaving the upper school some went on to the college, others into a variety of posts (A/WSO/29). Junior County Scholarships offered by the LCC c 1907 were tenable at the school; at this time some of the London County Council's own new secondary schools were still in temporary premises.
From its inception in 1893 the Whitelands Rose Guild, its successor the Old Girls' Association, and also the Hebblethwaite Memorial Guild, had as secretary Miss Alice Denning who was secretary to the college from before 1906 until after the move in 1931. She retired as secretary of the OGA in 1949, and died in 1955. Since the school closed in 1917, the OGA could have no new members after this date, but continued to meet annually at the college in Chelsea, and latterly at Putney, until 1965. By then the numbers were so low that the 1966 meeting was held at the chairman's house. The OGA came to an end in 1967.
John Horne Tooke was born John Horne in 1736, the son of a successful poulterer. He was ordained a clergyman but also studied law and medicine. In 1764 he became a supporter of radical politician John Wilkes, anonymously publishing a pamphlet, The Petition of an Englishman, which defended Wilkes and criticised the government, particularly Lord Bute. He later met Wilkes in Paris where the latter had fled to escape prosecution.
In 1768 Horne became an enthusiastic campaigner for Wilkes who was standing for the Middlesex seat in the general elections. He hired two inns for use of Wilkes's supporters and travelled all over the constituency giving rousing speeches, using the motto "Wilkes and Liberty". Wilkes won the election but was arrested on outstanding charges and imprisoned. He was subsequently barred from taking up his seat in Parliament. Horne threw himself into pro-Wilkes activism. In 1769 he founded the Society of Gentleman Supporters of the Bill of Rights which aimed to defend the constitutional rights of the people, and to raise money to assist Wilkes. Horne also published on wider issues of political liberty and justice. In 1770-71, however, he had a dispute with Wilkes over finances and split away from the Gentleman Supporters, forming the Constitutional Society.
In 1773-74 Horne assisted his friend William Tooke in a property dispute. Tooke was grateful and giving Horne gifts and promising him an inheritance. In 1775 Horne raised money to assist Americans injured by British troops, publishing an annoucement that the Americans were "murdered by the King's troops". As a result Horne was arrested for libel and imprisoned in King's Bench for a year. In 1782 Horne added the name Tooke to his own, as an indication that he would be William Tooke's heir. In the 1780s Horne Tooke continued to actively campaign for political reform as a member of reform groups and as an author. In 1786 he published Epea Pteroenta, or, The Diversions of Purley, a philological study which attempted to democratize language.
In 1791-94 Horne Tooke's reform activities, in light of the French Revolution, were considered increasingly dangerous by the government, and his mail was opened by the authorities. In 1794 he was arrested on suspicion of planning an insurrection, placed in the Tower and tried for high treason. He was found not guilty.
The Dictionary of National Biography notes that in the general election of 1796 Horne Tooke "showed some renewed passion for politics, when he stood for Westminster against Fox and Sir Alan Gardner. He campaigned against war, taxation, economic depression, and repressive legislation, and held himself out to the electorate as a political martyr". He was not successful, although in 1801 he was given the pocket borough of Old Sarum by his friend Lord Camelford, finding it ironic that a reformer should get to Parliament using a rotten borough. After 1802, however, ill-health caused him to enter semi-retirement and he died in 1812.
Source: Michael T. Davis, 'Tooke, John Horne (1736-1812)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27545, accessed 9 March 2011].
Matthew Robinson-Morris, second Baron Rokeby, was born in 1713 and pursued a career as a lawyer and politician. He died in 1800. His title was inherited by his nephew Morris Robinson-Morris, third Baron Rokeby, 1757-1829, who was a politician and pamphleteer.
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 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 Manor of Harrow Rectory alias Harrow-on-the-Hill originated in land owned by priest Werhardt in the 9th century. From 1094-1845 Harrow Rectory was a peculiar of the archbishopric of Canterbury within the deanery of Croydon. The rector had sole manorial jurisdiction over Harrow-on-the-Hill and Roxborough, and collected tithes from a large area. This was a prized position which attracted ambitious and important men, and the rectory house was accordingly fine and spacious. In 1546 the rectory was impropriated to Christ Church, Oxford, but in 1547 the college alienated the rectory, the advowson of the vicarage, and (from 1550) the tithes to Sir Edward North, lord of Harrow alias Sudbury Manor. The grant was made in fee farm in perpetuity, North paying the College an annual fee. North sublet the rectory and tithes while retaining the manorial rights, and enjoyed the rights and profits of the rectory. In 1630 the rectory was conveyed to George Pitt and thereafter descended with Sudbury Court Manor until 1807, when the rectory house and 121 acres of land north of it were sold to James Edwards; the remaining land becoming part of Harrow Park.
'Harrow, including Pinner : Harrow church', 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. 249-255 (available online).
The Manor of Poplar was formed in 1200 when part of the lands of Bernard of Stepney were sold to Henry of Bedfont. In 1339 the manor was owned by Sir John Pulteney, the Mayor of London. From 1405 to 1538 the manor was the property of the abbey of Saint Mary Graces, who gave it to the Crown in 1539. It was subsequently broken up, the manor house and the lordship and lands being granted to different people.
Source of information: 'Stepney: Manors and Estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 19-52.
The complaint was that John Moore was indebted to Crichton Horne and Edward Finch for two sums of £200, from 6 November 1806. Trial by jury was requested by the defendant, and was heard 11 May 1807 before the Right Honorable Lord Ellenborough, justice. Damages were assessed by the jury at £82.10s and costs and charges to 40s.
The manor of Hendon is listed in the Domesday Book as belonging to the Abbey of Westminster. At the Dissolution it passed to the Crown, who granted it to the new Bishopric of Westminster. However, it returned to the Crown when the Bishopric was suppressed in 1550. It was granted to the Earl of Pembroke, William Herbert, and remained in the Herbert family until 1650 when it was sequestrated as the Herberts were Royalists. At the Restoration it was restored to the family. In 1757 the manor was purchased by James Clutterbuck who conveyed it to his friend David Garrick in 1765. It was left to Garrick's nephew but sold after his death and subsequently passed through various hands. The estate was described as 1226 acres in 1754.
Source of information: 'Hendon: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 16-20 (available online).
The Bullock family first appear in this collection in the early eighteenth century as leather dressers of some substance in London. Henry Bullock was admitted in 1711 as a freeman of the City of London (ACC/0132/240). In 1715 he and his father John Bullock entered into articles of partnership for the management of leather mills at Poyle in Stanwell which they first leased, and later purchased in 1742 (ACC/0132/191, ACC/0132/243). It is title deeds to Poyle Mills, and to other properties in Stanwell which the family subsequently owned, which make up the major part of the collection. The Stanwell deeds date mainly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but the earliest is a grant of four acres dated 1366. The earliest deed which identifies the Mills is of 1612 (ACC/0132/145).
Besides title deeds the collection includes family settlements and wills of the Bullocks, and their connections the Bland and Maw families. It is clear from deposited account books of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (ACC/0132/285-286) that the family retained a connection with the City of London as well as being substantial citizens in Stanwell. Members of the family were from time to time churchwardens, as the presence of a group of Stanwell Parish Records shows, and Henry Bullock junior was appointed a trustee of the Bedfont to Bagshot, and treasurer of the Cranford Turnpike Trusts in 1760 and 1773 successively (ACC/0132/281-282). The Bland family papers include a series of commissions of Joseph Bland from practitioner engineer to lieutenant colonel in the East India Company Corps of Engineers between 1770 and 1801 (ACC/0132/288-296). There is also an extemely interesting letter from Alfred Bland describing in detail conditions in Zululand in 1879 (ACC/0132/297).
Deposited with the Bullock family papers, but having no apparent archival connection with them, is a group of three building leases of 1793 and 1794 from the Earl of Southampton to William and James Adam of Albemarle Street relating to houses in Fitzroy Square (ACC/0132/330-332).
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 'fine' was a fee, separate from the rent, paid by the tenant or vassal to the landlord on some alteration of the tenancy.
Common Recovery was a process by which land was transferred from one owner to another. It was a piece of legal fiction involving the party transferring the land, a notional tenant and the party acquiring the land; the tenant was ejected to effect the transfer. An exemplification was a formal copy of a court record issued with the court's seal.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The parish of Little Stanmore dates back before 1200. The church of St Lawrence, otherwise known as St Lawrence Whitchurch, was first recorded as having been appropriated by St Bartholomew's Priory. The church was acquired by the Lake family of Little Stanmore in 1552. They built up the fortunes of the parish as trustees, setting up a charitable foundation in 1680 and building almshouses and a free school. By the eighteenth century the church had been inherited by the Duke of Chandos who appointed John James to rebuild it between 1714-1720. It is said that Handel played the church organ at the height of his career, while staying with the Duke nearby. Notable ministers of the church include John Theophilus Desaguliers, a Huguenot refugee who preferred natural philosophy to his church duties; he invented the planetarium. The population of the parish grew considerably during the 1920's and 30s with the coming of the underground railway to Stanmore. A separate parish (All Saints, Queensbury) was constituted from the southern part of Little Stanmore in 1932, following boundary changes.
Source: 'Little Stanmore: Church', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 122-124 (available online).
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.
The Palace Court was a court of record for the trial of all those personal pleas and actions arising within twelve miles of the palace of Westminster which did not fall within the jurisdiction of the city of London or other liberties. It became in practice mainly a court for the recovery of small debts and was abolished from 1 August 1849 by Act 12 and 13 Victoria c101 (from the "Guide to the Contents of the Public Records Office").
The Pocock family appear to have leased their estate from part of the lands of the manor of Isleworth Syon, which was held by the Crown.
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.
Spelthorne was one of the Middlesex Hundreds, containing the parishes of Ashfrod, East Bedfont, Feltham, Hampton, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington and Shepperton. The hundred was held by the Crown.
1805 was during the Napoleonic Wars when many militia forces and volunteer forces were formed to participate in the war effort.
Prince William, the third son of King George the Third, was made Duke of Clarence in 1789. From 1797 he lived in Bushy House, Teddington, as ranger of Bushy Park. He became King William IV in 1830.
The Manor of Colkennington alias Kempton adjoined Sunbury Manor. In 1066 it is recorded as held by one Ulward. In 1104 the owner William of Mortain was convicted of treason and the lands became Crown property. The Crown leased or granted the manor to various courtiers. By 1864 the property belonged to the Barnett family, who sold the land in 1876 but kept the title of lord of the manor.
'Sunbury: Manors', 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. 53-57 (available online).
In 1438 King Henry VI granted Ruislip Manor to the University of Cambridge. The University gave up its interest in 1441 and the king granted the manor to the new College of St Mary and St Nicholas, later known as King's College Cambridge. This was made an outright grant in 1451. The estate remained in the possession of the college until the early 20th century.
Ralph Hawtrey acquired the lease of the manor in 1669. The Hawtreys and their descendants, the Rogerses and Deanes, kept the lease of the manor until the late 19th century when it was taken up by the College.
From: 'Ruislip: Manors and other estates', 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. 134-137.
The Bacon family owned extensive estates in the Finchley, Friern Barnet and Hornsey areas. See A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate (1980) for more information (available online).
The manor of Enfield is first recorded as held by Ansgar the staller in 1066. In 1086 it was owned by Geoffrey de Mandeville and stayed in his family until 1419 when it became the property of King Henry V. Subsequently it was assigned to various female members of the Royal family, including Margaret of Anjou; and was leased out until the lease was acquired by the Duke of Chandos in 1742.
John Pardoe, by deed of 1757, left his great tithes on some 230 acres in Hendon to ten poor widows aged 40 or over on Stanmore. A rent-charge payable in lieu of great tithes was gradually redeemed for stock between 1909 and 1943.
Source: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton, Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham, 1976, (available online).
'Feoffment' was an early form of conveyance involving a simple transfer of freehold land by deed followed by a ceremony called livery of seisin.
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 'fine' was a fee, separate from the rent, paid by the tenant or vassal to the landlord on some alteration of the tenancy, or a sum of money paid for the granting of a lease or for admission to a copyhold tenement.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Sir Lancelot Shadwell, the last Vice Chancellor of England, bought Northolt manor from George Villiers, Earl of Jersey, in 1827. The manor comprised 269 acres. The Shadwell family owned the manor until the early 20th century when the estate was broken up and sold.
From: 'Northolt: Manors and other estates', 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. 113-116 (available online).
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).
Source: British Records Association Guidelines 3: How to interpret deeds (available online).
Yeoveney Farm was a manor in Staines, formed in the 13th century. It comprised 200-300 acres situated east of Staines Moor. The land was usually farmed by tenants and the manorial rights lapsed soon after 1758. The land passed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
The History of the County of Middlesex mentions a 'Batcher Field', comprising 63 acres, as situated east of Northolt village.
Source of information: 'Staines: Manors', 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. 18-20; and 'Northolt: Introduction', 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. 109-113.
The Delme-Radcliffe family were the holders of Hitchin Priory in Hertfordshire. Through various marriages the family estates grew to include land in Cambridgeshire, West Sussex, Bedfordshire, Essex, Croydon and Hampshire as well as the Middlesex and London lands featured in this collection.
Blome, Richard (baptised 1635?, died 1705), cartographer and bookseller, may have been the son of Jacob Blome and his wife, Mary, baptized at St Ann Blackfriars, London, on 10 July 1635. Beginning his career as a heraldic painter, developing an expertise in arms-painting for funerals and other solemn occasions, Blome became a publisher and was among the first to use the advance subscription method to finance many projects. He had a shop in London between 1668 and 1679 and sold his own books at Mr Kid's at the corner of Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he lodged. In 1694 his address is given as New Weld Street near Clare-Market, according to Thomas Chubb. Much of Blome's work was heraldic and geographical, specializing in topographical works.
With his more famous rival, the cartographer and mapseller John Ogilby, Blome has been given credit for inaugurating a new period of activity in English cartography, if not geography. Blome acted more as compiler or editor than as author of his best-known work outside of the cartographic field, "The Gentleman's Recreation" (1686), which treats the utility of the liberal arts and sciences, and includes some of the earliest illustrations published of British field sports. Among Blome's other publications is "A Description of the Island of Jamaica" (1672), while his most intriguing secular study is a translation of Anthony le Grand's "Institutio philosophiae" entitled "An Entire Body of Philosophy" (1694), containing half-baked dissertations on demonology and other curious pieces. Blome also wrote on biblical themes.
By 1700 it appears that Blome's affairs generally and presumably his finances more particularly were in some disarray, although he continued to publish until near the time of his death. Already ill, he made his will on 7 May 1705, desiring to be buried in the church of Harlington, near Uxbridge. He left a total of 40 shillings to the poor of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Harlington, while the residue of his estate passed to Jane Hilton, with whom he lived for many years. His exact date of death is unknown, but as sole executor she proved the will on 22 October 1705. Recent reassessment of his work gives Blome an enigmatic reputation ranging from that of a farcical, petulant sycophant, to that of an opportunistic, business-like cultivator of both patronage and the mapmaker's art.
Source: S. Mendyk, 'Blome, Richard (bap. 1635?, d. 1705)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
Adelaide House was built in 1828 on the west side of Forty Green at a time when the area was fashionable. The house has since been destroyed. Forty Green is now known as Forty Hill.
The Bridgen Hall estate was situated between Carterhatch Lane and Goat Lane. It was sold in 1868 and was divided between a housing estate, gravel digging, and open parkland.