The manor of Isleworth or Isleworth Syon seems to have included land in Heston, Isleworth and Twickenham. In 1086 it belonged to Walter of Saint Valery, one of William the Conqueror's companions. The land subsequently passed into royal possession and was granted to Queen Isabel in 1327 and Queen Philippa in 1330. In 1421 the king granted Isleworth to the newly created abbey of Syon, in whose possession it remained until 1539. The Abbey was suppressed in 1539 and in 1547 the Duke of Somerset secured a grant of the estate to himself, which he held until his execution in 1552, although his widow continued to live at the manor until ordered to leave in 1554. The Crown leased the lands to various tenants until 1598 when Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, secured the tenancy rights. In 1604 he received a grant in fee of the house and manor with the park. The property descended to his heirs including Charles, Duke of Somerset (died 1748) and his son the Earl of Northumberland. Their descendants still owned Syon in 1958.
Assignment refers to the transfer of a right, usually a lease, or a mortgage.
Surrender of a lease is the return of property held by lease or by copyhold to the lessor or the lord of the manor.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
A 'formulary' is a book of formulas, containing the set form or forms according to which something is to be done or written; in this case indictments, which were legal documents containing the charges or formal accusations against a person. The book would have been used as a handbook or guide for legal professionals.
'Viscount Melbourne' is probably Peniston Lamb (1745-1828), a substantial landowner in Derbyshire and Hertfordshire, for many years an MP, and from 1770 an Irish peer as first Baron Melbourne (Viscount Melbourne from 1781). His son William Lamb became Prime Minister as the second Viscount Melborne.
The old parish of Ickenham was situated between the River Pinn and the Yeading Brook, adjacent to Hillingdon parish. It covered around 1,458 acres. In 1937 the civil parish merged with Uxbridge and since 1965 the are has been part of the borough of Hillingdon. The parish comprised farmland and fields until the construction of the Metropolitan Line extension in 1904, which encouraged the construction of residential houses.
The Victoria County History of Middlesex notes: "at the inclosure of 1780 the open fields of Ickenham amounted to 683 acres. They began near the junction of Glebe and Austin lanes and covered the south of the parish. To the north of the Yeading Brook were Tipper Hill and Woe Acres. Two meadows in the parish were called Brook Mead. One was on the Ickenham bank of the Pinn near Beeton Wood, the other lay along the southern bank of the Yeading Brook where it entered the parish north of the modern airfield. Adjoining this Brook Mead was Ickenham Marsh. Middle Field and Bleak or Black Hill were inside the loop of the Yeading Brook on the banks of which were also Tottingworth Field, Swillingtons, Further Field, and Down Barnes Hill, which lay further to the south. Many of these fields are visible from the point where Western Avenue crosses the Yeading Brook. Bleak Hill, mentioned as early as 1367, rises gradually to about 8 feet above the level of the road and is topped by a clump of trees." From: 'Ickenham: 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. 100-102 (available online).
The parish of Hillingdon lay in the north west of Middlesex, bordered by the river Colne, Harefield, Ickenham, Hayes, Harlington, West Drayton and Harmondsworth. Hillingdon, Uxbridge, and Cowley are very closely related; for example Uxbridge and, later, the manor of Hillingdon were included in Colham manor; while Uxbridge hamlet extended into Hillingdon parish and parts of Cowley village lay in Hillingdon. In 1841 Hillingdon parish, including the township of Uxbridge, contained 4,944 acres and Cowley parish 306 acres.
The Victoria County History of Middlesex notes that "by the time of the first parliamentary inclosure in 1795 approximately three-fifths of Hillingdon parish had already been inclosed. Inclosure of small parcels of waste probably proceeded steadily from the late medieval period onwards: some open-field land had been inclosed before 1636, and the process accelerated during the 17th and 18th centuries. Under the 1795 Act Cowley Field, comprising 331 acres in Hillingdon and Cowley parishes, was inclosed. A second Act, passed in 1812 and executed in 1825, inclosed a further 1,400 acres and completed the inclosure of open-field and waste land, save for 15 acres of Uxbridge Common which were reserved as an open space."
From: 'Hillingdon, including Uxbridge: 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. 55-69 (available online).
The size of Finchley Common is unclear - it was between 500 acres and 1,600 acres in size. When it was enclosed it consisted of 900 acres.
The manor of Shepperton was granted to Westminster Abbey by Edward the Confessor between 1051 and 1066. The Abbey later granted the manor to an undertenant but retained the overlordship until the Dissolution. In 1741 the manor was sold to the trustees of Penelope Stratford, who was then a minor. Penelope married Richard Geast, who later took the name of Dugdale. After his death she sold Shepperton in 1811 to Thomas Scott (d. 1816). The manor afterwards passed to his nephew James Scott (d. 1855). In 1856 it was purchased by W. S. Lindsay, a ship-owner and member of Parliament who wrote a history of merchant shipping as well as one of Shepperton, and was largely responsible for the construction of the Thames Valley Railway (d. 1878). He was succeeded by his grandson, W. H. Lindsay (d. 1949). In 1954 W. H. Lindsay's widow transferred the estate to her husband's nephew, Mr. P. A. R. Lindsay, who was the owner in 1958.
The manorial demesne contained 100 or more acres of arable in the 14th century and a good deal of meadow and pasture. There is no reliable information about its extent thereafter before 1843, when the estate belonging to the lord of the manor amounted to some 380 acres. This included the Manor Farm in Chertsey Road with which the bulk of the property was leased. By 1867 the estate comprised about 600 acres, but some of this has since been sold.
From: 'Shepperton: The hundred of Spelthorne (continued)', 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. 1-12 (available online).
The Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, designed by Christopher Wren, opened on 26 March 1674. In 1747 the theatre and a patent renewal were purchased by renowned actor David Garrick and partner James Lacy. Garrick served as manager and lead actor of the theatre until roughly 1766, and continued on in the management role for another ten years after.
Garrick commissioned Robert Adam and his brother James to renovate the theatre's interior, which they did in 1775. Their additions included an ornate ceiling and a stucco facade facing Bridges Street.
Garrick left the stage in 1776 and sold his shares in the theatre to the Irish playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Source: http://www.theatre-royal.com
The account book includes details of clients in Hornsey, Wood Green, Ponders End, Holloway, Stepney, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Shoreditch, Hoxton, Finsbury, Mile End, Peckham and Lambeth.
For a detailed history of the growth and development of Enfield and South Mimms, please see the Victoria County History for Middlesex ("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).
Palgrave is located on the south bank of the River Waveney, opposite Diss.
Sir Robert Buckes Clifton may be Sir Robert Clifton (1826-1869) of Clifton Hall, Nottingham. Sir Robert was known for his large gambling debts and spent much time abroad to avoid his creditors.
A bargain and sale was an early form of conveyance often used by executors to convey land. The bargainee or person to whom the land was bargained and sold, became seised of the land.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
A bargain and sale was an early form of conveyance often used by executors to convey land. The bargainee, or person to whom the land was bargained and sold, took possession, often refered to as becoming 'seised' of the land.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
A bargain and sale was an early form of conveyance often used by executors to convey land. The bargainee, or person to whom the land was bargained and sold, took possession, often referred to as becoming 'seised' of the land.
Feoffment was an early form of conveyance involving a simple transfer of freehold land by deed followed by in a ceremony called livery of seisin.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
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.
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 assessment was signed by the Commissioners acting under several Acts of Parliament, and delivered to the Receiving Officer, John Hyde.
Charlotte Salomon was born in Berlin in 1917 into a cultured and assimilated middle class Jewish family, and died in Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 26. 'Life or Theatre?' is the name she gave to a sequence of nearly 800 gouaches she produced between 1940 and 1942. Subtitled 'a play with music', it combines images, texts and musical references to recreate a life scarred both by family tragedy and Nazi persecution, yet interspersed with moments of intense happiness and love.
The administrative history concerning this collection is unknown.
N/A
Nazi antisemitisc propaganda drawing on theJudensau tradition of caricature that sought to dehumanise Jewish people. The tradition dates back to the Middle Ages when images were displayed in churches, public buildings, town gates and town walls. It was later revived by the Nazis.
The protest meeting to which this flyer refers took place some time in 1938 after Reichskristallnacht, at The Hippodrome, Golders Green. Among those attending were representatives from the Federation of Peace Councils, the Jewish People's Council and the Society of Friends.
Eva Manes was the daughter of Philip Manes, a German Jewish fur-trader, who was transported to Theresienstadt, then Auschwitz where he perished with his wife. See GB 1556 WL 1346 for more background information on the family.
On the eve of World War Two, the city of Lodz in Poland had a population of 665,000 people of which 34 per cent were Jews. The Jewish population was very active in the industrial sector and the community had a very vibrant cultural life, consisting of sports clubs theatres and newspapers. The Jewish community also produced many renowned authors, artists and poets.
After the German army occupied Lodz on 8 September 1939 there began a campaign of anti-semitic persecution of increasing severity reaching a peak with the creation of the Lodz ghetto, which was officially sealed off from the outside world on 1 May 1940. Thousands were brutalised and hundreds were murdered in the process. The ghetto was only ever conceived of as a temporary measure and ultimately it was planned to rid the city of its entire Jewish population. In the meantime the population of the ghetto, nominally represented by a council of Jewish elders, was forced to live in appalling overcrowded conditions with minimal food and no sanitation. 43,500 people died during the ghetto's existence mostly through starvation and disease.
The deportations, initially to Chelmno, began in January 1942. In total 70,000 inhabitants were sent to their deaths during this first stage. There followed a period of relative quiet when the ghetto became a giant labour camp. The death camp at Chelmno was reopened in June 1944 on the orders of Himmler, who wanted to finally liquidate the ghetto and over 7000 ghetto inmates were murdered in the space of 3 weeks. Another 65,000 Jews were deported to their deaths at Auschwitz during the remainder of 1944. The remaining 1000 Jews at Lodz were liberated by the Russians on 19 January 1945.
This microfilm collection consists of material gathered in Vilnius, Lithuania, by a group of refugee Polish-Jewish writers and journalists, who formed a committee to collect evidence on the conditions of Jews in Poland under German occupation.
Dr. Eugen Gerstenmaier was one of the founding fathers of the Federal Republic of Germany. A leading Christian Democrat during its first twenty years, he was president of the Bundestag from 1954-1969. A Protestant theologian, he came into conflict with Nazism in the 1930s and was among those arrested in the wake of an aborted attempt on the life of Hitler in 1944.
Gerstenmaier was born in Kirchenheim near Stuttgart, on August 25 1906. He left school at 14 and worked for 8 years as a clerk before embarking on studies in philosophy and theology at Tübungen University. His first clash with Nazism came in 1934 when he was arrested while still a student. His continued opposition to the regime cost him a teaching post at Berlin University two years later, and he turned to work in the Evangelical Church.
His post in the Church's foreign department enabled him to travel and make contact with various churchmen abroad during World War Two, and this later enabled him to accelerate the return of many POWs.
During the war he became a member of the Evangelical resistance group led by Graf Moltke which was involved in plotting against Hitler. After the failure of the assassination attempt on Hitler in June, 1944, Gerstenmaier was arrested and sentenced to seven years' hard labour, but was rescued by the advancing American army.
In the aftermath of the war he devoted his energies to the Evangelisches Hilfswerk, which, under his leadership, became a powerful Protestant welfare organisation in Germany. As an expert in church social work he also became the German delegate to the Ecumenical Church Council of Churches in Geneva.
With his election to the founding session of the Bundestag in 1949, however, he flung himself into the nascent political life of the new republic. He was a senior figure in the Christian Democrat Union and in 1954 became the first elected President (speaker) of the Bundestag. In January 1969 he resigned from the presidency. He died on 13 March 1986.
This microfilm report detailing deportation to and conditions in Auschwitz- Birkenau, was written by two Slovakian prisoners who managed to escape. According to a preamble the authors withheld their names for reasons of security.
The papers in this collection relate to the trial of six Danish Nazis for anti-semitic libel, in Copenhagen, 1937. The defendants include Ernst Lemvigh Müller, Niels Olsen, editor of the National-Socialistiks Maanedhaefte, Aag Henning Andersen, Nannestad Møoller, Valdemar Jensen, editor of Stormen and Betty Henning. The longest sentence was 80 days.
Nothing is known of the provenance or authorship of this report, which is a digest of details about an international anti-Jewish congress which took place in Belgium.
Nothing is known of the provenance and little is known of the authorship of these letters and reports which document the situation of Jews in Brazil in the 1930s.
Siegfried Weiner was a Jewish lawyer who lived in Regensburg, Bavaria until October 1933, when the family emigrated to Palestine. The family later returned to Regensburg.
The author of the report was a Jew who was imprisoned for 3 months in both Vienna and Prague without apparent reason until he managed to obtain travel permits to Bohemia and Moravia.
The author is a former Czech civil servant who fled with his wife from Czechoslovakia to England, via Katovice, Poland in 1939.
This typescript report on conditions in Berlin is the product of a conversation with a Jewish woman who left Berlin in the beginning of 1942 and arrived in London in October of that year.
[Lotte] was a resident of Prague; interned at Theresienstadt concentration camp, Nov 1941-Aug 1945; returned to Prague, 1945; emigrated to Canada, 1947.
During World War Two, Lingfield Race Course, Surrey, was converted into an internment camp.
During 1914-1919 there were two large camps on the Isle of Man at Douglas and Knockaloe near Peel. The first was a requisitioned holiday camp whilst the second was purpose built using prefabricated huts and even had its own railway link. Large numbers of internees were held for up to five years until the camps finally closed in 1919.
In World War Two, camps were located in the Douglas area, Peel, Port Erin/Port St Mary and Ramsey. These held much smaller numbers of people thought dangerous to national security, sometimes only for a few months until the individuals were assessed for potential risk. There were also some political detainees including those held under section 18B of the Defence (General) Regulations. This enabled the Government to imprison those citizens thought to be dangerous to national security without charge, trial or set term.
Lehnitz was Jewish rest home, children's home, congressional centre and domestic science school and was located within the Berlin region.
This collection of copies of papers deals with the project of a group called the Langham Committee, whose object was to put to work several hundred German, Austrian and Czech Jewish refugees on the renovation of a dilapidated manor house and grounds, Tythrop House, Leicestershire.
Paul Dickopf was born in 1910 in Müschenbach in Oberwesterwaldkreis. After studying law and administration he joined the criminal police and later the security service. From September 1942 he went into hiding in Belgium (the circumstances of which are unknown) and later fled to Switzerland where he lived as a refugee until the end of the war. In 1947 he returned to Germany and joined the Federal German Police where he progressed to become head of the Bundeskriminalamt, Wiesbaden, and from 1968 was president of Interpol. Dickopf died in Bonn in 1973.
This collection consists of two unrelated items, both of which document the sympathetic attitudes of two ordinary German women to the Nazis and their Führer.
The origins of the Justices of the Peace lie in the temporary appointments of 'conservators' or 'keepers' of the peace made at various times of unrest between the late twelfth century and the fourteenth century. In 1361 the 'Custodis Pacis' were merged with the Justices of Labourers, and given the title Justices of the Peace and a commission.
The Commission of the Peace gave them the power to try offences in their courts of Quarter Sessions which manorial courts were not able to be deal with (misdemeanours), but which were less serious than those which went to the Assize Judges (felonies). It appointed them to conserve the peace (within a stated area) and to enquire on the oaths of "good and lawfull men" into "all manner of poisonings, enchantments, forestallings, disturbances, abuses of weights and measures" and many other things, and to "chastise and punish" anyone who had offended against laws made in order to keep the peace.
Gradually the justices took over the work of the sheriff in the county. During the sixteenth century their powers and duties increased, as the Tudor monarchs found them a cheap and effective way of enforcing their will across the country. Likewise, the new middle classes saw the post as a means to gain local prestige and influence (despite the arduous and costly duties) and there was regular pressure 'from below' to increase numbers in the Commission. Consequently, at this time, the numbers on the commission rose from an average of 8 to around 30 to 40 by the middle of the sixteenth century. Not until the mid-nineteenth century did the post lose its desirability and numbers begin to drop off.
It was a system that recognised local social structures - the natural wish to regulate local law and order, and men wanting to be judged by other local men. The justices have often, aptly, been described as 'the rulers of the county', and the crown had to be careful to choose men whose standing would not turn them into faction leaders. Equally, the justices' unpaid status ensured that the crown could not take advantage of them and act despotically, and they retained some local independence. Justices needed to be of sufficient local status to exercise authority in a judicial and administrative capacity, and to supervise the parish officials who did so much of the actual law enforcement. Men were therefore appointed from the ranks of the local gentry, most without legal training. To some extent their unpaid status excluded men from the lower orders who had to work and earn a wage.
As early as 1439 a statute introduced a property qualification for each prospective justice. Many names on the commission were purely honorific, not all of those listed had to attend every court, and in practice only a minority did so. Only those named as being of the quorum (who possessed knowledge of the law) had to appear.
The 1811 prospectus for the Regent's Canal describes the ill-fated Paddington to Wapping Canal project:
"The great Distance of the Thames from the Northern Boundary of the Town has been always considered an Inconvenience from the Expense of Land Carriage, and the crowding the intermediate Streets with Carts and Waggons: as the Town has extended itself Northwards, those Inconveniences have been more severely felt, and so long ago as the year 1773 a Canal was contemplated along the back Part of the Metropolis, between its Northern Boundary and the High Grounds of Hampstead, Highgate and Islington.
The Paddington Branch of the Grand Junction Canal, executed about ten years since, formed a Communication with the River Thames at Brentford but the Distance from Paddington to Brentford being 20 miles, and from thence by the River Thames to the Shipping at Limehouse and the different Docks at Wapping, Blackwall etc. upon the Average 20 miles more, is so circuitous and the Passage through the different Bridges is so hazardous, that no Sort of Accommodation has been afforded by that Connection with the River Thames to the Neighbourhood through which the intended Canal is proposed to pass, and the Accommodation it has afforded to Paddington itself is very little.
In the Year 1802, a Canal from Paddington to the Limehouse Dock, at Wapping, was projected on a line through Ground, much of which was then allotted for building upon, and in the Course of which many and valuable Buildings then erected must have been necessarily taken down. A large subscription was then raised to carry the Scheme into Effect, but it was afterwards abandoned from the very heavy Expence likely to be incurred by it and by the great Opposition made by the Land Owners through which it was to pass."
Source: Website "When London Became an Island" about the building of the Regent's Canal. See http://www.whenlondonbecame.org.uk/new_page_5.htm (accessed Aug 09).
The extracts for the most part come from Liber Customarium, Liber Horn and Liber Albus. From a note in the middle of the book the extracts appear to deal with early references to architectural matters and the names of localities and streets. Translations are provided for some Latin and French extracts.
The name of the compiler and the purpose for which the extracts were made are not known.
The Hall was constructed in 1894, with further improvements and additions in 1947-48.
The Gordon Riots took place in June 1780. On 2 June a 50,000 person crowd assembled in St George's Fields, Southwark, to protest against the repeal of anti-Roman Catholic laws. The march had been organised by Lord George Gordon, MP, leader of the Protestant Association, but he lost control of the crowds. Protestors broke away and began looting and burning Roman Catholic chapels. By 5 June the rioters lost interest in Roman Catholic targets and began general destruction, attacking prisons including Newgate, Clerkenwell, the Fleet, King's Bench and Borough Clink and setting the inmates free. Houses and businesses were attacked; including Downing Street. The crowd stormed the Bank of England but were repelled. On 6 June all was quiet again. Lord Gordon was arrested and tried for high treason but was acquitted. 21 ringleaders were hanged. An estimated 850 people died in the chaos.
Information from The London Encyclopaedia, eds. Weinreb and Hibbert (LMA Library Reference 67.2 WEI).
Controversy had arisen before 1773 over the siting of a bridge between Richmond and Twickenham. The inhabitants of Richmond were prepared to accept a bridge leaving the Surrey shore at Water Lane. Such a bridge would require a new approach road on the Middlesex side to be built over and belonging to Twickenham Park House, the owner of which, the Duchess of Newcastle, was opposed to this idea. The bridge commissioners had eventually to accept a bridge leaving from Ferry Hill, Richmond. It is assumed that the map was drawn up and printed as part of this controversy.
The bridge was constructed in 1774-77, designed by James Paine and Kenton Couse. It became toll-free in 1859.
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".