The Metropolitan Railway Company and the Great Central Railway Company worked together to operate a section of line running between Grendon Underwood and London Marylebone via Aylesbury, Harrow and Amersham.
According to the Brent Council website, the Metropolitan Tower Construction Company was founded by Sir Edward Watkin, Chairman of the Metropolitan Railway Company. He was impressed by the Eiffel Tower and wished to construct something similar on land he owned in Wembley Park. In 1880 a design was chosen for a 1,200 feet high steel tower incorporating restaurants, theatres, dancing rooms and exhibition space. Work was begun in 1893 but ran into problems both with the construction and finances. Work was stopped when the tower was 155 feet high. The incomplete structure was surrounded by pleasure gardens including sports facilities, tea rooms, bandstands and a lake. The park was served by the new Wembley Park station which had opened in 1894. In 1899 the Tower Construction Company went into liquidation. Subsequently, the structure was neglected and by 1902 it was declared unsafe and closed to the public. It was then demolished, with the scrap steel exported abroad. Wembley Stadium now stands on the site.
See "The history of the Wembley Park area" on Brent Council website, http://www.brent.gov.uk/regeneration.nsf/Wembley/LBB-149 (accessed Jan 2010).
The South Metropolitan Electric Tramways and Lighting Company Limited operated 52 tramcars and 13.08 miles of tramways in south London, Surrey and Kent. In 1912, along with London United Tramways and Metropolitan Electric Tramways, it was purchased by the London and Suburban Traction Company, a company owned jointly by British Electric Traction and the London Electric Railway Company (the London Underground Group). This Company became part of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933.
Humphrey de Bohun was the second Earl of Hereford and the first Earl of Essex. He succeeded his father Henry, first earl in 1220 and was created Earl of Essex after the death of his maternal uncle William de Mandeville in 1227. He was in addition Constable of England. Originally on the side of Simon de Montfort, by 1263 he had returned to the king's party. He died 14 September 1274.
Henry Frowic (Frowyke) was the son of Thomas Frowyke of Old Fold, South Mimms, a citizen of London and Lord Mayor in 1275.
The first assessments of 1692-3 were made under the terms of an "Act for granting to their Majesties an aid of four shillings in the pound for one year for carrying on a vigorous war against France" [4W and M c.1, 1692/3]. The Act specfied that real estate and personal property, that is buildings and moveable property as well as land, were to be taxed. It nominated, for each borough and county in England and Wales, the local commissioners who were to supervise the assessments and local collection.
The tax was voted annually, usually in the spring, until 1798 when it was transformed into a permanent tax, but was redeemable on a payment of a lump sum. It was levied on a number of different bases: as a pound rate between 1693 and 1696, as a four shillings assessment supplemented by a poll tax in 1697 and, from 1698-1798, on the system whereby each county or borough was given a fixed sum to collect. In 1949 redemption became compulsory on property changing hands and in 1963 all unredeemed land tax was abolished.
The assessors for each county are listed in the annual Acts of Parliament, until 1798. The sums collected for the counties of London, and Middlesex (and the City of Westminster) appear, until at least 1760, to have been passed to the Chamber of London and subsequently to the Exchequer.
Richard Wright, M.C., F.L.A. (1890-1976) was a pioneer of the county library movement. His early library training and experience were gained in public and reference libraries in Croydon, Sunderland, Coventry and Wiltshire. In 1922 he was appointed County Librarian of Middlesex with the task of inaugurating a county library service, following the adoption by the County Council of the Public Libraries Acts of 1919. The service was founded on a Carnegie Trust grant of £1,500 and a budget estimate of £600 and was intended to provide for rural areas without district council libraries. The initial library service comprised collections of books at schools and other centres, open to the public for a few hours weekly and staffed by volunteers, chiefly teachers. From 1930 full-time branch libraries, with professional staff, were opened, and these gradually replaced the part-time library centres. Richard Wright built up a service that was regarded as one of the most comprehensive and efficient in the country. His great enthusiasm and organising ability were evident in the development of the County Library through the medium of local library centres, whole-time branch libraries and students' library services.
Richard Wright served in the Royal Garrison Artillery in the First World War and gained the Military Cross. Throughout the war of 1939-45 he gave encouragement and support to members of his staff on active service and the letters he received are a testimonial to the high regard in which he was held (see Acc/1312/1-60). At the same time he was a member of the Book Recovery Committee which was instrumental in saving books and manuscripts from salvage. He took a prominent part in the scheme for organising a Regional Library System in S.E. England, and, among other professional activities, served on the Council of the Library Association. He retired in 1952 after thirty years service with Middlesex County Libraries.
Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.
Prior to the 1870 Education Act, most elementary education was in the hands of religious societies and reflected the rivalry which existed between the established church and the non-conformists. In 1815 the two most important societies were the "National Society for promoting the education of the poor in the principles of the established church" (founded in 1811) and the "British and Foreign School Society" (founded in 1814). The former taught the liturgy and the catechism of the Church of England, the latter enforced bible reading, but excluded denominational teaching.
The earliest entry by the state into the field education was in 1833 when Parliament voted £20,000, "for the purposes of education", thus initiating the system of the annual grant voted by Parliament. The funds were to be confined to the erection of school buildings and to be administered through the National, and the British and Foreign School Societies. Preference was given to schools in large towns and the grant was available only in cases where voluntary contributions met half the cast of the new school.
The funds granted by Parliament were administered by the Treasury between 1833 and 1839 and subsequently by the Committee of Council on Education until statutory provision for building grants cased in 1870. After the passing of the 1870 Education Act building grants were continued temporarily for those who applied before 31 December 1870.
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Robert Wood (1672-1738) was the son of Thomas Wood of Littleton and his wife Dorothy. Educated at Eton and Wadham College, Oxford, Robert was admitted Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, on 17 April 1695. He became a Doctor of Laws at Doctors' Commons. His first wife, Eleanor Smith, whom he married in 1702, died in 1717, and in 1720 he married Jane Heaton by whom he had four daughters.
Mrs Parnel Seaton was a widow at the time these papers were made, and lived for a time on the island of St Christopher, West Indies before returning to England. One of the letters concerns the winding up of her affairs in St Christopher, including the selling of her slaves.
John Samuel Tanqueray was a gentleman resident in Hendon. It seems that he was a local magistrate or Justice of the Peace.
The Mayfield Athletic Club was founded in 1925, and included both cricket and football sections. Events were held at the neighbouring Hazelwood sports ground, Edmonton. Tennis, netball and social sections were developed later. In 1954, the club boasted a membership of around two hundred drawn mainly from Edmonton, Enfield and Tottenham. In 1947 the club was self-supported enough to contemplate purchasing the freehold of the club house and grounds at Kenmare Gardens. However, in 1955, due to later mortgage difficulties, the premises were purchased by Edmonton Borough Council who granted the club a twenty-one year lease.
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
Lease and release was the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration (the thing for which land was transferred from one party to another, usually, of course, a sum of money).
An assignment of term, or assignment to attend the inheritance, was an assignment of the remaining term of years in a mortgage to a trustee after the mortgage itself has been redeemed. An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
A covenant or deed of covenant was an agreement entered into by one of the parties to a deed to another. A covenant for production of title deeds was an agreement to produce deeds not being handed over to a purchaser, while a covenant to surrender was an agreement to surrender copyhold land.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
In the late 1820's Jonathan Thomas Sleap was practising as a solicitor from No. 2 Middle Temple Lane, London. Before this, in 1822, he was at Barnards Inn in the parish of Holborn. In 1828 he was described as being of Brentford, but by 1839 he was residing at Ealing, where he remained until his death in April 1864.
His house at Ealing Green was called The Gret, which may have been the property known, in 1892, as Rock House (see ACC/1396/30). Sleap purchased considerable property in Middlesex, Cumberland and Buckinghamshire. On his death the estate was shared out amongst three women as tenants for life. One of these was Sleap's natural daughter, Julia Peacey.
The Manor of Osterley in Heston was purchased by property developer Nicholas Barbon in 1683. Barbon conveyed the Manor to two co-mortgagees including the banker Sir Francis Child the elder (1642-1718). Child took possession of the Manor on Barbon's death in 1698, while his son Robert Child (d. 1721) bought out the co-mortgagee, so that the Child family owned the whole estate. The family expanded the estates by purchasing nearby Manors and commissioned Robert Adam to redesign the house.
The estates and Child's Bank were inherited by Sarah Anne (1764-1793), daughter and sole heir of Robert Child (d. 1782). Under the terms of Robert Child's will the estates passed to Sarah Anne's daughter Lady Sarah Sophia Fane (1785-1867), who was said to have an income of £60,000 a year. Lady Sarah married George Villiers, the fifth Earl of Jersey (1773-1859) who took the name Child-Villiers in 1812. Osterley Park stayed in the Jersey family until 1949 when it was sold to the National Trust.
In 1800 the Manor of Hayes was sold to the executors of Robert Child's will and was therefore added to Osterley and passed to Lady Sarah Sophia Fane and her husband the Earl of Jersey. They sold the Manor in 1829 to Robert Willis Blencowe.
The Manors of Norwood and Southall were united in 1547. In 1754 they were sold to Agatha Child who left them to her son Francis Child. They were united with the Manor of Hayes and followed the same descent-passing to the Jersey family and then sold to Robert Willis Blencowe.
For more information about Osterley Park and Manor see 'Heston and Isleworth: Osterley Park', and 'Heston and Isleworth: 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. 100-111 (available online).
See also 'Hayes: Manors and other estates' and 'Norwood, including Southall: 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. 26-29 and pp. 43-45.
Phillip Harman of John Street, Oxford Road, Uxbridge, was a coach maker who died in 1813. George Harman is noted as an architect involved in the construction of a local school.
The Old Brewery, High Street, Uxbridge, was established in the early eighteenth century by George Harman. It was run as "Harman and Company" by Stanislaus Ronayne Conron and Alice Fleetwood Webb until it was incorporated in 1924 as "Harman's Uxbridge Brewery Ltd".
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).
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The seat of Richard Berridge was Ballynahinch Castle, County Galway, Ireland, which became the residence of his son, Richard, who was a justice of the peace for the county and, in 1894, High Sheriff.
Richard Berridge the elder lived for over twenty years in Bloomsbury, first at 36 Bloomsbury Square, then, from about 1856 to 1877, at 18 Great Russell Street. Prior to this he had resided in Rochester, Kent, and he acquired property in that county as well as in Middlesex. A return of landowners in 1873 describes his holdings in Middlesex as over 300 acres with a gross estimated rental of £577, and a smaller amount in Kent, 79 acres worth £184.15s. He also had mining interests and property in other counties. Berridge entered into partnership with Sir Henry Meux of the Horse Shoe Brewery, Tottenham Court Road. He retired in July 1878 on the establishment of the new firm of Meux and Company. In the late 1870's Berridge left Bloomsbury for an address in Putney, Surrey, and, after a few years, went to live in Bridgewater, Somerset. He died on 20 September 1887 leaving five daughters and one son, Richard, born in 1870.
The estate was administered by trustees until Richard Berridge the younger came of age. In his will, Berridge bequeathed a charity legacy of £200,000 to be applied for the advancement and propagation of education in economic and sanitary sciences in Great Britain. The legacy was administered by his trustees, who donated large sums to the Worshipful Company of Plumbers and the British Institute of Preventive Medicine, and smaller amounts to other institutions and societies, such as the Sanitary Inspectors' Association and Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses.
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).
A covenant or deed of covenant was an agreement entered into by one of the parties to a deed to another. A covenant for production of title deeds was an agreement to produce deeds not being handed over to a purchaser, while a covenant to surrender was an agreement to surrender copyhold land.
Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
Lease and release was the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration (the thing for which land was transferred from one party to another, usually, of course, a sum of money).
An assignment of term, or assignment to attend the inheritance, was an assignment of the remaining term of years in a mortgage to a trustee after the mortgage itself has been redeemed. An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
A covenant or deed of covenant was an agreement entered into by one of the parties to a deed to another. A covenant for production of title deeds was an agreement to produce deeds not being handed over to a purchaser, while a covenant to surrender was an agreement to surrender copyhold land.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.
If a person died intestate (without a valid will) their money, goods and possessions passed to their next of kin through an administration (or letters of administration) which had the same form in law as a will.
William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882), novelist, was born on 4 February 1805 at 21 King Street, Manchester, the elder of two sons of Thomas Ainsworth (1778-1824), a solicitor, and his wife, Ann (1778-1842), daughter of the Revd Ralph Harrison (1748-1810), a nonconformist minister and tutor of languages and literature at the Manchester Academy. His parents both belonged to old Lancashire families, on his mother's side including prosperous merchants and members of the peerage; and his paternal grandfather was the noted mathematician Jeremiah Ainsworth.
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 & 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.
Edgware Boys manor originates in a grant to the Order of St John of Jerusalem. The order are recorded as holding lands as tenants of the Manor of Edgware in 1277. In 1397 the first mention of a separate manor of Boys appears in a terrier document. After the Dissolution the manor was granted to Sir John Williams and Anthony Stringer, but they alienated it to Henry Page of Harrow. Henry's son sold it to John Scudamore in 1631, and it was then sold to Lord Coventry in 1637. The Coventry family sold it to William Lee of Totteridge Park in 1762. It remained in the Lee family until 1866, thereafter the descent is unclear.
From: 'Edgware: 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. 155-157 (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.
An assignment of term, or assignment to attend the inheritance, was an assignment of the remaining term of years in a mortgage to a trustee after the mortgage itself has been redeemed. An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.
A covenant or deed of covenant was an agreement entered into by one of the parties to a deed to another. A covenant for production of title deeds was an agreement to produce deeds not being handed over to a purchaser, while a covenant to surrender was an agreement to surrender copyhold land.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
William George Lobjoit, 1859-1939, was owner of Osterley Park Farm and chairman of W.J. Lobjoit and Son, Ltd., (market gardeners). He represented Heston Electoral Division from 1907 until his election as County Alderman in 1919, remaining in office until his death. He was also chairman and/or member of various committees.
The London Liberal Federation was formed in 1903 to assist in maintaining Liberal Associations in the London area, to secure candidates, and to further political education. Its name was changed to the London Liberal Party during a general reorganisation in October 1943.
No historical information has been found for Thomas Poynder.
A militia force was raised from the civilian population of a county, in order to supplement the regular army in cases of emergency. In Middlesex they were called out at times of unrest. They came to be supplemented by volunteer forces. In times of emergency companies of volunteers were often raised, financed and governed by private committees of subscribers and in many cases remained in existence for only a few years, such as those raised by the 1794 Bill for "encouraging and disciplining such corps and companies of men as shall voluntarily enrol for the defence of their counties, towns and coasts or for the general defence of the Kingdom during the Present War [with France]".
There were around 300 militiamen in Middlesex in 1802. During the Napoleonic Wars this number rose to over 2000 by 1808 and 12,000 by 1812. More volunteer corps were raised in 1859, again in response to threat of French invasion. In 1881 the Army was organised into territorial regiments formed of regular, militia and volunteer battalions. Middlesex militia and volunteer battalions came under the Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own).
An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
Bevingtons and Sons Limited, leather merchants and manufacturers were based at Neckinger Mills, Bermondsey, Southwark. The Bevington family were Quakers originating from Warwickshire and neighbouring Gloucestershire and had been associated with tanning since at least the mid-seventeenth century. For most of its history, the leather industry was in the hands of numerous family firms, of which Bevington and Sons Limited is recognised as a significant example. By 1795 operations had been established under Samuel Bevington Senior at the former site of Neckinger Paper Mills. At this time his son Samuel Bourne Bevington was based in Yeovil, Somerset, another area associated with the leather industry.
From 1802, following the death of Samuel Bevington Senior, his sons Samuel Bourne, Henry, Richard and Timothy Bevington continued as partners in the family business. At the Neckinger Mills factory, Bevington and Sons produced and dealt in a wide range of leathers and leather goods, such as gloves. Products were made from foreign and domestic skins including kid, lamb, sheepskin and fine seal-skins. Light leathers, such as Morocco, were produced for making shoes and fancy goods. The company also had premises in Saint Thomas' Street, Bermondsey and in Cannon Street, City of London. The family had a home at 34 Gracechurch Street, City of London. Later business premises included Hawley Mills, Dartford, Kent. The now dissolved public limited company of Bevington and Sons (Neckinger) Limited was incorporated on 6/11/1931.
Members of the Bevington Family have been admitted to the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers. James Geoffrey Bevington, partner from 1927, became the last remaining member of the Bevington Family in the firm. The company moved to Leicester in 1980. As of 2012, Bevington Specialist Leathers exists as a division of Milton Leicester Ltd, North Street, Wigston, Leicester.
For further details see 'Bevingtons & Sons Ltd, 1795-1995' by Geoffrey Bevington, published by Bevington and Sons, 1991. Held in City of London Library Collection (Closed Access Pam 22433). An edition is also available in this collection (ACC/1616/G/01/004).
Following a dispute between the partners of Reid, Meux and Co., of the Griffin Brewery, Sir Henry Meux left the concern in 1807 and acquired the Horseshoe Brewery in Tottenham Court Road, WC1, trading as Henry Meux and Co.
Meux's Brewery Co Ltd was registered in 1888. In 1921 brewery was transferred to the Nine Elms Brewery in Wandsworth, which was subsequently renamed the Horseshoe Brewery. In 1956 the company merged with Friary, Holroyd and Healy's Breweries Ltd to form Friary Meux Limited. Production finally ceased at the Nine Elms Brewery in 1964.
Friary Meux Ltd was acquired by Allied Breweries Ltd in 1964.
An assignment of a lease is the transfer of the rights laid out in the lease to another party, usually for a consideration (a sum of money).
Perrys (Ealing) Limited were manufacturers of parts for the aeronautics industry. They were a sub-contractor of the Air Ministry.
A marriage settlement was a legal agreement drawn up before a marriage by the two parties, setting out terms with respect to rights of property and succession.
Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
The Manor of Dunsford developed out of lands held at Dunsford in the parish of Wandsworth by Merton Priory. According to the Victoria County History of Surrey, "by 1535 the possessions of the house {i.e. the Priory} in Wandsworth and Dunsford formed an estate of considerable value".
At the dissolution of the monasteries in 1538 the Manor passed to Charles Duke of Suffolk, who sold it in 1539 to Thomas Cromwell. When Thomas Cromwell was attainted, the Manor passed, in 1540, to the Crown, which held it until 1563 when it was granted to Lord Robert Dudley. Dudley sold it in the same year to Sir William Cecil, who in turn sold it in 1564 to John Swift (see E/BER/S/T/II/B/1/2). John Swift sold it to Thomas Smith in 1569 (see E/BER/S/T/II/B/1/3), and it stayed in the possession of his descendants until 1664 when it was sold to Sir Alan Brodrick. It passed in 1730 to his great nephew, Alan 2nd Viscount Middleton, and remained in the Middleton family until it was apparently sold to James Clark in 1851 (see ACC/1720/011 and ACC/1720/023).
As the title deeds in this collection show, a process of enfranchisement (that is, the process whereby copyhold tenants of the Manor bought the freehold to their property) had got under way by 1800 and continued throughout the century (see ACC/1720/023), leading to the disintegration of the Manor. This process is also indicated by the cessation of Courts Baron and Leet soon after James Clark bought the Manor.
Henry Whitehouse of Clerkenwell, was a 'moddler and chaser', married to Mary Thomas. A chaser specialises in engraving metal. Their son Henry Whitehouse junior, born 1843, was educated at the City of London School before being apprenticed to his father. Henry junior married Alice Shinn; their sons were Henry William Whitehouse who seems to have worked for a bank, and Edward Whitehouse. Henry William was married to Mabel Gibbs.
Sir John Maynard, 1602-1690, was a Member of Parliament and lawyer. In 1645 he was granted the books and manuscripts of the late Lord Chief Justice Bankes. In 1698/9 he was made Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal with Sir William Rawlinson. He was buried at Ealing and his library of manuscripts is now at Lincolns Inn Library.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography notes: "having survived nearly all his family, Maynard left his property to his grandchildren in a will so tangled by the remainders he appointed that it required a private act of parliament and litigation to unravel" - the agreement in this collection arises from this action. Maynard's eldest daughter was married to Sir Duncumbe Colchester; his grand-daughters were married to Sir Henry Hobart and Thomas, Earl of Stafford.
Paul D. Halliday, 'Maynard, Sir John (1604-1690)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004.
Staines and District Citizens' Advice Bureau opened on 30 October 1967. The first aim of Citizens' Advice Bureaux is to provide information and advice to individuals so that they do not suffer through ignorance of their rights or an inability to express their wishes or complaints. The second aim is to influence national and local policy in the light of enquiries received by bureaux. The records of Staines Citizens' Advice Bureau reflect both these aims.
The Christian Brotherly Society (CBS) was founded at Dr Rippon's Meeting House, Carter Lane, Tooley Street, Southwark in 1783. From the beginning the main purpose of the Society was to provide a weekly allowance to members during ill-health. The Society also paid sums of money at the death of members (or their wives) and during periods of hardship.
Until its dissolution in 1980 the CBS was a registered Friendly Society.
Admission to the Society was dependent upon nomination by an existing member but certain other criteria had also to be fulfilled. Members had to make a profession of Christian belief (most were Nonconformists) and were expected to have a "moral character". Applicants also had to be between the ages of 16 and 30 (later 17 and 40) and engaged in a suitable trade. Soldiers and sailors were amongst those not admitted!
Funds were raised by monthly subscriptions but also by a series of fines imposed for a variety of reasons. For example, non attendance at meetings or refusing to serve the office of steward at meetings. Such payments are well documented in the records.
A charity school was founded in Wapping-Stepney in 1716 which was reorganised in 1719 as schools for 50 boys and 50 girls from the neighbourhood. The schools were run by a Master and a Mistress and were housed in Charles Street, Old Gravel Lane.
In 1736 Raine's Asylum, or Hospital, was established nearby as a boarding school for 40 girls, trained by a Matron for four years in order to take up domestic service on leaving. Girls were selected after two years elementary education at the charity, or lower, school founded in 1719.
The main benefactor of the schools and founder of the Asylum was Henry Raine (1679-1738) whose name was later attached to both establishments. A wealthy brewer and pious churchman who lived in Wapping-Stepney, he allocated wealth to the schools in 1719 which were also funded by donations and charity sermons. Raine's Asylum was endowed with freehold lands in Blackfriars and Castle Street, Stepney and stock from the South Sea Company; this was to provide for the board and clothing of the girls together with £210 annually for two marriage portions and two wedding festivals.
The marriage portion was available to past pupils of Raine's Asylum, aged 22 and above, who could produce certificates of good character from former masters and mistresses, and whose husbands were suitable members of the Church of England from the parishes of St. George in the East, St. Paul, Shadwell, and St. John at Wapping. On 1 May and 26 December of each year up to six candidates drew lots from a casket (in the custody of Raine's School) for marriage portions of £100, hence the nickname the 'Hundred pound School'. The last Wedding Festival was held in 1892.
The Trustees were incorporated by an Act of 1780. By this date, the area was changing rapidly and becoming increasingly populous; the construction of London Dock in 1802 forced the Asylum to sell large amounts of freehold property. At the same time many of the school's patrons were moving away from Stepney.
A new building was erected at the rear of the Asylum in 1820 at the same time as St. George's National School was founded within the site of Raine's schools; from 1780, there had been St. George's Scholars within the boys school and close links were maintained with the parish branch of the National Society, in association with the Middlesex Schools Society. This school amalgamated with the boys school in 1877.
Under the Education Act, 1870 the state took up the running of elementary education; the Trustees, therefore, under obligation from the deed of trust to provide free education unavailable elsewhere decided to raise and extend the education given by the foundation. Schemes approved by the Charity Commissioners led to the removal of the boys school to Cannon Street Road (1875), the removal of the girls school to the former National School buildings (1880-1885), the dissolution of the Corporation of Governors and Trustees of Raine's Charities and the constitution of a new governing body, served by a Clerk, to administer the Foundation (1880), and the closure of the Asylum (1883). This process of raising the standard of education continued when the schools became secondary schools (boys in 1897; girls in 1904) and known as a dual secondary school, 1904-1913. Endowments were re-directed to maintain 100 free scholarships with special encouragement given to technical training and close links with the College of City and Guilds of London Technical Institute. Provision was made for a Prepatory School from 1877 to 1904.
The school buildings soon proved inadequate and were condemned by the London County Council Education Officer's Department; the School, faced with an ultimatum of moving or losing its official aid, opted to remove to Arbour Square, Stepney (1911-1913) to a new building designed by H.O. Ellis. Here, the schools functioned as separate entities. Wartime evacuation took the boys school to Varndean School, Brighton in 1939 but moved the Junior School to Egham, Surrey and the Senior School to Camberley in 1940. The girls school removed to Hurstpierpoint, Sussex. In 1944 the schools became known as voluntary aided grammar schools and in 1964 the schools became co-educational as Raine's Foundation School. In 1976 the Upper School was merged with St. Jude's Church of England Secondary School and moved to Approach Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PY (buildings of the former Parmiter's School). The Lower School is now at Old Bethnal Green Road, London E2 6PR.
Hilde Schüller was born, 1910 and studied in Vienna, probably under Julius von Schlosser. She emigrated to London in the 1930s and became associated with the Warburg Institute. She married fellow art historian Otto Kurz in 1937. She died 1981. The American poetry critic Marjorie Perloff is her niece.
Betty Kurth was born 1878 and educated at the University of Vienna, where she was one of the earliest women students to be admitted; she studied art history and medieval literature and was awarded her doctorate in 1911. After moving to England, her research focused on English medieval art and she became an authority on medieval tapestry and embroidery. She died in an accident in 1948.
Frances Yates was born in Hampshire, 1899 and studied at the University of London, receiving her MA in 1926. She spent 15 years as a private scholar before becoming successively Editor of Publications (1941-1944), Lecturer (1944-1957) and Reader (1956-1967) at the Warburg Institute. After her retirement she was an Honorary Fellow of the Institute until her death in 1981. Her wide research interests included Shakespeare, Renaissance thought, and many other aspects of European literature and culture. She was created OBE in 1972 and DBE in 1977.
Gertrud Bing was born in Hamburg and studied at the Universities of Munich and Hamburg. After receiving her doctorate in 1921, she became a librarian at the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg, subsequently serving as Assistant to Aby Warburg (1924-1929). She moved to London with the Warburg Institute in 1933 and became a British citizen in 1946. She was Assistant Director (1944-1954) and then Director (1955-1959) of the Institute, and subsequently an Honorary Fellow until her death in 1964.
Robert Eisler was born and educated in Vienna, receiving his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1904. He subsequently had a successful academic career in Austria and Germany, including time spent as a visiting lecturer in France, Britain and the United States, until the Anschluss in 1938 when he was interned in Dachau concentration camp. Released shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War he came to England and continued his research at Oxford and later in London, though his time in Dachau left him in poor health for the rest of his life. His research interests included classical archaeology, art history and philosophy, as well as various aspects of the history of religious belief and superstition.
Roberto Weiss was born in Milan, 1906 and studied at the University of Oxford, receiving his DPhil in 1938; excepting a period of military service, he taught in the Italian Department at University College London from 1938 (as Professor from 1946) until his death in 1969. He was naturalized as a British subject in 1934.
Siegfried Seligmann was born in Wandsbek (now part of Hamburg), 1870; studied medicine in Freiburg, Strasbourg, Berlin and Munich, qualifying in 1895; chose to specialize in ophthalmology and worked in Berlin for a few years before returning to Hamburg in 1898, where he continued to practise as an eye specialist; married Alice Warburg in 1904. Alongside his medical career, Seligmann became a leading public figure in Hamburg and carried out research into magic and superstition as a private scholar; his 1910 work Der Böse Blick (The Evil Eye) is still considered a classic. He worked as a military doctor during the First World War, resuming his Hamburg practice when hostilities ceased and continuing to work until his death in 1926.
Walter Solmitz was born in Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany, 1905 and studied at the Universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Hamburg; alongside his studies in Hamburg, and for some time afterwards, he was a research assistant at the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (1927-1933); subsequently he became an instructor in Philosophy at the Franz Rosenzweig Foundation in Hamburg; left Germany in the late 1930s and worked for a time in London before going to the United States, where he found employment as a research assistant and teaching fellow at Harvard University, from which he received an MA in 1943. In 1946 he joined the faculty at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, intially to teach German and later as Associate Professor of Philosophy. With the exception of a year as Senior Research Fellow at the Warburg Institute in London, he remained at Bowdoin until his sudden death in 1962.
Charles Hasler was a typographer and graphic designer and played a significant role in many high-profile exhibitions, displays, poster campaigns and book publishing in Britain from the mid-1930s to the mid-1980s. His main areas of knowledge and expertise lay in typography and printing techniques (including photography) and to a lesser extent book binding. Throughout his career Charles Hasler lectured in typographic design and history and was involved with the education and professional development of print and graphic designers.
Hasler trained during the early 1930s at the University of London Goldsmith's College School of Art and at the Sir John Cass Institute and Westminster School of Art as well as taking some courses at the London County Coucil. After 4 years war service, he was from 1942 to 1951 an exhibition designer for the Ministry of Information and the Central Office of Information working on displays such as 'Dig For Victory', Make Do and Mend' andNation and the Child'. He was also involved with the travelling displays on the exhibition ship the Campania. After the war Hasler was a senior designer and chairman of the Typographic Panel for the Festival of Britain of 1951. Involved with providing guidelines for standardised typographical styles for signage and for the official publications for the Festival, he designed and produced the influential Specimen of Display Letters for use by Festival architects and designers. He specifically worked on `The Sea and Ships' display.
He then worked as a freelance designer producing posters for the British Transport Commission from the 1940s to the 1960s, during which time he was also a consultant for the printing company Waterlow & Sons Ltd for whom he designed their housestyle. He also designed covers, layouts and occasionally contributed articles for publications such as The Penrose Annual, Architectural Review, and The Complete Imbiber (vols 4 - 12, 1961-1971) for Vista Books, and various companies' trade literature as well as many smaller commissions for company logos. He wrote and published articles about typography and printing technique (both contemporary and historical, particularly Victorian colour printing) and in 1979 his The Royal Arms: its graphic and decorative development, a comprehensive work on the development of the styles and decoration of crests in Britain, was published by Jupiter Books. He passionately collected source material in all of these areas the most general of which remain in his archive at MoDA.