Horne, Engall and Freeman , solicitors

The firm originates from the partnership of Randolph Horne and John Engall which formed and developed throughout the latter nineteenth century. Harry Scott Freeman became a partner in the firm around 1900. Mr. Engall retired about 1910, Mr. Horne having retired some twenty years earlier.

The firm or one of its members acted as clerk to many public bodies, including the Staines-Hampton and the Bedfont-Bagshot Turnpike Trusts, the Staines Bridge Commission, the Cranford Sewer Authority, the Staines Local Board, and the local Tax Commissioners. They were also clerk to private companies and institutions, including Staines Independent Chapel, Staines and Egham Gas and Coke Company, the Staines Scientific and Literary Society and the Spelthorne Militia. Mr. Scott Freeman served as Deputy Acting Returning Officer for the Spelthorne Division in the 1918 and 1922 General Elections.

Horne and Engall were both stewards of local manors, and it is no doubt due to this fact that these archives first came to include court rolls, court books, surveys, and a large number of copies of court rolls for the manors of Staines, Ashford, Stanwell, and Hammonds and Milton in Surrey. However, Mr. Engall acquired the lordship of the manor of Ashford in 1890, and Mr. Scott Freeman subsequently became lord of all the Middlesex manors just mentioned, thus becoming owner of the relevant manorial documents.