Proposals prepared by the County Engineer and County Architect, Middlesex County Council, including:

proposed extensions to Willesden Polytechnic, 1902

estimate for a new bridge across the River Colne near the Upper Mill, Stanwell Moor, 1904

alterations to Town Hall, Feltham, 1905

estimate for Magistrates' Court House, Uxbridge, 1906

specification for reconstruction of Colham Bridge over the Grand Junction Canal at Yiewsley, 1906.

Records of Wood Street Compter, later Giltspur Street Compter, 1667-1829, including lists of prisoners; ducie books recording prisoner transfers; care of sick prisoners and apothecaries bills, accounts and other administrative papers.

Records of Southwark Compter, also known as Borough Compter, 1608-1842, including lists of prisoners, charge books, warrants for arrest, accounts of deliveries of bread and meat and various administrative papers. Also papers relating to the revived magistracy in Southwark, 1814, when it was decided that one of the Aldermen who had passed the chair would sit daily for justiciary business, receiving an annual salary and assisted by a clerk, until c 1840.

Records of the Southwark Coroner's Court, 1837-1932, including inquests, inquisitions, depositions and no inquest volumes (if a death was reported to the Coroner upon which he decided no inquest was necessary, then a report with details of the death was bound in the series of volumes of No Inquest Cases).

Staff records of Star Life Assurance Society Limited including papers and correspondence relating to Jesse Hobson and J.D. Watson.

Minute book of the Administration of Justice Committee, Court of Aldermen, dated November 1781.

Records of the General Purposes Committee, Court of Common Council, including journals, 1789-1858; minutes, 1789-1981; rough minutes, 1791-1842; committee papers, 1789-1957; proceedings from various subcommittees including the Compter Committee, By Law Committee, Mansion House Committee, State Coach Committee, Marshale Committee, Blackfriars Bridge Committee, Shop Tax Committee, Court of Requests Committee, and investigations including the Sheriff's Court, regulation of unlicensed Carts, riots at Knightsbridge, regulating elections within the City, conduct of staff and proposal to alter the date of the annual wardmotes, 1777-1924; standing orders, 1826-1841 and summary of powers and duties with a list of Chairmen and standing orders of the Committee, 1880-1920.

Minute book and committee papers of the Joint Advisory Committee, Court of Common Council, 1946-1959. Please note these records are closed until 2035.

Minutes and papers of various small, temporary committees of the Court of Common Council, 1668-1990. The Committees were formed to consider various matters including the election, remuneration and behaviour of officers and staff of the Corporation of London; consideration of the effects of various Parliamentary Acts and Bills; the historical rights and privileges of the City of London; the provision of cemeteries; parishes and benefices; metage, particularly of coal and corn; the reform of the Corporation; markets; building maintenance and preservation; debtors, insolvency and bankruptcy; the Gresham bequest; food imports; transport including railways; presentation of the Freedom to William Pitt; militia; the erection of monuments and statues; the funerals of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington and Horatio, Viscount Nelson; legacies and bequests; care of orphans; poor relief; estate management; schools and libraries; City finances; water and gas supply; Port of London; sewers; regulation of trade and licensing; street lighting; prisons and compters.

Also papers relating to the general organisation and running of Court of Common Council Committees, including the decision to allow public and press to attend certain committees, 1974; lists of committee Chairmen and members for various years; committee books, 1690-1727 and 1813-1990; bills books, 1873-1884; notes on the historical powers of the Court of Common Council and the Court of Aldermen and notes on the streamlining of committees and administration, 1835-1965.

Records of the Revenue and Officers Committee, Court of Common Council, including minutes, 1835-1838; Revenue Committee reports, 1836; returns of Officers' salaries, 1835-1836; attendances and allowances, 1833-1836; expenses of Mayoralty, 1835 and expenses of Mayor's household, 1835-1836.

Records of the Select General Purposes (Porters) Committee, Court of Common Council, including minutes, papers, index of witnesses and synopsis of evidence, 1852-1853.

Minute book of the Special Police Committee, Court of Common Council, 1857-1858.

Plans of land and property owned by Bridge House estates, 1592-1889, including site or street plans of Avondale Square; Maidenhead Court; Wrestler's Court; White Street, Bermondsey; Webber Street, Southwark; the widening of Upper Thames Street, Tooley Street, Pottery Fields, The Maze, Little Eastcheap, Fish Hill Street; improvements at Temple Bar; a new street at Tottenham Court Road; a burial ground at St Michael, Crooked Lane; Bankside, Southwark, including the Globe Theatre; Wild Marsh, Stratford; Rock Hill and West Hill, Sydenham; St George's Fields, Southwark; Kent Street Road; Finsbury Circus; Great Suffolk Street and Belvidere Row, Bridewell, Surrey. Also drawings, elevations and plans of buildings including premises in Swan Street, Thames Street, Sun Alley, Rood Lane, Fenchurch Street, Paternoster Row, Philpot Lane, Old Change, King William Street, Lewisham High Street, Crucifix Lane, Dirty Lane, Friday Street, Five Foot Lane, Cheapside, Bermondsey Street, Arthur Street and Blackman Street; the Castle Alehouse and other properties, Watling Street; vaults and premises on Water Lane; the Watch House and other premises on Tooley Street; premises near St Paul's Churchyard; the Freemason's School and other premises, St George's Fields, Southwark; premises near King's Bench Prison and Marshalsea Prison; Borough Compter and surrounding premises; a stable on Old Kent Road; Sherwood's Dye House and other premises, Battle Mill Lane; demolished properties on Montague Close, Southwark; The Crown Public House, shops and other premises, Newgate Street; wharves and warehouses, Malt's Wharf; shipyards, wharves and docks, Deptford; designs for Legal Quays, St Catherine's Docks, the Southwark river frontage, West India docks and Cotton's Wharf, Southwark; Bridge House Court, Gracechurch Street; designs for warehouses and almshouses; plans and designs for Bridge House, the administrative headquarters of the old London Bridge; Mr Toulmin's Soap Manufactory, Bridewell, Surrey; stairs at Pepper Alley. Also signed contract drawings for Tower Bridge; designs for St Michael's Bridge, Stratford; survey of watercourses and designs for bridge at Battle Mill Stream; plan of the river Lea from Hertford to the Thames; designs for the reconstruction of Southwark Bridge; designs and plans of the bridge, approach roads, chapel, gate and houses, London Bridge; plans for the Chatham and Dover Railway Bridge over the Thames; designs for footpaths, tramways, railways, approaches and the Fleet Sewer, Blackfriars Bridge, and designs for the Croydon and Rotherhithe Canal and the Grand Surrey Canal.

Plans of land and property owned by the City Lands estates, 1641-1928, including site or street plans of All Hallows church, London Wall; Pickaye Street, Barbican; Bevis Marks near St Mary Axe; Chatham Place; Coleman Street; the Conduit Mead and Finsbury Estates; Earl Street, Blackfriars; Fenchurch Street; Holborn Valley improvements; Leadenhall Street; the Minories; Old Change; St Paul's Churchyard; Shoemaker Row; Temple Bar; Thames Street; Tottenham Court Road; Whitecross Street; plans for the widening of Billiter Lane, Wormwood Street, Bow Lane, Bread Street, Brick Hill Lane, Camomile Street, Cheapside; Snow Lane, Dowgate Hill, Eastcheap, Jewin Street, Mark Lane; Old Jewry; Poultry, Seething Lane; Snow Hill; Tower Street; Walbrook; Watling Street, Wormwood Street. Also drawings, elevations and plans of buildings including premises in Mitre Court and Adams Court, Duke's Place; Aldermanbury; Aldgate High Street; Bangor Court, Shoe Lane; Lothbury; Bell Court, Old Bethlem; Cheapside; Bishopsgate Street; New Broad Street; Budge Row, Castle Street; Cateaton Street; Chancery Lane; Crown Court, Moorfields; Crutched Friars; Dolphin Court, Blackfriars; Duke's Place; Grub Street; City Road, Old Street; Rotten Row; Windmill Hill; Fish Street Hill; Fleet Street; Giltspur Street; Gracechurch Street; Holborn Bridge; Houndsditch; Isle of Dogs; Jewry Street; Lambeth Hill; Ludgate Hill; Moorfields; Moorgate; New Bridge Street; New Broad Street; New Court, St Swithun's Lane; Ratcliffe; St Dunstan's Hill; St Mary Axe; St Swithun's Lane; Shoe Lane; Stonecutters Street; Watling Street; plans of houses to be demolished in Bartholomew Lane; Bethlem Hospital in Moorgate, with adjoining premises and burial ground; plans of Blackwell Hall; plan of the Boar's Head Tavern, Smithfield Barrs; plan of the house of the Keeper, Bunhill Fields Burial Ground; designs for extension, East India House; plan of Hudson's Bay Company premises; plan of the Gresham Almshouses; plan of Guildhall and offices; Watch House and other premises, Old London Wall; designs and plans for Mansion House; plans, designs and elevations for Leadenhall Market, Stocks Market, Honey Lane Market, Fleet Market, Farringdon Market, Smithfield Market, Queenhithe Market, Newgate Market and Street Lane Market; 'a method to fix the ground in Moorfields at a mean depth', Old Bethlem; designs for timber stairs at Old Swan Stairs, near London Bridge; designs for renovations, Paul's Stairs, Vauxhall Stairs, Three Crane Stairs and Stew Lane Stairs; designs and plans, Giltspur Street Compter, Poultry Compter, Newgate Prison, Ludgate Prison, Wood Street Compter; new burial ground at St Andrew's Holborn; plan of Blackwall Wharf; design for Blackfriars Wharf; plan of Broken Wharf; design for rebuilding Custom House Quay; design for Corn Office, Black Swan Court, Tower Street; plans of Artillery Ground, Finsbury; plan of Puddle Dock, Sabbs Dock and Queenhithe Docks; designs for embankments and towpaths along the River Thames; plans for Whitefriars Dock; plan of wharf and approaches, Blackfriars Bridge; plan for repairing London Bridge; plans of Westminster Bridge and section of the Isle of Dogs Canal.

Many of the plans include the names of tenants or owners of the buildings or lands.

Licences issued by the Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes to hawkers and street traders based in Uxbridge, Staines and Hillingdon.

Papers, 1901-1930, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to properties in Pinner, Wealdstone and Harrow.

Papers, 1814-1849, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and other legal documents relating to properties in Hendon and Edmonton; with a survey of Muswell Hill Farm, Friern Barnet.

Mortgages and assignments of property in Oxford Road, Cambridge Road, Chichester Road and Alexander Road, Kilburn, 1862-1894; and deed of convenant of indemnity from the Real Property Trust Ltd for a property in Twickenham, 1881.

Papers relating to the Condell family of Greenford, including copies of court rolls, leases, probate and wills, marriage settlements, bonds, articles of agreement and correspondence relating to properties in Greenford and Northolt, 1678-1862. Also papers of the Sampson family relating to their property in Hendon and their stocks and shares, 1861-1891.

Papers, 1726-1924, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating chiefly to properties in Ashford, Isleworth, Islington, Kensington, Paddington, Staines, Stanwell, Stepney, Teddington, Twickenham, Bedfont, Chelsea, Chiswick, Cranford, Ealing, Feltham, Fulham, Hampton, Harlington, Heston and Hornsey.

Recovery between Edward Boodle, demandant and Moses Hoper, tenant, relating to the manors of Hanworth and East Bedfont, 1792 (vouchees: Aubrey Beauclerk, earl of Burford and Aubney, Duke of St. Albans); and conveyances relating to land in Upper Halliford, Sunbury, 1844 and 1857.

Deeds and other legal documents relating to premises at Grove Park, Chiswick, 1888-1909, including papers relating to the Duke of Devonshire letting out Grove House to Joseph Atkins Borsley.

Mortgage and lease for Paradise Terrace, Milton Road, Hornsey, 1853 and 1855; leases for property in Shepperton; copies of court roll for Isleworth Syon Manor relating to parcel of land in Grosvenor Road, Twickenham with two messuages, stables, coach houses and buildings known as Grosvenor House and Grosvenor Cottage; and deed of composition and release releasing Joseph Blake of Harrow, linen draper, from his debts.

Copy will of William Bryant of Turnham Green, 1767-1768, relating to his estate at Sudbury and Turnham Green; lease and release relating to land in Acton Common Field and Turnham Green Common Field, 1807, and copy of Act for enclosing lands in parish of Hanwell, 1813.

Records of Fuller, Smith and Turner Ltd, brewers, 1654-1946.

Records of the partnerships, and Brewery management including articles of partnership, 1822-1846; records of partnerships previous to the first partnership of Fuller, Smith, and Turner, 1808-1851; records of the partnerships of Fuller, Smith, and Turner, 1822-1923; valuations of the Griffin Brewery made in connection with changes of partnership, 1782-1845; litigation, 1715-1901; ledgers, 1832-1945.

Records of the Brewery estates, including: title deeds, 1654-1899; title deeds of a private estate of John Bird Fuller, 1675-1842; leases, 1791-1907; documents relating to mortgages, 1715-1861; series of numbered bundles of documents, mainly drafts and correspondence relating to the Brewery estates, 1695-1829; documents, mainly drafts and correspondence, relating to the Brewery estates, 1669-1944; schedules of deeds, 1791-1902; abstracts of title, 1671-1907; sales particulars, 1807-1934; plans, 1840-1903; insurance policies, 1868-1945; documents relating to licences, 1892-1946.

Also printed items, 1803-1946.

Papers, 1837-1890, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to properties mainly in Ealing; including copies from the court roll of the manor of Ealing.

Records of the County of Middlesex Education Society including minute books; notices of meetings and lectures; cash books and published history of the society, 1877 to 1934.

Records of the Middlesex County Teachers' Association, including minutes of the Council; minutes and papers of the Middlesex Teachers' Association; minutes of the Executive Committee, Special Schools Sectional Committee, Secondary Sectional Committee, Primary Sectional Committee and Young Teachers' Sectional Committee; and administrative files and reports on subjects including salaries, school meals, sick pay, the reorganisation of London government, technical education, domestic science, remedial teachers, clerical assistance in schools, and the National Union of Teachers; correspondence files; and publications of the Association.

Records of the Royal Commercial Traveller's School, 1845-1965, including a photograph of a painting of John Robert Cuffley; copy of minutes of a Meeting held at the London Tavern on 30th December 1845 concerned with the founding of this school; a brief record of principal events from 1845 to 1905; press cuttings; papers relating to Royal patronage of the School; papers relating to fundraising; copy of a speech delivered by Charles Dickens about the Schools in December 1859; event programmes; copies of the rules of the Foundation; Memorandum of Articles of Association of the Royal Commercial Travellers Schools Trust Limited; annual reports 1945-1967; prospectus and photographs of the buildings at Hatch End, Pinner.

Papers, 1843-1881, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to properties mainly in Ealing, including agreements relating to premises adjoining the Great Western Railway and the premises of the Ealing Dean Church of England Schools.

Papers, 1762-1887, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, including deeds and legal documents relating to properties on Hornsey Lane, Highgate; copies of the court roll of the manor of Harringay alias Hornsey; legal papers relating to the Idle family of Kennington, including marriage settlements; and legal papers relating to the Grove family of Hackney and the City of London, including marriage settlements, correspondence, genealogical research and wills.

Papers, 1843-1903, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to premises in Hornsey and Islington including Shaftesbury Road, Stroud Green, and Hornsey Road and Ferme Park Estate, Hornsey.

Papers, 1923-1961, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising conveyances, leases and deeds relating to premises at Number 46, High Street, Yiewsley.

Papers, 1812-1888, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to properties in Laleham, including the premises known as The Priory.

Papers, 1787-1811, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to Edwin Payne [Paine], the Holbrook family and their lease of Church Farm, Tottenham; and to properties and enclosures in Hounslow including 'Church Meadow', Bath Road.

Papers collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising the marriage settlement and related documents of John Powell of Clapton House, Hackney, and his bride Frances Irby, daughter of Reverend Paul Irby of Cottisbrooke, Northants, 1850-1908; lease for 1 Lancaster Avenue, Enfield, 1909, and agreement of Randal, Earl of Berkeley to sell part of the Cranford Park Estate in Cranford, Harlington and Hayes, 1931.

Papers of John William Couchman and Harold Seymour Couchman, surveyors, agents to the lords of the manors of Tottenham and Edmonton and civil engineers, 1789-1938. The majority of the papers are those of John William Couchman who was a civil engineer (in particular, apparently, a waterworks expert) and a surveyor and valuer, but a few later ones relate to his successor, Harold Seymour Couchman.

John William Couchman acted as surveyor and agent to the lords of the manors of Tottenham and Edmonton. Most of the manorial documents are valuations for enfranchisement of copyhold property. These cover the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and are arranged alphabetically under the names of the copyholders. There is also, however, a survey of Tottenham manor of circa 1830 and two rentals of quit and waste rents for Tottenham and one for Edmonton, together with correspondence with the local urban district councils over their purchase of manorial waste.

The remainder of the collection consists of documents concerning property of the Sperling family and of others for whom Couchman acted as agent; his own papers relating to various engineering projects - notably that to provide a drinking water supply for Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, papers concerning the Tithe rent charges for Tottenham (for which he acted as valuer), various sales particulars including one of 1789 for Bruce Castle and Mount Pleasant, and two albums of photographs taken at the end of the last century which are of considerable interest.

This exceptionally interesting collection consists of the archives of a London business family, the Howards, and their relations by marriage, the Eliots. The family were based in London, with homes in the City and various places round about, but they also had property and connections in several other parts of England.

The chief interest of the collection is in its quality as the personal record of a group of prosperous manufacturing and merchant families who were members of the Society of Friends. The Eliots were merchants and their account books, which cover both business and private expenses, together with letters and memoranda, reflect a picture of "City" life in the Eighteenth century. They attended the Change, Lloyd's and Child's and Jonathan's and other Coffee Houses, and dealt with a variety of business including trade overseas in cotton and duck cloth and Cornish tin and invested in "a voyage to Lima" and other merchant shipping ventures (including that of the Tuscany, unfortunately "Taken by the French and carried into Marseilles" in 1757). (See especially numbers 905, 928, 929, 944, etc.).

There is interesting material relating to John Eliot's estates supplemented by John Eliot's letters (e.g. Numbers 988-1011), which also mention a "good season" for pilchards, the decline of the docks at Topsham, the appropriation by the Government of some sugar pans near Exeter to use for French prisoners, etc. John's sister Mariabella also purchased in 1765 Pickhurst Farm, Hayes, Kent (Nos. 376-475).

There are amongst this collection a few letters and papers of later Howards, including an interesting pocket diary in which Samuel Lloyd Howard, grandson of Luke, jotted (unfortunately rather roughly in pencil) memoranda and sketches of impressions of his visit to America in 1854 (No. 1618). At sea his ship rescued the crew of the Hannay of Whitehaven, loaded with salt and flying a distress signal-"lay to and took all off, boy, baggage, chronometer, barometers and all".

At all periods the family kept in close touch with their relations in all parts of the country, including the Hows of Aspley, Bedfordshire, the Paces of Westmorland and London, the Leathams of Yorkshire as well as with fellow Quakers. This gives the collection a national rather than a local interest-indeed the family were not primarily associated with any one locality.

A curious document amongst the collection is a receipt dated 1824 for 8. 15s from R. Smith for freeing Hamma Fie, slave to Bentoo Demba, and signed with the mark of Madeba, Alcaide of "Birkow" (No. 1617/p.12). The Society of Friends Committee for African Instruction supported some missions, and Richard Smith, a friend of Luke Howard, was in Africa in the 1820's.

Quaker marriage certificates, of which there are several examples (eg. Nos. 117, 565, 1273, 1274, etc) give full details of both parties and are signed by members of the Meeting as witnesses. Birth certificates (e.g., Nos. 1275-1286, 1390-1393) give the date of birth and name, and were signed by witnesses to the baby's birth. The Society of Friends was in advance of both the State and established Church in respect of such documentation.

Records of the Monro family of Hadley, comprising the family correspondence-it is almost entirely correspondence-of the Monro family, about 1775 to 1905. (The one 1905 letter is an exception; most of the correspondence ends in the 1880's.) During most of the period the family lived at Hadley. They were gentry, descended from the Monro family of Foulis, baronets; but the sort of gentry who earned their livings in the law, in the East India service, etc., rather than being landed gentry. There are three boxes. One box contains the earlier correspondence, mainly from various members of the family. A good deal of it is from overseas, especially India.

There is an attractive grant of arms by Lyon, 1787, to Henry Knight Erskine, esq., and a most competent copy, 1862, of an achievement in full colour of the arms of Doctor Alexander Monro, Principal of the College of Edinburgh, by Henry Frazer, herald and painter, 1687. An unusual document is a passport, 1820, issued by the maire of Lisieux for Cecil Monro of Hadley ('sans profession').

There is quite a batch of letters from James Monro (cb. 1806) who seems to have been captain of an East Indiaman. He was master of the 'Houghton', the command of which he eventually sold for 8,000. There is also a printed pedigree of the Monro's, beginning with John Monro, MD, as part of a pedigree of Smith, baronets, of Hadley; a note on the envelope indicates that this is by Montagu Burrows (who appears to have been a relation).

The other two boxes consist entirely of the correspondence of Cecil J Monro, beginning with his earliest letters home from school and continuing for about fifty years. He went to Harrow and Cambridge, and corresponded with many more or less eminent people. His circle of correspondents included many who were in touch with public life and public affairs or with literary or scientific circles. His career is uncertain. He does not appear to have been a practising barrister, yet he obviously knew a great deal of law. There is much correspondence with Clement Mansfield Ingleby, Shakespearian scholar. Amongst other correspondents are W.J. Prowse, journalist and humourist. One of his friends, Litchfield, seems to have been Darwin's son-in-law. His brother was a barrister, as also had been his father.

Papers collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising a lease and release, 1789, for a dwelling house with orchard and garden at Roxey Green, Ruxbourgh, Harrow; a lease and release, 1809, for the same premises with two pieces of ground and one adjoining house, and a conveyance, 1841 for the same premises.

Papers, 1923-1964, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising printed sales particulars for properties throughout London and the surrounding counties.

Records of the church of Saint Margaret, Uxbridge, comprising the foundation charter of a perpetual chantry for one chaplain [Walter Shiryngton?], 1459.

Papers, 1811-1886, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising probates and letters of administration as below:

Whyman Butler, of Staines 22 March 1826 (Probate of will)
Joseph Merrick, of Stanwell 22 Sept. 1828 (Probate of will)
Robert Heath, of Stanwell 22 Nov. 1832 (Administration)
Robert Heath, of Stanwell 28 July 1845 (Probate of will)
Mary E.J. Heath, of Stanwell 23 July 1875 (Probate of will)
Charles Jordan, of Marylebone 24 May 1839 (Probate of will)
Marthe Jordan, of Stanwell 15 Jan. 1842 (Probate of will)
Elizabeth Jordan, of Pentonville 18 March 1851 (Probate of will)
Edmund Jordan, of Stanwell 14 Oct. 1856 (Probate of will)
Thomas Maish, of Colnbrook, Mdx. 8 July 1843 (Probate of will)
Robert Maish, of Colnbrook, Mdx. 22 June 1848 (Probate of will)
Elizabeth Tilly, of Staines 15 June 1860 (Probate of will)
Jacob Brown, of Clerkenwell 19 Oct. 1811 (Probate of will)
Alexander Rainy, of Westminster 22 Sept. 1832 (Probate of will)
H.C.S. Dalzell, of Marylebone 24 May 1839 (Probate of will)
Louisa Millns, of Bryanston Sq. 24 Oct. 1839 (Probate of will)
John Butterfield, of Hackney 16 April 1845 (Administration)
Dorothy M. Shakeshaft, of Chelsea 13 March 1854 (Probate of will)
Robert Cheal, of Chelsea 3 Sept. 1863 (Probate of will)
Elizabeth Chantler, of Stoke Newington 28 Dec. 1871 (Administration)
Sarah E.I. Thomson, of Paddington 24 April 1879 (Probate of will)
Elizabeth I. Sandby, of Paddington 16 Dec. 1880 (Administration)
Eliza Ann Sandby, of Kensington 20 April 1886 (Probate of will)

The surviving records of the Isleworth Brewery Company Limited consist mainly of an interesting series of account books and ledgers, covering the period 1796-1949, reports and annual balance sheets, 1886-1914, and a number of bundles of title deeds relating to the licensed houses acquired by the firm. One splendid item, worthy of greater comment, is the general ledger, 1796-1810. This volume in its worn vellum laced binding, records the sale of ale, porter, hock and other liquors to innkeepers in Isleworth, Hounslow, Ealing, Heston, Brentford and other places in south west Middlesex and Northern Surrey. In addition to this are recorded direct sales to such eminent persons as the Duke of Northumberland, the Duke of Marlborough, the Earl of Jersey and many members of Regency society living at Twickenham. At the other end of the scale the dairy maids at Osterley regularly purchased large quantities of ale as did anonymous haymakers working in the fields of aristocratic landowners just mentioned! As well as these more formal business transactions the ledger includes accounts of family and household expenses. Of the 20th century accounting records, a wages book, 1914-1949 is of considerable interest. Detailed lists are given of the workers employed by the brewery at Isleworth, including coopers, engineers, maltsters, draymen, stablemen and office cleaners, together with the wages paid to each individual over a long run of years.

The bulk of the records relating to Sich and Company are deeds of title relating to licensed premises in Chiswick, Kew, Hammersmith, Chelsea and Brentford. Unfortunately for this company, unlike the Isleworth Brewery, no accounting records have survived to indicate the extent of its business. On the other hand, a considerable amount of correspondence between the company and its solicitors exists for the period 1830-1880. This deals with such matters as purchasing, leasing and selling of property, and the solving of disputes arising between the company, as landlord, and its tenants. A more personal note is introduced by a small bundle of letters and legal papers concerning the separation of John Sich's daughter from her erring husband in 1850. Only a few title deeds and the wages book mentioned above go beyond the take-over date by Messrs. Watney, Combe, Reid and Company.

The only other coherent group of brewing records held here are those of Fuller, Smith and Turner of Chiswick. The nature of the records of the two companies concerned is such that they in great measure complement one another, enabling a relatively comprehensive picture to be created of the small beginnings of part of what is today an enormous commercial structure.

Papers of Aylott and Mannion, plasterers, comprising correspondence between themselves and G.C. Fan, solicitor, concerning a legal claim against R.J. Ayers of West Ealing.

Papers, 1648-1671, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to properties in Hayes, comprising 2 bargain and sales, a mortgage and an indenture of a fine.

Papers, 1869-1903, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to properties in Deptford, Lambeth and Paddington including assignments, abstract of title, and sales particulars.

Papers, 1881-1914, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to properties owned by the Knightley family, particularly Thomas Edward Knightley, in Poplar, Norton Folgate (a street in the City of London), Finsbury, Tulse Hill and Tottenham.

Papers, 1935-1949, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising abstract of title of Arthur Whittingham to numbers 1, 3, 5 and 7 Fulbrook Road, Upper Holloway, 1935; agreement for tenancy of 404 Church Street, Bush Hill, 1940 and schedule of deeds and papers relating to Church Street.

Records of Edmonton Petty Sessional Division, comprising minutes of summary proceedings held at Watch House and Angel Inn, Edmonton, 2 Jan 1837 - 21 Dec 1838. Cases heard include felonies, assault, larceny, highway offences, retailing beer etc. without licence, obstruction, injury to property etc. Volume records detailed statements by witnesses, statutes governing cases, outcome of each case. At rear of volume is a summary of cases heard with details of fines etc. Name index at front of volume. Volume also includes records of medical prescriptions prepared for named persons, January 1859.

Papers collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising admission of John Durham, junior of 10 Great James Street, Bedford Row, as solicitor in court of Chancery, 8 May 1863, signed by John Romilly, Master of the Rolls; admission of John Durham as solicitor in Court of Queen's Bench, 8 May 1863. Also leases for 108 Stroud Green Road (formerly called Osborne House), Hornsey, 1887 and 1895.