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[Bury documents] Documents relating to Copyhold property near The Green
These documents concern a group of closely situated cottages, copyhold of the Manor of Bury with Hepmangrove, identified in 1854 by the description ‘All that commonable messuage or tenement then divided into six tenements situate.....near to a certain place there called the Green together with the yard and premises....bounded by a public lane on or towards the North, on land formerly belonging to the said Samuel Wells afterwards of the said John West and then of the said Maria Johnston on or towards the West and South, and on the road or lane leading to the Cheverill and formerly called Cheverill Balk on or towards the East as the same were in the several occupations of Henry Jeffery, John Smith, William Rotherham, Thomas Holder, John Shelton and one in hand, and also that messuage cottage or tenement then divided into two tenements with the gardens occupied therewith..... (formerly part of a commonable messuage and four acres of old inclosed pasture land) formerly Tapscotts then Asplins Flowers Martins and Wells which.....were formerly in the occupation of Edward Lenton and were then in the several occupations of Joseph Packwood and John Heat and were bounded on or towards the East and North by the said commonable messuage or tenement hereinbefore described, on or towards the West by the said four acres of old inclosed pasture formerly belonging to Elizabeth West and then to the said Maria Johnston, and on or towards the South by the said road or lane leading to the Cheverill’. In 1856 the young Mary Martin was admitted as copyholder. She subsequently became Mrs Mary Milner, and in 1871 she surrendered her copyhold to Edward Ruff Darlow. He went to America and surrendered his copyhold [via mortgage], and in the early 1890s the mortgagors surrendered their copyhold to John Rowell. It should be possible to identify these cottages in conjunction with the various censuses as names of occupants change over the years. The copyhold documents are accompanied by an 1870 abstract of title which gives details of documents going back to 1825. In addition to all this, earlier abstracts of 1837 and 1813 identify who Tapscott, Aplin, Flowers etc were, between them extending the history of these properties back to 1764 - thus the whole group of documents enables a 130 year history to be compiled. 16 documents altogether, all in manuscript, a mixture of paper and parchment. The collection (ref 98/3) *£75.00  Not for export

[Bury documents] Mortgage Documents
In 1892 John Rowell of Bury obtained a mortgage on a large number of properties as follows:
15 acres of land at New Field Holt (on the Ramsey-Bury road)
A cottage on the South side of Bury Street
2 acres in The Leys
1 acre in Grains Croft
1 acre in Lady Gap (on the Bury-Upwood road)
An unidentified cottage, formerly a beerhouse
7 acres of land called The Holts
2 acres of land called The Bunyards
4 acres of land known as Ashton’s Field
4 acres of land Little Hodgkin’s
A house with 3 acres called Home Close
4 acres of land known as Read’s Close (part of Home Close)
6 acres of land known as Northey or Northey Close
Dean’s Close (part of Home Close)
A farmhouse and several barns & stables
and quite a number of other plots of land which the researcher will have more incentive than I have to list and follow up. I did note Cheverills, though, and it may be this pair of documents (the 1892 mortgage and a 1914 reconveyance to John Rowell confirming he’d paid off the mortgage) belongs with the other 16 listed above. This pair (ref 98/4) *£12.00  Not for export

[Houghton document]  Lease of Farm
This 1804 lease for 12 years is of 'All that messuage or farm house.....with the houses outhouses edifices buildings barns stables yards gardens orchards lands meadows pastures hereditaments and appurtenances thereto belonging situate in Houghton aforesaid or in some other town parish or place thereto near or adjoining and also all that Fenn Farm situate and lying in the parish of Warboys in the same county as the said messuage farms lands hereditaments and premises are now in the occupation of the said John Rowell.....' (there follows lengthy conditions including how the land should be looked after and what crops were to be sown).  A memo on the reverse of the document records that both parties agreed that the lessee (John Rowell) may sub-let 'the Houghton meadows (approx 23 acres) and also the feed from about 60 acres of the Fenn lands, also that the lessor (Colonel Robert Bernard Sparrow of Brampton) would within 2 years 'erect and build a proper farm house on some part of the said Fenn Farm...'.  Manuscript on one large parchment sheet, bears signature of both parties.  Some spotting and foxing but all perfectly legible.  (ref 98/2)  *£20.00  Not for export

Edmund Pettis' Survey of St Ives, 1728
Cambridgeshire Records Society vol 16, 2002.  4to in familiar blue & white printed card covers, 73pp followed by a complete facsimile reproduction of the 100pp+ uniquely detailed early 18th century town survey in maps, line drawings, lists.   This needs to be on the shelf of every serious St Ives researcher, bridging as it does the blank space between 17th century hearth tax & protestation returns and the 19th century censuses & civil registration.  The volume is still in print at £15+p&p, our copy (ref 0000), in Fine condition, excellent value at £10.00

[Upwood document]  Extract from Court Rolls
Brief extracts relating to a pair of (probably) cottages 'abutting on the Town Street' surrendered by Thomas Smith to John Rappitt in 1813 and an orchard fronting the 'Public Street' surrendered by John Townsend to John Rappitt in 1838. Manuscript on 3 sides of paper, 1842 watermark though the extract appears to have been made in 1849. (ref 105/6)  *£8.00  Not for export

[Several other Upwood copyhold papers are available, featuring Rappitt, Smith, Townsend, Pooley]

The Visitation of the County of Huntingdon 1684
Harleian Society New Series vol 13, 1994.  Usual format, 128pp inc 3 indexes.  Includes 1683 Hearth Tax return for those occupiers with 5 or more hearths.   There's also 16pp of memorial inscriptions.  F copy.  (ref 2442)  £20.00