The Canterbury All Saints Deeds
Scope and Contents
This collection documents the history of ownership of a property in Canterbury, England, located at the modern address of 8 All Saints' Ln, Canterbury CT1 2AU, UK (formerly 8 Brick Ln), between 1695 and 1935. The documents in this collection would have been compiled and used by each owner to establish and defend the chain of ownership and tenure of the property. The manuscript documents in this collection trace the property’s transformation from... nondescript land and buildings to a complex of brewhouses, malthouses, and alehouses. Over the 241 years documented by this collection, the brewing complex changed hands sixteen times. During this time, nine women are named as the owner(s) of the property. The earliest documents in the collection were originally created between 1694-1702; this collection contains the surviving copies of these documents made the week of June 21-25, 1729.
The collection reflects the breadth of the English deed genre (any document pertaining to the legal ownership or tenure of property). It notably includes lease and releases, a form of a title deed popular between the 16th and 19th centuries originally established to avoid the Statute of Enrolment (1535) and the restrictions it placed upon the sale of freehold land. To avoid these restrictions, land was conveyed as leasehold property through a “lease and release,” a title deed composed of two documents (a lease and a release). The lease document establishes a lease between the parties (thus rendering the land leasehold property) and the release (usually created the following day) conveys the said leasehold property from the landholder to the leasee (i.e., buyer). Since these are separate documents, it is rare that both the lease and release survive together. This collection, however, includes six paired lease and releases. The collection also contains many other forms within the English deed genre, including simple leases, releases, wills, fines upon acknowledgement, surrenders, mortgages by demise, bonds, assignments of mortgage, tax assessments, abstracts of ownerships, agreements of sale, records of indenture of sale, receipts, and an assignment of personal estate in trust.
Dates
- Creation: 1694 - 1935
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Chronological History of the All Saints Property
The earliest owner of the All Saints brewing complex documented by this collection was Priscilla Delara alias Sheet, who conveyed the property to Jane George in 1694. Jane purchased neighboring properties from Anne Parker in 1695 and received a final surrender of lands from Priscilla Delarue in 1702. Records of these women are scarce, but Jane George, wife of John George, farrier, is mentioned in her husband’s 1698 will. In 1702, Jane George allowed... James Wallis to occupy and use the All Saints complex. In return, Wallis agreed to give George a lump sum of £150 and a bond. Shortly thereafter, in 1703, Wallis conveyed some of the property to James Guenin, although according to Wallis’ 1706 will, the brewhouse and hopgrounds were left to his wife, Mary Wallis.
At some time between 1706 and 1720, Mary Wallis mortgaged her portion of the property to Guenin. In 1720, Geunin conveyed the mortgage of the All Saints Complex to Henry Huff, who at some point in that year returned some of the land to Wallis, which in 1721, Wallis assigned the mortgage of the All Saints complex to John Cooke. Huff assigned the mortgage for the remainder of his portion of the complex to two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth Knowler, in 1725.
In 1727, Benjamin LeGrand (d. 1737), Huguenot weaver, purchased the property from the Knowler sisters and Wallis. After his death, the All Saints complex was inherited by his son, William. William willed the property to his sister, Anne, who died without heirs and left the complex to her brothers, George (d. 1807) and Robert LeGrand.
In 1785, George LeGrand, a prominent surgeon and apothecary in Canterbury, conveyed the All Saints complex to Charles Lepine (ca. 1745-1818), a fellow Canterbury businessman with Huguenot roots. Lepine held the property until his death in 1818, at which point Lepine’s sons, William, Daniel, and Charles sold the property to William Goulden.
Almost a century later, in 1901, the solicitor Horace Broughton compiled an abstract of ownership of the property, which was then owned by Henry Small. In 1901, Small sold the property to Edwin Ernest Fedarb (b. 1869), carpenter, who is the final owner recorded in this collection.
Extent
1.33 Cubic Feet (1 box, 1 map case drawer.)
Language of Materials
English
Latin
Arrangement
Documents are in a single series, arranged first by size, then by date. Box 1 contains MSE/EM 3707-1 - MSE/EM 3707-24. Drawer 4 contains MSE/EM 3707-25 - MSE/EM 3707-33
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Collection purchased September, 2007.
Materials Specific Details
Collection contains various English legal formats, including lease and releases, leases, releases, wills, fines upon acknowledgement, surrenders, mortgages by demise, bonds, assignments of mortgage, tax assessments, abstracts of ownerships, agreements of sale, records of indenture of sale, receipts, and an assignment of personal estate in trust.
- Title
- The Canterbury All Saints Deeds
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Anne Elise Crafton
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the University of Notre Dame Rare Books & Special Collections Repository