| Description | This book was bought and opened in accordance with a minute of the Court, 5 July 1721, that a register was to be kept 'pour y inventorier tous les titres de l'Hopital'. The full text of the documents is entered, in copper-plate writing. As, however, the original Hospital site was held from the Ironmongers' Company, and the Pest House site adjoining from the Corporation of London, on long leases, there can have been few documents of title until the 19th century. As will be seen, most of those transcribed or summarized relate to the property in Bond's Court, Walbrook, held as an investment from 1726 to 1765.
The contents of the volume, indexed at the beginning, are:
pp. 1-4: Lease for 990 years from 25 March 1716, at a peppercorn rent (See also H/J/19) from the Ironmongers' Company to James Baudouin, merchant (Deputy Governor of the Hospital) of an inn called the Blue Anchor, messuage and twister's shed, ground part of the Company's Golden Acre abutting on the Pest House wall, all in the parish of St Giles, Cripplegate and fronting E on the footway to Islington. Simple plan of the land (water-colour), 27 March 1716.
pp. 5-8: Charter under the Great Seal of George I, to Philip Ménard and others, French refugees, for incorporation of the Governor and Directors of the Hospital, naming the Marquis de Ruvigny (Earl of Galway) as first Governor, 24 July 1718.
pp. 9-11: Assignment of lease of 27 March 1716 (see pp. 1-4 above) by James Baudouin to the Governor and Directors of the Hospital, 3 September 1718.
pp. 12-20: Conveyance by lease and release, for £6,200, by Richard Androwes Esq. to the Rev Albert Le Blanc and others, of 15 messuages (naming tenants) and a wash house with 'airey', in Bond's Court, St Stephen Walbroock, London, 19 and 20 October 1726.
pp. 21-23: Bargain 7 sale enrolled, of Bond's Court property as in previous conveyance, 20 October 1726.
pp. 24-33: Trust deed, charging with an annuity of £200 the Manor of Wormingford alias Church Hall, Rectory and Advowson of Wormingford, Manor of Wormingford Hall, Wormingford Park, watermill and lands, in Wormingford and other parishes in Essex, in trust for the widow and children of Richard Androwes of Earls Colne, Essex, in lieu of a similar charge on premises in Bond's Court, Walbrook made by the marriage settlement, 11/12 December 1718, of Richard Androwes and Margaret (née Hatsell). Cites conveyance of the Essex properties, 26/27 July 1726, to trustees for Androwes by the executors of the Clemence Corrence Esq. of Rougham, Suffolk, 2 September 1726.
pp. 33-35: Declaration of trust in respect of the Bond's Court property, by the Rev Albert Le Blanc and others, 4 January 1726/7.
pp. 36-42: Blank.
pp. 43-50: Abstract of the title to the Bond's Court property from June 1559, when a 'great massuage' in occupation of Sir John Coles, Kt., in Stephen Walbrook, was conveyed by Thomas Smith (son of Alice, late wife of Sir John Smith, and one of four co-heiresses of Edward Wood) to Thomas Gowre. In 6 Charles I the premises appear to have been held by William Bond Esq., who in 1669-1671 demised to Roger Davis and other building leases of ground 'whereon before the Fire stood a messuage in the occupation of Nicholas Juxon'. By his will, 1671, Bond left the property to his nephew Daniel Androwes whose son and heir Richard inherited and sold it to the French Hospital.
p. 50: Recital of agreement between Richard Androwes and Paul Dufour for purchase of the premises (for the Hospital).
pp. 53-124: Certain documents of the abstract of title of Bond's Court transcribed in full including will of Thomas Gore, grocer (father-in-law of William Bond), 1597, will of William Bond, citizen, Haberdasher, 1608, will of Margaret Sarocolde, late wife of William Bond and now of Thomas Sarocolde, citizen & mercer, 1614, will (part only) of William Bond, Esq., 1671; also building leases (post Fire of London) with interesting stipulations (pp. 78-92); plan, 1671 (p. 93); marriage settlement of Daniel Androwes, junior, and Mary, daughter of Richard Harlakenden, of Earls Colne, Essex, Esq., 1672 (pp. 99-111) describing the Bond's Court properties in detail; and marriage settlement of Richard Androwes and Margaret, daughter of Lawrence Hatsell, citizen & stationer, 1718 (pp. 115-124).
pp. 129-132: Lease for 970 years, from 29 September 1736, for £400 and rent of £2 per annum, by the Mayor and Corporation of London to the French Hospital, of ground and buildings thereon in St Luke's, Middlesex, formerly called the Pest House; with plan (ink and water-colour), 18 January 1736/7.
p. 133: Extract of minutes of Court of the Ironmongers' Company, 31 August 1738, giving the Court's opinion that the Company had no claim to a wall on the West side of the Pest House ground.
Inserted between pp. 36 and 37, on a double sheet, is a plan of the Hospital, including drainage, undated (18th century), ink and water-colour.
No entries were made after 1738, and although the Court minute of 1721 laid down that any withdrawals and replacement of documents in the Hospital chest were to be noted in the margin, there are no such entries. |