Extract from an 1802 Abstract of Title to an Estate called the Crown in Great Ellingham
Courtesy Shirley Caston
Deeds contain fascinating and interesting information. For example, details of the land, premises, owners, occupiers and even lenders.
Maps or plans drawn on early Indentures are ‘few and far between’. Accordingly, these early documents describe the position of the land or property in some detail. In addition, you will usually find the names of the owners of neighbouring land included in the description.
Together, these details are invaluable for piecing together a house history.
Deeds covering Several Properties
Historical deeds can also include several properties owned by the same person. Although these properties are usually in the same village, town or city they can be elsewhere.
In conveyancing transactions before the relatively modern times of deeds registration, the seller’s solicitors would draw up an ‘Abstract of Title’. This is a chronological list of deeds providing relevant extracts. The purpose is to prove the seller’s title to the property or estate. A similar process is, of course, still used today for unregistered deeds.
Buyers purchasing some of the property referred to in the seller’s deeds would not usually be given the original title documents. However, buyers retained an ‘examined’ Abstract of Title as their deeds. In addition, the Conveyance Deed to the buyers included a covenant for the production of the original deeds. In many cases, these deeds are are listed in the Conveyance Deed.
Swamp Lane Cottage Deeds
I recently investigated a bundle of old deeds relating to a cottage in Swamp Lane. Amongst the deeds is an Abstract of Title to the ‘Estate called the Crown in Great Ellingham’! There are also references to other properties in the village – but that’s another story, or two!
The Crown
Coming across another Abstract of Title relating to The Crown, I have been able to piece together a little bit more of the history of the pub.
The Crown is the only surviving public house in Great Ellingham. However, I am certain that the building is not the same building as it was in at least 1732.
Former names of the pub are The Bell and the Rose & Crown.
John Turner, worsted weaver
Extract from an 1802 Abstract of Title to an Estate called the Crown. Courtesy Shirley Caston
The Abstract of Title begins with an extract of the will of John Turner of Great Ellingham.
Worsted weaver John Turner made is last will and testament on the 21st November, 1732.
He bequeathed all his houses, lands and tenements in Great Ellingham to his ‘kinsman’ John Turner. However, I do not know the exact relationship between the two John Turners. Nevertheless, they were blood related.
Kinsman, John Turner
Unfortunately the extracted deeds do not say whether John Turner (the kinsman of John Turner) lived in Great Ellingham. However, it is more than likely that he did.
Extract from an 1802 Abstract of Title to an Estate called the Crown. Courtesy Shirley Caston
Nevertheless, the deeds do tell us that John Turner made a will on the 16th December, 1748. He appointed John Wright of Great Ellingham as his sole executor, and directed Wright to sell all his real estate in Great Ellingham.
Public House
As these two wills appear in the Abstract of Title to The Crown, I have no doubt that worsted weaver John Turner and, in turn, his kinsman John Turner, owned the several properties which once stood on the site of the present Crown Public House. Of course, one of these properties was, or later became, a public house.
Purchaser, William Bond
On the 29th September, 1749, John Wright acting as the executor of John Turner, conveyed to William Bond:
All those several Messuages or Tenements with the Barn Stable and other Buildings Yards Gardens Lands & Grounds thereto belonging situate in Great Ellingham in or near a certain Street there called Church Gate Street and lie between the Lands of Fisher Colman clerk towards the south and the Messuage and Yard of John Wilkin in part and the said Street in part towards the north and abut upon the Land of the said Fisher Colman towards the east and upon the said Street in part and upon the Land of the said Fisher Colman in part towards the west and then in the occupation of the said William Bond and Isaac Meek or their under tenants
Extract from 1802 Map of Great Ellingham. Russell James Colman Plans. Norfolk Record Office Cat. Ref. C/Ca 1/84.
All rights reserved Norfolk Record Office. With kind permission of NRO
The Great Ellingham Inclosure Map is dated 1802. This is some 50 years after the Conveyance to William Bond. However, it enables us to pinpoint the whereabouts of Bond’s premises in what is now Church Street.
The blue arrow on the above extract from the Inclosure Map shows the location of the houses and buildings etc purchased by William Bond in 1749. The green arrow indicates the nearby building which, in the 1740s, was owned by John Wilkins. This is the building which centuries later became known as Ye Olde Thatche Shoppe.
The nearby land shown on the map as owned by the Reverend Negus was indeed formerly owned by Fysher Colman. This all concurs with the description of the premises set out in the 1749 Conveyance Deed to William Bond.
William Bond
At the time that Bond purchased the several houses with the barn, stable and outbuildings in Church Street, he may have already owned the cottage which adjoined The Crown on the west. However, I do not know when William Bond purchased this cottage. Accordingly, it is possible that the two John Turners may have also owned the adjoining cottage.
William Bond was a lath river. He split wood to form laths. These laths formed a foundation for the plaster of a wall.
William Bond was married to Rachel. The couple had at least one known child, a daughter, Elizabeth. She was baptised in St James on the 29th October, 1742.
Mortgage to Jeremiah Burroughes
Extract from an 1802 Abstract of Title to an Estate called the Crown. Courtesy Shirley Caston
On the 30th September, 1749 (the day after he purchased the properties), William Bond entered into a mortgage deed with Jeremiah Burroughes. The deed secured a loan of £73 10s against all the property as described in the 1749 Conveyance Deed.
The deeds to the adjoining cottage recite the same or similar mortgage deed. However, the extracted deeds to the ‘Estate called the Crown’ do not indicate that the loan was also secured on the adjoining cottage.
Nevertheless, the deeds to the adjoining cottage (on the west side of The Crown), show that a similar loan of £73 10s from Jeremiah Burroughes was secured against that cottage AND other property.
Accordingly, I do not know whether Bond borrowed £73 10s against the ‘Estate called the Crown’ and another £73 10s against the adjoining cottage, or, just one amount of £73 10s.
Death of Rachel Bond
Church of St James, Great Ellingham
Sadly, William Bond buried his wife Rachel in the churchyard of St James’s Church on the 21st December, 1754.
Marriage of Elizabeth Bond to Henry Hinsby
A few years later, his daughter Elizabeth Bond married widower Henry Hinsby on the 31st March, 1761.
However, Henry Hinsby died before his son, William Henry Hinsby, was baptised in St James’s Church on the 10th January 1762.
In 1764, widow Elizabeth gave birth to Robert – referred to in the parish registers as being ‘baseborn’. Sadly Elizabeth Hinsby buried her son Robert in the churchyard of St James on the 15th July of that year.
I have no doubt that William Bond and his widowed daughter Elizabeth Hinsby, along with her son William Henry, lived in one or two of the cottages near to The Crown.
Further Borrowing
On the 30th September, 1766, William Bond borrowed a further sum of £100 plus interest from the Burroughes family. This was also secured against the premises as recited in the 1749 Conveyance to Bond.
It was noted at this time that all the interest on the original loan had been paid, but £70 of the original loan remained outstanding. Accordingly, Bond’s mortgage to the Burroughes family now stood at £170 plus interest.
William Bond’s Will
Just two months’ later on the 29th November, 1766, William Bond made his last will and testament. Given that he was only a month away from his demise, Bond may well have been very sick.
Bond bequeathed a lifetime interest in his messuage or tenement in Great Ellingham ‘then in the occupation of William Meek or his under tenants’ to his daughter Elizabeth Hinsby. Thereafter, this property would pass to his grandson, William Henry Hinsby.
William Henry Hinsby also inherited all his grandfather’s other messuages and land in Great Ellingham i.e. all the messuages, tenements and lands as described in the 1749 Conveyance to his grandfather William Bond, save for the house occupied by William Meek. However, he would also inherit this property when his mother’s life tenancy came to an end.
On the 5th January, 1767, William Bond was laid to rest in the churchyard of St James.
Elizabeth Hinsby remarries
Just three weeks’ after her father’s death, widow Elizabeth Hinsby married single man William Cady. He may well have been the William Cady, churchwarden, referred to in the parish registers. The marriage took place at St James’s Church on the 27th January, 1767. George III had acceded to the British throne some seven years earlier.
Elizabeth was just under the age of 30 when she married William Cady. Accordingly, it is no surprise to find that Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter Elizabeth in the following year. I believe the couple had at least five further children. William was born in 1770, Thomas in 1774, George 1776, Stephen in 1777 and Anne in 1781.
All the children may well have been born in the cottage which was very near to (or adjoined) the house which became known as The Bell. However, Cady’s home was not the cottage, or the earlier origins of the house, which today adjoins the western side of The Crown.
Hinsby Sells
Nevertheless on the 14th July, 1784, William Henry Hinsby sells all the Great Ellingham property he inherited from his grandfather, William Bond. This included the house occupied by his mother, now Elizabeth Cady, and her husband William Cady. However despite the sale, I believe that William and Elizabeth Cady continued to live in the house in which her father gave her a life tenancy.
Death of William Cady
William Cady died in the Spring of 1786 leaving Elizabeth once again a widow. Again I am confident that Elizabeth continued to live in one of the houses or cottages near to The Crown.
The Bell
I do not know exactly when it was that one of the houses owned by Hinsby became an inn, and known as The Bell. However, a newspaper article confirms that on the 11 September, 1781, discussions between the landowners of the village concerning the Inclosures, took place at ‘The Bell’.
Extract from an 1802 Abstract of Title to an Estate called the Crown. Courtesy Shirley Caston
The first reference to ‘The Bell’ in the Abstract of Title is in the 1784 Conveyance from William Henry Hinsby to Jeffrey Warren.
Buyer, Jeffrey Warren
In July 1784, William Henry Hinsby sold the following property to Jeffrey Warren, a yeoman of Great Ellingham. Warren paid £170 for:
All that freehold Messuage Tenement or Inn called the Bell with the yards gardens then or late in the occupation of John Wilkins
Also two small tenements near to the cottage called the Bell then or late in the occupation of Edward Steele, Benjamin Springall and Benjamin Turner
Also a small piece of ground near the same in the occupation of Mr King
And also that cottage with the yard in the occupation of John Middleton and then in the tenure of Benjamin Turner
In addition, and for a further sum of £10, Jeffrey Warren purchased the following property from William Henry Hinsby. I believe this is the very same property in which Hinsby’s mother, Elizabeth, had a life interest.
All the Messuage or Tenement with the yards gardens formerly in the occupation of Isaac Meek and then of William Cady And also all and every the Messuages Lands in Great Ellingham devised by the Will of William Bond to Elizabeth his daughter the the wife of William Cady
At a similar time, William Bond’s debt to the Burroughes family was fully repaid and discharged.
Adjoining Cottages
I also believe that the two small tenements said to be ‘near to the cottage called the Bell’ and occupied by Steele, Springall and Turner are indeed the adjoining cottages on the western side of The Crown. I know that Jeffrey Warren also owned these cottages. Much later, the cottages became one house.
Landlords
John Wilkins had been (and, perhaps, still was) the landlord of The Bell. Further, I do not believe that Jeffrey Warren lived in any of the properties. Nevertheless by 1787, the inn became known as The Crown and the landlord was William Jessup.
Within two months of purchasing the properties, Jeffrey Warren found a buyer.
Agreement with Richard Leath
Extract from an 1802 Abstract of Title to an Estate called the Crown. Courtesy Shirley Caston
On the 14th September, 1784, Jeffrey Warren entered into an agreement with Richard Leath, a farmer of Little Ellingham. Leath agreed to purchase Warren’s property at the price of £194 15s. Completion to take place on or before 5th April, 1785.
As it happened, Richard Leath died before completing the transaction. You can read more about Richard Leath and his intended purchase of Warren’s property in Part II.
Widow Cady’s House consumed by Fire
In the meantime, articles found in The Times of 18th May 1787 and the edition of the Bury & Norwich Post published on the 16th May 1787, report of a ‘terrible fire’ which broke out in Great Ellingham.
Both newspapers say that the fire began at the house of Widow Caddy. Her house was entirely consumed by the fire. The reports also say that the fire communicated to the adjoining Crown Public House kept by William Jessup. The Crown together with Jessup’s furniture (and the greater part of his stock in trade as a leather-cutter and shoemaker), were also entirely consumed by the fire.
I do not believe that the cottage occupied by Widow Caddy (the former Elizabeth Bond, daughter of William Bond) was ever rebuilt.
However, The Crown must have been rebuilt following the fire. Alternatively, the earlier inn known as the Bell (and then The Crown) was a different property, but on the same site. Of course, The Crown as we see it today has undergone many changes since it was built.
Postcard around the turn of the 20th century. Crown Public House in the centre
Courtesy Attleborough Heritage Group
Sources:
Private Deeds Collection. Shirley Caston
Private Deeds Collection. Sue Simpson
1st September 1781 Norfolk Chronicle
16th May 1787 Bury & Norwich Post
Newspapers Viewed via The British Newspaper Archive
The Times, 18 May 1787, p. 3. The Times Digital Archive, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS51119282/TTDA?u=nl_earl&sid=TTDA&xid=49ded6f3. Accessed 11 July 2020
Great Ellingham Parish Registers. Norfolk Record Office PD 609. Also available at FamilySearch.org
1802 Russell James Colman Plans. Great Ellingham. Norfolk Record Office. Catalogue Ref. C/Ca 1/84.
1799-1842 F W Horner, Records of the Surveyors to Commissioners for Inclosure in Parishes in Norfolk and Suffolk. Great Ellingham (Act 1799). Norfolk Record Office. Catalogue Ref: NRO, BR 90/2
1800 Inclosure Commissioner’s Particulars and Valuation, Great Ellingham. Norfolk Record Office. Catalogue Ref: NRO, MC 2213/119