X808

Hampson Archive

From: 1783 To: 1824

Previously accessioned at 5254

The Archive itself The archive consists of one letter and solicitor's bill to John Gibbard relating to his mortgages on his Sharnbrook estates before Hampson's death and fifteen letters etc relating to Gibbard's executorship of Hampson's will. (a)John Gibbard's mortgages Between 1814 and 1822 John Gibbard clearly needed to raise considerable sums of money on mortgage and he did so with Hampson's help. X808/1 mentions Gibbard trying to raise at least _12,000 in this way. Why Gibbard was so short of money is not immediately obvious. Some of the money undoubtedly represented unpaid purchase money. Extra money was perhaps allocated to general improvements to his Sharnbrook estate following the enclosure of the Parish in 1809. The period 1815-1822 saw the onset of a sharp depression in farm prices following the end of the artificially high prices caused by the Napoleonic Wars. This depression hit farmers worst of all but landlords too cannot have been unaffected. (b)Leonard Hampson's estate 1824-1838 The bulk of the correspondence however relates to the settling of Hampson's affairs following his death in March 1824. (He was buried on 12 March at St Mary's Luton). Austin had got sufficient capital to buy out Hampson's share of the Bank and so almost immediately the Executors decided to close it. Robert Hibbert, junior of East Hyde wrote to Gibbard on 11 March 1824, expressing concern that the considerable feeling on the issue might spill out into a riot even to the extent of Hampson's coffin being stopped on the way to the Church. In June 1824, the executors started to clear Hampson's personal estate. A list of his deeds was prepared which included Mortgages in his favour, the marriage settlement of his brother Edward with Susannah Cecil Grave, dated 28 October 1783 and for purchases of individual closes of land in Pepperstock and Wheathamstead. This was sent to the Executors on 1 June. A sale notice appeared in the Northampton Mercury of 12 June 1824 announcing the sale of Hampson's personal goods on 23 June. On the 13th Rudd wrote to Gibbard detailing what items were to be bought in at the auction. (X808/9) At a fairly early date the Executors decided to sell the remainder of the Hawes estate for Building Land. Mr T Wood of Leighton Buzzard advertised the sale in the Huntingdon, Bedford and Peterborough Gazette and Cambridge and Hertford Independent Press of 16 October 1824. A copy of that sale notice is to be found at the end of this introduction. From accounts rendered in July 1825 (X808/13), it is clear that the Executors got an extremely good price for the land and the purchasers saw the development potential of the land. For 58A 1R 30P they raised _7,053 over _120 per acre. The first two lots lay to the west of the land that Hampson had sold off in Prebend Field in 1809. They lay to the west of the town beyond Midland Road and lying between Bromham Road and Ford End Road. Although the first lot was purchased by Green, it very soon was purchased by Dr Brereton, Master of Bedford School. The purchaser of the second and third lots was Robert Elliott. Although the land had been bought at a high price, Elliott did not develop the land for residential housing, building only one house at the Bromham Road end by 1846 which was occupied as a small farm. Part of the southern end was used for building the Midland Railway Station, open 1857 and the track north of it. By the 1850s the northern part was used as a nursery occupied firstly by James Sheppard and then by Mrs Horton, florist. In the early 1890s both the northern and southern part of this property was sold off as the site of Allens Works. Lot 4 Sadlers Corner represented the last piece of Hawes land on the north side of the Tavistock Street. The land was sold to Thomas Gwyn Elger, builder. Unlike the Dawson's who had kept the land they had bought in the area as agricultural land, Elger developed the land quickly providing cheap housing. The 1851 Census for Canning Street reveals that out of 17 Heads of Household there were 1 Tobacco Pipemakmer Master, a baker, a sergeant in Bedfordshire Militia, two shoemakers, 3 bricklayers, 1 stonemason, two brickmaker's labourers, a farm labourer and 5 general labourers. Canning Street had been built by 1827 and Russell and Chandos Street by 1830. Note the evenhanded compliments to leaders of both political parties of the day. Canning was Prime Minister in 1827 but by 1830 Russell and the Reform Bill were in the ascendant. 'Chandos' was an attempt, perhaps to give a ducal air to some unducal houses! North of the houses on the northern side of Russell Street there were no houses till the 1880s, when the Dawsons sold off 14 Acres to G D Langley, the Bedford schoolmaster in 1882. He sold it on to the British Land Company in August 1883, who sold the whole area of in building plots on 29 October 1885. Houses appeared in the Black Tom area ie Park Road, Stanley Street, Clarendon Street, Garfield Street and Beaconsfield Street soon afterwards. [AD39] The last 3 lots were all purchased with a view to immediate building in the area now covered by the Crescent and Hawes Street. James Woodroffe, the well known Bedford architect purchased the site of 12 The Crescent and no doubt designed that house and the neighbour to the north, No 10, built by John Austin, builder of High Street, Bedford (see X208). Interestingly William Berrill of Bedford, bricklayer was also a party to the deed of 1825 where Austin purchased the site of No 10. West of the property was the lot purchased by the Reverend Thomas Short and no doubt includes the present Hawes Street (developed 1835 as Hampson Street but will its present name by 1836). In conclusion the release of this substantial piece, so close to the town, provided an important stimulus to the development of the New Town of the 1820s.

The Leonard Hampson Executors' Archive was deposited in 1980s and consists of the letters that John Gibbard received relating to the affairs of his father in law Leonard Hampson of Luton. A couple of items relate to Hampson before he died but the bulk refers to John Gibbard's executorship of Hampson's will. Correspondence between Hampson and Gibbard in 1822 has survived in the Garrard and Allen Archive (GA 2493).

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