X631

Items deposited by Cecil Higgins Museum and Art Gallery of Castle Close, Bedford on 21 October 1981.

19th - 20th century

From: 1800 To: 1999

Deeds in this deposit concern the acquisition of an estate in Wilden, including Wilden Shrubbery, by the Dyson family of Bedford and Wilden in 1793 (X631/27), 1810 (X631/24) and in 1813 (X631/35). The entire estate was sold to the Reverend Thomas Sheepshanks of Coventry in 1838 (X631/51) The variour properties at Wilden were gradually amalgamated to form one unit of purchase, as follows:- 1. Messauge at Hudwick End, Wilden, Barne Close etc The property was mortgaged and re-mortgaged by the Wagstaff family (X631/6-9) and conveyed by William Wagstaff of Pavenham to Thomas Palmer of Bedford in 1750 (X631/12). The property was sold by Palmer to Edward Green of Fenchurch Street, Middx in 1775. 2. Cottage and three acres at Wilden An assignment of mortgage of 1752 (X631/14) mentions earlier deeds, no longer extant, back to 1689 (see also X631/10). The property was sold by Thomas Palmer to Edward Green in 1775 (X631/14, endorsed). 3. Coles Meadow etc Wilden The property was conveyed by Thomas and Mary Adams of Wrestlingworth to Thomas Thompson of Potton in 1756 (X631/16). It was then mortgaged (X631/17), conveyed by Woodham and Thompson to Thomas Palmer in 1758 (X631/21) who conveyed it to Edward Green in 1775 (X631/21, endorsement). 4. Brook Close etc Wilden The property was conveyed by Joseph Keep of Wellingborough to Robert Bowyer of Stevington in 1757 (X631/20) then by Bowyer to Thomas Palmer of Bedford in 1762 (X631/23) who sold it to Edward Green in 1775 (X631/19). In 1775 Edward Green of Fenchurch Street, Middx acquired the properties (1-4) above. In 1791 Green sold the properties to David Yeats (X631/25-6), who died in 1792 (X631/48). David Yeats, formerly of St.Augustine, East Florida, but later of Middlesex, was a medical man whose son Grant David Yeats (1773-1836) was a physician at the Bedford Infirmary and Bedford Lunatic Asylum and Mayor of Bedford in 1810. (See Private Charity and Public Purse by Bernard Cashman, book 150) Yeats also appears in the Woburn Sheepshearing print by Garrard and the preliminary watercolour is also extant (Z49/872). Shortly after the death of David Yeats the properties (1-4) including Wilden Shrubbery were sold to James Dyson (X631/27 and 45) in 1793. Some years later James Dyson added to his estate at Wilden. He purchased: 5. Cottage and Hunts Croft, Wilden (1810) The property was conveyed by True Emery and Richard Emery, devisees under the will of John Emery of The Grange, Ravensden. John Emery junior was a farmer at Ravensden, but later Baptist Minister at Kimbolton (X631/37 & 44). In 1808 the property was purchased by John Grant of Great Barford (X631/33) who in turn sold it in 1810 to James Dyson (X631/34). 6. Cottage adjacent Wilden Shrubbery (1813) The property was owned by the Clare family, including Thomas Clare of Bedford, watchmaker, and acquired by James Dyson of Margate, Kent in 1813 (X631/35). James Dyson died at Wilden in 1833. Three of his four daughters married, Louisa (1831), Ann Maria (1836) and Augusta Sophia (1837) and the estate was sold to the Rev Thomas Sheepshanks of Coventry in 1838 for £2120 (X631/51-2) in order to provide their marriage portions (X631/53,55).

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