Scope and Content
Settlement (Release) [Lease for a year missing] to uses
i) Robert Welborne of parish of St Margaret, Westminster, gentleman
Richard Swift of Lyons Inn (county Middlesex), gentleman
ii) the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Ailesbury
the Right Honourable Charles Bruce, esquire (commonly called Lord Bruce, only son and heir apparent of the said Earl and wife Elizabeth, Countess of Ailesbury, deceased)
iii) the most Noble Henry Duke of Beaufort
[recites Order in Chancery, dated 18 July 1706, in a cause then depending between the said Earl of Ailesbury, the said Charles Lord Bruce, the Honourable Robert and James Bruce, esquires, William Hawkins, Israel Wilkes, William Pratt and John Mead (complainants), and the said Henry Duke of Beaufort; that the latter, in whom the inheritance in fee simple of Ailesbury House in Clerkenwell (county Middlesex), (sometime part of the Dissolved Hospital of St John of Jerusalem) is vested, should on payment of £2,300 join in a Conveyance, and lay out the money in the purchase of property to such uses as were made in a Bargain and Sale enrolled, dated 20 January 1686/7:
i) Right Honourable Diana Countess Dowager of Ailesbury (since deceased);
ii) Thomas Earl of Ailesbury;
iii) Charles Lord Bruce;
iv) Henry Duke of Beaufort (grandfather of said Henry, since deceased),
the Honourable Sir Henry Capell, K.B. (afterwards Lord Capell, since deceased)
and Sir William Walter, knight (since deceased)]
… a capital messuage in a place called Brook End Green in Barton-in-the-Clay; a small spinney adjoining, in the occupation of Robert Welborne; several closes called the Holme Closes; a cottage in Brook End Green, with 12 acres land belonging, in tenure of Joseph Bisshopp; Long Close (5 roods), in tenure of [blank] Foster; a close called Gills (1½ acres), in tenure of [blank] Child; Lawrences Cottage with 6 acres pasture adjoining, near Brook End Green, in tenure of Henry Sibley; a cottage in tenure of Thomas Hatton; a cottage in tenure of John Baker; a cottage in tenure of Edward Crofts; a cottage and 2 pightles (1½ acres) in tenure of Valentine Dewberry and Elizabeth Wells; a cottage and a slip of ground where a lime kiln formerly was, in tenure of John Hopkins and Joseph Bishop; 12 acres woodland called the Leeds in possession of Robert Welborne; Burg End Close (3½ acres) in tenure of [blank] Filler, widow; pasture called White Pightell alias Whitmore Pightell, and a piece of sward (1 acre) on the outside thereof, in tenure of Edward Crofts; and 58 acres dispersed in the common fields of Barton, called Stockin, Hardwick, Berry-Greene, Radworth, Dunstall, Combes, Blakeland and Maydland Field, in possessions or occupations of Robert Welborne, Philip Field, Samuel Brasyer, Edward Sibley, [blank] Impey and John Pales; (all conveyed by Nicholas Denton senior and Nicholas Denton junior (son and heir apparent), to said Robert Welborne and Richard Swift, by Deeds dated 30 March 1702, and 25 November 1703, enrolled in the Court of Chancery); together with all timber and common of pasture. [several uses stated]
Witnesses: Edward Porter, Thomas Watson and Peniston Lamb
[five seal tags: i) a man's head, signature of Robert Welborne;
ii) as i), no signature;
iii) seal missing, no signature;
iv) Armorial seal, signature: Robert Bruce;
and v) a woman's head, signature: Beaufort]
[Condition: the two membranes are torn slightly on some of the folds. The ink is shelling away from considerable portions of the document, especially along the fold; and there is much evidence of dampness]