Scope and Content
i) Thomas Smyth, Sharpenhoe, farmer (eldest son of said Thomas Smyth, late of Quickswood, Clothall, Hertfordshire, gentleman)
ii) James Smyth, Quickswood, farmer
Hugh Smyth, Quickswood, farmer
George Smyth, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, draper
William Smyth, Quickswood, farmer
(on behalf of themselves and as personal representatives of their late sister, deceased, formerly Elizabeth Smyth, spinster, later Elizabeth Dicks, wife of Solomon Dicks [?Hicks in SM104] of South [?Long] Sutton, Lincolnshire, legatees in will of Thomas Smyth, of Quickswood, gentleman, deceased, their late father)
reciting wills of Thomas Smyth, their grandfather, dated 25 July 1771 and will of Thomas Smyth, their father, dated 21 September 1778, as the result of which 2 wills property at Streatley, Sundon, Harlington and Westoning stood charged with the payment of legacies to the amount of £4200
Some of the property only held in fee simple, by Thomas Smyth, father, (which was property charged with payment of legacies), remainder held in fee tail (and not chargeable with any part of the legacies)
fee simple descended to i) which he has refused to accept thinking it not sufficient to pay legacies
so on 29 September 1779 i) gave up possession to said James Smyth in trust for himself and other brothers and sister. It was agreed that the fee simple property should be held free of an annuity of £10 to mother, which i) would pay out of entailed estates, and which mother agreed to accept in lieu of dower etc.
no conveyance to above effect has yet been made
some of the fee simple and fee tail estates are in open fields of Sharpenhoe, Streatley and Sundon and cannot be distinguished from each other
now is agreed that George Maxwell of Fletton Lodge, Huntingdonshire, gentleman, and Thomas Brown, Luton, gentleman, shall set out and award the open field land as fee simple or free tail property accordingly
they shall have power to make survey and valuation to be referred to mutually chosen arbitrator if they cannot agree
they shall have power to examine documents
one moiety expenses to be borne by i) and other moiety by legatees (except expenses of referee)
i) agrees to suffer a recovery of the property as tenant in tail and will assure fee simple property to ii) discharged from any trust
ii) agrees to deliver to i) a release of their claims and interest in common field property as is allotted as part of the fee tail estate.
for true performance of this agreement, each party binds himself in £500
signatures of all
endorsed witnesses: Isaac Hindley, Leonard Hampson, Thomas Barns, Ann Vincent