Deeds of 7 Broad Street, Brighton

These documents relate chiefly to the tithe to a sixty-year lease of the property created in 1819; the title to the freehold can be pieced together from a schedule of deeds prepared for a mortgage in 1839.

In 1819, the property was described as:

1 a messuage, 7 Broad Street, erected on part of four pauls or half an acre of land in the Cliff Furlong of the Little Laine in Brighton (E: Broad Street, 25 feet wide; W: 2 below; N: messuage of George Howell; S: messuage of Susannah Howell)

2 piece of land now enclosed and used as a yard to 1 above, part of four pauls or two rods of land in the Cliff Furlong, copyhold of the manor of Atlingworth, late Tidy, before Freeland (E: 1 above; W: passage between this and the ground of Thomas Harrison; N: ground belonging to George Howell; S: ground belonging to Susannah Howell)

On 18 and 19 March 1812 Charles Howell, Sarah Howell and George Howell sold the property to Mary Piper, who sold it to Jeremiah Poppy and his trustee Matthew Martin on 18 and 19 August 1813. The will of Jeremiah Poppy of Charlwood in Surrey, 17 January 1813, [was proved in PCC on 28 September 1813 - PRO PROB 11/1548]. On 6 and 7 May 1819 the beneficiaries - William Poppy and his wife Sarah, Elizabeth Poppy and James Dobson, conveyed to Thomas Lucas and his trustee Thomas Crosweller, who levied a fine and conveyed it to William Walker and his trustee William Furner on 11 and 12 November 1819 (6).

On 13 November 1819 William Walker of Stoke Newington in Middlesex, esq, granted a lease of 7 Broad Street, occupied by John Molineux, to Thomas Lucas of Brighton, gent, for sixty years at £40. The property enjoyed a right of way through a passage onto Charles Street and shared a well with the four adjoining house, numbers 5, 6, 8 and 9 Broad Street (1-2).

On 14 November 1820 Thomas Lucas assigned the lease for £200 to Sarah Checker of Brighton, widow (3). On 10 February 1825 Sarah Checker, now called a spinster, sold the lease for £250 to Sarah Thomas of Brighton, spinster (4), who sold it for £100 to Elizabeth Smith of North Street, Manchester Square, Middlesex, spinster, on 19 October 1830 (5).

On 23 and 24 December 1839 the freehold reversion of the lease was sold by William Furner, Elizabeth Walker and Caroline Walker, with Thomas Berrington, to Martha Smith, spinster, who mortgaged the property for £350 to Thomas Berrington the same day (6).

Martha Smith is possibly to be associated with the Mary Smith of Broad Street, Brighton, spinster, who bequeathed her entire estate to her sister Elizabeth Smith [who held the remainder of the 60-year lease] by her will of 26 January 1857 (7).

Deposited by the Northamptonshire Record Office on 8 October 1970 (ACC 921)