Union Street, Coventry (Formerly Greyfriars Churchyard)

Items donated to Coventry City Record Office by Mrs K M Dodgshon

9 June 1978

These series of title deeds relate to properties in Union Street, Coventry which were formerly part of Greyfriars Churchyard.

The Churchyard of the former Greyfriars was conveyed by the Corporation to Thomas Bassett (or Basnett) in 1661. The Corporation retained the right to gain access to repair the steeple of the ruined church and to repair the town wall. By 1698 the Churchyard was held by John Hatt who in 1699 conveyed it to Samuel Critchlow. The latter conveyed the Churchyard to William Keeling in 1718. William Keeling left it to his daughter Mary in his will of 1746; she married John Joyce in c1747. Mary Joyce, widow, sold the Churchyard to Samuel Reader in 1772. The land is described as "garden ground" and was occupied by Peter Seager, a gardener.

In 1784 Seager acquired the land from Samuel Reader for £500. In his will dated 1807 he gave his son, also called Peter Seager, the option to buy the property. Peter Seager (the younger) took up this option in 1808.

By 1814 Seager had built a house on the north side of the land. In 1814 Seager conveyed the property to John Royle in trust to sell it. Seager had already mortgaged the property to James Banbury.

(All the above is taken from PA737/1/1)

From 1819 the Churchyard is sold off in parts. This seems to be in connection with the building of the new road called Union Street. These deeds relate principally to two parts of the land - that sold to Stephen Palmer (series PA737/1) and that part sold to Joseph Bassett (series PA737/2). There is also a copy of an indenture relating to a part sold to Edward Edginton (PA737/4/1) but the presence of this deed in this collection is unexplained.

The part of the Churchyard sold to Stephen Palmer was acquired by him on 19, 20 Nov 1819 (PA737/1/2-3). It was bounded by the parts sold (or about to be sold) to Bassett (see PA737/2 series) and Edginton (see PA737/4/1). By 1821 (PA737/1/4) Palmer had erected 8 houses on the land that he had bought in 1819. He mortgaged his property to Edward Reynolds in March 1821 and conveyed the property to Christopher Scott in the same year (PA737/1/4-6). Reynolds bought the property from Scott in Oct 1822 (PA737/1/8).

There are no deeds in this series for the period 1822 - 1896 but an abstract dated 1896 (PA737/1/9) recites deeds back to 1855. By this time a half of the property had been acquired by Thomas Mattocks. He left it in his will to his son Thomas Edward Mattocks who acquired it in 1874 after the death of his father in 1867 and mother in 1874. Thomas Edward Mattocks married Henrietta Sarah Hickman in c1890.

The other half of the property was owned by Edward Mattocks in 1856 when he mortgaged it to Thomas Roe. In 1861 he mortgaged it to Susannah Moggs who in 1876 assigned the mortgage to Andrew Hughes and Thomas Jenkins. The mortgage was transferred to Thomas Edward Mattocks in 1887, the mortgage remaining unpaid when he married Henrietta Sarah Hickman in c1890. Edward Mattocks died in 1886, his wife Harriet and his 2 sons, Edward and Charles Reynolds Mattocks being trustees. In 1896 Edward and Charles appointed their sister Helen Honora Greaves to replace Charles as a trustee.

At the close of the sequence of title deeds relating to the part of the Churchyard acquired by Stephen Palmer in 1819, it is still divided into 2 parts, one owned by Thomas Edward Mattocks, the other owned by the trustees of Edward Mattocks but mortgaged to Thomas Edward Mattocks. A deed of 1896 specifies the property as 25 and 26 Union Street and the Court behind it - Nos 1-6 in Court 1, Union Street.

The part of the Churchyard sold to Joseph Bassnett was acquired by him on 24, 25 Mar 1820 (recited in PA737/2/3-4). It was bounded by the parts sold to Palmer (see PA737/1 series) and to Joseph Loone and Samuel Chandler (title deeds not in this collection). Bassett mortgaged the property to Joseph Ford in 1821 (PA737/2/2) by which time he had erected 6 houses on the land. Bassett sold the whole to Mary Windsor in 1823 (PA737/2/3-4).

Mary Windsor bequeathed the 6 messuages to her children in her will of 1823: one and a half share are in another to her daughter Mary, wife of Thomas Mansfield; one and the other half share in another to her son Joseph Windsor; one to her daughter Elizabeth Steane, one to her son Wale Windsor and the sixth to her son Samuel Windsor (PA737/2/5).

Mary Windsor's daughter Mary Mansfield died in 1834 leaving an only son John William Windsor Tansley. Mary's husband Thomas Mansfield bought the share that Tansley would have inherited on the death of Thomas (PA737/2/9). Mansfield died in Oct 1860 and his devisees sold the one house and half share in another house (inherited by Mary Mansfield from her mother) to William Rush in 1869 (PA737/2/11).

The house inherited by Joseph Windsor and the half of the house shared by Mary Mansfield were conveyed to William Rush in 1877 by Joseph Windsor's children (PA737/2/13). The former is identified as 24 Union Street and the half share as being in No 1 house, Court 2.

By 1877, therefore, Rush had acquired 3 out of the 6 houses bequeathed in Mary Windsor's will. In 1894 Rush's widow Elizabeth acquired a fourth house. This was conveyed to her by the children of Elizabeth Steane who had inherited it from their mother, Mary Windsor (PA737/2/14).

Another one of the 6 houses is the subject of an abstract of title dated 1892 (PA737/3/1). This is the one bequeathed by Mary Windsor to her son Samuel. In 1842 and 1844 Samuel's children Wale and Mary (by then married to Thomas Clarke) respectively conveyed their shares to William Kirkley. He bequeathed it to his wife Ann. William died in 1887 and Ann in 1892. No link is provided in this deed to a subsequent owner.