Deeds of 9 Friars Walk, Lewes (ESX 21359)

The property was built in 1823 on part of the Friars Estate which had been sold off for development. For a plan of the estate showing the area to be developed, see SAS/FIG 25, watermarked 1823. For the deeds of the Friars Estate later the site of the Fitzroy Library, 1693-1956, see BLE C2/5

On 4 & 5 Apr 1759 the Friars Estate was settled on the marriage of Apsley Pellatt and Sarah, daughter of Thomas Meriton; they mortgaged it for £2000 to Elizabeth Macie on 5 & 6 Jan 1776, who assigned it to James Louis Macie on 12 & 13 Apr 1786

Sarah Pellatt died on 16 Dec 1798 and Apsley Pellatt on the 20th leaving Mill Pellatt, Apsley Pellatt and Thomas Pellatt his surviving children; Apsley and Thomas proved their father's will in PCC on 5 Jan 1799. The estate was auctioned on 19 Aug 1803; lot 2, a capital messuage called The Friars occupied by Sir F[erdinando] Poole at a rent of £90 and 2a 1r 28p of land, was sold to George Verrall for £2400 and £93 18s 6d for the timber

The conveyance was executed on 28 & 29 Mar 1804 by Mill Pellatt of Edgware Road in Mx, gent, Apsley Pellatt of St Pauls Churchyard, glass manufacturer and Thomas Pellatt of Ironmongers Hall, gent, to George Verrall of Lewes, gent (and his trustees John Godlee of Cliffe, merchant, Thomas Shank of Fenchurch Street, London, wine and brandy merchant and George Nelson of Palsgrave Place, Temple). Of the purchase money, £2000 was owed to Macie the mortgagee. He, as James Smithson of Hanan near Frankfurt (formerly of John Street, Golden Square in Mx), conveyed the legal estate to Thomas Graham of Lincolns Inn, esq in trust to receive the £2000 on his behalf on 28 & 29 Sep 1804; Graham conveyed the house and land to Verrall on 10 & 11 Apr 1805

By deeds of 6 & 7 Oct 1823, George Verrall conveyed a piece of land with a frontage on Friars Walk, to George Henry Verrall, upholsterer, in trust for himself (1)

Part of the land, with a 15' frontage onto Friars Walk, was sold to John Hook of Lewes, sawyer and his trustee Harry Clear of Cliffe, builder, for £40 10s on 11 Oct 1823; land which Verrall had sold to Sarah Gaston and John Fuller lay on the north and south respectively. Hook covenanted to build an 8' wall on the back boundary, and to permit Verrall to nail trees to it (2). Hook mortgaged the plot, on which he had built a house, for £170 to Sarah Gaston of Cliffe, widow, on 29 Nov 1823 (3, 4)

By an agreement of 29 Jul 1829, Hook allowed Mrs Gaston to lay a lead pipe from her pump into his well to supply her house with water, for 3s a year (5)

By her will of 27 Jan 1832, Mrs Gaston gave the residue of her estate to Harry Clear of Cliffe, timber merchant and John Hother of Lewes, breeches maker; they proved the will in PCC on 30 Mar 1835, and Hother acknowledged that the mortgage had been allotted to Clear in their division of the estate on 4 Jun 1839 (3). Clear died on 19 Jun 1842 and his will was proved by his wife Mary Clear, Robert Mills Hart of Tunbridge Wells, auctioneer and Thomas Saxby the younger of Lewes, sadler, on 1 Oct 1842 (9)

Hook, now described as of Maresfield, sold the house, occupied by Thomas Birch, to Mary Clear (and her trustee John Edward Fullagar of Lewes, gent) for £250 on 8 Oct 1842. Of the purchase price, £170 was owed to Mrs Clear as mortgagee (10). Among the deeds are accounts between John Hook and her husband Henry the purchase, carriage and wharfage of timber, coach-spokes and ladders between 1835 and 1839, and for mortgage payments, rent paid by Wisdom and Birch and for use of the well between 1841 and 1842, which was perhaps taken into account when the house was sold (6-10)

On 11 Apr 1865 the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway notified Mrs Clear that part of the garden of her house (plan), occupied by Charlotte Payne, was required for the new Lewes and Uckfield Junction Railway; the land, 17 square yards, was sold to the company for £100 on 8 Jul 1865 (11, 12)

By her will of 10 Feb 1859, Mrs Clear had left the house to her nephew Abraham Hodges of Old Dalby in Leicestershire, schoolmaster, subject to payments to her sister Maria Watson otherwise Hodges of Lewes and brother Henry Hodges of Shoreham (who died in her lifetime); Abraham proved the will on 20 Apr 1868 and, of Carlisle, clerk, paid the succession duty on the house, occupied by [blank] Stevens and [blank] Shoesmith at £16 (13, 14)

Abraham Hodges, of St Stephens Vicarage, Carlisle sold the house to the occupier, Alfred Addison of Lewes, solicitors' clerk, for £245 on 6 Feb 1883. A statutory declaration by John George Glandfield of 10 Friars Walk, grocers' manager, identified the property, and Henry French of 44 High Street, Southover, tailor, proved the deaths of Maria Watson (with whom he had lived) and her brother Henry Hodges, who was buried from Shoreham Union workhouse at the age of 85 in 1867 (15-17)

Addison mortgaged the house for £230 to the Lewes Cooperative Benefit Building Society on 14 Mar 1883 and again to Ann Parsons of Peaks Farm, Chiddingly, widow, for £100 on 14 Feb 1894; both sums were paid off in 1896 (19, 20)

Addison's will of 19 Mar 1893 was proved by his widow Eliza on 1 Aug 1905. She appointed her son Alfred Mercer Addison and daughter Eliza Edith, wife of Samuel Elphick of 18 Cliffe High Street, as executors for sale by her will of 1 Dec 1905; she substituted her daughter Ruth of 192 High Street, Lewes for Alfred by a codicil of 16 Dec 1910. The executors sold 9 Friars Walk for £270 to Alice Thompson of Coningsby, King Henrys Road, Lewes widow on 18 Sep 1911 (21-24)

The will of Alice Thompson was proved on 23 Sep 1930 by Frank Outram Thompson and Florence Bertha Thompson. F A Thompson died on 6 Jun 1954 and F B Thompson, of 62 Hallyburton Road, Hove, spinster, sold the house to George Edward John Hayward of 22 St Swithuns Terrace, Lewes, builder, for £200 on 10 Oct 1957 (25). Hayward sold for £1050 to Peter Gordon Burgess of The Croft, Goat Lane, Ringmer, press photographer, on 19 Feb 1958 (26)

On 18 Dec 1961 Burgess sold for £2350 to Frances May Warner of Fir Tree Cottage, Arlington, spinster, who sold to Keates Patrick Lewis Wilson and Alice May Beatrice Wilson of 6 Albert Mansions, Luxborough Street, London W1 for £3195 on 5 Jul 1965 (28, 29)

On 30 Jun 1970 Mr and Mrs Wilson sold to Clive Robert Vosper and Ann Frances Holding of 158 Nevill Avenue, Hove for £3750; they sold to Jeanne Marie McNair of 116 Mortlake Road, Richmond, Surrey, librarian for £13000 on 28 Feb 1977 (30, 31)

The property was bought by Philip Dale Hunt and Emma Sophia Hennessey on 17 Jan 1994 (32)

Documents deposited 20 July 1994 (ACC 6376)