Suit against the Corporation concerning two crofts on the Roodee, 1829, resumed 1836

a. 1829. Copy of information of Trinity Term, 1829, by the Attorney General, on behalf of the King, in the Exchequer at Westminster, v. John Finchett Maddock and others. Concerning the ownership of the Large Croft and the Little Croft upon the Roodee, which are claimed to be part of the manor of Handbridge, a Crown manor. For some 40 years before 1814 the Mayor and Citizens of Chester had occupied these crofts as tenants to the lessees of the manor. The last lease of the manor expired in 1814, and in 1812 the Commissioners appointed for the management of His Majesty's land revenue determined to offer the manor for sale by public auction. The Corporation negotiated with the Commissioners, who agreed to abstain from offering the two crofts for sale by auction, and to retain them for the Corporation. Ultimately, about Christmas 1812, Mr Richards, Town Clerk, was informed that the Corporation might continue to occupy the two bits of land at a rent of £100 p.a., or that the Commissioners would sell at a fair price. The Corporation continued to occupy the crofts, but paid no rent and now disputes the King's title and insists that these lands belong to them absolutely. The Mayor and Citizens have lost or effaced the boundaries between the two crofts and the Great and Little Roodees, of which they are owners. Asks that a Commission may issue out of the Exchequer to ascertain the lands, their boundaries and value.

Marginal notes by Finchett Maddock. The Corporation base their claim on the charter of Henry VII, which granted them the waste lands in the City. 13ff.

b. 1836. Resumption of same suit against Mayor and Citizens. Copy of part of amended bill, including interrogatories, 21st July, 1836. Bill asks that a writ of sub-poena against the Mayor and Citizens and John Finchett-Maddock may be granted to the informers. Marginal pencil notes. 8ff