IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 O/493
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: RUBINSTEIN COLLINGHAM {SOLICITORS}
Date(s): 1688-1811
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 3.66 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Rubinstein Collingham | solicitors
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.
Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.
An 'indenture' was a deed or agreement between two or more parties. Two or more copies were written out, usually on one piece of parchment or paper, and then cut in a jagged or curvy line, so that when brought together again at any time, the two edges exactly matched and showed that they were parts of one and the same original document. A 'right hand indenture' is therefore the copy of the document which was on the right hand side when the parchment was cut in two.
Lease and release was the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration (the thing for which land was transferred from one party to another, usually, of course, a sum of money).
A 'fine' was a fee, separate from the rent, paid by the tenant or vassal to the landlord on some alteration of the tenancy, or a sum of money paid for the granting of a lease or for admission to a copyhold tenement.
Feoffment was an early form of conveyance involving a simple transfer of freehold land by deed followed by in a ceremony called livery of seisin.
A marriage settlement was a legal agreement drawn up before a marriage by the two parties, setting out terms with respect to rights of property and succession.
Common Recovery was a process by which land was transferred from one owner to another. It was a piece of legal fiction involving the party transferring the land, a notional tenant and the party acquiring the land; the tenant was ejected to effect the transfer. An exemplification was a formal copy of a court record issued with the court's seal.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers, 1688-1811, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds relating to The Black Bull Victualling House and other properties in Tooley Street, St Olave, Southwark. Documents include wills, marriage settlements, indenture of fine, leases and releases, abstract of title, feoffment, exemplification of recovery, agreements and certificates.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
O/493/001-016: papers relating to the Black Bull; O/493/017-021: papers relating to other properties.
Conditions governing access:
Available for general access.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright rests with the depositor.
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Deposited in 1978.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: July to October 2009