IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 ACC/1416
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: PYE-SMITH {SOLICITORS}
Date(s): 1704-1909
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 0.33 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Pye-Smith | 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.
Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.
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 covenant or deed of covenant was an agreement entered into by one of the parties to a deed to another. A covenant for production of title deeds was an agreement to produce deeds not being handed over to a purchaser, while a covenant to surrender was an agreement to surrender copyhold land.
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.
From the British Records Association "Guidelines 3 - Interpreting Deeds: How To Interpret Deeds - A Simple Guide And Glossary".
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers, 1704-1909, collected by the solicitors in the course of their work, comprising deeds and legal documents relating to properties in Hampton, Bethnal Green, Saint Pancras, Saint George Hanover Square, Saint Andrew Holborn, City Of London and Rotherhithe including copies of court rolls, leases and releases, conveyances, deeds of covenant, sales particulars, probates of wills, plans, abstracts of title and agreements.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
ACC/1416/001 to ACC/1416/136
Conditions governing access:
Not available for general access.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright rests with the depositor.
Physical characteristics:
Fit, except ACC/1416/68 which is unfit for consultation
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Received in 1978.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: July to October 2009