Large 1635 vellum land indenture, Blakesware Manor near Ware, Hertfordshire England

On vellum, one and a half pages, approximately 30 x 24 inches, very good and clean, with original pair of dangling brown wax seals on vellum ribbons at bottom. Signed at the base by John and George Hanger, described as "both Merchants and Citizens and Clothworkers of London" in an agreement for property transfer between the two men and John King, described as a Canon of Christ Church in Oxford; he was the son of the Bishop of London, also John King, and was actually Canon of Westminster and Canon of Windsor during this time, although he received his doctorate in divinity from Christ Church in Oxford. The property is described as being named Blakesware, located in Hertfordshire, and the property still goes by that name (located outside of Ware) although the original structures have long since been replaced. The poet Henry King, Bishop of Chichester, who was harshly sequestered in 1643, went to live with his nephew -- John King -- at Blakesware in 1645. John King's son, John King, sold it in 1655 to Heneage Featherstone, created a baronet in 1660. By Featherstone it was conveyed in 1664 to Sir Thomas Leventhorpe, who rebuilt the house, and afterwards in 1678 sold the estate to Sir Thomas Clutterbuck, kt., 88 English consul at Leghorn and afterwards commissioner for victualling the Mediterraneann fleet, for which he was knighted. He died in February 1682-3, and was buried in Ware Church. After his death the estate was conveyed to John Plumer, Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1689, from which date it descended with Gilston (q.v.) to Sir Henry George Ward, who sold it in 1850 to Martin Hadsley Gosselin of Ware Priory. 89 After his death in 1868 the estate was held by his widow until her death in 1892, when it devolved on her eldest son Sir Martin Le Marchant Hadsley Gosselin, Assistant Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs from I898-1902 and minister plenipotentiary at Lisbon from 1902 to 1905. Charles Lamb wrote about the place extensively, in "Blakesmoor in H----Shire." Very Good. Item #H19205

Price: $200.00