1781 Georgian Vellum Indenture, Gloucestershire Mortgage Assignment

Western Europe, England, Gloucestershire, Georgian period. An assignment of mortgage written on a single skin of parchment, drawn up as an indenture of three parts and closed with four seals of red wax. The heading, "This Indenture of three Parts," runs across the top in flourished blackletter, and its large initial T encloses a crowned shield. Below it the clerk's dense engrossing hand runs almost without punctuation. Display words (Whereas, To Hold, Subject, And whereas) stand out from the text and mark each turn of the legal argument. The deed passes a debt of one hundred and forty pounds, secured on a cottage and three bays of building at Todenham, from the executor of a dead creditor to a surgeon of Chipping Norton. Three signatures and one woman's mark sit beside the seals. The wavy upper edge is the indent itself, and a blue-paper duty stamp is fixed at the margin. The deed is dated 15 November 1781, in the twenty-second year of George III. It binds three parties. The first is Thomas Garrett, yeoman, sole executor of the late Thomas Collett. The second is William Freeman, butcher, with his parents John and Penelope. The third is a surgeon named Charles of Chipping Norton, just across the county line in Oxfordshire. The recitals lay out a small family economy step by step. In 1765 John and Penelope conveyed the cottage to their son, who in return granted them an annuity of eight pounds a year, probably to provide for their old age. In 1776 William borrowed one hundred pounds from Collett at four percent. He secured the loan in the usual Georgian way, with a lease of one thousand years at a peppercorn rent, a term meant to lapse as soon as the debt was paid. He also assigned Collett a Sun Fire Office policy insuring the premises for two hundred pounds. A further forty pounds was lent in 1778. The loans were not repaid, and Collett died. In the operative clause the surgeon pays Garrett one hundred and forty pounds at the Freemans' direction and takes over the mortgage in the dead creditor's place. Garrett, William, and John sign their names. Penelope makes her mark, and a lighter clerical hand writes her name beside it, showing how unevenly literacy could be spread within one household. The word "indenture" comes from the cut itself. The counterparts were written on one skin and then separated along a wavy line, so each copy could later prove it was genuine by fitting against the others. On the folded packet, the clerk's endorsement sums up the transaction: "Assignmt of Mortgage... House & 3 Bays of Building... £140." Item # 205819

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