Settlement on the marriage of Mr William Butler with Mrs Jane Davis, forerunner of the – ‘pre-nup’

About the Deed

Butler Davis deed dated the 23rd day of March 1832, Settlement on the Marriage of Mr William Butler with Mrs Jane Davis
Butler Davis deed dated the 23rd day of March 1832, Settlement on the Marriage of Mr William Butler with Mrs Jane Davis

Background

In April I got an email about ” Settlement on the marriage of Mr William Butler with Mrs Jane Davis, from Cathy Doel, who lives in Bristol. It said:

I have some information about Isabella Place / William Butler / Jane Davis that might interest you. Years ago (in the '80s) I bought an old legal document from a shop in Bath, just on a whim - it's the "Settlement on the marriage of Mr William Butler and Mrs Jane Davis" dated 23 March 1832. It's been my loft for a while and I'm having a clear out, so I've searched to see if I can find any decendants who might want it (I have an ancestry.co.uk subscription) ... and then I searched for Isabella Place which is named in the document, and found your website. You obviously have a keen interest.

The document says both William Butler and Jane Davis were widower/widow. The document makes for hard reading, being in 1830s legalese, with handwriting and spelling to match. I think the gist of it is that it states what Jane is entitled to, and it also mentions various other people, parcels of land and sums of money as well as Jane's daughter Pheobe. 

Anyway, I thought I'd let you know it exists. I can send you a copy / the real thing. As someone who would love to have anything like this from my own ancestors I feel a duty to pass it on to someone that is related or has a connection of some kind.

Regards,

Cathy

I was, of course interested, and Cathy was kind enough to give me the document. Her last email said:

Great. I'll be impressed if you can decipher all the text. I had a go, but it is hard going. I guess the more you look at it the more you can recognise letters and words. The legal speak doesn't help but I suppose one can get used to that too. Have fun!

Well, as you will see below, I’ve deciphered most of it and added some context. It was fun and I hope you find it interesting.

About the deed

John Lanham death and debtors or creditors - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 9 April 1846
John Lanham death and debtors or creditors – Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette – Thursday 9 April 1846

The deed is a marriage settlement wherein a trust of land – 1 Isabella Place, which was owned by William Butler and, probably worth c £250 which is about £302,000.00 now – and other assets.

These other assets being a judgement debt – mentioned below – of £553 16s 11p and other debts of £255 0s 0p for a total of £808 16s 11d which is now worth about £976,900.00 – is established jointly by Jane Davis and William Butler, with the trustees – John Rowland, who was Jane Davis’ son in law and John Lanham (1786 – 1846) who was a baker at 14 Widcombe Parade – as legal owners of the assets, with Jane Davis and William Butler as beneficial owners of the assets during their lifetimes, and, after their deaths, the beneficial ownership descending to Pheobe Rowland, the daughter of Jane Davis, and her heirs.

The deed takes around 4,500 words to say this and Benjamin Wingrove, who was a Gray’s Inn barrister, would have charged significantly for it. Professor David Hey says that in no other professions in late 17th and early 18th century Britain did so many men make so much money, or make it so quickly, as in the law, drafting wills, drawing up deeds and settlements, arranging mortgages and loans, and acting as stewards, estate managers and rent collectors.

However, for a wealthy woman such as Jane Davis the costs would have been well worth it because of coverture, the legal doctrine whereby, upon marriage, a woman’s legal rights and obligations were subsumed by those of her husband. An unmarried woman had the right to own property and make contracts in her own name.

Married women did not have any rights due to this legal fiction that a husband and wife are one person. Once a woman married she had no claim to her property as her husband had full control and could do with it whatever suited him. The Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 provided that wages and property which a wife earned through her own work would be regarded as her separate property. It was not until the Married Women’s Property Acts 1882, 1884 and 1893, that this principle was extended to all property, regardless of its source or the time of its acquisition.

About the judgements and the Fosters

The Right Honorable John Foster by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1790-1791 - Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
[media-credit name=”Gilbert Stuart, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons” align=”alignright” width=”400″][/media-credit] The Right Honorable John Foster by Gilbert Stuart, c. 1790-1791 – Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The judgements mentioned in the deed were against Right Honourable John Foster afterward created Baron Oriel and Right Honourable Thomas Henry (Foster) Skeffington later Viscount Ferrard.

They were father and son.

I am still attempting to establish what the judgements – which were for £1,200 (equivalent to about £1,320,000.00 today) – relate to but, they almost certainly related to the debts built up by Right Honourable John Foster in establishing and extending the family estate at Collon.

By the 1820s these debts had reached £72,000 ( which is equivalent to about about £59,870,000.00 today).

The deed states that:

“John Callan of Heanstown in the said County of Louth Gentleman did in or as of Easter Term one thousand eight hundred and twenty one obtain a Judgement in His Majesty’s Court of Kings Bench in Ireland against the Right Honourable John Foster then of Collon in the said County of Louth afterward created Lord Baron Oriel and since deceased for the sum of One thousand and two hundred pounds debt besides costs as by the Records of the said Court will appear And further Reciting that the said John Callan of Heanstown did on or as of the said Easter Term obtain another Judgement in the said Court of Kings Bench against the Right Honourable Thomas Henry Skeffington of Oriel Temple in the said County of Louth (since created Lord Viscount Ferrard) for the sum of One thousand two hundred pounds debt besides costs as by the said Records of the said Court will appear And further Reciting that the said two judgements were for one and the same debt.”

John Callan was, possibly, a relative of Jane Davis and had assigned, in 1823, the remainder of the the judgement debt to Catherine Callan who married another John Callan assigning for an unknown reason, in 1828, the judgement debts to him and a Nicholas Callan who then who had then sold the remainder of the debts, being “five hundred and fifty three pounds sixteen shilling and eleven pence” (which is about £624,800.00 today) to Jane Davis – again for an unknown reason.

Baron Oriel - Globe - Monday 16 July 1821
Baron Oriel – Globe – Monday 16 July 1821

There is a great deal of background about John Foster and his debts in Introduction to the Foster/Masserene Papers from which the paragraphs below are abstracted:

The Fosters were a new family. Supposedly they came over to Ireland in the 1660s as hay mowers. The 1666 Hearth Money return for Dunleer parish, where they lived from at least the 1680s to the 1740s, contains the name Samuel Foster, so the likelihood is that this Samuel was John Foster's great-great-grandfather. If so, he will have been the father of Anthony Foster of Dunleer, who in 1683 was named by the charter of Dunleer borough as one of the thirteen original or charter burgesses.  Anthony's date of birth is unknown, but he must have been of age in 1683 and he died in 1722. He is the earliest Foster mentioned in Burke's Peerage.

In successive he is styled "Colonel" Anthony Foster, but there is no other evidence besides Burke of his military rank. Indeed, Burke is largely responsible for obscuring the important fact of the Fosters' humble origins. If Anthony Foster was a colonel, his services were scantily rewarded. Up to 1698 he seems to have held no land except a tenancy of a 270-acre farm in Dunleer; in 1698 he was, for the first time, granted a lease of his farm. He may have been something more than a mower of hay, but he must certainly have been something less than a colonel. The point is settled by the fact that John (Speaker) Foster himself could trace his family no further than one generation beyond "Colonel" Anthony Foster, probably to the Samuel Foster of the Hearth Money return.

Where the Fosters differed from other new families is that they were a borough-owning family. As has been seen, Dunleer, where they lived and held land, was a parliamentary borough, and the first Anthony Foster among its original burgesses. The patrons of the borough, the Tenison family, were also the Fosters' landlords in Dunleer, but as the Fosters prospered they grew increasingly independent of landlord control. The Tenisons were negligent patrons, and eventually the Fosters took advantage of their negligence and gained control, by sharp practice if not by actual treachery, of the return for the two seats for the borough. In 1735 they voluntarily surrendered one seat to the Tenisons, and reached a written partition agreement with them which held good until Dunleer was disfranchised at the time of the Union. Possession of half a borough meant that the Fosters entered the category of inevitable House of Commons men. John Foster's father, another Anthony, sat for Dunleer, 1737-1760, John Foster himself, 1761-1768, and other members or connections of the Foster family for the rest of the century.

In other respects, the Fosters were typical of successful, new, professional families. John Foster's father, Anthony (1705-1779), was the first member of his family to possess - or at least to display - the required combination of legal and parliamentary ability. His father, another John Foster and the son of "Colonel" Anthony Foster, had been a country attorney, but not a barrister, nor had he been an MP (although Burke's Peerage states that he was). Anthony Foster was a barrister, with an extensive practice and an august clientele. He was, as has been seen, the first of the Fosters to enter the House of Commons, and he was also the first to represent Louth - from 1761 to 1766. From 1760 to 1766 he held the office of First Counsel to the Commissioners of the Revenue. In 1766 he retired from the House on appointment as Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer. Yet, although he retired from the House, he did not retire from politics. Anthony Foster was the outstanding figure on the Irish bench of his day because of the range of his extra-professional activities, including politics. He was an able man whose misfortune it has been to be overshadowed by an even abler son. He retired from the judicial bench in 1777 and died in 1779.

The Foster estate began in Dunleer, and extended ultimately to 1,200 or 1,500 acres in that vicinity, all held on such favourable leasehold terms as to be virtually freehold. However, well before the Dunleer estate was complete the Fosters' centre of gravity had shifted westwards and southwards, towards Collon. It is not possible to trace, acre by acre, the process by which this estate was built up. But most came from one source: the Moore family, who at the dissolution of the monasteries had received an enormous grant of well over 50,000 acres in Louth and Meath.

From the head of the Moore family, the Earl of Drogheda, the Fosters acquired from 1714 onwards, either directly or indirectly, something like 2,500 Irish acres including the village and estate of Collon, where they established their seat in the early 1740s. The likelihood is that well over half the Foster estate in Louth and Meath, which totalled 6,500 acres in 1778, came from the Moores.

By 1778 the estate was approaching its maximum extent. The gross rental, which in 1778 was £4,854 (about £8,436,000.00 now), by 1820 it was £10,120 (about £10,490,000.00 now) with additions to the acreage accounting for £1,223 (about £1,268,000.00 now) of this increase and had reached roughly 6,000 acres. Since the Fosters were a new family, none of the estate had come to them by patent or by inheritance. It had all been pieced together by purchase. This was a remarkable achievement, which had severely stretched the Fosters' resources.

Once the period of heavy purchasing was over, the period of heavy expenditure on improvements began. This was the work of Anthony Foster (although the process continued by his successors), and earned him Arthur Young's celebrated epithet of "... great improver, a title more deserving estimation than that of a great general or a great Minister ..." Young's account of Collon, the Fosters' seat and the centre of their estate, suggests that Anthony Foster poured his professional earnings (which may have reached three thousand guineas a year, equivalent to up to £7,091,000.00 today) into the improvement of the estate on an altogether staggering scale. From what Young says, and what he implies, the sums which Foster spent in this way must have been in the region of £50,000, spread over a period no longer than twenty-two years. No wonder Young declared that the improvements "... were of a magnitude I have never heard of before".

Young accepted Anthony Foster's testimony that they had been "exceedingly profitable". This would certainly have been the case if the £50,000 had been Anthony Foster's own; but the likelihood is that much of it had to be borrowed. Moreover, Young probably overestimated the financial advantages from the improvements because he underestimated the income which the Fosters were getting from their estate before the improvements began. Certainly, a rental of the estate for the years 1778-1782 suggests (though it is a difficult document to interpret) that the Fosters were so burdened with debt that they were unable to live within their landed income over this four-year period.

John (Speaker) Foster was born in 1740, he died in his eighty-ninth year, in 1828, and was politically active almost to the end. He first entered the Irish Parliament in 1761, when not quite of age, as member for the family borough of Dunleer. In 1768, two years after his father's retirement from the House, he succeeded him as MP for Louth and represented the county uninterruptedly till his elevation to the peerage of the United Kingdom as Lord Oriel in 1821, by which time he was the Father of the House of Commons at Westminster.

His career as a prominent figure in national politics, and more specifically his official career, was understandably not so long and not so uninterrupted; but it was still, by any reasonable standards, both. He served first as Chairman of the Committee of Supply and Ways and Means, 1777-1784, then as Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1784-1785, then as Speaker of the House of Commons, 1785-1800, and finally, returning to a former office, as Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, 1784-1785, then as Speaker of the House of Commons, 1785-1800, and finally, returning to a former office, as Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer at Westminster, 1804-1806 and 1807-1811.

As will be apparent from these dates, the only long interruption in his official career came in the years immediately following the Union in 1800, after he had distinguished himself as the most influential opponent of that measure. Apart from these years, and of the year 1806-1807, it can fairly be said that between 1784 and 1811 he held the highest political offices (the Irish speakership being a political office) to which under normal circumstances an Irish politician could aspire.

By 1799 John (Speaker) Foster's debts were popularly reckoned at £30,000 (about £34,850,000.00 today - which was an understatement; and by 1810 they had reached the alarming figure of £72,000 (about £59,870,000.00 today).

Foster had married, in 1766, his first cousin, Margaretta Burgh of Bert, Kildare. It was a poor match from the point of view of worldly goods, but a love match to the end. Little can be more moving than the memorial urn which Foster, then in his eighties, erected to his wife's memory, and which now stands in the family burial ground in the Antrim Castle gardens, to which it was removed from Collon, probably in 1920. Possibly because of their consanguinity, the Fosters suffered heavy losses in the deaths of children in infancy and youth. In the end, there was one surviving daughter, Anna, who married Sir James Stevenson Blackwood of Clandeboye, Down, later 2nd Baron Dufferin, in 1799, and died at a very advanced age in 1865, and one surviving son and heir, Thomas Henry Foster. Foster's wife, who had been created Baroness Oriel in 1790 and Viscountess Ferrard in 1797, both in the peerage of Ireland, died in 1824. Foster was created Baron Oriel in the peerage of the UK on his retirement from the House of Commons in 1821, and died in 1828.

Thomas Henry Foster was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and represented Dunleer in the Irish parliament from 1792 to 1800. He was Colonel of the Louth Militia, 1793-1816, and took this responsibility with painstaking seriousness; so much so that Lord Cornwallis, the Lord Lieutenant and no friend of Foster's father, declared in 1799 that the Louth Militia was the 'best disciplined' of all. After the Union, Thomas Foster was a Governor of Louth, 1803-1843, sat for the adjoining county borough of Drogheda, 1807-1812, and later sat for Louth itself, 1821-1824. He was not really a politician, but because of the family's political importance, held office as a Commissioner of the Irish Revenue, 1798-1799, and a Supernumerary Lord of the Irish Treasury, 1807-1813.

In 1810 he took the single most important action in his family's history by marrying Harriet Skeffington. As Malcomson comments in The Pursuit of the Heiress: Aristocratic Marriage in Ireland, 1750-1800 (Belfast, 1982): '... Although she was, in prospect, a great heiress, in the eyes of the law nobody was an heiress until everyone who stood between the inheritance and her was dead, and dead childless. In 1810, Chichester Skeffington, Harriet Skeffington's father, observed: "... the lady's fortune ... is only £5,000, without pledge or security for more, [but] with such a moral probability as perfectly satisfies ...". Settlements, however, were based on legal certainty, not moral probability. The settlement made on Harriet Skeffington's marriage took no account of, and did not even mention, her position as heiress presumptive to the Massereene family estate, which had a rental of over £5,500 per annum by 1819. This was of course because her father's two older brothers, one of them the 3rd Earl of Massereene, and both bachelors in their mid-sixties, were still alive in 1810; and even after her father succeeded as 4th Earl in the following year, although it was highly probable that she, as his only child, would succeed him in due course, this was not certain until his death, without subsequent issue, in 1816. ...'

Following these developments, Thomas Foster and his wife, now Lady Massereene, who had hitherto lived at Oriel Temple, Collon, made Antrim Castle their principal place of residence. In 1817, Thomas Foster changed his name to Skeffington. His mother had been Viscountess Ferrard since 1797, and his father was created Baron Oriel in 1821. So, the death of either parent threatened to remove Thomas Skeffington from the House of Commons. In the event, it was Lady Ferrard who died first, in 1824, when Thomas Skeffington succeeded as 2nd Viscount Ferrard. He obtained a seat in the House of Lords when his father died in 1828. Lady Massereene died soon afterwards, in 1831, and the Massereene estates passed under the family settlements to their eldest son, John, who now succeeded as 10th Viscount Massereene.

Soon after the 10th Viscount's coming-of-age in 1833, an unseemly and distressing lawsuit broke out between his father and him. This was over the unsecured debts which Lord Ferrard had for the most part inherited from his father’s improvements to their estate and which he now needed Lord Massereene's consent to charge on the Foster estate. This lawsuit lasted from at least 1835 to 1838 and probably until 1843. Lord Ferrard died in 1843, at which date the Foster estates in Louth and the Massereene estates in Antrim were for the first time completely merged.

The Deed

 Butler Davis deed dated the 23rd day of March 1832, Settlement on the Marriage of Mr William Butler with Mrs Jane Davis
Butler Davis deed dated the 23rd day of March 1832, Settlement on the Marriage of Mr William Butler with Mrs Jane Davis

Outer

Dated the 23rd day of March 1832

Settlement on the Marriage of Mr William Butler with Mrs Jane Davis

Thomas Towers


First fold

A memorial of the assignment of the two judgements in the within Deed mentioned was entered in the Public notary’s Office of her Majesty’s Court of Queens Bench in Ireland the 26th day of September 1840. No. 339. at two o’clock in the afternoon and the execution of said Deed and Memorial was duly proved pursuant to the Statute in that case made and provided

Rich Hanley

A Memorial of the within Deed was Entered in the Register Office in the City of Dublin on the nineteenth day of May One thousand eight hundred and thirty two at two OClock in B884 p 149 & No 585649 and the Execution of said Deed and Memorial was duly proved pursuant to an act of parliament in that case made and provided

Fees £1,0,0

(illegible signature)


Second fold

Signed sealed and delivered by the within named Benjamin Wingrove in the presence of

Isaac ? Rowland(?) Wilks(?)

Signed sealed and delivered by the within named John Rowland In presence of

Thomas Towers of the City of Dublin Attorney at Law

George R Fraser Barrister at Law

Signed sealed and delivered by the within named William Butler (being first duly stamped) In the presence of The words “Pheobe Rowland daughter” being first wrote on Erasures in the third skin _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Wm Seymour Sol Bath

Signed sealed and delivered by the within named Jane Davis and John Lanham in the presence of

Wm Seymour

Signed sealed and delivered by the within named John Rowland in the presence of


First skin

This Indenture made the Twenty Third Day of March in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty two Between William Butler of the Parish of Monkton Combe in the County of Somerset Gentleman of the first part Benjamin Wingrove of Trowbridge in the County of Wilts Gentleman of the second part Jane Davis of the City of Bath Widow of the third part John Lanham of the Parish of Lyncombe and Widcombe in the said County of Somerset (undecipherable) and John Rowland of Collon near Dublin in that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland (undecipherable) of the fourth part Whereas the said William Butler is entitled to a freehold Plot or piece of Ground Messuage or Tenement hereditaments and premises situate and being Number 1 Isabella Place Combe Down in the Parish of Monkton Combe aforesaid subject to a yearly fee (undecipherable) of One Pound and twelve shillings payable thereon And Whereas by indenture of assignment bearing date on or about the twenty seventh day of October one thousand eight hundred and twenty nine made between John Callan then of Dundalk in the County of Louth Esquire of the first part John Callan then of Cookstown and Nicholas Callan then of Dowdstown Esquires (trustees named in the Marriage Settlement of said John Callan of Dundalk and Catherine Callan of the second part and the said Jane Davis by her description aforesaid of the third part Reciting therein that John Callan of Heanstown in the said County of Louth Gentleman did in or as of Easter Term one thousand eight hundred and twenty one obtain a Judgement in His Majesty’s Court of Kings Bench in Ireland against the Right Honourable John Foster then of Collon in the said County of Louth afterward created Lord Baron Oriel and since deceased for the sum of One thousand and two hundred pounds debt besides costs as by the Records of the said Court will appear And further Reciting that the said John Callan of Heanstown did on or as of the said Easter Term obtain another Judgement in the said Court of Kings Bench against the Right Honourable Thomas Henry Skeffington of Oriel Temple in the said County of Louth (since created Lord Viscount Ferrard) for the sum of One thousand two hundred pounds debt besides costs as by the said Records of the said Court will appear And further Reciting that the said two judgements were for one and the same debt And further Reciting that the said John Callan by Deed bearing date the tenth day of December one thousand eight hundred and twenty three duly assigned the said two recited Judgements unto the said Catherine Callan afterwards the wife of the said John Callan of Dundalk And further reciting that the said Catherine Callan by Deed of assignment bearing date the twenty seventh day of November one thousand eight hundred and twenty eight duly assigned the said two recited Judgements unto the said John Callan and Nicholas Callan as by the Records of the said Court will appear And further reciting there was due and owing on the foot of the said two recited Judgements respectively the sum of Six hundred pounds Sterling late currency making in British Currency the sum of five hundred and fifty three Pounds sixteen shillings and eleven pence principal all costs and interest having been paid It is by the new reciting Indenture witnessed that the said John Callan and Nicholas Callan by and with the consent and approbation of the said John Callan of Dundalk testified as therein mentioned and in Consideration of the said Sum of five hundred and fifty three pounds sixteen shilling and eleven pence to the said John Callan and Nicholas Callan paid by the said Jane Davis They the said John Callan and Nicholas Callan Did Grant bargain sell assign transfer and make over unto the said Jane Davis her Executors administrators and assigns The said two recited Judgements and all principal money then due of thereafter to grow due thereon To hold unto the said Jane Davis her Executors administrators and assigns as her and their proper Goods and Chattels for ever And whereas the said Jane Davis is also possessed of and interested in and entitled to the several Sums of Thirty Pounds, Twenty five Pounds, and Two hundred Pounds and secured to her by the several promissory notes hereinafter particularly mentioned and set forth creating together with the said Judgment debts the Sum of eight hundred and eight pounds sixteen shillings and eleven pence And whereas a marriage is shortly to be had and solemnized between the said William Butler and Jane Davis and upon the treaty and previous to the said intended marriage it hath been agreed between the said William Butler and Jane Davis that the said freehold Messuage Tenement or Dwellinghouse hereditaments and premises of this the said William Butler should be by him granted and released unto the said John Lanham and John Rowland and their heirs To for and upon the several uses and subject to the trusts intents and purposes and in such manner as is hereinafter mentioned expressed and declared of and concerning the same and therefore as (illegible) (illegible) to and requested the said Benjamin Wingrove to join in (illegible) (illegible) he hath consented to do so in manner hereinafter mentioned And it is also agreed by and between the said William Butler and Jane Davis that as well the said debts of five hundred and fifty three pounds sixteen shilling and eleven pence British Money and also the said principal sums of Thirty Pounds Twenty five Pounds and Two hundred Pounds creating together the said sum of eight hundred and eight pounds sixteen shillings and eleven pence so as aforesaid secured due and owing to the said Jane Davis shall be by her assigned and vested in the said John Lanham and John Rowland To for and upon the several uses and subject to the trusts and purposes hereinafter mentioned expressed and declared of and concerning the same respectively Now this Indenture Witnesseth that in pursuance and part performance of the said recited agreement and in consideration of the said intended marriage and also for and in consideration of the sum of ten shillings of lawful money of Great Britain to each of them the said William Butler and Benjamin Wingrove in hand well and truly paid by the said John Lanham and John Rowland at or before the sealing and delivery of these presents the receipts whereof are hereby acknowledged He the said Benjamin Wingrove (at the request and by the direction and appointment of the said William Butler testified by his being a party to and (undecipherable) these presents Hath Bargained sold and released and by these presents Doth Bargain sell and release and the said William Butler Hath Granted bargained sold and released ratified and confirmed and by these presents Doth Grant bargain sell and release ratify and confirm to the said John Lanham and John Rowland in their actual possession now being by virtue of a Bargain and Sale to


Second skin

Them thereof made by the said William Butler and Benjamin Wingrove in consideration of five shillings a piece by indenture bearing date the day next before the day of the date of these presents for one year commencing from the day of the date of the same indenture of Bargain and Sale and by force of the Statute made for transferring uses into possession ) their heirs and assigns All That Plot or Piece of Ground and parcel of certain Lands and hereditaments called Comb Down formerly the estate and inheritance of Ralph Allen Esquire long since deceased situate in the Parish of Monkton Comb aforesaid containing in length in front South next to a Road or Way thirty one feet and in breadth backwards at the North and thereof thirty one feet and in depth on the East and West sides thereof one hundred and forty feet and is bounded on the North by the said Way or Road in front South by a New Road or Way on the East partly by land formerly conveyed to the said Benjamin Wingrove and partly by the Road or Way there and on the West by a Plot or Piece of Ground and hereditaments belonging to the said William Butler And also All that Messuage or Tenement thereon created and built by the said William Butler being the Easternmost House in a Row or Line of Buildings called Isabella Place and now known or distinguished by Number 1 and now or late in the occupation of the said William Butler All which said Plot or Piece of Ground Messuage or Tenement hereditaments and premises were inter alia by indentures of Lease and Release bearing dates respectively the first and second days of January one thousand eight hundred and five the Release made between the Right Honourable John Monck Mason and David Ockden Parry Ockden of the first part and the Right Honourable Anne Isabella Dowager Viscountess Hawarden widow of the second part the said William Butler of the third part and the said Benjamin Wingrove of the fourth part duly Granted bargained sold assigned released and confirmed the said Benjamin Wingrove his heirs and assigns for ever To the only proper use and behoof of the said Benjamin Wingrove his heirs and assigns forever nevertheless as to the estate and interest of the said Benjamin Wingrove and his heirs In trust for the said William Butler his heirs and assigns and to be conveyed and disposed of as he or they should direct or appoint and at a yearly rent of one pound and twelve shillings payable thereon and subject to such powers and remedies for securing and enforcing payment of the same Together with all Ways Paths Passages Wells Pumps Waters Watercourses Liberties Profits Commodities advantages and appurtenances whatsoever to the said Plot or Parcel of Ground Messuage or Tenements hereditaments and premises hereby released and conveyed or intended so to be belonging or in any wise appertaining or accepted respected deemed taken or known as part parcel or member thereof And the Reversion or Reversions Remainder and Remainders yearly and other Rents Issues and profits thereof And also all the Estate Right Title Interest Use Trust of Estate Inheritance property possession challenge claim and demand whatsoever at Law or in Equity or otherwise howsoever of them the said William Butler and Benjamin Wingrove of into or out of the said Plot or parcel of Ground Messuage or Tenements hereditaments and premises hereby released and assured or intended so to be and every part and parcel of the same with their and every of their rights members and appurtenances To have and To hold the said Plot or Parcel of Ground Messuage or Tenement and all and singular other hereditaments and premises heretofore mentioned and described with their and every of their rights members and appurtenances and the Rents Issue and Services thereof unto the said John Lanham and John Rowland their heirs and assigns To the Uses and upon the trusts needs interests and purposes hereinafter expressed and declared of and concerning the same (that is to say To the use and behoof of the said William Butler his heirs and assigns until the solemnization of the said intended marriage and from and after the solemnization thereof To the Use and behoof the said Jane Davis his intended wife for and during the term of her natural life without impeachment of waste and after the death of the said Jane Davis To the Use of the said William Butler his heirs and assigns for ever and to or for no other use and intent of purpose whatsoever And This Indenture further Witnesseth that if further pursuance and performance of the said agreement and for the several considerations aforesaid and to the end and intent the said judgement debts of five hundred and fifty three pounds sixteen shillings and eleven pence British Money and the several principal sums of Thirty pounds Twenty five pounds and Two hundred pounds making together the said sum of eight hundred and eight pounds sixteen shillings and eleven pence may be signed settled and assured to for and upon the several trusts end intents and purposes and subject to the several provisos hereinafter mentioned expressed and declared of and concerning the same and also for and in consideration of the sum of five shillings (undecipherable) lawful money to her the said Jane Davis now also paid by the said John Lanham and John Rowland the receipt whereof is also hereby acknowledged She the said Jane Davis by and with the knowledge privity consent and approbation of the said William Butler (testified as aforesaid) Hath bargained and assigned transferred and set over and by these presents Doth bargain sell assign transfer and set over unto the said John Lanham and John Rowland their executors administrators and assigns All these the said two several (undecipherable) judgements and the said sums of five hundred and fifty three pounds sixteen shillings and eleven pence British Money due thereon together with all interest due or hereafter to grow due and so aforesaid vested in the said Jane Davis by virtue of the said in part recited indenture of assignment of the twenty seventh day of October one thousand eight hundred and twenty nine And also all that principal sum of


Third skin

Thirty Pounds of lawful British Money now due to the said Jane Davis from James Poole on the security of his promissory note bearing date on or about the fourth day of February one thousand eight hundred and twenty four And also All that other principal sum of Twenty five Pounds of lawful British Money now due to the said Jane Davis from Samuel Sams on the security of his promissory note bearing date on or about the fifteenth day of March One thousand eight hundred and thirty one And also all that other principal sum of Two hundred Pounds of lawful British Money now due to the said Jane Davis from John Holdway on the security of his promissory note bearing date on or about the twenty third day of November thousand eight hundred and thirty one which said three last mentioned items with the said Judgement Debts make together the said sum of eight hundred and eight pounds sixteen shillings and eleven pence Together with all interest now due and henceforth to grow due on the several Securities And all the estate right title and interest whatsoever of these the said Jane Davis and William Butler unto out of or concerning the said monies and premises or any of them Together with the full power for the said John Lanham and John Rowland their executors administrators and assigns in the names of the said Jane Davis and William Butler or either of them (and the consent in writing of the said Jane Davis being first had and obtained for that purpose) to demand sue for recover and receive the said Judgement debts principal Sums Interest proceeds and premises and on receipt thereof to give releases and discharges for the same To have and To hold the said Judgement debts and take the said principal sums Interest proceeds thereof and other the premises hereinbefore assigned of expressed and intended so to be unto and by the said John Lanham and John Rowland their executors administrators and assigns as their own proper monies and premises But Nevertheless Upon the trusts hereinafter declared concerning the same (that is to say) In trust for the said Jane Davis her executors administrators and assigns until the said intended marriage shall be solemnised and from and after the solemnization thereof In trust to pay the interest and proceeds thereof when and as often as the same shall be received discharged and from and after the same shall be received by the said Jane Davis or to such person or persons as she shall appoint to receive the same by any writing under her hand for and during her natural life independently of the debts or (undecipherable) of the said William Butler and for which the receipt of the said Jane Davis or (undecipherable) her appointee as aforesaid shall be sufficient discharges and from and after the decease of the said Jane Davis In trust to pay the interest and proceeds of the said Judgement debts and principal sums unto the said William Butler for and during the term of his natural life and from and after the decease of the said William Butler Then as to for and Concerning the said Judgement debts and the said principal sums Upon trust and for such intents and purposes and with under and subject to such powers provisoes declarations and agreements as the said Jane Davis notwithstanding her (undecipherable) by any Deed or Deeds or Testament or Testaments in writing with or without power of revocation and new appointment to be sealed and delivered by her in the presence of and to be attested by two or more credible witnesses or by her last will and testament in writing or any codicil or codicils thereto or any writing in the nature of or purporting to be her last will to be respectively signed and published by her in the presence of and to be attested by two or more credible witnesses shall appoint and in default of such appointment and so far as any such if incomplete shall not extend In trust for Pheobe Rowland (the daughter of the said Jane Davis) her executors administrators and assigns but in case the said William Butler shall not survive the said Jane Davis Then as to the said Judgement debts and the said several principal sums In trust for the said Jane Davis her executors administrators and assigns for ever and to or for no other use and intent or purpose whatsoever Provided always and it is hereby agreed that it shall and may be lawful for the trustee or trustees for the time being of these presents with the consent in writing of the said Jane Davis (illegible) payment and satisfaction of the said Judgement debts and also to (illegible) the said principal sums of Thirty pounds Twenty five pounds and Two hundred pounds or any or either of them and to invest the same or any part thereof in the purchase of Freehold Copyhold or Leasehold Messuages Lands or other hereditaments to be situate in England so that no such Leasehold premises shall be held for a less term than fifty years from the time of the purchase thereof or to invest the said Monies or any part thereof in the purchase of any of the parliamentary stocks or funds of a permanent or unlimited nature or at interest upon any Securities of the British Government or upon any Real or Long Leasehold Securities in England in the name or in the names of such Trustee or Trustees or upon any other Security or Securities such as the said Trustee or Trustees shall think and see fit and so from time to time with such counsel as aforesaid arriving to circumstances to sell and dispose of the said Messuages Lands and other hereditaments which may be so purchased as aforesaid and the Stocks or funds so to be purchased as aforesaid or any part thereof and to call in monies to be lent on security as aforesaid and again in like manner to lay out the monies arising from such Sale or sales and so to be called in as aforesaid in any other such purchase or any other such Security or Securities to such of the trusts hereinbefore declared as for the time being shall be subsisting or capable of taking effect And that any such Real Estate to be so purchased as aforesaid shall be considered personal Estate for the purposes of this settlement Provided always and it is further hereby agreed that id the Trustees or Trustee nominated and appointed by these presents or any future Trustee or Trustees to be appointed as hereinafter mentioned or any of their heirs executors or administrators shall die or decline or


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Become incapable to act in the trusts hereby created before the same shall be performed it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Jane Davis and William Butler or the survivor of them by any writing or writings under their his or her hands and seals or hand and seal to be attested by two or more credible witnesses to nominate or appoint any other person or persons to be a trustee or trustees in the stead of or place of the trustee or trustees do dying or deceasing or becoming incapable to act and that thereupon the said trust estates monies and premises shall with all conceived speed be conveyed or assigned so that the same may become legally vested in such new Trustee or Trustees solely or jointly with the surviving or remaining Trustee as the case may require Upon the trusts hereinbefore declared or such of them as shall be these subsisting and capable of taking effect and that every such new trustee or trustees in or to whose place they shall take or succeed And it is hereby agreed and declared that the Trustees hereby appointed or such future trustee or trustees so to be appointed as aforesaid and their respective heirs executors administrators and assigns shall be charged for such monies out as they shall respectively actually receive by virtue of the trusts created notwithstanding his or their giving or signing or joining in giving or signing and receipt or receipts for the sake of conformity and that none of them shall be answerable to the others of them or for the insufficiency or deficiency of any Security or Securities Stocks or Funds in or upon which the said trust monies or any part thereof shall be placed or invested or for the defect of title of any of the hereditaments or premises so to be purchased as aforesaid nor for any other misfortune loss or damage which may happen in the execution of the aforesaid trusts or in relation thereto except the same shall happen by or through their own wilful defect respectively And that it is shall and may be lawful to and for them the said several trustees respectively and every or any of them their and every of their Heirs Executors Administrators or Assigns by and out of the monies which shall come to their respective hands by virtue of the trusts aforesaid to retain to and reimburse himself and themselves respectively and also to allow to his and their Co-trustee and Co-trustees all costs charges damages and expenses which he they or any of them shall or may incur in or about the execution of the aforesaid trusts or in relation thereto and to settle and allow the accounts of any trustee or trustees so dying or declining or becoming incapable to act as aforesaid And it is hereby agreed that the Receipts of the trustee or trustees for the time being acting in the execution of the trusts of these presents shall be sufficient discharge for all monies which shall be paid to them of him in that capacity and shall absolutely release the person or persons paying the same from all liability to see to the application thereof And the said Benjamin Wingrove doth hereby for himself his heirs executors and administrators covenant and agree to and with the said John Lanham and John Rowland their heirs and assigns by these presents that the said Benjamin Wingrove hath not at any time before the sale and execution of these presents made done or committed or caused or procured so to be any Grant Act Deed Matter or thing whatsoever whereby or wherewith to impeach charge or incumber the said Plot or Parcel of Ground Messuage or Tenement hereditaments and premises hereby Granted Released Settled and assigned or any part thereof in Title Estate or otherwise whatsoever And each of them the said William Butler and Jane Davis severally separately and apart from the other of them doth by these presents for himself and herself respectively and his and her respective heirs executors and administrators and as to for and concerning the several and respective Estates Monies and Premises by them respectively conveyed signed settled and assured as aforesaid and his her and their own Acts Deeds and xxx only covenant and agree to and with the said John Lanham and John Rowland their Heirs Executors Administrators and assigns that if the said intended marriage shall take effect they the said William Butler and Jane Davis respectively and their respective heirs executors and administrators shall and will from time to time and at all times after the solemnization thereof at the reasonable request of the trustees for the time being but at the Costs and Charges of the said trust estates made do acknowledge suffer execute and perform or cause and promise to be made done acknowledged suffered executed and performed all such further and other lawful and reasonable Acts Deeds and things Devised Conveyanced and Assured in the Law whatsoever for the further better more perfectly lawfully or satisfactorily Granting Conveying Confirming Assigning Settling and Assuring the said Plot or Parcel of Ground Messuage or Tenement hereditaments Judgements Monies and premises hereby respectively released assigned settled and assured as aforesaid or intended so to be and every part and parcel of the same with the appurtenances To the Uses upon the trusts and to and for the ends interests and purposes hereinbefore intended expressed and declared of and concerning the same respectively according to the true intent and meaning of these presents as by the trustees or trustee for the time being or his or their counsel shall be devised and required and tendered to be made done and executed In Witness whereof the said parties to these presents have hereto set their hands and bears the Day and Year first above written

William Butler Benjamin Wingrove Jane Davis John Lanham John Rowland