Catalogue description Deeds of Griggs Farm, Streat

Grynes, purchased by Thomas Balcombe in 1658

Grynes, called a cottage, garden and seven acres of bondhold land called Grynes otherwise Shrines in Streat, was held as a copyhold of the manor of Streat, quitrent 4s 0d, a hen and five eggs, heriot and fine 6d certain

On 10 May 1570 Edward Michelborne surrendered the property, which had belonged to his mother Joan Michelborne, to Robert Prior and his wife Joan, and to Robert's heirs (1A).

On 8 April 1616 Robert Prior was admitted on the second proclamation of the death of his brother William Prior (1B).

On 11 September 1616 the death of Robert Prior was presented and his nephew John Fawlkenor, the youngest son of his youngest sister Agnes Fawlkenor, deceased, was admitted; the property was then described as a toft, garden and seven acres called Grynes (1C).

On 3 July 1658, out of court, Thomas Earle surrendered the property to Thomas Bawcombe. The surrender was presented on 30 September 1659 and Bawcombe was admitted on the second proclamation on 18 March 1662 (2).

Griggs, purchased by Thomas Balcombe in 1658

Griggs, called a cottage and seven acres called Wriggs otherwise Griggs in Streat, was held as a copyhold tenement of the manor of Streat, quitrent 3s 0d, two hens and five eggs

On 3 July 1658, out of court, Thomas Earle surrendered the property to Thomas Bawcombe. The surrender was presented on 30 September 1659 and Bawcombe was admitted on the second proclamation on 18 March 1662 (3).

As to both properties

On 6 January 1667, out of court, Thomas Bawcombe settled both properties on his forthcoming marriage with Elizabeth Seaman; they were both admitted at a court held on 4 June 1667 (4, 5).

The death of Samuel Bawcombe was presented on 5 May 1691. As well as Grynes and Griggs (the latter described as in three pieces), he also held a cottage and 10 acres of land called Worgs by a quitrent of 1s 4d. His heir, his youngest son Samuel Bawcombe, was admitted (6).

Letters of administration of the estate of Samuel Baulcomb of Preston was granted to his widow Sarah at the court of the Archdeaconry of Lewes on 19 August 1709 - AMS 5706/1. For a notebook of detailed administrator's accounts, chiefly relating to the sheep-farm run from Griggs, see AMS 5706/2.

Samuel Bawcombe's death was presented on 24 October 1710; his heir was his only son Samuel Bawcombe, aged 12. The elder Samuel's widow Sarah Bawcombe was admitted for life, and her son Samuel, by his attorney Christopher Yokehurst, was admitted to the reversion on his mother's death (7).

Samuel Bawcombe and his mother sold the cottage and 10 acres called Worgs to William Aynscomb, yeoman, on 27 October 1736 - SAS/MA 8.

Samuel Bawcombe's death was presented on 7 November 1770, and his only daughter Mary, wife of William Langridge, was admitted (8).

For receipts for land tax paid by Samuel Friend, Thomas Ranger and Trayton Paine, 1769-1795, see AMS 5706/3; for a list of fees on Mrs Langridge's admission, 1770, see AMS 5706/4/1.

On 14 August 1790 William Langridge of Lewes, timber-merchant, granted lease of the property for seven years from 25 March 1790 to Trayton Payne of Lewes, butcher, at a rent of £14. Langridge covenanted to repair the property, which was described as a messuage, stable, cow-house, garden and five pieces of land (14a) in Streat, occupied by William Balcombe Langridge, gent, Thomas Pockney and Samuel Friend. The lease is endorsed with accounts for rent, showing the deduction of land tax and for a thatcher's bill of 3s 0d in 1796 (9).

Another seven-year term, at the same rent, was granted to Trayton Payne on 2 June 1797 (10). For the licence granted by the manor of Streat to permit this lease, see AMS 5706/4/2; for a receipt for rent, 1802, see AMS 5706/5; for a valuation by Anthony William Hodson, 6 April 1803, see AMS 5706/6.

On 22 July 1806 William Balcombe Langridge, by his attorney George Hoper, was admitted to the property on the second proclamation of the death of his mother Mary Langridge (11). A map of the farm was drawn shortly after; it has been annotated in pencil to show a strip of land 41 poles in length, with two buildings, taken in from the road on the eastern boundary of the property (12).

For a notice from William Balcombe Langridge to Trayton Paine to quit, 22 June 1811, see AMS 5706/7; for printed particulars of sale and auction notices, 27 July 1811, see AMS 5706/8.

On 27 July 1812 William Balcombe Langridge of Lewes, gent, [who had inherited the property on the death of his father William Langridge in September 1801], mortgaged it for £500 at 5% to William Borrer of Hurstpierpoint, esq (13).

On 28 March 1815 the mortgagee William Borrer wrote to William Balcombe Langridge from West Town, [Hurstpierpoint], acknowledging receipt of a cheque for the principal and interest, and stating that his son John Borrer would bring the papers to Lewes the following Saturday (14).

For a copy notice to repair and quit at 25 Mar 1820,W B Langridge to William Sturt, 6 Sep 1819, see LAN 302; for a lease of Griggs Farm, 14a 3r 22p as mapped, occupied by William Sturt, for 14 years from 25 Mar 1820 to William Faulconer, 25 Sep 1819, see LAN 301.

By his will of 21 May 1834, William Balcombe Langridge bequeathed the farm, then occupied by William Faulconer, to his daughter Frances Langridge. The will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 24 May 1845 and on 14 November 1846 Frances, then wife of John Cusson Turner of Brighton, esq, MD, was admitted to the copyhold, whereupon she and her husband vested it in William Vidler Langridge, Thomas Binns Turner and George Cooke, the trustees of their marriage settlement of 26 June 1844 (15).

The trustees sold two pieces of land, measuring half an acre and 34 perches, to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway; for copies of the deeds, with plans, 17 April 1847 and 5 January 1850, see AMS 5706/9.

The trustees were all dead by 9 November 1868 when the executors of the survivor George Cooke (George William Cooke of Barcombe, relieving officer, and Thomas Walter Cooke of Ninfield, farmer, who had proved his will of 23 June 1849 on 9 July 1867) were admitted. They immediately surrendered to Walter John Turner of the Cavalry Barracks, Chichester, lieutenant in the Third Hussars, who was entitled to the property by virtue of a deed of partition of 29 September 1868, to which the other parties had been [his sister] Rosalie Frances Turner of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham near Dublin, spinster, G W Cooke and T W Cooke and Frederick William Yeates of 25 Chancery Lane, London, gent (16). For a copy of the deed, see AMS 5706/24.

On 25 March 1869 Walter John Turner, then of the Cavalry Depot in Canterbury, sold the farm, lately occupied by William Hemsley, to the occupier John Gurr of Streat, yeoman, for £690, of which £450 was raised by mortgage at 4% to James Sedgwick of Richmond in Surrey, clerk, and Charles Alfred Woolley of Lewes, gent (17-20).

On 25 June 1874 John Gurr mortgaged the farm to Thomas Bedford of Elstree in Hertfordshire, clerk, for £450 at 4½%, which was discharged on 21 June 1875 (21-22).

On 24 October 1889 John Gurr paid £13 19s 0d to Henry Charles Lane of Middleton House in Westmeston, esq, lord of the manor of Streat, to enfranchise the two copyhold tenements which comprised Griggs Farm (23).

John Gurr died on 10 September 1895. By his will of 15 October 1858 he had bequeathed his real estate to his wife Mary Ann Gurr, who proved the will on 11 October 1895. On 29 September 1896 Mrs Gurr, then of Lewes, sold the farm to John Martin Combridge of Little Park in Hurstpierpoint, purveyor of meat, for £790 (24).

On 21 January 1898 John Martin Combridge sold the farm for £786 5s 6d to Alfred Stapleton of Streat, retired licensed victualler. The plan on the deed is annotated for a sale of the farmland and the retention of the house and its immediate surroundings, and a memorandum of the sale off in 1928 (see below) is endorsed (25).

On 14 January 1903 Alfred Stapleton, then of Griggs Farm, Streat, mortgaged the property for £100 at 5% to William Stevens of 26 Marlborough Place, Brighton, gent; the deed was witnessed by F[rank] Bentham Stevens, clerk to Stevens Son and Maynard of Brighton, solicitors. The mortgage was assigned on 24 June 1907 to Henry Summarsell of 54 Ditchling Rise, Brighton, commercial traveller, who assigned it to Jessie Annie Osgood of 3 New Steine, Brighton, spinster, on 21 October 1908. Miss Osgood, then of 130 Beaconsfield Villas, Brighton, reconveyed the property to Alfred Stapleton on 20 August 1920 (26).

On 2 April 1928 Walter Henry Honess and Edwin Williams [perhaps the executors of Alfred Stapleton] sold the farmland (13a 2r 4p, fields 76-79 and part of 80 on the plan) to Joseph Stanley Haydock (25).

In January 1961 the deeds were calendared by [Kenneth W] Dickins, honorary curator of deeds of the Sussex Archaeological Society, and the list included in the SAS group TR. Peter Bunker of Bunker and Co, 9 The Drive, Hove, sent a copy of the list to Colonel G M Jefferis, 32 Park Gate, Somerhill Road, Hove, on 18 January 1961 (27).

The bundle also contains a draft conveyance, drawn by Laurence Legg of 5 Pavilion Buildings, Brighton, of the Blacksmith's Shop at Streat from Arthur Oliver Depree of The Stores, New Road, Crowborough, to Rowland Emett and his wife Mary Emett of Wild Goose Cottage, East End Lane, Ditchling, for £600, executed on 21 Jul 1961. The property, which lay near High Chimneys, Streat, had been conveyed to Mr Depree by Stephen James Wood on 12 April 1956, with a right of way along the occupation road leading from Streat to Spatham Lane, depicted on a deed of 9 December 1920 between Katherine Bothamley, Frederick Crawford Goodenough and Athelstan Arthur Baines, Henry Francis Darwin Gisborne and George Henry Stevens. Two plans of the property are also present, the second stated to be from a conveyance of 24 May 1962 (28-30).

For other deeds of the property in the hands of the Balcombe and Langridge families, see AMS 5706 and LAN 301-302; information from them included in this narrative is shown in italics.

Documents copied 31 May 2004 (ACC 8978)

Griggs Farm was held as a copyhold tenement of the manor of Streat by a quitrent of 3s 0d, two hens and five eggs. It was purchased in 1658 by William Balcombe, who on the same occasion bought a second copyhold, Grynes, from the same vendor. The deeds of Grynes begin in 1570, whereas those of Griggs date from Balcombe's purchase in 1658.

The property passed to the Langridge family of Lewes in 1770 when, on the death of Samuel Balcombe, it was inheritaed by his only daughter Mary, who had married William Langridge of Lewes, carpenter, in 1755. On William's death in 1801 Griggs passed to his son William Balcombe Langridge, clerk of the peace of Sussex; some documents relating to the estate are present in his archive (LAN).

In 1847 and 1850 the trustees of Langridge's will sold two pieces of land, measuring half an acre and 34 perches, to the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.

In 1889 the new owner enfranchised the two copyhold tenements which comprised Griggs Farm.

In 1928 the farmland, consisting of 13a 2r 4p, was sold off and Griggs House retained.

In January 1961 these deeds were calendared by Kenneth W Dickins, honorary curator of deeds of the Sussex Archaeological Society, and the list included in the SAS group TR.