Description:Amongst the wealth of documents relating to lands in Staffordshire during the sixteenth century are two leases relating to Codsall, made in 1560 and 1596. The Leveson family became extensive landowners in Staffordshire after James Leveson (c. 1500-1547) purchased land and property in and around Wolverhampton in the early sixteenth century.
Lease for Agricultural Land in Codsall
The document above is an Indenture which was made on ‘the iiiith daye of September in the Seconde yere of the Riegne of our Soveryne ladye Elizabeth’. The lease describes agricultural land in Codsall which was involved in an agreement made between ‘S[i]r Richard Leveson of Lilleshall in the Countye of Sallop Knyght’ and ‘Thomas Arnesley’ who was a yeoman in Staffordshire.
The document relates to a ‘tenement', pasture land and also ‘ meadowes, ‘ffedinge pastures’ and ‘arable land’ situated in ‘the lordshippe of Codsall’. The lands described were occupied by a man named Thomas Andrewes, but the Indenture signs the lands over to Thomas Arnesley in his place.
Click on the image on the left to learn more about land and property in Codsall during the sixteenth century.