Description:The Sutherland Papers include a number of deeds to properties in Lichfield, including ‘An Agreement made the Twenty eighth day of October in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifteen Between Thomas Hinckley of the City of Lichfield Esquire...and James Loch of Great Russell Street Bloomsbury’. James Loch was Chief Estate Agent on the Leveson-Gower estates. The document provides a detailed description of lands and properties situated in Lichfield during the early nineteenth century.
The agreement states that for the ‘sum of Nine thousand pounds’, Thomas Hinckley would ‘grant and convey’ the ‘Messuage Dwellinghouse or Tenement commonly called or known by the Name of the Royal Oak’ to James Loch.
The document describes the Royal Oak as ‘situate lying and being in the Parish of Saint Michael in the County of the City of Lichfield’. The property included a barn, stable, outbuildings and a garden. James Loch was also to receive ‘several Closes Pieces or Parcels of Land’ described as ‘the two Mickle Hills adjoining together and lying behind or near’ to the Royal Oak and an additional ‘ffour acres one road and twenty seven perches’. The agreement also entitled Loch to ‘the Two Almonds Fields’ which were near to the Royal Oak and contained ‘fourteen acres two roads and thirty seven perches’. In addition, Pool Field and Sandford Mill Meadow would also be conveyed to James Loch.
At the time when the agreement was made in 1815 the lands described were owned by a lady called Elizabeth Houldcroft, who was a widow, and a man named Thomas Brown.
Other lands in Lichfield were also included in the agreement, namely Middle Burrowcop Hill, Big Burrowcop Hill and Little Burrowcop Hill which were situated in the same Parish in Lichfield. Little Burrowcop Hill included a ‘Cowshed Stable and Buildings’. In addition, a ‘Close or Parcel of Land in Gay Field’ would also be conveyed to James Loch, which was ‘in the occupation of the Very Reverend John Chappel Woodhouse’ in 1815. The document describes the Reverend as ‘Doctor in Divinity and Dean of the Cathedral Church of Lichfield’. The agreement also entitled Loch to ‘all Timber Trees’ growing on the land.
Towards the end of the agreement a passage appears which grants James Loch the rights to more land owned by Thomas Hinckley. Three pieces of copyhold land ‘called the Hilly Becks the Far Becks and the Near Becks’ were also to become James Loch’s property ‘together with all Timber and other Trees’ growing on the lands, which were currently occupied by Elizabeth Houldcroft.
As well as providing a detailed description of lands and properties in Lichfield which were purchased for the Leveson-Gower Estates in 1815, the document tells us about people such as widow Elizabeth Houldcroft and Reverend John Chappel Woodhouse who were living in Lichfield in the early Nineteenth Century.