NEWSLETTER NO. 16 - Nov 2007
WADHURST HISTORY SOCIETY
The Last Will and Testament of William Wallis
31st August 1767
This document [inside the envelope at the top of the picture] was included in the bundle of property deeds, given to the History Society earlier this year, having been found in the attic of the house of Kenneth Ascott, once the organist at the Parish Church. All the rest of the deeds and other documents relate to property first described as:
“all that Messuage or Tenement the backside and all and singular the appurtenances - formerly in the occupation of Francis Kent - chapman - last in the tenure of Thomas Foells - west of Wadhurst - neare the lower marle pitt - bounding to another Messuage or Tenement belonging to the said Thomas Smith and Thomas Shewell towards the east to a tenement belonging to William May towards the north to a tenement and garden plot belonging to Elizabeth Sawyer towards the south and to the marle pitt there towards the west - which said Messuage or
Tenement was formerly the estate of Nicholas Marryan late of Wadhurst cobler.” and later including the adjacent east- erly piece of ground, bought by our vicar the Revd John Foley [1846 -1887].
Or in language that is more clearly understood today: the house now known as Hillside [once two cottages] and the land on which the houses called today Mulberry and Hindley Lodge now stand; the ‘lower marle pitt’ is presumably now the pond to the west of Hillside.
More work is needed on these deeds before their full import is clear - and will appear here after advice on their interpretation has been obtained from Christopher Whittick at East Sussex Record Office.
The full text can be read on p.123; how little legal language has changed over the centuries! Michael Harte