Gift of land, Cambridge

John Gaunt of Cambridge and his wife Agnes, widow and executrix of the late John Serle, confirm their gift to Lawrence Reyson, John Tedder, fishmonger, William Pratte, John Cox of London, grocer, William Abyngton, Andrew Smyth, and William Bowman, all of Cambridge, of a messuage in the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary next the market in Cambridge. The Serles, together with others now deceased, acquired their interest in the said tenement, to the use of John Serle and his heirs, from Thomas Clerke, gent, in 1503 [see Doc 4018]. The gift is for the purpose of executing Serle's will. Deed poll, [witnessed by] John Chapman, then mayor of Cambridge, Geoffrey Ranke, Richard Wolff, John Goodyn, and William Abyngton, then bailiffs of Cambridge. Tags and seals wanting. Endorsed with certificate of livery of seisin in the presence of Robert Smyth, alderman of Cambridge, Henry Hassyll and John Fanne, burgesses, William Flory of Cambridge, and by the author John Thyrleby of Cambridge, notary. Contemporary identifying endorsement. Further endorsed in seventeenth and eighteenth-century hands: 'See for this Woolf Bury / in great St Mary's / church', 'Enterd L Cant 224', '4', and 'Cambridge No 17'.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

Purchased at Sotheby's, Lot 19 (Phillipps MS 32068), 13 April 1981. Appears to have once belonged to J. Blomefield, author of The History of Norfolk.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.