This is a scarce, multi-party Victorian English property indenture on vellum with 13 intact red wax seals, Stephen Hooper Fleet Street stationer’s imprint, and a fully narrated chain of title tracing back to 1815. The Heritage’s Buildings provenance, the large Webb family with London commercial connections, and the receipted £150 consideration make this an exceptionally detailed genealogical and local history document for Trowbridge / Wiltshire collectors.
Approximately 22" by 27"
English Indenture — Trowbridge, Wiltshire, 1854
Document Type: Transfer of Mortgage and Conveyance of the Equity of Redemption in 4 Messuages (dwelling houses) situate in Heritage’s Buildings, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
Dated: 12th day of April 1854
Stationer’s imprint: Stephen Hooper, Wholesale Stationer & Parchment Dealer, 45 Fleet Street, opposite Fetter Lane, London
Parties to the Indenture
Grantors/Sellers:
∙ Samuel Watton (of 21 Bath Street, City of Bristol) — Common Brewer, since deceased at time of execution
∙ Samson Pinkney (parish of Thornbury, Gloucestershire)
∙ Maria Webb — Widow of the third part; daughter of Rachael Heritage
The Webb Children (only eight children of the said Maria Webb):
∙ James Heritage Webb
∙ William Charles Webb — Bookkeeper
∙ Maria Lydia Webb
∙ Clara Jane Webb — Spinster
∙ Albert Reynolds Webb — of 26 Aldgate High Street, City of London, Linen Drapers Assistant
∙ Arthur John Webb
∙ Nelson Ernest Webb — Linen Drapers Assistant
∙ Sidney Louis Webb
Grantee/Trustee:
∙ John Taylor — Mason, of Trowbridge (5th part)
∙ Frederick Webber — Gentleman, same place (6th part)
Signatories with Wax Seals
From the signature panels visible in images 13–15:
∙ Samuel Watton
∙ Samson Pinkney
∙ Maria Webb
∙ James Heritage Webb
∙ Wm. Chas. Webb (William Charles Webb)
∙ Maria Lydia Webb
∙ Clara Jane Webb
∙ Albert Reynolds Webb
∙ Arthur John Webb
∙ Nelson Ernest Webb
∙ Sydney Louis Webb
∙ John Taylor
∙ Frederick Webber
Background Narrative Within the Document
The indenture recites a complex chain of title rooted in the Heritage family of Trowbridge:
Rachael Heritage owned four tenements/dwelling houses in Trowbridge. She executed her Last Will and Testament, devising the properties and appointing Daniel Heritage and William Taylor of Bradford, County of Wilts as joint executors. Rachael departed this life on 24 September 1821; the will was proved on 13 September 1822 in the Episcopal Court of the Lord Bishop of Sarum. Daniel Heritage subsequently died, leaving his own will dated 3 August 1840, proved and attested, bequeathing real and personal property to friends William Edgell and John Henry Webb (clothiers), upon trust for the children of his daughter Maria lawfully begotten — the eight Webb children named above.
The four properties are described as situate in Hilperton Lane, Parish of Trowbridge, formerly in the several tenures of Sarah Biggs, Martha [surname], Henry Davis, Joseph Hilman, and John Powell — in a place then called Heritage’s Buildings.
The mortgage of £200 originally secured by an earlier Indenture (recited as bearing date the first and second days of December 1815) was being transferred, with John Taylor paying £150 as consideration (receipted on the document).
Historical Significance
Sidney (Sydney) Louis Webb is the most historically notable signer. A Sidney Webb born in London in 1859 became one of the most influential British social reformers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries — co-founder of the Fabian Society, co-founder of the London School of Economics, and later Baron Passfield. However, the timing requires caution: the 1854 document predates Sidney Webb (1859) by five years, and the Sydney Louis Webb signing here would have been a minor at the time (the document notes that Albert Reynolds Webb and others were under age at execution, with the youngest — Sydney Louis Webb — attaining age 21 on 20 October 1865, meaning he was born c. 1844). This is almost certainly a different individual than the famous Fabian Sidney Webb, though the Webb family’s London linen drapery connections and Nonconformist Trowbridge roots would be worth further genealogical investigation.
Albert Reynolds Webb — working as a linen drapers assistant at 26 Aldgate High Street, London — fits the pattern of provincial Wiltshire families placing sons in the London drapery trade, a well-documented Victorian career path.
The Heritage family of Trowbridge itself has local historical significance. The properties known as Heritage’s Buildings in Hilperton Lane appear to have been a named landmark, suggesting the family had substantial presence in the Trowbridge townscape.
Trowbridge in this period was the center of the West of England woolen cloth industry, and the Webb/Heritage family network — with connections to clothiers (John Henry Webb), brewers (Samuel Watton), and London drapery — reflects the interconnected commercial world of mid-Victorian Wiltshire.
eBay Listing Angle
This is a scarce, multi-party Victorian English property indenture on vellum with 13 intact red wax seals, Stephen Hooper Fleet Street stationer’s imprint, and a fully narrated chain of title tracing back to 1815. The Heritage’s Buildings provenance, the large Webb family with London commercial connections, and the receipted £150 consideration make this an exceptionally detailed genealogical and local history document for Trowbridge / Wiltshire collectors.