MANUSCRIPT LAND INDENTURE, 1751, WITH ORIGINAL SEAL INTACT

(GEORGE II). Vellum Indenture documenting a purchase of land. London: June 14, 1751. Vellum sheet (26-1/2 by 23 inches), with original wax seal, nicely framed; entire piece measures 30-1/2 by 27 inches. $750.

Original legal land transaction in fine secretarial hand, transacted between a member of Parliament and a proctor of the Admiralty Court, with original wax seal, handsomely framed.

Transacted on "the fourteenth day of June in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second by the grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith," this purchase of "one close, one garden and orchard, and two parcels of land thereto adjoining" by Philip Champion Crespigny from Richard Savage Nassau, is duly recorded in a fine 18th-century secretarial hand. Crespigny paid "five shillings of lawful money of Great Britain" for the property.

The seller, the Honorable Richard Savage Nassau (1723-80), clerk of the board of green cloth, was an English Member of Parliament who served from 1747 to 1780, with a 20-year gap between 1754 and 1774. He was married to Anne Spencer (1716-71), only daughter and heir of Edward Spencer of Rendlesham, Suffolk, and widow of James Hamilton, fifth duke of Hamilton and third duke of Brandon. The purchaser, Philip Champion de Crespigny (1704-65), was proctor of the Admiralty court; his wife was Anne Fonnereau, daughter of Claude Fonnereau of Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, Suffolk.

A handsome framed piece in fine condition.