An Introduction to
Collecting Vellum Indentures
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General Types | Oldest Deeds | Skins and Inks | Seals and Signatures | Collecting Vellums | Preservation | Pictures | My Indenture Sale Catalog
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"Indentures"
are legal contracts, and are entirely written by hand (in English) on large
sheepskins, in keeping with legal practice dating back to Medieval times.
Today, these ancient British legal manuscripts are prized collector's items,
and make impressive decorator accents when matted and framed. The top edge of
the document shows the wavy, or "indented" margin that gives these
documents their name; as a safeguard against counterfeiting, the copies given
to all parties were placed together and cut in this margin in a wavy,
irregular pattern, thus uniquely identifying the authenticity of each copy. By convention in
common use after about 1675, the documents open with the title "This
Indenture" in large capital letters. This heading, written in the
earlier examples and printed on the later specimens, is often further
embellished with decorative flourishes or occasionally a copper engraved
representation of the Arms of the Royal Order of the Garter (called an
Armorial heading), reproducing a motif seen on contemporary silver coinage.
The text conventionally continues by stating the name and year of reign of
the current Sovereign, his or her titles (this format is not used on all
documents, and of course is lacking on items from the years of the
Commonwealth and on a few pieces immediately following "the Glorious
Revolution" in 1688-89. The pratice was largely abandoned after the
1790's as the prestige of the monarchy declined and was all but abandoned in
Queen Victoria's long reign). The A.D. year is almost invariably stated next,
verifying the age of the document. The documents then state the specifics
concerning the parties involved in the transaction, its nature, and all
pertinent information. Originally rather dry and legalistic, such content
today forms a remarkably vivid testimony to the interests and customs of
these long-gone times. Such familiar subjects as deeds (conveyances),
mortgages, assignments, and leases are their subjects, along with archaic
legalisms such as "feoffment", a term from the Middle Ages. Documents after
the Licencing Act of 1694 feature embossed paper-and-foil tax stamps, much
like the sort that caused so much discontent on this side of the Atlantic. As
demands on the Exchequer grew, so did the price of the stamped vellum, from a
few pence a sheet to as high as four pounds in the early 1800's, a veritable
fortune in the period of these documents. On verso (the back side of the
sheet) the documents are docketed by the King's tax collectors, with the
now-conventional phrase, that the document was 'signed, sealed, and
delivered' by those individuals, whose signatures attest to this fulfillment
of the law. All documents are completed by the additions of the signatures of
the parties - or an indication of "X, His Mark" in the case of those
unable to write. These are accompanied by wax seals bearing impressions of
the lawyers', or parties' signet rings. In the earliest documents these
fragile seals are appended to the body of the document by means of a
"gutter tab" which hangs below the vellum sheet. Unfortunately thus
not protected from the rigors of handling, most of these early seals are
lacking or encountered only in fragments. In the later manuscripts the seals
are applied directly to the document by means of a small tab of cloth slipped
through a slot in a double folded bottom margin. Thus seals from the middle
of the18th century and later are generally found in a more well-preserved
state. Probate documents
also to be found in our listings are very similar in general format. They are
court copies of last wills and testaments engrossed by the Probate Court when
their terms were discharged. They too are written by hand, in English, on
sheepskin. They begin conventionally with the phrase "In the Name of God
Amen" or "The Last Will and Testament of..." in very large
lettering, and continue with the now stock phrase "being of sound mind
and understanding." Their content is often quite fascinating. Not only
are family stories told by the amounts and stipulations of the bequests of
money and property, but the deceased often specify the disposal of their most
prized possessions. Such inventories are virtual catalogs of now rare
antiques such as plate, paintings, and furniture. Attached to the will is the
form of the Probate Court, written or printed with handwritten entries.
Finally the seal of the issuing authority is attached. Unlike the small
signet rings used in legal contracts these are large wax-and-paper seals
embossed with the Arms of the Bishop of the diocese in which the will was
probated, or later of the Sovereign's Probate Court. General Types of
Law Deeds
Much
of what follows is from Emma Thoyts' fine little book How to Decipher and Study
Old Documents, published at London in 1893. As noted above,
the two chief divisions into which all law deeds may be roughly classified
are the deed-pole and the indenture. The former is a square piece of
parchment, made by one person, such as a will or a bond, while the indenture
is a larger format document, the work of several parties. Of this latter kind
are deeds of trusteeship, marriage settlements, mortgages, and sales or
transfers of land. The indenture was so called from the fact that its upper
edge was vandyked, or indented - a very secure but primitive method of
testing authenticity; each party had a copy. These duplicates were written on
a single strip of parchment merely cut asunder afterwards, through a word
written between the two copies, such as “chirographum”, so that when required
to be produced as evidence the two divided portions and words would fit each
other exactly, indisputable evidence of their originality. A common form of
early deed, met with among Latin language era title deeds dating before about
1525, is the ‘Fine,’ technically so-called from its opening sentence: 'Hic
est finalis concordia facta in curia Domini Regis' (Latin for "This is
the final agreement made in the court of the Lord King"; the
Sovereign's name follows with the year of accession, after which are the
names of the buyer and seller of the property, a full description of the
amount of acreage, tenements, etc. After warranting the whole for life to its
purchaser, the deed concludes with the sum of money paid for the property;
this is written in words, not figures. These deeds are more puzzling to
amateurs than any other. The ‘Fines’ are narrow strips of parchment, one or
two in number; they are closely covered with black lettering, making them at
first difficult to decipher. This transfer of land by ‘fine’ originated at
first from an actual suit at law commenced to recover possession of the
lands, and by this means to establish a clear indisputable title to it; in
course of time the suit was discontinued, but the form of wording was
retained by custom. “A ‘fine’ says Blackstone, “is so called because it puts
an end to the suit (from the Latin word fixis, an end), which, when once
decided, puts an end not only to that suit, but also to all other
controversies concerning the same matter, for by this means an absolute sale
was effected, and all previous claims upon the property were made void.” Sale
by fine is of very ancient date. Instances of it are said to be known prior
to the Norman invasion. We may, therefore, conclude that it was probably an
old Saxon custom, or was devised in later times as a certain means to avoid
dispute and disagreement arising from an imperfect title of possession. There
are several legal varieties of fines, but these are of little consequence to
the antiquary, whose interest lies only in the names, dates, and localities
mentioned, and, so long as the land changed its ownership, cares little about
the technical process by which the transfer was made. Another way of
making a good title so as to legalize and effect a complete sale of property
was that known as 'Sale by Recovery.’ This also consisted of a law-suit, at
first real, then imaginary. The prescribed form was very complicated.
Explanations of it are to be found in most books on law subjects, but the
matter lies in a nutshell. One man desired to sell certain land which another
man was anxious to purchase, where. upon the would-be purchaser issued a
writ, in which he pretended to claim the land. At this stage of the affair a
third party, not really concerned in any way in it, was brought forward to
warrant the title of the real owner, who then came forward bringing a witness
proving ownership to his property; thus an indisputable title to the land was
established. A deed of recovery was then issued rehearsing the whole
transaction, agreeing that a certain sum of money, equivalent to the value of
the land, should be paid by the purchaser; and here the bargain was
concluded, and the curtain fell on the legal farce. Some of these
recovery deeds are quite works of art. They are written in courthand on large
squares of parchment, smooth and white. The heading and capital letter are
ornamented with scroll-work in pen and ink. Generally an engraved portrait of
the reigning Sovereign was added. Part of this ornamentation was done by
hand, and the rest completed with steel engraving. The most elaborate deeds are
those of the Stuart monarchs, especially towards the end of the seventeenth
century, but after the time of the second George these well-executed deeds
disappear. The oldest statute relating to Recoveries of which I find any
mention is of the commencement of the reign of Henry VIL, but I have not met
with any as early in date as this. A beginner finds
much difficulty in deciding between deeds of sale or appointment of trustees
for the safe custody of land to secure marriage portions and deeds of
mortgage. All these three deeds are, in point of size and general outline,
nearly identical; the experienced lawyer can detect them at once; he needs
only to study what is called the operative part of the document, avoiding any
waste of time which wading through the technical phrases involves. Shown
at Left is a table of some variant forms of letters of the alphabet as they
are sometimes seen in earlier manuscripts. One of the
commonest forms of deeds met with relative to the sale of land is that known
as 'Lease and Release,’ a method invented by Serjeant Moore in the reign of
Henry VIII, which, from its simplicity, speedily became very popular, and
superseded the other forms of sale. The principal deeds referring to a Lease
and Release are two in number. The smaller of these is generally found
wrapped up within the larger parchment, as the two had to be kept together,
being in reality part and parcel of each other. The smaller parchment was the
lease drawn up between the parties; by it a formal lease for a year of the
premises or land was granted by the owner to the purchaser, but no mention of
any rent or sum of money is made in it, and herein is the difference between
the sale-lease and an ordinary lease, for in this latter both the term of
years and the yearly rental are expressly named. The Release, or larger
parchment, is dated a day following the lease which it cancels, hereby
gaining its name of 'release.’ It is in reality the actual deed of sale, for
the price paid for the land will be found in it, and a full and complete
warranty securing it for ever to the purchaser. An ordinary lease
of premises is worded similarly to the above, but differs from it in several
ways; usually it is a larger sheet of parchment. The term of years varies
from three, five, seven, to twenty-one, at a fixed rent paid either half
yearly or quarterly at the four principal feasts, Lady Day, or the Feast of
the Annunciation (March 25), the Feast of St. John, or Midsummer (June 24),
St. Michael and All Angels, better known as Michaelmas (September 29), and
the Feast of the Nativity, popularly called Christmas Day (December 25).
These deeds commence with the date of the day, month and year, followed by
the names of the persons contracting the agreement, with those of their
co-trustees, or witnesses, usually selected from among relatives or
connections by marriage, or else immediate neighbors. An exact terrier of the
land is given, its locality, field-names, and acreage. Three parts of the way
down the sheet of parchment will be found the rent and term of years for
which the land is granted, together with stipulations as to repairs, rights
of ingress and egress; any services, customs or heriots, whether due in kind
or by payment; last of all comes the warrant against intruders. Of course,
with deeds of sale there are other legal documentary forms, with variations
of wording, but the two last above described are those generally met with. The oldest form
of sale is called a 'Feoffment,’ or grant. Externally it differs little in
appearance from a 'fine,’ at least as regards its earliest form, both being
very small, closely-written deeds; the first was in the set lawyer type of
handwriting, while a 'fine’ was indited in courthand. A 'Feoffment,’ or
grant, was the oldest and simplest form of document; but in later times it
was followed by a deed 'of Uses,’ which required many other deeds to follow
in its wake before a permanent and satisfactory sale was effected. It is all
these legal formalities which make the reading of old deeds so unnecessarily
confusing; their intricacies can only be mastered by careful study of books
on legal matters, and a comparison of the several kinds of deeds above
enumerated. A mortgage deed differs from the sales or leases in several
particulars: firstly, the term of years granted is usually absurdly long nine
hundred or a, thousand years, perhaps; while in lieu of money the nominal
rent of one peppercorn yearly, or some equally insignificant equivalent, was
demanded. In place of the rent in an ordinary lease the real reason of the
mortgage is given in full, with the date and appointed place where and when
the borrowed money is to be repaid. Often the vicarage, or the parson's
house, was chosen-perhaps considered as an additional guard against fraud,
and that the clergyman as a witness, being a disinterested party, would see
justice done on both sides. No mortgage deeds
exist today that are extremely old; the older ones, if they existed, were
probably destroyed as soon as the transaction was finished. Most of those
found among family papers are of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and
refer to small pieces of land or cottages, showing that even then the small
owners became involved in debts and difficulties, being obliged to raise
money upon their holdings, until finally the land itself had to be sold to
satisfy the demands of the creditors, the purchaser usually being the nearest
large landed proprietor, who paid a better price for what would join on to
and complete the area of his estate. These small holdings had probably been
accumulated bit by bit out of the waste. First, perhaps, the settler rigged
up a primitive dwelling, or hut, the old tradition being that if a roofed
dwelling with a chimney could be erected in one night a claim to the land was
thereby established. If undisturbed, the squatter would gradually extend his
boundaries; but a small rent was generally demanded by the lord of the manor
as an acknowledgment of the encroachment; these little holdings are called
“key holdings” and are to be found in all parts of England. The Oldest Deeds
It is rare to
meet with deeds dating further back than the Reformation. This may be
accounted for by the enormous amount of land possessed by the monks, who,
instead of having to search through deeds, entered these grants and gifts of
property into their charter-book. The monastic estates, after the Dissolution
ordered in the mid-16th century by Henry VIII, were managed through the
Augmentation Office; many of the original deeds were destroyed or lost in the
general confusion, and a new distribution of the lands took place by the King
irrespective of the former owners, whose claims were totally ignored,
although in such grants or deeds of gift the name of the monastery formerly
owning the property is usually named. The King must have realized large sums
of money by these transactions, which were carried out through, and in the
names of, his commissioners or agents, and not usually granted direct from
the Crown; very little of the land confiscated from the abbeys was retained
as royal property, but appears to have been almost immediately sold or
granted away. But to begin from
the oldest reliable period at which deeds may refer to, is to go back to the
Norman Conquest, or, rather, to the time when the lands had been distributed
among the Norman noblemen, as described in the famous Domesday Book,
compiled, it is said, between 1080 and 1085. Reference is therein made to
previous Saxon possessors; but only in very few instances can any certain
information be obtained of private property prior to the eleventh century.
Shown
at Right are some variant forms of the numbers 1 through 9 as seen in early
manuscripts of the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, left to right. To prove a title
to property it is now only requisite to show a twenty years' possession of
it. Papers forming the title deeds to farms or small holdings are seldom of
any great age. The custom of depositing estate records in the care of the
family lawyer has tended to preserve a few deeds; but, on the other hand, has
resulted in much wholesale destruction of documentary evidence and
collectible manuscripts. Numbers of deeds have been sold when a lawyer's
office has been broken up. These vellums, having lain for years unclaimed
until the ownership was lost or forgotten, finally were sold to some
antiquary, or else, perhaps startling to the modern collector, the skin was
cleansed and used again, parchment being quite a valuable commodity. It is
even today employed in some trades. From it common size was formerly
prepared. Goldbeaters still employ (and destroy) vellum indentures, it being
not at all uncommon for parchments hundreds of years old to be pounded to
pieces in the hand-production of precious gold leaf. It remains a staple of
bookbinder's and restorer’s trade, besides having many other and varied uses.
Contemporary
lawyers find great difficulty in preserving and storing the deeds entrusted
to their charge. The dangers of fire and damp are conflicting, and to avoid
the one may bring about greater risk from the other cause. Parchment being an
animal substance (usually made from the skin of sheep), if carelessly stored
in a damp place, soon begins to decay and become offensive. Under improper
storage conditions, mites readily attack it, dirt and dust accumulate rapidly
on its external woolly surface. The usual storehouse for such collections was
in times gone by some unused garret or stable-loft, where rats and mice ran
riot and birds flew in and out as they liked. The sad evidence of such poor
storage conditions is seen all too often in searches among hoards of old
deeds. Forgotten, perhaps, for several generations, the old documents lay
untouched till death or removal brought changes, and the deeds were either
placed in safer keeping, or else- and this was the most usual course -were
consigned to the flames as useless rubbish. It has always been my policy to
stock and offer my customers only those old documents in the best available
collectible, i.e., problem-free condition. The size and
shape of a deed at first glance goes far with the experienced reader to
determine its age, even before a single word of it has been read; likewise
the general aspect will give a slight hint as to the possible contents without
deciphering any of it. The deeds relative to the earliest grants of land are
very small in size, a marked contrast to the voluminous sheets of parchment
considered necessary to a modern conveyance or deed. The writing often was
minuscule, but each letter was carefully formed. On Vellum and
Ink
The quality of
parchment (vellum) varies much. That upon which early deeds - generally,
before 1300 - are written, is in small pieces, woolly in texture and of a
dark brown shade. By the sixteenth century the sheets are larger, smoother
and yellow, becoming whiter in color and more even as its preparation was
better understood and practiced. Vellum was a fine
sort of parchment prepared from the skins of very young or still-born
animals. Of it the oldest manuscript books were made, adorned with
illuminations and miniature paintings, which required a fine, smooth surface,
and vellum was free from the flaws which frequently occur in the skins of
mature animals, which were routinely used in the largest size indentures. Another important
part of an ancient deed is the ink with which it was written. Each scribe had
his own particular receipt for making it, the principal ingredients being
oak-galls and sulfate of iron. Many chemicals are recommended as restoratives
for faded ink, but these should be avoided as far as possible, as they are
liable to stain and disfigure the parchment, and in the end make matters
worse. Familiarity with particular handwritings after some practice will
enable the reader to make out otherwise unintelligible words without any
other assistant than a powerful magnifying glass. If the ink is very faint
the simplest and most harmless restorative is sulfate of ammonia; but its
loathsome smell once endured is not easily forgotten; the experiment in consequence
is very seldom repeated, for the result is scarcely good enough to risk a
repetition of so horrible a smell, and it is liable to affect the MSS. Colored inks or
pigments were seldom, if ever, employed for legal documents. The use of these
was restricted to the cloister, requiring manipulation by an illuminator
instead of a mere scribe. Red, blue, and green were in use; these were
mineral colors. The red was composed either of red-lead or oxide of iron, the
green from copper, and the blue from lapis lazuli finely powdered, or else
it, too, like the green, was prepared from an oxide of copper. Illuminating
was a separate profession apart from that of writing. The charter or missal
was finished by the scribe, and then handed over to the artist to be adorned
with fanciful capital letters and elaborate scroll-works. Such ornamentation
was unnecessary for legal documents, yet sometimes these had fancy headings,
which, like the illuminations, were put in after the writing was finished, as
is proved by the occasional omission of them, although space is left where
they ought to have been filled in. On Seals and
Signatures
Seals and
seating-wax came into use gradually. The earliest deeds are very small, and
have very small insignificant seals. It is said that neither the Saxon nor
Norman noblemen could sign their own names, but instead employed the
Christian sign of the cross (still in use among the illiterate) as their
pledge of good faith, and to witness their consent and approval. The use of
seals as appendices to deeds was a further proof that the deed itself was
approved and executed. A man's seal or signet was always regarded as his most
sacred possession. It was destroyed after death to avoid its being used for
fraudulent purposes. The use of
signet-rings is very ancient. Many old Roman and Saxon signet-rings have been
dug up from time to time in various parts of England. Small private seals
bearing devices appear to have been attached to deeds of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries. Many of the large wax seals are very beautiful, but few
in private collections of deeds exist in any state of perfection. The wax
used for them was either its natural color or else a sealing wax of a very
dark green, also black, or red. White, also, was used, now discolored by age
into a dingy yellow. Besides the royal
seals, each abbey had its own particular seal, bearing either a view of the
abbey, a portrait of its patron saint, or its badge or shield. Many of these
are described by Dugdale in the 'Monasticon,' but he was unable to discover
the devices pertaining to the lesser houses or cells. The fashion for large
seals died out, till at last only royal grants or similar documents of the
sixteenth century have them attached. In the Georgian period (1717 and later)
we find small private seals placed on the margins of deeds. These were not
always the arms and crest of the person against whose signature they appear -
perhaps belonged to the lawyer or one of the contracting parties. Here it is
that a knowledge of heraldry is extremely useful. Indentures are
collected in a variety of ways, chiefly as the collector finds most
rewarding. A very popular use for the old documents is framed display. With
their large format, with beautiful penmanship, fancy engraved heads, blue tax
stamps, and red wax seals, they can make unique and quite distinctive
additions to one's home or office. Others may form more specialized
collections, obtaining different kinds of indentures, or documents from
certain towns or counties, or documents of parties having the collector's
family name, for just a few examples. We have all heard
of the American "indentured servants" who came to this country in
the earliest days as contract laborers. Such fascinating documents are, alas,
virtually non-existent today, as it was the practice to burn them on
discharge of their terms. Collections are
also formed containing a specimen from the reigns of the Kings and Queens
whose names appear on them. Generally speaking indentures become obtainable
on the collector market today starting with the reign of James I (1603 -
1625). Examples from earlier reigns are encountered quite infrequently. The
earliest I have thus far located dates to the reign of Edward II (1216 -
1272). Documents dated during our War of Independence (1775 - 1783) are
especially collectible today. American manuscript material of the period is
extremely uncommon and generally quite high priced, making these items from
the mother country a fine, affordable alternative. With the name of the
much-maligned last king of America George III on them, they are perfect
association items from those turbulent times. They also bear higher
denomination tax stamps, similar to those which caused so much trouble on
this side of the Atlantic, as the cost of waging the American war increased
along with its unpopularity. The supply of
these lovely manuscripts from ancient legal archives once seemed
inexhaustible but like so many early collectibles they have grown scarce in
recent years. Since 1986 the English barristers' associations have requested
their members donate these historic documents to the National Trust, rather
than to place them for sale on the open market as had been the case until
this time. General compliance with this directive has reduced the supply of
these beautiful items to a trickle, and new hoards are avidly snapped up on
those infrequent occasions when they become available. Please click here to go to my online catalog of vellum
indentures available for sale today. Condition and
Preservation Considerations The manuscripts
we stock are in fine condition and are complete as issued, among the best
condition of the limited population of surviving indentures. All are free of
damage or objectionable defects unless otherwise described, having been
carefully preserved in old archives and probably very rarely consulted after
the generation of their makers had passed. Purchased document(s) will arrive
folded, just as they were stored in the archives for centuries. They can
easily be opened without fear of damaging the vellum, which, fortunately for
collectors, is a very durable and long-lasting substance. Fold lines can be
eliminated by carefully refolding the document in the opposite direction of
the original fold, thus readying the piece for framing or other display. The
fold lines will virtually disappear after the old vellum has been allowed
sufficient time to "relax". The process should not be artificially
enhanced, but carefully placing the opened manuscript between two sheets of
weighted inflexible plastic or plywood will hasten the result. Never apply
heat of any kind to flatten or repair vellum! This will effectively cook the
skin and destroy it. Briefly, the
enemies of old documents are heat, humidity, and sunlight. To maintain their
fine condition, they should be kept in a stable storage environment free of
excess fluctuation in temperature and humidity. There should limited contact
with air and strong light. To accomplish these goals, select a dry, cool
place in your home to store your collection. Any room suitable for habitation
will generally be satisfactory for the preservation of this material.. Never
leave it in the basement or attic, where change of temperature and humidity
occur regularly and can cause deterioration. Preservation
Information on the Internet The World Wide
Web is a gold mine of helpful information of all kinds for the collector,
archivist, and historical hobbyist. Here are a few suggested links for
further information on the care and preservation of collectibles of all
kinds. Conservation
Information Commercial
Websites
You can also
visit my information pages on
collecting, collector terminology, how to read my general catalog
descriptions, and more by selecting this link. |
