Collegehold

[Colin Moretti]

I have a will dated 1829 and proved 1842 which contains the following:
... which last mentioned premises are held under lease granted by Kings College Cambridge ...

and:
... my freehold leasehold collegehold or copyhold messuages closes lands tenements hereditaments and premises ...Can anyone tell me how Collegehold differs from the other forms of land tenure?

Thanks

Colin

[Peter Goodey]

One of the villages I have an interest in was largely owned by an Oxford college and the leases I've seen look to me like straightforward, normal leases. But these were relatively recent ones - later than your period.

This paragraph from the archives section of Brasenose College website might help to shed some light on this (I know it's Oxford and not Cambridge but perhaps that's not important) -


Until the latter part of the nineteenth century the vast majority of the College's land holdings were let on beneficial leases. This means that as well as the annual rent the tenant paid a larger sum of money, called a fine, each time the lease was renewed. This gave him almost freehold rights over the property, including the ability to pass it on in his will. Unfortunately it also had the effect of making the renewal of the leases a routine matter and often the property description remains unaltered for up to two hundred years; any additional building or even demolition and rebuilding passes unnoticed. In theory the tenant had to provide a terrier (a description of the property) at each renewal of the lease, but few of these survive and those which do also tend to repeat the same description for years.

[Colin Moretti]

Thanks Peter

I've not been able to track down anything similar on the Cambridge or relevant college archive site at all.

Colin

[Peter Goodey]

I can't find any mention in reference books that I can lay my hands on to "collegehold" as such.

However googling does throw up several references to beneficial leases in relation to Kings College.
I think it's very likely that something like the Brasenose description applies in your case - a very long, heritable lease.

[Colin Moretti]

Kings was the college mentioned in the will. The college catalogue lists a number documents that might well be relevant, they relate to Wootton Wawen where the farm was located, but no details are given. A trip to Cambridge is obviously called for, just one more in a long list of archives to be visited.

Perhaps I'll write to the college archivist to ask for an explanation.

many thanks

Colin

[Peter Goodey]

I'd be interested to know the answer.

[Colin Moretti]

Will do

Colin

[Pam Downes]

Eeh, it's amazing what you find when you least expect it.
I happened to be browsing through an old copy of the Norfolk FHS magazine when I came across an article about 'Exploring the King's College Estate Records'. And there's a URL given.
http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/library/archives/college/hlfproject/
If you click on 'view catalogues by estate' there's a list of several documents relating to Wootten Waten.
Pam

[Colin Moretti]

Serendipity has played a large part in my research

Thanks for the link Pam

Colin

[Colin Moretti]

Here's the relevant part of the reply from the College archivist:

... I have never heard of any sort of tenure different than leasehold, copyhold and freehold. I suspect Mr. Gallard was trying to be specific about the type of leasehold he had.

I'm certain that a few hours of research in the College Archive documents would let you know the terms of the lease and the College's ownership ofthe property. We have summaries of all documents that received the College seal (which undoubtedly the leases would have received), as well as possibly documents showing how the College came into the property...
It's almost as bad as Fort Knox to get in to the archives, an appointment and two photo ids required!

Colin

[Peter Goodey]

"different than"

Ouch! Cambridge archivist, eh? I don't know how much credence can be given to someone who writes "different than" (unless American of course, in which case other considerations apply).