What to do with old 18th Century deeds?

[suffolkboy_]

I have recently bought an old mill house, with the remains of a brick tower mill in the garden.

I've been doing loads of research into the history of the house and the mill and found out lots of information, but my solicitor handed me something yesterday that was the icing on the cake - it turns out the deeds of the house back to 1753 (when the original windmill was built) are still intact!

I have looked through the giant stack of them briefly - pretty difficult to read, but beautifully written.

What should I do with them? Do I let him keep them locked up safely? Do I keep them/frame on or two? Do I donate them to a museum?

Your suggestions would be most welcome. Perhaps someone has a similar experience?

[mazi]

I would keep them yourself somewhere safe, and pass them on to the next owner as they are part of the house's history.

if there is ever a dispute about boundaries or rights of way they may be useful.

mike
  added, my land was once part of a large estate and the deeds give a history of the estate ownership and the names of various mortgagees, interesting reading.

[bibliotaphist]

Whatever you do, don't do what we did with the deeds and various documents relating to our old (C17th) cottage, which was to give them to the solicitors when we sold the house. They never passed them on to the new owners, and now deny all knowledge of them.

 

[Treetotal]

Land Registry will have a copy which can be purchased for a small fee...so I would keep the originals in a safe fire proof box as I believe like Mike that they should stay with the property. Solicitors don't keep house deeds like they used to as they are now digitised...that's what I was told.
Carol

[josey]

You could offer to loan them to Suffolk County archives & ask that they digitise them for preservation & sharing before handing them back & you could THEN put them in a safe, fireproof place. Or even perhaps offer to donate them to a museum or county archive on condition that they digitise them for you & others to look at the images at any time in the future. 

They do belong with the house, but it would be a shame if any owner after you was less caring & careful. If you wanted to display them you could mount prints from the digital images in a frame.

[Ruskie]

Firstly congratulations on the purchase of your new house. It is wonderful that you are preserving this wonderful building and are so interested in it's history.

You are very fortunate to have the deeds. I agree with Mike, that you should keep them somewhere safe rather than framing them. It would be tempting to do this but I think that framing the documents would not preserve them, and the expose to light would probably damage and fade them over time.

Do some googling for some information about the best way to store them, but I think paper items are usually wrapped in paper. I think it will need to be acid free or you may be able to buy some special archival paper. There were some discussions on rootschat about how to store old documents, so you might like to search for some key words via the [search] box at the top of the page. Perhpas even consider a fire safe box?

Ps. Any chance of seeing a couple of pictures of your house? 

[suffolkboy_]

I would keep them yourself somewhere safe, and pass them on to the next owner as they are part of the house's history.

if there is ever a dispute about boundaries or rights of way they may be useful.

mike
  added, my land was once part of a large estate and the deeds give a history of the estate ownership and the names of various mortgagees, interesting reading.

Mike,

Similarly this mill was part of an estate early in its life. There is a lot of information regarding mortgages and also a few wilsl in there and other legal documents where millers have died and it has been left to others.

The problem is i'm struggling to read a lot of it!! Who might I be able to go to who would be able to interperate it for me?

Josey, good idea! I hadn't thought of this. I'm sure there is a lot of information that is of interest to to others, not just to the house.

Some of them are beautifully written and must have taken a long time, they are almost like artwork.

Is it certain that land registry will already have a copy or will they just have the more recent documents?

[Ruskie]

You can post the relevant bits you can't read on the deciphering board. There are several people here who can read old writing and understand documents. Depending on size and number of pages, you might like to post in sections to make it a bit more manageable.

[suffolkboy_]

Firstly congratulations on the purchase of your new house. It is wonderful that you are preserving this wonderful building and are so interested in it's history.

You are very fortunate to have the deeds. I agree with Mike, that you should keep them somewhere safe rather than framing them. It would be tempting to do this but I think that framing the documents would not preserve them, and the expose to light would probably damage and fade them over time.

Do some googling for some information about the best way to store them, but I think paper items are usually wrapped in paper. I think it will need to be acid free or you may be able to buy some special archival paper. There were some discussions on rootschat about how to store old documents, so you might like to search for some key words via the [search] box at the top of the page. Perhpas even consider a fire safe box?

Ps. Any chance of seeing a couple of pictures of your house? 

Thanks

They came to me as a bundle of papers wrapped in string, so I have to do something with them!

I have attached some photos. The first of the house and mill in 1900, the second of it now, and the third of the mill 'stump' as it is now. It's a shame that most of the mill was demolished in December 1962!