After a flurry of other activity, it is delightful to be back with my latest research and thanks to the very helpful staff of the City Archives it has been a most productive and fascinating afternoon. Reading late 18th and early 19th century land transactions may not fill everyone with enthusiasm but having grown used to the riches to be gleaned from medieval property grants, these more recent ones did not disappoint, and indeed it has been especially interesting to have access to the original 18th and 19th century legal documents.
Having never ventured into this area before, I was surprised that the practice of actual indenture was still in use. It was also remarkable to see the seal and signature of someone as well known locally as David Lance, and to discover that he had fallen foul of the commissioners assessing rights of enclosure in his dealings with a widowed lady who was engaged in leasing property. Mrs David Lance was visited by Jane Austen during her residence in Southampton at their fine house on the east bank of the Itchen river, an area whose wider historical contexts I am currently researching.
The area where the Lance family lived became popular in the late 18th and 19th centuries with ‘gentry’, often the nouveax riches seeking locations with extensive prospects with picturesque qualities, and the high land on the east bank of the Itchen opposite the town of Southampton offered just such picturesque settings with fine views over the river, the town, and the New Forest as far as the Isle of Wight. In a few rare places something of this picturesque quality is still observable today, but during the ‘Romantic’ era the area saw the building of fine houses set in large estates.
I look forward to developing my research in this area to add to work already done, but from my perspective as a medievalist first and foremost, the fact that the whole area of my current research remained in the hands of the Bishop of Winchester until a small parcel was leased out in 1789, adds further interest to the work.
Dr Lynn Forest-Hill 