Archive Record
EASTBURY MANOR ESTATE, COMPTON, AND THE EAST GREENWICH ESTATE, KENT: SETTLEMENT OF THE ESTATE OF JAMES McCAUL HAGART AND SUPPLEMENTAL DEEDS, 1895-1950
Reference Number: 5311
Descriptive Information about the Record (click to expand) Provenance Deposited by Frere, Cholmeley, Bischoff, solicitors of London, per the British Records Association, in August 1995.
-The records - Related records For deeds relating to the manor of Eastbury, 1562, 1663 and 1837, see LM/348/21, LM/351/29 and LM/359/42. For sale particulars of Eastbury Estate, 19th cent, see LM/359/54, and for particulars of Eastbury Manor, c.1968 and 1970, see 5008/2/1-2.
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-- Series information for this collection
Settlement of the estate of James McCaul Hagart, deceased, by Eliza S... Title Settlement of the estate of James McCaul Hagart, deceased, by Eliza Stewart Ellice, with subsequent amendments up to and including the disentailment of part of the trust, 1 Dec 1948, bound into one volume. The property settled in the trust comprises the Eastbury Manor Estate, Compton, and a messuage in Greenwich, Kent. The Eastbury premises include the mansion house with pleasure grounds, conservatory, 'plant house' and stables, and 197a 1r 12p, including garden, woods including Wesbury Copse, Kiln Copse and Eastbury Copse, pasture, the Dykeries, a coffee house, the convalescent home, Eastbury Cottage, the village hall and The Limes (described fully in a schedule to the principal deed, and indicated on a plan). Ellice added to the estate ½a of a messuage and shop with outbuildings, bounded on the south by the High road to Guildford, on the north and north east by further Eastbury land, and on the south and south east by land belonging to one Hooker, on 6 May 1901; and 1r 22p of land on the High St, Compton, conveyed by Henry Stedman and Sarah Scott, on 9 Oct 1901. Copyhold land amounting to 3a 1r 37p in the manor of Compton Eastbury was purchased for £1200 on 13 Feb 1902, from Emma Kensett, Emily Parsons and Mary Maria Mills, and thence merged with the freehold of the manor. On 10 Jul 1935, 3.794a in Compton were sold to Surrey County Council for the construction of the Guildford- Godalming by-pass. On 14 Sep 1954, The Stores, Compton was sold to George Ernest and Doris Alberta Ellis. The messuage, known as the Terry Arms, with land in Blackwall Lane in Greenwich, was extensively developed (as indicated in a plan attached to a surrender of 31 Dec 1946), having been mortgaged for £9500 as building land known as the East Greenwich Estate on 25 Aug 1905: by May 1911, the Terry Arms coffee house was surrounded by 7 other houses on Tunnel Avenue; 26 houses forming 52 flats were built on Boord Street and 52 houses forming 104 flats were built on Grenfell Street, both adjoining Tunnel Avenue. The Greenwich estate was sold between 1946 and Dec 1948. The estate was devised by the will of Charles Hagart of Eastbury Manor, of 10 Dec 1877, prob. 26 Aug 1879, to James McCaul Hagart, his brother. James died on 15 Sep 1894, and prior to the proving of his will (16 Oct 1889), his sisters, Eliza Stewart Ellice and Anne Elizabeth Molineux Hagart, as his heirs executed an agreement for receiving £25000 each absolutely, and creating a settlement on the rest of the personal and the real estate, 10 Oct 1894. Before the settlement was carried out, Anne died, on 19 Jan 1895 (cited in the principal indenture). Ellice revoked the £25000 legacy and the intended settlement by a deed poll of 28 Jun 1895, and the principal indenture of the subsequent settlement, with similar provisions, was made on 10 Dec 1895. Ellice conveyed the real estate to 3 trustees, to be held to the use of Ellice for the term of her life, and then to the use of Alexander Archibald Speirs of Elderslie, Co Renfrew, esq, with the remainder to the use of his children, and in default of issue, to the use of Dame Eliza Alexander, wife of Claud Alexander, bart, and then to the use of her son, Claud Alexander. The inheritance was made conditional on the adoption of the name Hagart as a prefix to the surname of the beneficial owner, and the application for a licence to bear the Hagart arms. The personal estate was also conveyed to the trustees, with provisions for the types of investment they should make, charged with the provision of annuities of £20000 to Ellice and to her daughter, Eliza Alexander. Provision was made for the power of revocation by Ellice, which she used to alter the terms of the trust 10 times between 1896 and 1902. On 13 Jul 1896, the remaining charge outstanding in the terms of the Hagart will, an annuity of £25 for Christina Shirley, widow of Arthur Shirley, was provided for from the estate. On 16 Sep 1896, the trustees were further empowered to build on the land of the estate, in particular the Terry Arms site, and invest the rents and profits for the improvement of the estate. Later provisions also empowered them to buy land in which they had invested the personal estate as mortgagees (6 Jun 1898), gave discretion for the raising of money and mortgages on the estate to enable building to take place (22 Jul 1902), and confirmed their powers over the personal estate (4 Sep 1902). On 15 Feb 1897, the remainder on the real estate granted to Claud Alexander was revoked in favour of his son Wilfred Archibald Alexander, with the remainder to the use of his children, and if without issue, to the other children of Claud, with the remainder to Ellice's heirs (this was again altered: see below). Provisions added on 31 Mar and 17 May 1897 were revised by a deed poll of 10 Jul 1897. This directed a 3 month period after Ellice's death, when her daughter Eliza Alexander would administer Ellice's estate and the Eastbury mansion, and determine which items were heirlooms under the Hagart inheritance. An annuity of £800 was to provide for Eliza Alexander, and after her death, the mortgage of the estate was to provide for a £10000 annuity for Claud Alexander. The remainder would pass to Alexander Speirs, then to his children, and in default of issue, was to pass to the heirs of Eliza Alexander, with the remainder to Claud Alexander, his son Wilfred, then to Wilfred's daughters, his second son, then first and other sons. Speirs was to have a life estate in Eastbury mansion, provided that he reside there personally for not fewer than 3 months in the year, and the mansion would not be let for more than 6 months at a time; failure to observe these conditions would mean a reversion to a life estate for Eliza Alexander. The lands could be leased, for terms of 21 years or more. On 24 Aug 1898, the annuity by 500 year mortgage for Claud Alexander was revoked ('he will otherwise be amply provided for'). On 11 May the life occupation of the mansion by Speirs was changed to that of Eliza Alexander, with the remainder to Speirs and his issue, without the proviso concerning occupation, but with the clause for the use of the Hagart name. Eliza Alexander, then of Nedging Hall, Bildestone, Suffolk, disclaimed the conditional life estate in the mansion, without prejudice to her claim to the remainder, on 1 Jun 1911 (cited in deed of 31 May 1911). Ellice died on 6 Dec 1910, and her English will was proved on 10 Feb 1911. The remainder of the personal estate was insufficient to cover death duties, but the trustees declared their right to recover debts from the settled estate by a deed of 29 May 1916 Speirs adopted the Hagart name, as notified in the Edinburgh Gazette of 19 May 1911. By the Settled Land Act, 1925, the trustees declared the estate vested in Hagart Speirs on 31 May 1926, with powers to build on the land, power of purchase and power to apply capital money for improvements. The trust was continued through a succession of trustees (appointments following death or retirement, 1916, 1931, 1942, 1946). Speirs surrendered his life interest in the Greenwich estate and the personalty included in the trust on 31 Dec 1946, to Sir Claud Alexander, who had sold the estate by the end of 1948. On 1 Dec 1948, Speirs and Alexander executed a disentailing deed whereby the investments and 'heirlooms' of the trust were to be held to the use of Alexander without condition (Speirs is described as being 79 years old and without issue). Alexander adopted the Hagart name as declared in the Edinburgh Gazette on 25 Jan 1949, when he is described as 'the great great grandson of Eliza Stewart Hagart Speirs' [sic]. On 1 Mar 1950, Claud Hagart Alexander was declared the new trustee of the settled estate. Reference 5311/1 Unit Date 10 Dec 1895 - 1 Mar 1950 Start Date 18951210 End Date 19500301
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