Document P1 Bookseller's Description

An early vellum document in English (with a small portion in Latin).  A promise to make good on a debt or give up a house in Ashley, Cambridgeshire (1635) 342 x 450 mm.  40 lines in English in an attractive, very clear upright hand, six less legible lines in Latin on the reverse.  With most ot one original small red wax seal and a small portion of the other.

        Two holes (neither large and one quite small) occurring naturally in the vellum, document a trifle soiled at edge, but in excellent condition.

        As this document indicates, John Collett was clearly a determined, if insolvent, homeowner.  We are told here that three years earlier (in 1632), Collett and Martin Follet were obligated to deliver up to John Sathe the house and land owned by Collett in Ashley, Cambridgeshire, unless Collett fulfilled certain conditions.  When he was unable to do so, Sathe, considering himself the new owner, rented the premises to Richard Crippes.  Collett, however, could not be dislodged, even with the aid of the sheriff of Cambridgeshire.  Instead, Collett entreated for more time, and by this document contracts to deliver to Crippes, at Crippes' home in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, £241 by April 15 of "this year" (1635).  If the £241 remains unpaid, Collett agrees to vacate the premises by April 18.