English Deeds Collection
The Deeds Collection of the Harvard Law School Library is a rich and diverse body of over 1,000 English legal documents dating from circa 1170 to 1888. This collection brings together in one group three smaller collections. The largest one is made up of some 820 deeds, originally owned by the English antiquarian Frederick Arthur Crisp (1851-1922). This group of documents was sold to A. T. Butler of the Royal College of Arms, and was subsequently purchased by Harvard College Library in 1923. In 1925 it was transferred to the Harvard Law School.
The second part of the collection is a group of documents known as the Hale Collection. This consists of 132 deeds spanning from the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth century. These documents are part of the records of the Hale family of King's Walden (Hertfordshire). In addition to their family seat in Hertfordshire, the Hales also possessed property in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, and London. The collection documents the history of a wealthy land-owning family from the Elizabethan period to the Restoration. Property transactions in the King's Walden, White Waltham (Berkshire), and Edworth (Bedfordshire) are particularly well represented.
The third part of the collection is made up of miscellaneous deeds acquired by the Library through purchase or donation.
(The following files are large and may take longer to load on your browser.)
- Sections 1-50
- Sections 51-100
- Sections 101-200
- Sections 201-300
- Sections 301-400
- Sections 401-500
- Sections 501-600
- Sections 601-700
- Sections 701-800
- Sections 801-900
- Sections 901-958
- Deeds Hale Collection 1-133