Cubitt & Co’s Extant Records
Cubitt & Co Extant Records
Lease Ledgers
Cubitt & Co [we use Cubitt & Co rather than T, W & L Cubitt & Co, T & W Cubitt & Co, Thomas Cubitt & Co or William Cubitt & Co quite deliberately as the ledgers appear to be an amalgam of all of their assets gather together to be managed by one organsiation] constructed and kept a meticulous set of ledgers, for each area of operation: which recorded the:-
- arrangements with the landowner and terms; and
- a map or plan of the area to be developed; and
- a page per property, in the earlier volumes, with a colour washed plan on it noting whom the property was leased to when and for how much; and
- any changes in title or lease terms are noted; and
- any registrations of title or mortgage are noted in red with the registration number.
These were continued on by Cubitt Estates Limited after Thomas’ death in 1855.
How contemporaneous are these lease books?
Our initial thoughts
These were long thought not to be contemporaneous records but summary records assembled after Thomas and probably William Cubitts’ deaths. We believe that this is not the case at all.
Our initial analysis
Surprisingly our, initial, analysis of the handwriting of the clerks appears to show that all of the entries made prior to circa 1833 are in the same hand. With various clerks identifiable in clear time bands. This is actually pretty clear on scanning through two of the three volumes we had to work with, the third is likely of later date.
The 1832/3 date could well be significant for two reasons.
Firstly on the 13th October 1833 Lord Carrington wrote a letter to Thomas Cubitt stating that due to his advancing years it was necessary for Cubitt to source finance elsewhere .
Secondly there was a major property recession in early 1830’s
These two factors may have combined to spur the creation of a thorough set of overarching and impressive looking master records.
Certainly, Cubitt was approaching other banks, institutions and lenders. They would want to be able to gain an overview of Cubitt’s highly complex operations and these volumes which contain mortgage and deed related information inclosing registry numbers marked in red seem to be produced to this very purpose.
There is another point that works slightly against us: because of the recession the transaction volumes will, of necessity have been low, so pinpointing the precise dates of creation is harder. That said the ledgers were certainly not written in the course of a few days, but rather over a period of weeks and months.
Further analysis
It is becoming cleared, from the assembled mass of information, that after the dissolution of the building company partnership, William Cubitt took responsibility for the administration of what eventually became Cubitt Estates Limited. What it was styled in the initial years is harder to know.
So, it is more than likely that it was William Cubitt and James Hopgood who were the driving force behind the compilation of these volumes. Maybe inspired by similar volumes in Grosvenor, Bedford or maybe even the mortgage books [Buckinghamshire Archives D/CN/20/2/9/1] that Lord Carrington assembled but it certainly wasn’t inspired by the Lyall Estate’s half hearted efforts [Buckinghamshire Archives D/LO/6/15/16]!
There were probably 10-11 of these volumes each with about 7-800 pages, on heavy laid paper, not all of them used.
We have compared the handwriting of known individuals to the handwriting in the ledgers. One of the challengers is finding contemporaneous handwriting samples. Handwriting can change subtly over a period of time and so handwriting samples from 20 years later are harder to compare directly.
How the Estate was administered
Between 1823 and 1827 there are 77 newspaper adverts, readily identifiable in the British Newspaper Archives, for properties using the name “T. W. and L. Cubitt”.
After 1827 all lease and letting adverts appear as “William Cubitt” or “Wm. Cubitt”.
This is signifiant as William has clearly taken over managing the property portfolio.
Changes and alterations
Looking through volume three [LA/4608/01/02/003] between pages 139 and 140 there is something clearly going on. A page has been stuck over the original page 140. If you look at the lower imaged below, which is held up to the light, in this case literally the light coming through the London Archives reading room windows, and compare it to page 139 you can clearly see the ghost image of what used to be on page 140.
If you look carefully at the right hand side of page 140 [below] you can see the where the page has been overlaid and glued in as there is a clear line in the image.
In other places pages have been stuck together sometimes even when entirely blank on all surfaces which is quite puzzling.
In a few cases pages have clearly been historically razored [cleanly cut] out of the book.
Where are the various volumes currently held?
Three of the volumes analysed, here, are held by London Archives [LA/4608/01/02/001-003].
The remaining eight(?) volumes are in private hands and are inaccessible to researchers.
The volumes are substantial and on high quality thick laid paper. They were originally leather bound but appear to have been covered over with a cloth type material possibly to accommodate wear and to increase their durability.
How were the volumes created?
The volumes were possibly created flat and then bound.
Our methodology and inferences
We have attempted to date the creation of each volume by when the clerk’s hand changes. This is by no means certain as it is quite possible that post creation of the volume the same clerk was responsible for maintaining it. however, it is the best methodology we can arrive at for an approximate date.¹ Given the lack of variation in ink colours on the page it is likely that each page was written, as far as the change of hand in a single session.
We are currently trying to identify the initial clerk’s hand in Volumes 1 & 2 by comparing the hand to various signatures and the contents of Thomas Cubitt & Co’s letter books [LA/4608/01/01/005].
The physical volumes
Volume 1 – Belgrave [Estate]; Lowndes [Estate]; Albert Gate; Herries [Estate]; and L[ittle] Holland [Estate].
Probably, created between August 1833 and September 1835.¹
Contains approximately 890 numbered pages in the volume.
We believe that this volume was created between August 1833 and September 1835.
Page 13 there is a clear change in hand from August 1833. However, this entry needs to be treated with a little caution as this is Thomas Read Kemp’s mansion on Belgrave Square. That said the 2nd hand is very similar to the 2nd hand on page 31 [below].
Page 31 the initial hand is consistent up to 11th June 1830 and then changes hand at 10th September 1835.
Page 47 the initial hand is consistent up to 2rd January 1832.
Based on this a non exhaustive survey of the change from the initial clerk’s hand in early pages to the hand of later clerks: it appears to have been created between January 1832 and September 1835.¹
We would suggest that the later hand is that of John Hopgood based on the later sample of his handwriting [below]. This is consistent with his working, as a clerk to his brother James Hopgood, from around ~1833.
Our working hypothesis, that is not currently supported by any clear comparatives,* is that the earlier entries were made by Thomas Waller, Cubitt’s conferential clerk. Creating this series of ledgers was a commercially vital task as was understanding what should included and what should be omitted from the record.
The pages are numbered seemingly in the initial hand.
*The main issue is that the wet copy letter books are not terribly clear so we need to find other handwriting samples that are both clearer and closer to being contemporaneous preferably from deeds or other good primary sources.
Volume 2 – Euston [Estate]; Bedford [Estate]; Southampton [Estate]; Calthorpe [Estate] and Newington [Estate].
Probably created between August 1831 and December 1833.¹
Contains approximately 780 numbered pages in the volume.
Page 113 the initial hand is consistent up to 30th August 1831 and then changes hand at 13th May 1834.
Page 117 the initial hand is consistent up to 16th May 1831 and then changes hand at 7th April 1834.
Based on this a non exhaustive survey of the change from the initial clerk’s hand in early pages to the hand of later clerks: it appears to have been created between August 1831 and December 1833.¹
Volume 3 – Wise [Estate]; Battersea [Land]; Stanley [Estate]; Grosvenor [Estate]; Crown [Estate];
Probably, created between 1842 and June 1855.¹
In this instance the Grosvenor Estate referred to is that used to from Pimlico along with the Stanley [Sloane Stanley] Estate, Wise Estate, Crown Estate and Church Commissioners lands.
The pages in this volume are numbered in a different hand and ink from the first two volumes.
Approximately 770 numbered pages in the volume.
This volume is harder to date as its earliest entries are from the mid 1840’s. We can be pretty sure, as the clerk’s hand appears to change post 1856 coincident with the office move from Lyall Street after Thomas’ death, that the initial entries in this volume were compiled in Thomas Cubitt’s lifetime.
Page 52 the initial hand is consistent up to 30th April 1850 and then changes hand at 27th September 1866.
Page 66 the initial hand is consistent up to 15th June 1855 and then changes hand at 27th September 1866.
There do not appear to be any entries in the initial hand post 1856.
Based on this a non exhaustive survey of the change from the initial clerk’s hand in early pages to the hand of later clerks: it appears to have been initially created between 1842 and June 1855.¹
Leases
Hobhouse asserts [Thomas Cubitt: master Builder insert pg. ref.] that Cubitt was one of the first to use printed form leases.
This is likely erroneous as the Bedford Estate was clearly using them from 1824 and indeed a lease using one such form was granted to Thomas Cubitt by The Duke of Bedford in 1824 for lands and a messuage on Upper Woburn Place [below].
Having surveyed the very substantial collection of deeds for The Wise Estate that were issued by Cubitt’s office from the 1840’s onwards [Westminster Archives Accn. 326/396], none of these are printed form deeds.
Letter Books
It is not known if there are earlier letter books – there likely were but they are probably not extant – there is no complete catalogue of the relevant volumes but they are not mentioned in in the catalogue of the 2012 auction of Cubitt related materials.
- Letter Book A – 1850 Sep 20 – 1851 Nov 12
- Letter Book B – 1851 Nov 12 – 1852 Oct 25
- Letter Book C – 1852 Oct 6 – 1853 Jul 18
- Letter Book D – 1853 Jul 23 – 1855 Apr 27 [~Thomas Cubitt’s death]
- Letter Book E- 1855 Apr 28 – 1859 Mar 12 [The Administration ofThomas Cubitt’s Estate]
- Letter Book F – 1859 Mar 21 – 1864 Aug 30 [The Administration ofThomas Cubitt’s Estate]
Other archives
There is a wide scatter of Cubitt related materials in a huge range of archives. There are many extant letters from Thomas Cubitt to various parties such as the letters to Lord Carrington and the extensive correspondence with Cundy/Boodle/Grosvenor Estate. There are, likely, unexplored letters between Thomas Cubitt and the Rev Henry Wise’ solicitors in uncatalogued material at Warwick Records Office.
However, few of them shed much light on the workings of his eponymous building company.
¹There are plenty of obvious flaws with this methodology but it is currently our best guess at to the date that the individual volumes commenced creation. It is also perfectly possible that what were previously separate volumes have been bound together historically. Even allowing for an individual clerk being ill or on holiday aggregating the data together does tend to show a like window for the creation of these volumes. It is perfectly possible but a bit unlikely that the volumes were written out from the early 1820’s but the consistency of the hand, down the page, up to the point that it actually changes would likely point to the page being written in a sitting down to that point.