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The
County of Devon has one of the largest and most complete collections of
documents to be found in the United Kingdom. Many are housed in the Devon
Record Office in Exeter and are easily accessible to the public. But the
further back you go in time, the more important each document becomes as
part of our collective National Archive and so, many early records are
housed in the Public Record Office in London. Stentifords owe their chance to
look back across the ages to one such document – penned in Latin on
fine-quality parchment called vellum, a brief legal contract between
William Stentiford and others has survived
from nearly 600 years ago that pinpoints the origins of the family. On its
own, the lease would have been of great value to us, but because it
relates to land (and this being England) supporting evidence is to be
found on maps.
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A
translation of the original document, can be found in “The Calendar of
Tavistock” by R.N.Worth. The “Calendar” is a reference guide to all
legal documents still extant, which relate to that ancient Borough. A
reference to this document can also be found among the proceedings of the
Devon and Cornwall History Society - Volume 14, Page 114.
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By 1470, John
Smerdon, Robert’s son and heir, had moved
to London and in this year, he registered a quit claim, passing ownership of the
head lease on the properties which had been assigned to John Gye, Thomas Nyoke
and William Stentiford in 1464, to William Cadle, a mercer of Tavistock. We do
not know the length of the original lease but 999 year leases are not uncommon
in Devon, even today. In effect, Gye, Nyoke and Stentiford were nominally
freeholders, liable to pay a small annual ground rent to the owner of the head
lease on their property. It would have been very difficult for John Smerdon to
collect these rents from London so he sold out for a lump sum to a local man. If
any of the lessees failed to pay their ground rent each year, their lease would
be broken and their property would revert to William Cadle or his heirs.
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