THE GREAVES PARCHMENT. 



the style of caligraphy prevalent about Shakespeare's time, and 

 there is much quaintness in the phraseology and spelling. The 

 deed is between Nicholas Vaux, of Harrovvdon, Northants,, 

 brother of William Vaux, Lord Harrowdon, of the one part, and 

 John Greaves, of Belaye, and Edward Deane, of Greaves, in 

 Belaye, of the other part. Deane was merely a trustee for 

 Greaves, and took no interest ; and the property conveyed by the 

 deed was limited by the fine (which completed the transaction) to 

 the use of Greaves and Deane, and the heirs of Greaves (only) for 

 ever. The property conveyed to Greaves, and his trustee Deane, 

 was the manor of Belay, and all the lands, etc., in Belay, which, 

 by a previous Indenture, Lord Harrowdon had conveyed to the 

 said Nicholas Vaux. 



The fine is dated in Michaelmas term in 2 Elizabeth, and it 

 records the "Final Agreement" between John Greaves and 

 Edward Deane, plaintiffs, and Nicholas Vaux, deforciant, relating 

 to the manor of Belay, and 9 messuages, 2 cottages, i toft 

 20 gardens, 10 orchards, i water-mill, 2 dove-houses, 400 acres of 

 tilled land, 140 acres of meadow, 200 acres of pasture, 40 acres 

 of wood, 500 acres of furze and heath, i,ooo acres of moor, and 

 30s. of rent in Belay. These quantities, according to a practice 

 which prevailed down to 31st December, 1833 (from which date 

 fines were abolished), are mere general expressions, round numbers 

 being employed, care being taken to make them large enough to 

 cover the actual extent of the property referred to. The fine, 

 which is in duplicate, is a beautiful specimen of the stiff court 

 hand of the period, and is in Latin much abbreviated. 



King James L granted or confirmed to a John Greaves (who 

 was probably a grandson of the John Greaves before mentioned), 

 the manors of Beeley, Cowley, Gretton, Stanton, Birchover, 

 Winster, and Bridgetown (Rot. Pat. 12 James L, 26 pt.. No. 13, 

 A.D. 1615), for the nominal sum of 20s. The family were staunch 

 Royalists in the civil wars. In Burke's " Commoners " there is 

 a pedigree of the Greaves family. The late Mr. Charles Sprengel 

 Greaves, Q.C. (who was a member of this Society, and a highly- 

 valued contributor to its Journal), was a representative of this old 



