| Description | (The earliest deed, dated 1604/5, relates only to 12 a. land in the Spittle Fields near Reading. A final concord of 1653 conveys 180 a. Between 1700 and 1724 the property comprised a messuage and 180 a. land in the Spittle Fields, adjoining Ort Lane [later London Road] on the north and Red Lane (Read Lane als Redd Lane in 1724) [later Redlands Road] on the west. In 1735 it comprised a messuage on the east side of [Redlands Road] (described as Rudden Lane als Red Lane), six large enclosed grounds divided into ten closes (120 a.), and a newly erected messuage and small piddle of arable land at the north end of the Great Orchard; all lying 'within an Ether' in the parish of Reading St Giles, adjoining London Road on the north, Red Lane [Redlands Road] on the west, and a common field called Earley Field on the east. Bundle includes probates of John Harrison of Reading, woollen draper, 1679, James Harrison of Reading, doctor of physic, 1727, and Ann Harrison of Reading, widow, 1738; marriage settlement of James Harrison of Reading, doctor of physic, and Ann Howard, spinster, daughter of Zachary Howard, citizen and longbowstring maker of London, 1700; and bond relating to the marriage settlement of James Harrison's daughter Frances and John Norwood of Covent Garden, Middlesex, broker, 1724/5. The will of James Harrison, 1679, includes a bequest of 40 s. to the poor of Reading, specifying indigent housekeepers, 'not the running beggars which run from door to door'.) |