Local Interest - John Flamsteed FRS, First Astronomer Royal,...

Hammer

£70

Local Interest - John Flamsteed FRS, First Astronomer Royal, a Charles II vellum and ink manuscript indenture, recording the conveyance of land at Hazelwood (then in the parish of Duffield), Derbyshire, from Stephen Flamsteed of Derby, maltster (and signed on his behalf by his son, John) to Matthew Smith of Denby, Gent., dated 3rd August 1674 and endorsed by the purchaser 15th July 1675, 12.9cm x 38.5cm, framed; loosely inserted photograph, Derby Museums and Art Gallery Enquiry document, and a b/w photograph of the muniment

Stephen Flamsteed was a younger son of the Flamsteeds of Little Hallam Hall, near Ilkeston (descended out of Flamstead, Hertfordshire) settled at Derby as a maltster and built a fine Carolean partly surviving house at 27, Queen Street c. 1670. He was also a coal mine owner and had a house at Denby, to which he retired during the Civil War and where his eminent son, the Recerend John Flamsteed FRS was born in 1646. Matthew Smith, whose name survives in a row of stone built almshouses founded 1713 at The Butts, Belper, was the eldest son of Henry Smith of Whitemoor Hall, Belper and Denby by Jane Bate of Little Chester, and was born at Denby in 1636. He married Anne Gregory of the opulent Nottingham mercantile family, served as JP and in 1685 High Sheriff, dying at Whitemoor Hall in 1714, having outlived his three sons who all died unmarried.