A number of list members (and the ever-helpful Margaret McCollum, of  
Durham University Library, off-list) were kind enough to send some  
very useful advice recently about leases for three lives.

They and others who followed that thread might be interested to read  
something I have found in my files yesterday. By an amazing  
coincidence, the very lease that prompted my original enquiry is the  
subject of a letter reproduced in full in a footnote in Wm. Fordyce  
(1859) “The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of  
Durham…”  I copy it, with Fordyce's introduction, below.

Two comments: (1) It seems that the William Turnbull whose supposed  
relationship with Sir Thomas John Clavering had puzzled me was a quite  
different William Turnbull, anyway - not the one occupying part of the  
estate in question.
(2) The letter presumably refers to the previous renewal previous to  
the one occasioned by Sir TJC's death in 1853, to which I first  
referred. It looks as if he had been the second life till 1835 but was  
then "promoted" to first life, with the addition of a new one at that  
time. (Wouldn't it have been nice if those concerned had always listed  
all three lives in such documents, not just the "life dead" !)

Thanks again to those who wrote before.

Mike

------

The following letter, relative to this estate, illustrates the manner  
of calculating the renewal of leases under the see of Durham:- "Bishop  
Auckland, Feb. 16, 1835.
"Sir, - I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th  
inst., and am sorry to find that the amount of the fine, &c. for the  
renewal of the lease of the Parkhill Estate exceeds your expectations,  
but must inform you that the information you have received as to the  
general run of fines for putting in a life being one and a half year's  
rent is quite erroneous, the calculation for renewal of leases of that  
nature depending entirely upon the ages of the two existing lives, and  
consequently varying in almost every instance. In your case, the ages  
of the now existing lives are 64 and 42 respectively, and the  
calculation is made accordingly, and upon a very liberal scale. The  
see of Durham, as you may perhaps be aware, has received no fine upon  
this property for very nearly 40 years.
"On the other side, as you desire, I send you a statement of the  
proportions that will be payable by Messrs. Birkett and Lammas, but am  
unable to say how soon the new lease will be ready on the surrender of  
it -it may be done in perhaps a week or ten days after the surrender  
has been completed.
"I am, Sir,
"Your most obedient servant,
"R. A. DOUGLAS GRESLEY.
"To Mr. Turnbull, Hatter, Newcastle.
"Your own proportion, £158 2s. 6d.; Mr. Birkett's do. £23 19s 3d.; Mr.  
Lammas' do. £4 15s 9d.; Total, £186 17s. 6d."