They show Hertfordshire estates and come from The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, by Sir Henry Chauncy, published in 1700, which included “…the several honors, mannors, and parks of the nobility and gentry and the succession of the lords each”.
They will be for sale at £110 each with the Norfolk-based antiquarian book dealer John Underwood at the 80-dealer fair on Friday and Saturday, March 17-18, at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate.
Both estates are in villages near Buntingford, 15 miles from Hertford. One, the plan shown above, is of Aspenden Hall, the seat of the Freman family from 1607 and in particular Ralph Freman (1665-1742), a Hanoverian Tory and MP for the county for 30 years.
The Fremans were wealthy London merchants who exported tin and cloth to the Ottoman Empire and imported currants, wine, cotton and silk.
They turned a modest ‘gentry’ house into the greatly enlarged 27-hearth Aspenden Hall with extensive grounds. The Jacobean house was later demolished and the current Grade II-listed building was built for the 2nd Sir Henry Lushington in 1856.
The second estate plan print is of Hamells, owned by the Brograve family since 1580 and sold by Sir Thomas Brograve to the property-acquisitive Ralph Freman in 1707. This Grade II-listed mansion is now private apartments.
