The Mayor of St Albans supports local Football Team

In the past I have posted photographs of a number of  football clubs from about 100 years ago - with requests for information about the clubs and/or the players.

Maureen has come up trumps in that she has identified the well dressed gentleman in the back row of a 1897-8 photograph of the Stanville Football Club. There can be little doubt that he is Thomas Oakley, the owner of a large provisions store in the centre of St Albans, who was Mayor of St Albans in 1897/8. To celebrate the discovery I have created a new page containing a short biography of Thomas Oakley - with links to a useful list of St Albans councillors.

However it would be nice to know the identity of the footballers themselves - and in fact there still a number of old photographs waiting for an identification in the Rogues Gallery.

Old Handwriting - A Conditional Surrender from 1819

A number of people found the earlier "Old Handwriting" example useful so today I have a much longer document.

In 1819 Richard Oakley lent John Thrussell £600 pounds on the surety of property at Bendish, St Pauls Walden. This document records the transaction. Because it was copyhold property the property was part of the Manor of St Pauls Walden the document was called a conditional surrender because the ownership of the property was dependent on the repayment of the mortgage and due interest.

Read below to see the complete document or go to Conditional Surrender, 1819, St Pauls Walden for the document and a full transcription