Particulars, with Plans, Key Plan and Conditions of Sale of the Hoxton Estate

The Hoxton estate passed by marriage from the Pitfield to the Sturt family in 1756, and remained almost intact until offered at public auction in 1917 by a descendant, Humphrey Sturt, 2nd Baron Alington (1859-1919). The estate, extending over 130 acres and with 13 miles of street frontages, was offered in its entirety in the auction rooms of Knight, Frank and Rutley in Hanover Square, but bidding (even at £752,000) did not reach the reserve and it was then sold in 100 separate lots over two days.

An article in the Liverpool Daily Post (September 14 1917) hints at decades of acrimonious litigation before Lord Alington established his rights as undisputed owner: ‘The property is part of ‘Mobbs' millions’, in connection with which there were many many law suits during the past 80 years. Numerous claimants to ‘Mobbs' meadows’ turned up at various times, and at one period, it is said, pugilists were employed to guard houses on the estate as they became empty, to prevent them being seized’. John Mobbs bequeathed the area covered by the Hoxton estate to his family in the late 18th century. The will was found in 1839 and successfully submitted for probate in 1856; various descendants claimed the property, with attempts to determine the rightful heir continuing into the 1930s. It seems to have been established that although the will may have been drawn up by John Mobbs, he was a pauper, with no grounds for bequeathing the property to anyone.

Condition & Materials

8vo auction catalogue, pp. viii, 105, disbound, with set of 4 folding plans (sheet sizes 76 x 97.5 cm; 87 x 57 cm; 87.5 x 67.5 cm; 79 x 57 cm), lithographed by Martin, Hood & Larkin, based on the Ordnance Survey and divided into lots.

Filters

_1917

Hoxton Under the Hammer, 1917