"[Vellum Manuscript Indenture]",

This indenture serves as testament to a one year lease of a farmhold and a messauage. The lessors are Thomas Ayre and his wife, Mary Skipsey (maiden name Goodchild), of Tunstall in the County of Durham, and the lessee is John Carr, Esquire, of Ryhope, just south of Sunderland. The lease requires Ayre to pay 5 Shillings in return for the dwelling, farmland and a windmill that resides on the property. Signed on February 9, 1796.

The top of the indenture is cut in a jagged ("toothed") line, as was the common practice with indentures. The legal contract was duplicated on a single sheet, and then the copies were separated by a jagged edge, so that the two pieces could be fit together again to verify authenticity. The indenture includes tax stamps and five red wax seals.

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Condition: A

Bright and clean, with very minor soiling at top left.