"[Vellum Manuscript Indenture]",

This vellum indenture serves as testament to a one-year lease of a "messauage, burgage or tenement" on Lambtons Lane (or Pecoterers Lane) in the amount of five shillings, signed April 30, 1779. The lease is between George Annison, a yeoman, of Sunderland by the Sea, Elizabeth Forster, a spinster, of South Biddick and John Reah, a shoemaker, of Sunderland by the Sea, all within Durham County. The indenture includes a red wax seal and a tax stamp.

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.

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Condition: B+

Very minor toning and soiling with one small burn hole.