Hello Stephen, Solicitors have been doing this on the basis that if a client descendant claimed ownership of such documents, they would be landed with an invoice for storage - even a single document stored for 150 years would be £150. Probate records are the most common to come onto the market because there is less controversy with these as these are 'the solicitor's copy.' The ownership may therefore be deemed as the firm's and not the clients. Deeds however, are a little more controversial - these would belong to the owner of the property at the point the property was registered with the land registry and should have been offered back to the owner at that point. It would be difficult to prove some 30 odd years down the line (as is now the case) that this didn't happen and it is on the grounds that the cost of storage of these documents by far outweighs the value of them that they are now coming up for sale. It is rather sad that this is the case but by drip feeding the market with documents some solicitors have tapped into a very lucrative market. Prior to them doing this, many of these documents ended up on a bonfire or going to the tip! Regards, Trevor -----Original Message----- From: STEPHEN READ <[email protected]> To: eng-westmorland <[email protected]>; CUMBERLAND <[email protected]> Sent: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 0:49 Subject: Re: [ENG-WESTMORLAND] Purchase of Documents by CFHS I am most intrigued as a solicitor, in general, does not own the papers in his possession - they belong to his clients, which is why there are several collections in county archives that are, technically, loaned by solicitors, rather than deposited, so that should the client, or his family, appear from the woodwork and claim the documents in the future, they can be removed from the archive and returned to the rightful owner. What guarantees of ownership were given on this occasion? ________________________________ From: Petra Mitchinson <[email protected]> To: [email protected]; [email protected] Sent: Thursday, 27 February 2014, 21:22 Subject: Re: [ENG-WESTMORLAND] Purchase of Documents by CFHS Excellent! I'm glad the money was well spent. And who is going to transcribe all that - or is that not the plan? Petra -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Trevor Littleton Sent: 27 February 2014 21:09 To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: [ENG-WESTMORLAND] Purchase of Documents by CFHS Just a quick note to let everybody know that Cumbria Family History Society has bought the bulk of a collection of papers at Auction following the clearance of a local solicitor's attic space. Most of the documents relate to Probate but the interesting aspect of this is that the Probated Will is stored in a pouch which also contains valuations and correspondence relating to estate. I will post a list of names in due course. This purchase accounts for the bulk of the money donated by the Cumberland group for this purpose. On behalf of the Society I wish to thank all of those who contributed. Trevor Littleton, Chairman, Cumbria Family History Society. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message