Gave the Rev Mr Thomas Porter in cash £65 …for [3] bank [of England] bills… I then received of Mr Porter in cash £30 in order to pay (in part) of a house and land I am to be admitted to at Whitesmith Court today for Mr Coates.
Mr Long came to see me today and stayed with my servant during my absence. About 12:30 Mr Porter and I set out for Whitesmith where there was a court-leet and baron held for this manor [Laughton] by Mr William Michell, steward to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, lord of the said manor. We dined at the Chequer on part of a rump of beef boiled, a leg of mutton boiled, a goose roasted, a giblet and raisin and currant suet pudding, turnips and potatoes (my servant at home dining on the remains of yesterday’s dinner) in company with Mr Abraham Baley, Mr Nicholas Gilbert, the steward and his clerk, Mr John Goldsmith, Joseph and James Fuller, Mr Carman, Mr Peters, Mr Newington, Mr Carman and Mr Sam Gibbs; and I dare say as many dined in another room.
Paid Mr Ben Shelley, who called on me at the court, in cash ten pounds in full for the same sum he paid Mr John Crouch the 26th instant for me.
After dinner came James Marchant and Elizabeth his wife, James Thorpe and Martha his wife, and William Williams and Lucy his wife, the women being sisters and co-heiresses of Thomas Mepham, late of East Hoathly, and supposed by many corroborating circumstances to be dead, and died possessed of a house and about 5 roods of land (in two tenements) situate near the church in East Hoathly to which the said sisters were his heirs, but instead of being admitted (as Mr Porter had a deep mortgage [amounting to £30] thereon) they in open court resigned all their right and title thereto into the hands of the lord of the said manor by his steward. Upon this he admitted Mr Porter to the same, who claimed the same by the virtue of his mortgage; then Mr Porter resigned the same into the hands of the lord of the manor by his steward, and I was admitted to the same for Mr Coates, as his attorney. I paid the steward’s fees for fines, admittances, examining the two women privately, surrenders etc. £12; the beadle 4/-; and to the homage 2/-; in all 12.6.0. I paid James Thorpe and Martha his wife £10, and William Williams and Lucy his wife £10, the sum they agreed to take to release all their right thereto to Mr Porter, in order to prevent its coming into six tenements [as it would if each half were legally divided three ways], it being now no more than two.
We came away about 8:20, but I cannot say thoroughly sober. Spent only 12d today for my dinner, though I think either Mr Coates or John Piper should repay me that, as I went purely to transact Mr Coates’s business and to assist John Piper to examine some writings, which were to have been brought to court today but were not. Mr Long went away about 6:20. A very cold day, but otherwise a very fine day.