BRIGHTON CHAIN PIER Deed of Covenant. [And] Mortage. 1st May 1822. June 25th 1824.
2 ms documents on parchment, signed and sealed. The Deed of Covenant much folded and therefore rather worn. The two preserved in pamphlet case. The famous Brighton Chain Pier was designed by Samuel Brown, the most famous of the early British suspension bridge designers. It was built under the superintendence of William Clegram and opened in 1823. It had four 255ft spans and the flat, wrought-iron eye-bar chains passed over cast-iron towers and were anchored into the cliff at one end and the seabed at the other. The deed of covenant, with which Brown himself, with a group of promoters, undertook to raise the monies to build the chain pier, was drawn up just after the formation of the Chain Pier Compaany. The document contains the signatures of the subscribers (with the sums promised), who include the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Egremont, Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, Joseph Hume MP, Samuel Lenox (iron-founder and Brown's partner), Robert Seppings (Surveyor to the Navy Board), Brown himself and his wife, and various local dignitaries. By 1st May 1822 (the date of the deed) £22,000 of the required £27,000 had been raised. On 25th June 1824, the Company raised a mortgage from Messrs. Hall, West and Borrer of the Union Bank. It was redeemed on 20th October, 1828, and the mortgage deed is endorsed on the back to this effect.
£450
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