things good, firm, valid, sufficient, and effectual in law, to all respects, purposes, constructions, and intents, towards and against us, our heirs, and successors, as well in all our Courts as elsewhere within our realm of England, without any confirmations, licences, or tolerations from us, our heirs, or successors in any manner hereafter to be procured or obtained:

Notwithstanding the badly naming or badly reciting, or not reciting, the aforesaid lands, tenements, and other the premises or any parcel thereof; And notwithstanding the not finding an office or inquisition of the premises or of any parcel thereof, whereby our title ought to have been found before the making of these our Letters Patent; And notwithstanding the badly reciting, or not reciting, any demise or grant made of the premises or of any parcel thereof, being of record or not of record; And notwithstanding the badly naming or not naming any town, hamlet, parish, place, or county in which the premises or any parcel thereof are or is; And notwithstanding that full, true, and certain mention is not made of the names of the tenants, farmers, or occupiers of the premises or of any parcel thereof; And notwithstanding any defects of the certainty, or computation, or declaration of the true yearly value of the premises or of any parcel thereof, or of the yearly rent reserved of and upon the premises, or of and upon any parcel thereof, in these our Letters Patent expressed and contained; And notwithstanding the Statute made and enacted in the Parliament of the Lord Henry the Sixth, late King of England, our progenitor, in the eighteenth year of his reign; And notwithstanding any other defects in not certainly naming the nature, kind, sort, quantity, or quality of the premises or of any parcel thereof; And notwithstanding the Statute concerning the not putting of lands and tenements to mortmain, or any statute, act, ordinance, proclamation, provision, or restriction to the contrary thereof heretofore had, made, enacted, ordained, or provided, in anywise notwithstanding: SAVING, nevertheless, to Andrew Cole, Esquire, and to all other persons whomsoever, other than us, our heirs, and successors, such right, claim, interest, and demand whatsoever, as he or they or any one of them has or may have, or of right ought to have, of and in the premises or any part or parcel thereof.

And further we will, and by these presents for us, our The President

and DeputyPresidents are

enjoined to take

the Oath of

Obedience and the

Oath of Supre

macy, before the

Council, or seven

or more of them,

previously to their acting.

heirs, and successors do ordain, and firmly enjoining do command, that the President of the Society aforesaid for the time being, and his Deputies, before he or any of them be admitted to the execution of that office, shall take, and each of them shall take, as well the corporal oath, commonly called The Oath of Allegiance, as the corporal oath, commonly called The Oath of Supremacy, upon the holy Gospels of God, before the Council of the same Society, or any seven or more of them: to which same Council, or to any seven or more of them, we give and grant by these presents, for us, our heirs, and successors, full power and authority to administer the oaths aforesaid from time to time, when soever it shall be needful.

Provided always, and our Royal will and intention is, that the lands and premises aforesaid granted by these presents, as it is aforesaid, or any of them, shall not be alienated or sold to any person or persons whomsoever; anything in these presents contained to the contrary thereof notwithstanding.

Although express mention of the true yearly value or of the certainty of the premises or of any of them, or of other gifts or grants before these times made by us or by any of our progenitors or predecessors to the aforesaid President, Council, and Fellows of the Royal Society of London, and to their successors, is not made in these presents; or any statute, act, ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restriction to the contrary thereof heretofore had, made, enacted, ordained, or provided, or any other thing, cause, or matter whatsoever, in anywise notwithstanding.

In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patent. Witness Ourself, at Westminster, the eighth day of April, in the twenty-first year of our reign. By writ of Privy Seal.

PIGOTT.

A LICENSE for purchasing in MORTMAIN to the yearly value of One Thousand Pounds, granted to the President, Council, and Fellows of the ROYAL SOCIETY of London, by King GEORGE the FIRST, in the year MDCCXXV.*

"GEORGE by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. WHEREAS our trusty and wellbeloved the President, Council, and Fellows, of the Royal Society of our City of London for improving natural knowledge, have by their Petition humbly represented unto us, that our late Royal Predecessor, King Charles the Second, by Letters Patents,† bearing date the Two-and-twentieth day of April, in the Fifteenth year of his reign, did ordain constitute and appoint the said Royal Society of London for improving natural knowledge, and did thereby grant them Licence to purchase in Mortmain; that since the grant of the said Letters Patents, several well-disposed Persons have devised and granted to the Petitioners, and their successors, divers lands and hereditaments, and given several sums of money to them, for the use of the said corporation; that the Petitioners being desirous to invest the same money in the most durable manner, for the improvement of the said corporation, have most humbly prayed us to grant to them our Royal Licence to hold and enjoy the lands and hereditaments, which have been devised and granted to them; to purchase hold and enjoy to them, and their successors for ever, for the use and benefit of the said corporation, such manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, as they shall think fit to purchase, or shall receive by will, or any deed of conveyance, not exceeding the yearly value of One thousand pounds: We are graciously pleased to grant their request. KNOW YE therefore, that we, of our especial grace certain knowledge and meer motion, HAVE given and granted, and by these presents for us our heirs and successors Do give and grant. unto the President, Council, and Fellows of the Royal Society of our city of London for improving natural knowledge aforesaid, and their successors, our especial Licence, full power, and lawful and absolute authority, to hold and enjoy the lands and hereditaments, which have been already devised or granted to the said corporation, as aforesaid; and also to purchase acquire take hold and receive in

* Reprinted from Weld's 'History of the Royal Society.'
So in the Original.

H

Mortmain, in perpetuity or otherwise, to or to the use of or in trust for them or their successors, for the use and benefit of the said corporation, from any person or persons, bodies politic and corporate, their heirs and successors respectively, such manors lands tenements rents or hereditaments, as they shall think fit to purchase, or shall receive by writ, or any deed of conveyance, not exceeding the yearly value of One thousand pounds above all charges and reprizes. AND we do hereby also for us our heirs and successors give and grant our especial Licence, full power, and lawful and absolute authority, to any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, their heirs and successors respectively, to grant, alien, sell, convey, and dispose of in Mortmain, in perpetuity or otherwise, to or to the use of or in trust for the President Council and Fellows of the Royal Society of our city of London for improving natural knowledge aforesaid, and their successors, any manors lands tenements rents or hereditaments whatsoever, not exceeding the yearly value of One thousand pounds. AND LASTLY, we do hereby, for us our heirs and successors, grant unto the President Council and Fellows of the Royal Society of our City of London for improving natural knowledge aforesaid, and their successors, that these our Letters Patents, or the Inrollment or Exemplification thereof, shall be in and by all things good firm valid sufficient and effectual in the law, according to the true intent and meaning thereof; NOTWITHSTANDING the not rightly naming or describing any of the manor lands tenements rents or hereditaments already devised or granted to the said corporation, or to be granted devised aliened or disposed of in Mortmain to them, and their successors, in fee or otherwise, as aforesaid: or any other omission imperfection defect matter cause or thing whatsoever to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding. IN WITNESS whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Patents. WITNESS Ourself at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of December, in the Eleventh year of our reign.

"By writ of Privy Seal,

"COCKS."

NOTE.

An enrolment at the Record Office, of which the following is an abstract, reconveys to King Charles II the three Closes granted by the third Charter.

Close Roil, 33 Chas. II, Part 3, No. 3.
(In English.)

Indenture, 8 Feb., 34 Chas. II, 1681[-2], between the King's most excellent Majesty of the one part, and the President, Council, and Fellows of the Royal

Society (&c.) of the other part; whereby (for 1,3007.) the latter bargain and sell to the former "All that piece of arable land called Teamshott," &c., "all that aforesaid Close of meadow called Stonebridge Close," &c., "and also all that one piece of arable land in a common field called Eastfeild," &c., which were granted by the King to the Society by letters patent 8 April, 21 Chas. II.