St John Street
Numbers 7 & 9
No. 1 St John Street
No. 1A St John Street
No. 3 St John Street
No. 5 St John Street
No. 7 St John Street
No. 9 St John Street
No. 11 St John Street
No. 13 St John Street
No. 15 St John Street
No. 17 St John Street
No. 19 St John Street
No. 21 St John Street
No. 23 St John Street
No. 2 St John Street
No. 4 St John Street
No. 6 St John Street
No. 8 St John Street
The photo above shows two houses numbered 7 and 9 St John Street. The house on the left is number 7, the one of the right is number 9.
The history of the two houses is closely linked, and from the front appearance of these two houses it is easy to imagine that they were once one house. The present owners have also told us that there are several aspects of the houses construction which support this suggestion.
We were surprised however to find that the building has been split into two houses for a long time, going all the way back before 1840. The 1840 Tithe Survey shows that the building was then two houses, and the deeds from 1850 onwards refer to the 'two messuages'.
We are extremely fortunate to have seen the deeds of
the number 9 and very grateful to Chris and Helen Milne for sharing them
with us. They give us almost complete picture of the owners of the house
since it was built and provide a useful source of the names of the occupants
which linked to the various census and other records produce the history we
have produced here.
The oldest indenture in the deeds was dated 1850.
However we were lucky to have found an earlier indenture at Gloucester
Records Office which relates to this property. This indenture was
dated 23 September 1807 when Thomas Rolph, the surgeon, sold the two
properties to John Powell, a mason for £63.
The 1807 indenture also gives us a tantalizing glimpse of an even earlier
history of the houses - it refers to "All those two messuages or tenements hereto before in one messuage or
tenement wherein Peter Park, carpenter deceased then and for many years
previous to and at the time of his death inhabited and John Mabbett and
Jane Davis single woman afterwards dwellt and wherein the said John Mabbett
and John Simons do now dwell".
So this confirms that there was indeed one house on
the property and this must have built quite a bit earlier than 1807. The one
house was divided into two messuages before John Powell
acquired it and he either undertook a significant 'makeover' or demolished
and rebuilt them at some time after 1807.
Click here to read about the owners of
the two houses
Click here to read about the occupants of number 7
Click here to read about the occupants
of number 9
This page was last updated:
13/01/2008