Manuscript indenture between two citizens of Oxford, England, dated 2nd April, 1691. Christopher Pettie of Oxfordshire, manuscript accounts for the period 29th July 1697 to 25th December 1703. Broadside folio, folded, written in a neat secretary hand, vellum indenture used as wrappers, preserved in a cloth case. Excellent condition, in its original state.

The Petty, or Pettie family of Oxfordshire had acquired substantial amounts of land in the county after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In particular they acquired estates that had belonged to the Abbey of Thame: Tetsworth Manor, and property at Stoke Talmage, Hardwick and Little and Great Milton. They were related by marriage to a number of leading Puritan families: the Cromwells, Hampdens and Wallers, and also to the Oxford chronicler Anthony Wood. The best known member of the family was George Pettie (1548-1589), the writer of romances.

Christopher Pettie succeeded to the family estates in 1674 and quickly set about selling them off to subsidize a life largely given over to bell ringing. Delafield, in his "Account of Great Milton" reported that Pettie had left his name on one of the bells of Tetsworth Church as "a lasting memorial of his unthriftiness, folly and extravagance. For being much addicted to ringing he carried about with him a set of silken ropes and a train of idle fellows for his accommodation of that exercise, till he had rung away a good estate." He died at Thame "extremely reduced" in 1739. His accounts record rental income from his diminishing estates, sales of livestock and crops, particulars of his lands at Tetsworth, payments to his children Hester, Charnell and John and considerable expenses incurred going back and forth to London in connection with a land dispute. A fascinating story and genealogical record.