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1631: location of a garden once owned by Thomas Hobson 

 

This is the lease for 20 years at seven shillings a year of a piece of common ground, from the Mayor, bailiffs and burgesses to William Williams, stationer. Location of the common ground is given by reference to the surrounding property. It abuts Faire Yard Lane on the west, a garden formerly in the tenure of Thomas Hobson on the east, the King's Ditch on the north and the Beast or Hog Market on the south. Using David Loggan’s map of 1688 (https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-MAPS-FR-X-00021/1), we can tentatively place Hobson’s garden on the current site of the city’s multi-storey carpark, right in the centre of Cambridge. This is land additional to his main house, stables and garden, which were further west, on Trumpington Street.

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