Manuscript Indenture (counterpart of Lease of Brown's premises at no. 342 Strand), on parchment, signed by Brown.

Fifty-two long lines of text, on one side of a single piece of parchment, roughly inches by. '[...] Between John Guscotte of No. 19 Essex Street Strand [...] and Alexander Brown of No. 342 Strand in the County of Middlesex aforesaid Book Seller'. A ten-year lease for a consideration of sixty pounds and yearly rent of one hundred and four pounds. Includes conditions relating to the upkeep of the premises, whitewashing of the walls, display of advertisements, etc. Brown is directed 'at his own expence [to] fix a tradesmanlike glass sash to the shop front' and forbidden to 'carry on or exercise or permit to be carried on and exercised upon the said demised premises or any part thereof any other trade or business than that of a Bookseller' without Guscotte's consent. Witnessed by Charles James Dane, 'Clerk to Messrs. Smith & Guscotte Solrs.' With five shilling embossed government stamp, and Brown's signature stradling the solicitors' red wax seal on green ribbon. 342 Strand had been (circa 1804) the painter Benjamin Robert Haydon's first London address, and the offices of William Edward Painter, publisher of the Church and State Gazette (1842-56). It subsequently contained the offices of the Literary Revision Society and of the Iron and Coal Trades Review. BBTI simply records that an Alexander Brown served his apprenticeship as a bookseller in 1807 - perhaps the above's father?