Individual results

Town Clerk and escheator for Coventry, Birch was Receiver-General locally for Land Tax, houses- , windows- and lights-tax, and the tax which financed the building of Somerset House, during the 1750s and 1760s (see PA309/1-59 passim). PA389/1 is a copy made by Birch of a 1581 survey (BA/A/1/2/3) of corporation lands. He sold land in Vicar Lane to the Quakers in 1742. See PA101/1/260-261. Birch was also clerk of the statutes - see PA202/34. See PA242/1/23: PA35/2: PA36/3 passim. Birch contributed £100 towards raising a local force to fight the Young Pretender (see PA36/2). He acted as a corporation attorney to deliver seisin during the 1730s and 1740s - see PA90/20-23,41: PA96/9/2. See CCA/2/3/180/8-11: PA490/5-6 for Birch's Cross Cheaping property, 1750. PA136 is the minute book for 1728 - 1752 which Birch kept as coroner for the city and county of Coventry. PA145 is a register of documents which Birch transferred to his successor Joseph Hewitt (q.v.). See PA20: PA17/29/14; PA17/110/1-7. Birch was named bankruptcy-commissioner for John Beynon and Thomas Dibbs, silkmen, 1772 (PA17/110/8). See PA184/5/1. For his political and other papers, see PA248. PA244/47,55 refer to the Town Clerk's involvement with charity lawsuits, 1738, 1759; see also PA244/48/10 (endorsement). See PA288/1 for Cross Cheaping and St. Michael's Churchyard property, 1729 and PA56/83/20-21 for the latter. Birch had closes near Greyfriars' muckhill (1752 - BA/A/7/26/2: cf. BA/D/7/11/4) and land at Binley and Shortley (see BA/D/1/47/45.XXXVIII); he held a stable and shed at the Women's Market Place (1768 - BA/B/16/412/1), and had a lease of Cheylesmore manorhouse as security for his loan to the corporation (1730 - BA/G/1/3/11). Qua Town Clerk, see BA/H/5/6/1,2 (regarding the 1768 general election's consequences): BA/M/8/4/1-7 (excise); BA/M/8/1/9,10; BA/M/8/2/1,6,7,12,15,19,21: PA96/48/1,7,9,25-27,32,25,41-44,48,49,51: PA2358/1/34,37,38 (regarding Reverend Edward Jackson (q.v.)'s dispute with the corporation, 1739-47; in the earliest of these documents Birch is addressed as coroner). See BA/B/16/422/1. Also see BA/L/15. See PA1517/6/1. PA436/22/1 implies that Birch had land near Stoke Green. See PA466/9/1-2. He was entrusted with the Bond's Hospital estate on behalf of old and new trustees, 1737 (see PA54/18/3). Birch was involved ex officio in Edward Jackson (q.v.)'s lawsuit against the corporation, 1742-43 - see PA54/153/6; PA54/161/6; PA54/172/1; PA54/173/1; PA54/178/1; PA54/188/3; PA54/198/33; PA54/202/4; PA54/233/1; PA54/235/3; PA54/238/6; PA54/243/1: PA56/12/1-11. For the Bond's Hospital entrustment, see PA500/4/1. He occupied a Vicar Lane house (PA56/135/1(ae)). PA56/140/1: PA101/1/269 are copies of his Christmas Day, 1771 will. He leased out a Spon Street property in 1739 which he sold four years later while at Thorpe Hall, Lincolnshire (a county in which his descendants settled) - see PA56/141/7/9; however, he had to be trustee of it when the subsequent owner became financially embarrassed (1760-64:- PA56/141/15-22 passim). A Drapers' Company member, 1728 (PA468/1/1/22). As his own father (q.v.)'s personal represerntative, in 1729 Birch became trustee of Dr. John Smith (q.v.)'s marriage settlement - see PA491/27/1. Occupied a Smithford Street tenement, 1730 - see PA2398/6/2/4/4. See PA2398/7/7/4. Birch was steward of Allesley manor at the end of his life - see PA2473/4/2. For his association with the Hewitt family, see PA1484/19/13; PA1484/77/43, 61, 126, 155 (his wife died in 1749), 380, 385, 474 (interested in James Hewitt (q.v.)'s future second wife Ambrosia (q.v.), 1751), 650, 654, 656, 689, 1016, 1017. As marriage-trustee for Mary Fowler and James Pollard (q.v.) from 1722, see CCA/2/3/212/3-5; as trustee for the Honourable James Hewitt's sale of ex-Pollard Cross Cheaping houses in 1767, see CCA/2/3/212/17-19. Through marrying Edward Owen (q.v.)'s daughter Jane, Birch acquired a Smithford Street messuage which he retained until he died - see CCA/2/3/34/73.II.N.B.,III. CCA/2/3/205/3.I,II show that Birch bought in 1736 a Dead Lane messuage which he sold six years later. See PA811/2/1. As a corporation attorney to deliver seisin, see CCA/2/3/169/2: CCA/2/3/242/1. As his namesake father's executor, Birch was involved in Town Court litigation, 1729 - see BA/E/11/110/278.