LAGOS. COLONIAL WEST AFRICA. 2‑Document Property Archive (1880–1887)

A rare pair of original vellum legal instruments relating to land and commercial property on Lagos Island during early British colonial administration. Both documents retain seals, signatures, and manuscript plans. Excellent material for collectors of African colonial history, Lagos mercantile networks, or 19th‑century legal documents.

1) 1880 Crown Grant — Broad Street, Lagos Island

Christiansborg Castle, 14 February 1880 Signed by Governor Herbert Taylor Ussher

• Large folio vellum grant, partly printed and completed in manuscript.
• Grants to Nelly Oyikan a narrow parcel of land on Broad Street, Lagos Island.
• Boundaries and measurements given in detail.
• Embossed paper seal of the Gold Coast Colony.
• Red docketing at head: “Copy. Christiansborg, 21 Feb 1880…”.
• Endorsed “Volume 9. Page 8”.
• Hand‑coloured plan on verso showing the strip of land, Crown land boundaries, and surveyor’s annotations.
• Clean, legible, and well‑preserved.

Significance: Ussher died later in 1880; his signed Lagos/Gold Coast documents are scarce. Broad Street was the commercial spine of colonial Lagos. Named African grantees (here Oyikan) add strong social‑history interest.

2) 1887 Vellum Conveyance — “Oil Mills Property” & “Ybolagun House”, Lagos

27 February 1887 12 pp., 4to, on vellum, sewn

• Multi‑party conveyance executed under the Bankruptcy Act 1883.
• Concerns properties formerly owned by James Pinson Labulo Davies (bankrupt 1876), later held by the Manchester partnership Callender Sykes & Mather.
• Parties include James Halliday, Christopher Jenkins Dibb, John William Desire Mather, and Richard Sykes.
• Four red wax seals with signatures.
• Green revenue/registration slip with embossed stamp.
• Two pen‑and‑wash plans of the Lagos properties (as per full document).
• UK and Lagos registration endorsements (incl. Registrar’s Office, Lagos).
• Some damp staining along one fold, affecting a few words but not structural integrity.

Significance: Documents touching the estate of J. P. L. Davies, one of Lagos’s most important 19th‑century African merchants, are uncommon. The conveyance illustrates the deep commercial links between Lagos and Manchester during the palm‑oil era.

PROVENANCE:

One of c.2,500+ items once from the collection or dealer stock of Winifred A Myers (Autographs) Ltd, St Martins Lane, London, evidenced by the quantity of Myers pre-printed envelopes and paper folders and the general ‘presentation’ of the items, many having Myers identification notes in pencil. 

Winifred Alice Myers (1909 – 1985) served as ABA (Antiquarian Booksellers Assoc) president, 1950-1952. See the ABA website for an extended article on Myers. Myers left her business, in 1985, to Ruth Shepherd, who traded from home until 2004.  

Herbert Taylor John Ussher CMG (Apr 1836 – Dec 1880) was a British colonial administrator who became Governor of the Gold Coast (now Ghana). In private life he was a keen ornithologist. He was the son of Thomas Neville Ussher, Consul General of Haiti (and grandson of Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Ussher), and his wife Eliza Fawcett. On joining the colonial service he sailed for West Africa in 1864 to become the Private Secretary of the Governor of Lagos. Ussher was subsequently made Collector of Customs in 1866 and then Administrator of the Cape Coast from 1867 to 1872. He was invested a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 1872 Birthday Honours.

James Pinson Labulo Davies (Aug 1828 – Apr 1906) was a Nigerian businessman, merchant-sailor, naval officer, farmer, pioneer industrialist, statesman, and philanthropist who married Sarah Forbes Bonetta in colonial Lagos. Davies was a lieutenant aboard HMS Bloodhound during the Bombardment of Lagos under the command of Commander Wilmot and Commodore Henry William Bruce and in which Oba Kosoko was ousted, resulting in the ascension of Oba Akitoye. During the bombardment the British Navy lost two officers and ten men were wounded. Lieutenant Davies was among the wounded.[6] Davies retired from the navy in 1852 and offered his services as a merchant vessel captain traversing the West African coast. He eventually settled in Lagos in 1856, where he became known as “Captain J.P.L Davies”.