FLAMSTEED (JOHN) - DERBYSHIRE
Manuscript deed signed ('Johen Flamsteed Gentt.'), as witness to the transfer of land at Hazlewood in Duffield Parish from his father Stephen Flamsteed of Derby, maltster, to Matthew Smith, Gent. of Denby, docketted and endorsed on reverse by Smith and four others, endorsement dated 15 July 1675, on vellum, framed, unexamined out of frame, document 130 x 390mm., 3 August 1671
Footnotes:
The early education of John Flamsteed (1646-1719) was dogged by ill health and he was encouraged in his studies of mathematics and astronomy by his father Stephen and local friends such as William Litchford and George Linacre. In turn, he assisted his father who, although coming from a gentry family, had numerous business interests such as brewing and malting (as indicated here) and lead mining. In March 1675, four months before this deed was endorsed, Flamsteed had been appointed the King's first English Astronomer Royal but continued helping his father with his business affairs until his death in 1688.

Stephen Flamsteed was a younger son of the Flamsteeds of Little Hallam Hall, near Ilkeston and built a fine Carolean house at 27, Queen Street, Derby. He also owned a house at Denby, to which he retired during the Civil War. Matthew Smith (1636-1714), son of Henry Smith of Whitemoor Hall, is remembered by a row of almshouses founded in 1713 at The Butts, Belper. He married into a wealthy Nottingham mercantile family, served as JP and took the office of High Sheriff in 1685.