At the assizes of this date, before Mr Justice Butler and a special jury, was a second hearing of a case whereas Joseph Hopkins was plaintiff and the right Honourable the Earl of Peterborough and Monmouth defendant. This case had been tried at the previous lent assizes on an action brought by the plaintiff, who was trying to recover possession of an estate of about £100 per annum, held within the last few years by him and his predecessors on a lease for life granted by the late Earl of Peterborough in about the year 1728. This estate, on the lives becoming extinct, had fallen into the hands of the present earl, and due to the plaintiff not being able at that time to prove his further interest therein to the satisfaction of the court, a verdict was then given against him. In the present action the plaintiff claimed the estate, as before, by virtue of a lease for 500 years, said to have been granted by the late earl, under the title of Monmouth. after a trial of seven hours, as verdict was again given in favour of his lordship the Earl of Peterborough. (Hereford Journal)

Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.