Marriage settlement between John Franklin and Eleanor Anne Porden

This marriage settlement details how the assets owned by the bride and groom will be owned and used after their marriage. Marriage settlements were created on behalf of the couple by their parents and were common from the medieval period to the early 1900s. They were a way of establishing the dowry that the bride brought to the marriage, and any financial commitment from the groom's family, and set up a trust for the joint assets would be inherited by any children from the marriage.

This marriage settlement is signed and sealed at the bottom by the trustees: the couple to be married (John Franklin and Eleanor Anne Porden), Francis Bedford and Henry Sellwood. Because Eleanor Porden's parents had died, Francis Bedford was a trustee as executor of her father's will. John Franklin's father had also died so Henry Sellwood, his brother-in-law, acted as trustee for his family.