[The Alien Office, Whitehall.] Eleven Manuscript Affidavits, sworn and signed by emigrants from Europe before six London magistrates including Sir George Farrant and David William Gregorie, who also sign.

An interesting collection of eleven items from the reign of George IV, giving a view of administration of immigration in London (and one item from Manchester, Number Six below). The Alien Office was created as a department of the Home Office to implement the Aliens Act 1793, which attempted to control the influx of foreign visitors and refugees caused by the turmoil in France. It ceased to exist following the Registration of Aliens Act 1836. created to control the influx of French refugees and suspected revolutionaries. The present collection of eleven affidavits, all signed and witnessed, dates from between 1824 and 1829. The material is in good condition, lightly aged and worn, with one item creased along one edge. Nine of the items are each 1p, 4to; the other two (Items One and Three) are each 1p, landscape 8vo. The final item is sworn before two army officers (see Eleven). The other ten are signed before the following magistrates, at the named police offices: William Beckett, Bow Street (Three); Sir George Farrant, Great Marlborough Street (Two); David William Gregorie, Queen Square (Six, Eight and Ten); Edward Markland, Queen Square (One and Seven); William Lorance Rogers, Hatton Garden (Nine); William Archibald Armstrong White, Queen Square (Four and Five). ONE: 24 August 1824. Signed by ‘Charles Anthony Krederer, of No. 11 great Cambridge Street, Hackney Road. Certifying that ‘he arrived in England from Malta in the year Eighteen Hundred and Eleven and that he hath never since left it’. TWO: 18 October 1824. Signed by ‘Joseph Pozzinakosky of No. 27 South Street Manchester Square’. Certifying that ‘he hath continually resided in this Country for the space of Fifteen years and upwards now last past’. THREE: 23 October 1824. Signed by ‘Francis Jaunay of No. 25 Leicester Square Hotel Keeper’. Certifying that ‘he has resided in this Country since the year 1801, and has been 10 years in the above mentioned Hotel’. Note at foot in Jaunay’s hand, with second signature: ‘I have continually reside [sic] in England the previos [sic] of the year 1801 to 1815’. FOUR: 25 October 1824. Signed by ‘Bernard Mége of 19 Grafton Street Fitzroy Square’. Certifying ‘that he first came to reside in England in the year 1809 and that he from that time continued to reside in England for upwards of seven years, and that since the end of the first seven years he has quitted England only occasionally for short periods of time’. FIVE: 4 November 1824. Signed by ‘Alexandre Vincent Benard of Saint James’s Palace, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Sergeant Porter to His Majesty’. Certifying that Benard ‘hath resided in England upwards of Seven years, and that for, and during, thattime he hath not left it even for a single day’. SIX: 22 November 1824. Signed by ‘Martin Schunck, of Charlton Row, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant’. Certifying that ‘he hath resided in England upwards of Seven Years without during that leaving it even for a single day’. SEVEN: 26 November 1824. Signed by ‘Nicholas Hector Clément of Durham House, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex, Schoolmaster’. Certifying that ‘he hath resided in England for space of Ten Years and upwards without during that time leaving it for a single day. EIGHT: 6 June 1825. Signed by ‘Claude Marie de Couffon of the Sablonierre Hotel, Leicester Square, in the County of Middlesex, Teacher of Languages’. Certifying that ‘he hath resided in England upwards of Seven Years, without during that time leaving it for a single day’. NINE: 17 June 1825. Signed by ‘Peter Caprani of No. 5 Leopards Court Baldwins Gardens in the Parish of Saint Andrew Holborn in the County of Middlesex Merchant’. Certifying that ‘he was born in Como in Italy in the yer one thousand eight hundred and four’, and that he came to live in Holborn in 1816. TEN: 20 June 1826. Signed by ‘Joseph Tresselle, of No. 26. Great Pulteney Street, Golden Square’. Certifying that ‘he hath resided in England upwards of Ten Years without during that time leaving it for a single day.’ ELEVEN: 5 October 1829. Signed by Lieut-Gen. C. Callander, 41 Bryanston Strreet, and James Ogilvie, Deputy Commissary General, 23 Portland Place. Certifying that ‘Mr. Lazarus Joseph is a Native of Germany and has Resided in London above Fifty Years’.