Background
The modern history of the Fossdyke dates from an Act of 1670/1 which allowed the City of Lincoln to declare itself the undertaker and to levy tolls. The Corporation found it convenient to grant a lease of one-third of the profits to Samuel Fortrey (1622-81) in exchange for his supervising the reconstruction and meeting one-third of the expenses beyond a certain threshold. In July 1714, this lease was purchased by a Lincoln attorney, Robert Peart (1684-1733) who took on the management of the navigation.
Because the corporation was entitled to two-thirds of the profits, Peart needed to account for the tolls received and the volume which forms the basis of this publication was the means by which he did so. It passed in due course into the corporation’s muniments and is now preserved in Lincolnshire Archives (LAO) as Lincoln City / L1/4/8.