strange words

[Stovepipe]

I agree with clayton bradley - it's almost always backside in the context given.

[Archivos]

Could it be beckside or brookside or bourneside - meaning the land beside a stream?

Also, there are no hits on google for "toft" apart from a placename....think you may have to post those photos!  There's a how-to-do-it in the Help section, but I've found the two main points to consider are; save it as a .jpeg and make sure it's not too big

There may not be any Google hits, but a dictionary has a definition!  Toft is commonly used to mean the site of a house or building, as clayton bradley says.

I'd also agree that the other word is more likely to be backside or similar - a double f is very easy to confuse with other letters in the middle of a word!

[alpinecottage]

The Universal Etymological English Dictionary pub 1753 gives the first meaning of Toft as a clump of trees and secondly "a messuage or house, or rather a place a messuage once stood that is fallen or pulled down"

The word is archaic now and seems to have been rarely used in 18th century (in any context other than legal documents) as I strugggled to find it in other contemporary writings.....an ideal word to use in wills and leases so no-one other than the solicitors can understand it   

[john g dee]

I tried to attach a photo last night - obviously hasn't worked - will try again.
John

[JenB]

I also agree the word is question is likely to be 'backside'. The letter 'c' was often written in a way which, to our eyes, looks like an 'r', hence the confusion.
There are some examples here http://www.scottishhandwriting.com/cmLFc.asp

Jennifer

[john g dee]

third attempt at cropping pic and downloading.
Hope the actual secretary script will give a better idea.
John

[john g dee]

You may be interested to see another section of the lease document. May be common in the UK but I havn't seen anything like it before in RSA.
Stamps, one of which has a sort of lead? foil inserted into a slit and the back of the document has a very plain stamp overlaid that area.
Maybe this was a forerunner of the metal thread security measures used now in paper money.
At the top of the document is the fairly common wavy cut as a form of authentication.
John

[JenB]

Having seen the extract I would say the word is definitely 'backside'.

Jennifer

[john g dee]

Thanks Jennifer, It would be really interesting to learn the meaning of the word in this context.
John