Beal & Warden Trustees account book

Inside cover of account book is rudimentary hand-drawn sketch of five lots of land in the Shanghai (China) foreign quarters, with a hand-written history of the lots owned by H.H. (Henry Hughes) Warden on the following two pages. Warden wrote the memo from New York in January 1869. Over the next several pages Warden describes in details the foundation of the “ante nuptial” Beal and Warden Trust in 1854 for the “Shanghai Estate.” The original agreement was between H.H. Warden and Joseph S. Beal and Alexander Beal, siblings of Elizabeth, who at the time of her marriage were her trustees. Elizabeth Beal (E.B.) Warden was appointed Trustee in 1864 after the resignation of Joseph Beal as Trustee. Additional details include account/current (a/c) records by Edward Cunningham, who sometimes acted as an agent in China and a detailed memo written in 1873 regarding H.H. Warden’s wish to close business connections with respect to real estate in Shanghai. The latter part of the book details the accounting of balances of Alexander Beal Trustee in account with Russell & Co., the beneficiaries under a certain deed in account with H.H. Warden and William T. Barker, Alexander Beal and H.H. Warden Trustees with fund belonging to E.B. Warden and Children, and Elizabeth Beal Warden in account with Alexander Beal Trustee.