More exhibits for Obiter’s collection of long-established firms. In its 227th year is Stratford-upon-Avon firm Lodders Solicitors, which opened for business in 1786 in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire.

In 1834, according to partner Alastair Frew, the firm received a letter of thanks from the Duke of Wellington, then serving as foreign secretary having just stepped down from his second term as prime minister. The firm took the Lodders name from the grandfather of current senior partner David Lodder.

Just a year older is Devon firm Tozers Solicitors, started by John Chappell Tozer at Newton Bushell (now part of Newton Abbot) in 1785.

However, this week’s daddy is Kent commercial and personal firm Buss Murton Law, based in Tunbridge Wells, Cranbrook, and Dartford, which this year celebrates 300 years of business. ‘Our firm was started in Cranbrook, Kent, in 1713. Lots of our old paperwork, old photographs, drawings and info are exhibited in the Cranbrook Museum,’ says Jan-Louise Denny, marketing executive.