50 Years of Chattertons in Boston

Frank Cammack joined Chattertons' Horncastle office in November 1971.  In October 1972 Chattertons opened an office in Boston at 16B Main Ridge, at that time its third office as there was also an office in Skegness (since closed).  Frank was made a partner and moved to the Boston office at this time and it was run by him and his secretary Linda Veall (Sutton).

A couple of existing clients who dealt with the Horncastle office moved with Frank to the Boston office, but otherwise it was a completely new enterprise.

Frank steadily built the client base up at the Boston office by taking on all kinds of work.  Over a period of time the office expanded and new staff joined the firm.  In 1978 Jane Williams joined; in 1983 Debbie Hoyle joined; and Andrew Dawson joined in 1986.  Andrew is still with Chattertons, now working in Private Client at the Spalding Office.

Other longstanding staff still working at the Boston office today are Tehane Willoughby, Credit Controller, Beth Periam, now Credit Control Assistant, Tracey Dawson, Residential Conveyancing Executive, Carol Wilson, Legal Executive in the Commercial Property Team, Steve Simpson, originally a conveyancer but for many years a key member of our IT team and Zeta Penson Senior Legal Assistant in the Dispute Resolution and Employment Team.

In January 1978 Chattertons merged with a local firm Millington, Simpson and Giles (Dick Giles and John Philpott) which had operated from 28 Wide Bargate for many years.  Chattertons moved into Wide Bargate where they are still located today.  John immediately retired and Dick remained as a consultant.  The staff from Millington Simpson and Giles joined Chattertons including Patrick White, Bill Barrand, Sid Woods, Tom Povey, and Arthur Oughton. 

Peter Cropley joined Chattertons at the Skegness office in November 1975 and became a partner on 1 January 1977 moving to Chattertons at Boston on the merger with Millington, Simpson & Giles.  

At that time Chattertons closed the old Boston office in Main Ridge and Frank moved up to the Millingtons office in Wide Bargate to work with Peter Cropley.  Peter headed the contentious side whilst Frank headed the non-contentious side.

In 1973 Frank had been approached by Peter Lawson who was looking to gain experience during his gap year, prior to commencing university. Peter Lawson came back to Chattertons after he finished his law degree, joining Chattertons in February 1978, starting articles on 1st April 1978 and being made a partner in 1983. 

The building at Wide Bargate was extended in 1984 making room for the firm to grow.  However, due to the Wide Bargate office splitting at the seams some of the staff moved to a new office in New Street in 1989.

The firm remained in New Street until 1 March 1992, when it moved to 4 South Square to allow further expansion.  The firm took over the Boston operation of Mossop & Bowser in 1999, acquiring clients, wills, deeds and one member of staff, Margaret Chambers, who is still with us today as Senior Legal Assistant in the Private Client Team!

In 2016 we were back to a single Boston office, after vacating 4 South Square at the end of 2015, a situation which continued until September 2020 when our latest merger with Morley Brown Howden took place. Once again many clients and their Wills and deeds were transferred to Chattertons. For a short period we operated from their offices in Main Ridge as well as Wide Bargate, but we are now based only in Wide Bargate. Laurence Brown had already retired before the merger, as had Richard Morley, but Paul Howden worked as a consultant until January 2022.

Frank Cammack retired as a Partner in 1993 although he remained as a Consultant for many years, and continues to be involved with many local organisations, in particular Boston Tennis Club and Boston Grammar School Foundation.

Stuart Cox and Peter Cropley were appointed Joint Managing Partners in 1993 and Peter Cropley became Senior Partner of Chattertons in 1996, whilst remaining Joint Managing Partner with Stuart, until they both retired in 2010.

Peter Cropley is retiring as Chairman and Governor of Boston College next May after 21 years in the former and 33 years in the latter position. He is also Chairman of Sutterton Parochial Charities, Chairman of Temple Investment Group and actively involved in a number of other ongoing Trusts.

Peter Lawson was Senior Partner from 2010 until his retirement in 2016, having gone from the most junior tea boy in 1973 to Senior Partner and spent his whole legal career with Chattertons. Since then he has continued to be involved in many local organisations including Centrepoint Outreach, Boston Volunteer Centre Charity, Thomas Sanderson Charity, John Laughton Trust and Boston Grammar School Foundation and he occasionally works as a tour guide at Boston Stump!

 Elizabeth Hopkins joined Chattertons in October 1988.  Katherine Bunting joined in  May1992 and they were both made partners in 1994.  Edward Conway joined the firm in 1995 and became a partner in 1998. Richard Ludlow joined Chattertons Boston office in 1987, becoming a Partner in 1999 . He moved away from Boston in 1997 to run the firm's new Sleaford office, then to Grantham after another merger there in 1999 and finally to Stamford in 2007, where he is still based. A dual qualified Solicitor and Independent Financial Adviser, Richard now heads up our sister business Chattertons Wealth Management Limited.

Edward Conway moved from Boston in 2013 when Chattertons took over McKinnells in Lincoln and has remained based in Lincoln ever since, taking the Lincoln and Newark offices through another merger with Andrew & Co in 2019. He is now Chattertons' CEO, having taken up this role when the business was incorporated in 2016.

Elizabeth Hopkins left Chattertons in 2013 to become CEO of Centrepoint Outreach the Boston homeless charity, where she still works closely with Peter Lawson as Chair of Trustees.

Katherine Bunting remains based at Boston as Joint Partner in Charge with Scott Wiseman, dealing with commercial and agricultural property work for all kinds of clients. She celebrated her 30^th anniversary of working for Chattertons earlier this year. She has also been Chair of Chattertons' Charity Committee since 2011, which has been able to raise over £75000 for various local and national charities during that period.

Scott Wiseman joined Chattertons in the Wealth Management Team in early 2018. He was the first Financial Adviser to be made Partner of the firm in 2019. He is currently Joint Partner in Charge with Katherine Bunting at Boston. Scott advises clients on Investments, Pensions and Tax planning in both our Boston and Spalding Offices and has been instrumental in the growth of the Wealth Management business over the last 5 years.

Grant Shackleston joined Chattertons in 2017, initially working at Lincoln before covering both the Boston and Spalding offices from July 2018. He became a Partner in 2019, and deals with dispute resolution and employment law. He has helped expand the dispute resolution practice necessitating the need for the recruitment of David John from a local practice in January 2022.

David John started his career with Chattertons as an Articled Clerk, a good few years ago, working with Frank Cammack, Peter Lawson and Peter Cropley. Earlier this year David re-joined Chattertons and he works in the Dispute Resolution Department specialising in Property Litigation and Landlord and Tenant matters. When asked about any unusual cases David cites the case he had involving an elephant !  You don't get too many cases involving elephants in Lincolnshire!  

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Boston
Lincolnshire
PE21 6RT

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