Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has a run of deeds for this former inn [W3749-3764]. The Chequer was conveyed by feoffment in 1664 by John Ward of Elstow to Joseph Stevens of Elstow, yeoman, for £12; it was then described as abutting on the King's highway to the east. The very next day Stevens made the property leasehold (to be held of St.John's Hospital, Bedford) by assigning it to Mary Harrington for £11 for 1,000 years. This is the last mention of the property as being called the Chequer and Mary Harrington presumably closed the place.

Mary Harrington assigned the property to her father Anthony in 1672. When Anthony Harrington died in 1698 his executor and his heirs, his daughter and his granddaughters, assigned the property to Thomas Stoakes of Kempston, mason for £13.

Stoaks devised all his property in his will to his widow Sarah, who, in 1736 assigned the property to John Tysum of Kempston, labourer for £25. Tysum assigned the cottage to Edward Chapman of Bedford, currier, in 1778 for £25 and he, in his will of 1808 (proved in 1812) assigned the property in trust for his son Edward, who assigned it to Elizabeth Denyer for £80 in 1824. Elizabeth clearly married Charles Berrill because in 1835 Charles and Elizabeth Berrill mortgaged the property for £150 to Thomas Green of Bedford, grocer. The mortgage was assigned to Harriet Leach in 1841 at which time a further £75 was borrowed.

The mortgage was paid off in 1852 when Harriet Leach and Elizabeth Berrill, widow, assigned the premises to Robert Thorp of Bedford, laceman. The cottage had been "altered and enlarged, rebuilt and improved" by Charles Berrill, Elizabeth Berrill and James Butcher and was then described as abutting west on the village green and east on the public street. Thorp's sons and widow assigned the property to Samuel Charles Whitbread in 1871 for £235. 

Information received from Clive Arnold in November 2007 reveals that the northern half of this building was demolished in 1806 and a new house erected on the site. The Whitbread family sold the cottage in 1984 to James and Clare Wilson and they to Clive Arnold in 1988, when he named it Pilgrim House.

References:

- W3749: conveyed by John Ward to Joseph Stevens: 1664;
- W3750: assigned by Joseph Stevens to Mary Harrington: 1664;
- W3751: assigned by Anthony Harrington's executor and heirs to Thomas Stoakes: 1698;
- W3752: copy will of Anthony Harrington: 1697;
- W3753: copy will of Thomas Stoaks: 1724, proved 1734;
- W3754: assigned by Sarah Stoakes to John Tysum: 1736;
- W3755: assigned by John Tysum to Edward Chapman: 1778;
- W3756: will of Edward Chapman: 1808, proved 1812;
- W3757: assigned by Edward Chapman to Elizabeth Denyer: 1824;
- W3759: mortgaged by Charles and Elizabeth Berrill to Thomas Green: 1835;
- W3761: assigned by Elizabeth Berrill to Robert Thorp: 1852;
- W3762: assigned by William Roberts Thorp, Frederick Thorp and Caroline Thorp to Samuel Charles Whitbread: 1871