ANCIENT TENURE OF LANDS.
(Vol. ix., pp. 173. 309.)
The following paragraphs, containing both Notes and Queries, will doubtless interest your readers
At the last Kent assizes held at Maidstone (March, 1854) a case was tried by a special jury, of whom the writer was one, before Mr. Baron Parke; plaintiffs, "the Earl of Romney and others," trustees under an act of parliament to pay the debts of the borough of Queenborough, county Kent; defendants, "the Inclosure Commissioners of England and Wales." Tradition relates that Edward III. was so pleased with his construction of the Castle of Queenborough, that he complimented his consort by not only building a town, but creating a borough[[4]], which he named after her honour.[[5]] The case, in various shapes, has been before the law courts for some time, and was sent to these Kent assizes to ascertain whether Queenborough was either a manor or a reputed manor. In the course of the trial Baron Parke said, that, in despite of the statute Quia Emptores, he should rule that manors could be created when they contained the essentials.
My first Query is, therefore, Have any manors been created in England since the passing of that statute? In my History of Deptford I have alluded to the manor of Hatcham as one of the last manors I supposed to have been created.
The Inclosure Commissioners, as the defendants, had been prayed by the Leeze-holders[[6]] of
Queenborough to inclose sundry lands called Queenborough Common; such inclosure was opposed by the trustees, who claimed under the act of parliament which constituted their existence to be in the position of the mayor[[7]], &c., and thus, if they were the lords of the manor, to have a veto upon the inclosure of the waste. The plaintiffs relied very much upon the following fact, which I here embalm as a note, and append thereon a query:—During the Mayoralty of Mr. Greet[[8]], a gentleman who died in 1829, a turbot was caught by a dredger on the Queenborough oyster-grounds: this unlucky fish was immediately pounced upon by the Queenborough officials, and seized for the mayor's behoof as his perquisite, à la sturgeon.
Query, a like instance?
The Jury, after two days' long sitting, decided that Queenborough was neither a manor nor a reputed manor.
A. J. Dunkin.
Dartford.
Footnote 4:[(return)]
Parliamentary History, 1765.—On Wednesday, Dec. 6, 1654, an attempt was made to disfranchise Queenborough: the then member, Mr. Garland, suddenly and jocularly moved the Speaker that we give not any legacies before the Speaker was dead. This pleasant conceit so took with the House, as, for that time, Queenborough was reprieved, but was voted for the future to be dismembered, and to be added to the county.—Ap. Burton i. cxi. Archæological Mine, i. 12. Queenborough was one of the victims included in Schedule A of the act of parliament known as "The Reform Bill."
In our own day Cove has been called Queenstown in honour of Queen Victoria.
Leeze-holders, a right of turning on the coming or Leeze (Celtic, Leswes) twenty-four sheep, which of late years, by a bye-law, has been arranged to substitute either two horses or three bullocks. A Leeze is supposed to contain about seven acres of land of herbage. The common consists of about 240 acres, including roads.
See Hogarth's Visit, &c. to Queenborough. A hearty laugh will repay the trouble. The mayor was then a thatcher: the room remains as it did in Hogarth's day; and as Queenborough was then, so it is now, one long street without any trade.
Of Mr. Greet's mayoralty many humorous tales are told: he was at times popular, but towards the close of his reign most decidedly the reverse. At his funeral the dredgers, &c. threw halfpence into his grave to pay his passage to the lower regions. He, one day, ex officio, sentenced a pilferer to a flogging at the cart's tail, and as executioners did not volunteer, he took off his coat, and himself applied the cat to the bare back of the culprit from one end of the street to the other. Mr. Greet was one of the best friends Queenborough ever had. After his death it plunged deeply into debt, had its paraphernalia and books seized and sold by the sheriff, and now all its property is in the hands of trustees to pay its debts, whilst its poor-rates are, a witness, a late mayor said, nine shillings in the pound. The debt was originally 12,700l.; but as no interest has been paid thereon, it is now 17,000l. The trustees have received about 4,000l., but this sum has been melted in subsequent litigation; for Queenborough men are mightily fond of supporting the law courts.