“Bewick” writes of a spot of ground called Brompton Park as being famed all over the kingdom for the growth of plants, and adds the stock is so large that if reckoned only at a penny each plant the whole value would be above £40,000.
PADDINGTON in the time of Edgar was given to the monks of Westminster at the cost of two hides of land. As the value of a hide of land in Henry the First’s time was 3/-, the monks had a good bargain.
The name is of doubtful derivation, Pad may mean a path or a robber. It may also mean a saddle. The place may have been infested by robbers, or it may have been a place where travellers stopped to bait their horses and “re-padded.”
Pope Nicolas IV. gave the whole proceeds of the manor of Paddington to the poor.
This manor at the reformation passed into the hands of the Established Church. Much as I value the Reformation I cannot pass on without asking what the people to whom this manor of Paddington was given have done for the poor. If the poor had that which others have taken from them we should not have the sad spectacle of old couples driven into a workhouse in which no provision is made for them to end their days together. Married by a church which says “What God has joined together let no man put asunder.” That very church has become possessed of the means which would have enabled them to end their days in peace and comfort.
In Henry the Eighth’s time the manor of Paddington was valued at £41 16s. 8d. Edward the Sixth granted the manor and rectory to Bishop Ridley, then Bishop of London, and to his heirs and successors.
KENSINGTON church lands were also very extensive, as much property was given in the reign of Henry the First to the monastery of Abingdon. St. Mary Abbot’s district of Kensington will indicate the ground which was thus handed over to the abbots.
In 1527 a curate of Kensington (Sebastian Harris) was charged with having in his possession a New Testament and a Lutheran book.
He was ordered to leave Kensington within 2 days and not to return within 4 miles of the place for 2 years.
Tyndale’s New Testament was published 1525.