When Mr. Elsee applied to Mr. Ellis for the payment for some seed beans and land rolls, and the two stacks of hay sold him in September, he said he would pay for the things as valued by Mr. Mee. To this Mr. Elsee objected, and having found Mr. Mee in Romford Market, he told him in the presence of the new tenant that he had no right to mix the property of the crown and what had been sold to the new tenant together; and that as Mr. Ellis wanted to settle, and he wanted his money, if the umpire would look into his books, and say the value of the two hay-stacks, and the wheat straw, although valued ever so low, he would, according to his agreement, take the money, and settle with the new tenant, but that he had no right to mix the things to be paid for by the crown with the other property; and that as to the oat and bean straw, not one word had been mentioned about selling it, by any of the parties, as it was never intended to be sold, that and the hay from the stacks at Windmill Hill being all the cattle had to live upon from Michaelmas to Lady-day; and that as to the award, he was confident it must be set aside, as the allowance for dung to which they had no claim amounted to more than the rent owing to them; and as he had agreed to enable Mr. Driver to fulfil his engagement with the new tenant, by furnishing him with dung for the ensuing crops, the arbitrators surely did not mean to make him pay over again in money. Mr. Mee appeared confused, and refused to state the value of the hay and straw separately. With respect to the oat and bean straw, when Mr. Driver found it was not intended to be sold, he himself furnished Mr. Ellis with the amount, and ordered him to deduct it out of the sum to be paid; this Mr. Driver could do, independent of Mr. Mee; but the charge against Mr. Elsee for the 188 load of dung, and the 7½ per. cent. for making the charge unjustly, he entirely omitted to notice!
The following additional particulars are to be taken into the account of the sum total of the loss sustained.
Mr. Elsee was obliged to allow for the 96 acres of wheatstraw, sold to Mr. Ellis, no less than 392 load of dung, at 12s.per load | 235 | 4 | 0 |
For the hay to Mr. Ellis 123 load, at two load for one,246 load at 12s. per load | 147 | 12 | 0 |
For the 18 acres of wheat, taken to Chigwell Row, at 13load & 4 load of rubbish, Mr. Elsee delivered 200 dung cartload of good rotten dung and chalk, at 5s. per load | 50 | 0 | 0 |
100 | 0 | 0 | |
For 119 load of hay sold, and about 6 load of rubbish,tops and bottoms, taken away, Mr. Elsee paid in money by Mr.Bolland’s award | 284 | 2 | 0 |
Expence of award and crown witnesses | 54 | 12 | 0 |
Mr. Elsee’s expences in the exchequer, and theaward | 320 | 0 | 0 |
Being a charge of | £1191 | 10 | 0 |
| for dung only. | ||
Thus was Mr. Elsee, in one year, deprived of more than three thousand pounds, as the result of his anxious desire to oblige the Commissioners, and to accommodate the views of Mr. Driver. To this alone has this injustice—we had almost called it robbery—been owing. As a tenant at will, he would have been only liable to his customary rent; he could have carried off his crops, sold the dung, removed his fixtures, and left a worthless occupancy to the crown; but because he was anxious to accommodate himself to the best interests of all parties, and incautiously put himself in the hands of Mr. Driver, he has been marked out for a series of wrongs and oppressions that are scarcely to be credited; but it is yet to be hoped that he may obtain redress. The blame at present may rest only with the inferior agents of the crown, and the Commissioners have the means, nor shall we doubt of their disposition to do right; but if their servants can intercept the claim for justice, there is no step left but an appeal to the legislature to expose the wrong, and prove that the boast of equal law is an idle mockery in England.
We shall now proceed to shew, from the quantity of meadow land, that no such quantity of hay could have been grown, as that for which the dung was claimed. This we shall do by inserting the following document, of the authenticity of which there can be no question, as it is a copy of the estimated quantity of the land, arable and meadow and pasture, made by Mr. Driver himself, and printed in the proposals for letting the farms, when they were taken by Mr. Ellis.
Particulars of Land from the letting Catalogue.
No. | Names of the Fields. | Arable. | Mead & Pas. | Land mown | ||||||
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| A. | R. | P. | A. | R. | P. | A. | R. | P. |
1 | House, homestead, &c. |
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| 2 | 3 | 1 |
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2 | Orchard |
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| 2 | 0 | 27 |
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3 | Plat |
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| 2 | 0 | 24 |
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4 |
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| 1 | 2 | 0 |
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5 | Barn field |
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| 13 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
6 | Lodge field | 16 | 3 | 32 |
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7 | Foreberry |
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| 21 | 3 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 |
8 | Church plain | 45 | 1 | 12 |
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9 | Ditto |
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| 0 | 3 | 32 |
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10 | Lower brook field | 17 | 0 | 11 |
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11 | Ditto | 6 | 3 | 33 |
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| 6 | 0 | 0 |
12 | Ditto | 2 | 1 | 39 |
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13 | Bourn bridge mead | 3 | 1 | 24 |
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14 | Ditto |
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| 13 | 3 | 19 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
15 | Lower outer course | 14 | 1 | 27 |
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16 | Lower inner ditto | 10 | 0 | 4 |
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17 | Upper brook field | 22 | 3 | 0 |
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18 | Lodge field ) in one | 15 | 2 | 14 |
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19 | Shedfield hill ) in one | 38 | 1 | 16 |
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20 | Middle inner field | 9 | 3 | 11 |
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21 | Middle outer field |
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| 9 | 0 | 16 |
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22 | Upper ditto |
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| 6 | 3 | 32 |
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23 | Upper inner course | 1 | 2 | 11 |
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24 | Upper inner course | 3 | 3 | 22 |
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25 | Upper inner course | 6 | 2 | 20 |
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26 |
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| 34 | 3 | 8 | 32 | 0 | 0 |
27 | The twelve acres | 14 | 3 | 18 |
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28 | Windmill Hill | 10 | 2 | 10 |
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29 | Windmill Hill | 11 | 1 | 19 |
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30 |
| 8 | 0 | 26 |
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31 | Great sand hill | 4 | 0 | 9 |
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32 |
| 17 | 0 | 23 |
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33 | Little sand hill | 9 | 1 | 1 |
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34 | Eighteen acres |
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| 20 | 0 | 18 |
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35 | Pound field | 22 | 3 | 0 |
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36 | The twenty six acres | 28 | 2 | 0 |
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37 | The new mead |
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| 16 | 2 | 34 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
38 | The twenty acres | 26 | 2 | 26 |
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39 | Williper hill | 23 | 3 | 5 |
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40 | The fifty acres |
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| 46 | 1 | 3 | 44 | 0 | 0 |
The hoppet | 3 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 392 | 1 | 13 | 192 | 2 | 22 | 143 | 0 | 0 | |
The first column contains the quantify of arable, and the second of meadow and pasture land, estimated by landlord’s measure, that is including roads, ditches, &c. This also includes the homestead, farm-yard, &c. places which certainly could not be mowed for hay. In the third column is given the real quantity of land that was mowed, not including the waste land, and land newly laid down to grass.
Of the meadow laud, there were 143 acres, which was estimated by Mr. Elsee’s opponents themselves as producing 1¼ load per acre, and this would amount to about 178 loads. There were 81 acres, which was estimated to produce three quarters of a load per acre, and this amounts to about 60 loads. The waste land comprized about 56 acres, which was estimated at half a load an acre, making about 33 loads. Adding these together, we have a total of 271 loads, as the whole produce of the meadow land; and from this is to be deducted 123 loads which were valued to Mr. Ellis, and this leaves only 148 loads to be accounted for by Mr. Elsee. Of this quantity, as appears by his books he has sold 119 loads, the remaining 29 being eaten by his cattle on the premises. Nothing can be clearer than this detail, the facts and figures of which speak for themselves.
Another corroboration of this calculation is to be found in Mr. Mee’s award, (see page [55]) which amounts to 384l. 18s. but deducting 35l. 7s. for the oat and bean straw, 10l. for the chaff, 30l. for the fixtures, and 29l. 13s. for his expences, leaves only 279l. 18s. for 132 acres of the best meadow land, and 100 acres of wheat straw.