Queries.
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?