It was Bishop Mountayne who leased the manor of Paddington to Sir Rowland St. John, in 1626, and not Bishop Abbot, as stated by Lysons; for George Abbot was bishop of London only a few months, and was translated to Canterbury in 1611. I learn from the survey to which Lysons has referred, but which I think he could not have examined for himself, that the lease granted by Bishop Mountayne was dated the twenty-fourth of November, 1626, the second year of Charles the first, the reserved rent for the manor only, being forty-one pounds, six shillings and eight pence; the wood of thirty acres before referred to, being now separately leased for forty shillings per annum; and besides the payment of this increased rent, the lessee was bound by this lease to find the surveyor and steward of the said Lord Bishop, “with provision for man and horse during the holding of his court upon the premises.” At the time this parliamentary survey was taken, the rectory, “excepting the parsonage house or houses,” with the great tithe, was held by John Lisle, one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal; and it was separately valued at twenty-eight pounds per annum.
The ordinance which was issued on the sixteenth of November, 1646, for the sale of Bishops’ lands and estates for the service of the Commonwealth, was followed by a valuation of these estates in England and Wales; and from that valuation we learn the following particulars relative to Paddington:—[49a]
Temporalities. | £ | s. | d. |
Present rents and profits, per annum | 44 | 1 | 8 |
Improvements above, per annum | 1119 | 11 | 8 |
Timber, wood, &c., valuation in gross | 362 | 6 | 8 |
Rectory and Parsonage. | |||
Present value | nil. | ||
Future, per annum | 35 | 0 | 0 |
On the fourteenth of December, 1649, “The manner of Paddington wth ye appurten’ces” was sold to Thomas Browne for the sum of three thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight pounds, seventeen shillings and four pence. [49b]
How long Mr. Browne enjoyed the revenues of this manor, or what arrangement was come to with respect to this particular purchase on the re-establishment of the episcopacy, I do not know. Lysons informs us that “by the parish accounts, it appears Thomas Browne, esquire, was lord of the manor in 1657,” and it is very probable he continued so after the prelacy was restored; but unfortunately these parish accounts are not now to be found; otherwise more information on this subject, as well as many others, might be obtained.
When Dr. Gilbert Sheldon was appointed to the bishoprick of London, after the restoration, he claimed the manor, and rectory of Paddington. If he made his claim good, which he appears to have done, it is quite evident that Sir Oliver St. John stood in his former position with regard to this estate; and although he might not have had the opportunity to renew his lease between the restoration and his death, which took place in 1662, (and not in 1661, as is asserted both by Lysons and Collins vide Peerage, vol. vi.), it is very evident from the directions given in his will, which is dated twenty-eighth December, 1661, that he was desirous of doing so.
I found Sir Oliver’s will at Doctor’s Commons; it was proved on the twenty-eighth of June, 1662. He therein directs the sale of certain estates for the purpose of paying his debts, and for enabling his trustees to take another lease of the manor, “which he held of the Bishop of London in Paddington” at that time, and the lease was to be taken either for three lives, or for twenty-one years. But the new bishop had nephews, to whom, it appears he was more willing to grant a lease of this manor than to those whose ancestors had purchased it, and in whose family it had remained for upwards of a century.
It would appear that Bishop Sheldon’s relatives received the profits of the manor and rectory of Paddington for nearly eighty years; but Lysons has made a mistake in stating the manor was purchased by Sir John Frederick in 1741; for in the preamble of the first Act of Parliament [50a] which I can find relative to these lands it is stated that a lease bearing date the fifth of August, 1740, was granted by Edmund (Gibson), then bishop of London, to Sir John Frederick, during the lives of Judith Jodrell, widow; John Afflick; and John Crosier. [50b] This in all probability was the date of Sir John Frederick’s first lease; and as this may be considered the starting point in the modern history of the manor and rectory of Paddington, now, par excellence, “The Paddington Estate,” I shall reserve what more I have to say on this subject for a future chapter.
On the ninth of November, in the thirty-eighth of Henry the eighth, an inquisition was held on the property of Henry Horne, who was found to have died, seized of “one capital messuage, three other messuages or tenements, and one close of land containing by estimation six acres, with appurtenances, in Paddington, which were holden of the lord king, as of his manor of Paddington by fealty, and twelvepence rent for all services, and not in chief; and they are worth by the year three pounds ten shillings.” Escaet 38th Henry VIII.
In the second year of the sixth Edward, William Francis was found to have died seised of “one messuage in Paddington, situated between the highway called Watlyng-street, and beyond the eastern side of the pont called Paddington pond; of two messuages called the Bridge-house, and of one orchard to the said two messuages adjacent; of four tenements upon Paddington-green; of one messuage called Blasers in Paddington aforesaid, with a garden; of two acres of land; of one croft in Paddington aforesaid; of half an acre lying between the tenements of Henry Prowdfoot, late of London, mason, and the ponds there called Paddington ponds on the south side, and the land late of John Colyns on the north side, and abuts on the king’s highway called Watlyng-street on the east; and the jurors find that the aforesaid messuages and other premises in Paddington aforesaid are holden of Richard Rede of London, as of his manor of Padyngton, in the county of Middlesex, by fealty, and three shillings rent for all issues and demands.” Escaet 2; Edw. 6. part 2. No. 23.