Paddington: Past and Present

by William Robins

Division of Profits.—“And whereas the value of the Interests of the said Lord Bishop of London and his successors and of the said Lessees in the said Premises, having been taken into consideration, it is conceived that the Rents, Issues and Profits which at present are reserved or payable, or which shall or may arise from and out of the Messuages, Lands, Hereditaments, and Premises comprised in the said Lease, or which shall hereafter be reserved or payable, or arise from and out of the said Premises, and every part thereof, upon any reserved Lease or Leases to be made under the authority of this Act, or any Under Leases in pursuance thereof or otherwise, should be appropriated between the said Bishop of London and his said Lessees in the shares hereinafter mentioned, (that is to say), One Third thereof to the Bishop and his Successors for the Time being, and Two Thirds thereof to his said Lessees, their Executors, Administrators, or Assigns, subject to the said present Annual Rents and Pension, and such other Deductions as are hereinafter mentioned.”

Increase of Forty Pounds a year in the Stipend of a Single Curate.—“And whereas the said clear yearly pension or stipend of Eighty Pounds, so payable to the Curate of the said Parish of Paddington for the time being, who is appointed to serve the said Cure by the said Lord Bishop and his Successors, and which now stands charged upon the whole of the said Hereditaments and Premises so comprised in the said Lease of the fourteenth day of August, 1776, and which it is proposed should be by the said intended Lease or Leases so to be granted under the powers of this Act, increased to £120 a-year, and be secured upon and made payable, not only out of the Tythes arising and to arise and become payable to the said Lessees, as hereinafter is mentioned, but also upon a Farm and Lands called Kilburn Bridge Farm hereinafter mentioned, and now of the annual value of £230, and now in the occupation of — Newport, as Tenant thereof at such Rent, and not be charged or become chargeable upon any other part of the said Lands, Hereditaments, and Premises to be leased by any such Under Lease or Under Leases for the purposes intended by this Act, in which case it would defeat the good purposes of this Act.

Sole benefit of contemplated change, with the exceptions above mentioned, to be for the Bishop and his Lessees.—And whereas, notwithstanding it would be for the mutual benefit of the said Lord Bishop of London and his successors, and the said Sir John Morshead and Dame Elizabeth his Wife and their infant issue, and the said Robert Thistlethwayte and Selina his Wife and their Infant issue as aforesaid, that the said herein-before mentioned Proposals should be carried into complete Execution, yet the same cannot be effected without the aid of Parliament.”

Wherefore His Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, Beilby (Porteus) Lord Bishop of London, on behalf of himself and his successors, Thomas Wood, (the surviving Trustee of the marriage settlements of the under-mentioned ladies,) Sir John Morshead and Dame Elizabeth his Wife, on behalf of themselves and their six children, Robert Thistlethwayte and Selina his Wife, on behalf of themselves and their six children, and Sir John Frederick and Arthur Stanhope (new trustees appointed under the provisions of the aforesaid marriage settlements) joined in beseeching his Majesty that it might be enacted, and it was enacted, in the usual form: “That it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Beilby, Lord Bishop of London, and his successors for the time being, and he and they are hereby required and directed by Indenture under the Episcopal Seal of the said Lord Bishop, and his successors, to demise, lease, and to farm let” to the said trustees “their Executors, Administrators, or Assigns, or the Trustees or Trustee for the time being, to be hereafter named or appointed under the Powers” of Indentures of settlement of the 5th of July, 1782, and 4th of March, 1783, partly recited in this Act, all the “Hereditaments whatsoever of the said Reverend Father, and belonging to the bishoprick of London, heretofore demised by the late King Henry the eighth,” by an Indenture dated 21st of December, in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, to Richard Rede; “and also all that Annual Rent or yearly sum of Ten Pounds, charged upon the Parish of Paddington;” “and also all that Wood and Wood Ground commonly called Paddington Wood, containing by estimation Thirty Acres, be it more or less, and which was many years since converted into and is now Pasture Land, together with all manner of Trees, Hawts and Hedgerows of the said Reverend Father, and belonging to the said Bishoprick of London, growing or being, or which hereafter shall grow or be within the Parish of Paddington aforesaid, and also all the Herbage and Pannage of the said Woods, &c. &c.,” “and all other the Hereditaments and Premises” leased and comprised in an Indenture, dated the fourteenth of August, 1776, also partly recited in this Act, “except Easter Offerings, Mortuaries, and all surplice fees to be paid to and received by the Curate of Paddington for the time being;” and also all and singular the strips or pieces or parcels of waste ground herein-before described “containing about five acres, be the same more or less;” “To hold for a term of ninety-nine years, and to commence from the day next before the day of the date of such lease,” and also to renew the said lease at the end of the first fifty years of the said term of ninety-nine years, on payment or tender of a fine of twenty shillings, for a further term of ninety-nine years, to commence and be computed from the end of the said first fifty years, and so to continue to renew the lease for the time being so to be granted.” [80]

The Act provides “That before the Execution of the said first Indenture of Lease, or of any Indenture of Renewal, and at the end of every year afterwards there shall be delivered by the Lessees therein to be named to the said Bishop and his successors, or his or their Agent or Steward, a true and particular account, in writing, of the Rent or Rents, at which the Premises thereby to be leased, are then let or demised, and to whom, and for what term or number of years respectively.”

The Act also provides “that there be reserved in such Lease and renewed Leases a chief rent chargeable on the said Lands, Tenements, &c.,” “for the benefit of the said Lord Bishop of London and his successors for the time being, of forty-three pounds, six shillings and eightpence, and also one-third part of the rents, issues, ground-rents, and other profits reserved or to be reserved, due and payable, or arising out or from, or which the same Messuages or Tenements, Lands, Tythes, Hereditaments, and Premises, and every part thereof shall be let for, immediately before the passing of this Act, and which the same shall from time to time be let for, under the leases to be granted as hereinafter is mentioned, or otherwise, after deducting in the first place the above-mentioned reserved rent of forty-three pounds, six shillings and eight-pence,” a pension to the curate of £120 a-year, the fifteen pounds a year rent paid to the Churchwardens for the waste lands, the land tax, “and such other taxes as shall or may be hereafter imposed on the Lessor or Landlord in respect of the said Premises by authority of Parliament.” Such reserved rents to be paid quarterly “and the first payment thereon to commence, to the said Lord Bishop and his successors, from the fifth day of April last past.”

It was also provided that the aforesaid pension or annual stipend of £120, payable to the curate, should be secured on and made payable from the tithes of the Parish of Paddington, also on “a farm, called Kilburn Bridge Farm, containing about forty acres or thereabouts, and of the yearly value of £230.” It was also provided, that the lease now to be granted or any renewed lease should contain such or the like covenants as are mentioned and contained in the Indenture of the fourteenth of August, 1776, “touching the accommodation of the Surveyor or Steward of the said Lord Bishop and his successors, their servants and horses, on any court or courts, survey or surveys to be held of or for the said Premises.”

“Provided always, that there be a covenant inserted in such Lease and Leases so to be granted as aforesaid, that the said Thomas Wood, Sir John Frederick, and Arthur Stanhope, their Executors, Administrators, and Assigns, or any succeeding Trustee or Trustees to be appointed as aforesaid, their or his Executors, Administrators, or Assigns shall not lease or demise any part of the said Hereditaments and Premises to be comprised in the Leases so to be granted to them as aforesaid, except in the manner hereinafter mentioned.”

A power was given to the said Trustees or their Assigns to demise any part of the said premises comprised in the lease and leases to be granted by the bishop and his successors, “not exceeding two hundred acres thereof,” without application to Parliament for farther powers, “to any person or persons who shall be willing to build upon, rebuild, or substantially repair the same, in the manner by the Lease or respective Leases to be granted thereof to be specified,” for any term not exceeding ninety-eight years (“provided that the said Lord Bishop for the time being be a party to all such Under Leases,”) “so as there be reserved in and by such Leases, &c. the best and most improved yearly rent that can be reasonably had or gotten for the same, to be made payable quarterly, free from all deductions whatsoever, without any Pine, Premium, or Foregift, or any Thing in the nature of a Fine being taken for the making thereof.”

The leases were to contain covenants to build and keep in repair the messuages, &c. agreed to be built, and to keep these buildings “insured from damage by fire to the amount of four-fifths of the value thereof;” and “to surrender and leave in repair the messuages, &c. to be erected and built, or rebuilt and repaired” at the end of the term or terms in such leases granted. And all “other usual and proper covenants, provisos, and conditions” were to be inserted “usually contained in building leases near the City of London.” These under-lettings were to take place from time to time by public auction to the best bidder, (if approved of by the bishop and his lessees), notice of the time and place of such auction having been given to the bishop or his agent by the said lessees. Separate lots were to be made for every house, “whose breadth in front shall be twenty-eight feet and upwards;” and for houses of smaller dimensions no more than one hundred feet frontage was to be let in one lot. The under-lessees were to be bound to build on this land, so taken, within a specified time, “and agreeably to such a plan as shall be approved by the Lord Bishop of London and his successors, and the said lessees for the time being.” Three counterparts of these under-leases were to be provided, one to be delivered to the bishop or his agent, for the registration of which a fee of six shillings and eight pence was to be paid; the other two being for the trustees of the two families interested in the Bishop’s lease. Any number of these sub-leases might be taken by any one person, so that the quantity altogether did not amount “to more than fifteen acres of the said land.” It was also provided, that “Farm Leases at Rack-rent for twenty-one years may be granted with the consent of the Bishop of London,” but to be determinable on six months’ notice being given.