Preface | [iii]–ix. |
PART I.—THELAND. | |
Chapter I.—Abbey Lands.—Fabulous story ofEdgar’s grant; Forged Charters of Edgar and Dunstan; theDom Boc or Domesday Book; the Middlesex Forest and itsRivers—the Fleete, the Tybourn, and the Brent; Tybourn andWestbourn the same streams; Site of Paddington; Roman Roads;Concord between the Abbot of Westminster and Richard and Williamof Paddington; the Abbot Walter’s Anniversary and itsModification; Probable origin of the term “Bread and CheeseLands;” Mode of dispensing the proceeds of Abbey Lands inthe 12th and 13th Centuries; the Ecclesiastical Taxation of PopeNicholas; the whole of the Temporalities of Paddington given inCharity | [1]–19 |
Chapter II.—The Manors of Westbourn andPaddington.—Definition of the word Manor; neitherWestbourn nor Paddington mentioned in Domesday; Probably includedin the Manor of Tybourn; Quo Warranto respecting them; Walter ofWenlock fined for acquiring lands here without the licence of theKing; three Inquisitiones ad quod Damnum tempus Edward Second;Grant of a head of water to the Mayor and Citizens of London | [19]–27 |
Chapter III.—The Possessions of the Church, the Crown and thePeople.—Division of the ancient Manor of Kensington;Grant ofSt. Mary’s Lands to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster;the Manor of Knightsbridge and Westbourn; the Manor ofNotting-Barns; Purchase and Bequest of this Manor by the Countessof Richmond; Property of Lord Sands and Thomas Hobson purchasedby the Crown; Elizabeth Massey; Inquisition, shewing that theManor of Notting Barns was a portion of the Parish of Paddington;Westbourn purchased by Henry the VIII, of Robert White; otherLands purchased by the Crown; Westbourn and other Lands sold toDr. Thomas Hues, and left by him to Merton College, Oxford;Description of a portion of this property, once in the possessionof Lord Sands, and belonging to Chelsea Manor—but formingno part of Chelsea Parish; What has become of Dr. Hues’sbequest? the Manor of Malurres; Ecclesiastical Valuation of Henrythe VIII; the Manor of Paddington valued at £19 per annum;Dissolution of Religious Houses; Lease of the Manor and Rectoryof Paddington to Sir Edward Baynton and his wife; Grant of theManor to the Bishop of London, one-fifth being reserved for theuses of the Crown; Descent of the Manor of Paddington as given byLysons; additions to his description; Sale of this Manor by theParliament; Dr. Sheldon’s Lease of it, and the Rectory, tohis nephews, after the Restoration; leased to Sir John Frederickfor three lives; Property of private owners; Commons andWaste | [28]–59 |
Chapter IV.—Charity Lands.—Abstract of Returnsmade to the House of Commons, 1786–88; Report of theCommissioners for Enquiry concerning Charities, 1826; Bread andCheese Lands; Johnson’s Charity; Dr. Compton’sCharity; Margaret Robertson’s Charity; Alms’ Housesand School House; Chirac’s Gift; Arbourne’s Charity;1st and 2nd Vic. cap. 32, An Act to enable the Trustees of theFreehold Charity Estates to grant Building Leases of the saidLands; Entries in the Vestry Minute Books | [60]–71 |
Chapter V.—The Paddington Estate.—Its presentvalue; 26th of Geo. II. an Act for enlarging the Church-yard; SirJohn Frederick’s Will; 3rd of Geo. III, an Act forconfirming Sale of Land to St. George’s Parish; 35th of Geo.III, cap. 83, an Act for confirming Grant of New Lease of theManor, Rectory, and other Lands, by which two-thirds of theproceeds were transferred to Lay Lessees; Granting power to let200 acres on Building Leases, and for other purposes connectedtherewith; 35th Geo. III, cap. 43, an Act for making a NavigableCut to Paddington; 38th Geo. III, cap. 33, another Act relativeto the Grand Junction Canal Company; 44th Geo. III, cap. 63, anAct for altering and amending the Bishop’s first BuildingAct, and for granting further powers the better to carry intoexecution the purposes of the said Act; 45th Geo. III, cap. 113,another Act for enlarging the powers of the previous BuildingActs; 48th Geo. III, cap. 142, another Act for the same purpose;50th Geo. III, cap. 44, an Act for further enlarging theChurch-yard; 51st Geo. III, cap. 169, an Act for establishing theGrand Junction Water-Works Company, one clause of which Actprovides that the said Company shall supply the tenants on theBishop’s Estate with Water at ten per cent. below theaverage rate; 52nd Geo. III, cap. 192, an Act to confirm anotherLease of other Lands to the Grand Junction Canal Company, and anexchange of other portions previously leased; 52nd Geo. III, cap.193, an Act to enable the Mayor and Commonality of London tosell, and the Bishop of London and his Lessees to buy certainWaters, Springs, Conduits, &c. within the several parishes ofMarylebone and Paddington; 52nd Geo. III, cap. 195, an Act formaking and maintaining a Navigable Canal from Paddington toLimehouse; 5th Geo. IV, cap. 35, another Act relative to theGrand Junction Canal Company; 6th Geo. IV, cap. 45, anotherBishop’s Building Act, by which the power of LettingBuilding Leases was extended to 400 acres of this Estate; aschedule annexed to this Act sets forth the particular parcels ofland claimed by the Bishop and his Lessees—another, theAccount of the Receipts and Payments; 7th Geo. IV, cap. 150, anAct relating to the Canal and Water Companies, and containing theformer provision for the supply of cheap Water to the tenants ofthe Bishop’s Estate; 7th and 8th Vic. cap. 30, another Actrelative to the Land leased to the Grand Junction Canal and theGrand Junction Water-Works Companies, by which sites for a Church and anHospital are provided; Sale and Lease of Land to the GreatWestern Railway Company; Sale of a portion of Paddington Green;Sale of portions of the Upper Readings | [72]–97 |
PART II.—THEPARISH AND THE PEOPLE. | |
Chapter I.—Definition ofthe word Parish; Situation of Paddington; Boundaries and Extent;General and Medical Topography; Drainage; Etymology of Names;Origin of the Parish | [101]—116 |
Chapter II.—The Parson;Origin and Use of Tithe; Parsonage, Rectory, or Vicarage;Paddington a Chapel of Ease to St. Margaret’s, Westminster;Appropriation and Impropriation; Survey of the Living; theVicarage converted into the Manor House; Curate’s Stipend;Improvement produced by the Revolution; Modern Abuse of theRectorial and other Lands; a Curacy without the means of a Cure;Bishop of London’s Receipts from the Paddington Estate;Receipts of the Lay Lessees; Anticipated Remedy to existingEvils | [117]—130 |
Chapter III.—AncientChurches; Tybourn, the Mother Church; St. Katherine’s andSt. James’s; Hogarth’s Marriage; Chaterlain’sViews; St. Mary’s, built by Act of Parliament; theChurch-yard; Parsonage Houses; Bayswater Chapel; St.John’s; Painted Windows; the New Parish Church; St.James’s; Trinity, and its middle-age Monsters; All Saints;Cost of Churches and Chapels; Contribution of the Ministerstowards their support; Lock Chapel; Dissenting Places ofWorship | [131]–163 |
Chapter IV.—Schools;Paddington Green, Bayswater, Titchbourn Street, and All Saints;Westbourn Schools; Dissenting Schools; Paddington Wharfs RaggedSchools; Charitable Institutions; Orphan Asylum; BayswaterEpiscopal Female Orphan School; the Paddington Visiting Society;Provident Dispensary; Savings’ Bank; Alms’ Houses;St. Mary’s Hospital; Free Dispensary; Refuge for theDestitute; Parish Poor-house; the Lock Hospital, Asylum, &c.;Want of Public Institutions; Public Companies | [164]–178 |
Chapter V.—Condition ofthe People; Circumstances which added to their numbers;Population in 1524, and the system of Taxation; Subsidy Rolls;Public Houses; Gentlemen’s Seats; Population in 1685;Notice of the Dead; Laws; Sturges Bourne’s Act; the LocalAct; Self-Government; the Parish in the last Century and thebeginning of this; the Cottages; Poor-rates, paltry paymentthereto by the Bishop and his Lessees; an important clause in theLocal Act burked, in order that the Bishop and the Builders mightescape payment to the Watching, Lighting and Paving Rate; Singleversus Plural Voting in Local Elections; Injustice to theMajority, to be remedied by the adoption of just principles | [179]–200 |
PART I. THE LAND.
CHAPTER I.
ABBEY LANDS.
So many fabulous stories are told us relative to the christian church, that we cannot be surprised to find the history of its territorial possessions, in any particular spot, mixed up with legends which have no foundation in fact.
Paddington has its story. We are told even to this day, [1a] that King Edgar gave lands here to the Monks of Westminster. And considering what Kings did give to Monks, and also the kind of services rendered by Dunstan and his friends to this usurper of his brother’s crown, it would not have been very surprising to have found this tale true. The same account is given by other authorities. The Rev. Daniel Lysons—the historian of “The Environs of London,”—says “King Edgar gave the Manor of Paddington to Westminster Abbey.” [1b] And a more recent writer, Mr. Saunders, in his “Results of an Inquiry concerning the situation and extent of Westminster, at various periods,” has supported this assertion in these words—“According to Dart, Paddington occurs, as an appendage to the convent of Westminster, in a Charter of King Edgar.” [1c] Unfortunately for the credit of this story, the work these authors have referred to does not sanction it. Dart, indeed, in the very page referred to both by Lysons and Saunders, states something very different from that, which he is reported to have said; for he distinctly informs us it was Dunstan who gave the land at Paddington to the monks of Westminster. [2a]
After specifying the gifts of proceeding Kings, and those of Edgar in particular, Dart says, “But to return to Dunstan. Having thus influenced the King, he goes on with his own benefactions. And first by his Charter, takes upon him to confirm some of the gifts of Edgar, then grants many privileges to this church, exempts it from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London and curses all his successors in that see, and all others who dare to infringe its rights; and lastly releases it from the payment of the tax called Roomscot, [2b] as Offa, Kenulph, and Edgar had done.”
The Bishop by another charter secures the privileges of the convent, and settles certain lands for the maintenance of the monks, viz. “Lands at Hendon and Hanwell to the amount of twenty-eight hides.” And at “Paddington, in the county of Middlesex, which grant was confirmed by his own Charter, and afterwards by King Henry the Eighth, and said to contain two hides of land.” He also granted certain lands at Merton, Perham, Cowell, Ewell, and Shepperton—thirty seven hides in these five places. All these grants, with the exception of Paddington, Dart states were confirmed by the Charter of Edward the Confessor.
But this statement of Dart’s relative to the grant of land in Paddington is of no value, excepting that it probably names the utmost extent of land which the church of Westminster ever got in Paddington by honest means, since it has been convincingly proved that “the Great Charters” both of Edgar, and Dunstan, are the fabrication of monks who lived long after the death of the King and Bishop.
The learned Dr. Hickes has shewn that the hand in which these charters are written, is of a later period than the time when the grants are supposed to have been made; that the phraseology is partly Norman; that Edgar’s Charter has the mark of a pendent seal having been attached to it; and that, to the so called Dunstan’s Charter the waxen impression was remaining when it was examined by him. He tells us that the practice of attaching pendent seals is Norman; [2c] and in this opinion he is supported by Mr. Astle, in a paper printed in the tenth volume of the Archæologia. Mr. Kemble, in his introduction to the first volume of the Anglo Saxon charters, p. 101, also says, “The Norman Charters are for the most part granted under seal; those of the Saxons, never.” And although in the introduction to the second volume, Mr. Kemble states that as to the authenticity of several charters he does not agree in the opinion arrived at by Dr. Hickes, yet we perceive on turning to this charter the fatal asterisk before it, which either denotes it to be “an ascertained forgery, or liable to suspicion.”
The Rev. Richard Widmore, for many years librarian to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, says, “What the privileges were that either he (Dunstan) granted, or obtained from King Edgar, for it (the Abbey) is not at this time to be known the Charters which now remain, both of the one and the other, have been proved beyond all doubt to be forgeries.” [3]