This being the case, the mis-quotation of Lysons and Saunders is of very little account, and is corrected here only for the sake of preserving something like truth in this historical narrative.
Dart, who appears to have received Dunstan’s Charter without questioning its authenticity, must have been struck by the omission of any mention of Paddington in the Confessor’s Charter; and he seems to have been persuaded of the necessity of producing some kingly authority for the enjoyment of these lands from the time of Dunstan, as he states, to the dissolution of the convent—a period of nearly six-hundred years; for he adds to the sentence, already quoted, and as though it was an after thought, “King Stephen afterwards confirmed this manor and liberties granted with it, and after him King Henry the second.”
How these Kings “confirmed this manor” we are not told, neither do I know what documents Dart could have seen, to induce him to make this assertion. In the only Charter of Stephen’s to the Abbey, to be found in the Monasticon, there is no confirmation of this manor or any mention of it. Neither is there any Charter of Henry the Second’s to the Abbey to be found in that great work. If Dart simply intended that these Kings confirmed to the Abbey all the charters then existing, he is, in all probability, right; but if he wished it to be understood that there was any special grant of this manor I think we may fairly dismiss this unsupported assertion without any further consideration. And we may do this the more readily, because Widmore, the most trustworthy author who has ever written on the Abbey, tells us, that Dart was much more of a poet than an antiquarian, and that his “pompous work” contains errors in almost every page.
In speaking of the fabricated documents which the Westminster monks left behind them, Widmore has well said,—“Such forgery, tho’ it be an ugly charge against any, whether single persons or bodies of men, yet the thing, in this case, is too manifest to be denied or doubted of; and the monks of Westminster were not alone in such practices; it was a general Thing, and the Fault of the Times; and it is said, in mitigation of it, that the Norman Conquerors made it as it were necessary, by disregarding the Old Saxon Charters of Lands and Privileges, and reducing the Monks to the hard condition of either losing what belonged to them, or defending it by forged instruments in Latin. But when Persons give themselves Leave to defend even a good Title by undue means, they seldom know where to stop, and the success at first emboldens them to enlarge beyond all Reason. And tho’ I do not think that in this Practice the whole was Fiction and Invention, they only added what they imagined would more especially serve their Purpose; yet by this means they have destroyed the certainty of History and left those who come after them no better Help, in separating the Truth from Fables, than conjecture and not altogether improbable supposition.”
From what has been said, it is evident that it will not do to rely on the authorities above referred to for an account of the acquisition of the Abbey lands in Paddington.
Fortunately, however, there are documents of a very ancient date on which some reliance can be placed; and thanks to the enlightened liberality of the Commons of England, and the untiring industry of those gentlemen engaged by the Record Commissioners, many of these documents have been made readily available for the uses of the public. [4]
One of the Saxon Chroniclers is reported to have said, the survey, taken by order of William the Conqueror, was so accurate “that not a hide or yardland, not an ox, cow, or hog, was omitted in the census.” And although we may not be able to believe that the Conqueror’s scrutiny was thus minute, yet the Dom Boc, or Domesday Book, has been always looked upon as a document worthy of much confidence. The inquisitors were appointed to enquire “Upon the oath of the sheriffs, the lords of each manor, the presbyters of every church, the reves of every hundred, the bailiffs and six villains of every village, into the name of the place, who held it in the time of King Edward, who was the present possessor, how many hides in the manor, &c., &c.” [5a]
If these directions were carried out, and faithfully entered, we should expect to find some account in this document of the Abbey possessions in Paddington, if any such existed at the time this survey was taken. But Mr. Saunders is perfectly correct in stating that no mention is made either of this place, or of Westbourn, or Knightsbridge, in the Domesday Book.
In the hundred of Osulvestane (Ossulston) the King held twelve acres and a half of land, worth five shillings, claimed by no one. He had also in this hundred “thirty cottagers who pay fourteen shillings and ten pence and one half-penny a year;” and two other cottagers belonging to Holburne paying “twenty-pence a year to the King’s Sheriff.” [5b]
“In the village where the Church of St. Peter is situated,” there were at the time of this survey, forty-one cottagers who paid forty shillings to the Convent for their gardens. And the land in and around the village of Westminster which belonged to the Abbey amounted in all to thirteen hides and a half; valued at eight pounds per annum. The whole in King Edward’s time twelve pounds. [5c]