Chapter 8 8

Kilburn Priory was returned as of the value of seventy-four pounds, seven shillings, and eleven-pence; and by the provisions of 27 Henry VIII., chap. 28, all its possessions went to the king. By an act passed in the next session (28 Henry VIII., c. 38) its lands were exchanged by the king with Sir William Weston, Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, for his manor of Paris Garden, Southwark. This act recites the indenture relating to this exchange, describing the property very fully.

[14] After specifying the site of the priory, the Act proceeds-"and all other the demayne londes of the sayde late Pryory lyeing and beying in Kylborne aforesayde, Hamstede, Padyngton, and Westborn, in the sayde countie;" "the hedge rowes rounde aboute Gorefeld and Goremede" are stated as "conteyning, by estimacon, xj acres and a half acre, and xxti rodes," &c.

The manors of Eybury, Neyte, and Hyde, were, with other Abbey lands, exchanged with the king for the dissolved Priory of Hurley, Berkshire, and the exchange was confirmed by Act of Parliament 28 Henry VIII., c. 49.

In the Valor Ecclesiasticus, taken by command of King Henry VIII. in 1535, the following entries relating to these manors also appear:-

"Repris ex offic Sacrist dei Monasterii

Reddit' resolut' videlt

Manerio de Eybury p. iijlz acr' terr in Eyfelde per

annum iiij."

"Repris' ex offic Novi opis

Midd

Reddit' resolut' annuat' de divs terr et tenements predict videlt.

￡

s.

d.

Prioresse de Kilborne exeunt de

xvj

Manerio de Eybery exeunt de

xv

Cust capelle b~te Marie monaster predict p divs terris apud Knightsbridge

x

xj

Et manerio de Ebery pro manerio de Hide

vij

"Repris ex offic sellarar

Reddit' resolut' annuat' &c.

Dict manerij de Eybury pro terr voc Marketmede

xiii

iiij

Notwithstanding the Reformation, Knightsbridge was still reserved to the Abbey, and in the hands of its deans and chapters it has ever since remained, excepting during the alienation of church lands in the seventeenth century, when it became the property of Sir George Stonehouse. The lands at the Gore, and near to it, passed into various lay hands, and will be hereafter more fully noticed.

The manor of Eybury also passed into lay hands. In the Act 28, Henry VIII. c. 49, it is stated as lately in the occupation of Richard Whashe; and a person of that name rented the more considerable part of it known as Ebury Farm in 1592, direct from Queen Elizabeth. Other portions of the manor were similarly rented by persons who underlet the land again, thereby occasioning great wrong to the inhabitants at large-for notwithstanding the great length of time these lands had been in priestly possession, the people, in some measure, appear to have maintained a claim over them, and considerable portions were always laid open for use in common at Lammas-tide (Aug. 1). This ancient right these lessees under the Queen appear to have been determined to resist, and enclosed the fields with gates and hedges, on which the inhabitants appealed, in 1592, to Lord Burleigh, High Steward of Westminster, for his interference in their behalf. He ordered Mr. Tenche, his under-steward, to empanel an inquest; and the decision of the jury being favourable to the petitioners, they, thinking they should have Lord Burleigh's countenance, proceeded on Lammas-day to assert their rights. The gates were pulled down, and the fences cut away, on which the tenants appealed on their part to Burleigh, who, again referring the matter to Mr. Tenche, that functionary, after inquiry, replied, that "certain of the parishioners of St. Martin's and St. Margaret's assembled together," and made an entry into their "ancient commons" by making "a small breach in every enclosure;" that some of those assembled "were of the best and ancientest of the parishes; that they carried no weapon, and had only four or five shovels and pickaxes, and had divers constables with them to keep her Majesty's peace;" and that "having thus laid open such grounds as they challenged to be their commons, they quietly retired to their houses, without any further hurt-doing." One Peter Dod, in his evidence before the inquest, said "they told him they would break open to Knight's Bridge and Chelsey;" and R. Wood, a constable, testified to the breaking of the enclosure at "Aubery Farm towards Chelsey," whence they crossed to "Crowfield," at the upper end of Hyde-park.

Her Majesty's "poor tenants and farmours" petitioned Lord Burleigh to commit some of the parishioners to the Star Chamber, and to stop further proceedings until the case could be heard in the Court of Exchequer. The inhabitants rejoined, stating "that Ebury Farm, containing 430 acres, meadow and pasture, which was holden of her Majesty by lease, was granted to one Whashe, who paid ￡21 per annum. And the same was let to divers persons, who for their private commodity did inclose the same, and had made pastures of arable land; thereby not only annoying her Majesty in her walks and passages, but to the hindrance of her game, and great injury to the common, which at Lammas was wont to be laid open, for the most part, as by ancient precedents thereof made, do more particularly appear." They then state this system of inclosure had prevailed for about twenty years; that in the Neate, there were 108 acres belonging to her Majesty similarly enclosed, although they should also be common at Lammas. Strype, from whom this account is derived, does not state how the contest terminated; but certain it is that for very many years the owners of some of these lands paid money to the parish officers of St. Martin's, in lieu of this claim; but I cannot find that this right of the poor has at all for many years been inquired into. Parochial officers have, in many instances, sadly neglected their duty; and this is not one of the lightest accusations against them.

The manor of Ebury afterwards became the property of a family named Davis, who owned it for a lengthened period. The last male of this family, Alexander Davis, died July 2nd, 1665; by his wife, Mary, daughter of Richard Dukeson, D.D., and who survived till July 11th, 1717, [19] he had one daughter, Mary, who was married at St. Clement's Danes, October 10th, 1676, to Sir Thomas Grosvenor. This manor devolved upon her; and on her death, January 12th, 1730, came to be the freehold property of her husband, whose descendant has been ennobled by the title of Marquis of Westminster, and is the present Lord of the Manor of Ebury.

We will now revert to Knightsbridge proper again. It anciently occupied a great deal more land than its present appearance indicates. In the reign of Elizabeth certain lands appertaining to the park were within it. An indenture to that effect, dated July 6th, in the eleventh year of the Queen's reign, between the Marquis of Winchester, Lord High Treasurer, and Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on behalf of the Queen, and Francis Nevyll, one of the keepers of Hyde-park, on his own behalf, was agreed to for the better preservation of the game; and it was ordered that "our" land, called Knightsbridge land, containing, by estimation, about forty acres, should, at the costs of her Majesty, be "rayled" in, to hinder all manner of horses and cattle (except her Majesty's "dere") entering the said enclosed land. The said Francis Nevyll then covenants that while he is keeper he will keep the gates thereof locked, and will not suffer any horses or cattle to be put therein. He also agrees to make and sell in stacks, or carry into her Majesty's hay-barn, all the hay which may be made within the said "rayled" lands, and deliver the same to "her Grace's dere" in winter, and shall not in the wintry half-year put to pasture within the said "rayled" land above the number of ten kine or bullocks, or in lieu of every two kine or bullocks, one horse or gelding. Another plot of ground, belonging to the Lazar-house, was also enclosed within Hyde-park; but of its extent, or why the institution should have been deprived of it, I have not been able to ascertain.

The Bridge.-The bridge, whence the place derives its name, we are informed by Strype, was a stone bridge, and most probably the one he described was the same as remained to our own time. When, or by whom, first erected, is not recorded; but it is not improbable that the saintly king who first gave the monks possessions here, to render such more available, would throw a bridge across the stream. For by this road even then was the only way to the metropolis from the west, and the stream was both broad and rapid. It was situated between the last house of Knightsbridge-terrace (Mr. Jeffrey's), and the French Embassy, and a part of it yet exists under the road; a portion of it was removed for the Albert-gate improvements. In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Margaret's, Westminster, are the following entries regarding it:-