ZTbe Dfctotta Ibistor^ of the
Counties of Enolanb
EDITED BY WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.
A HISTORY OF
MIDDLESEX
VOLUME II
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTIES
OF ENGLAND
MIDDLESEX
LONDON
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED
This History is issued to Subscribers only
By Constable & Company Limited
and printed by Eyre &• Spottiswoode Limited
H.M. Printers of London
INSCRIBED
TO THE MEMORY OF
HER LATE MAJESTY
QUEEN VICTORIA
WHO GRACIOUSLY GAVE
THE TITLE TO AND
ACCEPTED THE
DEDICATION OF
THIS HISTORY
NS
,^3
I
Jk
THE
VICTORIA HISTORY
OF THE COUNTY OF
MIDDLESEX
EDITED BY
WILLIAM PAGE, F.S.A.
VOLUME TWO
LONDON
ICONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED
DA
£70
! /
/ II
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
PAGE
Dedication .............. v
Contents ............... ix
List of Illustrations and Maps .......... xi
Editorial Note .............. xiii
Ancient Earthworks . . By J. C. WALL ........ i
Political History . . By J. VIVIEN MELLOR . . . . . . .15
Social and Economic History . By MARY E. TANNER . . . . . . .61
Table of Population, 1 80 1 -
1901 . . . -By GEORGE S. MINCHIN . . . . . . .112
Industries . . . -By CHARLES WELCH, F.S.A.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Silk-weaving . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132
Tapestry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Cabinet-making and Wood-
carving . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139
Pottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .141
Fulham Stoneware . . . . . . . . . . . .142
Bow Porcelain ............. 146
Chelsea Porcelain 150
Glass .... . -155
Clock and Watch-making . . . 158
Bell-founders ..... . ... 165
Brewing ..... .168
Tobacco • '79
Musical Instruments ..... . .180
Coach-making ..... .193
Paper • '95
Printing ..... 197
Bookbinding .... . . .201
Agriculture . . . -By CHARLES KAINS JACKSON . . 205
Forestry By the Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. . . .223
Sport, Ancient and Modern —
Introduction . . .By URQUHART A. FORBES . 253
Hunting „ „ -259
Foxhounds . . » „ ..... 259
Staghounds „ „ • .260
Harriers . . „ „ • • 262
Coursing .... „ ,, .262
Racing . . ,- -.= . „ ,, • 263
Polo .... „ • 265
Shooting ....„» • 2<>6
Angling ...»»» • *°7
ix b
CONTENTS OF VOLUME TWO
Sport, Ancient and Modern (continued)
Cricket . : . . By Sir
Middlesex County
The Marylebone Cricket Club
The University Match
The Australians at Lord's .
Harrow School Cricket
Football ....
Golf ....
Pastimes .
Archery .
Rowing
Tennis
Boxing ....
Olympic Games of London
(1908)
Athletics ....
Topography
HOME GORDON, Bart.
By
By
C. J. B. MARRIOTT, M.A.
URQUHART A. FORBES
By C. J. B. MARRIOTT, M.A.
Spelthorne Hundred —
Introduction
Ashford
East Bedfont with
Hatton
Feltham .
Hampton with Hamp-
ton Wick
By URQUHART A. FORBES ......
By W. BIRKETT . . .
General descriptions and manorial descents compiled under
the superintendence of the General Editor ; Architectural
descriptions by J. MURRAY KENDALL, R. W. ATKEY, and
C. C. DURSTON, under the superintendence of C. R. PEERS,
M.A., F.S.A. ; Heraldic drawings and blazon by the Rev.
E. E. DORLINC, M.A., F.S.A. ; Charities from information
supplied by J. VV. OWSLEV, I.S.O., late Official Trustee of
Charitable Funds.
By J. VIVIEN MELLOR .......
By EDITH M. KEATE
(Description of Hampton Court by C.
Han worth
Laleham .
Littleton .
R. PEERS, M.A., F.S.A.)
By J. VIVIEN MELLOR
PAGE
270
273
274
274
275
276
278
283
286
290
292
295
301
3°5
306
3°9
3H
319
391
396
401
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Hampton Court Palace in 1736 . . . . . . .
Ancient Earthworks :
Enfield Camp ..........
Harmondsworth Camp ........
Hounslow Camp .........
Hanworth Castle .........
The Tower of London ........
Plan of Grimes Dyke through Harrow Weald and Pinner
Bedfont Church, from the South .... .
Hampton Court Palace : Wolsey's Kitchen .
„ „ „ Tennis Court from the West side .
„ „ „ Badge of Queen Anne Boleyn
„ „ „ Arms of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour .
„ „ „ Badge of Queen Jane Seymour
„ „ „ Clock Court from the Colonnade .
„ ,, „ The Hall, looking towards the Screens
„ „ „ William the Third's Buildings from the South-east
Frog Walk .
„ „ „ Entrance Court, looking towards the Moat
„ „ „ Ground Floor Plan
„ „ „ Chapel Court from the South-west corner
„ „ „ Ground Floor Plan
„ „ „ Terra-Cotta Panel of Wolsey's Arms
„ ,, „ Bridge over the Most .
The Gateway
„ „ „ Fountain Court from the North-west corner
„ „ „ The Pond Garden
„ „ „ The Lower Orangery
„ „ „ Huntingdon Shaw's Screens .
„ „ „ The Lion Gates .
Hampton Church : Monument to Sibell Penn
Hanworth : Lych Gate
Laleham Church : Nave and South Aisle .
Littleton Church : Nave looking East
Chest .
PAGF
. . Frontispiece
2
3
3
7
1 1
12
. 310
• 33°
• 333
• 334
full plate, facing 334
• 335
• 336
• 348
• 359
• 365
• 37i
folded plan, facing 372
• 373
, folded plan, facing 374
375
, full f late, facing 576
-78
378
,81
384
. • • 385
386
. full plate, facing 388
39'
full plate, facing 400
>, » 4°4
LIST OF MAPS
Ancient Earthworks Map
Index Map of Middlesex Hundreds
„ „ Spelthorne Hundred
Topographical Map of Middlesex
PAGE
facing 2
. 304
. 305
at end of volume
XI
EDITORIAL NOTE
THE Editor wishes to express his thanks to all those
who have assisted in the compilation of this volume,
but particularly to Mr. H. B. Walters, M.A., F.S.A.,
Mr. A. F. Hill, F.S.A., and Mr. William Dale,
F.S.A., for information and assistance regarding the
Industries of the county. He is also indebted to
Mr. Ernest Law, B.A., F.S.A., for reading the
proofs and offering suggestions regarding the history
of Hampton Court Palace, and to Mr. W. Lem-
priere, senior assistant clerk at Christ's Hospital,
for information supplied for the topographical section.
A HISTORY OF
MIDDLESEX
ANCIENT
EARTHWORKS
A" THOUGH earthworks are the most durable of all man's handi-
work when exposed to Nature alone, they cannot withstand
the encroachments of the builder. With the continual spread
of habitations for the workers of commercial London, and the
surrounding cultivation of the land for the vegetable supply of so great a
host, there is little cause for wonder that the few works which are known
to have existed in the county of Middlesex have been all but obliterated.
When we consider the exceptionally small size of Middlesex as a county,
that it contains the two cities of London and Westminster, and the amazing
extension of their borders, the marvel is that any ancient works remain.
The natural features of the county lent themselves to no mighty
defensive works ; it was no locality for habitations, seeing that it was
generally of a marshy nature and subject to great inundations, it was itself
a defence for more inland territories. Guest remarks, ' I have little doubt
that between Brockley Hill l and the Thames all was wilderness from the
Lea to the Brent.' Prehistoric and Roman camps were apparently few ; the
Roman stations at Staines (P antes] on the Thames, and Brockley Hill (Sul-
lonicae) near Elstree, have no earthworks to indicate their former sites ; while
the fosse formerly surrounding the walls of London now no longer remains.
One great dyke in part remains to record the boundary line between
British tribes or Saxon provinces ; but the only type of earthwork much in
evidence in the county is that of Homestead Moats, and those are fast
disappearing beneath the foundations of houses.
Moats are more thickly clustered on the north of London than else-
where; they surround the sites of manor houses and farmsteads in close
proximity to the neighbourhood of Barnet. When it is remembered that
this was the scene of two engagements during the Wars of the Roses, that
two other battles were fought within a short distance at St. Albans, and
how marauding bands were the certain accompaniment of fighting forces in
those days, it will be seen how necessary a precaution it was for people of
substance to safeguard their property by the best means then known.
The surface of the county, however, has altogether changed since
Nichols described the moated mansion of Balmes within the parish of St. Leo-
nard Shoreditch. Whilst passing over Willoughbys and other demolished
earthworks, we cannot ignore those that have disappeared in more recent
years, otherwise our task would be light; yet the few remaining works are ap-
parently doomed in the near future unless the growth of London be arrested.
1 Ortgines Celtic*.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
From the general classification of earthworks it is needful to quote
those classes only which are represented in this county.
Class C. — Rectangular or other simple inclosures, including forts and towns of the
Romano-British period.
Class F. — Homestead Moats, such as abound in some lowland districts, consisting of
simple inclosures formed into artificial islands by water moats.
Class G. — Inclosures, mostly rectangular, partaking of the form of F, but protected
by stronger defensive works, ramparted and fossed, and in some instances provided with
outworks.
Class X. — Defensive works which fall under none of these headings.
To which is added T for Tumuli.
Out of the four examples of Class C until recently existing one only
in part remains, the other three have been obliterated, one of them as
late as the year 1906.
The greatest number of earthworks remaining are of Class F, among
them are some representative examples, whether surrounding the grounds
as that at Fulham Palace, or washing the walls of the house, as Headstone.
In class G two examples are placed, one of them surrounding the
formerly strong fortress of the Tower.
The most stupendous earthwork of Middlesex is found in Class X,
and the Grimes Dyke will
probably survive all other
works of this nature.
One tumulus survives,
possibly the most ancient
earthen monument in the
county.
SIMPLE DEFENSIVE
INCLOSURES
[CLASS C]
ENFIELD (vii, 6 and
7). — In Old Park, nearly
a mile south-west of En-
field Town Station, is the
most extensive fragment of
a camp in the whole county.
Its existence is due to a
situation in private grounds
whilst its partial demolition
is owing to the laying out
of a garden to the house
within the circuit of the camp over a century ago.
A little more than a semicircle — the north, west, and south-west —
remains of a circular camp upon the top of a shallow hill. The extant
portion consists of a vallum and fosse. The vallum rises from the ground
SCALE Of FEET
0 100 'ZOO
ENFIELD CAMP
ANCIENT EARTHWORKS
level on the south and quickly attains a height of 5 ft. ; in the middle
of the western side it rises to 8 ft., declining somewhat towards the
north it again rises towards
its termination at the north-
east. The vallum is broad
and a path has been made
on the top, probably at the
expense of a greater original
height, which is now about
2 ft. above the interior area
except at the north where
the vallum stands boldly
above the ground which is
the same internally and ex-
ternally at this spot. A path
pierces the vallum at the
north-east, but a very small
portion of the latter remains
on the eastern side of the
path. The plan of the Works HARMONDSWORTH CAMP
in the neighbourhood of the
path is in perfect harmony with an original entrance between an inturned
vallum, containing a guard-room within the curve and a platform
obtained by the widening of the vallum ; at the same time this arrange-
ment may possibly have been made when the house was built, whereby
an even pathway might be obtained, and by the removal of soil from
the interior area a garden bower formed — on the site of the possible
guard-room — for which purpose this hollow is now used. Around the
north-west is a portion of the fosse, from 3 ft. to 4 ft. deep, which has
been raised above its original depth to form a gravelled path. On
, the south-east is a modern
SCALE OF FEET
0 100 «00 300
Railway
SCALE OF FEET
O IOO 40O 3OO
HOUNSLOW CAMP
pond, fed by a spring in its
northern part, at a spot
which would have been im-
mediately outside the origi-
nal circuit of the vallum,
and therefore in the fosse.
Thus the constructors of the
camp may have provided a
water-girt stronghold in ad-
dition to a water supply. A
bank on the north-east of
the pond is modern.
HARMONDSWORTH (xix,
8). — Three quarters of a mile
north-east from Heath Row,
immediately south of the
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Bath Road, a small square camp, about 380 ft. square, was extant until
the autumn of 1906. It is now ploughed perfectly flat, leaving no trace
of the work. Stukeley supposed it to have been one of Cassar's stations
after he crossed the River Thames in pursuit of Cassivellaunus ; a
conjecture that has become local tradition, firmly held by the inhabitants
of the neighbourhood.
ISLEWORTH (xx, 3). — To the east of OSTERLEY PARK was a small
circular earthwork 200 ft. in diameter inclusive, with the entrance on
the eastern side.
TWICKENHAM (xx, 10). — A circular camp 200 ft. in diameter was
situated on Hounslow Heath against the boundary of the cemetery,
south of the railway. It has now all but perished, the slightest depression
in the ground is only iust discernible.
HOMESTEAD MOATS
[CLASS F]
ACTON (xvi, 9) : ' FRIARS' PLACE FARM.' Within a quarter of a
mile north of Acton Station on the Great Western Railway are the
remains of two moats, of which one will be classified under G. That
which we now consider is a water moat, but only two sides remain, the
southern, which is about 50 ft. wide, and the western, which is consider-
ably narrower. Lysons, in the Environs of London, considers this to have
formed part of the lands given by Adam de Hervynton to the prior and
convent of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield.
EDMONTON (vii, 12) : MOAT HOUSE FARM, Marsh side, to the
east of Lower Edmonton. The old Moat House was demolished in
1906 but the moat at present remains. This is a large oblong in plan,
and although varying in breadth it averages about 20 ft., and is 8 ft. deep.
The south-western side has been narrowed by the formation of a road.
Near the north angle the water of the moat intrudes into the central
area in a semicircular course, thus forming an islet. In the Ordnance
Survey two small islands are erroneously inserted.
EDMONTON (vii, 16). — A small quadrangular moat to the west of
Angel Road Station has recently been filled up with earth.
EDMONTON (vii, 15). — At WEIR HALL, south-west of Millfield
Training School, in the district of Upper Edmonton, is a moat, averaging
3oft. wide. The banks — a foot above the water — gently slope upwards
towards the centre of the interior site, where a modern house now stands.
At the south-eastern angle the water cuts off a corner of the inner area,
thereby forming an island. It is fed by Pymmes Brook.
ENFIELD (vii, 8). — ' DURANT'S ARBOUR,' half a mile north of
Ponders End, was the name of the manor house of the Durant family in
the fourteenth century. The name has survived the house and is now
applied to the large square moat with the bridge on the north-eastern
side.
ANCIENT EARTHWORKS
ENFIELD (vii, 7). — A large moat formerly situated on the south-
east of Enfield Town Station has recently been filled in and is now built
over.
ENFIELD (vii, 6). — West of OLD PARK FARM, upon the Golf Links,
is a diamond-shaped moat surrounding a small elevated area. At the
western end is a cutting through which the moat is fed by a small
stream which flows into the River Lea.
ENFIELD (ii, 16). — North-east of Enfield Lock Station, on Plantation
Farm, is a quadrangular moat crossed by two bridges on the southern and
eastern sides respectively.
ENFIELD (ii, 13): ' CAMLET MOAT.' In Moat Wood, north of
Trent Park and south of Enfield Chase is a large moat, oblong in plan,
with the entrance on the east. The house has long since been demolished.
In the time of Sir Walter Scott it must have presented a similar appearance
as now, for he mentions it as a place ' little more than a mound, partly
surrounded by a ditch, from which it derived the name of Camlet
Moat.' '
FINCHLEY (xi, 8). — One mile south of Finchley is the long
rectangular moat of the ancient manor house. It incloses a large oblong
area but is divided by a public road. To the south of it, traces of other
artificial work are being obliterated and it is difficult to determine their
original form or use ; but it is possibly the site of fish ponds.
FINCHLEY (xii, i o) : ' DUCKETTS' or ' DOVECOTS,' north-east of
St. Mary's Church, Hornsey. The site of the manor house is surrounded
by a narrow moat which is fed by water from the New River. A
portion on the east has been filled in, and the bridge is on the western
side.
FINCHLEY (xi, 8). — Norden, in his Speculum Brifannica, 1593, states
that
a hill or fort in Hornesey Park, and so called Lodge Hill, for that thereon for some
time stood a lodge, when the park was replenished with deare ; but it seemeth by the
foundation it was rather a castle than a lodge, for the hill is at this time trenched
with two deep ditches, now olde and overgrown with bushes.
This lodge, which was the property of the See of London from the
twelfth to the fourteenth century, occupied a site to the south-west of
the Manor Farm house on the north-east of Bishop's Wood, between
Highgate and Finchley. Although it appears that the lodge was pulled
down in the fourteenth century on account of its great age, traces of the
moat are visible, from which it would seem that it was square in plan
with sides 210 ft. in length. The moat was fed by a spring which still
flows.
FULHAM (xxi, 7). — The grounds of the Bishop of London's palace
at Fulham are entirely surrounded by a moat which is crossed by two
bridges. The moat is nearly a mile in circuit and incloses an area of
37 acres. It has been suggested that the moat was originally the fosse
made for the protection of the Danish camp in A.D. 879 ; a conjecture
* Fortunes of Nigel, chap. 36.
5
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
formed solely on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, wherein it is stated that
this year a body of those pirates camped at Fulham.
HANWORTH (xxv, 2): HANWORTH CASTLE MOAT. — Why the
moat should be known by this name is not apparent. It is situated in
the grounds attached to the ruins of the Tudor building in which some
of the youthful days of Queen Elizabeth were spent. A large square
area, perfectly flat, and at a slightly lower level than the exterior banks,
is surrounded by a moat averaging 45 ft. in width ; each angle being
broadened by the rounding of the angles of the interior site. At the
south-eastern corner is a culvert, at which point the moat is supplied by
water through a cutting locally called the * Queen's River,' from its
associations with Elizabeth, and the c Cardinal's River,' from the belief
that it was made by the order of Wolsey.
HAREFIELD (ix, 1 2) . — At BRACKENBURY FARM, i mile north-west
from Ickenham, near the western bank of the River Finn and fed by its
waters, is a quadrangular moat inclosing a considerable area. The
widest and deepest part is on the south, where it is 24 ft. broad, but it
narrows to 9 ft. in width around the western side. The outer bank
rises above the general level on the north side. The eastern side has
been filled in within the last fifty years to enlarge the surface of the
garden.
HAREFIELD (ix, 12). — A quarter of a mile south-west of the last
mentioned a small but perfect moat lies within a bend of the River Finn,
by which it is supplied. By being thus situated the eastern side and its
two angles of the interior area are protected by two widths of water.
The moat, which is walled on the inner side to a height of 6 ft., is 18 ft.
wide, broadening to 28 ft. at the south-eastern corner. Access to the
interior is gained on the western side.
HARMONDSWORTH (xix, 3). — On the site of an Alien Priory — a
cell to Rouen — and west of the ancient Tithe Barn, the course of a large
rectangular moat may yet be traced, although all but a small portion at
the north-east has been filled in. The remaining fragment is nearly 24 ft.
wide. Although situated close to the River Colne the moat was
supplied with water from the ' Duke's River,' on the west, and a spring
rising on the southern side flows into the former, by which the interior
site was doubly protected on the south-west.
HARROW ON THE HILL (x, 1 1). — On the west side of the hill, on the
lower ground of the slope and west of the Northolt Road, a small moat
remains in a perfect state in the grounds of The Grange. It is square
with slightly rounded angles, 20 ft. wide between the sloping banks,
which gently rise to 4ft. 6 in. above the water.
HAYES (xv, 13). — One mile south-east of Hayes Station, and on
the eastern side of the River Crane, a small moat surrounds the remains
of the old house which was formerly the property of the archbishop of
Canterbury. Rectangular at its two southern angles — where the
entrance is situated — the moat narrows on the northern side, where
it assumes an almost semicircular course.
6
I
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
ICKENHAM (ix, 1 6). — At MANOR FARM, to the south-east of
Ickenham village, a narrow moat takes a somewhat eccentric plan,
and is evidently the work of two periods. The earlier moat was
quadrangular, with the northern side joining the western at an acute
angle. At some later date the eastern extremity of the northern trench
appears to have been extended, while the eastern side of the moat —
about 1 20 ft. from the south-eastern angle — was also turned eastwards in
a line parallel to the northern extension ; a fragment of the original
moat remaining between them.
ISLEWORTH (xx, 7). — To the west of Isleworth and of the River
Crane is a square moat with the entrance on the east side.
LONDON : HIGHBURY (xii, 14). — The site of a moat in this parish is
described by Nichols,8 who, however, could not but associate it with the
Romans. He says that in fields north-west of White Conduit House is
a large inclosure called the Reedmote, or Six Acre Field, and supposed
to have been a Roman camp ; and at the south-east corner was the site
of a square moated mansion, commonly called Jack Straw's Castle.
LONDON. — Highbury Barn was also a moated site in the same
parish.
LONDON : ST. MARY ISLINGTON (xvii, 2). — Beyond Bowman's
Lodge, on the west side of Holloway Road, were the demesnes of
Barnsbury Manor. The lines of the moated site of the manor-house
could be traced until recently at the back of some houses fronting
the Hercules Road. In 1835, when the outline was distinct, it was
described as of irregular form.
LONDON : ST. MARY ISLINGTON (xvii, 2). — Some eighty years ago
an earthwork was discernible in the gardens of the houses on the west
side of Barnsbury Square. It was the moat of Mountfort House ; but
the southern side — almost in a line with the south side or the square —
was so pronounced, being about 20 ft. wide and 8 ft. deep, that it gave rise
to the idea that it was the southern fosse of a Roman camp, while about
a century before this it had exercised the minds of the antiquaries of the
eighteenth century. In those days the outer margin of the west side of
the moat was apparently surmounted by a bank.* A fragment of the
trench remains in the garden of Mountfort House.
NORTHOLT (xv, 2). — At DOWN BARNS, one and a half miles west
of Northolt, a rectangular site is surrounded by a moat, of regular form
except on the east, where, south of the entrance, it is of wider dimen-
sions, and from it an irregular projection provides a pond.
NORTHOLT (xv, 3). — A moat is situated quite near to the church
which, from its exceptional character, demands a more detailed descrip-
tion. It stands upon high ground, and its banks are built up instead of
having been excavated around the protected site. At the southern
angle the moat is 1 2 ft. wide, and the central area rises to a height of
5 ft., overlooking the outer bank which is 4 ft. 6 in. high. The south-
8 Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, A.D. 178*.
' Nichoh, Literary lilustrationi of Hut. v, 183.
8
ANCIENT EARTHWORKS
eastern side varies in width from 9 ft. to 12 ft. The western angle is
36 ft. wide, narrowing towards the northern corner, where it is from
28 ft. to 30 ft. broad. On this north-western side the interior ground
continues its former height ; but the external bank is only 4 ft. in
height. At the north the moat is again about 36ft. wide, but the inner
area attains a height of 7 ft. 6 in., while the outer bank is but 3 ft. At
this point the water of the moat is drained into a pond 60 ft. distant,
and although water is retained in the north-eastern side it is reduced in
bulk. On the north-east, between the angle and the entrance, the moat
is from 9 ft. to loft, wide, the interior site is 8 ft. high, but this is the
highest point in the outer bank, which is 6 ft. to 7 ft. 6 in. in height.
The entrance is by a causeway 21 ft. broad. The site of the ancient
house commands an extensive view of the surrounding country.
PERIVALE (xv, 4). — In a field west of the church and north-east of
HORSENDON FARM, may be seen the depressions in the land which mark
the site of the old manor-house of Greenford Parva. The house has
long since been demolished, but the moat still remains on three sides.
The northern portion was filled up some fifty years ago.
PINNER (x, 3). — ' HEADSTONE ' MANOR, about a mile west of Holy
Trinity Church, Wealdstone, was part of the archiepiscopal manor of
Harrow. A notice of the house in 1 344 opens the probability of the
moat dating from about that time.
PINNER (v, 15). — A fragment of a circular moat is crossed by a
road from Pinner to Harrow Weald. The southerly portion is 20 ft.
wide, the northerly is serpentine in form, and the north-eastern has been
filled up and farm buildings cover the site.
RUISLIP (x, 9). — At MANOR FARM, on the site of an Alien Priory
that was a cell of the abbey of Bee, is an oval moat, surrounding an
area of 350 ft. by 200 ft. The two entrances are on opposite sides of the
long axis.
RUISLIP (x, 9). — At SOUTHCOTE FARM, half a mile south-west of
Ruislip Reservoir is a quadrangular moat inclosing a site about 200 ft.
long by 100 ft. broad ; with the bridge on the south-western side.
SOUTHGATE (vii, 14). — In the grounds of BOWES MANOR, north-
east of St. Michael's Church, is a small irregular square moat around an
islet measuring about looft. across.
SOUTH MIMMS (vi, 3). — OLD FOLD MANOR FARM, north-west of
Hadley Green, occupies ground formerly protected by a well-defined
moat. The eastern side has been filled in and cow-houses occupy the
site ; but otherwise it retains its ancient appearance. On the southern
side the moat is i8ft. broad, increasing to 28ft. on the west and the
north. The depth to the water is from 4ft. on the north, to 5 ft. on the
south, the banks prettily clothed with wood and undergrowth.
SOUTH MIMMS (vi, 3). — At OLD FOLD FARM, about one and a half
miles from the last mentioned, in a westerly direction and close to the
county border, is another moat of smaller size but more complete in its
extant four sides. It is of oblong plan with a rounded broadening at the
292
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
north-west corner. The entrance is on the east towards the south-
eastern angle.
SOUTH MIMMS (i, 10). — At BLANCHE FARM, to the south of St.
Monica's Priory, are the remains of that which was undoubtedly a moat,
although the north-west and south-east are the only two extant sides.
TOTTENHAM (xii, 3). — BRUCE CASTLE and BRUCE PARK formed one-
third of the ancient manor of Tottenham. The spread of London's
population is responsible for the recent levelling of the moat.
TOTTENHAM (xii, 3). — ' MOCKINGS ' was a sub-manor formed from
that of Bruce, lying north of the high road. The moated manor-house
stood on the south side of Marsh Lane.
WILLESDEN (xvi, 6). — A moat similar to that in the moated
meadow at Acton was situated near Willesden Junction until finally
obliterated about the year 1890.
[CLASS G]
ACTON (xvi, 9). — A quarter of a mile north of Acton Station on the
Great Western Railway, in a field called ' Moated Meadow,' two fields
westward of ' Friars' Place Farm,' are the remains of an earthwork
which the Ordnance Surveyors have marked as a moat. From the slight
indications extant it might possibly have formed a camp; but not enough
remains to decide its original use.
The work occupies a slight eminence and consists of a shallow
fosse, or dry moat, surrounding a quadrangular area. The two short
sides — the western and eastern — are nearly parallel, the west is 89 ft.
long, the east 136 ft. Of the two long sides the southern, 235ft., is at
right angles to the east and west ; but the northern, 240 ft., takes a
course to the north-east-by-east. The fosse varies from 41 ft. broad at
the south-east, to 60 ft. at the north-west. On the north side, where the
higher ground on the exterior makes it more assailable, is found the
deepest part, which is 6 ft. A bank has surmounted the outer edge of the
fosse, this is still discernible on all sides but the south, and averages 1 5 ft.
wide. The latter feature may have led Lysons to speak of it as ' a deep
trench enclosing a parallelogram (sic) . . . supposed to have been a
Roman camp.'
LONDON : THE TOWER MOAT. — The precincts of the Tower of
London are partly within London, but the greater eastern portion is in
Middlesex. The first castle on this spot was built by the conquering
Norman.
No account of earthen ramparts has been bequeathed to us, and
the earliest mention of a fosse is of the twelfth century.
In 1 190 William Longchamp, bishop of Ely and justiciary of
England, while acting as regent during the absence of Richard in
Palestine, caused a deep trench to be dug round the Tower of London,
hoping to bring the waters of the Thames into the City, but after
10
N
SCALE OF FEET
0 IOO 200 30
THK TOWER OF LONDON
II
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
expending much from the treasury his labours proved fruitless.6 It
would be interesting to know the cause of this failure ; possibly
Longchamp could not complete the circuit on the river side, where it was
exposed to the force of the tide, a difficulty overcome by the engineers of
Henry III, who constructed the embankment and wharf, and protected
it by piles ; a work completed by his son Edward I.
When the Duke of Wellington was constable of the Tower he
cleansed and deepened the moat ; but its stagnant waters became so
offensive that it was finally drained in 1843. The f°sse is an irregular
hexagon in plan, but it has been greatly altered from its original
appearance in the sides and base to provide a drilling-ground for the
garrison.
A vallum, of unknown dimensions, apparently a revetment, formerly
occupied a position on the west side of the moat, for we are told that in
1316 the citizens pulled down a mud wall between the Tower Ditch
and the city, which was supposed to have been constructed by Henry III ;
they were, however, compelled to restore the same, and were fined 1,000
marks for their
lawlessness.
TOTT E N-
HAM (xii, 7).
— A rectangu-
lar moat, sur-
rounding an
area now bro-
ken into two
portions, is situated on
' Down Hills,' immediately
south of the River Moselle.
On the exterior of the wes-
tern and eastern sides are
broad banks 2 ft. in height.
MISCELLANEOUS
EARTHWORKS
[CLASS X]
BRENTFORD (xxi, i). —
A possible line of defence
to the Brent Ford is traced
by Mr. Montague Sharpe,
of which no definite signs
exist ; even the ' Old
Han
f~inn e. r
PLAN OP GRIMES DYKE THROUGH HARROW WKALD
AND PINNER
* Roger of Wendover, A.D. 1 190
12
ANCIENT EARTHWORKS
Ditch,' two sides of a rectangular fosse on the slope of Cuckoo Hill
at the western extremity of Han well Ridge, and in a curve of the
River Brent, is no more.
HARROW WEALD AND PINNER (v and x) : GRIMES DYKE. — Frag-
ments of a boundary earthwork are in evidence over a distance of three
miles within, and close to, the border of the counties of Middlesex and
Hertfordshire, extending from Pinner Green to Bentley Priory. It
consists of a vallum and fosse, the latter on the south-eastern side suggests
that it was part of the south-eastern defence of the territories of the
British tribe of the Catuvellauni.
The dyke appears to have been supported at the south-west extre-
mity by the woodland of the Colne valley, and the other end was possibly
connected with the ancient works on Brockley Hill. Thus the position
of the dyke looked out upon the marshland which extended generally to
the River Thames, and from the Brent to the Lea.
The work is most clearly to be seen to the south of Wealdstone
Common, where the vallum rises 5 ft. from the interior, on the Hertford-
shire side, is 63 ft. wide at the base, and has an escarpment of i 2 ft. into
the fosse ; the latter has been too greatly disturbed to form an adequate idea
of its former strength, but it is 5 ft. at its deepest part, and averages
1 5 ft. broad.
Passing the common, where the rights of carrying gravel have
injured the configuration of the land, the most perfect section is found
in private grounds ; here the base of the vallum retains the same width,
but is 1 5 ft. in height — now broken by a path on its escarpment, and the
fosse widens to 2 1 ft ; at one part this has been doubly dammed to form
an artificial lake.
PINNER. — See HARROW WEALD.
WEMBLEY (xv, 4). — HORSA-DUN HILL, south-east of Harrow, shows
slight traces of defensive works in two terraces on the southern side.
TUMULI
LONDON : ST. PANCRAS (xvii). — On Hampstead Heath, between
Hampstead Ponds on the west and Highgate Ponds on the east, on a ridge
of hill running north and south is a bowl-shaped tumulus, known as
* Boadicea's Grave.' It is a gradually sloping mound 10 ft. in height,
with diameters — including the surrounding ditch — north to south 145 ft.
and east to west 135 ft. The original ditch was within the cincture
of the present one, which is modern. It was opened in 1894 by
Mr. C. H. Read, who thinks it is a monument of pre-Roman burial
by inhumation.
TEDDINGTON (xxv, 8). — Formerly situated in a field known as
' Barrow Field,' between Hampton Wick and Bushey, was a bowl-
13
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
shaped barrow, 96 ft. in diameter and 12 ft. 3 in. high. The tumulus,
composed of burnt sand, was explored in 1854, when three interments
were found, two after cremation and one by inhumation. The first on
the ground level was accompanied by flint flakes and the bronze blade of
a weapon ; with the second, 4 ft. below the apex, were fragments of a
very large half-baked urn and a flint hatchet-head ; whilst in the third case
the bones of an adult were buried superficially.
INDEX
OF THE
PARISHES IN WHICH EARTHWORKS ARE SITUATED, WITH THE LETTER OF THE CLASS
Parish
Acton . .
Brentford .
Class
F,G
X
TO WHICH THEY BELONG
Parish
Edmonton F, F, F
Enfield C, F, F, F, F, F
Finchley
Fulham
Hanworth ....
Harefield . . . .
Harmondsworth .
Harrow-on-the-Hill .
Harrow Weald
Hayes
Highbury . . . .
Ickenham ....
Isleworth ....
Islington, St. Mary .
F,F,F
F
F
F, F
C, F
F
X
F
F
F
C, F
F, F
London
Northolt
Perivale
Pinner .
Ruislip
St. Pancras (London)
Southgate .
South Mimms . . .
Teddington
Tottenham
Twickenham .
Wembley .
Willesden .
Class
G
F,F
F
F,F, X
F,F
T
F
F,F, F
T
F,F,G
C
X
F
POLITICAL HISTORY
MIDDLESEX is bounded on the south, east, and west sides by
the rivers Thames, Lea, and Colne respectively. The
district thus formed seems to have been an uninhabited
borderland in British times,1 a desolate tract round Roman
London,8 and presents itself later as the portion left over when the neigh-
bouring counties had been colonized by the Anglo-Saxons. The three
rivers formed the natural boundaries to a physically unattractive country,
over which stretched a mass of forest in the north, a marsh in the south-
east, and a barren heath in the south-west. The northern boundary
points to a later period, to the time when manorial estates were formed.
The irregular outline seems to make a special effort to exclude Totteridge,
High and East Barnet, and Monken Hadley from Middlesex, and includes
South Mimms, while leaving North Mimms to Hertfordshire. This
irregularity is explained when we find that the entire north-eastern
portion of Middlesex consisted of the manors of Enfield and Edmonton,
including South Mimms. These large and thinly populated manors
stretched into the forest which was known later as Enfield Chase, until
they met the confines of Totteridge, an outlying portion of the bishop of
Ely's manor of Hatfield ; s of High and East Barnet, which belonged to
the abbey of St. Albans ; of Hadley and North Mimms, which were
given by Geoffrey de Mandeville to Walden Abbey. Friern Barnet is
thus cut off from the other Barnets, and lies in Middlesex, because it
formed part of the manor of Whetstone and belonged to the priory of
St. John of Jerusalem at Clerkenwell.*
It is uncertain when Middlesex was divided into hundreds. Six
appear in the Domesday Survey and six remain to-day, although
' Houeslaw ' (Hounslow) Hundred is now called Isleworth, and a large
portion of Ossulstone Hundred has been included in the county of
London since 1888.
London has naturally been the all-dominating factor in the political
history of Middlesex, although the City is not in Middlesex. We see her
influence in the lack of independent county history ; in the smallness of
the population in early times, as well as in the ever-increasing multitudes
of to-day ; in the absence of county nobility and gentry, as well as in the
unimportance of her towns.
Little is known of the early history of Middlesex. The marshy
valley of the Lea, and the forest stretching northwards from the heights
1 Guest, Orients Celticae, ii, 390, 403.
1 Scarth, Roman Britain, 38 ; Jaunt. Arch. Inst. xxiii, 1 80.
1 Domesday Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 135. ' Lysons, Environs of London (17 '95), ii, zi.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
of Hampstead and Highgate, saved it for a time from the incursions of
the East Saxons, and the wide channel of the Thames and the fortifi-
cations of London, from the settlers in Kent and Sussex.' It was only
after South Britain had been conquered, and the advance of the East
Saxons up the Essex river valleys had led to the fall of Verulamium, that
the tide of invasion trickled into Middlesex from the north-west, down
the great Roman road, Watling Street. London fell before 552, and
whether inhabited or not during the next fifty years,6 it is certain that it
was in the hands of the East Saxons in 6o4,7 so that the colonization of
Middlesex must have taken place during the latter half of the sixth
century. The settlers in the district west of London are known after-
wards as the Middle Saxons, but it is clear that they were only an offshoot
of the East Saxons from the fact that, with London, they always belonged
to the kingdom of Essex, and that Middlesex formed part of the East
Saxon bishopric of London.8 Thus Middlesex was never a separate
kingdom. The first contemporary mention shows it to be already under
double subjection, for in 704 the king of the East Saxons, himself a
tributary of Mercia, granted a piece of land in Twickenham, ' in provincia
quae nuncapatur Middelseaxon.' ' It was indeed but sparsely inhabited,
the settlers dwelling far apart along the banks of the Thames, and still
farther apart in the valleys of the Brent and the Colne, and the tributaries
of the Lea.
Middlesex suffered terribly and consecutively from the Danish inva-
sions, chiefly because the Thames offered so excellent a winter harbour
for the invaders, and London was the goal of many an expedition.
In 879 a body of Vikings, coming from Chippenham and Ciren-
cester where the main army was assembled, ' sat down at Fulham on the
Thames.' n These were there joined by another army which had been
driven out of Flanders by Charles II, and after both forces had spent the
winter at Fulham, they departed in the spring to make a renewed attack
on Ghent." According to the Treaty of Wedmore in 879, the boundary
between Danes and English was fixed at the River Lea,18 but the district
between the Lea and the Brent seems to have remained in Danish hands
until 886,u when Alfred gained possession of London (and therefore of
Middlesex), and was in a position to restore or ' re-settle it.' "
In 1009, after harassing the south-eastern counties, the Danes took
up their winter quarters on the Thames.1* After mid-winter they went
through the Chilterns to plunder the country round Oxford. As they
6 Green, Making of Engl. i, 124-5, 155 ; Robinson, Hist. Hackney.
* Guest, Origiaes Ctlticae, ii, 31 1. ' Bede, Hist. Eccl. (ed. Plummer), i, 85.
' Freeman, 'Norman Conq. i, 23-7 ; Green, Making of Engl. i, 227.
9 Kemble, Codex Dipt, i, 59.
11 4ngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 65 ; Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 147-8.
" Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 65 ; Hen. of Hunt. Hut. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 147-8.
" Stubbs, Select Charters, 63. ' Concerning our land boundaries ; up on the Thames, and then up
on the Lea, and along the Lea unto the source. . . .'
14 Freeman, Norman Coaj. i, 56.
" Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 148 ; Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 67 ; Flor. Wore.
Cbron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), i, 101.
" Hen. of Hunt. Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 179.
16
POLITICAL HISTORY
were returning in two divisions, as though to attack London, they
were met by the news that a force was gathered against them in
London. The northern division therefore crossed the Thames at Staines,
and both went back through Surrey to their ships to spend Lent in
repairing them, but Middlesex was again ravaged during the year.17 In
Edmund Ironside's campaign against Cnut in 1016 the last of his four
great battles was fought at Brentford. Edmund had set out to recover
Wessex from the Danes after he had been chosen king by the citizens of
London. He had gained two victories at Penselwood and at Sherston, but
while he was collecting fresh forces Cnut had laid siege to London.
Edmund with his reinforcements marched along the north bank of the
Thames 18 and won a third battle, which compelled the Danes to raise the
siege and flee to their ships. Two days later he defeated them for a
fourth time, and drove them in flight across the Thames.19 Apparently
a great number of the English pressed the pursuit in advance of their
main body, and in their eagerness to spoil the enemy were by their own
carelessness drowned in the river. This battle did not finally disperse the
enemy, however, for as soon as Edmund had departed into Wessex,
London was again besieged, ' but Almighty God saved it.' 2°
Middlesex is not mentioned in the list of shires whose troops
mustered at Hastings, but the sheriff of the Middle Saxons, the Staller
Esegar, played a prominent part as leader of the London contingent.81
He was wounded in the battle, and was carried back to London to con-
duct its defence against the Conqueror. William marched westward
from Southwark to Wallingford, and then northward to Berkhampstead,
in order that his triumphant progress might isolate London, and bring it
to submission rather by intimidation than by direct attack. When his
army entered Middlesex from the north-west London had already come
to terms, so that though the northern districts round Enfield, Edmonton,
and Tottenham suffered from the passage of his army, yet his march was
on the whole peaceful.22
The Norman Conquest brought perhaps less change to Middlesex
than to any county. It is said that William gave to Geoffrey de Mande-
ville all the lands which had been held by the Staller Esegar,23 and
apparently Geoffrey occupied much the same position with regard to
London and Middlesex as was filled by the Staller before the Con-
quest. His son and heir, William de Mandeville, was made Constable of
the Tower.24 The greater part of the land in Middlesex had been, and
continued to be, in ecclesiastical hands. The king held no manor in the
17 jingl.-Sax. Chnn. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 115 ; Freeman, op. cit. i, 377.
18 Flor. Wore. op. cit. 1 76. ' Exercitus vice tertia' congregate."
19 Hen. of Hunt. Hist. A*gl. (Rolls Ser.), 183 ; Freeman, op. cit. i, 426.
10 Angl.-Sax. Cbron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, n6.
" Sharpe, London and the Kingdom, i, 32 ; Freeman, op. cit. iii, 486.
21 Wm. of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum (Rolls Ser.), ii, 307 ; cf. Flor. Wore. Chnn. (Engl. Hist.
Soc.), i, 228. See an interesting article on the subject by F. Baring, 'The Conqueror's Footprints in
Domesday,' Engl. Hist. Rev. 1898.
13 Waltham Chnn. de Indentione (ed. Stnbbs), cap. xiv.
14 Ordericus Vitalis, Hist. Eccl. (Soc. de 1'Histoire de France), iv, 1 08.
2 17 3
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
county, and had only a few houses and some acres of ' No man's land.'"
There were only twenty-four tenants-in-chief. The lay holders, either
English or Norman, held a very small proportion of the land compared
with the large holdings of the bishop of London and the abbot of West-
minster," and many of the lay tenants, such as Geoffrey de Mandeville
and Earl Roger, possessed vastly greater estates in other counties than
those which they held in Middlesex.
Owing to the unimportance of the lay tenures, it was saved from the
evils which attended the building of feudal castles, not one being raised
within its boundaries.
In William IPs reign the only incident of importance connected
with Middlesex occurred in 1095. The quarrel between the king and
Archbishop Anselm was then at its height, and the Council of Rocking-
ham had been held in the spring of that year to discuss the question of the
recognition of Urban II as pope. Anselm kept Whitsuntide at Mortlake,
but immediately after the festival he was summoned to the neighbourhood
of Windsor where the king then held his court, and therefore came to his
manor of Hayes. He was visited there the day after his arrival by nearly
all the bishops, who tried to prevail on him to make his peace by a pay-
ment of money to the king." He refused to buy the king's friendship,
and refused also to accept the pallium which had been sent privately
to William from Rome. The bishops retired discomfited, and William,
realizing that Anselm was inflexible, and being already concerned with
Mowbray's threatened rebellion in the north, sent messages of reconcilia-
tion to Hayes.88 A few days later the king and archbishop met publicly
as friends at Windsor.
The most important aspect of the history of Middlesex under the
Normans and Angevins is to be found in the definition of the county's
relation to London. Henry I granted Middlesex to the city of London
to farm for £300 per annum, and granted to the citizens the right to
appoint from among themselves whom they would to be sheriff.89 It
cannot be said that the grant of the sheriffwick made the county a
dependency of the City, but rather that London and Middlesex were from
that time to be regarded as one from an administrative point of view.80
The citizens were to be responsible for the City and shire as a unity, not
for the City and its dependency.31 Both the 'firma' and the shrievalty are
spoken of sometimes as of ' London,' 3S sometimes as of ' Middlesex,' and
sometimes as of ' London and Middlesex,' ss but ' for fiscal purposes,
London and Middlesex under any name are indivisible.' 3* The relation
between the City and shire remained on this basis until the Local
" Domesday Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 127. * Ibid, ii, 57-63 ; ibid, i, 23-5, 34, 44.
17 Eadmer, Hist. Novorum (ed. M. Rule), 70. " Ibid. 71.
" Liber Albus (Rolls Ser.), i, 128-9 » Rymer, Toed. (Rec. Com.), i, II.
10 Cf. Hund. R. of Edw. I (Rec. Com.), ii, 403 sqq.
11 Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 347 seq. ; cf. Sharpe, London and the Kingdom, i, 42 ; Stubbs,
Const. Hist, i, 439.
" Pipe R. (Rec. Com.), 31 Hen. I, 143. » Pipe R. 8 Ric. I.
14 Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville, 347.
It
POLITICAL HISTORY
Government Act of 1888, although the grant was a frequent cause of
dispute between London and the crown, and was on occasion temporarily
withdrawn. As early as 1130 the citizens had been deprived of their
right to elect the sheriff, for in that year they paid 100 marks that they
might have a sheriff of their own choice.88
The Civil War of Stephen's reign fell as heavily on Middlesex as
on the rest of England. In the summer of 1141 the empress came
towards London after the election at Winchester. She received a depu-
tation of Londoners at St. Albans, and then leaving the abbey proceeded
by the old Roman road through Edgeware towards Westminster.58 She
was met by the citizens and rulers of London when nearing the City."
Geoffrey de Mandeville, grandson of the Geoffrey of the time of William I,
was then at the height of his power. He was practically master of
London as hereditary constable of the Tower, and one of the empress's
first acts was to confirm the charter of the earldom and shrievalty of Essex
granted to him by Stephen.88 Meanwhile the queen was marching on
London from Kent. She crossed the Thames and, ravaging Middlesex,
spread a belt of desolation round the City.89 The Londoners, who were
already incensed against the empress, rose in arms for the queen. Matilda
was forced to leave the City with all haste, and having galloped clear of
the suburbs, her followers fleeing in all directions, she took the road
towards Oxford.40
London admitted the queen, and Geoffrey de Mandeville made his
peace with her likewise. To signalize his defection from the empress, he
sallied out of the Tower and seized Sigillo, whom Matilda had lately
installed as bishop of London,*1 and who was then at the episcopal manor
of Fulham.43 It is said that he held Sigillo to ransom for an enormous
sum, but the bishop was present at Matilda's court a month later.43 After
Geoffrey had assisted at the liberation of Stephen,44 and after the latter
had been crowned for the second time at Canterbury, the king granted
him the shrievalty of London and Middlesex, and of Herts, as well as
that of Essex, which he already held.46 Even these privileges could not
hold him to Stephen's side. He deserted to the empress in six months'
time, but after she left England he was captured and deprived of his lands
by Stephen. From that time until his tragic death in September, 1 143,
his power was broken. Of his estates in Middlesex he gave the
churches of Enfield, Edmonton, South Mimms, Northolt, with the
hermitage of Hadley, to endow Walden Abbey,4' which he had founded
in 1 136.
The effect of the military operations in Middlesex and of the con-
tinual anarchy of Stephen's reign is shown in the Pipe Rolls under
Henry II. Of the £85 os. 6d. danegeld due from the county in Henry's
u Pipe R. (Rec. Com.), 31 Hen. I, 143, 145. * Cent. Flor. Wore. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), 131.
r Ibid. M Round, Geofre-j de Mandeville, 88-95. " Geita Stephani (Rolls Ser.), 78.
40 Ibid. 79. " Coat. Flor. Wore. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), 131.
0 Trivet, Annals (Engl. Hist. Soc.), 13. " Coat. Flor. If on. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), IJI.
44 Will, of Malmesbury, Hist. Nov. ii, 580. * Round, Geoffrey de Mandevillt, 138-44.
46 Walden Abbey Chronicle, Harl. MS. 3697, fol. I, cart. I.
19
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
second year, £10 or nearly one-eighth of the whole, comes under the
heading in tvasto.*7
We hear nothing of Middlesex during the reign of Henry II except
in connexion with the demands made by the king upon London. The
yearly farm for the City and shire was raised above the. original sum of
£300, and was not reduced until John's reign. The right to appoint
the sheriffs was not exercised by the Londoners under Henry and his
successor, and in the charter granted by Henry to the citizens no men-
tion is made of Middlesex being let to farm.48 The king strengthened
his hold on the City and shire just as he increased his control over the
barons. In 1174 Brichter de Haverhalle and Peter Fitz Walter held
office, not as sheriffs, but as ' custodes,' showing that they were acting as
the direct agents of the crown. Two years later the farm was raised to
£490. John was frequently at Fulham during the early part of his
reign,49 but nothing of importance occurred in the county until the crisis
of 1215 drew near. In May, 1215, safe-conduct was granted to the
archbishop to come to Staines to treat of peace with the barons.50 On
8 June safe-conduct was granted to all who would come to treat with the
king at Staines,51 but the signing of the Great Charter took place just
beyond our boundaries. During the nominal peace which followed
London remained in the hands of the barons until 1 5 August.52 Fitz
Walter, the baronial leader, was so fearful of treachery on the king's part
that he thought it wiser to postpone the tournament fixed at Stamford
for the Monday of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and ordered that it
should be held instead on Hounslow Heath,53 so that the barons should
be in a better position to protect London if need arose. To this tourna-
ment came Walter de Albini by special invitation, for he represented
the barons who were less hostile to the king.54
When Louis of France was called upon to act as arbitrator between
the two parties, a conference was held at Hounslow during the first
months of the reign of Henry III. Safe-conduct was granted to four peers
and twenty knights on the Dauphin's side, to meet an equal number of
peers and knights representing the king.65 The conference known as
the Treaty of Lambeth was possibly held at Staines, when Henry
under the guidance of William Earl Marshal concluded peace with Louis
and the baronial party.66
There was a continual struggle between the king and the Londoners
during the early part of Henry's reign. In 1227 the citizens secured a
reduction of the farm for London and Middlesex to jCs00/7 but the dis-
putes with regard to the shrievalty soon broke out again, and Henry
took the City into his own hand on the least excuse. About 1250 a
quarrel arose between the citizens and the abbot of Westminster over a
concession made by the king to the abbot which in some way infringed
47 Pipe R. (Pipe R. Soc.), 2 Hen. II, 5. « Charter preserved in the Guildhall.
«• Rot. Lit. Pat. (Rec. Com.), i, pt. I. Itinerary. M Ibid, i, 142.
" Rymer, FoeJ. (Rec. Cora.), i, 129. » Ibid. 133. M Ibid. 134.
M Ibid. » Pat. i Hen. Ill, m. 6.
M Rymer, FoeJ. i, 148. « Chart. R. 1 1 Hen. Ill, m. 16..
20
POLITICAL HISTORY
the rights of the citizens in the county of Middlesex.58 The king had
rcourse to his usual expedient, and took the City into his hand, and
the dispute lasted for fifteen years, at the end of which the Exchequer
Court decided in favour of the Londoners.'9
The later struggle between Henry and the barons came to a crisis
in the summer of 1263, when the king refused to confirm the Provisions
of Oxford, and Simon de Montfort raised the banner of revolt. The
king's brother Richard, earl of Cornwall and king of the Romans, took
upon himself the post of arbitrator. Henry had granted him the large
manor of Isleworth,60 and during the negotiations held from 29 June to
1 5 July, Simon de Montfort lay at Isleworth, probably Richard's palace,
while his adherents pitched their tents in Isleworth or * Thistleworthe '
Park." A temporary peace was concluded on 1 5 July,62 by which the
barons gained their demands, Hugh le Despenser being confirmed in the
office of justiciar, and the Tower of London being given into his custody,
while Henry returned to Westminster. Simon de Montfort was prac-
tically ruler of the kingdom, and throughout July and August63 he
remained at Isleworth conducting negotiations with the Welsh. The
following February the king of the Romans was at Windsor, organiz-
ing resistance to the barons with Prince Edward.64 London declared
energetically for de Montfort, and was greatly incensed with Richard
for his espousal of the king's cause, for which he was denounced by the
patriotic song writers of the day.65 On 31 March 1264 the Londoners,
led by Hugh Despenser, Thomas Piwelsdon, and Stephen Bukerelle, set out
for Isleworth,86 and there laid waste the whole manor, set fire to the
manor-place and destroyed the ' water-mills and other commodities '
belonging to the king of the Romans.67 After this act of violence
Richard threw himself vigorously into the campaign on the king's side,65
and was present shortly afterwards with Henry at the taking of North-
ampton.69 The citizens were punished for the outrage when Henry had
regained the upper hand, and were forced to pay 1,000 marks for
Richard's losses at Isleworth.70 Richard was indeed loaded with debt
before the war ended, for he supplied Henry with money and provisions
for the campaign against the ' Disinherited ' in the Isle of Ely.71
While this campaign was still in progress the earl of Gloucester,
who had retired to his estates to mark his dissatisfaction with the terms
of the Dictum of Kenilworth,78 marched suddenly upon London, and
69 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), Hi, 62, 80-1.
69 Fitz Thedmar, Chron. of the Mayors and Sheriffs (Camd. Soc.), 16, 17, 61.
*° Lysons, Environs of London (1795), iii, 94.
N T. Wykes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 135; Prothero, Simon de Montfort, 250 ; Stow, Annals, 193.
64 Rymer, Foed. (Rec. Com.) i, 427. " T. Wykes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 135.
61 Royal Letters, ii, 247-9. " Rishanger, De Bellis (Rolls Ser.), 140.
•* Chron. of the Mayors and Sheriff's of London, 65.
67 T. Wyke», Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 140 ; Ann. Dtuist. (Rolls Ser.), 221 ; Holinshed, Chron. iii, 460.
118 Holinshed, Chron. iii, 460. ' Some think that this was the cause of the war which followed,
because till this time the king of Almaine, through alliance with the earl of Gloucester, had been con-
tinually treating for peace ; but after this time he was a bitter enemy of the barons.'
69 T. Wykes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 145 ; Prothero, Simon de Montfort, 268.
70 Liber de Ant. Leg. 94-5. " Rymer, Foed. (Rec. Com.), i, 466. " 31 Oct. 1266.
21
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
demanded the removal of aliens and the restitution of their lands to the
* Disinherited.' n London admitted him on 8 April.74 Four days later
he was joined by D'Eyville and other disinherited lords from the north,
but he forced them to remain outside the City until after Easter
(17 April).7' Hearing of Gloucester's action, the king marched south,
raising as many men as he could by borrowing on the shrines, jewels, and
relics of Westminster.7* He met Prince Edward at Cambridge, and
together they went to Windsor, where the royal army daily increased.77
Gloucester and his friends were somewhat dismayed and sent overtures
of peace which, however, were not well received. Whereupon they
'appointed' to give the king battle upon Hounslow Heath on 5 May.
Their hearts failed them, however, for ' the king coming thither in the
morning found no man to resist him,' and after he had stayed there awhile,
he marched towards London and passing into Essex, took up his abode
at Stratford Abbey, while his army encamped about (East) Ham.78 The
king of the Romans again acted as mediator, and after several weeks of
negotiation peace was concluded,79 the earl of Gloucester receiving
liberal terms for himself and the ' Disinherited,' and a pardon for the
citizens of London who had taken his part.80
We hear nothing of Middlesex during the early years of Edward I.
During the latter half of his reign the effects of the king's pecuniary
difficulties fell on the county as on the rest of England. Repeated orders
were sent to the sheriff for the enforcement of knighthood. In one in-
stance, in February, 1292, all freeholders of land of the annual value of
£40 were ordered to receive knighthood, and in January, 1293, the estates
of defaulters were seized by the king's orders.81 In 1294 war was declared
against France, and Middlesex sent a quota of men to follow the king
into Gascony.82 The following year 4,000 cross-bow men and archers
were supplied by Middlesex, with Essex, Herts, and London, to meet at
Winchelsea in readiness to cross the seas.88
Edward was forced, by the need of money for the Scottish war, to
promise the re-confirmation of the charters on his return from the
Scottish campaign of 1298. A great council, therefore, was held at
Stepney on 8 March, 1299, in the house of Henry Walleis, mayor of
London.8* The earls pressed Edward to fulfil his promise, but the king
refused to give his answer till the following day. In the night he left
the City and took up his quarters in the suburbs,86 declaring to the lords
who followed him, the next day, that he removed for the sake of the
purer air. He agreed to the confirmation of the charters, however, and it
was not until the people were assembled at St. Paul's Churchyard that
71 Rishanger, Chron. (Camd. Soc.), 59.
74 Stow, Annals, 196 ; Matt. Westm. Thr. Hut. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 15.
n Diet. Nat. Bug. x, 340. " Holinshed, Chnm. ii, 471.
77 Matt. Westm. flor. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 15.
m T. Wykes, Chnm. 202 ; Stow, Annals, 196.
n «r June> I266. . * Stow, Annals, 196 ; Holinshed, Chrm. ii, 472.
• Writ to the Sheriff of Middlesex, Letter-Book K, fol. 25.
1 Palgrave, Part. Writs (Rec. Com.), i, 259. •» Ibid, i, 270.
* Stow, Annals, 207. « W. Hemingburgh, Chrm. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii, 183.
22
POLITICAL HISTORY
they discovered his addition to the Charter of Forests — 'saving the rights
of the crown.'88
There is nothing of interest to record in the history of Middlesex
during the early part of the fourteenth century. The burden of the
Scottish and Welsh wars fell on the county, although it was beyond the
region of actual warfare. Orders for the distraint of knighthood and
summonses for the county's quota to appear on either border form the
chief records during this period. Those specially summoned to serve
against the Scots in 1301 were Richard de Windsor, who had already
represented Middlesex in the Parliaments of 1297—9, Henry de Enfield,
who had attended the Parliament at Salisbury amongst other justices of
the peace in 1 277, John de Bello Campo, and Adam Badyk.87
The Mandeville estates were at this time held by the Bohuns, earls
of Hereford, a Humphrey de Bohun having married Maud, the Mande-
ville heiress. The Humphrey de Bohun of the reign of Edward III, who
had succeeded to the title and lands of the earls of Essex and of Hereford
in I335,88 served the king in France in the expedition for the relief of
Aiguillon. On his return to England he obtained a licence to fortify
and embattle his manor-house at Enfield.89
Middlesex was the scene of the climax of the Peasant Revolt in
1381. The Commons of Essex entered the county on the Festival of
Corpus Christi (13 June).90 On that morning they went to Highbury,
led by Jack Straw, and there set fire to the hospital of St. John of Clerken-
well, causing much damage and loss to the Hospitallers." Some of the
Commons then returned to London, but the greater number remained on
the scene of the outrage, surrounding the ruined house which had lately
been built for the hospital by Sir Robert Hales,'* and the remains of
which came to be known as 'Jack Straw's Castle.'93 On the following
morning (Friday), the peasants of St. Albans and Barnet, marching into
London, found the Essex insurgents still gathered round the burning
ruins.94 Jack Straw, as leader, received the new comers, and immediately
exacted from them an oath of fealty to King Richard and the Commons
of England.95 Meanwhile the peasants of Kent and Surrey had entered
London, and after committing many outrages in the City and in West-
minster, they finally passed through Holborn and burnt the hospital of
St. John at Clerkenwell.98 That night, the insurgents were in three
bodies : those who were still burning and wrecking in Highbury and
Clerkenwell ; and those who were encamped at Mile End, and on
Tower Hill respectively.
The Mile End insurgents demanded that the king should come to
them in person, immediately and unarmed.97 Accordingly he rode out at
M W. Hemingburgh, Chron. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), ii, 183.
' Palgrave, Par/. Writs (Rec. Com.), i, 270. » Inq. p.m. 10 Edw. Ill, No. 62.
* Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 4. Camlet moat in Trent Park is supposed to mark the site of the
Bohun manor-house.
" ' Anominalle Cronicle,' printed in Engl. Hist. Rev. July, 1898.
" Stow, Annals, 285. " Lingard, Hist, of Engl. iii, 290.
1 Lewis, Hist, of Islington, 4. M Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), i, 458.
" Ibid, i, 468. * 'Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra. " Stow, Annals, 286.
23
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
seven o'clock in the morning, accompanied by his mother in a ' whir-
lecote,' the mayor of London, and many earls, knights, and esquires.'8
He was surrounded by 60,000 petitioners, who demanded the abolition
of slavery, the reduction of rents, and free liberty to buy and sell at
fairs and markets." By granting their demands and by giving a charter of
liberties to each parish, Richard persuaded the Commons to return to
their homes, not, however, before they had dragged the archbishop of
Canterbury and the prior of St. John of Clerkenwell from the Tower,
and summarily beheaded them.100
On the following day the king proclaimed that he would meet the
remainder of the insurgents two miles beyond the North- West gate.101
He rode to the appointed place in the morning and took up his position,
surrounded by the nobles, near the priory of St. Bartholomew, the
Commons being drawn up to the west and further from the City.102 The
story is well known of how Wat Tyler rode up to the king and saluting
him familiarly, rehearsed the demands of the peasants, and then having
threatened the valet de Kent, who stood among the king's retinue, was
struck to the ground by William Walworth, mayor of London.103 The
king's marvellous presence of mind saved the situation, and while he led
the Commons to the field of St. John of Clerkenwell,104 the mayor rode
with all haste to London for armed help. Tyler was carried into
St. Bartholomew's priory, but on Walworth's return he was brought out
and executed, and his head and that of Jack Straw replaced those of the
archbishop and the prior of St. John's on London Bridge.105 The mass
of the Commons were meanwhile surrounded in Clerkenwell Fields, and
would have been slaughtered if the king had not intervened to spare
them.108 After quiet was restored, he knighted the mayor, Nicholas
Brembre, John Philpot, and Ralph Laundre, beneath the standard.107
At the end of the same reign, during the struggle between Richard II
and the barons, the latter marched into Middlesex under Thomas of
Woodstock, duke of Gloucester. The king had spent the year in a
royal progress with the object of consolidating his friends, and in the
late summer had gained the favourable decision of the five judges at
Nottingham, which declared the Commission of Regency to be illegal.108
In November he marched into London intending to prevent by force
the renewal of the Commission, and to punish as traitors those who had
originated it. News of his intention reached the duke of Gloucester,
and on 12 November the king was surprised to learn that he and
Warwick were marching on London with an armed force, and were
already only a few miles north of the City.109 The earl of Arundel joined
* ' Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra. " Lingard, Hist, of Eng/. iii, 291.
00 Riley, Memt. of Loud. 449. M ' Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra. Ict Stow, .jxnats.
* 'Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra ; Walsingham, Hist. dngl. i, 43, 389 ; K nigh ton, C4/W. (Twysden),
2637. »» Riley, Mems. of Lmd. 450.
05 'Anominalle Cronicle,' ut supra. "* Riley, Mems. of Lmd. 450.
107 ' Anominalle Cronicle ' ; cf. Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles (Camd. Soc.), 48.
" Stubbs, Const. Hist, ii, 266 ; Lingard, Hist, of Engl. iii, 328.
"• Men. Evtsh. (ed. Hearne), 90 ; Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 163.
24
POLITICAL HISTORY
them at their camp in Hornsey Park near Highgate.110 The king
thought of resistance, but London refused to fight, and Richard's
adherents sympathized too keenly with Gloucester's demand for the
removal of the aliens ' to get their heads broken for de Veer's sake,' as
the earl of Northumberland said.111 Richard could only issue a procla-
mation forbidding the citizens to assist or sell provisions to the enemy.
This was met on the part of the barons by an advance to Hackney with
4,000 men. They dispatched a letter to the mayor and aldermen assur-
ing the City that their only object was to deliver the king from traitors.
On 1 3 November they were joined by the earls of Derby and Notting-
ham,113 and on the following day at Waltham Abbey, just beyond the
north-east boundary of Middlesex, they ' appealed ' five of the king's
favourites of treason, which charge they repeated three days later at
Westminster.118
The accession of Henry of Lancaster to the throne led to the
increase of royal influence in Middlesex. Before he came to the throne
Henry had married Mary, one of the de Bohun heiresses,11* and thus the
manor of Enfield came into the hands of the crown. The whole estate,
that is from Barnet to Enfield, and from Potters Bar to Winchmore
Hill and Southgate, was strictly preserved, and became a favourite royal
hunting-ground.
The rebellions and wars of the reign of Henry IV scarcely affected
Middlesex, and we hear very little of it during the early fifteenth century.
In 1414 a great meeting was secretly arranged by the Lollards to be
held in St. Giles's Fields.116 Their intention was said to be to seize and
even to put to death the king and his brothers, to destroy Westminster
Abbey and St. Paul's, and to proclaim Sir John Oldcastle as Regent.116
It was expected that thousands of apprentices from London would muster
in the fields, and that Oldcastle would place himself at the head of the
insurgents. The date and place of the meeting were, however, made known
to the king. He came quietly to Westminster from Eltham where he
had been keeping Christmas, and on the evening fixed, the Sunday after
Twelfth Day, he set out for St. Giles' Fields with a small body of com-
panions.117 Panic seized the rebels on the news of his approach, and they
scattered in all haste, though many were killed and others taken
prisoners.118
Jack Cade's rebellion, in the following reign, had little to do with
the county. Apparently no Middlesex men joined the rebels.119 Cade
and the men of Kent and Sussex entered London from Southwark, and
Mile End seems to have been the only place north of the river that was
affected by the insurrection.120 On the same day on which Lord Say was
110 Walsingham, op. cit. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 164. " Knighton, Chron. (Twysden), 2698.
"' Knighton, Chron. (Twysden), 2700. '" Lingard, op. cit. iii, 328.
n< Inq. p.m. 47 Edw. Ill, m. 10. "* Getta Henrici 7. (Engl. Hist. Soc.), 4.
116 Rot. Par!. (Rec. Com.), iv, 108. "' Elmham, Vita Hen. Y. (ed. Hearne), 31.
118 Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 298. "' Owridge, lllus. of Jack Cade's Rebellion, 73.
110 A great number of the Commons of Essex encamped there on the same day that Jack Cade
entered Southwark. Fabyan, Chron. (1811), 623.
2 25 4
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
executed in Cheapside, his son-in-law Cromer, the former sheriff of Kent,
who had been committed to the Fleet prison for extortion,"1 was led out
by the rebels to Mile End, and there, without any judgement, his head
was smitten off in Cade's presence.188 Cade and his followers seem then
to have returned to the City bearing the heads of Cromer and Lord Say
on poles to London Bridge.
Middlesex suffered but little during the Wars of the Roses, having
no great baronial houses to lose, and being overshadowed by London's
predilection for the White Rose. Except for the passage of armies to
and from London, and in 1461, when the county was in danger
of devastation after the second battle of St. Albans, the tide of war did
not come very near our boundaries during the early part of the war.
On the latter occasion, the known hostility of the Londoners deterred
the queen from nearer approach to the city.184 On 25 February, 1461,
Edward of York entered London, and the men of all the neighbouring
counties flocked to his standard. On 2 March an enthusiastic crowd
offered him the crown at Clerkenwell, and he was crowned on the follow-
ing day at Westminster.186 Four years later Henry VI was brought a
prisoner to London after his capture in Lancashire. He was met on
24 July by the earl of Warwick at Islington,186 where his gilt spurs
were struck from his feet, and he was taken in bonds and under strong
escort to the Tower.187 The short period of his restoration in 1471
brought about the most important battle to which Middlesex can lay
claim.
Edward of York landed in March of that year after his brief exile.
He was proclaimed king at Nottingham, and marched towards London,
closely followed by the earl of Warwick. London admitted the Yorkist
army on Maundy Thursday (11 April).188 Warwick hoped that Edward
would keep Easter in London, and that he might then take him by
surprise. In this, however, he was disappointed. Edward allowed his
forces to rest on Good Friday, but on the Saturday set out to meet the
enemy.129 Knowing that his throne hung upon the forthcoming battle,
he spared no pains to render his army efficient. ' Harness, weapons,
horses, all engines, instruments meet for the war, he neither forgot nor
slackly furnished. What shall I say more ? He determined clearly to
spend all his riches, yea all that he could imagine upon the chance of
this battle ; firmly believing that this conflict should knit up all his
labour and bring him to quietness.'130 Henry VI, again dethroned and a
prisoner, went in his train, both as a precaution against treachery in his
rear, and as a protection in case the battle should go against him.131
111 Engl. Chrm. Three Fifteenth Cent. Cbron. (Camd. Soc.), 67. IM Ibid.
1M Chrm. ofRic. II, &c. (ed. Davies), 107 ; Whethamstede, Reg. (ed. Hearne), i, 391.
* Pink, Hist, of ClerkenweU, 612-13.
" Three Fifteenth Cent. Chnn. (Camd. Soc.), 80.
la Holinshed, Chrm. iii ; Hall's Cbron. 285 ; Ramsay, York and Lane, ii, 317.
" Chrtm. of the White Rose (Camd. Soc.), 58 ; Ann. of Edw. IV, 18.
" Warkworth, Chnn. (Camd. Soc.), 15 ; Three Fifteenth Cent. Chrm. (Camd. Soc.), 184 \Chnn.
of the White Rose, 61. » Hall, Chrm. 295.
" Ibid ; Warkworth, Chrm. 15 ; Chrm. of the White Rose, 6l.
26
POLITICAL HISTORY
Warwick had marched meanwhile from St. Albans, and had taken
up a position on Gladesmore Heath, on the northern outskirts of Barnet.13*
He encamped there on the night of Easter Eve, hoping from that
position to take the enemy's troops in detail as they came out of the
narrow village of Barnet. Edward was too wary a soldier to be caught
in this trap. Marching north towards Barnet he sent his advance-guard
to drive Warwick's outposts from the town, but would allow none of his
main body to enter it.183 He drew his forces under cover of darkness
very quietly to the right and took up a position on the then uninclosed
slopes which fell eastward from the Hatfield-Barnet road on which
Warwick's left was stationed.134 But the manoeuvre was not effected so
quietly that Warwick did not detect it. He accordingly opened
fire on the unseen foe, but not until Edward's forces were mostly under
cover of the hill, so that the Lancastrian guns overshot their mark,136
and Warwick had to be content to draw up his troops along the high
road, where they passed the night under the hedge-side.136 Edward
would allow no guns to be fired in reply, so that his exact position should
not be betrayed. He ordered the advance before sunrise on Easter
morning,187 and without any blowing of trumpets, and taking advantage of
the thick mist,138 the Yorkists fell upon the enemy. Warwick's right
wing under the earl of Oxford and Lord Montagu swept across the heath
and overpowered Hastings on the Yorkist left, driving him from the
field.139 His troops fled through Barnet, and spread the news even as far
as London that Edward was already defeated.1*0 Similar misfortune
befell the Lancastrian left under the duke of Exeter, for they were driven
back and overpowered by Gloucester on the Yorkist right. Consequently
the positions of the forces were now so altered that the Yorkists faced
south and the Lancastrians faced north.141 Meanwhile the fight in the
centre raged fiercely, Edward himself displaying great prowess.149 The
mist had lain so thick on the ground that the centre was unconscious of
the triumph of the Lancastrian left, and Oxford's men returning from the
pursuit of Edward's right wing were themselves mistaken for Yorkists,
and before the mistake could be discovered, Warwick's men had fallen
upon them. Oxford raised the cry of treason and fled from the field.143
Edward, quick to take advantage of the confusion, pressed the attack
hard, and after heavy fighting won the day. The Kingmaker was among
the slain, but accounts vary as to the manner in which he met his
188 Ramsay, Tork and Lane, ii, 370 ; Hall, Chron. 295 ; cf. Fasten Letters (ed. Gairdner), ii, 4.
m Chron. of the White Rose, 62 ; Warkworth, op. cit. 1 5, says that Edward reached Barnet first
and that, therefore, Warwick stayed without the town.
184 Ramsay, loc. cit. Edward's left was on the cross road to Monken Hadley (Herts.) and his right
stretched northwards over the Middlesex border along the slopes towards Wrotham Park.
185 Chron. of the White Rose, 62.
"• Arrivallof Edtv. IV (Camd. Soc.), 18.
87 Waurin, Ancbiennet Cronicques fEngltterre (ed. Dupont), iii, 125.
88 Fabyan, Chron. 66 1. The mist was ascribed to the incantation of Friar Bungay.
89 Hall, Chron. 296. "• Chron. of the White Rose, 63.
141 Waurin, op. cit. iii, 213. "* Arrival! of Edtu. IY (Camd. Soc.), 20.
148 Warkworth, Chron. (Camd. Soc.) 1 5. Oxford's livery was a star with streams, the Radiant Star
of the de Veers. Edward's was a sun with streams.
27
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
death.14* That commonly accepted is that he was fighting on toot, but
when he saw that the day was lost, he hurried to his horse which was
tethered near a wood, intending to escape, but encumbered by his
heavy armour, he could not ride away before he was surrounded by the
enemy and slain.1*6 Whatever the manner of his death, his body and
that of his brother Montagu were taken to London by the victorious
Yorkists, and there exposed for several days. Of the Lancastrian leaders,
Oxford alone escaped unhurt.1*' The duke of Exeter was badly wounded ;
Sir William Tyrell, Sir Lewis Johns and many knights were killed.
Edward also lost many adherents, among them Lord Cromwell, Lord
Berners, Lord Say, and many others.1*7
The battle over, Edward refreshed himself at Barnet and proceeded
to London.1*8 A dozen years later his son passed along the same road to
his coronation. He was in the charge of Richard of Gloucester, who
had led the Yorkist right at Barnet, and who had just gained possession
of his nephew's person by taking him from the guardianship of the
Woodvilles. The royal party was met at Hornsey Park by the mayor
and 500 citizens of London,1*9 who escorted the boy-king to the capital,
whence his mother had fled to sanctuary at Westminster on hearing that
Gloucester, and not her brother, was approaching in charge of her son.
Under the Tudors, Middlesex began to assume its modern aspect.
The Dissolution of the Monasteries was the first step towards transforming
the county into a residential neighbourhood for London. The Church
continued to be a great landowner in the county, but many small estates
came into the hands of the king, who would grant them for short
periods to favourites, statesmen or merchants of London. There was
hardly a man of distinction who did not at some time in his career build
a house or own a small property in Middlesex. These small estates, how-
ever, were so continually changing hands, so frequently falling to the
crown and being re-granted, so often sold, divided, and forfeited, as practi-
cally to prevent the growth of a county gentry,160 and thus to keep Middle-
sex from taking an independent part in the history of the time. The
growing importance of London brought greater natural prosperity and
increasing civilization to the county, but little corporate unity.
On the other hand, Middlesex saw much of the personages if not of
the events of the time. Naturally the sovereign was continually passing
through the county on his way to and from the capital. Thus in
August, 1487, Henry VII was welcomed at Islington on his return
from suppressing Lambert Simnel's rebellion.161 In November of the
same year, when he was journeying to London for the coronation of
144 According to Hall (Chron. 296), Warwick rushed into the thick of the battle to encourage his
troops and died covered with wounds. For other accounts see Chron. of the White Rose, 64 note.
44 Warkworth, Cbron. 1 6 ; Chron. of the White Rose, 65 ; Arrival! of Edw. IV (Camd. Soc.), 20.
146 Paston Letten, ii, 5. »' Warkworth, Chron. (Camd. Soc.), 1 6.
48 Arrivallof Edw. IV (Camd. Soc.), 21.
49 Fabyan, Chrm. 668 ; Kennet, Hist, of Engl. \, 482 ; Coat. Hist, of Engl. 565.
140 Compare the list of the gentry in Fuller's Worthies, Midd. with that made three hundred years
later in Norden, Spec. Brit, and with the names of noblemen and knights in the Antiquarian Repertory,
»i, 107- IS1 Stow, Annals, 472.
28
POLITICAL HISTORY
the queen, they were both met at Hornsey Park by sheriffs, with the
mayor and principal commoners of London.163 Under Henry VIII
Middlesex became very popular with the royal family, both as a
nursery for the younger members and as a place of recreation for
those whom affairs of state kept within a day's journey from West-
minster. In 1514 Wolsey obtained a ninety-nine years' lease of Hampton
Manor from the priory of St. John of Jerusalem,163 and began to build
his magnificent palace, so magnificent that he found it prudent to offer
it as a present to the king a year after it was completed. Wolsey was
still allowed to use the palace himself on occasions, and in 1527, by the
king's desire, he entertained Montmorenci, the French ambassador, in
gorgeous state.16* Three years later the cardinal passed through the
county on his way to York, in deep disgrace and in comparative poverty.
Nevertheless his train numbered a hundred and threescore persons, and
he had twelve carts to carry ' his stuffe of his owne ' and three score other
carts for his ' daily carriage of necessities.' Coming from Richmond at the
beginning of Passion Week he stayed for a night at the abbot of West-
minster's house at Hendon,165 and passed on the next day to a ' place
where my lady Parry lay, called the Rye,' never to journey so far south
again. Very different was the exit from our stage of Wolsey's successor to
the chancellorship. Sir Thomas More passed the period after his retire-
ment from public life at Chelsea on the estate which he had bought
about I52O.168 Very soon after the passing of the Act of Supremacy, he
was summoned to take the oath at Lambeth.167 Before setting out he
went to Chelsea parish church ' to be confessed, to heare masse, and to
be housed,' and then with forboding in his heart, bade farewell to his
wife and family. Accompanied by his son-in-law, Roper, and his four
servants, he took boat for Lambeth ' wherein sitting still sadly awhile, at
the last he suddenly sounded me in the ear and said " Son Roper, I thank
my God the field is won."'168 Henry VIII spent much of his time at
Hampton Court after Wolsey's death. Here Edward was born,169 and
here twelve days later Jane Seymour died. Here Catherine Howard was
disgraced, and here Henry married his sixth wife. The unfortunate
Catherine Howard was confined at Syon House160 from 14 November
until three days before her execution, where she was ' kept very strict,
but served as a queen.'161 In 1547, Henry's corpse rested at Syon as the
magnificent funeral procession was on its way to Windsor.163 The heir
to the throne was at Hertford when Henry died, whence he was brought
ls> Stow, Anvals, 473. IM Lysons, Environs of Lend. (1800), v, 52.
154 Cavendish, Life ofWobey (ed. Holmes), 110-15; Harl- MSS- No- 4*8-
'" Cavendish, Life of 'Wolscy (ed. Holmes), 209.
156 Faulkner, Chelsea, 92 ; Roper, Life of Sir Thomas More, 61-70.
'" Gairdner, L. and P. Hen. Vlll, vii, 112.
49 Roper, Life of Sir Tbomai More, 80-7. ISS 12 Oct. 1537.
M The monastery of Syon is erroneously said by Burnet to have been suppressed in 1532 for
harbouring the king's enemies, and of being in league with the Maid of Kent. (Hist, of the Reformation,
ii, 340.) It was dissolved in 1539 and remained in the hands of the crown until the end of the reign.
61 Holinshed, CAron. iii, 1582.
168 Lysons, Environs of Land. (1795), iii, 87.
29
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
privately to Enfield by the earl of Hertford and Sir Anthony Browne.188
There he and his sister Elizabeth heard with many tears the news of their
father's death, and on the following day (31 January), Edward made his
state entry into London.184
Edward VI spent the summers of his reign at Hampton Court. He
was there also in the October of 1 549 when Somerset's ecclesiastical and
economic policy brought his Protectorate to a close. The council was
assembled in London ' thinking to meet with the Lord Protector to make
him amend his disorders.' m Somerset wrote from Hampton Court in
Edward's name asking why they gathered together their ' powers ' and
requesting that they should come peaceably to consult with him. But
the following day, having heard how closely the council consulted
together,188 and guessing the hostility of their intentions towards him, he
made ready to defend himself at Hampton Court. He had the palace
gates repaired and brought down about five hundred * harnesses ' from the
armoury for his own and the king's men.187 He raised the country side,
summoning all the king's loving subjects to repair to Hampton Court,
' in most defensible array, with harness and weapons to defend his most
royal person and his most entirely beloved uncle, the Lord Protector,'
against whom a conspiracy was suspected.188 He requested the aid of
the earl of Oxford's servants, asked Sir Henry Seymour to levy horse and
foot, and wrote under the king's signet to the mayor, aldermen and
citizens of London to send one thousand men ' well harnessed and with
good and convenient weapons ' to Hampton Court.189 Then not content
with these precautions, he decided to remove the king to Windsor.170
Accordingly they set out between nine and ten o'clock of the same
evening (6 October). He was subsequently charged with having alarmed
the king by telling him that his life was in danger, and with having
injured his health by the hasty removal to Windsor.171 Somerset treated
with the council by letter,178 but on 14 October the lords came in person
to the castle and carried him a prisoner through Holborn to the Tower.178
The king returned the same day to Hampton Court, seemingly little
affected by his uncle's fate, and the council met on 15 October to
reorganize the government in the favour of Warwick. One of those
who gained by this coup <Tttat was Sir Thomas Wroth of Durrants near
Enfield, who was then made one of the four principal gentlemen of the
king's privy chamber. It was the duty of two of these gentlemen to
be always with the king, and in consideration of ' the singular care and
travail that they should have about the king's person,' and also to secure
* Literary Remains of Edw. VI (ed. J. G. Nichols), 210.
141 Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Engl. vi, 20-1.
** Edw. VI's Journal in Literary Remains of Edw. VI, 233.
" Tytler, Engl. under Edw. VI and Mary, i, 249. Somerset's suspicions were aroused by hearing
that the councillors dined every day at one another's houses.
47 Literary Remains of Edw. VI, 235. «* Ibid. ; Tytler, op. cit. i, 205.
'* Str7Pe> E«l- Mem. ii, App. 44 ; Ellis, Letters, i (2), 166.
"* Literary Remains of Edw. VI, 235.
171 Acts of the P.C. 1547-5°, PP- 34i-z- '" Ibid. 333, 337-40.
171 Literary Remains of Edw. VI, 255.
30
POLITICAL HISTORY
their fidelity to Warwick, their salaries of £50 were increased by yet
another £$o.ln Wroth was already a favourite of the king, having been
appointed a gentleman of the chamber to Edward before his accession, a
post which he owed to Cranmer's influence.178 During the campaign of
Pinkie, Wroth had been sent to Scotland in order that Edward might
have a full and trustworthy account of the war.177 After Somerset's fall
he was made keeper of Syon House, which then reverted to the king
until 1553, when it was granted to the duke of Northumberland.178
Wroth was an ardent Protestant, and as such was privy to Northumber-
land's schemes to continue the Protestant succession after Edward's death.
Lady Jane Grey spent the greater part of her life in Middlesex.179
She entered the household of Queen Catherine Parr when barely nine
years old, and continued to live with Catherine and her second husband,
Lord Thomas Seymour, both at Chelsea and at Hanworth.180 After
Seymour's impeachment and the fall of his brother Somerset, Jane's father
allied himself closely with the Dudleys, and in 1553 brought his family
to East Sheen, on the Surrey side of the river, in order to be near
Northumberland's house at Syon. A marriage was arranged for Jane with
Northumberland's fourth son, Guildford Dudley, as part of the plot to
win the succession from the Tudors to the Dudleys. The marriage took
place on Whit-Sunday (21 May, 1553) at Northumberland's London
house in the Strand,181 after which Jane went to live with her husband's
parents in order that she might be at hand when Edward should die.
She detested the duke and duchess, and after some trouble, obtained
permission to retire ' for recreation ' to Chelsea Place, which then
belonged to Northumberland.188 She was taken so ill there as to imagine
herself to be poisoned.183
Edward VI died on 6 July.184 Northumberland took great pre-
cautions that the news of the king's death might be kept secret, in order
to secure the persons of his sisters, so no public announcement was made
until 8 July.185 Jane was still at Chelsea. Thither came Lady Sidney 189
on the ninth, with the news that Jane must repair the same night to Syon
House,187 where she must appear before the assembled council. They
went up the river in a barge, the tide running so strongly that it was two
hours before they reached Syon House. Lady Jane has herself described the
scene which followed ; the deference of Northampton, Arundel, and
Pembroke ; her astonishment when her own mother and mother-in-law
paid their homage.188 Finally, the duke of Northumberland, as president
of the council, declared the death of the king, and that Edward had left
'" Actt of the P.C. 1547-50, p. 345. >" Diet. Nat. Sing. bciii, 164.
177 Literary Remains of Edvi. VI, 50. "' Lysons, Environs of Lond. (1795), iii, 87.
79 Strickland, Tudor Princesses, 97.
80 Howard, Life of Lady Jane Grey, 156 ; Strickland, Lives of the Queens of Engl. iii, 246.
1 Durham House. 1M Strickland, Tudor Princesses, 141.
ra Pollino, L'Historia Ecclesiastica delta Revolution d" Inghilterra, 335-8.
84 Literary Remains ofEdto. VI, cxix. 18S Lingard, Hist, of Engl. v, 370.
16 The sister of Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, and mother of Sir Philip Sidney.
187 Strickland, Tudor Princesses, 143 ; cf. Gent. Mag. May, 1847, p. 491.
181 Pollino, op. cit. 335-8.
3'
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
the crown by his will to Lady Jane. The lords of the council then
performed their homage, swearing to support her to the death, ' whilst
I having heard all this, remained as stunned, and out of myself.' Be-
wildered and full of foreboding, surrounded by those she hated and
feared, yet unable, a girl of sixteen, to withstand their will, Lady Jane fell
to the ground, wept, lamented the death of the king, swooned — and
submitted.189 The next day she was conducted to Westminster and then
to the Tower, as much a prisoner then, as the gorgeous procession swept
down the river, as when, the nine days' reign at an end, she was at the
mercy of Queen Mary.190
All the lords and ladies near London flocked in to see the coronation,
but the popular feeling in Middlesex ran very strongly against North-
umberland. As he rode out through Shoreditch a few days later on his
mission to fetch Mary from Newmarket he remarked to one who rode
near him ' The people press to see us, but not one sayeth God spede
us.' m When, as Mary's prisoner, he again passed through the place, ' all
the people reviled him and called him traitor and heretic.' m Mary's
triumphant entry took place on 30 July. The last miles of her progress
through Middlesex were thronged with crowds, whose enthusiasm left
no doubt as to the popularity of her cause. The Princess Elizabeth rode
out from Somerset House to meet her sister, and at Whitechapel the
mayor and aldermen delivered up the sword of the City to the new
queen.193
It was fortunate for Sir Thomas Wroth that he was not one of
those who suffered for the attempt to oust Mary from the throne. He
must have been acquainted with the whole scheme, as he was in atten-
dance on Edward VI till the last,194 and signed the letters patent limiting
the crown to Lady Jane Grey, but fortunately for himself he took no
active part in the rebellion. He was sent to the Tower on 27 July, but
was very soon released. In January, 1553-4, when Suffolk was medi-
tating the second rising, Wroth was urged to join, but he prudently
refrained. Bishop Gardiner proposed his arrest,195 but Wroth escaped,
probably through the influence of his son-in-law, Lord Rich, and he
spent the remainder of Mary's reign abroad, mostly at Frankfort and
Strasburg.196
In February, 1553-4, the queen's intended marriage with Philip
of Spain brought about the rebellion of Wyatt and the men of Kent.197
On the night of Shrove Tuesday (6 February) the insurgents crossed the
Thames at Kingston, intending to pass quickly through southern
Middlesex and to gain an entrance to the City in the early morning.198
189 Strickland, Tudor Princesses, 144 ; Tytler, Engl. under Edw. VI and Mary, ii, 188.
190 Strickland, Tudor Princesses, 144 ; Howard, Life of Lady Jane Grey, 435.
111 Chron. of the Grey Friars (Camd. Soc.), 58 ; Chron. of Queen Jane (Camd. Soc.), 8.
"* Chron. of the Grey Friari (Camd. Soc.), 8 1. '" Ibid.
M Edward died in his arms ; Literary Remains of Edw. VI, cxcix.
m Wroth was one of the witnesses against Gardiner for the latter's sermon at St. Paul'i in July,
1548.
" Diet. Nat. Biog. « Macfyn's Diary (Camd. Soc.), 54.
'" Grafton, Chron. (1809), 538.
32
POLITICAL HISTORY
But before they reached Brentford their advance was discovered ; 1M and
the news being carried to London, the queen's forces had ample time in
which to take up a strong position across the road by which Wyatt
must advance.800 As Wyatt had been delayed by the dismounting of
a piece of artillery, when he heard that London was already warned of
his approach, he encamped for the night to refresh his men, who were
very weary and faint from want of food.801 By ten o'clock the following
morning Wyatt was advancing through Kensington, and on reaching the
corner of Hyde Park he found the queen's troops, under the earl of
Pembroke, drawn up across his path. After a sharp skirmish Wyatt's
little force was cut in two. Those in the rear found it impossible to
rejoin their leader and as many as were able fled back, along the way
they had come, to Brentford.202 Wyatt still went forward, but the story
of his subsequent battle at Charing Cross 80S and of his disappointment
at Ludgate belong to the history of Westminster and London.80*
Wyatt's rebellion nearly cost Princess Elizabeth her life. The queen
sent for her sister to come from Ashridge, Hertfordshire, to answer
the charge of implication in the plot, and sent the royal physician to see
that Elizabeth did not evade the command by pleading illness.806 Starting
on the day of Lady Jane Grey's execution,808 and travelling very slowly,
Elizabeth came on the third night of her journey to ' Mr. Dodd's at
Mimms,' and on the fourth to Mr. Cholmeley's at Highgate, where she
stayed for more than a week, too ill to proceed.807 It is little wonder
that Elizabeth journeyed slowly, nor that she could truly plead ill-health,
for the future looked black enough. There were gibbets at each of the
City gates, and the public buildings were crowded with the heads of the
noblest in the land.808 Whatever her fears, Elizabeth showed a brave
front. On the day on which she entered London, the same morning
that Suffolk was executed, the road from Highgate was thronged with
gazing and weeping crowds.809 She bade her attendants uncover the
litter in which she was carried so that the people might see her as she
sat clothed in white ; and though her countenance was pale, her bearing
was ' proud, lofty, and disdainful, by which she endeavoured to conceal
her trouble.' 81° Elizabeth's popularity, as well as her own prudence and
wit, saved her life; but the following Christmas she was again journeying
through Middlesex uncertain of her fate, this time to appear before Mary
m Chron. of Queen Jane and Queen Mary (Camd. Soc.), 47. Before coming to Brentford they
were seen by one of the queen's scouts, ' who then by chance meeting Brett and his company, the said
Brett said to the scout, " Back, villain : if thou go further to discover any company here, thou shalt die
out of hand." The scout returned in great haste.'
100 Grafton, Chron. 539.
101 Chron. of Queen Jane and Queen Mary (Camd. Soc.), 48.
"' Grafton, Chron. 541. m Chron. of the Grey Friars (Camd. Soc.), 87.
** Chron. of Queen Jane and Queen Mary (Camd. Soc.), 48-9 ; and Appendix, 131.
>05 Nichols, Progresses of Queen Eliz. i, 6.
** Lodge, Illus. of Brit. Hist, i, 190. Robert Swift to the earl of Shrewsbury.
*" Holinshed, Chron. iii, 1 1 5 1 ; cf. Tytler, Engl. under Edw. VI and Mary, ii, 426.
108 Noailles, Ambassades en Angleterre, iii, 83.
*" Nichols, Progresses of Queen Eliz. i, 6 (note).
"° Simon Renard to Chas. V, cited by Strickland, Queens of Engl. vi, 66.
2 33 5
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
at Hampton Court. She was brought under strong escort from Woodstock,
and on her way stayed for a night at the George Inn at Colnbrook,
on the borders of Middlesex and Buckinghamshire.811 There she was
met by sixty gentlemen and yeomen from her own retinue at Somerset
House, ' much to all their comforts,' for they had not seen her for several
months.*18 They were not to receive much comfort from their meeting,
for Sir Henry Benefield, who had the custody of Elizabeth, would not
allow them to approach near enough to speak to her, but com-
manded them in the queen's name immediately to leave the town, ' to
both their own and her grace's no little heaviness.' tl3 Hardly reassured
by this incident, Elizabeth reached Hampton Court the next night, and
found herself installed in ' the prince's lodgings,' with the doors locked
and guarded. She was left for several days to wonder what fate was in
store for her, occasionally visited by Bishop Gardiner, who vainly tried to
extort from her some confession of conspiracy against the queen.81* Her
suspense was ended one night when at ten o'clock she received a summons
to the queen's presence. Imagining herself to be in great danger, and
requesting the prayers of her attendant — ' for she could not tell if she
should ever see her again ' — she followed Sir Henry Benefield through the
garden and up the stairs which led to the queen's lodgings.816 But her
fears proved groundless. The expectation of an heir to the throne made
the queen look upon her sister as a far less dangerous rival than hitherto,
and Philip of Spain was anxious to please the English people, and that
the popular princess should join the royal festivities at Christmastide. A
reconciliation took place between the sisters,916 and throughout the
brilliant scenes of the following days Elizabeth was recognized as the
second royal personage in the realm.817
Elizabeth was always a familiar and popular figure in Middlesex.
She had spent the greater part of her youth at Chelsea818 and at Enfield,81'
and during Mary's reign she was allowed to hunt in Enfield Chase.880 On
her accession in November, 1558, huge multitudes crowded to welcome
her at Highgate, and to witness the procession of bishops kneel by
the wayside to offer their allegiance ; which was graciously accepted
except in the case of Bishop Bonner, to whom Elizabeth refused her
hand.881
During the early part of her reign Elizabeth often returned to
Elsing Hall at Enfield,888 and in 1578 she honoured Sir Thomas Gresham,
at Osterley, with a visit, when he entertained her with great mag-
nificence.888 Hampton Court was one of her favourite residences, and she
kept Christmas there in 1572 and 1593.
111 Holinshed, Chron. iii, 1158. "' Nichols, Progress of Queen ERz. i, 12.
11 Holinshed, Chrm. iii, 1158. '" Ibid
"Ibid. 1158-9.
" It was at this interview that Philip is supposed to have been hidden behind the tapestry ; Strick-
land, Lives of the Queens ofEngl. vi, 117. «» ibid. 1 18.
18 With Catherine Howard. »• Strype, Amah, 1,236.
Nichols, Progresses of Queen ERz. i, 17, 102. » Holinshed, Chron. iii, 1784.
Strype, Annals, i, 270 ; Burghley Papers, ii, 763.
* Nichols, Progresses of Queen Eliz. ii, 279.
34
POLITICAL HISTORY
Great indignation was aroused in 1586 by Babington's conspiracy
against the queen's life. Babington had been detained at Walsingham's
house in London, apparently as his guest, until one night he discovered
that the all-powerful minister was fully informed of his intention to
assassinate the queen.824 Babington immediately took to flight, and
having warned his fellow-conspirators they all fled to St. John's Wood,826
which then afforded good covert to robbers and outlaws. To disguise
Babington his friends cut off his hair and ' besmeared and soiled the
natural beauty of his face with green walnut shells.' 2S* ' Being con-
strained by famine ' they went to Okington at Harrow--on-the-Hill, a
house belonging to a Roman Catholic family of the name of Bellamy.
There they were hidden in a barn, fed, and clothed ' in rusticall habit.'
Warrants had been issued for their arrest, and such was the popular
indignation aroused by Walsingham's exaggerated reports of the plot227
that the fugitives did not dare try to make their escape. When they
had been in hiding for ten days, however, they were discovered, and
were taken to London for their trial. Suspicion fell heavily on all recusants
living within a few miles to the north of London.828 Many houses were
searched,229 and many persons examined. The Bellamies suffered severely
for having aided the fugitives; Mrs. Bellamy was committed to the Fleet
Prison, and her son Jerome was executed on the charge of having
'aided and relieved Babington, Barnewell, and Dune in the woods and in
his mother's hay-barn after that he understood that search was made for
them as traitors for conspiring the death of the queen's majesty.' 2SO
Two years later the whole county was in a bustle of preparation to
resist the Spanish invasion. The conduct of military affairs in Middlesex
lay mostly in the hands of Sir Gilbert Gerard, Sir Robert Wroth, and
Sir Owen Hopton.831 Under their direction, the quota of men for the
county was drilled for many months before the invader sailed.232 In
April 1,500 men were raised, in June 1,000 more, and in July, thirty-
five lances, and eighty-eight light horse.233 Middlesex with Warwick-
shire and Leicestershire supplied the guard for the queen's person, and in
July, 1,000 of the county's trained bands were specially detailed for this
purpose.284 When the army was finally mustered, it was quartered
ni Camden, Annals, 305. m Ibid. 306 ; Mackintosh, Hist, of Engl. iii, 309.
"* Camden, Annah, 306.
*" Nevertheless Burghley found reason to complain of the way in which the search was prosecuted.
On his way from London to Theobald's he noticed groups of men standing about in the villages. At
last, in Enfield, he asked some of these what they did, and was told that they were searching for three
young men. He asked how they would identify them, and was answered, ' Marry, my lord, by their
favour.' ' What mean you by that ? ' he asked. ' Marry,' said they, ' one of the party hath a hooked
nose.' ' And have you no other mark ? ' enquired Burghley. ' No,' said they. — Burghley to Walsing-
ham, 10 Aug. 1536 ; Cooper, Noticei of Anthony Babington ofDethick, 178.
"" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1581-90, pp. 345-7.
"* Cooper, Noticei of Anthony Babington of De thick, 183.
130 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1581-90, p. 347.
01 Acts of the P.O. 1588, p. 219. n> Cal. S.P. Dom. 1581-90, pp. 271, 441.
"* Acts of the P.O. 1588, pp. 25, 144, 169. There was some difficulty in raising these, for
though the people were willing to serve, they were not well able to bear the expense, the citizens of
London who held lands in Middlesex were also taxed in the City, and the inhabitants of the Tower
Hamlets already served in the Tower. m Ibid. 202.
35
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
largely in East Ham and Hackney, to protect the queen, and to defend
Kent and Essex as need arose.885 The tense expectation ended at last,
the enemy hove in sight, the long-prepared beacons were lighted, and
' high on bleak Hampstead's swarthy moor, they started for the North.'
We hear little of Middlesex during the rest of Elizabeth's reign,
and as little during the reign of her successor. James was given a hearty
welcome on his accession, when he journeyed from Scotland to London.
At Theobalds (Hertfordshire) he created many new knights, among
whom was Sir Vincent Skinner of Middlesex. On his way thence to
London (7 May) he was met on the boundaries of the county by the
sheriffs of London and Middlesex, and at Stamford Hill by the chief
gentlemen of the hundreds. Of these, Sir Thomas Fowler, Sir Hugh
Losse, and Sir Arthur Attic were knighted at the Charterhouse on
1 1 May.*36 James took such a fancy to Theobalds, when he stayed
there on his way to London, that he took possession of it, giving the
Cecils, to whom it belonged, their present estate at Hatfield. In 1608
he caused his house at Enfield to be pulled down, and the materials
removed to Theobalds,837 so that Enfield did not see so much of court
life as hitherto.
Some scenes of the conspiracy of 1605 took place in the county,
though none of the plotters were Middlesex men. Garnet had lodgings
at Enfield, where the conspirators occasionally met.238 During the ten
days before Parliament assembled, Catesby and Fawkes came to White
Webbes, a house in Enfield Chase, where they were visited by Thomas
Winter.239 The famous letter by which Tresham conveyed his
mysterious warning to Lord Monteagle was received by the latter at
his house in Hoxton, where he dined on the evening of 26 October.840
The following morning, Winter went to White Webbes to tell Catesby
his suspicions of Tresham, and to entreat him to give up the enterprise,
and flee the country. Catesby, however, was cool and firm and decided
to wait until the 30 October, when Fawkes would rejoin him, and could
be sent to examine the cellar at Westminster. A week later, the con-
spirators were riding for their lives along the road from London to
Ashby St. Legers — Catesby and John Wright first, then Christopher
Wright and Percy ; in the afternoon Rokewood overtook Keyes at
Highgate, and lastly came Winter. Percy had promised to give all he
could get from the earl of Northumberland's rents to the cause, and
expected to raise about £4,ooo.M1 For this reason he went to Syon
House on 4 November, on the night of which Fawkes was seized in the
cellar. Syon House and Isleworth manor had only been granted to
Northumberland the preceding year, and he was now ' treated with
uncommon rigour by the Star Chamber, for what at most amounted to
a presumption of being privy to the Gunpowder Plot.' 84S Feeling ran so
85 S.P. Misc. (ed. Hardwicke), i, 575. »> Nichols, Progresses of James I, i, u*-ij.
" Cat. S.P. Don. 1603-10, p. 419. '*> Ibid. 247.
19 Thomas Winter's Confession. *« State Trials, ii, 195.
1 Bishop Williams of Chichester, The Gunpowder Treason, 56.
" Lysons, Environs of London (1795), iii, 95.
36
POLITICAL HISTORY
high at the time, that even a ' presumption ' was sufficient on which to
fine the earl £30,000, and to confine him in the Tower for fifteen years.
Northumberland offered his Isleworth estates to the king in payment of
the fine, but they were not accepted, and he was forced to remain a
prisoner until i62i.243
During the reign of Charles I, there was a great deal of opposition in
Middlesex to the king's methods of raising money. The committee
raised to collect the forced loan of September, 1626, reported in October
that John Brookes, Edward Bastwick, and William Webb had contemp-
tuously refused to contribute.*4* To which the king replied that those
who would not serve him with their purses should serve with their
persons, and ordered that they should be enrolled forthwith among the
soldiers.8" Thirteen more persons ' all of reasonable ability ' refused to
contribute on the following day, and warrants were issued against them."5
The burden of ship-money 247 was felt all the more severely in Middlesex
because the county suffered severely at this time from repeated visits of
the plague. The districts round London naturally suffered most both
from depopulation and from the interruption to trade.248 The county
had originally been assessed at jCS'5oo» ^ut tne sum was reduced to
^f 5,ooo.249 The whole abatement of £500 was taken off the hundred
of Ossulstone, upon which there arose great outcry from the hundreds of
Elthorne, Spelthorne, and Isleworth, urging that those hundreds had
to bear the charges of watch and ward at Hampton Court, as well as
the extraordinary carriage for His Majesty's provisions to the Court,250
and that therefore they were as much entitled to share the abatement as
was the hundred of Ossulstone. Complaints did not only come from
the poverty stricken. In 1636, the inhabitants of Chelsea, a suburb
which was then increasing in favour with the well-to-do, discovered that
they were taxed at a higher rate than the larger district of Acton.261
The sheriffs replied to their complaints that Chelsea was rated so highly
because of the persons of honour and quality who had summer houses
there, and who owned land and property elsewhere.262 In 1639, there was
actual resistance to the collectors of ship-money in the hundred of Gore,
and no less than forty distresses were taken at Harrow-on-the-Hill alone.265
In 1640, the levies for the Scottish War and the demand for coat-
and-conduct money were greatly resented,254 and such was the state of
discontent in Middlesex, that in May the trained bands were ordered to
be exercised on all holidays, in order to prevent riots.255
In January, 1642, some of the Middlesex trained bands were
stationed in the new guard-house built by the king at Whitehall,958 which
'" Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. vi, 229-31. "* Cal. S.P. Dom. 1625-6, p. 458.
"> Ibid. 459. '« Ibid. 460.
147
William Noy, who discovered ' the precedent for ship-money among the records in the Tower,'
lived at Brentford ; Strafforfs Letters, i, 262. He was one of the Commissioners to raise the forced
loan of 1626 in Middlesex ; Cal. S.P. Dam. 1625-6, p. 435.
118 Ibid. 1636-7, pp. 155, 286. *• Ibid. 152.
80 Ibid. 290. *» Ibid. 1635-6, p. 344. ^ Ibid.
*" Ibid. 1639, p. 434. IM Ibid. 1640, pp. 68, 155, 164, 228.
'" Ibid. 167, 201. "• Ibid. 1641-3, p. 241.
37
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
it was said so frightened the Commons that they decided to hold their
Committee meetings at the Guildhall. On the occasion of the attempted
arrest of the five members, the Commons ' who had been very high before
the King came,' sent for troops to the City. But failing to obtain them,
they sent to the trained bands in the corps-de-garde at Whitehall, ' but
they (the trained bands), stayed still.'8" Two days later, the Committee
of the Commons, sitting at the Guildhall, stated that it was necessary for
the safety of both Houses of Parliament that the sheriffs of Middlesex
and London should attend with the ' posse comitatus.' 2W
As far as Middlesex was concerned, the crisis of the Civil War
came very early in the struggle. In September, 1642, Essex passed through
on his way to face the king, taking with him his coffin, scutcheon and
winding-sheet as a sign that he would be faithful to the death."'
Then came Edgehill, and then the king's march southward. London
was in a panic, and when the king reached Reading on 2 November,
the news was received ' with the greatest horror.' The peace-party, led
by the earl of Northumberland, hourly increased in power. Negotiations
were opened with Charles, but he received them coldly. He had
information each night of what passed in Parliament during the day, and
to quicken the desire for peace, he advanced to Colnbrook,*60 ' this
indeed exalted their appetite to peace.' 2<n On 1 1 November, an
embassy was sent to Colnbrook, consisting of the earls of Northum-
berland and Pembroke, Lord Wenman, William Pierpoint, and Sir John
Hippesley, carrying a petition from Parliament ' for the removal of
these bloody distempers.' 262 On receiving the petition, Charles tried to
gain some immediate advantage by proposing that Windsor should be
yielded to him as a convenient place from which negotiations might be
held. To the surprise of Parliament, Charles said nothing about a
cessation of arms pending the negotiations. Therefore the Houses
thought it prudent to order Essex (who had just brought back the
remnant of his army from Edgehill), to take the field ; but they ordered
that he should abstain from any open act of hostility while they sent
again to the king to point out these omissions.263 Clarendon admits
that Charles had returned such an answer to Parliament as would lead
them to suppose that he would approach no nearer to London while
negotiations were pending. But he says that Prince Rupert had already
advanced towards Brentford, that the king was bound to follow him in
order to support the cavalry.264 Charles himself wrote on the following
day that on the night of 1 1 November, ' after the departure of the
Committee of both Houses with our gracious answer to their petition, we
received certain information that the earl of Essex had drawn his forces
out of London towards us, which has necessitated our sudden resolution
to march with our forces to Brainceford.' S66 He still protested his
" Cal. S.P. Dom. 1641-3, pp. 241-2. '» Ibid. 247.
™ Gardiner, Hut. o/Gt. Civil War, i, 21. *• Clarendon, Hist, of the RebelRon, ii, 392.
*' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1641-3, p. 405. Petition that extreme measures might be taken to secure the
safety of the City. «•» Lords' Journ. v, 442. '"Ibid.
164 Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 389-90. *» Cal. S.P. Dom. 1641-3, p. 406.
38
POLITICAL HISTORY
readiness to negotiate, and stated that he would receive terms at
Brentford. Parliament then sent to the king to explain that their forces
were instructed not to open hostilities, but the messenger found an
engagement already in progress, and returned without fulfilling his
mission.266
Whatever the explanation, the facts were that on the morning of
12 November, Rupert appeared suddenly through the mist387 which
lay heavily on the ground near the river, and fell on Hollis's regiment,*68
which had taken up a position just west of Brentford. Hollis was
forced back into the town, where Brook's regiment was quartered.
Here the two regiments maintained an unequal fight, having barricaded
the narrow entrance to the town, and ' cast up some little breastwork at
the most convenient places.'869 The whole of Charles's army seems to
have come up before the place was taken.870 A Welsh regiment which
had been ' faulty ' at Edgehill, now recovered its honour and forced the
barricades. ' After a very warm service, the King's troops entered the
town.' 2n The chief officers and many soldiers on the Parliamentary
side were killed, besides many who were drowned in the river in their
attempts to escape ; eleven colours and fifteen pieces of cannon, besides
large quantities of ammunition were captured by the Royalists.878 The
town was plundered unmercifully, and before nightfall was thoroughly
sacked. S7S That night most of the king's army ' lay in the cold fields.'*7*
During the day of this attack on Brentford the Parliamentary army
in and about London drew together with all haste. The life guards
were already mustered in Chelsea Fields when they heard the sound of
the volleys in the west.876 ' With unspeakable expedition ' Essex
gathered the trained bands together * with their brightest equipage.' 87S
All through the evening of 1 2 November, his forces streamed out along
the Bath road, until by eight o'clock on the morning of the thirteenth, a
large body of troops was drawn up on Turnham Green.277 This army
was nearly twice the size of the king's, but was of very mixed composition.
There were a few veterans who had fought at Edgehill, but the greater
part consisted of trained bands, and untrained volunteers, who were in-
capable of the complicated evolutions necessary for a successful attack on
the enemy. On the defensive, the stubborn spirit of the troops made
them a formidable array, nerved as they were by the popular report that
if the king once entered London, he would allow Rupert to pillage the
City unrestrained.
The king was in a difficult position. It would be madness to
attack Essex's superior force, for ' he had no convenient place for his
*• Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 395. "^ Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 53.
** ' Those honest, religious soldiers.' Pamphlet describing the battle of Brentford, cited by-
Gardiner, op. cit. i, 47.
*" Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 395. *70 Ashmole MS. No. 830, fol. 85, cited by Lysons.
171 Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 395. "' Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 53-4.
171 ' A True and Perfect Relation of the barbarous and cruell Passages of the King's Army at Old
Brainceford, nesj London." nt Ashmole MS. No. 830.
*" Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 54. *" Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 395. *" Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 54.
39
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
horse (which is the greatest pillar of the army to fight).'878 Yet it was
useless to stay where he was, while the enemy increased the strength of
their position, and while a force of 3,000 men was stationed under
Sir John Ramsay in his rear, holding the bridge at Kingston for the
Parliament.8™ Essex was strongly urged to order Ramsay to attack the
king's rear, but the professional soldiers in the army were much opposed
to the scheme, and finally Ramsay was ordered to fall back along the
south side of the Thames to defend London Bridge.280 Later in the day
Essex sent Hampden to sweep round the flank of the king's army, and it
was probably this force which took part in the skirmish on a hill near
Acton ; but the professionals prevailed upon Essex to recall Hampden
before the manoeuvre was complete.881 The armies remained facing one
another all that day, a few cannon shots only being exchanged, and many
were the complaints of inactivity among the Parliamentarians.888 A
great number of spectators had ridden out of London to see the fight,
and these were bold enough when all was quiet, but hastily galloped
away whenever the king's army showed signs of movement — to the
demoralization of the recruits, a few of whom took the opportunity to
decamp at each stampede.283
Towards evening, as the king found that Essex did not mean to
attack him, he drew off his troops towards Kingston, leaving only a
small force between Old and New Brentford to cover his retreat.284
These followed the main body as soon as they were fired upon, and
Essex took possession of Brentford without striking a blow.285 He was
at once surrounded by a hungry crowd of the plundered townspeople,
who declared that the town had been stripped and clamoured for food.
Fortunately the wives and sisters of the citizens in the trained bands had
provided a goodly supply of loaves for their husbands and brothers, and
these were devoted to the stricken inhabitants of Brentford.286
The Royalists in Kingston welcomed Charles and gave him the com-
mand of the bridge (the first above the City in those days). Essex
feared that the king meant to make his way into Kent where he had
many partisans among the gentry. The earl therefore threw a bridge of
boats across the Thames from Fulham to Putney, so that he could
speedily transfer his army to Surrey if necessary.287 But Charles made
no attempt to go into Kent. The army took up its quarters in Kingston,
while he stayed the night at Hampton Court 288 before removing to Oat-
lands. His troops shortly withdrew to Reading, and on 29 November
Oxford became the royal head quarters.
The engagement at Brentford and the action of the following day
formed a turning-point in the struggle between the king and the Parlia-
ment. It was now certain that the war must be prolonged. Charles's march
towards London had seemed like a triumphal progress, but it had been
178 Ashmole MS. No. 830. »9 Gardiner, op. cit. 59.
9 Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 54. •» Ibid. «" Whitelocke, Mem. 65.
Gardiner, op. cit. i, 59. '" Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 397.
Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 55. «« < A True and Perfect Relation.'
Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 55. » Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 397.
4°
POLITICAL HISTORY
checked by a hastily gathered army, and his troops never again approached
so near to the capital. His conduct in ordering or allowing the attack
on Brentford while negotiations were pending, though no doubt defen-
sible on military grounds, was most strongly resented both in London and
Middlesex, and did much to turn the scale of favour against him.289 The
petition of the plundered inhabitants of Brentford, and the generous
response to the order for a collection to be made in their aid, show with
what feelings Middlesex regarded the royal army.*90
Although after November, 1 64.2, the royal cause had little chance of
success in Middlesex, yet many of the gentry of the county belonged to
the king's party and followed him to Oxford. Sir Arthur Aston of
Fulham distinguished himself at Edgehill by driving the right wing of
the Parliamentary army from the field.891 He was made commander of
Reading when the king went to Oxford, and was probably at the taking
of Bristol. Later he was made governor of Oxford, where he was much
hated for his cruelty and imperious temper.294 Among those who
followed the king to Oxford were John Gary of Marylebone Park, Sir
Francis Rowse of Hedgstone Manor, Harrow, and Sir Henry Wroth of
Durrants. Sir Henry Spiller of Laleham took up arms for the king, as
did also Sir Robert Fenn and his son, and Sir John Kaye.293 One of
the most conspicuous figures in Middlesex at this time was Henry Rich,
earl of Holland, who owned Holland House in Kensington. He was a
man of ability, and had been prominent at court during the early part of
the reign, but his lack of principle and instability of character prevented
him when the crisis came from serving either side with success or fidelity.
Before the war he had attached himself to the queen's party, and was
made general of the horse when war broke out with Scotland.89*
When the army was disbanded he retired to Holland House, having
received some imaginary cause for offence.895 At the opening of the
Civil War, Holland sided with the Parliament, and was present with
Essex at the battle of Turnham Green ; indeed the Parliamentary
historians lay it to his account that Essex made no decisive action
against the king that day.896 In August, 1643, when the peers who
had remained at Westminster began to leave their seats, Holland set
out with Bedford to join the king at Oxford.297 They were stopped at
Wallingford while the king deliberated whether they should be received
or not. All considerations of prudence counselled a warm welcome, but
the Royalist hopes were high at that time, and under the queen's
influence the majority of the council urged that the fugitives should be
"* ' If your majesty had prevailed it is easy to imagine what a miserable peace we should have had.'
Letter from the Houses of Parliament, 1 6 Nov. 1642.
"° Cal. S.P. Dam. 1641-3, p. 417.
191 Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 358, 361.
"* In November, 1646, he was sent to Ireland with the marquis of Ormonde, and was left to
defend Drogheda with 3,000 men. When the town fell in September, 1647, Aston was butchered with
the rest of the garrison. (Diet. Nat. Biog.)
*93 Cal. Com. for Comp. ii, 1145, '3I2> H02* H8*> '5^7'
181 Straffbrd Letters, ii, 276. "* Clarendon, op. cit. i, 295.
598 Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 54. w Gardiner, op. cit. i, 199.
2 41 6
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
treated with scorn."8 Charles took a middle course. The earls were to
be allowed to come to Oxford, but every one was to treat them as he
thought best. Holland received nothing but cold looks, and though he
followed the king to Colchester and was present at Newbury, he was
disappointed in the hope that he would be restored to his office as groom
of the stole. He still refused to acknowledge that he had committed
any offence in siding with the rebels, and leaving the king's party on
6 November he threw himself at the feet of Parliament, * which after a
short imprisonment gave him leave to live in his own house with-
out further considering him as a man able to do little good or harm.'299
He employed his time in publishing a declaration of the causes of his
going to and returning from Oxford, which lost him the regard of the
few friends he still retained.
After Brentford, Middlesex was completely at the disposal of Parlia-
ment. The proceedings of the Committee for the Advance of Money
fell very heavily on the county in 1643. The object of the com-
mittee was to furnish the sinews of war, and at first its exactions fell
mainly on those within a twenty-mile radius of London. No distinc-
tion of party was made in the first instances, but gradually delinquents
came to be more frequently and heavily taxed. In April, 1643, Sir
Nicholas Crispe, whose house in Lime Street was sold ' by the
candle,' also had his estate at Hammersmith despoiled, and his goods
carried to London for the use of the Parliament.800 Sir Thomas Allen,
who lived at Finchley, was assessed at £1,000, and his household goods
were distrained for arrears.801 There is a long list of those who were
called upon to pay sums varying from £200 to £2,000.*°* Sir John
Wolfenstone of Stanmore was said to have lost £100,000 during the
war by fines, and by the seizure of his estates.308
The country round London, and especially the south-western
portion of Middlesex, was used as a camping and recruiting ground
for the Parliamentary armies. In August, 1643, when Essex was
about to raise the siege of Gloucester, the rendezvous for the
army was appointed for Hounslow Heath. Some of the Commons
who rode out to inspect the troops reported them to be * a very shattered
and broken body,' and found their general in a very dispirited con-
dition.804 They used every effort to recruit the army 805 and such was
their energy that in three weeks three regiments of auxiliary forces had
been raised, and these with three regiments of London trained bands
gave Essex an additional 5,000 men.306 On Saturday, 26 August, he
broke camp from his last stations at Colnbrook and Uxbridge with an
army 'so full of patience as that with one fortnight's pay (being much
in arrears) they were content to march against all these difficulties.' 8or
198 Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 146-51. "" Ibid. 156, 191-9.
" Cal. Com. fir Advance of Money, 21 April, 1643. *" Ibid. 21 June.
m Cal. S.P. Dom. 1641-3, p. 474. *» Lysons, op. cit. iii, 400.
1 Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 65. *>* Washbourn, Bibl. Glouc. Ixv.
"" Com. Jount. 3, 15, 1 6 August. *>' Washbourn, Bibl. Glouc. ZJ3-
42
POLITICAL HISTORY
When Essex returned in triumph at the end of September, he held a
review of all the London trained bands in Finsbury Fields.
In May, 1643, great alarm was felt lest the king should march
against London, and trenches were hastily made on all the approaches
to the City, such as at Islington, in the fields near St. Pancras, and at
Mile End, at which men, and even women and children, worked day and
night.808 There was another alarm in the campaign of 1644, when
Essex and Waller had separated and the king entered Buckinghamshire
with Waller hopelessly in the rear. A force was hastily collected, with
which Major-general Browne was ordered to defend the country
between London and the king. On 25 June Sir Gilbert Gerrard
reported four thousand men to be ready in Middlesex.30' Two days
earlier his own regiment, which he had raised in the county, was
ordered to march to Hertford under Browne.810 The rest of the force
was composed of men from the eastern counties of a non-military
character, but luckily for Browne's little force the king could not
shake off Waller and on 29 June fought at Cropredy Bridge.
Middlesex supplied many men during that year for the Parlia-
mentary armies. In March sixty horse were sent into the field.811 After
the second battle of Newbury all the forces of the county were drawn
to Staines to defend the western approaches to London.812 During the
winter of 1644-5 Middlesex men were in garrison at Windsor Castle.813
In March, 1645, 2,500 men were raised in Middlesex with London,
Westminster and Southwark, and in June an additional 800 to recruit
Fairfax's army.314 A troop of forty horse were with Major-general
Browne at Abingdon in January, 1644— 5, when he complained of fre-
quent desertions because of the straitness of their quarters, the scanti-
ness of victuals, and the lack of money ; 3U 200 more were sent to him
in June.81' Four hundred foot joined Cromwell before Oxford,317 and
in June the county forces marched under Colonel Massey to relieve
Taunton, and ' went forth with much cheerfulness.' When Fairfax's
army was at Reading during the summer of 1645 recruiting went on
apace in Middlesex.
The county suffered not only from the continual drain of men
and money, but also from the billeting of troops. In January, 1 643—4,
a petition was presented to Parliament from the inhabitants of Mid-
dlesex and other of the south and eastern counties,318 against ' the in-
tolerable oppression and undoing grievance of Free Quarter ' which ' has
rendered us no better than mere conquered slaves ' of the soldiers, who
' like so many Egyptian locusts feed so long upon us at free costs.' s19
In November, 1644, the gentlemen of Middlesex again petitioned, and
308 Lords' Journ. v, 419 ; Perfect Diurnall, May, June, 1643.
109 Col. S.P. Dom. 1644, p. 274. l10 Ibid. 265.
'" Ibid. 77. »' Ibid. 1644-5, P- 136.
'"Ibid. 124, 134,327- '" Ibid. 359, 625.
315 Ibid. 247. •" Ibid. 555. •" Ibid. 550.
118 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, 3.
319 « Petition of the inhabitants of Middlesex,' &c., B.M.
43
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Essex was desired to punish the ' particular insolencies ' which were
complained of.MO In the following April Fairfax was commanded to
remove his forces which lay in Middlesex, and the county was em-
powered to refuse lodging to such officers and soldiers as had not proper
warrant from their superior officers.8*1
In 1 644-5 was he^ that abortive conference known as the Treaty
of Uxbridge. The Commissioners met on 29 January. Those repre-
senting the king were quartered on the south side of the town, those
representing the Parliament were on the north side,352 each party having
a ' best inn ' reserved for their use.38* On the evening of their arrival
the two parties exchanged visits.834 Sir John Bennet's house at the
Buckinghamshire end of the town was appointed as a ' treaty house,' and
it was arranged that the king's party should come in by the ' foreway ' and
the Parliament's by the ' backway,' a room in the middle of the house
having been arranged for the meetings.326 Uxbridge was in the Parlia-
mentary country, and the Royalists were treated as guests, but Clarendon
declares that the townspeople observed that the Parliament's men did
not look as much at home as did the cavaliers, and adds that the former
had not that ' alacrity and serenity of mind as men use to have who do
not believe themselves to be at fault.' S26 The conference was to last
twenty days, not counting the days of coming and returning, nor the
days spent in devotion, ' there falling out three Sundays and one fast day
in those first twenty days.' On the first morning of the conference
Christopher Love, a celebrated Puritan divine, preached the usual
market-day sermon. He told the large congregation that the king's
commissioners were come with ' hearts of blood,' and that there was
as great a distance between the Treaty and peace as between heaven
and hell. The Cavaliers complained, but the Parliamentarians disowned
him, and he was afterwards reprimanded by Parliament.387
The discussions and wranglings over ecclesiastical, military and
Irish questions do not belong to the history of Middlesex. The nego-
tiations from the first were hopeless, and early served to show how
unlikely was the chance of any settlement between Charles and the Par-
liament. The main proceedings had opened on 3 1 January, and they
came to an end on Saturday, 22 February. On the Sunday both sides
rested in the town, and spent the afternoon in exchanging farewells,
' parting with such dryness towards each other as if they scarce hoped
to meet again.' The Parliament had allowed two days for the Royalists
to return to Oxford as the time of year was bad for travelling, but the
king's commissioners were so unwilling to run the risk of being caught
on the road after the armistice ended, that they were in their coaches
early enough on the Monday morning to kiss the king's hand at Oxford
that night.8'8
» Cat. S.P. Dm. 1644-5, P- H4- " Ibid. 441, 443 (39).
Lysons, Environs of Land. (1800), v, 179.
0 Whitelocke, Mem. 127.
"I Clarendon, op. cit. ii, 472. » Whitelocke, Mem. 127.
Clarendon, op. cit. iii, 472. •» Ibid. 474. »* Ibid. JO I.
44
POLITICAL HISTORY
In 1647 came tne struggle between the Presbyterians in Parlia-
ment and the Independents in the army, the bone of contention which
brought matters to a crisis being the control of the City Militia. There
were stormy scenes in Parliament on 26 July,829 and when the Houses
met again after a four days' adjournment it was found that the Inde-
pendent members with the two speakers, Lenthall and Manchester, had
fled to the army.530
The army under Fairfax had left Bedford on 29 July en route for
London, and disregarding the order of Parliament that the army should
remain fifty miles from the City, Fairfax had reached Uxbridge after a
hard march on 30 July.831 A meeting was held privately at Syon House
between Fairfax with his officers on the one side and the earl of North-
umberland, Lord Saye and Sele, Lord Wharton, with the speakers and other
members, on the other.332 Meanwhile the Independent party in London
had grown bolder, and the City had become tired of anarchy and riots, and
a deputation, therefore, waited on Fairfax at his quarters on 3 August.333
The general stated in a long declaration that the army was about to
march on London, and that the eleven members of Parliament who had
been previously impeached by the army must be given up immediately.331
Then followed a dramatic scene which is supposed to have been pre-
arranged. The whole army, 20,000 strong, was drawn up on
Hounslow Heath 336 in battalions which stretched near a mile and a
half in length.336 Fairfax rode on to the Heath accompanied by the
earls of Northumberland, Salisbury and Kent, Lord Grey of Wark,
Lord Howard of Escrick, Lords Wharton, Saye and Sele, and Mulgrove,
besides the two speakers and about a hundred members of the House
of Commons.887 The General accompanied by the said lords and gen-
tlemen then rode along the entire length of the army from regiment to
regiment. They were received with tumultuous enthusiasm, and with
cries of ' Lords and Commons and a free Parliament.' 3 After this
demonstration, the fugitive members took their leave of the army, some
going to Syon House with the earl of Northumberland, and some to
Stanwell with Lord Saye and Sele. Later in the day the Elector Palatine
came on to the heath, and reviewed the army in company with Fairfax
and many other gentlemen, and was also warmly greeted.339
Fairfax was now assured of success. Southwark had sent a message
imploring his aid, and he had dispatched Colonel Raynesborough with
a brigade of horse, foot and cannon from Hampton Court to take pos-
session.8*0 On the afternoon of 3 August the City surrendered, and a
letter was written to Fairfax announcing this decision. He received
m Lord? Journ. ix, 143 ; Com. Journ. v, 256-9. IJO Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 207.
331 Whitelocke, Mem. 262. Fairfax's quarters were at Colnbrook, 'at one Mr. Wilson's neere
the bridge whither he came Sunday night ' (i Aug.). Perfect Diurnall, 2 Aug.
*" Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 208-9.
SJS Com. Journ. v, 266. Perfect Diurnall, 3 Aug. *u Whitelocke, Mem. 263.
835 The army was then quartered at Brentford and Twickenham. Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 246.
136 Perfect Diurnall, 2-9 Aug. s7 Ibid. " Whitelocke, Mem. 263.
m Rushworth, Coll. vii, 743-51. *w Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 247.
45
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
it on the morning of the 4th at Isleworth, whither he had removed on
the previous day.3*1 On the 5th the whole army moved nearer to
London, the General taking up his quarters at Hammersmith in the
house of Sir Nicholas Crispe, who had fled to France.842 He met the
commissioners from the City at the end of the town that morning, and
they announced the surrender of the forts along the river. On 6 August
the fugitive members met Fairfax at the earl of Holland's house at
Kensington, where they subscribed to a declaration expressing their
agreement with the army in its late proceedings.843 The whole army
then marched in triumphal procession into London ; Fairfax, with the
Lords and Commons, was surrounded by a guard three deep, and every
soldier in the force was crowned with laurels.8*4
Meanwhile the king had been taken to Stoke Abbey when the
army entered Middlesex, but as soon as Fairfax had come to an agree-
ment with the City, Charles was removed to Hampton Court.846 Except
that he must remain at the Palace, Charles was allowed absolute freedom.
His friends and servants had free access to his person, and the citizens
of London rode out frequently to Hampton as they had been used to
do at the end of a progress.846 Lord Capel came with news of the
Royalists in Jersey,847 and the marquis of Ormond with news from
Ireland.848 Charles was allowed also to see his children whom Parlia-
ment had placed under the care of the earl of Northumberland. They
had been removed from Whitehall to Northumberland's house at Syon
on account of the plague, and were within easy riding distance of
Hampton Court.849
The months which followed were passed in negotiations with the
army and with the Scots. At first Cromwell came often from his
quarters at Putney to see the king, but after the latter's refusal of
the Heads of Proposals, the feeling of the army rose hotly against
Charles, and the Scots grew proportionately more pressing in their
demands that he should throw himself into their hands. On
22 October Loudoun, Lauderdale and Lanark presented themselves at
Hampton Court with a written assurance that the Scots were prepared
to assist Charles in the recovery of his throne.860 They came again on
the following day, accompanied by fifty horse, and urged the king to
escape under their escort.361 Charles, however, would not take so
decided a step, and when at length he decided on escape, only Ash-
burnham, Berkeley and Legge were in the secret.852 His first prepara-
tions aroused the suspicions of Colonel Whalley, who was in command
of the guard at the palace. At the end of October, therefore, he posted
guards within as well as without, and on i November Ashburnham
141 Perfect Diumall, 2-9 Aug. "' Ibid. "» Whitclocke, Mem. 263-4.
"' Perfect Diurnall, 2-9 Aug. "' Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 244.
116 Ibid. 247-50. >« Ashburnham, Narrative, i, 104.
" Warwick, Memoirs, 302-3. •" Whitelocke, Mem. 260.
150 Clarendon State Papers, ii, 380.
111 Burner, Hist, of his own Time, v, 123.
151 Ashburnham, Narrative, ii, 100 ; Berkeley, Memoirs, 47.
46
POLITICAL HISTORY
and most of the king's attendants were removed from Hampton Court.353
On 9 November Charles received a mysterious letter informing him
that the Levellers, his enemies in the army, had resolved on his death.354
He could still communicate with Ashburnham, and that night Berkeley
was brought secretly to the palace and final preparations were made for
the escape.856 On the Thursday, 1 1 November, the king retired early
to his room ; 856 horses were brought to the back door of the garden,
to which there was a passage from the king's room,357 and accom-
panied by Ashburnham, Berkeley and Legge he made his escape
unnoticed.3"
The alarm was given within half an hour of his departure, but
the king and the fugitives were already across the river. The officers
who broke into the king's apartments found only some letters on the
table in the king's handwriting, and a cloak cast aside on the way
to the water.859 Colonel Whalley immediately sent word to Cromwell
at Putney, who apparently hastened over to Hampton Court, and
having assured himself of the king's escape dispatched the news to
Speaker Lenthall.360
Middlesex seems to have shared the general Royalist reaction which
preceded the second Civil War. The county joined with Kent, Essex,
and Surrey in a declaration to the army under Fairfax in which were
rehearsed the ' many miseries' of the time, and the attempts to restore
prosperity to the nation by the proposed ' re-establishment of his Majesty
unto his royal rights, the Settlement of Religion and Liberty according
unto the known received Laws, and (upon payment of their arrears) the
disbanding of the army.'361 Having affirmed the failure of the Parliament
to attain ' the ends for which we first engaged them,' and that the Parlia-
ment had ' for divers years continued free-born people of England in a
greater servitude than at any time since the Norman Conquest,'
the gentlemen of the county announced their intention to arm, and ' by
our power (God assisting) to command what we could not entreat.' To
this end they ' heartily and seriously ' invited the soldiers of the army
either to ' repair unto us with your horses and arms,' or to go to their
own homes, in which case their whole arrears should be paid.362 Little
result seems to have come of the Declaration. The second Civil War
was soon over as far as Middlesex was concerned.
A general rising was planned by the queen and Jermyn, which was
to follow the appearance of the Scots in England. The earl of Holland,
who through the influence of the lord of Carlisle had made his peace
*" Ashburnham, Narrative, ii, 100. *" Ibid. 105. '" Berkeley, Memoirs, 161.
*" Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 263, says that Charles pretended indisposition, but Berkeley (Memoirs, 50)
that it was his custom to retire early on Thursday to write letters for the foreign post.
157 Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 263. ** Warwick, Memoirs, 305.
"* Bulstrode, Memoirs, 162.
560 Com. Journ. v, 350; Rushworth, Coll. vii, 871 ; Carlyle, CnmvielFs Letters, i, 264. Dated
' Hampton Court, Twelve at night, 1 1 Nov. 1 647.'
861 ' The joint declaration of the several Counties of Kent, Essex, Middlesex, and Surrey, unto the
soldiers of the army, now under the command of the Lord Fairfax' (B.M.).
** ' The joint Declaration.'
47
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
with the Royalists, was appointed commander-in-chief.383 The general
scheme was rendered hopeless, however, by the premature rising in Kent
(21 May, 1648). After his defeat at Maidstone, Norwich, to whom
Holland had given the command in Kent, heard that thousands had risen
for the king in Essex, and that there were 2,000 men in arms at Bow.SM
The City refused to let him pass through, so he decided to cross the
Thames below London.3" He intended to go only to Bow and Stratford,
but finding that his news had been false and that there was no force
gathered to receive him, he went on to Chelmsford. About 500 men
had followed him, crossing the river in boats, with their horses
swimming.3" They meant to land in Essex, but on the morning of the
4 June they found themselves in Middlesex under the Hamlets of the
Tower. Here they were confronted by the regiment of the Hamletteers.
Their leader, Sir William Compton, prevailed upon the regiment to let
them pass on a promise to disband, but when they reached Bow Bridge
they forced the turn-pike to let them through into Essex, and met
Norwich, on his return from Chelmsford, at Stratford.887 Fairfax had
meanwhile sent Colonel Whalley in pursuit of the Royalists.388 He pressed
after them, but was beaten back and pursued to Mile End, where the
pursuers themselves fell into an ambuscade, and were forced to retreat.
The Hamletteers then returned to the attack, but were surrounded in Bow
church, where they had taken refuge, and were finally released on condi-
tion that they returned to their homes. The Royalists retired behind the
Lea, setting guards at the fords over the river ; and when a Parliamentary
force of dragoons was collected on Mile End Green, they withdrew to
Stratford.369 There were a few skirmishes at ' Bow Townes End ' until
7 June, when the rising passed into Essex.370 The earl of Holland took
the field on 4 July, being forced to act prematurely because the committee
at Derby House had knowledge of his intended rising. He appeared in
arms at Kingston, but after four days' skirmishing in Surrey he gave up
all hope of success, for he found that the Royalists did not join him,
and that the number of his followers dwindled daily.371 On 7 July
the deputy-lieutenant of Middlesex was ordered to guard the bridges
and ferries over the Thames, and to secure the boats on his side of the
river.378 Guards were posted in the county to prevent any person
from joining the rising in Surrey.373 Holland entered Middlesex with a
small following, but without attempting an action ; he pushed through
the narrow lanes about Harrow on his way to St. Albans.874 The
insurrection was finally ended by his capture on 9 July at St. Neots.376
" Gardiner, op. cit. iv, 138. >* Carter, A Most True and Exact Narrative, 102. «•» Ibid.
1 Gardiner, op. cit. iv, 138 ; cf. Carter, Narrative, 32 ; Clarendon, op. cit. iv, 358.
Carter, Narrative, 107-1 1. »«> Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 250.
169 Carter, Narrative, 1 1 1-14.
170 On 5 June Parliament passed an Act of Indemnity for all, except Norwich, who would lay
down arms ; Com. Journ. v, 586. On 7 June Sir William Hicb and others submitted ; Whitelocke,
Mem. 310.
" Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 255. «" Qal. S.P. Dom. 1648-9, p. 169.
Jbid- 93- « Whitelocke, Mem. 3 j 8.
Ludlow, Memoirs, i, 255.
48
POLITICAL HISTORY
He was condemned to death by the High Court of Justice,37" and
his firmness on the scaffold, as well as his last attempt in the king's
cause, went some way towards making the Royalists forget his earlier
vacillation.377
After the king's death Middlesex settled down quietly under the
Commonwealth. Several prominent republicans lived in the county.
Lambert was quartered at Holland House in i649,878 where, owing to
his deafness, Cromwell insisted that their conference should be held in
the meadow. After his difference with Cromwell, Fairfax inhabited
Holland House until it was restored to the countess of Holland. Sir
William Waller lived at Osterley87' until his death in 1668. Of the
regicides, Owen Rowe and Colonel John Okey lived at Hackney.880 Many
of the Royalists made their peace with the government and returned to
their estates. Of these, Lord Campden, who had been a zealous Royalist,
compounded for £9,000, and lived at Campden House during the
Protectorate.881 Sir John Thorowgood of Kensington, a gentleman-
pensioner of Charles I, joined the republicans during the interregnum.
Several Parliamentarians bought land in Middlesex during the sale of
church lands, and of these Sir William Roberts, who held the manor of
Neasden,882 represented Middlesex in the Parliament which gave Cromwell
the title of Protector. Some little agitation was caused in 1650 when
Parliament proceeded to break up Enfield Chase into small lots, and to sell
these to soldiers who had fought on the revolutionary side in the war. The
inhabitants of Enfield claimed the right of common, and the rioters broke
down the inclosures in the Chase.383 Four files of soldiers were sent
against them, and two petitions were sent to Parliament : one from the
officers who had bought lands, the other from the inhabitants of Enfield
and Edmonton.88*
Great alarm was felt in August, 1651, when the Scots advanced into
England. Barnet was appointed as the rendezvous for the forces in the
south, and Middlesex was represented there by 1,000 men from the
militia.885 The news soon came of Cromwell's victory at Worcester, and
the 500 Middlesex men who had marched out to Uxbridge were ordered
to return home, though for over a week troops kept guard on all the main
roads in the county.886
When Monk marched south in February, 1660, he broke up his
last camp at Barnet on the third, and marched that day into London.387
Before coming to Highgate the general drew up his forces which
consisted of four regiments of foot and three of horse, 5,800
men in all, with whom he entered the City by Gray's Inn Lane and
Holborn Bars.888
"• Clarendon, op. cit. Hi, 174, 271. '" Andrews, Bygone M iddlesex, 119.
t78 Perfect Diurnal!, 9 July, 1649. m Lysons, Environs of Land. (1795), iii, 27.
"* Ibid. Hackney. »> Ibid, iii, 179.
""Ibid. 613. •"Ibid, ii, 286-7.
184 Ca/.S.P.Dom. 1658-9, pp. 363, 368 (30).
84 Ibid. 1651, pp. 325, 346. *86 Ibid. 411-12. •** Ludlow, Memoirs, 818.
388 Price, Mystery and Method of His Majesty's Restoration, 757.
2 49 7
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
After the Restoration Court life returned to Middlesex. Charles II
was frequently at Hampton Court,889 which had fortunately escaped the
fate of other crown lands, for Cromwell took a fancy to it and reserved it
for his own use during the Protectorate.
By 1686 James II had succeeded in estranging every class in England
by his over-zeal for the re-establishment of Roman Catholicism. Riots
took place all over the country on account of the favour shown to
Roman Catholics. London especially was in great excitement when
the chapel in Lime Street was opened for the Elector Palatine, and the
City-trained bands could not be relied upon to quell the frequent riots.
In the early summer of that year the king formed the idea of establishing
a large military camp on Hounslow Heath, chiefly with the object of
overawing London. The army was always dear to the king's heart, and he
showed the greatest interest in the formation of the camp. As early as
1 6 April he rode out to Hounslow himself to choose a suitable
position on the Heath.890 Here between 13,000 and 16,000 men were
collected in the circumference of about aj miles ; fourteen battalions
of foot, thirty-two squadrons of horse, twenty-six pieces of artillery,
besides the quantities of guns and ammunition which were dragged hither
from the Tower.891 The camp was established during May and June,
and the first great review was held on 30 June. It was made an
occasion of great state, and a gallery was raised for the queen, the queen
dowager, and her ladies. James himself led the troops until he had passed
the queens, when he dismounted, and the commander-in-chief, Lord
Feversham, marched before them.898 On another occasion, in July, the
king, ' as a piece of gallantry,' made all his 4,000 horse march at two
o'clock in the morning into Staines meadow to attend the queen from
thence to the Heath, where she honoured Lord Arran by dining with
him.898
The general suspicion with which the king's love for his troops was
regarded made James think their presence all the more necessary. He
spared no pains to render the force efficient, and gave his attention even
to details of clothing, arms, and discipline. The army was soon a ' very
compleat body of men.' It had the reputation of being the best paid,
best equipped, and ' most sightly body of troops of any in Europe,' and
raised the king's and the kingdom's credit to no little extent abroad.894 So
proud was James of his army that he could not refrain from ' des-
canting in his letters to the Prince of Orange on the beauty of his troops,
not without a secret pleasure for the reflection that the exultation could
give no great pleasure to the Prince.' S95 London had at first regarded
the camp with awe, but the king's frequent visits to Hounslow and their
*" Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. v, 1 53. He went there as early as 9 June, 1660, ' and had by the way a
great fall of his horse, but God be thanked no hurt.'
90 Reresby's Memoirs, 360. 'I waited upon His Majesty to Hounslow Heath. . . . He was after-
wards entertained at dinner by Mr. Shales, the provider, in a little house built there for the convenience
of this business, where his Majesty was more pleasant and entertaining to all the company than he used
to be.'
*' EUii Carres, i, 125, 271. "^ Sir John Bramston, Autobiografhy, 234. *" Ellis Carres, i, 125.
"* J. S. Clarke. Life afjas. II, ii, 71. 3W Dalrymple, Memoirs, pt. i, bk. iv, p. 103.
50
POLITICAL HISTORY
attendant gaieties soon brought the citizens to look upon Hounslow Heath
as a pleasure resort.
Mingled with the musketeers and dragoons, a multitude of fine ladies and gentle-
men from Soho Square, sharpers from Whitefriars, invalids in sedans, monks in hoods
and gowns, lacqueys in rich liveries, pedlars, orange girls, mischievous apprentices, and
gaping clowns, were constantly passing and re-passing through the long lanes of tents
... In truth the place was merely a gay suburb of the capital.398
Familiarity had the proverbial result, and London no longer feared the
army, which indeed, soon ceased to be a menace to its safety. The
troops on which the king had so greatly depended, and whose welfare
he had rightly cherished as his own, became imbued with the temper of
the City and of the nation.897 A strong Protestant bias made itself felt
among the soldiers and ' it appeared on many occasions that the army
had a great animadvertence to the King's religion.' S9S
The Roman Catholic officers, whose admission to the army the
king had gained by the suspension of the Test Act, were very few in
number. James had a chapel in the camp, but few officers or men
heard mass there, and those few were treated with great scorn by their
fellows.399 Protestant tracts were freely circulated, in which the troops
were exhorted to use their arms in defence of the Bible, the Great
Charter, and the Petition of Right.400 As the crisis of 1688 drew near
it became evident that the army could not be trusted if trouble arose.
James still went frequently to the camp, driving there as a rule twice a
week, sometimes with Major-General Worden,401 and sometimes with the
future duke of Marlborough, then Lord Churchill.402 He went to
Hounslow on the morning of the last day of the trial of the Seven
Bishops.403 Sunderland sent a courier with news of the acquittal, who
was brought before the king while he was in Lord Feversham's tent.
On hearing the news James exclaimed fiercely, 'So much the worse for
them.' He set out shortly afterwards for London, and scarcely had he
left the camp when a great shout broke out from the soldiers. The king
asked what noise was that, and was answered that it was ' Nothing, that
the soldiers were glad that the Bishops were acquitted.' Then James
broke out, ' Do you call that nothing ? ' and again said gloomily, ' So
much the worse for them.'404 The news was received with even more
acclamation at the camp than elsewhere,408 and the soldiers were soon
more dreaded by the Court than ever they had been by the City. James
went several times to Hounslow during July,40* but he saw fit to break
up the camp early in August.407 The troops were scattered over the
country on the excuse that they would be needed to keep order at the
approaching elections, but in reality because they had become more a
danger than a protection to the king.4
408
** Macaulay, Hut. o/Engl. ii, 102. *" Bramston, Autobiog. 234.
98 Burnet, Hist, of His Own Time, iii, 154. *" Clarke, Life of] as. 11, ii, 70.
100 Macaulay, op. cit. ii, 103. 4C1 Ellis Carres, ii, 24.
01 Ibid, ii, i. 403 Ibid, ii, 2. The jury for the trial was drawn from Middlesex.
14 Macaulay, op. cit. ii, 388. 40S Clarke, Life ofjas. 11, ii, 163.
406 Reresby's Memoirs, 397, 399. *" £///'/ Corw. ii, 116. 408 Ibid, ii, 139.
51
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
After the Revolution Middlesex was connected even more intimately
than before with the life of the Court. William III very soon discovered
a predilection for Hampton Court, and after he had altered and added to
the palace he was seldom in London. The king's Dutch friends formed
quite a colony in southern Middlesex, and after the duke of Schomberg
received an English peerage he took his title from Brentford. The
Princess Anne also lived at Hampton Court during the early part of the
reign, and until her relations with the queen made it desirable that she
should find a house of her own. While the question of her income was
before Parliament she withdrew to Lord Craven's house at Kensington
Gravel Pits, which he had lent as a nursery for her son, the duke of
Gloucester.
Another royal palace was built by William III at Kensington. It
was near enough to London for all business of state and yet it was free
from the smoke which so much affected the king's asthma. Early in 1 690
he bought the lease of Lord Nottingham's house at Kensington, and the
palace was hastily finished on his return from the Irish campaign.*09 The
political intrigues of the reign centred round Kensington and Hampton
Court Palaces. The feud between the queen and Princess Anne still
continued, and after the duke of Marlborough's disgrace and the duchess's
subsequent exclusion from the queen's presence at Kensington, Anne
fled from Hampton Court and took refuge at Syon House,*10 the property
of the duke of Somerset since his marriage with the heiress of the Percies.
During the winter of 1693-4 the queen was at Kensington Palace, while
Anne was at Berkeley House and her son at Campden House, but as
her quarrel with Queen Mary still continued, the entree to Kensington
was barred to her although open to her son. On 28 December, 1694
(O.S.), the Queen died at Kensington. Immediately after her death
Somers negotiated a reconciliation between the king and his sister-in-
law.411 Anne came to Campden House, whence she was carried in a
sedan chair, for she could not walk, into the presence of the king at
Kensington. Her political interests as heir-apparent being now the same
as the king's, they agreed to sink the memory of many mutual injuries.*18
On 3 1 December the House of Peers went in a body to Kensington
to present an address to the king deploring the death of Queen Mary.
The same afternoon the Commons came with a still longer address and a
still more urgent appeal that the king would direct his attention to his
own preservation.*13 William lived indeed in great danger of assassina-
tion by the Jacobites, and one of the many plots against his life was
connected with Middlesex. In 1696 Sir George Barclay came to England
from the court of St. Germains, bearing a commission from James II
requiring all his loving subjects to rise in arms on his behalf.*1* Barclay
interpreted his commission to mean that he should get rid of the usurper
as best he could. He gathered about him a band of forty conspirators,
* Daliymple, Memoirs, App. ii, 150. 41° Loud. Gaz. No. 2758.
'" Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough, 108. 4I> Evelyn's Diary (cd. Bray), 505.
" White Kennet, Hist. ofEngl. iii, 674. «4 Wilson, Memoirs of the Duke of Berwick, i, 1 34.
52
POLITICAL HISTORY
composed of English and Irish Roman Catholics, Non-jurors, and
Jacobites.415 The place chosen for the attempt was Turnham Green, the
day 1 5 February. The king intended to drive from Kensington
Palace to hunt in Richmond Park. It was agreed that the conspirators
should go in parties of two and three, some to inns at Brentford, some to
inns at Turnham Green. As the king returned to the ferry at Brentford
those who were posted there should ride back towards Turnham Green,
and the whole band would fall upon the royal party in the lane between
the two places, where the road was too narrow and the ditches too deep
for the coach to turn round.414 On the appointed day, when all was
ready as arranged, news reached Barclay that the king had already
returned in haste to Kensington. Information of the plot had been
given by two of the conspirators, Prendergast and La Rue, and though
Barclay escaped to France many of his subordinates were captured.417
The attempt roused the greatest agitation in London, and led to the
formation of the association for the protection of the king's person.418
The accident which caused William's death took place at Hampton
Court as he was riding in the park.419 He died at Kensington Palace,
and Anne aroused great indignation among his Dutch friends by causing
his body to be removed at once to Westminster, so that she might take
immediate possession of Kensington Palace.
Perhaps the most conspicuous figure in Middlesex during the reign
of William III was Charles Mordaunt, earl of Peterborough, admiral,
general and diplomatist, who had inherited the Carey house at Fulham
from his mother. In his younger days he had been an opponent of
James II,480 and at the Revolution he had been in close attendance on the
Prince of Orange.421 He held many court appointments under William,
and in all his dealings — and he had much to do with the distribution
of patronage — he was known as a man at once liberal and scru-
pulously honest. During the wars under Queen Anne Peterborough
was granted a commission as admiral and commander-in-chief of the
fleet with Sir Cloudesley Shovell. His greatest achievement was the
siege of Barcelona, where he displayed great generalship as well as
the highest personal valour.422
With the advent of the Hanoverian dynasty Middlesex seems to
lose more and more of its individual history, and to become altogether
merged in London and in the kingdom generally. The first two Georges
went frequently to Hampton Court and Kensington Palace, but these
ceased to be royal residences under George III. The many states-
men and men of distinction whom we find in Middlesex during the
eighteenth century lived there for short periods only, and looked
upon it merely as a place of residence, so they did not contribute
much to the history of the county. In early Georgian times
Holland House was famous for its political gatherings. Even before
415 Evelyn's Diary, 509. '" Clarke, Life of Jas. II, ii, 550.
17 Ibid. 553. 4I" Evelyn's Diary, 509.
419 Burnet, Hist, of His Own Time, iv, 558. 4W Macaulay, op. cit. ii, 287.
4>1 Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. v, 136. 4I> Burnet, Hist, of His Own Time, v, 214.
53
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Addison's marriage with the dowager countess of Holland, he had
had a retirement near Chelsea, within an easy walk over the fields
from Holland House.*88 His marriage in 1716, though it did not
conduce to his happiness, probably facilitated his official advancement.
In 1717 he was Secretary of State in Sunderland's ministry, but he
retired the following year and died at Holland House in 1719.
Walpole was much at Chelsea during the reign of George II.434
News of the sudden death of George I reached him there on 14 June,
1727. Walpole's fortunes were then passing through a crisis, and his
position had been greatly damaged by the invectives of the Opposition in
the Craftsman. Thoroughly aware of the importance of first audience
with the new king, he is said to have killed two horses in carrying the
tidings of the death of George I to his successor at Richmond.426 Mean-
while Walpole's great opponent, Bolingbroke, was settled on the other side
of the county, at Dawley near Uxbridge. Here he acted the part of a
country gentleman with great spirit, and had his hall painted with rakes
and spades 'to countenance his calling it a farm.'486 All the time he was
taking an important though obscure part in politics, leading the attacks
on Walpole in the Craftsman. *" In the new reign, while still at
Dawley, he wrote the articles signed 'John Trot ' which contained such
virulent attacks on Walpole's foreign policy. In 1730 he was working
to bring about the combination between the opposition Whigs and the
Tories, led by Sir William Wyndham, and in 1733 it was from Dawley
that he inspired Wyndham's speeches on the Excise Bill. He did not
leave Dawley until he retired altogether from politics to live in France.
The rebellion of 1715 had not disturbed Middlesex, and that in
1745 affected it but little. When the news reached London that
the enemy was advancing south, a small army, poorly and hastily
equipped, was mustered on Finchley Common,428 whence the duke of
Cumberland travelled to Culloden. The rebellion had this result : that
the ensuing elections proved a great victory for the Whigs in Middlesex,
owing to the publication of the lists of subscriptions which had been
raised for the defence of the kingdom, whereby Jacobite proclivities
were rendered only too conspicuous. Sir Roger Newdigate of Hare-
field had represented Middlesex since 1741. So high a Tory was he
that Horace Walpole speaks of him as a half-converted Jacobite. In
1 747 h£ made way for Sir William Beauchamp Proctor.
In 1780, when the Gordon Riots reduced London to a state of
panic, 1 1 ,000 troops were gathered round the City.429 The Queen's
Regiment and the South Hants Militia were quartered on Finchley
Common.430
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the duke of Orleans
settled at Twickenham with the duke of Montpensier and the comte de
10 Swift, Journ. to Stella, 18 Sept. 1710. '" Gent. Mag. 1737, p. 514.
" Pinkerton, ffalpoliana, i, 86. "6 Pope to Swift, 28 June, 1728.
" Coxe, Memoir of Sir R. Walpok, ii, 344, 571. 4" H. Walpole, Journ. ii.
*" Walpole, Journ. ii, 409 ; Ann. Reg. (1780), 3 June. "° Lysons, Environs ofLmd. ii, 335.
54
POLITICAL HISTORY
Beaujolais. Orleans returned after Napoleon's escape from Elba, and
stayed until he was called to take the throne of France as Louis Philippe.431
His house was sold to the earl of Kilmorey, who sold it again to the
exiled king in 1852 for the use of the latter's son, the due d'Aumale.
From that time until 1871 Orleans House was the centre of the French
loyalists. The comte de Paris lived at York House near by, the prince
of Joinville at Mount Lebanon ; the due de Nemours lived at Bushey
Park.
The introduction of railways has converted so large a portion of
Middlesex into metropolitan suburb that the history of the latter half
of the nineteenth century is somewhat barren except from a social and
economic point of view. The Local Government Act of 1888 marked
a new era in the county's history.*52 The Act made two great changes.433
In the first place, a new county of London was formed, which in-
cludes a large district formerly belonging to Middlesex. London now
stretches to the River Lea on the east, and northwards to include Stoke
Newington, Upper Holloway, and Hampstead, and westward beyond
Hammersmith. Any future alteration in the boundaries will naturally
be at the expense of Middlesex.434
The second change made by the Local Government Act was in the
appointment of the sheriff. The right to appoint the sheriff still
remained in the hands of the citizens of London, but by the Act the
right was transferred to the hands of the crown, as in the case of other
counties. The sheriffs of London ceased to have any jurisdiction in
Middlesex on the day when the first sheriff of Middlesex entered into
office.436
The parliamentary history of Middlesex dates from 1282, when the
counties south of the Trent were summoned to send representatives to
Northampton.436 Middlesex also sent representatives to the assemblies
of 1283 and I290.437 In 1295 William de Brook and Stephen de
Gravesend were chosen for the county.438 Richard le Rous sat for
Middlesex in every Parliament during the remainder of the reign of
Edward I, his fellow-representative being on most occasions Richard de
Windsor. The names le Rous, de Windsor, de Enefield (or de Enefeud),
and de Badyk occur frequently during the fourteenth century. In 1324
the representatives are described as two of the best and most discreet,
but are not designated as knights.4383 John de Wrotham sat for
Middlesex in many of the Parliaments of Edward III. There
were few occasions under the Tudors when one of the Wroths, his
descendants, did not represent the county. Sir Robert Wroth sat in the
Reformation Parliament. His son, Sir Thomas, was first returned in
1 544, and with the exception of the Parliaments of the reign of Mary, he
represented Middlesex practically without intermission till his death
" Michaud, Public and Private Life of Louis Philippe, 271.
" Pub. Gen. Stat. xxv, cap. 262. m Clause 40 (2).
14 The county of London and the county of Middlesex are considered as one county for the
purpose of all legal proceedings, civil or criminal ; clause 89 (3). *" Clause 1 13 (2).
" Palgrave, Par/. Writs (Rec. Com.), i, 10. "' Ibid. 16, 21. «M Ibid. 39. 43te Ibid, ii, 321.
55
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
in 1573. His son, a second Sir Robert Wroth, was first returned in
1572, and again in 1585, 1588, 1601, and 1602. Sir Gilbert Gerrard
represented Middlesex throughout the Long Parliament, and Sir Thomas
Allen and Sir Launcelot Lake in the Restoration Parliament.
The most familiar name in connexion with Middlesex politics is
that of ' Jack ' Wilkes. When Wilkes offered himself as candidate for
Middlesex in the general election of 1768, he had just been defeated
as candidate for the City. He had already been prosecuted in 1763 for
his criticism of the king's speech in No. 45 of the North Briton.™ He
had been attacked by the House of Lords for the * Essay on Woman '
(November, ij6^)^° and expelled by the Commons (he was member
for Aylesbury), on account of No. 45, on 19 January, 1764.*" On
2 1 February of that year he had been condemned by the Court of King's
Bench as a libeller and as the author of an obscene poem, and he had
later been outlawed for duelling and forced to flee to France.*42 His
character was certainly not of the highest, and his personality was most
unattractive. Yet when he returned from France in 1768, he found
himself exalted to the position of popular idol. Technically he had
suffered injustice, because the liberty of the subject had been outraged
by his arrest under a general warrant for the publication of No. 45 ;
and the privilege of Parliament had been denied him by his imprison-
ment in the Tower. But what appealed to the people was that an
unpopular court, the adherents of an unpopular king, had pursued him
with unexampled animosity. The country was just entering on that
period of unrest and smouldering revolution in which it continued until
the Reform Bill of 1832 : the period which beheld the rise of democracy
and the expansion of a formidable party of reform. Wilkes, the son of
a rich distiller of Clerkenwell, an atheist, and a notorious evil-liver, yet
appealed to the people as one who, himself a victim of tyranny, might
lead them to fuller freedom.**3 He was supported because of his
indomitable resistance to a king who was hated as much for the corrup-
tion by which he controlled Parliament as for the policy by which he
had brought about the war with the American colonies.
In 1768, then, Wilkes was elected for Middlesex by a large
majority in opposition to the established interest of men who already
represented the county, and who, besides having considerable fortunes in
connexion with Middlesex, were supported by the whole interest of the
court. Wilkes's partisans were jubilant, forcing even the inhabitants of
London to celebrate his triumph, and marking every door with the
popular number '45-'444 Their champion had, however, to appear
before the Court of King's Bench on his outlawry, and he was committed
on a capias utlagatum. He was rescued by the mob, but again surren-
dered himself. His outlawry was reversed, but he was sentenced to two
M Erskine May, Const. Hist, i, cap. x. «° Par/. Hist, xv, 1346.
"' Com. Journ. xxix, 689. "' GnnviUe Papers, ii, 155.
143 Hist. M 55. Com. Rep. iii, 415. Lord Hardwicke to President Dundas, 16 Mar. 1762 : 'We
are now got into a strange flame about an object, in himself of no great consequence, Mr. Wilkes, and it
has spread far and wide.' «« Erskine May, op. cit. i, 391.
56
POLITICAL HISTORY
years' imprisonment for libel, and to a fine of £1,000. Riots took place
in his favour, and an unhappy collision between the mob and the military
occurred in St. George's Fields.
Owing to his imprisonment, Wilkes was unable to take his seat in
the first session of Parliament. In the second session he was expelled
by the Commons on four charges, for the first three of which he had
already suffered, and for the fourth (that of libel on the Secretary of State)
it was not within the province of the Commons to punish him. The
reason for this unconstitutional action was that the court party, to whom
the Commons were bound by a process of corruption and bribery, were
determined that no amount of popularity should prevail against their
own dignity. The weakness and irregularity of the Commons' action
was proclaimed even in the House itself by a powerful party, led by
Burke, Pitt, Dowdeswell, and George Greville.*46 Wilkes's constituents
were by no means overawed by the attitude of the authorities. His
supporters raised £20,000 to pay his debts, and he was immediately
re-elected for Middlesex. Parliament declared his election to be void.
With increasing popularity, Wilkes was again elected without opposition,
and again his election was declared void.448 To prevent a repetition of
the farce, Colonel Luttrell vacated his seat and offered himself as candi-
date for Middlesex. He obtained only 296 votes to Wilkes's i,i43,447
but the Commons rejected Wilkes and declared Colonel Luttrell to be
returned. A petition of the freeholders of Middlesex was presented to
Parliament on 24 May, 1769, by Mr. Serjeant Glynn and others,448 in
which they pleaded against having a candidate forced upon the county,449
but Colonel Luttrell's election was confirmed. As evidence of Wilkes's
continued popularity he was elected successively 46° alderman, sheriff, and
Lord Mayor of London, and a subscription was again raised to pay his
debts. In 1774 he was returned for Middlesex and took his seat
unmolested.
An exciting contest took place in 1802 between Sir Francis Burdett
and Mr. William Mainwaring. Burdett was already well known as the
champion of liberty of speech ; he was foremost among the opposers of
the government, had exposed the grievances of war taxation, and the
abuse of power over those who were offensive to the ministry.451 He
had just rendered great service to the public by obtaining an inquiry into
the mismanagement of Coldbath Fields Prison, where suspected persons
were detained under the Habeas Corpus Suspension Acts ; when it was
shown that no distinction had been made between the treatment of these
persons and that accorded to convicted felons. His opponent, Main-
waring, was the magistrate who had most strenuously objected to the
investigation of the prison abuses, and true to their liberal principles,
'" Cavendish, Debates, \, 151. M Ibid. 345 ; Feb. 17, 1769.
147 Erskine May, op. cit. i, 397. H> Political Tracts, 8, Signed by 1,565 freeholders.
M> ' 1 he case of the late Election for the County of Middlesex condemned on the Principles of
the Constitut:on and the Authorities of the Law* (1769).
160 ' The Sentiments of an English Freeholder on the Late Decision of the Middlesex Election.'
'" Diet. Nat. Stag, vii, 297.
a 57 8
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
the freeholders of Middlesex returned Burdett by a considerable majority.*5*
He sat for nearly two years, during which legal proceedings were taken
for nullifying his election. In 1804 his election was declared void.
There was a new contest between Burdett and Mainwaring's son,455 which
the latter won by five votes. This decision was amended in Burdett's
favour the following year, but in 1806 Burdett was finally excluded,
Mr. William Mellish (Mr. G. B. Mainwaring having withdrawn) and
Mr. George Byng being returned after a sixteen days' poll.45* Mr. William
Mellish, who was now elected, represented Middlesex for several years.
During the election of 1 8 1 8 he was spoken of by The Times as ' a thick
and thin man for the government and a jolly, comely, hereditary
Protestant.' 455
Mr. George Byng of Wrotham Park, a descendant of Admiral Byng,
was first returned for Middlesex in the Whig interest in ijqo.*™ He
represented the county without intermission for fifty-six years, and was
the father of the House of Commons when he died in i847.457 The
Reform Bill of 1832 created three metropolitan boroughs, Finsbury and
Marylebone, to each of which two members were assigned, and the
Tower Hamlets, which returned one representative.458 The population
did not begin to increase rapidly until after the establishment of railways.
The market-towns of Uxbridge, Staines, and Brentford, were still little
better than villages, and only in the immediate neighbourhood of London
was there any urgent need for further representation. During the next
fifty years, however, the circumstances were immensely altered. Chelsea
was given two members in 1867, and the Tower Hamlets was divided
into two districts under the names of Hackney and the Tower Hamlets,
each returning one member.45' But further complete representation was
badly needed. Twickenham, Hanwell, and Brentford now contained a
large manufacturing population. The residential suburbs of London had
increased tremendously. There were only two county members to
represent a population of 70,000 voters.460 By the Redistribution of
Seats Act of 1884, fifteen new metropolitan boroughs were created, and
the representatives of the Tower Hamlets were increased to seven. The
county outside the metropolitan area was divided into seven electoral
districts, Enfield, Tottenham, Hornsey, Harrow, Ealing, Brentford, and
Uxbridge, each of which returns one member.
The trained bands of Middlesex ceased to exist on 25 March, 1663,
when the County Militia was reorganized.481 The trained bands of the
Tower division of Middlesex, known as the Tower Hamlets, were on
the other hand retained, and continued to be levied, the reason being
that the Tower Hamlets were, and always had been, under the command
of the constable of the Tower.463 Future legislation continued to treat
151 ' Full Account of the Proceedings at the Middlesex Election,' Political Tracts.
M Diet. Nat. Sing, vii, 297. «M « Westminster and Middlesex Election.'
u The Times, Saturday, 27 June, 1818. 4M Parliamentary Touchstone and Political Guide, 20.
" Gent. Mag. xxvii, 307. «• Stat. 2 & 3 Will. IV, cap. 45.
" Representation of the People Act, 1867. ^ Hansard, Reports (3rd Sen), ccxciii, 1195.
" Stat. 13 & 14 Car. II, cap. 3, sect. 20. 46> Ibid. sect. 31.
58
POLITICAL HISTORY
the Hamlets apart from the rest of Middlesex. When the militia was
reconstituted under George II, in 1757, the number of men appointed to
be raised in Middlesex was 1,160 and in the Tower Hamlets i,6oo.4M
At the beginning of the next reign the quota for the county was raised to
1,600.*** By this Act separate provision is made for the necessary
qualifications of officers in the Tower Hamlets,*" the militia of which re-
mained on the same basis as in the time of Charles II, and consisted of
two regiments of eight companies each.466 It was reorganized in 1797,
when the number of men to be levied in each parish within the division
was fixed.467 Two regiments were raised as formerly, and it was provided
that one or other of these should stay always in the Tower division,
whilst the other might be put under the command of such general officers
as the king should be pleased to appoint, and might be required to serve
at a distance not exceeding twelve miles from London.468 By 1802 the
number of men in the Middlesex Militia had fallen to 338,469 but six years
later, when England was in the stress of the Napoleonic War, the number
was raised to 2,O24,470 and in 1812 to I2,i62,471 with 4,480 for the
Tower Hamlets and liberties of the Tower.472
During the revolutionary wars at the close of the eighteenth century,
several ' Loyal Associations ' were formed in Middlesex. These were
volunteer infantry corps on a small scale, to serve in parishes, and mainly
to assist the civil authorities. The earliest of these was the Tottenham
Loyal Association,473 which was formed in 1792, and drilled regularly for
three or four years.474 The ' Hadley and South Mimms Volunteers ' were
among the forces reviewed in Hyde Park by George III, on 21 June,
I799.476 The Hampstead Loyal Association was also reviewed on that
occasion. It numbered probably 150 men, under the command of Josiah
Boydell, esq.478
Middlesex also furnished a corps of volunteer cavalry, numbering
830 men, 300 of whom were members of the London and Westminster
Light Horse Volunteers. Other cavalry corps were raised at Uxbridge,
Islington, and Twickenham.477 The associations were disbanded in 1802
after the Peace of Amiens, but when Napoleon threatened invasion in
1803, the Defence Act was passed, by which the lords lieutenant were
empowered to raise forces in each county. The Hampstead Loyal
Volunteer Infantry was then formed,478 and a force of 108 men was
raised in Barnet and district, and three companies were raised by
Mr. Nathaniel Haden at Highgate.479 There also existed at this time a
mounted force, raised in Edmonton, Kensington, Baling, and Brentford.
These corps were in turn disbanded in 1813—14.
465 Stat. 30 Geo. II, cap. 25. ** Stat. 2 Geo. Ill, cap. 20, sect.ij.
464 Ibid. sect. 41. 4M Stat. 26 Geo. Ill, cap. 107, sect. in.
467 Stat. 37 Geo. Ill, cap. 25. 468 Ibid. sect. 6.
469 Stat. 42 Geo. Ill, cap. 90. 4ro Stat. 48 Geo. Ill, cap. 90.
171 Stat. 52 Geo. Ill, cap. 38, sect. 14, 16. tn Ibid. sect. 169.
473 Robinson, Hist, of Tottenham, 72-3.
474 G. T. Evans, Records of the yd Middlesex Rifle Volunteers, 136.
474 Ibid. 64. 47« Ibid. 36. 477 Ibid. 5.
478 Ibid. 38. 47> Ibid. 65-7. 48° Ibid. 46.
59
480
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The volunteer movement of 1859-60 was taken up with the
greatest warmth in Middlesex, rifle corps being formed in almost every
village.481
When the line regiments of the British Army were territorialized
the old 57th became the ist Battalion, and the old 77th the 2nd Battalion
of the Duke of Cambridge's Own Middlesex Regiment. Both regiments
brought great traditions of the Peninsular, Crimean, and South African
(1879) wars.*8* The Royal Elthorne Militia and the Royal East Middle-
sex Militia now form respectively the 5th and 6th Battalions. The line
and militia, with the three volunteer battalions, served in the South
African War, 1900-2.
*" Evans, op. cit. 48, 70, 86, I it, 141 ; The West Middlesex Herald, 1860-1.
4" H. M. Chichester and G. Surges-Short, Records and Badges of the British Army. At the Battle
of Albuera (1811) the 5/th gained the name of the 'Die-Hards.'
60
SOCIAL AND
ECONOMIC HISTORY
UNTIL it was flooded by the suburban expansion of London
Middlesex was an exclusively agricultural county, the near
neighbourhood of the cities of London and Westminster pre-
venting any great development of urban life or urban manu-
facture. There was no incorporate town in the county, and no trade but
agriculture attained any degree of importance. But, containing as it did,
some of the best arable land in the kingdom, within such easy reach of the
London market ; having also a sufficiency of good pasture and meadow
land, and in the northern parts some valuable woodland, Middlesex, in
the fourteenth century, was the second richest county in the kingdom.1
When the wool tax of 1341 (15 Edward III) was levied, Middle-
sex3 was assessed at 236 sacks, or one sack to 760 acres. The assessment
of the richest county — Norfolk — was one to 610, and the counties which
were the immediate neighbours of Middlesex were assessed at : Hert-
fordshire, one to 1,200 acres ; Buckinghamshire, one to 1,260 acres ;
Essex, one to 1,580 acres ; Surrey, one to 1,250 acres.
The Domesday Survey of Middlesex distinguishes three categories
of servile tenants : villeins, bordars, and cottars. Of slaves proper there
are only 104 in the whole county, and they make no further appearance
in its history. Nor do we hear any more of the ' bordarii,' unless we
may regard as their successors the holders of ' Bordlond ' at Twicken-
ham. Of the 2,132 tenants who are enumerated on the several
manors in the six hundreds of the county, 1,936 are villeins (1,133),
bordars (342), and cottars (461). The only free tenants mentioned in
the survey are : 1 3 knights, i francus, 1 2 priests, i o foreigners (fran-
cigenae], and 46 burgenses at Staines, nothing being said as to the status
of 23 homines at St. Pancras who rendered 30^. a year. In the later
records, on the contrary, from the time of Henry I onwards, free as well
as servile tenants are mentioned on nearly all the manors of which we
have any account. Already in the reign of Henry I there were at Har-
mondsworth free and custumary tenants and cottars.8 At Kensington in
1263—4 the rents of the free tenants amounted to £4 i5/., so that there
must have been a certain number of them. The villein tenants held
1 Prof. Thorold Rogers, Hist, of Jgric. and Prices, i, 107 ; Rot. Par!. (Rec. Com.), ii, 131.
' Exclusive of London. * P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 1 1, No. zo.
61
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
21 virgates, their money rents amounting to £2 I9-r- 4i^ and there
were two cottars.*
According to a Westminster Abbey custumal, in the reign of
Henry III there were at Teddington five free tenants holding among
them 10 virgates, and 15 custumary tenants holding i6j virgates, besides
five cottars whose holdings varied from i to 6 acres. Of the three other
manors in the custumal, free tenants are mentioned on one only, Green-
ford. At Hayes and Paddington there appear to have been only custu-
mers.6 The survey of the St. Paul's manors of Drayton and Sutton in
1222 does not specify the status of the tenants, distinguishing only at
Drayton twenty-nine tenants of demesne land and twenty-four of terra
assiza. The demesne tenants have mostly small holdings, some paying
money rents only, while some are posita ad operatlonem. The holdings of
assized land are larger ; one is a whole hide, two are half hides.
There is one of 2 virgates, twelve of i virgate, and eight half virgates.
The tenants all pay rents, generally at the rate of 4^. for a virgate, and
render various services, but no week work.6 A Drayton court roll of
the time of Richard II in the library of St. Paul's cathedral mentions
free tenants on the manor. In 1276-7 there is mention of seven free
tenants on the manor of Edgeware.*3
At Sutton there are three categories of tenants : seven demesne
tenants who hold small tenements for rents and services ; thirty-two
tenants of assize land, one holding 3 virgates, four i virgate, ten half
a virgate, and seventeen with smaller holdings. They hold at a variety of
rents and services, some paying malt-silver (\d. to 5^.), and giving 8//. or
\od. de dono as well, and two paying id. ward-penny. Some of these hold-
ings are in the hands of demesne tenants. Thirdly, there are eight
operarii who hold 5 acres each, for weekly and boon works, paying no
rent, but giving ^d. de dono, and 2j malt-silver. Two of them, who hold
assart lands as well as their 5 acres, pay rent only for them.7
The number of free tenants at Isleworth varies somewhat. In the
time of Edward I there were four free and twenty custumary cottars,8
while in 1315-16 nine free tenants superintended the mowing and
reaping.8" A rental of the parsonage ' in the reign of Edward III
enumerates nineteen free tenants, and a minister's account of the same
reign mentions thirty-seven free virgaters.9a According to a custumal
quoted in the Historical Manuscripts' Commissioners' Report on the
manuscripts at Syon House, there were also burgenses who held per cartam,
and some of the free tenants were tallageable.10 At Fulham by the
reign of Richard II, at Stepney by the time of Edward III, and by
the same reign at Kempton, where they are expressly stated to hold
by socage tenure, the existence of free tenants is recorded.11 Lastly, at
4 P.R.O. Inq. p.m. Hen. Ill, No. 26. * B.M. Add. Chart. 8139.
' Domesday of St. Parts (Camd. Soc.). «• P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. 5 Edw. I, rot. 30;
' Domesday of St. Paul's, 1222 Surv. of Sutton. • P.R.O. Inq. 28 Edw. I, No. 44
P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 916, No. 12 (8-9, Edw. II.) • P.R.O. Rental, ptfo. 1 1, No. 26.
P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 916, No. 17. «« Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 232.
11 P.R.O. Ct. R. bdle. 191, No. 60 ; bdle. 191, No. 41 ; bdle. 188, No. 65.
62
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
Enfield,12 though no free tenants are mentioned in our earliest account
of the manor in the time of Henry VI, in an Elizabethan syllabus of
all the free tenants in Middlesex, twenty-three are enumerated there ;
seven at Drayton ; four at Fulham ; eleven at Stepney and Hackney ;
and four at Harmondsworth. Neither Isleworth, Teddington, nor
Kensington is given in the list at all.1'
On some manors there were special tenures as to which the
information derived from compotus rolls and even from custumals is not
always very definite. Generally they are differentiated from the other
tenants by doing a given number of works at a particular season, some-
times by different customs as to heriot and inheritance. Thus at
Harmondsworth there are seven tenants, undistinguished by any special
name, who render two works weekly between Michaelmas and
Martinmas.14
There are several of these tenures at Isleworth. Eight custumary
tenants held Forapellond. They had to attend the waterbedrippe, and
they paid money rents as well.15
' Bordlond ' was held by twenty-one custumary tenants in Twicken-
ham. Their united rents amounted to £5 15*. 6^/., and the net value of
their services was $d. a head. They held at a certain rent and tallage,
and paid heriots of 2s. or is. according to the size of their holdings.
They paid pannage and had to plough and harrow half an acre each at
the winter sowing, fetching the seed from the grange ; in return for
which they each received id. ; besides sending two men to one bedrippe
at the lord's expense.16 ' Bordlond' occurs at Fulham, but is only men-
tioned in the court rolls without any details as to the nature of the
tenure there.
The tenants of ' Werklond ' did the same ploughing works as the
holders of ' Bordlond,' and they rendered 420 works during the fourteen
weeks between Midsummer and Michaelmas, at the rate of three half
days a week, in return for an allowance of half their rent, amounting to
is. ^d. for each virgate.17 The nature of the works done varied consider-
ably, probably at the discretion of the reeve. Should they be kept
beyond noon, they received id. each. These holdings passed by inheri-
tance to the youngest son.
There were also at Isleworth six villein holdings, held for rent and
services, ' misfre ' or ' unfre ' lands. The tenants ploughed, harrowed,
sowed and carried grain to the field, receiving zd. each, and sent
two men to two bedrippes, who had one meal of bread, fish and
cheese. If they had no beast they paid money heriots of zs. for a
virgate and is. for half a virgate. The eldest sons inherited.18 In the
Isleworth accounts for the reign of Edward III custumers called 'gader-
11 P.R.O. Mins. Accts. (Duchy of Lane.), bdle. 42, No. 825.
u EM. Harl. MS. 1711. " P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 1 1, No. 25.
"P.R.O. Inq. 28 Edw. I, No. 44; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 232.
18 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 232 ; P.R.O. Inq. 28 Edw. I, No. 44.
" P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 916, Nos. n, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20.
18 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 232.
63
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
zerdus ' put in an appearance, rendering with the cottars fifteen works at
the ale-bedrippe and fifty-two at the water-bedrippe. They seem to have
done no other works, and whether they paid rents or not, or what was
the size of their holdings, does not appear.1' An unexplained custom
called a ' mismene ' is mentioned in one compotus roll as yielding 6s. 8*/.so
In the Teddington manor rolls tenants called 'hesebonds ' or ' house-
bonds' appear who are mentioned neither in the Westminster custumal,
nor in a rental of the time of Richard II. Nothing is said as to their
status, and it is not easy to account for the land they held. At one time
there are nine of them, at another fifteen. They do boon works only,
it being expressly provided that they do not reap, but only follow tht
reapers, rod in hand, to superintend the work." Certain tenants here
rendered two unexplained customs called ' cherne ' and ' russic.'
At Stepney, in the time of Edward I,2U there were loj virgates
of 'Shirlond,' 15 virgates of * Cotlond,' and also * Mollond ' and
' Hydlond,' the virgate, for all four tenures, containing 20 acres."
One holding of a virgate containing 25 acres is noted as rendering the
same services as the ' Mollond ' virgates. The shirmen and cotmen
owed weekly works for eleven weeks and three days in each year ; six
works a week being exacted from 8j virgates, and three a week from
the other 2 virgates of the Shirlond; while of the cotlond, 12 vir-
gates owed five, and 3 virgates four days weekly. Instead of a
corresponding number of these weekly works, the shirmen had to do
' redeherth ' ploughing. The 'Hydmen' and * Molmen,' on the other
hand, rendered no weekly works, their services being confined to a
certain tale of ploughing works and ' wodelods,' and to stacking corn, the
amounts due differing for the two tenures.
In the accounts for 1392 22a and later, the redditus assist is entered in
three sums, as accruing from free tenants (£17 l^- l i^-)» custumary
tenants (£i 6s. 5^.), and from 'Molelond' (£13 15*. zd.}. But
' Molelond' was held by freemen and custumers, i6j acres being let on
lease to custumers in I362,23 while in 1392 12 virgates were in the
hands of free tenants. There were ' Molmen ' at Enfield as well as at
Stepney, but they are explicitly specified as custumers. Like the mol-
men at Stepney, the twenty-two ' molmen and cottars ' at Enfield,SSa who
differed from one another only in the amount, not in the nature of their
holdings, did no weekly works, but sent twenty-six men, among them, to
weed the lord's corn for one day (one man apiece from eighteen holdings,
and two among the remaining four, probably the cottars', holdings) and
» P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 17 Edw. Ill, bdle. 916, No. 17.
"Ibid. bdle. 1126, No. 5.
" Ibid. bdle. 918, Nos. 1-25 ; bdle. 919, Nos. i-n.
11 Mins. Accts. of the manor of Stepney in the Library of St. Paul's Cathedral.
" In an account of 1362-3 five half-virgate holdings of ' Shirlond' are estimated at 12 acres to
the half-virgate, but the amount of the rent is corrected to that corresponding to a half-virgate of
I o acres, as if this were an error. There are several allowances for overcharges in the account.
m P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 1139, No. 20, 15-16 Ric. II.
n Ibid. bdle. 1139, No. 18, 36 Edw. III.
*• Ibid. 7 Hen. V, bdle. 915, No. 26 ; 17 Hen. VI (Duchy of Lane.), bdle. 42, No. 825.
64
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
mowed 23 J acres of meadow,23b in the proportion of 2 acres per virgate
for eighteen holdings and half an acre for the others. They also rendered,
among them, twenty autumn boon-works, four tenants sending among
them one man for two days at the lord's cost and the remaining eighteen
each one man for one day. Thirteen of them also owed eleven carrying
works (on foot). In view of the accepted definition of mol (or mal)
men as custumary tenants, whose early release from servile works has
reacted on their status in the direction of freedom,*4 it is curious to note
that at Enfield the molmen, whose servile status is expressly asserted, were
actually, in 1419, the only tenants on the manor who rendered works at
all ; while at Stepney, where the services generally were commuted
very early, there is nothing to show that the mollond works were
commuted earlier, or more completely, than those of the other tenures.
In the Victoria History of county Durham S4a it is pointed out that the
Hatfield Survey equates Jirmarius to malmannus (malmanni sive jirmarii] , and
it is suggested that the malmen were farmers of portions of the demesne
land, their services being, by special arrangement, extensively commuted
for money payments. But at Stepney, as we have seen, though some
mollond was let on lease, the commutation of molmen works proceeded
pari passu with, and at Enfield was actually later than, those of the other
holdings. Neither is there anything to show that the mollond was
essentially, though some of it might be occasionally, demesne land. In
one Stepney account one acre of mollond is mentioned under the head-
ing of Jirme of demesne lands. Certainly at Enfield the molmen were
not firmarii^ for they rendered the same services before and after the
leasing of the demesne, with the sole difference that afterwards their
services belonged to the demesne farmer instead of to the lord of the
manor. Now the demesne lease explicitly conveyed to the farmer all
the weeding, mowing, and reaping works not let on lease (ad firmam non
dimissis) nor commuted (necque arrentatis)** and these, as the accounts show,
were precisely the works actually rendered to the firmarius by the
twenty-two molmen.
' Acre ware ' occur at Isleworth, Blanchappelton (a Duchy of
Lancaster manor), and Fulham, but, unfortunately, not in a way to
throw any illumination on that much-discussed term. At Stepney
land is measured by ' day-work acres,' and on several manors in
' pyghtellings.'
On the two St. Paul's manors of Drayton and Sutton a portion of
the land is distinguished as 'solanda' or 'scholanda.' This was identified
erroneously by Archdeacon Hales 26 with the Kentish ' sulung ' or ' soli-
nus,' but Mr. Round has shown that it has no connexion with sulung,
nb The account does not expressly state that these mowing works were rendered by the molmen,
but it is clear that this was the case from the proportion in which the works are allotted to the holdings,
and from the identity of the names of tenants for whose works allowances are made with those rendering
specified mollond services.
14 Vinogradoff, Villeinage in England, 183 ; Engl. Hist. Rev. i, 734.
lta V.C.H. Dur. \, 280-2.
" P.R.O. Mins. Accts. (Duchy of Lane.), bdle. 53, No. 1010. '" Domesday of St. Paul's.
2 65 9
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
and is not a measure of land at all, but means a prebend, implying that
the estates in question were prebends of St. Paul's.27
There are indications that the virgate represented a variable number
of actual acres on different manors, and even, as at Stepney, on different
holdings of the same manor. It is noted in the survey of Drayton of
1222 that the virgate there contained 16 acres, and at Teddington in the
reign of Edward III one or two virgate holdings are stated to contain
i6j acres, and half-virgate holdings 8i acres. At Harmondsworth, where
there was a great deal of sub-letting, a holding generally continued to
be called a virgate however much its actual contents had been reduced
by subdivision.
The earliest custumal we possess for any Middlesex manor is one
of Harmondsworth of 1 1 Henry I (l 1 10-1 1), which is transcribed in a
valor of the reign of Richard II. It is the sworn verdict of twelve
jurors on the customs and services owed by the tenants to the abbot of
Saint Katherine's of Rouen,28 the lord of the manor, and gives the
services in great detail.
At the time of sowing, every villein tenant who owned a plough
had to plough and harrow 2 acres, one for corn and one for oats. The
lord supplied the seed, and his servant sowed it, but the tenant had to
fetch the seed from the grange and cart it to the field. Of whatever
kind the seed might be, the tenant's horse must not have a feed from
it, but if any remained over after the sowing it was to be taken back to
the grange by the servant. Those villeins who had no plough were
to thrash in the grange till vespers instead of ploughing.
At the hay harvest all the villeins, except the cottars, must mow
for one day at their own cost, it being understood that they are bound
to complete the mowing of the meadow, and that the lord is bound to
find two mowers to help them. Custumers who do not come the first
day may do their mowing on the morrow or at the lord's pleasure
without fine. At vespers, after the day's mowing, each tenant receives
as much grass as he can lift on the heft of his scythe in the presence
of the lord or his ministers. But if the scythe break he loses the hay,
and is fined into the bargain. When all the mowing is finished the
tenants receive from the lord a ram or I 3^. in lieu thereof.
All villein tenants, including the cottars, must attend or send one
man to lift, load, and stack the hay, bringing with them any tenants
they may have. For this work they are at their own expense. Every
tenant who possesses a cart or wagon must carry three loads of hay
to the grange, where those tenants who have no carts stack it, each
working for the time occupied on its three journeys by the cart with
which he came. Should the rain prevent the completion of this task,
the tenants must make good the hours that are lacking either on the
morrow or at the lord's pleasure. Any carrying works which may
not be needed at hay-time must be made up, load for load, at the corn-
harvest cartings. There were three precariae at Harmondsworth : a
" Round, Feud. Engl. 103. * P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 1 1, No. 20, Ric. II.
66
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
water-bedrippe, the Great Precaria, and a third and very ill-named love-
bedrippe, for it was a never-ending source of contention between the
lord and his tenants. Every tenant had to attend the first boon day,
when summoned by the crier, coming at the hour of prime with all his
servants and tenants, and working till vespers. At noon every thirteen
reapers received three loaves made from one bushel of corn. To the
great bedrippe all the free and villein tenants and cottars were sum-
moned to reap from prime until vespers at the lord's cost. After the
day's work they had a supper in the hall, consisting of broth of peas or
beans, bread, cheese and beer in sufficient quantity, and a dish of meat
or fish to the value of \\d. for every two men. Those who were tired
out (gravatt) by their task and could not sup with the others might
carry their portions home with them. The superintendents of the
reapers had beer in the hall at noon as well. They were responsible
for any damage accruing from bad work.
For the third or love-bedrippe every tenant had to provide one
man to bind the corn from prime ; one meal in the hall being provided
for each man. All villein tenants who had carts or wagons must
carry three loads to the grange, without food or drink, and their horses
must not eat of the sheaves. If any tenant worked otherwhere than in
the lord's fields on the days of the first two bedrippes he was in the lord's
mercy. After the wheat was carried the animals of the vill commoned
on the fields.
Except the free tenants and the cottars all must provide one man
to weed and one to clean the ponds (riperia) every three years, receiving
one meal each of bread, cheese and beer, and a dish of meat or fish
for every two men.
Every hide of bond-land must fence one perch every three years
right round the manor, each tenant fetching the pales from the manor
and fencing in proportion to the amount of his holding. The only
week work done on the manor is by seven tenants who render two
days a week from Michaelmas to Martinmas, four of the holdings
rendering twelve, and two six days ; the seventh is quit of his works.
A later compotus states that they must do any kind of work which the
reeve may impose on them.
All the native tenants and the tenants of the freemen whose
holdings border on the woods have a right to wood and pannage, and
whether there be mast in the wood or no they must pay for pannage
id. on every pig over a year old and \d. on all younger. All the
villeins must bring their pigs to the court at Martinmas and pay their
pannage, and if the lord be in doubt as to the age of any pig its owner
is to be quit on oath and for \\d. The lord is bound to provide a herd
to watch the pigs while they are in the woods and to bring them home.
Every tenant in Harmondsworth and Ruislip, man or woman, bond
or free, owes at his or her death a heriot of the best beast on the holding,
and on changing hands the holding must be redeemed by a fine at the
lord's discretion. No bondage tenant may marry son or daughter within
67
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
or without the vill except by the lord's licence, for which he must fine
at the lord's will, nor may any villein enter holy orders or leave the vill
without his lord's permission. Nor may they let their lands out of the
lord's dominion, nor place metes and bounds without leave and under
the supervision of the lord's servants. Every bondage tenant is tallage-
able at the lord's will and pleasure either annually or when he comes
over sea.
No tenant — bond or free — may shake down mast in the woods or
thrash in Ruislip woods, on pain of having their teams confiscated by
the forester till they have fined to the lord for their transgression.
Neither may any tenant fish in the lord's water except for a dish of
fish for the diet of himself and his wife, and then any fish more than a
foot long goes to the lord.
The lord may seize the teams — oxen or horses — of any tenants,
who, owing rent at Trinity, have not paid by the day after the feast,
detaining the teams for a day and a night, after which time, unless the
tenant have redeemed it by paying the rent, the lord may take the team
to his own use.
Any villein tenant must serve as reeve or crier at the appoint-
ment of his lord, being quit of all other service and rent for his
holding during his term of office.89 The reeve and the crier either
dined daily at the lord's table, or received a weekly allowance of a bushel
of wheat apiece, ' and nothing more save by the lord's grace.' The
crier had charge of the hay while it was in cocks, and was responsible
for any damage to it. While watching the hay he had his lodging
in the meadow.
The smith also held his tenement in return for the special services
of his trade, being quit of all other obligations, except a yearly rent
of 2j. He had to repair and replace the shares of the demesne ploughs,
the lord providing the necessary iron and steel, to sharpen the tenants'
scythes when they mowed for the lord, and to shoe the front feet of two
beasts all the year round, keeping as his perquisite the old shoes, if they
were still on the feet. In 1434 the smith's duties were not rendered
because there was no one on the manor of that custom, and the tenement
was ruinous.30 So that evidently the smith's duties were accredited to a
particular holding. The manor smiths were sometimes paid a regular
stipend as at Isleworth and Paddington.81 On the latter manor the
smith's stipend is i8j. 'by custom,' and he makes as well as repairs the
ploughs. At Isleworth he gets 6s. 8</. for repairing the ploughs,
including the materials.
The Harmondsworth custumal does not mention how the forester
of the manor was appointed. On some manors any villein had to serve
in this capacity, too, if appointed by the lord. This was the case at
Sutton,38 where the forester, who was apparently one of the operarii,
" At Edgeware in 1279-80 (P.R.O. Ct. R. bdle. 1 88, No. 54) a tenant was fined for making
himself reeve.
10 P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 12-13 Hen. VI, bdle. 1126, No. 7.
81 Ibid. bdle. 917, No. 25. » Domesday of St. PauPs, Surv. 1222.
68
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
held his 5 acres free of all works in return for his services as woodward,
and also at Paddington, where the woodward had 2 acres free of all
services, pasture in the woods, and the loppings of the timber felled for
the lord's ploughs.83 Sometimes the office was, or tended to become
hereditary. At Sutton it is particularly stated that the woodward had
no hereditary right to the office and its emoluments. His father, it is
recorded, had 2%d. a year as stipend, he lost and never recovered the
5 acres, and was dismissed from the office. At Harmondsworth, on the
contrary, it was hereditary. In 1383—4 the horn of office was
successfully claimed by the cousin and heir of the late forester,34 and
later on it actually passed by inheritance to the second husband of the
incumbent's widow. In the time of Henry VIII 3i one William Norton
was forester, who held a ' principal tenement ' of 1 60 acres by military
tenure and also a small holding, whether bond or free is not stated, called
a ' tile-place,' with a ' tile-house.' If the office of woodward was
connected with any holding, it must have been with this latter one, as
this one only passed at his death to his widow. The widow re-married
within a year of her husband's death, and her second husband succeeded
to the office of woodward jure uxoris suae.
At much less length, and with far less detail, than the Harmonds-
worth record, a custumal of Westminster Abbey states the rents and
services due from the abbot's tenants in his Middlesex estates in the
time of Henry III.S6 The Harmondsworth customs are fairly typical of
the services rendered on the different manors, though there is some
variation in the amount of ploughing and the number of boon-days exacted
and in the amount and nature of the extra works and weekly works.37
With few exceptions, such as the holders of half virgates at Teddington,
and the operarii at Sutton, who pay no rent, the tenants render money
rents as well as services ; tallage is mentioned nearly everywhere and
remained nominally constant over very long periods, though sometimes
lowered ' by the lord's grace ' in bad times. ' Gersilver ' or ' gerspeni '
or pannage is paid nearly everywhere, generally at the rate of id. or \d.
for each pig according to its age ; but at Paddington the tenants pay a
round sum, 191., among them, and at Greenford it is \d. for every pig,
and at Enfield it is \d. and ^d. per pig.
Of dues in kind, at Greenford the tenants brought ten eggs at
Easter and the Hanwell tenants paid the fourth part of a quarter of
wheat once a year. A bushel of barley and five eggs at Easter were
exacted from each tenant at Teddington, as well as a hen from every
two at Christmas, and they paid a certain number of sheaves of wheat
and barley as a composition for trespassing fines. The Kensington
" Abbey of Westminster Custumal, Hen. Ill, B.M. Add. Chart. 8139.
" P.R.O. Ct. R. bdle. 191, No. 14, Ric. II.
» Ibid. Hen. VIII, bdle. 191, No. 31. " B.M. AdJ. Chart. 8139.
v For customs at Paddington, Greenford, Hayes and Teddington B.M. Add. Chart. 8139. For
Teddington also P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 918, Nos. 20, 22 ; bdle. 919, Nos. I, 3, 7, 8. For
Drayton and Sutton, see Domesday of St. Paul's Survey of 1222. For Kensington P.R.O. Midd.
Hund. R. ; Rentals and Surv. 445 ; Inq. p.m. 48 Hen. Ill, file 31. For Isleworth P.R.O. Mins.
Accts. bdle. 916, No. 12 ; bdle. 916, Nos. 17, 18.
69
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
tenants rendered sixteen and a half lambs, thirty-three hens, and 415 eggs
among them.
As to the ploughing works, the tenants at Paddington ploughed,
sowed and harrowed twice a year, while at Greenford the free tenants
ploughed one acre, except one of them who ploughed two ; one foi
wheat and one for oats ; and even a third if exacted by the lord. This
tenant and another defended the manor in the county and hundred
courts. Four acres to plough and three to harrow was the allowance
at Teddington ; two acres for every half virgate at Sutton ; at Drayton
one acre for each holding. The tenants at Isleworth in the time of
Edward III ploughed half an acre for each half virgate, fetching and
carrying the seed, and received zd. for every acre ploughed.
No weekly services are mentioned either at Paddington or at
Drayton ; at Isleworth they are confined to the holders of Werk and
Akerlonds, and at Sutton to the operarii. The custumers at
Teddington rendered three works in every fortnight — Monday and
Friday one week, Wednesday the next — except from Midsummer to
autumn, when they did only one weekly work, and during the six
autumn weeks, when they rendered three days in each week. At Green-
ford they did five works in each month, except during the autumn
weeks, when an extra day in the week was required. At Hayes and
Kensington one day a week all the year round was exacted, with a
second between i August and Michaelmas.
No weekly works are mentioned in an extent of the manor of Edge-
ware in the year iz^6.m There the majority of virgaters paid a money
rent of 5.;. i \\d., and rendered works valued at is. 6d.: namely, four men
to reap in autumn, one at their own and three at the lord's expense ; one
day's carting at the lord's expense, and two half-days' binding sheaves ;
two half-days' weeding, one half-day's harrowing, and a half-day's fencing,
and four carrying works (averagia). The rent of the half- virgate holdings
was a/. iij</., and their works were worth 9!^., as they sent four men
(three ad cibum domini] to reap instead of five, did only half-a-day's carting
and no averagia. All the tenants had to mow the meadow (6J acre?
i rod) among them.
The extra works were heaviest at Greenford, where they included
besides two days each at harrowing, weeding and thrashing, the hay
harvest of two meadows, a day's carting after the autumn precariae and
half a day's fencing in Easter or Whit-week. At Drayton and Sutton
the two ' firme ' which each manor rendered in kind for the canons' table
at St. Paul's had to be carried to London by the tenants, besides the
usual weeding, thrashing, and carting wood and manures. Washing and
shearing sheep was another extra service, sometimes performed by the
cottars, sometimes by particular custumers. The harvest of one and
sometimes two meadows had to be completed by the tenants on all the
manors. At Teddington the hay-makers received from the lord a
dignarium, at Paddington ijd. and a cheese worth 4^. ; while at Drayton
171 P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. rot. 439 (5 Edw. I).
70
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
they had half a load of wheat, a sheep, and a ' scultellata ' of salt, and at
Edgeware 6</., a cheese worth 2</., and salt to the value of \d.
The usual number of boon-days is either three, as at Paddington,
Kensington, and Teddington, where the free tenants only attend two,
while the custumers send six men to three ; or two, as at Drayton,
the one with food being attended by all the tenants' servants as well
as by the tenants themselves. At Sutton the tenants send one man
to the dry and two to the ' wet precaria ' ; and at Isleworth, where again
the free tenants attend as overseers only one bedrippe and have three
meals a day of bread, cheese, and beer, at the lord's cost, the custumers
have to attend two, receiving only one similar meal in the day, but
without beer at the second bedrippe. At Greenford the free tenants
attend one ' precaria,' while there are six — four being dry — for the
custumers ; but these probably include ploughing days, which were some-
times called ' precariae,' and are not otherwhere mentioned for the
Greenford custumers. At Hayes no boon-days are mentioned.
The food provided at the ' precariae ' is carefully specified at
Teddington, where at the first ' precaria ' the servants had a meal of
bread, water and two dishes, and the masters received 30 gallons of
beer. Masters and servants had bread, water and two dishes at the
second 'precaria.' At the great 'precaria' the masters had a dignarium
of bread and cheese and beer, the servants had water and two dishes,
and masters and servants supped together, provided with a suffi-
ciency of beer. On the second day of the great ' precaria ' all the
' consuetudinarii ' dined together, and when the harvest was finished
they received a measure (sectarian!) of beer. The fare provided for the
tenants on all the manors was ample in quantity and quality. Bread
and cheese with either fish or meat was the usual dinner, and at
supper there was often a pottage of beans or peas as well. At
Harmondsworth in 1434 the provisions laid in, either from the stock
of the manor or by purchase, for the autumn boon-days included
bread, cheese, milk and butter and eggs, beer, beef, pork and other
meat, ducks, salt-fish, and herrings. If the usual diet of the tenants
at their own tables was in anything like the same proportion,
there would seem to be some justification for Froissart's surprise at
the 'grant aisse et craisse ' in which the English peasant lived, and in which
the chronicler, who was not remarkable for democratic sympathies,
saw the source and origin of their turbulence at the ' hurling-time.'88
Although the works were apportioned to the separate holdings,
there was a certain amount of joint responsibility for certain services.
Thus it was generally understood that the mowing and carting of the
hay from the whole meadow must be completed, and if tenements
! were in the lord's hands, he had to provide substitutes for a corresponding
share of this work. Again at Kensington all the tenants were responsible
for the ploughing of a given number of acres, and at Isleworth when the
number of cottars fell from five to four, the four had to do the same
" Froissart, Chroniques (ed. Soc. de 1'Hist. de France, Luce), x, 94..
I
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
amount of stacking hay that was formerly done by the five. This com-
mon liability is illustrated by an Isleworth inquisition M into the status of
a certain Nicholas Est of Heston, who complained that being of free
status he had been presented at the court not by his lord but by the
villein tenants of the manor for failing to render villein services.
Though there are many cases in the records of tenants being not
' heriotable,' as a general rule heriots were paid by free and bondage
tenants alike. Even on the same manor there would seem to be a certain
variation in the heriots, and sometimes special classes of tenants paid
special heriots, as we have seen was the case with some of the Isleworth
tenures. At Harmondsworth it is stated to be the 'custom of the manor'
that no heriot accrued when there was neither live stock nor chattels on
the holding ; but nevertheless there are a great many instances of money
heriots paid because there is no animal on the holding, and often heriots
are paid in money without any reason being assigned. In a few cases
the heriot consisted of clothing, as for instance a * russet kirtle ' and a
tunic ' blodii coloris ' lined with white lambskin. In one case a table
and a scythe were given because there was no beast on the holding.
There would seem to be no fixed amount here for the money heriots, but
in one or two cases the amount of the heriot was specified when
the holding was granted to the tenant. A heriot of 6</. is accepted
from one tenant, ' quia pauper,' and in the time of Edward IV an
apparently accepted heriot of a ' horscolt ' is stated to be of no value
because it is dead. According to the custom of the manor, when a
holding was held jointly by husband and wife the heriot only accrued at
the death of the survivor, because on the death of the first co-tenant the
holding does not change hands. Nevertheless instances occur in the rolls
of heriots paid at the first death, and there is at least one of heriots paid
at both deaths. At Harmondsworth, where disputes were always plenty,
there was a good deal of trouble in obtaining the heriots from the
tenants in the fifteenth century, and orders to distrain for them are
frequent, though more often made and repeated than executed.
It is more than once stated that according to the custom of the
manor a widow's free bench consisted of a fourth part of her husband's
holding, and in the fifteenth century a widower claimed the fourth part
of his late wife's holding, ' per legem Anglic,' and ' according to the cus-
tom of the manor.' In many instances, however, the wife would seem
to inherit the entire holding.
At Fulham the heriot for every holding on which there was no
stock was 3J. ^d. Here a widow had a third of her husband's holding
as free bench.
At Drayton and at Stepney the rule no animal, no heriot, applies,
though there are two cases at Drayton, in a court roll at St. Paul's,
where there being no animal a payment was made ' tam per finem quam
per heriot.' We have already noted the special heriots paid by
holders of Bordlond and ' unfre lond ' at Isleworth of zs. or is. accord-
» P.R.O. Inq. I Ric. II, No. 146*.
72
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
ing to the size of their holdings. The usual cottar's heriot here
was 3</.
At Kempton a money payment was made in the absence of live stock,
and the amount would seem to be proportioned to the rent ; in one case
where the rent was %d. the heriot was the same sum, and in two others,
a virgate and a two-virgate holding paid 5-r. id, and los. id. respectively,
which would be roughly equal to the usual rent.
The history of the process by which the services on the Middlesex
manors were commuted for money payments aptly illustrates the wisdom
of Dr. Maitland's warning against facile generalizations from the history
of particular manors to the history of ' the manor.' In Middlesex at
any rate it is impossible to generalize at all as to commutation ; each
manor went its own way, some commuted earlier, some later, some by
the gradual sale of services, some by a formal agreement, some by the grant
of leases at money rents. One would expect a priori the neighbourhood
of London, by providing the tenants with a market and the landlords with
a source of supply for free labour, to accelerate the process of commuta-
tion, and tempt the tenants to desert the manors. As a matter of fact
commutation in Middlesex on the whole was later instead of earlier than
in other counties, and there are very few cases in the manor rolls of either
fugitive tenants or tenants fining to remain away.
The earliest commutation of which the writer has found a record
occurred on the manor of Harmondsworth shortly before irio— ii.40
One of the seven tenants who rendered weekly works between Michael-
mas and Martinmas was released from his six days' work by the prior
then in office, in return for a yearly rent of izd. Another early, but
only temporary, commutation on the same manor is mentioned in 1390,"
in a dispute as to the rent and status of a tenant whom the abbot
claimed as his villein and attached for withholding izd. a year rent
as well as for ' diverse rebellions.' Walter atte Nasshe, on the other
hand, asserted that he was free as were his predecessors, and that he held
a virgate of land as heir to a certain Roger de Fraxino, who came to the
manor as a stranger and took from the lord a messuage and virgate for
an annual rent of 6s. and all the custumary services. At what date the
said Roger came to Harmondsworth is not stated, but it is clear that
there was more than one tenant between him and Walter atte Nasshe.
Subsequently Roger obtained the land ' per cartam ' at a composition
rent of js. in lieu of all services and customs. Roger's heirs, however,
reverted after his death to the original tenure, paying 6s. rent and per-
forming the services due from a virgate of land according to the custom
of the manor. And by this tenure Walter atte Nasshe claims and
apparently desires to hold the virgate, unless indeed the alternative sought
to be imposed on him by the lord was the payment of the higher rent
and the performance of the services as well. After this there were
practically only a few temporary commutations at Harmondsworth until
40 P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. n, No. 20 (n Hen. I).
41 P.R.O. Ct. R. 14 Ric. II, bdle. 191, No. 15.
2 73 10
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
after the time of Henry VI. In the reign of Richard II ** the services
rendered on the manor coincided absolutely with those enumerated in
the custumal of the twelfth century, and in 1433-4 (12-13 Henry VI) "
the same number of holdings is rendering exactly the same works as
their predecessors rendered three hundred years before, and receiving
the same dues in return. The mowers still get their heft load of hay
each, and the 1 3^. for their ' mederam.' It is quite clear from the
terms of the account in 1434 that the works were actually performed,
and that the statement is not a mere survival of a formula with no real
meaning. The expenses of the autumn ' precariae ' are accounted for ;
it is noted that the custumary works sufficed for the mowing, and an
allowance is made for the works of three holdings which are in the
lord's hands. Only two tenants pay for their works, Roger Tenterden
3/. 4</. and Robert Hiton i 2d. The latter made this arrangement in
1421," in which year he covenanted with the lord to give a capon in
lieu of services, and in the future to pay for them i zd. a year. This
survival of services is the more remarkable that, although the formal num-
ber of holdings is unaltered, the actual distribution of them has been much
modified by sub-letting, of which there was a great deal on this manor,
subdividing, and consolidating the holdings. During the reign of
Henry VI two or three tenants took up a good many holdings ; Roger
Hubard, the ' prepositus ' of this very account, for one. A good many leases
had also been granted and continued to be granted by this time. In this
matter of commutation, Ruislip, which belonged to Harmondsworth, is a
great contrast to it. In 1434-6, when the tenants on the latter manor
were rendering all their services, the Ruislip tenants were quit of all
theirs, some being sold and some definitely commuted under a new
rental.45 A curious arrangement made with a tenant in 1417 illustrates
the reluctance with which the lord conceded commutations at Harmonds-
worth. In that year a certain John Samon took over a toft and half
virgate which had escheated to the lord at the death of the last tenant.
The holding was granted to Samon for five years at a rent of js. instead
of all services and customs, always provided that the lord did not, during
that term, concede it to a tenant holding according to the custom of the
manor for rent and services, in which case Samon's lease was to deter-
mine." Another rather curious case occurred in I428.47 Three tenants of
Stanwell were sentenced to a fine of 2s. for trespassing and cutting thorns
on the Harmondsworth demesne. Subsequently, at the special prayer of
several of his own tenants, the lord remitted the fine on condition that
each of the men should do one day's work at the following autumn
bedrippe. And yet at this time some of the services were actually
not profitable. In the reeve's account for 1433— 4*8 it is stated that the
" P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. Ric. II, ptfo. 1 1, No. 20.
0 P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 12-13 Hen. VI, bdle. 1126, No. 7.
44 P.R.O. Ct. R. Hen. V, bdle. 191, No. 20.
" P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 13-15 Hen. VI, bdle. 917, Nos. 26 and 27.
46 P.R.O. Ct. R. Hen. V, bdle. 191, No. 20. 4' Ibid. 6 Hen. VI, bdle. 191, No. 21.
48 P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 12-13 Hen. VI, bdle. 1126, No. 7.
74
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
expenses of the scouring works exceeded their value, therefore only so
many tenants as were absolutely required for the work were summoned,
the others being quit. The expenses of the great boon-day also were in
excess of the value of the works, in spite of which the works continued
to be exacted and rendered.
In 1 446 *9 an arrangement was made in full court between the lord
and his steward on the one hand, with the assent of the tenants on the
other, that every tenant might pay for his autumn works at the rate of
id, a day, the money to be paid to the bailiff or some other of the
lord's ministers yearly at the feast of St. Peter in Chains (i August), or
on the Sunday next following, any tenants not paying at this time to be
charged at a double rate. But later than this agreement, tenants still
took up holdings on the express condition of rendering autumn services ;
two years later, in February, 1448, Robert Iver, Edward Bokeland and
Thomas Ravener were summoned to Westminster to have the amount
of their autumn work determined, and in the following October they
submitted themselves to the lord's mercy and petitioned for leave to per-
form their services and to be no longer disquieted for those previously
withheld.'0 As late as 1455 and 1471 tenants were presented for not
doing works, and in 1492 two tenants paid for their services.61 No
mention of such payments is made in the two court rolls of the reign of
Henry VIII," but no conclusion as to the absence of commutations can
be deduced from the fact that the holdings in Henry VIII's rolls are still
said to be granted for ' all services and customs due by law and custom,'
or inde prius debita. The survival of this formula in the court rolls
is very misleading, and continues long after it has any meaning in actual
fact. It is used in court rolls of the Stuart reigns, and of the Com-
monwealth, and the tenants are still spoken of as custumarii. The same
formula is used in the leases of manors granted by the Hospitallers in
the reign of Henry VIIL'Sa And in Sutton rolls 63 the formula is still
regularly recited after the Restoration, and at Stepney 63a in the time
of Henry VIII, although by the reign of Henry VI no more services were
rendered on the manor.
At Sutton we find an early commutation in 1222," a tenant holding
'per cartam ' for a rent of 5*. instead of services, and by this time no new
services were imposed, for, as we have already noticed, the assart lands
held by two operarii were paid for by a money rent only. In 1408—9 no
account of works appears in the rolls ; " the demesne is let on lease, and
there is an entry of £4 iu. id. from the sale of autumn works. A
receipt of £7 Bs. io</. from the lord for the expenses of the autumn
works is noted, and entries of expenses are made. So that evidently
some are still rendered.
49 P.R.O. Ct. R. Hen. VI, bdle. 191, No. 23. *> Ibid. bdle. 191, No. 23.
" Ibid. Hen. VII, bdle. 191, No. 28. » Ibid. Hen.VIII, bdle. 191, Nos. 30 and 31.
Ua B.M. Chart, of Hospitallers, Cott. MS. Claud. E. vi.
M Ct. R. at St. Paul's.
a" P.R.O. Ct. R. (i Hen. VIII), bdle. 191, No. 63. M Domesday of St. PauTs. Survey of Sutton.
65 St. Paul's Library, Mins. Accts. 9 or 10 Hen. IV.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
By 1283-4 six out of the ten and a half virgates of ' Shirlond ' at
Stepney were definitely posita ad denarium^ and thirty-five more works
were sold, accounting for 449 out of a total of 65 8 J works due. 450!
cotmen's works out of 854 were sold, as well as the great majority of
Hydlond and Mollond works. In and after 1362 the rolls contain no
compotus operum, but instead account for all the works due from the four
classes of holdings under the heading de operis arrentatis. There was a
dispute this year about the commutation of works due from twelve vir-
gates of mollond held by free tenants, the homage declaring that the
tenants had not been a party to the arrangement, and an allowance for
an overcharge was made to them. In 1464 the accounts cease to distin-
guish the redditus assist of the mollond, and only free and custumary
tenants are mentioned." Stepney suffered badly from the Black Death,
and afterwards a good deal of land was let on lease, the rents of terre
dimisse amounting to £43 14^. 6d. in 1352-3."
As we have already seen, certain molmen's works only were rendered
at Enfield in and after 1419. By 1439 the situs manerii, the demesne,
was let on a six years' lease with the garden, pasture, all demesne and
meadow land, all the custumers' weeding, mowing and reaping works
and the profits of the first annual hunt in the chase. A house over the
gateway, with some adjoining rooms and the stables were reserved for
the king. A good deal of bondage land was also let on lease. The
carrying works due to the firmarius from certain of the molmen were
sold by him at 3^. each.68
Although many commutations were made with the granting of
leases at Fulham between 1384 and 1396, services were still rendered on
the manor at the latter date, for there is a note in an account of that
year that tenants who had no horses paid ^d. instead of harrowing. The
same account contains a list of custumary holdings, consisting of from five
to twenty-six ' akerware ' each, in Acton and Drayton," and giving their
payments for rents, works and customs to Fulham manor and to Baling.
The demesne was leased in 1401 for seven years with 40 cows and
251 sheep, and in 1439—40 the manor was leased for nine years with
all demesne land, meadows, pasture, the profits of the court-leet and all
services. The bishop reserved to himself the advowson of the church,
the hall and all buildings and gardens within the lower gate, the great
garden, one grange and all the stables, 6 acres of meadow, the fishponds
and woods and all the judicial rights of the lord of the manor.60
A few payments for release from works occur in the Edgeware rolls
from 1268, and the sums received do not vary greatly in the few years
during which we have any account of the manor. A certain amount of land
M Compotus roll in St. Paul's Library, dated anno 12 regii Edviardi; P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 1139,
Nos. 18-24 i bdle. 1 140, No. 24 (4-5 Edw. IV).
" P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 1139, No. 18.
M Ibid. bdle. 915, No. 26 (7 Hen. V) ; Mins. Accts. (Duchy of Lane.), bdle. 42, No. 825 ;
bdle. 53, Nos. 1010 and 1014.
" Not to be confused with the St. Paul's Manor of Drayton. This is a small place near Hanwell.
P.R.O. Ct. R. 8-19 Ric. II, bdle. 188, Nos. 65-7 ; Mins. Accts. 19 Ric. II, bdle. 1138, No. 18.
60 P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 1138, Nos. 22 and 23.
76
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
is let on lease ' at the lord's will,' for which the rents amount in 1268 to
jTi 41. 6d., and in 1279 to £3 4^. 6d. There are also lands dimissae
ad seminand'.*1
The custumal and rental of the manor of Friern Barnet 63 was re-
vised in 1 506-7. In all but four cases the tenants paid a money rent
and were charged with carrying and ploughing services and boon-works as
well. Two holdings paid a money rent only, and two paid no rent and
owed only carrying services. None of the services were sold except
the carrying services, which were all sold at ^d. a load ; and it is clear
from the terms of the custumal that the other works were actually
rendered. By a lease of 1519 granted by the Hospitallers, the ' firma-
rius ' was bound to collect for the prior all ' rents, carriage-moneys,
work-silver and fines.' 6S
At Barnes in 1460—1 services were still rendered, except for the
lands let on lease, but in the time of Henry VIII no works are men-
tioned." In 1434—5 at Uxbridge it was apparently left to the tenants'
discretion whether they rendered the boon services or paid for them at
the rate of $d. for one, and lod. for two bedrippes.88
At Kensington the services were in process of commutation during
the reign of Henry VI, and a valor of that reign gives the money value
of all the works. In 1406 the person and goods of a tenant described
as nativus domini de sanguine arc ordered to be seized for living out of the
manor without paying chevage.68
A large number of works appear as sold at Isleworth in 1314—15
and subsequent years, all the superintending works being regularly sold.
In 1361—2 a very large proportion of the works was sold ; some of the
aker- and wcrklond services and some ale- bedrippes being all that were
rendered, besides the harvest works and sheep-shearing. Three years
before, 1 45 acres were let on five-year leases in small holdings at rents of 6s.
and 7-r. per acre. Much the same proportion of works was sold in 1383-4,
all the werk- and akerlond services being sold this year. Six tenants
were presented for withholding works during the reign of Henry VI, and
a compotus of 1462—3 shows the same proportion of works sold and ren-
dered as in 1383-4. The demesne was let on lease, the house being reserved
for the abbess of Syon. Indeed, to judge by the sum entered for opera
•uendita in a collector's account of 1484—6 the process of commuta-
tion does not seem to have made much progress.67 In the inquiry already
mentioned into the status of Nicholas Est,'8 he asserted that it was the
custom of the manor for free tenants who, like himself, held bondage
" P.R.O. Mins. Accts. Hen. Ill and Edw. I, bdle. 915, Nos. z, 3, 4, 12 ; Rentals and Surv.
5 Edw. I, rot. 439.
61 St. Paul's Library, Custumal 22 Hen. VII.
63 B.M. Chartul. of the Hospitallers, Cott. MS. Claud. E. vi.
" St. Paul's Library, Compotus Rolls, 39 Hen. VI and Hen. VIII.
64 B.M. Rental 13 Hen. VI. Harl. Roll D 22.
" P.R.O. Ct. R. bdle. 191, Nos. 44, 45, Hen. VI ; Rental rot. 445.
" P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 916, Nos. n (8 Edw. II), 18 (35-6 Edw. Ill), 19 (7-8 Ric. II),
22 (2-3 Edw. IV), 25 (2 Ric. III-i Hen. VII).
M P.R.O. Inq. I Ric. II, No. 146(7.
77
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
land as well, to pay a certain yearly increment in order to be quit of
all villeinage. The verdict passed over this assertion and decided his
freedom on the usual ground that one of his predecessors was an
* adventitius.'
At Teddington the first sale of works (258) occurs in 1313-14,
and after that the numbers sold vary a good deal in different years ;
in 1324-5 ninety-eight were sold, and the next year seventy ; the
year after the Black Death only one and a-half. In 1372-3 the
demesne was let to the prepositus on a fifteen-year lease at a rent
of 80 quarters of barley, equivalent at the current price (4;. 6d. a
quarter) to £18. The works then accrued to him, and he rendered no
further account of them. A rental of Richard II, however, shows
them in process of commutation. Six of the free tenants have com-
muted their suit of court and boon-works for i zd. The eight holdings
which are let on lease by 1373-4 are all let at a rent covering all
services, from IQJ. to 1 3-r. ^d. for a virgate of i6j acres ; for half a virgate
(8j acres) 4-r. bd. In 1379-80 seven holdings are still held for services
with or without a money rent. Two holdings have been forfeited for
non-performance of services, and in both cases the new tenant has com-
muted. One of the half virgates still pays no rent, but does all ser-
vices,69 and three cotmen are still doing their works. Finally, a rental of
1434 70 does not mention works at all — the land is all let for money rents:
virgates at £i to £i 6s. 8*/., and half virgates from 12s. to 13^. ^d.
Owing to the scarcity of early court rolls we are left very much
in ignorance of the effects of the Black Death in Middlesex.71 The
only court roll in the Record Office for the plague year belongs to
the manor of Stepney,72 and witnesses to an appalling mortality. At
the court held on the feast of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian (20 January),
1 349, nine tenements were reported in the lord's hands owing to the
death of the tenants. In December, 1 348, four members of one family —
mother and daughter and two sons — have died, a third son dies in the
following February, and later in the year three more members of the
family are reported to be dead and the holdings passed to heirs of a
different name. After Easter, 1349, the ale-tasters in Stratford, Aldgate
Street and Halliwell Street are all reported to be dead. The plague was
at its worst during the summer and early autumn of 1349: between
February and Michaelmas in that year 105 tenements were vacated by
the death of the tenants, 121 deaths being recorded in connexion with
the vacancies, as in some cases joint tenants, and in others the heirs, have
died as well. Nor must it be forgotten that only the deaths of tenants
and heirs to holdings are recorded in the rolls, and even this list is not
complete, for the rolls are torn off at Hokeday, St. Peter in Chains and
Michaelmas 1349, and it is impossible to know how many entries
are lost.
" P.R.O. Mins. Accts. Edw. II, Edw. Ill, bdle. 918, Nos. 12-25 5 bdle. QIQ, Nos. i-n ; Rental
3 Ric. II, No. 456.
70 St. Paul's Library, Rental 12 Hen. VI.
" See Appendix I. " P.R.O. Ct. R. 22 & 23 Edw. Ill, bdle. 191, No. 60.
78
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
Nothing comparable to these conditions is revealed in the Tedding-
ton manor accounts for the years after the plague.73 There is no account
for the years 1347—9, but as there is a gap in the series from 13 & 14 till
23 & 24 Edward III, it does not by any means follow that the account
was not kept in those years. In the account for the year, Michaelmas 1 349
to Michaelmas 1350, five custumers out of fifteen are reported as dead,
and evidently left no heirs, for their holdings remain in the lord's hands
and an allowance is made for their share of services. The number of
hesebonders decreases in this year from fifteen to nine, but it is not stated
that they are dead. There is also a decrease from five or six to only three
and a half in the plough-teams owned by the tenants, as if they were
not so well off. So far as we can see the manor was in its usual working
order; tallage £i I3J. zd. was paid in full, and all the works, with
the exception of those of the five dead tenants, are rendered as due.
Nevertheless, as may be seen from the following table, the profits of
the manor show a decrease of over £11 compared with those realized
in 1339-40 (from £13 iSs. $d. to £2 2J. 8j</.), and of £9 compared
with the average of all the preceding years on record. The profits of
the manor of Paddington for the same year74 are very small, £2 3^.
YEARLY PROFITS OF THE MANOR OF TEDDINGTON
Years
Receipts
Expenses
Profit
£
1.
d.
£
I.
A
£
r.
d.
3-4 Edw. I
18
IO
*i
9
4
»t
9
5
lit
28-29
Edw.
I
'7
17
3t
8
12
"1
9
4
4
29-30
Edw.
I
20
«7
7*
IO
8
»t
10
9
tf
4-5 Edw. II
18
,9
9
8
8
It
10
1 1
7j
5-6 Edw. II
IS
4
7
5
'9
"1
9
4
9-10 Edw. Ill
23
2
o
7
2
if
'5
'9
lot
I3-H
Edw.
Ill ....
20
7
i
6
8
8
'3
18
5
23-24
Edw.
Ill ....
14
19
1\
12
16
11}
2
2
81
24-25
Edw.
Ill ....
17
4
3
11
11
5i
5
12
9f
Demesne farmed
at lease
47-48
Edw.
Ill
31
i
6}
I
2
6*
29
18
lit
48-49
Edw.
Ill
24
3
2
I
2
7
23
0
7
49-50
Edw.
Ill
21
1 1
IO
1
2
71
20
9
2"
but as we only possess this one compotus for the manor, there are no
figures for comparison. There are three holdings in the lord's hand at
Paddington, no reason being given, and it is remarked in accounting for
the servants' expenses at Christmas and Easter that there were fewer
n P.R.O. Mins. Accts. 23-26 Edw. Ill, bdle. 918, Nos. 22-24.
Ji Ibid. 23 & 24 Edw. Ill, bdle. 917, No. 25.
79
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
servants than usual. Walsingham, in the Gesta Abbatum™ asserts that
the tenants of the St. Albans manor of Barnet in Middlesex took advan-
tage of the disorganization caused by the Black Death — ' when hardly any
reeves or cellarer survived, and certainly could not care for such transi-
tory and mortal things ' — to tamper with the manor rolls.
The accounts of Paddington and Teddington show a sudden rise of
wages immediately after the Black Death. In 1335-6 at Teddington,
the chief ploughman had 6s., the fugator 5^., carters and herds 4^. 6</., and
the ' daye ' 2s. a year each ; the same wages having been paid as far
back as 1275-7. The year after the Black Death, ploughmen, carters,
and herds all have us. a year and the ' daye ' 4^. The price of thrash-
ing wheat has risen from -2.\d. to 4</. a quarter, and barley from i \d. to 3^.
At Paddington the ploughmen get iu., and a maid to look after the
poultry and winnow the corn has 5-r. In 1351—2, in obedience to the
statute, the wages fall again, the ploughmen, carters and herds getting
7.1-., while the ' daye ' remains at 4-f. ; but a substantial rise over the
earlier rates is still maintained. Another effect of the Black Death was
to give an impetus to the letting of land on lease. On most manors we find
leases increasing during the latter years of the reign of Edward III. The
five holdings left vacant by the Black Death at Teddington remained in
the lord's hands (excepting a small portion of one, let in 1351—2) for years.
The first of them was leased for a term of seven years in 1368— 9 and
the others gradually after that. By 1373—4 eight holdings are let on
leases of varying lengths — for the life of the tenant, for seven, sixteen,
twenty years.
So far as the paucity of information allows us to judge, in Middle-
sex, at any rate, the Black Death promoted the granting of leases far more
effectually than the Peasants' Revolt. But before we follow the course
of the revolt in Middlesex we must notice some earlier disputes between
landlord and tenants. In all the rolls, more or less, there are the usual
fines for trespassing in the woods and in the lord's fields, for overcharging
commons and pastures, for withholding suit of court and other services,
and orders to distrain for rents and heriots. The leniency with which
these orders are repeated and apparently disregarded at court after court
is very striking, so that there are instances in the rolls of tenants
being ten, twenty and even thirty years in arrears with their rents.
On no other manor in the county of which we have records was
there anything like the constant disputes and insubordination which
appear in the Harmondsworth Court Rolls.78 Troubles between the
abbot and his tenants began very early, and by the time of Henry III
had been carried to the royal courts for settlement. The tenants asserted
that the manor was ancient demesne and that the abbot was infringing
their rights as ancient demesne tenants by exacting from them services
and tallage to which they had not been subjected when the manor was
in the king's hands. The plea was heard by William of Raseley,
the chief justice, in 1233 and was given against the tenants, it being
" Oman, The Peasants' Revolt, 328. ™ P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. rot. 444.
80
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
decided that the manor was not ancient demesne, that the abbot
and his predecessors were seised of the tallage and merchet of the
tenants ; he was therefore to recover seisin, and the men to be fined
5 marks.
In 1276 the tenants returned to the charge. Walter de Lestile,
Walter le Disine, Roger le Paternoster, and other men of Harmonds-
worth attacked the abbot on the same grounds as before. This time
the abbot refused to plead on the ground that the manor not being
ancient demesne the men were his villeins and could not sue him at law.
The court declared that a jury of the county could not decide whether
the manor were or were not ancient demesne, because rights of the
crown which went back beyond the memory of man could not be
determined by a reference to that memory. A reference to Domesday
was made by the lords of the Exchequer, who found that Harmonds-
worth was not amongst the manors of ancient demesne entered in
Domesday. The court therefore confirmed William of Raseley's verdict
that the men were tallageable at will and bound to redeem their flesh
and blood.
In this decision the tenants were not by any means minded to
acquiesce. With ' presumptuous and inveterate fatuity ' they flatly re-
fused the disputed customs, ' saying they would rather die than render
them.' When the abbot distrained their teams, they took them back
by force vi et armis ; openly threatened no less than to burn down his
house, and committed ' various homicides and other enormities.' The
abbot was powerless and appealed to the king, ' lest by their insolence
and rebellion worse should befall his prior ' at Harmondsworth. In May,
1277, Edward II dispatched Geoffrey de Pyncheford, the constable of
Windsor, in propria persona^ to the aid of the prior ; and a year later the
sheriff of Middlesex was sent on the same errand. But the men of
Harmondsworth persisted in their ' pristine malice and rebellion,' so that
later in that year or in the next the king sent Robert Fulton and Roger
de Bechesworth with orders to call the tenants before them, and, if they
persisted in their disobedience, to assist the abbot in enforcing his rights
and to punish the men with a severity calculated to deter them from a
repetition of their wrong-doing.
Apparently these drastic measures produced the desired effect, for
there seems to have been no further litigation until ten years later. In
1289 the abbot proceeded against twenty-five tenants for withholding
services and customs which they and their predecessors had rendered
until two years before. The services claimed are practically those of the
custumal ; ploughing, sowing, weeding, mowing, carting hay and corn,
attendance at bedrippes, and the obligation to tallage, merchet, and
' grasenese.' The defendants recognized all the works except sowing —
which they claimed (and the custumal states) should be done by the
abbot's servants — the third or love-bedrippe and the obligation to bring
their cottars to help with the hay-carting. They also disputed their
responsibility for the adequate performance of the ploughing, their
2 81 ii
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
obligation to pay merchet and tallage (auxi/ium) and to obtain licence to
sell horse or ox. But once more the jury found for the abbot and placed
the tenants in mercy.
After this there appears to have been no further litigation coram
rege, but at the beginning of the reign of Richard II the first court roll77
discovers a good deal of insubordination amongst the tenants. At the
Martinmas Court in 1377, Roger Fayrher, Thomas Hyne, Walter Lang-
leye, Robert Baker, William Hiton and Nicholas Houtchon were fined
\d. each for not coming to the haymaking ; John Austyn the same sum
for not carting hay, and also, together with Walter Robyn and Roger
Janyn, for reaping his own corn on the day of the great precaria.
Roger Janyn and John Austyn, Walter Smith, Ralph Jurdan, Godfrey
Atte Pyrie, John Felling and Roger Cook were further fined for not
coming to superintend the reapers as they were ' by law and custom
bound.' John Essex, Richard Sheter and Nicholas Herbert were each
fined 6d. for non-attendance at a bedrippe ; William Pompe and Robert
Freke for not obeying the bailiff's summons ; and Roger Cook for a
deficiency of one work, piling wheat in the grange. It is evident that
there was something like organized opposition to the lord ; indeed, Robert
Baker so far forgot himself as to upbraid the jury in full court, and in the
presence of the seneschal, accusing them of finding a false verdict ; while
Walter Breuer disturbed the court with his scornful words, and would
not be prevailed on by the seneschal to behave himself reasonably as
beseemed him (rationabiliter modo prout decebit). At the same time a good
many tenants were letting their land without leave, there is a long list of
trespassers in the woods, some one has been poaching in the abbot's
private waters, and one tenant is a fugitive and undiscovered in spite of
reiterated orders to search for him. The next year the servant of one of
the tenants opened the lord's sluices so that the hay was flooded. Thomas
Reynolds and Nicholas Herberd were fined \2.d. each at Ascension-tide
j
1379 for abusing the lord's servants. On St. Luke's day in the same
year four tenants were fined for not coming to load hay, by which
default hay to the value of \s. %d. was lost, and William Boyland's land
was ordered to be seized, because he withheld services and customs. It
is not surprising under the circumstances to find that the reeve, elected at
this court, fined i 3^. \d. to be absolved from the office. A year later at
the St. Luke's court of 1380, Walter Frensch, Robert Freke, senior and
junior, John Attenelme, Walter Breuer, Walter Holder, William Atte
Hatche, William Boyland and Roger Taylor were fined for not coming
to superintend the reapers ; seven tenants worked in their own fields on
the day of the great bedrippe, two tenants did not attend the love-bed-
rippe, and four came late to their autumn works. Thomas Reynolds, it
must be supposed for further ' contempts,' had forfeited his land and had
to pledge himself to the amount of IOQJ. to get it back. Again the
elected reeve prudently preferred to decline the office even at the cost of
a fine of £i 6/. 8</.
" P.R.O. Ct. R. Ric. II, bdle. 191, No. 14.
82
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
In the following spring the Peasants' Revolt broke out, and it would
seem as if the ferment of the rebellion had been already at work at
Harmondsworth.78
It is unnecessary to repeat here the account of the burning of the
Savoy, of the Temple, of the Hospital of St. John at Clerkenwell, of the
manor house of the Hospitallers at Highbury, of the properties of the
under-sheriff of Middlesex at Eybury, Tothill, and Knightsbridge, and
of the climax of the rebellion at Mile End,79 which have no special con-
nexion with the county, belonging rather to the general history of the
revolt.
Although there does not appear to have been anything like a
general Middlesex rising, there is evidence of sporadic outbreaks on
several manors, and the Middlesex men must have taken their full share
in the rebellion, for the list of exclusions from the general pardon is
longer for that small county than for any other, except for London itself.80
Twenty-three Middlesex rebels were excluded from the amnesty, from
fifteen different parishes,81 but so far as the evidence goes only two of them
were convicted and outlawed ; eleven were subsequently acquitted in
1386-7, and the remainder were, it must be supposed, never brought to
justice, as there is no record of their conviction or acquittal. Of the two
who were outlawed,83 Peter Walshe held a cottage and ij acres in Chis-
wick, and was found to possess no goods or chattels ; of the other outlaw,
Thomas Bedford of Holborn, the goods seized by the escheator were
valued at 4^., being chiefly small household utensils — most of them ' debil.'
Only one other rebel figures in this Middlesex escheator's account : John
Stackpole, described as of Middlesex, was beheaded as one of the prin-
cipal insurgents in the Corpus Christi rising, and is mentioned in an
inquiry carried out by the sheriffs in November, 1382, as being with
Walter Tyler, one of the leaders of the rebels at Blackheath. His goods
and chattels are valued at i8j., amongst them being a red and green
cloth gown worth 8s. and ' unius cithere et gyterne, precium i6</.'8S
William Peche, clerk of St. Clements, accused of being with the rebels
at Knightsbridge, Eybury, and Tothill ; John Hore, of Knightsbridge, for
burning the under-sheriffs' houses ; Robert Gardiner (or Rob. Poltayne
gardener) of Holborn, accused of joining in the burning of St. John's
Clerkenwell, of slaying seven Flemings there and stealing a cup, and
Thomas Clerke of Algate Street, butcher — all pleaded the general pardon;
and John Norman of Hammersmith, John Smart and John Neue of
Lilleston, and John Brewer of Hoxton do not appear to have been caught
at all.84 Thus it will be seen that Middlesex was no exception to the
78 See Appendix I. " See ' Political History.' * Rot. Par/. (Rec. Com.), iii, 1 1 1.
81 This hardly seems sufficient justification for Prof. Oman's statement (Peasants' Revolt, 91) that
' inhabitants of almost every parish in Middlesex ' are to be found in the list of exclusions.
63 P.R.O. Coram Rege R. East. 9 Ric. II, m. 2 (rex), m. 16 (rex) r. d.; Trin. 9-10 Ric. II, m. 8
(rex) ; Mich. 10 Ric. II, ms. 20 (rex), 23 (rex) d. and 25 (rex) ; Hil. 1 1 Ric. II, m. 7 (rex) ; Esch.
Acct. 5-6 Ric. II (John de Newinton). Bona et catalla proditorum.
83 Reville, Soutevement des Travailleurs, pp. Ixxvi note 2 and 192 ; Esch. Accts. as above.
84 P.R.O. Coram Rege R. Hil. 5 Ric. II, m. 9 (rex); Trin. 5 Ric. II, m. 34 (rex); Mich. 8 Ric. II,
m. 14 (rex) ; Trin. 6-7 Ric. II, m. 2 (rex); Mich. 6 Ric. II, m. 15 (rex) d.
83
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
general rule of leniency in the suppression of the revolt. As to the
local outbreaks in the county we have little more than the scantiest in-
formation. The disturbances at Pinner were sufficiently serious to
warrant a royal inquiry, the manor of Harrow being in the king's hands
as part of the temporalities of the see of Canterbury during the vacancy
caused by the murder of Simon of Sudbury.86 An entry in a Fulham
court roll of 1392 states that the court rolls were burnt tempore rumoris.™
Amongst the exclusions from the pardon are men from Hendon, Houn-
slow, Ruislip, Greenford, Twickenham, Fulham, Chelsea, Charing and
Heston ; but it does not appear whether they were engaged in local dis-
turbances or in the London rebellion. At Heston the tenants seized the
opportunity to pay off their old score against Nicholas Est. William
Weyland, John Walter and Richard Umfray attacked Est on 5 June,
1381, with swords and staves, abused and wounded him, and finally
imprisoned him for a day and night, until Nicholas paid 4OJ. for
his freedom. When the latter brought an action against them in
1383, the three men pleaded — and brought four credible witnesses in
support of their plea — that they had not acted of their own free will,
but by the orders of Jack Straw, Walter Tyler, and other insurgents.
The acceptance of this plea entitled them to benefit by the general pardon
and they were actually dismissed sine die*1 That an outbreak occurred at
Harmondsworth is clear, for Walter Come, Richard Gode and Robert
Freke, junior, forfeited their lands for rebellion against the prior and the
king's peace, and William Pompe's and John Pellyng's lands were also seized
for the same reason. It seems probable that the manor rolls were burnt,
for the early custumals are extant, not in the originals, but in transcripts
of the reign of Richard II, and with the exception of one roll of the
time of Edward I there are no earlier court rolls of the manor extant
than the one actually in use at the time of the rebellion. The prior was
evidently not disposed to be harsh — indeed, it was far from the interests
of the landlords to prevent a quiet settlement to the stalu quo — for
William Pompe got his land back a few months later, and at the instance
of his friends the prior reduced his fine from 40*. to 40^. John
Pellyng's land was given back to him in 1383 at the prayer of two of
the tenants. Robert Freke, junior, is again in possession in 1385 and
again does not come to superintend the reapers, and in 1386 Richard
Gode is once more in a position to come late to the autumn bedrippe.88
Indeed, things went on at Harmondsworth after the rebellion just as they
did before. There were quite as many defaults at bedrippes and super-
intending works, and the same names recur amongst the defaulters
— John Austyn, Thomas Hyne, William Pompe, John Attehelme,
Nicholas Herbard, Roger Fayrer and Robert Freke. The position
of reeve was so unpopular that William Boyland fined 10 marks to
escape it, although diligently required by the steward to accept the
*> P.R.O. Pat. 5 Ric. II. * P.R.O. Ct. R. 16 Ric. II, bdle. 188, No. 66.
" Cf. ante, p. 72, and Inq. I Ric. II, No. 1460 ; Coram Rege R. Trin. 7 Ric. II, m. 23 (rex).
* P.R.O. Ct. R. 1-9 Ric. II, bdle. 191, No. 14.
84
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
office. In 1399 Roger Cook, when summoned to cart wheat, at first
would not come, and when he did, flung his first load on the tithe heap
and his second on the ground, so that all the sheaves were broken, and
the carts had to pass over them to get into the grange ; but the proceed-
ings against him were stayed by the homage finding he ' had done all
things well.' And so it goes on until in the fifteenth century the
unquiet annals of the manor settle down, except for occasional defaults
and troubles about the heriots. There are always long lists of defaulters
from suit of court, and in 1462 they were called before the steward
and allowed their obligation to render all dues, customs and services
owing to the lord, promising faithfully to observe them in future and
placing themselves in mercy for their past faults ; which did not prevent
most of them being in default again at the next court.89
As to the effects of the Peasants' Revolt on the economic conditions
of Middlesex, it is difficult to see that they were great, though this con-
clusion may partly be due to the paucity of our information. The granting
of leases was more advanced by the Black Death than by the revolt, and
as for the extinction of base services, commutations had begun on some
manors long before, and in others only commenced long after the
rebellion.
The Middlesex markets and fairs are not of any great importance
or special interest. Henry III and the three Edwards granted charters
founding or confirming grants of seven markets and nine fairs, with all the
liberties and free customs usually appertaining to them. Norden, in the
Speculum, only mentions four market towns, Brentford, Staines, Uxbridge,
and Harrow, but Middleton in rygS90 gives ten fairs and nine weekly
markets, namely, Barnet, Southall, Finchley, Uxbridge, Brentford,
Hounslow, Edgeware, Staines and Enfield.
Henry III, in 1228, granted an annual fair at Staines to the abbot
of Westminster to last for four days at Ascensiontide.91 But in his reply
to a Quo Warranto inquisition of 1293—4, the abbot claimed by grant of
Henry III a four days' fair at the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin
(8 September), as well as a weekly market which he had had time out
of mind and which was altered from Sunday to Friday by Henry III in
1218. 9S The grants were inspected and confirmed by Edward I.
Henry III also granted to the archbishop of Canterbury a Monday
market at his manor of Harrow, and a three days' fair at the Nativity of
the Virgin.93 Edward IPs only grant of a market in Middlesex was to
the archbishop, of a Wednesday market and of a two days' fair at the
Feast of the Nativity;94 and finally the archbishop obtained from
Edward III in 1336 a Wednesday market and two fairs at Pinner — for
three days at the Nativity and for two at the Decollation of St. John
Baptist (24 June and 29 August.)9
\9S
89 P.R.O. Ct. R. Ric. II, bdle. 191, Nos. 14-17, 22.
90 Agric. In Mldd. M Chart. R. 12 Hen. Ill, m. 7.
91 Plac. de quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 476 ; Close, 2 Hen. Ill ; P.R.O. Cal. 381.
93 Cal. of Chan. R. ii, 38. M P.R.O. Chart. R. 8 Edw. II, No. 10.
"Chart. R. 10 Edw. Ill, No. 31.
85
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, who held the manors of Colham
and Edgeware by his wife's right, claimed that his predecessors had had
a Thursday market at Uxbridge, which was a member of Colham, and a
three days' fair there at the Feast of St. Margaret (12 July), time out of
mind.98 In the same year Edward I granted him a Monday market and
a two days' fair at Michaelmas." Edward I also granted a Tuesday
market and an eight days' fair at Trinity to the brothers of Holy Trinity
of Hounslow;98 and to Humfry de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex,
and his wife the countess of Holland, a Monday market and two three
days' fairs on St. Andrew's day and the Assumption (29 November and
15 August), at Enfield ;99 and lastly a Tuesday market and a six days' fair
at Brentford at the Feast of St. Lawrence (11 August), to the prioress
and nuns of St. Helens.100 These ancient rights were surrendered to
Charles I in 1635 by a certain Mr. Valentine Saunders, who then held
the manor of Brentford, in return for a grant of a Tuesday market and
two fairs to last six days each, beginning on 7 May and I September
respectively, for which he was to pay 2os. a year.101 He also had leave
to enlarge on his own ground the market-place, which was too small
to contain the concourse of people frequenting the town and passing
on the London road. In a charter roll of 4 Edward III there is a grant
of a yearly fair lasting seventeen days at Michaelmas at his manor of
' Scrine in com. Mid', to ' francisco de feipo.'102 I have been quite
unable to identify either the manor or its owner. The entry is copied
without comment by Palmer in his Index to Markets and Fairs, and from
him by the commissioners on Market Rights and Tolls.
A probably not uncommon institution was a Sunday meat market,
held in the churchyard before service at Enfield, for the retention of which
' old and ancient usage ' the queen's tenants and inhabitants of Her
Majesty's decayed town of Enfield, in 1586, petitioned Burghley, who
was high steward of the manor.103 The petitioners complained bitterly
of the conduct of their minister, Leonard Thickpenny, 'set on we beleeve
by the vicar,' who in ' a very outragious manner very evyll beseamynge a
man of the churche, in a maddynge mode most ruffynlike ' seized the
butcher's meat one Sunday and threw it on the ground, 'most pyttyfull
to beholde.' He then in the presence of a great many ' honest poore
men ' abused the butcher, threatening to kill him ' if he hanged for it
half an hour afterwards.' Later in the forenoon the vicar improved the
occasion by preaching on the subject of the ' marquet ' in a ' most
mallancolly and angrye vayne.' They have many such sermons, they
concluded sadly, so that ' in church they wish themselves at home.'
Burghley, it would appear, was minded to allow the market on which the
men of Enfield set such store.
Owen's New Book of Fairs gives a list of seventeen fairs as existing
in Middlesex in 1772 : Bow, Beggar's Bush, Brentford (two), Chiswick,
* Plat, de quo Warr. 476, 22 Edw. I, 1293-4. w Chart. R. 22 Edw. I, No. 23.
98 Chart. R. 24 Edw. I, No. 21. » Ibid. 31 Edw. I, No. 33.
00 Ibid. 35 Edw. I, No. 49. '« P.R.O. Privy Seal Doc. 10 June, 1 1 Chas. I.
1W Chart. R. 4 Edw. Ill, No. 46. "» B.M. Lansdowne MS. 47.
86
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
Edgeware, Edmonton, Enfield, Hammersmith, Hounslow (two), Staines
(two), and Oxbridge (four). Of these, only the two Brentford fairs, one
at Staines, one at Enfield, and one at Hounslow, were still held in 1888.
Elizabethan Middlesex was still a corn-growing county and famous
for the quality of the wheat it produced. Norden in his Speculum Brit-
anniae highly praises the fertility of the soil. ' Although it is so small
a shire, yet for the quantetie of it the qualetie may compare with anie
other shire in this lande.' The soil is ' excellent fat and fertile ' and in
parts of the county about Perivale, Heston and Harrow, there is what
he calls a ' vayne ' of some of the best wheat grown in England. Heston
may be accounted ' the garner or store howse of the most fayre wheate
and pure in this land.' So much so indeed that the ' marchet and cheate '
for the queen's own diet are said to be specially made from Heston wheat.
Times have changed in Middlesex since Norden could admire from
Harrow Hill in harvest time how ' the feyldes round about so sweetely
addresse themselves to the sicle and scythe, with such comfortable
aboundance of all kinde of grayne, that it maketh the inhabitantes to
clappe theyr handes for joy.'
He also notes with approval the good pasture, but regrets that ' things
are more confounded by ignorance and evel husbandrye in this shire
then in anie other shire that I knowe.' This he attributes to the large
number of country seats owned by citizens of London — ' prebends, gentle-
men, and merchants ' — which afford, with their fair houses, gardens, and
orchards, a fine ornament to the country side, but are less advantageous
to its cultivation, the land being ' noethinge husbandlyke manured.'
Husbandry and the carrying of its produce to London by land and
water were then the only trade and occupation of importance in the
county. Nothing in the way of a manufacture is noted by Norden
except a copper and brass mill at Isleworth, where he admires the in-
genuity with which bellows, hammers and snippers are moved by water
power by means of an ' artificiall engine.'
The northern parts of the shire which used to be well timbered were
in his time ' but poorly ' wooded. In spite of reiterated orders 10* for the
better preservation of Enfield Chase made by Henry VIII and Elizabeth,
the depredations of keepers and commoners alike have so reduced it that
Norden says it will hardly continue to provide fuel for the inhabitants.
' Cutting green boughs for sale in London ' had apparently become a
trade in Enfield. As for the Hornsey woods, their decrease was largely
due to Aylmer, bishop of London, into whose inroads on the episcopal
timber Cecil caused an inquiry to be made.1043
Norden was no friend to inclosures ; he praised the ' good store of
lardge commons' in the shire, ' the best and most comfortable neighbours
for poore men,' and noted with satisfaction that the ' many parks erected
chiefly for deer now fall to decay and are converted to better uses.'
Amongst these was the chase made by Henry VIII at Hampton Court,
104 B.M. Harl. MS. 368, fol. 104; Lansdowne MS. 105, Nos. I, tz.
Iota S.P. Dora. Eliz. vol. 137, Nos. 9, 10, 12, 73.
8?
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
which was disparked in the time of Edward VI, at the petition of
the inhabitants, who surmise that a younger king will prefer to seek
better sport further afield. The land was re-let to the former tenants at
the old rents,106 just as Henry III granted 108 to the county of Middlesex,
in 1227, that the warren of Staines should be disafforested 'so that all
men may cultivate their lands and assart their woods therein.'
Long before inclosures became a source of contention, pasture and
common rights were a frequent subject of dispute. There are constant
entries in the court rolls, especially in the fifteenth century, of tenants
fined for overcharging the commons, and pasturing on them beasts not
their own property for which they were paid. The right of the animals
of the vill to pasture on the arable after the harvest was lifted, and
the periodical opening as common for the manor of the ' Lammas ' fields
often led to trouble, and there was the further complication of common
rights enjoyed on one manor by the tenants of another. Thus the men
of Drayton and Herdington exercised pasture rights on the Harmonds-
worth stubble fields, and in 1414, at the instigation of some of the Har-
mondsworth tenants, 140 men of Drayton and Herdington came into the
manor, ' armed with bows and arrows, swords, staves and bills,' and with
their teams and swine trampled and depastured the corn and hay where
they had no right to common till the corn was cut and carried ; neither
the bailiff nor the hayward nor any other of the lord's ministers daring
to oppose them for fear of death.107 On the other hand the Harmonds-
worth tenants had the right of mast pasture in the Drayton Woods, and
it was reported to the court of the manor in 1521-2, as an infringement
of these rights, that the bailiff of Drayton manor had felled some twenty
oaks in the wood there.108 At Isleworth in 1445—6 the court was in-
formed that the abbess of Syon had inclosed and kept separate two
pastures which were always open from the Feast of St. Peter in Chains
to the Purification (2 February) or the Annunciation (28 March), and
in which two other persons, the prior of St. Walery and Emma de
Ayston, shared her rights.109
The quality of the Middlesex land was so much better adapted to
arable than to pasture farming that comparatively little was inclosed for
pasture. But the rapid expansion of London made land in the neigh-
bourhood of the City valuable, and most of the inclosures near the walls
were probably made rather with a view to building than for any agri-
cultural purpose.
Parts of the depopulation returns made for Middlesex by the inclo-
sure commission of Henry VIII in 1517 are preserved in the Record
Office.1" There are only two membranes, a considerable piece being
torn away from the right-hand side of each. They are headed ' Inquisitio
indentata et prima capta apud Hendon in com. Mid. die Lune, 28
104 B.M. Harl. MS. 6195, fol. 3. '« P.R.O. Chart. R. 1 1 Hen. Ill, pt. 2.
07 P.R.O. Ct. R. Hen. V, bdle. 191, No. 20. los Ibid. Hen. VIII, bdle. 191, No. 30.
M Ibid. Hen. VI, bdle. 191, No. 36.
110 Chan. Misc. 7, No. 2 (z). Compare also Leadam, Domesday of Inclosures (Roy. Hist. Soc.) and
Gay, ' Depopulation Inquisition, I 507,' Roy. Hist. Soc. Trans. (New Ser.), xiv.
88
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
die Septembris anno 9 Hen: VIII.' The Middlesex commissioners were
John, abbot of Westminster, Sir Thomas Lovell, Sir Thomas Nevell and
John Heron.1103 The opening meeting and the appointment of the jury
were held at Hendon, after which the commissioners adjourned to
Westminster to receive the sworn returns of the jurors. Subjoined are
tabulated the inclosures given in the return, and the number of ploughs
put down in consequence. The incompleteness of the returns prevents,
of course, anything like an exact estimate of the amount inclosed, but
they suffice to show that the quantity is not very considerable.
DEPOPULATION RETURN, 1517
Place
Object
Acreage
4 Aratra '
destroyed
Persons
dispossessed
South Mimms
Not stated
80
2
6
Ruislip
Pasture
(Torn off)
4
12
Hedgeley
99
140
3
6
Stanwell
99
(Torn off)
1
2
East Bedfont
99
16
1(0
Hendon
Deer park
20
—
Hanworth
99
200
6
12
Twickenham
99
80
2
4
Hampton
99
3OO
6
12
99 •
(Second imparking, jury do not know how much)
Dawley
Pasture
60 ? (or 100 ?)
2 12
Three messuages ruined
Hackney .
Not stated
IOO
—
»
99
10
—
» •
99
3
—
» •
99
9
—
19 •
(Two more amounts illegible)
Ickenham
Park
9
—
(Name gone)
Pasture
10
i
2
Edmonton .
99
IO
\
2
99 •
99
A ' campus '
\
2
99 •
99
12
\
2
99 •
99
40 and 14
\
2
Harrow
99
20
\
4
Willesden (Brownswood)
99
1 60
*
12
Messuages allowed to be ruinous —
Ruislip, four (worth 40.;. per ann.). ' The people turned out and the praise of God decayed.'
East Bedfont tenements ruinous. Three persons turned out.
Harrow cot and messuage (worth 2O/.). Three people turned out.
A Lansdowne manuscript in the British Museum m contains a
fragment of a list of inclosures in the suburbs of London, bound up with
no heading, between the returns for the Isle of Wight and Staffordshire.
The inclosures are in Hackney and, with the exception of one of 100 acres
made by the prior of St. Helen's Bishopsgate, which is entered among
the commissioners' returns in the inquisition at the Record Office,
n(h Pat. 9 Hen. VIII, pt. 2, m. 6J.
111 B.M. Lansdowne MS. i, fol. 177 ; see also Leadam and Gay as above.
2 89 12
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
are of small amounts. Altogether, leaving out these 100 acres, 174 acres
of arable land were inclosed in twenty-five separate inclosures. The object
of the inclosures is not stated, but it seems likely that they were for
building.
The inclosure of the commons and waste lands, of which, as we
have seen, there was a considerable amount in the county, provoked, as
usual, much opposition and in consequence made little progress, though
the great stretches of waste land so near the City harboured very
many undesirable rogues and vagabonds ; indeed, the neighbourhood of
London was far from safe, and the county sessions rolls contain a large
number of indictments for highway robberies in Tudor and Stuart
times. In February, 1591, a true bill was found against a band of
seven highwaymen for robberies at Islington, and in November, 1 594, a
band of four was apprehended at Hayes. In 1693 highwaymen were
indicted for robberies on the road between Bow and Mile End.113 Small
bands of robbers preyed upon the roads in the suburbs ; there are robberies
at Netting Hill, at Tottenham, and at Knightsbridge, and the fields
between Gray's Inn and Paddington were infested with footpads. In
1690 complaints were made that the watches in the county were set too
late and discharged too early, so a double watch was ordered to be kept
from 9 p.m. till 5 a.m. and ward in the daytime from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
There having been robberies in the Strand before the watch was set, it
was ordered, in 1691, that four 'able and sufficient' men were to be
placed at convenient stands in the High Street till the watch was set
at i o o'clock by the constables. The same year 11S the inhabitants of
St. Giles in the Fields and St. Clement Danes obtained leave to set an
extra watch, at their own expense, and the next year Chelsea made a similar
appeal.114 Norden in his Speculum warns his readers against 'walking too
late ' in the neighbourhood of the old church at Pancras, which stands all
alone and utterly forsaken, the buildings which used to surround it ' all
removed and fled,' and is the haunt of very undesirable company. Even
in the further parts of the county robberies were not infrequent on the
roads ; there are indictments for robberies at Enfield, Edmonton and
Hayes, sometimes three or four in a day, and many of course at Houns-
low.115 Even in the early years of the nineteenth century, George IV and
the duke of York are said to have been stopped in a hackney coach and
robbed on Hay Hill, Berkeley Square. And it was the custom, on
Sunday evenings at Kensington, to ring a bell to muster people returning
to town.
Henry VIII, in an Act which ' in spirit anticipated the private
inclosure Acts of the eighteenth century,'116 made an attempt in 1545 to
encourage the inclosure of Hounslow Heath,117 which had come into his
possession with the estates of Syon Abbey at the dissolution of the
'" Jeaffreson, MM. Sess. Rolls (Midd. Rec. Soc.) ; Hardy, Midd. Sess. Rolls, 96.
" Hardy, MM. Sess. Rolls (Midd. Rec. Soc.), 12, 27, 30, 31.
14 Ibid. 87. »s Jeaffreson, Sess. Rolls.
116 Scrutton, Commons and Common Fields.
117 Act for the Partition of Hounslow Heath, 37 Hen. VIII, cap. 2, Statutes of the Realm, 986.
90
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
monasteries, and contained 4,293 acres of waste, extending into fourteen
parishes and hamlets. The king considering that the
barrenness and infertility thereof by want of industry and diligence of men ....
breadithe as well scarsitye and lacke of all manner of grayne, grasse, woode, and
other necessarie thinges amonges thinhabitauntes of the said Parishes ; . . . . even
so the conversion thereof into tyllage and severall pasture by men's labor and
paynes, besides that it shall be an exile of ydlenes in those parties, must of necessitye
cause and bringe furthe to all his saide subjectes plentye and haboundance of all
the thinges above remembred,
has had portions of the heath assigned to each parish, and it is
enacted that the waste and heath can be inclosed by decision of four
commissioners and shall immediately be and remain perpetually copyhold
land, or it may be held on lease for twenty-one years, the tenants to
improve at will.
In 1575 the tenants at Enfield petitioned 118 the queen against an
inclosure of 53 acres, made by the lessee of the manor, of land which
had beyond the memory of man lain open as common once a year. This
' evil example has given courage ' to one of the keepers of the chase to
inclose 12 acres of common land. They, the tenants, are charged with
carrying duties to the royal household ; ' to remove your Majesty with
12 carts in summer and eight in winter, either lying at Endfield or
within 20 miles of London,' besides 400 horse-loads of wheat and grain,
and carrying of poultry, ' which service to doo and see performyd they
shall not be hable if the said Taylor and Holt be sufferyd to inclose their
commen.' In 1589, 90 acres of a piece of ground, which the tenants
claim as common, having been inclosed by nine different owners in pieces
varying from 50 to 2 acres, a feminine riot ensued, 'certain women of the
town ' to the number of twenty-four, the wives of labourers and trades-
men of Enfield, ' assembled themselves riotously and in warlike manner,
being armed with swords, daggers, staves, knives, and other weapons,'
broke into one of the inclosures and plucked up the fencing. The
women, some of whom were ' greate with child and expecting every
hour to travaile,' were in danger of imprisonment for the offence, and
the inhabitants and the queen's tenants of Enfield petition Burghley to
interfere in their favour and to get the common back.120 What the
results were on these two occasions we do not know, but the persistent
opposition of the Enfield tenants did succeed in impeding the progress
of hedge and pale, as is shown by the report to the Board of Agriculture
in 1795. There are many indictments in the sessions rolls for breaking
into inclosures in different parts of the county, of ' gentlemen ' as well
as of ' yomen ' and labourers.
The Londoners saw with equal disfavour the inclosure of waste
lands near the City walls, which they had been accustomed to use
for their recreation and their archery practice. So 'on a morning '
in 1513 ' they assembled themselves and went with spades and shovels,'
118 B.M. Lansdowne MS. 105, No. 7. "' Jeaffreson, Midd. Sen. Rolls (Midd. Rec. Soc.), i, 188.
110 B.M. Lansdowne MS. 59, fols. 30-1.
91
119
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
to some inclosures which had been made in the common fields about
Islington, Hoxton and Shoreditch,
and there, like diligent workmen, so bestirred themselves, that within a short
space all the hedges about those townes were cast downe and the ditches filled.
The king's councell comming to the graie friars, to understand what was meant
by this dooing were so answered by the maior of councell of the citie, that the matter
was dissembled, and so when the workmen had done their worke, they came home
in a quiet manner, and the fields were neuer after hedged.1*1
Indeed the necessity for maintaining open spaces round the City
became very present to Elizabeth's careful government, to whom the
expansion and overcrowding of London and the rural exodus to the
City were a source of great disquiet. At the county sessions of the
peace in May, 1561, John Draney, citizen and clothier of London, was
fined for inclosing an open field in Stepney, through which the citizens
were wont to pass freely to their archery practices.182 And in the
Act 1S2a by which the government tried to stem the further growth and
overcrowding of the City by limiting the building of new houses within
and without the walls, the inclosure of commons and waste grounds
within three miles of the City gates was prohibited, as interfering with
the mustering of soldiers, the practice of archery, and the recreation,
comfort, and health of the people inhabiting the cities of London and
Westminster.
The problem of providing for the poor of the county was compli-
cated for Middlesex by the neighbourhood of London. London was
one of the first of English towns to provide for itself an organized local
system of poor relief.123 But this had the disadvantage of attracting a
hungry immigration from less advanced districts, which defied the
terrors of Tudor settlement laws, and flooded the adjoining counties with
undesirable vagrants, to provide for and deal with whom quite overtaxed
their resources. It is not surprising to find from the county sessions
rolls that the Middlesex justices were at once active and uncompromising
in the execution of the Vagrant Act. In 1572 they reported to the
Privy Council 124 that they had caused privy searches to be made on
20 March and 20 April in all the hundreds of the county, by which a
number of rogues and vagabonds of both sexes have been taken, and have
been ' ordered and ponyshed,' according to the statute. That is to say that
those who were not taken into service by some employer who would
make himself responsible for them were whipped and branded, and if
found again wandering, hanged. Three relapsed vagrants found
wandering in the parish of St. Giles were sentenced to be hanged in
June, I575-126
The sessions rolls for 1572-3 contain twenty-eight, and those for
X574~5 thirty-five convictions for vagrancy, and in ten weeks of the
year 1589—90 seventy-one persons were sentenced to be whipped and
111 Holinshed, Chron. (1808), iii, 599. "» MM. County Sess. Rolls (Midd. Rec. Soc.), i, 38.
fc 35 EHz. cap. 6. »» Leonard, Early Hist, of Poor Relief.
" S.P. Dom. Eliz. vol. 86, Nos. 21, 28. '" Jeaffreson, Midd. Sess. Roils, i, 81, 94, 101, 103.
92
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
branded for that offence.128 Four years later the Privy Council ordered
the City authorities to confer with the Middlesex justices as to the adop-
tion of joint action for the repression of vagrancy,127 and about 1600 the
Lord Chief Justice at the queen's request called a meeting of the justices
of Middlesex and Surrey and of representatives of the City Wa to consider
what joint measures should be adopted. The best method of dealing
with the vagrants was considered to be the institution of a house of
correction in each of the two counties at a capital expenditure of £4,000
and a yearly allowance of £i 50 each, and as it was 'very apparent ' that
London really was the main source of this concourse of beggars, the
representatives of the City consented that they ought to make some
contribution to charges which exceeded the county resources. Con-
fiding in this agreement the counties leased suitable premises and
entered into agreements with ' undertakers ' to take charge of and
employ at suitable trades the vagrants committed to them. Amongst
the Caesar papers in the British Museum128 there is a scheme submitted
to the justices of Middlesex in 1602 by the undertakers of the poor for
employing pauper children from the age of seven at pin-making. The
undertakers ask for a ' convenient stock of money ' to take and
furnish a house and clothe and provide for the children, who at first,
of course, will be able to earn nothing, and they suggest a quarterly
levy for this purpose at the rate of 4^. for every one rated at £10,
and id. weekly contribution to the poor's rate. Apparently adult
vagrants were to be taken in as well and employed as servants to the
children, and in spinning and weaving linen and wool, making clothes,
and knitting stockings for the house. The house is to be ' ordered like
a college or hospital, whereby the whole nomber may learne exsample
of religion and civilitie.' The children were to wear ' a clean shirt or
smock fyttinge their age,' they are to rise at 5 a.m. and work till 9 p.m.,
and if they misdemean themselves to have 'reasonable correction according
to discretion.' When they have served their time each is to receive
1 double apparrell, and each man a new broad cloth cloke and each
mayde a new gown,' and, it was hoped, be sent out into the world with
the excellent prospect of soon being ' liable themselves to three or four
servants.'
Meanwhile the promised contributions from the City were con-
spicuous by their absence, the undertakers were unpaid and petitioned
the king for the reimbursement of money expended by them, and in
1603 James I appointed a commission of four — the earl of Shrewsbury,
Sir John Fortescue, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Sir John
Popham, the chief justice, and Sir John Stanhope, the vice-chamberlain,
to inquire into the matter. Their report emphasized the greatness of
the evil and the necessity for the co-operation of the City, which the
latter obstinately continued to refuse. The king himself addressed a letter
to the City urging on them their obligations, and in June, 1605, the
m Jeaffreson, Sets. R. i, 190. '" Leonard, op. cit. 93 ; Everall, Analytical Index to Remembranda, 358.
1171 B.M. MS. 12503, fol. 278-84 (Caesar papers). "8 B.M. MS. 12497, fol. 187.
93
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
City sent a petition to the king, in reply, in which many protestations
of their humble duty barely veiled a sufficiently round refusal. No
grant, they submit, can be made without the consent of the commons,
and this is not an opportune moment to make such an application when
they have just been put to great expense in fitting out galleys and
soldiers for the Irish wars, towards which the two counties had persist-
ently refused the contribution to which they were bound.129
In 1614 the justices levied by a 'rate and taxation' £200 for the
building and furnishing of a house of correction,130 and at the same time
appointed a commission of five gentlemen: Sir George Coppyn, Sir
William Smythe, Sir Baptist Hickes, Mr. Edmond Dobbleday and
Mr. Francis Mitchell, to collect voluntary contributions from ' well-
affected persons ' with what — if any — success is not on record. The rate
was less popular in the county than with the justices, but they made
short and exemplary work with grumblers, and in 1615 the house was
finished. The justices appointed as governor, at a salary of 40 marks,
one John (or Jacob) Stoyte, whose petition for the post is preserved
amongst the Caesar papers in the British Museum,131 in which he asserts
that he ' has been trained up most part of his life in the said service.'
That sanguine ideal of self-supporting pauperism, which Tudor and
Stuart Poor Law administration strove vainly to realize, dictated the
order that the inmates must earn their food by their labour, and that,
except in case of sickness, they were to have no more than they earned.
Stoyte undertook to ' keepe and maintain the exercise of trades of weaving
and spinning of cotton, wooles for drapery, and all other manufactures fit
for their employment and labour,' and some attempt was evidently made
to put them to work, for there are orders for the repair of spinning
wheels and hemp mills, and a new mill was to be provided so that more
might be employed. The inmates were to have fresh straw every month,
and warm pottage thrice a week, and their ' lynnen (if any they have) '
was to be washed. But the house seems to have been little more than
a prison, and not well managed in spite of reiterated orders for its better
government issued by the justices, and an attempt at some sort of classi-
fication of the inmates does not seem to have been realized in practice.
At Clerkenwell in 1666 a 'workhouse' was built at an expenditure
of £2,002 levied on the parishes within the Bills of Mortality by the
'Governors of the Corporation of the Poor,' to accommodate 600 blind,
impotent, and aged poor as well as able-bodied paupers,132 in which
some advance seems to have been made towards differentiating paupers
and criminals at any rate. It proved, however, so very expensive to
maintain that it was closed and the county exempted for the future
from any workhouse rate by Act of Parliament in 1675. The work-
house itself was let for £30 a year to one Sir Thomas Rowe, who
turned it into a charity school.
1M B.M.MS. I2503,fol. 278-84. "° Jeaffreson, Midd. Sess. R.'ii, 102, 103, 105, 120, 1 30; Hi, 7.
131 B.M. MS. 12496, No. 256 (it is here dated 1626).
** Hardy, Sess. R. 296 ; Jeaffreson, Sets. R. iii, 337.
94
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
A certain number of aged and impotent poor were relieved by
pensions of 2s. 6d. a month or is. or is. 6d. a week. In 1690 the
parish of St. Andrew Holborn complained that owing to the great
increase of the pensioned poor the available money is insufficient to
maintain them. In 1701 Baling attempted to replace these pensions
by indoor-relief, and obtained leave to accommodate eight of their
pensioned poor in a house, and to levy for this purpose a rate of
3*/. in the pound, hoping to effect a saving of £12 a year.132" Invalided
soldiers also were provided for under an Act of Queen Elizabeth's
reign by pensions of about 40^. a year, raised by a special county
rate managed by two county treasurers. As these pensions were given
without any inquiry there was a great deal of abuse and fraud, and
in 1623 the treasurers were ordered to give no pensions without strict
investigation.138
To meet the expense of the poor, besides the special rates levied for
the purpose, certain fines were apportioned to the justices, such as the fines
for not taking the oath and the fines levied on alehouse-keepers for using
false measures.133* In 1631 m the justices sent into the Council the accounts
of the expenditure of £92 received from such fines in the parishes of
St. Sepulchre, Clerkenwell, St. Giles Cripplegate, Islington, Hornsey,
Finchley, and Friern Barnet, reporting that they have apprenticed
twenty children of poor men, that they are ' maintaining a manufacture '
in the house of correction, founded by a 'stock' of £100 given by
Sir John Fenner, by which an artisan is to instruct in the said manu-
facture twenty poor orphans, ' such as before wandered in the streets,'
and that they have dispatched many idle and loose persons to serve with
His Majesty of Sweden, besides distributions of money to the poor ' at
their discretion.'
In consequence of many complaints of the inequality and uncertainty
of the rates and charges for the poor and the highways, an assessment
was ordered to be made according to an equal pound rate on the yearly
value of the houses.1341 The increase of the poor, ' owing to the present
war ' led the churchwardens in Ratcliff to apply for an extra assessment
in 1 694, and a similar request was made by the parish of St. Clement
Danes.
Special endowments for the benefit of the poor were often bequeathed
to their parishes by well-to-do parishioners. A list of such benefactions
belonging to the parish of Enfield in 1709 is in the British Museum,135
amounting to a capital sum of £184, besides yearly income to the amount
of £JI9 7s- 6d. Of this some is to be spent in distributions of money
or bread or clothes to the poor ; some is for the maintenance of poor
U»a
133a
Hardy, MM. Sets. R. 229. m Jeaffreson, MM. Sen. R. ii, 142, 164, 176 ; iii, 2, 25.
Elizabeth's act forbidding inclosures near London (35 Eliz. cap. 6) allotted a moiety of the fines
imposed, viz. £$ for every inclosure, and £$ for every month it was kept inclosed, to the churchwardens
of the parish in which the inclosure was made, for the benefit of the poor.
114 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, vol. 202, No. 20.
"ta Hardy, Midd. Sen. R. 33, 107, 119.
'" B.M. Egerton Library, No. 2267.
95
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
widows, impotent men and orphans, and for apprenticing and schooling
of the latter ; £i js. 6d. is left in consideration of an inclosure made by
the testator, and £22 is to keep a competent master for the new free
school just built by the parish, to teach the children ' The Cross Row
and the arts of writing, grammar and arithmetic.'
The plague epidemics were another frequent charge on the poor's
rates. Sporadic cases of plague were of constant occurrence, and the
authorities seem always to have had the fear of an epidemic before their
eyes. In 1607—9 the Sessions Acts contain orders against the plague,
enforcing the strict seclusion of infected persons in their houses, and
forbidding the importation of rags from London for paper-making ; and
on one occasion eleven persons were actually committed to Newgate
for attending the funeral of a victim of the plague.135" In 1625 tne
Cockpit Theatre in Whitehall was closed for fear of infection.136 In the
same year there was an outbreak at Enfield, and in 1630 at Edgeware.137
In 1636—7 there was a serious outbreak in and round London. Except
for an isolated parish here and there the plague at this time and in the
great outbreak of 1665 was chiefly severe in London and its immediate
suburbs, the only rural parish for which the weekly assessment was
made in 1637 being Isleworth.138 This assessment was levied on the
county for the relief of the affected parishes in sums varying from i os.
to £3. The plague was worst in Stepney, and the ' Green goose fair '
held there in Whit week was prohibited for fear of spreading the
infection.139
After the Great Plague in 1665 the overseers of the poor in
St. Katharine's, Ratcliff, Whitechapel, and Limehouse were called upon
to answer for refusing to make an assessment in their districts.1*0
During the latter half of the sixteenth century the persecutions
of Protestants in France and the Netherlands led to a considerable immi-
gration of refugees from both countries into the suburbs of London,1*1
where a small alien population was already settled, protected by Tudor
governments both as Protestants and as the importers of new and
improved methods in the various trades they plied. The new comers
settled chiefly in the parish of St. Katharine by the Tower, where in
1583, 285 foreigners were living; in East Smithfield, where there were
445; in Whitechapel 146, in Halliwell Street 152, in Blackfriars
275, and in the adjoining parishes,148 making altogether a population of
1,604 foreigners. A small number were more or less substantial mer-
chants, but the great majority were wage-earning servants and artisans
of a great variety of trades.
The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 caused a fresh
immigration, this time from France, the great majority of the immi-
grants belonging to the silk-weaving industry and trades connected
"ia Jeaffreson, Midd. Sest. R. ii, 3 1, 41, 50 ; iii, 167. IM MM. Seu. R. iii, 3, 4, 6.
137 Ibid, iii, 33. 1M Ibid, iii, 62, 63.
» Ibid, iii, 62. '« Ibid, iii, 387.
" Burn, Hiit. of Foreign Protestant Refugees in Engl. ; Returns of Aliens in Lend. (Huguenot Soc.).
)4> Returns of ARens in Land. (Huguenot Soc.), x (2), Cecil MSS. 208-14.
96
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
therewith. They settled chiefly in Spitalfields and its neighbourhood.1*3
Strype writes :
The north-west parts of this parish became a great harbour for poor protestant
strangers, who have been forced to become exiles from their own country for the
avoiding of cruel persecution. Here they found Quiet and Security and settled them-
selves in their several trades and occupations, weavers especially. Whereby God's
Blessing surely is not only upon the Parish, but also a great advantage hath accrued to
the whole Nation by the rich Manufactures of weaving silks and stuffs and camlets :
which art they brought along with them. And this benefit to the neighbourhood, that
these strangers may serve for patterns of Thrift, Honesty, Industry, and Sobriety as well.
And indeed it is a fact that foreign names are of the rarest occurrence in
the indictments of the county sessions. But the introduction of the silk-
weaving industry cannot have been so entirely their work as Strype
states. Even camlets were introduced by earlier immigrants, if we may
trust an entry in Evelyn's Diary on 30 May, 1652 : ' Inspected the man-
ner of chambletting silks and grograms at one Mr. La Doree's in Moore-
fields.' And a decade before the Revocation, in 1675, the Shoreditch
and Spitalfields silk weavers indulged in an anticipation on a small scale
of the future frame-breaking riots.1*4 For three days, the 9, 10, and 1 1
August, bands of from 30 to 200 persons went about Stepney, Shoreditch,
Whitechapel, Hoxton, and Clerkenwell breaking into houses, carrying
out the obnoxious ' wooden machines called engine weaving looms,'
which they smashed and burnt in the streets. Now it is curious to note
that none of the indicted rioters, and none of the owners whose
machines they destroyed, bear foreign names. The riots were easily
suppressed, and the ringleaders sentenced to heavy fines and stations in
the pillories in different parts of London.
Middlesex, as described in the reports on the county drawn up for
the Board of Agriculture at the end of the eighteenth century, differs a
good deal from the corn-producing county described by Norden two
centuries before. The subordination of the whole county to the rapidly
expanding capital has increased. That city which already in Norden's
day ' draweth unto it as an adamant all other partes of the land,' still
' attracts people so strongly from every part of the kingdom that no large
towns can exist in its neighbourhood.' U5 ' The whole county may be
very properly considered as a sort of demesne to the metropolis, being
covered with its villas, intersected with innumerable roads leading to it,
and laid out in gardens, pastures and inclosures of all sorts for its con-
venience and support.'
These reports commend the fertility of the soil as emphatically,
though not so picturesquely, as Norden. The best wheat was still grown
at Heston and towards the western boundaries of the shire, but most of
the highly cultivated ground beyond Hounslow was given up to growing
hay for the London market, and between this and London, from Kensington
to Hounslow, ' is one great garden for the supply of London.' On the
north-eastern side, about Islington and Hackney, a great deal of ground
'" Huguenot Soc. Publ. vol. xi. "* Jeaffreson, MM. Sest. R. iv, 60-65.
'** Rep. lo the Bd. of Agric. 1793-5 ; also Middleton, Agric. in Midd. published by the Bd. of Agric.
2 97 13
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
was occupied by cow-keepers, and to the east, by Bethnal Green and
Stepney, there was nursery ground again, chiefly devoted to the raising
of trees and plants. To the west, ' about a mile along the Kingsland
Road there are some 1,000 acres of valuable brick fields.' The reports
compute the number of acres in the county at 250,000, and of these
130,000 were meadow or pasture and 50,000 nursery gardens and
pleasure grounds. The land had greatly increased in value, and ' as is
natural in the neighbourhood of a large city ' was held in small portions
by a number of proprietors. Rents varied a good deal — near London
under leases the land stood at about 50*. an acre, and inclosed garden
ground was worth from £5 to £8 an acre, and near Chelsea and Ken-
sington even to £10, and in the common fields near Fulham £3.
The woods and copses of the county were nearly annihilated ; there
were still a few acres left on the northern slopes of Hampstead and
Highgate, and about 100 acres on the east side of Finchley Common,
1,000 in Enfield Chase, and 2,000 on the west side of Ruislip. The hills
about Copt Hall and Hornsey which were wood a few years before were
then meadow.
Inclosure being, to the reporters of the Board of Agriculture, the
one saving grace of rural economy, the uninclosed condition of much of
the Middlesex arable appeared very unsatisfactory. ' It is hardly to be
credited 146 so near the metropolis, yet certain it is that there are still
many common fields in the county.' Middleton w? calculated that out of a
total arable acreage of 23,ooo,148 20,000 acres were still in common fields,
and not producing sufficient wheat to supply one-fiftieth of the inhabi-
tants with bread. At Enfield, Edmonton, Tottenham, and Chiswick,
there were still meadows held by the old Lammas tenure.149 In 1789
Stanwell inclosed 200 acres of its common fields, thereby increasing their
value almost immediately from 14.;. to 2OJ. the acre.160
Thirty acres were set apart and let at a rent of 2os. an acre and the
rent divided among those cottagers of the parish who did not pay above
£5 a year rent and were not in receipt of public alms.
The condition of the waste lands and commons was as unsatisfactory
to the reporters as that of the cultivated land.
To the reproach of the inhabitants and to the utter astonishment of every
foreigner who visits us, the county contains many thousand acres, still in a state of
nature, though within a few miles of the capital, as little improved by the labour of
man, as if they belonged to the Cherolcees.161
By which neglect a yearly income of some thirty to fifty thousand
pounds is thrown away. Middleton 1M estimates the uncultivated soil at
1 7,000 acres, something like a tenth part of the entire acreage of the
county distributed among the following commons :
Hounslow, Finchley (1,240 acres), the remains of Enfield Chase,
Harrow Weald and part of Bushey Heath (1,500 acres), besides eight
smaller commons in the parish of Harrow. Uxbridge Moor and
l* Baird, Rep. m Midd. (1793). "r Agric. in Midd. (1798), 138.
"* In 1827 Porter estimates the cultivated land of the county at 155,00030.; Progress of the 'Nation,
(1850,158. M Rep. to Ed. ofAgric. (1794). Iio Ibid. (1793). '" Ibid. (1795). '"Ibid.
98
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
Common (350 acres), Hillingdon Heath (160 acres), Ruislip Common
(1,500 acres), Sunbury (1,400 acres), Memsey Moor, Goulds Green, Peil
Heath, Hanwell Common, Wormwood Shrubs in the parish of Fulham,
and between 400 and 500 acres of waste in Hendon.
The good intentions of Henry VIII evidently bore but little fruit, for
Hounslow Heath was far the largest waste, still containing in 1754 over
6,000 acres. According to the reports the common rights were profit-
able only to a few wealthy farmers, borderers on the heath, who over-
charged the pasture with immense numbers of ' grey-hound-like sheep ' ;
and to a few cottagers who cut turf and fuel for sale. In 1789 Stan well
inclosed its share of the heath, and 300 acres of practically valueless land
was by 1793 worth from I5J. to 2$s. the acre.
There still remained of Enfield Chase some 3,000 to 4,000 acres
uninclosed of ' good soil and improvable,' thanks mainly to the tenacity
with which the Enfield tenants, like their Elizabethan predecessors, clung
to their common rights, which their unstinted exploitation had reduced
to little more than scanty and very unhealthy pasture for a few half-starved
cattle. They badly needed small inclosed fields, but the Enfield commoners
may, not unwisely, have reflected that inclosure was by no means certain
to bring the desired inclosed fields into their hands. A considerable
portion of the chase was inclosed by Act of Parliament in 1777, as
the reporter allows, not profitably ; a failure which he attributes to bad
management. Better success attended an inclosure made by the parish of
South Mimms (nearly 1,000 acres) which raised the annual yield of the
land from 2s. to 15^. the acre.153 Practically the whole chase, 3,540
acres, was inclosed in 1801 (see table).
Finchley Common, which in 1754 contained 1,243 uninclosed acres,
was reported to be good soil for cultivation, though part of it was excellent
road gravel. 900 acres were inclosed here in 1811 (see table). The
annexed table of inclosures in Middlesex164 has been put together from a
list of Inclosure Acts 1702-1876 in Clifford's Private Bill Legislation™
and a list of Middlesex inclosures in the Middlesex and Hertford Notes
and Queries, supplemented from the tables in Dr. Slater's The English
Peasantry and the Inclosure of Common Fields.1™ The table shows that a
great deal of land was inclosed in Middlesex during the latter years of
George Ill's reign. As the increased inclosures so near London began
to assume a less admirable complexion, the necessity of maintaining open
spaces round the City — which had been so clear to Elizabeth's ministers
— once more impressed a less far-seeing public opinion, and an Inclosure
Act of 1854 prohibited the inclosure of common fields within ten miles
of London. The general Inclosure Act of 1845 required the special
consent of Parliament for inclosures of wastes within fifteen miles of
the capital. And the later history of Middlesex inclosures is that of
the struggle for open spaces led by the Commons Preservation Society.
Iu Rep. to Bd. of Agrtc. (1794). ** APP- IIJ- "* °P- cit- '» APP- B- »» 495 seq-
"* Op. cit. i, 55. Between 170* and 1796 five private inclosure Acts were passed for Middlesex,
inclosing among them 7,875 acres. Dr. Slater states the area inclosed by these five Acts at 1 1,854 seres.
99
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Middlesex was not
exempt from the enormous increase of pauperism due to the demoralizing
effects of the unreformed poor law.
In 1798, in his report on the county,187 Middleton draws attention
to the
numerous efficient and comfortable funds raised for the support of the idle poor in
this county, which operate against the general industry of the labouring poor. The
thriftless pauper in the workhouse was better housed and fed than the industrious
labourer and his family. In some parishes the paupers cost 15*15 guineas a head,
while their earnings did not reach 8*., at a time when the ordinary labourer's family
of five or more persons had to subsist on thirty. Charity added to the evil by raising
voluntary contributions during every temporary inconvenience, and by the constant
clothing of upwards of ten thousand of the children of the labouring poor in this
county
158
The report on the Poor Laws of 1834"' states the cost of the
workhouse poor in the rural districts of the county at from 4*. to $s. a head,
whether farmed or not. Not very much seems to have been done towards
the sixteenth-century ideal of ' setting the poor on work.' At some
workhouses the inmates cultivated a garden ; at Harrow the paupers
were employed in picking oakum and at a corn-mill ; at Isleworth any
parishioner could have a pauper out of the house to work at is. a day:
but in general the report states that no parish was in a situation to put
able-bodied paupers to profitable work.
The standard of comfort in the workhouses was high. At Sunbury
the paupers had beer every day, and at Isleworth the victuals and com-
fort were so excellent that people went in, especially for the winter, and
it was very difficult to get them out again. Here in 1821, 28 out of the
130 persons in the house were children. At Staines the children went
out to school, and here also a successful trial of allotments had been
made to stop the increase of out-door pauperism.160 The apprenticing of
children to trades was hardly practised at all. The annexed table gives
the poor law expenditure of the hundreds and of the county from
1776-1841.
POOR LAW EXPENDITURE, 1776-1803 161
Hundred
Total, 1803
Total, 1776
Number
relieved, 1803
Children
in School of
Industry
£
£
Edmonton
10,700
3,200
J»375
85
Elthorne
9,200
3,500
855
'5
Gore .
3,9°°
2,000
275
128
Isleworth
6,600
2,500
548
54
Spelthorne
7,4.00
2,400
721
49
Ossulstone (Finsbury Division)
41,900
1 1, 800
14,692
330
„ (Holborn „ )
84,200
22,500
8,069
629
„ (Kensington „ )
24,100
7,264
6,879
214
„ (Tower „ )
59,800
35,4°°
6,773
305
"' Rep. to the Bit. of Agric. (1798).
Poor Law Rep. 1834, App. to 1st Rep. pp. 530, 531.
61 From State of Population and Poor and Poor Rates in Middlesex, 1805.
158 Agric. in Midd. 63.
Rep. p. 576.
100
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
MIDDLESEX EXPENDITURE ON POORIM
Arerige per Head
Expended on Poor of Population
£ '• d.
1 80 1 . 349,200 8 6
502,900 10 6
582,000 IO 2
681,500 10 o
. . 476,200 6 o
1811 .
1821 .
1831 .
1841 .
The general history of the county during the latter half of the nine-
teenth century is simply the record of the suburban expansion of London,
effacing all local distinctions and characteristics under an undistinguished
chaos of villas and streets. The ' huge and growing wen,' which so
powerfully impressed the imagination of Cobbett, has almost absorbed
the entire county, so that it appears at the present day, not as it did to
Middleton, as ' the demesne of the Metropolis,' but almost as a part of
that Metropolis itself.
161 From Porter's Progress of the Nation, 1851, p. 96.
tOI
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
APPENDIX I
MATERIALS FOR THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The materials available for the economic history of Middlesex are neither copious nor
consecutive. Of the Hundred Rolls — usually such a valuable source of information — only
two fragments are extant,168" and yield little or nothing to the purpose. The first membrane
contains a list of persons holding land to the value of £20 who are not knights ; and
on the second, Kensington is the only manor described with any particularity. The majority
of the Court Rolls at the Record Office are too late to be interesting, and it is only for the
one manor of Harmondsworth that there is a consecutive series long enough and early
enough to be valuable.
While the earliest roll of this manor belongs to the reign of Edward I and contains
nothing of interest, there is a complete series of eighteen rolls, extending from I Richard II
to 21 Henry VIII,183 which, with a couple of custumals and some rentals and ministers'
accounts, give with some detail an interesting history of an interesting manor. There is a
very complete custumal of the time of Henry I, and rentals of the reign of Edward III,
Richard II, Henry VI, and Henry VIII ; and although the two earlier compotus rolls, of
dates in the reigns of Edward II and Richard II respectively, yield little beyond prices and
wages, a third, dating from the time of Henry VII, contains a full account of the tenants'
services.164
Seeing the paucity of the available material, it is particularly regrettable that the fine
custumal and almost complete series of Court Rolls of the manor of Isleworth, belonging to
the duke of Northumberland at Syon House, are not accessible for research. Only a rather
disjointed account of the manor can be derived from the brief summary of the Syon Manu-
scripts published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission,166 and the materials at the Record
Office, where there are Court Rolls for periods in the reigns of Edward III, Henry VI,
Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VIII, besides some useful ministers' accounts for the
reigns of Edward III and Richard II. An inquisition of 28 Edward I would afford much
valuable information as to the tenures, were it not unfortunately so badly torn and dis-
coloured as to be practically useless. Another Isleworth inquisition throws light incidentally
on one of the indictments of the Peasants' Revolt.166
Teddington is the only other manor of which we have any consecutive account ; and
that only for the reigns of the three Edwards, in a series of compotus rolls extending — with
a good many breaks — from 3 Edward I to 50 Edward III.167 These are usefully supplemented
by a rental of 3 Richard II, and a custumal of the manor in a Westminster Abbey custumal
of the time of Henry III, in the British Museum,168 which also contains accounts of the
tenants and services on the manors of Paddington and Knightsbridge, Greenford and Hayes.
For no other manors are there more than isolated documents, and for many only rolls too
late to be of any use. The Domesday of St. Paul's, published by Archdeacon Hales for the
Camden Society, includes two Middlesex manors — Sutton and Drayton — and for both there
are later Court Rolls, and for Sutton a minister's account, in the library at St. Paul's
Cathedral, which by the kindness of the librarian I was permitted to examine. The numerous
prebendal manors, held in Middlesex by canons of the cathedral, are not included in the
Domesday.
For the period of the Black Death we are practically reduced to such information as
may be derived from one Court Roll of the manor of Stepney, and from some compotus rolls of
"*" In the Public Record Office. They have not been printed.
10 P.R.O. Ct. R. bdle. 191, Nos. 13-31.
164 P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. ptfo. 11, No. 20 ; rot. 443, 444, 446, 449 ; Mins. Accts. bdle.
1 1 26, No'.. 5, 6, 7.
164 Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, Appendix 232 (Syon House MSS.).
'** P.R.O. Ct. R. bdle. 191, Nos. 33-40; Inquisitions, 41 Edw. Ill, No. 49 and I Ric. II, \\6a ;
Mins. Accts. bdle. 916, Nos. 17-20.
167 P.R.O. Mins. Accts. bdle. 918, Nos. 1-25 ; bdle. 919, Nos. i-n : Rental No. 456.
'•B.M. Add. Chart. 8139.
102
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
Teddington for the years immediately following the plague year. The post mortem inqui-
sitions do not help us at all ; there are no more of them for 1348 and 1349 than for other
years, and the owners of estates who died held lands in other counties as well, and it is not
certain, and in some cases not even probable, that they died in Middlesex at all. Then the
registers of institutions to benefices, which are generally so useful in estimating the plague
mortality (Seebohm and Rogers, Fortnightly Rev. ii, iii, iv), are missing for the diocese of
London for the years 1337-61. Materials for the history of the Peasants' Revolt, so far as
it concerns Middlesex and Middlesex men, are found in Walsingham's Historia Anglicana
and the Gesta Abbatum, in John of Malvern, in Froissart, and in the Anominalle Cronicle, first
printed in the original French by Trevelyan (Engl. Hist. Rev. 1898), and in a translation
by Professor Oman in his Peasants' Revolt. There is also an account of the burning of
the houses at Highbury and Knightsbridge in Stow's Annals. The two latest modern authori-
ties on the rebellion are, of course, the late Andre Reville and Professor Oman. The
former writer (R6ville, Le Soulevement des Travailleurs d'Angleterre en 1381, App. ii, 199-215,
225, &c.) has collected and printed all the unpublished records concerning the revolt in the
several districts. These consist chiefly in the indictments in the king's courts of the rebels,
in escheators* accounts of their confiscated effects, and in Patent and Close Rolls containing
orders for inquiries, appointments of commissions to try the rebels and of keepers of the peace.
A list of the rebels excluded from the general pardon is printed in the Rolls of Parliament.
The poll tax returns for the county are not extant. (Oman, Peasants'1 Revolt, 158.)
For the Markets and Fairs Palmer's Index (and the Report of the Commission on Market
Rights and Tot/s, vol. liii, 1 88) gives a list of all grants and references to the originals in
Charter and Close Rolls, &c., and Middleton's Agriculture in Middlesex and Owen's New Book
of Fairs record the later survivals of these early markets.
Norden in his Speculum Britanniae gives a good general description of the county, but no
details as to inclosures. For these there are only two mutilated membranes, in the Record
Office, of the depopulation returns made by Henry VIII's commission in 1517, as well as a
list, also fragmentary, of suburban inclosures in a Lansdowne manuscript in the British
Museum. Another Lansdowne paper contains some information about inclosure disputes and
regulations for the preservation of the chase at Enfield. Middlesex owes to the Middlesex
Record Society the publication of an abstract of the County Sessions Rolls, from the reign of
Edward VI to 1709, made by Messrs. Jeaffreson (4 volumes) and Hardy (i volume). These
rolls are a mine of valuable information as to vagrant and poor laws, plague measures, the
dangers of the neighbourhood of London owing to highway robbery, &c. Some Caesar papers
in the British Museum contain valuable information about the poor law and so do the Domestic
State Papers.
A good deal of information about the alien immigrations into the suburbs of London has
been brought together by the Huguenot Society, in their Publications, chiefly derived from
returns of Aliens and Lay Subsidy Rolls.
Finally, the reports on the county made to the Board of Agriculture in the later years of
the eighteenth, and early years of the succeeding century are our chief sources of infor-
mation for the agricultural conditions in the county, inclosures and wages at that period.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
APPENDIX II
WAGES
YlA»
CAMINTIU
TYLIM
THATCHIRS
Rogers'"'
Average
Rogers'
Highest
Price
Middlesex
Wage
Rogers'
Highest Price
Middlesex
Wage
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex
Wage
1273-4 •
—
—
—
—
—
^d.-^V.
Edgeware,2</.
1278-9 .
—
___
^^~
1— ™
^^~
^\d.-^\d.
man)
Edgeware,
4^. (with
man)
1300-1 .
—
~~
^^
^^
^^
3j</. (with
man)
Teddington,
3j</. (with
man)
131 I-I2 .
—
—
—
—
—
.»'.-*.
Teddington,
>3'4->5-
3'"3K
4,-s,
Isleworth,
4<^. & t,d.
(with help)
Isleworth,
,i^.
Isleworth,
1320-1 .
3K
S*
Isleworth, \d.
—
—
ifi-jt^
Isleworth, \d.
*
*
i o^</. a week
5</. (with
help)
ifd. (with
man)
IK
^d.
'335-6 •
H*
**
Teddington,
(with help)
Teddington,
—
' 349-5° •
^.^J.— 4-J^-
C <?•— 7«*
Teddington,
^•*
^~
5</.-6</.(with
man)
Paddington,
<)d. (with
man)
1350-1 .
44^*~3§^'
7w«***4-wt
Teddington,
6d.
—
—
—
—
'35'-2 •
4*
9</. (with
man)
Isleworth, 6d.
Teddington,
(>d. & 4</.
4^
Isleworth, jd.
(with boy)
6f</. (with
man)
Isleworth,
id. (with boy)
Teddington,
'384-5 •
5,-t,,.
*«
Isleworth,
—
—
4*
Isleworth,
1407-8 .
*-*
s»,-6,
Sutton, 5</.
(without food)
—
— •
*HK
Sutton, 5</.
[without food)
'433-4 •
*-"
6..-8J,.
Harmonds-
worth, 6J.
—
—
—
H34-5 •
IK
8J,
Sawyer, 6d.
Carpenter,5<^.
—
—
—
1439-40 .
6</.— c4(/.
*-X
6d.
W-84
6d.
*
—
'* Hist, tfjlgric. and Prices, i and iv.
104
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
WAGES (continued)
Y«A»
HELPS AND WOMIN
CARTERS AND PLOUGHMIN
THRASHING
1
R°S"8' Middlesex Wage
Average
Roger*'
Highest
Price
Middlesex Wage
Rogers'
Highest
Price
Middlesex Wage
1273-4 •
¥•
Edgeware, \\d.
—
—
—
Edgeware,
Messor, \s.6^J.
1274-5 •
if/.
Teddington,
Daye, 3*. 6</.
Teddington,
Ploughman, 6s.
and 5;.
iy.
2^.
Teddington,
Barley, if/.
Wheat, r\d.
Teddington,
Herdsman,
\s. 6J.
1278-9 .
—^
Edgeware, 3</.
^"^
"~
3^-
!*</.
Edge ware,
Wheat, 3^.
Barley, \d.
—
1300-1 .
\d. to
\d.
Teddington,
Daye, 3/. 6</.
__
Teddington,
Ploughman, 6s.
Fugator, e,s.
l&.
tf-
Teddington,
Barley, \\d.
Wheat, i\d.
Teddington,
Herdsman,
4/. 6</.
1311-12 .
i \d. to
If/.
Teddington,
Daye, 3*. 6^.
Teddington,
Ploughman, 6s.
Fugator, 5/.
—~
~~
Teddington,
Herdsman,
4/. 6</.
«3'4~i5 •
if.
Isleworth,
Help^^.&ija'.
Women, i\d.
__
-—
Isleworth,
Wheat, id.
Oats, id.
—
1320-1 .
I^.tO
If/.
Isleworth,
Help, \\d.
Labourer, zd.
— ™-
^~~
4*
i\J.
Isleworth,
Wheat, 3^.
Oats, id.
—
I3H-5 •
!</.
Woman help, id.
—
•—
id-
id.
Wheat, 3</.
Oats, i^.
—
> 335-<> .
1 1/. tO
iK
Teddington,
Daye, 2s.
Teddington,
Tentor, 6s.
Fugator, 5/.
Carter, 4^. dd.
After Black Death
1349-50.
if/.
Teddington,
Daye, 4/.
Paddington,
Poultry-maid,
5'-
Teddington,
Ploughm'n, i is.
Carter, I is.
Herdsman, I is.
Paddington,
Ploughm'n,! is.
sy-
^\d.
TeJdington,
Wheat, 4</.
Paddington,
Wheat, 6d.
Oats, 2^.
Serjeant, 1 3;. ^d.
per ann.
1350-1 .
»f*
Teddington,
Daye, 4/.
Labourer, $d.
Teddington,
Tentor, us.
Fugator, los.
Carter, los.
i&l.
&
Teddington,
Wheat, 4«/.
Barley, 3</.
Teddington,
Herdsman, io/.
After Statute of
Labourers
1351-2 .
ija'.to
If*
Isleworth,
Woman, zd.
Teddington,
Daye, 4/
Woman, ^d.
Labourer, 3</.
Teddington,
Tentor, Js.
Fugator, js.
Carter, -js.
zd.
*K
J*.
Isleworth,
Oats, 2</
Teddington,
Wheat, 4</.
Barley, 3</.
Swineherd, 61. SJ.
105
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
WAGES (continued)
YEAR
HILTS AND WOMEN
CARTERS AND PLOUGHMEN
THRASHING
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Wage
Rogers'
Highest
Price
Middlesex Wage
Rogers'
Highest
Price
Middlesex Wage
1376-7 .
—
—
Totenhale,
Wheat, 4V.
Oats, zd.
—
1384-5 .
zd.
Isleworth,
Labourer, 3^.
and 4<y.
—
~~~
^~~
Isleworth,
Barley, 3</.
Bailiff, zo/.
1385-6 .
zd. to
Workman, 4V.
—
4'.
Wheat, 3V.
—
1388-9 .
zd. to
3</.(without food)
—
Ploughman, %s.,
—
Wheat, 4^.
Swineherd, 6/.
Carter, I 3/. \d.
1407-8 .
3*
Haymakers, men
and women, 3^.
Ploughman, l6/.
Carter, i6/.
Second plough-
man, 1 3*. 4^.
Third plough-
Bailiff, 40/.
man, g/.
'433-4 •
n
Harmondsworth,
Daye, 5*.
Harmondsworth,
Ploughm'n, i6/.
i 3/. 4</.
Carter, 1 6s.
2 J</. tO
Wheat, 41^.
Barley, -i,\d.
Reaper, i6/.
Swineherd, lot.
Bailiff, \os.
'434-5 • 3<*-
Help, 4V.
—
—
—
—
1439-40 . i,d. to
4V.
Help, 4^ and 5i/.
—
—
- —
—
Bailiff, 53/. \a
Foresters, 50^.
Carpenter!
Tylers
Winter
Summer
Winter
Summer
f Winter
ASSESSMENT OF WAGES FOR THE COUNTY OF MIDDLESEX, CHARLES II
Artificers by the year, ^10 iz/. ; second sort, £6 8/. Husbandmen, carters, and drivers : First
sort, £8 ; second sort, £6 ; third sort, £4. Women servants, £4, £3, and £2.
DAY WAGES
With food, izd. and \od.
Without food, z/. and zo^.
With food, is. 6d. and I/.
Without food, 2s. 6d. and zs.
< With food, is. and lod.
' j Without food, z/. and is. %d.
With food, is 6d. and is.
Without food, zs. 6d. and zs.
With food, %J. and 6d.
Without food, is. 6d. and is. ±d.
Thatchers
I Summer
( Wit
' t Wit
j With food, izd. and yd.
( Without food, zs. and is. 6d.
REPORTS TO BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 1794
Labourers, it. 6J. to it. SJ. a day ; handy workmen near London, z/. winter and summer.
Thrashing barley and oats, z/. 6d. a quarter ; wheat, 4/.
Common labourers by the week, izi. to 8/. ; i 5*. at harvest time. Women, 5/. and 6/.
106
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
PRICES
OlIN
Cows
SHUT
YlAR
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Price
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Price
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Price
1268 . .
_
6s. %d.
With calf, 8/. i id.
_
1269 . .
I OS. Q\d.
I OS.
6s.
•js. <)d.-\os.
—
1275 . .
—
—
—
—
—
is. lod.; ewe,
21. 6J.
I 3OO . .
—
—
s/. oy.
With calf, 8/.
—
I3II . .
l\s. t,\d.
QS. Qd.— l^s. 4</.
—
—
—
—
1314 . .
—
—
I OS. 2\d.
With calf, 1 3/.
—
—
1321 . .
—
—
—
—
I2d.
I32S . .
IS/, if/.
8j.— 5/. v^d.
IOS. lO^d.
6s. %d. & 5/. 8f^.
—
lod.
1344 • •
I2/. %\d.
1 6s. 6^3.
9s- 3$^-
I OS.
—
23.
I3SO . .
<)S. %d.
8/.-i8/. 6d.
gs. %%d.
JS.-IOS. id.
—
—
1353 • •
i^s. 3</.
1 3/. \d.
—
—
—
—
1364 . .
1 6s. %d.
101. 6d.
—
—
—
IS. 8J.-2S.
1389 . .
—
I3/. i,d.
—
9/. ; with calf,
—
—
I OS. 6d.
I4O8 .
'3>- 5i^
«3'- \\d.
—
—
—
—
H34 ' '
IS/.
121. \<1.
—
8/.; with calf, I is.
2S. 4J.
I2-J-.
PIGS
Hoisu
POUITHY
YlAK
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Price
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Price
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Price
1269 .
_
1 21. 0\d.
Affri, 6s.-i2s.
_
_
1275 .
3'- 3K
v- ; h°g> 2S- \d-
—
—
—
Goose, 3$</.
I30O .
23. 6d.
21. 3$., 2s. 6d.
—
—
—
Eg8s» 4^- Per I0° ;
goose, 3^. ; hen, 2d.
I3O2 .
—
<)S. (>\d.
Affri, l6s.
—
Goose, 3^. ; capon, ^d.
I3II .
4/. id.
3/. id.
—
—
—
Goose, 3^.
>3>4
—
• —
—
Cart. 6s.
—
—
1325 •
V- if/.
IS 6J.-2S.
161. 6d.
Cart i os.-$s.
—
Duck, zd. ; goose, 2d. ;
3'- "f£
SOW, 2I.-2S. 6d.
capon, zd. ; hen, i\d.
3'. «</
Boar, 2i.-T,s. \d.
»336 •
—
—
—
—
—
Hen, 2d. ; goose, 3^.
1344 •
—
—
i6s. 8<t.
Cart. 23*.
—
—
9>- \¥-
Affri, I3/.
135° •
Pig, 2S. -Jd.
Boar, 3;. 6d.
—
—
—
Capon, 3</. ; hen, 2d. ;
Boar, 3/.2<^.
Pig, 2s 6d. and 21.
goose, z\d.
'353
—
—
—
Affri, 12s.
—
Capon, \d.
1364 .
—
—
—
—
—
Goose, \d. ; eggs, 1 2
for id.
1389 .
—
2i. 6J.
—
—
—
—
1408 .
—
—
—
—
4</.
Capon, \d. ; pullet, l^d.
'434 •
3/. 4^.
21.
—
—
Hen, 2J.
Goose, \d. ; hen, 2d. ;
Goose,4<j'.
eggs, 5^. per 100
107
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
PRICES (cmtinutd)
YEA*
WHEAT
OATS
BARLEY
SALT
(per bushel)
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Price
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Price
Rogers'
Average
Middlesex Price
1268 .
5,. 3F.
I/. Id,/., 2;. 5</.,
—
1269 .
—
4;.
is. 7*4
2S. ^d.—2S. I 1 4
—
—
44
1275 .
$'• °£'-
8/. 8</.
2/. 2^4
6^. 84
—
—
5'-
1300 .
Aft Qff,
5,. ew.
U. I If/.
i/. 44
3'- 8J4
3'- 4'.
4'-
1302 .
A.S, I I TT tt ,
4.. 84
z/. if 4
U. \d.-2S.
3/. 4^4.
4'-
64-84
1311 .
—
—
—
—
—
—
5'-
1314 .
—
—
2/. 8J4
V~
5, 4'.
4'- '"•
4K
1321 .
—
—
4/. of4
2S.
—
—
7'-
1325 .
5/. 8 J4.
6, 84
2;. 1 4
is. io4.
3;. 8^4
4,.-6,.
7'-
1344 •
—
—
—
—
—
—
I/. 24.
>35° •
8/. 3£4
6s. and 6/. 8i/.
3'- 84
2/ -4/.
6s. 44
5'-
84
'353 •
ifS. 2\d.
IOS.
2/. 3^4.
2/. 84.
—
—
i/. 64
1364 .
7'- Si'-
los. 9>d.
2s. 8|4
2,.
4_r. 2J4.
6/. 84.
—
1389 .
5'- 5ft'-
4'-
—
3;. o|4
2/. 84.
—
1408
7* 3K
I0/. 2d., IOS.,
8s. 84
—
—
4;. 4^4.
SA
84.
'434 •
5, 4*'.
6/. 84
i/. i iJ4
2S.
2/. IO4.
5, 44
7'-
Year
1275
I 300
I3II
1321
1336
'353
Wool, 2S. <±d. per St. (92 fells = 13 st.)
Wool, 2s. i,\d. per st. (i 19 fells= 15 st.)
Wool, 21. zd. per st. (83 fells = 14^ st.)
Salmon, zs. ftd.
Keep of prior, 3/. weekly ; his attendant monk, it. 6J. ; price of donkey, Jr.
Wool fells, <i,d. each.
Wool fells, ^d. each ; \\d. represents cost of daily keep of workman.
Rents in Middlesex vary a good deal from holding to holding, but the most usual rent for
one virgate is $s. (^s.-js. 6J.) and for half a virgate 2s. 6d. (zs.) from the time of Henry III to
Henry VI.
108
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
APPENDIX III
INCLOSURE ACTS IN MIDDLESEX, 1702-1876
Ruislip, 1769.
Laleham, 1774.
Enfield Chase, 1777.
Ickenham, 1780.
Stanwell, 1789.
Hillingdon and Cowley, three fields, 1795.
Feltham, Sunbury, and Hanworth, 1798, 1799, 1800, and 1801 (39, 40 & 41 Geo. Ill,
cap. 51 & 146).
Teddington, 1799, 883 acres.
Edmonton, 1800, 1,231 acres.
Enfield Common and Common Fields, 1801, 3,540 acres (41 Geo. Ill, cap. 143).
Harrow, 1802-3 (43 Geo. Ill, cap. 43).
Ruislip Common, 1804 (44 Geo. Ill, cap. 45).
Harmondsworth Common, 1805, 3,000 acres (45 Geo. Ill, cap. 176).
Chiswick, extinction of Common, 1806 (46 Geo. Ill, cap. in).
Harrow, 1805-6 (46 Geo. Ill, cap. 33).
Ashford Common, 1809, 1,200 acres (49 Geo. Ill, cap. 17).
Hayes Common, 1809, 2,000 acres (49 Geo. Ill, cap. 151).
Harlington, 1810 (50 Geo. Ill, cap. 33).
Finchley Common, 1811, 900 acres (51 Geo. Ill, cap. 23).
Hampton Common, 1811 (51 Geo. Ill, cap. 138).
Harefield and Moor Hall Common, 1811, 700 acres (51 Geo. Ill, cap. 66).
Hillingdon, 1811-12, 1,400 acres (52 Geo. Ill, cap. 28).
Littleton, 181 1.
East Bedfont and Hatton Common, 1813, 1,300 acres lro (53 Geo. Ill, cap. 172).
Hornsey Common, 1813, 400 acres (53 Geo. Ill, cap. 7).
Isleworth, Heston and Twickenham Common, 1813, 7,870 acres (53 Geo. Ill, cap. 174).
Laleham, 1813 (53 Geo. Ill, cap. 25).
Hanwell Common, 1813, 350 acres (53 Geo. Ill, cap. 6).
Great Stanmore Common, 1813, 216 acres (53 Geo. Ill, cap. n).
Greenford Common, 1814, 640 acres (55 Geo. Ill, cap. 5).
Chiswick, 1814, 40 acres (54 Geo. Ill, cap. 69).
Willesden, 1814, 560 acres (55 Geo. Ill, cap. 49).
Harmondsworth, 1815 (56 Geo. Ill, cap. 72).
Cranford Common, 1818, 395 acres (private) (58 Geo. Ill, cap. 50).
Heston, 1818 (58 Geo. Ill, cap. 10).
Harlington Common, 1819, 820 acres
West Drayton Common, 1824 (5 Geo. IV, cap. 44).
Northolt Common, 1825 (6 Geo. IV, cap. 59).
"° Dr. Slater states the area inclosed at 1,100 acre*.
109
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
APPENDIX IV
TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801 TO 1901
Introductory Notes
AREA
The county taken in this table is that existing subsequently to 7 & 8 Viet., chap. 61 (1844).
By this Act detached parts of counties, which had already for parliamentary purposes been amalga-
mated with the county by which they were surrounded or with which the detached part had the
longest common boundary (2 & 3 Wm. IV, chap. 64 — 1832), were annexed to the same county for
all purposes ; some exceptions were, however, permitted.
By the same Act (7 & 8 Viet., chap. 61) the detached parts of counties, transferred to other
counties, were also annexed to the hundred, ward, wapentake, &c. by which they were wholly or
mostly surrounded, or to which they next adjoined, in the counties to which they were transferred.
The hundreds, &c. in this table are also given as existing subsequently to this Act.
As is well known, the famous statute of Queen Elizabeth for the relief of the poor took the then-
existing ecclesiastical parish as the unit for Poor Law relief. This continued for some centuries
with but few modifications ; notably by an Act passed in the thirteenth year of Charles II's reign
which permitted townships and villages to maintain their own poor. This permission was necessary
owing to the large size of some of the parishes, especially in the north of England.
In 1 80 1 the parish for rating purposes (now known as the civil parish, i.e. 'an area for
which a separate poor rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be
appointed ') was in most cases co-extensive with the ecclesiastical parish of the same name ; but
already there were numerous townships and villages rated separately for the relief of the poor,
and also there were many places scattered up and down the country, known as extra- parochial
places, which paid no rates at all. Further, many parishes had detached parts entirely surrounded
by another parish or parishes.
Parliament first turned its attention to extra-parochial places, and by an Act (20 Viet.,
chap. 19 — 1857) it was laid down (a) that all extra-parochial places entered separately in the
1851 census returns are to be deemed civil parishes, (b] that in any other place being, or being
reputed to be, extra-parochial, overseers of the poor may be appointed, and (c) that where, how-
ever, owners and occupiers of two-thirds in value of the land of any such place desire its
annexation to an adjoining civil parish, it may be so added with the consent of the said parish.
This Act was not found entirely to fulfil its object, so by a further Act (31 & 32 Viet., chap. 122 —
1868) it was enacted that every such place remaining on 25 December, 1868, should be added
to the parish with which it had the longest common boundary.
The next thing to be dealt with was the question of detached parts of civil parishes, which was
done by the Divided Parishes Acts of 1876, 1879, and 1882. The last, which amended the one of
1876, provides that every detached part of an entirely extra-metropolitan parish which is entirely
surrounded by another parish becomes transferred to this latter for civil purposes, or if the population
exceeds 300 persons it may be made a separate parish. These Acts also gave power to add detached
parts surrounded by more than one parish to one or more of the surrounding parishes, and also to
amalgamate entire parishes with one or more parishes. Under the 1879 Act it was not necessary
for the area dealt with to be entirely detached. These Acts also declared that every part added to
a parish in another county becomes part of that county.
Then came the Local Government Act, 1888, which permits the alteration of 'civil parish boun-
daries and the amalgamation of civil parishes by Local Government Board orders. It also created the
administrative counties. The Local Government Act of 1894 enacts that where a civil parish is partly
in a rural district and partly in an urban district each part shall become a separate civil parish ; and
also that where a civil parish is situated in more than one urban district each part shall become a
separate civil parish, unless the county council otherwise direct. Meanwhile, the ecclesiastical parishes
had been altered and new ones created under entirely different Acts, which cannot be entered into
here, as the table treats of the ancient parishes in their civil aspect.
POPULATION
The first census of England was taken in 1801, and was very little more than a counting
of the population in each parish (or place), excluding all persons, such as soldiers, sailors, &c., who
formed no part of its ordinary population. It was the de facto population (i.e. the population
no
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
actually resident at a particular time) and not the de jure (i.e. the population really belonging
to any particular place at a particular time). This principle has been sustained throughout
the censuses.
The Army at home (including militia), the men of the Royal Navy ashore, and the registered
seamen ashore were not included in the population of the places where they happened to be,
at the time of the census, until 1841. The men of the Royal Navy and other persons on board
vessels (naval or mercantile) in home ports were first included in the population of those places
in 1851. Others temporarily present, such as gipsies, persons in barges, &c. were included in
1841 and perhaps earlier.
GENERAL
Up to and including 1831 the returns were mainly made by the overseers of the poor
and more than one day was allowed for the enumeration, but the 1841—1901 returns were
made under the superintendence of the registration officers and the enumeration was to be
completed in one day. The Householder's Schedule was first used in 1841. The exact dates
of the censuses are as follows : —
10 March, 1801 30 May, 1831 8 April, 1861 6 April, 1891
27 May, 1811 7 June, 1841 3 April, 1871 I April, 1901
28 May, 1821 31 March, 1851 4 April, 1881
NOTES EXPLANATORY OF THE TABLE
This table gives the population of the ancient county and arranges the parishes, &c. under the
hundred or other sub-division to which they belong, but there is no doubt that the constitution of
hundreds, &c. was in some cases doubtful.
In the main the table follows the arrangement in the 1841 census volume.
The table gives the population and area of each parish, &c. as it existed in 1801, as far
as possible.
The areas are those supplied by the Ordnance Survey Department, except in the case of those
marked ' e,' which are only estimates. The area includes inland water (if any), but not tidal water
or foreshore.
t after the name of a civil parish indicates that the parish was affected by the operation
of the Divided Parishes Acts, but the Registrar-General failed to obtain particulars of every
such change. The changes which escaped notification were, however, probably small in area
and with little, if any, population. Considerable difficulty was experienced both in 1891 and
1901 in tracing the results of changes effected in civil parishes under the provisions of these
Acts ; by the Registrar-General's courtesy, however, reference has been permitted to certain
records of formerly detached parts of parishes, which has made it possible approximately to
ascertain the population in 1901 of parishes as constituted prior to such alterations, though the
figures in many instances must be regarded as partly estimates.
* after the name of a parish (or place) indicates thar such parish (or place) contains a union
workhouse which was in use in (or before) 1851 and was still in use in 1901.
J after the name of a parish (or place) indicates that the ecclesiastical parish of the same name
at the 1901 census is co-extensive with such parish (or place).
o in the table indicates that there is no population on the area in question.
— in the table indicates that no population can be ascertained.
The word 'chapelry ' seems often to have been used as an equivalent for 'township* in 1841,
which census volume has been adopted as the standard for names and descriptions of areas.
The figures in italics in the table relate to the area and population of such sub-divisions of
ancient parishes as chapelries, townships, and hamlets.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
TABLE OF POPULATION
1801 — 1901
Acre-
i So i
1811
1821
1831
1841
1851
iSOi
1871
1881
1891
1901
age
Ancient
181,320
818,129
953.774
I.M4.53'
1,358,13°
I,574.4i6
1,886,576
2,206,485
2.539,765
2,920,485
3.251.671
3.585,323
or Geog-
raphical
County
PARISH
Acre-
age
1801
1811
1821
1831
1841
1851
1861
1871
1881
1891
1901
Edmonton
Hundred
Edmonton f • •
7,483
5,°93
6,824
7,900
8,192
9,027
9,708
10,930
13,860
23,463
36,351
61,892
Enfield f . • • •
12,653
5,881
6,636
8,227
8,812
9,367
9,453
12,424
16,054
19,104
31,811
43,042
Hadley, orMonken
641
584
718
926
979
945
1,003
',053
978
1,160
1,294
1,389
Hadley t
Mimms, South § .
6,386
1,698
1,628
1,906
2,010
2,760
2,825
3,238
3,57i
4,002
•5,785
7,402
Tottenham . . .
4,642
3,629
4,771
5,812
6,937
8,584
9,120
13,240
22,869
46,456
97,174
136,774
Elthorne
Hundred
Brentford, New a J
217
1,443
1,733
2,036
2,085
2,174
2,063
i,995
2,043
2,138
2,069
2,029
Cowley f ...
306
214
382
349
315
392
344
371
491
498
525
601
Cranford J . . .
737
212
267
288
377
370
437
530
557
503
507
488
Drayton, West t .
878
5'5
555
608
662
802
906
95i
984
1,009
1,118
1,246
Greenford 1 1 § •
2,078
359
345
4'5
477
588
507
557
578
538
5"
647
HanwelP't . .
1,067
817
803
977
,213
1,469
i,547
2,687
3,766
5,178
6,139
10,438
Harefield \ . . .
4,621
95 '
1,079
1,228
,285
1,516
1,498
1,567
i,579
1,503
1,867
2,008
Harlington J . .
1,465
363
461
472
648
841
872
','59
1,296
1,538
i,542
1,690
Harmondsworth \ .
3,3°7
879
926
1,076
,276
i,330
i,3°7
',385
1,584
1,812
1,914
i,97i
Hayes J . . . .
3,3"
1,026
1,252
1,530
,575
2,076
2,076
2,650
2,654
2,891
2,651
2,594
Norwood Precinct 4
2,461
697
875
1,124
,320
2,385
2,693
4,484
5,882
6,68 1
7,627
12,499
Hillingdon : — •
4,944
3,894
4,663
5,636
6,885
9,246
9,588
10,758
11,601
12,641
13,776
14,895
Hillingdon * f § .
4,845
1,783
2,252
2,886
3,842
6,027
6,352
7,522
8,237
9,293
10,622
11,832
Uxbridge
99
2,111
2,411
2,750
3,043
3,219
3,236
3,236
3,364
3,346
3,154
3,063
Chap, f J
Ickenham f • • •
1,458
213
257
281
297
396
304
35'
386
376
368
329
Northolt 1 1 § • •
2,230
336
392
455
447
653
614
658
479
496
538
589
PerivaleJ . . .
633
28
37
25
32
46
32
48
33
34
55
60
Ruislip ....
6,585
1,012
1,239
1,343
i,'97
1,413
1,392
1,365
1,482
1,455
1,836
3,566
Gore Hundred
Edgeware J . . .
2,000
412
543
551
591
659
765
705
655
816
864
868
Harrow-on-the-
10,027
2,485
2,813
3,017
3,86 1
4,627
4,95'
5,525
8,537
10,277
12,988
22,157
Hill§
Hendon * § . . .
8,382
i. 95 5
2,589
3,100
3,"o
3,327
3,333
4,544
6,972
10,484
15,843
22,450
Kingsbury . . .
1,829
209
328
360
463
536
606
509
622
759
58i
757
Pinner '§ . . .
3,782
761
1,078
1,076
1,270
1,33'
I,3!0
1,849
2,332
2,519
2,727
3,366
Stanmore, Great J
1,484
722
840
990
i,i44
i,i77
1,180
1,318
1,355
1,312
1,473
1,827
Stanmore, Little J
i,59'
424
547
712
876
830
811
891
818
862
926
1,069
1 Ancient or Geographical County.— the County as defined by the Act 7 & 8 Viet , cap. 61. The population figures
exclude (i) in 1821, 526 Militiamen; (2) in 1831, 200 Militiamen; and (3) in 1841,2,220 Police on duty. (See also
note to Willesden.)
1 New Brentfvrd appears to be a Township of Hanwell Ancient Parish.
* Hanwell. — The Central London District Workhouse School was established in this Parish between 1851
and 1861.
4 Norwood Precinct. — The boundary was not accurately known in 1831.
5 Pinner.— The Commercial Travellers' School was established in this Parish between 1851 and 1861.
112
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801—1901 (continued)
PARISH
Acre-
age
1801
1811
1821
1831
1841
1851
1861
1871
1881
1891
IQOI
Isleworth
Hundred
Heston ....
Isleworth* . . .
3,823
3,15°
1,782
4,346
2,251
4,661
2,810
5,269
3,407
5,590
4,071
6,61-:
5,202
7,007
7,096
8,437
8,432
11,498
9,754
12,973
10,389
15,884
11,690
19,874
Twickenham . .
2,421
3,138
3,757
4,206
4,571
5,208
6,254
8,077
10,533
12,479
16,027
20,991
Ossulstone
Hundred—
Finsbury Division
Charterhouse
10-3
249
162
144
164
185
277
255
271
161
136
140
Extra Par.
Clerkenwell • . .
380
23,396
30,537
39,io5
47,634
56,756
64,778
65,681
65,380
69,076
66,216
64,077
Finchley ....
3,384
1,503
1,292
2,349
3,210
3,664
4,120
4,937
7,146
11,191
16,647
22,126
Friern Barnet 7 1 .
1,304
432
487
534
615
849
974
3,344
4,347
6,424
9,'73
11,566
Hornsey'f . . •
3,039
2,716
3,349
4,122
4,856
5,937
7,135
11,082
'9,357
37,078
61,097
87,626
Islington ....
3,109
10,212
15,065
22,417
37,316
55,690
95>329
'55,341
213,778
282,865
3i9,i43
335,238
Old Artillery
5'3
1,428
1,385
1,487
1,411
i,558
1,972
2,168
2,467
2,516 2,138
2,098
Ground Liberty
Extra Par.
St. Botolph Al-
dersgate (part
of)8:-
Glasshouse
5-6
1,221
1,343
1,358
1,312
1,415
1,476
'455
1,232
93i
779
741
Yard Liberty
St. Luke ....
237
26,88l
32,545
40,876
46,642
49,829
54,055
57,073
54,995
46,849
42,440
37,443
St. Sepulchre
19
3,768
4,224
4,740
4,769
4,801
4,832
4,609
2,888
2,392
i,972
i,5°3
(part of) 8
Stoke Newington .
638
1,462
2,149
2,670
3,480
4,490
4,840
6,608
9,841
22,781
30,936
34,293
Ossulstone
Hundred—
Holborn Division
Hampstead . . .
Paddington . . .
2,248
1,251
4,343
i, 88 1
5,483
4,609
7,263
6,476
8,588
14,540
10,093
25,173
11,986
46,305
19,106
75,784
32,281
96,813
45,452
107.218
68,416
118,054
82,329
127,557
St. Andrew Hol-
76]
21,438
23,355
22,384
23,096
born (the part
above the
k
l
22,205
23,972
26,492
27,334
28,874
26,228
23,683
Bars)9
St. George the
36)
. 7,897
8,763
9,867
10,397
Martyr
Saffron Hill, Hat-
ton Garden,
Elv Rents, and
32
7,78i
7,482
9,270
9,745
9,455
8,728
7,148
5,907
3,98o
4,506
3,396
Ely Place
Liberty 10 1
St. Giles in the
123
28,764
34,672]
f36,432
37,3"
37,407
36,684
35,703
28,701
23,087
20,332
Fields f
> 5 ', 793
St. George
121
7,738
3,864J
.'6,475
16,981
16,807
'7,392
17,853
16,681
16,695
14,202
Bloomsbury
St. Marylebone
1,506
63,982
75,624
96,040
122,206
38,164
57,696
161,680
159,254
154,910
142,404
132,295
St. Pancras f . .
2,672
31,779
46,333
71,838
103,548
129,735
66,956
198,788
221,465
236,258
234,379
234,912
The Liberty of the
II
2,409
2,620
2,737
2,682
2,557
2,567
2,274
',757
546
421
258
Rolls Extra
Par.
The Savoy
6'6
320
287
222
43'
414
372
380
365
245
201
1 60
Precinct101 \
• Clerkenwell. — A detached part was wrongly included in the return for Hornsey Parish, 1801-1831. This detached
area only contained 48 persons in 1841.
l Friern Barnet. — Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum established between 1851 and 1861.
8 St. Sepulchre and St. Botolph Aldersgati Ancient Parishes are situated in Ossulstone Hundred — Finsbury Division
and in London City — Without the Walls.
» St. Andrew Holborn Ancient Parish is situated in (A) Ossulstone Hundred — Holborn Division, (B) London City —
Without the Walls, and (c) the Inns of Court and Chancery.
10 Saffron Hill, &*.— The 1821 increase attributed partly to the absence of the fear of being compelled to serve in
the Militia.
10a See note 36, f>«st.
2 113 15
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801—1901 (continued)
PARISH
Acre-
age
1801
iSn
1821
1831
1841
1851
1861
1871
1 88 1
1891
1901
Ossulstone Hun-
dred — Kensing-
ton Division
Acton
2.1OC
1,425
1,674
1,929
2,453
2,665
2,582
3,Ii:i
8,306
17.126
24,206
37,7O3
Chelsea ....
i j j
794
11,604
18,262
26,860
32,371
39,896
56,185
JJ J
63,104
70,738 88,128
96,253
J / If J
95,086
Chiswick f • • •
1,210
3,235
3,892
4,236
4,994
5,8u
6,303
6,505
8,508
15,663
21,344
28,513
Baling f . . . .
3,850
5,035
5,36i
6,608
7,783
8,407
9,828
",963
18,189
25,748
36,267
47,5'o
Fulham" . . .
1,701
4,428
5,903
6,492
7,317
9,319
11,886
'5,539
23,350
42,900
91,639
'37,249
Hammersmith u : —
2,286
5,600
7,393
8,809
10,222
'3,453
17,760
24,519
42,691
71,939
97,239
111,970
Hammersmith .
2,101
—
—
—
9,888
13,293
19,104
36,029
64,349
88,653
102,474
Hammersmith,
185
—
—
—
—
3,565
4,467
5,415
6,662
7,590
8,586
9,496
St. Peter
Chapl.
Kensington . . .
2,188
8,556
10,886
14,428
20,902
26,834
44,053
70,108
120,299
163,151
166,308
'73,073
Twyford Abbey
281
8
10
33
43
27
21
18
47
75
60
87
Extra Par.
Willesden12§ . .
4,383
75'
1,169
M«3
1,876
2,930
2,939
3,879
15,869
27,453
61,057
1 14,582
Ossulstone
Hundred—
Tower Division
Bethnal Green . .
755
22,310
33,6i9
45,676
62,018
74,088
90,193
105,101
120,104
126,961
129,132
129,727
Bow, or Stratford-
565
2,IOI
2,259
2,349
3,37i
4,626
6,989
11,590
26,055
37,074
40,365
42,181
le-Bow
Bromley ....
610
I,684
3,58i
4,36o
4,846
6,154
11,789
24,077
41,710
64,359
70,000
68,37'
Hackney ....
3,299
12,730
16,771
22,494
31,047 37,771
53,589 76,687
115,110
163,681
198,606
218,998
Holy Trinity
4
644
602
680
508
579
572
420
417
449
301
4i
Minories
Limehouse : —
244
4,678
7,386
9,805
15,695
21,121
24,561
29,108
29,919
32,041
32,202
32,538
Limehouse . .
244
4,678
7,386
9,805
15,695
19,337
22,782
27,161
29,919
32,041
32,202
32,538
Ratcliff Hamlet
—
—
—
—
—
1,784
1,779
1,947
—
—
—
—
(part of) l3
Norton Folgate
IO
1,752
1,716
1,896
1,918
1,674
1,771
1,873
1,550
1,528
',449
1,622
Liberty Extra
Par.
Poplar" . . . .
1,158
4,493
7,708
12,223
16,849
20,342
28,384
43,529
48,611
55,077
56,383
58,334
St. Botolph with-
34
6,153
5,265
6,429
3,453
3,627
4,163
4,000
3,812
2,883
2,971
3,051
out Aldgate, or
East Smith-
field Liberty"
St. George in the
244
21,170
26,917
32,528
38,505
41,350
48,376
48,891
48,052
47,157
45,795
49,068
East
St. Katharine by
14
2,652
2,706
2,624
72
96
5'7
208
241
104
182
76
the Tower
Precinct ls
Shadwell" . . .
68
8,828
9,855
9,557
9,544
IO,o6o
11,702
8,499
8,230
8,170
8,123
8,633
Shoreditch . . .
648
34,766
43,93°
52,966
68,564
83,432
109,257
129,364
127,164
126,591
124,009
117,706
Spitalfields . . .
73
15,091
16,200
18,650
17,949
20,436
20,960
20,593
20,783
21,340
22,859
24,192
Stepney 14 : —
830
20,767
27,491
36,940
51,023
63,723
80,218
98,836
120,383
132,393
133,823
140,532
Mile End New
42
5,253
6,028
7,091
7,384
8,325
10,183
10,845
11,100\ 10,673
11,303
13,157
Town Hamlet
Mile End Old
677
9,848
14,465
22,876
33,898
45,308
56,602
73,064
93,152
105,613
107,592112,565
Town Hamlet
Ratcliff Hamlet
111
5,666
6,998
6,973
9,741
10,090
13,433
14,927
16,131
16,107
14,928
14,810
(part of) 1S
Tower of London
22
—
417
463
433
1,107
954
783
1,021
928
868
736
Extra Par.
Old Tower With-
6
563
775
205
280
310
819
626; 308
233
65
43
out Precinct
Wapping16 . . .
Whitechapel " . .
41
I/O
5,889
23,666
3,313
27.578
3,078
29,407
3,564
30,733
4,108
34,053
4,477
37,848
4,038
37,454
3,410
34,874
2,225
30,709
2,123
32,326
2,125
33,640
11 Hammersmith Parish created out of Fulham Ancient Parish in 1834 by Act of Parliament.
la Willisdeit. — The 1811 figures are an estimate.
13 Ratcliff Hamlet is situated in Limihousi and Stepniy Paris/its. — The entire area and population, 1801-1831 and
1871-1901, are shown in Stepney Parish.
14 Poplar Parish created out of Sttpney Ancint Parish about 1817 by Act of Parliament.
" East Smithfield and St. Katharini by the Tower.— The decline in 1831 of the population in these two places is
attributed to the formation of the St. Katharine Docks between 1821 and 1831.
16 Shadwell and Wapping. — Many houses were demolished in these two Parishes between 1851 and 1861 in
order to construct a new dock.
w Whittchapel.—A. small part, containing only 22 persons in 1901, is situated in the City of London— Without the
Walls ; none shown there.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801—1901 (continued)
PARISH
Acre-
age
1801
1811
1821
1831
1841
1851
1861
1871
1881
1891
1901
Spelthorne
Hundred
AshfordJ. . . .
1,402
264
266
33'
458
524
497
784
1,019
1,484
2,700
4,816
Bedfont, East J .
1,926
456
577
771
968
982
1,035
1,150
1,288
1,452
1,815
2,131
Feltham % . . .
1,790
620
703
962
924
1,029
1,109
1,837
2,748
2,909
3,66 1
4,534
Hampton : —
3.35°
2,5'S
2,754
3,549
3,992
4,7ii
4,802
5,355
6,122
6,940
8,200
9>4i9
Hampton . . .
2,036
1,722
1,984
2,288
2,529
3,097
3,134
3,361
3,915
4,776
5,822
6,813
Hampton Wick
1,314
793
770
1,261
1,463
1,614
1,668
1J94
2,207
2,164
2,378
2,606
Hamlet t
Hanworth t . . .
1.373
334
533
552
67I
75'
790
763
867
1,040
1,309
2,159
LalehamJ . . .
1,301
372
481
499
588
612
637
613
567
544
5°4
500
Littleton J . . .
i,°37
147
130
149
134
III
106
III
165
126
99
320
Shepperton t . .
1,492
731
751
782
847
858
807
849
1,126
1,285
1,299
1,810
Staines ....
1,843
1,750
2,042
i,957
2,486
2,487
2,577
2,749
3,659
4,628
5,060
6,049
Stanwell* . . .
3,999
893
1,032
1,225
1,386
1,495
1,723
i,7i4
i,955
2,156
2,383
2,849
Sunbury ....
2,659
i,447
i,655
J.777
1,863
1,828
2,076
2,332
3,368
4,297
4,099
4,544
Teddington § . .
1,214
699
732
863
895
i,i99
1,146
1,183
4,063
6,599
10,052
14,037
London City —
Within the
Walls
Allhallows Bark-
ira
2,087
1,777
1,664
1,761
1,924
2,001
1,679
1,065
716
447
326
ing J
Allhallows, Bread
2-6
43°
345
320
336
263
251
95
90
50
24
15
Street
Allhallows the
77
572
502
526
588
672
700
603
187
29
37
39
Great
Allhallows the
3'3
244
179
98
'54
181
130
79
69
63
43
44
Less
Allhallows, Honey
ro
'75
161
'37
189
'55
150
65
5i
32
22
33
Lane
Allhallows, Lom-
2-9
679
620
580
596
516
456
4'5
259
169
68
80
bard Street
Allhallows, London
8-5
1,552
1,601
1,677
i, 86 1
1,620
2,070
1,999 805
535
183
164
Wall}
Allhallows Staining
4'i
714
623
577
577
502
512
358 243
175
128
121
Christ Church,
I2'2
2,818
2,744
2,737
2,622
2,446
2,541
i,975 1,899
i,359
958
999
Newgate Street "
Holy Trinity the
r8
558
513
502
443
633
691
553 190
63
40
5'/
Less
St. Alban, Wood
3'4
682
621
63'
582
479
424
276 345
176
167
209
Street
St Alphage, Sion
4'2
i, 008
1,009
1,206
1,087
976
919
699
274
3i
66
29
College J
St. Andrew Hub-
2'O
376
333
287
354
331
342
205
'39
89
46
4i
bard
St. AndrewUnder-
9'3
1,307
i, 068
1,161
i, 080
1,163
1,181
1,071
580
327
218
'57.
shaft, with St.
Mary Axe J
St. Andrew by the
6-6
900
709
690
756
750
680
682
35i
175
170
iie
Wardrobe
St. Anne and St.
27
952
392
561
421
5'3
459
362
229
158
24
2 I
Agnes Alders-
gate 18"
St. Anne, Black-
12-3
3,071
2,609
2,938
2,622
2,846
3,029
2,615
1,381
943
728
487
friars
St. Antholin
2'6
363
367
365
356
357
305
263
74
3'
59 62
St. Augustine Wat-
r8
333
247
307
3"
289
273
no
no
>5'
76 20
ling Street
St. Bartholomew
4'i
560
398
339
345
307
254
236
181
'99
'55
112
by the Royal
Exchange
St. Benet Fink . .
2-9
539
526
5"
459
383
3'4
213
165
126
72
53
St. Benet Grace-
1-9
429
358
290
348
333
294
278
"3
5i
52
52
church
St. Benet, Paul's
5'4
620
636
552
612
588
663
537
105
73
65
3i
Walk
St. Benet Shere-
ri
1 86
152
142
1 80
'45
144
114
32
24
35
39
hog
18 Christ Church, Newgate Street, includes Christ's Hospital School.
"5
'*• See note 35, post
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801—1901 (continued)
PARISH
Acre-
age
1801
1811
1821
1831
1841
1851
1861
1871
1881
1891
1901
London City —
Within the
Walls (cont.)
St. Botolph Bil-
2-6
196
176
191
207
278
34i
222
"54
99
'33
44
lingsgate
St. Christopher le
2-8
'33
89
84
72
16
45
23
45
38
34
24
Stock
St. Clement
1-8
352
262
273
256
236
233
198
in
86
66
79
Eastcheap
St. Dionis Back-
47
868
75S
791
810
806
746
534
35°
211
161
112
church
St. Dunstan in
i r8
1,613
1,249
i,i5S
I,t57
1,010
1,025
971
669
442
395
294
the East \
St. Edmund the
2'4
477
452
442
382
391
440
333
'53
106
105
93
King and Martyr
St. Ethelburga \ .
3'3
599
564
704
665
669
693
606
315
199
158
100
t. Faith the
5-6
964
942
999
841
781
853
761
606
403
3«4
201
Virgin
St. Gabriel Fen-
2-8
509
408
343
355
386
274
178
125
III
88
75
church Street
St. George
i'3
254
215
215
229
235
225
217
162
96
35
24
Botolph Lane
St. Gregory by
1 1-4
i,634
1,444
1,468
1,456
1,444
1,428
1,154
896
730
515
512
St. Paul's
St. Helen Bishops-
7-1
655
652
696
692
659
674
558
404
289
251
177
gate
St. James Duke
3-2
851
823
732
805 964
827
851
747
622
359
187
Street
St. James Gar-
3'3
595
594
473
637
520
627
461
39'
222
146
69
lickhithe
St. John the Bap-
1-9
412
369
417
411
367
249
132
97
57
73
72
tist Walbrook
St. John the
0-8
125
118
86
1 06
1 08
99
27
51
5
18
2
Evangelist
St. John Zachary
2-2
5°7
408
322
241 183
156
132
127
"5
109
46
St. Katharine
6'2
732
716
712
650 606
547
444
3'7
277
237 136
Coleman J
St. Katharine Cree
9-2
1,727
i,47i
1,814
1,718 1,740
1,905
1,794
1,291
858
445
178
St. Lawrence
57
800
',°39
702
756 : 625
526
410
214
162
187
298
Jewry "
St. Laurence
2-9
355
337
352
372
38i
3'4
233
'3i
94
80
29
Pountney
St. Leonard
i "4
304
290
3°7
I 10
137
152
in
93
5°
32
42
Eastcheap
St. Leonard
2-5
905
197
377
220
33'
3°5
297
42
27
23
29
Foster Lane 19a
St. Magnus .
3'4
289
248
227
"3
239
300
197
262
169
136
172
St. Margaret
3-9
569
327
33'
252 189
191
164
90
124
92
65
Lothbury
St. Margaret
1-6
265
241
149
199 250
249
137
53
55
32
39
Moses
St. Margaret,
2'0
365
346
344
167
266
305
317
165
106
68
87
Fish Street Hill
St. Margaret
r6
221
'59
185
181
167
169
103
104
67
28
46
Pattens
St. Martin Iron-
1*1
[92
189
132
218
198
181
185
179
"37
103
7i
monger Lane
St. Martin Lud-
4'8
1,229
1,199
1,200
1,185
1,255
1,246
1, 080
73°
247
158
'75
gate
St. Martin Orgar .
27
393
290
35°
367
353
324
296
212
152
150
105
St. Martin Outwich
3'2
326
236
252
245
'35
174
165
'37
132
102
63
St. Martin Vinery™
4'4
543
356
205
226
288
300
244
118
107
87
79
St. Mary Ab-
2-6
549
5"
505
501
526
273
264
191
142
144
114
church
St. Mary Alder-
4 '4
822
743
883
789
751
687
443
308
168
102
69
man bury J
St. Mary Alder-
2-4
562
472
429
507
494
5"
232
154
121
139
"5
mary
19 The return for St. Lawrence Jtwry includes the population of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, in 1811.
lta See note 35, post.
*> St. Martin Vintry.— Many houses demolished in this Parish between 1811 and 1821 in order to give access to
the new Southwark Bridge.
116
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801—1901 (continued}
PARISH
Acre
age
1801
1811
1821
1831
1841
1851
1861
1871
1881
1891
1901
London City —
Within the
Walls (cont.)
St. Mary le Bow
27
468
363
368
376
346
363
317
170
130
129
ui
St. Mary Botha w
11
236
233
225
253
257
194
161
146
101
99
125
St. Mary Cole-
1-6
3°4
276
275
274
238
225
164
99
36
20
29
church
St. Mary at Hill
4-2
762
696
818
773
987
812
738
477
206
127
150
St. Mary Magda-
2-4
521
711
721
762
783
890
732
354
224
83
42
len, Old Fish
Street
St. Mary Magdalen
17
207
—
300
288
207
'93
125
84
54
39
18
Milk Street **>
St. Mary Mount-
i'o
366
357
358
434
378
406
474
o
3
M
20
haw41
St. Mary Somer-
3'6
459
289
270
374
375
394
271
200
74
82
33
set
St. Mary Staining
i"
239
224 221
309
268
202
161
38
33
36
15
St. Mary Wool-
2".
270
229
206
247
150
125
102
89
29
71
68
church Haw
St Mary Wool-
2-6
551
457
5"
414
317
328
291
242
290
'37
109
noth
St. Matthew
I '4
209
196
228
225
1 60
164
I67
70
84
67
38
Friday Street
St. Michael Bassi-
5-8
747
652
7M
661
687
616
501
357
215
127
90
shaw
St. Michael Corn-
3'6
691
603
492
508
454
491
371
254
227
198
162
hill J
St. Michael
3-1
618
523
576
327
329
443
323
222
127
94
78
Crooked Lane M
St. Michael Queen-
37
827
739
7i6
773
647
76i
548
267
189
67
26
hithe
St. Michael le
r6
390
317
252
248
212
134
74
71
70
38
67
Querne
St. Michael Pater-
2"!
3°7
219
181
198
25I
171
169
90
101
56
38
noster Royal
St. Michael Wood
2'0
574
435
433
404
328
286
214
I56
139
58
65
Street
St. Mildred Bread
i'5
281
322
329
302
351
310
86
46
21
21
32
Street
St. Mildred Poultry
2'5
504
302
271
285
280
319
257
"5
36
56
57
St. Nicholas Aeons
i'5
275
264
1 80
228
194
221
1 68
144
116
67
7'
St. Nicholas Cole
re
257
178
228
209
254
379
230
104
53
13
56
Abbey
St. Nicholas Olave
1'4
324
264
35°
372
431
533
355
167
94
III
9'
St. Olave Hart
10-3
1,216
1,030
I,OI2
1,041
816
893
757
363
255
236
184
Street, with St.
Nicholas - in -
the-Shambles
St.Olave Old Jewry
2-5
301
236
239
213
168
177
'43
121
9'
83
85
St. Olave Silver
3'3
1,078 1,131
I,'35
711
972
948
527
49
82
38
35
Street
St. Pancras Soper
I '2
217
153
190
168
162
177
76
107
55
60
34
Lane
St. Peter CornhillJ
6-0
1,003
860
73'
729
656
656
533
418
196
162
1 08
St. Peter Paul's
2-5
353
370
346
354
34 r
383
410
107
19
37
16
Wharf
St. Peter le Poor .
9'3
867
638
576
546
559
562
540
438
404
270
266
St. Peter West-
1-6
335
271
266
226
227
209
148
67
22
16
24
cheap
St. Stephen Cole-
267
3,225
2,957
3,062
4,014
3,699
3,936
3,324
2,647
i,799
1,038
540
man Street J
St. Stephen Wai-
2-8
340
289
278
281
322
312
300
147
103
89
79
brook
St. Swithin Lon-
3-0
474
428
508
486
389
333
297
200
142
118
120
don Stone
'"a See note 19, ante.
11 St. Mary Moutttkaw. — All the houses in this Parish, except two uninhabited ones, were pulled down between 1861
and 1871 in order to form Queen Victoria Street.
M St. Mickail Crooked Lane.— The Church and 35 houses were demolished between 1821 and 1831 in order to
improve the access to the new London Bridge.
"7
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801—1901 (continued)
PARISH
Acre-
age
1801
1811
1821
1831
1841
1851
1861
1871
1 88 1
1891
IOOI
London City —
Within the
Walls (cont)
St. Thomas the
2'4
$66
483
565
53'
648
369
112
112
76
122
'39
Apostle
St. Vedast Foster
*'S
423
412
398
496
427
410
278
224
184
'39
82
Lane
London City —
Without the
Walls.
St. Andrew, Hoi-
207
5,5"
5,741
6,234
5,570
5,966
5,965
6,337
3,818
2,883
2,546
',365
born below the
Bars"""3"
St. Bartholomew
8-9
2,645
2,769
2,931
2,923
3,4'4
3,499
3,426
3,"4
2-373
1,843
J44I
the Great J
St. Bartholomew
4-2
952
843
823
863
744
827
849
747
819
847
869
the Less J w
St. Botolph Alders-
19-9
4,161
4,135
4,003
3,994
4,49'
4,745
4,744
3,5'2
2,399
1,670
826
gate (part of) Ma
St. Botolph, Aid-
387
8,689
8,297
9,067
9,615
9,525
",325
9,421
8,433
6,269
5,866
4,653
gate26
St. Botolph without
44-5
lo.SM
9,184
10,140
10,256
10,969
12,499
11,569
6,107
4,905
3,078
i, 660
Bishopsgate J
St. Bride :—
34'2
7,531
7,462
7,731
7,3i6
6,655
6,569
6,070
4,563
3,516 2,676
1,918
St. Bride » . .
28-9
7,078
7,003
7,288
6,860
6,126
6,039
5,660
4,095
3,001 2,208
1,528
Bridewell Hospi-
5-3
453
459
443
456
529
530
410
468
515 468
390
tal and Pre-
cinct Chapelry
St. Dunstan in the
'3'4
3,021
3,239
3,549
3,443
3,266
2,887
2,511
2,316
1,584
1,058
775
West *
St. Giles without
42'6
11,446
11,704
13,038
<3,'34
'3,255
I4,36l
13,498
8,894
3,863
2,090
1,052
Cripplegate J
St. Sepulchre (the
35'5
8,092
8,724
8,271
7,710
8,524
8,620
7,475
3,701
2,166
',754
1,160
part without
Newgate) *"
Whitefriars Pre-
8-5
783
929
1,247
1,302
1,294
1,230
','55
965
467
393
170
cinct Extra Par.
Inns of Court
and Chancery
Barnard's Inn (in
0-6
37
44
—
—
39
32
69
62
53
59
5
St. Andrew Hoi-
born) «" *
Clement's Inn (in
—
140
—
—
—
143
112
85
—
—
—
—
St. Clement
Danes') 27
Clifford's Inn,
—
"3
ill
101
—
27
38
—
—
—
—
—
Extra Par. M
Furnival's Inn,
i
80
—
100
160
213
164
202
"5
'55
121
o
Extra Par. M
Gray's Inn,
11-5
289
344
208
324
325
366
308
361
328
253
232
Extra Par.
Inner Temple,
IPS
485
460
405
288
278
162
148
116
156
96
'27
Extra Par.
»> See note 9, ante
'•» St. Andrew. Holborn below the Bars and St. Bride. — Many houses were pulled down between 1821 and 1831 in order
to erect Farriugdon Market.
M St. Bartholomew the Less comprises only St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1901.
*"* See note 8, ante.
» St. Botolph, Aldgate.—This Parish is partly Within the Walls, but none is shown there.
*• Hanaro" s Inn was returned with St. Andrew, Holborn below the Bars in 1821 and 1831.
v St. Clement Danes Ancient Parish is situated in (A) Ossulstone Hundred— Holborn Division, (B) the City and
Liberty of Westminster, and (c) the Inns of Court and Chancery. The entire area is shown in the City and Liberty
of Westminster, including that of New Inn and Clement's Inn ; the populations of these two Inns are included there
in 1811-1831 and 1871-1901. The population of New Inn is also included there in 1801. No part of this Parish is
shown in Ossulstone Hundred— Holborn Division.
* Cliford's Inn and Serjeants' Inn (Chancery Lane). — The areas of these Inns and their populations, 1831 and
1861-1901, are included In those of St. Dunstan in the West Parish.
" Furnival's Inn was returned with St. Andrew Holborn Parish in 1811.
118
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
TABLE OF POPULATION, 1801 — 1901 (continued)
PARISH
Acre-
age
1801
1811
1821
1831
1841
1851
1861
1871
1881
1891
1901
Lincoln's Inn (part
of), Extra Par. *>
8
179
242
268
142
"5
79
47
40
16
27
47
Middle Temple,
Extra Par.
5 '4
382
423
298
'95
229
124
81
93
95
95
107
New Inn,
—
—
—
—
—
46
30
30
Extra Par. 30a
Serjeants' Inn,
—
22
28
3'
—
5
5
Chancery Lane,
Extra Par.3llb
Serjeants' Inn,
Fleet Street,
0-6
"3
78
94
104
81
74
75
73
49
50
48
Extra Par.
Staple Inn,
ro
67
66
41
58
32
57
42
4i
38
21
12
Extra Par.
Thavies Inn,
0-8
—
—
—
—
'75
'55
185
237
121
109
85
Extra Par.
Westminster
(City and
Liberty)
St. Anne Soho . .
St. Clement
Danes 30» "
53
55
11 ,637
12,861
12,288
13,706
15,215
14,763
15,600
I5>442
16,480
'5,459
17,335
'5,550
17,426
15,477
17,562
11,503
16,608
IO,28o
I2,3'7
8,492
",493
6,0 1 o
St. George Han-
over Square 34 37
1,117
38,440
41,687
46,384
58,209
66,736
73,45s
88,066
89,988
89,573
78,364
76,734
St. James
Westminster
163
34,462
34,093
33,8i9
37,053
37,426
36,406
35,326
33,6i9
29,941
24,995 '21,588
St. John the
Evangelist 31
St. Margaret3237 .
St. Martin in the
2IO
603
286
8,375
7,508
25,752
10,615
19,027
26,585
16,835
22,387
28,252
22,648
25,344
23,732
26,223
30,258
24,917
34,295
30,942
24,461
37,483
30,407
22,689
38,478
27,572
21,238
35,496
24,430
17,508
34,io6|
} 50,559
2i,433J
14,616 'u,qq6
Fields333337
Buckingham Pa-
—
—
—
—
—
99 12?
40
40
—
lace (the Palace
Proper), Extra
Par. 34
St. James's Palace,
—
—
—
—
—
174
179
—
—
— .
Extra Par. 33
St. Martin le
—
—
688
0
0
o
o
o
o
O
o
o
Grand Liberty35
St. Mary le
'4
2,178
2,021
2,273
2,462
2,520
2,517
2,072
2,007
1,989
1,549
494
Strand Mt
St. Paul Covent
26
4,992
5,304
5,834
5,203
5,7i8
5,810
5, '54
4,376
2,919
2,142
1,692
Garden J
The Close of the
10
—
'75
181
185
231
372
323
209
249
235
231
Collegiate
Church of St
Peter, Extra Par.
Verge of the Pa-
—
1,685
249
641
238
—
—
—
—
—
—
—
laces of St. James
and White-
hall3437
*o Lincoln's Inn. — The remainder was not Extra Parochial, neither was it shown separately in the Census Returns.
•°> See note 27, anti. *«> See note 28, ante.
81 Westminster, St. John the Evangelist. — Millbank Penitentiary was built in this parish between 1811 and 1821.
" The population of Whitehall and Privy Gardens was returned in 1801 and 1821 with the Verge of the Palaces of
St. /amis and Whitehall, in 1831 in St. Martin in the Fields, and in 1811 and 1841-1901 in Westminster, St. Margaret.
The area is included in the last Parish. This area seems to have claimed to be Extra Parochial; the population in
1811 was 347.
88 St. Martin in the Fields includes the area and the population, 1801-1831 and 1861-1901, of St. James's Palace.
st St. George Hanovtr Square, includes the area and the population, 1881-1901, of Buckingham Palace (the Palace
Proper).
85 St. Martin It Grand Liberty is locally situated in the Parishes of St. Anne and St. Agnes, Aldersgate, and St. Leonard,
Foster Lane (both in London City — Within the Walls), where its area is included. Its population was apparently
included in that of St. Leonard in 1801. The Liberty was added to the City of London under the Act for erecting
the new Post Office (55 George III, cap. 91), under which Act part of the new Post Office was erected upon it,
covering its entire area.
M The population of the Duchy of Lancaster Liberty is entirely shown in St. Mary It Strand Parish 1801-1831.
From 1841-1901 the population is rightly divided among St. Mary It Strand, St. Clement Danes, and the Precinct of the
Savoy. Its area is also divided between these. The Liberty contained 410 persons in 1831.
" The Verge of tht Palaces of St.Jamts and Whitehall. — The population, 1841-1901, is divided between St. Martin in
the Fields, St. George Hanover Square, and St. Margaret Westminsttr Parishes. The area is also divided among these
three Parishes
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
GENULAL NOTES
1. The Populations in 1841 of the Parishes (or Places) marked thus $ were markedly
increased by the presence of temporary residents, such as haymakers.
2. The following Urban Districts are co-extensive at the Census of 1901 with one or more
places mentioned in the Table : —
Urban Dutnct
Finchley .
Friern Barnet
Hampton .
Hampton Wick .
HanweU
Hendon
Kingsbory .
Scnbury-on-Thames
Teddington .
Twickenham
Finchky Parish (Oxulstone Hundred — Finsbory Dirision)
Friern Barnet Parish (Ossu'stone Hundred — Finsbury Dirision)
Hampton Township (Spelthorne Hundred)
Hampton Wick Hamlet (Spelthorne Hundred)
Hanwell Parish (Elthome Hundred)
Hendon Parish (Gore Hundred)
Kingsbury Parish (Gore Hundred)
Sunbury Parish (Spelthorne Hundred)
Teddington Parish (Spelthorne Hundred)
Twickenham Parish (Isleworth Hundred)
120
INDUSTRIES
INTRODUCTION
BEFORE entering into a detailed
relation of the industries of Mid-
dlesex it will be well to look
at the characteristic features of
the county. A glance at the
map reveals its somewhat compact shape, with
rivers on three boundaries, and an irregular
range of hills on the north.
As regards its history, Middlesex has been
for centuries an appanage of London ; and its
natural resources have been more or less at
the service of the inhabitants of the metro-
polis. A closer topographical inspection
shows further that all the highways radiate
from London, and that there are no impor-
tant cross-roads whatever. There are five
so-called market-towns, but none of them
are of high rank, unless Uxbridge should
claim to be so. Except that Brentford and
Staines are upon the same road, and that
Brentford connects with Uxbridge by a
branch of that main road, there is no special
connexion between any two of them as mem-
bers of the same community. Of cross-roads
those worth naming are : traces of an old
highway from Kingston (Surrey) through
Uxbridge to the north-west ; traces of a very
ancient way from Brentford to Harrow and
beyond ; and perhaps a road joining Enfield
with Barnet (Hertfordshire). Every other
track tends directly to the metropolis.
Even little more than a century ago the
condition of the turnpike roads near London
was very unsatisfactory, in spite of the large
sums of money available for cleansing and
repair. The road from Hadley through
South Mimms was insufferably bad, and
disgraceful to the trustees. The Edgware
road was no better, the mud being 4 in. deep
after every heavy rain in summer, and 9 in.
all the winter. The menders never thought
of scraping it, but laid fresh gravel on the
sloppy surface ; the first cart cut it into
ruts, and so it remained all the year round.
The Uxbridge road was even worse; and
during the winter 1797-8 there was only
one passable track, and that less than 6 ft.
wide and usually 8 in. deep in fluid mud. The
rest of the road on either side was covered
with adhesive mire from i ft. to i £ ft. deep.
And it must be remembered that the road
from Tyburn to Uxbridge was supposed to
have more broad-wheeled wagons pass over
it than any other in the county ; they natu-
rally monopolized the fairly traversable 8 in.
of mud, and forced light vehicles and horse-
men into the bordering quagmire. During
that winter, remarks an indignant sufferer,1
' The only labourers to be seen on the road
were those of a neighbouring gentleman,
and they were employed in carting the foot-
path into his inclosures.' The road from
Hyde Park Corner through Brentford and
Hounslow was equally filthy in winter,
though the king often travelled along it
several times a week. It is rather curious
that the parish highways were sometimes
much better : ' hard and clean in every sort
of weather, so much so, that gentlemen may
ride along them, even directly after rain, and
scarcely receive a splash.' At the present day
the main roads out of London, and many of
the by-roads also, are well looked after, and
furnish little occasion for reasonable complaint.
The main roads, it may be said, have for
the most part existed on their present sites for
long ages past. Where they have been
altered, the cause of displacement has been
sometimes local necessity or caprice, and
sometimes national interest. One example
(of those few which have been investigated)
will be an interesting illustration of the point.
The great road to the north of London,
passing to the eastward of old St. Pancras
Church, along what is now the HornseyRoad,
went over Muswell Hill and by Colney Hatch
to Whetstone. This proved so deep and
miry in winter 'that it was refused of way-
faring men and carriers, in regard whereof it
was agreed betweene the Bishop of London
and the Countrie that a newe waie shoulde bee
layde forth through the said Bishops parks,
121
1 Middleton, fiete ofdgrit. ofMitU. 395 et seq.
16
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
beginning at Highgate Hill to leade directly
to Whetstone." The old road to Highgate
was doubtless but a communication along the
ridge to Hampstead, with little more than local
value. The augmentation of the toll revenue
at Highgate must have benefited greatly by
the change. But the time came at last,
when 'way-faring men and carriers' were
not the only classes to be served by the new
highway. Coaches and carriages found it an
arduous affair to cross the hill, and at length,
after much protest and waiting for redress,
it was determined to improve the road by
diverting it to the right upon a lower level.
This was in 1812. At first a tunnel was
projected, about 300 yds. in length. After
about half of it was constructed, the whole
fell in early one morning, luckily before the
workmen were on duty. It was then deter-
mined to revise the plan. Operations were
resumed with a deep open cutting, an arch-
way to be thrown over at the point where
the road is traversed by the Hornsey Lane.
The road was completed, and opened for
traffic on 21 August 1813, and proved very
welcome as an easier route to the north.3
The acclivity was still considerable, and in
actual distance only 100 yds. or so were
saved, but it has well justified the enterprise
of the promoters. The archway was of stone
with enormous brick supports and a stone
balustrade, and had the merit of being rather
ornamental when approached from either
side. It is now superseded by an iron bridge,
on bolder lines, more suitable to the needs of
a busier generation.
The decrease of traffic on the Middlesex
roads after 1840 was never so marked as on
some of the great trade routes in more rural
counties; and any falling-off has been regained
within the last decade owing to the develop-
ment of electric tramways, and the heavy
motor goods-services of various companies.
Both of these systems, in fact, are now vigor-
ous competitors with the suburban railway
lines. Owing, however, to the position of
London at its heart, few counties are so
well supplied as Middlesex with railroad
facilities, since the national trunk lines radiate
from the capital as a centre ; the latest to
acquire a terminus within the metropolitan
area being the Great Central Railway at
Marylebone. The construction of the elec-
tric tubes and their gradual extension to the
suburbs has also, within the last few years,
introduced a further element of competition
as regards passenger traffic. The tramways,
1 John Norden, Speculum Brit. (1723), 15.
' E. W. Brayley, lond. and MidJ. x (4), 223.
the omnibus companies, and the older rail-
ways have all been affected, though in differ-
ent degrees. The loss of suburban traffic has
been the main factor in suggesting the pro-
ject for amalgamating the three great lines
of the Great Northern, Great Eastern, and
Great Central which is under consideration.
The county of Middlesex has the advantage
of extensive means of water-carriage. Before
the railways came, this advantage was more
apparent than it is now when the value of
time, in speedy dispatch and removal, is
more fully appreciated. To begin with, the
entire eastern and southern borders of the
county are provided with navigable rivers, in
the Thames and the Lea, while the Grand
Junction Canal and its offshoots supply the
needs of the county from Uxbridge in the
west to several parts of the metropolis. The
first canalization of the River Lea was under-
taken about the year 1770, at a period when
such measures were in their infancy, or were
being undertaken with timidity. During the
remaining years of the i8th century more
ambitious efforts were made. A great many
useful canals were formed throughout the
kingdom, some of which have become disused
through the influence of railway enterprise.
Among those which remain in operation, and
are to some extent prosperous, the Lea and
Stort Navigation and the Grand Junction
Canal may be included. They are almost a
necessity to the localities they serve, and their
proprietors may be congratulated on their divi-
dends.
The Grand Junction Canal, with its
direct and uninterrupted communications with
Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Lancashire,
enters the county at Uxbridge on the western
outskirts of the town. Its course is through
the levels of Cowley, West Drayton, and
Southall, at a nearly uniform elevation above
the ordnance datum of looft. In the last-
named parish a short series of locks brings it
to the level of the River Brent, which is from
this point canalized until it reaches the
Thames at Brentford. It is significant of the
importance of this canal to the traffic for
which it was designed that a short branch of
the Great Western Railway runs nearly
parallel, from Southall to Brentford, without
seriously diminishing the prosperity of the
canal.
The success of the Grand Junction Canal
naturally led to extensions of the principle. It
was determined to make a supplementary
cutting in order to bring navigation to the
West End of London, and an Act of Parlia-
ment was obtained for extending the canal
to Paddington. At the end of the i8th
122
INDUSTRIES
century Paddington was a rural hamlet,
thinly populated, one of those almost un-
noticed places that lie apart from the highways.
A spirited life was put into the place when
the new canal was opened in 1801 ; ware-
houses were built, dwelling-houses sprang up
around, and by the day of opening Paddington
had become a suburb. Great expectations
were formed of its future ; the first day was
kept with festivity, and inaugurated by an
aquatic procession.
The Paddington Canal begins with a
junction at Bull's Bridge, on the River Cran,
north of Cranford, pursuing thence a winding
course, without locks, by Northolt, Greenford,
Alperton, and Kensal Green ; an ideal coun-
try for canal-constructors. The success of the
enterprise was immediate. Traders had found
a new and excellent route to and from the
Midlands. Passage-boats with merchandise
went daily to Uxbridge. Twice a week
during the summer months other boats with
passenger accommodation went backwards and
forwards, and as late as the year 1853 a
Sunday traffic of pleasure trips to Greenford
Green was largely patronized.4
In 1812 a further extension was proposed
and soon carried into effect. Under the name
of the Regent's Canal, a cut was made round
the entire metropolis to the River Thames,
near Limehouse. There are many locks and
bridges, and two tunnels, one under Maida
Hill, and another of considerable length at
Islington. There is a dock with large depots
and warehouses in the City Road, besides a
substantial dock at Limehouse.5 The canal
has been of immense benefit to the eastern
and north-eastern districts of London. Miles
of warehouses and yards occupy now the
space of the green fields that existed at the
period of its construction. Few undertakings
of the kind have been justified so signally in
their results.
In olden times there was one harbour in
the very heart of the City of London, at the
mouth of the Fleet River, which was navi-
gable at least as far as Holborn. A mention
of Fleet Hithe, in an old record,* is enough
4 Personal recollections kindly supplied by Mr.
E. Smith.
* Brayley, op. cit. x (4), 163.
' In the third folio (recto) of the ancient book
known as Liber A. live Pilosus, containing the
ancient evidences of the Dean and Chapter of
St. Paul's, is a Process of Recognition of the reign
of Henry I which states that stone ships or barges
belonging to the dean and chapter unshipped their
lading at Fleet Hithe, and that the owners com-
plained of a toll levied upon them. W. J. Pinks,
Clerkenwell, 377.
to establish the former existence of a tiny
port near Blackfriars. Besides this, on the
extreme eastern boundary of the county there
was some sort of harbour at the mouth of the
River Lea.
The extension of the canal system naturally
incited the commercial and engineering classes
to fresh efforts for the convenience of navi-
gation. Docks were now wanted, and not
many years elapsed before several spacious
docks were given to the metropolis. Dock
extension has never since these times ceased
to be demanded. Indeed the need for
remedial measures has long become urgent,
and it is to be hoped that the Act of 1908
establishing the new ' Port of London Autho-
rity ' 7 will afford a much-needed relief, and
stop the serious decline in the trade of the port.
The West India Docks were the earliest
of such enterprises, at least in the county of
Middlesex. They were begun in July 1800
and took something over two years in con-
struction. A good feature of the undertaking
was the making a water-way across the Isle
of Dogs, thus avoiding a long bend of the
river. The West Indian trade at this time had
grown enormously. Shippers were rather tired
of waterside wharves, with their lack of ware-
house room, and lighterage was increasingly
troublesome and expensive. The first stone of
the docks was laid in the presence of a great
assemblage of merchants and shipowners,
headed by William Pitt and Lord Chancellor
Lough borough. The enthusiasm of that day
was well justified when the work was done.
The docks were occupied, and the new ware-
houses speedily filled with sugar, rare woods,
and other staple products of the West. The
saving to the mercantile community was
immediate and permanent, and the revenue is
understood to have benefited no less. Confi-
dence in the docking system was established.
A few years saw the completion of the
London Docks (1805), the East India Docks
(1806), St. Katharine's Dock (1828). Since
those days dock extension has proceeded with
intermittent but steady steps outside the
boundary of our county.
The River Thames, after all, has a practical
utility to which no combination of artificial
water-courses can aspire. It is a perfect high-
way ; and in its course of about 43 miles as
the southern boundary of the county from
Staines Bridge to the mouth of the River Lea,
affords a prodigious water-supply, beside all the
possible conveniences offered by water-side
premises. As to actual traffic upon its sur-
face, the Thames was, until the middle of the
' Stat. 8 Edw. VII, cap. 68.
I23
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
1 9th century, a most important and lively
artery for the purpose either of business or
pleasure. The existing steps, wharves, and
water-lanes are as old as anything on the
river, and betoken a habit of passing to and
fro by water, even if our chronicles did not
testify to the prevalence of the waterman's
calling. The rise of steam-navigation did not
materially affect the waterman ; it is rather
the haste engendered by a busier age which
has rendered the pursuit of his calling less
lucrative. The first steamer that usurped the
pleasure side of his trade was the Endeavour,
which plied to Richmond in the year 1830.
By 1842 the passenger traffic by steamers had
grown enormously. In the summer of that
year there were no fewer than four steamboat
companies making a profitable traffic on the
Thames.8 But, as in the case of the Padding-
ton barge above mentioned, these things lost
their popularity when speed, alike in pleasure
and business, was the urgent demand of a
rising generation.
The government of the river was originally
in the hands of the Corporation of London,
whose jurisdiction was limited to the lower
part, beginning at Staines Bridge. This
lasted until the year 1857, when the Thames
Conservancy Board was created by Act of
Parliament. Later legislation gave the Thames
Conservancy power over the whole length of
the river, besides a distance of five miles up
all its tributaries. The duties of the board
include the maintenance of weirs, locks, &c.,
prevention of pollution by sewage, regulations
as to fishing and pleasure-traffic, care of the
towing-path (which is continuous from Putney
upwards), dredging, and the general control
of the disposition of" the water.
Middlesex is wholly within the Thames
basin ; so that every spring within the county
finds its way into one or other of the northern
tributaries of the river. Of these, the Colne
skirts the western boundary of the county,
receiving no less than five important affluents
at or near Oxbridge ; near Staines it pours a
good volume of water into the Thames, be-
sides forming a separate channel which finds
its way to Hampton Court. The Cran,
rising in the higher levels near Harrow, and
augmented by the Yeading brooks, passes
through Cranford to Twickenham and Isle-
worth. The Brent, the stream of which is
arrested by a large reservoir constructed by
the Canal Company, meets the Thames at
Brentford. Several small bourns flowed into
the Thames in ancient times, which have
long since been converted into artificial lakes
' lllus. Land. News, 1842.
or suffered to become mere drains. The Lea
is a contributory from Bedfordshire and Hert-
fordshire, fed in its course by numerous
springs, and by storm-waters from several
rivulets. It is fairly certain that the Lea once
flowed with a more powerful stream, and was
a good natural water-way along the entire
eastern boundary of Middlesex.
There has been a good deal of vicissitude
in the process of bridging the Thames. Be-
fore the present fine bridge at Staines was
built there was a succession of failures. A
bridge existed here in very ancient days.
There is repeated mention of a bridge at
Staines in old records. The wooden one
existing towards the end of the 1 8th century
was at last condemned, and an Act of Parlia-
ment obtained for rebuilding. A stone bridge
was forthwith put in hand, and opened for
traffic in 1797. But this was found to be
insecure, and it had to be taken down. A
cast-iron bridge followed, and in its turn
failed. A third attempt was made, with a low
arch of cast iron supported on wooden piles ;
but this in turn was at length condemned.
George Rennie then undertook the construc-
tion, and the result was the handsome bridge
now standing. It was opened in 1832, with
much state, the ceremony being attended by
William IV and his queen.
Chertsey Bridge is a substantial structure in
stone, opened in 1785. It is hardly equal to
modern needs, with the increased speed and
size of modern traffic. A bridge was raised at
Walton, an eccentric-looking structure in wood
and brick, which required alteration and repair
from time to time. The central arch fell in
1859, and a new bridge was opened in 1863, a
rather ugly but more convenient structure.
Hampton Court Bridge was built in 1865, in
place of a wooden structure erected in 1750.
Kingston Bridge is one of the handsomest on
the river. It replaced a wooden one several
centuries old, and was opened in 1828. This
bridge now has a strain on its accommoda-
tion, and is fated to be altered if not entirely
superseded. On account of the busy popula-
tion in and around the town, Richmond
Bridge is likewise becoming inadequate to the
wants of the neighbourhood. It was built in the
year 1777. Haifa mile lower down is the foot-
bridge and lock, opened 19 May 1894. The
shallowness of the stream hereabouts prompted
a design which should hold up the tide at
half-ebb, and always provide sufficient water
for navigation. The plan was quite success-
ful, and added a new triumph to the arts of
modern bridge-building.
The new bridge at Kew, inaugurated
by King Edward VII in 1905, is a great
124
INDUSTRIES
ornament to the river, and an immense
improvement upon the old one of 1789.
That was of stone and brick, but it became
unfit for modern usage. The next bridge
is at Hammersmith, on the suspension prin-
ciple, opened in 1827. It has served its pur-
pose, and is highly attractive in appearance ;
but it is destined to make room for a heavier
structure, in view of modern needs. Fulham
Bridge is a very fine modern one, suitable to
the needs of an immense traffic. It was com-
pleted in 1885, replacing one of quaint-look-
ing appearance which dated from 1729. At
Wandsworth an iron lattice bridge was opened
in 1873. Battersea Bridge is one of the best
and handsomest on the river, raised in place
of an old wooden structure dating back two
centuries and a half. Below this are two
handsome suspension bridges, which were
rendered necessary by the extension of London
suburbs on this side.
The new Vauxhall Bridge, opened in 1906,
represents all that is complete in modern bridge-
building, being spacious, elegant, and substan-
tial, yet less expensive than its predecessor,
which cost nearly £300,000. This older
bridge had lasted only from the year 1816.
The suspension bridge at Lambeth was opened
in 1862, but is already considered defective as
far as concerns the upper works. The splen-
did iron bridge at Westminster was opened in
1860—2 after a long period of obstruction of
the water-way by its half-ruined predecessor
of 1750. This latter had been injured at the
foundations through the increased scour of
the river caused chiefly by the demolition of
old London Bridge. Near Charing Cross a
suspension-bridge was raised in 1842, named
after Hungerford Market, which has since
been superseded by a railway bridge with
accompanying footway. Waterloo Bridge is
still in some respects one of the finest in the
world, and was built some two years after the
date of the celebrated battle.
The remaining bridges are in London
proper. The Blackfriars Bridge of 1760 was
an excellent work ; but it suffered like its
neighbour from the stronger scour of recent
years. Its successor was finished in 1869,
and has lately been widened to provide tram-
way accommodation. Southwark Bridge was
built 1813- 1 g.9 The new London Bridge
is slightly to the west of the site of a
wooden structure of Saxon times, which
had several successors. The first stone was
laid in 1825. Half a million pounds were
9 A scheme is on foot for rebuilding Southwark
Bridge or improving its gradients and approaches ;
abo for building a new bridge near St. Paul's.
expended on the work, which was finished in
1831 and opened in state by William IV.
The congestion of traffic was relieved in 1 904
by widening the bridge to allow of four lines
of vehicles, the centre being reserved for light
carts and passenger conveyances. Finally,
the Tower Bridge, one of the great triumphs
of modern engineering, was completed in 1894.
The natural water supply of Middlesex is
copious. Some parts of the county are better
served than others. Until the invention of
artesian wells, there was both difficulty and ex-
pense in reaching water, because of the thick
deposit of clay beneath the surface. The
numerous springs which rise from northern
declivities supply every district of the county.
When these rivulets failed from drought, it was
formerly of great concern to have deep wells
for occasional supply. But well-sinking was
a serious affair in the London Clay. There
is record of a well at Paddington, where the
workmen had to go to a depth of 300 ft.
before reaching water. Another well at
Holloway, dug early in the igth century,
required an excavation of 172 ft. It is matter
of wonder that a system of storage was never
resorted to. At Ruislip, and at the head
waters of the Brent, near Hendon, are large
reservoirs which were provided for the wants
of the Canal Company. Similar constructions,
for domestic and other purposes, might have
been of immense utility in some districts.
Doubtless the question of initial expense hin-
dered resort to this sort of economy.
In selecting for detailed treatment the more
prominent industries, due weight has been
given to the following among other con-
siderations: — (i) The importance of the in-
dustry from its national character ; (2) its
historical interest ; (3) its first appearance in
this country ; and (4) its being principally
carried on in Middlesex. But a number of
trades, some of which merit more attention,
must for lack of room be allowed only a
cursory notice in this introduction.
It may be convenient to turn our attention
in the first place to the trades of East London
and Hackney, where the proportion of the
population engaged in manufacturing industries
is exceptionally large. It shows a percentage
of 39'95, whilst that of all London is 28^38,
and that of the whole of England 30*7. Out
of this army of workers we shall treat here
principally of those engaged in home occupa-
tions.
Tailoring is one of the chief industries, and
is carried on in some 900 workshops of Jewish
contractors, and by home workers both for
West End and City firms. 'The Jewish
125
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
coat-making industry is practically concen-
trated within an area of less than one square
mile, comprising the whole of Whitechapel, a
small piece of Mile End, and a part of St.
George's-in-the-East.' 10 Here is congregated
a compact Jewish community of from 30,000
to 40,000 persons of all nationalities. Yiddish
is the language of the streets, and Hebrew
announcements are everywhere to be seen.
The work of the English journeyman cannot
be equalled, but the conditions of his home
workshop are too often deplorable. Excellent
work is also produced in the Jewish workshop,
together with inferior work of every grade
down to the ' slops ' manufactured for the
export trade. The existence of the lowest
trade is dependent on the presence of a class
of workers such as Jews and women, with an
indefinitely low standard of life. Domestic
workshops are most numerous in the eastern
portion of Mile End Old Town ; Stepney and
Poplar are the centres of the slop, trouser, and
juvenile trade.
In point of numbers, bootmaking is an
equally important East End industry, and is
rapidly growing in extent, especially in the
districts of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green,
where it gives occupation to a considerable
fraction of the population.11 Under the old
system of bootmaking, the various workmen
engaged for bespoke work were the last-maker,
the clicker, who cut out the material for the
'uppers,' the closer, who sewed the upper or
top portion, and the maker, who fitted on the
sole or heel. Last-making is now almost a
separate business, and it is becoming increasingly
the custom to make uppers in a factory in
wholesale quantity. In the hand-made be-
spoke work, the labour of the closer was largely
done in the home, generally with the help of
the wife and daughters of the family. Since
the introduction of sewing-machines, many
closers have left the trade and no one is learn-
ing it. The machine-made bespoke work is
constructed with ready-made uppers from the
provinces, and completed by makers working, at
home or in associated workshops, on the fitted
last. In the ready-made wholesale trade the
organization is more complex, as cheapness is
an indispensable element. A complete machine-
sewn boot passes through the hands of twenty
different workers. The work of clickers and
rough-stuff cutters is usually done in the
factory in London, whilst lasters, closers, and
sole-sewers are out- workers. The manufac-
10 The writer has to acknowledge his indebtedness
to the splendid survey of this subject in Booth's
Life and Labour In Land.
11 Charles Booth, op. cit. (Ser. i), iv, 69.
tories in London vary considerably in extent.
There are the large makers who turn out
1 0,000 and more pairs a week, and the cham-
ber-masters who chiefly employ members of
their own family and whose weekly output is
limited to a few gross. Then we reach the
lowest level, that of the owner of a couple of
rooms, who cuts his uppers, gets his wife and
daughter to close them, and lasts and finishes
the boots himself. Owing principally to the
conditions resulting from the restrictions im-
posed by the Trade Union wage-standard, the
work is being driven from London to North-
ampton.
Shirt-making is largely carried on by women
in East London ; both shirts and underclothing
requiring good handiwork are made in several
middle-class London suburbs. The shirt ma-
chinists who take work home belong to various
grades of the social scale. Many are widows
who are partly assisted by their relatives or by
the parish. Some are young ladies who work
for pocket money for a mere trifle, and so lower
the standard of payment. Other causes of
low wages are incapacity (many of the workers
being feeble or inexperienced), sub-contract,
and the indifference to the quality of work on
the part of the consumer. Tie-making is
carried on partly in factories and partly in the
home. There is much sub-contracting, and
prices paid for labour greatly vary, although the
rate of payment is higher than that for shirts.
In umbrella-making, the covers and the
frames are made in factories, and are then
put together in dozens and given out to the
home-workers. There are also small umbrella-
makers in the East End who supply shops in
the neighbourhood ; they buy sticks and frames,
and their families are all employed in the actual
umbrella manufacture.
Corsets and stays are principally made in
provincial towns, but there are a few factories
in the East End. Several small stay-makers
have workshops of their own, employing a few
hands besides the members of their families,
and a few hundred women do work at home
for the factories.
The fur-trade is, with very few exceptions,
in Jewish hands, both in the City and in the
East End. The City furriers have part of the
work done at their own warehouses ; but most
of them give out the sewing to be done by
home-workers. The fur-sewing is most dis-
agreeable and unhealthy, besides being the
worst paid of any industry carried on in East
London workshops.
The box-making industry gives employment
largely to women. Fancy boxes are made
almost entirely on the premises of the manu-
facturer, but much of the work in plain boxes
126
INDUSTRIES
is done by out-door hands at home. The card-
board is cut by men, and then made up by
women and girls. Skill is required ; and a
girl does not become a good hand at plain
work under two years, whilst for fancy work
three years' training is required. Matchbox
making requires no previous training, and is
the lowest in the scale of the industries of the
poor. It is the last resort of the destitute, and
the employment of children of the earliest age.
A child can earn id. an hour, and few women
can earn more than i\d. an hour.
Brush-making is carried on principally in fac-
tories, very few of which give out work. The
work is fairly regular, and requires a combina-
tion of skill and honesty. The lighter parts
of the work are performed by women, and
shorter hours on the whole prevail in this
trade than in most others.
Match-making is a notable industry of East
London, in which over one thousand women
and girls are employed. The match girls have
successfully combined to promote their in-
terests, and make each other's cause their own.
They form clubs among themselves for buying
clothes and feathers, seven or eight paying is.
a week, and drawing lots to decide who shall
have the money each week. Their prolonged
strike in July 1888 resulted in the formation
of a Trade Union, the largest in England com-
posed of women and girls. By improvements
in the manufacture, the quantity of phosphorus
employed has been very greatly reduced, and a
considerable diminution in the terrible disease
necrosis has consequently resulted.
In the confectionery factories, the manufac-
ture of jam, preserves, pickles, and even sweets,
is in greater part performed by men, women
only being employed for labelling, packing, &c.
The employment is of an irregular kind, only a
certain number of the better hands being kept
on permanently.
Among other industries which deserve more
than a passing notice is that of cap-making.
Here the factory system is driving the small
workshops out of the field. The largest fac-
tory employs 600 girls, and the work is very
laborious, although fairly well paid.
Artificial flowers are made in Hoxton and De
Beauvoir Town, as well as by a few workers in
the East End. This is a season trade, and subject
also to much irregularity from the caprices of
fashion.
Feather-curling, although fluctuating with
changes of fashion, gives fairly regular employ-
ment to a large number of girls in East and
North-East London.
The industries which supply man's every-
day wants have the same characteristics more
or less in every locality. Among beverages,
the manufacture of aerated and mineral waters
is carried on by many firms such as Perrier,
Idris & Co., Schweppes Ltd., and John G.
Webb & Co.
Turning to solid food it is a noticeable
feature of the present day that the wants of
residents and visitors of all classes of society
were never so well provided for as by the
various hotels, restaurants, bread and dairy
companies, and people's cafe which now
abound. In this great improvement the me-
tropolis has certainly led the way. Of sauce
and pickle manufacturers there are two well-
known firms in Middlesex, John Burgess and
Son, and Crosse & Blackwell. In its vinegar
works the metropolis until lately took the lead,
and among the principal firms were those
of Champion & Co., in Old Street, and Henry
Sarson and Sons, City Road.
Middlesex was formerly noted for its exten-
sive distilleries ; the duty paid by English distil-
leries for the year ending 5 January 1833 was
£1,420,525 io*., which was nearly £100,000
above that paid in Scotland, but below that in
Ireland.12 Of the total duty paid in England,
two firms in the metropolis contributed to-
gether more than one-fourth, viz., O. H.
Smith and R. Carrington of Thames Bank
£201,287 5*., and T. and G. Smith of
Whitechapel £207,559 2s. 6</. This industry
is still extensively carried on in Middlesex, but
almost wholly within the metropolitan district.
There are maltsters at Brentford, Chiswick,
Isleworth, Staines, and many other localities.
Malting seems to have b^en carried on at En-
field to a considerable extent at an early period.
In the latter half of the 1 5th century it is re-
corded 13 that John Hunnesdon of ' Endefeld '
sought to recover £8 135. lod. from Robert
Trott of Southwark, brewer, who ' hath used
wekely to bye malt by the space of many yeres
of your seid besecher,' and who it seems never
settled in full for the same. ' At some tyme
ther hath remayned unpayed for 2 or 3 quarters
of malt, at som tyme 4 or 5, at som tyme mor,'
until at length Hunnesdon's patience was ex-
hausted. Other Middlesex maltsters (of the
same period) of whom record exists are William
Hall of ' Endfeld,' 14 Henry Wynn of Enfield,15
and William Barley of ' Enffelde.' I6
Hat-making was formerly a great Middlesex
industry, but has of late years shrunk to very
small proportions in the metropolis. The
manufacture of felt hats was introduced early
in the reign of Henry VIII ; while in 1530
" Commissioner! 0, Excise Enq. Rep. vii, 1834-5,
p. 229.
11 Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 60, no. 97.
14 Ibid. bdle. 64, no. 189. " Ibid. no. no
" Ibid. bdle. 86, no. 47.
I27
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
letters of denization were granted to Martin
Johnson from Guelders,17 ' strawen hat maker,
otherwise splyter hat maker.'
Norden mentions a copper and brass mill
at Isleworth between that place and Horton,
where the metal was wrought, melted, and
forged from ore which came from Somerset.
« Manic artificial! deuises,' he says, ' are there
to be noted in the performance of the
worke.'18 These works formed the subject
of a lengthy dispute between John Erode and
Sir Richard Martin, Lord Mayor of London
in 1593, which came before the Privy Council
in I596.19 The manufacture carried on was
that of ' lattin and battry,' the metals being
produced chiefly in an unwrought state,
although the term ' battry ' was usually ap-
plied to brass or copper vessels and chiefly
those for culinary and table use. Erode in
his petition states that the metal was procured
from a mixture of copper and calamine ore by
a process employed by one Christopher Shutz,
who had ' great cunning and experience ' in
its use. In 1565 Shutz, with a partner,
William Humphrey, obtained an exclusive
licence to search, dig for, and use calamine
stone. These partners, as Erode alleged,
although they brought over divers strangers,
did not bring anything to pass, 'and so gave
yt over as not fecible.' The project then, he
says, continued without hope for nineteen
years, when he in partnership with others
leased the privilege for fourteen years at a
yearly rent of £50. During the period of
his lease his expenditure upon the works at
Isleworth had amounted to £3,500, and he
claimed to have brought the undertaking by
his study and labour to a state of perfection.
He is now (1596) threatened with forfeiture of
his lease and seizure of his ' stuffe and tooles '
for non-payment of rent. He prays that his
tools and metal may not be seized, as he is
willing and able to pay, and not personally
defaulting ; he is equally prepared to buy
out his partners or that they should buy him
out. Sir Richard Martin in his reply states
that he, Andrew Palmer, and Humphrey
Michell, were persuaded to become Brode's
partners by his statement that he could per-
fectly produce ' commixed copper,' and that
it would bring in £1,000 a year. The alder-
man then agreed to defray the charges of the
first year, amounting to about £3,000, and
each of the other partners contributed £800,
so that Brode's statement that he had paid
£3,500 was not true. Erode was allowed
" W. Page, Denizationi and Naturalizationi
(Huguenot Soc.), p. xlvii.
18 Speculum Britanniae (ed. 1723), 41.
"Lansd. MS. 81, fol. I.
by the partners £50 a year to direct the
works, but this he must have taken out of
capital, as no profit was made. He would not
divulge the secret (if it existed) either to his
partners or to the Mines Corporation, although
that company offered him and Palmer on such
condition a further lease of seven years. Shutz
and Humphrey's ' privilege ' had meanwhile
been acquired by the Mines Corporation.
Erode in his rejoinder gives some curious
information about the works. He asserts
that Shutz and Humphrey did not succeed in
perfecting their discovery, although they had
from 20 to 30 tons of calamine stone from
Worle Hill in Somerset conveyed to Tintern
Abbey, where it was experimented upon with-
out success by one Hinckins, a stranger whom
they employed. He denies Sir Richard's
account of the financial side of the transac-
tions, and reaffirms his previous statement.
The co-partners employed one John Dickson,
coppersmith of London, to ' melte and batter
out 20,000 wt. of copper and make it into
plates and make the same malleable.' Dickson
failed, but he the said Erode performed the
task, and also refined 43 tons of Barbary copper,
and brought it into plates, 'an act perfected
never before by any Englishman.' About
eight years since, Sir Richard Martin and
Michell withdrew from the partnership and
received the whole of their stock back again
and £238 more in copper, plates, and kettles.
The ' lattin ' works were also attempted, but
nothing brought to pass ; by expending his
own money Erode has brought these to per-
fection. On 17 April 1596 the Mineral and
Battry Company petitioned Lord Burghley20
to order Erode to supply their new lessees
with materials at reasonable rates. They
state that the patent granted in 7 Elizabeth to
Shutz and Humphrey was for making ' lattyn,
battrye, castworke, and wyre.' In 10
Elizabeth the patent was acquired by their
company then incorporated, which consisted
of thirty-six shareholders, among whom were
the Duke of Norfolk, the Lord Treasurer,
Lord Cobham, and others. The company
pursued the work for a time, and then took
up wire-work and other work under another
patent. In 24 Elizabeth they granted a lease
of their battery works for 150 years at £50
a year to John Erode and his partners, who
built the works at Isleworth, Erode having
sole management with £50 a year for his
pains. Erode caused great loss to his partners,
refused to divulge his secret, and now refused
to pay the rent. The company then by judicial
order made his lease void, and granted a new
" Ibid. fol. 2-3.
128
INDUSTRIES
lease of twenty-one years to others at £ i oo
rent for the first year and £400 yearly after.
They conclude by stating that Erode has
secured the supply of calamine and will not
supply it to the new lessees. The petition is
signed by Sir Julius Caesar, Sir Richard
Martin, Thomas Caesar, William Bond,
Richard Martin, jnr., and others. The com-
pany and Sir Richard Martin were also in
controversy in 1596 with Richard Hanbery
and Edmund Wheler.21 How these disputes
ended does not appear. Lysons wrote in
I795»2S 'these copper-mills still exist, being
situated at Baberbridge ; they belong fb the
Duke of Northumberland, and are rented by
the incorporated Society of the Mines Royal.'
Although cutlery as a trade has long since
left the metropolis, the making of surgical
instruments is a branch which still continues
to flourish in this county, and to produce
some highly-skilled workmen. Among the
principal Middlesex firms are Down Bros.,
Ltd., St. Thomas's Street, S.E. ; Allen and
Hanbury's, Ltd., Wigmore Street ; and John
Weiss & Son, Ltd., now of Oxford Street, but
originally established in the Strand in 1787.
In its highest and most costly form gold-
smiths' and silversmiths' work is largely carried
on in Middlesex by firms of high standing.
Soap-manufacture is an old established
Middlesex industry. From the report of the
Excise Commissioners for 1835 23 it appears
that whilst the total amount of duty paid for
all England was £1,418,832 4*., fifty-five
firms in London contributed no less a portion
than £378,175 135. 6±d. Ten of these firms
paid over £10,000 each. One of the oldest
firms in Middlesex is that of D. & W. Gibbs,
Ltd., whose premises, known as the City Soap
Works, are in Wapping. The business was
established in 1712, and was subsequently ac-
quired by David Gibbs, whose grandsons are
now directors of the company. Until 1889 the
manufactory was in Milton Street, Cripplegate;
but that building being destroyed by fire, the
firm purchased the business of Paton and
Charles at Wapping together with that of
Sharp Brothers. The works cover 2% acres
of ground, and employ 2OO hands, excluding
the clerical and travelling staff, numbering
about fifty. The firm holds patents for many
specialities in soap. Other important Mid-
dlesex firms are A. F. Pears & Co., who have
large works at Isleworth ; Osborne Bauer and
Cheseman of Golden Square ; and T. D.
Rowe & Co., and Wylie & Co., both of
Brentford.
"Lansd. MS. 8 1, fol. 4-7.
28 Environs of Land, iii, 122.
" Rep. xvii, 64.
Although the London streets have much
improved in cleanliness, the art of the
shoe-black has long been a necessity, and
blacking has always been an important Mid-
dlesex industry, the firm of Day and Martin
being one of its chief representatives.
In the metropolis, with its concentration of
public and private boards and institutions, its
ever-increasing population, and the rebuilding
and repairs of existing property, there is always
so much work for builders that the building
trade is one of the most important of its in-
dustrial groups. Brick and tile-making is ex-
tensively carried on, more especially on the
outer fringe of the London districts. It seems
probable that bricks and coarse tiles have been
made in Middlesex from an early period.
Late in the I5th century we hear of John
Maier and Agnes his wife making tiles for
William Code of Harlesden Green at the rate
of lid. per i,ooo.24
There are floorcloth and linoleum factories
at Staines (Linoleum Manufacturing Co.), Ed-
monton (Ridley, Whitley & Co.), and Ponders
End (Corticene Floor Covering Co.).
Ever since Robert Barren of Hoxton took
out a patent 25 for a lock ' far more secure than
any hitherto made,' the locksmiths and safe-
makers of Middlesex have done their best to
provide secure keeping for the great wealth of
the metropolis. Some of the principal firms
in Middlesex are Bramah & Co., New Bond
Street ; C. H. Griffiths & Sons, Bethnal
Green ; Ratner Safe Co., Ltd., Bromley-by-
Bow ; and John Tann, Old Ford.
London being distant from the coalfields,
manufactures in iron are carried on to a small
extent only. Copper is worked largely in
Middlesex, and so is lead ; both metals being
so malleable and ductile that their manufacture
can be effected with much less heat than iron
requires. The extensive lead-smelting works
of the old firm, Locke, Lancaster and John-
son & Sons, Ltd., are situated at Poplar,
Limehouse, and Millwall.
Gas-tar works form an important feature of
the East London Industries. The works of
Messrs. Burt, Boulton, and Haywood for the
distillation of gas-tar occupied in 1876 about
1 7 acres at Prince Regent's Wharf, Silvertown ;
and another 2 acres at Millwall. Gas tar
produces by distillation four valuable sub-
stances : naphtha, creosote oil, anthracene, and
pitch. But still more valuable products are
the series of aniline dyes, the discovery of
which forms one of the greatest triumphs of
modern chemistry. In another department
I29
14 Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 150, no. 82.
" No. 1 200, 31 Oct. 1778.
'7
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
of these large works the making of creosote
railway sleepers was carried on upon an ex-
tensive scale.26
Many leading firms of manufacturing
chemists have extensive works in Middlesex.
At Southall are the premises of W. Houlder,
Son & Co. ; at Poplar are F. Allen & Sons ; at
Ponder's End, T. Morson & Son ; at Houns-
low, Parke, Davis & Co. ; at West Drayton,
Alfred White & Sons; in the City Road,
Stafford Allen & Sons ; at Limehouse, Chap-
man & Messel ; and at Hackney Wick, W. C.
Barnes & Co., Ltd., and E. Beanes & Co. At
the works of Carless, Capel & Leonard, at
Hackney Wick, the various products of petro-
leum are manufactured on a large scale, and
oil-refining is well represented by Fenner,
Alder & Co. of Millwall ; Hubbuck & Co. of
Ratcliff ; and the Union Oil and Cake Mills at
Limehouse. Compressed and liquid gases are
produced by Coxeter & Son at Seaton Street,
N.W. ; and the British Oxygen Company
manufacture oxygen at Westminster.
Paint, colour, and varnish manufacturers
are represented by D.Anderson & Son of Old
Ford, and Denton & Jutsum of Bow Common ;
Louis Berger & Son of Homerton, and Dugsjan,
Neel, & McColm, Ltd., of Millwall. "Of
makers of electrical appliances we can only
mention the Jandus Arc Lamp and Electrical
Company, of Holloway. Among the drug
manufacturers are Allen & Hanbury of
Bethnal Green, and Burgoyne & Burbidges
of Mile End New Town. The manufacture
of perfumery is represented by Hovenden &
Sons of City Road, and W. J. Bush & Co.
of Hackney. That of celluloid is carried on
by Frederick Hill & Co., at Kingsland.
There are extensive powder-mills in the
parish of Twickenham, 2 miles from Houns-
low, generally known as the Hounslow Powder
Mills ; also at East Bedfont.
Among the decayed industries of Middle-
sex is that of sugar-refining, which at one
time was an important trade in the east of
London. We learn from Stow that 'about
the year 1544 refining of sugar was first used
in England. Then there were but twosugar-
fiouses ; and their profit was but very little, by
reason there were so many sugar bakers in
Antwerp, and sugar came from thence
better cheap than it could be afforded at
London ; and for the space of twenty years
together those two sugar-houses served the
whole realm, both to the commendation and
profit of them that undertook the same.' *7
Sugar undergoes but little manufacture after
* Crory, East London Industries (1876), 25.
17 Survey, 1720, bk. v, 244.
it reaches our shores. The business of the
sugar refiner, or sugar baker as he has been
wrongly termed, is that of preparing from the
common brown ' moist ' the white conical
lumps or loaves of crystallized sugar, familiarly
known as lump sugar. This used to be
carried on in the neighbourhood of Goodman's
Fields, the factories being congregated within
a circle of half-a-mile radius immediately east-
ward of Aldgate.28 The chief supply of Eng-
lish sugar came formerly from the West
Indies, where the sugar-cane was cultivated to
a vast extent. Its preparation for shipment
involved three stages : it was first a juice ex-
pressed from the cane, then a syrup from
which the impurities had been removed, and
lastly a brown granulated substance from
which a considerable portion of molasses or
uncrystallizable sugar had been separated. The
ponderous hogsheads which used to be seen
forty or fifty years ago outside the shops of
the retail grocers contained moist sugar, some-
what resembling that imported by the refiner,
but with a finer and softer grain. This sugar,
well known to the housewife in those days as
'sevenpenny or eightpenny moist,' had various
shades of brown colour, according to its
quality. This was caused by the presence of
molasses to a greater or less extent, but the
sugar was largely consumed in the condition
in which it arrived from the producing country,
this being possible, and even pleasant, with
the sweet and fragrant cane muscavadoes.
Loaf sugar (which was a luxury in the fifties,
even to the middle classes) and other sugars
of fine quality were obtained by purifying
still further the sugar of commerce, the object
of the refiner being to expel the molasses
together with other impurities which still re-
mained in the sugar as imported. The
factories for sugar refining were of special con-
struction, the chief object being to obtain a
large extent of flooring. Hence the buildings
were lofty, containing a large number of
stories, and being lighted by numerous small
windows. The interior presented a peculiar
appearance arising from the small height of
the rooms compared with their great extent.
As a precaution against fire, rendered necessary
by the inflammable nature of sugar, the re-
fineries were largely constructed of iron, stone,
and brick. The great increase in the use of
beetroot sugar made no difference to the
operations of the refiner. The hogsheads of
sugar or the bags of beet were emptied on an
** Among the tenants of the Cutlers' Company
on their Houndsditch estates were many who
rented melting houses between 1584 and 1598,
the period for which the information is available.
130
INDUSTRIES
upper floor, and then discharged in shoots to
a lower floor to be melted in the ' blow-ups ' ;
these were cast-iron tanks fitted with me-
chanical stirrers and steam pipes for heating
the water. The solution, called ' liquor,' was
brought to a certain degree of gravity (25 to
33 deg. Baume) and then filtered through twilled
cotton bags, encased in a meshing of hemp.
The syrup was next decolorized by being
passed through beds of animal charcoal, in-
closed in cisterns to a depth of from 30 ft. to
50 ft., the sugar being then discharged into
tanks. It was then boiled in vacuum pans,
and variously treated afterwards according to
the nature of the finished sugar required. To
make sugar loaves, small crystals only were
formed in the pan, and the granular magma
was poured into steam-jacketed open pans,
and raised to a temperature of about 180 to
190 deg. Fahr., which liquefied the grains.
The hot solution was then cast into conical
moulds of the shape of the loaves, where it
crystallized into a solid mass. A plug at the
bottom of the mould was then opened to
allow the syrup containing coloured and other
impurities to drain away. This process was
assisted by pouring into the cone successive
doses of saturated syrup, ending with a syrup
of pure colourless sugar. The syrup which
drained from the loaves was sold as golden
syrup ; the liquor which obstinately remained
in the interstices being driven out by suction
or centrifugal action ; the loaf was then
rounded off, papered, and placed in a stove for
drying.
The art of dyeing textile fabrics and
leather had been practised from an early
period in different parts of England, and
much woad from Toulouse, and madder and
scarlet dye from Italy, were imported by
Florentine and Genoese merchants. So great,
however, was the skill of the Continental
dyers that much English cloth was from the
1 4th to the 1 6th century sent abroad to be
dyed and finished. During the Tudor and
Stuart periods improved methods of dyeing
were introduced into this country. John
Baptist Semyn,29 a Genoese dwelling in
Southwark, the king's dyer, was made a
denizen in 1533. In the same reign several
foreign leather dyers settled in or near
London, and James Tybault, who took out
letters of denization in 1544, describes him-
self as ' a leather dyer after the Spanish dye-
ing.' He had been then eighteen years in
England. In 1561 Stiata Cavalcaunti, a
Florentine, obtained a licence to be the sole
" W. Page, Denizations and Naturafizatitm
(Huguenot Soc.), p. xliii et seq.
importer of indigo into England, where it
was then apparently unknown as a dyeing
agent, though it had been employed at a
much earlier time in Italy. It did not, how-
ever, come into general use, and was quite a
novelty in England sixteen years later.30 In
1567 Peter de Croix31 offered to set up the
' feate of dying and dressing of clothis after
the manna of Flaunders.' In a return of
aliens32 in 1568 he is described as a French-
man ' who goeth to the Frentche church,'
while in a house crowded with refugees in St.
Magnus parish we hear of ' Francis Tybbold
dyer, borne in Ipar, in Flanders, and goeth to
the Dutch churche ; he paith no rent.' With
the immigration of Protestant refugees foreign
dyers of silk, leather, and cloth increased in
numbers in and about the city of London ;
but the most important enterprise undertaken
by a dyer of foreign origin belongs to the
next century when Dr. Johannes Sibertus
Kuffler of Leyden, who had married a
daughter of the famous Dutch chemist
Drebbel, set up a scarlet-dye house at Bow,
probably putting to practical use improved
methods learnt from his father-in-law. The
scarlet he obtained soon became known as
' Bow dye." Further improvements in dye-
ing cloth were made by Bauer, a Fleming
who came to England in i667.33
Gun-making and the manufacture of small
arms is an important industry of the county.
The Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield
was built in 1855-6 at a cost of ^150,000 ;
and has a station (Enfield Lock) on the Great
Eastern Railway. The buildings form three
sides of a quadrangle, and, with the testing
ranges, cover an area of about 5 acres. The
new magazine rifle is now made instead of
the Martini-Henri, and machine-guns and
swords are also manufactured. About four
thousand rifles can be turned out weekly. At
Edmonton are the ammunition works of Ely
Brothers, Ltd. This industry is under the
control of the Gunmakers' Company, the only
livery company whose hall is situated outside
the boundaries of the City of London. As
compared with the majority of City gilds the
Gunmakers' Company is quite a modern in-
stitution, not having been incorporated until
the reign of Charles I. Under the charter of
this sovereign, dated 14 March 1637, power
was given to the company to prove and mark
all gun-barrels made in London, which the
"Lansd. MS. 24, fol. 156.
" Ibid. 9, fol. 208.
11 Kirk, Returns of Aliens (Huguenot Soc.), iii,
370 et seq.
13 J. S. Burn, Hist. Foreign Refugees, 259.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
makers were obliged to bring to the company's
proof-house for such purpose. The authority
of the company over the trade was confirmed
by the Act of 53 George III, cap. 115,
(1813), and by subsequent amending statutes.
The last of these Acts, under which the
company now exercises its powers, was passed
in 1868, 31-2 Victoria, cap. 113. The
proof-house is in Commercial Road East, and
serves the company for the purposes of a hall.
In one of the principal apartments is a fine
trophy of arms. Apart from its trade duties
and privileges the company exercises all the
functions of an ordinary livery company. It
is governed by a master and two wardens,
chosen annually from the members of the
court of assistants, and has a clerk, proof-
master, beadle, and other officials. The com-
pany, in common with the other City gilds,
makes liberal grants from its income to pen-
sioners and general philanthropic objects.
The Thames near the metropolis was once
the seat of a flourishing trade in shipbuilding,
which has now almost become extinct. In
April 1594 Peter Hills of Redrith (Rother-
hithe) received a tally for 431 crowns, value
55. each, as the queen's gift towards his
charges in building three new ships.3* The
number of shipwrights employed in the
metropolis shows a rapid decrease in the census
returns. The number in 1 86 1 was 8,300;
in 1871, 6,200; in 1881, 5,300; and in
1891, 2,300; this last return being little
more than one-fourth of those counted in
1 86 1.35 The finest vessels in the East India
trade were made in the Thames shipbuilding
yards, but this valuable industry is being gradu-
ally lost to the metropolis. In August 1907
it was announced that Yarrow's yard at Mill-
wall would be entirely closed within twelve
months, and the business removed to Scotstoun
on the Clyde.38 This well-known firm of
marine and mechanical engineers was esta-
blished in 1864, and their premises at Poplar
covered 12 acres of ground at the river side.
Here they had given employment to hun-
dreds of artisans in East London during the
last fifty years. Their speciality was torpedo
boats, torpedo-boat destroyers, vessels of shal-
low draught for military and trading pur-
poses, and the ' Yarrow ' water-tube boilers.
They especially succeeded in the construction
of high-speed naval craft, which they supplied
both to the British and to foreign govern-
ments. The firm was incorporated as a
limited company in 1897. Another well-
known firm of shipbuilders below bridge is
the Thames Iron Works, whose extensive
premises are at Canning Town, on the side of
the River Lea. At Chiswick there are the
large engineering and steam-launch build-
ing works of Thorneycroft & Co., equally
famous with Searle & Sons, their old com-
petitors on the Surrey shore.
The control of all Middlesex industries
within a radius varying from three to ten or
more miles from the metropolis lay, in former
times, with the City authorities ultimately,
and more directly with the companies con-
trolling the various trades. This authority
still exists in some industries — the goldsmiths
and stationers, for example. But it fell gene-
rally into disuse towards the close of the i8th
century.
SILK-WEAVING
The origin of this important industry as
located in Spitalfields dates from the revoca-
tion of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in
1685, when the French Protestants, driven by
persecution from their own country, took
refuge in England in large numbers. Long
before this, however, silk-weavers from abroad
had settled in England, and during the reign
of Henry VIII a considerable number of silk-
workers, principally from Rouen, made their
homes in this country. During the reign of
Elizabeth, French and Flemish refugees had
crowded into England, but do not appear to
have settled in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green,
M Cat. S.P. Dm. 1591-4, p. 480.
* Booth, Life antl Labour of the People of London :
Industries, i, 178.
which were at that time mere country
hamlets.
A great body of the refugees of 1685
occupied a large district which is usually called
Spitalfields, but which includes also large por-
tions of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, White-
chapel, and Mile End New Town. The
great majority brought with them little beyond
the knowledge of their occupations, and being
in great necessity, subscriptions for their im-
mediate relief were procured to a large amount
by means of the King's Briefs. On 16 April
1687 an Order in Council prescribed a fresh
general collection in England, Scotland, and
Ireland. The amount thus obtained was
about ,£200,000, which formed a fund known
* Daily Telegraph, 23 Aug. 1907.
13*
INDUSTRIES
as the Royal Bounty. A lay French com-
mittee composed of the chiefs of the immigra-
tion was entrusted with the annual distribu-
tion of a sum of £16,000 amongst the poor
refugees and their descendants. A second
committee composed of ecclesiastics under the
direction of the Archbishop of Canterbury,
the Bishop of London, and the Lord Chan-
cellor, was formed for dividing amongst the
distressed pastors and their churches an annual
sum of £1,718 drawn from the public
treasury.1
From the first report of the French com-
mittee, dated December 1687 and published
in the following year, it appears that 13,050
French refugees were settled in London, the
greater part of whom were probably located
in Spitalfields. The editor of Stow's Survey
of London pays a high tribute to the character
and industry of the refugees. Speaking of
Spitalfields he writes : 2 ' Here they have found
quiet and security, and settled themselves in
their several trades and occupations ; weavers
especially. Whereby God's blessing surely is
not only brought upon the parish by receiving
poor strangers, but also a great advantage
hath accrued to the whole nation by the rich
manufactures of weaving silks and stuffs and
camlets, which art they brought along with
them. And this benefit also to the neigh-
bourhood, that these strangers may serve for
patterns of thrift, honesty, industry, and sobriety
as well.'
The principal source of information as to
the Spitalfields weavers themselves is contained
in the registers of the various Huguenot
churches to which they belonged. A cluster
of eleven of these congregations existed 3 from
the latter part of the I7th century to the
beginning of the igth, in Spitalfields, Shore-
ditch, Petticoat Lane, and Wapping.
The registers of one of these churches, that
known as ' La Patente,' which after various
migrations settled in Brown's Lane near
Spitalfields Market, have been printed by the
Huguenot Society.4 They extend from 1689
to 1786, when the congregation was merged
in the London Walloon Church, and show
that the French population of the district con-
sisted very largely of silk weavers and their
allied trades. A great preponderance of
1 For an exhaustive account of the sums raised
for the relief of foreign Protestant refugees and
the distribution of the amount, see an article by
W. A. Shaw, in Engl. Hut. Rev. (1894), ix,
662-83.
'Stow, Surv. of Lund. bk. iv, 48.
* Burn, Hiit. Protestant Refugees in Engl. (1846),
159-80.
4PMcationi, xi (1898).
weavers over those engaged in other trades is
found in the settlements of foreign refugees ;
and the editor, Mr. William Minet,5 suggests
in explanation that the new religion may
have spread specially among the men of this
trade.
The strangers were skilled weavers from
Lyons and Tours, who set up their looms in
Spitalfields and there manufactured in large
quantities lustrings, velvets, brocades, satins,
very strong silks known as paduasoys, watered
silks, black and coloured mantuas, ducapes,
watered rabies, and stuffs of mingled silk and
cotton — all of the highest excellence, which
previously could only be procured from the
famous looms of France. The refugees soon
taught the people of Spitalfields to produce
these and other goods of the finest quality
for themselves, and their pupils soon equalled
and even excelled their teachers. Weiss says6
that the figured silks which proceeded from
the London manufactories were due almost
exclusively to the skill and industry of three
refugees, Lauson, Mariscot, and Monceaux.
The artist who supplied the designs was
another refugee named Beaudoin. A common
workman named Mongeorge brought them
the secret recently discovered at Lyons, of
giving lustre to silk taffeta : this enabled
Spitalfields to obtain a large share of the trade
for which Lyons had long been famous. Up
to that time large quantities of black lustrings
specially made for English use, and known
as English taffetas, had been annually
imported from France. The manufacture
of lustrings and alamode silks, then
articles in general use, was rapidly brought
by the Spitalfield weavers to a state of great
excellence, and the persons engaged in this
industry were, in 1692, incorporated by char-
ter under the name of the Royal Lustring
Company.7 The company then procured the
passing of an Act prohibiting the importation
of foreign lustrings and alamodes, alleging as a
ground for passing such a restriction in their
favour that the manufacture of these articles
in England had now reached a greater degree
of perfection than was obtained by foreigners.
An anonymous writer in 1695,* who de-
claims against the tricks of stock-jobbers and
the great number of joint-stock trading
companies, makes exception in favour of
(among other undertakings) the Royal Lus-
tring Company, which he says has ' throve,
1 Ibid. p. xx.
* Charles Weiss, Hist, of French Protestant
Refugees (1854), 253.
7 G. R. Porter, ' Treatise on the Silk Manu-
facture,' Lardner1! Cab. Cycl. (1831), 60-1.
* Angliae Tutamen, or the safety of Engl. 31.
'33
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
and will so long as they keep the stock-jobbers
from breaking in upon them.' In spite of its
prohibition the importation of French goods
still continued, and for its greater protection
the company received a confirmation of their
charter by Act of Parliament in 1698," and
an important extension of their powers and
privileges. The sole right ' of making, dress-
ing and lustrating of plain and black alamodes,
renforcez, and lustrings ' in England and
Wales was granted to them for fourteen years.
Before the expiration of its charter, however,
a change in the public taste had set in, fabrics
of a different texture had become fashionable,
and the company lost all its money and was
finally broken up.
The weavers in 1 7 1 3 10 presented a petition
to Parliament against the commercial treaty
with France, in which they stated ' that by
the encouragement of the Crown and of divers
Acts of Parliament, the silk manufacture is
come to be above twenty times as great as
it was in the year 1664, and that all sorts of
as good black and coloured silks, gold and
silver stuffs and ribands, are now made here
as in France. The black silk for hoods and
scarfs, not made here above twenty-five years
ago, hath amounted annually to above
,£300,000 for several years past, which before
were imported from France. Which increase
of the silk manufacture hath caused an
increase of our exportation of woollen goods to
Turkey, Italy &c.'
The silk industry received a great impetus
from the exertions of Sir Thomas Lombe,
who introduced from Italy the process of
organzining (or preparing for the weaver) raw
silk by machinery, for which he was granted
a patent in 1718. When his patent ran out
in 1732 he applied for a renewal on the
grounds that it was owing to his ingenuity
that silk was now 5*. a pound cheaper in
England. Such outcry, however, was raised
by the cotton manufacturers and others, who
wished to use his apparatus, that Parliament
refused the renewal, but voted him £14,000
as compensation.
In 1718 also a certain John Apletree
conceived the notion of rendering England
independent of importing Italian raw silk by
a system of silkworm farming upon an ex-
tensive scale. A patent was granted him,
and he issued a prospectus inviting the public
to subscribe to the amount of a million pounds.
A plantation of silkworms was actually made
in Chelsea walled park. The apparatus
included an evaporating stove and ' a certain
* Slat, of the Realm, vii, 428.
" S. W. Beck, Draper"! Diet. 309.
engine called the Egg Cheste.' u But the
English climate not being suitable for silk-
worm farming, the experiment soon proved a
complete failure.
The Spitalfields industry now advanced
with great rapidity ; but foreign competition, in
spite of prohibitory legislation, continued to
increase, and was much encouraged by the
preference shown to French materials and
fashions over those of native design. On the
other hand, the tide of fashion in France set
with at least equal strength in favour of
English goods.1*
The growing fashion for wearing Indian
calicoes and printed linen was the cause of
serious disturbances in 1719." On 13
June a mob of about 4,000 Spitalfields
weavers paraded the streets of the City attack-
ing all females whom they could find wearing
Indian calicoes or linens, and sousing them
with ink, aqua fortis, and other fluids. The
Lord Mayor obtained the assistance of the
Trained Bands to suppress the rioters, two of
whom were secured by the Horse Grenadiers
and lodged in the Marshalsea Prison. As
soon as the Guards left, the mob re-assembled,
the weavers tearing all the calico gowns they
could meet with. The troops were hurried
back from Whitehall, and new arrests were
made. The weavers then attempted to
rescue their comrades, and were not deterred
by volleys of blank cartridge fired by the
soldiers ; one of the troops then fired ball,
wounding three persons. The next day
four of the mob were committed to Newgate
for rioting, and on Sunday night two more
were sent there for felony in tearing the
gown off the back of one Mrs. Beckett.14
In 1721 the manufacture of silk in England
had increased in value to £700,000 more
than formerly.16 It is described as ' one of
the most considerable branches of the manu-
factures of this kingdom ' in an Act passed in
the same year for the encouragement of this
industry.16 This Act granted on the exporta-
tion of wrought fabrics a drawback, or re-
payment of part of the duties exacted, on the
importation of the raw material, which was
practically equivalent to a bounty. The high
duties on foreign silk led to smuggling on a
most extensive scale. French writers estimate
the average exportation of silks from France
to England from 1688 to 1741 at about
11 H. D. Traill, Social Engl. v, 148-9 ; T. F.
Croker, Walkfr. Lond. to Fulbam (1860), 90-1.
" Porter, op. cit. 63.
11 William C. Sydney, Engl. and the English, ii,l95-
" Orig. Weekly Journ. 20 June, 1719.
" C. King, Brit. Merchant (1721), ii, 220.
" Stat. 8 Geo. I, cap. 15.
'34
INDUSTRIES
12,500,000 francs or ^500,000 a year in
value.
In the rebellion of 1745 the silk manu-
facturers of Spitalfields were especially promi-
nent in loyally supporting the throne ; they
waited personally upon the king and assured
him of their unswerving loyalty and readiness
to take up arms in his cause if need required.
Each firm had endeavoured to induce their
workpeople to give a like promise, and the
total number of men which Spitalfields thus
offered to furnish was 2,919. The address to
King George 17 presented by Mr. Alderman
Baker is followed by a list of the manufacturers'
names, against each of which is placed the
number of workmen ' who have been engaged
by their masters to take up arms when called
thereto by His Majesty in defence of his per-
son and government,' amounting to 2,919 as
above. The list includes eighty-four masters,
the greater proportion of whom bear French
names.
In 1763 attempts were made to check the
prevalence of smuggling, and the silk mer-
cers of the metropolis are said to have recalled
their orders for foreign goods. It appears,
however, from an inquiry made by a Committee
of the Privy Council appointed in 1766 that
smuggling was then carried on to a greater
extent than ever, and that 7,072 looms were
out of employment. Riots broke out in the
beginning of October 1763, when several
thousand journeymen assembled in Spitalfields
and broke open the house of one of the masters.
They destroyed his looms, cut to pieces much
valuable silk, carried his effigy in a cart through
the neighbourhood and afterwards burnt it,
hung in chains from a gibbet.18
Although the English silks were now con-
sidered to be superior to those of foreign make,
the latter found a ready market in England,
and their importation caused great excitement
among the weavers, who petitioned Parliament
to impose double duties upon all foreign wrought
silks. Their petition not being granted, the
London weavers went to the House of Com-
mons on 10 January 1764 'with drums beat-
ing and banners flying,' to demand the total
prohibition of foreign silks.19 This was the day
of the opening of Parliament, and its members
were besieged by the weavers with tales of the
great distress which had fallen upon them and
their families. Some relief was afforded by
Parliament20 by lowering the import duty on
raw silk and prohibiting the importation of
" Proc. Huguenot Sac. ii, 453-6.
18 Gent. Mag. xxxiii, 514-15.
" Knight, Land, ii, 394 ; Porter, op. cit. 66-7.
'" Stat. 5 Geo. Ill, cap. 29, 48.
silk ribbons, stockings, and gloves. The dealers
in foreign silks also undertook to countermand
all their orders for foreign silks, and a contri-
bution was made for the immediate relief of
the sufferers. By these means the weavers
were for the time appeased, and the only
violence committed was that of breaking the
windows of some mercers who dealt in
French silks.
The agitation was increased rather than
suppressed by these concessions, and an Act
was passed in 1765 21 declaring it to be felony
and punishable with death to break into any
house or shop with intent maliciously to
damage or destroy any silk goods in the process
of manufacture. This was occasioned by an
outbreak on 6 May when a mob of 5,000
weavers from Spitalfields 22 armed with blud-
geons and pickaxes marched to the residence
of one of the Cabinet Ministers in Bloomsbury
Square, and having paraded their grievances
marched away threatening to return if they
did not receive speedy redress. Next day
serious rioting began, and to the end of the
month kept London in such a state of general
alarm that the citizens were compelled to en-
rol themselves for military duty. ' Monday
night,' says a contemporary newspaper,23 ' the
guards were doubled at Bedford House, and
in each street leading thereto were placed six
or seven of the Horse Guards, who continued
till yesterday at ten with their swords drawn.
A strong party of Albemarle's Dragoons took
post in Tottenham Court Road, and patrols of
them were sent off towards Islington and
Marylebone, and the other environs on that
side of the town ; the Duke of Bedford's new
road by Baltimore House was opened, when
every hour a patrol came that way to and round
Bloomsbury to see that all was well.' In
1767 24 the ' culters,' as they were called, again
became rioters, breaking into workshops, cut-
ting the work off the looms, and dangerously
wounding several who endeavoured to arrest
their progress ; similar outbreaks occurred in
1768 and 1769.
These outbreaks and those which soon after-
wards followed were caused by the bitter dis-
putes between the journeymen and master
weavers on the subject of wages. Their
differences gave rise to the famous ' Spitalfields
Acts' of 1773, 1792, and 181 1.25 The first
Act empowered the aldermen of London and
the magistrates of Middlesex to settle in
" Porter, op. cit. 68.
"Sydney, Engl. and the English, ii, 197.
"Lloyd's Evening Post, 22 May 1765.
14 Sydney, loc. cit.
"Knight, LonJ. ii, 394-5.
135
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
quarter sessions the wages of journeymen silk
weavers. Penalties were inflicted upon such
masters as gave and upon such journeymen
as received or demanded either more or less
than should be thus settled by authority, and
silk weavers were prohibited from having more
than two apprentices at one time. The Act
of 1792 included those weavers who worked
upon silk mixed with other materials, and that
of 1811 extended the provisions to female
weavers. The ' Spitalfields Acts ' continued
in force until i824;26 and their effect can
only be described as disastrous. They were
passed to get rid of an evil, but they originated
an evil of a different kind ; they were intended
to protect both masters and men from unjust
exactions on either part, but they only brought
about a paralysis of the Spitalfields trade which
would have ended in its utter ruin but for
their repeal. But, as the effects of the Acts
did not immediately manifest themselves, they
were at first exceedingly popular. After 1785,
however, the substitution of cottons in the
place of silk gave a severe check to the manu-
facture, and the weavers then began to dis-
cover the real nature of the Spitalfields Acts.
Being forbidden to work at reduced wages
they were totally thrown out of employment, so
that in 1793 upwards of 4,000 Spitalfields looms
were quite idle. In 1798 the trade began to
revive, and continued to extend slowly till
1815 and 1816, when the Spitalfields weavers
were involved in sufferings far more exten-
sive and severe than at any former period.27
At a public meeting held at the Mansion
House on 26 November 1816, for the relief
of the Spitalfields weavers, the secretary stated
that two-thirds of them were without employ-
ment and without the means of support, that
' some had deserted their houses in despair un-
able to endure the sight of their starving families,
and many pined under languishing diseases
brought on by the want of food and clothing.'
At the same meeting Sir T. Fowell Buxton
stated that the distress among the silk weavers
was so intense that ' it partook of the nature of
a pestilence which spreads its contagion around
and devastates an entire district.'
The repeal of these Acts was largely brought
about by a petition presented to the House of
Commons on 9 May 1823. The petitioners
stated 28 that ' these Acts by not permitting
the masters to reward such of their workmen
as exhibit superior skill and ingenuity, but
compelling them to pay an equal price for all
work whether well or ill performed, have
* Repealed by 5 Geo. IV, cap. 66.
"McCulloch, Did. of Commerce (1882), 1279.
" Knight, op. cit. ii, 395.
136
materially retarded the progress of improve-
ment and repressed industry and emulation.'
In consequence of an order from the magis-
trates that silk made by machinery should be
paid for at the same rate as that made by
hand, few improvements could be introduced,
and ' the London silk-loom with a trifling
exception remains in the same state as at its
original introduction into this country by the
French refugees.'29 On the effect of this
important legislation McCulloch remarks : M
The monopoly which the manufacturers had
hitherto enjoyed, though incomplete, had had
sufficient influence to render inventions and dis-
coveries of comparatively rare occurrence in the
silk trade ; but the Spitalfields Act extinguished
every germ of improvement. Parliament in its
wisdom having seen fit to enact that a manufacturer
should be obliged to pay as much for work done
by the best machinery as if it were done by hand,
it would have been folly to have thought of attempt-
ing anything new. It is not, however, to be denied
that Macclesfield, Norwich, Manchester, Paisley,
&c., are under obligations to this Act. Had it
extended to the whole kingdom it would have
totally extirpated the manufacture ; but being
confined to Middlesex it gradually drove the most
valuable branches from Spitalfields to places where
the rate of wages was determined by the competi-
tion of the parties, on the principle of mutual
interest and compromised advantage.
During the continuance of the Acts there
was in the Spitalfields district no medium
between the full regulation prices and the
total absence of employment, and the repeal
of this restrictive legislation gave immediate
relief to the local industry. The introduction
at this time of the loom invented byjacquard,31
a straw-hat manufacturer at Lyons, for the
manufacture of figured silks, largely helped
to restore the falling fortune of the Spitalfields
trade. The elaborate brocades which were
previously made at Spitalfields 32 were pro-
duced only by the most skilful among the
craft, who bestowed upon them an immense
amount of labour. The most beautiful pro-
ducts of the Jacquard loom are executed by
workmen possessing only the ordinary amount
of skill, whilst the labour attendant upon the
actual weaving is but little more than that
required for making the plainest goods. In
1 846 the figure weavers of Spitalfields engaged
in the production, by the aid of a Jacquard
loom, of a piece of silk which was to surpass
everything hitherto made in England, and to
rival a masterpiece of the Lyons weavers pro-
89 Porter, op. cit. 78.
'" Diet, of Commerce (1882), 1279.
" Thos. R. Ashenhurst, Weaving (1893), 61.
" Porter, op. cit. 245.
INDUSTRIES
duced in the previous year. The subject of
the design was partly allegorical, introducing
Neptune, Mars, Time, Honour, and Harmony,
with medallion portraits of English naval and
military heroes, and figures of Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert.33
In the evidence taken before a committee
of the House of Commons on the silk trade
in 1831-2 it was stated that the population of
the districts in which the Spitalfields weavers
resided could not be less at that time than
100,000, of whom 50,000 were entirely de-
pendent on the silk manufacture, and the
remaining moiety more or less dependent
indirectly. The number of looms at this
period 34 varied from 14,00010 17,000 (in-
cluding too Jacquard looms), and of these
about 4,000 to 5,000 were generally unem-
ployed in times of depression. As there were
on an average, children included, about thrice
as many operatives as looms, it is clear that
during stagnation of trade not less than from
10,000 to 15,000 persons would be reduced
to a state of non-employment and destitution.35
An excellent account of the condition of the
silk trade, written in 1868, will be found in
Once a Week?* From the census of 1901
it appears that the number of silk weavers in
the various processes of the trade in the entire
county of London reached only 548, of whom
48 were employers. The relations between
the employer and the operative deserve a pass-
ing notice. The manufacturer procures his
thrown ' organzine ' and ' tram ' either from
the throwster or from the silk importers, and
selects the silk necessary to execute any par-
ticular order. The weaver goes to the house
or shop of his employer and receives a suffi-
cient quantity of the material, which he takes
home to his own dwelling and weaves at his
own looms or sometimes at looms supplied by
the manufacturer, being paid at a certain rate
per ell. In a report to the Poor Law Commis-
sioners in 1837 Dr. Kay thus describes the
methods of work of a weaver and his family : —
A weaver has generally two looms, one for his
wife and another for himself, and as his family
increases the children are set to work at six or
seven years of age to quill silk ; at nine or ten
years to pick silk ; and at the age of twelve or
thirteen (according to the size of the child) he is
put to the loom to weave. A child very soon
learns to weave a plain silk fabric, so as to become
a proficient in that branch ; a weaver has thus not
unfrequently four looms on which members of his
" Penny Mag. (1841), x, 478.
M Badnall, A View of the Si/A Trade (1828), 93.
35 Hogg, Weekly Instructor, 1854 (new ser-)> "»
38.
Vol. xviii, 228, 250, 276.
own family are employed. On a Jacquard loom
a weaver can earn 2 $s. a week on an average 37 ;
on a velvet or rich plain silk-loom from 161. to
lot. per week ; and on a plain silk-loom from 121.
to I4/. ; excepting when the silk is bad and re-
quires much cleaning, when his earnings are re-
duced to I Of. per week ; and on one or two very
inferior fabrics 8/. a week only are sometimes
earned, though the earnings are reported to be
seldom so low on these coarse fabrics. On the
occurrence of a commercial crisis the loss of work
occurs first among the least skilful operatives, who
are discharged from work.
Porter in his Treatise on the Silk Manufacture
gives a pleasing picture of the home life of a
Spitalfields weaver and of his happy and pros-
perous condition ; but a writer in Knight's
London 38 paints in much more sober colours
the condition of a weaver and his family.39
Each account is taken from personal observa-
tion, and the difference is probably to be ex-
plained by the state of trade at the time of the
visit, and the class of workman visited. The
houses occupied by the weavers are constructed
for the special convenience of their trade,
having in the upper stories wide, lattice-like
windows which run across almost the whole
frontage of the house. These Mights' are
absolutely necessary in order to throw a strong
light on every part of the looms, which are
usually placed directly under them. Many
of the roofs present a strange appearance,
having ingenious bird-traps of various kinds and
large bird cages, the weavers having long been
famed for their skill in snaring song-birds.
They used largely to supply the home market
with linnets, goldfinches, chaffinches, green-
finches, and other song birds which they
caught by trained 'call-birds' and other
devices in the fields of north and east Lon-
don. The treaty with France in 1860 which
allowed French silks to come in duty free,
found Great Britain and Ireland unable to
compete with France, and in a short time the
trade dwindled immensely with disastrous
results to Spitalfields and other centres.
The progress of the decay of the Spitalfields
silk trade from 1 860 onwards and the recent
attempted revival of its silk brocade industry
are well treated in an interesting article by
Lasenby Liberty contributed in 1893 to the
Studio on ' Spitalfields Brocades.' 40
" For the best kind of work weavers have been
paid as much as 1 5/. a day. Knight, Land, ii,
396 note. See also Eclectic Mag. iSqi.xxiii. 268.
» Vol. ii, 397.
39 See also for the darker side of the picture,
Dr. Hector Gavin, Sanitary Rambling! (1848), 42 ;
Hogg, Instructor (Ser. 2), ii, 96.
40 Studio, \, 20-4.
137
18
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
TAPESTRY
Both Henry VIII and Elizabeth kept a
staff of tapestry workers or arras-makers, of
which the chief members were usually of
foreign birth.1 Amongst the adherents of the
Dutch Church in 1550 were Hendryck
Moreels, ' tapitsier,' and Roelandt de Mets,
living in St. Martin's-le-Grand, and the first
of these is probably the ' Henrhicus Moreels 2
tapestarius in opere Reginae ' of a return of
1561. Another of the queen's workers at
this time was John Celot, and the names of
several other tapestry -makers are to be found in
later returns of the reign of Elizabeth, living
for the most part within the limits of the
City of London.
A small tapestry manufactory was set up at
Fulham by some Walloon refugees at the end
of the iyth century. The parish register of
burials 3 records the name of ' William King,
Clarke at the Manufactori ' in 1699, and that
of ' Richard fflower, a weaver, from the Manu-
factori ' in 1 700.
Early in the next century another attempt
was made to introduce the manufacture of
tapestry into Middlesex. James Christopher
Le Blon, a Fleming by birth and a mezzotint
engraver by profession, some time subsequently
to 1732 'set up a project for copy ing cartoons
in tapestry, and made some very fine drawings
for that purpose. Houses were built and
looms erected in the Mulberry-ground at
Chelsea (see p. 1 34 ante), but either the ex-
pense was precipitated too fast or contribu-
tions did not arrive fast enough ', and the
enterprise proved a failure.4 Le Blon is said
to have died in a hospital at Paris in 1 740.
A more noted manufactory for weaving
carpets and tapestries was started by Peter
Parisot, a Frenchman domiciled in England,
in 1753- Parisot's undertaking is described
by himself in a scarce little book entitled An
account of the new manufacture of Tapestry
after the manner of that at the Gobelins ; and of
Carpets after the manner of that at Chaillot
&c. now undertaken at Fulham, by Mr. Peter
Parisot, 1753.
Parisot had engaged some workmen from
Chaillot whom at first he employed at Padding-
ton, but afterwards removed to Fulham, where
1 W. Page, Denizationi and NaturaRzations (Hu-
guenot Soc.), p. 1.
' Kirk, Returns of Aliens (Huguenot Soc.), i, 205
et scq. and 274.
*C. J. Feret, Fulham Old and New (1900), 85.
' Walpole, Cat. of Engravers (1794), "78
this manufacture had already been established.
Here he procured spacious accommodation
for his business and for instructing young
persons of both sexes in the arts of drawing,
weaving, dyeing, and other branches of the
work. In his book Parisot speaks of the
patronage of the Duke of Cumberland, who
gave him great financial help ; other members
of the Royal family, including the Princess
Dowager of Wales, also supported the work.'
His goods however were too expensive, and the
manufacture soon declined. George Bubb
Dodington the diarist, who lived at Fulham,
records a visit he paid to this factory on
8th March 1753 : — 'We went to see the
manufacture of tapestry from France, now set
up at Fulham by the Duke. The work both
of the gobelins and of chaillot, called savonnerie,
is very fine, but very dear.' 6
According to Giuseppe Baretti, Parisot was
a renegade priest, once a noted Capuchin,
whose real name was Pere Norbert, and his
failure was due to his own shortcomings as a
spendthrift.7 Within three years of its estab-
lishment the Fulham manufactory, which
was chiefly devoted to the production of velvet
pile carpets, had to close its doors. Parisot
left Fulham for Exeter in 1753, and on
12 January 1756 his whole stock was sold off.
The highest price reached at the sale was
^64 is., given for 'a magnificent large carpet
1 8 ft. by 13 ft. of a most elegant and beau-
tiful design '. A catalogue of the collection
consisting of four small pages (the only known
copy) is in the British Museum.
The various items mentioned in this
catalogue8 show clearly the nature of Parisot's
business. Amongst the fire-screens after the
manner of the Gobelins one bore a represen-
tation of a ' landscape with two doves billing,'
another a ' Chinese pheasant with a green
parrot and a butterfly,' and others, such fables as
'the Monkey and the Cat', 'the Fox and
the Crane' and 'the Bear and the Bees.'
Amongst the stock also were chairs similarly
adorned ; one ' large seat for a chair, depicting
in the background a range of hills at a distant
view, and a fountain in the middle ; the
border of which is ornamented with flowers. '
Cotton-work after the manner of the manu-
'Lysons, Environs of Land. (1795), ii, 400 ; Gent.
Mag. 1754, p. 385-
s Dodington, Diary (4th ed. 1 809), 1 99.
7 Feret, op. cit. 87-8.
8 Brit. Mus. pressmark, -7po|'<*- >*
138
INDUSTRIES
factory at Rouen in imitation of needlework
was represented by large pieces with birds and
flowers. Besides these there were also fire-
screens, chairs, and velvet carpets after the
manner of the velvet manufactory of Chaillot
with similar designs. Three of the carpets
had been worked by Parisot's apprentices,
' natives of England, ' as a note on the cata-
logue informs us.
Another 17th-century factory of which no
information appears to exist was set up in Soho
Fields, the site of Soho Square.8
CABINET-MAKING AND WOOD-CARVING
Horace Walpole mentions among the artists
in woodwork of the Tudor period Law-
rence Truber, a carver, and Humphrey Cooke,
master carpenter of the new buildings at the
Savoy.1 Another workman in this art is met
with in the reign of Henry VIII, one William
Grene the king's coffer maker,2 who received
£6 i8x. ' for making of a coffer covered with
fustyan of Naples, and being full of drawers
and boxes lined with red and grene sarcynet
to put in stones of divers sorts'. There is
ample evidence that many foreign wood-
carvers and cabinet-makers were working in
London in the i6th century. In 1540
foreign joiners 3 are found in East Smithfield.
Ten years later the roll of the Dutch Church 4
records a large number of Flemish ' schryn-
makers ' and ' kistmakers ' living in the City,
South wark, and St. Giles. In 1567 in the
Ward of Bridge Without5 alone there were
at least twenty-four foreign joiners and car-
penters, and many later instances might be
cited. Indeed in 1582-3 so serious had be-
come the competition of the strangers that the
Joiners' Company returned a list of 100
foreigners exercising this craft, and declared 6 :
The Master and Wardens of the Companye of
Joyners never licensed nor admitted any of the
persons hereunder expressed to use their said trade,
yett they, dwelling somme in Westminster, somme
in Sainct Katherins, and somme in Sowthworke, do
use the sayd occupacion, and have joyned them-
selves togeather and have sued the joyners these
tenne yeres in the lawe and procured to be spent
above £400 only to thend to worck in London as
fullye as a freeman may doe, to the utter undoing
of a great number of freemen joyners, mere Eng-
lishemen, who are all sowayes [sic] ready for any
service for her Majestic, this Realme and Citie of
London.
The greatest master of the school of Eng-
8 J. H. Pollen, Anct. and Modern Furniture in tbt
South Kensington Museum (1874), Introd. cxxxix.
1 Works (1798), iii, 87.
•N. H. Nicolas, Privy Purse Exp. of Hen. Vlll,
index, s.v. ' coffer', p. 311.
'Kirk, Returns of Aliens, i, 22 et seq.
* Ibid, i, 342 et seq.
lish wood-carving was Grinling Gibbons, who
flourished in the latter part of the I7th and
in the early 1 8th century. He was of English
parentage but born in Holland, and was
brought by Evelyn under the notice of
Charles II, who gave him an appointment in
the Board of Works. He afterwards lived
in Belle Sauvage Court, Ludgate Hill. Here
he carved so delicately a pot of flowers for his
window sill, that the leaves shook with the
vibration caused by the coaches as they rum-
bled through the yard. His finest work is at
Petworth House, Sussex, but the choir stalls
at St. Paul's Cathedral afford an excellent
example of his style. He died on 3 August
1721 at his house in Bow Street, Covent
Garden. His followers built up a school of
architectural carvers whose beautiful work
abounds in old London buildings, such as the
court-room at Stationers' Hall, the vestry of the
church of St. Lawrence Jewry, &c., the traditions
of which continued down to the last century.
With the reign of William and Mary
marquetry furniture became the fashion in
the form of bandy-legged chairs, secretaires
or bureaux, long clock-cases, &c., that afforded
surfaces available for such decoration. This
art had not previously been practised in Eng-
land, specimens being procured by importation
chiefly from Italy. The leaves and other
figures composing the pattern were cut out of
dyed woods, shading being given by means of
hot sand.7 George Ethrington was a London
maker of this work about the year 1665.®
Many London cabinet-makers subsequently
engaged in this manufacture, and a national
style was developed. Another style of decora-
tion known as Boule (from its inventor Andr6
Charles Boule, born in 1642) shared with
marquetry the favour of the public. This
was a kind of veneered work usually composed
of tortoiseshell and thin brass. Sir William
Chambers, the celebrated architect (1725-96),
published a book of designs of Chinese furni-
ture, dresses, &c., in 1757, and largely em-
ployed the best artists in wood-carving for the
decoration of his interiors. John Wilton, one
1 Ibid, i, 202 et seq.
* Ibid, ii, 312.
7 Tomlinson, Cycl. (1866), ii, 133.
' F. J. Britten, 014 Clocks, 320.
'39
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
of his protigis, was born in London in 1722,
and studied abroad for many years, returning
to England in 1757 with Sir William Cham-
bers. He was employed in designing carriage
and furniture decorations, and painted the royal
state coach now in use. John Baptist Cipriani
and Angelica Kauffinan, painters of the same
period, did much decorative work for Cham-
bers, Adam, Chippendale, and other furniture
designers ; Cipriani decorated Carlton House.
Thomas Chippendale, the son and father of
furniture makers, exercised the same trade in
London in the latter half of the 1 8th century.
He published in 1758-9 a book of designs of
furniture of every kind.9 He used mahogany
as a material instead of oak, and brought that
wood into general use. His designs are dis-
tinguished for their fine architectural mould-
ings, and his workmanship is admirable. In
his gilt- work he is specially celebrated for his
frames, which are in the French style, and cut
with great freedom and delicacy. He also
designed Chinese scenes in his gilt-work, follow-
ing the taste introduced by Sir William Cham-
bers. Another of his published works was
intituled The Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's
Director, a collection of designs of household fur-
niture; of this a third edition appeared in 1762.
Matthew Lock, a London carver and
gilder, with whom was associated a cabinet-
maker named H. Copeland, published a book of
furniture designs, undated, but probably of the
year I743-10 At the exhibition of 1862 a
collection of his original drawings and those
of Chippendale was shown. The accom-
panying notes gave the names of his workmen,
their wages, &c., in 1743, from which it
appears that 55. a day was the sum earned by
a wood-carver at that time. Lock belonged
to and left behind him a talented school of
wood -carvers.
The brothers Robert and James Adam are
known to fame chiefly as architects who
greatly improved street architecture in London,
and as architects to King George III. Hav-
ing obtained from the Duke of St. Albans'
estate a lease for i oo years of Durham Yard,
they built the terrace known as the Adelphi
on ground largely reclaimed from the Thames.
Robert and James Adam rank also as the
most important designers of furniture of their
day, adapting a suitable and harmonious system
of decoration to the houses which they built.
9 Chippendale, Ornaments and interior decorations
in the old French style.
10 Collection of ornamental designi appKcable to the
decoration of rooms in the style of Louis XIV.
Another book by Lock, A book of ornaments, drawn
and engraved by M. L., was republished by John
Wealein 1858-9.
An explanation of the general principles
which they adopted is afforded by the pub-
lished plates of Derby House, Grosvenor
Square, now destroyed. The brothers Adam
designed fireplaces, steel grate fronts, side-
boards, and other articles of furniture, which
are much sought after at the present day by
those who follow the prevailing fancy for
antique furniture. Robert Adam published, in
1773, a volume of illustrations of the buildings,
room decoration, furniture, &c., designed by
him, which was reprinted in 1823. A. Heppel-
white, a cabinet-maker of this period, trading
with his assistants as Heppelwhite & Co., pub-
lished in 1 789 a complete set of designs for all
sorts of reception-room and bedroom furniture.
These mahogany chairs, library tables, desks
and bureaux, continued in fashion during the
early years of the next century, as did also
the lighter objects in satinwood painted with
various decorations.
The work of Thomas Sheraton, another
cabinet-maker, is still in high repute for its
admirable workmanship, which unites lightness
and strength. The specimens of his work
seem to resist the ravages of time, being made
of wood well-seasoned and admirably put to-
gether. Sheraton was the author of a com-
plete dictionary of his trade,11 and of a Cabinet-
maker's Drawing-book^2
Throughout the 1 8th century the work of
upholsterers in England was much influenced
by the designs of the brothers Adam, Chippen-
dale, Sheraton, and Pergolesi. They evince
regard for general utility and comfort, com-
bined with skill and delicacy in design and
sound workmanship.
Mr. J. Hungerford Pollen, in his Ancient
and Modern Furniture in the South Kensington
Museum™ says : ' Only the most meagre
notices are to be found of the artists to whom
we owe the designs of modern furniture . . .
of the furniture makers who attained such
eminence during the last [i8th] century very
little is known.' A principal reason for this
is to be found in the fact that for a hundred
and fifty years after the Renaissance furniture
design was so closely associated with architec-
ture that it almost ceased to exist as a separate
art. The woodwork of rooms and the charac-
ter of their furniture followed the style of
architecture employed for the building ; the
ornamental chimney-pieces, &c., were mostly
designed by the architects themselves, and
fashioned by excellent artist workmen of
whom no record has been preserved.
11 The Cabinet Dictionary (1803).
11 Published in 1793-4.
" 1874, Introd. p. ccxviii.
140
INDUSTRIES
During the last century inspiration was
obtained from many eminent artists, of whom
it is unnecessary to mention more than A. W.
Pugin, H. Shaw, Owen Jones, William
Morris, William Burges, and C. L. Eastlake.
Among the firms which have honestly endea-
voured to lead and improve public taste in
furniture and have gained a high reputation
for the quality of their work are Gillow's,
Jeffrey, Jackson & Graham, Grace, Shoolbred,
and Trollope & Sons. The list might be
considerably increased.
With regard to the system of production,
valuable information is afforded in Charles
Booth's Life and Labour of the People in London^*
The districts comprise Shoreditch, Bethnal
Green, Hackney, and the Tower Hamlets.
The Curtain Road district in Shoreditch is
the chief market of the trade and the centre
of its distribution. ' From the East-end
workshops,' says Mr. Booth, ' produce goes
out of every description, from the richly in-
laid cabinet that may be sold for jCioo or
the carved chair that can be made to pass
as rare " antique " workmanship, down to the
gypsy tables that the maker sells for 9*. a dozen
or the cheap bedroom suites and duchesse tables
that are now flooding the market.' 15
The producers fall into four main groups.
The first class, that of the factories, forms
but an insignificant portion of the trade, there
being not more than three or four large fac-
tories with elaborate machinery, where from
about 50 to 190 men are employed. They
supply the large dealers in the Tottenham
Court Road, in the provinces, or in the
colonies. The second class, that of the larger
workshops, comprises shops in which from
15 to 25 men are generally employed. Here
the best East-end furniture is made, but the
number of first-class shops is very small, many
good firms having been obliged to give up
altogether in recent years through the prevail-
ing demand for cheapness. In the third class
are the small makers, masters who employ from
4 to 8 men in small workshops, either built
behind the house or away from it, sometimes
even in the houses themselves. 'As a general
rule the larger shops turn out the better work.
But even among the small men excellent
work is done, in the same way that large
shops often turn out cheap and inferior goods.'18
These small men sell at the nearest market,
that is, the Curtain Road and its district ;
here they can be sure of getting cash, whilst
the West-end shops and the provincial trade
take credit, which the small maker can rarely
afford to give. In a fourth class are the inde-
pendent workers. These are mostly found
among the turners, carvers, fret-cutters, and
sawyers, and are not a large class. Other
special classes described by Mr. Booth are
chair makers, looking-glass frame makers,
carvers, french polishers, and upholsterers.
POTTERY
The most famous of Middlesex industries
is certainly its pottery, but few traces can be
found of any local manufacture before the
1 7th century. Down to the latter half of
that century English home-made pottery was
of a very rude kind, and consisted chiefly
of common domestic vessels,1 such as large
coarse dishes, tygs, pitchers, bowls, cups, and
other similar articles. Vessels of stoneware
of greater durability and more artistic work-
manship were imported from abroad. Among
these were the bellarmines or grey-beards and
ale-pots, which were largely imported from
Germany and Flanders.
In 1570 two potters,2 named Jasper Andries
and Jacob Janson, who had settled in Nor-
14 (1902) Ser. I, iv, 157 et seq.
" Ibid. 163.
"Ibid. 174.
1 Llewellyn Jewitt, Ceramic Art (1878), i, 89.
' Stow, Surv. of Land. bk. v, 240-1.
wich in 1567, 'removed to London, and in
a petition to Queen Elizabeth asserted that
they were the first that brought in and exer-
cised the said science in this realm, and were
at great charges before they could find mate-
rials in this realm. They besought her, in
recompense of their great cost and charges,
that she would grant them house room in or
without the liberties of London by the water
side.' A similar petition was preferred to
the queen by one William Simpson,3 who also
asked for the sole licence to import stone pots
from Cologne. Patents were granted in 1626
to Thomas Rous (or Ruis) and Abraham
Cullyn of London,4 merchants, and in 1636
to David Ramsey, esq. for making stone pots,
but nothing is known of any use which they
made of the privileges granted to them.
1 Lansd. MS. 108, fol. 60 ; Jewitt, op. cit.
1,90.
4 Cal. S.P. Dm. 1625-6, p. 575.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
FULHAM STONEWARE
It was not until the beginning of the reign
of Charles II that the secret of this manufac-
ture was discovered in England, and the credit
of the discovery belongs to John Dwight of
Fulham. Dr. Plot, writing in 1677,' says:
The ingenious John Dwight, formerly M.A. of
Christ Church College, Oxon., hath discovered the
mystery of the Stone or Cologne wares (such as
D'Alva bottles, jugs, noggins) heretofore made only
in Germany, and by the Dutch brought over into
England in great quantities, and hath set up a
manufacture of the same, which (by methods and
contrivances of his own, altogether unlike those
used by the Germans) in three or four years' time
he hath brought it to a greater perfection than it
has attained where it hath been used for many
ages, insomuch that the Company of Glass-Sellers,
London, who are the dealers for that commodity,
have contracted with the inventor to buy only of
his English manufacture, and refuse the foreign.
Dwight, who is said to have been a native
of Oxfordshire, took his Oxford degree of
B.C.L. in 1 66 1, and afterwards became secre-
tary to Bryan Walton, Bishop of Chester, and
his episcopal successors Henry Feme and
Joseph Hall. After a long series of trials
and experiments upon the properties of clays
and mineral products as materials for porcelain
and stoneware, he obtained, in April 1671, a
patent for his discoveries.6 In his petition he
claimed to have ' discovered 7 the mistery of
transparent earthenware comonly knowne by
the name of porcelaine or China and Persian
ware, as alsoe the misterie of the Stone ware
vulgarly called Cologne ware.' As regards
his first claim, Professor Church 8 admits that
Dwight ' did make some approach to success
in producing a body which if not porcelain is
distinctly porcellanous.'
Dwight's experiments and researches into
the properties of various clays and their proper
treatment for the production of china ware
must have extended over a considerable num-
ber of years before he took the patent for his
'discovery' in 1671. An interesting confir-
mation of his claim occurs in a periodical
work, entitled A Collection for the Improvement
of Husbandry and Trade, by a contemporary
writer, John Houghton, who was a Fellow of
the Royal Society.9 He is speaking (12 January
1 693-4) of the tobacco-pipe clays, ' gotten at
or nigh Pool, a port town in Dorsetshire, and
there dug in square pieces, of the bigness of
about half a hundredweight each ; from thence
5 Nat. Hht. Oxon. (2nd ed. 1705), 255.
• Cal.S.P.Dom. 1 67 1-2, p. 420. 7 Ibid. 335.
8 Engl. Earthenware (1904), 44.
* Houghton, op. cit. iv, no. 76.
'tis brought to London, and sold in peaceable
times at about eighteen shillings a ton, but
now in this time of war is worth about three-
and-twenty shillings.' He proceeds : ' This
sort of clay, as I hinted formerly, is used to
clay sugar and the best sort of mugs are made
with it, and the ingenious Mr. Dwight of
Fulham tells me that 'tis the same earth
China-ware is made of, and 'tis made not by
lying long in the earth but in the fire ; and if
it were worth while, we may make as good
China here as any is in the world. And so
for this time farewell clay.' In another
letter,10 dated 13 March 1695-6, he writes : —
Of China-ware I see but little imported in the
year 1 694, I presume by reason of the war and
our bad luck at sea. There came only from Spain
certain, and from India certain twice. 'Tis a
curious manufacture and deserves to be encourag'd
here, which without doubt money would do, and
Mr. Dwoit of Fulham has done it, and can again
in anything that is flat. But the difficulty is that
if a hollow dish be made, it must be burnt so
much, that the heat of the fire will make the sides
fall. He tells me that our clay will very well do
it, the main skill is in managing the fire. By my
consent, the man that would bring it to perfection
should have for his encouragement l,ooo/. from the
Publick, tho' I help'd to pay a tax towards it.
Dwight's discovery seems to have stopped short
at the practical point, the time and expense
involved in the manufacture proving totally
unremunerative. Mr. L. M. Solon,11 however,
after a careful analysis of all the evidence, in-
cluding the recipes and memoranda contained
in two little books in Dwight's own hand,
concludes that he got no further than making
transparent specimens of his stoneware by
casting it thin and firing it hard.
His claim to the discovery of the com-
position of stoneware is beyond question.
Dwight's stoneware vessels were equal if not
superior to those imported from Germany,
and very soon superseded them. A list of his
wares is given in the specification of his second
patent granted in 1684 for a further term of
fourteen years. This description is as follows: —
' Severall new manufactures of earthenwares
called by the names of white gorges, marbled
porcellane vessels, statues, and figures, and
fine stone gorges and vessells, never before
made in England or elsewhere.'
Mr. Solon, in his work above quoted,11
pays the following high tribute to Dwight's
skill and genius : — ' To him must be attri-
buted the foundation of an important industry;
10 Ibid, viii, no. 1 89.
11 The Art of the Old English Potter (ed. 2,
1885), 32-5. "Ibid. 31.
142
INDUSTRIES
by his unremitting researches and their practical
application, he not only found the means of
supplying in large quantities the daily wants of
the people with an article superior to anything
that had ever been known before, but besides,
by the exercise of his refined taste and uncom-
mon skill, he raised his craft to a high level ;
nothing among the masterpieces of cera-
mic art of all other countries can excel the
beauty of Dwight's brown stone-ware figures,
either of design, modelling, or fineness of
nwerial.'
Very little is known of Dwight's personal
history ; the facts are few and somewhat ob-
scure. Professor Church13 conjectures 1637 or
1638 as the year of his birth, and states that
his eldest child John was born at Chester in
1662. In the patent which he obtained in
1671 Dwight states that he has set up at Ful-
ham a manufactory, but in 1683 when his son
George matriculated at Oxford he is described
as ' of the city of Chester.' The year fol-
lowing, his second patent describes him as a
manufacturer at Fulham, whilst in 1687 and
1689 in the matriculation entries of his sons
Samuel and Philip he is styled John Dwight
of Wigan. It is not till the matriculation of
his son Edmund in 1692 that the university
register gives his address as Fulham. Professor
Church u states that this child was born at
Fulham in 1676. He also says that 'until
1665 Dwight lived at Chester, but before the
end of 1668 he moved to Wigan; some time
between March 1671 and August 1676 he
settled at Fulham.'
This does not, however, agree with the
statements in the matriculation registers. A
more probable explanation is that Dwight
opened his factory at Fulham before he left
Chester and carried it on whilst still living
there and at Wigan. He may have had
friends or relatives in Middlesex, as a family of
that name was living at Sudbury near Harrow
in 1637. Lysons states ls that Mr. William
Dwight in that year gave 40*. per annum out
of his lands at Sudbury to the poor of Harrow.
John Dwight died 16 at Fulham in 1703, and
was buried there on 13 October. His widow
Lydia was buried at Fulham on 3 November
1709.
Dwight had the habit of hiding money,
and left memoranda in his note-books of places,
such as holes in the fireplace, holes in the fur-
nace, &c., where packets of guineas were con-
cealed. He also buried specimens of his stone-
ware which were found during some excava-
11 A. H. Churcn, op. cit. 46. " Ibid. 44..
14 Environs ofLind. (1795), ii, 582-3.
u Church, op. cit. 47.
tions for new buildings at the Fulham factory
in a vaulted chamber or cellar which had been
firmly walled up. The objects thus discovered
were chiefly bellarmines and ale-jugs, identical
in form with those imported from Cologne.
Another authentic collection of examples from
the Fulham works, which had been kept by
the family, was sold to Mr. Baylis of Prior's
Bank about the year 1862. These pieces were
shortly afterwards disposed of to Mr. C. W.
Reynolds, and finally dispersed by auction at
Christie's in 1871.
The two collections have afforded valuable
criteria for assigning to the Fulham factory
specimens of stoneware about which collec-
tors previously were in considerable doubt.
The Baylis-Reynolds collection also revealed
the high artistic merit of Dwight's pottery,
the variety of his productions, and the
great perfection to which he had brought
the potter's art, both in the manipulation and
in the employment of enamel colours for
decoration. The collection contained twenty-
eight specimens which had been carefully
preserved by members of the Dwight family,
and kept as heirlooms from the time of their
manufacture. The most interesting piece, and
probably the earliest in date, is a beautiful half-
length figure in hard stoneware of the artist's
little daughter, inscribed 'Lydia Dwight, dyd
March the 3rd, 1762.' The child lies upon
a pillow with eyes closed, her hands clasping
to her breast a bouquet of flowers, and a broad
lace band over her forehead. The figure,
evidently modelled after death, exhibits, as
Mr. Solon well remarks, 'the loving care of a
bereaved father in the reproduction of the
features and the minute perfection with which
the accessories, such as flowers and lace, are
treated.' This beautiful work was purchased
for .£150 at the Reynolds sale, and is now n
the Victoria and Albert Museum. Another
figure, also at South Kensington, was bought
at the Reynolds sale for £30, and is believed
to represent Lydia Dwight ; she is figured
standing, wrapped in a shroud, with a skull at
her feet. The fine life-size statue of Prince
Rupert, now in the British Museum, was
bought at the Reynolds sale for thirty-eight
guineas, and is a magnificent specimen of model-
ling. The ' Meleager,' also in the British
Museum, and the 'Jupiter' in the Liverpool
Museum, are declared by Mr. Solon to be
worthy of an Italian artist of the Renaissance.
Other specimens in the collection 17 were a life-
size bust of Charles II, smaller bustsof Charles II
17 An account of his collection before its pur-
chase by Mr. Reynolds was contributed by Mr.
Baylis to the Art Journ. Oct. 1862, p. 204.
143
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
and Catherine of Braganza, others of James II
and his queen Mary, full-length figures of Flora
and Minerva, a sportsman in the costume of
the reign of Charles II, a girl holding flowers
with two lambs by her side, and five stone-
ware statuettes (in imitation of bronze) of
Jupiter, Mars, Neptune, Meleager, and Saturn.
Speaking of the above collection of pieces,
Mr. Burton remarks18: — 'It is still more
remarkable to find a series of figures displaying
such finished modelling, perfect proportion,
and breadth of treatment. Finer artistic work
than this, in clay, has never been produced in
this country, and the knowledge, taste, and
skill shown in their production fully entitle
Dwight to be reckoned among the great pot-
ters of Europe.'
The characteristics of Dwight's pottery
have been described as follows19 : —
The Fulham stone-ware, in imitation of that of
Cologne, is of exceedingly hard and close texture,
very compact and sonorous and usually of a grey
colour, ornamented with a brilliant blue enamel,
in bands, leaves, and flowers. The stalks have fre-
quently four or more lines running parallel, as
though drawn with a flat notched stick on the
moist clay ; the flowers, as well as the outlines, are
raised, and painted a purple or marone colour,
sometimes with small ornaments of flowers and
cherubs' heads, and medallions of kings and queens
of England in front, with Latin names and titles,
and initials of Charles II, William III, William and
Mary, Anne, and George I. The forms are mugs,
jugs, butterpots, cylindrical or barrel-shaped, &c. ;
the jugs are spherical, with straight narrow necks,
frequently mounted in pewter, and raised medallions
in front with the letters CR WR AR GR, &c. These
were in very common use, and superseded the
Bellarmines and longbeards of Cologne manufacture.
The quality of hardness which distinguishes
stoneware from other kinds of pottery is im-
parted to it, says Professor Church,20 partly
by the nature and proportions of the materials
used in making the body or paste, partly by
the temperature at which it is fired. The salt-
glaze employed for European stoneware is
formed on the ware itself and in part out of
its constituents. It is produced by throwing
into the kiln moist common salt towards the
end of the firing when the pieces have ac-
quired a very high temperature. The salt
's volatilized, and reacting with the water-
vapour present is decomposed into hydro-
ls W. Burton, Hist, of Engl. Earthenware (1904),
43-
''' W. Chaffers, Marks and Monograms on Pottery
and Porcelain (ed. 7, 1886), 805.
M A. H. Church in Some Minor Arts as practised
In Engl. (1894), 33.
chloric acid gas, which escapes, and into
soda, which attacking and combining with the
silica of the clay in the body, forms with it
a hard glass or glaze of silicate of soda, in
which a little alumina is also always present.
This was the two-fold secret which Dwight
at length succeeded in discovering. His
note-books21 contain many curious recipes
for the composition of his various pastes or
' cleys ' which were the results of his
numerous and laborious experiments. Large
extracts from these memoranda have been
published.22 There is a tradition in the
family23 that besides concealing the vessels
found in the bricked-up chamber, Dwight
buried all his models, tools, and moulds
connected with the finer branches of his
manufactory in some secret place on the
premises at Fulham, observing that the pro-
duction of such matters was expensive and
unremunerative ; and that his successors might
not be tempted to perpetuate this part of the
business he put it out of their power by con-
cealing the means. Search has often been made
for these hidden treasures, but hitherto without
success.
For a long time after Dwight's death his
descendants I continued to manufacture the
same sort of jugs and mugs. In a private
collection there is a flip-can of historical
interest, which once belonged to the original
of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. It is inscribed
' Alexander Silkirke. This is my one.
When you take me on bord of ship, Pray
fill me full of punch or flipp, Fulham.' It is
said to have been made for Selkirk in or
about 1703. In cottages along the Thames
bank have been found many large tankards
with the names of well-known public houses.
Some of the jugs have hunting scenes and
others bear decorations of a loyal or political
character. For example, a mug with a medal-
lion portrait of Queen Anne, supported by
two beefeaters, is inscribed round the top,
' Drink to the pious memory of good Queen
Anne, 1729.'
John Dwight had five sons, but it is not
known whether all of them survived him or
which was his successor in business. Some
writers say he was succeeded by his son
Dr. Samuel Dwight, who died in November
1737; the Gentleman's Magazine™ in his
11 These were found by Lady Charlotte Schrei-
ber in 1 869 on a visit to the Fulham Potteries.
A manuscript copy made by her is in the British
Museum, but the original note-books have dis-
appeared.
" Chaffers, op. cit. 808-9.
83 Artjourn. 1862, p. 204.
14 Gent. Mag. 1737, p. 702.
INDUSTRIES
obituary notice, after mentioning his author-
ship of ' several curious treatises on physic,'
states that ' he was the first that found out
the secret to colour earthenware like china.'
He is said to have practised in his profession
as a physician, and wrote some Latin medi-
cal treatises between 1722 and 1731. It is
possible that he was a partner only, and that
the business was carried on jointly with
another brother. The male descendants
seem to have disappeared by the end of the
1 8th century.
Lysons, who wrote in I795,28 says, ' These
manufactures are still carried on at Fulham
by Mr. White, a descendant in the female
line of the first proprietor. Mr. White's
father, who married one of the Dwight family
(a niece of Dr. Dwight, vicar of Fulham),
obtained a premium anno 1761 from the
Society for the Encouragement of Arts &c.,
for making crucibles of British materials.'
The niece of Dr. Dwight above mentioned
was probably the Margaret Dwight who
with her partner, Thomas Warland, became
bankrupt in 1 746.26
William White, whom she is said to have
married, described as ' of Fulham in the county
of Middlesex, potter,' took out a patent in
1 762 for the manufacture of ' white crucibles
or melting potts made of British materials, and
never before made in England or elsewhere
and which I have lately sett up at Fulham
aforesaid.'
The earliest dated piece of Fulham stone-
ware known to exist is in the collection of
Mr. J. E. Hodgkin. It is a mug ornamented
with a ship and figure of a shipwright caulking
the seams of a hull, and bearing an inscription
in script, ' Robert Asslet London Street 1 721.'
Another specimen of quaint design, belonging
to Mr. H. C. Moffat, is a large mug with
pewter mount ; its decoration consists of a
centre medallion representing Hogarth's ' Mid-
night modern conversation,' another medallion
bearing the Butchers' Arms of Hereford, and
the inscription ' Waller Vaughan of Hereford,
His mug must not be brock, 1 740.'
Speaking of the later history of this manu-
factory Chaffers says — **
In Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt's sale there was a
gallon flipcan of stoneware with strongly hinged
25 Environs of Land. (1795), ii, 400.
"Gent. Mag. 1746, p. 45. Prof. Church
considers that Margaret was the widow of Dr.
Samuel Dwight, and that their only daughter
Lydia was married to Thomas Warland, her
mother's partner, and after his death to William
White.
17 Chaffers, op. cit. 8 1 1.
cover of the same material and a grated spout.
It was ornamented with raised borders and figures
of a woman milling, a church in the distance, a
hunting scene, Hope, Peace, and other figures ;
with a well-modelled head on the spout, marked
at the bottom in letters scratched into the soft
clay « W. J. White fecit Dec. 8, 1 800.' On the
heart-shaped termination of the handle is ' W. W.
1 800.' In 1813 the manufactory was in the
hands of Mr. White, a son of the above, and the
articles then made were chiefly stoneware jars,';
pots, jugs, &c. The Fulham works remained in
the family until 1862, when the last Mr. White
died, and he was succeeded by Messrs. Macintosh
and Clements ; but in consequence of the death
of the leading partner, the works were disposed of
to Mr. C. J. C. Bailey, the present proprietor, in
1864. This gentleman has made considerable
alterations and fitted up a quantity of machinery
with a view of facilitating the manufacture and
extending the business.
Writing in 1883 Jewitt speaks28 very highly
of the improvements introduced by Mr. Bailey.
The output in stoneware included all the
usual domestic vessels, besides sanitary and
chemical appliances of various kinds. In ad-
dition, works of art of a high order in stone-
ware, terra-cotta, china, and other materials
were produced, thus restoring the ancient
reputation of the firm. For the stoneware
department the services of M. Cazin, formerly
director of the school of art at Tours, were
engaged. A cannette in his own collection
bearing the artist's name, "CAZIN, 1872,
STUDY," Jewitt praises as remarkably good.29
Also another example made expressly for him,
which bears an admirably modelled armorial
medallion and other incised and relief or-
naments, with the date 1873, and artist's
name, C. CAZIN, also incised. The coloured
stone or ' sgraffito ' ware has a high repute,
and Mr. Bailey in 1872 received a medal at
the Dublin Exhibition for his stoneware and
terra-cotta. In the latter ware were produced
vases, statues, architectural enrichments, chim-
ney shafts, stoves, &c., of very good quality
and of admirable design, Mr. Martin, sculptor,
having been engaged as modeller and designer,
and giving to some of the productions the
name of Martin ware. The manufacture of
chinaware was added during the year 1873,
with the aid of good workmen and of
Mr. E. Bennet and Mr. Hopkinson as artists.
As the beginning of a new manufacture which
had done much to establish a fresh fame for
Fulham, Jewitt thus describes the composition
of the ware : 30 ' The body is made from
Dwight's original recipe, the very body of
'45
18 Ceramic Art (1883), 91.
19 Ibid. *> Ibid. 92.
'9
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
which the first chinaware made in England
was produced, and therefore the "Fulham
china" of to-day has an historical interest
attached to it which is possessed by no other.'
The business has since passed into other hands
and is now the property of the Fulham Pottery
and Cheavin Filter Company, Limited.
A factory of stoneware, galley-pots, mugs,
pans, dishes, &c., was carried on by James Ruel
at Sandford House, Sand End, King's Road,
Fulham. The undertaking proved unsuccess-
ful, and in 1798 the factory and stock in trade
were advertised for sale by auction by order
of the sheriff, but were disposed of previously
by private contract.
The pottery of William de Morgan & Co.
)ias since 1888 been carried on at Fulham.
The business was started in 1870 by Mr.
William de Morgan, who began by decorating
tiles and pots in Fitzroy Square. Removing
afterwards to Chelsea, he continued to paint
Dutch pottery, and that made by Stiff & Co.
of Lambeth and by Staffordshire potters ;
whilst at Chelsea he built an oven, and en-
gaged in the practical business of a potter.
On removing to Fulham in 1888, he entered
into partnership with Mr. Halsey Ricardo, a
new pottery was built, and the wares stamped
' W. de Morgan & Co., Sands End Pottery,
Fulham, S.W.,' and with a small floral device
surmounted with the initials DM. The out-
put of this firm also includes lustre ware, an
imitation of the Hispano-Moresco work of the
1 5th and i6th centuries, and pottery decorated
in the Persian style and with Dutch scenes.
At Southall is a small pottery carried on by
the four brothers Martin, with an office in
Brownlow Street, Holborn, for the sale of
their wares.31 The founder of the firm was
Robert Wallace Martin, a Royal Academy
student, and pupil of Alexander Munro the
sculptor, who revived in this country the
glazed stoneware of the i6th and 171)1 cen-
turies. After an unsuccessful co-operation
with Mr. Bailey, who was then proprietor of
the Fulham Pottery, Martin entered into
oartnership in the early seventies with his
three brothers, Charles Douglas, Walter
Fraser, and Edwin Bruce. This ware, which
is greatly appreciated by connoisseurs, is the
outcome of a long series of experiments with
clays and colours and methods of firing them.
A special feature with the makers is that the
decoration of a specimen is never repeated, so
that each piece is in its way a unique example
of the handiwork of the potter. The style
varies greatly from the classical to the gro-
" Chaffers, Marks and Monograms (ed. 9, revised
by Frederick Litchfield, 1900), 882-3.
tesque, and the colouring is frequently as
original as the decoration, which is incised,
modelled, or carved. The mark consists of
the name and address of the firm, with the
month and year of production, incised in
cursive lettering.
BOW PORCELAIN
The origin of the porcelain manufacture at
Bow is very obscure. The first reliable notice
of it is the patent l applied for on 6 December
1 744 by ' Edward Heylin in the parish of Bow
in the county of Middlesex, merchant, and
Thomas Frye of the parish of West Ham in the
county of Essex, painter.' The specification,
enrolled 5 April 1745, is 'for a new method
of manufacturing a certain mineral, whereby
a ware might be made of the same nature or
kind, and equal to, if not exceeding in good-
ness and beauty, china or porcelain ware
imported from abroad. The material is an
earth, the produce of the Cherokee nation in
America, called by the natives unaker.' The
specification proceeds to give a detailed account
of the composition of the porcelain and the
mode of its manufacture. It seems probable
that the description given was purposely vague,
and that porcelain was not made in any
quantity, if at all, under this patent ; the
object of the patentees may have been to pro-
tect the use of substances of which they
had no practical experience. Mr. William
Burton 2 gives an analysis of the ware described
in Heylin and Frye's patent, and arrives at
the conclusion that ' not only were the pro-
portions of Heylin and Frye entirely wrong,
but their "frit"3 was useless for its supposed
purpose.' The Cherokee clay or ' unaker ' is
said to have been brought to England by a
traveller who recognized its similarity to the
' kaolin,' or china clay, of the Chinese. Some
information concerning this man is given by
William Cookworthy of Plymouth, who after-
wards discovered in Cornwall the materials,
china stone (petuntse) and china clay (kaolin),
from which true porcelain is made. Writing
to a friend in 1745, Cookworthy says — *
I had lately with me the person who has dis-
covered the china earth. He had with him
several samples of the china ware which I think
were equal to the Asiatic. It was found on the
back of Virginia, where he was in quest of mines,
1 W. Burton, Porcelain, 59 et seq.
' Hist, of English Porcelain (1902), 10.
* The glassy substance used with the clay to
form the paste or body of the ware.
4 Chaffers, Marks and Monograms (ed. 9, 1900),
887.
.46
INDUSTRIES
and having read Du Halde, he discovered both
the petunze and kaolin. It is this latter earth
which he says is essential to the success of the
manufacture. He is gone for a cargo of it, having
bought from the Indians the whole country where
it rises. They can import it for £13 per ton,
and by that means afford their china as cheap as
common stoneware.
Another patent was applied for by Frye on
17 November 1748, and the specification was
enrolled 1 7 March 1 749. This was for the
manufacture of ' porcelain ware ' from totally
different materials, and the wording of this
patent was even more obscure than that of
the first. The substance for which protec-
tion was claimed was a ' virgin earth ' pro-
duced by calcining animals, vegetables, and
fossils, ' but some in greater quantity than
others, as all animal substances, all fossils of
the calcareous kind, as chalk, limestone, &c.'s
Thomas Frye was born near Dublin in
1710, and in early life came to London,
where he followed the profession of an artist.
He painted for the Saddlers' Company the
full-length portrait of Frederick Prince of
Wales preserved in their hall, which he also
engraved and published in 1741. He be-
came manager of the Bow works probably
from their commencement, but after fifteen
years' exposure to the furnaces his health gave
way and he retired in 1759. After staying
for a year in Wales, he returned to London
and resumed his occupation as an engraver,
publishing a series of life-size portraits in
mezzotint, by which he is best known to the
world at large. Frye died of consumption on
2 April 1762, and is described in his epitaph
as 'the inventor and first manufacturer of
porcelain in England.' His two daughters
assisted him in painting the china at Bow
until their marriage. One of them, who
married a Mr. Willcox, was employed by
Josiah Wedgwood at Etruria in painting
figure-subjects from 1759 to 1776, the year
of her death. Heylin and Frye do not appear
to have had a factory of their own, but prob-
ably carried on their experiments at a factory
already existing at Bow, having first secured
the services of a well-skilled workman whose
name has not been preserved, and who may
have been the real inventor of English porce-
lain. Of Heylin nothing is known except
that he was a merchant at Bow, and his name
disappears from the second patent, taken out
in 1749. In the following year Frye no
longer appears as a principal, but as a manager
to another firm. Some valuable information
concerning the Bow factory is given in a col-
' Chaffers, op. cit. 888.
lection of memoranda, diaries, and notebooks,
formerly belonging to Lady Charlotte
Schreiber,6 which includes a diary of John
Bowcocke, who was employed in the works as
a commercial manager and traveller. These
state that Messrs. Crowther and Weatherby
were proprietors of the Bow manufactory, and
that Thomas Frye acted as their works
manager. Their works were known as ' New
Canton,' and though situated on the Essex
side of the River Lea, close to Bow Bridge,
were commonly described as the Bow China
Works and were so styled by the proprietors.
About 1758 the firm reached its highest point
of success. The memoranda above mentioned
state that in that year three hundred person
were employed, ninety of whom were painters,
all living under one roof. An account of the
business returns for a period of five years
shows that the cash receipts, which were
£6,573 'n I75°~I> increased steadily from
year to year, and had reached ^11,229 in
1755. The total amount of sales in 1754
realized ^18,115. The firm had a retail
shop in Cornhill and a warehouse at St.
Katharine's near the Tower.7 Among the
artists whom they employed were some of
considerable repute. J. T. Smith records the
following conversation between Nollekens the
sculptor and a dealer in works of art named
Panton Betew, from whom he wished to
obtain a model of a boy by Fiamingo by way
of exchange : — 8
Nollekens. Do you still buy broken silver ? I
have some odd sleeve-buttons, and Mrs. Nollekens
wants to get rid of a chased watch-case by old
Moser, one that he made when he used to model
for the Bow manufactory.
Betew, Ay, I know there were many very clever
things produced there ; what very curious heads
for canes they made at that manufactory ! I
think Crowther was the proprietor's name. There
were some clever men who modelled for the Bow
concern, and they produced several spirited figures:
Quin in Falstaff; Garrick in Richard ; Frederick,
Duke of Cumberland, striding triumphantly over
the Pretender, who is begging quarter of him ;
John Wilkes, and so forth.
Nollekens. Mr. Moser, who was the keeper of
our Academy, modelled several things for them ;
he was a chaser originally.
George Michael Moser, who died in 1783,
was the head of his profession as a gold-chaser,
* Extensive extracts from these MSS. are given
in Chaffers, Marks and Monograms (1900), 894
et seq.
7 They appear in Kent's Dir. from 1753 to 1763
as Weatherby and Crowther, potters, St. Katha-
rine's, near the Tower.
8 Nollekens and bis Times (1894), 175-6.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
medallist, and enameller ; he was one of the
founders of the Royal Academy, and its first
keeper. John Bacon, the famous sculptor,
who was in his youth a pupil of Crisp, a
modeller of porcelain, is also said to have
designed figures and groups for the Bow
works. Some of the finest specimens of Bow
china have a small ' B ' impressed in the paste
below, this being the mark of John Bacon.
The best known of these are the male and
female cooks.9
To obtain a supply of good artists the pro-
prietors advertised in newspapers which had a
circulation in the Potteries district. The fol-
lowing advertisement appeared in November
J753 'n -^r;J'f Birmingham Gazette: 'This
is to give notice to all painters in the blue and
white potting way and enamellers on china
ware, that by applying at the counting-house
at the china-house near Bow, they may meet
with employment and proper encouragement
according to their merit ; likewise painters
brought up in the snuff-box way, japanning,
fan-painting, &c., may have an opportunity of
trial, wherein if they succeed, they shall have
due encouragement. N.B. At the same
house a person is wanted who can model
small figures in clay neatly.'
The production of the factory was not
limited to objects of a highly decorative cha-
racter only, but included also vessels for
domestic use. The first sale by auction of
articles in stock advertised in the Public
Advertiser of 17 April 1757 included not
only ' services for deserts &c. exquisitely
painted in enamel,' but also 'a large assort-
ment of the most useful china in lots, for the
use of gentlemen's kitchens, private families,
taverns, &c.' In the same year (1757) a
West-end warehouse was opened, announced
thus by the firm : ' For the convenience of
the nobility and gentry, their warehouse on
the Terrace in St. James's Street is constantly
supplied with everything new, where it is sold
as at Cornhill, with the real price marked on
each piece without abatement.' The new
branch did not succeed, and was closed the
next year (1758), the entire stock being sold
by auction.
The partnership continued till the death of
Weatherby, at his house on Tower Hill, on
15 October 1762, and Crowther became bank-
rupt in the following year, and is described as
'John Crowther, of Cornhill, chinaman.'
Three sales of his effects by order of the
assignees took place, viz., on 12 March 1764
and following days, at the Bow warehouse in
Cornhill; on 19 May 1764; and at the great
• W. Burton, op. cit. 72.
exhibition-room in Spring Gardens on 30 May
1764. The last sale consisted 'of a large
quantity of the finest porcelain, chosen out of
the stock in curious figures, girandoles, and
branches for chimney-pieces, finely decorated
with figures and flowers, &c., dishes, com-
potiers, &c. ; beautiful desserts of the fine old
partridge and wheatsheaf patterns, a quantity of
knife and fork handles, some neatly mounted,
and a variety of other porcelain.'
Crowther seems to have carried on the
business again after his bankruptcy, but it
never regained its former prosperity. There
are plates of Bow ware marked ' Robert
Crowther 1770,' probably made for some
relative, and in the London Directory from
1770 to 1775 it is stated that John Crowther
of the Bow China Works had a warehouse
at 28 St. Paul's Churchyard. The business
must have dwindled down into insignificance,
for in 1776 it was sold for a small sum to
William Duesbury, and all the moulds and
implements were transferred to Derby.
Duesbury had between 1751 and 1753
worked in London as an enameller to
various firms of potters, including the Bow
factory.10 From a memorandum left by
Thomas Craft,11 an artist at the Bow factory,
it appears that Crowther was elected an in-
mate of Morden College, Blackheath, where
he was still alive in 1790.
Great difficulties exist in distinguishing
specimens of Bow china from the productions
of Chelsea and other factories, but towards
the end of 1867 a discovery made on the site
of the old works brought to light some very
useful information as to the characteristics of
the ware. During some drainage operations
at the match factory of Messrs. Bell & Black
at Bell Road, St. Leonard's Street, Bromley-
by-Bow, the foundations of one of the kilns
were discovered, with a large quantity of
' wasters ' and fragments of broken pottery.
The houses close by are still called China
Row. Some of these specimens, which came
into the possession of Lady Charlotte Schreiber,
were chemically tested by Professor A. H.
Church, who found that bone-ash was an
almost constant ingredient in their composi-
tion.18 This refuted the opinion, until then
generally held, that Josiah Spode the younger
first introduced the use of bone-ash into the
composition of English porcelain about the
w Marks and Monograms. See extracts from his
'work-book' in W. Bemrose, Bow, Chelsea, and
Derby Porcelain (1898), 9 et seq.
11 Printed in W. Chaffers, Marks and Monograms
(1908), 892-3.
" A. H. Church, Engl. Porcelain (1904), 36.
148
INDUSTRIES
years 1797-1800. The fragments13 also
gave information as to methods of ornamen-
tation employed at Bow. Some are decorated
in blue with Chinese landscapes, flowers,
figures, birds, and branches of willow leaves ;
others are portions of services with the
favourite decoration of the prunus or may-
flower, and there are several perfect moulds
for stamping these flowers. The extensive
collection includes milkpots, cups, cans, saucers,
open-work baskets, octagon plates, knife-
handles, cup-handles, lion's-paw feet, and
small pots for colour or rouge ; but none of
the fragments has any mark, except the name
' Norman,' which is marked in pencil on one
of the cups. Some are broken pieces of deco-
rated ware, such as sweetmeat dishes, figures
of dogs, large bowls, and a man kneeling and
supporting a shell with both hands ; of the
last-named design a pair of figures is known
to exist. Although transfer printing is not
found in any of the above pieces, it was
adopted both under and over the glaze at an
early period in the Bow works.14
An undoubted specimen of this ware is an
inkstand, now in private possession, painted
with the well-known Bow pattern of the
prunus, and inscribed on the upper surface
'Made at New Canton 1750.' Another
similar specimen, of a year later and not so
fine, came into the Jermyn Street collection.
Of undoubted genuineness is the interesting
' Craft ' bowl in the British Museum already
mentioned, with its accompanying memo-
randum, dated 1790 : —
This bowl was made at the Bow China Manu-
factory at Stratford-le-Bow, Essex, about the year
1760, and painted there by me Thomas Craft, my
cipher is in the bottom ; it is painted in what we
used to call the old Japan taste, a taste at that time
much esteemed by the then Duke of Argyle ; there
is nearly two pennyweight of gold, about i 5/. I
had it in hand, at different times, about three
months ; about two weeks' time was bestowed
upon it. It could not have been manufactured
for less than £4. There is not its similitude. . . .
Other pieces which may safely be assigned
to Bow are a white tureen in the Victoria
and Albert Museum, decorated with the
prunus pattern in high relief. The ware is
mostly of great thickness, but extremely
translucent in its thinner parts, through
which the transmitted light appears somewhat
yellowish. A dessert dish in the same museum
is in the form of a scallop shell. The centre
" These are illustrated by Chaffers, op. cit.
909-1 i .
14 This interesting ' find ' is now in the Victoria
and Albert Museum.
is decorated with a quail and wheatsheaf pat-
tern, often mentioned as the ' partridge pattern '
in the note-books of John Bowcock of Bow.
Among other examples in this museum are
vases, sauce-boats, knife-handles, an inkstand,
and several figures. Many undoubted speci-
mens of Bow ware, comprising statuettes,
plates, vases, and other pieces richly orna-
mented, are contained in the Schreiber collec-
tion, some of which are figured by Solon,16
and by Burton and Bemrose in their works al-
ready quoted. The figures of H. Woodward
as 'a fine gentleman,' and Kitty Clive as Mrs.
Riot, though often attributed to Bow, were
certainly made at Chelsea ; but the fine figure
of Britannia with a medallion of George II is
considered to have been made at Bow.
Many of the Bow figures and groups were
made for use, and have at their back near the
base a square hole for holding a metal stem to
support branches for candlesticks ; sometimes
there is a round hole beneath the base for
riveting the metal stem. This feature is
peculiar to the Bow pottery, and serves to
distinguish it from that of Chelsea. The
earliest productions at Bow were decorated
(like Thomas Craft's bowl) in the Japanese
style, which suited the fashionable taste of
the day; but since both the Bow and Chelsea
factories borrowed from Oriental and Conti-
nental sources, they no doubt also copied
favourite subjects and patterns from each
other. This makes it the more difficult to
determine with certainty the products of each
factory. The prunus decoration has already
been referred to ; the blue and white
porcelain is also typical, and was largely
employed for the more useful articles. A
little teapot in the British Museum, with its
embossed vine ornament in white, and the
angler's rod in a delicate greyish blue, is
marked T F, and appears to have been the
work of Thomas Frye. The ' sprigged '
pieces so frequently mentioned in Bowcock's
memoranda are generally white, decorated
with modelled ornaments separately made in
a mould and applied to the surface of the
ware whilst it was in a clay state. The
earlier figures are seldom more than 4 or 5 in.
high, and are placed on simple flat stands ; but
these were soon replaced by more elaborate
stands designed in the favourite rococo style
of the period. The largest figure supposed
to have been made at Bow is the 'Farnese
Flora,' 1 8^ in. high, in the Schreiber collec-
tion at South Kensington, which is said to
have been modelled by John Bacon. In the
British Museum are some examples of Chinese
15 Old Engl. Porcelain (1903), 32, 34, 40.
149
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
porcelain painted at Bow. The use of colours
in enamelling sometimes serves to distinguish
Bow ware from that of Chelsea ; the enamel-
ling of the latter was artistically superior, and
introduced the rich blue, pea-green, and tur-
quoise, which were not employed at Bow
with equal effect. Three distinctive colours
were in use at Bow, but not with satisfactory
result. These were an enamel sealing-wax
red, badly compounded and wanting in gloss ;
a cold opaque enamel blue, often used for
touching up parts of dresses ; and a gold
purple, which in thin washes becomes of a
pale mauve-pink hue, and is far from pleasant.
Other points of difference between the pro-
ducts of the two factories are given by
Burton.16
The use of printing for decorative purposes
was largely practised at Bow. There seems
no foundation for the statement that pieces
were sent to Liverpool to be printed by Sadler
and Green. The great majority of specimens
consist of table ware with houses and groups
of figures printed in outline and washed in
with strong enamel colours — purple, blue,
yellow, and green. The large figure of
Britannia in the British Museum has a robe
and stand decorated in printed outline care-
fully touched in with colour.
Many marks have been attributed to Bow,
of which a list, figured and described, is given
by Chaffers.17 The commonest is the anchor
and dagger in red enamel ; the italic capital B
is rarely found. The shell sweetmeat stands
are rarely marked. The monogram of Thomas
Frye, in capitals, sometimes in italic and some-
times reversed, occurs on some pieces. These
must be attributed to an early period of the
Bow works, and were probably painted by
Thomas Frye himself.
CHELSEA PORCELAIN
The founder of the Chelsea pottery and the
date of its origin cannot be traced. The
earliest information is derived from a white
cream jug supported by two goats and having
a bee in its natural size placed on the front.
Several specimens exist which bear the maker's
mark, a triangle, scratched in the clay, and
one of them is inscribed in incised cursive
characters 'Chelsea 1745.' The workman-
ship of these pieces is of high merit, and leads
to the conclusion that the factory had been
established for some time, or that (as has been
said ]) the pieces were the production of some
French workmen brought over from the
" Hut. of Engl. Porcelain, 73.
" Marks and Monograms (1900), 903-7.
1 Burton, Hut. of Engl. Porcelain (1902), 9.
factories of St. Cloud or Chantilly. Some
curious information as to the early history of
the enterprise is furnished by Simeon Shaw : *
Carlos Simpson, sixty-three years of age, 1817,
was born at Chelsea ; to which place his father,
Aaron Simpson, went in 1747, along with Thomas
Lawton, slip maker, Samuel Parr, turner, Richard
Meir, fireman, and John Astbury, painter, all of
Hot Lane ; Carlos Wedgwood, of the Stocks, a
good thrower ; Thomas Ward and several others,
of Burslem, to work at the Chelsea china manu-
factory. They soon ascertained that they were
the principal workmen, on whose exertions all the
excellence of the porcelain must depend, they then
resolved to commence business on their own
account at Chelsea, and were in some degree
successful ; but at length, owing to disagreement
among themselves, they abandoned it and returned
to Burslem.
No other information exists in support of
this statement or concerning the factory said to
have been set up by the Burslem workmen.
R. Campbell,3 writing in 1 747, says : ' Of late
we have made some attempts to make porce-
lain or china-ware after the manner it is
done in China and Dresden ; there is a house
at Greenwich and another at Chelsea where
the undertakers have been for some time
trying to imitate that beautiful manufacture.'
The probability that the Chelsea industry was
at the first in the hands of French workmen
is confirmed by information gathered by
Mr. J. E. Nightingale * from newspapers of the
period. It also appears, from the mention of a
French chapel in an advertisement of property,
that a French colony existed at Chelsea. In
the London Evening Post of 19 December
1 749 a freehold messuage is advertised to be
sold in ' Great China Row, Chelsea,' inquiries
to be made of Mr. Brown ' over against the
French Chapel in Chelsea.'
From advertisements which appeared in
1 750 it appears that the works had then existed
for some time. The General Advertiser of
4 December 1750 announces a sale by auction
of a ' Closet of fine Old Japan China ' in
which is included ' curious Dresden and
Chelsea figures.' This is the first allusion
which Mr. Nightingale has found to any
English porcelain in an auction sale. In the
same year rival advertisements appeared of the
old and new proprietors of the Chelsea factory.
The Daily Advertiser of 15 May 1750 con-
tains the following :
Chelsea Porcelaine. The Publick is hereby in-
formed that the Sale- Warehouse at the Manufactory
' Hiit. of Staffs. Potteries (1829), 167.
' The London Tradesman (ed. 3), 186.
4 Contributions towards the Hist, of Early Engt
Porcelain (1881), 5 et seq.
150
INDUSTRIES
there will from henceforward be constantly open,
and that new Productions are daily produced, and
brought into the Sale-Room. And the Publick
may be assured, that no Pains will be spared to
extend this manufacture to as great a Variety as
possible, either for Use or Ornament. Note, the
Quality and Gentry may be assured, that I am
not concern'd in any Shape whatsoever with the
Goods expos'd to Sale in St. James's Street, called
the Chelsea China Warehouse. N. Sprimont.
An advertisement in reply to the above is
in the General Advertiser of 29 January
1750 (old style) :
Chelsea China Warehouse. Seeing it frequently
advertised, that the Proprietor of Chelsea Porcelaine
is not concerned in any shape whatsoever in the
Goods exposed to Sale in St. James's-street, called
The Chelsea China Warehouse, in common justice
to N. Sprimont (who signed the Advertisement) as
well as myself, I think it incumbent, publickly to
declare to the Nobility, Gentry, &c., that my
China Warehouse is not supply'd by any other
Person than Mr. Charles Gouyn, late Proprietor
and Chief Manager of the Chelsea-House, who
continues to supply me with the most curious
Goods of that Manufacture, as well useful as orna-
mental, and which I dispose of at very reasonable
Rates. S. Stables, Chelsea China Warehouse, St.
James's-street, Jan. i/th, 1750.
From these two advertisements, which
comprise the earliest information obtainable
respecting the proprietors, it appears that the
business was shortly before 1750 in the hands
of Charles Gouyn. It then passed to Nicholas
Sprimont, but Gouyn set up a rival warehouse
in St. James's Street, Chelsea, which does not
seem to have lasted long, as no further men-
tion of it has been found. The names of
both proprietors declare their foreign origin,'
but Nicholas Sprimont had long lived in
London as a silversmith, residing in Compton
Street, Soho. His name was entered at Gold-
smiths' Hall on 25 January 1742, when he
duly registered his mark, which was NS in
italics with a star above. His silver work is
chiefly remarkable for its representation in
relief of coral, rockwork, crawfish, and reptiles.
Among the earliest specimens of Chelsea ware
are the crawfish salts in the British Museum,
which are undoubtedly the work of Sprimont.
Chaffers quotes 6 a statement from a workman
named Mason who was employed at Chelsea
and whose son worked many years at the Wor-
4 Prof. Church regards both names as Flemish,
but M. Rouquet, who lived in England thirty years
and must therefore have known Sprimont, speaks of
him as a clever French artist who supervised the
works, whilst a wealthy personage undertook the
expense; Uitatdts arts en Angleterrc, Paris (1755),
«43-
6 Marks and Monograms (1900), 913-14.
cester manufactory. The statement is to the
effect that he joined the factory about the year
1751, and that it was first started by the Duke
of Cumberland and Sir Everard Faulkner, the
sole management being entrusted to a foreigner
named Sprimont. He proceeds : ' I think Sir
Everard died about 1755,' much reduced in
circumstances, when Mr. Sprimont became
sole proprietor, and having amassed a fortune
he travelled about England, and the manu-
factory was shut up about two years ; for he
neither would let it or carry it on himself.'
After working at Bow for a short time Mason
returned to Chelsea, where he remained till
the works were purchased by Duesbury, with
whom he went to Derby 'about the year
1763.' The story has some additional support,
and there is a further link to connect the
Duke of Cumberland with the undertaking,
in the beautifully-modelled bust of him which
was produced at the works ; the bust is of
plain white glazed porcelain, and represents
the duke bareheaded with a cuirass on his
breast. Alexander Stephens, a reputable
writer and resident at Chelsea, where he died
in 1821, speaks8 of the Duke of Cumberland
and Sir R. Faulkner as patrons of Chelsea
china. He adds that the ware ' was a long
time in such repute as to be sold by auction,
and as a set was purchased as soon as baked,
dealers were surrounding the door for that
purpose.' The same writer tells us, on the
authority of a foreman of the Chelsea factory
who had become an inmate of St. Luke's
workhouse, that Dr. Johnson thought he
could improve the manufacture of china, and
obtained permission to bake specimens of his
manufacture in the Chelsea ovens. ' He was
accordingly accustomed to go down with his
housekeeper about twice a week, and staid the
whole day, she carrying a basket of provisions
along with her. The doctor. . . had free access
to the oven and superintended the whole
process, but completely failed, both as to com-
position and baking, for his materials always
yielded to the intensity of the heat, while
those of the company came out of the furnace
perfect and complete.'
The site of the factory has been located at
the west side of the river end of Lawrence
Street." Faulkner says 10 it was at the corner
Sir Everard Faulkner died at Bath in November
1758, and his Chelsea porcelain, which included
several ' of the most admired productions of that
manufactory,' was sold by auction in the Haymarket
in February 1759.
" ' Stephensiana,' no. i, Monthly Mag. (1821),
Hi, 231.
* Church, Engl. Porcelain (1904), 19.
10 Hist, of Chelsea ( 1 8 2 9), i, 2 7 z.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
of Justice Walk, a portion of the river front-
age running east from Lawrence Street to
Church Street, and that it ' occupied the
houses to the upper end of the street,' i.e.
Lawrence Street. Part of the works was
situated in Cheyne Row West, where large
quantities of broken figures and bases were
found during some excavations in 1843.
Some time between 1750 and 1754 a ware-
house was opened in Pall Mall for the sale of
the Chelsea ware, and by February 1757 the
warehouse had removed to Piccadilly. There
is in the British Museum n a memorial
(written after 1752) from 'the undertaker of
the Chelsea porcelain,' who complains of the
smuggling of Dresden porcelain into England.
He states that he sold last winter to the value
of ,£3,500, and employed one hundred persons.
Writing in 1750 Jonas Hanway 13 says, 'It is
with great satisfaction that I observe the
manufactories of Bow, Chelsea, and Stepney 13
have made such a considerable progress ; on
the other hand it is equally a subject of horror
to see so many shops in the streets of London
supplied with the porcelain of Dresden, though
it is importable only under oath of being for
private use and not for sale.'
A public sale of the ware by auction was
held in March and April 1754 at St. James's,
Haymarket, and lasted fourteen days. 'The
undertaker of this manufactory, having at a
very great expense brought it to that perfec-
tion as to be allowed superior to any other
attempts made in that way,' hopes for the en-
couragement of the public, ' more particularly
as he is determined to submit the value en-
tirely to their generosity, and likewise that he
will positively not open his warehouses, nor
exhibit any article to sale after this till next
year.' A further sale, however, of five days
took place in November-December following,
confined to small and fancy objects, such as
snuff-boxes, smelling-bottles, trinkets for
watches, and knife-handles. These articles
were ' in lots suitable for jewellers, goldsmiths,
toy-shops, china-shops, cutlers, and work-
men in those branches of business.' The
second annual sale took place on 10 March
1755 and fifteen following days, and among
the goods mentioned is ' a most magnificent
and superbe lustre.' This is probably a lustre
similar to that made for the Duke of Cumber-
land, described by Mrs. Delany,13a who visited
11 Lansd. MS. 829, fol. 4.
" Travels (1753), iv, 228. Quoted by Walter
F. Tiffin, Chronograph of Bow, Chelsea, and Derby
Porcelain Manufactories, 5-6.
13 Of the Stepney porcelain works no informa-
tion has as yet been found.
'** Life and Corres. (Ser. i), iii, 462.
the duke's lodge at Windsor in June 1757.
Here she saw a closet decorated in gold and
green with shelves filled with china, ' in the
middle hangs a lustre of Chelsea china that
cost six hundred pounds and is really beauti-
ful.' None of the catalogues of the earliest
sales have survived, but that of the next sale,
held on 29 March 1756 and fifteen following
days, has been reprinted by Mr. Raphael W.
Read,14 and gives a valuable account of the
output of the manufactory. There was then
a great popular demand for china. A retail
dealer at ' Mr. Foy's china shop opposite the
King's Palace' advertises in March 1756
' upwards of one hundred thousand pieces of
china ware,' including Old Japan, Dresden,
and Chelsea porcelain. Much of Sprimont's
best ware went abroad, as appears from the
catalogue of a sale advertised in April 1756 of
the stock of Laumas and Rolyat, Lisbon mer-
chants, which included ' one hundred double
dozen of Chelsea knives and forks, silver-
mounted.'
A crisis now occurred in the undertaking :
Sprimont was taken ill, and announced by
advertisement in February 1757 that though
the manufactory had been much retarded,
' several curious things ' had been finished and
would be sold at the Piccadilly warehouse.
The annual spring sales were resumed in 1759,
and continued in 1760 and 1761. The close
of the advertisement in 1761 ran thus : —
' The proprietor, N. Sprimont, after many
years' intense application has brought this
manufactory to its present perfection ; but as
his indisposition will not permit him to carry
it on much longer, he takes the liberty to
assure the nobility, gentry, and others, that
next year will be the last sale he will offer to
the public.' The sale was deferred till
March 1763, when Sprimont announced that
on account of his lameness the manufactory
itself would shortly be disposed of. Another
announcement of the intended sale of the
stock and plant was made in January 1764,
'as Mr. Sprimont, the sole possessor of this
rare porcelain secret, is advised to go to the
German Spaw.' No sale appears to have
taken place, and another sale (the last of the
regular spring auctions) was held in March.
It included what was probably a replica of the
magnificent dessert service in mazarine blue
and gold presented by the king and queen
to the Duke of Mecklenburg, as it is described
as ' the same as the royal pattern which was
sold for ^1,150.' At a sale of specimens of
all the English porcelain manufactories at the
14 Reprint of the original catalogue of the Chelsea
Porcelain Manufactory. Privately printed. Salisbury
(1880).
152
INDUSTRIES
Exhibition room, Spring Gardens, in July 1 766,
Chelsea dessert services were priced at from
£17 to .£150 the set.
M. P. J. Groslet,14 who visited London in
April 1765, speaks of the Chelsea manufactory
as having just then fallen, and says he had
heard that the county of Cornwall furnished
the clay proper for making the porcelain.
The output from the factory now dwindled
down to very small dimensions, but had not
ceased in March 1768, when a dealer named
Jones announced 16 for disposal porcelain 4 even
still brought from that noble manufactory.'
Writing in April 1769 to Bentley, who was
then at Liverpool, Josiah Wedgwood tells
him ' the Chelsea moulds, models, &c., are to
be sold . . . there's an immense amount of
fine things.' From a later letter in July it
appears that Wedgwood wished to purchase
some of the plant, but was not prepared to
buy the whole.17 In May 1769 Sprimont
announced a further sale of Chelsea porcelain,
4 he having entirely left off making the same,'
and made another unsuccessful effort to dispose
by auction of the plant of his factory. In
the following autumn Sprknont's connexion
with the works ceased, and a hurried sale of
the remaining stock took place in February
1770. In the catalogue of the sale of his
pictures in March 1771 Sprimont is described
as 4 the late proprietor of the Chelsea porcelain
manufactory who is retired into the country.'
The business was bought by William Duesbury,
probably early in 1770. Bemrose gives par-
ticulars 18 of the various leases of the site of the
works in Lawrence Street, from which it
appears that Sprimont held a lease for fourteen
years, dated 3 March 1759, and on 15 August
1769 re-leased it to James Cox, who again
leased the property on 9 February 1770 to
William Duesbury and John Heath. Dues-
bury obtained a further lease on 25 March
1773 for seven years, being then no longer
in partnership with Heath. On the expiration
of his new lease in 1780 he took a lease for
a single year, after which he leased the pre-
mises for three years more. In 1784 he gave
up the property and finally closed the works.
On Sprimont's retirement the first pur-
chaser of the works was James Cox, who on
17 August 1769 gave j£6oo for the mills,
kilns, shops, warehouses, and all their contents
in the premises at Lawrence Street. Cox
being unable to carry on the business sold it
within a few months, at a trifling profit, to
14 Londres (1770), iii, 37-8.
16 J. E. Nightingale, op. cit. 26.
17 Eliza Meteyard, Life of Wedgwood, ii, 1 20.
18 Boat, Chelsea, and Derby Porcelain, 20-31.
Duesbury. Sprimont's managing foreman
was Francis Thomas, who died just after his
master's retirement. A lawsuit then arose
between Duesbury and Burnsall the auctioneer,
Thomas's executor, it being alleged that
Thomas had concealed 4 a great quantity of
finished and unfinished porcelain to the amount
of several hundred pounds.' The list of this
porcelain is of value, as it shows the nature of
the ware made prior to I769-19 Sprimont
seems to have contemplated, or actually entered
into, a partnership with Matthew Boulton for
the sale of porcelain vases mounted with
ormolu, but did not regain his health, and died
in 1771. His artistic tastes are shown in his
gallery of pictures which was sold by Mr.
Christie in the same year.
William Duesbury was born on 7 Septem-
ber 1725, and as his work-book shows was
working as an enameller in London in 1751.
He afterwards worked at Longton Hall, and
settled at Derby in 1755-6, when with the
financial help of the Heaths, the Derby
bankers, he purchased the site of the Derby
Porcelain Works. By his ability, integrity,
and indefatigable diligence, he became the
proprietor of four factories, Bow, Chelsea,
Longton Hall, and Derby, and at his death in
1786 was probably the largest manufacturer
of porcelain of his time in England.
When the Chelsea business passed into
Duesbury's hands the auction sales were re-
sumed. The first was on 17 April 1771 and
the three following days, the next in 1773,
and then after an interval of four years they
continued annually until 1785. The ware was
announced sometimes as Derby and Chelsea,
and sometimes as Chelsea alone ; and speci-
mens of the various wares were on permanent
view at the warehouse in Bedford Street,
Covent Garden.
Some particulars of the Chelsea factory are
given in a conversation between Nollekens
the sculptor and P. Betew, an art dealer : — 20
Betew. Chelsea was another place for china.
Nollekens. Do you know where that factory
stood ?
Betetv. Why, it stood upon the site of Lord
Dartery's house, just beyond the bridge.
Nollekens. My father worked for them at one time.
Betetv. Yes, and Sir James Thornhill designed
for them. Mr. Walpole at Strawberry Hill has a
dozen plates by Sir James which he purchased at
Mrs. Hogarth's sale in Leicester Square. Paul
Ferg painted for them.
Betew proceeded to ascribe the failure of
these works to the refusal of the Chinese to
19 Ibid. 45-8.
M J. T. Smith, Nollekens and his Times (1894),
177-
153 20
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
allow any longer the importation of china clay
into this country as ballast. Thornhill could
not have designed for the Chelsea works, for
he died in 1734, several years before their
establishment ; and the plates spoken of by
Betew were of blue and white delf painted
by Thornhill with the twelve signs of the
zodiac in August 1711.
The Chelsea ware, as far as regards the
composition of its body or paste, groups itself
naturally into two divisions. The first in-
cludes the earliest productions down to 1756
or 1 7 5 7. These are generally characterized 2I
by an ivory-white or wax-white hue, and by
considerable translucency, much glassy frit
being employed in the paste, both glaze and
body being very soft. The pieces, owing to
this softness, were of ten distorted in firing, and
resemble the porcelain of St. Cloud in the
richness of their texture and tone. These
early specimens were frequently left white, and
their decoration consists almost exclusively of
sprays of flowers and leaves, butterflies and other
insects, with portions of the modelled ornament
very simply lined in colours, and occasionally in
gold. The decoration was not always executed
at the Chelsea factory. Parcels of white ware,
glazed but not decorated, were frequently sold
to artists who painted them in enamel colours
to suit the requirements of dealers. William
Duesbury, as appears from his work-book
already mentioned,22 decorated in this way
pieces of ware from Chelsea, Bow, and other
factories. Burton 23 has classified the produc-
tions of the early period under eight heads : —
1. White pieces, of which the goat and bee
cream-jug and the craw-fish salts are examples.
2. Pieces with Oriental decoration :
square and hexagonal cups, saucers, plates,
and dishes in the Japanese style. The decora-
tion is often in blue under-glaze in imitation
of the Chinese pieces, or in red and gold
on the glaze after the style of Japan.
3. Leaf dishes. These are generally decorated
with a brown or pink-lined edge, and have the
veins of the leaves touched in with the same
colour. Little sprays of flowers, leaves and
insects are scattered over the surface.
4. Vessels, for table use or ornament, of
fantastic shape : tureens, dishes, sauce-boats,
&c., modelled and coloured to represent
animals, fruit, vegetables, birds, and fish.
5. Handles for knives and forks. These
were produced in great variety.
" Church, op. cit. 24.
* W. Bemrose, op. cit., has published in facsimile
several pages of the worlc-boolc of William Dues-
bury, dated 1751-3.
* Hut. Engl. Porcelain, 40-3.
6. Porcelain trinkets and toys. The famous
Chelsea trinkets comprised a charming series of
small, delicately-modelled figures, bouquets,
animals,groups and single heads, intended to be
mounted in gold, and worn on chains. These
made their appearance in the first period, but
continuing in great demand were produced
down to the close of the factory.
7. Statuettes and groups of figures. Chel-
sea was famous for these from an early period.
The simpler groups and figures, slightly
decorated and with very little gold, were prob-
ably produced first. These early figures in-
clude the bust of the Duke of Cumberland,
figures emblematical of the Continents, the
Seasons, the Senses, and the monkey orchestra.
With these must be classed the birds perched
on stumps and enamelled in naturalistic
colours, of which there are many fine ex-
amples in the Schreiber bequest.
8. Green enamel decoration. Pieces of
this class were produced during the early
years, but at a later date also. On a perfectly
white ground, landscapes, often with ruins,
were finely outlined in purple, and then a
very glossy green enamel was thickly
washed over the scene. Dishes, plates, and
particularly toilet sets, were frequently decor-
ated in this way. The exquisite scent-bottles
which appear in the sale catalogues of 1754
and 1756 frequently bear French inscriptions
(sometimes incorrectly spelt), and were long
mistaken for productions of the Sevres manu-
factory.
The productions of the latter period of the
works have two important characteristics, the
presence of bone-ash in the paste, and the
extensive use of rich coloured grounds with
lavish gold decoration. In 1759 the works
took a new development in striking contrast to
the two preceding years, when through Spri-
mont's illness the output first slackened and
then almost ceased. New experiments were
now made, and the use of bone-ash produced
a body mixture which was more manageable
and therefore less costly in practice. The
first departure from the simplicity of the early
style is the introduction of a rich mazarine-
blue ground, a few examples of which appear
in the sale catalogue of 1756. Other ground
colours soon appeared, and were often em-
ployed to cover the main body of the vase or
dish, a space being left white to receive
painted floral or figure subjects. Pea-green
and turquoise-blue were invented at Chelsea
in 1758 or 1759, and the claret for which
the factory became so famous in 1759 also.
This colour was imitated at Dresden and at
Sevres ; the Rose-Pompadour, which was the
154
INDUSTRIES
pride of Sevres, appears in a Chelsea catalogue
of 1771. These colours were enamelled — that
is applied over the fired glaze — differing from
the blue under-glaze of the earlier period.
The gilding of the latter period is far superior
to that of any other contemporary English
porcelain, but came at last to be so lavishly
used as to destroy all artistic effect. The
style of decoration was entirely altered ;
instead of the simple use of flowers, birds or
insects, carelessly thrown over their surface,
the pieces of this later period are richly decor-
ated with brilliant colours, ambitious paintings
and excessive gildings. The form of the
pieces also underwent a change. Large and
elaborate vases in extravagant rococo style,
but exhibiting the highest technical skill, were
produced in great numbers, and the subjects
painted on their panels now owed their entire
inspiration to the school of Watteau, Boucher,
and other French artists. The statuettes of
this later period were larger and more impor-
tant than the earlier works, and many of them
were modelled by Roubiliac, who lived in
England from 1744 to 1762. Some of his
works have an R impressed on the paste, but
many are not so distinguished. The following
may safely be considered as from his design :
'The Music Lesson' in the Victoria and Albert
Museum ; ' Shakespeare ' ; ' Apollo and the
Muses' ; 'The Four Seasons'; and a group
of a man playing a hurdy-gurdy and a lady
teaching a dog to dance.
The use of raised flowers grew in this
later period to an extraordinary excess. This
form of decoration began with festoons and
wreaths of flowers on the shoulders of vases or
hanging down their sides ; then little figures
were made in combination with flowers and
foliage ; and finally elaborate boscage pieces
were produced, of which 'The Music Lesson '
is an excellent example. The earliest mark
of Chelsea ware was an incised triangle, but
this is seldom found and may have been only
a workman's mark. The most general Chel-
sea mark is an anchor. In its earliest form
the anchor is found in low relief upon an
embossed ground. At a later date the anchor
was drawn by the enameller or gilder, usually
in red, but also in purple and sometimes in
gilt ; occasionally in later pieces two gold
anchors occur side by side.
GLASS
One of the earliest known references to the
purchase of glass in Middlesex is contained in
a writ issued by Edward III, dated 28 March
I35O.1 It recites that John de Lincoln,
master for the works in the King's Chapel in
the Palace of Westminster, and John Geddyng
had been appointed jointly and severally to
provide, procure, and buy in the counties of
Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Middlesex [and twenty-
three others], in the most convenient places,
as much glass as should be necessary for the
said chapel ; '.and also to provide workmen,
glaziers, &c. A similar writ dated 20 March
1 35 1 'gives the like commission to John de
Bampton and John de Geddyng. The ex-
pense rolls give full details of the wages paid
to the glaziers and other workmen from
2O June 25 Edw. Ill, to 5 December 26
Edw. III.3 Master John de Chester was paid
7*. a week for working on the drawings of
several images for the glass windows, and was
assisted by five master glaziers working on
similar drawings at is. a day each. Other
painters on glass received "jd. a day each,
glaziers who cut and joined glass for the
' Pat. 24 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 26 d.
' Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 2 1 ib.
' J. T. Smith, jtntiy. ofWtstm. (1807), 191-6.
windows were paid 6d. a day, and workmen
who were apparently labourers had 4^. or 4^.
a day. Thomas de Dadyngton and Robert
Yerdesle, who ground the colours, were also
paid at the rate of 4^. ; and white, blue,
azure, and red glass was bought by the
' pondus ' and conveyed from London to
Westminster. Other examples of window-
glass both pictorial and heraldic in religious
and secular buildings throughout the country
show how great an advance had been made
by this art in England by the middle of the
1 4th century.
We meet with some interesting informa-
tion concerning a Middlesex glass-house in
1447, when the executors of Richard de
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who died in
1439, were engaging the services of various
artificers for the construction of the magnifi-
cent Beauchamp Chapel in St. Mary's Church,
Warwick, as a last resting-place for the earl.
The contract for glazing the windows was
assigned to a Westminster glazier in the
following terms : — 4
John Prudde of Westminster glasier, 23 Junii
25 H. 6, covenanteth &c. to glase all the windows
4 Dugdale, Antif. ofWarw. (ed. 2, 1730), 446
155
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
in the new chapell in Warwick, with Glasse beyond
the Seas, and with no Glasse of England ; and
that in the finest wise, with the best, cleanest, and
strongest glasse of beyond the Sea that may be had
in England, and of the finest colours of blew,
yellow, red, purpurl, sanguine, and violet, and of
all other colours that shall be most necessary, and
best to make rich and embellish the matters,
I mages, and stories [histories] that shall be delivered
and appointed by the said Executors by patterns
in paper, afterwards to be newly traced and pic-
tured by another Painter in rich colour at the
charges of the said Glasier. All which proportions
the said John Prudde must make perfectly to fine,
glase, eneylin it, and finely and strongly set it in
lead and souder, as well as any Glasse is in Eng-
land. Of white Glasse, green Glasse, black Glasse,
he shall put in as little as shall be needfull for the
shewing and setting forth of the matters, Images,
and storyes, and the said Glasier shall take charge
of the same Glasse, wrought and to be brought to
Warwick, and set up there in the windows of the
said Chapell ; the Executors paying to the said
Glasier for every foot of Glasse ijs. and so for the
whole xcj//. ]s. id.
For some alterations Prudde received a
further payment of ' xiij/;'. vjs. i\d.' These
comprised some additions ' for our Lady, and
Scripture of the marriage of the Earle . . .
the same to be set forth in Glasse in most
fine and curious colours.' Some information
as to the relative cost of English and foreign
glass appears in ' The reporte of John Bote,
glassyer,' 8 which gives his charges for work
done in 1485 at Cold Harbour, the famous
London mansion fronting the Thames. The
prices of the various kinds of glass were :
Dutch, \\d. a foot ; Venice, <•><!. ; Normandy,
6f/. ; English, \d. ; it is probable that the
English glass was of smaller size.
Macpherson,6 quoting from The Present
state of England, anno 1683, says, 'The fine
flint glass, little inferior to that of Venice, was
first made in the Savoy House in the Strand ; '
nothing beyond this statement is known re-
specting this supposed manufactory. Other
unsuccessful attempts made in Tudor times
to set up the manufacture will come more
conveniently for notice under London.
Another of these pioneers was one Cornelius
dc Lannoy who came from the Netherlands
towards the end of 1564 and set up a work-
shop in Somerset House.7 He was subsidized
by the English Government, and undertook
to introduce improvements and instruct Eng-
lish workmen in the glass-makers' art as
6 Lansd. MS. no. 59, art. 76 ; quoted by T.
Hudson Turner, Dam. Arckit, 78.
' Ann. of Commerce (1805), ii, 122.
' Denizations andNaturaRzations (Huguenot Soc.),
p. zlvi.
practised in his own country. A letter from
Armagill Waade to Cecil8 of 7 August 1565
states that Lannoy could not find suitable
materials in England, and that the potters
could not ' make one pot to content him.
They know not howe to seasson their stuff to
make the same to susteyne the force of his
great fyres.' He was forced to send to Ant-
werp ' for new provisyons of glasses, his old
being spent.' The English workmen made
no progress in learning the art, perhaps
through the want of the proper materials ;
' all our glasse makers cannot facyon him one
glasse tho' he stoode by to teach them.'
Lannoy received £150 for 'provisyons,' £30
on his arrival in England, and £30 a quarter,
the first payment being for the quarter ending
25 March 1565. The queen and her council
were, like the heads of most other countries,
very desirous of promoting the glass manu-
facture, but Lannoy's enterprise proved unsuc-
cessful. He was also an alchemist, and made
persistent attempts to induce the queen to
take up his schemes for transmuting base
metals into gold.9
Among the French Protestant refugees who
fled from their country after the massacre of
St. Bartholomew in 1572 were some who
brought with them the art of glass-making.
One of these families of French glass-makers
named Bigoe, Bagoe, or Bagg, has been traced
by Hallen 10 in various parts of England and
Ireland. In 1623 Abraham Bigoe had a
glass-house at Ratcliff and another in the isle
of Purbeck. He was probably the founder of
the firm mentioned by Lysons in his account
of the parish of Stepney published in 1795."
Among the industries of the hamlet of Rat-
cliff he includes ' Bowles's celebrated manu-
facture of window glass, established by the
great-grandfather of the present proprietor,
who is said to have been the first to manufac-
ture crown glass in this kingdom.' Lysons
adds, ' it has certainly been brought to its
present improved state by his family.'
The number of glass-houses in England in
1696 is said to have been eighty-eight,12 but
how many of these were in Middlesex cannot
be ascertained.
An important discovery in glass manufac-
ture made by Thomas Tilston, a merchant of
London, early in the reign of Charles II, gave
London glass a great reputation both here and
8 S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxxvii, 3.
' Ibid, passim.
10 A. W. C. Hallen, French ' Gentlemen Glass-
makers,' in Engl. and Scot/. 8.
11 Environs of Land, iii, 473.
u John Honghton, Coll. for Improvement of Trade
and Commerce (1727), "» 48.
INDUSTRIES
abroad. After many fruitless experiments it
was found that by reducing the proportion of
lime and adding a small quantity of litharge
or oxide of lead a brilliant and practically
colourless glass was obtained, which was not
only more fusible but brighter and clearer
than the old glass. This became known as
English flint glass, and Tilston, who made the
discovery, applied for and obtained a grant of
the whole use and benefit of his invention.13
The fine qualities of this new glass struck a
severe blow at the Bohemian colourless glass,
which had itself beaten Venetian glass out of
the field.14 Its superiority lay in its great
density, which in some cases exceeded that of
the diamond ; the English cut glass rivalled
the diamond in the production of prismatic
displays. In 1713 English cut glass began to
appear on the Continent. In 1760, on the
authority of M. Gerspach, a French writer,
England practically supplied the whole of
France with glass. It is strange that so few
specimens of this important art and so little
information concerning it have survived. The
earliest known piece of English cut glass is
onejbearing the monogram of Frederick Prince
of Wales, which must therefore be dated
between 1729 and 1751. The best period
of this industry is between 1750 and 1790,
and it began to decay early in the igth cen-
tury. Mr. Powell marks three stages of pro-
gress : the first, in which cutting is subservient
to form, lasted to about 1790 ; the second,
in which the claims of form and cutting are
equally balanced, continued till about 1810 ;
and the third, not yet terminated, in which
form has largely given way to cutting. The
softness and high refractive power of their
glass proved a snare to English cutters, who
to please the public strove after still greater
dazzling prismatic effects. For this, deeper
cutting and thicker material became necessary,
and the glass produced bristled with prismatic
pyramids which effectually destroyed all beauty
of form.
No other records of glass-makers in London
outside the City walls are met with until
1760, when William Riccards, merchant, and
Richard Russell, glass-maker, both of White-
chapel, obtained a patent 15 for fourteen years
for a new method of making pots and build-
ing furnaces for crown glass, plate glass, and
all sorts of green glass.
William Tassie, who is best known by his
15 Cal. S.P. Dam. 1663-4, P- z66-
14 See quotations from Peligot and Gerspach,
French writers on glass, in a paper on ' Cut
Glass,' by Harry Powell ; Journ. Sac. oj Arts,
}une 1906.
14 No. 744, i z May 1 760.
wax medallion-portraits, invented a white
enamel composition which he used for repro-
ductions of gems. This was a vitreous paste,
the method of preparing which he kept secret ;
his place of business was from 1772 to 1777
in Compton Street, Soho, and from 1778 to
1791 at 20 Leicester Fields (Leicester Square).
A manufactory for the production of plate-
glass by blowing, the last of its kind, existed
in East Smithfield almost down to 1830, before
it gave way to the powerful competition of the
British Cast Plate Glass Manufacturers.18
The Banks collection of tradesmen's cards
in the Print Room of the British Museum
has notices of the following firms : — Price,
Sherrard Street, St. James's, 1779-89 ; Stan-
field & Co., successors to Orpin, 481 Strand,
1785 ; Hancock, Shepherd & Rixon, i Cock-
spur Street, 1808. Two makers of stained
glass also occur : — Baker's Patent Manufac-
tory, 25 Marsham Street, Westminster, 1792 ;
and William Collins, 227 Strand, near Temple
Bar, 1815.
A minor glass industry was carried on by
small workers in Bethnal Green and Shoreditch
up to about forty years ago. This was the
manufacture of glass beads for exportation to
native tribes in Africa. Hartshorne,17 writing
in 1897, says : — ' They bought their coloured
glass canes from the glass-makers and melted
them at a jet, dropping the metal upon a
copper wire coated with whitening, the wire
being turned during the process, and when
cold the beads would slip off. The men were,
however, so careless and unpunctual that the
trade came to an end.'
Mirror-making is carried on as part of the
cabinet-maker's trade, which involves among
other operations that of glass-bevelling. The
glass, having been made of right size and
shape by the cutter, is passed to the beveller, ;
who first presses the edge of the glass against
an iron grinding-mill, or wheel, upon which
a mixture of sand and water continually plays.
The next process is to submit the glass to a
revolving stone, upon which water trickles ;
this removes the roughness left by the first
operation. The final polish is then given
by a wooden wheel covered with polishing
material. The shape workers, who produce
curves and other elaborate shapes with their
bevelling, are highly-skilled workmen. The
glass then goes to the ' sider," who cleans and
prepares it for silvering. It is then turned
into a mirror by the silverer, by the applica-
tion of silver reduced by admixture with
18 Porter, < Treatise on Glass,' Lardnei's Cab.
Cycl, 195.
" Old Engl. Glasses (1897), lo6n.
157
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
various chemicals. By substituting this pro-
cess for the use of quicksilver, which formerly
prevailed, silvering has now become as little
dangerous as any other branch of the trade.
When the cost of plate-glass became so much
reduced, and the use of mirrors in all kinds of
furniture increased, the trade grew consider-
ably ; but during quite recent years, although
the price of glass has still continued to fall,
the London trade has remained stationary.18
Our English glass at the present day suffers
much from the competition of French and
Belgian glass.1' The foreign glass is not only
cheaper to produce, wages being lower where
it is made than in this country, but it is said
to be purer and whiter in colour, because of
some superiority in the material available.
Through the exertions of Dr. Salviati, a
native of Venice, the old glass industry of
Murano has been successfully revived, and a
London company (known as the Venice and
Murano Glass & Mosaic Company, Ltd.) was
formed in 1870 for the sale of its goods.
One department is the manufacture of enamel
mosaics, an excellent example of which may
be seen in the mosaic decorations of St. Paul's
Cathedral. The firm also largely produces
table glass of artistic design and fine quality.
It remains to speak very briefly of artists in
stained glass. Some excellent work has been
done by firms of the present day. Much of
the painted glass produced by Messrs. Cottier &
Co., of Grafton Street, is extremely fine, both
in design and colour. Messrs. James Powell &
Sons, of South Kensington and Bayswater,
whose principal works are at Whitefriars,
have supplied six windows for St. James's
Church, Marylebone. Messrs. Clayton &
Bell, of Regent Street, have placed some good
windows in Ely Cathedral ; and Messrs.
Heaton, Butler & Bayne, of Garrick Street,
have also executed very fine work.
CLOCK AND WATCH-MAKING
The early history of the clock and watch
trade in London is very obscure. Very little is
known about the early clockmakers, and had it
not been for the custom of marking the works
of each watch with the name of its maker, our
knowledge would have been still more scanty.
The obligation of stamping all gold and silver
cases at Goldsmiths' Hall affords some statistics
of the number of watches produced in Eng-
land, but not of the hands employed in their
manufacture. A contributor to Knight's
London? writing in 1842, estimates the average
annual number of watches which passed
through Goldsmiths' Hall at 14,000 gold and
85,000 silver. This estimate is much below
that given in the report of a committee of the
House of Commons made in 1818, which
gives the number of watches stamped at Gold-
smiths' Hall in 1796 as 191,678. This latter
number, which includes both gold and silver
watches, has never been equalled before or
since, and probably included large numbers of
the inferior watches with forged makers' names
which were then flooding the country.
The principal makers mostly congregated
in the City of London, but many settled at
the West End in the neighbourhood of the
Court, so that Middlesex had its fair share of
the prominent craftsmen of the metropolis.
11 Charles Booth, Lift and Labour of the People of
Lond. (Ser. 2), i, 189.
"Ibid, i, 189 n.
' Knight, Lond. iii, 141.
In Soho there was an important settlement
of French watchmakers, skilled operatives
driven over by the Huguenot persecution.
Since the beginning of the i8th century
Clerkenwell has been the great centre of the
working members of the trade. Many streets
were almost wholly occupied by workmen
engaged in the various subdivisions of the
trade, such as 'escapement maker,' 'engine
turner,' 'fusee cutter,' 'springer,' 'secret-
springer,' 'finisher,' 'joint finisher,' &c.
An early reference to clockmaking in
Middlesex relates to the clockmaker or clock-
mender of Westminster Abbey in 1469, one
Harcourt, who was employed also by Sir John
Paston. Writing in the spring of that year,
Sir John mentions two clocks which he had
left for repair in Harcourt's hands, one of
which was 'My Lordys Archebysshopis.'2
Some of the most skilled clockmakers em-
ployed in England during the i6th century
were foreigners. Nicholas Cratzer or Craczer,3
a German astronomer, was 'deviser of the
King's (Hen. VIII) horloges,' and lived thirty
years in England. He was a Bavarian, born
in 1487. Six French craftsmen were im-
ported in the time of Henry VIII to make a
clock for Nonsuch Palace. Nicholas Oursiau,
Frenchman and denizen, was clockmaker to
both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and
constructed the old turret clock at Hampton
158
1 Paston Letters (ed. 1900), ii, 393.
1 F. J Britten, Old Clocki, 45.
INDUSTRIES
Court.4 He as well as his two assistants
Laurence Daunton of the French Church
and Peter Doute of the Dutch Church, are
returned as living in Westminster in 1568.
One of the earliest Middlesex clockmakers
whose work has survived is Bartholomew
Newsam, who lived in the Strand near
Somerset House. In 1568 he obtained from
the Crown a lease of these premises for thirty
years, and lived to occupy them to within
five years of the expiration of the term. In
1572 he obtained the reversion of the office
of Clockmaker to the Queen, and in 1590
he succeeded to that office on the death
of Nicholas Urseau or Oursiau. Newsam
had, prior to 1582, been clock-keeper to the
queen, and on 4 June 1583 received under
privy seal 32*. 8d. for 'mending of clocks
during the past year.' He did not long enjoy
his double office, but died in 1593. His will,
executed in 1586, contains some interesting
bequests. He leaves to John Newsam, clock-
maker, of York, various tools, including his
' best vice save one, a beckhorne to stand
upon borde, a great fore hammer, and two
hand hammers.' The rest of his tools he gave
to his son Edward, ' with condition he became
a clockmaker as I am,' if not, the said tools
were to be sold. His bequests to friends
included 'a sonne dyall of copper gylte,' 'one
cristall Jewell with a watch in it, garnished
with gould,' ' one watch clocke in a silken
purse,' ' a sonne dyall to stand uppon a post
in his garden,' and ' a chamber clocke of fyve
markes price.' The British Museum has a
striking clock by Newsam, which is a master-
piece of construction. The case is of brass,
gilt and engraved, about 2^ in. square and
6£ in. high, with an ornamental dome and
perforated top. The clock has a verge escape-
ment ; its workmanship is unusually fine for
the period, and is remarkably free from sub-
sequent interference. An illustration of a fine
casket by Bartholomew Newsam is given in
Archaeologia, vol. 55.
Holborn and its neighbourhood was for
over two centuries a favourite locality for
horological craftsmen. JefFery Bailey, who
was admitted to the freedom of the Clock-
makers' Company in 1648, and served as
master in 1674, was a maker of lantern clocks
' at ye Turn Style in Holborn.'
Edward East, watchmaker to Charles I,
was in business at first in Pall Mall, near the
Tennis Court. He afterwards removed to
Fleet Street, and later still to the Strand, as in
the London Gazette for 22-26 January, 1690,
' W. Page, DtnlzaAont and Naturalizations
(Huguenot Soc.j, p. zliii.
he is described as ' Mr. East at the Sun, out-
side Temple Bar.' His watches were held in
high repute, and were often used by Charles II
as stakes at games of tennis in the Mall. Sir
Thomas Herbert relates in his Memoir sf that
having failed to call the king at an early hour
His Majesty ordered him to be supplied with
a gold alarm-watch, ' which, as there may be
cause, shall awake you.' A watch was accord-
ingly procured by the Earl of Pembroke from
Mr. East his watchmaker in Fleet Street.
East was a member of the Clockmakers' Com-
pany, and one of the ten original assistants
named in its charter of incorporation. After
serving the office of warden, he was twice
elected master, in 1645 and again in 1652.
In 1647 ne a^so served the office of treasurer
of the company, an office of which he was the
unique occupant. In 1693, probably not long
before his death, he gave £100 to the company
for the benefit of the poor. A very large sil-
ver alarum clock-watch by East which Charles I
kept at his bedside, and gave to Mr., afterwards
Sir Thomas, Herbert on 30 January 1649,
when on his way to execution at Whitehall, is
still in private possession. It is a beautiful
piece of work, and has been frequently illus-
trated ; the dial and back are finely decorated
with pierced work. This may be the ' Watch
and a Larum of gould ' for which East received
' fortie pounds ' from the Receiver-General on
23 June 1649,' the watch having been sup-
plied ' for the late King's use the xviith of
January last.' Another fine example of an
' Eduardus East ' is in the British Museum ;
it is an octangular crystal-cased watch made
about the year 1640, and has a recumbent
female figure engraved on the dial. The
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford possesses a gold
watch by East in the form of a melon. Other
specimens of this maker known to exist are a
watch with tortoise-shell case, in the British
Museum, dating from about 1640; another in
the Victoria and Albert Museum ; two ex-
amples in the Guildhall Museum, one a watch
movement and the other a silver watch in
oval hunting case with crystal centre ; and
two clock-watches in finely-pierced silver cases,
in private possession.
Jeremy East, a contemporary and probably
a relative of Edward East, was admitted to the
freedom of the Clockmakers' Company in
1641. Two specimens of his workmanship
are described by Britten.7 One is a superb
and very early example of English work, a
watch in an hexagonal crystal case with gilt
'(1813), 148.
• Britten, Old Clocks and Watchei, 167-8.
7 Ibid, i iz, 402.
159
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
brass mountings ; the plate is inscribed ' Jere-
mie East, Londini,' and the work is not later
than 1600. The other is a small oval watch
with a plain silver dial and one hand ; its date
is about 1610. East was living in 1656, when
he joined with some other freemen of the
Clockmakers' Company in a petition to the
Lord Mayor respecting certain disputes as to
the management of the company.
Another skilled maker of this period was
William Clay, who appears to have been in
business from 1646 to 1670, but of whom
very little is known. An engraved metal dial,
very fine for this early period, and denoting
the minutes in a peculiar way, bears the in-
scription, ' William Clay, King's Street, West-
minster.' Clay took part in the disputes which
occurred in the Clockmakers' Company in
1656, and was probably the maker of a watch
presented by Cromwell to Colonel Bagnell at
the siege of Clonmel.
Of somewhat earlier date was Richard Harris,
who is said to have constructed a turret clock
with a pendulum for the church of St. Paul,
Covent Garden, which was afterwards de-
stroyed by fire. An inscription on an engraved
plate in the old vestry-room states that ' The
clock fixed in the tower of the said church was
the first long pendulum clock in Europe, in-
vented and made by Richard Harris of London,
although the honour of the invention was
assumed by Vincenzio Galilei, A.D. 1649, and
also by Huygens in 1657.'
Richard Bowen, a London maker whose
address is not known, but who was in business
in the earlier half of the I7th century, was one
of the first makers of a keyless watch. In the
London Gazette for 10-13 January 1686, there
is an advertisement, ' Lost, a watch in black
shagreen studded case with a glass in it, having
only one Motion and Time pointing to the
Hour on the Dial Plate, the spring being
wound up without a key, and it opening
contrary to all other watches. R. Bowen,
Londini, fecit, on the black plate.' Another
watch by Bowen is said to have been given by
Charles I in 1647, wn'le at Carisbrooke, to
Colonel Hammond. It is a large silver watch
with two cases, the outer one chased and en-
graved with a border of flowers and the figure
of the king praying, and the words: 'And
what I sai to you I sai unto all, Watch.'
Among the numerous French Protestant
refugees who settled in Soho towards the close
of the 1 7th century were the Debaufres, a
family of very skilful French watchmakers.
Peter Debaufre, who was in business in Church
Street, Soho, from 1686 to 1720, was admitted
into the Clockmakers' Company in 1689, an<^
in 1704, in conjunction with Nicholas Facio
and Jacob Debaufre, was granted a patent for
the application of jewels to the pivot holes of
watches and clocks. A few months later the
patentees applied to Parliament for permission
to extend the term of their patent, but the
Bill was opposed by the Clockmakers' Com-
pany 8 on what appears to have been insuffi-
cient grounds, and was defeated. In 1704
the firm announced by advertisement that
jewelled watches were to be seen at their
shop ; a watch bearing the name ' Debauffre '
is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Peter Debaufre also devised a dead-beat or
'club-footed' verge escapement which was
adopted with some alterations by several other
makers. James Debaufre became connected
with the business in 1712 and carried it on at
Church Street, Soho, until 1750.
Another successful Huguenot firm was that
of the De Charmes. Simon De Charmes, who
was driven over here by the persecution about
the year 1688, was admitted as a clockmaker
in 1691 and built Grove Hall, Hammersmith,
in 1730. The house was occupied by his son
David, who lived there till his death in 1783,'
and succeeded his father in the business.
Jonathan Lowndes, who was in business in
Pall Mall between 1680 and 1700, was a cele-
brated maker of his day.
Christopher Pinchbeck, son of the inventor
of the ' Pinchbeck ' alloy, carried on a success-
ful business in Cockspur Street, and is described
as clockmaker to the king. In 1766 he is said
to have procured for George III the first pocket
watch made with a compensation curb. He
was elected an honorary freeman of the Clock-
makers' Company in 1781, and died in 1783
at the age of seventy-three.
The Perigals were a family of celebrated
horologists from which three firms originated.
Francis Perigal, the founder, was established
from 1740 at the Royal Exchange, where he
was succeeded by his son and grandson.
Another Francis (1770-94), who was watch-
maker to the king, settled in New Bond Street
and was succeeded by Perigal & Duterran,
'Watchmakers to His Majesty,' from 1810
to 1840. Another branch of the family
established itself in Coventry Street as John
Perigal (1770-1800), and Perigal & Browne
(1794-1800).
Charles Haley (1770-1800), of Wigmore
Street, who was admitted to the honorary free-
dom of the Clockmakers' Company in 1781,
was a celebrated maker, and a patentee of a
remontoire escapement for chronometers.10
6 Britten, Old Clocks and Watches, 351.
» T. Faulkner, Hist. ofFulham (1813), 349.
10 No. 2,132, 17 Aug. 1796.
1 60
INDUSTRIES
He was one of the experts appointed by the
Parliamentary Committee in 1793 to report
on Mudge's chronometers. The firm after-
wards became Haley and Milner (1800-15),
Haley and Son (1832), and James Grohe
(1834-42).
Other prominent makers of this period were
James Short (1740-70), who sent to the
Royal Society in 1752 an interesting letter
on compensated pendulums ; John Bittleston
(1765-94), of High Holborn, the maker of
a very curious astronomical watch ; Thomas
Best (1770-94), of Red Lion Street, a maker
of musical clocks and watches ; Francis Mag-
niac (1770-94) of St. John's Square, Clerken-
well, a maker of complicated clocks and auto-
mata ; James Smith (1776-94) of Jermyn
Street, clockmaker to George III ; and William
Hughes (1769-94) of High Holborn, a maker
of musical clocks and clocks of curious
mechanism.
John Harrison, one of the most famous of
English clockmakers, was born in 1693 near
Pontefract in Yorkshire. For several years
he followed his father's trade as a carpenter,
and, having a great taste for mechanical pur-
suits, gave much of his attention to the im-
provement of clocks and watches. The family
removed to Barrow in Lincolnshire in 1700,
and here Harrison made his first attempts at
clockmaking. One of his earliest efforts, a
clock with wheels and pinions of wood, bears
his signature and the date 1713. Another
long-case clock by him is in the Victoria and
Albert Museum, and a similar specimen is in
the Guildhall Museum. He was then at-
tracted by the reward of ,£20,000 offered by
Parliament for the construction of a time-
keeper of sufficient accuracy to ascertain the
longitude at sea within half a degree. He
invented a form of recoil escapement known
as the ' grasshopper,' and also succeeded in
constructing his famous * gridiron ' pendulum
in which the effects of heat and cold in
lengthening and shortening the pendulum
were neutralized by the use of two metals
having different ratios of expansion. These
he brought to London in 1728, with draw-
ings of his proposed time-keeper for submis-
sion to the Board of Longitude. On the
advice of George Graham, the celebrated
watch-maker, Harrison delayed submitting
his designs until he had constructed his time-
keeper and tested its capabilities. After
spending seven more years in experiments,
he returned to London in 1735, bringing
with him his timepiece, and resided in Orange
Street, Red Lion Square. His work received
the highest approval of Halley, Graham, and
other fellows of the Royal Society, and on
their recommendation he was allowed in 1736
to proceed with it to Lisbon in a king's ship.
During the voyage he was able to correct the
reckoning to within a degree and a half, and
the Board of Longitude gave him £500 as
an encouragement to proceed with his experi-
ments. He finished another timepiece in 1 739,
and afterwards a third ; this procured him in
1749 the medal annually awarded by the Royal
Society for the most useful discovery. His last
timepiece was smaller, and he now resolved
to abandon the heavy framing and wheels
which he used in his earlier attempts. In
1759 he perfected his celebrated 'watch,'
which, after being tested in two voyages, to
Jamaica in 1761-2, and to Barbadoesin 1764,
at length obtained for him the full reward
offered by government. Harrison's watch
and the three timepieces which preceded it
are still preserved at the Royal Observatory
at Greenwich. A duplicate of the fourth
watch which secured for him the government
reward was purchased by the Clockmakers'
Company in 1891 for ^105, and is exhibited
with other chronometers in their museum at
the Guildhall. It was at one time in the
Shandon Collection, and bears the hall-mark
of 1 768-9. u He died on 24 March 1776 at
his house in Red Lion Square, and was buried
in the south-west corner of Hampstead church-
yard. His tomb, which was restored by the
Clockmakers' Company in 1880, contains a
long inscription recording the merits of his
inventions.12 There is an engraved portrait
by Reading of ' Longitude Harrison ' in the
European Magazine, and another by Tassaert
was published in Knight's Portrait Gallery.
Another inventor of improvements in the
chronometer was Thomas Earnshaw, who
was born at Ashton-under-Lyne in 1749.
After serving his apprenticeship to a watch-
maker, he came to London and worked for
some time as a finisher of verge and cylinder
watches ; he also taught himself watch-jewel-
ling and cylinder-escapement making, making
use of ruby cylinders and steel wheels. Earn-
shaw worked for John Brockbank, Thomas
Wright of the Poultry, and other makers, and
in 1781 improved the chronometer escape-
ment by using a spring detent instead of the
pivot form employed by the French makers.
After showing a watch with his new device
to Brockbank, it was agreed that Wright
should patent it, but the latter kept the watch
for a year to observe its going, and did not
11 Cat. of the Mus. of the Clockmakers1 Company
(1902), 46.
11 S. E. Atkins and W. H. Overall, Hist, of the
Clockmaker f Co. (1881), 179-80.
61 21
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
procure the patent till 1783. Meanwhile
John Arnold had registered a patent specifica-
tion claiming the device as his own invention ;
this embittered Earnshaw's feelings towards
Brockbank,whom he accused of having divulged
his plan to Arnold. In 1 795 Earnshaw set up
in business for himself at 119, High Holborn,
one door east of what is now Southampton
Row. In 1801 he was awarded ,£500 by
the Board of Longitude on account of his
inventions, and in 1803 a further sum of
£2,500. This did not, however, satisfy him,
and in 1808 he issued 'An appeal to the
Public,' in which he urged his claim to higher
consideration. He died at Chenies Street in
1829, but the business was carried on by his
son Thomas in Holborn, and afterwards at
87, Fenchurch Street. There is a portrait
of Earnshaw engraved by Bullin from a paint-
ing by Sir Martin Archer Shee, R.A.
Benjamin Gray, who was in business in
Pall Mall, was the founder of a celebrated
firm of watchmakers. He was clockmaker
to George II, and several specimens of his
work between 1730 and 1758 are in the
Guildhall Museum. Gray was joined in
partnership by Justin Vulliamy, who settled
in London about 1730. Vulliamy was of
Swiss origin, and the first of a line of well-
known makers of that name ; he married the
daughter of Benjamin Gray, and succeeded
him in his business in Pall Mall. The watches
made by this firm were of very fine quality :
one of them fetched £120 15*. when the
Hawkins Collection was dispersed by auction
in 1895. This beautiful example had an
outer case of gold and crystal and a diamond
thumb-piece to press back the locking spring,
the inner case being enamelled in colours with
a garden scene. Justin Vulliamy was suc-
ceeded by his son Benjamin, who was in
favour with George III, and much consulted
by the king on mechanical subjects, especially
in connexion with Kew Observatory. Benja-
min Lewis Vulliamy, the next head of the
firm, was born in 1780, and obtained a high
reputation for the exactness and excellent finish
of his work, both in clocks and watches.
Until his death in 1854, the office of clock-
maker to the reigning sovereign continued to
be held by members of the Vulliamy family.
The royal palaces contain many fine clocks
made by the Vulliamys. At Windsor Castle,
on the mantelpiece of the royal dining-room,
is a clock by Justin Vulliamy, and in the
presence chamber is another clock by the
firm inclosed in a marble case which forms
part of a mantelpiece designed by J. Bacon,
R.A. Among the public timekeepers
made by B. L. Vulliamy were the large
clock at the old Post Office, St. Martin's-le-
Grand, and one at Christ Church, Oxford.
Vulliamy was the author of several pam-
phlets on the art of clock-making ; one of
them being on the construction of the dead-
beat escapement. He was a very active
member of the Company of Clockmakers, of
which he was five times master ; in recogni-
tion of his services to them, the company
presented him with a piece of plate in 1 849.
There is a fine long-clock by Richard Vick,
in a handsome Chippendale case, at Windsor
Castle. Vick, who carried on business in the
Strand, was master of the Clockmakers' Com-
pany in 1729, and is the maker of a repeating
watch inscribed 'Richard Vick, watchmaker
to his late Majesty.' Among the celebrated
Clerkenwell makers the firm of Thwaites
occupies an honourable place. Ainsworth
Thwaites, who was in business in Rosoman
Street between 1740 and 1780, made the
Horse Guards clock in 1756, and a handsome
long-clock about 1770 for the East India
Company which is now in the India Office.
He was succeeded as head of the firm by
John Thwaites, who was master of the Clock-
makers' Company in 1815, 1819, and 1820,
and presented the company with a notable
timekeeper by Henry Sully. He remained at
the head of the firm from 1780 to 1816,
when the firm became Thwaites & Reed,
and so remained until 1842.
Stephen Rimbault was a maker of high
reputation between the years 1760 and 1781,
and carried on business in Great St. Andrew's
Street, St. Giles's. He particularly excelled
in clocks with mechanical figures dancing or
working on the dials, and other complicated
time-pieces ; a musical clock made by Rim-
bault in 1780, which plays six tunes on
eleven bells, is illustrated by Britten. John
Zoffany, R.A., in his early days was Rim-
bault's decorative assistant, and his services no
doubt helped largely to establish this maker's
reputation.
Thomas Grignion, the first of a celebrated
family of clockmakers, is stated in the in-
scription of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, already
quoted, to have brought to perfection in 1740
' the horizontal principle in watches and the
dead beat in clocks,' and to have made ' the
time-piece in the pediment at the end of this
parish church, destroyed by fire A.D. 1795.'
A new turret clock with bells was made for
the church in 1797 by Thomas Grignion the
younger. The firm started at the ' King's
Arms and Dial' in Great Russell Street,
Covent Garden, with Daniel and Thomas
Grignion as partners, who described them-
selves as finishers to the late Daniel Quare.
162
INDUSTRIES
One of their watches, a fine repeater with
beautifully enamelled case, is of about the
year 1730, and another in the Dunn Gardner
collection has the hall-mark of 1748. Thomas
Grignion junior, who succeeded as head of
the firm, was born in 1713 and died in 1784;
a watch by him, in a repoussi case, is in the
Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1775 the
firm was styled Grignion & Son, and a third
Thomas Grignion was at the head of it
between 1800 and 1825.
Eardley Norton was a well-known Clerk-
enwell maker living at 49, St. John Street, and
celebrated for his musical and astronomical
clocks and watches. In 1771 he patented
(No. 987) 'a clock which strikes the hours
and parts upon a principle entirely new, and
a watch which repeats the hours and parts, so
concisely contrived and disposed as to admit
of being conveniently contained not only in a
watch, but also in its appendage, such as a
key, seal, or trinket.' An astronomical clock
with four dials made by Norton for George III
is in Buckingham Palace. He was in business
from 1770 to 1794, and was succeeded by
Gravell & Tolkein (1794-1820), William
Gravell & Son (1820-50), and Robert Rolfe
(1850).
A Swiss watchmaker of eminent ability,
Josiah Emery, came to England and settled
in London, carrying on business at 33, Cock-
spur Street, Charing Cross, between 1770
and 1805. Emery was one of the earliest
makers to adopt Mudge's invention of the
lever escapement, and having made a watch
on this principle for Count Bruhl, which
proved a most satisfactory timekeeper, he
decided to continue its use. In his evidence
before the House of Commons Committee
appointed to consider Mudge's claims to the
government reward he said that he had made
thirty-two or thirty-three such watches, and
that his price for them was ^150 each.
Emery was presented with the honorary
freedom of the Clockmakers' Company on
2 April 1781 ; there is a watch by him with
ruby cylinder, helical balance spring, and
compensation curb, in the Guildhall Museum.
Louis Recordon, who succeeded Emery,
was in business for himself in 1780 at Greek
Street, Soho. In that year he patented a
pedometer-winding for watches,13 a contriv-
ance by which the motion of the wearer's
body is utilized for winding. Recordon lived
until 1810, and the business next passed into
the hands of Peter Des Granges, who retired
in 1842, when his shop and its goodwill was
acquired by Edward John Dent.
u 1 8 Mar. 1780, no. 1249.
John Leroux was a maker of high repute
who was settled between 1760 and 1800 at
8, Charing Cross. He was admitted to the
honorary freedom of the Clockmakers' Com-
pany in 1781, and there is a fine watch by
him dated 1785 in the Guildhall Museum.
Space will only allow of very brief mention
of makers of note in the igth century.
James Tregent (1770-1804), a celebrated
French maker who settled in London, first in
the Strand and afterwards in Cranbourne
Street, was watchmaker to the Prince of Wales,
and intimate with Garrick, Sheridan, and
other celebrities of the stage. Joseph Anthony
Berollas (1800-30), of Denmark Street, St.
Giles's, and afterwards of Coppice Row,
Clerkenwell, was an ingenious maker. In
1 808 H he patented a repeater, in i8io15 a
warning watch, and in 1 827™ an alarum
watch and pumping keyless arrangement.
William Anthony (? 1764-1844) was one of
the most expert watchmakers of his day, and
specimens of his work are highly prized ; his
place of business was in Red Lion Street, St.
John's Square. William Hardy (1800-30)
was a skilful maker, living in Coppice Row,
Coldbath Square, Clerkenwell. He devised,
among other inventions, an escapement for
clocks, which obtained a gold medal and prize
of fifty guineas from the Society of Arts. A
firm of well-known makers, which continued
for about one hundred years at the same
address, was started by Robert Storer in 1 743
at II, Berkeley Court, Clerkenwell. Walter
Storer, great-grandson of the founder of the
firm, retired about 1840 and died at Olney
in 1865."
Among the principal chronometer makers
within the county of Middlesex two present-
day firms, those of Barwise and Frodsham,
require special mention. The first-named
firm was founded by John Barwise in 1790
at St. Martin's Lane, and was afterwards
removed to 3, Bury Street, St. James's. The
British Press of 1 8 February 1811 describes
an attack made by highwaymen on John
Barwise whilst on his way to Dulwich.
Barwise was associated in 1841 with Alex.
Bain in a patent for electric clocks.18 The
present firm holds patents for a wristband
watch and other inventions.
" No. 3174, 31 Oct. " No. 3342, 26 May.
" No. 5489, 28 Apr. ; no. 5586, 13 Dec.
17 The writer has to express his great indebted-
ness to Mr. F. J. Britten's admirable and exhaustive
work, Qld Clocks and Watches, and gratefully acknow-
ledges that author's kindness in personally afford-
ing him information.
"No. 8783, II Jan.
163
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The family of Frodsham has produced
several highly skilled chronometer and watch-
makers. William Frodsham, of Kingsgate
Street, Red Lion Square, received the hono-
rary freedom of the Clockmakers' Company in
1781, and attested the value of Earnshaw's
improvements in 1804. He took his son into
partnership in 1790, and died in 1806, when
the business was continued by John Frod-
sham until 1814. William James Frodsham,
another member of this family, started in
Change Alley, was a fellow of the Royal
Society, and was some time in partnership
with William Parkinson; he died in 1850,
and left four sons who were brought up to the
trade. One of them, John, was in business
with his son in Gracechurch Street from 1825
to 1842. Charles, another of the sons of
W. J. Frodsham, was the founder of the
present firm of Charles Frodsham & Co.
He lived from 1810 to 1871, and started
business in 1842 at 7, Finsbury Pavement,
and in the following year succeeded John R.
Arnold at 84, Strand. He conducted many
experiments to investigate the principles of
the compensation balance and the balance
spring, and wrote many papers on technical
subjects ; he also invented many improve-
ments which still exist in chronometers and
watches. He was succeeded by his son,
H. M. Frodsham, in 1871, and the firm
became a limited company in 1893. They
gained the Admiralty prize of £iJO for
excellence of marine chronometers.
English watches were highly esteemed at
the end of the 1 8th century, but about this
time a swarm of worthless timepieces bearing
the forged names of eminent London makers
swamped the best markets and inflicted a great
blow upon the high reputation of English
work. The Swiss took advantage of this to
drive us out of the foreign markets, and much
distress was caused among operatives in the
trade, which led in 1816 to the appointment
of a Parliamentary Committee on the petition
of the watchmakers of London and Coventry.
The Swiss makers still continue, with the
Americans, to be our most formidable rivals
in the production of cheap watches, although
their work will not compare in accuracy with
the more costly watches produced by English
makers. The necessity for the frequent repair
of these foreign time-keepers has given em-
ployment to an increasing number of the less
skilful members of the trade in this country.
Little has been done in England to syn-
chronize our public clocks, and London is in
this respect still much behind other great cities.
A system of magnetic clocks devised by Sir
•Charles Wheatstone is at work at the Royal
Institution and other places. A single motor
clock upon this principle will govern sixty or
seventy indicating clocks, the maintaining
power being supplied by magneto-electric cur-
rents. A clock in the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich, distributes the time to clocks in
a few London centres, but the general adop-
tion of this much-needed system, though often
talked about, seems as far off as ever.
This is not the place to trace the progress
of the art of watchmaking in England, which
comes more suitably in the portion of this
work to be specially devoted to the City of
London, the most notable improvements in
the art having been made by Tompion,
Graham, Mudge, and other eminent London
makers. Early in the reign of Charles I,
when the Clockmakers' Company was incor-
porated (1632), the City of London was cer-
tainly the centre of British clock and watch-
making. Clerkenwell next became the head
quarters of the trade, and maintained its
supremacy as long as verge watches continued
in use. Soon after the invention of the lever
escapement by Mudge in 1750, the movement-
making was transferred to Lancashire. Here
in 1866 the movements were made in
Wycherley's factory by machinery in eight
standard sizes, the different parts for thousands
of movements being perfectly interchangeable.
The movement when received by the manu-
facturer is usually first sent to the dial-maker
to be fitted with a dial. The watch then
passes through the hands of various subsidiary
makers in the following order : — The escape-
ment maker — with whom is associated the
wheel-cutterand the pallet-maker, the jeweller,
the finisher, and the fusee-cutter. The stop-
work is then added, and (when necessary) the
keyless work fitted. The case-maker, balance-
maker, and hand-maker then add their work,
and the examiner fits the movement to the
case and puts on the hands. A work of great
skill and delicacy remains, the introduction of
the balance-spring. The screws of the
balance require adjustment with the greatest
care in order that the watch may. keep time
at temperatures ranging from 40 deg. to 90
deg.
The principal development of watchmak-
ing in recent years is the application of
machinery. This was attempted in London
by the British Watch Company, established
in 1843, at 75, Dean Street, Soho, to manu-
facture watches with duplicating tools invented
by P. F. Ingold. An excellent watch was
designed and several were made, but the in-
corporation of the company was successfully
opposed by the ' trade,' and the undertaking
consequently failed. In America the attempt
164
INDUSTRIES
to cheapen the cost of production has met
with greater success. The pioneer of the
movement was Aaron L. Denison, who after
several preliminary attempts started a factory
in 1851 at Roxbury, Massachusetts.19 The
enterprise passed through many vicissitudes
b ;fore financial success and a satisfactory
standard of manufacture were attained. It
was not until 1860 that a dividend of 5 per
cent, was declared by the American Watch
Company, this being the first dividend de-
clared by any watch factory in America.
In 1 900 the Waltham Watch Company pro-
duceJ 2,500 watches per day, and employed
1,400 women and 500 men. By the aboli-
tion of the fusee and chain a verygreat reduc-
tion was brought about in the number of
pieces. In Engknd the most expensive
watches contain from one hundred and fifty
to over a thousand pieces ; the modern short-
wind watch consists of forty-seven machine-
made parts.
Whilst the efforts of foreign manufacturers
have been almost wholly devoted to cheapen-
ing the cost of watches, it is satisfactory to
note that in England the attainment of a high
quality of workmanship continues to be a great
object with our principal makers. A great
help in this direction has been afforded by the
trials instituted at Kew Observatory in 1884,
under the auspices of the Royal Society, and
now carried out by the National Physical
Laboratory. Three classes of certificate are
granted, known respectively as A, B, and C,
the test for A being especially severe. Watches
that obtain eighty or more out of a total of 100
marks are classed as ' especially good,' and in
spite of the severity of the tests applied the
number of watches which gain this distinction
has a noticeable tendency to increase.
BELL- FOUNDERS1
The earliest bell-founders of the metropolis
are met with towards the end of the 131)1
century, and the trade was located near the
City's eastern boundary, being chiefly con-
nected with the parishes of St. Andrew
Cornhill (now Undershaft), and St. Botolph
Aldga'e. The Reformation brought dis-
aster to the craft of the bell-founders, but
it is not until after the great change of religion
that foundries are met with in Middlesex.
From Aldgate the trade extended to the
neighbouring district of Whitechapel, where
Robert Mot established a business on the north
side of the High Street where Tewkesbury
Court now is, which after nearly three and a
half centuries still exists in a flourishing state.
The earliest known bell from his foundry is
one bearing his name and the date 1575,
formerly at Danbury in Essex. Other bells
cast by him still exist at Banstead, Chertsey,
Merstham, and elsewhere ; and in London the
sanctus bells at St. Andrew's Holborn, and
St. Clement Danes, and four of the six bells
of St. Andrew Undershaft, three of which are
dated 1597, an^ t^le f°urth 1600. Two of
the fine bells at Westminster Abbey, the third
" H. G. Abbott, Watch Factories of America
(1888), 13; Ency. Brit. (ed. 10), xxxiii,
763.
1 The writer is much indebted to Mr. H. B.
Walters, M.A., F.S.A., for kindly placing at his
disposal the result of his researches on this subject
embodied in his paper on ' London Church Bells
and Bell Founders,' contributed to the Transactions
of the St. Paul' i Ecclesiological Sac.
and fifth, are also Mot's work, and bear the
inscription in black letter : —
CAMPANIS PATREM LAUDATE SONANTIBUS ALTUM
CABRIELL GOOD MAN WESTMON* DECANUS
Both are dated, one 1598 and the other 1583,
and their lettering is very elaborate. Mot
was in business for about thirty years ; many
of his bells have been recast, but eighty still
remain. They frequently bear his circular
stamp containing the letters I.H.S., his own
initials, a crown, and three bells, and are
almost always dated. Most of the bells bear
the inscription in black letter, ' Robertus mot
me fecit,' in which he invariably spells his
surname with a small m.
There are two petitions 2 from Mot in No-
vember 1577 to Lord Burghley, praying for
the payment of debts of ^10 lo*. and ^5 5*.
due to him for eight years past from Henry
Howard, esq. He complains3 that 'your said
poor orator is greatly impoverished and come
into decay, and is likely every day to be
arrested for such debts as he oweth.' His
petition for payment of the larger sum was
repeated on 7 June 1578, and again on the
same date in conjunction with two other
creditors of Howard. The petition was ap-
parently hopeless ; Howard, who was the son
of Viscount Bindon, was overwhelmed with
debt ,and abundant evidence of his ill-conduct
exists in the State Papers of this period.
' Cat. S.P. Dom. 1547-80, pp. 568, 591, 593.
*A. D. Tyssen, Ch. Bells of Suss. (1864), 20.
165
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Mot died in i6o8,4 and was succeeded in
business by Joseph Carter, who was a bell-
founder at Reading from 1579 to 1610. He
was in business in London in 1606, apparently
at the Whitechapel Foundry, of which his son
William became manager. The elder Carter
died in 1 6 1 o, and very few of his bells are
known ; there is one at Walton on Thames
dated 1608,* and one formerly belonged to
Allhallows Staining, but is now melted down.
William Carter succeeded his father in busi-
ness, but only lived to carry it on for nine
years. The inscriptions on his bells are in
Gothic capitals, the alphabet being regarded
by some as identical with that used by the
Brasyers, Norwich founders of the I5th cen-
tury.6 Some of the younger Carter's bells
have the private mark (a trefoil) of his foreman,
Thomas Bartlett, who succeeded him as
proprietor in 1619.
The Bartlett family remained at the head
of the Whitechapel foundry to the close of
the 1 7th century, and worthily maintained
its reputation. Many of Thomas Bartlett's
bells remain, although most of those which
he cast for City churches must have perished
in the Great Fire. One, however — that of
St. Margaret Pattens, set up in 1 624 — survived
even that catastrophe, although the church
lay within the doomed district. Another of
his bells, a very fine specimen, which has sur-
vived is the Curfew bell, still rung nightly in
the chapel of the Charterhouse. This was
cast in 1631, and bears the arms and initials
of Thomas Sutton, the famous founder of that
institution. Thomas Bartlett died in or
before the year 1632, and his son Anthony
being apparently only a child the business
was carried on during the next eight years by
John Clifton, whose bells are chiefly found
in south-west Essex. They did not bear the
trade mark of the Whitechapel foundry until
1640 ; a bell at Lambourne, Essex, marked
with that date and the initials A. B., seems to
show that young Anthony had then advanced
in age sufficiently to take charge of the busi-
ness. He began his career at an unfortunate
time, when the church was laid low and
church requisites were destroyed instead of
being purchased or renewed. But he sur-
vived this gloomy period in spite of the vigorous
competition of a famous City firm. The re-
vival of Church life at the Restoration, and
the repair of the ravages caused by the terrible
conflagration, brought a welcome change to
4 A. D. Tyssen, Ch. Bells o/Suss. (1864), 35.
6 J. C. L. Stahlschmidt, Surr. Bells and Lend.
Bell-founders (1884), 94-5.
* Ibid. 95 ; cf. Tyssen, op. cit. 36.
the fortunes of the head of the Whitechapel
foundry, and examples of Anthony Bartlett's
work remain at St. Edmund Lombard Street,
St. George Botolph Lane (recently united
with St. Mary at Hill), and St. Olave Hart
Street. The bells at the latter church, which
escaped the Fire, are dated 1662. Anthony
died in 1676 and was succeeded by his son
James, who was a member of the Founders'
Company, becoming a liveryman in 1677,
and serving as under- warden in 1691 and
upper-warden in 1695. He supplied many
of the bells required for Wren's new churches,
four at Christ Church South wark, dated
1700, and four at Richmond, Surrey, dated
1680. One of the latter has the following
somewhat boastful inscription : —
LAMBERT MADE ME WEAK, NOT FIT TO RING,
BUT BARTLET AMONGST THE REST HATH MADE ME SING.
On the death of James Bartlett in January
1700-1 the Whitechapel foundry passed into
the hands of Richard Phelps, who was born at
Avebury, Wiltshire. He continued at the
head of the firm for thirty-seven years, during
which time the business grew to be the most
successful in the kingdom. His bells are
met with in many different localities, and
among his best work are the peals at
St. Michael Cornhill, St. Magnus, Allhal-
lows Lombard Street, and St. Andrew Hoi-
born. His inscriptions are much longer, if
not more intelligent, than those of his pre-
decessors. The following appears on the
tenth bell of St. Michael Cornhill : —
•
TO PRAYER WE DO CALL ST. MICHAEL'S PEOPLE ALL
WE HONOUR TO THE KING AND IOY TO BRIDES DO SING
TRIUMPHS WE LOUDLY TELL AND RING THE DEAD
MAN'S KNELL.
Phelps is chiefly known as the founder of
the great hour-bell of St. Paul's, which now
hangs in the south-west tower of the cathedral
and bears the inscription : ' RICHARD PHELPS
MADE ME 1716.' It weighs 5 tons 4 cwt.,
and its diameter is 6ft. lof in. ; this bell is
only used for tolling the hour, and for tolling
at the death and funeral of a member of the
royal family, the Bishop of London, the Dean
of the Cathedral, or the Lord Mayor. The
larger part of the metal of which it is made
belonged to the bell formerly hanging in the
clock-tower opposite Westminster Hall and
known first as ' Edward,' after the Confessor,
and afterwards as ' Great Tom ' ; the price
paid for it was £3,025 ijs. 6d.1 St. Paul's
' Harl. MS. 6824, fol. 31. An engraving with
particulars of this bell is in the jintiq. Repertory, i,
II; ii, 162.
1 66
INDUSTRIES
received in 1877 the gift of a new ring of
twelve bells cast by Messrs. Taylor of Lough-
borough, and ' Great Paul ' by the same firm,
weighing 17 tons, was safely hung in the
north-west tower in May 1882.
The latest bell bearing Phelps's name is
the priests' bell at St. George's Southwark,
inscribed : R. PHELPS 1738 T. LESTER FECIT.
Phelps died in 1738, and the order for this
bell was completed by his foreman Thomas
Lester, to whom he bequeathed his business
and the lease of the foundry. Lester removed
the business from Essex Street to the premises
which it has continued to occupy until now
at 32 and 34,WhitechapeI Road. His first peal
was cast for Shoreditch parish church in 1739
and the commission greatly pleased him. The
tenor bell of St. Mary-le-Bow, which weighs
53 cwt. 24 lb., was cast by Phelps and Lester
in 1738, nine others by Lester and Pack in
1762, and two trebles (increasing the peal to
twelve) by the successors of the firm in i88i.8
In the same year (1738) the tenor at West-
minster Abbey, which once belonged to
St. Michael's Cornhill, was recast by the firm.
Lester's management, however, was not suc-
cessful, and the fortunes of the foundry were at
a low ebb until 1752, when he took into
partnership Thomas Pack, who appears to
have been his foreman. The partnership of
Lester and Pack was more prosperous, and
was marked by several changes in the style
of lettering on the bells and the extensive
use of rhyming couplets. One instance of
the latter will suffice, taken from the treble
at Ingatestone, Essex : —
THE FOUNDER HE HAS PLAY'D HIS PART WHICH SHEWS
HIM MASTER OF HIS ART
SO HANG ME WELL AND RING ME TRUE AND I WILL
SING YOUR PRAISES DUE.
In the decoration of their bells they used
various ornamental devices, one of which,
consisting of alternate loops and V-shaped
terminations, became known as the White-
chapel pattern and lasted till 1835. They
also introduced the practice of inscribing each
bell with its weight. Lester died in 1769,
when his nephew William Chapman was
taken into partnership, and the firm continued
as Pack and Chapman until the death of
Thomas Pack in 1781. Chapman then took
into partnership William Mears, whom, as a
young man, he had for some time employed
and taught the business, and who had after-
wards set up in business for himself.9 On
the death of Chapman in 1784 Mears re-
8 H. B. Walters, op. cit. 20.
9 A. D. Tvssen, op. cit. 41.
mained sole partner until 1789, when he
retired, leaving the foundry in the hands of
his son Thomas Mears.10 It is interesting to
note, as Mr. Walters points out, that the
name of Mears has been connected with the
firm for 125 years, although the last repre-
sentative died in 1873.
The Whitechapel foundry became at this
time the most famous foundry in England,11
Dobson's foundry at Downham Market, Nor-
folk, having been fused into it, as well as the
Gloucester foundry, which was incorporated
in 1732. The old foundry at Gloucester had
existed for centuries. 'John of Gloster ' was a
bell-founder there in the I3th century ; but
it came chiefly into note under the Rudhall
family in the i8th century.
Thomas Mears was at the head of the
business until 1810, taking his son Thomas
into partnership in 1806. The fine peal
of bells at the parish church of St. Dunstan,
Stepney, was cast by this firm in 1806.
Thomas Mears the younger succeeded in
1810 and remained sole head until 1843,
when the firm became Charles and George
Mears and so continued until 1857. On
the death of Charles Mears in that year the
style of the firm was altered to George Mears
and Co. The famous Big Ben which strikes
the hours in the Clock Tower of the Houses
of Parliament was recast by George Mears
from a design by Mr. Denison (afterwards
Lord Grimthorpe) in 1858. The bell weighs
13 tons 10 cwt. 3 qrs. I5lb. and took the
place of one weighing i6£ tons cast by John
Warner and Sons in 1856, which was un-
fortunately cracked whilst being exhibited to
the public before being mounted in the Clock
Tower. In 1863 George Mears took as his
partner Robert Stainbank, and the firm became
known as Mears and Stainbank. On the
death of Mears in 18/3 Stainbank was the
sole proprietor. He died in 1883, and was
succeeded by Arthur Silva Lawson, on whose
death in 1904 the business passed into the
hands of Arthur Hughes, its present proprietor.
There were some minor Middlesex founders.
Thomas Swain, who was born at West Bed-
font in the county, succeeded in 1739 as
executor and residuary legatee to the business
of Robert Catlin, a founder in St. Andrew's
Holborn. Swain removed the foundry to
Longford near West Drayton ; besides the
peal at Thames Ditton, several bells cast by
10 Stahlschmidt (Ch. Bells Oj Surr. 105) says
that William Mears took his son Thomas into
partnership in 1787, the partnership lasting till
1791
11 Ellacombe, Ch. Bells of Devon (1872), 9, 62.
167
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
him arc to be found in Surrey and Sussex.
Another founder was Thomas Janeway, who
left the Whitechapel firm to set up in busi-
ness for himself at Chelsea. He was fairly
successful, and his bells dating from 1763 to
1785 include those of old Chelsea Church,
Kensington, Edgware, and Hornsey, peals of
eight at Battersea and Blechingley, and many
other bells in Surrey and Sussex.13 His busi-
ness, like that of Thomas Swain, does not
appear to have continued after his death.
Robert Patrick married Sarah Oliver, grand-
daughter of Thomas Lester of the White-
chapel Foundry,13 and started an opposition
business in Whitechapel, being some time in
partnership with one Osborn of Downham,
Norfolk. He cast the bells of St. John at
Hackney and St. Botolph Bishopsgate, and
the peal of eight at Reigate, which bear the
date 1784. C. Oliver, a bell-founder in
Bethnal Green, cast a peal of bells for the
church of Worth, Sussex, in 1 844.
BREWING
In the Middle Ages when ale was the
general drink of all classes, brewing was a
necessary and often domestic industry, and few
records of local courts are without some
reference to its regulation. When, however,
brewing became an extensive trade, and
especially after the gradual change of taste
which substituted hopped beer for the old
English ale, we have few notices of any
interest relating to brewing in rural Middlesex
until comparatively modern times, though, as
hereafter mentioned, a number of breweries
are known to have existed near the river bank
east of the Tower as early as the I 5th century
and perhaps before. The history of the
licensing and regulation of ale houses belongs
rather to Social and Economic History.
William Hucks, who represented Wallingford
in Parliament, was a well-known brewer of
the 1 8th century. He was brewer to King
George I, and paid that sovereign the doubtful
honour of setting up his statue on the summit
of the steeple of St. George's Church, Blooms-
bury. This occasioned the following satirical
quatrain : —
The King of Great Britain was reckon'd before
The head of the Church by all good Christian
people,
But his brewer has added still one title more
To the rest, and has made him the head of the
steeple.
William Hucks was one of the principal
inhabitants of the parish of St. Giles in the
Fields, and of the new parish of St. George
Bloomsbury, formed out of it in the year 1 73 1 -1
He filled various parochial offices from 1689
to the separation of the parishes, was receiver
of the subscriptions for building the work-
house, and took an active part in rebuilding St.
Giles's Church. Parton attributes to him the
well-known anecdote of the interview of
King Lewis XV with the ' chevalier de malt '
which is generally associated with Humphrey
Parsons the East Smithfield brewer.3
On his death on 4 November 1 740, he
was succeeded by his son Robert Hucks.
The site of the brewery is not known, but it
appears to have been near the junction of
Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road.
Mottley, who wrote (under the pseudonym of
Robert Seymour) a Survey of London, published
in 1 735, gives a list of the streets and lanes in
St. Giles's parish.3 Among those included in
' the first part of the old town ' are ' Brown's
Gardens and therein Two Brewers Yard.'
This is probably the site of the brewery, and
the surrounding localities point to its position
as indicated above.
The firm appears from the following note
in the Annual Register for 1758,* to have had
a branch establishment in Pall Mall : ' 3oth
May. At a store-cellar in Pall Mall, Mrs.
Hucks's cooper, and a chairman who went
down after him, were both suffocated as sup-
posed by the steam of 40 butts of unstopped
beer.' In the beer tax returns of 1760
' Huck ' occupies a position eighth on the list
with an output of 28,615 barrels.6
Hucks had a brother, also a brewer, in
partnership with Smith Meggot, whose busi-
ness was in Stoney Lane, Southwark, the firm
being recorded in Kent's London Directory of
1738 as Hucks and Meggott.
The Black Eagle Brewery at Spitalfields of
Messrs. Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co.,
Ltd., is one of the oldest in London and covers
an area of over 6 acres. The founder was one
Thomas Bucknall, who in 1669 erected a
" Tyssen, Ch. Bells of Suss. 43. " Ibid. 40. ' See post, p. 172.
1 John Parton, Some Acct. of the Par. of St. Giles ' Op. cit. ii, 767. ' Op. cit. 96.
in the fieldt (1822), 392-3. ' Alfred Barnard, Noted Breweries, i, 209.
1 68
INDUSTRIES
brewhouse on ' Lolsworth Field at Spittle-
hope,' an estate then belonging to Sir William
Wheler, bart. The business passed in 1694
into the hands of Joseph Truman the elder,
the property consisting of six messuages and
one brewhouse.6 The remainder of the
Wheler estate was built upon and covered
with streets, and part of this property has
since been acquired by the firm for the exten-
sion of their premises. Joseph Truman was
a successful business man, and in 1716 took
into partnership Joseph Truman, jun., Alud
Denne, and others. He died in 1719, and a
curious document of that date is in the firm's
possession described as 'An inventory of the
goods, chattels, and credits of Joseph Truman,
which since his death have come into the
hands, possession and knowledge of Benjamin
Truman, Daniel Cooper, and the executors
named in the will of Joseph Truman.'7
Benjamin Truman who was an executor of
Joseph Truman, sen., joined the firm in 1722.
An anecdote which exhibits his shrewdness as
a business man is told by J. P. Malcolm.8
On the birth of the Duchess of Brunswick,
granddaughter of George II, in August 1737,
the Prince of Wales ordered four loads of
faggots and a number of tar barrels to be burnt
before Carlton House to celebrate the event,
and directed the brewer of his household to
place four barrels of beer near the bonfire for
the use of those who chose to partake of the
beverage. The beer proved to be of inferior
quality and the people threw it into each
other's faces and the barrels into the fire.
The prince remedied the matter on the
following night by ordering a fresh quantity
of beer from another brewer. This was
supplied by Truman, who took care that it
should be of the best, thus earning for himself
considerable popularity.
Another early document possessed by the
firm, dated 1739, is endorsed, 'A "rest"83
taken and general account stated of all debts and
credits, and also of the malt, hoppes, coales,
beer in the several store cellers and brewhouse,
with all the other goods, utensells as affixt,
used and employ'd in the brewing trade carried
on by Benjamin Truman, John Denne,
Francis Cooper, and the surviving executors
of Alud Denne, at their brewhouse and
several warehouses, situated in Brick Lane, in
the parish of Christchurch, in the county of
* A\{.\hrn<ird,NoredBrea>eriei(i88<)),\,i73 etseq.
'Ibid. 174.
8 Manners and Customs of LonJ. in I StA century
(1810), i, 314.
** This term (in its old meaning of ' balance ')
is still employed by the firm, the annual stock-
taking being called the ' Rest-day.'
2 169
Middlesex.' At this time the brewery was
very extensive, and had on its books 296
publicans, one of whom was the second part-
ner in the firm, Alud Denne. The business
greatly prospered under the management of
Benjamin Truman, who was knighted by
George III on his accession in recognition of
his loyalty in contributing to the voluntary
loans raised to carry on the various foreign
wars. Sir Benjamin was a man of refined
taste and a lover of the arts ; his portrait by
Gainsborough is preserved in the board-room,
formerly the drawing-room, of the house in
Brick Lane. Sir Benjamin Truman died
2O March 1780, and left a daughter, his only
child, whose two grandsons (Sir Benjamin's
great-grandchildren), John Freeman Villebois
and Henry Villebois, succeeded to his interest
in the business. The Hanbury family now
became connected with the firm, Sampson
Hanbury becoming a partner in 1780, and
being joined later by his brother Osgood
Hanbury. The brothers belonged to an
old Essex family, their father, Osgood Han-
bury, having a seat at Holfield Grange.
Sampson Hanbury was greatly devoted to
agriculture and a keen sportsman. He was
an excellent man of business, and is said to
have excelled all his clerks in his knowledge of
book-keeping. His brother Osgood took a
less active part in the business, devoting him-
self more to country life and the management
of his Essex estate. Anna, the sister of
Sampson Hanbury, married Thomas Fowell
Buxton, of Earls Colne, Essex, and their son,
Thomas Fowell Buxton, born in 1786, en-
tered the service of his uncles at the brewery
in 1808, at first as an assistant and three
years afterwards as a partner. The young
man had had a brilliant career at Trinity
College, Dublin, and soon after his admission
as a partner, the seniors, struck with his capa-
bility and energy, entrusted him with the
responsible task of reorganizing the entire
system on which the brewery was conducted.
This he accomplished with great success, over-
coming objections from the senior officials
with great firmness and tact. Among other
measures of reform, he resolved to remedy the
state of gross ignorance which prevailed among
the workmen. He dealt with this in a sum-
mary method, by calling the men together and
threatening to discharge at the end of six
weeks everyone who could not read and write.
He gave them a schoolmaster and other means
of instruction and fixed a day ft r examination,
when he was gratified to find that he had not
to send away a single man. He was also very
careful to prevent the servants of the firm
from working on Sunday. Mr. Buxton
22
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
entered Parliament in i8i8,and distinguished
himself there by his efforts in the cause of
philanthropy and in the reform of our judicial
and penal systems. The great work of his life
and the cause which lay nearest to his heart
was that in which he was associated with
William Wilberforce — the abolition of slavery
in the dominions of Great Britain. In 1816,
when almost the whole population of Spital-
fields was on the verge of starvation, a meeting
was called at the Mansion House, and Buxton
delivered a forcible speech. He narrated the
results of his personal investigations ; the large
sum of ^43,369 was raised at the meeting,
and an extensive and well-organized system of
relief was established. He was for twenty
years the representative of Weymouth in Par-
liament, and was made a baronet in 1841.
He did not live long to enjoy his honours, but
died in 1845, worn out by his great labours in
public and private life.
Mr. Osgood Hanbury was succeeded by his
son Robert, who was born in 1796 and en-
tered the firm in 1820. He possessed great
business abilities, and when Mr. Buxton's
Parliamentary duties withdrew him from the
active management of the brewery, the super-
intendence and control of the business passed
entirely into his hands. Amongst other
alterations which he carried out was the insti-
tution of the ale department, an example
speedily followed by other London breweries.
One of Mr. Hanbury's sons, Mr. Charles
Addington Hanbury, became a member of the
firm, and a son of the last-named, Mr. John
M. Hanbury, is a director. The Pryor family
became connected with the brewery in 1816,
when Messrs. T. M. Pryor and Robert Pryor,
who were owners of the Shoreditch brewery,
and came from an old Hertfordshire family,
joined the firm. Mr. Robert Pryor died in
1839, having the previous year introduced his
nephew, Mr. Arthur Pryor, who became a
partner and succeeded him in his duties. Mr.
Arthur Pryor died in September 1904; two
of his sons, Mr. Arthur Vickris Pryor and
Mr. Robert Pryor, became directors. Mr.
A. V. Pryor is now the head of the corn-
company's brewery at Burton-on-Trent, but
Mr. Robert Pryor died in July 1905.
The premises in Spitalfields are of enormous
extent. At the entrance to the brewery yard
is the weighbridge, where the van-loads of
malt as they arrive from the railway are easily
unloaded by one man, who tips the sacks over
the tail of the van into a bin or receiver.
From this receptacle the malt is conveyed to
the top of the brewery, where it is screened,
and then passed along one of two Archimedean
screws which deliver the grain into the malt-
bins. The malt stores adjoin the brewhouse
on its western side, and are contained within a
building 20O ft. long, 30 ft. wide, and 60 ft.
high ; this great storehouse is divided off into
twenty-one bins, each of which holds from
500 qrs. to 1,200 qrs. of malt. When re-
quired for use the malt is conveyed by screws
to crushing-mills erected on a gallery in the
brewhouse, supported on massive columns and
girders. Eight pairs of rolls or cylinders are
employed, each having its own screening
machinery, and being fitted with dust de-
stroyers ; these rollers are driven by the main
engine or by another of 30 h.p. on the same
floor, and crush over looqrs. of malt per hour.
The malt is bruised or crushed sufficiently to
detach the husk from the grain, so that the
latter may be easily reached by the water and
the whole of its valuable qualities extracted.
The grinding accomplished, the bruised malt
or grist is next conveyed by large copper tubes
to the elevators into the six grist cases at the
top of the building, each of which contains
1 60 qrs. The next process is that known as
mashing, and the water used for this purpose
is obtained from a well bored to a depth of
850 ft. For 200 ft. it has a diameter of 8 ft. ;
here the chalk of the London basin was
reached, and the curious discovery made of a
bed of oysters i8in. thick, and probably ex-
tending for a great distance, as a similar bed
was afterwards found on sinking a well at
Stratford. A bore-pipe of 12 in. diameter
carries the well down to its full depth of
850 ft. Good water, hard and free from or-
ganic matter, is indispensable to the manufac-
ture of good beer. The object of the process
of mashing is to mix the malt with water at
such a temperature as shall not only extract
the saccharine matter existing in the malt, but
shall also change the still unconverted starch
into grape sugar. The appliances for this pro-
cess at Truman's brewery are said to be among
the finest in England. There are six mash-
tuns having a total capacity of 700 qrs. ; each
is provided with a Steel's mashing-machine
and other modern contrivances, and has a
copper cover lifted up by springs and pulleys.
The mash-tuns are supported by circular iron
frames raised on stout iron columns to enable
the mashmen to get beneath the tuns. The
wort is drawn off into a copper receiver by
means of several pipes running from different
parts of the mash-tun ; each of these is fitted
with a trap top to enable the brewer to test
the strength of the liquor from every part
of the tun. The furnaces employed for
heating the boilers were fitted with Jucke's
smoke -consuming contrivances in 1848.
Mr. Fraser, who introduced their use into
170
INDUSTRIES
the brewery, was so satisfied with their
efficiency that he read a paper before the
Society of Arts strongly recommending Jucke's
furnaces for general use. For this he received
a letter of thanks from Lord Palmerston, the
Home Secretary, who also referred to his
paper in reply to a deputation which waited
upon him in reference to the smoke nuisance.9
Whilst the wort is in the coppers the hops are
added, the whole being boiled under a slight
pressure. The storage-room for hops is an
apartment 200 ft. long by 50 ft. broad, and
darkened to keep away the light from the
delicate hops, of which some 3,000 pockets
are kept ready for use.
When the wort has boiled the necessary
time it runs into the hop-back to settle.
The ale hop-back is a square vessel with a
copper lining and gun-metal plates at the
bottom to retain the hops when the wort is
drawn off into the coolers. The porter hop-
back is of similar construction. The cooling
is hastened by refrigerators in the room be-
neath, these refrigerators being supplied with
water which has come from two ice machines.
The next process is that of fermentation,
which is carried on in a splendid room below,
the floor of which is constructed entirely of
slate. It is known as the ' Havelock Room,'
having been built at the time of the Indian
Mutiny, and is shaped like the letter |_ with
dimensions of 2 10 ft. and 132 ft. Here are
contained fermenting vessels of slate and wood,
each provided with a copper parachute for
skimming yeast, communicating with the
yeast tanks below. Each of the vessels holds
from 1 20 to 190 barrels and contains an attem-
porator to raise or lower the temperature of the
gyle at pleasure. This contrivance consists
of a series of pipes fixed within the tun and
having its inlet and outlet on the outside ; by
this means it is possible to run hot or cold
water through the pipes at any hour. The
object of the natural process which we know
as fermentation is to convert the saccharine
matter into alcohol, this requiring the most
careful attention on the brewer's part. To
obtain a quick and regular fermentation yeast,
or barm as it is sometimes called, is employed,
and this must be perfectly fresh and healthy.
The appearance of a ' gyle ' of beer in the
earlier stages of fermentation is very beautiful.10
At first the surface is covered with a thick
white foam which within a few hours curls
itself into a variety of fantastic shapes. As
the froth rises higher it presents the appearance
of jagged rocks of snowy whiteness. Then
' Barnard, Noted Breweries, \, 192.
10 Ency. Brit. (ed. 9), iv, 275.
the froth becomes viscid and the whole
surface subsides. The operation of cleansing
next follows, and consists of removing the
yeast from the beer in order to stop the fer-
mentation. This is performed in another
large apartment called 'King's College,' which
contains ten cleansing batches holding together
3,000 barrels, all fitted with copper para-
chutes. A series of cleansing batches each
measuring 1 8 ft. by 1 1 ft. is also fitted up in
' Long Acre.' This was once a long street,
dividing two extensive blocks of buildings,
extending nearly a sixth of a mile, which was
roofed and inclosed at each end by the firm
many years ago, and is now the longest build-
ing in the brewery.
On the ground floor is a spacious room
paved with stone containing a large number
of shallow yeast tanks or batches. These
receive the yeast from the copper parachutes
above, and are kept cool by means of a false
bottom in each vessel, through which a
stream of cold water is constantly running.
The extent of the cellars in the basement is
enormous. They are divided off into great
main avenues which appear of endless length,
and these are intersected by others branching
in all directions.
The main brewhouse, in which most of the
operations which we have described above are
carried on, is a fine structure. A glance at its
fine roof, the spacious galleries which surround
it, and the massive columns which support its
various stages, shows how successful the archi-
tect has been in producing so excellent a
combination of utility and beauty. The vat-
houses and racking rooms open out of one
another and occupy an area of i^ acres.
One of the largest of these storehouses was
first opened on the gth of November 1841,
when the workmen had a dinner in honour of
the event. Whilst they sat at table word was
brought that an heir was born to the English
throne, whereupon the largest vat was named
the ' Prince of Wales,' its name with the date
being painted on it. On a visit which he
paid to the brewery, the Prince (his late Ma-
jesty King Edward VII) drank a glass of stout
from this vat, whose age was identical with his
own. To reach the top of these huge vats
metal staircases are fixed to the wall in cer-
tain places ; the view from above is remark-
able, and affords an idea which no words can
describe of the vast capacity of these gigantic
receptacles.
Space does not permit to speak of the
cooperage, sign-writing, and many other
departments which are on a similar extensive
scale, the firm having from a very early period
made all the wooden vessels and utensils
171
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
required for the brewery. From a printed
return for the beer tax made in I7OO,11 a
copy of which is in the firm's possession,
Truman's Brewery appears third on the list of
London brewers, with 60,140 barrels, but
they are not placed among the six principal
ale brewers in London in 1806—7. ^n a
return of porter brewed in 1813—14 they
stand third on the list of London brewers,
with 145,141 barrels. In 1886-7 they were
second among their competitors, having
brewed in London and Burton 500,000
barrels.
In the residence attached to the brewery,
which was in former days occupied by mem-
bers of the firm, is the historic dining-room,
the scene of many a famous banquet graced
by distinguished company. One of the most
notable of these convivialities was that de-
scribed as the ' cabinet dinner' in the Memoirs
of Sir Thomas Powell Buxton.™ In June
1831 several members of the government and
other gentlemen came to look over the
brewery in Spitalfields and afterwards dined
there with Mr. Buxton, professedly on beef-
steaks cooked in one of the furnaces. The
company included the Premier Earl Grey,
Brougham Lord Chancellor, the Duke of
Richmond, Lord Shaftesbury and others, mak-
ing twenty-three in all. Brougham astonished
everyone by his versatility and the accuracy and
extent of his knowledge, being equally at
home in discussing Paley's Moral Philosophy,
the construction of machinery, and the points
of a horse. Since 1873 Messrs. Truman,
Hanbury, and Buxton have carried on a large
brewery of pale ale at Burton in addition to
their London establishment. In recent years
a great demand has arisen for beer in bottle,
and to meet this Messrs. Truman & Co. have
established an extensive bottling department.
The partnership business was converted into
a company in 1889, with a share capital of
£1,215,000. The present directors are
Messrs. E. U. Buxton, A. V. Pryor, J. H.
Buxton, J. M. Hanbury, Gerald Buxton,
H. F. Buxton, J. A. Pryor, and Anthony
Buxton.
Stow 13 says that St. Katharine's, a district
on the Thames bank east of the Tower of
London, 'was famous for brewhouses in
ancient times. One Geffrey Gate in K.
Henry VII his days spoiled the brewhouses
at St. Katharines twice ; either for brewing
too much to their customers beyond the sea,
or for putting too much water into the beer
of their customers that they served on this side
the sea, or for both.' In the year 1492 John
Merchant, a Fleming, was licensed by the
same king to export fifty tuns of ale called
Berr£. Pennant 14 says : ' Below St. Catherine's
on the riverside stood the great breweries or
Bere House as it is called in the map published
in the first volume of the Civitates Orbis.'
This was the public brewhouse where the
citizens of London could bring their malt and
other materials, and for a fee paid to the
government brew therein their own ales.
Pennant also states that the demand from
foreign parts for English beer increased to a
high degree and that in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth 500 'tons' were exported at one time.
The Red Lion Brewery, which stands on
the site of the ancient Beer House, can be
traced back to the i6th century. In 1705
the brewery belonged to Alderman Humphrey
Parsons,18 who was elected alderman of Port-
soken Ward in 1721, served as sheriff in the
following year, and was Lord Mayor in 1730
and again in 1740. The following anecdote
is told of him in a contemporary journal : — On
one occasion, during his mayoralty, he went
out riding with a hunting party which included
Louis XV and his suite. He was exceedingly
well mounted, and, contrary to the etiquette
observed in the French Court, outstripped the
rest of the company, and was first in at the
death. The king, observing this, inquired the
name of the stranger, and was indignantly
informed that he was ' un chevalier demalte.'
On receiving this information the king entered
into conversation with Mr. Parsons and asked
the price of his horse. Bowing in the most
courtly style, the ' chevalier ' replied that his
horse was beyond any price other than His
Majesty's acceptance. In due time the horse
was accepted by the king, and from thence-
forward Chevalier Parsons had the exclusive
honour and privilege of supplying the French
Court with his far-famed porter. In the year
1 802 the brewery came into the hands of the
Hoare family, and since that time has de-
scended from father to son without changing
hands. The Red Lion Brewery is of consid-
erable extent, consisting of a large range of
buildings facing the River Thames, and covers
7 acres of eround.
•J O
The brewhouse is situated in Lower East
Smithfield and has a convenient wharf at
the river side. The malthouse is the most
ancient part of the premises, with its cross-
beams and joists of enormous thickness and
curious old staircases with broad landings and
quaint turnings ; the elevator or 'Jacob's
11 Quoted Barnard, op. cit. 209.
" Ibid. 210. "Sure. (1720), bk. ii, 8.
uHist. of Land. (ed. 4, 1805), 265.
15 Barnard, op. cit. iii, 53-4.
172
INDUSTRIES
ladder ' in this building is said to be a hun-
dred years old, but does its work to-day as well
as ever. Like many other London breweries,
the Red Lion Brewery is supplied with the
purest water by means of a well of great depth
sunk on the premises. This well has a
diameter of 5 ft. to the depth of 1 00 ft., below
which it is carried by two bore-holes, of 1 2 and
9 in. diameter respectively, 300 ft. down to
the chalk. A further supply of water is
obtained from the London Clay by -ther wells
of less depth which are only used in summer,
when the Thames water is not cold enough
for supplying the refrigerators. Up to the
beginning of the igth century, says Mr. Bar-
nard,16 the peculiar flavour of porter hitherto
thought inimitable gave rise to an opinion
that no other than Thames water was calcu-
lated to produce good porter. This opinion
became so general that not only in the United
Kingdom but in the world at large, wherever
porter was known and prized as a beverage,
the genuine brew was considered as locally
confined to London. Here, in the oldest
brewery in London, Thames water was never
used, the supply from the wells being consid-
ered superior for mashing and for preserving
the intrinsic quality of the beverage. It is a
well known fact that up to quite recently the
London brewers were not quite agreed among
themselves on the process of brewing porter,
each pursuing a different road to the same
object, and all pretending to some secret with
which the others were supposed to be unac-
quainted.
The brewing of porter is not now confined
to London, but is carried on in various parts of
the United Kingdom with great success,
particularly in Ireland, though Mr. Barnard,
speaking from personal experience, has not
met with a brew of porter or stout superior to
that of Messrs. Hoare in the three kingdoms.
One of the storage cellars, 48 yds. long and
containing a series of twenty bricked vaults,
is said to have been built in the time of
Elizabeth. Another, in which the finest
stouts are stored and matured, has been known
as ' Old London ' from time immemorial.
The returns already quoted for the year 1760
give the output of this brewery in the time of
Lady Parsons as 34,098 barrels, which places
it sixth in rank among the principal London
brewhouses, and just above that of Thrale the
famous Southwark brewer. The brewery is
now conducted under the style of Hoare
& Co., Ltd.
A small brewhouse existed about the year
1730 on the east side of High Street, Shore-
ditch, which deserves mention from the interest
attaching to its proprietor. This was one
Ralph Harwood, who is said to have invented
porter. In Curtain Road, Shoreditch, a pub-
lic house, known as the ' Blue Last,' formerly
displayed a board inscribed, ' The house where
porter was first sold.' The beer-drinkers in
the early part of the i8th century had the
choice of three beverages, known as ale, beer,
and 'twopenny.' Those who preferred a
combination of any two of these would ask
for ' half and half,' whilst some would favour
a mixture of all three, and call for a pot of
three threads or three thirds. The drawer
could only supply this compound by drawing
from three different casks — a wasteful and in-
convenient process. To meet this growing
taste it occurred to Ralph Harwood to brew
a liquor which should combine in itself the
virtues and flavours of the 'three threads' — ale,
beer, and twopenny. And so was produced
a drink which he called ' Entire,' or ' Entire
Butts.' This completely met the public taste,
and the beverage has never since lost its popu-
larity.
Another famous Middlesex brewery of early
date was the Griffin Brewery, in Liquorpond
Street, now known as Clerkenwell Road.
The locality is one of much interest ; close
by are Gray's Inn Road and Hatton Garden,
and in Brooke Street, near the brewery, the
poet Chatterton brought his life to its sad end.
The buildings, which covered upwards of
4 acres, extended from the north end of Gray's
Inn Lane, across Leather Lane, to Hatton
Garden. The business was established some
time in the I7th century, and was always
noted for its black beer or porter. In 1809
the firm dissolved partnership, Mr. Meux
acquiring a business for himself in Tottenham
Court Road, and Mr. A. Reid retaining pos-
session of the old brewhouse in Liquorpond
Street. Various distinguished persons from
time to time visited the brewery, among them
the Emperor Napoleon III, who showed his
appreciation of the firm's famous stout by
emptying a tankard.
Pennant 17 gives statistics of the barrels of
strong beer brewed by the chief porter brewers
of London in 1786-7, in which Richard
Meux, who then owned the Griffin Brewery,
figures ninth on the list with an output of
49,651 barrels. The same writer, speaking
of this brewhouse as it existed in his day,
says 18 : —
The sight of a great London brewhouse exhibits
a magnificence unspeakable. The vessels evince
the extent of the trade. Mr. Meux of Liquorpond
I6Op. cit. Hi, 58.
" Thos. Pennant, op. cit. 266. " Ibid. 267.
173
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Street, Gray's Inn Lane, can show twenty-four
tuns, containing in all 35,000 barrels. In the
present year he has built a vessel 60 feet in
diameter, 176 feet in circumference, and 23 feet
in height. It cost £5,000 in building, and con-
tains from ten to twelve thousand barrels of beer,
valued at about £20,000. A dinner was given to
200 people at the bottom, and 200 more joined
the company to drink success to the vat.
Another vat of even greater dimensions was,
about the time that Pennant wrote, constructed
by this firm in their no. 3 store. This was
called the 'X.Y.Z.,' and exceeded in size
all similar vessels constructed before or since ;
its capacity was for 20,000 barrels of porter,
and it cost £10,000. At that time the Lon-
don porter brewers strove in rivalry for the
possession of the largest vat. These enormous
receptacles were afterwards disused, their
places being taken by about five thousand
casks of ale. A plentiful supply of water was
obtained from two wells and from the New
River Company, being pumped for storage
into four large reservoirs on the roofs of the
buildings. In the fermenting rooms were
four huge rounds, the largest of which con-
tained 56,700 gallons, besides two smaller
ones. Two of these vessels were regarded as
being the largest of their kind in London, and
rose 1 2 ft. above the floor.
A well-furnished library was provided by
the firm for the use of their staff of officials
and workmen. This was founded in 1860,
but the new building containing it, known as
the Griffin Library House, was built in 1883.
In June 1898 this brewery was amalgamated
with the Stag Brewery of Messrs. Watney &
Co., the buildings in Clerkenwell Road being
pulled down.
The Woodyard Brewery, of Castle Street,
Long Acre, situated midway between the
City and the West End of London, took its
name from the original occupation of Thomas
Shackle, a dealer in timber, who founded it in
1740. Shackle is said to have delivered his
beer in small casks with his wood, and by his
energy and diligence to have built up a valu-
able business. He was succeeded by a Mr.
Gyffbrd, of whom no further record remains,
but at the beginning of the igth century the
brewery was acquired by Mr. Harvey Christian
Combe, who was remarkable for his energy
and great business ability. He became Lord
Mayor in 1799, and was returned five times
as the City's representative in Parliament.
Alderman Combe was a man of liberal tastes,
fond of good company, and quick at repartee.
A dinner which he gave on 7 June 1807
became known as the Royal Brewhouse
Dinner, and was widely talked of in all parts
of London. From a newspaper report of the
time we learn that the company included the
Duke and Duchess of York, the Duke or
Cambridge, the Earl of Lauderdale, Lord
Erskine, Sheridan, Stepney, and others, who
were received by the alderman and his family
and conducted to an upper floor of the brew-
house, where a table was prepared for their
reception furnished only with such requisites
as the brewhouse could supply. The table-
cloth was a hop-sack nailed to the table, the
plates were wooden trenchers, with wooden
bowls for salads, wooden salt-cellars, bone
spoons, and Tunbridge-ware pepper-castors.
The provisions consisted of rump steaks cooked
by the brewhouse stoker, and served in a new
malt-shovel covered with a tin lid, porter
being the only beverage. After an inspection
of the brewery the company were taken by
the alderman to his house in Great Russell
Street, where they were entertained with a
second course and dessert which included
every delicacy of the season.
The business was largely increased under
the management of Mr. Combe, who ex-
pended a considerable sum in the repair and
rebuilding of the brewery premises. On his
death in 1832 the brewery passed to his son,
Mr. Harvey Combe, and his brother-in-law,
Mr. Delafield, by whom the premises were
still further enlarged. Mr. Harvey Combe,
who was a great sportsman and well-known
as the master of the Berkeley Hounds, died
unmarried in 1858. He was succeeded by
his two nephews, Messrs. R. H. and Charles
Combe, Mr. Joseph Bonsor and his two sons,
and Mr. John Spicer. Under the manage-
ment of these partners the brewhouse property
was still further extended, and ultimately
covered more than 4 acres. The premises
comprised three extensive blocks of buildings,
the first being the brewhouse quadrangle,
offices, and fermenting rooms ; the second,
malt stores, other fermenting rooms, and cel-
lars ; the third, stables, dray -sheds, and general
stores. The water, or ' liquor ' as the brewers
term it, required for brewing purposes was
supplied in part by the New River Company
and partly by three deep wells sunk by the
firm upon the premises. The cooperage de-
partment, in which casks were both constructed
and repaired, was on an extensive scale.
The brewery employed about four hundred
and fifty hands, and the annual output exceeded
500,000 barrels. In June 1898 this business
was also acquired by Messrs. Watney & Co.
The Horse Shoe Brewery of Messrs.
Meux & Co. at the junction of Tottenham
Court Road and Oxford Street forms a pic-
turesque object in an old print of the
»74
INDUSTRIES
'Entrance to London from Tottenham Court
Road.' It was founded by a Mr. Blackburn,
and was from the days of George III famous
for its black beer. The brewery was pur-
chased by Mr. (afterwards Sir Henry) Meux
when he retired from the famous firm in
Liquorpond Street, of which he was the prin-
cipal partner. This gentleman, who was
very prominent in his day and a cousin of
Lord Brougham, was made a baronet by
William IV in 1831. The great porter vat
of this brewery, which was one of the sights of
London, was 22 ft. high and contained 3,555
barrels, sufficient to supply more than a million
persons with a pint of beer each. A terrible
catastrophe occurred in 1814, caused by the
bursting of this huge vat owing to the in-
security and defective state of some of its
hoops. The brewery was then surrounded
by a multitude of small tenements which
were crowded with tenants of the poorer
classes. Many of these houses were flooded
by porter, and some of them collapsed with
fatal results ; no less than eight persons died
from drowning, injury, poisoning by the
porter fumes, or drunkenness. The loss to
the firm was also most serious, and threatened
their existence ; but an application to Parlia-
ment procured for them the return by the
excise commissioners of the duty paid upon
the lost liquor. The retail department of the
brewery, known as the ' Horse Shoe ' tap, is
now converted into a restaurant and hotel,
but was formerly a comfortable inn and place
of refreshment patronized by tradesmen and
well-to-do people in the district. It was also
early in the last century a favourite place of
call for farmers and porters, who refreshed
themselves with the porter for which the
house was celebrated.
This firm supplied with Meux's porter
most of the old-fashioned inns in the western
suburbs of London, of which the ' Watering
House ' at Knightsbridge was a typical ex-
ample. The house was a quaint, comfortable
little structure where gentlemen's horses and
grooms were put up, and farmers and graziers
resorted. In front was a stone bench where
porters might rest themselves or place their
loads. The malt used in this brewery is
specially manufactured for the firm and
shipped to their wharf in Grosvenor Road,
Pimlico, from whence it is conveyed to the
brewery in their own wagons. Messrs. Meux
have long been famed for their porter — a
beverage which is said to take its name from
the partiality shown to it by porters. It be-
gan to be generally brewed by the London
brewers about the year 1722, and was then
sold at 231. per barrel. From this price it
gradually rose to 30*., which it reached in
1799, when in consequence of the increase
in price of both malt and hops porter was
raised to 35;. per barrel, and was retailed at
4^. a quart instead of 3</. as heretofore. Since
1872 Messrs. Meux & Co. have brewed ales
to meet the public demand for that beverage ;
they had previously brewed stout and porter
only, and for many years were the only brewers
in London who did not brew ales. The firm
is now styled Meux's Brewery Co., Ltd.
On the borders of the City of London,
but within the parish of St. Luke's, is Whit-
bread's brewery in Chiswell Street. The
business was established in 1 742 by Samuel
Whitbread, son of a yeoman possessed of a
small estate in Cardington, Bedfordshire. He
first set up as a brewer in Old Street, but these
premises soon became too confined, and in
1750 Mr. Whitbread purchased a brewery in
Chiswell Street, which had been established
for over fifty years. The business rapidly
grew, and in 1760 had reached the position of
the second largest brewery in London, with
an annual output of nearly 64,000 barrels.
Pennant gives a list,19 taken from a newspaper
of his day, of the chief porter brewers of
London and the barrels of strong beer they
brewed for the year 1786-7. In this list
Whitbread stands first with 150,280 barrels ;
the number of breweries is twenty-four, and
the total quantity of beer amounts to
1,176,856 barrels. The number of breweries
had largely decreased in 1796, when there
were not more than twelve of first-rate im-
portance, Whitbread still heading the list with
2O2,OOO barrels. This brewery was one of
the first to take advantage of the introduction
of steam power, and in 1785 set up a sun
and planet engine, supplied by the firm of
which the celebrated James Watt was a
partner. This engine, originally of 35, was
increased to 70 horse-power in 1795, and
until the year 1887 was still in use at the
brewery. It is now exhibited in the Victoria
Museum, South Australia, and bears an in-
scription recounting its history. In 1787
King George III and Queen Charlotte, at-
tracted by the fame of this brewery, paid a
visit of inspection, when the king entered
minutely into the details of the various pro-
cesses, and took care not to overlook any de-
partment. The royal visit forms the subject
of a lengthy humorous poem by Peter Pindar
(Dr. Wolcot), who, speaking of the king's
conversation, says his Majesty
Asked a thousand questions with a laugh
Before poor Whitbread comprehended half.
19 Some Account of Land. (ed. 4, 1805), 266.
175
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
After the brewery had been inspected the king
and queen were entertained by their host at a
sumptuous banquet.
Whitbread represented Derby in Parlia-
ment, and in 1795, after acquiring a large
fortune, he purchased Lord Torrington's
estate at Southill in his native county. He
was a man of strict religious principle, and of
a benevolent disposition ; his portrait by Sir
Joshua Reynolds is in the hall of the Brewers'
Company. To this company he left various
charities for the relief of decayed master
brewers and of poor freemen (or widows of
freemen) of the Brewers' Company. On the
death of his father in 1796 Samuel Whit-
bread the younger succeeded him as head of
the brewery with which he had been con-
nected for the previous ten years, and from
1799 the business was conducted under the
style of Whitbread & Co. The younger
Whitbread is best known as a keen poli-
tician and supporter of Fox and the Whigs.
He obtained more leisure for his parlia-
mentary work by taking partners into his
business, which continued to increase con-
siderably. In 1806 Whitbread & Co. ranked
fourth among the London brewers, brewing
101,311 barrels. In the following ten years
the business more than doubled itself, the
quantity of beer brewed in 1815 reaching
261,018 barrels. In 1834 ale-brewing was
commenced here, porter and stout only having
previously been brewed. Mr. Whitbread the
politician left two sons, the younger of
whom was M.P. for Middlesex for several
years and died in 1879. Mr. Samuel Whit-
bread, grandson of the politician, represented
Bedford in Parliament from 1852 to 1895,
and was a Lord of the Admiralty from 1859
to 1863. Although situated so closely on the
confines of the City of London, where land
is of such high value, the brewery of Messrs.
Whitbread is fitted up with every necessary
for carrying on their business under the most
approved conditions, and with the help of the
latest inventions and improvements.
The Swan Brewery, Fulham, dates from
the early part of the 1 8th century, when it
started in a very humble way at Walham
Green, and was afterwards successively owned
by John Stocken, William Chambers, and
Sidney Milnes Hawkes, all well-known
members of the trade. The following ad-
vertisement appeared in the London Evening
Post from Tuesday, 26 August, to Thursday,
28 August 1740 : — 'To be lett, and enter'd
on immediately for the remainder of a term of
about eight years to come. A very convenient
and well-accustom'd Brew House at Walham
Green, in the parish of Fulham, with the
malt-house, dwelling-house, and all manner of
useful offices thereto belonging, and also four
acres of hop-ground lying behind the same.
For further particulars, &c.'
In 1746 Henry Temple of St. George's
Hanover Square, was admitted to ' two pieces
of customary land at Wansdon's Green,' on
one of which was erected a messuage 'known
by the name or sign of the White Swan.'
He shortly afterwards surrendered the pro-
perty to John Carwell.20 Nothing more is
known of the Swan Brewery until its great
development by Oliver Stocken, who acquired
the business in 1769. He came from an
ancient family, a branch of which was settled
at Linton, Cambridgeshire, where Richard
Stocken, the grandfather of Oliver Stocken
the brewer, was buried on 19 March
1 7 14-1 5.21 Young Oliver came to seek
his fortune in London and first settled him-
self at a small ale-house at Walham Green.
He afterwards purchased the Swan Brewery
and converted it into a flourishing business,
which he continued to manage until his
death in 1808. The brewery then passed
into the hands of his sons William and John,
the latter of whom died in 1820, leaving
William the sole proprietor. William Stocken,
who died in 1824, was succeeded by his son
Oliver Thomas Joseph Stocken, who was
then only twenty-four. Under his manage-
ment the business again greatly developed
until his unfortunate failure in 1840, when
the brewery passed by public auction into the
hands of Mr. William Chambers, Stocken's
son-in-law. About the year 1852 Mr. Sidney
Milnes Hawkes bought the brewery, and two
years later sold it to the Right Hon. Sir
James Stansfeld. The firm became known
later as Messrs. Stansfeld & Co., Ltd.
In the days of the Stockens, the Svsan
Brewery had a wide and justly-earned cele-
brity ; among its aristocratic patrons were
George IV, the Duke of York, and the Prince
of Saxe-Coburg. The Old Swan tap in con-
nexion with the brewery developed eventually
into a well-known tavern, and remained in
the hands of the Stockens until the year 1840.
Included within the brewhouse property was
Wendon or Wandon House, a fine old man-
sion which faced Walham Green. This
building, known also as ' Dowlers,' from the
name of a tenant, John Dowbeler, was the
manor-house of Wendon, and had been the
abode of many families of note. To an old price
20 C. J. Feret, Fulkam Old and 'New (1900), ii,
217.
11 Particulars of the family and a pedigree are
given by Feret, op. cit. ii, 218, 220.
I76
INDUSTRIES
list issued by the firm early in the i gth cen-
tury is attached a pictorial frontispiece which
shows the quaint and comfortable-looking
inn (with its recreation ground and gardens)
which was then attached to the brewery. In
1880 the old buildings of the brewery were
required for improvements, but the proprietors
secured another site close adjoining and con-
sisting of 3 acres, on which to build their new
premises. The new brewery was designed
with considerable attention to architectural
effect, a result very rarely attained or even
possible in buildings devoted to this trade.
The walls are built of red bricks with Corse-
hill stone dressings, and the roofs are covered
with Broseley tiles ; the interior arrangement
of the brewery is notable for its extreme
simplicity. The main supply of water is
from a well sunk on the premises to a depth
of 450 ft. ; for the first 30 ft. it is inclosed
in iron cylinders, 7 ft. in diameter, which are
sunk into the London clay and prevent any
contamination by surface water. One of the
special features of this brewery is its well-
appointed chemical laboratory fitted with every
apparatus necessary for the examination of
malt and all other brewing materials. The
Swan Brewery, though not ranking among the
largest metropolitan breweries, is notable for
its excellent design, cleanliness, and complete-
ness in every detail.
The Stag Brewery at Pimlico, of Messrs.
Watney & Co., arose from small beginnings.
In the first half of the i8th century it con-
sisted of some few buildings attached to a
small brewhouse standing in the midst of
green fields and far away from any habitations.
The site now covered by Messrs. Watney
& Co.'s premises is one of great interest. It
formerly was part of St. James's Palace, being
occupied by the royal mews, which were
removed when Buckingham House became a
royal palace. Underneath the cooperage of
the brewery runs the King's Pond water-
course, a stream which issues from the lake in
St. James's Park. In 1782 this lake was
simply a marshy pond surrounded by a green
pasture for cows, whose milk was disposed of
on the spot. In 1820 no one dared to set
out for London from that quarter at night, as
Pimlico was infested with footpads. So late,
too, as 1859 there stood, on the site now
covered by the brewery yard, Pimlico House,
with its pleasure grounds extending beyond
the confines of the present Victoria Street.
In 1763 an old plan of the estate shows the
brewery situated on its town side amidst a
cluster of tea gardens, and places of amuse-
ment famous for dancing, concerts, and fire-
work displays. Close by was St. Peter's Chapel,
of which the notorious Dr. Dodd was incum-
bent, and within the brewery gates was the
residence of Richard Heberr the accomplished
scholar, and owner of perhaps the most
famous private library ever known.
At the close of the I7th century the
brewery belonged to a Mr. Green, of whom
nothing definite is known ; nearly a century
later, in 1786, the proprietor wasone Matthew
Wiggins, who two years afterwards disposed
of it to Edward Moore and John Elliot.
This Mr. Elliot, who was an active man of
liberal education, built Pimlico House, already
mentioned, and used it as his town resi-
dence. He was prominently connected with
public affairs in the city of Westminster,
where he was held in high esteem. Sir John
Call joined the firm in 1792, and somewhat
later Mr. Elliot was succeeded by his son
J. Lettsom Elliot. The latter took into
partnership Mr. James Watney of Wands-
worth in 1837, and himself retired in 1856
in favour of Mr. Watney's two sons, James
and Norman. From this time the firm con-
sisted solely of members of the Watney
family until the year 1884, when Mr. James
Watney, the head of the firm, died, and the
business was turned into a private limited
company. The fame of the Pimlico Stag
ales began to spread early in the i8th cen-
tury, and in 1830 the business had developed
into a great and important brewery, taking
rank among the first-class breweries of London.
As may be expected, the buildings are on
an extensive scale. The malt stores contain
fifteen iron bins, four of which rise from the
ground level to the top of the building. The
largest has a capacity of 5,300 quarters, and
the smallest holds 1,200 quarters. The
mashing-room is a fine apartment 200 ft. long
and 1 1 o ft. broad, and its arrangements are
unique in their completeness. On the right
hand is the malt department, on the left the
cooling and refrigerating rooms, at the end
the fermenting department, carried on in
another series of rooms. All is so ar-
ranged that each process follows the other,
almost under the eye of the head brewer,
whose private office is on the same level, and
situated to the right of the entrance into the
hall. The Stag Brewery employs upwards
of 600 hands, for whom model dwellings
abutting on the brewery premises have been
built by the firm, the occupants forming quite
a colony among themselves. Attached to the
dwellings are a club-room, library, and baga-
telle-room, for purposes of recreation. In
June 1898 Messrs. Watney acquired the two
celebrated breweries of Messrs. Combe, Dela-
field & Co. and Messrs. Reid & Co. The
'77
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
premises of the Stag Brewery have had exten-
sive development : a new fermenting-room has
been added, one of the pontoon rooms is now
fitted with dropping tanks, a large bottling
department has been established in a separate
building, and new cooperage works are in
course of construction. The firm also possesses
a fine laboratory, a model brewery for experi-
ments, and improved and extensive stabling.
The Anchor Brewery of Messrs. Charring-
ton & Co. is situated on the north side of
Mile End Road, occupying the frontage be-
tween Cleveland Street and St. Peter's Road.
The earliest record of the firm is in 1743,
when the brewery belonged to Messrs.
Wastfield and Moss, of whom nothing fur-
ther is known. About the year 1766 Mr.
John Charrington purchased Mr. Wastfield's
share of the business, and the firm became
Charrington & Moss. John Charrington
was a son of the vicar of Aldenham, Herts.,
and was the first of his family to enter upon
business pursuits. Mr. Moss soon afterwards
retired, and the brewery then remained wholly
in the possession of the Charrington family
until the year 1833. The business rapidly
increased, and in 1806 ranked second among
the ale breweries in London, the output for
that year being 15,556 barrels.
There were two Nicholas Charringtons
connected with the firm, one of whom died
in 1827, and was succeeded by his sons
Edward and Spencer ; the other died in 1859
at the advanced age of eighty-three, and was
succeeded by his sons Charles and Frederick.
Mr. Head, of the firm of Stewart & Head
of Stratford, became a partner in the brewery
in 1833, and introduced the brewing of
porter and stout ; previous to this Messrs.
Charrington had been ale brewers only.
They now gradually dropped their large
private and family trade and devoted them-
selves entirely to supplying licensed victual-
lers. From this time the business was ex-
clusively a trade brewery, and the name of
Charrington became one of the most familiar
in London. In consequence of the rapid
increase of the business it was necessary in
the year 1871 to establish an ale brewery at
Burton-on-Trent to supply the demands of
their customers for that class of beer. On
the death of Mr. Frederick Charrington in
1873 and of Mr. Charles Charrington in
1877, they were succeeded by their sons,
Mr. John Douglas Charrington and Mr.
Charles E. N. Charrington. Mr. Head, who
had during his partnership for nearly fifty
years taken a responsible part in the manage-
ment of the business, died universally re-
gretted. His sound judgement and great
experience gained for him much reputation
among the London brewers as a high autho-
rity upon all matters connected with the
brewing trade. Mr. Head had no son to
succeed him, and the firm once more con-
sisted of the Charrington family only until
1884, when Mr. George C. Croft was ad-
mitted into partnership. A severe loss w^ sus-
tained by the firm in 1888, when Mr. Euward
Charrington, the senior partner, who had for
fifty-seven years been a member of the firm, died
at Burys Court, Reigate. He was a man of
great gentleness and affability, and a warm
supporter of every philanthropic movement in
the east of London. After the death of Mr.
Edward Charrington Mr. Spencer Charring-
ton, who represented in Parliament the Mile
End division of the Tower Hamlets, became
the head of the firm. The business was
turned into a limited liability company in
1897, and Colonel F. Charrington is the pre-
sent chairman of the board of directors.
Every attention is paid by the firm to the
needs and comforts of their numerous staff ;
there are several houses for the higher officials,
and a long row of excellent cottages for the
most deserving of the workmen. The malt
required in the breweries is made by the firm
themselves at Norwich and other places in the
eastern counties, under the superintendence
of a member of the firm and the head brewer,
by whom the various mailings are periodically
visited. Among the special features of this great
brewery, whose operations are carried on upon
a vast scale, is a well-appointed experimental
or model brewery, which is excellently adapted
for the various scientific experiments con-
ducted in it from time to time.
The Albion Brewery of Messrs. Mann,
Grossman & Paulin lies on the north side
of Whitechapel Road, at its junction with
Mile End Road. Just at this spot formerly
stood the Mile End turnpike gate, and ad-
joining the brewery is the 'Blind Beggar'
public house, which commemorates the legend
associated with the neighbouring parish of
Bethnal Green.
Local breweries on a more or less extensive
scale exist at Brentford, Uxbridge, Great
Stanmore, Staines, Chiswick, Isleworth, Twick-
enham, and Hounslow, among other places in
this county.
178
INDUSTRIES
TOBACCO
Tobacco is said to have been introduced
into this country in 1586 ; it was placed
under a duty of id. a pound in Elizabeth's
reign. The duty on Virginian tobacco was
raised to 6s. iod. by James I. Under this
sovereign the industry became a monopoly,
and the Virginia planters were limited to an
export of 100 Ib. a year. Tobacco is said to
have been first smoked at the ' Pied Bull ' at
Islington, and the number of tobacconists'
shops in London in 1614 is estimated by
Barnaby Rich as over 7,ooo.1 In the MS.
notes left by Sir Henry Oglander of Nunwell
in the Isle of Wight he records among other
expenses in the year 1626, ' for eight ounces
of tobacco five shillings ' ; this was procured
for him in London. Tobacco was also sold by
apothecaries,* and prescribed as a drug ; it
came into very general use for this purpose
during the time of the Great Plague.
What we call smoking was then termed
' drinking ' tobacco, the smoke being inhaled
and allowed to escape through the nose. An
anonymous writer in 1636, speaking of dis-
solute persons who spend most of their time
at taverns, says : 3 ' Men will not stand upon
it to drink either wine or tobacco with them
who are more fit for Bridewell.'
The signs of tobacconists' shops in the i8th
century generally consisted of a large wooden
figure of a black Indian, wearing a crown of
tobacco leaves and a kilt of the same material.
He was usually placed at the side of the door,
above which hung three rolls, also cut in
wood. The decorated cards or shop-bills of
tradesmen at this period were often designed
by artists of repute. Hogarth in his early
days designed one for ' Richard Lee at ye
Golden Tobacco-Roll in Panton Street near
Leicester Fields,' which much resembles his
Modern Midnight Conversation. Another
curious tobacconist's sign consists of three
hands issuing from an arm ; the first holding
snuff, the second a pipe, and the third a quid
of tobacco ; attached to this are the lines : —
We three are engaged in one cause ;
I snuffs, I smokes, and I chaws.
This distich is sometimes found on painted
signs, beneath figures of a Scotchman, a
Dutchman, and a sailor.
The manufacture of tobacco is carried on
' The Hones tie of this Age, 26.
' Dekker, Gull's Horn-book. Quoted by F. W.
Fairholt. Tobacco,its History, &c. (1859), 49, 56.
3 Vox civitatis, or London's Complaint against her
Children In the Country (1636).
very largely in East London and Hackney,
which contain seventy-six factories for the
production of tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, and
snuff. In all London there are about one
hundred and eighty factories in this trade, and
in the whole of England, the metropolis in-
cluded, there are about four hundred and thirty,
so that in the number of its tobacco factories
East London occupies a conspicuous position.
The cigars produced in English factories are
known as British cigars, and vary considerably
in price and quality. Those made by the
best firms are infinitely superior to some of
the lower grades of imported Havanas. The
importation of sham Havanas from Belgium
and other countries has been checked by the
' Merchandise Marks Act,' but the British
manufacturer suffers severely from the com-
petition of cheap Mexican cigars.
The process of manufacture begins with
' liquoring,' in which the leaf is treated with
pure water to render it soft and pliant for the
hands of the 'stripper.' The process of 'strip-
ping' consists in stripping the leaf by taking
out its midrib. The leaf when stripped is
handed to the 'cigar-maker,' and in this branch
of the trade many female hands are employed.4
Tobacco as distinct from cigars is also
largely manufactured in East London, but
fewer hands are employed in its preparation
by reason of the extensive use of machinery.
After undergoing the process of ' liquoring '
and ' stripping,' the leaf is, in the case of cut
tobacco, handed over to the machine-men.
It is next passed on to the ' stovers,' who first
place it on a steam-pan to separate the
fibres, and then on a fire-pan to make it fit for
keeping and to improve its smoking quality.
The final process is that of ' cooling,' where a
current of cold air is passed through it to drive
off the moisture. By other processes are
produced the varieties known as ' roll ' or
' spun ' tobacco, and ' cake ' or ' plug.'
The manufacture of snuff involves various
complicated processes, which space will not per-
mit us to describe. The ingredients consist
largely of the shreds, stalks, and other leavings
resulting from the processes above mentioned.
Some thirty years ago the London tobacco
manufacturers comprised, it is estimated, about
one-fourth of the whole of the manufacturers
in England. Some old firms still exist, as that
of Richard Lloyd & Sons, of Clerkenwell
Road, which has been in existence for over
two centuries.
4 Booth, Life and Labour of the People in London
(1902), (Ser. i), iv, 225.
179
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
The manufacture of musical instruments
dates back to a remote antiquity. They
were constantly in use by minstrels at feasts
and pageants, and in religious services and
ceremonies. At the pageant exhibited at
Westminster Hall in 1502 on the occasion of
an entertainment given to Catherine of Spain
we read l that ' twelve ladies had claricordis,
claricymballs, and such other.' Henry VIII
and both of his daughters were skilful players
upon the chief instruments of music in use
in their day. London makers in the i6th
century helped to supply the demands of the
Continent, although musical imports from
abroad were also considerable. In a little
book entitled 'The rates of the Custome
House, both inwarde and outwarde, very
necessary for all merchants to knowe, Im-
printed at London by Rycharde Kele, 1545,'
will be found ' clarycordes the payre 2s., harp
strynges the boxe io;., lute strynges called
mynikins the groce 22^., orgons the payre
ut sint in valore, wyer for clarycordes the
pound 4^., virginales the payer 3;. 4^.' Very
few particulars of early makers exist. In
April 1530 one William Lewes received £3
for two ' payer of virginalls ' supplied to the
king at Greenwich, ^3 for two pair ' brought
to the More,' and 2OJ. for 'a little payer.'
In February 1531 Lewes received a further
sum of .£8 6s. 8d. for five pair of virginals
supplied to his royal patron.2 Nothing is
known of Lewes, but in the Privy Purse
expenses of the Princes: Mary* among various
payments connected with instruction of the
princess in the virginals are sums ' geven to
one Cowts [or Cots] of London for mendyng
of my ladys grace Virginalls at soundry
tymes.' Several 'pairs' of virginals which
once belonged to Queen Elizabeth are
described by Dr. Rimbault, who wrote in
i86o,4 as existing in his time ; that of chief
interest is an instrument purchased at Lord
Spencer Chhhester's sale in 1805.
Some at hast of the early musical instru-
ment makers settled in London were certainly
born beyond the seas, as, for example, William
Treasurer, returned as ' virginall-maker
Doucheman' in 1568.* Three years after it
1 Antiq. Repertory, ii, 310.
1 Privy Purse exp. of Hen. Fill (ed. Nicolas,
18*7). 37-
1 Ed. by Fred. Madden, 1831, pp. 20, 46.
1 Tke Pianoforte, 58.
! Kirk, Returns of Aliens (Huguenot Soc.), iii,
344-
was reported 6 that he had been fifty years in
England. His ' servant ' or apprentice, Jasper
Blanckart, may have succeeded to his business,
for he is found in Aldgate Ward in 1582-3
as a virginal-maker.7 Other foreign virginal
makers were clearly religious refugees,8 as
' Lodewyke Tyves' in 1568, while in 1582—
3 we hear9 of 'Polle Fyeld and Marie his
wief; he was borne at Loven, in England
3 yeares at September last and came for reli-
gion ; he ys a sojourner with John James, a
virginall-maker, no denizon and of the Duche
churche.' Foreign lute and harp-string makers
are also not uncommon, as Norde Pallarum a
Sicilian 10(i568), Audrian Daniell a Hollander
(1571), and two Antwerp men, Joyce Van-
deroke and Peter Wellence (1571).
Two celebrated virginal-makers in the latter
half of the 1 7th century were John Loosemore
and Stephen Keen. A fine instrument bearing
Loosemore's name and the date 1655 's stated
by Rimbault to be in private possession.11
There is an advertisement of Keen at the
end of Playford's Introduction to the Skill of
Mustek, 1 67 2, stating that ' Mr.Stephen Keen,
Maker of Harpsycons and Virginals, dwelleth
now in Threadneadle Street, at the sign of
the Virginal, who maketh them exactly good,
both for sound and substance.' Keen was in
business from 1685 to 1716.
The instruments above-mentioned all
possessed key-boards, and were early precur-
sors of the pianoforte. The clavier, or
key-board, invented at the close of the nth
century, was at first applied to the organ,
but was probably soon adapted to stringed
instruments. One of the earliest of these
was the clavicytherium — a small oblong box
with the strings arranged in the form of a half
triangle. The strings were of catgut, and
were sounded by quill plectra rudely fastened
to the ends of the keys. The clavichord or
clarichord was a much superior instrument, in
the shape of a small square pianoforte, but
without frame or legs. The strings were of
brass, and the action consisted simply of a
piece of brass pin wire placed vertically at a
point where it could be struck or pressed
against its proper string. The virginal intro-
duced a new plan of striking the strings by
small quills attached to minute springs fitted
6 Ibid, i, 413. ' Ibid, i, 413 ; ii, 304.
9 Ibid, iii, 345. ' Ibid, ii, 81.
10 Ibid, iii, 413 ; ii, IOO ; i, 463 ; ii, 114.
11 The Pianoforte, 64, &c.
180
INDUSTRIES
in the upper part of small flat pieces of wood
termed jacks. These jacks were perpendicular
to the keys, and when after striking the string
the jack had made its escape it fell in such a
way as to be able at will to reproduce the
sound anew. The strings of the virginal
were of metal instead of catgut. The spinet
was of similar construction, differing only in
its shape, which was that of a harp laid in a
horizontal position. The chief London
makers of the spinet and harpsichord in the
first three-quarters of the ijth century were
the Hitchcocksand Hay wards, fathers and sons.
John Hitchcock made spinets with a compass
of five octaves; some are known bearing dates
between 1620 and 1640. Charles Haward
or Hayward is also mentioned as a celebrated
maker in i6j2.12 Hayward lived in Aldgate,
and was patronized by Samuel Pepys.
Another celebrated maker was Joseph
Baudin ; a spinet by him, which belonged to
Dr. Rimbault, has the inscription : 'Josephus
Baudin, Londini, fecit 1723.' Another
maker named Player is said to have made
spinets with quarter tones.13 In Hogarth's
'Rake's Progress ' is a harpsichord by Mahoon,
who was harpsichord maker to his Majesty and
also a maker of spinets. Baker Harris was
another eminent maker in the latter half of
the 1 8th century; one of his spinets with
white keys and dated 1776 was seen by Dr.
Rimbault in 1858. Spinets ceased to be
made in London or elsewhere, according to
Mr. A. J. Hipkins,14in 1784.
A more important instrument than any of
those yet described was the harpsichord, which
held during the 1 6th, I7th, and i8th cen-
turies a position similar to that of the grand
pianoforte, an instrument which it also re-
sembled in shape. It was used in the orchestra
as an accompanying instrument from the time
of the first opera and the first oratorio in the
year 1600, and continued to be a favourite
with musicians down to the times of Handel
and Bach. The action of the harpsichord was
simply a key and a jack, the latter consist-
ing of a piece of pear-wood with a small
movable tongue of holly through which crow-
quills or points of hard leather were passed to
touch the string when the jack was in action.
The larger harpsichords had two rows of keys
and three strings to each note ; of the latter,
two were tuned in unison and the third sounded
an octave higher.
Like the rest of the minor key-board instru-
ments, the harpsichord was of Italian origin,
" Salmon, Vindication of an Essay (1672), 68.
" A. Warren, Tonometer (1725), 7.
11 Edw. F. Rimbault, op. cit. 72.
the name being an English equivalent of arpi-
cordo ; but the Italian workmanship was
inferior, and the finest examples of early harpsi-
chords were made by the Ruckers family of
Antwerp. Four members of this family ac-
quired great reputation for their work from
1579 to the middle of the following century.
Their instruments lasted long, and were some-
times expensively decorated a hundred years
after they had been made. Many Ruckers
harpsichords survived and fetched high prices
until nearly the end of the 1 8th century, one
being sold in 1770 for 3,000 francs, or £120.
When the Ruckers family passed away the
makers of London and Paris succeeded to
their reputation. Tabel, a Fleming of whom
very little is known, came over to this country
and settled in London, bringing with him the
influence of the Ruckers school. A harpsi-
chord made by Tabel is possessed by Helena,
Countess of Radnor, and bears the inscrip-
tion ' Hermanus Tabel fecit Londini, 1721.'
Harpsichords had, however, been made in
London in the 1 7th century by the spinet-
makers, the Hitchcocks, Hayward, and Keene ;
only one harpsichord by John Hitchcock is
now known to exist, but spinets by the above
makers are still occasionally met with in old
country mansions. Another early maker was
Johannes Asard, one of whose instruments is
dated i622.15
John Playford, the well-known music pub-
lisher who kept a shop in the Inner Temple
near the church door, advertised in the second
book of his Select Ayres and Dialogues, folio,
1669 : — 'If any person desire to be furnished
with good new virginals and harpsicons, if
they send to Mr. Playford's shop, they may
be furnished at reasonable rates to their con-
tent.' Mace, writing in i676,16 gives a
curious account of the pedal harpsichord, and
mentions the price of these instruments,
which was ordinarily ^2O, though two were
bought by Sir Robert Bolles for £30 and £50
respectively.
John Harris, son of the celebrated organ-
builder Renatus Harris, who was a maker
of organs, harpsichords, and spinets in Red
Lion Street, Holborn, claimed to have taken
out the first patent 17 in this country for an
improvement in the construction of the harp-
sichord. His invention is described in his
printed advertisement, a copy of which is
preserved in the Chetham Library, Man-
chester.18 On a harpsichord with two sets of
" Ibid. 401.
16 Mace, Mustek's Monument, 235.
" 22 Oct. 1730, no. 521.
18 J. O. Halliwell, Coll. of Broadsides, no. 830 ;
Rimbault, Pianoforte, 86.
181
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
strings, by his invention, ' may be performed
either one unison or two, or two unisons and
an octave together ; and the fortes or pianos,
or loud or soft, or the contrary, may be exe-
cuted as quick as thought ; and double basses
may be also expressed by touching single keys.'
Harris was joined in partnership by John By-
field, and the firm built an organ in 1729 for
Shrewsbury, and in 1 740 one for Doncaster
which cost £525.
William Barton, of whom nothing further
is known, was granted a patent 19 for improv-
ing the tone and durability of harpsichords by
using 'pens of silver, brass, steel, and other
sorts of metall ' in place of ' crow and raven
quills of which they are now made.' The
reputation of London makers of musical in-
struments now stood very high, especially
abroad, and continued until the close of the
century. It was much enhanced by several
foreigners who found their way to this country
and started business in London. Dr. Burney,
in an account of his travels in Germany,20
writes : — ' The Germans work much better
out of their own country than in it, if we
may judge by the harpsichords of Kirkman
and Shudi, the pianofortes of Backers, and the
organs of Snetzler, which far surpass in good-
ness all the keyed instruments that I met with
in my tour through Germany.'
Rutgerus (or Roger) Plenius, one of these
German makers, lived in South Audley Street,
Grosvenor Square, ' ye King's Arms being
over ye Door," and in 1741 put forth a curious
printed advertisement 21 in which he claims
to have made ' more than twenty essential
improvements ' in the harpsichord, and sets
forth the merits of his 'new invented musical
instrument called a Lyrichord.' An advertise-
ment in the Public Advertiser of 12 June 1755
states that his lyrichord was ' to be seen and
heard 'till sold ' daily from 1 1 till 2 ' at the
Golden Ball opposite the little south door of
St. Paul's, in St. Paul's Church-yard, for half a
crown each person.' Plenius and his invention
are last met with in an auction sale on 1 1 Feb-
ruary 1772 at Christie's in Pall Mall, when
fifteen harpsichords, several 'with double and
single bass pedals, being the stock in trade of
Frederick Naubauer, harpsichord maker,' were
advertised to be sold, together with a lyri-
chord ' made by the famous Rutgerus Plenius.'
This instrument was intended to imitate
bow stringed instruments, and was played
upon by means of a keyboard and a treadle ;
" 17 Dec. 1730, no. 525.
10 Present State of Music in Germany (\ 773), ii,i46.
11 Halliwell Coll. no. 772, in Chet. Lib. ; Rim-
bault, Pianoforte, 87-8.
the strings of wire and gut were set vibrating
by rotating wheels, the keys when pressed
down forming the contact. Plenius took out
two patents, one dated 30 December 1 74 1,22
for various improvements in harpsichords,
spinets, &c. ; the second, dated 10 July
I745,23 specifies among other improvements
a ' Welch harp ' stop which he worked by a
pedal. Plenius was the first to make a piano-
forte in England.24
During the i8th century Tabel's pupils
Burckhardt Tschudi or Burk.it Shudi, and
Jacob Kirkman became famous as eminent
makers. Shudi, who was the founder of the
firm of Broadwood, was of noble parentage in
Switzerland and born 13 March 1702. He
came to England in 1 7 1 8 as a simple jour-
neyman joiner, and became, like his fellow
workman Kirkman, a foreman in Tabel's
London workshop. About 1728 he set up
for himself in Meard Street, Dean Street,
Soho. In 1742 he removed to 33, Great
Pulteney Street, and took for his sign the
Plume of Feathers to indicate his patronage
by Frederick Prince of Wales. His new
shop was well chosen, being then situated in
the most fashionable part of London and close
to the Court at St. James's Palace. Shudi
was fortunate in obtaining the patronage of
Handel ; and the making of harpsichords, and
their tuning and repair especially, being a
lucrative business, he soon became wealthy.
The harpsichord made by him which once
belonged to Queen Charlotte and is now in
Windsor Castle bears the date 1740. It has
a ' lute ' stop which, like the pedal, was an
English invention of the 1 7th century. Shudi
is said to have presented a harpsichord to
Frederick the Great, whom he greatly admired
and considered to be the leader of the Protes-
tant cause, after the capture of Prague in 1744.
A picture which was formerly in one of the
rooms at Great Pulteney Street is said to
represent Shudi, in the company of his wife
and their two children, engaged in tuning this
identical instrument. The picture is repro-
duced as a frontispiece to Dr. Rimbault's
History of the Pianoforte. Frederick after-
wards (in 1766) ordered from Shudi two
double harpsichords for his new palace at
Potsdam, where they still remain. One of
these is described by Burney25 as a magnifi-
cent instrument which cost 200 gns., ' the
hinges, pedals, and frame are of silver, the
case is inlaid, and the front is of tortoiseshell.'
The Potsdam harpsichords were made with
"No. 581. "No. 613.
" A. J. Hipkins, Musical Instruments, 94.
"' Present State qf Music in Germany, ii, 145.
182
INDUSTRIES
Shudi's Venetian swell, which he afterwards
patented.26 Roger Plenius had in 1750 de-
vised a swell imitated from the organ, which
consisted of gradually raising or lowering by
a pedal movement a portion of the top or
cover of the harpsichord. Shudi improved
upon this by a swell on the principle of the
Venetian blind.
John Broadwood, who had married Shudi's
daughter Barbara, was taken into partner-
ship by his father-in-law. A harpsichord
exists dated 1770, with the names of Shudi
and Broadwood as makers, but Shudi made
harpsichords alone after that date. About
1772 he retired to a house in Charlotte
Street, leaving the business in the hands of
his son-in-law; he died on 19 August 1773.
His son, the younger Burkat Shudi, then
joined John Broadwood in partnership until
1782, when he retired; he died in 1803. A list
of thirteen existing harpsichords made by this
firm is given in Grove's Dictionary of Music?7
The price of a single harpsichord about 1770
ranged from thirty-five to fifty guineas, that
of a double harpsichord with swell was eighty
guineas.
Tabel's other pupil, Jacob Kirchmann or
Kirkman, obtained a success and reputation as
a harpsichord maker quite equal to that of his
eminent rival Shudi. A curious story is told
by Burney of Kirkman's rapid courtship of
Tabel's widow, whom he wooed and married
in one morning, just a month after her hus-
band's death. With the widow he secured
also the business and the stock-in-trade.
Kirkman was of high repute not only as a
maker but also as a musician. He was
organist of St. George's, Hanover Square, and
the author of several compositions for the
organ and the pianoforte which he published
himself at the sign of the ' King's Arms' in
Broad Street, Carnaby Market (now Broad
Street, Soho). The rivalry of the two
makers extended to their patrons, King
George favouring Kirkman and the Prince of
Wales, who was notoriously on ill terms with
his royal father, patronizing Shudi. Burney
relates another anecdote of Kirkman, by which
he is said to have retrieved his fortunes when
ruin threatened him through a sudden freak of
fashion. The guitar suddenly rose into favour
among ladies of fashion, who sold their harpsi-
chords for what they would fetch. Kirkman
bought them up at a nominal price, and suc-
ceeded in stopping the rage for the new
favourite by giving a large number of guitars
16 See specification, 1 3 Apr. 1 769, of patent
granted 1 8 Dec. 1768, no. 947.
" 1883, iii, 490.
to girls in milliners' shops and ballad-singers
in the streets whom he taught to strum an
accompaniment. This had the effect of dis-
gusting the fashionable ladies, whose favour
soon returned to the more costly harpsichord.
Kirkman died in 1778 and left a fortune of
nearly ^200,000 ; he had no children, but
was succeeded in business by his nephew
Abraham, whose son Joseph followed him.
Harpsichords were made by this firm so late
as 1798, which date appears on an instrument
also with the name ' Josephus Kirckman.'
In the hands of Tabel and his pupils
Shudi and Kirkman the harpsichord reached
its highest point of excellence in compass,
tone, and power. The increase of power
was obtained chiefly by the greater length of
Shudi and Kirkman's harpsichords, which
measured nearly 9 ft., whilst those of Ruckers
were from 6 ft. to 7^ ft. long. Kirkman
added a pedal to raise a portion of the top or
cover. Both makers used two pedals ; one
for the swell, the other by an external lever
mechanism to shut off the octave and one of
the unison registers, leaving the player with
both hands free. The English makers did
not adopt the practice of decorating the cases
with beautiful paintings, a practice which
caused many fine Flemish harpsichords to be
broken up when out of repair.
Many contrivances were invented by English
harpsichord makers to produce sonority of tone
and do away with the jarring noise of the
quills plucking the string, but it must suffice to
mention here the improvements effected by
John Joseph Merlin. He was born at Huys
in the Low Countries in 1735, and came to
England in the suite of the Spanish ambas-
sador in 1760. For several years he was
director of Cox's Museum in Spring Gardens,
where in 1 768 he exhibited many of his curious
inventions. He afterwards exhibited at his own
museum in Princes Street, Hanover Square,28
a great variety of musical instruments and
remarkable pieces of mechanism designed and
constructed by himself. In I77429 he took
out a patent for an improved harpsichord, in
which he is described as a mathematical in-
strument maker living in Little Queen Ann
Street, Marylebone. His patent was for a
' compouwd harpsichord in which, besides the
jacks with quills, a set of hammers of the
nature of those used in the kind of harpsi-
chords called pianoforte are introduced in
such a manner that either may be played
separately or both together at the pleasure of
the performer, and for adding the aforesaid
'83
" Busby, Concert Room Anecdotes, ii, 137.
19 iz Jan. 1774, no. 1081.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
hammers to an harpsichord of the common
kind already made so as to render it such
compound harpsichord.' Merlin effected
another improvement in harpsichords in 1775.
The larger instruments had ordinarily two
rows of keys and three strings to each note,
two of the strings being in unison and the
third sounding an octave higher. Merlin
abolished the latter and replaced it by another
unison string which left the tone equally full
and rendered the instrument less liable to get
out of tune, the octave stop being very sus-
ceptible to atmospheric influences. He died
in May 1804, and the 'celebrated musical
instruments invented and manufactured ' by
him were sold by auction on 21 July 1837.
The Pianoforte. — The manufacture of piano-
fortes is an industry for which London has
been long and justly famed. The origin of
the invention has caused much controversy,
but it is now generally conceded that the
inventor of this beautiful instrument was
Bartolomeo Cristofori, a harpsichord maker of
Florence and custodian of the musical instru-
ments of Prince Ferdinand dei Medici ; he
had in 1709 made four pianofortes in Florence,
where they were seen by Scipione Maffei.
The invention is described by Maffei 30 in the
Giornale de Litterati if Italia, 1711, and the
idea seems also to have been independently
arrived at by two other musicians, viz. : —
Marius, a French manufacturer, who in 1716
submitted his instruments to the Academic
des Sciences, and Christopher Gottlieb
Schroter, a German musician, who constructed
a model of a pianoforte at Dresden in 1717.
Two instruments made by Cristofori still
exist; one dated 1 720 in the Metropolitan
Museum of New York, the other dated 1726
in the private museum of the Signori Kraus
at Florence. The invention constituted a
vast improvement upon the action of the
harpsichord, which was the immediate pre-
cursor of the pianoforte. This was done by
substituting for the quills formerly used
leather-covered hammers to strike the strings.
By this means the jarring noise of the old
instrument described by Dr. Burney as a
' scratch with a sound at the end of it ' gave
place to a clear, precise, and delicate tone until
then unknown. The great invention lay
dormant in Italy, but was taken up in
Germany, where Gottfried Silbermann, after
some unsuccessful attempts, made a pianoforte
which gained the unstinted praise of J. S.
Bach ; Frederick the Great also ordered some
of Silbermann's instruments for his palace at
10 Venice, v, 144. Reprinted and trans, by
Rimbault, Pianoforte, 95-102.
Potsdam. Other famous German makers
were Johann Andreas Stein of Augsburg,
Johann Gottfried Hildebrand, and Johann
Andreas Streicher. In France the chief
manufacturers and inventors were Sebastian
Erard and Ignace Pleyel.
The earliest pianos were horizontal and
wing-shaped like the harpsichord, the oblong
or ' square ' of clavichord shape is said to have
been invented by Frederici, the celebrated
organ builder of Gera. The first piano seen
in England was made, Burney tells us, in
Rome by Father Wood, an English monk.
This was copied by Roger Plenius, but with-
out any attempt to place the enterprise on a
commercial basis. Another German, Johannes
Zumpe, who is said to have worked for Shudi
the harpsichord maker, was more successful.
At his manufactory in Princes Street, Hanover
Square, he made small square pianos of very
sweet tone, similar in shape and size to a vir-
ginal. These, from their low price and con-
venient size, soon became so popular that there
was hardly a house in the kingdom where a
keyed instrument had ever had admission but
was supplied with one of them, and there was
nearly as great a call for them in France as in
England.31 The oldest Zumpe piano known
bears the date 1766 and is now owned by
Messrs. Broadwood. Johann Pohlmann, an-
other German maker in London, helped also
to supply the demand, and his instruments
also became widely known, although greatly
inferior in quality to those of Zumpe. The
action which Zumpe adopted or invented was
simple and easy, and is said by some to have
been suggested by the Rev. William Mason,
composer, poet, and friend of the poet Gray.
Zumpe had a partner named Meyer in
1778, and was joined by Buntlebart in 1784 ;
after realizing a handsome fortune he re-
turned to Germany to end his days in retire-
ment.
The list of early German makers of
the pianoforte in London is, however, not
yet complete. A maker named Victor,
resident in London, made several improve-
ments in the instrument. He was fol-
lowed by Americus Backers, who calls
himself on one of his pianos which still
exists, ' Americus Backers, factor et inventor,
Jermyn Street, London 1776.' Backers had ,
been in the employ of Silbermann of Neuberg,
and is described by Burney as a harpsichord
maker of second rank, who constructed several
pianofortes, and improved the mechanism in
some particulars, ' but the tone, with all the deli-
cacy of Schroeter's touch, lost the spirit of the
11 Charles Burney in Abraham Reefs Cyclopaedia,
art. ' Harpsichord.'
184
INDUSTRIES
harpsichord and gained nothing in sweetness.' 32
He was, however, the inventor of what be-
came known as the ' English action.'
In 1759 John Sebastian Bach came to
London, and after his arrival ' all the harpsi-
chord makers in this country tried their me-
chanical powers on pianofortes, but the first
attempts were always on the large size.' 33
In 1767 the pianoforte was introduced on
the stage of Covent Garden Theatre as a new
instrument. In a play bill for a performance
of 'The Beggar's Opera,' on Saturday 16 May
1 767, it is announced that at the ' end of Act i,
Miss Brickler will sing a favourite song from
Judith, accompanied by Mr. Dibdin on a new
instrument called piano-forte.'
It is time now to trace the further fortunes
of the famous house of John Broadwood &
Sons, founded as we have already seen by
Burkat Shudi. John Broadwood, the first of
that name connected with the firm, was born
at Cockburn's Path in Scotland in 1732. He
was a carpenter by trade and was employed by
Shudi in his harpsichord manufactory in 1761.
He was a partner of his father-in-law, the elder
Shudi, and also of Shudi's son. From 1782 to
1 795 he was sole partner in the firm of Shudi
and Broadwood ; at the latter date, by the ad-
mission of his son James Shudi Broadwood as
a partner, the firm became John Broadwood &
Son, and lastly by taking into partnership
another son,Thomas, in 1807, the style of the
firm was John Broadwood & Sons. The firm
began to make pianos in 1773, the construc-
tion followed being that of Zumpe, but in
1780 John Broadwood produced a square
piano of his own design for which he was
granted a patent in I783.34 By this invention
he remodelled the case, placing the wrest-plank
which carried the tuning-pins along the back,
besides effecting other improvements, all of
which became generally adopted. John Broad-
wood died in 1812 at the age of eighty-one
years ; there exists a mezzotint portrait of him
by Harrison and Say. The firm was con-
tinued by his son James Shudi Broadwood,
who lived from 1772 to 1851 ; he was the
first to use bracing or tension bars of iron or
steel placed above the strings. This was to
strengthen the wrest-plank, which had been so
seriously weakened by the extension of the
compass of his pianos, introduced in 1804, that
the treble sank in pitch more rapidly than the
rest of the instrument. The experiment,
which was noted in the firm's work-books of
that date, was repeated in 1818, and the
method is now universally adopted. Henry
Fowler Broadwood, grandson of the founder,
was a member of the firm from 181 1 to 1893.
Henry John Tschudi Broadwood, great-grand-
son of John Broadwood, patentee of the ' Bar-
less ' grand piano, is a director of John Broad-
wood & Sons, Ltd., a private company estab-
lished in October 1901. In 1904 the business
was removed from its original quarters in
Pulteney Street to larger premises at the corner
of Conduit Street and Hanover Square. The
earliest account book of this firm is lost, but
later accounts show that between 1771 and
1851 no fewer than 103,750 pianos were pro-
duced from their workshops.
Robert Stodart of Wardour Street, Soho,
who founded another well-known firm, is
variously described as pupil and fellow-work-
man of John Broadwood. Stodart succeeded
Backers in business, and jointly with Broad-
wood developed to a high degree the ' English
action ' of Backers. Stodart himself took out
a patent in 1777 for ' a grand forte piano with
an octave swell, and to produce various fine
tones, together or separate, at the option of
the performer." 36 This firm became subse-
quently known as John,William,and Matthew
Stodart, and on 29 January 1795 William
took out a patent 36 for his ' upright grand
pianoforte of the form of a bookcase.' They
exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 as
'Stodart & Son.'
The early history of thegreat firm of Kirkman
has been treated of above. Jacob the founder
was succeeded by his nephew Abraham, in whose
time the manufacture of pianos was first begun
by the firm. Following Abraham Kirkman
were two Josephs, his son and grandson ; the
latter died in 1877 at the advanced age of
eighty-seven years. His second son, Henry,
who pre-deceased him, greatly extended the
business, which in 1896 was amalgamated with
that of the Collards. The firm is described in
1794 as Kirkman & Son, harpsichord makers,
19, Broad Street, Carnaby Market. Later on,
and for many years, their show rooms were in
Soho Square.
An interesting list of harpsichord and piano-
forte makers in London at the end of the
1 8th century is given by Rimbault;37 it is
taken from the Musical Directory for the year
1794. The thirteen makers mentioned in-
clude Shudi & Broadwood, Kirkman & Son,
Stodart, and Buntlebart & Sievers (successors
of Zumpe). Three other firms, those of Beck,
Corrie, and Ganer, were in business in Broad
" Burney in Reet'i Cyc hpaedl a, art. 'Harpsichord.'
" Ibid.
" 15 Nov. 1783, no. 1,379.
2 185
* 21 Nov. 1777, no. 1,172.
" No. 2,028.
" Rimbault, op cit. 147.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Street, Carnaby Market. The six remaining
makers were Done of 30, Chancery Lane,
Elwick of Long Acre, Hancock of Parlia-
ment Street, Houston & Co. of Great Marl-
borough Street, Longman & Broderip of
Cheapside, the Haymarket, and Tottenham
Court Road, and Pether of Oxford Street.
The business of Longman & Broderip, of
Cheapside, was taken over and reorganized by
Muzio Clementi between 1798 and 1801.
His most important colleague in the igth cen-
tury was F. W. Collard, whose name is con-
nected with many improvements in the
pianos produced by the firm, which is now
known as Collard & Collard, of Cheapside
and Grosvenor Square. Rimbault gives a
list of 1 06 patents by various makers be-
tween 1774 and 1 85 138 which includes
the names of every London manufacturer
of high reputation. The pianoforte had a
long struggle to fight its way to general
appreciation. It was neglected in Italy, the
land of its birth, and made slow progress in
France and Germany. In England it long
suffered neglect until the elder Broadwood, by
constructing its mechanism in a superior style,
was the first to show the superiority of this
instrument over the harpsichord. The con-
tinental musicians still clung to the harpsichord
after popular taste in England had decidedly
pronounced for its rival the pianoforte. As
the instrument came more and more into
general use, rival makers were incessant in
their efforts to improve it in power and quality
of tone and in delicacy and effectiveness of
touch. These improvements were effected
chiefly by enlarging the instrument generally,
by extending the scale and increasing the
weight of the strings, by correspondingly
strengthening the framework, and by im-
proving the mechanism of the action.
Thefirst pianoforte constructed in France was
made in 1777 by Sebastian Erard, who became
famous as an English maker. He took refuge
in London during the Terror, and took out
patents between 17 94 and 1810 for improve-
ments in harps and pianofortes,39 in which he
is described as a musical instrument maker of
Great Marlborough Street. He returned to
Paris in 1796 and made there his first grand
piano, using the English action, which he con-
tinued to employ until 1808. He died on
5 August 1831, and the business was con-
tinued by his nephew Pierre, who took out six
English patents between 1821 and 1850.
K Rimbault, op. cit. I 50-7.
39 17 Oct. 1794, no. 2,016; 16 June 1801,
no. 2,502 ; 24 Sept. 1 808, no. 3,170 ; 2 May,
1810, no. 3,332.
This celebrated firm ceased to manufacture
pianofortes in London in 1890.
In 1 8 1 1 Robert Wornum the younger, of
Princes Street, Hanover Square, patented 40
his improvements of the ' upright ' pianoforte,
which he afterwards more fully developed in
his ' Cottage ' and ' Piccolo ' instruments.
He was a man of remarkable ingenuity, whose
improvements rapidly spread both in this
country and abroad. Other patents were
granted to him in II July 1820, 4 September
1826, and 14 January 1829," in which his
address is given as Wigmore Street, Cavendish
Square. His last patent is dated 3 August
i842,42 when he was living in Store Street,
Bedford Square.
Another inventor of great skill to whom
the pianoforte is indebted for many great
improvements was William Southwell, a
Dublin maker of musical instruments, who
was in business in Lad Lane, London,
when he took out his first patent on 18 Oc-
tober I794-43 He was living in Broad Court,
St. Martin-in-the-Fields on 8 November 1798
when he took out a further patent ; 44 and on
8 April 1 807, when he patented his ' Cabinet '
pianoforte,46 he had returned to Dublin. His
next two patents 46 are dated 4 March 1 8 1 1
and 5 April 1821, when he was in business
in Gresse Street, Rathbone Place. His name
(or that of his son) occurs in a much later
patent47 of 24 August i837,whenhe was living
at 5, Winchester Row, New Road, Middlesex.
A notable invention made by James
Thorn and William Allen, workmen in his
employ, was brought out by Stodart in a
patent dated 15 January i82O.48 It con-
sisted of a compensating system for grand
pianos and a new method of bracing by
metallic tubes. This paved the way for
many later devices, such as the introduction of
steel tension bars, metal bracings of various
kinds, and steel string plates ; all these had
for their object the strengthening of the in-
strument to enable it to bear the enormous
strain from the increasing weight and ten-
sion of the strings. Erard's patent for his
'repetition action' in 1821 effected a great
improvement in the mechanism for the per-
fection of touch, which was still further per-
fected by the patent of John Hopkinson of
Oxford Street for his ' repetition and tremolo
action' granted to him on 3 June i85i.49
40 26 Mar. 1811, no. 3,419.
41 No. 4,460, 5,348, and 5,678.
"No. 9,262. ° No. 2,017.
44 No. 2,264. " No. 3,029.
48 No. 3,403 and 4,546.
4r No. 7,424. "No. 4,431.
"No. 13,652.
186
INDUSTRIES
The principle of division of labour is adopted
to a large extent in pianoforte making in
order to ensure the utmost precision of detail.
Rimbault gives a list60 of over forty different
workmen, each of whom, with his assistants,
is exclusively engaged in a special branch of
the manufacture. At the Great Exhibition
of 1851 the exhibitors of pianofortes included
thirty manufacturers in London and six from
provincial towns.
The founder of the firm of John Brins-
mead & Sons was John Brinsmead, who
was born at Wear Gifford, North Devon-
shire, on 13 October 1814. He began
business at 35, Windmill Street, Tottenham
Court Road, in 1836, removing in 1841 to
Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square ; he took
out a patent61 in 1862 for improved me-
chanism in grand and upright pianos, ' produc-
ing a perfect check, great power, and quick
repetition.' On taking his sons into partner-
ship in 1863 the firm removed to 18, Wig-
more Street, Cavendish Square, their present
warehouse; and between 1868 and 1879
John Brinsmead took out three further
patents.62 For his meritorious exhibits at the
Paris Exhibition of 1868 he received from
the French government the cross of the
Legion of Honour. Thomas James Brins-
mead, a member of the firm, was granted a
patent on 21 May i88i,63and Edgar William,
his younger brother, and author of The
History of the Pianoforte (Cassell, 1 868 ;
Novello, 1879), also patented some further
improvements on 4 December i883.64 The
firm became a limited company in January
1900.
Reed Instruments. — Messrs. H. Potter & Co.
are a firm of high standing in the metropolis ;
eminent musical instrument makers of this
family are met with from the 1 8th century to
the present day. Richard Potter, who is said
by Captain Day to have been the grandfather
of the famous Cipriani Potter,66 made flutes
in London before 1774 with the then newly-
invented keys for fH, g|, and b|j. On 28 Oc-
tober 1785 a patent (no. 1,499) was granted
to Richard Potter for improvements in the
German flute. These consisted of a graduated
tuning slide, graduated cork, and metal plugs.
Four concert flutes by this maker were ex-
hibited at the Royal Military Exhibition of
1890, one is illustrated in the catalogue,86
and another gives Potter's address as Johnson's
Court. In his patent he is described as of
Pemberton Row (Gough Square) in the City
of London, and this is the address also (no. 5)
of William Henry Potter, flute maker, in the
patent for improvements in the flute which
he took out on 28 May 1808 (no. 3,136).
An iSth-century tabor-pipe bears the inscrip-
tion ' Henry Potter 2 Bridge Street West-
minster,' but is probably before that maker's
time.67 The Hon. Artillery Company pos-
sess a key bugle, presented to their light
infantry in 1828, which is stamped 'Potter
King Street Westminster."8 Messrs. H.
Potter & Co., who have for many years occu-
pied their present premises at 30, Charing
Cross, are contractors to the government for
army instruments and large exporters to our
colonies and to distant foreign countries. A
branch of the firm was founded in 1860 and
carried on under the style of George Potter
& Co.
William Bainbridge, who devised several
improvements in musical instruments, was
living in Little Queen Street in 1803 when
he patented a device for more easily fingering
the ' flageolet or English flute.'69 In 1807 he
was in business as a musical instrument maker
in Holborn and patented further improvements
in the flute.60 About this date he was joined
by Wood, and flageolets with the makers'
stamp ' Bainbridge and Wood, 35 Holborn
Hill ' are described in Day's Catalogue.*1
Brass Instruments. — Messrs. Rudall, Carte
& Co. claim to be (with Messrs. Kohler) the
oldest manufacturers of brass instruments in
this country. The founder of the firm was
Mr. Kramer or Cramer, who came over from
Hanover in 1 746 to take the post of band-
master to King George II and established a
music business.62 Cramer subsequently took
Thomas Key into partnership ; a bassoon of
late 1 8th or early igth century is stamped
' Cramer and Key London Pall Mall,' and a
clarionet of early igth century bears the mark
' Cramer London.' 63 On another clarionet to
which no date is ascribed the firm appears as
'Cramer & Son London 20 Pall Mall,'64
and on two serpents occur ' Key and Co.
1820' and 'T. Key 20 Charing Cross' (date
about i83o).6S Rose states that Key had a
50 Pianoforte, 213-14.
61 ii Feb. 1862, no. 358.
"6 Mar. 1868, no. 774; 18 Mar. 1879,
no. 1,060 ; 16 Aug. 1881, no. 3,557.
"No. 2,232. "No. 5,635.
" C. Russell Day, Cat. of Musical Instruments
tt Roy. Mil. Exhib. Lond. 1891, p. 25.
66 PL i, fig. H, and pp. 32-3.
"Ibid. 14. "Ibid. 173.
59 No. 2,693, i Apr. 1803.
60 No. 3,043, 14 May 1807. " pp. 17, 19.
6* Algernon Rose,Trf/& with Bandsmen (i 897), 1 0 1.
63 Day, op. cit. 78, 114.
"Ibid. 127. "Ibid. 163-4.
187
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
workshop in High Holborn,66 and that he
made there in 1809 for the 2nd Life Guards
the first circular bass tuba with rotary action
used in this country. The firm next appears
as Rudall and Rose of 15, Piazza, Covent
Garden (about i83o),67 and on 27 November
1832 a patent for improvements in construct-
ing flutes was granted to George Rudall and
John Mitchell Rose (no. 6,338). About
1844 their address was i, Tavistock Street,
Covent Garden,68 and in a patent granted to
Rose on 6 September 1847 (no- II|853)
they are described as of Southampton Street ;
this patent was taken out by Rose on behalf
of Boehm for improvements in the ' cylinder
flute.' The firm was now joined by Richard
Carte, a professor of music residing at 38,
Southampton Street, who is so described in a
patent for improvements in flutes, clarionets,
hautboys and bassoons registered on 7 March
i85o.6" Carte was an inventor of great skill
and enterprise, and in the following year con-
structed a flute which became known as
Carte's '1851 flute.' This procured him the
award of a prize medal at the Exhibition of
1851, the object of his invention being to
'design a mechanism which should retain the
open keys ... of Boehm's flute, and yet
secure a greater facility of fingering.' This
flute is described and illustrated in Day's
Catalogue.™ The firm now adopted the style
of Rudall, Rose, Carte & Co., and in a patent
(no. 245) taken out by Carte on 9 February
1858 for his well-known improvements in
clarionets 71 their address is given as 2O,
Charing Cross. Other important inventions
by members of this firm were secured by
patents on 4 October 1859 (no. 2,248),
3 December 1860 (no. 2,967)," 5 December
1866 (no. 3,208), and 5 June 1875 (no.
2,071). Their latest style is Rudall, Carte &
Co., and the final removal of their premises
was to 23, Berners Street.73
The Violin. — The violin in its present form
is about three centuries old. In the second
half of the i6th century Cremona was the
chief centre of manufacture and owed its
reputation to the Amati family, and especially
to the brothers Antonio and Girolamo Amati.
This reputation was carried well into the
1 8th century by Antonio Stradivari, who
brought the Cremona violin to its utmost
perfection. London also has for some cen-
turies been famous for the manufacture of
" Rose, loc. cit. 67 Day, op. cit. 40.
"Ibid. 42. »No. 12,996.
70 Day, op. cit. 46, 47.
" Ibid. 104-5. " Ibid. 195.
71 Whitaker's Red Bk. of Commerce (1906), 34.6.
stringed instruments. The makers of the
viol were very numerous, as that instrument
was universally popular, and the names of
many in the 1 6th and I7th centuries are given
by Sir George Grove.74
The violin proper, although known in
England as early as the reign of Elizabeth,
was generally associated for many years after
with popular merry-making, but became more
highly esteemed amongst musicians when
Charles II introduced his band of twenty-four
violins, and thus gave a lead to fashion. The
information,76 however, which has come down
to us with reference to the early London and
Middlesex makers is very meagre, and it is
difficult to determine whether they belong to
Middlesex, the City, or Southwark. Three
1 7th century makers who are traditionally
associated as partners were Thomas Urquhart,
Edward Pamphilon, and one Pemberton,
whose Christian name is uncertain. Indeed,
it has even been suggested that the late date
of 1680 assigned to Pemberton may be in-
correct, and that he was in fact the J.P. of
1578 who made the instrument presented to
the Earl of Leicester by Queen Elizabeth.
Urquhart was probably an immigrant from
beyond the Border, and his violins are said to
be of unusual merit for the period at which
he worked. From Urquhart Pamphilon may
have learnt his craft, though his instruments,
which are strong in wood, with a clear and
penetrating tone, hardly reached the high
standard of his supposed master.
Daniel Parker, who was still working in
1714-15, may be regarded as the last of the
primitive school of English makers. Both in
outline and model his instruments show an
advance, and their tone is clear and strong.
He seems, however, to have used a spirit
varnish of a brickdust red colour, and very
thickly laid on, which is in strong contrast to
the pleasant oil varnish of Urquhart.
During the first half of the i8th century
the London and Middlesex makers were
largely under the influence of Stainer or
Steiner, the well-known German maker.
John Barrett, contemporary with the Lon-
don maker Nathaniel Crosse, was a strictly
Middlesex maker, whose place of business lay
at the ' Harp and Crown,' in Piccadilly. His
violins are of a long and high model, tending
to the Amati pattern, but with distinct traces
of the influence of Steiner.
In the work of Peter Wamsley some modi-
fication of the outline and model of John
74 Diet, of Music, ii, 163.
" See Sandys & Forster, Hilt, of the Violin,
253 etseq.
INDUSTRIES
Barrett is apparent. The characteristic fault
of his instruments, and especially the violon-
cellos, is that they are often worked too thin,
and in consequence the tone is apt to suffer.
His earlier labels bear the address of the
' Golden Harp,' in Piccadilly, the later of the
' Harp and Hautboy,' Piccadilly. Peter Wams-
ley was succeeded in business by his pupil
Thomas Smith. In neither quality of tone
nor varnish can his violoncellos compare with
those of his master. Two apprentices of
Smith, John Norris and Robert Barnes, were
partners for a time in Windmill Street (1785)
and Coventry Street (1794). Henry Jay, a
maker of Long Acre (1746) and Windmill
Street (1768) may, however, be mentioned
as a neat and careful craftsman, who won
repute for the kits he made for dancing-
masters. Richard Duke, the elder, also
gained a considerable name during the last
half of the i8th century. At one time he
lived in Red Lion Street, Holborn. His work-
manship followed the Steiner pattern, and the
tone of his violins was clear and silvery.
In 1741 the name of William Hill is first
met with as a maker in Poland Street, near
Broad Street, in Carnaby Market. He used
a beautiful oil varnish of a transparent yellow
colour. His brother, Joseph Hill, lived in
Dover Street, Piccadilly, then at the ' Harp
and Flute,' in the Haymarket, (where his house
was burnt out with all his stock), and after that
in Newington, to the south of the Thames.
The work of these two brothers has remark-
able affinities with that of Edmund Aireton,
who at an advanced age was living in Hog
Lane, Soho, as late as 1805. Aireton made
inferior as well as high-class instruments, and
his violins and tenors were built on the pattern
of Stradivari.
John Edward, or old John, Belts and his
nephew, Ned Belts, were Lincolnshire men,
and both pupils of Richard Duke. The older
man was a betler dealer lhan maker, his
nephew had more original ability, but both of
them, as well as the Fendts, whom John
Belts employed, were specially skilled in
imitating the Italian and old English makers.
One of the mosl famous of ihe 1 8th-cen-
tury makers has still to be mentioned, William
Forsler,76 generally known as ' Old Forsler,'
to distinguish him from his son. Born in
Cumberland in 1739 he came to London as a
young man of twenty or twenly-one, and
after working in the City set up for himself in
St. Martin's Lane, from which he removed
to 348 Strand, probably about 1784 or 1785.
76 See Sandys & Forster, Hist, oj the
296 et seq.
By 1781 he had gained the patronage of the
Duke of Cumberland, and his instruments had
become celebrated for the ' original varnish ' lo
which he refers in his labels. His earlier
inslrumenls were after the Steiner pattern.
About 1772 he adopted the Amati oulline,
though his first work in this manner lacks
the elegance and delicacy which he achieved
later. His violas and violoncellos were ihe
mosl highly esteemed, though some of his violins
reached a high standard. Henry Hill remarks
of his 'amber-coloured violoncellos' that
' they are renowned for mellowness, a volume
and power of tone, equalled by few, surpassed
by none.' William Forster died at his son's
house, York Street, Westminsler, in 1808.
The lasl period of the London school dates
from 1790 to 1840, when the influence of
Stradivari and Joseph Guarnieri became pre-
dominant. Some Middlesex makers belong
to ihis period. John Furber, 1 8 1 0-45, worked
for J. Bells of ihe Royal Exchange, and
afterwards for himself al Brick Lane, Old
Slreel ; his instruments are copied from both
ihe Amali and ihe Slradivari patterns.
Samuel Gilkes, a pupil of Charles Harris of
RatclifF Highway, was born in 1787 and
died in 1827. He worked as journeyman
wilh William Forster the younger, and after-
wards was in business for himself al James
Street, Buckingham Gate ; his better-class
work was excellent. John Carter, of Wych
Slreel, worked chiefly for Belts, bul produced
some violins on his own account of good
quality. Henry Lockey Hill, 1774-1835, was
the son of a violin maker, and a pupil of his
father and of John Belts. He ihen became with
his brolhers partner in his falher's firm, and
by his lalenl and fine workmanship largely
helped to make ihe name of Hill famous. He
was succeeded by his even more celebraied
son William Ebsworlh Hill (1817-95), and
the latler by his four sons, William Henry,
Arlhur Frederick, Alfred Ebsworlh, and
Waller Edgar. These genllemen now con-
slilute ihe firm of Hill and Sons, whose repula-
tion is world-wide, and has been slill further
enhanced by ihe publicalion of several valuable
works, including a life of Stradivari.
The abolition of the import duly on violins
from abroad and the large number of violins
of old makers upon the market, which were
more in demand than new ones, ruined the
English manufacture, and but few firms have
survived. Whether ihe trade is destined to
revive ihe fulure only can show.
The Organ. — As early77 as the year 1528
77 W. Page, Denizations and Naturalizations
(Huguenot Soc.), 132, and cf. Kirk, op. cit. i, 1 59,
413.
189
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
we hear of John de John, a foreign organ-
maker in London, and from the Subsidy Roll of
1549 it is clear that William Tresourer, born
in Germany, but at that time living in the
parish of Christ Church, Newgate, made
organs as well as virginals. The year 1644
was a fatal one for organs and for the art of
organ-building in this country. On the
4 January in that year an ordinance or the
Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament
was published for the speedy demolishing of
organs and other so-called superstitious objects.
Very few of the old organs in our cathedrals,
collegiate churches, and chapels escaped.
Organ-building must have practically ceased
in England, and it was not till some fifty or
sixty years after the Restoration that organs
became common in the parish churches.78
To remedy the scarcity of native work-
men (Dr. Burney tells us 79), ' it was thought
expedient to invite foreign builders of
known abilities to settle among us ; and the
premiums offered on this occasion brought
over the two celebrated workmen Smith and
Harris.'
Renatus Harris, the famous organ-builder,
and his rival Bernard Schmidt, better known as
Father Smith, both lived in the City of London,
but John Harris, a son of Renatus, set up in
business in Red Lion Street, Holborn. In
March 1738 he contracted to build 'a good
tuneful and compleat organ ' for the parish
church of Doncaster at a cost of £525. He
appears to have been in partnership with John
Byfield, who married his daughter ; the firm
must have enjoyed a great reputation, as they
built organs (among others) for Grantham
Church, Lincolnshire ; St. Mary RedclifFe,
Bristol; and two churches in the City of
London, viz., St. Alban's Wood Street, and
St. Bartholomew Exchange. Christopher
Schrider, who built the organ of Westminster
Abbey in 1730, and those of the Chapel Royal,
St. James's (1710), St. Mary Abbot's, Ken-
sington (1716), and St. Martin in the Fields
(1726), probably lived at Westminster. He
was a workman employed by Father Smith,
whose daughter he married in 1708. He
succeeded Smith in his business after the
latter's death, and in 1710 became also
organ-builder to the Chapels Royal. He died
in or before 1754, when his son Christopher
held the appointment of king's organ-maker
in succession to his father.80
78 G. A. Audsley, Art of Organ-building (1905),
i, 74-
78 Burney, Hist, of Music (1789), iii, 436.
80 Edward and John Chamberlayne, Mag. Brit.
Notitia (1755), pt. ii, bk. iii, no.
Richard Bridge, a builder or high re-
putation, is said to have been employed as
a workman by the younger Harris, and was
probably in business in Hand Court, Holborn,
in 1748. Nothing further is known of his
biography except that he died before 1776.
Between 1730 and 1757 or later he built
many fine organs for churches in the Metro-
polis; among these were St. Paul's Deptford;
Christ Church Spitalfields (one of the largest
parish church organs in London) ; St. Bar-
tholomew the Great ; St. Anne's Limehouse,
and the parish churches of Shoreditch and
Paddington.
To meet the great demand for organs which
arose early in the 1 8th century, when so many
new churches were being erected, and to pre-
vent the employment of incompetent persons,
the three great makers of that time undertook
jointly to supply instruments of good quality at
a moderate cost. The makers uniting in this
strong combination were Byfield, Jordan, and
Bridge, who built the organ for Great Yar-
mouth Church in 1733. John Byfield, junior,
of whom no personal particulars can be found,
has been treated by most writers only as a
partner or assistant to his father, but Rim-
bault has shown 81 that the younger Byfield
was a builder of note on his own account,
and gives a list of eighteen organs con-
structed by him between 1750 and 1771,
including those of St. Botolph's Bishops-
gate ; Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin ; St.
John's College, Oxford; Drury Lane Theatre;
the chapel of Greenwich Hospital; the theatre,
Oxford ; and St. Mary's Islington.
Messrs. William Hill & Son of York Road,
Islington, take their origin as a firm from the
celebrated John Snetzler, who was one of the
most famous of our early English organ builders.
He was born at Passau in Germany about
1710, and after gaining a reputation in his
own country came over to England. Here
the excellence of his work and the novelty of
some of his methods soon procured him many
commissions, and Dr. Rimbault gives a list of
thirty-five organs built by him, most of them
between 1741 and 1780. Among them were
Chesterfield, Derbyshire; Finchley, Edmonton,
and Hackney, Middlesex ; St. Mary's Hall ;
Beverley Minster; Leatherhead and Richmond,
Surrey ; Leeds Parish Church ; St. Martin's
Leicester ; St. Clements, Lombard Street ; the
German Lutheran Chapel in the Savoy, and
Buckingham Palace, the last-named being
now in the German Chapel, St. James's.
One of his noblest organs was that for King's
81 Edw. J. Hopkins and F. Rimbault, Hist, of the
Organ (1877), 145.
190
INDUSTRIES
Lynn, Norfolk, where the churchwardens
inquired what their old organ would be worth
if repaired. His reply was, ' If they would
lay out a hundred pounds upon it, perhaps
it would be worth fifty.' Snetzler lived to
an advanced age and died at the end of the
1 8th or the beginning of the igth century.
Having realized a competent income he re-
turned to his native country to settle for the
remainder of his life. He had, however,
become too much of a Londoner to live else-
where, and the attractions of London porter
and London living proved so great as to
compel him to return and spend the rest of
his days in the Metropolis.
Snetzler was succeeded in 1780 by his fore-
man Ohrmann, who took W. Nutt into part-
nership in 1790. Thomas Elliott next joined
the firm, but appears in I79483 as in business
by himself at 10, Button Street, Soho, and one
of six organ-builders then carrying on their
trade in London. Elliott took into partnership
in 1825 William Hill of Lincolnshire, who
had married his daughter, and was the inventor
of a pattern of viola da gamba which became
extensively used. On the death of Elliott in
1832 Hill remained alone till 1837, when he
was joined by Frederic Davison, who shortly
afterwards retired to become a partner of John
Gray. Thomas Hill then joined the firm,
which became Hill & Son, and William Hill
died 1 8 December 1870. He will long be
remembered for having in conjunction with
Dr. Gauntktt introduced the C C compass
into this country. The present partners of
the firm are A. G. Hill and W. Hill. The
firm has built, amongst many others, organs
for Westminster Abbey, 1 884, Ely, Worcester,
and Manchester Cathedrals, Birmingham and
Melbourne Town Halls, St. Peter's Cornhill,
and All Saints' Margaret Street. One of the
present partners, Mr. Arthur George Hill, is
the author of a valuable work on Organ-cases
and Organs of the Middle Ages and Renaissance,
published in 1883.
The firm of Bishop & Son of 2O, Upper
Gloucester Place, London, N.W., was estab-
lished about the end of the i8th century by
James C. Bishop, and has always had a high
reputation for excellent workmanship. The in-
vention of the double-acting composition pedal,
the clarabella stop, and the anti-concussion
valve is to be placed to the credit of the
founder of this firm. Among the finest speci-
mens of their work are the organs of St. Giles's
Camberwell ; St. James's Piccadilly ; the
Brompton Oratory ; Jesus College, Cambridge ;
and those of Bombay Cathedral and Town
Hall. After the death of J. C. Bishop the
style of the firm successively became Bishop,
Son & Starr ; Bishop, Starr & Richardson ;
Bishop & Starr ; and Bishop & Son. Mr.
C. K. K. Bishop is the author of Notes on
Church Organs, published in 1873.
Messrs. Gray & Davison are a London
firm of long standing and high reputation.
Robert Gray established an organ factory in
London in 1774, and was succeeded by
William Gray, who died in 1820. John
Gray then became head of the firm, which
became in 1837—8 John Gray & Son ;
shortly afterwards Frederic Davison was re-
ceived into partnership, when the style of the
firm was altered to Gray & Davison. John
Gray died in 1849, but the style of the firm
continued, their premises in London being at
6, Pratt Street, N.W.; they have also a fac-
tory at Liverpool. Among the many fine
organs built by this famous firm are those of
the Crystal Palace ; St. Paul's Wilton Place;
St. Pancras ; Magdalen College, Oxford ; and
the Town Halls of Bolton, Leeds, and
Glasgow. The Keraulophon stop was in-
vented by the firm in 1843.
Samuel Green, who appears to have been a
London maker, was born in 1740, and died
at Isleworth 14 September 1796. He is said
by Rimbault83 to have been a partner of the
younger Byfield, and to have probably learned
his trade in the workshops of Byfield, Bridge
& Jordan. Green was organ-builder to
George III, and much patronized by the king.
The royal favour brought him much business,
but little financial benefit ; although he was
so long at the head of his profession he yet
scarcely obtained a moderate competency, and
died a poor man. Green was a true artist,
and his zeal for the mechanical improvement
of the organ consumed a great part of his time
in experiment and research which brought him
little or no emolument. The organs built by
Green possess a peculiar sweetness and delicacy
of tone entirely original, and probably in this
he has never been excelled. There is a list
of fifty organs of his construction taken from
his own account book and printed in the
Gentleman's Magazine?* It contains no less
than twelve cathedral and collegiate organs,
including that of Canterbury Cathedral, eleven
London organs, including several City churches
and Freemasons' Hall, and twenty-seven others
built for the country or abroad.
Crang & Hancock were a London firm
established in the last quarter of the i8th
ffl Musical Directory (1794). See Hopkins and
Rimbault, Organ, 156.
M Hopkins & Rimbault, Hist, of the Organ, 150,
84 June 1814, pp. 543-4.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
century. John Crang came from Devonshire
and joined in partnership with Hancock, a
good voicer of reeds. Hancock added new
reeds to many of Father Smith's organs, and
Crang was chiefly occupied in turning the old
echoes into swells. Among the organs thus
treated by the firm were those of St. Paul's
Cathedral, St. Peter's Cornhill, and St.
Clement Danes. There were two Hancocks,
James and John, who with John Crang were
employed in repairing the organ of Maidstone
Church between 1755 and 1790. In some
particulars taken from the churchwardens'
accounts published by Mr. W. B. Gilbert,85
' Mr. Hancock,' who is described as ' organ-
builder of Wych Street, London,' is stated to
have died suddenly near Maidstone in January
1792. James Hancock was living in 1820,
and perhaps some years later. The following
are some of the organs built by this firm : —
St. John's Horsleydown, 1770; Barnstaple
Church, 1772; Chelmsford, Essex, 1772;
St. George the Martyr Queen's Square, 1773;
St. Vedast Foster Lane, 1780; and Brompton
Chapel.
John Avery, whose work was held in high
reputation, was in business at this time in the
churchyard of St. Margaret's Westminster.
No other particulars of his life are known.
His organs were built between the years 1775
and 1808 ; in the latter year he died whilst
constructing the organ of Carlisle Cathedral.
The list includes the following : Croydon,
Surrey, 1794, which he considered his best
work; Sevenoaks, Kent, 1798; Winchester
Cathedral, 1799 ; Christ Church Bath, 1800;
St. Margaret's Westminster, 1804; King's
College Chapel, Cambridge, 1804 ; in which
he incorporated portions of Dallam's earlier
work and the case made by Chapman & Hartop
in 1606 ; and Carlisle Cathedral, 1808.
Henry Willis, one of the greatest of English
organ-builders, was born on 27 April 1821,
and was articled in 1835 to John Gray. In
1847 he rebuilt the organ of Gloucester
Cathedral with the then unusual compass of
twenty-nine notes in the pedals. In a patent8'
which he took out on 28 August 1851 for
' improvements in the construction of organs,'
he is described as of Manchester Street, but
on 9 March 1868, when another patent87
was granted him, his address is given as
Rochester Terrace, Camden Road. He ob-
tained much fame at the Exhibition of 1851
for the large organ which he exhibited there,
and this led to his receiving the commission
\
" Mem. of the Collegiate Ch. of Maidstone (1866),
216-17.
"No. 13,538. "\J4b. 812.
to build the organ for St. George's Hall,
Liverpool, which so greatly enhanced his
reputation. For the Exhibition of 1862 he
made another organ, which became the
nucleus of that of the Alexandra Palace, un-
fortunately destroyed by fire on 9 June 1873.
He next built the splendid organ at the Royal
Albert Hall, which for its size, and the effici-
ency of its pneumatic, mechanical, and acoustic
qualities, shares the high reputation procured
for him by his second Alexandra Palace organ,
which was opened in 1875. The improve-
ments in organ-construction which he effected
in 1851 comprise the application of an im-
proved exhausting valve to the pneumatic
lever, the application of pneumatic levers in a
compound form, and the invention of a move-
ment for facilitating the drawing of stops,
singly or in combination. Sir George Grove 88
thus estimates the work of this celebrated
maker : — ' Mr. Willis has always been a
scientific organ-builder, and his organs are
distinguished for their excellent "engineer-
ing," clever contrivances, and first-rate work-
manship, as much as for their brilliancy, force
of tone, and orchestral character.' Willis died
in 1905. Besides his principal works already
mentioned he also built or renewed the organs
of nearly half the English cathedrals, besides
those of numerous halls, colleges, churches, &c.
George England, a notable builder, flourished
between the years 1740 and 1788, and is
stated to have married the daughter of his
contemporary, Richard Bridge. He built the
following among many other fine instruments :
— St. Stephen's Walbrook (1760) ; Graves-
end, Kent (1764); St. Michael's Queen-
hithe (1779); St. Mary's Aldermary ( 1 7 8 1 ) ;89
St. Alphege Greenwich ; and Dulwich Col-
lege Chapel. The last organ, built in 1760,
cost j£26o, together with the old instrument
by Father Smith, which England took in part
payment. In 1887 the organ was restored
on the advice of Dr. Hopkins, who pronounced
it to be a magnificent specimen of England's
work, and well worthy of reverent and
thorough restoration. An illustration of this
organ is given in J. W. Hinton's Organ Con-
struction.** George England was succeeded by
his son, G. P. England, at Stephen Street,
Rathbone Place, who carried on the business
until 1814, and built twenty-two organs be-
tween 1788 and 1 8 12. The list of these
68 Diet, of Music (ed. i), iv, 460.
89 The last two in conjunction with Hugh
Russell. An organ builder of that name in Theo-
bald's Road is one of the six named in the Musical
Dir. for 1794 ; Hopkins & Rimbault, op. cit. 156.
" 1900, pi. Hi, 54.
192
\
INDUSTRIES
taken from England's own account book 91
includes St. James's Clerkenwell ; St. Mar-
garet's Lothbury ; Gainsborough, Lincoln-
shire ; Sheffield Parish Church ; and Rich-
mond, Yorkshire. The Englands' business
was taken over by their apprentice, Joseph
William Walker, in iSig,92 or according to
another account in i8a8.93 Walker started
in Museum Street, and removed in 1838 to
27, Francis Street, Tottenham Court Road,
where the business is still carried on. Walker
died in 1870, and was succeeded by his four
sons, whom he .had previously taken into part-
nership, the style of the firm being changed
to J. W. Walker & Sons. The high reputa-
tion of the firm is shown by the large number
of important organs which have come from
their works, including those of York Minster ;
Exeter Hall ; St. Margaret's Westminster ;
Bow Church, Cheapside ; the Royal College
of Music, South Kensington ; and Sandring-
ham Church.
The firm of Flight and Kelly, organ builders
of Exeter Change, Strand, is one of the six
London makers recorded in the Musical Direc-
tory of I794-94 Nothing further is known of
John Kelly, but Benjamin Flight was succeeded
by his son, also named Benjamin (born in 1 767),
who commenced business about 1800 in
partnership with Joseph Robson, in Lisle
Street, Leicester Square, under the style of
Flight and Robson. They afterwards removed
to St. Martin's Lane, where they constructed
and for many years publicly exhibited the
Apollonicon, a large chamber organ of peculiar
construction, comprising both keyboards and
barrels. They had previously exhibited a
smaller instrument made for Viscount Kirk-
wall, and in consequence of its popularity they
designed one of larger dimensions *n 1812
which occupied five years and cost £10,000
in its construction and perfecting. For nearly
a quarter of a century after its completion in
1817, an exhibition of its mechanical powers
was daily given. The performance of the
overture to ' Oberon ' has been especially re-
corded as a notable triumph of mechanical
skill and ingenuity, every note of the score
being rendered as accurately as though exe-
cuted by a fine orchestra. Flight also per-
fected and gave practical form to the invention
of an improved form of bellows by which a
supply of steady wind is maintained.98 The
partnership was dissolved in 1 832, after which
Robson's share of the business was bought by
Gray and Davison, whilst Flight in conjunc-
tion with his son J. Flight, who had long
actively assisted him, carried on business in
St. Martin's Lane as Flight and Son. Ben-
jamin Flight died in 1847, Robson in 1876,
and J. Flight in 1890 at Strathblaine Road,
Clapham Junction.
The firm of Bevington and Sons was
founded about the beginning of the igth
century by Henry Bevington, who was ap-
prenticed to Ohrmann and Nutt, successors to
the famous Snetzler. The present members
of the firm are Henry and Martin Bevington,
sons of the founder, who are in business in
Rose Street, Soho. The organs of St. Martin's
in the Fields, the Foundling Hospital, and
St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, were built
by this firm. The firm of Bryceson Brothers
was founded in 1796 by Henry Bryceson, and
carries on business at St. Thomas's Hall, High-
bury. The principal organs which they have
built are those for the great Concert Hall,
Brighton ; the Pro-Cathedral, Kensington ;
St. Michael's Cornhill ; and St. Peter and
St. Paul, Cork. Many equally famous builders
had their works within the City of London.
Such were, among early makers, the Dallams
and the Jordans ; the last-named were the
inventors of the Swell Organ, which they
first introduced in 1712 in the famous organ
of St. Magnus London Bridge.
COACH-MAKING
The earliest coaches were of necessity heavy
and clumsy in their design, as the terrible con-
dition of even the most frequented highways
of the City prohibited the use of lighter vehicles.
For this reason the Thames was for many
centuries London's great highway, and the
waterman down to the beginning of the
91 Hopkins and Rimbault, The Organ, 155.
Grove, Diet, of Music (ed. i), iv, 376.
93 Who's Who in Business, 1906.
M Hopkins and Rimbault, op. cit. 156.
century was the serious competitor of the coach
and fly-man. The London coach-building
trade took up its quarters from an early
period principally in the western part of the
City. When once introduced the trade grew
apace, as it soon became the correct thing for
people of fashion to have their own coach.
The art of coach-building gave great scope
"This invention is ascribed to Cummins, whose
name appears as residing at Pentonville, in the
Musical Dir. (1794).
193
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
for talent, ingenuity, and taste in devising
a safe, comfortable, shapely, and artistically
decorated conveyance. For the decoration of
the panels the services of artists of the highest
rank were engaged. Smirke, the Royal
Academician, served his time to Bromley the
heraldic carriage painter of Lincoln's Inn
Fields. Monamy, the marine painter of the
latter part of the i8th century, painted the
carriage of the ill-fated Admiral Byng ; and
Charles Cotton, R.A., decorated coaches with
armorial bearings.1
Hackney coaches came into use in 1605.
At first they stood about in the yards of the
principal inns, but in 1634 Captain Bailey 3
f created according to his ability some four
hackney coaches, put his men in livery and
appointed them to stand at the " Maypole " in
the Strand,' where St. Mary's Church now is.
A patent (No. 3) was granted to Edward
Knapp on 7 January 1625 'for hanging the
bodies of carriages by springs of steel ; '
another patent (No. 244) was taken out by
John Bellingham on 7 January 1685 'for
making square window glasses for chaises
and coaches.' On 13 May 1740 John Tull
was granted a patent (No. 570) for a sedan-
chair fixed on a wheel carriage for horse
draught. Many years earlier (in 1691) John
Green obtained a patent for coach springs,
but these did not come into general use until
the latter half of the i8th century.
William Felton,coach-maker, of 36, Leather
Lane, Holborn, in his Treatise on Carriages,
published in 1794, says ' the principal improve-
ments that have been made in carriages for
these last twenty years are originally the
invention of Mr. John Hatchett of Long Acre,
whose taste in building has greatly contributed
to the increase of their numbers, and enhance-
ment of their value. To him every coach
maker is highly indebted, as at present they
seldom build without copying his designs.'
The famous state-coach of the Irish Lord
Chancellor was built in 1790 either by this
firm or by that of Baxter.3
In 1769 T. Hunt received sixty guineas
from the Society of Arts for improvements in
tyring wheels. The well-known firm of
Barker & Co. possesses drawings of coaches built
for the Duke of Bedford and others between
1780 and 1800. At a later time their cus-
tomers included Count D'Orsay, Lord
1 J. H. Pollen, Anct. and Modern furniture In the
S. Kens. Mus. (1874), Introd.
' From a letter written by Lord Strafford in 1 634.
Quoted by Sir W. Gilbey, Early Carriages, 27.
1 G. A. Thrupp, Hist, of the Art of Coach-Building
(1876), 89.
Chesterfield, and Charles Dickens. The most
famous coach-builders in London in 1 8 1 5 were
Rowley, Mansell, and Cook, a large firm in
Liquorpond Street, Windus in Bishopsgate
Street, Barker in Chandos Street, Hatchett of
Long Acre, Houlditch and Hawkins, and Luke
Hopkinson of Holborn.
Great improvements in the manufacture of
English carriages were made in 1820 by
Samuel Hobson. He reduced the height of
the wheels, lengthened the coach body and
hung it lower, substituting a double step to the
door instead of a three-step ladder. Hobson
traded in the firm of Barker and Co. of Chan-
dos Street and later rose to be a partner.
About the year 1815 he set up for himself in
Long Acre, and removed later to the large
premises previously occupied by Messrs.
Hatchett. In his improvements he was assisted
by his experience gained at Messrs. Barker's, and
his methods were copied in turn by the prin-
cipal members of the trade, in the same way
that he had copied his predecessor, Mr. Hat-
chett, in 1780.
James Bennett, of Finsbury, was the in-
ventor of a two-wheeled carriage called the
Dennett, which was a great improvement on
the whisky or gig of 1790. — Tilbury, the
originator of an easy vehicle known by that
name, was also the builder of the ' Stan-
hope,' under the superintendence of the Hon.
Fitzroy Stanhope, brother of Lord Peter-
sham.
The dog-cart dates from the beginning of
the igth century, one variety being known as
the Whitechapel. This became the favourite
vehicle of the commercial travellers, to whom
about 1830 one coach factory in London
supplied ^several hundreds of these vehicles at
an annual rental. The introduction of rail-
ways gave the commercial traveller a more
expeditious method of showing his samples,
and the chief users of the dog-cart have since
been the tradesman and the farmer.
David Davies, of Albany Street, and after-
wards of Wigmore Street, was a coach-builder
of considerable inventive faculties. Among
many other of his inventions was the Pilen-
tum phaeton, which he designed about the
year 1834. The Pilentum was an open car-
riage with the doorway very near the ground,
built of different sizes, to carry four or six
persons, and adapted for one or two horses.
He is also the reputed inventor of the cab
phaeton, which was soon generally adopted as
a popular pleasure carriage. This became a
fashionable conveyance not only in England,
but also on the Continent, until 1850, about
which time it came into use as a hackney car-
riage, and so lost favour with the gentry. It
194
INDUSTRIES
has since come once more into fashion under
the name of the victoria.
Another old firm of coach-builders is that of
Messrs. Peters, of George Street, Portman
Square, whose mail phaetons were noted as long
ago as 1 836 for their steadiness on rough roads.
The year 1838 marks an important epoch
in the annals of coach-building, the corona-
tion of Queen Victoria having occasioned a
larger number of court-dress carriages than
had ever previously been seen in London.
About this time Luke Hopkinson, a cele-
brated coach-maker in Holborn, introduced the
briska landau, which led with subsequent im-
provements to the popular landau of the present
day.4
— Robinson, of Mount Street, built the
first vehicle in the shape of the present
brougham in 1839. This was made for Lord
Brougham, from whom it took its name ;
other makers soon followed, and the brougham
quickly came into general use.
The first omnibus was started in London
on 4 July 1829 by John Shillibeer, who had
been for a short time a coach-maker in Paris.
The omnibuses were drawn by three horses,
and ran at a fare of is. from the ' Yorkshire
Stingo,' in the Marylebone Road, near the
bottom of Lisson Grove, to the Bank. The
London General Omnibus Company was
founded in 1856. Mr. Shanks, of Great
Queen Street, was a very famous builder of
four-in-hand coaches and sporting vehicles.
The business was wound up within the last
few years after the death of the proprietor.
Other firms of note in Middlesex are Foun-
tain of Enfield, Carpenter and Co., Staines,
and Wilkinson, of Uxbridge. Within the
metropolitan area are Cook and Holdway, of
Halkin Place ; Corben and Sons, Great Queen
Street ; Laurie and Marner, Ltd., Oxford
Street ; Holland, Oxford Street ; Gill, Chil-
worth Street, Hyde Park ; C. S. Windover
and Co., Ltd., Long Acre ; and Thomas
Worges and Co., Palace Street, S.W.
The motor-car industry, of which this
country has now secured a share, has some
representative firms in Middlesex. The
Napier Company have works at Acton, where
the Napier cars, for which S. F. Edge, Ltd.,
are agents, are made. Clement Talbot, Ltd.,
of Ladbroke Grove, are also manufacturers.
The chief Middlesex makers of motor bodies
are Barker and Co., Ltd., Chandos Street ;
Mulliners Ltd., Long Acre ; Cole and Son,
Kensington High Street and Hammersmith ;
and H. S. Mulliner, Brook Street and Bedford
Park.6
PAPER
The earliest attempt at paper-making in
England was made by John Tate, the younger,
mayor of London in 1496, who erected a
paper mill in the neighbouring county of
Hertford. This mill furnished the paper for a
book entitled Bartholomaeus Anghcui de proprie-
tatibus rerum, printed by Wynkyn de Worde
in 1495 (?), as we learn from the eighth verse
of the ' Prohemium ' : —
And John Tate the yonger loye mote he broke
Whiche late hath in Englande doo make this paper
thynne
That now in our Englyssh this boke is prynted
Inne.
Many subsequent attempts were, however,
made before the art was successfully estab-
lished in this country. Between 1574 and
1576 another eminent London citizen, Sir
Thomas Gresham, set up a paper mill on his
' Mr. George N. Hooper, to whom I am
indebted for much information, is of opinion that
landaus were introduced into England by Charles
Lucas Birch of Great Queen Street, Long Acre, or
by William Birch.
estate at Osterley Park, Middlesex. This
mill formed the subject of an Exchequer in-
quiry to determine whether it had encroached
on the queen's highway or injured the queen's
mills.1 This inquiry took place in 1584, and
from the evidence of the witnesses examined it
appears that Gresham's mill stood on the river
Brent, ' nere CruxewelPs forde,' that it was
erected about thirteen years previously, and
that it was a corn-mill when first erected.
Not long before his death in 1579 Gresham
' ioyned a paper myll thervnto and yet vsed
the same myll a corne myll still, and all vnder
one roufe and dryven by one streame.'2
Norden, writing in 1593, fourteen years after
Gresham's death, states that his mills .(for
paper, oil, and corn), were then ' decaied, a
corne mill excepted.' * Had his life been
spared there is little doubt that the great com-
6 The writer has to acknowledge information
kindly supplied by Mr. C. Cooper, jun., editor of
the Coach Builder? Art Journ.
1 Exch. Dep. by Com. Hil. 26 Eliz. no. 6.
1 Ibid. Trin. 2.
* Speculum Brit. (1723), 37.
'95
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
mercial genius of Sir Thomas Gresham would
have made out of this beginning a flourishing
industry for our country.
Richard Tottel, or Tottyll, a printer in the
City of London, appears next as a paper
manufacturer. In a petition addressed in
1 585 (?) to Lord Burghley he says that twelve
years before he, with some partners, agreed
to set up a paper mill, but his companions left
the undertaking, on the ground that the
project had twice or thrice been attempted
Viefore, but without success. He was re-
solved to persevere and complained of the
hindrance of Frenchmen, ' who buy up all
our rags.' He prays that the exportation
of rags from this country may be prohibited,
and that a site for a paper mill may be granted
him with sole privilege for thirty years of
making paper in England.4 Tottel seems to
have had no better success than his predeces-
sors. A German named Spilman, or Spiel-
man, who erected a paper mill at Dartford in
1588, was more successful, and is said to
have been knighted by Queen Elizabeth in
recognition of this national service.6 A re-
currence of the plague in 1636-7 led to a
correspondence between Peter Hey wood, a
Westminster justice of the peace, and Lord
Keeper Coventry. Heywood urged the
necessity of seizing the rags sold at rag shops
in Clerkenwell, St. Giles's Cripplegate,
Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Stepney, and St.
Katharine's, to prevent their being sold to
make paper.6 One of the offending paper
makers was William Bushee, who had set up
a mill in Middlesex midway between Houns-
low and East Bedfont. On 8 December
1636 he was summoned to the Middlesex
Sessions ' for grindinge ragges in his paper-
mill that came from London, whereby one of
his servantes became infected with the
plague.' 1 The popular alarm seems to have
stopped the mills from working, and the privy
council ordered the local authorities to give
help to the workpeople thrown out of their
employment. This produced an indignant
petition from the inhabitants of Middlesex
and Bucks who lived in the neighbourhood of
the mills. The correspondence provides us
with some useful facts. There were at least
four paper mills in this district : that of
William Bushee, one of Edmond Phipps at
Horton, one probably belonging to Richard
West at Poyle, and the mill at Colnbrook,
4 S.P. Dom. Eliz. clxxxv, 69.
4 Lewis Evans, Anct. Papcrmaking (1896), 6.
• S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxnci, 31.
J MM. Sen. Rott (Midd. Co. Rec. Soc.), iii,
167.
which may have been held by Henry Harris.
The petitioners complained that the landlords
by converting their corn mills into paper mills
advanced their rents from £10 and £15 to
£100 and ^150 per annum, that the paper-
makers brought many indigent persons into
their parishes whom they ought to maintain,
and their workmen had double wages in com-
parison with other labourers and might well
save, that the paper made was so ' unuseful '
that it would bear no ink on one side, and
was sold at dearer rates than formerly. For
these and other reasons the petitioners, so far
from consenting to the paper-makers, desire if
possible that their mills may be suppressed or
removed further off.8
In spite of these and other attempts in
various parts of the country to manufacture
paper, the greater part of the paper used
in England, and certainly that of finer quality,
was imported from abroad. In 1675 a
patent9 was granted to Eustace Burneby
for ' making all sorts of white paper for the
use of writing and printing, being a new
manufacture never practised in any our
kingdomes or dominions.' Burneby must
have had some success, for three years later a
book was presented to the king,10 'being
printed upon English paper and made within
five miles of Windsor by Eustace Burneby,
esq. who was the first Englishman that
brought it into England, attested by Henry
Million, who was overseer in the making of
this royal manufacture.' Burneby's mill is
said to have been at Stanwell, Middlesex, but
its success was short-lived.
The Craftsman (No. 910) records that
William III granted certain Huguenot refu-
gees, Biscoe and others, a patent for establish-
ing paper manufactories, but that the under-
taking was not successful. In 1713 Thomas
Watkin, a stationer in London, brought the
art of manufacturing paper to great perfection,
in consequence of which numerous paper
mills were established in England.11
On 17 September 1787 Samuel Hooper, a
bookseller and stationer of St. Giles-in-the-
Fields, patented ls ' a new method of making
or manufacturing printing paper particularly
for copper-plate printing.' Hooper is said
also to have produced, in 1790, paper of
various qualities from leather cuttings and
* Rhys Jenkins, ' Paper-making in England,
1588-1680' in Lib. Asioc. Rec. Nov. 1900, p. 584.
' 21 Jan. 1675, no. 178.
10 Paper and Paper-making Chronology (1875), 2 1.
11 Matthias Koops, Historical Account of Sub-
itances used to describe Events and to convey Ideas
(1801), 225-6.
"No. 1622.
196
INDUSTRIES
refuse paper.13 Other inventions for bleach-
ing rags for paper were registered by Hector
Campbell on 28 November 1792 (No. 1,922)
and by John Bigg on 28 February 1795
(No. 2,040).
In 1804 Henry and Sealy Fourdrinier,
stationers and paper manufacturers of London,
erected their first paper-making machine at
Boxmoor, Herts. This, with many improve-
ments by subsequent inventors, continued to
be for many years the principal type of paper-
making machinery. The excise returns for
1 835 M show that seventy London manufac-
turers of stained paper paid a total duty of
£35,012 9*. 7^., while the total for all
England was £49,746 8f.
Wall Papers. — The manufacture of paper
hangings in England is said to have begun
about 1746, when it was started by Potter
of Manchester. Paper-staining as an in-
dustry has long been carried on in Old
Ford. About the beginning of the igth cen-
tury the founders of the firm of John Allan
& Son came up from their native county of
Elgin in Scotland and settled in the East
of London. Here they created a large busi-
ness which in 1876 employed 150 hands
and produced wall paper of every kind, suit-
able for the cottage, the mansion, or the
palace.14 There is no industry in which the
influence of the artistic revival in England has
been more apparent than in this manufacture.
Among the firms who have taken a prominent
part in the production of paper hangings of
good quality are those of Jeffrey & Co.,
Morris & Co., and Crace. There are more
than twenty other trades connected with the
paper industry. Among the more important
paper-makers in Middlesex at the present day
are the Colnbrook Paper Mills, Ltd., Poyle
Mill, Colnbrook ; Isaac Warwick & Co.,
Wraysbury Mill, near Staines ; the Patent
Impermeable Millboard Co., Ltd., Sunbury
Common ; and the West Drayton Millboard
Co., Ltd.
PRINTING
The City of Westminster enjoys the honour
of being the place where a printing press was
first set up in this country.
Of William Caxton it is unnecessary to
speak at length. Sprung from an old Kentish
family, he was born, probably in London,
about the year 1422, and was afterwards ap-
prenticed to Robert Large, an eminent mem-
ber of the Mercers' Company, and Lord
Mayor. On the expiration of his indentures,
in 1446, he went to Bruges, where he
engaged in business and became the Governor
of the Company of Merchant Adventurers.
In March 1468-9 he began an English trans-
lation, ' as a preventive against idlenes ' (he
tells us) of the Recuyell of the Historyes of
Troye, which he continued at Ghent, and
finished at Cologne, in 147 1. The book being
in great demand Caxton set himself to learn
the newly-discovered art of printing in order
to multiply copies. The Recuyell probably
appeared in 1474, and was the first book
printed in English. Caxton learnt the art of
printing from Colard Mansion, who set up a
press at Bruges about 1473. He 'e^ Bruges
in 1476 and returned to England.
Caxton's claim to be the first English
printer has been opposed by some older writers,
who considered that Oxford was the first seat
of printing in England. It is now generally
agreed that Oxford's claim to have had a press
in 1468 cannot be sustained, and rests only on
a typographical blunder in the printing of a
date. Caxton's first printed works were
small treatises and short poems by Lydgate and
Chaucer ; many of these are probably lost ;
his first dated book is The Dictes and Sayinges
of the Philosophers, printed in 1477. The
chief work from his press was The Golden
Legend, a large folio volume illustrated with
rude woodcuts, and containing the lives of the
English saints. His press was set up in the
Almonry at Westminster, where the Guards'
Memorial now stands.
Caxton remained a parishioner of St. Mar-
garet's until his death in 1491. The parish
accounts for 1490-2 state that 6;. 8d. was
paid for four torches ' atte burreying of Wyl-
liam Caxton,' and ' 6d. for the belle atte same
burreying.' A memorial tablet was erected
to his memory in 1820 by the Roxburghe
Club, and in 1883 a stained glass window was
also set up in his honour by the London
printers and publishers. Caxton's life was a
busy one. To his work as a translator we
are indebted for twenty-one books from the
French and one from the Dutch ; besides
11 J. Munsell, Chronology (1870), 43.
14 Excise Commiiiitmers' Rep. xiv, 44-5.
" Crory, East Lund. Industries, 1 7.
197
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
which he printed nearly eighty books, some
of which passed through more than one large
edition. William Blades his biographer sums
up his character as that of a pious, diligent,
and educated man, who without aiming very
high led the life of an honest and useful
merchant.
Caxton's successor was Wynkyn de Worde,
who came to England with him, as a youth,
and continued as his workman and chief
assistant. He remained at Westminster after
his master's death and finished the Canterbury
Tales and Hilton's Seale of Perfection, which
had been begun by Caxton. In 1496 he
removed to the sign of the ' Sun ' in Fleet
Street, and printed as many as 488 books
between 1493 and 1534. He was, like
Caxton, a man of learning, and introduced
many improvements in the art of printing as
practised in England. He founded his own
types, which were of beautiful design, and his
books are noted for the excellence of their
press-work. He was the first printer who
introduced the Roman letter into England,
and made use of it to distinguish anything
remarkable.
Richard Pynson, like Wynkyn de Worde,
was a workman or ' servant ' of Caxton, and
afterwards set up a press of his own at Temple
Bar. He was King's Printer to Henry VIII,
from whom he received a grant of ^4 annu-
ally during life. In this grant, which is dated
27 September 1515, he is styled 'Richard
Pynson, Esquire, our Printer.' Pynson used
this title of ' Esquire ' in the colophon of his
Statuta, etc. His known productions number
210, and his types are clear and good; but
his press work is hardly equal to that of De
Worde. His first dated book was Diues and
Pauper, printed in 1493, and he continued to
print until 1529 or 1531. In his later books
he describes himself as living at the sign of
the ' George,' in Fleet Street, beside the
church.
One other early printer contributes to the
fame of Westminster as the cradle of the
English press. Julian Notary is believed by
Ames to have printed in France before he
came to this country. His name is associated
with that of John Barbier as printer of the
Salisbury Missal which Ames believed to have
been printed on the Continent. His first
residence in England, as stated on the colo-
phons of his earliest books, was in King Street,
Westminster, but about 1503 he removed to
a house with the sign of the ' Three Kings,' in
the parish of St. Clement Danes, without
Temple Bar. In 1 5 1 5 the colophon to The
Cronycle of England shows that he had re-
moved to a house with the same sign in
St. Paul's Churchyard, at the west door of the
Cathedral, by the Bishop of London's Palace.
He is known to have printed twenty-three books,
the earliest of which is dated 20 December
1498, and thelatest 1520. Notary used two de-
vices, which also appear upon his bindings, and
will be described in the following section of
this article.
London printing soon left its first home.
Caxton's successors migrated to Fleet Street,
and the entire body of printers with hardly an
exception set up their presses within the City,
where the trade remained almost exclusively
for over two centuries. Professor Arber's list
of London printers for the year 1556 reveals
the curious fact that of the 32 booksellers and
printers then living in London no less than
15 lived in St. Paul's Churchyard, 5 others in
close proximity, 8 in Fleet Street, 2 in Lom-
bard Street, i in Aldersgate, and another in a
locality unknown.
As a result of an examination of London
printed books from the time of Caxton to the
year 1556 it appears probable that only three
presses existed during that period outside the
City of London besides those of Caxton and
his immediate successors.1 The three printers
were William Follingham or Follington, who
printed for Richard Banks in 1544 at Holy
Well in Shoreditch ; Hill, who printed be-
tween 1548 and 1553 at St. John's Street,
Clerkenwell ; and Robert Wyer, 1527-50,
whose press was ' in the byshop of Norwytche
rentes, besyde charyng crosse.'
Wyer was one of the most prolific of the
English printers of the 1 6th century. Many
of his books are without date, and of a fugi-
tive and popular character. His printing for
the most part is exceedingly poor, but some
of his books in 'foreign secretary Gothic' and
' large lower case Gothic ' types are very well
executed.
The printing trade was kept under strict
control by the state, a control exercised chiefly
through the Archbishop of Canterbury and
the Stationers' Company. This company
made an order on 9 May 1615 limiting the
number of presses in the City of London to
nineteen. Similar, but for the most part inef-
fectual, attempts were made from time to time
to stop the natural growth of the art of printing.
In a list of printers in England who in 1649--
50 entered into recognizances not to print sedi-
tious books, among sixty-seven names, only one
Middlesex printer is found — William Bentley
of Finsbury.5 In 1666, the year of the Great
1 C. Welch, Literary Associations of St. Paul's
(1891), 77 etseq.
' Bibliografhica, ii, 225.
198
INDUSTRIES
Fire, the entire number of working printers
in and about London was stated to be 140,
but how many of them were working outside
the City does not appear.3 From another list
in 1724 we have a more complete view of
the printing trade of the metropolis.4 The
list was prepared by Samuel Negus, a printer,
who distinguished printers according to their
religious and political principles. The num-
ber of printers is 75, of whom 15 have ad-
dresses outside the City. Of these 6 lived in
St. John's Lane, 2 in Goswell Street, 2 in or
near the Savoy, 2 in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and
the 3 others in Covent Garden, Bloomsbury,
and Without Temple Bar.
The only printer of note in Negus's list
living outside the City is Woodfall, ' Without
Temple Bar.' An anonymous contributor to
Notes and Queries 5 gives some valuable notes
drawn from the ledgers of Henry Woodfall
between the years 1734 and 1737. On
15 December 1735 he charged Bernard
Lintot as follows : —
£ '• </•
Printing the first volume of
Mr. Pope's Works, Cr. Long
Primer, 8vo, 3000 (and 75
fine), @ £2 2s. per sheet, 14
sheets and a half . . . . 30 09 o
Title in red and black ... I I o
Paid for 2 reams and J of writing
demy 2163
He also printed Pope's Iliad for Henry
Lintot in 1736 at a cost of ,£143 17*., de-
scribed as 'demy, Long Primer and Brevier,
No. 2000 in 6 vols. 68 sheets & £ @ £2 2s.
per sheet.' Woodfall's customers included
also Robert Dodsley, Lawton Gilliver, and
Andrew Millar. For the latter he printed
Thomson's poems ; 250 8vo. copies of Spring,
in October 1734, and in the following
January the 1st part of Liberty in a cr. 8vo.
edition of 3,000 and 250 ' fine copies.' The
Seasons was issued on 9 June 1744 in octavo.
There were 1,500 errata in the work, and a
special charge of £2 41. was made for ' divers
and repeated alterations.'
In 1731 Edward Cave, who had followed
many employments, purchased a small printing-
office at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell. Here
he printed and published the Gentleman1!
Magazine, the first number of which appeared
in January 1730-1.
* The case and proposals of the free Journeymen
Printers in and about London.
* A compleat and private Kit of all the Printing-
houses in and about the Cities of London and West-
minster, 1724, printed by William Bowyer.
6 First series, xi, 377, 418.
One of the most useful enterprises of the
brilliant Horace Walpole was the private
printing-press which he set up on 4 August
1757 at Strawberry Hill, his villa at Twicken-
ham. In his letter of this date to Sir Horace
Mann he says, ' I am turned printer, and have
converted a little cottage into a printing office.'
He began with two Odes of Gray, printed by
William Robinson, who did not remain long
in his employment. His next work was Paul
Hentzner's interesting Journey into England,
a small edition of 220 copies. In April 1758
appeared the two volumes of his Catalogue o
Royal and Noble Authors, of which a second
edition, not printed at Strawberry Hill, was
called for before the end of the year. Writing
in 1760 he says, ' I have been plagued with a
succession of bad printers ; ' this hindered the
production of his edition of Lucan. It was
published in January 1761, and in the follow-
ing year appeared the first and second volumes
of Anecdotes of Painting in England, with plates
and portraits, and the imprint ' Printed by
Thomas Farmer at Strawberry Hill, MDCCLXII.'
Then another difficulty arose with the printers,
and the third volume, published in 1763, had
no printer's name in the imprint. The fourth
volume, not issued till 1780, bears the name
of Thomas Kirgate, who seems to have been
taken on in 1772, and held his post until
Walpole's death. Between 1764 and 1768
the Strawberry Press was idle, but in the latter
year Walpole printed 200 copies of a French
play entitled Cornelie Restate Tragedie, and
from that time to 1789 he continued to
print at intervals, his chief productions being
Memoires du Comte de Grammont, 1772, of
which only 100 copies were printed, twenty-
five of which went to Paris ; The Sleep Walker,
a comedy in two acts, 1778 ; A Description
of the villa of Mr. Horace Walpole, 1784, of
which 200 copies were printed ; and Hiero-
glyphic Tales, 1785.
A private printing office was carried on by
the notorious John Wilkes at his house in
Great George Street, Westminster,6 where he
produced two works in 1763 and a few copies
of the third volume of the North Briton. He
is said to have employed Thomas Farmer, who
had also assisted Horace Walpole at Straw-
berry Hill.7
One of the few firms of renown in later
times outside the City of London is that
of Gilbert & Rivington. John Rivington,
fourth son of John Rivington the publisher,
and descendant of Charles Rivington of the
6 C. H. Timperley, Ency. of Lit. and Typog.
Anecdote, 710-11.
' H.R. Flomer, SAort Hist, of Engl. Printing,z%o.
199
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
"Bible and Crown," Paternoster Row, suc-
ceeded to the business of James Emonson,
printer, in St. John's Square, Clerkenwell.
Rivington died in 1785, and his widow then
continued the business, taking John Marshall
into partnership in 1786. The firm became
noted for their fine series of the classical
authors. After many changes the business
passed into the hands of Richard Gilbert, who
in 1 830 entered into partnership with William
Rivington, great-grandson of the first Charles
Rivington ; the firm then became and has
since continued to be known as Gilbert &
Rivington.8 The business has since 1881
been converted into a limited liability com-
pany, and the firm has a high reputation for
its oriental printing.83
The well-known firm of Nichols, of Parlia-
ment Street, Westminster, was founded and
long continued in the City of London, and
does not come under notice here. The old
firm of Charles Whittingham & Co., though
on the borders of our county, also properly
belongs to London, having started in Fetter
Lane, and being now established in Took's
Court, Chancery Lane.
The story of the Kelmscott Press is a
fascinating page in the annals of igth-century
printing. In May 1891 Mr. William Morris
the poet set up a private press in the Upper
Mall, Hammersmith, where he printed a small
quarto book entitled The Story of the Glittering
Plain. This was soon followed by a three-
volume reprint of Caxton's Golden Legend,
illustrated with splendid woodcuts from the
designs of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. Together
with those completed by his executors after
his death, Morris printed in all fifty-three
books in sixty-five volumes, including the
magnificent Chaucer. By his tasteful com-
bination of artistic borders, initials, and illus-
trations, with beautiful paper, Morris showed
the world how the book as a whole might be
made a thing of beauty, and his influence
upon book-production will certainly be long-
lived.
The local presses of Middlesex 9 are not
important and cannot be treated of at length.
At RatclifF, John Storye 10 printed in (?) 1585
A breviat or table for the better observance of
fish days. William Bentley printed Bibles at
8 E. C. Bigmore and Chas. W. H. Wyman, Bib-
liography of Printing, ii, 263.
** The firm is now amalgamated with that of
Wm. Clowes & Sons, Ltd.
' See W. H. Alnutt, ' English Provincial Presses,'
Bibliographlca, ii, 23, 150, 276.
10 Col. S.P. Dam. 1581-90, p. 299.
Finsbury in 1646, 1648, 1651, and later.
Thomas Newcomb printed the London Gazette
in the Savoy from 1665 to 1668. In other
places in Middlesex the earliest known pro-
ducts of the press date from the 1 8th century.
A few instances may suffice. Thomas Davis
printed in Whitechapel in 1706. White-
head's Satires were printed at Islington, ' near
the Three Pumps,' in 1748. T. Lake was a
printer at Uxbridge in 1774. Printing was
carried on at Chelsea in 1772."
Type Founding. — Closely allied to the art
of printing is that of type-founding. Modern
type-founding was first successfully estab-
lished in England at Caslon's foundry in
Chiswell Street, close upon the City's border.
Caxton seems to have imported from abroad
some at least of the type which he used in
printing. His immediate successors, Wynkyn
de Worde and Pynson, may have used their
own types, and Pynson is thought to have
supplied other printers with type, but of this
there is no direct evidence.12 John Day in
1567 cast the type for the works published by
Archbishop Parker in Anglo-Saxon. After
this date type-founding languished here for
nearly two centuries. English type had a
poor repute, and the best continued to be im-
ported from Holland. In 1637, by a decree
of the Star Chamber, type-foundries in Eng-
land were limited to four, each of which was
allowed tt> have two apprentices and no more.
William Caslon, founder of the existing letter-
foundry in Chiswell Street, was born in 1692.
He first turned his attention to type-founding
in 1 740, when he was engaged by the Chris-
tian Knowledge Society to make the punches j
for a fount of Arabic type for printing the
Psalms and New Testament in that language.
This decided him to follow type-founding as
a distinct trade, and he established his foundry
in Chiswell Street, his first punches being cut
with his own hands. This foundry became
the parent house of type-founding in England,
and the excellence of Caslon's workmanship
soon drove Dutch types from the English
market. William Caslon died in 1766, and
the firm was then continued by William his
son, who died in 1778, Elizabeth Caslon,
who died in 1809, and Henry William Cas-
lon, who died in i874.13 The business is now
conducted by a limited company under the
style of H. W. Caslon & Co. Limited.
11 Rev. Hen. Cotton, Typog, Gaz. 43, 318.
11 William Blades, Life of Caxton (1882), 104.
11 Caslon's Quarterly Circular, July 1877.
200
INDUSTRIES
BOOKBINDING
The art of binding flourished in England
from a very early period, and in the I2th
century J English binders were in advance
of all foreign workers in this craft. Several
distinct schools of binding of this period may
be traced, by the beautiful examples of their
work which have survived, to certain impor-
tant towns and religious houses ; of chief
interest among these were the schools of
London, Durham, and Winchester. The
decoration of the book covers consisted of very
small stamps, delicately cut and arranged in
formal patterns of infinite variety. The
design frequently consists of a parallelogram,
the lines of which are formed by dies, the
centre being rilled with circles and segments
of circles, these being characteristic of English
work. The 131)1 and I4th centuries do not
mark any distinct progress in English binding,
and very few examples of that period have
survived, but the excessive use of dies appears
to have decreased.
There is an early example of the panel
stamp on a loose binding in the library of
Westminster Abbey. The covers are tooled
at their edges with small tools, and in the
centre is a twice-repeated stamp with the arms
presumably of Edward IV.2
With the invention of printing, binding be-
came much more in request. The binding
of the earliest English printed books differed
in a very marked way from that of the manu-
scripts which they gradually superseded. The
latter had reached a point of great excellence
in 1476-7, when Caxton produced his first
book printed at Westminster, and their bind-
ings were correspondingly rich, ornamented
with enamels, carved ivory, and other materials
of the most costly kind. But printed books
had at first a very sober covering of plain
leather, calf or deerskin, and sometimes of
parchment. The covers were wooden boards
and the backs were of leather, which was also
drawn wholly or partly over the wooden
covers, the latter being usually fitted with
clasps. A short title is often found written
on the fore-edge, the book being placed on the
shelf with the fore-edge displayed to view.
The bindings of books printed by Caxton, and
perhaps bound in his workshop, have a simple
1 W. H. J. Weale, ' Lectures on Engl. Book-
binding in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry
VIII,' Journ. Soc. of Arts, 26 Feb. 1889.
* Sarah T. Prideaux, Hut. Sketch of Bookbinding
(1893), 16.
decoration composed of straight lines variously
arranged, and sometimes inclosing impressions
of small stamps made up into a simple pattern.
Caxton 's successors produced a more ambitious
style of decoration by the use of large heraldic
stamps.
After his death in 1491 these stamps were
used by Wynkyn de Worde until the begin-
ning of the 1 6th century ; some of them were
used even later by the stationer Henry Jacobi.
Wynkyn de Worde also used a small stamp of
the Royal Arms. This style was distinctly
English, for though heraldic decoration was
employed by contemporary foreign binders,
the designs were produced in quite a different
way, either in cut or tooled leather. Where
the printer was his own binder his device or
initials are often found on the binding as well
as on the printed page of the book.
The Royal coat-of-arms used by the early
London printers for their bindings was the
same during the reigns of Henry VII and
Henry VIII, except for a difference in the
supporters. The dragon and greyhound borne
by both sovereigns were changed in 1528 by
Henry VIII, who adopted the lion for his
dexter and the dragon for his sinister sup-
porter, leaving out the greyhound. The
Tudor rose which so frequently occurs on
these early bindings was the proudest emblem
of the House of Tudor, and used by all its
sovereigns. It was adopted by Henry VII
on his marriage with Elizabeth of York, and
consisted of a double rose with petals of red
and white, signifying the union of the houses
of York and Lancaster, whose conflicts had
desolated England for so many years. Asso-
ciated with the Royal coat-of-arms the cross
of St. George and the arms of the City of
London are frequently found upon the same
stamp. The City arms indicates that the
binder was a citizen, and when this was not
the case the citizen shield was replaced by
some other device. The panel of the Royal
arms was used by many English binders who
are only known by their initials ; a certain
' G. G.' discarded the more usual supporters
and replaced them by two angels.
Wynkyn de Worde employed latterly bind-
ers from the Low Countries resident in
England ; among them was J. Gaver, who
was one of the executors to his will, and was
probably connected with the large family of
Gavere, binders in the Low Countries.
Most of the early printers bound their own
books. Richard Pynson, Caxton's pupil, pro-
201
26
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
duced some highly decorated designs. The
British Museum possesses a little volume of
Abridgements of the Statutes printed and bound
by him in 1499.' The book is bound in
wooden boards covered with sheepskin, and
shows indications of having been fitted with
two clasps of leather. The cover is decorated
on the obverse with the monogram R.P. on a
shield, supported by two figures and sur-
mounted by a helmet with mantling bearing
a fillet and crest of a bird ; in the sky are
nine stars, and below the shield are a flower
and leaf. Surrounding this central design is
a handsome floral border, having in each of the
two upper corners a bird, and between them
a man shooting, probably with a cross-bow.
At the base are a figure of the Madonna, and
another of a female saint, each crowned and
having an aureole, and near the lower right-
hand corner is the bust of a king crowned and
bearing a sceptre. On the reverse is a similar
plan of decoration, the central panel in this
case having in the centre a double rose, sur-
rounded by a decorative arrangement of vine
leaves, grapes, and tendrils. The border is a
graceful pattern of flowers and leaves, and has
an arabesque at each corner.
Another early printer and binder was Julian
Notary, who worked first at Westminster, and
afterwards in the City between theyearsi498
and 1520. Many books bound by Notary
are decorated with two handsome stamps ;
one such volume, not from his own press, but
from that of Jean Petit of Paris, is in the
British Museum. It is a copy of Cicero's
Tusculan Disputations, printed in January
1509, which formerly belonged to Henry
VIII. It is bound in wooden boards, covered
with leather, sewn on leather bands, and has
remains of leather clasps with brass fastenings.
The front cover has the arms of Henry VIII,
the three fleurs de lis of France quartered with
the three lions of England, with the dragon
and greyhound as supporters. In the upper
part the shield of St. George and the arms of
the City of London, with the sun, moon, and
stars ; the lower part is decorated with plants
of elementary design. The back cover has a
similar design with the substitution of a large
Tudor rose inclosed by two ribands borne by
angels for the Royal coat-of-arms. In the
base are the initials I.N. of the binder, and his
curious device with the initials repeated in the
lower part of it. On larger books bound by
Julian Notary both these stamps are sometimes
found on the same cover divided by a long
panel bearing the initials L.R. and R.L. tied
3 C. J. Davenport, ' Early London Bookbinders,'
The Queen, 20 June 1891.
together respectively by a cord, and the Tudor
emblems of the pomegranate, rose, portcullis,
and lion. The portcullis was used to signify
the descent of the Tudors from the House of
Beaufort, and is said to represent the castle of
De Beaufort at Anjou.
Before the time of Elizabeth the only leather
used for binding was brown calf and sheep,
the only other materials with very rare excep-
tions being vellum and velvet. Morocco was
not employed until the reign of Elizabeth or
that of James I.
English bindings of the i6th and lyth
centuries are classified by Miss Prideaux as
follows4: — i. Those in material other than
leather, and often decorated with enamels and
gold and silver piercedand engraved; 2. Stamped
vellum and calf bindings ; 3. The Venetian-
Lyonese work ; 4. Occasional specimens of
French Grolier work, very frequent ones of
the French semis, and some very good imita-
tions of the delicate Le Gascon, done between
1660 and 1720, the most frequently imitated
of all French work ; 5. The cottage orna-
mented bindings, the one distinctively English
style belonging to the 171)1 century.
Although the names of some English bind-
ers are known, it is impossible to connect many
books with their names. Robert Barker
and James Norton were binders to James I,
and Eliot and Chapman bound ' in the
Harleian style ' for Robert Harley, first Earl
of Oxford.8 Other binders of the period
were Thomas Hollis and his successor
Thomas Brand. Among the French emigrant
binders were the Comte de Caumont, Comte
de Clermont de Lodeve, Vicomte Gauthier de
Brecy, and Du Lau, the friend and bookseller
of Chateaubriand.6
The work of Roger Payne in the latter
half of the i8th century marks an era in
English bookbinding, which had since the
beginning of that century fallen to a low ebb.
Payne was born at Windsor in 1739, and
after a short service with Pote, the Eton book-
seller, came to London in 1766, and entered
the employment of Thomas Osborne, the
bookseller, in Gray's Inn. A few years later
he set up in business for himself as a book-
binder, near Leicester Square. Here he was
joined by his brother Thomas, who attended
to the ' forwarding ' part of the business,
whilst Roger devoted himself wholly to the
'finishing.' His great artistic talents placed
him easily at the head of all the binders of
his day, and procured him a number of dis-
tinguished patrons, among whom were Earl
4 Hist. Sketch of Bookbinding, 1 10.
* Prideaux, op. cit. 27. ' Ibid. 128.
202
INDUSTRIES
Spencer, the Duke of Devonshire, Colonel
Stanley, and the Rev. Clayton Mordaunt
Cracherode. The brothers did not long
continue their partnership, and on the depar-
ture of Thomas Payne, Roger took as a
fellow-worker Richard Wier, whose wife was
a clever mender and restorer of old books.
The new partnership had one serious draw-
back, both Payne and Wier being addicted to
strong drink ; this led to frequent quarrels,
and at last to separation. During his associa-
tion with Wier some of Payne's finest bindings
were executed, and they are all characteristi-
cally English. Dibdin 7 gives a sad picture
of the condition to which Payne was brought
by his intemperance. ' His appearance be-
spoke either squalid wretchedness or a foolish
and fierce indifference to the received opinions
of mankind. His hair was unkempt, his
visage elongated, his attire wretched, and the
interior of his workshop — where, like the
Turk, he would " bear no brother near his
throne " — harmonized not too justly with the
general character and appearance of its owner.
With the greatest possible display of humility
in speech and in writing, he united quite the
spirit of quixotic independence.' Payne died
in Duke's Court, St. Martin's Lane, on
20 November 1797, and was buried in the
churchyard of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, at
the expense of his friend Thomas Payne, the
bookseller. To this friend, who was not a
relative, he was indebted for his first start in
business on his own account, and for his
support during the last eight years of his
life.
As an artist in binding Payne certainly
shows signs of the influence of Samuel Mearn,
who was the English court binder towards
the end of the 1 7th century, but his genius
enabled him to originate a style which was
quite his own. The covers of his books
usually bear a simple design, whilst the backs
are elaborately decorated. His bindings also
combine elegance and strength, the sheets of
the books being often sewn with silk, and the
backs lined with leather to give them addi-
tional strength. The centre of his covers is
usually left vacant, but among the specimens
of his work in the Cracherode collection at
the British Museum many examples are found
in which the centre of the board is embel-
lished with the beautiful and delicately-
engraved Cracherode coat-of-arms. The
decoration which he generally employed for
his covers consisted of a rectangular line as a
border ornamented with beautiful and very
' Bibliographical Decameron (1817), ii, 506-18.
delicately stamped corners, and angle-pieces of
decorative work. Occasionally he adds orna-
mental designs which fill or nearly fill the
space between the outer edge of the book and
the inner panel. Payne's decorative devices
are made up chiefly of small stamps, some-
what resembling those of Mearn, interspersed
with minute dots, stars, and circles. The
stamps he most commonly used were crescents,
stars, acorns, running vines, and leaves. To
each of his bindings he attached a bill describ-
ing the design and the ornaments used, written
in a most quaint and precise style. Many of
these bills are still preserved in the volumes
whose bindings they describe. Payne took
considerable care in choosing his leather,
usually selecting russia or straight-grained
morocco of a dark blue, bright red, or olive
colour. The olive morocco which he some-
times used being perhaps the most perfect
binding material that is procurable for receiv-
ing the impression of a gold stamp. Samuel
Mearn and his son Charles, who were binders
to Charles II, lived in Little Britain.8
Exigencies of space will only admit of a
brief summary of the masters of the art in
modern times. Among the later binders of
the 1 8th century were a little colony of Ger-
mans— Baumgarten, Benedict, Walther, Stag-
gemeier, Kalthoeber — who continued the
traditions of Robert Payne. Charles Herring,
a binder of repute, chiefly worked in Payne's
style. The excellence of the work of these
binders was largely inspired by John Mackin-
lay, for whom Payne worked before his death.
John Whitaker introduced the Etruscan style
in which designs from the decoration of
Etruscan vases were copied in colours by
means of acids instead of in gold. Charles
Lewis, in conjunction with Staggemeier,
bound most of the Althorp books, and also
those for Beckford at Fonthill. Dibdin, who
was a great admirer of Lewis's work, says,
' He united the taste of Roger Payne with a
freedom of forwarding and squareness of
finish peculiar to himself.' Lewis wis assisted
by Clarke, famous for his tree-marbled calf in
binding the library of the Rev. Theodore
Williams. Bedford, who has been regarded
as the best of all English binders in forward-
ing, did much important work for Mr. Huth.
Of the binders of to-day among the first-
class firms who carry on the traditions of the
past, that of Mr. Joseph W. Zaehnsdorf is
specially well known.
' An excellent account of Mearn by Mr. Cyril
Davenport will be found in Bibliografhica, iii, 129
et seq.
203
AGRICULTURE
THE agriculture of Middlesex has always been of special interest,
though the county is small. The fact that it included London
as a market for its produce was a stimulus to agriculture as an
industry ; while the physical features of the district lent them-
selves to good husbandry.
The climate is equable, the July isotherm being 64 degrees, and
that of January 40 degrees, while the mean of the whole year is
50 degrees on the higher ground north of London, and 51 degrees in
the Thames Valley. Rainfall varies much more considerably than
is usually recognized ; thus in 1905, 27^83 in. fell at Hadley in the
north of the county, while only 19*50 fell at Hampton in the south-
west.1 The explanation of this is twofold : parts of the county are
much better wooded than others, and the whole north is much more
hilly than the south.
The area of Middlesex returned in the census of 1901 was 178,606
acres; in 1906 the area under 'all crops, including woods, fruit and
gardens,' was 94,067 acres. In 1806 the area under agriculture was
reckoned at 136,000 acres, and there were 2,591 acres of commons. It
has been remarked that
these cannot very well be exact returns of area because roads and steeps at cross ways
are not returned in any uniform manner, and water areas are also left very much to
fancy, some street conveyancers adhering to the old definition of ponds as ' land covered
by water,' and including them in the land acreage, while house agents, despite their
natural interest in magnifying the property, more usually return the area exclusive of
water. Wayside ponds are reckoned by some surveyors as part of the road ; by others
they are not so reckoned.
This caveat seems worth entering, though it will not account for any very
material proportion of the difference of 84,539 acres between the total
and the agricultural area. ' Bricks and mortar,' together with private
gardens, account for much, perhaps most, of it.
The county is well watered by the rivers Lea, Thames, Brent, and
Colne. The soil is fertile ; it varies from clay and strong loam to sand
and gravel. The following estimate, taken from ' Foot's View of the
Agriculture of Middlesex,' reported to the Board of Agriculture in 1794,
1 Symotis'j Meteorological Magazine, vol. xli ; H. R. Mill, The Rainfall of 1905.
205
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
will show the variations in soil, many of which have since been lost sight
of amidst the progress of building : —
1. Hundred of Edmonton, including South Mimms, Enfield, Edmonton, Tottenham.
The soil is clay and strong loam, with some gravel.
2. Hundred of Gore, including Hendon, Harrow, Edgeware, Stanmore, Wembley.
The soil is stiff clay, with a little gravelly loam.
3. Hundred of Ossulstone, including
(a) Barnet, Finchley, Highgate, Hornsey, Hampstead, Willesden. The soil
is clay, mixed with gravel and loam.
(b) Stoke Newington, Clapton, Hackney, Bethnal Green, Stepney. The soil
is rich and mellow, and at Hackney there is some strong loam-like clay,
called brick-earth,
(f) Islington, Pancras, Paddington. The soil is gravelly loam, with a little clay.
(d) Kensington, Brompton, Chelsea, Fulham, Chiswick. The soil varies from
strong to sandy loam, mixed with sand and gravel, some black and fertile,
some sharp and white. Chiswick has some pure surface gravel.
(e) Acton and Ealing. The soil is gravel, like that of Chiswick, with loam
and clay in parts.
4. Hundred of Isleworth, including Isleworth, Twickenham, Teddington, &c., on
the Thames, and the district round Heston. The soil includes hazel loam,
rich and mellow, also strong loam and a little light gravel.
5. Hundred of Elthorne. The soil varies from strong loam, with gravel, to light loam.
6. Hundred of Spelthorne. The soil includes light loam, lean gravel, and strong loam.s
Lysons gives much the same information in his detailed view of
sixteen parishes of about a hundred years ago, but his account is less com-
prehensive than that of Foot.
Some account of the early agricultural history of Middlesex has
been given in another article, but we may cite in this place a short
description of the county as it appeared to Norden,8 the well-known
surveyor of the days of Elizabeth and her successor.
Myddlesex is a small Shire, in length not twentie myles, in circuite (as it were by
the ring) not about (sic above) 70 myles, yet for the fertilitie thereof, it may compare with
any other shire : for the soyle is excellent, fat and fertile and full of profile : it yeeldeth
corne and graine, not onelie in aboundance, but most excellente good wheate,
especiallie about Heston, which place may be called Granarium tritici regalis, for the
singularitie of the corne. The vaine of this especiall corne seemeth to extend from
Heston to Harrow on the hill, betweene which as in the mid way, is Perivale, more
truely Pureva/e. In which vale is also Northold, Soutbo/d, Norcote, Gerneford, Hayes,
&c. And it seemeth to extend to Pynner, though with some alteration of the soile.
It may be noted also how nature has exalted Harrow on the hill, which seemeth to
make ostentation of its scituation in the Pureva/e, from whence, towardes the time of
Harvest, a man may beholde the fields round about, so sweetely to address themselves,
to the siccle, and sith, with such comfortable aboundaunce, of all kinde of graine, that
the husbandman which waiteth for the fruits of his labours, cannot but clap his hands,
for joy, to see this vale, so to laugh and sing.
Yet doth not this so fruitefull soyle yeeld comfort, to the way-fairing man in the
wintertime, by reason of the claiesh nature of soyle ; which after it hath tasted the
Autumne showers, waxeth both dyrtie and deepe : But unto the countrie swaine it is
as a sweete and pleasant garden, in regard of his hope of future profile, for : —
The deepe, and dirtie loalhsome soyle,
Yeelds golden gaine, to painfull toyle.
The industrious and painefull husbandman will refuse a pallace, to droyle in these
golden puddles.4
* Peter Foot, Gen. Vitw ofjfgric. of MM. 9.
1 Speculum Britanniae. * John Norden, op. cit. pt. i, p. 1 1 .
206
AGRICULTURE
Norden evidently wishes by these words to urge the inhabitants to take
fuller advantage of these favourable circumstances. With this intention,
he adds : —
This part of Myddlesex may for fertilitie compare with Tandeane, in the west
part of Somersetshire. But that Tandeane, farre surpasseth it for sundrie fruites, and
commodities, which this countrie might also yeeld, were it to the like imployed : but
it seemeth they onely covet to maintaine their auncient course of life, and observe the
husbandrie of their fathers, without adding anything to their greater profile.
In mentioning orchards he seems to regard them as indicating a
pastime rather than a serious pursuit ; thus, in describing the larger
houses, he says that they are ' invironed with Orchards of sundrie delicate
fruites.' 6 He afterwards adds a list of ' Cities, Townes, Hamlets, Vil-
lages, and howses of name within Middelsex ;'6 and says of Greenford,
' A very fertile place of corne standing in the pureva/e.' 7 Heston, how-
ever, was pre-eminent in fertility ; it was
A most fertyle place of wheate yet not so much to be commended for the quantitie,
as for the qualitie, for the wheat is most pure, accompted the purest in manie shires.
And therefore Queene Elizabeth hath the most part of her provision from that place
for manchet for her Highnes owne diet, as is reported.8
Michael Drayton, again, in his Polyolbion introduces Perivale
* vaunting her rich estate.'
Why should I not be coy and of my beauties nice,
Since this my goodly grain is held of greatest price ?
No manchet can so well the courtly palate please,
As that made of the meal fetch'd from my fertile leaze.
Their finest of that kind, compared with my wheat,
For whiteness of the bread doth look like common cheat.
What barley is there found, whose fair and bearded ear
Makes stouter English ale, or stronger English beer ?
The oat, the bean and pease, with me but pulses are ;
The coarse and browner rye, no more than fitch and tare.
And further the poet notices her ' sure abode near goodly London,'
the ready mart for all her ' fruitful store.'
In the Tudor period 9 rural Middlesex — especially Islington and
the neighbouring parishes — was called upon to supply much cf the
milk, cream, and cheese required in London. A curious illustration of
this fact appears in the introduction at the famous festivities at Ktiiil-
worth in 1575 of a minstrel from Islington who in mock heroic style
celebrated the praises of his ' worshipful village,' and gravely described
and explained as the arms of Islington ' On a Field Argent, a fess
tenny three platez between three mylk tankerds proper,' while the scroll
or badge was to be ' Lac, Caseus Infans that is goode milke and yonge
cheez.'
Agricultural activity was at its height in the county in the
eighteenth century, and the beginning of the nineteenth. In addition
4 John Norden, op. cit. pt. i, p. 12. * Ibid. 15. ' Ibid. 21.
' Ibid. 25. ' Lewis, Hist. oflsKngton, 15 et seq.
207
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
to evidence of a more general character, there are three full accounts
of the agricultural conditions of Middlesex at this time. These are
reports on the subject, addressed to the Board of Agriculture, and
issued within a few years of each other. That by Thomas Baird
appeared in 1793, Peter Foot's in 1794, and John Middleton's in 1797,
with a second edition ten years later. They contain much the same
information, though in different form. Foot describes fully the extent
of cultivation, and the methods used. In his map it will be seen that
crops occupy considerably less than half the area of the county. They
lie in the west and south-west ; also in the north-east with scattered
districts elsewhere. The rest of the county, with the exception of a few
woods and parks, consists of meadows, pasture, and nursery-gardens.
The latter are situated on the left bank of the Thames, in a continuous
line from Teddington to London, while some extend immediately
north-east of London to Islington. The total area of Middlesex is
estimated at 240 square miles, or 217,600 acres.
After describing the nature and variations of the soil Foot gives an
account of the ' garden ground.' 10 He considers it well cultivated, and
in describing how the lands are dressed he adds : — ' To this manure,
and care of sowing seeds, the kitchen-gardeners who supply the markets
at Spitalfields, who cultivate in general on a light black soil owe their
celebrity in the article of lettuces.' u Near Chelsea, the work of farmer
and kitchen-gardener was often combined ; thus peas, turnips, and
coleworts were grown in succession on the same ground. Fruit was
successful, and much care was given to grafting. Certain nurseries (e.g.
those of Mile End, Hammersmith, Hackney, and Dalston) were famous
for their adoption of foreign plants ; Isleworth was noted for straw-
berries. Foot himself thought that the vine could be cultivated with
advantage. He was also sanguine about the proposed cultivation of
plants for dyes, as a substitute for madder : a certain species of common
bed-straw was chosen for this purpose, and at the time much was
hoped from the result of the experiment.
The next subject treated by this author is the system of husbandry
then pursued by the farmers of Middlesex. He points out that all
success must depend upon that rotation of crops which will get as much
as possible out of the land, but which yet will not injure its productive-
ness. The following account shows the general system and how it varied
in different districts : —
I. — South Mimms : —
(a) On the clay.
(1) summer fallow ; (3) beans, pease, or oats ;
(2) wheat ; (4) summer fallow.
(b) On the better soil.
(1) turnips on summer fallows ; (3) clover fed or mown ;
(2) barley with broad clover; (4) wheat on clover lay, with one ploughing.
" Peter Foot, Gen. View ofAgric. ofMidd. 1 1. " Ibid. 12.
208
AGRICULTURE
II. — District round Norwood, Hayes, &c. : —
(a] In the common fields :
(i) fallow; (2) wheat ; (3) barley or oats, with clover.
(b) In the inclosed lands :
(i) wheat ; (2) barley and clover ; (3) turnips.
III.— Fulham :—
(1) barley ; (4) wheat ;
(2) coleworts (off in March) ; (5) turnips or tares (manuring well after the
(3) potatoes (off in October); barley).
IV. — Edmonton : —
(1) potatoes ; (4) oats, tares, pease or beans — to be
(2) wheat ; gathered ;
(3) turnips on wheat stubbles ; (5) wheat (manuring well).
V. — Heston : —
(1) wheat; (4) turnips;
(2) barley with clover, mown twice ; (5) wheat.
(3) pease or beans to be gathered ;
VI. — Harmondsworth : —
(1) clover, well dressed with coal ashes ;
(2) pease, beans, or tares ;
(3) wheat, then turnips on the stubbles, fed off ;
(4) barley; (5) oats.
VII.— Chiswick :—
(1) vetches for spring seed, or pease, or beans, to be gathered green ;
(2) turnips (good on inclosed land) sold straight to London cowkeepers ;
(3) wheat ; (4) barley or oats.
(manuring before pulse, wheat, and barley).
A better course here would be : —
(1) pulse ; (3) oats or barley, with clover;
(2) turnips ; (4) wheat (manuring well before pulse).
This would exhaust the soil less, but the cultivators are bound by the Lammas tenure
not to have any clover.12
We notice here three main points of interest, viz., the decline of
fallow ; the restrictions of the Lammas tenure ; and the fertility of
Heston, which still kept up the high reputation which it possessed in
the sixteenth century. Thus Foot says :
The lands about Heston are chiefly of a strong loam, and celebrated for producing the
finest wheat in the county ; the skin is thin, the corn full and bold, and the flower
white, or, as the millers term it, fair.13
The barley of Middlesex, especially that of Chelsea, Fulham, and Chis-
wick, was also ' distinguished for its good quality, and has been much
sought after for seed ' ; M it was the ' whitest, most thin skinned, and
mellowest barley in England.' u Foot deplores that this fine barley was
being supplanted by vegetables grown for the London market, but this
was doubtless because the demands of a large city make variety above all
things necessary.
11 Peter Foot, Gen. View of Agnc. ofMidd. 20. " Ibid. 22. " Ibid. 24. " Ibid. 24.
2 209 27
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The importance and methods of manuring the land are then dis-
cussed. The carriage of the manure by water or land, rather than the
manure itself, formed one of the most costly items in the farmer's
expenditure. The burden could only be decreased, not by neglecting to
dress the land, but by feeding cattle on arable fields. The expense fell
chiefly on the gardeners, who were obliged to apply manure more fre-
quently than the farmers.16
Foot, with most of the writers of his time, condemns the system
of commons as wasteful in agriculture.17 In this connexion he describes at
some length the agricultural conditions of Enfield Chase, part of which
had just been inclosed. Even after a short time, and in spite of the
difficulties of changing cultivation, the results, he thinks, had been
favourable, thus : —
South Mimms inclosure is also part of Enfield Chace, and consists of nearly 1,000
acres. In its open state it was supposed not to have yielded the parish at large more
than two shillings an acre per annum, but since its inclosure it is worth on an average
fifteen shillings an acre.
It is at present in tillage ; but in a few years it may be converted to grass, which
will give it an increased value of at least five shillings an acre.18
Drainage had been much required on these new inclosures ; ' the
common shoulder-draining spade and scoop have been used with great
success.' 19 In clearing the land also various methods had been used.
Paring and burning were done by some, while others said that this pro-
cess destroyed the pabulum for future plants. Foot adds that ' marie is
one of the most valuable manures upon the Chace.' so In many cases,
owing to want of experience, the best methods had not been followed,
but even then inclosures had been found more profitable than the
common lands where rights were abused and the land over-burdened.
Foot goes on to say that ' hay-making in Middlesex is carried on by
a process peculiar to the county.'21 He describes it in detail : —
On the first day the grass was mown before 9 a.m., tedded, broken up as much
as possible, and well turned by mid-day. It was then raked into wind-rows and made
into small cocks. On the second day the grass mown after 9 a.m. on the first day
was tedded, while all grass mown before 9 a.m. on this day was treated as before.
Meanwhile the cocks already made were shaken into straddles or separate plats of five
or six yards square, and the spaces, if any, were raked clean. The plats were turned
first, then the second day's mowing — all before the dinner hour. After that the
straddles were raked into double wind-rows, and the grass into single wind-rows ; the
hay was cocked into bastard or medium cocks, and the grass cocked as on the first
day. On the third day the same order was pursued as before. Medium cocks were
spread into straddles, then turned ; grass cocks and grass were also turned before i p.m.
If fine, the medium cocks of yesterday could now be carried. The second day's hay
was then made into double wind-rows, and the grass into single wind-rows. The
first day's hay was made into large cocks with a fork, and the rakings put on the top
of each cock. The hay in double wind-rows was made into medium cocks, and the
grass in single wind-rows was made into small cocks. The hay in the large cocks
could then be carried, and the medium cocks could be made into large cocks, the grass
cocks into medium cocks, and the grass (tedded that morning) into small cocks. On
the fourth day the hay was put into stacks, ' well tucked and thatched.'
Ie Peter Foot, Gen. View of Agnc. of MM. z6. " Ibid. 30.
" Ibid. 55. " Ibid. 42. "Ibid. 53. " Ibid. 55.
2tO
AGRICULTURE
It was important to keep a good proportion in numbers between the
mowers and the haymakers, so that this sequence of operations could be
strictly maintained. The process was made as systematic as possible,
from grass, single wind-rows, small cocks, straddles, double wind-rows,
medium cocks, straddles again, large cocks — to the stacks M themselves.
Apparently this method was followed with good results, as hay at this
period was found profitable in Middlesex, and the area used for hay was
increasing.
Horses were not bred in the county, but were bought at fairs, and
the standard required was a high one.
The draught-horses in general, in possession of the brewers and carmen, are
as to strength and figure, scarcely to be equalled. The brewers' and carmen's horses
are fed with grains, clover, chaff, and beans ; racked with rye-grass, and clover, and
broad clover hay of the best quality ; and in summer it is not uncommon to feed
them with green tares and clover. Many of the saddle and coach horses are bred in
Yorkshire, and brought up from thence and from other counties by the dealers.
These horses are fed with meadow hay only.23
Foot considered Middlesex to be less noted for sheep than for horses;
6,000 were kept on Hounslow Heath, but with this exception the
numbers were small. The hay-farmers round Hendon and Barnet
allowed sheep and cattle to feed on their after-grass at so much per head.
There is a long account of experiments in breeding Spanish sheep which
might produce as fine a cloth as that imported. In raising lambs under
cover for the butcher, ewes were obtained from Dorset.34
Oxen were sometimes used for draught or the plough, a custom
which this author (unlike some others of the time) looked upon as likely
to prevail. He says, ' Five oxen are used to draw a wagon on the road,
one in the shafts, and four in pairs, with collars or holsters, and head-
stalls. At plough two pair are used ; at dung-cart three oxen only arc
used.' 28 Calves were raised in the western parts of the county, but not
to any great extent.
Before going on to the subject of cow-keeping and dairies, Foot
now returns to the subject of commons. He describes the common
meadows 3t and their capabilities. Those near the Lea were under
Lammas tenure, which did not admit of ' any general system ' of culti-
vation. They were let for 2$s. per acre, but if inclosed the rent would
have been 40^. per acre. The meadows near the Thames from Fulham
to Chiswick and Staines were much flooded, and the rushes made it
difficult to get good hay there. They were also too flat for ordinary
drainage, and therefore became soft. The meadows on the banks of the
Colne were more fertile, and here the drainage was better.
The common arable lands are said to be ' at present in a good
course of husbandry ' S7 ; though if inclosed they might have been made
more profitable.
* ' There are no hay-stacks when finished that are so well secured and nicely formed as those
in Middlesex ' ; ibid. 57.
13 Ibid. 59. " Ibid. 60 et seq. " Ibid. 67.
16 Ibid. 69 et seq. " Ibid. 72.
211
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Farm buildings were well constructed and in good repair on the
whole, as they would naturally be in a county where agriculture
produced good returns. The only defect pointed out here by Foot is
the fact that they were in inaccessible situations, especially on the
common arable lands.28 Round Harrow, Hendon, and Finchley there
were large hay barns, holding from 50 to 100 loads of hay each.29
The report of the agricultural instruments M is not so satisfactory;
evidently improvements in implements were not readily adopted by the
farmers. The common wooden swing-plough was the one in general
use ; the Hertfordshire wheel-plough being used for summer fallowing.
The harrows varied in weight from one-horse to four-horse carriage ;
they had rollers of wood and iron of equal capacity. Carts with iron
arms were more used than wagons. The improved plough and cultivator
invented by the Rev. James Coke had been tried by few.
The subject of dairy-farming was one of growing importance, and
the number of cows was very large, compared with that in neighbouring
counties. Foot gives the numbers as follows : —
Tothill Fields and Knightsbridge
Edgeware Road .
Paddington, Tottenham Court Road, Battle Bridge
Gray's Inn Lane, Bagnigge Wells, Islington
Hoxton
Mile End
Ratcliff
Limehouse
Poplar
Hackney
Bow .
Bethnal Green
Bromley
Shoreditch and Kingsland
These, with 224 odd cows, made a total of 7,20O.n
205
550
3.950
150
406
205
1 80
70
600
IOO
2OO
160
2OO
The best milch cows, kept for supplying London with milk, were
bred in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Staffordshire. They were bought at
three years old, costing from eight guineas to £14 each. They either
came straight to the purchasers from the northern counties, or
were bought at the fairs and markets of Barnet, Islington, and other
places. The food and shelter of these cows was a matter of systematic
routine, in which apparently an absolutely uniform method was fol-
lowed.38 Foot summarizes their productiveness as follows : — Each cow
on an average gave eight quarts a day, for 365 days, i.e. 2,920 quarts,
which at if</. per quart comes to £21 $s. This represents the price
given by retailers. Consumers paid ^d. per quart, and the retailers got
the difference, as profit. He adds that this may over-rate profit as
' When the families leave London, the cow-keepers do not find a ready
sale for all their milk ; and in this case they generally set the unsold
milk for cream, of which they make fresh butter for the London markets,
* Peter Foot, Gen. V'uw of Agrlc. of MM. 79.
* Ibid. 75 et seq. " Ibid. 80.
212
"Ibid. 57.
» Ibid. 82.
AGRICULTURE
and give their butter-milk to the hogs.'88 The author refers to Arthur
Young's investigations in dairy-farming ; he evidently regards it as a
subject of interest, increasing in proportion to the increase of London
itself, since dairy-farming requires a near and a constant market.
Foot closes his account with words of advice ; 3i he points out the
importance of hedges in making the new inclosures. These should not be
made of ' wild-quick,' " such as the poor use, but ' quicks ought to be
had from the nursery-men,' 88 having been already twice transplanted.
Middleton's View of the Agriculture of Middlesex [addressed to the
Board of Agriculture, 1797 ; 2nd Edition, 1807] covers much the same
ground as Foot's, though it is far more voluminous, and touches on
many irrelevant subjects. He describes the agricultural conditions of Mid-
dlesex as most favourable, and is therefore all the more anxious to point
out defects in cultivation. Thus he says : — ' The plough in general use
throughout this county is a swing one of the most clumsy construction,' 8T
and ' I do not know of any instance of Mr. Ducket's simple, cheap, and
effectual drill being used in this county.' 88 He also is opposed to the
waste in common land, which he defines as the ' uncultivated soil of this
county, capable of receiving improvement,'8' consisting as it did of 'about
8,700 acres, or one-twentieth part of the whole quantity.' *° In the same
way he finds that trees grow well, but are ' scandalously ' pollarded,41 and
that hedges are badly constructed, being 'generally full of live wood.'**
According to his computation the land was ' not producing wheat
sufficient to supply one-sixtieth part of the inhabitants with bread,' **
in spite of its fertility. Heston is again highly spoken of, the soil there
being ' a most productive loam, possessing that most happy medium of
texture which fits it alike for the production of every kind of corn, pulse,
and root, and its staple is five or six feet in depth, on a bed of gravel.' 44
Middleton gives a detailed account of the corn harvest. In the
case of wheat it began in the first week of August, and became general
in three weeks. Reaping was done by ' a toothless hook, of about twice
the weight of a common sickle.'46 The reaper struck within two or
three inches of the ground ; he collected the sheaves separately, and then
bound ten together in a shock : this was called bagging or fagging.48
Thrashing was usually done by the flail ; though the author points out
that mills were coming into more general use, in spite of the fact that in
them the corn became more bruised.47 He considers barley to be par-
ticularly productive in this county ; thus : —
Two sorts of spring barley are usually grown. On rich land, the sprat or
battledore barley, which produces a short tapering straw, is mostly sown, owing to its
being less liable to fall to the ground than the other sorts. The common spring
barley, containing two rows of grain in the ear, is sown in every case when the soil is
not so rich as to endanger losing the crop.48
" Peter Foot, Gen. View ofAgric. of MM. 85. " Ibid. 86 et seq. M Ibid. 88.
* Ibid. 87. "John Middleton, Vim ef the Agric. of Midd. 99.
"Ibid. 107. "Ibid. 114. "Ibid. 114.
41 Ibid. 344 et seq. "Ibid. 150. ° Ibid. 158.
44 Ibid. 1 86 note. " Ibid. zi6. a Ibid. 216.
47 Ibid, z 1 7-8. "Ibid. Z34-J.
213
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Barley was mown by scythes, ' previously furnished with a bow or
cradle, to collect the corn together, and keep it from scattering.' *9
Unusually heavy crops were bound into sheaves and set up in stocks ; but
the average ones were arranged in swaths, then raked into rows, and
carted for stack or barn.60 The produce of wheat was reckoned by
Middleton to be from ten to over forty bushels per acre ; that of barley,
from fifteen to seventy-five bushels.61
He describes the other crops, and urges such a system of rotation
'as shall support cattle on arable land all the year round.'63 But, except in
matters of detail, he adds little information to that given by Foot, whom
he sometimes quotes. Both writers agree on two subjects, viz. the
wastefulness of commons, and the excellence of the hay-making. ' This
branch of the rural art has, by the farmers of Middlesex, been brought
to a degree of perfection altogether unequalled by any other part of the
kingdom.' 6S
The kitchen gardens between Westminster and Chelsea, with the
nursery grounds for fruit, shrubs, and flowers at Chelsea, Brompton,
Kensington, Hackney, Dalston, Bow, Mile End, are described as
flourishing.64 The author deplores the neglect of drainage " as well as of
paring and burning,66 this neglect being due to want of enterprise
rather than to ignorance. In discussing the use of oxen for field labour, he
says : — ' Upon the whole, I am of opinion that the very few advantages
which oxen possess, are not by any means of such consideration as to
compensate for the damage which their being used would do upon some
kinds of land.' "
The uniformly profitable character of agriculture from 1801 to
1815 gave to rural Middlesex an immense impetus which, thanks to the
rapid growth of metropolitan population, was in no way lost from 1815
to 1845. The Free Trade movement was vehemently fought in Mid-
dlesex, the rural parts of which gravitated to Conservatism in the middle
Victorian era after two centuries of a Puritan and then Whig cast.
But, for reasons which lie outside the scope of this article, Free
Trade did not produce bad results for agriculture between 1846 and
1873, and the famous new Domesday Book of the latter year reveals decided
prosperity. In the parish of Ickenham 981 acres of agricultural land
were bringing in £2,235 a year, and 122 acres at Hoddesdon, £650 a
year. Small holdings even in very minor rural places yielded a good
rent, as for instance 10 acres at South Mimms £71 a year, 3 acres at
Ruislip £38 a year, and 6 acres at Cranford £38 a year. In the
market gardening region we find at Isleworth, Brentford, Chiswick,
Acton, and Hammersmith a total area of 66 acres bringing in £445 a
year, while dairy meadows in Finchley, Edmonton, Wood Green, and
Southgate yielded £414 a year from 41 acres. The riparian parishes of
Teddington, Shepperton, Sunbury, Staines, and Laleham were acquiring
" John Middleton, View of the Agric. ofMidd. 236.
10 Ibid. 236. " Ibid. 2 19, 237. " Ibid. 220, &c.
u Ibid. 309. M Ibid. 330, 338. u Ibid. 364
"Ibid. 366. "Ibid. 482.
214
AGRICULTURE
agricultural value as appanage lands to wealthy men's estates; in these five
parishes 665 acres of land otherwise agricultural, but really used for the
most part for rich men's pleasure, brought in £3,320 a year.
Coming to modern agriculture in its fullest sense of contemporary
record and comparisons within living memory we shall find it most
advantageous to take the figures for 1876 and for 1906. Those for 1876
because they are the earliest available at an exact interval in decades and
because those of 1873 (the earliest published) show no vital difference.
The reason for taking the figures in 1906 is manifest: they are the latest
published.
The total area in Middlesex under all kinds of crops thus
compares : —
1876 1 1 7,493 acres
1906 94>o&7 „
The decline in these figures, which include grass as a crop, is serious,
and if we could clearly distinguish how much is due to a decline in
agriculture generally and how much is simply the result of residential
uses increasing we should get a very fair measure of how far agriculture
as a whole is losing ground. But this is just what we do not seem able
to get at, and the figures must needs blend. A residential occupier of
means, for instance, will usually keep some private meadows as grass.
The area under wheat shows the following change : —
1876 .......... 8,096 acres
1906 2,264 „
This is a disastrous and altogether discouraging return. The London
market takes, roughly speaking, the produce of 25,000 acres every week,
and there is no part of Middlesex from which a cart cannot carry wheat
to Mark Lane within four hours of sober going, such as befits the
cart. The greater area of Middlesex may regard the distance as one of
two hours' journey. The whole riparian district from Isleworth to
Staines has water-borne traffic, which is far cheaper than either road or
rail. Soil and climate suit wheat over at least the moiety of the county,
and, as we see, as recently as 1876 some 8,096 acres were devoted to its
cultivation. The inevitable conclusion seems to be that the average
price of wheat from 1876 to 1906 did not make it a profitable crop to
grow even under circumstances in the main favourable. The difficulties
of sending produce to market which so often modify the situation in
other counties have not here prevailed ; the uncertainty of market demand
which so often discourages production does not apply where at hand we
have an exchange placing for actual food wants nearly five million
quarters of bread-stuffs annually. One may even add that the demand
for bran and middlings would be more constant in Middlesex than in an
average district.
The area under barley is thus returned : —
1876 2,405 acres
358 „
215
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
This practical wiping out of barley as a Middlesex crop is wholly de-
plorable, for the area devoted to it was never excessive, and consisted of
the less heavy soils on which it did well. Of the moderate area in 1876,
2,405 acres, it may be said with fair safety that not a single acre was of
unfit land. That the cultivation of barley in Middlesex has been all but
wholly abandoned is therefore a very evil sign. The farmers who have
given it up were not incompetent; the prices ruling since 1876 have
made it unprofitable.
Oats are thus returned : —
1876 .......... 5,293 acres
I9°6 .......... 2,317 „
Long-stricken wheat and all but eliminated barley cultivation will
have prepared readers for even worse figures for oats than those which
we are now printing. The decline is very serious, but it leaves oats in
the position of the leading cereal crop of the county. The large demand
for good heavy English oats for good horses kept in London is probably
the reason why the decline has not been greater than that actually
recorded.
Rye has not been largely cultivated in Middlesex since the great
war with France, when the universal desire to grow wheat was born of a
belief that the whole country was likely to find itself on short commons
and that wheat ' went further ' than rye. There is no great difference
in point of fact, the ideas of 1794 being exaggerated. Still, there is
some difference, rye weighs a little less to the quarter as a rule and yields
a little less to the acre. Areas devoted to it in Middlesex are : —
1876 . . . . . . . . . .341 acres
„
Seeing the extreme usefulness of rye as a crop which can be fed off in
the green state if food for stock runs short or allowed to ripen into grain
which is ' safe ' for say 24^. per quarter, seeing, too, that its straw is of
high quality and in constant demand the rye area ought to reverse the
figures of the thirty past years and revert to a good figure.
Areas under beans are : —
1876 .......... 1,383 acres
1906 . . . . . . . . . 651 „
The bean crop is a capricious one, but Middlesex is a county where it
should do well. Foreign production has declined so materially for the
past five years that prices are steadily advancing. Farmers to be 'in the
movement ' should grow more beans.
Peas are returned as follows : —
1876 .......... 1,833 acres
1906 .......... 1,058 „
The fall in peas may be due to a too exclusive cultivation of maple and
dun sorts which seldom fetch a very adequate sum at Mark Lane. High-
class peas pay well, but this branch of agriculture touches on market
216
AGRICULTURE
gardening, and will probably produce its most paying results in the hands
of those who understand the kitchen garden.
Potatoes have a large and steady sale in London, but Middlesex has
never cultivated the crop so freely as might have been expected. Acres
have thus varied : —
1876 .......... 2,814 acres
1906 .......... 1,873 ,,
Early potatoes from the Scilly and Channel Islands, the Canary Islands,
and Portugal have been inimical to high-value cultivation in Middlesex,
and the main potato crop may safely be left to shires less fortunately
situated than the privileged little district within five and twenty miles of
the Borough market.
Roots, such as turnips, swedes, mangolds, carrots, cabbages, kohl-rabi
and rape, were in 1876 thus returned : —
Turnips and swedes
Mangolds .
Carrots
All other roots
2,o i o acres
1,985 „
100 „
1,203 ,,
5,298
The returns of 1906 show a somewhat different division : —
Turnips and swedes
Mangolds .
Cabbages .
Kohl-rabi .
Rape
475 acres
1,190 „
22
18
3,342 „
Carrots appear to have lost their special market. Why turnips and
swedes have gone out of favour so much faster than mangolds is a little
difficult to determine. The cultivation of cabbages has evidently in-
creased materially, for ' all other roots etc.' in 1876 represented a much
smaller figure than cabbages by themselves stand for now. Kohl-rabi
wins favour very slowly. It is a hard root and not easy eating for cattle
even when sliced. The net decline in roots doubtless corresponds to
some degree with the large decline in the number of sheep kept within
the county.
Tares, lucerne, and ' other green crops except clover and grass '
were returned in 1876 at 5,503 acres, while 674 acres were in bare
fallow. In 1906 some 515 acres were under tares and 106 acres were
devoted to lucerne. The decline in tares is curious, for in 1906 the
price was seldom under 40^. per quarter, and in 1905 it was for some
months at 6oj. per quarter. The soil of Middlesex is by no means un-
friendly to this crop. The cultivation of lucerne cannot be exactly
estimated, because in a hot, dry season the grower makes money, in a wet
or chill year he loses heavily. Lucerne cultivation is a speculation in
weather futures.
2 217 28
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Pasture pure and simple was thus represented in 1876 : —
Rotation .
Permanent.
. 4,902 acres
78,933 „
In 1906 the figures were : —
1,552 acres
69,769 „
Rotation
Permanent
The declining area of rotation pastures is peculiarly discouraging, for
such pastures are nearly always a sign of progressive and scientific agricul-
ture.
The number of horses kept in Middlesex has been returned as
follows : —
1876
1906
6,015
6,043
There is an extraordinary stability about these figures, thirty years
having made no appreciable modification in the total. The number of
well-to-do private residents who keep horses has probably increased, that
of farmers keeping ordinary cart-horses diminished, and the two changes
may be taken to balance each other. Middlesex has never been a horse-
breeding county, and it is not likely to become one. The increased use
of steam machinery on go-ahead farms has told against the number of
horses kept.
Cattle are thus returned : —
1876 .... ...... . 26,460
J9°6 ........... '7,499
These figures are smaller than would have been expected, for they in-
clude the large herds of dairy cattle kept by Sir George Barham and
other dairy kings, and they also comprise the beautiful if more or less
fancy cattle kept by noble and wealthy residents like the owners of
Osterley and Gunnersbury and Syon Parks. The number of cattle kept
for non-dairy purposes has almost certainly retrograded very fast. Yet
London every Christmas gives orders for many thousand tons of prime
beef.
Of sheep the number before 1870 probably exceeded 40,000, but
from about 1871 the keeping of sheep in Middlesex tended to decline.
In 1876 the number was 36,770. The returns for 1906 were : —
Ewes
Lambs
Others
3)86o
4,503
6,520
The revival of sheep-breeding, which is in progress in England generally,
has thus far failed to touch this county, although it is in close contact
with a market always willing to give a good price for good mutton.
Any of the Down breeds will flourish in Middlesex.
218
AGRICULTURE
Of pigs the returns are as follows : —
1876 : 12,352
1906 • • '• • • 16,272
This is an interesting return. The small owners who are a feature of
the county evidently tend to keep pigs, and the fact that the figures for
swine have increased while those for cattle and sheep have diminished is
one which the critic can hardly fail to associate with the fact that in
Middlesex the average agricultural holding is a third smaller than for the
kingdom as a whole.
In the Report of the Royal Commission on Agricultural Depression,
1897, Middlesex is included among the Eastern Counties, in ' the arable
section,' but it is not mentioned separately. Certain causes of the general
depression affect this county, such as foreign competition and the fall in
the prices of farm produce. On the other hand, high railway rates do
not constitute a grievance, and ' land in proximity to favoured markets
has maintained or even increased its value.'
The following special and very valuable return was issued in Decem-
ber last, and gives the number of agricultural holdings in the county : —
Class i
„ 2
» 3
» 4
Total .
588 Petty occupiers (under 5 acres)
1,008 Small „ ( „ 50 „ )
465 Medium „ ( „ 300 „ )
42 Large „ (over „ „ )
2,103 agricultural holdings.
The average size of agricultural holdings in Middlesex is 44*7 acres
against 63*2 acres for Great Britain. It is only half that of the average
holding in the neighbouring county to the north, Hertford, and it is
eleven acres less than in the county across the Thames, Surrey. The
number of large holdings is curiously limited, for, the great estate holders'
home farms being omitted, the number of actual working tenant farmers
holding 300 acres and upwards must be extremely small. What is it, in
a county still under primogeniture, which makes this division ? It seems
to be that property divided into several lots (the ideal unit is seen to be
44 acres in Middlesex) sells better than larger undivided properties.
What keeps an owner from offering 440 acres in ten separate lots else-
* where is the fear that some may remain on hand, but in Middlesex
the land appears promptly to be taken up, and of course the rent of
44 acres would almost anywhere exceed the rent of 440 acres divided
by ten.
Percentages of acres under agriculture in Middlesex are as follows : —
Arable 16-5 per cent.
Grass 47-5 „ „
Woods 27 „„
Commons ...... . -i
» »
66;8 „ „
Non-agricultural 33-2 „
IPO „
219
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The heaths, like that of Hounslow, appear under the heading of non-
agricultural land ; the small area of commons described as agricultural
consists of agricultural inclosures as in Bushey Park, where the public are
by no means allowed to roam over all the public or quasi-public land.
The large area of non-agricultural land is mainly a consequence of the
extension and expansion of London.
In 1873 there were in Middlesex some 11,881 landowners and the
average rent was £13$ 13*. a year from 1 1 acres, 3 roods, and 32 perches.
Land therefore brought in a little over £i i per acre, and if we capitalize
freeholds at 30 years' purchase, had an average value of about £3 4° an
acre. There were, however, only 1,263 farmers and country gentlemen,
the remaining owners possessing less than 10 acres apiece. Large estates,
over 100 acres, numbered 276. The largest landowner was the earl of
Strafford, who held 4,436 acres.
The owners of a thousand acres and over were as follows : — F. D.
Cater, esq., Enfield, 1,364 acres; All Souls College, Oxford, 1,814 acres;
Christ Church, Oxford, 1,132 acres ; King's College, Cambridge, 1,097
acres ; the Crown, 2,383 acres ; F. H. Deane, esq., Ruislip, 1,449 acres ;
the earl of Jersey, 1,982 acres; the Lady Delpierre, Greenford, 1,051
acres ; the duchy of Lancaster, 2,273 acres 5 tne Church (Ecclesiastical
Commissioners), 1,309 acres ; D. A. Hamborough, esq,, Ventnor, 1,252
acres; the earl of Straffbrd, Barnet, 4,436 acres; Sir C. Mill, Hillingdon,
2,710 acres ; C. Newdigate, esq., Warwick, 1,492 acres ; the Lord
Northwick, London, 1,260 acres ; General Wood, Littleton, 1,572 acres ;
here we have sixteen owners of 28,576 acres, or 1,786 acres each.
There is great and obvious need of a new Domesday Book. Since
1873 the changes have been many, and it would be a very useful thing if
with every third census a return of landed and agricultural properties was
secured according to the precedent of 1873.
Shorthorns are professionally bred and sold by Mr. George Taylor
of Cranford. He is a great upholder of the Bates strain, which he regards
as producing deep milkers of the very first quality. Such famous prize
animals as Beau Sabreur 74094, Melody, and Barrington Duchess 318!
might in 1906 be seen on his farm. The last-named had an extra-
ordinary record, winning the first prize inspection, first prize milking,
first prize Shorthorn Society, and prize for best pure-bred animal at the
Islington Dairy Show in October, 1906. This was the only time she
was shown. Beau Sabreur is a stud bull with a splendid record, and
other stud bulls are Drumcree, Rowbury, and Kirk Charm. Seeing the
great success of Mr. Taylor at Cranford it is somewhat surprising that
Shorthorn breeding does not develop faster in the county.
Channel Islands cattle are kept by all the chief landowners for dairy
purposes, but there is -not such strict observance of purity of strain as
might be expected. The very best places, such as Osterley and Syon, are
an exception to this remark. No flocks of sheep or herds of pigs are
professionally bred for sale in Middlesex, but excellent Down sheep may
be seen on the leading farms, and the best breeds of pigs are kept. Horse-
220
AGRICULTURE
breeding is but little carried on in Middlesex, yet in no county can finer
dray horses be seen, or finer carriage horses. Here we have the advantage
of population ; the brewer is sure to have the best heavy horses by
emulation with a neighbouring brewery, and the county gentry are
numerous enough and wealthy enough to be healthily critical of each
others' horses.
A very interesting poultry establishment at Lower Edmonton is kept
by Mr. Bowater of Bury Hall, who not only supplies birds to many
poultry keepers within the county, but ships to foreign countries. His
fowls are chiefly the Cochin China cross-breds known as Orpingtons,
from their first specific differentiation on Mr. Cook's farm, Tower House,
Orpington. The Aylesbury duck does as well in Middlesex as in the
adjacent county of its home, and Mr. Bowater has also had much success
with Toulouse geese. His prosperity is of good promise for advanced
and scientific poultry keeping in Middlesex generally.
A few old agricultural words still surviving in rural Middlesex are
* farren ' for half an acre, ' fale ' for marshy land, and ' fat ' for eight
bushels, the modern quarter. The word ' ever ' as a substantive is also
heard, and means a sort of meadow. In Devonshire the word is in full
use for rye-grass, but the writer has been unable to fix a like definite
meaning in Middlesex. Old labourers evidently use the word with
reference to the general aspect of the grass. ' Fagging ' is the term
applied to the use of the smaller scythe, but this implement is not called
a fag as we might expect.
221
FORESTRY
1
Domesday Survey affords conclusive evidence of the wide-
spread and considerable character of the woods of Middlesex
in the eleventh century, up to the very gates of the city of
London. Woodland was of such great value that it was
always entered on the survey of a manor. It was not only
an invaluable material for building purposes and a necessity as fuel, but
the acorns and beech-mast were of the greatest worth for the susten-
ance of the pigs. In some counties the Domesday Commissioners
endeavoured to estimate the extent of the wood in each manor by
means of measurement, but more often, as in the case of Middlesex,
by the number of swine that the wood would support in the time
of pannage or autumn feeding. Such returns can, after all, only supply
quite a rough estimate as to the extent of a wood, for its pannage
value would depend on the nature and density of the trees. Occasionally
in other counties there is entry of a si/va infrucfuosa, by which is meant
a wood where timber other than oak or beech prevailed, such, say,
as ash, which would be useless as far as swine were concerned. The
swine-supporting properties of the majority of the Middlesex manors
were, however, sufficiently large to betoken a most unusual amount of
woodland throughout this small county as compared with the large
majority of such divisions. The following list of all the manors that
had pannage woods, coupled with the size of the herds of swine they
could support, is of interest as showing the distribution of the woods of
Middlesex : —
Manor Swine
Edmonton ..... 2,000
Enfield ...... 2,000
Harrow ...... 2,000
Stanmore ...... 1,600
Ruislip
Fulham
Stepney
Harefield
Kingsbury
Hendon
Hillingdon
Tottenham
Willesden
Harmondsworth ..
Isleworth ...... 500
Colham ...... 400
Hayes ....... 400
Greenford ..... 300
Ickenham ..... 270
Manor
Swine
,450
,220
,200
,200
,000
,000
500
500
500
Northolt ...... 200
Kensington ...... 200
Westminster ..... 200
Twyford ...... 150
' Slanestaple ' ..... 150
Tottenhall ...... 150
Harlesden ...... 100
Hampstead ...... too
Stan well ...... 100
Lisson Green ..... 100
Chelsea ....... 60
Tollington ...... 60
Hanwell ...... 50
Tyburn ....... 50
Elthorne ...... 50
Cowley ....... 40
Staines ....... 30
Dawley ....... 15
223
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
It therefore follows that the woods in Middlesex at this date pro-
vided autumn feeding for a vast herd of upwards of 20,000 swine.
On four manors mention is made of wood sufficient for hedging
purposes (nemus ad sepes faciendas), namely Harlesden, Cranford, St.
Pancras, and part of Ossulstone. At Enfield mention is made of a park
belonging to Geoffrey de Mandeville, and at Ruislip there was a park
for wild game (ferarum sifoaticarum}.
Throughout the Domesday Survey vineyards are mentioned in
thirty-eight places ; six of these occur in Middlesex, namely at Kensing-
ton, Holborn, Staines, Kempton, Colham, and Harmondsworth.
In the often-cited account of ' the most noble city of London,'
written in the reign of Henry II by William Fitz Stephen, a monk of
Canterbury, occurs the following passage : ' On the north side, too, are
fields for pasture, and a delightful plain of meadow-land, interspersed
with flowing streams, on which stand mills whose clack is very pleasing
to the ear. Close by lies an immense forest, in which are densely
wooded thickets, the coverts of game, red and fallow deer, boars and
wild bulls.'1
A blunder in statement, as well as in date, made by Stow in his
Survey of London as first printed in 1598, and repeated in all subsequent
editions, has led many a writer on Middlesex and London astray.
Stow's statement is to the effect that : ' The ad. of King Henry III
the forest in Middlesex and the warren of Staines were disafforested ;
since the which time the suburbs about London hath been also
mightily increased with buildings.'3
There is, on the contrary, no proof whatever of there ever having
been a royal forest in Middlesex, at all events in Norman days. The
crown lands were very small, and two of the great wooded districts of
the county, Enfield with its park, and Harrow, were in the respective
hands of Geoffrey de Mandeville and the archbishop of Canterbury.
There was, however, a royal warren extant as early as the reign
of Henry II at Staines,3 to which certain forest rights pertained ; it
extended from Staines to Hounslow.4 On 28 March, 1227, a charter
was granted to the prior and brethren of St. John of Jerusalem, per-
mitting them to have unlawed dogs to guard their house in Hamtonet,
which was within the king's warren of Staines — wherein the sisters of
the order dwelt — and also to have unlawed dogs to guard their sheep-
folds at the same place, and this without any interference from the
foresters or warreners of Staines.6 Close letters to this effect were
dispatched on 10 April.'
The value, however, of such a grant was but of short duration,
for on 1 8 August of the same year the king granted a charter, addressed
to all the men of Middlesex, to the effect that the warren of Staines
was to be no more a warren (dewarrenata), and was to be disafforested
1 Materials for Hist, of Thomas Becket (Rolls Ser.), Hi, 3. ' Stow, Surv. ofLond. (ed. 1 876), 156.
1 Pipe R. 4 Hen. II. 'Camden, Brit. (ed. Gough), ii, 3.
* Chart R. 1 1 Hen. Ill, pt. i, m. 1 1. 'Close, 1 1 Hen. Ill, m. 13.
224
FORESTRY
so that all men might cultivate their lands and inclose their woods
therein, without let or hindrance as to vert or venison, etc., from any
warrener, forester or justice of the forest.7 It was clearly some mis-
reading of this charter that led Stow astray, and hence caused a crop of
subsequent errors.
With regard to the warren of mediaeval England, it is well to
recollect that the public had a right to hunt wild animals in any un-
inclosed lands outside forest limits, unless such right had been restricted
by some special royal charter or grant. The word warren was used to
denote both the exclusive right of hunting and taking certain wild
animals, and also the land over which such right existed. Grants of
free warren over lands or manors outside forests were frequently made by
our earlier kings to private individuals and to religious foundations.
Such a grant prevented anyone entering on such lands to hunt or take
any warrenable animal without the owner's licence, under the very
heavy penalty of £10. No one might, therefore, follow the hunt of
hare, fox, or other vermin into warrenable land ; but, strange to say,
following the hunt of deer into such land was held to be no trespass,
inasmuch as deer were not beasts of the warren. The beasts of the
warren included the hare, rabbit, and fox, and in the fourteenth
century (in certain parts) the roe deer ; there were also birds of the
warren, including pheasants, partridges, woodcocks, and herons. Lords
of warren had the power of impounding dogs as well as the snares and
traps of trespassers. Royalty had other warrens, apart from forests, in
addition to that of Staines, such as the warren of Ashdown, Sussex.
It was only in royal warrens that the lawing or mutilating of the fore-
feet of dogs obtained.8
There can scarcely have been timber of any size at Staines in
the middle of the thirteenth century, for Henry III, in 1262, gave
oaks out of Windsor Forest for the repair of the bridge at Staines.9
ENFIELD CHASE
It was at Enfield, in the north-east of the county, bordering on the
Essex forest of Waltham, that the woodland of Middlesex chiefly pre-
vailed for several centuries. A park at Enfield is mentioned, as we have
seen, as early as the eleventh century ; and there is a record in 1220 of
Henry III obtaining oak shingles from this park to roof certain of the
royal houses at Westminster.10 Immediately to the north of the town
lay an extensive tract of land termed Enfield Chase, which included por-
tions of the adjoining parishes of Edmonton, Hadley, and South Mimms.
It extended about 8j miles from east to west, and from 3J to 6 miles
in width.
A chase was, like a forest, uninclosed, and only defined by metes
and bounds ; but it could be held by a subject. Offences committed
'Chart R. 1 1 Hen. Ill, pt. 2, m. 5 ; Close, 1 1 Hen. Ill, m. 4.
* Turner, Pleas of the Forest, cxxiii-cxxiv ; Cox, Royal Fereits, 2-3, 26.
* Close, 46 Hen. Ill, m. 12. "> Close, 4 Hen. HI, m. 1 1.
2 22$ 29
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
therein were, as a rule, punishable by the common law and not by forest
jurisdiction.
In certain ways the chase of Enfield resembled Cranborne Chase
(Wiltshire and Dorset), so celebrated in the west of England. Cran-
borne had its outer and inner bounds, and in like manner there was at
Enfield the ancient Great Park (sometimes called le Frith), whilst
spreading out from it to the north-east and west was the much larger
outer park (parcus extrinsecus). In 1324, when Enfield was forfeited
to the crown, Edward II ordered Richard Pounz, keeper of Enfield
Park, to permit the prior of St. John of Jerusalem at Clerkenwell to take
five bucks between Midsummer and Michaelmas, and five does between
Michaelmas and Lent, yearly, with archers or dogs at his pleasure, in
the outer park, in accordance with the ancient grant of William de
Mandeville, earl of Essex. At the same time it was stated that this park
had always been held to be a member of the manor of Enfield.11
The name 'chase' (as applied to Enfield) first occurs, so far as we are
aware, in any public record, on the Close Rolls of 1326, when Richard
Pounz, keeper of Enfield Park, petitioned the king and council, stating
that Humphrey de Bohun, late earl of Essex, had granted to him for life
the custody of the park and chase of his manor of Enfield, receiving
yearly 15 quarters of rye and 30^. for wages for himself and his six men
keeping the park, but that since the manor was taken into the king's
hands on the forfeiture of the earl he had received the rye, but not
money.12
There are a few entries relative to Enfield Chase among the Domes-
tic State Papers of the reign of Henry VIII. The privy purse expenses
of September, 1530, include the payment of 30*. to the ranger and two
keepers of ' Endefelde Chace.' 13 The dockets of warrants for the king's
signature of the year 1535 contain one to the keepers of Waltham Forest
and Enfield Chase for killing a stag and six bucks for the emperor's
ambassador.1*
An elaborate ' Decree for the Comoners of Enfielde chace ' was set
forth by the crown in 1542. It is stated in the preamble that the decree
was called forth by constant complaints not only against his grace's
keepers and the chase tenants, but also against the borderers, as to the
waste and destruction of the woods and the deer, as well as divers other
trespasses and wrongs by them committed. The king, therefore, com-
manded the earl of Southampton, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,
with certain of the council of the duchy, to view the wood and game,
and to report as to the complaints. The result of the report was the
drawing up of a series of ordinances arranged under thirty-two heads.
The following is an abstract of the more important orders. The tenants
to have pannage for swine from Michaelmas to Martinmas ; hogs on the
chase to be ringed or pegged under a pain of 1 2d., half to go to the king
11 Close, 1 8 Edw. II, m. 33. In the Ministers' Accts. (bdle. 1148, No. 17) of the previous year
the receipts from Enfield manor, which had just come into the king's hands, are set down at £z I .
" Close, 19 Edw. II, m. 1 6. " L. and P. Hen. mi, v, 75 1. M Ibid, ix, 217.
226
FORESTRY
and half to the informer ; no hogs in the fence month ; all hogs and
swine to bear the owner's as well as the king's mark ; borderers' swine
to enter a quarter of a mile and no further ; and no keepers to keep
swine, and no foreigner's swine to enter. The master of the game, the
ranger, and the bailiffs to have their feewood as before ; no man to sell
any of the chase wood to any foreigner or to London ; no tenant or in-
habitant to cut any manner of wood for his own use save that assigned
him by the woodward ; no ' coates and hogsties ' to be allowed in the
chase, and such as there are to be pulled down ; horned beasts of two
years old and upwards to be marked by the woodward ; and foreigners'
beasts found in the chase to be pounded until fine fixed by the steward is
paid. The last order but one prohibits any wood-gatherer carrying into
the chase any ' bill hooke, hatchett, axe, or any other edge toole what-
soever,' under pain of i zd. The final order sets the unusually heavy
penalty of %s. 4^. on any such ' as gather greene boughes to sell to Lon-
don oute of any parte of the chace.' "
There are also some brief references to the chase during Elizabeth's
long reign. In 1575 John Turnpenny and William Killingworth were
committed to ward for hunting in Her Majesty's chase of Enfield, but
were released on the finding of sureties.18 In November, 1 600, a note
was taken of all the deer served by warrant or otherwise out of Enfield
Chase, in the west, east, and south bailiwicks ; from the recent audit held
at Allhallowtide, 1590-1600, the total number was forty-five bucks and
eighteen does.17
The timber of the chase is mentioned in a curious petition, pre-
sented about 1585 to the queen from John Taylor, asking licence to
export 400 tuns of beer annually for twelve years free of custom. The
petitioner pleaded that he had served her and her father beyond the seas
in the wars, and had received no recompense save thirty loads of wood
from Enfield Chase, value 30^."
Norden, writing of Enfield Chase in 1596, says : ' a solitary desert,
yet stocked with not less than 3,000 deere.' 19
During the reign of James I the notices of this royal chase are
more frequent. In April, 1603, a report was made to Secretary Cecil
as to an assembling of women at White Webbs, on Enfield Chase, to
maintain a right that the wood of the chase should not be carried out of
Enfield, but burnt in the king's house there, or else given to the poor.80
In July, 1608, a warrant was issued to pay John West, keeper of the
West Baily walk in Enfield Chase, £30 per annum for provision of hay
for the deer ; " this large amount shows that there was every intention
to maintain a considerable stock of fallow deer. In 1 6 1 1 the king gave
assurance under his sign manual in reply to a remonstrance of the knights
and gentlemen of Hertfordshire, that he would not disgrace his chase by
" Harl. MS. 368, fol. 104-6. " S.P. Dom. Eliz. cvi, 45.
17 Ibid, cclxxv, 113. " Ibid. Addenda, xxix, 68.
" Norden, Surv. tfMldd. 26. " S.P. Dom. Jas. I, i, 25.
" Ibid, xxxv, \. West died in 1639, whereupon Charles I granted this keepership to Ralph
Potter, with a like annual sum for providing hay.
227
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
inclosing any more land ; but an agreement was entered into between
the king's commissioners and the tenants of the chase for the inclosing
of 1 20 acres.83
A warrant for payment of £200 to Sir Robert Wroth and Sir John
Brett was signed in November, 1612, to distribute among such tenants
as pretended to a right in the waste lands of Enfield Chase, which had
been taken in to enlarge Theobalds Park.*3
William Graves, of East Barnet, entered into an obligation in
August, 1616, under pain of £20, to be true and faithful to the keeping
of the king's game and venery in His Majesty's chase of Enfield,
co. Middlesex." In the following year Sir Nicholas Salter, woodward
of the chase, was ordered to deliver trees, with tops and branches, for
repairs within the chase.*5
There was much disorder on the chase during the Commonwealth
period, particularly in regard to the killing and snaring of the deer and
destruction of the timber. The Council of State wrote to the Earl of
Salisbury in June, 1 649, to the effect that there could be no better way
to repress such disorders than by proceeding against rioters by common
law. The chiefest persons were known, and if they were indicted,
heavily fined, and the fine speedily levied, they would not, perhaps,
hereafter desire venison at so dear a rate. The earl was ordered to
proceed against all known offenders at the next sessions or assizes.*8 In
the following November the council had to deal with the embezzling
of timber trees marked out on Enfield Chase for Admiralty use.*7 A
report was presented in 1654 to the effect that there was destruction
of wood in Enfield Chase to the value of £2,000 ; the best trees were
being felled and the wood sold at very low rates.*8
On 30 August, 1654, an ordinance was passed for the immediate
sale of a third of Enfield Chase, for ready money. From the proceeds
of this sale, and of other forest lands in Nottinghamshire and Stafford-
shire, the arrears of payments to various officers and soldiers were to be
liquidated.*'
A survey made in 1650 showed that the chase had an extent of
7,904 acres, and its value was £4,742 8s. per annum. The deer, whose
numbers had greatly diminished during the civil strife, were valued at
£150 ; the oak timber, exclusive of 2,500 trees marked for the Navy, at
£2,100 ; and the hornbeam and other wood at £12,000.*°
In the same year as the survey the chase was sold in lots, with the
result that a considerable amount was speedily inclosed and houses built
thereon. This excited much wrath amongst many of the commoners,
resulting in riots attended by destruction of fences and buildings. The
riots were eventually suppressed in 1659, by a considerable military
force.31
" S.P. Dom. ]»3. I, bcvi, 63, 65, 77. * Ibid, luri, 43.
" Ibid. Ixxxviii, 47. * Ibid, xcii, 53.
* S.P. Dom. Commonwealth, ii, 191. " Ibid, xi, 192.
* Ibid, bun, 63. " Ibid. Ixxv, 341.
10 Lysons, Environs of London, ii, 286. " Ct. R. bdle. 94, No. 1371.
228
FORESTRY
After the Restoration the chase was re-established, much planting
done, and deer reintroduced. Among the Court Rolls at the Public
Record Office 32 is a large bundle of rolls and papers relative to the manor
of Enfield, extending from 1653 to 1716.
As soon as the Restoration was accomplished, the crown received
numerous applications for the office of keeper of the different walks of
the chase. Captain Thomas Pott was appointed keeper of Westbury
walk in August, i66o,3S and in October Captain William Barker obtained
the like office in the South Baily Walk.34 Samuel Norris, keeper of
the East Walk, petitioned for continuance for life in his place, to which
he had been ordained twenty-four years ago, having served the crown
for thirty years, but had been turned out by the usurper, and was then
disturbed by Mr. Hall, who pretended a patent from His Majesty.
Norris eventually gained his request, and Hall's appointment was
revoked."
Charles Lord Gerard was appointed ranger and chief keeper of
the chase and park of Enfield in 1660, inasmuch as the Earl of
Salisbury, the late holder of those offices, forfeited the same by the
destruction of the wood and deer, and by suffering the buildings to go
to decay.88
Not long after the Restoration, the tenants and inhabitants of the
manor of Enfield petitioned for leave to bring in a bill to Parliament to
inclose their common fields, raising a tax of zos. an acre for a fund to
set the poor to work ; they alleged that 200 or 300 poor families
removed thither and built cottages on the chase during the troubles,
and were gaining a livelihood by destroying and selling the wood.37
An effort was made in January, 1662, to restock the chase with
deer. A warrant was issued to the ' Masters of the Buck Hounds and
of the Toils ' to take such deer from the parks of the Earl of Essex,
Mrs. Sadler, Mr. Butler, and Sir Henry Blunt as they shall direct, and
convey them to Enfield Chase or elsewhere as ordered by Lord Gerard.38
At the court leet of 1 1 June, 1 679, there were several present-
ments for vert offences on the chase. William Sherwood of South
Mimms was fined 2os. for cutting and carrying away bushes and furze
out of Enfield Chase at several times ; two other offenders were fined
6s. 8</. each for cutting and carrying away underwood ; two others,
3-r. Afd. each ; and William Ducke 5*. for carrying off young trees.
The records of a court baron of 1689 are exceptionally interesting
as supplying a customary of the chases. The jury presented that the
tenants and inhabitants of Enfield, among other things, claimed to find
an able person to drive the chase for taking up strays thereupon after
warning given by the woodward and bailiff of the manor ; also the
right to take bushes in the chase to fence their grounds within the
parish, by appointment with the woodward, at the price of 8</. a load ;
" Hodson and Ford, Hist, of Enfield, 36-7 ; S.P. Dom. Commonwealth, cciii, 362, 368.
a S.P. Dom. Chas. II, xi, 105. " Ibid, xix, 81.
** Ibid, ziii, 15. See also xliv, 38 ; zlviii, 8z ; and xcviii, 46.
M Ibid, xxxv, 57 ; xlvi, 6. " Ibid, xxii, 153. K Ibid, xlix, 3*.
229
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
also the right to take bushes, stakes, and heather, without appointment
with the woodward or keeper of the chase, for the fences bordering on
the chase, without paying anything for the same.
The jury further presented that the tenants of the manor from time
out of mind had all trees standing and adjoining so near their grounds
that a horse and a pack could not go between ; that the copyholders
had sufficient timber allowed them for repairing their houses out of the
chase if they had none within their own ground ; that the copyholders
and all lawful commoners had clay, gravel, and fern for their necessary
uses ; that the tenants, time out of mind, received a load of the wood
on St. George's Day, being the view day, for their pains, which the
keepers felled yearly on the chase for the browse of the deer ; also
so much of the browse wood as should be necessary for their fuel at the
old accustomed price of 8</. ; also decayed and ' doted ' trees at 2s. the
load ; also rotten wood, crabs, acorns, and the roots of felled trees for
necessary fuel without payment ; and that the commoners might turn
out what cattle they thought fit, without stint, on the chase. Moreover
timber had to be provided from the chase for public bridges and for rails
within the manor. The tenants by custom received annually from the
steward a buck and a doe in their respective seasons. Another in-
teresting custom was that all tenants were permitted to plant trees for
the safeguarding of their houses, and that they and their heirs were
entitled to the lop of such trees as they had planted.
The largest oak then standing on the chase was felled in 1766 ;
the bole measured 30 ft. long and contained about three tons of timber ;
the diameter of the butt end was 3 ft. The price was only jTio.
Reverting to the more general consideration of the wooded parks
of the county, Sexton's map of 1575 shows two parks and the chase of
Enfield, as well as the parks of ' Mariburne ' (Marylebone) and Hyde.
Norden's survey of the county, 1 596, is full of praise of the noble and
well-timbered parks of Middlesex, and enumerates ten that belonged
to Her Majesty, namely St. James's, Hyde, Marylebone, Hunsworth,
' Hemton,' Hampton Court (2), Enfield (2), and Twickenham; the
last, however, of these had been recently disparked.89
With regard to the two parks of Enfield, the one was the ancient
Great Park or Frith, the parcus intrinsecus from which the outer bounds
of the chase radiated. The survey of 1650, the results of which so far
as the chase was concerned have already been cited, gave the area of the
park as 553 acres, 74 of which were in the parish of Edmonton; the
oaks numbered 1,246, exclusive of 397 marked for the Navy; and the
hornbeam and other trees 508. The other was the new or Little Park
adjoining Enfield House (taken out of the chase), which was conveyed
to the Crown by the Earl of Rutland. It was here that the children
of Henry VIII, Edward and Elizabeth, long resided. This park, of
375 acres, was sold by Charles I in 1641 to the Earl of Pembroke.*
" Norden, Sttrv. ofM'idd. (ed. 1723), 14.
" Lysons, Environs of Land, ii, 291, 297 ; Shirley, Deer Parks, 55.
230
40
FORESTRY
HYDE PARK
Hyde Park, which was cultivated ground known as the manor of
Eia at the time of the Domesday Survey, was in the hands of subjects
from the days of the Conqueror to those of Henry VIII. The latter
king in 1532 effected an exchange of lands with the abbot and convent
of Westminster, whereby the monks secured the early dissolved priory
lands of Poughley, Berkshire, in exchange for about 100 acres in
Westminster which were formed into St. James's Park. In 1536
Henry VIII gave the abbey the lands of the priory of Hurley, Berkshire,
in exchange for the manors of Eyebury, Eabury or Ebury (which
included the part afterwards known as Hyde Park), Neyte, and Tod-
dington. There is no doubt that the king wanted these manors, so
closely adjacent to his palace of Westminster, for hunting purposes.
The manor of Hyde was speedily inclosed and made a park, with
sufficiently high fences to restrain the deer with which it was stocked.*1
The transference to the king of the ' sayte, sayle, circuyte, and
procyncte of the manor of Hyde ' is recited at length in an Act passed
for the purpose of assuring to the crown this manor and the other adja-
cent property of the abbey of Westminster.49 Hyde Park was then of
much greater extent, for it included the portion taken to add to Kensing-
ton Gardens, as well as a good deal of land now built over at Hyde Park
Corner; it comprised about 620 acres instead of the 361 acres of the
present day. Special keepers were speedily assigned to it ; payments
made to two keepers of c Hide Park,' named Edward Free and George
Roper, occur in the King's Accounts of I544.43 The two keepers
occupied separate lodges, the one on the site of Apsley House, and the
other in the centre of the park in a building long known as the Old
Lodge, which was pulled down when the Serpentine was formed.44
The park was used as a hunting-ground in the reigns of Edward VI,
Mary, Elizabeth, and James I. In June, 1550, the boy king here enter-
tained a special embassy from France, who had crossed the seas to obtain
the ratification of the treaty ceding Boulogne for 400,000 crowns. A
letter from the lords of the council to the English ambassador at Paris
says,' Upon Tuesday the king's Majesty had them on hunting in Hyde Park,
and that night they supped with his Highness in the Privy Chamber.' 45
Queen Elizabeth was also ready to entertain her guests, after like
fashion, with sport in Hyde Park. The Talbot Papers, in a letter from
Gilbert Talbot to the Earl of Shrewsbury in February, 1578, record the
entertainment offered to Count Casimir, son of the Elector Palatine : —
My Lord of Leicester also hath given him dyvers other thynges, as geldynges,
hawks and hounds, crosse-bowes, &c. ... for he delyghteth greatly in huntynge and
can chouse his wynter deere very well. He kylled a barren doe with his pece this
other daye in Hyde Parke from amongst ccc other deere.46
41 Ashton, Hyde Park, from Domes Jay to Date (i%<)6),i-%. " Stat. of Realm, 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 49.
tt L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix (i), 368. " Larwood, The Story of the Land. Parks, i, 9.
44 Tytler, Edto. VI and. Mary, i, 288. * Lodge, lllui. of Brit. Hilt, ii, 205.
231
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
In 1553 Roger was succeeded in the keepership by Francis Nevell,
who held it singlehanded for twenty-one years. His actual fee was only
Afd, a day, but the patent of appointment secured for him pasture rights for
twelve cows, one bull, and six oxen, together with certain other profits
accruing to the office. In 1574 Queen Elizabeth appointed Henry
Carey, first Lord Hunsdon, an associate keeper with Nevell ; he was to
receive the like sum of ^d. a day and all the herbage, pannage, and
browsewood for the deer. At the death of Nevell he was to be sole
keeper at 8d. a day. During Nevell's keepership, namely, in 1570, forty
acres of land on the Knightsbridge side were added to the park and railed
in, the grass therein being reserved to be mown for hay for the deer in
winter. Nevell died before Lord Hunsdon, and when the latter died, in
1596, he was succeeded by his fourth son, Sir Edward Carey, in the
office of keeper of Hyde Park at 8</. a day and without any associate.
The chief lodge and mansion, with the herbage and pannage attached to
it, was reserved for his mother, the Lady Anne Hunsdon. Sir Edward
Carey was succeeded in the keepership in 1 607 by Robert Cecil, Earl of
Salisbury. Cecil had a colleague assigned him in 1610 in Sir Walter
Cope, with benefit of survivorship. Sir Walter Cope, Master of the
Wards and Chamberlain to the Exchequer, was a considerable landowner
in Kensington ; he built the centre portion and turrets of Holland House.
On Lord Salisbury's death in 1612, Sir Walter surrendered the keeper-
ship of Hyde Park in favour of his son-in-law, Sir Henry Rich, who was
subsequently created Earl of Holland, and beheaded by the Parliament in
1 649."
The accounts of the Board of Works for 1582 contain the entry of
a payment when the Duke of Anjou and his court were in England, ' for
making of two new standings in Marybone (Regent's Park) and Hyde
Park, for the Queen's Majesty and the noblemen of France to see the
hunting.'48 Norden, writing in 1596, alludes to the * princely stands '
that he noted in Hyde Park.4'
The deer of this park were well-maintained during the reign of
James I. In a 1607 list of nine royal parks, out of each of which four
bucks were to be taken, the parks of Hyde, Enfield Chase, Richmond,
and Hampton are included. A letter of the king in the following year
states that he was pleased to bestow upon the ambassadors of France,
Spain, Venice, and the States of the Low Countries, certain bucks for their
sport during the time of his absence on progress, and to permit them to
come to the parks (Hyde Park being one) and kill a brace of bucks with
hounds or bow if they should think fit. At the same time James gave
directions for the bestowing of a brace of bucks on the farmers of the
Customs and the tellers of the Exchequer ; to find this supply a brace
each were to be taken, inter a/ia, from the parks of Hyde and Enfield
Chase, and from the Little Park of Enfield.'0
" Larwood, The Story of the London Parks, i, 10-15. " Ashton, Hyde Park, 10.
" Norden, Survey of Mid J. and Herts. 19.
M S.P. Dom. Jas. I, jucxix, 41, 73.
232
FORESTRY
A distribution of fat venison, made by order of Charles I in 1639 to
the foreign ambassadors, included three bucks to the French ambassador,
one of which came from Hyde Park."
In the reign of James I Westminster Palace was supplied with water
from springs in Hyde Park ; a grant was made by the king in 1617 to
the Earl of Suffolk of liberty to have a small pipe for the conveyance of
water to Suffolk House inserted in the main pipe from Hyde Park to
Westminster Palace."
In the same year the crown granted to one Hector Johnson, for
service to the Electress Palatine, a lease of the waste ground called Hay
Hill, near Hyde Park, and of another plot near Hyde Park Corner, with
power to build thereon.68
In 1619 the park was the scene of a serious poaching affray, when
two or three poachers were caught shooting the deer at night. They
were executed at Hyde Park Gate ; even a poor labourer who had been
hired to hold their dogs for 1 6d. shared their fate."
The deer of Marylebone Park suffered much from great rains in the
winter of 1624—5 > on 12 January a warrant was issued to the keepers of
Hyde Park to cause three brace of bucks to be taken and conveyed to
Marylebone on that account. At the same time another warrant was
served on the master of the toils to cause the toils (nets) to be sent to
Hyde Park for that service."
Londoners may be thankful to Charles I for the initiation of one
great boon, namely, the opening of Hyde Park as a pleasure ground to
the public, an act of grace which was not extorted by any pressure.
The exact date of this concession is not known, but it was certainly
before 1635. On 23 April of that year two Leicestershire gentlemen,
John Prettyman and John Havers, agreed to run a match with their
horses for £100 each, between the hours of 9 and 10 in the forenoon.
They were to start ' at the upper lodge and to run the usual way from
thence over the lower bridge unto the ending place at the Park Gate.'
The words ' usual way ' show that races were at this date common on
this course. A comedy produced in 1637 by James Shirley, under the
title ' Hyde Park,' has a race as the principal incident. The author
states that this play was written at the suggestion of Henry, Earl of
Holland, the keeper, and that he had been ' made happy by his smile
when it was presented after a long silence upon first opening of the
park.' From this play it is obvious that considerable crowds gathered
at this period to see the horse-racing and other sports in the park. One
of the episodes is a foot-race. A milkmaid goes round amongst the people
crying ' Milk of a red cow,' whilst the more fashionable company par-
take of syllabub laced with sack. Other parts of the play show the rural
character of much of the park ; birds are singing * on every tree,' whilst
the nightingale and the cuckoo obtain particular mention."
!1 Cox, Royal Forests, 78.
" S.P. Dora. Jas. I, xc, 123. Three years later the dean and chapter of Westminster obtained a
like permission. " Ibid. 142. M Ibid, ex, 133, 149.
* Ibid, clxxxi, 48. " Larwood, The Story of the London Parks, 21-3.
2 233 30
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Charles I took special care of the Hyde Park deer ; he revoked the
various warrants of his father granting water from the springs to par-
ticular inhabitants and for the general use of the city of Westminster, by
writ of King's Bench, on complaint of the keepers that the ponds were
so drained that there was not water enough for the deer, notwithstanding
that the inhabitants stated by petition that they knew the ponds to
be full."
At the beginning of the Civil War, when fortune appeared to be
favouring the Royalists, London was alarmed, and in March, 1643,
Parliament ordered that the City and its immediate suburbs should be
surrounded by a great earthen rampart, with bastions and redoubts.
The work was begun with much energy in the following May, and
included a large square fort, with four bastions, on the site of the present
Hamilton Place, Piccadilly, which was at that date within the extreme
limits of the park on that side.68 The fort at Hyde Park Corner stood
for four years ; it was demolished in 1 647, by order of Parliament, as
there was no further dread of attack. A guard was also established in
1643 at tne north-east corner of the park, to keep a close watch on all
those taking the Oxford Road, and several important arrests were made
within its precincts.
The park suffered much from the excitement of the times. The
House of Commons ordered in 1 643
that the officers and soldiers at the courts of guard be required not to permit any to
cut down trees or wood in Hyde Park, and not to suffer any such persons as go out
to the works to cut wood in the park, or to bring any from thence but by warrant
from the committee appointed for that ordinance.69
The committee referred to in this order was one recently
appointed
in regard of the extraordinary want of fuel, to see to the cutting down of the under-
wood within sixty miles of London in the king's and queen's parks, as well as in those
belonging to any bishops, prebendaries, deans or chapters, and to distribute the same
among the poor.80
In 1645, wnen Puritanism was at its height, orders were given
that Hyde Park and Spring Gardens should be kept shut, and no person allowed to go
into any of those places on the Lord's day, fast and thanksgiving days, and hereof those
that have the keeping of the said places are to take notice and see this order obeyed,
as they will answer to the contrary at their uttermost peril.61
Several events of importance occurred within the precincts of Hyde
Park during the Commonwealth strife. On 6 August, 1647, l^e ^ar~
liamentary forces under Fairfax, between whom and the Common
Council of London there had been serious ill feeling, which was now
allayed, marched three deep into Westminster on their way to the City
with laurel branches in their hats ; and in Hyde Park they were formally
" Larwood, Tie Story of the London Parks, 1 8.
M Perfect Diurnal, 24 Apr.-i May, 1643 ; Gardiner, Hut. of the Great Civil War, i, 52, 98. See
the plan of these fortifications in Maitland, Hist, of Land, i, 369.
a Commons' Journ. iii, 267. * Weekly Acct. 4 Oct. 1643. * Lords' Jourti. vii.
214
FORESTRY
received and welcomed by the lord mayor and aldermen on horse-
back." In December of the following year, Lord Essex and Colonel
Lambert encamped with their forces in this park ; and it was here also
that Cromwell, on 9 May, 1649, reviewed his regiment of Ironsides,
together with Fairfax's regiment of horse, and made his memorable appeal
to the Levellers.'3
A great milit? y pageant was held in the park on 31 May, 1650,
to celebrate the return of Oliver Cromwell from the terrible wars in
Ireland. The Protector was met on Hounslow Heath by members of
Parliament and officers of the army, and as he passed through Hyde
Park on his way to Whitehall, the great guns fired salutes, and Colonel
Backstead's regiment fired a volley."
Soon after the execution of Charles I, Hyde Park was seized by
the state as part of the crown lands. A survey was taken in 1652,
when the park's area was declared to be 620 acres of the annual
value of £894 13.;. 8</., and the timber was valued at the great sum of
£4,779 igj. 6d., and the deer at £3°°- The park was divided into
lots and sold to various purchasers, producing the sum of £17,068 6s. 8</.,
including the deer and the timber ; 65 and to this sum the wood and
underwood" contributed £5,099 igs. 6d.
But although much of the park was now in private hands, it con-
tinued to be frequented. In the year following the sale, Evelyn wrote
in his diary, under 1 1 April : ' I went to take the air in Hyde Park,
where every coach was made to pay a shilling, and horse sixpence, by
the sordid fellow who had purchased it of the State, as they were
called.' n
The park was by no means all gloom under the Commonwealth.
A letter-writer of the time states that on May-day, 1654 :
Great resorts came to Hyde Park, many hundreds of coaches and gallants in
attire, but most shameful powder'd hair men, and painted and spotted women. Some
men played with a silver ball and some took other recreation. But his Highness the
Lord Protector was not hither, nor any of the Lords of the Council, but were busy
about the great affairs of the Commonwealth.68
The Protector, however, was present on that May-day, and appeared
keenly to enjoy the sports, as we learn from another source. In
company with many of his Privy Council he watched a great hurling
match by fifty Cornish gentlemen against fifty others. ' The ball they
played withal was silver, and designed for that party which did win the
goal.' n
Later in the same year, namely on 29 September, Cromwell went
into Hyde Park to enjoy a small picnic dinner under the trees with
Secretary Thurloe, and attended by a few servants. Afterwards he
" Rushworth, Hist. Coll. vii, 756. " Perfect Occurrences, 4-1 1 May, 1649.
64 Larwood, Story of the Land. Parks, \, 34-5. ** Lysons, Environs ofLond. ii, 182.
" Rutton, 'Making of Kensington Gardens' in Home Counties Mag. vi, 149.
67 Evelyn, Diary, i, 284. M Gen. Proc. ofParl. 27 Apr.~4 May, 1654.
" Moderate Iniell. 26 Apr.~4 May, 1654.
235
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
desired to try a fine new team of six grey horses which the Earl of
Oldenburg had lately sent him. Cromwell drove with success for some
time, but using the whip too freely, he lost control of the team, which
plunging threw him off the box on to the pole, ' dragging him by the
foot for some time so that a pistol went off in his pocket to the amaze-
ment of men.' As a result of this accident, he was let blood and con-
fined to his house for several days.70
The Protector's life was subsequently again endangered in Hyde
Park from a very different cause. During the trial of Miles Sindercombe
for shooting at Cromwell at Shepherd's Bush in February, 1656, it was
deposed by one of his accomplices that
They [the conspirators] went out several times for the purpose of shooting him, and
having received notice from one of the Troope of his Highness's Lifeguards that he
would be in the Park on a certain day, they went thither heavily armed, and that
the hinges of the Park gate were filed in in order to facilitate their escape. . . . That
when his Highness rode into the Park he alighted and speaking to Cecill asked whose
horse that was he rode upon, Sindercombe being then outside the Park ; that Cecill
was then ready to have done it, but doubted the fleetness of his horse, he having a
cold.71
Another incident of a very different kind that happened in the
park during the Commonwealth is recorded by Evelyn, after a very terse
fashion, as occurring on 20 May, 1658. He says : ' I went to a coach
race in Hyde Park, and collationed in Spring Garden.' 7S
In April, 1660, some six weeks before the recall of Charles II,
towards which General Monk was so assiduously scheming, a great
review of the trained bands and their auxiliaries was held in Hyde
Park, when a force of about 20,000 men marched past a ' spacious
fabric ' in the centre of the Park, wherein the lord mayor, the court
of aldermen, and the Commissioners for the Militia were seated in
state.73 On May-day the park was crowded with a gay throng in antici-
pation of the coming return of the monarchy, and on 29 May occurred
the triumphant entry of the long-banished king. Ere the year closed
Charles II held a review in Hyde Park of 20,000 of the re-modelled
trained bands and of 800 cavalry.7*
The references to the gaiety of Hyde Park during the reign of
Charles II, particularly on May-day, by the diarists Evelyn and Pepys
are far too numerous for citation.
It must not, however, be supposed that the fashionable folk of the
time were in the habit of taking the air throughout the whole or any
considerable part of the park. There was an inner circle in the centre
of its northern half known as the ' Ring,' round which it was the custom
to ride and drive. Sometimes this circle was known as the 'Tour,' a
term cited by Pepys. The origin of this Ring is unknown, but it has
been conjectured that it was a remnant of the gardens attached to the
old Banqueting House.7'
"> Carlyle, Cromwell, iv, 22-3. " Mercuritu PoRtieus, 15-21 Jan. 1657.
n Diary, i, 327. n Mereuriiu Political, 19-26 Apr. 1660.
" Stow, Survey (Strype's ed.), iii, 571. " Larwood, Story of the Lond, Parks, 58-9.
236
FORESTRY
Hyde Park, at the Restoration, was included among the resumeu
crown lands. It was replenished with deer and surrounded with a brick
wall in the place of the former pales. This wall stood until 1726, when
a new and higher wall, 8 ft. on the outside, was erected. Iron railings
were first introduced in 1828."
In June, 1660, Charles II granted the custody of Hyde Park to his
youngest brother, the Duke of Gloucester, at a salary of 8*/. a day,77 but
he died of the small pox within a few months of his appointment, and
in September Colonel John Hamilton, who gave his name to Hamilton
Place, was appointed in his stead.77
The purchaser of the Kensington division of the Park, at the sale of
1652, was one John Tracey, who gave £3,906 js. bd. for the lot,
including the timber. In September, 1660, Tracey petitioned the crown,
begging to be allowed to retain two houses which he had built on the
road at Knightsbridge to save him from ruin. He stated that he had
been for thirty-eight years a merchant in the United Provinces, and
returning in 1652, ignorant of affairs, was induced to buy part of the
crown lands in Hyde Park, but he had not cut down the timber and had
never been engaged in hostilities.78 In 1662 Charles II consented to
dispark certain portions of the park, at the Kensington end, in favour of
Solicitor-general Finch.79
In April, 1 664, a grant was made by the crown to James Hamilton,
park ranger, and to John Birch, auditor of excise, of 55 acres of land on
the borders of Hyde Park, to be planted with apple trees for apples or
cider, reserving a right of way from Westminster to Kensington, on con-
dition of their inclosing and planting the ground at their own expense,
paying a rental of £5, and giving half the apples or the cider for the use
of the king's household. The apples were to consist chiefly of golden
pippins and redstreaks.80
The custom of charging for the admission of coaches and horsemen
to Hyde Park, introduced during the Commonwealth, was continued to
a large extent when the park was resumed by the crown. James Hamilton,
the ranger, was ordered, in April, 1664, to water the passage from the
gate to where the coaches resorted in the park, to avoid the annoyance
of dust, the expense to be borne by a charge of 6d. on each coach ; at
the same time he was instructed to prevent all horses entering the park
save such as have gentlemen or livery servants on them.91
Many particulars might be given as to the use of Hyde Park during
the centuries following the Restoration, such as military reviews, royal
birthday celebrations, robberies, duels, or executions — but such details
can readily be found in various well-known works on London.
A number of deer remained in the park until the year 1831; but they
never roamed at large throughout the park after the Restoration, being
penned off in a large inclosure in the north-west corner, termed Buckdean
Ti Larwood, S/ory of the Land. Parks, 73. " S.P. Dom. Chas. II, v, 75.
" Ibid, xvii, 64. " Ibid, lii, 13, 114.
80 Pat. 16 Chas. II, pt. 18, m. 7 ; S.P. Dom. Chas. II, xcvii, 23.
* S.P. Dom. Chas. II, xcvii, 63.
237
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
j.ii\l or the Deer Paddock. The last known occasion of royal sport in the
park occurred on 9 September, 1768, as recorded in The Public Advertiser
of 1 2 September : —
Same day, their Serene Highnesses the two Princes of Saxe Gotha, and many
other Foreigners of Distinction, together with a great number of our own Nobility
and Gentry, attended the Diversion of Deer Shooting in Hyde Park, which continued
all the Evening until Dark, when one was at last killed, after being shot at ten
Times. What rendered it so difficult to kill him was the Hardship of getting him
from among the Deer ; and no other was allowed to be shot but this one : Several
wagers were won and lost upon this Occasion.
There is one great feature of Hyde Park which ought not to be
passed over in silence, for it has added so materially to its beauties and to
the enjoyment of its frequenters for nearly two centuries ; we allude to
the great piece of water known as the Serpentine. Queen Caroline, in
1730, conceived the idea of improving the appearance of both Hyde
Park and Kensington Gardens, by draining the various pools and by
increasing the volume of the little stream of Westbourne — which came
down from Hampstead and flowed sluggishly through the park to the
Thames, and widening it into a lake of some forty acres. This lake was
named the Serpentine, or the Serpentine River ; its outline has been con-
siderably straightened from time to time since its first formation. The
operations then conducted were officially termed the 'laying the Six
Ponds in Hyde Park into one.' Mr. Rutton's recent diligence88 has
brought to light full details as to cost and nature of this undertaking. A
highly interesting feature was the care taken in the transplanting of
trees, as shown by the following items : —
For grubbing up in several places and drawing up upon the hill out of the way
of the water line 105 large Oaks, Elms, and Willows at ^d. each, £21.
For grubbing up several small Oaks in the Grove, £3 IOJ.
For 900 Cube yards of Earth dug and carted to the south side of the Ponds to
fill up a line for the planting of 2O large Elms at <)d. per yard, ^33 i$s.
For the charge of taking up the said 2O Elms, with large balls, and carrying
them from the several parts to the place of planting, in doing of which and setting
each was used generally 1 8 horses and 60 men making up large stools to place them
in, and making up the pans several times after they were broke down by the carts
and horses, at £2 los. per tree, £50.
For Watering Cart to water the trees at 5*. a day, and for a Labourer attending
the same at 2od. a day for 152 days between the beginning of April and the 20th day
of November, 1731, £50 13*. 4^.
For charges about the 20 large Elms new planted, viz., to Joseph Banister for a
new sledge for drawing the trees, and repairing it, ^3 4*. ; William Watkins for smiths
work in mending and repairing the Chains, 281. ; Henry Skene, carpenter, for Oak
Boxes for the trees and Deals and in taking 'em up, £35 3*. Sd. And to Mark Coll-
berd for Ropes, Wax, Pitch, Tallow, Oakham, Straw, &c., used about the Trees,
and for Hayseed to sow the Slopes, £8 19;. "]d. In all as by Bills and Receipts,
£48 15*. 3</.
The total expenditure incurred in making the Serpentine amounted to
Five years later it was found necessary to strengthen the dam at
Knightsbridge, and to improve the outlet of the water, the total cost of
* Rutton, 'The Making of the Serpentine,' He/at Countiti Mag. (1903), v, 81-91, 183-95.
238
FORESTRY
which amounted to £2,606 13^. Rennie's bridge across the Serpentine
was erected at a great cost (said in a letter to the Times to be £100,000)
in 1826. Eight years after the building of the bridge, namely in 1834,
occurred the change in the source from which the water was drawn.
The old brook of Westbourne had become befouled with sewage, and
brought much filth into the Serpentine ; the stream was therefore turned
into a large culvert and since that date the water has been supplied from
a changing and complex system of waterworks.
The Round Pond of Kensington Gardens was first supplied with
water in 1728."
ST. JAMES'S PARK
The origin of St. James's Park, in 1532, has already been stated.
Henry VIII stocked it with deer, and their numbers were well main-
tained throughout the century. A foreign visitor in 1598 wrote of St.
James's Park : ' In this park is great plenty of deer.' 8* It is generally
stated that Charles II added 36 acres, gained by purchase, to its area: but
it is more correct to call this addition, which ran up into Piccadilly, the
Green Park, though at first styled ' Upper St. James's Park.' This small
park was inclosed with a brick wall in i667.85
The deer of St. James's Park disappeared about the beginning of the
Commonwealth trouble, but in 1652 when Hyde Park was sold, the
House of Commons ordered that 'James's Park should be spared and
restocked with deer from the parks of Hampton and Bushey.86
Evelyn, writing in 1665, says that he noted in St. James's Park ' deer
of several countries, white spotted like leopards, antelopes, an elk, red
deer, roebucks and staggs.' " In Kip's view of St. James's, taken in 1714,
deer are shown in a park beyond the Mall.
The present area of St. James's Park is 93 acres, and of the Green
Park 52 J acres.
KENSINGTON GARDENS
The origin of Kensington Gardens, with the present area of 274!
acres, has given rise to much dispute and to a multiplicity of erroneous
statements. The fact is, as has already been stated, that Charles II in
1662 disparked certain parts of Hyde Park at the Kensington end, in
favour of Secretary Finch, who afterwards became earl of Nottingham.
William III, however, bought back Nottingham House with its extensive
grounds in 1689, making it his favourite London residence. Hence it
became known as Kensington Palace.
The difficulties as to the story of the founding of Kensington Gar-
dens have recently been much simplified by the researches of Mr. Rutton.88
He points out that the area of Hyde Park apportioned to be sold in 1652
was 621-83 acres, but the acreage to-day (including the Serpentine) is
" Rutton, 'The Making of the Serpentine,' Home Counties Mag. (1903), v, 81 et seq. and 183 et seq.
" Hentzner, Travels, 34. M Larwood, Lond. Parks, ii, 25-6.
16 Ibid. 78-9. •' Evelyn, Memoirs, i, 356.
* Rutton, 'The Making of Kensington Gardens,' Home Counties Mag. (1904), vi, 145-59, 222-3'
239
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
3 68 '44. The park has therefore only lost 253*39 acres, and as its
boundaries north, east, and south are nearly the same as formerly, the loss
must necessarily therefore have chiefly occurred on the western or Ken-
sington side. As at the sale of 1652 the Kensington portion (the largest
of the five divisions) comprised 177-36 acres, Mr. Rutton, from his study
of accounts and particulars at the Record Office, concludes that Queen
Anne caused about 100 acres to be appropriated from the park for the
Palace Gardens, and that George I was responsible for annexing most of
the remainder, which could not have exceeded 150 acres.8* Queen
Caroline's own contributory work to Kensington Gardens seems to have
been confined to the completion of the work left unfinished by George I,
though she has been credited by Lysons and Faulkner with having filched
some 200 or 300 acres from Hyde Park.
It was probably, however, Queen Caroline who "caused the stately
Broad Walk to be laid out, in its final form, as a gravelled road, 60 ft.
wide, between four rows of elms ; but as Mr. Rutton points out,80 Queen
Anne seems to have been its originator.
The elm is more especially the tree of Kensington Gardens than of
any other of our London Parks ; at least ninety per cent, of the Ken-
sington trees being of that species. It has been said that several of the
giant elms of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park are 350 years old.
But the best judges are sceptical as to this ; it is probable that very few
of even the most carefully tended English elms attain to an age of more
than two centuries. The elm is an essentially dangerous tree, both on
account of its liability to be blown over through the roots spreading over
the surface of the soil (instead of penetrating deeply like the oak), and
because of the great brittleness of the wood, which causes the occa-
sional sudden falling of large boughs. A young woman lost her life in
Kensington Gardens in 1906 through the latter cause. Hence a very
careful survey of the timber was made, and a large number of the veteran
elms were pollarded during the winter of 1906— 7."
MARYLEBONE OR REGENT'S PARK
In 1541, when Henry VIII was busily engaged in extending his
hunting grounds in the immediate vicinity of London, he acquired divers
lands belonging to the prebendal manor of Rugmere for the enlarging of
' Marybone Park in the county of Middlesex,' in lieu of which land the
king secured the parsonage of Throwley, Kent, to the prebendary and his
successors by a private Act of Parliament of that year." In 1544 the king
" In fact it may have been less, as a triangular slip of Hyde Park covering 22 acres was taken into
Kensington Gardens in 1872. Mr. Rutton's final conclusion is that 231-39 acres were taken from the
park by Queen Anne and George I, and that in all probability about 66-36 acres were originally
attached to the palace, having been purchased by William III. Home Counties Mag. vi, 126 ».
90 Home Counties Mag. vi, 227.
" A child was killed in these gardens on I May, 1903, through the blowing over of an elm tree
during a slight gale.
" Davies, 'The Prebendal Manor of Rugmere,' in Home Counties Mag. iv, 24; L. and P. Hen. Vlll,
xv, 217.
240
FORESTRY
secured further lands in the same district, exchanging the manor of Tyburn
for other property with Thomas Hobson. The district of Marylebone or
Tyburn used to be well-wooded, and included a considerable park.9"
Queen Mary in 1554 gave orders for the five or six hundred acres
which formed Marylebone Park to be disparked ; but this order must
have been revoked or disregarded, for it was certainly used as a hunting
ground by Queen Elizabeth.9* In 1582 an entry in the accounts of the
Board of Works records a payment ' for making of two new standings in
Marybone and Hyde Park for the Queens Majesty and the noblemen of
France to see the hunting.' n This was on the occasion of the visit to
England of the duke of Anjou, Elizabeth's suitor, with a considerable train
of the French nobility. During the winter of 1600-1 Marylebone Park
provided good sport for the ambassador from Russia and other Musco-
vites ; they rode to ''Marybone Park ' and there hunted at their pleasure.98
When James I, in 1611, granted the manor of Marylebone to
Mr. Forset the park was reserved. It continued in the possession of the
crown until 1646, when it was granted to Sir George Strode and John
Wandsford as security for a debt of £2,318 i is. yd. incurred in providing
ammunition and other military stores for the Royalists. It was sold by
the Commonwealth for £13,215, including £130 for the deer (of which
there were 124 of all sorts) and £1,779 ^or timber, exclusive of 2,976
trees which were reserved for the navy. The park must therefore have
been magnificently wooded in its prime. At the Restoration Strode and
Wansford were reinstated and held the park until the debt was paid. No
attempt, however, was made to form it again into a single park, or to
restock it with deer. Various crown leases fell in during the Regency,
and the old lands of Marylebone Park began to be laid out in 1 8 1 2 on
an elaborate scale by Mr. Nash, and have henceforth been known by the
name of Regent's Park." Regent's Park, with Primrose Hill, covers an
area of 274^ acres.
At the dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII founded the brief-
lived bishopric of Westminster, assigning the county of Middlesex to it
for a diocese, and bestowing on it a part of the lands of the dissolved
abbey, of which the manor and advowson of Hampstead formed part.
At this time there is evidence that a considerable part of the woods
of Hampstead as well as of Highgate and Hornsey were in full vigour,
and harboured game other than deer. A proclamation was issued by
Henry VIII shortly before his death, that
noe person interrupt the King's game of hare, partridge, pheasant and heron
preserved in and about his house at his palace of Westminster for his own disport
and pastime ; that is to saye, from his said palace of Westminster to St. Gyles in the
Fields, and from thence to Islington to or Lady of the Oke, to Highgate, to Hornsey
Parke, to Hamsted Heath, and from thence to his said palace of Westminster to be
preserved and kept for his owne disport, pleasure and recreation.98
" Nichols, Queen ERx. Progresses M Arch, xviii, 180. * Ashton, HjJt Park, 10.
96 Ibid. w Clinch, Marylebone and St. Pancrai (i 890), 5, 6, 48, 50.
*" White, Hampsteari and iti jtiiociatioin, 24.
2 24I 3t
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The woods of Hampstead continued to flourish during the reigns of
Edward VI and his two sisters, reaching on the east to the village now
known as Kentish Town, and spreading on the west by Belsize and past
the Adelaide road to St. John's Wood. With King James Hampstead
was a favourite hunting ground ; the plateau on the West Heath, known
as King's Hill, is said to be the place whence that king was wont to see
the hounds throw off."
The district of St. John's Wood was so called after its former
possessors, the English priors of St. John of Jerusalem, who had their
head quarters at Clerkenwell. These woodlands were originally known
as Great St. John's Wood, to distinguish them from a Little St. John's
Wood at Highbury.100
The Order of Hospitallers or Knights of St. John was suppressed
by Henry VIII in 1540. Great St. John's Wood was then for a time
entrusted to the keepership of John Conway. Certain papers among
the Forest Accounts at the Public Record Office for 1541—2 show that
the wood had been well maintained by the priory authorities, and that
large quantities of timber and underwood were immediately sold when
it came into the hands of the crown : —
Accent of John Conway Esq 101 late keeper of the same Woode Aswell of and
for all suche woodes and underwoodes there by hym solde By the vertue of ij severall
warrauntes beneth specified to hym in that bihalf directed Anno Regni Regis Hen. 8
328 and also for certeyne lodes of wood in the same yere delyued forthe of the said
wood to the kinges Ma'« use, as of all and all manor of paymts costes and expences by
the foresaid John Conway had made paid and employed the foresaid xxxiid yere in and
about the making carryage and fensyng. And also for the making of new gates wthin
the said wood As hereafter pertyclarly within the same accompt more playnely
aperithe
50 lodes of polewood and talwood to the Earl of Sussex by warrant of 14 July
© 2/2 a lode 108/4
298 lodes of underwood called bushe baven103 sold to divers persons $ i^d. a
lode under warrant of 19 July £,17 7*. 8</.
50 lodes of like bushe baven sold to Geffrey P'st of Westminster by warrant
above at 13!^. a lode lesse in the holl l\d. 57*. 6d.
Of £30 2s. ifd. comyng and rysinge of and for the price of 278 lodes of pole
wood and talwood fallen and cut downe within the saide wood not receyved for that
the said 278 lodes were delyured forthe of the said wood to the keper of the palice of
Westmynster, to the kinges Heignes use as the foresaid John Conway sayethe.
Sum of the lodes sold 398 Talwood 50
of the money ^25 8s. 6d. and Baven 348
At the foot of the account Conway desired to be allowed £9 4-f- 8</.
for the making up all this wood into 554 loads at 4^. a load ; stating
that he also found additional 722 loads 'made and there lying before the
dissoluetion of the said late priorye.' He further asked payment of
jfii us. 8<J. for the carriage of 278 loads of wood to the palace of
Westminster at lod. a load; £2 iSs. lid. for making and fencing
527 perches of new hedge in and about the said wood for the protection
* White, Hampstead and its Associations, 27.
100 Walford, Old ana1 New Land, v, 248. IM Exch. Acct. R. bdle. 148, No. 32.
101 A baven was a faggot of brushwood bound with a single withe.
242
FORESTRY
of the ' sprynge >los there ; js. for repairing and making of three gates in
the fence of the wood ; and £3 in the name of his fee for the keeping
of the wood for a year and a half.
The various warrants to John Conway, authorizing sales to Lady
Sussex and others during his time of keepership, are also extant.10*
In June, 1542, Sir Henry Knyvett, gentleman of the Privy Chamber,
was appointed keeper of the wood ' called Seynt Johns Woode beside the
parish of St. Giles in the Feilds near London.' 106
Sad as has been the loss of woods and timber owing to the waves of
population that have swept over so much of this district, it is permissible
to rejoice not only in the preservation of the heath itself, and many a
clump of ancient elms or blossoming chestnuts, but also in the fact that
there has been of late years such a judicious expenditure on tree-planting
by local authorities in roads and elsewhere. As long ago as 1888 the
following trees, mostly of new planting, were under the care of the then
vestry authorities : 987 limes, 557 planes, 285 elms, 161 sycamores,
155 chestnuts, 66 poplars, 27 ash trees, 16 wych-elms, 4 beech trees, and
from one to three specimens of ailantus, acacia, maple, oak, willow and
birch, a solitary pear-tree, a yew tree, and a mountain ash ; making a
total of 2,273 trees.106 Since that date, the amount of public planting has
proceeded apace under the County Council.
Parliament Hill and Fields, consisting of 267^ acres, adjoin Hamp-
stead Heath, and are now included in that great open space ; they were
acquired for the public in 1889.
Waterlow Park, 26 acres, on the southern slope of Highgate Hill,
was presented to the council for use as a public park by Sir Sydney
Waterlow in 1889. The park is rugged in contour, and well timbered
with old cedars and various forest trees.
At Highgate there is still a tract of pleasant woodland, termed
Highgate Woods, extending over about 150 acres, and divided into two
parts by the Muswell Hill road. The eastern portion, of about 55 acres,
which used to be known as Churchyard Bottom Wood, was opened to
the public by the Duchess of Albany in 1898, and renamed Queen's
Wood. Down the steep side of the hill leading to the Lea valley there
are dense thickets of hazel and other underwood, whilst small poplars,
ashes, alders, and hornbeams rise in places above the tangle. The western
half, 96 acres in extent, known as Gravel Pit Wood, was presented in
1886 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to the Common Council of the
City of London for the use of the public. The trees are larger than in
the other section, and include a curious avenue of pollarded hornbeams.
The grounds in the centre of Lincoln's Inn Fields were secured by
the London County Council in 1894 for the sum of >fi 2,000. They
are well wooded, and possess some unusually fine plane trees.
Clissold Park, Stoke Newington, 54^ acres, was acquired for the
public from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at a cost of over £90,000 ;
103 i.e. new shoots springing up from the old stools. M Exch. Accts. K.R. bdle. 148, No. 33.
m Aug. Bks. ccxxxv, fol. 6%6. m Baines, Rec. of Hampstead, 1 10.
243
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
it was opened in 1889. It contains a wealth of well-arranged trees, both
ancient and modern. There is also a small deer inclosure.
Finsbury Park, 1 15 acres, which was opened to the public in 1869,
lies on the south-east side of the parish of Hornsey. It is well-wooded
in parts, and includes a portion of the site of old Hornsey Wood.
Hornsey Wood was within the ancient deer park of Hornsey that
belonged to the bishops of London.
One of the latest additions to London's parks, acquired by the
County Council, is Springfield Park, Clapton, 32 J acres, which was
purchased in 1904 for jCs7>237« The ground is very finely timbered,
and overlooks the River Lea.
Wormwood (formerly Wormholt) Scrubbs, in the north-west
suburbs of London, is a common of 193 acres, purchased by the War
Office and transferred to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1879,
reserving a certain part for military purposes when required. A belt of
trees now marks the division between the military ground and that to
which the public have the exclusive right. Its former bare appearance
has of late years been greatly improved by the planting of many hundreds
of trees.
Ravenscourt Park, 32 J acres, at the western end of Hammersmith,
was acquired for the public in 1887; its principal feature is a noble
avenue of stately elms.
The grounds of Fulham Palace first became famous in the time of
Bishop Grindal (1559-70), who was a great gardener. According to
Fuller, the tamarisk was brought into this country by the bishop about
1560 : —
It was brought over by Bishop Grindal out of Switzerland (where be was in exile
under Queen Mary) and planted in his garden at Fulham, where the scite being moist
and fenny well complied with the nature of this plant, which since is removed and
thriveth well in many other places yet it groweth not up to be timber, as in Arabia,
though often to that substance that cups of great size are made thereof.107
To Bishop Aylmer belongs the discredit of destroying a great number of
elms in the Fulham grounds. It is stated by Aubrey that ' the bishop
of London did cutt downe a noble crowd of trees at Fulham. The
Lord Chancellor told him that he was a good expounder of darke
places.' 108 An information was laid against him for cutting down timber
that belonged to the see, and he was restrained from doing so by order
of the council ; the information was laid by one Litchfield, a court
musician, whom the bishop had annoyed by refusing to give him twenty
timber trees. Strype, however, defends the bishop against the charge of
any considerable felling of the elms about the palace. There seems
to have been a certain amount of clearing after a visit from Elizabeth, as
the queen complained that her lodgings there were kept from all good
prospects by the thickness of the trees.109
The grounds of Fulham attained to great and deserved celebrity in
the days of Bishop Compton, (1675—1713) ; there was probably at that
107 Fuller, Worthies, 35. "• Aubrey, Brief Lives, \, 74.
109 Feret, Fulham Old and New, Hi, 129.
244
FORESTRY
period no other place in England where so much attention was paid to
arboriculture. Evelyn in his diary, under date 11 October, 1681,
writes : ' I went to Fulham to visit the Bishop of London in whose
garden I saw the Sedum arborescent in flower, which was exceedingly
beautiful.'110 Compton took infinite pains to obtain hardy exotic trees
from North America ; he was the first to introduce American maples,
acacias, magnolias, hickories, and other trees into English gardens and
plantations. Ray, the distinguished naturalist, visited the Fulham
grounds in 1687, and set forth a long Latin list of tulip trees and other
rarities which were then flourishing.111
Compton's successor, Bishop Robinson (1713—23), did not share
his tastes, and to his disgrace permitted his gardener to make merchandise
of whatever trees and shrubs would bear transplanting.118 Fortunately,
however, many of the earlier planted trees were far too well rooted to be
removed. In 1751 that great botanist, Sir William Watson, visited
Fulham, and reported to the Royal Society on the remnants of Bishop
Compton's work. A catalogue of the exotic trees then remaining was
drawn up, which included the silver fir, the Norway maple, the cedar
of Lebanon, the Virginia cedar, the red horse-chestnut, the Virginia
sumach, the arbutus, and a variety of flowering maples and evergreen
oaks ; many of them were considered to be the largest of their kind then
growing in Europe.113
Daniel Lysons made another careful survey of the trees in the
Fulham grounds in 1793, when he found eleven trees that had been
planted by Bishop Compton still flourishing. An ash-leaf maple, planted
in 1688, to the west of the house, had a girth of 6ft. 4 in., and a height
of 45 ft. ; the black walnut tree on the east lawn, * a most magnificent
tree,' had a girth of 1 1 ft. 2 in., and a height of 70 ft. ; the cluster pine,
in the nuns' walk, loft, girth, and Soft, height ; and the cork tree on
the south lawn, roft. loin, girth, and 45 ft. height. The other trees
were two three-thorned acacias, an ilex, a white oak, a scarlet-flowered
maple, an upright cypress, and a Virginia red cedar. Lysons also noted
a cedar planted in 1683, and an avenue of limes near the porter's lodge,
which were probably planted by Compton about i688.114
Most of the veterans mentioned in the lists of Watson and Lysons
have disappeared. The white oak perished in a gale in 1877 ; and a
large part of the black walnut was blown down in 1881. Bishops
Blomfield, Tait, and Jackson all took much interest in the grounds, and
planted a variety of exotic trees. In Mr. Feret's pages there is a full
account of the more recent plantings, and of the present condition of the
older and larger trees. The trees with the greatest girth at a height of
3ft. from the ground are a common elm, 19 ft. 8 in. ; a black walnut,
1 7 ft. 3 in. ; a plane tree, i6ft. loin. ; and a beech, 13 ft. loin. All
that now exists of the trees of Compton's planting appear to be the
10 Evelyn, Diary and Corresp. ii, 159. " Ray, Historia Plantarum, ii, 1798.
" Lysons, Environs of Land, ii, 349. "s Philosophical Trans, xlvii, 24.1.
114 Lysons, Environs of Land, ii, 351-2.
245
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
battered remnants of the cork tree in the angle where the Tait chapel
joins the south block, and of the black walnut on the lawn at the east
front of the palace.116 In the Warren, the name of a large grazing
field to the north of the palace, are several fine old elm and walnut
trees. Bishop Porteus (1787-1809) described the Warren as 'sur-
rounded by a magnificent belt of lofty elms.' The palace grounds have
been considerably curtailed by the formation of a small public
park on the river side. The idea of giving this strip of land to the
public was carried out by Bishop Temple, but it originated with his
predecessor.
Leaving the suburbs of London, some attention must be paid to the
parks in other parts of Middlesex. The most important of these is
Hampton Court, with the adjunct of Bushey Park. In early days Hamp-
ton was an open tract forming part of the famous Hounslow Heath.
Some of the thorns in Bushey Park, and a few of the magnificent old
oaks in the Home Park, were probably remnants of the district in its
original state. In the thirteenth century the manor of Hampton Court
was purchased by the Knights Hospitallers. Cardinal Wolsey obtained a
ninety-nine years' lease of it from the Order, at a rental of £50, in 1514.
On the fall of Wolsey in 1530, Hampton Court was taken possession of
by Henry VIII, and speedily became one of his favourite residences.
Here he was able to indulge to the full in his passionate attachment to
hunting, hawking, shooting, and other outdoor sports. On coming into pos-
session Henry found his property consisted of two main divisions, that
now called Bushey Park, and the Home Park, which were separated by
the Kingston Road. The king or Wolsey partly inclosed these parks by
brick walls. These inclosures, though affording every facility for shooting
and coursing, were not of sufficient size to serve for deer hunting. There-
upon the king proceeded to acquire by purchase or exchange all the
manors adjacent to Hampton Court, on both sides of the Thames, and
by an Act of Parliament of 1539 united them into an honour, that is a
seigneury of several manors held under one baron or lord paramount,
and ' the King shall have therein a chase and free chase and warren, for
all beasts of venery and fowls of warren which shall be called Hampton
Court Chase.'116 This new chase of Hampton lay on the Surrey side of
the river, and included East and West Moulsey, Walton, Esher, Wey-
bridge, and part of Cobham. It was inclosed within a high wooden
fence, and well supplied with deer. On the accession of Edward VI
local complaints of damage by the deer came to a head, the pales and
deer were removed, and the shortlived chase came to an end.
A Commonwealth survey of Hampton, in 1652, shows that by that
time the Home Park had been divided into two parts, known respectively
as the House Park and Hampton Court Course, which were distinct from
the part now known as Bushey Park, then divided into the Hare Warren,
the Middle Park and Bushey Park. The grounds and parks were much
" Feret, Fulham Old and New (1900), iii, 134-7.
118 Statutes at large, 3 1 Hen. VIII, cap. v.
246
FORESTRY
appreciated by Oliver Cromwell. Soon after the Restoration Charles II
not only put the gardens into thorough order, but laid out the Home
Park in its present form, planting the great avenues of lime trees that
radiated from the centre of the east front of the palace. William and
Mary effected many changes in the planting of this park.117
Bushey Park has an area of 994 acres, exclusive of the stud paddocks
of an additional hundred acres. These paddocks are divided from the
park proper by a brick wall, but are in reality a part of Bushey Park ;
they are under the separate management of the ' Master of the Horse.'
The herd of fallow deer has been recently much reduced, and now
numbers about four hundred and fifty. In 1900 part of the Bushey herd
was transferred to the Home Park, the average number there being
about one hundred and fifty. The red deer of Bushey Park have
averaged forty-five for the last few years.118 Bushey Park has much
noble timber, but is chiefly celebrated for its splendid avenue of chestnuts,
which is 56 yds. wide, and a mile and 40 yds. long. The Home Park
has an area of 752 acres, and is splendidly timbered in parts, many of the
trees being fine specimens of limes.
The only other parks in Middlesex where deer are now to be found,
besides those of Bushey and Hampton Court, and a few in the inclosure of
Clissold Park, are Victoria Park and Grovelands, Southgate. In Victoria
Park is a small herd of from eight to a dozen fallow deer, introduced in
1893 or i894.118a Southgate takes its name from having been the southern
entrance to Enfield Chase. Grovelands is the seat of Mr. J. V. Taylor;
the well-planted park is 150 acres, whilst the park and adjoining woods
are together 310 acres. The number of fallow deer is now about one
hundred, nearly fifty were lost in the winter of 1905—6. They are not
really an old herd, being the progeny of a pair given to Mr. Taylor's
grandfather in 1840. There are many very finely grown oaks; including
several that have girths, 3 ft. from the ground, varying from i 5 ft. 10 in.
to 1 4 ft. 7 in. One of them has a spread of branches of 105 ft. A
remarkable feature of the woods on this estate is the fact that the common
heather or ling grows luxuriantly, though never seen elsewhere in the
neighbourhood ; this seems to point to the land being part of the old
waste.119
The largest oak in this district, known as the Minchenden oak, is at
Arno's Grove, Southgate. It is said to have the widest spread of branches
of any English oak. This oak, then termed the Chandos oak, is figured
in Strutt's Sylvia, and also in Loudon's Arboretum. The latter gives the
branch-spread as having a diameter of iiSft., and the girth, one foot
from the ground, as 18 ft. 3 in.120
Broomfield House, Southgate, was an old hunting-lodge used by
James I ; it is surrounded by park-like grounds of 80 acres.
117 Law, Hilt, of Hampton Court, 3 vols. passim.
119 From information kindly supplied by Mr. Halliday, Park Superintendent, in Jan. 1907.
1191 From information kindly supplied by the Park Superintendent.
119 From information kindly supplied by Mr. Taylor.
80 Loudon, Arboretum, iii, 1763.
247
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
At Enfield, opposite the parish church, are the remains of old
Enfield House. In the grounds the fine historic cedar tree, one of the
first planted in England, is still standing. It was planted by Dr. Robert
Uvedale, a celebrated botanist, who was master of the Enfield Grammar
School in the time of Charles II.
White Webbs Park, of about three hundred acres, on the borders
of Hertfordshire, is beautiful and well-wooded, and retains traces of the
ancient chase. Forty Hall has another park of about the like area, which
contains many old forest trees, and is also part of the former extensive
chase. Trent Park, on the western border of Enfield parish, is a third
great tract of the ancient chase, preserved by being inclosed. It was
given by George III to his favourite physician, Sir Richard Jebb. The
park, which is undulating and well-wooded in parts, covers an area of
about one thousand acres.
In the south-west of the county, near to Hampton, were the two
adjacent hunting-parks of Hanworth and Kempton. The manor and park
of the former were purchased by Henry VIII. Camden calls Hanworth
a small royal seat ; Henry made it the scene of many of his sporting
pleasures.121 Towards the end of his reign Hanworth Park was settled in
dower on Queen Katherine Parr, who frequently resided there after the
king's death, with her second husband, Sir Thomas Seymour, and the
young Princess Elizabeth.123 Elizabeth, as queen, visited Hanworth in
i 578, and again in September, 1600, when she hunted in the park.128
Hanworth Park at the present day consists of 207 acres, and is exten-
sively wooded.
Kempton Park, in Sunbury parish, on the Thames, was granted by
Charles I in 1631 to Sir Robert Killigrew, vice-chamberlain to the
queen. The manor and park of Kempton, as well as the manor and park
of Hanworth, had been granted for eighty years without rent to Sir
Robert's father by Queen Elizabeth. In consideration of the expense
which the petitioner had bestowed in maintaining the game in Kempton
Park, he prayed for a grant in fee of the said manor and park at a
rent of £18 is. old. The prayer was granted, on the expiration of
Queen Elizabeth's lease, at the rental named, provided that he maintained
' the park stocked with 300 deer for his Majesty's disport.'12* There
were deer in Kempton Park up to about i835.128 The park comprises
about 500 acres, 300 of which are now leased to the Kempton Park
Race-Course Company.
Other private parks of Middlesex which are noteworthy and more
or less well-timbered, are Osterley park, 500 acres ; Bentley Priory,
250 acres ; Wrotham Park, 286 acres ; Gunnersbury Park, 100 acres ;
Harefield Place, 60 acres ; and Ruislip Park, 40 acres. Twickenham
Park was sold in lots in i8o5.1!S
111 Camden, Britannia (ed. Gough), ii, 2. lfl Lysons, Midd. Parishes, 94.
m Nichols, Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, iii, 513-14.
'" S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cc, 30 ; ccii, 29.
15 Shirley, Deer Parks, 56.
"* Lysons, Environs of Lend, ii, 775.
248
FORESTRY
The Board of Agriculture in 1793 brought out a report on the
agricultural condition of Middlesex.127 "Reference is made to the
inclosure of Enfield Chase in 1779, and it is stated that from two to three
thousand acres still remained ' unimproved.'
In regard to Enfield Chase it is to be observed that though the cottagers are much in
want of small fields of inclosed land, yet so much attached are they to their idle system
of keeping a few half starved cattle on the chase, often to the ruin of themselves and
their families, without the smallest advantage accruing to the public, that they
constantly oppose any inclosure.
In the following year a further report was put forth by the Board, edited
by Peter Foot, a land surveyor, containing various additional particulars.
An interesting section relative to fruit trees shows how considerable was
the culture of ' peaches, nectarines, apricots, vines, apples, cherries, pears,
plums, quince, medlars and filberts,' by the nurserymen round London.
As to vines, the gardener of Mr. John James of Hammersmith, in 1778,
made a quantity of good wine from English-grown grapes. Shortly
afterwards he made wine from his well-trained vines in the proportion
of 100 gallons to 100 yards of wall. Mr. Foot adds, ' I am persuaded
that, from Hammersmith to Staines, vineyards might be made at little
expense, if a small premium were given to adventurers and no tax laid
upon them for some years.'
Mr. Foot sets out full and interesting particulars as to Enfield Chase
and its inclosure. He describes the ground of the Chase as having been
covered with trees ; the oak found a ready sale, but the beech did not
repay the woodman's labour. The grubbing up of the roots proved to
be more costly than was expected. The result was that the ground,
though rapidly cleared of its wood, lay for the most part in an uncul-
tivated state for several years.
From Fulham to Staines the banks of the Thames are reported as
profitably employed in the cultivation of the willow. Three distinct
species are named, the Salix vitallina or yellow willow, the Salix
amygdalina or almond-leaved willow, and the Salix viminalis or osier
willow. The two last-named were chiefly used by basket and corn-sieve
makers, and the first by nursery-men for binding packages of trees,
shrubs, etc. Mr. Foot did not supply any special information as to the
woodlands.
In 1797 the Board of Agriculture were responsible for the issue of
a far more comprehensive work on Middlesex, based on the two earlier
reports, a much extended second edition of which, consisting of a stout
octavo volume of about seven hundred pages, appeared in i8o7.128 The
sixth chapter deals with commons and inclosures. The great commons
of that time were Hounslow Heath and Finchley Common, on the latter
of which there were several thousands of pollarded oaks and hornbeams.
In commenting on the common fields of Harrow and Pinner it is noted
that oak and elm grew with equal health throughout the whole of
" Thomas Baird, General View of the 4gric. of the County of MM.
1K John Middleton, land surveyor, View of the Agric. of MM. (ed. 2, 1807).
^ 249 3*
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
this district. The elm abounded in the hedgerows, eight trees were
numbered in twenty feet. As to Enfield Chase and parish there had
been a further inclosure in 1803, not confined to the 1,500 acres of waste-
land, but also embracing 2,746 acres of common fields, and 794 acres of
marsh-land. For four years before this second inclosure the parish
had annually cut down a considerable number of oaks in aid of the
poor rates. The timber had been generally felled, except what
Dr. Wilkinson had preserved (some 80 acres) in the neighbourhood of
White Webbs.
The tenth chapter discusses ' copses, woods, plantations, hedgerows
and osiers.' Mr. Middleton states that the copses and woods of Middle-
sex had been decreasing for ages, and expected that in a few centuries
more they would be annihilated. He mentions, however, some acres
thus occupied on the northern slopes of Hampstead and Highgate hills ;
100 acres on the east side of Finchley Common ; and 2,000 acres on the
north-west side of Ruislip. The hills about Copthall and Hornsey were
then appropriated to the scythe, though a few years before they were
covered with wood. Mr. Middleton was by no means distressed at the
disappearance of woodland, for he regarded the woods and copses of
Middlesex as ' nurseries for thieves,' and also ' the occasion of many mur-
ders and robberies.' He was also strongly of opinion, emphasizing the
statement by the use of italics, that ' every acre of this county ought to be
appropriated to the production of more valuable crops than timber and
underwood.' It was his opinion in 1807 that there was only an area
in Middlesex of 3,000 acres bearing copse, plantation, or forest timber.
Just a century has elapsed since the issue of this singular report, so
adverse to any form of woodland, by the then Board of Agriculture.
Better opinions happily now prevail.
The attention given to arboriculture during the last quarter of a
century has resulted in a gratifying and steadily growing increase in the
woodlands of England and Wales. Notwithstanding the great growth
of population, and, therefore, of the building area of Middlesex, it is as
pleasant as it is surprising that this small county well maintains its share
in this advance in proportion to its size. In Middlesex the total acreage
of woods and plantations in 1888 was 2,545 acres ; in 1891 it had grown
to 3,036 ; and in 1895 to 3,656. The detailed returns made up to
5 June 1905, show a steady rise in the last decade, for the total acreage
of woods was then 3,968. This total is usefully divided into coppice,
1,590 acres (by which term is meant woods cut periodically and repro-
ducing themselves by stool shoots) ; plantations, 98 acres, covering
lands planted or replanted within the last ten years ; and other woods
2,280 acres.
Nor does this growth of 1,000 acres of pure woodlands in a century
by any means exhaust the marvellous improvement effected in Middlesex
in the way of tree-culture.
So far as the growth of timber, both forest and ornamental, is con-
cerned, apart from that which is included in woodland returns, the improve-
250
FORESTRY
ment immediately round London is more marked and decided than in any
other part of the kingdom. By far the greater portion of this improve-
ment is due to the continuous and spirited action of the London County
Council. Under the rule of the Council, since its first formation in
1889, the public parks and open spaces of London, all more or less well-
timbered, have grown, in round numbers, from 2,500 to 5,000 acres. Of
this total, 2,746^ acres are in Middlesex. And in addition to all this
there has of late years been a vast amount of tree planting and tree tending
accomplished in streets and roads and by the side of the highway. For
every tree standing in Middlesex in 1807 there are probably at least three
in 1907.
251
SPORT ANCIENT AND
MODERN
INTRODUCTION
THOUGH Middlesex still occupies
a prominent position with re-
spect to pastimes such as rowing,
cricket, football, polo, tennis,
and archery — the last-named
three of which originated in it — the higher
forms of sport formerly pursued in the county
may be said to have now become, practically,
subjects of archaeological interest.
As in other counties, the pursuit of ' the
nobler beasts of venery, such as the stag, the
wolf, and the boar,' which, to quote a well-
known writer of the last century, ' gradually
faded away upon the increase of population
and the advancement of agriculture,' l was
for a time replaced by ' the noble science '
of fox-hunting, which was introduced into
Middlesex very soon after its first adoption
as a popular form of sport in England. The
increase of population and the advancement
of agriculture were both, however, from the
first materially accelerated by the fact that
Middlesex is not only the smallest county
in England, except Rutland, but also the
original seat of the English capital, and, owing
to the recent rapid expansion within its limits
of the largest city in the world, both fox-
hunting and covert shooting have now shared
the fate of the older forms of the chase. At
the beginning of the nineteenth century
Middlesex was a purely agricultural county.8
In 1 80 1 it was possible to walk from Hadley
through Enfield Chase, Epping and Hainault
Forests without leaving the turf or losing
sight of forest scenery ; and, in addition to a
wide extent of pasture land which rendered
1 Scrutator, Horses and Hounds (ed. 1858), 63.
1 Cf. Lysons, Environs of London (1792) ; J. A.
Cooke, Topographical and Statistical Survey of the
County of Middlesex (1819) ; and Brayley, London
and Middlesex ( 1 8 1 o), passim.
it eminently suitable for a hunting country,3
the county comprised Hounslow Heath and
Finchley Common ; Harrow Weald Common
and eight other commons in the parish of
Harrow ; Uxbridge Moor and five other
commons in the parishes of Uxbridge and
Hillingdon ; Ruislip, Sunbury, and Hanwell
Commons, and Wormwood Scrubbs.* In
the present year of grace Hadley Woods,
Hadley Common, and the ' Rough Lot ' in
Trent Park are the only remains of Enfield
Chase, and such of the few commons as
remain have been reduced to insignificant
dimensions. At the census of 1 90 1 the popula-
tion, which in 1801 was only 70,000, had
increased to 798,736, or over eleven-fold
during the century, the increase during the
last decade being 45-8 per cent. ;5 and of the
total extent of 149,668 statute acres within
the county 88,105 acres are comprised in
urban districts.6 Of the twelve principal
estates within the rural districts there is only
one of 1,000 acres — Trent Park, belonging
to Mr. A. F. Benson — and one of 500 acres
— Osterley Park, belonging to the Earl of
Jersey ; while of the remaining ten, eight are
between 100 and 300 acres, and the other
two are under 100 acres in extent. Covert
shooting has thus ceased to be of any practical
3 Cf. Hon. G. C. Grantley Berkeley, Remi-
niscences of a Huntsman (ed. 1895), 49-50 ; and
' Brooksby,' The Hunting Counties of England (i 878),
115. Though the first edition of Mr. Grantley
Berkeley's book was published in 1854, cultivation
had then considerably increased and the expansion
of London had begun.
4 Topographical and Statistical Description of
Middlesex, 101.
* Census for Middlesex, 1901. Accts. and P.
1902, cxx (ed. 121 1), i, ii.
• Ibid.
253
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
importance,7 and though a small fringe of
country on its northern border is still occa-
sionally hunted from adjacent counties,
Middlesex no longer possesses any hunt of its
own. It was, however, not till the middle of
the last century that these inevitable results
of the growth of London began to make
themselves seriously felt ; and, owing probably
to the fact that Middlesex has never possessed
any towns of importance, its woodlands,
commons, and pastures continued for many
centuries prior to that date to afford to its
inhabitants ample facilities for sport.
It is stated by Fitz Stephen, a monk of
Canterbury, who in the reign of Henry II
wrote a description of London and its
environs,8 that ' many citizens do take delight
in birds, as sparrow-hawks, gos-hawks, &c.,
and in dogs to sport in the woody coverts, for
they were privileged to hunt in Middlesex, in
Hertfordshire, in all the Chilterns, and in
Kent as low down as Crag Water' ; and also
that beyond the open meadows and pasture
lands on the north side of the city was a
great forest ' in whose woody coverts lurked
the stag, the hind, the wild boar, and the
bull.'9 These animals were hunted with
hounds on horseback or stalked on foot, and
shot with the bow, but the term ' hunting '
also included coursing with greyhounds and
hawking.10
The citizens of London appear to have
possessed this privilege from the earliest times,
for, in a charter obtained from him early in
the twelfth century, Henry I grants ' to my
citizens of London to hold Middlesex to farm
for three hundred pounds upon accompt to
them and their heirs,' and that they ' may
have their chases to hunt as well and truly as
their ancestors have had, that is to say in
Chiltre, in Middlesex, and in Surrey.' n This
charter was confirmed by that of Henry II,
granted probably some twenty years 12 later ;
by the first charter of Richard I, dated 23
April 1 194 ; 13 the first charter of King John,
7 The number of persons employed as game-
keepers in the census of 1901 was 60.
8 Stephanidei, Descriptio nobili formae civitatis
Londinii, first published in Stow's Survey of London
(q.v.) (ed. Strype), ii, App. I, 9.
' Ibid. 9, n, 12, 15.
10 Strutt, Sports and Pastimes (ed. 1903), Introd.;
Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, 104, 192 ; Cecil,
Records of the Chase, 8, 12, 15.
11 Birch, Historical Charters and Constitutional
Documents of the City of Lor. Jon. The date of this
charter is uncertain, but is placed by the author
between noo and 1129.
" Ibid. Between 1138 and 1162.
" Ibid. 8.
dated 1 7 June 1199;" and by the fourth
charter of Henry III, dated 16 May 1227,
which expressly states that ' we do grant them
that they may have hunting wheresoever they
had in the time of King Henry our grand-
father and King Henry our great-grand-
father.' " In the same year Henry III still
further augmented these rights of hunting by
a charter of 1 8 August granting ' to all men
in the county of Middlesex that the Warren
of Stanes shall be no more a warren
[dewarrenata], and shall be disafforested ' 16 —
a concession which, while throwing open the
warren for purposes of agriculture to such as
were disposed to 'cultivate their lands and
assart their woods therein,' provided a new
hunting ground for the public, who had the
right of hunting animals ferae naturae in all
uninclosed lands except those subject to the
forest laws or to some restriction upon hunt-
ing arising from a royal grant.17
There is no evidence with respect to the
extent of the Warren of Staines, but as a
grant of 1 1 Henry III to the prior and
brethren of St. John of Jerusalem, apparently
made just before it was disafforested,18 shows
that it included the manor of Hampton, and
as Hampton itself then formed part of Houns-
low Heath,19 it must have comprised the
greater portion of the south-western extremity
of Middlesex.
Though styled a ' warren * it differed from
ordinary warrens in being subject to the forest
laws — a fact which would seem to imply that
it must have contained 'beasts of forest' — the
red and the fallow deer, the roe, and the wild
boar — in addition to ' beasts and fowls of
•warren ' — the hare, the coney, the fox, the
pheasant, and the partridge — and that it must
practically therefore have been a forest.20 The
"Ibid. 12.
15 Historical Charters of the City of London ; cf.
Cal. Chart. R. i, 24.
16 Cal. Chart. R. i, 56, and cf. ii, 477.
17 Turner, Select Pleas of the Forest (Selden Soc.),
cxxiii.
18 Cal. Chart. R. i, 30. The charter granted
the order leave ' to keep their dogs unlawed in
their House in Hamtonet in the King's Warren
of Stanes,' for guarding the house ' in which the
Sisters of the said Order do dwell,' and also for
guarding their sheep-folds.
19 Ernest Law, The History of Hampton Court
Palace (2nd ed. 1890), i, 415.
10 Select Pleas of the Forest, x, cxiv, cxxviii, cjocix.
Cf. John Manwood, Treatise of the Lataes of the
Forest, 1615, where the author makes a distinc-
tion between ' beasts of forest ' and 'beasts of chace '
which, however, in Mr. Turner's opinion is not
good in law (see Select Pleas of the Forest, cxiv).
The roe ceased to be a beast of forest in the
254
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
' great forest ' to the north of London men-
tioned in the description of the City by Fitz
Stephen, alluded to above, probably extended
as far as the royal forests of Essex on the
east, and the woodlands of Herts and Bucks
on the north and west ; but it was not in
the thirteenth century a forest in the strict
legal sense of the term, which denoted a
definite tract of land within which a par-
ticular body of law was enforced, having for
its object the perservation of certain animals
ferae naturae?1 Though certain portions of
these lands were from time to time aliened to
subjects by various sovereigns, most of them
were the property of the Crown, and it is
stated by the learned editor of the Select
Pleas of the Forest that, with the exception
of the Warren of Staines, ' there was certainly
no forest in Middlesex in the thirteenth, and
probably none in the twelfth century.' M
There were numerous manors in Middle-
sex 23 — there were as many as six manors in
the parish of Edmonton "* and the same num-
ber in that of Enfield M — which during this
period must have been well stocked with game.
The lords of several of these manors enjoyed
the right of free warren, the grant of which
prohibited any person from entering the lands
of the grantee, or hunting or taking any beasts
or fowls of warren, ' without his licence or
will,' though it did not entitle him to prevent
other people from entering his warren in pur-
suit of deer.88 It is curious to find among
grants of this description — the right conveyed
by which was not appurtenant to the land,
and was usually limited by the king to the
demesne lands of his subjects 27 — one made by
Edward I in 1291 'to Richard Bishop of
London and his successors of free warren in
fourteenth century owing to a decision in the Court
of King's Bench, 1 3 Edw. Ill, which decided that
it was a beast of warren on the ground that it
drove away the other deer (Select Pleas, xxi).
" Select Pleas, ix.
* Ibid. viii.
" At Acton (two), Ealing, Edgware, Stanmore,
Willejden, Neasden, Harlesden, East Twyford,
Hanworth, Hampton, Twickenham, Uxbridge,
.Cowley, Ickenham, Ruislip, Staines, ' Halewyke,'
Newington, Stepney, Hackney, Kempton, &c.
Some of these are mentioned in Domesday Book.
" Lysons, Environ! of London, 209.
* Ibid, and Ford, Hut. of Enfield, 70, 71, 92,
93. A conreyance of the manor of Worcester*
in Enfield Parish (executed 4 July 1616) to Sir
Nicholas Raynton shows that this manor contained
' ye piece of land called ye Warren and ye close or
park called Little Park.'
M Select Pleat of the Foreit, cxxiii, and cf. czxviii
and cxxix.
" Ibid. cxxv.
all his lands of Stebenhythe (Stepney) and Hack-
ney.'* Another made by Henry III on
22 March 1245 to Hamo Papelowe confers
a similar right with respect to ' the demesne
lands of the manors of Barve (Barren) in
Suffolk and Newton (Stoke Newington} in Mid-
dlesex ' ; 2S> and after the change of ownership
of the latter manor a fresh grant of free warren
in it was made by Edward I on 10 May
1286 to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.30
Free warren in the manor of ' Acton under
the wood,' the lesser of the two manors in
Acton parish, was granted to the dean and
chapter of St. Paul's by Edward II in 1316 ;31
and the calendar of Charter Rolls contains
similar grants in the manor of EJelmeton (Ed-
monton) to William de Say in I245,32 to Henry
de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in the manors of
Eggeware (Edgware} Cow eh (Cow ley] in I2Q4;33
to Bartholomew Peche in the last-named manor
and that of Ikenham (Ickenham} in 1252 ; 34 and
in the same year to the Abbot of Bee in the
manor of Risse/ip (Ruislip}*6 and James de
Aldethelly in that of ' Halewyke.'' 36
The confirmation, on 8 June 1280, of a
charter of Henry III, granting to the Order
of St. John of Jerusalem free warren in the
demesne lands of the manor of Hampton 37
shows that the proprietary rights attaching to
it remained unaffected by the disafforest-
ing of the Warren of Staines. In the early
part of the sixteenth century it was acquired
by Cardinal Wolsey, who, after the completion
of Hampton Court Palace, hunted there with
Henry VIII ; 38 and after the king had taken
possession of it this part of the warren became
a royal hunting preserve.
The manor, the boundaries of which were
conterminous with those of the parish, was
about 3,000 acres in extent, and originally
consisted of the Home Park, lying to the east,
and Bushey Park, lying to the north of the
Kingston Road.39
Henry VIII, who was devoted to shooting,
Hawking, and all other kinds of sport, caused
these two parks to be well stocked with deer
and other game, and subdivided Bushey Park
by brick walls into three equal divisions — the
19 9 Edw. I, Cal. Chart. R. ii, 383.
"27 Hen. Ill, Cal. Chart. R. i, 282.
30 14 Edw. I, CaL Chart. R. ii, 337.
" Chart. R. 9 Edw. II, no. 31; cf. Lysons, En-
virons of London, 3.
M 22 Hen. Ill, Cal. Chart. R. i, 282.
0 22 Edw. I, Cal. Chart. R. ii, 436.
"37 Hen. Ill, Cal. Chart. R. i, 409.
" Ibid. «3 Ibid.
17 34 Hen. Ill, Cal. Chart. R. ii, «6.
58 Law, Hiit. of Hampton Court, i, 91.
» Ibid. 4, 5
255
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Hare Warren on the east, the Upper Park on
the west, and the Middle Park between
them — and the Home Park into The Course,
adjoining the Kingston Road, and the Home
Park proper, which was bounded on the west
and south by the Thames.40 These inclosures,
however, though well adapted for coursing or
shooting, did not afford the king sufficient
scope for his favourite sport of stag-hunting,
and he therefore acquired by purchase or
exchange the manors of Hanworth, Kempton,
Feltham, and Teddington in Middlesex, to-
gether with those of East and West Moleseyand
some ten others on the Surrey side of the
Thames,41 and by an Act of Parliament passed
in ijog43 erected them into an honour or
seignory of several manors under a single lord
paramount. Of this honour it was provided
that ' the manor of Hampton Court shall
henceforth be the chief capital place or part.'43
Its creation by statute gave it an importance
and dignity superior to that attaching to an
ordinary feudal manor,44 and with the exception
of a brief interval during the Interregnum it
continued to be a favourite hunting seat of
the Crown until the end of the eighteenth
century.
Queen Elizabeth, who inherited her father's
love of stag-hunting, frequently hunted at
Hampton Court and shot the deer with her
own bow.45 James I, who was an equally
ardent but more timorous sportsman, was a
still more constant visitor, and shared the sport
with his consort Anne of Denmark, who by
a random shot on one occasion killed one of
the king's favourite hounds — an accident
which greatly excited his anger till he learnt
who had caused it, when he is said to have
immediately pardoned the royal offender.48
He so improved the parks and stocked them
so well with deer that a visit to Hampton
Court came to be recognized as one of the
duties of all travellers, and especially amongst
foreigners of distinction.47 Its reputation in
this respect must, however, for a time have
been somewhat impaired by the results of the
Civil War, since in a Parliamentary Survey
of 1653 that was made just before its sale, in
40 Law, Hut. of Hampton Court, i, 135, 212, and
App. F. vii, 7.
11 These included Walton, Weybridge, Esher,
Oatlands, and Sandown ; Hist, of Hampton Court, i,
212, 213.
41 31 Hen. VIII, cap. 5 (Stat. of the Realm, iii).
" Law, Hist, of Hampton Court, \, 212, 213.
44 Ibid.
44 Evelyn Shirley, Some Account of English Deer
Parks, 40.
" Law, Hist, of Hampton Court, ii, 73, 74.
47 Ibid. 62.
which the total area of the property irrespec-
tive of the ground occupied by the palace and
gardens is stated as 1,607 acres> the number
of deer is returned as 228, which were valued
at j£i per head.48 That it was not entirely
denuded of game is, however, evident from
an entry of 4 January 1657-8 in the
Middlesex County Records with respect to a
charge against John Hare, husbandman, Hugh
Clerke, fisherman, and John Durdin, victualler
of ' Tuddington,' of
taking and destroying seventy hares, with cordes
and other instruments ; nigh unto the hare
warren of the Lord Protector within the Honour
of Hampton Court in the said County.49
It was probably restocked after the Restora-
tion, though neither Charles II nor his brother
James seems to have been much addicted to
the chase, and the absence of any references
to the higher forms of sport in the diaries
both of Pepys and Evelyn seems to justify the
supposition that these were somewhat out of
fashion during their reigns. After the
Restoration, however, we find William III
frequently pursuing his favourite pastime of
coursing, then still called 'hunting,' at Hampton
Court up to within a short period of his death ;
and on one occasion he writes to Portland
that he had two days before ' taken a stag to
forest with the Prince of Denmark's pack,'
and ' had a pretty good run as far as this
villainous country will permit.' *° Queen
Anne, who seems to have been as fond of
hunting as she was of racing,61 also constantly
hunted there, following the chase, according
to a description in Swift's journal to Stella, in
a chaise with one horse ' which she drives
herself and drives furiously like Jehu.' On
another occasion she is said by the dean to
have hunted the stag till four o'clock in the
afternoon, and to have covered no less than
forty miles in her chaise." Both of her
immediate successors fully maintained the
traditions of the honour of Hampton Court,
and George II was so fond of stag-hunting
and coursing that he did not relinquish them
even in summer, and it was only when the
48 Aug. Off. Parl. Surv. 32.
49 Midd. County Rec. iii, 65.
60 Law, Hist, of Hampton Court, iii, 103, 159,
160, 163.
" Cf. J. P. Hore, Hist, of the Royal Buckhounds
(1893), 226, 249.
"Law, Hist, of Hampton Court, iii, 188. It
must be added that the queen was obliged to adopt
this mode of hunting by attacks of gout, and in
her younger days followed the hounds on horse-
back ; Hore, op. cit. 228.
256
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
palace ceased to be a royal residence that
sport in the parks was finally abandoned.63
Somewhat similar, though of a less eventful
character, is the history of another notable
royal hunting domain which was of much
greater extent than the honour of Hampton
Court. Enfield Chase, one of the earliest
references to which is in a record of 1236,"
is stated by Camden to have been ' an exten-
sive tract of land formerly covered with trees '
and ' famous for deer hunting,' which had
passed from the possession of the Mandevilles
to the Bohuns and then to the Duchy of
Lancaster.66
Queen Elizabeth, who for a time resided
at Enfield House, hunted in Enfield Chase.
That her subjects sometimes endeavoured to
follow her example without her permission is
shown by the conviction on 23 May 1574
of William Padye, ' gentleman,' of Hadley, and
a ' husbandman ' and a ' yeoman ' of South
Mimms for breaking into the Chase and killing
' unam damam ' 66 ; on 27 July of the same
year Henry Lawrence of Hadley was found
guilty of a similar offence.87 The inclosure
of 500 acres of the Chase in Theobalds Park
was made by James I. That Theobalds con-
tinued, however, for some years after to be
regarded as still part of the Chase is shown
by a true bill returned 4 August 1845 against
three yeomen of Enfield for
entering with bows and arrows and other apparatus
for hunting, and without licence, the King's park
. . . used for the preservation of deer and
commonly called Theobalds Parke in Enfield
and ' killing and taking away two stags worth
^5.'68 Fond as he was of Theobalds,
James I frequently hunted in Enfield Chase —
as he is represented as doing in Sir Walter
Scott's Fortunes of Nigel — and, as in the case
of Hampton Court Honour, he took care that
it should be abundantly stocked with deer.69
In his reign we find Philip Hammond of
London, 'gentleman,' charged on 6 March
1610 with 'shootynge in a piece on His
Majesty's Chase,'60 and in 1649, tne 7ear
before the Parliamentary Survey, there are two
63 Law, Hut. of Hampton Court, iii, 220, 241 ;
and cf. Lord Ribblesdale, The Queen's Hounds and
Stag-hunting Recollections, 29, 30.
M Chart. R. 19 Edw. II, m. 16; Lysons, Environs
of Land. 280.
54 Cf. W. Robinson, Hist, and Antiq. of Enfield,
(1823), 175-6.
66 Midd. County Rec. i, 187. " Ibid. 1 8 8.
M Ibid, iii, 93, 94.
69 Robinson, Hist, of Enfield, 197 ; cf. Nichols,
Progresses of James I, ii, 101.
60 Ibid, ii, 62.
convictions, on 15 and 18 July, recorded for
entering the Chase and killing deer ' with
guns charged with gunpowder and bullets.'*1
The later history of the Chase cannot be
narrated here, but some reference to it will be
found in the article on Forestry.
In addition to the Chase in the north-
eastern and the honour of Hampton in the
south-eastern extremity of the county, Middle-
sex possessed an exceptional number of parks
— inclosed tracts of land for the creation
of which by a subject a licence, though
unnecessary during the Plantagenet reigns,
was always required under the Tudor and
Stuart dynasties. The beasts ferae naturae,
almost exclusively deer, contained in them
were the private property of the owner. Some
reference to the more important of these parks
will be found elsewhere in these volumes ;
but it may be noted that they comprised
Hyde Park, though there was probably little or
no hunting in it after the Restoration, as we
find Pepys and Evelyn both alluding to the park
as famous for horse, and foot, and coach
races.62 That deer were maintained there
during the seventeenth century is, however,
evident from a report of the Surveyor-General
of Woods to the Lords of the Treasury on
II June 1695, with respect to repairs in
Hyde Park costing £425 191. 2^., and £200
for hay for the deer and for the salaries of
the under-keepers,63 and there appear to have
been still some remaining there in the early
part of the nineteenth century.64
It is noteworthy, having regard to the num-
ber and extent of the royal preserves, that the
cases dealing with ' breaking into and enter-
ing ' mentioned in the Middlesex County
Records, which extend from the accession of
Queen Elizabeth to the Restoration, are so
few ; and also that, with the exception of an
offence in 1576 at Osterley Park, the object
of which seems to have been firewood rather
than game,66 they should all relate to royal
parks. During the whole of this period there
appear to be only two records with respect
to similar offences in connexion with the
property of private individuals. One of these
is in 1569, when Mathew Vincent of Icken-
ham, ' not having lands, tenements or rents
or service to value of 40*.,' is convicted of
61 Ibid, iii, 190, 191.
"* Memoirs and Diary of Samuel Pepys, F.R.S.
(ed. by Lord Braybrooke), i, 131; Evelyn's Diary
and Correspondence (ed. 1902), i, 345 ; Henry B.
Wheatley, Land. Past and Present, ii, 250.
" Cat. of Treasury Papers, 1557-1 696, xxiii,
447-
64 Shirley, Deer Parks, 56.
*> Midd. Co. Rec. i, 198.
257
33
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
' keeping and using dogs for coursing, nets,
ferrets, and dogs for chasing by scent,' and,
' in company with others, breaking into the free
warren of the earl of Darbie at Hillington,
county Middlesex, and hunting the rabbits of
the said earl.'66 The other case, dated
29 December 1613, records the acceptance
of recognizances of the total value of £60
from 'Alexander Cottrell of London, mer-
chant taylor," and two others for his ap-
pearance at the next sessions of the peace
' to answer for breaking into my Lord of
London's grounds at Fulham within his moat
nere his dwelling house there to kill and take
his conies.' 67 It is rather curious that these
two cases, and that with respect to Hampton
Court during the Interregnum already men-
tioned,68 are the only three that deal with
rabbits in the whole series.
Not less notable is the entire absence of
any cases relating to deer-stealing or poaching
in the Middlesex County Records throughout
the reigns of Charles II and his brother
James. This may perhaps in a measure be
accounted for by the very large number of
cases with respect to treason, recusancy, and
non-attendance at public worship that these
records contain, which can have left the
justices little leisure for dealing with offences
of any other description. It is also, doubtless,
partly due to the fact that — with the exception
of ' the sons or heirs apparent of an esquire
or other person of higher degree, and the
owners or keepers of forests, parks, chases, or
warrens, being stocked with deer or conies
for their necessary use ' — it was illegal for any
person ' to have or keep for himself or any
other person any guns, bows, greyhounds,
setting dogs, ferrets, nets, gins, snares, or any
other engines for the taking of game,' unless
he was possessed of landed property of the
clear yearly value of ^100 a year, or leases for
ninety-nine years or more of the clear yearly
value of ^150 a year.69 At the close of the
seventeenth century all the royal parks of
Middlesex, with the exception of the two in
Hampton Court Honour and Hyde Park,
which had ceased to be used for hunting, had,
*> MM. Co. Rec. i, 67.
"'Ibid, ii, 176. * Ante.
68 22 & 23 Chas. II, cap. 25 § 3. Cf. Stephen's
Commentaries, iv, 577, and Thornhill's Sporting
Directory, 131, where there is an elaborate exam-
ination of the meaning of the term ' esquire.'
as has been shown, been disparked. During
the next hundred years the bulk of the manors
to which the right of free warren had
attached began one by one to disappear before
the advance of London, and in spite of the
Game Laws, which continued in force till
the reign of William IV, the area available
for sport became gradually restricted to the
northern portions of the county. Its im-
pending disappearance in the first quarter
of the nineteenth century is indicated by the
Reminiscences of a Huntsman by the Hon.
George Grantley Berkeley, who, with his
brother Moreton, preserved the game at the
family seat at Cranford during the years
1824—36. 'For the size of the covers and
estate,' he says
no place had such a stock of pheasants and hares.
It is but i ,000 acres in all, on the outside of which
Brentford, Isleworth, Twickenham and indeed
London furnished a certified set of marauders to
destroy all living things that did not return home
to our covers before i September. At break of
day on i September for an hour there was a
running fire, indeed,
' A squadron's charge each tenant's heart dismayed,
On every cover fired a bold brigade."
To remedy this evil, we drove the outskirts in so
soon as the gathering of the corn would permit
us ; and the I September I always went forth and
began to bag every hare and partridge I could get
near at break of day.70
According to a parliamentary return of the
number of convictions under the Game
Laws in separate counties of England and
Wales for the year 1869 issued on 7 March
1870, which appears to be the last published
on the subject, 131 out of a total of 10,335
were in Middlesex, as against 90 in Surrey,
260 in Kent, 302 in Herts, and 310 in
Essex.71 Of these 131 convictions, however,
only four were for night poaching and the
remaining 127 for trespassing in the day time
in pursuit of game ; and this total must
therefore presumably be regarded rather as a
criterion of the number and audacity of the
poaching fraternity in London and the suburbs
than of the extent of preservation or the
supply of game.
70 Hon. G. C. Grantley Berkeley, Reminiscences of
a Huntsman (new ed. 1897), II. The first edition
was published in 1854.
71 Accounts and Papers (1870), Ivii, 105.
258
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
HUNTING
FOXHOUNDS
The only pack of foxhounds to which
Middlesex can lay claim is the original Old
Berkeley Hunt, which ceased to hunt the
county more than half a century ago and is
now divided into the Old Berkeley East
and the Old Berkeley West, whose kennels
are at Chorleywood in Hertfordshire and
at Hazelmere Park, High Wycombe, respec-
tively.
The original Old Berkeley Hunt was
formed by Frederick Augustus, fifth Lord
Berkeley, who adopted orange yellow or
' tawny ' coats for it in commemoration of the
fact — stated by Smith in his MS. history of
the Berkeley family — that 'a former Lord
Berkeley ' kept thirty huntsmen in ' tawny
coats' and his hounds at the village of
Charing, now Charing Cross in the centre
of London, and hunted in the vicinity.1 It
was not so called, however, till after Lord
Berkeley's death in 1810, when this name
was given to it in memory of its founder
by Mr. Harvey Combe, who succeeded him
as master, and for a similar reason retained
the Berkeley livery.2
The country hunted by Lord Berkeley
has probably never been exceeded in extent,
though authorities differ as to its exact limits.
' Nimrod ' in his Hunting Tours, written in
1835, says that it extended from Scratch
Wood, seven miles from London and then
part of Wormwood Scrubbs, to Cirencester,
a distance of upwards of eighty miles ;
while 'Cecil,' writing in 1854, makes Scratch
Wood five miles from London, and says that
the Old Berkeley country extended to beyond
Thornbury in Gloucestershire.3 Mr. George
Grantley Berkeley, whose Reminiscences of a
Huntsman was also published in 1854, says
that his father ' used to hunt all the country
from Kensington Gardens to Berkeley Castle
and Bristol,' and his opinion as regards
Kensington appears to be confirmed by the
statement made to him by old Tom Oldaker,
Lord Berkeley's huntsman, that he had while
with his father once ' found a fox in Scratch
Wood and lost him in rough ground and
cover in Kensington.' 4 There were kennels
1 Reminiscences of a Huntsman, 25.
' Cecil, Records of the Chase, 32, 33 ; Remi-
niscences of a Huntsman, 25.
8 Records of the Chase, 32, 33.
' Reminiscences of a Huntsman, 25, 26.
at Cranford and at Nettlebed near Henley on
Thames, and another, Grantley Berkeley be-
lieved, at Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire.
' Where else the hounds used to put up in that
wide stretch of country,' he adds, ' I know
not, but I suppose occasionally at inns.' 6
At the time ' Nimrod ' wrote, the subscrip-
tion to the Old Berkeley did not exceed £700
per annum, the remainder being made up by
Mr. Harvey Combe and Mr. Marjoribanks.
Six hunters and a hack were provided for a
given annual sum by Mr. Tilbury for Henry
and Robert Oldaker, the sons of Lord Berkeley's
old huntsman, who were respectively hunts-
man and whipper-in to Mr. Harvey Combe,
' but they are never at a loss for a horse, for
Mr. Harvey Combe always has a good stud. ' 6
There seems to have been no very distinctive
character in the Old Berkeley pack, owing to
the fact that Tom Oldaker had not bred
hounds for many years past but trusted to
drafts to keep up his kennel — a defect which
his son Henry did his best to remedy. The
hounds were however
very steady . . . very true to the line and with a
scent pretty sure of their fox ... I saw [says
Nimrod] no fault in the condition of the Old
Berkeley hounds, taking into consideration the
great extent of country they travel over, the
frequent change of kennel, and the very wet
weather to which they are exposed.'
The sale of this pack at Hyde Park Corner
in 1842 is described by Mr. Robert Vyner
in his Notitia Fenatica as the ' most remark-
able ever known.'
The lots sold were thirteen in number, making
127 hounds, exclusive of whelps ; their produce
was 6,51 1 guineas, or upwards of Blooper couple.
It was Mr. Osbaldeston's old pack that realised
this enormous sum. It had been sold conditionally
some years earlier to Mr. Harvey Combe, and
upon Mr. Combe's relinquishing the Old Berkeley
country where these hounds had been hunting
they were sent to Mr. Tattersall's to be sold by
auction. Report says it was a fictitious sale ;
whether it was or not it gave employment to
gentlemen of the long robe, there being some
previous agreement between Mr. Osbaldeston and
Mr. Combe relative to the price the hounds
might fetch if sold at the time when Mr. Combe
chose to part with them.8
" Ibid.
'Nimrod, Hunting Tours, 125; cf. Records of
the Chase, 53. ' Ibid. 197.
8 Robert Vyner, Notitia yenttica, a treatise on
Fox Hunting (6th ed.), 22, 23.
259
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
As time went on the Old Berkeley were
obliged, Brooksby tells us, to abstain from
advertising their meets
in order to avoid the pressure of a swarm of nonde-
scripts who, starting from every suburb in London,
were glad to make a meet of foxhounds their excuse
for a holiday on hackney or wagonette, over-
whelming the whole procedure by their presence
and irritating farmers and landowners, to the great
injury of the hunt.9
At that time there was still in the Harrow
district ' a small stretch of as good grass as
is to be ridden over in England,' but it was
yearly being narrowed by 'the advancing
waste of bricks and mortar ' and the increase
in the value of land arising from the spread
of London westward.10 As in the case of
Mr. Grantley Berkeley's staghounds, these
conditions proved eventually fatal to the
continuance of the Old Berkeley Hunt under
its old conditions and resulted in its division
into the two packs which still maintain its
traditions in neighbouring counties.
STAGHOUNDS
The place of honour as regards antiquity
among the staghounds of Middlesex must be
assigned to the Lord Mayor's hounds, which
may be regarded as a development of the
ancient privileges with respect to hunting of
the citizens of London which were confirmed
by Henry I in the charter already referred
to.11
It is evident from references to ' The Com-
mon Hunt,' or huntsman of the corporation,
contained in the Liber Albus, that these
hounds were a recognized institution in the
fifteenth century, when John Courtenay was
elected to the post ; 12 and in later times,
according to tradition, its meets were fre-
quently held in Lincoln's Inn Fields, St.
James's, and Mayfair.13 According to an
account given of the chief officers of the
City by Maitland in his History of London,
written in 1756, the chief business of the
Common Hunt
is to take care of the Pack of Hounds belonging to
the Mayor and Citizens, and to attend them in
9 Brooksby, Hunting Counties of England, 1 14, 1 15.
10 Ibid. 115. "Ante, p. 254.
" Liber Albus, Bk. iv, 485.
" Hunting (Badminton Library), 17. The pack
has been sometimes erroneously described as ' the
Common Hunt,' of which the Lord Mayor was
ex officio the master ; Ibid ; Lord Ribblesdale, The
Queen' i Hounds and Staghunting Recollections.
Hunting when they please. This Officer's House
allowed him is in Finsbury Fields. He has a
yearly Allowance besides Perquisites. He is to
attend the Lord Mayor on set days. This officer
is Michael Lally, Esquire.14
It is interesting to compare this account with
that given by Mr. Loftie of this official in
1891. In describing the City banquets he
says :
Behind the Lord Mayor stands the 'Common
Hunt,' an officer in a sporting costume with a
jockey cap, all that is left of the old privileges of
the citizens granted to them by Henry I to hunt
in Middlesex and Surrey and as far away as the
Chiltern Hills.14
In the reign of George I, ' riding on horse-
back and hunting with my Lord Mayor's
hounds when the Common Hunt goes out '
was, according to Strype, one of the favourite
amusements of Londoners. At the close of
this reign and for some years in the succeed-
ing one the Common Hunt was Mr. Crutten-
den, appointed to the office in September
1723. Among those who hunted with the
pack was Sir Francis Child, who is described
by Mr. Hore in his History of the Royal Buck-
hounds as ' fairly rivalling ' in the hunting
field Alderman Humphrey Parsons, the most
notable of the metropolitan patrons of the
Royal Hunt, whose reputation as an intrepid
rider ' extended to every part of Europe
wherever hunting men might chance to
congregate.' 16 Sir Francis Child, as may be
inferred from this description, also hunted
sometimes with the Royal Buckhounds, and
during the reigns of the first two Georges the
Lord Mayor's hounds must have suffered in
popularity from the predilection shown for the
former by
merchant princes of the City, the lawyers, the
doctors, the clergy, and the rich, though humble,
baj man, mounted on the now obsolete ' nag ' on
which he travelled on business thoughts intent
throughout the land.17
They were moreover gradually driven from
Middlesex by the extension of London, and
Epping Forest, formerly only occasionally
14 Op. cit. 1027 ; cf. a similar account in
Chamberlain's Hist, and Surf, of the Cities of LonJ.
and Westm. (written in 1770), 440.
u W. J. Loftie, Lend. City, 117.
16 Op. cit. 264. Alderman Parsons was twice
Lord Mayor of London.
" Hist, of the Royal Buckhounds, 264; cf. The
Queen's Hounds and Staghunting Recollections, 29,
30.
260
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
visited, eventually became the only country
hunted by them.18
In addition to the Lord Mayor's hounds,
Middlesex has at different dates possessed two
other packs of staghounds, both of which
were formed by the enterprise of well-known
sportsmen. One of these, the kennels of
which were at Cranford, was formed in 1824
by the Hon. George Grantley Berkeley, who
was for a time assisted by Mr. Wombwell.
The hounds consisted of thirty couple, almost
all bred at Berkeley Castle, and among them
were two given to Mr. Grantley Berkeley by
Mr. Villebois — Batchelor and Blunder — the
portrait ,of the latter of which by Cooper
appeared in the New Sporting Magazine.1*" The
deer were sent from Berkeley Castle and from
Hampstead Lodge by Lord Craven, and at the
close of the hunting season all that survived
were sent back again to Berkeley Castle,
where five months amongst their fellows
undid the effects of artificial maintenance and
restored their running. They were thus, in
Mr. Grantley Berkeley's opinion, superior to
the generality of those from the Royal kennels,
which were from season to season kept in a
paddock.18"
Mr. Berkeley's hounds hunted twice a
week,18c the central portion of the country
hunted being the Harrow Weald, and
amongst those who regularly attended the
meets were Lord Cardigan, Col. Thomas
Wood and Col. Standen, both of the Guards,
Mr. Smith of Hanwell, Mr. Peyton, Mr.
Charles Tollemache, Col. Parker of the Life
Guards, and Lord Alvanley.19
Owing to the proximity of London the
runs were sometimes attended with amusing
incidents, such as one in which the stag
eventually headed for Hounslow, Isleworth,
Twickenham, and Brentford. Of this run
Lord Alvanley is said to have given the
following description :
Devilish good run ; but the asparagus beds went
awfully heavy and the grass all through was up to
one's hocks ; the only thing wanted was a landing
net, for the deer got into the Thames and Berkeley
had not the means to get him ashore.*0
" The Queen's Houndt, 29. An account of a
run with the Lord Mayor's hounds is given in
The Sporting Magazine for 1795. The hunt was
ridiculed by Tom D'Urfey in his Pills to purge
Melancholy ; but as late as 1822 we find the editor
of BelTs Life writing that ' the cockney hunts are
not to be laughed at or despised by clod-hopping
squires who each thinks that he knows more about
the thing than anyone else.' 21 April, 1822.
ls" Reminiscences of a Huntsman, 26, 27, 30.
18b Ibid. 30, 48. "* Ibid. 29.
" Ibid. 27, 28, 30, 44, 45. w Ibid. 45, 46.
On another occasion the stag was run to bay
in Lady Mary Hussey's drawing-room at
Hillingdon ; and on a third it entered the
kitchen of a house, the wrathful owner of
which said in reply to Grantley Berkeley's
apologies :
**
Your stag, sir, not content with walking through
every office has been here, sir, here in my drawing
room, sir, whence he proceeded upstairs to the
nursery, and damn me, sir, he's now in Mrs.
's boudoir."
One of the oddest scenes, however, caused by
the vagaries of the stag, occurred when, after
entering London by Regent's Park, a fine one
covered with foam and stained with blood, and
followed by two couple of hounds, one morning
ran up the steps of No. i Montague Street, Rus-
sell Square. The efforts of Grantley Berkeley
to persuade two young ladies who were looking
out of the window to allow the stag to enter
the hall in order to ensure his capture were
rudely interrupted by their father, who, to the
amusement of the other members of the hunt
and the large crowd that had assembled, told
him that if he did not instantly take ' his
animal away ' he would ' send for the beadle.'
The stag was eventually captured by the aid
of some friendly butcher boys.22
Mr. Grantley Berkeley maintained the
sport for twelve years, but the difficulty of
doing so was materially increased towards the
close of this period by the number of men
that hunted with him, the populous character
of the country, and the opposition of the
farmers, whose principal crop, hay, suffered
considerably from the damage done by the
hunt.23
Inclosure after inclosure went on, heath and
common vanished, villas sprang up where gravel
pits used to be ... and babies cries were heard
on sites that in my remembrance were only waked
by the prettier whistle of the plover."
The farmers refused to be pacified by
a dinner suggested by Messrs. Norton of Uxbridge,
coursing to all who kept or could borrow grey-
hounds, and shooting, with presents of game and
occasionally venison.
An action brought against him by a farmer
named Barker, who was represented by
Scarlett as counsel, ended, in spite of his
defence by Brougham, in a verdict for the
plaintiff for £100 damages ; and this, coupled
with an offer at this time of the mastership of
the Oakley Hunt, determined Mr. Grantley
Berkeley to give up his pack in 1836.
" Ibid. 57.
"Ibid. 49, 50, 51.
" Ibid. 46, 47.
" Ibid. 53.
261
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
In 1885 Col.Sir Alfred Plantagenet Frederick
Charles Somerset, K.C.B., on relinquishing
the mastership of the Hertford Foxhounds,
started a pack of staghounds at Enfield, the
kennels of which were at his seat of Enfield
Court. In commemoration of the fact that
the Enfield country had not been hunted
since the days of Queen Elizabeth they were
named the Enfield Chase Staghounds, and the
dress adopted was that of the Elizabethan era
— namely, a red coat with blue lapels and
gold buttons, yellow vest and cap.
Sir Alfred Somerset retained the mastership
till 1899, when he was obliged by ill-health
to relinquish it. The kennels were then re-
moved by his successor, Mr. Hartridge, to Bar-
net. On the retirement of Mr. Hartridge the
increase of building led to their transfer to
High Canons, near Shenley in Hertfordshire,
the residence of the next master, Mr. W.
Walker. In 1910 Mr. D. D. Bulger became
master ; and hounds were kennelled at Pursley
near Shenley. The hunt can therefore no
longer be regarded as being in Middlesex, though
a portion of the county — round Potters Bar
and on to Enfield — is occasionally hunted.26
There are 23 couples of hounds. The
hunting days are Tuesday and (usually)
Saturday, the most convenient places for
attending the meets being Hatfield, St. Albans,
and Barnet. The master is also secretary
of the hunt, the whipper-in of which is
C. Strickland.
HARRIERS
In the last quarter of the last century
Mr. Westbrooke of Cranford is stated by
Mr. Grantley Berkeley to have kept by
subscription a pack of harriers. His elder
brother, the Hon. Moreton Berkeley, after-
wards sixth Earl of Berkeley, acted as whip-
per-in, and on Mr. Westbrooke's resignation,
the two brothers appear to have kept up this
pack for a time. The country hunted com-
prised Hownslow Heath, Harlington Com-
mon, Hampton Common, and occasionally
West End in the Harrow country.27
There is an allusion to a pack of harriers
in a History of Hampton by Ripley, published
in 1868, which had then ceased to exist, but
no details are given as to the date either of its
formation or dissolution.
Middlesex was formerly frequently, and is
still occasionally, hunted by hunts belonging
to the adjacent counties, such as the
Hertfordshire, the Old Berkeley East, and the
Royal Buckhounds.
Among the places indicated on a chart of
the meets of the last-named hunt, contained
in Lord Ribblesdale's The Gluten's Hounds, are
Uxbridge, Southall, Hayes, Cranford, and
Bedfont, and he quotes a graphic description of
a run given by Lord Colville in 1 868, in which
his late Majesty King Edward, then Prince
of Wales, took part. On this occasion the
stag ran from Denham Court, past Pinner,
and straight over Harrow Hill into what
are known as the Duck Paddle Fields, and
thence to Wormwood Scrubbs. It was
eventually taken at Paddington Goods Station
and the hunt accompanied the Prince of
Wales to Marlborough House, riding through
Hyde Park and Constitution Hill in hunting
dress.28
COURSING
It has been mentioned that Henry VIII
when subdividing the Home Park and Bushey
Park at Hampton converted portions of them
into the course, 144 acres, and the hare warren,
380 acres in extent, and that he and several
other sovereigns, and notably William III, with
whom it was a favourite pastime, were greatly
addicted to coursing, then called hunting.26 In
15 The writer is indebted for these particulars to
the courtesy of Col. Sir A. P. Somerset, the founder,
and Mr. W. Walker, master, in 1 908, of the hunt.
86 Aug. Off. Parl. Surv. 32. See ante, p. 256.
modern times the Home Park was used
by two coursing societies, the Amicable and
the Speltham, which were eventually amal-
gamated into the South of England Coursing
Club.29 The sport, which had considerably
declined in 1899, has, however, now been
abandoned, and the Home Park is occupied by
a golf club.
" Reminiscences of a Huntsman, 18.
88 The Queen's Hounds and Stagbunting Recollections,
147.
"Courting (Badminton Library), 225.
262
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
RACING
The earliest mention of racing in con-
nexion with Middlesex is the statement of
Fitz Stephen, in his description of London,
that horses were then usually exposed for sale
at Smithfield, and that the merits of hackneys
and charging horses were generally tested by
matching them against each other.1 In the
opinion of so high an authority as Nimrod,
the monk of Canterbury gives ' a very ani-
mated description of the start and finish of a
horse-race.' la Such matches must have been
common from the earliest times, for ' running
horses ' are mentioned as items of the royal
expenditure as early as King John's reign and
in those of the first four Edwards and of
Henry VIII.2
Strutt tells us that in Elizabeth's reign races
were called ' bell courses ' because the prize
was a silver bell. In proof that it was then
pursued without any idea of gambling he
quotes a Puritan writer of the period, who,
while denouncing ' cards, dice, vain plays,
interludes, and other idle pastimes,' speaks of
horse-racing as ' yielding goodly exercise.' 3
But by the close of the seventeenth century
we find Burton speaking of gentlemen gallop-
ing out of their fortunes by means of races.' *
During the interval public race meetings were
first established in the reign of James I, and
one of the earliest of these was held at Theo-
balds in Enfield Chase, the prize being a
golden bell, and it was not till after the
Restoration, when the gambling referred to
by Burton most probably had begun, that
these bells were converted into cups.5 In
the following reign, horse-races were run in
the Ring in Hyde Park ; 6 but they appear
from an allusion to them in A Jovial Crew, a
comedy by Richard Broome, written in 1650,'
to have been combined with foot-races, one of
which Pepys witnessed in i66o,8 and in the
time of Cromwell and Charles II with coach
races.9 At the close of the next century we
1 Stow, Surv. of Land. (ed. Strype), ii, App. I,
10, 13-
1 Nimrod, The Turf, 8. ' Ibid.
Strutt, Sports and Pastimes (ed. 1903), 36.
Anatomy of Melancholy, (Ed. 1893) ii, 174.
Strutt, Sports and Pastimes (ed. 1903), 36.
Ibid.
' The Turf, \ \ ; London Past and Present, ii, 250.
* Memoirs of Samuel Pepys (ed. Lord Braybrooke),
i, 131.
9 Evelyn, Diary (ed. 1902), i, 34.5. Cf. London
Past and Present, 250. Among the curiosities of
racing in Middlesex is a swimming race between
also find a description of ' matches ' and sweep-
stakes races in Hyde Park in the Sporting
Magazine for 7 February 1796.
Queen Anne, whom Mr.Hore describes in his
History of the Roya I Buck hounds as being ' every
inch a sportsman,' 9l encouraged horse-racing 10
and ran horses in her own name ; n and her
husband, Prince George of Denmark, seems to
have taken interest in the breeding of horses.12
One of the first acts of her reign was to
expend £686 in fencing the meadows adjoining
the barge walk in the Home Park at Hampton
Court in order to preserve ' Her Majesty's
studd there from being killed or drowned.'13
The royal stud here alluded to, the paddocks
of which lay, until its final dispersion a few
years ago, behind the brick walls on either
side of the road separating Bushey Park from
the Home Park, had already existed in the
reign of William III,U and its development
during the reigns of Queen Anne and her
successors may be said to be the most
important event in the history of horse-racing
in Middlesex.
The efficiency of the stud seems to have
been fairly maintained throughout the first
three reigns of the Hanoverian dynasty.15
The Treasury Papers for 1724-5 contain the
statement of the 'case of Richard Marshall,
Esq., Studd Master, in regard to his allowance
for keeping the Studd,' showing the terms on
which he had kept it ' during the time of
King William, the Prince of Denmark, Queen
Anne, and his present Majesty (George I),'
and the loss he had sustained since the grant
by the House of Commons of the park and
meadows to the Duke of Somerset 'by reason
of the great quantity of hay ' which he had
been forced to buy instead of that which he
had formerly obtained from the meadows.16
He appears from this to have received eventu-
two horses from Tyler's Ferry to the Bridge in
Hackney Marsh on 13 August 1737, described in
Robinson's Hist, and Antij. of Hackney, the winner
of which came in two lengths ahead.
" J. P. Hore, Hist, of the Royal Buckhounds, 225.
10 Records of the Chase, 26.
11 Law, Hist, of Hampton Ct. iii, 334.
" Ibid.
" Treat. Papers, Ixxx, 130, 6 July, 1702, and
Ixxxv, 89, 1 6 July, 1703; cf. Law, Hist, of Hampton
Ct. iii, 172-3.
11 Law, Hist, of Hampton Ct. iii, 334.
u Ibid, iii, 334, 335.
" Cal. Treat. Papers, cclii, 326, no. 29, 3 Mar.
1724-5.
263
A PIISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
ally a ' reasonable allowance ' above ' the
annual allowance of ^184 lOs. for each
stallion, mare, and colt, and servant ; ' while
a warrant of 2 July 1730 authorizes the
passing of the accounts of Richard, Earl of
Stafford, manager of the stud, the extraordin-
ary expenses of which appear to have amounted
to j£io,ooo.17
The real founder of the royal stud, how-
ever, was George IV, who built the paddocks,
and, while Prince of Wales, had already
established a stud there for breeding riding-
horses of pure blood. This was, however,
sold on his accession to the throne, when the
stables temporarily passed into the hands of
the Duke of York, who kept a stud of his own
there for breeding race-horses. On the sale
of the stock of the latter at TattersalPs on his
death in 1827, George IV retained possession
of the paddocks for breeding his own race-
horses. He devoted considerable sums to rais-
ing the royal stud to the highest state of effici-
ency and improving the stabling and paddocks.
These, at the time of their abandonment,
were forty-three in number, varying in size
from three to five acres each,18 seventeen
being in the Home and twenty-six in Bushey
Park. The king had as many as thirty-three
brood mares, while particular regard was
always paid, according to Nimrod, in the
Hampton Court stud to what is termed 'stout
blood ' ; and there were in his stables towards
the end of his reign Waterloo out of a
Trumpeter mare ; Tranby out of an Orville ;
Ranter out of a Benninborough ; and The
Colonel out ofaDelpini mare.19 The Colonel
won the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster in
1827. Two other good horses that the king
owned were Fleur de Lis and Ziganee. Fleur
de Lis won the Doncaster Cup in 1826, and
the Goodwood Cup in two successive years —
in 1829, carrying 9 St. 3 lb., and in 1830
when he had 61b. more.
William IV, who, though anxious to main-
tain and improve the stud, was absolutely igno-
rant of the subject, left its management entirely
in the hands of Colonel Wemyss and his stud
groom. It was supplemented during his reign
by four Arabian stallions — two of which were
presented to him by the king of Oude and two
by the Imaum of Muscat — and by the follow-
ing English stallions : — Actaeon by Scud out
of Diana by Stamford, Cain by Paulowitz,
and Rubric by St. Patrick out of Slight
17 Cal. of T re as. Books and Papers, \, 323. See
too another warrant as to the order of accounts
(no. 502).
18 Law, Hist, of Hampton Ct. 334-5.
"Nimrod, The Turf (cA. 1901), 17.
by Selim, the two latter being hired for the
use of the stud. On King William's death
in 1837 the entire stud, consisting of 43
brood mares, 5 stallions, and 31 foals, was sold
under the hammer for 15,692 guineas — a
proceeding much resented in sporting circles
on account of the opportunity it afforded to
foreigners of making valuable purchases of
thoroughbred stock. The objectors, were,
however, somewhat appeased by the giving of
additional King's Plates. After an interval,
during which Mr. Charles Greville and
General, then Colonel, Peel — who enjoyed
the privilege until he sold off all his stock ex-
cept the stallion Orlando, winner of the Derby
of 1 844, were permitted to occupy the paddocks
with their breeding stocks, her late Majesty,
Queen Victoria, consented on the advice of
the Prince Consort to the formation of the
nucleus of the present royal stud in 1851.
Mr. Greville was allowed to remain in part
possession of the paddocks, while the queen's
managers were Major Groves and Mr. Lewis,
assisted by Mr. W. Goodman as veterinary
surgeon.20 In the days of George IV and
William IV the yearlings in the royal stud
were sold at Tattersall's on the Monday in
Epsom week and generally realized an aver-
age of from £150 to j£2OO.21 During the
reign of her late Majesty, Queen Victoria,
these prices steadily rose. The sales of the
queen's yearlings were held in the week after
Ascot week in one of the paddocks in Bushey
Park, and always attracted large numbers
of gentlemen interested in horse-breeding
and most of the celebrities of the racing world.
The prices obtained indicate that the royal
stud at Hampton Court has produced some of
the most valuable race-horses in the world.
In the sale of 1889 28 yearlings realized
11,745 guineas, an average of 430 guineas
apiece, Sainfoin (by Springfield out of Landon),
winner of the Derby of 1890, being sold for
550 guineas to Mr. John Porter, the Kingsclere
trainer, while a bay colt by Hampton fetched
3,000 guineas. At the sale on 20 June 1890,
12 fillies and 8 colts were sold for a little over
14,000 guineas, an average of 700 guineas
each, while the Duke of Westminster gave
1,350 guineas for a bay filly by Hampshire
out of Gallantry ; Lord Randolph Churchill
gave 1,750 guineas for a bay colt by Spring-
field out of Lady Binks ; and a sister of
Memoir (winner of the Oaks and a Hamp-
ton Court yearling) was sold to Lord Marcus
*° Law, Hist, of Hampton Ct. iii, 335-6.
" Nimrod, The Turf, 1 6, 17. The author refers
to a list of prices given in the June number of the
New Sporting Magazine for 1 886
264
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
Beresford, for Baron Hirsch, for 5,500 guineas,
the largest price ever given for a yearling.88
The first race meeting under modern con-
ditions held in Middlesex appears to be the
Enfield Races, established in 1788, and held
on the marshes at the bottom of Green Street,
when two £50 plates were run for on 23 and
24 September.23 There are notices of these
meetings in the October numbers of the
Sporting Magazine for 1794-5, and also
in the September number for 1796, and one
with respect to them is given as late as 1822
in BelFi Life,14 when the date had been changed
to 9 and i o October. ' The company ' is
there described as being ' by no means so
numerous or fashionable as we could have de-
sired,' and this seems to have been almost
the last of the meetings which, after several
attempts to continue them, were eventually
discontinued on account of the decline of local
interest.25 The second of these meetings
(i September 1790) is noteworthy on account
of the arrest during the races of the notorious
pickpocket, George Borough, who after under-
going seven years' transportation became chief
of the police at Paramatta in Australia, and
composed, for the opening of one of the Sydney
theatres, the well known lines:
True patriots all, for, be it understood,
We left our country for our country's good.26
Among the meetings enumerated in Baily's
Turf Guide for 1864 is one at Harrow, but
this seems to be the only record of its existence.
There appear to have been also races at Ealing,
the course being a piece of rough common, now
converted into an allotment ground. Ealing
races are described in the Annah of Ealing as
having been 'always of a simple character and
anything but popular with the majority of the
inhabitants.'
There are at present two race meetings held
in Middlesex.
Of these the older and more important is
that of Kempton Park, established in 1889,
when the value of the Royal Stakes was
The fixtures for 1910 are : —
Spring Meeting in March, one day ; Jubilee
Meeting in May, two days ; First Summer
Meeting in June, one day ; Second Summer
Meeting in August, two days ; September
Meeting, one day ; and October Meeting,
two days.
The winners of the most important race,
the Kempton Jubilee Handicap, during the last
eight years have been :
1902, Royal George . 4 yrs. 6 st. 9 Ib.
1903, Ypsilanti . . 5 yrs. 8 st. i Ib.
1904, Ypsilanti . . 6 yrs. 9 st. 5 Ib.
1905, Ambition . . 4 yrs. 7 st. i Ib.
1906, Donnetta . . 6 yrs. 8 st. i Ib.
1907, Polar Star . . 3 yrs. 7 st. 12 Ib.
1908, Hayden . . 4 yrs. 6st. I2lb.
1909, Ebor . . . 4 yrs. 7 st. 7 Ib.
In 1910 the important Jubilee meeting
was abandoned on account of the death of
his late Majesty, King Edward VII.
The other is that at Alexandra Park, the
first meeting at which was held on 30 June
1888. The meeting is now under the
management of the Middlesex County Racing
Club, which was established in 1897, and
the Committee of Election and Stewards are
Lord Alington, Captain J. G. R. Homfray,
Lord Lurgan, and F. Luscombe, esq.
The fixtures for 1910 are :
April, two days ; Saturday after New-
market, I July ; Saturday after Goodwood ;
Saturday after Doncaster, September ; Satur-
day after Newmarket, i October.
POLO
Polo was initiated in England at a match
played at Hounslow between the loth Hussars,
who introduced the game into the country
from India, and the gth Lancers. Middlesex
therefore may claim the credit of having been
mainly instrumental in bringing the game
into notice, and the county has ever since
" Law, Hiit. of Hampton Ct. iii, 338-9.
** Robinson, Hist, and Antiq. of Enfield, 23-4.
14 Beiri Life, 13 Oct. 1822.
" Robinson, Hist, oj Enfield, 24; ¥oiA,Enfield, 108.
K Ibid. Borough (whose real name was Wal-
dron) was transported for stealing a gold watch be-
longing to Mr. Henry Hare Townsend of Bruce
Castle.
maintained the leading position it thus
acquired.1
The Polo Club was formed in 1872, and
for the next two years all the important
matches were played at Lillie Bridge, but in
1874 the area of play was transferred to Hur-
lingham.8 The Hurlingham Polo Committee
has ever since been accepted as the ruling
authority with respect to the game,3 and by
its new rules the original size of polo grounds,
which was 300 by 200 yds., has been altered
to 300 by 1 60 yds.4 After the establishment
of the County Polo Association in 1901 and
1 Polo and Riding (Badminton Library), 254-6.
• Ibid. 256. ' Ibid. 357. • Ibid. 285.
265
34
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
of the Army Polo Committee in 1902 the
Hurlingham Polo Committee was reconsti-
tuted on a more representative basis, and now
includes three members from the County Polo
Association, two from the Army Polo Com-
mittee, and one each from the Ranelagh and
Roehampton Clubs.5
In 1886 a team sent by the Hurlingham
Club won the cup offered by the American polo
players for competition at Newport, U.S.A.6
Among the most notable players have been
Captain F. Herbert, Mr. Kenyon Slaney,
Mr. E. H. Baldock, Mr. Algernon Peyton,
nth Hussars, Mr. (now Captain) Wyndham-
Quinn, i6th Lancers, Mr. W. Ince Anderson,
Col. Duncombe and Mr. Miller ; 7 while Mr.
J. R. and Mr. W. H. Walker are not only bril-
liant players but also breeders of polo ponies.8
The Wembley Park Polo Club, recently
founded, is the only other club in Middlesex.
SHOOTING
As has been mentioned, shooting in Middle-
sex, owing to the absence of any large estates
and the small amount of game preservation, is
not of sufficient importance to require a de-
tailed notice. An exception must, however,
be made in the case of one form of this sport
with respect to which the county, though not
the originating centre, has long occupied a pro-
minent position, namely, pigeon shooting.
In the early days of pigeon shooting, which
came into vogue about 1790,' 'The Old
Hatte,' at Ealing — an inn three centuriesold — 10
appears to have been the chief rendezvous for
the sport in Middlesex.11 Its head quarters,
however, till the middle of the last century,
were at the Red House Club at Battersea,
which was frequented among others by Lord
Winchilsea, Lord Huntingfield, Sir Richard
Sutton, Mr. Osbaldeston and Captain Ross,
who won the club cup, value 200 guineas,
in 1828 and in 1829. As late as 1840 it is
described in Colburn's Kalendar of Amusements
as taking ' the lead in the quantity and quality
of this sport.' 12
The system of handicapping appears, how-
ever, to have been then unknown and it was
not until 1856, six years after the closing of
the Red House Club, that it was introduced
by Mr. Frank Heathcote, in order to place
L'ood and bad shots on something like an
equality.13 It was adopted in some matches
shot at Purdey's grounds at Willesden, the
' Polo and Riding (Badminton Library), 357, 359,
360.
* Poh (Badminton Library), 279-80.
' Ibid. 256-7.
8 Ibid. 340.
9 Lord Walsingham and Sir Ralph Payne-Gall-
wey, Shooting (Badminton Library), 343.
10 Edith Jackson, Annals of Eating.
11 Shooting (Badminton Library), 356.
11 Chamber fs Encyclopedia (ed. 1 90 1), Art. ' Pigeon
Shooting.'
handicap running from 30 to 24 yds., and sub-
sequently at the Old Hornsey Wood House.14
Among the most noted shots of those days
was General Bullock Hall, of Six Mile Bottom
near Newmarket. He then commanded the
ist Life Guards, among whose officers were
Lord Leconfield, Mr. R. de Winton, Captain
(now General) Bateson, and several other shots
almost equally good. A match for a large
sum of money, shot at Hornsey Wood during
this period, between General Bateson and Sir
F. Mullock, at twenty-five birds each, 25 yds.
rise, and won by the former, attracted an im-
mense attendance, over twenty coaches being
on the ground.16
A fresh impetus was given to the sport by
the foundation in 1860, by Lord Stormont
and other well-known shots, of the Gun Club,
where many of the most important develop-
ments in the science of gun-making have been
tested. Among the most celebrated matches
at the club were those between Dr. Carver,
the well-known American shot, and Lord
Walsingham, and between the former and
Mr. Heygate, and those in which Capt.
Bogardus, another famous American marksman,
shot against Mr. Dudley Ward and against
Captain Shelley.16
A few years after the establishment of the
Gun Club the spread of London northward
obliged Mr. Frank Heathcote to abandon the
Old Hornsey Wood House, and in 1867 he
rented the Hurlingham Estate at Fulham
for £700 a year. This action was followed
shortly afterwards by the formation of the
Hurlingham Club, which purchased the
property for ,£20,000. It achieved such
» Ibid.
14 Shooting (Badminton Library), 343.
15 Ibid. Another notable match at Hornsey Wood
was that between Lord Aveland and Mr. Reginald
Cholmondley.
11 Shooting (Badminton Library), 343-4.
266
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
success under the management of the Hon.
D. J. Monson that for several years prior to
1891 it had its full complement of 1,500 mem-
bers under the presidency of his late Ma-
jesty, King Edward, then Prince of Wales.
Of these, however, only 200 were shooting
members, many of whom took no part in
pigeon shooting. The sport therefore gradu-
ally ceased to be carried on under the favour-
able conditions it had enjoyed at Hornsey
Wood and the Gun Club,1 and owing to the
greater popularity of polo, it has now been
driven from the scene where it may be said to
have attained its zenith.
The best shots at Hurlingham and the Gun
Club during recent years have been Lord
Hill, Lord de Grey,Captain Shelley, Mr. Berke-
ley Lucy, Mr. Dudley Ward, Mr. Aubrey
Coventry, Captain Aubrey Pullen, Mr. H. J.
Roberts, and Lord de Clifford.17
ANGLING
The fishing rivers of Middlesex are the
Thames, the Lea, the Colne, and the Brent,
none of which, however, rises in the county.
The Thames first touches Middlesex at Staines,
and from that point to Shepperton the river
forms part of the western boundary of the
county ; and is its southern boundary from
Shepperton to Bromley in Essex, where it is
entered by the Lea, which from this point
northwards to Waltham forms the eastern
boundary of Middlesex.
As the Thames appears to have been from
time immemorial tidal as well as navigable up
to Richmond,1 there has always been a public
right of fishery in its waters up to that point ;
but in early times this right was limited by the
existence of private fisheries created by the
crown prior to the passing of Magna Charta
which put an end to such grants. In Domes-
day Book eleven manors in Middlesex are re-
turned as leasing several fisheries, the owners of
which had an exclusive right to all the fish
therein, and of these manors three — Staines,
Shepperton (Scepertone) and Hampton (Hamn-
tone) — were situated on the non-tidal, and two,
Isleworth(Gestleworde)and Fulham (Fuleham)
on the tidal waters of the Thames. It also ap-
pears from the confirmation by Henry III in
1225 of various charters granted to ' the Charity
of St. MaryMerton and the canons there in the
county of Surrey ' that this order had rights of
fishery at Brentford, as it provides, inter a/ia,
that ' no one shall in future fish before the
weir of the said canons in Brainford, or more
than was wont to be done in the time of the
king's ancestors.' 3 The king's water bailiff
and conservator, however, claimed a ' fee
draught ' or right to take a net down the
17 Shooting (Badminton Library), 345.
1 Stewart A. Moore and H. Stewart Moore,
The Hist, and Law of Fisheries, 101.
' Cal. of Chart. \, 381.
Thames through all the private fisheries once
a year, a right which appears to have been ex-
ercised as late as i82O.3
The injury both to fishery and navigation
resulting from the number of weirs, kiddles
and other fixed engines with which fishery
was carried on in mediaeval times led to the
enactment in Magna Charta,4 repeated in
subsequent statutes,8 that ' all weirs shall
henceforth be entirely put down on the Thames
and Medway and throughout all England
except on the sea coast,' and in the fifteenth
century we find similar legislation with
respect to fixed nets. A statute of 1423 6
prohibits the fastening of ' nets and other
engines called trinks and all other nets which
be fastened continually day and night by a
certain time of year to great posts, boats,
and anchors overthwart the river of Thames
and other rivers of the realm,' as causing
' as great and more destruction of the brood
and fry of fish and disturbance of the common
passage of vessels ' as the weirs and kiddles.
It therefore enacts that nets should only be
used by drawing and pulling hem by hem as
other fishers do with other nets ; but it may
be noted that this restriction is followed by a
proviso ' saving always to every of the king's
liege people, their right, title, and inheritance
in their fishings in the said water.'7 In 1393
the conservancy of fishery in the Thames from
Staines downwards, and also in the Medway,
was entrusted to the Lord Mayor of London
by the statute of 17 Richard II, which
provided for the appointment of justices of
* Hist. andLavi of Fisheries, 8 1 . This right was also
exercised on the Avon in Sussex and the Frome in
Dorset and possibly in other rivers.
4 9 Hen. Ill (1225).
6 21 Ric. II, cap. 19, (1397) ; i Hen. IV, cap.
12(1 399), and 4 Hen. IV, cap. 1 1, &c.
6 2 Hen. VI, cap. 15 (1423).
7 Ibid. Cf. Hist, and Law of Fisheries, 171 et seq.
267
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
the peace as conservators for carrying out the
statute of Westminster 8 — the first Act which
fixes a close time for salmon — and that of 13
Richard II, stat. i,cap. 19, which, while con-
firming the former Act, also prohibits the
use of nets called ' stalkers ' and all other nets
or engines ' by which the fry or breed of
salmons, lampreys, or other fish may in
anywise be taken or destroyed in any of the
waters of the realm at any time of the year.' *
The City of London retained their jurisdic-
tion over the fishery of this portion of the
Thames — the limits of which are marked by
City Stone at Staines — until the middle of the
last century, when it was transferred, together
with that relating to the conservancy of
navigation, to the Thames Conservancy
Board, incorporated by the Thames Conser-
vancy Acts of 1858 and i864.10 The
powers thus vested in the conservators of
making by-laws for regulating and protecting
the fishery were confirmed and extended by
the Thames Conservancy Act of 1894,"
appointing the present Conservators of the
River Thames.
The fishery in the river is at present
regulated by the Thames Fishery by-laws
issued by the conservators under the order
of council of 1893 which extend and apply
to the Thames and the Isis and to ' all creeks,
inlets, and bends between Teddington in the
county of Middlesex and Gautlet Creek in
the county of Kent.' lla Above London Bridge
only the following instruments and apparatus
may be lawfully used in fishing : — Rod and
line ; flew or seine nets ; seine or draft nets ;
single bley nets ; smelt nets ; flounder nets ;
minnow nets ; hand or well nets ; landing
nets ; casting or bait nets ; and grig wheels.13
Below London Bridge such instruments are
limited to : — rod and line ; hand lines fished
with bait ; trim tram or four beam nets ;
and trawl nets.13 Fixed nets and all devices
for catching or hindering fish, spawn, or fry
of fish from entering or leaving the river,
and the use of spears, and gaffs, except
as an accessory in pike-fishing, are prohi-
bited.14
The close time for salmon and salmon
trout is between I September and 3 1 March ;
that for trout and char from 1 1 September to
' 13 Edw. I, stat. i, cap. 47 (1285).
9 Cf. Hist, and Law of Fisheries, 173-5.
"21 & 22 Viet. cap. 147, and 27 & 28 Viet,
cap. 113; and cf. the Thames Navigation Act,
1866 (29 & 30 Viet. cap. 89).
11 57 & 58 Viet. cap. 187 (Local).
IU Bylaw 3. " Bylaw 4.
11 Bylaw 1 2. " Bylaws 15-19.
31 March ; that for smelts between 25 March
and 27 July, and that for lamperns between
I April and 24 August ; while in the river
above London Bridge fishing with rod and line
is prohibited from 15 March to June except
in the case of rod fishing for trout with an
artificial fly or with a spinning or live bait.15
Fishing — except with rod and line, and by
registered fishermen using grig wheels for
taking eels in season — is prohibited in stations
which have been staked out and marked by
the conservators for the preservation and
incubation of fish. These stations are at six
places on the Surrey side of the river, namely
at Richmond, Kingston, Thames Ditton,
Walton, Weybridge, and Chertsey,18 and at
the same number in Middlesex, namely,
Twickenham, Hampton, Sunbury, Shepperton,
Penton Hook, and Staines.
The abundance and variety of fish yielded
by the Thames as late as the first quarter of
the nineteenth century will be evident from
the following list contained in Cooke's
Topographical and Statistical Description of Mid-
dlesex : —
Salmon, flounders, smelt, shad, trout, grayling,
perch, carp, tench, barbel, chub, roach, dace,
gudgen (/;'<•), pike, eels, lamprey, bleak, ruffee, stur-
gen (sic'), bass, mullet, turbot, sole, plaice, dab,
skate, thornback, halibut, pearl whiting, haddock,
oyster, muscles (sic), cockles, crab, prawns, red and
white shrimps, craw fish, and others."
The existence in the Thames of so many
sea fish, and notably of mussels, may sound,
perhaps, hardly credible, but the writer has
been informed by an octogenarian relative
still living that the piles of Old London
Bridge were incrusted with mussels and that
the water up to that point, then limpid and
green in colour, was quite brackish. Within
thirty years of the publication of the above
list, however, the supply of fish had already
begun to diminish and many of the varieties
enumerated by Cooke, notably the salmon,
had forsaken the river. HofHand writing
of the Thames in his British dngler's Manual
says : —
Salmon have been driven from the river by the
gasworks and steam navigation, not one having
been caught to my knowledge during the last
twelve or fourteen years ; although many were
taken formerly of a peculiarly fine quality within
my recollection at Mortlake, Isleworth, and other
places. The brandling, salmon pink, or skegger,
has also disappeared ; the last salmon I saw taken,
" Bylaws 20-5. " Bylaws 26-8.
17 p. 39. Cooke's work was published in
1819.
268
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
in a net, was opposite Twickenham meadow in the
year 18 18.18
Trout he describes as ' few in number but
celebrated for their huge size and the excel-
lence of their flavour,' and as being taken
from five to fifteen pounds weight ; while
pike and jack were numerous, and perch,
barbel, chub, eels, lampreys, flounders, roach,
dace, gudgeon, bleak, pope, ruff, and minnows
were abundant in all parts of the Thames
from Battersea Bridge upwards, and fine carp
and tench were taken in some places, and
smelts near London Bridge. Among a list of
fishing stations from below London Bridge to
Streatley in Berkshire, he mentions in Middle-
sex, the Wet Docks below London Bridge,
Brentford, Isleworth, Twickenham, Tedding-
ton, Hampton, Sunbury, Shepperton, Laleham,
and Staines.18"
It will be observed that of the above
stations Brentford, Isleworth, Hampton, Shep-
perton, and Staines were in ancient days
fisheries attached to manors. The noted
Hampton station (at which both salmon, the
last of which was taken in 1814, and trout
were originally very plentiful, while even
sturgeon were occasionally caught — the last in
1824) is mentioned in the Rambler in 1797
as ' the most famous of all barbel deeps,' and
Dr. H. Jepson, one of the founders of The
Thames Angling Preservation Society, is
stated in Ripley's History and Topography of
Hampton to have informed the author that he
had on several occasions caught over 90 Ib.
of barbel there before breakfast. Lam perns
and jack were also fairly plentiful at Hampton
thirty years ago.
Hampton is also notable as being the place
where the Thames Angling Preservation
Society, to whose efforts and expenditure
Thames anglers are indebted for the preser-
vation of the fishery in the river up to
Staines, was established at a meeting held at
the Bell Inn on 17 March, 1838 — more than
seventy years ago.19 The promoters of the
movement were Mr. Henry Perkins of Han-
worth Park, Mr. C. C. Clarke, and Mr. Ed-
ward Jesse of Twickenham, Dr. Henry
Jepson and Mr. Richard Kerry of Hampton,
Mr. W. Whitbread of Eaton Square, and
18 T. C. Hoffland, The British Angler's Manual,
or the Art of Angling in England, Scotland, Wales and
Ireland, with some account of the principal rivers, lakes,
and trout streams In the United Kingdom. (New ed.
revised and enlarged by Edward Jesse, 1848), 237-8.
Hoffland was also an artist of some celebrity.
181 Ibid. 238, 248, 263, 265-70.
19 The Blue Bk. of the Thames AngRng Preserva-
tion Soc. 1906, p. 5.
Mr. David Crole of Strawberry Hill. Ori-
ginally formed for the protection of fish from
poachers — with respect to which an applica-
tion was in the first instance made to the then
Lord Mayor (Sir John Cowan, bart.), who was
at that time one of the Thames conservators20
— the society eventually extended its opera-
tions to restocking the river, and has thus
provided thousands of anglers with twenty miles
of free water, which furnishes perhaps the
finest coarse fishing in England. Among the
consignments of fish placed in the river during
1905 were 300 trout, from 10 to 14 in.
at Weybridge ; I ton of roach, dace, bream,
and perch about and below Sunbury Lock ;
I2cwt. of roach, perch, chub and bream at
Chertsey ; and about I dozen bream, averaging
a£ Ib., with a few chub, perch and roach at
Walton. Among the patrons of the society
may be mentioned the late King Edward and
his Majesty King George. The Hon. Harry
Lawson, M.A., is the president and Mr.
Henry Whitmore Higgins the hon. secretary
and hon. treasurer.
The Lea, which, as has been said, forms
the eastern boundary of Middlesex, rises at
Leagrave Marsh near Luton in Bedfordshire,
and flows east-south-east for 10 miles into
Hertfordshire and for 1 6 miles by Hertford
to Ware. Thence it flows for 4 miles south-
wards between Hertfordshire and Essex to
the Middlesex border at Waltham Cross,
whence its course is 8 miles south-east by Lea
Brooke, Old Ford, Bow and Bromley to the
Thames at Blackwall.
Two manors on the banks of the Lea are
returned in Domesday as having several
fisheries — Enfield (Enfelde) and Tottenham
(Toteham) — and the river has never ceased
to be productive. The fishing above Totten-
ham at Edmonton and Enfield is referred to
by Izaak Walton, who, as he lived the greater
part of his life in London where he first
became a fisherman and where he wrote
The Compleat Angler, may be fairly claimed
as a Middlesex man.21 Hoffland, in whose
time its course above Limehouse lay through
'a beautiful pastoral country adorned with
villages . . . through parks and meadows
containing countless herds of cattle and flocks
of sheep,' describes the Lea as second only
to the Thames in the opinion of London
anglers.*1 The river between Stratford and
Lea Bridge was then rented and preserved
10 Ibid.
11 See the Walton Chronology in the Win-
chester edition of The Compleat Angler, by Mr.
George Dewar.
M The British Angler's Manual, 275.
269
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
by Mr. Beresford of the ' White House,' at
Homerton, little more than 3 miles from
London. He also had the ' Horse and Groom,'
a mile above the 'White House,' and the
fishery attached to it, and angling in each of
these ' subscription waters ' was procurable
for the payment of half a guinea subscription
per annum. Both of these private fisheries
are described by Hoffland as abounding in
jack and pike, carp, barbel, chub, perch,
roach, dace, eels, gudgeon and bleak.23 ' Above
Lea Bridge,' he says, ' a considerable space of
the river is free to anglers up to Tottenham
Mills, 5 miles from London, where is Tyler's
subscription water, and 6 miles farther there
is Ford's water.24
HofHand makes no mention of trout,
which, if not existent in his day, must have
been since introduced into the river, since it
is stated in an article in The Field of 4 May,
1907, on 'Trout fishing in the Lea,' that
' though not comparable with the Thames,
the open or public waters of the Lea are to be
by no means despised by the trout angler who
has no preserved or private fishery on hand.'
The Colne rises to the south-west of Hat-
field in Hertfordshire, running 13 miles south-
west past Colney and Watney to Rickmans-
worth, and entering Middlesex at the north-
west extremity flows southward between that
county and Bucks past Harefield, Uxbridge
— where it divides into several channels forming
islands — Cowley, and Colnbrook, to the
Thames at Staines. Another arm of the
river diverges from its main course at Long-
ford and reaches Staines by Laleham, while
another uniting with the Cran — a small
stream rising in the high grounds between
Pinner and Harrow — flows across Hounslow
Heath to Twickenham and Isleworth. Yet
another branch runs through Han worth,
Bushey, and Hampton Court parishes.
The manors of West Drayton (Draitone),
Harmondsworth (Hermondesworthe), Stan-
well (Stanewell), and Harefield (Herefelle)
on the Colne are all returned in Domesday
as having several fisheries,26 and other ancient
records show that this was also the case as
regards those of Cowley (Covele), Denham,
and Whitton (Witton) on the same river.26
Neither Izaak Walton nor Hoffland refers
to the Colne, but it is mentioned by Daniel
in his Rural Sports, published in 1 8 1 2, as a good
fishing river. The fishing at West Drayton
is now preserved by various local angling
societies, and is especially abundantly supplied
with pike and jack.
The Brent rises near Barnet in Hertford-
shire, and entering Middlesex near Finchley
flows 1 6 miles south-west, through the middle
of the county, by Hendon, Twyford, and
Hanwell, to the Thames at Brentford.
That there was originally fishing in this
river is evident from a grant of 1640 by
Robert Lee, aliening the manor of East Twy-
ford, 'consisting of 100 acres of arable land,
80 of meadow, 200 of pasture and 50 of
wood -with free fishery in the river of Brent'' —
a term synonymous with ' several fishery ' 27
— to John Hooke and his heirs.28 The weir
at Brentford, already referred to as belonging
to the canons of St. Mary Merton,29 must
also presumably have been at the confluence
of the Brent with the Thames. Owing,
however, to the utilization of the river for
the disposal of the drainage of Ealing and
adjacent western suburbs it has long ceased
to be available for purposes of fishery.
CRICKET
MIDDLESEX COUNTY
The history of county cricket in Middle-
sex begins in 1863, when it was started at a
meeting over which the Hon. Robert Grim-
ston presided, and at which Messrs. J. and
V. E. Walker were present. It may be
briefly stated that for many years the county
club only existed through the munificence of
the Walker family, who must be inseparably
connected with its history. For a long time
the county team suffered from lack of an
" The British Angler's Manual, 276, 277.
'< Ibid. 278.
abiding place. A start was made in Islington
in 1863, with R. Thorns as umpire and
George Hearne as ground-man, but in 1865
Norris the landlord raised the rent by £50,
and in 1869, after further trouble with him,
a move was made to Lillie Bridge. There
the turf proved bad, and the club was on the
verge of dissolution, continuance being carried
by one vote at a meeting of thirteen mem-
' 5 Domesday Bk. ; cf. Hist, and Law of fisheries, 403.
* Hist, and Law of fisheries, 407,410, 41 1,422.
17 Ibid. 37, 38.
88 Pat. 1 6 Chas. I, pt. 1 5. Cf. Lysons, Environs
ofLond. iii, 259, 260. " Ante, 267.
270
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
bers. Matters somewhat improved in 1871,
but no good professionals were engaged. In
1872 another migration was made, this time
to Prince's. When the builder invaded that
pretty ground, the hospitality of Lord's was
accepted, despite the opposition of Mr. I. D.
Walker, Mr. P. M. Thornton observing in
words that sound strange having regard to
modern developments : ' it has yet to be
proved that genuine county cricket will
attract at Lord's.'
In 1864 Middlesex played their first match
against Bucks at Newport Pagnell. The
result was a draw. Pooley appeared for
Middlesex, and Captain Frederick made the
top score. The lobs of Mr. V. E. Walker,
dismissing nine for 62 and five for 41, gave
the county a victory by an innings over
Sussex. The earliest centuries were against
M.C.C. with Grundy and Wootton bowling,
Tom Hearne scoring 125 and Mr. T. Case
116 towards a total of 411. In the return
with Bucks, Middlesex, after being 218 be-
hind, scored 463, and won by 138 runs.
Against Lancashire, with a tie on first inn-
ings in 1865, Mr. V. E. Walker claimed all
ten wickets in an innings for 104, a feat not
again performed for Middlesex until Burton's
similar achievement in 1888 against Surrey.
The season of 1 866 was successful, for Middle-
sex beat Surrey (scoring over 400 each time),
and Lancashire twice, drawing and beating
Notts, losing and winning to Cambridge
University. In 1867 Middlesex played
England, but lost by an innings and 25
runs, Mr. A. Lubbock obtaining 125 and
Dr. W. G. Grace 75. There was a tie
with Surrey in 1868, for Caesar's benefit.
After this for several years the programme
was very restricted. Howitt in 1869 had
the excellent analysis of six wickets for 4
runs at the Oval, and T. Hearne six for 12
in the return with Surrey. At Lord's against
M.C.C. in 1871, Mr. W. H. Hadow scored
217. In 1874, bowling against Notts, he
claimed four for 9 and eight for 35, while
in consecutive matches with Notts and York-
shire in 1875 he captured twenty-three for
227. A sub-committee was that year formed
to choose teams — ' very difficult owing to the
great batting strength.' Among the batsmen
may be cited besides the Walkers, Messrs.
J. W. Dale, C. E. Green, A. W. T.
Daniel, C. F. Buller, C. J. Ottaway, W. H.
Hadow, J. J. Sewell, C. I. Thornton, T.
Case, and B. B. Cooper. The attack at that
period could only be varied between the three
Walkers, Messrs. E. Rutter, R. Henderson,
C. J. Brune, C. K. Francis, and A. H. Strat-
ford. Middlesex has constantly found its
side vary enormously owing to the lack of
professionals. As a matter of fact Burton,
West, and Mignon were the only bowlers born
in the county, T. and J. T. Hearne coming
from Bucks, Howitt and Clarke from Notts,
Rawlin from Yorkshire, Trott, Phillips, Roche,
and Tarrant from Australia. Among others
the following amateurs played by qualification :
the Hon. Edward and Alfred Lyttelton (born
in Worcestershire), Lord George Scott, G.
Macgregor and J. G. Walker (Scotland),
R. N. and J. Douglas, C. M. Wells and
H. B. Chinnery (Surrey), M. E. Pavri (India),
Dr. G. Thornton (Yorkshire), C. E. Cobb,
C. Robson, F. T. Welman, A. H. Heath,
G. W. Hillyard, S. C. Newton, T. S. Pear-
son, H. Ross, G. Strachan, P. F. Warner,
and A. P. Lucas.
In 1876 when Surrey had lost seven men
with 100 still needed, Barratt hit splendidly,
but when tie was called and the last man in
he was easily caught. Mr. I. D. Walker
hit Ulyett to square leg out of the Bramall
Lane ground in Sheffield. In 1878 the Hon.
Edward Lyttelton's 113 for Middlesex was
the first century scored against the Australians,
and some judges declare this innings was
never surpassed except by Mr. G. L. Jessop
at the Oval in the last test match of 1902.
He was the best bat of the year. Middlesex,
it may be mentioned, has on occasion been
assisted by notably fine wicket-keepers, to
wit, Messrs. Bisset Halliwell, M. Turner
(who dismissed nine opponents at Notting-
ham in 1875), the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton,
H. Philipson, F. T. Welman, G. Macgre-
gor, the finest amateur in this department,
W. P. Robertson, E. H. Bray, W. S. Bird,
and M. W. Payne. The following Middle-
sex cricketers have appeared in test matches
in England : the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton,
Sir T. C. O'Brien, Mr. C. T. Studd, Mr.
B. J. T. Bosanquet, Mr. P. F. Warner, and
J. T. Hearne. The following have gone on
tour to Australia in addition to these six :
Messrs. A. P. Lucas, A. J. Webbe, C. F. H.
Leslie, G. B. Studd, G. F. Vernon, A. E.
Stoddart, H. Philipson, and Rawlin.
The bowling of Mr. A. F. J. Ford, who
captured thirty-eight for 417, was a pleasing
feature of 1879, when in a wet season 476
runs were amassed at Clifton. Mr. C. T.
Studd had a capital analysis at the Oval in
1880, four for 6 and three for 24, while
Mr. A. F. J. Ford captured six for 42 and
seven for 40. During and after 1881 Burton
played regularly. He was a steady slow
bowler who did an enormous amount of
work, being mainly supported by the erratic but
effective fast deliveries of Mr. J. Robertson.
271
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Among the features of 1882 was a grand 141
by Mr. C. F. H. Leslie at Nottingham, well
supported by Mr. I. D. Walker with 79.
The latter batsman, with Mr. A. J. Webbe,
put up 130 for first wicket after Surrey had
been dismissed for 117. Against Gloucester-
shire Mr. A. F. J. Ford effected seven catches
at short slip. A year later at Clifton Mr.
I. D. Walker and the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton
added 324 for the second wicket, the latter
having the remarkable average of 68. Sir T. C.
O'Brien's courageous batting formed the one
noteworthy feature of 1884, and in the seven
matches in which the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton
could not play, the wicket-keeping was put
'in commission." Disasters in 1885 followed
the retirement of Messrs. I. D. Walker, C. T.
Studd, and P. J. T. Henery, whilst Messrs.
T. S. Pearson, G. E. Vernon, G. B. Studd,
A. W. Ridley, and the Hon. Alfred Lyttelton
were only seldom available. However, Mr.
A. E. Stoddart was at last enlisted from
the Hampstead Club, and Mr. S. W. S'.ott
played a notable 135 not out against Glou^ es-
tershire. Mr. J. G. Walker in 1886 lent
valuable aid, but it was not until 1887 that
revival could be noted. Mr. A. J. Webbe
showed most remarkable form, averaging 51
for 820 aggregate, playing a great innings
of 243 not out in the match against York-
shire just after his 192 not out against Kent
in the Canterbury week. Wet wickets
checked the scoring in 1888, Sir X. C.
O'Brien, who averaged 53, alone rising
superior to the difficulties. Burton h?tfl the
remarkable analysis of I2'5O for ninety-two
wickets, taking all ten for 59 in the first
innings of Surrey at the Oval, and thiee for
19 in the unfinished second effort.
Sir T. C. O'Brien's scoring again st York-
shire in 1889 will never be forgotten. In
the first innings 1 12 were added in les.s than
an hour, Sir Timothy making 92 with\ Mr.
G. F. Vernon, who scored 86. Set to get iaSo
in three hours and a half Sir T. C. O'Briien,
hitting fearlessly, obtained 100 not out, und
he and the same colleague made the ijhins
with ten minutes to spare, 151 being a^ded
in ninety minutes. Mr. E. A. Y^epean
showed admirable form with bjoth bat and
ball, and Mr. Stoddart played .<fine cricket.
After brilliant victories over Ncotts, Lanca-
shire, and Gloucester, persistent i-mediocrity
beset the Middlesex cricket of 189^0, but an
immense advance was to be noticedVin 1891
when third place in the championship list
was obtained. This great improvement was
mainly due to that great and willing \bowler
J. T. Hearne, whose patience and good llength
were always remarkable. At Old Trajfford
he claimed ten Lancashire wickets for 83.
Rawlin also played great cricket. In batting
Sir T. C. O'Brien continued to Sh0w con-
sistent prowess, while Mr. A. E. Stoddart
played a magnificent i:nnings of 215 against
Lancashire.
The advent of the great wicket-keeper
Mr. Gregor Macgreg<j,r was a source Of
material strength in ^a, in which year
J. T. Hearne for thie second time took
100 wickets in coun'ty matches, the only
Middlesex bowler wbo had yet done so.
Mr. S. W. Scott displayed an enormous ad-
vance in batting, his 244 agajnst Gloucester-
shire at Lord's being remarkable for an
amateur aged 39. Mr. A. E. Stoddart again
occupied second place ir, the averages. In 1 893
the county again rose to tnjrd position, owing
mainly to the fine for^ of Mr. Stoddart, who
scored 1,178 in twenty.five jnnjngS) and had
the highest county average of the year. In
the Notts match at L«Drd's he took a double
century, 195 not out; ^d I24. With Sir
T. C. O'Brien he put on 228 jn two hours
and a half for the first wjcket against Surrey.
Mr. F. G. J. Ford h;t fjneiy> but Hearne
and Rawlin found no SUppOrt with the ball.
A similar position was obtained in 1894; but
the cricket, apart from the work of the two
bowlers, was not up (o the standard of the
previous summer. Thjs observation equally
applies to 1895, although Sir T. C. O'Brien
made 202 at Brighton^ adding 338 in three
hours and a quarter vith Mr. R. S. Lucas,
who scored 185. Mr. (-. M. Wells in August
offered some bowling- reljef and Mr. J.
Douglas strengthened tl,e batting at the same
period.
Far better was the fc,rm in ^96, when Sit
T. C. O'Brien and Mr. A. E. Stoddart time
after time played crick(.t ^ valuable as it was
brilliant, while J. T. Hearne bowled like a
hero. His taking of vwelve Surrey wickets
for 90 was a capital p«;rforrnance. In 1897
the form was less certain> though Mr. F. G. J.
Ford gave some extr^ordinary displays, and
Mr. Stoddart, as we'd as Mr. J. Douglas,
when available, was wen worth watching.
Mr. P. F. Warner, Who nad long been trying
for a place on the sjde, at last won it, and
became at Lord's a sjngularly useful and
enthusiastic bat.
Middlesex had only obtained two successes
up to the close of Jiaiy jn 1 898, but of the
eight matches played jn August seven were
won and one was dravn, with the result that
the county finished a good second to York-
shire. Hearne, now Assisted by Albert Trott,
bowled brilliantly, anq the Colonial exceeded
expectation. Mr. Sty dart averaged 52, his
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
biggest score being 157 on the Aylestone
ground. Mr. F. G. J. Ford, in August,
obtained no less than 603 runs, while mag-
nificent assistance with the bat and in the
field that month came from the brothers
Douglas and Mr. C. M. Wells. So well was
the standard maintained next summer that the
Middlesex side almost won the champion-
ship, eleven victories being set against three
defeats. Mr. Stoddart and Sir T. C. O'Brien
both dropped out, but in August the usual
triumvirate of schoolmasters reappeared and
Mr. C. M. Wells averaged 81, his great score
being 244 against Notts. Mr. Warner batted
better than ever before, and Trott not only
took 146 wickets for 15, but scored 164
against Yorkshire. It was the victory by an
innings and two runs over that team which
formed the proudest achievement of Middlesex.
Mr. F. G.J.Ford played three great centuries,
and Mr. Macgregor as a bat, as wicket-
keeper, and as captain was a complete success.
There was a big drop in 1901, though Mr.
Stoddart came back for Hearne's benefit and
scored a masterly 22 1 against Somerset. Mr.
Bosanquet's play for his double hundred
against Leicestershire was electrifying, but
Mr. Warner bore the brunt of the batting
and Trott of the bowling. Although Middle-
sex finished second in 1901 there was little
brilliancy in the display apart from the fine
scoring of Mr. P. F. Warner, though Mr.
Bosanquet established himself as Mr. F. G. J.
Ford's successor. Disasters came so fast in
1902 that eleventh place only was obtained.
Apart from an innings of 180 by Mr. J.
Douglas at Leyton, and a creditable victory
over Notts, in which Mr. Bosanquet gave
his earliest swerve demonstration, there was
little to praise.
All-round efficiency accounted for the un-
expected fact that Middlesex actually took
champion honours in 1903, the only reverse
being a tremendous defeat by a margin of 230
at the hands of Yorkshire at Leeds. Messrs.
Warner, Beldam, Bosanquet, Moon, and
the Douglases formed a formidable batting
nucleus. The bowling on paper did not look
remarkable, but it was effective. On 14
September the county played a favourable
draw with the Rest of England, represented
by Lord Hawke and K. S. Ranjitsinhji, with
Hayward, Hayes, Tyldesley, Arnold, Hirst,
Braund, John Gunn, Rhodes, and Strudwick.
In August 1904 the Middlesex side was
as good as ever, but previously with unre-
presentative elevens they gave only a poor
exhibition. The bright feature was the work
of Mr. B. J. T. Bosanquet. Against Kent,
after making 80, he captured five for 23, and
in the Yorkshire match he took ten for 248,
making 141, with Mr. R. E. More adding
128 inside fifty minutes. In each match
with Somerset, Mr. G. W. Beldam
played a sound century, while Mr. Warner
contributed 163 at Nottingham and 106 at
the Oval. J. T. Hearne bowled quite in his
old style. A lamentable decline was shown
in 1905, and blunders in the field prevented
the victories of the county from amounting to
more than four as against seven defeats.
Very occasional success by Mr. Bosanquet
alone assisted J. T. Hearne in the attack,
while that steady batsman Tarrant enjoyed
moderate success. Mr. Bosanquet achieved a
double century against Sussex, following it up
with eight for 53, but the general form was
lifeless. The pertinacious imperturbable skill
of Tarrant in every department was the main-
stay of the county in the next few years, and
in 1907 he proved the best all-round profes-
sional in England. Mr. Macgregor kept
wicket as finely as ever until he resigned the
captaincy to Mr. P. F. Warner.
THE MARYLEBONE CRICKET
CLUB
The space at our disposal does not permit
of more than a very inadequate mention of
this famous club, which is indeed more a na-
tional than a county institution. The club
virtually was the offshoot of the White
Conduit Club dissolved in 1787. Thomas
Lord established the first ground that bore
his name in Dorset Square. After a tem-
porary residence at North Bank, he opened
the present ground in St. John's Wood,
the first match played there being M.C.C.
against Hertfordshire in 1814. The old
pavilion was burnt in 1820. From time to
time many alterations and additions have
been made.
There are now nearly five thousand mem-
bers of M.C.C. The administration is in the
hands of a president, nominated annually by
his predecessor, a treasurer, a committee of
sixteen, four of whom retire annually, and
a secretary with a subordinate staff. Any
alterations in the laws of the game must be
approved at a general meeting ; and while
these laws are implicitly obeyed in England,
they form, with some modifications, the rule
for cricket in all other parts of the world.
Formerly the matches between M.C.C. and
Ground and certain counties were of an im-
portance far greater than is at present the
case, but the minor matches of the great club
are invaluable for popularizing the game.
273
35
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The match, North against South, has become
as obsolete at St. John's Wood as the once
famous matches of the All England and
United All England elevens. The centenary
of M.C.C. was observed in June 1887,
when M.C.C. played England ; Eighteen
Veterans met the Gentlemen of M.C.C. ;
and a banquet was held at which the Hon.
E. Chandos-Leigh, the president of the year,
took the chair, among the speakers being Mr.
Goschen, the Duke of Abercorn, Lord Bess-
borough, the Provost of Eton, M. Wadding-
ton, Mr. E. Stanhope, Lord George Hamilton,
Sir A. L. Smith, Mr. Justice Chitty, and
Lord Harris.
THE UNIVERSITY MATCH
Up to the close of 1909 seventy-five univer-
sity matches have been played, of which Cam-
bridge have won thirty-six and Oxford thirty-
one matches; in 1827, 1844, 1888, 1899,1900,
1901, 1904 and 1 909 the matches were drawn.
The two largest aggregates, Oxford's 503 and
Cambridge's 392, were both obtained in the
same match in 1900. The largest individual
innings, 172 not out by Mr. J. F. Marsh for
Cambridge in 1904, was intrinsically inferior
to the 171 of Mr. R. E. Foster for Oxford
in 1900. Mr. W. Yardley with 100 and
130 in 1872 for Cambridge is the only
cricketer twice to score centuries in this
match, but Mr. J. E. Raphael with 130 in
1903 and 99 in 1905 only failed by one run
to achieve the same distinction for Oxford.
Mr. Eustace Crawley has alone made a 100
both in the Eton and Harrow and Oxford
and Cambridge matches. Those who have
also scored centuries for Oxford are Messrs.
K. J. Key, M. R. Jardine, G. O. Smith,
H. K. Foster, F. M. Buckland, V. T. Hill,
W. H. Game, A. Eccles, W. H. Patterson,
W. Rashleigh, Lord George Scott, C. B. Fry,
and C. H. B. Marsham ; and for Cambridge
Messrs. H. J. Mordaunt, G. B. Studd, E. R.
Wilson, S. H. Day, E. C. Streatfeild,
C. E. M. Wilson, L. G. Colbeck, W. S.
Patterson, C. W. Wright, and H. W.
Bainbridge. The most famous finish was in
1870 when Oxford with three wickets to fall
wanted only 4 runs to win. Mr. Bourne
then caught Mr. Rutter off the second ball of
Mr. Cobden's last over, and Messrs. W. A.
Stewart and H. A. Belcher were bowled with
the next two balls. It was in 1896 that
Mr. F. Mitchell provoked an angry demon-
stration by directing Mr. E. B. Shine to send
down no balls to prevent Oxford avoiding
the follow on.
GENTLEMEN AND PLAYERS
In seasons when the Australians have not
visited England, the fixture at Lord's between
Gentlemen and Players has always been
regarded as the chief exhibition match in
which it was a great honour to be invited to
play. Two matches were played in 1806,
but the Gentlemen were assisted by Beldham
and Lambert. Although in 1819 they played
unsupported, in 1820 Howard was introduced.
Odds were not given after 1838, since when
up to the end of 1909 the Gentlemen have
won twenty-eight and the Players thirty-six.
The highest individual score is Mr. C. B. Fry's
232 not out in 1903, Dr. W. G. Grace's
largest being 169 in 1876, and he is the only
cricketer except Hayward who has exceeded
the century more than twice at Lord's. The
highest for the Players are 1 63 by J. T. Brown
in 1900 and 141 by Braund in 1902. Mr.
R. E. Foster scored two hundreds, 102 not
out and 136 in the match in 1900, and
J. H. King with 104 and 109 not out
effected a similar feat in 1904, both on their
first appearance in the match. The aggregates
exceeding 1,000 are : in 1900, 1,274 for
thirty-eight wickets ; 1903, 1,218 for twenty-
three wickets; 1897, 1,196 runs; 1904,
1,165 f°r thirty-seven wickets; 1895, 1,156
runs; 1905, 1,149 f°r thirty-four wickets;
1883, 1,118 for thirty-three wickets ; 1901,
1,079 f°r thirty-six wickets; 1878, 1,066
runs ; 1898, 1,059 runs; and 1884, 1,000 for
thirty-four wickets. The longest partnership
was in 1 903, when Messrs. C. B. Fry and A. C.
Maclaren added 309 without being separated.
In 1900 the Players were set 501 to win,
and made them for the loss of eight wickets.
The instances of two bowlers being unchanged
in the match are W. Lillywhite and James
Broadbridge (playing as given men for the
Gentlemen) in 1829 and for the Players in
1832 ; W. Lillywhite and S. Redgate in
1837; Wisden and W. Clarke in 1850;
Mr. Matthew Kempson and Sir Frederick
Bathurst in 1853 ; Jackson and Willsher in
1 86 1 ; Willsher and Tarrant in 1864; and
the Hon. F. S. Jackson and Mr. S. M. J.
Woods in 1894.
THE AUSTRALIANS AT LORD'S
The first appearance of the Australians
at Lord's against M.C.C. and Ground in
1878 was one of the most extraordinary
matches ever played. The ground was in a
dreadful state, and the Australians in one day
defeated a powerful side by nine wickets,
274
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
dismissing the Club for 33 and 19 Mr.
F. R. Spofforth in the first innings took six
for 4, including a hat trick, and Mr. H. F.
Boyle six for 3 in the second. The Colonials
beat Middlesex by 98 runs despite the great
century by the Hon. Edward Lyttelton, but
were defeated by an innings and 72 runs by the
famous Cambridge eleven. The Australians
were not seen at Lord's again until 1882.
Since that time they have five times met the
Gentlemen, winning three times and losing
once. In 1906 Mr. W. W. Armstrong scored
248 not out, the third largest innings ever
made on the ground in a first-class match.
The Australians were beaten by an innings
and 263 runs by the Players in 1 890, but won
by six wickets in 1893. Against M.C.C.
the Australians have won five times, lost six
times and had six draws. Middlesex has been
met on eleven occasions, but the county has
never yet been successful. Ten test matches
have been played at Lord's, England being
victorious in 1884, 1886, 1890 and 1896,
the Australians in 1888, 1899 and 1909, whilst
the matches 1893, I902 an(* 1905 were un-
finished. In 1888 England scored 53, her
smallest aggregate in the whole series in this
country. Shrewsbury scored 106 in 1893,
Mr. A. G. Steel 148 in 1884, Mr. S. E.
Gregory 103 in 1896, Mr. V. S. Ransford
143 in 1909, Mr. G. H. S. Trott 143 in
1896, Mr. C. Hill 135 in 1899, Mr. V.
Trumper 135 not out in 1899 and Mr. H.
Graham 107 in 1893. Gunn's innings
of 228 for the Players at Lord's in 1890
is the highest individual innings hit against
the Australians in this country.
HARROW SCHOOL CRICKET
Space will not permit adequate treatment
of the cricket of Harrow. Unlike Eton,
the cricket has not been mainly in charge of
masters but of such old Harrovians as the
Hon. Robert Grimston, Mr. I. D. Walker,
and Mr. A. J. Webbe in conjunction with
Mr. M. C. Kemp. The great feature,
of course, is the annual match at Lord's with
Eton. Of the eighty-three encounters up to
1910, Harrow has won thirty-five and lost
thirty-one, seventeen having been drawn, but
Harrovians object very strongly to the game
in 1805 (when Lord Byron played) being
treated as a regular match between the two
schools, contending that it is no more correct
to count it than the fixture in 1857 for
boys under twenty, which has been rejected.
The centuries scored for Harrow against
Eton are, 142 by T. G. O. Cole in 1897,
135 by A. K. Watson in 1885, 124 by
J. H. Stogden in 1895, 112 not out by
A. W. T. Daniel in 1860, 108 by R. B.
Hoare in 1888 and 100 by E. Crawley in
1885, as well as the unparalleled double
century in 1907 of M. C. Bird who grandly
obtained 100 not out and 131. The largest
totals are 388 in 1900, 385 in 1898, 376 in
1901, 326 in 1895 and 324 in 1885.
Winchester only once played at Harrow,
in 1837. Harrow had the double satisfaction
of winning both matches against Eton and
Winchester in 1842.
The following old Harrovians have played
in test matches in England : — A. N. Hornby,
A. C. Maclaren and the Hon. F. S. Jackson.
Old Harrovians who have been to the Anti-
podes are : A. N. Hornby, F. A. MacKinnon
(who was never given his colours), A. C. Mac-
laren, E. M. Dowson, and M. C. Bird. The
following since 1878 have represented the
Gentlemen against the Players at Lord's: A. N.
Hornby, M. C. Kemp, H. T. Hewett, A. C.
Maclaren, the Hon. F. S. Jackson, and E. M.
Dowson ; while for the Gentlemen against
the Australians were selected A. N. Hornby,
W. H. Patterson, R. C. Ramsey, M. C.
Kemp, and A. C. Maclaren.
Since 1878 the following Old Harrovians
have found places in the Oxford eleven :
A. Haskett Smith, W. H. Patterson, H. T.
Hewet, M. C. Kemp, W. E. Bolitho, A. K.
and H. D. Watson, H. J. Wyld, W. S. Med-
licot, R. G. Barnes, M. J. Dauglish, D. R.
Brandt and K. M. Carlisle. Harrovians in the
Cambridge eleven have been P. J. T. Henery,
C. D. Buxton, R. C. Ramsey, D. G. Spiro,
F. C. C. Rowe, R. Spencer, E. M. Butler,
E. Crawley, the Hon. F. S. Jackson, E. M.
Dowson, W. P. Robertson, F. B. Wilson,.
C. H. Eyre, F. J. V. Hopley, E. W. Mann,
R. E. H. Bailey and M. Falcon — a list that
may well be remembered with pride by
anyone reared in the great school on the
Hill.
275
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
FOOTBALL
Association. — Middlesex has taken a leading
part in placing the Association game, the
Rugby game and more recently the Amateur
Football Association on a constitutional basis.
It was in and around London that men first
went on playing the various forms of football
that they had learnt at school. As nearly
every school possessed rules peculiar to it-
self, varying either to suit its playing area
or handed down by tradition, it will easily be
understood that the enjoyment of the game was
greatly hindered by this lack of uniformity.
In 1863 the late Mr. C. W. Alcock and
other pioneers of the game of football made
strenuous efforts to induce all players to unite
under one code. To this end Mr. Alcock
and those who played the dribbling, or what
is now known as the Association, game were
prepared to make certain concessions to those
who followed the Rugby or running code.
The first meeting for the purpose was held
at the Freemasons' Tavern, 26 October 1863
when the Football Association was formed.
The clubs represented were the War Office
F. C., the Crusaders, the Forest, Crystal Pal-
ace, Kilburn, Barnes and the Rugby clubs of
Kensington School, Surbiton, Blackheath, and
Percival House. Mr. Arthur Kimber of the
Kilburn N.N.'s was elected the first president,
Mr. Morley, honorary secretary, and Mr. G.
Campbell of Blackheath, treasurer. A further
meeting was held on 10 November, when the
secretary was empowered to draft an amalga-
mated code of rules taken from those in vogue
at Eton, Westminster, Harrow, Charterhouse,
Rugby and Winchester. When the amalga-
mated code was presented at a subsequent meet-
ing on I December concessions to the Rugby
section were evident, and at one time it ap-
peared not improbable that the new code would
be acceptable to both sections of players.
Hacking, then a cherished feature of the Rugby
game had, however, been eliminated. The de-
sirability of its retention was vigorously main-
tained by Mr. Campbell, but his arguments were
in vain, and in consequence he and themembers
of the Rugby clubs decided not to join the
Association. From that day to this the two
great divisions of the game — Association and
Rugby — have remained distinct. The growth
of the Association was not at first rapid.
By 1868 only twenty clubs, most of which
belonged to Middlesex, owned allegiance to it.
In 1867 county football was introduced for
the first time when Middlesex on 2 November
played a combined team of Kent and Surrey.
The game was keenly contested and resulted
in a draw, neither side obtaining a goal. In
1870 the late Mr. C. W. Alcock, who did
more towards popularizing Association foot-
ball than any other man, was elected to the
post of secretary, a position he filled for over
thirty years. Up to the time of his death in
1907 he continued to take an active part in
the administration of the game.
On 20 July 1871 the historic Challenge
Cup was instituted and was won by the
Wanderers. In early days this team, com-
posed mainly of old public school men resident
in London, was a dominating influence in
Association football. In the first seven years
of the Cup's history this club was successful on
five occasions. Mr. C. W. Alcock was the
organizer and leading spirit of the Wanderers
until, on the formation in London of numerous
clubs of old public school men, such as the
Old Carthusians, the Old Etonians, and the
Old Harrovians, the team was disbanded.
Other London clubs that held the trophy
were the Old Etonians (twice) and the Old
Carthusians, while the Clapham Rovers, which
contained a fair proportion of Middlesex men,
won it in 1880. Since the legalization of pro-
fessionalism all this has been changed, and only
once1 since 1883 has a London club held it
or been in the final. In 1883 that famous
amateur club, the Corinthians, was formed.
The club, whose head quarters are at Queen's
Club in West Kensington, is composed of the
pick of amateur players. The Corinthians have
never entered for the Association Cup, but
have contested hundreds of exciting matches
with the leading professional teams. A very
popular competition in London among the old
boys of the various public schools who play
the Association game is the Arthur Dunn Cup.
This trophy was instituted in 1903 to
perpetuate the memory of the Old Etonian
whose name it bears, in his day one of the best
type of amateur and an international player of
note. The final and many of the ties are
decided at Queen's Club.
The Old Carthusians are the present holders
of the cup, a position they have enjoyed every
year since the competition's inception, except
in 1907 when the Old Reptonians were
successful, while in 1903 the Old Salopians
held it jointly with them.
1 This occurred in 1901, when Tottenham Hot-
spur, after one drawn game with Sheffield United,
subsequently beat the latter.
276
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
Another trophy competed for in the metro-
politan district is the Sheriff of London's
Shield presented by Sir Thomas Dewar during
his shrievalty, to be played for by the two
leading amateur and professional teams of the
year. The proceeds of the match are devoted
to deserving London charities.
Lord Kinnaird is president of the Football
Association and the secretary is Mr. L. Walls.
The Middlesex representative on the com-
mittee is Mr. W. W. Heard, who is also
secretary of the Middlesex Association. The
cup tie competitions in the county comprise
the following — Middlesex Senior and Junior,
Middlesex Charity, Inter-Hospital, Tottenham
Charity, London Senior, Junior, Charity, and
London Banks.
The various schools in the county have
trained many notable internationals. West-
minster heads the list with a dozen players,
including N. C. Bailey, who not only captained
the English team, but played on no less than
eighteen occasions. Harrow ranks next with
seven, of whom the late C. W. Alcock will
ever be remembered. Mill Hill supplied two
distinguished internationals in the brothers
Heron, whilst the City of London School
furnished S. R. Bastard.
Another far-reaching movement initiated
in London has been the formation of the
Amateur Foo lall Association. With the
great increase of professionalism of recent years
in the Association game it was felt that the
interests of the amateurs were hardly receiving
from the governing body the recognition to
which they were entitled, and when in 1907
legislation was brought in threatening the in-
dividual freedom of action of the player the
amateurs felt that the time had arrived for
them to form an association of their own.
The Amateur Football Association was accord-
ingly formed with Lord Alverstone as the first
president, and H. Hughes-Onslowas secretary.
The amateurs of the county are affiliated to
the new association.
Rugby. — After the Rugby clubs had decided
in 1863 not to join the Football Association,
the followers of the running game continued
to increase, but no governing body was formed
for some years. At that date the most promi-
nent Rugby clubs in the county were Ravens-
court Park, the Harlequins, the Wasps, the
Gipsies, Addison, Belsize, Hampstead, the
Pirates, the Black Rovers, and the Red Rovers.
The London hospitals also played the
Rugby game as well as the following schools : —
St. Paul's, Merchant Taylors, Highgate, King's
College School, Christ's College Finchley,
Godolphin School, Kensington Grammar
School, and many smaller seminaries.
In the season of 1870-1 it became evident
that the best interest of the sport would be
served by placing the Rugby game on a con-
stitutional basis with a uniform code of rules.
The movement was confined to the London
clubs, and of those represented at a meeting
held, 26 January 1871, no less than eleven
out of twenty-one belonged to Middlesex.
At this meeting the Rugby Union was formed.
It is worthy of note that ' hacking,' the elimi-
nation of which caused the Rugby men to
decline to join the Football Association in
1863, was forbidden by the code drawn up
by the newly-formed Union. Middlesex was
well represented on the first general com-
mittee as well as in the first international
match with Scotland, which was played a few
weeks after the formation of the governing
body.
The head quarters of the Union have
always been in Middlesex, and in 1908 its
new ground at Twickenham was opened,
which will be the centre of the game and all
international matches will be played there.
Middlesex was the first of the southern
counties to put a football team in the field.
On 25 February 1879 they met Yorkshire
for the first time and won by 2 goals 2 tries
to 2 goals and I try. The same season
the county also played Surrey, but were de-
feated by a try. In the succeeding season
Middlesex suffered defeat from both York-
shire and Surrey. On 21 February 1881
Lancashire was met at Manchester for the
first time, but the visitors were not a repre-
sentative side and sustained an easy defeat.
In the following season Middlesex engaged
the powerful county of Kent for the first time
and were defeated by a goal and a try.
In 1887 Middlesex as the strongest county
in the south was selected to do battle with
Lancashire, the champions of the north, on
the occasion of the Charity Festival organized
in London jointly by the Rugby Union and
the Football Association. A stubbornly con-
tested match resulted in Middlesex, though
having the best of the game, being defeated
by a try. As a matter of fact Middlesex
also gained a try, but the short space marked
out between the goal line and the dead-ball
line lost them the point. It is worthy of
note that his Majesty King Edward VII, then
Prince of Wales, was present at the match,
and at the conclusion of the game several of
the players were brought and introduced to
his royal highness. Causa honoris we give
the names of the Middlesex team : — E. T.
Gurdon, A. Rotherham, W. E. Maclagan,
C. J. B. Marriott, John Hammond, A. E.
Stoddart, W. G. Clibborn, J. H. Roberts,
277
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
C. J. Arkle, G. L. Jeffery, G. C. Lindsay,
E. S. McEwen, C. Collier, T. Riddell, and
A. S. Johnson.
In 1888, the year before the County
Championship was officially recognized, Mid-
dlesex was without question the strongest
Rugby team of the season.
Since the initiation of the County Cham-
pionship Middlesex has competed each year,
and though the county team has never headed
the competition, it has generally given a good
account of itself. In 1904 in the final Mid-
dlesex were only just beaten by Durham by
the bare margin of a point. In the season
of 1907-8 the county team, as champions
of the South-Eastern Division, met Cornwall
in the semi-final to decide who should meet
Durham for the championship. Cornwall,
however, who subsequently defeated Durham
in the final, proved the stronger.
Many prominent international players have
been associated with Middlesex football ;
notably E. T. Gurdon, who captained the
team for many years, and his brother Charles ;
the late Alan Rotherham, the most correct
half-back of his own or any time, who suc-
ceeded Gurdon in the captaincy ; C. G. Wade,
now Premier of New South Wales ; the Hon.
H. A. Lawrence ; the late John Hammond,
who though Yorkshire born, by residence
played for the metropolitan county throughout
his long career ; C. J. B. Marriott, A. E.
Stoddart, G. L. Jeffery, and others. Up to
1907 the county received very material assist-
ance from such famous international players
as W. E. Maclagan, the late G. C. Lindsay,
J. G. McMillan, A. J. Gould, A. F. Harding,
and G. Campbell. In the year mentioned
it was thought that the non-inclusion of such
players would the better stimulate native
talent and the following rule was passed :
' No man possessing an Irish, Scotch, or Welsh
International Cap shall be eligible to play in
a county championship match.' At the present
time Middlesex has more clubs affiliated to the
Rugby Union than any other county, and
consequently is entitled to two seats in the
executive. The present representatives are
E. Prescott and W. Williams.
To two Middlesex men, the late Arthur
Budd and the late R. S. Whalley, credit is
due for the inception of the useful London
Referees' Society for supplying referees to all
clubs belonging to the society.
Nor have the schools in the county been
behind hand in training a considerable number
of international players, as the subjoined list
will show. Harrow for instance, though
still adhering to rules peculiarly its own, has
supplied A. N. Hornby, W. E. Openshaw,
F. E. Pease, J.T. Gowans, and John Hopley ;
Mill Hill— J. H. Dewhurst, A. F. Todd, and
T. W. Pearson ; Christ's College Finchley
— C. R. Cleveland, C. H. Coates, the late
H. G. Fuller, president of Cambridge Uni-
versity F.C., H. M. Jordan, and W. C.
Hutchinson. From St. Paul's School came
R. O. Schwarz ; from St. John's Wood,
A. E. Stoddart, G. L. Jeffery, and J. G. An-
derson. Christ's Hospital produced S. Rey-
nolds, and Isleworth College, A. Allport and
H. Huth. From Merchant Taylors' came
N. C. Fletcher, A. S. and H. H. Taylor ;
and from the Godolphin School G. Fraser.
GOLF
Golf was first introduced into Middlesex in
1 890 by the formation of the Stainesand West
Middlesex Clubs, which was followed in 1891
by that of the Northwood Club, and during
the eighteen years that have since elapsed the
game has made rapid progress. The Hilling-
don and Finchley Clubs were established in
1892, and the Enfield, Stanmore, Hampstead,
and Neasden Clubs in the following year ; and
the number of clubs in existence, which in 1 900
had risen to twenty, is now fifty-one,1 only
four short of that in Surrey, which ranks first
among the Home Counties in this respect.
The development of golf in Middlesex has,
like that of other sports, been greatly influenced
by the growth of London ; and this influence,
which in the case of field sports has been
wholly destructive, has been in the main
beneficial to the royal and ancient game. Only
eight of the fifty-one clubs above mentioned
are recruited from the county, and the remain-
ing forty-three are London clubs, the establish-
ment of which has not only promoted a taste
for the game amongst Londoners, but by the
creation of the links connected with them
has also helped to preserve ' open spaces '
1 This is exclusive of ladies' clubs, of which there but the Chiswick Golf Club, instituted in 1902,
are in all twelve, two belonging to the county has now succumbed to the long threatened invasion
and twelve London clubs, as to which see post, of the builders ; see Golfing Tear Bk. 1905, p. 358,
Until 1907 the total number of clubs was fifty-two; and 1907, p. 393.
278
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
from the encroachments of the builder. As,
however, only seventeen of these London
clubs have links, the same result cannot be
claimed in respect of the other twenty-four,
which are private clubs connected with the
professions, societies, and social clubs, &c., and
play, by special arrangement, on the links of
other clubs.2 The oldest of these — the bulk
of which have come into existence within
the last few years — are the Civil Service
and Lloyds, both founded in 1894, and the
Chartered Accountants' and the London In-
surance Clubs, both founded in 1898. In
addition to the three last-named clubs, there
are eight others connected with trade and
commerce — the Baltic Club, the City Liberal
Club, the Chartered Surveyors' Society, the
Discount Market Society, the London Metal
Exchange Association, the Mark Lane Club,
the London Stock Exchange Society, and the
Spalding Club for the employe's of the firm
of Messrs. Spalding Brothers. The law is
represented by the Bar Society, the Inns of
Court Club, and the London Solicitors' Society ;
the stage, by the George Edwardes Society
and the Green Room Club ; and literature
by the London Press Society. There is also
a Cricketers' Golfing Society, membership of
which is confined to players of first and second
class counties and university ' blues ' ; and a
London Free Church Ministers' Golfing
Society. Lastly there are three clubs con-
nected with Scotland : the Highland Societies
Association, the London Lothian Association,
and the London Scottish Border Counties
Club. Setting aside these private clubs, and
taking the county and London clubs together,3
the total number of golf clubs owning links in
Middlesex is twenty-five, nine of which —
Northwood, Stanmore, Edgware, Hendon,
Finchley, North Middlesex, Enfield, Bush
Hill Park (Enfield), and Clayesmore School
(Enfield) — may, roughly speaking, be described
as situated in the north ; five — Muswell Hill,
Highgate, Hampstead, Neasden, and Wembley
— in the east ; seven — St. Quintin's, Acton;
' As, for example, the George Edwardes Society,
founded in 1904, for members of the dramatic and
musical professions, which plays by special arrange-
ment at Ashford Manor.
3 The ' county ' clubs are : — Ashford Manor,
Edgware, Enfield, Bush Hill Park (Enfield), Clayes-
more School (Enfield), Staines, Stanmore and
Hillingdon (Uxbridge) ; and the London clubs
owning links are Acton, Baling, Finchley, Fulwell,
Hampste.. Hanger Hill (Baling), Hendon, High-
gatt, Muswell Hill, Neasden, North Middlesex,
Northwood, St. Quintin, Strawberry Hill, Wemb-
ley, West Drayton, West Middlesex, and Home
Park (Hampton Court).
Hanger Hill (Ealing), Ealing, West Middlesex,
West Drayton, and Hillingdon (Uxbridge) — in
the west ; and five — Strawberry Hill, Fulwell,
Home Park (Hampton Court), Ashford Manor,
and Staines — in the south of the county. The
northern and eastern links have the advantage
of being situated on the highest land in the
county, which in the former case has an alti-
tude of 500 ft., and at Highgate and Hamp-
stead of 450 ft. ; while, with the exception of
Acton and Hanger Hill, which lie on the slopes
of slight elevations, those in the west and south
of Middlesex are on level or very slightly un-
dulating ground.
THE NORTHERN LINKS
The Northwood Golf Club, whose course,
situated on undulating land not far from Rui-
slip Park, is one of the best within easy reach
of London, was founded in 1891 by Captain
Bennett Edwards and Mr. Wright-Nooth.
The eighteen-hole course is about 3^ miles
round, the length of the holes ranging from 1 50
to 543 yds. 'Hilly, plentifully supplied with
whins and gorse, with several ponds and a
stream which has constantly to be negotiated,
it is well provided with natural hazards. The
greens are beautifully true . . . the eight-hole
"death or glory" is by itself worth the journey
to Northwood.' 4 Bogey is an easy 8 1, and the
professional and amateur records 70 and 72.
The club prizes consist of the Club Challenge
Cup, the Coles Shield, the Autumn Cup, the
Captain's Prize, and various medals. The best
seasons for play are spring and autumn, but the
course, which is well drained, is playable all
the year. The number of members is limited
to 300, with 50 provisional members.
The Stanmore Golf Club, instituted in
1893, has a course of eighteen holes, not far
from Bentley Priory on the borders of Hert-
fordshire, laid out round a high hill from
which there is a good view of the surrounding
country. The green records are 68 (profes-
sional) by H. Vardon, and 7 1 (amateur) by Mr.
M. Copland. There are for competition the
President's Gold Medal (scratch), won in 1906
by H. R. Herbert, 77 ; the Gordon Bowl (holes)
and club prizes including the President's and
the Vice President's Cup.
Some 4 miles to the east of Stanmore are
the links of the Edgware Golf Club, founded
in 1906. The eighteen-hole course, 6,000 yds.
in circuit, is laid out on the Canons Park
Estate, on which a large club-house has been
erected.
4 A. J. Lawrie, in The Golfing Tear Bk. 1907,
P- 399-
279
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The Hendon Golf Club, established in 1903,
has a course of eighteen holes, varying from
120 to 470 yds., on the east side of the main
road from Hendon to Mill Hill ; and 2 miles
to the north of this is the Finchley Golf Club,
instituted in 1903, the nine-hole course of
which is 2,414 yds. in length, the holes rang-
ing from 1 43 to 443 yds. The hazards are
hedges and ditches on pasture land, with some
artificial bunkers. The club prizes are a Gold
Medal, a Challenge Cup, and monthly medals.
Bogey is 76 ; the amateur and professional
records being 72 and 68. There is a com-
modious club-house. Within 2 miles to the
north again of this at Friern Barnet is the
eighteen-hole course of the North Middlesex
Golf Club, established in 1906.
Enfield, the most northerly home of golf
in the county, has three clubs. The principal
of these, the Enfield Golf Club, instituted in
1893, has a course of eighteen holes, 3 miles
295 yds. round, over the pasture land of
the Old Park, with sporting natural hazards,
including a winding brook which traverses
the links, and numerous artificial bunkers and
excellent greens. Bogey is 78, the green
records being 73 professional (J. H. Taylor),
and 70 amateur (Mr. W. H. Smallwood).
Play is possible all through the year, the
best months being April and November.
There are Whitsuntide, Summer, and Christ-
mas meetings, and the following prizes : —
Monthly Gold Medal (handicaps to 14),
Monthly Silver Medal (handicaps over 14),
finals in October ; Monthly Bogey Competi-
tion, final in October; Wyndcroft Bowl (thirty-
six holes), Tatler Cup (holes), summer.
The other two Enfield Clubs are the Bush
Hill Park Golf Club, with a course of nine
holes (circuit 2, 800 yds.) ; and the Clayes-
more School Golf Club, instituted in 1897,
which has also a nine-hole course with a lake
as the chief hazard.
THE EASTERN LINKS
Like those in the north, the golf links in
the east of the county all lie within easy reach
of each other.
The Muswell Hill Golf Club was instituted
in 1 894. The course of eighteen holes, which
is over 3 miles round, is situated between
Muswell Hill, Wood Green, and Southgate,
on pasture land covering a clay soil, the
hazards being trees, ponds, ditches, hedges,
hurdles, and artificial bunkers. Bogey is 75,
and the record score in a club competition is
67. The prizes are the Quarterly Scratch Cup
and a Handicap Cup. The course is playable
throughout the year, but the best months are
from May to September.
The eighteen-hole course of the Highgate
Golf Club, instituted in 1904, is about
3^ miles in extent. It adjoins the Bishop's
Wood at Highgate and includes the site of
the ancient hunting lodge of the Bishops of
London. The soil is clay, but the turf is very
good and the lies are excellent, the holes being
varied and of good length. The course, the
hazards of which are artificial sand bunkers, is
at its best from May to October, but is well
drained and playable all the year round.
Bogey is 77, the amateur record is Mr. J. O.
Walker's 75, and the professional record by
A. Saunders is 70. The prizes consist of a
Scratch Medal, Monthly Medal, Captain's
Prize, President's Prize (foursome), Reid Cup
(quarterly), and Lyle Cup. The club-house
has accommodation for ladies as well as
men.
The Hampstead Golf Club, founded 1893,
has a course of nine holes, with a length of
about 2,500 yds., the holes varying from 100
to 420 yds. It is situated at Spaniards Farm,
on pasture land with a clay soil, and has artifi-
cial hazards only. Play is possible through-
out the year, the best months being April to
September. Bogey is 78, and the amateur
record, held by Mr. G. R. Girdlestone, is 71.
The New Neasden Golf Club was founded
in 1893 by Mr. Stanley Clifford. The sport-
ing course of eighteen holes, ranging from 120
to 510 yds., is on pasture land with a clay
subsoil, and is nearly 3^ miles (6,120 yds.) in
extent. There are numerous natural hazards,
such as hedges and ponds, as well as artificial
bunkers. The club-house, a fine old mansion,
built about 1663, is said to occupy the site of
a house mentioned in Domesday Book as the
Great Neasden House. Bogey is 79, and the
green record, both amateur and professional,
held by Mr. A. E. Stoddart and J. Milne, is
75. The prizes include Monthly Medals,
Monthly Bogey, Senior and Junior Half-
yearly Gold Medals played for in May and
October, the Harmsworth Cup (match play),
the D. A. Howden Challenge Shield for
medal play, and the McCalmont Hill Scratch
Trophy, besides various other prizes for four-
some competitions, and medal rounds.
The Wembley Golf Club, established in
1896, has an undulating course of eighteen
holes, varying from 140 to 430 yds. It has
been thoroughly drained and is always dry,
and there is a club-house with every conveni-
ence. The club prizes include the Smith
Cup, the James Cup, the Myer Salver, the
Lome Cup, the Carlton Shield, and the Scratch
Medal.
280
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
THE WESTERN LINKS
The most easterly of the western golf links
is the nine-hole course of the St. Quintin's
Club, close to Wormwood Scrubbs. The
club was instituted in 1894.
The Acton Golf Club, instituted in 1896,
has an eighteen-hole course of 5,870 yds.
(nearly 3^ miles), laid out by Park, in
1907. The holes range in length from
115 to 465 yds. The ground is old pas-
ture land, and the hazards are ditches,
ponds, and various artificial bunkers. The
putting greens are very large and good.
The club-house is an old-fashioned mansion
on the village green of East Acton. Bogey
is 78, but owing to the recent opening of
the enlarged course no green records are as
yet forthcoming. The club prizes comprise
monthly medals, several challenge cups, and
annual prizes offered by the president, Lord
George Hamilton, and the captain. The
course is at its best during spring, summer,
and autumn, but play is practicable through-
out the year.
There are two golf clubs at Ealing — the
Ealing Golf Club, instituted in 1898, situated
at North Ealing in the Brent valley, near Peri-
vale ; and the Hanger Hill Golf Club, insti-
tuted in 1900, the links of which are on the
southern slope of the high ground above the
town.
The eighteen-hole course of the Ealing
Club is a little over 3 miles round, the holes
ranging from no to 525 yds., and is laid
over old pasture land on clay, with subsoil of
gravel and brick earth. With the exception
of some artificial sand bunkers the hazards are
chiefly natural, consisting of the River Brent,
ditches, and pits. Play is possible all the
year, March to October being the best season.
Bogey is 80, the amateur record being Mr. H.
H. Hilton's 73, and the professional record 69
by G. Charles. The prizes are the Roth-
schild Cup, the Record Cup, Bogey and Medal
Finals, and numerous annual prizes. The
commodious club-house is at 14 and 15, Kent
Gardens, close to the first tee and last green.
The course of the Hanger Hill Club also
consists of eighteen holes, varying from 105
to 500 yds. The club-house is a fine old
mansion situated on Hanger Hill.
The West Middlesex Golf Club, which
shares with that of Staines the honour of being
the oldest in Middlesex, was instituted in
1890. The course of eighteen holes, varying
from 127 to 535 yds., is laid out on land
near Hanwell belonging to Lord Jersey, on
both sides of the main road from London to
Uxbridge, about 8 miles from the Marble
281
Arch. The hazards are gravel pits, ditches,
ponds, and the railway, and the going is firm and
dry. The record score in a club competition
is 74 by Mr. C. T. Bazell. The profes-
sional record by C. R. Smith is 68, and the
par 70.
The West Drayton Golf Club was founded
in 1895 by a few gentlemen living in the
neighbourhood, prominent amongst whom was
Mr. Ernest Humber. The course of eighteen
holes, which is bounded on two sides, and at
one point crossed, by the River Colne, was
originally laid out by the advice of Mr. Fair-
lie, but was altered and considerably extended
in 1905 under the supervision of J. H. Taylor.
It has a total length of rather over 3 miles,
the longest hole being 521 and the shortest
125 yds., and traverses pasture land on gravel
subsoil. The hazards are the river, ditches,
and artificial bunkers. Play is possible all the
year round, but is best during the spring, early
summer, and autumn. The club house is the
old Mill House. Bogey is 80. The amateur
record is 72, held by Mr. H. W. Beveridge,
and the professional record is Robert Thom-
son's 66. The prizes are the Fairlie Chal-
lenge Medal, the Grimsdale Cup, and the
Gairdner Cleek Competition.6
The Hillingdon Golf Club, instituted in
1 892 by the original trustees — Messrs. C. M.
Newton, G. T. Worsley, and C. E. Stevens
— has a nine-hole course, which was re-
arranged in its present form by J. H. Taylor,
in the park of Hillingdon House at Uxbridge.
The holes vary from 150 to 400 yds. The
course lies over pasture land overlying gravel,
gravelly loam, and clay, and the hazards are
ditches, a stream, and artificial bunkers. Play
is possible all the year, but is best during the
winter months. Bogey is 39, and the pro-
fessional record 34. The prizes are a scratch
medal and cups, given by Mr. A. N. Gilbey.
THE SOUTHERN LINKS
The Strawberry Hill Golf Club, which
was instituted in 1901, has a course of nine
holes, varying from 150 to 448 yds., situated
about midway between Twickenham and
Teddington. Within two miles of this is the
eighteen-hole course of the Home Park Golf
* At a professional match on 5 May 1905, over
the West Drayton course, the following records
were made :— J. H. Taylor 75, H. Vardon 76,
J. Braid 77, W. Thomson 78. In the afternoon,
in a four-ball foursome, Vardon and Taylor beat
Braid and White by 4 up and 3 to play. In-
dividual scores: Taylor 73, Vardon 75, Braid 75,
White 8 1 ; Tie Golfing Year Book, 1905, p. 476.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Club, in the Home Park at Hampton Court.
Here the turf is very fine, and the lies good,
and, though somewhat flat, the links, being on
gravel soil, are always dry.
The Fulwell Golf Club was originally in-
stituted in 1 904 ; it has been recently ex-
tended on the instigation of the hon. secretary,
Mr. H. O. Stutchbury. It now has two
eighteen-hole courses, opened for play on
19 November 1907, the longer of which is
6,000 and the other 5,000 yds. The shortest
holes on each course are 125 yds., the length
of the longest on the principal and second
courses being respectively 514 and 437 yds.
Both courses are laid chiefly over old pasture
land on a light gravel soil, where the hazards
are principally artificial, with a pond, a stream,
and some gorse. They are playable all the
winter, but the best months are May and
June. Bogey for the principal course is 80,
the green records being 71 professional
(P. J. Gaudin), and 76 amateur (Mr. E.
Gawne). The chief prize is the Tomlinson
Challenge Cup, but there are also three monthly
medals, and several prizes at the spring and
autumn meetings, besides others given by
individual members. There are two separate
club-houses, for men and for ladies.
The Ashford Manor Golf Club, which is
about three-quarters of a mile from Ashford,
was founded in 1898. It has an eighteen-
hole course of nearly 3^ miles round, which,
with the longer course of the same length
at Fulwell just mentioned, is the longest
in Middlesex ; the holes vary from 148 to
461 yds. It is laid over pasture land with
a gravel soil, with hedges, ditches, and arti-
ficial bunkers as hazards, and is playable
throughout the year, being an especially good
winter course. The club-house is the old
Manor House, which adjoins the links. Bogey
is 8 1 , and the record 70 (Mr. H. W. Beveridge).
There are spring, summer, and autumn
meetings, and prizes consisting of the Cap-
tain's, Artists', Wellroth, Hunter, and Mos-
sop cups.7
Within 3 miles of the Ashford links is the
Staines Golf Club, instituted in 1890. The
course, of nine holes, is on Shortwood Common.
LADIES' CLUBS
There are fourteen 8 ladies' golf clubs in
Middlesex, three of which — the Enfield and
7 Ashford Manor won the Middlesex Golf
Challenge Trophy on 8 July 1905 ; The Golfing
Tear Book, 1906, p. 67.
8 The Neasden Golf Club permits the election
of a limited number of ladies as associates, who
Stanmore Clubs, in the county, and the West
Middlesex, amongst London clubs — were
founded in 1 893. Of the remainder two —
the Ashford Manor Club and the Middlesex
County Ladies' Club, the latter of which has
no links of its own — are county, and the
following nine are London clubs : the Mus-
well Hill Club, instituted in 1894 ; theEaling
and Hampstead Clubs, instituted in 1895; the
Acton and Wembley Clubs, instituted in
1896; the West Drayton and Hanger Hill
Clubs, instituted in 1 900 ; and the Fulwell and
Highgate Clubs, instituted in 1904. Of these
the Stanmore, West Middlesex, Hanger Hill,9
and Fulwell Clubs have separate courses for
ladies, those of the first-named three clubs
being of nine holes, while that of the Ful-
well Club is an eighteen-hole one 5,000 yds.
in extent. The West Middlesex, Fulwell,
and Acton Clubs have also separate club-
houses for ladies. The other clubs play over
the same course as the men ; but on the
Ealing, Wembley, and West Drayton links the
ladies play with shortened tees, and on those
at Muswell Hill play only nine holes. The
Acton, Ashford Manor, Enfield, Fulwell,
Hampstead, Hanger Hill, and Highgate ladies'
clubs are all branches of the men's clubs.
In addition to the various golf clubs above
noticed, there are two other organizations in
connexion with Middlesex golf which require
a brief notice.
One of these is the Golfers' Club, White-
hall Court, established in 1893, which admits
foreign and colonial as well as town and
country members, and has a total member-
ship of 1,000. A challenge shield and other
prizes offered by the club are played for
annually. The secretary is Col. W. F.
Branston.
The other is the Professional Golfers' Asso-
ciation, instituted in 1901, of which the
Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P., is president,
and Mr. C. E. Melville honorary secretary.
A register is kept at the Association offices of
situations vacant, and of those in need of em-
ployment; and provision is also made, through
a benevolent fund, for relieving deserving
members by temporary or permanent grants ;
assistance in cases of sickness, accident, death,
and interments and foi preventing the lapse
of life, accident, or other policies ; and for
the grant of small annuities to the aged and
may play every day except Saturday and Sunday,
and for whom separate rooms are assigned in the
club-house.
3 The Hanger Hill Ladies' Club has, however,
also the right to play over the men's course on
every day except Saturday and Sunday.
282
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
incapacitated, and allowances to widows and
orphans. A tournament for prizes presented
by The News of the World is held annually;
the winner and runner-up in the competition,
held at Richmond in October 1908, were
J. H. Taylor and F. Robson.
In concluding this brief notice of Middle-
sex golf the Editor is glad to take this oppor-
tunity of offering his very cordial thanks to
the secretaries of the many clubs which
have kindly supplied him with information on
the subject.
PASTIMES
The four principal pastimes especially asso-
ciated with Middlesex are Archery, Tennis,
Rowing, and Polo, all of which may be said
to have originated in the county.1
ARCHERY
Owing to the fact that the bow was the
principal weapon used both in war and in the
chase in mediaeval times, and the consequent
necessity for constantly practising its use,
archery may be regarded as one of the oldest
of our national pastimes. In its modern form
this sport originated in London in the last
quarter of the eighteenth century.
As the archers formed an important force
in every army during the Middle Ages
sovereigns endeavoured to make training in
the use of the bow obligatory on the whole
population. In the thirteenth century every
person ' not having a greater interest in land
1 Another pastime deserving of a passing notice
on account of its being by some regarded as the
origin of the modern game of croquet, is that of
Mall, a name derived from the French paile-maille,
which is described in Skeat's Etymological Dictionary
as ' a game wherein a round box bowle is with a
mallet struck through an arch of iron, and the
name of which is preserved in The Mall and Pall
Mall.' King Charles, when improving St. James's
Park, directed Le Notre, the gardener of Louis
XIV, to whom the work was entrusted, to lay out
' a smooth hollow walk enclosed on each side by a
border of wood,' and to 'hang an iron hoop at
one extremity,' for the purposes of the game. The
original Mall as thus constructed was half a mile
long and bordered with lime trees. Charles was
very fond of the game, and Waller in his
poem Si. James's Park eulogizes his play in the
following lines : —
' No sooner has touched the flying ball
But 'tis already more than half the Mall,
And such a fury from his arm has got
As from a smoking culverin 'twere shot.'
See Brailey, Hist, of Middlesex, iv, 481-2, and
Wheatley, London Past and Present, ii, 457-6 ; iii, 8.
than loorf.' was required to have in his
possession a bow and arrow, with other arms
offensive and defensive, and ' all such as had
no possessions but could afford to purchase
arms' were required to have a bow with
sharp arrows if they dwelt without, and one
with blunt arrows if resident within the royal
forests.2 In order to prevent the crossbow
from in any way superseding the long bow a
Statute of 1417 enacted that no one should
use the former weapon who was possessed of
less than 200 marks a year.3 Towards the
close of the fifteenth century archery had
fallen somewhat into decay in spite of enact-
ments of this character, but its practice was
revived by Henry VIII, himself a skilful
bowman, and an Act was passed soon after
his accession, extending the qualification with
respect to the use of crossbows to 300
marks, and requiring all his subjects under
sixty years of age ' who were not lame,
diseased, or maimed, or having any other
lawful impediment,' the clergy, judges, &c.,
excepted, to ' use shooting on the long bow '
under penalty on default of izd. per month.4
Parents were to provide every boy from seven
to seventeen years of age with a bow and two
arrows, and after seventeen he was to provide
himself with a bow and four arrows ; and
butts for the practice of archery were to be
erected in every town. The ' bowyers ' —
the importance of whose calling is evidenced
by the fact that both they and the ' fletchers,'
or makers of arrows, were included amongst
the old City companies5 — were required,
under a penalty of imprisonment for eight
days, to make at least four bows of ' elme,
wiche, ... or other wode apt for the same ' for
every ' ewe bow ' which they made. Lastly,
in order to prevent other pastimes such as
football from interfering with archery prac-
1 Strutt, Sports and Pastimes (ed. 1903), 63.
' 19 Hen. V, cap. I.
4 33 Hen. VIII, cap. 9.
5 Stow, Sure, of London (ed. Strype\ ii, bk. v,
217.
283
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
tice," a penalty of 40*. a day was imposed
.on every person who
shall for his gain, lucre, or living keep any common
house, alley, or place of bowling, coiling, clough,
eagles, half-bowls, tennis, dicing tables, or card-
ing, or any other game prohibited by any statute
heretofore made or any unlawful new game.*
These stringent regulations are intelligible
enough in an age when England, like other
nations, had always to be fully prepared for
war, since, as is pointed out by Colonel
Walrond, fully two centuries elapsed after
the introduction of hand fire-arms before the
bow was finally ousted from its position as
the chief weapon of the English soldiers.7
This, probably, is equally true as regards the
bow for the purposes of sport, and supports
the view taken by the same authority that the
popularity of archery as a sport by no means
commenced when the use of the bow in war
ceased, but was, on the contrary, greatest
when it was most formidable as a military
weapon.8
We find Sir T. Elyot describing archery
in The Governour, published in 153!)
as ' the principall of all other exercises,' and
after praising the long bow as a military
weapon, stating that ' there is both profile
and pleasure above any other artillery ' in its
' seconde utilitie . . . which is killyng of
deere, wilde foule, and other game.' 9 Toxo-
philus, a work of Roger Ascham, published
fourteen years later and presented to Henry
VIII in 1545, is equally eulogistic of its
merits. Henry, who is stated by Sir Thomas
Elyot to have been an excellent shot,10 was,
like his predecessors, Henry V and Henry
VII, very fond of archery, as were also Queen
5a Football had already been condemned on this
account by Edw. Ill in 1349. James I in a dis-
course to Prince Henry on manly accomplishments
described it as ' meeter for lameing than for making
able.' 6 33 Hen. VIII, cap. 9.
7 C. J. Longman and Col. H. Walrond, Archery
(Badminton Library), 137—8. Down to ihe end
of the sixteenth cenlury ihe conlesl was, he ihinks,
fairly equal.
8 Archery (Badminton Library), 161. It may
be noted in confirmation of this view that Ed-
mund Yorke, when directed by Queen Elizabeth
in 1588 to organize the defences of the City, after
specifying the number of halberdiers, pikemen,
musketeers, and arquebusiers required, adds that
no archers were to be included, because ' on an
alarm the multitude will come armed with such
weapons ' and ' there would be no use in teaching
art what is known by nature ' ; Stow, Surv. of Land.
(ed. Slrype), ii, bk. v, 453.
' The Governour, 291, 303-5.
10 Ibid. 297, nole b.
Elizabeth and Charles II ; n and archery was
common in all our early public schools.
At Harrow its practice was encouraged by
a bequest establishing annual contests for
shooting for a silver arrow, which were con-
tinued till 1771, when they were terminated,
in spite of vigorous protests, by Dr. Heath.11*
The extent to which archery was practised
by the citizens of London in ihe sixleenth
century is shown by the recital, in a true bill
found against John Draney, ' citizen and
clothier of London, on 20 January, 1560-1,'
for having inclosed ' a certain open field called
Stebenhylhe Close;' that they had from time
immemorial been accustomed, ' without hind-
rance from any person,' to shoot with bows
in the common lands or ' feylds ' of ' Steben-
hythe' (Stepney), ' Ratclyff,' ' Mylende,'
'Bethnall Grene,' ' Spittlefeylds,' ' More-
feylds,' ' Fynesbury,' and ' Hoggesden ;' la and
evidence of similar rights in other parts of
Middlesex is contained in the records of
inquests held on deaths accidentally caused by
shooting at Hampton,13 South Mimms,14
Stepney (two),16 Matfelon (Whitechapel),16
and Hendon.17 Though Shoreditch is not
included among the parishes above stated to
have possessed common fields its inhabitants
must have been keen archers, for one of
them was playfully dubbed 'Duke of Shore-
ditch' by Henry VIII on account of the skill
he displayed in a great shooting match at
Windsor. At a similar display held at
Smithfield during the reign of Elizabeth the
same tide was assumed by the captain of the
archers, while other competitors grandilo-
quently styled themselves Dukes of Clerken-
well, Islington, Hoxton, and Shadwell, and
Earl of St. Pancras.18 Stow tells us in his
Survey that in 1498 'all the gardens which
had continued time of mind without Moor-
gate, to wit, about and beyond the Lordship
of Fensbary (Finsbury) were destroyed, and
of them was made a plain field for archers
to shoot in ; ' 19 while before his time the
" Archery (Badminton Library), 161-2.
IU Ibid. 165-6.
" M idd. County Rec. i, 8. Both James I and
Charles II issued commissions to check such in-
closures ; Stow, Surv. (ed. Strype), i, bk. i, 250.
13 (26 Aug. 1 1 Eliz.) Midd. County Rec. i, 64.
14 (i Aug. 3 Eliz.) Ibid. 1,40.
15 (19 Sept. 8 Eliz. and 4 Sept. 21 Eliz.) Ibid,
i, 57, 1 1 8. 16 (26 Sept. 8 Eliz.) Ibid, i, 58.
17 (12 Oct. 3 Eliz.) Ibid, i, 41.
18 Stow, Surv. (ed. Strype), i, bk. ix, 250.
" Ibid. bk. ii, 96, ii ; bk. v, 437. In 1628
there were 1 64 marks in Finsbury Fields, which
had dwindled to twenty-one and three butts in
1737. Archery (Badminton Library), 167.
284
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen used at Bar-
tholomew-tide to ' shoot at the standard for
bow and flight arrows for games ' in Finsbury
Fields, ' where the citizens were assembled '
for several days.20 When he wrote, however,
their practice had become limited to three or
four days after the festival ; 21 and he
frequently laments the decay of archery under
James I and Charles I. The first of the
Stuart kings had indeed, in direct violation
of the Statute of Henry VIII, above men-
tioned,22 granted permission in 1620 to
Clement Cottrell, groom porter of his house-
hold, to license in London and Westminster
and their suburbs twenty-four bowling alleys
and fourteen tennis courts, besides taverns for
dice and cards, and also a similar licence with
respect to any other game thereafter to be
iavented.83
Charles II, who was, as has been said,
himself a keen bowman, effected a partial
revival in archery after the Restoration. A
company of 400 archers, under Sir Gilbert
Talbot as colonel and Sir Edward Hungerford
as leutenant-colonel, took part in ' a splendid
and glorious show in Hyde Park' in 1661 ;
and in 1681 the London archers marched to
Hampton Court to shoot before the king
for £30 worth of prizes at eight-score
yards.24 Archery, appears, however, to
have ceased to be a national sport when the
bow was abandoned as a military weapon,
but prior to this two26 notable archery
societies had been established in Middlesex in
the sixteenth century, through which the
connexion between ancient and modern
arehery has been in some measure pre-
served.
The first of these was founded by Henry
VIII, who in 1539 ty Letters Patent
appointed Sir Christopher Morris, his master
of ordnance, and Arthur Unwyt and Peter
Mewtas, gentlemen of his privy chamber,
' overseers of the science of artillery ' — i.e.
long bows, crossbows, &c.23 — with subor-
dinate ' masters and rulers of the same
science,' and empowered them with their
" Stow, Sum. (ed. Strype), i, bk. i, 257.
" Ibid. " Ante, pp. 283, 284.
n Rymer, Foedera, vii, 238.
M Strutt, Sports and Pastimes (ed. 1903).
14 There was also another ancient society called
'The Ancient Order and Society and Unity of
Prince Arthur and his knights ' of which no
records have been preserved. Stow, Surv. (ed.
Strype), i, bk. i, 280 ; Archery (Badminton
Library), 167.
" Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. 1864), 55, says that
'artillery nowadays is taken for two things, guns
and bows.' Cf. The Governour, i, 297.
successors to establish a perpetual corporation
to be called the Fraternity of St. George,
and to admit such persons as they found to be
eligible.27 This Fraternity of St. George,
the members of which were authorized 'for
pastime's sake to practice shooting at all kinds
of marks, and at the game of popinjay in the
city of London and its suburbs as well as in
other convenient places,' used to practise in
Finsbury Fields.23 After the abandonment
of the bow in war and the introduction of
firearms, a part of these fields was inclosed
by a wall and used for practice by the gunners
of the Tower, and since the early part of the
nineteenth century has been called the
Artillery Ground, while the Fraternity of
St. George was converted into the Honourable
Artillery Company.29
The other society is that of the Finsbury
Archers, which appears to have been founded
by certain members of the Honourable
Artillery Company, who being fond of the
bow practised with it as a pastime after they
had discarded it as a martial weapon,30 and
it may thus be regarded as indirectly repre-
sentative of the Fraternity of St. George.
To this society, which is first mentioned in
I59°»31 belongs the honour of having by the
establishment of three several competitions
called the Easter Target, the Whitsuntide Tar-
get, and the Eleven Score Target, initiated in
some sense the Grand National Meetings,
which have been held since the institution of
the Grand National Championship in 1844.
Records exist with lists of the captains and
lieutenants of the Easter Targets from 1617
to 1757, and of the Whitsun Targets from
1692 to 1761, and the rules of the Eleven
Score Target, the winners' names of which
are not given, are dated ij6i.3'2 In 1696 a
bequest of £35, to be divided in prizes, was
left under the will of Elizabeth Shakerley33
to the society, which then appears to have
shot in Finsbury Fields. One of the most
notable events in its history was the presenta-
tion in 1676 to one of its members, Sir
William Wood, as ' Marshal of the Queen's
Majesty's Regiment of Archers,' of a silver
badge, subscribed for by the officers and others
of the Society of Archers within the cities of
London and Westminster,34 with an archer
" Strutt, op. cit. 44, 46, 57.
18 Ibid.
19 Stow, Surv. (ed. Strype), i, bk. ii, 96 ; ii,
bk. v, 457. Cf. Brayley, Hist, of MM. i, 124,
and ii, 153.
80 Archery (Badminton Library), 167-8.
" Ibid. " Ibid.
" Strutt, op. cit. 57.
" Archery (Badmi^^n L>htary), 168.
285
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
drawing the long bow embossed thereon, and
having the inscription ' Reginae Catherinae
Sagitarii,' and the arms of England and
Portugal, supported by two bowmen.
In pursuance of a deed executed by Sir
William Wood on 6 July, 1691, this badge
— now known as the Catherine of Braganza
Shield — passed after his death into the custody
of the stewards of the society for the time
being, and, after the dissolution of the Fins-
bury Archers, it and other articles belonging
to that body were transferred by Mr. Con-
stable, the last captain of the Easter Targets
in 1757, to the Royal Toxophilite Society
which he joined at its first establishment in
i78o.35
The Royal Toxophilite Society, the oldest
and most important of English archery clubs,
was established in 1780 by Sir Ashton Lever,
representative of an old Lancashire family and
a great sportsman, in conjunction with Mr.
Waring, the curator of his museum of col-
lections, who had studied bow-making under
Mr. Constable and the survivors of the Fins-
bury Archers.36 At its first institution, which
marks the revival of archery, the society shot
in the grounds of Leicester House which stood
in Leicester Square close to the site of the
present Empire Theatre.37 In 1784, however,
it obtained leave from the Honourable Artillery
Company to shoot in the Artillery Ground, and
on 14 July of that year the Earl of Effingham
and other members of the latter body sub-
scribed to the rules of the society and formed
an Archers' division of the Company, under
the captaincy of Lord Effingham. In 1787
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales became patron
of the society and sometimes shot with its
members. In 1791, when these numbered
1 68, the society rented grounds in Gower
Street near Torrington Square, and it was
not until after two successive moves to High-
bury, in 1820, and to Westbourne Street,
Bayswater, in 1825, that it eventually suc-
ceeded, in 1833, in obtaining a lease from
the Crown of its present grounds, some 6 acres
in extent, at Archer's Lodge in the Inner
Circle at Regent's Park.38
The position occupied by the Royal Toxo-
philite Society is, as pointed out by Colonel
Walrond, an important one.
It certainly is the leading body of archery, and,
though the existence of the Grand National Society
prevents its wielding the authority over the sport
that is exercised by the M.C.C. over cricket, its
influence over archery is great and far reaching.
K Archery (Badminton Library), 168-9.
* Ibid. 227-8. " Ibid.
K Ibid. 230-4.
Its members are scattered all over England, and it
is the only society which can really claim to be the
nursery of shooting among men, as no society
which does not practise the York Round can be look-
ed upon, from an archery point of view, as more than
a social gathering."
The high standard that the society has
maintained as regards shooting is shown by
the fact that since the institution, in 1 844, of the
Grand National Championship it has only been
held by three gentlemen who were not past or
present members of the Royal Toxophilite
Society.40
Most of the Thursdays during the session
are Target and Extra Target Days ; and
there are Summer and Autumn Handicap
Meetings. There is also a Ladies' Day in
July when ladies compete, by invitation, for
prizes given by members of the society. The
club house contains an interesting collection
of historical English bows and of those of all
other nations, as well as of pictures and relics
connected with archery, such as the Catherine
of Braganza Shield.41
The Archers' Register for 1864 shows the
existence of two other archery societies which
have since ceased to exist. These were the
Enfield Archers, established in 1857, which
then had from fifty to seventy members and
met in Enfield Old Park ; and the Harrow
Archers, with respect to which no details are
given.42 The only other society besides the
Royal Toxophilite Society mentioned in the
Archers' Register for 1906 is the Pinner
Archery Society, the date of foundation and
membership of which are not recorded.43
ROWING
As it is stated in the recital of the first char-
ter of incorporation, granted to the Company
of Watermen and Lightermen in 1514 by
Henry VIII, that ' it had been a laudable cus-
tom and usage tyme out of mind to use the
river in barge or wherry boat,' 44 rowing in
Middlesex may be said to date from time im-
memorial, but until the beginning of the
39 Ibid. 238. The York Round was first insti-
tuted in 1 5 56. It consists of 72 arrows at 100 yds.,
48 at 80 yds., and 24 at 60 yds. Ibid. 240.
40 Ibid. 238.
41 Cf. The Archers' Register, 1906.
"Ibid. (1864), 56,75.
43 Ibid. (1906), 54.
44 Humpherus, Hist, of the Origin and Progress of the
Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River
Thames (1514-1859), i, 212.
286
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
nineteenth century it appears to have been
entirely professional.
It must not, however, be forgotten that the
Thames watermen were the first exponents
of the art of rowing,48 and that amateur oars-
manship is only the development on more
scientific lines of the craft from which they
derived their livelihood.46 The oldest rowing
fixture on the Thames instituted nearly
three centuries ago is the annual race for
Doggett's Coat and Badge. The prize is a
waterman's coat and silver badge given to be
rowed for by six young watermen on the
first anniversary of George I, I August, 1715,
by Thomas Doggett, an eminent actor of
Drury Lane, who, at his death in 1722,
bequeathed a sum of money for the continu-
ance of the custom.47 The first regatta is
stated in the Badminton volume on Rowing 48
to have been rowed in front of Ranelagh Gar-
dens in 1775 'presumably by professionals;'
and there is a reference to a similar event on
6 August, 1795, in the Sporting Magazine ot
that year where it is described as ' the contest
for the annual wherry given by the Proprietors
of Vauxhall by six pairs of oars in three heats."
Coming to the next century, during 1822 we
find reports in Bell's Life of ' the anniversary
of the Grand Aquatic Regatta of the inhabi-
tants of Queenhithe,' when ' a handsome
Wherry ' and other prizes were contended for
on 31 July by 'six of the free watermen belong-
ing to those stairs ; ' 49 and of a similar contest
on 30 June between eight watermen belong-
ing to the Temple Stairs for ' a prize wherry
given by the gentlemen of the Inns of Court.'50
Another report in the same paper during this
year 51 is deserving of notice on account of its
allusion to amateur oarsmen. It relates to a
' match ' on 8 July
between seven pairs of oars for a prize of thirty
pounds which was given by ' The gentlemen of the
Frederic and the Corsair,' or in other words by
the Amateur Rowing Club, which is composed ot
noblemen and gentlemen nearly the whole of whom
are in the Life and Foot Guardi.
48 While they practised rowing as a pastime as
well as a profession, they could also, as Stow tells
us, at the close of the sixteenth century have at
any time furnished 20,000 men for the fleet.
Numbers of them served both in the Walcheren
Expedition in 1809 and in that of Lord Exmouth
in 1816. Humpherus, op. cit. iii, 8 1, 114, 136.
46 Both Eton and Westminster crews were in
early days coached by watermen. Ency. Brit. art.
' Rowing ' by Edwin D. Brickdale.
47 Reports of this race are given in the Sporting
Magazine for August 1795 and Bell's Life, August
1822. 4> p. 3.
" Belt's Life 1822, 183, 4.
"Ibid. 143. "Ibid. 1 60.
The course for the first heat of this race
was
from Westminster Bridge to the Sun at Battersea
round a boat moored off there and back to a boat
moored off the Red House ; and for a second heat
from Vauxhall Bridge round a boat moored off the
Red House and back to a boat moored off White
Hall.
The patronage of the Amateur Rowing Club
and the fact that the competition was not
limited to the watermen of any particular
' Stairs ' seems to have made this regatta of
exceptional importance, and we are told that
' the river was literally covered with boats and
cutters, and the duke of York was present on
the Frederic.'
Boating at this period was already begin-
ning to become a popular sport among
amateurs. We hear of 'long distance' rows,
such as that of i oo miles rowed by ' six
gentlemen of the Amicus Cutter Club crew '
from Westminster to Gravesend, from
Gravesend to Twickenham, and from
Twickenham to Westminster in 1821 ; and
another in the following year of eighty miles
from the Tower Stairs to the Nore Light by
eight members of the same club, performed
in eighteen hours nineteen minutes with only
half an hour's rest.52 A four composed of
officers of the Guards, stroked by the Hon.
John Needham, afterwards tenth Viscount
Kilmorey, rowed from Oxford to London in
a day ; and the Westminster Boys on St.
George's Day, 1825, rowed the Challenge to
Eton and back, only fourteen of the twenty
hours occupied in covering the 115 miles
being spent in the boat.53 Four amateur
clubs are known to have been in existence
early in the nineteenth century — the Star,
the Arrow, the Shark, and the Siren — which
rowed races among themselves in six-oared
boats, generally over long courses.64 The
members of the Temple seem, too, like the
officers of the Guards, to have formed some
sort of rowing club, for Mr. Sargeant, in his
Annals of Westminster School, says that the
Defiance — the first racing boat which the
school put on the river — 'in 1818 lowered
the unbeaten colours of the Templars.' S8
It is stated in the Westminster Water Ledger ;
which is probably the oldest contemporary
record in existence with respect to rowing on
the Thames in London, that the school had
" Bell't Life (1822), 159, 160.
M Sargeant, Annals of Westminster School, 226.
44 Rowing (Badminton Library), 3, 4. Ency,
Brit. art. ' Rowing ' by Edwin Brickdale.
" Op. cit. 225.
287
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
a boat on the river in i8i5.56 This six-oared
boat, the F/y, though not apparently built
for racing, won a race against the Temple
in 1 8 1 6 and another with the Defiance ; and
two subsequent boats, the Challenge and the
Victory, are said to have never been beaten in
the races with London clubs to which the
rowing of the school was limited till iSag.67
It was not until this year that the first race
with Eton — previous challenges from which,
between 1814 and 1820, Westminster had
been prevented by the prejudices of its
head masters, Page and Goodenough, from
accepting88 — took place.59 This — the first
recorded amateur race of importance — and
two subsequent contests in 1831 and 1835,
ended in a victory for Eton. In 1837,
however, Westminster had its revenge in a
race which is further memorable for the fact
that it led to the adoption of pink as the
recognized colour of the school, the crew of
which had previously, like that of Eton, worn
blue and white ; and also for the attendance
of King William IV, whose rashness in
insisting on witnessing the race seriously
aggravated the fatal illness from which he was
suffering.60 In 1846 Westminster again beat
Eton but was easily defeated in the following
year. Under the head-mastership of Liddle,
who did not regard rowing with favour,
the sport was for a while suppressed.61 In
1853 the school rowed Leander in a race from
Battersea to Putney, losing by a length, and in
1854 it defeated the club in another contest
from Vauxhall to Putney.62
Among the most noted of the numerous
celebrated oarsmen whom Westminster pro-
duced were Sir Patrick Colquhoun, winner of
the Wingfield Sculls in 1837, Sir Warrington
Smyth, and the first Lord Esher.63 The last
named, as W. B. Brett of Caius, rowed in the
Cambridge crew which won the first University
Boat Race from Westminster to Putney in
1836, and in the following year defeated the
Leander Club in a race over the same course.
Leander, the oldest club on the tideway,
was founded in 181 8 or 1819 by members of
the old Star and Arrow Clubs, and was at
first limited to sixteen, then to twenty-
four and later to thirty-five members, until the
removal of this restriction in 1857 — which
66 Rowing (Badminton Library), 5, 6.
" Ann. of Westminster School, 225 ; Ency. Brit.
art. ' Rowing,'
68 Ann. of Westminster School, 225.
69 Ibid. 238. 60 Ibid.
61 Ibid. 248 ; cf. Markham, Recollections oj a
Town Boy at Westminster, 143.
61 Ibid. 142.
0 Ann. of Westminster School, 238.
was suggested by the success of the London
Club founded in the previous year — converted
it into the largest club on the river.64 In its
earlier races it was steered by its waterman,
Jim Parish, and it was the first club to lend
a helping hand to promising young members
of the craft for whose benefit is instituted a
coat and badge for scullers.65 When it rowed
Cambridge in 1837, Leander, to quote a
description given of that race by Lord
Esher, Master of the Rolls, at a dinner in
celebration of the fact that four of the
appellate judges were old ' varsity oars ' was —
a London Club consisting of men who had never
been at the University but . . . were recognised
throughout England, and perhaps everywhere in
the world, as the finest rowers who had up to that
time been seen.66
In 1831 the club had defeated Oxford in a
race rowed from Hambleden Lock to Henley
Bridge, but when it lost the match with
Cambridge six years later, the members are
said by Lord Esher to have been 'verging
on being middle aged men.' In 1858 it began
to be recruited from both the universities,
but it was not until 1875 that it won its
first victory at Henley with an eight of
one Oxford and seven Cambridge men, stroked
by J. H. D. Goldie.67 Since 1880, when it
again won the Grand Challenge with a crew
of seven Oxford and one Cambridge oars,
stroked by T. C. Edwardes-Moss, there have
been only three years when it has not entered
at Henley,63 and between 1898 and 1905 it
has won the Grand Challenge Cup seven times.
Besides the two just mentioned it has included
amongst its famous oarsmen R. H. Labet, C.
W. Kent, Guy Nickalls, V. Nickalls, G. D.
Rowe and Lord Ampthill. The present cap-
tain is Mr. C. B. Johnstone, president of the
Cambridge eight which beat Harvard in
1906.
The London Rowing Club and the
Thames Rowing Club, which have combined
with Leander to raise amateur rowing to its
present high standard, have had similarly suc-
cessful careers, though both of these famous
clubs are many years younger. The London
was founded by members of the Argonauts Club
in 1856, and was the first really large rowing
club unlimited in numbers. Within three
M Rowing (Badminton Library), 185.
65 Ency. Brit. art. ' Rowing ' by Edwin D.
Brickdale, and cf. an art. on 'Twelve Famous Clubs'
by an Old Blue in the Daily Telegraph 20 May
1907.
66 Rowing (Badminton Library), 12.
" Twelve Famous Clubs. * Ibid.
288
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
months of its creation it had 1 50 members 69
and in the year after its foundation it won
the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley with a
crew composed of Ireland (bow), Potter,
Schlosel, Nottidge, Paine, Farrar, Casamajor,
and H. H. Playford (stroke).70 It has been
prominently associated with every advance in
rowing except the keelless eight, and was the
first to introduce the sliding seat in 1872 at
Henley.71 It has won the Grand Challenge Cup
at Henley twelve times, the Stewards fifteen
times and the Goblets eleven times. Among
its most celebrated members may be named
F. and H. H. Playford, J. Nottidge, J. Paine,
A. A. Casamajor, W. Stout, and F. S.
Gulston, the last named of whom won the
Grand Challenge for London five times, the
Stewards Fours ten times, and the Pairs five
times.72 The captain for 1907 is Mr. R. B.
Freeman.
The Thames Rowing Club, started under
the name of the City of London Boat
Club, was instituted as 'a pleasure-boat club
in 1 86 1, but soon became a serious rival to the
London.73 Since its first appearance at Henley
in 1870 it has won the Grand Challenge four
times, the Stewards six times, and the Goblets
three times, and has comprised among its
noted oars, A. J. Lowe, R. H. Foster, J. A. M.
Rolleston, W. L. Slater, VV. H. Eyre, J. A.
Drake Smith, B. W. Looker, D. Brown, and
J.Hastie.7*
In 1879 the Thames and London Row-
ing Clubs co-operated in establishing the
Metropolitan, now the Amateur Rowing
Association, which has combined the various
Metropolitan Clubs under one flag for promot-
ing the interests of amateur oarsmanship.76
Among the remaining Middlesex clubs, the
Twickenham Rowing Club was founded in
1860, the same year as the Thames, and thus
shares with it the honour of being the third
oldest club on the river. It won its first
regatta prize four years later by securing the
Junior Fours at the Walton-on-Thames re-
gatta but did not make its first appearance at
Henley till 1879 when a crew, coached by the
late J. H. D. Goldie, won the Thames Cup
which it also secured in 1881 and 1884. In
1883, when the club was strengthened by the
accession of D.E. Brown, J. Lowndes, E. Buck
and G. E. Roberts from Hertford College,
Oxford, and later by that of L. Frere, it rowed
in the final for the Grand Challenge Cup, but
69 Rowing (Badminton Library), 185.
70 Twelve Famous Clubs.
71 Rowing (Badminton Library), 198.
" Ibid. 199, 20 1.
"Ibid. 1 8 8. "Ibid. zo3-4.
"Ibid. 189.
was beaten by London. It also succeeded in
getting into the final for the same event during
the two following years, but was defeated by
London in 1884, and by Jesus College, Cam-
bridge, in 1885. During recent years it has
won the Junior Eights at Molesey Regatta
in 1904, the Walton Eights, and the Junior
Eights at Staines Regatta in 1905, and the
Walton Eights and Walton Junior Eights at
Walton, and the Coronation Cup at Kingston
Regatta in 1906. The Diamond Sculls were
won for the club five times in succession by
J. Lowndes, from 1878 to 1883. The cap-
tain of the club is Mr. T. S. Grant.76
In addition to the above there are five
other Middlesex rowing clubs : — The Ken-
sington, founded 1873, the North London
about the same date ; and the Auriol, founded
1887, at Hammersmith; the Anglian, founded
1887, at Strand on the Green ; and the
Staines Rowing Club, established in 1894.
St. Paul's School has also had a boat on the river
since 1882, and has fixtures with the Mer-
chant Taylors', Cheltenham, and Winchester
Schools, and in 1903 the school won the
Junior Eights at Molesey Regatta.77
There are annual regattas at Hammersmith,
Twickenham, and Staines; but the most im-
portant on the tideway is the Metropolitan
Regatta, established in i866,on the initiative of
Herbert H. Playford, captain of the London
Rowing Club, which is under the sole man-
agement of that club.78 The Wingfield
Challenge Sculls — the annual race for the
amateur championship of the Thames — was
instituted in 1830, and derives its name from
the donor of the prize. The course from
1830 to 1848 was from Westminster to
Putney, and from 1849 to 1860 from Putney
toKew. Since 1861 the race has been rowed
over the championship course from Putney to
Mortlake.79 Since 1897 the race has been
won five times — in 1897, 1901, 1905,
1906, and 1908 — by T. Blackstaffe of the
Vesta Rowing Club,80 who was also winner
of the Diamond Challenge Sculls at Henley;
and twice by B. H. Howel — for Cambridge in
1898, and for the Thames Rowing Club in
1899. In 1900 it was won by C. V. Fox
of the Brigade of Guards Rowing Club in the
76 The writer is indebted to Mr. T. S. Grant
for these particulars. Cf. Rowing (Badminton
Library), 189-90, and Twelve Famous Clubs.
r Rowing (Badminton Library), 190, and cf.
Twelve Famous Clubs.
79 Rowing (Badminton Library), 191-2.
78 Ibid. 131, and App. 331.
80 The head quarters of the club, which was
founded in 1871, are at the ' Feathers,' Wands-
worth.
289
37
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
record time of 22 min. 5osec. ; in 1902 by
A. H. Choate, London Rowing Club ; in
1 903 by F. S. Kelly, Leander Rowing Club ;
in 1904 by St. George Ashe, Thames Row-
ing Club; in 1907 by J. G. de Edye,
and in 1909 by A. A. Stuart, Kingston
Rowing Club.
Three international four-oared races have
been rowed on the course between Putney
and Mortlake ; in 1872, when the London
Rowing Club beat the Atlanta Boat Club of
New York ; in 1876, when it beat the Frank-
fort Rowing Club ; and in 1882, when the
Thames Rowing Club beat an American crew
of somewhat doubtful amateur status.81 The
eight-oared race between Harvard and Cam-
bridge in 1906, won by the Englishmen, was
rowed over the same course.
PUNTING
There are punting courses in Middlesex at
Staines, Shepperton, and Sunbury.82
TENNIS
Though there are allusions to tennis,
formerly called ' tenisse ' or the ' caitch,' in a
ballad to Henry IV, written by Gower in
I4OO,83 and in Shakespeare's Henry V, there
are no records of the game in England prior
to the sixteenth century. The oldest tennis
court in England is that erected by Henry
VIII at Hampton Court, between 1515 and
I520.84
This court which has been the model for all
existing ones appears to have been excellently
finished in every detail. There are traces in
it of what is termed a rabat — a net placed over
the end pent-houses — which has not for many
years been used in English courts,85 and the
following description given of it by Mr. Law
in his History of Hampton Court shows the
care which was bestowed on its construc-
tion : —
Although it is usually supposed by writers on
the game of tennis that the courts in England were
not glazed till the beginning of this century we find
81 Rowing (Badminton Library), 190. The
London Rowing Club also beat another American
crew of equally doubtful status — the Shoe-wae-cal-
meete Club — for the Grand Challenge Cup at
Henley in 1878, thus preventing the cup from
leaving the country.
8> Ibid. 281-2.
83 Strutt, Sports and Pastimes (ed. 1903).
" Julian Marshall, The Annals of Tennis (1878),
36, 86 ; Law, History of Hampton Ct. i, 138.
" Ann. of Tennis, 36, 39.
from the old bills that in the tennis court at
Hampton Court the windows, which were twelve
in number — six on each side — were 'sett with
glass" in the year 1550, and over each of them was
stretched a wire netting to prevent the glass from
being broken by the balls. Each window was
divided into three lights, and contained altogether
112 sq. ft. of glass, so that no inconsiderable
amount of light was afforded within. At each end
of the tennis court still remain ' the new lodgynges
by the tennis play ' which were built by Henry
VIII, and which were doubtless occupied by the
master of the court, the markers, servers and others.
In these ' lodgings ' there are in addition rooms on
the ground floor adapted for dressing rooms, and
others on the front floor with small windows into
the court used by distinguished lookers-on. These
and the court itself were connected with the main
building of the palace by two passages or galleries,
the upper one communicating directly with the
old Queen's Gallery.86
The privy purse expenses of Henry VIII,
who was a frequent and skilful player, con-
tain numerous entries respecting the games he
played at this court ; w and among subsequent
royal players there were Prince Henry son
of James I,88 Charles II,89 and William III.80
Both Charles II91 and William III reno-
vated the court,92 and a bird's-eye view of
it as it appeared after its restoration by the
latter, engraved by Kip from a drawing by
Knyff, is given in the edition of 1720 of
Britannia Illustrata. Play was continued at
the court after the palace had been divided into
apartments. George Lambart, the greatest
of living players in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, was marker there in
1866, and, on quitting it for the court at
Lord's three years later, was succeeded by his
younger brother William, who was still play-
ing there in i878.93
In addition to the court or ' close tennys
play ' at Hampton Court — where there was
also an ' open tennys play,' which appears to
have been constructed for a game resem-
bling lawn tennis94 — Henry VIII also built
courts both at Whitehall and St. James's
Palace.
With regard to that at Whitehall, Stow in
his Survey of London says that on the right
88 Hiit. of Hampton Ct. \, 139, 140. On the
division of the Palace into private apartments the
' Lodgings of the master of the Tennis Court '
formed one of the suites. Ibid, iii, 406.
87 Ibid, i, 138, 139 ; Ann. of Tennis, 55, 56.
88 Hist, of Hampton Ct. ii, 47.
89 Ibid. 202-3 » -daa. of Tennis, 88.
90 Ann. of Tennis, 92.
91 Hist, of Hampton Ct. ii, 202, 203.
91 Ann. of Tennis, 75. n Ibid. 1 08, 109.
94 Hist, of Hampton Ct. i, 140.
290
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
hand, beyond the gallery connecting the two
portions of the royal palace at Westminster,
were 'divers fayre Tennis Courts, bowling
Alleys and Cockpits, all built by King Henry
VIII.' 85 Though it is clearly shown in a map
of 1658 by Fordham, no traces now exist of
this court,86 while the site of that erected by
Henry VIII at St. James's Palace, in which
both Henry Prince of Wales and his brother
Charles I are recorded to have played,97 is
also unknown.98 An order was issued 27
July 1649 to 'J°nn Hooke, keeper of the
tennis court at St. James's ' to deliver the keys
to Colonel Thomas Pride ' to enable him to
quarter his soldiers there,' and Mr. Marshall
suggests that it may have been converted into
a sort of guard house or prison.99 It is,
however, referred to as the tennis court at
St. James's in a warrant of 19 August, 1729,
from the lords of the Treasury to the Clerk
of the Pipe with respect to the lease of a piece
of ground adjoining it.100
Charles II built a new court at Whitehall in
1662 — the dimensions of which were taken
from that at Hampton Court101 — which ap-
pears to have been commonly called ' Longs,'10'
and an entry of 28 December in that year
in Pepys' Diary describes a game, which
must have been one of the first played
there, by the king and Sir A. Slingsby
against Lord Suffolk and Lord Chesterfield.
' The king,' he says, ' beat three and lost two
sets, they all, and he particularly playing well
I thought.'103 Recording another game on
4 January, 1663, the diarist again says that
Charles ' did play very well,' but observes
that ' to see how the king's play was extolled
without any cause at all was a loathsome
sight.'104 He also mentions 'a great match'
at this court, on 2 September, 1667, ' between
Prince Rupert and Captain Cooke against
Bab May and the elder Chichely, when the
king was at the court, and it seems that
they are the best players at tennis in the
nation.'105
In addition to these four royal courts, there
were numerous private courts in London during
the seventeenth century, nearly all of which
95 Stow, Surv. (ed. Strype), vol. ii, bk. vi, 6.
98 Ann. of Tennis, 65, 66.
97 Ibid. 76, 79, 8 1.
98 Ibid. 65, 66. " Ibid. 83 (7).
100 Cal. of Treas. Books and Paters, i, no. 533,
P- 133-
101 Hist, of Hampton Ct. ii, 202, 203.
101 Ann. of Tennis, 86.
103 Memoirs of Samuel Pepys (ed. Lord Braybrooke),
ii, 1 36.
104 Ibid. 138.
105 Ibid, iii, 348.
seem to have been on the Middlesex side of
the river. In 1620, as has been mentioned
in treating of archery,106 James I granted
permission to the groom porter of his house-
hold, Clement Cottrell, to license fourteen
in London and Westminster,107 but a list of
those in existence in 1615 kept by the clerk
of the works at Petworth, quoted by Mr.
Marshall in his Annals of Tennis,108 gives — ex-
clusive of the covered and uncovered courts at
Whitehall — the following twelve : — Somerset
House, Essex House, Fetter Lane, Fleet
Street, Blackfriars, Southampton Street (Hoi-
born), Charterhouse, Powles Chaine108a, Ab-
church Lane, St. Laurence Pountney, Crutched
Friars and Fenchurch Street.
The last-named court belonged to the
Ironmongers' Company, who are shown by
Mr. Marshall to have sold tennis balls as early
as 1489, and as they were doing so in the
twenty-sixth year of the reign of Henry VIII
may perhaps have included that sovereign
among their customers.109 Evidence of the site
of the court in Southampton Street is fur-
nished by a place called the Tennis Court,
on the south side of Holborn in Northumber-
land Court, Old Southampton Buildings. No
traces of the others enumerated in the Pet-
worth list exist.110 There was, however,
another court not included in it, which was
built by the Earl of Pembroke's barber, and
attached to a gaming house in James Street,
Haymarket. This court appears to have
been in existence from 1635 to J.866.111
' With convenience of situation,' says Mr.
Marshall, 112 ' it united great excellence, not
only in its proportions but also in the materials
of which it was built, the stone of the floor
having, as tradition says, been brought from
Germany.' Barcella, a noted French player,
played in this court in 1802, and in 1829
J. Edmond Barre played Philip Cox there at
evens and beat him.113
The maintenance of the royal courts at
St. James's and Whitehall during the early
part of the eighteenth century is shown by
references, respectively relating to the lease
106 Ante,?- 290. I07 Rymer, Foedera, xvii, 238.
108 Op. cit. 79, 80, where their respective dimen-
sions are given.
I08a Powle's Chaine, i.e. Paul's Chain, an old
street near St. Paul's.
™ Ann. of Tennis, 57.
110 Ibid. 80.
111 Ibid. 89. It is now numbered 2-6, Orange
Street, Leicester Square, and has been converted
into a warehouse for Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall,
Hamilton, Kent & Co.
"' Ibid. 90.
111 Ibid. 102.
291
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
and purchase of lands adjoining them, in two
treasury warrants of 1729 ;114 and also by
the record of payments of £90 los. dd. to
Thomas Chaplin ' on his salary of £120 per
annum as keeper of the tennis courts,' on
29 April in that year, and of £60 2s. 8</.
'to Charles Fitzroy, esq., keeper of H.M.
tennis courts,' on 26 March, 1729, and on
19 August, 1730."* The game, how-
ever, seems to have then fallen somewhat into
decay, and great as its reputation appears to
have been, the court in James Street was
most probably the sole survivor of the private
courts.
It was not until the second quarter of the
nineteenth century that there was any revival
of interest in the game, and modern tennis
must be held to date from the opening of the
court at Lord's, the first stone of which was
laid by Mr. Benjamin Aislabie on 15 October,
1838.
The dimensions of this court were taken
from those of the court in James Street,
Haymarket,116 but it is pointed out by Mr.
Marshall that it differs as regards the height
of the net from that at Hampton Court and
that, in addition to other imperfections, the
galleries are all of wrong sizes.117 Two of
the first matches played in it were those
between J. Edmond Barre, the celebrated
French player, and Peter Tompkins, the
Brighton marker, on 10 and 16 July, 1839,
in both of which the former — who in the
second match gave his opponent half thirty and
a bisque — was victorious after a hard contest.118
Among the most noted players who frequented
it in early days were the Hon. C. Ashburton,
the Hon. Captain Spencer, Captain Taylor,
6th Carabineers, and Messrs. G. Taylor, W.
Cox, C. Derby, H. Everett, Thorold Murray
Crook, H. Clay, and J. M. Heathcote, the
amateur champion in 1878. 119 In 1867 a
gold and a silver prize for the best and next best
amateur of the year, open only to members,
was instituted by the Marylebone Club, the
winners of which during the following ten
years were : —
Gold — 1867-77 J-
year).
. Heathcote (every
Silver — 1867 Julian Marshall.
1868 G. B. Crawley.
1869-73 Hon. C. G. Lyttelton.
1874-75 G. B. Crawley.
1876-77 R. D. Walker.
The winner of the gold prize in 1906 was
Mr. Eustace H. Miles, and of the silver prize
Major A. Cooper Key.
In addition to the court at Lord's there are
two at Prince's — a social club established for
the practice of tennis and racquets in 1853 —
and two at the Queen's Club, West Ken-
sington, which was founded in 1886 for
the practice of these games and of lawn
tennis.
The match for the amateur champion-
ship in tennis, founded in 1889, is played
at the Queen's Club. The winners have
been : —
Sir Edward Grey 1889, 1891, 1895, 1896,
1898; Mr. F. B. Curtis 1890; Mr. H. F.
Crawley 1 892, 1 893, 1 894 ; Mr. J. B. Gribble
1897; Mr- V- Pennell 1904; Mr. E. H.
Miles 1899-1903, 1905, 1906, 1909, 1910;
Mr. Jay Gould 1907, 1908.
BOXING
Middlesex has always been the centre of
the art of self-defence both for professionals
and amateurs. A very large proportion of
the champions of both sections have been
Londoners or men long located in the metro-
polis. The first record that we find of public
exhibitions and instruction in the art is
in 1719 when one Figg, the champion
boxer and back-sword player of his time,
114 Calendar of Treas. Books and Papers, i, no.
533. P- J33 5 no. H6» 3<5.
14 Ibid. 5,254,552, 588.
m Ann. of Tennis, 101.
117 Ibid. 36. "' Ibid. IO2.
opened an amphitheatre near Oxford Street.
He also had a boxing booth at Southwark
fair and at other similar gatherings. His
prowess is commemorated by his pupil, Cap-
tain Godfrey, who in his Treatise upon the
useful science of Defence speaks feelingly of the
rugged way in which the preceptor imparted
instruction to his pupils.
To Broughton, however, who was cham-
pion in 1734, belongs the honour of in-
venting the horsehair gloves and teaching
boxing on scientific lines. His academy
was situated in what is now Hanway Street,
118 Ibid. MI, 112.
292
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
and a copy of his advertisement is here re-
produced :
AT BROUGHTON'S NEW
AMPHITHEATRE
Oxford Street
The back of the late Mr. Figg's
On Tuesday next, the I3th instant
Will be exhibited
THE TRUE ART OF BOXING
By the eight famed following men, viz. : —
Abraham Evans — Allen
— Sweep Robert Spikes and
— Belas Harry Gray the clog-
— Glover maker
— Roger
The above eight men to be brought on the
stage and to be matched according to the approba-
tion of the gentlemen who shall honour them with
their Company.
N.B. — There will be BATTLE ROYAL between the
NOTED BUCKHORSE
and seven or eight more ; after which there will
be several BYE BATTLES by others.
Gentlemen are therefore desired to come by
times. The doors open at nine ; the champions
mount at eleven.
Broughton was the first to draw up a code of
rules for contests, and these rules were revised
in 1853 and 1866 by the Pugilistic Associa-
tion.
Broughton reigned undefeated until 1750,
when he accepted the challenge of Slack, the
Norfolk champion. Broughton looked upon
the affair as a certainty ; he did no training,
and actually made Slack a present of ten
guineas not to cry off. The match took place
at the amphitheatre in Oxford Street, and
Broughton's lack of condition lost him the
day, his eyes so swelling from Slack's blows
that he could not see. The Duke of Cum-
berland, the victor of Culloden, who was
Broughton's backer, was said to have lost
10,000 guineas over the match.
After Slack succeeded champions of vary-
ing powers until Mendoza, a Jew from
Houndsditch, gained the title in 1792. His
battles with 'Gentleman Humphreys' attracted
much attention to the art. In 1795 'Gentle-
man Jackson,' another Londoner, defeated
Mendoza. Jackson subsequently at his rooms
in Bond Street was instructor to half the no-
bility, including Lord Byron, the poet. Jackson
died 7 October 1845, and a handsome monu-
ment was erected to his memory in West
Brompton Cemetery.
In 1800 James Belcher of Bristol arrived
in London and carried all before him until he
was defeated by his fellow townsmen, Pearce
and Tom Cribb. Pearce also defeated Gully,
afterwards M.P. for Pontefract, for the cham-
pionship, which Gully subsequently gained
in 1808. Tom Cribb (long resident in Panton
Street), became a very popular champion by
reason of his two tremendous battles with the
Herculean black Molyneux. For his second
match with the negro he was taken to Scot-
land and specially trained by Captain Barclay
of Urie.
These were the palmy days of the ring,
when royalty in the persons of the Prince
Regent and his brother the Duke of Clarence
were not infrequent attendants at matches.
At his coronation George IV engaged twenty
of the leading pugilists as pages, and to com-
memorate their services presented them with
a coronation medal, which was raffled for and
won by Thomas Belcher.
To Cribb succeeded Thomas Spring, whose
establishment, the Castle Inn in Holborn, now
the ' Napier,' was long a favourite house of
call for country squires and London visitors.
James Ward, a very scientific boxer from
East London, gained the championship on
Spring's retirement. He lived to the age of 84,
and died in 1884. Another Londoner, Burke,
a waterman in the Strand, succeeded Ward.
In these days minor matches were numerous,
and were decided no further away than Pad-
dington, Highgate, Finchley, and Barnet, but
when the authorities became more particular
the railways and steamboats were utilized to
reach spots where interference was unlikely.
Caunt, who lived for many years off Regent
Street, divided the championship for some
years with W. Thompson, the renowned
Bendigo of Nottingham, but the champions
degenerated greatly in science until the ad-
vent of the redoubtable Tom Sayers.
Coming from Sussex at an early age that
great fighter settled at Camden Town, and
step by step fought his way to the top of the
tree. During his career he contested sixteen
battles. He only once, when hardly out of
his novitiate, suffered defeat, at the hands of
the scientific Nathaniel Langham, who, how-
ever, declined to meet him a second time.
Sayers' height was 5 ft. 8£ in., and his weight
lost. 6 Ib. to lost. I alb. ; but he took on
all comers. With small hands and arms he
possessed fine shoulders, with great muscular
development, and his hitting was tremendous.
He was an excellent judge of distance and of
timing his blows, and very active on his feet.
He rarely used his right hand until he had
got the measure of his opponent, and then
brought it into play with such telling effect,
that that hand was called his ' auctioneer.1
293
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
These qualities, and his indomitable pluck —
he never knew when he was beaten — made
him the idol of the sporting world. His
great battle on 17 April 1860 with the
gigantic American Heenan, to whom he con-
ceded 4! in. in height, 3 stone in weight,
and seven years in age, was stopped by the
police after two and a half hours' desperate
fighting (during two-thirds of which Sayers
fought with only one arm, his right, the
dreaded 'auctioneer,' having been disabled in
the sixth round). Public appreciation of this
remarkable exposition of pluck was shown
by a presentation of £3,000 collected for
Sayers in the House of Commons, on the
Stock Exchange, and elsewhere, on the
condition that he never fought again. To
his untutored mind — he could not tell the
time by the clock — this enforced leisure was
fatal. Dissipation did its fatal work, and the
little warrior who knew no fear lived but five
years after his great fight with the American
giant. He died at Camden Town 1 i Nov-
ember 1865 at the age of 39, and a vast
concourse of people attended his funeral in
Highgate Cemetery. A fine monument marks
his resting-place.
After the retirement of Sayers many clever
men appeared, but the rascality of the low
hangers-on of the ring quickly drove respect-
able people from attending matches, and the
authorities took action by forbidding railway
companies to run special trains. Nevertheless,
many finely contested matches were brought
off in the 'sixties between Mace, Goss,
Travers, King, the brothers Allen, and others.
Mace may perhaps be said to be the last
of the champions of the old style of boxing,
and probably was its most scientific ex-
ponent. He visited America and Australia,
and carried all before him. King, a native of
Stepney, was for years a well-known attendant
at race meetings, and died in 1888 worth
£54,000. Several attempts have been made
to resuscitate bare-fist boxing, and as late as
1886 James Smith, a native of Clerkenwell,
gained several victories and was dubbed cham-
pion. Since the legalizing of boxing with
gloves fist-fighting has died out.
The transition stage between the two styles
was the decade from 1870 to 1880. Many of
the professors of the old style tried their hands at
the new, and not always with success. Those
who excelled at the one did not necessarily
shine at the other. Even the great Sayers
himself was not infrequently worsted with the
gloves by men, half a dozen of whom he would
have beaten one after another in the same ring
with his fists. There were notable exceptions,
however ; Professor Mullins was never de-
feated in either style. He is still the most
capable instructor of the day, and at his
academy in Glasshouse Street has numbered,
among his pupils, peers of the realm, men of
letters, and even, it is whispered, embryo
bishops. After the extinction of the ring,
however, gloomy times followed in London
for devotees of the art. Owing to the vigi-
lance of the authorities it was at first most
difficult to bring off matches with the gloves,
and only a limited number of rounds were
allowed as legal. Matters, however, gradually
improved. Clubs were formed for the en-
couragement of professional boxing, and lead-
ing sporting men retained prominent counsel
to prove the legality of boxing with gloves for
prizes. The defunct Pelican Club in Gerard
Street, which numbered amongst its members
men of title and position, took boxing under
its protection. Here Peter Jackson, the black
champion of Australia, defeated James Smith
for the championship, and many other notable
matches were decided within its walls.
When the Pelican Club ceased to exist the
National Sporting Club was opened on 5 March
1891 in Covent Garden, in what had pre-
viously been Evans' Supper Rooms, imirur-
talized by Thackeray. The Earl of Lonsdale
was elected president of the club, a position
which he still holds. This club is not only
the head quarters of professional boxing in
England, but is the Mecca of boxing champions
from all parts of the world. Many hundreds
of matches have been decided under its roof,
the most famous being that between the two
Australians, Peter Jackson and Frank Slavin,
while more recently the Canadian T.Burns here
defeated ' Gunner ' Moir for the championship.
The East End of London also has a famous
arena called Wonderland, where boxing
matches false place all the year through. The
entertainment on a Saturday night is quite one
of the sights of London.
Before leaving the professional section of
boxing we may perhaps mention that a few
veterans of old-style boxing may be met with
in London, among whom we may name
J. Carney ; J. Baldock, a fine boxer and
better second ; and R. Travers, the only sur-
viving opponent of Mace.
Though many fine amateur boxers were
to be found in the early days when notable
performers were Captain R. Barclay, E. H.
Budd, the Hon. Robert Grimston, and
Lord Drumlanrig, boxing was not seriously
taken up by the mass of amateur athletes
till about the time of the demise of the
prize ring. In 1866 the eighth Marquess of
Queensberry gave his approval to a code of
rules drawn up for amateurs, which has ever
294
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
since gone by his name. He also presented
three twenty-five guinea cups for competition
by light, middle, and heavy weights. These
were boxed for annually at the Old Lillie
Bridge grounds at Fulham, under the auspices
of the Amateur Athletic Association. In
1882 the cups mysteriously disappeared, and
the newly-formed Amateur Boxing Association
took over the title of ehampionships for their
meetings. These were first held at St.
James's Hall, then at Clerkenwell, and more
recently, to accommodate the numerous spec-
tators, they have been held at the Alexandra
Palace. Competitors are divided into five
classes : Bantam weights, 8 st. 4 Ib. and under;
feather, 9 st. and under ; light, 10 St. and
under ; middle, 1 1 st. 4 Ib. and under ; heavy,
any weight. A ten-guinea silver cup is pre-
sented to the winner in each weight.
Amateur boxing clubs were never more
numerous in London than at the pre-
sent time, some of the better known being
the Polytechnic, the Lynn, the Columbia,
St. Bride's Institute, Belsize, the Eton Mission,
Gainsford, and the German Gymnasium.
The art is also scientifically taught by quali-
fied professors at the great public schools,
Harrow, Highgate, and St. Paul's. The stu-
dents annually compete in the Public School
championships, and those from St. Paul's have
received from their instructor, Professor
Driscoll, such a sound grounding in the gram-
mar of the art, that they have been remarkably
successful. To the famous amateurs men-
tioned above should be added the name of
Canon J. J. McCormick, D.D., of St. James',
Piccadilly, the Cambridge double ' blue,' who
in his university days could hold his own with
the scientific Langham and other leading
professionals.
THE OLYMPIC GAMES OF LONDON, 1908
The year 1908 is memorable in the annals
both of Middlesex and of British sport, for
the celebration of the Olympic Games of
London — the fourth of a series of similar cele-
brations, which was initiated by the Games of
Athens1 in 1896, and followed by those of
Paris2 in 1900, and of St. Louis in the
United States in 1904.' Owing to the large
number of entries from twenty-one foreign
1 See as to the Greek Games, The Olympic Games,
B.C. 776 to A.D. 1896, by Sp. P. Lambros and
N. C. Politis, Professor at the University of Athens,
published with the sanction and under the patron-
age of the Central Committee of Athens. Trans-
lated from the Greek by C. A. In addition to
the learned historical description of the ancient
games and the details of the Athens celebration,
this work contains, in Part II, an account by M. le
Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the prime mover in
their revival, of the origin and organization of the
modern Olympic Games.
' An interesting account of the French Games
will be found in an article by Baron Pierre de
Coubertin, on 'The Olympian Games,' in the
North American Review for June 1900, p. 753 et
seq.; full records of the results are given in The
Olympic Games of London, published by The Sporting
Life, at p. 234, which also gives those of the
Athens Games.
* Full details of the American Games are given
in The History of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
and the St. Louis World's Fair, 1904, by Mark
Bennett, chap, xvi, 565-73. See, too, as to records
of the results, The Olympic Games of London, above
cited, 234.
countries, as well as those of British competitors,
amounting in all to some 3,000, the London
celebration was by far the largest athletic
gathering of which there is any record ; 4 and
as the programme comprised over 100 events
in connexion with no less than twenty dif-
ferent forms of sport, it also supplied the
most comprehensive test of international
athletic proficiency which has, probably, ever
yet been provided.5 In addition to this, the
historical interest of the Games as the revi-
val in modern form, after an interval of over
1,500 years, of the famous Greek athletic
festival was enhanced by the fact that, as the
next eighteen celebrations will take place, at
intervals of four years, in other countries,
nearly three-quarters of a century must elapse
before they can again be held in these islands.6
4 The Times article on ' The Games of London,'
IJ3 July 1908, p. 1 8.
6 Ibid, and cf. an article on ' The Olympic
Games,' by a Member of the British Olympic
Committee, in Bailey's Magazine of Sports and
Pastimes, Sept. 1908, p. 215 et seq.
' It was originally proposed that the games of
1908 should be held in Rome, and those of 1912
and 1916 probably in Berlin and Stockholm respec-
tively, but, owing to the inability of the Italian
representation on the International Olympic Com-
mittee to accept this offer, application was made
through Lord Desborough — who had been present
at the Athens Games in 1896 as one of the British
referees — to Great Britain. The Times article on
' The Games of London,' 1 8 July, p. 1 8.
295
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The Games were held under the auspices
of the International Olympic Committee — a
body instituted at the Athletic International
Congress held in Paris in June 1893. It
comprises the representatives of the principal
European countries and of the United States,
under the presidency of Baron Pierre de
Coubertin, the chief originator of the revival
of the Olympic Festival.7 The functions of
this committee are, however, mainly limited
to the selection of the country in which the
games are to be held, and the control of and
arrangements for those of London was en-
trusted entirely to the British Olympic Coun-
cil, as the sub-committee appointed for the
purpose in the country thus selected.8 Both
the chairman and the hon. secretary of the
Council — Lord Desborough and the Rev. R. S.
de Courcy Laffan — are members of the Inter-
national Olympic Committee ; 9 and its thirty-
eight members were respectively appointed by
the English governing authority of every sport
forming part of the programme, and by such
similar authorities in other parts of the United
Kingdom as chose and were able to be repre-
sented.10 Captain F. W. Jones acted as
' The Olympic Games, B.C. 776 to A.D. 1896,
pt. ii, 1-8.
8 Article North American Review, June 1900,
pt. 8, sup. pp. 803, 804.
9 The Olympic Games of London, 1908. List ol
members of Council.
10 The Times article on ' The Games of London,'
1 8 July, p. 1 8. The following list of members
is given in The Olympic Games of London, 1908,
cit. sup. : — The Lord Montagu of Beaulieu,
Automobile Club ; Maj. -General the Lord Chey-
lesmore, C.V.O., chairman of Council National
Rifle Association ; Sir Lees Knowles, bart., chair-
man Motor Yacht Club ; H. Benjamin, esq., ex-
president Amateur Swimming Club ; E. A.
Biedermann, esq., hon. sec. Tennis and Racquets
Association ; J. Blair Blair, esq., Scottish Cyclists'
Union ; T. W. J. Britten, esq., hon. . treas.
National Cyclists' Union ; Michael J. Bulger, esq.,
M.D., Irish A.A.A. ; Guy M. Campbell, esq.,
F.S.A., Amateur Fencing Association ; Lieut.-
Colonel C. R. Crosse, sec. National Rifle Associa-
tion ; J. H. Douglas, esq., president Amateur
Boxing Association ; D. S. Duncan, esq., hon.
see. Scottish A.A.A. ; W. Hayes Fisher, esq.,
president National Skating Association ; Major F.
Egerton Green, Hurlingham Club ; R. G. Gridley,
esq., hon. sec. Amateur Rowing Association ;
F. B. O. Hawes, esq., hon. sec. Lacrosse Union ;
W. Henry, esq., sec. Royal Life Saving Society ;
G. Rowland Hill, esq., president Rugby Football
Union ; Captain A. Hatton, F.S.A., president
Amateur Fencing Association ; W. J. Leighton,
esq., M.B., vice-president Irish A.S.A.; E. Law-
rence Levy, esq., hon. sec. Amateur Gymnastic
Association ; G. R. Mewburn, esq., hon. sec.
assistant secretary, and Mr. W. Henry, hon.
secretary Royal Life Saving Society, as
Director of the Stadium. The bulk of the
extensive and varied work of the Council was
distributed amongst four Standing Committees
— the Art Committee, responsible for prize
and the commemorative medals designed by
Mr. Bestwick McKerral ; the Finance Com-
mittee ; the Housing and Entertainment
Committee ; and the Programme (virtually the
Executive) Committee, dealing with all the
details of the athletic side of the Games.11
The management of each branch of the
Games was placed entirely in the hands of
the association governing that sport in this
country, which provided all officials, &c., and
was responsible for the proper conduct of the
competitions ; but, though the representatives
of foreign countries took no part in the man-
agement unless especially requested to do so
in any particular instance, each nation or
country competing had the right to appoint
three members of a ' comit6 d'honneur,' 12
through which any protests or objections
made by competitors from that nation or
country were conveyed to the proper
authority.13
In a letter of 20 June Lord Desborough
Lawn Tennis Association ; Colonel G. M. Onslow,
National Physical Recreation Society ; E. J.
O'Reilly, esq., Irish Cyclists Association ; W.
Ryder Richardson, esq., hon. sec. Amateur Golf
Championship Committee ; G. S. Robertson, esq.,
Juror at Olympic Games, Athens, 1906 ; C.
Newton Robinson, esq., Yacht Racing Association ;
A. G. Stoddart, esq., sec. Queen's Club ; E. H.
Stone, esq., Clay-Bird Shooting Association ; A. H.
Sutherland, esq., chairman Amateur Wrestling
Association ; E. Syers, esq., hon. sec. Figure
Skating Club ; H. M. Tennent, esq., hon. sec.
Hockey Association ; F. J. Wall, esq., sec. Foot-
ball Association ; Colonel H. Walrond, hon. sec.
Royal Toxophilite Society.
11 The Times, 18 July, p. 18.
11 Ibid. ' Nationality' as a qualification of com-
petition was more strictly defined than in previous
games.
" " Few greater compliments to English fair play
than the delegation to our great associations of the
whole judging in these games [says a member of
the Council writing in Bailey's Magazine for Septem-
ber 1 908, p. 21 6] have ever been paid either by the
International Olympic Committee or by any similar
body; and the general regulations, approved by the
official representatives of every competing nation,
are the real basis of the international code of sport
authorized by the International Olympic Com-
mittee of 1907, which was accepted by the twenty
different competing nations, as endorsed by the
signed entries of their competitors, and which was
translated into French and German and sent to
every competitor before the games began."
296
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
made an appeal through the newspapers for
funds to enable the British Olympic Com-
mittee to maintain the British reputation for
hospitality by arranging a series of social
functions, to which all competitors and officials
should in turn be invited ; and this was
so well supported by the Daily Mail and
the sporting and general press, that over
£ 1 0,000 was subscribed for the pur-
pose within a week.14 On 1 1 July the
athletes were officially welcomed at the Graf-
ton Galleries by Lord Desborough and the
Rev. R. S. de Courcy Laffan.16 A series of
banquets, presided over by the former, was
given at the Holborn Restaurant to the athletes
of different nationalities engaged in the Games,16
and on 24 July a ball took place at the same
place at which 700 ladies and gentlemen from
eighteen different countries were present.17
In addition to these entertainments, the Lord
Mayor, on behalf of the City, gave a reception
at the Mansion House, which was attended by
the members of the International Olympic
Committee, the Comit£ d'Honneur, and the
British Olympic Council, and representative
athletes from each of the competing countries ;18
and dinners in honour of the same guests were
given by the Government at the Grafton
Galleries,19 by the Fishmongers' Company,20
and by the Lyceum Club 21 during the same
month. The Amateur Swimming Associa-
tion, Amateur Athletic Association, National
Cycling Association, and other kindred bodies
also materially aided in furthering the exten-
sion of hospitality to the foreign compe-
titors ; 22 and at the close of July a series
of entertainments, in which Lord and Lady
Desborough, Lord and Lady Michelham,
Sir F. Crisp, and the Hon. W. F. D. Smith
played a prominent part, were organized in
connexion with the Olympic Regatta at
Henley.23
A British team to compete in the contests
for field and track athletics and other kindred
sports was, after various trials (beginning on
12 June), finally selected on 12 July, and for
this four Middlesex clubs — the Finchley,
the Polytechnic, the Highgate Harriers and
the London Athletic Club — supplied twenty
" The Times, ^ z June, p. 1 6 ; Olympic Games
of London, 227.
15 Ibid. 227.
16 The Times, \ 5 July, p. 1 2 ; Olympic Games of
London, 227.
" The Times, 25 July, p. 9 ; Olympic Games of
London, 228. 18 Ibid. 227.
18 The Times, 25 July, p. 9.
"Ibid. 1 8 July, p. 1 8.
11 Olympic Games of London, 228.
" Ibid. " Ibid.
members.24 For this portion — the most popu-
lar if not the most important — of the Olympic
Games, a Stadium, with sitting accommodation
for 70,000, and additional standing room for
20,000 spectators, designed by Mr. Imre
Kiralfy, was erected, at a cost of between
£60,000 and £70,000, in the grounds of the
Franco-British Exhibition at Shepherd'sBush.26
The centre of the arena was an ellipse of turf,
700 ft. in length and 300 ft. in breadth, en-
circled by a running track, laid under the
superintendence of the Amateur Athletic
Association, which was itself encircled by a
cycling track; and a swimming pond, 100
metres long, with a deep space in the middle
for high diving and water polo, was also con-
structed along one side of the arena.26 On
Monday, 13 July, this Stadium was formally
opened by his Majesty King Edward,27 and
the Stadium events were continued day by
day until 25 July, when the competitions
in the following sports were concluded : —
athletics, archery, bicycling, fencing, gym-
nastics, swimming, wrestling, and the Marathon
Race (26 miles, 385 yards), the course of which
began on the East Lawn of Windsor Castle
and ended in the arena of the Stadium. At
the close of the contests the prizes were
given to the successful competitors by Queen
Alexandra.
The Comitd d'Honneur was twice called
upon to exercise its functions during the
progress of these competitions. In the
4OO-metres flat race between W. Hals-
welle (Great Britain), and J. C. Carpenter,
W. C. Robbins, and J. B. Taylor (United
States), Carpenter was disqualified for fouling
Halswelle, and the race was declared void and
ordered to be run again, when the two
Americans, Robbins and Taylor, having failed
to appear, Halswelle was given a run over and
completed the distance in 50 sec.28 In the
Marathon race J. J. Hayes (United States),
who finished in 2 hrs. 55 min. i8| sec., was
declared the winner. Dorando Pietri (Italy),
who completed the course in 2 hrs. 54 min.
46^ sec., and passed the tape about 100 yds.
ahead of him, was disqualified on account of
assistance given by sympathetic spectators
when he fell on the track.29 On learning of
Dorando Pietri's disqualification the queen
expressed her intention of presenting him with
" The Times, \ June, p. 14 ; 12 June, p. n.
15 Ibid. 22 June, p. 1 6.
" Ibid.
" Ibid. 14 July, p. 10.
w Ibid. 24 June, p. 9 ; 27 July, p. 10 ; Olympic
Games of London, 23-8.
19 The Times, 22 July, p. 1 1 ; 24 July, p. 9 ;
Olympic Games of London, 66-75.
297
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
a cup, which he received at the prize-giving
on the following day.30
In athletics Great Britain won seven out of
twenty-seven events, the prize for the tug-of-
war going to a Middlesex team, the City of
London Police,81 and three Middlesex men —
Webb of Hackney, 2nd both in the 3, 5 00 metres
and in the xo-mile walk,32 Press of Hammer-
smith, and in catch-as-catch-can wrestling,33
and Slein of Hammersmith, 2nd in feather-
weight wrestling — *4 securing four 2nd prizes
between them. In cycling Great Britain won
five out of seven events, in swimming four out
of nine, in archery two out of three, and in
wrestling three out of nine ; and in the whole
Stadium events she secured twenty-three 1st,
twenty and, and twelve 3rd prizes as against
eighteen 1st, ten and, and eleven 3rd, won by
the United States ; and five ist, two and, and
six 3rd prizes won by Sweden.36 With the
exception of the aoo-metres flat race, all pre-
vious Olympic records in track events, and
also in the no metres hurdles, the hammer
and discus throwing, broad, high, and pole
jumps, and ' triple ' jump were beaten at the
London Games.36
The competitions in the Stadium had been
preceded by those in racquets, in April,37 at
the Queen's Club, West Kensington ; in tennis
and in lawn tennis (covered courts) at the same
place in May ; in polo at Hurlingham in June ;
in lawn tennis (grass courts) at Wimbledon,
and in shooting at Bisley, and (in clay-bird
shooting) at Uxendon in July. They were
followed during the last week of that month
by the rowing competitions at Henley, and by
the 6, 7, and 8-metres boat events in yachting
at Ryde ; and in August the I a-metres boat-
races, which closed the yachting competitions,
were held on the Clyde and motor boat
racing on Southampton Water. In October
the Games were brought to a conclusion
by the competitions in Association football,
hockey, and lacrosse, at the Stadium, box-
ing at the Northampton Institute, Clerken-
well, and skating at Prince's Rink, Knights-
bridge.38
On the 3 ist of that month a final official
banquet, presided over by Lord Desborough,
was given at the Holborn Restaurant to some
400 guests, comprising representatives from
30 Olympic Games of London, 66-75.
81 Ibid. 88-91. "Ibid. 60-6.
"Ibid. 153-6. " Ibid. 156-7.
35 Ibid. 229-32. See p. 229 for the positions
of the other fifteen counties.
"Ibid. 13.
57 Begun on the 27th of the month.
" See art. in Bai/y's Magazine for Sept. cit. sup.
215, and Olympic Games of London, passim.
France, Germany, Sweden, the United States,
Australia, and South Africa.39
In the above sports Great Britain won all
the events in racquets, lawn tennis, polo, row-
ing, and yachting, and also six out of fifteen
in shooting; and in all the competitions of the
Games she won fifty-four 1st, thirty-six and,
and twenty-three 3rd prizes, as against twelve
ist, eleven and, and thirteen 3rd, won by the
United States ; two ist, five and, and ten 3rd,
won by Sweden ; and four ist, six and, and
six 3rd won by France ; the position of the
other nations being as follows : — *°
ist 2nd 3rd ist 2nd 3rd
Canada ..436 Finland .112
Hungary .341 Greece ..120
Italy . . 2 I o Russia ..020
Germany .343 Denmark .013
Norway .232 Australasia . o I z
S. Africa I I o Bohemia .001
Belgium .141 Austria . . o o I
The American team, which is described by
the writer in Bai/y's Magazine, already cited,
as ' the finest team of athletes that has ever
visited this country,' some of whom ' proved
themselves the finest in the world,' 41 gained five
prizes in track and nine in field athletics, and
furnished the winner and the third and fourth
in the Marathon Race, for which there were
seventy-five competitors.42 Sweden won both
the javelin competitions, the high diving, and
three of the shooting competitions, and divided
the prizes for gymnastics with Italy ; while
France won first prizes for the tandem cycling
a,ooo-metres race, continental archery, and
the individual and team competitions for the
Epee, the other two fencing events for the
19 The Times, 2 Nov. p. 17.
40 Art. in Baily's Magazine, cit. sup. 217.
41 Ibid.
41 Olympic Games of London, 13, 70, 71. It is
suggested in an interesting criticism of the Marathon
Race by the writer in Baily's Magazine for Sept., so
frequently referred to, that the failure of the English
runners, some of whom had beaten the performance
of the winners on previous occasions, was due to
their forcing the pace at the commencement on an
exceptionally sultry day. In 1896 the length of
the race which was won by a Greek in 2 hrs. 55m.
20 sec. was 24 miles 1,500 yds. In the Paris race
of 1900, won by a Frenchman in 2 hrs. 59m.
45 sec., it was 25 m. 402-33 yds. In the St.
Louis race of 1904, won by an American in
3 hrs. 28 min. 53 sec., it was 24 miles 2, 500 yds.
In the 1908 race the course of 26 miles 385 yds.
was won in 2 hrs. 5 5 min. 1 8f sec., but at a Mara-
thon Race at Athens in 1 906 (not Olympic), a
course of 26 miles was run by the winner, a
Canadian, in under 2 hrs. 52 min. (Baily's Mag-
Sept. 1908, p. 221, and cf. Olympic Games of Lon-
don, 234-5).
398
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
II. ARCHERY (STADIUM)
sabre being won by Hungary.43 The follow-
ing is a list of the ist Prize Winners (Gold
Medallist) in the Games : — 44
LIST OF FIRST PRIZE WINNERS
I. ATHLETICS (STADIUM)
(1) 100 Metres, R. E. Walker, South Africa
(2) 200 Metres, R. Kerr, Canada
(3) 400 Metres, W. Halswelle, United Kingdom
(4) 800 Metres, M. W. Sheppard, United States
(5) 1,500 Metres, M. W. Sheppard, United
States
(6) I lO-Metres Hurdles, F. C. Smithson, United
States
(7) 400-Metres Hurdles, C. J. Bacon, United
States
(8) 3,200-Metres Steeplechase, A. Russell, United
Kingdom
(9) Five Miles Race, E. R. Voigt, United King-
dom
(10) Ten-Miles Walk, G. E. Lamer, United
Kingdom
(11) Marathon Race, J. J. Hayes, United States
(12) Standing Broad Jump, R. C. Ewry, United
States
(13) Standing High Jump, R. C. Ewry, United
States
(14) Running Broad Jump, F. C. Irons, United
States
(15) Running High Jump, H. F. Porter, United
States
(16) Hop, Step and Jump, T. J. Ahearne, United
Kingdom
(17) Pole Jump, A. C. Gilbert, United States,
and E. T. Cooke, United States, tied
(18) Throwing Hammer, J. J. Flanagan, United
States
(19) Putting Weight, R. Rose (United States)
(20) Tug-of-War, Great Britain No. I Team
(21) Three-Miles Team Race, Great Britain
(22) 3,5oc-Metre Walk, G. E. Larner, United
Kingdom
(28) York Round, W. Dod, United Kingdom
(29) National Round, Miss L. Newall, United
Kingdom
(30) 40 Arrows, 50 Metres, M. Grisot, France
III. BICYCLING (STADIUM)
(31) 660 yds. lap, V. L. Johnson, United King-
dom
(32) 1,000 Metres. Declared void
(33) 5,000 Metres, B. Jones, United Kingdom
(34) 20 Kilometres, C. B. Kingsbury, United
Kingdom
(35) 100 Kilometres, C. H. Bartlett, United
Kingdom
(36) Pursuit Race, Great Britain
(37) 2,000 miles, Tandem, M. Schilles and A.
Aufray, France
IV. FENCING (STADIUM)
(38) Ep£e Individual, Alibert, France
(39) Ep6e Teams, France
(40) Sabre Individual, Dr. Fuchs, Hungary
(41) Sabre Teams, Hungary
V. GYMNASTICS (STADIUM)
(42) Heptathlon, G. E. Braglia, Italy
(43) Teams, Sweden
VI. LAWN TENNIS (WIMBLEDON AND QUEEN'S
CLUE)
(44) Grass Singles (Men), M. J.G. Ritchie, United
Kingdom
(45) Grass Doubles (Men), G. W. Hillyard and
R. F. Doherty, United Kingdom
(46) Grass Singles (Ladies), Mrs. Lambert Cham-
bers, United Kingdom
(47) Covered Singles (Men), A. W. Gore, United
Kingdom
(48) Covered Doubles (Men), A. W. Gore and
R. H. Roper Barrett, United Kingdom
(23) Discus (Free Style), M. J. Sheridan, United (49) Covered Singles (Ladies), Miss Eastlake
States
(24) Discus (Greek Style), M. J. Sheridan, United
States
(25) Javelin (Free Style), E. V. Lemming,
Sweden
(26) Javelin (Restricted Style), E. V. Lemming,
Sweden
(27) Relay Race, I,6oo Metres, United States
Smith, United Kingdom
VII. MOTOR BOATS (SOUTHAMPTON WATER)
(50) Class A (Not named), E. B. Thubron,
ss A (Not named), E.
France
(51) Class B, Gyrinus, Thorneycroft and Ber-
nard Redwood, United Kingdom
(52) Class C, Gyrinus, Thorneycroft and Ber-
nard Redwood, United Kingdom
a Olympic Games of London, 230, 233. Sweden
also won the Gentlemen's Competition in Skating ;
The Times, 30 Oct. p. 5.
44 This list is taken from Baity' t Mag. Sept.
1908, p. 223 ; cf. that in Olympic Games of London,
230-5, and The Times, 7 July, p. 10 ; 26 Oct.
p. 14 ; 30 Oct. p. 5 ; and 2 Nov. p. 17. For
details of the different events, see The Olympic
Games of London, 13-226, and the reports in The (54) Singles, E. B. Noel, United Kingdom
Times, 29 July, 29 and 3 1 Aug., and 5 Oct.-
2 Nov.
VIII. POLO (HURLINCHAM)
(53) Winning Team, Great Britain (Roehampton)
IX. RACQUETS (QUEEN'S CLUB, WEST
KENSINGTON)
(55) Doubles, Vane Pennell and J. J. Astor,
United Kingdom
299
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
XIII. WRFSTLINC (STADIUM) — continued
X. SHOOTING (BisLEY AND UXENDON)
(56) National Rifle Teams, United States
(57) Open Individual Rifles, 1,000 yds., Col. J.
K. Millner, United Kingdom
(5 8) Open Rifle Teams, Norway
(59) Open Individual Rifles, 300 metres, A. Hil-
gerud, Norway
(60) Miniature Rifle Teams, Great Britain
(61) Individual Miniature Rifles, 50 yds., Great
Britain
(62) Miniature Rifles, Disappearing Target,
W. K. Styles, United States
(63) Miniature Rifles, Moving Target, J. F.
Flemming, United Kingdom
(64) Revolver Teams, United States
(65) Revolver, Individual, P. van Asbrock,
Belgium
(66) Running Deer Teams, Sweden
(67) Running Deer, Individual, O. G. Swahn,
Sweden
(68) Running Deer, Double Shot, W. Winnans,
United States
(69) Clay Birds, Individual W. H. Ewing,
Canada
(70) Clay Birds, Teams, Great Britain, No. i,
Team
XI. SWIMMING (STADIUM)
(71) 100 metres, C. M. Daniels, United States
(72) 400 metres, H. Taylor, United Kingdom
(73) i>5°° metres, H. Taylor, United Kingdom
(74) High Diving, H. Johannsen, Sweden
(75) Fancy Diving, A. Zurner, Germany
(76) 200 metres, Team, Great Britain
(77) 200 metres Breast Stroke, F. Holman, United
Kingdom
(78) 100 metres Back Stroke, A. Bieberstein,
Germany
(79) Water Polo, Great Britain
XII. TENNIS (QUEEN'S CLUB, WEST
KENSINGTON)
(80) Winner, Jay Gould, United States
XIII. WRESTLING (STADIUM)
(8 1) Catch as Catch Can, Bantam, G. N. Mehnert,
United States
(82) Catch as Catch Can, Feather, G. S. Dole,
United States
(83) Catch as Catch Can, Middle, S. V. Bacon,
United Kingdom
(84) Catch as Catch Can, Heavy, G. C. O'Kelly,
United Kingdom
(85) Gneco- Roman, Light, F. Porro, Italy
(86) Graeco-Roman, Middle, F. W. Martenson,
Sweden
(87) Greco-Roman, Light Heavy, W. Weekman,
Finland
(88) Graeco-Roman, Heavy, R. Weisz, Hungary
XIV. BOXING (NORTHAMPTON INSTITUTE,
CLERKENWELL)
(89) Bantam Weights, H. Thomas, United King-
dom
(90) Feather Weights, R. K. Gunn, United
Kingdom
(91) Light Weights, F. Grace, United Kingdom
(92) Middle Weights, W. H. T. Douglas, United
Kingdom
(93) Heavy Weights, A. L. Oldman, United
Kingdom
XV. FOOTBALL (ASSOCIATION) (STADIUM)
(94) England
XVI. HOCKEY (STADIUM)
(95) England
XVII. LACROSSE (STADIUM)
(96) Canada
XVIII. ROWING (HENLEY)
(97) Eights, Leander Rowing Club, United
Kingdom
(98) Fours, Magdalen College, Oxford, United
Kingdom
(99) Pairs, Leander Rowing Club, United King-
dom
(100) Sculls, H. T. BlackstafFe, United Kingdom
XIX. SKATING (PRINCE'S RINK, KNIGHTSBRIDGE)
(101) Ladies' Competition, Mrs. Syers, United
Kingdom
(102) Gentlemen's Competition, Salchow, Swe-
den
(103) Special Figures, Panin, Russia
(104) Pair Skating, Byer and FrSulein Hubler,
Germany
XX. YACHTING (RYDE AND THE CLYDE)
(105) 6-Metre Boat, Dormy, T. D. C. Meekin
United Kingdom
(106) y-Metre Boat, Heroine, C. J. Rivett-Carnac,
United Kingdom
(107) 8-Metre Boat, Cobweb, B. O. Cochrane,
United Kingdom
(108) 12-Metre Boat, Hera, T. C. Glen Coats,
United Kingdom
300
SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN
ATHLETICS
Middlesex ranks first of all the counties of
England in this branch of sport, containing, as
it does, some of the oldest and most important
athletic clubs in the country ; many clubs
in the county indeed are able to boast of an
unbroken existence of nearly half a century.
Foremost among athletic clubs in Middlesex
is the London Athletic Club. Founded in 1863
under the title of the Mincing Lane Athletic
Club, it took its present name in the spring
of 1866. It held its first athletic meeting at
the Beaufort House grounds at Brompton on
9 April 1864, and a second on 21 May of
the same year. It continued to meet there
until 1869, having in 1867 had sports at the
Old Deer Park, Richmond, and at Beaufort
House, Walham Green. After it moved its
head quarters to Lillie Bridge in 1869
meetings were held there until 1876. In
1877 it again moved, this time to its own
grounds at Stamford Bridge, Fulham. These
grounds of six and a half acres were closed
after the last meeting on 24 September 1904,
and a new and larger track was made, partly
on the same site, with a banked track for
cycling and seating accommodation for 10,000
people. The new area of seventeen acres
was still known as Stamford Bridge, and the
L.A.C. opened with a meeting on 10 May
1905. During the winter months the ground
is used by the Chelsea Football Club.
The L.A.C. has been fortunate in securing
the L.A.C. now totals about 400, a number
far exceeded in the early years of the last
quarter of the nineteenth century, when
athletics were more popular than they are at
the present time. The club, however, has
done yeoman service in the past in the cause
of athletics.
Another old and still prominent club hold-
ing its meetings at Stamford Bridge is the
Civil Service Athletic Club, whose members
are drawn from the various branches of his
Majesty's Civil Service. This club held its
first meeting in 1864 at Brompton and, like
the L.A.C., moved to Lillie Bridge in 1869,
and finally to Stamford Bridge, where it held
its forty-fourth meeting in June 1907. The
Civil Service Athletic Club includes several
open events in its programme which always
attract good entries from the best athletes of
the day.
The United Hospitals Athletic Club,
founded in 1867, also holds its meetings at
Stamford Bridge. Its chief attraction is a
competition for a challenge shield between
members of the various London hospitals.
Many notable performances have been done
both at Lillie Bridge and Stamford Bridge
from time to time, and though all the old
amateur records made at Lillie Bridge have
now been beaten, the following records,
accomplished at Stamford Bridge, still stand
to-day : —
the support of many prominent men in the w P ph;mps> I20yds. in
management of its affairs, such names as ii±sec on 2? Mar 1882
those of Lord Alverstone and the Earl of C. A. Bradley, 120 yds. in
Jersey (both famous athletes of a bygone day) i if sec „ 28 Apr. 1894
appearing, among others as famous, on its list A. R. Downer, 120 yds. in
of officers. Its present president is Mr. I if sec „ u May 1895
Montague Shearman, K.C., a well-known J- W- Morton, 120 yds. in
runner at Oxford University, who afterwards r,II^sec'- j " H SePf- 19°±
won the amateur championship both at 100 C' < Wood' l$°7di- ln
and 440 yards. The L.A.C. now holds four p 'tf ^P '„• ' ' ' • ' . • » 2I JulX lS87
,. ' . . . E. H. Felling, 200 yds. in
afternoon and two evening meetings a year ,94_sec \ _ „ 28 Sept. 1889
at which races open to all amateurs, approved A> R Downer, 200 yds. in
by the committee, are included as well as races 19* sec ,,14 May 1895
for challenge cups and other events open to C. H. Jupp, aooyds. in 19* sec. „ 4 June 1904
members. In addition the club holds an C. G. Wood, 220 yds. in
extra meeting in the spring, chiefly confined 2ifsec ,,25 June 1887
to contests at various distances for the Public E. H. Felling, 250 yds. in
Schools Championships. The club also com- H^c , 22 Sept. 1888
petes annually against Oxford and Cambridge C ** Wood' *°° ^ in
Universities, on the lines of the inter- „*$?*•+ j „' ' V •' " *7 ]^Y lS8/
TT . , , . rl. C. L. i indall, 440 yds. in
Umvers,ty sports, and these meetings act as an 8isec . . '. ™ f June l88
interesting and useful trial for the teams (At A.A.A. Championship Meeting.)
about to compete in the more important E. C. Bredin, 440 yds. in
event at Queen's Club. The membership of 48Jsec on 22 June 1895
301
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
W. E. Lutyens, i,oooyds. in
2 min. 14! sec on 5 July 1898
J. Binks, i mile in 4 min.
i6|sec 5 July 1902
(At A. A. A. Championships, Lieut. H. C. Hawtrey
only being beaten by a yard in this race.)
A. Shrubb, 3 miles in 1 4 min.
1 7* sec on 2 1 May 1 900
F. Appleby, 15 miles in I hr.
20 min. 4§ sec ,,21 July 1902
W. G. George ran II miles
932jyds. in i hr „ 28 July 1884
G. Crossland ran 20 miles
440 yds. in 2 hrs . . . . „ 22 Sept. 1894
After W. G. George became a professional
runner he ran a mile in a match with W.
Cummings on 23 August 1886, at Lillie
Bridge, in 4 min. I2f sec., which stands as a
world's record to this day. As an amateur he
had twice beaten the mile record, once at
Stamford Bridge and again at Lillie Bridge.
The Universities of Oxford and Cam-
bridge have held their sports in London since
1867 ; but, when the Lillie Bridge grounds
were closed, they founded the Queen's Club at
West Kensington in 1877. Here is a splendid
cinder track of rather over three laps to the
mile, and this ground has since been the
venue of the University Sports, which are
always looked upon as one of the chief athletic
attractions of the year.
The following are the inter-University
records at the present date : —
looyds. by J. P. Tennant, J. G. Wilson, and
G. H. Urmson, all of Oxford, losec.
J 20 yds. (hurdles), K. Powell, Cambridge i;-|sec.
440 yds. W. Fitzherbert, Cambridge, 49 •}- sec.
880 yds. K. Cornwallis, Oxford, I min. 54* sec.
I mile, C. C. Henderson-Hamilton, Oxford, 4 min.
I7|sec.
3 miles, F. S. Horan, Cambridge, 14 min. 44! sec.
High jump, M. J. Brooks, Oxford, 6 ft. zj in.
Long jump, C. B. Fry, Oxford, 23 ft. 5 in.
Putting the weight (l61b.), W. W. Coe, Oxford,
43 ft. 10 in.
Throwing the hammer (16 lb.), R. H. Lindsay-
Watson, Oxford, 1 48 ft. 10 in.
An athletic meeting between Oxford and
Yale Universities was held at Queen's Club
on 1 6 July 1894, Oxford winning by five
and a half events to three and a half. Oxford
and Cambridge met the combined Universities
of Yale and Harvard on the same ground on
22 July 1899, when the Englishmen won by
five events to four. Yale and Harvard wiped
out this defeat at Berkeley Oval, New York,
on 25 September 1901, by six events to three,
and repeated their victory at Queen's Club on
23 July 1904, again winning by six events
to three. At the latter meeting W. A.
Schick, of Harvard, won the 100 yds. race in
95 sec., which is a record for an English
track.
The Amateur Championships prior to 1879
were controlled by the Amateur Athletic
Club, which was formed in 1866. It held
its first championship meeting in London in
that year and continued to do so until the
management was taken over by the Amateur
Athletic Association in 1880. The Amateur
Athletic Club held its championships at Lillie
Bridge immediately after the Oxford and
Cambridge Sports, and they were chiefly
patronized by the runners from those Uni-
versities. Owing to the growth of the
L.A.C. and provincial clubs it was felt that
the general body of athletes would be able
to compete on more equal terms if the
championships were held in the summer.
With this end in view, the L.A.C. held
an extra championship meeting in the sum-
mer of 1879 at Stamford Bridge. On
4 April 1880, a meeting of representatives
of the chief athletic clubs in the country was
held at Oxford, and the Amateur Athletic
Association was then formed, with its head
quarters in London. The A.A.A. is now
the governing body for all amateur athletic
clubs in England. All athletic clubs of
any standing are affiliated to the Association
and hold their meetings under its laws. It
has branches in the North and Midlands,
and controls the championships which are
held alternately in Lo:idon, the North and
Midlands.
Middlesex also contains some important
cross-country clubs. The Highgate Harriers,
founded in 1879, held the National Champion-
ship in 1899, 1902, 1904 and 1905, and
won the Southern Counties Championship in
1899, 1900, and from 1903 to 1907 with-
out a break. The Finchley Harriers, also
founded in 1879, won the National Champion-
ship in 1900, and were Southern Counties
Champions in 1887, 1888, 1891, 1892, and
from 1895 to 1897. The Hampstead
Harriers, founded in 1890, the Polytechnic
Harriers, whose head quarters are in Regent
Street, and the St. Bride's Institute Athletic
Club also run across country.
302
TOPOGRAPHY
ELTHORNE .-•*
MAP OF THE
MIDDLESEX
HUNDREDS.
304
THE HUNDRED OF SPELTHORNE
Spelthorne (Spelethorne, xi cent.) Hundred was already formed at
the time of the Domesday Survey,1 and contained, as it has since con-
tained, the following parishes : —
ASHFORD HANWORTH
EAST BEDFONT WITH HATTON LALEHAM
FELTHAM LITTLETON
HAMPTON WITH HAMPTON WICK SHEPPERTON
STAINES
STANWELL
SUNEURY
TEDDINGTON
Littleton is the only place that is not mentioned in the Domesday
Survey ; it was included, however, in Laleham.8
The hundred has always been held by the Crown, but the jurisdic-
tion of the king's sheriff was largely curtailed until the Dissolution by
the extensive franchise of the
Abbot and Convent of West-
minster. The principal manor
held by Westminster was that
of Staines, of which Ashford,
Laleham, Halliford, Shepper-
ton, Teddington, and Yeveney
were appurtenant manors or
members.8 In the reign of
Edward I, the Abbot of West-
minster claimed the right to
hold pleas of the Crown, view
of frankpledge, the amendment
of assize of bread and ale, and
all pleas which the king's sheriff
had in the county except ap-
peals and outlawries, and to have market, fair, and toll, in Staines and
its members.4 The abbot based his claim on a charter of Henry III
granting sac and soke, toll and theam, infangenthef and utfangenthef, and
other privileges to the monastery, which charter had, he said, been
inspected and confirmed by Edward I.8
After the Dissolution, view of frankpledge was held in these parishes
by the respective lords of the manors. It was held also in Teddington by
the lord of the manor.8 Hanworth lay within the liberty of the honour
: .... :<? ,• FCL™AM t .• _r^^^^
i^^r^-^
l\ •>. **•'"' -:HA«PTON-.--;.^
*<tS.»i. .0* SUNBURV .^» .ManpT«.
Mlk". j^^^s-wicK//J
SPELTHORNE
HUNDRED.
. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 127-31.
1 Cott. MS. Faust. A. iii ; Titus, A. viii.
6 Ibid.
305
' See Littleton.
4 Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 479.
' Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 1 5 Chas. I.
39
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
of Wallingford, and was attached to the view of frankpledge held for
that honour at Uxbridge.7" Stanwell and East Bedfont were included
in the honour of Windsor. The Prior of Holy Trinity, Hounslow,
had view of frankpledge in Littleton until the Dissolution.8* In 1540,
Ashford, Feltham, Laleham, Hanworth, Teddington, and Sunbury, were
annexed to the honour of Hampton Court.*
«a
ASHFORD
Ecclesforde, Exeforde (xi cent.) ; Echelesforde,
Echeleforde (xiii-xiv cent.) ; EcheLbrd, Assheford,
Asheford (xvi-xviii cent.).
Ashford derives its name from the River Ash,
which runs through the western corner of the
parish, and from a ford over the river on the road
which enters the parish from Staines and Lale-
ham. A stone bridge was built over the ford in
1789 by the Hampton and Staines Turnpike
Trust, and is still known as Ford Bridge.1 The
parish lies to the east of Staines, between the main
road from London and the Staines and Kingston
road, which form respectively the northern and
southern boundaries. The country is low, lying
only from 45 ft. to 50 ft. above Ordnance datum,
and is nearly level throughout.'
The aspect of the whole parish is rapidly
changing. Until a few years ago it was almost
completely rural. Now, what was formerly the
village street is being transformed by the erection
of modern shops, and an entirely new town has
arisen about the station to accommodate a popula-
tion of the artisan class. To the east of the older
part of the town is a group of private houses,
standing in their own gardens. To the south,
fields still alternate with woodland, stretching over
what used to be Ashford Common. Before the
inclosure of the parish in 1809 this was a favourite
ground with George III for military displays.3
The hamlet of Ashford Common is composed of
an inn, a smithy, and a few cottages, which cluster
about the cross-roads from Staines, Kingston,
Littleton, and Feltham. Here, again, building
operations are in progress, and a few hundred yards
to the west there are already several streets laid
out on which workmen's houses are being built.
The parish church of St. Matthew stands by the
side of the main street of the old village, and there
is a mission room belonging to the Church of
England at Ashford Common. A Congregational
chapel was built in 1891, and there is also a
Wesleyan Methodist mission hall in the parish.
The West London District School, opened in
1872, lies near the western boundary towards
Staines.
The land is the property of many small owners.
There are 1 ,40 1 J acres in the parish, and of these
49 5i acres are arable, and 398 J acres are grass.4
The principal crops are oats, wheat, barley,
turnips, and peas. The soil is gravelly, and the
subsoil gravel.
The following place-names occur in mediaeval
documents : — Chikethorn, Hedenerworth, Longe-
hedes, Shorechecleosworth, Rapelties, Scharpeland,
Littlemede in Jordansheigh, Hightacres or Eytacres,
Haymondsham, Gretechene, Sturfurlong, Mark-
ynger, and Warecroft, which was named after
William de Ware, who held a croft in Ashford
until about 1308.*
ASHFORD belonged from early
MANOR times to Westminster Abbey, and has
always been held in chief. It is said
to have been given to the monastery by Offa, King
of Mercia,6 but the gift is mentioned only in a
confirmatory charter of King Edgar, which is itself
of doubtful origin.7 It is at any rate certain that
it belonged to Westminster in the time of Edward
the Confessor,8 and it may possibly have been held
by the abbey at an earlier date. In the reign of
Edward it was one of four appurtenances of Staines,'
the most important manor held by Westminster in
Spelthorne Hundred. Ashford is not mentioned
as a manor in the Domesday Survey, but four
berewicks are ascribed to Staines,10 and as both
before and after the Conquest Ashford was linked
with that manor, it is more than probable that it
was included as one of the berewicks.
In 1225 part of the monastery's estates were
allotted by Abbot Richard de Berking to the
support of the convent.11 At first Ashford re-
mained with the abbot, but in 1227 the monks
complained that their share was insufficient, and by
a composition made in that year, the manor of
Ashford was ceded to the convent, with all the
lands that had been brought into cultivation and
other appurtenances.1' The only exception made
was in the case of a wood, which the abbot re-
tained for himself and his successors in order that
it might supply timber for the construction and
repair of the ploughs on the manor.1*
l*Cal. Pat. 1340-3, pp. 47-8;
P.R.O. Ct. R. portf. 191, no. 42.
te Pat. 7 Jas. I, pt. i.
ta L. and P. Hen. fill, xv, 498
<36).
1 Rtf. on Public Bridget in Midd.
{1826), 261.
a Ord. Surv.
• Beautiet of Engl. and Wales, x (4),
514.
4 Inf. supplied by the Bd. of Agric.
(1905).
6 Doc. in custody of the D. and C.
of Westm. Chest D. no. 26783-26791.
6 Cott. MS. Faust. A. iii, fol. 20 ;
Titus, A. viii, fol. 4.
306
^ Y.C.H. Land, i, 434.
8 Cott. MS. Faust. A. iii, fol. 120 ;
Titus, A. viii.
» Ibid.
10 Dam. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 128.
11 V.C.H. Land. 1,448.
la Ibid, and Cott. MS. Titus, A. viii,
fol. 356. "Ibid.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Gules St. Pcter't keys or.
Ashford remained with the convent of West-
minster until the dissolution of that house in
January 1539-40," when
it was ceded to the Crown.14
It was annexed by Henry
VIII to the honour of
Hampton Court in 1540,"
and was leased in 1542 for
twenty-one years to Richard
Ellis, a member of the royal
household." In 1602 it
was granted to Guy Godol-
phin and John Smythe.18
Godolphin is said to have
sold his interest in the
grant to Smythe in the following year." It is
probable that the latter conveyed Ashford Manor,
as he did the rectory of Staines which he received
in the same way, to Urias Babington,80 who
died seised of the manor in February 1605-6." He
left it to his younger son, William," who still held
it in 1630." The latter is said to have conveyed it
in that year to Henry Field, whose widow con-
tinued to hold it after his death." She was
married a second time, to Edward Forset, and
died in 1 689.** It is said that by a deed executed
in her first widowhood, the manor passed to her
brother, Abraham Nelson, and that his widow
Susanna, a daughter of Sir Brocket Spencer,*6 held
it after his death.*7 She died in 1712, when,
according to the same deed, the manor went to
Richard grandson of Abraham Nelson.*8 Richard
Nelson certainly held it in 171 9." He is said to
have died intestate, and to have been succeeded by
his sisters and co-heirs, Frances and Mary, who
also died intestate and unmarried.30 The manor
then passed to Sir John Austen, son of Thomas
Austen and Arabella, daughter and heiress of
Edward Forset by the widow of Henry Field.31
In 1741 Sir John sold the reversion of the manor
after his death and after that of Mary Wright,
spinster (who was residuary legatee under his will),32
to Peter Storer." Sir John died in March 1 74I-2,34
and Mary Wright in 1753, and Peter Storer, son
of the original purchaser, then came into posses-
sion." He died in 1760, having left the manor
to his sister Martha, the wife of William Baker.36
It was inherited by their son Peter William Baker,37
who held it in I777*8 and as late as i8oo.39
ASHFORD
There is little further record of the manor. It
was held by Solomon Abraham Hart from 1870 to
1882, but the estate is now broken up among many
small owners, and all trace of the manor lost. A
grange belonging to the abbey of Westminster is
mentioned as early as 1278.*° It was apparently
rebuilt some ten years later,41 about which time a
considerable amount of building was in progress
on the manor, including a house, a dairy, and
piggeries." A mill is mentioned in 1277 and the
succeeding years, but seems to have been disused
after 1 309.** There was also a dovecot which
was built about 13 69, and which was kept up until
the end of the century." An extent of the manor
taken in 1312 shows that the capital messuage
was then held by William le Palmer," whose
family held land for a considerable period in
Ashford.
The estate was at first generally managed by a
reeve,46 who appears to have been elected in the
manor court by the homage.47 During the 1 4th
century it was more often under a Serjeant
(itrvieai) appointed by the monastery.48 The
demesne lands were farmed from 1379 to '3^7 by
Ambrose de Feltham,4' who had already acted as
Serjeant from I372,wand who continued in that
capacity until 1392." After twenty years of his
administration, the tenants sent a written com-
plaint (in French) to Westminster." They repre-
sented to the abbot that not only did his ' poor
tenants ' suffer great wrongs and evil impositions at
the hands of his bailiff, but that they were called
' thieves, dogs and other villainous and horrible
names.' Further, they declared that Ambrose had
falsified the accounts of his stewardship, and that
he kept back the best animals for his own use, so
that his sheep and lambs were finer and better
(plus nobles et bones) than the lord's. It was prob-
ably in consequence of their complaint that his
term of office came to an end, and that he appears
no more among the bailiffs of Ashford. His place
was taken by Richard atte Crouch, who acted as
serjeant till 1402," after which the demesne lands
were again farmed, the tenant acting also as collec-
tor of rents.54
Until the middle of the I4th century the manor
court was generally held three times a year, at
intervals of about four months." After that time
it was more frequently held twice a year, one
14 Pofe Nict. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 1 3 ;
Plae. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 479 5
Feud. Aids, iii, 372 ; Doc«. in custody
of the D. and C. of Westm. Chest D. ;
Dugdale, Afon. i, 280.
16 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 415,
422.
" L. and P. Hen. VIII, rv, 498,
p. 36.
V Ibid, rvii, 704.
18 Pat. 44 Eliz. pt. xxii, m. 6.
19 Lysons, Environs of Land. (1800),
y, 244.
»° Ibid.
91 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccicii,
186.
M Ibid.
38 Feet of F. Midd. Ea«t. 6 Chas. I.
34 Lysons, Environs of Land, v, I,
citing information supplied by the
steward of the manor (1800).
» Ibid.
26 G.E.C. Complete Baronetage, ii, 200.
*7 Lysons, op. cit. v, I.
38 Ibid.
29 Recov. R. Mich. 6. Geo. I, rot.
241.
80 Lysons, op. cit. v, 2.
81 G.E.C. Complete Baronetage, v, 21.
"Ibid.
» Feet of F. Midd. Mil. 14 Geo. II.
84 G.E.C. Complete Baronetage, v, 21.
85 Lysons, op. cit. v, 2.
»6 Ibid. ; Feet of F. Midd. Hil.
33 Geo. II.
•7 Lysons, op. cit. v, 2.
88 Recov. R. Mich. 18 Geo. Ill,
rot. 368.
89 Lysons, op. cit. v, 2.
40 Doc. in custody of the D. and C.
of Westm. Chest D. no. 26656.
« Ibid. no. 26667.
43 Ibid. no. 26660-7.
48 Ibid. no. 26655-97.
44 Ibid. no. 26769-807.
45 Ibid. no. 26703.
46 Ibid. no. 26655-73.
*7 Ibid. no. 26734.
48 Ibid. no. 26674 sqq.
49 Ibid. no. 26786-801.
50 Ibid. no. 26775, "H-
61 Ibid. no. 26801-8.
H Ibid. no. z6So8.
'"Ibid. no. 26812-32.
54 Ibid. no. 26833-47.
63 Ibid. no. 26655-748.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
court, at which the view of frankpledge was taken,
always falling within the octave of Trinity, while
the second was held in the late autumn.4* The
values of the courts appear to have varied from
about \s. to 1 61.
The only court roll extant for this period is
dated 1368," and is preserved by the Dean and
Chapter of Westminster Abbey. A roll of courts
held in 1542 and 1545 is at the Public Record
Office."
The right to hold court leet, court baron, and
view of frankpledge, is mentioned in a grant of the
manor in 1777.**
Free fishery in the Rivers Brent and Thames
was also among the appurtenances of the manor at
that date.60
The Manor Farm, which lies near the southern
boundary of the parish, is now used as golf links
by the Manor Farm Golf Club, the farm-house
having been converted into a club house for the
members.
Ford Farm, which is near the old ford on the
road to Staines and Laleham, belonged in the
reign of William III to Ann Batkins of Ashford,
and was held of her by John Belt and William
Ellary, husbandmen, on lease, touching which they
brought an action against Ann Batkins in I7OO.61
In 1086 the Count of Mortain held I hide in
Ashford. It had been held formerly by Alvric, a
vassal of the Abbot of Chertsey, and had lain
within the jurisdiction of Staines.6' It was now
attached to the count's manor of Kempton, in
which it probably became merged. A piece of
land known as Ashford Marsh was part of Kemp-
ton Manor in the reign of Elizabeth.63
The parish church of S71. MAT-
CHURCH THEW, built in 1858, is at least the
third church built on the site, the
previous one being built of brick in 1796, and
replacing an older building of brick and stone,
dedicated in honour of St. Michael, with a 12th-
century south doorway ; it consists of chancel
28 ft. by 1 9 ft. wide, north vestry and south
chapel forming transepts, a nave 60 ft. by 20 ft.
with aisles 1 1 ft. wide, and a small tower built
over the porch on the south-west. It is built of
stone with red-tiled roofs. The tower is in three
stages, with a red-tiled pyramidal roof.
The chancel has a steep-pitched roof, and the
east window is of three lights with 14th-century
tracery ; the south transept is also lighted by a
three-light window in the south wall.
The nave has north and south arcades of five
bays, and at the west end a large four-light tracery
window. In the nave is a coffin-plate of the
Hon. George Hay, Earl of Kinnoull (died 1758),
and near the door a brass to Edward Wooden and
his wife, 1525, with effigies of them and their
eight children.
There are three bells, the treble by Bryan
Eldridge, 1620, the second by William Eldridge,
1668, and the tenor by Thomas Mears, 1797.
The communion plate consists of a chalice ' the
gift of Mr. Wm. Munden 1716,' the hall-marks
being illegible ; a standing paten, inscribed ' the
gift of Wm. Munden in memory of the fire at the
ford, Jan. 1716,' date letter 1715 ; a large chalice
with date mark 1812 ; and a standing paten of
the same year, given by R. Govett, vicar.
There are two books of registers previous to
1812, the first, evidently a copy of others made
when Ashford was a chapelry of Staines, contains
the baptisms, burials, and marriages of Staines from
1696 to 1710, 1706, and 1707 respectively ; the
baptisms and burials of Laleham from 1696 to
1 704 and 1 708 ; and the baptisms and burials of
Ashford between 1699 and 1708, 1709 ; this
book is bound in an old, almost illegible indenture.
The other book contains printed marriages from
1754 to 1812 inclusive.
Until comparatively recent
ADVOWSON times Ashford Church was a chapel
dependent upon the church of
Staines. It belonged until the Dissolution to
Westminster Abbey.64 It is first mentioned in
1 293, when the rector of Staines and of the chapels
of Ashford and Laleham was acquitted of the
sum of 3^ marks which he owed for the tenth
granted to Edward I for the relief of the Holy
Land." Ashford is enumerated among the chapels
of Staines in the institution of that vicarage by
William, Bishop of London, about 1426, and the
vicar of the mother church was bound to appoint
suitable curates to officiate at each of the chapels.68
After the suppression of the monasteries, the
advowson of Ashford was separated from that of
Staines, which remained with the Crown, and was
granted in 1542 to the newly-founded cathedral
church of Westminster.6' The dean and chapter
apparently presented Roger Gryffyn, who was
vicar of Ashford in I548.68 On the foundation of
the collegiate church of St. Peter, Elizabeth granted
the advowson of Ashford to the dean and chapter.69
It was then called a free chapel, but there is no
mention of any presentation being made by St.
Peter's.70 Under the Commonwealth the benefice
is described as a vicarage, and the ' minister '
George Bonieman was ' brought in by consent and
presentation of the parish,' being supported by the
small tithes and glebeland." There is apparently
no further record of the church until 1 760, when
it appears as a chapel of Staines in the presentation
to that vicarage by the Crown." From that time
it seems to have been served by a curate of Staines.
During the early part of the igth century the
same priest officiated both at Laleham and at Ash-
ford, and consequently service was held only on
alternate Sundays at either church. The living is
M Doc. in custody of the D. and C.
of Wcstm. Chest D. no. 26749-844.
*7 Ibid. no. 26847.
» P.R.O. Ct. R. portf. 1 88, no. 41.
*» Recov. R. Mich. 18 Gco. Ill, rot.
368.
» Ibid.
" E«h.Dep.Mich.i zWill.III,rot.36.
6" Dam. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 128.
6» MM. Co. Rec. i, 40.
64 Doc. in custody of the D. & C.
of Westm. no. 16782, 16811.
46 Ibid. no. 16776.
66 Lond. Epis. Reg. Gilbert, fol. 177.
308
•7 L. and P. Hen. mi, xvii, 395.
<8 Chant. Cert. 34, no. 138.
69 Pat. 2 Eliz. pt. xi, m. 19.
• 0 Newcourt, Rtpert. i, 735.
" P.R.O. Surv. of Church Livings,
iii, m. 6.
7" P.R.O. Inst Bks.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
described as a perpetual curacy from 1860 to
1865, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor," since
which date it has been a vicarage under the same
patronage.
The rectory belonged with the church and
manor to Westminster Abbey 7* until it was ceded
to the Crown at the Dissolution, after which it
was separated from the advowson,75 and has since
followed the descent of the manor (q.v.).
In 1610 the chapel was endowed with a house,
and a ' backside ' containing 28 J acres 2 yds. of
glebe land.76 In 1650 the parsonage or great
tithes were valued at £60 per annum, and the
vicarage with glebe and small tithes at .£24.™ In
the survey of 1 548 it was found that an acre of
land had been given for the maintenance of a lamp
in the church at Ashford.'8 The land was in
Stanwell parish, and was then in tenure of John
Beauchamp at a rent of 1 6s. yearly. He held also
another acre of land worth I zs. per annum which
had been given to the same church.79
It appears from the benefac-
CHJRITIES tion table that Mrs. Mary Reeve,
by her will dated in 1679, devised
land in the common field of Laleham and of
Feltham, the rents to be applied in the distribu-
tion of bread to the poor of Ashford attending
church in the proportion of I zd. per week, and the
residue in bread to the poor of Laleham. Upon the
inclosures in the respective parishes about 3^ acres
in Laleham and 2 acres in Feltham were allotted
in respect of the lands so demised, which are let at
£143 year. In 1906 bread was given to four re-
cipients in Ashford and twenty-two in Laleham.
There was also a sum of ^36 13;. "]d. in hand,
derived from sale of gravel.
The Poor Allotment or Coal Charity consists of
17 acres in Ashford, let at £8 los. a year, and four
cottages let on weekly rents producing about £22
a year, which were acquired under the Ashford
Inclosure Act.80 The trust is regulated by a
EAST BEDFONT
WITH HATTON
scheme of the Charity Commissioners of 24 August
1877.
In 1723 Jerrard Tomlin, by will, devised an
annuity of £i 3*. for the payment of lOi. (>d. to
the parson for preaching a sermon on the anniver-
sary of his death, ^t. 6J. for the clerk, and I o/. to
be distributed in twopenny loaves to the poor at-
tending to hear the said sermon. The charge was
redeemed in 1902 by the transfer to the official
trustees of £46 2,\ per cent, annuities.
The Sunday School Fund. — In 1817, as ap-
peared from the vestry book, a sum of £250 was
subscribed by the principal inhabitants towards
defraying the expenses of a Sunday school, which,
with a legacy bequeathed by Zacharias Foxall for
the same purpose, was invested in Government
stock.
In 1866 a sum of £200, and subsequently a
further sum of £100, were authorized by the
Charity Commissioners to be expended in the build-
ing of a schoolhouse, thereby reducing the trust
fund to .£100 consols, which is held by the official
trustees, and the dividends are remitted to the
national school fund.
The charity of Anne Webb, locally known as
the ' Dog ' Charity. — The donor, by her will dated
in 1 80 1, and by the codicil thereto dated in 1807,
proved in the P.C.C., bequeathed several charitable
legacies to take effect after the death of her little
dog Don, which event — as appears from the Chan-
cery proceedings in the matter — happened on
27 October 1808 !
The trust fund for this parish consists of a sum
of consols in the name of the Paymaster-General
to the credit of the suit ' Attorney-General v.
Smith, the Ashford Charity.' In 1906 the sum
of .£5 14*. %d. was received in dividends, and dis-
tributed in accordance with the trusts between the
three oldest men and the three oldest women in
the parish. The vicar is entitled to deduct one
guinea on filling up a vacancy.
EAST BEDFONT WITH HATTON
Bedefunde (xi cent.) ; Estbedefonte (xiii cent.) ;
Bedefonte, Estebedefounte (xiv cent.) ; East-
bedefounte (xvi cent.).
East Bedfont lies in the level country to the
east of Staines. The parish stretches along the
great main road from London to the south-west of
England, narrowing about the village, to the east
of which it spreads southward towards Ashford,
while westward and northward a long tongue of
land includes the hamlet of Hatton and reaches as
far as Cranford on the Bath road. The land for
the most part is laid out in fields and is but sparsely
. wooded. The village lies on the broad London
to Staines road, the houses standing well back from
the highway, leaving ample space for a green with
fine trees, which lies before the church. In front
of the south porch are two very curiously cut yew
trees, of the most fantastic shape ; the date 1 704
forms part of their ornament. In coaching days
East Bedfont stood midway in the second stage
out of London, between Hounslow and Staines.
The inns were described in 1826 as 'respec-
table and yielding good accommodation.' l The
Black Dog Inn, about \\ miles along the London
road, was then the receiving house for letters.
A public hall, to seat 300 persons, was built in
1884 by the Bedfont Public Hall Co., Ltd.
There is a Baptist chapel, which was erected
in 1903. The Windsor line of the London and
South Western Railway runs through the southern
78 Clergy Lilts, passim,
74 Doc. in custody of D. and C. of
Westm, no. 26751 sqq.
7* L. and P. Hen. mi, xvii, 704.
78 Newcourt, Reftrt. i, 735.
77 Ibid.
78 Chant. Cert. 34, no. 138.
« Ibid.
309
80 49 Geo. Ill, cap. 17.
* Pigot, 1.0ml. and Provincial Direc-
tory, 1826.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
part of the parish. East Bedfont has no station,
the nearest being that at Feltham, i^ miles away.
Besides the main highway from London to the
south-west, roads from Hatton and Cranford, from
Stan well, and from Feltham converge on the village.
' The Duke of Northumberland's River ' cuts in a
straight line across the parish from west to east.
It is a branch of the Colne, which leaves that river
near Longford, and running in an artificial channel
falls into the Thames near the Duke of North-
umberland's house at Syon. It is said to have
been made by the convent of Syon in the
time of Henry V.' The more wandering course
of the ' Queen's or Cardinal's River ' enters the
parish at almost the same point, and passes out
east of East Bedfont. It forms a junction for the
many byways which radiate north and south to-
wards the Bath and the Staines roads, and for this
reason it is said to have been a favourite haunt of
highwaymen in days gone by. It then stood on
the borders of Hounslow Heath, and either road
was easily accessible from the old inn, the ' Green
Man ' where the hiding-hole behind the chimney
is still shown.
Two fairs, held respectively about 7 May at
Bedford and 14 June at Hatton, were abolished
by the Home Secretary on the representation of
the Justices of the Peace in April 1881.** It does
not appear how long it had been the custom to
hold the fairs.
BEDFONT CHURCH, FROM THE SOUTH
to the south towards Feltham. It supplies
water for Hanworth and Bushey Parks and for
Hampton Court,* and is said to have been made
by Cardinal Wolsey's orders. The latter river is
crossed by the London road at White Bridge,
and the road to Hatton is carried over both rivers
within a few score yards of one another by the
Two Bridges. The River Crane forms the most
easterly boundary of the parish, and near its junction
with the Duke of Northumberland's River are
the Bedfont Powder Mills, which are now disused.
There is a gravel pit by the road to Ashford.
The hamlet of Hatton lies 2 miles to the north-
There is a Baptist chapel in Hatton, and a
licensed mission room of the Church of England.
New Bedfont is a small hamlet consisting of an
inn, a smithy, and a few cottages on the road be-
tween Hatton and East Bedfont.
The soil and subsoil are gravel ; the crops con-
sist mainly of garden produce. There are 1,926$
acres in the parish, of which five-sixths are under
cultivation, the remainder being grass, with about
4 acres of woodland * and 1 8 acres water. The
parish was inclosed under an Act of 1813.* A
mill is mentioned in the taxation returns of 1291
as belonging to the abbey of Westminster.*
* I.yson«, Env. of Land. (i8oo),iii,8z.
• Firth, Midd. 18 ; Lyions, Suff le-
vant a Env. of London, 71.
•" Land. GHK. ig April 1881.
4 Inf. iupplied by the Bi of Agric.
(1905).
3IO
' Slater, Engl. Peasantry and
Enclosure of Common Fields, 287.
' tofe Nick. Tax.(Rec. Com.), i
the
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
Most of the principal landowners of the parish
are resident. Mrs. Reed lives at St. Mary's,
and Mr. Henry Barnfield at Oakdene on the
Ashford Road. Temple Hatton, once occupied
by Lady Pollock, is now the St. Antony's Home
for Boys. Mr. Alfred Barnfield lives at Pates
Manor.
The following place-names occur : Goddard,
Parrette, le Tabber.
E4ST BEDFONT was assessed at
MANORS 10 hides in the time of Edward the
Confessor.7 Highland a half of these
were held by Azor, and lay within the jurisdiction of
his manor in Stanwell. The remaining I ^ hides were
divided equally between three sokemen, vassals re-
spectively of Edward the Confessor, of Earl Lewin,
and of Azor. The whole 10 hides were granted
as a manor by William I to
Walter Fitz Other, castellan
of Windsor.8 His descen-
dants took the name of
de Windsor, by virtue of
their hereditary office as
keeper of the castle.9 East
Bedfont owed the service
of one knight's fee in the
honour of Windsor in
1 2 1 2,10 and still continued
to owe service to that
honour in the 1 5th cen-
tury.11 It was probably
included in the surrender to the Crown of the
Windsor lands in Middlesex in 1 542, and from
that time it was held in chief."
In 1086 the tenant of East Bedfont was one
Richard.13 It seems to have then given name to
a family of under-tenants, for Walter de Bedfont
held a knight's fee under Windsor in ii66,13a
and Henry de Bedfont held one in Bedfont
under him in iigS.1"1 The manor was held of
the Windsors in the year 1 2 1 2 by Nicholas de
Aune,14 the king's clerk and possibly also clerk to
Richard Earl of Cornwall." It is not clear how
it came to John de Nevill who held it early in
the reign of Edward II." He was probably one
of the Nevills of Essex, and was a distant con-
nexion of the Windsors, through the marriage
of his ancestor Hugh de Nevill with the heiress
of Henry de Cornhill,17 who himself had married
WINDSOR. Gulei
crutily or a taltirt
argent.
EAST BEDFONT
WITH HATTON
the descendant and heiress of Robert Lord of
Little Easton, the second son of Walter Fitz
Other.18 John de Nevill conveyed his right in
the manor of East Bedfont to the Trinitarian
Priory at Hounslow.1* It was confirmed to the
master and brethren by Edward II in 1313,*° and
remained in their hands until the suppression of
the monastery in I 530."
In the reign of Elizabeth it was leased to Robert
Sownes11 but was granted in 1599 to Sir Michael
Stanhope " of Sudbury, Suffolk, who in 1 609
protested against the king's order for the erection
of gunpowder mills and
workmen's houses on the
manor." Sir Michael died
in 1 62 1, having settled the
reversion of the manor six
years previously on his
second daughter Elizabeth,
on the occasion of her mar-
riage with George Lord
Berkeley.15 It was inherited
by the latter's son George,26
who conveyed it in 1656
to Algernon, Earl of North-
umberland.17 It has since
descended with that title,18 the representative of
which was created Duke of Northumberland in
1766.'"
At the time of the Domesday Survey the Count
of Mortain held 2 hides in Bedfont, which lay in
his manor of Feltham.30 As there is no further
mention of this land, it probably became merged in
the parish of Feltham, which adjoins East Bedfont.
The so-called manor of PATES (Patys, Paytes,
Patts, xvi cent.) was held of the manor of East
Bedfont.31 John Pate and Juliane his wife held
land in Bedfont in 1403-4." It was presumably
the estate which was known later as the manor of
Pates. The manor is said to have been held in
1498 by John Naylor and Clemence his wife,33
whose daughter and heiress married Thomas West,
leaving an only son Edmund West.34 The latter
left two daughters — Elizabeth who married John
Bekenham, and Margaret, and these conveyed the
manor in 1549 to Roland Page.35 From them it
passed in 1561 to Thomas Brend,33 who conveyed
it in 1575 to George Britteridge.37 The latter
died seised of the manor in January 1580-1,
PERCY, Duke of
Northumberland. Or a
lion azure.
I Dom. Bk, (Rec. Com.), i, 1 30.
' Ibid.
' G.E.C. Complete Peerage, viii, 185.
>» Red Bk. of Exch. (Rolls Ser.), 542.
II Feud. Aids, iii, 380.
« L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvii, 285 '
(18).
18 Dom. Bk, (Rec. Com.), i, 1 30.
"» JW B*. o/ Exch. (Rolls Ser.),
3'5-
18b Feet of Finn (Pipe Roll Soc.),
9 Ric. I.
" Red Bk. of Exch. (Rolls Ser.),
p. cclzzzii, 542 ; Testa de Nevill (Rec.
Com.), 361.
15 Cal. Pat. 1232-47, p. 456. He
was alive in 1256, but apparently dead
before 1265 ; Excerfta e Rot. Fin, ii,
133. *43-
18 Pat. 6 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 9.
'" Morant, Hist, of Etitx, i, 383.
18 Collins, Collections of the Family of
Windsor, 7.
" Pat. 6 Edw. II, pt, ii, m. 9.
90 Cal. Pat. 1307-13, p. 578.
81 Feud. Aids, iii, 372, 374, 3805
Inj. Non. (Rec, Com.), 195 ; Dugdale,
Man, vi, 1563.
M Pat. 41 Eliz. pt. xvii, m. 16.
ffl Ibid. ; P.R.O. Rentals and Surv.
portf. 3, no. ii.
M Cal. S.P. Dom. 1603-10, p. 537.
14 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), ccccr,
no. 161 ; W. & L. Inq. bdle. 63, no.
178.
M Dice. Nat. Biog. iv, 346.
*7 Recov. R. Hil. 1655, rot. 136}
Feet of F. Midd. East. 1656.
3"
88 Feet of F. Div. Co. Mil. 3*4 Jas.
II ; Recov. R. Hil. 3 & 4 Jas. II, rot,
166 ; Hil. 22 Geo. II, rot. 52 ; Hil.
57 Geo. II, rot. 363.
29 Burke, Peerage (1907), 1234.
80 Dam. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 129.
81 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), cxcvi,
no. 1 8.
m Feet of F. Lond. and Midd. 5
Hen. IV, no. 31.
81 Lysons, Environs of Lond. (1800),
v, 7, cites records of Christ's Hospita .
•< Ibid.
« Feet of F. Midd. East. 3 Edw. VI.
86 Ibid. Mich. 3 & 4 Eliz. Possibly
these conveyances may have been only
for a term of years.
W Ibid. Trin. 18 Eliz.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
JJ
CHRIST'S HOSPITAL.
Argent a croii gules
with a siL-ord gules erect
in the quarter and a
chief 'azure 'with a Tudor
rose therein between fwo
fteurs de Us or.
leaving it to his son and heir Edward, then ten years
old.38 Edward had seisin of his inheritance in
I594,S9but Thomas Page, possibly a relation of
Roland, seems to have had possession of the estate
even during the minority of the heir, for in 1589
he conveyed two-thirds of the manor to John
Draper." The latter apparently left the same to
his wife Barbara, and she
with her second husband,
Edward Pigeon, conveyed
them in 1614 to Edward
Hewlett.41 The remaining
third is said to have been
sold in 1593 by Thomas
Page to Philip Gerrard,
who sold it in the follow-
ing year to Henry Bell."
Henry and William Bell
conveyed it in 1621 to
Edward Hewlett," who in
1623 gave the whole manor
to Christ's Hospital." The
hospital still holds this pro-
perty."
The so-called manor of FAWNES was held of
the manor of East Bedfont. It seems to have been
conveyed to the Crown with the Windsor lands in
Middlesex in I542,'6 and from that date to have
been held in chief."
Richard Foun held land in East Bedfont by gift
of Ralph de Bromland and Alice his wife, belonging
to the latter, as early as the reign of Edward I,48 and
Alan Foun or Fawne held land there in the succeed-
ing reign.49 Robert Fawne, who was probably their
descendant, and who is described as a citizen and
skinner of London, held premises in the parish in
1428.*° Ten years later a messuage and lands called
Fawnes were pledged by William Edy, a draper,
to John Derham of Windsor, for debt.61 Fawnes
is first mentioned as a manor in 1531, when it
was in the possession of John Kempe.61 The
history of the manor is somewhat obscure. It
was held by Anthony Walker as early as 1583
and at his death in 1590," and was inherited
by his son Thomas,54 who still held it in 1603."
In 1618, however, it came into the hands of
Felix Wilson,46 in whose family it remained until
1654," when it passed to Thomas Darling.
Edward Darling held it in i668,M after which
date there is no trace of the manor until 1739,
when Thomas Manning held it.59 He seems to
have been still in possession ten years later,60 but
by 1792 it was in the hands of Aubrey (Beau-
clerk), Baron Vere,61 who succeeded to the dukedom
of St. Albans6' in 1787, and who held Fawnes in
1 802." It is now the property of Mr. William
Sherborn.Ma Fawnes stands on the south side of
the village.
In 1086 Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Arundel,
held i£ hides in HJTTON, which in the reign of
King Edward the Confessor had been held by two
sokemen, vassals of Albert of Lorraine.64 This
land belonged to the earl's manor of Colham, in
which it probably became merged. A second entry
in the Domesday Survey relates to a still smaller
estate in Hatton, which was held by Walter Fitz
Other, and which had been held formerly by two
vassals of Azor.65 It is probable that this land
became merged in the Windsor Manor of East
Bedfont, and was possibly granted to Hounslow
Priory with the rest of that property. The priory
certainly held land in Hatton in I382,66 and in
1599 it was granted, as land formerly belonging to
Hounslow, to Sir Michael Stanhope," and from
that time has always been held with the manor of
East Bedfont (q.v.).
Edward III seems to have built a house at
Hatton, which was known as Hatton Grange.
Richard II held this of the priory of Hounslow at
a yearly rent of 5CU.68
The church of ST. MART THE
CHURCH riRGIN consists of chancel 25 ft.
I in. by 1 6 ft. 3 in., nave 54 ft.
3 in. by 16 ft. 3 in., north transept 26 ft. by
29 ft. 3 in., and west porch with a tower adjoining
it on the west side. The earliest parts are the
chancel arch, south doorway, and two small windows
— one in the nave, the other in the chancel —
which date from c. 1 1 30, when the church consisted
of a simple chancel and nave, both of th» same
width, but considerably shorter than at present.
In order to give more light to the chancel two
windows were inserted on the south side in the
1 3th century, but the church appears to have
remained very small until the ijth century, when
the chancel was lengthened 8 ft. 3 in. eastward,
and probably the nave some distance westward ;
there is nothing to show how much the nave
was increased, the western portion having been
rebuilt in modern times, nor can any date be
ascribed for the addition of a tower, as the present
one is also a rebuilding.
The whole of the church except the north
transept is built of pudding stone, of dark-brown
colour, even to the quoins of the original chancel,
but the doors and windows of both ea-'y and later
88 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), cxcvi,
no. 1 8.
*» FineR. 37 Eliz. pt. I.
40 Feet of F. Midd. Mich. 31 & 31
Eliz. i Recov. R. Mich. 3 1 Eliz. rot. 26.
« Feet of F. Midd. East. 12 Jas. I.
42 Lysons, op. cit. v, 8.
48 Feet of F. MiJd. Trin. 19 Jas. I.
44 Lysons, op. c't. v, 8.
« Inf. kindly s plied by Mr. W.
Lempriere, sen. assist, clerk Christ's
Hospital.
48 L. and P. Hen. fill, xvii, 285 (18).
4~ Chan. Inq. p.m. 33 Eliz. no. 230
« Feet of F. Lond. and Midd.
7 Edw. I, no. 66.
49 Ibid. 10 Edw. Ill, no. 220 ;
1 8 Edw. Ill, no. 321.
» Ibid. 6 Hen. VI, no. 29.
61 Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 10, no. 227.
» Feet of F. Midd. East. 22 Hen.
VIII.
M Chan. Inq. p.m. 33 Eliz. no. 230
(*9)-
" Ibid.
" Feet of F. Midd. Trin. I Jas. I.
" Ibid. Hil. 15 Jas. I.
W Ibid. Mich. 1 6 Chas. I ; Trin.
1654.
3I2
*> Ibid. East. 20 Chas. II.
«« Ibid. Div. Co. Hil. 12 Geo. II ;
Recov. R. Mich. 12 Geo. II, rot. 174.
«» Feet of F. Midd. Mich. 22 Geo. II.
61 Recov. R. Mich. 33 Geo III, rot.
302.
63 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 6.
68 Recov. R. East. 42 Geo. Ill, rot.
233-
«3a Inf. from Mr. Sherborn.
64 Don. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 129.
» Ibid, i, 130.
66 Cal. Pat. 1381-5, p. 131.
*1 Pat. 41 Eliz. pt. xvii, m. 16.
68 Cal. Pat. 1381-5, p. 131.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
work are in hard chalk. The tower is lined with
brick, and the upper part is of timber with a pro-
jecting clock gable and surmounted by a four-sided
shingled spire. The north transept is quite modern,
built of yellow stock bricks with stone window-
heads. Internally the whole of the church ex-
cepting the tower is plastered.
The chancel has a steep-pitched 15th-century
roof, having tie-beams with king-posts moulded
at the capitals and bases.
The east window is of the 1 5th century, with
three trefoiled lights under a pointed segmental
head and an external moulded label. In the north
wall is a small deeply-splayed 12th-century light,
and in the walling to the east of it can be seen
the pudding-stone quoins of the contemporary
north-east angle. In the south wall is a single
trefoiled light under a square head, of the same
date as that in the east wall, and to the west of it
is a small square recess, its head made of the top
of a small lancet window ; it may have had a flue
originally. To the west are a modern pointed
doorway and two windows, one of one, the other
of two lights, apparently 13th-century work, with
double hollow chamfers on the outer face and
internal rebates for a frame.
The chancel arch, c. 1130, has a semicircular
head moulded with a single order of cheveron
ornament and a chamfered label ; at the springing
is a chamfered string, below which the cheveron
continues.
The west end of the nave has been rebuilt ; on
the north side are two modern two-light windows
and an arcade of two bays resting on a round
column with a capital and base in 14th-century
style, and at the north-east angle of the nave are
two pointed recesses, one in the east and one in
the north wall, with a modern shaft in the angle.
In the east recess is painted a Crucifixion, and in
the other our Lord in judgement, and the dead
rising, the date of the work being c. I 300. At
the south-east of the nave is a 1 oth-century red-
brick projection for a rood stair, lighted by a small
four-centred window. To the west of it is a
pointed segmental-headed window of the i6th
century with three cinquefoiled lights and a
moulded label, and to the west again a small
original 12th-century window. The south door-
way, c. 1 1 30, is round-headed, of two orders with
cheveron ornament. The west wall contains a
'• modern pointed doorway in 13th-century style,
and above it a circular window filled with plate
tracery.
The modern transept is lighted by brick lancets
with stone heads, and has a gallery at the north
end ; to the east is a small vestry.
There are no monuments of note, but in the
chancel on the north wall is a brass with the figures
of Matthew Page, 1631, and his mother Isabel,
1629. On the same wall is a 17th-century marble
EAST BEDFONT
WITH HATTON
scutcheon with a bend wavy and three lions ram-
pant. In the south-west corner is a painted
wooden panel to Thomas Weldish, who died in
1640, with his arms, Vert three running grey-
hounds argent, on a chief or a fox gules. In the
graveyard to the east of the chancel is a slab to
Matthew Page, 1678, with the arms, a fesse in-
dented between three martlets ; this used to be
in the floor of the chancel, but has been replaced
by a brass copy.
There are six bells, the treble and fourth by
Richard Phelps, 1713, and the rest by Warner,
1870.
The plate consists of a small cup inscribed a«
the gift of I. F., with the date 1719, the hall-
marks being illegible, a small standing paten from
the same donor with the date-letter of 1719, a
larger standing paten with no hall-marks, given by
John and Serena Lee, 1756, with their arms,
cheeky a lion rampant, and a cup of 1857.
The registers before 1812 are in four parts : —
(i) burials 1678-1778 (with affidavits to 1725),
baptisms 1695-1777, marriages 1695-1754;
(ii) marriages printed 1754-1812 ; (iii) baptisms
1778-1813 ; (iv) burials 1779-1812.
The advowson was granted to
ADVOWSON the priory of the Holy Trinity,
Hounslow, with the manor, by
John de Nevill before I3I3,C9 and a vicarage was
ordained and endowed by the Bishop of London
in 1 3 1 6, of which the master and brethren con-
tinued to be the patrons until the Dissolution.™
After that time the advowson was in the hands of
the Crown until it was granted to the Bishop of
London, who first presented in I568.71 In 1591
and 1597 John Draper, who held a lease of the
rectory,78 was allowed to present to the vicarage by
favour of the bishop.73 The patronage belonged to
the see of London until 1880, when it was trans-
ferred to the Crown by an exchange."3
The church was rated at £$ 6s. 8J. in 1291 "
and in 1428.^ At the Dissolution the vicarage
was valued at £12™ and the tithes at £32. In
1650 it was worth £29 yearly.77
The rectory was held by Hounslow Priory until
the suppression of the monasteries,79 when it was
ceded to the Crown. It came to the Bishop of
London by exchange for other lands belonging to
the see,79 probably about the same time as the
grant of the advowson. Bishop Aylmer gave it on
lease in I 588 to John Draper of ' Ludenvorth ' and
his daughters Margaret and Cecilia, together with
the tithes, the parsonage barn, and the Strawe-
House, but saving the right of the vicar in the close
known as the Old Vicar's Close.80 It was to be
held for the term of their lives at a rent of
j£8 1 3/. 4</. The rectory has always belonged
to the patron of the living, but the tithes of
sheaves and grain were granted to various persons
at different times. They were conveyed in 1621
69 Pat. 6 Edw. II ; Abbrev. Rot. Orig.
(Rec. Com.), i, 211 ; Cal. Pat. 1313-
17, pp. 162, 210.
7° Ncwcourt, Repert. i, 574.
n ibid.
7J Lond. Epis. Reg. Grindal (Ban-
croft), fol. 329.
7» Ncwcourt, Repert. i, 574.
1** Lund. Gaa. Sept 14, 1880.
1* Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 17.
" Feud. Aidi, iii, 378.
3*3
7» Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 434.
77 Lysons, op. cit. v, 9.
78 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 434.
7» Lond. Epi». Reg. Grindal (Ban-
croft), fol. 329.
•» Ibid.
40
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
by Sir John Crompton to Edward Hewlett,81 who
then held the manor of Pates (q.v.), and in 1645
by James and William Hewlett to Francis Page.81
Later in the same year a third of the tithes of
grain was leased to Thomas Bartlett by William
Norbonne for eighty years if the latter's wife
Frances should live so long, the rent to be one
peppercorn.8* In 1691-2 the rectory and tithes
were leased by John Clarke to Robert Goodyer.8*
Four-fifths of the rectory and tithes were conveyed
to William Sherborn in 1789 by William Adams
and others.85 The rectorial tithes are now held
by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
Hatton has always been ecclesiastically dependent
on East Bedfont, though at the Dissolution Hatton
Rectory was valued separately (at £4) among the
possessions of Hounslow Priory.86 It was held by
the Crown after the priory was suppressed, and the
tithes were leased under Elizabeth to Anthony
Rowe, auditor of the Exchequer, and after his
death to his three sons.8' Probably the rectory
was granted with the advowson of East Bedfont to
Bishop Aylmer. The tithes are mentioned with
those of Bedfont in I62I.88 They were held in-
dependently in 1726, when they were conveyed
by John Page to Richard Burbridge,89 and again in
1787, when apparently the co-heiresses of the
Burbridge family conveyed them to George
Webber.10
In 1631 Matthew Page, as
CHARITIES mentioned in the Parliamentary
Returns of 1786, bequeathed a
legacy for the poor, which is now represented by
£83 6/. zd. consols, held by the official trustees.
The dividends, amounting to £2 I/. %d., are
applied in the distribution of money in sums of
2j. or 21. 6J.
The Fuel Allotment, acquired by an award
made under the Inclosure Act of 5 3 George III,
consists of 40 acres, let at .£105 a year. In
1906-7 279 poor persons received 7^cwt of
coal each.
FELTHAM
Felteham (xi cent.) ; Feltenham, Felthenham
(xvii cent.).
Feltham lies to the south of the main road from
Hounslow to Staines, which runs just beyond and
parallel with the northern boundary of the parish,
The country is almost level, with a slight upward
trend from south to north, but the highest point
reached is only 73 ft. above ordnance datum.'
The River Crane forms part of the eastern
boundary, and ' the Queen's or Cardinal's River '
(v.s. East Bedfont) flows diagonally across the
northern part of the parish, passing under the
railway near the station, and a few hundred yards
farther under the Feltham-Hounslow road, by a
bridge which was built about 1800.' Of the
1,789! acres in Feltham, about two-thirds are
composed of arable land, and 371 acres are laid
down in permanent grass.* There are only 20
acres of woodland,4 and these lie mostly about the
private houses in the north-east. The parish was
inclosed in 1800 with Hanworth and Sunbury.6
Until that date Hounslow Heath extended over
the eastern part of the parish, and apparently the
only roads which then existed were those from
Ashford and from Hanworth. Even what is now
the principal road, that which leads from the
village to Hounslow, was not constructed till after
this date.6 The cross-road from Hatton, and the
ways leading west from St. Dunstan's Church
towards Bedfont and south through Feltham Hill,
were also laid out at this time, the two latter fol-
lowing the courses of ancient tracks.7
The village is long and straggling, and extends
for over a mile along the road to Hounslow. The
older part lies towards the south, about the parish
church of St. Dunstan. The houses stand close on
to the narrow road, which curves sharply to the
right, and then with a right-angled turn to the left
proceeds past Feltham Farm to the central portion
of the village. It is here known as the High
Street, and widens out slightly before reaching the
Red Lion Hotel, just beyond which a large pond
lies to the right of the road. Northwards again
are the more modern houses and shops, which are
increasing year by year. Farther to the north-
west is Southville, which at present consists of two
streets of workmen's houses. The modern build-
ings lie within easy reach of the station, which is
on the Windsor branch of the London and South
Western Railway.
The spiritual needs of this growing population
have been met by the erection of St. Catherine's
Church, which was built in 1 8 80 as a chapel of
ease to the parish church, which stands at the
upper end of the village. A north porch was
added in 1890, and the tower and spire in 1898.
There are two large Congregational chapels, one of
which was founded in 1805 and rebuilt in 1865,
while the second was built in 1905. A Wesleyan
chapel was erected in 1870, and a Baptist chapel
in the same year. A cemetery, extending over
i i acres, was formed in 1880 at a cost of about
£1,400. It has no mortuary chapels, and is now
under the control of the Urban District Council.
81 Feet of F. Midd. Trin. 19 las. I.
8a Ibid. Hil. 20 Chas. I.
88 Ibid. Mich. 21 Chas. I.
w Ibid. Hil. 3 Will, and Mary.
85 Ibid. East. 29 Geo. Ill
M Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 4.02.
87 Pat. 27 Eliz. pt. ri, m. 19.
»8 Feet of F. Midd. Trin. 19 Jas. I.
8» Ibid. Hil. II Geo. I.
90 Ibid. Hil. 27 Geo. III.
1 Ord. Surv.
1 B.M. Egerton MS. 2356.
8 Inf. supplied by Bd. of Agric.
(1905).
* Slater, Engl. Peasantry and the En-
closure of the Common Fields, 287 j B.M.
Egerton MS. 2356.
6 B.M. Egerton MS. 2356.
" Ibid.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
The convent of SS. Mary and Scholastica, belonging
to an Anglican community of nuns living under
the rule of St. Benedict, was founded in 1868 by
Father Ignatius.8 It was supported mainly by the
sale of plain needlework and church embroidery
worked by the sisters, and there was a small
orphanage and day school attached to it. The
establishment was broken up and removed in
1873-'
The hamlet of Feltham Hill lies on the southern
borders of the parish, and is composed mainly of
a few private houses standing in their own
grounds. Mr. Alfred William Smith, one of the
chief landowners in Feltham, lives at The Park in
Feltham Hill. The old Manor House at Feltham
is the residence of another landowner, Mr. Robert
Smith.
William Wynne Ryland, the well-known en-
graver, who was the first to use the chalk or dotted
line in his art, is buried in the churchyard. He
was executed at Tyburn in 1793 for forging
bonds of the East India Company.10 Mrs. Frances
Marie Kelly (Charles Lamb's 'Barbara S — '), actress
and founder of the School of Acting in Dean
Street, Soho, spent the last years of her life at Ross
Cottage, and is buried at Feltham. She died in
1882."
The parish is known chiefly for the Middlesex
Industrial School for Boys, which occupies a large
tract of ground in the south-west between the
roads to Ashford and to East Bedfont. It was
built in 1859 to hold about 1,000 boys, and con-
sists of a large principal building, a chapel, in-
firmary, workshops, gas factory, residences for
officers, and other detached buildings. About 70
acres of land are cultivated by the institution.
There are ivory works near the village, and a cart-
ridge factory stands on the banks of the River
Crane. Saw mills have been erected near the
station, and there is a large gravel pit lying near the
railway line. A considerable portion of the parish
is cultivated by nursery and market gardeners.
The soil is gravel on a subsoil of gravel. The
following place-names occur : — Swanne, Fullers
and Loom Pit Closes, Mark Corner, the Greth.
FELTHAM is mentioned in a
MANORS charter of King Edgar as one of the
members of Staines which had been
given to Westminster Abbey by OfFa King of
Mercia." This charter is, however, of doubtful
origin,13 and though Feltham may have belonged
to Westminster at an early date, yet it is not
mentioned among the manors belonging to Staines
in the confirmatory charter of Edward the Confes-
sor," the authenticity of which is not questioned.
According to the Domesday Survey there were
FELTHAM
two manors in Feltham before the Conquest ; one
consisting of 5 hides was held by a vassal of King
Edward, the other, consisting of 7 hides, was held
by a vassal of Earl Harold.14 Both were given by
the Conqueror to Robert Count of Mortain, and
were held by him as one manor.16 The Mortain
lands were forfeited to Henry I after the rebellion
of Count Robert's son, William, in 1 104." Felt-
ham seems to have been granted shortly after to
the Redvers family, who held it of the king in
chief. The grant was probably made to Richard
de Redvers, who received many gifts of land in
return for his services to Henry I before the
latter's accession,18 and Richard's son, Baldwin de
Redvers, held land in Feltham, while his daughter
Hawise de Roumare, Countess of Lincoln, gave the
church to St. Giles in the Fields.19 The manor
apparently descended in the direct male line, and
came eventually to William de Vernon,*0 also known
as de Ripariis, or Rivers, the second son of Baldwin
de Redvers, who succeeded to the family estates
and title of Earl of Devon after the death of his
elder brother's sons, the youngest of whom died in
1184." William de Vernon died in 1216," and
Feltham seems to have passed through the marriage
of his daughter Joan ** to Hubert de Burgh," the
justiciar of England. In 1228 the latter conveyed
all his right in the manor to Henry III, together
with his right in Kempton Manor in Sunbury
parish, in exchange for the manors of Aylsham in
Norfolk and Westhall in Suffolk." From this
time Feltham was closely associated with Kemp-
ton, and as part of that manor lay within the juris-
diction of its larger neighbour.86 In 1245 Richard
de Ponte, by virtue of his office as custodian of
Kempton Manor, was granted an exemption from
all customs and services due from 2 virgates and
\\ acres of land in Feltham, with a reduction of
rent from I if. <^\d. to 5*." In 1440 Robert
Manfield, then keeper of the manor, and William
Pope were granted I a/, a day from the profits of
the towns of Feltham and Kempton by reason of
their office of bearing the rod before the king and
the Knights of the Garter at the Feast of St.
George.*8 The king extended the protection in
1445 to all the men, tenants and residents in his
manor of Feltham, with the assurance that their
corn, hay, horse and carriages and other goods and
chattels should not be seized for the king's use
during a term of ten years.*9
Feltham was annexed by Henry VIII to the
manor of Hampton Court,30 and it was held of
that manor in 1594 and as late as 1631. In
1594 the 'perquisites and issues of the courts, all
franchises, privileges, emoluments, and heredita-
ments ' in Feltham were granted to Sir William
8 Bertouch, Life of Father Ignatius,
393- • Ibid. 539.
10 Diet. Nat. Biog.
11 Ibid, xxx, 349.
11 Cott. MS. Faust. A. iii.
» V.C.H. Land, i, 4 34.
14 Cott. MS. Faust A. iii ; Titus A.
Tiii.
« Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 128.
« Ibid.
1? Diet. Nat. Biog. xxnx, 117.
18 Orderic Vitalis, Hiit. Etc!, iii, 51;
iv, 95, no.
« HarLMS. 4015.
10 Cal. Clou, 1227-31, p. 149.
41 Diet. Nat. Biog. xlvii, 385 ;
G.E.C. Complete Peerage, iii, 101.
*> Ibid.
28 Cal. Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), i, 52.
84 Cal. Close, 1227-31, p. 149.
315
25 Ibid. pp. 133, 140; Cal. Chart.
1226-57, p. 82.
86 P.R.O. Ct. R. portf. 191, no. 41,
4*. 43-
"7 Cal. Chart. 1226-57, P- *87-
88 Cal. Fat. 1436-41, p. 458.
59 Pat. 24 Hen. VI, pt. i, m. 23.
•» L.and P. Hen. VIII, xv, 498 (36);
Pat 36 Eliz. pt xix, m. 22 ; Pat. 7
Chas. I, pt. vii, no. 2.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Killigrew with a lease of Kempton Manor and park
for eighty years.31 This grant was possibly made
with a view to inclosures. Sir William's son, Sir
Robert, obtained a grant in free socage of the same
manor and park in 1631, presumably with the
same rights over Feltham ; for the deed recites the
grant to Sir William of the courts and profits of
the courts, and other emoluments in Feltham,
although in the ensuing confirmation to Sir Robert,
Feltham is not mentioned by name." His son
and grandson, Sir William and Robert Killigrew,
held manorial rights over Feltham together with
the manor of Kempton in 1651, and conveyed
them with the latter manor to Sir Brocket Spencer
and William Muschamp.33 It seems probable that
the manorial rights over Feltham died out about
the end of the I yth century. There is evidence
that courts were held there by the lords of Kemp-
ton in 1676 and lyoo.34 The manorial rights
probably died out very soon after.
The grant of jurisdiction in Feltham and Kemp-
ton to Sir William Killigrew in 1594 did not of
course affect the king's possession of his lands in
Feltham (vide supra}. In 1631 Francis Lord Cot-
tington received a grant through his trustees, Sir
Henry Browne and John Cliffe, of these lands
under the title of ' all lands, tenements, and here-
ditaments known as the manor of Feltham,'
together with certain specified tenements.35 A
great fire broke out in 1634, which destroyed
Lord Cottington's manor-
house, together with thir-
teen dwelling-houses and
sixteen barns, causing a loss
of nearly £$,ooo.K Lord
Cottington was on the
king's side in the Civil War,
and was amongst those ex-
cepted by Parliament from
indemnity or composition.37
His estates were confis-
cated, and were assigned
in 1649 to J^11 Brad-
COTTINGTON. Azure
a Jesse between three
roses or.
shaw the regicide,33 but they were recovered at
the Restoration by his nephew and heir, Charles
Cottington.39 The latter sold Feltham in 1670
to Sir Thomas Chambers.40 He died in 1692, and
was succeeded by his son Thomas, who left two
daughters.41 By the marriage of the elder, Mary,
Feltham came to Lord Vere Beauclerk.42 It was
inherited by their son, Aubrey (Beauclerk) Baron
Vere, who succeeded his cousin in 1 78 7 as Duke of
St. Albans.43 He still held the manor in 1 8oz,44 but
it was sold probably after his death in 1803 to a
Mr. Fish, who himself died before i8i6.45 It
came before 1874 to Thomas and Edward Barnet,
and Peregrine Birch, by whom with others it is
still held.
By an order stated in the court roll for 1676
no person was allowed ' to bring or recieve into
the parish of Feltham or to entertain there any
foreigner or stranger as an inhabitant' without the
consent of the majority of the parish, and without
giving security to the churchwardens or overseers
of the poor for the care of any such ' foreigner." **
Any one transgressing in this manner was liable to
a fine of I id. to be paid to the lord of Kempton
manor. The parish not being inclosed at that
time there was a great expanse of common pasture
for pigs, and consequently two ' hogg-drivers ' were
appointed for the year in the manor court." One
of their duties was to give warning to the owners
of every ' un-ringed ' hog or pig which they found
in the commons or fields, and if after two days the
warning was still disregarded, they were entitled
to \d. for each hog and 2d. for each pig over and
above the amount of the fine paid by the owner
to the lord of the manor.48
THE RTE (Reye, Ray, Raye, xvi and xvii cents.)
was held of the lords of Feltham. William de Vernon
gave land in Feltham to the convent ofCheshunt,**
and the gift was confirmed by Hubert de Burgh as
lord of the manor of Feltham before I zap.60 Land
was held of the convent by Agnes de la Rye, who
was probably the daughter or the widow of Richard
de la Rye.51 Whether he took his name from the
land or the land was named after him, it seems to
have been known as the Rye from that time. At
the instance of Dionysia, Prioress of Cheshunt,
and as the result of a lawsuit which was perhaps
collusive, Agnes conveyed her land in 1257 to
John the Warrener of Kempton, to hold at a
yearly rent of js. from the convent.58 In 1311
Alice de Somery, who was then prioress, released
all the convent's right in the land to John,53
who seems to have added to it to a considerable
extent ; this sub-tenancy is here lost sight of.M
The Rye, having passed as part of the manor to
the Crown in 1228," was granted by Henry VIII
to the Hospital of St. Giles in 1524, in return for
other lands in Feltham which Henry VII had
taken for the enlargement of Hanworth Park, and
for which no recompense had been made.58 The
Rye then consisted of a barn and toft, a croft, a
close, and 30 acres of land." After the lands of
St. Giles had been ceded to the Crown in 1537,
the Rye was granted to John Welbeck in 1543,
on a lease of twenty-one years.58
61 Pat. 36 Eliz. pt. xix, m. 22.
" Pat. 7 Chas. I, pt. vii, no. 2.
88 Feet of F. Midd. East. 16515
Recov. R. East. 1651, rot. 123.
84B.M. Egerton MS. 2351, fol.
3-4, 104.
85 Pat. 7 Chas. I, pt. viii, no. 2.
M Lysons, Environs of London (i 800),
v, 45, quoting Strafford Papers, i,
227.
87 Diet. Nat, Biog. xii, 393.
88 Cal. of Com. for Compounding, 146.
89 G.E.C. Comflite Peerage, ii, 384 ;
Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. 18 & 19
Chas. II.
40 Close, 22 Chas. II, pt. ii, no. I 5
Feet of F. Midd. Trin. 22 Chas. II.
41 Lysons, Environs of London, v, 97 ;
G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 6.
44 Lysons, Environs of Lond. v, 45 ;
G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 6.
48 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 6.
44 Recov. R. East. 43 Geo. Ill, rot.
233-
45 Beauties of Engl. and Wales, x (4),
516.
316
46 B.M. Egerton MS. 2351.
47 Ibid. 4» Ibid.
49 Cal. Close, 1227-31, p. 149.
«> Ibid.
sl Feet of F. Lond. and Midd. 41
Hen. VIII, no. 362. "» Ibid.
68 Ibid. 29 Edw. I, no. 294; 33
Edw. I, no. 311.
64 Anct. D. (P.R.O.), C. 2433.
55 v.s. manor.
s« Pat. 1 6 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. »o.
*? Ibid.
58 Aug. Off. Misc. Bits, ccxv, fol. 51.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
It was included in the grant of the manor to
the trustees of Lord Cottington in 1631," and was
at that time, as it had been in 1 543, divided into
two parts — the Great Rye, containing a barn, two
closes and 4 acres of pasture and woods ; and the
Little Rye, which consisted of 3 acres.00 Both
were included in the manor in 1 6 70." Rye Close
was still known in l8oo.6* It lay on the southern
borders of the parish to the east of Feltham Hill.
An estate called HAUBERGERS in Feltham
was apparently held in chief. John le Hauberger
held a considerable estate in Feltham in the reign
of Edward II. About 40 acres of land had belonged
to Thomas atte Brugge, who held of the king, and
these had been acquired by John le Hauberger from
Thomas le Spenser in the preceding reign."5 As
the transaction had been carried out without gain-
ing the consent of the king, the lands were taken
into the king's hands. On payment of a fine,
however, the offence was pardoned, and John le
Hauberger was allowed to enter again into posses-
sion in I326.64 He died about 1335, and in
common with his wife Margaret he held a certain
amount of land in Feltham of the king at a yearly
rent of I ;/., payable to the manor of Kempton.6*
He held also a smaller estate of the Hospital of
St. Giles,66 and both were inherited by his son
Edward le Hauberger, who was born and baptized
at Feltham." It was probably these lands which
were known later as Haubergers or Lucyes. A
farm of this name was bought from Nicholas
Townly by Francis Lord Cottington in the iyth
century,68 and descended with the latter's manor
to his nephew Charles Cottington.63 The manor
was sold to Sir Thomas Chambers in 1670, but
Haubergers was specially excepted.70 It was the
cause of litigation shortly afterwards between
Charles Cottington and Francis Philips, who held
Kempton Manor,71 and the farm was finally sold
to the latter in 1674 for the sum of £150, and in
consideration of the release of £29 13^. \d. which
Cottington owed him as costs and charges in the
foregoing suit.7* It was then known as Feltham
Farm,7* and seems to have descended with the
manor of Kempton, for in 1800 it was supposed
to form part of the property of Edmund Hill, who
had bought Kempton in 1798.'* The present
Feltham Farm lies on the main road near the older
part of the village."
The RECTORY M4NOR, which was also
known as the manor of Feltham, was held of the
king in chief. The Hospital of St. Giles in the
Fields received a grant of land in Fe'.tham at an
early date from Earl Baldwin de Redvers.76 The
FELTHAM
gift has been ascribed to the reigns of Richard I
and John,77 but no member of the family named
Baldwin was living at that time,78 and it was prob-
ably made by the Baldwin de Redvers who was
son and heir of Richard de Redvers, and first Earl
of Devon,79 whose daughter gave the church of Felt-
ham to the hospital.80 In this case the grant
must have taken place before 1155, the year in
which Baldwin died.81 It was confirmed to the
hospital by Pope Alexander IV in the time of
Henry III."
In the reign of John the master and brethren of
St. Giles granted land in Feltham to Robert
Simple at a yearly rent of i^j." When any of
the brethren passed through Feltham he was bound
by the terms of his lease to receive them in the
house (fiojficium), and to give them such food as he
had. He was also to give to the hospital a tenth
of the produce of the land, and a third of all his
chattels at his death, in return for which the land
was secured to him and his heirs, though he could
neither pledge nor alienate it, and the hospital
undertook to compel the villeins on the estate to
work for him.81
It was perhaps the same house which was
mentioned in 1307 as in the custody of Robert
Simple. An inquiry was then made as to the
advisability of stopping up a way in the village of
Feltham which led to the village well through the
middle court of the house belonging to St. Giles.85
The village seems to have been just within the
king's manor of Feltham,86 but on condition that
the hospital made a new and equally convenient
approach to the well they were allowed to stop up
the old way.87 The alteration really benefited both
parties, for not only did the hospital ensure the
privacy of their house, but also the new way was
considerably shorter and broader than the old.M
The Hospital of St. Giles held the rectory manor
until 1537, when, in exchange for the manor of
Burton Lazars, it was ceded to the king.6' All the
land which the hospital had held in Feltham was
granted in I 544, after the dissolution of the house,
to John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, the son of the
Earl of Northumberland.90 He sold it in May
1545 to John Welbeck,91 who conveyed it during
the same month to John Leigh of Ltmdon,
probably in mortgage,9* as Welbeck had licence to
alienate to Andrew Bury in the following Decem-
ber.93 It is uncertain how the rectory came to
Edward Bashe or Baeshe, who died seised of it in
1587." He had settled it the preceding year on
his son and heir Ralph, on the latter's marriage
with Frances daughter of Edward Gary.95 Ralph
69 Pat. 7 Chas. I, pt. viii, no. 1.
«o Ibid.
61 Close, 22 Chas. II, pt. ii, no. I.
" B.M. Egerton MS. 2356.
63 Inq. a.cj.J. 19 Edw. II, no. 71.
64 Cal. Pat. 1 3 24-7, p. 3 1 2.
65 Chan. Inq. p.m. 9 Edw. II (i»t
nos.), no. 10.
«« Ibid.
" Ibid. 12 Edw. III(istno».), no. 56.
68 Close, 26 Chas. II, pt. ix, no. 9.
«» Ibid.
1> Ibid. 22 Chas. II, pt. ii, no. I.
7' Ibid. 26 Chas. II, pt. ix, no. 9.
7" Ibid. 's Ibid.
74 Lysons, Environs of Land. V, 45.
7* Ord. Sur-u.
1* Harl. MS. 4015 ; Parton, Account
of Half, and Par. of St. Giles in the fields,
32,61.
77 Parton, op. cit. 61.
7" Diet. Nat. Biog. xlvii, 385.
7" Ibid.
w Harl. MS. 4015.
81 Diet. Nat. Biog. xlvii, 385.
ra Harl. MS. 4015.
3'7
83 Ibid. « Ibid.
85 Inq. a.q.d. I Edw. II, no. 35.
86 Feud. Aids, iii, 372.
87 Cal. Pat. 1 307- 1 3, p. 135.
88 Inq. a.q.d. i Edw. II, no. 35.
89 Parton, op. cit. 31.
90 Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt. ix, m. 29.
91 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xx (i), 846
(93)-
9» Close, 37 Hen. VIII, pt. iv, no. 7.
9' Ibid, xx (2), 1068 (52).
94 Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Eliz. no. 215
(269). 95 Ibid.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
and Frances conveyed it in 1595 to .Walter Gibbes
and Elizabeth his wife.96 By his will (dated 7 June
1612) Walter settled it on Elizabeth for twenty-
one yean.97 She apparently died before May 1 620,
for Walter Gibbes, eldest son and heir of the elder
Walter, came into his inheritance at that time.98
He conveyed it in 1626 to William Penfather,
from whom it passed to Francis Lord Cottington,"
who had a grant of the reputed manor of Feltham
in 1631 (q.v.). From that time the rectory and
manor have passed through the same hands.
The church of ST. DUNST4N has
CHURCH a nave and chancel of equal width,
built in 1808, with a west tower and
wooden spire covered with shingles. North and
south aisles, in a feeble Romanesque style, were
added in 1853, and to the north of the chancel is
a vestry. The whole is built of yellow and purple
stock bricks, with round-headed windows, and has
no architectural merit ; but being set in a thickly-
planted churchyard, with a path shaded by yews
leading to its principal doorway in the west wall of
the tower, can hardly be said to detract from the
simple charms of its surroundings. It retains its
high pews, and a western gallery, and has nothing
worthy of note beyond a tablet to Sir Thomas
Crewe of Steane, Northamptonshire, 1688.
There are three bells by Thomas Mears, 1803.
The plate consists of a flagon of 1801, ' the gift
of Henry Capel to Feltham 1 802,' two chalices of
1787,3 paten of 1769, and a credence paten of
1777, all presented in 1802 ; there is also a large
secular Georgian salver of 1769 presented in 1900.
The registers previous to 1634 were burnt in a
fire in that year, and the earliest now existing are
in two books in which those from 1634 onward
are placed in irregular order ; a third contains
baptisms 1711 to 1806 ; a fourth marriages from
1754 to '812 in printed forms, and a fifth burials
1754 and 1812.
The church is first mentioned
ADVOWSON in a 12th-century grant, when it
was given to the Hospital of St.
Giles in the Fields by Hawis, the wife of
William de Roumare, Earl of Lincoln,100 the sister
of Earl Baldwin de Redvers who gave other lands
(v.s. rectory manor) in Feltham to the same
hospital.101 The gift of the church was confirmed
by Henry II, and about 1221 by Eustace, Bishop
of London, and again by Pope Alexander IV,
and later by Edward I.101 Before 1322 a vicarage
was ordained and endowed, to which the warden
and brethren continued to present until the
Dissolution.103
In 1293, when the breth-en of St. Giles were
resisting the claim of the Bishop of London to
exercise jurisdiction over the hospital and all its
possessions, a special exception was made in the
case of Feltham, and it was stated that as the
church was quite outside London, yet in the dio-
cese of London, the bishops had been wont to
make visitation there, and apparently they con-
tinued to do so.104
In 1 398 Richard II gave the Hospital of St.
Giles, with the church of Feltham, to the abbey
of St. Mary Graces by the Tower of London.104
It is doubtful, however, if the grant took effect,
and in either case, the custody of St. Giles was
confirmed to the monastery of Burton Lazars by
Henry V."*
When the master of Burton ceded the rectory
manor of Feltham to the king in 1537 the church
was excepted from the grant,107 and probably did
not come to the Crown until the suppression of the
monastery in I539.108 From this time onwards
the advowson was held with the rectory manor
(q.V.).
On the confiscation of Lord Cottington's estates
in 1 649 the advowson was assigned with the manor
to John Bradshaw.lw On receiving the tithes of
Feltham he issued an address in 1651 to the in-
habitants of the parish, stating that his anxiety
' touching spyrituals ' had led him to provide and
endow a minister for them without putting them
to any charge.110 He left a bequest in his will for
maintaining a good minister at Feltham,111 but all
his property was confiscated under the Act of
Attainder of May 1660,"' and the advowson was
restored to Lord Cottington's nephew and heir,
Charles Cottington.1"
It continued with the manor (q.v.) for over a
century,114 and thus was held by the Duke of St.
Albans in i8o2,ui but it seems to have been
separated from the manor early in the igth century.
The Rev. Joseph Morris held it from about 1 8 1 6
to 1 840,"' after which it was held by the Rev.
P. P. Bradfield until about 1850. It then came
to Charles E. Jemmet, after whose death it was
held by his executors. It now belongs to Mr. E. J.
Wythes of Copped Hall, Essex, whose father married
Catharine Sarah, daughter of Mr. C. E. Jemmet.
The Poor's Stock, which, as
CHARITIES appeared from the table of bene-
faction, formerly consisted of pay-
ments made to the overseers of £2 6/., £2, and
i 2;. annually, and carried to the poor rates, has
ceased to be paid.
In 1798 Robert Lowe by his will bequeathed
£200 stock, the dividends to be applied in bread.
The legacy is now represented by £202 1 3*. 4^.
consols, producing £5 li. \d. a year, which, to-
gether with certain fixed payments amounting to
«• Feet of F. Midd. Mich. 37 &
38 Eliz.
•< Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. z), cccxxvii,
no. 128.
98 Fine R. 18 Jas. I, pt. i, no. 57.
M S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccclxxvii, 177.
>°° Harl. MS. 4015, fol. 5-9.
101 Diet. Nat. Biog. xlvii, 385 ; xlix,
3>4-
1M Harl. MS. 401 5, fol. 5-9.
JM Newcourt, Repert. i, 602.
104 Cal. Pat. 1388-92, p. 458.
W Ibid. p. 475.
1M Dugdale, Man. vii, 635 ; Parton,
Account of Hasp, and Par. of St. Gilei in
the fields, 27.
W Parton, op. cit. 31.
108 Dugdale, Man. vii, 635.
109 Cal. of Com. for Compounding,
146.
*" Athenaeum (1878), 689.
111 Ibid.
11J Diet. Nat. Biog. vi, 179.
118 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, ii, 384 ;
Feet of F. Div. Co. Mil. 18*19 Cha«. II.
1M Ibid. Midd. Trin. 22 Chat. II ;
P.R.O. Inst, Bk«.
115 Recov. R. East. 43 Geo. Ill, rot.
233.
™ Clerical Guide.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
£i 5/. a year, granted in 1774, is duly applied by
the vicar.
In 1804 almshouses for poor and aged inhabi-
tants were erected on a piece of land formerly part
of Feltham Common, in pursuance of a resolution
of the vestry, and endowed with £202 os. 6J.
consols. They are further maintained out of the
income of the Poor's Land. See below.
In 1 844 Mrs. Mary Anne Paine (as recorded
on a tablet in the church) gave £100 consols
to be laid out by the vicar and churchwardens
in bread to be distributed among twenty aged
poor persons during January, February, and
March.
In 1852 William Paine by a codicil to his will
bequeathed £179 121. zd. consols, one moiety of
the dividends to be annually applied for benefit of a
clothing club, the other moiety annually in January
in purchase of clothes to be distributed amongst
ten aged poor persons regularly attending services
of the Church of England at the discretion of the
vicar and churchwardens. The dividends, amount-
ing to £4 gs. 8</., are duly applied.
In 1867 John Ashford, by will, proved at Lon-
don 10 April in that year, bequeathed a legacy,
represented by £6 1 8 f)t. \d. consols, the dividends
to be applied at Christmas time in the purchase
of fuel, clothes, meat, or bread for distribution
among old men and women. The dividends,
amounting to £15 gs., are distributed in meat and
clothing under the title of the Ashford and Moore
Charity.
In 1826 Thomas John Burgoyne by deed dated
9 December (enrolled) assigned to trustees a piece
of ground in St. Pancras, with a messuage thereon
for the residue of a term of twenty-one years, and
subject as therein mentioned to accumulate the
HAMPTON
rents to form a hind, the income thereof to be
applied towards the salary of the organist, repair of
organ, and for the encouragement of psalmody, or
of the church music. The trust fund consists of
a sum of £404 os. zJ. consols. The sum of stock
has by an order of the Charity Commissioners
been apportioned equally between this parish and
the parish of Potton, Bedfordshire.
The several sums of stock are held by the official
trustees.
The Poor's Land or Fuel Allotment, acqu red
by an award made under the Inclosure Act, 40
Geo. Ill, consists of 30 a. 3 r., known as the
' Gibbet Ground,' awarded to the lord of the
manor of Colkennington alias Kempton, and the
vicar, churchwardens, and overseers of Feltham for
providing fuel for the poor. In 1890 2 acres
were purchased for £324, and in 1902 land with
greenhouse and buildings erected thereon and five
greenhouses at Bedfont were purchased for £425,
provided by sale of stock, with the official trustees,
leaving in their name a sum of £478 iSj. $d.
consols.
In 1905-6 the gross rental of the real estate
amounted to £,217, and the dividends to
£11 19;. 4^.
The charity is administered under the provisions
of a scheme of the Charity Commissioners of
1 8 July 1890, whereby the net income is applic-
able primarily in defraying the cost of supplying
with coal deserving and necessitous poor resi-
dents in the parish, one-twelfth of the residue
in defraying the expenses incidental to letting of
lands in allotments, and one-twelfth of such re-
sidue in maintenance and repair of the almshouses
above referred to, and for the benefit of the in-
mates.
HAMPTON
Hamptone (xi cent.) ; Hamtonet (xiii cent.).
Hampton is a large parish on the banks of the
Thames, which forms its southern and western
boundaries and divides it from the neighbouring
county of Surrey. It is a low-lying district, no-
where rising over 50 ft. above the Ordnance datum,
and was formerly open country, part of which now
remains as Hounslow Heath. The soil is light
and gravelly, and there is little indigenous timber."
There is still some pasture land, but most of it has
been built over, except in the royal demesne of
Hampton Court, which forms a considerable
proportion of the parish.' The area, including
the ecclesiastical district of Hampton Hill, is
about 7,036 acres of land and 62 acres of water.
The district called Hampton Wick * on the east,
which was made a civil parish in 1831, contains
1,235 acres of land and 69 acres of water. An
ancient British canoe made of the trunk of a tree
was found in the Thames opposite the palace, and
is now in the British Museum. A row of oak piles
also found in the river has been considered Roman,
but is probably the remains of an old weir of later
date.
The main road to Kingston-on-Thames is a
branch from the Portsmouth Road, which it leaves
at Esher, passes through East Molesey, crosses the
river at Hampton Court by an iron bridge erected
in 1865,' and proceeds outside the wall of
the ' Tilt Yard,' and between the Home Park and
Bushey Park to Kingston, whence it continues to
Richmond and London. Another road branches
from the Kingston road opposite the ' Lion Gates,'
to the north of the palace, and goes through the
1 A few old oaks, now much decayed,
in the Home Park, and some of the
famous ' thorns ' in Bushey Park are said
to be indigenous.
a See pp. 386 et seq. for acreage of
parks, &c. The manor and parish
were originally coterminous.
8 Hampton Wick includes the Home
Park, part of the palace gardens and
the eastern portion of Bushey Park. It it
3'9
spoken of as ' The Wick ' from an early
period. See p. JZ5.
4 See further account of ferry and
bridge, p. 332.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
chestnut avenue of Bushey Park to Teddington,
Twickenham, and Brentford.4 It is well known
that these roads and all the district surrounding
Hounslow Heath were once infested with thieves
and footpads. In 1667 Lord Bridgman's chil-
dren were robbed going from Teddington to Tun-
bridge, and the Dowager Lady Portland between
Twickenham and Hampton.6 The Staines road,
which leads north-west from Hampton Court
Bridge to Hampton town, following the course
of the river, passes several interesting houses ;
opposite them lie ' the Green ' and Bushey Park.
At the foot of the bridge is an old hotel, ' The
Mitre,' probably the successor of 'The Toy,"
which originally stood on the opposite side of the
road, near the ' Trophy Gates ' of the palace. It
was built in the time of Henry VIII, and is men-
tioned in 1653 in the Parliamentary Survey of
Hampton Court as a ' Victualling house, worth by
the yeare seaven pounds.' s This house was famous
for the convivial meetings held there by the ' Toy
Club,' of which William IV, then Duke of Clarence,
was president. The club included many well-
known names among its members.9
The first house on the road to Hampton is said
to have been occupied by Sir Andrew Halliday, kt.,
the famous physician, and the second, known as
' Old Court House,' is that which Sir Christopher
Wren rented of the Crown for £10 a year in 1 708
and almost entirely rebuilt.10 It was originally
only of timber and plaster, but is now a solid brick
house, and remains very much as it was when the
great architect died there in his sleep after dinner
on 25 February 1723, in the panelled room on the
east side of the house." There is a garden going
down to the river, and the old tree under which
Wren used to sit is still there, and so is the
tool-house he built. After his death the house
became the property of his son and grandson suc-
cessively, and after passing through many hands "
was eventually leased to Mr. James Fletcher, a
well-known inhabitant of Hampton Court, who
held it for many years and died in 1907.
The next house but one was occupied by Pro-
fessor Faraday the scientist, to whom it was given
in 1858. He died there in 1867," and the house
was afterwards granted to Lady MacGregor, widow
of Sir John Atholl Bannatyne MacGregor, bart.,
and daughter of Sir Thomas Hardy, Nelson's flag-
captain at Trafalgar.14 It is now the residence
of the Princesses Dhuleep Singh. Several houses
on this side of the Green are probably of about
the period of Wren, if he was not actually con-
cerned in building them, and they have charming
slips of old-fashioned garden going down to the
river. They are all Crown property ; some are
occupied by tenants and some held by ' grace and
favour.' A little further up the road, beyond a
large new private hotel, is the range of low Tudor
buildings surrounding a square courtyard, which
constituted the ' Royal Mews,' built by Wolsey
and enlarged by Henry VIII." These buildings,
it is said, were at one time used as an inn, called
' The Chequers." " They are now granted by the
king to private individuals ; one suite of apart-
ments was occupied by the late Mr. Charles
Maude, Assistant Paymaster-General,17 others of
smaller size being allotted to pensioners of Queen
Victoria's household. The adjoining building
to the west is Queen Elizabeth's stables, built in
I 5 70. 18 Some of the remaining stables are made
use of by the ladies of the palace. There are one
or two more modern houses, and to the right, on
the Green, just before the paling of Bushey Park
commences, is a square building of the time of
William III, now used as supplementary barracks.1*
From this point the road used to be a pretty
one, lying between the river and Bushey Park.
The electric tramway now spoils its picturesque
appearance. Nearer to Hampton, on the river
side, is a large, comparatively modern house called
the Cedars, which it appears that David Garrick,
the actor, bought and bequeathed to his nephew.*0
It is now the property of Mr. J. W. Clayton, one
of the partners in the firm of Messrs. Day &
Martin.81 It has a pretty terraced garden on the
bank of the river. The next house is a picturesque
building called 'St. Albans.' It was originally built
s This was probably the route fol-
lowed by the king's coach. The present
route through Eaton Square (Five
Fields), Sloane Square (East Field and
Great Bloody Field), and so along King's
Road, represents the sovereign's private
way from St. James's Palace to Hampton
Court and Windsor, in later times to
Kew. In 1719 Sir Hans Sloane, as lord
of the manor, petitioned the Treasury
for right of way, but the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests did not relinquish
rights in the private road till 1829,
when it became a public thoroughfare.
Midd. and Hera. N. and Q. i, 195
(1896).
6 Hiit. MSS. Cam. Rep. vii, App. 486 ;
' Sir H. Verney's Papers.'
1 Pulled down about 1852. There
were some buildings adjoining which
remained and were occupied as apart-
ments till 1867. Ernest Law, lint.
Hampton Court Palace, iii, 490.
8 Parl. Surv. of Hampton Court,
P.R.O. Midd. no. 32. Trade tokens of
the house are still extant. Larwood
and Hotten, Hist, of Signboards, 505 ;
cit. Law, Hist. Hampton Court Palace,
iii, 190 ; Henry Ripley, Hist, and Topog.
of Hampton-on-Thames, 83.
9 Law, op. cit. iii, 330 et seq. ;
Houston, Memories of World-known
Men, \, 35, 36, 41.
10 Lysons, Midd. Parishes, 76 ; Rec.
of Office of Woods and Forests ; cit.
Law, op. cit. iii, 228.
11 Wren, Parentalia, 346 ; Elmet,
Lift of Wren, 523.
13 Colonel Sir Henry Wheatley,
K..C.B., father of Colonel Wheatley, late
Bailiff of the Royal Parks (? Faraday
House). Colonel Braddyll, probably the
Colonel Braddyll, Coldstream Guards,
who had rooms in the palace (vide Law,
op. cit. iii, 457), and others are among
the tenants of Wren's house ; Ripley,
op. cit. ii.
18 Diet. Nat. Biog. It is now called
' Faraday House.'
320
14 Law, op. cit iii, 489. Lady Mac-
Gregor's son, Sir Evan MacGregor,
G.C.B., was Permanent Secretary to the
Admiralty from 1884 to 1907.
15 Chapter House Accts.
16 Ripley, op. cit. 9, &c.
17 Son of the late Colonel Sir George
Maude, K.C.B., Crown Equerry to
Queen Victoria. (See below, p. 387.)
Mr. Charles Maude died in April
1910 : the rooms are now occupied
by his widow.
18 Nicholls, Progresses of Queen Eliza-
beth, i, 263, 274, &c.
19 Less than a hundred years ago there
used to be a gate across the road from
the ' New Barracks,' with a watchman
in a box near the river, to open it for
passengers. It was called ' Bob's Gate,'
and was intended to prevent cattle from
straying off the Green.
20 Ripley, Hist, and Topog. of Hampton-
on-Tbames, 12.
» Ibid.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
for Nell Gwyn by Charles II. The local tradition
is that it was occupied at a later period by
George Fitzclarence, 1st Earl of Munster, son of
William IV, who, with his wife, is buried in
Hampton Church." One of his children, a boy,
was drowned by falling into the river from the
lawn of St. Albans. Lytton Bulwer, afterwards
Lord Lytton, lived there for a time," and after
him Sir William Wightman," who married a niece
of John Beard the singer,*5 an old resident of
Hampton, who is also buried in the church. The
present tenant is Mr. Robert Graham.
Beyond this house, but on the opposite side of
the road, is 'Garrick's Villa,' formerly called
' Hampton House,' which David Garrick bought
in 1754" from Mr. Lacy Primatt. The portico
was built on to the original house by Garrick, from
a design by Robert Adam." In the garden is a small
brick building with a dome and a porch, supported
by four pillars from the Adelphi Theatre. This
used to be called the ' Temple of Shakespeare,' and
a life-sized statue of the poet by Roubiliac stood in
it." Part of the garden is divided from the house
by the road, but can be reached by a passage under-
ground. The river side of the garden, where the
' temple ' stands, is well known to frequenters of
the Molesey Regatta, which takes place opposite
the lawn. Horace Walpole wrote of Garrick's
entertainments at the house, and mentioned on one
occasion that he met there at dinner the Duke of
Grafton, Lord and Lady Rochford, Lady Holder-
ness, ' Crooked ' Mostyn, and the Spanish Ambassa-
dor." In the Rambler of 1797 is an account of
Garrick's charity and generosity to the poor people
of Hampton. On I May he always opened his
grounds to the children of the parish, and enter-
tained them with 'cake, buns and wine.' Both
he and his wife were fond of planting trees about
their property ; Mrs. Garrick lived there for
many years after her husband's death, until she died
at the age of ninety-nine in 1822. Mrs. Hannah
More used to visit her there.*93 All Garrick's
collections, furniture, and pictures were sold after
Mrs. Garrick's death.80 In 1869 the house
became the property of Mr. Grove, a retired
tradesman, and his widow lived there till 1905,
when the place was sold to the London United
Electric Tramway Company, and was until re-
cently occupied by Sir E. Clifton Robinson, the
manager.
There are several houses in Hampton which
claim to have been designed by Wren : among
them Walton House, near the church, at
present occupied by Colonel George Stevens.
Beveree is also a good house of that period
HAMPTON
standing in a charming garden, occupied by
Captain Christie-Crawford, J.P. Castle House is
one of the oldest houses in Hampton, the tenant
is Colonel Graham, late i6th Lancers. The
Elms is another of the Wren houses, now tenanted
by Dr. Tristram, K.C., Chancellor of the Diocese
of London. Opposite the Elms is one of the
largest houses in the parish, Grove House, sur-
rounded by a high wall and with fine trees in
the garden, which extends to Bushey Park. It is
now the property of Mr. Stretfield. The Manor
House (so-called) stands back from the road in
wooded grounds, on which small houses have lately
begun to encroach. It was the property of the
late Mr. James Kitchin, and is now untenanted.
The vicarage is a modern house, built within
the last thirty years on the site of an older
one ; the present vicar is the Rev. Digby Ram,
rural dean and Prebendary of St. Paul's. Hill
House, near the station, was originally a private
school, at which the late Lord DufFerin and Field-
Marshal Earl Roberts were educated ; but it has
now been demolished, with other good houses in
the district, to make room for the Grand Junc-
tion Waterworks, which monopolize a consider-
able acreage on the road from Hampton to
Sunbury. There was a picturesque Tudor
building used as an inn, called The Red Lion,
almost opposite the church, but it was demolished
in 1908.
The district of Hampton Hill contains no
houses of any historical interest. Bushey House,
Bushey Lodge, the Stud House, the Pavilion, the
Banqueting House, and Wilderness House are all
in the precincts of Hampton Court, and will be
dealt with under ' Parks and Gardens.' " There
is one other large house on the north side of the
Green called Hampton Court House, overlooking
Bushey Park, of which a wing is said to have been
designed by Wren. It was at one time the
property of the late J. E. Sampson, City editor of
the Times''' and at a later period of Mr. James
Campbell, who added a large room as a picture
gallery. It was afterwards bought by Mr. A. de
Wette, and is now for sale. The Ivy House,
which is practically in the palace gardens, with a
terrace overlooking the Broad Walk, is a pictur-
esque building of uncertain date : part of it is
probably old, like the house next to it, which
belongs to the King's Arms Hotel. The Ivy House
is the property of Colonel Walter Campbell, son
of Mr. James Campbell, who formerly owned
Hampton Court House. There are various
houses, some of them fairly old, and others new
and uninteresting, on the Kingston Road looking
ffl Ripley, W»r. and To fog. of Ham ftcn-
an-Tkamtt, II ; Parish Register of
Hampton.
38 Ripley, loc. cit.
* Ibid.
86 Born 1716, died 1791. He was
one of the 'children of the Chapel Royal,'
afterwards one of the lingers in the
Duke of Chandos' chapel at Cannon.
He became manager of Covent Garden
Theatre. His first wife was Hen-
rietta, daughter of the first Earl
Waldegrave, and widow of Lord Ed-
ward Herbert. He was a well-known
and popular singer.
* Diet. Nat. Sing.
" The house had a high wall round
it until recently, when part of the
garden was given up to make the road
wider. The granite posts in front of
the house come from the foundations of
old London Bridge. Ripley, op. cit.
>7-
58 R. Snagg, A Description of thi Co,
321
of Midd. (1775) 192-3. Thestatueis
now in the entrance hall of the
British Museum. Ripley, Hist, lad
Topog. of Hampton-on-Tbamci, 13, &c. ;
Horace Walpole, Lttttn (Ed. Toynbee),
"', 3*9-
89 Ibid, iii, 331.
Ma Ibid, xiii, 1515 xiv, 19, 290.
" RJpley, op. cit. 1 6, 78 5 Diet. Nat.
Bug.
BI See pp. 385 et seq.
81 Ripley, op. cit. 9.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
into the Paddocks and Bushey Park. Most of
them are Crown property. In 1 707 Steele either
rented or built himself a house called The Hovel
at Hampton Wick,3* to which there are numerous
allusions in his letters to his wife, but the house
has probably been pulled down, as it is not possible
to identify it now."1
Besides the River Thames there is a considerable
amount of ornamental water in the parks and
gardens of the palace, and the Longford or King's
River (now known according to the Ordnance
map as the 'Queen's or Cardinal's River') which
was cut in the reign of Charles I M for bringing a
better water supply to the palace.
The ferry from the Surrey side of the river to
Hampton Court M used to be an important hold-
ing, farmed out on lease with the ferry opposite
Hampton Church. The office of ferryman was
looked upon as a lucrative appointment, though
\os. a quarter for ferrying over all the workmen
and labourers to the palace does not seem a great
sum ; M but the ' fines due (to the king) for leasing
the manor of East Molesey, Surrey, the two ferries
called Hampton Court ferry and Hampton ferry
and the fishing in Cobham River,' amounted in
the 1 7th century to £448 ,37 It was not till 1750
that a petition was presented to the House of
Commons for permission to build a bridge across
the Thames at Hampton Court. A Bill was
passed in April i75O,Mand the bridge was built
and opened for the use of the public in December
I753-39 There are two prints, published in 1753
and 1754, which show the picturesque structure
of the first bridge, composed of seven wooden
arches, but it seems to have been extremely defec-
tive and unpractical, and in 1778 it was replaced
by a more solid though equally picturesque erec-
tion which consisted of eleven arches,'0 also of
wood, standing on piles and surmounted by a low
parapet. It remained till 1865, when it was re-
moved, and the present inartistic iron bridge was
erected in its place.41 The tolls levied were on an
exorbitant scale, and brought the owners a yearly
income of about ^3,000. In 1876 the Metro-
politan Board of Works purchased the bridge for
^50,000, and on 8 July 1876 it was declared
' free for ever.'
Hampton Court Station (London and South
Western Railway) is on the Surrey side of the rirer
near the bridge, in the parish of East Molesey.
Hampton Station (Thames Valley line) is on the
west side of the parish, beyond Hampton Church.
There is also a station at Hampton Wick (London
and South Western Railway branch line).
The Wesleyan chapel in Hampton was biylt in
1880, and will hold about 400 people. In
Hampton Hill are Congregational and Primitive
Methodist chapels.
HONOUR OF H4MPTON COURT.— In
1539 Hampton Court was created an ' Honour '
by Act of Parliament." It was among the
' statutory ' as opposed to ' feudal ' honours "
created by Henry VIII." The lands annexed to
Hampton Court were partly confiscated monastic
property, but some of them were obtained by
purchase or attaint.
The following are the manors and lands annexed
to the manor of Hampton Court by the Act
creating the honour. In Surrey the manors of
Walton on Thames, Walton Leghe, Oatlands (with
lands in Weybridge, Walton, and Chertsey) ; the
manors of Byfleet and Weybridge (with lands and
tenements in Walton) ; East Molesey, West
Molesey, Sandown, Weston, Imworth (or Imber
Court), and Esher ; " lands at Heywood and the
fee-farm of the borough of Kingston-on-Thames.
In Middlesex the manors of Hanworth and Kemp-
ton, Feltham, and Teddington, with the parks of
Hanworth and Kempton, and lands in Hampton,
Kempton, Feltham, and Teddington."
In the following year further manors were
attached to the honour, i.e. Nonsuch, Ewell, East
and West Cheam with lands in Coddington,
Ewell, and Maldon ; the manors of Banstead, Wal-
ton on the Hill, Sutton, Epsom, Beddington and
Coulsdon, Wimbledon with its members, Duns-
ford, Balham, Wandsworth, and Battersea, all in
Surrey ; and in Middlesex, Haliford, Ashford,
Laleham, Isleworth with its members, the site of
the late monastery of Syon, and other lands in
Hampton, Sunbury, Walton, Hanworth, Shepper-
ton, Feltham, Kingston on Thames, Brentford,
Hounslow, and Hanworth.47 At later dates addi-
tional manors and lands were annexed, such as
Norbury Manor in Croydon,43 Rockingham Forest
in Northamptonshire,49 the manor of Billets in
M Aitkcn, Lift of Richard Steele, i,
216, 343-4-
933 A custom, which has now entirely
died out, was instituted in 1 8-6 of
holding a monster meeting of b. cycles
on the Green every year. They were the
old hijh bicycles before the « Safety '
patent was invented. The Green
used to be covered with shining wheels
like the inside of a mammoth watch.
The great joke of the occasion waa the
attempt of crowds of bicyclists to
carry their machines past the toll-
keeper on the bridge, and pay only the
small fee of foot-passengers ; Ripley,
op. cit. 138.
84 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. 77
(House of Lords Calendar, 1653).
84 The earliest lease seems to be one
in 1545, to Thomas Sheparde of 'Mul-
sey Surrey,' in which the *mill called
StentemylF is also mentioned 5 L, and
P. Hen. VIII, xir, 55.
MHarI. MSS. 1656, F. 232 (temp.
Chas. II).
»" Cal. SJ". Dam. 1667, pp. 88, 145,
462, 527.
88 Gent. Mag. xx, 41, 186 ; Lysons,
M.idd, Parishes, 75.
89 Law, Hilt. Hampton Court Palacr,
iii, 286 et seq. The owner was a Mr.
James Clarke, who held the lease till
'775-
40 Brayley, Hist, of Surr. ii, 307.
41 It was then the property of Mr.
Thomas Newland Allen, and its building
cost £11,176. The engineer was E. T.
Murray, of Westminster Chambers.
«Stat. 31 Hen. VIII, cap. ;.
48 Comyn, Digest of Law, iv, 459
322
et seq. ' Honours ' ; Madox, Baronia
Anglica (ed. 1736), 8 ; Pollock and
Maitland, Hist. Engl. Law, i, 260 ;
Jacobs, Laiv Dictionary, * Honour '
(.829).
44 Stat. 31 Hen. VIII, cap. 5 ; 37
Hen. VIII, cap. 18 ; 14-15 Hen.
VIII, cap. 1 8 ; 23 Hen. VIII, cap. 30 ;
33 Hen. VIII, cap. 37, 38.
45 Esher was the property of the see
of Winchester, bought by Henry in
1538 ; L. and P. Hen. PHI, xiii (i),
778 -, (2), 444 ; Close, 30 Hen. VIII,
pt. i, m. 27 d.
48 Stat. of Realm, iii, 721 et «eq. (31
Hen. VIII, cap. 5).
*1 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, 498
(3«)-
« Ibid, rix (i), 647.
49 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1601-3, P- '31'
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
Laleham.60 There is also mention of a mill called
' Stentemyll," and a ferry over the Thames to Hamp-
ton Court from East Molesey.41
The original statute creating the honour pro-
vided also for the making of a new forest or chase
for the king, to be called ' Hampton Court Chase,'
' for the nourishing, generation, and feeding of
beasts of venery and fowls of warren,' in which
the king was to have ' free chase and warren.' " It
was also enacted that the same liberties, juris-
dictions, privileges and laws, that belonged to the
ancient forests of the kingdom, should also apply to
this ' the newest forest in England.' ss The limits
of the chase were clearly defined in the Act, and
were to extend from the River Thames on the
south side of the manor of Hampton Court to
Cobham and Weybridge, thus including all the
Surrey lands originally annexed to the honour."
The chase was to be surrounded by a wooden
fence, and there is an early grant of j£6oo to Sir
Anthony Browne, for ' paling, ditching, and quick-
setting of the King's chase of Hampton Court,' "
besides payments for stocking the chase with deer,56
and precautions to be taken for preserving them
there."
Sir Anthony Browne was the first ' Lieutenant
and Keeper of the Chase,' an office held always
with that of ' Chief Steward of the Honour and
Manor of Hampton Court and Feodary of the
Honour.' M With these offices were also generally
held that of Housekeeper of the Palace and the
rangerships of Bushey Park, the Middle Park, and
the Hare-Warren Park. The rangership of the
' House ' or ' Home ' Park was usually separate.
The last holder of that appointment was the Duke
of Gloucester.59 Sir Anthony Browne M died in
1 548, and was succeeded by Sir Michael Stanhope,
who was also Keeper of Windsor Forest and
Lieutenant of Kingston on Hull. He was impli-
cated in the affairs of the Protector Somerset, and
was beheaded in I552.61 Successive holders of
the office were William Parr, Marquis of North-
HAMPTON
ampton;6' Charles, the famous Lord Howard of
Effingham, afterwards Earl of Nottingham ; *
James, second Marquis of Hamilton ; M George
Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham,65 the favourite
of both James I and Charles I ; and Christopher
Villiers, first Earl of Anglesey.66 During the
Commonwealth the office appears to have been in
abeyance, but on Cromwell's death in 1658
George Monk, afterwards first Duke of Albemarle,
the celebrated Parliamentarian general,67 was ap-
pointed, and his appointment was confirmed by
Charles II on his restoration. Monk held it till
his death, and in April 1677 the stewardship
of Hampton Court and rangership of Bushey Park
were given to Barbara Palmer, Duchess of Cleve-
land,68 who held them for her life in the name
of her trustee, William Young.
In June 1 709 Charles Montague first Earl of
Halifax 69 was made keeper, and was afterwards
succeeded by his nephew George Montague, also
Earl of Halifax ro by a later creation, and his son
George Montague Dank second earl of the later
creation.71 On his death Anne, Lady North,
afterwards Countess of Guildford,™ was granted the
offices, which she held for her life. In 1797 they
were granted to H.R.H. William, Duke of
Clarence," and from the time of his accession
to the throne in 1830 they have remained in
abeyance."
The chase seems to have been very unpopular
from the beginning, and as early as September
1545, the 'men of Molsey and other towns in the
chace of Hampton Court ' were emboldened to lay
a complaint before the Privy Council when it met
at Oatlands, asking for redress on account of damage
done by the deer, and other losses incurred by
commons and pastures being inclosed.75 Their
petition was referred to Sir Nicholas Hare,76 wit-
nesses were allowed to appear before the Council,
and were 'generally examined of their losses,' but
no reparation seems to have been made at the time.
In 1548, soon after the death of Henry VIII, a
40 Pat. 4 Jas. I, pt. xxi, m. 35.
Billets may have been included as ' Laic-
ham ' in 1540. L. and P. Hen. VIII,
xv, 498 (36). This doe» not attempt
to be a full list of the manors annexed
to the honour at later periods.
"Ibid, xx (i),i3?6 (5 5).
53 Star, of Realm, iii, 711 ; 31 Hen.
VIII, cap. 5.
63 Manwood, Forest Laivs (ed. 1 598),
11-12.
M It has been supposed that the
honour and chase were identical, but
the chase did not include any part of
Middlesex. Star, of Realm, iii, 721, &c.
3 1 Hen. VIII, cap. 5. See supra.
" L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii (2), 457
(12). See also Chapter House Accounts,
C. A, fol. 226, &c.
" L. and
1280.
W Ibid, xz (i), 512.
48 Ibid, xv, p. 539. Pat. 4 Chas. I,
pt. i, no. 3. The patent of the Earl
of Anglesey, in which his predecessors
are mentioned; Lysons, Midd. Parishes,
57, &c.
68 Ibid. Law, op. cit. i, 215, &c.
nd P. Hen. Vlll, riii (2),
80 Master of the Horse to Hen.
VIII. He held among other appoint-
ments that of justice in eyre of all the
king's forests north of Trent. He
married, as his second wife, Lady
Elizabeth Fitzgerald, ' The fair Gerald-
ine,' see p. 339 ; Diet. Nat. Biog.
61 Ibid. Sir Thos. Cawarden was
also appointed, apparently by Edw.
VI ; Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App.
6064.
•s He was born in 1513, died in
1571. The brother of Catherine Parr,
last wife of Henry VIII ; Diet. Nat.
Biog.
"Born 1536, died 1624. Lord
High Admiral of England.
M Born 1589, died 1625.
" Born 1592, died 1628. Seep. 350,
under Palace. Pat. 4 Chas. I, pt. i,
no. 3.
06 Born 1593, died 1630. Pat. 6
Chas. I, pt. xiii, mentions former
holders of the office.
'•' Born 1608, died 1670. Pat. 12
Chas. II, pt. iii, no. 7.
68 Born 1641, died 1709. Pat, 29
Chas. II, pt. iii, no. 7.
323
69 Born 1661, died 1715. Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, &c. Diet. Nat.
Biog. ; Pat. 8 Anne, pt. i, no. 3.
70 Died 1739. Created Earl of Hali-
fax in 1715, on the death of his uncle j
G.E.C. Peerage, iv, 136.
71 Ibid. Born 1716, died 1771.
In 1748 he held the chief justice-
ship in eyre of the Royal Forests
and Parks south of Trent. Diet. Nat.
Biog.
'" Diet. Nat. Biog. Lysons, Midd.
Parishes, 57.
7« Ibid.
74 Vide Declared Accounts Audit
Office. P.R.O. Index, bdle. 247*,
no. 288, &c.
7* L. and P. Hen. PHI, xx (2), 278.
Acts of P.O. 1542-7, p. 239. In
April of that year a mandate had been
issued that the red deer from the Icing's
chase which had strayed into * woods
and bushes between Cobham and Lon-
don * were not to be molested ; ibid.
512.
*• Master of the Rolls, &c. Diet.
Nat. Bag. ; Wriothesley, Chrott.
(Camd. Soc.), i , 101.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
further petition was brought before the Lord Pro-
tector and Council, by ' many poor men ' of the
parishes of Walton, Weybridge, East and West
Molesey, Cobham, Esher, Byfleet, Thames Ditton,
Wisley, Chesham and Shepperton, complaining
that ' their commons, meadowes and pastures be
taken in, and that all the said parishes are overlayd
with the deer now increasing largely upon them,
very many Households of the same Parishes be lett
fall down, the Families decayed, and the King's
liege people much diminished, the country there-
about in manner made desolate, over and besides
that his Majesty loseth yearly, diminished in his
Yearly Revenues and Rents to a great Summe.'
The Lord Protector and Council examined
twenty-four men of the parishes, and they were
also interrogated by Sir Anthony Browne,
Master of the Horse and Chief Keeper of the
Chase, and it was decided that after Michaelmas
that year the deer should be put into the Forest of
Windsor, the pale round the chase taken away, and
the land restored to the old tenants, to pay again
their former rents." A proviso was however
entered ' that if it shall please his Majesty to use
the same as a chase again,' the order was not to be
taken as prejudicial to the sovereign's rights. These
lands are therefore still technically a royal chase,
and the paramount authority over all game within
its limits is vested in the Crown.
In 1639 Charles I appears to have wished to
make a new ' forest ' by inclosing a tract of about
10 miles of country between Hampton Court and
Richmond as a ' hunting ground for red as well as
fallow deer.' 79 He even began building the wall
to make this inclosure, but so much indignation
was aroused among the people at the idea of their
commons and pasture lands being taken from them
that Archbishop Laud is said to have dissuaded the
king ; and a new ' Hampton Court Chase ' was
not made."
In the time of Edward the Con-
M4NOR fessor HAMPTON was held by Earl
Algar. It was granted by the Con-
queror to Walter de St. Valery, who also received
the neighbouring manor of Isleworth and consider-
able property in other parts of England.80 In
1086 he held 35 hides in Hampton, 1 8 hides
being in demesne, the rest farmed by tenants.
For considerably over a century Hampton remained
in the hands of the St. Valerys. In 1130 Henry I
remitted to Reginald de St. Valery, probably grand-
son of Walter," the sums of £10 lot. of his
Danegelt, and £i I i6s. zd. of the auxiftum comitatus
in Middlesex." He appears to have held the office
of dapifer to Henry II before his accession.81
From 1158 to 1163 Reginald was still holding
lands in Middlesex and other counties.84 In
1 173-6, a Bernard de St. Valery, presumably SOB
of Reginald, is mentioned as holding what appear
to be the same lands.84 In 1201-2 Thomas,
probably son of Bernard, held the property ,M and
seems to have been in possession till 1218-19,
when Henry of St. Albans was permitted by
Henry III to retain the manor of Hampton,
which he held of the gift of Thomas de St.
Valery, notwithstanding that all the lands of the
said Thomas de St. Valery had been taken into
the king's hands.87 It has been suggested that
Thomas joined the rebel barons in the reign of
King John, and if he did not submit on the acces-
sion of Henry III, his lands may have been for-
feited after the battle of Lincoln in 1 2 1 7." He
died in 1219, leaving only a daughter, Annora,
whose first husband, Robert de Dreux, possessed the
other St. Valery manor of Isleworth in right of
his wife.89
Henry of St. Albans, who thus became lord of
the manor at some period before 1218-19, was
well known as a merchant and citizen of London,
and was one of the sheriffs in I2o6.w He only
held Hampton for a short
time, as in 1237 he sold it
to Terrice de Nussa, Prior
of the Hospital of St. John
of Jerusalem in England,
for 1,000 marks,91 he and
his wife Sabine quitclaiming
all rights in the manor to
the prior and his successors.
The prior seems to have
made some claim to the
,. , THE KNIGHTS Hoi-
property at an earlier date, ,ITAllIils. Gule,* cross
as in the Close Rolls of argent.
1230 a 'contention' is
mentioned between H. de S'. Albans and the
prior concerning ' the house of Hampton ; " and
" Harl. MSS. 6195. ' Extract! from
Council Bk. of Edw. VI,' fol. 2 d.~3 d.
Acts ofP.C. 1547-50, p. 190, &c.
^8 Clarendon, Hilt, of Rebellion, i,
100 ; Law, op. cit. ii, iz6.
"9 Ibid. Grove, Hist, of Wolsey, iv,
i86n.
*" Domesday Bk. (Rec. Com.) ; Pipe
R. 4, 8, 9, 19, 22, Hen. II (Pipe
R. Soc.) ; Rot. Cane. 3 John (ed.
Hardy), 105 ; ed. Round, Cal. of Doc.,
France, i, 385 ; Dugdale, Baronage, \,
454. Planche, in The Conqueror and
His Companions, and Lipscomb, Hist, of
Bucks, i, 367, give pedigrees of the St.
Valery family, which trace its descent
from Ric. II, Duke of Normandy, and
' Papia,' his second wife ; -vide Gen.
iv, 239. For the St. Valerys in Nor-
mandy at a later period see Round,
Cal. of Doc. France, i, 6 et seq.
81 It is generally thought that there
was a Guy or a Bernard who was the
son of Walter and father of Reginald;
•vide Gen. iv, 239 ; Dugdale, Baron-
og', ',454-
89 Pipe R. 31 Hen. I, m. 29d.
(Midd.).
83 Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i, 519
(1151).
84 Pipt R. 4 Hen. II (Pipe R. Soc.),
114 ; 8 Hen. II, 8, 14, 19, 27, 36, 42,
44, 49, 67, 7' i 9 *'»• n> '9, 49-
84 Ibid. 19 Hen. II, 170 ; 22 Hen.
II, 29. In 1189 a Reginald de St.
Valery and Bernard his son are men-
tioned as confirming a grant of lands in
Glouc, to the Abbey of Fontevrault ;
Round, Cal of Doc. France, i, 286, 380,
385. This Bernard is said to have been
killed at the siege of Acre in 1190.
Planche, The Conqueror and His Cam-
324
fanions ; Lipscomb, Hist. Bucks, i, 367;
Gen. iv, 239-41 ; Banks, Dorm, and
Ext. Baronage, vi, 174 ; Dugdale,
Baronage, i, 454 ; Law, Hist. Hampton
Court Palace, i, 8.
86 Rot. Cane. 3 John (ed. Hardy),
102, 105.
87 Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), i,
385*.
88 Law, op. cit. i, 8.
89 fide Planche, op. cit. j Lipscomb,
op. cit. ; Dugdale, op. cit, ; Gen. iv, 241.
*> Harl. MSS. 4015, 80, 8oA, 8 1 ;
Cal. Pat. 1216-23; c"l- R<y- Letters,
Reign of Hen. HI, 254 (1225) ; R. R.
Sharpe, Cal. Le ter Bks. of Land. F, 27.
91 Feet of F .Lond. and Midd. 21
Hen. Ill, no .148.
93 Cal. Clote, 1227-31, p. 451.
What the 'contention' was is not
explained.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
there seems to have been a preceptor/ of the
order at Hampton as early as 1180, when the
sisters of the order were removed from their several
commanderies to Mynchin Buckland in Somerset-
shire. ' Sister Joan ' is mentioned in the Mynchin
Buckland charter as the sister from ' Hampton in
Middlesex.' "
In 1250 Henry III made a grant to the prior
and brethren of free warren ' in their manor of
Hampton,' which was confirmed by Edward I in
iz8o.94
Nevertheless, in 1292, Sabine of Durham
claimed the property as the heiress of her grand-
father Henry of St. Albans,95 disputing the right
of the then prior, Brother Peter of Hagham, to the
manor, saying that her grandfather had been
unjustly disseised of the property. The pleading
of the prior is curious, as he denies that Henry
ever was in seisin of the said manor, and the jury
found that the prior and his predecessors continu-
ally held it 'for fifty years past and more.' The
actual sale, which seems to have taken place when
Henry quitclaimed his rights to the prior and his
successors for 1,000 marks, is not mentioned, and
eventually as a compromise Sabine agreed to accept
loo marks, and quitclaimed for herself and her
heirs ' all her rights and claims in the said manor
to God, St. John the Baptist, the prior and
brethren of the hospital and their successors.' 96
Henry of St. Albans had a son William, who is
mentioned, with his wife Alice, in 1 2 3 2, as hold-
ing a messuage at Newton in Middlesex, but he
and his heirs never seem to have claimed Hamp-
ton.*7 The only other person who is mentioned
as having held the manor ' for her life ' before the
Knights Hospitallers sold it to Wolsey, is Joan, the
widow of Robert de Grey, kt. Tanner and
Dugdale have both made the mistake of supposing
that Joan de Grey was herself the donor of the
manor of Hampton to the Knights Hospitallers.9*
What really happened seems to have been that
Joan de Grey inherited the manor of Shobington
in Buckinghamshire from her father Thomas de
Valognes, it having been part of the dowry of her
mother Joan de Valognes. This manor in 1 298-9
Joan de Grey granted in mortmain to the Knights
Hospitallers, but with their permission retained
HAMPTON
her life interest in it, and at the same time had
granted to her by them a life interest in the manors
of Hampton in Middlesex and of Raynham in
Essex, possibly in return for or in acknowledge-
ment of the actual gift which she had made to
them of Shobington."
There is record of two further gifts of land in
Hampton to the Knights Hospitallers. In 1303
Walter de Wyke and Maud his wife granted them
a messuage, 100 acres of arable land, I acre of
meadow, and zos. rent.100 Christine Haywood
also gave them 60 acres of land with appurtenances
in Hampton, and the ' Wike ' (Hampton Wick.)101
In 1338 the report of Prior Philip de Thame
to the Grand Master of the Order gives an account
of the ' Camera ' of Hampton as comprising a
messuage with a garden, a dovecote, and 840
acres of land, chiefly pasture, yielding altogether
£83 I3/. \od. annually.10' The house was evi-
dently small, as the total expenses, including the
stipends and clothing of the brother in charge,
' a chaplain to serve the Chapel,' a corrodyman of
the king, and other members of the household,
were only £30 //. zd. per annum. A charge of
zos. a year is mentioned for maintaining a weir,
which was used for fishing, and farmed at a rent
of £6. There is also a yearly charge of 68/. 4^.
arising out of a composition for tithe made with
the vicar of Hampton,11" and further expense
seems to have been incurred by the 'entertainment
of guests going to and coming from the Black
Prince's house, either at Sheen, or more probably
at Kempton (Kennington), about a mile from
Hampton Court.104 There are few further refer-
ences to the house before it became the property
of Cardinal Wolsey. Fox, Bishop of Winchester,
in a letter to Wolsey, mentions that Henry VII had
used it as a ' cell ' or subsidiary house to his neigh-
bouring palace of Richmond.105 The manor was
leased in 1505 for ninety-nine years at £50 a
year, to Giles, Lord Daubeny, Chamberlain to
Henry VII,106 who died in 1508, leaving in his
will the remainder of the lease to his wife, who
survived him,107 but this agreement is not men-
tioned in the lease granted to Wolsey in 1514.
By an indenture dated ll January 1514-15,
Sir Thomas Docwra, Prior of the Hospital of St.
98 Chart. R. I John, m. 17 ; Thos.
Hugo, Hist, of Mynchin Buckland, 8, 9.
It is said in the charter that the listers
were all removed to Mynchin Buckland
in 1 1 80, but there is a grant in the
Chart. R. of 1227 to the prior and
brethren of 'the right of having their
dogs unlawed in their house in II. un-
tonet in the King's warren of Stanes
— in which house the sisters of the said
order dwell.' Cal. Chart. R. 1226-57,
p. 30 (Mar. 1227).
94 Chart. R, 8 Edw. I, no. 73 ; vide
Cal. Clou, 1279-88, p. 515, &c.
95 Sabine was the daughter of John
Vyel, sen., and Margery daughter of
Henry St. Albans. Sabine married
William of Durham, mercer and citizen
of London. Both Vyel and Durham
were well known, and had considerable
property in London. John Vyel was
sheriff 1218-20; R. R. Sharpe, Cal.
Litter Bks. of LinJ., F. p. 277. William
of Durham was sheriff in 1252 (ibid.
p. 279), alderman in 1277; ibid. A,
p. 15 j Stowe MS. 942, no. 6406 ; Cal.
of MM. Wills, i, 66 ; Anct. D.
(P.R.O.),C 2890, C 1910 ; Cott. MSS.
Nero, E vi, fol. 26, 27.
96 Assize R. Midd. 544*, d. (1292-3).
97 Cal. Close, 1231-4, p. 133.
9S Dugdale, Mon. vi, 802, 832 j
Tanner, Not. Mon. Midd. ii.
99 Inq. a.q.d. 27 Edw I, F. 29, no.
16; Cal. Clou, 1307-13, p. 491;
Feet of F. Div. Co. 27 Edw. I, no. 45 ;
28 Edw. I, no. 51 ; De Banco R.
Mich. 3 Edw. Ill, 279, m. 18 d. It
seems impossible to trace that Joan had
any hereditary claim on the manor, as
has been suggested. Her mother Joan
de Valognes may have been the daughter
or granddaughter of Henry of St. Al-
bans, but this is only conjecture.
32S
100 Cal. Pat. 1301-7, p. 157 ; Inq.
a.q.d. file 43, no. 26 (31 Edw. I) ; Cal.
Inj. p.m. (Rec. Com.), i, 185.
Wl Dugdale, Mon. vi, 832.
i"" Larking, The Knights Hospitallers
in Engl. (Camd. Soc.), 127. 'Report
of Prior Philip de Thame for A.D,
1358.'
03 Larking, op. cit. 128.
104 Ibid. ; Lysons, Midd. Parishes, 271;
Law, op. cit. i, 13.
'<» L. and P. Hen. VIU, iii, 414
(1519). Elizabeth of York went there
in 1503 for a week, to pray for her
safe delivery, just a month before her
child was born and she herself died.
Nicolas, P ivji Purse Expense* of Elix, of
Tork, 94, 95 ; Law, op. cit. i, 14.
106 Cott. MSS. Claudius, E vi, fol. 46.
W Will, Somerset House, P.C.C.
Bennet, 16 ; Diet. Nat. Biag. ' Giles,
Lord Daubeny.'
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
John of Jerusalem, and the brethren of the order
granted a lease for ninety-nine years of the manor
of Hampton Court with
all appurtenances to Thomas
Wolsey, Archbishop of
York, and his assigns, at a
rent of £50 a year, the
lease to take effect from
24 June 1514."" The
prior and brethren were to
allow ^4 1 3*. 4//. yearly to
the archbishop for a priest
to perform divine service in
the chapel of the manor,
and also four loads of wood
and timber from St. John's
Wood yearly for the re-
pair and maintenance of
the weir.
WOL«EY. Saili a
trots engrailed argent
ivith a lion passant gules
between four leopards*
heads azure thereon and
a chief or with a rose
gules between two Cor-
nish choughs therein.
By the terms of the lease Wolsey was to build,
rebuild or alter as he chose, and at the expiration
of the term was to leave a thousand couple of
'conys' in the warren, 'or else for every couple
that shall want 4</.'
The exact date, or the exact manner in which
Wolsey, probably actuated by signs of the king's
jealousy and displeasure, surrendered the manor
and the splendid house he had built to Henry VIII
is not known.109 It became the king's property
before the rest of the cardinal's lands were es-
cheated to the Crown after his attainder in I jzg.110
A letter from Jehan le Sauche, the Austrian
Ambassador, to ' Madame ' (Elizabeth of Austria),
is now in the Vienna archives, and speaks of the
gift having been made as early as June 1525.'"
Stowe and Cavendish both say that the king made
an exchange of Richmond for Hampton Court
with the cardinal.1" Lord Herbert of Cherbury
stated that Wolsey only finished the palace in
1525, and exchanged it with the king for Rich-
mond in 1526."*
Wolsey himself, in writing to the king as early
as 1521, dates his letter from ' Your house of
Hampton Court,"14 but as late as 1528, in writing
to others, continued to speak of it as ' my manor
of Hampton Court.' '"
In 1527 Laurence Stubbs, Wolsey's paymaster
of the works, wrote to him, ' your buildings — at
York Place, Hampton Court, Oxford, &c., go
forward.' '" In a letter from Fitzwilliam to
Wolsey in 1528 he said, 'The King will be glad
to be at your manor of Hampton Court on Satur-
day next — as I told him you could not conveni-
ently remove by that day, he wished to be at your
house on Saturday or Monday at furthest, where
he will spend three or four days before his repair
to Greenwich.'1" In 1527, however, it was
generally considered to be the king's property.
Dodieu (the French Ambassador's secretary) wrote
of it as 'a handsome house built by Wolsey, and
presented by him to the king,' "8 but Wolsey cer-
tainly continued to live there, to receive private
visits there,1" and probably to bear all the expense
of the upkeep, and continued building m until the
time of his disgrace in I529-1'1
The idea has usually been accepted that on the
suppression of the order of St. John in England in
1539 the reversion of the lease of Hampton Court
escheated to the Crown with the other property of
the Order,"1 but this was not the case. In 1531
the king made an exchange with Sir William
Weston, then prior, of ' the Manor of Hampton
or Hampton Courte, Middlesex, for the advowson
of the prebend of Blewbery in Salisbury Cathedral,
lands at Stansgate, Essex and a messuage in
Chancery Lane in the suburb of London.' m
Sir William Paulet,Chris-
topher Hales, Attorney-
General, Baldwin Malet,
and Thomas Cromwell were
appointed as trustees, to
receive the manor 'to the
King's use.'
From that date, 5 June
1531, Hampton Court be-
came the property of the
Crown or the State, and
has so continued to the pre-
sent day, with one short
interval, duNng the Com-
monwealth,1" when the fee
of the manor and honour
was sold to Mr. John Phelps of London, gentle-
man, for £750.'" Buihey Park and its appur-
THI KING OF ENG-
LAND. Azure three Jteun
de Us or, for FRANCI,
quartered 'with Gules
three leopards or for
ENGLAND.
108 Cott. MSS. Claudius, E. vi, fol.
137 (the original lease) ; Close, 6
Hen. VIII, pt. i, no. 38. The lease is
printed in full in Law, Hist. Hampton
Court Palace, i, App. B.
108 The legend is that Henry with
some anger asked the cardinal ' why he
had built so magnificent a house for
himself at Hampton Court ?' Wolsey
is supposed to have made the ready
answer, 'To show how noble a palace
a subject may offer to his sovereign,'
but there is no historic warrant for the
story, which is given in all the o!d
guide books, &c. Vide Law, Hist.
Hampton Court Palace, \, 99.
110 In the inquisitions taken after
Wolsey'i attainder there is no mention
of Hampton Court. Inq. p.m. (Ser.
2), lii, no. 35*, I02//; Ix, no. 62;
Uxvii, no. 26 ; Exch. Inq. p.m. (Ser.
2), file 1220, no. 12*.
111 Cal.S.P. Spanish, iii (i), 209.
™ Annals, 526 (ed. 1616); Harl.
MSS. no. 428 ; Cavendish, Life of
ffolsey (ed. Singer), i, 226.
119 MS. Coll. by Mr. Shaw, an
architect (1827) ; penes Mrs. Edwin
Lascelles.
n< L. and P. Hen. VIII, iii (i), 1192,
7 Mar. 1521.
115 Ibid, iv (2), 275*. Letter to
Jermingham, 16 Jan. 1528.
116 Ibid. iv(2), 1369.
1" Ibid, iv (2), 4766.
118 Ibid, iv (2), 3105, (60). Cromwell
•ays that the king purchased Hampton
Court. This may refer to the later
transaction with the Knights Hospital-
lers. Vide infra ; ibid, x, 513.
119 Ibid, iv, 4332, 4391. Letter
from Warham, Archbp. of Canter-
bury.
326
"» Chapter House AccU. j L. and P.
Hen. VIII, iv(l), 1369.
>« Ibid, iv (3), 5754.
1M Porter, Knights oj Malta, 340 ;
Stat. 32 Hen. VIII, cap. 24.
«• L. and P. Hen. VIII, v, 133, 285,
627, App. no. 12 ; Stat. 23 Hen. VIII,
cap. 26.
114 The questions in Parliament, the
way in which the sale was carried out,
&c., will be referred to more fully in
the history of the palace, p. 354.
lai It was repurchased for £750.
The exact sum for which it was sold
does not appear. Cal. S.P. Dom. 1654,
pp. 1 80, 223. Warrant for purchase,
p. 452 ; 10 Aug. 1654. Phelps was
clerk to the House of Commons, he was
included as one of the regicides on the
accession of Charle» II, and was ob-
liged to leave the country ; Diet. Nat.
Biog.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
CROMWELL. Satlc a
lion argent.
tenances were sold to Edmund Blackwell for
,£6,638 7/., and the Middle Park to Colonel Norton
for £3,701 ig/. In February 1654 they were
all re-acquired for the use of the State, on the
return of the purchase money and the payment
of £1,200 surplusage,"*
made necessary because
some of the lands had al-
ready been sold again."7
John Phelps appears on the
Court Roll as lord of the
manor from 14 May 1652
to 2 June 1654."* No
further courts are recorded
till 2 April 1657, when
the Lord Protector's name
appears."9 After the death
of Cromwell a bill was in-
troduced into Parliament to settle the honour and
manor of Hampton Court on General Monk, but
this was not carried, and on the restoration of
Charles II it became once more the property of
the Crown.1"
HAMPTON COURT PALACE; HISTORT.™
— There is no doubt that the preceptory of the
Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem stood
on the site of the present palace at Hampton
Court, but it seems to have been almost entirely
destroyed by Wolsey when he began his new
building.131 At the end of Wolsey's lease is a
curious list of the goods of the brethren, which
were left in the house when he took possession of
it."3 They were of the most meagre description :
even in the chapel the chalice alone was of silver.
An item of twenty-two beds gives an idea of the
number of people the house could contain. In
the hall were some forms, two tables, and a cup-
board. There were also some chests, and two
bells in the ' toure,' one of which, the sole re-
maining relic of the order in the palace, still rings
for service in the chapel, and has the following
inscription on it : —
+ STELLA + MARIA + MARIS + SUCCVRRE + PIISIMA
+ NOBIS +
{Mary most gracious, Star of the Sea, come to our
assistance)
HAMPTON
The date of the bell is fixed by the letters 'T. H.'
stamped on it, which are the initials of a famous bell-
founder, Thomas Harrys, who lived about 1479.'"
From the date of Wolsey's purchase to the reign
of George III the history of Hampton Court
Palace may almost be said to be the history of
England. Besides its intimate connexion with the
private lives of kings and statesmen, there were few
questions of political importance that were not dis-
cussed by the Privy Council, which met frequently
within its walls, and innumerable letters and docu-
ments which have made history are dated from it.13i
Wolsey's political services in the successful cam-
paigns against France and Scotland in 1513 had
secured him a high place in the king's favour.136
At this date or shortly afterwards he held the
offices of chancellor and grand almoner,137 and
many minor dignities, and was besides bishop of
three English sees and one French see.138 From
the revenues of these offices he amassed consider-
able wealth, and his ambition led to the design of
building for himself a great palace.139
He was influenced in his choice of Hampton
Court as the site for his great house, not only by
the proximity of London and the convenience of
the river as a 'swift and silent' highway, but by
the exceptional healthiness of the neighbourhood.
Afterwards, when the ' sweating sickness ' and the
plague raged in London, only 20 miles off, Hamp-
ton and Hampton Court remained singularly
immune from infection.140
Henry VIII and Katherine of Arragon paid
their first recorded visit to Hampton Court in
March 1514, probably to see the property which
Wolsey intended to acquire.
Giovanni Ratto, an emissary of the Marquis of
Mantua, took the opportunity to present some
very fine horses which his master had sent to the
king — a present highly appreciated by Henry.141
A little later in the same year (June 1514) Wolsey
took possession of the property, and immediately
began his extensive works on the site of the old
manor-house.141
In May 1516 the building was so far advanced
that he was able to entertain the king and
queen at dinner,14' but he did not stay there for
any considerable period before I 5 1 7,144 and it was
198 Cat. S.P. Dam. 1653-4, pp. 300,
356, 385 ; Feet of F. Midd. Trin. 1654.
W Cat. S.P. Dam. 1653-4, pp. 300,
3?6, 363i 385. 397, 4°8, 4°9- Th«e
transactions are printed in full in Law,
op. cit. ii, App. B.
"Stand Rec. Ct. R. (Misc. Bks.),
iii, bdle. 40, no. 3, ' Court Roll of
Hampton Court.'
"« Ibid. The Court Roll of the
manor exists only from 164010 1792.
Cat. S.P. Dom. 1654, p. 32.
180 White Kennet, Hist. Engl. 67 j
Hist. MS. Com. Ref. vii, App. 463 ;
Journals of the House of Commons, 1 5
and 1 6 Mar. 1660 ; S.P. Dom.
Chas. II, x, z. Manorial courts are
still held annually, up to 1 908 at the
' Red Lion,' Hampton on Thames.
The number of copy-holders is now
reduced to about two hundred. (In-
formation from Mr. F. G. Mellish,
bailiff of the manor).
181 The writer wishes to express her
indebtedness to Mr. Ernest Law's Hist, of
Hampton Court Palace for references to
many of the works mentioned in this
account.
13a There is an idea that Wolsey re-
tained the original hall, afterwards re-
built by Henry VIII. Foundations of
an older building have been discovered
under the hall. See Architectural acct.
188 Cotton MSS. Claudius, E. vi, fol.
'37-
84 Law, Hist. Hampton Court Palace,
iii, 389, v/W< Stahlschmidt, Surr. Belli.
Harrys was working at King's College,
Cambridge, in 1479.
«* Vide L. and P. Hen. VIII ; Cat.
S.P. Dom. ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. &c.
"' Creighton, Life of Wolsey, 29.
327
13~ At a later period he also held a
Spanish see ; ibid.
138 In 151; he was made cardinal,
and was appointed Legate a latere in
1518.
139 For history of the architecture of
the palace, see below p. 371 et. seq.
14° L. and P. Henry VIII, ii (preface) j
iii, 1691 ; iv, 4436, 4542.
141 Col. S.P. Venetian, ii, 385 ; Hali-
well, Letters of the Kings of Engl. i, 229.
14a For Parks and Gardens, see p. 380
et. seq. ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, ii (i),
4662 ; Law, op. cit. i, 21.
148 L. and P. Hen. VIII, ii (2),
'935-
144 Ibid, ii (2), 3805 the first letter
in the Calendar dated from Hampton
Court. The first letter from Wolsey
himself was written in Jan. 1518;
ibid. 3886.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
not till after the return from ' The Field of the
Cloth of Gold' in 1520 that he seems to have
considered the house practically complete and
ready for the splendid entertainments which after-
wards took place in it.144
It has been said that Wolsey was probably
the greatest political genius that England has ever
produced, and that ' he must be estimated rather
by what he chose to do than by what he did.' "*
His designs were cast on a vast scale, and at a great
crisis in European history he raised England to the
leading position in international affairs which she
has held practically ever since.1" The field of
action he deliberately chose was foreign policy,
and all his schemes, and his magnificence, includ-
ing the almost regal state in which he lived at
Hampton Court and elsewhere must be understood
as part, and not a small part, of his political de-
sign. The letters of the ambassadors from foreign
courts, which have been preserved, show plainly
the important share that the cardinal's splendour
had in influencing their policy. It conveyed to
their minds more rapidly than anything else could
have done the power of the man — said to be the
son of a butcher at Ipswich — who was not only
making himself the master of England's fortunes,
but who came very near to making himself master
of the fortunes of Europe. Without this explana-
tion, without some appreciation of the largeness of
the plan into which the gorgeous entertainments
of the cardinal's ' court ' fit like the fine detail on
some great building, without which it would be in-
complete, a mere description of his magnificence
shrinks into a meaningless list of somewhat bar-
baric festivities meant only to dazzle the populace.
It is necessary to gain some insight into the vast
interests he had at stake to appreciate at its full
value the picture of the cardinal walking in his
' galleries, both large and long,' HS meditating on
affairs of State ; giving unwilling audience to im-
patient petitioners during his moments of leisure
in the garden,149 or presiding over the princely
fetes he organized in honour of the king or his
guests or the foreign ambassadors.
The political letters and documents of Wolsey's
time, calendared in the Letters and Papers of Henry
fill, dated at Hampton Court or addressed there,
are innumerable,150 but the papers which most
intimately touch Wolsey himself at Hampton
Court Palace are his letters to his agents in Rome,
concerning his candidature for the Papacy in 1523,
on the death of Adrian III,"' and those relating
to the foundation of the cardinal's colleges at
Oxford and Ipswich."1 It is mentioned that the
foundation charter of ' Cardinal's College ' (after-
wards Christ Church), Oxford, was granted in ' the
south gallery at Hampton Court.' IM The letters
of Melancthon and Luther were among those
discussed at Hampton Court, and there is some
correspondence concerning them.1M The ma-
jority of papers, however, dated from Hampton
Court, until the matter of Henry's divorce has to
be considered, are concerning foreign affairs.
Sebastian Giustinian, the Venetian ambassador,
who constantly visited Wolsey at Hampton Court,
writing to his Signory in 1519, gives the following
description of the cardinal : ' He is but forty-six
years old, very handsome,166 learned, extremely
eloquent, of vast ability, and indefatigable. He
alone transacts the same business as that which
occupies all the magistracies, offices and councils of
Venice, both civil and criminal, and all state
affairs likewise are managed by him, let their
nature be what it may. He is pensive and has
the reputation of being extremely just. He
favours the people exceedingly, and especially the
poor, hearing their suits and seeking to dispatch
them instantly. He is in very great repute, seven
times more so than if he were Pope. He is the
person who rules both the king and the entire
kingdom. He is in fact ifse rex, and no one in
this realm dare attempt aught in opposition to his
interests.' 1M His influence with Henry during
the early part of the king's reign was almost
unlimited, and Henry entertained a great affec-
tion for him personally, writing to him as ' mine
awne good Cardinal,' expressing his gratitude
for and appreciation of his Lord Chancellor's
services, begging him to pay attention to his
own health, and signing himself ' Your loving
Master, Henry R.' '" He seems also to have
treated him with great confidence and unusual
familiarity, walking with him in the gardens at
Hampton Court arm in arm, and sometimes
even with his arm thrown round the cardinal's
shoulder.148
145 L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, fa»i*.
"« Creighton, Life of Wthey, 2.
"' Ibid.
18 ' My Galleries were fayer, both
large and long.
To walk in them when that it
lyked me best.'
Cavendish, Life of Wolsey (ed. Singer),
ii, 10.
»» L. and P. Hen. fill, ii (2), 3807.
'When he walks in the park he will
suffer no luitor to come near, but com-
mands them off as far as a man can
•hoot an arrow.' (Tho». Allen to the
Earl of Shrewsbury.) Cavendish says
he was accustomed to say Evensong
with his chaplain as he walked in the
garden. Cavendish, op. cit. i, 42,
233, 246. He also seems to have
been in the habit of holding conversa-
tions with the ambassadors in the garden.
See Du Bellay's Letters. L. and P. Hen.
VIII, iv (2), 4332, 4391, App. no. 158.
1M The entries in the King's Bk. of
Payments, for messengers carrying let-
ters to the cardinal at Hampton Court
are very numerous ; L, and P. Hen,
VIII, iv (2), 3380.
lsl The references given are only
typical, by no means exhaustive. L.
and P. Hen. VIII, iii, 3389. Adrian
died 14 Sept. 1523 ; ibid. 1892, &c.
"' Ibid, iv (2), 4+3 5 i 'bid- 3198.
4230,4231,4423, 4460,4461,51175
(3) P- 255»; °74«-
.»» Ibid. (2), 4461, 3 July 1518.
'"Ibid. 2371-2, Ac.
Iu Skelton, his implacable enemy,
wrote of him (fPorb [ed. Dyce], ii,
315), «:—
' So full of malencoly,
With a flap afore his eye.'
328
Holbein, in the picture now at Christ
Church, Oxford, painted him in profile,
presumably because of a drooping
eyelid. Much bitter and scurrilous
literature was written concerning Wol-
sey not only by Skelton but by William
Roy, a converted Franciscan friar (see
Rede me and be not vjrothe [Arber
Reprints], 37 et seq.).
"« Brewer, Reign of Hen. VIII, i,
60. Giustinian, Despatches, i, 1 37, 2 1 5.
'Though he might be called proud
cardinal and proud prelate by those
who were envious of his power, there
is no trace throughout his correspond-
ence of the ostentation of vulgar
triumph or gratified vanity.' Brewer,
L. and P. Hen. VIII, i, Pre. p. Ixxxvii.
"7 Ellis, Orig. Linen (Ser. 3), i, 190.
1M Law, Hiit. Hampton Court Palate,
«»43-
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
Wolsey, who 'passed for an old man broken
with the cares of state' before his fall, and
died when he was only fifty-five, seems to have
failed in health from an early date. In 1517 he
suffered from the ' sweating sickness,' and was still
ill at Hampton Court in December of that year.
It was stated that his life had been in danger, and
so great was the fear of infection that Giustinian
said, ' None of those who were once so assiduous
ever went near him.' 149 It was not, however, by
any means only as a health resort that the cardinal
used his great house ; there is a contemporary de-
scription by Hall I6° of a characteristic masquerade
given by Wolsey at Hampton Court, to entertain
the king in 1519 ; he says : 'There were as many
as thirty-six masquers disguised, all in one suite of
fine green satin, all over covered with cloth of gold,
undertied together with laces of gold, and making
hoods on their heads : the ladies had tyers made
of braids of damask gold, with long hairs of white
gold. All these masquers danced at one time, and
afters they had danced they put off their vizors,
and then they were all known.' Their supper
was ' of countless dishes of confections and other
delicacies,' and afterwards, ' large bowls filled with
ducats and dice were placed on the table for such
as liked to gamble ; shortly after which the supper
tables being removed, dancing commenced,' and
lasted, as it often did on such occasions, ' till long
after midnight.'
Cavendish says that when the king repaired to
the cardinal's house ' for his recreation, divers
times in the year, there wanted no preparation or
goodly furniture with viands of the finest sort that
could be gotten for money or friendship,' and tells
an amusing story of the king's coming ' suddenly
thither in a masque with a dozen masquers all in
garments like shepherds (sic) made of fine cloth of
gold and fine satin . . . with vizors of good propor-
tion and physiognomy.' He goes on to say that
they startled the cardinal and his guests with ' the
noise of guns — they sitting quiet at a solemn
banquet ' — and that Wolsey entertained them as
strangers, and to the great joy of king and court
mistook which was the king, and went up to one
of the gentlemen of the court, hat in hand.161
Only Shakespeare could do justice to these scenes
of simple yet magnificent festivity, with the figure
of the great cardinal moving through the gay
courtiers that thronged his stately courts, unmind-
ful of the jealousy already at work to undermine
his power and his influence with the king.161a It
was in 1522 that Anne Boleyn returned from
France, and in 1524 Skelton's satire, Why come ye
not to Court? was published, in which he drew
attention to the vast crowd of suitors who followed
the cardinal rather than the king.161
It is impossible here to follow the course of
Wolsey's diplomacy during the following years,
though Hampton Court was the scene of many
of his negotiations.163 In 1515 he had received
the cardinal's hat, and in 1517 was made papal
legate. His moment of greatest success was per-
haps in 1518, when universal peace was concluded
among the European nations, but his path was
beset with difficulties from the time of Maximilian's
death in 1519, and in the course of the next few
years his great design to maintain the peace of
Europe and the position of England as mediator
in the politics of the Continent was overthrown.164
He continued to work for peace, and an important
treaty was signed at Hampton Court in 1526 by
Wolsey on behalf of Henry VIII, and by the
French ambassador on behalf of Francis I, to the
effect that neither king should unite with the
emperor against the other, and that the King of
England should endeavour to procure the libera-
tion of the French king's sons, then held as
hostages in Spain.164 Wolsey had been working
for some time to arrange a separate peace with
France, and his letter to Henry from Hampton
Court three days later expresses his satisfaction
with the agreement.106 In the following year the
French commissioners, Gabriel de Grammont,
Bishop of Tarbe, Francois Vicomte de Turenne,
and Antoine le Viste, president of Paris and
Bretagne, arrived in England to arrange a further
alliance between the two kingdoms and a marriage
between Francis I and Henry's daughter Mary,
then only ten years old. Dodieu, the secretary
to the French embassy, gives a detailed account
of the negotiations.107 The ambassadors seem 10
have stayed in ' the village at the end of the Park,'
probably Hampton Wick. They were taken to
the palace, where the king and queen were staying,
and received by Wolsey, afterwards having an audi-
ence of the king 'in the hall.'16 In the evening,
after dining with Wolsey and other members of
the council, they were admitted to the queen's
' chamber,' and talked with the king on indifferent
matters, discussing Luther and his heresy, and the
book that Henry had lately written ; the king
showing himself, as Dodieu says, ' very learned.'
The ambassadors and Wolsey afterwards dis-
cussed the subject of the treaty at length in the
'Cardinal's own room.'169 They went back to
London, and it was some time before a final con-
clusion was reached, and the treaty signed by
Henry at Greenwich in April 1527. 17° It was rati-
fied at Amiens in September, when Wolsey went
159 Giustinian, Despatches, ii, 90 ;
L. and P. Hen. fill, ii, Pref. p. ccxxvi.
1M Hall, Chron. 595 (ed. 1809).
»> Cavendish, Life of Wolsey (ed.
Singer), i, 49.
i«» Hen. fill, Act i, Sc. 4.
>« Skelton, Works (ed. Dyce), ii,
176-320.
»«»See L. and P. Hen. fill, 1518,
Ac.
•eq.
.
164 Creighton, Life of Wolsey, 5 1 et
«»£. and P. Hen. fill, iv (2),
2382.
16« Ibid. 2388.
"7 Ibid. 1406.
168 Not the present ' Great Hall,'
which was built by Henry VIII after-
wards, and the room in which the
queen interviewed the ambassadors no
longer exists ; but there seems to be
little doubt that Wolsey kept a suite of
rooms for Katherine on the second
floor in the eastern side of the ' Clock '
329
Court, which was afterwards trans*
formed and partly rebuilt by George II.
The entrance to these rooms remains,
with traces of the cardinal's coat-of-
arms in the spandrels of the doorway ;
Law, Hist. Hampton Court Palace, i,
10I-I.
169 Architecture, see p. 371 et. ieq.
^° L. and P. Hen. fill, iv (2),
p. 1413, Dodieu's narrative. Fortermt
of the treaty see Rymer, Foedera, «iv,
195.
42
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
to meet Francis I. On account of the negotiations
having been carried on there, it is known as the
• Treaty of Hampton Court.' I71
Perhaps the most wonderful, as well as the last,
of all Wolsey's regal entertainments at Hampton
Court took place in the autumn of 1527, when a
special embassy, consisting of the Grand Master
and Marshal of France, Anne de Montmorency
du Bellay, the Bishop of Ba) onne, the president of
Rouen, and M. d'Humieres, followed by a retinue
of a hundred ' of the most noblest and wealthiest
gentlemen in all the Court of France," and a guard
of five or six hundred horse, came to England to
ratify the agreement finally, and to invest the king
with the order of St. Michael.'" It is of their visit
to Hampton Court that Cavendish gives a de-
and furnishing the same with beds of silk and other
furniture apt for the same in every degree. . . .
Then the carpenters, the joiners, the masons, the
painters, and all other artificers necessary to glorify
the house and feast were set to work. There were
fourteen score beds provided and furnished with
all manner of furniture to them belonging. . . ."n
On the day appointed ' the Frenchmen ' assem-
bled at Hampton Court and rode to Hanworth
(2 or 3 miles away), where they hunted till the
evening, and then returned to the palace, where
' everyone of them was conveyed to his chamber
severally, having in them great fires and wine
ready to refresh them. The first waiting chamber
was hanged with fine arras, and so were all the
rest, one better than another, furnished with tall
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : WOLSEY'S KITCHEN
lightful account. He begins by describing how
the cardinal sent for 'the principal officers of
his house, as his steward, comptroller, and the
clerks of the kitchen — whom he commanded to
prepare for this banquet at Hampton Court, and
neither to spare for expenses or travail ' — that
the guests may make ' a glorious report in their
country.' ' The cooks wrought both day and night
in divers subleties and many crafty devices — the
yeomen and grooms of the wardrobe were busied
in hanging of the chambers with costly hangings,
yeomen. There was set tables round about the
chambers banquet-wise, all covered with fine cloths
of diaper. A cupboard of plate "4 parcel gilt . . .
having also in the same chamber, to give the more
light, four plates of silver, set with lights upon
them, and a great fire in the chimney. The next
chamber, being the chamber of presence, hanged
with very rich arras, wherein was a gorgeous and
precious cloth of estate hanged up, replenished
with many goodly gentlemen ready to serve . . .
the high table was set and removed beneath the
?Teon"d> *"*"' d« T"»** <>' 17"Du Bellar also mentions 280 ambassadors were there;' L. and P.
-x 11, 286 ; c,t Law, op. cit. i, 103 ; beds, as quoted in Mag. Brit. 1724 ; Hen. fill, iv (3), 6748.
r f
Rymer,
x,v, 195.
•vide also 'accounts for expenses at
the French
''« Memo,™ d, Martin du Btlley,v^o. Hampton Court when
33°
3041.
and P. Hen. fill, v (2),
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
cloth of estate. . . . There was a cupboard — in
length the breadth of the chamber, six desks high,
full of gilt plate, very sumptuous, and of the newest
fashions ; and upon the nethermost desk garnished
all with plate of clean gold, having two great
candlesticks of silver and gilt, most curiously
wrought, the workmanship whereof, with the
silver, cost three hundred marks, and lights of
wax as big as torches burning upon the same.
The plates that hung on the walls to give light in
the chamber were of silver and gilt, with lights
burning in them, a great fire in the chimney, and
all other things necessary for the furniture of so
noble a feast. . . . My lord's officers caused the
trumpets to blow to warn to supper . . . the
service was brought up in such order and abund-
ance, both costly and full of subtleties, with such a
pleasant noise of divers instruments of music, that
the Frenchmen, as it seemed, were rapt into Para-
dise. . . .
' Before the second course, my Lord Cardinal
came in among them, booted and spurred, all sud-
denly, and bade them preface (welcome). My Lord
commanded them to sit still — and straightways
being not shifted of his riding apparel, sat down in
the midst — laughing and being as merry as ever I
saw him in all my life. . . . Then my Lord took
a bowl of gold, which was esteemed at the value of
500 marks, filled with hypocras — putting off his
cap, said, " I drink to the king, my Sovereign Lord
and Master and to the king your master," and
therewith drank a good draught. And when he
had done he desired the Grand Master to pledge
him cup and all, the which cup he gave him, and
so caused all the other lords and gentlemen in
other cups to pledge these two royal princes. . . .
Then went my Lord to his privy chamber to shift
him ; and returned again among them, using them
so nobly, with so loving and familiar countenance
and entertainment, that they could not commend
him too much.'
Cavendish goes on to describe that every cham-
ber had ' a bason and a ewer of silver, some gilt
and some parcel gilt, and some two great pots of
silver in like manner, and one pot at the least with
wine and beer, a bowl or goblet, and a silver pot
to drink beer in— a silver candlestick or two — and
a staff torch ; a fine manchet, and a chetloaf of
bread. ... In the morning of the next day (not
early) they rose and heard mass, and dined with
my Lord and so departed towards Windsor, and
there hunted, delighting much in the castle or
college, and in the Order of the Garter.' "6
On another occasion the king expressed his plea-
HAMPTON
sure in hunting with Wolsey, ' and wished him to
come again that they might have the pastime
together two or three days."76
Wolsey at first seems to have encouraged Henry's
desire for a divorce in order to further his own
foreign policy,1" but 'the greatest political genius
that England has ever seen ' was no match for the
ambition of Anne Boleyn, supported by the king's
passion. From the moment that Anne became
Wolsey's political rival his doom was sealed."5
His enemies began to make themselves felt when
his efforts to obtain the decree of divorce from the
Pope failed,"9 and the royal favour was withdrawn
from him. His gift of Hampton Court to the
king was doubtless made at a moment when he
first realized that his influence was declining.
The satirists, Skelton and Roy, expressed public
opinion when they dared to publish reflections on
his name and fame.180
Meanwhile the cardinal continued to live at
Hampton Court, to receive private visits there, and
to transact business. The ambassadors continued
to wait upon him, notably Du Bellay, the French
ambassador, who stayed at the palace in June I 528,
and mentions in his dispatches the various conver-
sations he had with Wolsey, often while he was
'walking in his gardens.'181 It was at Hampton
Court, too, that he saw the Netherlands ambassa-
dors, and there that eventually a truce for eight
months was arranged with the Low Countries, and
signed 15 June 1528. On 17 June it was
solemnly confirmed in the chapel, Wolsey, the
envoys of the Netherlands, Du Bellay, and the
representatives of the emperor being present.181
This truce, which must not be confused with the
peace mentioned before, is also known as 'The
Truce of Hampton Court.'
After this, the troubles which were gathering
fast about Wolsey, and the prevalence of the
' sweating sickness,' seem to have prevented him
from offering further hospitalities. During June,
July, and August 1528 he was at the palace,
attended only by a few followers, instead of by the
train of noble and gallant gentlemen who had
hitherto clustered round him.183 On 3 July 1529,
Du Bellay wrote that ' Wolsey is hidden at Hamp-
ton Court, because he knew nowhere else to go.
He has fortified his gallery and his garden (.'against
the sickness). Only four or five are allowed to see
him.' 184 The king seems to have stayed with him
there again in September and December I528,185
and in March, April, and July l^zy.™ The last
time that Wolsey himself was at Hampton Court
was in July 1529. In November of that year a
17* Cavendish, Lift of Wohey (ed.
Singer), i, 134-5-
»7« L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (2), 4766,
Sept. 1528.
"7 Gairdner, in Engl. Hist. Rev. Oct.
1906.
V* Creighton, op. cit. 160, 213.
W Diet. Nat. Biog. ' Wolsey,' 339 ;
Trans. Roy. Hist. Sac. (Ser. 2), xiii, 75,
102. The various lords who had long
been jealous of Wolsey's influence with
the king were ready to take Anne
Boleyn's part against him ; Friedmann,
Anne Boleyn ; Thos. Gairdner, ' New
Lights on Divorce of Henry VIII,'
Engl. Hist. Rev. July 1890, Oct. 1906.
"° See p. 328, n. 155.
»l L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (2), 4332,
4391, App. no. 1 58 j Le Grand, Hittoire
du Divorce, iii, 1 30-6 ; cit. Law,
Hat. Hampton Court Palace, i, 113.
184 Le Grand, Histoire du Divorce, iii,
129 i L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (2), 4566.
The representative! of France and Spain
331
'touched hands in token of amity,'
though one of the terms of the truce
was that hostilities with Spain were
not to be entirely suspended.
198 An account of the ' sweating
sickness ' gathered from the L. and P.
Hen. VIII is given in the preface to
vol. ii, p. ccvii et seq.
1M L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (i),
1940.
186 Ibid. (2), 4766, 5016.
'«• Ibid. (3), 5476, 5681, 5806.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
bill of indictment was preferred against him in the
King's Bench.187 He was told that the king wished
him to retire to Esher, where he had built a small
house, of which a part still remains.188 He only
lived for about a year longer, and Hampton Court
is not concerned in the final details of disgrace of
him who : —
Once trod the ways of glory,
And sounded all the depths and shoals of
honour.18*
Henry was already at the palace when he sent
for Cavendish to speak with him about the car-
dinal's death. Cavendish's account shows plainly
the profoundly self-seeking character of Henry.
Wolsey's faithful servant was summoned to attend
the king, who was engaged in archery in the park.
As Cavendish stood against a tree, sadly musing,
Henry suddenly came up to him and clapped him
on the shoulder, saying, ' I will make an end of my
game, and then I will talk with you.' He after-
wards went into the garden, but kept Cavendish
waiting for some time outside. Their interview
was long, and the king said he would ' liever than
twenty thousand pounds that the cardinal had
lived.' 19° He nevertheless inquired anxiously about
£1,500, apparently all that remained of his favour-
ite's great fortune, which he had sent Sir William
Kingston 191 to claim from Wolsey on his death-
bed.19'
It is possible to obtain a very clear idea of the
wonderful collection of furniture, pictures, tapes-
tries, and plate which Wolsey had at Hampton
Court from an inventory of his belongings taken
after his attainder,193 from an Augmentation Office
Roll now in the Record Office ; from Cavendish's
Life ; and from the Venetian ambassador's accounts
of his plate.194
Venier, the Venetian ambassador in 1527,
estimated what he saw at Hampton Court alone
as worth 300,000 golden ducats, or £150,000.
Giustinian valued the silver he saw in 1519 at the
same amount, and says that the cardinal always had
a sideboard of plate worth £25,000, in any house
where he might be, and in his own room a
cupboard with further plate to the amount of
£3o,ooo.194
The number of the cardinal's retainers, as es-
timated in contemporary records, varies, but con-
sisted probably of about four hundred persons.194
In Cavendish's different MSS. the numbers vary
from one hundred and fifty to eight hundred. The
first assessment of his household in a subsidy roll
(No. 204) at the Record Office gives the number
35429 people; another, dated 1525, makes the
total not more than two hundred and fifty ; 197 but
an assessment, taken apparently after his attainder
in 1530, gives the number again as 429. 198 The
expenses of his household were something over
£30,000 a year in modern reckoning, but of course
this ' included the entertainment of numerous
gentlemen of good family, a very considerable
retinue, and all the expenses of the Chancery.' lw
Henry did not take possession of Hampton
Court until Wolsey was actually banished. Up to
that time the ' King's Manor ' of Hampton Court
was apparently a figure of speech, but one of his
first acts was to erase the cardinal's badges and to
mark the whole building with his own arms and
monograms.200 In the Chapter House Accounts
for 1530-2 there are numerous items for fixing,
carving, painting, and gilding the king's heraldic
1[>" His last interview with the king
seems to have been at Grafton Regis
in Sept. 1529 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. 'Wol-
sey.'
ld8 In tile grounds of Esher Place,
now the property of Sir Edgar Vincent;
Cavendish, op. cit. ii, 24.7 ; L. and P.
Hen. VIII, iii, 414. The Gent. Mag.
tor 1877 contains an interesting article
on 'Cardinal Wolsey at Esher ' by
— Walford.
188 Shakespeare, Hen. VIII, Act iii,
Sc. ii. Respect for tradition claims
mention of the ' Cardinal Spider,' which
is said to be peculiar to Wolsey's part
of the palace, and to be connected in
some strange fashion with his tragic
fate. It is of a reddish brown colour,
and often attains a very large size.
Respect for truth claims mention that
the species Tegenaria Guyvnii, or Domet-
tica, is to be found in other parts of the
Thamci Valley ; Blackwall, Hilt, of
the Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland,
1 60 et seq. ; cit. Law, Hist. Hampton
Court Palace, i, 115. Tradition also
has it that the cardinal haunts the
scenes of his former greatness, and an
amusing story is told of a housekeeper
of the palace early in the last century,
who, when asked if she had ever seen
or heard of Wolsey's ghost, replied
with nonchalance that she seldom went
through the cloisters without ' brush-
ing against his Eminence.' Another
story is told of a room near that which
is now shown to the public as ' the
Cardinal's Oratory.' A party of young
people were playing at cards in this
room, and the door continued to burst
open constantly without any reason.
•One of the players, becoming tired of
getting up to shut it, said, impatient-
ly, ' If it is the Cardinal who keeps
on opening that door, I wish he would
sometimes shut it again.' The door
immediately closed of itself, quite
quietly. (Local traditions.)
190 Cavendish, op. cit. i, 328 ; L.
and P. Hen. VIII, iv, Introd. p. dcxx-i.
191 Constable of the Tower.
192 Cavendish, op. cit. i, 328-31;
Creighton, Life of Wohey, 206-7 i
L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv, Introd.
p. dcxv.
"» Harl. MSS. 599.
194 Aug. Office Roll ; cit. L. and P.
Hen. VIII, iv (3) ; Cat. S.P. Venetian,
1527—33, no. 205, &c. ; Giustinian,
Despatches, ii, 314, &c. ; L. and P. Hen.
VIII, ii, Introd. p. ccxlvii, &c. For
detailed account see Law, Hist. Hamp-
ton Court Palace, i, 57-82 ; Law,
Guide n Hampton Court Palace, 1907 ;
Inventories of plate are printed in
Gutch, Collectanea Curiosa, ii, 283,
334-
194 Cal. S.P. Venetian, 1527-33;
Giustinian, Despatches, ii, 314, <Scc. ;
L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (3), 6186,
332
6748, &c. ; Add. MS. B.M. 24359,
fol. 42.
196 L. and P. Hen. VIII, ii, Introd.
p. ccxlvii, n.
"7 Ibid. Brewer suggests that Wol-
sey's household, as well as the house at
Hampton Court, had been made over
to Henry in 1525, but the return to
the larger number at a later date is in-
explicable on this assumption. There
are entries in Wolsey's accounts for the
entertainment of the French ambas-
sadors at Hampton Court as late as
1527 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (3),
pp. 3041-3.
198 Ibid. (3), 6185.
199 Brewer, op. cit. ii, Introd. p.
ccxlvii, &c. Wolsey's personal attend-
ants numbered 1 60 persons, including
his high chamberlain, vice-chamberlain,
12 gentlemen ushers, daily waiters, 8
gentlemen ushers, and waiters of hit
privy chamber, 9 or 10 lords, 40 per-
sons acting as gentlemen cup-bearers,
carvers, servers, &c. ; 6 yeomen ushers,
8 grooms of the chamber, 46 yeomen
of his chamber 'daily to attend upon
his person,' 16 doctors and chaplains,
2 secretaries, and 4 counsellors learned
in the law. As Lord Chancellor he had
a separate retinue ; Law, op. cit. i, 86,
87.
200 See Henry's arms in the First, or
Base, Court, which still remain, also in
the chapel, at the chapel door, &c.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
devices, which are still to be seen in some parts of
the palace.*01 It was not till the following year
that he made the exchange of lands with the Prior
of St. John of Jerusalem by which the manor of
Hampton Court became legally Crown property.*"
The proceedings for the king's divorce had been
going on for some time, and as early as 1528,
while Wolsey was still at the palace, the French
ambassador, Du Bellay, wrote that 'Me"e de
Boulan ' had been given a ' very fine lodging near
the king,'*0* and mentioned that 'greater court
was paid to her than has been to the queen for a
long time.' IM Katherine, however, accompanied
Henry in the beginning of February 1530, when
he first went to Hampton Court after Wolsey's
disgrace,104 and they were said to treat each other
HAMPTON
and Princess Mary the ground floor.208 There are
also many entries of a later date in the Chapter
House Accounts for ' the lady Anne's lodgynges,' *"
but it is not possible to say exactly which rooms
they were. The king's ' Privy Purse Expenses '
give an idea of the numerous presents he made to
her. They spent Christmas 1530 at Hampton
Court, and the king gave her, besides other things,
£ i oo, and further sums 'to play with' at bowls
and other games.110 In September 1532 he had
some of the Crown jewels sent from Greenwich to
Hampton Court for her."1 She was allowed her
own suite of attendants,"' and Henry treated her
with the greatest consideration. He rode with
her,'1* walked in the park or the gardens with her,
and taught her to shoot at the target.11' Katherine
HAMPTON COURT : TENNIS COURT FROM THE WEST SIDE
in public with the ' greatest possible attention.' ™6
The king at this time inhabited the first floor in
the Clock Court, the queen the rooms previously
allotted to her by Wolsey on the floor above,"7
meanwhile remained constantly with the king while
he enjoyed his ' usual sports and royal exercises ' at
Hampton Court"5 until 14 July 1531, when he
left her at Windsor and rode to Hampton Court."6
»01 Chap. Ho. Accts. C. ,%, fol.
1-261 i C. j^j, passim. For Henry's
other alterations and improvements
»« p. 372.
va See p. 3 26, descent of the manor 5
L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (i), 627, App.
no. 12.
408 ' Anne Bouillayne's lodgynges at
Hampton Court' are mentioned in the
Chap. Ho. Accts. for 1528 ; C. ^> fo1-
no. It is generally said that this
* lodgynge ' was at Greenwich ; Col. S.P.
Spanish, iii, 863 ; L. and P. Hen.
VIII,\\, 5177, 5211. .
** L. ana" P. Hen. f^lll, iv (2),
2177.
*» Ibid, iv (3), 6227.
«* Cal. S.P. Venetian, iv, no. 584,
637, 642.
"°7 See p. 327.
1108 Cal. S.P. Venetian, iv, no. 584.
809 Chap. Ho. Accts. C. fa fol. 121,
196, 597, 615, &c.
MO Nicolas, Privy Purse Exfenset of
Hen. VIII, Introd.
«"£. and P. Hen. VIII, v, 1335.
They are described as ' 7 carkaynes of
gold set with diamonds and other stones.
333
A George garnished with 16 small
diamonds, and a rocky pearl in the
dragon's belly. A gold chain, Spanish
fashion, enamelled white, red and
black.'
*la Le Grand, Histoire du Divorce, iii,
'37, 251.
M8 Cavendish, op. cit. i, 75, 80 ; L.
and P. Hen. VIII, v, 308.
814 Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of
Hen. VIII, 91.
Ms Cal. S.P. Venetian, iv, 637, 642.
«" Hall, Cbron. fol. 781 (ed. 1548).
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
From that day he never saw her again. The
accounts of Henry's sojourns at Hampton Court
read like the shifting scenes of one long pageant of
joy and revelry, yet in the background are the
meetings of the Council, the dispatches daily sub-
mitted to the king, the discussions of foreign policy,
and the masterly manipulation of one of the greatest
revolutions England has ever seen, the detachment
of the National Church from the Church of
Rome.'"
Hampton Court was, however, chiefly the scene
of the king's pleasures. At the time of the Dissolu-
tion of the Monasteries he created the ' Honour
and Chase of Hampton Court to improve his
hunting.' "8 The king was also fond of fishing,
and in his privy purse expenses are several entries
for his rods to be brought to the palace, and for
payments to the fishermen who attended him."9
A large ' Tilt Yard ' was made on the north
side of the palace, about 9 acres in area,"0 with five
towers in which the spectators might sit,"1 and
there numerous jousts and tournaments took place,
in which Henry often distinguished himself ' in
supernatural feats, changing his horses and making
them fly rather than leap, to the delight and ecstasy
of everybody.'"* Giustinian gives an account of
one of these tournaments held at Hampton Court,
and says that when the king himself appeared a
grand procession was formed, headed by the mar-
shal of the jousts on horseback, dressed in cloth of
gold, surrounded by thirty footmen in liveries of
blue and yellow. Then followed the drummers
and trumpeters, all dressed in white damask ; next
forty knights and lords in pairs, all in superb attire,
and many in cloth of gold ; then ' some twenty
young knights, on very fine horses, all dressed in
white, with doublets of silver and white velvet,
and chains of unsual size, and their horses barded
with silver chain-work, and a number of pendent
bells.' Next came their pages, on horseback, their
trappings, half of gold embroidery and half of
purple velvet, embroidered with stars ; and then
the jousters, armed, with their squires and foot-
men. Last of all came his Majesty, armed cap-H-
p'te, with a surcoat of silver bawdakin, surrounded
by some thirty gentlemen on foot, dressed in velvet
and white satin, and in this order they went twice
round the lists.' "*
Another favourite pastime of the period was
archery, in which Henry also excelled, and amused
himself by teaching Anne Boleyn, and perhaps
other ladies of the Court, to shoot. Lord Roch-
ford, Anne Boleyn's brother, won large sums from
the king at this sport."4 The butt stood in what
was called ' The Great Orchard,' to the north of
the palace."5
The tennis-court, or 'close tennis play,' at
Hampton Court must also be mentioned, as it is
the oldest court of the kind in England, and
Henry was a skilful and graceful player."6 There
seems to have been also an ' open tenys play,' no
doubt a forerunner of lawn tennis, and an open
and two close bowling alleys. One of these alleys
existed until about a hundred years ago, and was
270 ft. long, with windows on both sides. It
stood apparently behind the tennis court, and
there was another near the river."7 Henry was
an inveterate gambler, his losses at dice, back-
gammon, shovel-board, &c., in one year amounted
to ^30,000."* At the same time, his great
versatility must be acknowledged, for, besides his
encouragement of artists,"9 and numerous entries of
payments to the king's minstrels for playing before
him at Hampton Court,*30 he seems to have been
a musician himself (some of the songs he composed
are still extant)*31 and all witnesses speak of his
skill in singing. He had also some taste for
literature, and spoke several languages. The king's
' libarye ' at Hampton Court is often mentioned
in the Chapter House Accounts, and he filled it
with books from York Place.*3'
BADGE OF QUEEN ANNE BOLEYN
"' L. and P. Hen. V1U, iv-xxi.
818 See under ' Honour.'
819 Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of
Hen. VIII, 65, 83.
320 Now a nursery garden, rented
from the Crown by J. Naylor.
*" The old wall still remain*, and
one of the towers ; vide Law, op. cit.
i, 135 et seq.
'ea Giustinian, Dispatches, ii, 102.
M* Ibid, ii, 101.
»* L. and P. Hen. fill, v, 755 ;
Nicolas, Privy Purie Expenses of Hen.
f-'flt, 145, 'Item, the same day
(8 July «53i) paied to my Lorde
de Rocheforde for shooting with the
King's Grace at Hampton Corte,
£58.'
*» Chap. Ho. Accts. C. $,» fo1-
481, &c.
m See p. 290 for description of tennis
court. Giustinian gives a flattering
account of his appearance : ' It is the
prettiest thing in the world to »ee him
play, his fair skin glowing through a
shirt of the finest texture ; ' Despatches,
i, 27. He also had other clothes made
on purpose for playing, including
' tenys cotes ' of blue or black velvet to
put on when he rested ; Strutt, Manners
334
and Customs, iii, 87; cit. Law, op. cit. i,
139.
**7 Law, op. cit. i, 140.
328 Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of
Hen. VHl.
«» See Chap. Ho. AccU.
380 Nicolas, op. cit. ; L. and P. Hen.
yill, v, 307.
231 MS. in possession of Mrs. Lamb,
cit. Arch, rli, 371 (by W. Chappell,
F.S.A.).
283 Nicolas, op. cit. 89 ; • Item,
paied to Joly Jak for bringing the king's
books from York Place to Hampton
Courte — 51., Nov. 26, 1530.'
0
CJ
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
Anne Boleyn was crowned in June 1533, and
in July she came to Hampton Court, where a
series of magnificent ' revellynges ' took place in
her honour. Besides joining in hunting, dancing,
gambling, and other diversions,** she seems to
have shared Henry's love of music, and to have
amused herself and her ladies by doing needlework,
of which specimens were to be seen at Hampton
Court for many years after her death."* As well as
his other additions to the palace Henry caused a
new suite of rooms to be erected for Anne, instead
of the ' Queen's Old Lodgynges ' ; but she never
occupied the splendid apartments designed for
her."5
There were great rejoicings at the birth of
Elizabeth, but Henry very soon made manifest
how all-important he considered the birth of a
son. It becomes sufficiently apparent what the
dominating motive was for the vast labour, time,
trouble and expense lavished on obtaining his
divorce. Anne was too slight a creature to retain
any sort of influence over the king when she thus
failed to satisfy his ambition. In January 1536,
possibly at Hampton Court, it is said that she
made her first discovery of Jane Seymour's attrac-
tion for Henry,"6 and her remonstrances only
completed her estrangement from the king, who
had apparently for some time previously contem-
plated the possibility of annulling his marriage
with her.*37 Four months later, on 19 May 1536
she was executed on Tower Green, and the general
sentiment of the country was one of joy at her
death.238
A fortnight before her execution Henry left
York Place for Hampton Court, and on 1 1 May
Cromwell visited him there and settled with him
the details of the coming trial ; returning the same
night.'59
Jane Seymour was sent to Sir Nicholas Carewe's
house, about seven miles from London, but was
shortly removed to a house on the Thames nearer
to the king.140 The following week, when the
death of Anne was announced to Henry, he imme-
diately went by barge to the house where Jane
Seymour was staying. A dispensation for the
marriage was obtained from Cranmer on the very
day of Anne's execution.'" The next morning at
six o'clock J.tne secretly joined the king at Hampton
HAMPTON
Court, and there, in the presence ot a few courtierSf
they were formally betrothed,"' not married as has
sometimes been stated. Ten days later they were
married in the ' Queue's Closet at York Place." IU
BADGE OF QUEEN JANE SEYMOUR
The new apartments not being finished, Jane
Seymour does not seem to have resided at Hampton
Court during the first year of her reign,"4 but in
September 1537 she retired there to await the
birth of the anxiously-expected heir to the throne.*4*
The king accompanied her, and was present when
on Friday 1 2 October, the vigil of St. Edward's
Day, 1537, at two o'clock in the morning, the
long-desired prince was born."6 How much the
evil of a disputed succession was dreaded is shown
by the extreme joy of the whole nation.*" A
circular announcing the birth, signed by Jane
Seymour, was sent to ' all the estates and cities of
the realm. Given under our signet at My Lord's
Manor of Hampton Court, 12 Oct. I537/148
By tradition the room in which Edward VI was
born is one on the first floor in the south-east
corner of the Clock Court. This room was
partially rebuilt and altered in the reign of
*" Fricdmann, Life of Anne Boleyn,
i, 213.
984 Wyatt, Memoir of Anne Boleyn, in
Cavendish, Life of ffolsey (ed. Singer),
ii, 442. There is a gateway still
known as 'Anne Boleyn's Gateway,'
p. 376.
*" See architectural account, plan at
All Souls' Library, &c.
286 Wyatt, Memoir of Anne Boleyn,
443 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, x, 103,
201, 24$.
a8' It is not within the scope of this
paper to enter into the question of
Anne's guilt or innocence, even in such
details as may be connected with
Hampton Court ; vide L. and P. Hen.
fill, x, 879, &C, ; Friedmann, Anne
Boleyn, vol. ii ; Wyatt, Memoir of Anne
Boleyn, &c. She is said to haunt a cer-
tain staircase in the palace, near the
* Quene's Lodgynges ' which she never
inhabited. The staircase itself is part of
Wren's building, but joins the older part.
«»8 L. and P. Hen. fill, x, 377.
239 Sir W. Paulet to Cromwell 1 1
May 1536, P.R.O. Cromwell Corresp.
xxxiv ; Chapuys to Chas. V, Vienna
Archives P.C. 230, i, fol. 82 ; cit.
Friedmann, Anne Boleyn, ii, 269.
340 Diet. Nat. Biog. 'Jane Seymour.'
"1 L. and P. Hen. fill, x, 915.
*» Ibid. 926.
*" Ibid. 1000, -vide Pref. to vol. x,
pp. xxxi, xxxii (Gairdner). Betrothal at
that period was often considered quite
as binding as marriage. Hence the
frequency of divorces on the plea of
pre-contract.
«« The Chap. Ho. Accts. C. &, fol.
335
283, &c. ; C. j^, fol. 98, &c., show a
considerable amount of work done in
altering the arms and initials of one
queen for the other.
»" L. and P. Hen. VlII, xii, 41,
1164. Great precautions were taken
about 'the death,' which at the time
was ' extremely sore ' in London ; L.
and P. Hen. VIII, xii, 839.
*" Wriothesley, Chron. 1 1 (Camd.
Soc.) ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii, 889 ;
Lit. Remains of Ediv. VI, \, pp. xxiii, civ.
**' 'Incontinent after the birth Te
Deum was sung in Paul's and other
churches of the city, and great fires
[were made] in every street, and goodly
banqueting and triumphing cheer with
shooting of guns all day and night';
Add. MSS. B.M. 6113, fol. 81.
443 L. and P. Hen. fill, xii, 889.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
George II,"' but the queen's rooms appear to have
been among those destroyed to make way for
Wren's new building. The bed in which
Edward VI was born and Jane Seymour died was
to be seen in the palace in Queen Elizabeth's
time.'M
The christening took place on the Monday fol-
lowing in the chapel at Hampton Court, and a
long account is given in the ' Preparations ordained
for the said christening at Hampton Court,' '*' in
which the course of the procession, the decorations
of the chapel, and the positions occupied by the
Officers of the Household are minutely described.'"'
The procession "3 started from the ' Prince's
Lodgynges,' situated to the north of the Chapel
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : CLOCK COURT FROM THE COLONNADE
Court, and passed through the ' Council Chamber,'
vhere it was joined by the Officers of the House-
hold, the children and ministers of the chapel, the
king's council, and the other great lords, spiritual
and temporal, the ambassadors and their suites, the
chamberlains of the king and queen, and the
Lord High Chamberlain of England, Cromwell,
Lord Privy Seal, the Lord Chancellor, the Duke
of Norfolk, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The ' chrysom richly garnished ' was borne by the
Lady Elizabeth, the king's daughter, being herself
carried by Lords Beauchamp and Morley. The
prince was carried by the Marchioness of Exeter,
'assisted by the Duke of Suffolk and the Lord
Marquis her husband.' A rich canopy was borne
over the prince by four gentlemen of the King's
Privy Chamber."4
' The Lady Mary, the king's daughter, was ap-
pointed for the lady Godmother,' and a vast num-
ber of ladies of honour and gentlewomen followed
her.
The procession, leaving the Council Chamber,
passed through part of the room now known as ' the
Haunted Gallery,' and so into the ' King's Great
Watching Chamber' at the
upper end of the Great Hall.
They entered the hall through
a door, now hidden by tapes-
try, and passed down the
stairs under Anne Boleyn's
Gateway into the Clock
Court, and so through the
cloisters to the chapel door."5"
All the way was lined with
men-at-arms, attendants and
servants holding torches. The
ground of the courtyard was
strewn with rushes, and bar-
riers, covered with rich hang-
ings, were erected to keep
back the spectators, who were
all inhabitants of the palace,
as access to the court was
forbidden to others on ac-
count of infection from the
plague which prevailed at
the time.*54 The decorations
of the entrance and of the
chapel itself were of ' rich
cloth of gold or arras and
tapestries,' the floor ' boarded
and covered with carpets,' the
' high altar richly garnished
with plate and stuff." In the
middle of the choir the font
of ' solid silver gilt was set
upon a mount or stage,' and
over it 'a rich canopy.' The
Te Dtum was sung by the
choir, and then the prince was baptized with the
usual elaborate ceremonial. After the christening
the torches were all lighted, and Garter King-at-
Arms proclaimed the prince's name and style. The
procession then re-formed, carrying with them the
christening gifts, and proceeded to the queen's bed-
chamber, where the king and queen awaited their
son, and he ' received the blessing of Almighty
God, Our Lady and St. George, and his father and
*" Now private apartments occupied Add. MSS. B. M.6i 1 3, fol. 8 1 ; Nichols,
by Mrs. Keate, widow of the late R. W. Lit. Remaim of Edio. VI, p. cclv.
Keate, successively Governor of Trini- "• For description of the chapel see
dad, Natal, and Western Africa. p. 388. Only the roof now remains as
M0 Hentzner, Journey inn Engl. (ed.
'757)> *'-*•
»» L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii, 91 1, from
it was then.
•*• For a full account of the ceremony
see Nichols, op. cit. ii, p. ccliv.
336
854 See engraving in Law, op. cit. i,
187.
354 This part of the palace (the
cloisters, &c.) is totally different from
what it was at that period.
«• Nichols, Lit. Rmaini of Edv>. VI*
p. cclxii.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
mother." The trumpets meanwhile 'standing in
the outer court with the gate, there blowing and
the minstrels playing, which was a melodious thing
to hear,' '" but it is hardly surprising that the ex-
citement proved too great for the health of the
queen. She did not die, as has been sometimes
stated, at the birth of her son, or two days after,"8
but on 24 October, nearly a fortnight later.'59
The king may have been sincerely distressed by
her death ; he ' retired to a solitary place to pass
his sorrows,' wo and wrote to Francis I of the
' bitterness of the death of her who brought me
this happiness.' m Her body was embalmed, and
her heart, &c., ' were honourably interred in the
chapel.' On 26 October the corpse was laid on a
hearse, surrounded with tapers, in her room, and
all the ladies and gentlemen of the court ' doing
on their mourning habit and white kerchers
hanging over their heads and shoulders,' knelt
about it during mass and Dirige. A watch was kept
about it till the last day of the month, when it
was removed to the chapel with much ceremony.
' The great chamber and galleries leading to the
chapel and the chapel itself were hung with black
cloth and garnished with rich images.' The
hearse prepared in the chapel had eight banner-
rolls with 'rachments and majestye.' 'The king's
officers and servants stood in double rank with
tapers lighted, and the procession formed, first the
cross, with priests two and two, then gentlemen,
esquires, pursuivants, and heralds, then the noble-
men, then Garter, then the Earl of Rutland the
Queen's Chamberlain, and the Duke of Norfolk,
then the corpse, then the chief mourner (Lady
Exeter representing the Princess Mary) assisted by
two noblemen as earls, then eight noble ladies,
mourners. The corpse was received in the chapel
by the prelates and placed in the hearse, Lancaster
Herald said with a loud voice " Of your charity
pray for the soul, &c." Then Dirige was sung and
all departed to the Queen's Chamber.' K' Solemn
masses were sung every day, and a constant watch
kept — at night by the gentlemen, in the day by the
ladies of the household — until Monday, 12 Novem-
ber, when the corpse was removed in a chariot
drawn by six horses, with four banners borne by
four barons. A long account of the procession is
given in the Letters and Papers, and the route
through Colbrooke and Eton to Windsor described,
many people coming out to meet it with signs of
mourning. On the following day the late queen
HAMPTON
was solemnly buried in St. George's Chapel at
twelve o'clock in the morning. J6B
Orders were sent to all the peers and noblemen
' to attend at Hampton Court and so to Windsor
for the Queen's funeral, on 9 November.' *64 Jane
Seymour's arms still remain, impaled with those
of the king, at the entrance to the chapel.164
Henry seems for a time to have left the palace
as a sort of nursery for his son.16* The ambassa-
dors were occasionally invited there to see the
prince.*67 In November 1539 the king came to
Hampton Court while waiting for the arrival of
Anne of Cleves.'68 He never brought her there,
but she stayed there by herself for some days
before the decree of divorce was pronounced in
July I540.*69 She then retired to Richmond, and
Henry arrived shortly afterwards to spend his
honeymoon with Katherine Howard. They had
been married privately at Oatlands on 28 July,270
and on 8 August she appeared openly as queen,
and sat next to the king in the royal closet in
the chapel.271 She afterwards dined in public at
one of Henry's characteristic Hampton Court
banquets, and the Princess Elizabeth appeared,
apparently for the first time in public, with her.'78
Henry and Katherine then started on a royal pro-
gress, visiting the king's numerous palaces and
other places, and returning to Hampton Court on
19 December.273 They remained there in some
seclusion for several months."4 The Privy Council,
with the king presiding, met almost daily during
this period. A chapter of the Garter was held at
Hampton Court, apparently for the first time, on
9 January 1541, when the Earl of Hertford was
elected to a vacant stall in the order.*"5 There is
an amusing entry of six pasties of venison being
solemnly presented to the king by Marillac, the
French ambassador, who went to Hampton Court
on purpose, and the king told him the next day
that he had ' tasted the venison and found it mar-
vellously good.' '76 Marillac also writes of a great
excitement when two gentlemen of the court were
unexpectedly ' led prisoners from Hampton Court
to London, with their hands bound, and con-
ducted by twenty-four archers to the Tower.' *77
Marillac was not certain of their identity, but they
seem to have been Sir Thomas Wyatt and Sir John
Wallop, the friends of Cromwell, who were accused
of a ' traitorous correspondence ' with Reginald
Pole, but they both received the king's pardon
shortly afterwards.'78
*>? Law, op. cit. i, 190.
"*» Hall, Cbron. ; L. and P. Htn. Vlll,
xii, 970-1, 1060.
!M Ibid.
M° Ibid.
M1 Ibid. 970.
iM Ibid. 1060, from a Heralds' Col-
lege MS. i, 1 1, fol. 27.
*» Ibid.
*M L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii, 1 6 1 2, Ac.
Ms Henry had just completed the
Great Hall and the alterations in the
chapel. It is perhaps worthy of re-
mark that Jane Seymour was the only
one of his queens for whom Henry
wore mourning, and according to his
own directions he was buried by her
side at Windsor ; Diet. Nat. Siog.
'Henry VIII ' and 'Jane Seymour.1
266 For early life of Edw. VI passed
at Hampton Court see p. 340.
W L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii, 323, 388,
402 ; xiv, 126, &c.
868 Ibid, xiv, 508, 607.
M9 Some of the proceedings about
the divorce took place * in a certain lofty
and ornate chamber within the honour
of Hampton Court' ; ibid. XT, 92$.
170 Rep. Pub. Rec. iii, App. ii, 264.
V1 Stowe, Ann. fol. 581 (ed. 1631) ;
Wriothesley, Cbron. (Camd. Soc.), 122,
On 15 Aug. she was prayed for in all
the churches as queen ; Diet. Nat. Biog.
' Katherine Howard.'
337
a;a Her appearance at the christening
of Edward VI was really the first, but
she was then a child in arms.
™ Proc. ofP.C. vii, 93.
*« Ibid. 93-150.
a'5 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xvi, 2 1 8.
2"6 Ibid, xvi, 449, Jan. 1541. In
Mar. 1541 the king was laid up
with an illness at Hampton Court, and
seems to have conceived a great dis-
trust of his advisers, caused no doubt
by news of a fresh rising in the north.
' Shrovetide was spent without recrea-
tion ' ; ibid, xvi, $89.
*" Ibid, xvi, 227, 466.
W Diet. Nat. Biog. • Sir Thomas,
Wyatt ' ; 'Sir John Wallop.'
43
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
In January 1541 Anne of Cleves sent the king a
New Year's present of two large horses with violet
velvet trappings, and came herself to Hampton
Court with her suite, accompanied only by the
Duke of Norfolk's brother, who ' happened to
meet her on the road." She was graciously received
by the king and queen, and after supper she and
the queen danced together. The next day they all
three dined together, and the king sent, through
the queen, a present to the Lady Anne of a ring
and two small dogs. She then returned to Rich-
mond.'79
The king and queen were again away, and re-
turned to Hampton Court in October I54l.!8°
The day after their arrival the king heard mass in
the chapel, ' and gave most hearty thanks for the
good life he led and trusted to lead with his wife ;
and also desired the Bishop of Lincoln, his ghostly
father, to make like prayer and give like thanks
with him on All Souls' Day.'281 The Privy
Council were 'given permission to go to their
country houses for change of air.' On All Souls'
Day (November 2) they were to meet again.*8*
It was on the occasion of this return that Henry
found his son, the Prince of Wales, ' sick of a
quartan fever, an unusual malady for a child of
three or four years.' Henry summoned ' all the
physicians of the country ' to advise, and was told
that the fever would put the child in danger.
One of the physicians secretly told Marillac, the
French Ambassador, that the ' Prince was so fat
and unhealthy as to be unlikely to live long.' >83 It
is possible that this incident throws a lurid light on
Henry's subsequent treatment of Katherine, to
whom he had been married for over a year without
any signs of the issue he always desired so ardently.284
No one has ever hidden a more crafty and subtle
mind under a bluff and genial outward demeanour
than Henry VIII. It is impossible to doubt the
guilt of Katherine, but it is difficult to believe that
Cranmer and the other members of the Council
would have dared to bring the matter before the king
if they had known that the news would be altogether
unwelcome to him.'83 He received the first intima-
tion of it, made to him by a paper put into his
hand by Cranmer while he was hearing mass in
the chapel at Hampton Court, with extreme horror,
and showed himself overwhelmed with rage and
distress.*86
He professed to refuse to believe the account
brought to him, and constrained himself, as Marilhc
says, ' to be as gay as ever with the ladies,' while a
further investigation was going on ; but on Sunday,
6 November, he left Hampton Court on pretext
of hunting, dined 'at a little place in the fields,'
and at night came secretly to London,*87 where the
Council was called at midnight, and did not dis-
perse till 4 or 5 a.m. on Monday.*83 The palace
was closely guarded and Katherine was informed of
the charges against her by the Archbishop of
Canterbury and other members of the Council.
Cranmer's letter to Henry gives an affecting account
of a private interview he had with her afterwards,
and of her state of terror and despair.'89 To the
Council she denied all, but confessed to Cranmer,
hoping thereby to obtain the royal pardon. In
the midst of this harrowing conversation she heard
the clock strike six, and gave way to an outburst of
grief, saying it was ' for remembrance of the time ;
for about that hour Master Heneage was wont to
bring her knowledge of the king.' *90
The Council sent instructions to Cranmer to de-
clare the whole miserable state of affairs to the
queen's household, which he did, in the ' Great
Watching Chamber.' '" The household was then
dismissed, and Katherine herself sent to Syon
House, Isle worth, under an escort. She remained
there a few weeks, hoping in vain for Henry's
pardon, which Cranmer certainly endeavoured
to obtain for her.*9' From Syon House she was
taken to the Tower, and was executed on Tower
Hill on 13 February 1542.*"
The best-known ghost story of the palace is
connected with Katherine Howard. The ' Haunted
Gallery,' part of the Tudor building on the right-
hand side of the way down the ' Queen's Great
Staircase,' is so called because Katherine's ghost is
said to run shrieking through the room. The
legend is that she attempted to make her way into
Henry's presence as he was hearing mass in the
royal closet in the chapel. She ran down the
gallery and reached the door, where the king's
guard seized her and carried her back, while her
husband remained in the chapel listening to her
«• L. and P. Hen. Fill, xvi, 2 1 7. A
malicious piece of gossip was circulated
concerning this meeting of the king
and Anne of Cleves ; ibid. no. 1414.
Later on 'two honest citizens were im-
prisoned for having said that the Lady
Anne of Cleves was really the king's
wife and that she had had a child ' — a
rumour widely believed ; ibid.no. 1441.
She visited the king again at Hampton
Court in 1546; Acts of P.C. 1542-7,
p. 239.
90 They returned on 24 Oct. and the
Privy Council met there on the same
day. L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvi, 1281.
*>l Proc. P.C. (Ed. Nicolas), vii, 352.
» L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvi, 1292.
283 Ibid, xvi, 1297. Letter from
Marillac to Francia I, 29 Oct. 1541.
284 Vide letter to Francis I, on rumours
concerning Katherine ; L. and P.
Hen. VIII, rvi, 1332. See also what
is said about her coronation, which ap-
parently never took place; ibid. 712,
1183.
285 Chapuys, the Spanish ambassador,
certainly believed at the time that the
whole matter had been arranged for the
king's convenience, and suggested that
for political reasons he wished to annul
the divorce from Anne of Cleves.
Chapuys wrote to Charles V of rumours
of a reconciliation with Anne as early
as January of that year ; L, and P.
Hen. VIII, 1328.
238 Nicolas, Proc. P.C. vii, 354-5.
' Letters of the Council to the English
Ambassadors abroad ' ; L. and P.
Hen. VIII, xvi, 1334, &c. (12 Nov.
IS40.
287 Chapuys says by barge ; ibid, rvi,
1328.
238 Ibid. There arc two accounts in
the L. and P. Hen. Vlll of this affair,
338
one by Chapuys the Spanish ambassa-
dor, and one by Marillac the French
ambassador. Marillac's account a
considered the more correct. Vide
Gairdner, L. and P. Hen. VIII, xyi,
pref. p. xliii.
289 Ibid. 1325, 1328, 1332.
290 Ibid. 1325. The clock was no
doubt the curious astronomical one
which is still to be seen in the clock
tower. It had been put up about the
time of Katherine's marriage.
291 Ibid. 1331-33; Wriothesley,
Chron. i, 130, the 'Great Watching
Chamber ' is the room behind the great
hall.
291 On the plea that she had entered
into a 'pre-contract' with Francis
Dereham and that therefore her mar-
riage with the king was void.
293 Diet. Nat. Biog. ' Katherine
Howard.'
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
screams unmoved. This strange scene her unquiet
spirit is supposed to enact over and over again, and
her screams are said to have been heard by several
ladies who at different times inhabited the neigh-
bouring apartments.194 The great objection to the
story seems to be that Katherine was not informed
of the charges against her until after Henry had
left the palace. Marillac mentions particularly
that he maintained an unmoved demeanour and
left Hampton Court ' secretly.' Even if Katherine
suspected what was going on it was not likely,
until the circumstances were made public, that the
guards would have dared to use force to prevent
the queen from entering the king's presence.
Nothing seems to have changed Henry's affec-
tion for the place. He returned there in December
1541 after Katherine had left, and he was there in
the summer of I 542, entertaining at different times
both the Imperial and French ambassadors,'94
when an offensive and defensive alliance was sworn
between the king and the emperor on Trinity
Sunday (May I542).196 Chapuys wrote to the
Queen of Hungary in December following that
some slight advantages gained against the Scots had
rejoiced the king, who had 'continually shown
himself sad ' since he heard of the conduct of his
last wife, and ' nothing has been said of banquet
or of ladies, but now all is changed, and order
already taken that the Princess (Mary) shall go to
court at this feast, accompanied with a great
number of ladies ; they work day and night at
Hampton Court to finish her lodging. It is
possible that amidst these festivities the king might
think of marrying, although there is yet no bruit
of it."97
Henry chose to return to Hampton Court with
his last bride, Catherine Parr, widow of Lord
Latimer.*98 Their marriage took place ' in an upper
oratory called the Quyne's Pryvy Chapel ' on
12 July 1543. The ceremony was performed
by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, in
the presence of about twenty witnesses, including
the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth.299 Christmas
of that year was spent at Hampton Court, and on
the Sunday before Christmas Eve the queen's
brother, Lord Parr, was created Earl of Essex, and
Sir William Parr, her uncle, Lord Parr of
Horton.300 The ceremony is described at much
length — how 'the king went to his closet to hear
high mass ' — and the new peers ' went to the
HAMPTON
pages' chamber, which was strawed with rushes, and
after sacring of high mass, when the king was
come into the chamber of presence under cloth of
estate, the Earl of Essex was led into the chamber
under cloth of estate, by the Marquis of Dorset
and the Earl of Derby, Viscount Lisle bearing the
sword, and Garter the Letters Patent, which were
read by Mr. Wriothesley.' The usual ceremonies
then took place, and the Baron (Lord Parr of
Horton) was afterwards led in by Lords Russell
and St. John, Clarencieux (in default of a baron)
bearing the robe, and Garter the Letters Patent,
which were read by Mr. Pagette. The new earl and
baron afterwards dined in the Council Chamber,*01
and their styles were proclaimed.308
On Christmas Eve, after the court had attended
grand vespers in the chapel, a chapter of the order
of the Garter was held, and Sir John Wallop was
made a member of the order.3Uj There is also an
account of Sir Thomas Wriothesley being created
Baron Wriothesley at Hampton Court on I Jan-
uary I544.804
The Earl of Surrey was among the knights who
attended the chapter on this occasion, and it must
have been about this time that he first fell in love
with the ' fair Geraldine,' as he says in the famous
sonnet giving the ' Description and Praise of his
Love ' :
Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine.
In another poem he speaks of
The large green courts where we were wont to
hove (hover)
With eyes cast up into the maiden's tower.
Surrey, whose picture, attributed to Holbein, is
in the palace, was at this time about twenty-five
years of age, and had been married at the age of
eighteen to Lady Frances Vere. Lady Elizabeth
Fitzgerald, who has been identified as the ' fair
Geraldine,' belonged to the Princess Mary's house-
hold, and was then only about fourteen.305
The Christmas festivities were carried on into
the following week, when the king received in
state ' Ferdinand de Gonzaga, Viceroy of Sicily,
Prince of Malfeta, Captain-General of the Chivalry
and Army of the Emperor Charles,' who came in
pursuance of the alliance sworn between the king
and the emperor the year before,306 to arrange
B< Law, op. cit. i, 223-4. Mrs. Rus-
sell Davies, the well-known spiritualist,
visited the Palace for the special pur-
pose of 'interviewing' the ghosts of
Katherine Howard and Jane Seymour.
See her amusing account of these
stances in Borderland, iv, 425, (1897).
»» L. and P. Hen. fill, xvii, 363,
371, 500; xviii, 44.
»• Ibid. ; Hall, Chron. 857 ; -vide
Law, op. cit. i, 288-9. It is impossible
here to enter into the questions of
policy which caused some jealousy
between the ambassadors.
W L. and P. Hin. VIII, xvii, 1112.
298 The plague was so bad at this
time that a proclamation was issued at
Hampton Court July 1543, forbidding
Londoners from entering the gates of
any house ' wherein the king and queen
lie,' and forbidding servants of the court
to go to London and return to court
again. L. and P. Hen. VIII, xviii, 886.
m L. and P. Hen. fill, xviii, 873
(from the original notarial certificate at
the Record Office).
800 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, iii, 284;
vi, 191; Hall, Chran. 859. Sir William
Parr was chamberlain to his niece in
1543. He died in 1546. The peerage
became extinct.
sol Tne rooms mentioned were
chiefly those built by Henry himself,
and afterwards destroyed by Wren.
»<» L.and P. Hen. VIII, xviii, 516.
808 See ante, p. 337 ; L. and P.
339
Hen. VIII, xviii, 517 ; Curtis, Reg. of
Order of the Garter, i, 437-9 (ed.
1724).
«" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix (i), i.
805 Law, Hist. Ha-npnn Court Palace,
i, 232. Surrey's picture gives a fair
idea of the magnificent dress of
the courtiers of Henry VIII. It was
probably painted by Holbein's imitator,
Guillim Stretes. The picture is en-
graved in Fairholt, Cattume ; also in
Law, op. cit. i, 233. Surrey was
executed on a charge of high treason
in 1547-
8« L. and P. Hen. VIII, xviii, 603.
May 1543. Treaty dated Feb. 1543
(though it is said to have been arranged
the previous summer).
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
about the renewal of the war with France.10'
Henry eventually left Katharine Parr and his three
children at Hampton Court, and went himself to
take command of the English army in France.*"
The queen remained at the palace during his
absence ; some of her letters are extant, informing
him of the health of the prince and other
children.508 He rejoined her in October, and
they continued at Hampton Court for some time.
The picture, attributed to Holbein, of Henry VIII
and his family sitting in the cloisters at Hampton
Court, which is now in the State Apartments (No.
340), was probably painted at this period, about
1546.""
The last of Henry's great ' revellynges ' took
place in the summer of 1 546, when the French
ambassador, Claude d'Annebaut, Admiral of
France, came to ratify the peace recently con-
cluded between England and France. He went
by river to Hampton Court from London, and was
met by the young Prince Edward, attended by
the Archbishop of York, the Earls of Hertford and
Huntingdon, and ' a retinue of five hundred and
forty in velvet coates ; the Prince's livery with
sleeves of cloth of gold, and half the coats em-
broidered also with gold.' At the outer gate he
was met by the Lord Chancellor and all the
day he had an audience of
great triumph went to the
king received his oath to
the league as cove-
Council. The next
the king, ' and in
Chapel, where the
perform the articles
nanted.'
After that followed six days of ' banquetings,
huntings and triumphings, with noble masques
of
and mummeries.' '" This was the end of the gay
scenes at Hampton Court which Henry had loved.
A little later his health failed entirely ; he left the
palace for the last time before the end of I 546, and
died at Westminster on 28 January 1547.'"
Though Henry VIII himself left the palace on the
death of Jane Seymour, and did not return there
till the following year, the infant prince remained,
and a regular household was appointed for him in
March 1538.*" It consisted of a chamberlain —
Sir William Sydney — a vice-chamberlain, a chief
steward, a comptroller, a lady mistress,314 a cofferer,
a dean, and several others, including the nurse and
rockers."4 An elaborate code of regulations was
drawn up for the use of these officials."* The
rooms allotted to the young prince were on the
second floor on the north side of the Chapel
Court, facing the gardens to the east.'17
His nurse was Sibell Penn, daughter of William
Hampden, and wife of David Penn. She was
appointed in October 1538, having been recom-
mended by her brother-in-law, Sir William Sydney,
the prince's chamberlain.*18 She apparently con-
tinued to live at Hampton Court after Edward's
death, and died there on 6 November 1562, of
smallpox, at the time when Queen Elizabeth
suffered from the same disease.'19 Mrs. Penn was
buried in Hampton Church, and her monument
is still to be seen there, a life-sized recumbent
effigy, under a marble canopy. On the tomb are
the date of her death, her coat of arms, and a
quaintly-rhyming epitaph. Her ghost is the best
authenticated of those that are said to haunt the
palace.""
»"' Hall, Cbron. fol. 857 ; Holinshed,
Ckron. iii, 19 (ed. 1809).
808 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix, Pref. p.
x, &c. ; Did. Nat. Biog. 'Henry VIII.'
809 Commission of Regency to the
queen and others was drawn up 1 1 July
1 543 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix, 864,
889.
810 Law, op. cit, i, 238 ; The Royal
Gallery of Ham f ton Court, 129-30.
811 Holinshed, Chron. iii, 975 ; Fahy-
an, Chron. 708. L. and P. Hen. VIII,
xxi (i), 693, et »eq.
«» Diet. Nat. Biog. 'Henry VIII.'
It is said that he became so unwieldy
that at last he could only be moved
from one room to another in the
palace 'by the aid of machinery';
Lingard, Hist.of Engl. vi, chap. v.
«' L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, 579.
814 The earliest 'Lady Maistres'to
Henry'* three children seems to have
been Margaret daughter of Humphrey
Bourchier, Lord Berners, and wife of
Sir Thomas Bryan, kt. ; Lit. Remains
of Ediu. VI (ed. Nichols), i, p. xxxii ;
Stowe, Surv. of Lond. i, 1760 ; ii, 114,
Strype's App.; in which her will is given.
815 The Chapter House Accounts in-
clude items for the ' Rocking Cham-
ber' ; cit. Law, Hist. Hampton Court
Palate, i, 201 ; Lit. Remains of Ediv.
VI, i, p. xxix.
811 Ibid. p. xxvii, et seq.; Treasury
Papers (Eich.), (Ser. i), 750. A
tranicript is in the Cott. MSS.
Vittllius, C. i, fol. 65.
817 They are now private apartments
occupied by Mrs. Thomson, widow of
the late Archbishop of York.
818 He wrote to Cromwell about his
wife's sister : ' I doubt not but that she
is every way an apt woman for the
same, and there shall be no lack of
goodwill in her' ; L. and P. Hen. VIII,
xiii, (24. It is not certain that Sir
William's letter refers to Mrs. Penn,
though she must have been appointed
about that time (1538) (ibid. 1257),
but his wife appears to have been a
daughter of Sir Hugh Pagenham, and
from the coat of arms and inscription
on her monument in Hampton Church
it is clear that Mrs. Penn was born a
Hampden ; Law, Hist. Hampton Court
Palace, i, 196. Sir Clements Mark-
ham refers to her as the daughter of
Sir Hugh Pagenham, and says that
' the second nurse was Mrs. Jackson —
Mother Jak'; King Edw. VI; An
Appreciation (1907), 4. A picture by
Holbein, now at Windsor, of Edward
VI and his ' wet nurse Mother Jak ' is
said to resemble the effigy of Mrs.
Penn at Hampton, but it seems prob-
able that she succeeded ' Mother Jak ' ;
Diet. Nat. Biog. Henry VIII rewarded
her faithful service with some of his
monastic spoils, making her a grant for
her life of lands in Bucks, which
originally belonged to the monasteries
of Burcester and Godstow and Cha-
combe Priory. These lands were
confirmed to her and her heirs by
Edward VI ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii,
12580.; Orig. R. 7 Edw. VI, ii, rot. 49.
34°
SH Edward VI, and afterwards his
listers, Queen Mary and Queen Eliza-
beth, always continued to treat Mrs.
Penn with great kindness and liber-
ality ; Lit. Remains of Ediv. VI, i,
pp. xxxiii, ccxv ; Col. S.P, Foreign,
'547-53. no- >°53-
810 Her monument was moved when
the old church was pulled down in
1829, and from that time it was said
that her spirit returned to haunt the
scenes of her former life. The sounds
of someone using a spinning-wheel,
and of a woman's voice murmuring as
the spun, were said to be heard in one
of the rooms in an apartment in the
south-west wing of the palace. They
are now private apartments occupied
by Lord and Lady Wolseley. Inquiries
were made, and a disused room was
discovered in which was an ancient
spinning-wheel. The oak floor was
found to be worn away by the action
of the treadle. At a later period she
is supposed to have appeared at night
to a sentry on guard, as well as to
others. The usual description given
of her ghost, as seen by strangers who
knew nothing of the tradition, is said
to correspond accurately with the figure
on her tomb ; Law, Hist. Hampton
Court Palace, i, 200. There seems to
be absolutely no known reason why she
should have haunted that wing of the
palace. A further legend runs that she
only appears when a child of royal descent
is to be born in the palace, and her ap-
pearance foretells disaster. See p. 389.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
The foreign ambassadors were occasionally
invited to the palace to visit the prince, before
Henry returned there himself."' Princess Mary,
then living at Richmond, also came over sometimes
to see her brother, by barge or on horseback.'"
Although Edward was sometimes at Hampton
Court after his father's marriage to Katherine
Howard,3" and later when he and his sisters were
there with Katherine Parr,3!< he and Princess
Elizabeth were brought up together chiefly at
' Havering-atte-Bower,' Romford, Essex, and after-
wards at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire. Very few of
his letters which are still extant are dated from
Hampton Court before his accession.3"
His first return to the palace as king was
in June I547.3ilc Edward was, of course, still
entirely under tutelage. He himself gives an
account of his walking with the Lord Admiral
(Seymour of Sudeley) in ' the gallery ' at Hampton
Court ; the Lord Admiral tried to urge the young
king to assert himself ' that within three or four
years he should be ruler of his own things,' 3"
he also said that his uncle had told him he was
' too bashfull in myne owne matters.' 3*8 Mean-
while Somerset's splendour and arrogance in-
creased. The people became discontented and
the Council alarmed. In September 1549 the
Lord Protector and his party3*9 were with the
king at Hampton Court, while the Council met
secretly in London, hoping to arrange measures
to bring Somerset to reason.330 He heard of their
meetings, and becoming suspicious of their in-
tentions, caused all the armour to be brought
down from the armoury in the palace, to arm his
own men and the king's servants.331 He also drew
up a proclamation, which Edward signed, and it
was issued in all directions on 5 October, com-
manding the king's ' loving subjects with all haste
to repair to His Highness at His Majesty's manor
of Hampton Court, in most defensible array, with
harness and weapons to defend his most royal
person and his entirely beloved uncle the Lord
Protector, against whom certain have attempted a
most dangerous conspiracy.' S3> Edward in his
HAMPTON
journal says simply, 'Peple came abundantly to
the house,' and also mentions that the ' gates of
the house were impared,' but it is said that the
moat was filled, the gates fortified, and every pre-
paration made for withstanding a siege.333 The
people came in numbers, probably chiefly from
curiosity, for Somerset was not popular. They
were gathered in the ' outer green court ' — now
called the ' barrack yard ' — and the Lord Protector
brought the king out to the first or Base Court,
where their armed force was probably drawn up,
and then took him to the gate where the people
could see him.334 After making him say ' I pray
you be good to us and our uncle,' Somerset
harangued the people himself, assuring them that
he and the king would stand or fall together.
Apparently he was not satisfied with their re-
ception of his speech, as at nine or ten o'clock
that night he hurried Edward off" to Windsor
' with al the peple.' 33i
The council had assembled, meaning to ' re-
payre to Hampton Courte accompanyed with their
ordynary number of servantes to have had friendly
communicacion with the Lord Protector about the
reformacion of the State,' but ' as they were booted
and redy to have mounted upon their horses ' they
received the information that he had ' suddenly
raysed a power of the communes to thintent if
their Lordschippes had come to the Courte to
have destroyed them.' **' The council wisely
' determyned to stay at London,' met at Ely
Place and sent forth letters requiring the nobles
and gentlemen of the realm not to obey the
Protector's commands.337 Their action must have
been successful,338 for in five days' time Somerset
was forced to submit without striking a blow, and
was sent to the Tower. Edward, who did not
like Windsor, was brought back to Hampton
Court, or ' 'Ampton Court,' as he always wrote
it.339 After three months' imprisonment Somerset
was pardoned. He was at Hampton Court with
the king in July 1551, when the 'sweating
sickness' had driven the royal household from
London.340 Marechal St. Andre,"' the envoy of
•» L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii, 323,
588, 402 ; xiv, 126, &c.
8M Some of the times recorded were
in Nov. 1537, and in Mar. Apr. and
May 1538 ; Nicolas, Privy Punt Ex-
penses of Princess Mary, 61, 64, 69.
»*• See p. 338. «« See p. 340,
884 Lit. Remains of Ed-w. VI, i,
1-98 ; Clements Markham, op. cit.
4 ; Copies of seven original Utters from
Ed-w. VI (ed. Horace Walpole, 1772).
826 There is a curious item for 321.
among the king's expenses, ' for grene
bowes for the Kinges Maiestics pryvie
chamber and galleries at Hampton
Courte.' They may have served as
blinds in the windows. Lit. Remains
of Ed-w. VI, i, p. xcvi.
8a' Seymour of Sudeley had his own
reasons for disliking his brother's supre-
macy ; Burghley Papers (ed. Haynes),
87 ; Lit. Remains of Edw. VI, i, 58 ;
Tytler, Engl. under Ed-u>. VI and Mary,
i, l II.
888 Lit. Remains of Ed-w. VI, i, 59.
' Deposition of Edward.'
859 Holinshed, Chron. iii, 1014. The
party included Cranmer, Paget, Cecil,
Petre, Sir Thomas Smith, and Sir John
Thynne ; Diet. Nat. Biog. ' Edward
Seymour, Duke of Somerset.'
830 Lit. Remains of Ed-w. VI, ii, 233,
' Journal ' ; Froude, Hist. Engl. v, 230 ;
Acts ofP.C. 1547-5°, P- 33°-
881 Lit. Remains of Ed-w. VI, ii, 235,
1 Journal.' Edward says there were
'500 harnesses.'
»»" Ibid.;S.P.Dom.Edw.VI,ix, 1-9.
Acts of P.C. 1547-50, p. 330 et seq.
' Council Register.'
838 Burner, Hist, of Reform, ii (2), 12 ;
cit. Law, Hist. Hampton Court Palace, i,
850.
•M Lit. Rem. of Ed-w. VI, ii, 235,
' Journal * ; also i, p. cxxx. Wriothei-
ley, Chron. ii, 25 ; Tytler, Engl. under
Ed-w. VI and Mary, i, 249 ; S.P. Dom.
Edw. VI, ix, 33. 'Letter of the
Council to the King's Sisters.'
885 Ibid. ; Lit. Rem. of Ed-w. VI, ii,
235, 'Journal'; Wriothesley, Chron.
ii, 85.
341
836 Acts of P.C. 1547-50, p. 330,
' Council Register.'
W Ibid.
838 Ibid. 337, 'Council Register.'
889 Lit. Rem. of Ed-w. VI, i, p. cxxxi j
ii, 241, 'Journal* j S.P. Dom. Edw.
VI, ix, 42 ; Acts of P.C. 1547-5°, P
344. Edward is reported to have said
of Windsor, ' Methinks I am in prison,
here be no galleries or gardens to walk
in.' Lit. Rem. of Ed-w. VI, \, p. cxxxi.
In May 1550 the French ambassador
came to Hampton Court to a 'great
banket and pastime on the water of
Thames and Maskinge after* ; the first
mention of any entertainment on ' the
water of Thames.' Wriothesley, Cbron.
ii, 40.
840 Lit. Rem. of Ed-w. VI, ii, 330,
'Journal.'
841 Jacques d'Albon, Marquis de
Fronsac, Seigneur de St. Andre, a
Knight of the Order of St. Michael,
Marechal of France in 1547 ; ibid, ii,
231, n. 2.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
the King of France, who was staying at Richmond
with a retinue of four hundred gentlemen, came
to the palace on 14 July to present Edward with
the order of St. Michael. He was received by
the Duke of Somerset at nine o'clock in the morn-
ing at the 'wal end,' according to Edward's
' Journal,' probably at the end of the park."' The
' Journal ' mentions that after his audience he
went 'to his chamber on the quene's side, al
hanged with cloth of arrase, and so was the hal
and all my logeing.' After dinner St. Andri had
some conversation with Edward, assuring him of
the friendship of the King of France. The next
day the king received the order of St. Michael
with great ceremony. He was first arrayed in the
robes and collar in his 'privy chamber,' and then
proceeded in state to the chapel, with St. Andre:
on his right and de Gye: on his left, where Edward
recorded in his journal that ' after the Communion
celebrated eich of them kissed my cheke.' Various
entertainments afterwards took place, such as
coursing, hunting and shooting, in which the
Mar6chal and his staff joined."3 They also heard
the king play on the lute, and attended his
' arraying ' as he called it, in his state bedchamber.
At their last interview they dined with the king,
' after dinner saw the strenght of the English
archers,' "* and St. Andr6 received ' a dyamant
from my finger worth by estimation 1 50 //.' 345
The Scotch ambassador was at Hampton Court on
19 July to receive the treaty 'for a better under-
standing with Scotland in the peace between
France and England,' dated 10 June."' The
Marquis of Northampton also came to the palace
to be given final instructions concerning his em-
bassy to France to present the Garter to Henri II,
and to make proposals for the Princess Elizabeth
of France on Edward's behalf, she being at the
time five years old.347
On 1 8 July 1551 was issued from Hampton
Court the famous proclamation of the council to
the bishops and clergy, desiring them ' to exhort
the people to a diligent attendance at Common
Prayer, and so to avert the displeasure of Almighty
God, He having visited the realm with the ex-
treme plague of sudden death. ' "8 At a council
held on 9 August the Princess Mary's chaplains
were inhibited from celebrating mass in her house
or elsewhere, and five days later her comptroller
and others were brought before the council for
not informing the princess and causing this decree
to be obeyed. She afterwards refused to obey,
and three of the gentlemen of her household were
sent to the Tower.3"
The Duke of Somerset was absent from the
court on account of sweating sickness in his house-
hold when the new permanent ambassador from
France arrived at Michaelmas, and was especially
invited to be present in the chapel when the king
and council received the Sacrament, ' wherein he
seeth and understandeth the great difference be-
twixt our reverence in our religion and the
slanders thereof usually spread by evil men.' 3i
On the day following the council asked Somerset
to return, and on 1 1 October he was present al
the gorgeous ceremonies in the Great Hall, when,
among other promotions in the peerage, the Earl
of Warwick, his mortal enemy, was created Duke
of Northumberland, and the Marquis of Dorset
Duke of Suffolk.351 Charges against Somerset had
been made secretly by Sir Thomas Palmer on
7 October. On 1 3 October the king was informed
of these accusations and left the palace. Somerset
attended the council at Hampton Court on the
following day, but a few hours after the meeting
he was accused of treason and felony and removed
to the Tower. Six weeks afterwards the late Lord
Protector was found guilty of felony and con-
demned to death, but was not executed till
22 January 1551— 2.351
During the autumn of 1551 the Queen Dowa-
ger of Scotland was entertained at Hampton Court
on her way from France to Scotland. She had an
escort from Portsmouth *** of the gentlemen of
Sussex and Surrey,364 and arrived at the palace on
3 1 October.3" She was received 2 \ miles from
the house by the Marquis of Northampton with
1 20 lords and gentlemen.35* At the gate she was
met by Lady Northampton and sixty other ladies,
and the 'Journal' mentions that all the 'logeings'
in the house and the ' hale ' were ' very finely
dressed.' A banquet with dancing and other
diversions took place in the evening. On the next
day ' the Dowager perused the house of Ampton
Courte, and saw some coursing of dere.' 357 On
2 November she came by water from the king's
palace and landed at ' Pawles Wharfe,' on her way
through London. It is said that she afterwards
expressed her appreciation of the young king's
' wisdom and solid judgment.' *
Hampton Court plays but a small part in the
history of the remaining three years of Edward's
reign. He was there apparently twice again : —
namely in June and September I552.349
WJ Lit. Rent, of Edw. VI, ii, 330, et
»cq. ' Journal ' ; Wriothesley, C/iron. ii,
(.o.
»« Lit. Rtm. of Edw. VI, ii, 332-3,
'Journal.'
8J4 Ibid, ii, 335, 'Journal,' July 26.
»« Ibid. m Ibid. 333-4.
M? Ibid, ii, 333-4, 'Journal,' i, p. cliv.
'« S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, itiii, 30. It
i« impossible to enter here into all the
Reformation questions dealt with by the
council at Hampton Court, vide S.P.
Dom. Edw. VI ; Acts ofP.C. &C.
"'Act, of P.O. 1550-2, pp. 333,
340, 347 5 Lit. Ran. of Edw. VI, ii,
337, 339-4°, 'Journal.'
8*> S.P. Foreign, 1547-53. no- 451.
' Letter of the Council to Sir Wm.
Pickering.'
841 Lit. Rem, of Edw. VI. ii, 350-1,
'Journal'; S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, xiii,
56 i Tytler, op. cit. ii, 29 ; Wriothes-
ley, Chron. ii, 56.
853 Lit. Rtm. of Edw. VI, ii, 390,
' Journal ' ; liurnct, Hist, of the Refor-
mation, ii (2), 67.
858 ' She was driven by tempest to
Portsmouthe & soe she sente worde she
wolde take the benefite of the safe-
conduitc, to goe by land & to see me.'
Lit. Rem. of Edw. VI, ii, 356. 'Jour-
nal' ; S.P. Foreign, 5 Nov. 1551.
342
»"£«/. Rem. of Edw. VI, ii, 358,
'Journal.'
855 Ibid. 359.
856 Acti of P.O. 1550-2, p. 397.
' Letters to dyvers noblemen & ladies
to attend uppon the Ld. Marques of
Northampton and the Lady Marquel
his wyefT, for the receyving of the
Quene Dowagier of Scotland at Hamp-
ton Courte.'
"W Lit. Rem. of Edw. VI, ii, 360,
'Journal.'
858 Strype, Eccl. Mem. ii, 284, cit.
Lit. Rem. of Edw. VI, \, p. civ.
849 S.P. Dom. Edw. VI, xv, 10.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
There seems to be no record that Mary ever
made Hampton Court her residence until she went
there to spend the first part of her married life
with Philip of Spain. On 23 August 1554, a few
days after their state entry into London, they
arrived at the palace, and, the court being in
mourning at the time, lived in a very retired
manner for some weeks.*60 It was perhaps the
happiest period of Mary's ill-starred existence, but
the people had become accustomed to the gorgeous-
ness of the Tudor display, and her retirement did
not make the marriage more popular.3"
In April 1555 Mary returned to Hampton
Court, to await the birth of her child,561 all pre-
parations were made, the nurseries were opened,
and 'a cradle sumptuouslie and gorgeouslie trimmed'
was ready.363 Copies of the letters drawn up to
announce the child's birth to all the foreign
powers are still extant among the State Papers,
' from her Majesty's Manor of Hampton Court,'
but with the date left blank.364 There is an account
in Holinshed's Chronicle of a scene on St. George's
Day, 23 April 1555, when Philip, after attending
high mass at the chapel in state, wearing his robes
as Sovereign of the Order of the Garter, with the
Lord Chancellor (Bishop Gardiner) in his mitre,
the other knights of the order, and the lords of
the council, also in their robes with crosses, ' and
clarkes and prestes,' went in procession round the
cloisters and courts of the palace, the thurifers
swinging censers and the clergy in copes of gold
and tissue. They marched through the old Inner
Court— where the present Fountain Court now
stands — and Mary, wishing to show her reverence
for the ceremony, watched the procession from a
window, so that she was seen ' by hundreds.' This
was considered a serious breach of etiquette.3" It
was at this time that Elizabeth arrived at the
palace, and the much-discussed reconciliation took
place between the sisters. Thomas Wharton, in
his Life of Sir Thomas Pope, gives a picturesque
account of Elizabeth's reception at Hampton Court
at Christmas 1554 ; he describes 'the Great Hall
lit with a thousand lamps curiously disposed,' and
Elizabeth's dress of ' white satin strung over with
large pearls,' but there is no evidence for this.3C5a
Philip and Mary were in London for Christmas 1554,
and Elizabeth was still a prisoner at Woodstock.
HAMPTON
She was summoned to Hampton Court, and arrived
on 25 April, under the escort of Sir Henry
Bedingfeld.366 She found herself regarded as a
prisoner, entered by a back gate, was taken to her
apartments, and closely guarded.367 The rooms she
was given appear to have been in the water
gallery, where there was a building isolated from
the rest of the palace.368 There she was visited
by Philip, and afterwards by her great-uncle, Lord
William Howard, but she was otherwise kept in
solitude, until she had interviewed Gardiner, then
Lord Chancellor, and the other lords of the council,
who tried without success to make her acknowledge
complicity in the Wyatt rebellion. After she had
been at Hampton Court about three weeks she
was summoned by the queen one night at 10
o'clock, and was conducted across the garden by
Bedingfeld and one of the queen's ladies, while
the gentlemen ushers and grooms carried torches
before her.369 She was taken to the queen's bed-
chamber, where she found Mary alone, seated on
a chair of state. Elizabeth, as usual, acquitted her-
self with great courage and prudence, maintaining
stoutly her innocence. The queen ended the
interview by saying ' Sabe Dios ' — ' God knows,'
and then added, ' Whether innocent or guilty I
forgive you.' 37° A week after Elizabeth was set at
liberty, allowed to have a separate establishment,
and treated with deference as heir to the throne,37'
although to the end of her life Mary refused to
abandon her hope of a child. Her health had
broken down completely, and the accounts of the
ambassadors who visited her at Hampton Court
give a terrible picture of her physical and mental
condition.3" Elizabeth remained at the palace,
attended mass in the chapel, and otherwise affected
a complete submission to her sister ; but when Mary
left for Oatlands on 3 August, Elizabeth asked and
received permission to retire from court.5" A
curious incident is recorded by Machyn, that when
Mary left the palace on this occasion, as she went
through the garden to enter her barge, she met a
cripple, who was so much overcome by his joy on
seeing her that he threw away his crutches and ran
after her. Mary appears to have looked on this as
a miracle, and gave him a reward from her privy
374
purse.
Mary and Philip were at Hampton Court again
"» They left on 28 September,
Machyn's Diary (Camd. Soc.), 69.
M1 There was some considerable
ceremony on 2 September, when Sir
Anthony Browne was created Viscount
Montague. He was Master of the
Horse, and Lieutenant of the Honour
of Hampton Court j Cal. S.P. Dom.
1547-80, p. 63.
863 Courtenay was admitted to kiss
hands before his departure as ambassa-
dor to the Netherlands, and the Duke
of Alva paid a short visit to Philip;
Wiesener, Touth of Queen Elix. ii, 154,
158, &c.
"«8 Holinshed, Chron. (ed. 1808),
iv, 69.
8IH S.P. Dom. Mary, v, 28, 32.
865 Machyn i Diary (Camd. Soc.), 85.
8651 It is also mentioned with further
detail in Mr. Shaw's MS. coll., but he
does not give his authority.
866 Wriothesley, Chron. ii, 128.
867 Heywood, England" i Elix. 191;
vide also Wiesener, La Jeumsse
if Elisabeth (ed. 1878), 310; Fried-
mann, Dipfches de Micbiel, 36.
sea A few years ago remains of the
ancient water-gate, or rather of its
foundations, were found under the
towing-path, just beyond the present
water-gallery, which dates from the
time of William and Mary.
M» Holinshed, Chron. ; Heywood,
England1! Elix. ; Foxe, Acts and
Monuments, viii, 621, cit. Law, Hist, of
Ham f ton Court Palace, i, 274.
»70 Foxe and Heywood (vide supra)
both declare that Philip was concealed
behind the arras on this occasion and
343
heard all that passed. He was said to
be tbnd of such tortuous methods of
obtaining information ; vide Strick-
land, Lives of the Queens of Engl.
iv, 108.
871 Leti, Vie £ Elisabeth, 267.
*!* Cal. S.P. Venetian, 1553-4, p.
532; Holinshed, Cbron. iii, 1160 ; Cal.
S.P. Foreign, Introd. p. Ixziii ; Am-
bassades de Noailles, iv, 342, cit. Law,
op. cit. i, 277. In Mary's will, dated
seven months before her death, she
made provision for settling the Crown
on her issue ; Madden, Privy Purse
Expenses of Mary, App.
»?• S.P. Dom. Mary, v, 48 ; Machyn's
Diary (Camd. Soc.), 92.
"< Mschyn's Diary (Camd. Soc.),
92.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
in August, but left on the 2 6th by barge for West-
minster on their way to Greenwich."6 Six days
later Philip returned to the Netherlands, and did
not rejoin his wife for two years. He and Mary
paid their last visit to the palace during his second
brief sojourn in England in June 1557, when
they came down with several members of the
council to hunt in the park, but it was only a fly-
ing visit, as the household was left at Whitehall.376
Though Hampton Court was not the scene of
any great historic events during the reign of Eliza-
beth, it was the background for many festivities.3"
Elizabeth inherited to the full the Tudor love of
splendid ceremonial and gorgeous pageantry. In
June 1559 Winchester378 wrote to Cecil379 that
he had made a survey of Hampton Court, and
pointed out the alterations and improvements that
he thought should be made for the queen. 'The
grounds,' he said, ' will be laid out with as many
pleasures as can be imagined.'380 The queen
arrived there for the first time after her accession
on 10 August 1559, from Nonsuch.381
The question of Elizabeth's marriage was
already the cause of anxiety to her advisers. The
Earl of Arran, eldest son of the Duke of Chatel-
herault,38* was the suitor at this time most
favoured by Elizabeth and her Protestant advisers.
Arran was a fugitive from France, hiding in
Switzerland. He came over to England and con-
cealed himself at Cecil's house in the Strand. In
August he came to Hampton Court, crossed the
river secretly, and was brought by Cecil into the
' Privy Gardens ' where a sort of clandestine in-
terview took place between him and the queen.
The romantic touch no doubt appealed to Eliza-
beth, but Arran did not please her personally, and
he returned to Scotland.383 The meeting was
kept profoundly secret, though de Quadra, the
Spanish ambassador, discovered it.38' The next
turn of the political wheel brought him a message
from the queen to say that she was disposed to
consider favourably a marriage with the Archduke
Charles, the son of the Emperor Ferdinand. De
Quadra hastened to Hampton Court,385 and a
strange story was told him about a plot which had
been discovered to murder the queen and Lord
Robert Dudley, and put Mary Stuart on the
throne.
It is necessary to mention here some of the
scandals about Elizabeth and Leicester.
Many years after Elizabeth's death a man ap-
peared in Madrid who declared that he was their
son, and told a circumstantial story of his birth at
Hampton Court in 1562. ' He was,' he said, ' the
reputed son of Robert Sotheron, once a servant
of Mrs. Ashley, of Evesham.' By order of Mrs.
Ashley, Sotheron went to Hampton Court, and
was told that Mrs. Ashley wished him to provide a
nurse for the child of a lady of the court, whose
honour the queen wished to preserve. ' Being
led into the gallery near the royal closet (? the
" Haunted Gallery ") he received the infant from
Mrs. Ashley, with directions to call it Arthur ;
entrusted it to the wife of the miller at Moul-
sey,' and afterwards conveyed it to his own
house. He treated the child as his own son, and
only on his death-bed revealed to the boy his real
parentage.386 The old mill at East Molesey still
exists. The story is discussed at length, with all
the evidence, in Martin Hume's Courtships of
Queen ERzabeth, and dismissed as improbable.
' Arthur Dudley ' was most likely only a carefully
coached spy. A curious story of the very familiar
terms on which Dudley and the queen were is
told by Randolph, writing to Sir William Throck-
morton. The queen was sitting in the dedans of
the tennis court at the palace, watching a game
between the Duke of Norfolk and Leicester, when
' My lord Robert being verie hotte and swetinge
tooke the Quene's napken oute of her hande and
wyped his face, which the Duke seinge saide that
he was to sawcie, and swore yt he wolde laye his
racket upon his face. Here upon rose a great
troble, and the Queen oftendid sore with the
Duke.' It can hardly be said that he was more
courtly than Dudley. Nevertheless Elizabeth
understood when to let her favourite know ' that
there was only one mistress in England and no
master.' m
The autumn of 1562 was a period of great
political anxiety in England,388 and in October
Elizabeth lay ill at Hampton Court suffering from a
dangerous attack of smallpox. On the night of the
1 5th she was thought to be dying, and the council
came in haste to decide on measures to be taken in
the event of her death. Froude's description of
the scene, taken from the Simancas MS., is very
graphic. On recovering from a state of uncon-
sciousness that had lasted for hours, she found the
council gathered round her bed, waiting to hear
what she might say of the succession. Her first
thoughts appear to have been of Dudley, who she
begged might be made protector of the realm,
and she asked that provision might be made
for others of her relatives and attendants. This
probably took place in the room on the south side
of the palace, which still has Elizabeth's crown
and cipher over the window. The worst part of
8's Wriothesley, Chron. ii, 133.
*>' Mjchyn's Diary (Camden Soc.),
139.
87' Law, Hist. Hampton Court Palace,
i, 280.
»'8 John Paulet, ist Marquis of Win-
chester, Lord Treasurer.
•f» William Cecil, Chief Secretary
of State, afterwards Lord Burghley.
«" Cal.S.P. Dom. 1547-80, p. 131.
881 Machyn't Diary (Camden Soc.),
206.
*** James Hamilton (1530-1609),
eldest son of James, 2nd Earl of Arran,
and Duke of Chatelherault. He was
presumptive heir to the throne of Scot-
land.
888 Cal. S.P. Foreign, 1558-9, no.
1274, 1293 ; Froude, op. cit. vii,
97, 140; Sadlcir Papers, 417, cit.
Law, op. cit. i, 282 ; Teulet, Relations
Politijues, i, 343-47, 357-61, &c.
884 Cal. S.P. Foreign, 1558-9, no.
I II 6.
•M On 7 or 8 Sept. 1559.
881 Ellis, Orig. Letter, (Scr. 2), iii,
344
135 ; S.P. Spanish, Eliz. iv ; S.P.
Venetian, viii, 4 April 1587 ; Lingard,
Hist. Engl. vi (n. E.E.) ; Law, Hist.
Hamfton Court Palace, i, 288.
W Cal. S.P. Scotland, x, no. jia.
888 Relations with Scotland were
strained. The agitations of the Roman
Catholic party had increased. The
plots of Arthur Pole had been dis-
covered. Troops had been dispatched
to take part in the civil war in France.
Diet. Nat. Biog. ; Law, op. cit, i, 289.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
her illnesss seemed, however, to be over, and the
queen recovered rapidly. By 1 1 November she
was sufficiently well to be moved to Somerset
Place."*
Elizabeth still continued to welcome suitors for
her hand. Hans Casimir, the eldest son of the
Elector Palatine, asked Sir James Melville, the
Scotch envoy, who was going from the Electoral
Court to London, to carry his portrait to the
queen, in April 1564. Elizabeth received Mel-
ville at Hampton Court, and he brought her the
pictures of the ' Duke Casimir ' and of his father
and mother to see. The next morning she met
him in the garden, and gave him back the por-
traits : ' She would have none of them,' Melville
said, and wrote to the duke and his father 'dissuad-
ing them to meddle any more in that marriage.' 3S
In October Melville returned to Hampton
Court on a special mission from Mary Queen of
Scots,391 and stayed at the palace for nine days,
seeing Elizabeth constantly, and trying to appease
her insatiable curiosity about Mary.
Like Wolsey, Elizabeth often made appoint-
ments with the ambassadors to meet her in the
gardens, where she habitually walked every morn-
ing at eight o'clock, being careful, when she was
likely to be observed, not to walk with undignified
haste ; ' she, who was the very image of majesty and
magnificence, went slowly and marched with
leisure, and with a certain grandity rather than
gravity.' 39f
Melville tells a story of his being taken by Lord
Hunsdon to hear the queen play on the virginals.
He was apparently led into ' a quiet gallery,'
where he might hear without being seen, but after
a time pushed aside the tapestry which hung over
the door and entered the room where she sat. She
stopped playing when she found that she was not
alone, and expressed surprise at his entrance, but
made him ' kneel on a cushion,' and at last drew
from him the compliment the old courtier had
hitherto skilfully evaded, as he was obliged to own
that she played better than his own queen did.393
He also conceded that Mary ' danced not so high
or disposedly as she did.' 394 She was really fond of
music, and always had a great number of musicians
to play and sing while she dined or supped, as
HAMPTON
well as on state occasions, at masquerades, balls
and banquets.396 She was also particular about
the music in the chapel at Hampton Court, and
used to send sometimes to tell her organist Tye
that 'he played out of tune,' to which he re-
turned, in uncourtier-like phrase, that ' her ears
were out of tune.' S9e
In 1568 an important council was held at
Hampton Court on 30 October, to decide on the
further action of England with regard to the con-
ference then being held in London concerning the
chances of reconciliation between Mary Queen of
Scots, who was a prisoner at Carlisle, and her rebel
lords.397 It was probably on this occasion that
Elizabeth was made aware of the growing excite-
ment among her Roman Catholic subjects, and the
likelihood of a rising in the north on Mary's be-
half.398 The queen gave Mary's commissioners an
audience at Hampton Court on 23 November, and
assured them that the proceedings were to be in
no way judicial.'99
During the sitting of the conference Elizabeth
remained at Hampton Court, where she received
the new French ambassador, La Motte F6nelon,
and also the Cardinal de Chatillon, brother of
Coligny, who was the envoy of Conde and the
Huguenots.400
On Friday 3 December Mary's commissioners
again appeared at Hampton Court, and protested
against the attitude of the Regent Murray and of
the English commissioners.401 An answer was
not given at once, and they returned to the
palace the next day, when they asked to see Leicester
and Cecil, and suggested a compromise.402 On
8 December the celebrated Casket letters were
produced by Murray and laid before the English
commissioners, and a great council of peers was
summoned at Hampton Court to discuss the pro-
ceedings of the conference and to see these proofs.403
The first meeting was on 1 3 December, the
opinion of the peers was not unanimous, and for
some time afterwards negotiations were carried on
incessantly between Elizabeth and Mary's com-
missioners.401
Before Murray's departure405 he had an inter-
view with the Duke of Norfolk in the park, talking
with him and encouraging him in his aspirations
889 Froude, Hist. Engl. vii, 429. De
Quadra wrote that 'when the Queen
feared she might die she protested
solemnly before God that although she
loved Robert dearly nothing unseemly
had ever passed between them.' Cal.
S.P. Spanish, 1562,!, 190, vide Martin
Hume, Courtship! of Queen Eliz. 68.
890 Melville, Memoirs, 79.
891 He was sent to apologize to
Elizabeth for an angry letter written to
her by Mary, because Elizabeth had
suggested a marriage between the Queen
of Scots and Lord Robert Dudley.
When Melville left the palace he was
conveyed by Dudley in his barge from
Hampton Court to London. He
asked what the Queen of Scots thought
of the proposal that she should marry
him, but Melville answered 'very
coldly,' and Lord Robert declared the
proposal an invention of his enemies ;
Melville, Memoirs, 97, 101.
8M Digges, Comfleat Ambassador,
300 ; Melville, Memoirs, 97.
898 Melville, Memoirs, 101.
894 She asked him constantly whether
she or Mary were the more lovely, the
taller, the better dancer, &c.
896 Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elix.
', 487, 5*9-
898 Ibid, i, 193. In Hawkins's
Hist, of Music, v, 201, he says that 'in
the hour of her departure she ordered
her musicians into her chamber and
died hearing them.'
897 Goodall, Examination of the Let-
ten of Mary Queen of Scots, ii, 179.
898 Froude, Hist, of Engl. ix, 335,
quoting a letter from Cecil to Sir H.
Sydney. MSS. Ireland, P.R.O.
899 Goodall, op. cit. ii, 189.
345
<»» Dlpeches de la Motte Fenelon, i,
1-16.
<M The Bishop of Ross was spokes-
man for the Scottish commissioners.
Froude, Hist, of Engl. ix, 344 ; Goodall,
Journ. ofP.C. 223.
403 These proceedings at Hampton
Court were more or less private, and
not meetings of the conference ; Law,
Hist, Hampton Court Palace, i, 307,
n. 3.
108 The Earls of Westmorland,North-
umberland, Derby, Shrewsbury, Wor-
cester, Huntingdon, and Warwick, be-
sides members of the Privy Council,
Sir Nicholas Bacon, Clinton, Leicester,
Cecil, &c.
«<» Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. iv, App.
209-10.
<os Hosack, Mary Queen of Scott and
her Accusers, i, 425.
44
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
for the hand of Mary. Norfolk, with good reason,
did not trust the Regent. ' Earl Murray,' he said,
as they parted at the postern gate, ' thou hast Nor-
folk's life in thy hands.'406 In less than a year
Murray had betrayed to Elizabeth all that Norfolk
had said to him.
The queen continued to visit Hampton Court
annually, and to spend some time there, but her
visits were usually only occasions for rest or amuse-
ment. In the autumn of 1569, when Norfolk's
rebellion in the north was at its height, she was at
the palace,40' and also in July 1571 and Sep-
tember I572.408 On the last occasion she again
suffered from smallpox, and was so ill that ' my
lord of Leicester did watch with her all night," but
the illness lasted a very short time, and she was
soon able to go to Windsor.409 At Christmas she
returned to Hampton Court, and kept the season
gaily with a long series of the revels in which she
rejoiced as much as her father before her.'10
Masques and plays were presented before the
court almost every evening in the Great Hall.
The Accounts of the Revels at Court tn contain many
details of such performances, and show that the
stage scenery of those days was not really so primi-
tive as is generally thought. There are entries for
' painting seven cities, one village, and one country
house,' and for bringing in trees to represent a
wilderness.411 The method of illumination by
stretching wires across the open roof of the hall and
hanging on them small oil lamps is also described
in the accounts.413 In 1576 and 1577 414 she again
spent Christmas with great cheer at Hampton
Court, and in 1576 six plays were presented before
her by 'the Earl of Warwick's servants,' 'the Lord
Howard's servants,' 'the Earl of Leicester's men.'
The most interesting of these is 'The historic of
Error showen at Hampton Court on New Year's
Day at night, enacted by the children of Powles.' 416
It has been conjectured that this play was the
foundation of Shakespeare's ' Comedy of Errors.'
There is a little picture of Elizabeth at the palace
in 1576, which shows a less pleasant side of her
character, contained in a letter from Eleanor
Bridges to the Earl of Rutland : ' The Queen hath
used Mary Shelton very ill for her marriage. She
hath telt liberal! bothe with bloes and yevellwordes
and hath not yet graunted her consent. . . . The
Court is as full of malice and spite as when you
left.' 4"
The queen's hospitality was practically bound-
less. The sum total of the charges for the upkeep
of her household amounted to £80,000 in one
year, but this very enormous sum for the period
was exclusive of charges for Christmas and other
feasts.4" In January 1579 John Casimir, Count
Palatine of Rhene and Duke of Bavaria, hunted in
the park while he was staying with the queen.4"
She was also at the palace during 1580, and again
in 1582."' In 1592 the Duke of Wurtemberg
came to shoot and hunt in the parks, and described
his sport as ' glorious and royal.' He also described
the palace as ' the most splendid and magnificent
to be seen in England, or indeed in any other
kingdom.' 4W In Shirley's Deer and Deer Parks are
some interesting accounts of Elizabeth's own love
of hunting and of turning every occasion into a
scene of pageantry.4" For Christmas 1592 4" and
I593m s^e was again at Hampton Court. In
February 1593 a considerable robbery of plate and
jewels took place, which is thus described by a
gentleman of the court : ' Bryan Annesley, Francis
Hervey, James Crofts, and John Parker, all four
gentlemen pensioners, three days agone were
robbed, and in their absences at six o'clock at
night their chamber door, which is in one of the
five towers of the Tilt Yard,424 was broken open,
and all their trunks likewise, out of all of which
the thieves took and carried away of jewels and
ready money, from these four, to the value of
£400, and no news heard of them since.' 4" The
chief perpetrator, John Randall, was afterwards
discovered and hanged.426
At about the same time a plot was discovered
to murder the queen, her Spanish Jew physician,
Dr. Lopez, having been bribed by the Governor of
the Netherlands to put poison in her medicine.
The plot was discovered by Essex ; some of the
investigations were carried on at Hampton Court,
and at first Elizabeth, who was still at the palace,
was very angry with Essex for bringing such an
accusation against an apparently innocent man.
Essex retaliated by shutting himself up in his own
room for several days, until Lopez's guilt having
become more evident, the queen sent repeated
apologies and affectionate messages to her offended
favourite. Lopez was afterwards found guilty and
executed.4"
In 1599 Elizabeth paid her last visit to Hamp-
ton Court,4'9 as determined as ever to be young
<ue The interview did take place, and
this remark may have been made. If
true it would be interesting if the
' postern gate ' could be identified.
Hosack, op. cit. i, 480, £c.
<o~ Hiit. AfSS. Com. Rtf. iv, App. zio.
(06 Digges, Comfleat Ambassador,
111-15.
«» Life of Sir Thomas Smith, ' Let-
ters from Sir T. Smith to Walsingham.'
Elizabeth herself wrote that it was not
smallpox, though there were symptoms
resembling it ; Progresses of Queen £/«.
i, 322.
110 Digges, Comfleat Ambassador, 310;
Life of Sir Thomas Smith, 239.
411 Published by the Shakespeare
Soc. (ed. P. Cunningham).
412 For many interesting details sec
Law, op. cit. i, 318-20. 418 Ibid.
414 Acts of P.C. 1575-7, P- '*!•
Warrants for payments for ' bringing a
game before Her Majesty,' and for pre-
senting two plays before her in 1575-6.
At the end of 1575 she entertained the
ambassadors of France and of the
Netherlands. The embassy from the
Netherlands came to offer her the
sovereignty of the Low Countries ;
Nichols, Progresses of Queen Eliz. ii, 3.
414 Cunningham, Accounts of Revels
at Court, 101. The 'children of
Powles' were the choir of St. Paul's
Cathedral.
414 Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. xii, App. iv,
107.
346
tl' Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elix.
''. 47-
118 Ibid, ii, 277. «• Ibid, ii, 392.
480 Rye, Engl. as seen by Foreigners,
cit. Law, op cit. i, 326.
421 Shirley, Deer and Deer Parks, 40;
Gascoyne, Book of Hunting ; Nichols,
Progresses of Queen Eliz. i, passim,
4M Memoirs of Robert Carey, Earl of
Monmouth, 6 1 (ed. 1808), cit. Law, op.
cit. i, 330.
4*» Nichols, Progresses of Queen Eli*.
iii, 216-32. 424 See p. 334.
425 S.P. Dom. Eliz. ccl, 2 j ccli, 50.
426 Ibid.
** Birch, Memoirs of Queen Eli*, i,
150-5.
4i8 S.P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxii, 94.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
and frivolous. She was seen through a window
dancing 'The Spanish Panic (?pavane) to a whistle
and tabourem (pipe and tabor), none being with her
but my Lady Warwick.' 4W The Scottish Ambas-
sador also reported that when she left Hampton
Court she wished to go on horseback as usual,
though she was ' scarce able to sit upright,' and
' the day being passing foul, my Lord Hunsdon
said " It was not meet for one of Her Majesty's
years to ride in such a storm." She answered in
great anger, " My years ! Maids, to your horses
quickly," and so rode all the way.' As she passed
Kingston an old man fell on his knees praying
God ' that she might live a hundred years, which
pleased her so as it might come to pass.' 43° Three
and a half years later Elizabeth died at Richmond
Palace.
James I came to Hampton Court for the first
time about four months after his accession."*1 On
17 July 1603 he issued from there a general
summons to all persons who had £40 a year in
land or upwards to come and receive the ' honour
of knighthood ' ; the payment of the necessary fees
in return being understood, or a fine in default."1
The first two of those who had this ' honour '
thrust upon them were Mr. John Gamme of Rad-
norshire and Mr. William Cave of Oxfordshire,
who were knighted by the king at Hampton
Court on 20 July.*31 On 2 1 July the king created
eleven peers, and the ceremony took place with
much magnificence in the Great Hall at Hampton
Court."'
A Roman Catholic plot to seize the king, and so
to enforce some change in his policy towards the
recusants, was betrayed by John Gerard, a Jesuit,434
and the proclamation for the apprehension of the
chief conspirators was issued from Hampton Court
on 1 6 July.
James apparently determined to keep up Eliza-
beth's habit of spending Christmas at Hampton
HAMPTON
Court with suitable festivity. In December 1603
he and the queen returned to the palace, and a
grand ' masque ' called The Vision of the Twelve
Goddesses was specially written for the occasion by
Samuel Daniel.4" Lady Arabella Stuart, in a letter
dated 1 8 December 1603, says, 'The Queen in-
tendeth to make a masque this Christmas, to which
end my Lady Suffolk and my Lady Walsingham
hath warrant to take of the late Queen's best
apparel out of the Tower at their discretion.' 436
Sir Dudley Carleton also wrote of a ' Merry
Christmas at Hampton Court,' and said that ' the
Duke (of Lennox) is rector chori of one side (of
the masques about to be produced) and the lady
Bedford of the other.' "' The exchequer accounts
for the queen's royal household and wardrobe 4M
give an idea of the preparations in the Great Hall
and ' Great Watching Chamber ' for this masque,
and in a copy of the first edition, now at the
British Museum, in the King's Library, the names of
the twelve ladies who took part in it are inserted
in a contemporary handwriting, thought to be
that of Lord Worcester.439 The representation
took place in the Great Hall on Sunday, 8 January
1604, at nine or ten o'clock in the evening. All
the ambassadors were entertained at court this
Christmas, and were present at the masque. A
letter from Sir Dudley Carleton, printed in Mr.
Law's History, speaks of the banquet afterwards as
being ' despatched with the customary confusion."40
Shakespeare belonged to ' the King's Company of
Comedians,' 4<1 and it is extremely probable that he
took part in some of the numerous plays presented
before the king and queen in the Great Hall at
different times.442
The first political difficulty with which James
had to deal related to the necessity for a recog-
nized form of religion. James was anxious to
make a satisfactory compromise, and consented that
a conference should be summoned at Hampton
439 An unpublished report of Lord
Semple of Beltreis to the King of Scots,
in possession of Sir John Maxwell of
Police 5 cit. Strickland, Lives of ike
Quetns of Engl. iv, 710.
480 Ibid. 709-10.
480a In 1602 Philip, Duke of Stettin
Pomerania, travelling with his tutor
through Europe, visited Hampton
Court, which he described at length in
his diary. The diary is still extant.
Tram. Royal Hist. Sac. (new sen), vi, I,
et seq.
481 Rymer, Foedera, xvi, 530. The
'noble order of Baronets' was founded
later, also as an expedient for raising
money. They each had to pay a fee of
£1,000.
48> Nichols, Progresses of Jas. I, i, 204.
488 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, ii, 72. During
his reign he conferred 1 1 1 peerages,
about seven times as many as Queen
Elizabeth had created in a reign twice
as long.
484 Diet. Nat. Biog.; S.P. Dom. Jas I,
ii, 54 (1603).
484 For an account of the masque see
Law, A Royal Masque at Hampton
Court (1880), in which it a reprint of
The Piston of the Twelve Goddesses,
436 James was determined to make
use of the late queen's wardrobe. Be-
fore he left Scotland he wrote asking
that her dresses and jewels might be
sent to his wife. Elizabeth is said to
have left 500 gowns, all of the greatest
magnificence ; Law, Hist. Hampton
Court Palace, ii, 7 ; Nichols, Progresses
of Jas. I, iv, 1060.
48' S.P. Dom. Jas. I, v, 20. The
plague which raged in London at the
time was one reason for being at
Hampton Court. The deaths in Lon-
don during the autumn had amounted
to three or four thousand a week.
488 Exch. Q.R Household and Ward-
robe Accts. bdle. 82, no. i.
489 Law, op. cit. ii, 9-22. Lady
Suffolk, the queen, and Lady Rich were
Juno, Pallas, and Venus. The Ladies
Hertford, Bedford, and Derby repre-
sented Diana, Vesta, and Proserpine.
The Ladies Hatton, Nottingham, and
Walsingham were Macaria, Concordia,
and Astraea. Lady Susan Vere, Lady
Dorothy Hastings, and Lady Elizabeth
Howard took the parts of Flora, Ceres,
and Tethys. Inigo Jones is said to
have designed the scenery.
440 yide Winwood, Mem. ii, 44.
347
Daniel, the author of the masque, was
afterwards made ' Master of the Queen's
Children of the Revells,' a post for
which there appears to be evidence
that Shakespeare himself applied.
441 The warrant for enrolling the
King's Company of Comedians is among
the Chapter House Privy Seal Papers,
no. 71, now in the Record Office
Museum, dated 7 May 1603. Shake-
speare's name is the third on the list.
It was rather the queen than the king
who rejoiced in and encouraged these
revelries ; Dudley Carleton remarked
that * he takes no t-.traordmary pleasure
in them. The Queen and Prince
(Henry) were more the players' friends.'
S.P. Dom. Jas. I, vi, 21 (1604).
442 Halliwell-Phillipps, Life of Shake-
speare, 205 j Collier, Ne-w Facts about
Shakespeare (ed. 1835), 48; Extracts
from Revels Accts. (Shakespeare Soc.).
Mr. Law says that ' Unfortunately the
career of the masque, though brilliant,
was short-lived. With the decay of the
drama in Charles I's reign, masques
entirely died out, and were not re-
vived when the taste for the theatre
returned with Charles II'; Law, op. cit.
ii, 29.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Court, when the bishops and other clergy of the
Church of England and some of the great divines
of the Puritan party were appointed to discuss the
questions at issue. Those present for the Church
were Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Bishops of London, Durham, Winchester, Wor-
cester, St. David's, Chichester, Carlisle, and Peter-
borough, the Deans of the Chapel Royal, St. Paul's,
Chester, Salisbury, Gloucester, Worcester, and
Windsor, the Archdeacon of Nottingham and Dr.
Field • for the Puritans Dr. John Reynolds and
HAMPTON COURT PALACE :
THE HALL, LOOKING TOWARDS THE SCREENS
Dr. Thomas Sparks of Oxford ; Mr. Chaddeston
and Mr. Knewstubs, of Cambridge.44* It is not
proposed here to do more than mention the fact
that the Hampton Court conference took place in
January 1603-4, an<^ tnat a nrst meeting444 was
held on Saturday 1 4-th in the king's privy cham-
ber,445 one of the large rooms built by Henry VIII
on the east side of the Clock Court, which was
altered in the reign of George II. The Puritans
did not attend this meeting, but the conference
met formally on the following Monday and
Wednesday, and James's
theological learning re-
ceived the approbation
and support of the
bishops ; though the Puri-
tan party can hardly have
appreciated the forcible
style of his language.44'
James was pleased with
the opportunity to dis-
play his own erudition,
and wrote to a friend in
Scotland, ' I have pep-
pered thaime soundlie.'
One effect of the confer-
ence at the time was no
doubt to emphasize the
hostility which developed
later into the Great Re-
bellion.
The most lasting con-
sequence was that the
decision to make a new
translation of the Bible
gave the nation the 'Au-
thorized Version.' *"
For eight or nine
months in 1604 Henry
Prince of Wales with
his tutors and house-
hold remained at the
palace, and there are
accounts of his skill at
tennis and his prowess
in hunting while he was
there.418 From this time
forth the king came to
Hampton Court always
in the autumn, the time
when it is generally con-
sidered that the Thames
Valley is at its worst ;
but he was also there for
448 Meal, Hist. Puritans, it, 10.
444 A private meeting between the
kin? and the bishops was held the day
before.
445 The chapel was first suggested as
a meeting place.
446 In a letter from an eye-witness,
Sir John Harrington, he says that ' the
King talked much Latin and disputed
with Dr. Reynolds, but he rather used
upbraidings than arguments. The
bishops seemed much pleased, and said
His Majesty spoke by the spirit of in-
spiration. I wist not what they mean,
but the spirit was rather foul-mouthed.'
Nugoe Antiquae, i, 181 •, ' Harrington's
Breefe Notes.'
447 Barlow, Sum and Substance of the
Conference (1603) (reprinted in the
Phoenix) ; Whitgift, App, of Rec. Bk.
iv, no. xlv ; Dodd, Church Hist, iv, 2 1 ;
Fuller, Church Hist, x, 267 ; Gardiner,
Hist, Engl. vols. i-v ; Diet. Nat. Biog.
'James I'; Hist. AfSS. Com. Ref. iv,
App. 418, 'Emmanuel Coll. Cam-
bridge.'
348
443 Birch, Mem. of Prince Htnry, 75,
ciL Law, op. cit. ii, 47. There is a
curious picture at Hampton Court of
Henry Prince of Wales and the Earl of
Essex. The prince (aged eleven years)
is drawing his sword to cut the throat
of a stag which Essex is holding. It is
said that on one occasion when they
were playing tennis together Essex
threatened to strike the prince across
the face with his racket for calling him
the ton of a traitor ; Secret Hist, of
Jai. I, i, 266.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
hunting in the spring, and often spent Christmas
there.444
Up to the time of her marriage in 1610 the
unfortunate Lady Arabella Stuart was constantly at
Hampton Court with the king and queen.440
In September 1605, on Michaelmas Day, Dr.
Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, was sworn a
Privy Councillor at Hampton Court, and the king
remained there till October,"1 just before the famous
meeting of Parliament after the discovery of the
Gunpowder Plot. He was also there in December
while the trial of the conspirators was going on.45*
In August 1606 the queen's brother, Chris-
tian IV of Denmark, came to England and visited
Hampton Court with the king and queen, they
' dyned and there hunted and killed deare, with
great pleasures.' *" The King of Denmark also
saw a play 'presented by his Majesties' Players
in the Great Hall.' 4S* Sir John Harrington wrote
an astonishing account .of his convivial manners
and habits.446
James always enjoyed associating the frivolities
of the court with theological discussions, and in
the autumn of 1606 he invited several of the
leading ministers of the Presbyterian Church of
Scotland to attend him at Hampton Court, and
chose four eminent English divines to preach
before them, ' for the reduction of ... the
Presbyterian Scots to a right understanding of the
Church of England.' 4i6 Between the sermons the
king received the Scottish ministers in private
audience and argued with them at much length,
no doubt to his own satisfaction ; ' in effect they
returned to Scotland of the same opinion, no good
end having been served by their visit.' 4*7
While they were still at the palace Francis
Prince of Vaudemont, third son of Charles Duke
of Lorraine, also arrived with a great retinue.468
One of the gentlemen of the court wrote to the
Earl of Shrewsbury that 'this night the Earl of
Vaudemont will be here, with his crew, //*/
clinquant que If soleil.' Ki He stayed at Hamp-
ton Court for a fortnight, being ' very royally
entertained and feasted, and rode a-hawking and
hunting with the king to divers places, and then
returned.' <6° Lord Shrewsbury's correspondent
also described the ' dancing in the Queen's Pre-
sence Chambre,' when ' my lady Pembroke carried
away the glory.' 461
The following year saw a different scene when
the queen went to Hampton Court alone, after the
death of her infant daughter Mary, and ' the
Court officers had leave to play, and are gone every
one to his own home, only Lord Salisbury went to
Hampton Court to comfort the Queen.' 46>
There are two contemporary accounts of Hamp-
ton Court in the reign of James I,463 one written
by Prince Otto, the son of the Landgrave Maurice
of Hesse, who came there in 1 6 1 1 , and gives a
long description of the palace, the tapestries, pic-
tures, and other curiosities. Among the rooms he
mentions one called 'Paradise — within which
almost all the tapestry is stitched with pearls and
mixed with precious stones.' 464 The Duke of
Wtlrtemberg had described this room in Elizabeth's
reign, and mentioned a table-cover in it worth
fifty thousand crowns, and the ' royal throne stud-
ded with . . . diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and the
like.' <&i The German traveller Hentzner also
spoke of it at that time, and said it ' glitters so
with silver, gold, and jewels as to dazzle one's
eyes.' 466 The other account is by Ernest, Duke
of Saxe- Weimar, who was at the palace in i6i3.467
He was also astonished by the ' Paradise ' room,
and adds the detail that ' all the apartments and
galleries were laid with rush matting.' He further
described a 'great hunt' he had with the king,
who was devoted to the sport. On 9 September
1609 the king issued from Hampton Court a
stringent proclamation against ' Hunters, stealers
and killers of Deare, within any of the king's
Majesties Forests, Chases or Parks.' 468 Anne of
Denmark shared this taste, and Ben Jonson called
her ' the Huntress Queen.' 469
449 So unvarying were the king's
habits that an observant courtier ii said
to have remarked, 'Were he asleep
seven years and then awakened he
could tell where the king every day
had been and every dish he had at his
table ' ; Secret Hist, of Jas. 7, ii, 5.
*M Lodge, Illustration! of Engl. Hist.
iii, 236 ; Progresses of Jas. I, i, 457.
In Feb. 1610, Arabella, after suffering
much for no reason but her nearness
in the line of succession to the throne,
engaged herself to William Seymour,
son of the Earl of Hertford. In
March they were summoned before
the Privy Council and promised not to
marry without the king's consent, but
in July were privately married. They
were immediately separated by the
king's orders, and after Arabella had
made a desperate effort to escape to
France disguised in a man's clothes on
4 June 1611, she was brought back to
the Tower and remained there till her
death in 1615. Diet. Nat. Biog. ;
Cooper, Life and Letters of Lady A.
Stuart.
451 Howe, Chron. (continuation of
Stowe, Citron.") \ Nichols, Progresses of
Jas. I, i, 577; Cat. S.P. Dom. 1603-10,
p. 234.
45a S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xvii, 7-32
(the 'examination ' of those implicated
in the plot). Nichols, Progresses of
Jas. I, iii.
453 England's Fare-well to the King of
Denmark, cit. Law, op. cit. ii, 50 ;
Nichols, op. cit. ii, 81. There is a
portrait of Christian IV in the palace,
by Vansomer.
444 Cunningham, Extracts from Accts.
of the Revels at Court (Shakespeare Soc.),
p. xxxviii.
455 frfugag Antiquae, i, 348 ; Diet.
Nat. Biog. 'James I.'
456 Wood, Atbenae, ii, col. 507 (ed.
Bliss).
4*7 Spotswood, Hist. Ch. of Scotland,
496-8 j Wood, Atbenae, ii (ed. Bliss) ;
Gardiner, Hist, of Engl. The four
preachers were Bishops Barlow of Lin-
coln and Andrews of Chichester,
Dr. Buckeridge and Dr. King. A few
copies of the sermon preached by
Dr. Buckeridge are still extant, and
one is in Mr. Law's collection at
349
Hampton Court. Law, op. cit. ii,
S3-
458 Howe, Chron. (continuation of
Stowe, Cbron.), 887.
459 Nichols, Progresses of Jas. I, ii, 96.
480 Howe, Cbron. 887.
461 Law, op. cit. ii, 57 ; Lodge,
Illustrations, iii.
4M Ibid, iii, 324.
<6S They are given at length in Law,
Hist. Hampton Court Palace, ii, 65 et seq.;
W. B. Rye, Engl. as seen by Foreigners,
144; Nichols, Progresses of Jas. I, ii, 424.
484 Law, op. cit. ii, 72.
465 Ibid, i, 328-9 ; from Rye, op.
cit. 19, &c.
466 Hentzner, Journey into Engl. (ed.
1757), 82.
467 Law, op. cit. ii, 72.
46a S.P. Dom. Jas. I, xlviii, 23 ; see
the account of James's love for hunting
in Law, op. cit. ii, chap, v, vi, p. 7 3 et secj.
469 Ibid. There is a picture of her
at Hampton Court, no. 444 in the
Picture Galleries, by Vansomer, in a
fanciful green hunting dress, standing
by her horse, with two little greyhounds
jumping round her.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
On 20 September 1613 James wrote the order
at Hampton Court for the removal of the remains
of his mother Mary, Queen of Scots, from Peter-
borough to Westminster Abbey.*70 The court
was at the palace again in December 1 6 14,"' and
in April 1615."' In June 1616 George Villiers,
afterwards Duke of Buckingham, was appointed
' Keeper of the Honour of Hampton Court for
life.'4" In September 1617 was solemnized in the
chapel the marriage of Buckingham's brother, Sir
John Villiers, with Frances, daughter of Lord Chief
Justice Coke. The wedding was followed by a
great banquet and masque,4" when the king and
his courtiers ran about the palace and played
extraordinary pranks. According to the strange
custom of the period, early the next morning the
bride and bridegroom were given a reveille-matin,
the king himself jumping and rolling on their bed
' in shirt and nightgown.' 4"
In 1618 Anne of Denmark became seriously
ill, and after a short stay at Oatlands moved to
Hampton Court,4'6 in the hope of regaining her
health away from London. She was evidently
consumptive, and by the end of February 1619
grew rapidly worse. On I March ' all the Lords
and Ladies went to Hampton Court, but very
few were admitted.' 4" The physicians,478 the Prince
(Charles) of Wales, and the Bishop of London
were called to her hastily in the early morning of
the following day, and at four o'clock she died.479
Her body was embalmed and taken by water in
a royal barge to Somerset House. She was after-
wards buried in Westminster Abbey.480
One of the curious economies of James I was
the refusal to grant ' lodgings ' in the precincts to
any of the ambassadors, but in 1620 he allowed
Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, to take up his
residence in one of the detached towers of the
palace.481 Inigo Jones was surveyor of the Royal
Works at the time,482 and a letter which is said to
be the only one of his that has been preserved is
from Hampton Court, and is addressed to the Earl
of Arundel and Surrey, concerning the 'lodgings
intended for the ambassador.' 48B
In January 1620-1 the French ambassador was
invited to the palace, and ' nobly entertained with
hunting and hawking,' probably to prevent any
jealousy concerning the Spaniard. Charles, Prince
of Wales, returned to Hampton Court in Septem-
ber 1623, after his romantic journey to Spain, to
make his own proposals of marriage to the Infanta,
or rather perhaps to test the sincerity of the pro-
fessions of the Spanish government.484
The negotiations were broken off very soon
after Charles's return, and in September 1624,
when the tharg£ d'affaires for Spain, in the absence
of the ambassador, came to the palace, he was
received with great coldness,485 and did not even
see the prince, who had had a severe fall while
hunting in the park a week or two before, and
remained in his own room.466 There is no record
that James I was at Hampton Court again before
his death on 27 March 1625.
During the earlier part of the reign of Charles 1 487
Hampton Court was chiefly the scene of his many
difficulties with regard to Henrietta Maria's house-
hold,488 and the record is one of succeeding mis-
understandings, quarrels and reconciliations with
her and with the diplomatic agents of France.
The lady in waiting who had the greatest in-
fluence over the queen, and therefore inspired
great distrust in Charles and his advisers, was
Mme. de Saint Georges. Charles seized the
opportunity, both in going to Hampton Court for
the first time with his wife, and on leaving it for
Windsor, to exclude Mme. de Saint Georges from
the coach which carried himself and the queen.
De Tillieres, who was Henrietta Maria's chamber-
«° Stanley, Mem. of We:tm. Abbey,
App.
*<* Cat. S.P. Dam. 1611-18, p. 263.
<"" Ibid. 282.
••"8 Ibid. 374.
4~4 Nichols, Progresses of Jas. 7, iii,
440.
<?5 Campbell, Lives of the Chief
Justices, i, 303 ; Progresses of Jas. I,
i, 471 ; iii, 255 et seq. The history
of this marriage is a romantic one, too
long to be given here.
4"6 Progresses of Jas. I, iii, 441. She
was not too ill to remember her old
favourite, Sir Walter Raleigh, and
wrote from Hampton Court to try to
obtain a pardon for him, but without
success. He was executed on Tower
Hill on 29 Oct. 1618.
4'7 « Letter from Mr. Chamberlain,'
Progresses of Jas. 1, iii, 531.
4?8 Sir Theodore Mayerne, who had
attended Prince Henry in his last ill-
ness, was one of the physicians. There
is a portrait of him in the palace.
His MS. note-books are in the Brit.
Mus.; Law, op. cit. ii, 83.
4'9 There is an ancient tradition to the
effect that she died exactly as the clock
struck the hour, and that ever since it
has always stopped when an old resident
dies in the palace. Many corrobora-
tive coincidences have been noted, but
no record has been kept of the dates
when the clock stopped without any
death having taken place.
480 An account of her death, by one
of her attendants, is printed in the Mis-
cellany of the AbbotsforJ Club, i, 81, 84;
see also letter from Mr. Chamberlain
in Progresses of Jas. I, iii, 531; Law,
op. cit. ii, 83, 87. James was at New-
market when she died. The portrait of
him at Hampton Court, by Vansomer,
in black clothes, was probably painted
while he was wearing mourning for the
queen. There is another portrait of
him in the palace, by the same painter,
in robes of state.
481 S.P. Dom. Jas. I, cxvi, 61,
20 Aug. 1620.
488 He remained Surveyor in the time
of Charles I ; Cat. S.P. Dom. 1637-8,
p. 376.
183 Collier, Life of Inigo Jones, 23,
vide Law, op. cit. ii, 92, where the
letter is printed in full 5 S.P. Dom.
Jas. I, cxvi, 65.
484 Diet. Nat. Biog. 'James I ' ; Hard-
wicke, Stare Papers, vol. i. James
seems to have been alarmed by the
suggestion that Charles should remain
in Spain for a year, and to have signed
the articles agreeing to the marriage,
350
chiefly in order that his son might
return to England.
4S5 Cat. S.P. Dom. 1623-5, P- 349-
486 Progresses of Jas. I, ii, 1005.
Charles and the Duke of Bucking-
ham were the real rulers of the kingdom
during all the latter part of James's
reign.
48? He first came to the palace after
his accession in July 1625, two or
three weeks after his marriage. The
plague was raging in London at the
time, and all through this reign con-
stant precautions were necessary to
prevent communication with London
and the spread of the infection. Only
one death from plague seems to have
taken place at Hampton Court in 1636;
Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. iv, App. 78 ;
ibid, xi, App. 24 ; Cal. S.P. Dom.
Chas. I, 1636-7, p. 57, &c. ; De Til-
lieres, Memoirei (ed. Hippeau, 1862);
S.P. Dom. Chas. I, iv, 13. On 7 July
1625 Charles received a deputation
from both Houses of Parliament, who
presented a ' Petition concerning Re-
ligion '; ibid. 20 ; Clarendon, Parl. Hist.
iv, 377.
488 It must be remembered that Hen-
rietta Maria was only fifteen years old
at the time.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
lain, says that as he was conducting the queen
down the steps of the Great Hall, when they
were leaving the palace, he heard the king and
the Duke of Buckingham speaking about it, and
that Charles made Lord Hamilton take a seat
inside the coach that Mme. de Saint Georges
might be excluded.489 The quarrels were no
doubt rather between Buckingham and the lady-
in-waiting than between Charles and his queen.490
Jealousies that arose from the presence of the
king's chaplain and the queen's Roman Catholic
confessor also led to trouble. One day when the
king and queen were dining together in the
'Presence Chamber' at Hampton Court, 'Mr.
Hacket (chaplain to the lord-keeper) being there
to say grace, the confessor would have prevented
him, but that Hacket shoved him away ; where-
upon the confessor went to the queen's side, and
was about to say grace again, but that the king,
pulling the dishes unto him, and the carvers falling
to the business, hindered. When dinner was
done' they both started saying grace aloud to-
gether, ' with such confusion that the king in great
passion instantly rose from the table, and taking
the queen by the hand, retired into the bed-
chamber.' 4" Such a scene at the king's table
seems hardly credible in these days.
As the virulence of the plague kept the court
away from Whitehall, and a proclamation was
issued to prohibit communication between Hamp-
ton Court and London,49' the French ambassador,
M. de Blainville, was very anxious to be lodged
in the palace, and he tried in various ways to over-
come the king's reluctance. Sir John Finett, the
Master of the Ceremonies, told him that ' his
Majesty would be loth to make a " President," that
would hereafter . . . beget him so great a trouble
as this was like to be.' is The rooms were at
last granted to him, and ' Mr. Secretary ' Con-
way writing to Buckingham from Hampton Court
complains much of the expense and trouble caused
thereby.494
In 1626 Paul Rosencrantz, the Danish ambassa-
dor, was received twice at Hampton Court,495 and
an ambassador from Bethlem Gabor, ' the Prince
of Transylvania,' also had an audience.496 On
6 October Laud was appointed Dean of the Chapel
Royal, and took the oath in the vestry of the chapel
HAMPTON
at Hampton Court before the Lord Chamber-
lain.4*7 Eventually the difficulties concerning Hen-
rietta Maria's household arrived at such a pass that
Richelieu sent the Marquis de Bassompierre to try
to arrange a compromise. On Sunday, 1 1 Octo-
ber, he arrived at Hampton Court in one of the
king's coaches. A splendid repast had been pre-
pared for him, but neither he nor his suite would
touch it. To enter into the details of his mission
is not possible here ; de Bassompierre acted with
tact and discretion, but ineffectually,498 and on
31 July 1626, after a final scene with the queen,
Charles insisted on her French attendants being
turned out of Whitehall. On 8 August they
re-embarked for France.499
Charles continued to visit Hampton Court at
intervals, and the Duke of Buckingham was con-
stantly with the king there up to the time of his
own assassination in l628.500 The usual court
ceremonies, and the usual plays performed by the
king's players, took place from time to time, and it
is interesting to find two of Shakespeare's plays
among them — the Moore of Venice, on 8 Decem-
ber 1636, and Hamlet on 24 January i637.wl
In June 1636 Straffbrd came to Hampton Court
to ' kiss hands ' on his appointment as Lord Deputy
of Ireland.*01 In 1639 Charles caused the canal
called the ' King's ' or ' Longford ' River to be cut
for the supply of water to the palace ; M3 he also
interested himself in the gardens and in the decora-
tion of the interior. The catalogue of his pictures
was compiled by Vanderdoort in the same year,
and he also attempted once more to make a
' chase ' and inclose it with a wall ; but, as
before, the inhabitants objected so strongly to
the encroachment on their lands and commons504
that the scheme had to be given up ; and political
difficulties were thickening rapidly round the king
so that he had little further time to devote to
private or domestic interests. He was at Hampton
Court in December 1641, when Parliament pre-
sented to him ' the Grand Remonstrance.' 50S He
refused to answer it immediately, and Parliament
caused the text of the declaration to be published
at once, much to the king's annoyance. Three
days later he entertained seven of the city aldermen
at the palace, and knighted three of them in the
hope of reviving personal loyalty to himself in the
«9 De Tillieres, Memoires (ed. 1863),
92 ; Memoirs of Henrietta Maria, 1671,
p. 13.
490 Charles seems at first to have
made Buckingham his intermediary
with the queen, and Buckingham's
arrogance and insolence served to in-
crease the difficulty. Charles's private
letters to 'Steenie,' many of them dated
from Hampton Court, show how de-
termined they both were to get rid of
the ' Monsers,* without much regard
for Henrietta Maria's feelings or wishes.
Vide letters in Hardwicke, State Papers,
iii, 2, 3, 1 1, &c. ; Ellis, Orig. Letters,
iii, 224, Ac.
491 Letter from Mr. Mead to Sir
Martin Stuteville, Oct. 1625 ; Sloane
MSS. no. 4177, cit. Law, Hist. Hamp-
ton Court Palace, ii, 101.
49a Rymer, Foedera, xviii, 1 98.
499 Eventually he was given rooms
' next the river in the garden,' which
were the same as those occupied by
Queen Elizabeth as a state prisoner in
the reign of Queen Mary ; see p. 343.
De Tillieres, op. cit. pp. 88-150;
Finett, Pbiloxenis, 166.
494 Hardwicke, State Papers, iii, 6.
The charges for the ambassador's house-
hold amounted in a month or two to
over £2,000 ;S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ix, 54.
496 Finett, Philoxenis, 181-5.
«• Ibid. 187.
W Laud, Diary, 84.
4»" Disraeli, Chat. I ; Finett, Pbilo-
xenis, 187-9 » De Bassompierre^ s Embassy
to Engl. in 1626, p. 37 (ed. Croker).
<•» Ibid. Diet. Nat. Biog. <Charle»i";
Silt. MSS. Com. Ref. xi, App. i, 14.
351
500 A picture of George Villiers, is!
Duke of Buckingham, with his family,
attributed to Honthorst, is at Hampton
Court ; Law, op. cit. ii, 119.
501 Cunningham, Revels at Court, p.
xxiv ; S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccclii, 55 ;
Collier, Annals of the Stage, ii, 12.
sm S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxxxvi, no.
II.
503 Ibid, cccc, 70 ; ccccxli, 144 ;
Lysons, MM. Par.; also 'Enrolled
Accounts ' in the Record Office.
M4 Law, op. cit. ii, 125-6 ; see also
p. 324.
005 Husband, Coll. of Remonstrances,
24; Heath, Cbron. Ci-vil Wars, 25;
Clarendon, Hist. Rebellion, 200 et »eq. ;
Evelyn, Diary, App . ' Correspondence
of Sir Edw. Nicholas and King Charles
I' ; Kennet, Hiit. Engl. iii, nz.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
City ; "* but the time to remove difficulties by
such means was past.
In January 1642 Charles made his untoward
attempt to arrest ' the Five Members ' in the
House of Commons, and, alarmed by the menaces
of Parliament and people, the king and queen,
with their family, fled from London to Hampton
Court, where their arrival was so unexpected that
they and their three eldest children had to share
one room.507 This ill-judged flight led to the
final breach between king and Parliament. It
meant practically the surrender of London, with
all its arsenals and stores, to the Parliamentary
party. Colonel Lumsden, who had commanded
the royal escort, realized the danger, rode on to
Kingston with his squadron, and took possession of
the magazine of arms in the town. Lord Digby
drove over from Hampton Court the next morn-
ing to thank him for what he had done, and to
suggest further measures. For this Lord Digby
was afterwards attainted of treason for 'levying
war,' and Lumsden was arrested by the Parlia-
mentary party and sent to the Tower.608
On 12 January 164.2 the king moved to Wind-
sor for ' greater security,' 509 and only returned to
the palace for one night, at the end of February,
when the queen was on her way abroad, until he
was brought back, five years later, as a prisoner.610
After the battle of Naseby, in 1645, Hampton
Court had become the property of the state, seals
were affixed to the doors of the state apartments,
and Sir Robert Hadow gave orders for the destruc-
tion of the religious emblems in the chapel. All
the pictures, the stained glass in the windows, and
the altar-rails, were pulled down and destroyed.410"
Charles returned, as a prisoner, on 24 August
1647, and remained for about two months, re-
ceiving honourable and dignified treatment.5" He
dined in public in the 'Presence Chamber' as he
had done formerly, and any gentlemen who wished
to show their loyalty might attend and kiss his
hand. John Evelyn, the diarist, was among
them.5" The king's old servants and faithful fol-
lowers were allowed to confer with him ; Mr.
John Ashburnham and Sir John Berkeley, though
voted delinquents by Parliament, were permitted
to return and to be constantly with the king.513 He
also had his own chaplains, and his two younger
children, who were then with the Duke of
Northumberland at Syon House, were brought over
to see their father, and sometimes to stay with him.
He also played at tennis and hunted in the parks,514
but the Parliamentary Commissioners were living
in the palace, and a guard of soldiers, under
a Parliamentary officer, Colonel Whalley, was kept
in attendance.6" The head quarters of the army
was at Putney, and Cromwell, with other superior
officers, came over to see the king. It was noticed
that Fairfax kissed his hand, but Cromwell and
his son-in-law, Ireton, though they expressed
themselves in a loyal manner, declined the
ceremony.516 Charles's prospects really looked
brighter than they had done for some time previ-
ously ; Cromwell had long conferences with him
of a friendly nature, and he received Mrs. Crom-
well very graciously.5" One of the most interest-
ing of the historical scenes of which Hampton
Court has been the background is that of Charles
and Cromwell walking together, in friendly con-
verse, through the galleries or in the gardens of
the palace.618 It is generally thought that Crom-
well at the time sincerely wished to come to terms
with the king,619 but Charles's fatal love of intrigue,
and of what he considered 'king-craft,' entirely
destroyed any prospect of compromise, and the
Parliamentary officers gradually ceased to come to
Hampton Court.6"
Charles understood the difference in his position,
and was warned that he was in danger of assassina-
tion while he remained in the palace.6" He
eventually withdrew the promise that he had
made to Colonel Whalley not to attempt to es-
cape.5" Ashburnham was dismissed, and the guards
were doubled, but in other ways the king was
allowed the same liberty as before, and his daugh-
ter Elizabeth came to stay with him in October.5"
She complained of the noise made by the two
sentinels stationed in the gallery into which her
bedchamber, as well as that of the king, opened,
perhaps in the hope that they might be removed ;
but Colonel Whalley only gave stricter orders to
the soldiers to move quietly, unless the king 'would
renew his engagement ' not to escape, but this
Charles refused to do.5" Ashburnham and Berke-
ley were chiefly concerned in arranging for the
king's escape, which took place on 1 1 November,
l647."5 On the day before, Whalley had shown
him the letter from Cromwell, which has always
been quoted to prove that Cromwell did not wish
to prevent the king's escape, but meant to use it
against him."6 From Colonel Whalley's official
narrative of the event read in the House of Com-
mons, it appears that after showing Charles the
letter Whalley withdrew, leaving the king to carry
** S.P. Dot:. Chas. I, cccclxxvi, 29 ;
Civil War Tracts, B.M. ; cit. Law, op.
cit. ii, 127.
607 C\mti.Acm,Hist. Rebellion, v, 142-
52 ; Whitelocke, Mem. 54; Gardiner,
Hi,t. Engl.
K* Heath, Chron. Civil War, 27 ;
Clarendon, Hist. Rebellion.
609 Disraeli, Cbas. I, ii, 333.
510 S.P. Dom. Chas. I. cccclxxxix, 1 9.
&1(la See Architecture, pp. 376-7.
411 Whitelocke,M«B«>j,267;Hutch-
inson, Memoirs, 305 (ed. 1846) j Sir
Thomas Herbert, Memoirs of tht nun
last years of the reign of Chat. /, 47,
48 j Hiit. MSS. Com. Rif. vii, App.
594, a list of plate 'for the service
of his Majesty at Hampton Court,'
23 Sept. 1647.
61a Evelyn, Diary, 10 Oct. 1647.
518 Clarendon, op. cit. v, 470; Heath,
Cbron. Civil Wars, 147.
614 Whitelocke, op. cit. 267 ; Sir
Thomas Herbert, Memoirs, 49.
"* Hiit. MSS. Com. Rep. in, App. ii,
394-
516 Godwin, Hiit. Commonia. ii, 395 ;
Clarendon, //;;/. Rebellion, iii, 52, 67.
u' Herbert, Memoirs, 49.
*18 Law, op. cit. ii, 136.
619 The army began to murmur at
the conciliatory attitude of the generals.
352
An impeachment was even threatened
against Cromwell ; Disraeli, Chas. I, ii,
497 ; Memoirs of Col. Hutchimon, 305.
M» Clarendon, Parl. Hist, iii, 778 ;
Ashburnham, Narrative, ii, 98.
641 Lady Fanshatve't Memoirs, 66.
SM ' Whalley's Narrative to the
Speaker,' House of Commons' jfourn. ;
Ashburnham, Narrative, ii, loo.
•» Ellis, Orig. Letters (Ser. 2), iii, 328.
5M Law, Hitt. Hampton Court Palace,
ii, 141-2.
626 Ashburnham, Narrative, ii, III ;
Berkeley, Memoirs, ii, clxiv.
686 Carlyle, Cromwell (ed. 1904), i,
285 ; Rushworth, Hist. Coll. vii, 871.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
on his correspondence as usual, as it was mail-day.
He waited till six o'clock ' without mistrust,' and
then, as there seemed no sign of the king's appear-
ance for the evening meal, and his door remained
locked, Whalley spoke to the king's gentleman-in-
waiting, who tried to reassure him, but at seven
o'clock he became, according to his own account,
' extreme restless in my thoughts, lookt oft in at
the key-hole to see whether I could perceive his
Majesty, prest Mr. Maule to knock very oft — he
still plainly told me he durst not disobey his
Majesty's commands ' — which were that he had
important letters to write, and was not to be dis-
turbed on any account.517
Meanwhile, in the early darkness of the Novem-
ber evening, Charles had already left the palace,
with Colonel Legge, passing through the room
called ' Paradise ' 588 by the private passage spoken
of as 'the vault,' to the river-side/" where he was
met by Ashburnham and Berkeley, with horses,
and so made good his escape."" It has never been
satisfactorily decided whether they crossed the
river at Thames Ditton, and went thence through
West Molesey to Oatlands,531 or whether they rode
to Hampton and over Walton Bridge to Oat-
lands.688 In the first report to the House of Com-
mons, the Speaker said that ' the king went last
night, with nine horses, over Kingston Bridge.' 533
Colonel Whalley became desperate at about eight
o'clock, called Mr. Smithsby, the ' keeper of the
Privy Lodgings,' and with him went by the back
way, ' through the Privy Gardens to the Privy
Stairs, where he had sentinels stationed.5" . . .
HAMPTON
We came to the next chamber to his Majesty's
bed-chamber, where we saw his Majesty's cloak
lying on the midst of the floor, which much
amazed me.' Whalley then sent for the Par-
liamentary Commissioners to go with them, and
the king's servant, Mr. Maule, went into the bed-
chamber and declared that the king was not there.
On his table were found three letters, one addressed
to Colonel Whalley, one to the Parliamentary
Commissioners, and one to both Houses of Parlia-
ment.535 He assured Whalley that it was not Crom-
well's letter which had caused him to take this
step, but confessed that he was ' loath to be made
a close prisoner under pretence of securing my life.'
The rest of the letter is chiefly concerning the
'household stuffe and moveables,' which the king
still looked upon as his own. It does not appear
that he realized at all the extreme significance of
the step he had taken. Whalley immediately sent
out soldiers to search the lodges in the park, and
Colonel Ashburnham's house at Ditton, and in-
formed the generals at head quarters, then at Put-
ney, of the occurrence. Cromwell rode over to
Hampton Court at once,536 and wrote to the
Speaker of the House of Commons from the palace
at twelve o'clock the same night. His letter, and
that of the king, were laid before the House the
next day. This was the last departure of Charles I
from the palace.537
Immediately after the execution of the king a
Bill was introduced into Parliament to provide for
the sale of all the property of ' the late Charles
Stuart.' This Bill was passed on 4 July I649/38
W Journ. of the House of Commons, v,
356, &c. ; Reprinted in Peck, Desidir-
ata Curiosa, ix, 374.
658 See ante, p. 349.
SM Ludlow, Memoirs, 92 ; Law, op.
cit. ii, 147-57-
580 There is an interesting story given
by Mr. Law (Hist. Hampton Court
Palace, ii, 147-9), °f a book which was
dropped by Charles in the mud while
he was escaping from the palace. The
volume Tn question, with the stains of
mud on its leaves, is now in the Brit.
Mus., no. loo of the Thomason Col-
lection of Royalist and Parliamentary
tracts, known as the ' King's Tracts.'
581 Commons* Journ. v, 356, &c. ;
Clarendon, Par!. Hist, iii, 788 ; Heath,
C/iron. of the Civil Wars, 148. Sir
Thomas Herbert, the king's groom of
the bedchamber, says that • they passed
through a private door into the Park,
where no Centinel was, and at Thames
Ditton crossed the river ' ; Herbert,
Mrmoirs, 53.
M" The account in a contemporary
newspaper quoted by Mr. Law leads to
this conclusion. Mercuriut Anti-Prag-
maticus, Thursday 1 1 Nov. to Thurs-
day 1 8 Nov. 1647.
688 Clarendon, Par/. Hist, iii, 788.
Clarendon says that the king's escape
was not discovered till the following
morning, but this is evidently an error.
For a graphic account of the escape,
and a detailed comparison of different
contemporary documents concerning it,
•vide Law, op. cit. ii, chap. xii. From
Oatlands Charles and his party made
their way to the Isle of Wight, and
by the time that the Commons heard
Colonel Whalley' s account of his escape
he had already surrendered to Colonel
Hammond, the governor of the island,
and was once more a prisoner in Caris-
brooke Castle.
584 It is considered probable that the
room from which Charles escaped was
one of those still existing in the south-
west part of the palace, overlooking the
' pond garden."
534 Rushworth, Hist. Coll. vii, 871.
586 Rushworth, op. cit. vii, 871 ;
Common? Journ. v, 356. Cromwell's
letter certainly conveys the impression
that he was not unprepared for the
event.
S8~ A Royalist rising took place at
Kingston-on-Thames under the Earl of
Holland, while the king was still at
Carisbrooke, in July 1648. Holland
was joined by the Duke of Buckingham
and his brother Lord Francis Villiers,
and a force of about six hundred horse.
They advanced towards Reigate, but
were compelled to retreat to Kingston,
In their last skirmish Francis Villiers
was killed ; Whitelocke, Memoirs, 317,
318, 320; Journ. of House of Lords,
367 ; yourn. of House of Commons, 35 ;
Aubrey, Hist. Surrey, i, 46 ; Law, op.
cit. ii, 158 et seq. Mr. G. A. Sala, in
his historical novel Captain Dangerous,
introduced an episode setting forth that
Lord Francis and a 'Mr. Grenville'
had been taken prisoners and brought
to Hampton Court, where they were
shot in one of the courtyards. The
353
discovery in 1871 of two skeletons
under the cloisters in the Fountain
Court led to an idea that they might
have been the bodies of these young
cavaliers, but Mr. Sala himself dis-
avowed any historical warrant for his
story ; The Times, 4 Nov. et seq.
1871 ; N. and Q. Nov. 1871. Lord
Francis's body was buried, after the
Restoration, in Westminster Abbey.
A story is told of the lady who occupied
the apartments near to which these
skeletons were found having been much
disturbed by what she thought were
ghostly or supernatural noises. She
addressed a formal complaint to the
Lord Chamberlain, who politely referred
her to the Board of Works. The Board,
it is said, refused to interfere, on the
ground that 'the jurisdiction of the
First Convnissioner did not extend to
the Spirit World, and that there were
no funds at the disposal of the Board
for any such purpose.' When the
skeletons were discovered in Nov. 1871,
and were afterwards buried at Hamp-
ton, the lady in question thoroughly
believed that the mystery was solved.
' Of course these are the two wretched
men who have been worrying me all
these years, and the Board never found
it out !' Law, op. cit. ii, 161-8. Who
the men were, or why they were buried
in that place, has never been discovered.
It would be interesting to know if any
burial-place or vaults connected with
the chapel could have extended so far.
i88 Scobell, Coll. of Acts and Ordi-
nances, 1649, ii, 46 et seq.
45
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
and a very full and ample inventory was made
of all the furniture, plate, jewels, pictures,
tapestries, &c., in Hampton Court Palace. The
inventory is still preserved in the British Museum,"'
under the tide ' Goods viewed and appraised at
Hampton Court, in the custody of William
Smithsbie, Esq., Wardrobe Keeper, 5 Oct. 1649.'
The sum at which each entry was valued, and the
price for which it was sold, are entered, together
with the name of the purchaser. A certain num-
ber of the tapestries,640 pictures, &c., were fortu-
nately eventually kept ' for the use of the Lord
Protector.' The sale lasted for nearly three
years.641
A rough survey of the manor was also made in
view of its being sold for ' the benefit of the
Commonwealth.' "' The palace was valued at
Llilll l$s- 5<^"s The total value of the manor,
including the parks and other inclosures, was com-
puted to be .£10,765 \<)s. gj.
The Council of State, however, concluded that
Hampton Court, Whitehall, Westminster, and a
few other places were ' to be kept for the public
use of the Commonwealth.' 544
In October 1651 Cromwell installed himself in
the palace, but in November 1652 a Bill for the
sale of the late king's houses and lands hitherto
exempted was brought before Parliament, and it
was resolved that Hampton Court, 'together with
the Parks, the Harewarren and Meadows— with
appurtenances — be sold for ready money.' MS Fur-
ther debates took place on the subject,548 and it
was even offered to Cromwell in exchange for
' New Hall ' in Essex,5" but at that time he refused
the proposal, and the parks were put up for auction
on 15 November 1653, the fee of the honour and
manor having been previously sold.548 Cromwell
was proclaimed Lord Protector in December 1653,
and immediately proceeded on behalf of the State
to buy back the palace and surrounding pro-
perty.549 On 30 August 1654 Mr. Phelps,550 to
whom the manor had been sold, re-conveyed it to
Cromwell ; in 1657 the Lord Protector's name is
entered in the Court Rolls as lord of the manor.651
Cromwell was constantly at Hampton Court
s»" Had. MSS. no. 4898, fol. 238.
If not the original list it is a contem-
porary copy, and consists of a very
large volume of nearly 1,000 pages.
The Hampton Court list fills about
seventy-six pages.
540 Law, op. cit. 278-90.
"1 Ibid, ii, 165-6.
54a P.R.O. Midd. no. 32 dated 1649.
Printed in Law, op. cit. App. 258 et
seq. It was afterwards elaborated into
a more detailed account, and completed
in April 1653.
648 For the acreage and valuation of
the parks, see account of Parks and
Gardens, pp. 380-8.
644 Ludlow, Memoin, 329 ; S.P.
Dom. Common w. i, 29 j ii, 91, May and
August 1649.
545 'Journ, of House of Commons, 1652.
546 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cxiv, 18 ;
Scobell, Acts and Ordinances of Parl. ii,
227 j Lysons, Midd. Parishes, 65 j
Journ. of House of Commons, 307.
5<7 New Hall, an estaie belonging to
the Duke of Buckingham, had been
sequestrated by the P irliament and
bought by Cromvr_li in April 1651 ;
Clarendon. P-.ii. Hist, xx, 223; Morant,
Hist. F^*cx, ii, 1 5 j Bruton, Diary, i, p.
zi ; fourn. of House of Commons.
64i",See descent of the manor, p. 326.
•f'Cal. S.P. Dom. Common™. 1652-3,
p. 405 51653-4, pp. 299-300, 363, 385,
396,408-9.
550 Ibid. ' Warrants of the Protector
.rid Council/
'j5" ct. R. P.R.O. ; S.P. Dom. Com-
monw. Ixvii, 88.
*** Cromivelliana, 144; Thurloe, State
Paftrs, ii, 248. Cromwell generally
worij a coat of mail under his other
clothes, so much did he consider him-
self ,lways in danger of such attempts ;
ibid.';, 708.
K"iPerfect Proceedings, no. 300, cit.
Law, top. cit. ii, 175.
H Voble, Memoirs of tht Cromv/clls,
354
after this, and one of the early records of his time
is concerning a Royalist plot to assassinate him on
his way to or from London to the palace, frustrated
by his receiving a timely warning and returning
by another road.561 He transacted affairs of state
at Hampton Court, and the members of the
council came down to him on such occasions as
they had done during the late king's reign.5"
Mrs. Cromwell, the ' Lady Protectress ' as she was
sometimes called, seems to have attempted, somewhat
awkwardly, to hold a sort of court in the palace.
In a scurrilous pamphlet entitled The Court anil
Kitchen ofjoan Cromwell her household and habits
are commented on in no kindly spirit. It is said,
among other accusations, that she had little
labyrinths and trap-doors made for her, ' by which
she might at all times, unseen, come unawares upon
her servants, and keep them vigilant in their
places.' 554 Occasionally, however, public enter-
tainments had to take place, and some of the old
state was revived, such as the Protector's body-
guard of halberdiers attending in the banqueting
room, and the old court ceremonials being observed
in bringing up the dishes to the table. On 2 5 July
1656 the Swedish ambassador dined and hunted
with Cromwell at Hampton Court "5 quite in the
old manner, but this return to ceremony was by
no means relished even by his friends and sup-
porters.55* A curious picture of his familiar ways
with his officers and ordinary associates is given by
both Whitelocke and Heath. Heath says, ' His
custom was now to divert himself frequently at
Hampton Court . . . here he used to hunt . . .
his own diet was very spare, and not so • curious,
except in publique Treatments, which w]~te con-
stantly given every Monday in the week to all the
officers of the Army not below a Captain, where
he dined with them and shewed them a hundred
Antick Tricks, as throwing of cushions s.nd putting
live coals in their pockets and boots ... he had
twenty other tricks in his head.' 5" He was fond
of music, and instruments of one kind or another
were always played during his banquets at the
palace. He also had two good organs put up in the
Great Hall,on which no doubt his secretary, Milton,
cu
i, 127-30 et seq. F.V..U her moral
character was assailed by those pitiless
writers.
«5 Whitelocke, Mem. 649.
««Ibid. 656; Heath, Flagellum,
164. I
657 Heath, loc. cit. Cromwell seems
to have had sonu? appreciation of art,
and kept Mantegna's great cartoons in
the 'Long Gallery,' near his own
rooms ; it is to /him that the preserva-
tion of any pictures and tapestries at
this time is bwing. There ii no
proof that he actually bought the great
quantity of furr/iture and fittings which
had originally belonged to the palace,
and which was/ claimed by his family as
private property at his death. He
probably mttrely took possession of
what he fourfid there. The inventory of
the goods thtis claimed by the Crom-
wells is amo/ag S.P. Dom. Commonw.
vol. ciii, 4i.f Printed in full in Law,
Hist. Hamffon Court Palace ii, App. C.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
used to play.*68 There is also record of sermons
preached before him in the chapel, where the rich
ornamentation of the Tudor roof of Henry VIII
must have been strangely out of keeping with the
severity of the Puritan preaching."9 Cromwell's
third daughter Mary was married to Lord Falcon-
bridge in the chapel on 17 November 1657. This
public marriage was solemnized by one of Crom-
well's chaplains, in accordance with the rite ac-
cepted by the Puritans, but they also seem to have
been married privately on the same day by
Dr. Hewitt, with the Church of England cere-
monial, partly to please Mary Cromwell, who was
still a member of the Church, and partly no doubt
that there should be no question of the validity of
the marriage in the event of a Restoration.460
Cromwell always seems to have amused himself on
such occasions with the ' anticks and tricks ' men-
tioned by Heath.561
The accounts of conspiracies and plots against
the ' Lord Protector's ' life read like the records of
a modern anarchist society. In 1657 it was
actually proposed that he should be blown up by
a sort of ' infernal machine ' at Hammersmith, on
his way to Hampton Court. The Duke of York,
writing to Charles II, says calmly that the plan
was ' better laid and resolved on than any he had
known of the kind.' 56> In the same year a Cap-
tain Thomas Gardiner was also ' taken in the
gallery at Hampton Court with two loaded pistols
and a dagger.' Such discoveries naturally had
some effect on Cromwell, and Heath says he was
always ' shifting and changing his lodging, to which
he passed through several locks ; when he went
between Whitehall and Hampton Court he passed
by private and back ways, but never the same way
backward and forward ; he was always in a hurry,
his guards behind and before riding at full gallop,
and the coach always filled with armed persons,
he himself being furnished with private weapons.' ***
He seems to have felt himself safer at Hamp-
ton Court than in London, and was constantly
there with his children and grandchildren, to all
of whom apartments in the palace were assigned.56*
Only one of his sons-in-law, Fleetwood, who lived
near Hampton Court, was avowedly Republican,
and refused to allow his wife to visit her father.565
Cromwell's favourite daughter was Elizabeth Clay-
pole, and she died at Hampton Court, after a short
HAMPTON
illness, on 6 August 165 a,566 to the inconsolable grief
of her father. Dr. Bates, Cromwell's physician,
who attended her, testifies to her great distress and
agony of mind, and declares that on her death-bed
she implored her father to make atonement for his
disloyalty by taking steps to ensure the restoration
of the king.5" Her body was taken by water
to London and buried among the kings and queens
in Westminster Abbey.
A week after her death Cromwell himself was
dangerously ill,561 and though he recovered suffi-
ciently to ride in the park on 1 7 August, George
Fox, who came to the palace to present a petition
on behalf of the Quakers, says that ' he looked like
a dead man.' ** He shortly afterwards again visited
Cromwell, but found that he had become too ill
to see anyone.570 On 24 August he was confined
to his room ; the doctors evidently thought that
he was dying,5" and ' a public fast was ordered
for his sake and kept at Hampton Court ' ; 572
but two days later he was well enough to receive
Whitelocke, who dined with him.5" However,
the improvement did not continue, and he was
removed to Whitehall,574 where he died on z Sep-
tember 1658, the eve of his 'fortunate day,' the
anniversary of the battles of Worcester and Dun-
bar.575
Richard Cromwell probably desired to keep
Hampton Court as his private property; the Crom-
well family certainly endeavoured to take possession
of some of the contents, and an inventory S76 was
immediately made by the Parliamentary Commis-
sioners, who did not acknowledge Mrs. Cromwell's
claim.5'7 Richard Cromwell was also ordered not
to kill deer in the parks.578 A resolution was once
more passed in the House of Commons for the
sale of Hampton Court and other royal manors
and parks,579 but Ludlow seems to have considered
the place ' very convenient for the retirement of
those in public affairs, when they should be indis-
posed in the summer season,' i80 and he was suc-
cessful in preventing the sale. In February 1660
a Bill was introduced in the 'Long Parliament' to
settle Hampton Court on Monk, the Parliamentary
General,681 but he looked on it as a bribe, and
induced his friends to have the Bill rejected. On
15 March 1660 a sum of ^20,000 was voted to
him, together with the custody and stewardship of
Hampton Court Manor and Park for his life,581 an
§68 Hawkins, Hist, of Music, iv 44 ;
Noble, op. cit i, 314; Thurloe, Slate
Papers, 12 Apr. 1654; 'Inventory of
Cromwell's Goods,' Gent. Mag. 1877,
p. 753. One of the organs is said to
have been brought from Magdalen Col-
lege, Oxford. It was returned to the
authorities there at the Restoration,
and is now at Tewfcesbury Abbey ; S.P.
Dom. Chas. II, xi, 57; Law, op. cit. ii,
183-4.
649 There is a copy of one such ser-
mon in the Ashmolean Museum, no.
826, 2540 ; -vide Law, op. cit. ii, 184.
660 Noble, Memoirs of the Cromieells,
'• H3-4;
461 Ibid. 155 ; Cromtvelliana, 169.
463 Crom'weUiana, 1 60 ; Thurloe,
Stan Paftn, ii, 666.
468 Heath, Flagellum, 193.
66< Noble, op. cit. ii, 155 ; Cromwel-
liana, 1 74.
464 Bates, Elenchus Motuum Nupero-
rum in Anglia, Pars Secunda (ed. 1676),
3*7-
S6 Thurloe, State Papers, vii.
567 Bates, op. cit. 327 ; Mercurius
Political, cit. Whitelocke, Mem. 674.
468 Thurloe, State Papers, vii, 320,
340.
169 G. Fox, Journ. 127 (ed. 3, 1765).
WSewel, Hist, of the Quakers, i,
242.
571 Bates, op. cit. (pt. 2), 275; Thur-
loe, Statt Papers, vii, 367, 376.
"" Echard, Hist. 824.
«« Whitelocke, Mem. 674.
M Thurloe, op. cit. vii, 355.
355
475 Ibid. 373 ; Peck, Cromwell, 39.
676 See p. 354 ; Harl. MSS. no. 4898,
fol. 238 ; Cal. S.P. Dom. Commoniv.
1658-9, p. 380.
°" Parl. Intelligencer, 7, 14 May
1660; Me rcurius Politicus, 10, 17 May
1660, cit. Law, op. cit. ii, 199, n. i.
578 Cal. S.P. Dom. Commontu. 1658-9,
P- 3*7-
579 Journals of the House of Commons,
Oct. 1659.
480 Ludlow, Memoirs, 286 (ed. 1771).
481 White Rennet, Hist, of Engl. 67;
Public Intelligencer, 25 Feb. 1660, no. 6;
Philips, Chas. II, 714.
482 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vfi, App. i,
463 ; Journ. of House of Commons, i 5—
1 6 Mar. 1660 ; Cal. Treas. Bks. \, 461,
659.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
office in which he was confirmed by Charles II
almost immediately after his restoration.683
Charles II made a great many alterations in the
palace,"4 and frequently went backwards and for-
wards between Hampton Court and Whitehall,
riding down early in the morning to play tennis,
and returning the same day."5 From 1662 to
1667 many applications for offices about Hampton
Court were made to the Crown. The ' House-
keeper of Hampton Court,' the ' Keeper of the
Standing Wardrobe,' ' Keeper of the Still House,'
' Keeper of the Game about Hampton Court,' are
a few of the coveted titles.685 One claimant,
Clement Kynnersley, Yeoman of the Wardrobe of
Beds, seems to have been afraid that his services
would not be sufficiently appreciated. He not
only claimed £7,000 for ' arrears of salary,' but
declared that ' he had, by his exertions, preserved
£500,000 worth of His Majesty's goods together
at Hampton Court from sale and embezzlement.'16'
Edward Progers, Groom of the Bedchamber to the
king, received a great many of these appointments,
chiefly of privileges granted in and about Hampton
Court. He rebuilt the Upper Lodge in Bushey
Park, spent £4,000 on it,68* and had some diffi-
culty in getting a warrant for the payment of the
amount.689 De Grammont declares plainly what
the extremely equivocal services were for which he
was thus rewarded by the ' Merry Monarch.' 69°
The marriage of the king and Catherine of
Braganza took place at Portsmouth on 21 May
i662,691 and they arrived at Hampton Court on
the zgth.5" Their progress, judging from the
contemporary etchings by Dirk Stoop, must have
been stately and dignified. They probably alighted
at the foot of the Great Hall Stairs under Anne
Boleyn's Gateway, and in the Great Hall itself
were received by the Lord Chancellor Clarendon,693
the Lord Treasurer, and the Councillors of State.
In the Presence Chamber they were met by
the foreign ministers, the peers, and the lords and
ladies of the court, who came to do homage to
the new queen.594 The Duchess of York also
came by barge from London, and was received at
the ' Privy Garden Gate ' by the king himself.596
Two days after, John Evelyn the diarist records
th.it he was taken by the Duke of Ormonde to be
presented to the queen, and saw her dining in
public.'9*
Like Henrietta Maria before her, and in the
same place, Catherine suffered on account of her
retinue, who were quite unable to adapt themselves
to their gay surroundings,497 and were described by
de Grammont as ' six frights . . . and a Duenna,
another Monster.' 698
At first, however, the king and queen amused
themselves with entertainments out of doors, balls,
plays and music indoors. Evelyn gives an account
of their going on the river in a gondola, a present
from the state of Venice, and on another occasion
mentions ' the Queen's Portugal music, consisting
of fifes, harps, and very ill voices.' He also de-
scribes the queen's bed, ' of embroidery of silver
on crimson velvet, and cost £8,000 — a present
from the States of Holland . . . and the great
looking-glass and toilet of beaten and massive gold
given by the Queen-Mother. The Queen also
brought over with her from Portugal such Indian
cabinets as had never been seen here.' 599 Pepys
was also much struck by the ' noble furniture.' M0
His diary and other records are full of gossip con-
cerning occurrences at Hampton Court,601 and he
expressed the discontent of the people at the length
of time during which ' the King and new Queen
minded their pleasures at Hampton Court.' 60> As
it happened in the palace it is necessary to mention
the insult Charles was weak enough to offer the
queen, by unexpectedly bringing the notorious
Lady Castlemaine into her presence before the
whole court.60* The scene ended in the utmost
confusion, for the queen fainted, and afterwards
maintained her absolute refusal to receive Lady
Castlemaine. Clarendon has described all that
followed,60' and to his own dishonour was persuaded
by the king to use his influence with the queen,
not only to receive Barbara Palmer, but to make
her a Lady of the Bedchamber. For some time
Catherine persisted in her refusal, and Clarendon
says that ' Everyone was glad . . . they were still
at Hampton Court and that there were so few
witnesses of all that passed. The Queen sat melan-
cholic in her chamber in tears, except when she
drove them away by a more violent passion in
choleric discourse ; and the king sought his diver-
iM Cal. S.P. Dam. Chas. II, 1660-1,
p. 174.
°M The accounts for these alterations
may be seen in Harl. MSS. no. 1618,
1656, 1657, and 1658, Dec. 1663,
printed in Law, op. cit. App. D j S.P.
Dom. Chas. II. Ixi, 41 ; Cal. Treat. Bks.
i, 1660-7.
«» Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App.
168 (8) ; Marshall, Annals of Tennis, 89 ;
Pepys, Diarv, 4 Jan. 1664 ; see also
account of Gardens, pp. 380 et seq,
586 S.P. Dom. Chas. II, cxjcxvii, 145;
clxxxviii, 69, &c. 5S? Ibid, xxii, 171.
i8a He was appointed Keeper of the
Middle or North Park in reversion after
the Duke of Albemarle ; Hist. MSS.
Cam. Rif. xv, App. ii, 304.
™ S.P. Dom. Cha.. II, Ixxxvi, 78 ;
cii, 27 ; cv, 125.
ijt) De Grammont, Memoirs, 217 (ed.
1906), 231 n.
591 Cal. Treas. Bks. i, 376.
6M Heath, Cbron. 509 ; Echard, Hist.
Engl. iii, 8. There is a series of seven
plates by Stoop, a Dutch engraver, illus-
trating Catherine of Braganza's progress
from Lisbon to Hampton Court and
London. A set of these etchings is in
the Sheepshanks Collection at the Brit.
Mus.
a93 From Lord Sandwich's journal it
seems possible that Lord Clarendon was
prevented from being present.
591 Journ. of Lord Sandwich ; White
Kennet, Hist. Engl. (ed. 1728), 699 ;
Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, 144 et seq.
595 Strickland, Life of Catherine oj
Braganza (ed. 1851), v, 520-1. Miss
Strickland had access to unpublished
Portuguese documents.
596 Diary, 31 May 1662.
s'7 Clarendon, Autobiography (ed.
1760), ii, 80 ; Law, op. cit. ii, 212 et
356
seq. ; Strickland, Lives of the Queens of
Engl.(eA. ^51), v, 537-8.
698 De Grammont, op. cit 109.
599 Evelyn, Diary, 9 June 1662.
There are some Indian cabinets still
in the state apartments, but whether
they were Queen Catherine's is not
known.
600 Diary, 12 May 1662.
601 Ibid. 22 June 1662, &Q.; Estcourt
& Payne, Engl. Catholic Non-Jurors oj
1715, f. 342.
108 Note at end of diary for June.
608 Barbara Villiers married Roger
Palmer, who became Earl of Castle-
maine. She was created Duchess of
Cleveland by Chas. II.
6M Autobiography, ii, 80-6; Letters of
Philip, second Lord Chesterfield, 1 22 ;
Secret Hist, of Chas. II, i, 447. See
letter from Charles to Clarendon, dated
at Hampton Court.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
tisements in that company that said and did all
things to please him.' Catherine's Portuguese
attendants were sent away ; she was told, not truly,
that her dowry was in arrears ; and the Portuguese
ambassador was ' so grossly insulted that he left
Hampton Court and retired to his own house in
the city.' Lady Castlemaine had apartments as-
signed to her in the palace, and received greater
homage than the queen herself. At last the
pressure brought to bear on Catherine had its
effect, and she yielded to the king's wishes ;
Clarendon being the first to blame her for the
' downfall ' he himself had been instrumental in
bringing to pass.605
On 28 July the king and queen went to meet
Henrietta Maria at Greenwich, and on their
return to Hampton Court supped together in
public that their reconciliation might be under-
stood.60* Two days later the queen mother
arrived at the palace, which she had not visited
since the fatal flight from London in 164.2.*"
She alighted at the foot of the stairs leading to the
Great Hall, where she was received by the queen,
and they sat together in the Presence Chamber,
under the ' Cloth of State.' The king and the
Duke of York had to act as interpreters, for
Catherine could not speak French, nor Henrietta
Spanish or Portuguese.603 She shortly afterwards
returned to Greenwich, but Charles and Catherine
remained at Hampton Court till 23 August, when
they made their state entry into London by
river.609 Pepys and Evelyn both describe the
scene of the journey, the number of spectators, the
barges and boats that covered the river, the splen-
did reception given to the king and queen.610 It
can hardly be hoped that all this magnificence was
much comfort to Catherine ; from that time for-
ward a suite of apartments was always kept for
Lady Castlemaine at the palace, and in 1666 was
fitted up again for her.611
Several distinguished travellers who visited Eng-
land at this time have left records of their impres-
sions of Hampton Court, among them the Due
de Monconys and M. de la Moliere, in 1663.*"
In 1665 the king and queen were at the palace,
in quarantine from the plague, the deaths in
London amounting to 267 a week.613 They
remained at Hampton Court for a month, the
king transacting business with the council at Syon
House, probably that they might not come to the
HAMPTON
palace from London.'" Pepys gives an entertain-
ing account of his being at Hampton Court on
2 3 July, ' where I followed the king to chapel and
there heard a good sermon.' He was distressed
because no one invited him to dinner, but was even-
tually entertained by Mr. Marriott the housekeeper,
in whoss house he found 'good dinner and good
company, amongst others Mr. Lilly the painter.' tu
On 26 July the king and queen went by river
to Greenwich, and thence proceeded to Salisbury
and afterwards to Oxford, where Parliament had
been summoned to meet on account of the plague
in London. In January of the following year it
was thought safe for the king to return to London;
he stayed at Hampton Court for a week ; Pepys
and Evelyn record their visits to him there.6"
The queen also stayed there for a couple of days
on her way back from Oxford in February.6" In
September 1666, at the time of the Great Fire of
London, many of the king's valuables were sent by
water to Hampton Court for safety.618
Towards the end of his reign Charles was not
often at the palace, but he sometimes came down
to play tennis, or for stag-hunting,619 and he retired
there with the Duke of York in August 1669,
when they received news of the death of their
mother, Queen Henrietta Maria.680 There is also
an account of a council held in the palace in June
1679, when Charles, to the dismay of the majority
of those present, ordered the Chancellor to prepare
a proclamation for the dissolution of the Parlia-
ment then sitting, and a writ for calling together
a new one.621 At another council in the palace
on 23 May 1681 an order was issued by Charles
forbidding ' the king's servants to frequent the
company of the Duke of Monmouth,' whose con-
duct had become so overbearing as to excite the
displeasure even of his father.6"
Charles never stayed at Hampton Court for any
length of time after 1666, though he continued to
pay short visits and to hold councils there.613 Con-
cerning one of these visits a story is told by Walpole
of the reckless extravagance of Verrio the painter,
who had done much work in the palace, and had
received large sums from Charles, which did not
prevent him from constantly asking for more.
On one occasion at Hampton Court, when he had
but lately received an advance of £1,000, he found
the king in such a circle that he could not approach
him. He called out : ' Sire, I desire the favour
605 Law, op. cit. ii, 230-9.
6M Ibid. « Unedited Portuguese Re-
cordi,' trans. Adamson, cit. Strick-
land, op. cit. v, 536-7 ; Hist. Casa
Real Portugutsa, cit. Law, op. cit. ii,
239.
•°7 AftM the attempted «rrest of the
1 Five Members,' see p. 352.
608 Strickland, op. cit. v, 537.
«o» Ecbard, Hist, iii, 84 ; Evelyn,
Diary, 24 Aug. 1662 j John Tatham,
Aqua Triumphalis (1662).
610 Evelyn, Diary, 24 Aug. 1662 ;
Pepys, Diary, 24 Aug. 1662.
«« Harl. MSS. no. 1658, fol. 138,
Feb. 1666.
"a De Monconys, Voyage fAngle-
618 Pepys, Diary, 29 June 1665 ;
Clarendon, Autobiography, ii, 403.
614 Evelyn, Diary, 7 July 1665 ;
Pepys, Diary, 24 July 1665.
615 Pepys, Diary, 24 July 1665. It
was about this time that Lely, com-
missioned by the Duchess of York,
painted all the beauties of the court.
These portraits now hang all together
in the ' King's Bedchamber ' at Hamp-
ton Court. They were for some time
at Windsor.
616 Pepys, Diary, 28 Jan. 1665-6 ;
Evelyn, Diary ; S.P. Dom. Chas. II,
cxlviii, 38.
6" S.P. Dom. Chas. II, c*lviii, 38.
618 Anfiq. Repository, ii, I 54.
"• Magalotti, Travels of Cosmo III,
357
Duke of Tuscany (ed. 1821), 208 ; Hist.
MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. vi, 263.
(' Lord Anglesey's Diary.')
620 Mem. of Henrietta Maria (ed.
1671), 89.
>ia Diary of Henry Sidney, 21 ; His!.
MSS. Com. Ref. vii, App. 473 ; Temple,
Works, ii, 511-12. The House of
Commons thus summarily dismissed
had passed a Bill excluding the Duke
of York from the succession, and was
further proceeding to inquire into the
' bribery and corruption ' which existed
among members of Parliament.
*M Reresby, Memoirs, 264.
>as Hiit. MSS. Com. Ref. vii, App.
352*, 3633, 4054,4103 ; ibid, iii, App.
viii, 1 60.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
of speaking to your majesty.' ' Well, Verrio,' said
the king, ' what is your request ? ' ' Money, sir,
money ; I am so short of cash that I am not able
to pay my workmen ; and your majesty and I
have learnt by experience that pedlars and painters
cannot give long credit." The king smiled, and
said he had but lately ordered him £1,000.
' Yes, sir,' replied he, ' but that was soon paid
away, and I have no gold left.' ' At that rate,"
said the king, 'you would spend more than I do,
to maintain my family.' ' True,' answered Verrio,
' but does your majesty keep an open table as
I do?'04
James II never appears to have lived at Hamp-
ton Court during his reign, though he held a
council there on 29 May 1687, when 'the militia
was put down, and the licensing of ale-houses was
put in other hands than the justices of the
peace.'6" He was, however, often at Hounslow,
where he encamped in 1687 with an army of
16,000 men, a force which apparently only met
with derision.626
The reign of William and Mary opens a new
era in the history of Hampton Court Palace, as
under their auspices more than half the original
Tudor building was pulled down. Wren's new
palace was erected, and the whole place assumed
very much the appearance it has now.6*7 The
quietness of the situation, the distance from
London, and perhaps something congenial to
William's Dutch taste in the formal lines of the
avenues and the long canal, formed no doubt part
of the attraction which the place evidently had
for him. Mary has never been given credit for
any feelings of sympathy for her father, and has
often been censured for her apparent heartlessness,
but perhaps one reason for her affection for Hamp-
ton Court was that James II had never lived
there as king, and she could have had no memories
of the place connected with him. From the be-
ginning of their reign Mary and her husband paid
frequent short visits to the palace,628 and one of
William's first acts was to offend the religious
susceptibilities of a large proportion of his subjects
by refusing to continue the ancient custom of
' touching for the king's evil,' a practice which he
had the blunt common-sense to denounce as a
'silly superstition.'"9 At Easter as usual a crowd
of diseased folk arrived at the palace, but had to-
be content with the customary dole and no
ceremony.680
William seems to have decided at once that the
old palace was inconvenient and ill-arranged.
Queen Mary wrote to a friend in Holland that it
had been much neglected,6" and almost imme-
diately after their first visit Christopher Wren was
appointed architect and the works began.6"
Wren's building will be dealt with in another
place,6** but while plans and elevations were being
prepared, and the work of demolition had actually
begun, the king and queen still passed a great deal
of time in the palace. On 31 March 1689 they
publicly received the sacrament in the chapel from
the Archbishop of York, in preparation for their
coronation at Westminster on 1 1 April.654 They
soon afterwards returned to Hampton Court, and
the Princess Anne joined them there.6" The
routine of their life was sufficiently simple ; Queen
Mary superintended everything herself, inspecting
the building and the gardens, making fringe, and
playing ' Bassett.' "6 In May a declaration of
war with France was issued from Hampton Court,
and during that month the king and Prince George
of Denmark went from the palace to inspect the
fleet at Portsmouth.6*' The king hunted in the
parks, and occupied himself during the first
summer by visiting the camp formed on Hounslow
Heath on i 3 August. He rode over from Hampton
Court to review the troops there on 1 7 August.6*8
An alarm was caused in July by intelligence of
a supposed plot to attempt the king's life, to set
fire to Whitehall and other places in London, and to
seize the Tower.639 Several companies of foot and
horse were kept under arms all night round the
palace, the guards were doubled, and stringent
measures taken to prevent the entry of suspicious
persons, but nothing further seems to have hap-
pened. The king, however, remained constantly
at Hampton Court, and the life of the court was
so quiet as to cause great dissatisfaction among the
people.640 Lord Halifax took upon himself to in-
form William that ' his inaccessibleness and living
so at Hampton Court altogether, and at so active
a time, ruined all business,' and remonstrated with
him on the loss of time caused to the ministers,
who took five hours to come and go. The king
6a< Horace Walpole, Anecdotes of
Painting (ed. 1849), ii, 470.
«» Hist. AfS. Cam. Ref. vii, App.
504.
6*6 Antiy. Repcrt. i, 230.
ej~ Certain alterations, notably in the
clock court in the reign of George II,
took place at a later date, but the main
features are practically the same as they
were left by Wren.
*M Luttrell, Relation of State Affairs,
i ; Diary of Henry, Earl of Clarendon
(ed. 1828), ii, 267 ; Conduct of the
Duchess of Marlhorough (ed. 1742), 1155
Evelyn, Diary, Mar. 1689.
*w Macaulay, Hist. Engl. chap, xiv,
quoting Athenian Mercury, 16 Jan.
1691 ; Paris Gazette, 23 Apr. 1691.
630 Queen Anne afterwards 'touched,'
Samuel Johnson among others, for the
' King's Evil,' but the practice fell into
disuse, and was not revived by the
House of Hanover ; Cal. Treas. Papers,
1702-7, p. 142 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Ref.
'Wentworth Papers,' 359, 375.
681 Lettres de Marie, Reine a"A«gleterre
(cd. Countess M. van Bentinck), 116.
683 Aud. Off. Declared Accts. (P.R.O.)
bdle. 2482, R. 294; Wren, Parentalia
(ed. 1750), 326 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Ref.
xiv, App. ii, 431.
133 See account of architecture, p. 377
et seq.
681 Luttrell, op. cit. i, 520 ; Lamberty,
Memoir es de la Dernier e Revolution en An-
glcttrre, ii, 235. The queen suppressed
the fiddlers and other musicians who
used to play in the chapel. William
adhered to the Dutch custom of wear-
ing his hat in church.
358
684 She had her own suite of apart-
ments, but William treated her with
scant courtesy, refusing to pay her
allowance and acting inconsiderately in
other ways ; Aud. Off. Accts. (P.R.O. ),
bdle. 2448, R. 122, Apr. 1688, Mar.
1689 ; Lamberty, op. cit. ii, 468 ; vide
also Conduct of the Duchess of Marl-
borough (ed. 1742), 24-30, 33-5.
636 Ibid. 115.
687 Luttrell, op. cit. i, 533 ; Land.
Gax. 17 May 1689, cit. Law, op. cit.
iii, 9 ; Lamberty, op. cit. ii, 385.
888 Luttrell, op. cit. i, 570-1.
689 Ibid. 561 ; Lamberty, op. cit.
ii, 512; Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. xii,
App. vii, 252, 'Newsletter, 23 July
1689.'
640 Burner, Hist, of His Own Tines,
ii, 2.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
answered, peevishly, ' Do you wish me dead ? ' *
The 'Bill of Rights' was being debated at the
time, and no doubt William's presence in London
was highly desirable. The vexed question of the
succession was for the moment set at rest by the
birth at Hampton Court, on 24 July, of the
Princess Anne's son, William Henry, afterwards
known as Duke of Gloucester. He was bap-
tized in the chapel on the evening of Saturday,
28 July, just a hundred and fifty years after the
last christening there of an heir to the throne,*1*
and from the first seems to have been a very weakly
child.643 The usual routine of the court was ob-
served ; William's adherents were knighted, and
the ambassadors were received. On 29 August,
George Walker, the hero of the defence of London-
derry, was given an audience by the king and
queen, who made him a present of £5,000."*
HAMPTON
trailer,' Mi and the queen wrote constantly to the
king during his absences in Ireland and Holland,
complaining of the delays caused by ' want of
money and Portland stone.'6461 Pending the
completion of the new state apartments Mary in-
stalled herself in the building known as the ' Water
Gallery,' where Queen Elizabeth had been lodged
as a State prisoner,646 and it is recorded that Mary
made of it ' the pleasantest little thing within
doors that could possibly be made, with all the
little neat curious things that suited her conveni-
ences.' M7 The interior was decorated for her by
Wren in the style that appears in his state apart-
ments, with painted ceilings and panels, carved
doorways and cornices,648 oak dados, hangings of
tapestry, and the characteristic corner fire-places
with diminishing shelves in tiers above them.
Mary first introduced the taste for ' blue and
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : WILLIAM THE THIRD'S BUILDINGS FROM THE SOUTH-EAST
The history of the palace during this reign is
chiefly the history of the new building, which
absorbed all attention when William and Mary
were there. Quarrels occasionally arose between
Wren, the ' surveyor,' and Talman, the ' comp-
white' oriental china into England ; many of her
quaint specimens are still to be seen in the palace.
She had James Bogdane, a fashionable painter of
animals, to decorate the ' Looking Glass Closett '
for her ;•" she also had a ' Marble Closett,' finely
641 Renesby, Memoiri, 5 May 1689
(?). William's reserved and somewhat
morose temperament added to the
general feeling of dissatisfaction ; Diet.
Nat. Biog. ; Evelyn, Diary, 29 Jan.
1689.
642 The Duke of Gloucester's un-
timely death was perhaps the origin of
the superstition concerning Mrs. Penn.
See p. 340.
648 Jenkin Lewis, Queen Anne's Son
(ed. 1881), 14.
•« George Walker (1618-90), gover-
nor of Londonderry, defended that town
against the Jacobites at the end of
1688. He was killed at the Battle of
the Boyne in 1690; Macaulay, Hist,
of Eng/. chap, x j Luttrell, Relation of
Affairs of State, i, 575 ; Diet. Nat.
Biog. ' George Walker ' ; Hist. MSS.
Com. Ref. xii, App. vii, 252.
645 Col. Treas. Papers, vi, no. 37 ;
Aud. Off. Declared Accts. bdle. 2443,
R. 124.
359
6<5» Dalrymple, Memoirs, pt. ii, App.
139; Aud. Off. Declared Accts. bdle.
2482, R. 295. The account from
1 Apr. 1689 to 31 Mar. 1691 reached
the sum of £54,484.
646 See below, p. 343.
847 Defoe, Tour through Gt. Britain
(ed. 1738), i, 245.
M8 Sometimes: aired most exquisitely
by Grinling Gibbons in limewood.
««Aud. Off. Declared Accts. bdle.
2482, R. 297.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
painted, and a ' Bathing Closett ' fitted with a white
marble bath.*50 She also had a dairy in which
she took much pleasure.641 There is something
very modern in the picture of her life thus pre-
sented. Her chief employments were her con-
stant consultations with Wren,6" who seems to
have found her taste excellent, about the building,
superintending the garden, making her botanical
collection,653 and working with her needle. Burnet
says 'she wrought with her own hands — some-
times with so constant a diligence, as if she had
been to earn her bread by it.' M4 Specimens of
her needlework remained in the palace up to a
comparatively recent date.*54 The queen, inspired
no doubt by Lely's paintings of the beauties of the
court of Charles II, also started making a gallery
of portraits of the ladies of her own court, painted
by Sir Godfrey Kneller.656 When the 'Water
Gallery' building was destroyed after Queen
Mary's death, because it spoilt the view from the
windows of the new palace, these pictures were
placed in a room under the king's guard-chamber,
known thenceforth as the ' Beauty Room,' and
sometimes used by William as a private dining-
room.657 They are now in William the Third's
' Presence Chamber,' with other examples of
Kneller's work.648
In 1690 William commanded the army in
Ireland during the summer, and in 1691-4 he
was absent for summer campaigns in the Nether-
lands.659 During these numerous absences Mary
was appointed regent, and affairs of State kept her
chiefly in London, but she wrote constantly to
report the progress of the new building at Hampton
Court to the king.660 The expenses of the war
made it difficult to obtain sufficient funds from the
Treasury to carry on the work, and Mary wrote
on 12 July 1690 that the deficit had become 'so
just a debt that it ought to be paid.' WI Wren,
in the Parentalia, says that the ' two royal apart-
ments ' were not finished till 1694, shortly before
Mary's death ;M> they were sufficiently advanced
when the king and queen visited them on
30 December 1691 for their magnificence to be
fully appreciated,663 but Mary never occupied the
apartments in which she had taken such keen
interest,664 and William's final alterations and im-
provements were not finished till twelve years
later. The king's pleasure in the place was much
diminished by the loss of his wife, and for some
years the work languished,665 until, in January 1698.
the palace of Whitehall was burnt down, and
William once more turned his attention to the
completion of Hampton Court.666 He never
attempted to rebuild Whitehall."7
In 1695 Sir Christopher Wren, who had be-
come Grand Master of the Freemasons, initiated
William into the mysteries of the order, and the
king often presided over a lodge at Hampton Court
during the completion of the building.6*8 His
apartments were finished and furnished in the style
of stately if somewhat heavy splendour characteristic
of the period towards the end of 1699 ; on
1 1 November he came down to stay for five days,*69
and a further estimate for furnishing and decorating
the rooms not included before was laid before
him.670 It may be noted that the ' Queen's State
Rooms' were not decorated at all during this
reign.
William returned to the palace directly after the
House had risen for Christmas, ' to divert himself
during the holydays,' *71 and refused an audience
to the French Ambassador, the Comte de Tallard,
on the plea that he 'could not be troubled with
business at Hampton Court.' 6" His diver-
sions did not include the long series of balls,
banquets and masques which would have taken
place in Tudor or Stuart days. He disliked
display and ceremonial,673 but enjoyed superintend-
ing the alterations and improvements in the build-
ing, and his only other amusement seems to have
been hunting or coursing in the parks. On
5 January he returned to town.'74
Early in 1 700 William was at Hampton Court
again, just after what he termed ' the most dismal
session ' he had ever experienced.675 He had given
a reluctant consent to the Resumption Bill,676 and
immediately afterwards prorogued Parliament and
retired to the palace for about six weeks of strict
seclusion, though having lately been reconciled to
the Princess Anne he entertained her occasionally
at dinner.677
050 No doubt one of the inconve-
nient contrivances honoured by the
name of 'bath' which still exist in the
state apartments ; see ' Queen Mary's
Closet,' &c.
651 Defoe, Tour through Gt. Britain
(ed. 1738), i, 245 ; Burnet, The Royal
Diary (1705), 3.
*•" Wren, Parentalia (ed. 1750), 326.
853 The catalogues of Mary's botani-
cal collection are in B.M. Sloane MSS.
no. 2928, 2370-1, 3343.
!5< Burnet, The R<ya! Diary, (1705), 3.
455 Aprllcs, Britir.nicus, bk. i, p. 8.
8!>6 Kneller was knighted and received
a medal and chain worth £300 for this
service ; Walpole, Anecdotes of Paint-
ing.
657 This room is now known as the
'Oak Room,' and is used by the resi-
dents in the palace for entertainments.
618 Law, Royal Gallery of Ham f ton Ct.
, et seq. They were originally twelve
in number, but only eight now remain
at Hampton Court. They were en-
graved in mezzotint by John Faber,
jun. ; Law, Hist. Hampton Ct. Palace,
iii, 30, 32 ; Challoner Smith, Brit.
Mezzotint Portraits, pt. i, 309 ; Diet.
Nat. Biog. ' Godfrey Kneller.'
859 Diet. Nat. Biog. 'William III.'
660 Wren, loc. cit. ; Dalrymple,
Memoirs of Gt. Brit, and Ireland, pt. ii,
App. 14.
M1 Ibid. App. 139; Aud. Off. De-
clared Accts. bdle. 2482, R. 295.
«a Wren, loc. cit.
648 Luttrell, Relation of Affairs of State,
»> 3°8. 3H, 584; »'• 39, "5-
644 She died of smallpox at Kensing-
ton Palace on 28 Dec. 1694.
665 Switzer, Ichnografhia Rustica, i,
75-
*• Ralph, Hitt.Engl.ii, 783. Wren's
estimate for fitting up the rooms at
Hampton Court is printed in the Dtp,
360
Keeper' t Rep. viii, App. ii, 200-1 ;
Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 328.
667 Grimblot, Letter, of Will. Ill, i,
1 44 ; Macaulay, Hist. Engl. chap,
xxiii.
668 Larousse, Grand Dictionnaire
Universe! du xix1 Slide, viii, 765.
869 Lend. Gas. ; Luttrell, op. cit.
iv, 583 ; Grimblot, op. cit. ii, 379.
«70 Cal. Treat. Papers, 1697-1702,
p. 349 (28 Nov. 1699).
"f1 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 596-7.
•W Grimblot, Letters of Will. Ill, ii,
389-
"* Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 599.
•7< Land. Gaz. ; Hist. MSS. Com.
Rep. xii, App. ii, 393.
675 Grimblot, op. cit. ii, 398 ; Hist.
MSS. Com. Reft, xiv, App. ii, 6 1 8.
678 Concerning forfeitures and grants
of land in Ireland, reported on in Dec.
1699.
677 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 599.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
On 23 April a meeting of the Privy Council
was held to discuss the question of reducing the
army, for which Parliament had voted very in-
adequate supplies,6'8 and two days afterwards to
consider alterations in the Commissions of the
Peace,679 one of the proceedings aimed at the
ministry, and especially at Lord Chancellor
Somers, who was accused of being partial in his
appointments. He was present at this meeting as
Chancellor for the last time.690
Many of the intrigues and interviews described
by Burnet took place no doubt at Hampton
Court.681 The king remained at the palace, and
Serjeant Sir Nathan Wright received the Great
Seal at a meeting of the Privy Council at Hamp-
ton Court on 2 1 May I /oo.68'
William had already begun to carry into execu-
tion his plan to receive the foreign ambassadors
only at Hampton Court, and in April 1700 he
received the envoys of Spain and France,683 who
came to present a petition on behalf of the Roman
Catholic priests in England, against whom an Act
of great severity had been passed in the preceding
session.684 The Envoy Extraordinary of the Grand
Duke of Tuscany was also received at Hampton
Court in May.684 A Chapter of the Order of the
Garter was held in the palace soon after for ' elect-
ing the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, Lord
President of the Council, and the Rt. Honble.
Arnold Joost, Earl of Albemarle, Master of the
Robes to His Majesty, Knights of the Garter in
the room of the late Kings of Sweden and Den-
mark.' 686 William's attachment to Albemarle was
the cause of much of his unpopularity, and that he
should ' lavish away a Garter on his favourite ' was
the text for many severe reflections.681 In April
1 700 the Duke of Shrewsbury decided to resign
the office of Lord Chamberlain, on account of his
health, in spite of the opposition of the king, who
could ill afford to lose a friend near his person,658 and
on 24 June at Hampton Court the Earl of Jersey
was appointed Lord Chamberlain in his place.689
It was noticed in June that the king was not in
his usual health,690 and he became very anxious to
go to Holland in his customary manner, but was
delayed by various affairs of state,691 among them
the question of the Scottish colony at Darien.698
The king received the Scottish lords on Sunday
9 June, and the commissioners of the Lower
House on 1 1 June. The physicians could not agree
about him, and John Locke, the philosopher, who
came tc resign his commissionership at the Board of
Trade,'" was asked as a scientific expert to give an
opinion on the king's state of health. He was
sufficiei tly recovered to start for Holland on
7 July, alter holding a Grand Council at the palace
the day befjre, which was attended by the Lords
Justices who were to administer the government
in his absence.694
William went straight to Hampton Court
when he returned in the autumn, but after
holding one Privy Council there decided that they
should meet at Kensington in future, for the
greater convenience of the Lords.695
The Lord Mayor and Alderm :n of London came
to the palace to congratulate ths king on his safe
return, were entertained with ' a very splendid
dinner,' and returned to the City with great
satisfaction.696 It was at about this period that
William made up his mind, as he wrote from
Hampton Court, to the ' absolute necessity of
calling the House of Hanover to the succes-
sion, and of announcing the fact openly.' 69? On
I November he received at Hampton Court the un-
expected news of the death of the King of Spain,68*
an event which caused the utmost consternation in
Europe, taking place as it did before the Second
Partition Treaty had been completed.699 Louis XIV,
in violation of his most solemn pledges, accepted
the late king's will in favour of the Duke of
Anjou. William wrote to Heinsius from Hampton
Court on 5 November,703 expressing his extreme
dissatisfaction, and his astonishment at the state of
public opinion in England. ' It seems as if it
were a punishment from Heaven,' he said, ' that
people here are so little sensible to what passes
without the island.'
In pursuance of a policy which it is impossible
to follow here, the king dismissed the Whigs from
office and sent for Lord Godolphin,701 who had
not been to court for four years. He attended
the Cabinet Council held at Hampton Court on
I December, and was appointed First Commissioner
of the Treasury. Other Tory appointments
followed, and on the igth the king in Council at
Hampton Court dissolved Parliament and ordered
W Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 636-7 ; Ken-
net, Complete Hist, of Engl. 1676-1700.
8<» Ralph, Hist. Engl. ii, 843.
680 Burnet, Hist, of His Own Times,
iv» 433i *c- i Ralph, op. cit. ii, 908 ;
Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors,
148, &c.
881 Burner, op. cit. ir, 434, &C. ;
Cole, Memoirs, 125.
882 Campbell, Lives of the Lord
Chancellors, iv, 241, 243 ; Luttrell,
op. cit. iv, 646 ; Lond. Gass. Hamp-
ton Court, 21 May 1700.
988 There are three letters from
William to Heinsius concerning his
interviews at Hampton Court with de
Tallard, the French ambassador, while
the Second Treaty of Partition was
being considered ; Grimblot, Letters of
Will. Ill, ii, 407-12.
2
684 Burner, op. cit. iv, 409 ; Luttrell,
op. cit. ' Diary.'
cs* Lond. Ga%. 7 May 1700.
686 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 645 ; Lond.
Gay.
6S? White Kennet, Hist. Europe, iii,
782 ; Oldmixon, op. cit. ii, 209.
688 Shrewsbury Correspondence, 624.
689 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 645.
690 Vernon, Correspondence, iii, 69.
691 Kennet, Complete Hist, of Engl.
(1702) 52 ; Grimblot, Letters of Will.
Ill, ii, 416.
692 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 655 ; Ver-
non, Correspondence, iii, 77.
698 Prior, Hist, of His Own Times (ed.
Bancks), 179. Matthew Prior had
been constantly at court, amusing him-
self and looking out for a post. He suc-
ceeded Locke at the Board of Trade.
36l
894 Lond. Gaz. 27 June 1700 ; Ver-
non, Correspondence, iii, 107. Vernon
gives a detailed account of the king's
illness. Kennet, Hist, of Europe, vol.
for 1702, p. 52, also gives a minute
description of the same, with the
doctor's report on his illness.
695 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 707 ; Lond.
Gay. 89« Lond. Gaa.
69' Shrewsbury Correspondence, iii,
'43-
898 Grimblot, Letters of Will. Ill, ii,
453-
198 Hardwicke, State Papers, ii, 397.
"°° Grimblot, op. cit. ii, 477.
<01 Godolphin, with Shrewsbury,
Marlborough, and Russell, had been
accused of complicity in the Fenwick
plot in 1696 ; Diet. Nat. Biog. 'James
Vernon/
46
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
writs for the election of a new one to be issued
immediately.701
On 3 December the court had been ordered to
go into mourning for the King of Spain,"8 and
Count de Tallard, the French ambassador, who
the year before had signed the Second Partition
Treaty on behalf of France, arrived at the palace
on the same day, bringing a letter from Louis XIV.
An audience was arranged for him on the 1 1 th,
but without waiting for it he came to the palace
the day before, and insisted on making his bow to
the king. It is related that William only gazed
out of the window and observed ' M. 1'Ambassa-
deur, le temps est bien changeV 7M De Tallard
no doubt felt the truth of the remark when he
came to have his final audience the next day, and
William would scarcely notice him at all. The
interview lasted hardly five minutes, and the
court followed the king's example.705 De Tallard
delivered Louis' letter, but seems to have dis-
agreed with the policy pursued by France. For a
time he avoided Hampton Court, but eventually
appeared there once a week, by way of putting the
best face he could on the strained relationship
between his own country and England. Mean-
while, the Emperor's ambassador, Count Wratis-
law, was received with many tokens of friendship
and respect, though William, hampered by internal
politics and the state of public opinion at home,706
was unable to adopt any measures for carrying out
the provisions of the treaty so cavalierly ignored
by Louis.707
William's constant state of political disappoint-
ment and anxiety affected his health, and Vernon,
the Secretary of State, wrote that his various
symptoms were chiefly to be ascribed to his ' great
thoughtfulness in relation to the public.' 708 He
remained at Hampton Court in seclusion, under-
going a course of treatment, which included such
strange prescriptions as ' crabs' eyes and hogs'
lice.' m
The state of excitement in the country after the
meeting of the new Parliament in February 170'
can hardly be said to affect the history of Hampton
Court, though the attack on the Whig ministers
was one of the many subjects which engaged
William's attention at the time.710
An address to the king on behalf of the Whig
peers was brought to the palace on 16 April by
the Duke of Devonshire and the Earl of Ramsay.
It was presented to William with much formality,
but he did not vouchsafe any answer, a course of
action which puzzled the promoters ot the address
considerably.7" The king's real statesmanship
was much impeded by purely party considerations,
and Rochester's 7" dictatorial and assuming manner
so much offended him that on one occasion after a
consultation in the king's closet at Hampton
Court he said to Lord Jersey, ' If I had ordered
him to have been thrown out of the window, he
must have gone ; I do not see how he could have
prevented it.' 7IS
William's health again kept him at the palace,
and on I June 1701 he was there when he reluc-
tantly appointed ' John, Earl of Marlbough,'
commander-in-chief of his Majesty's forces in
Holland,'14 and soon after made him Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to carry on
negotiations at the Hague for treaties to be made
with other powers against France.716 On Monday
30 June the king himself left Hampton Court for
Holland. He returned somewhat unexpectedly
on 5 November, and arrived at the palace about
eight o'clock, ' much tired with his journey, so that
he went immediately to bed.'71* James II had
just died, and Louis XIV had instantaneously
restored all William's popularity in England by
acknowledging James's son as king of England.
William was almost overwhelmed even on the day
after his return by deputations from ' cities,
counties, and universities,' assuring him of the
loyalty of his subjects and their devotion to his
crown and person.717 He probably received them
in the new ' Presence Chamber,' one of the most
stately of Wren's rooms, which remains practically
the same as it was then. The original canopy of
crimson damask is still fixed to the wall, with its
rich embroidery of silver and gold somewhat
dimmed by time. One of the most beautiful of
the great silver chandeliers is also in this room,
embossed with the royal emblems.7" Kneller's
large picture of William III landing at Torbay in
1697, hung then, as it hangs now, opposite the
canopy. ' We can imagine,' says the historian of
Hampton Court Palace, ' the ceaseless throng
passing up Verrio's resplendent staircase, making
their way through the stately guard-chamber, and
surveying with curiosity all the magnificence of the
new palace, of which so much had been reported,
and then approaching the feeble but high-spirited
king, who stood to receive them, pale, haggard, and
coughing.'719
701 Cole, Miino'.rs, 249; Grimblot,
op. cit. ii, 471.
708 Land. Gaz. ; Luttrell, op. cit. iv,
713-
[•» Boyce, Hi,t. of Will. Ill, 466.
~°° Cole, Memoirs, 271 ; Luttrell, op.
cit. iv, 717.
706 William was sensible that he had
failed to conciliate cither political party.
He told Halifax that ' all the difference
he knew between the two parties was,
that the Tories would cut his throat in
the morning and the Whigs in the
afternoon ' ; Ralph, Hist. Engl. ii, 908.
7(17 Luttrell, op. cit. iv, 723.
708 Cole, Memoirs, 279. Vernon was
a staunch Whig, and viewed with great
apprehension the vexed question of the
succession after the death of the Duke of
Gloucester in 1700. He proposed that
the king should marry again, and that
the succession should be settled, in de-
fault of issue, in the Hanoverian line,
assing over Anne entirely ; Diet. Nat,
She.
7°9 White Kennel, Complete Hist, of
Engl. (1702), 52.
710 Somers, Halifax, Oxford, Portland,
and other Whigs were impeached ;
Ralph, op. cit. ii, 944 ; Diet. Nat. Biog,
'William III.'
711 Ralph, op. cit. ii, 944-5 ; Luttrell,
op. cit. v, 40-1.
~la Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester
362
(1641-1711), Lord Lieut, of Ireland;
Diet. Nat. Biog.
713 Lord Dartmouth, Notes, cit. Law,
op. cit. iii, 146-7. ~14 Lond. Gaz.
715 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep, viii, App. i,
12 (26 June 1701).
716 White Rennet, op. cit. vol. for
1 702, p. 66 j Corresp. of Henry Hyde,
Earl of Clarendon, i, 419 ; Lond. Gax.
717 Lond. Gaz, ; Clarendon, Corresp,
ii, 420.
718 The rose, thistle, fleur de lis, harp,
and the cypher W.R., all crowned,
appear in the design, on both canopy
and chandelier.
719 Law, Hist, Oj Hampton Court
Palace, iii, 154.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
William wrote to Heinsius that he was ' quite
exhausted by the labour of hearing harangues and
returning answers.' "° The first day, after all this
fatigue, he afterwards walked for two hours in the
garden at Hampton Court."1 Macaulay writes
of this time that ' the whole kingdom, meanwhile,
was looking anxiously to Hampton Court. Most
of the ministers were assembled there. The most
eminent men of the party which was out of
power had repaired thither, to pay their duty to
their sovereign, and to congratulate him on his
safe return. . . . Both Whigs and Tories waited
with intense anxiety for the decision of one
momentous and pressing question — Would there
be a dissolution ? ' '"
William, as he owned to Heinsius, had some
difficulty in making up his mind, but on 1 1 Novem-
ber 1701 he announced in council his intention
to dissolve Parliament, and the proclamation to
that effect, calling together a new one to meet on
30 December, was issued from Hampton Court at
1 1 o'clock p.m.7"
The king continued at the palace, with Portland
and Albemarle, who perceived, as he did himself,
that his health was breaking down rapidly, though
he carried on all the business of the state as usual,
and even continued to hunt in the parks, but
when he returned he had often to be carried up-
stairs to his own apartments.7" When Parliament
met he was obliged to return to London, and the
night of Monday, 22 December 1701, was the last
that he spent at the palace. He afterwards came
down on Saturdays to hunt, and on 2 1 February
(1701-2), though he had not been well that
morning, he came as usual, and met with the
accident which no doubt accelerated, if it did not
cause, his death.715 He was riding a favourite horse
called Sorrel, who appears to have stumbled on a
mole-hill, and the king was thrown on his right
shoulder. His collar-bone was broken, but was
immediately set by Ronjat, his Serjeant surgeon,
who happened to be at Hampton Court. In the
evening, William, contrary to the doctor's advice,
insisted on returning to Kensington, and it seems
that the broken bone had to be set again.726
Even the date and time of the accident are
recorded differently in contemporary accounts.
The newspapers described it as having happened
' near Hampton Court,' but the exact locality has
not been preserved even by tradition,717 though
twenty or thirty years ago a spot was still pointed
out in the Home Park, near the cork-trees at the
end of the Long Water,728 as being the scene of the
HAMPTON
machinations of the ' little gentleman in black
velvet,' as the Jacobites called the mole which was
said to be the cause of the horse's stumble.729 No
serious alarm concerning the king's fall seems to
have been felt at the time, but unfavourable
symptoms appeared later, and he died at Kensing-
ton Palace on Sunday, 8 March 1701-2.
Hampton Court was left to Queen Anne with
accumulated arrears of debts against the Crown
amounting to thousands of pounds.730 Her associa-
tion with the palace is accurately summed up in
Pope's lines : —
Here thou, Great Anna ! whom three realms
obey,
Dost sometimes Counsel take — and some-
times tea.
In the early part of her reign Anne used often
to preside over meetings of the Privy Council in
the Cartoon Gallery, otherwise known as ' The
Great Council Chamber ' or ' King's Gallery,'
where the seven great cartoons of Raphael hung in
the room built for their reception.731 In 1702
councils were held there twice in July, three times
in August ; in 1703, once in June, once in July,
and once in August ; in 1704 on I June, and
' generally in the summers of succeeding years.' 7"
After 1707 the queen does not seem to have been
at Hampton Court till 1710, at a time when she
had quarrelled with the Duchess of Marlborough,
and wrote to Harley for help in her troubles and
perplexities. She appears to have been afraid that
the letter might fall into the hands of Godolphin
or the Marlboroughs, so that she sent it by ' one
of the under-labourers in Hampton Court Gardens,'
and it was eventually delivered in a very grimy
condition.733
On 4 May 1710 Queen Anne entertained
' some Indian kings ' in the palace,734 in June she
came down twice a week ' for the air,' and on
26 September arrived with the whole court for a
fortnight, the longest time she had spent there
since her accession.734 On 26 October a curious
episode took place when the newly-appointed
' Lieutenancy ' dined at the palace. Lord Halifax
wrote to the Duke of Newcastle that ' the prepara-
tions were very great and magnificent, there were
a hundred and fifty covers and a hundred and fifty
dishes, but the day did not pass very cheerfully, for
the Lord Mayor offered the names of five persons
to be knighted . . . but the Queen remained fixt
and would not knight any of them ; 736 . . this
resolution in the Queen was so great a mortification
7M Cit. Macaulay, tint. Engl. (ed.
1861), T, 300.
7" Luttrell, op. cit. v, 107-8.
7M Macaulay, Hist. Engl. loc. cit.
7° Luttrell, op. cit. v, io8;Z.<W.Cuz.
7M Boyne, Hiit. Will III, iii ; White
ICennet, op. cit. iii, 826 ; The Royal
Diurx(i7°5)> 87; Luttrell, op. cit.v,i 10;
Grimblot, Letters of Will. ///,i,327,352.
7>* Luttrell, op. cit. v, 145, 147, 150 ;
Vernon, Corresp. iii, 164 ; White Ken-
nel, op. cit. vol. for 1702.
'» Ibid. ; Ranke, Hiu. of Engl. v,
7*7 Law, op. cit. iii, 168.
7» E. V. Boyle, Seven Gar Jens and a
Palace, 286.
"* Miss Strickland, in her life of
Queen Anne, has drawn a vivid but
quite unauthenticated picture of the
occurrence ; vide Law, op. cit. iii, 168,
n. 2. It is notable that there are no
moles in the park now.
780 The Treasury Papers are full of
these claims ; Cal. Treat. Papers,
1702-7, pp. 38, 50, 143, 168, 169, 172,
216, 230, 343, 365, 438, 526. Verrio
297 ; Burnet, Hist, of His Own Times ; was among the creditors : he died at
Did. Nat. Biog.
Hampton Court in 1707 ; Walpole,
Anecdotes of Painting (ed. 1849), ii,
471.
81 Law, op. cit. iii, 171. They are
now in the South Kensington Museum.
7>a Luttrelt,op.cit,v,i 92,202,205,207,
303,333,430,470; vide also Land. Gax.
7»» Swift, Works (ed. 1824), iii, 182,
* Memoirs relating to the change of
Ministry in 1710.'
7M Luttrell, op. cit. vi, 599.
7« Add. MSS. B.M. 100, 101, fol.
73 ; Luttrell, op. cit. vi, 633.
"' It was apparently thought that
one of them — Carse — had been con-
cerned in some plot.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
to these gentlemen that Sir W. Withers and
some others went away before dinner. . . . The
Duke of Somerset came to Court on Friday night,
had a long audience and a very rough one on his
part, and went away on Monday.' 7!
Swift came to Hampton Court once or twice
while the queen was there, the first time on
2 October to dine with Lord Halifax at his ' lodg-
ings,' in the highest story of the south side of the
Fountain Court, overlooking the private gardens.'**
He went to the queen's drawing-room afterwards,
where he met ' acquaintance enough.' " On
another occasion he described his visit as follows :
' We made our bows, and stood, about twenty of
us, round the room, while the Queen looked at us
with her fan in her mouth, and once in a minute
said about three words to some that were nearest
to her. I dined at Her Majesty's Board of Green
Cloth. It is much the best table in England, and
costs the Queen £1,000 a month while she is at
Windsor or Hampton Court, and is the only mark
of magnificence or royal hospitality that I can see
in the Royal household.' 74° The queen again
held councils in the palace in October and No-
vember lyio.741 In November she also held a
chapter of the order of the Garter before she
returned to London. After Christmas she came
back to Hampton Court for some days.7" She had
drives, or ' chaise rides,' made for herself in the
parks at this time, and Swift said that she hunted
in a chaise with one horse, ' which she drives
furiously, like Jehu.' He also said that on another
occasion she hunted the stag till 4 o'clock in
the afternoon, and drove in her chaise no less than
40 miles.7"
A trivial incident which took place at Hampton
Court about this time will always be remembered,
as it led to the composition of Pope's famous
poem ' The Rape of the Lock.' 744 The queen
entertained the envoys of the King of France at
the palace in the autumn of 1711, and also an
ambassador from ' the Czar of Muscovy.' 746 Swift
complained of the difficulties of going there him-
self, ' they have no lodgings for me — the town is
small, chargeable and inconvenient.' 746 By ' the
town ' he meant the few houses which then existed
near the palace.747 That year Anne stayed at
Hampton Court longer than usual : she received the
Duke of Marlborough there on his return from
abroad on 1 8 November,748 and from there on
I 3 November she issued the proclamation by which
she hoped to reform ' the indecencies and dis-
orders of the stage.'749 No further occurrence
of any importance took place at Hampton Court
up to the time of Anne's death in 1714.
George I arrived at the palace about nine
months after his accession, and finding it more to his
taste than his other English palaces, lived there in
great retirement, with Madame Schulenberg (after-
wards Duchess of Kendal) and Mme. Kilmansegg
(afterwards Countess of Darlington and Leinster).
These ladies added considerably to George's un-
popularity with his subjects. One reminiscence of
them possibly remains at Hampton Court in the
name of the ' Frog Walk,' under the west wall of
the Tilt Yard, where it is said that they used to
promenade, whence it was designated the ' Frau,'
afterwards corrupted to ' Frog ', Walk.7"
In 1716 the Prince of Wales was appointed
Regent during his father's absence in Hanover, and
was allowed to live at Hampton Court in the suite
of apartments still known as ' the Queen's State
Rooms,' on the east side of the palace. The
prince and princess endeavoured to hold a court
which should contrast with the dull and stiff for-
mality which was the king's idea of regal dignity.
It was probably Caroline who encouraged the
world of wit and learning as well as that of birth
and beauty, to come to Hampton Court. The
reminiscences of Walpole and Swift, the poems of
Pope and Gay, which commemorate this epoch
in the history of the palace are too well known for
it to be necessary to quote them in this limited
space. It will be enough to mention a few of
the more famous frequenters of this young court,
where gaiety and amusement reigned as it never
seems to have done when George and Caroline
came back as king and queen for the last of the
regal courts destined to be held in the palace.
The most famous of the wits who thus made the
court brilliant was Philip Dormer, fourth Earl of
Chesterfield, who had been appointed Gentleman
of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales, though
he cannot be numbered among the beauties ; Lord
Hervey called him 'a stunted giant.'751 Carr,
Lord Hervey, was also among the wits. He was
said to be a cleverer man than his better-known
brother John, who succeeded to the title, and was
afterwards celebrated as the friend of Queen Caro-
line and of Sir Robert Walpole.7" He began his
career at court while the prince and princess were
at the palace, and no doubt then began also his
courtship of the princess's beautiful and vivacious
maid of honour, Mary Lepell, whose praises were
sung by all her contemporaries, including Pope
and Gay, Pulteney and Chesterfield. Even Vol-
W Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App.
ii, 223. It is not said that Somerset
had come to expostulate with the queen
on her action, though it is implied.
"•* Now private apartments, occupied
by the Dowager Lady Napier of Mag-
dala, widow of the late Field Marshal
Lord Napier of Magdala, G.C.B., &c.
<*» Journ. to Stella, 2 Oct. 1710.
7<° Ibid, g Aug. 1711.
"" Luttrell, op. cit. vi, 640.
7« Ibid, vi, 667.
'* Journ. to Stella, 31 Juljr, 7 Aug.
1711.
W Law, op. cit. iii, 193, where a
full account is given of the incident,
when Lord Petre cut off a lock of Miss
Fermor's hair ; Elwin, Pope's (forks, ii,
1+5.
f« LonJ. Gax.
"« Journ. to Stella, 8, 14, 25 Oct.
1711.
<*1 Even in the present overcrowded
days it can hardly be described as a
'town.*
'* Swift, op. cit. 15, 22 Nov. 1711.
74> LonJ. Can. 13 Nov. 1711.
7H Law, op. cit. iii, 20;. It is pos-
sible that the Frauen who gave it this
name were the ladies in attendance on
the wife of the Stadtholder of Holland,
who took refuge at Hampton Court in
'795-
7s1 Born 1694, died 1773, the famous
Lord Chesterfield, wit, politician, and
letter-writer.
~5a Hervey, Memoiri, i, 266. He
said that he entertained the queen at
Hampton Court while 'other people
were entertaining themselves with
hearing dogs bark and seeing horses
gallon.'
364
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
taire wrote verses in her honour. She married
Lord Hervey in 1720."* Lord Chesterfield ad-
mired her good breeding, and said that ' she knew
more than was necessary for any woman, but had
the wit to conceal it.' A letter she wrote to
Mrs. Howard (Lady Suffolk) twelve years later
draws a pleasant picture of the gaiety and lightness
of heart that existed at Hampton Court in those
early days.744
Mary Bellenden was another charming maid of
honour, of whom Horace Walpole wrote that
' she was never mentioned by her contemporaries
but as the most perfect creature they had ever
known.' 766 She married Colonel John Campbell,
HAMPTON
one of the Grooms of the Bedchamber, long after-
wards fourth Duke of Argyll. The 'giddy and
unfortunate ' Sophia Howe, who died in 1726,
was another of the maids of honour who amusei
herself mightily at the palace.78*
Lady Bristol, mother of the two Herveys, was
also among the wits,767 and Sir Robert's first wife,
Lady Walpole, was one of the ladies of the court.758
Among others were Mrs. Clayton, afterwards
Viscountess Sundon, the Princess of Wales's inti-
mate friend ; Mrs. Selwyn, mother of the well-
known George Augustus Selwyn,7*9 and the
notorious Mrs. Howard, afterwards Countess of
Suffolk,760 a woman of some ability and beauty,
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : FROG WALK
"»8 John, Lord Hervey of Ickworth
(1696-1743), second son of John fir«t
Earl of Bristol. He was distinguished in
the world of politics, but only received
office after the death of Queen Caro-
line, whose vice-chamberlain he was.
Sir Robert Walpole for many years
ruled the queen through him and the
king through the queen. His ex-
treme delicacy and effeminacy are often
mentioned by his contemporaries.
Sarah Duchess of Marlborough de-
scribed him as having ' a painted face
and not a tooth in his head.' Pope
called him ' Lord Fanny." Diet. Nat.
Biog. ; Hervey, Memoirs.
7" Lady Suffilk's Lttan (ed. 1824),
i, 320(31 Aug. 1728).
'" Walpole, Reminiscences and Me-
moirs of Geo. II, 153; Gay, Poems,
' Welcome to Pope from Greece ' ; Lady
Siijvlk't Letters, i, 62. There is a story.
connected with Hampton Court, that
she suffered from the unwelcome
attentions of the Prince of Wales,
who seems to have attempted to excite
her avarice by constantly following her
about counting his money, and refusing
to accept her most pointed rebuffs,
until one day at Hampton Court she
sent his guineas rolling on the floor and
ran out of the room, leaving him to
pick them up. Lady Sundon' s Memoirs,
i, 97 i Lady Suffolk's Letters, i, 62 ;
Walpole, op. cit. 153.
?H Hervey, Memoirs, p. xxx ; Lady
Suffolk's Letters, i, 41 ; Pope, Poems,
'Lines in answer to the question '* What
is Prudery > " ' Lady Hervey described
the six maids of honour as 'six volumes
originally bound in calf.' Lady Suf-
folk's Letters, i, IO.
7*7 Hervey, Memoirs, i, p. xxi.
7" Catherine Shorter, daughter of a
timber merchant, son of the then Lord
Mayor of London. She appears to have
been an extravagant woman of fashion
who ' wasted large sums ' ; Dict.Nat.Biog.
7" George Augustus Selwyn (1719-
91), wit and politician, son of Colonel
John Selwyn ; his mother was a daugh-
ter of General Farrington, ' a vivacious
beauty ' and woman of the bedchamber
to Queen Caroline ; Diet. Nat. Biog.
1™ Henrietta, daughter of Sir Henry
Hobart, bart., married Charles Howard,
afterwards sixth Earl of Suffolk. Pope,
Gay, and Swift frequented their house.
She built herself a villa at Marble Hill,
Twickenham, towards which the Prince
of Wales contributed £12,000. Her
first husband died in 1733, and in
1735 she married George Berkeley son
of the fifth Earl of Berkeley, who died
in 1747; Diet. Nat. Biog. ; Henrey,
Memoirs ; Lady Sundon' s Mtmoirs.
365
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
who encouraged Pope and his literary friends, and
gained an ascendancy over the Prince of Wales
which she never entirely lost till she retired from
court in 1734.'" Her supper parties in the
rooms she occupied in the palace became cele-
brated. Her apartments were known to her
friends as the ' Swiss Cantons,' and herself as ' the
Swiss,' possibly from some political allusion.'"
Lord Scarbrough, ' amiable and melancholy,' r(B
Charles Churchill, natural son of the Duke of
Marlborough's brother General Churchill, who
afterwards married a daughter of Sir Robert Wai-
pole,™4 Lord Bolingbroke, Lord Bathurst, as well
as Pope, Gay, Pulteney, Arbuthnot, and latterly
Swift, may be mentioned as among those who
added to the brilliancy of the court.'64 The social
life at Hampton Court was a constant round of
amusement. In the morning it was the custom to
go on the river in barges, gaily decorated and hung
with silk curtains,'66 rowed by oarsmen in royal
liveries. The prince and princess afterwards dined
in public with the whole court in the princess's
apartments. In the afternoon she received her
guests and read or wrote, and in the evening
walked for several hours in the garden. They
also visited the four pavilions that stood at each
corner of the bowling green, where chocolate
was served and ' ombre ' or ' commerce ' played.
Sometimes the princess would invite a party to
play cards in the ' Queen's Gallery,' or to sup
with her in the Countess of Buckenburgh's cham-
ber, though all the Germans who belonged to
the court disliked the English and abused them
roundly.767
It must not be supposed that business and
politics had no place at court. Sir Robert Walpole,
Lord Methuen, the Lord Chancellor Finch, Lord
Townshend, and Count Bothmar, George the First's
Hanoverian minister, were constantly in attendance.
Lord Sunderland, who was a friend of the king,
and Lord Townshend both seem to have distinguished
themselves by a want of consideration for the
princess. A story is told of her having a heated
controversy with Lord Sunderland in the Queen's
Gallery, during which she told him to ' walk next
the windows, for in the humour we both are, one
of us must certainly jump out at the window, and
I'm resolved it shan't be me.' "*
In October 1716 the court left the palace,
going by water in a barge, and did not return till
August in the following year, in attendance on the
king, whose presence did not add to their gaiety.76*
Pope wrote on 1 3 September 1717 that ' no lone
house in Wales, with a mountain and a rookery,
is more contemplative than this court ; and as a
proof of it, I need only tell you Miss Lepell
walked with me three or four hours by moon-
light,7™ and we met no creature of any quality but
the king, who gave audience to the vice-chamber-
lain (Hervey) all alone, under the garden wall. I
hear of no ball, assembly, basset-table or any place
where two or three were gathered together, except
Madam Kilmansegg's, to which I had the honour
to be invited, and the grace to stay away.' '" The
general state of ill-feeling between the king and his
son, and still more between the king and his
daughter-in-law, of whom he generally spoke as
' cette diablesse la Princesse,' at this time developed
into an open quarrel, which attained such dimen-
sions, though the actual cause is unknown, that the
prince and princess departed from the palace in
October, leaving the king in possession, and shortly
afterwards the king put a notice in the Gazette
to the effect that the prince's friends would not be
received at court.77' In 1718, when the king re-
turned to Hampton Court in the summer, the
prince was holding an opposition court at Rich-
mond. George I had commanded the ' King's
Company of Actors ' to perform plays before him
in the Great Hall twice a week during the summer,
but the theatre not being ready in time only seven
plays were acted in September and October.7"
Among them, on I October, Shakespeare's Henry
Pill was represented on the very spot where so
much of the action had really taken place.774
Richard Steele, who wrote a prologue for these
theatricals, when asked how the king liked the
play, replied, ' So terribly well, my lord, that I
was afraid I should have lost all my actors ; for I
was not sure the king would not keep them to fill
the posts at court that he saw them so fit for in the
play.' "5
"61 Pope wrote in her honour the
well-known lines 'On a certain Lady
at Court.'
•6i Lady Suffolk' i Letters, i, 64, 411.
"63 Lady Sundon's Memoirs, \, 95.
He afterwards committed suicide.
7M Ibid. He is here called the duke's
brother, but General Charles Churchill
died in 1714 ; Diet. Nat. Biog.
;« Hervey, Memoirs, \, p. xxxiii.
7M Lady Cowper's Diary, in et seq.;
I.ady Suffolk's Letters, i, 376.
"' Lady Co-wper's Diary, 125.
"ra Lady Coivper's Diary, 123 ; Defoe,
Tour through Great Britain, i, 5.
"•» Lady Suffolk's Letters, i, 1 5 ; Me-
moirs of Lady Sundon, i, 330.
77° The maids of honour were on
terms of great familiarity with Pope.
They probably considered him as he was
described by Aaron Hill, 'The ladies'
plaything and the mulct' pride.' Her-
ve y, Memoirs, p. XX.
"' Elwin and Courthope, Life of Pope,
ix, 272, 4. Lady Orkney is mentioned
as doing the honours both at Hampton
Court and St. James's, and in 1718
' they had two plays and one ball every
week at Court.' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep.
v, 568 ; xii, App. iii, 186 ; Letter from
Sir John Stanley to Vice-Chamberlain
Coke.
"" Lady Suffolk's Letters, i, 18 ; Hist.
MSS. Com. Rep. v, 536 ; 'Newsletters,1
14, 27 Nov. 1717.
<78 This company of actors, otherwise
known as the Drury Lane Company,
included Colley Cibber, Barton Booth,
Mills, Wilkes, Mrs. Oldfield, Mrs. Por-
ter, and Miss Younger. They seem to
have found that the absence of laughter
or applause 'higher than a whisper'
had a melancholy effect upon their
acting j Colley Cibber, Apology for bit
Life. He gives an interesting account
of the arrangements and expenses.
366
"4 Lysons, MM. Parishes, 67 ;
Colley Cibber, Apology far bit Life (ed.
'74°), 447 i Lady Suffolk's Letters, i, 29;
Law, op. cit. iii, 223.
"s Montgomery, Life of Steele, ii,
1 70. The stage was never used again
till 1731, when a performance was
given by order of George II, for the
entertainment of the Duke of Lorraine,
afterwards Emperor of Germany; Col-
ley Cibber, Apology for bis Life, 447,
456; Daily Advertiser, 18 Oct. 1731,
cit. Law, op. cit. iii, 240. The stage
remained till 1798, when James Wyatt,
Surveyor-General of the Board of Works,
obtained permission from George III to
have it removed j Lysons, Midd.
Parishes, 67. In 1733 Kent made a
design of the hall as it was in the time
of Henry VIII, with the idea of per-
suading George II to do away with the
disfigurement.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
One of the most shameful and sordid acts of
the inglorious reign of George I took place in
1718, when the patent of Surveyor-General of the
Board of Works given to Sir Christopher Wren by
Charles II, which he had held with conspicuous
success under five different monarchs, was with-
drawn on 26 April, to please the Hanoverian
favourites of the king, who persuaded him to give
the appointment to William Benson, an ignorant
and incompetent person, who had succeeded better
than the great architect in obtaining and making
use of court influence. The pretext for this action
was stated to be a desire to effect economy in the
public service, that old and most fallacious excuse
for showing ingratitude and parsimony to the ser-
vants of the Crown."6 Wren retired to his house
on the Green "' and thence wrote a letter to the
Lords of the Treasury which is a perfect example
of courtesy and forbearance towards his enemies
on the part of an upright man unjustly accused."8
He had not long to wait for his vindication,
for Benson's incapacity and dishonesty very soon
became apparent, and he was ignominiously dis-
missed from his post, after holding it only for a
year."9
George I made an ineffectual effort to put down
an abuse which had apparently become conspicuous
during his reign. People who had no prescriptive
right to occupy ' lodgings ' in the palace 78° esta-
blished themselves there, on one pretext or
another, with the aid, no doubt, of some ' friend
at court,' and so acquired a position from which
it was afterwards difficult to oust them.781 This
practice had begun even in the time of Henry VIII,
and it continued to flourish more or less openly
until George III, who never lived in the palace
himself, made a strict rule, which was hence-
forward enforced, that no one was to occupy rooms
without a written authorization from the Lord
Chamberlain.78'
From about 1719 onwards we have no record
of any royal visit to Hampton Court until after
the accession of George II. His court first went
into residence there in July iJzS,7SS and for the
ensuing ten years or so of his reign they came
regularly to the palace for some months during
HAMPTON
each summer,734 but the court had entirely lost
its early brilliancy. A letter from Mrs. Howard
to Lady Hervey says that ' Hampton Court is very
different from the place you knew . . . Friztlation,
flirtation and dangleation are now no more, and
... to tell you my opinion freely, the people
you now converse with (her books) are much more
alive than any of your old acquaintance.' 78i No
doubt Mrs. Howard suffered more than the rest
from the endeavour to ' amuse an unamusable
king," 786 besides having to bear with the small
indignities the queen liked to inflict upon her as
bedchamber woman. The room in the palace
where she attended the queen's toilet is much as
it was then, though little of the furniture remains.787
Her Majesty's private chapel is next to this room,
and prayers were read there by her chaplains
while she was being dressed,788 the door being
left slightly open. Lord Hervey has among his
Memoirs a curious little drama or dialogue, entitled
' The Death of Lord Hervey, or, A Morning at
Court,' which gives an entertaining if not very
edifying picture of life and study of conversation
at the palace in those days.799 The only amuse-
ment that the king permitted himself or others
was stag-hunting and coursing, which went on
even in the summer. ' We hunt with great noise
and violence, and have every day a very toler-
able chance to have a neck broke,' 7M wrote Mrs.
Howard on 31 July 1730, from Hampton Court.
Her fears were not ill-founded, as is proved by
an account in a contemporary newspaper of acci-
dents in the hunting field on 25 August 1731, to
the Princess Amelia, as well as to one of the pages
and a groom.791 A passing excitement was the
scandal caused by the behaviour of Princess Amelia
and the Duke of Grafton, who used to hunt two
or three times a week, and occasionally separated
themselves from their attendants and went off
together. The princess was really devoted to
hunting, and in defiance of court etiquette used to
visit her horses in the royal stables on the Green.7"
The king and queen generally dined together in
public in ' The Public Dining Room,' one of the
finest of the state apartments. In the evening the
court played cards,793 or receptions were held,794
'"' Cal. Treas. Papers, 1714-19, p.
416. Memorial to the Treasury con-
cerning the ' abominable cheats so long
practised to His Majesty's prejudice,"
drawn up by Benjamin Benson, the
brother of William, and Colin Camp-
bell, who was evidently a mere agent of
William Benson.
77" See p. 320. He originally used
some rooms in the palace. A little
octagonal room on the west side of the
Fountain Court with a skylight, and
one window, is pointed out as his writ-
ing-room ; now private apartments oc-
cupied by Mrs. Maxwell, widow of the
late Col. Robert Maxwell, R.E.
<?8 Cal. Treat. Papers, 1714-19, p.
448.
7"9 Elmes, Life of Wren, 512. Court
influence saved Benson from prosecu-
tion, and secured for him another post
with a salary of £1,200 per annum.
780 In the reign of William and Mary
discussions about the rooms allotted
often took place ; Buccleugb MSS. (Hist.
MSS. Com.), ii, 645-8, &c.
781 George I wrote to the Lord Cham-
berlain on 5 May 1719, to require him
'not to permit any person to have
Lodgings in our palaces of Hampton
Court, Windsor, and Kensington, who
are not by their offices entitled thereto ' ;
Law, op. cit. iii, 232-3.
78» Ibid. 304. The Lord Chamberlain
at first granted permission by letter, and
from about 1765 by warrant.
7s* George I died on 1 1 June 1727.
~84 Lady Suffolk's Letters, \, 299, 312 ;
Elwin and Courthope, Life of Pope, vii,
129.
785 Lady Suffolk's Letters, i, 328.
~m Hervey, Memoirs, ii, 16 ; Lady
Suffolk's Letters, i, 291.
787 The tall marble bath, which looks
as if it had been put up endways by
mistake, is still there.
367
788 QUccn Anne had the same cus-
tom, and once 'ordering the door to be
shut while she shifted, the chaplain
stopped. The queen sent to ask why
he did not proceed. He replied he
could not whistle the Word of God
through the keyhole." Hervey, Me-
moirs, ii, 336, note.
789 Hervey, Memoirs, ii, 333 et seq.
(ed. Croker, 1884).
7»° Lady Suffolk's Letters, i, 376.
7'1 Cit. Law, op. cit. iii, 241.
"M Walpole, Reign of Geo. II, i, 157.
Walpole also says that 'the good peo-
pie at Hampton Court are scandalized
at Princess Emily's coming to chapel
last Sunday in riding clothes, with a
dog under her arm" (June 1752) ;
Letters (ed. Toynbee), iii, 101.
798 * The King plays at commerce and
backgammon, and the Queen at quad-
rille j' Lady Sundon's Memoirs, ii, 231.
'>* Ibid, i, 212.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
probably in the Queen's Audience Chamber,
where a canopy of the royal damask still remains.79*
Lord Hervey gives an account of the dulness of
these evenings, when ' the king walked about and
talked (to Lord Lifford) of armies, or to Lady
Charlotte (his sister) of genealogies, whilst the
queen knotted and yawned, till from yawning she
came to nodding, and from nodding to snoring.' "
A further picture of the company is to be found
in Pope's ballad, ' The Challenge,' and in a letter
from Lord Hervey to Mrs. Clayton, although he
begins by saying ' I will not trouble you with any
account of our occupations at Hampton Court.
No mill-horse ever went in a more constant track,
or a more unchanging circle." 797 The record of
this last court, held every year at the palace until
the death of Queen Caroline, is one of court in-
trigues of a sordid nature, and of the king's dis-
agreeable manners and various flirtations, especially
after the departure from court of Lady Suffolk.798
The queen and Lord Hervey had interminable
conversations and discussed every conceivable sub-
ject,799 though when the king was present he took
pains that none of the affairs that interested the
queen should be mentioned.800
The most important domestic matter for a long
time seems to have been the continual state of
irritation and ill-feeling between the king and
queen and their eldest son, Frederick, Prince of
Wales. It came to an open climax, when the
prince, apparently solely in order to offend his
parents, and at the great risk of his wife's life,
contrived to remove her secretly from Hampton
Court in the evening of Sunday, 31 July 1737, so
that the birth of their eldest child might take
place at St. James's on the same night, without
the knowledge or presence of the queen. Their
departure took place at half-past eight, after they
had dined with the king and queen. The un-
fortunate princess was dragged down the stairs
behind the Prince of Wales' apartments in the
north-east corner of the palace, hurried, probably
through the cloisters past the chapel door, to one
of the side doors in Tennis Court Lane, and was
there put into a coach, accompanied by the prince,
Lady Archibald Hamilton and some of the
princess's attendants. They were driven at full
gallop to London, arriving at St. James's at ten
o'clock. Their daughter was born only an hour
later.801 A courier was sent back to Hampton
Court to announce the state of affairs, and arrived
at half-past one in the morning. By four o'clock
the queen was at St. James's and heard the prince's
account of what he had done.80* She interviewed
everyone concerned, and returned to Hampton
Court by eight o'clock in the evening.801 The
king refused to see his son,804 and Lord Carnarvon **
was sent to Hampton Court with a letter, in very
bad French, from the prince to express his grief
and repentance for having incurred the displeasure
of his father. The king's reply was to send Lord
Essex with a curt message to Carnarvon, who was
kept waiting in one of the galleries, refusing any
further answer to the prince. This scene must
have been remarkable, and is given at length in
Lord Hervey's Memoirs. It is said by him to
have taken place in the queen's bedchamber or
dressing-room, the letter having been brought to
the king while he was at dinner in the Public
Dining-room. The prince was ordered to retire
to Kew, his usual military guard was taken away
as a sign of the king's displeasure, and it was noti-
fied to everyone likely to attend the prince's court
that their doing so would be disagreeable to the
king.606 The court left Hampton Court on
28 October 1737, and on 20 November the
queen died, and the history of the palace as a
royal residence practically came to an end.
George II never actually lived at Hampton
Court again after the queen's death, though he
sometimes came down for the day with Lady
Yarmouth 807 and some of the court.
' They went in coaches and six in the middle
of the day, with heavy horse-guards kicking up
the dust before them^-dined, walked an hour in
the garden, returned in the same dusty parade ;
and his majesty fancied himself the most lively
and gallant prince in Europe.' " Occasionally he
stayed for a night or two,809 and it is to be supposed
that he sometimes had his grandchildren to visit
him there, as to this period belongs the famous
story of his having on one occasion boxed the ears
of the young prince, afterwards George III, and
so disgusted him that he could never afterwards
bring himself to live in the palace where he had
suffered such an indignity.810
From the time of the death of George II no
king of England has occupied the palace. It has
ceased to be the scene of historical events, though
among its inhabitants at all periods are found the
'" A great many of the rooms
appear to have been redecorated at
this time. In the Public Dining-room,
and the Queen's Presence and Guard
Chambers the ornamentation is clearly
not from any design by Sir Christo-
pher Wren.
'** Hervey, Memoirs, i, 297 et seq.
"'7 Lady SunJon's Memoirs, ii, 231.
'M Hervey, Memoirs, i, 350, 426.
"» Ibid.
800 She took great interest in re-
ligious matters, especially in the new
school of thought, which was con-
sidered advanced and daring at the
time. She had also some taste for art
and literature, and interested herself in
gardening and architecture. The Prin-
cess Royal complained to Lord Hervey
of the king's 'unreasonable, simple,
uncertain, disagreeable and often shock-
ing behaviour to the Queen ;' Hervey,
Memoirs, ii, 87.
»01 Ibid, iii, 1 66, &c.
«» ' The Queen kissed the child and
said, " Le bon Dieu vous benisse pauvrc
petite creature, vous voila arrivee dans
un desagreable monde." ' Hervey,
Memoirs, iii, 171.
"» Ibid. 179. <»<« Ibid. 193.
m One of the lords of the Prince's
Bedchamber.
"• Walpole, Rtmin. (ed. 1819-21),
60-1 5 Hervey, Memoirs, !•$%, 239. The
queen went so far as to say that she
hoped she should never see her son
368
again. She actually did not see him
on her death-bed, though she sent him
a message of forgiveness ; ibid. 238 ;
Walpole, Letters.
^ Amalie Sophia, Frau von Wallmo-
den (1704-65), created Countess of
Yarmouth in 1740 by Geo. II ; Diet.
Nat. Biog.
808 Walpole, Ran*. 62.
809 The bed, hung with crimson silk,
which he generally used on these occa-
sions, is still in the state apartments.
810 This story is said to have been
repeated to Heneage Jesse, by the per-
son to whom the Duke of Sussex re-
lated it, while passing through the
state apartments ; Jesse, Life of Giorgi
III, i, 10.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
names of some who have 'made history.' Even
before the accession of George III the absence of
the court had left the place much at the mercy of
the housekeeper 8" and deputy-housekeeper, who
made a show of it and exacted fees from the
visitors who came to look at it. Horace Walpole,
whose house at Strawberry Hill was only 3 miles
off, constantly visited Hampton Court and made
notes on its history, its pictures and curiosities.81'
On 3 August 1751, in a letter to Sir Horace
Mann, he told one of the numerous stories about
the famous and beautiful Misses Gunning, who, he
said, ' make more noise than any of their pre-
decessors since Helen. They went the other day
to see Hampton Court ; as they were going into
the Beauty Room, another company arrived, the
housekeeper said " This way, ladies ; here are the
Beauties." The Gunnings flew into a passion and
asked her what she meant ; that they came to see
the palace, not to be shown as a sight themselves.' ili
From 25 October 1760, the date of the acces-
sion of George III, the history of Hampton Court
Palace assumes an entirely new aspect. Up to
that time it had been the background of important
public events, or connected with the private lives
of the sovereigns of England; but thenceforward it
became interesting only as the private individuals to
whom apartments were allotted by grace and favour
of the king or queen happened to be interesting.
The state apartments were gradually dismantled
during the long reign of George III, furniture and
pictures were sent to other palaces, and perhaps this
gradual despoiling of the place, continued through
so many years, is one of the chief reasons that it has
remained in its present condition.8133 It was not
till the reign of Queen Victoria that by her special
kindness and thought for her people the picture
galleries and gardens were thrown open to the
public.81sb At first the private apartments were
often held by irregular and more or less surrepti-
tious devices.8'* by begging a grant from the Lord
Chamberlain, or by bribing the housekeeper, until
George III made the proviso that no one should
occupy ' lodgings ' unless the rooms were exactly
specified in a written grant from the Lord Cham-
berlain.815
HAMPTON
It may be said here that whatever reasons may
have counted originally in conferring apartments
on those favoured by the king, for a great many
years they have been granted, in almost every in-
stance, ' in recognition of distinguished services ren-
dered to the Crown and country by the husbands
or near relatives of the recipients. Recently the
privilege has been almost entirely confined to
widows or unmarried ladies.' "* Some misappre-
hension of the terms on which these apartments
are granted has often arisen, i.e. that there is some
unwritten ' rule ' limiting the ' grace and favour '
of the sovereign to making grants of rooms only to
ladies — which is erroneous,8" as the king may give
them to anyone he pleases. Another misappre-
hension, arising perhaps from William the Fourth's
playful method of terming the palace ' the Quality
Poorhouse,' is that the inhabitants are entirely
without means.818
A guard of honour, supplied by the cavalry
regiment stationed at Hounslow, is always on duty
at the palace, and occupies the long low line of
buildings on the north of the west entrance.
Divine service is regularly performed in the chapel
by one of the king's chaplains,8183 who occupies a
suite of apartments, and who is appointed and
partly paid by the Crown.819 A clerk of the works,
who is also assistant surveyor, is appointed by the
Crown ; slto the fabric of the building and the
gardens are under the jurisdiction of the Office of
Works, though the interior is ruled by the Lord
Chamberlain, who still signs all the warrants issued
to holders of apartments.
Society in Hampton Court Palace has never
been without its own peculiar charm and interest,
as perhaps the following short list of a few of the
more celebrated inhabitants may testify.
Commodore Hon. Robert Boyle Walsingham,
youngest son of Henry, first Earl of Shannon, was
granted rooms on the ground floor on the south side
of the Clock Court. He took the name of Walsing-
ham on succeeding to the property. He com-
manded a squadron sent to the West Indies to re-
inforce Rodney in 1780, and was lost in H.M.S.
Thunderer in October that year. He married in
1759 Charlotte daughter of Sir Charles Hanbury
811 The ' Lady Housekeeper!,' who
received a salary of ^250, with fees
which made the office worth nearly
£800 a year, date from about 1758,
and were Mrs. Elizabeth Mostyn, Mrs.
Mary Kecte, Lady Anne Cecil, Lady
Elizabeth Seymour, and Lady Emily
Montague, who died in 1838; Law,
op. cit. iii, 444. An amusing account
is given in Fraxer's Mag. Aug. 1 846,
of the way in which someone who
efused to pay the necessary fees for
seeing the palace was kept locked up in
one of the rooms for some time by the
' lady housemaid.'
81a See Anecdotes of Painting, &c.
818 Horace Walpole, Letters (ed.
Toynbee), iii, 68. The ' Beauty Room '
is the one on the ground floor, facing
the south, under the King's Guard
Chamber. The Kneller picture* ori-
ginally hung there. It is now called
the 'Oak Room' and is used for en-
tertainments by inhabitants of the
palace.
8183 Letttrt of Horace Walpah (ed.
Toynbee), v, 208-9 > *''i IO9-
slab j-jer Majesty seems to have been
impressed by the Report of a Committee
' On the Arts and their connexion with
manufactures,' in 1836, and to have
then decided that it was advisable to
allow the cartoons of Raphael and
other pictures at Hampton Court to be
shown to the public. 'Letter from
W. Ewart." Eraser's Mag. iv, 479.
814 See p. 367 i Law, op. cit. iii,
302.
818 See p. 367, n. 781-2. An ex-
haustive list of the successive inhabi-
tants, as far as they can be traced, is
given by Mr. Law, op. cit. iii, App. G.
A copy of Miss Antonia St. John's
MS. list, compiled from old letters and
warrants, has also been seen by the
writer (lent by Mrs. Marcus Slade).
369
816 Law, Hist. Hampton Court Palace,
iii, 413-14-
817 A warrant to Admiral Sir Samuel
Brooke-Pechell, bart., 19 Nov. 1844, is
said to have been marked ' as being a
special exception to the rule that no
apartments are now granted to married
men or widowers.' Law, op. cit. iii, 45 2.
In 1892 the late Queen Victoria granted
apartments to Major-General Dennehv,
extra groom in waiting to the queen.
818 Conditions of the tenure of apart-
ments may be found in Law, op. cit.
iii, 353 et seq.
818a The present chaplain is the
Rev. A. Ingram, M.A. He occupies
' The Treasurer's Lodgings ' in the
north wing of the west front.
819 Law, op. cit. iii.
819a The present clerk of the works
and assistant surveyor is Mr. Edwin
Chart. He has a separate house in
Tennis Court Lane.
47
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Williams, K.B., who, after her husband's death,
bought a property at Thames Ditton and built
Boyle Farm, opposite the Home Park at the end of
the gardens.810 The rooms are now occupied by
Miss Gordon, daughter of the late Lord Henry
Gordon, who has a long connexion with the
palace.
Elizabeth Countess of Berkeley had the rooms
in the top story on the east side of the Fountain
Court. She married first Augustus, fourth Earl
of Berkeley, K.T., and secondly Robert Nugent,
afterwards Earl of Clare. She is chiefly remarka-
ble for Horace Walpole's remarks on her character:
' Be doubly on your guard against her. There is
nothing so black of which she is not capable. Her
gallantries are the whitest specks about her.'8"
The rooms were granted to her in 1782. They
are now occupied by Mrs. Henderson, widow of
Colonel Henderson, C.B., late Commandant of the
Staff College, and author of Stonewall Jackson and
the American Civil War, Sic.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Francis
Seymour, G.C.B., born 1787, died 1870 ; son of
Lord Hugh Seymour, a distinguished naval officer,
the personal friend of William IV, who gave him
the Guelphic Order. He served for a short time
in Nelson's flagship the Victory as a midshipman in
1803, was wounded in the face off St. Domingo in
1 806, and afterwards saw service with Lord Coch-
rane and Lord Gambler. He was sergeant-at-
arms to the House of Lords from 1818 to 1841,
and naval A.D.C. to William IV. He and his wife
Lady Seymour held rooms in the north wing of
the south front of Hampton Court Palace from
1820 till Lady Seymour's death in 1878. Sir
George Seymour was the father of the fifth and
grandfather of the sixth Marquis of Hertford.
Among his daughters were Lady Harlech, Countess
Gleichen, and Princess Victor Hohenlohe Langen-
burg.*** The rooms are now held by Lady
Giffbrd, widow of the second Lord Gifford.
Lady Albinia Cumberland, daughter of George,
Earl of Buckinghamshire, married Richard Cum-
berland, Esq., son of the celebrated dramatic
writer. He died in 1 794, and she was granted
' The Maids of Honour's Gallery,' which she held
till her death in iSjo.8"2 The rooms are now
occupied by the Hon. Mrs. Saunderson, widow of
the late Colonel Saunderson, M.P.
Colonel Sir Horace Seymour, K.C.H., was a
younger brother of Sir George; born 1791,
died 1851. He was one of the heroes of Water-
loo, and is said to have been an unusually handsome
man . He had the ' Secretary at War's Lodging '
on the south side of the west front from 1827.
His eldest son became Lord Alcester, and his
second son, Colonel Charles Seymour, was killed at
Inkerman. His daughter Adelaide married Earl
Spencer. He also received the Guelphic Order
from William IV.8"
Lady Sarah Maitland, born 1792, died 1873.
She was the second daughter of the fourth Duke of
Richmond and Lennox ; married in 1815 General
Sir Peregrine Maitland, G.C.B., who died 1854.
Lady Sarah was present at the famous ball in
Brussels, the night before the Battle of Waterloo.
Her two sons were afterwards severely wounded in
the Crimea. She had the ' Cofferer's Lodgings,'
in the north wing of the west front, from about
1857.'"
The Countess of Mornington ; Anne daughter of
Arthur Hill, first Lord Dungannon, married in
1759 Garrett, first Earl of Mornington, and was
the mother of the great Duke of Wellington and
of the Marquis Wellesley, the illustrious Governor-
General of India, who used to visit her at the
palace. The little garden adjoining her rooms
(the Prince of Wales' lodgings on the ground floor
in the north-east angle of Wren's building), re-
tained for many years the name of ' Lady Morn-
ington's Garden," and the catalpa tree she planted
still survives as a stump covered with creepers.
The Duke of Wellington gave the name of ' Purr
Corner ' to a nook in the east front of the palace
where his mother and her friends used to sit bask-
ing in the sun.9*5 Another son, the Hon. and
Rev. Gerald Valerian Wellesley,8*6 was chaplain of
the palace, and also held apartments, the rooms
known as the Princesses' Lodgings on the first floor,
at the east end of the north range. Her daughter,
Lady Anne Wellesley, afterwards Fitzroy, after-
wards Culling Smith, lived in ' the Queen's Half
Storey ' in the east front.8" Lady Mornington
was granted rooms in 1795, and died in 1831.
Her rooms are now occupied by Lady Augustus
Hervey, widow of the late Lord Augustus Hervey
and mother of the present Lord Bristol.
Mrs. Sheridan was another inhabitant, the
wife of Thomas Sheridan, son of Richard Brinsley
Sheridan, who died in 1817 ; she was the
mother of Frank and Charles Sheridan, and her
daughters were the three famous beauties, Mrs.
Norton, the Duchess of Somerset, and Lady
Dufferin, grandmother of the present Marquis of
Dufferin and Ava. She had ground-floor rooms
on the north side of the palace, off ' the serving
place ' opposite Wolsey's kitchen, which were
given her in 1820 ; she died in 185 I.8*8
Major the Hon. William Beresford is interesting
as the last holder of the ancient office of ' Master
of the King's Tennis Courts,' to which he was
appointed at the age of eighteen. He had the
' Lodgings of the Master of the Tennis Court,'
from 1849. They are now occupied by Mr.
Marlovv, superintendent of the gardens. Major
Beresford died in 1883.
Lady Georgiana Grey, daughter of Lord Grey,
of Reform celebrity. She acted as secretary to her
father, and is often mentioned in the diaries and
letters of ministers and literary men of that era.8"
8* Law, op. cit. 460.
8U Lettert, vii, 149, 16 Nov. 1778.
851 Law,op. cit. iii,449; Dict.Nat.Biog.
8ato Law, op. cit. iii, 467 ; E.V.Boyle,
Seven Gardens and a Palace, 269-76.
811 Lair, op. cit. iii, 447.
854 Ibid. 452.
•* Ibid. 328, 470.
•» Ibid. 48*.
*» Ibid. 473.
370
838 Ibid. 333, 479.
889 Trevelyan, Lift and Lttten of
Macaulay, i, 229. Memoirs of an
ex-minister (Lord Malmttburj], i, 36 ;
Law, op. cit. iii, 413,469.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
She had the ' Duke of York's Apartments ' in the
south-east angle of Wren's building from about
1 86 1, and died in 1900 in her hundredth year.
The rooms are now occupied by Mrs. Creighton,
widow of the late Bishop of London.
H.R.H. Princess Frederica of Hanover, daughter
of His Majesty the late King of Hanover, second
Duke of Cumberland, K.G., married Freiherr von
Pawel Rammingen, K.C.B., K.H., &c., and was
given the ' Lady Housekeeper's Lodgings ' in the
south-west wing of the west front in 1880, soon
after her marriage. Her daughter was born in this
apartment, 7 March 1 88 1, but died three weeks
afterwards. Princess Frederica gave up the apart-
HAMPTON
tress ' and her attendants to uncouth attempts at
regal dignity, and such alterations and losses as it
has experienced in its existence of nearly four hun-
dred years have assuredly not been due to neglect.
When Wolsey began his great work in 1514,
the site was already occupied by a building consist-
ing of a hall with a parlour, kitchen, buttery, and
stable, and a chapel which had a tower containing
two bells. After the fashion of the camerae of the
Hospitallers, the buildings differed in no essential
way from those of an ordinary mediaeval manor-
houss, except, perhaps, in the relative importance
of the chapel. It is not likely that they were of
sufficient importance to influence the setting-out of
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : ENTRANCE COURT, LOOKING TOWARDS THE MOAT
ment in 1898, and it is now held by Lady
Wolseley, wife of F.M. Viscount Wolseley, K.P.,&c.
With such a history as
ARCHITECTURAL it can boast, having been
DESCRIPTION built and furnished in the
most magnificent and
sumptuous manner that the taste and ambition of
its first owner could devise, and having passed
from him into the hands of a king whose love of
splendid buildings became proverbial, it is not to
be wondered at that Hampton Court has always
been a favourite and carefully-maintained possession
of the Tudor, Stuart, and Hanoverian dynasties.
Even in the days of the Commonwealth its atmo-
sphere and traditions moved the ' Lady Protec-
Wolsey's buildings, or that their incorporation in
the new work was ever contemplated ; at any rate,
they have long ceased to exist, leaving no trace
behind them.
From 1514 to 1529 the work of building went
on under Wolsey's direction and at his expense,
although during the last few years the palace had
become the property of Henry VIII, and it is
hard to say at what point the king took up the
cardinal's design. The general setting-out of the
plan shows none of the passion for symmetry which
was to influence the English architects of Eliza-
beth's day, although the first or base court follows
a regular scheme, having a great gateway tower in
the middle of its west or outer side, and a second
371
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
gate-tower — the clock-tower — corresponding to it
on the east. On the east side of the second or clock
court is a third gateway, and the centre line of the
building passed through a fourth gateway on the
east front of the palace. The approach to the palace
being from the west, this front is more regular than
the rest, being flanked on the north and south by
projecting blocks of building, which are, however,
additions to the original design, and not of equal
size, bearing only a superficial resemblance to each
other. The apportionment of the various parts of
the building followed that of other great houses
of the time, the outer court being devoted to
lodgings for guests, long rows of chambers opening
to corridors running along the inner side of each
wing ; while the second court contained the
principal sets of rooms, with the great hall on the
north side, adjoined on the east by the great cham-
ber, and on the north and west by the kitchens and
domestic offices. The chapel stands to the east of
the great chamber, separated from it by a small
court, and approached by galleries.
The whole of the buildings are of brick, generally
of a deep red colour, but by no means uniform in
tint, and the wall-surfaces are varied by the inser-
tion of black bricks set in a lattice pattern, often
very irregular, and sometimes without any definite
design. The string-courses, plinths and copings,
and the masonry of doorways and windows, are of
stone, for the most part called Reigate stone in
the original building accounts, but Caen stone
and Barnet stone are also mentioned. The bricks
appear to have been made on the spot in vast
quantities, and many references to them occur.
A long series of the building accounts has been
preserved, the earliest dating from 1514, but
unfortunately there are many gaps in them between
that year and 1529. After this date they are
fairly complete up to 1540.' On one point of
great interest they do not, however, give much
information, that is, who occupied the position of
architect or designer of the work. Certain over-
seers are mentioned, as James Bettes, ' master of
the works ' ; Master Lawrence Stubbes, paymaster
in 1515-16; and Mr. Henry Williams, priest,
' surveyor of the works,' the last-named probably
more nearly fulfilling the duties of a modern archi-
tect than the others ; but in no case is it clear
that the actual designing was done by any of these.
In 1536-7 one Mr. Lubbyns is mentioned as
being paid £3 6s. 8d. as a half-year's wages, side
by side with an entry for ' paper Riall for plattes '
for his use ; from which it would appear that he
certainly set out details of the work if he did not
design them.
It is clear that from the first the work was
pushed on with great energy. In I 5 14 there is
mention of the chapel and gallery, and in 1515 of
the great chamber, the king's dining chamber, the
new lodging without the gate, &c. ; and by 1516
the buildings were so far advanced that Wolsey
could entertain the king at Hampton Court.
Labourers were collected from distant parts of the
country, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire being
mentioned ; and in the accounts for 1514 is a
payment ' for the statutes of the last parliament
bought, forasmuch as in them were comprised the
statute of labourers and artificers,' much as anyone
proposing to build at the present day might arm
himself with a copy of the London Building Act.
The absence of the greater part of the building
accounts during the years when Wolsey was in
possession makes it impossible to determine the
order in which the various parts of his palace were
set up, but it is reasonable to suppose that the
principal buildings, the hall, chapel, great chamber,
&c., would be undertaken first. Henry added to
and rebuilt a certain amount of the cardinal's
work, but his additions were for the most part at
the south-east, on the ground now occupied by
Wren's buildings ; and it seems probable that
when Wolsey finally left Hampton Court in 1529
its area was little less than it is at the present day.
The outer or base court as it now stands, a good
part of the Clock Court, the range of kitchens and
offices on the north, including the Lord Chamber-
lain's Court, the Master Carpenter's Court, the
Fish Court, &c., together with parts of the chapel
and perhaps some of the range to the north of the
Chapel Court, all seem to be in the main of his
time. His Great Hall, though no doubt a fine
building, was evidently not fine enough for the
king, who pulled it down in 1530 and finished the
splendid hall which now exists about 1535. At
the same time Henry seems to have remodelled,
and partly rebuilt, the fine range of rooms to the
east of the hall and the eastern range of the Clock
Court, and in 1535-6 he refitted the chapel,
adding the organ chamber on the south, but
apparently not rebuilding the chapel nor making
any important structural alteration. It is, indeed,
called in one place of the accounts the King's New
Chapel, but this does not necessarily imply a re-
building ; and in the entry relating to the enormous
sum of .£451 spent on the wooden vault and the
royal ' holyday closettes,' the heading is for
' payntyng, gyltyng, and varnesshyng of the vought,'
and the making of pendants and other details.
The tennis court — the ' close tennys play ' of
the accounts — and a 'close bowling alley,' at the
north-east of the palace, were among the first
additions made by the king in 1529, and he also
lost no time in adding new kitchens and offices,
being evidently no more content with the cardinal's
kitchens than with his Great Hall.
Of Henry's immediate successors neither Ed-
ward VI nor Mary has left any mark on the
palace, and Elizabeth is only commemorated by a
little work on the south front, close to the south-
west angle of Wren's building, where a bay win-
dow bears her initials and the date 1568, and by
another panel on the east side of the entrance
gateway of the first court. Inigo Jones was
appointed surveyor of Hampton Court, among
other places, in 1615 ; and though there is no
record of anything done about this time to the
1 In the P.R.O. ; Chap. House
Accts. New Misc. Bks. E*ch. T.R. no.
135-4.6. They are folios of about five
hundred pages each, beautifully written,
372
and giving most minute details of the
work.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
buildings, the block forming the east side of the
Chapel Court shows detail belonging to the early
years of the lyth century, and may preserve this
evidence of Jones's supervision. Charles I, in the
earlier years of his reign, was much occupied in
furnishing and adorning the palace and gardens,
but does not seem to have built anything of im-
portance.
The extent of the buildings at the end of his
reign is very clearly set forth in the survey taken by
order of the Parliament in 1653, when it was pro-
posed to sell the palace and its grounds in a
number of separate lots, and to pull down all the
buildings.
Beginning from the west,
a green court inclosed, being
the outer court, is first noted,
from which a bridge led
over the moat into the first
court, also called a green
court, that is, the present
Base or outer Court. The
ranges of buildings surround-
ing it are then noted, and a
description of the Pond Gar-
den, or Pond Yard, on the
south follows. The Clock
Court — then the Fountain
Court — is next described, as
' paved with stone with a
ffountayne standing in midst
thereof,' with the buildings
round it, the great hall being
merely called a range of
building like the rest. Then
comes the Cloister Green
Court, on the site of the
present Fountain Court, with
the Privy Garden and the
Mount Garden to the south.
The chapel, with its court
and surrounding buildings, is
summarized as ' severall other
buildings, with the severall
yards or courts lying be-
tweene and amongst the sayd
buildings.' The outlying
buildings are then noticed,
beginning at the north,
though here again the tennis
court &c. are not mentioned
by name ; then comes the
Tilt-yard at the north-west,
with its five buildings or towers, and then the
projecting block at the south end of the west
front, with a ' greate howse of easement,' now
destroyed, standing over the moat. Finally the
buildings on the south, towards the river, are sur-
veyed, the Feather House and Hott House, with
the Store Cellars, formerly the old Bowling Alley,
between them, and the Stillhouse and Water Gal-
lery to the east of them. On the south side of
the Outer Green Court was the wood-yard, having
to the west the Privy bakehouse, the Poultry
HAMPTON
Office, and the Scalding-house, and at the south-
west angle of the same court a house called the
' Toye.' '
Hampton Court fortunately escaped the threat-
ened destruction and became the residence of
Cromwell and the scene of his sorry court, passing
through the days of the Commonwealth witl
much loss of its furniture and treasures, both b)
the great sale which lasted from 1650 to 1653,
and by the peculations of Cromwell's family after
his death, but not suffering any material damage
in its buildings.
Charie; II made a good many internal altera-
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : CHAPEL COURT FROM SOUTH-WEST CORNER
tions, of which some evidence yet remains, and
spent a great deal of money in refurnishing the
depleted rooms. He paid special attention to the
tennis court, which had evidently become some-
what old-fashioned, and the extent of his work at
the palace may be estimated from the fact that in
1662 nearly .£8,000 was paid over to Hugh May,
master of the works, for charges and repairs.
In spite of all these changes, the buildings of
Hampton Court remained to the outward view
much as Henry VIII left them until the Revolution
1 Pulled down in 1857. The bakehouie, poultry office, and icalding-houie (arrived for a few years longer.
373
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
of 1688. William III was at once attracted
by the quiet and secluded situation, but found the
palace itself old-fashioned, and not at all to his
taste, and soon decided to rebuild the old state
apartments, whose historical associations stood for
very little with him. Indeed, a far more extensive
scheme of rebuilding, having for its object the mak-
ing of a new approach to the palace from the north,
on the line of the avenue in Bushey Park, was
contemplated ; but, however fine the result might
and doubtless would have been, it is impossible to
regret its abandonment. As it is, the destruction
of the Cloister Court, which must have been, after
the hall and chapel, the finest part of the palace, is
infinitely regrettable ; and though one would not
willingly spare any part of the old buildings, it is
to be wished that William could have decided to
sacrifice almost any other court of the palace than
this. The work was entrusted to Wren, who set
out a new court, now known as the Fountain
Court, on the old site, with great ranges of build-
ings on the south and east, 315 and 300 ft. long
respectively, harmonizing to some extent with the
older work in the use of red brick with stone
dressings, and in themselves very charming exam-
ples of his work, but undeniably out of scale and
character with the Tudor palace, to the pic-
turesque irregularities of which their stiff" classic
lines cannot adapt themselves. In spite of various
hindrances, quarrels with Talman the ' comp-
troller of the works,' and a good deal of injudicious
meddling on the part of his royal client, Wren
carried on the work, so that in 1691 it was in a
fair way to completion. One source of delay had
been the failure in the supply of Portland stone,
owing to the presence in the Channel of a victori-
ous French fleet. The fitting up and decoration
of the new buildings was a lengthy and costly
business, Grinling Gibbons and Caius Gabriel
Cibber being employed among other less known
sculptors, Laguerre among the painters, and to Jean
Tijou and his assistant, Huntingdon Shaw, was
given the work of making the well-known gates
and screens of wrought-iron which inclosed the
gardens on the south. The works were brought
to a standstill for a time by the death of Queen
Mary in 1694, but begun again after the burning
of Whitehall in 1698, Verrio the painter being
first employed, as it seems, in 1699, and the work
of decoration was pushed on energetically. It
seems that the scheme already referred to of build-
ing a great new entrance court on the north, and
turning the great hall into a sort of vestibule, with
flights of stone steps leading up to it on the north
side, was now drawn up. It would have involved the
destruction of the great watching chamber and all
the eastern range of the Clock Court, as well as of
the great kitchens and much of the work near them ;
and though the palace would thereby have obtained
a very stately facade and a dignified approach, the
wholesale destruction of the Tudor work would
have been an irreparable loss. There is ample
evidence, too, that it would not have stopped here,
and if William had lived he would probably have
rebuilt the whole palace, and thereby destroyed a
:hapter of English history for which no master-
piece of Wren's creation could compensate us.
The problematical ' little gentleman in black
velvet ' did good service to others than the Jaco-
bites who drank his health. The year 1699 was
marked by a further attempt by Talman to dis-
credit Wren, which came to nothing, and when
the king returned from Holland late in the year
he was full of admiration for what had been done.
Under Queen Anne the works continued, the most
important item being perhaps the refitting of the
chapel in 1710 ; but the unfortunate aversion of
the queen to paying the debts incurred by her
predecessor and herself made her reign a period of
ceaseless ' dunning ' by the various artists em-
ployed, such as Verrio and Tijou (who appears as
John Tissue), and the builders and masons and
sculpture-merchants. Under the Georges various
works were carried on, and the fitting up of
Wren's buildings may be considered to have been
completed in the time of George I, which was
otherwise and less pleasantly signalized, as already
stated, by the disgraceful supersession of Wren in
his old age in favour of the incapable Benson.
George II has left his mark on the east range of
the Clock Court, a good deal of work being done by
Kent at the time, c. 1730. The scheme for alter-
ing the Great Hall was now again brought forward,
but fortunately abandoned. After this time the
interest in the buildings gradually declined,
George III entirely abandoning Hampton Court,
and leaving it neglected. In spite of this certain
considerable repairs were carried out, such as the
rebuilding of the Great Gatehouse in 1773, and the
repair of the Great Hall in 1 798. With the revival
of interest in archaeology the buildings naturally
received more attention, and at the present time
everything is admirably and systematically cared
for, about £5,000 a year being spent in repairs
and maintenance. The beginning of the reign
of Edward VII was marked by the making of a
fine and complete plan of all the buildings, from
which the plans which accompany this description
are reproduced by special permission.
The approach to the palace is now, as always,
from the west. The entrance to the precincts is
•through a gate with stone piers, the work of Kent,
c. 1730, surmounted by lead figures of the lion
and unicorn and trophies of arms. The roadway
thence runs in a slanting direction to the main
entrance, the gatehouse on the west side of the first
court, passing on the left hand a long line of
late 17th-century brick buildings of two stories,
built for stabling and offices. In the past two
years the appearance of the entrance front of the
palace has been immensely improved by the clear-
ing out of the wide moat between the wings at
either end of the front, which had been filled in
about 1 690, and the uncovering and repair of the
stone bridge crossing it. This bridge was built in
1536 by Henry VIII, replacing a bridge probably
of wood, built by Wolsey, and from the full details
remaining in the building accounts it has been
possible to reproduce the lost portions, that is, the
parapets, pinnacles, and shield-bearing beasts set
thereon, with a high degree of certainty. The
gateway to which it leads was largely rebuilt in
374
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
1773, losing greatly in dignity and interest there-
by. The old gatehouse, of which several drawings
exist, the most accurate being some measured draw-
ings by Kent made about forty years before its
rebuilding, was of five stories, and much taller than
the present building. Instead of a single arch in
the middle it had two arches, a large one for car-
riages and a small one for foot passengers, opening
into the gate hall, and the large arch was in con-
sequence not on the centre line of the gatehouse.
This affected the oriel window over it, which,
being set over the arch, was likewise not in the
middle of the elevation. The openwork parapet
above flanked by pinnacles has been reproduced in
the present gateway, and the octagonal angle tur-
rets stand on their old bases. About 1873 a stone
vault was added to the gate hall, and the pinnacles
of the parapet continued downwards as buttresses,
precisely on the line of the parapets of the stone
bridge, which, as now restored,
butt against them.
As already noted, the wings at
each end of the moat are addi-
tions to the original design, but
are not of much later date, as the
outer wall of the moat, built
probably about 1537, is built
against them. A staircase leads
down into the south-west corner
of the moat from the south wing,
but there is now no evidence of
any sluice for emptying the moat
into the Thames, though some-
thing of the kind doubtless ex-
isted.
The buildings of the first court
are of two stories with embattled
parapets, the detail very simple,
and the ornament confined to
the pinnacles on the parapets
and the chimney-stacks. The
dark tint of the red brick walls
is accentuated by the black point-
ing in the joints, an original
feature, as may be proved by
the entries in the building ac-
counts for burnt !iay for colour-
ing the pointing of the walls. The windows are
for the most part of three lights with uncusped
four-centred heads. Their stonework has been
very largely renewed, and none of the cut-brick
chimney-shafts are old. The gateways are the
chief architectural features, being of greater height
than the rest of the buildings, and having angle
turrets and panels of the royal arms over the
archways. They are further distinguished by the
large terra-cotta roundels with portraits of Roman
Emperors, of which there were originally ten in
the palace, made for Wolsey by Giovanni Maiano
in 1521. These, with the fine panel of Wolsey's
arms over the gateway in the Clock Court, are
the only examples of terra-cotta now to be seen
at Hampton Court ; but that there must have
been more of it originally is clear, both from
documentary evidence and from the pieces of archi-
tectural detail now kept in the Great Kitchen,
having been dug up in the Round Kitchen Court
not many years since. One very ornamental fea-
ture, now almost entirely lost, was the leaden
cappings of the turrets ; a good specimen still exists
on the garden front of the Clock Court, with
finial, crockets, and pinnacled buttresses. Such
cappings are called ' types ' in the building accounts.
Behind the north range of the first court lie
three small irregular courts, the Chamberlain's,
the Master Carpenter's, and the Fish Court.
Though much repaired, and the least imposing
part of the 16th-century palace — all being part of
Wolsey's work — they are extremely picturesque,
and at the east of them are the two kitchens, fine
and lofty rooms with huge fireplaces, ovens, &c.,
and the remains of open-timbered roofs. The
chimney stacks and stepped copings over the fire-
places towards Tennis Court Lane are particularly
good specimens of Tudor brickwork, though the
HAMPTON COURT PALACE :
TERRA-COTTA PANEL OF WOLSEY'
ARMS
shafts of the chimneys are modern. To the east
of the kitchens is the serving-place, a wide passage
into which hatches open from the kitchen, and
from which the dishes were taken to the north
door of the hall, across the long corridor which
connects the Round Kitchen Court with the three
small courts at the west. The windows of the
corridor are glazed, and have ventilating panes of
pierced leadwork copied from old specimens.
The Clock Court, formerly called the Fountain
Court, from a fountain set here by Wolsey and
altered by Henry VIII, is in some ways the most
interesting part of the palace, as giving some idea of
the appearance of the destroyed buildings to the
east of it, which contained the finest rooms other
than the hall and chapel. On the west and south
sides the work is Wolsey's, though the latter range
is masked by Wren's colonnade ; on the east
Wolsey's work, much rebuilt by Henry, has been
375
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
considerably altered and refaced in the time of
George II, while the north side is taken up by
Henry's Great Hall, which, except for much ex-
ternal repair and the loss of its lantern and minor
fittings, remains in good preservation. Over the
entrance gateway at the north-west is the dial of
the clock from which the court takes its modern
name, a fine piece of 1 6th-century work, lately
repainted and repaired. The Great Hall stands over
a range of cellars, and having its floor at a consider-
able height above the level of the court, is ap-
proached by a flight of stone steps from the gate-
hall of the Clock Tower, leading to a fine door at
the south end of the screens. A similar flight of
steps on the north leads to the corresponding door,
and served as the entry from the kitchens and
butteries, &c., the disposition of the plan not allow-
ing for these offices in the normal places at the
lower end of the hall. There was, however, a
pantry in this position, and the buttery was in the
cellars under the west end of the hall. The hall
measures 106 ft. by 40 ft., and is 45 ft. high to
the plate and 92 ft. to the top of the gable. It is
in seven bays, of which the eastern bay was occu-
pied by the dais, the platform of which still re-
mains, and is lighted by a splendid bay window on
the south, rising to the full height of the wall, with
a rich fan-vaulted stone ceiling and six tiers of
lights with tracery above in the head of the win-
dow. The other bays of the hall have large four-
light windows, and in the western bay are the
screens with a gallery over them ; in both gable
ends of the hall are eight-light traceried windows,
with smaller windows in the gable above. All
these are filled with modern stained glass, nothing
of the old glass now remaining. The screen
is a very fine piece of woodwork, the treatment
of its two openings, with large round pillars on
either side having moulded capitals and bases, being
unusual. The details of the work are Gothic, and
the initials of Henry and Anne Boleyn sufficiently
mark its date ; it is to be noted that its carver was
the same Richard Ridge of London who made the
Italianate pendants in the roof above. The origi-
nal front of the gallery over the screen was long
since removed, but its place is now supplied by a
modern front. The roof of the hall is well known
as one of the richest and most splendid of English
roofs ; its construction and outlines are Gothic, but
much of its ornament is Italian in style, though
made by English craftsmen. It has hammer-beam
trusses with arched braces springing from the
hammer beams to strengthen the collars, while the
spandrels above and below the collars, and below
the hammer beams, are filled with tracery. The
purlins are similarly strengthened by arched braces
with pendants, and the whole surface of the roof
is coved and panelled, and is everywhere enriched
with carving, colour, and gilding. The most
remarkable features are the sixteen great pen-
dants, nearly 5 ft. long, below the hammer
beams, carved by Richard Ridge in 1534-5,31 a
cost of 3/. \d. each. The building accounts of
this roof are well worth study as a glossary of
mediaeval carpenter's terms. Externally the roof
is leaded, and is of much flatter pitch in the upper
part than the lower ; its appearance is much injured
by the removal in the l8th century of the magni-
ficent louvre or fumerel, a complete description of
which can be obtained from the building accounts.
Nothing equal to it is left to us.
To the east of the hall is the ' King's Great
Watching Chamber,' which, with the vaulted
cellar below it, was being built in 1534-5. It is
lighted by a range of windows set high in the wall
and a fine semicircular bay window on the south-
east, and has a contemporary panelled ceiling
with shields modelled in papier mJch6 at the inter-
sections of the moulded ribs.
Jane Seymour's badge occurs twice on the
ceiling, perhaps replacing that of Anne Boleyn.
At the north-west corner of the Watching
Chamber is a smaller room known as the Horn
Room ; and in this, the Watching Chamber, and the
hall are preserved the finest of the tapestries for
which Wolsey's palace was famous. For a descrip-
tion of them see Mr. Law's History of Hampton
Court.
On the east side of the Clock Court ran a series
of five rooms opening from the Watching Chamber,
the King's Presence Chamber and his private rooms,
now so altered as to preserve little evidence of
their former arrangement. For the disposition of
the whole of Henry VIIPs buildings round the
Cloister Green Court, whose site is now occupied
by the Fountain Court of William III, and the
queen's lodgings on the east front of the palace,
built for Anne Boleyn, but never occupied by her,
the evidence of old drawings and an outline plan
now at All Souls College, Oxford, and especially
the many references to them in the building
accounts, give very valuable materials which still
await a thorough working-out. The great galleries
of which mention is often made were evidently
splendid examples of this peculiarly English
feature, and of earlier date than any which have
come down to our times ; indeed, those which are
recorded to have existed in Wolsey's palace, built
about 1515-16, are the earliest of which any
notice has survived in the kingdom.
To the east of the Watching Chamber is a small
court known as the Round Kitchen Court, from a
round building which, in its present condition,
appears to date from the 1 8th century ; drawings
snowing a scheme by Kent, c. 1730, for fitting it
up as a latrine, are extant. On the north and
east the court has a cloister, with a gallery over it,
leading to the chapel, which is on the east side,
and consists of a vestibule flanked by octagonal
turrets, with the royal pew in a gallery above,
and the chapel proper, an aisleless building of
four bays with an organ chamber on the south-
east. The walls are of Wolsey's date, but the
organ chamber is an addition by Henry VIII ; and
the vaulted wooden roof is also of his time. The
rest of the 16th-century fittings, except for a
beautiful ceiling over the stairs to the royal pew,
have been removed, after much damage in Crom-
well's days, and the present fittings date from the
time of Anne and later. The panelling of the
vestibule and staircase, and the Corinthian altar-
piece, are particularly good ; but here, as in the
376
o
3
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
hall, the roof is the most notable feature, with its
coffered vault and three rows of gilded pendants,
round each of which are grouped four figures of
angels playing pipes, singing from scrolls, or hold-
ing sceptres. The west door of the chapel, open-
ing to the cloister, has on either side a large stone
panel with the arms and initials of Henry VIII
and Jane Seymour, supported by angels, though it
seems that Anne Boleyn's arms were formerly here,
and from the nature of the supporters Mr. 1 aw
suggests that the panels originally held the
cardinal's arms. The entry of the carving of a
crown for each of these panels in Henry VIII's
time bears out this suggestion; but otherwise this
work, though Italian in feeling, is notably inferior,
and hardly what one would expect from Wolsey's
workmen.
To the north of the chapel is the Chapel Court,
bounded on the north by the range of buildings
which were assigned to Prince Edward from 1537
onwards ; they have suffered in recent years by
fire, and contain nothing of their old fittings.
Very little indeed remains in the palace of the
magnificent decoration which was famous through-
out Europe in the i6th century. In the west
range of the Clock Court are some good linen-
panelled rooms, and in the south range the rooms,
traditionally Wolsey's private lodging, have some
ceilings of the time ; but the best idea of the
splendour of Wolsey's ornament is to be gained
from a room in the east range of the court, reached
from the Mantegna Gallery on the first floor of the
Fountain Court. This has a very rich geometrical
ceiling, the panels of which have only recently
been discovered to be of lead, with the 'gold and
byse ' colouring characteristic of its date, a narrow
frieze with the cardinal's ' word ' and badges,
and below it some oil paintings on panel, of the
Last Supper, the Scourging, the Bearing of the
Cross, and the Resurrection, perhaps the work of
Luca Penni or Toto del Nunziato. Below the
paintings the walls were doubtless covered with
hangings.
The south-east quarter of the palace is occupied
by the Fountain Court, the work of Sir Christopher
Wren. His buildings are in three stories, the
ground floor towards the court being occupied by
a cloister, and towards the gardens by ranges of
rooms, now private apartments. Queen Mary
seems to have used the walks of the cloister and
part of the south range as a greenhouse and
orangery, and Defoe mentions in his Tour
Through Great Britain that ' the lower part of
the house was all one as a greenhouse for some
time.' The principal apartments are on the first
or chamber floor, with a mezzanine or half-story
over, the area of which is thrown into the largest
rooms to increase their height. The third or attic
floor has always been divided into suites of rooms,
which still retain their official name of Galleries.
The principal elevation is that facing east, 300 ft.
long and 60 ft. high, divided into twenty-three
bays, the seven middle bays forming a symmetrical
composition, more elaborately treated than the rest
and faced with Portland stone. The three in the
middle have on the ground floor square-headed
gateways, opening to a vestibule leading to the
cloisters of the Fountain Court, the piers between
the gateways being of Portland stone with drafted
joints, and serving as plinths for half-columns of
the Corinthian order, which with their cornice
frieze and architrave occupy the full height of the
first floor, and carry a pediment whose apex
reaches nearly to the top of the attic story. In
each bay between the columns are tall stone-framed
sash windows surmounted by cornices, and a band
of carved ornament equal in depth to the capitals
of the columns. The pediment incloses a group
of sculpture by Caius Gabriel Cibber, ' The
Triumph of Hercules over Envy,' carved between
1694 and 1696, for which the sculptor was paid
£400. The two bays on each side of the middle
three have square-headed windows on the ground
story, and flat pilasters instead of half-round
columns above. The cornice and band of carving
beneath it is continued across them, and the attic
stage above is divided by pilasters enriched with
carving, carrying up the lines of the pilasters on
the first floor. The attic windows are square,
fitted with sashes like the others, the heavy sash-
bars of which make a most attractive feature, and
the whole is finished with a stone balustrade,
divided into bays like the rest by panelled pilasters.
On either side of the seven stone-faced bays are
eight more simply treated, without pilasters and
with red-brick walling. The ground-floor windows
have low arched heads with prettily carved key-
stones, and the first-floor windows are like those in
the middle bays, but over them runs a line of
circular windows, lighting the half-story, and
having carved keystones of very good style. Im-
mediately above is a cornice ranging with that in
the middle bays, but of much less depth and pro-
jection, and the treatment of the attic over has the
same modifications of the design of the middle bays
as that of the first floor.
The south elevation is of twenty-five bays, four
at either end projecting 8 ft. in front of the rest,
and has a stone-faced central composition of three
bays with Corinthian columns on the first floor
carrying a cornice inscribed ' Gulielmus et Maria
RR.F.' The treatment is simpler than that of the
east front, but, on the other hand, the seven bays
on either side are not mere repetitions of each
other, as on the east, but their middle bays have
pediments over the first-floor windows surmounted
by the royal arms of William and Mary supported
by cupids, and the bays on either side have swags
of fruit instead of the round half-story windows.
The arms seem to be Gabriel Gibber's work, but
much of the purely architectural decoration both
here and on the east front was probably done
by Grinling Gibbons, or under his supervision.
Various payments to him between 1691 and 1696
show that a great deal of the ornament on Wren's
building must be his work.
The least satisfactory part of the design is the
sky line, now unbroken except by rows of singu-
larly unattractive chimneys, but originally a little
relief was given by four statues standing on the
middle bays of the balustrades on each face ; they
were removed in the 1 8th century.
377
48
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
The elevations to the Fountain Court, although
following the same lines as those of the fronts, are
distinctly more attractive, partly no doubt from
the contrast of light and shade which their four-
square arrangement produces, but also because the
horizontal lines of the cornices over the first-floor
windows are here replaced by pediments, and the
open arches of the cloisters beneath, with their
well-carved keystones,1 and lunettes filling the heads
of the arches, are far more effective, backed as they
are by the cloister walks, than the external range
of windows of the ground story. The round half-
•tory windows are here made the most ornamental
HAMPTON COURT PALACE :
FOUNTAIN COURT FROM THE NORTH-WEST CORNER
features of the elevations, being encircled by
wreaths of foliage over which are hung lions' skins,
arranged with a care for symmetry which is almost
comic, especially in the treatment of the tail of
the beast. The west elevation of the court is of
two stories only, and consists of the cloister walk
with a corridor above — the ' Communication
Gallery' of the old accounts — masking the older
buildings on the east of the Clock Court.'
The internal arrangements have, from the point
of view of planning, almost as much interest as
those of the older buildings, both representing, it
must be assumed, the best traditions of their time.
The State Apartments occupy the first and
principal floor of the buildings on three sides of
the Fountain Court, and their disposition shows
little advance on those of the Tudor palace. The
King's Great Staircase at the south-east corner of
the Clock Court leads to the King's Guard
Chamber in the projecting block at the west end of
the south front, overlooking the privy garden,
and from it a series of rooms runs eastward, open-
ing one from another, the Presence Chamber, the
second Presence Chamber,
the Audience Chamber,
the King's Drawing-room,
and his State Bedroom.
These occupy rather more
than half of the width of
the range, the other part
towards the Fountain
Court being taken up
by the Great Gallery or
Council Chamber, which
can be entered from either
end of the king's suite
of rooms, at the south-
east from the State Bed-
room, and at the west,
through an anteroom,
from the second Presence
Chamber. On the west
side of the Fountain Court,
and opening to the north
side of the anteroom, is
the gallery which leads
to the Queen's Staircase
and State Rooms. These
are not so symmetrically
arranged as the king's
suite, the Guard Cham-
ber and Presence Cham-
ber, which occupy the
north side of the court,
opening through a lobby
to the Public Dining-
room at the east, from
the south-east corner of
which the rest of the
Queen's Apartments are
reached, consisting of
three rooms, Audience
Chamber, Drawing-
room, and Bedroom. These face eastward, and
occupy the middle of the east front, having the
Queen's Gallery to the south of them, while tht
west side of this range, facing towards the Foun-
tain Court, is divided into a set of small rooms,
the private apartments of the king and queen.
The three small rooms and a staircase at the angle
of the south-west wings are also private apart-
ments, but open one from another, completing the
passage round the outer side of the two fronts.
9 The heads on nearly all these key-
stones were replaced about five yeari ago
by careful copies of the original headi.
4 One doorway in the Fountain Court
has Wren's cipher above it ; this is
378
believed to be the only one in the
place. See p. 367.
HAMPTON COURT PAI.ACK : THE GATEWAY
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
The north end of the east front, beyond the Public
Dining-room, is occupied by a set of three rooms
and a stair, known as the Prince of Wales's Apart-
ments. Practically the whole of the State Apart-
ments have now become picture-galleries, and the
remains of their sumptuous decorations and furni-
ture can claim at best only a divided attention.
The grandiose wall and ceiling paintings of Verrio
and Laguerre, however admired in their own day,
have lost their vogue, and it is impossible to look
at such decorations as those of the King's Staircase
without a certain impatience at the riot of feeble
allegory which they present. They are the work
of Verrio. A banquet of the gods occupies the
ceiling, and continues down the east wall, where it
merges into a medley of Roman history, in which
the twelve Caesars appear in the company of
./Eneas, Romulus, and the Wolf, presided over by
the genius of Rome. On the north wall are Flora,
Iris, Ceres, Pan, Apollo, and the Muses, in a
crowd of cupids, nymphs, and river gods, and on
the south wall Julian the Apostate is talking to
Mercury. The Queen's Staircase is more simply,
but not more attractively, treated in monochrome,
with its ceiling painted to represent a dome, and
scrollwork and ' property ' figures on its walls, the
work of Kent. Its wrought-iron handrails, how-
ever, like those of the King's Staircase, are another
matter, and very beautiful work of their kind.
The King's State Bedroom has a ceiling by Verrio,
with Diana watching the sleeping Endymion, and
a figure of Sleep, while in the King's Bedroom the
ceiling shows Mars and Venus. It is in Queen
Anne's Drawing-room, however, that the most
important remains of Verrio's work are to be
found, painted in 1704-5. On the ceiling the
queen appears in the character of Justice, with
scales and sword, attended by Neptune and
Britannia ; on the west wall she is seated receiving
the homage of the four quarters of the globe ; on
the north wall her husband, Prince George, stands
armed, and pointing to the British fleet ; and on
the south wall Cupid is being drawn over the
waves by sea-horses. The wall pictures having
only been uncovered in 1899, after being hidden
for more than 150 years behind canvas, are
wonderfully fresh and brilliant, although a good
deal of repair has been carried out. In the
Queen's State Bedroom is a ceiling painted by
Thornhill, with Aurora rising from the ocean in
her chariot, and in the cornice are portraits of
George I, Queen Caroline, George II, and
Frederick Prince of Wales. The rooms are
panelled either to the full height or on the lower
pans only, the finest panelling being that of the
Great Gallery in which Raphael's cartoons used to
hang. This room was fitted up in 1699, and is
no less than 1 1 7 ft. long by 28 ft. high, and 24 ft.
wide, divided into six double bays by pairs of
Corinthian pilasters carrying a rich cornice, above
which hang the tapestries which take the place of
the original cartoons. All the details of the
woodwork are admirable, and only equalled by
their state of preservation, the oak being absolutely
sound and perfect ; the carving is probably due to
Gibbons and his assistants, and many other
examples of equally beautiful work from his hand
are to be seen throughout the State Rooms. A
number of the chimney-pieces are, however, the
work of Kent about 1730.
The pictures in the State Apart-
P1CTURES ments are chiefly remarkable as a
collection made for all the kings of
England since Henry VIII, by men of widely
differing tastes, opportunities and knowledge. It
is perhaps inevitable that a royal gallery should
include more portraits than any other kind of
picture — the ' king's painter ' is almost invariably
a portrait painter — and this adds to the interest
of the series at Hampton Court. Contemporary
portraits of historical personages have their own
value apart from their artistic merits, and more than
a third of these pictures are such portraits.
There are also a considerable number of old
Italian pictures, chiefly by the less-known painters,
whose works are rarely seen in England.1 Among
these may be mentioned two by Correggio, a ' Holy
Family with St. James' (no. 430),* 'St. Catherine
Reading' (no. 429), and 'A Shepherd with a Pipe,'
said to be by Giorgione (no. 113), which Miss
Logan considers ' the most precious picture at
Hampton Court.'
Henry VIII began the collection, with some
paintings on wood,3 by Anthony Toto (Toto del
Nunziato), but these no longer remain. Among
the Tudor pictures are twenty which are said to have
been painted by Holbein, but only three of them
are recognized as genuine by the experts.* Th^y
are the portraits of 'Lady Vaux ' (no. 270), and
'John Reskemeer (no. 265), of which the original
drawings are at Windsor Castle ; and the portrait
of ' Frobenius Erasmus,' printer (no. 280), but
the authenticity of the last is doubtful. The other
pictures, which are of Holbein's school, are none
the less interesting, especially those representing
historical subjects, such as ' The Meeting of
Henry VIII and the Emperor Maximilian ' (no.
445), the 'Battle of the Spurs' (no. 452), and the
' Field of the Cloth of Gold ' (no. 45 5)." There
is also the well-known group of Henry VIII and
his family in the cloisters at Hampton Court, with
Will Somers the Jester and 'Jane the Fool ' in the
background (no. 453) ; there are also several
portraits of Henry, notably one said to be by
Jost van Cleeg (no. 269), of Edward VI, Elizabeth
and Mary, of Francis I (no. 264), and others of
the period. The little copy of ' Henry VIII and
Jane Seymour, Henry VII and Elizabeth of
York" (no. 271) was painted by Remee van
Lemput in 1667, from the famous fresco by
1 See Mary Logan, The Italian Pic-
tures at Hampton Court.
2 The numbers are given from Mr.
Law's New Authorized Historical Cata-
logue, 1907, but the pictures are con-
stantly moved and changed.
' The pictures painted on panel re-
presenting scenes in the ' Passion of
Our Lord,' which hang in 'Cardinal
Wolsey's Closet,' are possibly by Toto
del Nunziato.
379
4 Law, The Royal Gallery of Hampton
Court, Introd. p. xx.
6 These can all be Identified from
the inventory of Henry's possessions,
made after his death and now in the
British Museum.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Holbein at Whitehall, destroyed by the fire in
1698. There are several portraits of Queen
Elizabeth, notably one in fancy dress, said to be
by Zucchero (no. 309) ;' a startling allegorical
picture of the queen with Minerva, Juno, and
Venus by De Heere (no. 250), and two very
characteristic portraits in all her glory of jewelled
headdress, lace ruff, and wonderful strings of pearls ;
one is said to be by Zucchero (no. 320), and one by
Mark Gerrard (no. 619),' which represents her as
an old woman, and is said to be her last portrait.
There are also some comparatively inferior por-
traits of the statesmen of her reign, Walsingham,
Leicester, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and Charles Howard,
Earl of Nottingham. James I did not add much
to the glory of the royal picture gallery ; there is
a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, a copy by
Mytens, and one or two of James himself and
of Queen Anne of Denmark ; two are by Van-
somer (no. 515 and no. 521). There is also
a fine portrait of the first Duke of Buckingham,
by Janssen (no. 57). Charles I attempted to
form a collection which could worthily be called
'royal.' The greater number of pictures at
Hampton Court, including the best Italian ex-
amples, are from his 'gallery,' though many were
scattered and lost during the Commonwealth.
The equestrian portrait of Charles himself (no. 85)
is probably from Vandyck's studio, and is a copy
of the famous picture at Windsor. The only
genuine work by Vandyck is a portrait of Mrs.
Lemon (no. 317); and the only example of
Rubens is a ' Diana and her Nymphs Reposing after
the Chase,' in which the animals and background
were painted by Snyders.
In 1628 Charles acquired the famous gallery of
the Dukes of Mantua, including Mantegna's nine
great cartoons, which form the most valuable part
of the Hampton Court collection, and hang in the
' Communication Gallery ' (or Mantegna Gallery)
on the west side of the Fountain Court. They
were painted (on twilled linen in tempera) by
Mantegna for Ludovico Gonzago, Duke of
Mantua, begun in 1486 and finished in 1492.
They are said to have originally decorated a gallery
in the duke's Palace of St. Sebastian, Mantua, and
have been enthusiastically appreciated by many
connoisseurs,8 but are now much out of repair ; it
is said that they were coarsely repainted by
Laguerre in the reign of William III.
It must not be supposed that all the pictures
collected by Charles I hung originally at Hampton
Court, where the great rooms which now contain
some of them had not been built ; they were
divided, as the art treasures of the Crown are still
divided, among the various dwellings of the sovereign.
The king's pictures, sold after his death ' by order
of the Parliament,' realized £38,000 ; the sale
lasting about five years. From Hampton Court
382 pictures were disposed of for nearly £5,000 ;
among them Mantegna's 'Triumph' was valued
at £1,000, but was saved by Cromwell, who
also saved the great Raphael cartoons, for which
Wren afterwards built a special gallery." A certain
number of the pictures were returned to Charles II
by the States of Holland, from the collection of
Van Reynot, who had purchased them at the
sale.
The portraits of the Restoration period are well-
known, and the collection of Lely's ' Beauties,' now
in the ' King's State Bedchamber,' is famous.
Kneller's portraits of Queen Mary's ladies were
painted in emulation of the earlier set, and are
more dignified, but far stiffer and less beautiful ;
the large allegorical picture of William III landing
at Margate in 1697 (no. 29) hangs in 'William
the Third's Presence Chamber,' Pope's satirical
lines perhaps describe it adequately :
' And great Nassau, to Kneller's hand decreed,
To fix him graceful on the bounding steed.'
Queen Mary collected about twenty picture*
by Baptiste, the well-known flower-painter of his
time, and there are also a great many pictures
of the German, Flemish, and Dutch schools. The
collection of historical portraits by Benjamin West,
chiefly of George II, George III and their families,
formerly at the palace,10 has been removed to Ken-
sington Palace.
The paintings of Verrio and Laguerre on ceil-
ings and staircases have already been described.
Their ' meretricious magnificence ' hardly suits the
taste of the present day, but John Evelyn admired
the work of Verrio enough to compare it with
that of Raphael. The death-blow to his short-
lived fame was given by Pope's couplet :
' On painted ceilings you devoutly stare,
Where sprawl the saints of Verrio and Laguerre.'
Two paintings of the palace hang in the lobby
of ' Cardinal Wolsey's Closet ' ; one is a view of
the old east front, showing the avenues and canal
made by Charles II in 1665, by Danckers ; the
other is a drawing of the south front in 15 58, after
Wynegaarde.
The Knights Hospitallers had 'a
GARDENS garden and one dove-cote ' belonging
to their camera at Hampton.1 Wolsey
surrounded the parks, which then consisted of about
2,000 acres, with a red brick buttressed wall, part
of which still remains ; ' and the house and gardens
with a moat The metrical version of Cavendish's
Life of Wolsey gives a pleasant picture of the car-
dinal's garden : —
' My gardens sweet enclosed with walles strong
Embanked with benches to sytt and take my
rest.
The knots so enknotted, it cannot be express!
With arbors and alyes so pleasant and so dulce
To pestilent ayers with flavors to repulse.' '
6 Mr. Law suggests that this is more
probably a portrait of Arabella Stuart ;
Cat. of Pictures, 65.
7 Formerly no. 619, it has been re-
moved, but apparently not re-num-
bered.
8 See various authorities quoted in
Law, op. cit. 275.
' They are now in the South Ken-
sington Museum.
10 They are included in Law, Royal
Gallery of Hampton Court, iSy8.
380
1 Larking, The Knights Hospitallers in
Engl. (Camden Soc.), ' Report of Prior
Philip de Thame, 1338,' p. 117, &c.
a Law, Hist. Hampton Ct. Palace, i, 21.
» Cavendish, Life of Wohcy (ed.
Singer), i, 32, &c.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
The moat remained till the time of William III,
and is mentioned as one of the defences when
Edward VI and his uncle the Lord Protector
caused the palace to be prepared for a siege.4
Traces of the moat are still to be seen on the north
side of the palace, and the passage leading to the
Wilderness from Tennis Court Lane is known as
' The Moat Lane,' and the portion in front of the
main entrance has now been cleared of the earth
and rubbish which filled it, and has been restored
to its former condition. There are numerous
entries in the Chapter House Accounts which show
that ' My Lordes garthinges at Hampton Courte '
were laid out on a generous scale.4 They were on
the south side of the Base and Clock Courts, where a
little inclosure, known as
' the Pond Garden,' no
doubt retains some of the
cardinal's style, though it
was probably designed in
something like its present
form after Henry VIII
had taken possession.*
Henry had also a ' Privy
Garden ' and a ' Mount
Garden," which occupied
the site of the present
South or Private Gardens,8
but no traces of them
remain. There are ac-
counts for roses (at \d. the
hundred), violets, prim-
roses,' gilliver-slips, mynts,
and other sweet flowers,'
' rosemary of 3 yeres old,'
and Sweet Williams (at
3</. the bushel); but the
chief decoration of a
Tudor garden consisted
of anything but flowers.*4
In the walled parterres
there were no doubt shel-
tered alleys and arbours ;
among the items in Wol-
sey's accounts is one for
' twix to bind therber,' '
but the embellishments
were chiefly carved and
painted heraldic ' beasts ' 10
in stone or timber, on
stone pedestals, and brass
sundials, of which there
4 Nichols, Lit. Rem. of Ediv.
were an extraordinary number, though none now
remain." The flower beds were edged with
wooden rails or trellis-work, painted white and
green." The plan adopted for the use of these
edgings can be very well seen in the background
of the picture, said to be by Holbein, of Henry VIII
and his family, in the cloisters of Hampton Court."
The Pond Garden is rectangular, surrounded
by a low brick wall with stone coping, now sur-
mounted by a hedge of trimmed lime trees, and
laid out in three terraces following the shape of the
garden and rising one above another, with retaining
walls and copings, also of stone. On this stone can
be seen the holes whereby the posts were fastened
which sustained the thirty-eight fantastic beasts."
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : THE POND GARDEN
n,
'Journ.' ii, 235 ; Cal. S.P. Don. 1547-
80, p. 23 ; Wriothesley, Chron. ii, 25 ;
Act, ofP.C. 1547-5°, PP- 33°, 337-
' Chap. Ho. Accts. C. bdle. 5, no. 9,
fol. 689, &c.
6 Law, op. cit. i, 206-7.
' See drawings by Antonius Wyne-
gaarde (1558) in Bodl. Lib. reproduced
in Law, op. cit. i, 201.
8 They were kept private for the use
of inhabitants of the palace for some
time after the other gardens were
opened to the public, but only a small
portion is now retained.
8a Chap. Ho. Accts. bdle. 5. The
flower garden properly so-called did not
become common till the reign of Queen
Elizabeth ; Nichols, Ettgl. Pleasure Gar-
dens ,105 et seq.
9 Chap. Ho. Accts. C. bdle. 5, no. 9,
tol. 762, &c.
10 Ibid. One item h for ' makyng
and entayllyng of 38 of the Kinges and
Quenys Beestes in freeston ... to
stand about the ponddes in the pond
yard at 261. the pece. . . . Harry
Corantt of Kyngston, carver,' seems to
have been the chief sculptor, and also
painted the devices on the shields or
'vanes' carried by these 'beestes.'
Another item it for '17 beestes in
tymber standing abowght the Mownte
in the Kynges new garden' paid to
'Mych. of Hayles, Kerver'; Chap.
Ho. Accts.
11 No less than sixteen 'brasin
dyalls' appear to have been required
for the ' Kynges New Garden ' ; ibid.
18 Ibid. There is an item for paint-
ing a great quantity of ' Rayle ' and
'posies' in white and green for the
' Kynges New Garden.1
18 No. 453 in the State Apartments.
14 There were harts, lions, unicorns,
greyhounds, hinds, dragons, bulls, ante-
lopes, griffins, leopards, rams, tigers,
and badgers; Parl. Surv. 1653, the
measurement of the Pond Garden ii
given as 1 20 ft. by 20 ft.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
No doubt the beds were surrounded by the green
and white railings, and the posts painted in those
colours. In the centre is now one pond, with
a jet of water flowing over a mound of moss in
the middle of it. Originally there were appar-
ently several ponds." Opposite the entrance is an
arbour of clipped yew.16 There was an oblong
building facing the river, called the ' Little Tower
in the Glass-Case Garden,' which probably stood
where the Banqueting House of William III now
is." The ' Mount ' was also characteristic of the
Tudor period. It was constructed in 1533, on a brick
foundation, and planted with ' quycksetts ' in the
' Tryangell.' " At the top was no doubt an arbour
or pavilion. Judging from other 'Mount-gardens'
of the period it was probably laid out in terraces.19
It wascertainly surrounded bya border of rosemary,10
and embellished as usual with sundials and ' beestes'
and painted railings. Henry had also kitchen gar-
dens," and two orchards, 'The Great Orchard ' for
which among others 600 cherry trees at 6J. a hun-
dred were bought," and the ' New Orchard,' where
he built the banqueting houses and arbours, of
which the roofs just appear in Wynegaarde's picture
of the north of the palace." These orchards occu-
pied the space now known as ' The Wilderness,'
and part of the nursery garden, which at present
extends over all the ' Tilt Yard ' as well." They
were separated by the moat, but with a drawbridge
between them, decorated as usual with the ' Kinges
Beastes.' " The ' Great Orchard ' must always be
memorable because it was there that Cavendish
went to wait on Henry with the news of Wolsey's
death, and found him shooting at a mark with
Anne Boleyn.16 One of the customs of Henry's
gardeners " seems to have been that when Princess
Mary came to the palace a basket of flowers or of
strawberries was generally brought to her, a compli-
ment she acknowledged by giving the sender a
present of money.*8
The next description of Hampton Court gar-
den in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, refers to
the ' sundry towers, or rather bowers, for places
of recreation and solace, and for sundry other uses,'
which were to be seen in the gardens, and also of
the ' rosemary so nailed and planted to the walls
as to cover them entirely.'88 It was much the
fashion at that time to trim and clip everything
possible into wonderful and extraordinary shapes,
' that the like could not easily be found.' M Eliza-
beth was fond of walking in her gardens, ' to
catch her a heate in the cold mornings,"1 and
she had them carefully kept up and improved,"
though she did not actually alter or enlarge
them. The Duke of Wurtemberg described the
fountain she had erected in the garden as a
' splendid, high, and massy fountain, with a water-
work by which you can, if you like, make the
water play upon the ladies and others who are
standing by and give them a thorough wetting.' 3!
Such flowers as ' lavender, spike, hissop, thyme,
rosemary, and sage ' are mentioned as among those
in the queen's gardens at Hampton Court, Green-
wich, and Richmond,*4 and another account de-
scribes the ' floures and varieties of curious and
costly workmanship and also the rare and medi-
cinal hearbes sought (? set) up in the land within
these fortie yeares . . . ' at Nonesuche and
Hampton Court.84
The great alteration in the gardens, which started
them on an entirely new design, founded no doubt
on the plan of Versailles, took place in the reign of
Charles II. The park to the east of the palace is
described by Evelyn in 1662 as 'formerly a naked
piece of ground,36 now planted with sweet rows of
lime trees, and the canal for water near perfected." "
There is no record that the celebrated French
gardener Le N6tre ever visited England, but it is
generally supposed that he designed the plan of
St. James's Park and the alterations at Hampton
Court.18
Le N6tre's pupils, Beaumont and La Quintenye,
assisted in the improvements at Hampton Court.39
French gardeners were employed, and were under
14 Chap. Ho. Accts. They are men-
tioned as * the ponddes in the pond yerd.'
16 Ibid. There is now a stone figure
of Venus which Hands in the arbour,
and is quite out of keeping.
'' Ibid. Add. Charters, B.M. 1262.
Petition of Robert Trunkey to Queen
Elizabeth for continuation of a pension
because he built the 'Banquetinge
House ' and the ' Tower of Babylon '
at Hampton Court for Henry VIII.
18 Chap. Ho. Accts. The whole of
this privy garden was more or less tri-
angular in shape ; see Kip'« ' Bitdseye
View,' in the reign of Queen Anne ;
Law, op. cit. iii, 178.
1 ' Nichols, Engl. Pleasure Gardens,
1 1 8. In the Parliamentary Survey for
1653 the size of the ' Privy Garden '
and 'Mount Garden* is given as 3 acres
and i rood. *> Chap. Ho. Accts.
™ L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvii, 1158.
In ParL Surv. the ' Kitchin Garden ' is
3 acres.
» Ibid. The « Old Orchard ' 8 a. 1 r.
The Tilt Yard 9 acres and I rood.
tt Wynegaarde'j drawing in Bodl.
Lib. reproduced ; Law, op. cit. i, 206.
'2l Ibid. 208. The nursTy garden
and the one remaining tower of the
Tilt Yard were leased to Mr. Naylor.
25 Ibid.
26 See p. 332. The other orchard was
sometimes called 'The King's Privy
Orchard.'
V Thomas Chapman and Edmund
Gryffyn were among the gardeners ; /..
and P. Hen. l-'III, v, 1729, p. 760.
38 Madden, Privy Purse Expenses of
Princess Maty, 44, 45, 119, &c.
•> Hentzner, Travels in Engl. (ed.
1757 , 82.
80 Rye, Engl. as seen by Foreigners,
1 8 ; 'Visit of Frederick, Duke of Wur-
temberg.'
81 Digges, Cumfleat Ambassador, 300.
M S.P. Dom. Eliz. ixxix, 64 ; Audi-
tor'i Acct. First Bk. of Privy Seals, 26
Eliz.
M Rye, Engl. as ten by Foreigners, 1 8.
M Cal. S.P. Dm. 1547-80, p. 171.
" Harrison, Descr. of Engl. (New
Shakespeare Soc.), i, 332.
88 This was the ' Course.' There
does not appear to have been any
garden on that side at an earlier date.
8' Diary, 12 May 1662. A con-
temporary picture, by Danckers, shows
tht iast front, with the newly-planted
rows of lime trees, reproduced in Law,
op. cit. ii, 217. See catalogue of pic-
tures of James II in British Mu-
seum. The picture is now at Hampton
Court.
89 The gardens at Chatsworth, Bram-
ham, and Holme Lacy have also been
attributed to Le N&tre. Nichols, Engl.
Pleasure Gardens, 207, &c. ; A. Am-
herst, Hist, of Gardening in Engl. 203.
Switzer mentioned that Perrault, Le
N&tre's pupil, came to England, but not
Le N&tre.
89 Beaumont was the designer of
Levens in Westmorland, though his
work there is hardly in the style of
Le Notre. There is a portrait of him
at Levens with the inscription on it : —
' M. Beaumont, gardener to James II
and to Colonel James Grahme. He
laid out the gardens at Hampton Court
and at Levens.' Jean de la Quintenye
was a great French gardener and fruit-
grower. A. Amherst, Hittt of Engl.
Gardening, 205.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
the supervision of one Adrian May,40 but John
Rose, a protege of the Earl of Essex, who studied
at Versailles under Le N6tre, was the most famous
of the gardeners of Charles II ; 41 he planted some of
the dwarf yew trees which were afterwards cele-
brated as among the finest in England, and it was
probably under his auspices that the great sweeping
semicircle of lime trees was planted before the east
front, though Switzer declares that Charles himself
made the design," and it has been suggested that
he meant it to be in the shape of a crown. It is
now considerably altered, and the lime trees in
front of the palace only form the segment of a
circle, not a complete semicircle. Charles's design
was technically described as a ' patte d'oie ' or
goose-foot, from the three great double avenues
which radiate from opposite the centre of the east
front of the palace, and are linked together by the
semicircular avenue.43 The ' Long Water ' between
the centre avenues extends nearly three-quarters of
a mile (3,500 yds.) across the Home Park towards
the river. It is 150 ft. wide, and is fed by the
Longford River. It is so essentially part of the
design of the garden that it is necessary to mention
it here, though it is actually in the park,44 but at
that time it apparently almost reached the front of
the palace,45 and the ' rich and noble fountain,' men-
tioned by Evelyn,46 with sirens, statues, &c., cast
in copper by Fanelli, must have been in another
part of the garden. It was afterwards removed by
William III.47 Possibly it was in the South Garden,
as Evelyn at the same time described what is now
known as ' Queen Mary's Bower,' and said that it
was 'for the perplexed twining of the trees, very
observable.' 48 He also spoke of ' a parterre, which
they called Paradise, in which is a pretty banquet-
ing-house set over a cave or cellar,' and suggested
that ' all these gardens might be exceedingly im-
proved, as being too narrow for such a palace,' 49 a
criticism which might very well apply to that part
of the grounds.
In 1 669 the gardens were described by Cosmo
III, Duke of Tuscany, as 'divided into very large,
level and well-kept walks, which, separating the
ground into different compartments, form artificial
pastures of grass, being themselves formed by
espalier trees, partly such as bear fruit, and partly
ornamental ones, but all adding to the beauty of
the appearance. This beauty is further augmented
by fountains made of slate after the Italian style,50
and distributed in different parts of the garden,
whose jets d'eaux throw up the water in various
playful and fanciful ways. There are also in the
gardens some snug places of retirement in certain
towers . . .' 5I The yew trees before mentioned
were clipped into conical shapes and stood in
geometrically-shaped beds.51 Flowers are not
mentioned among the ornaments of the garden of
Charles II.
William and Mary devised the plan of a ' great
fountain garden ' M in the semicircular space in-
closed by the lime trees. George London, a pupil
of Rose, was appointed royal gardener, with a
salary of £200 a year, and was also made ' page of
the backstairs ' to Queen Mary,54 but the chief
alterations were apparently carried out after her
death in 1699-1700. There is an item in the
Treasury Papers for 1699 for ' 1, 060 ft. superficiall
of circular Derbyshire marble in the coaping of the
Great Fountain ' ; 55 there are also innumerable
items for levelling ' the great fountain garden,' for
laying turf and gravel, for planting borders with
' fine shaped evergreens,' and for ' planting all
borders with box.' 56 A strange item is for the
removal of ' 403 large Lyme trees ye dimensions
of their girt from 4 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft.,' which cost
over ,£200. Defoe says that they had been planted
over thirty years, and that they bore their trans-
plantation very well." This shifting of the trees
was necessitated by the extension of the gardens
towards the river on the south, when the old
water-gate and the building that stood there were
removed because they blocked the view from the
palace windows. To balance this the g.irden was
also extended to the north, and the trees, instead
of surrounding completely the ' Great Semicircular
Parterre,' turn off on each side in a straight line
50 yards from the front of the palace. Two low
return walls were built parallel with the line of the
palace for about 2 1 o ft. on each side, to complete
the inclosure of the gardens and face the straight-
ened-out avenues. The ' Bird's-eye view of
Hampton Court as finished by William III,"
from Kip's Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bre-
tagnej* shows that his design is practically un-
altered now, though the growth of trees and
superficial re-arrangements of grass and flower
beds have given it a slightly different aspect. The
small canal opposite the northern wall which
divides the East Garden from the Wilderness had
been made in the time of Charles II, to bring
water from the Longford River to the Great
Canal, and a corresponding small canal was con-
structed in 1669 on the south side. The stately
' broad walk ' in front of the eastern facade of
the palace, which extends from the Flower Pot
Gate on the Kingston Road to the water gallery
by the river, is 2,264 ft. in length (nearly half a
mile) and 39 ft. in width. The levelling and
making of this, and turfing the grass walks on
each side of it, cost ^6oo.59 The flower-beds
which appear in the prints of this period are filled
40 Cal. S.P. Dom. Chat. II, 1661-2,
p. 175.
n Walpole, Observations on Modern
Gardening j Law, op. cit. ii, 205 ; Blom-
field, The Formal Carder, in Engl. 59.
42 Ithnographia Rustica, i, 75.
48 The space inclosed was gj acres ;
Law, op. cit. iii, 20.
44 Law, op. cit. ii, 218.
45 See Dancker's picture ; ibid. 217.
46 Diary, June, 1662.
4" The « Great Fountain Garden '
was laid out by William and Mary in
the semicircular piece of ground inclosed
by the lime trees.
48 Evelyn called them hornbeam.
They are really wych elm.
"Ibid. June 1662.
M It is said that there were twelve
smaller fountains.
" Magalotti, Travels of Cosmo III in
Engl. 208.
383
62 Amherst, Hist, of Gardening in
Engl. 205.
53 Defoe, Tour through Gt. Britain
(ed. 1738),!, 246.
64 Switzer, Ichnografhia Ruttica, i, 79.
65 Cal. Treat. Bkt. Ixvii, no. 2.
u Ibid.
•" Defoe, loc. cit.
58 Reproduced in Law, op. cit. ill,
109.
59 Cal. Treat. Bkt. livii, no t.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
with geometric designs ; it is impossible to say of
what they consisted beyond the box edgings of
which William was so fond. Henry Wise and
George London,60 who together superintended the
royal gardens during this reign, were answerable
for these improvements, and for the alteration of
the privy garden in 1700. The Mount was
levelled, and the ' lines of hornbeam, cypress, and
the flowering shrubs ' removed to the Wilderness."
The raising of the new terrace from the water
gallery to the bowling green was also continued,
from a design sent to the king at Loo, the terrace
being made almost entirely from the old bricks of
the original ' water gallery.' The bowling green
been offensive to the sight. This Labrynth and
Wilderness is not only well-designed and com-
pletely finished, but is perfectly well-kept, and the
espaliers filled exactly, at bottom to the very
ground, and are led up to proportioned heights on
the top ; so that nothing of the kind can be more
beautiful.'" In one part the espaliers took a spiral
form, which was known as ' Troy Town.' The
Wilderness has been considerably altered even
during the last few years, and the stiff walks and
hedges admired by Defoe vanished long ago. The
' Labrynth ' or maze alone remains as an amusing
memorial of the ingenuity of a past age. The
winding walks in the maze amount to nearly half
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : THF LOWER ORANGERY
had a little ' pavilion ' at each corner, of which
only one, much enlarged and altered, now re-
mains.6'
Another avenue of lime trees was planted in
the park beyond. On the north side of the
gardens the old orchard was converted into a
'Wilderness.'53 Defoe says, 'it was very happily
cast into a Wilderness, with a Labrynth, and
Espaliers so high that they effectually take off all
that part of the old building, which would have
a mile, though the space covered is barely a
quarter of an acre.64 Switzer complained that it
had only four stops, though he had designed one
which should have had twenty.**
The beautiful iron gates designed by Jean Tijou
and executed by Huntingdon Shaw, which have
now been replaced in their original position in the
south gardens near the river, were finished in this
reign. Huntingdon Shaw is buried in Hampton
Church, and there described as ' an artist in his
M Diet. Ntt. Biog. ' Henry Wit*.'
0 Col. Treat. Bki. Ixii, not. 33,
'"See Kip't 'Bird'i Eye View,'
35-
Law, op. cit. iii, 108. The pavilion
is now one of the private apartment!,
occupied by Mr. Ernest Law.
u Col. Trioi. Bki. Ixixiv, no. 109.
384
64 Defoe, op. cit, i, 247. See plant
in Law, op. cit. iii, 75, 77.
*• Arch, vii, 124.
M Ichnagraphia Ruitica, ii, 219-20.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
way.' Tijou also designed the screen of St. Paul's
Cathedral.663
Queen Anne retained Wise in her service as
royal gardener, and her chief action with regard to
the gardens was to cause all the box edgings which
he and London had planted to be removed in
1 704. She seems also to have done away with
some of William's elaborations, as Switzer says that
she caused the gardens ' to be laid into that plain
but noble manner they now appear in.' w The
small canals seem also to have been made wider
during her reign.68 Ralph Thoresby, a topo-
grapher of Leeds, who visited the gardens in
1712, was chiefly impressed by the 'noble statues
of brass and marble,' and the ' curious iron balus-
trades, painted and gilt in parts,' which separated
the gardens from the parks. The ' Lion Gates '
and 'a figure hedge-work, of very large evergreen
plants in the Wilderness, to face the iron gates,'
were also erected in 1714, the last year of Queen
Anne's reign,69 and show that the plan for a great
north entrance to the
palace, as designed by
Wren, had been given up.
The stone piers of the
gates bear Anne's cipher
and crown, but the iron
gates, which are by no
means worthy of the
piers,'0 contain the initials
of George I.
Queen Caroline, the
wife of George II, was
the next sovereign to leave
some mark of her taste
and the taste of her period
on the gardens, as well as
on the palace, and her
designer was Kent, who
was no more accomplished
as a gardener than as
painter or architect, but
his influence was not so
disastrous out of doors as
it was within. His wide
lawns are really an improvement on the former
' parterres and fountains,' although Pope stigma-
tized them as ' a field.' "
George III entrusted the gardens to Lancelot
Brown, the famous landscape gardener, better
known as ' Capability ' Brown, who had been
appointed royal gardener in 1750 by George II.
Fortunately he did not attempt to adapt them to
the very different style which had then become
the fashion, although the king wished him to do
so. He replaced some of the terrace steps in the
Privy Gardens by slopes of gravel and grass, ' be-
cause we ought not to go up and down stairs in
HAMPTON
the open air,' but he does not appear to have done
anything more drastic. The ' Great Vine,' which
is one of the best-known sights of Hampton Court,
was planted by Brown in 1 769. It is a ' Black
Hamburgh,' and was a slip from a vine at Valen-
tines, in the parish of Ilford, near Wanstead in
Essex, which had been planted in 1758, and also
attained a great size." Twenty years after the
Hampton Court vine was planted it was said to
have produced 2,200 bunches, which weighed on
an average a pound each. The stem was already
13 in. in girth, and the main branch 1 1 4 ft. long.73
At its best period (about 1 840) the vine yielded
on an average from 2,300 to 2,500 bunches every
year, but it fell off very much for a time ; in
1874 the crop was only 1,750 bunches. Under
better care it improved again,74 but has not been
allowed of late years to bear more than about
1,200 bunches, as many as 2,000 bunches being
sacrificed sometimes to improve the quality of the
rest. The stem now measures 3 ft. 9 in. in girth,
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : HUNTINGDON SHAW'S SCREENS
and the branches cover a space of 2,300 square
feet. The vine house is 90 ft. long.76 There are,
of course, larger vines in Britain, all of the Black
Hamburgh variety,76 the largest being one at
Kinnel House, Breadalbane, Scotland, which covers
4,375 ft. of wall space.
' Capability ' Brown lived for many years at
Hampton Court. He was much esteemed by
George III, who made a personal friend of him,
and was also received familiarly by the Duke of
Northumberland at Syon House, and Lord Chat-
ham wrote of him that he was ' an honest man,
of sentiments much above his birth.' 77 ' Wilder-
7° Defoe, op. cit, (ed. 1742), i, 240.
.,_,,. » Pope, Work, ' Epistle to the Earl
'7 Ichnograpbia Rutttia, i, 83. See of Burlington/ He does not actually
p. 387 for her alterations in the refer to Hampton Court, but to the
taste of the period.
"a Nttii and Queriet, xii, 404.
78 Lysons, Midd. Parishei, 72. The
Ma Rice, Arch. Journ. lii, 158, 172
('895).
parks.
48 Cal. Treat. Bki. cxrvi, no. xi, 12
Oct. 1710.
•• Ibid, clrxix, no. 35
house was said to be 72 ft. long and
385
20 ft. wide the year before ; B.M. Add.
MS. no. 6341, fol. 2/-.
7< Under the present gardener, Mr.
Jack. T> Law, op. cit. iii, 297 et seq.
'* Barren, fines and Vint Culture (ed.
1883), 188.
77 Chatham Correspondence, IT, 179,
430 (cit. Law).
49
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
ness House,' on the north side of the Wilderness,
was occupied by Brown.78
The Banqueting House, now private apart-
ments, stands on the south-west of the palace
facing the river. The walls and ceilings are
painted, probably by Verrio.
Wolsey inclosed with a wall about
PARKS t,ooo acres as a park for his house.79
Henry VIII had a large rabbit or
hare warren in the park, where he also reared
pheasants and partridges.80 This domain was
then as now divided into two parts by the Kings-
ton road. These divisions are at present known
simply as Bushey Park and the Home Park, Bushey
lying to the north and the Home Park to the
south-east of the palace. Henry had further in-
closures made, taking in part of the heath near
Hampton, and divided the north park into three
Bushey Park was sold to Edward Blackwell, and
the Middle Park, 'called Jockey's Park,' to
Colonel Richard Norton,8* but they were repur-
chased with the palace for Cromwell in 165 3-4. M
In the inventory of Cromwell's goods made in
1659 it is mentioned that there were about 700
deer in the Home Park, in Bushey Park 1,700,
and about thirty red deer.81 In the paddocks and
stables on both sides of the Kingston road the
royal stud was kept for many years. It was started
by William III, who was fond of racing, and
continued by Queen Anne, who ran horses in her
own name.84 The stud was maintained by the
first three Georges," but George IV was the real
founder of the afterwards famous Hampton Court
Stud.87 In 1 8 1 2 he established a stud for riding
horses of good strain, intending that they should
all be grey ; but in 1820, when he came to the
HAMPTON COURT PALACE : THE LION GATES
parts, i.e. the Haro Warren to the east, the Upper
(or Bushey) Park to the extreme west, and the
Middle P;uk in the centre. The Home Park
contained only the ' Course ' near the Kingston
road and the Home Park itself, with the river on
the south.81 At the time of the Commonwealth
some of the parks were sold apart from the house,
and the ' fee of the honour and manor,' in which
the Home Park and the Course were included.
Throne, they were all sent to Tattersall's. The
Duke of York then kept a stud for breeding race-
horses at the paddocks until 1 827, Moses, the Derby
winner of 1822, being the most famous horse.88
George IV then began breeding his own race-
horses at Hampton Court, and spent considerable
sums of money on his stud. He had thirty-three
brood mares there, and some famous stallions.
William IV endeavoured to improve and keep up
^8 It was so used till 1882, when it
was given to Lady Adam, C.I., widow
of the late Rt. Hon. William Adam,
of Blair Adam, co. Kinross, M.P., Lord
of the Treasury, First Commissioner of
Works, and Governor of Madras. The
rank and precedence of a baronet's wife
were given to his widow, and her eldest
son was created a baronet. She died in
1907, and the house was granted to her
daughter Elizabeth, widow of Major the
Hon. Lionel Fortescuc, i/th Lancers,
who was killed in the Boer War. The
present head gardener, Mr. Marlow,
occupies the rooms originally inhabited
by the keeper of the tennis court. See
p. 37°- '' See p. 380.
80 Chap. House Accts.
81 See Hist, of Honour and Chase.
M Parl. Surv. 1653, P.R.O. Midd. no.
3*.
» Col. S.P. Dam. 1653-4, p. 356.
386
Other proceedings printed in Law, op.
cit. ii, 272-6.
84 For recent numbers see p. 247.
85 Cal. Treas. Bks. IKX, no. too j
Ixxxv, no. 89.
86 Ibid, cccii, no. 29 ; cclxix, no.
1 8.
87 The Strangers' Guide to Hampton
Court (1825) says that 'he spent many
gay hours at the stud-house/
88 Law, op. cit. iii, 335.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
the stock,89 but he knew very little about horses,
and a story is told that when Edwards his trainer
asked what horses were to go to Goodwood, the
king said ' Take the whole fleet ; some of them
will win, I suppose.' Three of his horses started
for the Goodwood Cup on n August 1830, and
came in first, second, and third in the race,90 there
being six other starters. On the death of William
IV in 1837, the entire stud was sold for 15,692
guineas.91
General, then Colonel, Peel and Mr. Charles
Greville were then allowed to keep a breeding stud
in the paddocks. General Peel sold his stock in
1 844, and Mr. Greville remained in possession,
after 1851 conjointly with Queen Victoria. Her
Majesty's first managers were Major Groves and
Mr. Lewis. The royal stud was afterwards under
the skilful and successful management of Colonel
Sir George Maude, K.C.B., Crown Equerry, and
became famous and lucrative. Large sums were
realized from very early days by the sale of year-
lings. In the reign of George IV and William IV
they were generally sold at Tattersall's on the
Monday in Epsom week for sums varying from
£150 to .£200 apiece.91 The sale afterwards took
place on Saturday in the week after Ascot in one
of the Bushey Park paddocks, and the highest
prices reached were in 1889 and 1890. In 1889
twenty-eight yearlings were sold for 1 1,745 guineas,
an average of 420 guineas apiece. In 1890
twenty yearlings fetched over 14,000 guineas, an
average of 700 guineas each. The famous La
Fleche was sold to Lord Marcus Beresford for
5,500 guineas at this sale.
The racing stud was eventually sold in 1 894,
and there now only remains a small establishment
for carriage horses and the famous cream-coloured
ponies which draw the king's state coach. They
are descended from horses brought over by George I
from Hanover, and the breed has been carefully
preserved. They are showy and powerful animals ;
and some of them have lived to a great age.93
The STUD HOUSE in the Home Park was
originally the official residence of the Master of
the Horse. It was at one time granted to
Mrs. Keppel, the illegitimate daughter of Sir
Edward Walpole, and widow of the Hon. and
Rev. Frederick Keppel, fourth son of the second
Earl of Albemarle, Dean of Windsor and Bishop of
Exeter.935 Afterwards it was held by the Master
of the Horse, or Master of the Buckhounds, of the
period. From 1853 to 1865 it was granted to
Lord Breadalbane, K.T., Lord Chamberlain, and in
1865 to Col. Sir George Ashley Maude, K.C.B.,
Crown Equerry. He died in May 1 894, and the
house was given to Colonel Sir Alfred Mordaunt
Egerton, K.C.V.O., C.B., Treasurer to the House-
hold and Equerry to the Duke of Connaught, who
relinquished it in 1907, and it is now held by
Lady Sarah Wilson, daughter of the seventh Duke
of Marl borough, and wife of Major G. C. Wilson,
Royal Horse Guards. Besides this house there are
only cottages and keepers' lodges in the Park.
Henry Wise laid out BUSHETPJRK in its pre-
sent form, making the great central road through the
park, which is a mile long and 60 ft. wide. Near
the Hampton Court gate it forms a circle, round
the great ' Diana ' fountain, 400 ft. in diameter,
and only 5 ft. in depth. The fountain itself was
removed from the ' Privy Garden ' in 1712-13,
and was mentioned by Evelyn as being designed
by Fanelli. In the inventory of Cromwell's goods
made in 1659 the statue is said to be of
Arethusa.Mb
The great avenue of horse chestnuts, flanked
by four rows of lime trees, borders this main
road through the park, and there are two other
avenues, each originally about three-quarters of
a mile long, one leading towards the paddocks
and the Kingston road and one to Hampton.
The number of trees planted was 732 limes and
274 chestnuts. The whole cost only £4,300."
The idea of this magnificent avenue was of course
that it should form part of the grand north
approach to the palace designed, but never carried
out, by Wren.96 Fishponds and decoys were also
made in the park, and Luttrell says that the deer
were to be removed for the sake of the hare warren
and pheasantry.90
The house now know as BUSHET HOUSE,
on the west side of the park, behind the chestnut
avenue, near the Teddington Gate, was originally
known as the ' Upper Lodge ' and was rebuilt in
tht reign of Charles II by Edward Progers.97 The
existing house was built in the reign of George II
by Lord Halifax. The Rangers of the park appear
to have inhabited, or at all events had possession
of, this house. William IV, then Duke of Clarence,
was appointed Ranger in 1797, and lived almost
entirely at Bushey House until his accession to
the throne. He amused himself by looking after
a farm he had made in the park and took a leading
part in all the interests and amusements of the
neighbourhood. Queen Adelaide was granted the
house after his death in 1837, and lived there
quietly till she herself died in 1849. One of
the rare visits paid by the late Queen Victoria to
Hampton Court was in 1 844, when she and the
Prince Consort, the King and Queen of the French,
the King and Queen of the Belgians, the King of
89 Colonel Wemyss was in charge of
the stud.
90 Day, The Horn and kov> to Rear
Him, p. 48 (cit. Law).
» Christie Whyte, Hitt. of the Brit.
Turf, ii, 288.
9a List of prices in June issue of
Nevi Sporting Mag, 1836 (cit. Law).
98 Law, op. cit. iii, 339-40.
Ma Horace Walpole, Lettert, iii, 155.
She was the sister of Lady Waldegrave,
afterwards Duchess of Gloucester, the
mother of the three beautiful Ladies
Waldegrave, whose famous portrait by
Sir Joshua Reynolds is known to all
the world. Lady Waldegrave occupied
• The Pavilions ' at the time that her
sister was at the Stud House. Law,
op. cit. iii, 314-15-
*»> Cat. Treas. Paf. clattii, 18 ; S.P.
Dom. Commonw. cciii, 41, also Evelyn
Diary, June 1662.
M Cal. Treas. Bh. Ixvii, no. 14.
95 See facsimile of plan from H.M.
387
Office of Works in Law, op. cit. iii,
79-
91 A plantation opposite Bushey
House ; Luttrell, Relation of Affairs of
State.
'" See p. 356. Vidt Law.op. cit. ii,2o6.
for a picture of the house as it appeared
at that time. S.P. Dom. Chas. II.
The keeper of Bushey Park had rooms
in the Palace, after the new building
had been completed. Law, op. cit. iii,
465.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Holland and others were entertained by Queen
Adelaide. Bushey House was afterwards lent by
Queen Victoria to the late Due de Nemours. It
is now the National Physical Laboratory, and is
occupied by the Director, Mr. R. T. Glazebrook,
D Sc., F.R.S.
There is another house in the park known as
CHARLES THE SECOND'S LODGE, at present
occupied by Lady Alfred Paget, widow of the
late General Lord Alfred Paget, second son of
the first Marquis of Anglesey, Equerry and Clerk
Marshal of the Royal Household, who originally
had the house granted to him. He died in 1888.
The one or two smaller houses in the park are
keepers' lodges of a later date.
THE CH4PEL ROYAL. In Wolsey's lease
of the manor of Hampton Court a stipulation was
made for a yearly sum to be paid by the Knights
Hospitallers for the maintenance of a priest to
serve the chapel.1 When the manor became royal
property the chapel was served by the ' Chapel
Royal,' or ' King's Chapel ' establishment, which
has no existence as a corporate body, resembling
the dean and chapter of a cathedral, but has
existed according to its present constitution for a
considerable period before the Reformation.8 The
' Establishment of the King's Chapel ' in the time
of Henry VIII consisted of a Master of the Chapel,
thirty-two Gentlemen of the Chapel, and Children
of the Chapel. The total expenses of the same
being £424 1 3/. \d. per annum. In the time of
Edward VI the allowances and fees amounted to
£+76 15'- *><*?
At the Coronation of James I the following
ol'icers are mentioned besides the Dean and Sub-
Dean of the Chapel Royal :' the Ministers, the
Master of the Children, Clerk of the Check, Doctor
in Musicke, Gentlemen of the Chapel, Officers of
the Vestry. At the coronation of Charles II the same
are enumerated with the addition of grooms and
yeomen and a Serjeant of the Vestry.
James II added a 'Confessor' and a ' common
servant.' At the coronation ofWill'a:n and Mary
two Organists and a ' Bellringer for the House-
hold ' are also mentioned.5
Strictly speaking, this establishment belongs
to no fixed place, but is commanded to attend the
sovereign wherever he may be. The services of
the officers were required chiefly in London, for-
merly at Whitehall, and afterwards at what is now
considered their head quarters, the Chapel Royal,
St. James's,' but also at Greenwich, Hampton
Court, and other royal residences.
In 1671 a petition was made to Charles II by
a Doctor Thomas Waldon, physician, John Jones,
apothecary to the household, and Captain Henry
Cooke, master of the children of the Chapel
Royal, ' that the Surveyor might provide lodgings
for them when His Majesty removed to Hampton
Court, as those they had were so decayed that
they had to be pulled down.' 1 The Bishop of
London is Dean of the ' Chapels Royal,' 8 and
in 1699-70 asked for necessaries for the chapel
from the Lord Chamberlain.'
At present the Chapel within St. James's
Palace with the minor chapels within Hampton
Court and Kensington Palaces constitute what are
usually termed ' The Chapels Royal,' governed by
the Dean, the Sub-Dean, and the Clerk of the
King's Closet (the Bishop of Ripon), and there
are various Chaplains, Preachers, Readers and other
officers attached to them. 10 The Chapel Royal,
Hampton Court, is served by a chaplain. The
first chaplain appointed to Hampton Court as a
separate office was the Rev. Gerald Valerian
Wellesley, D.D., the brother of the first Duke of
Wellington. He was appointed in 1806.
The plate is of silver gilt, and consists of a cup
with paten and an almsdish 2 ft. in diameter, all of
1668 ; two flagons of 1687 with silver gilt lining!
of 1873 and 1874, all having the arms of William
and Mary and the royal cipher ; a dish of 1736
with the arms of George II ; two cups of early igth
century unmarked ; a spoon of 1850, and a white
metal almsdish.
The church of ST. MART THE
CHURCHES flRGIN was opened for divine ser-
vice in 1831, and succeeded a build-
ing which was entirely taken down in 1 829. This
had a mediaeval chancel of flint and stone, a nave
with north and south aisles (the former built in
1726), a south porch, a west tower built in 1679,
a building on the north side of the church which
communicated with the north aisle, and which was
used as the parish school, and a vestry at the north-
west, built in 1726. There was a wooden turret
on the north-east corner of the tower in which
was hung a small bell, and in the bell-chamber
were six bells which had been recast in the reign
of Charles II ; there were galleries in the church
on the north, south, and west sides, and in addi-
tion at the west end was a singing loft. There
was a three-decker pulpit and a royal pew at the
front of the north gallery.
The present church is a very unattractive pro-
duct of the Gothic revival, rectangular in plan,
63ft. long by 66ft. wide, with north and south
aisles ; at the east end is a modern sacristy, at the
west end a tower, under which is the principal
entrance, and to the north and south other
entrances, with staircases leading to the galleries.
There is a vestry at the east end of the south aisle,
and the body of the church is under one low-
pitched roof. It is built of brickwork.
1 Cott. MSS. Claudius, E. vi, fol. 137.
In the L. and P. Hen. fill are many
entries for sums paid to friars and others
for preaching before the king at Hamp-
ton Court. A list of the chapel plate
in 1530 ii also given. Ibid, iv (3),
6184.
8 Old Chtjue Bk. oftkt Ckaptl Royal,
1561-1744 (Camden Soc. 1871).
There is a later cheque book preserved
at St. James's.
' Introd. p. ix. citing Lanidowne
MSS. no. 171.
* Ibid. pp. 64, 70, &c. The dean
or tub-dean frequently held a ' chapter '
in the vestry at Hampton Court.
' Ibid.
• Ibid.
388
< Cal. S.P. Dam. Ckas. If, 1671, p.
264. • Clergy List, 1908.
» Bualeuch MSS. (Hi«t. MSS. Com.),
ii, 636.
" Clergy Lilt, 1908. The Chapel
Royal Savoy is the only one under the
sole direction and control of the Crown
and not within the jurisdiction of the
Dean of the Chapels Royal.
HAMPTON CHURCH : MONUMENT TO SIEKLL PENN
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HAMPTON
In the north entrance lobby is the effigy, under
a canopy supported by Corinthian pillars, of Sibell
Penn, daughter of William Hampden of Dunton,
who was nurse to Edward VI, and died in 1562.
On the base of the tomb are the arms of Penn,
Argent a fesse sable with three roundels argent
thereon, separately and impaling the Hampden coat.
The tomb is simple but of excellent detail, with a fine
strapwork soffit to the canopy, and an inscription
of ten rhymed couplets on a panel at the back.
The effigy is well wrought, but curiously stiff, in a
long straight-sided gown with side pockets and a
short cloak over the shoulders. It is the ghost of
this lady, dressed exactly as she appears on her
tomb, which is said to haunt a certain part of
Hampton Court to this day. In the church are
many mural tablets, the most interesting being an
undated one to Edmund Pigeon, yeoman of the
Jewel House to Henry VIII and Clerk of the
Robes to Elizabeth ; another to his son, who suc-
ceeded him and died in 1 6 1 9 ; to Thomas Smithesby
of the Inner Temple, Keeper of the Privy Seal
under the Protectorate, died 1655; a restored
monument to Huntingdon Shaw, 1710, who
worked under Jean Tijou on the well-known
wrought-iron gates and screens at Hampton Court ;
and one at the east end of the south aisle to
Susanna Thomas, 1731, daughter and heiress of
Sir Dalby Thomas, Governor of the African Com-
pany's settlements.
There are eight bells in the tower by Mears, 1831.
The plate consists of a communion cup of 1704,
a cup and flagon of 1820, a cup of 1836 pre-
sented by Edward Johnson in 1845, two salvers
of 1828, and a modern silver-gilt chaKce and paten.
Of the registers, Book i contains baptisms I 5 54 to
1656, and burials 155410 1650 ; Book ii baptisms
165610 1725, marriages 1657 to 1703, and burials
1656 to 1677 ; Book iii baptisms 1726 to 1749,
marriages 1726 to 1754, and burials 1726 to 1768;
and Book iv baptisms 165610 1812. The fifth is the
printed marriage register, 175410 1812, and the
sixth contains burials 1768 to 1812.
The church of ST. JOHN, HAMPTON
WICK, was built at the same time as the parish
church of Hampton, and was intended as a chapel
of ease to it ; upon its completion, however, the
district was made a separate parish. It is a plain
building of yellow brick with stone dressings con-
sisting of a rectangular nave and chancel with side
galleries, and is in the same spiritless Gothic style
as Hampton Church. The register of baptisms
dates from 1831 and of marriages from 1832.
The church of ST. J4MES, HAMPTON
HILL, built in 1863 and enlarged in 1878, is
of red brick in 13th-century style, and consists of
chancel, nave of five bays, aisles, organ chamber,
south porch, and embattled tower at the south-
western angle with pinnacles and spire, and con-
taining four bells. The register dates from 1863.
The church appears to have
JDPOfPSON been originally appropriated to
the Abbey cf St. Valery or
Valeric in Picardy, as part of the possessions of
the Priory of Takeley in Essex. The temporali-
ties were seized by Edward III during his wars
with France,1 and in the reign of Richard II the
advowson of Hampton, with all the other property
of the Abbey of St. Valery in Middlesex, was
alienated in frankalmoign to the ' warden and
Scholars of St. Mary's College of Winchester."
In 1543 it came by exchange to Henry VIII.*
The rectory and advowson were leased to Richard
Bennett* in 1546, and in 1562 to Edmund
Pigeon and Joan his wife,4 afterwards, in 1574, to
Robert Nicolls,6 who held them till 1585, when
they were leased to John Cely 7 for twenty-one
years. In 1607 James I granted the rectory in
fee to Michael Cole and John Rowden, with the
advowson of the vicarage.8 They conveyed it to
Edmund Pigeon, said to have been the grandson
of the Edmund Pigeon who held it in 1562.' His
sisters and co-heirs Elizabeth Kyme10 and Frances
Dorman afterwards held the rectory in moieties."
The whole became eventually vested in the
Dormans, and was again divided between their
heirs Frances Clarke and Mary Dorman, who
respectively sold their moieties to John Jones in
1675" and 1684." In 1692 John Jones be-
queathed the glebe and rectorial tithes to charitable
uses for the benefit of the parish.14 The advowson
of the vicarage was reserved, and apparently re-
verted to the king, as in 1674 the ' impropriate
rectory with tithes and advowson ' was leased to
James Nayler, but in 1679 the living 15 was once
more in the gift of the Crown, and it has so
remained to the present time.16
The new ecclesiastical district of Hampton Wick
was formed in 1831, and that of Hampton Hill
in 1864."
The Hampton Parochial Chari-
CHAR1TIES ties were by a scheme of the Charity
Commissioners dated 3 August
1 894 consolidated, and comprise the following
charities, namely : —
I. Tho Parish Lands, the earliest record extant
being surrenders, 1659 and 1662, made at a court
held for the honour and manor of Hampton Court;
the trust estate consists of two houses known as
'The Feathers,' with a garden opposite, and
' River View,' and cottage and garden ; ' two allot-
ments awarded under the Inclosure Act, 1 8 1 1 ,
1 Cal. Pat. 134.3-S, pp. 8, 14, 143 ;
i 348-50, pp. 303, 428.
4 Ibid. 1388-91, pp. 413, 414, 417.
» L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (2), 849 ;
xviii (i),98i (46) ; Pat. 35 Hen. VIII,
pt. viii, m. 6.
4 Pat. 37 Hen. VIII, m. 7 (6 Oct.).
4 Pat. 4 Eliz. (26 June).
• Pat. 16 Eliz. pt. ii.
" Pat. 28 Eliz. pt. x, m. 9.
8 Pat. 5 Ja«. I, pt. «vi.
• Lysons, MM. Par. 83. Probably
the Edmund Pigeon to whose memory
there is a mural tablet in the church,
see supra.
10 Feet of F. Midd. Hil. 1658.
11 Ibid. Trin. 26 Chas. II (1674).
" Ibid. Trin. 27 Chas. II.
13 Ibid. Hil. 36 & 37 Chas. II.
11 Deeds belonging to the parish.
389
15 Inst. Bks. P.R.O. 1679.
16 Ibid. 1679, 1716, 1752, 1762-3,
1798, 1803.
*7 Land. Gae. 1830-83. For the
whole history of advowson vidt New-
court, Reftrt. Eccl. i, 62 ; Lysons,
Midd. Par^ 83, Sec. Hampton Wick i»
a vicarage in the gift of the Lord Chan -
ceUor,and Hampton Hill is also a vicar-
age in the gift of the vicar of Hampton.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
containing together 33. or. 11 p., known as
' Cannon Field ' ; Hall's Platt, consisting of five
cottages and gardens, known as Barrack Row, and
a meadow containing I a. 3 r. 20 p., and the New
Almshouses ; the trusts of the original almshouses
at the ' Four Hills ' are mentioned in an admission
on the Court Rolls, 1 729, recited in an admission
of 1823,' and a sum of £1,376 ip/. 3d. consols,
arising from sales of land from time to time ;
2. Parochial Quit Rents, recently redeemed,
represented by a sum of £369 2/. consols ; and
the chanties of
3. Mary Harris, founded by will 1676, con-
sisting of 3 acres, known as Holly Bush Close ;
4. Mary Gavell, will, 1 746, trust fund, £135 8/.
consols ;
5. John Turner, will, 1753, trust fund,
£332 I7/. zd. consols ;
6. Cyrus Maigre, codicil to will, 17/7, trust
fund, £ 74 2/. 2</. consols ;
7. William Cole, will, 1807, trust fund, ^630
consols ;*
8. Mrs. Eva Maria Garrick, codicil to will,
1821, trust fund, £358 14*. lid, \
9. School of Industry, otherwise the Girls'
School, including the subsidiary charities, known
as Roll's Gifts and Mrs. Wallace's Gift, comprised
in a scheme of the Charity Commissioners of
25 August 1862. The trust funds consist of
£ 1,009 2S- ' '^ consols ; and
10. Charity of John Jones for Poor, will, 1691,
trust fund, .£960.
The governing body constituted by the scheme
consists of six ex officio trustees, being the vicars
and churchwardens of the parish of Hampton,
and of the ecclesiastical district of Hampton Hill,
St. James ; eight representative trustees and two
co-optative trustees.
The scheme provides (inter alia) that out of the
income of the charities l and 2 £50 shou'd be
paid to the churchwardens of Hampton and £2$
to the churchwardens of Hampton Hill, St. James,
for the repair of the respective churches.
That one-third of the income of Mary Harris'
Charity (no. 3) should be paid to the trustees of
the Hampton Wick Parish Lands (see under
Hampton Wick)."
That the income of the charity no. 9, and so
much of charity no. 3 as should not be required
for apprenticing, should be applied in aid of any
fund applicable in the parish of Hampton by a
local authority for the purposes of technical in-
struction.
That the residue of the income of the remaining
charities should be applied in providing stipends of
not less than $s. or more than Sj. a week for the
almspeople and for the benefit of the poor of the
parish of Hampton, exclusive of Hampton Wick,
but inclusive of Hampton Hill, in such manner
as the trustees should consider most conducive to
the formation of provident habits.
In 1905 the income from the real estate
amounted to £216 5*. and the dividends from
the sums of stock, which are held by the Official
Trustees, to .£131 2/. 4^., making an aggregate
income of £347 js. ifd. The sum of £75 was
paid to the churchwardens, .£104 8/. %d. as
stipends of seven almspeople (including nursing),
£10 for apprenticing, £12 to pensioners, and
£25 6s. to the Local Technical Education Com-
mittee.
In 1873 Thomas Beer, by will proved 6 Feb-
ruary, bequeathed to the vicar and churchwardens
.£450 2s. f)d. consols (with the Official Trustees),
the dividends to be applied for the benefit of the
poor of the parish of Hampton. The income,
amounting to £11 \s. a year, is distributed in
articles in kind.
In 1873 James Annett, by will proved 1 5 August,
bequeathed to the vicar and churchwardens a legacy,
now represented by £700 consols, with the Official
Trustees, the dividends to be divided equally among
eight respectable men, who should ring a peal on
the bells of Hampton parish church on Sunday
mornings from 10.15 to i°-45- The dividends,
amounting to £lj ios., are duly applied.
The Hampton Endowed School. This school
is regulated by a scheme made under the Endowed
Schools Acts, 26 October 1896.
HAMPTON HILL, ST. JAMES
In 1 88 1 the Rev. Fitzroy John Fitz Wygram,
by will proved 26 October, bequeathed a legacy
to the incumbent of St. James, to be applied by
him according to his uncontrolled discretion in
relieving the educational and bodily needs of the
poor. The legacy is represented by .£452 J/. 2d.
consols, with the Official Trustees, producing^! I 6s.
a year, which in 1905-6 was applied in the
payment of £6 6s. to a parochial fund for the
poor, and £5 to the District Nurse Fund.
In 1892 William Blanchard, by will proved
22 March, bequeathed to the vicar and church-
wardens a legacy, now represented by £41 1 G:ea1
Western Railway 4 per cent, debenture stock,
with the Official Trustees, upon trust, to dis-
tribute the dividends among the poor. The
annual income, amounting to £16 8s. ioj., is
distributed in articles in kind.
HAMPTON WICK
The Endowed School. — The Board of Edu-
cation by order, dated I August 1907, has
established a scheme, including appointment of
trustees, altering previous schemes made under
the Endowed Schools Acts, whereby a special
fund for elementary purposes was directed to be
established, to be called ' The Elementary Educa-
tion Fund,' which amounts to a sum of ,£2,290
$s. "jJ. consols and £24 \<)s. India 3 per cent.,
with the Official Trustees.
In 1695 Thomas Burdett, by his will dated
29 February in that year, bequeathed to the
poor of Hampton Wick the sum of £50, the
1 The enfranchisement of the copyholdi was completed in 1890.
1 For other part of charitiei numbered 5, 6, 7, and 10, «ee under
390
Hampton Wick.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HANWORTH
profits thereof to be laid out in coals or wood and
distributed yearly on St. Thomas's Day for ever.
The legacy is now represented by £<)i 6s. $J.
Metropolitan Consolidated 3 per cent, stock with
the Official Trustees, producing ^2 14.1. 8J. a
year.
The Parish Lands and other subsidiary charities
are regulated by schemes of the Charity Commis-
sioners, dated respectively I May 1888, 6 August
1897, 10 January 1899, and 20 January 1903,
and comprise the following charities, namely : —
1 . The Parish Lands. The trust estate consists
of sixteen houses, Park Side, Sandy Lane, let on
long leases at annual rents amounting to ^78 l6/.;
the Grove Inn, let at £jo a year, and .£240
2^ per cent, annuities, and £169 gs. lod. consols.
The charities of: —
2. John Turner (part of), trust fund, £166 8/. jJ.
consols ;
3. Cyrus Maigre (part of), £37 is. l d. consols ;
4. William Cole (part of), ^3 1 5 consols ;
5. John Jones (part of), .£480 consols ; and
6. Mary Harris, one-third of rent of Holly
Bush Close, £6 i 3*. 4<£'
The several sums of stock are held by the Official
Trustees.
The governing body constituted by the scheme
of 1888 (as varied by scheme of 1899) consists of
six representative trustees, nominated by the Local
Board, the School Board, and by the governors of
the Endowed School.
In 1 906-7 the net receipts amounted to £ 1 60 3/.
Under the scheme of 1897 the income of the
charities 2 to 5 is applicable in pensions on terms
similar to those regulating the Hampton Parish
Lands; and out of the general income £50 was
paid to the churchwardens, £55 for nursing, am/
£36 for educational purposes.
* For other part of charities numbered z to 6 see under ancient parish of Hampton.
HANWORTH
Haneworde (xi cent.), Hanewrthe (xiii cent.),
Haneworth (xiv and xv cents.), Hamworth, Hane-
worth (xvi and xvii cents.).
Hanworth is a small parish lying to the east of
Feltham. The northern boundary is formed by
the River Crane, on which two large reservoirs
have been built. The Queen's or Cardinal's
River (vide East Bedfont) flows diagonally across
the parish from the north-west. The land, which
is apparently almost level, slopes gently from north
to south, and lies between 70 ft. and 40 ft. above
Ordnance datum. It is laid out almost entirely in
LYCH GATE, HANWORTH
391
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
nursery and market gardens, which give employ-
ment to a large proportion of the population. Of
the 1,372$ acres in the parish, 543 acres are
arable land, and 2 37 J acres are grass.1 The vil-
lage is composed of detached houses mostly lying
about the cross roads in the southern part of the
parish. The church of St. George stands at a
little distance from the village, near the ruins of
Hanworth Castle. There is a Wesleyan chapel,
which was built in 1867. The most distinctive
feature of the parish is Hanworth Park, which
occupies the north-east corner and extends over
the boundary into Feltham parish. It contains
many fine trees, which are the more remarkable
as the rest of the parish is but sparsely wooded.
The parish was inclosed in 1 800, together with
Feltham and Sunbury.' The following place-
names occur: Le Pille, Le Yawe, Ham-acre,
Grewclose, Andymeres Land, Rice, Lott-meadow,
Livershaw.
H 4 N WORTH was held in the
M4NOR time of Edward the Confessor by Ulf,
a ' huscarl ' of the king.' It was
granted by William I to Roger de Montgomery,
Earl of Arundel, under whom it was held by one
Robert.4 Earl Roger's English estates were in-
herited by his second son Hugh de Montgomery,
but after the latter's death in the Mowbray con-
spiracy of 1098 they passed to the eldest son
Robert de Bellesme, who in turn rebelled against
the king in i loz, with the result that all his lands
were confiscated.5 It is likely that the over-
lordship of Hanworth came in this way to the
Crown. It was probably attached to the honour
of Wallingford during the
reign of Henry II,* and
formed part of that honour
apparently until 1539.' In
1 540 it was annexed to the
h nour of Hampton Court.'
The family of Dayrell
of Lillingstonc Dayrell,
Buckinghamshire, held the
manor for several genera-
tions of the honour of Wal-
lingford by the service of
half a knight's fee." It
is uncertain when they
were first connected with Hanworth. According
to an ancient pedigree, Robert Dayrell, who lived
Juring the latter part of the izth century, is styled
DAVRCLL. Azure a
lion or with a crown
gules.
'of Hanworth."' Ralph Uayrell his son" held
half a knight's fee of the honour of Wallingford,
which probably represents Hanworth, from about
1166 to about 1210." His son Henry Dayrell
certainly held Hanworth about IZI2,13 and his
grandson,14 also named Henry, who held the
manor in the reign of Edward I, certified that his
ancestors had been lords of Hanworth time out of
mind.14 He died in possession of the manor in
1 303, holding it jointly with his wife Alice.16
The manor was settled for the term of her life
on Alice," who was still living in 1 316." Henry
Dayrell left a son and heir named Henry," who
was sixteen years of age at the time of his
father's death.*1 He was alive in 1307-8, when
he made a feoffment of the manor." In 1 3 1 6 the
king was holding in Hanworth," probably on
account of the minority of the younger Henry's
heir, who seems to have been John Dayrell."
The latter certainly held the manor in 1335,"
and was still in possession in 1353." He was
succeeded by his son Sir Roger Dayrell.** In 1377
Roger conveyed all his rights in Hanworth to
Alan Ayete of Shalderton, and John Chamberlayn,
clerk."-8
Later in the same year Alan Ayete surrendered
his claim to John Chamberlayn,*9 who then granted
the manor to Thomas Godlak.50 The latter en-
feoffed Thomas Walyngton, Gilbert Manfield, and
William Makenade,31 and these again enfeofFecl
John de Macclesfield, the king's clerk." The
manor was occupied at the will of the lord by Sir
Nicholas Brembre.33 Sir Nicholas was Lord Mayor
of London for part of 1377 and again in 1377-8.
He was the strong supporter of Richard II among
the London merchants, and was knighted for his
services during the peasants' march on London in
1381. He was again mayor in 1383-4, repre-
senting the king's party ; and was also a membei
of Parliament for London. He narrowly escaped
impeachment in 1386; but in November 1387
he was accused of treason by the lords appellant,
and was hanged at Tyburn in February of the
next year.34
After his execution Hanworth was taken into
the king's hand, but as it was found that Sir
Nicholas had no real estate there, but was only
a tenant at will, the right of John de Macclesfield
was restored in 1391.** Idonea, the widow of
Sir Nicholas Brembre, bought back a large pro-
portion of her husband's personal property in July
1 Inf. supplied by the Bd. of Agric.
(1905).
9 Slater, Tht Engl. Peasantry and the
Enclosure of the Common Fields, 287.
• Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 30.
4 Ibid.
4 Stubbs, Const. Hist. (1891), i, 334.
• Red Bk. ofExck. (Rolls Ser.), 310.
1 Ibid. p. Ixzxiii, 140, 145, 543, 595 ;
Chan. Inq. p.m. 28 Edw. I, no. 44 j
P.R.O. Ct. R. bdle. 212, no. 2, 6-8,
18-19.
8 L. and P. Hen. yill, XT, 498 (36).
• Red Bk. of Exck. (Rollt Ser.),
p. cclxwiii, 145, 310, 543, 595.
10 Lipscomb, Hiir. of Hut is. iii, 31.
" Ibid.
« Red Bk. ofExc/i. (Roll« Ser.), 145,
310, 595.
18 Ibid. 543.
14 Lipscomb, Hitt. of Bucks, iii, 31.
» Plac. de Quo ffarr. (Rec. Com.),
477-
16 Inq. a.q.d. 2 Edw. II, no. 98 ;
Chan. Inq. p.m. 31 Edw. I, no. 26;
Feet of F. Lend, and Midd. 22 Edw. I,
no. 208 ; Lipscomb, Hist, of Bucks.
iii, 31.
J7 Feud. Aids, iii, 372. >» Ibid.
» Ibid.
90 Chan. Inq. p.m. 31 Edw. I, no. 26.
21 Inq. a.q.d. 2 Edw. II, Izxiv, no. 8.
M Feud. Aids, iii, 372.
• Lipscomb, Hist, of Bucks, iii, 31.
392
94 Chan. Inq. p.m. 9 Edw. Ill (m
nos.), no. 10.
* Feud. Aids, iii, 375.
96 Lipscomb, op. cit. iii, 31.
"-• Feet of Lond. and Midd. 5 1
Edw. Ill, no. 540 ; Close, 51 Edw. Ill,
m. 5.
29 Close, i Ric. II, m. 24 d.
80 Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Ric. II, no.
78, 90.
« Ibid.
83 Pat. 14 Ric. II, pt. ii, no. 31.
88 Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Ric. II, no.
78, 90 ; Feet of F. Div. Co. 8 Ric. II,
no. 129.
84 Diet. Nat. Biog. vi, 255-6.
M Cal. Fat. 1388-92, p. 379.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
1388. Amongst the forfeited goods and chattels
in the manor of Hanworth she was so prudent as
to purchase a brass pot for 1 8</., a leaden pot for
is., fourteen oxen, and other commodities to the
value of ^54 5*. \d?*
John de Macclesfield may have lost his lands after
the fall of Richard II, as in the early 1 5th century
(he manor was apparently occupied by a fresh
owner.
The manor was held in 1428 by Henry Somer,"
warden of the Mint under Henry VI.*9 He died
about 1450," and his right in Hanworth probably
reverted to the Crown. Later in the same cen-
tury the manor came into the possession of Sir
John Crosby,40 alderman of London, and founder
of Crosby Hall." After his death in 1475 the
custody of the manor was granted during the
minority of his son John to Thomas Rigby and Wil-
liam Bracebridge." Sir John Crosby the younger
died in 1 500—1 in possession of the manor which
had been settled previously on Thomas Winter-
bourne and other trustees for the use of John
and his wife Anne, with remainder in default to
Peter Christmas the next of kin. The latter
being already dead in 1500-1," John Crosby's
heir was found to be the posthumous son of Peter
Christmas, aged six months." His trustees appear
to have conveyed the manor during the same reign
to Sir John Huse, and by an exchange of land in
1512 Hanworth came to the Crown." In 1521
the lands of the manor, excluding the manor
house, were let to Sir Richard Weston,46 and in
1530 Stephen Gardiner47 received the reversion
of the same property, together with the site and
all other appurtenances, to hold for life.48 In
1532 these patents were surrendered, and the
' manor of Hanworth,' except the manor house,
was granted to Anne Boleyn for 99 years ; a
month later the house was granted to her for life.48
In 1536 Gregory Lovell was appointed to the office
of keeper of the manor.50 Hanworth was settled in
1544 on Katherine Parr, sixth and last queen of
Henry VIII." After her death it is said to have
been granted, probably for life, to Anne Duchess of
Somerset," who was certainly living there with
her second husband, Francis Newdigate, in August
1563, when her son the Earl of Hertford was
removed to Hanworth from the Tower," where he
had been imprisoned on account of his marriage
HANWORTH
with Lady Katherine Seymour." In 1594 the
manor was leased to William Killigrew, groom of
the privy chamber under Elizabeth, for about
eighty years on surrender of a former grant for
life." He was succeeded by his son Robert, who
conveyed the remainder of the lease to Francis
Lord Cottington.46 The manor was granted by
the king in 1627 to Sir Roger Palmer and Alex-
ander Stafford," who acted as trustees for Francis
Lord Cottington.68 The latter was a prominent
figure in the reigns of James I and Charles I.
Having accompanied Sir Charles Cornwallis, the
English Ambassador in Spain in 1609, and after-
wards acted as English agent and consul,69 Cotting-
ton was much in request on his return on account
of his knowledge of Spanish affairs.60 He was
concerned in the question of the Spanish marriage,"
and though disapproving of Prince Charles's
journey to Spain, he was sent with him and took
part in the negotiations at Madrid." He acted
as ambassador to Spain from 1629, and as a
reward for negotiating the secret treaty of 1631 M
he was raised to the peerage as Baron Cottington
of Hanworth,64 receiving the honour ' at Green-
wich in a very solemn manner.' M As the Civil
War drew near he declared himself an active
member of the war party, and after hostilities had
broken out he joined the king at Oxford.66 He
was excepted by Parliament from indemnity and
composition, and spent the remainder of his life
abroad, dying in Spain in 1652." His estates
were assigned in 1649 to John Bradshaw the
regicide,68 but were recovered at the Restoration
by his nephew and heir Charles Cottington, son of
his elder brother Maurice.69
Charles Cottington did not keep Hanworth long,
for he sold it in 1670 to Sir Thomas Chamber.70
The latter died in 1692 and was succeeded by his
son Thomas. Thomas Chamber left two daughters
and co-heiresses, and Hanworth passed, through the
marriage of the elder, to Lord Vere Beauclerk,71
who was created Baron Vere of Hanworth in
1750." The manor was inherited by his son
Aubrey Lord Vere73 in 1781, who succeeded his
cousin as Duke of St. Albans six years later.'4
He still held the manor in 1802," but conveyed
it very shortly after to James Ramsey Cuthbcrt.76
Frederick John Cuthbert was lord of the manor in
1816, but it passed before 1832 to Henry Perkins.
•• Cat. Pat. 1385-9, p. 481.
•* FeuJ. Aids, iii, 381.
*> Cal. Put. 1422-9, p. 72.
88 Chan. Inq. p.m. 2 8 Hen.VI,no.zi.
40 Cal. Pat. 1476-85, p. 7.
41 Diet. Nat. Biog. xiii, 21 1.
n Cal. Pat. 1476-85, p. 7.
48 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxi, no.
10.
« Ibid.
« L. and P. Hen. fill, i, 3284.
46 Ibid, y, 1139 (32).
4? Diet. Nat. Biog. xx, 420.
« Ibid. 1207 (7).
49 Pat. 24 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. iz-
«> /.. and P. Hen. fill, xiii (i), 573.
« Ibid, xix (i), 644 ; P.R.O. Ct. R.
portf. 191, no. I.
2
sa Lysons, Environs of Lund, (1800),
v, 95-
48 Engl. Hist. Rev. xiii, 305.
41 Diet. Nat. Biog. Ii, 310-11.
65 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1591-4, pp. 547,
559-
58 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccclxxvii, 177.
" Pat. 3 Chas. I, pt. iii, no. I.
48 S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccclxxvii, 177.
The docquet conveys the manor to the
trustees for 47 years ; but the patent
roll grant is made to them and their heirs.
s* Gardiner, Hist, of Engl. ii, 134,
151.
80 Diet. Nat. Biog. xii, Z93-
61 Narrative of Spanish Marriage
Treaty (Camd. Soc.), ill.
" Diet. Nat. Biog. xii, Z93.
*• Gardiner, Hist, of Engl. vii, 176.
393
64 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, ii, 384.
65 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1631-3, p. 107.
M Diet. Nat. Biog. xii, 293. •' Ibid.
88 Cal. of Com, for Compounding, \, 146.
" G.E.C. Complete Peerage, ii, 384 ;
Feet of F. Midd. Hil. 18 & 19 Chas. II.
7° Feet of F. Midd. Trin. 32 Chas. II ;
Close, 22 Chas. II, pt. ii, no. I.
~l G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 6 ;
Feet of F. Midd. East. 3 Geo. III.
?a G.E.C. Complete Peerage, viii, 26.
?8 Feet of F. Midd. Mich. 33 Geo.
III. ; Recov. R. Mich. 33 Geo. Ill,
rot. 302.
?4 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 6.
?4 Recov. R. East. 42 Geo. Ill, rot.
'* Beauties of Engl. and Wales x (4),
5'7-
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
After the death of his heir Algernon Perkins,
before 1866, it was in the hands of his devisees,
but was bought before 1887 by Messrs. Pain &
Bretell, solicitors, of Chertsey, who are lords of the
manor at the present day.
Henry Dayrell claimed the right to hold a view
of franicpledge and amends of assize of bread
and ale in the reign of Edward I.77 The king's
attorney said his claim dated from the grant by
Henry III of the honour of Wallingford to
Richard Earl of Cornwall and King of Almain.
The jurors said that the Dayrells had, before that
grant, held a meeting of all their tenants in
Hanworth, and had taken the amendment of assize
of bread and ale, and all that appertained to the
view of frankpledge ; and that after Henry III
had given the honour of Wallingford to the Earl
of Cornwall the latter's bailiff had attached all
the men of Hanworth to the view held for that
honour at Uxbridge. It appears that although
the Dayrells obviously had no chartered right to
hold the view, yet their right which accrued from
custom was allowed.78 Yet it seems as though a
rent was paid in 1 303 to the Earl of Cornwall
for the view,79 and in the i;th and 1 6th centuries
the view seems always to have been held by the
overlord.80
Fishing rights were among the appurtenances of
the manor in I3O3-81 Lord Cottington had a
grant of free warren in Hanworth Park in 1 63 8s*
(v.s. park).
A water-mill belonging to the manor is
mentioned in I 3O3.83 In 1340 there was a mill
known as Eldeford in Haneworth,84 which ap-
parently stood near the dyke called ' the Mersdich,'
which ran between Hanworth and Kempton.
Litigation took place concerning this dyke and
the foot-bridge which crossed it and led to the mill.
In the early part of January 1338-9 Roger,
Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, complained that
though he was not liable to repair the dyke except
in proportion to the use made of it by his yokes of
oxen (pro averiis ipannatis) and had done his part
sufficiently therein, and though he ought not to
repair the foot-bridge by the mill, yet he had been
amerced by the sheriff to the amount of 38*. %J.
on the pretext that the dyke was not properly
cleansed nor raised nor the foot-bridge repaired.84
The sheriff was accused of having fined him on in-
sufficient evidence, and was accordingly commanded
to appear before the king, and to bring with him
four good men from each of the four townships
nearest the bridge. The sheriff appearing on the
day appointed, said that the bridge was in a dan-
gerous state by default of John Dayrell, lord of Han-
worth, who was bound to repair it as his ancestors
had been used to do within the memory of man.
The four men from the townships could not
attend, as the order had come too late, and the
case was adjourned to a later date. It was again
respited to midsummer, when, the bishop, sheriff,
and four men from each of the townships of
Twickenham, Hampton, East Bedfont, and Fel-
tham being present, it was found by the jury that
the bridge was not for the common use, but only a
little bridge by Eldeford mill for the easement of
the miller and those of the neighbourhood who
came to grind corn ; and that the lord of Hanworth
was not bound to repair it. The bishop recovered
the amount of his amercement, while the sheriff
was declared to be in mercy for taking present-
ment without his jurisdiction, it being found that
one end of the bridge leading to Hanworth was
within the liberty of the honour of Wallingford,
and the other within the liberty of Queen Phi-
lippa's manor of Isleworth.86
HANWORTH PARK is not mentioned before
the beginning of the 1 6th century, so that it may
have been made either by the Crosbys or by the
king. It was held as part of the manor of Han-
worth, and became a royal seat in the reign of
Henry VIII, ' where,' says Camden, ' he had the
diversion at all times of the buck and hare.' w
The park had been enlarged in the preceding
reign by the addition of a considerable amount of
land in the adjoining parish of Feltham.8* Much
care seems to have been expended both on the
house and gardens under Henry VIII.89 The
office of keeper of the park was granted to Sir
Richard Weston, who held it early in the reign,90
and on the occasion of Princess Mary's residence
at Hanworth in 1522 sent her a New Year's
present of twelve pairs of shoes." The park
was granted with the manor-house to Stephen
Gardiner in I53O,98 and to Anne Boleyn in
July I532.93 In 1544 it was settled for life on
Katherine Parr," who continued to live there after
the king's death, with her second husband, Sir
Thomas Seymour.95 The Princess Elizabeth, whose
education was entrusted to Katherine, came to
live there at the age of fifteen. Seymour indulged
in such familiarities with the princess as to lay
himself open at his impeachment to the charge
of having attempted to gain the affections of
Elizabeth with a view to seating himself on the
throne as Prince Consort, after he should have
rid himself of Queen Katherine.96
After the queen's death in 1548 the custody
of the park is said to have been entrusted to
William, Earl of Pembroke.97 It came in 1594
into the hands of William Killigrew,*8 who was
a person of some importance under Elizabeth and
" Plat. Jt Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.),
477-
'<* Ibid.
" Chan. Inq. p.m. 31 Edw. I, no. 26.
80 P.R.O. Ct. R. portf. 212, no.
2, 6, 7, 8, 18, 19.
81 Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 1 Edw. I, no. 26.
•* Pat. 1 3 Chas. I, pt. xxiv, no. 2.
** Chan. Inq. p.m. 31 Edw. I, no. 16.
84 Col. Pat. 1340-3, p. 47.
84 Ibid.
* Ibid.
8^ Camden, Mag. Brit. (ed. Cough), ii,
2, 13.
88 Pat. 1 6 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 30.
•• L. and P. Htn. VIII, xiv (2), 236 ;
iii, 2214; xvi, 380; xvii, 258 ; xviii,
(2) 23I.
90 Pat. 24 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m.
12-14 > 37 Hen. VIII, pt. iii, m. 16.
394
•l L. and P. Htn. VIII, iii, 2585.
M Pat. 24 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m.
12-14.
98 Pat. 24 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 12.
« L. and P. Hen. VIII, xix (i), 644.
•* Diet. Nat. Biog.
" Heyne, Burltigk Papers, 99.
•7 Lysons, Envirom of Lund, v, 94.
»8Ca/. S.P. Oo«. 1591-4, pp. 547,
559-
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
HANWORTH
James I. Besides being groom 01 the privy
chamber, he was granted the right to farm the
profits of the Queen's Bench and Common Pleas,
in return for which he supported the court
interest in Parliament, where he represented various
Cornish Boroughs in succession.89 In 1600, during
his keepership of the park, Elizabeth visited
Hanworth, and remained some days, spent mostly
in hunting in the park.100 Sir William Killigrew
died in 1622, and his son Sir Robert transferred
the remainder of the lease of Hanworth Park to
Lord Cottington.101 Of the various members of
the Killigrew family who were born or baptized at
Hanworth three suffered to a severe extent for the
royal cause. Sir Robert's elder son William was
gentleman-usher to Charles I. He compounded
for his estates in 1653 and was restored to his
position at court under Charles II.10" His brother,
Henry Killigrew, D.D., a prebendary of West-
minster, suffered many hardships during the
Interregnum. He recovered his stall at the Restora-
tion, and was made almoner to the Duke of York,
and died as rector of Wheathampstead in Hertford-
shire in 1693. 10> Both he and his brother attained
some fame as dramatists, and his daughter Anne
Killigrew was a poetess of some note at the time.10*
Sir Thomas Killigrew, the son of William, was also
probably born at Hanworth. He acted as page to
Charles I, and accompanied Charles II in exile."*
When Hanworth Park came into the possession
of Lord Cottington he effected several improve-
ments. In 1629 he wrote to Lord Strafford :
' There begins to grow a brick wall all about the
gardens at Hanworth, which though it be a large
extent yet it will be too little for the multitude of
pheasants, partridges and wild-fowl that are to be
bred in it.' "* And further that ' dainty walks
are made abroad inasmuch as the old porter with
the long beard is like to have a good revenue by
admitting strangers that will come to see these
varieties. It will be good entertainment to see
the amazement of the barbarous northern folk who
have scarce arrived to see a well cut hedge, when
the fame of these varieties shall draw them thither.' ""
His wife Anne, daughter of Sir William Meredith
and widow of Sir Robert Brett, took an equal
interest in the park. He speaks of her as ' the
principal contriver of all this machine, who with
her clothes tucked up and a staff in her hand,
marches from place to place like an Amazon
:ommanding an army.'10 In 1635 Lord Cot-
tington entertained the queen and all her court in
great splendour at Hanworth.1"9 He received
a grant of free warren here in 1638 as well
as licence to inclose 50 acres of land.110 When
hostilities broke out between the king and
Parliament, his Royalist sympathies led to a search
for arms in his house at Hanworth."1 Cottington
himself was away, and the house was in the charge
of his servants. These petitioned Parliament for
the apprehending of the delinquents, who had
come with swords and guns and had attempted to
pull down the palings of Hanworth Park and~to
ransack and pillage the house ' under colour of a
pretended power to search for arms by virtue of
a warrant surrepticiously gotten as the petitioners
conceive and was directed to none there present.' !"
There was a second attack on the house a few
months later (January 1642-3), when a company
of soldiers forced an entry and took away all the
weapons they could find. When pleading for the
restoration of the arms or for licence to furnish
themselves with others, Lord Cottington's ser-
vants urged the need of means of defence against
vagabonds, thieves and robbers, because ' the house
stands removed from any neighbours and destitute
from others in time of danger.'113 The house,
which stood near the church, was destroyed by fire
in 1 797. The moat and a few traces of the build-
ings may still be seen. The present house stands
further to the south-east. It was built by the
Duke of St. Albans shortly after the destruction of
the older mansion.114 In the igth century it was
well-known to bibliophiles for the fine library of
old books and manuscripts collected by Mr. Henry
Perkins, which was sold by auction in 1873.
The house is now the residence of Mr. Alfred
Lafone, J.P., to whom and to Mr. James Scarlett
and others Messrs. Pain & Bretell sold the park
about 1873.
The church of ST. GEORGE is
CHURCH a modern building of stone in
14th-century style, and consists of an
apsidal chancel 24ft. gin. by i8ft. 5 in., a nave
60 ft. 3 in. by 23ft. 3 in. with north and south
porches, a north transept 1 3 ft. loin, long by
1 4 ft. 3 in. wide, and a north-east tower with a
tall broach spire. The ground stage of the tower
is used as a vestry. The churchyard is inclosed
by an iron railing on a dwarf wall, and is entered
from the south-east through a well-designed
wooden lich-gate.
There is one bell, by Thomas Mears, 1814.
The plate consists of a silver cup and paten
(1632) bearing the arms of Francis Lord Cotting-
ton, the donor; a silver paten (1781); chalice (1874)
and flagon (1882). The registers begin in 1731.
The church is first mentioned
ADVOWSQN in 1293, when the advowson
occurs in a grant of the manor.115
The living is a rectory, the patronage of which
descended with the manor (q.v.) until it was sold
by Henry Perkins to the rector, the Rev. Oswald
Joseph Cresswall, before 1 866.1'6 It was in the gift
of Mr. John Bagot Scriven in i874,117from whom
it passed to the Rev. John Lyndhurst Winslow,
who was rector of Hanworth from l879.118 The
advowson is now held by his widow.
M Diet. Nat. Biog. xivi, 116.
1«° Nichols, Program of Q. El'n.
passim.
101 S.P. Dom. Cha«. I, ccclxxvii, 177.
loa Did. Nat. Biog. zxxi, 116.
>«• Ibid. 1 68.
»« Ibid. Ioi Ibid.
104 I*jtotl99 Environs of London (1800),
v, 52, quoting Strafford Papers, i, 51.
iw Ibid. "» Ibid.
"• Ibid, i, 463.
110 Pit. 13 Cha«. I, pt. xxiv, no. 2.
J" Hiit. AfSS. Cam. Ref. v, App. 43.
111 Ibid. I" Ibid.
395
114 Beautia of Engl. and ffalei,* (4),
5>7-
114 Feet of F. Lond. and Midd. 22
Edw. I, no. 208.
»« P.O. Dir. 1866, Eiux . . . Midd.
596.
W Cltrgy Lht, 1874. "»Ibid. 1879.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
Adam de Brome, the founder of Oriel College,
Oxford, was rector of Hanworth in 1315."' Of
his early life nothing is known. He was Chan-
cellor of Durham in 1316, Archdeacon of Stowe
in 1319, and was made vicar of St. Mary's, Ox-
ford, in the same year. He obtained a licence to
found a college at Oxford in 1324, and died in
Samuel Croxall, D.D., whose well-known
Aesop' i Fables were published in 1722, was the son
of the Rev. Samuel Croxall, rector of Hanworth,
and of Walton on Thames.1"
In i 548 there was a ' guild church ' "' in Han-
worth, to which belonged a church-house used for
the 'assembelling of officers of the guild to drinck
and thereat to gather money for the reparacion of
the church.' '" This house may perhaps be the
same as a tenement in Hanworth which was in
the occupation of the guardian of the church
for the support of a 'gildar' or 'church iles,'
granted in 1562 to Cecilia Pickerell, widow of
John Pickerell, in part payment of a debt owed to
her late husband by Edward, Duke of Somerset,
in whose household John Pickerell occupied the
posts of treasurer and confessor.1"
In 1745 the Right Hon. Lord
CHARITIES Vere Beauclerk gave an annuity of
£6 for the poor chargeable upon
certain copyhold property. The annuity is paid
by Mr. Alfred Lafone, of Hanworth Park.
Poor's Land. — Under the Hanworth Inclosure
Act (40 Geo. Ill), 33. I r. lip. were allotted to
the churchwardens and overseers, now represented
by the parish council, let at £14 a year.
Fuel Allotment. — Under the same Act an allot-
ment, containing 173. i r. 9 p., was awarded for
the poor in compensation for the right of procur-
ing fuel. The land is let at £60 a year, which,
together with the income of the preceding chari-
ties, was in 1906 distributed in coals to 200
persons.
In 1820 the Rev. James Burges, D.D., gave
£1,500 consols to the rector of Hanworth in
trust to promote the education of youth. The
charity is regulated by scheme of the Charity Com-
missioners dated 12 April 1878.
By an order dated 15 October 1897, made
under the Local Government Act, 1894, £500
consols, one-third part thereof, was apportioned
as the Ecclesiastical Charity of Dr. Burges, and
£1,000 consols, two-third parts thereof, as the
Educational Charity of Dr. Burges. The trust
funds are held by the official trustees. The
dividends of £12 los. and £25 are applied for
purposes connected with the Sunday school and
for educational purposes respectively.
LALEHAM
Leleham (xi cent.) ; Lalham, Lelham (xiii-xv
cent.) ; Laneham (xvi cent.).
The parish of Laleham lies on the level ground
between the road from Staines to Kingston and
the River Thames. It is long and wedge-shaped,
the point of the wedge lying towards the south,
and the Thames forms almost the whole of the
western boundary. There is no railway line in
the parish, and the nearest stations are at Staines,
zj miles to the north-west, and at Shepperton,
2i miles to the east. The main road from Staines
to Kingston runs just within the northern boun-
dary, and roads from Staines, Ashford, and Shep-
perton converge on the village. The parish is
sparsely wooded, and is laid out almost entirely
in fields. The village lies near the Thames, about
midway betueen the northern and southern ex-
tremities of the parish. It is a typical river village
of the kind that is found on the lower reaches of
the Thames. The pleasant street, very quiet
except in the summer months, winds among
private houses and shops, and after passing round
the church, widens out into the road to Ashford,
and the houses continue northwards. A new street
of small villas ha? been 1 uilt towards the river,
and there are a few houses of the bungalow type
facing the tow-path. The Thames is here com-
paratively wide, and a fine open stretch affords
"' Diet. Nat. Biag. vi, 392.
»» Ibid, niii, 246.
111 Possibly thi» meant that part of
good mooring for the house-boats which lie along
its banks in the summer. There is no bridge over
the Thames in this parish, Chertsey Bridge lying
just beyond the boundary, but a ferry (punt) plies
from a point near the village to the opposite
Surrey bank.
A triangular piece of ground of about 200 acres
on the Surrey side of the river is known as Lale-
ham Burway. It is part of an island formed by
an offshoot of the main stream, and is divided
from the Abbey Mead of Chertsey on the south by
a stream called the Burway Ditch, and by another
stream from the meadow of Mixnams on the
north. This land is included in Chertsey parish,
and belongs to the manor of Laleham. It is men-
tioned as the Island of Burgh in the original en-
dowment of Chertsey Abbey between 666 and
675,1 and is described as separated from Mixten-
ham by water, which formed part of the boundary
of the abbey lands," but it is not clear which of
the two lay within the bounds of the abbey.
Tradition says that the Burway originally belonged
to Chertsey, and that in a time of great scarcity
and famine the inhabitants of Laleham supplied
the abbey with necessaries which those of Chertsey
could not, or would not provide, in return for
which the abbot granted them the use of this
piece of ground.' Whatever the truth of this
the church was used by the gild ; or
that they had a chapel there.
la8 Chant. Cert. 34, no. 167.
lss Pat. 4 Eliz. pt. iii, m. 40.
396
1 Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 55-6.
• Cott. MS. Vit. A. xiii.
' Manning, Hist. afSurr. iii, 104.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
LALEHAM
story, it is certain that the abbey of Westminster
when lord of the manor of Laleham held land on
the Surrey side of the river, and that in the time
of Edward I it held part of the meadow called
Mixtenham also, for in a dispute with the abbey
ofChertsey in 1278, Westminster agreed to re-
lease their right in this meadow in return for
4 acres of pasture contiguous with that which
they already held * In 1 3 70 they still held some
pasture in Mixtenham.4 Laleham Burway appears
in a grant of the manor during the i8th century.'
At the beginning of the igth century it is de-
scribed as paying no tithes or taxes to either
Chertsey or Laleham parish.7 It belonged to
owners of estates within the manor of Laleham,
and the pasture was divided into 300 parts called
' farrens,' the tenants of which were entitled some
to the feed of a horse, others to the support of a
cow and a half. A horse-farren would let for
£l \"js. 6J. a year, and pasture for one cow for
£l 5/., and when sold a farren was worth about
£40." This land was not inclosed under the Act
of 1 773 for inclosing the common fields of Lale-
ham Manor in Chertsey,9 and was specially ex-
empted from the Act of 1808 for inclosing
Laleham and Middlesex.10 It was finally inclosed
under an Act passed in 1813," when the Earl of
Lucan, lord of the manor of Laleham, acquired by
allotment and purchase about 70 acres. Before
its inclosure many cricket matches were played
here ' by ennobled and other cricketers.' "
Laleham House, the seat of the Earl of Lucan,
stands to the south of the village in well-wooded
grounds of about 23 acres. It was built by Richard,
the second earl, who bought the manor in 1803.
Maria, Queen of Portugal, who spent her minority
in England, lived here from 1829. George, the
third earl (1800-88), served in Turkey and in
the Crimea, and attained the rank of field-marshal.
The charge of the heavy brigade at Balaclava was
made under his direction, and he was himself
wounded by a bullet in the leg. Lord Raglan
blamed him for the advance of the cavalry on that
occasion, and in consequence
he returned to England and
vindicated his conduct in
the House of Lords (19
March 1855)." He was
succeeded by the present
earl in 1888.
Thomas Arnold lived
at Laleham from 1819 to
1828. He settled here
to take as private pupils
a small number of young
men preparing for the uni-
BINGHAM, Earl of
Lucan. Azure a bend
between conies and tix
crosses formji or.
versifies, and besides his own studies and those
of his pupils he spent his time in assisting in the
care of the parish." After his appointment to the
head-mastership of Rugby he still hoped to return
to Laleham after he should have retired from
public life.15 His house, which stood at the end
of the village, was pulled down in i864.ls His
eldest and most distinguished son, Matthew Arnold,
was born here in 1822." After the family had
removed to Rugby, he returned to Laleham as
pupil of his maternal uncle, the Rev. John Buck-
land (i 830-6). 18 He lies buried in the church-
yard here, together with Thomas Arnold his
eldest son.
Among the present residents are Mr. Adolphus
Govett, J.P., of High Elms, whose family has
long been connected with this parish, and Gen.
Sir Frederick Maunssll, R.E., K.C.B., who lives
at the Boreen.
The inhabitants of Laleham are chiefly depen-
dent on agriculture, and the population returns of
the last forty years show a decrease of over twenty
per cent. The soil is light, and the subsoil
gravel. The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats,
turnips, and mangold-wurzel. There are 1,301
acres in the parish, of which 550^ acres are
arable, and 465 acres are laid down in permanent
grass. Woods and plantations cover 36 acres.19
The following names of pastures occur in
mediaeval times : Le Cottes, Watcroftes, Hot-
lowe, Henland, Charston, Chikenes, Middelwelle-
thorn, Tuccemede. Churchwynnes'and was origin-
ally held by a John Cherchwynn early in the
1 4th century.10
LALEHAM is mentioned as one
MANORS of the four appurtenances of Staines
in the charter of Edward the Con-
fessor granting and confirming lands to West-
minster Abbey." At the time of the Domesday-
Survey, the abbey still held Staines and four un-
named berewicks,*2 and it is likely that Laleham
was one of the latter, as the abbey held a large
amount of land there in 1291," and about the
same time Laleham is described as one of those
members of Staines which had belonged to West-
minster from time immemorial.*4 The abbey
continued to hold it until the Dissolution," when
the manor was ceded to the king, who caused it
to be annexed to the newly-formed honour of
Hampton Court.86 Laleham remained in the
hands of the king throughout the i6th century.
The site of the manor had been leased by
Westminster Abbey in 1538 to John Williams for
seventy-six years, and in 1588 the site was leased
on the same terms to Thomas Kay," and in 1608
to Sir Thomas Lake/"
4 Anct. D. B. 1853.
I Doc. in custody of the D. and C.
of Westm. chest D. no. 27151.
6 Recov. R. Mich. 10 Geo. II, rot.
4*3-
7 Manning, op. cit. in, 204.
• Ibid.
» y.C.H. Surr.
" Ibid.
II Brayley, Hitt. ofSmrr. ii, 171.
12 Ibid.
u Diet. Nat. Biog. Suppl. i, 196.
"Ibid, i, 113.
ls Stanley, Life of Thomas Arnold, 35.
16 Firth, Midd. 1 1 6.
17 Diet. Nat. Biog. Suppl. i, 70.
»» Ibid.
19 Inf. supplied by the Bd. of Agric.
80 Doc. in custody of D. and C. of
Westm. chest D, no. 27113.
u Cott MS. Faust. A. iii.
397
24
479-
""
tody
no.
326
Dam. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 128.
Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 13.
Plac. de Quo. tVarr. (Rec. Com.),
Feud. Aids, ii, 372 ; Doc. in cus-
of D. and C. of Westm. chest D.
27105-71 ; Dugdale, Man. i,
; Valor Etc!. (Rec. Com.), i, 410.
L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, 498 (36)
Pat. 31 Elit. pt. x, m. 20.
Pat. 4 Jas. I, pt ir, m. 17.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
S p 1 1. 1. r. x. Sabli a
emit voided between four
pierced motets or.
In 1612 James I granted the manor to Henry
Spiller," who was knighted in 1608.*° He leased
the site of the manor to a
widow, Jane Thompson,
and to Thomas Stapley,
and litigation took place
in 1630 touching the ar-
rears of twelve years of
rent and waste and spoil
on the part of the defen-
dants, Jane Thompson and
others," when it was alleged
that the latter had neglected
to give entertainment to
the steward and surveyor
of the manor and their ser-
vants, and had not provided ' fitt and competent
meat drink and lodging for them.' Amongst other
charges they were accused of not holding the
manor courts, and of taking a new toll of id. for
every team of large horses passing through the
hnd of the Old Farm adjoining the river.31
In 1640 proceedings for recusancy were insti-
tuted against Sir Henry's wife, Lady Anne Spiller,
and she was pronounced guilty on 5 May of that
year." Sir Henry took the king's side in the
Civil War, and after being taken prisoner and
confined in the Tower,34 he proposed to com-
pound f.>r his estates for the sum of £8, 6 1 1.*' He
died, however, in the early part of 1650, leaving
half the fine unpaid, and James Herbert, who had
married Jane Spiller, the granddaughter and heir-
at-law of Sir Henry, and Sir Thomas Reynell of
Weybridge, who had mar-
ried Sir Henry's daughter
Katherine, between them
paid the remainder of the
composition, and were ad-
mitted to the lands on
12 March 1652. Lale-
ham was apparently assigned
to Reynell, and was in-
herited by his son, also
named Thomas."6 It passed
to the latter's daughter and
heiress Elizabeth,37 who, as
her second husband, mar-
ried Sir Richard Reynell, son of Sir Richard Rey-
nell of East Ogwell, Devon.*8 The manor was
held jointly by Richard and Elizabeth, and by
Richard after his wife's death.'9 On his own death
argent
masoned and a chief in-
denied sable.
in 1723 it was inherited by his son Sir Thomas
Reynell.40 The latter's son died unmarried in 1 7 3 5 ,"
and in the following year Sir Thomas conveyed the
reversion to Sir Robert Lowther of Whitehaven,"
sometime governor of Barbados." Sir Thomas
Reynell seems to have continued to hold the manor
at any rate until 1741," but by 1768 it was in
the hands of Sir James Lowther," who was th'*
second son of Sir Robert, and was created Earl of
Lonsdale in 1 784. The year after his death in
1802" it was bought by the Earl of Lucan, in
whose family it remains at the present day.46"
The grange belonging to the abbey of West-
minster was apparently built about 1278." It
contained a room for the use of the monks.18 A
house was built about 1290, with stables for cattle
and sheep, piggeries, and a garden.49 The abbey
already possessed one garden,50 and apparently a
good deal of fruit was grown in Laleham, for fruit
to the amount of 23*. was sold to Roger the
fruiterer of Wraysbury in 1385-6." A smithy-
was built before 1300, but ceases to be mentioned
after 1354." There was a dovecote on the estate
in the 1 3th century,53 and as many as 189 doves
were sometimes sold in the year.*4 The dovecote
fell into disrepair in 1302," and was still neglected
in 1 306,56 after which there is no further mention
of it.
There was a windmill and a grain-mill in the
1 4th century," and pastures on Windmill Hill
and Grundmullhull are occasionally mentioned.5'
The abbey had a water-mill on the Thames,5*
which was considerably repaired in ifj6,w and
which appears to have been moved to a fresh place
in I3O2.61 A mill is mentioned in a grant of the
site of the manor in 1608," and a water-mill
belonged to the manor when it was held by
Sir Henry Spiller.63
A weir called ' Depewere ' lay between Staines
and Laleham, and was given to the Abbot of
Westminster in the I3th century by Gilbert son
of John de Monte, together with the fishery, and
also with three cart-loads of timber and two of
brushwood from the Abbot of Chertsey's wood,
for its upkeep.64 Weirs are mentioned in a grant
of the site of the manor in 1600," and there is
now a weir just beyond the parish boundary in
Staines, and a second weir at the southern boundary
opposite Chertsey.
A sailing boat was made for the bailiff of Lale-
har.i in 1290, at a cost of £7 4/.M
29 Pat. 10 Jas. I, pt. vii, no. 13.
80 G.E.C. Baronetage.
" Exch. Dtp. Mich. 6 Chas. I, no.
38.
•» Ibid.
» M M. Co. Rec. iii, 1 54.
M Midd. and Hera. N. and Q. iii, 45.
M Cal. of Com. for Confounding, 1 145.
M Feet of F. Midd. Trin. 19 Chas.
II ; G.E.C. Baronetage, iv, 212.
" P.R.O. Ct. R. portf. 191, no. 46.
"8 G.E.C. op. cit. iv, 212.
89 P.R.O. Ct. R. portf. 191, no. 46.
40 Feet of F. Div. Co. Mich. 2 Geo.
II ; G.E.C. op. cit.
« G.E.C. op. cit
45 Recov. R. Mich. 10 Geo. II, rot.
4*3-
48 Collint, Peerage, Suppl. (ed. 5),
349-
« B.M. fol. 21559, no. 58-
« Ibid. no. 162.
46 Burke, Peerage (1906), 1032.
«•» Ibid ; Firth, Middlesex, 165.
4? Doc. in curtody of D. and C. of
Westm. Abbey, chest D.noi. 27105-6.
•"> Ibid. no. 27108.
49 Ibid. no. 27109.
** Ibid. no. 27105-6.
41 Ibid. no. 27115.
** Ibid. no. 27116-39.
*• Ibid. no. 27105.
398
64 Ibid. no. 27108.
55 Ibid. no. 27113.
56 Ibid. no. 27115.
*' Ibid. no. 27133, &c.
58 Ibid. no. 27119, 27121,27128, &c.
69 Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 431.
M Doc. in custody of D. and C. of
Westm. Abbey, chest D. no. 27105.
61 Ibid. no. 27113.
M Pat. 4 las. I, pt. ix, m. 17.
<" Exch. Dep. Mich. 6 Chas. I.
64 Abst. of Chartul. of Weitm. Abbey
in possession of Saml. Bentley, no. 51.
•' Pat. 4 Ja«. I, pt. ix, m. 17.
" Doc. in custody of the D. and C.
of Westm. Abbey, chest D. no. 27110.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
LALEHAM
From about 1294 to 1304 the manor courts
seem to have been held almost monthly, and gener-
ally on a date towards the end of the month."
After 1331 they were held three times a year, the
court held with view of frankpledge falling always
near the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.68
The reeve (prepositus), who was responsible to
Westminster for the manor, appears to have been
elected by the homage,68 and to have been usually
a native tenant of the manor. Though the manor
was generally managed by a reeve, the abbey occa-
sionally appointed a Serjeant,70 or a collector of
rents." There are four court rolls extant of the
reign of Henry VI," and twelve are preserved at
the Public Record Office which date from 1 690
to 1721."
LA HYDE or BILLETS. In 1086 Robert
Blund (Blunt) held 8 hides as a manor.74 This
land is ascribed to Laleham only, but it probably
extended into the neighbouring parish of Littleton
also, as the Blunts certainly held land there.74
Littleton is not mentioned by name in the
Domesday Survey, but as Westminster Abbey held
the more important estate in Laleham, there
would hardly be room in so small a parish for
another manor estimated at as much as 8 hides.
In the time of Edward the Confessor Robert
Blunt's manor had been held by Achi, the
king's servant, and it had then lain within the
jurisdiction of Staines.7' It was held of Robert
Blunt by one Estrild, a nun.77 Laleham is not
mentioned again among the lands of the Blunt
family, whose chief property lay in Suffolk, and
who were barons of Ixworth in that county.78
The last of this branch of the family, William
Blunt, was killed at the battle of Evesham, and
his estates were divided be-
tween his sisters, Agnes the
wife of Sir William Criketot
of Ovisdone, and Rose wife
of Robert de Valoigne.79
In the reign of Ed-
ward III Robert de Egles-
fcld held the manor of La
Hyde in Laleham.80 He
held it by gift from his
father, John de Eglesfeld, EGLISFELD. Argtnt
who was one of the heirs three eagles gulet.
of John de Crokedayk.81
The Eglesfelds and the Crokedayks were Cum-
berland families,1* and it is possible that the latter
represents a branch of the Criketots, and that the
manor of La Hyde was part of the 8 hides held
by Robert Blunt in 1086. There is, how-
ever, no actual proof of the connexion, nor is
Laleham mentioned among the lands inherited by
John de Eglesfeld from John de Crokedayk.8*
Robert de Eglesfeld son of John was chaplain to
Queen Philippa, the consort of Edward III, and
the founder of Queen's College, Oxford.84 His
manor of La Hyde apparently gave its name to a
pasture known as the Hyde Acre. An extent
taken in 1327 shows that it lay in Laleham,
Littleton, and Staines, and that it had a house and
garden, stables, a grange, and that there were in
demesne 36^ acres of arable, and 9 acres of pas-
ture;84 the whole being worth £6 14*. lo^J*
In 1328, Robert de Eglesfeld granted the manor
to Edward III in exchange for Ren wick or
Ravenswyk, a hamlet in Cumberland.87 The king
added La Hyde to the manor of Kempton, in
Sunbury parish, and gave it into the custody of
John de L'Isle, the constable of Windsor Castle.88
The capital messuage and garden and demesne
lands were then held by Roger Belet, the pantler
(fatietarius) of the queen's household,89 an office
which seems to have been hereditary in the Belet
family since the reign of John.90 In 1337 these
lands were granted to Roger to hold in fee by the
services due,91 though the estate still remained
in the manorial jurisdiction of Kempton.9' In
1366 Belet conveyed these and the reversion of all
his lands in Staines, Littleton, and Laleham to the
abbey of Westminster.9* From this time it seems
to have been merged in the abbey's manor of Lale-
ham, and to have been distinguished under the
name of Beletes tenement.94 At the Dissolution
it was probably represented by the ' manor ' of
BILLETS, which was valued separately from that of
Laleham at the sum of £6 1 3/. 4^." It was
surrendered with the rest of the abbey's lands to the
Crown, and was annexed to the honour of Hampton
Court.96
The site of the manor was leased in 1538 to
Thomas Cawarden, and later to Roger Rogers.
In 1585 it was leased to John Keye (being
described as ' Billets in Laleham ' 97), and in 1606
to Henry Spiller,98 to whom it was finally granted,
with the manor of Laleham, in 1612." The
history of the two manors from that time was
identical, and they were generally described as the
manor of Laleham and Billets,' otherwise ' Laleham
Billets.' The name of Billets is not to be found
now in the parish, but land known as the Billet
67 Doc. in custody of the D. and C.
of Westm. Abbey, chest D. no. 27 1 1 1-
14.
63 Ibid. no. 27127, &c.
69 Ibid. no. 27120.
'" Ibid. no. 27119, 27133.
71 Ibid. no. 27161-8.
" Ibid. no. 27169, 27170.
"8 P.R.O. Ct. R. portf. 191, no. 4.6.
7< Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 131.
7s v.». Littleton.
7« Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 131.
" Ibid.
"9 Croke, Hist, of the Crake family,
i, 100.
?9 Chan. Inq. p.m. 48 Hen. Ill, no.
25.
80 Ibid, i Edw. Ill (ist. nos.), no. I.
81 Ibid.
8a Ibid. 18 Edw. Ill (ist. nos.), no.
53-
83 Ibid. 10 Edw. Ill, no. 24.
M Diet. Nat. Blag, xvii, 165.
85 Chan. Inq. p.m. \ Edw. Ill (ist.
nos.), no. i.
86 Chart. R. 2 Edw. Ill, m. 24,
no. 79.
*7 Close, 2 Edw. Ill, m. 34 d.
88 Abbrtv. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.),
ii, 17.
399
»» Mins. Accts. (P.R.O.), bdle. 916,
no. 27.
90 Cart. Antiq. II, 15.
91 Cat. Pat. 1334-8, p. 410.
9S P.R.O. Ct. R. portf. 191, no. 41.
99 Abst. of Chart, of Westm. Abbey,
no. 88, 89, 125, 134,135 ; Chan. Inq.
p.m. 40 Edw. Ill (2nd noa.), no. 20.
94 Close, 3 Edw. IV, m. n, 12.
95 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 410.
96 Pat. 4 Jas. I, pt. xiti.
97 Pat. 27 Eliz. pt. v, m. 30 ; 27 Eliz.
pt. xi, m. 33.
98 Pat. 4 Jas. I, pt. xx, xxi.
99 Pat. 10 Jas. I, pt. vii, m. 18.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
estate lies on the borders of the neighbouring parish
of Staines, and perhaps represents that part of the
manor which originally lay in that parish.
At the time of the Domesday Survey, the Count
of Mortain held two hides in Laleham.100 This
land had been in the time of Edward the Con-
fessor in the possession of the abbey of West-
minster, under whom it was held by the bailiff of
Staines, who could not sell it out of the soke of
Staines without permission from the abbey.'01
The Count of Mortain gave it to the abbey of
Fecamp, and the abbot still held lands and rent
in Laleham in 1 1 34, which he exchanged for other
lands in France with Nigel son of William, nephew
(ntpoi) of Robert, Earl of Gloucester.10' There is
no further trace of this land, but it is probable
that it came again into the hands of Westminster
Abbey, and that it was then merged in the manor
of Laleham.
The church of ALL S41NTS, a
CHURCH little ivy-grown brick-faced building,
though containing some I zth-century
work in the nave, has been so altered and rebuilt
that little really old work is left ; at the present
time it consists of a brick-faced chancel 21 ft. 6 in.
by I 5 ft. 4 in., a north chapel belonging to the Earls
of Lucan, 21 ft. by 13 ft. 9 in., faced with I 7th-
century brickwork, a nave 34 ft. by 1 5 ft. 4 in. of the
1 2th century, which had north and south aisles, of
which the latter has been pulled down and the
former rebuilt in modern times, and at the west
end of the north aisle an 1 8th-century brick tower,
covered with ivy, having a west doorway and
round-headed windows.
There is no east window to the chancel, the
space being occupied by a large picture of our
Lord walking on the water with St. Peter ; this is
lit by a skylight above. On the north side the
wall has been cut away towards the Lucan chapel,
which is lit on the north and east by square-headed
cut brick windows of three four-centred lights.
On the south side of the chancel is a modern
Gothic doorway.
The chancel arch is slightly pointed, of one
chamfered order, with a chamfered abacus, all so
covered with colour wash that it is impossible to
be sure of its age The nave has arcades of three
bays of late 12th-century date, with edge-cham-
fered pointed arches on massive round columns
with scalloped capitals ; all the arches have cham-
fered labels, except the east arch of the north
arcade. The label of the middle arch of this
arcade has billet ornament on its label, re-used
material from an arch of different radius. In
the blocking of the south arcade are two
modern two-light windows in ijth-century style,
and in the western bay a doorway which looks
like 14th-century work, leading into a red brick
porch. At the west end of the nave is a gallery
containing an organ, which hides a modern three-
light window.
The north aisle has three modern two-light
north windows like those on the south of the nave ;
at the west end is a gallery, and the east end opens
to the Lucan chapel by a plain chamfered pointed
arch.
In the chancel is a monument to George Perrott,
baron of the Exchequer, who died 1780, and his
wife Mary, 1784, and there are others of the
1 9th century. The font, at the west end of the
north aisle, is modern, in 1 2th-century style.
There are three bells by William Eldridge,
1663, and a set of eight tubular bells.
The plate consists of modern chalice, paten and
flagon, and a standing paten, the gift of Samuel
Freeman, 1767.
The registers date from 1538. Book (i) contains
baptisms 1538 to 1690, burials 1538 to 1682, and
marriages 1539 to 1643 ; (ii) baptisms 1690 to
1692, marriages 1682 to 1683, 1643 to 1690 ;
(iii) printed marriages 1754 to 1789 and 1801 to
1 8 1 2 ; (iv) burials 1 804 to 1812, baptisms 1 804 to
1 8 1 2 ; (v) marriages and baptisms 1 789 to 1 80 1 , and
burials 1789 to 1802, having threepenny stamps.
Laleham was from the earliest
JDrOJfSON times a chapelry of Staines,10' with
which it was probably appropri-
ated, but until the I5th century it was served
by a separate vicar appointed by the Abbot
and Convent of Westminster, patrons of the
mother church.104 By an order made by William,
Bishop of London, however (probably between
1426 and 1431), the vicar of Staines was in
future to appoint curates to the chapels of that
church, but it was provided that if there were any
vicar who had been canonically appointed to any of
the chapels, he should remain there during his life-
time.105 Apparently the order came into force at
Laleham during the latter half of the I5th century,
for the last institution to the vicarage took place in
December 1439, and in 1492 Laleham is men-
tioned as a chapel in the institution to the vicarage of
Staines.106 At the Dissolution the patronage of the
latter fell to the Crown. In 1542 the advowson of
Laleham was separated from that of Staines, and was
granted to the dean and chapter of the Cathedral
Church of Westminster,107 but there is no mention of
an institution to the vicarage, and in 1550 Lalehnm
appears again as a chapel of Staines in the presenta-
tion of that living which was then the gift of the
Crown.108 In 1560 the queen granted the vicarage
and free chapel of Laleham to the newly-founded
Collegiate Church of Westminster,109 but again
there is no record of any institution.110 In 1612
the advowson was given with the manor to Sir
Henry Spiller,111 from whom it descended to Sir
Thomas Reynell,1" who presented immediately
after the Restoration and again in 1662 and 1663. "*
100 Dem. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 129.
l°l Ibid.
101 Round, Cal. of Doc. France, 41.
108 Pc^ MY*. Tajf. (Rec. Com.), 17 ;
Doc. in custody of the D. and C. of
Wcstm. press 5, shelf 2, no. 16782,
16811 ; Feud, Aidt, ii, 378.
lw Newcourt, /Je/«r/. i, 683 ; Ca/.
P«r. 1313-17, p. 459 ; I38J-5. p.
395-
05 Lond. Epis. Reg. Gilbert, fol.
108 Newcourt, Repert. i, 683.
W i. aw-* ". #M. *V/7, xvii, p. 395.
400
108 Newcourt, op. cit.
10» Pat. 2 Eliz. pt. xi, m. 19.
110 Newcourt, op. cit.
111 Pat. 10 Jas. I, pt. vii, no. 18.
Ila See manor.
"• In«t. Bks. (P.R.O.).
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
LITTLETON
It descended with the manor (q.v.), and thus came
by purchase to Sir Robert Lowther in 1736."* In
1773 and 1778, however, Laleham is again
mentioned as a chapel of Staines,115 and during the
early part of the igth century it continued to be
served by a curate of the mother church. At that
time services were held on alternate Sundays with
Ashfbrd, although it is mentioned in 1826 that
' the inhabitants have the benefit of other preachers,
who officiate occasionally.' The living was a
perpetual curacy in the gift of the Earl of Lucan
from 1858 to i865,116 after which it is called a
vicarage. The advowson still remains with the
Earl of Lucan.
In the 1 4th century 10 marks from the church
of Oakham were paid yearly to the Abbot of
Westminster's household.1" These were given up
by Abbot Littlington to the convent, and I o marks
from the church at Laleham were granted instead,
for the supply of plate.
The rectory, which was held by Westminster
Abbey till the Dissolution, was granted in 1602
to Guy Godolphin and John Smythe.118
Godolphin sold his interest to Smythe, who con-
veyed the rectory to Urias Babington.1" The
latter died seised of it in 1606, having demised it
to his younger son William.110 Under the
Commonwealth it was held by George and Robert
Holmes, who in 1650 and 1657 conveyed their
respective shares to William Powell or Hinson.1"
Before 1682 it came into the hands of Robert
Gibbon,1" in whose family it continued until Mrs.
Elizabeth Joddrell, daughter of Phillipps Gibbon,
sold it to Mr?. Mary Jeffreson, who in 1733
alienated to Samuel Freeman.11* The latter's
daughter Martha married Captain John Coggan,114
who held the rectory in 1782, and as late as
1 8oo.115 In 1836 Mr. Conosmaker, Mr. Hartwell,
and Mr. John Irving are mentioned as the im-
propriators,116 but after this nothing can be learnt
about the rectory.
Charity of Ann Reeve for bread :
CHARITIES see under Ashford.
In 1819 Mrs. Mary Hodgson,
by will dated 4. September, bequeathed a sum of
stock, now represented by £95 consols with the
official trustees, the income to be given to the poor
of the parish by the vicar and his successors to
whom and in what manner he should think
necessary.
The Poor's Land consists of 173. 2 r. acquired
under the Inclosure Act, let at £22 lew. a year,
the administration of which was regulated by a
scheme of the Charity Commissioners of 4 August
1865.
In 1 896 Dr. John Hearn Pinckney, by a
declaration of trust dated 10 February, settled a
sum of £ 1 20 London, Chatham and Dover Railway
4$ per cent, stock for the benefit of the National
School.
By a scheme of the Board of Education, the
Poor's Land and Dr. Pinckney's Charity were con-
solidated with the National School under the title
of the ' Laleham School Foundation,' whereby the
trustees were authorized to raise a loan of £300 by
mortgage of the trust property, and to sell the
railway stock for the purpose of the enlargement of
the school buildings, at a cost of ^500. A sum of
^150 ig/. 6d. was realized by the sale of the
railway stock. The loan is subject to replacement
within thirty years, and within the same period
a sum of £174 consols has to be funded with the
official trustees in lieu of the railway stock.
In 1906-7 the income of the charities (other
than Ann Reeve's Charity) was used as a contri-
bution to the School Enlargement Fund.
LITTLETON
Lutleton, Litlinton (xiii cent.) ; Lutlyngton,
Littelyngton, Littelton (xiv cent.) ; Lytelyngton,
(xvi cent.).
The parish of Littleton lies to the west of
Laleham. The northern portion is roughly
triangular in shape, the base about 2 miles long,
lying along the road from Staines to Kingston,
the sides narrowing gradually towards the village
at the apex. The southern part is a mere slip of
land about l^ miles long and nowhere more than
half a mile wide, which runs from the village to
the River Thames. The curious shape of the
parish may perhaps be accounted for by the fact
that it probably formed part of Laleham until the
end of the nth century,1 when this wedge-shaped
piece was separated from the western part of the
latter, the dividing line being drawn at the River
Ash. The ground falls gradually towards the
Thames, and the higher and more northerly parts
are well wooded, while two stretches of common,
known respectively as Astlam and Littleton Common,
fall within the northern boundary. The village is
one of the least spoilt in the county. It is built
almost entirely of red brick, and presents a cheer-
ful and peaceful aspect as it clusters about the
church. There has never been either public-
house or shop in the parish, and the only trade
represented is that of the blacksmith. No railway
line runs through the parish, the nearest station
being at Shepperton, ij miles. A road from
Feltham passes through the village from north to
south, and joins the Laleham-Shepperton road,
"« Recov. R. Mich. 10 Geo. II, rot.
»'s Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.).
116 Clergy Lisa, passim.
"? Hist. MSS. Cm. Ref. iv, App. i,
171.
118 Pat. 44 Eliz. pt. xii., m. 6.
119 Lysons, Environs of Land. (1800),
v, i.
140 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxcii,
186 ; Exch. Dtp. Mich. 7 Jus. I, no.
1657.
Feet of F. Trin. 1650; Ea»t.
401
1M Feet of Div. Co. East. 34 Chas.
II.
1M Lysons, Environs of Land, v, 200.
l" Ibid.
»« Feet of F. East. 22 Ceo. III.
"6 Clerical Guide, 1836.
1 See descent of manor.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
which runs across the narrow part of the parish,
and from the latter a road leads southwards to
Chertsey Bridge.
There was formerly a wooden bridge here con-
necting the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, of
which either county maintained half.' About
1770 the Middlesex part was much out of repair,
and the magistrates of Middlesex prevailed on those
of Surrey to join in building a stone bridge.
When the contractor had finished the number of
' arches he had undertaken, they did not reach to
the Surrey shore, and it cost that county a large
sum to make good the deficiency.1
Much land in the parish belongs to Captain
Thomas Wood of Gwernyfed Park, Three Cocks,
Brecknockshire. Littleton House, which was
originally the family seat of the Woods, was burnt
down in 1874. It was a large brick mansion,
surrounded by a park and grounds of 600 acres,
and is said to have been built during the reign of
William III, by the workmen who were then
employed at Hampton Court.4 This seems all the
more likely considering that the Thomas Wood of
that time was ranger at Hampton Court.' Little-
ton House contained Hogarth's famous picture
' Actors Dressing,' which was destroyed when the
house was burnt.6 A portion of the house has been
rebuilt, and is now the residence of Mr. Richard
Burbridge. It stands behind the church to the
south of the village, and the waters of the River
Ash form a natural boundary to the grounds.
Another considerable house, ' the Manor House,'
is the residence of Mr. Theodore Bouwens.
Littleton was inclosed in 1848 under the
General Inclosures Act.7 There are 1,138 acres
in the parish, of which 325 acres are arable, 5 24
acres are permanent grass, and 2 70 acres are wood-
land, and 1 9 acres are water.* The population is
principally dependent on agriculture. The soil is
sandy loam, and the subsoil gravel. The chief
crops are wheat, barley, clover, mangold-wurzel,
peas, and beans.
A weir is mentioned in 1235, when it was
conveyed by William le Sire to Robert de
Beauchamp.*
LITTLETON is not mentioned
MANORS by name in the Domesday Survey.
In the reign of Edward the Confessor
it was probably included in the estate of Achi, a
servant of the king.'" The ' soke ' then belonged
to Staines. Achi's manor, assessed at 8 hides,
passed to Robert Blund, to whom it belonged in
1086, when it was said to be in Laleham." But
it has been seen that the estate was probably too
large to have been included as a whole within the
present bounds of that parish," and as the two
parishes are contiguous, and as the descendants of
Robert Blunt held Littleton in the time of
Henry II," it may be concluded that in the llth
century the latter formed part of the 8 hides
ascribed to Laleham.
Littleton is first mentioned by name about
1 1 66, when it was held as one knight's fee
in the barony of William Blunt, Baron of Ix-
worth, by whom it had been inherited from his
father Gilbert, who held it in the reign of
Henry I." It still formed part of the barony in
the latter half of the 1 3th century," but on the
division of the Blunt lands after the death of
William Blunt at the battle of Evesham (1265),"
the mesne overlordship of the fee does not appear
to have passed to either of his heirs. It appears
to have been by l 3 1 6 in the hands of the Abbey
and Convent of Westminster," who had tempor-
alities there as early as 1291," and it is probable
that the abbey may have received a grant of it
towards the end of the 1 3th century. It was
apparently held of them in 1528.
In n 66 Littleton was held of the Blunts
by Robert de Littleton." It apparently de-
scended to Osbert de Littleton, who conveyed it
in 1 204 to Robert de Leveland," the son of
Nathaniel de Leveland and Desirea, his wife, of
Leveland in Kent." His family held the offices
of custodian of the royal palace of Westminster and
of the Fleet Prison," which offices descended at
this time with the manor of Leveland." The
Leveland inheritance came in the reign of
Henry III to an heiress, Margaret de Leveland,
who married first Giles de Badlesmere," and
secondly Fulk de Peyforer," but having no issue
by either marriage, her heir was found to be Ralph
de Grendon.16 On his death, which occurred
about 1280, he was succeeded by his brother
Stephen, who was also known as de Leveland,"
and who left an only daughter and heiress Joan."
She married John Shenche or Sench, by whom
she had a son of the same name," who died in
1 349 and was succeeded by Margaret his daughter.*0
Margaret died in 1361, and her heir was found to
be Roger, son of Roger Sapurton,81 who held the
manor of Littleton," and also the offices of
custodian of Westminster Palace and the Fleet
Prison.8* After the death of Roger the manor
* Manning, Hitl. of Surr. iii, 205.
* Ibid.
4 Keane, Beauties of Midd. 1 78.
* Burke, Landed Gentry (1906), 1842.
* Firth, MM. 167.
7 Slater, Engl. Peasantry anJ the
Enclosure of Common Fields, 185.
* Inf. supplied bjr the Bd. of
Agrie. (1905).
' Feet of F. Lond. and Midd. 19
Hen. Ill, no. 1 16.
10 Dom. Bk. (Ree. Com.), i, 131.
u Ibid. ; tee descent of manor of
Billet! in Laleham.
11 See deiccnt of manor of Billeti in
Laleham.
" Red. Bk. of Excb. (Roll. Ser.), i,
409 ; Lib. Niger (ed. Hearne), i, 297.
" Ibid.
15 Testa dt Nivill (Ree. Com.), 360,
361, 362.
16 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, i.
17 Feud. Aids, iii, 372.
"Pofe Nieb. Tax. (Ree. Com.),
1 6.
19 Red Bit. of Exch. (Rolli Ser.), i,
409 ; Lib. Niger, i, 197.
*> Feet of F. Lond. and Midd. 5 John,
no. 27.
11 Round, C*!. of Doc. France, i, 488.
M Mador, Hist, of Exch. i, 514;
Rat. Ctmallarii (Ree. Com.), 99, 103 ;
402
Rot. de Oklat. tt Fin. (Ree. Com.), i,
492.
** Hatted, Hist, of Kent, ii, 770.
14 Pat. 40 Hen. Ill ; MS. quoted by
Madox, op. cit.
85 Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Edw. I, no. 17.
* Hatted, Hist, of Kent, ii, 771.
97 Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. I, no. 16.
* Hatted, op. cit. ii, 771.
" Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. Ill, no.
65.
» Ibid. 23 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, no. 127.
11 Ibid. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, no. 33.
** Plac. in Cane, file 29, no. I.
" Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Hen. VI, no.
19.
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
LITTLETON
was held by his daughter Elizabeth,34 whose
husband, William Venour, was keeper of the Fleet
in I44O.85 It came probably after the death of
Elizabeth to Ellen, the daughter and heir of John
Sapurton, brother of Roger, who married Robert
Markham, with whom she conveyed it in 1528 to
Anthony Windesore, representative of the family
of Windsor of Stanwell.36 Edward Lord Windsor
sold it in 1563 to Francis Vaughan," and it
appears to have come before 1573 to John
Bartram, who transferred his right in it in that
year to Thomas Newdigate." The latter possibly
acted for the Somerset family, as Francis Newdigate
married Anne, Duchess of Somerset, the widow of
the Protector,39 and Henry Newdigate conveyed the
manor in 1600 to her son, Edward, Earl of
Hertford.40 It was inherited after the latter's
death by his grandson and heir William,41 who
succeeded to the earldom in 1 62 1.42 He con-
veyed it in 1627 to Daniel and Thomas Moore,"
of whom Thomas conveyed it to Nathaniel
Goodlad in 1648." The history of the manor
for the next hundred years is somewhat obscure.
It is said to have come early in the 1 8th century
to the family of Lambell,45 the last of whom,
Gilbert Lambell, certainly held it in 1749." He
died in 1783," having sold
the manor to Thomas
Wood, whose family had
held the manor of Astlam
(q.v.) in this parish since
1 660. His direct descend-
ant, Captain Thomas Wood,
holds the manor of Little-
ton at the present day.48
Several members of the
family have gained distinc- WooD of Littleton.
tion in military service, of Satle a bull faaant ar-
whom perhaps the most g">t.
famous is General Sir
David Wood (1812-94), the son of Colonel
Thomas Wood of Littleton." He served in the
Boer campaign of 1842-3, and commanded the
Royal Artillery at Balaclava, Inkerman, and be-
fore Sebastopol, and the Horse Artillery in the
Indian Mutiny.50 The eighteen tattered colours of
the Grenadier Guards, which now hang in the
church, were placed there by the father of the
present representative of the family, who was
colonel of that regiment.
The Leveland family appears to have let the
manor to tenants. Robert de Winton held it as
a tenant of Robert de Leveland in 1209, paying a
yearly rent of I Ib. of pepper." Edward de
Winton owed the service of three-quarters of a
knight's fee in Littleton during part of the 1 3th
century." It is uncertain how long the de Wintons
held the manor, but it was probably until about
1335, when an Edmund de Winton presented to
the rectory,53 the advowson having been first
granted to Robert de Winton in 1209." Possibly
the manor passed very shortly to William de
Perkelee, who held the advowson about that time,55
and tenants of the same name, who were presum-
ably his descendants, held the manor in the reign
of Henry VI, rendering the same yearly rent of
i Ib. of pepper by which the de Wintons had
held.86 Guy de Perkelee, citizen and fish-
monger of London, appears to have held the manor
in 1424." A few years later Simon de Perkelee
and his brother Guy, who were possibly his sons,
held the manor together.58 Simon, who was a
citizen and scrivener of London, died in 1439, leav-
ing a son William, then nineteen years of age.59
Litigation took place in 1 444, Guy and his sister
Matilda, the wife of John Talent, having ap-
parently taken possession of the manor, and their
nephew William attempted to recover it from
William de Bokeland, to whom they had conveyed
it.60 It is possible that William de Perkelee died
before the conclusion of the suit, for in the follow-
ing year the manor was divided, two-thirds being
held by Guy and his wife, and one-third by Agnes,
who was William's wife, with remainder to Guy.
The latter, in that year,61 conveyed his share and
the remainder of the third part to William de
Bokeland, who appears to have held the whole manor
in 1458." After this time the under- tenure seems
to have lapsed.
The so-called manor of ASTLAM (Ashlam,
Aschlam, Astelam, Astleham, xvii and xviii cents.)
appears to have been held in chief. The name
first occurs in 1600, when Katharine Ryse, widow,
conveyed the manor to Francis Townley."
Nicholas Townley, who was probably the heir of
Francis, and Joan his wife held it in 1650-1,"
and in 1 660 sold it to Thomas Wood, the son and
heir apparent of Edward Wood, alderman of Lon-
don,65 who was the first of his family to settle at
Littleton.66 The manor remained with his descen-
84 Plac. in Cane, file 29, no. I.
88 Cat. Pat. 1436-41, p. 422.
»« Feet of F. Midd. Mich. 20 Hen.
VIII.
8" Recov. R. Trin. 5 Eliz. rot. 608 ;
Com. Pleas D. Enr. Trin. 5 Eliz. m.
'3-
"Ibid. Mich. 15 & 1 6 Eliz. This
document it too much decayed to be
inspected.
89 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 174.
« Feet of F. Midd. Hil. 16 Eliz. ;
Mich. 42 & 43 Eliz. ; Div. Co. Trin. 44
Eliz. ; Midd. East. 4 Jas. I.
« Ibid. Hil. 10 Jas. I ; Hil. 2
Chas. I.
49 G.E.C. Ctmfleti Peerage, iv, 225.
48 Feet of F. Midd. Hil. 2 Chas. I.
44 Ibid. Mich. 24 Chas. I.
45 Lysons, Environs of Land. (1800),
v, 202.
46 Recov. R. Hil. 23 Geo. II, rot.
383.-
4" Lysons, op. cit. v, 202.
48 Burke, Landed Gentry (1906),
1842.
49 Diet. Nat. Biog. xii, 354.
"Ibid.
" Pipe R. 2 John, m. 6 d.
63 Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 360-
2. It was then said to be held of the
Blunts, but this was probably a mis-
take.
68 Lysons, op. cit. v, 204.
54 Pipe R. 1 1 John, m. 6 d.
6S Newcourt, Refert. i, 688.
403
M Plac. in Cane, file 29, no. i.
* Close, 2 Hen. VI, m. 14 d.
68 Plac. in Cane, file 29, no. I.
«» Ibid.
60 Co. Plac. Midd. no. 41 ; Feet
of F. Lond. and Midd. 21 Hen. VI, no.
105.
" Feet of F. Lond and Midd. 23
Hen. VI, no. 120.
" Feet of F. Lond. and Midd. 36
Hen. VI, no. 185.
«8 Feet of F. Midd. Mich. 42-3
Eliz.
M Ibid. Hil. 1650-1 ; Recov. R. East.
1651, rot. 21 ; Feet of F. Midd. Mich.
1655.
•* Close, 13 Chas. II, pt. xv, no. 23.
*• Burke, Landed Gentry.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
lAA/
U\f\f
dants,*7 and was inherited by Thomas Wood, who
bought the manor of Littleton (q.v.) towards the
close of the 1 8th century. It is last mentioned in
1 80 1,68 after which time it was probably merged
in the manor of Littleton. The name is still pre-
served in Astlam Common, which lies in the
north-west of the parish.
According to an extent taken in 1660, there
was a ' mansion house built with brick,' where
the lord of the manor dwelt.69 Belonging to it
were outhouses, barns, stables, mill-houses, or-
chards, gardens, and ' back sides.' ™ A dove-house
was built between 1600 and 1650, and dove-
houses are mentioned in i66o.71
The Beauchamps of Hacche in Somerset held land
in the parish for several generations. It does not
appear of whom the land was
held in early times, the only
mention of an overlord oc-
curring in 1360, when the
Abbot of Westminster is
named." Robert de Beau-
champ acquired land there
in 1235 from Richard son
of Bartholomew,73 and in
the same year a weir from
William le Sire." In 1 34 1
John de Beauchamp, Baron
of Hacche, the descendant of
Robert, received lands in Littleton from Henry de
Roydone and Joan his wife, which were, however,
held by Henry and Joan for the term of their lives
for the yearly rendering of one rose." In the
same year Alice widow of William Raghener con-
veyed premises in Littleton to John de Beauchamp
which she also held for life on rendering one rose
yearly at the feast of St. John the Baptist.76 The
Ragheners, or Raheners, had held land in Littleton
since 1283, when John Rahener acquired 8 acres
from John Argent and his wife Margaret."
William Raghener held land there in 1 3 1 o,78 and
William de la Lee conveyed certain premises there
to him in 1321." John de Beauchamp's lands
were inherited by his son, also named John,80 who
died seised of tenements at Littleton in 1360."
His heirs were found to be his sister Cicely and his
nephew John Meriet, the son of his second sister
Eleanor by her first husband.8* The Littleton
lands apparently fell to the share of John Meriet.83
In 1373 he released all his right to the 'manor'
of Littleton to William Beauchamp and others,
who were presumably acting as his trustees.84 This
is the only instance in which the estate was called
BEAUCHAMP of Hacche.
Vair.
SEYMOUR. Cuhs
fair of taingi or.
a manor. John Meriet died in 1391, leaving an
only daughter and heiress Elizabeth, who married
Urias Seymour.86 The Meriet lands came in this
way to the Seymours, as did the lands of the
Beauchamps by the marriage of Cicely Beau-
champ with Sir Roger Seymour,86 and were in-
herited eventually by Ed-
ward Seymour, Earl of
Hertford and Duke of Som-
erset, who acted as Protec-
tor in the reign of Ed-
ward VI, and who was
created Baron of Hacche in
I536.87 His son held the
manor of Littleton (q.v.),
and it is probable that the
lands originally held by
the Beauchamps became
merged in that estate.
It is just possible that in 1340 Sir John de
Moleyns held lands here, which were sometimes
called a manor. In that year he obtained a con-
firmation of the manors of ' La Lee Littleton,'
and others.88 He forfeited his lands in that year, and
they were not restored until I34S.89 No mention
is made of this ' manor ' in the records of the resti-
tution. Possibly the lands had been granted to
some tenant, not improbably to Augustine
Waleys. On 26 March 1346 Augustine Waleys
and Maud his wife conveyed the ' manor of
Littleton ' to John Gogh,90 who conveyed it at
midsummer of the same year to Edward de Bohun
and Philippa his wife, with remainder in case of
default of heirs to Guy de Brian." It seems very
likely that this estate was not really a manor. It
probably came to Guy de Brian in due course,
although there is no mention of a ' manor ' be-
longing to him. Sir Guy already held lands in
Littleton, part of which (one messuage and I acre
of land) he had acquired in 1 346 9> by conveyance
from Sir John de Moleyns, who held it as early as
1 340.** He received a grant of free warren in his
demesne lands at Littleton in 1350." The estate
passed in 1390 to his eldest surviving child,
Philippa, wife first of John Devereux, and then of
Sir Henry de Scrope.95 She died holding a ' toft
and lands in Littleton ' in 1407, when her property-
passed to her sister Elizabeth, wife of Robert
Lovell.96 About 1473-4 Robert Lovell was en-
gaged in a lawsuit with one Katharine Palmer
concerning these lands.97 But they were never
known as a manor, and are not traceable beyond
this date.
•' Feet of F. Midd. Trin. 16 Geo. III.
68 Recov. R. Mich. 42 Geo. IV, rot.
124.
69 Close, 13 Chas. II, pt. rv, no. 23.
•o Feet of F. Midd. Mich. 42-3 Eliz. ;
cf. Hil. 1650-1.
71 Close, 13 Chas. II, pt. xv, no. 23.
<a Chan. Inq. p.m. 35 Edw. Ill, pt. i,
no. 36.
"8 Feet of F. Lond. and Midd. 19
Hen. Ill, no. 115.
" Ibid. no. 1 1 6.
"Ibid. 15 Edw. Ill, no. 143.
** Ibid. no. 150.
"" Ibid. 10 Edw. I, no. 120.
7" Ibid. 3 Edw. II, no. 50.
79 Ibid. 14 Edw. II, no. 272.
80 Croke, Gen. Hitt. of the Crate
Family, ii, 205.
81 Chan. Inq. p.m. 35 Edw. Ill, pt.
i, no. 36.
M Ibid. ; Croke, op. cit. ii, 205.
89 Fin. R. 36 Edw. Ill, m. 27, no. 83.
84 Close, 8 Ric. II, m. 28 d.
84 Chan. Inq. p.m. 15 Ric. II (i»t
not.), no. 48.
86 Croke, op. cit. ii, 205.
87 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, vii, 174.
88 Chart. R. 4 Edw. Ill, no. 30.
89 Col. Pat. 1343-5. P- 543-
404
90 Feet of F. Lond. and Midd. 20
Edw. Ill, no. 221.
91 Ibid.no. 214.
m Ibid. 20 Edw. Ill, no. 207.
M Ibid. 14 Edw. Ill, no. 135.
91 Chart. R. 24 Edw. Ill, no. 145,
m. i, no. 3. Dugdale (Bar. ii, 14;)
says that Sir J. Moleyns held the
manor of Littleton in Wilt*. This is
not substantiated by his reference to
Chart R. 14 Edw. Ill, no. 30, where
no county is mentioned.
95 G.E.C. Complete Peerage, ii, 445.
96 Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Hen. IV. m. 54.
97 Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 4, no. 112.
LITTLETON CIILRCH : XAVI: I.OOKIM; EAST
CHEST IN LITTLETON CHURCH
SPELTHORNE HUNDRED
The church of ST. MARY
CHURCH MAGDALENE consists of chancel
39 ft. 2 in. by 17 ft. 6 in., nave 33 ft.
4 in. by 19 ft. 4 in., north aisle 6ft. wide, south
aisle 6 ft. 9 in. wide, west tower, and some build-
ings on the north of the chancel, which were burial-
places for the Wood family, built in 1705, but
are now transformed into vestries.
The chancel seems to date from the 1 3th cen-
tury, and the plan of the nave is perhaps of the
1 2th, a south aisle having been added in the 1 3th
century, and a north aisle in the I4th ; the
clearstory is of red brick, and probably of the i6th
century ; and the west tower except for its top
stage, and the south porch are perhaps of the same
date. The walls, except those of the clearstory
and north aisle, are rough-cast, and the roofs are
red tiled, with plastered coves.
The chancel has a modern east triplet of lan-
cets, two original lancets on the north, to the east
of which is a modern doorway into the vestries ;
and in the south wall three modern lancets, a
window of two trefoiled lights at the south-east,
and a south door between the first and second
lancets from the east. The proportions suggest
that it has been lengthened eastward since its first
setting out.
The chancel arch is old work in two pointed
chamfered orders, and at the springing is a modern
moulded string ; to the south of it, in the angle of
the nave, is a lancet window inserted to give light
to the pulpit, which looks like old work re-used.
The nave has a north arcade of two bays, with
arches of two chamfered orders with a label, and an
octagonal central column of 14th-century detail; the
responds have a moulded string on the inner order
only. The south arcade has two pointed cham-
fered orders with a large circular column, and
semi-octagonal responds with plain capitals, prob-
ably cut down, and bases which show remains of
1 3th-century detail. The clearstory has two
square-headed two-light windows on either side
over the arches, of cut red brick with moulded
labels.
The walling of the north aisle is rough rubble
of stone and flint ; in the west wall is an old lancet
window, and to the south of it can be seen the
angle of the earlier aisleless nave. In the north
wall is a pointed 14th-century doorway with an
external hood ; it is now blocked, and contains a
small window. To the east is a window of two
trefoiled lights with a segmental head, the jambs
being probably 14th-century work, while the
tracery is modern.
The south aisle has an old lancet window at the
west end, and a modern doorway and two-light
window on the south. The porch has a four-
centred outer order and moulded 16th-century
beams in the ceiling.
The tower is in four stages ; the top stage,
which seems an 18th-century addition, has no
roof, but a quatrefoiled opening in each wall.
The third stage has two-light belfry windows in
LITTLETON
red brick, and in the ground stage is a four-
centred west door with a three-light window
over it.
There are some simple ijth-century pews in
the nave, and in the vestry is an old iron-bound
chest of the reign of Henry VIII, ornamented
with leather and nail work. The pulpit is good
1 8th-century work, and at the west end of the nave
is a large organ. The font is octagonal on a round
stem, and is ancient but extremely plain. It»
pierced and domed wooden cover seems to include
a little old woodwork.
In the north wall of the chancel is a brass in-
scription taken up from the floor, 'Here lyeth
Lady Blanche Vaughan, sometyme wyfe of Syr
Hugh Vaughan, knight, who lyeth buryed at
Westmynst* whych Lady Blanche decessyd the
VIIIth day of deCeber, An* Dni m1 vcliii whose
soules Ihn pdon.' Below is a shield with three
castles and a fleur de lis, and on each side of the
shield a double rose, having on their centres the
words ' Ihu mercy.' There are several later monu-
ments to the family of Wood.
In the church are eight pairs of colours of the
Grenadier Guards, and two red ensigns belonging
to the same.
There are three bells by W. Eldridge, 1666.
The plate consists of a chalice of 1632,
engraved with three fleurs de lis in a border
bezanty, quartering a fesse cheeky in a bor-
der engrailed, the whole impaling a quarterly
shield : ist, a bend bearing three stags' heads
embossed on an escutcheon between six crosslets
fitchy ; 2nd, three leopards passant, a label of
three points ; 3rd, cheeky ; 4th, a lion rampant; a
flagon with date mark 1734, giyen by Mrs. Eliza-
beth Wood in that year ; a small cover paten of
1632, engraved with a goat's or bull's head breath-
ing fire ; a standing paten of 1680 ; a chalice of
the 1696 cycle ; and an embossed salver marked
N
I.E.
1677.
The earlier registers are : (l) christenings
1579 to 1652, marriages 1564 to 1652, burials
I 562 to 165 I ; (2) woollen burials 1678 to 1715,
marriages 1678 to 1705, burials without affidavits
1698 to 1705 ; (3) printed marriages, 1754 to
1810 ; (4) baptisms 1664 to 1811, burials 1664
to 1812, and marriages 1664 to 1751.
The church of St. Mary Mag-
ADVQWSQN dalene is first mentioned in 1 2O9.98
The living is a rectory, the gift of
which appears to have been held in early times by
the sub-tenant of the manor. It was conveyed by
Robert de Leveland in 1 209 to Robert de Winton,9'
and appears to have remained with the de Wintons
for over a century, Edmund de Winton presenting
in 1335.'°° It then probably passed to William de
Perkelee, who presented on four occasions between
1321 and 1336.'" Four years later, however, it
was conveyed by Master John de Redeswelle, parson
98 Pipe R. 1 1 John, m. 6 d.
100 Lysons, op. cit. v, 204, citei Stat.
Major Eccl. St. Paul.
405
101 Newcourt, Rtferl. I, 688.
A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX
of ' Goderushton,' to Sir John de Moleyns.1™ On
Sir John's imprisonment in that same year 1M it
was taken into the king's hand, Edward III pre-
senting in 1343.""
In September 1345 Edward III gave the order
to restore the advowson of the church of Littleton
to Sir John.105 At Easter 1346 the latter conveyed
it to Sir Guy de Brian."* At midsummer in the
same year a settlement of the advowson was made
by John Gogh (apparently a trustee) on Edward
de Bohun and Philippa his wife, with remainder in
default of heirs to Guy de Brian.107 This may
perhaps be explained in connexion with Moleyns'
recent forfeiture. The person represented by
Gogh may possibly have had a grant of the advow-
son between 1 340 and 1 345, so that the rights of
both parties may have been compromised in this act.
In 1355, however, the advowson of Littleton
was settled by Edward de Bohun on his wife : m
Edward died childless in 1362,™ so that the last-
mentioned settlement would be rendered ineffec-
tive by the former remainder in favour of Guy de
Brian. The latter evidently came into possession,
for he gave it in 1 372 to the priory of Hounslow,
for the remembrance of his own and his wife's
anniversary.110 It remained with Hounslow Priory
until it was granted by Prior Thomas Hide to
Edmund Windsor."1 Andrew Lord Windsor pre-
sented in I537,m the next presentation being made
by his son's executor,113 Roger Roper, in 1554."'
The advowson was sold by his grandson, Edward
Lord Windsor, in 1563, with the manor,116 and
came with the latter to Edward Seymour, Earl of
Hertford, who first presented in I572.1'6 In 1610
the advowson was granted by the king to William
Hughes,'17 who was probably a fishing grantee.
Later in the same year he and his father Reginald
Hughes conveyed their right to Francis Townley,118
but the Earl of Hertford presented in 1616 and
i6i7.119 Litigation ensued, and Francis Townley
recovered the right of presentation from the earl,1*0
and the rector, who had been inducted in 1617,
was admitted a second time (in 1619) on Town-
ley's presentation.1" The Seymours, however,
seem to have retained some right in it, for in 1637
Frances Countess of Hertford held the patronage
for the term of her life,128 after which it appears to
have passed to the Townleys. Nicholas Townley
held it in i65O,183 and conveyed it in 1660 to
Thomas Wood.123a It has remained with his de-
scendants to the present day 1M and is now held with
the manor by Captain Thomas Wood. In 1341
the parish was rated at £9 6s. Bt/., but because the
land was sandy, and the inhabitants were unable to
sow it on account of their poverty, only £6 could be
raised."6 The rectory was valued at £ 1 4 at the Dis-
solution,"6 and the same in I S48.ur In an extent of
1 6 10, a mill, house, dovecote, orchard, garden and
fishing are mentioned as belonging to the rectory.118
A chantry was founded in 1324 by Thomas de
Littleton, then rector of Harrow, and formerly
rector of Spaxton.1*9 By an agreement with the
Abbot and Convent of Chertsey, the latter bound
themselves to pay 5 marks yearly to a chaplain to
celebrate divine service daily at the altar of St.
Mary in the church of Littleton, in honour of the
saint, and for the souls of the founder, of his parents,
and of Simon de Micham. The chaplain was to
be appointed by Thomas de Littleton, and after
his death by Sir Geoffrey de Perkelee, the rector
of Littleton, and his successors.130 In 1548 the
chantry was served by a French priest, Sir Philip
Lyniard, who had a house, an orchard, and a little
croft or close.131 After the dissolution of the chan-
tries in 1 548 the land seems to have been held by
the Crown until 1610, when it was included in a
grant of the advowson of the rectory to William
Hughes.13* It has probably descended since with
the rectory.
The Bread Charities. — In 1724
CHARITIES Mrs. Elizabeth Wood, by will,
bequeathed to the minister and
churchwardens £100 to be put out at interest, and
the yearly income thereof to be laid out in bread
to be distributed every Sunday among poor attend-
ing the church.
In 1737 Robert Wood, LL.D., by will, be-
queathed £100 South Sea Annuity stock, the in-
come thereof to be distributed in bread every Sun-
day by the minister and churchwardens.
These legacies are represented by a sum of
£2 1 7 4_r. 9</. consols, with the official trustees. In
1906 the dividends, amounting to £5 8/. \d., were
applied in the distribution of bread every Sunday to
five families.
The school, formerly carried on in a room on
the estate of the Wood family, was erected in 1872
in memory of the late Lieut.-General Wood.
It is endowed with a sum of ^382 13;. "]d. consols
with the official trustees, producing £g \\s. \d.
a year, which arose from the accumulations of
a legacy of £30 bequeathed by will of the Rev.
Thomas Harwood, D.D., rector, dated in 1731, and
from subscriptions in 1787 of £50 each by Thomas
Wood, Thomas Wood, junr., Edward Elton, and
the Rev. Henry Allen, D.D., rector.
1011 Feet of F. Lend, and Midd. 14
Edw. Ill, no. 13;.
1M Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxvii, 127.
104 Col. Pat. 1343-5, p. 158.
>«• Ibid. p. 543.
1M Feet of F. Lend, and Midd. 20
Edw. Ill, no. 207.
10" Ibid, no. 214.
"•Ibid. 29 Edw. Ill, no. 334.
109 Chan. Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. Ill, pt.
i, no. 24.
"» Ibid. 46 Edw. III.
111 Pat. 7 Jas. I, pt. x, no. 9 ; the grant
is taid to have been made in 1536, but
Dugdale gives the dissolution of the
monastery in 1530 (Man. vii, 303).
lla Newcourt, Rtfert. i, 688.
118 Collins, Coll. of the Family of
Windsor, 57.
114 Newcourt, Rtfert. i, 688.
116 Recov. R. Trin. 5 Eliz. rot. 608.
118 Newcourt, Refcrt. i, 688.
"7 Pat. 7 Jas. I, pt. xv, no. 9.
"8 Common Pleas D. Enr. Mich. 8
Jas. I.
"Newcourt, op. cit. i, 688.
190 Ibid, quoting Load. Epis. Reg.
Bancroft, 232.
406
ln Newcourt, op. cit. i, 688.
"" Ibid.
"»Feet of F. Midd. Hil. 1650-1
Recov. R. East. 1651, rot. 21.
»»> Close, 13 Chas. II, pt. xv.
lwInst.Bks.(P.R.O.)
m/nf. Non. (Rec. Com.), 199.
"« Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.) i, 433.
12" Chantry R. 34, no. 184.
128 Pat. 7 Jas. I. pt. x.
>»CW. Pat. 1334-8, p. 246.
""Ibid.
ul Chantry R. 34, no. 184.
UI Pat. 7 Jas. I, pt. XT, no. 9.
DA The Victoria history of the
670 county of Middlesex
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