"This is Danvers Street begun in the ye year 1696 by Benjamin Stallwood."

In Abingdon's conveyance to Sloane, which is dated 18 May 1717, the parcels are roughly as follows:

1. The ground "whereon stood the capital messuage which late was the mansion of Sir John Danvers and which was afterwards in the possession of John Earl of Radnor or his assigns with all gardens, orchards," &c.

2. Tenements now or late in the occupation of Francis Guilford and Thomas Gilbank.

3. A waste piece of ground between the horse ferry and the said tenements, 60 ft. long by 40 ft. broad.

4. Dovehouse close containing 5 acres, encompassed by a brick wall and used as a garden or orchard by Matthew Hutchins.

5. Messuages in the occupation of Matthew Hutchins.

6. "All those several pieces of ground now and for many years past called the Park, inclosed on all sides with a brick wall," containing 40 acres.

7. A piece of ground, being part of the garden of the capital messuage whereon part of the stables stood, and a slip of ground formerly the coachway from the house to the stables.

8. The pieces of ground whereon several houses are built now in the tenure of Benjamin Stallwood in Danvers Street, one of them being called the Blackboy.

The last item no doubt included "The Goat," which stood to the west of Danvers Street, fronting the way by the waterside, and adjoining the block of buildings mentioned above, as shown in Kip's View. This, it will be remembered, was Mr. Shuckburgh's house, in respect of which Sir John Danvers enjoyed the use of a pew in the Church, and his heirs the right of common. It is thus described in a conveyance from Stallwood's executors to William Sloane :

"All that piece or parcel of ground whereon a messuage or tenement called or known by the name or sign of the Goate, lately stood near the horse ferry in Great Chelsey, containing in front towards the street a highway lying between the same and

the Thames, 20 ft. and in depth, 74 ft. 3 inches. And also the messuage erected by the said Benjamin Stallwood upon part of the same ground. And also the little strip or parcel of ground adjoining the same on the east side, intended for a way from the said street into the first mentioned ground and other ground. . . .”

Another conveyance from William Sloane, the elder, to his son William (Middx. Reg., 1719, Bk. 3, No. 20), evidently refers to the same premises, namely, a messuage in the occupation of Valentine Arnold, together with right of common for three cows (i.e., one cow and two heifers) belonging thereto, and "the pews or seats in the parish Church of Chelsey."

In 1683, the Jurors at a Court Leet and Court Baron presented "Thomas Wharton Esq. for an incroachment on the highway by a wall next the Goat" (Faulkner). This led Faulkner to suppose that Wharton resided at the house still called "The Goat in Boots," at the north-east corner of Park Walk; and, further, to describe him as owner of right of common for "a house called the Goat at Little Chelsea," with an air of authority that has misled more modern writers. It is true that this house stands on the corner of what was called "Lord Wharton's Park," but no houses were built there, as may be seen from Kip's View, in 1683; nor are any mentioned in the conveyance, above quoted, in 1717. The Park, it will be remembered, was referred to in the conveyance of Beaufort House as having been conveyed to Lord Cornbury and others in 1670, probably in trust for the Danvers estate (see chap. vi.). It was not all included in Gorges' sale of the great house to Cranfield, but only the western portion of it, namely, "brickbarn close containing ten acres " (Claus. 8 Jac. p. 18). The remainder Cranfield purchased from William Blake in 1620, namely, "all those closes of pasture now divided into five, ditched, and being known by the name of the Sandhills containing by estimation thirty-two acres abutting on . . . Brickbarn Close on the west" (Cadogan records quoted by Faulkner).

About the year 1725 it was leased by Sir Hans Sloane to Sir Richard Manningham, the famous accoucheur, by whom it was gradually leased out for building, as appears by various deeds entered at the Middlesex Registry. Park Chapel was probably the first

1

building erected upon it, and in 1721 a portion of it was planted with mulberry trees by a Company to whom a patent was granted for the manufactory of raw silk. About 1732 Christopher Le Blon set up his tapestry works at Chelsea, whose site is determined in a lease from Manningham of the house at the south-west corner of the Park (now the "Man in the Moon " Tavern), dated 3 April 1733, the premises having a frontage on to the King's Road of 86 ft., and being bounded on the east by "certain work or tapestry houses now in the possession Le Blon."

of

In another conveyance by William Sloane and his son to Sir Hans' trustees, dated 17 April 1719, besides the Danvers property, above mentioned, is included a "messuage or tenement with the appurtenances situate and being in and upon one parcell of ground garden or orchard compassed round about with a brick wall and now or late in the tenure or occupation of Moses Goodyear his undertenants or assigns at and under the yearly rent of £40." This was the house described, and pictured, in Faulkner's "Chelsea," as " Church Place," which stood on the site of Paulton Terrace adjoining Church Street. So little is known of this house that I must be content to have discovered any mention of it at all, even though it throws no light on the traditions concerning it. It is said to have been used by Essex during the Civil Wars; and the date, 1641, which Faulkner states was carved upon it, may give colour to this tradition. In Faulkner's time it was let out to various persons, being in a dilapidated condition. Henry Kingsley (whose father was rector of Chelsea) makes it the scene of several incidents in "The Hillyars and the Burtons."

CHAPTER IX

LINDSEY HOUSE

"THE Countess Dowager of Lindsey," says Bowack, "has a fair handsome house adjoining to the Duke of Beaufort's, said to be built by Sir Theodore Mayerne, Physician to Charles I. It has a good front to the Thames, built after the modern manner . . . the Countess Dowager of Plymouth and her son resides in it at present" (1705). The description of this house, in a document which I shall refer to presently, identifies it with the principal farmhouse on More's estate, described in the grant to Pawlet in 1547 as the house called "The Farm," then in the occupation of Thomas Bean, Junior; and the fact that it enjoyed right of common proves that it was the original house on the estate, before More built his "pretorium."

An item in the list of "Deptts and Rereages dewe to the Church," appended to the Inventory taken in 1549, names "the executour of Thomas Beane deceased, for a chalice of sylver and gylte, brent with fyer as they sayde, vallewed at £6." It is possible, perhaps, that this was the fire recorded in More's letter to his wife, written from Woodstock in September 1529; “I am informed by my son Heron of the loss of our barns and our neighbour's also. The loss of so much corn is a pity, but we must not only be content, but be glad of God's visitation... so pray be of good cheer, and take all the household to Church and thank God for what he has given and for what he has taken from us."

In 1567 Pawlet leased the Farm, together with the old Parsonage, which he had just acquired by an exchange, to "Nicholas Holborne of Chelsey, Gent., and Katherin his wife" for fifty years (Faulkner,

vol. i. p. 121, from Earl Cadogan's Records). Holborne's name also appears in a rental of the manor in 1587 as the lessee of part of "the great barn with nine bays," and of "the house called the long house near the barn, the granary converted into a stable, besides various pieces of land.

The following entries in the registers relate to the Holbornes, besides which are several of burials of poor persons from "Mr. Holborne's barn":

BURIALS.

12 Jan. 1562-3. Robert Holborne,

4 Oct. 1592. cancello.

Nicholas Holborne p' familias & senex sepults in

I July 1594. Katherine Holborne vidua sepulta.

6 Dec. 1618. Margaret y daughter of Richard Holbourne and Margaret his wife.

Holborne's lease expired in 1617; and shortly after that date, namely 1 April 1618, Sir Arthur Gorges, who had acquired More's estate, obtained leave, being the King's tenant in capite, to grant the house to Edward Smith, Esq., and William Neve, Gent., in trust for Sir Edward Cecil and his wife Diana for their lives and the life of their daughter Ann (Pat. 16 Jac. pt. 31, No. 57). With the exception of the letters quoted in chap. ii. above, Cecil has left no record of his residence in Chelsea. He survived his wife and his daughter, and died in November 1638.*

*See "Life and Times of General Sir Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, by Chas. Dalton. (Sampson Low & Co., 1885.)