MR. GRANT'S REPORTS.

Catthorpe.

Poor's Land.

HUNDRED OF GUTHLAXTON.

PARISH OF CATTHORPE.

POOR'S LAND.

By a decree of the Court of Chancery, bearing date 21st February 1655, in a cause in which Thomas Caldecott, esq. and four others, were plaintiffs, and William Deane, clerk, rector of Catthorpe, and others, were defendants, reciting that the said complainants had, in the Michaelmas term preceding, filed their bill, stating that the said Thomas Caldecott was seized in fee of the manor of Catthorpe and of the several lands therein specified, and that the said William Deane, the rector of the church of Catthorpe, was seized in his demesne as of fee of the lands and tithes therein specified, and that the several other persons, parties to the said suit, were also seized of the several lands and tenements and rights of common therein particularly men. tioned; and that it being the intention to inclose and take in, by unanimous consent, the common and open fields of Catthorpe, certain articles of agreement were reduced into writing, bearing date the 19th February 1654, and were subscribed by the said complainants and defendants respectively; and it was by the said articles agreed (among other things) that 14 acres of ground, lying in Catthorpe aforesaid, between the river Avon and the fields of Shawell, should be settled and assured upon Sir Thomas Cave, bart., George Bennett, Peter Temple, and William Dixwell, esqrs., and the survivor of them and his heirs, for ever, in trust for the use and benefit of the poor people inhabiting within the manor and parish of Catthorpe aforesaid; and that in the month of September 1655, the said lands were, by unanimous consent, divided according to the said agreement, and the several parcels therein respectively specified were allotted to the said Thomas Caldecott, William Deane, and the several other persons, parties to the said suit, and were taken possession of by them respectively; and the said Bill prayed that the said defendants might in all respects complete the said agreement, under the direction of the court; and the said defendants having answered, and the cause being at issue and witnesses having been examined, it was, by and with the consent of all parties, ordered, adjudged, and decreed, that the said articles of agreement, and all the matters and things therein, contained, should stand ratified and confirmed by the order and decree of the said court, to be observed and performed by all parties, according to the true intent and meaning thereof..

The above decree contains all the information we can obtain relating to the origin of the poor's land. We cannot learn whether any conveyance of it was ever made to the trustees named, or if it was which was the survivor.

Upwards of 40 years ago it was the practice to let the land to a farmer, and divide the rent in coals and clothes among the poor. Complaints were made by the poor that the occupation was withheld from them, and they applied to Abraham Grimes, esq., a neighbouring magistrate, thinking him a trustee as the representative of W. Dixwell, esq., named in the award. By the consent of the poor and the parish-officers, Mr. Grimes made some rules, under which the land was managed in a different manner. He suggested that the land should be divided into 10 cow commons, and that every day-labourer or other poor person in the parish, who could raise money to buy a cow, should be allowed to turn the same on the land from Old May-day to Martinmas, paying to the churchwarden half the value of the cow common; that out of the annual rent a portion should be given to such of the poor as did not receive parochial relief, and the remainder distributed in clothing, &c., at the discretion of the churchwarden, among such of the poor as should be burdensome on the parish, but not in ease of the rate but as matter of improvement for the comfort of the parties; that the winter grass should be disposed of to the best bidder, and the money laid out in repairing the fences, if required, or fall into the residue for distribution.

These regulations were entered in a book, dated 1st February 1792, and have been acted on as nearly as possible till the alteration hereafter mentioned. and during all this time the accounts have been kept and entered with great accuracy.

There were 10 cow commons let to 10 poor persons with the largest families and the most deserving, for which they paid 17. each. All possible care was taken that these parties should have a cow, of their own property, and should not take in an agistment cow; but this has sometimes been the case. When the family was grown up it was the practice to change the tenant for another having a young family. Three acres were shut up every year for mowing, and the hay was made and parted amongst the cow commoners. The winter keep was let by public bidding, and produced about 67. on the average. From the money so raised, amounting to 167. or 177., certain expenses were paid, such as carpenter's work for gates, and carriage of 20 loads of manure to the mowing-ground, and 10s. was paid to the churchwarden for his trouble of management; the remainder, generally from 127. to 147., was divided equally among the poor families of the parish, whether resident in or out of the parish, without reference to the size of their families.

In February 1831, great dissatisfaction was excited in the parish, the poor parishioners claiming the actual possession of the land, and many of them, who had in former years received the benefit from a cow common, were most forward in their complaints. Conceiving that the churchwardens had no power, as there were no trustees, they were ill advised to enter upon the land in a forcible manner with spades, and turned up the soil in several places, to the great injury of the pasture. The commoners resisted, and the tumult was only put a stop to by

taking 13 of the ringleaders into custody and carrying them before a magistrate, by whom 11 of them were committed; but as they paid a fine upon reaching Leicester gaol, all but three returned home the same night.

The same system was continued for that year; but in 1832 one poor person, occupying a cow-common, having died, and three others, with their families, having gone to America, it was thought a good opportunity to alter the system by reducing the cow-commons to six, limiting their range to about nine acres, and taking about 5 acres (roads included) into cultivation for gardens. This land was then allotted, in plots of one rood each, to 16 of the of the parish, being all who came to ask for it, at 3s. a-rood, the full value being about 12s. Two roods were let to the six cow commoners, at 1s. for every 100 yards, conditionally, and four small gardens, on the same terms, to four inhabitants who were not parishioners.

poor

This system has been acted upon ever since, and seems to have been productive of much comfort and good feeling in the parish, and all parties seem contented and satisfied.

The rents of these allotments, and the cow-commons and the winter keep, amounting to from 137. to 167., is divided in the winter amongst all the poor belonging to the parish, in equal sums, whether resident or not. In the five years ending 1836, the money given varied from 11s. 6d. to 17s. 6d. to each poor person or family.

No new trust-deed has been made, as it has not been possible to discover the heir-at-law of the surviving trustee.

Catthorpe.

Poor's Land, continued.

PARISH OF LUTTERWORTH.
TOWN LANDS.

By deed-poll, dated 10th October, 13th Elizabeth, Basil Fielding, esq., heir of Everard Fielding, Gabriel Poulteney, heir of Sir Thomas Poulteney, and Everard Fielding, reciting that they were seized in fee of certain lands in Lutterworth, Sapcote, and Willey, under the several indentures therein recited (being the same as are set out in the abstract of an indenture of 27th July 1717, hereafter given), granted to new trustees all the said lands, upon the same trusts, and in the words hereafter given in the deed of 1717.

By a certificate, dated at Leicester 2d May, 9 Anne, 1710, reciting that by an inquisition, taken at Lutterworth 28th September 1709, under a commission of charitable uses, dated 5th July preceding, it was found that several messuages, lands, and tenements, in Lutterworth and in Sapcote, in the county of Leicester, and in Willey, in the county of Warwick, were theretofore given to the town of Lutterworth, for the repairs of the highways belonging to the town of Lutterworth, and for the defraying the general charges of the inhabitants, and for their common benefit; and that the said messuages, &c., had, from time to time, been conveyed to certain persons and their heirs, as feoffees, in trust for the inhabitants of the said town, and that Basil, Earl of Denbigh, the Hon. William Fielding, and Thomas Bradgate, were the surviving

trustees.

And that it was further found that Robert Poole, of Lutterworth, yeoman, by Will, dated 2d May 1699, gave to Richard Wightman the elder, and John Poole, as trustees, and to the survivor of them and his heirs, a little close at Leicester Lane-end, about half an acre of ground in Lutterworth, and also half a yard land, arable, meadow, and pasture, in the common and open fields of Lutterworth, to the intent that the rents of the said close and lands should be paid yearly to the overseers of the poor, for setting out to apprentice one of those poor boys that were taught in the school in Lutterworth, of the former gift of the father of the said Robert Poole, and so successively, one poor boy to be put out with the said rents yearly for ever, and to be employed to no other use.

And that it was further found that the rents of two houses, in Leicester, near St. Lunday's bridge there, with their yards and appurtenances, then in the possession of John Poole, had been from time to time applied and paid towards the finding a schoolmaster for the teaching of four poor boys, of and for the said parish of Lutterworth; and that the same were then let at 40s. a-year.

And reciting that by a further inquisition, taken at Leicester on the 2d May 1710, it was found that there was a charity of divers lands and tenements, in Lutterworth, Sapcote, and Willey, that had theretofore been given by some well-disposed persons to charitable uses for the town of Lutterworth, particularly for the repairs of the highways belonging to Lutterworth, and the surplus of the rents, if any, to go towards the discharge of other town charges for the benefit of the said town; and that, from time immemorial, there had been a custom, by prescription, for the jury, at the court-leet and court-baron of the Earl of Denbigh, held yearly for the manor of Lutterworth, within the month after Easter, to nominate two persons yearly to collect the rents of the premises so given to the said town, for the purposes aforesaid, and to dispose of the same according to the directions of the donors, and to let and set the said charities as often as there should be occasion; and that the persons so elected were commonly called town-masters, and that they had constantly let and set the same and disposed of the rents thereof.

Upon which inquisition the commissioners, by a decree made the said 2d May 1710, ordered and decreed that all the said messuages and lands should be let at the best rent that could be had for the same, and that the boy that should yearly be put to the free-school, by and under the Will and direction of Robert Poole, in the first inquisition named, should for ever thereafter be nominated by the churchwardens and overseers of Lutterworth, as often as there should be a vacancy in the said school; and that the boy from the said school to be put out apprentice, pursuant to the Will of the said Robert Poole, should yearly for ever thereafter be elected by Rep. 32-Part. V.

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Lutterworth.

Town Lands.