Journal entry – John Grey – 28 Oct 1833

Monday 28th October



I received this morning a proposal from Stokoe & Rewcastle  for leave to erect a Saw Mill, by their paying a ground rent of £8 a year upon the Hospitals property on the Devils Water.  The sum offered is too small to form any inducement to allow of such an erection.  The only one would be in the advantage which might attend it, in the disposal of the surrounding Wood, of which there is a great quantity.  I shall take an early opportunity of examining the situation with reference to roads that might be necessary & the damage or inconvenience likely to attend it, & report upon it to the Board.   The day being exceedingly wet I could not go abroad but was employed during the whole of it in the office, communicated to the road Trustees & to Mr Shipley, the directions to each contained in the Boards minutes received this morning; wrote to Mr Jay upon the subject of Mr Pringles Letter, which I returned & examined the form of a Lease sent by Mr Bicknell & his remarks upon the agreement & covenants which I had submitted to the Boards inspection.  In submitting that form of Agreement to the Board (by which however many Estates in this part of the Country are held on lease) I did not pretend to vindicate its absolute legallity or its conformity with Acts of Parliament that respects the Hospital, which I never saw, but merely to convey by it the particular covenants which I should recommend to be inserted & acted upon, in letting the farms, & to avoid as far as possible any demands upon the tenants which conduced nothing to the benefit to the Hospital.  And I was the more induced to recommend some form which would be at once cheap, specific & intelligible, that I saw many of the farms & some of the most extensive, held upon no agreement but the printed catalogue of the fields they contain & a note of the portions allowed in tillage - and on the other hand, that when expensive Stamps had been used, I know that even Mr Hoopers assiduity had failed in obtaining payment of them.  Mr Bicknell has by reference to Acts of Parliament proved the necessity in law of having even the Counterparts of leases upon Stamp, which is to be regretted as an unnecessary burden upon the tenant.  The form of Lease handed to me by Mr Bicknell, which is the same as many executed leases in the Office, is objectionable in my opinion, because it does not specify many important covenants which are included in most leases, & are to be found in the printed articles submitted by me to the Board, but covers them by the general clause to ‘use & farm the said lands according to the custom of the country, & the most usual mode of farming lands held of the said Commissioners etc’ which I regret to say, is a mode exhausting to the land, & open in defiance of all the rules of good & improved husbandry.  (From this remark, I must in a great measure except the Bambroshire Estates.)  Another objection which I take to is, [underlined: ’that it enforces no specific penalties for the breach of Covenants’].  It is true that on account of such breach the Commissioners may ‘determine and make void’ the lease.  But that is a consummation which unhappily conveys little punishment nowadays.   And it is often in the contemplation of giving up that the greatest advantage of the land is taken.   Still it may be said that the delinquent may be prosecuted upon the covenants.  True he may, but ere that is closed, he may be in the County Gaol or across the Atlantic.  Whereas the execution of a penalty of 5 or £10 Per Acre, as the case may require, to be reckoned as contingent Rent and receivable as such, [underlined: ’is immediate in its operation & east of execution.’]  The most illiterate tenant can understand that if he infringes a certain covenant, he can be made to pay £5 Per Acre addition of Rent, & that such sum may be levied by distress of his goods.  This would present a barrier which few would be so hardy as to overstep.   On this subject there is a case in point at this moment.  The Boards Minutes received today, direct that penalties shall be enforced in the case of Bell of Sillywray, for breach of Covenants.  I have examined his Lease & found that no penalties attach to, but that of determining the demise.   This he has done for himself , by relinquishing the farms & removing to another neighbourhood.  In this case there may be no need of legal process, as the Commissioners hold funds for their own indemnity from a different source - but that is accidental. 

Having expressed these opinions frankly, yet I trust respectfully, & begging to add, that if a Receiver becomes answerable for the good management of a Property & for the due execution of the covenants upon which that management is founded, he ought to be supported by instruments in which these covenants are distinctly set forth, & which so afford him an easy remedy, in case of their infringement.  I have only to remark, that as Mr Bicknell is so good as to say that he will endeavour to compress & incorporate the suggested additions, into such a form as will obviate the objections which exist to that which I had recommended, that I will return them to him, that he may , should the Commissioners so direct, embody such covenants as from the foregoing remarks they may deem advisable, & in such manner as his legal knowledge may direct.



I must again beg leave, respectfully, to call the attention of the Commissioners to the necessity of an early announcement of the farms to be let, if they are first to be offered to the public.  And in doing so, I take the Liberty again to refer them to my Journal of the 12th September for my Sentiments on the subject.  But notwithstanding what I have there stated, should the Commissioners deem it advisable to resort to a valuation and new letting without having recourse to the Public, in the case of tenants who are considered worthy of encouragement, I shall be ready to undertake the task to the best of my power, in defiance of any obloquy, that rejected or unsuccessful candidates may cast upon me.  It seems however necessary in every case, before relief is given, that present Leases should be abandoned, & better conditions adopted.