Legal opinion – R Hussey – 20 Apr 1763

His late Majesty King George the 2d by Letters Patents dated the 4th day of December in the first year of his Reign appoints several great Officers of State & many Noblemen Gentlemen & certain other persons therein named Commissioners or Governors for Greenwich Hospital Orders that any 7 of them may be a Court & after giving them several Powers relating to the finishing the Building the paying for the same and to the provision for the pensioners requires any 7 of them whereof the Commissioners of the Admiralty are to be two to hold a General Court Quarterly or oftner (if the Admiralty Shoud think proper) to consult concerning the Business & Affairs of the said Hospital AND for that many of the said Commissioners could not conveniently meet to carry on the Royal Intentions in the premises His Majesty did appoint 24 persons therein named (being 24 of the persons before appointed Commissioners or Governors) to be a standing Committee and to be stiled Directors of the said Hospital & requires any 5 of them to meet once a Fortnight or oftener if occasion to consult concerning the affairs of the said Hospital. And at all such Meetings to take care of carrying on the Building to state the Account for Works to make Contracts for Provisions & all other necessaries for the House and to do all other Matters relating thereto. 



PROVIDED that all their proceedings whatsoever relating to the Management of the Affairs of the said Hospital be laid before the General Court to be held Quarterly or otherwise as before mentioned and to be at all times subject to their Comptroll AND the Commissioners of the Admiralty are thereby empowered to fill up the number of Directors upon any Vacancy by Deaths &c and to nominate such persons as they should think fit to be Directors in the Room of such person or persons so dying. BY an Act passed in the 22d Year of his said late Majesty for vesting the several Estates of James late Earl of Derwentwater & Charles Radcliffe deceased in Trustees for the Benefit of Greenwich Hospital The several Manors Lands &c of the said Earl James & Charles Radcliffe are divested out of the Crown & the Fee Simple and Inheritance thereof are vested in certain Trustees therein named for the use of the said Hospital.



And it is thereby (inter alia) Enacted that it shall be lawful for the Commissioners or Governors and Directors for the time being of the said Royal Hospital or any seven or more of them from time to time and at all times thereafter to demise & grant all & every or any of the Mines of Lead Coals other Minerals as well opened as not opened within & under any of the aforesaid Lands and Premises to any Person or Persons for any Term of years not exceeding  Twenty One Years and to Grant Leases of all or any of the aforesaid Manors Lands Tenements and Hereditaments unto any 

Person or Persons for any Term of years not exceeding Twenty One Years to take Effect in Possession & not in Reversion reserving on every Lease or Grant of Mines such Dues or Rents as they shall judge most reasonable and reserving on every other Lease the best yearly or other Rents or Dues which can be reasonably gotten without taking any Fine &c BUT  



It is Enacted that in every such Lease there shall be contained a Condition of Rentry for Nonpayment of the Rents & that the Lessees shall execute Counterparts & that no Clause shall be contained in such Leases other than in Leases of Mines or Minerals to give Lessees power to commit waste or to exempt them from punishment for committing the same.



John Romer Esqr. being in Possession of a Colliery in Scremerston under a Lease which will expire on May 1764 and being also in Possession of Limestone Quarries & Kilns (both of them part of the said Estates) under a Lease which will expire in May 1766  On or about the 28 of April 1762 applied to the Directors of the said Hospital to have a Renewal of these Leases respectively for 21 years  upon Surrender of the present Leases



This Application was referred to the Receivers or Agents for the said Estates in the Country who about 7th May following reported that they think him intitled to a Renewal preferable to anybody. About the 19th of the same Month Mr Romer gave in his Proposals which were likewise referred to the Receivers and about the 18th of June following the Receivers having viewed the Premisses recommended higher Terms than what Mr Romer had offered. 31st July following (Mr Romer having wrote to know what had been done) the Secretary was directed to acquaint him that the Directors will Grant him a Renewal upon the Terms the Receivers recommend.  On the 13th of August the Secretary wrote to Mr Romer in the following Terms.  I have received & laid before the Directors of Greenwich Hospital your Letter of 22d of last Month on the Subject of the Renewal of your Leases of Scremerston Colliery and of the Limestone Quarries & Kilns now under Consideration & in return I have their Direction to acquaint you that they will Grant you Leases of the said Colliery Limestone Quarries & Kilns on the Terms & for the number of years specified in the inclosed Paper (to which I refer you) upon surrendering your present subsisting Leases.



Paper referred to in the above Letter

‘Terms upon which a renewal may be granted John Romer Esqr. of his Colliery Lease at Scremerston upoon his surrendering his present subsisting Lease 

That he pay £300 per Ann. on a Term of 17 years certain to commence the 12th day of may 1762.

That he pay Damages of Ground & Hedging both in the Inground & Moor at Scremerston 

That he furnish the Hospital Tenants with Coals at 4d per Boll for the Large Coal and 2d per Boll for the Small Coal, each Boll to contain 28 Winchester Gallons 

That he do not exceed the number of 25 Hewers at any time during the whole Term 

That he pay 12s per Ton additional Rent increase & he send any Coals from Scremerston by Water And That he subject himself to the usual Covenants and such others as shall be though reasonable

John Ibbetson

13th of August 1762  



‘Terms upon which Renewal may be granted to John Romer Esqr. of a Lease of the Limestone Quarries & Kilns at Scremerston upon surrendering his present subsisting Lease ;

That he pay £100 per Ann. on a Term of 17 years certaIn to commence the 12th day of May 1762 That he pay damages of Ground & Hedging both in the Ingrounds and Moor at Scremerston. 

That a Draw Kiln which he now has near the Sea (and which he makes no Use of at present) be reserved for the use of the Hospital.

That Limestone be reserved for the Tenants of the Northside of Scremerston for the use of their Farms only. 

That he do not emploiy above 13 persons at any one time during the above time in carrying on the above. And that he do subject himself to the usual Covenants and to such others as shall be thought reasonable.

John Ibbetson

13th of August 1762



Mr Romer thought fit to accept these Terms and on 19th of the same month wrote to the Secretary as follows.

‘In answer to your favor of the 13th inst I was in hopes that the Directors of Greenwich Hosp. would have been pleased to have approved of my given in Proposals as an old Tenant & in consideration of above £600 given up by the Surrender of my present subsisting Leases; but since the Hon[ora]ble Board  are of a different opinion I entirely submit myself to them and accept of their Terms (though I fear I shall have a hard Bargain) for a Renewal of the Leases of my Colliery & Limestone Quarries & Kilns at Scremerston upon surrendering my present subsisting Leases.’ This Letter having been laid before the Directors it was about the 1st day of Sept. last ordered to be inserted in their Memorial to the next General Court as a thing proper to receive the Sanction of the Court.



But soon after this the Directors being informed that great Clamours had been made in the Country and that it was notorious the Premises (on the Terms Mr Romer was to have his Renewal) would be underlet considerably The Board ordered the Receivers to be wrote to about it, One of whom went to Scremerston to make Enquiry into the Cause of those Clamours, and in several Letters repeatedly recommended it to the Directors to advertize the said Colliery &c as the Leases run out, and let the same to the best bidder, being verry well assured the Hospital would get between One & two hundred Pounds per Ann. more for them than what Mr Romer had consented to give.



December 11th. Mr Romer wrote to the Secretary as follows. ‘As I have not been honored with any Orders from the Board (meaning the Directors) since mine of the 19 August last I hope Sir you’ll excuse this trouble and give me leave to add as follows, That for want of them (orders) I am greatly at a loss to know where & to whom I am to surrender the old Leases as the next half years Rent is due and will be paid under the new Your full Directions therein Sir will greatly oblige.’



On 18th of the same Month the Secretary wrote to Mr Romer  as follows ‘I have this day laid before the Board of Directors for Greenwich Hospital your Letter of the 11th instant. representing, ‘that for want of any Orders from them since the 19th of August last, you are greatly at a loss to know when and to whom you are to surrender the Old Leases, as the next half years Rent is due & will be paid under the new’. In return to which I am to acquaint you, that nothing further could be done by the Board after the Receipt of your aforesaid Letter of 19th of August untill a Gen[eral] Court of the Commissioners for the Hospital had given their consent & Concurrance to a Renewal of your Leases. Upon a Presumption that you was sufficiently informed of the nature of their proceedings in Letting of Leases, to know that none could be valid without the Confirmation of such General Court, under whose controul the Directors are, it was thought unnecessary to correspond with you any farther upon the Subject ‘till the Sentiments of the approaching General Court (which will be on Thursday next) were known : What they may be is uncertain, but you may be assured of having their Resolutions transmitted to you by Fridays Post.’

  

Those Letters being read to a General Court held on Thursday 23rd of December, and the whole of what passed upon the occasion between the Directors & Mr Romer being made known, The Court disapproved of Mr Romers having a Renewal, with which he was made acquainted on 28th of the same Month in the following Letter from the Secretary  ’The Commissioners for Greenwich Hospital having at their General Court disapproved of your having a Renewal of your Leases for the Colliery, Limestone Quarries & Kilns at Scremerston being very well informed the said Colliery, Quarries & Kilns will be Let much better by public Advertizement in the usual manner by which yourself & every person inclined to become a Tenant will have a fair Opportunity of bidding for the same, I have their Commands to acquaint you therewith.’ 



In return to this Mr Romer writes to the Secretary as follows. ‘I never before felt myself more disagreeably circumstanced than I feel at present from your last Letter . That the whole transaction with the Board was fair & open & communicated to my Friends who would soon have ceased to be so had it been otherwise , That at different times I have told them all the Terms of renewal were fully agreed upon & settled , That in everything since yours & mine of the 13th and 19th of August I have in every step since taken considered them as such, and in particular reduced my number of Hewers to the number mentioned therein &c &c _ That till your last Letter I never knew, enquired into, or had a doubt of the Power of the Board of Directors, General Court of the Commissioners for the Hospital, or of the Commissioners for Greenwich Hospital, Terms as I thought indifferently made use of in the above Letters, and of the same Import till I received your last, save what was ment[ione]d in a Letter from Messrs Boag & Walton your Agents Sept. last, in answer to one of mine alike in substance with that already copied, dated 11th December long subsequent in point of time to yours & mine of the 13th & 19th of August, and was in substance as follows.  That they intended receiving the Derw[entwater] Rents at Whittingham the 26th of the Month following and would be glad to see me there, inclosing me therein a Copy of the Board’s Minute relating to my Renewal adding that nothing further could be done ‘till a General Court , or something to that Effect, that therefore upon the whole without charging myself with having successfully imposed upon the Board & their Agents, and having that Charge believed by all my Friends, who are no strangers to what has already passed; which well knowing the Contrary to be true I hope the Honourable Board upon enquiring into my Character and Situation in Life, will think impossible for me to charge myself with, and that upon further enquiry into the matter whatever Representations may have been sent up to the contrary, and upon comparing the Terms expressly & absolutely (Viz: without any Condition ) offered and accepted of by us the several Parties in honour & justice of the fairness & openness of the Transaction will be pleased in due time to carry the above Terms of Agreement  into full Execution and the rather as the like Agreements by Surrender that have been formerly made agreed to and confirmed by the Board; and give me leave to add that upon no occasion whatever a more minute or particular enquiry was ever made into the value of the Hospital or other Lands than was made by your Agents who assisted by Mr Brown well known upon the River Tyne for his great skills & Knowledge in Coll;ierys, examined the Workings and Vend &c of the said Colliery And that the Vend &c of the Drawkilns, was not less enquired into by the Agents themselves, and all that after my Proposals had been given in & long before the said Letters of the 13th & 19th of August last; and to add also that if I did not think my Character was blended with the Completion of the Agreement  I could readily forgoe any Bargain much more beneficial than the present rather than by asking any thing disagreeable, risque that Favour & Character with the Board which in every Instance of my dealing with them since I have had the honour of becoming their Tenant I have industriously endeavoured to deserve, and that not for my own Sake only but for that also of my Family.



Q[uery]   Whether the proceedings or Acts of the Board of Directors with Mr Romer here stated are valid without the Concurrence of a General Court. And if Mr Romer can oblige either the Comm[issioners] or the Directors of the Hospital to grant the Renewal of his Leases.



The Minutes of the Board transmitted to Mr Romer by the Secretary seem to me to be in the nature of Proposals and by no means a compleat Agreement for a Renewal, such Proposals being by virtue of his Majesty’s Commission and of the Course of Business always subject to the Controul of the General Court, and consequently without the consent of such Court the Directors ought not to renew the Leases. This being the case I think Mr Romer cannot compel the Commissioners or Directors to execute such Leases, and under the present Circumstances I would by no means advise them 

R Hussey

Temple, April 20th 1763   



[annotated:] Copy of Case on the Transactions between the Directors of Greenwich Hospital & Mr Romer as to the Renewal of his Leases with Mr Husseys opinion thereon.