from £36 6s. to £49 16s. In 1802, it was let in three separate parcels to an equal number of tenants, for a total of £134. Shortly before the filing of the information, Mr. Thos. Jas. Breeds, one of the relators, offered £210 for it, but the offer was declined on the ground that it would be unjust to the tenants, who had increased the value of the lands by very considerable improvements under the belief that they would be permitted to occupy them for at least seven yers. In 1811, however, the Chancery order was that they should be let by auction but that Mr. Breeds should not bid less than the price he offered. As no other person would bid at so high a price, Mr. Breeds became the lessee for 14 years at £210, clear of all deductions. After that the Chancery Court ordered the Corporation to pay £137 13s. out of their own funds, being nearly the difference between the old rent and £200 for two years. It has been already shown how great was the expense to the Corporation - and, consequently, the town - were put to by the Chancery suit, and how one of the schools was not re-established for five or six years, and how Mr. Milward generously gave to the Corporation the £492 3s. 10d. for which his father held bonds for lent money.
Another investigation and report of Charity Lands
As there are so few persons acquainted with the history of the so-called drowned lands mentioned in the foregoing official enquiry the following explanation is presented. Wittersham Level is referred to in a decree of Lord Clarendon dated from June 6th 1666, which
SHEWETH - That in 1604, Thomas Fane and others exhibited their bill of complaint into the Court of Chancery against Sir Edward Hales and others, to the effect that they (the complainants) are owners of lands in Wittersham Level - and that the said Level that, for the last forty years & upwards, consisted of 1000 acres or thereabouts of low marsh land, & of 1500 acres, or thereabouts, of high marsh land; all of which said high lands about 37 years ago were good summer and winter lands, & all of the said low lands were then also good summer lands, & for the most part good winter lands, & that the said level is governed by a particular Commission of sewers, & that the upper levels for the last 40 years did consist of 5000 acres or thereabouts, of marsh adjoining the said Wittersham Level, the greatest part of which were, about 36 years since, drowned & lost, yielding no profit and the residence were then decaying and in danger of being lost, also; that the said Upper Levels were governed by another particular Commission and that owners (having fruitlessly spent about £20,000 about the draining & preserving the said marsh by the old circular way of sewering by Appledore) took into consideration a new course or channel, which might be made through Wittersham Level in a direct line, and five miles in ten nearer to the sea than the former old circular way; but as the same could not be effected but by sew[er]ing through Wittersham Level, they made several propositions to the owners of the said marsh to obtain their consent. The parties having agreed, the owners of the -
