Saint Pancras past and present: being historical, traditional, and general notes of the parish, etc

Front matter

JSahti Ijaitcps PAST AND PRESENT: BEING HISTORICAL, TRADITIONAL AND GENERAL NOTES OF THE PARISH, INCLUDING BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OP INHABITANTS ASSOCIATED WITH ITS TOPOGRAPHICAL AND GENERAL HISTORY. BI FREDERICK MILLER. PUBLISHED BY ACEL HEYWOOD & SON, 4, CATHERINE-STREET, STRAND; AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS IN ST. PANCRAS. 1874. LONDON : PRINTED BY GEORGE MEYERS, HAWLEY CRESCENT, KENTISH TOWN ROAD, N.W. To GEORGE CRUIKSHANK, Esq. Deae Sir, I dedicate to you these Notes on tne History and Topography of St. Pancras as an old inhabitant of the Parish, well known to your Friends for your natural Antiquarian Taste and Knowledge, and as most widely known and respected for your Genius as an Artists having for more than sixty years devoted your Talents to the delineation of the Customs, and Habits, and to the exposure of the Follies of all classes of the People ; and having also been distinguished for your warm hearted and self-sacrificing Benevolence in behalf of the weak and the erriDg, in the hope of preserving or reclaiming them.

Esteeming you very highly for your Works' sake as also for your goodness, I heartily thank you for the permission to associate your world-wide name with this effort to interest our fellow Parishioners in the History and Associations of St. Pancras, and have the honour to subscribe myself Your most obliged And grateful Servant, F. MILLER. March 1874. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. A Friend (Camden Square) 3 Ash, Mr. William 2 Auld, Mr. W. \V. (Edinburgh) 1 Badcock, Mr. John 1 Barry, Mr. W 1 Beale, Mr. J. L 2 Bononii, Mr. Joseph (Soane's Museum) 1 Biddle, Mr.T. W 1 Blackborn, Mi*. E 1 Bold, Mr. J. E 1 Bowen, Mr. H , 2 Brown, Mr. R. Mansel .. 1 Brown, Mr. \V .* .... 2 Browne, Mr. R.T 1 Bryson, Mrs 1 Buckoll, F. C 1 Burgess, Mr. E. J 1 Burns, The Rev. Dawson 1 Burnett, Mr. E. C 1 Burr, Mr. Joseph 1 Calvert, Mrs 1 Carpenter, Mr. W. H 1 Casey, Mr. J. R 1 Cause, Mr. Edmund 2 Chamberlain, Mr. Thomas 1 Chamberlain, Mr. E 1 Chapman, Mr 1 Chart, Mr. F. A 1 Chaumeth, M. A. de la 1 Clark, Mr. Andrew 1 Clarke, Mr. William 1 Coates, Mr. F 1 Combe, Miss E 1 Compositors.

The London Society of , _ Cook, Mr. Cbarle3 1 Corbett, Mr. T 1 Cotton, Mr 1 Dargenhauzen, Mr 1 Denman, The Hon. Mr. Justice 6 Dent, Mr. John 1 Dickinson, Dr 1 Dinsey, Mr. F 1 Dixon, Mr. John 1 Dod, Mr. A 1 Draper, Mr. J. P 1 Dunbar, Mr. P 1 Dunn, Mr. E 1 Eastlake, Lady 1 E4wards, Mr. R 1 Edwards, Mr. R. Jun 1 Engall.Dr 1 Eugall, Mr. B. C 1 Essex, Mr. W 1 Eyers, Mr. A 1 Faning, Mr. C 1 Filmer, Mr. E 1 Flanders, Mr. A 1 Forsyth, Mr. W., Q.C., M.P. ... 1 Frampton, Mr. G 1 Freer, Mr. F. A 4 Fry, Mr. Wm 1 „ Mrs 1 „ Mr. E. A 1 Gibb, Mr. T. Eccleston 2 Gilbey, Messrs. AV. & A G Gilling, Mr. Sydney 1 Glen, Mr. A. H 1 Goodall, Mr. J. C 1 Goode, Mr. Frederick 1 Mr. H. T 1 „ Mr. Richard 1 Gowing, Mr. F. W 1 Green, Mr. J. G. (Gateshead)... 1 Hall, Mr. S. Carter 3 Hansard, Mr. Henry G Hardy, Mr. James 1 Harper, Mr. Walter 1 Harris, Mr 1 „ Mr. J. 0 1 Harrison, The Rev. J. C 6 „ Mr. George 1 Harvey, Mr. Samuel 1 Haslam, Miss 1 Haslock, Mr 1 Hawes, Mr. Jonathan 1 Head, Mr. Charles 1 Heal, Mr. J. Harris 1 Heather, Mr. James 1 Hibbert, Mr. F 2 Hill, Mr. C 1 Hirst, Mr. H 1 Holcombe, Mr. J. Ivimey 1 Mr. Philip 1 Horn, Mr. G. T 1 Houston, Mr. W. T 1 Howard, Mrs 1 Humbert, Mr. Lewis 1 H. T 1 Inwards, Mr. Jabez G Jenkinson, Mr. F 1 Jones, Mr. Samuel 1 Jones, Mrs. (Camden Road) ...

Introduction

. In the following account of North West London, much informa tion that has already appeared in other Histories must necessarily be repeated, for the sake of completeness. Hitherto, no connected account has been given of the results of the rapid progress of this district in the past seventy years, during which period threo towns have come into existence. Somers Town dates its com mencement from the time of the first French Revolution; Cam den Town was commenced a few years after ; and Agar Town was projected thirty years ago — but is now swept away. The vast increase of the population in the Metropolis has been made more evident in this district from the fact of its rural condition but fifty years since. Kentish Town, too, in the ten years previous to the last Census, from various causes, had been increased by 23,881 inhabitants, making the total population 68,198 on the day the Census was taken, the entire population of St. Pancras being 221,594.

The History of St. Pancras may appear, at first sight, to be but of limited and merely local interest ; but deeper reflection and a more intimate acquaintanceship with the subject serves to show that as the History of London is really the History of England, so a part of London must in some degree partake of the same character. The History of Roman London is necessarily vague and uncer tain, and yet traces of the endeavour of Cæsar to colonise this island are frequently to be seen as excavations are made in the

INTRODUCTION.

. City, when the remains of Roman pavement and pottery are re vealed. Remains of the military roads also, and the ancient bridleways leading northwards to the well-known Watliug-street, are interesting proofs of the Roman invasion of the island. The existence ofthe great Forest of Middlesex is also proved by its remains at Highgate as Caen or Ken Wood. The old feudal times are made real to us as we reflect upon the fact that St. Pancras was divided into manors, and that the few cottars who dwelt in them did so on condition that they paid tribute to their lords ; when the social condition of the villeins was that of entire dependence on the will of their owners, they having no more voice as to their disposal than their companions the hogs on the estate. As the Forest became cleared, and the operations of agriculture extended, so the population increased, and became, like the soil, prepared for higher cultivation.

But when Christianity begau to spread its blessings and humanising influences, then reason and not brute force only became the guiding rule. Evi dently, apart from sects and systems, there has been a gradual and silent power at woik, and the best proof we can adduce of the happy result is the free condition of the humblest labourer in the modern parish of St. Pancras compared with the slavish con dition of the villein or serf 800 years ago, when the will of the lord of the manor was absolute. True, there are disadvantages and evils alongside our civiliza tion whicli puzzle the wisest of our Statesmen how best to deal with them, and consequently they are generally left alone. Our poor-law system is the growth of centuries of neglect and misrule ; first, of repression and severity, after the evil had been created leaving the poor and helpless to the mercy of the charitably dis posed, resulting in the many ancient charitable donations and bequests which parish records reveal ; and lastly, the law passed for the relief of the poor, founded upon the principle that no fellow creature should be suffered to starve.

INTRODUCTION.

. IX As the population of the parish increased, so did the moans for their necessities and higher wants become augmented. Holy and benevolent impulses havo led to the erection of buildings for the poor, the aged and the helpless. The history of such institutions in the parish and their present condition, contained in this volume, will serve to interest all who sympathise with foundlings, or orphans, or the aged and destitute. The erection of many of the twenty-two Parish Churches in Sh Pancras, mainly effected through the wisely and liberally directed efforts of the late Vicar, the Rev. Thomas Dale, is the evidence of growth and a desire to meet the wants of tlie members ofthe Church ofEngland, principally by means of the voluntary principle The many Chapels of all denominations, having the same great end in view, tell of the same expansive and unselfish principles on behalf of others' highest needs.

Perhaps the introduction of the first Railway into London, as the London and Birmingham Railway, more than any other cause, changed rapidly the material character of this neighbourhood. During its construction, large numbers of the navvy class were introduced, and many of those poor fellows were killed by the falling in of excavated earth, scarcely a day passing without one or more being borne from the Chalk Farm tunnel, for an inquest and speedy interment. Engineering has greatly improved since then, and life has not been so largely gi\-en as formerly to bring in improvements. Camden Town is the only town in which a statue has been erected to him whose " unadorned eloquence " at last was ac knowledged and prevailed, iu removing restrictions on the supply of the people's food— the blessings from which having never since been diminished, though perhaps forgotten— which must serve to remind the passer-by that Cobden was appreciated in St. Pancras. Education in St. Pancras was raised far in advance when a Uni versity College was erected in it, on liberal principles, by such X

INTRODUCTION.

. men as the late Lord Brougham, though the institution was sneered at and slandered at the time as Godless and unchristian, but it has been an incentive to others to promote iu other ways the same end. Of the many institutions which mark the material and moral progress of the great Parish of St. Pancras, accounts will also be found in the following pages. As to the manner in which the writer has dono his work, he leaves for others to decide. He is conscious of imperfection and omission ; though the limits of the work have exceeded the original intention. It has been to him a labour of love, though pursued under difficulties and with few advantages ; but it has brought its own reward. It has relieved the mind of other cares, and it has brought knowledge, and the pleasure whieh ever attends its pursuit.

In conclusion, the writer would refer to the chapters on Camden and Kentish Towns as containing matters of interest untouched by previous writers. The chapter on Gray's Inn has been enriched by information kindly furnished by Mr. Douth waite, the Librarian ; to that on Fitzroy Chapel (uow St. Saviour's Church), the Rev. F. Perry has supplied interesting information ; and Mr. Soul, the Secretary of the Orphan Working School, has kindly corrected and added to the account of that institution. Also, to the Subscribers the writer tenders his grateful acknow ledgments, and he now submits the result of his labours to the free inspection and kindly interest of his readers. £aint flanps : PAST AND PRESENT. HISTORICAL, TRADITIONAL, AND GENERAL NOTES OF TIIE PUBLIC BUILDINGS, INSTITUTIONS, STREETS, AND OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST.

Chapter I. Julius

CÆSAR IN ST. PANCRAS. — Dr. StuJcehlJ. It is generally supposed that Julius Cæsar, on his second invasion of Britain, had an encampment in the neighbour hood of Pancras ; and perhaps the chief advocate and most thorough believer in the story was Dr. Stukeley, who was born in 1687. His researches are both curious and interest- Dr. Stukeley had commenced life as a physician, having studied at St. Thomas's Hospital as a pupil of Dr. Mead in 1709. He settled for a short time as a medical practitioner at Boston, in his native county, and acquired great reputa tion as a physician ; but his health failing, on the advice of Archbishop Wake, he relinquished medicine, and took orders in 1720. In 1747, he was presented to the rectory of St. George-the-Martyr by the Duke of Montague, and either in Queen Square or in Kentish Town he continued till the 3rd of March 1765, when be died from a stroke of palsy.

He was in his seventy-eighth year, which he attained by his remarkable temperance and regularity. At the time he wrote the second volume of his "Itine rarium Curiosum," he was living in Queen Square, London, beside the Church of St. George-the-Martyr, of which he B — PAST AND PRESENT. was rector. He had also a country house at Kentish Town, to which he frequently retired, traversing on the way part of the ground which, as he imagined, Cæsar and his Eoman legions bad trodden 1,800 years before, and on which the encampments they had raised were still to his " undoubting mind " as visible almost as if the supposed mounds and cir cumvallations had been thrown up only the preceding summer. " It is easy/' says the enthusiastic antiquary, "to imagine the pleasure to be found in an agreeable walk from my situation in Queen Square through the fields that lead me to the footsteps of Cæsar, when, without going to foreign parts, I can tread the ground which he trode.

By finding out several of his camps I was enabled off-hand to distinguish them ; and they are very different from all others we meet withal." Dr. Stukeley considered that he had sufficient grounds for his belief that Cæsar encamped " no further off than Pancras Church." Cæsar, he informs us, having crossed the Thames at the Coway Stakes, where the name of Chertsey still pre serves his memory as Cherbourg does in Prance, encamped on Greenfield Common, near Staines, "where a splendid embassy came to him from the Londoners, desiring his alliance and protection, and that he would restore their prince, Mandubrace, who was then in his retinue." " To his little camp, or prætorium, on this account," adds this communicative recorder of these long past transactions, " he orders another to be drawn round it, for reception of those ambassadors and their prince, together with forty hostages, which he demanded, and corn for his army."

Having reduced Casvelhan's two strongholds of Watford and Eickmansworth, and compelled the unfortunate King's com plete submission, he turned to London, and set out on his march upon that capital, " effectually to serve his friend and ally Mandubrace, whose protection he had undertaken, in the kingdom of the Trinobantes, and reconcile him to his subjects and his uncle Casvelhan." Mandubrace, it seems, was the son of ImmanueDce, the same who by the British historians is commonly called Lud, that is, the Brown. Lud, or Immanuence, had been put to death by his ambitious brother Casvelhan, who had usurped his throne, and forced Mandu brace to fly to Gaul to implore the aid of Cæsar. Such was the true origin of Cæsar's invasion, although, strangely PAST AND PRESENT. 3 enough, he is silent in his own account in regard to facts which would have gone so far to justify what otherwise has so much the air of an unprovoked aggression.

However, to the capital of the Trinobantcs he proceeded, to put the finishing stroke to his disinterested expedition. " It was not suitable," continues our author, " to his honour or his security to quarter in the city of London ; but he pitched his camp where now is Pancras Church. His prætorium (or judgment hall) is still very plain, over against tho church, in the footpath on the west side of the brook ; the vallum (or rampart) and ditch are visible ; its breadth from east to west forty paces ; its length from north to south sixty paces. This was his prætorium, where his own tent was pitched in the centre : the prætorium cohorts around it. When I came attentively to consider the situation of it, and the circumjacent ground, I easily discerned the traces of his whole camp : a great many ditches or division of the pastures retain footsteps of the plan of the camp ; and whenever I take a walk thither I enjoy a visionary scene ofthe whole camp of Cæsar : a scene just as if beheld, and Cæsar present."

Again, " North ofthe Churchyard is a square moated about, in length north and south forty paces, in breadth east and west thirty ; the entrance to the west. This was the prætorium of Mandubrace, King of London, and of the Trinobantes. The ditches have been dug deep to make a kitchen-garden for the rector of the church, from whom I suppose in after times it has been alienated.'' It is enough to raise a smile that the ingenious author should thus allow his imagination to get the better of his reason ; hut still the confirmatory particulars he notices are curious enough in the fact of the application of the term " Brill " to a hamlet a few hundred yards to the south of the churchyard. This Eoman term is supposed to be a contraction of Bury or Burgh Hill, and is the name of a village in Buckinghamshire where many Eoman coins have been found.

Camden mentions a Eoman camp near Chichester which retains this same name of the Brill. It is also a curious circumstance that Stukeley should have found everywhere even and great numbers, when he paced its boundaries. (The " public," known by the name of " The Brill," like the encampment, is now levelled, and the Midland Eailway now remains the monarch of the plain). b2 — PAST AND PRESENT. Though much of this narrative may be purely imaginary, still the main facts are warranted by the histories ofthe period. Cæsar came to Britain to settle disputes which had arisen ; that he had an encampment near London is most probable, and the spot so firmly believed in by Stukeley may have been the precise one on which the scene of reconciliation between the British king and his nephew took place. When the Old Church Avas being repaired in 1848, Eoman bricks were found, which supports Dr. Stukeley's theory that here was the site of a Eoman encampment.

The reader of this account must have noticed that in the endeavour to establish a fact relating to the obscure and remote past, Dr. Stukeley has given a description of the spot as it then existed . The house from which he started in Queen Square still exists, and is now a greengrocer's shop. The fields are all covered with streets ; the brook has long since been diverted, and the block of buildings now called St. Pancras Square covers the spot. The church, too, is unlike the building Stukeley saw, and, it may be, in which he occasionally preached Avhen Benjamin Mence, of King's College, Cambridge, was the vicar. In an old print of St. Pancras Church, and the Brill, dated 1642, there is a representation of that portion there of the earthworks erected by order of the Parliament to prevent the entrance of King Charles and his forces into the City.

It is possible that the more ancient earthworks may have been re-constructed or repaired, and it is also but justice to refer to this fact, as antiquaries have disputed Dr. Stukeley's confident statement from the above-mentioned facts.

Chapter II. Ancient Parishes And Ecclesiastical Divisions

— ST. PANCEAS PARISH ; ITS MANORS AND CHURCH LANDS. The secular and ecclesiastical history of England became interwoven at an early date. In England, as in Europe generally, the preaching of the Gospel materially changed the character of the people and their institutions. The heathen temples were also transformed into churches or places of assembly. London was converted to Christianity under the Eomans, but its ecclesiastical history during that period is of a very fragmentary character. The Latin term parochia indicates the ecclesiastical origin of our word " parish." It may be interesting to see how the introduction of Christianity also introduced those divisions of land which continue to the present day. It must be premised that our country was as barbarous as Africa is now, with its chieftains making war upon their neighbours, and, when victorious, holding the conquered inhabitants as slaves, or compelling them to pay tribute.

The first missionaries to our island were zealous men, and so attracted the inhabitants to their standard that they gained a footing in some city, then built a church, and surrounded themselves with a company of clerks, or clergy, who acted according to their directions. These missionaries were bishops, or overseers, and had circuits, like diocesan parishes. The clergy lived with their bishops. The offerings or tithes of the people formed a common stock for the maintenance of the bishop and college of priests ; afterwards it included alms for the poor and the repair of the churches. In the third century the proprietors of land who were influenced by these early preachers, began, with the license of the ecclesiastical authorities, to build and endow churches on their own possessions, and they were supported from tbe — PAST AND PRESENT. profits of the land as well as by offerings of such asrepaired thither for divine service.

We trace here the origin of lay impropriators. Lords of manors built churches, and granted land or glebe for their support. Primarily, glebe meant the turf or soil, and at length it became peculiarly the ecclesias tical term for a benefice. In those times almost all the necessaries of life were supplied from the produce of the earth. The right of presenting a clerk to the church, which originally belonged to the bishop, originated from this cause. Thus parishes arose from lay foundations. The difference in extent is accounted for by the varying limits appointed for them at their origin. The names were adopted from some favourite saint, or site, or lordship, or the fancy of the founder ; they were also created gradually, as the result of circumstances, and did not become fully settled till after the Norman Conquest.

Tithes were also a great source of income, and being the original mode of supporting worship under the Mosaic institution, it is not surprising that the Christian Church should adopt the same means. The State also enforced it, for we learn that King Edgar, in 970, passed a law that " every man shall pay his tythes to the most ancient church or monastery where he hears God's service : " " Which I understand,1' says the learned Selden, who wrote on the origin of tithes, " not otherwise than any church or monastery whither usually, in respect of his commorancy or his parish, he repaired ; that is, his parish church or monastery.'"' As early as the year 314, Kestitutus was Bishop of London, and was one of the three bishops who were delegated to the Council of Aries, in France. After that time the Saxons, who were Pagans, so obstinately opposed Christianity that Theon, the last Eoman or British Bishop of London, fled, in the latter end of the sixth century, to Wales, from their persecution.

London was again nominally converted to Christianity about the year 604, under Sebert, third king of the East Saxons, by Mellitus, who was ordained its bishop by Augustine the Archbishop of the English. Ethelbert, king of Kent, to whom Sebert was tributary, and who had been converted by Augustine, built the first Saxon Christian church in London, which he dedicated to St. Paul ; so that from the double circumstance of the kingdom of the East Saxons being tributary to Kent, and Mellitus being a missionarv of Augustine, it has happened that London is suffragan of the See of Canterbury. Under the successors of Sebert, London returned to Paganism, but was again converted in the reign of Sigibert the Good, sixth king of the East Saxons, by Cedda, a Northumbrian priest, who was the first Saxon ordained Bishop of London.

In a subsequent reign, London returned partially to Paganism, but its apostasy was of short duration. AVe are indebted to Alfred the Great for constituting London the capital of all England, but it still is subject to the See of Canterbury, and the archbishop is the ecclesiastical head, officiating at the crowning of a monarch, and his throne in Canterbury Cathedral indicates the position he holds in the state. The question of the propriety of the legal establishment of Christianity as the religion of the State, and of its alliance with the civil power, forms no part of the present inquiry ; but from the foregoing brief account it can be readily under stood how and why the ecclesiastical and secular history of England have become thus interwoven. The attentive reader of the History of England must ever be struck with the strong contrasts, both material and moral, which are presented between the Past and the Present.

Sharon Turner says that it is probable that the present state and people of New Zealand exhibit more nearly than any other the condition of Britain when the Eomans entered it. Then the forests, which were often of great extent, were a protection and sometimes a refuge from the incursions of neigh bouring tribes, who were continually at war with each other. Such a protection must have been the ancient Forest of Middlesex to ancient London. It was no doubt the refuge also of animals of the Avolf tribe ; but then the people Avere scarcely more human than the animals they hunted and destroyed either for self-preservation or sport. In process of time, and as an evidence of the progress of civilisation, the greater part of the Forest was cleared, and converted into pasture land, leaving Avhat is now called Caen Wood, on Lord Mansfield's estate at Highgate, as its memorial to the present day.

St. Pancras was made a prebendal manor by Ethelbert, and was included in the land granted by that monarch to St. Paul's Cathedral about the year U03 ; it was a parish before the Nor man Conquest, and is called Pancras in the Domesday Book. At the present time the parish of St. Pancras covers 2,< 16 statute acres, with a population, according to the census of 1871, of 221,591. It is bounded on the north by Hampstead and Hornsey parishes ; on the east by Clerkenwell and Isling ton ; on the south by St. Andrew, Holborn, and St. George, Bloomsbury ; on the west by Marylebone. Originally, at the time of the survey in 1080, the parish consisted of four hamlets or manors ; Kentish Town, formerly called Cantlers, Cantelows, or Kennistonne ; Tothele or Tot tenhall Court ; St. Pancras proper, where the old church is situated ; and the manor of Rugemere.

The prebendal manor of Cantelows or Kennistonne, was anciently a part of the forest of Middlesex ; its name being derived from that of Reginald de Kentwoode, a Dean of St. Paul's at a very early period after the introduction of Christianity into England. Part of Ken Wood or Caen Wood is the only remaining evidence ofthe existence of that great forest. The most valuable relic of antiquity we possess which can be received as an authority is the record of a survey or census undertaken by command of William the Conqueror, and which took six years to complete, known as the Domesday Book ; it has no record of London, but it contains the following description of this manor : " The Canons of St. Paul's hold four hides of land " (a hide being a tract of land, which varied from 20 to 30 and sometimes to 100 acres) " in the parish of St. Pancras, for a manor called ' Cantelowes or Kennistonne.' The land is of two caracutes " (as much land as could be cultivated by means of two ploughs) ; '' there is plenty of timber in the hedgerows, good pasture for cattle, a running brook, and 20d. rents.

Four villeins (serfs), together with seven bordars " (cottars, who generally rented cottages and land, for which they undertook to supply the lord of the manor's table with a certain quan tity of eggs, poultry, butter, &c), "who hold this land under the Canons of St. Paul's, at 40s. a year rent. A survey of the manor in the time of Cromwell, about 600 years afterwards, was taken, and it then contained 210 acres of land. The manor-house was sold to Richard Hill, a merchant, in London ; and the manor to Richard IJtber, a draper. Ten eventful years passed away, and, on the restoration of the monarchy, the original lessees of the manor, or their representatives, were reinstated ; another ten years — PAST AND PRESENT. passed, and the manor came into the possession of John Jeffreys, father of Sir Jeffreys Jeffreys, an alderman of Lon don ; then, by the marriage of the first Earl Camden with one of the daughters of Richard Jeffreys, grandson of Sir John, it eventually became by inheritance the property ofthe present Marquis of Camden.

Multitudes of persons who have passed through Gordon House Lane, Kentish Town, may have read a notice on a stone set in a wall there, a few yards from the Kentish Town Road, stating that it is " The way to the Church Lands," but few have had any other idea of its meaning save that certain land in that part was owned by the Church. It may be information, therefore, to many to be told, that in ancient times it was customary for every one possessed of landed property to give by his will to the fabric of the cathedral or parish church where he lived. Hence, lands so given were called Fabric Lands, because given ad FabricamEcclesiœ reparandam. They were called by the Saxons Timber Londs. In the year 1766, the churchwardens and overseers of St. Pancras revised and printed a table of charities, which had been " first collected and exposed to public view in the year 1696.'' It is called " a Table of the Pious and Charitable Gifts and Legacies of Pious and Charitable Benefactors to the Parish of St. Pancras, alias Kentish Town, in the County of Middlesex."