several years before, the said Thomas Deudney was a tenant of the Magdalen Charity land. In 1787, Edward Milward leased the land for 21 years, Thomas Deudney remaining as an undertenant. That not more than £40 a year was paid as rent for the land is true enough, but that sum was as much in proportion as was paid for other lands at the same time. In 1796, Mr. Milward declined to renew his lease of the Maudlin land, in consideration of the then recently enhanced value of lands in general. He believed that a greater rent would be obtained than had theretofore been, and which, as he said, would be for the benefit of the poor of St. Clement’s and All Saints. It was therefore ordered by the Corporation that the land be re-valued by Jeremiah Smith, of Crowhurst, and Thomas Cruttenden, of Westfield. What was the amount of their valuation I have not discovered, but I find that Mr. Deudney continued to be rated on the original assessment till 1813, when it was tenanted by Jeremiah Whyborn, who also paid on the same assessment of £39. This tenant failed, and from 1822 to 1828, the Charity (commonly called the Poor) land was carried on under the same rate of assessment by “Whyborn & Co.” When in 1810 the Chancery suit was commenced against the Corporation for alleged mismanagement of the Charities, through the “Information” tendered by Thomas James Breeds and Thomas Clark, the Corporation had to borrow £1232 at five per cent. to pay the costs of amending the Information — in other words for defending the action. It was then resolved to let the Charity lands by tender for 14 years as soon as the Corporation could legally do so, conformably with directions of the Court of Chancery.
In 1823, Mr. Newman-Collingwood (son-in-law of Admiral Collingwood), for whom Mr. John Smith was engaged to build Bohemia House — but which was sold to Thos. Breeds and Co. in its unfinished state — offered a much larger farm at Bexhill in exchange for the whole of the Magdalen land, but the offer was declined by the Corporation on the belief that if such an exchange could be legally effected it would not be to the advantage of the Charity. That such a belief was well founded later events have sufficiently proved.
It was in 1827 that the Magdalen land was let by tender, when Ransom and Ridley, the noted shipwrights, offered a rent of £105 on a lease of fourteen years. Another tender was that of Mr. Whyborn, the amount being £102. In 1832, the Charities Committee reported to the Corporation that the Magdalen land was in good condition and that the fences were well kept by the tenants, Messrs. Ransom and Ridley.
In 1834, the Corporation exchanged the “Jockey Field”, of 3a. 2r. 30p. and the “Bohemia Field” of 2a. 3r. 30p. for a portion of the “Horntye Field”, of 10a. 0r. 35p., thus leaving 3a. 2r. 35p. in favour of the Charity land; and for this addition, Ransom and Ridley offered a rental of £7 if they were put in possession. Soon after this date the first dwellings, at Bohemia (other than the two at Spittleman’s Down) were erected, and then known as “The New Houses”. If Mr. Smith was unacquainted with the facts here set forth, his statement might be excusable, but if he purposely -
