Robert Bevill, &c. They cut 83,000 acres of the land into twenty lots or shares, containing 4,000 acres in a lot, as equal in value as could be then well judged, (the remaining 3,000 acres lying overplus); and proceeded therein to the expenditure of about £100,000.* and at a session of sewers held on the 12th October, (13th A.D. Charles I.) the commissioners decreed the level to be 1637. drained according to the intent of "the Lynn law." However, at a commission of sewers at Huntingdon, held on 12th April following, the work was declared 1638. to be incomplete,† and his majesty Charles I. thereupon undertook the better draining thereof, but was to have an addition of 57,000 acres, on the levels' being made good winter ground. The king went on with the undertaking until his unhappy wars and difficulties took place,‡ which, preventing any further progress in the works, they fell into decay, and so continued for several years, and the country having received no benefit by the draining, entered upon the 95,000 acres again, and no * The works made were the old Bedford river, Sam's cut from Feltwell to Ouse, a cut to drain Mildenhall river in Burnt Fen, and Bevil's Leam from Whittlesey Mere to Guyhirn; they likewise made a great sluice at Well creek end, to keep the tides out of the river. + Badeslade. It was his majesty's intention also to have built a town in the midst of the level, at Manea, and to have called it Charlemont, the design whereof he drew himself; and he caused a bank on the south side of Morton's Leam, extending from Peterborough to Wisbech, to be made, and began a like bank on the north side; he also caused a new river to be cut between the stone sluice at the Horse-shoe and the sea below Wisbech, of sixty feet in breadth, and about two miles and a half in length, with banks on both sides thereof, and placed a sluice in the marshes below Tid, upon the outfall of Shire Drain, which afterwards was swallowed up by the quick sands. Dug. p. 414. On the side of the channel below Gunthorpe, the compiler of this work saw, in 1822, the top of a sluice, which, by its inclined situation, seemed to have been undermined, and most probably is the sluice here mentioned to have been placed by king Charles the first. A.D. more works were done until after the death of the king, and also of the said Francis, earl of Bedford. At length, in the year 1649, William, earl of Bedford, 1649. his heir and successor, and his participants, renewed the undertaking on the terms of the Lynn law, except that instead of 40,000 acres allotted as a fund for the continuance of the work of draining, the whole 95,000 acres were to be taxed for that purpose; and an application being made to the assembly at Westminster, thencalled the Parliament, for their sanction, an act, since called the "Pretended Act of Parliament," was passed in the year 1649, to promote the undertaking; upon which, the earl proceeded so far therein, as to perfect the same at the further charge of about £300,000.* though to the ruin of many adventurers; and having accomplished the whole work within the compass of five years, the said level was, by a decree of sewers on the 1653. 25th of March in the year 1653, adjudged to be fully drained. Whereupon the said earl and his participants had possession of those 95,000 acres awarded to them, and from the time that the land in the said great level was adjudged to the adventurers, the said 95,000 acres, liable to a perpetual tax for draining, have been known by the name of Adventurers' Lands, and the remainder, not being liable to be taxed for general works, have been called Free Lands. *The expense of this work was enormous to the noble family of the Bedfords, for in order to raise money for carrying it on, they sold many manors in Devonshire, and many houses and lands in the parish of Saint Martin in the Fields, reserving only out of part thereof small fee-farm rents, prior to the time of Saint Paul's, Covent Garden, being made a parish, which was then part of Saint Martin's in the Fields. An Inquiry into Facts, 1775. p. 35. Act of 15th Charles II. for constituting a Corporation to settle the Drainage of the Great Level. By the restoration of king Charles the second to the crown, the acts of the convention parliament became invalid; but for the better encouraging of the said earl and his participants in so great a work, and to form a system of laws for the due government thereof, an act A.D. was obtained in the 15th year of king Charles II, 1662. entitled, "An Act for settling the Draining of the "Great Level of the Fens called Bedford Level." By this act, under which the Bedford level laws are now administered, the boundaries of the level are declared, and a corporation is constituted for governing the level, by the name of the "Governor, Bailiffs, and "Commonalty of the Company of Conservators of the "Great Level of the Fens;" which corporation consists of one governor, six bailiffs, twenty conservators and commonalty, who are empowered to use a common seal, and to purchase lands not exceeding £200. per annum, and goods and chattels, and to dispose thereof in the name and to the use of the corporation; and to assemble and meet together when, where, and as often as they please; and to appoint a register, receiver, one or more serjeants at mace, and other officers, and allow them salaries, and remove them and make new at their pleasure and 83,000 acres, over and above 10,000 acres assigned to his majesty, and 2,000 acres to other grantees, (making together the said 95,000 acres) are vested in the said corporation, with the ways, passages, new rivers, cuts, drains, banks, and forelands made by Francis and William, earls of Bedford, and their participants, in trust for the earls of Bedford and their participants, according to such parts and proportions as they held and enjoyed at the time of passing the act, to be held of the king of the manor of East Greenwich, by fealty only, in free and common socage, and not otherwise; and the said 10,000 acres are vested in his majesty accordingly. The governor, bailiffs, and conservators, or any five or more of them, (whereof the said governor or bailiffs, or any of them, to be two) are empowered to act in all cases as commissioners of sewers within the said level, or of the works made without, and to exercise such laws as are used in Romney Marsh, and may lay taxes on the 95,000 acres only, for support, maintenance, and preservation of the said level, and levy the same, with penalties for non-payment, not exceeding the third part of the tax; and do all other things in order to the support, maintenance, and preservation of the said great level, and works made and to be made within or without the said level, for carrying the waters of the level to its outfall, as they in their judgment think best. And no other commissioners of sewers are to intermeddle in the said level, or with the works thereunto belonging out of the said level. All conveyances of the 95,000 acres are to be entered with the register, and no lease, grant, or conveyance of, or charge out of or upon the said 95,000 acres, or any part thereof, except leases for seven years in possession, shall be of force, but from the time they shall be entered with the register. And the said governor, bailiffs, conservators, and commonalty, upon Wednesday in Whitsun week yearly, at a public meeting to be then held of the said corporation, by the greater number then present, (whereof the said governor or one of the bailiffs is to be one) are to elect the governor, bailiffs, and conservators respectively for the year ensuing; provided that none be capable to be or continue governor or bailiff that hath not 400 acres or more of the said 95,000 acres; nor to be a conservator that hath not 200 acres or more of the said 95,000 acres; nor any of the commonalty to have a voice in elections that hath not 100 acres or more of the said 95,000 acres. And the said governor, bailiffs, conservators, and officers are (before they proceed to act) to take an oath, "well and truly to execute the "office." And the said governor, bailiffs, conservators, and commonalty are the corporation for taking the accounts of their officers; and if any suit be commenced against the said corporation or any person, for any matter or thing done in pursuance of the last-mentioned act of king Charles, then he or they may plead the general issue, and give the special matter in evidence upon any trial to be had touching the same. By the same act it is declared, that if any breaches happen in any of the banks, sluices, &c. or other works of drainage in or out of the said level, for the carrying of the waters of the said level to their outfalls, by reason of some inevitable accident, that the same are to be repaired by the said corporation in convenient time, but no other charge to be laid on the said corporation; nor to give any recompense for any loss or damage, which hath or shall happen by reason of their making such necessary and sufficient banks, for defending the said level from being overflowed, and for leading the waters Ꭰ |