| Description | These documents (marked A-C) relate to the sale of land on the Isle of Dogs then belonging to Walter Bayley of Bath, gentleman, who made default in the payment of rates assessed upon him for the repair and improvement of the river wall. The first order of the Commissioners (document A) was made on 27 September 1660. Then Bayley's land was sold by decree and order (document B, 24 Oct 1660) to John Chevall, citizen of London, draper, who was to bequeath it to his son Richard. Richard's sole daughter and heiress married in 1703 Thomas Tooke, merchant, who afterwards resided at Horta in Fayal, in the Azores, as His Majesty's Consul. This decree received the royal assent of Charles II, whose sign-manual appears at the top left-hand corner.
Mention is made of 'the great Breach that had lately before happened in the banks and walls of the said Marsh [Stebunheath Marsh at Poplar] and what must now necessarily be expended' in repairing it. To raise the sum of £16,000 the owners of the land thereabouts were rated at £20 per acre, the money to be paid to Mr Henry Dethick 'at his house in Poplar'.
At another sessions held at the Red Lyon at Poplar on 1 September 1660, the Commissioners imposed a further tax on the owners of £4 per acre, it appearing that the work already done on the breach and the cost of materials bought had amounted to £1,500 more than the tax already imposed.
Bayley's share of this tax was £480 for 20 acres of land. Of this he paid £20, and for the rest his land was sold by order of the Commissioners. His receipt for the purchase price of £900 paid by John Chevall (document C) shows that Chevall actually purchased 21 acres, wih £500 due to the Commissioners of Sewers and the balance due to Bayley as the vendor. |