Vice-Chancellor's Court, ...
tno wourt waS occupied during the whole of its sitting in partly hearing this cause. It appeared that the suit was commenced by the phaintilt, wo claimed to be entitled to the tithes of the narishs of tiendon, in the county of lfiddle.jex, to recover from the defendant the amount of tithes due in respect of lands occupied by him in the same parish. Depositions to a vcry voluminous extent werc read in which the title of the plaintifFlwas deduced, and tenaing to prove that the manor of Hendon had formerly belonged to the monastery of St. Peter, Westminster. At the dissolution of religious houses in the reign of Henry VII., it was granted out, with other lands and possessions formerly belonging to the Abbey, to Thomas, then Bishop of Westminster. It was afterwards suriendered to the Crown, and granted out again to a lay proprietor, when the lanids were part- ed, and being severed from the church by an exchange of the manor of Hlendon for another of equal value, had ceased to be entitled to the exemption from tithes, which, as abbey lands, they would have en- Joyed. Various other conveyances were then stated, by means of jw ich the tithes in qnestion had become vested in the present pro. prietors, and proof given that the defendant and his predecessors had paidthem, one of the late holders of the land having, how- erer, objected to the paymnent, and doubted the right of the person demanding to receive themn. Ahe fact of severance wat alleged to beproved by anexchangewhichhad been made of the manor of Elendon for another manor of eqsual value. The defence appeared, so tar as it was opened to the Court. to be, that the lands were of the demesne of the Abbey of Westmin- ster, and therefore exempt from the payment of tithes. The entries in the Doomsday-Book, in which lands of thc manor of Hlendon, to the amoat of20 hides, were stated to belong to the Abbey of Westmwinster, ere read, and a bull of Pope Nicola. by which a certain tax was directed to be levied upon them. Evidence was then genthatthelands in question were part of the manor of Hen,on,and upon this it was contended that the exemp:ion was made ouL The assertion of the aeverance was met by an allega- tion that the manor of Hendon was a manor paramount, and con- tained in itslf several smallermanors, one of which was sometimes called liendon and sometimesFrith: thi latter small nmsnor had been exchanged, and hlaving been mistaken for the larger one, had given rise to the opinion that the whole of the manor had been severed,._l..The Court proposed to bear the case resumed to-morrow. VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT. TgTTRTAYA. NnV- 25. WILLIAMS V. OOODCHILD.