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Blackstone, in his “Commentaries,” says that manors are, in substance, as ancient as the Saxon Constitution. The manor of Chilchell, or Chelcheya (Chelsea), was given it appears, in the reign of Edward the Confessor to the Abbot and Convent of Westminster, by Thurstan, the governor of the king’s palace, who held it of him. This gift was confirmed by a charter, which transfers the manor, with all its rights and appurtenances, as fully as it was held by Thurstan: “besides, together with this manor, as a free gift, every third tree, and every third horse load of fruits grown in the neighbouring wood at Kyngesbyrig” (now called Knightsbridge). This charter, which is in the Saxon language, is still preserved in the British Museum. It is sealed with a waxen seal, suspended by a silken string, after the Norman fashion, in the front of which are the effigies of the king, holding in his right hand a cross, and in his left a globe; on the reverse is the same image, holding in his right hand a spear surmounted by a dove, and bearing in his left a sword, with this inscription on both sides, “The seal of Edward King of England.”

King William, by a charter dated at Westminster, confirmed the land to the Monastery of Westminster.

The Record of Domesday Book, to which we are so greatly indebted, was begun in 1080, and completed in 1086. In it is mentioned the lands in Chelsea, then in possession of the Church of Westminster.

The general description given of menial persons, including those in the manor of Chelsea, at the period when the survey of the land belonging to the lords, or great landowners, was taken, shows the lamentable state of thousands of our fellow-creatures. Slaves were allowed nothing but subsistence and clothes, and were distinguished from freemen by a peculiar dress. Long hair was a mark of dignity and freedom; for that reason, slaves, (menial persons,) were obliged to shave their heads, by which they were reminded of their inferiority of condition. At length Henry VIII. granted manumission to two of his slaves and their families, for which he assigned this just reason: “God at first created all men equally free by nature, but many had been reduced to slavery by the laws of men. We believe it, therefore, to be a pious act, and meritorious in the sight of God, to set certain of our slaves at liberty from their bondage.” The granting of leases, which afterwards followed, almost completely emancipated the “villain-slave,” so that at the time of Elizabeth, scarcely any person existed to whom the former laws applied.

Gervace, abbot of Westminster, aliened the manor of Chelchithe, to his mother Dameta and her heirs. Afterwards it was held by the heirs of Bartholomew de Fontibus.

Several court rolls of this manor, during the reigns of King Edward III. and Richard II. are among the records of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.

A brewer, of the name of North, was presented at one of these courts for not putting up a sign as was customary; and at another the wife of Philip Rose was fined 6d. for being a common babbler.

Simon Bayle appears to have been lessee of the manor house, 33 Hen. VI., and from that period there is a total deficiency of records till the reign of Henry VII.

Sir Reginald Bray was now in possession of the manor. He was Receiver General to Sir Henry Stafford, a younger son of the Duke of Buckingham, who married the widow of the Earl of Richmond, and mother of Henry VII. There are many interesting historical particulars respecting Sir Reginald Bray. He was buried in the chapel of St. George, Windsor.

From Sir Reginald Bray the manor descended to Margaret, only child of his next brother, John, who married Sir William Sandys, created afterwards Lord Sands. He was one of those peers who subscribed the articles exhibited to Henry VIII. against Cardinal Wolsey; and the next year was also one who signed the declaration to the Pope, intimating the danger of losing his supremacy, in case he did not comply with the king’s wishes in regard to his divorce from Queen Catherine. He died in 1542.

There have been various surmises as to the correct definition of “Sands End,” in Fulham parish, which immediately adjoins Chelsea, and is called such for a short distance. I venture to suggest the following explanation. Lord Sands, being Lord of the Manor of Chelsea, his rights terminated at the spot just mentioned, and to record this fact the people of Fulham called it Sands End, signifying thereby that Lord Sands’s jurisdiction and property ended there. Perhaps this idea is not original, but I have never heard it thus explained, and therefore I have given it.

This Lord Sands, a few years previous to his death, conveyed to Henry VIII. the manor of Chelsea, with certain closes or land situated at Kensal Green, near Wilsden, containing about 137¾ acres. [26] In 1861 there were in that part of Kensal which belongs to this parish 591 houses and 3223 inhabitants. The number of houses has since increased, and the present population may be estimated at 3500 persons. There are a great many highly respectable residents, and a large number of superior new houses are continually being erected in the adjoining wealthy parishes, which will ultimately increase the trade and value of property in the entire district. There are also several new Churches and Chapels built within the last few years in the neighbourhood. The Paddington Canal, which passes through the detached parts of Chelsea and Kensington, was opened with an aquatic procession on the 10th of July, 1801, in the presence of a vast concourse of spectators.

“Henry VIII. was probably induced to possess this manor,” says Mr. Faulkner, “from having observed, in his frequent visits to Sir Thomas More, the pleasantness of the situation on the banks of the Thames; and from the salubrity of the air, deeming it a fit residence for his infant daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, then between three and four years of age. But, on his obtaining it, finding that the manor house was ancient, and at that time in possession of the Lawrence family, [27] he erected a new manor house on the eastern side of Winchester House,” which stood on the site of the river-side entrance to Oakley Street, Cheyne Walk. It was “here the young Princess was nurtured, and it most probably was her chief residence during her father’s reign. In 1540, Sir Francis Bryan was made ‘Keeper of Chelsey’ for life, by patent, 31 Hen. VIII.”

On the marriage of Henry with Catharine Parr, this manor was assigned to that Queen as part of her jointure. Most unfortunately for her future welfare, Catharine, after the decease of the king, placed her affections upon the brother of Jane Seymour, Thomas Lord Seymour, to whom she was subsequently married. Whatever she might have dreaded from the temper of her previous royal husband, was realized in the accumulated injuries she received from Seymour, whose turbulent passions and uncontrolled ambition led him to aspire to the hand of the Princess Elizabeth, who then resided at Chelsea under the Queen’s care. She died at Sudeley Castle in 1548, not without suspicion of poison.

After the death of Catharine Parr, the manor was bestowed on the Duke of Northumberland by Edward VI. On the accession of Mary, the duke was impeached, attainted of high treason, and beheaded in 1553.

Jane, Duchess of Northumberland, was a most singular instance of the vicissitudes of fortune, having been the wife of one of the greatest men of that age, she lived to see her husband lose his head on a scaffold; to see one son share his father’s fate, another die in a prison, and the rest of her children live only by permission. Amidst this accumulated distress, which was heightened by the confiscation of her property, she displayed great firmness of mind, though left destitute of fortune and friends, till the arrival of some of the Spanish nobility, who interested themselves so warmly in her favour, that they prevailed on the Queen to reinstate her in some of her former possessions. She made a will, written with her own hand, unassisted by the advice of any learned in the laws. Amongst a variety of other bequests, she left to Sir Henry Sidney the gold and green hangings in the manor house, “water side, at Chelsey.” “My will,” she says, “is earnestly and effectually, that little solemnities be made for me, for I had even have a thousand foldes my debts to be paide, and the poore to be given unto, than anye pompe to be shewed upon my wretched carkes; therefore to the wormes will I goe, as I have afore wrytten in all poyntes, as you will answer yt afore God; and you breke any one jot of it, your wills hereafter may chaunce be as well broken.” Notwithstanding the strict injunctions contained in her will, she was buried with great funeral pomp, in February, 1535; two heralds attending, with many mourners, six dozen of torches, and two white branches, and “a canopy borne over her effigies in wax, in a goodly hearse to the church of Chelsey.”

Ann of Cleves, after her divorce from Henry VIII., appears to have resided in this manor house, where, it is said, she died in 1557, and was buried in Westminster.

Queen Elizabeth, in 1559, leased this manor to Ann, Duchess of Somerset, widow of the late Protector, for life. Her Majesty afterwards granted the manor to John Stanhope, Esq., vice-chamberlain of her household. On the accession of James I. he was created Lord Stanhope, of Harrington.

After several families had held the manor, we find it in possession of the Cheyne family.

Charles Cheyne, afterwards Viscount Newhaven, married Lady Jane, eldest daughter and co-heir of William Duke of Newcastle, with whom he obtained an immense fortune. This lady is celebrated for her excellent endowments, which she exhibited in a distinguished manner during the civil wars in the reign of Charles I., in her keeping the garrisoned house of her father, where she was left with one of her sisters, against the enemy, till, overpowered by their force, she was made prisoner, but, by the success of the royal arms, it was retaken. Her duty and piety to her exiled father, in making repeated remittances, which she effected by the sale of some rich jewels left her by her grandmother, the Lady Ogle, after the vain efforts she had made for his pardon, deserve to be remembered. Lord Cheyne, as we learn from the inscription on Lady Jane’s monument, purchased the manor of Chelsea with a part of the large dower she brought him on his marriage. His lordship very highly embellished the house and gardens, and they excited some curiosity at the time. Mr. Evelyn, in his Diary, thus notices them: “I made my Lord Cheyney a visit at Chelsea, and saw those ingenious water-works invented by Mr. Winstanley, in which were some things very surprising and extraordinary.” This Mr. Winstanley was the ingenious architect who built the Eddystone Lighthouse, and perished in it when blown down by the great storm in 1703. When Lord Cheyne died in 1698, he was succeeded by William, his son and successor.

Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., purchased the manor of William Lord Cheyne, the second and last Viscount Newhaven, in the year 1712. Sir Hans was descended from a family originally of Scotland, but settled in the north of Ireland, where he received his first education. At that early age he evinced a very strong inclination to study the works of Nature, which he pursued with uncommon application through the rest of his life. Being desirous of improving himself in the several branches of physic, to the profession of which he was ardently devoted, he came to London, and resided in a house adjoining to the laboratory of Apothecaries’ Hall. Here Mr. Sloane acquired a perfect knowledge of the preparations and uses of most chemical medicines; and at the same time prosecuted his favourite science of botany in the Apothecaries’ Gardens at Chelsea. He ultimately became President of the Royal College of Physicians, London, and associated and corresponded with most of the eminent men of his day. He had been previously Secretary to the Royal Society, which he held for 20 years without any salary, and was the intimate friend of Sir Isaac Newton. In the last sickness of Queen Anne he was called in to her assistance, as one of her physicians, as he had been on some former occasions. He was created a baronet by George I., an honour which had never before been conferred upon any physician in England. Upon purchasing the manor of Chelsea, he gave a portion of the ground of his garden to the Apothecaries’ Company, in order to perpetuate it for the improvement of botanical knowledge, and to communicate to others that instruction which he had himself received there. Besides the donation of so large and valuable a piece of ground, in a delightful situation on the banks of the Thames, and near the metropolis, he contributed largely towards building the stairs at the water-side gate, and an additional sum towards the expenses of the garden. When Sir Isaac Newton died, Sir Hans Sloane was chosen as President of the Royal Society, and continued in that high office for fourteen successive years. His decay was very gradual, and foretold that he would one day “drop like a fruit fully ripe.” He died in 1753, and was interred in the churchyard of Chelsea, in the same vault with his lady. His funeral was attended by many persons of distinction, and several Fellows of the Royal Society. He has been styled “the father of natural history in these realms.”

Sir Hans Sloane’s invaluable Museum, sold to the nation at his decease for £20,000, being about a fourth of its value, was the nucleus, and so far the first foundation, of the British Museum. He bequeathed one moiety of the manor of Chelsea to his daughter Sarah, the wife of George Stanley, Esq., of Paultons, in Hampshire, and the remainder to his second daughter, the lady of Charles Lord Cadogan, in which family the property still remains. Hence the names of Cheyne Walk, Hans Place, Sloane Street, Cadogan Place, Oakley Street, and Paultons Square. The eldest son of Earl Cadogan takes his father’s second title, Viscount Chelsea.

Mrs. Stanley, daughter of Sir Hans Sloane, left one son and two daughters; Hans Stanley, Esq., the son, who died in 1780, and bequeathed to his sisters, Anne, the wife of W. Ellis, Esq., afterwards Lord Mendip, and Sarah, the wife of Christopher D’Oyley, Esq., his moiety of this manor, with the reversion to Lord Cadogan and his heirs.