_Of the Fens from the time of Henry_ VIII, _or rather that of Elizabeth_,
_to the Revolution_; _giving an account of the different projects of
improvement proposed and carried on during that period_.
During the successive reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I, little
attention appears to have been paid to the state or improvement of the
fens. For most of that time, and ever after the dissolution of the
abbeys, to which a very great part of these fens belonged, they were, it
seems, almost entirely neglected, and soon reduced to a very wretched
condition: so little care having been taken by the new possessors to keep
the drains open and the banks in repair, compared with what had been done
by their wiser predecessors, the abbots and the monks.
In Elizabeth’s time, however, things were gotten to such a pass as not to
admit of being any longer overlooked or neglected. The reign of that
queen (as Mr _Gough_ observes in his edition of _Camden_) “may be
properly fixed on as the period when the Great Level began to become
immediately a public care.” In her 20th. year a commission was granted
to Sir Thomas Cecil, Sir William Fitz-Williams, and others, to drain the
fens about _Clow’s Cross_; but the inutility of such a partial design
appears to have been early foreseen, as there is no account of the plan
ever being acted upon. In her 43rd year, an act of parliament was passed
on a general plan, which not only included the draining of the great
level, but likewise all the marshes and drowned lands in the kingdom.
This scheme, for which resources equal to the extent of the undertaking
are said to have been provided, was frustrated by the queen’s death.
“In the beginning of the reign of James I, Sir _John Popham_, the
Lord Chief Justice, procured an act for draining the fens in the Isle
of Ely, and the lands in the adjacent counties. The work was
commenced with great spirit, but was soon retarded by the death of
Popham, and afterwards entirely dropt, through the opposition of some
land-owners, who conceived themselves injured.
“The persons who next attempted to proceed with this important
undertaking, were the _Earl of Arundel_, _Sir William Ayloff_,
_bart._ and _Anthony Thomas_, _Esq._ but their proposals not being
agreeable to those who acted as commissioners on behalf of the
proprietors, and much time being lost by the meetings held to
determine the contested points, the _king_ himself resolved to become
an adventurer, and actually undertook the herculean labour of
draining the fens, on condition of his receiving 120,000 acres, as a
remuneration, when the work was completed. This agreement was
carried into a law, and there the design terminated; for the
political embarrassments, which attended the remainder of the reign
of the fickle James, prevented a single step being taken to carry it
into execution.”
In the 6th year of Charles I. _Sir C. Vermuiden_, a Hollander, in a
contract with the Commissioners of Sewers, engaged to drain the fens, on
condition, that 90,000 acres of land, when drained, should be transferred
to him. But when he had again surveyed the Level, and made drawings of
the works that were necessary, he appears to have thought the reward
insufficient, and demanded an additional allotment of 5000 acres. This
proposal was rejected; more from the prejudices that prevailed against
him as a foreigner (and a disgust, probably, for not standing to his
first bargain) than from any supposition that his demands were
extravagant: for soon after, the commissioners with the consent of the
land-holders, engaged on the same terms of 95,000 acres with _Francis
Earl of Bedford_, who had large possessions in the fens, through the
grant to his ancestors of Thorney Abbey and its appurtenances. {66}
Before the commencement of the work, thirteen gentlemen, of high rank and
respectability offered to become joint adventurers with the earl, and
their proposals being accepted, the undertaking commenced. In the year
1634, the king granted the adventurers a charter of incorporation; and
three years and a half from that period, the Commissioners adjudged the
Level drained, and, accompanied by his Majesty’s surveyor, attended to
set out the earl’s allotment.
From this time the favourable disposition of Charles toward the
adventurers began to change; and early in the ensuing year, 1638, a
meeting was held at Huntingdon, of people devoted to the will of the
crown, who were empowered to examine into the utility of the measures
executed by the Earl. The new Commissioners declared that the works were
incomplete; and accepted the king’s proposals to drain the fens, for
which he was to receive not only 95,000 acres, but also 57,000
additional! Every hope of advantage which Charles expected to reap from
this undertaking was entirely dissipated by the ensuing troubles, which
prevented every further prosecution of the work till the year 1649, when
_William earl of Bedford_, Son and successor of _Francis_, was restored
by the Parliament to all the rights of his father.
The Act obtained at this period, settled the boundaries of the Level, and
gave fresh vigour to the undertaking. The works which had fallen to
decay, were repaired, and new channels made, with so much propriety in
the opinion of the Commissioners, that on the 25th. of March, 1653, the
Level was adjudged to be fully drained, and the 95,000 acres awarded to
the Earl and his participants; the latter of whom were nearly ruined by
the expence of draining, which amounted to upwards of £400,000.
In the 15th. of Charles II, the former act was confirmed in its most
essential clauses; and a corporation, consisting of a governor, six
bailiffs, and twelve conservators and commonality, was established, under
the title of “Conservators of the Great Level of the Fens,” for its
better government. These commissioners were empowered to levy taxes on
the 95,000 acres, to defray whatever expences might arise in their
preservation; but only 83,000 acres were vested in the corporation, in
trust for the Earl of Bedford and his associates. The remaining 12,000
having been allotted to Charles I, in pursuance of the agreement made by
the persons who met at Huntingdon, were now assigned to the king, with
the exception of 2000 acres, which had been granted to the Earl of
Portland. {69}
Though the Corporation were invested with power by the above act to levy
taxes generally on the adventurers land, yet as the form and manner in
which that power was to be exercised was not prescribed, they could only
levy a specific sum on every acre; a proceeding manifestly unjust; as the
lands varied so much in value, that an _equal_ tax nearly amounted to the
whole sum the inferior lands were worth. Application was therefore made
to the Legislature for power to remedy this inconvenience, by granting
authority to substitute a gradual acre tax; and commissioners were
appointed by the Parliament to survey and rate the land according to its
value. Under this commission it was sorted into eleven degrees, and that
with so much impartiality, that the proportional values as then
ascertained, have ever since been regarded as a standard. {70} Nothing
very material, or remarkable, in regard to the fens, appears to have been
done afterwards during the remainder of Charles’ reign, or that of his
brother and successor James.