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III BROWN.
BOROUGH v. WHICHCOTE [1732]

they were evidence against him, and he could derive no advantage from them, as he had no occasion to take off the presumption of payment, there not being a lapse of 20 years, from the day of payment to the date of the indorsements. And therefore it was hoped, that the judgments would be affirmed with costs.

Accordingly, after hearing counsel on this writ of error, and also the judges, who delivered their opinions seriatim, it was ordered and adjudged, that the judgment given in the Exchequer Chamber, affirming the judgment in the court of King's Bench, should be affirmed; and that the record should be remitted, to the end execution might be had thereupon, as if no such writ of error had been brought into the house: and it was further ordered, that the plaintiff should pay to the defendant £5 for her costs, sustained by reason of bringing the said writ of error. (Jour. vol. 23. p. 606.)[1]



Case 14.—William Borough,—Appellant; Sir Francis Whichcote, and Another,—Respondents [17th April 1732].

[Mews' Dig. vi. 399, 656.]

[A decree of the court of Chancery determining a matter of right is good evidence of that right, as to all persons claiming under the party against whom the decree was made, though at the distance of 100 years afterwards.]

There is and hath been, time out of mind, at Latimers, in the parish of Chesham in the county of Bucks, a chapel of ease, of which the lords of the manor of Latimers have always nominated the chaplains; and in the said parish of Chesham, there are two distinct rectories or parsonages impropriate, the one called Chesham Woborne, and the other called Chesham Leicester, with two distinct vicarages thereto belonging.

[596] In the 14th year of the reign of King John, a composition or agreement was made between the abbot and convent of Leicester, owners of the parsonage of Chesham Leicester, of the one part; and Walter Foliott, then lord of the manor of Latimers, of the other part; whereby it was agreed,

that all the tithes of the demesnes of the said Walter Foliott, therein mentioned, and all other tithes, oblations, and obventions, of the house of the said Walter Foliott, should for ever remain to the chapel of Latimers; but that all the other tithes, as well small as others, and the oblations and obventions of all the men of the whole village of Latimers, should for ever remain to the church of Chesham, which the canons of Leicester possessed, together with one acre of wheat issuing out of the demeanes of Walter Foliott, neither of the best nor worst; and that the chaplains who administered in the said chapel, should have for their maintenance, out of the grainge of the said abbot, five quarters of good clean wheat yearly.

Upon the dissolution of monasteries, the parsonage of Chesham Leicester was granted by the crown to the family of the Ashfields; who constantly paid the chaplain of Latimers for the time being, the five quarters of wheat issuing out of the said parsonage yearly; until Thomas Ashfield Esq. then owner of the parsonage of Chesham Leicester, and Mr. Miles Sands, the then lord of Latimers, some time before the year 1630, came to an agreement, that Mr. Ashfield should only pay to the chaplain of Latimers four quarters of wheat yearly; and that, in consideration of Mr. Ashfield's forbearing to receive of Mr. Sands the one acre of wheat issuing out of the demesnes of Latimers, Mr. Sands would give the chaplain of Latimers an equivalent for the fifth quarter payable by Mr. Ashfield.

This agreement was observed for some time, till Richard Balam, clerk, chaplain of Latimers, being dissatisfied with it, and claiming the tithe of hay and corn of several closes in Latimers, which Mr. Ashfield had received as belonging to him; Balam, in 1630, brought his bill in Chancery against the said Thomas Ashfield, as parson of Chesham Leicester, and against Elizabeth Countess Dowager of Devonshire, then lady


  1. By a manuscript note on this case it appears, that Mr. Baron Comyns was for reversing the judgments; and that Lord Raymond, Lord Chief Justice Eyre, and Mr. Justice Probyn, were absent.

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