Her Majesty’s “poor tenants and farmours” petitioned Lord Burleigh to commit some of the parishioners to the Star Chamber, and to stop further proceedings until the case could be heard in the Court of Exchequer. The inhabitants rejoined, stating “that Ebury Farm, containing 430 acres, meadow and pasture, which was holden of her Majesty by lease, was granted to one Whashe, who paid £21 per annum. And the same was let to divers persons, who for their private commodity did inclose the same, and had made pastures of arable land; thereby not only annoying her Majesty in her walks and passages, but to the _hindrance of her game_, and great injury to the common, which at Lammas was wont to be laid open, for the most part, as by ancient precedents thereof made, do more particularly appear.” They then state this system of inclosure had prevailed for about twenty years; that in the Neate, there were 108 acres belonging to her Majesty similarly enclosed, although they should also be common at Lammas. Strype, from whom this account is derived, does not state how the contest terminated; but certain it is that for very many years the owners of some of these lands paid money to the parish officers of St. Martin’s, in lieu of this claim; but I cannot find that this right of the poor has at all for many years been inquired into. Parochial officers have, in many instances, sadly neglected their duty; and this is not one of the lightest accusations against them. The manor of Ebury afterwards became the property of a family named Davis, who owned it for a lengthened period. The last male of this family, Alexander Davis, died July 2nd, 1665; by his wife, Mary, daughter of Richard Dukeson, D.D., and who survived till July 11th, 1717, {19} he had one daughter, Mary, who was married at St. Clement’s Danes, October 10th, 1676, to Sir Thomas Grosvenor. This manor devolved upon her; and on her death, January 12th, 1730, came to be the freehold property of her husband, whose descendant has been ennobled by the title of Marquis of Westminster, and is the present Lord of the Manor of Ebury.