Note 44 — Chapter III · THE POSSESSIONS OF THE CHURCH, THE CROWN, & THE PEOPLE.

At the time of the Reformation, as I have before observed, ministers were appointed by the Crown, to take and keep the accounts of all monies derived from the lands which had belonged to religious houses. Many of these ministers accounts are still preserved and contain much valuable information. According to these accounts (vide Monsticion Anglicanum, vol. i. p. 326–27) it would appear that for the first year the Crown received only £31 6s. 8d. from the church lands in Paddington, and for the next year the same sum with the addition of 2s. rent charge, for the conducion of water; but in the 36th and 37th of Henry the VIII., I find the minister returns the Crown Rent of this manor and rectory, at £41 6s. 8d.