Bedford Level Act 1663

II. Recital that 12,000 Acres had been set forth to the King, who had allotted 2,000 Acres to Earl of Portland, 500 of which the Earl had conveyed to Benjamin Weston and the Remainder to several Persons; The said 2,000 Acres vested in the said Persons to be enjoyed by them in severalty.

To be holden of the King in free Soccage, subject to Charges for preserving the Level.

And whereas by the said Law of Sewers twelve thousand Acres Parcell of the nynety five thousand Acres was designed and intended to his said late Majesty and were sett forth and allotted by Bounds in Severalty, and his said late Majesty was in Possession thereof, and granted assigned allotted and sett out by Bounds two thousand Acres Parcell of the said twelve thousand Acres by Letters Pattents unto Jerome Earle of Portland his Heires and Assignes (of which said two thousand Acres the said Earle of Portland hath sold away about one thousand five hundred Acres in severall Parcells to severall Person's their Heires and Assignes for valueable Considerations and the Residue thereof being about five hundred Acres hath granted and conveyed unto his Brother Benjamin Weston Esquier and his Heires upon severall Trusts agreed upon betweene the said Earle of Portland and Benjamin Weston by writing for that Purpose Bee it therefore enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the said two thousand Acres or such other Lands of equall Vallue as shall bee sett forth in exchange of the same in case the aforementioned two thousand Acres on any Part thereof shall hereafter be adjudged to have beene unduly sett out, shall be and hereby are vested settled and established in the said severall and respective Persons (to whom the said Earle of Portland hath soe conveyed or mentioned to convey the same) their Heires and Assignes respectively to each Person his Heires and Assignes his and there severall and respective Share and Shares that was so respectively to each of them conveyed or mentioned to be conveyed by the said Earle of Portland to be held and enjoyed by them and each of them his Heires and Assignes his and their owne Share and Part onely in Severalty according to the Intent of the said Conveyances thereof to them respectively made by the said Earle of Portland upon the same Trusts nevertheless for and concerning the said five hundred Acres granted or mentioned to be granted to the said Benjamin Weston which the said Earle of Portland and Benjamin Weston had declared and agreed upon betweene them as aforesaid which said two thousand Acres shall bee holden of the Kings Majesty his Heires and Successors of the Mannor of East Greenwich by Fealty onely in free and co[m]mon Soccage and not otherwise and subject nevertheless with the Residue of the nynety five thousand Acres in equall Proportion to all Taxes and Charges, necessary and conducing to the Preservation of the said Great Levell from drowning.