Marylebone

Marybon. See St. Mary la Bonne.

St. Mary la Bonne, thus called from its being supposed to signify St. Mary the Good; though its original name, according to Maitland, was Maryborne. This gentleman gives the following account of the rise of this village, which is now almost united to this great metropolis: the village of Tyborne going to decay, and its church, named St. John the Evangelist, left alone by the side of the highway, it was robbed of its books, vestments, bells, images, and other decorations; on which the parishioners petitioned the Bishop of London for leave to take down their old, and erect a new church elsewhere, which being readily granted in the year 1400, they erected a new church where they had some time before built a chapel, and that structure being dedicated to the Virgin Mary, received the additional epithet of Borne, from its vicinity to the neighbouring brook or bourne.

This village, if it may be still called by that name, is almost joined by new buildings to this metropolis; and the new buildings this way are now increasing so very fast, that it will undoubtedly in a very short time be quite joined, and become a part of it. The old church, which was a mean edifice, was pulled down, and a new one erected in 1741. This structure is built with brick in as plain a manner as possible. It has two series of small arched windows on each side, and the only ornaments are a vase at each corner, and a turret at the west end. There are here also a French meeting-house, a charity school, and a place of public entertainment, which has a pleasant garden, and a band of vocal and instrumental music. This may be considered as a kind of humble imitation of Vauxhall.

Marylebone, a manor and parish in the hundred of Ossulston, in Middlesex, celebrated in former times for its park, bowling-green, and gardens. It was anciently called Tyburn, from its situation near a small bourn or rivulet of that name (known in records as Aye-brook or Eye-brook), and acquired its present name from the church of St. Mary-le-Bourne (St. Mary-on-the-Brook), now corruptly written Marylebone or Marybone. The parish church is still called St. Marylebone [which see].

Next unto this [the Brane or Brent] is Mariburne rill, on the other side which cometh in by St. James's.—Harrison's Descrip. of England (Holinshed, ed. 1586, p. 50).

In the year 1544 Thomas Hobson, the then Lord of the Manor of Marylebone, exchanged it with Henry VIII. for certain church lands recently annexed to the Crown. From Edward Forset, Esq., to whom it was sold by James I., it passed by intermarriage into the hands of Thomas Austen, Esq.; and from the Austen family it was purchased in 1710 by John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, whose only daughter and heir married Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. The purchase money was £17,500; the rental then £900 per annum! By the marriage, in 1734, of the Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley (only daughter and heir to Edward, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer), to William Bentinck, second Duke of Portland, the manor passed to the Portland family, from whom it was obtained by the Crown (circ. 1813) by an exchange of land in Sherwood Forest, valued at £40,000.¹ The manor-house, which stood on the site of Devonshire Mews, Devonshire Street, New Road, was pulled down in 1791.² When James I. granted the manor to Edward Forset, he reserved the park in his own hands, but seems to have thought about selling it also, as there is a petition from Garway, the contractor, dated April 1610, "to be allowed the preference of purchasing a piece of ground in Marybone Park. He must, however, have soon altered his intention, for under date May 5 of the same year there is a warrant to pay Sir Henry Carey³ £80 for "repairing the lodges and pales;" and on January 25, 1612, another warrant to pay to "Wm. Stacey, under keeper of Marybone Park, £100 for his great charge in keeping deer there for His Majesty's recreation in hunting." On July 27, 1614, there is a warrant to pay Sir H. Carey "£25 : 13 : 6 for repairs, and building six new bridges;" on February 27, 1615, Sir Phil. Carey is appointed keeper of Marybone Park for life; on March 7, 1623, John Carey obtains a grant of the reversion for life; and on January 12, 1625, a warrant was issued to the "keeper of Hyde Park to cause three brace of bucks to be taken and conveyed to Marybone Park to supply the scarcity caused by the great rain there," to effect which another warrant was issued to the "Master of the Toils to cause the toils to be sent to Hyde Park." Charles I., in 1646, assigned Marybone Park as a security for a debt for arms and ammunition supplied to him during his troubles. Cromwell set the assignment aside, and sold the park to John Spencer, of London, gentleman, for the sum of £13,215 : 6: 8, including £130 for the deer (124 in number, of several sorts), and £1774 : 8s. for the timber, exclusive of 2976 tons marked for the navy.⁴ At the Restoration the original assignment of Charles I. was held good, and the park, till such time as the debt was liquidated, assigned by the King to the original grantees; but the park had been disparked before the Restoration, and was not again stocked.⁵ Leases of portions of the site were subsequently granted by the Crown, the last lessees being the Duke of Portland and Jacob Hinde, Esq., from whom Hinde Street, Manchester Square, derives its name. These leases expired during the regency of George IV., when Marylebone Park began to be laid out as we now see it, and called by its new name of the Regent's Park [which see]. Behind the manor-house, on what is now Beaumont Street, part of Devonshire Street, and part of Devonshire Place, stood the celebrated Marylebone Gardens [which see]; and bear gardens, cockpits, rotundas for fighting dogs, and for human prize-fighters of both sexes, bowling-greens, and other places of entertainment gave distinctive notoriety to Marylebone as late as the middle of the 18th century. It was Captain Macheath's favourite haunt. Here

Long lived the great Figg, by the prize-fighting swains
Sole monarch acknowledged of Marybone's plains."

Figg's amphitheatre, in which "the bold and famous city championess" displayed her prowess against all comers, was succeeded by that of "the unconquered Broughton." Boxing matches and dog-fights were varied by encounters between animals of different species. In November 1718 a great company assembled at "the Bear Garden at Marybone," to see a Spaniard encounter" three bulls, the fiercest that could be had," but the man played his part so badly that the spectators set upon him, and he nearly payed for his want of courage with his life.⁶

Both Hockley Hole and Marybone
The combats of my dog have known.—Gay's Fables.

Peachum. The Captain keeps too good company ever to grow rich. Mary-bone and the chocolate-houses are his undoing.—Gay, The Beggar's Opera.

Mrs, Peachum. You should go to Hockley-in-the-Hole and to Marybone, child, to learn valour.—Ibid.

Macheath. There will be deep play to-night at Marybone, and consequently money may be pick'd up upon the road. Meet me there, and I'11 give you the hint who is worth setting.—Ibid.

At Broughton's Amphitheatre this day, the 11th instant, will be a tremendous decision of manhood between the celebrated Champions James and Smallwood. The various proofs these heroes have given of their superior skill in the manual combat having justly made them the deliciae pugnacis generis, and being too ambitious to admit of rivalship in the lists of fame, are determined by death or victory, to decide their pretensions to the palm. … Note: As this contest is likely to be rendered horrible with blood and bruises, all Frenchmen are desired to come fortified with a proper quantity of hartshorn; and it is hoped the ladies of Hockley and St. Giles's who may happen to be pregnant will absent themselves upon this occasion lest the terror of the spectacle should unhappily occasion the loss of some young champion to posterity. "Noblemen and gentlemen" are told that they may obtain tickets, price 5s., "which will admit them into a part of the house appropriated for their better accommodation."—Daily Advertiser, December 11, 1745.

Marylebone Fields was a recognised duelling ground. The duel between George Townshend and Lord Albemarle, November 1760, was fought here;⁷ so was that between the Duke of Bolton and Mr. Stewart; and in 1773 Lord Townshend shot Lord Bellamont in the side.

Here has just been a duel between the Duke of Bolton and Mr. Stewart (a candidate for the county of Hampshire at the late election): what the quarrel was I do not know; but they met near Mary-le-bone and the D in making a pass overreached himself, fell down and hurt his knee; the other bid him get up, but he could not: then he bid him ask his life, but he would not; so he let him alone, and that's all.—Gray to Wharton, April 1760, vol. iii p. 238.

In 1728 the Daily Journal informed its readers that many persons had "arrived in London from their country-houses in Marylebone."⁸ But already the builder was invading the green fields, and by 1739 there were 577 houses in Marylebone parish and 35 persons who kept coaches, though there still "remained a considerable void between the new buildings and the village of Marylebone, which consisted of pasture fields."⁹ Thenceforward building went on rapidly, and at the census of 1801 there were 7764 houses in the parish, and 63,982 inhabitants. In 1871 the inhabitants had increased to 159,254. But Marylebone has passed the stage of growth. Building has for some years been confined to rebuilding, all green pastures and vacant spaces having long been occupied. In 1881 the inhabitants were 155,004, a decrease of 4250 in ten years. Besides that of the mother church the parish is divided into seventeen regularly constituted ecclesiastical districts, and possesses eight licensed chapels, where the service of the Church of England is performed. The parliamentary borough of Marylebone formerly comprised the parishes of St. Marylebone, St. Pancras and Paddington, and elected two members, but by the Reform Act of 1885 the borough was divided into East and West Marylebone, each returning one member.

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¹ Third Report of Woods and Forests.
² There are four drawings of it, by M.A. Rooker, in the Crowle Pennant in the British Museum.
³ Sir Henry Carey was granted, July 26, 1604, in reversion after Sir Edward Carey, the keepership of Marybone Park (Cal. State Pap., 1603–1610, p. 137.
⁴ In the Board of Works' Accounts for the year 1582 is an entry of payment "for making of two new standings in Marebone and Hide Parkes for the Queenes Majestie and the noble-men of Fraunce to see the huntinge."
⁵ Lysons, vol. ii. p. 543.
⁶ Whitehall Evening Post, November 18, 1718.
⁷ Walpole, vol. iii. p. 359.
⁸ Smith, p. 30.
⁹ Maitland; Lysons.