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15
dozen persons in Knightsbridge contributing to the relief
of the poor until after 1580. The more wealthy residents may,
however, have contributed in the shape of "benevolences,"
and the occupiers of the smaller houses may not have been
enforced to contribute—the compulsory assessment of "all
hereditaments" being but a modern requirement.
After discussing the derivation of the name of "the
Hamlet" as at present rendered, Walford, in his "Old and
New London," vol. v., p. 15, says: "We may be content to
leave the question for the solution of future topographers,"
merely remarking that whether it was originally "Knightsbrigg"
or "Kyngesbrigg," King Edward the Confessor held
lands here, and possibly may have built a bridge (to carry
the road over the river Westbourne) for the use of the
Monks of Westminster, to whom he devised a portion of
his acres. That such was the case we learn from a charter
preserved in the British Museum, which conveyed to the
Monks of Westminster, along with the manor of Chelsea,
"every third tree and every horse-load of fruit grown in
an adjacent wood at Kyngesbrigg as heretofore by law
accustomed."
The periodical market and fair would have called for the
appointment of at least one parish constable by the inhabitants
in their local court assembled, or by the Commissioners
or Justices after 1327; beyond this the "rude forefathers
of the hamlet" made but little demand upon the local
governing body. They were supplied with an abundance
of excellent water by the springs close at hand, they were
unconcerned as to the provision of anything more than a
pit or a trench for drainage purposes, and they were free,
as yet, from any obligation to maintain the highway passing
through their midst from the west to London, and which
was carried by the little stone bridge over the west bourne
(or river) at the spot now known as Albert Gate.