342
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. OCT. 31,
earliest possessions of that foundation, and
it was probably granted to the Abbey when
Queen Edith, the wife of Edward the Con-
fessor, held charge of the extensive manor of
Eia or Eye, which in Domesday was assessed
at ten hides, while Tiburne and Lilestone were
each assessed at five. It is unnecessary to
refer to the frequent mention of Tyburn* in
the Calendars of Feet of Fines, wherein no
allusion to a brook is made, and we therefore
come to the important decree of the Cardinal
Archbishop of Canterbury and various other
ecclesiastical dignitaries which in 1222 defined
the limits of the parish of St. Margaret. The
commencement of the western boundary
is given in these words : " Incipit igitur
Parochia S. Margaretae ab aqua de Tyburne
decurrente in Thamisiam." At that time
the parish of St. Margaret included the whole
of the manor of Eia, which had been granted
to the Abbey by Geoffrey de Mandeville ;
and it is clear that the " aqua de Tyburne,"
which is a translation of Tyburn Brook, or
the stream flowing from Tyburn, signified not
the Tyburn of modern geographers, but the
Westbourne. This view was emphasized by
Robins in his ' Paddington Past and Present,'
and there cannot be a doubt of its correct-
ness. When St. Martin's parish was after-
wards carved out of St. Margaret's, the
Westbourne Brook became its western
boundary ; and it fulfilled a similar function
when St. George's was detached from St.
Martin's. At this date the manor of Tyburn
included that portion of land to the west of the
Edgware Road which is now known as Bays-
water and Craven Hill.
The next mention of this stream, but under a different name, occurs in Leland's ' Itine- rary,' ed. Toulmin Smith, ii. 114 :
" Thens to Acton a praty thrwghe fayre 4 miles. Thens to Maribone-broke and parke a 4 miles. This broke rennith by the parke-waulle at St. James. To London 2 miles."
A writer in The Athenceum for 1 August last, in reviewing Mrs. Alec Tweedie's recently published ' Hyde Park,' says that on p. 22 of that book the correct etymology of Tyburn is given, where the T is seen to be redundant, the proper name being Eybourne. On this point I am compelled- to join issue with the reviewer, for I have never met with such a form as Eybourne, nor do I believe that it exists ; and in face of the Anglo-Saxon spelling of the word, I see no ground for the theory of the redundant T.
It is true that on the analogy of the names
- In Messrs. Hardy and Page's valuable work, on
p. 219, vol. i., "Foburne" should be Tiburne; see f Placit. Abbreviatio,' p. 192.
Westburn Brook, Tyburn Brook, Maribone-
Brook, the stream when flowing through the-
manor of Eye was occasionally called Eye-
brook or Ayebrook ; and its debouchure
into the Thames is mentioned in a charter
which is quoted by Ducange sub voce " Fleta":
" Charta an. 5 Henrici VIII. apud Spelman
' Extendit se in longitudine a communi via
usque ad fletam de Ee versus austrum.'
In this passage the fleet of Ee or Eye is
doubtless identical with the Merfleet or
boundary-fleet of Edgar's charter of 951.
The " Aye Brook " is shown in a ' Plan of Part of Conduit Mead, about 1720,' which is reproduced in Clinch's ' May fair and Belgravia,' p. 116 ; and the " Ay Brook " in a Plan of the Grosvenor Estate with proposed buildings (ibid., p. 164). In this connexion it may be worth while to quote- what Maitland has to say on the subject (' Hist, of London,' 1st ed., 1739, p. 779) :
" The Village of Tyborne being long since- demolished, and the Rivulet of that Name con- verted into that of Ay brook (from Ay, a Village- suppos'd to have stood where Mayfair now is situate), and that at length into a common Sewer,, in which it runs to the northwest Part of Tothill- Fields, and from thence above Ground to Scholar* Pond, where it has its Influx thro' a Sluice to the- River Thames. However the ancient Name of the Brook and Village of Tyborne is still preserv'd in that of the Gallows in this Neighbourhood, ButJ the modern Name of Aybrook proving of no long Duration, it is in a great measure restor'd to its ancient Appellation ; for that Part of it, which runs above Ground, is at present call'd Twyborne Brook."
This spelling of Maitland' s, which is formed on the analogy of Twyford, is confirmatory of the derivation I have hazarded above^ Lysons copies Maitland when he says :
"The name of thisplaee [Mary bone] was anciently called Tybourn, from its situation near a small bourn, or rivulet, formerly called Aye-brook, or Eye-brook, and now Tybourn-brook." ' Environs/ ed. 1811, ii. 540.
Although Lysons was wrong in his etymology,, the stream a hundred years ago was called not the Tyburn, but Tyburn Brook.*
The truth seems to be that the residents in the manor of Tyburn naturally called the- stream the Tyburn Brook or the Marybone Brook, while those in the manor of Eye called it the Eye Brook. Other people called it indifferently by one or the other of these names. No one called it the Tyburn till the nineteenth century was well on its way to maturity. W. F. PBIDEAUX.
- I may even say fifty years ago, for in 1857 Mr
J. G. Waller, writing on this subject in The Gentleman's Magazine (pt. ii. pp. 322-6), entitles his paper ' Tybourn Brook,' and calls the stream by that name only.
