| Content Description | For further details see Pl E15/1-3 below.
The 5th Duke of Portland, on the look out to acquire some further clerical patronage and property, bought the Rectory of Bredon on the Worcestershire-Gloucestershire border in 1857. In 1881 the 6th Duke of Portland presented his step-uncle, the Reverend Henry G. Cavendish Browne (Baroness Bolsover's brother) to the living. Upon the latter's death, the new incumbent, the Rev. Hugh Holbech instigated the litigation which provides the bulk of the material here. (The rest relates to glebe lands, ecclesiastical administration and patronage).
The rector was Lord of the Manor. Browne's actions in that capacity were irregular and detrimental to his successors. Holbech claimed that various re-grants for lives in 1893-95 (by Browne in trust for himself etc.) were void, contravening various Acts of 24 and 25 Victoria and 25 and 26 Victoria, and that the property had passed to him as Rector and Lord of the Manor. The Cavendish Brownes believed it to be their private property. Holbech v Barnes and Holbech v Mosley, in the Chancery Division, resulted; with judgment in favour of Holbech. |