50 BOROUGH OF LEWISHAM. 
that there was no chance of agreement it was arranged that there 
should be a new trial, and that Mr. John Eaton, gentleman, of 
Lewisham, should be the defendant as representing the parishioners. 
The patentees (Newport, Lanier and Raynes) being in possession, 
were permitted to hold the ground meanwhile, and the gates and 
ditches destroyed by the inhabitants were ordered to be repaired 
(from which we may infer that there had been some lively pro- 
ceedings at Sydenham), on the other hand they were not to burn 
or sell any of the furze growing in or upon the common nor — 
‘‘disturbe or interrupt the said inhabitants of the Manor of 
Lewisham nor any other his Majestie’s liege people to the use of 
all such wayes as have heretofore byn used in through or by or 
over the said parcell of ground called Westwood” until the trial 
and further order had been given. 
Notwithstanding this order, one Henry Benden, the servant of 
Mr. Lanier, continued to drive off the cattle of the inhabitants and 
hindered the cutting of furze for fuel—a particularly harsh act, 
seeing that it was mid-winter. Upon this being represented the 
Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor sent an order commanding 
the patentees to desist. ‘‘ Yet,” says Mr. Colfe in one of his notes, 
‘‘Henry Benden and other of the patentees servants still drove 
off the cattell and spoiled some of them to death and would not 
let the poore have furzes. Hereupon the 22nd day being Ash 
Wednesday, Henry Benden being at church after service I gave 
him advise and wished him not to molest the poore in such sort by 
driving and hurting their cattel and hindering them of furzes: for 
if he should be sent for by a pursevant and committed for his 
contempt I thought his master (namely Mr. Lanier) would not 
beare him out in it.” 
But the end was now in sight. On the 16th of October, 
1615, the case came on for hearing before the Barons of the 
Exchequer and a jury chosen out of Kent, amongst whom there 
was no one belonging to the immediately neighbouring parishes, 
and adds Mr. Colfe, ‘‘ The Lord’s holy name for ever for his great 
tender mercies be blessed a verdict passed in the behalf of the poore 
inhabitants and on the 18th November following judgment was also 
granted and a copy both of the order and of y* judgment taken out 
under the seale of the Exchequier Chamber w* is kept by us.”’ 
So ended the controversy, and the people of Lewisham, thanks 
to the energy and persistence of their vicar, were left in undisturbed 
possession of Westwood Common. 
Whilst the troubles over Westwood Common were still 
unsettled Mr. Colfe was engaged in another work for the good of 
the parish. It will be remembered that his predecessor, John Glynn, 
had left money to found a Free School, for which a charter had 
been granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1574. In 1612 all the 
governors named in that charter were dead save one, Mr. Edmund 
Style, and little progress had apparently been made with the 
scheme. Mr. Hurpole, the schoolmaster, was present at Colfe’s 
