S3 M O B 
This village is remarkable as the feat of the firft rnanu- 
fiaiflory of fine tapeftry eftablithed in the Britilh domi¬ 
nions. The buildings of this roamifafilary, which owed 
its origin to the patriotic exertions of fir Francis Crane, 
formerly occupied the fcite of Queen’s-head court. They 
are now wholly demolilhed ; but the houfe built for the 
refidence of Mr. Francis Cleyne, the chief d'efigner em¬ 
ployed in the work, flill continues Sanding on the oppo- 
fite fide of the road. A manufactory of delf, begun about 
feventy years ago by Mr. William Saunders, is now car¬ 
ried on by WagftafF and Coy. There is, befides, in this 
village a lVnall manufactory of white done-ware, the pro¬ 
perty of Mr. Jofeph Kifhire. The alms-honfes here were 
firit founded and endowed in 1628 by John Juxon, efq. 
and his family, but the endowments were fubfequently 
much augmented by Mrs. Elizabeth Heneage. The perfons 
maintained in thefe houfes are poor widows, each of whom 
receives 2s. 6d. per week ; and clothes at Hated periods. 
A cliarity-fehool, which owes its foundation to abequeft 
by lady Capel, is now in a very flourifhing condition ; the 
funds having been fo much increafed of late by various 
donations, as to enable the truilees to clothe-and educate 
in it 12 boys and 12 girls, 
Mortlake church appears, from a record ftill extant, to 
have been originally erefted about the year 1348 ; but no 
portion of that building now remains, except the outward 
door of the belfry. The other parts were rebuilt in 1543 ; 
and the fouth aide again, even fo late as the year 1725. 
This church is eonftru&ed of flint and Hone chequered, 
and has a Iquare embattled tower of fimilar workmanfhip 
at the welt end. The interior is adorned with a very hand- 
fome front, which exhibits fome rich tracery-work ; and 
bears among other decorations the arms of archbilhop 
JBourchier, who bellowed it on the church in the time of 
Henry VI. Here are likewife, as well as in the church¬ 
yard, a number of neat monuments, fome of them in ho¬ 
nour of dillinguilhed public characters. Among thefe is 
one for Dr. Dee, who was remarkable in the reign of 
queen Elizabeth for his fkill in the occult fciences ; (fee 
Dee, vol. v. p. 651.) Another monumental memorial 
commemorates John Partridge, a celebrated phyfieian and 
aftrologer, who lived in the feventeenth century; a thirl 
for fir John Barnard, alderman of London, within the 
fame period ; and a fourth for the late- fir Brook Watfon ; 
are chiefly worthy of mention. The living here was at 
one time a reCtory in the peculiar jurifdiCtion of the arch- 
bilhop of Canterbury; but it is now a perpetual curacy, 
with a referved falary of 40I. per annum, paid out of the 
great tithes by the leflee under the dean and chapter of 
Worcelter, who have the nomination of the curate. 
The pariih of Mortlake contains about 1400 acres, of 
which nearly 650 are inclofed in Richmond-park. Up¬ 
wards of 100 acres are walle lands. Of the remainder, 
230 acres conftitute garden-ground, including 31 acres 
cropped with afparagus, and ten with lavender. The 
cultivation of the former of thefe plants has much de- 
creafed here within the laft twenty years. At the ex¬ 
tremity of the pariih, towards Richmond, is a farm, con¬ 
fining of about eighty acres, which had been long in the 
occupation of his majelty, and is faid to be one of the bell 
cultivated fpots in England. The foil here comfifts mollly 
of fand and gravel, but on fome fpots near the fide of the 
river there is a confiderable mixture of clay. Qn a fmall 
hill within the park Hands an elegant edifice called the 
Stone Lodge, which was begun by George I. after a de- 
fign by the earl of Pembroke, but left in an unfinilhed 
Hate till completed by the princefs Amelia, when Ihe be¬ 
came ranger of the park. This lodge was given, in 1803, 
to lord vifcount Sidmouth, in whole pofleflion it ftill con¬ 
tinues. Here alfo is a large ancient houfe, which is laid 
to have been the refidence of Oliver Cromwell; but which 
was certainly the refidence, in the laft century, of that 
excellent man, Edward Colfton, efq. the great benefadtor 
of the city of Briftol, who, in his life time, expended more 
than 70,000k in charitable inftitutions. The ftory of his 
being preferved, on his voyage home from the Indies, by 
5 
M O R 
means of a dolphin flopping a hole in the fhip, is a popular 
one at Briftol: at any rate, the boys educated at the fchooi 
in Briftol wear a brafs dolphin on their bread. An enu¬ 
meration of the public charities of this excellent man will 
be feen in vol. iv. p. 793, 4. 
In this pariih is the pleafant hamlet of Eaft Sheen, which 
commands fome very beautiful views, from its pofition on 
an eminence clofe to the Thames. Some highly-poetical 
pafifages in Maurice’s poem of “ Richmond,” are allufive 
to the feenery, hiftory, &c. of Mortlake, Sheen, and the 
vicinity. L^jhii's Environs of Loudon. Ambulator , nth- 
edition. 
MQRTLICH, or Murtheach, a village of Scotland, 
in the county of Bamff, on a fmall river which runs into 
the Spey; o-nce the fee ofabilhop, founded by Malcolm II. 
in the year 1010, in commemoration of a great vidtory ob¬ 
tained by him over the Danes; the fee continued 127 
years, and was then removed to Aberdeen by David I. 
It is twelve miles fouth-fouth-weft of Fochabers. 
MORT'LING. See Morling, vol. xv. p.815. 
MORT'MAIN, f. [niorte and main, Fr.l Such a ftate 
of polfeflion as makes it unalienable; whence it is faid to- 
be in a dead hand, in a hand that cannot Ihift away the 
property.—Lands in mortmain are a dead weight upon 
commerce. V/arbnrton. 
Mortmain, or Alienation in Mortmain, in law, is an 
alienation of lands or tenements to any corporation, folo 
or aggregate, ecclefiaftical or temporal;. but, thefe pur- 
chafes having been chiefly made by religious houfes, in 
confequence vrhereof the lands became perpetually inhe¬ 
rent in one dead hand, this hath occafioned the general 
appellation of mortmain to be applied to fuch alienations, 
and the religious houfes themfelves to be principally con- 
fidered in forming, the ftatutes of mortmain. In deducing 
the hiftory of thefe ftatutes, it will be matter of curiofity 
to obferve the great addrefs and contrivance of the eccle- 
fiaftics, in eluding from time to time the laws in being, 
and the zeal with which fucceflive parliaments have pur- 
fued them through all their finefies: how new remedies 
were ftill the parents of new evafions ; till the legiflature 
at laft, though with difficulty, hath obtained a decilive 
vidtory. 
By the common law, any man might dlfpofe of his lands 
to any other private man at his own diferetion, efpecially 
when- the feodal reftraints of alienation were worn a way; 
Yet in confequence of thefe it was always, andis ftill, ne- 
ceflary, for corporations to have a licenfe of mortmain 
from the crown, to enable them to purchaie lands ; for, as 
the king is the ultimate lord of every fee, he ought not, 
undefs ay his own confent, to lofe his privilege of efeheats 
and other feodal profits, by the veiling of lands in tenants 
that can never be attainted or die. And fuch licenfes of 
mortmain feem to have been neceflary among the Saxons 
above fixty years before the Norman conqueft. But, be¬ 
fides this general licenfe from the king as lord paramount 
of the kingdom, it was alfo requifite, whenever there was 
a mefne or intermediate lord between the king and the 
alienor, to obtain his licenfe alfo (upon the fame feodal' 
principles) for the alienation of the fpecific land. And, if 
no fuch licenfe was obtained, the king or other lord might 
refpedlively enter on. the lands fo alienated in mortmain* 
as a forfeiture. The neceflity of this licenfe from the 
crown was acknowledged by the Conftitutions of Claren¬ 
don, in refpedt of advowfons, which the monks always 
greatly coveted, as being the groundwork of fubfequent 
appropriations. Yet fuch were the influence and inge¬ 
nuity of the clergy, that (notwithftanding this funda¬ 
mental principle) we find that the larged and moft confi¬ 
derable donations of religious houfes happened within 
lei's than two centuries after the conquell. And, when, 
a licenle could not be obtained, their contrivance feems 
to have been this : That, as the forfeiture for fuch alie¬ 
nations accrued in the firll place to the immediate lord of 
the fee, the tenant who meant to alienate firft, conveyed 
his lands to the religious houfe, and inilantly took them 
back again to hold as tenant to the monailery; which 
kind 
