James Lord (1814 - 1906) was among the more colourful figures in Battersea's Victorian development. He was a barrister by profession, among whose many publications was a textbook on conveyancing. But he came from a clergy family, and kept his convictions in trim as long-term chairman of the Protestant Association, spokesman for anti-Catholic causes and author of a lengthy doggerel poem called Sister Theresa, née Ryan, The Abducted Nun (1865).
Lord arrived in Battersea in 1858, when he bought the freehold of one of the Five Houses on Bolingbroke Grove and installed his family. Two of his children were to make some name: his daughter Emily, later Emily Ward, as founder of the Norland nurses, his son Walter Frewen Lord as a historical author.
[Lord and Todd]
Lord's transfer to St John's Lodge coincided with his first venture into development, whereby the surveyor and estate agent George Todd laid out his Bolingbroke Grove property for building. He teamed up again with Todd in 1868, buying a second estate north of York Road where they planned further modest streets (pages ##, ##). He was riding high enough to present himself as Conservative candidate for East Surrey at the election of that year, but was roundly beaten. Nevertheless, Lord and Todd now laid plans for a third Battersea development off Latchmere Road, where the Shaftesbury Park estate afterwards rose. Meanwhile, at St John's Lodge the builder most employed at Bolingbroke Grove, John King, improved the house and garden around the time Lord moved in. 22
By 1870 Lord's local profile was high as one of the champions fighting to preserve Wandsworth Common.
A crisis now overtook his affairs. Misconduct of some kind took place in connection with his building transactions, and a solicitor absconded to America. Lord himself was not held to blame, but with debts of at least £42,000, he had to seek liquidation by arrangement in the summer of 1871. Plans for the Shaftesbury Park site collapsed amid a dispute between Lord and Todd.
St John's Lodge was let for six months to the 8th Marquess of Tweeddale. Lord was there at the time of the census in 1871 but vacated in June, never to return. Although his lease had been short, he remained keen to get the house back. Meanwhile Alfred Jones, the Cockerells' chief creditor, had died. His executors tried to eject Lord's assignees for non-payment of rent, then in July 1873 put all the Cockerells' interests at St John's Hill up for auction.
[Lord v Costeker]
Having been discharged from the liquidation arrangements, Lord entered in a bid for the whole. He was successful for the leasehold properties of St John's Place, but his private offer for St John's Lodge itself was declined. It went instead to John Costeker, acting for the Sir Walter St John trustees who wanted the site for their new grammar school. Lord took the matter to court, arguing that his lease had been unfairly set aside. This tied up the house in Chancery, from which it could not be extricated till 1875, when Costeker and the school trustees were confirmed in possession.
Lord's later career is obscure. He and his trustees were still involved with the Bolingbroke Grove development in the later 1870s, but he never recovered his prosperity or public profile, and had to relinquish his St John's Place leases, once again heavily mortgaged, in 1882. Latterly he lived in a flat in Brixton, seemingly alone.
[Battersea Grammar or Sir Walter St John's? Or does it amount to the saem thing?]
[ADD INFO ABOUT KEITH BAILEYS'S ARTICLE.]
London Evening Standard - Thursday 03 June 1869
THE IRISH CHURCH BILL TO THE EDITOR
Sic, - The bill has passed the House of Commons by a large majority at two o'clock tbis morning. It must not, pi >w- be allowed to fast the House of Lords in its present if at all. There is every disposition on the part of the Peers to modify and amend the bill, and even to reject it on the second reading. Let us hope they will do so. It was brought in with precipitation, and has been urged on at panic pressure. Such sensational legislation is by all means to be avoided, and ads fraught with dangerous^ principles and with provisions of confiscation, ought not to disgrace our statute book. But we are told the Peers have no choice in the matter, but only a duty to perform, and that is to register the decision of the House of Commons as the verdict of the country, declared by the last general election. But is this so? Far from it. I submit that the policy carried out by the bill is very different from the policy indicated and understood at the hustings. Electors in Scotland and England were not prepared to see a measure passed for giving Maynooth College the sum of 386,660... and 8,000,000/. ostensibly for charitable purposes, but mainly to be dispensed at the discretion of the Roman Catholics. No. In passing a bill to disestablish and disendow the Church of Ireland, which is to give vast sums of money to the Church of Borne, their representatives have acted quite contrary to what was understood before and at the last general election, and against the real feelings and Wl . f?? the people of this country- let this be made known by petitions to the House of Lords and it will greatly strengthen their hands. Why should not petitions be at once forwarded from every ?? - Forms will be immediately sent out to?? officiating ministers, which may well be signed, and returned to the House of Lords by the second reading. some of these forms may prove useless - some may receive a few - some hundreds - some thousands of signatures; and if they result in 10,000 petitions, with an average of 100 signatures each there will be 1,600,000 persons en- treating the House of Lords to reject the bill. But even half that number might prove of great service What will our friends in Lancashire and Scotland say to this? If they take up the matter they may do much to counteract the influence of some votes so strangely given in the House of Commons.
l have the honour to be Sir your obedient servant, JAMES LORD. Wandsworth Common,
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000183/18690603/032/0005