JABEZ LEGG. 43
other societies who were present, and proposed the thanks of the meeting
to the conductors and referees; these were accorded by acclamation.
Mr. Farrell expressed the thanks of the School Nature Study Union
for the invitation extended to its members, Mrs. Boyd Watt similarly
replied for the Gilbert White Fellowship, Mr. Fagg for the Croydon Natural
History Society, and a member of the South London Botanical Institute
for his Society, and the meeting then terminated.
The walk through the moonlit Forest to the railway stations en route
for home constituted not the least enjoyable experience of a delightful day.
JABEZ LEGG.
A FORGOTTEN LOCAL WORTHY.
By JOHN AVERY, F.C.A., F.S.S.
(With Plate III.)
[Read 27th November 1920.]
ONE hundred years ago the site of the West Ham Technical
Institute was known as Stratford Common, and the
nearest property on the east side along the main road consisted
of two houses known as Carnarvon Villas. These houses are
still standing just west of Carnarvon Road, behind what is
known as Salisbury Hall, and the property was known in recent
years as Salisbury House. No. 1 Carnarvon Villas was at that
time occupied by a gentleman named Jabez Legg. He was
in business with his father, Mr. Samuel Legg, at No. 2 Knight-
rider Street, in the City of London, as Undertakers. Both father
and son were prominent members of the Congregational De-
nomination, and they were deacons of the old Poultry Chapel,
which was sold and the proceeds used in part payment of the.
building of the City Temple. At the period mentioned, when
Wanstead House was in its glory and the whole district was
considered to be in the country, one of the principal attractions
was the tea gardens attached to the Eagle and Child Public House,
opposite the Forest Gate House in the Woodford Road leading
from Upton to Wanstead Flats, and in consequence of the
spiritual destitution of the district, Jabez Legg in the year 1830
conceived the idea of erecting a small Mission Hall or Chapel at a
cost of £220 and conducted services therein, also providing
day-school accommodation for the children of the residents
in the district of the Broadway, a district which commenced to
be developed as a building estate about 1820. In 1856, Mr. Legg,
with assistance from several members of the Society of Friends,