Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/106

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��of John and Jane, conveyed two-thirds to Denzil, Lord Holies, 1 " from whom it passed as Peper Harow (q.v.). This portion included the grange itself.

Chesterton Fox, son of Henry Fox and Mary, was possessed of the other third in i68o, 1M and in 1705 it was sold by Mary Horish and Anne Fox, daughters of Chesterton Fox, to Edmund Stillwell of Thursley. 11 * His descendants sold to Viscount Midleton c. 1822.

The remains of the Grange are now included in Peper Harow Park. They consist of only part of a cottage, the rest having been pulled down in 1775 when the present mansion-house at Peper Harow was approaching completion. The fifth Viscount Midle- ton employed Mr. Pugin to build an imitation 1 3th- century farm here. The land of Oxenford is counted now in Witley parish. It was apparently, when in the hands of Waverley, extra-parochial, and is tithe- free. In 1802 and 1803 the inhabitants successfully resisted an inclusion for rateable purposes in Witley. 1 "

MOUSEH1LL (Mushulle, xiv cent. ; Moussulle, xv cent.) is a hamlet of Milford. The family of Court were the chief landowners there in the 1 4th century. In 1335-6 Cecily widow of Richard le Court leased land at Mousehill to Thomas atte Dene and Robert son of John le Court. 116 Robert Court is said to have held court baron for the manor of Mousehill early in the reign of Henry V. 117

Robert Court conveyed all his lands in Witley to his son Thomas Court in 14.26. Thomas is said to have had a daughter Julia who married John Hedger. His granddaughter Marion married Richard Shudd. 119 From the Courts the estate became known as Court Thorn in Mousehill. 130 In 1 548 the manor of Court was held by Richard Shudd, 131 son of Richard and Marion, who was succeeded by John Shudd. He conveyed in 1 6 1 1 to his son Richard. In 1614 Richard bequeathed Court Thorn in Mousehill to his brother Thomas, together with Court Hall in Mouse- hill, which he had purchased from John Fludder, 1 " subject to the condition that Thomas granted his right in other property to a third brother John. This arrangement was carried out in l6l5, 1S3 John Stillwell (vide infra) being an executor. Thomas Shudd entered upon his bequest in 1614. He died in 1 649 134 holding Court Hall and Mousehill, and his son Thomas was in possession of them c. 1618, and died in 1699."* They passed, through the marriage of his sister Joan to John Stillwell of Lower House in Thursley, to the Stillwell family. 136

The ' manor of Court Thorn or Mousehill ' remained in the possession of John Stillwell's descend- ants till about 1822, when it was purchased by Viscount Midleton." 7 A court baron existed as late as 1701.

RAKE in Milford is an Elizabethan house near the

��watercourse which runs from Witley to Milford. The owner of the estate had a mill near his house, the whole being described c. 1548 as a tenement and 26 acres of land and a fulling-mill." 8 Robert Mellersh, who was then the owner, was succeeded by his widow Joan, after whom their son John held Rake. 139 He was involved in a suit with the tenant of Witley. Thomas Jones, concerning the damage caused to the demesne lands of Witley by the overflow of water from the pond at Rake, and a right of way claimed by Mellersh through the lands of Witley Manor. 140 In 1592 he sold a messuage and mill in Witley to Henry Bell. There seems no doubt that this sale referred to Rake, 1 * 1 for Henry Bell was possessed of ' Rake farm ' at his death.'" It passed to his nephew Antony Smith, who settled it upon his great-nephew Antony Smith Meale ; it descended to thelatter's grand- daughter Anne, the wife (1748) of Thomas Woods of Godalming, whose grandson Thomas Woods sold the house and mill in 1836 to Thomas Durrant. He died in 1879 ; the property was sold to the trustees of the Busbridge estate, and the late owner was the Hon. Violet Monckton, but it has been sold again recently to Archdeacon Potter. 1 "

Rake House, built by Henry Bell in 1602, is one of the best examples of the half-timber manor-house remaining in Surrey. 144 Its timber framework, filled with bricks laid herring-bone fashion, the many original windows, and a large and finely proportioned chimney-stack rising from the ground on the west side are noteworthy features. The plan is important, as typical of the smaller gentleman's house of the beginning of the 1 7th century. It is L shaped, with the staircase carried up in a gabled excrescence built in the inner angle of the |_ (a feature occurring in a house of similar plan at Shottermill). The hall or kitchen occupies roughly the middle of the long stroke of the L, having the great open fireplace at one end and a screen along one side. Two kitchen offices filled the top of the L, and two parlours, separated by a large chimney-block, the short stroke. The annexe con- taining the staircase served also as an entrance porch, and there was a second doorway opposite to it in the rear of the hall. The parlour filling the outer angle of the L is approached by a third outer door, which opens into the lobby formed by the thickness of the chimney between the two parlours ; and in the other parlour is an oak mantelpiece, very delicately carved with arabesque and foliage patterns, caryatides, and arches, bearing the date 1602 and the initials H. B.

ROAKEot ROKEL4ND was held in 1548 by Walter son of John Roke, 145 who was doubtless a descendant of Richard atte Roke, one of the tenants who protested against the exactions of Mundina Danos in I389. 146 Walter's granddaughters, Alice Clarke

��1M Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 28 Chas. II.

la8 Recov. R. Trin. 31 Chas. II, rot 56.

144 Close, 4 Anne, pt. ii, no. 9.

115 Manning and Bray, Hiit. of Surr. 47-

12 Add. Chart. (B.M.), 27741.

1J ~ Manning and Bray, ii, 46, quoting from the court rolls.

1113 Add. Chart. (B.M.), 27748. 39 From an old pedigree communicated.

130 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclii, 123.

131 Misc. Bks. (Land. Rev.), vol. 190, fol. 132.

��ua Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclii, 213.

138 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 1 3 Jas. I.

184 Witley Ct. R. 5 Apr. 1649.


 * Deeds communicated by Mr. Woods.

188 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 30 Chas. II.

ls; Bray ley, Hut, of Surr. iv, 312. James Stillwell conveyed them to John Stillwell in 1785 ; Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 25 Geo. III.

188 Misc. Bks. (Exch. L.T.R.), 168, fol. 79 et seq.

"" Misc. Bks. (Land Rev.), vol. 190, fol. 132.

140 For a full account of the proceedings

66

��see Mr. Giuseppi, ' Rake in Witley,' Surr, Arch. Coll., xviii, 11-60.

1" Ibid.

14a Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), vol. dxxvi,

54-

148 Surr. Arch. Coll. xviii, 56, &c. ; and private information.

144 Surr. Arch. Coll. xviii, 61.

145 Misc. Bks. (Land Rev.), vol. 190, fol. 129 (Surv. of Witley Manor.)

148 Coram Rege R. Hil. 1 2 Ric. II, m. 17. In 1327 a Thomas of Roke and his wife Joan appeared at Godalming Hundred Court, Joan being executrix of Henry Lanewey ; Add. R. 26892.

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