Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/203

 WOTTON HUNDRED

��DORKING

��Dorking. 68 In 1262 Hawisia widow of John de Gatesden, the name of a Clare tenant, 69 sued Robert Basset for a third part of a mill and 40 acres of land as her dower in Hamsted and Dorking. 70 In 1314 Gilbert de Clare, killed at Bannockburn, was seised of Hamsted, held of him by Agnes de Badeshull." Hugh le Despenser, sister's son to Gilbert, died seised of it in 1350, when it was held by John deWarblyng- ton of the honour of Clare." In 1560-1 John Caryll sold land in Hamsted to Sir Thomas Browne of Betchworth. 7 * The description places it at the west end of Dorking, where Hamsted Lane, an old name, preserves its memory.

The manor of MILTON (xi et seq. cent. Middle- ton) was held of William Fitz Ansculf by a certain Baldwin at the time of the Domesday Survey ; Uluric held it of King Edward. 74 It passed with the honour of Dudley from William Fitz Ansculf to the family of Somery ; early in the 1 3th century one Simon Fitz Giles owed one knight's service for Milton to the honour of Dudley. 74

The manor was possibly granted to the nuns of Kilburn by Roger de Somery, 76 for their prioress was found to hold lands of him at his death ; there is, how- ever, reason to suppose that they had gained possession of it somewhat earlier, since Margery, Prioress of Kilburn, was seised of a knight'sfeein Milton in 1232." Again, in 1 269, Matilda, a prioress whom Dugdale omits from his list, 78 had transactions touching the moiety of a virgate of land in Milton. 7 *

The manor remained with the nuns until the dis- solution of the monasteries, when the king exchanged it for other Surrey lands with John Carleton of Walton on Thames, and Joyce his wife. 80 From John Carle- ton the manor passed to Richard Thomas, who was holding it in I552. 81 Richard Thomas continued to hold under Philip and Mary ; ** his tenure was not, however, popular among his tenants, who were in- dignant at his having inclosed lands on Milton Com- mon otherwise known as Anstey Heath, where the aforesaid tenants had had common of pasture from time immemorial. Waterden Wood is also mentioned. Anstey Farm and Waterden lie on the two sides of the road in Milton Manor near Coldharbour. Milton Gore, close by, is the only part of the heath in ques- tion now uninclosed.

It is probable that the grant to Richard Thomas was only for a period of years, for at the death of his widow Katharine, who had subsequently become the wife of Saunders Wright, it reverted to the Crown. 83 Queen Elizabeth in 1599 gave it to Ralph Lathom. 8 * The grant, however, was cancelled before it took effect, and the next year the manor passed from the Crown to George Evelyn 8S in consideration of some 700. From that time it descended with Wotton in the Evelyn family.

Milton Court, the seat of the late Mr. L. M.

��Rate (ob. 1907), is the old manor-house of Milton. It is a fine Jacobean house, mostly of brick, with wings projecting in front and behind and a projecting portico in front, showing five gables to the front, over the wings and portico ; and between these, to the back, there are three gables, the chimneys occupying the intermediate spaces on this side. The gables are all of the rounded pattern common in Kent and the Netherlands. The house was rebuilt by Richard Evelyn, and completed in 1611 (accounts in posses- sion of Mr. Rate). There was no high hall, but a gallery ran along the front of the house with a pro- jecting bay over the porch. This has been altered into a drawing-room and other rooms. The stair- case in the east wing is a very fine specimen of Jacobean woodwork. Mr. Rate bought the house in 1864, and it was restored under the direction of the late C. Burgess.

The manor of WEST BETCHWORTH was held by Richard de Tonbridge at the time of the Domes- day Survey, and the overlordship appears to have re- mained with the honour of Clare. 86 In the I3th century John de Wauton held half a knight's fee in Betchworth of that honour ; 87 he subsequently for- feited his lands to the king, who in 1291 made a grant of them to John de Berewyk. 88 At John's death in 1 3 1 3 his heir was found to be his grandson Roger Husee, then a minor. 89 Roger died seised in I362, 90 and was succeeded by his brother John, who died a few years later leaving his son John as his heir. 91 This John conveyed the manor to Richard Earl of Arundel. 9 * It remained in the Arundel family until 1487, when it was sold to Thomas Browne. 93 It was still in the possession of the Brownes in the time of Elizabeth, 94 and from that date appears to have descended with the portion of Dorking Manor which was in their hands.

Betchworth Castle, now only a picturesque ruin, perched on a bank above the Mole, and almost con- cealed by trees and creepers, was built, or, more prob- ably, rebuilt, by Sir Thomas Browne. Judging by the print in Watson's ' Memoirs,' the mansion which, in the middle of the I5th century, replaced an earlier fortified house or castle, must have been extremely picturesque with its battlemented gables, clustered chimneys and oriel windows, standing among lawns and gardens descending to the Mole. The ivy is disintegrating the walls, and almost the only architec- tural feature is the arch of a fireplace. A remarkably fine avenue of lime trees leads to the ruin.

The Domesday Survey records that Abbot ^Ethel- rige had held tVESTCOTE of King Edward ; also that Ralph de Fougeres then held it."

In the 1 3th century Westcote (villa de Westcote) was terra Normannorum held by Gilbert de Aquila and taken into the hands of King Henry III. The Earl of Warenne and Surrey had paid a fine and held it

��V.C.H. Surr. i, 298.

69 Testa tie Nevil!( Rec. Com.), 219. John de Gatesden alto had lands in Hamsted (Feet of F. Surr. 33 Hen. Ill, 379).

7 Assize R. 47 Hen. Ill, Surr. m. f.

'! Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, 68, m. 63.

7> Ibid. 23 Edw. Ill (2nd pt. 1st nos.), no. 169.

? 8 Manning and Bray, Hist. Surr. i, 566.

7< r.C.H. Surr. i, 322,1.

Ibid.

7 Chan. Inq. p.m. i Edw. I, no. 15.

��77 Feet of F. SUIT. Trin. 32 Hen. Ill, no. 49.

7 8 Man. Angl. iii, 424.

7 Feet of F. Surr. Mil. 53 Hen. Ill, no. 2;.

"0 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xv, g. 733 (48).

81 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 6 Edw. VI.

8a Star. Chamb. Proc. Phil, and Mary, bdle. 6, no. 4;.

88 Pat. 41 Eliz. pt. x, m. 25.

M Ibid.

84 Pat. 42 Eliz. pt. xvi, m. I.

147

��43

90 M M 99 94

88. M

��1 V.C.H. Surr. i, 319*.

Testa de Neiiill (Rec. Com.), 221. 1 Chart. R. 19 Edw. I, m. 84. ' Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. II, no.

Ibid. 35 Edw. Ill, pt. i, no. 98. Ibid. 44 Edw. Ill (ist not.), no. 33. Close, 47 Edw. Ill, m. 16. Feet of F. Surr. 1 5 Hen. VI, no. 8. Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccliii,

r.C.H. Surr. i, 326*.

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