Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/217

 WOTTON HUNDRED

��WOTTON

��Duke of Norfolk. The present occupier is Mr. Sidney Ricardo. The original house was built by the side of the valley, which runs northward from near the tower towards Wotton Hatch, in 1 740, by Theodore Jacob- sen, a Dutch merchant resident in England. A stream was artificially diverted to form what is now a pictur- esque waterfall, and a fountain and other ornamental waterworks were made in front of the house. These, with part of the garden, mark its former site. The original house was neglected, and by 1 845 had become ruinous. It was pulled down before 1855, but a steward's house on the estate, lying a little farther north, was let as a gentleman's house, and has been enlarged to form the pre- sent Tillingbourne House.

Tanhurst, on the south-western slope of Leith Hill, late the resi- dence of Mrs. Cazalet, formerly of Greenhurst, Capel, is the property of Lady Vaughan Williams, wife of Lord Justice Williams and daughter of the late Mr. Edmund Lomax. Before 1795 it was bought by Mr. William Philip Perrin, owner also of Parkhurst (see Abinger) and Leith Hill Place. The next owner was Sir H. Fitzherbert, during whose ownership the eminent Sir Samuel Romilly rented the house up to the time of his death in 1 8 1 8. It was bought by Mr. E. Lomax (see Shiere) in 1827.* Mr. Lomax, who was twice married, died in 1839, and left Netley in Shiere to Mrs. Fraser, Parkhurst in Abinger to Mrs. Scarlett, children of his first wife, and Tanhurst to Lady Vaughan Williams, daughter of his second wife. Lord Justice and Lady Vaughan Williams reside at High Ashes on the same property.

Jayes Park, close to Ockley Green, is the seat of Mr. Henry Lee Steere, lord of the manor of Ockley, but this house is in Wot- ton. Jayes was the seat of the Steere family for many genera- tions. Mr. Lee Steere, who died in 1 784, left it to the son of his daugh- ter and of Mr. Richard Witts, Lee Steere Witts. On reaching his majority in 1 795 he assumed the name of Steere, and the family have resided ever since at Jayes.

The schools were built in 1852, rebuilt in 1874, and enlarged in 1885.

The ecclesiastical parish of Okewood formed from Wotton, Ockley, and Abinger in 1853 is a district formerly very difficult of access owing to the clay lanes. In addition to the parish church there is a Congrega- tional chapel and a national school built in 1873.

Hale House, containing some old parts, is the pro- perty of Mr. H. Lee Steere of Ockley, and the residence of Mr. Henry P. Powell. This is no doubt the place belonging to Edward de la Hale (died 1431), who

��restored Okewood Chapel (vide infra). In the Ockley Court Rolls, 1648, it appears that a Mr. Steere had lately built a good house at Hale, of which part re- mains in the present house.

Redford is the seat of Lady Abinger. Leith Vale was the seat of the late Miss Cooper Brown (ob. 1907), who was for many years churchwarden of Okewood.

According to Domesday, Harold held

MANOR WOTTON T.R.E., and at the time of

the Survey Oswald, an Englishman, held

it. 4 It is noteworthy that in 1086 Richard de

Tonbridge, the ancestor of the Clares, Earls of

���WOTTON CHURCH : THE WEST TOWER FROM THE SOUTH

��Gloucester, who afterwards held Wotton in chief, was already holding there one hide of Oswald.* Richard is known to have gained possession of other parts of Oswald's land, and he even sublet some of Oswald's former possessions at Mickleham to him. 7 The overlordship of Wotton seems to have always afterwards been with the honour of Clare. 8

The first immediate lord of whom there is mention is Ralph de Camoys, who owed one knight's service

��* Bill of tale.

y.C.H. Surr. i, 328,1.

��Ibid.

' Ibid. 283 and 3170.

155

��8 Chan. Inq. p.m. 43 Hen. Ill, no. 28; ibid. 49 Edw. Ill (ntpt. 2nd not.), no. 46.

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