Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/218

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��for Wotton to the honour of Clare, 9 and in 1235 made a grant of land in Wotton, 10 while in 1241 he was definitely reported to be seised of the manor." It is known, however, that in the reign of King John one Ralph de Camoys claimed that part of the vill of Tansor (Northants) had been granted to his grand- father by Roger de Clare" and it is possible that Wotton may have been granted at the same time. In 1259 Ralph died, leaving Ralph his son and heir aged forty. 13 The younger Ralph was succeeded some twenty years later by his son John," from whom Wotton apparently passed to the family of Fancourt, probably by sale, since the impoverishment of the Camoys family at that date is a matter of common knowledge. 16 Walter de Fancourt was seised of the manor in I28o, 16 and presented a priest to Okewood Chapel in 1290." In 1306 Matilda his widow, who had married one Henry le Perkes, 18 claimed dower in the manor of Wotton from William le Latimer, into whose hands it had by that time passed. 19

William le Latimer died in 1 3 27,* leaving William his son and heir, aged twenty-six.* 1 This William survived his father only eight years,** and during the minority of his son, another William, the manor seems to have been in the custody of Thomas Latimer,** who was probably uncle to the heir. Thomas, pos- sibly in return for his custodianship, retained the manor during the term of his life ; at his death in 1 356 it passed into the possession of William," who was then twenty-six years old. William conveyed it to trustees in 1377. At his death in 1381 " he left Wotton by will to his cousin, Thomas de Camoys,* 6 who presented to the living in 1382." Thomas

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���LATIMIR. erou paty or.

��Gules a

��CAMOYS. Argent a chief gules viith thru roundels argent therein.

��enfeoffed certain trustees of the manor, who curiously enough bore the same surnames as those to whom William Latimer had released in 1 377.**

Thomas de Camoys died seised in March 1422," and Hugh his grandson and next heir survived him

��only five years. 10 Wotton, however, is not mentioned among Hugh's possessions at his death. Roger lord of Camoys, probably a younger son of Thomas, was in possession shortly after the death of Hugh, 81 and in 14.29 he released all his rights in the manor to Thomas Morestede." The dispersion of the Camoys' lands after the death of Thomas de Camoys is well known,* 3 and its occurrence immediately before the Civil War, which wrought so much confusion in landed property, increases the difficulty of tracing them.

According to Manning and Bray, 34 who give a contemporary court roll as their authority, Wotton was held by Sir William Estfield in 1444. In 1479 Stephen Middleton was in possession, and some five years later it was held by Humphrey de Bohun.* 5 Sir David Owen, a natural son of Owen Tudor, married as his first wife the heiress of the Bohuns of Mid- hurst, 38 and Wotton perhaps passed to him with his wife or was bought by him, for it became his property, and he left it to Henry son of his third wife Anne Devereux, 37 and after him to his son John by the same wife. Sir Owen died in 1542. John held courts from 1548 to IS53- 38 His son Henry held courts in I 568 and 1579, when he and Elizabeth his wife conveyed the estate to George Evelyn of Long Ditton, 39 in whose family it has since re- mained.

Wotton House, the home and birthplace of the famous John Evelyn, is built, like so many old houses, in a hollow. There is nothing visible in the present rambling and irregular building of older date than the close of the 1 6th century, and even such parts of this date as remain are so surrounded by later additions as to be distin- guished only with difficulty. Besides rebuildings and extensions of the I7th and 1 8th centuries, the east wing, which had been destroyed, was added on an enlarged plan by Mr. W. J. Evelyn in 1864. Thus, although the core of the house is ancient, but little remains visible exter- nally of the house in which John Evelyn lived, and which he helped to render famous by the beautiful gardens, largely of his own creation. These in part remain, although greatly altered in later times. For- tunately two drawings, still at Wotton, from John Evelyn's own hand, give a minute record of the house, with its moat and artificial waters, as they appeared in the middle of the 1 7th century. 40 In

���EVILYN of Wotton. Avure a griffon passant and a chief or.

��> Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 219.

10 Feet of F. SUIT. 19 Hen. Ill, no. 20.

11 Ibid. Div. Co. 25 Hen. Ill, no. 170. Plac. Abbrev. (Rec. Com.), 82.

11 Chan. Inq. p.m. 4] Hen. Ill, no. 28.

" Ibid. 5 Edw. I, no. i.

u Cal. Close, 1279-88, pp. 52-4, &c.

18 Feet of F. Surr. 8 Edw. I, no. 10.

W Wykeham's Register.

is De Banco R. 161, m. 183.

" Ibid.

80 Chan. Inq. p.m. I Edw. Ill (itt nos.), no. 56. Ibid.

88 Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), no. 51.

Feet of F. Surr. 26 Edw. Ill, no. 7.

M Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. Ill (lit nos.), no. 30.

55 Exch. Inq. p.m.(Ser.l), file457,no. I.

��Hart. MS. 6148, fol. 139. V ITjkeham'i Register (Hants Rec. Soc.), i, 132.

88 Close, 1 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 1 2 d.

89 Chan. Inq. p.m. 9 Hen. V, no. 29. o Ibid. 5 Hen. VI, no. 16.

l Close, 7 Hen. VI, m. 7 d.

88 Ibid ; see alto Feet of F. Surr. 1 1 Hen. VI, no. 20.

Camoys line was experienced at the time of the reviYal of the Camoys barony in 1838.
 * > The difficulty of tracing the direct

4 Hist, of Surr. ii, under Wotton. Bray was steward of Wotton.

85 Chan. Inq. p.m. i Ric. Ill, no. 26. Possibly some light may be thrown on these changes of ownership by the fact that in 1465 (Close, 4 Edw. IV, m. n d.)

I S 6

��one Thomas Middleton being enfeoffed to the use of William Estfield, kt., de- mised property in Middlesex to Hum- phrey Bohun. This entry seems at any rate to prove the existence of some re- lationship between those three persons which may explain their having been con- nected with the manor in turn.

Suss. Arch. Soc. Coll. vii, 25.

7 See Sir David's will, printed in Suss. Arch. Coll. vii, 38. *> Ct. Rolls.

Cat. Anct. D. iii, 75 (A45io).

40 Surr. Arch. Call, xvii, 70. One bears the title, in John Evelyn's writing, 'The prospect of the old house at Wotton, 1640 ' ; the other ' A Rude draght of Wot- ton Garden before my Bro : altered it & as it was 1640 ; South.'

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