Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/224

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��Apparently Rookham passed from the Newtimbers to the family of Hale," since in 1537 Thomas Bourgh, grandson of Elizabeth sister of Henry at Hale, granted OJt rent from lands called Rookham and Newtimber in Ockley and Wotton. 69 From him the estate passed to John Caryl), who in 1560 made a settlement of the ' minor of Rookham ' on his son Thomas." It seems probable that the manor soon afterwards ceased to exist as a separate entity ; for in 1610 a certain John Hayne died seised of 'lands called Frenches, late parcel of the tenement called Rookham in Wotton.' These lands are stated to have comprised 1 8 acres in extent. 60 Hayne also held lands in Ockley called Millmeades, alias Ruckingham meades, but in the Ockley Court Rolls of 1648 William Hayne holds these of Ockley Manor, while Rookham in Wotton is unmentioned ; they were not therefore part of this manor and are still included in Ockley Manor.

��his death (1558), being the jointure of his widow Jane. Their son Sir Edward, his son Reginald, and Lady Bray conveyed the reversion to Thomas God- man of Letherhead. In 1601 he conveyed it to John Aleyn, whose son Henry conveyed to George Evelyn of Wotton. 64

The church of ST. JOHN THE CHURCHES EF4NGELIST is not mentioned in Domesday, but from certain evidence in the existing structure it was probably standing in the 1 1 th century. It is most beautifully situated on the summit of a steep ridge, its east and south sides overlooking a beautiful green valley and the hillside opposite, which has all the appearance of the wild down-land country of Sussex or Dorset, with patches of bracken and blackberry bushes and clumps of fine park-like trees, many, no doubt, of John Evelyn's own planting. In the hollow behind this hill, to the south

���CHAPEL OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, OKKWOOD, FROM THE SOUTH-WEST

��Rookham is a farm south of Okewood Hill, just north of the Sussex border, upon the edge of the detached part of Wotton parish now added to Abinger, east of Ockley. Rucknam Mead and the old Rucken- ham contributed to the repair of Ockley churchyard fence in l628. 61

WESTLJND was in Wotton, Abinger, Cranleigh, Albury, Ewhurst, and Wonersh. The courts were held at Okewood Hill in Wotton. In 1424-5 John Newdigate was owner, and granted a lease of it. 6 '

In 1494 John Newdigate conveyed it to Ralph Leigh of Paddington in Abinger, 6 * with which it passed to Sir Edward Bray. It was separated after

��east, lies Wotton House. The churchyard is sur- rounded by noble trees here, again, in some cases, of Evelyn's planting. Two grand old beeches, with wide-spreading boughs, that formed a conspicuous feature, immediately to the north-east of the church, have unhappily been cut down within recent years ; other fine beeches are to be seen to the west of the church, and there is a very beautiful avenue of limes and horse-chestnuts leading to the south porch. The churchyard contains a number of old wooden ' bed- heads,' and a number of curiously-carved 18th-century head-stones, some table-tombs and other memorials ancient and modern, among the latter being many

��7 Probably Edward de la Hale, the benefactor of Okewood Chapel (q.v.), was i member of this family, as the places ire all close together.

58 Add. Chart. 18792.

��"Ibid. 18846.

60 W. & L. Inq. p.m. bdle. 36, no. 163. Ockley Pari.h Bks. 63 Manning and Bray, Hitt. of Surr. ii, '53-

I 5 8

��M Feet of F. Surr. 9 Hen. VII, 33.

84 Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. ii, 152. (Bray was steward of the manor.) From Ct. R. and deeds of Mr. Evelyn.

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