Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/236

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��wards knighted by Queen Anne, died in 1732-3 ; his eldest son Freeman died unmarried in 1734, when lit se;ond son John inherited the property.* 9 John died in 1750 while 'on his travels in Turkey.' 18 His sisters, Anne wife of John Hervey and Elizabeth Bouverie, 30 held the manor in 1 75 2," when according to Manning the manor was limited to the Herveys. Christopher, last surviving son of John Hervey and Anne, died without issue in I786, 3 ' having devised the manor to his aunt, Elizabeth Bouverie, who in turn devised the manor and mansion-house at Betchworth to a distant cousin, the Hon. William Henry Bouverie, 3 * who belonged to the elder branch of this family, and whose son Charles succeeded to the manor in 1 8o6. 34 It was still in the latter's possession in 1816," but was sold in the following year, accord- ing to Brayley, to the Rt. Hon. Henry Goulburn," in whose family it has since remained, Major Henry Goulburn, grandson of the above-menticned Henry, being present lord of the manor."

John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, seems to have had free warren in his demesne lands at Betchworth, 88 as three times during the early i/fth century he made complaint of the trespasses committed in his free warren there.** The Domesday Survey records the existence of a mill at Betchworth which was valued at icu. 40 In 1287-8 William de Aguillon granted to Ralph de Hengham and his heirs a mill which was to be held for the annual rent of one rose. 41 No further trace of this mill is apparent ; it is possible that it was situated on the land called Aglonds (vide Aglonds More), of which mention occurs in the I5th century, and to which de Aguillon possibly gave his name.

The manor-house of East Betchworth was built by Sir Ralph Freeman in the reign of Charles I. It was called Betchworth Place, and therefore probably superseded an older manor-house on another site. It is a fine 17th-century mansion of red brick, and contains some antiquities brought from Italy by Mr. John Hervey in the i8th century.

In 1409 a conveyance was made by Stephen Hervey and his wife Agnes to William Asshurst, junior, of a messuage, 20 acres of land, and zoJ. rent in East Betchworth." This probably represents the reputed manor of LE MORE, of which John son of William Asshurst died seised, together with land called Aglonds, in 1 507, his father having held the lands before him." In 1499 Le More, afterwards known as Aglonds More, or More Place, had been settled on Agnes wife of John Asshurst, the reversion being to his brother and heir William. 44 Agnes apparently married John Skinner, senior, as her second husband, as in 1 5 1 2 the

��manor was stated to belong to John Skinner and Agnes for the life of Agnes, 46 and seems to have been conveyed from the trustees of Agnes's marriage settlement to Sir Henry Wyatt and Sir John Leigh and John Skinner for 200 marks of silver. 46 The next record of Aglonds More shows that in 1547 John Woodman of Colley died seised of the manor, which he held of the Earl of Arundel as of the manor of Colley. 47 He left as heir his son Richard, who married Julia Huntley of Woodman- Sterne, 48 and was in turn succeeded by his son and grandson, both called William. 49 The grandson mar- ried Winifred Balam, and was succeeded by his second son Richard. 50 In 1650 a warrant was issued for the Council of State and Admiralty Committee to appre- hend Richard Woodman, described as of More Place in the parish of Betchworth, on the grounds that he and John White, a weaver, had harboured a stranger from Germany, supposed to be a Papist, who was also to be arrested and brought with the other two before the Council. Search was to be made for arms and ammunition, and all books and papers were to be seized." In 1706-7 Richard Woodman, probably the son of the man referred to above, was holding the manor," and in 1739 a conveyance was made to the trustees of John Bouverie, then a minor, 53 who also held the manor of East Betchworth (q.v.). Bouverie's sister Elizabeth held both manors in 1752," after her brother's death, and Aglonds More has since that time descended with the manor of East Betchworth, 65 Major Goulburn being now lord of the manor. More Place has been occupied for fifty years by Mr. J. R. Corbett, well known as a breeder of Jersey cattle.

The house was one of the old timber-framed houses with very massive oak beams, probably dating from the time of Henry VI. On the north side was a lofty hall, broken up as far back as the 1 7th century into rooms. The tie-beams of the hall roof are still visible in the attics. At the same date probably the house had a southern side built on to it. The timbers in the ceilings of this are Spanish chestnut. There is a good Jacobean mantelpiece. The octagonal turret to the south was added more recently.

At the beginning of the 1 3th century BROCKH4M was in the possession of the de Warenne family, as between the years 1219 and 1225 William de War- enne enfeoffed Thomas son of Ralph Niger of the land of Brockham, to be held for the rent of 6o/. sterling, together with a virgate of land in East Betch- worth, lately in the tenure of Adam son of John le Brabazun, for which a rent of 40^. or a pair of gloves furred with grey was to be given yearly." The manor was held of the heirs of the Earl of Warenne and Surrey as late as 1609 for the same annual payment

��88 Wotton, English Bar, iv, 1 50 ; Gent. Mig. 1733, p. 461 LanJ. Mag. 1734, p. 'J66.

" 9 Gent. Mag. 1750, p. 525.

80 Wotton, English Bar, iv, 150.

81 Feet of F. Div. Co. Mich. 26 Geo. II. M Manning and Bray, Hist, if Surr. i,

206.

"P.C.C. 635 Walpole (will of Eliz. Bouverie).

M Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr, ii, 206.

Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 57 Geo. III.

86 E. W. Brayley, Tofog. Hist of Surr. iv, 250.

87 Burke, Landed Gentry.

88 Cal. Pat. 1301-7, p. 95; 1307-13, p. 531 ; 1 321-4, p. 448.

��Ibid.

V.C.H. Surr. i, 321.

41 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 1 5 Edw. I.

Ibid. East. 10 Hen. IV.

48 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xx, 24.

"Ibid,

Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 3 Hen. VIII ; East. 4 Hen. VIII.

Feet of F. Surr. East. 4 Hen. VIII (See Asshurst in Mickleham).

47 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixxxvii,

48 Ibid. ; Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, 330 ; Harl. Sac. Full, xliii, 108.

Harl. Soc. Publ. xliii, 108. M Ibid.

" Cal. S.P. Dam. 1650, p. 530. Thomas Woodman, of Betchworth, gentleman, was

168

��a suspected person in 1655 j B.M. Add. MS. 34013.

M Recov. R. East. 5 Anne, rot. 159.

48 Close, 13 Geo. II, pt. xix, no. 16. The deed states that the conveyance was from Anthony Wibard ; he was probably a trustee for Woodman, as according to Manning the transfer in 1739 was from Woodman himself, and there is moreover no evidence of a sale from Woodman to Wibard between the years 1707 and 1739.

" Feet of F. Div. Co. Mich. 26 Geo. II.

209; Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 57 Geo. III.
 * s Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. ii,

M Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. ii, 209 (quoting from deed in private hands).

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