Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/285

 REIGATE HUNDRED

��100 of pasture, 20 of wood in Leigh, and 40 acres of pasture in Betchworth, the said messuage and lands being known as that mansion, messuage or farm with dovecot called ' Le Ley,' held of the manor of Ban- stead by service of I is. Elizabeth Copley survived her husband, and died in 1559, Sir Thomas Copley being her son and heir." He was M.P. for Gallon in 1554, 1557-8, and 1562-3. Under Mary he was a supporter of the rights of succession of Elizabeth, 46 who was his third cousin twice removed through the marriage of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn with his great-great- aunt Anne, daughter of Lord Hastings. But he had scruples about subscribing to the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, 47 and left England in 1569 and spent the rest of his life abroad, dying in Flanders in 1 5 4. 48 William Copley, eldest surviving son of Thomas, in- herited the estate. 49 It was settled on his son William on the marriage of the latter with Anne Denton in 1615. In 1620, however, William Copley the father, having married as his second wife Margaret Fromond, appears to have made a second settlement of the estate, this time on himself and his wife Margaret and the survivor of either of them for life, with reversion to his son by his first wife." The son, who had predeceased him, had left two daughters and co-heirs Mary, who married John Weston, and Anne, wife of Sir Nathaniel Minshull. 6 ' William Copley the father died in 1643, and his widow Margaret apparently entered on Leigh Place. In 1 649, Mary Weston, to whom on the partition of estates Leigh Place had been allotted, conveyed the reversion, expectant on the demise of Margaret Copley, widow, to John Woodman. The latter in 1651 conveyed to Thomas Jordan in trust for Robert Bristowe, and at the end of the same year Margaret Copley agreed to sell to the latter her life interest in the estate. 64 From Susanna Moore, daughter and heiress of Robert Bristowe, Leigh Place passed in 1706 to Edward Budgen, who by will of 1716 devised to his grand- nephews in turn. Thomas, the youngest, married Penelope Smith, and in 1 806 his grandson, Thomas Smith-Budgen, conveyed the estate to Richard CafFyn Dendy, 66 in whose family it remains, Sir John Watney, the present owner, having married Elizabeth, a daugh- ter and co-heir of Stephen Dendy. 66

Leigh Place is the remains of a 15th-century house surrounded by a moat. Part of the house was pulled down about 1810, and the interior as restored and modernized is not of any great interest ; there is, how- ever, some fine woodwork. In a room on the ground floor is a large fireplace of 1 8th-century design, and on the first floor a large room now divided into three bed- rooms has a four-centred arched ceiling, and over it a bell turret. It used to be approached by a draw- bridge, which is now superseded by a permanent way. Old maps show the house to have been foursquare with a central courtyard, and the view in Manning

��and Bray shows the entrance front as it existed about 1806, with the drawbridge over the moat. 661 The Copleys being Catholic recusants accounts for a cup- board near the chimney in the hall which was called the Priest's Hole. Robert Southwell the Jesuit and poet was son of Bridget, sister of Sir Thomas Copley of Leigh and Gallon, and may have been here.

STUMBLEHOLE.ln 1325 R. de Stumblehole held a lenement al Slumblehole of Banslead Manor. 67 A messuage and lands at Slumblehole were held by ihe de Bures family as parcel of lands al Burgh in Banslead in ihe I4lh cenlury. 68 The properly seems lo have afterwards belonged lo ihe Leigh Place estate, as Bray, writing in ihe early I9lh century, states that it had then been sold as a farm lo William Brown by John Smilh-Budgen of Leigh Place.* 9

The church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW CHURCH has a chancel 25 ft. 6 in. by 1 8 ft. 2 in., a south veslry, a nave 546. 3 in. (of which 10 ft. at ihe wesl end is covered by ihe lower and divided from the nave by an arch) by 2 1 ft., and soulh and west porches.

The building is of 1 5th-cenlury origin, but has been much modernized. The nave was formerly aboul ihree-quarlers of the present length, and had a west tower with a slone base and upper part of wood. The lower had a wesl doorway, and over it a ihree-light Iraceried window, and ils wesl wall was flush with that of the nave. At a later dale ihe wooden parl was replaced by one of slone. When the church was lengthened in 1 890 the lower was demolished and replaced by ihe presenl wooden ereclion above ihe nave roof : ihe arch opening lo ihe nave appears lo have been re-used, bul no oiher parl of ihe work is old.

The east window of the chancel is a modern one in I5th-cenlury style, of three lights under a Iraceried head. The two norlh windows are boih partly re- stored 15th-century work : the first is of two cinque- foiled lights under a traceried pointed head wilh a label, ihe external jambs and arch having a wide case- ment moulding, while ihe second window is of Iwo irefoiled lighls under a square head. The south-east window is quile modern and similar in design lo lhat opposite. In this wall, near the chancel arch, is the doorway to the modern vestry. The chancel arch has chamfered jambs with moulded bases and capitals, and the arch is two-centred and of two chamfered orders. The bases and some other siones are modern, ihe resl may be original.

The Iwo easiernmosl of ihe norlh windows of ihe nave are bolh old, of three cinquefoiled lighls under poinled segmental heads, ihe ihird window is a new one of similar characler bul of Iwo lighls. The south-east window is an old one of three lights like thai opposile, and below ii is a small cinquefoiled and square-headed piscina. The soulh doorway is original, and has two moulded orders continuing round the

��44 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxxvi, 145 ; P.C.C. 5 Mellershe.

46 Com. Journ. i, 50.

47 Loselcy MSS. ix, 19, 20. Letters dated 17 and 23 Nov. 1569.

48 Diet. Nat. Biog.

4g Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. z), ccccv, 159.

60 Ibid.

u Ibid. The Surr. Arch. Coll. states that the deed of 1620 settled the estate not only on William Copley, senior, and Margaret for life, but on their issue,

��remainder being to William Copley, junior, the issue by the father's first marriage. This account also states that, after the death of the latter, the first settlement was disputed, and that of 1 620 was finally al- lowed. The inquisition on the son and the subsequent history do not, however, show that the children by the father's second marriage ever had any right to the estate. M Ibid. ; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccv, 159. Minshull was apparently Anne's second husband. Set Gatton Manor.

211

��58 Surr. Arch. Coll. xi, 177-8 (deed in possession of owners of estate).

44 Ibid. 179.

Ibid. 183.

M Burke, Landed Gentry,

"* See Surr. Arch. Coll. xi, 141-84.

W Add. Chart. 16532.

68 Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), no. 54 ; 19 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), no. 54.

" Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. ii, 184.

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