Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/332

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

���MERTON PRIORV. Or fretty azure tvitft eaglet argent at the crossings of the fret.

��canons of Merton before 1291, as in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas they were rated 1 3/. 4^. in respect of it." In the 141)1 century reference is found to the Prior of Merton's lands and tene- ments in Ashtead. 71 The Commissioners of Henry VIII valued the farm at 6 per annum." At the dissolution of the monastery in 1538 it passed to the Crown, 74 and Queen Mary gave it to Anne Duchess of Somerset for life. 75

In 1578 Elizabeth grant- ed it to Robert Newdigate and Arthur Fountain, 76 who afterwards conveyed it to

Francis Newdigate, husband of the late Duchess of Somerset. He died without issue, having devised it to Henry grandson of his eldest brother. Henry granted the manor to George Cole (1604)," who is mentioned as holding it of the king as of 1 is minor of East Greenwich, and leaving it by will to his second son Thomas. 79 In 1650 Thomas conveyed it to John Wall in trust for Peter Evans, 79 who died 1661, leav- ing a son and heir Peter. This Peter conveyed the estate to Leonard Wessell, 80 and it was sold by him to Robert Knightley (afterwards knighted), whose grandson John (1713) suffered a recovery of the manor, and probably sold it to Aquila Wyke, 81 who settled it on his daughter on her marriage with Charles Brown ; she died childless, and it descended to Aquila Dackambe as heir-at-law of Aquila Wyke. His grandson of the same name held it. It is now part of the Ashtead Park estate.

There was a customary messuage in Ashtead called ' le Howse ' alias Talworth, and also a tenement called ' Dicks,' which were the subject of a lawsuit in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 81

The church of ST. GILES has a CHURCH chancel 29 ft. 3 in. by 13 ft. 4 in. inside, north vestry, north chapel (now organ- chamber) ; nave, 53 ft. 2 in. by i8ft. gin. ; north transept, 34 ft. 2 in. deep by I 5 ft. 10 in. wide, and a short aisle, 17 ft. 9 in. wide, connecting it with the organ-chamber ; south porch, and west tower 1 1 ft. 5 in. by i o ft. 3 in.

A number of Roman bricks mixed with the flint and stone of the south wall of the nave, and a window on the north side with Roman bricks in the head (as at Fetcham), removed in 1862, suggest an early origin for the building, and there is a slight change in the walling west of the south doorway and porch, pointing to the lengthening of the nave before the tower was added. The chancel is not set square with the nave, but bends southward, and was probably rebuilt in the 1 3th century, a lancet window formerly in its walls having been removed, it is said, to the modern vestry.

The arch in the north wall of the chancel appears to be old, and probably opened into a 15th-century

��chapel ; but Cracklow's plan (1829) shows the church as consisting only of chancel, nave, north porch, and west tower, the last having been built in the early part of the i6th century. The north transept dates from 1862, and in 1891 a general restoration took place, when the vestry was added, and all the windows which had not previously been modernized were re- placed by new work.

The chancel has an east window of three trefoiled lights under a pointed segmental arch, a south-east window of two trefoiled lights, and a^ square-headed south-west window of three cinquefoiled lights, all the tracery being modern. The chancel arch is also modern, with square jambs and a pointed two- chamfered arch, and the axial line of the chancel is to the south of that of the nave and also deflects to the south.

The nave retains no ancient features beyond the south wall already mentioned, and the south doorway, which is of the 1 5th century, with moulded jambs and two-centred arch. The jambs inside retain the old draw-bar holes.

The tower is of three stages, and is coated with cement ; its two western angle-buttresses and the south-east stair-turret are of brick ; the west doorway is of two hollow-chamfered orders, and has a three- centred arch in a square head with a modern label ; the door is also old, and has vertical ribs studded with square-headed nails. The window over it is a modern one of three plain lights under a square head, and in the second stage are two modern lancets piercing the west wall. The third stage is lighted on each side by similar lancets, and the parapet is of flint and stone, and is embattled.

The cedarwood of the roofs came from Woodcote Park, and the design is intended to reproduce 15th- century work ; the chancel has arched and foiled trusses and a panelled ceiling with moulded ribs and carved bosses. The nave has traceried trusses with angels at the wall-plates, and is likewise panelled, and the transept has a similar roof; the faint aromatic smell of the wood is exceedingly pleasant.

The 1 8th-century altar-table was brought from Woodcote Hall, and has shaped, curved legs, and the octagonal font is of the 1 5th century, with quatrefoiled panels on the bowl inclosing roses and shields ; on the chamfer beneath are carved faces and shields alternately ; the stem is also panelled and the base moulded, and over it is a tall, modern oak canopy.

The glass in the east window of the chancel comes from Herck near Maestricht, and appears to date from c. 1550 ; the main subject is the Crucifixion, with the figures of St. Mary and St. John ; at the foot are panels with (i) St. George and the Dragon, (2) St Anne, the Virgin and Child, (3) an abbess kneeling, behind her a Cistercian abbot with a small dog by his side ; and a shield charged quarterly (i) sable (?) a lion gules ;

(2) quarterly I and 4 argent a lion sable, z sable a lion or, 3 barry of six, over all a lion sable ;

(3) gules five fusils in fesse argent ; (4) gules ten

��H Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 206.

" Each, of Pleas, Plea R. 25 Edw. Ill, m. 17 ; 27 Edw. Ill, m. 8 d.

"> Valar Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 48 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 24.8.

"See Mins. Accts. SUIT. rot. IIJ, m. J3d. (29-jr Hen. VIII).

��" Pat. 2 & 3 Philip and Mary, pt. viii, m. 22 ; Mins. Accts. Mich, a 4k ] to Mich. 3 & 4 Philip and Mary.

" 6 Pat. 20 Eliz. pt. ii, m. 19.

77 Feet of F. Surr. Hil. I Jas. I.

7 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccvi, S 6.

250

��"' Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 1650; Hist, AtSS. Com. Ref. xi, App. ii, 1 64.

80 Feet of F. SUIT. Hil. 23 & 24 Chas. II.

81 Brayley, Surr. iv, 401.

91 Chan. Proc. Eliz. Gg. 4, no. 47; G g. 10, no. 49 ; Ct. of Req. bdle. 96, DO. 3.

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