Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/334

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��In 1619 Peter Quennell presented and again in I647, 90 the lord of the manor having the alternate presentation in 1639." The MSS. of the House of Lords contain an application for an order for William King to be instituted and inducted to the rectory of Ashteadinl647. 91 He was a Puritan minister ejected for nonconformity in 1662,'* when Elkanah Downes was presented to the living by Downes, merchant." He died in 1683, and the next presentation was by Sir Robert Howard, kt., who had bought the advow- son from Henry Duke of Norfolk. 95

For nearly a century more it remained with the Howard family, as lords of the manor. In 1782 and 1826 the bishop presented, and in 1822 the Hon. F. Grenville. 96 The living is now in the gift of the Rev. F. G. L. Lucas, the present incumbent.

King Edward VI granted' to Sir Anthony Archer one acre of land called ' Cotton Acre ' in the common field, formerly applied to maintaining a lamp in Ash- tead Church. 87

There was in the parish church a perpetual chantry of the value of 5 marks. 98 This was evidently the chantry established in 1261, when the Prior of Newark undertook to maintain three chaplains in the ' chapel of Estede,' to pray for the soul of Henry de

��Mara, his ancestors and heirs." The keeping up of the chantry was the occasion for continual litigation, which went on from 1364 till 1493, between the heirs of De Mara and successive Priors of Newark. The dispute began on account of the original en- dowment of a sum of 250 marks, which presumably the Prior of Newark spent, so that the endow- ment for chaplains was not forthcoming. 100 It would seem that before 1364 there had been continual irregularity in providing chantry priests, for Bishop Edington had to ordain two in 1346 and two in 1347, which looks as if his predecessor had neglected to fill up vacancies. 101 In 1493 the complainants, John Aston and others, obtained a writ compelling the prior to provide an endowment. 102 No chantry, however, seems to have existed in Ashtead Church at the time of the suppression of the chantries. 103

Smith's Charity is distributed as in CHARITIES other Surrey parishes.

In 1712 Mrs. Sarah Bond left 500 for the relief of the poor.

In 1733 Lady Diana Fielding left money for the support of six poor widows, for whom a house was built on the Epsom road. It has since been rebuilt for the accommodation of eight poor widows.

��BANSTEAD

��Benestede (xi cent.), Banested (xii cent.), Benested and Bansted (xiii cent.), Bendestede (xiv cent.), Bansted (xviii cent.).

Banstead is a village 3 J miles south of Sutton on the east of the road to Reigate. The parish measures 6 miles from north to south, and varies in breadth from 3 miles to a few yards at the southern apex, where it forms an acute angle between Kingswood and Walton. The acreage is 5,552. The whole of Banstead is situated upon the chalk downs, and with Walton and Headley adjoins that row of parishes whose villages lie at the northern front of the downs. The ground rises in places to nearly 600 ft. above the sea level, while much of it is over 400 ft. The soil is chalk, with surface deposits of clay, gravel, and brick-earth.

In 1086 the parish was counted in Wallington Hundred, and it is so entered in the returns of 1316 and 1428. : In 1636 it was entered in Copthorne, but Aubrey in 1718 placed it in Croydon Hundred.

Banstead Downs are still a wide extent of open land, though much reduced since the time when they made one unbroken expanse with Epsom Downs, and the old 4-mile race-course, marked on Norden's map, ran from a point between Banstead village and the railway station into the present ' straight ' of Epsom race-course.

The downs, now appropriated chiefly for golf, formerly fed sheep in abundance. The old inn in Banstead village, a building which may well date from the 1 7th century, is called the ' Wool Pack,' a survival

��of a past trade. In 1 3 24 the Abbot of Chertsey im- pleaded John de la Lane, bailiff to Isabella the Queen at Banstead, and others, for taking 1,500 of his sheep at Evesham (Epsom), driving them to Banstead and imparking, or, as we say, impounding, them, till from want of food some of them died. The bailiffanswered that he took them on Banstead Down by way of distress as the abbot had been impleaded for trespass in the queen's manorial court at Banstead, but had not answered. In the king's court, to which the case was transferred, the abbot obtained damages.' In 1338 it was ordered that the officers taking wool for purveyance should exact none from the queen's (Philippa's) manors of Witley and Banstead.* The high quality of the wool is shown by a petition of the Commons in 1454, in which they prayed that a sack of wool of the growth of Banstead Down might not be sold under loot., as the price of such wool was greatly decayed. 4 The reputation of Banstead Downs for sheep is referred to by Pope in the Imita- tions of Horace, and by others.

Historically Banstead Downs were the scene of sport. When Holland's ill-contrived royalist rising of 1648 took place at Kingston, the original plan had included a muster of adherents, as for a horse race, on Banstead Downs. Rumour was rife at the time of such an assembly being formed, and that Holland had marched thither from Kingston. But in fact he had marched to Dorking, and Major Andeley, who was on his track, went over Banstead

��> See Inst. Bks. P.R.O.

91 See Recov. R. East. 15 Chas. I, rot 38.

92 Hiit. MSS. Com. Rcf. vi, App. 1770. 98 Manning and Bray, Surr. 11,63 5, note L M See Inst. Bks. P.R.O.

Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 32 Chas. II.

96 See Inst. Bks.

9 7 Pat. 3 Edw. VI, pt. iii, m. 29.

��98 Manning and Bray, Surr. ii, 634.

99 Feet of F. Surr. 45 Hen. Ill, no. 1 58.

100 j t was Peter de Montfort, who had thrown up holy orders and married, who first in 1364 betrayed anxiety about the due provision of masses, after he had arrived at seventy years of age.

101 Winton Epis. Reg. Edington, ii, Ord. A, F, and G.

252

��102 De Banco R. 926, m. 427, Mich. 9 Hen. VII.

103 Surr. Arch. Coll. xix, article on De Mara Chantry.

1 feudal Aids (1284-1431), v, no, 125.

3 Abbrtv. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 346. Cal. of Close, 1337-9, p. 496.

4 Part. R. (Rec. Com.) v, 275, 1454.

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