Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/347

 COPTHORNE HUNDRED

��CHESSINGTON

�� ��Cisendene and Cisedune (xi cent.), Chissendon (xii cent.), Chesinden (xiii cent.), Chesingdon (xiv cent.), Chyssyndon (xv cent.).

Chessington is a very small village about 3 miles south from Surbiton Station, and 2 miles west of Ewell. The parish, which is a chapelry to Maiden, measures 3 miles from north-east to south-west, and barely a mile in any part from north-west to south-east, and contains 1,645 acres. This includes a detached part of Maiden, round the farm called Rushett, which lies south of Chessington, and was added to the parish in 1884.'

The soil is entirely London Clay, undulating con- siderably. A brook which flows into the Hoggs- mill stream runs through the parish, which is traversed throughout by the road from Kingston to Letherhead. Rushett Common now only exists as roadside waste on each side of this road.

On a little hill covered with wood south-east of the church, and on the other side of the stream, is a small inclosure or camp, about 100 yds. by 30 yds. in extent. Brayley 1 says that a Roman brass coin was found near it, and that it was known as Castle Hill. If so, the name has been disused, and it is now called Four Acres Wood. The stream has hollowed out a valley in the clay close by, and across the valley there was thrown a very substantial dam, perhaps the site of the mill of which Robert de Watevile held half in 1086. But the dam, now cut through at each end, is more than enough for a mill- dam, and may have been made a pool for the better protection of this side of the fortification above.

In the 1 8th century Mr. Samuel Crisp, the friend of Dr. Burney, lived at Chessington Hall, and Miss Burney is said to have written part of CeciRa in a summer- house in the garden which is still standing. Her father composed the epitaph upon Mr. Crisp which is in the church, and her Diary contains many refer- ences to him and to her visits to the house.

The inclosure was made by an award dated I August 1825.' A map in possession of Mr. Chancellor of Chessington Hall shows the parish largely cut up into very small holdings of villagers whose names correspond to those in the earlier registers.

Chessington Hall is now the seat of Mr. Horatio Chancellor ; Chessington Lodge of Mr. D. R. Came- ron ; Strawberry Hill of Mr. A. E. Clerk.

A Church of England school was founded by sub- scription in 1822, and for a time was divided into two parts for primary and more advanced teaching. The latter was discontinued about fifty years ago. The present building was erected in 1863.

There is an iron parish room in the village.

The manor of CHESSINGTON was MANORS held in the reign of Edward the Con- fessor by one Erding, and in 1086 by

��Richard de Tonbridge, ancestor of the Clares, Earls of Gloucester. 4 In 1439 it was included among the knights' fees held by Isabel Countess of Warwick, through descent from Eleanor wife of Hugh le Des- penser and co-heiress of Gilbert de Clare * ; after the death and attainder of Richard Nevill, husband of Anne daughter and heiress of Isabel, the over- lordship apparently escheated to the Crown.

In 1086 Robert de Watevile was holding this manor under Richard de Tonbridge, 6 and his de- scendants continued to hold both this manor and Maiden until 1240, when a grant of Maiden, evidently including Chessington, of which a whole or a part was a member of that manor, was made by William de Watevile and Peter de Maiden, his sub- tenant, to Walter de Merton,' who received a grant of free warren there in 1249.'' In 1262 licence was granted by Richard de Clare for the presentation of Maiden with its member of Chessington to the ' House of Scholars ' which Walter de Merton was founding at Maiden, 8 and in 1264 Walter de Merton assigned them by charter to this house, for the support of 20 scholars at Oxford.' The manors thus became part of the endowment of Merton College, Oxford, the estate at Chessington being subsequently known as CHESSINGTON PARK.

In 1287 Richard de Merplesdon, Warden of the House of the Scholars of Merton, in Oxford, was holding 3 fees in Farley, Maiden, and Chessington, of William de Watevile, as mesne lord between the said Richard and Gilbert de Clare. 10 In 1279 the master and scholars of Merton claimed Chessington as a park pertaining to their manor of Maiden, with warren in all their demesne lands there by charter of Henry III."

Edward I confirmed these estates to the scholars of Merton in 1290," and they are mentioned among the fees held by Merton College of the descendants of Richard de Clare in 1314," 1375," 1428," and 1439." In 1578 the college ceded their manors of Maiden and Chessington Park for a term of 5,000 years to the Earl of Arundel, from whom they passed to Lord Lumley, and shortly after to the family of Goode. As a result of legal proceedings commenced against Sebastian Goode in 1621, with a view to evading the terms of this lease, the college finally recovered this estate in 1707, and retain it to the present day."

In 1086 Robert de Watevile was holding of Gilbert de Clare in Chessington half a mill worth ios.,

���MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD. Or three che- verons party and counter' coloured azure and gules.

��1 Local Govt. Bd. Order 16490. 8 Hht. ofSurr. iv, 402. Blue Bk. Incl. Awards. f.C.H. Surr. i, 317*. Exch. Inq. p.m. 18 Hen. VI, no. 3. V.C.H. Surr. i, 317*. Feet of F. Surr. 31 Hen. Ill, no. 306 j Kilner, Acct. of Pythagoras School, 157, 1 60.

��" a Cat. Chart. R. 1226-57, p. 34.5.

8 Kilner, Acct. of Pythagoras School, 157; Hey wood, Foundation Charters of Merton College, Oxford, 3 ; Part. R. (Rec. Com.), i, II*.

9 Harl. Chart. 53, H. 12. Chesington is not mentioned by name in thii charter, being evidently included in Maiden.

10 De Banco R. East. 1 5 Edw. I.

263

��11 Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 741 j Cal. Chart. R. 1226-57, P- 345-

13 Cal. Chart. R. 1257-1300, p. 354.

13 Exch. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, no. 68.

11 Chan. Inq. p.m. 49 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, no. 46. ls Feud. Aids, v, 122.

" Exch. Inq. p.m. 18 Hen. VI, pt. iii.

W Kilner, Acct. of Pythagoras School, 64-5.

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