Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/364

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��great-grandson of Joan. 93 He sold it with the manor of Horton to George Mynne, 9 ' whose daughter and co- heir Elizabeth, wife of Richard Evelyn, owned it in l6j2. 95 From that time it may have been merged with the manor of Horton, 96 for now no trace of the manor or place of that name can be found. In a survey of Epsom 97 a boundary point is Brettegraves- herne that is, Brettegrave's Corner, otherwise called Wolfrenesherne. The next mark on the boundary is Abbot's Pit, which on an old map is the name for the disused chalk-pit called Pleasure Pit on the Ordnance map. 9?a

The estate called DURD4NS in this parish, held of the manor of Horton, is probably the property consisting of a messuage, a dovecote, two gardens, two orchards, 1 2 acres of land with meadow, pasture, and wood, which Sir William Mynne, lord of Horton, conveyed to Elizabeth, Lady Berkeley, in 1 6 1 J. K She in 1634-5 settled Durdans on her daughter Theo- phila, wife of Sir Robert Coke, and her heirs and assigns. 99 Theophila died without issue, Sir Robert Coke surviving. He, by his will of 1652, left Durdans to his nephew George Berkeley, afterwards Earl of Berkeley ; he also devised a messuage called the Dog House, in Epsom, which he had lately acquired (probably by fine from John and Thomas Hewett), 99a to be fitted up as a library and kept for any of the ministers of the county of Surrey, to use on week-days between sun-rising and sun-setting. 100 The books left for this purpose however, (which probably formed part of the library of his father, the famous lawyer, Sir Edward Coke), seem to have remained at Durdans until 1682, when George, Earl of Berkeley, gave all or part of them to Sion Col- lege. 100 * George, Earl of Berkeley, entertained Charles II here in 1662, when John Evelyn records in his diary being invited to meet the King and Queen, Duke and Duchess, Prince Rupert, Prince Edward, and abundance of noblemen. 101 Charles II also dined with the Earl of Berkeley at Durdans in i664. 10Ia This was probably at the old house, for the Earl of Berkeley is said to have built a new residence with materials from the palace of Nonsuch, 10 * which was pulled down by the Duchess of Cleveland after 1669. During the Earl's tenure of Durdans, it was the scene of the notorious intrigue between his daughter, Lady Henrietta Berkeley, and her brother- in-law, Lord Grey of Wark. 10 * By will of 1698 the earl left the property to his son Charles, afterwards earl, who in 1 702 sold Durdans with ' the little park paled in ' to Charles Turner of Kirkleatham, co. York. He in 1708 conveyed it to John, Duke of Argyll and Earl of Greenwich, reserving the Dogghouse or Dagghouse Farm. IOSa Before 1 7 1 2 it seems to have

���PRIMROSF, Earl of Rosebery. Vert three primroses or 'within the royal tressure of Scotland for PRIMROSE, quartered with Argent a lion table with a forked tail for CRESSV.

��been acquired by Lord Guilford, losb and Bishop Willis's Visitation calls him a resident of Epsom in 1725. His son, Lord North and Guilford, succeeded him in 1729. He was lord of the bedchamber to Frederick, Prince of Wales, from 1730 to 1751, during which time the prince seems to have had a loan or lease of the house, 10 * but the tradition that he owned it is incorrect.

Alderman Belchier pulled down Lord Berkeley's house after 1747. The new house was bought by Mr. Dalbiac in 1764, and later, in 1799, was acquired by Mr. George Blackman, who sold it in 1819 to Sir Gilbert Heathcote, bart., M.P. From the cousins and heirs of his son Arthur Heath- cote it was bought by Lord Rosebery in i874, 104 and he is the present owner.

The capital messuage of WOODCOTE in Epsom was held of the manor of Horton. 105 In the first half of the l6th century it belonged to one John Ewell of Horton, and continued in his family until 1591, when it was the cause of litigation between Agnes Tyther, a descendant of John Ewell, and Roger Lamborde. 106 It was in the possession of John Mynne, lord of the manor of Horton, in 1597, and he settled it on his son William on his marriage. 10 ' It passed with Horton Manor to Elizabeth wife of Richard Evelyn (1648), who built there a new mansion. Mrs. Evelyn bequeathed Woodcote to Lord Balti- more, a remote connexion of her family. 108 After the seventh Lord Baltimore left England in 1 77 1 it was sold to Mr. Monk, then to Mr. Nelson, in 1777 to Mr. Arthur Cuthbert, and in 1787 to Mr. Lewis Teissier, a merchant of London, having been separated from the manor of Horton. Mr. Teissier's son, created by Louis XVIII the Baron de Teissier, was owner at the beginning of last century. 109 It was sold by the Baron de Teissier in 1855 to Mr. Robert Brookes, and is now the property of his son, Mr. Herbert Brookes, J.P.

The church of ST. M4RTIN has CHURCHES a nave with aisles and a north-west tower ; the church has lately been con- siderably enlarged eastward, the new work consisting of an addition to the nave, a chancel and north chapel, a south organ chamber, and aisles. The only old part of the present building is the tower, which dates from the ijth century, but has been recased

��> Terrier of lands in Surrey j Donat MS. B.M. 4705, fol. 14;, 146.

w Feet of F. Surr. HiL 2 Chas. I.

85 See Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 1652.

98 See Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 15 Chas. II.

W K. R. Misc. Bk. vol. 25, fol. cccxcv d.

7' The line continues by Seburgh.es taper montem, the Kingston and Reigate road, Dene or Deuelonds, the Portway, Motschameles hedge, corner called Merles- herae iuxta Athtead, Werehull on the heath by the Kingston and Walton road, Cheseldene parkhatch, Kocshcte, and so back to Brettegravesherne.

��* Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 18 Jas. I. Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), dxxvii, 38. Wa See Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 23 Chas. II.

100 P.C.C. Brent, 294.

looa See Inner Temple MSS. 538, 17, fol. 347, and the account of Sion College by the Rev. W. H. Milman in Lind. and Midd.Areb. Soc. 1880.

101 Evelyn's Diary, I Sept. 1662.

1M Hilt. MSS. Com. Rep. xv, App. yii,

173-

1M Brayley, Surr. iv, 352, quoting Aubrey, who was contemporary.

108 State Triah, ix, 127-86. But it was perhaps at another house of Lord

2 7 6

��Berkeley's in Epsom. See Manning and Bray, Surr. ii, 614.

losa Close, 7 Anne, pt. ii, no. 13.

"!> See Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xi, App. v, 309.

I09c See Pococke's Travels through Engl. (ed. Wright, Camd. So:.), ii. 171. See Lord Rosebery's Introd. to Gordon Home's Epsom.

lw Local information.

105 Ct. of Req. I, bdle. 95, no. 61.

1M Ibid.

'W Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccli, 158.

108 G.E.C. Peerage, i, 226.

109 Brayley, Surr. iv, 351.

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