Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/37

 GODALMING HUNDRED

��ARTINGTON

��by More of the Sidney moiety, which he after- wards held. In 1515-16 Sir Christopher More acquired the rights of John Twistleton, goldsmith, of London, probably a mortgagee ; and before 153 2-3 he had evidently purchased this moiety in addi- tion to the other (vide infra), for William son of Humphrey Sidney then released all his rights to him. 60

The other moiety was in the hands of a John Strode and Katherine his wife in 1429, and of Katherine widow of John and John her son in 1435, and of a Robert Strode in 1454 5- 81 They, in granting a lease of land bounded by William Sidney's land, spoke of ' nostra pan de manerio de Losele,' and gave the grant at Loseley. This moiety there- I fore may possibly have included the manor-house, and may have been the Bures moiety. Robert Strode, heir of Thomas Strode, conveyed to trustees, 8 October I476, 51 and by this means no doubt the moiety was acquired by John Westbroke, for John Westbroke held his first court at Loseley in i^Si." John Westbroke was summoned to warrant the manor of Loseley to Gilbert Stoughton and Thomas Purvoche in isoo, 84 and on 31 October 1508 John Westbroke of Godalming sold to Christopher More, gentleman, all his moiety of Loseley Manor, reserv- ing an annuity to himself and his wife Elizabeth for life. 86 Christopher More held his first court at Loseley

1 1 January I joS-g. 86 In 1 530 he had licence to inclose

12 acres of land and a grant of free warren and free fishery within the park, of which this may have been the nucleus. 87 Sir Christopher More died 1549. His son William be- gan to build the present house, which was completed in I569. 88 William, who was knighted in 1576, was the

most trusted agent of Elizabeth's Government in Surrey, and a special favourite of the queen. The lords lieutenant, the two Lords Howard of Effing- ham, and the Council, seem to have remitted all business to him. He also acquired much property in the county and elsewhere. In 1570 the Earl of Southampton was removed to his custody and remained at Loseley for three years. 89 Queen Elizabeth visited the house three times, in 1576, 1583, and again in 1591." Sir William's son and heir, Sir George More, kt., who succeeded to the estate in 1600," was Lieutenant of the Tower, and represented both Guildford and Surrey county in Parliament, as his father had done before him.** He was twice visited by James I at Loseley .** He died and was buried in the Loseley Chapel, St. Nicholas,

���MORI of Loseley. A- xure a cross argent with five marflfts sable thereon.

��Guildford, in 1632, his heir being Poynings, son of his eldest son Sir Robert More, kt., who had predeceased his father." Loseley remained the r. ra- perty of his heirs male till 1689, when at the death of Robert More, the then holder, his sister and sole surviving heiress, Margaret wife of Sir Thomas Molyneux, 94 inherited the manor. Their eldest son, Sir William More-Molyneux, died 1760. His eldest son James had died the year before. His son Thomas More-Molyneux died unmarried in 1776, and left the property to his sisters in succession, and then to James Freeman afias Molyneux, son of Jane Freeman, who was afterwards the wife of Samuel Hill of Duke Street, gentleman. James, son of Thomas, became owner in 1802, as James More- Molyneux, and died 1823. His son James died 1874. William More-Molyneux, son of James, 8 * 1 died 1907. The present owner is Mrs. More-Molyneux McCowan, daughter of his brother, Admiral Sir Robert More- Molyneux.

View of frankpledge was held at Loseley by the Bishop of Salisbury as lord of Godalming ; * and thus when the Mores of Loseley obtained Godalm- ing they also obtained the right of view of frankpledge on their manor of Loseley. There was an oratory in this manor from the end of the I4th century, when Robert de Dol had licence to hear mass there." Sir George More enlarged the new house and added a chapel where he held licence for services in 1605." But this extension became ruinous, and was pulled down by the late Mr. James More-Molyneux about 1835.

Loseley lies about 2 miles to the south-west of Guild- ford. There was certainly a moated house near this site at a much earlier date, but the present mansion was built from the ground between 1563 and 1 569, by Sir William More. Sir Christopher More, who came out of Derbyshire, must have occupied from about I 5 1 5 an older house which probably stood on the site of the lawn to the south of the present house, and he obtained in 1530 a licence to empark. The 'park' still remains, and forms with its green turf, flower- gardens, and trees, gathering on the west into a great avenue which is perhaps more like a forest ride a worthy setting for the fine old house.

As originally planned, the house of 1563 was to have occupied three sides of a square, a central gate- house and flanking walls, with perhaps minor offices, forming the fourth side, thus leaving a great open quadrangle in the middle. In conformity with this clinging to earlier traditions in planning is the style of architecture in which the house is built, which leans to the older Gothic in all its forms, rather than to the Renaissance.

The original plan was never fully carried out, but was confined in execution to the main block of the south side of the square, thus giving the principal

��80 Copy of Inq. p.m. and deeds at Loseley.

81 Deeds at Loteley.

85 Ibid.

88 Fragment of roll there,

84 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 1 5 Hen. VII, 13 ; De Banco R. 15 Hen. VII, m. xi.

"Add. Chart. 13557. More was, as we have seen, simultaneously acquiring the Sidney moiety.

86 Loseley MSS.


 * Pat. Hen. VIII, pt, ii. m. 3.

��The present park is much more than 1 1 acres.

88 See Arch, xxxri, 294, where there is printed an account of the expenses of building Loseley House, and also an inventory of the goods of William More in 1556.

89 Kempe, Loieley MSS. 129 et seq.

90 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, App. 629, 638, 649.

91 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cclxiv, 179. 91 Return of Members of Purl. pt. i.

��98 Diet. ffat. Biog. xxrriii, 414.

M Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccxjutrii, 106.

95 Inscription in church of St. Nicholas, Guildford.

his obligations to this gentleman for the free use of his MSS.
 * The writer desires to acknowledge

Hist. MSS. Com. Rtf. rii, App. 599, 600, &c.


 * ! Egerton MS. 2033, foL 53*.

98 Licence at Loseley.

�� �