Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/381

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��Headley Court is the seat of Mr. Walter CunlifFe, Headley Park that of Mr. J. N. Mappin, and Head- ley Grove that of Miss Bridge.

There is an iron Congregational chapel ; and there is an institute and club in the village.

A school (Church of England) was built in 1868. In 1725 there was a school of 20 gentlemen's sons kept by Mr. Stubbs.

Before the Conquest the Countess Goda MANOR held HEADLEY in chief of King Ed- ward, and at the time of the Domesday Survey it was in the hands of Ralph de Felgeres.* By the end of the 1 2th century it was held by Gilbert de Tilers, who paid 40*. for it into the king's trea- sury in 1 1 99.* His daughter Agnes, who married Philip de Crois, 4 was one of his heirs. 4 Another daughter Joan married Thomas Malesmains, who held land in Headley in 1210, which had been given to him with the daughter of Gilbert de Tilers by the king's grant. 6 Hilary, one of Agnes's daughters, succeeded to part of the manor, including the capital messuage, and her husband James de Banelingham did homage for it in 1233.' James was an alien, and in 1246 the estate had escheated to the king. 9

In 1253 John d'Abernon was granted free warren in his demesne lands at Headley, 9 and twenty-five years later his son John was summoned to prove his right to this privilege. 10 This, however, may not refer to the manor, but to a half-carucate of land there which Giles d'Abernon acquired in 121718 from Martin and Eva de Covenham, possibly one of the heiresses of Agnes de Tilers." The next mention of Headley occurs amongst the possessions of John de Plesey, who held it for the service of a quarter of a knight's fee. John died in 1313-14," leaving three sons : Edmund his heir, Ro- bert from whom were de- scended the owners of Head- ley at a later date, and John." At the death of Edmund, who was said to have held in free socage owing no service to the king," two parts of the estate were assigned in dower to his widow Maud. 15 He was succeeded by his son Nicholas, at whose death in 1357 the property was

���DE PLESEY. Argent six ringt gulei.

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taken into the king's custody on account of the minority of the heir," John de Plesey, who died shortly after. Nicholas his brother also died without attaining his majority, and Headley then passed to their sister Joan," the wife of John Hameley. Hame- ley continued to hold the manor after her death for service of a quarter of a knight's fee, until he himself died in 1398 9. 18 As Joan's only son had died un- married before his father, the property should then have reverted to Peter de Plesey, Joan's uncle, and Sir Nicholas's only brother. Peter, however, appar- ently never held the manor, for having no son to succeed, he granted it to Joan's distant cousin, John de Plesey, who being descended in a direct line from Robert, Edmund's younger brother, was the next heir after Peter. 19 From about this date the estate is re- ferred to as ' three parts of the manor,' and it is pos- sible that one quarter was settled upon Elizabeth, Joan Hameley's daughter and only surviving child.*

John de Plesey died in 1406, and his son John succeeded him. 11 This John left no children, and the manor reverted in 1417 to his father's first cousin, John Camel." In 1438 Camel conveyed one-third of the manor to William Wikes and John Aleyn, 2 * and a William Wikes died seised of the property in 1518, his uncle, Richard Wikes, being his heir." In 1526 Richard received licence to alienate the manor and lands to Sir David Owen and others," probably in trust for Andrew Windsor, afterwards Lord Windsor, who died seised of the manor of Headley, also called Wikes Manor, in 1543-4." The year before his death he likewise became possessed of property in Headley which had formerly belonged to the Abbot of Westminster, who had claimed liberties there as early as 1278-9,*' Henry VIII granting him these lands with all the other possessions of the dissolved abbey in a forced exchange for the manor of Stan- well.* 8 In this document this monastic land is said to be one quarter of Headley Manor ; " it may have been so called from the fact that since John de Plesey had inherited the estate in 1398-9 it had only con- sisted of three-quarters of the manor ; the remaining fourth seems to have been lost sight of, and when Lord Windsor acquired the Westminster land it was accounted for in this way.*

Lord Windsor was succeeded by his son William, who in 1554 acquired Headley Farm from the trustees of Nicholas Leigh, the heir of one Michael Leigh, 11 who had held it ten years before. This farm had

��V.C.H. Surr. i, 326. 8 Pipe R. 6 Ric. I, m. I. 4 Add. Chart. 5517.

6 Ibid. -5 5 26.

' Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 125 ; Red Bk. ofExch. (Rolls Ser.), 562.

7 Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i, 246.

8 Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 1 Hen. Ill, no. 8.

9 Cal. of Chart. 1226-57, p. 434. lOPlac. de Quo ffarr. (Rec. Com.), 738 ;

Symmes' Coll. for Hitt. of Surr.; Add. MS. 6167, fol. 215.

Feet of F. Surr. East. 2 Hen. III. There may have been another manor in Headley, as in 1 204-5 the sheriff of Sur- rey was ordered to deliver seisin to Richard de Clare * quod de feodo suo cat ' (Close, 6 John, m. 12, no. no). This de Clare holding, which does not, however, appear in the inquisitions on later Earls of Clare ind Gloucester, possibly explains the ap-

��pearance at Headley of the d'Abernons, their sub-tenants in other places. The holding of the d'Abernons, who were lords of Albury, may have included the land in Headley called Eldebury, which afterwards appears amongst the possessions of the Pleseys, in which case it would seem that the two holdings became united.

18 Chan. Inq. p.m. 7 Edw. II, no. 5.

18 Berry, Surr. Gen. 56 ; Vint, of Surr. (Harl. Soc. xliii), 7.

14 Chan. Inq. p.m. I Edw. Ill (1st nos.), no. 42. u Ibid.

18 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 244.

17 Chan. Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. ii (ist nos.), no. 15.

18 Ibid. 22 Ric. II, no. 25. In this inquisition Headley is said to be held of the honour of Boulogne, a remi- niscence of its having been held before the Conquest by the Countess of Boulogne,

2 9 I

��Goda (Godgifu), Edward's sister, though it had not apparently gone to her son Earl Eustace.

19 Ibid. ; Berry, Surr. Gen. 56.

Ibid.

al Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Hen. IV, no. 63.

31 Ibid. 4 Hen. V, no. 31 ; Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. 10 Hen. VI.

28 Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Hen. VI, no. 32.

84 Ibid. (Ser. 2,) xxxiii, 87.

L. and P. Hen. fill, iv, 2673 (2).


 * Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixviii, 28.

" Plac. de Quo ffarr. (Rec. Com.), 745.

88 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvii, 285 (18) ; Harl. MS. 1880 [copy of indenture].

89 The property was possibly granted to the abbey with the advowson by one of the heirs of Agnes de Tilers.

80 Or this quarter may have been ac- quired by Westminster at some time after 1398-9.

81 Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt.xxviii, m. 29.

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