Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/460

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��CHRISTCHURCH, Canterbury. Azure a cross argent with the monogram I/X sable thereon.

In 1792 an Inclosure Act 3 enabled Mr. Currie to inclose most of Horsley Common at the northern end of the parish and the common fields and waste at the southern part, on the Chalk. The parsonage and glebe were at the same time removed, by exchange, to other sites.

The school (National) was established by Mr. Currie.

MANORS The entry in Domesday Book touching the manor of EAST HORSLEY (Horslei, xiii cent. ; Horslegh, xiv cent. &c.) reports it to have been held at that date by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the sustenance of his monks of Christchurch.4 It is said to have been granted for the purpose by Thored in 1036.5 But it was later in the hands of the monks of Christchurch, not of the archbishop himself.

In 1129 Edith of Horsley gave a virgate of land in Horsley to Geoffrey, Prior of Canterbury, to hold for a rent of 40s. during her life, of which he was to be quit after her death.6 Edward II granted to the Prior of Christchurch the right of having free warren in his demesne lands, 7 a privilege which was afterwards confirmed by Edward III. 8

East Horsley was taken into the king's hands at the time of the Dissolution, and formed part of Queen Mary's grant to the priory of Sheen when it was refounded. 9 Under Elizabeth the Crown resumed possession, and the manor was granted to John Agmondesham, 10 whose family had held the manor of Rowbarnes in East Horsley (q.v.) for some years. His tenure was marked by an attempt to inclose part of the common land of East Horsley ; a project opposed by the Earl of Lincoln and Lord Montagu, who as actual and contingent holders of West Horsley were interested in the question. 11 He died without issue in 1600, when the manor passed to his sister Mary wife of William Muschamp. 12 At Mary's death in 1620 she left a son and heir Agmondesham, 13 who was then forty years of age. He had a son William who in 1646 made a settlement of the manor on his son Agmondesham and Hester his wife. 14 According to Manning and Bray 15 Agmondesham died in 1648 before his father, who died in 1660, and was succeeded by his grandson Ambrose. In 1701 Ambrose conveyed the manor to Frances, Viscountess Lanesborough, widow of his brother Denny Muschamp. 16 Lady Lanesborough bequeathed her Surrey estates in remainder to Sackville Fox the youngest son of her daughter Frances by Henry Fox. 17 Sackville died in 1760, 18 his son James, who was then a minor, being heir to his lands. James, shortly after his coming of age,

���See of EXETER. Gules St. Paul's sword erect surmounted by St. Peter's keys.

sold the manor to Robert Mackereth, 19 who in his turn conveyed to Thomas Page of Cobham. Page died in 1781, and East Horsley was sold to Charles Dumbleton, 20 from whom it passed in 1784 to William Currie. 21  Brayley, 22 writing about 1840, states that shortly after Mr. Currie's death in 1829 23 the manor was purchased by Lord Lovelace, with whose family it remains.

The BISHOP'S MANOR in East Horsley seems to have belonged to the see of Exeter throughout the Middle Ages. It has been conjectured that the Domesday entry to the effect that 'Bishop Osbern of Exeter holds Woking ' should more properly be referred to this manor, since there is no trace of any land held by the Bishop of Exeter in Woking. 24

In 1243 the bishop was summoned to show by what warrant he held the moiety of East Horsley Manor, and it was then said to pertain to his chapelry of Bosham in Sussex. 25 About the same time the manor was assessed at a quarter of one knight's fee. 26

Domesday Book mentions two homagers who each held four hides of the bishop, 27 but since this is the only mention of tenants it seems reasonable to suppose that the manor was farmed for the bishop.

Manning 28 states that in the time of Henry VIII the bishop sold the manor to Henry, Marquis of Exeter; and in that case it was forfeited to the Crown with the marquis's other lands in 1538. Edward VI granted it to a certain Thomas Fisher, 29 who in 1555 alienated to William Walter. 30 Walter did not long retain possession, but in 1555 joined with Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, to whom it had possibly been leased, in conveying the manor to Joan Hamond, widow. 31 Her son William Hamond left it by will (5 May 1575) to Sir Laurence Stoughton, husband to his step-daughter Rose Ive, and they were in possession in 1580. 32 Sir Laurence Stoughton sold the manor in 1584 to Thomas Cornwallis, 33 who died in 1596. 34 His widow died seised of it in 1626, when her great-nephew Thomas Earl of Southampton came into possession. 35 He sold the manor three years later to Carew Raleigh, 36 who afterwards purchased the manor of West Horsley (q.v.). He kept possession of the bishop's manor for about fifteen years, and then conveyed it through trustees to Henry son of Sir Christopher Hildyard of Winestead in Holderness. 37 At Henry's death in 1674 it was inherited by his second son Philip. 38 His estates were sold under a private Act of Parliament, 39 and East Horsley was bought by Sir William Brownlow, bart. He in 1698 conveyed to Denny Muschamp and the Viscountess Lanesborough