Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/472

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��before being notified. 1 The main road in the county, east to west, ran along the downs, and the road from Guildford to Epsom runs through Merrow village.

Of existing houses the inn near the church, 'The Horse and Groom,' is much the most curious. The newel staircase and the interior suggest a date as old as the I Jth century. There is some old panelling, and the exterior bears the date 1615. A great part of Clandon Park is in Merrow parish. Among modern houses Levylsdene is the residence of Sir C. H. Stuart Rich, bart. ; Woodlands, of Mr. James Cholmeley-Russel ; Merrow House was the seat of the late Miss Thrupp.

There is a Congregational chapel, built in 1876. The National School was built in 1853 and enlarged in 1886; the Infants' School in New Down Road was built in 1884 and, enlarged in 1896.

There is no mention of MERROW M4NOR (Merwe, xiii cent.) in Domesday Book ; probably it formed part of Stoke at that date, since both were royal demesne. Henry II granted part of his demesne land at Merrow to William de St. John,' who granted it to Walter son of Ingard for one knight's fee. Walter had two daughters, of whom the elder married Roger Craft and had half the land which at the time of the Testa de Nevill was held by Roger the heir of Roger Craft.* The other daughter and co-heiress died young, and her land was granted to William de Feogieres, who afterwards forfeited it to Richard I. 4 John granted it to William de Leycester, 6 whose holding in Merrow was assessed early in the 1 3th century at 4.'

Merrow was thus divided into three portions, in the hands of the king, William de Leycester, and Roger Craft respectively ; the over- lordship of the second had apparently passed to the priory of Boxgrove by successive grants of the St. Johns. Roger Craft granted his portion to the Templars in 1241.' By charter (c. 12 50-60) Henry III confirmed Boxgrove and the Templars in possession, and granted the royal third to the Benedictine Priory of nuns of Ivinghce in Bucking- hamshire, with th: advow- son. 8 The grant was confirmed by Edward I.*

The first grant of land in Merrow to the priory of Boxgrove in Sussex was made apparently in the time of Henry II, when William de St. John gave half a virgate of land for the sustenance of fifteen monks. 10 It should be noted that the family of St. John was connected by ties of marriage with the de Haia family who founded Boxgrove Priory." In the time of Richard I Simon de Seynluz granted property in Merrow, which he had acquired of the

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���THE TEMFLAM. Ar- gent a cross gules and a chief sable.

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��THE HdSPITALLtRS.

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��gift of William de St. John, to Boxgrove j " it comprised four messuages, six tofts, one carucate of land, 30 acres of pasture, 10 acres of wood, and 121. rent.

Cravenhurst in Merrow was held by Elgar de Utterworth (in Cranleigh) in 1285," and Lucia de Say gave I js. a year out of Cravenhurst in Merrow to the Templars. 1 ' The fortunes of Cravenhurst are otherwise unknown.

After the dissolution of the Templars, their lands passed to the Hospitallers. All three manors in Merrow were thus ecclesiastical property, and after the Dissolution they all seem to have been acquired by the Westons of Sutton. Henry VIII granted a lease of the Hospitallers' Manor (TEMPLE COURT) for sixty years to Sir Richard Weston. 15 Queen Mary restored the Hospitallers, and resumed this manor, which she granted to Sir Thomas Tresham, the prior, and the order in 1557." The order was again dissolved on the accession of Elizabeth, and the manor was re-granted to Sir Henry Weston of Sutton in 1559." In 1564 he was granted the Boxgrove manor, 18 and in 1582 he presented to the living. The rectory manor, which had been in the hands of the nuns of Ivinghoe, had therefore come to him probably by purchase from Sir John Daunce 1 * (or Dauncey), for the latter presented to the rectory in 1561 and 1562.* It does not seem quite certain however whether the land M in Merrow belonging to the priory had not already been amalgamated with the rest of the property. At any rate Sir Henry Weston died in 1593 seised of Merrow, Temple Court, and Boxgrove." Sir Richard Weston, his grandson, the famous agriculturist and canalizer of the Wey, recusant and delinquent in the Civil War, sold Temple House, but not the manor, to Sir Richard Onslow in 1642. His son John sold the Boxgrove part to George Duncombe of Weston in Albury (q.v.). It passed through his family to the Steeres and to the Chatfields, finally rejoining the rest in the hands of Lord Onslow."

The church of ST. JOHN THE CHURCH EVANGELIST consists of a chancel 1 8 ft. 5 in. by 1 6 ft., with north and south chapels each 1 9 ft. 5 in. by 14 ft., a nave 40 ft. 3 in. by 19 ft. 10 in., with north and south aisles 1 3 ft. 2 in. wide, and a west tower 1 1 ft. 5 in. square. There is also a north porch.

The church is almost entirely modern, having been rebuilt in 1842 with the exception of the south arcade and the south chapel. There are, however, a few remains of a 1 2th-century building, which have been re-used. Probably the church of this date consisted merely of a chancel and nave, to which were added at the beginning of the 1 3th century a south aisle and

��1 Surr. Arch. Call, xiii, 26.

I Testa tie Nevill (Rec. Com.), 225. Ibid. 'Ibid. 'Ibid. 'Red Bk. ofExch. (Roll Sen), ii, 562. 8 Cott. MS. Claud. A. vi, foL 102.
 * Feet of F. SUIT. 25 Hen. Ill, no. 37.

9 Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 2.

10 Dugdale, M on. iv, 646.

II Suss. Arch. Coll. xv, 20.

��"Cal. Par. 1343-5, p. 534.

"Pipe R. 31 Hen. II.

"Dugdale, Men. vi, 833.

"Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2), bdle. 79, no.

"Pat. 4 & 5 Phil, and Mary, pt. xiv. l ~ Ibid. 2 Eliz. pt. viii.

18 Ibid. 6 Eliz. pt. x.

19 Manning and Bray, op. cit. iii, 60.

358

��'"Winton Epis. Reg. Home, foL zk r 6k.

21 There was land besides the advowson. See above and Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 207.

m Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxxir, 90.

" Manning and Bray, op. cit iii, 60,. 61 ; Frederic Harrison, Annals of an aid Manor House t 121.

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