Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/537

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��BYFLEET

��to hold for life without rent, he having ' become the king's vassal and done homage.' sl The duke after- wards granted the manor and park to Roger Walden, Dean of York and Treasurer of England, and John Walden his brother, for their lives, on condition that he, the duke, might lodge there with his household whenever he should come there. Richard's grants were annulled by Parliament in 1399, and Byfleet was granted to Henry the son of the king." Roger and John Walden surrendered their estate in the manor for jioo to Sir Francis Court, who was a trusted friend of Prince Henry, and Joan his wife. Both Walden and Court entered the premises without the king's licence, for which offence they were pardoned in 1401, Sir Francis and his wife receiving a con- firmation of the grant to hold the manor for life, all fees, advowsons, wards, marriages, reliefs, escheats, franchises, liberties, warrens, reversions, &c., being included. 18 Sir Francis Court presented to the church during the time he held the manor."

Byfleet continued to be granted by the Kings of England to their eldest sons until the time of Henry VIII. 18 The last-named king is said to have spent much of his boyhood at Byfleet." As king, he granted the manor in 1533 to Katharine of Aragon, whom he had divorced in that year, 80 she being styled Princess Dowager of Wales. Sir Anthony Browne was at this time keeper of the manor."

In 1537, when the monastery of Chertsey sur- rendered to the Crown,* 2 the deed of surrender in- cluded among the manors belonging to the abbey that of Byfleet. This cannot refer to the manor, which was already in the king's hands. Certain rents, however, had remained due to the monastery when the manor passed to the Crown in the I4th century, since mention of ' assize rents in Byflete ' occurs in the accounts of the surrendered abbey in I538. 33 It was possibly those due from certain lands in Byfleet which were surrendered to the Crown as the manor of Byfleet in 1537, although there may have been some reminiscence of the overlordship which the abbey had undoubtedly held even when the manor was in royal hands. 34 It is also certain that several lands and tenements referred to in the above- mentioned deed of surrender as ' manors ' did not really occupy that standing. 15

At the erection of the king's manor of Hampton Court into an honour in 1539 Byfleet was included in the possessions allotted to it. 36 Queen Elizabeth visited Byfleet in 1576.'' James I granted the manor to Henry, Prince of Wales, and, after his son's death, to Anne of Denmark, his consort. 38 In 1617 the re- version of the manor, after her death, was granted to Sir Francis Bacon and others, for the term of ninety- nine years, in trust for Charles Prince of Wales." During the Commonwealth the manor and park of

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���Byfleet were sold as Crown lands to Thomas Hammond. 40

After the Restoration Byfleet, again in the Crown, seems to have been held by Queen Henrietta Maria until her death in 1669."

In 1672 the lands were granted to Lord Hollis and others to hold in trust for Queen Catherine of Braganza for her life, and afterwards for Charles II and his heirs." In 1694 Sir John Buckworth was accused, as lord of the manor of Byfleet, of neglect in repairing a bridge over the Wey within the said manor. It was found, however, that he was not re- sponsible for such repair, as he was only a ' termer for years ' in the manor under a ' lease made by the late queen mother's trustees.' 43 There is very little trace of the manor after this time. According to Manning, Byfleet was usually let to owners of Oat- lands, and in 1 804 Frederick, Duke of York, then own- ing Oatlands, purchased Byfleet with Walton and Wey- bridge, by Act of Parliament." The estate passed at the death of the Duke of York to E. Ball- Hughes, who in 1829 sold a considerable portion of the land to Loid King, whose younger son, the Hon. P. J. Locke King, inherited the land so purchased in 1833. Mr. Hughes, however, remained lord of the manor of Byfleet until after 1841." At the present time Mr. H. F. Locke King is one of the principal landowners at Byfleet ; Mrs.

Rutson owns the Manor House, bought in 1891; and Messrs Paine & Brettell, solicitors, of Chertsey, are owners of the manor.

The grant of the manor made to John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, in 1330 was supplemented by a further grant of all corn whether sown or for seed, livery of servants, plough-cattle and cart-horses, which had been in the manor when it was granted to him." Free warren was granted with the manor to the Prince of Wales in 1337," and was included in later grants to the king's eldest son.

In the Domesday Survey mention is made of a mill at Byfleet worth 5/., and of ij fisheries worth 325 eels. 48 Geoffrey de Lucy, who held under the abbey in 1284, owned both the mill and fisheries, as in an account of his property made in that year the site of the mill was valued at 1 8s., the miller's rent was 1 2</., and the value of the fisheries 3/. 49 Perquisites of the court were also his. 60 In 1279 he claimed assize of bread and ale in his manor," and in 1284 he was in receipt of a toll of brewers called le Schench." Mills known as the King's Mills at

��KING. Sable thrtt spearheads argent viith draft of thud and a chief or ivith three battle- axes azure therein.

��M Cal. Pat. 1391-6, p. 315.

85 Rymer, Foedcra, viii, 93.


 * Cal. Pat. 1401-5, p. 30.

v Egerton MS. 2033.

" Parl. R. (Rec. Com.), iii, 668 ; Close, i Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 27 ; Parl. R. (Rec. Com.), v, 357 ; vi, 13 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxii, 32.

" Aubrey, Nat. Hitt. and Antiq. of Surr. iii.

80 Star, of the Realm, iii, 485.

il Mint. Accts. of Crown lands, Div. Co. 28-9 Hen. VIII, rot. 53, m. I.

��M Feet of F. Div. Co. Trio. 29 Hen. VIII.

"Mins. Accti. Surr. 29-30 Hen. VIII, rot. 1 1 5, m. 36.

M FeuJ. Aids, vi, 123; Rentals and Surv. (P.R.O.), bdle. 623.

fi Chart. R. II Edw. Ill, no. 28.


 * V.C.Il. Surr. i, 310.

4 *Inq. p.m. 12 Edw. I, no. 16.

40 Cal. Inq. p.m. ii, 3 1 3, 3 14.

u flat, de Qua Warr. (Rec. Com.), 743.


 * a See note 50.

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