Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/561

 GODLEY HUNDRED

��EGHAM

��is no further mention of a chapel. As, however, it seems to have been dedicated in honour of St. Lawrence, it may probably be identified with the present church of St. Lawrence, in which case the church was pre- sumably Bisley Church (q.v.).

The church of St. Lawrence remained in the hands of the monks until the surrender of the abbey in 1537-" A vicarage was ordained there in 1330 by Abbot John de Rutherwyk, and was augmented in l-fzj. 68 Among the pensions due to the abbot and convent was an annual one of I os. and 6 Ib. of wax, which was paid by Chobham vicarage. 69 This pen- sion, previously amounting to 2Os. and 6 Ib. of wax, had been reduced in 1230.' In 1537 the church, with the rectory and advowson, were surrendered to the Crown by John Cordrey, Abbot of Chertsey. 71 Later in the same year a grant of the rectory was made to the new foundation at Bisham." The grant must have included the advowson of the church, as in 1538 the abbot received licence to alienate both from the monastery to Sir Thomas Pope, treasurer of the Court of Augmentations. He, in his turn, alienated them to the Dean and Chapter of the cathedral church of St. Paul, London, who held them, by the service of one knight's fee, to the use of the chaplains of two chantries in the church of St. Paul." At the suppression of the chantries the rectory and advowson returned to the Crown ; an effort made by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's in 1587 to recover them proved ineffectual," as they remained in the Crown until 1620. A grant of the rectory alone had been made to William James in 1551 for twenty-one years, reversion being granted in 1564. to William Haber and Richard Durfield, from whom it passed imme- diately to Owen Bray of Aden in Chobham, who died

��in 1568 possessed of it. 78 His grandson was Owen Bray, who conveyed it in 1 638 to Sir Thomas White," from whom it descended to the Woodroffes. 7 ' The latter conveyed it to Elizabeth and Philip Beauchamp in 1687." After this date the rectorial tithes appear to have been divided. Sir Anthony Thomas Abdy of Chobham Place purchased a part of the great tithes of Anthony Beauchamp before \jj^. w The present impropriators are Sir Neville Abdy and Sir Henry le Marchant, the owner of Chobham Place.

In 1620 the advowson was granted with the manor to Sir Edward Zouch, 81 and it remained in the posses- sion of the lord of the manor until 1 752,*' when some of the Onslow property was sold, including the advow- sons of Chobham and Bisley. They passed together for a time ** (see Bisley), Henry Forster presenting in 1800, and the Thornton family in 1810 and I833- 84 The vicarage is now in the gift of the Rev. W. Tringham.

Valley End was formed into an ecclesiastical parish separate from Chobham and Windlesham in 1868. The living is in the gift of the Bishop of Winchester.

West End became a parish in 1895. The vicarage is in the gift of Miss Tringham.

The older charities include Smith's, CHARITIES distributed as in other Surrey parishes. In 1721 Gainsford Thomas of Chobham Place left by will a charge on land of 4 a year for the poor, and for teaching a child or child- ren to read and write and keep accounts, and also three cottages for the poor. These do not, however, now exist.

In 1722 Mrs. Mary Hope left $ a year for teach- ing girls, and 10 guineas a year charged on land for the poor.

��EGHAM

��Egeham (xi cent.).

Egham is a small town near the Thames, 5 miles from Windsor and 4 miles north-west of Chertsey. The parish is bounded on the north-east by the Thames, on the south-east by Thorpe and Chertsey, on the south-west by Chobham, on the north-west by Berkshire. It measures about 5 miles from south- west to north-east, and about 3 miles from north-west to south-east. It contains 7,624 acres of land and 162 of water. It is divided into four tithings, the Town Tithing in the northern part of the parish, Strode in the southern part, the Hythe in the north-eastern part along the Thames, Englefield, the western part. The soil is Bagshot sand with the gravel and alluvium of the Thames Valley. The Bagshot sand rises into considerable eminences, of which by far the most famous is Coopers Hill, remarkable not for its actual height but for its position above the Thames Valley, affording views from Windsor

��to London, and celebrated by Sir John Denham, a native of Egham, in his well-known poem, which was written on the spot just before the Civil War and published in 1643.

The old south-western road from London came across Staines Bridge and through Egham parish, and the place was important for inns in coaching days ; notorious also for the robberies committed on the road, so that according to Aubrey Egham had paid more in compensation for robberies than any other parish in England.

The Reading and Wokingham branch of the London and South Western Railway, opened in 1856, has stations at Egham and Virginia Water. The line from Woking to Egham was begun in 1 88 1.

The Thames Valley and the less barren stream beds in the Bagshot sand were inhabited in early times. A polished stone celt has been found near Egham, and a bronze spear-head in the Thames

��6 " Ibid. fol. 25 ; Cott. MS. Vitell. A. xiii ; Col. of Papal Litters, i, 6 ; Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 56.

8 Exch. K.R. Misc. Bks. voL 25, fol.

45. 4-

69 Ibid. vol. 25, fol. 32, 44 ; Pope Nich. Tax (Rec. Com.), 208.

70 Exch. K..R. Misc. Bks.voL 25,^1.44*.

71 Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 29 Hen. VIII.

��7J L. and P. Hen. nil, xii (2), p. 469. 78 Pat. 29 Hen. VIII, pt. v, m. 26 ; Feet of F. Surr. East 30 Hen. VIII. 74 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 55*.

76 Pat. 7 Eliz. pt. ii, m. 15.

78 Will proved Nov. 1568 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxlviii, 22.

77 Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 13 Chas. I.

78 Manning and Bray, Hiit. of Surr. iii, 195.

419

��Recov. R. Mich. 3 Jas. II.

MP.C.C. 126 Alexander (will of Sir Ant. Abdy).

81 Pat 1 8 Jas. I, pt. vi, m. I.

"Feet of F. Div. Co. Hil. 16 & 17 Cha. II ; Inst. Bks. P.R.O.

88 Pat. 33 Chas. II, pt. ix, no. 6, m. 22-3 ; Pat. 22 Geo. II, pt. iii, no. 14 j Close, 26 Geo. II, pt. iii, m. 9.

" Inst. Bks. P.R.O.

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