Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/582

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��John Balnet. A dispute concerning the stock, cattle, and stable implements, &c., which belonged to the manor, but which Wykes refused to hand over to the new tenants, terminated in favour of Wykes. 8 In 1550 the manor was leased for thirty years to William Fitz William,' who was afterwards knighted. In 1 569 his widow Joan received a twenty-one years' lease of the lands. 10 She died in 1574." In 1 5 87 James Bond, described as queen's tenant of the manor of Thorpe, received an order to alter a dove-house there." A grant of the site of the manor for thirty years had been made in 1571 to Henry Radecliffe, but in 1596 a further grant for twenty-one years was made to John Hibberd." In 1 6 10 William Minterne received a grant of it." James I granted the manor itself to Henry, Prince* of Wales, and after his death to Sir Francis Bacon and others, in trust for Prince Charles for a term of ninety-nine years. 16 In May 1627 the trustees granted the manor to William Minterne and his heirs for the remainder of the term, and in the following month the king granted the reversion of the manor to Minterne and his heirs for ever. 16 In 1628 the annual rent of ^89 i8/. Qd. due from the manor was apportioned to George Evelyn and others. 17 William Minterne died in 1 627, shortly after the above grant had been made to him. He was also seised of the other manor in Thorpe, known as the manor of Hall Place (q.v.), and the two manors, thus united, became the property of Wolley Leigh, grandson and heir of William Minterne, by his daughter Elizabeth, who had married Sir Francis Leigh. 18 Both manors have remained in this family since that time. 19 The manor descended from father to son until 1737, when Sir John Leigh died, and his children having pre- deceased him, Mary and Anne, his cousins, became his heiresses. The estates were held by them jointly until the passing of an Act of Parliament, 7 Geo. Ill, cap. 7, when a partition was effected, and Thorpe and Hall Place went to the heirs of Mary, who had taken

����LEIGH. Or a fheveron sable 'with three lions argent thereon.

��BENNETT. Gules a be- eant betiuten three denti- tions or.

��the name of Leigh-Bennett, and who died in 1746. Her second son, the Rev. Wolley Leigh-Bennett, succeeded in 1772. Mr. Henry Currie Leigh- Bennett is the present lord of the manor.

��A fishery in water called Le Flete in Thorpe, which had belonged to the abbey, was in the tenure of Henry Foisted after the Dissolution. It was granted with the manor to Sir William Fitz William and afterwards to his widow Joan. 81

In 1303 the Abbot of Chertsey granted to Richard de Graveney of Thorpe and his heirs land in Thorpe described as 'a certain place in Lupinbrok lying between the land of Henry de Middleton called Renebrug and the pasture of Thomas de Sodyngton," for which an annual rent of zi. 8J. was to be paid to the monastery," and in 1 3 3 9 Alice wife of Richard de Graveney held land in Thorpe, including a mill, for her lifetime, with remainder to her children Reginald and Alice and the heirs of Reginald." This may have been the land which was later known as the manor of GRAVENEY, but further trace of this family in Thorpe does not appear, and the manor passed to the family of Thorpe, who were lords of Graveney during the 1 5th century. John Thorpe, son of John Thorpe, left the manor to his daughter Alice, who married Robert Osberne, from whom she was divorced. She afterwards married Flemyng, probably between 1442 and 1456." A lawsuit concern- ing various feoffments of the manor made by Alice Flemyng lasted for many years.* 5 The heiresses of Alice Flemyng were her cousins Maud wife of William Revell, and Ela wife of Robert Blount. They were certainly living as late as 1471, and presumably held the manor after Alice's death. 16 It appears prob- able that the manor passed from these families, by marriage of female heirs, to the families of Wykes and Aughton, as in 1526-7 the manor, then referred to for the first time by the alternative name of HALL PLACE, was conveyed to John Chambers, clerk, and others, by Robert and Margaret Wykes; a quitclaim being made from Robert and Margaret and the heirs of Margaret, from Joan Aughton, a widow, and the heirs of Joan, and from Henry Wykes." John Chambers appears to have purchased the claims of his co-grantees, as a settlement on himself and his heirs was made in I54I. 18 This Dr. John Chambers, who was the king's physician, was also the Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and the Dean of St. Stephen's College, Westminster. In 1543 Sir Anthony Browne and Richard Millis received licence to alienate the manor to the Dean and College of St. Stephen's, Westminster.* 9 The document giving the licence also states that Richard Millis held other lands in Surrey of the Warden and scholars of Merton Col- lege as of their manor of Maiden. Probably Browne and Millis were acting merely as trustees. Chambers had originally bought the manor as his personal property ; the licence to alienate to him, as Dean of St. Stephen's, was apparently granted that he might endow the college, which he enriched in other ways

��8 Ct. of Aug. Proc. (Hen. VIII and Edw. VI), bdle. 12, no. 29.

9 Act! of the P.O. 1549-50, p. 415.

10 Pat 12 Eliz. pt. viii, m. 7.

11 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cljcxv, 5.

18 Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xxxviii, App. I ; Exch. Spec. Com. 2252 (30 Eliz.). 18 Pat. 38 Eliz. pt. iv, m. 14.

14 Ibid. 7 Jas. I, pt. xxiv, no. 6.

15 Exch. L.T.R. Orig. R. 14 Jas. I, pt. iv, rot. 126,

16 Pat. 3 Chas. I, pt. xx, m. 5.

J 7 Ibid. 3 Chas. I, pt. xxxv, m. 4.

18 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccxxxviii,

��125. William Minterne was the son of a Margaret Wolley. Sir Francis Wolley, son of Sir John Wolley, by his will, proved in the Probate Court of Canterbury, Dec. 1609, left his estates in Thorpe, Egham, and Chertsey to his cousin William Min- terne. Margaret Wolley was perhaps Sir John's sister.

" Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 1 3 Chas. I ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App. vii, 14 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxxvii, 10 ; Cat. of Com. for Compounding, 2884 ; Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 2 Anne ; Recov. R. Hil. 2 Anne ; Recov. R. Mich. 31 Geo. III.

438

��20 Surr. Arch. Coll. viii, 124 ; Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. iii, 242.

al Pat. 12 Eliz. pt. viii, m. 7.

M Exch. K..R. Misc. Bks. vol. 25, fol. 246.

98 Feet of F. Surr. 12 Edw. Ill, no. 33.

"Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 15, no. 344.

"Ibid. bdle. 28, no. 511 ; bdle. 44, no. 70. Ibid.

V Recov. R. Mich. 18 Hen. VIII j Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 1 8 Hen. VIII.

88 Feet of F. Div. Co. East. 33 Hen. VIII.

29 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixix, 98.

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