Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/594

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��chapel in 1889, and there is a Quakers' meeting-house. The village hall was built in 1887. The drinking fountain was presented by Her Majesty Queen Victoria in 1877, in place of a public pump given by the late Comte de Paris, which had become unservice- able.

Besides Claremont and Esher Place (see under manor) there are several large houses in Esher : Esher Lodge, built late in the 1 8th century, is the seat of Mr. W. Seymour Eastwood ; Milburn of the Hon. Henry Lorton Burke ; Glenhurst of Lady Emma Talbot ; Moore Place of Mr. C. A. Moreing ; Littleworth, a modern house in a small park, of Mr. P. M. Mar- tineau ; The Grove of Mr. Rhodes H. Cobb ; Hill House, in a small park, of Mr. G. B. Batchelor ; Hawkshill Place, in a park, of Mr. A. W. Drayson. Broom Hill was the residence of the late Sir Robert Hawthorn Collins, K.C.B.

The manor of ESHER (also called MANORS ESHER EPISCOPI) which Tovi had held of Edward the Confessor, was given to the Abbot and convent of Croix St. Leufroy in Normandy by William I,* on condition of rinding two priests to say mass in the said manor for the souls of his predecessors. 4 In the reign of Henry III, before 1238, Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, bought the manor from the monks of Croix St. Leu- froy, 6 and gave it to the Abbot and convent of the Place of St. Edward at Netley in Hampshire.* In 1 245 the Abbot and convent of Netley released the manor to William de Raleigh, Bishop of Winchester, and the church of Winchester, 7 and it remained among the pos- icssions of the see till 1538, when Bishop Gardiner con- veyed it to Henry VIII, who wished to annex it to the honour of Hampton Court. 8 In 1550 Edward VI granted the manor to John, Earl of Warwick, to hold of the king in chief by service of one knight's fee ; ' but a few months later the earl reconveyed it to the king. 10 Queen Mary re- stored the estate to the see of Winchester in the first year of her reign. 11

In 1578 it appears that Charles Lord Howard of Effingham tried to prevail on Bishop Home of Win- chester to grant him a lease in perpetuity of the manor for 20 a year, and by the threat of compass- ing his end by other means if the bishop would not agree, and bribing him further by promising to support his scheme for reviving a school at Farnham, 11 induced him to comply." Lord Howard was acting

���SEE OF WINCHESTER. Gulei St. Peter's keys crossed with St. Paul's {word.

��in the affair for the queen on behalf of Richard Drake Her Majesty's equerry. In February 1582-3 the Crown bought up the lease " and granted the manor to Lord Howard, who evidently transferred the property to Richard Drake, for he died in possession in 1603." His son Francis Drake held it in 1629, and died in i634. 16 He had apparently sold the manor during his lifetime, for in 1635 Sir William Russell, bart., and his wife Dorothy conveyed it to George Price. 17 In 1659 George Price and Margaret his wife quitclaimed the manor to Walter Plomer and his sister Elizabeth, 18 who held a manorial court here in l662, 19 and in 1663, in conjunction with John, son and heir of George Price, they conveyed it to Nicholas Colborne, citizen and vintner of London, in consideration of the sum of 9, 1 04 1 4/. 6J. paid to Sir Walter and his sister, and a competent sum to John Price.' Colborne mortgaged the estate, which in 1677 was purchased by Philip Doughty." He in 1679 s ld Northwood, which, though in the parish of Cobham, was demesne land of the manor of Esher ; and it seems probable that he sold the manor also to Sir T. Lynch, who held it in 1680," and whose daughter Philadelphia married Thomas Cotton. They held the manor jointly, M and sold it to John Latton," from whom it was purchased in 1716-17 by Thomas Pelham, Duke of Newcastle." After the duke's death in 1768 this manor, together with Esher Wateville and the mansion and estate of Claremont, was purchased by Lord Clive, who held the whole property till his death in 1774. ^' was then so ^ to Viscount Galway, who disposed of it to the Earl of Tyrconnel, from whom it was bought in 1807 by Charles Rose Ellis." He in 1 8 1 6 agreed to sell the entire property to the Commissioners of His Majesty's Woods and Forests for 66,000 for the use of Prin- cess Charlotte, and the purchase was ratified by an Act of Parliament.' 63 Subsequently it reverted to the Crown, and the Duchess of Albany is now lady of the manor. Shortly after the time that the manor of Esher was sold to the Duke of Newcastle, the park and manor-house, which had been separated from the manor, were sold by John Latton to Peter Delaporte," one of the directors of the South Sea Company. When in 1721 the South Sea crisis occurred, the estates of the principal directors were seized under the authority of an Act of Parliament, and sold for the benefit of those holders of South Sea stock who had lost their money. This estate was purchased by Dennis Bond in I724,* 8 and resold by him in 1 729 to the Right Honourable Henry Pelham, the well-known statesman." By a will dated 17 Septem- ber 1748 Mr. Pelham devised the estate to Frances, his eldest surviving daughter, for her life. 30 She died unmarried in 1804, and this property passed to her

��. Surr. i, II* Vf

4 Pleat of the Crown, 7 Edw. I. 6 He suppressed the chantry. Chart. R. 24 Hen. Ill, m. 2. 7 Cal. Pat. 1313-17, p. 676.

8 Close, 30 Hen. VIII, pt. i, m. 27 d. 5 B.M. Arun. MS. 97, fol. 48*.

9 Pat. 4 Edw. VI, pt. vii, m. 39.

10 Acts of the P. C. (new er.) iii, II 8.

11 Pat. I Mary, pt ix, m. 1 8. "See V.C.H. Surr. ii, 188.

18 Loseley MSS. ix, 26, 27, 28. 14 Pat, 25 Eliz. pt. xiv, m. 25. 16 Surr. Arch. Coll. viii, 203 j monu- ment in Esher Church.

��u Hiit. MSS. Com. Ref. iv, App. 220.

W Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 1 1 Chas. I.

"Ibid. Hil. 1659.

19 Brayley, Hist, of Surr. ii, 430.

a Recov. R. Trin. 15 Chas. II, rot. 32, (John Price is the vouchee); Close, 15 Chas. II, 20 Mar. 1663.

91 Feet of F. Surr. East. 29 Chas. II.

"From the Ct. R. communicated to Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. ii,

747-

"Recov. R. East 2 Anne, rot 129.

94 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 6 Geo. I. John Latton died 1727 and was buried at Esher.

35 He was residing at Claremont, and

448

��bought the Esher manors under an Act of Parl. 3 Geo. I, cap. 10.

"Manning and Bray,ff<jr. of Surr. 11,743.

" 56 Geo. Ill, cap. 115.

97 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 6 Geo. I.

98 In the deed of transfer it was described as consisting of ' a capital messuage, and lands, a wood, Esher farm, and the war- ren, late in the occupation of John Latton, esq. with the royalty of the River Mole within the extent of the premises, and some small rents issuing out of houses in Esher.' Brayley, Hist, of Surr. ii, 435.

m Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, 214. M Brayley, Hist, of Surr. ii, 436.

�� �