Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/599

 ELMBRIDGE HUNDRED

��1678 to 1812, and baptisms from 1682 to 1812, and there is a printed marriages and burials book from 1 754 to 1812.

The church of ST. GEORGE, known locally as Sandy (i.e. Sandon) Chapel, consists of a chancel, nave, north aisle, projecting bay on the south with private pews above a vault, a south vestry, and a shin- gled bell-turret on the west gable.

The chancel and western part of the nave are built of stone ; the rest is in red brick. There is now no evidence of any work earlier than the 1 6th century, and the interior was till 1 909 an interesting example of 18th-century fittings and arrangement.

The windows all have wooden frames, there being three in the chancel and north aisle ; in the south wall of the nave is a pointed window with stone jambs and above the west door is a square light.

Galleries extend round three sides of the church, and at the west end is a second at a higher level. A framed painting of our Lord hangs above the altar against a panelled reredos. There is no chancel arch or division between nave and chancel, and the north aisle is separated from the nave by wooden pillars carrying a beam. The opening to the bay on the south is filled by Corinthian columns and pilasters carrying a pediment cornice ; there are several pews in the bay, two of which have small fireplaces, and steps leading to an external door. There is a small marble font. The church was fitted throughout with box pews, but in 1 909 the decay of the floor necessi- tated their removal, when the floor was relaid. The roof has collars and wind braces, but is partly plastered, and over the nave is pierced with a large skylight.

On a beam at the west end of the chancel are the arms of George II.

There are some late 17th-century and many i8th- century monuments to families of the neighbourhood, as well as several funeral hatchments.

The single bell which now remains is by John Warner & Son, 1799.

There is now no plate belonging to the church.

The church of Esher is not men-

ADVOWSON tioned in Domesday. There was a

church there at the end of the 1 3th

century, when the advowson belonged to the Bishop

of Winchester, 83 and it seems probable that the advow-

��EAST AND WEST MOLESEY

son was purchased with the manor of Esher from the monks of Croix St. Leufroy by Peter, Bishop of Winchester. 84 It was included in the grant of the manor made by the Abbot of Netley to William, Bishop of Winchester, in 12^. K In 1284 the king quitclaimed to the bishop all right to the advowson of Esher. 86 Soon after this the advowson seems to have become separated from the manor and to have been in the hands of the hospital, for in 1535 the rectory of Esher formed part of the possession of the hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr, Southwark. 67 In 1538 the master and brethren conveyed it to the king in exchange for other parsonages, lately monastic property. 88 In 1620 it was granted by James I to Sir Henry Spiller, kt., and others. 69 George Price held the advowson with the manor in I635, 90 and it descended with the manor till 1714," when John Latton vested it in trustees for the benefit of Wadham College, Oxford, to the founder of which he was related," and restored the impropriate tithes of the rectory. Under Latton's gift the patronage was vested in 1726 in Thomas Trevor, 93 and in 1744 in Henry Pye. 9 * These trustees were bound to appoint a kinsman of the founder of Wadham College before any other person, if there were any such of that college and in Holy Orders at the time of the decease of the incumbent of Esher. The college is now patron. Smith's Charity is distributed as in CHARITIES other Surrey parishes. Lady Lynch, widow of Sir Thomas Lynch, gover- nor of Jamaica, who died in i682, 94 gave 100, one third to the clergyman for a sermon annually, 5/. to the clerk, the rest to the poor people ; also 3 \ acres of land for the repair of the church. 96

In 1789 Mr. Nathaniel George Petree left 850 to the rector and churchwardens for the support of the Sunday school, also a library of religious books for the parish and 100, the interest to go to the school- master for acting as librarian and to the poor in bread.

National Schools were fitted up by subscriptions in the disused workhouse in 1837 ; but in 1779 John Winkin left 6 yearly to educate three children, so presumably a school existed then. A new school (National) was built in 1858 and enlarged in 1891. West End Infants School (National) was built in 1879 by Mrs. Bailey of Stoney Hills in memory of her husband.

��EAST AND WEST MOLESEY

��Molesham (xi cent.) ; Mulesey (xiii cent.), Mole- seye (xiv cent.).

The two Moleseys, East and West, are two small parishes, which consisted in 1086 of three manors, all called Molesham. Parochially they first appear as two chapelries, which later became parishes, and now form one urban district under the Act of 1894. West Molesey, 3 J miles west of Kingston, is bounded on the north by the Thames, on the east and south

��by East Molesey, on the west and south by Walton- on Thames, of which it was a chapelry. Its extreme measurements are a mile each way, and it contains 656 acres of land and 81 of water. The parish was agricultural till the recent building of suburban or country houses in the Thames Valley. The soil is the gravel and alluvium of the Thames and Mole valleys ; the latter partly bounds the parish. Dun- stable Common is open ground south of the village,

��88 Cal. Pat. 1272-81, p. 378 ; 1281-92,

P- 5-

84 See above, under manor of Esher.

85 Cal. Pat. 1313-17, p. 676. Chart. R. 12 Edw. I. m. 5.

"7 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 60.

88 Close, 30 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, no. 9.

89 Pat. 1 8 Jas. I, pt. xxi, no. 5.

��90 Feet of F. SUIT. Trin. 1 1 Chas. I. In the following year the rectory wa leased to Michael Hudson for 31 years. Pat. 1 1 Chas. I, pt. i.

91 For references see above, under manor of Esher, and Inst. Bks. P.R.O. 1689 and 1701.

��91 Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr, ii,

752-

98 Inst. Bks. P.R.O. 1726. Afterwards second Baron Trevor.

Ibid. 1744.

94 Monument in church.

94 Willi' Visitation, 1724.

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