Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/638

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��KEW

��Kayhor (xiv cent.) ; Kayo (xv cent.) ; Keyowe, Kaiho, Kayhoo, Cewe (xvi cent.) ; Ceu (xvii cent.)

The parish of Kew lies on the Surrey bank of the Thames and is about 346^ acres in extent, the greater part being occupied by Kew Gardens. Kew formerly lay ia the parish of Kingston, from which it was not separated until 1/69,' so that there are very few early references to it. At the begining of the 1 6th century it began to have a separate history, when the presence of the Court at Richmond caused courtiers to settle in the neighbourhood. Mary Tudor, in her father's reign, had an establishment there. In 1522 amongst her household expenses is entered the drive from Kew to Richmond.? Some years later Sir W. Paulet wrote to Cromwell that Mary's household was to be removed to Kew after the king had left Rich- mond, 1 and in 1537 a yeoman cook serving the Lady Mary was accused of robbery, and was said to be at Kew, ' where the Lady Mary lies.' * Sir John Dudley the on of Elizabeth, Baroness Lisle, lady of the manor of Kingston Lisle i in Berkshire, had an estate at Kew. 6 Henry Morris, Esquire to the Body, who was involved in the accusations against Anne Boleyn,' also had a house there, 8 and after his execution in 1536 an inventory was taken of ' his wardrobe stuff/ in- cluding hangings, feather beds, &c., some of which came from Kew.' In Cromwell's remembrances, after a note to remind him ' that all Mr. Morris's patents be searched out," there is another entry to the effect that he should call upon Sir Edward Seymour concerning ' the evidence of the house at Kew for my Lady Seymour.' " This was probably Morris's house, and the same that was then confirmed to Sir Edward Seymour," who was in that year created Viscount Beauchamp of Hatch," and who afterwards became Duke of Somerset. 13 In 1537, however, Cromwell informed Rowland Lee, Bishop of Coventry and Lichncld, that he was to give up his house in the Strand to Lord Beauchamp in exchange for the latter's house at Kew," and in spite of Lee's protests the ex- change was effected. 15 Another house there belonged to Charles Somerset, first Earl of Worcester, who was granted lands at Kew in 1 5 1 7." At his death in 1526 he left his estates at Kew and the tapestry in several rooms there to his third wife, Eleanor, with remainder to his son George." Sir George Somerset sold the house to Thomas Cromwell in 1538 for 200," and Cromwell conveyed it for the same sum to Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk," who had probably already inhabited Kew during the life of his wife Mary, the daughter of Henry VII and widow of Louis XII.

��According to Leland's ' Cygnea Cantio," Kew was her dwelling-house for a time after her return to England."

In Elizabeth's reign Sir John Pickering, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, obtained certain lands in fee farm and had a house at Kew, 21 and on one occasion the queen dined with him there. The entertainment was described as ' great and exceeding costly.' The queen was met at different points ' after her first lighting ' and offered rare gifts, amongst them a fan set with diamonds ; while after dinner besides a pair of virginals, ' a gown and juppin ' were presented to her in her bedchamber." A paper entitled ' Remembrances for furniture at Kew and elsewhere for entertainment,' is identified by Lysons as written by Sir John Pickering. It consists of notes of ' things to be remembered ' should the queen visit him, and deals chiefly with the accommodation for the queen and her ladies, their 'dyett,' and the rewards to be offered to her attendants." Elizabeth, daughter of James I, was given an establishment at Kew in 1608," and John, Lord Harrington, in whose charge she had been till then, was given the chief post in her household." In the following year, he wrote from there to the Lord Treasurer that he could not personally bring the book of accounts, as ' the Prince ' ** often called for Elizabeth to ride with him, and Harrington was consequently in constant attendance." A number of other people of note have dwelt at Kew at various times, amongst them Sir John Hele, who was made serjeant-at-law to succeed Sir John Pickering, 18 Sir Roger Manley, cavalier, who died 1688," Sir Peter Lely,* James Thomson, author of 'The Seasons,' 31 Thomas Gains- borough, who was buried in the church," and Stephen Duck, the farm labourer who became a poet and rector of Byfleet. During the French Revolution, the English Court being then frequently at Kew, many refugees established themselves there."

Three different buildings have at various times gone by the name of Kew Palace : the one that is now standing ; the house that was opposite to it until the beginning of the igth century ; and a huge embattled castle which was planned by George III, and of which a large part was built after plans by Wyatt, but never completed." The history of the other two palaces is difficult to trace with accuracy. The palace that was pulled down in 1802, and which was then a large house of plain exterior, was the more important of the two, and probably was on the site of the capital messuage

��1 Private Act, 9 Gco. Ill, cap. 65. L. and P. Hen. nil, iii, 3375, p. 14.07.


 * Ibid, xi, 1291.


 * Ibid, xii (i), 661.


 * G.E.C. Peerage, under Lisle.

Add. MS. 4.075, t'ol. 114 j L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii (i), 696 ; xvii, 120 (50).

7 Diet. Nat. Biog.

L. and P. Hen. fill, x, 878.

Ibid. 794. l Ibid. 871. Ibid. 1087 (9).

" G.E.C. Peerage. Ibid.

��" L. and P. Hen. Vlll. xii (i), 806, 821.

" Diet. Nat. Biog. s.v. Roland Lee or Legh.

" L. and P. Hen. VUl, ii, 3769.

" P.C.C. 13 Porch.

18 L. and P. Hen. PHI, xiv (i), 336 5 Harl. Chart. 49, A 46.

" Ibid. ; L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (2), 782.

20 Leland, Itin. ix, 12.

81 Diet. Nat. Biog.

w Sidney State Pafen (ed. Collins), i, 376.

482

��88 Harl. MS. 6850, fol. 91, 92.

84 Diet. Nat. Biog.


 * Ibid.

26 Her brother, Prince Henry.

W Cal. S.P. Dom. 1603-10, p. 552.

88 Ibid. 1601-3, P- *7 i Diet. Nat. Biog.

89 Diet. Nat. Biog.

80 Ibid.

81 Ibid.

88 Ibid. See Phillips, A Morning Walk from London to K.eiu.

83 Frederick Scheer, Keta and its Gar- dens, 1 8.

84 Journ. of Ke-w Guild (1906), 297.

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