Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/681



is of oak, cedar, and olive wood, the last brought from Palestine. The font, of Devonshire marble and mosaic with an oak cover, and the stained east window, were presented by Mr. Thomas Hare and Mrs. Hare of Gosbury Hill. The roofs are tiled.

The church of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST, Kingston Vale, is a small building dating from 1861. It is built of stock and red brick with stone dressings, and consists of a chancel, nave, aisles, organ chamber, vestry, &c., and has a small bell-turret of wood over the east end of the nave.

CHRIST CHURCH, New Maiden, is a stone building, begun in 1866 and finished in 1893. It is in the style of the 13th century, and consists of a chancel, vestries, &c., nave, north and south aisles, and a west baptistery and porches ; arcades of six bays divide the nave from the aisles ; each bay of the north aisle has a transverse gabled roof, while the south aisle has a lean-to roof ; the end bay of the south aisle forms a sort of western transept.

The church of Kingston is said to have been part of the grant made by Gilbert Norman to his foundation of Merton Priory, and in the early 13th century was reported to have been given a long time before that date. The priory certainly had land here in 1177-86, and this may have been the manor of Kingston-Canbury (q.v.), which later was called a 'parcel of the rectory'. In 1231-8 an allowance was made to the vicar, but this was given as a gratuity and not as his right ; an endowment, however, was made in 1303, when among other grants was that of two quarters of wheat, one quarter of barley, and one quarter of oats from the prior's grange of Canbury. The vicar's complaint that the allowance was insufficient reached the bishop, and the dispute was not finally settled until 1375. In the middle of the 14th century the king claimed the patronage during the vacancy following the death of the prior, and established his rights after some litigation. The patronage for the next turn was granted by the prior in 1516 to Jasper Horsey and John and Richard Bowie, citizens of London, and in 1536 an assignment was made to Sir Nicholas Carew and Sir Thomas Cheyney ; Sir Nicholas presented in 1536, but after his attainder in 1538 the advowson, rectory, and Canbury Manor came into the hands of the Crown. The rectory was the subject of various Crown leases, and was bought for £4,000 by Sir John Ramsay in 1618. He was created Baron of Kingston-upon-Thames and Earl of Holderness in 1620, and obtained a grant of the advowson in 1622 ; he married Martha daughter of Sir William Cockayne and died without issue in 1626. The rectory, manor, and advowson then passed, under a settlement, to his wife, who married as her second husband Montague, Lord Willoughby. They assigned the advowson for a term to one Abraham Chamberlayne, merchant, who presented to the living in 1632. On the death of the Countess of Holderness without heirs in 164O, the advowson, rectory, and manor came into the hands of the Crown and were granted to William Murray, created Earl of Dysart in 1643. In the following year he assigned them to the Earl of Elgin in trust for his daughters, who in 1656-7 made a settlement of them, and in 1662 Lord Maynard, husband of one of these daughters, with others, presented to the living. The family of Ramsay had rights in the manor of Canbury, the rectory, and advowson, which Patrick Ramsay and Elizabeth his wife conveyed to the Earl of Elgin in 1652 ; John Ramsay and Alice his wife conveyed them to John Ramsay in 1664 Four years later the right of patronage was in dispute between John Ramsay and Elizabeth, Countess of Dysart, daughter of William Murray. Lady Dysart presented Thomas Willis, whose institution was hindered by a caveat entered by John Ramsay, with the result, as the bailiffs bitterly complained, that they had been ten months without a minister, and that the disaffected assembled at their meetings. The dispute was settled in 1670, when the countess and the other heirs of William Murray quitclaimed their rights to John Ramsay. He sold the manor, rectory, and advowson in 1671 to Nicholas Hardinge. On the death of Dr. Willis in 1692 the right of presentation was again questioned, but Nicholas Hardinge established his claim, and in 1692 presented his cousin Gideon Hardinge, father of Nicholas Hardinge the Latin scholar, who, as clerk of the House of Commons, arranged the Commons' Journals in their present form. This Nicholas inherited the estate from his kinsman of the same name, and lived at Canbury in the early 18th century. He was the father of George Hardinge (1743-1816) the author, the senior justice of Brecon, who had no children, and after making a settlement of the manor, rectory, and advowson in 1781, sold them in 1786 to King's College, Cambridge, the present patrons.

The chapelries of Kew, Sheen, Petersham, East Molesey, and Thames Ditton remained annexed to the church of Kingston until the 18th century ; they were separated by Act of Parliament obtained in 1769.

A chapel of St. Augustine in the parish of Kingston is mentioned in 1422, but its site is not now known.

The bishop of the diocese is the patron of St. Luke's Church, Gibbon Road. The advowson of St. Mark's, Surbiton, is vested in the donors, Messrs.

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 * Cal.S.P. Dom. 1668-9,p.p6 ;G.E.C.Peerage.
 * Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 1652

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