Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/727

 KINGSTON HUNDRED

��RICHMOND

��Windsor Castle is distinctly visible. This view was frequently threatened, until it was permanently secured to the town by an agreement between the corporation and the trustees of the Earl of Dysart in 1896, by the purchase of the Marble Hill Estate, Twickenham, by the London County Council in igoz, 166 and by Sir Max Waechter's recent gift of the Petersham Ait, or Glover's Islet, to the corporation.

A theatre is said to have existed in Richmond as early as 1 7 1 5.'" Another one called the Old Theatre was built on the slope of the hill in 1 7 1 9 on the site of an old stable for donkeys ; its licence was forfeited in 1756, and ten years later a new theatre was opened on the Green where Garrick House now stands, the prologue for the occasion being written by David Garrick. Edmund Kean acted here in 1817 and took a great fancy to Richmond ; he became the lessee of the theatre in 1831, and took up his residence in the house connected with it. He died and was buried at Richmond in l833. 168 This theatre was pulled down in 1886, and another one built in 1889, but it was not found to pay. A new theatre of varie- ties has been lately erected on the little green adjacent to the large Green. Other means of popular enter- tainment are found in the Terrace Field, 16 * the athletic grounds, swimming baths, the free library, 170 and boat- ing. The common called Pesthouse Common, owing to a pest-house existing here, once extended from the bottom of Queen's Road to the park gates ; but it was granted to the vestry by the Act of 1785, and inclosed for a workhouse and burial ground, except for a small portion that adjoins the lower part of Queen's Road. The pest-house itself was pulled down in 1 787.'"

The Royal Hospi'al, on the outskirts of the Old Deer Park, was opened in 1868 and has been several times enlarged. Part of it was formerly the home of the poet Thomson. The town hall, built between Hill Street and the river on the site of the old Castle Hotel which was given by Sir Whittaker Ellis, bt., then M.P. for the division, was completed in 1893. A footbridge and lock were opened in 1894.

The ecclesiastical parish of St. John the Divine was constituted in 1838, the church having been built in 1826-9, and that of Holy Trinity in 1870 out of the parish of Richmond. The parish of St. Luke was formed in 1890, and that of Christ Church in 1 894, out of Richmond and Mortlake. There is a Roman Catholic church dedicated in honour of St. Elizabeth in a branch road from Hill Rise called the Vineyard, first opened in 1824. At the lower end of Queen's Road is a Roman Catholic Marist convent. A Presbyterian church of England erected in 1885 is situated on the little green ; there are also Congre- gational, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan places of worship (the first built in 1830), and a Free Church.

The Wesleyan Theological Institution was founded in 1844. It is a large and well-appointed building in Bath stone of 1 6th-century style.

In 1725 there was a charity school at Richmond

��for 50 boys and 50 girls, founded in 1713 by Mar- garet Lady Vandeput, wife of Sir Peter Vandeput, kt. 17> In 1786 the minister and churchwardens returned that Lady Capell had left in 1721^11 a year charged on land for the charity school, where in 1786 24 boys and 34 girls were educated. Other benefactions and subscriptions brought the total income up to 2 1 8 6i. ln This was the general school for Richmond, in which, when Brayley wrote, about 1 844, 400 children were educated at fees of I d. a week, and the charity children also clothed as well as educated free. It is now represented by the King's School in Kew (Public Elementary), entirely rebuilt in 1887.

St. Mary's (Parochial) School was built in 1853, the Vineyard (British) School in 1866, Holy Trinity (National) Infants' Schools in 1866, Kew Road (Wesleyan) School in 1 867, Holy Trinity (National) Girls' School in 1867, St. Elizabeth's (Roman Catholic) School in 1870, St. John's (National) School in 1873, Holy Trinity, Prince's Road, (National) Girls' and Infants' School in 1875, rebuilt in 1898, Holy Trinity, Mortlake Road, (National) Boys' School in 1885, and Darrell Road (Council) School was opened in 1906.

Among the place-names that have been found in connexion with the parish are 'blacke Henry,' < Kingslease,' ' the Pray,' ' Cranes Croft,' ' Barbadoes Close,' 'Rachells Peece,' < Lyttle Praise,' 'Create Prayse,' ' Robinhoodes Walke.'

There is no mention of SHEEN, now MANOR known as RICHMOND, in the Domesday Survey, as it was at that time included in the neighbouring manor of Kingston (q.v.), which was held by the king. By the reign of Henry I, however, the manor had acquired a separate existence under the name of Sheen, and was granted by the king to the family of Belet, who held it by the ser- jeanty of butlery. 174 In 1206 Master Michael Belet paid the sum of ,100 for the office of butlership. 1 " He seems to have forfeited his lands, and those in Sheen were granted to Hugh de Nevill in I2I5. 17 ' Michael was evidently restored shortly afterwards, as he granted a virgate and a half of land in the manor of Sheen to Walkelin de Canetone early in the reign of Henry III. 177 At his death the custody of his daughter and heir, with her inheritance in Sheen, was acquired by Wimund de Ralegh. 179 This daughter appears to have been the Maud Belet who died in or before 1229, when her lands devolved on her kinsman John Belet, who paid ten marks for relief in that year. 179 He died in 1 23 1, 180 leaving two daughters, Emma Oliver, and Alice who married John de Vautort a tenant on the manor, 181 and thus the manor of Sheen became divided. In 1253-4 Emma Oliver, or Emma Belet as she is here called, was party to a fine with John de Vautort and Alice his wife as to lands in Sheen and other places which were said to have been the right of John Belet the father of Emma. 181 By 1258 Emma Oliver had become the wife of

��lfp '' London Statures (prepared under the direction of the Parl. Committee of the L.C.C.), ii, 493-4.

"7 Brayley, op. cit. IOI.

168 Bell, op. cit. 71-9. " Granted to the vestrjr in 1786 ; Bell, op. cit. 85.

170 Opened in 1881 ; Burt, op. cit. 49.

WUbid. 7, 15.

��"Willis's Visitation MS. at Farnham. She was daughter of Sir John Buckworth of West Sheen. Sir Peter Vandeput was a merchant of Flemish descent, father of Sir Peter Vandeput, bart.

MParl. Return, 1786.

V* Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), Zl6.

W Rot. de Ohlatii tt F/a.(Rec.Com.), 358.

WRot. Lit. Claui. (Rec. Com.), i, 237.

541

��OT Harl. Chart. 45 H 45.

M Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 227. The text gives ' the daughter and heir of Nicholas Belet.'

V'Exarfta i Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i, 190. *>Ibid. 2 1 8.

"1 Tata di Ntvill (Rec. Com.), 228.

NFeet of F. Div. Co. 38 Hen. Ill, no. 90.

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