GODLEY HUNDRED
In 1325 a coroner was granted to Godley Hundred, owing to the difficulty which the abbot and convent had hitherto experienced in dealing with the prisoners at Chertsey gaol (q.v.). 11
When the abbey was dissolved in 1537 the hundred passed to the Crown. 12 James I granted it in 1609 to George Salter and John Williams, who conveyed it in the same year to William Garweye. 13 Two years later it passed from Garweye to John Hammond, 14 to whom the site of the abbey (q.v.) had previously been granted. Profits of the hundred court and com- mon fines within the hundred were included in the grant thus made. From John Hammond the hundred passed to his son Robert, who in 1620 conveyed it to Prince Charles. 14 Charles as king granted it to Queen Henrietta Maria, with reversion to the Crown, for ninety-nine years. 18 It was sold during the Com- monwealth as the 'hundred alias the half-hundred of Godley,' to John Blackwell. 17
In 1672 the hundred, for the remainder of the term of ninety-nine years granted by Charles I, was granted to Queen Catherine, consort of Charles II, for her life, with reversion to the Crown. 18 The hundred was still in the Crown in the early igth century," but was probably sold together with all the land at Chertsey which be- longed to the Crown, in i827. 20 The hundred court of Godley was always held at Hardwick in Chertsey from the time of the Abbots of Chertsey until as late as 1827." Manning states that in his time this hundred court was still held, as it always had been, on Whit-Tuesday at Hardwick ; constables, tithing-men, and ale-tasters were chosen for the various parishes, the occasion giving rise to a gathering popularly known as Hardwick Fair. After 1827 and as late as 1841 this court leet was held at the Swan Inn at Chertsey. 32 It has not now been held for at least eighteen years.
11 Cott. MS. Vitell. A. xiii, fol. i 2 i . " Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 29 Hen. VIII.
11 Pat. 7 Jas. I, pt. xvi, m. i ; Close, 7 Jas. I, pt. xxix. " Close, 9 Jas. I, pt. ii, m. 8.
14 Com. Pleas D. Enr. Hil. 17 Jas. I, m. 32. " Pat. 5 Chas. I, pt. xv ; Ct. R. (P.R.O.), bdle. 204, nos. 47, 53.
17 Close, 1652, pt. xlvi, no. 12. 19 Pat. 24 Chas. II, pt. ix, m. I.
" Manning and Bray, Hist. ofSurr. iii, 220. M E. W. Brayley, Tofog. Hist. f. Stirr. ii, 189.
11 Manning and Bray, Hiit. ofSurr. iii, 220 (quoting from a Ct. R. of 1446 in possession of Le Neve) ; Ct. R. (P.R.O.), bdle. 204, no. 53.
" E. W. Brayley, Tofog. Hiit. ofSurr. ii, 189.
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