A HISTORY OF SURREY
��land, 20 acres of meadow, a weir, a water-mill, I Of. rent, and five gardens in Kingston of the king as of his borough there.'" Sir Thomas left his lands here to his daughter Cecily until marriage, and in 1533 she, as Cecily Sympson, widow, conveyed rights of free fishing to Christopher More and others. 43 ' Henry Milborne was in possession of the weir in 1503, when he paid 6J. from it to the lamps of the church ; m he died without issue in 1519, leaving a widow Mar- garet, afterwards the wife of Roger Yorke, serjeant-at- law. 4 " In 1538 she conveyed to Edward Marvyn and Robert Tederley two parts of this ' manor ' and those of Esher-Watevill, and Hetchesham, 441 which she held apparently under settlement. Later the manor came into the hands of the corporation, who ordered a court baron to beheld for it in 1583,"' and must have exercised other manorial rights, for in 1 684 ' several tenants of the manor of Milborne com- plain that Richard Lee and John Gunner (being tenants of the manor) have since 2 5 March last cut ten loads of turf on the common of the manor, also two others have carried away three loads without licence of the lords of the manor.' 44S
N ORB 1 TON HALL was reputed a manor from the 1 6th century. It seems to have been granted by Maurice de Creon to Robert Burnell in 127I-2. 444 In 1503 Master Anthony Forde paid a rent of \d. to the lamps of Kingston Church for a tenement in Norbiton which had belonged to William Long ; 44S the churchwarden received 2s. 4^'/., in 15 04 'for wast of torches at ye derge and ij massys yt was made for ye beryeng of anthony forde.' 446 Erasmus Forde, prob- ably his son, was well known in the town and signed the protest respecting mortuaries made in 1509.*" He complained in 1532 that 'a taker of timber and board for Hampton Court " like an Hemprour enters into my ground bordered about with elms, the chief pleasure of all my house," and without his master's sanction " has dug up by the roots thirty-five of my purest and fairest elms." ' 44S Erasmus was followed by Edmund Forde, who with Joan his wife in 1547 sold the ' manor ' of Norbiton Hall to Richard Taver- ner, 449 the well-known editor of Taverner's Bible. 450 Richard Taverner died in 1575; by his will he bequeathed two-thirds of his lands equally to his sons Peter and Edmund, 441 but Norbiton Hall descended to his eldest son Richard, who, with Eleanor his wife, conveyed it to George Evelyn in 1584,"' the sale being completed in I588. 441 George Evelyn died seised of it in 1603. In 1605 John and George Evelyn and their wives resold it to Sir Anthony Benn ; 4M he died in 1618 in possession of a messuage with appurtenances called ' Popes ' and land belong- ing, containing 20 acres at Norbiton, all held of the bailiffs of Kingston. 454 Probably the messuage called
��' Popes ' was not Norbiton Hall, for Sir Anthony's son and heir Charles Benn was but eight years old at his father's death, and Lady Benn had a house in Kingston, which in 1626 had been taken for the French Ambassador. 446 Norbiton Hall was certainly in the hands of Roger Wood on his death in 1623, when it was described as a ' manor, grange, and capi- tal messuage.' 447 This Roger Wood, son of one Roger Wood late of Islington, was succeeded by Robert his son, an infant two years old. 448 Robert Wood was returned a knight of the shire for Surrey in 1654, but ' divers well-affected persons ' alleged to the Council that he was illegally chosen, ' a derider of the people of God, a profane swearer, and of bad life, an enemy to his Highness and the army and had sided with the Cavaliers. ' "' A counter-petition declared that he had been one of the militia com- missioners in 1651, had sent a man and horse to Worcester, and so far from opposing godly ministers ' improved his power to countenance them.' 46 His land was inherited by his daughter Ann, wife of Sir John Rous ; they were in possession in 1662, but it was in the hands of the Reeves family in the following year. 461 They retained it until 1 744, when it was sold to one Greenly ; it was sold again in 1788 to a Mr. Twopenny, who disposed of it soon afterwards to William Farren the actor. 461 The house, which must have been rebuilt about this time, 46 * remained in his hands until 1 794, when he sold it to a Mr. Lin- tall ; he resold it in 1 799 to General Gabriel John- son. 464 Early in the 19th-century it appears to have come into the hands of Mrs. Dennis, who gave it to her daughter the wife of C. N. Pallmer, M.P. for Surrey in 1828, and a West Indian merchant. 4 * 6 Mr. Pallmer sold it in 1829 to the Dowager Coun- tess of Liverpool, who resided here with Mr. R. H. Jenkinson, nephew of the first Earl of Liverpool. 46 * It is now occupied by the White Rose Laundry. The handsome grounds set with cedars, and the arms of the Evelyns on the lodge still remain.
It is not always easy to disentangle the history of this house from that of another, equally called Norbi- ton Hall, though also, and more correctly, known as Norbiton Place. Both houses, Norbiton Hall and Norbiton Place, wen comparatively modern. A house called Norbiton Place was sold by one Nichols to Sir John Phillips, who died in 1 "j6\. w> His son Richard was raised to the peerage as Baron Milfbrd in 1776 and sold the house to a Mr. Sherer, a Lon- don wine merchant. 468 He sold some of the property to Mrs. Dennis, 469 the owner of Norbiton Hall, who gave it to her son-in-law Hugh Ingoldsby Massey. 470 Mrs. Massey afterwards became the wife of Mr. Pallmer of Norbiton Hall, who built Norbiton Place, and they resided here. A great part of the house
��*' Surr. Arch. Coll. viii, 156*, (. 488 Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 25 Hen. VIII.
4M Srr. vtfrM. Co//, viii, 72.
i Recov. R. Mich. 30 Hen. VIII, rot. 435 ; East. 31 Hen. VIII, rot. 334. 444 Ct. of Assembly Bk. 7 June 1683. 448 Ibid. 5 June 1684. 444 Chart. R. 56 Hen. Ill, m. 4. 444 Surr. Arch. Coll. viii, 72. 446 Ibid. 76. 7 Ibid. 36.
448 L. and P. Hen. mi, v, 1728.
449 Feet, of F. Surr. East. I Edw. VI. <" Diet. Nat. Biog.
��451 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), clxxv, 92.
Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 26 & 27 Eliz.
4s Ibid. Mich. 30 & 31 Eliz.
4 Ibid. Mil. 2 Jas. I.
455 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccclxxx, Iio. He was recorder of Kingston and, at his death, of London ; his monument is in Kingston Church.
4M Cal. S.P. Dam. 1625-6, p. 568.
4S ' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cccclxxiii, 30.
4M Ibid.
458 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1654, p. 314.
Ibid.
4(1 Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 339.
504
��a Ibid.
168 Anderson, Hist, and Antiq. of Kingi- ttn-upon-Thamtl.
414 Brayley, Surr. iii, 57 ; Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 349.
' Surr. Arch. Call, vii, p. xliii.
468 Brayley, Surr. iii, 57.
- " Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, p. xliii.
Ibii
- But, according to Allen (Hia. of Surr.
and Suss, ii, 354), continued to live in what had been Sir John Phillips' houte after Mrs. Dennis had bought the houst then called Norbiton Hall.
4 ~ Manning and Bray Surr. i, 349.
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