REIGATE HUNDRED
��MERSTHAM
��Council for an asylum; the quit-rent of in. id. recorded in 1522 was enfranchised from the present lord by the council.
A school (national) was established in 1 849. A School Board was elected in 1889, which took over and enlarged the National School. The present building was erected in 1898.
South Merstham is an ecclesiastical parish made in 1898 out of Merstham parish and a portion of Gatton. The church (All Saints) was built that year. It is of brick in 13th-century style, and when completed will include chancel, nave, transepts, and spire. The chancel and transepts and one bay of the nave are completed at present. The basin of the font is a Tridacna Gigas shell brought from the Philippine Islands by Mr. William Willox. Battle Bridge is in the part of Gatton transferred to Merstham and included in this district.
A rental of Merstham of 1522,' and a map in Lord Hylton's possession, of 1 760, show that the parish was much subdivided into small holdings in open fields ibout Ashted Hill and also elsewhere. About Worstead Green were many cottages which have disappeared. Townend Meads are marked in the Ordnance map west of the village. Towney Meads seems to be their usual name, but the rental of 1522 calls them Town- man Meads ; obviously the meadows of the villani. Both ' Common Fields ' and Cotman Mead,' with several 'shots' in each, appear in the 1522 rental.
There is no Inclosure Act, but William Jolliffe, who bought the manor in 1788 and died in 1802, con- solidated the holdings in large farms as leases fell in ; a process completed after his premature death caused by an accident. 10
The earliest mention ofMERSTHJM MANORS (Mearsdethan, x cent. ; Mersthan, Domesday Survey ; Mesham, xiii cent, and later) occurs in 675, when Frithwald, tub- regultu of Surrey, and Erkenwald, Bishop of London, granted 20 hides there to the abbey of Chertsey. 11 In 947 20 hides were bestowed by Eadred upon Oswig his minister," while the grant to Chertsey was confirmed in 967 by Edgar, and again in 1062 by Edward." Some of this property came ultimately into the possession of the abbey of Christchurch, Canterbury. According to Dugdale, who prints a charter to that effect, the manor was granted to the monastery byAthelstan, more usually known as Lifing, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1018." At the time of Domesday Survey it was held by the archbishop for the clothing of the monks, 15 and after the separa- tion of the lands of the archbishop from those of Christchurch, 16 it remained part of the abbey estate until the beginning of the i6th century. 17 In 1539 Thomas, Prior of Christchurch, surrendered Merstham Manor to Henry VIII, who granted it to Sir Robert
��Southwell, Master of the Rolls, and Margaret his wife, in exchange for the rectory of Warnham in Sussex, which the king then bestowed upon the abbey in fee. 18 Sir Robert died before his wife, who married William Plumbe and held the manor jointly with her second husband for the term of her life. 19 In 1569 her two sons Francis and Robert Southwell alienated the reversion to Thomas Copley, 10 who apparently entered into immediate occupation of the house, for a com- plaint was raised by William Rychebell to the effect that Copley had turned him out, seized his household goods, and spoiled his crops. Rychebell, who had married Alice, the eldest daughter of Christopher Best," pleaded that the estate, excepting the courts leet and rents of assize, had been let to his father-in- law for a term of fifty years, and that he himself now held the lease ' by good law.' " The result of his petition does not appear. In 1 5 84 Thomas Copley died in Flanders seised of the reversion, bequeathing it to his wife Katherine for her life. 13 In 1 604 William Copley, son of Thomas, conveyed the property to Nicholas Jordan and John Middleton."
Two years later the manor was sold by these to John Hedge,' 5 who settled it upon his son Anthony 1 6 December 1619. John Hedge died in the following January, and a few months later the manor was re-settled by trustees upon Anthony on his mar- riage with Margaret Fountayne.* 8 In 1 650, Merstham was held by another John Hedge, presumably his son." By 1673-4 the manor was divided between two co- heiresses, Jane the wife of Henry Hoare and Mirabella the wife of John Gainsford, junior, 18 and as Jane was daughter and co-heiress of John Hedge* 9 it seems probable that Mirabella was her sister. John and Nicholas Gainsford sold Merstham 30 May 1678 to Sir John Southcote,* who died seised of property in Merstham in 1685. He left everything to his wife Elizabeth,* 1 who died in the following year and was succeeded by her eldest son Edward." A partition was made between Sir Edward Southcote and Henry Hoare in 1705, by which the manor and some of the lands were ceded to the former, and the remainder of the property was retained by Hoare." The manor was first mortgaged in two moieties, and then sold in successive portions to Paul Docminique and to his son Charles, 84 who died without children in 1745, his cousin Paul Humphrey inheriting the property. Paul Humphrey also died without issue, and the manor passed into the possession of his sister Rachel and her husband John Tattersall. 85 They too left no chil- dren, and the estate devolved upon John's brother the Rev. James Tattersall, who, dying in 1784, left the estates for sale. 8 * They were purchased in 1788 from trustees by William Jolliffe, who was succeeded in 1 802 by his son Hylton. Hylton Jolliffe died without issue in 1843. His nephew Sir W. G. H. Jolliffe, bart.,"
��' Communicated by Lord Hylton to the Surr. Arch. Soc. Trant. xx.
10 Surr. Arch. Coll. loc. cit. j Manning and Bray, op. cit. ii, 252.
11 Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 64 ; Kemble, Cod. Difl. v, 19.
" Ibid, ii, 27 ; Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 584. 18 Kemble, Cad. Difl. iii, 6 ; iv, 151. 14 Dugdale, Mem. i, 97. ls r.C.H. Surr. i, 300. 18 Somner, Antiq. of Cant. 122. W Bibl. Cott Galba E. iv, foL 33, Ac, 18 L. and P. Hen. Ylll, xiv (i), 1286 ; (2), g. 113 (21); XT, g. 282 (84).
��18 Pat. 10 Eliz. pt, vi, m. 40. Ibid.; Chan. Inq. p.m.(Ser.2),ccx,g;. u P.C.C. 6 Streat,
" Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2),bdle. 28, no. 13. 83 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccx, 85 ; Pat. 3 1 Eliz. pt. xiv, m. 20.
- Feet of F. Surr. Hil. I Jas I. The
Copleys were recusants, paying heavy compositions, and gradually forced to sell lands.
- Close, 4 Jas. I, pt, i ; Pat. 4 Jas I, pt,
xii.
- Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccUxxvi,
117.
2IS
��*> Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 1650.
88 Ibid. East 25 Chas. II ; Mich. 29 Chas. II ; Hil. 29 & 30 Chas. II ; Hil. 2 Will, and Mary.
M Ct. R. in Lord Hylton's hands.
80 Deeds in Lord Hylton's hands.
81 P.C.C. 77 Cann. ra Ibid. 7 Lloyd.
38 Manning and Bray, Hilt, of Surr. ii,
84 Ibid. ; information, Lord Hylton.
85 P.C.C. Ducie.
M Manning and Brty, Hist, of Surr. ii, 257. *> Ibid.
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