KINGSTON HUNDRED
��MALDEN
��MALDEN
��Meldone (xi cent.), Maldone, Melden, Maiden, &c. passim.
Maiden is a small village nearly 3 miles south- east of Kingston. The Hogsmill Stream divides it from Talworth in Long Ditton. It stands upon the London Clay, being one of the few ancient villages in Surrey which stand on this soil. An outlying part of the parish, separated from the rest of it by Tal- worth and Chessington and adjacent to Ashtead and Letherhead commons, 3 miles or more away from the main portion, was amalgamated with Chessington in 1884. Ecclesiastically the latter parish has always been a chapelry of Maiden.
The London and South Western Railway line to Epsom runs through Maiden, and Worcester Park station is in the parish. Worcester Park represents the J 20 acres which Henry VIII took from the manor of Merton College in Maiden to add to Nonsuch Great Park, but most of the residential neighbourhood now known as Worcester Park is in Cuddington.
The present parish measures rather more than a mile in each direction, and contains 842 acres. It is a rural parish not very thickly inhabited. It must be distinguished from New Maiden, a new district in Kingston parish; especially as the parish of Maiden is under the New Maiden Urban District Council.
The history of Maiden is involved with that of Merton College, Oxford. Walter de Merton, chancellor of England and Bishop of Rochester, whose foundation of Merton College, Oxford, afforded the example and pattern of statutes which were followed by all subse- quent collegiate foundations in Oxford and Cam- bridge, is commonly said to have founded a college first at Maiden. Walter was called de Merton, probably from education or residence there. His parents, it appears from his will, were buried at Basing- stoke. But he was very possibly of the family of the Wateviles who held Maiden and much other land under the Clares. His arms, as recorded at Merton College, were differentiated from those of Watevile, and he probably acquired Maiden Manor from his own relatives (see account of manor). His charter of 1 264 ' implies that the manor was for the benefit of scholars in the schools of Oxford, and that the only ' college ' at Maiden consisted of a warden and priests who looked after the property. It is only the modern perversion of the word 'college,' to mean a sort of school, which has led to the confusion. The grant of Maiden Church by the priory of Merton to Walter for the same end bears out the same explanation. The revenues of the church were for the support ' Scolarium in Scolis
��degentium, et ministrorum altaris Christi in ipsa domo (sc. the manor house of Maiden) commorantium'. The scholars were in schools (the plural term possibly show- ing that the reference is not to the foundation at Maiden). The 'college' of three or four priests was in the house at Maiden. The latter migrated to Oxford after the foundation there was complete. A John de Maiden was Provost of Oriel College in 1394-1401.
The national schools were founded in 1869, and enlarged in 1878 and in 1 88 1.
At the time of the Domesday Survey MANOR MALDEN formed part of the large fiefs of Chertsey Abbey and of Richard de Tonbridge. It was chiefly included in the land of the latter, whose holding in Maiden was four hides with a chapel and a mill. The land of Chertsey was assessed at one hide less a virgate.* Chertsey must have lost at an early date her lands in Maiden, for there is no further mention of the abbey in connexion with this parish, and the only overlords mentioned in later times are the descendants of Richard de Tonbridge. The overlordship passed through Eleanor sister and co-heiress of Gilbert de Clare to the Despensers, and descended to Isabel, Countess of Warwick. 3 It probably came to the Crown, as Long Ditton (q.v.) came, by the settle- ment of the Countess of Warwick's estates upon her daughters in 1474, the subsequent attainder of their respective husbands, the Duke of Clarence and Richard III, the restoration of the estates to the widowed Countess of Warwick, and her immediate settlement of them on Henry VII.
In 1086 Robert de Watevile was tenant of Maiden under Richard de Tonbridge, and William de Wate- vile held of Chertsey. 4 In 1225 the Wateviles' holding in Maiden was three knights' fees, and at this date Richard de Vabadun impleaded Hamo de Watevile concerning these fees. 5
Before 1216, however, the Wateviles seem to have subinfeudated a part at least of their holding * to a family with the local name. Eudo de Maiden son of William held land here in the reign of Henry II. 7 A Brian son of Ralph and his wife Gun- nora, possibly Eudo's daughter, held land in Maiden in the early 1 3th century, 8 and in 1205 they disputed the possession of the advowson with the Prior of Merton (see advowson). Brian was succeeded by his sen Euio de Maiden, who held two knights' fees in Maiden.' In 1249 Eudo's cousin and heir Peter de Cuddington alias de Maiden with the consent of William de Watevile granted the manor of Maiden to Walter de Merton, 10 to whom a further conveyance
��1 Harl. Chart. 53 H. 12 (copy) and at Merton Coll. Oxford.
y.C.H. Surr. i, 317.
'Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. II, no. 68 ; Inq. a.q.d. file 286, no. 9 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. 49 Edw. Ill, pt ii, no. 46; 18 Hen. VI, no. 3.
- y.C.H. Surf, i, 317.
- Maitland, Bracton's Note Book, no.
1077.
They evidently retained some land in
��Maiden, to judge by a grant from Wil- liam de Watevile to Alcer de la Dune in 1235. Feet of F. Surr. 19 Hen. Ill, no. 189.
'Cur. Reg. R. 42 (7-8 John), m. 3 d.
8 Close, 17 John, pt. ii, m. 16.
See Feet of F. Surr. 3 i Hen. Ill, no. 306.
10 Kilner, Aceti. of Pythagoras School, 60. To judge from his arms Walter de
523
��Merton may himself have been descended from the Wateviles, as the Maidens may have been ; Merton, Maiden, Cudding- ton being strictly names from locality, applied to branches of the same family. Farley (q.v.), which Walter de Merton also acquired, was held by Robert de Wate- vile in 1086, and it appears 1 from the descent there that William de Watevile was heir to Peter de Maiden or Cudding- ton when the latter conveyed it to Walter.
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