Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/79

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GODALMING HUNDRED

��GODALMING

��the quaintly laudatory style so often met with in monuments of this period.

In the south transept is a tablet to the Rev. Owen

Manning, Canon of Lincoln, rector of Peper Harow

and vicar of Godalming for thirty-seven years, joint

author of Manning and Bray's History of Surrey, who died

in 1 80 1. He is buried in the churchyard.

The Registers of Godalming, edited by Mr. H. E. Maiden, have been published by the Surrey Parish Register Society (vol. ii), and extracts from them in a paper on the church by the late Major Heales, F.S.A.*" b They commence in 1582, but copies of earlier entries are to be found in Symmes's MS. in the British Museum, among which is :

' 1 541, July 7, Sir James Wall, Soul Priest of Godal- ming, was buryed.' *"

The famous Nicholas Andrews, ' Vic. de Godalmyn,' has signed each page of vol ii, from March 1636 to 1642. In the plague-year, 1666, there are many entries of deaths due to ' y e great sickness,' which, no doubt owing to the proximity of the Portsmouth road, must have spread from London with fatal effect.

Besides more modern pieces, there are patens of 1685 and 1722 among the church plate, and a fine silver alms basin of 1632.

The bells have all been recast in the 1 8th and igth centuries. Prior to 1849 or 1850 there was a unique survival (so far as Surrey is concerned) of a sanctus bell, hung externally at the base of the south-east side of the spire. This now does duty at the cemetery chapel. It was cast by Richard Phelps in 1724.

The church of St. John the Baptist, Busbridge, is of Bargate stone with chalk quoins and windows in 13th-century style. There is a central tower. It was consecrated in 1867.

The church of St. John the Evangelist, Farncombe, is of Bargate stone, with a bell-turret but no tower or spire, in 13th-century style. It was consecrated in 1 849. The Rev. Charles C. R. Dallas, rector 1859- 80, was as an ensign in the 32nd Foot wounded at Quatre Bras. The church was built upon land given by the late James More Molyneux which had escheated to him as lord of the manor owing to the tenant having committed murder.

The church of St. Mary the Virgin, Shackleford, is of Bargate stone in a good 13th-century style, built by Sir Gilbert Scott. It is cruciform, with north and south aisles divided from the nave by arcades of four arches. A central tower and spire were built in 1865.

The ancient site of the parish church was Minster Field at Tuesley. A chapel dedicated in honour of the Virgin Mary was still standing in a ruinous state there in 1220, and its memory was preserved by celebrations on the Purification, the Vigil of the Assumption, and the Nativity of the Virgin. There was also a burying-ground there.* 39 After the dis-

��solution of free chapels under Edward VI, the chapel in Godalming called Oldminstcr, with a cemetery round it, was leased to Laurence Eliot.' 40 The foundations of this chapel, which have been un- covered in recent years, prove it to have been stone-built, with a nave 21 ft. by 14 ft., and a chancel 1 1 ft. long, of the same width as the nave, and separated from it by a wall with an arch or door in it. The nave itself was divided up the centre longitudinally by a wall or foundation, and many ancient interments were found within this area, the skeletons being disposed from east to west. The close called ' Chapel Fields ' is mentioned with the Eliots' manor of Busbridge in May 1622 ;"' it is close to Minster Field. A fair was held on Lady Day at the Old Minster as late as the 1 6th century.

GODALMING RECTORT was a separate fee in the time of Edward the Confessor, when Ulmaer held it of the king. In 1086 it consisted of a church and three hides, and was held of Godalming Manor by Ranulph Flambard, who became chief adviser of William II ; he also held the church at Tuesley,' and Tuesley was parcel of the rectory manor.' 41 Ranulph fled from Henry I to Duke Robert of Normandy ; and though he was pardoned by Henry in 1 1 o6,' 44 he does not appear to have regained entire possession of his lands, for a few years later '" the king granted Ranulph's fee in Godalming, Tuesley, Enton, and Guildford, together with Heytesbury co. Wilts, to the church of St. Mary, Salisbury, as a prebend on condition that Ranulph should hold the churches for life as a canon of Salis- bury.' 46 It was known as the prebend of Heytesbury, and, Ranulph Flambard having died in 1128,"' the prebend was annexed to the possessions of the Deans of Salisbury.* 43 The cathedral obtained a confirma- tion of Godalming Church and a grant of 30 librates of land in Godalming in 1 157 in return for the castle of Devizes.* 4 ' The rectory was impropriate to the dean by 1 2 8 5 . In a visitation of the manor dated 1220 it is stated that there had been a vicar there for a long time, but he had never been residentiary.* 40

The estate and the advowson were leased fre- quently. In a dispute between the lessee (Mr. Castil- lion) and the vicar in 1578 some curious evidence was given of the former state kept by the dean when he visited the rectory house, then ruined, north of the church. He spent ' 30 hogsheads of drink at Christ- mas.' * sl A picturesque old house which stood here till about 1860 must have been a successor to the one described. The dispute continued till 1628. The final decree in Chancery preserves the survey of the rectory manor made in 1622."*

The manor remained the property of the successive Deans of Salisbury till the Act of 1649 abolishing deans and chapters. Whilst it belonged to the State a survey of the rectory manor was taken.' 55 It in- cluded, besides the right of presentation and tithes, the

��"7 b Surr. Arch. Coll. iv, 105.

""Add. MS. 6167 ; being part of 'Col- Icctiont for a History of Surrey ' made by Mr. Symmes, an attorney of Guildford, in about the year 1670.

' Reg. of St. Oimund (Roll Ser.), i, 297.

""Misc. Bks. (Land Rev.), vol. 190, fol. 237.

Harl. Chart. 57 H. 43.

> V.C.H. Surr. i, 298*.

448 Reg. of St. Osmund, fol. 42.

3

��tH Diei. Nat. Siog. xir, 237.

844 Between 1109 and 1117.

  • 8 Sarum Chart, and Doe. (Roll Ser.), 3.

W Diet. Nat. Biog. xix, 237.

448 Sarum Chart, and Doc. (Rolli Ser.), 358.

" Ibid. 29. Manning and Bray state that this grant referred to the manor of Godalming, but mention it only made of the church with its appurtenances. The deed is clearly one of restoration, an amic- able settlement of the late disputes as to

41

��the cathedral's property. See ibid. 22 ; Pipe R. I Ric. I (Rec. Com.), 216 ; 2 Hen. II, 10 ; 4 Hen. II, 161 ; ibid. (Pipe R. Soc.), i, 55 ; iv, 42 et seq. ; Tata de Ne-uill (Rec. Com.), 225.

450 Reg. of St. Otmund (Rolls Ser.), i, 297.

  • "LoseIey MSS. ii, 31; ix, 55, and

a loose paper.

454 Chan. Decrees, 3 Chas. I, No. 247/4. The survey is quoted by Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. i, 644.

848 Proc. of the Surr. Arch. Soc. ii, 50.

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