BLACKHEATH HUNDRED 



SHERE 



siastical parish, made up from portions of Shere, 

 Ockley, Abinger, Ewhurst, Cranleigh, and Ockham, 28 

 September 1878. The schools (Church of England) 

 were built in 1860 and enlarged in 1900. There is 

 a Congregational chapel. 



This neighbourhood was formerly one of the 

 wildest in Surrey. Sheep-stealers, smugglers, and 

 poachers found a refuge in these remote hills. Some 

 of the cottages have, still existing, very large cellars 

 (excavated easily in the sandy hill), which are far too 

 large for any honest purpose, and were no doubt 

 made for storing smuggled goods till they could be 

 conveniently taken on to London. Of late years the 

 picturesque neighbourhood has attracted many visitors, 

 who have built large houses. Joldwyns is the seat of 

 Sir William Paget Bowman, bart., Holmbury of 

 Mr. W. Joynson Hicks, Holmdale of Mr. Barlow 

 Webb, Aldermoor of Mr. H. T. Willis, R.A., Hurt- 

 wood Cottage of Mr. Frank Walton, R.I., A.R.A. 

 These houses are all included in the modern extension 

 of Abinger, but belong to this district, the church of 

 which is in Shere. 



Peaslake is a hamlet of Shere, lying at the bend of 

 the valley between Holmbury and Ewhurst Hills, 

 which shared formerly the inaccessibility of Felday 

 and its wild character. It has been more recently 

 brought into the circle of civilization, and a road 

 from Ewhurst, practicable for wheels, has been brought 

 into it since district councils were instituted. It was 

 formerly accessible from the north, but was on the 

 edge of the accessible country with no real road 

 beyond. A Working Men's Institute was erected in 

 1891 by the Misses Spottiswoode of Drydown, in 

 many other ways benefactors to the neighbourhood. 

 Of late years several new houses have been built. Peas- 

 lake School was founded by Lord Ashcombe, Mr. Justice 

 Bray, the Misses Spottiswoode, and others in 1870. 



At Shere the principal residents, besides those already 

 named, are : at Burrows Lea, Sir Herbert Barnard ; 

 at Ridgeway, Lady Arthur Russell ; at Hurstcote, 

 Mr. Somerset Beaumont ; at Shere Lodge, Miss Locke 

 King ; at Hazel Hatch, The Hon. Emily Lawless; and 

 at Burrows Cross, Mr. Benjamin W. Leader, R.A. 



The parish hall was built by subscription to com- 

 memorate the Diamond Jubilee of 1 897. 



It is not right to dismiss the parish of Shere with- 

 out mentioning that it was the birthplace, ultimate 

 home, and deathplace of William Bray, the county 

 historian, who was born here 1736, and died 1832. 

 He completed and supplemented the already volumin- 

 ous labours of Manning, and if slips and omissions do 

 occur in their work it is difficult to over-estimate 

 their industry and care, and their general accuracy is 

 wonderful, considering especially the absence of those 

 catalogues, indexes, and printed calendars which aid 

 the modern topographer and genealogist. 



There are four manors in the parish 



MANORS of Shere or Shiere, viz., Shiere Vachery, 4 



Shiere Ebor, Gomshall Netley, and 



WARENNE, Earl of 

 Surrey. Cheeky or and 

 azure. 



Towerhill. The two former are moieties of the original 



manor of SHIERE, which, under Edward the Confessor, 



had belonged to his queen, Edith. She held it till her 



death, when William I appropriated it, together with 



all her lands. 6 In 1086 the king held it in demesne, 



but William Rufus granted it to 



William de Warenne when he 



endowed him with the earldom 



of Surrey.' The overlordship 



continued with the successive 



Earls of Surrey, of whom the 



manor was held as of Reigate 



Castle. 8 



The actual tenant early in 

 the 1 3th century was Roger 

 de Clare.' In 1 2434 he con- 

 veyed the manor to John son 

 of Geoffrey, a younger son of 

 Geoffrey Fitz Peter, Earl of 



Essex, in return for a life-rent paid at Shere Church. 10 

 In 1246 John de Gatesden, who had apparently 

 acquired this rent at the same time as the manor of 

 Lasham," remitted it to John son of Geoffrey." 

 The manor, having passed from John to his son and 

 grandsons," was divided into moieties at the death 

 of Richard son of John. 14 The one moiety, Shiere 

 Vachery, was assigned to his sister Joan Butler ; the 

 other, afterwards known as Shiere Eboracum or Ebor, 

 to his nephew Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster. 15 



SHIERE VACHERT descended at Joan Butler's 

 death to her son Edmund Butler, 1 * who was succeeded 

 by his son James, first Earl of 

 Ormond, and his wife Elea- 

 nor. 17 Their son James, Earl 

 of Ormond, inherited Shiere, 

 which descended from him to 

 his son James. 18 The latter's 

 son, the 'White Earl,' 19 granted 

 it to his son James, 50 whom 

 Henry VI created Earl of 

 Wiltshire in 1449 in reward 

 for his fidelity to the interests 

 of the house of Lancaster. 

 He succeeded his father as azure. 

 Earl of Ormond, and was be- 

 headed after Towton in 1461. Shiere, being thus 

 forfeited to the king, was granted by him to John, 

 Lord Audley in 1467," in tail male. Nevertheless, 

 John, brother of the late earl, was restored as Earl of 

 Ormond, although apparently not to his estates. He 

 died in 1478. His brother Thomas, also attainted after 

 Towton, was restored in blood by the first Parliament 

 of Henry VII, and in 1486 granted the manor to 

 Sir Reginald Bray, kt., reserving to himself the right 

 of easement when staying within the lordship of 

 Shiere." 



Sir Reginald Bray, statesman of the reign of 

 Henry VII, was Lord Treasurer of England, director 

 of the king's great building operations at St. George's 



BUTLER, Earl of Or- 

 mond. Or a chief indented 



* So called since it included the hamlet 

 of Vachery in Cranleigh. 



* f.C.H. Surr. \, 279, 29811. 



' Ibid, i, 340. Hi original Surrey 

 endowment consisted of the lands of 

 Queen Edith. 



8 Chan. Inq. p.m. 4 Edw. I, no. 47 ; 

 31 Edw. I, no. 32 ; 6 Ric. II, no. 15 ; 

 31 Hen. VI, no. II. 



* Tula de Ne-uill (Rec. Com.), 2 20, 2 2 1 b. 



10 Feet of F. Div. Co. 28 Hen. Ill, 

 199. 



11 See Lasham in Odiham Hundred 

 (V.C.H. Hant, iv). 



ls Feet of F. Div. Co. 30 Hen. Ill, 62. 



18 For an account of John son of Geof- 

 frey and his descendants, see East Shal- 

 ford. 



14 Chan. Inq. p.m. 25 Edw. I, no. 504. 



15 Fine R. 27 Edw. I, m. I. 



"3 



Chan. Inq. p.m. 31 Edw. I, no. 32 ; 

 Inq. a.q.d. civ, 7. 



"Chan. Inq. p.m. i Edw. Ill (ut 

 nos.), no. 8 ; Feet of F. Div. Co. 3 Edw. 

 111,51. 



18 Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Ric. II, no. 15. 



Ibid. 7 Hen. V, no. 49. 



Ibid. 31 Hen. VI, no. 1 1. 



Pat. 7 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 6. 



M Anct. D. (P.R.O.), C, 3273. 



