WOTTON HUNDRED 



CAPEL 



KNIGHTS or ST. JOHN. 

 Gules a cross argent. 



in 1862. It is now brought under one management 

 with the endowed school. 



CAPEL was, and is, for the most part, 

 MANORS in the manor of Dorking, though it also 

 extends into Milton Manor. Parochially 

 it was all included in Dorking. 



From a suit in 1279 it appears that in the reign of 

 Henry III John de Elefold had granted lands in Capel 

 to the Master of the Templars in England, and his 

 son Thomas in that year withdrew from an attempt to 

 recover them. 7 In 1 308, when 

 the Templars' lands were seized, 

 Temple Elfold was among 

 them. 8 The land was known 

 later as the manor of TEMPLE 

 ELF4NDE. With the rest 

 of the Templars' lands it passed 

 to the Knights of St. John of 

 Jerusalem, in accordance with 

 a suggestion made by Pope 

 John XXII. 9 The Chartu- 

 lary of St. John of Jerusa- 

 lem 10 describes it in 1308 

 as held of the Earl of Warenne, but no service was 

 done and no ecclesiastical benefice was supported by 

 it. There was a house, and the total value was 

 4 i it. 2d. a year. It remained with the Knights 

 of St. John till the dissolution of the order, 1539, 

 when it appears as Temple Elphaud, in Surrey." 



After the Dissolution it was granted to John 

 Williams and Antony Stringer, who conveyed almost 

 immediately to William Cowper l> of London, who 

 also held land at Horley and in Charlwood, Surrey. 



The Cowper, or (more usu- 

 ally) Cooper, family continued 

 to hold for nearly two centuries. 

 In March 1590-1 John Cow- 

 per, serjeant-at-law, the son of 

 William Cowper, died, seised 

 of a capital messuage in Capel 

 called Temple Elephant. 13 In 

 the next year John's brother 

 Richard, who had the reversion 

 of the estate after the death 

 of John's widow Julian, who 

 survived Richard," also died, 

 leaving Richard his son and 

 heir, who was then aged eigh- 

 teen. 15 The younger Richard, 

 afterwards knighted, 16 married, first, Elizabeth Young, 

 to whose father Richard the elder had mortgaged 

 Temple Elfold, and secondly, Elizabeth daughter of 

 Sir Thomas Gresham. He died seised in 1 625." 



His son Richard Cowper or Cooper settled Temple 

 Elfold on Barbara Miller his wife, on his marriage in 

 1646. She died without issue the same year, and 

 Richard resettled the estate on his second wife Sarah 



COWPIR of Temple 

 Eltande. Argent a bend 

 engrailed between two 

 lions sable "with three 

 roundels argent on the 

 bend. 



BROADWOOD of Capel. 

 Ermine two pales vairy 

 or and gules and a chief 

 vert -with a ring between 

 two Jir trees torn up by 

 the roots or therein. 



Knightley, in 1 647. His son and heir by her, John, 

 settled it on his marriage with Elizabeth Lewin in 

 1 67 1. 18 Their son John sold 

 it to Ezra Gill of Eashing 

 in I7z8. 19 Ezra Gill settled 

 the manor, manor-house, and 

 park of 1 44 acres, on 1 6 April 

 1729, in anticipation of his 

 marriage with Mary Woods, 20 

 who died 1767, when the 

 estate passed to her son Wil- 

 liam Gill. He died in 1815, 

 and was succeeded by his bro- 

 ther Henry Streeter Gill, who 

 died in 1 8 1 8." His daughter 

 married J. H. Frankland, who 

 assumed the name of Gill. 

 They sold Temple Elfold in 



1833 to Mr. James Tschudi Broadwood of Lyne 

 Capel, whose great-grandson is the present owner. 



The reputed manor of HENFOLD in Capel 

 appears first in the reign of Henry VIII. In 1511 

 and 1512 the manor of Aglondes More and Hen- 

 fold, in East Betchworth, Buckland, and Capel, was 

 conveyed by Robert Gaynsford to Sir Henry Wyatt.** 

 This was Sir Henry Wyatt, father to Sir Thomas 

 Wyatt the poet, who in 1 540 conveyed it to Robert 

 Young." Robert died seised of it in 1 548, leaving 

 his grandson John, then nine years old, to succeed 

 him. 84 John died in 1629, leaving a son and heir 

 William," who succeeded him. Henfold, however, was 

 probably not a real manor. In 1776 in a court roll of 

 the manor of West Betchworth, and again in 1823, 

 Henfold is mentioned as in the manor, being broken 

 up into several holdings. The name Aglondes More 

 has disappeared. The house called Henfold, in Capel, 

 is the seat of Mrs. Farnell Watson, and is in the manor 

 of West Betchworth. 116 



The church of St. John the Baptist 

 CHURCHES (until the early part of the 1 6th cen- 

 tury dedicated in honour of St. Law- 

 rence) stands on the west of the main road that 

 runs north and south through the village, and 

 opposite to the road that forks off to the east in the 

 direction of Temple Elfold. It is on somewhat 

 elevated ground, although the surrounding country is 

 flat, and commands pretty and extensive views of 

 wooded and pastoral scenery. The churchyard, 

 bounded on the east and south by a stone wall, is 

 entered through a modern lych-gate, and also by a stone 

 stile, ancient at least in idea. A great slab near it 

 bears the ripple-marks which are often met with in 

 this locality. The path to the south door is of stone 

 flags. There is a fine old yew, and also a number of 

 cypresses, and among the gravestones are many of the 

 1 7th and l8th centuries. 



Until its enlargement in 1865 the church presented 



"' Anize R. no. 879, m. 14. 



8 Dugdale, Man. vi (2), 833. 



9 J. Delaville le Roulx, Doc. concernant 

 les Tcm fliers, p. 50, no. xxxviii. 



10 Cotton MS. Nero, E. vi, fol. 141. 



11 Exch. Mini. Accts. 31 & 32 Hen. 

 VIII, no. 114, Midd. 



" L.andP. Hen. VIII, riii (i), g. 346 

 (3), and g. 226 (79.) 



18 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccxxviii, 64. 



14 Deed of 1601 in possession of the late 

 Rev. T. R. O'Fflahertie of Capel. Richard 



the elder had mortgaged his reversion and 

 Richard the younger reclaimed it. 



14 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cczxxiii, 104.. 



16 The name ' Lady Cooper," no doubt 

 Elizabeth Gresham, is scratched with a 

 diamond upon an existing window at 

 Temple Elfold. 



>' Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccxix, 30. 



18 Deeds copied by the late Rev. T. R. 

 O'Fflahertie of Capel. 



19 Deeds quoted by Manning and Bray, 

 Hist, of Surr. iii, 597. 



137 



90 Deed communicated by Mr. Percy 

 Woods, C.B. 



" V.C.H. Surr. ii, 61 1 ; Feet of F. Surr. 

 Trin. 55 Geo. III. 



Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 3 Hen. VIII ; 

 East. 4 & 5 Hen. VIII. 



" Ibid. Trin. 32 Hen. VIII. 



M Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixxxvii, 

 64. 



16 Ibid, cccclxxv, 97. 



48 Rolls copied by the Rev. T. R. O'Ffla- 

 hertie of Capel. 



18 



