A HISTORY OF SURREY 



for Wotton to the honour of Clare, 9 and in 1235 

 made a grant of land in Wotton, 10 while in 1241 he 

 was definitely reported to be seised of the manor." 

 It is known, however, that in the reign of King John 

 one Ralph de Camoys claimed that part of the vill of 

 Tansor (Northants) had been granted to his grand- 

 father by Roger de Clare" and it is possible that 

 Wotton may have been granted at the same time. In 

 1259 Ralph died, leaving Ralph his son and heir aged 

 forty. 13 The younger Ralph was succeeded some 

 twenty years later by his son John," from whom 

 Wotton apparently passed to the family of Fancourt, 

 probably by sale, since the impoverishment of the 

 Camoys family at that date is a matter of common 

 knowledge. 16 Walter de Fancourt was seised of the 

 manor in I28o, 16 and presented a priest to Okewood 

 Chapel in 1290." In 1306 Matilda his widow, 

 who had married one Henry le Perkes, 18 claimed 

 dower in the manor of Wotton from William le 

 Latimer, into whose hands it had by that time 

 passed. 19 



William le Latimer died in 1 3 27,* leaving William 

 his son and heir, aged twenty-six.* 1 This William 

 survived his father only eight years,** and during the 

 minority of his son, another William, the manor seems 

 to have been in the custody of Thomas Latimer,** 

 who was probably uncle to the heir. Thomas, pos- 

 sibly in return for his custodianship, retained the 

 manor during the term of his life ; at his death in 

 1 356 it passed into the possession of William," who was 

 then twenty-six years old. William conveyed it to 

 trustees in 1377. At his death in 1381 " he left 

 Wotton by will to his cousin, Thomas de Camoys,* 6 

 who presented to the living in 1382." Thomas 



ooo 



LATIMIR. 

 erou paty or. 



Gules a 



CAMOYS. Argent a 

 chief gules viith thru 

 roundels argent therein. 



enfeoffed certain trustees of the manor, who curiously 

 enough bore the same surnames as those to whom 

 William Latimer had released in 1 377.** 



Thomas de Camoys died seised in March 1422," 

 and Hugh his grandson and next heir survived him 



only five years. 10 Wotton, however, is not mentioned 

 among Hugh's possessions at his death. Roger lord 

 of Camoys, probably a younger son of Thomas, was 

 in possession shortly after the death of Hugh, 81 and 

 in 14.29 he released all his rights in the manor to 

 Thomas Morestede." The dispersion of the Camoys' 

 lands after the death of Thomas de Camoys is well 

 known,* 3 and its occurrence immediately before the 

 Civil War, which wrought so much confusion in 

 landed property, increases the difficulty of tracing 

 them. 



According to Manning and Bray, 34 who give a 

 contemporary court roll as their authority, Wotton 

 was held by Sir William Estfield in 1444. In 1479 

 Stephen Middleton was in possession, and some five 

 years later it was held by Humphrey de Bohun.* 5 Sir 

 David Owen, a natural son of Owen Tudor, married 

 as his first wife the heiress of the Bohuns of Mid- 

 hurst, 38 and Wotton perhaps passed to him with his 

 wife or was bought by him, for it became his property, 

 and he left it to Henry son of his third wife Anne 

 Devereux, 37 and after him to his son John by the same 

 wife. Sir Owen died in 1542. John held courts from 

 1548 to IS53- 38 His son Henry held courts in I 568 

 and 1579, when he and Elizabeth his wife conveyed 

 the estate to George Evelyn of Long Ditton, 39 in 

 whose family it has since re- 

 mained. 



Wotton House, the home 

 and birthplace of the famous 

 John Evelyn, is built, like so 

 many old houses, in a hollow. 

 There is nothing visible in the 

 present rambling and irregular 

 building of older date than the 

 close of the 1 6th century, and 

 even such parts of this date as 

 remain are so surrounded by 

 later additions as to be distin- 

 guished only with difficulty. 

 Besides rebuildings and extensions of the I7th and 

 1 8th centuries, the east wing, which had been 

 destroyed, was added on an enlarged plan by Mr. 

 W. J. Evelyn in 1864. Thus, although the core of 

 the house is ancient, but little remains visible exter- 

 nally of the house in which John Evelyn lived, and 

 which he helped to render famous by the beautiful 

 gardens, largely of his own creation. These in part 

 remain, although greatly altered in later times. For- 

 tunately two drawings, still at Wotton, from John 

 Evelyn's own hand, give a minute record of the 

 house, with its moat and artificial waters, as they 

 appeared in the middle of the 1 7th century. 40 In 



EVILYN of Wotton. 

 Avure a griffon passant 

 and a chief or. 



> Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 219. 



10 Feet of F. SUIT. 19 Hen. Ill, no. 20. 



11 Ibid. Div. Co. 25 Hen. Ill, no. 170. 

 Plac. Abbrev. (Rec. Com.), 82. 



11 Chan. Inq. p.m. 4] Hen. Ill, no. 28. 



" Ibid. 5 Edw. I, no. i. 



u Cal. Close, 1279-88, pp. 52-4, &c. 



18 Feet of F. Surr. 8 Edw. I, no. 10. 



W Wykeham's Register. 



is De Banco R. 161, m. 183. 



" Ibid. 



80 Chan. Inq. p.m. I Edw. Ill (itt nos.), 

 no. 56. Ibid. 



88 Ibid. 9 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), no. 51. 



Feet of F. Surr. 26 Edw. Ill, no. 7. 



M Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. Ill (lit 

 nos.), no. 30. 



55 Exch. Inq. p.m.(Ser.l), file457,no. I. 



Hart. MS. 6148, fol. 139. 

 V ITjkeham'i Register (Hants Rec. 

 Soc.), i, 132. 



88 Close, 1 3 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 1 2 d. 



89 Chan. Inq. p.m. 9 Hen. V, no. 29. 

 o Ibid. 5 Hen. VI, no. 16. 



l Close, 7 Hen. VI, m. 7 d. 



88 Ibid ; see alto Feet of F. Surr. 

 1 1 Hen. VI, no. 20. 



*> The difficulty of tracing the direct 

 Camoys line was experienced at the time of 

 the reviYal of the Camoys barony in 1838. 



4 Hist, of Surr. ii, under Wotton. Bray 

 was steward of Wotton. 



85 Chan. Inq. p.m. i Ric. Ill, no. 26. 

 Possibly some light may be thrown on 

 these changes of ownership by the fact 

 that in 1465 (Close, 4 Edw. IV, m. n d.) 



I S 6 



one Thomas Middleton being enfeoffed 

 to the use of William Estfield, kt., de- 

 mised property in Middlesex to Hum- 

 phrey Bohun. This entry seems at any 

 rate to prove the existence of some re- 

 lationship between those three persons 

 which may explain their having been con- 

 nected with the manor in turn. 



Suss. Arch. Soc. Coll. vii, 25. 



7 See Sir David's will, printed in Suss. 

 Arch. Coll. vii, 38. *> Ct. Rolls. 



Cat. Anct. D. iii, 75 (A45io). 



40 Surr. Arch. Call, xvii, 70. One bears 

 the title, in John Evelyn's writing, 'The 

 prospect of the old house at Wotton, 

 1640 ' ; the other ' A Rude draght of Wot- 

 ton Garden before my Bro : altered it & 

 as it was 1640 ; South.' 



