A HISTORY OF SURREY 



also made of two freehold tenements in Burstow 

 which were included among the appurtenances of the 

 manor. 104 Sophia Elizabeth Beard and her husband 

 Richard Beard held the manor in i8oi, los and Mrs. 

 Beard was still lady of the manor in 1808."* It was 

 occupied as a farm throughout the igth century."" 

 It is at present held by Mr. William Tebb. The 

 house is surrounded by a broad moat inclosing a 

 considerable area of ground. 



The estate of SMALLFIELD in this parish be- 

 longed in the 1 6th and lyth centuries to the family 

 of Bysshe, who were said to be descended from the 

 de Burstows, lords of the manor of Burstow in the 

 1 3th and 141)1 centuries, through the marriage 

 of an heiress of the latter family with John Bysshe. 

 They said that the Und had been given to 

 their ancestor John de Burstow, who served under 

 the Black Prince in the French wars, and who was 

 promised a gift of some small field or piece of land 

 in return for services rendered by him to Bartholomew 

 Lord Burghersh. Land in Burstow called Crullinges 

 was accordingly granted him, the name being changed 

 to ' Smallfield ' to meet the terms of the promise. 108 

 The house, Smallfield Place, 

 was erected there apparently 

 in the i yth century 10 * by 

 Edward Bysshe, a successful 

 Chancery lawyer, the father 

 of Sir Edward Bysshe. The 

 latter, who was born there in 

 1615, was M.P. for Bleching- 

 ley and also held the offices 

 of Garter King-of-Arms and 

 of Clarenceux King-of-Arms ; 

 he was knighted in 1661," 

 in which year he made addi- 

 tions to the house, which bore 

 that date. Manning states that part of the house 

 was pulled down, the remainder being occupied in 

 his time as a farm, and owned by Isaac Martin 

 Rebow, M.P., of Colchester, who died in 1781."' His 

 daughter Mary Hester married General Francis Slater, 

 who took the name of Rebow and owned Smallfield 

 Place when Brayley wrote, in 1841. He died in 

 1845. By a second wife he left a daughter Mary, 

 -who married John Gurdon, who also took the name 

 of Rebow. He died in 1870. His son was Hector 

 John Gurdon Rebow, from whom Mr. William Leslie 

 Moore, the present owner, bought Smallfield Place in 

 1898."' 



The house, which had been only a farm, was 



BYSSHE. Or a cheve- 

 ron betviten three roses 

 gules. 



converted again into a gentleman's house by Mr. W. 

 Leslie Moore. It is an interesting house of local sand- 

 stone with a roof of Horsham slabs. With its three 

 embattled and mullioned bay windows, its gabled 

 porch, and the fireplaces, staircase, and panelling in 

 the interior, it ranks, although but a fragment, among 

 the more important remains of domestic architecture 

 in Surrey. It has a good staircase and much old 

 panelling in good preservation. 1 " On it are the 

 initials E.M.B. and the arms assumed by Bysshe, a 

 cheveron between three roses. The old Bysshe coat 

 was Ermine a chief battled gules with three leopards' 

 heads or therein. 114 During the ownership of the 

 Rebow family the house was occupied as a farm by a 

 family named Hooker, one of whom used to manage 

 the Burstow Harriers before they became the Burstow 

 Foxhounds. 



The church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW 



CHURCH consists of a chancel 30 ft. by 14 ft. with 



a small vestry on the north side, a nave 



38 ft. by 1 8 ft. with a south aisle 8 ft. 10 in. wide, 



a timber west tower, and a south porch. 



The plan of the nave, and probably that of the 

 chancel, dates from c. 1120, and the north and part 

 of the west walls of the nave, with the west half 

 of the north wall of the chancel, are for the most 

 part of this time. Two original windows remain, 

 one in the chancel and one in the nave ; but nearly 

 all the rest of the building, including the south 

 aisle, belongs to the 1 5th century, and has been con- 

 nected, though apparently on no direct evidence, with 

 Archbishop Chicheley. The church was restored in 

 1884, the east wall of the aisle and the eastern quoins 

 of the chancel being rebuilt. 



The vestry and the south porch are modern addi- 

 tions. The east window of the chancel is of 15th- 

 century date, and has three cinquefoiled lights under 

 a flat drop arch with moulded label. The eastern- 

 most north window is a single trefoiled light, and 

 the only other window in this wall is a narrow round- 

 headed 12th-century light which now looks into the 

 vestry. 



Beneath the sill of the north-east window is a 

 recess with two trefoiled openings separated by a mul- 

 lion, and with moulded jambs and square head ; it 

 has served as a cupboard, and possibly also for the 

 Easter sepulchre. West of it is a modern doorway 

 to the vestry, and near the west end of the north 

 wall, in an unusual position, is another aumbry set 

 low in the wall, with rebated jambs and a square 

 head. 



P.P.C. Adderley, 393. 



>< Feet of F. SUIT. Ea$t. 41 Geo. III. 



106 Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. 

 11,284. 107 Directories of Surrey. 



108 Bysshe, Notae in N. Ufttmem. De 

 Studio Militari, 67, 1654; Surr. Arch. 

 Coll. iii, 381. Aubrey (op. cit. iii, 7) 

 disbelievei hii pedigree altogether, and 

 says the family sprang from farmer* of 

 the neighbourhood. That there was an 

 ancient family of De Bysshe in Burstow, 

 nd that Bysshe Court was a house there, 

 perhaps bears out his suspicions, for it is 

 not the same at SmallBeld Place. Wood 

 (Atbcnae Oxonienses, ii, 483) is also severe 

 upon Bysshe for inventing pedigrees. 

 Aubrey says that the arms borne by him, 

 and placed on his house, were not the 

 ancient arms of De Bysshe. Wood adds 



that he fell into disgrace for falsifying 

 heraldry and genealogies, and died very 

 poor. There are many Bysshes, later on, 

 living as farmers about or in Burstow. 

 One of the family, however, kept a status 

 as a gentleman, and was an ancestor of 

 the poet Shelley. 



Roger Bysshe 



Helen = John Shelley 

 (co-heiress) 



Timothy Shelley 

 1 (b. 1700) 



Sir Bysshe Shelley 

 (b. 1731) 



ISO 



Sir Timothy Shelley 



Percy Bysshe Shelley 



l<> V.C.H. Surr, ii, 480. 



110 Diet. Nat. Biog. 



in Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. 

 ii, 185. 



lu Private information. Mr. Isaac 

 Martin Rebow, M.P., was son of Isaac 

 Rebow, M.P., who died in 1734, and 

 Mary Martin, and married his cousin 

 Mary Martin. It a possible that the 

 Martins bought from the son of Sir Ed- 

 ward Bysshe, Clarenceux, who died poor. 



" r.C.tf. Surr. ii, 480. 



114 Cott. MS. Tib. D. 10. 



