REIGATE HUNDRED 



CHIPSTEAD 



CHERTBEY ABBEY. 

 Party or and argent St. 

 Paufi nvord argent, itt 

 Hit or, croued v/itA St. 

 Peter't keyt gulti and t- 

 vure. 



of the lands of Purbright and Lovelane, 67 until its 

 dissolution in 1538, when the abbot and twelve 

 monks were transferred by the 

 king to his new foundation at 

 Bisham, which was endowed 

 with the abbey lands. In the 

 following year the new monas- 

 tery also surrendered to the 

 king. 68 



The immediate tenants of 

 the manor before 1066 were 

 Turgis and Ulf, the land of the 

 former belonging to the abbey, 

 while Ulf could 'seek what 

 lord he pleased.' The two 

 estates seem to have been 

 united later, and were held 

 from the abbot by William 

 de Wateville, who, however, relinquished the land 

 before 1086. It was then farmed out at 4O/. 69 In 

 the 1 3th century Peter de Pirifrith, from whom it 

 must have taken the name of Purbright, held one 

 quarter of a knight's fee in Chipstead of the abbot. 70 

 Peter granted one carucate of land in Chipstead to 

 Thomas de Leukenore m 1247, and in 1252-3 

 he gave 10 librates of land there to Joan the daughter 

 of Henry Lovel for the yearly rent of a pair of white 

 gloves." In 1291 the manor of Purbright was 

 amongst the possessions of Hamo de Gatton, his son 

 and heir, also Hamo, being at that time twenty-six 

 years of age. 7 ' 



The next reference to Purbright is given by Man- 

 ning and Bray, who quote the Court Rolls of Coulsdon. 

 According to these one Gilbert Malevyle was dis- 

 trained in 1360 for fealty for lands in Chipstead 

 called Puribrit, and again in 1389 Sir Thomas Brewes 

 was distrained for the same cause. These lands 

 were probably the manor, for Coulsdon was held at 

 that time by Chertsey Abbey, and a tithing-man for 

 Chipstead was chosen at the Coulsdon court leet. 74 

 Nothing further appears touching the descent of this 

 manor until 1 505, when one-half of it was in the 

 possession of Anne and Roger Leigh, Purbright, 

 presumably, having been divided at the same time as 

 Chipstead between them and the Scotts" (q.v.). In 

 I 590 it was in the hands of Thomas Best, who, in 

 his will dated 1 1 March of that year, left it to his 

 wife Ann for eighteen years, while she brought up his 

 son and heir William. 76 In 1 6 1 8 William Best died 

 seised of the manor of Purbright, which was said 

 to be held of the lords of the manors of Gatton, 

 Coulsdon, and Merstham. 77 His son and heir Wil- 

 liam, who at his father's death was aged a little over 

 four years, 78 conveyed the manor to the use of Sir 

 Samuel Owfield and his wife Katherine, with re- 

 mainder to their sons, and in Katherine's will dated 

 1662, and proved 1664, she confirmed the settlement 

 of the property on her second son Samuel. 79 About 

 three years later the Owfields conveyed Purbright to 

 Thomas Manning and Samuel Salter, 60 possibly trustees 

 for Sir John Thompson, afterwards Lord Haversham, 



'7 Index, Winton Epis. Reg. ; Egerton 

 MSS. 2031-34,!, fol. 6 1 ; ii, fol. 46, &c. ; 

 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 56 ; Exch. 

 K.R. Misc. Bics. xxv, fol. 30, &c. In 

 a confirmation of thee tithes by William 

 Giffard, Bishop of Winchester, 1107-29, 

 they are said to have been given to the 

 ibbey by Robert Oil of Larreu. 



L. and P. Hen. VIII, xii (2), g. 1311 

 (22) ; Dugdale, Man. vi, $26. 

 y.C.H. Surr. i, 310. 

 7 Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 220*, 



22.lt. 



7 Feet of F. Surr. East. 32 Hen. Ill ; 

 Abbrev. Plac. (Rec. Com.), 133. 



1* Chan. Inq. p.m. 20 Edw. I, no. 25. 



193 



who sold it in 1704 to Mr. Docminique. 81 With 

 Chipstead it became the property of William Jolliffe, 

 but was sold in lots by the present Lord Hylton. 



The church of ST. MARGARET is 

 CHURCH a fine cruciform building, with a chancel 

 30 ft. by 1 6 ft. 10 in., crossing 1 6 ft. 

 loin, square ; north transept ijft. loin, by 1 4 ft. 

 4 in. ; south transept 15 ft. 3 in. by 146. 4 in. ; 

 nave 53 ft. 9 in. by 17 ft.; north aisle 52 ft. by 

 9 ft. 5 in. ; south aisle 53 ft. 2 in. by 7ft. 10 in., and a 

 south porch, all the measurements being internal. 



The west wall of the nave, from the evidence of a 

 doorway formerly existing here, and shown by Man- 

 ning and Bray (drawing dated 1 794), appears to be 

 in part of 1 2th-century date, and the north doorway 

 of the nave, now reset in the north aisle, is work of 

 c. 1 1 80. The north aisle itself is a modern addition, 

 as is the south porch, and the south transept has been 

 for the most part rebuilt, but all the rest of the 

 church belongs apparently to one design consisting of 

 chancel, central tower with transepts, and nave with 

 south aisle, begun early in the 1 3th century, and 

 carried through without any obvious pause in the 

 work. The north transept is not square with the 

 tower, for some reason which is not now clear, but 

 otherwise the setting out is very regular and there is 

 no deviation from the axis of the old work. The 

 outer walls of the south aisle have perhaps been 

 rebuilt in the 1 5th century, and there has been a 

 good deal of modern repair, the tower bearing the 

 dates 1631, 1827, and 1903. 



The stone chiefly used is the firestone of the 

 district, which while very good for internal work 

 stands the weather badly, and has had to be very 

 largely renewed. 



The east window of the chancel is of partly restored 

 15th-century work, of three cinquefoiled lights with 

 tracery in a two-centred head ; at the angles of the 

 inner sill are the moulded bases of a 13th-century 

 shaft belonging to the original east window, probably 

 a group of three lancets. 



In the side walls of the chancel are tall and very 

 narrow lancets, five on each side according to the 

 original design, but one on the south-west has been 

 destroyed for the insertion of a modern priest's door 

 with a round window over it, the rear arch of which 

 is that of the old lancet. The external jambs and 

 heads are chamfered and rebated and have all been 

 renewed, but the firestone weathers badly and is 

 already crumbling to pieces. The inside splays are 

 original and have triangular heads instead of two- 

 centred or segmental rear arcades, a very unusual 

 feature. Beneath the sills is a plain roll string-course, 

 and the external hood-moulds run as horizontal 

 strings between the windows. 



Near the east end of the south wall is an aumbry 

 with jambs, sill, and square head rebated for a shutter. 

 To the west of this is a 13th-century piscina with a 

 circular basin and a chamfered trefoil head. On 

 either side of the western half of the chancel is a 

 stone seat contemporary with the rest of the work, 



7* Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. ii, 

 145. 7< Ibid. 



?' Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 21 Hen. VII. 

 7 P.C.C. 28 Kidd. 



77 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), dix, i68a. 



78 Ibid. 7p.C.C. 117, Bruce. 



80 Close, 19 Chas. II, pt. ii, no. 31. 



81 Ibid. 3 Anne, pt. i, no. 14. 



25 



