REIGATE HUNDRED 



HORLEY 



The font, of Sussex marble, small and square in 

 form, on a circular stem and plinth, may be of 

 ijth-century date, but it has lost its angle shafts, and 

 has been otherwise mutilated. 



The monuments are of exceptional interest, the 

 earliest being a very finely carved and well-preserved 

 stone effigy of a knight of the Salaman family, which 

 lies beneath the arch at the east end of the north 

 aisle. It used to lie upon the pavement, but has been 

 very properly set upon a stone base. ' It is upon a 

 table slightly ridged en dos tf&ne, forming doubtless 

 the lid of the coffin or tomb, and is recumbent in the 

 usual manner, the head resting on a cushion, with a 

 lion at the feet.' 14 The figure, which is life-size, is 

 in Reigate stone, in a free and unconventional attitude. 



4 The shield, of an intermediate size between the 

 small heater-shape and the long one almost covering 

 the body, is incurved and emblazoned with a double- 

 headed eagle displayed, charged on the breast with a 

 leopard's head.' The arms are those of the Salaman 

 family, who held land in the parish, but which 

 member of that family is represented is uncertain 

 probably the father of Roger Salaman, who died 

 1343-4, seised of the manor of Imworth next 

 Kingston, and of land in Horley held of the Prior of 

 Merlon. 140 * His Christian name is unknown. The 

 date of the effigy is about that of the aisle c. 131 5.'" 



The fine brass of a lady beneath an elegant 

 canopy, which formerly lay in the north aisle, 

 afterwards in the floor of the chancel, and which has 

 lately been embedded, with its slab, in a vertical 

 position in the north wall of the chancel, is also in all 

 probability a memorial of another member of the 

 Salaman family, its date being about a century later 

 than the stone effigy, viz. c. 1415. The inscription 

 at the foot does not belong to it. Her hands are con- 

 joined in prayer, and she wears the horned head-dress 

 looped up in an unusual manner at the back, with pads 

 or inclosures for the hair projecting considerably on 

 either side. On her neck is a collar of S S. 1 " The 

 canopy is of a single cusped arch, from which rises 

 a crocketed pediment, surmounted by a finial, and the 

 whole supported by long shafts ending in pinnacles. 



On the south wall of the chancel is now fixed a 

 small brass figure of a man, the inscription being lost. 

 He is in the civilian costume of the end of the 

 1 5th century, and has a long furred dress, girdled at 

 the waist. The inscription wrongly attached to the 

 other brass has been also mistakenly associated with 

 this. It runs: 'Of yo' charite pray for the soule 

 of JohaTI fFenner late wyf of Joiin ffenner gent' which 

 Johan deceased the ij day of Juley in the yere of our 

 Lord m'v'xvj on whose soule Jfiu have mercy, amen.' 



On a small stone let into one of the buttresses of 

 the modern south aisle is the following in capital 

 letters : 



4 Here lyeth Alyce theldest daughter of .... 

 Gilmyn gent : late wife of Thomas Taylor of Horly 

 the yovnger. Bvried the 18 day of Janvary : 1615 : 



and Thomas the sonne of her and of Thomas Taylor 

 above writen her husband buried the I day of 

 Febrya : 1615.' 



On a stone of the north wall of the chancel inside 

 is the curious inscription on a sunken panel with a 

 moulded border to William Brown, 1613, 'pastor ' 

 of Horley 50 years, and his two wives, Magdalen, 

 1 604, and Margaret, 1 6 1 1 . Below is a table of his 

 descendants. 



There is a small cross upon the east jamb of the 

 north door, and several others more rudely scratched. 

 Also on the same jamb is a very curious little un- 

 finished carving, 5^ in. high, of the design of a 

 traceried window, coeval with the doorway on which 

 it has been cut. 



In the inventory of the commissioners of Edward VI 

 there were : ' In the steple iiij belles and iiij hand 

 belles.' Now there are eight, dated 1812 and 1839, 

 by Thomas Mears of London, with the exception of 

 the fifth, which is inscribed, 4 Henry and John Shove 

 gave the original 3 d Bell 1673 James P Brazier John 

 Newnham Church Wardens.' 



The church plate is not of much interest. It com- 

 prises a silver cup, paten and flagon, of 1714, each 

 bearing the letters IHS and the inscription ' Sam 

 Billingsley, vicar. Jn Humphrey, James Wood, 

 Church Wardens. Jn Charington, Tho. Beadle, 

 overseers. Anno Domini 1714.' 



The registers date from 1578. More interesting 

 are the churchwardens' accounts, from 1507 to 1702, 

 now at the British Museum.'" There are, however, 

 disappointingly few references to the church fabric, 

 and these chiefly consist of repairs to the glazing and 

 leadwork, a ' lok,' and 'yerns' (irons). One entry 

 has : ' The su' of the Rynggs a pon the crose, is Iiij,' 

 and another, ' Of the syln' that is a pon the crose, ij* 

 j rf iiij pessis of a whope ' [? hoop]. These probably 

 refer to a processional cross. 



Later entries (1604 and 1934) contain interesting 

 memoranda as to the appropriation of the seats, showing 

 that they went with the estates and farms in the parish, 

 and 'the repaire of the church and steeple' (1669), 

 which cost 40 1 3;. 43'., a further repair (1686) costing 

 6 i\s. id. In 1632 'John Ansty is chosen by con- 

 sent of y* minister & Parishoners, to see y* y 8 younge 

 men & boyes behauve themselves decently in y e church 

 in time of Diuine service & Sermon, and he is to have 

 for his paines ij'.' There are several records as to ap- 

 prentices ; and some of the earlier entries refer to the 

 parish cow and to the 'stock,' or common funds of 

 parochial gilds, which was to be placed in the treasure 

 chest. 



In 1 190 Pope Clement III granted 

 ADVOWSON permission to the Abbot and convent 

 of Chertsey to retain in their own 

 hands the parish churches of Horley, Epsom, Bookham, 

 &c., reserving the benefices thereof to their own use 

 ' provided that they elect vicars thereto.' lu This 

 permission was recited in a licence for the appropria- 



140 Fully described in a paper by the 

 late J. G. Waller, F.S.A., Surr. Arch. 

 Coll. vii, 184. 



*> Chan. Inq. p.m. 17 Edw. Ill, no. 



45- 



41 Thii remarkable effigy, undoubtedly 

 the most interesting and the finest as a 

 work of art remaining in Surrey, should 

 be compared with the mutilated effigy of 

 a knight in St. Peter's, Sandwich, with 



the brass of Sir John Northwode at 

 Minstcr-in-Sheppey, and with that of Sir 

 John d'Abernon the younger, in Stoke 

 d'Abernon Church, Surrey, 1327. See 

 Stothard, Monumental Effigies ; and Arch, 

 Journ. viii, 231. 



"" Fully described by the late J. G. 

 Waller in Surr. Arch. Call, vii, 189. 

 Mr. Waller compares with this brass as 

 an example of female costume of the 



207 



period the brasses of Lady Peryent, at 

 Digswell, Herts., 141$, and Millicent 

 Meryng, East Markham, Notts. ; also the 

 brass to Robert Skerne's wife in Kingston 

 Church, Surrey, 1420, and Sir Nicholas 

 Carew's lady, at Beddington, 1432. 



" Add. MS. 6173. Published by Mr. 

 A. R. Bax, in Surr. Arch. Coll. vii, 243. 



Pat. 20 Edw. I, m. 1 1 ; Exch. K.R. 

 Misc. Bks. xxv, fol. i6d. 



