REIGATE HUNDRED 



100 of pasture, 20 of wood in Leigh, and 40 acres 

 of pasture in Betchworth, the said messuage and lands 

 being known as that mansion, messuage or farm with 

 dovecot called ' Le Ley,' held of the manor of Ban- 

 stead by service of I is. Elizabeth Copley survived 

 her husband, and died in 1559, Sir Thomas Copley 

 being her son and heir." He was M.P. for Gallon in 

 1554, 1557-8, and 1562-3. Under Mary he was a 

 supporter of the rights of succession of Elizabeth, 46 

 who was his third cousin twice removed through the 

 marriage of Sir Geoffrey Boleyn with his great-great- 

 aunt Anne, daughter of Lord Hastings. But he had 

 scruples about subscribing to the Acts of Supremacy 

 and Uniformity, 47 and left England in 1569 and spent 

 the rest of his life abroad, dying in Flanders in 1 5 4. 48 

 William Copley, eldest surviving son of Thomas, in- 

 herited the estate. 49 It was settled on his son William 

 on the marriage of the latter with Anne Denton in 

 1615. In 1620, however, William Copley the 

 father, having married as his second wife Margaret 

 Fromond, appears to have made a second settlement 

 of the estate, this time on himself and his wife 

 Margaret and the survivor of either of them for life, 

 with reversion to his son by his first wife." The son, 

 who had predeceased him, had left two daughters and 

 co-heirs Mary, who married John Weston, and Anne, 

 wife of Sir Nathaniel Minshull. 6 ' William Copley 

 the father died in 1643, and his widow Margaret 

 apparently entered on Leigh Place. In 1 649, Mary 

 Weston, to whom on the partition of estates Leigh 

 Place had been allotted, conveyed the reversion, 

 expectant on the demise of Margaret Copley, widow, 

 to John Woodman. The latter in 1651 conveyed 

 to Thomas Jordan in trust for Robert Bristowe, and 

 at the end of the same year Margaret Copley agreed 

 to sell to the latter her life interest in the estate. 64 

 From Susanna Moore, daughter and heiress of Robert 

 Bristowe, Leigh Place passed in 1706 to Edward 

 Budgen, who by will of 1716 devised to his grand- 

 nephews in turn. Thomas, the youngest, married 

 Penelope Smith, and in 1 806 his grandson, Thomas 

 Smith-Budgen, conveyed the estate to Richard CafFyn 

 Dendy, 66 in whose family it remains, Sir John Watney, 

 the present owner, having married Elizabeth, a daugh- 

 ter and co-heir of Stephen Dendy. 66 



Leigh Place is the remains of a 15th-century house 

 surrounded by a moat. Part of the house was pulled 

 down about 1810, and the interior as restored and 

 modernized is not of any great interest ; there is, how- 

 ever, some fine woodwork. In a room on the ground 

 floor is a large fireplace of 1 8th-century design, and on 

 the first floor a large room now divided into three bed- 

 rooms has a four-centred arched ceiling, and over it 

 a bell turret. It used to be approached by a draw- 

 bridge, which is now superseded by a permanent way. 

 Old maps show the house to have been foursquare 

 with a central courtyard, and the view in Manning 



and Bray shows the entrance front as it existed about 

 1806, with the drawbridge over the moat. 661 The 

 Copleys being Catholic recusants accounts for a cup- 

 board near the chimney in the hall which was called 

 the Priest's Hole. Robert Southwell the Jesuit and 

 poet was son of Bridget, sister of Sir Thomas Copley 

 of Leigh and Gallon, and may have been here. 



STUMBLEHOLE.ln 1325 R. de Stumblehole 

 held a lenement al Slumblehole of Banslead Manor. 67 

 A messuage and lands at Slumblehole were held by ihe 

 de Bures family as parcel of lands al Burgh in 

 Banslead in ihe I4lh cenlury. 68 The properly seems 

 lo have afterwards belonged lo ihe Leigh Place estate, 

 as Bray, writing in ihe early I9lh century, states 

 that it had then been sold as a farm lo William 

 Brown by John Smilh-Budgen of Leigh Place.* 9 



The church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW 

 CHURCH has a chancel 25 ft. 6 in. by 1 8 ft. 2 in., 

 a south veslry, a nave 546. 3 in. (of 

 which 10 ft. at ihe wesl end is covered by ihe lower 

 and divided from the nave by an arch) by 2 1 ft., and 

 soulh and west porches. 



The building is of 1 5th-cenlury origin, but has 

 been much modernized. The nave was formerly 

 aboul ihree-quarlers of the present length, and had 

 a west tower with a slone base and upper part of 

 wood. The lower had a wesl doorway, and over it 

 a ihree-light Iraceried window, and ils wesl wall was 

 flush with that of the nave. At a later dale ihe wooden 

 parl was replaced by one of slone. When the church 

 was lengthened in 1 890 the lower was demolished and 

 replaced by ihe presenl wooden ereclion above ihe 

 nave roof : ihe arch opening lo ihe nave appears lo have 

 been re-used, bul no oiher parl of ihe work is old. 



The east window of the chancel is a modern one 

 in I5th-cenlury style, of three lights under a Iraceried 

 head. The two norlh windows are boih partly re- 

 stored 15th-century work : the first is of two cinque- 

 foiled lights under a traceried pointed head wilh a 

 label, ihe external jambs and arch having a wide case- 

 ment moulding, while ihe second window is of Iwo 

 irefoiled lighls under a square head. The south-east 

 window is quile modern and similar in design lo lhat 

 opposite. In this wall, near the chancel arch, is the 

 doorway to the modern vestry. The chancel arch has 

 chamfered jambs with moulded bases and capitals, and 

 the arch is two-centred and of two chamfered orders. 

 The bases and some other siones are modern, ihe resl 

 may be original. 



The Iwo easiernmosl of ihe norlh windows of ihe 

 nave are bolh old, of three cinquefoiled lighls under 

 poinled segmental heads, ihe ihird window is a new 

 one of similar characler bul of Iwo lighls. The 

 south-east window is an old one of three lights like 

 thai opposile, and below ii is a small cinquefoiled and 

 square-headed piscina. The soulh doorway is original, 

 and has two moulded orders continuing round the 



44 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxxvi, 145 ; 

 P.C.C. 5 Mellershe. 



46 Com. Journ. i, 50. 



47 Loselcy MSS. ix, 19, 20. Letters 

 dated 17 and 23 Nov. 1569. 



48 Diet. Nat. Biog. 



4g Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. z), ccccv, 159. 



60 Ibid. 



u Ibid. The Surr. Arch. Coll. states 

 that the deed of 1620 settled the estate 

 not only on William Copley, senior, and 

 Margaret for life, but on their issue, 



remainder being to William Copley, junior, 

 the issue by the father's first marriage. 

 This account also states that, after the 

 death of the latter, the first settlement was 

 disputed, and that of 1 620 was finally al- 

 lowed. The inquisition on the son and the 

 subsequent history do not, however, show 

 that the children by the father's second 

 marriage ever had any right to the estate. 

 M Ibid. ; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), 

 ccccv, 159. Minshull was apparently 

 Anne's second husband. Set Gatton Manor. 



211 



58 Surr. Arch. Coll. xi, 177-8 (deed in 

 possession of owners of estate). 



44 Ibid. 179. 



Ibid. 183. 



M Burke, Landed Gentry, 



"* See Surr. Arch. Coll. xi, 141-84. 



W Add. Chart. 16532. 



68 Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. Ill (ist 

 nos.), no. 54 ; 19 Edw. Ill (ist nos.), 

 no. 54. 



" Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr. 

 ii, 184. 



