REIGATE HUNDRED 



MERSTHAM 



and their heirs. 70 Casley seems to have quitclaimed 

 his right to Lechford. The latter predeceased his 

 father Sir Richard, who, already possessed of the advow- 

 son, 71 held the rectory also after his son's death," 

 probably during the minority of his grandson Richard. 

 Henceforth the rectory and advowson were presumably 

 held together, the benefice reverting to its original 

 curacy, for which the lay rectors were responsible. 73 

 Sir Richard Lechford conveyed in 1610 to Richard 

 Dallender, 74 who in 1627 sold to Sir Ralph Freeman 

 * the rectory and parsonage impropriate of Leigh with 

 the capital messuage called the parsonage house.' 75 

 After this time the property frequently changed hands, 

 passing from Freeman to George Smith in l63O, 76 

 and from the latter to Edward Bathurst in 1638." 



The Parliamentary Surveys of Church Lands made 

 during the Commonwealth record in 1658 that 'the 

 parish of Leigh ... is an impropriation. That 

 Mr. Anthony Bathurst of Dogmershfield in the county 

 of Southampton is Impropriator thereof. That Tithes 

 and Gleabe Land thereof are worth threescore pounds 

 by the yeare. That John Bonwicke Clerke is Curat 

 there to whome the said Mr. Anthony Bathurst 

 giveth of his free will (five pounds everie quarter of 

 the year.' 78 



In 1691 members of the Bathurst family conveyed 

 to Mary Tainturier, widow, and Daniel Tainturier, 79 

 and from the latter the rectory passed to Thomas 

 Scawen in lyii-iz. 80 James Scawen held it in 



I 779> 



conveyed it in that year to Cartwright, 8 



from whom it passed in 1790 to the Duke of Nor- 

 folk. 83 It passed from trustees of the duke in 1819 

 to the Rev. Joseph Fell. 84 Fell conveyed to Joseph 

 Hodgson in 1823, and the latter, in the same year, to 

 R. C. Dendy, of Leigh Place, 84 in whose family the 

 patronage remained for many years. After the death 

 of Stephen Dendy it passed to his third daughter and 

 co-heir, Elizabeth wife of John Watney. 88 She died 

 in 1896 ; her husband, who was knighted in 1900, 

 still holds the advowson. 87 The living was created a 

 vicarage in 1 869. The benefice, as has been said, had 

 previously been a perpetual curacy, the impropriator 

 of the rectory holding both great and small tithes. 88 



Smith's Charity is distributed as in 

 CHARITIES other Surrey parishes. In 1786 three 

 houses, with orchards, from one bene- 

 faction, and one house, with no orchard, from another, 

 were held for the poor ; but the donors were un- 

 known. Two houses on the road from Leigh to 

 Charlwood were called the Poor's Houses in living 

 recollection, but they have been long in private 

 hands, and were probably sold after l834. 89 



Earl's Charity, date unknown, was l I z/. charged 

 on land for the poor. This is not known to exist at 

 present. 



In 1637 the Rev. Thomas Bristowe, by will, left 

 a schoolhouse with 5 acres of land for the education 

 of four poor children. This is lost apparently. 



S. Dendy, by will, proved 1 86 1, left stock pro- 

 ducing 11 01. id. yearly for the school. 



MERSTHAM 



Merstan (xi cent.) ; Mestham and Merstham (xii 

 cent.) ; Meyrstham and Merystham (xiv cent.) 



Merstham is a village 3 J miles north-east of Reigate, 

 8 miles south-by-west from Croydon, on the road be- 

 tween the two. The parish is bounded on the north 

 by Coulsdon, on the east by Chaldon and Blechingley, 

 on the south by Nutfield, on the south-west by 

 Gatton, on the north-west by Chipstead. It mea- 

 sures 3 miles from north to south, and z miles from 

 east to west, and contains 2,015 acres. 



In 1 899 ' a small readjustment of boundaries was 

 made between Merstham and Gatton, part of each 

 parish being transferred to the other. Merstham is in 

 situation one of the typical parishes of the southern 

 side of the chalk range. The parish runs from the 

 chalk across the Upper Green Sand and Gault, into 

 the Lower Green Sand, the outcrop of the Gault 

 being unusually wide. The church and old village 

 stand on the Upper Green Sand, at the foot of the 

 chalk. The chalk is generally here crowned with an 

 unusual thickness of clay with flints, but in the south- 

 ern escarpment the chalk is on the surface. 



Alderstead Heath is still an open common, and Wbr- 

 stead Green, or Wood Street Green, as it was anciently 

 called, is a long strip of roadside waste. The Wellhead, 



at the foot of Church Hill, was a valuable spring feeding 

 one of the branches of the Mole, but has been much 

 diminished by the workings of water companies and 

 by the railway tunnel. An intermittent burn used to 

 issue from the foot of Merstham Hill in wet weather, 

 as at Croydon, on the other side of the chalk. But 

 though both still flow occasionally, the water com- 

 panies have permanently lowered the level of water in 

 the chalk and interfered with all such natural over- 

 flows. 



The Merstham quarries are in the Upper Green 

 Sand formation, and though the parish was and is 

 agricultural for the most part, the stone quarries are 

 the most striking industrial part of Merstham, particu- 

 larly on account of the general scarcity of good build- 

 ing stone in the county. 



The Upper Green Sand yields stone of varying 

 qualities throughout the whole of the outcrop of the 

 bed. Lingfield had its quarries at the time of the 

 Domesday Survey, but Godstone and Merstham have 

 been more famous since as sources of supply. It is 

 often called firestone, for it used to be in request for 

 the beds of furnaces, especially in glass-houses. In 

 West Surrey the same stone is called Malm stone. It 

 is a calcareous sandstone, containing green silicate of 



71 



75 



Hil. 



Pat. 42 Eliz. pt. XT, m. 34 ; Cal. 

 Dom. 1598-1601, p. 237. 

 Vide supra. 



Feet of F. Surr. Mich. 4 Jas. I ; ibid. 

 7. Jas. I. ~ 8 Vide infra. 



Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 7 Jas. I. 

 Close, 3 Chas. I, pt. ix, no. 22. 

 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 6 Cha. I. 

 Ibid. 14 Chas. I. 



78 Surr. Arch Coll. xvii, 97. 



79 Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 3 Will, and 

 Mary. 



80 Feet of F. Surr. Hil. 10 Anne. 



8 > Ibid. East. 19 Geo. III. 8a Ibid. 



88 Manning and Bray, Hiit. of Surr. ii, 

 185. 



" 4 Braylcy, Hist, of Surr. iv, 283 ; Inst. 

 Bks. (P.R.O.). 



213 



85 See preceding note. 

 88 Clergy Lists ; Burke, Peerage, &c., 

 Landed Gentry. 

 7 Ibid. 



88 See note 82 ; Clergy Lists. 



89 Information from Sir John Watney. 

 'Loc. Govt. Bd. Order 39880; Mark 



Hedge Shaw is an existing name on the 

 boundary between Merstham and Gatton. 



