REIGATE HUNDRED 



MERSTHAM 



Council for an asylum; the quit-rent of in. id. 

 recorded in 1522 was enfranchised from the present 

 lord by the council. 



A school (national) was established in 1 849. A 

 School Board was elected in 1889, which took 

 over and enlarged the National School. The present 

 building was erected in 1898. 



South Merstham is an ecclesiastical parish made in 

 1898 out of Merstham parish and a portion of Gatton. 

 The church (All Saints) was built that year. It is 

 of brick in 13th-century style, and when completed 

 will include chancel, nave, transepts, and spire. The 

 chancel and transepts and one bay of the nave are 

 completed at present. The basin of the font is a 

 Tridacna Gigas shell brought from the Philippine 

 Islands by Mr. William Willox. Battle Bridge is in 

 the part of Gatton transferred to Merstham and 

 included in this district. 



A rental of Merstham of 1522,' and a map in Lord 

 Hylton's possession, of 1 760, show that the parish was 

 much subdivided into small holdings in open fields 

 ibout Ashted Hill and also elsewhere. About Worstead 

 Green were many cottages which have disappeared. 

 Townend Meads are marked in the Ordnance map 

 west of the village. Towney Meads seems to be their 

 usual name, but the rental of 1522 calls them Town- 

 man Meads ; obviously the meadows of the villani. 

 Both ' Common Fields ' and Cotman Mead,' with 

 several 'shots' in each, appear in the 1522 rental. 



There is no Inclosure Act, but William Jolliffe, 

 who bought the manor in 1788 and died in 1802, con- 

 solidated the holdings in large farms as leases fell in ; 

 a process completed after his premature death caused 

 by an accident. 10 



The earliest mention ofMERSTHJM 

 MANORS (Mearsdethan, x cent. ; Mersthan, 

 Domesday Survey ; Mesham, xiii cent, 

 and later) occurs in 675, when Frithwald, tub- 

 regultu of Surrey, and Erkenwald, Bishop of London, 

 granted 20 hides there to the abbey of Chertsey. 11 

 In 947 20 hides were bestowed by Eadred upon 

 Oswig his minister," while the grant to Chertsey was 

 confirmed in 967 by Edgar, and again in 1062 by 

 Edward." Some of this property came ultimately 

 into the possession of the abbey of Christchurch, 

 Canterbury. According to Dugdale, who prints a 

 charter to that effect, the manor was granted to the 

 monastery byAthelstan, more usually known as Lifing, 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1018." At the time 

 of Domesday Survey it was held by the archbishop 

 for the clothing of the monks, 15 and after the separa- 

 tion of the lands of the archbishop from those of 

 Christchurch, 16 it remained part of the abbey estate 

 until the beginning of the i6th century. 17 In 1539 

 Thomas, Prior of Christchurch, surrendered Merstham 

 Manor to Henry VIII, who granted it to Sir Robert 



Southwell, Master of the Rolls, and Margaret his wife, 

 in exchange for the rectory of Warnham in Sussex, 

 which the king then bestowed upon the abbey in fee. 18 

 Sir Robert died before his wife, who married William 

 Plumbe and held the manor jointly with her second 

 husband for the term of her life. 19 In 1569 her two 

 sons Francis and Robert Southwell alienated the 

 reversion to Thomas Copley, 10 who apparently entered 

 into immediate occupation of the house, for a com- 

 plaint was raised by William Rychebell to the effect 

 that Copley had turned him out, seized his household 

 goods, and spoiled his crops. Rychebell, who had 

 married Alice, the eldest daughter of Christopher 

 Best," pleaded that the estate, excepting the courts 

 leet and rents of assize, had been let to his father-in- 

 law for a term of fifty years, and that he himself now 

 held the lease ' by good law.' " The result of his 

 petition does not appear. In 1 5 84 Thomas Copley 

 died in Flanders seised of the reversion, bequeathing it 

 to his wife Katherine for her life. 13 In 1 604 William 

 Copley, son of Thomas, conveyed the property to 

 Nicholas Jordan and John Middleton." 



Two years later the manor was sold by these to 

 John Hedge,' 5 who settled it upon his son Anthony 

 1 6 December 1619. John Hedge died in the 

 following January, and a few months later the manor 

 was re-settled by trustees upon Anthony on his mar- 

 riage with Margaret Fountayne.* 8 In 1 650, Merstham 

 was held by another John Hedge, presumably his son." 

 By 1673-4 the manor was divided between two co- 

 heiresses, Jane the wife of Henry Hoare and Mirabella 

 the wife of John Gainsford, junior, 18 and as Jane was 

 daughter and co-heiress of John Hedge* 9 it seems 

 probable that Mirabella was her sister. John and 

 Nicholas Gainsford sold Merstham 30 May 1678 to 

 Sir John Southcote,* who died seised of property in 

 Merstham in 1685. He left everything to his wife 

 Elizabeth,* 1 who died in the following year and was 

 succeeded by her eldest son Edward." A partition 

 was made between Sir Edward Southcote and Henry 

 Hoare in 1705, by which the manor and some of the 

 lands were ceded to the former, and the remainder of 

 the property was retained by Hoare." The manor 

 was first mortgaged in two moieties, and then sold in 

 successive portions to Paul Docminique and to his son 

 Charles, 84 who died without children in 1745, his 

 cousin Paul Humphrey inheriting the property. Paul 

 Humphrey also died without issue, and the manor 

 passed into the possession of his sister Rachel and her 

 husband John Tattersall. 85 They too left no chil- 

 dren, and the estate devolved upon John's brother the 

 Rev. James Tattersall, who, dying in 1784, left the 

 estates for sale. 8 * They were purchased in 1788 from 

 trustees by William Jolliffe, who was succeeded in 1 802 

 by his son Hylton. Hylton Jolliffe died without issue 

 in 1843. His nephew Sir W. G. H. Jolliffe, bart.," 



' Communicated by Lord Hylton to 

 the Surr. Arch. Soc. Trant. xx. 



10 Surr. Arch. Coll. loc. cit. j Manning 

 and Bray, op. cit. ii, 252. 



11 Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 64 ; Kemble, Cod. 

 Difl. v, 19. 



" Ibid, ii, 27 ; Birch, Cart. Sax. ii, 584. 

 18 Kemble, Cad. Difl. iii, 6 ; iv, 151. 

 14 Dugdale, Mem. i, 97. 

 ls r.C.H. Surr. i, 300. 

 18 Somner, Antiq. of Cant. 122. 

 W Bibl. Cott Galba E. iv, foL 33, Ac, 

 18 L. and P. Hen. Ylll, xiv (i), 1286 ; 

 (2), g. 113 (21); XT, g. 282 (84). 



18 Pat. 10 Eliz. pt, vi, m. 40. 

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

 u P.C.C. 6 Streat, 



" Chan. Proc. (Ser. 2),bdle. 28, no. 13. 

 83 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccx, 85 ; 

 Pat. 3 1 Eliz. pt. xiv, m. 20. 



* Feet of F. Surr. Hil. I Jas I. The 

 Copleys were recusants, paying heavy 

 compositions, and gradually forced to sell 

 lands. 



* Close, 4 Jas. I, pt, i ; Pat. 4 Jas I, pt, 

 xii. 



* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccUxxvi, 

 117. 



2IS 



*> Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 1650. 



88 Ibid. East 25 Chas. II ; Mich. 29 

 Chas. II ; Hil. 29 & 30 Chas. II ; Hil. 

 2 Will, and Mary. 



M Ct. R. in Lord Hylton's hands. 



80 Deeds in Lord Hylton's hands. 



81 P.C.C. 77 Cann. 

 ra Ibid. 7 Lloyd. 



38 Manning and Bray, Hilt, of Surr. ii, 



84 Ibid. ; information, Lord Hylton. 



85 P.C.C. Ducie. 



M Manning and Brty, Hist, of Surr. ii, 

 257. *> Ibid. 



