A HISTORY OF SURREY 



The house contains a fine 16th-century mantel- 

 piece with the royal arms on it, which tradition says 

 came from Blechingley Place." The royal arms are 

 France and England quarterly, which shows the date 

 to be previous to James I, and on the lower part, to 

 which the overmantel was added, are the Howard 

 arms. 



The survey of Reigate Manor in 1622 mentions 

 the old park, south of the town, well stored with tim- 

 ber and deer, with ' a faire pond ' stocked with fish. 

 It covered 201 acres, including a portion of the 

 waste laid to it. It was leased by the Earl of 

 Nottingham, who lived at the Priory, of the Earl of 

 Dorset. It is obviously the park about the Priory, 

 which properly belonged to Reigate Manor, not 

 to the Priory. Sir Roger, James was then tenant 

 of the castle, and of the ' connie warren.' 



The present buildings of the Reigate Free School 

 were erected in 1871, when a new scheme was sanc- 

 tioned for the management of the school." The earlier 

 history of the school (given in another volume) can be 

 supplemented from the vestry books and a MS. which 

 has come under the writer's notice. The litigation 

 in Chancery which followed the refusal of the heirs 

 of Sir Edward Thurland, the original trustee of the 

 school funds in 1675, to recognize the trust, resulted 

 in a decision of 1 8 April 1687 establishing the vicar, 

 churchwardens, and six of the principal inhabitants as 

 trustees. The school was started shortly afterwards, 

 previous to 1 744, the date given in the earlier volume 

 of this history. Andrew Cranston, vicar from 1697 to 

 1708, who established the library in the church, was 

 master of the school, which was kept in a house 

 devised for the purpose by Robert Bishop in 1698, 

 when four boys had to be taught freely. Mr. John 

 Parker in 1718 added two more free scholars sup- 

 ported by an endowment, and there were then 

 thirty paying boys. It was ordered that year by the 

 vestry that the master should teach the Catechism 

 twice a week and see that the boys went to church on 

 Sundays, holidays, and weekly prayer days. The 

 election of the master was in the hands of ' the whole 

 parish,' but as there were three masters between the 

 death of the Rev. John Bird, vicar and master in 

 1728, and the appointment of the Rer. John Martin 

 in 1732, the relations between the master and the 

 vestry were probably not easy. The masters were 

 expected to do repairs of the schoolhouse, and did not 

 do them. In 1778 the vestry voted that the repairs 

 were to fall upon the master, and that the last 

 executed had been in 1733, when 60 was laid out 

 ' from an unknown source." Mr. Thomas Sisson 

 signed as master on those terms. The desire of the 

 masters was clearly to neglect the free scholars, and to 

 take paying pupils. It would seem that at this date 

 (1778) the Rev. Mr. Pooles was nominally master, 

 drawing the small endowment and probably taking 

 private pupils, and had put in Mr. Sisson as usher to 

 teach the free boys. The vestry put in Mr. Sisson 

 as master, but ultimately" had to undertake the 

 repairs. 



Reigate (British) School, High Street, was built in 

 1852, enlarged in 1888. 



Reigate (national) School, London Road, was built 

 in 1859. 



St. Mark's (national) School, Holmesdale Road, was 

 built in 1869. 



Holmesdale (British) School, was built in 1870, 

 and rebuilt in 1900. 



St. Luke's (national) School, Allingham Road, was 

 built in 1873, enlarged 1883. 



Heathfield (Church) School, Reigate Heath, was 

 built in 1873. 



Lesbourne Lands (national) School for Infants was 

 built in 1880. 



The Wesleyan chapel in High Street was built 

 in 1884, in place of an older chapel in Nutley Lane. 



The Primitive Methodist chapel was built in 1 870 ; 

 there is also a Congregational church in Allingham 

 Road. 



Two societies of Nonconformists in Reigate have a 

 more ancient history. George Fox came to Reigate 

 in 1655, and his friends were numerous in the neigh- 

 bourhood. Reigate, Dorking, Capel, Ockley, Ncwdi- 

 gate, Charlwood, all had early adherents of the Society 

 of Friends in them. There is a record of a meeting 

 in Reigate in 1669. Mr. Thomas Moore, a justice 

 of the peace, mentioned in Fox's Journal, let some 

 land at a nominal rent for a permanent meeting-house 

 as soon as the Toleration Act of 1689 made it lawful. 

 A burial-ground was attached to it. The original 

 building lasted till 1798, when it was rebuilt or 

 considerably altered. In 1856 the building was 

 pulled down and replaced by the present meeting- 

 house, on the same site, on the road to Redhill." 



A congregation of Independents claims to have 

 existed in Reigate since 1662. From the records of 

 the present church it appears that the Rev. James 

 Waters was the first minister. The list of meetings 

 which Sheldon procured in 1669, and the licences 

 under the Indulgence of 1672, show no meetings in 

 Reigate." But Mr. Waters is not said to have 

 entered upon regular ministrations till 1687, after 

 James's Declaration of Indulgence. Meanwhile, 

 however, he had been tutor in the family of Denzil 

 Lord Holies, who was a Presbyterian, and chaplain 

 to Mr. Evelyn of Nutfield. In 1715 there were 

 Presbyterian and Friends' meetings in Reigate, 

 but no Independents. 24 In 1725 the returns to 

 Willis" Visitation * show the same. It is pretty 

 obvious that this is another of the Presbyterian 

 meetings which for want of a real Presbyterian 

 organization passed into Congregationalism. The 

 chapel was repaired in 1819 by Mr. Thomas Wilson, 

 and reopened after having been closed about twenty 

 years. It was rebuilt altogether by Mr. Wilson in 

 1831, and has since been enlarged.* 6 



Redhill was, as the name conveys, a hill of the 

 sand formation, and Redhill Common was a large open 

 space in Reigate parish, of some fame historically as 

 the scene of a skirmish, or of the meeting at least, of 

 hostile picquets of Royalists and Parliamentarians 

 in 1648, and of a projected Royalist meeting in 

 1659." The coming of the railways turned the 

 neighbourhood of a country common into one of 

 the most important towns in Surrey. In 1841 the 



19 Evelyn says (Diary, 21 Aug. 1655) 

 that the work came from Blechingley, 

 and as Blechingley Place and the Priory 

 belonged to the same owner (Lady Peter- 

 borough), this is probably true. 



*>V.C.H. Surr. ii, 217-18. 

 al Ibid. 217. 



m MSS. formerly in hands of Mr. Marsh 

 of Dorking. 



y.c.H. SUTT. ;;, 38-40. 

 232 



* Surr. Arch. Coll. *iv (2). 



45 MS. Farnham Castle. 



16 Waddington, Surr. Cong. Hist. 281. 



? Y.C.H. Surr. i, 418, 423. 



