A HISTORY OF SURREY 



great-grandson of Joan. 93 He sold it with the manor of 

 Horton to George Mynne, 9 ' whose daughter and co- 

 heir Elizabeth, wife of Richard Evelyn, owned it in 

 l6j2. 95 From that time it may have been merged 

 with the manor of Horton, 96 for now no trace of the 

 manor or place of that name can be found. In a 

 survey of Epsom 97 a boundary point is Brettegraves- 

 herne that is, Brettegrave's Corner, otherwise called 

 Wolfrenesherne. The next mark on the boundary is 

 Abbot's Pit, which on an old map is the name for 

 the disused chalk-pit called Pleasure Pit on the 

 Ordnance map. 9?a 



The estate called DURD4NS in this parish, held 

 of the manor of Horton, is probably the property 

 consisting of a messuage, a dovecote, two gardens, two 

 orchards, 1 2 acres of land with meadow, pasture, and 

 wood, which Sir William Mynne, lord of Horton, 

 conveyed to Elizabeth, Lady Berkeley, in 1 6 1 J. K She 

 in 1634-5 settled Durdans on her daughter Theo- 

 phila, wife of Sir Robert Coke, and her heirs and 

 assigns. 99 Theophila died without issue, Sir Robert 

 Coke surviving. He, by his will of 1652, left 

 Durdans to his nephew George Berkeley, afterwards 

 Earl of Berkeley ; he also devised a messuage called 

 the Dog House, in Epsom, which he had lately 

 acquired (probably by fine from John and Thomas 

 Hewett), 99a to be fitted up as a library and kept for 

 any of the ministers of the county of Surrey, to use 

 on week-days between sun-rising and sun-setting. 100 

 The books left for this purpose however, (which 

 probably formed part of the library of his father, 

 the famous lawyer, Sir Edward Coke), seem to have 

 remained at Durdans until 1682, when George, Earl 

 of Berkeley, gave all or part of them to Sion Col- 

 lege. 100 * George, Earl of Berkeley, entertained 

 Charles II here in 1662, when John Evelyn records 

 in his diary being invited to meet the King and 

 Queen, Duke and Duchess, Prince Rupert, Prince 

 Edward, and abundance of noblemen. 101 Charles II 

 also dined with the Earl of Berkeley at Durdans in 

 i664. 10Ia This was probably at the old house, for 

 the Earl of Berkeley is said to have built a new 

 residence with materials from the palace of Nonsuch, 10 * 

 which was pulled down by the Duchess of Cleveland 

 after 1669. During the Earl's tenure of Durdans, it 

 was the scene of the notorious intrigue between his 

 daughter, Lady Henrietta Berkeley, and her brother- 

 in-law, Lord Grey of Wark. 10 * By will of 1698 the 

 earl left the property to his son Charles, afterwards 

 earl, who in 1 702 sold Durdans with ' the little park 

 paled in ' to Charles Turner of Kirkleatham, co. York. 

 He in 1708 conveyed it to John, Duke of Argyll 

 and Earl of Greenwich, reserving the Dogghouse or 

 Dagghouse Farm. IOSa Before 1 7 1 2 it seems to have 



PRIMROSF, Earl of 

 Rosebery. Vert three 

 primroses or 'within the 

 royal tressure of Scotland 

 for PRIMROSE, quartered 

 with Argent a lion table 

 with a forked tail for 

 CRESSV. 



been acquired by Lord Guilford, losb and Bishop 

 Willis's Visitation calls him a resident of Epsom in 

 1725. His son, Lord North and Guilford, succeeded 

 him in 1729. He was lord of the bedchamber to 

 Frederick, Prince of Wales, from 1730 to 1751, 

 during which time the prince 

 seems to have had a loan or 

 lease of the house, 10 * but the 

 tradition that he owned it is 

 incorrect. 



Alderman Belchier pulled 

 down Lord Berkeley's house 

 after 1747. The new house 

 was bought by Mr. Dalbiac 

 in 1764, and later, in 1799, 

 was acquired by Mr. George 

 Blackman, who sold it in 1819 

 to Sir Gilbert Heathcote, bart., 

 M.P. From the cousins and 

 heirs of his son Arthur Heath- 

 cote it was bought by Lord 

 Rosebery in i874, 104 and he 

 is the present owner. 



The capital messuage of WOODCOTE in Epsom 

 was held of the manor of Horton. 105 In the first 

 half of the l6th century it belonged to one John 

 Ewell of Horton, and continued in his family until 

 1591, when it was the cause of litigation between 

 Agnes Tyther, a descendant of John Ewell, and Roger 

 Lamborde. 106 It was in the possession of John Mynne, 

 lord of the manor of Horton, in 1597, and he settled 

 it on his son William on his marriage. 10 ' It passed 

 with Horton Manor to Elizabeth wife of Richard 

 Evelyn (1648), who built there a new mansion. 

 Mrs. Evelyn bequeathed Woodcote to Lord Balti- 

 more, a remote connexion of her family. 108 After 

 the seventh Lord Baltimore left England in 1 77 1 it was 

 sold to Mr. Monk, then to Mr. Nelson, in 1777 

 to Mr. Arthur Cuthbert, and in 1787 to Mr. Lewis 

 Teissier, a merchant of London, having been separated 

 from the manor of Horton. Mr. Teissier's son, 

 created by Louis XVIII the Baron de Teissier, was 

 owner at the beginning of last century. 109 It was 

 sold by the Baron de Teissier in 1855 to Mr. Robert 

 Brookes, and is now the property of his son, Mr. 

 Herbert Brookes, J.P. 



The church of ST. M4RTIN has 

 CHURCHES a nave with aisles and a north-west 

 tower ; the church has lately been con- 

 siderably enlarged eastward, the new work consisting 

 of an addition to the nave, a chancel and north 

 chapel, a south organ chamber, and aisles. The only 

 old part of the present building is the tower, which 

 dates from the ijth century, but has been recased 



> Terrier of lands in Surrey j Donat 

 MS. B.M. 4705, fol. 14;, 146. 



w Feet of F. Surr. HiL 2 Chas. I. 



85 See Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 

 1652. 



98 See Feet of F. Div. Co. Trin. 15 

 Chas. II. 



W K. R. Misc. Bk. vol. 25, fol. cccxcv d . 



7' The line continues by Seburgh.es 

 taper montem, the Kingston and Reigate 

 road, Dene or Deuelonds, the Portway, 

 Motschameles hedge, corner called Merles- 

 herae iuxta Athtead, Werehull on the 

 heath by the Kingston and Walton road, 

 Cheseldene parkhatch, Kocshcte, and so 

 back to Brettegravesherne. 



* Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 18 Jas. I. 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), dxxvii, 38. 

 Wa See Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 23 

 Chas. II. 



100 P.C.C. Brent, 294. 



looa See Inner Temple MSS. 538, 17, 

 fol. 347, and the account of Sion College 

 by the Rev. W. H. Milman in Lind. and 

 Midd.Areb. Soc. 1880. 



101 Evelyn's Diary, I Sept. 1662. 



1M Hilt. MSS. Com. Rep. xv, App. yii, 



173- 



1M Brayley, Surr. iv, 352, quoting 

 Aubrey, who was contemporary. 



108 State Triah, ix, 127-86. But it 

 was perhaps at another house of Lord 



2 7 6 



Berkeley's in Epsom. See Manning and 

 Bray, Surr. ii, 614. 



losa Close, 7 Anne, pt. ii, no. 13. 



"!> See Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xi, 

 App. v, 309. 



I09c See Pococke's Travels through 

 Engl. (ed. Wright, Camd. So:.), ii. 171. 

 See Lord Rosebery's Introd. to Gordon 

 Home's Epsom. 



lw Local information. 



105 Ct. of Req. I, bdle. 95, no. 61. 



1M Ibid. 



'W Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccli, 

 158. 



108 G.E.C. Peerage, i, 226. 



109 Brayley, Surr. iv, 351. 



