

COPTHORNE HUNDRED 



Headley Court is the seat of Mr. Walter CunlifFe, 

 Headley Park that of Mr. J. N. Mappin, and Head- 

 ley Grove that of Miss Bridge. 



There is an iron Congregational chapel ; and there 

 is an institute and club in the village. 



A school (Church of England) was built in 1868. 

 In 1725 there was a school of 20 gentlemen's sons 

 kept by Mr. Stubbs. 



Before the Conquest the Countess Goda 

 MANOR held HEADLEY in chief of King Ed- 

 ward, and at the time of the Domesday 

 Survey it was in the hands of Ralph de Felgeres.* By 

 the end of the 1 2th century it was held by Gilbert 

 de Tilers, who paid 40*. for it into the king's trea- 

 sury in 1 1 99.* His daughter Agnes, who married 

 Philip de Crois, 4 was one of his heirs. 4 Another 

 daughter Joan married Thomas Malesmains, who 

 held land in Headley in 1210, which had been 

 given to him with the daughter of Gilbert de 

 Tilers by the king's grant. 6 Hilary, one of Agnes's 

 daughters, succeeded to part of the manor, including 

 the capital messuage, and her husband James de 

 Banelingham did homage for it in 1233.' James was 

 an alien, and in 1246 the estate had escheated to the 

 king. 9 



In 1253 John d'Abernon was granted free warren 

 in his demesne lands at Headley, 9 and twenty-five 

 years later his son John was summoned to prove 

 his right to this privilege. 10 This, however, may not 

 refer to the manor, but to a half-carucate of land 

 there which Giles d'Abernon acquired in 121718 

 from Martin and Eva de 

 Covenham, possibly one of the 

 heiresses of Agnes de Tilers." 

 The next mention of Headley 

 occurs amongst the possessions 

 of John de Plesey, who held 

 it for the service of a quarter 

 of a knight's fee. John died 

 in 1313-14," leaving three 

 sons : Edmund his heir, Ro- 

 bert from whom were de- 

 scended the owners of Head- 

 ley at a later date, and John." 

 At the death of Edmund, who was said to have 

 held in free socage owing no service to the king," 

 two parts of the estate were assigned in dower to 

 his widow Maud. 15 He was succeeded by his son 

 Nicholas, at whose death in 1357 the property was 



DE PLESEY. Argent 

 six ringt gulei. 



HEAI>3HD 



taken into the king's custody on account of the 

 minority of the heir," John de Plesey, who died 

 shortly after. Nicholas his brother also died without 

 attaining his majority, and Headley then passed to 

 their sister Joan," the wife of John Hameley. Hame- 

 ley continued to hold the manor after her death for 

 service of a quarter of a knight's fee, until he himself 

 died in 1398 9. 18 As Joan's only son had died un- 

 married before his father, the property should then 

 have reverted to Peter de Plesey, Joan's uncle, and 

 Sir Nicholas's only brother. Peter, however, appar- 

 ently never held the manor, for having no son to 

 succeed, he granted it to Joan's distant cousin, John 

 de Plesey, who being descended in a direct line from 

 Robert, Edmund's younger brother, was the next heir 

 after Peter. 19 From about this date the estate is re- 

 ferred to as ' three parts of the manor,' and it is pos- 

 sible that one quarter was settled upon Elizabeth, 

 Joan Hameley's daughter and only surviving child.* 



John de Plesey died in 1406, and his son John 

 succeeded him. 11 This John left no children, and the 

 manor reverted in 1417 to his father's first cousin, 

 John Camel." In 1438 Camel conveyed one-third 

 of the manor to William Wikes and John Aleyn, 2 * and 

 a William Wikes died seised of the property in 1518, 

 his uncle, Richard Wikes, being his heir." In 1526 

 Richard received licence to alienate the manor and 

 lands to Sir David Owen and others," probably in 

 trust for Andrew Windsor, afterwards Lord Windsor, 

 who died seised of the manor of Headley, also called 

 Wikes Manor, in 1543-4." The year before his 

 death he likewise became possessed of property in 

 Headley which had formerly belonged to the Abbot 

 of Westminster, who had claimed liberties there as 

 early as 1278-9,*' Henry VIII granting him these 

 lands with all the other possessions of the dissolved 

 abbey in a forced exchange for the manor of Stan- 

 well.* 8 In this document this monastic land is said 

 to be one quarter of Headley Manor ; " it may have 

 been so called from the fact that since John de Plesey 

 had inherited the estate in 1398-9 it had only con- 

 sisted of three-quarters of the manor ; the remaining 

 fourth seems to have been lost sight of, and when 

 Lord Windsor acquired the Westminster land it was 

 accounted for in this way.* 



Lord Windsor was succeeded by his son William, 

 who in 1554 acquired Headley Farm from the trustees 

 of Nicholas Leigh, the heir of one Michael Leigh, 11 

 who had held it ten years before. This farm had 



V.C.H. Surr. i, 326. 

 8 Pipe R. 6 Ric. I, m. I. 

 4 Add. Chart. 5517. 



6 Ibid. -5 5 26. 



' Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 125 ; 

 Red Bk. ofExch. (Rolls Ser.), 562. 



7 Excerpta e Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i, 

 246. 



8 Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 1 Hen. Ill, no. 8. 



9 Cal. of Chart. 1226-57, p. 434. 

 lOPlac. de Quo ffarr. (Rec. Com.), 738 ; 



Symmes' Coll. for Hitt. of Surr.; Add. MS. 

 6167, fol. 215. 



Feet of F. Surr. East. 2 Hen. III. 

 There may have been another manor in 

 Headley, as in 1 204-5 the sheriff of Sur- 

 rey was ordered to deliver seisin to Richard 

 de Clare * quod de feodo suo cat ' (Close, 

 6 John, m. 12, no. no). This de Clare 

 holding, which does not, however, appear 

 in the inquisitions on later Earls of Clare 

 ind Gloucester, possibly explains the ap- 



pearance at Headley of the d'Abernons, 

 their sub-tenants in other places. The 

 holding of the d'Abernons, who were lords 

 of Albury, may have included the land in 

 Headley called Eldebury, which afterwards 

 appears amongst the possessions of the 

 Pleseys, in which case it would seem that 

 the two holdings became united. 



18 Chan. Inq. p.m. 7 Edw. II, no. 5. 



18 Berry, Surr. Gen. 56 ; Vint, of Surr. 

 (Harl. Soc. xliii), 7. 



14 Chan. Inq. p.m. I Edw. Ill (1st nos.), 

 no. 42. u Ibid. 



18 Abbrev. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 

 244. 



17 Chan. Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. ii 

 (ist nos.), no. 15. 



18 Ibid. 22 Ric. II, no. 25. In this 

 inquisition Headley is said to be held 

 of the honour of Boulogne, a remi- 

 niscence of its having been held before the 

 Conquest by the Countess of Boulogne, 



2 9 I 



Goda (Godgifu), Edward's sister, though 

 it had not apparently gone to her son Earl 

 Eustace. 



19 Ibid. ; Berry, Surr. Gen. 56. 



Ibid. 



al Chan. Inq. p.m. 8 Hen. IV, no. 63. 



31 Ibid. 4 Hen. V, no. 31 ; Feet of F. 

 Div. Co. Hil. 10 Hen. VI. 



28 Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Hen. VI, no. 32. 



84 Ibid. (Ser. 2,) xxxiii, 87. 



L. and P. Hen. fill, iv, 2673 (2). 



* Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixviii, 28. 



" Plac. de Quo ffarr. (Rec. Com.), 745. 



88 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xvii, 285 (18) ; 

 Harl. MS. 1880 [copy of indenture]. 



89 The property was possibly granted to 

 the abbey with the advowson by one of 

 the heirs of Agnes de Tilers. 



80 Or this quarter may have been ac- 

 quired by Westminster at some time after 

 1398-9. 



81 Pat. 36 Hen. VIII, pt.xxviii, m. 29. 



