WOKING HUNDRED 



WEST CLANDON 



This manor was also called CL4NDON REGIS,' and 

 it was stated in 1279 that part had been in the king's 

 hands/ and part in those of William de Braose in his 

 manor of Bramley. It is a fact that some houses are 

 in the manor of Tangley, which represents William's 

 Bramley manor. 6 * In 1255 Christina de Alsefeld 

 released to Matthew de Bovill one messuage and lands 

 in West Clandon, 6 which seem to have been part of the 

 original manor. Matthew de Bovill left a daughter 

 Alice, who in 1 294 was the wife of William de Weston. 7 

 She had, however, made two previous marriages. 8 Her 

 first husband was John de Aqua,' who was probably a 

 member of the Atwater family, who in later years 

 tried to assert their claims to this manor. She married 

 secondly Robert de Boclynton, 10 and in 1290 a settle- 

 ment was made, probably on their marriage, by which 

 the manor was secured to them for life with remainder 

 to the heirs of Alice. Robert was found dead at Send 

 in the autumn of 1290, having been slain by William 

 Atwater 'qui percussit dictum Robertum in capite 

 et praeterea in sinistra parte collis cum hachia quae 

 vocatur polhax." " The sheriff of Surrey was afterwards 

 ordered to release Atwater, on the grounds that his 

 attack had been provoked." 



The Atwater family seem to have had certain 

 rights in the manor; in 1279 John Atwater claimed 

 to have liberty to buy and sell in Guildford with- 

 out payment of tolls 'for himself and his men of 

 Clandon,' and won his case. 11 It therefore seems as 

 though the quarrel which proved fatal to Robert de 

 Boclynton may have originated in some dispute 

 touching the manor. At any rate, after Robert's 

 death, William and Alice de Weston enjoyed peaceable 

 possession of the manor." Their son William, who 

 succeeded them, married first Isabel, daughter of Wal- 

 ter Burgess, by whom he was the father of another 

 William, who inherited West Clandon, and secondly 

 Margery de Romaine, 14 who was custodian of the manor 

 during the minority of her stepson. In 1336 the elder 

 William made a settlement of the manor on himself 

 and his wife with remainder to his son William, and 

 contingent remainders to Edmund and Richard his 

 sons by Margery." 



After William's death the old Atwater dispute 

 reappeared. Robert son of William Atwater brought 

 a suit against Margery de Weston, with intent to 

 recover the manor of West Clandon, into which, so 

 it was declared, ' she would not have had ingress but 

 for the disseisin wrongfully wrought by Robert de 

 Boclynton and his wife Alice on Robert Atwater, 

 grandfather of the plaintiff.' " Some six years later 

 Robert released to Margery and to William son of 

 William de Weston all his right in the manor." 

 Margery died seised in 1361." 



The manor seems to have descended in the Weston 

 family from father to son until the death of John 

 de Weston, great-grandson of William son of William 

 and Margery, in 1441.' John left no male issue, 

 and his lands were apparently divided among his three 

 daughters, Agnes wife of John Athall of Horsham, 

 Joan wife of John Skynner, and Agnes, who carried 

 West Clandon to her husband Thomas Slyfield of Great 

 Bookham." His son Henry was given possession by 

 his father's trustees in 1487." 



In 1531 John Slyfield, presumably his son, died 

 seised of the manor, leaving Edmund his son and heir." 

 He had entered into an agreement with one Walter 

 Lambert, citizen and goldsmith of London, by which 

 the one of John's three sons, Edmund, John, or 

 Richard, who first reached the age of fifteen was to 

 take to wife either of Lambert's two daughters, Eliza- 

 beth or Margaret. 14 Edmund the eldest was only ten 

 years old at the time of his father's death, and there 

 seems no record to show whether the agreement was 

 ever carried out. In 1598 Henry Slyfield, who was 

 the eldest son of Edmund, 14 " died seised, leaving 

 Edmund as his eon and heir, then aged eighteen." 

 By Henry's will, dated 1598, the manor was secured 

 to his wife Elizabeth for life with remainder to his 

 son Edmund and contingent remainders to his other 

 sons Thomas and John. 16 Elizabeth soon afterwards 

 became the wife of Henry Vincent, 1 ' brother of Sir 

 Thomas Vincent of Stoke D'Abernon, and appears as 

 Elizabeth Vincent in the list given by Symmes of 

 persons who held their court at West Clandon as late 

 as 1631." Of Henry's younger sons, Thomas died 

 in 1 608," and John, who had become a member of 

 Gray's Inn, was convicted of felony and murder and 

 attainted ; he contrived to escape the extreme penalty 

 of the law, but his lands and remainders were forfeited 

 to the Crown. 50 West Clandon was not affected, not 

 being his, and in 1615 Ed- 

 mund and William Slyfield 

 united in conveying the rever- 

 sion after their mother's death 

 to George Duncumbe," who 

 held courts from 1638 to 1645. 



The Duncumbes, however, 

 did not retain possession long. 

 Sir Richard Onslow had bought 

 the Lodge in the park in 

 1642," and a series of trans- 

 actions with the Onslow family, 

 begun in 1650," was finally 

 concluded in 1711 by the 

 transference of the manor to Sir Richard Onslow.* 4 

 The Earl of Onslow, a descendant of Sir Richard, still 

 holds it. 



ONSLOW, Earl of Ons- 

 low. Argent a feat 

 gulet between tix Cornish 

 choughs. 



* Inq. p.m. 36 Edw. Ill, pt. ii (ist 

 not,), no. 75. 



' Plac. Cor. 7 Edw. I, rot. ji. 



*" Historically the name Clandon Regis 

 ii puzzling, for if it is true that it had 

 been in the king's hands, one would have 

 expected a grant of it to have been on 

 record. The part belonging to William 

 de Braose must have been at first a 

 separate holding attached to the manor 

 of Tangier which was included in the 

 original manor of Bramley. 



Feet of F. SUIT. 39 Hen. Ill, no. 



9- 



1 Ibid. 11 Edw. I, no. 29, also Hurl. Sec. 

 Putl. xliii, 215. 



8 Brayley, Hist. ofSurr. ii, 81-8 (pedi- 

 gree supplied by Weston family). 

 Ibid. 

 M Ibid. 



11 Assize R. 906. 

 " Cal. Close, 1288-96, p. 373. 

 18 Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 747. 

 14 Feet of F. SUIT. 21 Edw. I, no. 29. 

 " Visit. ofSurr. (Harl. Soc. xliii), 115. 

 " Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 10 Edw. III. 



17 De Banco R. 351, m. 333. 



18 Close, 17 Edw. Ill, m. 18. 



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

 (ist. nos.), no. 75. 



*>Ibid. 19 Hen. VI.no. 5. 

 " Ibid. 



347 



83 Deed quoted by Manning and Bray, 

 op. cit. iii, 74. 



** Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ii, 10. 



* Ibid. 



** Monument in Great Bookhara 

 Church. 



96 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cell, 131. 



* Etch. Spec. Com. 4974. * Ibid. 



Add. MSS. 6167, fol. 443. 



M Exch. Spec. Com. 4974. * Ibid. 



n Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 13 Js. I. 



' See below. 



88 Ibid. Mich. 1650; Recor. R. Mich. 

 29 Chas. II, m. 240, &c. 

 14 Ibid. Trin. 10 Anne. 



