A HISTORY OF SURREY 



stands. Manning says that it was 'lately an iron 

 mill.' l It would be interesting to know whether it 

 used ironstone from the Bagshot Sands or depended 

 upon water carriage for ore from the weald. The 

 present industries, apart from agriculture, are Mr. 

 Newland's Rosewater and Essential Oil Distillery, 

 and a brewery carried on by the Friary, Holroyds, 

 and Healy's Breweries Company. 



Neolithic flints occur on the slopes near St. George's 

 Hill and Cobham Common. 



Byfleet Park was one of the parks in the Surrey 

 bailiwick of Windsor Forest which Norden surveyed 

 for James I in 1607.' 



A person once of some note was rector of Byfleet 

 from 1752 to 1756 Stephen Duck, a Wiltshire 

 labourer, who attracted the notice of Queen Caroline 

 by his poems and was made by her a beefeater and 

 keeper of her library, at Richmond. He learned 

 Latin and was ordained. His poems are of no great 

 merit, but one of the earliest, ' The Thresher's 

 Labour,' dealing with his real experiences, shows that 

 he might have been as good as Blomfield and better 

 than Clare if the fashion of the age had allowed him 

 to continue to write naturally. He drowned himself 

 in a fit of melancholy in the Thames. 



An Inclosure Award was made in 1811 * for 780 

 acres, including common fields of Byfleet Manor. 



There are Wesleyan and Congregational chapels in 

 the parish. The Village Hall was built in 1898 in 

 commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee, and a public 

 recreation ground was presented by Mr. H. F. Locke 

 King on the same occasion. 



Of the principal houses, Byfleet Manor belongs to 

 Mrs. Rutson, St. George's Hill is the residence of 

 Lady Louisa Egerton, Petersham Place of Mr. W. B. 

 Owen. A number of small residential houses have 

 lately been built in the parish. The present rectory 

 was built by the Rev. Charles Sumner, rector, in 

 1834. 



The School (national) was built in 1857 and en- 

 larged in 1860 and in 1899. A school had been built 

 in 1840, but was replaced by the present one. 



BTFLEET is not in the original grant 

 MANORS to Chertsey Abbey in the alleged founda- 

 tion charter of 673, but is included 

 and confirmed in the later charter of Frithwald, 

 attributed to 727,' which, however, includes land 

 granted at various times before the Norman Conquest, 

 and must be looked upon merely as an assertion by 

 the monks of their claims, perhaps preparatory to 

 the Domesday Survey. (See Chertsey.) In 967 

 the grant was again confirmed by King Edgar as 

 ' v mansas." 5 At the time of the Domesday Survey 

 Byfleet was held of the abbey as 2^ hides by 

 Ulwin, who had also held it in King Edward's time, 

 when it was assessed for 8 hides. 6 It continued in 

 the possession of the Abbot and convent of Chertsey, 



and in the I 3th century was held of them, as half a 

 knight's fee, by Geoffrey de Lucy, who died in 1284 

 leaving as heir his son Geoffrey. 7 The latter en- 

 feoffed Henry de Ley bourne of the manor in 1297,* 

 and Leybourne remained in possession until after 

 1 305.* It is not clear how the manor became Crown 

 property, but it was certainly in the king's hands in 

 13I2. 10 The overlordship continued to be vested 

 in the abbey for some time after the manor became 

 the king's property. A rental of 1319 speaks of it 

 as being held ' in chief of the Abbot of Chertsey' 

 by the service of half a knight's fee and 1 5/. rent to 

 the abbot for the vill of Weybridge and 1 3/. 4</. rent 

 for the vill of Bisley ; the surveyors add that before 

 the manor came to the king its lord did suit at the 

 abbot's hundred court of Godley, and that all free 

 tenants and fifteen customary tenants came to the 

 view of frankpledge there." A return of the feudal 

 aids in the hundred of Godley in 1428 also refers 

 to half a knight's fee in Byfleet which 'Edward, 

 formerly Prince of Wales, used to hold of the 

 Abbot of Chertsey.' " It is probable, however, that 

 this overlordship, held by the abbey over the king or 

 the Prince of Wales, soon became merely nominal. 

 The courts of Byfleet were held by the king, and no 

 further mention of Byfleet occurs in the records or 

 court rolls of the abbey." 



Edward II appears to have stayed frequently at 

 Byfleet, many of his ordinances being dated from here. 14 

 A grant to Piers Gaveston in 1308 of free warren 

 in his demesne lands at Byfleet " suggests that he had 

 been previously granted the manor also, probably as 

 part of the lands belonging to the earldom of Cornwall. 

 Edward III assigned Byfleet to his mother Isabella 

 as part of her dower in 1327." She surrendered it 

 shortly afterwards," and in 1330 the king granted it 

 to his brother John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, to 

 be held by knight's service ; 

 at his death it reverted to the 

 Crown." In 1337, when the 

 king's eldest son received the 

 title of Duke of Cornwall, 

 the manor and park of By- 

 fleet were among the lands 

 granted to him," to hold to 

 him and his heirs, as parcel 

 of the duchy of Cornwall. 80 

 The Black Prince held the 

 manor until his death," when 

 it passed to his son. 



Richard II, as lord of the manor of Byfleet, granted 

 it in 1389 to the Earl of Northumberland for two 

 years," and in 1391 to John, Bishop of Salisbury, for 

 ten years ' for his easement and abode whenever he 

 chooses to go thither.' " The bishop died in 1395, but 

 two years before his death the manor was granted to 

 William, Duke of Guelders, son of the Duke of Juliers, 



ooooo 



ooo o 



o o o 



o o 



o 



DUCHY OF CORNWALL. 

 Azure Jtfteen bezants. 



1 Manning and Bray, Hiit. of Surr. iii, 

 181. 



* The plan of it is in Harl. MSS. 3749. 



* Under an Act of 40 Geo. III. 

 Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 64. 



Ibid, iii, 469. 



V.C.H, Surr. i, 288, 310*. 



Testa tie Nevill (Rec. Com.), 22oi j 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. 12 Edw. I, no. 1 6. 



Pat. 2; Edw. I, pt. ii, m. 10. 



Chan. Inq. p.m. 28 Edw. I, no. 148 ; 

 33 Edw. I, no, 14, 



10 Col. fat. 1307-13, p. 487. 



11 Rentals and Surv. (P.R.O.), bdle. 623. 



12 Feud. Aids, 1284-1431, vi, 123. 



18 Exch. K.R. Misc. Bks. 25 ; Cott. 

 MS. Vitell. A. xiii ; Lansd. MS. 434 ; 

 Ct. R. (P.R.O.), bdle. 204, no. 10, 37, 

 38; 212, no. 19, &c. 



" Cal. Clou, 1307-13, pp. 48, 49 ; Cat. 

 Pat. 1307-13 ; Cal. Close, 1313-18, &c. 



15 Chart. R. I Edw. II, m. 6, no. 7. 



18 Cal. Pat. 1327-30, p. 69. 



*' Ibid. 1330-4, p. 184. 



400 



18 Chart. R. 4 Edw. Ill, m. 7, no. 2 f 

 Cal. Pat. 1330-4, p. 52. Gaveston had 

 also been Earl of Cornwall ; it looks as if 

 the manor went with the earldom. 



"Chart. R. n Edw. Ill, m. 28, 

 no. 60. 



Cal. Pat. 1429-36, P- 443 i HSM', 

 p. 58. 



"Ibid. 1338-40; 1 340-3 ; 1343-51 

 ibid. 1377-81 ; Cal. Close, 1343-6. 



M Cal. Pat. 1388-92, p. 90. 



88 Ibid. p. 467. 



