GODLEY HUNDRED 



HORSELL 



The latter grant, however, was cancelled on the acces- 

 sion of Elizabeth. In 1 6 1 1 James I granted both 

 rectory and advowson to Francis Morrice and Francis 

 Philipps, 145 probably trustees, as Maria Moore," 4 a 

 widow, presented in 1620.'" Sir John Dormer 

 owned the rectory and advowson in l624, 148 but Sir 

 John Denham had acquired both before 1639."' In 

 1 648 the estate of his son, Sir John Denham the 

 poet, a delinquent, was conveyed to John Thynne, 

 M.P., for a debt of j2O. 148 The rectory and advowson 

 were probably included in this conveyance, as John 

 Thynne presented to the vicarage in 1662. 149 Ac- 

 cording to Manning, Thomas Sutton, son-in-law of 

 John Thynne, sold the property to Adrian Moore, 

 who sold it in his turn in 1734 to William Scawen, 150 

 whose family was certainly in possession in I759. 141 

 It afterwards passed to John Dawe, whose son sold 

 the rectory to George Gostling in lySS. 15 * The 

 advowson passed at the same time to Mrs. Challoner, 

 who conveyed it to George Gostling in 1797.'" He 

 presented to the church in 1 8 1 1 . li4 The patronage 

 remained in his family until 1879, when it passed 

 to the Rev. W. Trevor Nicholson, who now holds it. 140 

 Christ Church Virginia Water was formed into 

 a parish in 1838. The living is in the gift of three 

 trustees. 



Of the older charities the most 

 CHARITIES important is Henry Strode's, left by 

 will in 1703. He left 6,000, of 

 which the Cooper's Company became trustees, for 

 almshouses and a school. Considerable litigation 

 followed owing to alleged misappropriation of funds 

 and to some ambiguity in the will, it being doubtful 



whether the almspeople need or need not be in- 

 habitants of Egham. It was decided in 1749 that 

 they must be chosen from the parish. The next 

 question was about the schoolhouse, which Mr. Jeans, 

 as master, wished to use as a first-grade school, rele- 

 gating the teaching of poor children to other hands. 

 This state of affairs is similar to that which occurred 

 at Farnham. 156 



In 1812 the Court of Chancery decided that the 

 school must be reserved for the poor children of 

 Egham. In 1828 new almshouses were begun and 

 in 1839 completed, on the north side of Egham 

 Street (see inscription in almshouses). The school is 

 now, however, discontinued, and the money formerly 

 devoted to it has gone since 1870 to the Station Road 

 School, formerly called Egham Parish School. There 

 are twelve almshouses and a chapel. Before this, in 

 1624, Sir John Denham, baron of the Exchequer, 

 father to the poet, founded almshouses for five poor 

 women. 



Ann Reid in 1838 founded five almshouses in 

 memory of her husband. 



In 1840 Mr. Stewart founded five almshouses. 



In 1683 Mr. Richard Barker charged land with 

 2 lot. per annum, for the benefit of the poor. 



In 1705 Mr. Edmund Lee left land producing then 

 60 per annum for the apprenticing of poor children. 



In 1712 Mrs. Mary Barker left 5 per annum 

 charged on land for the teaching of poor children. 



Smith's Charity exists as in other Surrey parishes. 



Egham parish has a nomination in rotation with 

 thirty other parishes of one poor man to Lucas's 

 Hospital at Wokingham in Berkshire, founded in 1663. 



HORSELL 



Horishull (xiii cent.) ; Horsehill (xvii cent.) ; Hors- 

 hill (rviii cent.). 



Horsell lies a mile north-west of Woking Junction. 

 It is bounded on the north by Chobham, north and 

 east by Chertsey, south by Woking, west by Bisley. 

 It contains 2,913 acres. It measures about 3$- miles 

 east to ^yvest, and from I to ij miles north to south. 

 The soil is Bagshot sand. This lends itself to the 

 chief industry of the place, nursery gardening. 

 Messrs. Waterer, Messrs. Cobbett and others have 

 nursery gardens of American plants and trees. There 

 is also a brewery. Formerly there were extensive 

 commons, of which Horsell Birch and part of Wood- 

 ham Common are the largest remaining ; the Inclo- 

 sure Act of 35 George III 1 affected part of the 

 commons of Horsell, as being in Pyrford Manor. 

 The Basingstoke Canal skirts the parish. 



There are said to have been barrows upon the 

 heath, but there is now no trace of their existence.* 



The aspect of the eastern part of the parish has 

 been quite transformed by the growth of the town 



about Woking Junction. When the railway was 

 first opened the neighbourhood was so secluded that 

 a spot in Horsell parish, near the Basingstoke Canal, 

 was selected as a suitable place for a prize fight, as out 

 of the observation of the police. 3 This is now covered 

 with houses, a considerable number of which usually 

 reckoned in Woking are really in Horsell. Gentle- 

 men's houses are increasing rapidly, and there are 

 famous golf links in Horsell. 



There is a Baptist chapel in the parish built in 1901. 



The schools (National) were built in 1851 and 

 enlarged in 1882. But a Church school and a 

 Baptist school existed about 1845.* 



HORSELL, though parochially a 

 MANORS chapelry of Woking, appears to have 

 been included in the manor and lordship 

 of Pyrford (q.v.) from the time of its earliest records 

 until the present day. No reference to it is found 

 in the Domesday Survey, but that it was part of the 

 land at the Pyrian Ford granted to Westminster in 

 956 is probable, as in 1278-9 the Abbot of West- 



148 Pat 8 Ja. I, [it. xxxi, m. I ; I o Ja. I, 

 pt. ii, m. I. 



144 See manor of Milton. She was 

 widow of Adrian Moore of London, mer- 

 chant (Harl. MS. 1561, fol. 68). Her 

 husband presented a chalice to the church. 



Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 



146 Feet of F. SUIT. East. 22 Jas. I. 



"7 Recov. R. East, 15 Chas. I. 

 148 Cal. of Com. for Compounding^ 1790. 

 14 Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 

 150 Manning and Bray, op. cit. iii ; 

 Aubrey, op. cit. iii, 150. 



! Recov. R. Mich. 33 Geo. II. 

 1M Close, 19 Geo. Ill, pt. i, no. 17. 

 153 Manning and Bray, op. cit. iii. 



427 



4 Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). s Clergy Littt. 



f.C.H.Surr. ii, 189. 



1 Award 29 Sept. 1815, Blue Bk. Intl. 

 Award*. 



'Aubrey, op. cit. iii, 189, 193. 



* Information from Sir Denis Le Mar- 

 chant of Chobham Place. 



4 Brayley^f/i/. tfSurr. ii, 170. 



