A HISTORY OF SURREY 



John Balnet. A dispute concerning the stock, cattle, 

 and stable implements, &c., which belonged to the 

 manor, but which Wykes refused to hand over to the 

 new tenants, terminated in favour of Wykes. 8 In 

 1550 the manor was leased for thirty years to William 

 Fitz William,' who was afterwards knighted. In 1 569 

 his widow Joan received a twenty-one years' lease of 

 the lands. 10 She died in 1574." In 1 5 87 James 

 Bond, described as queen's tenant of the manor of 

 Thorpe, received an order to alter a dove-house there." 

 A grant of the site of the manor for thirty years had 

 been made in 1571 to Henry Radecliffe, but in 1596 

 a further grant for twenty-one years was made to 

 John Hibberd." In 1 6 10 William Minterne received 

 a grant of it." James I granted the manor itself to 

 Henry, Prince* of Wales, and after his death to Sir 

 Francis Bacon and others, in trust for Prince Charles 

 for a term of ninety-nine years. 16 In May 1627 the 

 trustees granted the manor to William Minterne and 

 his heirs for the remainder of the term, and in the 

 following month the king granted the reversion of the 

 manor to Minterne and his heirs for ever. 16 In 1628 

 the annual rent of ^89 i8/. Qd. due from the manor 

 was apportioned to George Evelyn and others. 17 

 William Minterne died in 1 627, shortly after the above 

 grant had been made to him. He was also seised of 

 the other manor in Thorpe, known as the manor of 

 Hall Place (q.v.), and the two manors, thus united, 

 became the property of Wolley Leigh, grandson and 

 heir of William Minterne, by his daughter Elizabeth, 

 who had married Sir Francis Leigh. 18 Both manors 

 have remained in this family since that time. 19 The 

 manor descended from father to son until 1737, when 

 Sir John Leigh died, and his children having pre- 

 deceased him, Mary and Anne, his cousins, became 

 his heiresses. The estates were held by them jointly 

 until the passing of an Act of Parliament, 7 Geo. Ill, 

 cap. 7, when a partition was effected, and Thorpe and 

 Hall Place went to the heirs of Mary, who had taken 



LEIGH. Or a fheveron 

 sable 'with three lions 

 argent thereon. 



BENNETT. Gules a be- 

 eant betiuten three denti- 

 tions or. 



the name of Leigh-Bennett, and who died in 1746. 

 Her second son, the Rev. Wolley Leigh-Bennett, 

 succeeded in 1772. Mr. Henry Currie Leigh- 

 Bennett is the present lord of the manor. 



A fishery in water called Le Flete in Thorpe, which 

 had belonged to the abbey, was in the tenure of 

 Henry Foisted after the Dissolution. It was granted 

 with the manor to Sir William Fitz William and 

 afterwards to his widow Joan. 81 



In 1303 the Abbot of Chertsey granted to Richard 

 de Graveney of Thorpe and his heirs land in Thorpe 

 described as 'a certain place in Lupinbrok lying 

 between the land of Henry de Middleton called 

 Renebrug and the pasture of Thomas de Sodyngton," 

 for which an annual rent of zi. 8J. was to be paid to 

 the monastery," and in 1 3 3 9 Alice wife of Richard 

 de Graveney held land in Thorpe, including a mill, for 

 her lifetime, with remainder to her children Reginald 

 and Alice and the heirs of Reginald." This may 

 have been the land which was later known as the 

 manor of GRAVENEY, but further trace of this 

 family in Thorpe does not appear, and the manor 

 passed to the family of Thorpe, who were lords of 

 Graveney during the 1 5th century. John Thorpe, 

 son of John Thorpe, left the manor to his daughter 

 Alice, who married Robert Osberne, from whom she 

 was divorced. She afterwards married Flemyng, 

 probably between 1442 and 1456." A lawsuit concern- 

 ing various feoffments of the manor made by Alice 

 Flemyng lasted for many years.* 5 The heiresses of Alice 

 Flemyng were her cousins Maud wife of William 

 Revell, and Ela wife of Robert Blount. They were 

 certainly living as late as 1471, and presumably 

 held the manor after Alice's death. 16 It appears prob- 

 able that the manor passed from these families, by 

 marriage of female heirs, to the families of Wykes 

 and Aughton, as in 1526-7 the manor, then referred 

 to for the first time by the alternative name of HALL 

 PLACE, was conveyed to John Chambers, clerk, and 

 others, by Robert and Margaret Wykes; a quitclaim 

 being made from Robert and Margaret and the heirs 

 of Margaret, from Joan Aughton, a widow, and the 

 heirs of Joan, and from Henry Wykes." John 

 Chambers appears to have purchased the claims 

 of his co-grantees, as a settlement on himself and 

 his heirs was made in I54I. 18 This Dr. John 

 Chambers, who was the king's physician, was also the 

 Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and the Dean of 

 St. Stephen's College, Westminster. In 1543 Sir 

 Anthony Browne and Richard Millis received licence 

 to alienate the manor to the Dean and College of St. 

 Stephen's, Westminster.* 9 The document giving the 

 licence also states that Richard Millis held other lands 

 in Surrey of the Warden and scholars of Merton Col- 

 lege as of their manor of Maiden. Probably Browne 

 and Millis were acting merely as trustees. Chambers 

 had originally bought the manor as his personal 

 property ; the licence to alienate to him, as Dean of 

 St. Stephen's, was apparently granted that he might 

 endow the college, which he enriched in other ways 



8 Ct. of Aug. Proc. (Hen. VIII and 

 Edw. VI), bdle. 12, no. 29. 



9 Act! of the P.O. 1549-50, p. 415. 



10 Pat 12 Eliz. pt. viii, m. 7. 



11 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cljcxv, 5. 



18 Dtp. Keeper's Rep. xxxviii, App. I ; 

 Exch. Spec. Com. 2252 (30 Eliz.). 

 18 Pat. 38 Eliz. pt. iv, m. 14. 



14 Ibid. 7 Jas. I, pt. xxiv, no. 6. 



15 Exch. L.T.R. Orig. R. 14 Jas. I, pt. 

 iv, rot. 126, 



16 Pat. 3 Chas. I, pt. xx, m. 5. 



J 7 Ibid. 3 Chas. I, pt. xxxv, m. 4. 



18 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccxxxviii, 



125. William Minterne was the son of a 

 Margaret Wolley. Sir Francis Wolley, son 

 of Sir John Wolley, by his will, proved 

 in the Probate Court of Canterbury, Dec. 

 1609, left his estates in Thorpe, Egham, 

 and Chertsey to his cousin William Min- 

 terne. Margaret Wolley was perhaps 

 Sir John's sister. 



" Feet of F. Surr. Trin. 1 3 Chas. I ; 

 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. v, App. vii, 14 ; 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), xxxvii, 10 ; Cat. 

 of Com. for Compounding, 2884 ; Feet of 

 F. Surr. Hil. 2 Anne ; Recov. R. Hil. 

 2 Anne ; Recov. R. Mich. 31 Geo. III. 



438 



20 Surr. Arch. Coll. viii, 124 ; Manning 

 and Bray, Hist, of Surr. iii, 242. 



al Pat. 12 Eliz. pt. viii, m. 7. 



M Exch. K..R. Misc. Bks. vol. 25, fol. 

 246. 



98 Feet of F. Surr. 12 Edw. Ill, no. 33. 



"Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 15, no. 344. 



"Ibid. bdle. 28, no. 511 ; bdle. 44, no. 

 70. Ibid. 



V Recov. R. Mich. 18 Hen. VIII j Feet 

 of F. Surr. Hil. 1 8 Hen. VIII. 



88 Feet of F. Div. Co. East. 33 Hen. 

 VIII. 



29 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), Ixix, 98. 



