ELMBRIDGE HUNDRED 



ESHER 



Sir William Inwood, and secondly the Rev. William 

 Weston, on whom she settled the rectory, and died in 

 1692. Her only child Elizabeth married Mr. Skrine, 

 and alienated part of the rectory, but on her death 

 left the rest with the advowson to her first cousin 

 Henry Weston of West Horsley. His son Henry 

 Weston sold the tithes which he held in 1801 to the 

 Rev. John Simpkinson, vicar of Cobham, 6 ' and the 

 advowson after 1823 was conveyed to the son of the 

 latter. The present patron is Mr. Charles Combe of 

 Cobham Park. 



Smith's charity is distributed as in 

 CHARITIES other Surrey parishes. 



In 1 614 Mr. Rogers Bellow left i 

 a year to the poor in bread on Good Friday. 



In 1629 Mr. Edward Sutton left 2 a year to the 

 poor. 



In 1638 Mrs. Cecily Darnelly and Mrs. Sarah Cox, 

 sisters, gave So to buy a house in Ripley, the rent 

 to be applied in sums of zo/. to the vicar for a sermon 

 on Good Friday, the remainder in bread to the poor 

 after the service. 



In 1 641 Mr. Owen Peter left 1 a year to the poor, 

 charged on his house in Claygate. 



In 1656 Mr. John Downe of Downe Place left 2 

 to the vicar for sermons on Christmas Day and Ash 

 Wednesday, and zo/. to the poor in bread on Ash 

 Wednesday. As the celebration of these days was 

 then contrary to the law Mr. Downe was evidently 

 a churchman and a Royalist. 



Mr. James Fox before 1724" endowed a charity 

 school for forty children. 



Mr. James Sutton (date unknown) left z to the 

 vicar for a sermon, and 3 to the poor for bread on 

 5 November. 59 



In 1829 Miss Isabella Saltonstall left 253 year to 

 the vicar on consideration of his preaching every Sun- 

 day afternoon in the parish church. 



In 1850 a school was built at Hatchford End. 



In 1 860 a school (National) was built at Cobham by 

 Miss Coombe in memory of her brother. 



In 1867 girls' and infants' schools were built at 

 Downeside. 



The Almshouse on Cobham Tilt was built in 1867. 



ESHER 



Aissela (xi cent.) ; Esere, Eshere, Esschere (xiii cent.) ; 

 Eschere &c' Episcopi, Eschere &c" Watevil (xiii and 

 xiv cents.) ; Asher (xvi cent.). 



Esher is a village 4 miles south-west from Kingston. 

 The parish is bounded on the north by East Molesey, on 

 the east by Thames Ditton, on the south by Cobham, 

 and on the west by Walton on Thames. It measures 

 barely 3 miles from north to south, and scarcely 2 

 miles east to west. It contains 2,044 acres f ' anc ^ 

 and 50 of water. The River Mole forms the greater 

 part of the western boundary. The village itself and 

 most of the parish lie upon the only considerable 

 elevation of Bagshot sand which rises east of the Mole 

 Valley, a situation which has at once rendered it 

 picturesque, dry, and a favourite site for houses. The 

 borders of the parish however touch the alluvium of 

 the Mole Valley on the west and the London clay 

 on the east, and in the north the sandy gravel of 

 Ditton Marsh. 



Esher is agricultural and residential. Esher Common 

 is an extensive piece of open land now largely planted 

 with conifers and birches, and adjoins other open 

 land at Fairmile and Ockshot in Cobham parish. 

 The London and Portsmouth road passes through the 

 village. The main line of the London and South 

 Western Railway has a station at Esher, and the Cob- 

 ham line to Guildford skirts the eastern boundary of 

 the parish. 



Claremont, which was originally part of the manor of 

 Esher Episcopi, was bought by Sir John Vanbrugh, who 

 built a small house for himself, and began to ornament 

 the grounds (Guest's poem ' Claremont ' attributes the 

 first improvements to Vanbrugh). The Earl of Clare 

 (Duke of Newcastle 1715) bought the property in 1714 

 on coming of age, and called it after his own title 'Clare 

 Mont.' On his death in 1768 the whole was bought 

 by Lord Clive, who employed 'Capability' Brown 

 to build the present house. It was unfinished at his 

 death in 1774, and was sold to Viscount Galway. He 



sold to the Earl of Tyrconnel, who in 1807 sold to 

 Mr. Charles Rose Ellis. He in 1816 conveyed it to 

 the Commissioners of Woods and Forests for the use of 

 the Princess Charlotte on her marriage with Prince 

 Leopold. After her death in 1817 Prince Leopold 

 continued to reside here. When he became King 

 of the Belgians it was occupied occasionally by 

 Queen Victoria, to whom the king conveyed all 

 his rights for life in the house. In 1 848 it 

 became the home of Louis Philippe, the exiled king 

 of the French and of his family. He died here in 

 1850, and his queen Marie Amelie in 1866. It was 

 granted to the late Duke of Albany on his marriage 

 in 1882, and is now the seat of H.R.H. the Duchess 

 of Albany. The house is of brick, with window- 

 frames, portico and cornice of stone. The portico is 

 supported by Corinthian columns, and the pediment 

 bears Lord Clive's arms. Marble is extensively used 

 in the internal decorations, and the rooms are very 

 spacious and handsome. 



Another phase of the associations of Esher is of a 

 very different kind. At Sandon was a small hospital, 

 founded in the I2th century. 1 In 1436, after an 

 unfortunate history, during which in 1 349 all its 

 brethren had died of the plague, and later, great 

 suffering had resulted from dishonest or incompetent 

 masters, it was suppressed and its property granted to 

 St. Thomas' Southwark. Sandon remained as the 

 name of a farm only, till in 1875 the first meeting of 

 the Sandown Park Racing Club revived public know- 

 ledge of it. The racecourse lies south of the line, close 

 to Esher station, and is chiefly in Esher parish, but 

 partly in Thames Ditton. The meetings stand at the 

 head of the inclosed racecourse meetings in the 

 kingdom. 



Esher is an urban district with the Dittons, under 

 a Local Government Board Order issued April 1895.' 



There is an iron mission church at West End. The 

 Baptist chapel was built in 1852, and the Wedeyan 



Manning and Bray, loc. cit. 



M Will!. Visitation. 



" Ibid. 



. Surr. ii, 118-19. 



"No. 32638. 



447 



