A HISTORY OF SURREY 



light windows in deep external reveals, and the belfry 

 windows are square-headed with two uncusped lights. 

 There is a plain brick parapet. 



The church contains little of interest beyond a small 

 altar table with 17th-century carving, and carved legs, 

 partly gilt in modern times, and a good I yth-century 

 pulpit with a fine hexagonal canopy which has a 

 panelled soffit. The font is of I jth-century date and 

 has an octagonal bowl with quatrefbiled panels inclosing 

 flowers, an octagonal panelled stem and a moulded 

 base. On the chancel floor is a brass tablet to Thomas 

 Brend of West Molesey, 1 598, the father of eighteen 

 children, four sons and six daughters by Margery his 

 first wife, ob. I 564, and four sons and four daughters 

 by Mercy his second wife, ob. 1 597. 



Above are two shields, the first bearing a cheveron 

 between three dexter hands, and the second the same 

 impaling a cheveron with three rings thereon between 

 three standing hinds. 



There is also a slab without any date to ' Francesca 

 Thorowgood.' 



The bells are two in number, the treble by T. Mears, 

 1832, and the tenor by William Carter, 1614. 



The plate comprises a cup of 1 800, a paten without 

 date-letter, but c. 1680, a flagon of 1 782, and a pretty 

 two-handled porringer of about the same date, a secu- 

 lar piece of plate given in 1686 by Francis Brend. 



The registers date from 1720. 



The church stands at cross-roads on the straggling 

 street which forms West Molesey. It is about half a 

 mile south of the river, this ground being occupied on 

 the west and north-west by the reservoirs of the 

 Lambeth Water Works. On the south are flat open 

 fields with hedgerows. 



East Molesey was formerly a 

 ADVOWSON chapelry to Kingston. Gilbert Nor- 

 man, Sheriff of Surrey, is stated by 

 Dugdale, on the authority of Leland, to have added 

 to the endowment of Merton Priory, about the year 

 1 1 30, the church of Kingston with the chapelry of 

 East Molesey. 8 * The church, which is in the deanery 

 of Ewell, is not mentioned in the Taxatio of 1291. 

 In 1387 the Bishop of Winchester commissioned the 

 Dean of Ewell to cite the Prior and con vent of Merton 

 and the vicar of Kingston to appear and answer for 

 dilapidations in the chancel of East Molesey. 84 The 

 rectory was granted in 1613 to Francis Morrice and 

 others, with tithes of hay, &C. 86 In 1619 an annual 

 rent of I o 31. 4^. reserved from the rectory was 

 granted to Laurence Whitaker. 86 



Early in 1 769 the living was constituted a perpetual 

 curacy, independent of Kingston, and East Molesey 

 became a distinct parish. The patrons and impropria- 

 tors are the Provost and Fellows of King's College, 

 Cambridge, who in 1786 purchased the advowson 

 from George Harding. This purchase was subject to 

 the deduction of the next presentation, which had 

 been previously granted to Mrs. Legh of Kingston, and 

 afterwards sold by her to William Attwick, who pre- 

 sented in 1797." The living is valued at 157. 



There was a church on the Domesday holding of 

 Odard at Molesey, the orgin of West Molesey Church ; 



but the church is not mentioned in the Taxatio of 

 1291, and was a chapel of ease to Walton on Thames, 

 the impropriators of which, St. Mary's Chantry, York, 

 paid 6 1 3/. 4^. to a curate. 88 



Queen Elizabeth in 1583 granted the chapel of 

 West Molesey to Theophilus Adams and Robert 

 Adams and the heirs of Theophilus. 89 



It subsequently passed with Walton on Thames, the 

 impropriator of which appointed. The endowment was 

 increased in 1843, when the chancel was rebuilt and 

 West Molesey was constituted a separate parish, with 

 the advowson in the hands of the Rev. H. Binney. The 

 patron was recently Lady Barrow, now Mrs. Forster. 

 Smith's Charity is distributed 

 CHARITIES IN as in other Surrey parishes. 

 EAST MOLESET From 1710, but how much 

 further back is unknown, the 

 parish held 18 or 19 acres of land called Hale, 

 Hale Platts, and the Platts, for the repairs of the 

 church and the relief of the poor. In 1789 these 

 were leased to Thomas Sutton, lessee of the manor, 

 for ninety-nine years. In 1815, after the Inclosure 

 Act (see West Molesey), the lessee claimed the fee 

 simple as owner under the Inclosure Award of these 

 lands as ancient waste of the, manor. A Chancery 

 suit ensued in 1818, decided in 1823 in favour of 

 the parish." In 1728 the will of William Hatton 

 of East Molesey (made in 1703) became operative, 

 by which he left premises in Mark Lane on trust 

 to pay 20 a year to the minister of East Molesey, 

 provided that he was established with the consent of 

 the inhabitants, and for ' 6 ruggs ' a year to the poor 

 of East and West Molesey, Thames Ditton, and King- 

 ston ' wanting bed-clothes.' He also left his house 

 and another in East Molesey for the poor. In 1771 

 Mr. John Grindell left twenty loaves annually, and 

 in 1780 Mr. Thomas Willett left money producing 

 3 101. annually for the poor. In 1786 the 

 churchwardens returned that 5 IO/. was received 

 annually for coals for the poor, out of the rent of a 

 house in Horse Shoe Court, London, donor unknown ; 

 and that there were three almshouses, donor unknown. 

 In 1730 Mr. Thomas Kempe of Laleham left io/. a 

 year for the young men ' to ring the bells and make 

 merry ' on 6 August in memory of himself. 



The schools (National) for boys were built in 1858 

 and enlarged in 1891 ; those for girls and infants, 

 originally mixed, in 1855. 



Smith's Charity is distributed 

 CHARITIES IN here as elsewhere. 

 WESTMOLESET Mr. Joseph Palmer early in 

 the I gth century built a gallery 

 in the church, the two front pews in which were 

 leased for the poor at 2 each. He also gave 500 

 3% consols for the poor in potatoes, coals, and bread, 

 for coals for the church stove, and one guinea to the 

 parish clerk. 



In 1783 the parish provided six houses as alms- 

 houses, returned in 1786 to Parliament as an existing 

 charity, but now not known. 



The school was built in 1887 by a School Boari 

 elected in 1879. 



"Dugdale, Mm. Angl. (ed. 1848), vi, 

 425 ; y.C.H. Surr. ii, 95. 



84 Winton Epii. Reg. Wykeham, ii, fol. 

 82 d. 



86 Pat. 1 1 Ja. I, pt. viii. 



86 Pat. 17 Jas. I, pt. iii. 



87 Brayley, Hist, of Surr. ii, 302. 



88 Chantry Cert. 



89 Par, 25 Eliz. pt. iv. 



90 Further Rep. of Com. for Inj. ir.to 

 Charities, 618-19. 



456 



