ELMBRIDGE HUNDRED 



STOKE D'ABERNON 



STOKE D'ABERNON 



Stocke (xi cent.), Estokes (xii cent.), Stokes D'Aber- 

 non (xiii cent.), Stokes Daberoun (xiv cent.), Stoke 

 Dabemon, Dabernoun, Daubernoun (xiv and xv and 

 xvi cent.), Stoke d'Alborne 1843. 



Stoke D'Abernon is a small village 3 miles north- 

 west of Letherhead and a mile and a half east of Church 

 Cobham. The Mole separates the parish from the 

 Bookhams, and also for a short distance from Cobham. 

 The parish measures nearly 3^ miles north-east and 

 south-west by i^ miles, and contains 2,022 acres. The 

 north-east part is high ground on the London Clay, 

 with patches of gravel. There is here an extensive 

 common, Stoke Common, much overgrown with wood, 

 and on it a medicinal spring called Jessopp's Well, 

 containing Epsom salts, and very powerful. The 

 lower part of the parish is in the alluvium of the 

 Mole valley, and the village, church, and manor-house 

 are on gravel near the river. The road from Lether- 

 head to Cobham passes through it, and the Cobham 

 and Guildford line of the London and South Western 

 Railway has a station in the parish, Cobham and 

 Stoke D'Abernon, opened in 1885. 



The neighbourhood of the church was presumably 

 occupied by some Roman building, many Roman 

 tiles being employed in the original walls. In Lether- 

 head parish close by the boundary there is a square 

 entrenchment, and Roman tiles and coins have been 

 found in a field close to this and next to the Lether- 

 head and Cobham road. 



Stoke D'Abernon is mentioned in the Metrical His- 

 tory of Guillaume le Marechal, as the scene of his honey- 

 moon with the heiress of the Earl of Pembroke : 



Quant les noces bien faites furent, 

 Et richement, si comme els durent, 

 La dame emmena, ce savon, 

 Chies Sire Angeran d'Abernon, 

 A Estokes, en liu paisable, 

 E aesie e delitable.' 



There was an Inclosure Act for the parish in 1821,* 

 the award was made 30 July 1823.* 



The bridge on the old road from Letherhead 

 crossed the Mole near the manor-house. It was of 

 wood, and, as elsewhere, used only in flood time, a 

 ford supplying the ordinary means of crossing. The 

 bridge was built by Sir Francis Vincent, 1757-75. 

 In 1805 it was replaced by a brick bridge higher up 

 the river, the road being diverted. A line of oaks 

 marks the old road leading to the ford, and some of 

 the supports of the wooden bridge are still visible in 

 both banks of the river. 



Ockshot is a hamlet a mile and a half north-east 

 of Stoke D'Abernon Church, where a number of 

 houses have been built since the railway was opened. 

 There is a National school in the hamlet which is 

 used for services on Sunday. It was built in 1820, 

 the Duchess of Kent laying the foundation stone, and 

 was enlarged in 1 897. 



Woodlands Park, with a modern house, is the seat 

 of Mr. J. W. Benson, and D'Abernon Chase is the 

 residence of Sir William Vincent, bart. The Priory, 

 in the north of the parish, was so called from its 

 having belonged to Newark Priory. It has been 

 incorporated with the Claremont estate. 



The French Huguenot family of Vaillant owned 

 the advowson of Stoke D'Abernon in the 1 9th century. 

 Fran9ois Vaillant fled from Saumur in 1685 and 

 settled in London. His son Paul settled first at 

 Battersea and then (1732) at West Horsley. He was 

 born in France in 1672 and died at West Horsley 

 in 1739. His son Paul, born in 1715, bought the 

 advowson of Stoke D'Abernon and a house in the 

 village in 1800, and died in 1802, having in 1801 

 presented his son Philip Vaillant to the living, which 

 he held till 1 846. The arms of the family are azure 

 a herring argent, a chief or.* 



Before the Norman Conquest STOKE 

 M4NOR [D'ABERNON] was held by Bricsi of 

 King Edward.' William granted it to 

 Richard de Tonbridge, lord of Clare,' and it remained 

 part of the possessions of his family, a sub-tenant, how- 

 ever, being enfeofFed (probably) in the I2th century. 

 In 1314 Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and 

 Hertford, was killed at the battle of Bannockburn. 

 He left no issue and his estates were divided among 

 his three sisters, while the earldoms of Gloucester and 

 Hertford became extinct. 8 The manor of Stoke 

 D'Abernon fell to the share of Eleanor, the eldest 

 sister, 9 who married Hugh le Despenser the younger. 



CLARE. Or three 

 ehe-verons gules* 



DISPENSER. Urgent 

 quartered 'with gules fret' 

 ty or and a bend sable 

 over all. 



Their eldest son Hugh died childless, and was 

 succeeded by his brother's son Edward, afterwards 

 Baron Despenser, 10 who was overlord of the manor in 

 1375." Edward's son and heir Thomas, created 

 Earl of Gloucester in 1397 by Richard II, lost his 

 earldom in 1399 through his faithful adherence to 

 that king's cause." In 1418 the manor was said to 

 be held of the honour of Gloucester ; " this came 

 to the Crown through the marriage of Lady Anne 

 Nevill with Richard III. 14 



The head of the family which held the manor of 

 Stoke for centuries under the Earls of Gloucester, 

 and gave its name to the place, seems to have been 



1 Aberon, at it is now spelt, is near 

 Lisieux in Normandy. 



4 Lines 9545-50. 



8 2 Geo. IV, cap. 19. 



4 Blue Bk. Incl. Awards. 



' Inscription in church, and information 

 from Rev. W. B. Vaillant 



r.C.H. Surr. i, 279. 



' Ibid. 318*. 



8 Burke, Dorm, and Ext, Peerages, 120. 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. I Edw. Ill, no. 53. 



10 Burke, ut sufra, 166. 



11 Chan. Inq. p.m. 49 Edw. Ill, pt ii 

 (ist nos.), no. 46. 



18 Burke, ut sufra. 



u Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Hen. V, no. 30. 

 14 See Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), ccccxiii, 

 7'- 



457 



It i noteworthy that it was not origin- 

 ally part of the honour of Gloucester, but 

 of the honour of Clare, as being part of the 

 original grant to Richard de Clare whose 

 descendant Gilbert acquired the honour of 

 Gloucester from his mother in 1225. It 

 it correctly described as of the honour of 

 Clare in Testa de fftvill (221). 



58 



