A HISTORY OF SURREY 



wealth the ' Crane ' was the seat of the Committee for 

 Safety for the county, 85 but it seems to have lost its 

 reputation at the end of the century. Close by was 

 the Debtors' Prison. 86 



Although West-by-Thames Street, as High Street 

 was called until the igth century, was one of the 

 oldest parts of the town it was considered without the 

 vill in 1253, when the bailiffs complained that the 

 tenants of Merton Priory did not keep watch and 

 perform other duties as did the king's men, and 

 answer was made that they were never accustomed 

 to keep watch beyond the water at the end of the 

 market towards Guildford, which was without the 

 vill ; but only pro homine mortuo did they as others, 

 serve within the vill. 8 ' From the bridge the 

 road slopes gradually towards the river ; picturesque 

 old houses are on either hand, and open gates show 

 glimpses of the river or green trees. One of the 

 most interesting of the houses, that known as King 

 John's Palace 89 or Dairy, stood at the corner of 

 Kingston Hill Road, but was pulled down in 1805. 

 Its name preserved the tradition that there was a 

 palace in this part of the town in the early I 3th cen- 

 tury, with offices stretching into the Bittoms on the 

 east. No record, however, of such a building has 

 been found, though Richard II was certainly staying 

 somewhere in Kingston at the time of the death of 

 Edward III, when the citizens of London came here 

 to greet their new lord. 89 A fruit shop at the 

 northern end of the street shows signs of age ; it is 

 an irregular building with a plastered front and 

 gabled roofs, and close to it is a furniture shop 

 calling itself ' Ye Olde Malt House ' ; its front is 

 modernized, but it has a round malting chimney. 

 There are several other old half-timbered and gabled 

 houses in the street. Among them is a low three 

 storied house now called 'Ye Olde White House,' 

 with plastered front and overhanging upper story, 

 which probably dates from the i6th century. A 

 row of three others are worth notice ; one, now a 

 coal office, is weather-boarded and has an overhanging 

 upper story and a tiled roof with the eaves to the 

 road ; the second is cemented, and has an overhanging 

 upper floor and eaves, it is now used as the works of 

 a boat proprietor ; the third (a butcher's shop) is 

 similar in front, but the side of the house towards a 

 yard on the south is of half-timber filled in with lath and 

 plaster and a little brick ; two of the rearmost windows 

 in this side have four-centred heads and are unglazed. 

 On the other side, in a narrow court, the walls are 

 also of half-timber filled with lath and plaster towards 

 the rear, but with more modern brick towards the 

 front. The upper story overhangs on curved brackets 

 and a moulded facia, the head is gabled and has a 

 good cusped bargeboard. Some of the windows in 

 this side retain their original wood frames. The 



house is evidently work of the 1 6th century. 

 Farther south the road touches the Thames, and 

 here is a wharf alive with the trade of rivercraft. 



North of the bridge the towing path is edged with 

 small white houses. Here too are boat-houses, and 

 the bank is covered with small craft. Across the 

 river is a house with embanked garden, then come 

 red wooden sheds, then orchards. Beyond the little 

 houses, and protected from the towing path by a 

 lawn set with sycamores, is Downhall, the property of 

 Mrs. Nuthall, widow of the late Mr. G. W. Nuthall, 

 a grey stuccoed house with jalousies and older 

 kitchens behind. Downhall was held in the I3th 

 century of the manor of Canbury (q.v.) by Lewin and 

 Alan le Mariner, and was afterwards leased to Ralf 

 Wakelin and Beatrice his wife. 90 In 1485-6 it was 

 styled a ' capital messuage ' or ' manor,' and was held 

 of Merton by Robert Skerne, on whose death in that 

 year it passed to Swithin his son." It was conveyed 

 in 1617 by Mildred Bond, widow, and Thomas 

 Bond to Anthony Browne and Matilda his wife." 

 Downhill lies in Canbury ; not far away the ancient 

 tithe-barn stood until sold in 1850 and pulled down. 

 North of this is the railway bridge and station, the gas- 

 works, a recreation ground, and, finally, Ham Common 

 and Ham Fields. 



Vicarage Lane takes its name from the old vicarage, 

 which stood here until the modern house was built 

 to replace that given by John Lovekyn to the vicar 

 in I366. 93 



In 1513 four Lollards were examined at Kingston, 

 and one Thomas Denys was burned in the market- 

 place on 5 March, the rest submitted. 94 There was 

 a strong element of Puritanism in Kingston. Richard 

 Taverner the controversialist lived at Norbiton, and 

 was probably the Mr. Taverner who bought the rood- 

 screen in 1561." Before 1584 John Udall was 

 lecturer or curate-in-charge, but was deprived of his 

 licence to preach by the High Commission in ijSS.* 6 

 In the early I yth century Edmund Staunton was vicar 

 for twenty years, but was suspended for a time before 

 1638," probably for puritanical teaching; he was 

 known as ' the searching preacher,' and was diligent 

 both in catechising and teaching from house to 

 house. 98 In 1658 a strong Puritan, Richard Mayo, 

 was presented to the living. He, though ejected in 

 1662, kept a separatist congregation together, which 

 was licensed under the Indulgence of 1672." In 

 1698 his more famous son Daniel Mayo 100 succeeded 

 John Goffe as pastor of the Presbyterian congrega- 

 tion here. He died at Kingston in 1733 and was 

 succeeded in the ministry there by George Wightwick 

 of Lowestoft."" John Townsend, the founder of the 

 London Asylum for Deaf Mutes, came here in 1781 as 

 pastor. 101 The congregation, as was so often the case, 

 became Independent. The chapel in Eden Street 



85 Cal. S.P. Dam. 1644, pp. 41, 165. 



86 Merryweather, op. cit. 23. 



87 Abbrev. flac, (Rec. Com.), 136. 



88 A water-colour sketch of the house, 

 and photographs of many other houses 

 now pulled down in this part of Kingston 

 may be seen at the Municipal Art Gallery 

 and Museum. The oldest part of this 

 house contained brick-work, perhaps of 

 the 1 5th century, and was floored with 

 beams of Spanish chestnut. 



89 Holinshed, Ckron. iii, 415. 



90 Cott. MS. Cleop. C. vii, fol. 1 14. 



91 Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser.z), mlxv, 5. Ro- 



bert Skerne was son of William Skerne, who 

 founded the chantry in Kingston Church. 

 William was nephew to Robert Skerne, 

 who died in 1437, and has a brass in the 

 church. Bray says (Surr. i, 375) that 

 this Robert was also of Downhall, but 

 this has not been proved. 



9a Feet of F. Surr. East. 1 5 Jas. I, 



93 Surr. Arch. Coll. viii, 143. 



M Winton Epis. Reg. Fox, iii, fol. 69- 

 76. 



94 Surr. Arch. Coll. viii, 93. 



** Diet. Nat. Biog. is mistaken in calling 

 him vicar. The vicar was Stephen Chat- 



492 



field, who became also rector of Charl- 

 wood in 1583 and lived there, but did not 

 give up Kingston. 



7 Cal. S.P. Dam. 1637-8, p. 567. 



93 Diet. Nat. Biog. liv, 1 1 2. 



99 Photograph in the Kingston Munici- 

 pal Library from the original document 

 in the possession of Lady Tangye ; Diet. 

 Nat. Biog. xxxvii, 174 ; f.C.H. Surr. 

 ii, 39, 40. 



100 Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxvii, 171. 



101 Waddington, Surr. Congregational 

 Hist. 234 (from the Church Bks.). 



IM Diet. Nat. Biog. Ivii, 1 06. 



