KINGSTON HUNDRED 



PETERSHAM 



claim," but seven years later he and Gunnora granted 

 the advowson in frankalmoign to Walter, Prior of 

 Merton," who gave it back to them in exchange for 

 some land in Maiden.' 6 



The priory, in 1264, at the request of Walter de 

 Merton, released any claim which they had in the 

 advowson to his house of the scholars of Merton.* 7 

 The fine by which Simon Fitz Richard granted the 

 manor of Maiden to Walter de Merton had included 

 a grant of the advowson,* 8 but as the advowson is 

 not included in Walter de Merton's endowment of 

 his college, and as the right to the advowson had been 

 in dispute earlier, it seems that Walter had preferred 

 to wait for a formal and conclusive settlement with 



the priory. The college has ever since held the 

 advowson." 



The chapel of Chessington in the same patronage 

 is annexed to this church, though Chessington has a 

 separate parochial existence. In 1291 at the taxation 

 of Pope Nicholas the church of Maiden was assessed 

 at iz/. 10 The vicarage was endowed in 1279." At 

 the beginning of the 1 8th century the tithes of the 

 demesne lands were demised by the college to the 

 vicar, Dr. Bernard, together with a few acres of land 

 near the vicarage house," and this lease was continued 

 to his successors. 



Smith's Charity is distributed as in 



CHARITIES 



other Surrey parishes. 



PETERSHAM 



The modern parish of Petersham is included in the 

 borough of Richmond, and the village, which com- 

 prises a large number of good old-fashioned houses, is 

 in fact a pleasant suburb of Richmond. It is between 

 the Thames and the higher part of Richmond Park, 

 which shelters it from the east. 



By the ' Richmond, Petersham, and Ham Open 

 Spaces Act, 1902,' Petersham Common and certain 

 meadows and manorial rights in the same were 

 vested in the Richmond Corporation for purposes of 

 public enjoyment. The Lammas lands on the 

 manor were also, by the same Act, taken from the 

 commoners who had enjoyed rights of pasture, and, 

 with Petersham Common, were placed under a Board 

 of Conservators. The river-side, from Petersham to 

 Kingston, has also been put under the Richmond 

 Corporation and the Surrey County Council, in two 

 sections, for enjoyment by the public for ever. 



The chief interest of Petersham lies in its old 

 houses, some of which are historically famous. 



HAM HOUSE, the seat of the Earls of Dysart, 

 was built by Sir Thomas Vavasour, Knight-Marshal 

 to James I, traditionally for 

 Henry Prince of Wales. The 

 date 1610, the words Vivat 

 Rex, and the initials T. V. over 

 the door, probably relate to its 

 completion. Owing possibly 

 to the death of the prince it 

 was conveyed to the Earl of 

 Holderness, from whom it 

 seems to have passed to the 

 Murray family. It is men- 

 tioned in the Court Rolls of 

 the manor of Petersham in 

 1634 as a house lately built on 



customary land by Sir Thomas Vavasour, and sur- 

 rendered by Robert Lewis (probably a trustee), who 

 was then holding it, to the use of Katherine Murray 



TOLLEMACHE, Earl of 

 Dyaart. Argent a fret 

 table. 



wife of William Murray. 1 This was by way of a 

 marriage settlement on the marriage of Elizabeth 

 daughter of William and Katherine with Sir Lionel 

 Tollemache. The heir-general of the Ramsay family, 

 Earls of Holderness, afterwards surrendered all 

 claim in the court baron.* Ham House then 

 followed the descent of the manor of Petersham 

 (q.v.). After the Earl (later Duke) of Lauderdale 

 had married Elizabeth, Countess of Dysart, meetings 

 of the Cabal ministry are said to have been held in 

 the room still called the Cabal Room.* Another 

 name for it is the Queen's room, owing to a tradition 

 that it was fitted up for Catherine of Braganza. In 

 1688 when William of Orange wished James II to 

 remove from Whitehall he suggested Ham House as 

 his abode ; James objected to it as ' a very ill winter 

 house, damp and unfurnished,' and preferred to stay 

 at Rochester, whence he escaped to France. 4 



During the life of the Duchess of Lauderdale the 

 place was considered one of the finest near London. 

 Evelyn wrote of it as ' inferior to few of the best 

 villas of Italy itself; the house furnished like a great 

 prince's ; the parterres, flower gardens, orangeries, 

 groves, avenues, courts, statues, perspectives, fountains, 

 aviaries, and all this at the banks of the sweetest river 

 in the world, must needs be admirable.' ' After the 

 death of the duchess in 1698 the place was neglected. 

 The excuse of James II that it was in 1688 'un- 

 furnished' was scarcely true, for much of the furniture 

 now is of the reign of Charles II, and peculiarly 

 magnificent. But the surroundings of the house 

 were possibly then neglected. When Horace Wai- 

 pole's niece Charlotte was married to the fifth earl, 

 her uncle wrote, ' I went yesterday to see my niece 

 in her new principality of Ham. It delighted me, 

 and made me peevish. Close to the Thames, 

 in the centre of all rich and verdant beauty, 

 it is so blocked up and barricaded with walls, vast 

 trees, and gates, that you think yourself an hundred 



* On the grounds that, first, Eudo was 

 not seised ; secondly, that he executed the 

 charter making hit grant after he had 

 entered the house as a canon ; Cur. Reg. 

 R. ut tup. 



"* Feet of F. SUIT, i John, no. 43, 44. 



96 Ibid. no. 92, 93. 



*7Cott. MS. Cleop. C vii, no. 21, fol. 

 142 (Cart. foL cxlii, no. 329), and a copy 

 at Merton College. The words of the 

 release, ' Quidquid iuris habere potuimus 



seu nos habere dicebamus,' must refer to 

 Merton's former ownership. In a return 

 of the possessions of Merton, about 1 242, 

 the church of Maiden does not appear ; 

 Cart. fol. cxxv, no. 281. 



88 Feet of F. Surr. 31 Hen. III.no. 306. 



"Egerton MS. 2031-4; Inst. Bks. 

 P.R.O. 



80 Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 206. 



"Winton Epis. Reg. Orletoo, i, fol. 

 lion ; Waynflete, i, fol. it a. 



5*5 



8a Manning and Bray, Hut. of Surr. iii, 3. 

 1 Brayley, Hist, of Surr. iii, 117 ; Ct. R. 

 portf. 205, no. i. 



' Ibid. ; Col. Cam. for Compounding, 



"When Aubrey say* of Ham House, 

 ' where the court for the king is met ' he 

 is referring to the courts leet of Richmond 

 and Ham. Vide infra. 



*Hitt. MSS. Com. Rep. vii, 227*. 



* Evelyn, Diary, 27 Aug. 1678. 



