A HISTORY OF SURREY 



gallery and replaced with smaller segmental-headed 

 lights ; there was formerly a north doorway in the 

 middle of the wall. The outer arch of the west porch 

 is round, but the doorways through the tower are 

 square-headed. The ceilings are flat and plastered. 



The altar-table and font are modern ; and a modern 

 screen spans the entrance to the chancel, within which 

 are two large box-pews. The nave is also filled with 

 box-pews, and there are north, west and south galleries. 

 In the chancel on the north side is a large monument 

 erected by Gregory Cole in 1624 to his father and 

 his son, both named George. It formerly stood in 

 the old south transept, which was probably built to 

 contain it. The elder George married Frances Preston 

 and had eight sons and five daughters, and Gregory 

 married Jane Blighe and had three sons, George, 

 buried in this tomb, Thomas, and Robert. The 

 effigies of George and Frances Cole lie under a round 

 arch flanked by Corinthian 1 columns, and in a small 

 niche in the base is the figure of their grandson. 

 Above are the arms of Cole quartering Argent three 

 bends in a border engrailed gules. In the east spandrel 

 of the arch are the arms of Preston : Argent two bars 

 gules and a quarter gules with a cinquefoil or 

 thereon ; and in the west spandrel Preston impaled 

 by Cole. On the frieze are two other shields, one 

 with the quartered coat of Cole and the other : 

 Argent a fesse between two roundels sable in the 

 chief and a martlet in the foot sable, a molet gules for 

 difference impaling Cole, which records the marriage 

 of Henry Lee of London with Elizabeth daughter of 

 George and Frances Cole. On the south wall is a 

 monument to Sir Thomas Jenner, kt., justice of the 

 Common Pleas, 1706-7 ; and to Elizabeth, Countess 

 of Dysart and Duchess of Lauderdale, 1697. There 

 is one bell, by Brian Eldridge, 1620. 



The communion plate comprises a silver-gilt cup 

 of 1562, and silver cup and cover paten of 1570, 

 two silver-gilt patens of 1663 and 1696, a silver 

 paten of 1760, and a silver flagon 1740. 



The registers begin in 1570, the first book 

 (without its first leaf, which only survives as a copy) 

 containing entries from 1574 to 1 68 1, the second 

 continuing to 1716 ; the third is a copy of the other 

 two made in 1698 and continued to 1786 for 

 baptisms and burials, and 1756 for marriages. In 

 the third book are entries that the church was 

 built on the ' south side of the abbey ' (i.e. prob- 

 ably a house belonging to Chertsey) in 1505, and 

 that the ' chapell ' was ' new repaired and whitened 

 and glazed in 1668.' The fourth book has marriages 

 from 1756 to 1786, and the fifth marriages 1807 

 to 1812, the register of marriages between 1786 

 and 1 807 appearing to be lost ; the sixth has baptisms 

 from 1786 to 1812, and the seventh burials for the 

 sime period. 



In the vestry is a photograph of a certificate, dated 

 30 July 1664, by Henry Bignell, minister, of the 

 marriage of Prince Rupert to Lady Francesca Bard ; 

 but the register contains no entry of such marriage. 



The church stands to the north of the road below 

 Richmond Hill, and is approached by a narrow passage. 



On a site in the grounds of the former Bute House 

 is the new church of ALL S4INTS, completed in 

 1909. It is a red brick and terra-cotta building of 



a Romanesque style, consisting of an apsidal chancel, 

 nave with aisles, octagonal north baptistery, and a tall 

 south-west tower with a pyramidal roof crowned by a 

 figure of Christ. The altar is raised to a considerable 

 height above the floor of the nave, and has a tall rere- 

 dos and rood, and the baptistery has a tank for total 

 immersion. 



A church existed at Petersham at 

 ADVQWSON the time of the Domesday Survey, 

 and in 1 266 was appropriated to 

 Merton Priory as a chapelry of Kingston. In this 

 year an assignment was made for the endowment of a 

 chaplain to celebrate divine service three times a week 

 in the said chapel, namely, on Sunday, Wednesday, 

 and Friday, and freely dispense there the sacrament of 

 baptism, the prior and convent allowing him two 

 quarters of white wheat, one quarter of barley, and one 

 of oats, to be paid on the feast of All Saints, and 

 saving the rights of the mother-church of Kingston ; 

 whilst the parishioners of Petersham conceded, for the 

 sustentation of the same chaplain, one bushel of wheat 

 for every 10 acres, the whole amounting to 25^ 

 bushels from 255 acres. 60 



In 1553 David Vincent, a groom of the privy 

 chamber (see manor), had a grant of land and tithes, 

 including the site of the chapel of Petersham, with 

 1 3 quarters of wheat pertaining thereto." The 

 appointment of the curate was found in 1658 to 

 be in the hands of the vicar of Kingston ; a but 

 from a note in the parish registers it appears that 

 when the Rev. Henry Walker intimated his appoint- 

 ment by the vicar to the Countess of Dysart in 1667, 

 she claimed it as her right. She was, however, content 

 to approve of Mr. Walker as curate. 



The commissioners of 1658 recommended the 

 union of Petersham with Ham and Hatch as a separate 

 parish, but it was not done. Bishop Willis's Visitation 

 Returns, 1725, say that Petersham chapel had been 

 ' partly endowed ' by a Mr. Hatton and his family, 

 probably the Mr. William Hatton of East Molesey 

 who left an endowment to Thames Ditton (q.v.) 

 in 1703. A Robert Hatton had also been Recorder 

 of Kingston in 1638. 



In 1769 Petersham was separated from Kingston 

 by Act of Parliament and joined to Kew (q.v.),* 4 

 to which it remained attached until 1891, when, in 

 accordance with the Kew and Petersham Vicarage Acts, 

 it was separated therefrom. It is now a vicarage in 

 the gift of the Crown. The rectorial tithe is held by 

 the Earl of Dysart. 



Almshouses for six persons were 

 CHARITIES built in 1867 by Madame Tildesley 

 de Bosset, who endowed them by 

 will. George Cole in 1624 gave a small benefaction 

 charged on land in Sudbrook Park for the poor, 

 which was returned in 1894 as not paid since 1859. 



Dr. Triplet's benefaction of 1668 for apprenticing 

 children is partly shared by Petersham. The Poor's 

 land or the Poor's Half-acre, a house, and some 

 cottages, the rent of which is applied for general 

 purposes of poor relief, were also given by him at the 

 same date. 



Smith's Charity is distributed as in other Surrey 

 parishes. The whole are under one management by 

 a scheme of the Charity Commissioners." 



Cott. MSS. Cleop. C. vii. 

 61 Actt ofP.C. 1552-4, p. 288. 



62 Lambeth MS. Certificate, fol. N. 

 6. (vol. 21). Farnham MSS. 



* 4 Stat. 9 Geo. Ill, cap. 65. 



K Ret. to Surr. Co. Council (1894). 



532 



