A HISTORY OF SURREY 



the priory of Reigate ; only Stoke and St. Olave's remained till the dis- 

 solution, the advowsons being in the hands of the priory, but not appro- 

 priated. 



The Hospital of St. Mary's Bishopsgate, possessed quite a block 

 of property in Surrey. Shalford and Wonersh with Bramley were 

 appropriated to it, and the advowsons of Dunsfold adjacent to these, and 

 of Puttenham close by, also belonged to it, with pensions. 



The southern suburbs were almost completely under the control of 

 the religious houses on the spot, Bermondsey and St. Mary Overie, or 

 of the Archbishop and the Bishop of Winchester. That the rest of the 

 county was not more completely in the hands of houses or chapters out- 

 side the county is partly explained by the fact of Chertsey being an 

 ancient foundation which had already secured some of the more valuable 

 estates in Surrey, and of Bermondsey and Merton being early and highly 

 favoured establishments. Looking at the situation and soil of the appro- 

 priated parishes, we should conclude that many of the more valuable 

 places were in the hands of the monks and canons, or of the archbishop. 

 The taxation of Pope Nicholas bears this out on the whole.' 



With the exception of the Carthusians at Sheen, the college at 

 Lingfield and the Observant Friars at Sheen, the Surrey communities all 

 dated from before the fifteenth century, as usual, for the fashion of the 

 foundation and enrichment of monasteries waned rapidly after the thir- 

 teenth century. The Black Death had been such a blow to the existing 

 monastic houses that it was impossible to keep them up to their former 

 standard of numbers. It was clearly out of the question to expect new 

 ones to be filled if founded. The numbers of the regular clergy were 

 permanently reduced.* 



It is indeed remarkable that in so small a county there should be as 

 many as one great monastery and one house of friars, both at Sheen, 

 founded so late as the fifteenth century. The endowment of chantries 

 was the general form that religious endowments took in that century, 

 and in the latter half of the fourteenth century, after the pestilence. 

 The records of the suppression of these under Edward VI. show a fair 

 number existing in Surrey, of about the usual date. Some however were 

 older ; and in some others, not named in 1 547,' time had probably 

 anticipated the work of the Reformers. 



Thus there were chantries founded before the fifteenth century at 

 Frimley, Ripley, Newark, Shiere, South wark (two), Godalming, Okewood 

 (more largely endowed in the fifteenth century), Farnham and Kingston 

 (two), all reported upon by Edward the Sixth's commissioners. Of the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth century foundations, they reported upon Croydon 

 (two), Lambeth, Bagshot, Kingston (two), Guildford (two), Puttenham 

 and Stoke d'Abernon. Also, in the fifteenth century the living of Walton 



'Farnham in the possession of the Archdeacon, Dorking in that of Lewes Priory, Chertsey 



^fefiSinTa?" ' " ""^ ^^"^"'^ " ^^^' °^ ^^""^y ''^^y' -"= ^<^ --' ^alua^c 



a ^ ^''^""' '^'"Jl'-''" P"''l^ce, pp. .81 and seq. and 205 and seq. 

 Chant. Cert., 1 Edw. VI. •. j ~i 



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