A HISTORY OF SURREY 



the ninth century, the monastery shared the 

 perils of the country threatened by the in- 

 cursions of the Danes. This contact with 

 national history is reflected in the pages of 

 their chronicle ; it narrates the story of the 

 struggle against the heathen, describes the 

 dangers to which all the coasts were exposed, 

 and in particular the counties of Kent, Sur- 

 rey and Sussex, the fruitless efiForts of the 

 kings, the death of King Ethelbert ' broken 

 with many labours,' and culminates in the 

 account of the attack on the monastery itself, 

 the slaughter of Beocca the abbot, Ethor the 

 priest, and ninety monks, their home burnt 

 down, and their lands wasted.' 



Many years elapsed before the work of 

 restoration was begun. Then Ethelwald, 

 Bishop of Winchester (936—84), sent to the 

 abbot and convent of Abingdon commanding 

 that thirteen monks be sent to colonise a new 

 house on the old site. There they elected 

 one of their number abbot, and a new church 

 was raised.' It was also divinely revealed to 

 a certain monk that the bodies of those who 

 had been slain by the heathen should be re- 

 moved from the place where they were rest- 

 ing and honourably collected and placed in 

 a wooden shrine, which was accordingly 

 done. 



The new colony however, did not remain 

 long undisturbed. In 964 King Edgar, in- 

 flamed by the reforming zeal of Dunstan, 

 drove forth the inmates sent by Ethelwald 

 and established regulars there with Ordbright 

 as their abbot.' After these vicissitudes the 

 house seems to have entered upon a period of 

 ease and prosperity wherein its borders became 

 enlarged. 



Edward the Confessor certified by charter 

 to Stigand the archbishop and Harold the earl 

 that he had granted to Christ and St. Peter 

 of Chertsey that town with the towns of 

 Egham, Thorpe and Chobham,* and that the 

 abbot and convent should have soc and sac, 

 tol, theam and infengnethef within all their 

 manors, and also confirmed the gift by a 

 previous charter of the Hundred of Godley.* 

 The ' Saint of England ' further added to the 

 endowment the village and church of White 

 Waltham, Berks, with woods and 20 acres of 

 pasture at Cookham.' 



The house seems to have enjoyed the 



1 Cott. MS. Vitel. A. xiii. f. 33-34. 

 > Ibid. f. 35. 



' Anglo-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Series), i. 222-3. 

 ' These indeed formed the nucleus of the ori- 

 ginal endowment. 



= Cott. MS. Mtel. A. xiii. f. 50. 

 « Ibid. f. 51. 



favour and protection of the Conqueror,' who 

 confirmed the possessions which the abbot 

 and convent held in the time of King Edward 

 with soc and sac, and conferred on them 

 rights of warren, liberty of the chase, the 

 right to keep dogs, and take hares, foxes, etc., 

 within all their lands in Surrey, with a man- 

 date addressed to the sheriff, the king's foresters 

 and ministers that the abbot and convent 

 should not be molested.* 



The Domesday Survey shows that the es- 

 tates held by the abbey were already very 

 considerable and not confined to the county 

 of Surrey alone,' and they were later increased 

 by further donations from the descendants of 

 the Conqueror. 



Royal favour was accompanied by support 

 from Rome. Pope Alexander III., recalling 

 the privileges accorded by his predecessors, 

 confirmed to the abbey the tithes of Chert- 

 sey, Egham, Thorpe and Chobham," and 

 ordained that the abbot should not retain 

 them in his own hands, or expend them in 

 other uses, but that they should be applied 

 by two honest men to the repair of the abbey 

 and the maintenance of its offices." The 

 Welsh priory or cell of Cardigan with its 

 appurtenances, the churches of Holy Trinity 

 and of St. Peter of ' Berwyke,' the chapels of 

 St. Peter of Cardigan and St. Michael of 

 Tremain which had been granted to the 

 abbey by Rees Ap GrifBn, Prince of South 

 Wales, for his soul, and the souls of his wife, 

 his parents and his sons, was confirmed by 

 successive bulls of the popes, Alexander III. 

 and IV." Alexander III. also forbad the 



' It is recorded, however, in the chartulary before 

 mentioned that ' at this time the monastery was 

 again destroyed and all its possessions carried 

 away, so that there remained only that little 

 which the inhabitants of the monastery now 

 possess.' An account is given of the battle of 

 Hastings and of the burial of the vanquished 

 Harold at his abbey of Waltham (ibid. f. 47). 



» Ibid. f. 53. 



» F.C.H. SuTT. i. 307, and Hants, i. 472. 



" Cott. MS. Vitel. A. xiii. f. 69. 



»i Ibid. f. 74. 



" Ibid. ff. 72, 75. During the administration 

 of John de Hermondesworth a petition was pre- 

 sented to the Bishop of St. David's by the abbot 

 and convent, and John Barnet, prior or rector of 

 the parish church of Cardigan, praying him to 

 terminate the contentions and brawls which had 

 arisen in connection with the tithes of this church, 

 and to determine whether they were received by 

 right of the said church being an impropriated 

 benefice or a dependant cell of Chertsey. The 

 abbot appointed proctors to represent him when 

 the case should be heard, but the bishop's decision 

 is not given (Exch. K.R. Misc. Bks. f. 62). 



