BEDDINGTON CHURCH. 15 



observed, to the Priory of Bermondsey. A commission having been 

 issued in 1473 by the Bishop of Winchester, to inquire into the nature 

 and profits of this portion, it was found that the clear profits were then 

 estimated at 40 shiUings. This portion also passed later to the Carews, 

 and it appears to have consisted of the tithes of 200 acres of land 

 called Huscarle's Fewde, situated on the north side of the church, with 

 a house and twenty acres of land on the southern side. This house 

 was the subject of a lawsuit in 1801. It seems that before 1703 

 the owners of the Beddington Estate had exchanged lands with the 

 rector, and from time to time had granted leases to him, reserving a 

 certain rent as well as certain other agreements. In 1753 the rector 

 refused to pay the rent, or to deliver to the patron the straw- 

 according to the agreements of the lease, while another rector in 1801 

 not only refused to fulfil these obligations, but also refused to pay the 

 tithe of oats, another of the agreements of the lease ; so the patron 

 filed a bill in Chancery against him. The decree was given in favour 

 of the rector, but the patron recovered afterwards all his lands by 

 gaining an action which he brought against the rector, and for some 

 time there was no parsonage-house, the rectors being at the time 

 unable to find another. During the present century a parsonage-house 

 has been built adjoining the school. 



There is one instance of great longevity recorded in the register of 

 this parish. William Stuart, or Old Scott, as he was more commonly 

 called, attained the great age of. one hundred and ten years and two 

 months. He was buried the 31st of January, 1704-5. 



It appears that Beddington did not wholly escape the ravages of 

 the Plague. Eight persons are recorded to have died of it in 1594, 

 ten in 1603, and eleven in 1625. 



WALLINGTON. 



The early records of Wallington are wrapped in obscurity. Some 

 consider it to have formerly been a place of importance from the fact of 

 its giving its name, in the time of the Saxons, to the hundred. But 



