92 WIMBLEDON COMMON. 
the two daughters of the Duke of Marlborough. 
Spencer’s son was created Viscount Althorpe and Earl 
Spencer, and from him the Manor descended in direct 
line to the present owner. 
The late Earl, who died in 1857, sold Wimbledon 
Park, the demesne land of the Manor, consisting of 
1,200 acres, together with the Manor House. He is said 
also to have offered to sell the Manor itself for £6,000. 
His son, the present Earl, inherited the Manor, with 
its manorial wastes of Wimbledon Common, Putney 
Heath, and two smaller open spaces, Hast Sheen 
Common and Palewell Common, but without much 
adjoining property. He was also the Lord of the 
Manors of Battersea and Wandsworth, in which are 
the Common of Wandsworth and part of that of 
Clapham. 
What we know generally as Wimbledon Common 
consists of about 1,000 acres, of which 730 are, 
strictly speaking, waste of the Manor of Wimbledon ; 
200 acres are in the Manor of Putney, separated by 
the Kingston Road; and about seventy acres are waste 
of the Manor of Battersea and Wandsworth. 
The Rolls of the Manor date from the time of 
Edward IV., and, with a few breaks, are tolerably perfect 
till very recent times.* Tull 1728 they were written in 
Latin. They are replete with interesting facts, bearing 
on the condition of the Manor and the rights of its free- 
* Extracts from the Rolls of this Manor were printed by the 
Cominittee of Wimbledon Commoners in 1886, and form a bulky 
volume 
