CHURCH.
There was a priest in the manor of
Harefield in 1086, (fn. 20) but nothing further is known
concerning the church until the late 12th century.
At that time Beatrice de Bollers, and her son, Geoffrey
son of Baldwin, who seem to have owned Harefield
manor, (fn. 21) gave the advowson to the Knights Hospitallers. (fn. 22) The gift was confirmed by the Bishop of
London, and, probably between 1181 and 1185, he
also granted the Hospitallers the right to exercise
all episcopal powers in the benefice, and to enjoy all
the fruits of it. (fn. 23) By virtue of this the peculiar jurisdiction of Harefield was established, which the
Hospitallers continued to exercise until the Dissolution. The bishops of London thereafter began to
intervene in the parish, and during the remainder
of the 16th century there seemed to be some doubt
whether Harefield formed a peculiar; the clergy
usually appeared at the visitations. (fn. 24) During most
of the 17th century Harefield disappears from the
visitation records. (fn. 25) However, the matter was settled
finally during a dispute lasting from 1679 to 1682
between Sir Richard Newdigate, the patron, and the
curate, Roger Davies. Davies appealed to the bishop
against the patron's authority, but by 1682 the bishop
recognized that Newdigate lawfully exercised episcopal jurisdiction in the parish. (fn. 26) This was confirmed
in 1691, when a jury declared that no bishop's writ had
run in the parish for over 500 years, and that Newdigate was 'the undoubted ordinary'. (fn. 27) The rights of
the peculiar continued to be exercised by the Newdigates until 1847, when all peculiar jurisdictions were
transferred to the bishops. (fn. 28) In the 17th century the
Newdigates appointed chancellors for the peculiar, (fn. 29)
and several courts were held 'before the unhappy
wars', at which the parishioners were answerable for
their misdemeanours. (fn. 30)
When the church was appropriated to the Hospitallers by the grant of Bishop Foliot which has
already been mentioned, the parson resigned and was
re-appointed as perpetual vicar. (fn. 31) According to a
confirmation of 1219, however, the Hospitallers had
only to provide a chaplain, to whom they were to
give sufficient maintenance. (fn. 32) A dispute in 1206 between the Hospitallers and the lord of Harefield
manor resulted in the confirmation of the Hospitallers'
rights. (fn. 33) At the time of the appropriation of the
church the tithes of the demesne of Harefield seem
to have belonged to Stoke by Clare Priory (Suff.), (fn. 34)
which had been founded by the Clare family, in
whose honor Harefield lay. In 1221 the priory granted
these tithes to the Hospitallers, who then owned the
whole rectory estate. (fn. 35) There is no record of any property except tithes: the virgate which belonged to the
priest in 1086 (fn. 36) no doubt became absorbed in the
manorial estate of the Hospitallers at an early date.
In 1254 the rectory was valued at 15 marks and about
a century later at 12 marks. (fn. 37) By the Dissolution the
farmer of the manor held the rectory and appointed
the chaplain. (fn. 38) After the Dissolution the rectory,
church, and advowson were included in the grants
of Moorhall manor, passed to the Newdigate family,
and then followed the descent of the manor of Harefield. (fn. 39) The rectory was valued at £20 in 1547 (fn. 40) and
at £140 in 1650, when it was said to consist of great
and small tithes. (fn. 41) When George Pitt sold the manor
of Harefield to Sir Richard Newdigate in 1675 the
sale included the advowson, and the Newdigates
were thereafter referred to as owners of the church,
but the tithes were not included. (fn. 42) Between 1683 and
1686 Pitt sold much of them to various people, including members of the Ashby family. (fn. 43) Tithes were
also included in the sale of Belhammonds to George
Cooke in 1713, (fn. 44) and in 1835 Sir George Cooke of
Belhammonds was said to be the lay impropriator. (fn. 45) The Newdigates probably owned the tithes on
the Harefield Place estate, since these were held by
the Truesdales in 1781. (fn. 46) In 1825 the greater part
of the parish was said to be discharged from paying
tithe. (fn. 47) Finally, in 1845 the tithes on 867½ acres were
commuted for £139 16s. 4d. There were then 58
tithe-owners, the largest being the owners of the
Harefield Park or Belhammonds estate, the Swakeleys and St. Thomas's Hospital estates, and the
overseers of the poor, in respect of one of the parish
charities. (fn. 48) The Newdigates retained the advowson
after 1675, and in 1957 it belonged to the Hon. Mrs.
L. FitzRoy Newdegate. (fn. 49)
After the single reference in the late 12th century,
at the time of the appropriation, there is no mention
of a vicarage, and it seems clear that the Hospitallers
provided only a chaplain to serve the cure. Aline de
Clare granted the Hospitallers the services of eight
men in Harefield and two in another manor for the
maintenance of the chaplain, who was always to be
appointed within fifteen days of a vacancy occurring. (fn. 50) The only reference which has been found to a
chaplain between then and the 16th century occurs
in 1333. (fn. 51) In the early 16th century the farmer of the
manor and rectory was responsible for finding a
chaplain, who in 1547 was said to be paid £6 13s. 4d.
a year. (fn. 52) The first endowment for the 'donative' or
'curacy', as it came to be called, (fn. 53) was given by Alice,
Countess of Derby, who left a two-roomed house
attached to her almshouses and £25 a year, charged
on the manorial estate, to the curate, who was to read
prayers to the almswomen. (fn. 54) During the Interregnum
the impropriator, Lord Chandos, had to allow £100
a year to the maintenance of a minister, (fn. 55) and John
Conant, later Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, who
was Chandos's chaplain, is said to have been allowed
£80 a year while he was at Harefield. (fn. 56) In 1679 the
curate was being paid 8s. a week. (fn. 57) By 1736 the
Newdigates were paying the curate £40 a year, possibly including Lady Derby's rent-charge. (fn. 58) In 1835
the income of the curate was £64, (fn. 59) and in 1843 the
patron was said to have recently doubled the
stipend. (fn. 60) In 1870 the living was given the status of a
vicarage, (fn. 61) and in 1904 £24 was added to the endowment, partly from a bequest and partly from the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners. (fn. 62) By 1955 the net
income of the benefice had risen to £561, though the
endowment still amounted to only £86. (fn. 63) The dwelling attached to the almshouses does not seem to have
often been used by the curates, and in 1852 a parsonage was erected, by the voluntary subscription of
the parishioners, which was surrounded by 8½ acres
of land. (fn. 64) By 1931 the land had been reduced to 2
acres. (fn. 65) On a vicar's retirement in 1927 this vicarage
standing opposite Harefield House was sold, (fn. 66) and a
new one was bought in 1931 with 2 acres of ground. (fn. 67)
This was still in use in 1959.
Very few prominent clergymen have held the
curacy, only two being noteworthy. One was John
Conant, who has already been mentioned: he does
not, however, appear in Newcourt's list of clergy. (fn. 68)
The other was John Pritchett, later Bishop of
Gloucester, who appears to have been ejected during
the Interregnum, when a Mr. Hoare was the
minister, but to have been reinstated at the Restoration. (fn. 69)
In the late 17th century the curates' position seems
sometimes to have been rather precarious. About
1674 it was said that the benefice was served by the
resident chaplain of the Newdigate's house; (fn. 70) a few
years later Sir Richard Newdigate said that the then
curate, Roger Davies, was hired at 8s. a week from
Sunday to Sunday, to preach, read prayers, and
teach the children. (fn. 71) After this man had been dismissed, the chaplains of Lady Newdigate's house
served the cure, and after her death Sir Richard
Newdigate's chaplain was responsible. (fn. 72) Davies's dismissal followed a dispute between him and the parish
clerk, in which Davies asserted that the clerk had
arranged with a neighbouring minister that he should
take all 'weekly weddings' at a fee to the clerk of 5s. a
wedding. (fn. 73) The villagers petitioned Newdigate to retain
the parish clerk and to end the dispute which was
encouraging the dissenters and causing a decline in the
Anglican congregation. (fn. 74) Perhaps as a result of this
quarrel in the village the manor court laid down in
1692 rules for the observance of Sundays, which required all people not dissenters to attend church
once a fortnight, and to stay there during the service
and during the sermon, if there was one; to send their
servants and their children, who were forbidden to
play in the street during the morning and afternoon
services. The parish clerk was ordered to ring the
'sermon bell' for half an hour 'before he chimes all in'.
There was a proviso that a husband and wife could
take turns in attending church so that only one needed
to appear every fortnight. (fn. 75) In 1691 the curate complained that his parishioners were remaining in the
nave for communion as the lack of 'seats or desks'
made the chancel too inconvenient. (fn. 76)
The patrons' rights over the parish church were
extensive. They seem to have owned the chancel,
and when they granted away the manor in 1586
they claimed to have reserved an aisle in the church
for burial. (fn. 77) The extensive Newdigate monuments
in the chancel are fairly reliable evidence that they
owned rights over it, and by 1825 fees for making
and opening vaults and putting tablets on the walls
were claimed by the patron. (fn. 78) In 1841 Charles
Newdigate Newdegate undertook the restoration of
the whole church except for the part of the north
aisle known as the Breakspear chapel, which was
restored by Joseph Ashby Partridge at the same time. (fn. 79)
On the sale of the Harefield Lodge estate in 1877 all
stalls and seats in the chancel were reserved to the
Newdigates, as well as liability for chancel repair
and the curate's stipend. (fn. 80) The claim to fees was
surrendered in 1887 by the patron, who held himself
responsible for no charge beyond the chancel. (fn. 81) But
even in 1914 Francis Newdegate was emphasizing
that the whole church belonged to him and was his
responsibility, except for the Breakspear Chapel,
though he admitted that the right to use certain
pews in the church had been sold by his ancestors. (fn. 82)
Nothing is known of the conduct of services in
the 18th and early 19th centuries. The church was
rarely used in the evenings in the late 19th century
as lamps were not given to the parish until 1897. (fn. 83)
During the First World War Harefield Park became
an Australian hospital. An Australian cemetery was
laid out in the churchyard, and every year since 1921
a commemoration service has been held on Anzac
day. (fn. 84) The obelisk to the Australians was erected in
1921, (fn. 85) and the archway and gate in 1924. (fn. 86)
A Moorhall mission was set up in 1922 with a
weekly mission service, Sunday school, and mothers'
meeting, and in the same year the Moorhall chapel
was repaired and refitted for the same purpose. (fn. 87) In
1927 the chapel was leased by the rural district
council to the vicar and churchwardens for use as a
mission room and Sunday school. This, however,
did not last for long. (fn. 88) Another mission hut was
opened in 1922 called the Mill Mission on some land
given to the church by Bell's Asbestos Company
down in the industrial part of Harefield. A weekly
service was also held there as well as a Sunday
school, (fn. 89) but this mission closed just before the
Second World War. The hut was later re-erected
elsewhere. (fn. 90) In 1959 there were 243 persons on the
electoral roll of the church (fn. 91) and the principal
services on Sundays were the 8 o'clock holy communion and choir offices, and matins at 11 o'clock.
The parish church of ST. MARY is noteworthy
for its monuments, and consists of a chancel, nave,
north and south aisles, a north-east chapel, and a
north-west tower. The nave and aisles are housed
under separate gables of approximately the same
height. The exterior is predominantly of flint rubble
and brick with limestone dressings, and the tower,
largely of flint rubble below, is finished and battlemented in brick; (fn. 92) the brickwork is of various dates.
The north aisle and chancel are cement rendered
externally, and the south aisle exterior is faced with
flint and stone chequerwork. The oldest visible
feature of the church is a blocked lancet window in
the chancel which dates from the early 13th century, but the west wall of the nave may be of 12thcentury origin. The chancel and a north aisle were
built in the 13th century, and the south aisle and
arcade date from the 14th. (fn. 93) According to an early19th-century sketch, however, the south aisle then
consisted of only the two eastern bays of the present
aisle. (fn. 94) The present north aisle and arcade, including
the chapel at its east end, were built in the early 16th
century, (fn. 95) a bequest of 20s. towards the building
being made in 1500. (fn. 96) The massive tower was built
at the west end of the north aisle slightly later. (fn. 97) Repairs to the church were carried out in 1705-6,
which included renewing the roof timbers and ceiling, and painting the royal arms 'at the end . . .
towards the chancel'. (fn. 98) Extensive alterations were
made in 1768-9 under the architect Henry Keene,
who renewed the chancel arch, was responsible for
the Gothic plasterwork of the chancel ceiling, and
designed the altar. (fn. 99) It is probable that the whole
arrangement of the chancel with its high floor level
approached by five steps is the work of Keene, who
was also consulted about the position and spacing of
the monuments. (fn. 1) A former 'portico' at the west end
of the original two-bayed south aisle may also have
been an addition at this period. (fn. 2) These two eastern
bays formed a chapel known as the Brackenbury
chapel, so called because members of the Newdigate
family were buried there both before the Dissolution
and during the ninety years in which they owned
only Brackenbury and not the manors of Harefield
and Moorhall. Late in 1802 the Brackenbury chapel
was restored, (fn. 3) and the whole church was restored in
1841, the cost being largely borne by Charles Newdigate Newdegate. The alterations of this date,
which were made in the style of the 14th century,
apparently included the westward extension of the
south aisle by two bays, so as to bring it into line
with the west wall of the nave. (fn. 4) The tower was restored in 1958 (fn. 5) and restoration work on the nave
roof was in progress in 1959.
The fittings of the church are noteworthy. The
much restored screen separating the north aisle from
the north, or Breakspear, chapel is of early-16thcentury work, (fn. 6) but its position has been slightly
altered since the early 19th century. The reredos and
communion rails, which are semi-octagonal in plan
and enclose the altar on three sides, are said to have
come from Flanders, and are richly carved in wood
with pendants of fruit and cherub-heads, and a
scrollwork of carved acanthus leaves. This work is of
the late 17th century, (fn. 7) and was probably installed as
a result of the complaint in 1691 that the chancel was
inconvenient for the celebration of the sacrament. (fn. 8)
The reredos is surmounted by unusual frosted glass
panels inscribed with the commandments. The
three-decker pulpit dates from the 18th century, and
several box pews of the same period survive. In the
windows of the Breakspears chapel are a few pieces
of 16th-century stained glass; funeral helms and
gauntlets dating from the 15th to the 17th centuries
hang on the chancel south wall, and Newdigate
hatchments adorn the nave arcades.
The monuments in the church are its outstanding
feature, especially those erected to the Newdigate
family. On the south side of the altar is the large
canopied tomb of Alice, successively Countess of
Derby and wife of Sir Thomas Egerton. It is of
painted stone, embodies an effigy, and has been
ascribed to Maximilian Colt (see plate facing p. 258). (fn. 9)
In the south wall of the chancel is a recessed tabletomb of early-16th-century date, with indents and
brasses on the top, and a brass to John Newdigate
and Anne (c. 1545) in the recess. (fn. 10) Above this are
three uniform niches painted black which hold three
almost identical white classical urns. The centre and
left-hand urns, by Richard Hayward, (fn. 11) are to Elizabeth Newdigate (d. 1765), and Sophia (d. 1774), first
wife of Sir Roger Newdigate; the right-hand one, by
John Bacon the younger, is to Hester (d. 1800), his
second wife. (fn. 12) The monument on the north side of
the altar is by Grinling Gibbons to Mary (d. 1692)
wife of Sir Richard Newdigate. (fn. 13) Gibbons later
added a memorial to Sir Richard himself (d. 1710).
Monuments on the north wall of the chancel include
those to Edward Newdigate (d. 1734) and Sarah
Newdigate (d. 1695), and also one with a portrait
bust by Rysbrack to Sir Richard Newdigate (d.
1727). (fn. 14) In the south aisle, or the old Brackenbury
chapel, are two table-tombs of mid-16th-century
date, one to John Newdigate (d. 1528), the other to
an unknown person, and several wall monuments of
which one, to Sir John Newdigate (d. 1610) and his
wife, by William White, embodies figures. (fn. 15) The
monuments to Charles Parker the elder and younger,
both by John Bacon the younger, (fn. 16) are also in the
chancel. In the Breakspears chapel are the monuments to the Ashby and related families of Breakspears, which include two matching tablets on the
south wall, and two wall-monuments, one to Ann
Ashby (d. 1723) and the other to Sir Robert Ashby
(d. 1617) and Sir Francis Ashby (d. 1623), including
figures. In the nave is a wall monument to William
Ashby (d. 1760), attributed to Sir Robert Taylor. (fn. 17)
There are floor slabs and other monuments in the
nave and aisles, including one to John Pritchett
(d. 1681), Bishop of Gloucester and incumbent of
Harefield. The brasses include those in the Breakspears chapel dating from 1474 to c. 1537, casts of
the palimpsests being fitted to the organ loft in 1912.
These have figures, inscriptions, and shields of arms.
In the south aisle are two more brasses, dating from
1444 and 1533. (fn. 18)
In the late 19th century it was said that the font
had been used as a water trough in the vicarage
garden for about 50 years, but had been restored 'a
few years ago'. (fn. 19) The plate includes a cup of 1561, a
cup of c. 1630, and a 17th-century paten with the
initials I.P. (fn. 20) The baptism and burial registers date
from 1538 and the marriage register from 1546.
There are three bells: (i) 1629 by Brian Eldridge;
(ii) 1753; (iii) 1772 by Thomas Swain. There is also
an undated sanctus bell. (fn. 21)