EPSOM
Evesham (xi cent.); Ebbesham (xiii cent.); Ebsham, Ebesham, and Ebbesham (xiv cent.); Ebbisham,
Eppesham, and Ebsame (xvi cent.); Ebsham (xvii
cent. and xviii cent.); Epsom (late xvii cent.).
Epsom is a town 16 miles north-east of Guildford,
7 miles south-by-east of Kingston, 15 miles from
London. The parish measures 4 miles from north to
south, and 2 miles from east to west, and contains
4,413 acres. It lies upon the chalk downs, the
Woolwich and Thanet Beds, and the London Clay.
The church is on the chalk, but the greater part of
the old village is on a patch of gravel and sand of the
Thanet Beds. The building of later days has had a
tendency to spread up the chalk. A branch of the
Hoggsmill River flows from Epsom. Besides agriculture, brick-making and brewing are carried on; but
the chief importance of Epsom since it ceased to be a
small country village has been, first, that of a wateringplace; and, secondly, that of a horse-racing town.
Epsom Common is still to a great extent open ground,
lying on the clay, and adjoining Ashtead Common to
the west of the town. Epsom Downs are a noble
expanse of chalk country, comprising 944 acres of
open land.
The road from London to Dorking passes through
Epsom. This road was evidently passable for carriages
when Epsom was a fashionable watering-place, in the
latter part of the 17th century; but it was not
passable, except with difficulty, beyond Epsom till
1755, when an Act (fn. 1) was passed for carrying on the
turnpike road from the watch-house in Epsom. In
the same year (fn. 2) the road from Epsom to Ewell, and
thence into the Kingston road, was re-made.
The London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway
came to Epsom by the Croydon and Epsom line in
1847. The Epsom Downs branch was opened in
1865. The London and South-Western Railway
came to Epsom in 1859. The stations of the two
companies are some distance apart, but the lines converge just before reaching the London and South-Western Railway Station, and continue together till
Letherhead, the Brighton extension to Horsham
having obtained running powers over the South-Western Railway line.
Epsom is now a flourishing country town. It was
constituted an urban district under the Public Health
Act of 1848 on 19 March 1850. By the Local
Government Act of 1894 it was put under a Local
District Council of nine members, increased to twelve
in 1903. It is essentially a town, supplied with gas
by the Epsom and Ewell Gas Company, formed 1839;
with electric light by a company in Church Street;
with water from the chalk by works belonging to the
Council. There is a cemetery in Ashley Road, first
opened in 1871. The County Court was built in
1848; the Town Hall, in red brick and terra cotta,
in 1883. The Technical Institute and Art School
was opened in 1897. The sewage of the town is
disposed of by an irrigation system on part of the
Epsom Court farm lands, the purified effluent is
discharged into the Hoggsmill River. The District
Council's Isolation Hospital is in the Hook Road.
The Union Workhouse is near the Dorking Road.
Horton Manor, lying west of the town, has been
acquired by the London County Council for an asylum,
and the Manor Asylum has been built for 2,100
patients. The Colony for Epileptics, in the same
neighbourhood, lying partly in Ewell Parish, was
opened in 1902, and can accommodate 366 patients
in separate houses. A large suburb of cottages is
growing up in the neighbourhood of the asylums.
There is another outlying hamlet about Epsom
Common.
The wide High Street is still a picturesque feature
of the town. Up till 1848 a watch-house, with a
sort of wooden steeple, stood in the middle of it, where
the present clock tower stands. There was also a large
pond, drained in 1854. In this street, as well as in
South Street and Church Street, are many interesting
old houses and inns. A fair is still held in the town
on 25 July and the two following days.
Historically, Epsom was unimportant till the 17th
century. Neolithic flakes and implements have been
found, but few only, near Woodcote. Toland, in his
letter descriptive of Epsom in 1711, speaks of Roman
remains at Epsom Court Farm. The old trackway
(see under Mickleham) which came over the Downs
headed for the western side of Epsom Race-course, but
is not to be clearly traced beyond it. It is called the
Portway in a rental of 1495–6. (fn. 3) When the church
was being enlarged in 1907 a dene hole was discovered
in the churchyard. The depth was some 16 ft. to the
bottom of the shaft, and chambers ran each way from
the bottom of the shaft for 12 ft. or 13 ft. The shaft
and most of the chambers had been filled in with
loose soil, and a mediaeval grave had been dug to a
great depth and reached the top of one of the chambers, whence the bones found there had been let
through to the bottom. Nothing else was found but
a little loose charcoal, and two or three small pieces of
hand-made pottery.
Epsom Well, to the discovery of which the place
owed its later fame, is on Epsom Common, some
distance from the village. It is in the London Clay.
Water charged with sulphate of magnesia is not uncommonly found in this soil, as at Jessop's Well, on
Stoke D'Abernon Common, which is probably as powerful as the Epsom spring. The situation of Epsom,
however, on the edge of the downs, made it a pleasant
resort, and so gave greater fame to its waters. The
current story is that the well was discovered in 1618
by one Henry Wicker, who observed that cattle would
not drink of it. Dudley North, third Lord North,
asserts in his Forest of Varieties, published in 1645, that
he first made the Tunbridge Wells and Epsom waters
known to the world at large. Aubrey drank the
water in 1654. After the Restoration the Epsom
Wells became a fashionable resort, Epsom being nearer
to London than Tunbridge Wells. Nonsuch, so long
as it remained standing, was a royal house in the near
neighbourhood, and it was an easy ride from Hampton
Court. Charles II, James II, as Duke of York, and
Prince George of Denmark, all visited Epsom.
Pepys, of course, went there; he paid his first visit
in 1663, when the town was so full that he had to
seek a lodging in Ashtead. In 1667, he writes, on
14 July, 'to Epsom by eight o'clock to the Well,
where much Company. And to the town, to the
King's Head; and hear that my lord Buckhurst and
Nelly' (Nell Gwynne) 'are lodged at the next house,
and Sir Charles Sedley with them; and keep a merry
house.' In 1663 he had remarked on the large
number of citizens 'that I could not have thought to
have seen there; that they ever had it in their heads
or purses to go down thither.' The New Inn in
High Street dates from about this period. It is now
called Waterloo House, and is occupied by shops. It
is now mainly an 18th-century two-story building of
red brick with plastered quoins, and a low gable in
the middle of the front; in the roof are attics lighted
by good dormer windows. There is a good gable end
over the original entrance, which led into a narrow
courtyard in the centre, whence there is an exit at
the opposite end. On the first floor, approached by
a fine staircase with carved balusters, was the Assembly
or Ball Room, now cut up by partitions. In 1690
Mr. Parkhurst, lord of the manor, built an Assembly
Room at the Wells, erected other buildings, and
planted avenues of elms and limes, which were mostly
cut down for timber in the early 19th century. The
popularity and fashion of Epsom at this time is sufficiently attested, not merely by the names of visitors,
but by the announcement in the Gazette, 19 June
1684, that a daily post would go to and from Epsom
and Tunbridge Wells respectively and London during
the season for drinking the waters, that is, during
May, June, and July. This was the earliest daily
post outside London.
In 1711, Toland, the famous deistical writer, gives
a very flowery description of the beauties of Epsom
in a letter to 'Eudena.' But by this date Epsom
had come to rely upon its general attractions for
pleasure seekers, rather than upon its medicinal
waters. A quack doctor named Levingston sank a
rival well, of no particular quality, near the town in
1706, built an Assembly Room and shops near it,
and in 1715 got a lease of the old well and closed it
till his death in 1727. Queen Anne visited Epsom
during this period, but the place decayed as a fashionable resort. The neighbouring gentry, however, used
to visit the old well when it was reopened, after 1727.
Clearly it continued to be a very different kind of
place from any other country town in Surrey. In
1725 Bishop Willis, in his Visitation questions, asked
for the names of resident gentry in every parish, and
for Epsom, Lord Yarmouth, Lord Guilford, Lord
Baltimore, Sir John Ward, eight gentlemen, and eight
well-to-do widows are returned, whilst nothing like
the same number are returned for any other parish;
eight for Kew is the nearest to it. The invention of
sea-bathing, about 1753, was finally fatal to Epsom as
a watering-place. The Old Well House, however,
was not pulled down till 1804, when a private house
was built on the spot, a successor to which still
occupies the ground. A part of the old brickwork
seems to survive in one of the greenhouses in the
garden.
Among the recreations of Epsom in its glory were
gambling, cudgel-playing, foot-races, cock-fighting, and
catching a pig by the tail, besides horse-racing.
Robert Norden's map, of the 17th century, marks
'the Race,' extending in a straight line from Banstead
Downs on to Epsom Downs. In 1648 a horse-race
on Banstead Downs, evidently a usual occurrence, was
made the prelude to Lord Holland's rising against the
Parliament. (fn. 4) The races were one of the regular diversions of the company at the Wells, and they used to
witness two or three heats in the morning, return to
dinner in the middle of the day, and come up to the
Downs for more heats in the afternoon. These were
run in 1730 either on the old straight course, or on
what Toland in 1711 calls the 'new orbicular course.'
In those days the runners started above Langley
Bottom behind the Warren, and, going outside the
Bushes, ran by way of Tattenham Corner to the
winning-chair. The original Derby course was the
last mile and a half of this track, the starting-post being
out of sight of the grand stand. The Derby and the
Oaks races were founded in 1780 and 1779 respectively, and were called after the Earl of Derby and his
seat at Banstead.
In 1846 Mr. Henry Dorling, the clerk of the
course, made, on the advice of Lord George Bentinck, a course for the Derby, the whole of which
lies on the eastern side of the Warren and in full view
of the stands. This, which is now known as the old
course, was used until 1871. For the present Derby
course, first used in 1872, the horses start on slightly
higher ground at the high-level starting-post, and
run into the old course at the mile-post. The
first half-mile and the last five furlongs of this
track are in the manor of Epsom; that part of it
above the Bushes, from the City and Suburban
starting-post to the old five-furlong start, lying on
Walton Downs within the manor of Walton, is
owned by the Epsom Grand Stand Association.
The antiquities and history of the race-meetings
have been sufficiently treated already. (fn. 5) The popularity
of the races survived the popularity of the wateringplace. Dr. Burton (fn. 6) speaks enthusiastically of the
crowds of spectators, even from London, and, as he is
writing in Greek, is irresistibly reminded of the Olympic Games. Greater crowds than ever used to attend
now flock to Epsom races, for the population within
reach is larger, and the means of access by railway
much facilitated. But probably the almost national
importance of the Derby reached its height in the
last generation. It was while Lord Palmerston and
Lord Derby were political leaders that the House of
Commons regularly adjourned for the Derby day.
The fashion outlived Lord Palmerston, but it ceased
under Mr. Gladstone's rule, and not even in joke
can London now be said to be empty on the Derby
day.
As a result of the races, rather than that of the old
watering-place life, Epsom is an extension of London
into Surrey. The county is now permeated by
Londoners, but up to about thirty years ago the
speech of the country was different north and south
of a line drawn about Epsom. An exact demarcation,
of course, could not be made.
Epsom Common Fields, which were on the slopes
of the chalk in front of the present Medical College,
between it and the town, were among the last to
survive in Surrey. They were inclosed by an Award
of 4 September 1869, under an Act of 1865. (fn. 7) A
certain amount of inclosure on the lower part of the
downs and on Epsom Common has been made, probably from the watering-place era onwards, by private
purchase and arrangements.
Woodcote House is the residence of the Rev. E. W.
Northey, J.P.; Woodcote Grove, of Mr. A. W.
Aston, J.P.; Hookfield, of Mr. B. Braithwaite, J.P.;
The Wells, of Mrs. Jamieson. This last is a new
house on the site of the old well-house. Pit Place is
the seat of Mr. W. E. Bagshaw. The lions at the
entrance and some interior work are said to be from
Nonsuch. It was the scene of the well-known story
of Lord Lyttelton's apparition.
The Roman Catholic Church (St. Joseph's), Heathcote Road, was built in 1857.
The Congregational church, in Church Street, has
taken the place of a Presbyterian chapel, where a
congregation met, it is said, from James's Indulgence
in 1688, and certainly in 1725. (fn. 8) No trace is found
of it after 1772. In 1815 the old chapel, which had
been closed, was bought and fitted up for a Congregational church. In 1825 it was rebuilt. (fn. 9) It
was again rebuilt in 1904, in red brick with stone
dressings, in a quasi-Decorated style. It has chancel,
nave, aisles, and tower with a small spire. The first
stone was laid by Mr. Evan Spicer. There are also
chapels of the Wesleyans and Baptists, and a Baptist
congregation meets in the Gymnasium Hall.
Epsom College, incorporated by Act of Parliament
in 1855, and by a new Act in 1895, is a first-class
public school, with fifty foundation scholarships open
to the orphans of medical men, and taking the sons of
medical men at a slight reduction. There are five
leaving scholarships to the universities, and ten to the
hospitals. The buildings are of red brick and Caen
stone in 16th-century style, fitted with chapel, laboratories, gymnasium, swimming-bath, and all the
accessories of a school. They occupy a fine site on the
downs east of the town.
A National School was built in 1828, but a school
had been carried on certainly since before 1725.
The present elementary schools are Hook Road
(boys), built in 1840 as a mixed school in place of
the one above, enlarged in 1886 and 1896; Ladbrooke Road (girls), built in 1871, recently enlarged;
West Hill (infants), built in 1844, enlarged in 1872;
Hawthorne Place (infants), built in 1893; Hawthorne Place (junior), built in 1904, a temporary
iron building. The schools are under a committee
of trustees of charities and elected managers. They
are endowed, by the original bequest of Mr. John
Brayne in 1693, with land in Fetcham, for teaching
poor children to read and write, and binding them as
apprentices; by bequest of Mr. David White (see
also Ewell) in 1725, with a freehold estate; by bequest
of Mrs. Elizabeth Northey, in 1764, with £100 for
books; by Mr. Thyar Pitt, with £225; by Mrs. J.
Elmslie, with £105 by gift, 1851, and one-fourteenth
part of £1,236 15s. 1d. by will in 1858, both sums to
the infants' school.
MANORS
In 727 Frithwald, subregulus of
Surrey, and Bishop Erkenwald, are said
to have granted to their newly founded
abbey of Chertsey twenty mansas of land in Epsom: (fn. 10)
this was confirmed by King Edgar in 967, (fn. 11) and in
the Domesday Survey EPSOM is mentioned among
the possessions of Chertsey Abbey. (fn. 12) Henry I granted the
abbot leave to keep dogs on
all his land inside the forest
and outside, to catch foxes,
hares, pheasants, and cats, and
to inclose his park there and
have all the deer he could
catch, also to have all the wood
he needed from the king's
forests. (fn. 13) In the reign of Edward I the abbot's right to
free warren in Epsom was
called in question, and it was
found that only in his park he
had the right; (fn. 14) this was confirmed later (1285). (fn. 15) In 1291 the abbot resumed the
possession of 9 acres of land (part of the demesne land
of the abbey) which he, or a predecessor, had granted
to Hugh de la Lane. (fn. 16) In 1323–4 the abbot brought
a suit against John de la Lane, bailiff of the queen,
for distraining him by 1,500 sheep, for his default in
not appearing when impleaded in the queen's court
of Banstead, and driving them as far as Banstead,
where for lack of nourishment some of them died;
the abbot was adjudged £1 in compensation. (fn. 17)
Chertsey Abbey. Party or and argent St. Paul's sword argent its hilt or crossed with St. Peter's keys gules and azure.
Grants of land in Epsom were made to the
abbot in 1338 by Peter atte Mulle and Richard de
Horton. (fn. 18) In 1535 the rents of the manor were
valued at £20 12s. 5½d. (fn. 19) and the perquisites of the
court amounted to £2 10s. 4d.; two years later the
manor was surrendered to the king. (fn. 20)
Henry VIII granted it in 1537 to Sir Nicholas
Carew, K.G., in tail male; (fn. 21) but in 1539, in consequence of his attainder, the manor returned to the
Crown, and the next year was annexed to the honour
of Hampton Court. (fn. 22) Queen Mary, however, granted
it in 1576 to Francis Carew (afterwards knighted), (fn. 23)
eldest son of Nicholas, (fn. 24) and his heirs male, with
reversion to the queen and her successors. (fn. 25) In 1589
the reversion (Francis Carew being unmarried) (fn. 26) was
granted to Edward Darcy, groom of the Privy
Chamber (fn. 27) and son of Carew's sister Mary, (fn. 28) who held
the manor after the death of Sir Francis in 1611 and
died seised in 1612, (fn. 29) having settled it on his wife
Mary with remainder to his second son Christopher
and contingent remainder to his eldest son Robert. (fn. 30)
Robert died in 1618 (fn. 31) seised of the reversion of the
manor after the death of Mary widow of Edward,
from which it appears that Christopher, who was
alive in 1623, (fn. 32) must have quitclaimed to Robert.
Robert's widow and son Edward levied a fine of the
manor in 1632. (fn. 33) The rent of the manor (£40)
was settled on Queen Anne by James I, (fn. 34) and on
Queen Catherine by Charles II. (fn. 35) Edward Darcy
sold the manor to Mrs. Anne Mynne, widow of
George Mynne of Horton Manor, (fn. 36) and daughter
of Sir Robert Parkhurst, and she left it by will to
her daughter Elizabeth wife of Richard Evelyn, brother
to John Evelyn the diarist. He resided at Woodcote.
Courts of the manor were held in his name in
1667 and 1668. (fn. 37) Elizabeth survived him and held
courts as lady of the manor until 1691; (fn. 38) she, at her
death in 1692, devised the estate to Christopher
Buckle of Banstead and his son Christopher as trustees
for her sister Ann for her life, with remainder first
to her nephew John Lewknor and then to John
Parkhurst of Catesby, co. Northants. (fn. 39) The trustees
held the courts of the manor until 1706, (fn. 40) when
John Parkhurst succeeded to the estate; his grandson John was holding it in 1725. (fn. 41) This John
devised the manor to Sir Charles Kemys Tynte, bart.,
and another trustee for his wife Ricarda during her
lifetime, after her death to be sold and the proceeds
divided between his two younger sons. (fn. 42) He died in
1765, and in 1770 the manor was sold to Sir Joseph
Mawbey, bart., (fn. 43) who was succeeded by his son John
in 1798. John had no male heir, and was followed
first by his daughter Emily and then by Ann, in right
of whom her husband, John Ivett Briscoe, (fn. 44) held the
manor till past the middle of the 19th century. It
was afterwards held by his trustees, and then went to
Charles Vernon Strange, who held it in 1874. From
him it passed to James Stuart Strange, who died in 1908
leaving three daughters.
Two mills were in existence at the time of Domesday, (fn. 45) but only one is afterwards mentioned in the
records of the manor. (fn. 46) Charles II granted Elizabeth
Evelyn, then lady of the manor, the right to hold a
weekly market and two fairs at Epsom; the grant
was renewed by James II, together with a grant to
hold a court of pie-powder at each of the fairs. (fn. 47)
Epsom Court, the old manor-house, was not sold
with the property in 1770, but by a family arrangement descended to the Rev. John Parkhurst, eldest
son of John and Ricarda Parkhurst (see above), and
the great tithes and the advowson went with it. It is
now a farm-house.
The manor of HORTON in this parish belonged
to the Abbot and convent of Chertsey, but there
seem to be no early records relating to it, (fn. 48) unless the
lands granted by Richard de Horton in 1338 (vide
supra) formed part of it.
According to a charter of the early 15th century,
the Abbot and convent of Chertsey owned the hamlet
or township of Horton, co. Surrey, with 168 acres of
land, 60 acres of pasture lying in common fields
of Horton and in two fields called West Crofts and
Sampsones, 3 acres of wood called Burnet Grove,
13s. 8d. rent of free tenants there, and 12s. 3d. rent
proceeding from the manor of Brettgrave and the lands
of Adam Whitlokke in Ewell and 100 acres furze and
heath in 'Ebbesham Common' opposite the township
of Horton; also another small parcel of land containing
1 rood in 'Ebbesham' near the parish church, parcel of a tenement called Rankyns, with court and
view of frankpledge there, 'wayf and strayf' fines, &c.
These lands together made the manor of Horton. (fn. 49)
In 1440 the abbot granted it to John Merston,
the king's esquire, and his wife Rose, and their heirs,
to hold of the king by payment of 3d. yearly for all
service. Free warren in all the demesne lands of
Horton was also granted by the king to John and Rose,
and licence to inclose 100 acres of land for a park. (fn. 50)
After the death of Rose, who survived her husband,
the manor passed to William
Merston and his wife Anne; (fn. 51)
he died in 1495, leaving a son
William, (fn. 52) who inherited on
his mother's death. He died
in January 1511–12, leaving
Horton to his wife Beatrice
for her life, with remainder to
his daughter Joan and her
heirs. (fn. 53) Joan married first
Nicholas Mynne, (fn. 54) secondly
William Sander of Ewell, (fn. 55) and
died in 1540 leaving a son John
by her first marriage, during whose minority William
Sander was granted an annuity of £4 issuing from
the manor of Horton, with wardship and marriage
of the said John. (fn. 56) This John Mynne was holding
the manor in 1564; (fn. 57) he died in 1595, (fn. 58) leaving a son
and heir William, (fn. 59) whose son John succeeded his
father in 1618. (fn. 60) John married Alice daughter of
William Hale and settled various lands and tenements
on her, among them the manor-house of Horton; (fn. 61)
but in order to pay his debts he with the consent of
William Hale sold these estates (fn. 62) to George Mynne (fn. 63)
of Woodcote (1626). George Mynne left two
daughters, co-heiresses; (fn. 64) Elizabeth married Richard
Evelyn (fn. 65) and Anne married Sir John Lewknor. On
the division of the estate the manor of Horton fell to
the share of Elizabeth, (fn. 66) who, having survived her
husband and children, left the manor to Charles
Calvert, (fn. 67) fourth Lord Baltimore, a great-grandson
of Anne, daughter of George Mynne of Hertingfordbury, a connexion of her family. (fn. 68)
Mynne. Sable a fesse dancetty paly argent and gules of six pieces.
His grandson Charles, the sixth Lord Baltimore,
died in 1751, and his son
and heir Frederick, Lord Baltimore, who left the country
after a celebrated trial in 1768,
sold the estates. (fn. 69) During the
next twenty years Horton
Manor changed hands several
times, and was finally bought
by Mr. Trotter, an upholsterer
in Soho; (fn. 70) his son James, high
sheriff in 1798, succeeded him
in 1790. (fn. 71) He was succeeded
by his son John, M.P. for
West Surrey 1841–7, from
whom it passed to William S.
Trotter. The estate has been recently bought by the
London County Council for asylums.
Trotter of Horton. Argent a crescent gules and a chief indented azure with three pierced molets argent therein.
The old manor-house of Horton was a large
building surrounded by a moat. It was in the low
ground north of Epsom. The Mynnes seem to have
lived at Woodcote, for Richard Evelyn married their
heiress there in 1648, (fn. 72) and he is said to have rebuilt
the house at Woodcote. (fn. 73)
Later, when Woodcote Park had been separated
from Horton, Mr. John Trotter, owner of Horton,
built a new mansion, called it Horton Place, and
inclosed land around it for a park. (fn. 74)
The manor of BRETTGRAVE (Bruttegrave,
Bertesgrave, Brottesgrave, Bryddesgreve, xiv and xv
cent.) belonged to the abbey of Chertsey as parcel of
their manor of Epsom. (fn. 75) It was held of the Abbot of
Chertsey in the reign of Henry III by John de
Tichemarsh. (fn. 76) Later in the century it was in the
tenure of Reginald de Imworth, who died before
1287, leaving a son John, then a minor. (fn. 77) In a
suit brought in 1346 by the Abbot of Chertsey
against Nicholas de Tonstall, Joan his wife, and
Thomas de Saye, this John was said to have granted
the manor in fee to Henry Gerard, chaplain, and
John his illegitimate son, who were holding in the
reign of Edward II by services due. (fn. 78) After the death
of John son of Henry, John the then abbot entered
upon the manor as an escheat, (fn. 79) and continued his
seisin until forcibly and unlawfully disseised by Joan
and her first husband, Henry de Saye, who carried
off his crops, impounded the beasts from his ploughs,
and otherwise persecuted him, until by a writing he
released his right in the manor. As the release was
obtained by force, and without the consent of the
convent, it was not held valid by the jurors, and the
abbot recovered seisin of the manor with damages. In
the same year the abbot and convent received licence
to grant the manor to Guy de Bryan the younger to be
held of the king in chief by the rent of 8s. 3d.; (fn. 80) they
probably reserved to themselves a rent of 12s. 3d. from
the manor, as this is afterwards stated to belong to
their manor of Horton, (fn. 81) and this may have led to
Brettgrave being considered a parcel of the manor of
Horton, which was denied by the jurors in an inquisition taken in 1517. (fn. 82) Guy de Bryan had licence
to have Mass celebrated in his chapel in Brettgrave
in Epsom in 1348, (fn. 83) but in the same year enfeoffed
John Gogh and other clerks of the manor, (fn. 84) probably
in trust for Henry, Earl of Lancaster, who in 1350
received a grant of free warren in his demesne lands
of Brettgrave. (fn. 85) Henry was created Duke of Lancaster
in 1352, and died seised of the manor in 1361. (fn. 86)
He left no son, and his eldest
daughter Maud, wife of the
Duke of Bavaria, dying the
following year, (fn. 87) the estates
passed to her only sister Blanche,
wife of John of Gaunt, Earl
of Richmond, (fn. 88) created Duke
of Lancaster in 1362, father
of Henry IV. (fn. 89) The manor
thus became part of the Duchy
of Lancaster, leases of it being
granted by successive kings. (fn. 90)
Ultimately the fee-simple seems
to have been acquired by
William Merston, whose father John Merston (vide
Horton) had held the lease of it. (fn. 91) William died in
January 1511–12. (fn. 92) It descended through his daughter Joan, wife of Nicholas Mynne, to John Mynne, the
great-grandson of Joan. (fn. 93) He sold it with the manor of
Horton to George Mynne, (fn. 94) whose daughter and coheir Elizabeth, wife of Richard Evelyn, owned it in
1652. (fn. 95) From that time it may have been merged
with the manor of Horton, (fn. 96) for now no trace of the
manor or place of that name can be found. In a
survey of Epsom (fn. 97) a boundary point is Brettegravesherne—that is, Brettegrave's Corner, otherwise called
Wolfrenesherne. The next mark on the boundary is
Abbot's Pit, which on an old map is the name for
the disused chalk-pit called Pleasure Pit on the
Ordnance map. (fn. 97a)
Duchy of Lancaster. England with a label azure.
The estate called DURDANS in this parish, held
of the manor of Horton, is probably the property
consisting of a messuage, a dovecote, two gardens, two
orchards, 12 acres of land with meadow, pasture, and
wood, which Sir William Mynne, lord of Horton,
conveyed to Elizabeth, Lady Berkeley, in 1617. (fn. 98) She
in 1634–5 settled Durdans on her daughter Theophila, wife of Sir Robert Coke, and her heirs and
assigns. (fn. 99) Theophila died without issue, Sir Robert
Coke surviving. He, by his will of 1652, left
Durdans to his nephew George Berkeley, afterwards
Earl of Berkeley; he also devised a messuage called
the Dog House, in Epsom, which he had lately
acquired (probably by fine from John and Thomas
Hewett), (fn. 99a) to be fitted up as a library and kept for
any of the ministers of the county of Surrey, to use
on week-days between sun-rising and sun-setting. (fn. 100)
The books left for this purpose however, (which
probably formed part of the library of his father,
the famous lawyer, Sir Edward Coke), seem to have
remained at Durdans until 1682, when George, Earl
of Berkeley, gave all or part of them to Sion College. (fn. 100a) George, Earl of Berkeley, entertained
Charles II here in 1662, when John Evelyn records
in his diary being invited to meet the King and
Queen, Duke and Duchess, Prince Rupert, Prince
Edward, and abundance of noblemen. (fn. 101) Charles II
also dined with the Earl of Berkeley at Durdans in
1664. (fn. 101a) This was probably at the old house, for
the Earl of Berkeley is said to have built a new
residence with materials from the palace of Nonsuch, (fn. 102)
which was pulled down by the Duchess of Cleveland
after 1669. During the Earl's tenure of Durdans, it
was the scene of the notorious intrigue between his
daughter, Lady Henrietta Berkeley, and her brother-in-law, Lord Grey of Wark. (fn. 103) By will of 1698 the
earl left the property to his son Charles, afterwards
earl, who in 1702 sold Durdans with 'the little park
paled in' to Charles Turner of Kirkleatham, co. York.
He in 1708 conveyed it to John, Duke of Argyll
and Earl of Greenwich, reserving the Dogghouse or
Dagghouse Farm. (fn. 103a) Before 1712 it seems to have
been acquired by Lord Guilford, (fn. 103b) and Bishop
Willis's Visitation calls him a resident of Epsom in
1725. His son, Lord North and Guilford, succeeded
him in 1729. He was lord of the bedchamber to
Frederick, Prince of Wales, from 1730 to 1751,
during which time the prince
seems to have had a loan or
lease of the house, (fn. 103c) but the
tradition that he owned it is
incorrect.
Alderman Belchier pulled
down Lord Berkeley's house
after 1747. The new house
was bought by Mr. Dalbiac
in 1764, and later, in 1799,
was acquired by Mr. George
Blackman, who sold it in 1819
to Sir Gilbert Heathcote, bart.,
M.P. From the cousins and
heirs of his son Arthur Heathcote it was bought by Lord
Rosebery in 1874, (fn. 104) and he
is the present owner.
Primrose, Earl of Rosebery. Vert three primroses or within the royal tressure of Scotland for Primrose, quartered with Argent a lion sable with a forked tail for Cressy.
The capital messuage of WOODCOTE in Epsom
was held of the manor of Horton. (fn. 105) In the first
half of the 16th century it belonged to one John
Ewell of Horton, and continued in his family until
1591, when it was the cause of litigation between
Agnes Tyther, a descendant of John Ewell, and Roger
Lamborde. (fn. 106) It was in the possession of John Mynne,
lord of the manor of Horton, in 1597, and he settled
it on his son William on his marriage. (fn. 107) It passed
with Horton Manor to Elizabeth wife of Richard
Evelyn (1648), who built there a new mansion.
Mrs. Evelyn bequeathed Woodcote to Lord Baltimore, a remote connexion of her family. (fn. 108) After
the seventh Lord Baltimore left England in 1771 it was
sold to Mr. Monk, then to Mr. Nelson, in 1777
to Mr. Arthur Cuthbert, and in 1787 to Mr. Lewis
Teissier, a merchant of London, having been separated
from the manor of Horton. Mr. Teissier's son,
created by Louis XVIII the Baron de Teissier, was
owner at the beginning of last century. (fn. 109) It was
sold by the Baron de Teissier in 1855 to Mr. Robert
Brookes, and is now the property of his son, Mr.
Herbert Brookes, J.P.
CHURCHES
The church of ST. MARTIN has
a nave with aisles and a north-west
tower; the church has lately been considerably enlarged eastward, the new work consisting
of an addition to the nave, a chancel and north
chapel, a south organ chamber, and aisles. The only
old part of the present building is the tower, which
dates from the 15th century, but has been recased
and much modernized. The present nave and aisles
were built in 1824, when the old church was pulled
down; a print of about this date shows it to have
had a nave with a north aisle, and a north-west
tower. The chancel was evidently of the 13th
century, and had a lancet window midway in its
north wall, but all the other windows shown in the
chancel and aisle are wide ugly single lights fitted
with iron casements. The aisle had been raised to
contain a gallery and a second tier of windows added.
The nave of 1824 has arcades of four bays with
plastered piers and arches; the aisles are lighted by
two-light pointed windows, and are filled with
wooden galleries, shortly to be removed. The walling
of the nave and aisles is of flint and stone, and that
of the new portion is of rubble with stone and brick
dressings, the chancel and nave having alternate
bays of cross and barrel vaulting; the new work is
soon to be extended to the present nave and aisles.
The jambs of the openings into the tower from the
nave and north aisle are moulded and the arches are
blocked. The tower is of flint and stone, and has
cemented angle buttresses and a north-west octagonal
stair turret; an old oak door opens into the turret,
the steps of which are inscribed with various names
and 18th-century dates, and a stone records the
recutting of the steps in 1737. The bell-chamber
is lighted by plain pointed windows of two lights,
and surmounted by a plain parapet, from which
rises a very slender wooden spire covered with oak
shingles.
Under the tower is a 15th-century font; it is
octagonal with quatrefoiled sides to the bowl and a
hollowed under-edge on which are carved heads, a
shield, a fish, &c. There is also a fine chest of
carved mahogany; on the lid are carved—in the
middle—Adam and Eve in the garden, and in the two
side panels David and Goliath; on the front are other
figures in late 16th-century dress.
On the floor on the north side is a small brass
with an inscription to William Marston, or Merston,
1511, and there are wall monuments to Richard Evelyn
of Wootton, 1669; Robert Coke of Nonsuch, grandson
of Lord Chief Justice Coke, 1681; Robert Coke,
1653; Richard Evelyn, 1691; and others.
There are eight bells: the treble is by Samuel
Knight, 1737; the second by R. Phelps, 1714; the
third by Thomas Janaway, 1781; the fourth has no
date, and is inscribed: 'Although I am but small I
will be heard above them all'; the fifth is dated
1737; the sixth by R. Phelps, 1714; the seventh by
Thomas Swain, 1760; and the tenor by Richard
Phelps, 1733.
The plate is all modern, consisting of a chalice and
paten of 1904 given by the parishioners, and a chalice
and paten given by Lord Rosebery in 1907, besides
six Sheffield plate almsdishes and two cups and an
almsdish about a hundred years old.
The first book of the registers contains baptisms and
marriages from 1695 to 1749 and burials to 1750;
the second repeats the baptisms from 1695 to 1749
and the marriages from 1695 to 1719; the third
has baptisms and burials from 1750 to 1773 and
marriages 1750 to 1754; the fourth, baptisms 1773
to 1812; fifth, burials 1773 to 1812; the sixth,
marriages 1754 to 1783; and the seventh continues
them to 1812.
The greater part of the churchyard, which surrounds the building, lies to the north of it. The
west entrance is towards the road, and is approached
by a flight of stone steps and a flagged landing.
There are several large trees about it.
CHRIST CHURCH, originally built as a chapel
of ease to the parish church in 1843, is now the
church of a separate parish. It was rebuilt in
1876. It is a small building of flint and stone
situated on the edge of Epsom Common, and consists
of a small chancel with a north transept and south
organ chamber, nave of four bays with north and
south aisles and a clearstory, and a south-west tower
and porch. At the west end is a passage-way containing the font. There are eight bells by Mears &
Stainbank, 1890.
ST. JOHN'S, chapel of ease to St. Martin's, is a
small building of red brick and stone, off East Street,
erected in 1884.
ST. BARNABAS, Hook Road, is a chapel of
ease to Christ Church.
ADVOWSON
Two churches on the abbey estate
are mentioned in Domesday, (fn. 110) but
all trace of one has disappeared;
there was a Stamford Chapel in Epsom, near or on
the lord's waste, close to where Christ Church,
Epsom, now stands, belonging to Chertsey Abbey,
which may have been the second church. (fn. 111) Licence
to appropriate was granted to the convent by a bull
of Clement III, (fn. 112) 1187–91, and a vicarage was
ordained before 1291. (fn. 113) A further endowment was
carried into effect in 1313 (fn. 114) when John Rutherwyk
the then abbot was inducted. (fn. 115) In 1537, when
Henry VIII acquired Epsom Manor from the convent of Chertsey, the rectory and the advowson of
the church were included, (fn. 116) and he granted them
with the manor to Sir Nicholas Carew, (fn. 117) from which
time they have always been included in the grants
and sales of the manor till 1770, when the manor
went to Sir Joseph Mawbey, and the great tithes and
advowson to John Parkhurst. They descended to the
Rev. Fleetwood Parkhurst, vicar of Epsom, 1804–39.
The advowson has since belonged to the Rev. Wilfred Speer and Captain Speer, and now belongs to
Mr. H. Speer.
In 1453 John Merston received a grant for founding a chantry in Epsom Church, to be called 'Merston's Chantry,' and for purchasing lands to the value
of 20 marks for the use of it. (fn. 118) There is no record
of the chantry at the time of the suppression under
Edward VI.
CHARITIES
Smith's Charity is distributed as in
other Surrey parishes.
In 1691 Mrs. Elizabeth Evelyn
left a rent-charge of £10 a year for clothing six poor
women.
Since 1692 the rent of a piece of land called
Church Haw has been received by the churchwardens,
now by the local authority, for the use of the poor.
In 1703 Mr. John Levingston, the quack doctor
mentioned above, built almshouses for twelve poor
widows in East Street on a piece of land granted by
the parish. The almshouses were rebuilt about 1863.
They are further supported by the Church Haw
rent, by that of 'Workhouse Field,' the site of the
old parish workhouse, and by the bequests of Samuel
Caul (£500) in 1782, Mr. Langley Brackenbury
(£300) in 1814, Mr. Story (£100), 1834, Mrs.
Margaret Knipe (£300), 1834, the last to be devoted to this purpose after providing for the upkeep
of vaults and monuments in the church.
In 1728 Mrs. Mary Dundas left copyhold premises
in Epsom for providing coals.
In 1790 Mrs. Elizabeth Culling left £150, part
of which was to be set aside to accumulate, for the
church, vicar, sexton, churchwardens, and the surplus
for apprenticing children and for bread.
In 1803 Mrs. Mary Rowe left £188 18s. 11d.
for bread and meat and firing.
In 1835 Sir James Alexander left £200 for clothing for five men and five women, who had to appear
in church.
In 1884 Baron De Teissier left £90 for six poor
communicants.
Mittendorf House was presented to the National
Incorporated Society for Waifs and Strays (Dr. Barnardo's Homes) by Miss Mittendorf.
Epsom and Ewell Cottage Hospital was built in
1889 by public subscription.