OCKHAM
Bocheam (xi cent.); Occam (xiii cent.).
Ockham is a parish on the east side of the Wey Valley,
7 miles north-east from Guildford, 20 miles from London. It is bounded on the north by Pyrford, Wisley,
and Cobham, on the south-east by the two Horsleys,
on the south-west by Send and Ripley. It is of very
irregular shape, but the greatest breadth from east to
west is a little over, and the greatest distance from north
to south just about, 3 miles. It contains 2,871 acres.
A detached portion of Wisley was added to Ockham
in 1883; (fn. 1) and Blackmoor Heath, a projecting tongue
of West Horsley, was transferred to Ockham. (fn. 2) A
piece of Ockham, far away on Holmbury Hill, was
also added to Abinger (fn. 3) (q.v.). The soil of Ockham
Common in the north of the parish is Bagshot Sand.
The southern part of the parish is on the London
Clay. Part of the Wey Valley in the west of the
parish and the banks of a stream which joins it from
the east are alluvial. The road from London to
Guildford runs through Ockham. The village, lying
some little distance east of the church, which is in
Ockham Park, is very small, and the population scanty.
It is purely agricultural.
Ockham Common was inclosed by an Act of 1815–16. The Award is dated 3 March 1817. (fn. 4) The
common was in the southern part of the parish next
to Horsley Common, and is to be distinguished from
Ockham Heath adjoining Wisley Common to the
north, which is still uninclosed. There are wells on
the clay which yield Epsom Salts. Historically Ockham may claim some celebrity as the probable birthplace of William of Ockham, perhaps of John Occam
and Nicholas Occam. All three were Franciscans and
nearly contemporary. Nicholas Occam (flourished
circa 1280) is also called Nicholas de Hotham, which
renders the tradition of his birthplace here more uncertain. John Occam (flourished circa 1340) was a
doctor of civil and canon law. William of Ockham was the most famous, and has the best claim to
be a native of Surrey, if he was a fellow of Merton
College, Oxford (which is very doubtful), for natives of
the diocese of Chichester were not eligible for fellowships at Merton, so that Okeham in Sussex could not
have been his birthplace, and Oakham in Rutland has
never been mentioned as claiming him. His was the last
great name among the schoolmen. He was a Nominalist, but is better known for his controversy with the
Popes John XXII and Benedict XII. The former he
charged with seventy errors and seven heresies. He
subsequently submitted, but the next pope admitted
the incaution of his predecessor's language. Ockham
warmly supported the Emperor, Lewis of Bavaria,
the ally of Edward III, in his quarrel with the papacy
on the imperial election. He died at Munich about
1349.
Evenwood House is the residence of Mr. B. Noel;
Southend, of Mr. W. H. Morgan.
In 1836 elaborate schools were planned by Ada, Lady
King, daughter of Lord Byron. Besides the ordinary
village school, they included workshops where the
children were taught carpentry, the use of the lathe, and
gardening. The subjects of school lessons were also more
advanced than was then common in village schools, and
there was a gymnasium. As children were attracted
from neighbouring parishes, accommodation for boarders
was provided. There were masters' houses, in one
of which infants were taught up to seven years
old. After Lord Lovelace had removed from Ockham
to Horsley Towers they were superintended by the
Misses Lushington, daughters of Dr. Lushington, who
lived at Ockham Park. After his death they were
unfortunately given up, in 1874, and an ordinary
National School carried on in the same buildings,
where it still continues.
MANOR
At the time of the Domesday Survey
OCKHAM Manor was held by
Richard de Tonbridge, (fn. 5) and
it remained in the possession
of the Clares for several centuries. It was part of the
property surrendered by Gilbert de Clare on his marriage
with Joan of Acre, daughter
of Edward I, 1290, and resettled on her and her heirs.
Gilbert died seised in right
of his wife in 1295, (fn. 6) and it
passed with his other possessions to his wife Joan
during the minority of his son Gilbert. About this
time the manor was leased by Joan widow of Gilbert
to a certain Jordan le Bacheler, who died in 1297. (fn. 7)
Joan herself died in 1307, (fn. 8) leaving a son and heir
Gilbert, then seventeen years of age. He died at
Bannockburn without issue in 1314. (fn. 9)
Clare. Or three cheverons gules.
The heirs of Gilbert de Clare were his three
sisters: Eleanor wife of Hugh le Despenser, Margaret
widow of Piers Gaveston, and Elizabeth formerly
wife of John de Burgh. (fn. 10) In 1320 the sisters were
confirmed in their possession, Margaret by that time
having become the wife of Hugh de Audeley. (fn. 11) A
division of the Clare lands took place in which Ockham must have fallen to Margaret's share, for in 1326
Ockham appears in the king's hands owing to the
minority of Hugh de Audeley's heir. (fn. 12) Margaret,
the only child of Hugh de Audeley, became the wife
of Ralph de Stafford, who paid a relief for her lands
in 1347. (fn. 13) The date of Margaret's death is doubtful:
the inquisition taken in 1364 gives it as September
1347, (fn. 14) but since the king received homage for her
lands in December of that year (fn. 15) this is evidently a
mistake. It is, however, certain that she was succeeded
by her son Hugh, (fn. 16) who died seised of the manor in
1387, leaving a son and heir Thomas, then aged
eighteen. (fn. 17) Thomas died without issue, and the
manor passed in turn to his brothers William and Edmund. (fn. 18) Edmund was slain at Shrewsbury in 1403, (fn. 19)
fighting in the king's army. His son Humphrey, who
was not quite two years old at the time of his father's
death, was created Duke of Buckingham by Henry VI
in 1444, and met his death at the battle of Northampton in 1460. (fn. 20) His son Humphrey had been
killed at the first battle of St. Albans five years
before, (fn. 21) so that the manor passed to his grandson
Henry, then a child of four. (fn. 22) Henry led the rebellion of 1483 against Richard III and was beheaded, (fn. 23)
when his lands were forfeited to the Crown. (fn. 24) Ockham was granted to a certain William Cowper in return for his services to the Crown, (fn. 25) but he did not
hold it for long.
Audley. Gules a fiet or.
Stafford. Or a cheveron gules.
After the accession of Henry VII, Edward son of
Henry Stafford was restored as Duke of Buckingham, (fn. 26)
and had his father's estates on coming of age in 1499; (fn. 27)
he was, however, beheaded for treason in 1521, and his
lands were forfeited. (fn. 28) Henry VIII granted Ockham
in 1528 to John Bourchier, Lord Berners, (fn. 29) who held
the manor of West Horsley, and from him it passed
into the possession of Henry Marquis of Exeter. (fn. 30) In
1538 the Crown was once more in possession, owing to
the attainder of the marquis: (fn. 31) and Ockham was in
1545 leased to Gregory Reavill. (fn. 32) Edward Courtenay,
son of the marquis, was restored by Queen Mary as
Earl of Devon in 1553, but died abroad, without
heirs, in 1556. In 1560 the manor, then said to
have been lately a possession of Edward Courtenay,
Earl of Devon, was granted to Anthony Crane and
Elizabeth his wife. (fn. 33) In 1566 Crane obtained a
licence to alienate Ockham to Thomas Knevett and
Francis Vaughan to the use of John Vaughan and
Lady Anne his wife, with remainder to the heirs of
Lady Anne. (fn. 34) The actual conveyance took place in
1567. (fn. 35) Anne Vaughan died seised in 1582, (fn. 36) when
Henry Weston, her son by a previous marriage with
Francis son of Sir Richard Weston of Sutton (fn. 37) (q. v.),
was found to be her heir. (fn. 38) Henry died in 1592,
leaving Ockham to his son Richard, then twenty-five
years old. (fn. 39) From Richard the manor passed to his
son of the same name (fn. 40) who in 1621 conveyed it to
Henry (fn. 41) son of John Weston, (fn. 42)
of quite a different family—the Westons of Albury, Send
in Surrey, and of Sussex.
Henry died in 1638, and his
brother Edward was found to
be his heir. (fn. 43) Edward died in
1640; he is buried at Speldhurst, Kent. His son Henry
was Sheriff of Surrey in 1661.
From Henry the manor passed
to his son John, (fn. 44) who under
an Act of Parliament (9 Anne,
cap. 31) sold the manor to
Sir Peter King in 1710. (fn. 45) His descendant, Lord
Lovelace, is the present owner.
Weston of Ockham. Sable a cheveron between three lions' heads razed argent.
By the inquisition on the death of Henry Weston
in 1638 (vide supra) it appears that he held 54 acres
of land and two messuages in Ockham, besides the
manor, with tithes of hay in Pirford Mead, all late
the property of Newark Priory,
and granted by Parliament to
Cardinal Reginald Pole.
King, Earl of Lovelace. Sable three spearheads argent with drops of blood and a chief or with three battleaxes azure therein.
Ockham Park, the seat of
the Countess of Lovelace, was
largely rebuilt by Lord Chancellor King, who died in 1734,
and more completely altered
by the late Lord King, ancestor to the Earl of Lovelace,
who died in 1833. It is a
fine specimen of Italian architecture, and the gates from
the Guildford road are wellknown examples of ironwork.
Two water-mills at Ockham
are mentioned in the inquisition taken at the death
of Gilbert de Clare in 1296; they appear to have
always descended with the manor. In 1296 they
were worth 40s. (fn. 46)
Two fisheries worth 10d. are mentioned in Domesday; but in 1296 there was only one, which was
then worth 2s.
CHURCH
The church of ALL SAINTS consists
of a chancel 27 ft. 11 in. by 17 ft. with
a north chapel 16 ft. 2 in. by 12 ft. 5 in.,
a nave 31 ft. 11 in. by 18 ft. 2 in. with a north aisle
12 ft. 3 in. wide, and a west tower 10 ft. 6 in. by
10 ft. 3 in.; to the north of the aisle is a transept
12 ft. 9 in. square and a small porch.
The plan of the nave probably represents that of a
12th-century church, the chancel of which gave place
at the beginning of the 13th century to that now
standing. A north aisle was added to the nave about
1220, and in the middle of the century the original
triplet in the east wall of the chancel was replaced by
the beautiful group of seven lancets which forms the
most striking feature of the church. About 1350 the
south wall of the nave seems to have been rebuilt, and
in the 15th century the north aisle was enlarged and
the west tower added.
To the north of the aisle is an 18th-century tombchamber built by Peter, Lord King, whose monument it
contains, and in 1875 the aisle was lengthened eastwards, overlapping the chancel, and a north porch
added.
The walls are built of flint rubble, plastered on
both faces, the old external ashlar dressings of freestone
having been to a great extent replaced by new stone
or brick. The stonework of the tower is, however,
in great measure old and weatherworn. The roofs
are of high pitch and covered with red tiles, and the
tower has a flat leaded roof.
The lower parts of the original east windows of the
chancel may be seen on the outer face of the wall
below the sill of the beautiful seven-light window
which succeeded them. The lights are graduated,
the middle one being the tallest, having its springing
line a few inches higher in the wall than the heads
of the lancets on either side, and the same proportion is observed between the other lights. Outside
they are simply chamfered, and have no inclosing arch
over the group, but inside there are Purbeck marble
shafts on the faces of the mullions with moulded
bases and foliate capitals of different designs, from
which rise beautifully moulded arches with dog-tooth
ornament and labels, the whole composition being inclosed by a wide chamfered rear arch of three-centred
form.
In the north wall of the chancel is the semicircular rear arch of an original early 13th-century
window, in which is inserted tracery of c. 1320
of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over. To
the west is a modern arch to the north chapel, and
at the west end of the chancel is a squint from the
chapel.
The south wall contains two windows, the easternmost being square-headed and of 15th-century style
with three cinquefoiled lights and vertical tracery over,
only the head and jambs being old. The other window, c. 1320, has tracery like that in the north wall,
but is entirely of 14th-century date, with a straightsided rear-arch. Its sill is carried down lower than
that of the south-east window.
Between these two windows is a blocked doorway apparently of 13th-century date, having plain
chamfered jambs and a two-centred arch, and below
the south-east window is a double piscina of 13th-century date with stop-chamfered jambs and two trefoiled arches; one drain is a quatrefoil and the other
circular, but the projecting portions of both have been
broken off. To the west is a single seat, the sides of
which run up to the window-sill above.
The chancel arch is of 13th-century date and has
semicircular responds with moulded bases and capitals,
and the two-centred arch is of two chamfered orders.
To the north of it is the upper entrance to the rood
loft, and below are the remains of a 15th-century
canopied niche hacked off almost flush with the wall
face, but still showing the mark of the dowel which
kept the image in position.
The three-light east window of the north chapel is
modern, and to the south of it has been set a fine
15th-century niche from the old east wall of the
aisle. It has a projecting base elaborately carved
with foliage, shafted jambs with moulded capitals
and bases, and a large canopy with crocketed gables
and pinnacles. The north window of the chapel is
also modern, and has two trefoiled lights with tracery
in a square head. To the west of it is a small
modern doorway.
Plan of Ockham Church
The north arcade of the nave is of two wide bays, the
arches and the capitals of the responds being in chalk,
while the pillar, the responds, and the capital of the
pillar are of sandstone. The pillar is circular with a
simply moulded base and capital and semicircular responds to match, the base of the west respond being at a
higher level than the rest. The arches are two-centred,
with a springing line a little below the capitals, of two
chamfered orders, the labels having the hawk's-bill
moulding characteristic of early 13th-century work.
There are marks of screens in both bays, showing that
the aisle was partitioned off from the nave, and the
label of the eastern arch has been cut away for the
rood loft. In the south wall of the nave are two mid14th-century windows of three cinquefoiled lights,
with flowing double-cusped tracery, and doublechamfered jambs with a moulded label which stops on
grotesque faces.
Below the sill of the south-east window is a 15th-century piscina with moulded jambs and cinquefoiled
ogee head, the projecting portion of its drain having
been cut away, and at the west end of the south wall
is a small blocked four-centred doorway coeval with
the tower.
The west and only window of the north aisle is
modern, and has three trefoiled lights with tracery
over under a square head. The north doorway is
also modern, opening to a shallow porch, but to
the west of it the jamb of an older opening shows
in the wall. The 18th-century tomb-chamber already
referred to is immediately to the east of the doorway,
and opens to the aisle by a round-headed arch. It
has a vaulted plaster ceiling springing from pilasters
at the angles, and is lighted from the west, with blank
recesses on the north and east. Against the north wall
is set the white marble monument of Peter first Lord
King, 1734, with life-size figures of himself and his
wife seated with an urn between them.
A 15th-century doorway with
moulded jambs and a two-centred
arch under a square head opens
from the tower to the nave, with a
very tall round-headed rear arch
towards the nave. The whole
seems to be of the date of the
tower, but the lower parts of the
wall on either side are possibly
older.
The tower is of three stages,
with an embattled parapet, and a
rectangular stair-turret at the southeast. In each face of the top stage
is a square-headed window of two
cinquefoiled lights, and in the
middle stage a west window of two
cinquefoiled lights; the west doorway below is of plain 15th-century
character.
The chancel has a modern
boarded ceiling; but the east bay
of the nave roof and the whole of that of the north
aisle are of 15th-century date, with canted panels
framed by moulded ribs ornamented at their intersections with carved bosses. These take the form
of single roses in the aisle, but in the nave they
are more elaborate, and include fleurs de lis, Stafford knots, &c. The panels are all painted with a
running zigzag pattern on a dark ground, now much
faded. The rest of the nave roof is old, but has no
panelling or ornament. The east wall of the nave round
the chancel arch from the floor of the rood loft to the
tie-beam retains a great deal of 15th-century colouring,
with a pattern of flowers on a red ground, and traces of
colour also remain on the back of the mutilated canopy
at the north-east of the nave. On the west wall of
the nave, to the south of the doorway to the tower, is
painted a line of trefoiled arches, which seems of
14th-century character, though the small corbelled
shafts from which they spring suggest a later date.
The font now in use is modern, but placed in the
chancel are the remains of one of early 13th-century
date, consisting of a circular Purbeck-marble stem on
a square base-stone, on which are the moulded bases
of four detached shafts. In the tracery of the south-east window there are six small figures of angels in
15th-century glass, a good deal repaired. One angel
holds a harp, another cymbals, another a viol, and the
fourth pipes. Of another figure only head and wings
remain, and the sixth is a seraph with four wings and a
feathered body, holding a crown in each hand. The
heads of the main lights also contain some old glass
consisting of red borders and diamond quarries. The
14th-century south-west window of the chancel preserves a little original glass, a lion's head, and a
border of Stafford knots and vine pattern in yellow
stain on a dark background. The north window of
the chancel also contains part of a border of vine
pattern and a lion's head of the same period. Both
the south windows of the nave contain a good deal
of Dutch glass of 17th- and 18th-century date, but
the middle light in the head of the south-east window preserves its original glazing in blue and yellow,
c. 1350, and there are other fragments of mediaeval
quarries.
The wood fittings of the church are modern, except
for a pair of early 14th-century stall arms belonging
to a set of stalls of unknown origin, worked into seats
one on each side of the chancel. On the chancel
floor at the north side of the altar is a brass halffigure of a priest in richly ornamented mass vestments,
with the following inscription: 'Hic jacet d[ominu]s Walterus
Frilende quond¯ rector istius eccl[esie] et factor huī
capelle cuius a[nimae] ppicietur deus.' On the opposite
side of the chancel are the brass figures of a man in
armour and his wife, with an inscription 'Hic jacent
Johēs Weston fili' et heres Willi Weston qui obi …
primo die Junii a° d[omini] m cccclxxxiii° et Margareta uxor
ei … qe obiit penultimo die Januarii ao d[omini]
mcccclxxvo qr aīlabz ppiciet …' The end of the brass
is broken off so that the last letters of each line are
missing. There are three shields, the first and third
bearing the cheveron and lions' heads of Weston,
while the second has the same impaling the quarterly
coat of Metford of Ockham.
On the north wall of the chancel is a small brass
bearing the inscription 'Orate pro a[nima] d[omin]i Roberti
Kellett quond[am] rectoris isti' eccl[esiae] qui obiit xvii° die
Septembris an° d[omin]i mvoxxv° cui' aīe propiciet' deus.'
On the south wall of the north chapel is another
small brass inscribed 'aía Johīs Wexcombe hic qui
tumulat' vite p[er]petue xpi m'ito dirigatur.'
On the north wall of the chapel is a black marble
tablet to Henry Weston, 1638, and others of his
family.
The tower contains four bells by R. Phelps 1719,
and a tenor by T. Mears 1811. The plate consists
of a cup of 1854, with a paten and flagon of 1861.
The registers date from 1567.
ADVOWSON
There was a church on the manor
of Ockham at the time of Domesday. The advowson has always followed the descent of the manor.
CHARITY
Smith's Charity is distributed as in
other Surrey parishes.