CLAPHAM
Cloppaham (ix cent.); Clopeham or Cloppeham
(xi–xiii cent.); Clopham (xiii–xv cent.).
The civil parish of Clapham forms part of the
metropolitan borough of Wandsworth. (fn. 1) The parish
is connected with London by the road which passes
through Kennington, Newington and Southwark, and
ends at London Bridge. Very few pre-historic
remains have been found in the neighbourhood. (fn. 2)
The old town of Clapham is situated on the north
of the parish, along and in the neighbourhood of the
road to London which forms the High Street, and is
continued as Clapham Rise and Clapham Road. The
old parish church was situated a little to the north-west of this road (near the present church of St. Paul),
while the rectory gave its name to the present Rectory
Grove, and Turret Grove was so called from an
octagonal tower of the old manor-house close to the
old church. In 'Old Town,' at the corner of the
street leading to the south side of Grafton Square, is a
small building of very late 17th-century date. It is
of red brick with a tiled roof and has a heavy wooden
cornice with plain modillions. The windows are
flush sash with heavy frames. The lower story has
been converted into shops. Nos. 39, 41 and 43 are
good examples of very early 18th-century work.
They are in a row and are built of yellow stock
brick with red brick banding. The cornice is of
wood and is well designed with carved modillion,
&c. The windows are flush sash and the soffits of
the flat arches of the first-floor windows are cut into
a flat double ogee. The entrances have handsome
fluted pilaster and curved pediments all in wood.
The roofs are tiled. Near the present church, on
the north side of the common, is a row of early
18th-century brick houses. They are mainly of
three stories, but one or two have a rise above the
rest in possibly later additions. Their design is of
the simplest, but a slight use of moulded rubbed
brick is made and there are some good overdoors and
entrances. There are also good examples of plain
but effective ironwork in the garden railings. The
windows are plain flush sash and have in most cases
heavy glazing bars. The roofs are tiled. In two
places the row is pierced by three-centred archways
allowing access to various buildings at the back, many
of which are obviously of some age, but devoid of all
detail of any interest.
Until modern times the community at Clapham
was very small. In 1332 eighteen inhabitants paid
the subsidy, (fn. 3) and two centuries later eleven parishioners only had goods or wages rated at above 20s. (fn. 4)
It was evidently during the 17th century that the
village became a residential suburb. The shipmoney assessment was only £13 10s., a sum equal
to that assessed on small country villages like
Effingham and Crowhurst. But in 1663 the total
number of hearths was 562. (fn. 5) Towards the end
of the century large houses were built in the
neighbourhood of the common. Notable among
these was the fine building erected by Mr., afterwards Sir Dennis Gauden near the present site of
the Terrace and Victoria Street. (fn. 6) It was intended
for Dr. Gauden, the supposed author of Eikon
Basilike, (fn. 7) when he had hopes of becoming Bishop of
Winchester, but was occupied by his brother Sir
Dennis, from whom it passed to William Hewer, the
friend and executor of Samuel Pepys. Pepys himself
shared the house in his later years and filled it with
Indian and Chinese curiosities and a collection of
models of ships. (fn. 8) He died there in 1703 and the
house was pulled down about sixty years later, (fn. 9) but
near its site, in the Chase, there still stands a house
of the same or earlier date with a front of early
Victorian style.
Early in the 18th century the common was the
subject of dispute between the tenants of Clapham
Manor and those of the manor of Battersea. In
1716 the people of Battersea inclosed the part of
the common which they claimed by a ditch. This
was filled up by the people of Clapham. Lord
St. John, lord of the manor of Battersea, brought an
action for trespass against them, but was non-suited (fn. 10)
It was then little more than a morass, and not till a
much later date, about 1760, chiefly through the
exertions of Christopher Baldwin, an inhabitant who
was justice of the peace, was it drained and planted, (fn. 11)
and the open vestry which then ruled all the affairs
of the parish appointed a committee for its preservation in 1796. (fn. 12) As late as 1830 the common is
described as 'quite a wild place' and Clapham
itself as a rural village. (fn. 13) In 1835 the common had
become neglected, but the committee obtained leases
of all the manorial rights, and raised subscriptions by
which it was put into the condition of a public park,
drained and planted.
At this time public spirit had reached a very high
pitch in Clapham, and the multifarious work of the
vestry was greatly influenced by the notable group of
philanthropists then living on the borders of the
common. Perhaps the earliest of these to settle at
Clapham was the Thornton family. John Thornton,
1720–90, the eccentric but generous supporter of the
first Evangelical movement, was son of Robert
Thornton of Clapham Common, and shared his
home with William Wilberforce. He was a friend
of Newton and Cowper, and in his time Henry Venn
was curate of Clapham. (fn. 14) Henry Thornton, 1760–1815, son of John, had all his father's generosity
without any of his eccentricity. Samuel Thornton,
another son of John Thornton, purchased the
advowson and presented John Venn son of Henry
Venn, and, on his death in 1813, William Dealtry,
eminent both as an Evangelical and a mathematician.
It was Venn who was the high priest of the 'Clapham
Sect.' Henry Thornton also was joined by Wilberforce in his home at Battersea Rise, just to the west
of the parish boundary which crosses the common
from north to south, and in the oval saloon planned
by Pitt for his friend Thornton (fn. 15) met the little
party who by their zealous efforts brought about the
abolition of the slave trade. They were joined in
their meetings by Zachary Macaulay, invaluable for
his personal knowledge of the evils of the slave
traffic gained as Governor of Sierra Leone and in a
passage on board a slave ship before he had settled at
No. 5 The Pavement (now a tailor's shop) or had
sent his son, afterwards Lord Macaulay, to school
at Church Buildings. The friends at and about
Clapham were the very centre of the Evangelical
party, and the great wealth of the Thornton family
was generously employed in promoting religious and
philanthropic movements far beyond the local centre.
Zachary Macaulay was the editor of their organ, the
Christian Observer. John Venn was among the
original founders of the Church Missionary Society
in 1799, and Lord Teignmouth, the first president
of the British and Foreign Bible Society, lived on
the 'South Side' of the common in a house which is
now a Roman Catholic monastery. Charles Bradley,
another Evangelical, was the first incumbent of
St. James' Chapel at Clapham. He lived chiefly
at Clapham from 1829 to 1852. His fourth son
was George Granville Bradley, afterwards Dean of
Westminster, who was educated at a school kept by
a Mr. Elwell on Clapham Common and was afterwards under Pritchard (see below) at Stockwell
School and Clapham Grammar School. (fn. 16)
At the same time Clapham had inhabitants of note
in the scientific world. Cavendish Street takes its
name from Henry Cavendish, who lived in retirement in a house there (recently rebuilt) while he
determined the density of the earth. J. P. Gossiot,
a munificent patron of science and himself a writer
on scientific subjects, had a house on Clapham
Common which he kept open to scientists. In
1834 Charles Pritchard, the astronomer, became
head master of the Clapham Grammar School, which
was founded to give him a free hand in his educational experiments when difficulties with the governing body at Stockwell had caused him to resign his
headship of that school. He carried on the Clapham
school with a success which is marked by the fact
that Sir John Herschel, Sir George Airy, Sir William
Hamilton and Charles Darwin, among others, sent
their sons to be educated there. (fn. 17) While head
master he used to lend his schoolroom for the once
celebrated meetings of the Clapham Athenaeum.
The corner house on the west side of the common
known as the Maisonette was occupied about 1830
by Sir James Mackintosh when he was at work upon
his dissertation On the Progress of Ethical Philosophy.
William Dealtry, rector, formerly Fellow of Trinity,
who from 1813 to 1845 had been professor of
Mathematics at Haileybury, where he published
his Theory of Fluxions, united the scientific and
Evangelical traditions of Clapham, whilst in music
and literature Clapham has been represented by Sir
George Grove, C.B., late Director of the Royal
College of Music, who was born at a house in
Thurlow Terrace where the Wandsworth Road
railway station now stands, and who was a fellow
pupil of Dean Bradley at Elwell's and Clapham
Grammar School. (fn. 18)
The succeeding generations have seen many changes
at Clapham. On the west side of the common
there still stand in high-walled gardens some early
19th-century houses, but many have been pulled
down. All round the common new streets have
risen; the most pleasant district lies to the south-east, where Mr. Thomas Cubitt, the great builder,
laid out the broad streets of Clapham New Park, on
an estate called Bleak Hall Farm, which he acquired
on a building agreement from William Atkins, lord
of the manor, in 1824. On the north side of the
common some of the old houses still remain.
The rapid growth of the suburb is doubtless due
to the increased facilities of communication, for the
village from which one stage-coach ran daily in
1690 is now an important suburb approached by the
South-Eastern and Chatham and the London, Brighton
and South Coast railways and by a frequent service
of trams.
MANOR
Between the years 871 and 889 A.D.
the ealdorman Alfred bequeathed to his
wife Waerburh and to his children by
her 30 hides at Clapham. They had at least one
child Ealhthryth, (fn. 19) but the descent of the land during
the next two centuries is unknown.
The manor of Clapham was assessed at 10 hides
only in the time of Edward the Confessor. It was
then held of the king by Turbern, and after the
Conquest it was acquired by Geoffrey de Mandeville.
He had no just title to it, for it had not been the
land of his English 'ante-cessor' Asgar the Staller (fn. 20) ;
yet he retained it, and apparently enfeoffed of it his
son-in-law Geoffrey son of Count Eustace of Boulogne, (fn. 21)
who in 1086 was already holding of him land at
Carshalton. (fn. 22)
The overlordship evidently descended with the
honour of Mandeville to Beatrice de Say, sister and
ultimate heir of Geoffrey de Mandeville first Earl of
Essex, grandson of the Geoffrey who had acquired
Clapham. (fn. 23) It came to the Bohuns, Earls of Hereford, descendants of Beatrice's great-granddaughter
Maud, who married Henry de Bohun Earl of Hereford. (fn. 24) Upon the death of Humphrey de Bohun
Earl of Hereford in 1373, without heirs male, it
was assigned to his elder daughter Eleanor wife of
Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Gloucester, (fn. 25) and
was in the king's hands during the minority of her
daughter Isabel. (fn. 26)
Mandeville. Quarterly or and gules.
Bohun. Azure a bend argent between two cotises and lions or.
Thomas of Woodstock. England in a border argent.
Faramus of Boulogne, grandson of Geoffrey son of
Count Eustace, the immediate tenant (see above),
confirmed to the abbey of Bec a grant of land in
Balham which had belonged to Clapham Manor.
His daughter and heiress Sibyl de Tingria (fn. 27) married
Ingram de Fiennes, who in 1189 went to the siege
of Acre, where he was killed. After his death his
widow confirmed her father's charter to the abbey as
'lady of Clapham.' (fn. 28) She was succeeded elsewhere,
and evidently at Clapham also, by William de
Fiennes, (fn. 29) who temporarily exchanged Carshalton and
some part of Clapham with William de Gyrund in
1239. (fn. 30) William's son Ingram (fn. 31) and his direct descendants seem to have preferred their Norman to their
English fief. Ingram's Surrey lands were seized as
terrae Normannorum under Henry III, but were
restored. (fn. 32) His son William spent many years beyond
the seas, (fn. 33) and having remained there in time of war
was yet restored to his English lands during the truce
of 1299, while he acted as a hostage in the negotiations between France and England. (fn. 34) It was doubtless
his insecure tenure of his English lands, in addition
to considerable debts, (fn. 35) which brought him to part
with his Surrey manors. Clapham was conveyed
in fee to Thomas Romayn, a citizen of London
and a pepperer by trade. He held it jointly with his
wife Juliana, (fn. 36) and with her obtained a grant of free
warren in February 1309–10. (fn. 37) He had been Sheriff of
London 1290–1,and was mayor 1309–10. A chantry
was founded under his will in Clapham Church, the
advowson of which belonged to the bishop. (fn. 38) He
died early in the year 1313, (fn. 39) and his widow retained
Clapham till her death circa 1326, (fn. 40) after which the
manor was assigned to her daughter Margery wife
of William Weston of Albury and widow of Robert
de Upton, a portion only of the wood being assigned
to Margery's sister Rose wife of John de Burford. (fn. 41)
The Weston family held Clapham for about a
century. Richard Weston leased it in 1360 to Ralph
de Merton, a citizen of London. (fn. 42) Apparently
Richard Weston's successor was William Weston, on
whose wife Agnes the manor was settled. She
survived her husband and afterwards married John
Fountains. (fn. 43) In 1428 he was said to be holding in
Clapham half a knight's fee formerly held by John de
Upton (fn. 44) (possibly an error for Robert de Upton,
Margery Weston's first husband). Robert Weston,
son of William and Agnes, succeeded his mother in
1434, and in February 1437–8 sold Clapham to
William Wetenhale, citizen and grocer of London,
and his wife Margaret. (fn. 45) Weston sued Wetenhale for
the purchase-money. (fn. 46) Apparently the manor was
again alienated within the next thirty years, for in
1461 it was sold by Richard Gower, esq., to George
Ireland, an alderman of London, (fn. 47) knighted in 1471,
who made a settlement on his wife Margaret. She
survived her husband, who died 29 September 1473, (fn. 48)
and afterwards married William Fisher, who held the
manor for life. His stepson complained that he had
sold trees to the value of £160. (fn. 49) William Ireland
had possessions in Clapham in 1503 (see Brick Place),
but the history of the manor during the next century
is somewhat obscure. William Chelsham, a mercer
of London, died seised of it in February 1572–3, (fn. 50)
and his executors immediately conveyed the manor
to John Worsopp. (fn. 51) With the executors was joined
Edward Worsopp, (fn. 52) who apparently had been holding
the manor ten years, before, (fn. 53) and had possibly
mortgaged it to Chelsham. (fn. 54) In 1583 John Worsopp
conveyed his rights to Dr. Bartholomew Clarke,
Dean of the Court of Arches, (fn. 55) who was involved in
difficulties due apparently to recognizances entered
into by Edward Worsopp. (fn. 56) Dr. Clarke held the
manor at his death in March 1589–90. (fn. 57) His
son Francis conveyed it in 1611 to Edmund Lynde
and Henry Fisher, (fn. 58) and in 1614 Humphrey Lynde
with his wife Elizabeth transferred it to John
Haulsey, who parted with his interests c. 1616–17 to
Sir Thomas Vachell, kt., and to Dr. Henry Atkins. (fn. 59)
The latter ultimately acquired Vachell's interests. (fn. 60)
Dr. Atkins was president of the College of Physicians
and physician to James I and is traditionally said to
have purchased Clapham with £6,000 received in
presents from the king after attending the infant
Prince Charles in a dangerous illness (1604). (fn. 61) He
died in 1635, aged seventy-seven. His only son and
heir, Sir Henry Atkins, (fn. 62) was succeeded by his son
Richard in 1638. (fn. 63) The latter was created a baronet
on 13 June 1660 and died at Clapham 1689, when
he was succeeded by a son of the same name who
died in 1696; the latter's son Sir Henry Atkins,
bart., apparently came into possession of the manor
in 1711 upon the death of his
mother. (fn. 64) He himself died in
the year following. His son
Sir Henry dying in 1728 left
two sons. The elder, Sir
Henry Atkins, bart., died in
1742. His brother and heir
Sir Richard Atkins, bart.,
died unmarried in June
1756, (fn. 65) and was succeeded
by his sister Penelope wife
of George Pitt first Baron
Rivers. (fn. 66) The manor was
bequeathed by Sir Richard
Atkins to Richard Bowyer, who took the name
of Atkins. (fn. 67) His life-interest was purchased by
John Thornton. (fn. 68) The reversion came by direct
succession to his great-grandson Henry Atkins Bowyer,
who was succeeded by his brother the Rev. Fitzwilliam
Atkins Bowyer, rector of Clapham, and he by his
sister Isabel wife of Bertie Wentworth Vernon.
The present lord of the manor is her cousin,
Col. Wentworth Grenville Bowyer. (fn. 69)
Bowyer. Or a bend vair cotised gules.
BRICK PLACE
In 1503 William Ireland, who
was then probably lord of Clapham
Manor, conveyed a messuage and
garden, 33 acres of land, 13 acres of meadow and
200 acres of pasture to Thomas Marrowe. This
property is called the 'Brick Place' in the inquisition taken at the latter's death in 1505. It
descended to his daughter Dorothy, who married
Francis Cokeyn, and by a settlement passed to their
son Thomas Cokeyn. (fn. 70) He obtained licence in 1580
to convey certain premises consisting of 30 messuages,
30 tofts, 200 acres of land, 40 acres of meadow,
200 acres of pasture and 40s. rent, under the name
of the manor of Clapham, to Philip Okeover and
Richard Crompton, (fn. 71) probably for the purposes of a
settlement. In 1599 William Cockeyn or Cockayne,
described as a citizen and merchant of London, died
seised of the Brick Place, the Pallet House and the
Nether House in Clapham, leaving a son Thomas. (fn. 72)
CHURCHES
In pursuance of an Act of Parliament of 1774 the old church of
HOLY TRINITY was taken down
except the north aisle, which was pulled down in
1814, and the new parish church of HOLY
TRINITY was built on another site in 1775. It is
a large building with a Georgian nave, a chancel, and
south chapel. The chancel is divided from the nave
by a round arch, and is lighted by three segmental-headed windows to the east and a half-round large
window to the south. It has a shallow transept
to the north, and a stone screen on the south side
divides it from the south chapel, which is fitted up
with an altar table, &c. The nave has galleries on
three sides supported by fluted wood pillars. The
organ stands in that at the west, and at the same
end is an upper gallery. The older part of the building is of stock brick with cement dressings, the new
portion of red brick. At the west end is a large
portico with Doric columns and pilasters with flat
entablature. Behind this is a pediment from which
rises a small bell-turret. On either side are porches
at the east end. The east front has a stone façde with
shallow pilasters. There are many wall monuments
inside the nave, of which the earliest apparently is
one dated 1813.
The churchyard has no gravestones, but it is fenced
off from the common and road by iron railings.
There is a ring of four bells, all by Thomas
Janaway, 1776. The second is inscribed 'Musica
est mentis medicina,' and the third 'Intactum sileo
percute dulce cano.'
The plate consists of two silver-gilt cups, two
silver-gilt patens and a silver-gilt flagon of 1817
presented by non-parishioners in 1818; two silvergilt cups and paten and glass flagon and cruet with
silver-gilt mounts, the gift of F. W. A. Bowyer and
Margaret his wife in 1881; a silver-gilt spoon given
by Abraham Atkins in 1776, and a brass alms-basin.
The registers are in ten books: (1) baptisms 1555
to 1677 (defective 1600 to 1608), burials and marriages 1555 to 1677; (2) baptisms 1678 to 1689,
burials 1678 to 1691, marriages 1678 to 1702;
(3) and (4) baptisms 1706 to 1776, burials 1700 to
1776, marriages 1705 to 1753; (5), (6) and (7)
baptisms 1777 to 1812, burials 1777 to 1803;
(8) burials 1804 to 1812; (9) and (10) marriages
1754 to 1812.
The church of ST. PAUL was built as a chapel of
ease to Holy Trinity, close to the site of the old
church, in 1815. It has a Georgian nave, with a
more modern apsidal chancel, vestries, &c., the latter
work of a 12th-century character. Both the old and
new walling is of stock brick. The nave has the usual
galleries on three sides. The low gabled roofs are
covered with slates. The churchyard is large, and lies
to the north, east and south of the building; some of
the many graves contained therein date from the 18th
century. The parish of St. Paul was formed in 1861.
ST. PETER'S Church, Manor Street, a chapel of
ease to Holy Trinity, is a comparatively large building
of stock brick with red brick dressings erected within
the last twenty years. It has a chancel with a south
transept, vestries, &c., nave with a clearstory of lancet
windows, north and south aisles, and porches to the
south and north-west; the roofs are gabled and
covered with slates. There is a small strip of churchyard to the south of the building.
ST. SAVIOUR'S Church, Cedars Road, another
chapel of ease to Holy Trinity, is a large building
of stone in the style of the 14th century; it consists of
a chancel, vestries, &c., central tower, transepts, nave
and aisles.
The parish of ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST
was formed in 1842. The church, situated at Clapham
Rise, is a classic building of the early 19th-century
period of the Greek revival. It has a rectangular
nave with galleries on three sides carried by Ionic
pillars, and a short chancel with a stone reredos at
the east end. At this end also, facing the street, is
a large portico with six Ionic fluted columns carrying
a pediment. In it are three doorways, of which the
only one in use is the northernmost, the principal
entrances being at the west end. The ceiling of the
nave is flat.
The parish of ST. JAMES, Clapham Park, was
formed in 1854. The church, which stands on Park
Hill, has an early 19th-century plaster Gothic nave
with galleries on three sides, and a much more recent
chancel and transepts of stone. Over the east end of
the chancel is a large tower with a clock, crowned by
corner pinnacles. On either side of each transept
are porches, all of the more modern work, which is
in the style of the 14th century.
The parish of CHRIST CHURCH was formed in
1871. The church, situated in Union Grove, is a
stone building of about 1860 in the style of the
14th century, and consisting of a chancel, north organchamber, south chapel, nave of five bays, north and
south aisles and south porch. At the east end of the
north aisle is a second side altar. The pulpit is of
stone; a low iron screen fills the chancel arch.
The roofs are slated; a bell hangs in a small wood
bell-cote above the chancel arch.
The parish of ALL SAINTS, Clapham Park, was
formed in 1873. The church is a large stone building
erected in the middle of the 19th century, consisting
of a chancel with aisles, nave with aisles and north
and south transepts, and a south-east tower with a
tall pyramidal stone spire; both aisles as well as other
parts have gabled roofs covered with slates. A fairly
large churchyard lies to the south of the building; it
has no graves.
The church of ST. STEPHEN, Grove Road,
Clapham Park, is a stone building erected about the
year 1880 in the style of the 14th century. It has
a chancel, vestries, nave, south aisle, south-east porch
and a low west porch. The only portion of the
future north aisle yet built is a gabled west wall
containing a traceried window complete.
As early as the 17th century Nonconformity was
thriving in Clapham. From 1662 to 1670 William
Bridge, a Puritan minister ejected from Norwich,
preached at the 'Independent Meeting' there, (fn. 73) and
in 1672 Henry Wilkinson, who had been a member
of the Westminster Assembly, took out a licence to
preach in a schoolhouse in the parish. In 1725 a
Presbyterian meeting of 400 persons was returned in
Clapham. (fn. 74) This was probably a continuation of
Mr. Henry Wilkinson's conventicle. He had been
Canon of Christchurch and Lady Margaret Professor,
and belonged to the old Puritan party, so that the
congregation was originally Presbyterian, not Independent. But a list of Dissenting congregations in
1715 and 1772 (fn. 75) by Josiah Thompson, minister of
the congregation at Clapham, says that in 1715 there
was an Independent congregation of 350 persons at
Clapham. Probably the contemporary notice of
1725 is correct and the congregation, like many
others, had become Independent before 1772. (fn. 76) The
old meeting-house in Clapham Old Town was built
in 1762, the present chapel in Grafton Square in
1852. The Claylands Chapel was acquired for the
Congregationalists in 1845 and the first pastor, the
Rev. Baldwin Brown, was deservedly famous. There
was also a chapel in Acre Lane in 1819, which was
moved to Park Crescent in 1848. (fn. 77)
There are other Congregational chapels in Stormont Road and Lavender Hill. The Baptists have
chapels in the Bedford Road, FitzWilliam Road,
Grafton Square and Victoria Road. There are
United Methodist chapels in Paradise Road and
Park Crescent, Wesleyan Methodist in High Street,
Queen's Road, Studley Road, Broomwood and New
Road, and the Plymouth Brethren have meeting-houses at Carfax Square and in the Clapham Park Road.
There are also Roman Catholic churches in Clapham
Park Road and on the 'South Side' of the Common.
ADVOWSONS
There is no mention of a church
in the Domesday Survey of Clapham.
The earliest known reference to the
old parish church of the Holy Trinity is the presentation of an incumbent in 1285. (fn. 78) In 1291 the
benefice was valued at £9 6s. 8d., while a pension of
£1 1s. belonged to the priory of Merton. (fn. 79) How
the prior acquired the advowson is uncertain; possibly
it was granted to him by Faramus of Boulogne, lord
of the manor, who endowed the priory with Carshalton
Church. (fn. 80) The profits of the church were assigned
to the infirmarer of the priory. (fn. 81) The surrender of
the priory to the Crown took place in April 1538, (fn. 82)
and the advowson of Clapham was sold in September
1544 to Sir Thomas Arundel. (fn. 83) It was subsequently
alienated either to Dr. Bartholomew Clarke or to his
widow Eleanor, for the latter presented to the vicarage in 1591. (fn. 84) John Thornton bought Richard
Bowyer Atkins' life interest in the advowson as well
as the manor (see above) and his son Samuel made two
presentations. From this time onwards the advowson has been vested in the lord of the manor.
The advowsons of St. John the Evangelist, of
St. Paul, and of Christ Church, Union Grove,
belong to the rector of Holy Trinity; those of
St. James', Park Hill, St. Stephen, and All Saints,
Clapham Park, to trustees.
CHARITIES
A complete list of the schools as
at present existing has already been
given, (fn. 85) but the Bonneville Road
School is noticeable as an old foundation. Francis
Bridger and his wife gave £2 a year in 1647 for
teaching two poor boys. Richard Atkins, lord of the
manor, gave the site, and William Dewer left £7 in
1715. In 1725 it educated six poor boys. The
original house was rebuilt in 1781 and added to in
1809. In 1838 a new school was built for boys and
in 1887 the original premises were rebuilt.
In 1725 there was another school taught by a
clergyman. The Royal Masonic School for Girls
founded in 1788 was brought here in 1851, and the
British Orphan Asylum was founded at Clapham Rise
in 1827.
In 1647 Mr. Francis Bridger and Sarah his wife
left £2 for a school, as above, and £2 a year for coals
for the poor.
In 1695 Mr. Thomas Langham left £17 15s. 9d.
a year for bread.
In 1695 Dr. Martin Lister left £3 a year for
bread and clothing and £2 for a sermon.
At an unknown date Mr. Timothy Reed left £1 a
year for the poor.
In 1707 Mr. Michael Mitford left £3 for coals for
two poor men.
In 1773 Mr. James Lance left £9 a year, £6 for
bread, 50s. for a sermon and 10s. for the parish clerk.
In 1835 Mrs. Elizabeth Cook, widow of the circumnavigator, left £700 consols for six poor widows.
There are some other small charities, and Smith's
charity is distributed as in other Surrey parishes.