MERTON
Marten, Martin, Marton.
Merton is a parish of about 1,763 acres, occupied
for the most part by market gardens on the south and
west, and by increasing numbers of small houses
connected by unbroken lines of streets with Lower
Wimbledon on the north. The Beverley Brook forms
the boundary line between Merton and New Malden.
The soil is mostly London Clay, but the old village
with the site of the priory is on gravel and alluvium
of the River Wandle.
An award was made for the inclosure of Merton
Common in 1817, under an Act of 1816. (fn. 1) Some
common fields had apparently been inclosed earlier. (fn. 2)
The fame of Merton is derived from the ancient
priory of Augustinian canons, commonly called Merton
Abbey, of which a few walls still remain. These are
for the most part built of flint. One wall lies along
the north side of the railway line about 100 yards west
of the station, and another runs east and west south
of the station. Two calico-printing factories were
founded on the site in the 18th century, one by Francis
Nixon, whose art of copper-plate calico-printing is
celebrated in his epitaph. (fn. 3) In 1725 the chapel of
the priory still existed, but was not used for services. (fn. 4)
The wealth of the priory and its position near
London made Merton the scene of various public
events during the Middle Ages. The kings often
stayed there, and the statute of Merton was there
enacted in 1236, whereby Roman civil law was
rejected. Hubert de Burgh took sanctuary at Merton
on his fall in 1232, and was violently removed from
the church. Walter de Merton, chancellor of
Edward I, was apparently a native of the parish.
Thomas Becket was at school at the priory (fn. 5) and
William of Ockham was possibly educated there. (fn. 6)
Before the opening of the railways Merton was
completely rural, though the road to Epsom and
Dorking ran through it, on which coaches were
frequently passing. There are now four railway
stations in the parish, Merton Abbey and Raynes Park
on the London and South Western, Merton Park and
Morden on the London, Brighton and South Coast
railway.
In 1801 Merton became the home of the Hamiltons and Nelson. On 15 September 1801 Nelson
bought Merton Place, an early 18th-century house,
built probably by Mr. Robert Dorrill, who settled
Merton Place by name on his daughter Mary Meriton
in 1709. By Nelson's will it was left to Lady
Hamilton, who sold it in 1808. The house was
pulled down about 1840. It stood near the west
end of Reform Place, but further back, towards
Nelson Grove Road. (fn. 7) The well which supplied it
with water is in the back yard of No. 61 High Street.
The grounds are now marked by Nelson Road,
Trafalgar Road, Victory Road, Hardy Road and
Hamilton Road.
Opposite the church, standing in grounds inclosed
by high brick walls, is Church House, a large early
18th-century building of two stories, now in a very
dilapidated condition, the upper part being used
as workshops. The external walls are covered with
plaster, the roof is of tiles. The house faces north
and south, the south being the principal front, and
is approached through a fine wrought-iron gateway
standing between brick piers surmounted by stone
vases. The house is E-shaped and has at the back
two semi-hexagonal bay windows. The hall is a fine
panelled room, but unless immediately repaired will
soon be in decay. Spring House, another building
of about the same date, stands in a road to the north
of the church. It is a brick building of three
stories with a wooden cornice, Doric entrance doorway and tile roof. The 'King's Arms' in the High
Street is an 18th-century hostel. Opposite the wall
by the railway lines stands Abbey House, an 18th-century building of no great interest. The external
walls are covered with plaster.
The paper mills of Messrs. Read & Co., called
Merton Abbey Mills, probably represent the Amery
mills (see below under manor), which date back to
the days of the Conquest. Close by these mills are
some extensive watercress beds. The Merton Abbey
Works of the Morris Company glass painters and
furniture printers and the Merton Abbey silk-printing
works of Messrs. Liberty & Co. occupy the site of the
calico-printing factories mentioned above. (fn. 8) The manufacture of japan and varnish is also an industry of the
parish.
Merton School (National) was founded in 1865,
and the present building erected in 1870. Abbey
Road (National, infants) was built in 1856 and
enlarged in 1894. The Council School, Botsford
Road, was started in temporary buildings in 1906.
MANOR
The earliest mention of land at
MERTON is in the year 967, when
Edgar granted to EarlAlphen and Elswitha
his wife 20 cassatas of land at Merton near Wimbledon
and Mitcham, and at Dulwich. (fn. 9) It is not certain
whether this land is identical with that which formed
part of Harold's holding (perhaps as king) immediately
before the Conquest. At the Domesday Survey this
was held by William I, and was assessed at 20 hides.
It had a church, and two mills worth 60s., and sixteen
houses in Southwark belonged to the manor. (fn. 10) The
place was then populous, with fifty-six villein holdings
and thirteen bordars. Appurtenant to the manor
were 2 hides held by one Orcus in another hundred.
In 1086 these were valueless. Also the Bishop of
Lisieux held 2 solins in Kent which at the time of
King Edward and after the Conquest had belonged
to this manor. (fn. 11)
By a grant of Henry I (fn. 12) the 'vill of the Crown
called Merton' was bestowed on the canons of Merton
in frankalmoign, free of all taxation and jurisdiction,
to be used for the construction of a church which
was to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary. (fn. 13) Henry II
and Richard I also confirmed this grant. (fn. 14)
About 1348 litigation arose concerning the customs
of the manor. Stephen in the Hale, John Jakes,
Richard Est and other men of the Prior of Merton
complained of his unscrupulous exaction of services
and customs such as had not been went when the
king held this demesne. (fn. 15) The men alleged they
held only by fealty and rent; but the prior exacted
one day's forced labour a week, and compelled their
services for mending a ditch called Le Brok, shearing
the prior's sheep for two days (for which they only
received ½d. a day), mowing his meadows for a day
and a half, with pay of 1½d. a day, each man also
having to find three men for three days to carry the
prior's hay, and for three half-days to take the grain,
for nothing. Further, the prior exacted for twelve
days a year twenty-four men to reap his corn with
an allowance of ¾d. for four days' food, and ½d. for
eight days' food. Further, they had to sift the
prior's malt from the Feast of St. Andrew to Christmas,
with a 4d. fine for any leakage, and to harrow 1 acre
for a loaf worth ¼d.; besides which the prior exacted
ten eggs a year from each on
Good Friday. The upkeep
of the bridge between Merton
and Kingston was also one of
their tasks. Their sons could
not escape this bondage by
taking holy orders without
paying the prior a fine, and
none might sell their own
corn or cut down their own
timber without the prior's
licence. To all these and
other allegations the prior
could only aver the men were
his serfs, a charge they denied,
and to prevent them from prosecuting the suit he
tried to impoverish them by heavily distraining them
by their goods and chattels. (fn. 16)
Merton Priory. Or fretty azure with eagles argent at the crossings of the fret.
At the Dissolution Merton with its members was
valued at £49 12s. 5d. and the farm and the mills
at £4 10s. (fn. 17) The manor was granted by Philip and
Mary to the priory of Sheen in 1558. (fn. 18) It afterwards remained in the Crown until 1610, when it
was granted, but without the mills or advowsons of
churches, to Thomas Hunt of Hammersmith for
£828 8s. 9d., (fn. 19) who retained it until 1637, (fn. 20) when
he joined with others in conveying it to James
Haward. (fn. 21)
In Hilary 1664–5 it was held by Penelope Haward,
daughter of James, and John Long and his wife Mary,
apparently another daughter. (fn. 22) In 1675 William
Godman and Dorothea his wife, probably the third
sister, quitclaimed the manor to Penelope and her
husband Nicholas Philpot. (fn. 23) In 1699 Nicholas
Philpot, apparently a son, (fn. 24) sold it to John Dorrill, (fn. 25)
in whose family it remained until the latter part of
the reign of George III. (fn. 26) John Chambers Dorrill
sold it in 1801 to John Hilbert. (fn. 27) In 1820 Francis
Merritt held it in right of his wife Elizabeth, and
assigned it to Joseph Benwell and Joseph Kage,
probably trustees, with the two mills (fn. 28) (which he had
apparently acquired from the owners of the site, see
below).
In 1887 Sir John Innes, M.P. (one of the large
local landowners), appears as lord of the manor.
The manorial rights are now extinct.
The site of MERTON ABBEY was granted in
1558 to the priory of Jesus of Bethlehem at Sheen. (fn. 29)
But the same year Elizabeth came to the throne,
and the property reverted to the Crown. In 1590
Gregory Lovell, lessee since 1582, (fn. 30) was granted a
new lease for twenty-one years (fn. 31) ; and in 1600, in
recognition of the signal service of Charles Earl of
Nottingham, Lord Howard of Effingham, against the
Armada, Nichola Zouche and Thomas Ware were
granted various lands including these, on trust for
Lord Howard, to whom they conveyed them in
1601. (fn. 32)
In 1605 Charles Earl of Nottingham conveyed the
site to John Spilman, (fn. 33) who was knighted the same
year. The following year Spilman and others
assigned it to Sir Thomas Cornwall, (fn. 34) from whose
hands in 1613 it passed to Sir Edward Bellingham
and William Ashenden. (fn. 35) A certain Thomas Marbury
also quitclaimed his right to Bellingham at the same
time. (fn. 36)
In 1624 Sir Francis Clerke and Anne his wife
conveyed the lands to Roland Wilson. (fn. 37) Mary
daughter of Roland Wilson married Samuel Crisp.
In 1662 Samuel Crisp and his wife, Edward Crisp,
Roland Crisp and his wife, John Carleton and his
wife, Edmund White and his wife, William Cox
and his wife, and Humphrey Davy with his wife
all conveyed the lands to Elisha Crisp, (fn. 38) who in
1668 sold to Thomas Pepys. (fn. 39) Thomas Pepys left
a widow Ursula, who joined with Edward Smith
and Olive his wife in a conveyance to trustees. (fn. 40)
Edward Smith and his wife by themselves in 1696
sold to Susanna St. John, (fn. 41) who in 1701 conveyed to
William Hubbald of Stoke near Guildford. He died
in 1709 and in 1711 an Act was passed for selling
his estates to satisfy his debts to the Crown. The
site of the priory was sold to Sir William Phippard,
kt., who by his will left the estate to his sons William,
John (fn. 42) and George, and his daughter Elizabeth, wife
of William Cleeves, (fn. 43) as tenants in common.
George died unmarried, having devised his share
to William and John. John also died without issue
in 1774, when the moiety which he held under
George's will went to William. The rest of his
estates he left to his niece Mary Cleeves, who married
Richard Fezard Mansfield of Ringwood, co. Hants. (fn. 44)
The two mills called Amery Mills, with Amery
Garden, formerly appurtenant to the manor, were in
1588 leased to John Penson for twenty-seven years. (fn. 45)
In 1613 George Low and others were granted
£4 6s. 8d. rent from these mills and other Sheen
lands which had been granted to Edward Ferrers
on 19 May 1609. (fn. 46) Later they seem to have been
granted to Richard Burroll, who previous to his death
in 1629 sold them to Sir Francis Clerke for £800, (fn. 47)
from whom they devolved on Richard Fezard
Mansfield in 1778 (vide supra). Before 1820 they
seem to have been acquired by the owner of the
manor of Merton.
In 1553 John Earl of Warwick and Sir Henry
Sidney, kt., were granted MERTON GRANGE,
which was the grange of the priory estates situated
outside the gates of the priory. (fn. 48) After the death of
the earl without issue in 1554 and the attainder of
all his family his half was granted by Elizabeth to
Sir Henry Sidney. (fn. 49) It included lands called 'Lyon,'
'Le Vynes,' Hallowmede and Sheephouse. Before
1629 the Grange was among the possessions of
Richard Burroll, who sold it to Robert Bromfield for
£2,100. (fn. 50)
A house and farm called WEST BARNES (formerly
belonging to Merton Priory and valued in 1535 at
£3 6s. 8d. a year (fn. 51) ) was in 1545 granted to Sir John
Gresham of London, kt. (fn. 52) It comprised 200 acres.
By his will of 1553 Gresham settled it on his younger
son John, (fn. 53) who in 1612 sold to John Carpenter. In
1660 Robert Carpenter held it and in 1732 this
family sold to John Budgen. In 1783 John Smith
Budgen sold to John Midleton, who resided there in
1812. (fn. 54) The name still persists.
A house called MARTINHOLTS was in 1547
granted to Sir Ralph Lee. (fn. 55)
CHURCH
The church of ST. MARY consists of
chancel 13 ft. 8 in. by 44 ft. 2 in., with
modern organ chamber and vestry, nave
21 ft. by 72 ft., north aisle 13 ft. 8 in. by 57 ft. 6 in., and
south aisle 9 ft. 8 in. by 57 ft. 6 in., internal measurements. The earliest part of the building is the west
end of the nave, which dates from the 12th century.
The church then consisted of an aisleless nave the
same size as the present one and a chancel. Early in
the 13th century the chancel was pulled down and a
wider one erected. No other structural alterations
appear to have been made until the middle of the
19th century, when in 1856 the south aisle of four
bays was added, extending to within nearly 14 ft.
of the west wall of the nave. Ten years later the
north aisle and organ chamber were added, while
in more recent times the vestry was built, and in
1897 an arch was built across the end of the nave
between the west walls of the aisles and an old
wooden gallery cleared away.
The walls of the nave and aisles are built of split
flint with stone quoins and have tile roofs, though
the chancel walls are covered with flint dash. The
quoins and windows to the vestry are of brick.
The east window is of three cinquefoiled lights
with vertical tracery, all of which is modern except a
few stones in the inner jambs. A wall arcade of
equilateral arches running along the north and south
walls divides the chancel into four bays. In the
westernmost bay on the north side is the organ, and
in the next is a two-light trefoiled window, the
jambs only being ancient, and in the easternmost are
single lancets. The organ chamber is lighted by a
reset 14th-century window of two trefoiled lights
and a quatrefoil taken from the westernmost bay of
the north chancel wall (the next window of which is
a copy). In the easternmost bay of the south wall of
the chancel is a two-light window similar to the one
opposite, which contains some pieces of old glass.
The east light contains the royal arms, and in the
west are those of the abbey. A late 16th-century
monument covers a blocked-up lancet in the next
bay, while in the westernmost division are an early
14th-century window of two trefoiled lights and a
plain equilateral arched priest's doorway leading into
a modern porch. This door has some pieces of
mediaeval ironwork on it. The chancel arch is a
chamfered drop arch and springs from the chancel
walls.
The nave arcade is modern in 13th-century
style. At the west end of the north aisle are the
remains of a late 12th-century doorway re-inserted
from the north wall of the nave when that aisle was
added. The doorway has been badly pieced together,
and only the semicircular arch mould, which is
enriched with cheveron ornament, is original. On
the door are some pieces of mediaeval ironwork, and
on the outside is a much-restored and thickly painted
15th-century wooden porch standing on a base of
flint and stone. The central opening has a fourcentred head, the side posts are carried up and
support an embattled transom, while the mouldings
on the head break away and take the form of an
ogee head meeting on the transom. The spandrels
are filled in with quatrefoils in circles, in which are
placed small escutcheons. The roof is of tiles.
There are three windows in the north aisle in 14th-century style and a similar window in the west wall.
The south aisle is lighted by four two-light
windows in 14th-century style, inserted in 1907, and
on the east by a window of two trefoiled lights with
a quatrefoil, all of plate tracery. Across the nave,
between the west walls of the aisles, is a pointed arch
springing from shafts having moulded caps and bases
in the style of the 15th century and built in 1897.
To the west of this, in the north wall of the nave, is
a small semicircular-headed window, the external head
of which is new, while on the opposite wall is a
similar window having a segmental head filled in
with a modern cinquefoil. In the west wall is a
14th-century doorway, and above is a two-light
window with modern tracery.
Over the chancel is a late 14th-century opentimber roof divided into three bays by framed trusses.
The roof of the nave is plastered over, but the
original plain moulded wall plate remains, and the
tie-beams of principals to an early roof are still to be
seen spanning the nave, though the framing has disappeared. The nave roof is continued down over
the south aisle, but the north aisle is covered with a
separate steep-pitched roof having trussed pitch pine
rafters.
On the south wall of the chancel is a monument
to Gregory Lovell of Merton Abbey, coiffeur to
Queen Elizabeth, who died in 1597, and his two
wives—Joan daughter of — Whithead, by whom
he had one son and three daughters, and Dorothy
daughter of Michael Greene, by whom he had five
sons. The monument is of marble, and on either
side is a small Corinthian column of red marble
carrying an entablature of the same order. On the
dexter side is the figure of Gregory kneeling in
prayer, facing his two wives. In a panel beneath the
man are figures of his children by his first wife
facing his five sons by his wife Dorothy. The
inscription is underneath, while above are three
shields. In the middle are the quartered arms of
Lovell, (1) Argent a cheveron azure between three
squirrels gules, (2) Sable a cross between four lions
or, (3) Vert two cheverons argent with three
cinquefoils gules upon each, (4) Argent four bars
gules (this should be Barry of ten argent and gules)
a lion or with a crown party gules and or. The
dexter shield is Lovell impaling Azure a cheveron between three hunting horns argent, for Joan Whithead,
his first wife. The other shield is Lovell impaling
Azure three harts tripping or with the difference of a
crescent or, for Dorothy Greene his second wife.
In the chancel floor is a stone to 'Sir Henry
Stapylton of Moyton upon Swale in ye County of
Yorke,' who died 1679, while by the side is one to
'Grace ye wife of Thomas Robinson of Rokeby in
ye County of York, eldest daughter of Sir Henry
Stapleton 1676.'
Over the west end of the north aisle rises a small
broach spire covered with shingle and surmounted
by a weather vane, while at the base wooden louvres
open into a belfry. Hanging against the south wall
at the west of the nave is a painting of the bearing
of the Cross, of the school of Van Dyke, the original
being in St. Paul's, Antwerp.
Among the hatchments hanging on the nave walls
is Lord Nelson's, while in the vestry is the bench
which he is said to have occupied when attending
service at the parish church.
There are five bells: the treble and second are
modern, the third is by Thomas Mears, 1803, the
fourth has a Latin inscription in black letter capitals,
'Sancta Margareta ora pro nobis,' together with
two stops and a shield of the royal arms, and the
fifth is by Bryan Eldridge, 1601.
The plate consists of two patens, one of which
has a date mark 1709 and the other 1895, both
having the Britannia stamp; two cups, one of 1709,
stamped similarly to the paten of that date, and the
other of 1879. There is also a flagon, the gift of
William Baynes and Hester his wife to the parish
church of Merton, date mark 1717.
The registers are in six volumes: i, 1559 to 1656;
ii, 1694 to 1714; iii, baptisms and burials 1700
to 1785, marriages 1700 to 1753; iv, 1754 to
1786; v, baptisms and burials 1787 to 1812;
vi, marriages 1787 to 1812.
In the last register is an interesting notice of the
baptism of the son of Bernard and Elizabeth Suckling,
a relation of Lord Nelson, who stood sponsor to the
child. The child was born in Norfolk on 17 August
1803, but the baptism was 'postponed on account of
Lord Nelson's absence out of England on his Majesty's
service' until 6 September 1805.
The ecclesiastical parish of ST. SAVIOUR'S,
Raynes Park, was formed in 1907.
A Congregational chapel was built at Merton in
1818 and a Wesleyan chapel was endowed in 1890.
ADVOWSON
A church is mentioned in the
Domesday Survey and was evidently
included in the grant of the manor
to the canons by Henry I. It was appropriated to
the convent before 1291 (fn. 56) and the rectory was
valued at £10 in 1535. (fn. 57)
No vicarage was ever ordained. Whilst in the
possession of Merton Priory the church was served
by a chaplain appointed by the prior, and after the
Dissolution by a perpetual curate nominated by the
impropriator.
The rectory was in 1553 granted to Thomas
Locke and his wife. (fn. 58) In 1644 another Thomas
Locke sold it to Katharine Highlord. (fn. 59) She devised
it to Robert Wilson, her nephew, (fn. 60) who in 1697
conveyed it to Robert Dorrill, (fn. 61) who devised it to
his daughter Mary in 1707. She married Henry
Meriton, (fn. 62) who survived his wife and in 1733 sold
to Joseph Chitty, from whom the rectory passed to
his brother Sir Thomas Chitty. He devised in 1762
to his daughter Eleanor wife of George Bond, who
was the owner in 1808. (fn. 63)
By 1842 Mrs. M. Bond as impropriator held the
advowson, and from 1852 to 1858 a Mr. Wingrove,
after which Mrs. Bond appears again as the patroness.
From 1862 to 1874 the advowson was held by the
Rev. William Edelman, the incumbent, and then by
his widow (but from 1866 to 1871 by the Rev.
S. Dawes). Mrs. Edelman continued holding the
patronage down to 1881, when the Rev. Ernest
Murray-Robinson became vicar and held it jointly
with his wife up to 1896; in 1901 he married the
Honourable Mary Hay, third daughter of Sir John
Burns. In 1906 she married the Rev. Claude E. L.
Corfield and still holds the advowson. (fn. 64)
Mr. Edward Collins, curate in 1725, complained
to Bishop Willis that Mr. Henry Meriton, 'pretended
patron,' had his own house licensed as a meeting
house for Baptists (although none came), and had
been guilty of outrageous behaviour in church, for
which he was being then prosecuted in the Ecclesiastical courts. The curate's stipend was £14 a year,
but former curates had made large sums by irregular
marriages celebrated in the church as an unlicensed
place belonging to the former abbey. Mr. Collins
and his immediate predecessor had set their faces
against such a practice. (fn. 65)
CHARITIES
In 1687 Mr. William Rutlish left
£400 for apprenticing poor children.
By judicious investment this ultimately became £599 a year. Part has been used
for the Rutlish Science School, and part is distributed in clothes, bread and coals.
Mr. Rowland Wilson in 1654 left 52s. a year for
bread.
Mrs. Elizabeth Simon left £600 for general
charitable purposes. In 1801 six almshouses were
founded. These were lately untenanted and in a
state of dilapidation owing to a dispute as to the
title.
Mr. Richard Thornton left £7,076 in 1865, the
interest on which is partly applied to the school and
partly to bread and coals.
Half an acre of land in the common fields was
left to the poor before 1798 by a person unknown.
There are smaller benefactions, including Henry
Smith's, as in other Surrey parishes.