EIGH 
 
 SURREY
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 i
 
 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 LETGH PLACE, STJEEET, 
 
 a:nd its owners. 
 
 JOHN WATNEY, F.S.A. 
 
 [^Repri?ited from the " Collections of the Surrey Archaological Soeictij" 
 hy permission of the Council of the Society.'\ 
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY ROWORTH & CO. LIMITED, 
 
 NEWTON STREET, HIGH HOLBOKN, W.C. 
 1893.
 
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 SOME ACCOUNT OF LEIGH PLACE, SURREY, 
 AND OF ITS OWNERS. 
 
 T 
 
 By JOHN WATNEY, F.S.A. 
 
 J1HE parish of Leigh is not mentioned in Domesday 
 Book, and was probably at that time part of the 
 manor of Cherchefelle or Reigate, which was held by 
 the king at the time of the survey, or perhaps a part of 
 E^\-oll, another of the crown manors of which Selewode 
 or Shellwood, now the principal manor in the parish of 
 Leigh, was a member in the time of Henry 11. I incline, 
 however, to think that Leigh was part of the great manor 
 of Reigate, which at some time after the Conquest was 
 held by the Earls of Warrenne and Surrey. 
 
 In early times, and indeed until very recently, there 
 Avere only two capital houses in the parish of Leigh, 
 Leigh Place and the manor house of Shellwood. Leigli 
 Place has been called a manor house, but I cannot find 
 that it was entitled to such an appellation. Shellwood 
 manor was, as said above, a member of the manor of 
 Ewell, and was with it granted by King Henry II, m 
 the second year of his reign, 1156, to the priory of 
 Jilerton, in this county.' It was held by the priory until 
 the dissolution of monasteries. _ _ 
 
 The first reference that I can find to the parish is m a 
 grant of Hamelin, Earl of Warrenne and Surrey (who 
 was an illegitimate son of Geoffrey, Earl of Anjou, 
 husband of the Empress Maud,) and of Isabel his wife. 
 She was the only daughter and heiress of William, 
 second Earl of Warrenne and Surrey, and married, first, 
 
 1 iluuuing find Bray's Surrey, Vol. II, p. 180.
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 William, Earl of Mortaiu in Normandy, natural son of 
 King Stephen. Hamelin on his marriage became Earl 
 of Warrenne and Surrey, and died in 3rd John, 1121, 
 his countess having predeceased him in 1119, leaving 
 William their eldest son, who succeeded to the earldom/ 
 Earl Hamelin and his wife granted the churches of 
 Creschesfeld (Reigate), Bescheswood (Betchworth), and 
 Leghe, to the priory of St. Mary Overy, in Southwark. - 
 It has been said that Sir John de Braose, whose two 
 brothers were starved to death by King John in Windsor 
 Castle, and who was killed by a fall from his horse in 
 1232, owned Leigh, and that in the 13tli century 
 frequent mention is made in the records of Sir John 
 Brewse, at Lee or Leigh, but I have not been able to 
 verify this statement. ^ The eldest son of Sir John de 
 Braose or Brewse, Lord William, was of Findon in 
 Sussex (a manor held with Leigh in the 16th century), 
 and died in 1290, and Sir Peter de Braose, who died in 
 1311, a younger son of this William by his third wife, 
 Mary de Roos, had a younger son. Sir John, who was 
 called the Lord of Leigh. ^ He had issue, John, who 
 had by Joan de Cornwall a son, George Brewes or de 
 Braose, Lord of Leigh, who married Elizabeth, daughter 
 of Edward St. John, of Godstone, and, dying without 
 issue in 1418, was buried in St. Saviour's Church, South- 
 wark. He held the manors of Crawley, Sidgwick, and 
 Nuthurst, in Sussex ; and Leigh, Bookham, Imworth, and 
 Walton, in Sm-rey. John de Braose had also issue, 
 Margaret, a nun at Havering atte Bower, and Agnes, 
 wife of Urian Seyntpere or de St. Peter, by whom she 
 had a daughter, Isabel, who married Sir Walter Cooksey, 
 of Kidderminster, and died in 1415, and the Leigh estate 
 probably came through her into the Cooksey family, 
 which is said to have held it in the early part of the 
 
 ^ Dugdale's Baronage. 
 
 2 Dugdale's Monaslicon, Vol. VI, p. 172 ; Manning and Bray, 
 Surrey, Vol. I, p. 273 ; Vol. Ill, p. 564. 
 
 ^ MS. addition to Manning and Bray's Surrey, in the possession of 
 tlie writer. 
 
 * Manning and Bray, Vol. II, p. 77.
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 15tb century.^ Tlie arms of this family were at one 
 time in the parish church. 
 
 In the bishop's register there is a license to John le 
 Doenc, 2 nones Dec. 1324, to have a chapel in his 
 manor or mansion-house of Leigh, for two yeai's, so that 
 no damage was done to the mother church of Leigh." 
 This clia2:)el might have been in Leigh Place, or perhaps 
 in an ancient farmhouse now called Dean, which is 
 about a mile from Leigh Place, and on the borders of 
 Horley parish. 
 
 The next family in possession of Leigh Place, so far 
 as can be traced, was that of Arderne, in the 15tli 
 century, but it does not appear in what manner they 
 acquired it. This family had been connected Avith the 
 county long previously to this date. Thomas Ai'derne, 
 of Horndon-on-the-Hill in Essex, and Thomas, his son, 
 gave the Church of St. George, in SouthAvark, and 
 certain tithes in Horndon to the priory of Bermondsey 
 in 1122.^ About 1286, William de Arderne was rector 
 ofMerrow;^ in 12th Edward II, 1319, John de Arderne 
 and Agnes, his wife, made a grant of lands in Basselagh, 
 a member of the manor of Byfleet;' in 1324, John de 
 Arderne Avas instituted vicar of Dorking;'^ and in lOth 
 Edward III, 1336, Roger Arderne was M.P. for the 
 borough of Southwark. ' 
 
 In the patent roll, 21st Edward III,' 1347, there is 
 a grant to Reginald de Cobham, of all the lands and 
 tenements of Sir Thomas de Arderne, Knight, which 
 had escheated to the Crown by reason of the rape of 
 Margery, formerly wife of Nicholas de la Beche, and 
 the murder of Nicholas de Poynings, and other felonies 
 
 ' Manning and Bray, Vol. II, p. 77 ; and see Hislo)-;/ of Castles, 
 Mansions, and JSIanurs of PVesteni Sussex, by D. G. C. Ehves and the 
 Kev. C. J. Robinson, p. 48. 
 
 2 Stratford, 8b. 
 
 2 Diigdale's Monaslicon, Vol, I, p. 640. 
 
 * jVIanuing- and Bray, Vol. Ill, pp. 60, 63. 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 188. Close roll, 1st Edward III, p. 2, m. 67. 
 
 c Reg. Stratford, 90a. 
 
 ^ Manning and Bray, Vol. Ill, p. 619. 
 
 8 P. 3, memb. 34.
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 of which the said Thomas was convicted. It is said, in 
 Sir William BuiTell's Sussex Co/lections,^ that Arderne 
 pacified the widow by marrying her, and that his lands 
 were restored; the murder seems to have been forgotten. 
 There is a tradition that the crimes were committed in 
 Leigh, and that the lady died of a broken heart; and it 
 is said that the white lady still haunts the house, but it 
 is very doubtful Avhether an Arderne held Leigh Place 
 at such an early date. 
 
 The first of the Ardernes who is recorded to have held 
 land in Leigh was John Arderne, probably one of the 
 family of that name seated at Cudworth in "Warwick- 
 shire. There is no evidence to connect the Ardernes 
 of Leigh with the Warwickshire family, except the state- 
 ment above, but the similarity in the arms borne by the 
 two families makes it probable that they were related." 
 John Arderne was buried in the chancel of Leigh Church, 
 and had two wives, Margaret and Elizabeth, both of 
 whom died in his lifetime, and six children — Thomas, 
 John, Henry, Anna, Bregitta or Bridget, and Susanna. 
 On a small slab in the middle of the chancel of Leigh 
 Church is a brass, nine inches in length, of Susanna, 
 one of his daughters, Avith the following inscription : — 
 
 l^ic facet Susanna filia SoijTs 
 3rticrne arnug'i * ISltjnbrtlj iii'is 
 Sue. Cut' aie ppkictur licug. 3men. 
 
 And on a label over the head of the figure — 
 
 fHcrcg HjiT * tjraunt m'cg. 
 
 John Arderne was high sheriff of Surrey and Sussex 
 in 1432, 11th Henry VI. He made his Will on the 1st 
 February, 1446, in which he describes himself as 
 " armiger," and after bequeathing his soul to God, his 
 Saviour and Creator, to the blessed Mary His Mother, 
 to St. Michael the Archangel, and all the holy angels, 
 and to St. Kathcrine and all the holy virgins, desired, 
 if he should die in or near London, that he should be 
 
 1 No. .5680, Vol. Ill, p. 93. 
 
 - Sco Dnimmond's Koble Families, Vol. I, p. 8.
 
 " " iii^ifflnil(ir|]ii| 
 
 
 
 
 > t 
 
 ' -^^ 
 
 
 .1^ 
 
 LEIGH, SURREY. 
 
 Susanna Arderne, c. 1445. 
 
 /ace j'ivje i
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 buried in the church of tlie Blessed Virgin Mary of the 
 Carmelite Brothers, in London, or Westminster, or near 
 London, under the marble slab where his late Avife 
 Margaret lay buried, but, if he should die at Leygh or 
 near that parish, that he should be buried in the chancel 
 of the church of Leygh, under the marble slab where 
 his late wife Elizabeth lay buried. He bequeathed, for 
 the relief of the poor on the day of his burial, 20s., 
 and appointed as executors John Somerset, William 
 Fallan, John Elmerugge and Robert Thorp, and desired 
 that they should carry out his last wishes contained in 
 a schedule under his seal ; and fui-ther, that John 
 Arderne, his son and heir, and William Selman, should 
 counsel and assist his executors in carrying out his Will. 
 He appointed John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 supervisor, and gave all the residue of his goods, &c., 
 after payment of his legacies and debts, to his said son 
 and heir John Arderne and his daughter Bridget, to be 
 disposed according to the discretion of his executors 
 towards their marriages. The Will was proved at 
 Lambeth on the 12th May, 1449, by William Fallan, 
 John Elmerugge, and Robert Thorp. ^ John Arderne 
 appears to have died at Leigh; he was buried in the 
 chancel of Leigh Church. 
 
 On a slab on the northern side of the commmiion 
 table are two whole length brasses, measuring three feet 
 four inches in length, of John Arderne and Elizabeth 
 his wife, the male figure being habited as a merchant, 
 and the female wearing a horned headdress and a long 
 cloak, on which is a talbot dog. There are smaller 
 figures below them of their six children. The inscrip- 
 tion is as follows : — ■ 
 
 ©jomas, SDijncs * J^cnrtcus, filii Soijls 
 9tljctnt, armig'i, t lEUjabctlj ux'is sur. 
 
 atnna, ISirgitta * Susanna, filiE Snljls 
 ■SltBcrnc, armiij'i, * lEli^abctjj ui'is sur. 
 
 There is no date to the inscription. On a shield in 
 the corner of the stone above the woman's effigy, is the 
 
 Lambeth Library, Archbishop Stafford's Eegister, fol. 172.
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 coat of Arderne, arg.^ a fess cheqiiy or and az. between 
 three crescents gu., and on a shield below the same coat, 
 
 imjDaling 1st and 4th, 2nd and 3rd, paly 
 
 of six. 
 
 As two only of the children of John Arderne, John 
 and Bridget, are mentioned in his Will, it is probable 
 that the others died in his lifetime. John, his second son, 
 who became his heir, succeeded to his estate in Leigh. 
 
 In 14:53, Flauncheford in Reigate, with certain other 
 lands, was conveyed by feoffment to John Ardern, 
 of the county of Wai'wick, and Alice his wife, John 
 Gapiesford, Esquire, John Elmerugge, of Albury in 
 Merstham, and John Skynner, in trust for the said 
 John and Alice, for their lives, and the heirs of John 
 Arderne for ever. The letter of attorney for delivering 
 seisin was dated the 12th February, 32nd Henry VI, 
 1453-4, and on the 20th of the same month and on 
 the 18th October following, Thomas Hornyngescerthe 
 of London released all his right, &c. in the same lands 
 to the said John Arderne and Alice his wife. 
 
 The last-mentioned John Arderne is said to have 
 been seised of the manors of Pm-ching, Adberton, ^ La 
 Wick, Hangleton, Fulking, Nutknolle, Bolney, Alburne, 
 Woodmancoui't, and Hurst in Sussex, and probably was 
 the same person who had a grant fi'om the crown, iemp. 
 Henry VI, of the manor of Tooting Bee for ten years, 
 and who was lord of the manor of Imworth in Thames 
 Ditton.^ 
 
 John Arderne married Alice Grene, and had three 
 children by her, Richard, his heir, Walter, parson of the 
 Church of Cheyham (Cheam) in Surrey, and Elizabeth. 
 I cannot find the date of his death and cannot trace his 
 Will. He is said to have been esquire of the body to 
 King Henry VII, but this seems to be an error, as he 
 must have died before that king's accession. His widow, 
 
 ^ In 1327, a charter of free warren was granted to Robert de Arderne 
 as to his manor of EJbarton (Tower Records, 1 Edward III, No. 45), 
 of which, with Perching, he died seised in 1331. (Dngdale's War- 
 wichshire, p. 297.) 
 
 ^ Manning and Bray, Vol. I, p. 455*.
 
 
 ■m-y 
 
 LEIGH, SURREY. 
 
 John Arderne and wife Elizabeth. 
 
 c. 14SO. 
 
 face pa'ji- 8.
 
 ( 9 ) 
 
 Alice, afterwards married Jolm Holgrave, appointed 
 Baron of the Exchequer in 1484/ by whom she had 
 four children, Thomas, John, Kateryne, who married 
 .... Colyns, and Elizabeth. Holgrave died in 1487, 
 and his widow survived him a very short time." 
 
 Leigh Place descended to the eldest son of the second 
 John Arderne, Richard, who made his Will at Boseham, 
 near Chichester in Sussex, on the 18th November, 1499, 
 and there calls himself Richard Ardyn. After bequeath- 
 ing his soul to Almighty God and our Lady St. Mary, 
 and all the holy company of heaven, he directed his 
 body to be buried in the chancel before the image of St. 
 Kateryn in the parish church of "the Lee," and gave 
 to tlie same parish church 40s., and to the rood of 
 rest for a "cote" 13s. 4d. He also gave to his brother 
 Thomas Holgrave a gilt cup, and to his brother John 
 Holgrave his chain of gold, and appointed Johen his 
 wife his sole executrix, and gave to her all his goods and 
 chattels, moveable and unmoveable, wheresoever they 
 
 might be. He further willed that John of Lee,' 
 
 of Addynton, Richard Culpex of Ardyng Lee, and John 
 Chaloner, his feoffees, should suffer Johen, his wife, 
 peaceably to enjoy and occupy all his lands without im- 
 peachment of waste during her life, and that they should 
 see that his said wife found an honest priest, to pray for 
 him and all his friends aiid all christian souls, during her 
 life. After her death he gave all his lands unto John 
 Holgrave, his brother, and to his heii's wheresoever they 
 were, and dii'ected his feoffees to see that the said John 
 Holgrave and his heirs found an honest priest for ever- 
 more, and to give him £6 : 13s. 4d. by the year to pray 
 for him, for Johen his wife, his father and mother and 
 other friends, and all christian souls. He further gave 
 to Walter Dabernon his house at Craley (Crawley) for 
 
 1 Foss's Lives of the Judges, Vol. V, p. 54. 
 
 2 Wills of John Holgrave, dated 6th August, 1486, Prerogative 
 Register, Milks, fol. 4 ; of Alice Holgrave, dated 17th September, 
 1487, register Milles, fol. 4 ; and of Walter Arderne, parson of Chej-- 
 ham, dated 13th September, 1492, Dogett, fol. 9. 
 
 3 Blank in Will. 
 
 B
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 evermore, and to Ricliard Stylar, after the death of his 
 wife, all his houses and lands in the parish of Rowsper ; 
 the said Richard, his heirs and assigns, to make an obit 
 once a year to the value of 6s. 8d. for him and Johen 
 his wife and all christian souls, the said obit to be 
 continued for evermore. Richard Arderne died on the 
 22nd November, 1499, and his Will was proved in the 
 Prerogative Court of Canterbury on the 2nd February, 
 1499-1500.^ Thomas Grene, vicar of Boseham, was one 
 of the witnesses. 
 
 Richard Arderne was buried on the south side of the 
 chancel of Leigh Church, where are indents for a man 
 and woman (the brasses themselves having been lost for 
 many years), with supplicatory labels issuing from the 
 mouths of the figures with the following inscriptions: — 
 
 (Man) tit failJtntES ]il)iim Btmpcr colktcmur. 
 (Woman) Silt tctiEmptov niulii tcus misetfrE nobis. 
 
 Underneath is the following inscription: — 
 
 ©rate pro nnimabus Jiicartit 2[rtcrn ©nitilman ct Sofiannt uioria eius 
 qui qiiitinn laicartus obtit iiij° bic fHcnsis liaucmbria 9nno ©ni 
 fHilliiio ffl:CerC°Lciiiii°. (J^uoru animabua Prapicict' ticus. ^linen. 
 
 There are also four shields with the arms of Arderne as 
 above, and the same coat impaling [s«5fe,] a chevron 
 between three stags trippant [arf/ent]. There is also a 
 small brass on the top of the stone with a representation 
 of the Trinity; God the Father holding the Saviour on 
 the cross, on which the Dove is sitting. All these 
 brasses are engraved in Drummond's Nohle Families, and 
 are shown in the annexed plates. 
 
 There is no record of the foundation of the chantry 
 mentioned in Richard Arderne's Will, and it is un- 
 certain whether he intended it should be founded in 
 Leigh or some other church ; neither is there any record 
 of the death of Joan Ardern, nor the succession of 
 John Holgrave, his step-brother, to the estate. Not long 
 
 1 Prerogative Calendar, Moone, fol. 5.
 
 iiBimiirtiMtiiftliiu5 TMtisitifiu iSmnitnm m ohaiiw mm m 
 
 m\S[m sus. &'ixmifmiiw mmmwrnwa am aumi 
 
 LEIGH, SURREY. 
 
 Richard Ardern. 1499, and wife Joan. ^^,, p„g, jg.
 
 ( 11 ) 
 
 after Arderne's death, however, Leigh Place appears 
 to have been purchased or acquired in some way by 
 Edmund Dudley, the minister of King Henry VII. 
 There would appear to have been some connection 
 between the families of Arderne and Dudley, for in the 
 act 3rd Henry VIII, c. xix, for the restitution of John 
 Dudley, mentioned below, it was provided that the 
 act should not affect the title of Thomas Stydolphe to 
 the reversion of a messuage in Cheapside in London, 
 which Margaret, then the wife of John Theccher and 
 hite wife of Richard Arderne, of the parish of Lee, in 
 the county of Surrey, gentleman, then held for the term 
 of her life. It is possible that Margaret was the same 
 jjerson as Joan, widow of Richard Arderne, mentioned 
 above, and that a mistake was made in her christian 
 name in the act. There is a grant recorded, dated the 
 10th February, 1510-11, to Jolm Kirton, John Ernley, 
 the King's attorney, Richard Dudley, clerk, Sir Andrew 
 Wyndesore, Sir Stephen Jenyns, Richard Broke, 
 Richard Hesketh, and Henry Tyngelden, of certain 
 lands in Sussex, and of lands in Godstone, Lingfiekl, 
 Lagham (Leigh), and Home in Surrey, forfeited by 
 Edmund Dudley,^ who was executed on the 28th August 
 previously, and the grant was no doubt made in trust 
 for Dudley's family. On the 4th February, 1511-12, 
 there is a petition on the rolls of parliament for the 
 I'estitution of John, son of Edmund Dudley, ^ and the act 
 mentioned above was passed in the same year, reversing 
 the attainder of Edmund Dudley, and conditionally 
 reinstating John Dudley his son, then imder age (ho 
 was boi'n in 1502), and appointing Edward Guldeford, 
 esquire of the body to the king, his guardian during 
 his minority.' 
 
 John Dudley, who afterwards became Duke of Nortli- 
 umberland, is said to have lived at Leigh Place, and 
 there is a tradition that his daughter-in-law Lady Jane 
 Grey occasionally stayed at the house, but this cannot 
 
 1 Pat., 2iul Henry VIII, p. 2, m. 12. 
 
 2 Pail. R., 3rd Henry VIII, c. 19, p. 2, m. 31. 
 
 2 Exemplification in Pat., ith Henry VIII, p. 2, m. 36.
 
 ( 12 ) 
 
 be true, if her visits there were to Dudley, as she was 
 not born when he sold it. 
 
 Dudley sold the estate to Edward Shelley, of Fyndon, 
 in 1530, and conveyed it to him by deed of the 10th 
 September, 22nd Henry VIII. In this deed it is recited 
 that Sir John Dudley, by indenture of the 20th May, 
 19th Henry VIII, 1527, had conveyed to Edward 
 Shelley the manor of Fyndon, in Sussex, which had 
 belonged to Edmund Dudley,^ father of Sir John 
 Dudley, except only to the said Sir John Dudley 
 reserved all manner of bondmen to the said manor 
 regardant or belonging, and that Shelley had agreed 
 to resell the manor to Dudley. In consideration of 
 such sale, Dudley agreed to sell to Shelley " a mes- 
 suage called the Lye Place, with the ap^jurtenances 
 in the parish of Lye, in the county of Surrey, and the 
 lands called Flansford, lying in the parish of Rygate, 
 then in the occupation of John Howlet, with a water 
 mill, called Flansford Mill, in the said parish of Rygate; 
 and also another tenement and lands called Hartyswood, 
 in the parish of Buckland, then in the occupation of 
 James Clytfoi'd, all which lands were of the clear yearly 
 value of £14 sterling over and above all charges;" and 
 Dudley covenanted that he and Dame Jane his wife 
 should bar the dower of the said Dame Jane, and also 
 that he would grant a lease to Shelley, of Fyndon Farm 
 (which Henry Coke then held in farm), for 30 years 
 from Michaelmas day, 1530, at the rent of £13 : 6s. 8d., 
 and to pay to Shelley £100." This Edward Shelley 
 was the second son of John Shelley, of Michelgrove in 
 
 1 This manor was conveyed l)y deed dated 28th October, 12th 
 Henry VII, 1494, to Sir Richard Gnldoford, a relation of the Dudleys, 
 John Dudle_y having married Jane, danghter of Sir Edward Giildeford, 
 son of Sir Richard. {Ilistori/ of Castles, Sfc. of TVestern Sussex, by 
 Elwes and Robinson, p. 94.) From the act 3rd Henry VIII, mentioned 
 above, it wnnld appear that the manor of Fyndon had been vested in 
 Edmnnd Dudle}', for it is provided that it slionld not extend or be 
 prejudicial to the title of Sir Thomas Howard, Knight, to that manor, 
 which ha<l been granted by letters patent to Lord Howard. The manor 
 innst, liowever, have been afterwards acquired by John Dudley. 
 
 ^ Deed in possession of the present owners of the estate.
 
 ( 13 ) 
 
 Sussex, and ancestor of the poet Shelley, and of the 
 Lords de I'Isle of Penshurst. 
 
 Facsimiles of the signature and seal of Sir John 
 Dudley attached to the above deed are below : — 
 
 At the Epiphany Sessions for the County of Surrey in 
 1534, among the defaults and common nuisances of 
 bridges and causeways in the hundred of Reigate, the 
 bridge before Mr. Shellie's place at Lye is mentioned/ 
 
 It appears from an inquisition,^ on the death of Dame 
 Elizabeth Copley, taken at Southwark, on the 29th 
 April, 1560, before John Selwyn, Esquire, Escheator in 
 Surrey, that Edward Shelley, described of Fyndon, in 
 the county of Sussex, and Anne Cobbe, Widow, were 
 seized of one messuage, 200 acres of land, 40 acres of 
 meadow, 100 acres of pasture, and 20 acres of wood, with 
 the appurtenances in Ley and of 40' acres of pasture in 
 Becheworth, in the county of Surrey, and being so 
 seized by their charter, dated the 10th March, 31st 
 Henry VIII, 1539, gave and granted to Sir Roger 
 Copley and Elizabeth, his wife, the aforesaid messuage 
 and land, by the name of all that mansion, messuage 
 or farm with one dovecot, called "Le Ley,'' and one 
 other messuage and all free lands, tenements, meadows, 
 
 1 Harleian MS. 6166, fol. 108. 
 
 - IiKjiiisition post mortem, 2nd Elizabeth, part I, no. 145, and also 
 Inquisition post /nortem, 28tli Elizabeth, no. 85.
 
 ( 14 ) 
 
 feedings, woods, underwoods, commons, rents, services, 
 liberties, franchises, and other free tenements and heredi- 
 taments, and every of them, in Ley and Becheworth, and 
 all other their lands, &c. in the vills, fields and parishes 
 of Ley and Becheworth or elsewhere in the said comity 
 of Sm-rey, to hold the same to the aforesaid Roger and 
 Elizabeth, their heirs and assigns, to the use and behoof 
 of the said Roger and Elizabeth, their heirs and assigns 
 for ever. It was also found .on the said inquisition that 
 the above-mentioned messuage and premises in Ley were 
 held of Francis Carowe, Esquire, of his manor of Bansted, 
 in the same county, in free socage, by fealty and the 
 yearly rent of 1 1 shillings for all services.' 
 
 Sir Roger Copley was the eldest son of Roger Copley, 
 of Roughway in Sussex, by Jane, daughter and co- 
 heiress of Thomas Lord Hoo and Hastings.^ He was 
 married first to Jane, daughter of Henry Lode, of 
 Kingsley, Hants ; and secondly, in Leigh Church, ^ to 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Shelley, who was 
 the eldest brother of Edward Shelley before mentioned, 
 and became Recorder of London in 1520, Sergeant-at- 
 Law in 1521, and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas 
 in 1527. Sir William Shelley was sent to Cardinal 
 Wolsey, at Esher, to obtain a surrender of York House 
 from him to King Henry VHI. Wolsey demurred, 
 saying that he had no power to alienate the possessions 
 of the church, and that " the judges should put no more 
 in the king's head than that law which might stand with 
 
 ^ Part of the land in the parish of Leigh is held of the manor of 
 Bansted. 
 
 2 Lord Hoo married first, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir 
 Thomas Felton, Knight ; secondly, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of 
 Sir Nicholas Wichlingham, Knight, by whom he h.-id an only daughter, 
 Anne, married to Sir Geoffrey Bullen, Knight, from whom Queen 
 Elizabeth was descended ; and thirdly, Alianore, daughter of Leo, 
 Lord Welles, and sister and heiress of Richard, Lord Welles, by whom 
 he had issue — Jane, married to Sir Roger Copley ; Alianore, married to 
 .Sir James Carew, Knight, of Beddington, co. Surrey; and Elizabeth. 
 (Burke's Extinct Peerage.) 
 
 ' So it is stated in a MS. in possession of the writer, but the 
 marriage does not appear in the parish register.
 
 ( 15 ) 
 
 conscience." Shelley replied that, having regard to the 
 king's great power, it might better stand with con- 
 science, as he might recompense the church of York 
 with double the value. ' Shortly after, Shelley obtained 
 a grant from the king of the manor of Gratton, in 
 Surrey, which he is said to have settled on his daughter 
 Elizabeth.' He died in 1548, and his arms with the 
 sword of justice were formerly in Leigh Church.' 
 
 The family of Copley appear to have been connected 
 with this part of Surrey, for the prior and convent of 
 Lewes presented the Rev. Edward Copley to the rectory 
 of Merstham in 1488,' and Catherine of Arragon 
 presented the Rev. Robert Copley to the rectory of 
 AValton-on-the-HilV of which he was deprived in 1561. 
 Roger Copley was High Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in 
 6th Henry VHI, 1514, and again as Sir Roger Copley in 
 21st Henry VIII, 1529. « 
 
 Some members of the family were members of the 
 Mercers' Company of London. Sir Roger Copley was 
 admitted to the freedom of the Company in 1456, having 
 been apprenticed to Richard Claver, and was warden of 
 the Company in 1471. His second son, Richard, appears 
 to have been adaiitted by patrimony in 1498, and his 
 eldest son, Sir Roger Copley, was admitted also by patri- 
 mony in 1541. Sir Thomas Copley, son of Sir Roger, 
 was admitted also by patrimony in 1562. 
 
 Lady Copley survived her husband, having had by him 
 an only son, Thomas, who was born in 1534, and three 
 daughters — Bridget (a very learned lady, said to have 
 been Latin instructress to Queen Elizabeth), who 
 married Richard Southwell, of St. Faith's, in Norfolk, 
 and was the mother of Robert Southwell, the Jesuit ; 
 Kateryne, who married Sir Robert Lane, of Horton, in 
 Northamptonshire ; and Margaret, who married in May, 
 
 1 Cavendish's Life of IJ'olset/, p. 187. 
 
 2 Manning and Bray, Vol. II, p. 2ai. 
 ' MS. in the possession of the writer. 
 * Manning and Bray, Vol. II, p. 239. 
 
 5 Horn, 4b. Manning and Bray, Vol. II, p. 648. 
 
 6 Manning and Bray, Vol. I, p. xxxvii.
 
 ( 16 ) 
 
 1559, as his second wife, John Gage, of Firle, in 
 Sussex,^ eldest son of Sir Edward Gage, K.B. 
 
 Dame Elizabeth Cojiley and her son, soon after the 
 latter attained his majority, granted the Leigli Place 
 estate to William Henshawe, of Gatton, gentleman, and 
 Agnes Hyder, of Sompting in Sussex, widow,' and they, 
 by deed of the 9th of February, 1556-7, regranted the 
 same to Dame Elizabeth Copley, widow, and Thomas 
 Cojjley, her son and heir apparent, by the description of 
 the capital mansion or messuage called "the Lye," and 
 one dovehouse and lands in the parishes and fields of 
 Lye and Betchworth, which were formerly in the tenure 
 of Thomas Colbrande and then in lease to Alexander 
 Hewse for 21 years, at the rent of £50 per annum.' 
 
 Dame Elizabeth Copley made her Will on the lith 
 December, 1558, 1st Elizabeth, and directed that her 
 body should be buried with that of her husband in the 
 church of St. Oliff's, Southwark. She gave and be- 
 queathed to her daughter Margaret all her yearly rents, 
 issuing out of her lands and tenements, as well copyhold 
 as freehold, in the parish of Lie in the county of Surrey, 
 to her own use yearly until she should be married, but, 
 if her said daughter could not have the said yearly rents, 
 then she gave and bequeathed to her all her yearly rents 
 issuing out of her manor at Bedham, in thecounty of Sussex, 
 and out of the farm and tenements in Merstham, which 
 she had lately purchased of her cousin Leonard Dunnett, 
 to have and receive the same to her own use until she 
 should be married. She gave and bequesthed to her son 
 Thomas Copley the manor of Eyefield in Norfolk, the 
 said manor of Bedham, and all her manors, lands, &c. in 
 Bedyngton, Bandon, Gatton, Merstham, and Lie in 
 Sui'rey, and all other her lands, &c. within the realm of 
 England, which she had purchased, either jointly with 
 
 ^ There is a brass in Firle Church to the memory of John Gage anil 
 his two wives, and on the wall, above the figure of his second wife, 
 Margaret Copley, are the arms of Gage impaling argent, a cross moline, 
 sable, for Copley. (Gage's Aniiguities of Hcngrave, p. 237.) 
 
 2 Deed in the possession of the owners of the estate. 
 
 3 Ibid.
 
 ( 17 ) 
 
 her late husband, to their heirs, or else solely to herself 
 and lier heirs, to hold the same for five years, if her Will 
 sliould not be performed before the said five years had 
 expired ; and, after the expiration of such five years, 
 she willed that all the same manors, &c. should wholly 
 remain and be to her said son Thomas Copley and his 
 heirs male, with remainder in default of such heirs, to 
 the heirs male of her daughters Dame Kateryne Lane 
 and Brido-et Southwell, with remainder over to the heirs 
 female of her said son and three daughters Kateryne, 
 Bridget, and Margaret, in equal shares, with an ultimate 
 remainder to her nephew Henry Shelley, eldest son 
 of her brother, Thomas Shelley, and his heirs for 
 ever. She appointed Thomas Copley, her son, her 
 sole executor, and her son-in-law. Sir Robert Lane, her 
 cousin Thomas Wutton and her brother Thomas Shelley 
 her overseers, and directed her executor to give to each 
 of her overseers a ring of the value of 26s. 8d., with 
 a death's head and this word in it, "Remember thy 
 frende." 
 
 Lady Copley made a codicil to her Will on the 16th of 
 July, 1559, in which she stated that she had lived to 
 see her daughter Margaret married^ and bestowed to 
 her comfort, and revoked all the bequests in her Will in 
 favour of her said daughter, saving that which touched 
 the entail of her lands to her and her heirs for fault of 
 issue male of her son Thomas Copley, so that her said 
 son paid 1,000 marks, which she stood bound to pay to 
 Sir Edward Gage for the marriage of her daughter, 
 should the same or any part be unpaid at her death. In 
 the codicil she gave to her daughter Kateryne Lane 
 a chain of g»jld, to her daughter Bridget Southwell, 
 £13 : 6s. 8d. for a token of remembrance, and to her 
 daughter Marie Shelley," a satin gown furred. She died 
 on the 25th December, 1559, and her Will and codicil 
 were proved on the 9th January following.^ Thomas 
 
 ' She married, as stated above, John Gage, of Firle. 
 2 Daughter of Sir Koger Copley hy his first wife, Jane Lode, and 
 wife of Thomas Shelley, of Maplednrham, Oxfordshire. 
 Prerogative Register, Mellershe, 5. 
 
 C
 
 ( 18 ) 
 
 Copley her eldest son was 25 years old and more at the 
 time of his mother's death.' 
 
 Thomas Copley was seized of several manors in 
 Surrey as well as in other comities. In the early part 
 of the reign of Queen Elizabeth he purchased from Sir 
 John Whitt, Alderman of London, the manor of Colley 
 in Reigate, with London Lands and Lai'ke Lands in the 
 same parish.' On the 26th May, 10th Elizabeth, 1568, 
 licence was granted to Francis Soutliwell to alien to 
 Thomas Copley, after the death of Margaret, wife of 
 William Plumbe, who held it for her life, the reversion 
 of the manor of Merstham and 40 messuages, 2 water- 
 mills, 2 windmills, 2 dovehouses, 40 gardens, 40 orchards, 
 500 acres of land, 200 acres of jjasture, 120 acres of 
 wood, 300 acres of furze and heath, and £16 rent in 
 Merstham, Gatton, Chipsted, Cowlesdon, Chawldon, 
 Blechingley, Nutfield, Horley, Charlewood, and Reigate, 
 and the conveyance was accordingly made by bargain 
 and sale dated the 28th December, 10th Elizabeth, and 
 enrolled in Chancery.^ The manor of Merstham and 
 16 acres of land in Merstham, of the yearly value of 
 £33, was held of the Queen, in capite, by payment of 
 the twentieth part of a knight's fee. Copley also had 
 half the manor of Stone Court in Kersalton, and the 
 manor of the Maze in Southwark, which descended 
 to him from his parents.^ 
 
 He was M.P. for Gatton in the following Parliaments: 
 1st Mary, 1st and 2nd Philip and Mary, 4th and 5th 
 Philip and Mary, and 1st and 5th Elizabeth. He 
 appears to have been a protestant in the time of Queen 
 Mary, and was committed to the custody of the Sergeant- 
 at-Arms for having spoken " unreverent words'' in the 
 House of Commons concerning the bill for confirmation 
 of patents, saying that he feared the Queen might 
 thereby give away the Crowni from the right inheritor. 
 
 ^ Inq. p. m., 2 Elizabeth. 
 ^ Manning and Bray, Vol. I, p. 312. 
 
 s Patent, 10th Eliz", p. 6; Manning and Bray, Vol. II, p. 256. 
 * Inq. p. m., 26th May, 28th Eliz. 1584 ; Manning and Bray, Vol. II, 
 p. 256.
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 Copley desired the house to consider his youth and that 
 if he had been guilty of an ofPence, it might be imputed 
 to his young years. ^ 
 
 He married in July, 1558, Catherine, eldest daughter 
 and coheiress of Sir John Luttrell, of Dunster Castle in 
 Somersetshire, "who was handsome,'' having it is said 
 before that turned his attention to the daughter of 
 Lord William Howard, afterwards Lord Howard of 
 Effingham. There is a curious letter among the Losely 
 MSSrfrom Thomas Copley to Sir Thomas Carwarden, 
 dated from Gatton on the 18th July, 1558, asking him 
 secretly to lend him the use of one of his masks for one 
 night, against his marriage, which (in an ill hour for 
 him) was like to bo solemmised on the next Sunday at 
 Nonsuch. He also asked Sir Thomas Carwarden and 
 his wife to the wedding and hoped that no harm would 
 come of it.- The mask to be borrowed probably 
 included the garments and properties necessary for 
 representing it, and perhaps also the manuscript of the 
 performance. 
 
 Copley soon after his marriage went abroad, and was 
 in France when Queen Mary died, but ho returned to 
 England almost immediately after the accession of 
 Queen Elizabeth, the commissioners who had been sent 
 to France to treat for the recovery of Calais having 
 despatched him to England with letters of congratula- 
 tion to the new Queen.' 
 
 Thomas Copley, after the accession of Elizabeth, 
 appears to have reverted to the old religion,'' and was 
 in trouble for refusing to subscribe to the Act of Parlia- 
 ment of the 1st Elizabeth, c. 1, for restoring to the crown 
 the ancient jurisdiction over the state ecclesiastical and 
 
 1 Journals of the House of Commous, Vol. I, p. 50. 
 
 2 Kempe's Losely MSS., p. 59. 
 
 3 Stevenson State papers, Elizabeth, Foreign Series, 1558, no. 23. 
 
 * According to Fatlier Parsons, in the relation of a trial between 
 the Bishop of Evreax and the Sieur Plessis Mornay, the falsehoods he 
 found in Jewel's Apology, in 1562, led to his conversion to the Church 
 of Rome. {Dictionary of National Biography.)
 
 ( 20 ) 
 
 spiritual, and abolishing all foreign powers repugnant to 
 the same. 
 
 A curious letter is extant among the Losely MSS. 
 from him to the Sheriff and Justices of Surrey, excusing 
 himself from complying with the statute, and stating 
 reasons why he should be relieved from the obligation. 
 The letter is dated the 23rd November, 1569, and is 
 copied below. 
 
 " Thomas Copley to the Sheriff and Justices of Surrey. 
 
 " After my right hearty commeudations unto you all. For that the 
 true knowledge how God should be served and the true order of the 
 administration of the sacraments was known, practised and established 
 in the Church of God, long before the Act of Parliament was made, 
 whereunto I should now subscribe, and that the referring, as it were, 
 of the original and true setting forth thereof to the said act so lately 
 made should seem a great derogation to the christain faith and a great 
 slander and discredit to the Church of God, that the same should be so 
 many ages after ignorant, how God should be served, or a false teacher 
 of his people, which cannot be, since the Apostle saith that the same 
 is Columna et firmamenUim veritatis, and because, without a faithless 
 mistrust in God, it may not, in my opinion, in word or thought he 
 doubted, that God, who being truth itself, and promising that he 
 would be with his church, not after 1,500 years onlv, but omnibus 
 diebus usque ad consumacionem seculi, by all days to the world's end, 
 and to instruct the same into all truth, which words admit no inter- 
 mission, would, contrary to His divine promise, suffer such long and 
 general error and blindness in His Church, as is by some imagined. 
 For these and divers other great causes (too many in a letter to be 
 rehearsed unto you), I cannot yet, by any search, find suthcieut matter 
 to persuade me with safe conscience to that which is at this present 
 required of me ; amongst others, I see the great danger of displeasure, 
 restraint and much hindrance and trouble, that is likely hereby to 
 grow unto me, without the great mercy and favour of my Lords of the 
 Privy Council. 
 
 " Neither am I so senseless or stony, but that I feel grief thereof, 
 and gladly would avoid the same and do with all my heart as others 
 do, being I know much wiser than myself, if I could do it without fear 
 of danger and by offence of God and my conscience, not being 
 persuaded in this point as some others perhaps be. Wherefore I most 
 instantly require you all, if it may be, to grant me longer respite for 
 the informing of my conscience in this case. If you cannot so do, 
 then for my excuse of my not subscribing at this present, to send up 
 even this my letter to my Lords and others of the Privy Council, 
 whose honours I trust will, of their great mercy and goodness, have 
 favourable consideration of this my doing, not proceeding, I protest 
 before God, of any obstinacy, but only of mere fear to offend my
 
 ( 21 ) 
 
 conscience. And farther that I might find so much favour and friend- 
 ship at your hands, tliat you would be contented for neighbourhood to 
 afford herewithall to my said Lords a few favourable lines from 
 yourselves in the favour of me, your poor neighbour and loving friend, 
 which 1 doubt not should procure me more grace at their Lordsliips 
 hands in this behalf than any mine own private suit can do. In which 
 your friendly doing, as by your charitable compassion therein appearing 
 of j'our neighbour's affliction, you should singularly please God and 
 avoid from yourselves and others the danger which the Apostle 
 admonislieth you of in these words, " Peritur injirmus in tua con- 
 scictitia, frater, propter quern Christus mortttus est ; Sic autem 
 pcccatis ill fratres et percittietis conscieritiam eorum infirmorum in 
 Cliristum, which sinning against Christ were, as ye see, dangerous to 
 such as should urge men to the offence of my conscience in this case, 
 so shall I herein have cause to acknowledge myself much beholden to 
 you all in general, and especially to such of you in particular as I shall 
 understand to be furtherers of this my reasonable suit, as knoweth the 
 Almighty, of whom I heartily wish unto you all the love, fear and trne 
 knowledge, with prosperous success, in all your worldly affairs to his 
 honor, XXIII of November, 1569. 
 
 " Your loving neighbour and assured poor friend, 
 
 "Tho. Coppley. 
 " To Sir Henry Weston Knight, 
 high Sheriff of the County 
 of Surrey, and to the 
 Justices of the Peace of the 
 said Shire assembled at 
 Dorking, and to every of 
 them." ' 
 
 Thomas Copley claimed to be related to Queen 
 Elizabeth through his great grandfather, Thomas, Lord 
 Hoo and Hastings, whose eldest daughter Anne married 
 Sir Geoffrey Boleyn, the great grandfather of Queen 
 Elizabeth, and sometimes claimed and assumed the titles 
 of Lord Hoo, Hastings, and Welles, from his maternal 
 ancestors.^ He was related to Lady Burleigh and Lady 
 Walsingham, and, but for his troublesome conscience, 
 might have risen to eminence in the service of the 
 Queen. She is said to have been godmother in 1560 to 
 his eldest son, to whom she gave the name of her 
 father, Henry. 
 
 Thomas Copley, after suffering some years' imprison- 
 
 1 Kempe's Loselif MSS., p 243. 
 
 ^ Dictionary of National Biography.
 
 ( 22 ) 
 
 ment as a popish recusant, with other persons disaffected 
 to the EngUsh Government and the reformed reUgion, 
 retired to Louvain in the Spanish Netherlands about 
 the year 1570.^ Camden styles him " E primariis inter 
 profugos Anglos." In 1574, Burleigh inscribes in his 
 list the name of Copley, as having a pension from the 
 King of Spain of 60 ducats a month.^ He is mentioned 
 incidentally in the instructions given by Don Lewis 
 Zuniga de Requescens, Spanish Governor of the Nether- 
 lands, in a commission to Boischot, who was sent into 
 England in 1575 to levy, with the Queen's leave, ships 
 and sailors to fight against the Hollanders and Zea- 
 landers. Boischot failed in his purpose and then made 
 suit, that the Queen would not be offended, if the 
 English exiles in the Netherlands served under the 
 Spaniards in sea-fight against the Hollanders. The 
 Queen in no wise consented, but hoped that Requescens 
 would not favour those rebels, and notably Thomas 
 Copley, for it appeared that the Spaniards purposed to 
 send him forth to make prizes.' 
 
 In the year 1574, it was announced in England that 
 the King of Spain ^ had made Copley Baron of Gatton 
 and Raughey, and Master of the Maze. Amongst the 
 Loseley manuscrij^ts is a copy of letters patent dated 
 the 30t]i June, 1575, dra-«m by A. Van Home, notary 
 public, and signed at Antwerp, whereby Thomas Copley, 
 a noble Englishman, Lord of Maze, Gatton, Merscham, 
 Colleye, Rowgheye, Warnham, &c., appointed John 
 Blinkesope, of London, gentleman, one of his substitutes 
 and deputies, to act against a fleet of pirates on the 
 authority of letters of marque granted to the same 
 Thomas Copley by Don Lewis de Requescens, which 
 letters of marque, recited in the j^atent, set forth the 
 
 1 In Manning and Bray's Surrey, Vol. Ill, p. cxiiii, quoting from 
 the court-rolls of the manor of Sheilwood, in Leigh, it is stated that 
 Copley fled the country, and a commission was issued to inquire what 
 land he hold. 
 
 ^ Strype's Atinals of the Refortnation, Vol. II, p. 333. 
 
 ^ Camilen's Annals of Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 * This must have been a mistake.
 
 ( 23 ) 
 
 injuries done by a fleet of pirates, infesting the shores 
 of the Low Countries, to the shipping of Spanish, 
 French and English adventurers, and also set forth the 
 terms and conditions on which the said Thomas Copley 
 was invested with authority to act as a belligerent 
 against the depredators, and to depute others to act 
 under him as belligerents. The letters of marque 
 reserved to his Catholic Majesty a tenth part of tlie 
 prizes made under that authority, and in the patent it 
 is stipulated that one-fifth part of the prizes made by 
 John Blinkesope, should be paid to Thomas Brook, of 
 Gatton, Gentleman, lately dwelling with the magnificent' 
 Humphrey AVhitc, of Watling Street, London, Citizen 
 and merchant taylor." 
 
 Copley appears to have offended the English Govern- 
 ment by taking upon himself titles to which he had no 
 right and for issuing letters of marque against the 
 subjects of the Queen, and, on the loth November, 1575, 
 he wrote the following characteristic letter to Elizabeth. 
 It has been damaged by fire and is partly illegible, 
 
 "Most Gracious Queen and jiy most dear Sovereign. 
 
 " That my luimble duty iu most lowly and obedient sort to your 
 sacred Majesty may it please the same to be advertised, that I have 
 of late to my great grief understood by Mons"" de Boscot, duly arrived 
 iu this Court, that your Majesty is somewhat offended with me for 
 having sought to draw from thence some of your Majesty's subjects, 
 
 viz* mariners and seamen to the service of the King against 
 
 his rebels without your Majesty's knowledge and for attributing to 
 myself greater titles than your Majesty thought I could avow, being a 
 simple gentleman and of mean estate. This point I have thought it my 
 duty forthwith to send in defence of my poor credit, loyalty and 
 reputation, which 1 respect more than my life, and for the satisfying 
 of your Majesty, which I perceive to have been uninformed of nij 
 doings. 
 
 " To the first, 1 saw. Most Gracious Sovereign, so many apparent 
 arguments and had daily so many credible reports of your Majesty's 
 most faithful loving and sincere amitie towards the King Catholiqne 
 and so much better liking your Majesty shewed to have of those your 
 
 1 Probably magnifico. 
 
 2 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Vllth Eeport, Appendix, 
 p. 628a. Mrs. Copley is stated to have lodged in 1569-70 with Mr. 
 White, Merchant Taylor, in Bow Lane, one of her tenants.
 
 ( 2i ) 
 
 subjects, which serve that good King than of those that employeJ 
 themselves against him, that I was encouraged (having commission to 
 
 that end granted unto me) to such mj' countrymen as would 
 
 either for good will to the King desire to experience or give to 
 themselves, or the willingness to recover or revenge their losses and 
 
 wrong done to them by the , when upon knowledge of that 
 
 my advanced themselves to the service of his Majesty 
 
 against those his rebels, whei'eiu that I had such dutiful report of your 
 Majesty, (my most dear Sovereign,) and of my country. As sure as 
 
 I there is no one letter of marque passed my hand, that 
 
 hath not an especial clause in it forbidding, upon pain of grievous 
 punishment, any attempt to be made by color thereof against your 
 Majesty or any whatsoever of your Majesty's subjects, and every my 
 substitute was not only sworn thereto in my presence, but also bound 
 to me in a bond of £1,000, truly to keep and observe that and all 
 other the covenants comprised in his patent, and, if I or any of them 
 have done contrary to your spoil or cost, or hurt of any of your 
 Majesty's subjects, I crave no pardon or favor in that case either for 
 myself or any of them. 
 
 " Of this commission your Majesty was advertised by express letters 
 from my Lord the Commendador Major of Castilla, Governor of this 
 Estate, and your Highness' favor required to this service and 
 willingness granted for aught that ever I heard or saw cause to suspect 
 to the contrary. My servant also and friends, to whom at the earnest 
 request of the Admiral here, I wrote to see if they could help us with 
 some watermen for the vacation time to serve the King here, (who 
 wanted then skilful rowers for the 20 new galleys that were builded 
 here this summer,) dealt so openly with your common whirrey men 
 
 yet your Majesty shall, I trust, not find any probable 
 
 argument to think that I had any intention to do what I did with- 
 out your Majesty's knowledge, or to any undutiful end and so I most 
 liumbl}' beseech your Majesty to conceive. 
 
 " As to the other point, where your Majest}' shewed to be informed, 
 that I had attributed to myself in those letters of marque greater titles 
 than became me or than I could well avow, that must needs be either 
 in tliat I termed myself nobilis Anfflus, or in that, for more credit 
 both to myself and your service, I was bold to set down Dominiis de 
 Gattoii Houghey etc. naming certain my Lordships. To the tirst I 
 lieseech your Majesty to consider, that there is no other Latin word proper 
 to signify a gentleman born, but nobilis. As for gcnerosus, as 1 have 
 read in good writers Vinum ge?ierosum, for a good cup of wine and 
 equus generosus for a courageous horse, so I never heard generosus 
 alone so used, to signify a gentleman born, but only in the gross Latin 
 current in Westminster Hall, and, if I had set down generosus Angliis, 
 it would have then construed rather a gentle Englishman than an 
 English gentleman. And as for armiger, it had been yet more bar- 
 barous, for surely the world here abroad would rather have understood 
 by that strange term a page or a sword-bearer than a gentleman of the 
 better sort, as custom has made it to be construed in England ; that 
 this is simply true, I doubt not, but that your Majesty, excelling in
 
 ( 25 ) 
 
 your knowledge of good letters, will easily judge a gracious sentence 
 
 on inv suit, so that in setting down the term nobilis 
 
 used "through the world for a gentleman, I had no intention to make 
 mvself more noble than I am, but to take only that which was due 
 unto me. 
 
 '• The names of some my Lordships grew of usage here, where in 
 such public instruments a gentleman will not lightly leave out the 
 name of any his seignories, because he that cannot truly mention in his 
 style the name of some seignory, whereof he is Lord, is reputed either 
 an obscure person or a very simple hidalgo. Wherefore if concerning 
 which the better sort of the Spanish nation were envious in resenting 
 those points of honor, I was bound to name some of the Lordships 
 that belong unto me according to custom here in those cases. 
 
 " I trust your Majesty will not take it in evil part to graciously allow 
 me that offence to serve myself with the names of my lands at the 
 least when occasion so requireth. 
 
 " Other titles than these I am sure cannot be found in any letters of 
 marque given out by me against the King's rebels, whereunto any 
 exception can justly be taken. 
 
 " And where it was further stated I found one that looked to fish in 
 trouliled water, (which words grieved me very much,) I beseech your 
 Majesty to consider it is hard to find any water in all Christendom at 
 this day not troubled with the turbulent practices of factions and 
 unquiet heads about private quarrels cloaked with public pretences. 
 No Madam to fish in troubled water I am thrown there- 
 into by necessity and not by my own will. It would be much more 
 agreeable to me to fish in the calmer streams and sweet water of my 
 own goods in my dear country, and that may be, when it shall like the 
 Almighty to work in your Majesty's heart some compassion of me and 
 toleration of my case. 
 
 " In the meantime, being prostrate in heart at the feet of your 
 sacred Majesty, I most humbly beseech your favor, even for the love 
 and honor of God, to redeem me in your Majesty's favor and if in this 
 service aught by me done, aggravated by my enemies, shall be made to 
 seem offensive graciously to pardon it ; I will faithfully promise your 
 Majesty thereupon I will seek all the means I can, (so soon as I shall 
 possibly be able to live elsewhere,) to withdraw myself with license 
 and favor of the King's Majesty to some such other Estate or place 
 farther off, where no occasion shall be in likelihood to offer of sei^vice, 
 that may be anywise offensive to your Majesty, whose heart and 
 counsels I most humbly beseech our Lord so to direct, as may be to his 
 honor and to the long preservation of your Royal person and estate in 
 perfect felicity. 
 
 "From Antwerp this 18th Nov' 1575. 
 
 " Your Majesty's most 
 " To the sacred Royal humble and obedient 
 
 Majesty of the Queen servant and subject 
 
 My Sovereign." i Thomas CorrLET. 
 
 1 Cottonian MSS., Galba, c. v. 211. 
 D
 
 ( 26 ) 
 
 It is said that about this time Thomas Copley and his 
 eldest son Henry were knighted by King Henry IH of 
 France, but from the letter of Thomas Copley of the 
 5th of September, 1577, referred to below, it would 
 seem that he did not receive that honour until two years 
 later. Henry Copley was, however, probably knighted 
 before his death at Paris, of pleurisy, in 1576. But 
 if Thomas Copley had been knighted before the date of 
 his "Will (the 25th September, 1576), he would probably 
 have described himself in it as Sir Thomas Copley, and 
 not Thomas Copley, Esquire. 
 
 Thomas Copley made his Will at Lierre, in the Duchy 
 of Brabant, on the 25th September, 1576, in which he 
 described himself as Thomas Coppley, of Gatton, 
 Esquire, and desired to be buried in the parish where 
 lie should die, or in some religious house, with as little 
 pomp as might be, only some remembrance of him in 
 Latin to be graven on the stone that should cover him, 
 as should be devised by his friend Dr. Stapleton, whom 
 he required to afford him that last office of friendship. 
 He gave all his goods and chattels in England and " on 
 this side the seas," not otherwise disposed of, to his 
 wife Katheryne Coppley, and appointed her during 
 widowhood, and after her remarriage his brothers,^ John 
 Gage, of West Firle, Sussex, and Richard Southwell, 
 executors. He desired that his eldest son Henry being 
 dead, his son William should remain abroad until he 
 was 21, and that his education should be in the discre- 
 tion of his wife, who was to follow the advice of his 
 uncle, the Lord Prior of England, and of liis friend 
 Dr. Stapleton, the rest of his children to be in the 
 governance of his wife, until she married, and then of 
 his brothers Gage and Southwell. He gave to each of 
 liis daughters, Margaret, Helen and Marie, 500 marks 
 on their attaining 25 or marriage, if they should marry 
 with the consent of his wife and of his sisters Southwell, 
 White and Shelley. He gave and bequeathed to his 
 trusty servant Thomas Brooke a lease of the farm of 
 
 ^ Brothers-in-law.
 
 ( 27 ) 
 
 Lee, both of the freehold and the copyhokl, so far as he 
 could by law without forfeiture of the said copyhold ; 
 Brooke to obtain the consent of the lord of the manor, 
 whereof the copyhold was holden, and to pay yearly 
 for it £30 and the discharge of the lord's rent for tlie 
 copyhold, the lease to continue during Brooke's life. 
 But if the farm should haj^pen to be in lease at his 
 deatli, then that Brooke should have an annuity of 
 30 marks, to be taken out of the rent reserved by such 
 lease. Copley left his books, both in England and else- 
 Avhere, except those prohibited by the last general 
 council of Trent, which were to be burnt, to his son 
 William, whom, so far as he might dispose, he gave and 
 dedicated to the service of God in the church, and 
 trusted that God would so inspire him with his grace, 
 that he should rather choose the reverend and honour- 
 able order of the priesthood, than to follow tlic lay and 
 secular life. To his most loving sister Southwell and 
 to every of his wife's sisters he left a gold ring, to 
 wear in memory of him, that should weigh in gold 20s. 
 sterling, besides the fashion which he willed to be a 
 death's head, Avith the words " Mors milii mcrces," and 
 on the inside, to be graven and enamelled his black 
 cross with a T on one side of it and a G on the other ;^ 
 and to every of their husbands and to liis cousin George 
 Gotten a cross of gold weighing 40s. sterling, besides 
 the fashion, whereon he would have enamelled on the 
 right side a red cross, and on the back side a black 
 cross which was in his arms, and graven about it these 
 words, "In hoc signo vici"; and to his son William, 
 Avith the best of his apparel, his great ring with his seal 
 of arms and his seal of silver. 
 
 Touching his lands in the realm of England, he left 
 to the heirs of his body all his manors and lands, &c. 
 whereof he was seized in tail general or special, to the 
 intent that of the same the Queen's Majesty might 
 have and take the full third part thereof, for ward- 
 ship, livery, or primer seisin, according to the laws and 
 
 1 Alludiii"- to the cross nioline sable in liis coat of arms.
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
 customs of the realm, if it should evidently appear that 
 lie held any land in capite^ which to his knowledge he 
 did not, as he was moved to think, because he himself 
 being within full age at the death of his father was 
 not in ward. And he directed that the said Kateryne 
 Copley, his wife, might have such part and portion of 
 the said lands, tenements and hereditaments, whereof 
 he was seised in tail, amounting over and above the 
 said full third part as should ajjpertain to her in 
 respect of her jointure or dowry; and as a further 
 augmentation or increase to her, he bequeathed his 
 manors of Merstham and Colley, London lands, Lee, 
 Cassalton, Beddington and Bandon, in the county of 
 Surrey, his manor of Goldwall alias Hevenden, in the 
 parishes of Byddenden and Tenterden, in the county 
 of Kent, with all their appurtenances, to his wife for her 
 natural life ; and if she should marry again, she was to 
 have the jointure then already assigned to her, or her 
 dower of the third jjart of all his lands, if she liked 
 to stand to her dower and waive the jointure at her 
 election. And subject to his wife's interest therein he 
 directed that his said manors, &c. should be levied and 
 taken up from time to time by his said brothers,^ Gage 
 and Southwell, whom he requested to be his executors, 
 until such time as his debts and legacies should be 
 fully paid and satisfied. And he directed that, if his 
 daughters should attain 25 and should not marry, his 
 manor of Goldwell, London lands in Reigate, his lands 
 in Beddington and Bandon, and Kingsland in Reigate in 
 the occupation of Henry Marden, should be sold by the 
 discretion of his wife, if unmarried, and, if married, then 
 by liis brothers Gage and Southwell, and the money 
 thereof coming employed in the performance of his Will. 
 He stated that his sister Gage ^ had adopted his daughter 
 Margaret, and directed that, if she should be sufficiently 
 provided for b}^ her or Sir John Gage, the 500 marks 
 bequeathed to her should go to her other sisters, and 
 
 ' Brothers-iu-law. 
 
 ^ Lady Gage had no cHldren.
 
 ( 29 ) 
 
 directed that the legacies to daughters dying sliould be 
 divided between his wife and his next heir. He further 
 declared that he made his Will upon urgent occasion and 
 without proper deliberation, but, that if any question 
 arose upon it, the same should be settled by his brothers 
 Gage and Southwell. He also gave to his sister, Mrs. 
 Southwell, a ring which Cardinal Hosius sent him with 
 the alcos hufTe^ closed in it and the portegue which 
 Dr. Harding gave him when he died. And he gave to 
 his trusty servant, Thomas Brooke, one such cross of 
 gold as he had before appointed and given to the three 
 husbands of his sisters and to his wife's sisters, and 
 £50 to him in money, to be lent him for two years to 
 help stock such farms as he should leave him. He 
 appointed Kateryne his wife executrix, so long as she 
 should remain unmarried, and if she married, he 
 appointed his brothers John Gage and Richard South- 
 well his executors, and ordained his friend Mr. Hopkins 
 to be overseer of his Will.^ 
 
 In 1576, as stated above, Cojjley was at Llerre, and 
 probably in the next year he removed to Paris, where 
 he was made a baron by the King of France, and was 
 after that time called Lord Copley by the exiles. 
 
 A letter from Copley is preserved among the Cottonian 
 manuscripts, dated at Paris the 5th Decembci', 1577, 
 probably to Loi'd Burghley. It has been very much 
 injured by fire and in many places quite illegible. He 
 says that the recipient of the letter might probably hear 
 some sinister report with reference to the title of baron, 
 given to him on the Friday before the date of the letter, 
 and that he thought it well to advertise his lordship of 
 the cause which moved him not to refuse that honor : 
 
 1 Alcos hoffe is no doubt elk's hoof, from the Latin alces. The 
 elk was supposed to be endowed with great virtue, and was almost 
 confined to tlie north of Europe. Cardinal Hosius, who was a Pole, 
 would not be far from its habitat. A Portague was a Portuguese gold 
 coin, worth about £3 : 12s. In the Will of W. Daye, Bishop of Win- 
 chester, 1596, is a legacy of "one Portague of gowlde, which commonlie 
 we value at seaven angels." 
 
 ^ Prerogative Calendar, Brudefiell, 13.
 
 ( 30 ) 
 
 that he arrived in the town of Paris, on the . . . .^ 
 with his wife, children and family, with intent to settle 
 there, in greater repose and security than they could 
 enjoy in [Flanders], where they were forced constantly 
 to remove from place to place by the rebellious 
 " populazzo." After three days in Paris his happ was 
 to meet . . . , who had known him before, and who 
 appears to have presented him to the King- of France, 
 with a view to his obtaining some honour from the 
 King. Copley thought, that in receiving some " special 
 order," he must needs take an oath to the King, which 
 he was resolved not to do to any foreign prince. He 
 then went home "to his poor wife, seeing witli what 
 lovingness and patience she had made herself a voluntary 
 partaker of all his travails," and in the end resolved to 
 accept an ordinary knighthood, whereunto no oath was 
 incident, and also the honour of baron, whereunto he 
 might well pretend, if he could obtain it without binding 
 himself by any oath, partly because his grandmother 
 was the eldest daughter and heir to the Lord Hoo, by the 
 eldest daughter and part heir to the Lord Welles, both 
 whose arms he bore, and part of whose possessions he 
 had inherited, and chiefly because he had been often 
 told by his friends of the Spanish nation that if he were 
 " Scnor de Vitalo,-'' as they termed it, it would very much 
 help to advance and increase the entertainment he had 
 at the King his Majesty's hands. Two days after he 
 was informed that the King had very willingly granted 
 it, and had commanded his letters patent to be despatched 
 out of hand, and within other two days he had word 
 that the same were made and signed with his Majesty's 
 hand, and soon after passed the great seal. On Thursday, 
 at 10 of the clock, the King being then set in council, he 
 Avas sent for and remained in tlie King's bed-chamber 
 until the council did break up, when the King sent for 
 him and calling for the sword [used] in such cases, drew 
 it and made him^ .... in the presence of the 
 
 1 Date burnt. 
 
 ^ Tlie manuscript is very mucL mutilated here.
 
 ( 31 ) 
 
 Queen mother, the . . . Bourbon and Guysa, the 
 duke of ... , the Chancellor, and divers others. 
 Copley says that this was the second time he had been at 
 the court of France, the first time being when he kissed 
 his majesty's hand and recommended to his protection 
 his wife and ... so long as they should remain in 
 France. The rest of the letter contains an apology for 
 his conduct, and the hope that his correspondent will 
 not tliink that he was " a practizer against his country, 
 for the prosperity whereof lie should heartily pray 
 God.'" The letter is endorsed " T. Copley to Lord 
 . . . . states his reasons for accepting the rank of 
 Baron from the French King." 
 
 On the 21st December, 1577, being then at Paris and 
 about to depart on that day into Spain, Copley made a 
 codicil to his Will in the presence of his wife Lady 
 Copley, Sir Henry Copley,' and others. He describes 
 liimseif as Sir Thomas Coppley, and recites his former 
 Will. He then goes on to say that he had ordained 
 that his daughters should marry only with the con- 
 sent of his wife and other friends mentioned in that 
 Will, and that having daily proof and more and more 
 confidence that his wife wouhl not marry again or show- 
 hereof an unkind mother, he directed that, if his 
 daughters should marry with the liking and consent of 
 theii- mother, they should have the portions given them 
 by his former Will. He then states that, under that 
 Will, his younger sons were for haste forgotten, and no 
 provision made for them, and he willed that each of them 
 should have out of his lands an annuity of £30 per 
 annum to be paid and taken out of such of his lands as 
 should be devised by his brothers Gage and Southwell 
 for the performance of his Will. He charged his exe- 
 cutors to save harmless Mr. Humphrey Whitt, his brother- 
 
 1 Cottonian MSS. Caligula, E. VII, 29. 
 
 2 The original Will is not at Somerset House, and there are many 
 obvious errors in the copy. There is no trace of a Sir Henry Copley, 
 except the son of Sir Thomas, who had died before the date of the 
 Will of 1.577. The copyist may have mistaken the name for Sir 
 Henry Cobham, or possibly Sir Henry Cotton.
 
 ( 32 ) 
 
 in-law, and his friend Thomas Doyley, Esq., from such 
 sums of money as might have been necessarily disbursed 
 by them in the judgment of his wife and his said 
 brothers, and bequeathed to Thomas Doyley, for his 
 pains, an annuity of 20 marks for his life out of the lands 
 before assigned for the performance of his Will/ 
 
 In 1582 Copley was at Rouen, but he soon afterwards 
 returned to the Low Countries, for lie made a second 
 codicil to his Will at Benen in the land of Wasse, 
 Andwerph, on the 9th September, 1584, in which he 
 describes himself as Sir Thomas Coppley, Knight, Lord 
 Coppley of Gatton, in the county of Surrey. He stated 
 in the codicil that his Will lay already signed and sealed 
 in the cupboai'd in the great chamber in his house at 
 Dunkerke, and referred to houses which he had at 
 Tournay and at the figure (sign) of the "Golden Ack- 
 horne," at Rouen. He appointed his servant, Thomas 
 Brooke, to whom, in his first Will, he had bequeathed a 
 lease of his lands at Leigh for his life, executor of 
 the codicil, and gave 20 florins to Dr. Stapleton, one 
 of the Holy Society of Jesuits, and to the reverend 
 priest, master John Ffenn, to whom he had also given tlie 
 collation of the parsonage of Gatton, 20 florins, and 
 required him to celebrate for him, for as many days as 
 the money should amount to, at 5 sous a day. He gave 
 to his son William his ring with his arms which he usually 
 wore; to his trusty servant Thomas Brooke the other two 
 rings which he used to wear, one against the plague, the 
 other against the falling sickness ; and for his pains taken 
 with him in that his sickness over and above what he 
 had already given him by his Will and codicil, the sum of 
 10 crowns of 20 florins; and of his aj^parel left at Torney 
 and Dunkirk, he gave to his servant Brooke his hat of 
 stitched taffeta with the gold band belonging thereto, 
 his green harrowel {sic) that he had made last, the gali- 
 gascoes belonging thereunto, and his cassock of rat- 
 colored cloth. He also gave to the convent of the English 
 Carthusians, at Loven (Louvain) 20 florins, and to the 
 
 1 Prerogative Calendar, Brudcnell, 13.
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 virtuous nuns of St. Bridget, resident in Rouen, 20 
 florins, requiring the religious comjjany of both houses 
 to remember him in their prayers, and he gave all the 
 aiTears of the pension due to him by his Catholic Majesty 
 to be received by his executor and applied to the uses of 
 his Will. He authorized his executors to demand and 
 receive all his aj^parel and goods remaining at this place, 
 i.e., Benen, in Torney, at the sign of the " Golden Acke- 
 horne," in Rouen, with Mr. de la Hyde, and in his house 
 at Dunkirk, and to sell same. ^ 
 
 Copley died in Flanders on the 24th September, 1584, 
 in his 49th year, and his Will and codicils were proved 
 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on the 12th 
 ]\Iarch following. He had eight children:^ four sons, viz., 
 Henry, his eldest son, who as stated above died in Paris ; 
 William, born in 1565; Anthony; and John, born at 
 Louvain, 1577; and four daughters, Mary, married to 
 one of the Prince of Parma's captains; Eleanor or Helen, 
 who, in 1485, became the second wife of Richard Stani- 
 hurst, the friend of Campion, the Jesuit; Margaret, who 
 married John Gage, of Haling, near Croydon, Surrey ; 
 and Elizabeth, who married Musgrave. 
 
 Anthony Copley, the third son of Sir Thomas Copley, 
 was born in 1567. He aj^pears to have been a student 
 at Furnival's Inn, and in 1582 went abi'oad to join his 
 father and mother at Rouen. He then went to Rome 
 where he was in the English College, and had a pension 
 of ten crowns from Pope Gregory XIII. He afterwards 
 l)roceeded to the Low Countries, and had a pension of 
 20 crowns from the Prince of Parma, and entered the 
 service of the King of Spain, in Avhich he remained until 
 about 1590, when he returned to P^ngland and was 
 arrested and put in the Tower. Shortly afterwards he 
 obtained his liberty and married, residing at Rough- 
 way. 
 
 On the accession of James I, Copley was concerned 
 
 * Prerogative Calendar, Britdencll, 15. 
 
 ^ In a letter written \>y Coplej from Antwerp, dated the 27th 
 December, 1572, he speaks of seven children, the eldest, Henry, being 
 then not 12 years old. 
 
 E
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 in a plot for jjlacing the Lady Arabella Stuart on the 
 throne. A proclamation for his apprehension in 1603 
 is in the British Museum. He and other conspirators 
 were tried and condemned to death, when the annuity 
 of £30 granted to him by his father's Will was forfeited 
 to the crown,' but he was afterwards pardoned on the 
 18th August, 160i, having made a confession relating 
 the entire history of the plot. In 1606 or 1607 he was 
 in the English College at Rome, after which he dis- 
 appears." 
 
 John Copley, the youngest son of Sir Thomas Copley, 
 became a priest of the Church of Rome, but in 1611 left 
 that church for the Anglican Church, and in 1612 
 published his reasons for so doing. In the same year, 
 he obtained from Archbishop Abbott the living of 
 Bethersden, in Kent, and four years afterwai-ds the 
 rectory of Pluckley, in the same county. He and the 
 Puritan squire of the parish, Sir Edward Deering, of 
 Surrenden, were in constant feud, and in 1643 the 
 House of Commons found him to be a delinquent, and 
 sequestered the living. On the restoration his benefice 
 was restored to him, and he died in 1662, aged 85.^ 
 
 On the 13th November, 1584, Lord Burghley, Master 
 of the Court of Wards and Liveries, wi'ote to the High 
 Sheriff of Surrey, requiring him not to return burgesses 
 for Gatton, which as he supposed was depopulate, one 
 Mr. Copley having been used to nominate burgesses for 
 the town, but he was dead, and his heir, being within 
 age, was in ward to the Queen. ^ 
 
 Sir Francis Walsyngham, writing from Winchester, 
 on the 27th September, 1586, to Sir William Moore and 
 Sir Thomas Browne, Knights, and Richard Banstockc, 
 Esquire, says, that the Lords of the Council understood 
 that Mrs. Copley had the nomination of two burgesses 
 for the town of Gatton, being a parcel of her jointui-e, 
 and that, as she was known to be evil affected, it was not 
 
 ^ Manning and Bray's Surrey, Vol. II, p. 257. 
 - Dictionary of Natioiial Biography. 
 3 Ibid. 
 
 * Harl. MSS., Vol. Ill, p. 16.
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 thought convenient that she should bear any sway in the 
 choice of the said burgesses. He further stated, that it 
 was the Queen's pleasure that a special choice should be 
 had for tlie then present parliament of fit persons, known 
 to be well affected in religion and towards the state, and 
 that they should recommend to the burghers William 
 Wood, one of the clerks of the Privy Council, and 
 Nicholas Fuller, a counsel in the law ; and further, that 
 if the burghers should not be willing to make choice of 
 them, at the least care should be had that there might 
 be discreet persons chosen and well affected.' The 
 burgesses returned for the parliament held in this year 
 were Edward Brown and Thomas Bishop. 
 
 Lady Copley returned to England with her son 
 AVilliam and her daughter Margaret, and appears to have 
 given trouble to the Grovernment immediately after, for 
 there is an order of Lord Buckhur.st among the state 
 papers to apprehend her for disaffection, and she and her 
 daughter were examined before the council, in 1586, for 
 harbouring Nicholas Phelps alias Smith, a jjopish priest, 
 their kinsman, at Gratton." On the 30th October, L586, 
 Anthony Radcliffe, an Alderman of London, writes to 
 William Davidson, the Secretary of State, in favour of 
 William Copley, who had been committed to his charge 
 until the return of the covmcil from Fotheringhay. 
 Radcliffe said that he found Copley to be very tractable, 
 and that he would be easily won to be a good Christian. ^ 
 
 1 Kemp's Losely MSS., p. 262. 
 . ' Lemon's Sta(e Papeis Domestic, Elizabeth, 1586, Vol. CXCIII, 
 p. 352. 
 
 3 Ibid., Vol. CXCIV, p. 365. In the Chancery Bills and Answers 
 for the year 1591 (Elizabetli, C.C. 13, No. 19), fhere is a Bill preferred 
 on the 10th May, to Sir Christopher Ilatton, Lord Chancellor, by 
 Katharine, Lady Copley, widow of Sir Thomas Copley, Knight, 
 against Richard Lashford (Latchford), Lord of the Manor of Shel- 
 wood, in Leigh. The Bill recited that Sir Thomas Copley was seised 
 of a customar}' tenement called ' Popes,' and of other lands in the said 
 parish and held of the said manor, in the possession of Nicholas 
 Hewstowe and others, and died so seised, wherenpon the same premises 
 descended to William Copley, his son and heir, and Lady Copley was 
 entitled to dower thereont for her life, but the lord had entered npon 
 the said tenement and cnt down trees, &c., and L.ady Copley prayed
 
 ( 36 ) 
 
 It was, no doubt, during the time tliat the Copley 
 family held Leigh Place, and probably during the life of 
 Thomas Copley, or his widow, that Roman Catholic 
 priests, the tradition of whose residence there still lingers 
 in the parish, were concealed in the old house at Leigli. 
 In a remote part of Surrey, embosomed in woods, 
 approached only by green lanes often impassable and 
 sm-rounded by the river Mole and its branches, Leigh 
 must have been a very convenient hiding place, and a 
 cupboard at the side of the chimney in the great hall of 
 Leigh Place was known in very recent times as the 
 priest's hole. About eighty years ago, when the greater 
 part of the old house was pulled down, an inscription 
 partly defaced was found scratched on the mantel of the 
 chimney piece in one of the bedrooms, near a rough 
 figure of the crucifix. The inscription so far as it could 
 be read was as follows: — " Nonne mea peccata quietem 
 
 de plura fuere quam macule viperfe, nee 
 
 dabit ullam salutem Dei typus." It is likely that this 
 was scratched by one of the Roman Catholic priests in 
 hiding in Leigh Place, and very possibly by the Jesuit 
 and enthusiast Nicholas Saunder, or Sanders, who was 
 born in the adjoining parish of Charlwood, and was 
 distantly connected with the Copley family.^ 
 
 William Copley, on the death of his father in Septem- 
 ber, 1584, was of the age of 19 years 2 months and 20 
 days, and in May, 1585, joined the Prince of Parma at 
 Tournay, and had a grant of 15 crowns a month from 
 the King of Spain.^ He soon after went to Spain, and 
 married in Madrid, in 1589, Magdalen Prideaux, the only 
 
 relief. The lord put in his answer on the 12th May, alleging that 
 William Copley did not come to pay his fine and be admitted tenant, 
 and after several proclamations in open court, according to the custom 
 of the manor, the lord entered upon the said lands as forfeited, and 
 tlie lord further alleged that William Copley had departed beyond the 
 seas as a fugitive before admission had been granted to him. I have 
 not been able to trace what was the result of the suit. 
 
 1 The style of the writing is more like that of the 15th than that 
 of the 16th century, but it may more probably be referred to the later 
 date. 
 
 » Inq. p. m., 26th May, 25th Elizabeth, 1586, part 2, no. 38, 37.
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 daughter of Thomas Pridcaux, who had been taken by 
 her father to Spain and met Copley there. Father Holt, 
 in a letter to Cardinal Allen at Rome, says, that the banns 
 between them were asked on Candlemas Day, and that 
 Copley had more need of wit than of a wife in such 
 troublesome times. Copley continued to live in Spain 
 during the remainder of Elizabeth's reign, and several 
 of his children bv his first wife were born there. Tlie 
 eldest, Thomas, "was born in 1594, and becoming^ a 
 Romish priest made over his right in the famdy in- 
 heritance to his brother William, and eventually went 
 out with the Roman Catholic settlers to Maryland, and 
 was one of the founders of that colony. William 
 Copley's two daughters by his first wife, Mary and 
 Helen, became nuns at Louvain. 
 
 On the accession of James I in 1603, and the procla- 
 mation of pardon, William Copley and his family 
 returned to Gatton. He seems to have compounded for 
 his estates in the sum of £2,000, and to have paid £20 a 
 month under the act of 1st James I, c. 4, empowering the 
 Crown to levy that sum on popish recusants absenting 
 themselves from church. 
 
 In 1615, William Copley obtained letters of naturalisa- 
 tion in England, having been born in Spain, and in 
 November, 16th James I, 1618, he married Anne, 
 daughter of William Denton and niece of Mary, the wife 
 of William Shelton, of Ongar Park in Essex, by whom 
 she was adopted.^ 
 
 On his marriage his father, by deed dated the 10th 
 November, 1616, made a settlement of the manors of 
 Gatton and Colley and of Leigh Place on his wife for a 
 jointure and on the issue of the marriage. Magdalen 
 Copley died on the 30th August, 1619, and was buried at 
 Gatton, "■ and he very shortly after married Margaret, a 
 daughter of William Fromonde, the head of a Roman 
 
 1 Court of Wards aiul Liveries decree book, no. 95, Hilary Terra, 1 st 
 Charles I, 1625. 
 
 2 Gattou Registers.
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
 Catholic family settled at Clieam. He seems to have 
 repented of the settlement made on the marriage of his 
 son, for I find that, by indenture of the 10th November, 
 18th James I, 1620, made between him and his son of 
 the one pai-t, and John Thetcher, of Priesthawes, Sussex, 
 and Bartholomew Fromonde, of Cheam, Surrey, of the 
 other part, it is stated that (as well towards providing 
 some maintenance and livelihood for Margaret, the then 
 wife of the said William Copley the father, if it should 
 please God that she should overlive her said husband, 
 and for a provision for the children of the said William 
 Cojiley and Margaret his wife, and also in consideration 
 of £250, the mamage portion of the said Margaret, 
 which was paid by William Copley to his son,) William 
 Copley the father and William Copley the son agreed 
 to levy a fine, of all that farm called Lee, alias Leigh, 
 then in the tenure of John Woodman, yeoman, situate 
 within the towns, parishes, fields, or precincts of Leigh, 
 Betchworth, or Rygate, or some of them, which fine 
 should enm-e to the use and behoof of the said William 
 Copley the father and the said Margaret his wife, and 
 tlie longer liver of them, and after their deaths then to 
 the use of the heirs of the said William Copley the father 
 by Margaret his wife ; and for default of such issue then 
 to the use of William Copley the son and of his heirs 
 and assigns for ever.^ William Copley the son died on 
 the 5th June, 1622, in the lifetime of his father, and 
 was buried at Gatton,^ leaving two daughters and co- 
 heiresses, Mary, aged 3, and Ann, aged 1. Ann Cojjley, 
 widow of William Copley the son, was buried at Gatton 
 on the 22nd June, 1632.' His father then disputed the 
 settlement of 1616, and an information was filed on 
 belialf of the king in the Court of Wards and Livei'ies, 
 claiming the wardship of the infants and to establish the 
 settlement. It is said in Manning and Bray that the 
 
 1 Deed in the possession of tlie owners of the estate. 
 ^ Gatton Registers. 
 ' Ibiil.
 
 ( 39 ) 
 
 settlement was at length confirmed/ but this is some- 
 what inconsistent with what follows. 
 
 William Copley the elder died on the 22nd December, 
 1643, aged 79, and had by his second wife Margaret 
 two sons, John, the eldest, and Roger, born 28th 
 March, 1632,' and two daughters, Maria and Eleanor. 
 ]\Iargaret Copley, his widow, is said to have entered into 
 possession of Leigh Place and to have lived there, but 
 being a Roman Catholic her estate was sequestered.' 
 
 Mary, the elder daughter of William Copley the son, 
 married John Weston, of Sutton Place, Woking, Surrey, 
 and Ann the younger married Sir Nathaniel MinshuU. 
 On the partition of the estates, Leigh Place, with the 
 manors of Gatton and Colley in Reigate, were allotted to 
 Mary Weston,' and by deed of the 17th November, 
 1649, she and her husband and George Weston, also of 
 Sutton, his next brother, in consideration of £518, 
 covenanted with John Woodman of Lee, alias Leigh, 
 yeoman, to levy a fine of the reversion, expectant upon 
 the death of Margaret Copley, widow, of all that capital 
 messuage, site, or mansion place of Lee, alias Leigh, 
 and the several closes thereafter mentioned, namely : — 
 one messuage or tenement and certain lands called 
 Church Lands, Cobb's Luggs, and Sheppard's Field, 
 containing 70 acres more or less ; and also four closes 
 called the Norlands, containing 26 acres more or less ; 
 two other closes called the Brickhurst, containing 12 
 acres more or less ; and two fields called the Marlehurst 
 and the Moores, containing 24 acres more or less ; three 
 closes called the Burlands, containing 14 acres more or 
 less, in Betchworth ; and three other closes in Betchworth 
 called Gadbrook lands, containing 12 acres more or 
 
 1 Vol. II, p. 231. 
 
 ' Gatton Registers. Eoger Copley's wife was named Ann, and he 
 was by her the father of several children, of whom four were buried 
 at Gatton — Winifred, 22nd May, 1658 ; Lewis, 26th August, 1663 ; 
 Thomas, 4th February, 1669; and Frances, 13th July, 1672 (Gatton 
 Registers) ; and he is supposed to have been also the father of William 
 Copley, a member of the Society of Jesus, born in 1668, who took the 
 last vows in 1698, laboured in Warwickshire, and died in 1727. 
 
 3 Manning and Bray, Vol. II, p. 183. * Ibid., p. 231.
 
 ( 40 ) 
 
 less; in all, 158 acres more or less, in the occupation 
 of the said John Woodman, except the lands called 
 Heightonsfield, alias Heydonsfield, containing 1-1 acres 
 2 roods, or thereabouts, in the occupation of William 
 Mathew, which fine should be and enure to the only 
 use of the said John Woodman, his heirs and assigns, 
 for ever.^ 
 
 The Woodman family occupied Leigh Place for many 
 years before John Woodman purchased it. John Wood- 
 man his father, as appears from the parish registers, was 
 in occupation as early as 1610. Several of his children 
 were baptized in the parish church between 1610 and 
 1620, and on the 23rd May, 1623, his son John was 
 baptized there. On the 26th March, 1626, John 
 Woodman, " father of John Woodman of the place in 
 Leigh," was buried. In 1636 and 1638 two of the 
 daughters of John Woodman and Jane his wife were 
 buried, and the following entry occurs after their names 
 in the register: " condone habitd ejus fimeribus.'''' On the 
 9tli September, 1639, Jane Woodman was buried, the 
 same entry being repeated, " exequiis'''' being substituted 
 for '■^ funerihus,^'' and on the 18th October, 164:6, her hus- 
 band was buried. The estate appears to have descended 
 to his son John, and in the register it is noted that John 
 and James, two children of John Woodman and Ann, his 
 wife, were baptized in 1647 and 1651, but after the 
 latter year there are no further entries in the register 
 of this family. 
 
 John Woodman, by indentures of lease and release of 
 the 19th and 20th December, 1651, in consideration 
 of £750, conveyed Leigh Place and the lands above 
 mentioned, containing 158 acres, except as aforesaid, to 
 I'homas Jordan, of Gatwick, in the parish of Charlwood, 
 free from the dower and thirds of Ann his wife, to be 
 held by Jordan in trust for Robert Bristow, of Horley, 
 gentleman." 
 
 On tlic 24th December in the same year, Margaret 
 
 ^ Deeil in the possession of the owners of the estate. 
 2 Ibid.
 
 ( 41 ) 
 
 Copley, described as of Gatton, widow of _ William 
 Copley, agreed to sell her life interest to the said Robert 
 Bristow for £350, and it is stated in the deed that the 
 said farm and lands had been taxed by the Committee 
 for the County of Surrey, by reason of the recusancy of 
 the said Margaret Copley, whereby two parts in tlu-ee of 
 the rents and profits were payable unto the Common- 
 wealth and were received by their receivers. It was 
 therefore agreed that £200, part of the said £350, should 
 remain in the hands of Robert Bristow, until the said 
 premises should be discharged from the sequestration, or 
 from any sequestrations imposed upon the same premises 
 for any recusancy or delinquency of Margaret Copley, 
 to the end that Bristow might, out of the £200, and the 
 interest thereon at six per cent., pay all such rents and 
 profits as should be payable out of the said premises to 
 the Commonwealth. 
 
 A few days after, on the 30th December, 1651, Robert 
 Bristow, Thomas Jordan, and Margaret Copley, widow, 
 demised the estate to Francis Huett, of Ampthill Grange 
 in Bedfordshire, for 99 years, to secure £200, part of the 
 said purchase money. ^ 
 
 Margaret Copley died on the 30th April, 1655, having 
 made her "Will on the 21st August, 1652, which was 
 proved on the 12th July, 1655.' On the 28th May, 
 1655, less than a month after her death, John Copley^ 
 and Roger Copley, of Gatton, sons of William Copley, 
 in consideration of £500 conveyed to Robert Bristow 
 (described as of Leigh) all their interest and inheri- 
 tance in the said estate," and in I\Iichaelmas term, 
 1655, a fine was levied of one messuage, one garden, 
 one orchard, 150 acres of land, 20 acres of meadow, 80 
 acres of pasture, and 10 acres of wood in Lee, otherwise 
 Leigh, Betchworth and Reigate.^ So that Bristow paid 
 
 ' Deed in the possession of the owners of the estate. 
 - Prerogative Calendar, Aylett, 301. 
 
 3 John Copley was buried at Gatton on the 12th Mav, 1662. 
 (Gatton Registers.) 
 
 * Deed in possession of the owners of the estate. 
 ^ From a deed in the possession of the owners of the estate. 
 
 F
 
 ( ^2 ) 
 
 £1,600 in all for an estate of about liO acres of 
 land/ 
 
 Robert Bristow, by his Will, devised the estate to his 
 eldest son Robert Bristow, described as of Hartswood 
 in Buckland, Surrey, Gentleman, who by his Will dated 
 the 18th March, 1695, gave to the poor of the parish of 
 Buckland 50 shillings, and to the poor of the parish of 
 Leigh 50 shillings, and gave his capital messuage called 
 Leigh Place, in the occupation of Ralph Arnold, and 
 the lands, &c. thereto belonging, to his wife Susanna 
 absolutely." She was the only child of Thomas Moore, 
 of Hartswood in Buckland, and by deed of the 25th 
 August, 1705, mortgaged the estate to Richard Sheppard, 
 of Henfield in Sussex, Gentleman, to secure £700 and 
 interest.' 
 
 On the demolition of part of the house mentioned 
 above, a silver porringer was found concealed in the 
 walls with a few silver coins in it. A woodcut of it is 
 annexed. The hall-mark is that for the year 1688-9, 
 and the following initials appear on it : on one side 
 W.B., on the other, r'^ , It had been probably given by 
 one of the Bristow family to Ralph Arnold, who, or 
 whose son, remained in the occupation of the farm until 
 at least the year 1721. 
 
 On the 12th March, 1706, the mortgage was trans- 
 ferred to John Risbridger, of Dorking, on the occasion 
 of the sale of the estate to Edward Budgen, of Dorking, 
 who paid, including the mortgage, £1,760 for it. In 
 the conveyance from Susanna Bristow and her eldest 
 son, Edmund Bristow, contained in indentures of the 
 15th and 16th August, 1706, the estate is described as 
 
 1 I am much indebted to Mr. Richard Copley Christie, Chancellor of 
 tlie diocese of Manchester, for information as to the Copley family, and 
 for very kindly revising the proof of this part of my paper, and to the 
 life of Father Thomas Copley by Mrs. Dorsey, of Georgetown, in the 
 United States. On the opposite page is a pedigree of the family of 
 Copley, which I have compiled from various sources, and which I 
 believe to be correct. 
 
 '^ Copy Will in the possession of the owners of the estate. 
 
 ' Deed in the like possession.
 
 ;II_VER PORRINGER. 1688-9. 
 Found at Leigh Place. 
 
 face pafje ■
 
 FEDIC^^REE OF COFLI 
 
 Anna 
 
 coheir 
 
 Lord H< 
 
 1. Jane, danj^litcr ^ Sir l{n<jcr Coiilcy, Knt., '■ 
 
 of Ileury Lode, 
 
 of Kin{j;sley, 
 
 Hants. 
 
 born 147:i, admitted to 
 
 the freeiiom of the 
 
 Mergers' Company, 
 
 by jiatrimonv, 1541, 
 
 died l.H!). 
 
 : 2. Elizabi 
 
 danghter c 
 
 William Sb 
 
 Knight, Jnsl 
 C. P., died 
 December, 
 
 I 
 
 Mary, 
 
 m. Thomas 
 
 Shelley, of 
 
 MapledurliMm, 
 
 Oxfordshire. 
 
 Eleanor, 
 
 m. 
 
 Roger 
 
 Dallenilcr. 
 
 of Bucklaud. 
 
 I 
 Joan, m. 
 
 1. — Corbett. 
 
 2. — Dingley. 
 
 Sir Thomi 
 
 a baron i 
 
 of Fran 
 
 admitted 
 
 of the Me 
 
 1.5(;2; dii 
 
 24th Se| 
 
 I 
 
 Sir Henry Copley, 
 
 godson of Queen 
 
 Elizabeth, died 
 
 in Paris l)efore 
 
 15711, s.p. 
 
 I 
 1. Magdalen,— William Copley, • 
 
 daughter of 
 
 Thomas 
 
 Prideaux, 
 
 m. in 15S9, 
 
 died 311th 
 
 August, Kill); 
 
 buried at 
 
 Gatton. 
 
 born 15(J5 
 
 died 2L'nd 
 
 December. lillH, 
 
 aged 71). 
 
 I 
 
 Thomas, 
 
 bom in Spain, 
 
 15'.(4, a member 
 
 of the Society 
 
 of Jesus, died 
 
 s.p. in America, 
 
 after 1G52. 
 
 2. 
 da 
 
 r 
 
 ol 
 
 A) 
 
 AVilliam Copley, =p Anne, daughter , 
 
 died 5th July, of William die 
 
 1622 ; bnried Denton and 
 
 at Gatton. niece of Mary, 
 
 wife of William 
 Shelton, of 
 Ongar Park, 
 
 Essex ; 
 
 m. November, 
 
 1618, died 1632; 
 
 buried at 
 
 Gatton, 22nd 
 
 June. 
 
 William, Mary, =p John Weston, 
 
 died an born 1618, I of Sutton Place, 
 
 infant. died 1C94. | Woking, 
 
 ^ Surrey. 
 
 Ann, 
 born IG:
 
 !g^M 
 
 FEDIGEEE OF COPLEY OF LEIOH PLA.OE AND GATTOlSr. 
 
 Annn, iln lighter and 
 
 ciilidirusi (it Thniiins, 
 
 Lortl lino nnd llastiiigs, 
 
 bom 1447. 
 
 Sir Roger Copley, 
 of Itoiigbnuy or RnSey, 
 near Horsham, Siiascs, 
 nilmittcil to the freedom 
 of tbo ^fc^core' rompuny 
 
 of London in 14^6; 
 
 probalily knigbtcd at tho 
 
 coronation of King 
 
 Henry VII. 
 
 ]. .Tnne,iianKhlcrT= Sir ItoRcr Copley, Knt.,T= 2. Elif.abctti. 
 
 of IlcDry Lode, 
 
 if Kingsloy, 
 
 Uants. 
 
 '; ndniittvtl tu 
 
 Ihc fn-c'lorn of the 
 
 Mcri.'cr»" Com puny, 
 
 by ]iatrimony. I54I, 
 
 died 1549. 
 
 dnnglitcr of Sir 
 Williiim Sbelky. 
 Koigbt, .Insticc of 
 C.P., diodar.lh 
 December, 1669. 
 
 Richard Copley, 
 ndmillecl (n the 
 freedom of tlio 
 
 Icn-cra' Company 
 in 14!I8. 
 
 Eleanor, 
 m. Thomas, 
 
 Lord 
 Uclawarr. 
 
 Marinirot, 
 m. Kdwiinl 
 
 Lcwknor, 
 of Kiiigalvii 
 on tho sea. 
 
 grand moth or 
 
 of Lady 
 
 Walsingham, 
 
 ID. Sir Henry 
 
 St. Burbo. 
 
 Shelley, oF 
 Mii|dpitiirhiiTn, 
 Uxfordfthirc. 
 
 I 
 
 Roger 
 
 nalleiulcr, 
 of Bockluud. 
 
 - Oorbett. 
 
 - Dingley. 
 
 Sir Thomas Copley, KnL, 
 B baron in tbo kiiigrlom 
 of France, bom i<>34, 
 Bilmitted to the freedom 
 of tho Mercers' Company, 
 15l'>2; died in Flanders, 
 24th September, I5H4, 
 aged 48. 
 
 Catharine, eldest 
 
 danghter and eohoircss 
 
 of Sir ,Tobn Lnttroll, 
 
 of Dnnster Cnille, 
 
 Somerseuhire, 
 m. July, luoS. 
 
 Kateryne, 
 
 Sir Robert 
 Laiio, of 
 H or ton. 
 
 Northampton- 
 
 Sir Ricbartl 
 
 Sontlitvell, 
 
 of St. Faith's, 
 
 Norfolk. 
 
 Margaret, 
 m May, 1559, 
 John Gage, of 
 Firic, Snssex, 
 who died lUth 
 October, 1695. 
 
 Sir HcnrY Copley, 
 godson of Queen 
 Elizabeth, died 
 io Paris before 
 157IJ, s.p, 
 
 1. Magdalen, 
 
 danghlcr of 
 
 Thorn aa 
 
 Prideans, 
 
 m. in 1589, 
 
 dio.1 30th 
 
 Augo>it,|r.l<); 
 
 buried at 
 
 Gatton. 
 
 William Copley, 
 bom lEiiS, 
 
 December, Ii;43, 
 aged 79. 
 
 S. Margaret, 
 dauchlcr of 
 
 William 
 Fmmoodo, 
 of Chcam, 
 
 died ftiTt'h 
 April, lGu5. 
 
 Antbooy, 
 hnm 1567, 
 
 author of 
 " A Fig for 
 
 Fortune." 
 
 John, 
 
 bom at 
 
 LaD?aiD, loT7, 
 
 Rector of 
 
 I'luckley, Kent; 
 
 m. 1, ItJjbecca, 
 
 danghter of 
 
 Muono : 
 
 '., Martha . 
 
 Margaret, 
 m. .lohn (inge, 
 
 of Haling, 
 neiir ('niydnn, 
 
 He« 
 
 
 Doctrinall and Morall." 
 
 Thomas, 
 bom in Spain, 
 lu!l4, a member 
 of the Society 
 of JesuH, died 
 a.p. iu America, 
 after 1G32. 
 
 William Copley, ^ Anne, daughter Join 
 
 died 6ih July, 
 IfiSa; bnried 
 at Gottou. 
 
 of William 
 Denton and 
 niece of Mary, 
 wife of William 
 Sbelton, of 
 On gar Park, 
 
 Ksscx: 
 
 m. November, 
 
 ltil8,died 1632; 
 
 buried at 
 
 GatloD, 22nd 
 
 died 111112; 
 
 bnried 
 nt Gatton, 
 17th May. 
 
 ! 
 
 boru 26th 
 March, 16112, 
 bnptixod at 
 
 Gatton ; 
 
 daughter of 
 
 I 
 
 bom I'd! 8, 
 died 1C94. 
 
 I— John Wcsbnt 
 of SutUm ria. 
 Woking. 
 SuiTey.
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 all that capital messuage or tenement called Leigh Place, 
 with the barns, &c., and land thereunto belonging, in 
 the occupation of Ralph Arnold, as follows : — 
 
 The old orchard 
 The Barn Close 
 The Pond Close ... 
 
 The three sheep Closes 
 
 The Upper Church land ... 
 The Lower Church land ... 
 The Church land mead 
 The Bushy Close ... 
 The Square piece ... 
 
 The Pit field 
 
 The East field 
 
 The Marie field 
 
 The Great Brickhnrst 
 
 The Little Brickhurst 
 
 The Brickhurst Mead 
 
 The Little Thurle Hurst ... 
 
 The Little Marleland 
 
 The Great North land 
 
 The Hither North land ... 
 
 The Great Marleland 
 
 Three parcels called the Moors 
 
 Acres 
 
 A. 
 
 R. 
 
 P, 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 31 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 24 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 .5 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 2.5 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 30 
 
 133 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 Edward Budgen died in 1716, and was buried in 
 Dorking Church, having made his Will dated the 15th 
 July, 1710, which was proved in the Prerogative Court 
 of Canterbury on the 5th December, 1716. By it he 
 devised Leigh Place, together with some lands in Leigh 
 he had purchased from his nephew Dr. John Budgen, 
 to his godson Edward Budgen, the eldest son of his 
 nephew Edward Budgen, high sheriff of Surrey in 1698, 
 who died in August 1719, and was buried in Dorking 
 Church. 
 
 Edward Budgen, the graild nephew and devisee of 
 the first Edward Budgen, who is described as of Sutton, 
 Surrey, married Mary, only daughter and heiress of 
 Peter Hussey of Shire, Surrey, and, dying without issue
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 on the 12th August, 1728, fet. 29, was buried in the 
 chancel of Dorking Church. 
 
 The above estate was settled in his lifetime, by inden- 
 ture of the 9th November, 1727, upon trust for him for 
 life, and to his issue male, and in default of such issue 
 for his bi'other James Budgen and his issue male, and 
 in default of such issue for his brother Thomas Budgen 
 and his issue male, with power for each of them to 
 ajjpoint the said estate to any woman whom he might 
 marry, for her life, by way of jointure. 
 
 Edward Budgen's Will, dated the Uth June, 1728, 
 with a codicil dated the 26th July, 1728, was proved 
 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on the 6th 
 September, 1728. 
 
 James Budgen, of Trinity College, Oxford, the next 
 brother of the last-named Edwa.rd Budgen, married 
 
 Mary Ede, daughter of J Ede, of Cudworth 
 
 in Surrey, and by his mari'iage settlement, dated the 
 18th August, 1729, he appointed the said estate to his 
 said wife, for her life, for her jointure, and in bar of 
 dower; and by his Will dated the 28th February, 1731, 
 he devised certain copyhold estates to his wife, and 
 devised all the remainder of his real estates unto any 
 child he might have by his said wife, and in default of 
 children to his l)rother Thomas Budgen. He died on 
 the 8th March, 1731, without issue, and his Will was 
 proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on the 
 12tli April, 1732. Mary Budgen, his widow, conveyed 
 her life interest to Thomas Budgen, by indentures of the 
 6th and 7th July, 1733, and afterwards married Richard 
 Morton, and died in 1778. 
 
 Thomas Budgen was M.P. for Surrey in the last two 
 jDarliaments of King George II, and was twice offered 
 and refused a baronetcy. He married PenelojDe, second 
 daughter of Daniel Smith, Governor of the island of 
 Nevis, and had an only son, John Smith Budgen, to 
 whom the estate descended under the provisions of the 
 deed of the 9th November, 1727. Thomas Budgen died 
 on the 3rd March, 1772, and was buried in the chancel 
 of Dorking Church.
 
 
 o 
 
 1-^
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 John Smith Budgenwas born on the 28th June, 1741, 
 and married in the month of August, 17G-t, Luci'etia, 
 daughter of Matthew Mills, of the island of St. 
 Christopher, By his marriage settlement, dated the 9 th 
 and 10th August, 1764, the Leigh Place estate, said to 
 contain about 126 acres, was charged with other estates 
 of much greater value mth the payment of £10,000, as 
 portions for the children of the marriage other than an 
 eldest son. John Smith Budgen died on the 25th May, 
 1805, and was buried in the chancel of Dorking Church. 
 By his Will, dated the 27th July, 1799, and proved in 
 the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on the 6th Sep- 
 tember, 1805, he directed the sum of £5,000 to be added 
 to the said £10,000, as portions for his three daughters, 
 Lucretia, Cornelia Penelope and Maria, and devised 
 and bequeathed all the residue of his estate to his son 
 Thomas Budgen. 
 
 The portions were paid off, and by indentures of the 
 24th and 25th November, 1806, Thomas Budgen, of 
 Nutfield in Surrey, conveyed the Leigh Place estate to 
 Richard Caffyn Dendy, in whose family it still remains. 
 
 The first reference to a house on the estate is in the 
 conveyance from Sir John Dudley, in 1527, and part of 
 Leigh Place may have been then in existence. During 
 the absence of the owners abroad, in the latter half of 
 the 16th century, the house appears to have become 
 dilapidated, and it is probable that extensive alterations 
 were made after the return of Margaret Copley and her 
 son William from abroad, in the early part of the reign 
 of James L 
 
 When the estate was jDurchased by Mr. Richard 
 Caffyn Dendy, the house was considerably larger than 
 at present, and the woodcut facing page 45 is a copy of 
 one which was inserted, at his expense, in Manning and 
 Bray's History of Surrey. The house Avas then much 
 dilapidated, and a large part of it was pulled down 
 about the year 1810. The woodcut facing page 3 
 shows the exterior of the house as it is at present. 
 
 Two old plans of the estate have been preserved. 
 The earliest is described as " a plot and description of
 
 ( 46 ) 
 
 the Manor of Lye, in the county of Surrey, with all the 
 lands belonging to the same, had, made and taken the 
 6th day of April, 1627, by John Richardson." This 
 was taken evidently soon after the death of William 
 Copley the son, and probably for the purpose of the 
 information in the Court of Wards and Liveries claiming 
 the wardship of his infant daughters mentioned above. 
 
 The second plan was made' in 1724, when the farm 
 was surveyed for Edward Budgen, then the owner, and 
 it is called " a farm called Leigh Place, situate in the 
 parish of Leigh, in the county of Surrey, in the occupa- 
 tion of Mr. Arnold, also a farm called Gadbrook, in the 
 parishes of Leigh and Beachworth, in Surrey, in the 
 occupation of Mr. Cowtrey, in December, 1724." 
 
 These plans have been reduced to a quarter size and 
 photo-lithographs of them face page 46.
 
 jTcrrt-f, 
 
 J-oixll-
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PnUTTED BV BOWORTH AND CO. LIMITED, 
 
 HEWTON STBEET, HIGH HOLBOBN.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 in«VERSITY OF CAUFORNIA
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 6 64 
 
 Some annmmt. 
 
 L5-5TY32 of Leigh 
 
 and its owners . 
 
 *DA 
 664 
 L53W32