Daniel Lysons The environs of London London 1796 i THE ENVIRONS of LONDON: BEING AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE TOWNS, VILLAGES, and HAMLETS, Within Twelve Miles of that Capital: INTERSPERSED WITH BIOGRAPHICAL ANECDOTES, By the Rev. DANIEL LYSONS, A.M. F.A.S. Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of ORFORD. VOLUME THE FOURTH. COUNTIES OF HERTS, ESSEX & KENT. <vignette – “View of Greenwich.”> LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL, JUN. AND W. DAVIES (SUCCESSORS TO MR. CADELL IN THE STRAND. MDCCXCVI. ii <blank> iii ADVERTISEMENT. THIS Volume (being the conclusion of the Work) treats of thirty-one Parishes in Hertfordshire, Essex, and Kent, which have been already described by preceding writers. Where the Author has availed him- self of the labours of his predecessors, their authority is quoted. Having been indulged with such liberal access to the public offices, he has, in all matters of record, con- sulted and referred to the originals, whence he has ob- tained many particulars hitherto unpublished. The descent of property, through the liberality of the pre- sent owners, has been continued. The church notes and extracts from parochial registers are, for the most part, now published for the first time. To this Volume is annexed a General Appendix, in which are contained such Additions to the account of each Parish as have been procured since the publication of the former Volumes. All changes in existing circum- iv stances, as far as they have come to the Author’s know- ledge, are noted; all errors likewise, which have been discovered or pointed out, are corrected, either in the Appendix, or in a general Table of Errata at the end of the Volume. v CONTENTS. ... Beckenham, 291 Bromley, 307 Charlton, 324 Chislehurst, 343 Deptford St. Nicholas, 359 Deptford St. Paul’s, 386 Eltham, 394 vi Account of Foot’s Cray, 422 Greenwich, 426 Hayes, 494 Lee, 500 Lewisham, 514 Plumstead, 537 East Wickham, 546 West Wickham, 550 Woolwich, 558 ... Additions and Corrections to Vol. IV. 646 vii LIST OF THE PLATES. I. Map of those Parishes in the Counties of Essex and Kent which lie within twelve miles of London – to face the Title Page. II. Title Page – Vignette View of Greenwich. ... IX. Portrait of Bishop Warner, 320 X. Charlton House, 327 XI. Remains of Eltham Palace, 399 XII. Hall of Eltham Palace, ibid. XIII. West Wickham Court, 552 viii <blank> ... 291 BECKENHAM. Etymology. This place is supposed to derive its name from the Saxon words bec, a brook, and ham, a dwelling. A small stream, which falls into the Ravensbourn, passes through the parish. Situation. Beckenham lies in the hundred of Bromley and Beckenham, at Boundaries. the distance of nine miles and a quarter from London-bridge. The parish is bounded by Lewisham, Bromley, Hayes, and West Wick- ham, in Kent; and by Croydon, a small portion of Camberwell, Extent and and Penge, (a detached hamlet of Battersea,) in Surrey. It contains nature of the about 3170 acres of land, of which, in the year 1793, about 1850 land, and how occu- were arable, 1080 meadow and pasture, and about 240 wood and pied. orchards. A considerable quantity has since been laid down to grass. The waste land does not exceed 30 or 40 acres. The soil Land-tax. is for the most part clay and gravel; in some parts loam. This parish pays the sum of 241l. 4s. to the land-tax, which is at the rate of about 2s. in the pound. Manor. The manor of Beckenham was held of King Edward the Con- fessor, by Anschil. When the survey of Doomsday was taken /1, Ansgot, of Rochester, held it under Odo, Bishop of Baieux. /1 It is thus described in the survey: – Ansgot, of Rochester, holds Bacheham, in the hundred of Brunlei, of the Bishop (of Baieux). It is taxed at two sulings /*. The land is eight carucates. There are two ploughs on the demesnes. There are 22 villans /* A word peculiar to Kent, supposed to mean the same as carucate; but here it seems to be of greater extent; in some parts of Doomsday, a suling is described as con- taining about 220 acres. 292 Richard de la Rokele died seised of it in 1276 /2. His son Philip left a daughter and sole heir, Isolda /3, married to Sir William Bruyn; from whom this manor descended /4 to Sir Henry Bruyn, who died in 1461, leaving two daughters, coheirs /5. Alice the eldest had, by her first husband John Berners, Esq. a son, who died without issue; upon which, a moiety of this manor was inherited by John Har- leston, son of her second husband /6. Clement Harleston sold it, in 1530, to Robert Legh, Esq. /7, whose descendant of the same name, in 1610, aliened it to Henry Snelgar, or Snelgrave, Esq. /8 (afterwards knighted). About the year 1650, it was sold, by his grandson Henry Snelgrave, Esq. to Walter St. John, Esq. /9, in whose family the manor became again united. – Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Henry Bruyn, married, to her first husband /10, Thomas Tyrrell, Esq. whose descendants inherited the other moiety of this manor; one of them, whose name also was Thomas, left a daughter and sole heir, married to Sir John Dalston, by whom she had two daughters. Catherine, one of these coheirs, married Sir Henry Curwen /11. About the year 1650, Sir Patrick Curwen, his and eight bordars, who employ eight ploughs, and have half employment for another. There are 12 acres of meadow, four slaves, a mill, and pannage for 60 hogs. In the time of King Edward, and afterwards, it was valued at 9l.; now at 13l. Anschil held it of King Edward. /2 Esch. 5 Ed. I. N/o 6. /3 Esch. 23 Edw. I. N/o 39. /4 Sir Maurice Bruyn died seised of it, anno 1355; Esch. 29 Edw. III. N/o 38. William Bruyn, anno 1362; Esch. 36 Edw. III. pt. 1. N/o 31. Sir Ingram Bruyn, anno 1400; Esch. 1 Hen. IV. N/o 39. Elizabeth his widow, anno 1407; Esch. 8 Hen. IV. N/o 18. /5 Esch. 1 Edw. IV. N/o 27. /6 The account of the matches of Sir Henry Bruyn’s daughters is taken from Vincent’s Visitation of Essex, and Glover’s MSS. in the College of Arms. After the death of her second husband, Alice Bruyn married Sir John Heveningham. /7 Pat. 22 Hen. VIII. pt. 1. March 29. /8 Pat. 8 Jac. pt. 23. April 1. /9 Philipott, p. 63. /10 She was thrice married. Her second husband was Sir William Brandon, by whom she became mother of Charles Bran- don, Duke of Suffolk. After Sir William Brandon’s death, she married William Ma- lory, Esq. /11 The alliances of the Tyrrells, Dalstons, and Curwens are taken from St. George’s Visitation of Cumberland, in the College of 293 son, sold a moiety of the manor of Beckenham to Oliver St. John, Esq. /13; from whom it came to Sir Walter St. John, Bart. already possessed of the other moiety. The manor, thus united, continued in the St. John family till the year 1773, when Frederick, the late Viscount Bolingbroke, sold it to John Cator, Esq. /14, the pre- sent proprietor, who resides in an elegant mansion, which he built soon after his purchase of the estate, and called Beckenham-place. It stands on an eminence, and commands a beautiful, though not a very extensive prospect. Charles Philipott informs us, that Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, son Brandon, of Elizabeth Bruyn, before mentioned, by her second husband, re- Duke of Suffolk. sided in the manor-house of Beckenham as lessee; and that he entertained Henry VIII. there, “with all the cunning pompe of magnificence, as he went to bestow a visit, at Hever, on his dis- carded and repudiated wife, Anne of Cleve /15.” Foxgrove- Foxgrove-farm belonged, at a very early period, to a family of farm. that name /16. Bartholomew de Burghersh died seised of it in 1354 /17. His son Bartholomew aliened it, in 1369, to Sir Walter de Pavely /18. About the end of the same century, it passed from the Pavelys to the family of Vaux, of Northamptonshire /19. Sir Thomas Grene, who had purchased it of the Vaux’s, died seised of it in 1465 /20. About the year 1510, it came into the family of Baversea. Hum- Arms. The alienation from Sir George Dalston, (who was son of Sir John Dalston by a second wife,) to Sir Patrick Curwen, as mentioned by Philipott and Hasted, was, it is probable, a family conveyance. He might have been trustee for Sir Patrick, who was his nephew. The conveyance of this moiety of the manor, from Humphrey Tyrrell to Sir Ralph Warren, mentioned by Philipott, and confirmed by Pat. 35 Hen. VIII. pt. 18. April 12, was probably a mortgage, or trust, though not declared; as was also, I suppose, a conveyance from the same Humphrey Tyrrell to William Parker, citizen and dra- per. Pat. 2 Edw. VI. pt. 1. Nov. 22. /13 Philipott, p. 63. /14 From the information of Mr. Cator. /15 History of Kent, p. 63. /16 Ibid. p. 64. /17 Esch. 29 Edw. III. N/o 44. /18 Philipott. /19 Ibid. /20 Esch. 4 Edw. IV. N/o 21. 294 phrey Baversea aliened it to Luke Hollingworth, who, about the year 1547, sold it to Sir John Olyffe /21, whose only daughter and heir married John Leigh, Esq. of Addington, in Surrey. From him, it descended to Sir Francis Leigh, who died in 1711 /22, having directed this and other estates to be sold.