T h e s t o e sh a c r o u t o f t h e wa n ll y ll , t h e a And b e m o ut o f th e t imb e r sh all a n sw e r it . HA B . ii . 1 1 . ’ T h e r ic h t ru t h o f o u r L o r d s c a t h o lic m a n h o o d h a s o nly b e e n g ra d u a lly a pp a re n t in t h e h i s t o r y o f t h e w o rl d L e s t we sh o u b e a rr o a t w e e e t o r e m e m b e r t h a t o t h e r ld g n , n d a g e s h av e c a u ght m o r e r e a dily in Him wh a t w e ign o re a n d t h a t t h e wh o e is n e t l o t y t o ld . B PT O N EC T U E 1 8 1 . AM L R S , 9 A k a m o t h e a s t o k t lin ng d y , ni T h e e e rat o s e a h w t h e a h . g n i n , c i c I N E O I . M M R AM , xl W h e r e t h e kn e e ling h a m l e t d ra in s T h e ch a lic e o f th e g ra p e s o f G o d . C I N E O R I . M M AM , x 1 59 768 4 fil o all thuze inha habe Eflugbf after CES QBJJB within the walla 3 of t a i ure of . mar he nt ent t h £ g g , ’ fi lnhe hZ/ékhernnn 650 all who in lube habe aiheh in nphulh aah heautifg thia plare of fi ia aanrtuarg Emit in memnrg of acme hearl lnheh ere , g , ih within arre laih in real, r i he thia alight aket h a hiraleh. D/v! DILEXI DEC OREM DOM VS TVA E E L oom HA BITA TIGNI R/ T S GLO A E TVA E. ’ é tohe D ztbernon . I T is no uncommon thing to find the early history of a place neatly packed into its name unpack the name, o f and you have the opening chapters your history . ’ STO KE D A BE R N O N belongs to a class o f composite local names of which we have nu merous examples , Hurst - Monceaux , Holme Pierrepont , an d the like . ” STOKE is as S axon as Saxon can be . I n Domesday “ ” our Manor is known as STO CKE . The name arose from the ston es o r tree trunks forming the stockade with which villages were fortified i n days of insecurity and “ ” - o f sem i independence . Stowe , a village name frequent o f occurrence , is said to be another form the same word , “ which meant simply village . ’ B - D A ERN O N is as un mistakably Norman French . The present spelling first appears in the parish Registers under 1 D awburn o n the year 73 3 . Formerly it was written , ’ ’ d A ube rn oun d A ubern on , or ; for some years early in ’ d A lbom e this century the spelling is found , apparently o f A ubern o n without authority . No place bearing the name has been known ; but there is an Aubervilliers near Paris , o f U S and the river Aube , a tributary the pper eine , gives its name to a department . That is quite outside the ancient Duchy of Normandy , yet near enough to make o f some connexion possible . Be this as it may , we hear ” D awburn o n one Roger , described as the Normand , in the days of the Conqueror, and to him , after the Conquest , o f a grant was m ade this Manor with the advowson , as M oulse also of the Manors of Fetcham , Aldbury , and y . He did n o t hold from the King direct but from the tenant ih - G . chief, Richard Fitz ilbert , known as de Tonbridge The Manor o f Stoke would thenceforward bear the name ’ o f d A ubern on its im mediate holder, , and so , like Stoke ’ G fa Po is G E if rd , Stoke g ( famed by ray s legy) , Stoke Damerel , and the like, it became distinguished from other Stokes with or Without surname . — n First Saxon , then Norman such is the tale u folded E from the name . Can we go no further back ! xam ine the wall o f the Church and yo u will find in the mason ry 6 M UC H IN A NAME . MANO R . of some flue tiles which speak Roman times . That there was a Roman villa n ear at hand is possible ; and , but for of the industry the earth worm through long centuries , we might have other evidence . Other remains , if such there fo r be , are all safely buried the present . So we must be conten t to begin m idway between those ur o f days and o own . At the close that Saxon period E represented to us by the name Stoke , under dward the Brixi Confessor, we find the Manor held by one , and ‘ fifteen hides N o assessed at , acres . Church is mentioned ; but the Domesday survey , made within the twenty years that followed the Conquest , found a “ ” Church al ready in the parish of Stocke . We shall see presently where it is that some part of that building may possibly still be seen . The Church an d M anor House stand close together o n E the banks of the M ole . O riginally called mlyn Stream , that river now runs under a modernized name that lends ‘ o ex- arl—c o itself readily t p f a l derivations . From the Latin O A — o r it s M L , say some doth it not turn a m ill two in ! E mole — n ot course From the nglish , say others doth it r burrow and then eappear once and again P Let that pass . o f it— Poets have sung Spencer , Milton , Drayton , Pope , o f Thomson . Rising among the hills Northern Sussex , it passes Box H ill where it runs awhile under ground , of thence, winding through the picturesque vale Mickleham h E by Leather ead , it slowly glides along past Stoke to sher Place ; then , losing spirit and beauty , it creeps sluggishly o n n o w M oulse , and then with divided stream , till at y ’ e o r ( M ole s y islet) , opposite Hampton Court , it j oins the Thames and links us to a wider world . Here , beneath “ Church and M anor House , it flows fair and softly by so ( Camden saith , and our eyes see it) , making its own contribution to the quiet loveliness of the spot . As , however, we are more concerned with the Church than o f be n efic e . with the Manor , we pass on to the history the o f E I t is a Rectory , in the Deanery Leatherhead (once well) , f f o . o Archdeaconry Surrey The county Surrey is , since 1 8 2 7 , shared by no less than three dioceses ; our parish falls under Winchester . I n the taxation of Pope Nicholas , b n fice o f e e 8 5 d . the was valued at £ 1 3 . 4 ; in the valor ’ ” E . dward I at thirteen marcs , in the King s Books at “ “ 1 1 5 1 1 d 1 5 1 £ 3 3 . I t pays in tenths £ 7 . 5d ; procura “ — 6s 2 5. 1 8d . d . tions . synodals interesting survivals of days gone by . The Advowson has always passed with 1 6 the Manor till late in the last century . I n 74 it was 8 B F . TH E ENE ICE . THE CH URCH O f 00 included with certain lands i n a term 5 years , created by the marriage settlement of Sir Francis Vincent for raising portions for younger children ; sold under that on e authority about thirty years later, it was purchased by o f Paul Vaillant, Sheriff London , an eminent bookseller 1 1 of Huguenot origin ; and in the year 80 the Rev . Philip Vaillant was presented by his kinsman in succession to ’ the Rev . Richard Vincent ; upon the patron s death in the following year the advowson once more changed hands C he C hurch . Village Churches have no written history ; but the loss of an O ld Parish Church is as grievous as it is irreparable . Undying associations cling about it : those walls are the O f only , the loving, though silent , witnesses the j oys and O f sorrows , the faith and worship , the lives and deaths generations that have passed to thei r rest . Ye t there is a history that is writ in stone ; and this Church , as we have it , represents three main periods N A ! I .