BUCKLAND
Bocland (Testa de Nevill), Bukelonde (xiii cent.);
Bokelond (xiv cent.).
Buckland is a small parish and village 2 miles west
of Reigate. It is bounded on the north by Waltonon-the-Hill, on the east and south-east by Reigate,
on the west and south-west by Betchworth. It
contains 1,866 acres of land and 10 of water.
It covers the three soils, as usual, the northern
boundary being on the summit of the chalk hills, and
the parish extending across the sand on to the
Wealden Clay. The village and church here, as
elsewhere, are situated on the sand. It measures
about 1½ miles from east to west, and barely 2 miles
from north to south. A small detached portion
inclosed by Reigate was added to that parish under
the Divided Parishes Act of 1882. Part of the south
of Buckland has been added to the ecclesiastical parish
of Sidlow Bridge, formed in 1862. The parish is
purely rural.
Buckland is traversed by the road from Dorking to
Reigate and by the Redhill and Reading branch of the
South Eastern Railway. No prehistoric antiquities
are recorded.
The rector in 1725 returned to Bishop Willis that
there was no chapel, no lecturer, no curate, no
Papist, no Nonconformists, no school. The history
of the parish seems as uneventful as might be expected, before and since. A succeeding rector, the
Rev. Oliph Leigh Spencer (1783–96), was author of
a life of Archbishop Chicheley, founder of All Souls
College, Oxford, the patrons of the living, and
supported his brother by arguments in a rather famous
lawsuit when the latter, Mr. Woolley Leigh Spencer,
claimed a fellowship at All Souls as being of founder's
kin. The claim was successful, 1762. Mr. Oliph
Leigh Spencer was himself a fellow. (fn. 1)
There is no record of inclosure.
Buckland Court, the seat of Major F. M. Beaumont,
is near the church. Mr. F. H. Beaumont, J.P.,
lord of the manor, resides at The Cottage. Shagbrook
was the seat of the late Sir George Thomas Livesey;
Broom Perrow of Mr. J. H. Bovill.
A national school was built in 1822. (fn. 2) It was
rebuilt in 1862, and enlarged in 1886. It is
subsidized from Johnson's Charity, given in 1857,
which produces £11 5s. a year. The National
Society are trustees.
MANORS
At the time of the Domesday Survey
BUCKLAND, assessed for 2 hides, was
held by 'John' of Richard de Tonbridge,
lord of Clare. (fn. 3) The manor remained part of the
honour of Clare, (fn. 4) and was held of the Earls of Gloucester, (fn. 5) descendants of Richard de Tonbridge.
In the first half of the 13th century Buckland was
held as one knight's fee by Alicia de Dammartin. (fn. 6)
She was the daughter of Odo de Dammartin and
Margery his wife; before 1231 she was married to John
de Wauton, (fn. 7) who thus became possessed of Buckland.
In 1293 the manor and church of Buckland were
conveyed to Guy Ferre, junior, by John Wauton, (fn. 8) a
settlement being made in 1302 on Guy and his
heirs, with remainder in default of issue to Sir John
Claron and his issue, afterwards to the right heirs of
Guy. (fn. 9) Guy Ferre (fn. 10) was in the suite of Eleanor
Countess of Bar, daughter of Edward I, whom he
constantly accompanied abroad; (fn. 11) after her death he
probably continued in the service of her daughter
Joan. (fn. 12) He died childless in 1322–3, and his lands
at Buckland therefore passed to Claron. (fn. 13) Eleanor
widow of Guy Ferre retained a third of the manor
as dower, (fn. 14) as she presented to the church which
belonged to the manor after 1346. (fn. 15) Sir John
Claron died in or before the year 1342, (fn. 16) but it is
not apparent who his heirs were. The next record
of the manor shows that two-thirds of it were held by
John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, at his death in 1347,
and that he held in the right of his wife Joan,
daughter of Eleanor Countess of Bar. (fn. 17)
John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, died without
male issue, his next heir being Richard, Earl of
Arundel, son of his sister Alice and Edmund, late
Earl of Arundel. Richard accordingly inherited the
manor, (fn. 18) a settlement being made in 1349 on his
younger son, Sir John de Arundel, in tail male. (fn. 19)
Sir John perished at sea in 1379, and was succeeded
by his son John, (fn. 20) who received during his minority
an annual grant of 40 marks for his maintenance from
Richard Earl of Arundel, 'being the amount of his
farm for the manor of Bokeland, Surrey, in the king's
hands by reason of the said minority.' (fn. 21) Eleanor
widow of the first Sir John married Reginald
Lord Cobham as her second husband, (fn. 22) and he at his
death in 1402–3 was seised of a third of the manor
of Buckland in the right of his wife. (fn. 23) The major
part of the manor continued to be held by the second
Sir John de Arundel, and at his death passed to his
son John, who became twelfth Earl of Arundel. (fn. 24)
The latter died in 1421. (fn. 25) His widow Eleanor
married Sir Richard Poynings, who was assessed for
the manor in 1428; (fn. 26) after his death she married
Sir Walter Hungerford, and died in 1455, when
William, her second son by the twelfth earl,
inherited the manor. (fn. 27) He
had become fifteenth Earl of
Arundel in 1438, (fn. 28) and the
manor appears to have remained in the hands of succeeding earls until 1564.
Henry Earl of Arundel settled
the manor on his daughter
Jane, who had married John
Lord Lumley. (fn. 29) In 1567 Lord
Lumley and Jane conveyed
the property to Herbert Pelham and Roger Dallender. (fn. 30)
Pelham quitclaimed his right to Dallender in 1569, (fn. 31)
and the latter held until his death in 1599, (fn. 32) when
his son William inherited his lands, a settlement
having been made in 1589 on the marriage of
William with Margaret Leigh. (fn. 33) William died in
1618, and his son Ralph succeeded him. (fn. 34) Ralph
Dallender in 1654 joined with several other members
of the family in a sale to George Browne, (fn. 35) who
married a daughter of Sir Ambrose Browne of
Betchworth. Ambrose and John Browne, sons of
George, held the manor successively. (fn. 36) On the death
without issue of John Browne in 1736 his estates
passed to the family of his sister Philippa, who had
married William Jordan of Gatwick; their son
Thomas Jordan died unmarried in 1750, when his
sisters Elizabeth wife of William Beaumont and
Philippa wife of John Sharp became his heirs. (fn. 37) The
manor of Buckland became the property of the former,
Philippa and John Sharpe having released their
claim to her in 1753. (fn. 38) From that time until the
present the manor has been held by descendants of
William and Elizabeth Beaumont, remaining usually in
the younger branch of the family. (fn. 39) Mr. F. H. Beaumont is at present lord of the manor.
Fitz Alan, Earl of Arundel. Gules a lion or.
Browne. Sable three lions passant bendwise between two double cotises argent.
Beaumont. Azure powdered with fleurs de lis argent and a lion argent.
A mill in Buckland is recorded in the Domesday
Survey, when its value was stated to be 6s. (fn. 40) It was
probably identical with the mill in Hartswood, parcel
of the manor of Buckland, of which later record is
found (vide infra). In 1268 John de Wauton and his
heirs received a grant of free warren in his demesne
lands in Buckland and elsewhere. (fn. 41) Guy Ferre received a grant of free warren in his demesne lands of
Buckland in 1291, (fn. 42) nearly two years before the formal
grant of the manor was made him by John de Wauton.
In 1350 a complaint was made by the Earl of
Arundel that his free chases and warrens at Buckland
had been entered by trespassers who hunted and took
away the deer, hares, rabbits, pheasants, and partridges. (fn. 43) In 1390 it was found that the manor was
charged with a payment of 2d. yearly, then due to
Richard Chamberlayn, who was custodian of the
warren there. (fn. 44)
HARTSWOOD
HARTSWOOD lying in the ecclesiastical parish
of Sidlow Bridge, originally formed part of the
manor of Buckland. The name occurs early in the
13th century, when John de Wauton, lord of the
manor of Buckland, granted to Robert de Hartswood, for his homage and service, a field called
Rudene lying between the mill of 'Herteswode'
and a field called Pegesull. (fn. 45) There is no further
mention of this mill, which apparently fell into disuse. In 1379 John de Arundel, lord of Buckland,
received licence to inclose his wood of 'Herteswode,'
and to impark 360 acres of land adjacent thereto. (fn. 46) An
extent of the manor of Buckland made in 1380 includes
100 acres of land there among the appurtenances. (fn. 47)
Hartswood remained part of the manor until 1569,
when it seems to have been conveyed by Roger Dallender, as lands in the parish of Buckland, including
300 acres of wood, to John Skinner (fn. 48) ; the latter died
in 1583–4 seised of the manor, park, and demesnes of
Hartswood in Buckland. (fn. 49) In 1589 William Poyntz,
brother-in-law and heir of Skinner, was lord of the
manor; (fn. 50) it afterwards passed to Richard Elyot of Albury, nephew, and in default of male heirs to Poyntz's
son John, heir of the same John Skinner, (fn. 51) being the
son of his sister Elizabeth. Richard died in 1608. (fn. 52)
The manor was afterwards held by his brother or uncle
Thomas Elyot, (fn. 53) and in 1620 was, with the park, conveyed by him and other members of this family to Sir
William Garway. (fn. 54) In 1632 it was held by Lionel
Wright, who sold it in that year to John Hatt and
Elizabeth his wife, receiving in the following year a
ninety-nine-years' lease of the capital messuage and
mansion house belonging to the manor. (fn. 55) By 1653
it was in the possession of
the family of Moore. (fn. 56) Susan
daughter and heir of Thomas
Moore, who died about 1676,
married Robert Bristow. (fn. 57) After her husband's death, she
and trustees conveyed the
manor in 1718 to Sir William Scawen, (fn. 58) in whose family
it remained until 1781, when
James Seawen sold it to Sir
Merrick Burrell. (fn. 59) Sir Peter
Burrell, great-nephew of Sir
Merrick, inherited the latter's
estates in 1787, (fn. 60) and sold the
manor shortly afterwards to William Clutton. (fn. 61) The
property is still in this family. Mr. Ralph William
Clutton is present owner.
Scawen. Argent a cheveron gules between three griffons' heads razed sable, those in chief facing each other.
CHURCH
The church of OUR LADY consists
of a chancel 22 ft. 2 in. by 19 ft. 6 in.,
small north transeptor vestry 11 ft. by 9 ft.,
nave 44 ft. 6 in. by 21 ft. 8 in., and a south porch.
The church was rebuilt in 1860, and has no architectural details earlier than this date, and all the
fittings are modern. The walls are built of ironstone
rubble, and the window tracery is of 14th-century
style. The bells are hung in a shingled wood turret
with a spire, rising above the roof at the west end of
the nave, and supported on wooden posts from the floor.
In two of the windows is some old stained glass.
The south-west window of the nave has a figure of
St. Peter holding the two keys; the head and keys,
although old, have the appearance of being later than
the rest of the figure; the canopy work (with the
name below) is generally modern, but has some old
foliage in red and blue set in it; the head of the
canopy is apparently old. The other window at the
north-east of the nave has the figure of St. Paul; on
this again the head and sword are less worn than the
rest of the figure. There are six bells, all by Warner;
the three largest were recast in 1900 from three by
William Eldridge dated 1681; the third is dated
1900, the second 1860, and the treble 1892.
The plate was stolen in 1850, but a set was given
to replace it by the then rector, Dr. Hulse, consisting
of a cup and cover, a paten, a flagon, and two plates.
There are also two silver candlesticks of 1691, a paten
of 1894, two cruets of 1893, and a flagon of 1907.
There is a note in the register mentioning the complete restoration of the church and rebuilding of the
chancel in 1859–60, at a cost of £2,253.
The registers date from 1560, but are an 18th-century transcript. The first volume contains two books
of unequal size in parchment bound together; the
first part has baptisms, marriages, and burials to 1667
with one baptism of 1675, and the second baptisms
and burials to 1776 and marriages to 1753. The
second book contains marriages from 1754 to 1812,
and the third baptisms and burials from 1777 to
1812.
ADVOWSON
The Domesday Survey records the
existence of a church at Buckland. (fn. 62)
From its foundation it belonged to
the manor of Buckland, and was held with it as 'the
church of the manor,' until 1567, (fn. 63) the patronage
being in the hands of the lord of the manor. (fn. 64)
When Lord Lumley conveyed the manor to Pelham
and Dallender in 1567, however, he retained the
advowson of the church, and was possessed of it at
his death in 1609. (fn. 65) His heir was Henry Lloyd,
son of his sister Barbara. (fn. 66) In 1628 Henry Lloyd
alias Fludd held the advowson. (fn. 67) Lloyd sold it to All
Souls College, Oxford, for
£335, on 18 February 1639. (fn. 68)
But in 1658 the Parliamentary
Commissioners found that
George Browne, lord of the
manor, held the advowson. (fn. 69)
Probably the royalist college
had been deprived during the
Civil War. In 1661 Lloyd
had resumed possession, presumably as a step in the restoration of the advowson to
the college, which held it
in 1674, (fn. 70) and still holds.
All Souls College, Oxford. Argent a cheveron between three cinquefoils gules.
CHARITIES
In 1704 Laurence Denton left
30s. a year rent from a meadow since
called Poor's Land, for relief of poor
not receiving parish relief. It is now worth £6 6s.
a year. In 1733 Mr. John Brown, lord of the manor,
left three acres for a similar purpose. This is now
represented by a sum in consols. A Mr. William
Cooke left £65 4s. 4d. consols.
The above are all consolidated with Smith's charity,
and applied for general purposes of medical relief,
nursing, provident clubs, or temporary loans.
Smith's charity is distributed as in other Surrey
parishes.