THE HAMLET OF HATCHAM (in Deptford St. Paul).
Hacchesham, xiii and xiv cent.; Heccesham,
Hacham.
The whole of Deptford St. Nicholas and a part of
Deptford St. Paul, which are now in the county of
London, were formerly in the county of Kent, and the
description of Deptford will be found in a volume
relating to that county. The right location of that
part of Deptford St. Paul over which the manor of
Hatcham Barnes extended was doubtful until 1636,
when by a legal decision it was determined to lie in
Surrey. (fn. 1) By the Local Government Act of 1888 (fn. 2) it
was included with the rest of Deptford in the newlyformed county of London, and is now a part of the
metropolitan borough of Deptford, constituted under
the London Government Act of 1899. (fn. 3)
The district of New Cross, named originally from
the cross roads where the road from west to east
through Camberwell cut the roads from Kent and
from the south, is a network of small houses, and the
two railway stations of New Cross, on the Brighton
and South-Eastern and Chatham lines, are the centre
of a large town reaching into both Kent and Surrey.
Next to the church of St. Katherine on Telegraph
Hill is the Haberdashers' Boys' School, founded by
Robert Aske in 1692. The two present school
buildings are of brick and stone, of Gothic design,
and dating from 1875. A new middle block has
recently been built.
MANOR
In 1086 the manor of HATCHAM,
later HATCHAM BARNES, was held
of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, by Gilbert
Maminot, Bishop of Lisieux. Brixi had held it of
King Edward, and then and in 1086 it was assessed
for 3 hides. There was a wood worth three
hogs. Its value, unaltered since the time of King
Edward, was 40s. (fn. 4) Later it appears that the
Maminot barony included three fees at Hatcham,
which owed castle-ward service to Dover. (fn. 5) These
during the second half of the 12th century were
held by Gilbert de Hatcham, (fn. 6) and later by Richard
de Vabadun, (fn. 7) who was dead before 1261–2, when
his heirs were assessed for his fees. (fn. 8) His daughter
Sarah married Roger de Bavent, to whom John de
Say, who had married Avelina sister of Sarah, quitclaimed all right in Hatcham in 1240. (fn. 9) In 1285
Adam de Bavent received a grant of free warren in
his demesne lands of Hatcham. (fn. 10)
The same family continued to hold the manor
until the middle of the next century. In 1343 (fn. 11)
Roger de Bavent leased it to Sir Robert de Burton,
canon of Chichester, for seven years. He also gave
one Robert de Derby a £20 pension out of the
manor. (fn. 12) Shortly after he assigned the manor to
the king, but in 1346 (fn. 13) received back a life interest
in it. Edward III granted the manor in 1355 to
the Prioress of Dartford, a grant confirmed in 1372 (fn. 14)
after a surrender in 1371. (fn. 15) In 1369 John the son
of John Adam, who died in 1369, (fn. 16) held various
lands of the Prioress of Dartford, including Absolute
Croft, Brugelescroft (of the Burnell manor), land in
Wridescroft, and in a meadow called Fylysmede.
Other names given are Senerismerch, Glotesmerchfeld.
At the Dissolution Hatcham Barnes was valued at
£25, and was still charged with a payment to Dover
Castle. (fn. 17) The manor was granted in 1556 by Philip
and Mary to Ann Duchess of Somerset for her life, (fn. 18)
and in 1570 Elizabeth granted the reversion to Walter
Haddon for thirty years at an annual rent of £25 (fn. 19)
He died seised of this lease in 1572, (fn. 20) and Francis
Saunders of Welford, co. Northants, had a term in the
manor at his death in 1583. (fn. 21) In 1609 the manor
was granted to George Salter and John Williams, (fn. 22)
who are said to have conveyed it to Peter Vanlore,
and he to Sir John Brooke. Four years later Sir
John Brooke and others sold Hatcham Barnes to Sir
John Garrard, Sir Thomas Lowe, Robert Offley and
Martin Bond, trustees for the Haberdashers' Company. (fn. 23) These three trustees conveyed the estate to
the Governors of the Free School of William Jones
in Monmouth. (fn. 24) It still forms part of Jones's Monmouth Charity, out of the income of which Jones's
Grammar School, the Monmouth High School for
Girls and the West Monmouthshire School at Pontypool receive endowments.
The manor of HATCHAM or LITTLE
HATCHAM was probably formed from Hatcham
Barnes and West Greenwich by subinfeudation.
In 1288 John de Horneputte of Hatcham assigned
8 marks rent in Hatcham and West Greenwich
to Gregory de Rokesle, (fn. 25) who in 1286 had obtained
a faculty from the Abbot and convent of Bayham
(holding the manor of Brockley in West Greenwich)
for the oratory he had built for the use of himself
and his family at Hatcham. (fn. 26) At his death in 1291
Rokesle held of Adam Bavent, lord of Hatcham
Barnes, a messuage, 8 acres of plough-land, and
5 acres of meadow, by suit at the hundred court
of Brixton and by payment of 7s. 6d. to the ward of
Dover Castle every three weeks. (fn. 27) Gregory left as
heir his nephew Roger de Rislepe or Rokesle, who sold
the manor to Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells,
from whom it descended at his death in 1292 to his
nephew Philip Burnell, son of his brother Edward. (fn. 28)
Philip's son Edward succeeded him and left no issue,
his sister Maud, the wife of John de Handlo, being
his heir. In 1331 Eustace de Etton and Geoffrey
de Scardeburgh, chaplains, were the trustees of a
settlement (fn. 29) on John and Maud for life, and on their
heirs male; in default to the daughters of Maud, and
in contingent remainder to John the son of Sir John
Lovel, her first husband; and, lastly, to the right heirs
of Maud Burnell.
John Handlo died in August 1346, (fn. 30) leaving Nicholas
his son and heir. His Hatcham manor was said to
be held of Geoffrey de Say (lord of West Greenwich) by a quarter of a knight's fee and a rent
of 5s. every thirty-two weeks to Dover Castle.
There were a capital messuage and 20 acres of
plough-land worth 33s. 4d., and 7 acres of meadow at
7s. a year, which lay in a marsh, and therefore were
not worth more. Nicholas reassumed the name of
Burnell, and at his death in January 1382–3 (fn. 31) died
seised of 36s. 4d. rent of assize, held of the manor of
Hatcham (Barnes) and of Geoffrey de Say by a tenth
of a knight's fee. His son and
heir was Hugh Lord Burnell.
Hugh Burnell died on 27
November 1420. (fn. 32) He held
the manor for life of the gift
of Robert Pikedon of Witham,
Robert Darcy of Maldon,
William Boerley, David
Holbeche and others, with
remainder to Sir Walter
Hungerford, Edmund, son of
Sir Walter, and Margery his
wife, one of the heirs and
daughters of Sir Edward Burnell, deceased, the son of Sir
Hugh. Sir Walter and his son and Margery were
then living. The manor was said to be held of
the Prior of Wormsley at a service not known (but
this is apparently incorrect), value 10 marks a year.
Edward the son of Hugh Burnell left three
daughters: Joyce the wife of Thomas Erdyngton,
Katherine Burnell, and Margery the wife of Edmund
the son of Sir Walter Hungerford, aged twenty-four,
fourteen and eleven years old respectively.
Burnell. Argent a lion sable crowned or in a border azure.
After this little is known of this manor. About
1563 (fn. 33) one Nicholas Broket appears owning the
manor of Little Hatcham and conveyed it to William
Edwards. Nicholas had probably bought it in
1557–8 (fn. 34) by a fine levied between Thomas Hoo and
John Heyworth and Joan his wife, Hoo acting as his
trustee. Edwards sold to one Nicholas Toke, who
appears in possession in 1575, (fn. 35) and in that year
joined with William Edwards in a sale to Walter
Mayne. In 1602 William Westwray was holding
it, from whom it was acquired by John Edwards. (fn. 36)
It apparently came a little later to Randulph
Crew, east country merchant and citizen of London,
who in 1635 was holding a manor of Hatcham and
was assessed for ship money on it in both Kent and
Surrey. He objected to paying double on the same
land, and on 31 December 1635 his petition to the
Council was referred to the Judges of Assize in the
two counties, who reported that he was rightly
assessed in Surrey, where he had paid. (fn. 37)
By 1677 (fn. 38) one Thomas Thebald and his wife
owned the manor, and in 1752 (fn. 39) Christopher Cooper
and his wife conveyed a third of the manor to
Christopher Nicholson and John Gordon.
In 1757 (fn. 40) Thomas Newton and Henry Gawler sold
to John Coppinger this third, which in 1761 (fn. 41) was
further transferred to Samuel Dodington and John
Gawler. After this nothing is known of the manor.
In the 18th century a large house surrounded by
a moat, with extensive gardens, called Hatcham
House, stood on the north side of the hamlet. (fn. 42) This
was probably the house for which Randulph Crew
had been assessed in £4 for ship money in 1636,
and the 'one house' to which the manor of
Hatcham is said by Lysons to have been reduced
about 1790.
CHURCHES
The parish of ST. JAMES,
Hatcham, was formed in 1845, and
enlarged by additional parts of
St. Paul's in 1851. (fn. 43) The church is a large, well-built stone structure, built in 1854, in the style
of the 14th century. It has a chancel, vestries, &c.,
south transept with an aisle on either side, of two
bays, north transept of one bay with an organ chamber
aisle to the east, and baptistery with an apsidal north
end to the west (provision being made to build a
tower over the other bay of the transept), nave with
a tall clearstory, north and south aisles, porches, &c.
The chancel has a stone reredos and sedilia, is lighted
by a seven-light traceried east window and has a
vaulted ceiling. The nave is divided from the transept
by a wide arched bay, and four bays divide it from
the aisles, the columns being clustered and of good
detail. Arcades of two bays divide the south transept
from its aisles, and a small screen of two arched bays
the baptistery from the north aisle. The roof of the
nave is gabled and covered with slates. The pulpit
is of oak, the font of stone with marble shafts.
The church of ST. MICHAEL is a small building
of brick in Knoyle Street, serving as a chapel of ease
to St. James's, and consisting of a small chancel and
wide, short nave. The roof is slated.
The parish of ALL SAINTS, Hatcham Park, was
formed from St. James in 1872. (fn. 44) The church stands in
New Cross Road at the corner of Monson Road. It was
built in 1869 of stone in the style of the end of the
13th century, and consists of an apsidal chancel, nave,
north and south transepts and aisles, and the foundations of a proposed north-west tower; the nave has
a clearstory of traceried windows. The roofs are
covered with slates.
The parish of ST. KATHERINE, Hatcham Park,
was formed in 1892. The church, which stands on
Telegraph Hill, is a large building of rag and Bath
stone, erected about 1890 in the style of the 13th
century; it consists of a chancel, nave with a tall
clearstory, north and south transepts and aisles, and
the stump of a future north-east tower finished at
present with an embattled parapet.
ADVOWSONS
The advowson of St. James
belongs to the Church Patronage
Society, of All Saints to trustees for
two turns and to the Haberdashers' Company for one
turn, of St. Katherine's to the Haberdashers' Company.