Stanners

This legacy version of the site is not maintained. An updated version of the Chobham description and history site can be found at www.chobham.info

The following is a transcription from the The Victoria History of the County of Surrey, Published for the Institute of Historical Research (London: Oxford University Press, 1902, repr. 1967). Edited by H.E. Malden. For footnotes see the complete document on the 'Sources' page.

Volume 3.

A HISTORY OF SURREY – The Godley Hundred

STANNERS

The manor of Stannards, Stanyors or Fords was held of the abbey of Chertsey with the manor of Ham, next Chertsey by John de Hamme and Alina his wife in 1307.

During the reigns of Edward II (1307-27) and Edward III (1327-77) it was held, under the de Hammes, by a family of the name of Ford, whose name became attached to that of the manor of Stanners and Ford. It seems to have remained united to that of Hamme for some time longer. It is at least probable that Nicholas Fitz John, who held the latter (q.v.) about 1400, also held land at Stanore.⁴²

After this date there appears to be no record of it until 1532, when the manor, then in possession of William Lambert, was leased for thirty-one years to John Rogers of Chobham at the rent of £7 2s. 8d.⁴³ William Lambert died before 1539, when his widow Alice and daughter Collubra, wife of Richard Warde, conveyed the manor to the king in exchange for other lands.⁴⁴ In 1554 the Crown extended the lease previously made to John Rogers to his son Henry for a term of twenty-one years.⁴⁵ The manor in 1559 was granted to Thomas Reve and George Evelyn and the latter's heirs, to hold by knight's service,⁴⁶ Reve being only a trustee. Evelyn died in 1603, and the manor of Stannards passed to his second son John Evelyn, a settlement having been made on the marriage of George eldest son of John Evelyn with Elizabeth Rivers.⁴⁷

In 1618 the moiety of the manor was conveyed by John Evelyn and his wife to Robert Hatton as a settlement on his younger son John Evelyn on the latter's marriage; George Evelyn released his right to his brother, and in 1621 the other moiety of the manor was conveyed to him.⁴⁹ John Evelyn the younger apparently re-sold the manor to his brother George and his son Sir John in 1624,⁴⁹and the latter was in possession in 1636,⁵⁰ when he conveyed it to George Duncombe and Henry Baldwin in trust for James Linch, who died seised of the manor of Stannards and Fords in 1640, leaving as heiresses his granddaughters Eleanor, Susan, and Elizabeth Gauntlett.⁵¹ It is probable that Eleanor and Susan married Robert Parham and Robert Hussey respectively and released their right in the manor in 1651.⁵²

In 1687 the manor was in possession of Francis Swanton,⁵³ son of William Swanton, who married Elizabeth the youngest granddaughter of James Linch.⁵⁴ Francis Swanton is said to have sold it to Nathaniel Cocke in 1694.⁵⁵ In 1721 his widow Anne Cocke was seised of it, with reversion to Zachariah Gibson,⁵⁶ to whom Joseph Paris and Sara, probably the daughter of Anne Cocke, had released their interest.⁵⁷ In the same year Anne Cocke and Zachariah Gibson conveyed (the minor or lordship or reputed manor or lordship of Stannards and Fords) to John Martin, who in 1728 sold it to Thomas Woodford for £2,300,⁵⁸ the sale including two farms known as Forde Farm and Coxhill Farm, a common called Mynfield Green, and other lands. Thomas Woodford's son Thomas inherited the major part of his father's estate in 1758,⁵⁹ and in 1761 sold the manor of Stannards and Fords to Thomas Sewell, whose son and heir T. B. H. Sewell inherited it in 1784, selling in 1795 to Edmund Boehm, who owned it till 1819.⁶⁰

Mr. Boehm's property was sold in 1820 after his bankruptcy, and the manor was acquired by Mr. James Fladgate, corn merchant of Chertsey. He died in 1857^60a and left it to his son James Fladgate. The latter's son Henry sold the manor. The manor-house now belongs to Sir Henry Denis le Marchant, the land and manor to Mr. Ottexxx J.P., of Queenwood, and Miss Peele.⁶¹ The manor house, now tenanted by Mr. A. E. Greenwell, in part an early 17th-century building with some good Jacobean woodwork. It was probably erected by one of the Evelyns, the old manor house being timbered house still standing on the other side of the road, or Stanner's Hill Farm belonging to Mr. Baker of Ottershaw Park. The former is a large, picturesque old cottage of whitewashed brick and half-timber with a tiled roof. It is on the plan of a T with gable ends to the head and hipped roof at the foot; and is in two stories. It is now divided into two cottages.

I am grateful to John Beddall of the East India Club for the following story regarding Edmund Boehm who owned the house until 1819.

Edmund Boehm's wife was a celebrated hostess at their home at 16 St James's Square, a house they'd built on acquiring the land in 1804 from Thomas Anson, First Viscount. The Lichfield family had owned property in that area for a number of years.

The house was completed in 1807 and Mrs Boehm's lavish entertainment attracted guests of the highest social calibre. This round of gaiety culminated in a party on the evening of Wednesday June 21st 1815 at which the guest of honour was no less than the Prince Regent himself. Dinner had finished and the ladies were about to take their partners for the first quadrille.

Suddenly, there was a commotion in the square below and a carriage drew up containing four French eagle standards and Major the Hon. Henry Percy who emerged demanding to see the Prince. In a tattered and bloodstained uniform, he was ushered into the drawing room to hand over the standards and Wellington's Waterloo Despatch proclaiming the defeat of Napoleon.

With a crowd noisily assembled in the square, the Prince Regent went on to make an announcement from the balcony.

Contrary to some accounts, the occasion was not one of wholesale jubilation. The Despatch concentrated on the number of British casualties. The Prince was greatly saddened to learn the loss of those he had known personally.
(This contemporary report is from someone present in the room, Emma Edgcumbe, later Lady Brownlow, in her memiors published by John Murray in
1861 - 'Slight Remembrances of a Septuagenarian.')

Mrs Boehm was reportedly unhappy at the disruption to her party but disaster was to follow in 1819 with her husband's bankruptcy and the sale of No. 16. The Ottershaw property was subsequently disposed of but Mrs Boehm was able to spend her last days in a Grace and Favour apartment at Hampton Court, her recollections of that June night accompanied by a commemorative ornamental golden eagle, a present from the Prince Regent.