Spelthorne Hundred: Hampton Court Palace, advowson

ADVOWSON

The church appears to have been originally appropriated to the Abbey of St. Valery or Valeric in Picardy, as part of the possessions of the Priory of Takeley in Essex. The temporalities were seized by Edward III during his wars with France, (fn. 1) and in the reign of Richard II the advowson of Hampton, with all the other property of the Abbey of St. Valery in Middlesex, was alienated in frankalmoign to the 'warden and Scholars of St. Mary's College of Winchester.' (fn. 2) In 1543 it came by exchange to Henry VIII. (fn. 3) The rectory and advowson were leased to Richard Bennett (fn. 4) in 1546, and in 1562 to Edmund Pigeon and Joan his wife, (fn. 5) afterwards, in 1574, to Robert Nicolls, (fn. 6) who held them till 1585, when they were leased to John Cely (fn. 7) for twenty-one years. In 1607 James I granted the rectory in fee to Michael Cole and John Rowden, with the advowson of the vicarage. (fn. 8) They conveyed it to Edmund Pigeon, said to have been the grandson of the Edmund Pigeon who held it in 1562. (fn. 9) His sisters and co-heirs Elizabeth Kyme (fn. 10) and Frances Dorman afterwards held the rectory in moieties. (fn. 11) The whole became eventually vested in the Dormans, and was again divided between their heirs Frances Clarke and Mary Dorman, who respectively sold their moieties to John Jones in 1675 (fn. 12) and 1684. (fn. 13) In 1692 John Jones bequeathed the glebe and rectorial tithes to charitable uses for the benefit of the parish. (fn. 14) The advowson of the vicarage was reserved, and apparently reverted to the king, as in 1674 the 'impropriate rectory with tithes and advowson' was leased to James Nayler, but in 1679 the living (fn. 15) was once more in the gift of the Crown, and it has so remained to the present time. (fn. 16)

The new ecclesiastical district of Hampton Wick was formed in 1831, and that of Hampton Hill in 1864. (fn. 17)