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Last modified: 7 October 2026
Transcribed in full, keeping Brayley’s spelling, capitals and punctuation, and checked line by line against the printed pages. The original page numbers are shown in grey, like this: [487]. Brayley’s footnotes are numbered as in the book and collected at the end; passages he set in small type are shown slightly smaller. This volume was issued in 1850, but the text was written in the 1840s and brought up to about July 1847, so “the present vicar” and the like mean then, not now. Compare the earlier account in Manning and Bray (1814).
The parish of Tooting is bordered on the north by Wandsworth; on the east by Streatham; and by Mitcham on the south and west. The soil, in general, consists of clay intermixed with gravel; and the land is chiefly arable. In most records, the name of this place is written with the addition of Graveney, which should more properly be Gravenell, being the name of persons who held considerable property here in the 12th and 13th centuries.
There were two, or rather three, manors called Totinges (Tooting), at the time of the Domesday survey, besides that held of the gift of Richard de Tonbridge, by the monks of St. Mary de Bec, and therefore styled the manor of Tooting Bec, described in the account of Streatham. One of these manors is thus noticed in the Domesday book, among the lands of the abbot of St. Peter’s, Westminster:—
“The Abbot holds Totinges, which Swain or Sweyn held of King Edward, when it was assessed at 4 hides. The arable land amounts to one carucate and a half. There are two villains, with half a carucate, and 3 acres of meadow. In the time of King Edward it was valued at 40 shillings, and the same at present; but when the Abbot received it, at only 20 shillings.
“Earl Wallef obtained this land from Swain, after the death of King Edward; and he mortgaged it, for 2 marks of gold, to Alnothus the Londoner, who gave his interest in it to St. Peter, for the health of his soul. Odbert holds it of the Abbot, exempt from payment of geld.”
This manor is supposed to have been joined either with the manor of Tooting Bec in Streatham, or with that of Tooting Graveney.
The other estates are thus described in the Domesday book:—
“Haimo the Sheriff holds Totinges of the Abbot of Certesy. In the time of King Edward it was assessed at 6 hides, wanting 1 virgate: now at nothing. The arable land consists of 3 carucates. There is 1 carucate in demesne; and three villains, and two bordars, with 1 carucate. There is a church; and 4 acres of meadow. In the time of King Edward, it was valued at 40 shillings; afterwards, at 20s.; and now, at 70s.
“The same Haimo holds of the Abbot 1 hide, which was held of King Edward by Osward, who could remove whither he pleased. There is one villain, with half a carucate, and 1 acre of meadow. In the time of King Edward, it was valued at 15s.; now at 10s.”
Hamo de Gravenell, in the reign of Henry the Second, gave to the prior of St. Mary Overey, the tithes and advowson of the church of Tooting; and the grant was confirmed by Richard Toclive, bishop of Winchester. King John, in 1216, granted to Denis, his chaplain, the land at Tooting which had belonged to Richard de Gravenell, who had probably lost the estate in consequence of having taken part with [487] the barons in their contest with the king. If so, however, the lands must have been shortly restored; for it is stated in the Testa de Nevill, that the heirs of Richard de Gravenell held one knight’s fee in Tooting of the abbot of Chertsey. In the 13th of Edward the First, 1285, Bartholomew de Castello obtained a charter of free-warren for himself and his heirs in this manor.
Thomas de Lodelowe died in 1314, seised of the manor of Totinge Gravenel, consisting of a capital messuage, garden, dovecote, 100 acres of arable land, 12 of meadow, 5 of pasture, 4 of woodland; rents of assise, &c.; held of the abbot of Chertsey, in capite, as half a knight’s fee. Katherine, the widow of Thomas de Lodelowe, son and heir of the preceding, held this manor in 1394, by the payment of a rose at the feast of St John the Baptist. On her decease in May the same year, the inheritance devolved on Margaret, the daughter of Thomas Lodelowe, and wife of Sir John Dymock; whose family continued its possessors for nearly two centuries. Sir Edw. Dymock, about 1593, transferred this property to James Harrington, esq.; by whom, in 1597, it was conveyed to Sir Henry Maynard, secretary to Lord Burghley; and it was probably to him that Queen Elizabeth paid her visit, when at Tooting in 1600. William, his eldest son, was advanced to the peerage; but this estate was held, possibly under a marriage settlement, by Sir John Maynard, his second son, who was made a knight of the Bath at the coronation of Charles the First. He sat in several parliaments; and in 1647, together with Denzil Holles, Sir William Waller, and other leaders of the Presbyterian party, was impeached of high-treason. Some of the accused fled to the continent; but Maynard, with Glyn the recorder of London, was committed to the Tower; not, however, for any length of time, as the prosecution was discontinued. On his decease in July, 1658, this estate descended to John, his son and heir, who died in 1664, leaving a daughter Mary, who became the wife of Sir Edw. Honeywood, bart.
In the reign of William and Mary, this manor belonged to the Whichcote family, of whom Sir Paul Whichcote, bart., held a court here in 1697. It was subsequently purchased by James Bateman, esq., afterwards knighted, an alderman of London, and lord-mayor in 1717: he died in November, 1718, and was buried by night with great pomp in Tooting church. His son, John Bateman, esq., sold this manor, with his other property in Surrey, under the authority of an act passed in the 11th of George the First, to Percival Lewis, esq., of Putney; from whom it descended to his grandson of the same name, whose estate here was sold by auction in 1767, for 24,925l. Morgan Rice, esq., a distiller, who bought the manor, and part of the land, built a [488] good house on the rising ground above the church; and was appointed sheriff of Surrey in 1772. Soon after his decease in 1795, this manor was sold to Thomas Platt, esq., who resold it to Charles Pole, esq.; by whom it was transferred to Henry Baring, esq.; and again by him, in the early part of the present century, to Rees Goring Thomas, esq., its present owner.
Advowson, &c.—On the dissolution of the priory of St. Mary Overey, this advowson became vested in the crown, and was granted by Edward the Sixth to Edward Fynes, lord Clinton and Say, afterwards created earl of Lincoln. It was subsequently repeatedly transferred by sale, until it came into the possession of Sir James Bateman, who held the manor, as stated above; and James, his son, about the year 1725, sold both to Percival Lewis, esq. The latter conveyed the advowson to the Rev. Nicholas Brady; whose only daughter, Martha, was married to the Rev. Dr. Henry Allen, who was instituted to this living in 1769. He afterwards sold the advowson to the Rev. G. F. Barlow, who succeeded him as vicar, and then disposed of the patronage to Peter Broadley, esq. This benefice is a rectory in the deanery of Southwark; and is described in the Valor of Henry the Eighth as paying a pension of 5s. to the prior of St. Mary’s, and 4s. 6d. for procurations and synodals. In the Taxation of Pope Nicholas, it is valued at 40s.; and in the King’s books, at 8l. 8s. 6½d. The Register commences in 1555.
The Church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, was rebuilt in 1822, from the designs of Mr. Atkinson; and reconsecrated on the 13th of February, 1833. It is a small structure in the pointed style, consisting of a nave, chancel, and west tower; the latter being well-proportioned and of four stories. The walls are supported by graduated buttresses of three stages; and on each side are six windows of two lights each, with decorated headings. The east window has four divisions, with smaller lights rising to the apex; and is enriched with stained glass, the gift of R. G. Thomas, esq., the lord of the manor: the side windows are also bordered with stained glass. In the central part of the gothic altar-screen, is a good copy, presented by Mr. Bates, of the Salvator Mundi, by Sir James Thornhill.
Among the sepulchral memorials removed from the old church, is a tablet in memory of Sir John Hebdon, knt., who was twice envoy to the emperor of Russia, and frequently employed in embassies and negociations during the reigns of Charles the First and Charles the Second, “for whose interest he spared neither purse nor person, though to the prejudice of his owne.” He died on the 10th of June, 1670, in the 59th year of his age.—Capt. Philip Gidley King, R.N., [489] formerly governor of New South Wales, who died on the 3rd of September, 1802, aged forty-nine years, was buried in the south aisle.—A more recent tablet records the memory of Richard Alsager, esq., “one of the Elder Brothers of the Trinity House,” who died on the 17th of January, 1841, aged sixty years.
In the church-yard is the tomb of Sir John Maynard, K.B., who died on July the 29th, 1658, aged sixty-six; and of his son, Sir John Maynard, knt.; the latter died at the age of thirty, on the 14th of May, 1664.
Rectors of Tooting-Graveney in and since the year 1800:3—
Robert Broadley, B.A. Inducted January 12th, 1801; on the cession of the Rev. George Francis Barlow, the previous incumbent.
John Ravenhill, B.A. Instituted January 19th, 1805.
John Buxton Marsden, A.M. Inducted March 12th, 1833.
Richard Wilson Greaves, A.M., now patron of the living. Inducted October 31st, on the cession of Mr. Marsden.
In the space between the church-yard and the Mitcham road is an Artesian Well, which was sunk at the expense of the parishioners, and the fountain raised over it, in the year 1823. It produces an abundant and constant supply at the rate of about 130 gallons per minute, the water being directed to several small fountains in the village: the depth of the well is about 130 feet.
Near the church on the road to Streatham, commodious Schools have been erected for the education of boys and girls on the National system. The buildings are more lofty, and of a better character than the general run of school-houses. The Infant Pauper Asylum, conducted by Mr. Bartholomew Peter Drouet, (which is at some distance from the village), receives children from the Strand, Richmond, and Croydon unions, and likewise from the parishes of St. George in the East, St. Mary Newington, and Chelsea.
At Tooting, and its neighbourhood, as in most of the suburban villages in Surrey, are divers seats of retired merchants and tradesmen; several of them being elegant villas, with extensive grounds annexed. Of these, Hill-house, formerly the seat of the late Mr. Alderman Venables, is one of the most conspicuous.
There is a Meeting-house for Independents at Tooting, which Lysons says “owes its origin to the celebrated Daniel Defoe, who first formed the Dissenters of that neighbourhood into a regular society [490] soon after the revolution.” Dr. Oldfield, an eminent tutor, was the first pastor; and several talented persons have since been ministers here. The Rev. J. Waraker is the present pastor.
1 Upper Tooting is chiefly situated in the parish of Streatham.
3 Samuel Lisle, D.D., who was instituted to Tooting on February 28th, 1720-21, and resigned the living in 1729, was raised to the bishopric of St. Asaph in 1743. He was subsequently translated to Norwich; and died in 1749. [There is no note 2 in the printed text.]
Transcribed by Philip Boys, with Claude, October 2026. Build 1.