A Topographical History of Surrey Author:Edward Wedlake Brayley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MANOR OF CROYDON. ARCHIEPISCOPAL PALACE. 5 There is a church; and one mill, at 5 shillings; and 8 acres of meadow. The wood yields two hundred swine. Of the l... more »and belonging to this manor, Restold holds of the Archbishop 7 hides; and Ralph 1 hide; and thence they have 7 pounds, 8 shillings rent. The whole manor, in the time of King Edward, was valued at 12 pounds: now at 27 pounds to the Archbishop; and 10 pounds, 10 shillings, to his men." This manor is said to have been given by William the Conqueror to Archbishop Lanfranc, who is supposed to "have founded the archi- episcopal palace; though Robert Kilwardby is the first prelate who is certainly known to have resided at Croydon. He resigned the metropolitan dignity on being made a cardinal, in 1278, and went to Rome, leaving the castles and mansions belonging to the See in such a dilapidated state that Archbishop Peckham, his successor, found it necessary to expend three thousand marks in repairs; though it is uncertain what part of this sum may have been laid out at Croydon. The manor continued to belong to the see of Canterbury until the suppression of episcopal government in the church, in the seventeenth century, when the revenues of the archbishopric were seized by the parliament. The annual value of the manor, palace, and land, was then estimated at 274/. 19s. 9%d., exclusive of the timber. Archiepiscopal Palace.—There is no evidence that any archbishop of Canterbury resided at Croydon before Kilwardby above mentioned ; but it may be concluded that he had a palace or mansion here; as he dated from this place, September 4th, 1273, a mandate for holding a convocation at the New Temple, in London." Several succeeding prelates, in the same and the following century, were occasionally resident here; and among them, Archb...« less