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Friends of Woking Palace |
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Fishers Farm part two |
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The house is said to be named after the unfortunate John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, supposed to be the father confessor of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII who installed her at Woking Palace, made a cardinal in 1535 and executed by Henry VIII the same year.
The earliest reference to the house is found in the Court Rolls of Woking Manor 1 – 3 Edward VI Richard Byg, gentleman “holds by copy (1527) …one customary tenement called Fishers otherwise Runtley late of ……. John Byg (his father).
John Bigge was groom of the Chamber who lived at Woking and was probably the keeper of the royal house ie Woking Palace. The History of the King’s Works, Volume IV 1485-1660 Part I
An article in the Woking News and Mail of 28th May 1954 states …the land was given by Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of Henry VII and founder of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford) to her cellar man, one Simon Fisher, in 1540. This cannot be so since Lady Margaret Beaufort died in 1509. In any event the land was copyhold and part of the Royal Manor of Woking. The land would have belonged to Lady Margaret insofar as she was the Lord of the Manor.
Richard Waterer was the holder of Runtley Lands in 1604 according to a survey carried out of Woking Manor in the second year of James I’s reign.
When Woking Palace was abandoned by Sir Edward Zouch in the 1620’s, it is likely that some of the fittings were reused to improve other fine houses in the district. According to Annals of an Old Manor House by Frederick Harrison, some of the fine glass at Sutton Place was probably taken from the Palace. It is possible too that the gallery presented by Sir Edward to St Peter’s church also came from the Palace. It is, therefore, reasonable to suggest that the Fine Jacobean style staircase in Fishers Farm may well have originated from the same source. It is unlikely that local carpenters would have been employed to build such a fine staircase. It is more likely that the staircase would have been imported most probably from another house of quality.
Almost certainly the prominent local Rawlins family lived here. Four generations, father and son, bore the name Lionel and the Grade II listed tomb of John Rawlins (1693-1749), son of the third Lionel Rawlins, is in St Peter's churchyard. The first Lionel was the son of John Rawlins and Elizabeth Collins of Barwick, Somerset The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, Manning and Bray. The third Lionel Rawlins (1612-1672) is shown as occupying a house with 12 hearths in the 1664 Hearth Tax return which must have been Fishers Farm and the St Peter’s churchwardens’ rate assessments of 1673 to 1685 show the family holding freehold and copyhold land in the tything of Hale End in which the house stood. Moreover, the fourth Lionel Rawlins (1647-1707)’s will of 1706 specifically mentions his messuage or tenement called Fishers
The third Lionel Rawlins appears in the Free and Voluntary Present to Charles II 1661-2 when he gave £5 and the fourth in the List of Tenants of the Manor 1691-3 where he is described as gentleman in 1691 and 1693 and in the Association Rolls 1695. |
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