THE STEM
We now come to George Austen, the stay at home brother and co-founder of the family. Though the second Squire of Shalford he was essentially a Guildford citizen, his whole career as a woolstapler being spent in that town. Ofhis business we know little or nothing, but of his character and civic responsibilities there is much to record, for he was in the fullest sense of the term one of the Probi Homines, or Approved Men of his native town. He wasconspicuously methodical and businesslike in all his dealingsand imbued with an innate conservatism that made him anxious to maintain all old customs and safeguard all old records. It is due to his care of the latter that the early history of Guildford has been preserved.
His first wife was Ann, daughter and heiress of Thomas Mellersh of Godalming. She brought as her dowry the ancient farmhouse of Nore which, though near to Cranley, lies within the parish of Bramley. This property, which has never passed out of the possession of the Austens, has belonged to them for more than three hundred years; having been acquired by Mellersh in the reign of Henry VIII. By this wife, George Austen had a son, Samuel Austen, who married but died without issue, and two daughters. The eldest, Joan or Johanna, married Sir Maurice Abbott, Lord Mayor of London, and one of the leading business men of his day. Ann, the younger daughter, married a local squire, John Wight of Braboeuf, near St. Catherine's, Guildford. After Ann Austen's death, George Austen took as his second wife, Jane, daughter of Robert Harrison of London, and heiress of her brother. By her he had a daughter, Jane, who married Thomas Tuesley of Guilford, and seven sons, of whom five survived, viz., John who was his uncle's heir, Francis who became a prosperous London citizen, Robert, an M.A. and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, Ralph or Raffe, an M.A. and Fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford, and George who became an eminent merchant of London. Exhausted by two(sic) frequent child-bearing, Jane Austen died, and though much loved by her husband was soon replaced, for George Austen was of too uxorious a disposition to dispense with a partner for long. So he married as his third wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Wayre of London, by whom he had a son Benjamin and two daughters Susan and Elizabeth.
Prosperous as he was,the education and maintenance of so big a brood wasa great charge, and kept George Austen at his business till he died. He took a prominent part in all matters affecting the of Guildford and the affairs of is Guild Merchant. He was Mayor in 1579, 1588 and 1600, and represented Haslemere in Parliament in 1593 and Guildford in 1603. After his brother John's death, he went to live at Shalford, and while attending to his business as a woolstapler, devoted all his leisure to the improvement of his estate to which he made constant additions. His love of records was conspicuous even in his personal affairs, for he compiled about 1611 a Terrier of the joint estate which he shared with his brother. This includes, besides minute records of all their purchases, maps drawn to scale by himself, showing every field with colours indicating which were arable and which were pasture. Among them is a valuable map of Shalford and Guildford and it is interesting to note that the main street of Shalford was practically the same then as it is to-day.
George Austen carried out two important works which have preserved his memory. One was the account he wrote of the Royal Grammar School, of which his father was one of the founders, and the other was his preservation of the Guildford Corporation records which he collected and edited. Both were labours of love and in recent years one of the roads in Guildford was named after him, in recognition of his civic virtues. To these activities should be mentioned the help he gave his friend George Abbott, Archbishop of Canterbury, in building the noble Hospital with which the latter endowed his native town.
The Free School of Guildford which had been conducted by Dominican Friars before the dissolution of the Monasteries, became a Royal Grammar School in the reign of Edward VI., who endowed it meagerly with the revenues of certain confiscated chantries. Thanks to the generosity of Robert Beckington, Citizen and Grocer of London, it was found possible to start the school in a humble way in a house near the Castle. This soon proved inadequate, so the Mayor and his brethren the Approved Men, decided to erect a suitable building for the School in the High Street. The following is George Austen's account of what they undertook -
In 1557, they did begynne at their owne costes and charges to builde and reare the Schole House with the Great Chamber and Garrett over the same, healed (i.e., roofed) with Horsham stone, and therein made manie verie faier windowes of ffree stone, well glased, the walls of which Schole House are all of brick and stone of a very strong and statelie building, the charges whereof didd amount to above ffower hundred marks.
This was the beginning of the undertaking, but the School did not make much progress and there was a falling off in the number of its scholars. This was attributed by Thomas Parvis, writing from Christchurch, Oxford, in 1565, to the fact that the building had not been completed and that the salaries of the Master and Usher were not 'honest stypends with reasonable condycions appended'. This criticism caused a revival of activity, and the building erected in 1557, which now forms the South side of the School Quadrangle, was supplemented in 1569 by the erection at the cost of John Austen, 'sometyme Maior of Guldeforde', of the present West Wing. This is what George Austen has to say about his father's benefaction -
John Austen, findinge a want of the Romes intended to be buylded for the Scholemaster and Ussher, and seeinge noe liklyhode that the Townsmen could performe the same, and having contributed according to his habilitie to the buildinge of the saide large Rome (i.e. the Great Chamber or School Room previously mentioned) didd procure by his travell and ernest endeavour divers somes of money which he truly and faithfullie disbursed In buyldinge of the House, Sellar, Romes. Lodginges and Chimneys nowe called the Scholemaster hys Lodginges; which he began to builde in the yere 1569, the same buildinges being all of brick and stone of a stronge and faier buildinge, of three storyes highe covered with Horsham stone, and in all poyntes answerable to the former large Rome and builded at the west end of the said large Rome or Schole house and extendeth itself from the Scholehouse northwardes to the High Street of Guldeford but yet not finished by in such as he purposed and as now it is, because he was prevented by death.
The good work begun by John Austen was continued by others. Something was done in 1571 and at least the street front of the School was completed; but the rest of the work remained in a half finished state and was falling to ruin in 1535 when George Austen his son took the matter in hand. This is what he has to say about it -
‘And because there is menion made before of the Romes and Lodginges buylded by John Austen for the Scholemaster hys House which was not fynished in his lifetime, it now falleth out to make menclon how and by what meanes those Romes and Lodginges were completed; for after the death of the said John Austen the same lay many yeres unfynished . . . Whereupon knowing what travell and paynes John Austen hadd taken to buyld the same and seeing how likely it was to fall to utter decay, I didd consider what course might be taken to bring the same to like perfection and in th'end resolved to trye what might be gotten amongest the gentlemen of the county for that purpose, and finding Sir William More before named alwayes very forwarde to yelde halpe for the same I didd acquaint him with my purpose and desired his good furtherance therein, who didd not onely contributed towards the same himself, but also by his meanes there was procured from divers gentlemen their large benevolence towards this work’.
A considerable sum was collected as the result of George Austen's appeal, 'all of which' he says,
I truly and faythfully bestowed in the yere 1586 in finishing the said Romes and Lodging buylded by William Hamonde. The south side of which Gallery was taken downe because the tymber worke thereof, being slender by long contynuinge unfynished, was like to fall. And soe a new frame was made for that south side, which being fynished I converted to a library wherein all the bookes given by . . . John Parkhurst, late Bishopp of Norwich, and divers other bookes geven sithens by others, are now remayninge, which Lodginges, Romes and Gallery howe and in what manner they are nowe fynished, I rather leve to the veue and judgment of the Worlde than to make any larg discription thereof here.
This interesting account of the building of the Royal Grammar School was, to use his words, 'collected by the study, travell arc charge of George Austen.' He dedicated his work to 'The Worshipfull his lovinge brethren the Maior and Approved Men of Guldeford. The manuscript written by his own hand is in the possession of the Corporation.
We now come to George Austen, the stay at home brother and co-founder of the family. Though the second Squire of Shalford he was essentially a Guildford citizen, his whole career as a woolstapler being spent in that town. Ofhis business we know little or nothing, but of his character and civic responsibilities there is much to record, for he was in the fullest sense of the term one of the Probi Homines, or Approved Men of his native town. He wasconspicuously methodical and businesslike in all his dealingsand imbued with an innate conservatism that made him anxious to maintain all old customs and safeguard all old records. It is due to his care of the latter that the early history of Guildford has been preserved.
His first wife was Ann, daughter and heiress of Thomas Mellersh of Godalming. She brought as her dowry the ancient farmhouse of Nore which, though near to Cranley, lies within the parish of Bramley. This property, which has never passed out of the possession of the Austens, has belonged to them for more than three hundred years; having been acquired by Mellersh in the reign of Henry VIII. By this wife, George Austen had a son, Samuel Austen, who married but died without issue, and two daughters. The eldest, Joan or Johanna, married Sir Maurice Abbott, Lord Mayor of London, and one of the leading business men of his day. Ann, the younger daughter, married a local squire, John Wight of Braboeuf, near St. Catherine's, Guildford. After Ann Austen's death, George Austen took as his second wife, Jane, daughter of Robert Harrison of London, and heiress of her brother. By her he had a daughter, Jane, who married Thomas Tuesley of Guilford, and seven sons, of whom five survived, viz., John who was his uncle's heir, Francis who became a prosperous London citizen, Robert, an M.A. and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, Ralph or Raffe, an M.A. and Fellow of Magdalen college, Oxford, and George who became an eminent merchant of London. Exhausted by two(sic) frequent child-bearing, Jane Austen died, and though much loved by her husband was soon replaced, for George Austen was of too uxorious a disposition to dispense with a partner for long. So he married as his third wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Wayre of London, by whom he had a son Benjamin and two daughters Susan and Elizabeth.
Prosperous as he was,the education and maintenance of so big a brood wasa great charge, and kept George Austen at his business till he died. He took a prominent part in all matters affecting the of Guildford and the affairs of is Guild Merchant. He was Mayor in 1579, 1588 and 1600, and represented Haslemere in Parliament in 1593 and Guildford in 1603. After his brother John's death, he went to live at Shalford, and while attending to his business as a woolstapler, devoted all his leisure to the improvement of his estate to which he made constant additions. His love of records was conspicuous even in his personal affairs, for he compiled about 1611 a Terrier of the joint estate which he shared with his brother. This includes, besides minute records of all their purchases, maps drawn to scale by himself, showing every field with colours indicating which were arable and which were pasture. Among them is a valuable map of Shalford and Guildford and it is interesting to note that the main street of Shalford was practically the same then as it is to-day.
George Austen carried out two important works which have preserved his memory. One was the account he wrote of the Royal Grammar School, of which his father was one of the founders, and the other was his preservation of the Guildford Corporation records which he collected and edited. Both were labours of love and in recent years one of the roads in Guildford was named after him, in recognition of his civic virtues. To these activities should be mentioned the help he gave his friend George Abbott, Archbishop of Canterbury, in building the noble Hospital with which the latter endowed his native town.
The Free School of Guildford which had been conducted by Dominican Friars before the dissolution of the Monasteries, became a Royal Grammar School in the reign of Edward VI., who endowed it meagerly with the revenues of certain confiscated chantries. Thanks to the generosity of Robert Beckington, Citizen and Grocer of London, it was found possible to start the school in a humble way in a house near the Castle. This soon proved inadequate, so the Mayor and his brethren the Approved Men, decided to erect a suitable building for the School in the High Street. The following is George Austen's account of what they undertook -
In 1557, they did begynne at their owne costes and charges to builde and reare the Schole House with the Great Chamber and Garrett over the same, healed (i.e., roofed) with Horsham stone, and therein made manie verie faier windowes of ffree stone, well glased, the walls of which Schole House are all of brick and stone of a very strong and statelie building, the charges whereof didd amount to above ffower hundred marks.
This was the beginning of the undertaking, but the School did not make much progress and there was a falling off in the number of its scholars. This was attributed by Thomas Parvis, writing from Christchurch, Oxford, in 1565, to the fact that the building had not been completed and that the salaries of the Master and Usher were not 'honest stypends with reasonable condycions appended'. This criticism caused a revival of activity, and the building erected in 1557, which now forms the South side of the School Quadrangle, was supplemented in 1569 by the erection at the cost of John Austen, 'sometyme Maior of Guldeforde', of the present West Wing. This is what George Austen has to say about his father's benefaction -
John Austen, findinge a want of the Romes intended to be buylded for the Scholemaster and Ussher, and seeinge noe liklyhode that the Townsmen could performe the same, and having contributed according to his habilitie to the buildinge of the saide large Rome (i.e. the Great Chamber or School Room previously mentioned) didd procure by his travell and ernest endeavour divers somes of money which he truly and faithfullie disbursed In buyldinge of the House, Sellar, Romes. Lodginges and Chimneys nowe called the Scholemaster hys Lodginges; which he began to builde in the yere 1569, the same buildinges being all of brick and stone of a stronge and faier buildinge, of three storyes highe covered with Horsham stone, and in all poyntes answerable to the former large Rome and builded at the west end of the said large Rome or Schole house and extendeth itself from the Scholehouse northwardes to the High Street of Guldeford but yet not finished by in such as he purposed and as now it is, because he was prevented by death.
The good work begun by John Austen was continued by others. Something was done in 1571 and at least the street front of the School was completed; but the rest of the work remained in a half finished state and was falling to ruin in 1535 when George Austen his son took the matter in hand. This is what he has to say about it -
‘And because there is menion made before of the Romes and Lodginges buylded by John Austen for the Scholemaster hys House which was not fynished in his lifetime, it now falleth out to make menclon how and by what meanes those Romes and Lodginges were completed; for after the death of the said John Austen the same lay many yeres unfynished . . . Whereupon knowing what travell and paynes John Austen hadd taken to buyld the same and seeing how likely it was to fall to utter decay, I didd consider what course might be taken to bring the same to like perfection and in th'end resolved to trye what might be gotten amongest the gentlemen of the county for that purpose, and finding Sir William More before named alwayes very forwarde to yelde halpe for the same I didd acquaint him with my purpose and desired his good furtherance therein, who didd not onely contributed towards the same himself, but also by his meanes there was procured from divers gentlemen their large benevolence towards this work’.
A considerable sum was collected as the result of George Austen's appeal, 'all of which' he says,
I truly and faythfully bestowed in the yere 1586 in finishing the said Romes and Lodging buylded by William Hamonde. The south side of which Gallery was taken downe because the tymber worke thereof, being slender by long contynuinge unfynished, was like to fall. And soe a new frame was made for that south side, which being fynished I converted to a library wherein all the bookes given by . . . John Parkhurst, late Bishopp of Norwich, and divers other bookes geven sithens by others, are now remayninge, which Lodginges, Romes and Gallery howe and in what manner they are nowe fynished, I rather leve to the veue and judgment of the Worlde than to make any larg discription thereof here.
This interesting account of the building of the Royal Grammar School was, to use his words, 'collected by the study, travell arc charge of George Austen.' He dedicated his work to 'The Worshipfull his lovinge brethren the Maior and Approved Men of Guldeford. The manuscript written by his own hand is in the possession of the Corporation.
Even more noteworthy than his history of the Royal Grammar School, was the work George Austen accomplished in collecting and editing the scattered records of the charters and archives of the town of Guildford. The tale is best told in his own quaint words-
I found a verie auncient booke of the towne called the '.Black Booke' written in the tymes of Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Edward IV, and Henry VII, sometymes Kings of Englande, wherein are written and recorded the choice of divers officers within the said towne yerelie, with divers accompts of money received for rents, forfeytures, profitts of courts, faires, customes, and other things by the Bayliff Hallwardens and other officers of the said towne, yerelie collected and paide. And also divers entries of ffynes paide and auncient customes observed by sundry persons for admittance and general consent into the liberty and freedome of the said towne; which booke is so ragged, torne, and rent, one peece from another, and so disorderly placed, that I could hardly bring them into order agayne. Now for so much as came into my hands (a great many of the leaves of that booke being lacking) I have reduced as nere as I can into their places and collected out of the same the chief substaunce of so much of that which 1 found there written as could well be redd; for in manie of the leaves of that booke the very words and letters thereof in divers places are worn out by age and ill-keepinge as may appere to them that shall look into the same. So as I may truelie say it hath fared well with that booke, having passed a great number of yeres past from hand to hand, as with a common hackney horse, being hired by many and often journeyed, cometh, by the negligence or yll usage of some his riders, to a galled hack, or to some incurable disease. But levirige and deliveringe that old Black Book home agayne to the said towne in as good case as I received the same and better, I have briefly collected out of the same the chief matters therein sett downe which I have summarilie caused to be written in this my booke as an addition to the same, partlie to preserve some parte of auncient monuments ready to perish in rotten papers, but chieflie to shewe that in auncient tyme the books and records of the said towne were well kept and faire written, and the state and government of the towne (as it seemeth was such in those dayes) soe discretlie ordered that none were admitted or received into the freedome and libertie of the same but by a general consent of the magistrates and governours of the towne, paying such ffynes as then were thought mete and putting in pledges both for the payment of their ffynes and for observing of other customes such as making a breakfast to the Company and bayting of the bull etc, things in all likelihood very chargeable to them as may be gathered by the yerelle entries made and recorded of the same amongst other things in that booke. As for the feastinge and bull baytinge theyare things worne out of use and not fit to be revived; but forff'ynes paid by fforeyners for the ffreedome and admittance into the liberties to buv and sell within the said towne, there hath been a continuall custome and use thereof, although of late yeres much neglected, which I wish may be renewed and brought into use agayne. For the rest of the matters contayned in that booke from the first yere of the raign of' King Henry VI forthwardes, have omitted to make eny collections of those latter tymes because I find from that time the booke called the 'Red Booke' of the said towne to begin and continue yerelie the election of officers, admitting of foreyners by fine and some other things. But ther accompts neglected, and the rest not altogether in the same order and manner as it is in the former parts of the said 'Black Booke', yet fairer written and kept, so in both may be seen in a sort the order and manner of government and election of officers within the said towne for above two hundred and three score yeres, saving some difference in the time of King Henry the Seventh and sithens by enlarging of ther Letters Patent In the tyme of that noble King. I have taken paynes to gather together out of that booke brieflie that which followeth, that thereby instede of the substance, some shadow or resemblance of that old booke may remayne for those which shall succeed. And yett I wolde not have that 'Black Booke' by this means to be cast away or not regarded by appearing old and ragged, but rather to accompte of him the more, in that he doth proceed from your auncient predecessors and afford him that favour to let him have abode amongst you, where he may rest safelie. Soe you may make use of him long to produce him to warrant and give creditt to my reports out of him (if need shall be). In the mean tyme, lett this my abbreviations out of the same booke hereunder written suffice to give you a taste of such of the chief matters conteyned in that booke as might well be gathered out of the same.
OR
There follow, after this, various extracts from municipal regulations and records, from which one or two may be quoted as being of interest and typical of those days.
20th Henry VIII. The Mayor commandeth in the King's name that victualls brought to the Mercate be good lawful and wholesome. That noe person regrate or forestall the Mercates. That noe common Poulterer buy any victualls in the Mercate before eleven of the clock. That noe Baker buy any corne until eleven of the clock. That every man sell by lawful weights and measures and they be assized by the King's standard. That Butchers bring the skins of their beasts and sheep to the Mercate and lay the same-openly during all the Mercate. That the Bakers make good bread and of full weight according to the assize. That the brewers make good and wholesome ale and that they sell none until it be tasted by the Ale Taster. That he sell a gallon of the best ale for 1 ¼ and stale ale for 2d. That the Tiplers sell by lawful measure and set out their Ale Signs.
Another entry relating to this reign sets forth the ‘harness’ or armour and weapons to be maintained by various citizens of Guildford and where they should be stored.
4th Edward VI. This entry is an interesting record of how minor offences were disposed of.
At this daye was punyshed by carting and duckinge Joan Wayte, the wyfe of George Wayte of Guldeforde, taylor, for huredom by her own confession.
On the same date we learn that 'Philemon Peyto, the servant of John Peyto, his brother, shoemaker, was punished for stealinge of apples at Merrowe by open stockinge', i.e., by being exposed in the open in the stocks.
It is interesting to learn that a close supervision was exercised over the manufacture of cloth, for it is recorded that '18 woollen drapers of Guildford were ordered to pay 11d for sellinge false woollen cloth, false coulars, and taking excessive gain'. This entry is followed by 'Ibid George Burges shoemaker, for keepinge continuall disorder in his house in the night tyme to the trouble and disturbance of his neighbours and for keeping a woman servant in hishouse suspected of lewd and evil behavior Fined xijd.
The only other matter that calls for mention in regard to George Austen, is his friendship with George Abbott Archbishop of Canterbury who was his daughter Joan's brother in law, she having married His Grace's youngest brother, Sir Maurice Abbott. Partly as an act of penitence and expiation for the accidental shooting of Lord Zouch's keeper, and partly from a desire to benefit his fellow townsmen, the Archbishop built the noble Hospital which bears his name and accommodates 12 poor Brethren and 8 poor Sisters. George Austen supervised the building of the Hospital, and among its records is a statement dated l618 signed by him, which gives an account of the cost of cutting and removing timber required for the Hospital from Chiddingfold. The work was done under his personal supervision, assisted by Peter Warwick Master Joiner, or Builder, as he would now be described who selected the trees and supervised their cutting up. It is interesting to note that Warwick’s Bench overlooking Guildford, which formerly formed part of the Austen Estate, was not so called because of any historical connection with the great Earl of Warwick, known as the King Maker, but because on that spot was the Bench or Workshop of Peter Warwick, the Guildford Master Joiner.
In his Will, George Austen commended his younger sons Robert and Ralph or Raffe to the care of the Archbishop. Ralph Austen acquired merit in His Grace's eyes by writing an exceedingly dull commentary on the Book of Job. It claimed to throw light on the dark sayings of that tale of woe, but as a matter of fact it made them more obscure than before.
George Austen ended his long, useful and upright life in 1621. He was a good brother, a kind husband, and an affectionate father. His love of order and business capacity have already been referred to. To these traits should be added his love of the antique. It might indeed be said ofhim, as it was said of Oliver Goldsmith, in a later generation, that 'he loved everything that's old - old friends, old times and old books.’ He was succeeded as the third Squire of Shalford by his eldest surviving son John Austen, Samuel Austen, hisheir by his first wife, having died in 1604 leaving no issue.
When John and George Austen purchased the Lay Rectorship of Shalford they took over the obligations attaching to that office. These, besides responsibility for the repair of the chancel, included certain gifts in kind which had under a ruling of Cardinal Beaufort to be paid annually to the Vicar. These are recorded on a tablet in the Church and are as follows -
1 Quarter of Wheat, 1 Load of Hay,
1 Quarter of Rye, 2Loads of Straw.
1 Quarter of Oats,
To these George Austen added in 1620 an additional load of Hay and the right of the Parson to depasture a Nag in the Rectory field, from St. Peter's Day to lst November. When the Rectorial rights were sold to the Austen brothers no reference was made in the Deed of Sale or Conveyance as to the right of presentation to the living. This was Monastic till 1545 after which it was exercised in turn by Sir Robert Southwell, Sir Roger Cholmondeley, Alice Polsted, Richard Polsted, John Wolley and George Austen. The Austens retained the right till 1675, when it was resumed by the Crown which has presented ever since. William Oughtred, the celebrated Mathematician, was Vicar of Shalford on the presentation of George Austen.
John Austen, the third Squire of Shalford, Lord of the Rectorial Manor and of the Manor of Smithbrook, and fourth of his name, was born in 1590. He was twenty-three years of age when he succeeded to his uncle's moiety of the Shalford estate, and thirty-one when his father died and he came into the whole ofhis inheritance. His portrait by an unknown artist which is the first of the Austen series, was painted in 1614 when he was twenty-four years old. It shows him as a serious and sadlooking young man, already rather old for hisage. His puritanism is unmistakeable and is revealed by his dress, which though rich in quality is of the sombre character which Puritans affected to distinguish themselves from their gaily apparelled and pleasure-seeking Cavalier contemporaries. In place of the flowing hair and lovelocks of the latter,John Austen’s portrait shows a closed cropped poll which places him definitely among the Roundheads.
John Austen's seriousness was partly attributable to his responsibilities as head of' the family. He had many brothers and sisters to look after,to say nothing of the management of his estate. But apart from this, he was a Presbyterian rather than a Churchman in his outlook, and was steeped in the gloom of predestination as taught by Calvin. Hehad the Puritan's intense dislike of Popery, and greatly distrusted the High Church practices of Bishops like Laud, which he regarded as approaches towards Rome. His rather morbid Puritanism is reflected in the inscription on his portrait -
‘My shape but a shadow
My breath but a blast
My trust is aboue
This lyfe will not last.
The third line of these couplets is often misread owing to a 'v' being taken for a 'u'. What he means, I think, is that his trustis 'above', i.e., in a future and eternal life in Heaven, as compared with a present and transitory life on Earth. But it is often read as 'a boue', or 'bough' to use the modern spelling, which is hardly sense unless it is desired to suggest terrestrial insecurity through the possibility of the 'boue'
breaking.
John Austen was distinguished in looks besides being of good estate. He was thus an eligible parti and had no difficulty in finding a bride of good family andof the land owning class to which he himself now belonged. She was Margaret, daughter of Sir Richard Lewkenor of West Dean, Sussex. By her he had two children - George, his son and successor, and Margaret, his only daughter, who married Richard Cresswell of Snox Hall, Cranley.
John Austen took a lively interest in the political struggles of his times. He was an uncompromising Parliamentarian, determined to resist all encroachments on the rights of the people, and to oppose the autocratic powers which the early Stuarts claimed as the Divine Right of Kings. He was a vigorous opponent of men such as Buckingham, Laud and Wentworth, and a friend of their political enemies, Pym, Hampden and Cromwell, who are said to have met more than once in the Oak Room of Shalford House to discuss political affairs.
He was a friend of Sir Richard Onslow, Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, whose home was then at Knowle, near Cranley. In the old manor house there, long since pulled down and replaced, there was a great fire place, like the one now at Shalford, on which were inscribed the words:
Hyeme incalesco aestate frigeo.
I warm you in winter and cool you in summer.
It seems probable that George Austen his father, or John Austen his uncle, copied this inscription at Shalford from the original at Knowle.
The inscription on John Austen's portrait states that he was a Colonel in the Parliament Army. This was presumably his rank on retirement. His active soldiering was in Onslow’s Regiment of Surrey Militia in which he served first as a Captain and then as a Major. Onslow was a man of moderate views who, though a member of the Parliamentary Party, was anxious to arrive at some sort of compromise with Charles I., as he held, and rightly, that the King was as much a part of the Constitution as the two Houses of Parliament. He always hoped that the Civil War would end in a reconciliation of the warring factions, and that by a certain amount of give and take on both sides, further bloodshed might be averted. The trial and execution of Charles and the Dictatorship assumed by Cromwell with the support of the Army, were abhorrent to both Onslow and Austen; but they were not in a position to oppose this policy. When Charles II. Was proclaimed King in Scotland and invaded England, he was decisively defeated at Worcester in 1651. Onslow's Surrey Regiment which should have joined Cromwell's Army, arrived on the field after the battle had been fought and won. It was unkindly said at the time that this was the result not of accident but of design, for true to the Onslow motto – 'f'estina lente', which the wits translated as 'on – slow', the march of the regiment had been purposely delayed. Before this Cromwell had been detailed by the English Parliament to reduce Ireland to subjection by defeating the King's adherents there and avenging the massacre by the Irish of, the Protestant settlers in Ulster. Onslow's Surrey Regiment formed part of the Army that carried out this task. The Irish were
then looked upon as 'naked savages' and the fact that they were Roman Catholics caused the English Puritans to regard them with special abhorrence. They were dealt with in much the same brutal way as the Germans have dealt with the Poles. No quarter was
given, prisoners, women and even children being butchered wholesale. The scenes of violence that took place at Drogheda and other places which Cromwell took by storm, must have horrified John Austen and made him long to return to the peace and quiet of Shalford and the care of his estate.
George Austen, John Austen's only son, married Ursula, daughter of Sir Robert Anstruther, a Scottish Laird of ancient lineage, high in the confidence and esteem of James 1. and Charles I. By her he had four sons, John, Robert, George and Edward, of whom the two eldest died without issue.
Of John Austen's life at Shalford we know little. He improved and enlarged his estate, and from occasional references to him in documents relating to the East India Company of which his brother in law Sir Maurice Abbott was a Governor, it would seem that he took a share occasionally in some of the latter's profitable speculations thus carrying on the tradition established by his Merchant Adventurer uncle and grandfather. He died in 1660 at what was then considered the ripe age of 70 having thus attained the 'three score years and ten' which according to the Psalmist represented the full span of life.
George Austen's descendants seem to have been rather delicate. They did not live long, nor were they a fertile stock. His immediate successor as fourth Squire of Shalford was his eldest son John, the fifth of that name. He married Mary, daughter of John Symball of Battersea, but dying without issue in 1702, the estate passed to his brother Robert.
Robert Austen, the fifth Squire of Shalford, married Mary, daughter of Henry Ludlow of Bramley. His portrait by Kneller shows him as a man of stern visage, wearing the full-
bottomed perruque or periwig of the period. He is described as Colonel, presumably of Militia rank, and is saidon rather doubtful authority to have been a Lord of the Admiralty from 1690 to 1697. He was a Trustee for the Poyle Estates and one of' the contributors to the building of Greenwich Hospital for Seamen. He died without issue in 1718 and was succeeded by his brother George.
George Austen, the sixth Squire of Shalford, married Sarah, daughter of Robert or Richard Roper of Gloucester and a niece of Lord Teynham. He was a man of little importance and there is nothing about him on record. He had issue one daughter Elizabeth and three sons – John, Robert and George, and died in 1728. He left the estate to his second son Robert, thereby disinheriting his eldest son John. The latter is said to have been a spendthrift, given to riotous living, chambering and wantonness and evidently not to be trusted with the care of an estate. His father left him an annuity of £50 a year which he sold to his brother Robert, shortly before his death.
Robert Austen, the seventh Squire of Shalford was the very opposite of his prodigal brother John. He was highly respected and was for twenty years Chairman of Quarter Sessions and Receiver General of the County of Surrey. His unmarried sister Elizabeth, who lived with him after her father's death, seems to have been an indifferent housekeeper, preferring society and card parties to the routine of domestic duties. Partly to relieve her of the latter, and partly to provide her with a female companion, Robert Austen invited Joan Street to supervise the Shalford household. She was the daughter of Lawrence Street, of Birtley Bramley and belonged to an old family ranking among the lesser gentry of the county. Being young, good looking, and very capable, Joan Street exercised great influence over her host. Her visit was prolonged and she became a fixture in the family. In going through the Austen papers, I found that Robert Austen's signature on legal documents was witnessed in most cases by Joan Street. Her signature appears repeatedly in the Manor Rolls of the Manor of Smithbrook and she gradually became Robert Austen's right hand in all matters concerning the management of the estate, as well as his confidential secretary in affairs relating to his work as Receiver General and Chairman of Quarter Sessions.
Living, under the same roof and being closely associated in work and interests, it is not to be wondered at that they fell in love with one another and eventually married. It is stated in a pedigree in the writing of Mr. R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, made out about 1840, that this marriage, which probably took place at Bath between 1735 and 1738, was kept secret until George Austen's death. A family scandal is darkly hinted at, to which reference will be made later on; but from a careful study of such documentary evidence as is available there seems to be no justification for this supposition or for questioning the character and virtue of a lady who seems to have been both capable and attractive.
Joan Austen had a sister, Mary Street, who married William Stoffold of Chilworth, a member of an ancient Surrey Yeoman family and at one time owner of a small property in Albury. The name is sometimes spelt Stovold, and Stovold's Hill near Cranley indicates the original habitat of the family. The 'v' in German is usually pronounced 'f', and as the family is undoubtedly of Saxon origin, this variation in pronunciation is easily accounted for. Stovold's Hill is on the edge of the 'fold' country - Alfold, Dunsfold, Chiddingfold, andthe origin of the name is probably Stuff or Stoff's fold, or in common parlance Stovolds. The Stoffolds had two sons. Henry and Robert, who were frequent visitors at Shalford. They were eventually adopted by Robert and Joan Austen who had no children of their own. So attached indeed, did Robert Austen become to these brothers, his nephews by marriage, that he decided to make them his heirs, besides paying for their education and start in life. This is clearly referred to in his Will, proved in 1759, of which the following are extracts:
He bequeathed his estate to 'his loving wife Joane' for her life, subject to the payment of £500 each to Henry and Robert Stoffold, sons of William Stoffold of Chilworth; to John Hayward of Philpot Lane, London, he gave £500; ... to William Stoffold and Mary his wife, £100 each; to John Street £200. Subject to his wife's life interest and the bequests above mentioned, he left the whole of his estate to Henry and Robert Stoffold 'on condition that they and their heirs do leave the name of Stoffold and an all occasions take and use the surname Austen and bear my Arms'. He appointed John Hayward and Henry and Robert Stoffold his executors. In accordance with the provisions of Robert Austen's Will, Henry and Robert Stoffold were empowered to assume the name and arms of Austen by the Austen Name Act, 33rd, of George II.
Robert Austen died in 1759. He was, so far as is known, the last of the Austens of the original line, unless we can accept as true the tradition that Henry and Robert Stoffold, his heirs, were not his wife's nephews as stated and generally believed, but his and her sons, whose birth had been concealed owing to the secrecy of their marriage.
I found a verie auncient booke of the towne called the '.Black Booke' written in the tymes of Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Edward IV, and Henry VII, sometymes Kings of Englande, wherein are written and recorded the choice of divers officers within the said towne yerelie, with divers accompts of money received for rents, forfeytures, profitts of courts, faires, customes, and other things by the Bayliff Hallwardens and other officers of the said towne, yerelie collected and paide. And also divers entries of ffynes paide and auncient customes observed by sundry persons for admittance and general consent into the liberty and freedome of the said towne; which booke is so ragged, torne, and rent, one peece from another, and so disorderly placed, that I could hardly bring them into order agayne. Now for so much as came into my hands (a great many of the leaves of that booke being lacking) I have reduced as nere as I can into their places and collected out of the same the chief substaunce of so much of that which 1 found there written as could well be redd; for in manie of the leaves of that booke the very words and letters thereof in divers places are worn out by age and ill-keepinge as may appere to them that shall look into the same. So as I may truelie say it hath fared well with that booke, having passed a great number of yeres past from hand to hand, as with a common hackney horse, being hired by many and often journeyed, cometh, by the negligence or yll usage of some his riders, to a galled hack, or to some incurable disease. But levirige and deliveringe that old Black Book home agayne to the said towne in as good case as I received the same and better, I have briefly collected out of the same the chief matters therein sett downe which I have summarilie caused to be written in this my booke as an addition to the same, partlie to preserve some parte of auncient monuments ready to perish in rotten papers, but chieflie to shewe that in auncient tyme the books and records of the said towne were well kept and faire written, and the state and government of the towne (as it seemeth was such in those dayes) soe discretlie ordered that none were admitted or received into the freedome and libertie of the same but by a general consent of the magistrates and governours of the towne, paying such ffynes as then were thought mete and putting in pledges both for the payment of their ffynes and for observing of other customes such as making a breakfast to the Company and bayting of the bull etc, things in all likelihood very chargeable to them as may be gathered by the yerelle entries made and recorded of the same amongst other things in that booke. As for the feastinge and bull baytinge theyare things worne out of use and not fit to be revived; but forff'ynes paid by fforeyners for the ffreedome and admittance into the liberties to buv and sell within the said towne, there hath been a continuall custome and use thereof, although of late yeres much neglected, which I wish may be renewed and brought into use agayne. For the rest of the matters contayned in that booke from the first yere of the raign of' King Henry VI forthwardes, have omitted to make eny collections of those latter tymes because I find from that time the booke called the 'Red Booke' of the said towne to begin and continue yerelie the election of officers, admitting of foreyners by fine and some other things. But ther accompts neglected, and the rest not altogether in the same order and manner as it is in the former parts of the said 'Black Booke', yet fairer written and kept, so in both may be seen in a sort the order and manner of government and election of officers within the said towne for above two hundred and three score yeres, saving some difference in the time of King Henry the Seventh and sithens by enlarging of ther Letters Patent In the tyme of that noble King. I have taken paynes to gather together out of that booke brieflie that which followeth, that thereby instede of the substance, some shadow or resemblance of that old booke may remayne for those which shall succeed. And yett I wolde not have that 'Black Booke' by this means to be cast away or not regarded by appearing old and ragged, but rather to accompte of him the more, in that he doth proceed from your auncient predecessors and afford him that favour to let him have abode amongst you, where he may rest safelie. Soe you may make use of him long to produce him to warrant and give creditt to my reports out of him (if need shall be). In the mean tyme, lett this my abbreviations out of the same booke hereunder written suffice to give you a taste of such of the chief matters conteyned in that booke as might well be gathered out of the same.
OR
There follow, after this, various extracts from municipal regulations and records, from which one or two may be quoted as being of interest and typical of those days.
20th Henry VIII. The Mayor commandeth in the King's name that victualls brought to the Mercate be good lawful and wholesome. That noe person regrate or forestall the Mercates. That noe common Poulterer buy any victualls in the Mercate before eleven of the clock. That noe Baker buy any corne until eleven of the clock. That every man sell by lawful weights and measures and they be assized by the King's standard. That Butchers bring the skins of their beasts and sheep to the Mercate and lay the same-openly during all the Mercate. That the Bakers make good bread and of full weight according to the assize. That the brewers make good and wholesome ale and that they sell none until it be tasted by the Ale Taster. That he sell a gallon of the best ale for 1 ¼ and stale ale for 2d. That the Tiplers sell by lawful measure and set out their Ale Signs.
Another entry relating to this reign sets forth the ‘harness’ or armour and weapons to be maintained by various citizens of Guildford and where they should be stored.
4th Edward VI. This entry is an interesting record of how minor offences were disposed of.
At this daye was punyshed by carting and duckinge Joan Wayte, the wyfe of George Wayte of Guldeforde, taylor, for huredom by her own confession.
On the same date we learn that 'Philemon Peyto, the servant of John Peyto, his brother, shoemaker, was punished for stealinge of apples at Merrowe by open stockinge', i.e., by being exposed in the open in the stocks.
It is interesting to learn that a close supervision was exercised over the manufacture of cloth, for it is recorded that '18 woollen drapers of Guildford were ordered to pay 11d for sellinge false woollen cloth, false coulars, and taking excessive gain'. This entry is followed by 'Ibid George Burges shoemaker, for keepinge continuall disorder in his house in the night tyme to the trouble and disturbance of his neighbours and for keeping a woman servant in hishouse suspected of lewd and evil behavior Fined xijd.
The only other matter that calls for mention in regard to George Austen, is his friendship with George Abbott Archbishop of Canterbury who was his daughter Joan's brother in law, she having married His Grace's youngest brother, Sir Maurice Abbott. Partly as an act of penitence and expiation for the accidental shooting of Lord Zouch's keeper, and partly from a desire to benefit his fellow townsmen, the Archbishop built the noble Hospital which bears his name and accommodates 12 poor Brethren and 8 poor Sisters. George Austen supervised the building of the Hospital, and among its records is a statement dated l618 signed by him, which gives an account of the cost of cutting and removing timber required for the Hospital from Chiddingfold. The work was done under his personal supervision, assisted by Peter Warwick Master Joiner, or Builder, as he would now be described who selected the trees and supervised their cutting up. It is interesting to note that Warwick’s Bench overlooking Guildford, which formerly formed part of the Austen Estate, was not so called because of any historical connection with the great Earl of Warwick, known as the King Maker, but because on that spot was the Bench or Workshop of Peter Warwick, the Guildford Master Joiner.
In his Will, George Austen commended his younger sons Robert and Ralph or Raffe to the care of the Archbishop. Ralph Austen acquired merit in His Grace's eyes by writing an exceedingly dull commentary on the Book of Job. It claimed to throw light on the dark sayings of that tale of woe, but as a matter of fact it made them more obscure than before.
George Austen ended his long, useful and upright life in 1621. He was a good brother, a kind husband, and an affectionate father. His love of order and business capacity have already been referred to. To these traits should be added his love of the antique. It might indeed be said ofhim, as it was said of Oliver Goldsmith, in a later generation, that 'he loved everything that's old - old friends, old times and old books.’ He was succeeded as the third Squire of Shalford by his eldest surviving son John Austen, Samuel Austen, hisheir by his first wife, having died in 1604 leaving no issue.
When John and George Austen purchased the Lay Rectorship of Shalford they took over the obligations attaching to that office. These, besides responsibility for the repair of the chancel, included certain gifts in kind which had under a ruling of Cardinal Beaufort to be paid annually to the Vicar. These are recorded on a tablet in the Church and are as follows -
1 Quarter of Wheat, 1 Load of Hay,
1 Quarter of Rye, 2Loads of Straw.
1 Quarter of Oats,
To these George Austen added in 1620 an additional load of Hay and the right of the Parson to depasture a Nag in the Rectory field, from St. Peter's Day to lst November. When the Rectorial rights were sold to the Austen brothers no reference was made in the Deed of Sale or Conveyance as to the right of presentation to the living. This was Monastic till 1545 after which it was exercised in turn by Sir Robert Southwell, Sir Roger Cholmondeley, Alice Polsted, Richard Polsted, John Wolley and George Austen. The Austens retained the right till 1675, when it was resumed by the Crown which has presented ever since. William Oughtred, the celebrated Mathematician, was Vicar of Shalford on the presentation of George Austen.
John Austen, the third Squire of Shalford, Lord of the Rectorial Manor and of the Manor of Smithbrook, and fourth of his name, was born in 1590. He was twenty-three years of age when he succeeded to his uncle's moiety of the Shalford estate, and thirty-one when his father died and he came into the whole ofhis inheritance. His portrait by an unknown artist which is the first of the Austen series, was painted in 1614 when he was twenty-four years old. It shows him as a serious and sadlooking young man, already rather old for hisage. His puritanism is unmistakeable and is revealed by his dress, which though rich in quality is of the sombre character which Puritans affected to distinguish themselves from their gaily apparelled and pleasure-seeking Cavalier contemporaries. In place of the flowing hair and lovelocks of the latter,John Austen’s portrait shows a closed cropped poll which places him definitely among the Roundheads.
John Austen's seriousness was partly attributable to his responsibilities as head of' the family. He had many brothers and sisters to look after,to say nothing of the management of his estate. But apart from this, he was a Presbyterian rather than a Churchman in his outlook, and was steeped in the gloom of predestination as taught by Calvin. Hehad the Puritan's intense dislike of Popery, and greatly distrusted the High Church practices of Bishops like Laud, which he regarded as approaches towards Rome. His rather morbid Puritanism is reflected in the inscription on his portrait -
‘My shape but a shadow
My breath but a blast
My trust is aboue
This lyfe will not last.
The third line of these couplets is often misread owing to a 'v' being taken for a 'u'. What he means, I think, is that his trustis 'above', i.e., in a future and eternal life in Heaven, as compared with a present and transitory life on Earth. But it is often read as 'a boue', or 'bough' to use the modern spelling, which is hardly sense unless it is desired to suggest terrestrial insecurity through the possibility of the 'boue'
breaking.
John Austen was distinguished in looks besides being of good estate. He was thus an eligible parti and had no difficulty in finding a bride of good family andof the land owning class to which he himself now belonged. She was Margaret, daughter of Sir Richard Lewkenor of West Dean, Sussex. By her he had two children - George, his son and successor, and Margaret, his only daughter, who married Richard Cresswell of Snox Hall, Cranley.
John Austen took a lively interest in the political struggles of his times. He was an uncompromising Parliamentarian, determined to resist all encroachments on the rights of the people, and to oppose the autocratic powers which the early Stuarts claimed as the Divine Right of Kings. He was a vigorous opponent of men such as Buckingham, Laud and Wentworth, and a friend of their political enemies, Pym, Hampden and Cromwell, who are said to have met more than once in the Oak Room of Shalford House to discuss political affairs.
He was a friend of Sir Richard Onslow, Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, whose home was then at Knowle, near Cranley. In the old manor house there, long since pulled down and replaced, there was a great fire place, like the one now at Shalford, on which were inscribed the words:
Hyeme incalesco aestate frigeo.
I warm you in winter and cool you in summer.
It seems probable that George Austen his father, or John Austen his uncle, copied this inscription at Shalford from the original at Knowle.
The inscription on John Austen's portrait states that he was a Colonel in the Parliament Army. This was presumably his rank on retirement. His active soldiering was in Onslow’s Regiment of Surrey Militia in which he served first as a Captain and then as a Major. Onslow was a man of moderate views who, though a member of the Parliamentary Party, was anxious to arrive at some sort of compromise with Charles I., as he held, and rightly, that the King was as much a part of the Constitution as the two Houses of Parliament. He always hoped that the Civil War would end in a reconciliation of the warring factions, and that by a certain amount of give and take on both sides, further bloodshed might be averted. The trial and execution of Charles and the Dictatorship assumed by Cromwell with the support of the Army, were abhorrent to both Onslow and Austen; but they were not in a position to oppose this policy. When Charles II. Was proclaimed King in Scotland and invaded England, he was decisively defeated at Worcester in 1651. Onslow's Surrey Regiment which should have joined Cromwell's Army, arrived on the field after the battle had been fought and won. It was unkindly said at the time that this was the result not of accident but of design, for true to the Onslow motto – 'f'estina lente', which the wits translated as 'on – slow', the march of the regiment had been purposely delayed. Before this Cromwell had been detailed by the English Parliament to reduce Ireland to subjection by defeating the King's adherents there and avenging the massacre by the Irish of, the Protestant settlers in Ulster. Onslow's Surrey Regiment formed part of the Army that carried out this task. The Irish were
then looked upon as 'naked savages' and the fact that they were Roman Catholics caused the English Puritans to regard them with special abhorrence. They were dealt with in much the same brutal way as the Germans have dealt with the Poles. No quarter was
given, prisoners, women and even children being butchered wholesale. The scenes of violence that took place at Drogheda and other places which Cromwell took by storm, must have horrified John Austen and made him long to return to the peace and quiet of Shalford and the care of his estate.
George Austen, John Austen's only son, married Ursula, daughter of Sir Robert Anstruther, a Scottish Laird of ancient lineage, high in the confidence and esteem of James 1. and Charles I. By her he had four sons, John, Robert, George and Edward, of whom the two eldest died without issue.
Of John Austen's life at Shalford we know little. He improved and enlarged his estate, and from occasional references to him in documents relating to the East India Company of which his brother in law Sir Maurice Abbott was a Governor, it would seem that he took a share occasionally in some of the latter's profitable speculations thus carrying on the tradition established by his Merchant Adventurer uncle and grandfather. He died in 1660 at what was then considered the ripe age of 70 having thus attained the 'three score years and ten' which according to the Psalmist represented the full span of life.
George Austen's descendants seem to have been rather delicate. They did not live long, nor were they a fertile stock. His immediate successor as fourth Squire of Shalford was his eldest son John, the fifth of that name. He married Mary, daughter of John Symball of Battersea, but dying without issue in 1702, the estate passed to his brother Robert.
Robert Austen, the fifth Squire of Shalford, married Mary, daughter of Henry Ludlow of Bramley. His portrait by Kneller shows him as a man of stern visage, wearing the full-
bottomed perruque or periwig of the period. He is described as Colonel, presumably of Militia rank, and is saidon rather doubtful authority to have been a Lord of the Admiralty from 1690 to 1697. He was a Trustee for the Poyle Estates and one of' the contributors to the building of Greenwich Hospital for Seamen. He died without issue in 1718 and was succeeded by his brother George.
George Austen, the sixth Squire of Shalford, married Sarah, daughter of Robert or Richard Roper of Gloucester and a niece of Lord Teynham. He was a man of little importance and there is nothing about him on record. He had issue one daughter Elizabeth and three sons – John, Robert and George, and died in 1728. He left the estate to his second son Robert, thereby disinheriting his eldest son John. The latter is said to have been a spendthrift, given to riotous living, chambering and wantonness and evidently not to be trusted with the care of an estate. His father left him an annuity of £50 a year which he sold to his brother Robert, shortly before his death.
Robert Austen, the seventh Squire of Shalford was the very opposite of his prodigal brother John. He was highly respected and was for twenty years Chairman of Quarter Sessions and Receiver General of the County of Surrey. His unmarried sister Elizabeth, who lived with him after her father's death, seems to have been an indifferent housekeeper, preferring society and card parties to the routine of domestic duties. Partly to relieve her of the latter, and partly to provide her with a female companion, Robert Austen invited Joan Street to supervise the Shalford household. She was the daughter of Lawrence Street, of Birtley Bramley and belonged to an old family ranking among the lesser gentry of the county. Being young, good looking, and very capable, Joan Street exercised great influence over her host. Her visit was prolonged and she became a fixture in the family. In going through the Austen papers, I found that Robert Austen's signature on legal documents was witnessed in most cases by Joan Street. Her signature appears repeatedly in the Manor Rolls of the Manor of Smithbrook and she gradually became Robert Austen's right hand in all matters concerning the management of the estate, as well as his confidential secretary in affairs relating to his work as Receiver General and Chairman of Quarter Sessions.
Living, under the same roof and being closely associated in work and interests, it is not to be wondered at that they fell in love with one another and eventually married. It is stated in a pedigree in the writing of Mr. R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, made out about 1840, that this marriage, which probably took place at Bath between 1735 and 1738, was kept secret until George Austen's death. A family scandal is darkly hinted at, to which reference will be made later on; but from a careful study of such documentary evidence as is available there seems to be no justification for this supposition or for questioning the character and virtue of a lady who seems to have been both capable and attractive.
Joan Austen had a sister, Mary Street, who married William Stoffold of Chilworth, a member of an ancient Surrey Yeoman family and at one time owner of a small property in Albury. The name is sometimes spelt Stovold, and Stovold's Hill near Cranley indicates the original habitat of the family. The 'v' in German is usually pronounced 'f', and as the family is undoubtedly of Saxon origin, this variation in pronunciation is easily accounted for. Stovold's Hill is on the edge of the 'fold' country - Alfold, Dunsfold, Chiddingfold, andthe origin of the name is probably Stuff or Stoff's fold, or in common parlance Stovolds. The Stoffolds had two sons. Henry and Robert, who were frequent visitors at Shalford. They were eventually adopted by Robert and Joan Austen who had no children of their own. So attached indeed, did Robert Austen become to these brothers, his nephews by marriage, that he decided to make them his heirs, besides paying for their education and start in life. This is clearly referred to in his Will, proved in 1759, of which the following are extracts:
He bequeathed his estate to 'his loving wife Joane' for her life, subject to the payment of £500 each to Henry and Robert Stoffold, sons of William Stoffold of Chilworth; to John Hayward of Philpot Lane, London, he gave £500; ... to William Stoffold and Mary his wife, £100 each; to John Street £200. Subject to his wife's life interest and the bequests above mentioned, he left the whole of his estate to Henry and Robert Stoffold 'on condition that they and their heirs do leave the name of Stoffold and an all occasions take and use the surname Austen and bear my Arms'. He appointed John Hayward and Henry and Robert Stoffold his executors. In accordance with the provisions of Robert Austen's Will, Henry and Robert Stoffold were empowered to assume the name and arms of Austen by the Austen Name Act, 33rd, of George II.
Robert Austen died in 1759. He was, so far as is known, the last of the Austens of the original line, unless we can accept as true the tradition that Henry and Robert Stoffold, his heirs, were not his wife's nephews as stated and generally believed, but his and her sons, whose birth had been concealed owing to the secrecy of their marriage.
