Molesey, West

MOLESEY, WEST, a parish, in the union of Kingston, First division of the hundred of Elmbridge, W. division of Surrey, 4 miles (W.) from Kingston; containing 469 inhabitants. It belonged to Bishop Fox, founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who settled it on that institution, the heads of which eventually exchanged it for other lands, Henry VIII. being desirous of annexing the manor to the chase of Hampton Court. The parish is bounded on the north by the Thames, across which is a ferry to Hampton, and on the southeast by the river Mole. Hampton races are held on Molesey Hurst or Common, in June. This was anciently a chapelry to Walton-on-Thames. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £104; patron, the Right Hon. J. W. Croker. The tithes were commuted for land and a money payment in 1815. The glebe land consists of 25 acres. The church presents no indications of an early age, though a church is mentioned in Domesday book; it is a low and irregularly-built edifice, with an embattled tower of stone and flints.