Copthorne was a

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101. In mathematics 100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, an area above the level of the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es and manors, where the local wise, wealthy and powerful met periodically in

Anglo-Saxon England Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Empire, Roman imperial rule in Roman Britain, Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the ...

for strategic purposes. After the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

the

lords of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

took to annual hundred meetings and their status became eroded by royal-approved transactions of land, as meanwhile the

manorial court The manorial courts were the lowest courts of law in England during the feudal period. They had a civil jurisdiction limited both in subject matter and geography. They dealt with matters over which the lord of the manor had jurisdiction, primar ...

s and moreover royal courts seized jurisdiction over the Hundred Courts. The name Copthorne may derive from a pollarded thorn tree at the place where the hundred met. The meeting point has been suggested to be marked by an earthwork and ancient hedge at the southern end of Woodcote Park,

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

, close to Langley Vale. The earthwork is denoted as the ''Nutshambles'' on a map of

Ashtead Ashtead is a village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, approximately south of central London. Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 road (Great Britain), A24 between Epsom and Leatherhead. The village is on the northern sl ...

dating from 1638.

Scope

Copthorne comprised the manors of Ashtead, Burgh, Cuddington, Epsom, Ewell, Fetcham, Headley,

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon ...

, Mickleham, Pachevesham (within Leatherhead parish), Tadworth, Thorncroft and Walton-on-the-Hill. It had two

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

s, areas of other parishes dominated by manors and sometimes churches within it: in

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge, Elmbridge district in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a cro ...

and Newdigate. In the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

'', the settlements of

, Fetcham and Mickleham were included in the Wallington (hundred); but the county historians cited by the

Victoria County History The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History (VCH), is an English history project which began in 1899 with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of Englan ...

of 1911 as having examined the Patent Rolls and similar state collections of deeds, royal letters and documents, such as Owen Manning and

John Aubrey John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He was a pioneer archaeologist, who recorded (often for the first time) numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England ...

, agree that this was a mistake. In present terms

and Ewell are almost uniformly called towns: for example at the county level of local government when it considers service provision and population analysis — the first two were granted

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

status in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The

, based on ecclesiastical records, states that these were its

es: *Ashtead *Epsom *Leatherhead *Banstead *Ewell *Mickleham *Chessington *Fetcham *Cuddington *Headley *Walton on the Hill *Newdigate (part of)

Ownership and late transactions

Copthorne was a royal hundred (to the extent its overarching overlordship affected the manors and

common land Common land is collective land (sometimes only open to those whose nation governs the land) in which all persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

), and remained in the hands of

the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

, though

James I of England James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 unti ...

leased it for 21 years to Thomas Jenkins in 1617. In a subsidy roll of the 14th century it was said to be worth £47 15s. 6¼d. and with Effingham Hundred the various land units within it were assessed in total for ship money at £136 16s. 4d. at the third such levy in 1636. ;Magistrates / District Judge (Magistrates Court) geographical division It was used as the Epsom

Petty sessional division A petty sessional division was, in England and Wales, the area that a magistrates' court had jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to ...

. ;Contribution to constituencies The area was an eastward projection of the

West Surrey (UK Parliament constituency) West Surrey (formally the Western division of Surrey) was a United Kingdom constituencies, parliamentary constituency in the county of Surrey, which returned two Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of ...

an 1832-1885 dual-member (MP) area.Reform Act 1884
Schedule D: Counties to be divided With minor additions from Kingston, Effingham and Dorking Hundred it was then used for that of

. Its northern bulk mirrors Epsom and Ewell the smaller modern successor.

Domesday survey

Copthorne appears in the Book as ''Copededorne''. Copthorne was a hundred (these are not in the Domesday Book's map of the county, which focuses on the main unit, manors).

References

External links

Vision of Britain
map of the boundaries {{coord, 51.30, -0.25, type:adm3rd_dim:20000_region:GB-SRY, display=title Hundreds of Surrey