WOKING, a parish (formerly a market-town) in
the first division of the hundred of WOKING, county of
SURREY, 2 miles (W. by N.) from Ripley, containing
1810 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry
of Surrey, and diocese of Winchester, rated
in the king's books at £11. 0. 5., and in the patronage
of Earl Onslow. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is
partly in the early, and partly in the decorated, style of
English architecture: it contains some brasses and a
few monuments, and the windows exhibit fragments
of ancient stained glass. The Basingstoke canal passes
through the parish, and the town is situated on the
river Wey; but its market, formerly held on Tuesday,
is now disused; There is a fair on Whit-Tuesday; and
courts leet and baron are occasionally held. This was
one of the royal demesnes of Edward the Confessor;
and was afforested in 1154, by Henry II., whose successor
gave it to Alan, Lord Basset; but, in the reign of
Edward II., it belonged to the Despencers, and on their
attainder was given, by Edward III., to Edmund of
Woodstock, from which time it had various distinguished
owners till the time of Edward IV., who, it is recorded,
kept his Christmas in 1480, at the royal palace
of Woking. Henry VII. afterwards repaired and enlarged
it, for the residence of his mother, Margaret, Countess
of Richmond, who died there. Henry VIII. used it
as a summer retreat, where he sometimes entertained
Wolsey, and on one of these occasions, in September
1551, that prelate was first informed, by a letter from
the pope, of his elevation to the dignity of Cardinal.
James I. granted Woking to Sir Edward Zouch; but, in
the reign of Charles I., it again belonged to the Crown,
and was bestowed upon Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland;
it subsequently passed, by purchase, through various
hands to Richard, Lord Onslow, an ancestor of Earl
Onslow, its present proprietor. There are, now no remains
of the palace, except its foundations and a portion
of the walls of the guard-room; the Zouches having
removed the greater part of the building, to erect
another mansion in the neighbourhood. Sutton House,
a fine specimen of the style of building which prevailed
in the sixteenth century, was erected, in 1529,
by Sir Richard Weston: it was of a quadrangular form,
enclosing a square area eighty feet in dimensions, with
a noble gateway, having lofty hexagonal turrets at the
angles. Agreat part of this magnificent structure was
burned down, during a visit of Queen Elizabeth, and
the remainder, consisting of the south-west side and
north-east front, continued in a ruinous state till 1721,
when it was repaired and embellished by the late John
Weston, Esq.