With respect to the true etymology of the name Battersea,[1] it was anciently written Battries-ey, and in Doom's-day Book Patries-ey, probably a mistake for Patrice-ey and signifying St. Peter's Isle, the termination ey, from the Saxon eze or ize, often occurring in the name of places adjacent to great rivers; as Putney, Molesey, Chertsey, etc. Battersea has a history dating from the time of Harold. At the Norman Conquest it passed into the hands of William the Conqueror, who exchanged it with the Abbey of St. Peter's, at Westminster, for lands at Windsor. [Footnote 1: Some of the old inhabitants of Battersea have a notion that Battersea took its name originally from a great battle that was fought in shallow water knee-deep when the river was fordable, hence Battersea, Battelsea or Battlesea--as the name itself appears to be somewhat shrouded in obscurity there may be some partial truth in this oral statement though we are not acquainted with any authentic records which warrant us to affirm that Battersea derived its name from this circumstance.] The earliest record we have of Battersea appears in Doomsday Book, where it is written Pattricesy. Some authors have supposed that because Petersham, which belonged to St. Peter's Abbey, Chertsey, is there spelt Patricesham, that the earliest form of Battersea originated its connexion with St. Peter's Abbey, the _c_ they say in both these words was sibilant and therefore did not differ very much in pronunciation from that it is now, though they admit that it is a "curious anomaly that while P in _Patricesy_ has been changed into B the P in _Patricesham_ remains unchanged." What the final syllable represents is less clear as there are now no traces of Battersea having been an island although there may have been once. Chelsea, it is remarked, "was originally _Ceale-hythe_ or Chelc-hythe, and a haven on the Thames, not an island, just as Lambeth was '_Lambe-hithe_' or haven, but there is no recorded form of Battersea that would allow us to say that _ey_ or _ea_ represented _hithe_. There was, however, until about thirty years ago, a Creek, up which tradition reports that Queen Elizabeth rowed. A bright little stream rising in Tooting, and passing by Wandsworth Common, flowed into the Thames at this Creek, which is now a mere sewer, and its better character is only kept in remembrance by the name of Creek Street." The Rev. Daniel Lysons, in a book entitled "The Environs of London," published in 1792, which, through the kindness of Mr. R. J. S. Kentish, Librarian of the Beaufoy Library, we have had the privilege of consulting, says, "the name has undergone several changes. In the Conqueror's Survey, it is called Patricesy, and has since been written Battrichsey, Battersey and Battersea, each variation carrying it still further from its original signification. Of the original signification of the word, I think there can be little doubt. Patricesy in the Saxon is Peter's water or river;