"The Manor of Battersea, which, before the conquest, belonged to Earl Harold, was given by the Conqueror to Westminster Abbey in exchange for Windsor. The Manor was valued in the Confessor's time at £80, it afterwards sunk in value to £30, and at the time of the Survey was estimated at £75. In the taxation of 1291, the possessions of the Abbey of Westminster in Battersea were rated at £15. Thomas Astle, Esq., (says Lysons) has an original deed of Archbishop Theobald, confirming a charter of King Stephen by which he exempts the greater part of the Manor from all taxes and secular payments. Dart mentions several charters relating to Battersea, viz., William the Conqueror's original grant; a charter of privilege; a grant to the Abbot of Westminster of liberty to hunt in this Manor; a charter of confirmation in Henry the First, and another of King Stephen, besides that of privilege before mentioned." "After the dissolution of monasteries, the Manor was reserved in the hands of the Crown; a lease of it was granted to Henry Roydon, Esq., by Queen Elizabeth, for twenty-one years, in the eighth year of her reign; it was afterwards granted for the same term to his daughter, then Joan Holcroft; and was assigned amongst others for the maintenance of Prince Henry, A.D. 1610. In the year 1627, it was granted in reversion to Oliver St. John Viscount Grandison. Sir Oliver St. John was the first of the family who settled at Battersea, he married _Joan_, daughter and heir of Henry Roydon, Esq., of this place, widow of Sir William Holcroft. Lord Grandison died in 1630, and was succeeded in that title and in the Battersea Estate by William Villiers, his great-nephew, who died of a wound received at the siege of Bristol, A.D. 1644. Sir John St. John, Bart., nephew of the first Lord Grandison, inherited Battersea; from him it passed in a regular descent to Sir Walter St. John, Bart., his nephew, to Sir Walter's son, Henry Viscount St. John, and to his grandson, Henry Viscount Bolingbroke, who, by an Act of Parliament passed before his father's death, was enabled to inherit his estate, notwithstanding his attainder. The estate and manor continued in the St. John family till 1763, when it was bought in trust for John Viscount Spencer, and is now property of the present Earl Spencer."[1]--_Lysons' Environs._ [Footnote 1: CUSTOMS OF THE MANOR.--In this Manor, lands descended to the youngest sons; but in default of sons, they do not go to the youngest daughter, but are divided among the daughters equally.--_Lysons._]