The manor of Wimbledon comprises the parishes of Wimbledon, Putney, Roehampton, Mortlake, and East Sheen, and parts of Wandsworth and Barnes[1]. In West Saxon times it was one of the estates of the see of Canterbury, but after the Conquest it was seized by Odo, the high-handed Bishop of Bayeux: in 1071, however, it was recovered by Lanfranc, and with one trifling interruption in the reign of Richard II., it remained in the possession of the archbishopric until 1535. In that year Cranmer surrendered it to Henry VIII. in exchange for the priory of St. Rhadegund in Dover, and a little later the King granted it to Thomas Cromwell[2], who was born there some fifty years before, the son of a well-to-do blacksmith, brewer, and fuller. The early history of the manor of Wimbledon is almost unknown, for we do not possess its Court Rolls prior to the year 1461: they were probably lost or destroyed during the Wars of the Roses. After 1461, however, they are continuous, with the exception of the years 1473 and 1474. An entry in these rolls, written in the year 1475, states that ‘Walter Smyth and his father keep thirty sheep on Putney Common, where they have no common[3].’ A number of subsequent mentions of this same Walter Smyth shows that he was also called Walter Cromwell. The name Walter Cromwell occurs more than ninety times in the rolls, and the name Walter Smyth at least forty times. That both these names stand for the same person is proved by one entry written, ‘Walter Cromwell alias Walter Smyth,’ by two written, ‘Walter Smyth alias Cromwell,’ and by five written, ‘Walter Cromwell alias Smyth.’ Who then was this Walter Cromwell, whence did he come, and how did he acquire this double name?