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The Cedars
A house on this site is first mentioned in the will of an Epsom gentleman called Thomas Boys, which was made in 1656. It was left to his brother William, who was living here in 1663, when the house was assessed for nine hearths by the hearth tax inspector. This is a very high number: it must have been one of the largest houses in Epsom at the time. In 1680 the house was occupied by Thomas' widow Eleanor. It seems to have been run as a farmhouse as well as a family home, because there were a barn and carthouse in the grounds. When she died, Eleanor left the property to her brother William. He was not interested in keeping it up as a farmstead, but sold it instead to Francis Shepheard from London. Shepheard was one of the London gentry who were interested in developing rural properties which they had seen on their visits to Epsom Spa. In 1726 he sold it on to a purchaser with the splendid name of Anthony Lopes Suasso, Baron de Avernas le Gras. Suasso was the son of a rich Portuguese Jew, who had come to England when Cromwell repealed the discriminatory laws on immigration. The house was rebuilt for Shepheard or Suasso. The original farmhouse was improved by a façade of brick, patterned yellow and red; a central corridor and stairs were created, altering the internal layout, but the earlier building is still there, encased in the later one. Baron Suasso seems to have moved out in 1736, and he was followed by another Londoner, John Myster from Charterhouse Square. The coat of arms above the doorway is that of Myster, although there is something wrong about it. The crest is not a griffin's head, as it should have been, but the head of a unicorn. And the head has evidently been brought in from somewhere else, because the unicorn's horn, which wouldn't fit into the space above the door, was broken off. Inside the building, in the main reception room, there is elaborate plasterwork in which Myster's coat of arms is repeated. Myster was still in occupation in 1750. The old barn and cart shed had long since gone, being replaced by stables and a coach house. These were afterwards divided off from the main property, and are now occupied as Cedars Cottage. When he died in 1763, Myster left the house to his daughter Mary, who had married William Thornton, and after to her to his grandson Thomas. From him it seems to have come to John Whittmore, who was here in 1790, followed by a C. Molton in 1812. After this the property seems to have become a school. Henry Parish and William Parish, the sons of a local bookseller who had become a clergyman, ran it until 1822, when they were succeeded by Charles Mayo. He was an innovative headmaster, who had gone to Switzerland for training with the great educationalist Pestalozzi. In 1827 Mayo moved on to Cheam School, and was followed by a Mr. Cornelius. There is a watercolour of the cedars made about this time - the first picture of the house. It looks much as it does today, except that the cedar trees have not yet been planted. In 1831 the school closed down and the house was once again a gentleman's residence. It was acquired by William Everest, the solicitor, who was followed by his relative John in 1841. Ten years later the Cedars was once again a school, run by Rebecca and Susanna Eisdell. They continued here for thirty years: among their pupils were two little girls, the children of David Livingstone the missionary, who had left his family in Epsom while he went exploring in Africa.
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