Egham / Egeham

There is an entry for Egham [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/TQ0171/egham/] [accessed 19 December 2015], but it mentions neither cleric nor church in it. The Victoria County History (Surrey, vol. 3, 1911) notes: "In 1291 the churches of Chertsey, Egham, and Chobham were together valued at £63 6s. 8d., and the vicarage of Egham at £9 6s. 8d. [...] This appears to be the first reference to the church, which must, however, have existed before this date [cf. infra]. It was in the hands of the monks of Chertsey from its foundation until the dissolution of the abbey." [NB: the VCH (Surrey, vol. 2, 1967) notes: "The Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter of Chertsey was founded in the year A.D. 666 [...] by Erkenwald, afterwards Bishop of London, [...] who became its first abbot, the new foundation being endowed with lands by the munificence of Frithwald, Subregulus of Surrey, under Ulfar, King of the Mercians, who in subsequent accounts is associated with Erkenwald as co-founder." A later certification of some of the donations to the abbey in the same source includes the church at Egham: "Edward the Confessor certified by charter [...] that he had granted to Christ and St. Peter of Chertsey that town with the towns of Egham, Thorpe and Chobham, [...] and that the abbot and convent should have soc and sac, tol, theam and infangnethef within all their manors, and also confirmed the gift by a previous charter of the Hundred of Godley", and further confirmation of the donation of Egham to the abbey was afforded a century later by Pope Alexander III (1159-1181), as stated also in the VCH (ibid.) -- all of the above indicate the existence of a church at Egham at an early time, even though the Domesday survey does not mention it]. The present church of St. John the Baptist at Egham, though, was, as the VCH (Surrey, vol. 3, 1911) notes, "built in 1817, and is of little architectural interest [...] There is a large modern wooden pulpit and a white marble font, the latter presented in 1902 by the parish clerk. [...] The first book of the registers contains marriages from 1560 to 1666, baptisms from 1560 to 1669, and burials from 1592 to 1651."