original In Ages of a lower step these Comites were frequently call'd Reguli In Cantia saith Malmsbury Omnis justitia laborabat sub cujusdam Gorongiregimine qui tamen sicut omnes Reguli insulae Vortigerno substernebantur Afterwards when Hengist had establish'd his Kentish Kingdome the Title of Earl began to commence in Otho and Ebusa Brothers to the abovesaid Hengist as the same Malmesbury observes in his Tract de Gestis Regum Cap. 3. And the Title of Earl was anciently expressed by the word Comes amongst the Saxons for to King Ethelberts Charter for the foundation of the Abby of St. Augustins cited by Reynerus there are these subscriptions Ego Hamigilus Dux laudavi and then Ego Ocea Comes consensi Ego Graphio Comes benedixi and there is an old Epitaph quoted by Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour the substance of which is this that Alwain which was Founder of Ramsey-Abby was Comes Aldermannus totius Angliae but in decursion of Time this word Eolderman being used by others besides those to whom it was proper and analogical it began to languish into disuse and the Title of Thane and Earl was assumed which last hath remained in force untill this day Now the relief of a Thane who was certainly an Earl by office rather then Title if he were of the first rank that is had the custody of some County under the King which he paid to the Crown was four Horses two sadled and two unsadled two Swords and four Spears and as many Shields And if he were of the second rank he paid two Horses one sadled and one unsadled one Sword two Lances as many Shields and fifty Marks in Silver sometimes if he were a Thane of an inferior rank he paid eight-pound and frequently three-pound The relief which an Earl paid constantly to the Crown after the Norman Conquest was as Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour does demonstrate out of severall Records was an Hundred pound Now the benefit which did accrue to the Count or Earl besides a Barren and naked Title to support the dignity of his Person in its due Magnificence and Splendor was the third penny arising out of the Profits of the County Algar Earl of Mercland as Dooms-day Book informs us had the third penny of the County of Oxford and the Borough of Stafford under Edward the Confessor And Mawde the Empresse when she created Milo Earl of Hereford assigned to him for the support of his Honor the third penny of that County Many examples of the like condition are discoverable in Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour whither I refer the Reader And as they had the third penny so they had frequently the Castle of the County annexed to their Title but when by experience the Kings of England were instructed how fatally pernicious it was to have so many local powers concurrent with theirs that by the strength of their retreat and the number of confederates and Partisans seem'd even to out-poise the Royal Authority it was by a Statute made in the 13 th year of Richard the 2 d. for the future interdicted and prohibited Now if you will enquire when Earls or Counts from being absolute became Feudal Sr. Henry Spelman in his Glossarie will tell you that it was Tempore Othonum sub excessu Merovinae stirpis in Galliâ that is about the year onet housand Now as concerning the Ensigns of Investiture with which the Earl was created it was anciently only with the Cincture of a Sword but about the latter end of Edward the first the Coronet began to be in use for Aymer de Vallence Earl of Pembrook who died in the 16 th year of Edward the 2 d. had one as appears by an instrument of William de Lavenham cited by Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour by which he acknowledges the receit of it from Sr. Henry Stacheden in the 12 th year of Edward the 2 d. Richard Earl of Arundel died in the 49 th year of Edward the 3 d. and by his last Will dated the fifth of December gives his Noblest and Richest Coronet to his Son the Lord Richard Fitz-allan his second to the Lady Joan his eldest and the 3 d. he bequeaths to the Lady Alice his youngest Daughter What the Counts Palatine were I shall now demonstrate they were taken immediately à Palatio from whence they assum'd their name and were customarily such as had the nearest relation to the Prince either by friendship or Affinity and to whose care and administration he did entrust such or such a Province and the more to improve and enable them in the discharge of their Duty did unite some privileges and Franchises to their office as erecting Courts of Judicature appointing Judges to sit in them and determine by signal decision upon causes both Criminal and Civil and others of the like nature that were of that luxutiant latitude that they had the Stamp and Character of something which resembled Regality fixt upon them He that will discover by example more of this honorary Title may read Mr. Seldens Titles of Honor whither to decline all superfluity of discourse I refer to the Reader I have now done with the Title I shall now proceed to unwind the Register of those who were Earls of Kent subsequent to Earl Godwin 1067 1 Odo Bishop of Baieux halfe Brother to William the Conquerer Lord chief Justice and Lord Treasurer of England 1141 2 William de Ipre 1227 3 Hubert de Burg Lord Chief Justice of England 1321 4 Edmund de woodstock Son to King Edward the first 1330 5 Edmund Plantaginet 1333 6 John Plantaget  7 Thomas Holland Earl of Kent in right of Joan his wife who was Daughter of Edmund of Woodstock 1360 8 Thomas Holland 1397 9 Thomas Holland Duke of Surry 1400 10 Thomas Holland Lord High Admiral of England 1461 11 Will. Nevill Lord Fauconbridge 1464 12 Edmund Grey Lord Ruthin Lord Treasurer of England created Earl of Kent by King Edward the 4 th  13 George Grey  14 Richard Grey  15 Reginald Grey  16 Henry Grey  17 Charles Grey  18 Henry Grey  19 Anthony Grey Clerk Parson of Burbage in the County of Leicester Grandchild of Anthony 3 d. Son of George Earl of Kent above mentioned  20 Henry Grey  21 Anthony Grey Earl of Kent now living 1658. but in his Minority Having represented in Prospect the Comites and Consules the Earls and Consuls which were originally to manage those Provinces subordinate to the Romane Government I shall now take cognisance of those which were anciently styl'd Vice Comites Proconsules and had care of the Provincial revenue in relation to which they were term'd Questores Provinciarum and the jurisdiction of some Causes only as our Sheriffs have of divers Actions Viscontiel and inquiry of Causes Criminal but not determination of them In the Saxon times they were sometimes call'd Ealdormen and in Latine Vice Comites which was applyed
couched in their Inheritance untill at length that is almost in our Grandfathers Remembrance by Sale it devolved to Sprot who not many years since conveyed his Right in it to Sir Thomas Finch Earl of Winchelsey Father to the right honorable Heneage Earl of Winchelsey now Lord of the Fee Ashurst or Ashenhurst in the Hundred of Watchlingstone with the Mannor of Buckland as an Appendage annexed to it was anciently the Demeasne as the Dooms-day Text informs us of Philip de Gerund and Hugh de Gerund this mans Successor was seised both of Ashurst and Buckland likewise in the twenty sixth year of Edward the first as appears Rot. Esc Num. 71. But after this Family determined in a Daughter and Heir who matching with Chalfhunt made that Family possessors of the Fee and Henry Chalfhunt as we trace by Record held it in the forty fifth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 14. And after they went out it came about the Beginning of Henry the sixth by the Heir General of this Family to be possest by Hadde whose Successor about the Beginning of Henry the eighth conveyed it to Waller of Grome-bridge and from this Family after some Interval of Time it was carried off by Sale to Thomas Earl of Dorset Lord Treasurer of England and from his Descendant the Title went away not many years since by the same Fatality into Rivers of Chafford in which Family the Title both of Ashurst and Buckland are at this instant placed Chafford next invites our Survey it was for some Descents the Possession of the Roes or Rows streamed out from that original Fountain which was of this Name and Family at Roes Place in Alresford and from these two those numerous Branches have issued out which like so many divided Rivulets have dispersed themselves into so many parts of this Nation but though this Family be here like a River licked up by a Summer Sun shrunk into Oblivion and the Name wholly dryed yet hath the Title of this Seat found out another Chanel for by Sale it now flows in the Name of Rivers and Sir John Rivers Baronet Crandchild to Sir John Rivers Knight and Baronet descended from the ancient Family of Rivers of River Hill in Hantshire upon the late Decease or his Brother Sir Thomas is now Proprietary of it Aythorne in the Hundred of Eastry was given to the Monks of Christ Church by Ulfred Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the year 824 in exchange for the Mannor of Berham but the principal Honour which did accrue to it was that it was parcel of that Estate which claimed the Family of Badelesmer for Inheritors and lay involved in their Demeasn until the infortunate Attainder of Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer in the Reign of Edward the second when being by this Tempest rent off from his Name and Patrimony it made its abode in the Revenue of the Crown untill K. Edw. the third granted it to Sir John de Bondon who in the eighteenth year of that Prince conveyed it to John de Gildesburgh After whose Exit it came by the same Devolution to be possest by Thomas Holben who in the twelfth year of Richard the second passed it away to Robert Dane And now there being an Interval or Gap in the private Evidences which have an Aspect on this place I must next represent Robert Webbe possessor of it who in the fourth year of Henry the sixth transplanted his Interest in it by Sale into John St. Clere and he not long after by the same Fatalitie transmitted it to Sir Walter Hungerford who about the latter End of Henry the sixth setled the Right and Title by Sale on Sir Thomas Brown of Bechworth Castle in Surrey Comptroler of the House to the abovesaid Prince who in the twenty seventh of his Reign as appears Pat. 27. Hen. 6. Num. 37. obtained the Grant of a Fair to be held yearly on St. Peters Day and in this Family the Propriety and Title was fixed until the sixteenth of Q. Elizabeth and then it was conveyed by Thomas Brown Esq to Francis Santon and his Son by the same Vicissitude in the twenty eighth of the abovesaid Princesse alienated it to Sir William Rither of London who dying without Issue Male setled this Mannor on Susan one of his Coheirs first matched to Sir Thomas Caesar and after to Mr. Thomas Philipott second Son to Sir John Philipott of Compton Wascelin in Hantshire and She upon her Decease gave it to her onely Son by her second Husband Mr. Villiers Philipott who hath lately conveyed it by Sale to Mr. John Brett of London B. B. B. BAbchild but in all ancient Records Escripts and all other Monuments of Antiquity written Becanceald lies in the Hundred of Milton and did as old Deeds testifie relate to the Savages a Family whom elder Times represented under a Character of much eminence in this Tract Arnold de Savage held this Mannor in the forty ninth of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 39. Parte secunda and in this Name the Title stood some years untill it sunk into a Daughter and Heir who being wedded to William Clifford branched out from the Cliffords of Cliffords Castle in Herefordshire the Title of this Mannor with the Name was folded up in this Family and here for some interval of Time it continued untill that common Fate which shifts and changes the Scene of Majesty it self as well as the Face of more subordinate Interests transferred this Mannor by Purchase to William Coting about the Beginning of Q. Elizabeth from whom not long after it passed away by the same fatality to William Biggs Ancestor to that Gentleman his Descendant both of the Name and Family who is now in the enjoyment of it There was at Radfield in this Parish anciently a Free Chappel which is now onely obvious to the Eye by that Mass of Ruines in which at this present it seems to lye gasping the Founder and Uses are both unknown upon the suppression the Demeansn which was annexed to it was by the Concession of Edward the sixth enstated on John Bateman and his Successor John Bateman hath by Testamentary Donation not long since conferred it on John Bateman of Wormesell There was another Oratory or Chappel whose Ruines are yet visible near the Verge or Margin of the Road and here Pilgrims which did usually visit the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury frequently enter'd to offer up their Orizons before they advanced any farther in their Pilgrimage the Oratory as far as possible Conjectures guide us to assert was erected in Memory and Celebration of that Counsel held here by Arch-Bishop Brigthwald under Withredus or as some Copies have it Muthredus K. of Kent in the year 692. He that will read the Results and Decrees of this Councel may have Recourse to Sir Henry Spelman's Concilia Anglicana or his Collections of the English Councels where he shall find the Constitutions and Canons of this Synod represented in an exact Register to
who stuck so close to the Cause and Quarrel of Simon de Montfort the active Earl of Leicester after whose Ruine at the Battle of Evesham and the total Discomfiture and Dissipation of of his Forces in that signal Conflict he was found in the Register of those Kentish Gentlemen who were pardoned by the pacification at Kenelworth and died possest of it in the twenty third year of Edw. the first Rot. Esc Num. 48. and in some old Deeds it is called Caput Baroniae de Say now the vulgar opinion was formerly that that thirteen Knights Fees and a half made up a Tenure per Baroniam now how much in value a Knights Fee was was the Question in elder Times some affirming it to be 50 l. others 30 l. and diverse again but 25 l. but the common received opinion is which hath been generally allowed of by all our Law Books that it is in Estimate but 20 l. consisting of eight Carucates or Hides of Land for they are coincident allowing to every Carucate or Ploughed Land an 100. Acres which was anciently thought to be as much as one team of Oxen could plough up in a year but the Tenure it self which was compounded of these Knights Fees was altogether incertain for unless it be that Manscript stiled Modus Tenendi Parliamentum which is of no higher Age then the Reign of Edward the third there is no Record does state or fix it Walter de Meduana or Mayney Ancestor to the Mayneys of Linton held twenty Knights Fees as appears by the Red Book kept in the Exchequer Folio 84 yet was not under the Repute of a Baron Walter de Wahull had the possession of 30. Knights Fees and John de Port of 50. yet neither of them out of so vast a Tenure could multiply or inforce to themselves the Stile or Title of Baron whereas on the contrary Roger de Leybourn who marryed the Coheir of Vipont and was really a Baron makes a recognisance of his Service as appears by Kirkbies Inquest kept in the Exchequer and taken in the ninth year of Edward the first but for two Knights Fees and an half from all which recited passages is evinced that this Title of Baronage flowed only from the Favour and Indulgence of the Prince who by his Writ or Summons called those who had merited well by some worthy undertakings to this Dignity and Title and not from the vastness of their Patrimony though this did very much concurre afterwards to support their Baronage in its true Value and Lustre But to proceed Jeffrey de Say this Mans Successor had view of Franck Pledge here in the eighth year of Edward the third that is as appears by the Statute of Frank Pledge made in the eighteenth year of Edward the second he was to take Cognisance of those Disorders and Excesses in his Court Baron that were committed by those which held in Free-Soccage of his Mannor of Berling as well as of those which held in Knights Service or Villen age and this Jeffrey in the thirty third year of Edward the third dyed possest of this place Rot. Esc Num. 37. and left it to his Son William de Say who likewise was in the Tenure of it at his Death which happened in the forty third year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 43. Parte secunda and transmitted it to his Son John de Say who likewise held it at his Decease which was in the sixth year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 67. and from him did it devolve by descent to his Son and Heir Jeffrey Lord Say who about the latter end of Richard the second alienated his Interest here by Sale to Richard Fitzallan Earl of Arundell Lord Treasurer and Lord high Admirall of England from whom it came over to his Son Thomas Fitzallan Earl of Arundell and Lord Treasurer of England likewise who dying in the year 1416. without Issue Joan one of his Sisters matched to William Beauchampe summoned to Parliament as Baron of Aburgavenny in the sixteenth year of Richard the second became his Coheir and so he by this Alliance was acknowledged for Lord of the Fee but his Son Richard Beauchampe created Earl of Worcester in the year 1420 dying without Issue male in the ninth year of Henry the fifth Elizabeth his sole Daughter and Heir by matching with Edward Nevill who in her Right became Baron of Aburgavenny annexed Birling and Comfort Parke to his Revenue and he dyed possest of it in the sixteenth year of Edward the fourth and from him did it descend to his great Grandchild Henry Lord Aburgavenny who in the twenty ninth of Queen Elizabeth dying without Issue male gave it to his Kinsman Sir Edward Nevill afterwards Baron of Aburgavenny whose Grandchild John Nevill Lord Aburgavenny possesses now the Signory of it Bobbing in the Hundred of Milton was the ancient Seat of the illustrious Family of Savage Roger de Savage obtained a Charter of Free Warren to his Lands at Bobbing Milsted and elsewhere in the fifth year of Edward the second his Father Sir John de Savage was engaged with Edward the first at the remarkable Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland in the twenty eighth year of his Reign and there for his Signal Service was with Thomas Savage his Brother created Knight Banneret Sir Arnold Savage this mans Grandchild was Sheriff of Kent the fourth and ninth years of Richard the second and was afterwards Speaker of the Parliament in the second year of Henry the fourth as appeats by the late printed Abridgement of the Parliament Rolls preserved in the Tower and was one of the Privie Counsell to that Prince as appears by the private Evidences of this Family his Daughter Eleanor was first matched to Sir Reginald Cobham by whom she had no Issue and after was remarried to William Clifford Esquire Son of Sir Lewis Clifford Knight of the Garter descended from Clifford of Cliffords Castle in Herefordshire who upon the Decease of his Wifes only Brother this Sir Arnold Savage without Issue in her Right as Heir Generall entered upon his Estate here at Bobbing and was Sheriff of Kent in the fourth year of Henry the fifth and again in the thirteenth year of Henry the sixth his Kinsman Robert Clifford Esquire Brother to Richard Clifford first Arch-Deacon of Canterbury secondly Bishop of Worcester and thirdly Bishop of London was Knight of the Shire for Kent in the eighth year of Henry the fourth and lyes buryed in the middle Isle in the Body of Christ Church in Canterbury though now his Portraicture in Copper with the Inscription affixed with the many Coats declaring his Descent and Alliance are torn off and defaced the above mentioned William had Issue Lewis and John Lewis had Issue Alexander Clifford Esquire who was Sheriff of Kent the fifth year of King Edward the fourth and he had Issue Lewis Clifford Esq who was likewise Sheriff of Kent the thirteenth of Henry the seventh and from this Lewis was Henry
did the Cloister of Davington remain a Seminary of religious Women whilst their revenue without was the Fuel which supported and nourished the Flame on the Altar But when the reign of Henry the eighth approached which became decretory and critical to all these Nurseries of a lazy and speculative Devotion the demeasn which sustained this Covent was by Henry the eighth plucked away and in the eight and thirteeth year of his Government was by patent knit to the patrimony of Sir Thomas Cheyney And his Son Sir Henry Lord Cheyney in the eighth year of Q. Eliz. conveyed it by Sale to Jo. Bradborn descended as appears by his Seal affixed to his Deed by which he alienates it again in the tenth year of Q. Eliza. to Avery Giles from the Bradborns of Darbyshire But in this Family the residence of it was very brief and transitory for his Son Francis Giles in the twentieth year of Q. Eliza. passed it away to Mr. Jo. Edwards and from this Family though the Fate of purchase did not rend it away yet that of marriage did for this Jo. Edwards leaving only one Daughter and Heir called Ann she by matching with Io. Boade of Essex Esquire linked this to his revenue and from him it is descended to Mr. Io. Boade the present Lord of the Fee Little Davington or Davington-court not far distant from that house which was the Nunnerie was formerly wrapped up in that Demeasn which confessed the Dominion of the Earls of Atholl Lords of Chilham by whom the Mansion it self was built as their Arms in Stone-work in the great Hall before they were taken down by Mr. Tho. Mills did abundantly testifie and having for many years acknowledged their Signory at last it devolved to David de Strabolgie Earl of Atholl who dying without Issue-male in the forty ninth year of Edw. the third left it to Philippa one of his two Coheirs who was matched to Io. Halsham and from him did a successive Right bring it down to Sir Hugh Halsham his Grandchild who about the beginning of H. the sixth passed it away to Ja. Drylond who determined in one Daughter and Heir called Constance Drylond who was matched to Sir Tho. VValsingham of Scadbery Knight who in her right became possessor of it and transmitted it to his Son Sir Ja. VValsingham who was Sheriff of Kent in the twelfth year of H. the seventh and kept his Shrievalty at Davington and from him did it descend to his Grandchild Sir Tho. VValsingham who almost in our Grandfathers remembrance conveyed it by Sale to Simons and he not long after to Coppinger And his Son having about the beginning of K. James mortgaged it to Freeman they both joyned and by mutual Concurrence fixed their right in Mr. Tho. Mills of Norton who deceasing without Issue-male it came by Ann his Sole Daughter and Heir to be the Inheritance of Sir Io. Mill of South-hampton who conveyed it to his Brother Dr. Mill and he some few years past alienated it to his Kinsman Mr. Tho. Mill and he serled the propriety of it on his Son Mr. Tho. Mill who hath very lately transmitted all his Right in it by Sale to Tho. Twisden Esquire Serjeant at Law now of Brabourn in East-Malling Since my Writing of this I have discovered by an old Survey of Davington collected by Mr. Tho. Millâ— that Io. Lewknor of Sussex Esq had in the twenty first year of H. the sixth an Interess in Davington-court derived to him by Joan his Wife Sole Inheritrix of Sir Hugh Halsham which he not long after passed away to Mr. James Drylond Detling in the Hundred of Maidstone gave Name to a Knightly Family famous for Fortitude and Chivalrie in token whereof a Massie Lance all wrearhed about with thinn Iron place is preserved in the Church like that of VVillam the Conquerours at Battel in Sussex as the very Spear by them used and left as a memorial of their Atchivements in Arms and an Emblem also of their extraordinary Strength and Abilitie In which respect those in Bedington-Hall in Surrey celebrate the renown of the Carewes atchieved at Tilt and Turnament and that in Lullingston-Hall in Kent the like for the Peches As also that in Gerards-Hall in London upon which a Romance is drest up by the vulgar report fancying he was some Giant when the truth is he was of the Knightly Family of Gizors and Constable of the Tower and this his Capital Mansion was Castellated as the Seat of the Basings was another strenuous Family at Basings-Hall in London these matters allude much to the manner of the Romans whose Victories were aplauded and the Victors in their Triumphs extoll'd by Trophies and other Monuments and Ensigns of Honour as Pancirolus Rosinus and others have judiciously observed that have treated of these kind of Rituals But to return to the Subject from which this discourse hath diverted me in this Family of Detling did the Possession of this place for many Ages remain constantly seated till the beginning of the Reign of Edward the fourth and then John Detling written in some Old Deeds Brampton alias Detling transmitted it by Sale to Richard Lord Woodvill Lord of the Moat in Maidston not far distant created Earl of Rivers Lord Treasurer and Constable of England by his Son in law King Edward the fourth in the year 1466. whose Grandchild Anthony Woodvill Earl Rivers being attainted upon supposed Treason in the first year of Richard the third which was made so by that Usurper and those black Engins which he had raised upon him because he too cordially asserted the Interest of Edward fifth it escheated to the Crown and that Prince in the second year of his Government granted it to Sir Robert Brackenbury Lievtenant of the Tower who it seems disliking a Tenure which was caemented with Blood passed away his right immediately after to Richard Lewknor who had some estate here before by matching with Eleanor Coheir of Tho. Towne which Tho. Towne wedded to Bennett Heir of John Detling and this Richard Lewknor about the latter end of Henry the seventh gave it in franck Marriage with his Daughter to Hills Hills resolved into two Daughters and Coheirs one of which was married to Vincent and the other was matched to Martin and so upon the Division to avoid all Disorder and Confusion Detling was split into two Mannors one was called West-Court which accrued to Vincent and the other was termed East-Court which was annexed to the Demeasne of Martin Martin about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth sold East-Court to Webbe in which Name after it had for severall years been fixed it was in our Fathers Memory passed away to Smith who not many years since alienated it to Sir Edward Henden one of the Barons of the Exchequer who upon his Decease gave it to his Nephew Sir John Henden and from him it is now descended to his eldest Son Edward Henden Esquire But Westcourt was by Vincent passed away to Morton of Whitehorse in
of which Name which held this place was Tho. Chesman whose Female-heir Alice brought this Seat to her Husband Rob. Stodder Ancestor to Will. Stodder Esq not long since deceased who was proprietary of it A strange and marvellous Accident happened at this place upon the fourth day of August 1585 in a Field which belongeth to Sir Percival Hart. Betimes in the morning the ground began to sink so much that three great Elme-Trees were suddenly swallowed into the Pit the tops falling downward into the hole And before ten of the Clock they were so overwhelmed that no part of them might be discerned the Concave being suddenly filled with water the Compass of the hole was about 80. yards and so profound that a sounding line of fifty Fathoms could hardly find or feel any bottome ten yards distance from that place there was another piece of ground sunk in like manner near the high-way and so nigh a dwelling house that the Inhabitants were greatly terrified therewith Edenbridge in the Hundred of Westerham was ever esteemed a Chappel of ease to the Parish of Westerham The first that I discover by the beams of Record to have been possest of Edenbridge were the Stangraves who had here their capital Mansion which was known by their Name John de Stangrave obtained a Charter of Free-warren to Edenbridge in the twenty sixth year of Edw. the first Sir Rob. de Stangrave was his Son and Heir who was with Edw. the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland and there for his generous Service received the Order of Knighthood and dyed seised of Edenbridge and Stangrave the twelfth year of E. the third Rot. Esc Num. 52. After the Stangraves were vanished the Dynleys were setled in the Signory of these above-mentioned places Jo. de Dynley had a Confirmation of the Chatter of Free-warren to Eden-bridge in the fourteenth year of Edward the third and immediately after passed away his Interest here to Hugh de Audley Earl of Gloucester Lord of the Mannor and Castle of Tunbridge by whose Daughter and Heir the Lady Margaret Audley Stangrave and Edenbridge came to acknowledge the Signory of Ralph Stafford Earl of Stafford and he dyed seised of them in the forty sixth year of Edward the third and in this Family of Stafford as they were successively Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham was the propriety of these places resident untill the twelfth year of Henry the eighth and then Edward Duke of Buckingham Lord high Constable of England having unadvisedly consulted with a Monk and a Wizzard touching the Succession of the Crown fomented so Vast a Stock of Fears and Jealousies in the Brain of that Cautious Prince that they could not be extinguished but by his Blood which was poured out on a Scaffold as the last expiation of that Treason which was by Cardinal Wolsey pinn'd upon him and likewise of his Prince's Fury Upon this his untimely Exit his Estate escheated to the Crown and King Henry the eighth not many years after granted Westerham Eden Bridge and Stangrave which were parcell of the Confiscation to Sir John Gresham Knight from whom they by Descent are now devolved to Marmaduke Gresham Esquire who enjoys the instant Possession of them Delaware is a Seat of very venerable Account in this Parish It was the Seat of Gentlemen of that Name as high as the Reign of Henry the second as appears by old Evidences now in the Hands of Mr. Seyliard of which Robert de la Ware was the last who about the latter end of Edward the third went out without Issue-male so that Dionysia Delaware who was matched to William Paulin became Heir to this place In Paulin it remained constantly resident till the beginning of the Rule of Henry the sixth and then William Paulin determined in a Daughter and Heir likewise who was wedded to John Seyliard of Seyliard in Hever which is still in the Possession of Mr. Seyliard of Gabriells in this Parish and who descended from Ralph de Seyliard who flourished about the Reign of King Stephen In an old Pedigree of Seyliard now treasured up amongst the Evidences of Delaware there is enrolled the Coppy of a Deed without date by which Almerick d'Eureux Earl of Gloucester who flourished in the Reign of Henry the third demises Lands to Martin at Seyliard and other Lands called Hedinden to Richard at Seyliard who were Sons of Ralph from which Ralph John Seyliard Esquire now Proprietary of this anâ—â—ent Mansion of Delaware by a Steady and unbroken Current of many Descents in a Direct Line is originally extracted The Mannor of Sharnden in this Parish was parcell of that Estate which belonged to the Lords Cobham of Sterborough Castle not far distant and continued folded up in the Patrimony of this Family till the Government of Edward the fourth and then Thomas Lord Cobham of Sterborough deceasing without Issue-male Anne matched to Edward Lord Borough of Gainsborough became his Heir in which Name and Family the Title of this place successively streamed down till almost our Times and then the Lady Katharine Borough to whom it was assigned by Thomas Lord Borough her Husband to defray Debts and other Uses passed it away to Sir Edward Richardson Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench whose Grandchild the Lord Edward Richardson Baron of Cromartie in Scotland does now possesse the Signory and Inheritance of it Elham in the Hundred of Lovingborough is anciently written Helham which denotes the Situation of it in a Valley amongst Hills Though now the Magnificent Structures which in elder Times were here be dismantled and have only left a Masse of deplored Rubble to direct us were they stood yet in Dooms-day Book it is written that the Earl of Ewe a Norman and neere in Alliance to the Conquerour held it and left the Reputation of an Honour unto it as the Record of the Aid granted at the making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth of Ed. the third doth warrant For the Mannor of Mount adjacent to Elham is said to be held of the Honour of the Earl of Ewe by Knights Service In Testa de Nevill there is mention of Gilbert Earl of Ewe who then paid respective Aid in the twentieth year of Henry the third at the Marriage of Isabell that Prince's Sister From this Gilbert Earl of Ewe it went away to Edward eldest Son to Henry the third who obtained a Market and Fair to Elham by Charter in the thirty fifth of Henry the third and after he had fortified it with these Priviledges in the forty first year of the abovesaid Prince conveys it by Sale to Boniface of Savoy Arch-bishop of Canterbury Boniface to decline the Envy and Emulation of his English Opposites which he and the rest of those Forreiners and Aliens had contracted upon themselves by their practicall Turbulencies in the Managery of the principal Affairs of State under Henry the third passed it away by Sale to Roger Lord Leybourne a great Partisan and
conveyed it by Grant to Sir Walter Henley and he in the thirty fourth year of Henry the eighth transmitted it by his Deed to Sir John Baker whose Successor Sir John Baker even in those Times which entrenched on our Remembrance passed it away to Mr ....... Cleyton of London Bewper is the second place of account in this Parish It was in elder Times an Appendage or Fragment of that Demeasn which did contribute to the Support of the Abby of Feversham and upon the Suppression of that Cloister or Seminary by Henry the eighth it was in the thirty fifth year of that Princes Reign granted to Sir Thomas Moil who not long after passed it away to Robert Prat. And his Son Master Franci Prat primo Elizabethae by Fine conveyed it to Mr Edward Bathurst who not many years after transplanted his Interest here by Sale into Sir Richard Baker Ancestor to Sir Jo. Baker of Sisinghurst Baronet who now by paternal Succession is entituled to the instant Signory of it Wallinghurst and Buckhurst are two petty Mannors which belonged to the Abby of Feversham but upon the Suppression of that Covent they were pared off and by Grant from Henry the eighth in the twenty ninth year of his Reign were enstated upon Thomas Lord Cromwell Earl of Essex But long he was not endowed with them for in the thirty second year of that Prince's Government he was bespattered and blasted with an Accusation of high Treason which the Subtlety of his Adversaries had woven so closely together that he was entangled in it and being attainted forfeited both his Life and Estate to the Fury I cannot say Justice of an incensed Prince Amongst the Ruines of his Patrimony these two places were comprehended and upon his Shipwrack it returned to the Crown And then King Henry the eighth by a new Grant in the same year they escheated passed them away to Sir John Baker of Sisingherst in Cranebroke from whom they are now come down to Sir John Baker Baronet his Successor Upper Peasridge was involved in that spatious Inheritance which fell under the Dominion of the Lord Badelesmer of whom I shall speak more at Leeds and when he by his Disloyalty had forfeited both Life and Fortune to the Crown this was enwrapt in the Escheat But was restored in the second year of Edward the third to Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer this Mans Son and he in the twelfth year of that Prince held it at his Death Rot. Esc Num. 44. But Giles his only Son dying without Issue his great Estate was split into parcells and this with some more of his Demeasne was allotted to Mawd his Sister and Coheir who was matched to John Vere Earl of Oxford and he in her Right was possest of it at his Death which was in the thirty fourth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 84. And in this Family did it reside untill the Beginning of Henry the fourth and then it was passed away by Sale to St. Leger to whose Patrimony it remained annexed untill the Government of Philip and Mary and then an Alienation like the former brought it over to Lone descended from the Lones of Lancashire where there is yet a House of the Name and being thus fixt in this Family the Possession continues still united to it Fordwich in the Hundred of West-Gate was given to the Abbot and Monks of St. Austins as the Annalls of that Convent testifie by King Edward the Confessor and was given ad Vestitum for Reparation of their Apparell And there is a Tradition that Hemp-Hall which was an Appendage to this Mannor did pay a quit-Rent in Hemp but certainly it must be then for the use of those secular persons which related as Officers and Servants to this Cloister for the Monks themselves being under the Rule of Bennet harrowed their Skin with Shirts of Hair and slept vestiti in their Apparell the more to tame and controle the Mutinies and Disorders of the Flesh But to advance After this Mannor which the Piety of former Ages had planted in the Revenue of the Church had for a large Decursion of Time owned no other Proprietary it was by the Dissolution in the twenty ninth of Henry the eighth emptied into the Income of the Crown where it lay untill Edward the sixth in the seventh year of his Reign granted it to Sir Thomas Cheyney and he not long after alienated his Concernment in it to John Johnson from whom it came over by Purchase to Paramour who passed it away to the Lady Elizabeth Finch Widow of Sir Moile Finch whose Son Thomas Finch Earl of Winchelsey almost in our Memory passed it away to John Finch Baron of Fordwich late Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England in the year 1640 and in him does the instant Signory of it reside Folkstone does contribute a Name to the Hundred in which it is situated The Mannor it self with the Mannor of Walton was given to the Nunnery by Eadbald King of Kent which it seems was of that Repute in those Times that Eanswide his Daughter was there vailed a Nun under the Rule of St. Bennet and Ermenred and Ercombert his Sons changed their hopes of a Crown into those of one more celestiall and folded up all their Earthly Glories in a Monastick Cowle which they assumed at this place under the Discipline of St. Bennet But this Cloister was some Ages after partly by the Fury of the Danes and partly by the Impressions of the Sea reduced into a heap of Ruines so that in the Reign of William the Conquerour William de Muneville laid the Foundations of a new Priory in another place of the Town which was much augmented afterwards by William de Averenches who had married his only Daughter But it seems upon the former Devastation of this religious Seminary the Mannor had returned to the Crown for in the year one thousand thirty and eight Canutus restored to Christ-church in Canterbury as the Records of that Covent do intimate this Mannor of Folkston which Athelstan Son of King Edward in the year nine hundred twenty and eight had formerly granted to them for the health of his Fathers Soul and to the Honor of Vlfhelme Arch-priest of Canterbury but with this Restriction he limits and bounds this his Concession that this Mannor thus returned to the Church should never be alienated by the Arch-bishop without the Consent of the King and the Covent of Christ-church who it appears joyned with William the Conquerour and the Archbishop of Canterbury and fastned it again to this Priory where it remained untill it was torn away by the Suppression in the Time of Henry the eighth and annexed to the Crown Afterwards that Prince in the thirtieth year of his Reign transplanted his Interest in it and Walton by Grant into Edward Lord Clinton and he the same year passed them away to Thomas Lord Cromwell Earl of Essex who being attainted in the thirty second year of the abovesaid Prince
as appears by the Escheat Roll of that year marked with the Number 76. and left Mawde de Twitham heir to his large Possessions in this County who by marrying with Simon Septuans of Checquer in Ash by Sandwich invested him not only in the Signory of Dean-Court but likewise in his other Demeasne which lay dispersed in severall Branches over this County and he had Issue by her Sir William Septuans who matched with Anne Daughter and Heir of Sir Nicholas Sandwich and had Issue by her John Septuans Esquire who likewise wedded Constance Daughter and Heir of Thomas Ellys of Sandwich and had Issue by her John his eldest Son to whom he gave Hells Twitham Chilton Molands in Ash and other Lands in Kent Thomas his second Son who had Dean-Court in Mepeham and other Lands in this County and Gilbert Septuans his third Son who had his Mannor of Chequer in Ash above-said and from them it is sometimes writ At Chequer and afterwards Harfleet for some eminent Service by him performed at a Town of that Name in Normandy as the private Evidences of this Family do seem to insinuate under the conduct of Henry the fifth and so Successively by Custome and Prescription this Name became hereditary to all of the Name of Septuans who were either directly or Collaterally linked in Alliance to this Gilbert And in the Name of Harfleet alias Septuans did the Inheritance of this Mannor of Dean-Court sundry Ages reside till some few years since it was by one of this Name alienated to Mr. Francis Twisden third Brother to Sir Roger Twisden of Roydon-Hall Knight and Baronet Merworth stands in the Hundred of Littlefield and gave Seat and Sirname to a worthy Family of Gentlemen whose Ancestor branched out from a Family called St. Laurence William de Merworth is in the Register of those Kentish Knights who were embarked with Richard the first at the Seige of Acon upon which it is probable the Crosse Corslets were taken into the paternall Coat of this Family In the fifteenth year of King John one Roger the Son of Eustace de Merworth brought a Quare Impedit against the Prior of Leeds for the Adyouson of the Church of Merworth Roger de Merworth obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannor of Merworth in the eighteenth year of Edward the first In the twentieth year of Edward the third as appears by the Book of Aid John de Merworth paid respective Aid for a whole Knight's Fee at Merworth and Crombery in Hadloe which he held of the Earl of Glocester at making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth year of Edward the third and an Inquisition taken after this mans Death for his Mannor of Merworth though the Inquisition for his Mannor of Maplescombe and other Lands was not taken untill the forty ninth of Edward the third finds John Malmains of Malmains in Pluckley to be his Heir who in the forty sixth year of Edward the third sells it to Humphrey Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex and he about the beginning of Richard the second conveys it to Nicholas de Brembre Son of Sir John de Brembre who at the Battle of Trent as Mr. Selden relates in his Titles of Honour pag. 556. made himself eminent by a signall encounter with John de Beaumonour in the year 1350. And endevouring to support the prerogative of Richard the second in an Age wherin his Crime was too much Loialty against the Assaults of some of the Factious and Ambitious Nobility sunk under the waight of their Hatred and Opposition and being attainted of High Treason this in the tenth year of the abovesaid Prince Escheated to the Crown and the same King in the thirteenth year of his Raign granted it to John Hermensthorpe who immediately after conveyed it to Richard Fitzallan Earl of Arundell Lord Treasurer and Lord Admirall of England whose Son Thomas Fitzallan dying without Issue Joan one of his Sisters and Coheirs matching with William Beauchampe who was created by Writt Baron of Abergavenny in the sixteenth year of Richard the second knit this Mannor to the Patrimony of that Family where it continued till Richard Beauchampe this mans Son dying without Issue-male in the ninth year of Henry the fifth bequeathed it to Elizabeth his Sole Daughter and Heir who matched afterward to Edward Nevill Baron of Abergavenny from whom the Title both of the Barony and Merworth flowed down to his Great Grandchild Henry Nevill who died the twenty ninth year of Queen Elizabeth and left this Mannor to Mary his Sole Daughter and heir married to Sir Thomas Fane unto whom King James in the first Parliament which he held Restored Gave Granted and so forth the Name Style Title Honour and Dignity of Baroness le Despencer and that her Heirs Successively should be Barons le Desp neer for ever She had Issue by Sir Thomas Fane of Badsell in Kent Sir Francis Fane eldest Son Knight of the Bath whom King James in the twenty second year of his Raign December the 29. created Earl of Westmerland and Baron Burghurst being likewise by his Mothers Descent extracted from the female heir of that old Barony for Edw. le Despencer who maried Elizabeth Heir of Bartholomew Lord Burghurst and Rich. Beauchampe who married Isabell Daughter and Heir of Thomas Lord Despencer and his eldest Son Sir Mildmay Fane Knight of the Noble Order of the Bath now Earl of Westmerland doth not onely enjoy the Concomitant Titles of Despencer and Burghurst but the Mannor of Mereworth likewise with all the Royalties of it which were not inferiour to any which hathreceived Honour by its owners for it is holden in Chivalrie by an entire Knights Fee and a Free-warren which was formerly granted to it is yet extant and the Conveniences of a Park and Conies are not wanting Jotes-Court in this Parish of Merworth had as appears by severall old Deeds some without Date Owners who were written Jeotes and by contraction of the Name call'd Jotes but before the latter end of Richard the second this Family was crumbled away and gone and then it came to have the same possessors with Merworth as namely Fitz-Allan Beauchampe and Nevill the last of which who enjoyed it was Sir Tho. Nevil third Son of George Nevill Baron of Abergavenny which Sir Tho. was one of the Privy Councel to Henry the eighth and Speaker of the Parliament and he in the thirty third year of that Prince conveyed it by Sale to Sir Robert Southwell who in the thirty fifth year of Henry the eighth by the same Fatalitie passed it away to Sir Edmund Walsingham of Scadbery whose great Grandchild Sir Tho. Walsingham Knight hath not many years since alienated all his Concernment in it to his Son in Law Mr. James Masters Swanton-Court is the last place considerable in Merworth It lay couched in that Revenue which related to the Knights Hospitalers untill the publique Dissolution supplanted it and surrendred it to the Crown and K. Henry the eighth about
Partisans of the House of Lancaster but rather was driven into it by the Tempest of his ill Fortune Having represented the City in its Modern Face or Aspect I shall now draw the Curtain something wider and discover its Pourtracture in its calamitous Sufferings occasioned by the Invasions not only of an entaged Enemy but likewise which is worse by the Onsets of its own incensed Prince and these two mixing together have much disordered the Ancient Glory and Splendor of it In the year 680. Eldred King of Mercia harrassed Kent and by an impetuous Inroad laid it wast And as particular Lamentations are not distinguishable in universal Groans so in this publick Depopulation of the County then Kingdome the Tragedy and Devastation acted by that Prince at that Time upon this City was not resented with that Regret as so deplorable Ruine might seem to exact which had it been singly poured out upon this City it could not have been repeated or rehearsed without a bleeding Heart and a weeping Eye In the year 986. King Etheldred infested Rochester with a Siege having entertained some discontent or disgust against the Bishop and would not dissolve his Leaguer until the said Bishop had expiated his Offence with the Sacrifice of an hundred pounds a Sum of importance in those dry Times though inconsiderable in these profuser ones of ours where commonly the pecuniary Supply that is extracted from the Subject is steeped in his Tears In the year 999. the Danes invaded Canterbury and though by the vigorous Resistance and Magnanimity of the Defendants their Assaults were made null yet at length by the treacherous Combination of an insidious Party within it was rather betrayed then subdued and miserably depopulated by the Barbarous Adversary the Signatures of which Devastation are yet visible and though the wideness of the Orifice which that wound had made be something closed up with the Hand of Time yet there is a huge Scar left to represent to Posterity the Greatness of the former Ruine After they had thus harrassed and defaced that City they to improve â—heir Victory advanced to Rochester where the Inhabitants astonished with an Example of so much Terror after some faint Opposition against the Danish Impressions and Onsets gave themselves up to Flight and this City to a Calamitous Depopulation In the year 1130. Henry the first with the Arch-bishop of Canterbury were present at the Consecration of St. Andrews Church in Rochester which was then brought to perfection having been before much empaired by the Iron Teeth of Time But then the Fury of the Elements began to enter into a Corrivalship or Competition with the Fury of Enemies for by a casual Eruption of an Accidental Fire the whole City almost found an infortunate Sepulchre in its own Ashes But it seems like a Phaenix it rose again into new Beauty and Order out of these Ashes and Embers but did not long continue in this Condition for in the year of Grace 1177. which was in the Time of Henry the second it was again assaulted by the Outrage and Fury of this implacable Element the Impressions and remaining Signatures of which Conflagration are obvious to the Inspection of an Inquisitive Eye even until this Day In the year 1225. it was by the Indulgent Bounty of King Henry the third invested with a Wall and that this Fortification might be of more Concernment it was likewise secured or fenced with a Ditch In the year 1251. A Solemn Tornament was held at Rochester wherein the English entered the Lists against those Strangers or Forrainers who having in that Age a great Concernment in the Eare of Henry the third had likewise a strong Interest in his Heart and by consequence a powerful Impression or Influence upon the publick Affairs of those Times wherein they managed the Honor of this Nation with so much Courage and Gallantry that they forced them with Shame and Confusion to retire into the City and as if that were not a Shelter of sufficient Importance to seek for their Security in the Castle The Castle THat there was in the Age before the Norman Invasion the Rudiments or if I may so say the Embrio of a Castle represented to the World under imperfect Lineaments or Dimensions here at Rochester is most certain For the Records of the Cathedral inform us that Egbert King of Kent in the year 763. gave certain Lands to Eardulfe Bishop of Rochester situate within the Wals of the Castle of that City which argues that there was some Trench or Fortification even in those Times which was in Strength by the Analogy of Proportion equivalent to the Fortresses of that Age and so might merit by Resemblance the Name of a Castle though the Bulk and Grandeur of it was added in Times of a more Modern extraction For in the Time of the Conquest I find that the Bishop of Rochester received Land at Alresford for Land at Rochester proportionate to it to erect a Castle on which was in all probability onely to enlarge the Boundaries of the old one which peradventure was thought too contemptible in those active Times to secure so important a Pass as this of Rochester was without the Additional Supply of some new Strength And that these Augmentations did acknowledge if not for their Founder or Author yet at least for their eminent Benefactor Odo Bishop of Bajeux and Earl of Kent half Brother to the Conqueror is without Controversie a man who was afterwards dignified and adorned with the Office of Lord Chief Justice of England a place of the most eminent Trust in that Age and which was often managed by the Kings of England personally themselves and from the Marble Seat in Westminster-hall did deliver their Decisions and Determinations of Law from whence in Ancient Seals and other Sculptures they are often represented to us sitting in Judicature upon this Marble Seat and hence result those Customary Expressions in Original Writs and other Processes Coram Nobis and Teste Rege and sometimes me Ipso apud Westmon and some other Phrases and Tearms in our Ancient Law-books of the same Complexion as namely such a one Allocutus est Nobis sedentibus supra Sedem Marmoream which justifies that the Kings of England did sometimes personally sit and assist in Judicature in that Court we now call the Upper Bench where like a great Orb or Glob of Light they dispersed their Beams of Mercy and Justice into all the parts of our English Horizon and dispelled all those Crievances which like so many Fogs or Clouds exhaled from corrupred Nature seemed to eclipse the Serenity of this Nation But I wander too much I now return This Accumulation of Offices and Dignities could not so ingage this above-mentioned Odo to the Interest of William Rufus his Nephew but that he first enwrapped himself in a Combination with some of the discontented Nobility whose Endeavors were to ravish the Scepter out of the Hand of that Prince and place it in
and desired the people to express their Joy because on that Day by the efficacious prayers of the Church Richard the first formerly King of England and many others were ransomed from the Flame and Torment of Purgatory In Sedingbourn Church there was a Monument of Sir Richard Lovelace inlayed richly with Brasse who was an eminent Souldier in his Time and Marshal of Calais under Henry the eighth with his Pourtraiture affixed in Brass which the Injuries of Time and the Impiety of Sacrilegious Mechanicks have utterly dismantled and defaced Selling in the Hundred of Boughton did in Ages of the highest Discovery acknowledge the Signory of the Putots and William de Putot was in Possession of it at his Death which happened in the thirteenth year of Henry the third After the Putots the Lords Badelesmer were invested in the possession Guncelin de Badelesmer was possest of it in the twenty ninth year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 50. and left it with a spatious Inheritance to his Son Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer who having involved himself in a ruinous Combination with some others of the mutinous Nobility against Edward the second lost both his Life and Estate in that unsuccesful Defection but this Mannor was restored to his Son in the second year of King Edward the third and was known by the Name of Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer but did not long enjoy his new acquired Inheritance for in the twelfth year of the above-mentioned Prince he died without Issue and left his Estate to be shared between four Sisters and Co-heirs whereof Margaret the eldest was espoused to Sir John Tiptoft and he in her Right entered upon the possession of this place and died possest of it in the thirty third year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 39. from whom the Title came down to John Tiptoft created Earl of Worcester in the year 1450. and invested afterwards with the Office and Dignity of Lord Treasurer and Lord Constable of England but asserting too eagerly the Cause and Quarrel of the House of Yorke he was crushed and overwhelmed with that weight with which the Partisans of the Lancastrian Faction did endevour to sink and oppresse the Supporters of that Family and was offered up a Victime to the successful Fury of Richard Earl of Warwick who being an Apostate of the House of Yorke was the principal Engine upon whom the Designs and Interess of the Lancastrian Party then moved Upon the untimely Death and attaint of this Earl which was in the year 1570. this Mannor was annexed to the Revenue of the Crown and though Edward Tiptoft this mans Son was the next year after his Fathers unhappy Exit restored by Edward the fourth both in Blood and Dignity yet I do not discover any Restitution made of Selling so that it rested in the Crown until Edward the sixth in the fourth year of his reign granted it to Sir Anthony St. Leger who immediatly after passed it away to Sir Anthony Sonds of Throuley one of the Justices of the Peace of this County and Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to this Prince and his Father Henry the eighth from whom it is now come down by Paternal efflux of the Title to Sir George Sonds Knight of the Bath who is entituled to the present possession of it Oven-court in this Parish anciently gave both Seat and Sirname to a Family which was known by that Denomination but whether they were extracted from the Owens of Wales and contracted this Name of Oven by vulgar Acceptation no Record does manifest certain it is they were as appears by old Rentals and other Muniments possessors of this place as high as the reign of Henry the third The next Family which after this was worn out did step into the possession was Drilond of Cookes-ditch in Feversham a Name of generous Extraction for in the reign of Edward the third John the Son of Stephen de Drilond demises some Land at Crouchfeild in Feversham by a Deed bearing Date from the twenty fifth year of that Prince to William de Makenade and in that Instrument he writes himself Knight After Drilond was extinguished which was about the beginning of Edward the fourth the Foggs became Proprietaries of it and remained for divers years Lords of the Fee until at last the alternate Devolution of Purchase brought it to be the Inheritance of Crouch where it did not long fix for in the year 1588. Giles Crouch alienated it to Michael Sonds Esquire afterwards Knighted from which Family in our Fathers Memory it was conveyed by Sale to Franklin from whom the same Devolution hath brought it now to Lambe who holds the instant Signory of it Before I passe from Selling I must inform the Reader that the greatest Honour which this Town acquired was that it was the Cradle of William Selling bred up amongst the Monks of Christ-church who obtained Licence from the Chapter of that Covent to travel into Italy and prosecute his Studies at Bononia where he arrived to that perfection of Knowledge that he was advanced to be Prior of Christ-church and was after sent by Henry the seventh in whose Eyes his Worth was very visible as his Embassador to the Pope Those incomparable Books which were placed in the Library which related to the Covent by his Care and Munificence amongst which was Tullies invaluable Tractate de Republica not long after his Death by an Accidental Fire found an unhappy Sepulchre in their own Ashes He died as full of Fame as of Years in the year of Grace 1494. And hath his Epitaph registred by the industrious Pen of Mr. Somner in his Survey of Canterbury Smerden in the Hundreds of Calchill Blackborne and Barckley did Anciently relate to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and was part of that Revenue which did keep up the Grandeur and Magnificence of that Sea rescuing it from all cheapness and contempt which induced John then Arch-bishop of Canterbury this being so eminent a part of the Spiritual Patrimony to obtain a Grant of a Market to be observed here weekly on the Monday as appears Pat. 6. Edwardi tertii Num. 47. But the principal place which was alwayes of secular Interess within this Parish is Romden which was the Patrimony of an Ancient Family called Hengherst and in more modern Times Henherst who were entituled to large Demeasnes at Woodchurch Stapleherst Yalding and other places in this County but made no long aboad here at Romden for William Son of Osbert de Hengherst so he cals himself in his Deed without Date demised it to John de Calch and in this Family it continued until the latter end of Richard the second and who after Calch succeeded in the Inheritance because I can collect no farther Knowledge from original Evidences I confess I am ignorant so that I am forced to leap over divers Kings reigns into that of King Henry the eighth and then in the twenty fourth year of that Prince I find that John the Son of Stephen
Attorney General to Henry the eighth and he died possest of it in the thirty third year of that Prince and left it to his Son Sir James Hales who not long after alienated it to Sir Thomas Moile Chancellour of the Court of Augmentations who erected almost all that stupendious Fabrick which now so obliges the Eye to Admiration and left it to Sir Thomas Finch who had married Katharine his Daughter and Co-heir a Gentleman who merited a calmer Fate and a Nobler Tomb for after many gallant Archievements performed at Newhaven in France he suffered Shipwrack in his return to England and left it to his Son Sir Moile Finch who very much inlarged Eastwell-court with both sumptuous elegant and convenient Additaments and left it in Dower to his Widow Elizabeth Finch Daughter and Heir of Sir Thomas Heneage first created Viscountess Maidstone by King James and after Countess of Winchelsey in the year 1638. by King Charles from whom both the Honour and East-well descended to her Son Thomas Earl Wenchelsey and from him to his Son the Right Honorable Heneage Finch now Earl of Winchelsey and Viscount Maidston Since I am so happily engaged to a Discourse of this eminent Family of Finch I shall discover in Landskip the deep Antiquity of their first Extraction They were originally descended from Henry Fitz-Herbert Chamberlain to King Henry the first who married the Daughter and Heir of Sir Robert le Corbet and had Issue by her a Son named Herbert and he was Father to Herbert Fitz-Herbert who by his first Wife Lucy Daughter and Co-heir of Milo Earl of Hereford and Lord High Constable of England had Issue a Son named Peter Fitz-Herbert from whom the Herberts Earls of Pembroke originally issued out and by his second Wife Matilda after his Deeease remarried to the Lord Columbers he had Issue Matthew Fitz-Herbert who was one of the Magnates or Barons at the compiling of Magna Charta and was one of the powerful Partisans of King John at the making the accord between that Prince and his Barons at Running-Mead between Windsor and Stanes his Son likewise called Matthew Fitz-Herbert was the fourth Baron mentioned in the Roll of that Parliament which was convened at Tewksbury The alteration of this Name into Finch was about the tenth of Edward the first at which Time Herbert Fitz-Herbert purchased the Mannor of Finches in Lidde of which being entire Lord as he was not of Netherfeild he assumed his Sirname from that as many other Families fell in that Age under the same Mutation and borrowed Sirnames from those places which were wholly under their possession and Signory In the eighth year of Edward the second there was a Supersedeas issued out mentioning that Herbert Fitz-Herbert called Finch was a Ward in the twenty eighth year of Edward the first and so could not personally serve with the King in his Wars in Scotland and therefore was released of his Escuage for all his Estate in Kent and Sussex which together with some of the ancient Patrimony and several Knights Fees at Netherfeild in Sussex and elsewhere are not yet departed from this Noble Family Westwell in the Hundred of Calchill was confirmed to the Monks of Christ-church in Canterbury for a supply in their Diet in the year 1241. But it seems they were questioned Quo Warranto they possest this Mannor and after a Solemn Decision per patriam it is affirmed and attested in the Confirmation of the abovesaid Prince that it was enstated upon them by his Predecessors and continued afterwards unquestionably parcel of the Demeasne of the Cloister abovesaid until it was resigned by the Monks of Christ-church into the Hands of Henry the eighth and so it rested in the Crown until not many years since it was granted to Sir Nic. Tuston of Hothfield The Parsonage anciently belonged to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury until Thomas Arundell the Arch-bishop gave it in the year 1397. to the Monks of Christ-church to counterpoise those vast expences which they were to be at in re-erecting the Nave or Body of the Cathedral called Aulam Ecclesiae by Eadmerus which Simon de Sudbury plucked down and had intended that it should like a Phoenix have rose more glorious out of its Ashes but was intercepted in his Design by a suddain Death being beheaded by Wat Tiler and the confluence of his impious and barbarous Complices This Church thus appropriated was confirmed to the Monks abovesaid in the year 1400. by King Henry the fourth and upon the suppression was re-enstated upon the Dean and Chapiter of Christ-church by Henry the eighth Ripley-court is a Seat of good Antiquity in this Parish and more eminent because it afforded a Sirname to Gentlemen of good Ranke in this Track of which Number was Richard de Ripley who died seised of this Mannor in the thirtieth year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 91. and in an old Deed is called Miles Archiepiscopi that is he held this Mannor of the Arch-bishop by Knights Service but before the latter end of Edward the third this Family was vanished and then the Brockhuls and Idens succeeded in the possession the last of which was a Family of great Antiquity and no lesse Revenue about Iden in Sussex and Rolvenden in this County For in the year 1280. as appears by a Fine levied that year John the Son of Thomas de Iden passes away Lands to John de More And of this Family was Alexander Iden Esquire Sheriff of Kent in the thirty fourth year of Henry the sixth who in the twenty eighth year of that Prince slew Jack Cade who had borrowed the disguised Person of Mortimer excited thereunto as was the Opinion of those Times by the Suggestions of Richard Duke of Yorke to fathom the Peoples Affections to that man in the strength of whose Title he intended in the future to claim the English Diadem But the Attempts of Cade being disappointed by the formerly infatuated but now disenchanted Multitude's deserting of him who began to risent his Fraud and Imposture upon their total Dissipation shrowded himself in some of those Grounds which belonged to Ripley-court and lay not far distant from Hothfeild and were then in the Tenure of VVilliam Iden Justice of the Peace and Father of the abovesaid Alexander where being discovered he was by that Worthy Person offered up a Sacrifice to the Justice of Henry the sixth But I have digressed I now return After this Seat had for so many Descents been the Residence of this Family and the Cradle and Seminary of many Worthy Persons who had been subservient and ministerial to the Honour and Interess of this County by their Magnanimity and Prudence it went away from Iden by Sale to Darell and George Darell in the last year of Edward the sixth conveyed it to Baker Ancestor to Mr. ...... Baker of VVindsor now proprietary of it Diggs-court is another eminent Seat in this Parish which was the Mansion of the Noble Family of Diggs or
Sheriff before in the twenty third was now again Sheriff in the twenty eighth year of Henry the sixth Gervas Clifton that had served this Office in the eighteenth year of this Kings Reign was called again to discharge in the twenty ninth of K. Henry the sixth Robert Horne of Hornes Place in Apuldore was Sheriff of Kent the thirtieth year of Henry the sixth Thomas Ballard of Horton near Canterbury was Sheriff of Kent the thirty first year of Henry the sixth John Fogge of Repton in Ashford Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the thirty second year of Henry the sixth Sir Iohn Cheyney of Shurland and Patricksbourn Cheyney was Sheriff of Kent the thirty third year of K. Henry the sixth Philip Belknap of the Moate in Canterbury was Sheriff of Kent the twenty fourth year of Henry the sixth Alexander Iden of Westwell who slew Iack Cade and married the Widow of Will. Cromer slain before by that Rebell was Sheriff of Kent the thirty fifth year of Henry the sixth John Guldford of Halden Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the thirty sixth year of Henry the sixth This Man flourished under the Scepter of Henry the sixth Edward the fourth under whom he was Sheriff and likewise Comptroller of his House-hold Richard the third at whose Coronation he was Knighted and lastly that of Henry the seventh by whom he was admitted as his Monument in the Middle Isle of the Body of Christ Church in Canterbury does attest into his Privy Councell Sir Gervas Clifton who formerly in the eighteenth and twenty ninth years of this Prince had managed this Place was again summoned to execute it in the thirty seventh year of Henry the sixth Sir Thomas Brown of Bechworth Castle in Surrey was again Sheriff of Kent in the thirty eighth year of Henry the sixth John Scot of Scots-Hall Esquire was Sheriff of Kent part of the year above mentioned He was afterwards Knighted by K. Edward the fourth and by him called to be of his Privy Councell Deputy of Callis and Comptroller of his House-hold Sheriffs of Kent under K. Edward the fourth John Isaack of Howlets in Patricksbourne was Sheriff of Kent the first year of King Edward the fourth Sir William Peche of Lullingston Knight was Sheriff of Kent the third and fourth years of Edward the fourth and had likewise the Custody of the Castle of Canterbury annexed to his Office as this Record does inform me Rex concessit Willielmo Peche Milititotum Comit. Cantii una cum Castro Cantuariensi ac constituit eum Vicecomitem Cantii ac ei concessit 40 libras Annuas quousque ei dederit 40 libras Annuas in speciali Taellio Haeredibus Masculis Pat. 2. Edw. quarti Parte secunda John Diggs of Diggs Court in Barham was Sheriff of Kent the fourth year or Edw. the fourth Alexander Clifford of Bobbing Court Son of Lewis Clifford Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the fifth year of K. Edward the fourth Sir William Haut of Hautsbourn Son of William Haut and Elizabeth his Wife Sister to Richard Woodvill Earl Rivers and Aunt to Elizabeth Woodvill Queen of England and Wife to K. Edward the fourth was Sheriff of Kent the sixth year of that Prince Sir Iohn Colepeper of Pepenbury and Bedgebury was Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Edward the fourth Ralph St. Leger of Ulcomb Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the eighth year of Edward the fourth Henry Ferrers of Chilesmore and Tamworth in the County of Warwick was Sheriff of the County of Kent in the ninth year of Edward the fourth He married Mawde one of the Coheirs of William Hextall of Hextall Place in great Peckham John Brumston of Preston near Feversham Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the tenth year of Edward the fourth This year the King likewise by his Letters Patents committed to his Custody the City of Canterbury Richard Colepeper of Oxenhoath in Little Peckham was Sheriff of Kent the eleventh year of Edward the fourth James Peckham of Yaldham in Wrotham was Sheriff of Kent the twelfth year of Edward the fourth Sir John Fogge of Repton in Ashford sometime Comptroller of the House to Edward the fourth was Sheriff of Kent the thirteenth year of that Prince John Isley of Sundridge Cousin and Heir Generall of William Isley who was Sheriff of this County the twenty fifth of Henry the sixth was Sheriff of Kent the fourteenth year of Edward the fourth Sir William Haut of Hautsbourn formerly mentioned was again Sheriff the fifteenth year of Edward the fourth John Green who lived at Scadbery in Chiselhurst in Right of his Wife Constance Widow of Sir Thomas Walsingham was Sheriff of Kent the sixteenth of Edward the fourth William Cheyney of Shurland Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the seventeenth year of Edward the fourth Richard Haut of the Moat in Ightham younger Brother to Sir William was Sheriff of Kent the eighteenth of Edward the fourth Richard Lee of great Delceâ— in Rochester was Sheriff of Kent the ninteenth year of Edward the fourth Sir John Fogge of Repton formerly mentioned was again Sheriff of Kent the twentieth year of Edward the fourth Sir George Brown of Bechworth Castle Son of Sir Thomas Brown was Sheriff of Kent the twenty first of Edward the fourth Richard Haut of the Moat in Ightham who served the Office of Sheriff of Kent the eighteenth of Edward the fourth was after he had been three years from the place according to the Statute made Sheriff of Kent again the twenty second year of Edward the fourth in which year this worthy Prince cast off the Luggage of humane Frailty by paying the last Debt he owed to Nature Sheriffs of Kent under Richard the Third Sir William Haut of Hautsbourn that had been Sheriff twice before in the Time of K. Edward the fourth was made Sheriff of Kent again in the first year of K. Richard the third from Michaelmass the twenty second of Edward the fourth to the ninth of April and then to the twenty third which day K. Edward the fifth fell an Oblation to the Avarice and Ambition of his usurping Uncle who cast trains no less for his Life then for his Crown and then again to the twenty fifth of June and from the twenty sixth of June untill the Michaelmass following Sir Henry Forrers supplied the place of Sheriff for him John Bamme Esquire of the Mannor of Grench in Gillingham descended from Adam Bamme Lord Maior of London was Sheriff of Kent in the second year of Richard the third Sir Robert Brackenbury of the Moate in Ightham was Sheriff of Kent the third year of Richard the third Will. Cheyney Esquire of Shurland was Sheriff of Kent the last year of Rich. the third Sheriffs of Kent under Henry the Seventh William Cheyney of Shurland Esquire Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Edward the fourth and last of Richard the third continued in that Office the first year of K. Henry the seventh John Pimpe of Pimpes Court in Farleigh and Lose Esquire was Sheriff
this Seat there is a frequent recital of John de Spelmonden who was Possessor of this Place After this Family had deserted the Inheritance of it the noble and eminent Family of Poynings was planted by Purchase in the possession of it Michael Poynings enjoyed it at his Death which was in the forty third year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 14. parte secunda and from him did the Title glide along in the Interest of this Name untill it came down to Sir Edw. Poynings and he in the fourteenth year of Edward the fourth alienated his Concernment in it to John Sampson and he had Issue Christopher Sampson who in the thirty seventh year of Henry the eighth passed it away to Stephen Darrell and his Son George Darrell in the tenth year of Queen Elizabeth sold it to Richard Payne of Twyford in Middlesex and he in the twenty eighth year of the above-said Princesse translated his Right in it by Sale into William Nutbrown and he in the twenty ninth year of the same Queens Reign conveyed it to George Cure of Surrey Esquire from whom immediately after it went away by Sale to Arthur Langworth and from him by as quick a Vicissitude to William Beswick Esquire Son to ....... Beswick Lord Maior of London in the year of our Lord ........ and his Grandchild Mrs Mary Beswick dying not long since without Issue shee by Testament gave it in Lease to Mr. ...... Haughton now of Chelsey in Middlesex originally extracted from the ancient Family of Haughton of Haughton Tower in the County of Lancaster Horton in the Hundred of Stowting was a Mannor which belonged to that Priory which was founded here by Robert de Vere Earl of Oxford Lord great Chamberlain of England and dedicated to the Honour of St. John Baptist it being a Cell to the Priory of Lewes and stored with black Monks of the Cluniac Order Adelina Daughter of Hugh de Montfort was a principall Benefactresse to this House and so were the Honywoods of Henewood in Saltwood not far distant The first remembred in the Register is Edmund de Honywood who flourisht in the Raign of Henry the third Upon the Generall surrender of the Estate of Abbyes into the Hands of Henry the eighth this by that Prince in the twenty ninth year of his Reign was granted to Thomas Lord Cromwell Earl of Essex but he being infortunately attainted in the thirty first year of the abovesaid Prince this Mannor returned to the Crown and was resident there untill King Charles passed it away by Grant in the fourth year of his Raign to the City of London and they 1630 conveyed it to George Rook Esquire Father to Mr. Lawrence Rook who enjoys the instant Signory of it but the Abby-house was by Henry the eighth upon the fatall Execution of the above-mentioned Lord granted to John Tate of the County of North-hampton Esquire and he in the sixth year of Edward the sixth sold it to Walter Mantle Esq who being infortunately involved in the Design of the noble but unhappy Sir Thomas Wiatt in the second year of Queen Mary forfeited this to the Crown where after it had for some interval of Time been lodged it was in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth restored to the above-said Walter Mantle and from him did it come down to his Successor Mr. Walter Mantle who was the present Possessor of it 1657. Sherford aliàs East-Horton is another Mannor in this Parish it was a Branch of that Demeasne which fell under the Jurisdiction of Retling Sir Richard de Retling was found in the enjoyment of it at his death which was in the twenty third year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 12. and left it to Joane his Sole Daughter and Heir who brought it by espousing John Spicer to be parcel of his Inheritance and he died invested in the Possession of it in the tenth year of Richard the second and from him it devolved to his second Son John Spicer who assigned it as Dower to his Wife Joane and she was found to hold it in Possession at her Death which was in the fifth year of Henry the fifth Rot. Esc Num. 9. and in this Family did it reside until that Age which bordered upon our Fathers Remembrance and then it was passed away by Spicer to Morris in which Family the Propriety is still Resident Horton in the Hundred of Acstane was held by An. Retellus Rubitoniensis or Rosse in the twentieth year of William the Conqueror as Doomesday Book instructs me Alexander Rosse another of this Family and Lord of this Mannor was one of the Recognitores Magnae Assisae an Office of Eminence and no lesse Concernment In the first yeare of the Raign of King John William de Rosse held a Knights Fee in Horton and Lullingston and left it to his Sole Inheritrix Lora de Rosse who about the latter end of Edward the first brought it to be the Possession of her Husband ...... Kirkbie who by this Match being entituled to this place removed out of Lancashire where was his antient Mansion at Kirkbie Hall and seated himself at Horton where he re-edified the Castle which as Darell relates in his Tract de Castellis Cantii did acknowledge the Rosses for its Founders and built the Mannor House upon which he engrafted his own Name from whence it hath ever since acquired the Attribute of Horton-Kirkbie But it was not long united to this Name for about the Beginning of Henry the fourth this Family was extinguished in a Female Inheritrix who was matched to Thomas Stoner of Stoner in Oxfordshire Father and Mother of Sir Thomas Stoner who was Father to Sir William Stoner who by Anne Daughter and Heir of John Nevill Marquesse Montacute had Issue John Stoner who died Issue-lesse and had forfeited Horton Castle to Henry the seventh by confederating with the Lord Audley in his Insurrection against that Prince and Anne a Daughter matched to Sir Adrian Fortescue by whom he had the Mannor of Kirkbie Court and by her only a Female Inheritrix called Margery Fortescue matched to Thomas Lord Wentworth Ancestor to Thomas Lord Wentworth of Nettlested created Earl of Cleveland in the first year of King Charles but Kirkbie was passed away by Sir Adrian Fortescue to Sir James Walsingham in the Beginning of Henry the eighth whose Grandchild Sir Thomas Walsingham about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth alienated it to Alderman Hacket of London in whose Posterity the Propriety of it resides at this Day but Horton Castle continued in the Crown until King Henry the eighth granted it to Robert Rudston Esquire by the Heir General of which Family it is at this instant become the Inheritance of Mr. ...... Michell of Richmond Franks is an eminent Seat in this Parish which was the Mansion of Gentlemen of that Sirname who about the latter end of Henry the third came out of Yorkeshire and planted themselves at this place and writ their Sirnames in very old Deeds
of Kent the eighth ninth tenth eleventh twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth years of Henry the second Sir Richard de Lucy was Lord chief Justice and Protector of England in the Raign of the above mentioned Prince of whom I have more largely discoursed at Lesnes in Erith * Ex veteri Rot. penes Edo Dering Mil. Baonettum defunctum Aymer de Lucy was with Richard the first in Palestine at the Seige of Acon and in Memory of some Signal Service manifested there in that holy Quarrel added the Crosse Crosselets unto his Paternal Coat which was before only three Pisces Lucii that is Pike Fish Geffrey de Lucy was frequently summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron in the Raign of Edward the first as the Rols of Summons which relate to that King's Time now preserved in the Tower sufficiently inform us This Geffrey with his two Brothers Aymery and Thomas de Lucy were engaged with Edward the first at the Seige of Carlaverock in Scotland in the twenty eighth year of his Raign and there received the Order of Knighthood They were Sons to Geffrey de Lucy who was constituted High Admiral of England in the Time of Henry the third as appears Pat. 8. Hen. 3. Memb. 4. William and Anthony Lucy both of this Family were frequently summoned to sit in Parliament as Barons in the Raign of Edw. the third In the sixth year of Edward the third Geffrey de Lucy who held Lucy's at his Death which was in the twentieth year of that Monarch had a Charter of Free-warren to this Mannor which priviledge was renued and confirmed by Henry the sixth to Sir Walter Lucy in the 27. year of his Raign in which year he dyed and left his estate here to his Son Sir Jeffery Lucy who with his Sole Daughter and Heir Mawd Lucy transmitted this Mannor to her Husband Sir William Vaux of the County of North-Hampton whose Son Thomas Vaux alienated it about the twenty seventh year of the Raign of Henry the eighth to Sir Roger Cholmeley a younger Branch of the Cholmeleys of Cholmeley in Cheshire from which Family in our Grand-fathers Memory it was by Sale passed away to Sead and from Sead by as quick a vicissitude it came over by purchase to Osborne by whom not many years since it was sold to Pagitt of London Tracies is a second place in this Parish which comes within this List it was in elder Times the Inheritance of a Family of that Appellation John de Tracy was Teste to an old Deed of Richard de Lucy which I have seen wherein he demises some Land to William de Frogenhall the Deed is without Date but by the Antiquity of the Character seems to commence from the Raign of Henry the third Whether these Tracies were extracted from the Tracies of Devon and Gloucestershire or not I cannot positively determine because these of Kent bore a different Coat from the other as appears by all old Ordinaries Vid. Argent two Bends between nine Escollops Gules After the Tracies had left the possession of this place which was about the Beginning of Henry the fourth the Colepepers of Bedgebury were by purchase seised of the Fee-simple of it but staid not long in the Fruition of it for in the Raign of Henry the sixth the Cliffords of Bobbing Court not far distant from whom by Sale in the Raign of Henry the eighth it fell under the Signory of Thomas Linacre Priest Frogenhall in this Parish likewise was a Branch of that wide Demeasne which lay diffused in this Territory and did acknowledge it self to be of the possession of the Ancient Family of Frogenhall whose Seat was in Frogenhall in Tenham but whether this were the Land which I mentioned to be by Deed transmitted to William de Frogenhall in the time of Henry the third by Sir Richard de Lucy I cannot positively determine though it was probable it was and that afterwards as was usuall in those Times to perpetuate the Memory of the Possessor William de Frogenhall fixed his own Name upon it And in this Family did the Possession continue till Thomas Frogenhall concluded in three Co-heirs of which Elizabeth was one who matched with John Northwood of Milton and so linked it to the Inheritance of that Family where it had not long remained when a semblable Fatality brought this Family likewise to expire in Daughters and Co-heirs so that this place came by Joane one of them to be the Fee-simple of Sir John Norton but was not long resident in this Family for he about the Beginning of Henry the eighth conveyed it to Thomas Linacre Priest above mentioned who dying in the seventeenth year of the above-recited Prince gave both Tracies and Frogenhall for ever to augment the Revenue of All-souls Colledge in Oxford The Mannor of Newington it self belonged as an Ancient Manuscript now in my Custody informs me to a Nunnery which was erected here in this Parish but by whom it was founded or endowed is unknown only this Manuscript I mentioned before rehearses a direful Tragedy which it cites as is pretended out of Thorn the Chronicler of St. Augustins and other old Manuscripts It was this Divers of the Nuns being warped with a malitious Desire of Revenge took the advantage of the Night and strangled the Lady Abbesse who was the Object of their Fury and passionate Animosities in her Bed and after to conceal so execrable an Assassination threw her Body into a Pitt which afterwards contracted the traditional Appellation of Nun-pitt but this barbarous offence being not long after miraculously discovered the Manuscript does not intimate how King Henry the third in whose Time this Tragedy was acted seised this Mannor into his Hands and having by Consent of the Church transmitted the Nuns who were culpable to the secular power by Death to make expiation for this Crime he sent the Guiltless Nuns into Shepey and after filled their Cloister with seven secular Canons four of which not long after as if some secret Impiety had lurked in the Wals of the Covent murdered one of the Fraternity upon which the King seises this Mannor again into his Hands which he had before given back to the support of this new instituted Seminary two parts of which laying in the Hamlet of Thetham by the two guiltlesse Canons with the approbation of Henry the third were assigned to the Abby of St. Augustins though some Writings more Ancient affirm them to be given under the Notion of two Prebendaries to that Covent by William the Conqueror and the other five parts of this Mannor were by the abovesaid Henry the third granted to his Lord Chief Justice Sir Richard de Lucy whose Son Almericus de Lucy saies the Manuscript did in the year 1278. exchange them with the Monks of St. Augustins And thus was this Mannor fastned to the Patrimony of the Church and so continued till the General Dissolution in the Time of Henry the eighth disunited it and linked it
Track who had their ancient Residence at this place and sealed as high as Edward the third with a Fesse Ermin between three Goats heads erased in Labells affixed to their Deeds which was the Paternal Coat-Armour of John de Fereby for so is the Name written in ancient Muniments who flourished in the reign of Edward the second and Edward the third But this mans Posterity being desirous to transplant themselves to Pauls Crey where they had before purchased Lands called Hokinden of Dynley about the latter end of Richard the second conveyed that Estate they had here about the beginning of Henry the sixth to Waller of Grome-bridge and continued for many years folded up in the Revenue of that Family until very lately it varied its Possessor being by purchase made the Inheritance of Alderman Chiverton of London Rust-hall in this Parish had likewise Proprietaries of that Sirname one of which Family called John Rust was Maior of Feversham in the raign of Henry the sixth and there lyes entombed and about that Age. this Family surrendered their Concernment here by Sale to Waller in which Name it resided untill the forty second year of Queen Elizabeth and then it was conveyed by Richard Waller Esquire to Mr. George Stacy who not long after passed it away to Bing in which Family the Possession is at this instant fixed Ewherst is the last place which must be mentioned and indeed it is worth our Recording because this and Read in Marden was the ancient Patrimony of Read many Discents before Sir Robert Read Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Henry the seventh transplanted himself to Chiddingstone by matching with the Coheir of Alphew yet still remained Possessor of this place which he transmitted with Katharine one of his four Daughters and Coheirs matched with Sir Thomas Willoughbie and after the Title had been knit to this Family by the Links of some Discents it was by Sale not long since transferred to Knight Siberts-would vulgarly called Shepeards-well lies in the Hundred of Bewsborough and hath two places in it worth our Notice The first is West-court which was given as the Records of Christ-church testifie to Alfric the Abbot by King Etheldred in the year 944 and conveyed not long after by Scotlandus the Abbot his Successor to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and hath been ever since as a Limbe or Branch of that See Upton-court is a second place of Repute Several old datelesse Deeds discover to us that it was in elder Times the Patrimony of a Family called Vpton from whom it is probable that the Vptons of Feversham who for many years have flourished there under a fair Estimate of Antiquity were originally descended but before the end of Edward the third this Family was crumbled away at this place and then the Goldsburghs or Goldsboroughs were invested in the Possession and remained Masters of this Seat untill the Beginning of Henry the seventh and then this Name began to moulder away into Decay and Oblivion and surrendred their Interest here by Sale to Guldford in which Name it found an aboad untill the latter end of Henry the eighth and then it was conveyed to John Bois Esquire Ancestor to John Bois of Fredvill Esq now Lord and Proprietary of it Swink-field in the Hundred of Folkstone was originally and as high as any Evidence will leave us any Track or Print to walk by to a Discovery the Possession of the noble Family of Crioll who held here two little Manors called Bouington alias Bointon and Northcourt which were both given by Nicholas Keriell or Crioll in the third year of Richard the second to one John Phineux Esquire for that Protection and Shelter which he by a Magnanimous and vigorous Assistance supplied him with even to the saving of his Life at the Battle of Polcteirs and being thus fastned to this Family the Interest of both these places continued intermingled with their Inheritance untill they came by successive Discent to be possest by John Phineux Esquire extracted from a Son by a second Wife of Sir Jo. Phineux the Judge who determined in a Daughter and Heir matched to Sir John Smith who in her right was invested in the Propriety of both these places from whom they are now come down to his Grandchild Philip Smith Viscount Strangford There was a Praeceptory here at Swingfield which belonged to the Knights Hospitallers of the Nature Capacity and Condition of which I have spoken before at Little-Peckham which upon the Suppression of their Order here in England was by Henry the eighth in the thirty third of his reign granted to Sir Anthony Aucher who not long after passed it away to Palmer descended from an ancient Family of that Sirname in Sussex so that it is now the Inheritance of Sir Henry Palmer of Wingham Baronet In the twentieth year of Edward the third John Monins held Land here and paid respective Aid for it as the Book of Aid informs me at making the Black Prince Knight I should not have mentioned this Record but to shew that this noble and eminent Family I am bold to call them so since the above-mentioned John Monins is styled in the former Record Esquire can put in its claim to as high and illustrious Descent as the most of the Families of this County can justly and primitively entitle themselves to Snodland in the Hundred of Lark-field was given to the Priory of St. Andrews in Rochester by Egbert King of the West-Saxons in the year 838 and is an Appendage to Halling being setled by Henry the eighth upon the Suppression of the former Covent on the Dean and Chapiter of Rochester The Courtlodge by the Church was as high as I can by the Guide and Direction of Evidence trace out the Palmers who as appears by very ancient Deeds sealed with a Cheveron between three Palmers Scrips William le Palmer who was Owner both of this and Rye-huose in Otford flourished here in the reign of Edward the third and stood depicted in the Church-Window with the above-recited Arms on his Tabard or Surcoat untill some rude hand defaced the Signature Another of this Name lies entombed in Snodland Church whose Epitaph alluding to his Name is registred by Weaver amongst his printed Monuments of the Diocesse of Rochester and after this Name was extinguished at this place the Leeds's were the next Family who by purchase entituled themselves to the Possession of it and I remember amongst some Church-notes of this County collected by the eminent Robert Glover Esquire there is mention of one Will. Leeds who lyes enter'd in Snodland Church with his Armes viz A Fessee between three Eagles affixed to his Graves-stone but it seems the Date Pourtraicture and Coat being insculped in Brasse were by sacrilegious Handstorn off for now there is no appearance of them nor of this Family neither who not many years since dispossessed themselves of their Interest in this place and by Sale gave it up to
bore the same paternal Coat were known by the same Name and were both deduced from the same Root and Original Ex Autograph's penes Dom. Tho. Peyton Baronettum onely Peyton was the elder House Now the ground on which the Mutation of the Name was established was briefly this John de Peyton flourished in the reign of Henry the second and left four Sons whereof the three eldest were named John Robert and John to John the eldest he gave his Mannor of Peyton lying extended into Stoke Neyland Boxford and Ramsholt Parishes in Suffolk to Robert his second Son he gave his Mannor of Ufford lying in Suffolk likewise who altered his Name from Peyton and assumed that of Ufford a Name borrowed from that Signory of which he was become newly possessor and from him the Name of Ufford was communicated to the Earls of Suffolk and other persons of eminent Repure in those Generations wherein they flourished John de Peyton the third Brother by Deed without Date demises all his Interest in Boxford to his elder Brother John de Peyton by that Name he there calls him which justifies nor only the Antiquity but the Seniority of this Family of Peyton before that of Ufford And from John de Peyton the elder above mentioned are the Peytons of Cambridgeshire and Sir Tho. Peyton of Knolton Baronet originally descended Lidde in ancient Records written Hlyden is a second Mannor in Werd of considerable Account ever since it was given at the Request of Janibert the Arch-Bishop by K. Offa in the year 874 to the Monks of Christ-Church as the Records of that Church discover to me under the Notion of three Sullings or Ploughlands And the Instrument which confirmed this Donation was signed with the Marks that is Crosses of Offa the King Janibert the Arch-Bishop Kenedrith the Queen three other Bishops five other Abbots Duke Edbald and eleven other principal Persons or Noblemen And that this was the manner of Signature in elder Times that is the affixing of Crosses to all publick Instruments and other original Donations is most certain For Sealing came into England with Edward the Confessor who being bred up in Normandy in which Province and in France the Use of affixing Seals to Deeds had been in Use long before his Time introduced that Custome and way of Signature into this Nation as being more conspicuous and distinguishable than that of Crosses or those other wayes of confirming of Grants of Land either to the Church or to secular Uses which was either per Collocationem Gladii seu Cultelli supra Altare by the placing or laying a Sword or Knife upon the Altar whereby those which did make Donations of Land did tacitly insinuate that their Honour was involved in their Conscience or else per Traditionem Surculi vel stipitis which Custome is yet observed in our Copy-hold Land where Surrenders are made by delivery of a Turfe Twig or white Wand But sealing with Coats of Arms was not brought in untill the reign of Edward the first but were borne by persons of Honor on their Tabards or Surcoats two Examples of which I have seen one of William Warren Earl of Pembroke who in the second year of Henry the second sealed with the Figure of a Chivaler on Horseback his Caparisons Tabard and Shield being all Checquee the paternal Coat of this Family the other was of Richard Curzon of Croxall in Derbyshire who in the reign of King John stands in a Window pourtrayed in his Surcoat surmounted with a Bend charged with a Martlet And this was done in Imitation of the Heralds who wore the Arms of those Princes they servâ—d on their Tabards as Badges to distinguish them from the Heralds of other Princes either in the Time of War or Peace Indeed Seals in higher Ages were of that sacred Estimate that being lost they were decryed by the owners least they might be affixed to any surreptitious Instrument which might prejudice either their Fame or Estate And in the interval of their Absence or Losse the Owners abovesaid were accustomed to Seal with the Seal of the Bishop of the Diocess or else with that of the next adjacent Abbot all Deeds and Instruments either of Publick or private Interess But to return this Donation of Offa's though thus secured and strengthned could not shelter this Mannor from the Rage of ahat Tempest which in the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth like a Whirlwind caught it up in the Patrimony of the Church and drop'd it into the Revenue of the Crown where it lay untill Queen Elizabeth in the Beginning of her Raign passed it away by Grant to William Lovelace Esquire Serjeant at Law whose Son Sir William Lovelace not long after demised it by Sale to Sir John Smith Grand-father to Philip Viscount Strangford who now enjoys it Wickham Brews in the Hundred of Downhamford distinguished from other places of that Name by the Addition of the Sirname of Brews which Family were Lords thereof In the twentieth year of William the Conquerour Odo Bishop of Baion and Earl of Kent held this place of the Gift of his half Brother which was that Prince and Trendle Park adjoyning there was a Composition between the Arch-bishop and this Man for certain Land of the said Arch-bishop to be inclosed and included within the said Park at Trendley which signifies thus much unto us that Woodstock which boasts it self to be the first inclosed Park of England was not so ancient as this at Trendley In Times of a more modern Character that is in those which commence from the reign of Henry the third it acknowledged the Brewses Barons of Brember in Sussex to be its proprietaries who engrafted their own Name upon it which hath sprouted out and flourished upon it untill this Day William de Brewosa or de brewe held it and was several times summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron in the reign of King Edward the first and Edward the second and dyed in the ninth year of the last Prince Rot. Esc Num. 204. After this Family had deserted the possession which was about the Beginning of Edward the third it became the Inheritance of many of the most eminent Nobility of this Kingdome I shall represent them out of some ancient Court-rolls in a Compendious Series Edmund Plantagenet Earl of Kent held it in the fourth year of Edward the third William Longspey had it in the the twentieth year of the abovesaid Prince and paid an auxiliary supply for it at making the Black Prince Knight John Earl of Kent dyed seised of it in the twenty sixth year of Edw. the third Thomas Holland Earl of Kent and Joan his Wife Sister and Coheir of the abovementioned Earl were possest of it in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third Lucie Wife of Edmund Holland Earl of Kent was seised of it in the second year of Henry the sixth After whom it devolved to Edmund Mortimer Earl of March and he held it in the
Rokesley by whose Sole Inheritrix likewise called Joan it was linked to the Demeasn of Sir Thomas de Poynings from whom the Clew of Descent guided it down to Sir Edward Poynings who dying in the twelfth of Henry the eighth without any lawfull Issue or any visible kindred that could pretend a Title to the Estate it lapsed to the Crown and Henry the eighth granted it to Thomas Lord Cromwell upon whose attainder it being again escheated Queen Mary in the first year of her Rule granted it to Edward Lord Clinton who in the last year of that Princess passed it away to Mr. Henry Herdson whose grandchild Mr. Francis Herdson conveyed it by Sale to Mr. Henry Brockman in whose Grandchild Mr. James Brockman the instant Inheritance is fixed Blackose is another little Mannor in Newington which as Sadrach Petit's Inquest an Authentick Manuscript informs me was as high as the raign of Henry the third the Possession of Nicholas de Morehall a Family who were owners of much Land at Folkstone and elsewhere in this Track and in this Name did it continue untill the latter end of Richard the second and then it was transmitted by Sale to William Edwy who paid a proportionate Aid for it at the Marriage of Blanch Daughter of Henry the fourth in the fourth year of his raign from whence much of our Land in Kent which was rated at the same Time and upon the same Design hath assumed the Appellation of Blanch-Lands After Edwy went out which was in the raign of Edward the fourth it became the Possession of Wreake and Thomas Wreake as the abovesaid Sidrach Petit who lived in that Age instructs me exchanged it with Will. Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and continued annexed to the Demeasn of that See until the great Exchange made by Tho. Cranmer in the twenty ninth of Henry the eighth with that Prince and then it was made the Demeasn of the Crown and after some brief abode there was granted away to John Honywood Esquire Newchurch in Romney Mersh gives Denomination to the whole Hundred wherein it is situated and dilates and spreads it self into several places which call for some Remembrance The first is Peckmanston which was as high as the Rayes or Light of any Evidence can direct to a Discovery the Inheritance of the Lords Leybourne and was annexed to that vast Revenue which they entituled themselves to in this County and so continued till Sir Roger de Leybourne left this with much other Land to his Sole Daughter and Heir Juliana married to William Lord Clinton Earl of Huntington who dyed in the twenty eighth year of Edward the third but without Issue by this Lady who deceasing likewise not long after the Crown upon a Serious and solemne Disquisition discovering none that upon the Stock of any collateral Alliance could pretend to her Estate seised upon it as an Escheat and King Richard the second in the eleventh year of his Government granted it to the Abbey of Childrens Langley amongst whose Revenue it rested till the Dissolution of that Covent and after that King Henry the eighth by royal Donation planted the Possession in the thirty fifth year of his Raign in Sir Thomas Moile a Gentleman in those Times of principal Estimate in this County and of the Privie Councel to that Prince from whom by Amy his Daughter and Coheir it came suddenly after to be the Inheritance of Sir Thomas Kempe who in the raign of Queen Elizabeth sold it to Thomas Smith Farmer of the Customes to that Princesse and he bequeathed it to his third Son Sir Rich. Smith by whose Daughter and Coheir the Title and Right of it at this instant is lodged in Mr. Barrow of Suffolke Est-Bridge in this Parish is a second place which exacts our Remembrance This with Honychild in St. Maryes Parish likewise in Romney Mersh did anciently belong partly to the Abby of Bradsole ailà s St. Radigunds in Dover and partly to the Knights of St. Jo. which upon the general Suppression in the twenty ninnth year of H. the eighth of all religious Cloisters and Seminaries were swallowed up in the Demeasne of the Crown and lay there till E. the sixth granted them in Lease to Cuthbert Vaughan Esq who afterwards in the fourth year of Queen Elizabeth purchased the Fee-simple of them of the Crown and upon his Decease which happened not long after disposed of Honychild to his Son in Law Roger Twisden Esquire and Est-Bridge Sir Will. Twisden â—old Honychild to Sir Will. Sydley Grandfather to Sir Charles Sydley the instant Owner to his Wives Son Richard Dering Esquire in Right of which original Donation Sir Edward Dering of Surrenden Dering in Pluckley Baronet great Grandchild of this Mr. Richard Dering is present Possessor of this Mannor of Est-Bridge Thirdly Silwell in this Parish is not to be omitted it was in elder Generations an Appendage or Limbe which made up the Body of that plentifull Income which appertained to the Abbey of Boxley in this County and upon the Dissolution was with much other of the Church Demeasn by Henry the eighth granted to Walter Henley Esquire after created Sir Walter Henley and one of the Privy Councell to Henry the eighth and Edward the sixth But as though there had been some fatall malediction which like original Sin did cleave to the Possesssion he left no Issue-male to enjoy that large Patrimony he had thus archieved but concluded in three Daughters and Coheirs Elizabeth matched to William Waller of Grome-Bridge Helen first married to Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury Esquire Secondly to Sir George Somerset and Thirdly to Thomas Vane of Burston in Hunton Esq and then Anne wedded to Richard Covert of Slaugham in Sussex Esq who shared by these matches and alliances a considerable part of his Inheritance in which this Mannor of Sylwell was involved Newington in the Hundred of Milton has the Addition of Lucies prefixed before it to distinguish it from Newington in the Hundred of Street It was the Ancient Patrimony of the Noble Family of Lucy the first whom I find amongst Records of deep Antiquity was extracted out of Normandy within the Precincts of which Province or upon the Verge and Margent of it there is a Signory of that Name yet existent G. de Lucy so he is written in the most authentick Copies of the Battle Abby Roll entered England with William the Conqueror Fulbert de Lucy and in some old Registers written Sir Fulbert changed his Name of Lucy into that of Dover when he was by William the Conqueror made one of the Assistants to John de Fiennes in the Guard of Dover-Castle having fifteen Knights Fees assigned to him in that Track for the Support of his Dignity and Trust * See Seldens Titles of Honor pag. 644. William de Dover was one of the Magnates or Peers who was Teste to the Charter of Maud the Empresse whereby she creates Miles of Gloucester Earl of Hereford Hugh de Dover was Sheriff
Mannor in Tunbridge and was as high as I can track any Record the possession of the Noble Family of Vane who are written in very old Deeds A Vane and was certainly their ancient Seat before by matching with the Heir of Stidolfe they became possessors of Badsell Henry A Vane makes his Will in the year 1456. He was the Son of John A Vane who flourished at this place in the reign of Edward the third but his Predecessors enjoyed it as appears by Original Evidences many years before From Henry Vane it came over to John a Vane whose Son John Vane in the tenth year of Henry the seventh conveyed it by Sale to Dixon descended originally from the Dixons of Scotland Gentlemen of no despicable Account in that Nation and in their possession hath it ever since the first purchase been constantly setled Dachurst aliàs Hilden-borough had the same Possessors still with Tunbridge and being forfeited in the thirteenth year of Henry the eighth by Edw. Stafford Duke of Buckingham its Demeasne was in the fourteenth year of that Prince granced to William Skeffington Esquire in whose Descendant the propriety is yet resident but the Mannor it self rested in the Crown until not many years since it was conveyed by the State to Colonel Robert Gibbons of Hole in Rolvenden Bardens and Hadloe are two little Mannors in Tunbridge both which had Owners of that Sirname John de Barden held the first as the Book of Aide informs us and paid respective Aide for it at making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth year of Edward the third and the dateless Evidences relating to Hadloe do assure us both of the Antiquity and Truth of the second And in the Tenure of the first did Bardens remain until the reign of Henry the fourth and then changed its Owner and came entirely to be possest by Hadloe but remained not long in his Name for John Hadlow dying without Issue Alice his Sister married to John Woodward became his Heir and she in her Widowhood about the latter end of Henry the sixth passed away Bardens to John Hopdey and he in the thirty eighth of Henry the sixth alienated his Right to William Hextall but Hadloe devolved to John Woodward Son of John Woodward abovesaid and he in the thirty seventh of Henry the sixth demises all his Interess in Hadloe to William and Henry Hextall and he the same year by Deed releases all his Right in Hadloe to William which William not many years after dying without Issue-male Margaret his Sole Daughter and Heir brought these two Mannors to be the Inheritance of her Husband William Wherenhall Esquire whose Son William Whetenhall Esquire about the middle of Henry the eighth passed away Bardens to Andrew Judde Esquire who erected the Alms-houses here at Tunbridge and Hadloe to William Waller Esquire Judde died without Issue-male and left his Estate to Alice his Sole Heir matched to Thomas Smith Esquire vulgarly called Customer Smith and he upon his Decease gave Bardens to his second Son Sir Thomas Smith of London in whose Descendants the Title yet is resident but Hadloe descended to Richard Waller Son to William abovesaid who about the forty second year of Elizabeth alienated it to George Stacy and he about the beginning of King James demised it again to Bing whose Successor Mr. John Bing in our Remembrance passed it away to Mr. David Polhill Esquire whose Grand-child Mr. David Polhill upon the late Decease of that his Grand-father is now entituled to the possession of it Hollenden is the last place in Tunbridge to be taken notice of which spreads its appendant Demeasne into the Parish of Leigh and was in Ages of a very high Gradation parcel of the Patrimony of the ancient Family of Fremingham for in the fifty fifth year of Henry the third I find that Ralph de Fremingham obtained a Charter of Free-warren to several of his Mannors in Kent in the Register of which was Hollenden In Times of a more modern Aspect that is about the reign of Henry the fourth I find it by some old Court-rols to be the Cheyneys and there are several parcels of Land that relate to this Mannor which are adopted into their Name and are called Cheyneys Fields and in this Family did the Mannor continue until the latter end of Henry the eighth and then it was alienated to Waller to whose Inheritance it continued united until that Age which fell within the Circle of our Fathers Cognisance and then it was passed away to Crittenden which Family at this instant is entituled to the Signory of it But part of the Demeasne which is spread into Leigh was about the beginning of Henry the seventh conveyed to Stacy whose Successor almost in our Remembrance alienated it to Turner and he not many years since demised it to James Pelset Tuydley anciently written Twidley lies in the Hundreds of Wachlingstone and Twyford and was not worth the Consideration were it not for Badsell where a Family who extracted their Sirname from hence had long since their Habitation from whom by a Daughter and Co-heir the Inheritance went into Stidulph from whom the Stidulphs or Stidolfes of Surrey are originally branched out a Noble Family certainly and of eminent Genealogy there being frequent mention in that Book which they call the Survey of the Lowey of Tunbridge taken in the fourteenth year of Edward the fourth of this Name and Family but when the successive mutation of Time had crumbled the Name of Stidolfe at this place into a Daughter and Heir called Agnes upon her espousals with John Vane Badsell became incorporated into the Interest and Concernment of that Family and by a Communicative Right issuing out from this Alliance does Milmay Fane now Earl of Westmerland entitle himself to the instant proprietie and possession of Tuydley and Badsell Kippings Crosse in Tuydley hath been as appears by several old Dateless Evidences and other Monuments for many hundred years the Seat and Inheritance of Kippings who bore for their Coat Armour as it appears exemplified and confirmed to Robert Kipping of Brenchley Gentleman the fifth of September in the thirty seventh year of Henry the eighth Loringeè Or and Azure upon a chief Gules A Lion passant Or langued and armed Azure But this Family after such a vast continuance here and at Brenchley not many yeart since determined in two Daughters and Co-heirs Dorothy the eldest was married to Edward Darrell Esquire second Son to Sir Robert Darrell of Calchill and Mr. James Darrell fourth Son of Sir Robert above mentioned and now secondly to Thomas Henshaw of Kensington Esquire descended from the ancient Family of Henshaw of Henshaw in Cheshire V. V. V. V. ULcomb in the Hundred of Eyhorne was the patrimony of St. Legers writen in Latin Records de Sancto Leodegario Sir Robert de Sancto Leodegario entred into England with Will the Conquerour and was of that high repute that according to the received Tradition of this Family he
with his Hand supported that Prince when he first went out of his Ship to Land in Sussex afterwards when in the twentieth of that King's Government there was an universal Survey taken of each Mans particular Demeasn thoroughout the Nation who was of any Account or Eminence which we call Dooms-day Book there is a recital of the above mentioned Robert de St. Leger to have held Lands at Ulcomb which the Evidences of this Family do inform us were taken from a Pagan Dane whom he before had conquered and who inhabited at this place Guy de St. Leger as Mr. Fuller discovers to us in his Ecclesiastical History was appointed by William the Conquerour to be an Assistant Knight to Adelmere one of the Monks of Ely Raefe de St. Leger is registred in the Roll of those Kentish Gentlemen who accompanied Richard the first to the Siege of Acon and as the Inscription on his Leaden Shroud in the Vault of this Church does signifie was engaged in the Holy Quarrel fifteen years Another Rafe St. Leger and Hugh St. Leger were Recognitores magnae Assisae in the second year of K. John Sir Rafe de St. Leger Sir Jo. de St. Leger and Sir Tho. St. Leger were with Edw. the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in the twenty eighth year of his Reign and for their signal Atchievements there received the Order of Knighthood Indeed in times subsequent to this there was scarse almost any noble and generous undertaking but the Annals of our English History represent a St. Leger concerned and interessed in it And for their Collateral Alliances by which they became knit in Consanguinitie to several illustrious Families none in that particular have been more Successeful then themselves Sir Thomas St. Leger second Brother to Sir Rafe St. Leger married Anne Dutchesse of Exeter Sister to King Edward the fourth and so became twisted into the Family of that Prince by a Nearness of Alliance as he had before been taken into his Bosome by a union of Friendship by whom he had only Ann his Daughter and Heir who was wedded to Sir George Manners L. Rosse from whom the Earls of Rutland are in a direct Line branched out Sir James St. Leger this mans Brother matched with Anne one of the Co-heirs of Thomas Boteler Earl of Ormond from whom the St. Legers of the County of Devon were extracted out of which Stem was Sir William St. Leger who was Lord President of Munster in Ireland one thousand six hundred forty and two Sir Anthony St. Leger Father of Sir Warham was Lord Deputy of Ireland which place he managed with much of Prudence and Magnanimity his second Son Sir Anthony St. Leger Father to Sir Anthony St. Leger now of Wierton House in Boughton Monchensie died Master of the Rolls in Ireland which Office he discharged with a great deal of Faith and no less integrity Thus have I in Landskip pourtraied this noble Family which in an undivided Chain of Descent was setled at Ulcomb from the Conquerour's Time even till of late and then Sir Anthony St. Leger alienated his right in it which was grown reverend by a prescription of so many Ages to Serjeant Clerk of Rochester Father to Mr. Francis Clerk descended from Henry Clerk who was second Brother to Sir John Clerk who took the Duke of Longuevil prisoner at the Battle fought between Bomy and Spours The Church of Ulcomb belonged to Christ-Church in Canterbury and being Snatched away was restored by K. Edmund in the year 941. And about 430 years since was made a Collegiate Church by Stephen Langton Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Head thereof was called Arch-presbyter Boycot is another Mannor in Ulcomb which afforded both Seat and Sirname to a Family of that Denomination as appears by several old Deeds some of which are without Date which remember Stephen de Boycot John de Boycot and Alexander Boycot which last flourished here in the Reign of Edward the third and Richard the second and from him did it by paternal Delegation devolve to John Boycot and he had Issue John Boycot and Stephen Boycot one which sold his Proportion which accrued to him by the custome of Gavelkind to Richard Hovenden and the other by the like alienation transmitted his Interest in it to William Adam from whom it came over by Donation to Thomas Glover as is specified in the Deed of Sale by which the above-mentioned person in the first year of Henry the seventh alienates it to Richard Hovenden After Hovenden was crumbled away it came by purchase to be the possession of Clerk of Wood-Church the last of which Name which was entituled to the Inheritance was Humphrey Clerk Esquire who in the ninteenth of Q. Elizabeth alienated it to Thomas Sands and he in the twentieth year of the abovesaid Princess conveyed it to the Lady Elizabeth Berkley whose Grand-child Mr. ....... Berkley Esquire is now proprietarie of it Kingsnoth is the last Mannor in Vlcomb It was part of that Demeasn which related to the Abby of Feversham and continued united to its patrimony until the publick Dissolution filed it off and then it became the Interest of the Crown until Henry the eighth in the thirty second of his reign granted it to Sir Anthony St. Leger Knight of the Garter Lord Deputy of Ireland and one of his Privy Councel whose Son Sir Warham St. Leger in the tenth year of Q. Elizabeth conveyed it to William Isley Esquire who not long after passed it away to Anthony Sampson who in the twenty first year of Q. Elizabeth alienated it to James Austin and he in the year 1599 sold it to Robert Cranmer who dying without Issue Male Anne his Daughter and Heir brought it along with her to her Husband Sir Arthur Harris of Crixey in Essex who upon his Decease gave it to his second Son Mr. John Harris and his Son and Heir Mr. Cranmer Harris of Lincolns Inne enjoys the instant Inheritance of it Vp-Church in the Hundred of Milton was in elder Times in the Register of those Lands Mannors and Hereditaments which owned the dominion of the illustrious Family of Leybourn Rog. de Leybourn in the fiftieth year of H. the third had a Grant to hold his Lands at Hartlip Reinham and Up-Church by the fourth part of a Knights Fee and from him did the Clew of successive Descent in a continued Track transport it to his Great Grand-child Juliana de Leybourne Widow of John de Hastings not Father of Laurence de Hastings E. of Pembroke as some have erroneously printed but his Kinsman and next of William de Clinton Earl of Huntington whom she survived and died possest of this Mannor in the forty third year of Edward the third and as the inquisition after her Decease informs us without any Issue or kindred who might supersede the Interest of the Crown by pretending a direct or Collateral Title to her Estate so that King Edward the third by escheat became invested in this Mannor