to them not as they were subservient to the Earl but as they administered justice when he was either dead or absent 'T is true if we dissect the word Earldom we shall discover the last syllable Dome is deduc'd from Dominion and implies that the Marshal and Civil Government being anciently subordinate to Counts and Earls there was some Analogy and resemblance in the Official Dignity of an Earl and a Sheriff and certainly the word Sheriff imports no lesse a word contracted from the Saxon word Schyregereve or Schyregrave The word is best interpreted by the Laws intituled the Confessors where we read thus Sicut modo vocantur Greves qui super alios Praefecturas habent ita apud Anglos antiquitûs vocabantur EALDORMEN quasi seniores non propter Senectutem cum quidem adolescentes essent sed propter sapientiam they were call'd anciently EALDORMEN say those Laws not in respect of years but wisdome And we find Henry the 3 d. made his Son Prince Edward the five last years of his Reign Sheriff of Bedford and Buckingham The black Prince was often Sheriff of Cornwall under Edward the 3 d. And Prince Henry in the life of his Father Henry the 4 th is found to have been Sheriff of Cornwall and it was done by these Sagacious Princes with this intent that their Sons when they should ascend the Throne might be more dexterous in the Course and Conduct of the revenue of the Crown And as these Princes were invested with this Office so we find both Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Earls and Barons held this Dignity nay sometimes Queens and Countesses Dowagers too with an allowance of a Shire-Clerk which after resolv'd into him we call the under-Sheriff And it was usual long since as the Statute-Law now likewise asserts it that the Census or Possession of some Demeasne in the County admits a capacity to hold the office and answer the King the Profits of the County otherwise they are illegal and lyable to exception and in this respect sometime the King committed four Counties to one man if he were possest of Lands in them all as Hubert de Burgo was at one time Sheriff of Kent Norfolk Suffolk and Lincoln and was allow'd a meet person to be his Substitute or Shire-Clerk in the ninth of Henry the third If any shall demand how long there have been Sheriffs under this quallified Notion as I have before represented and pourtray'd them I must remit them to King Alfred the Founder of Englands peace and the divider of it into Shires and Provinces not to Gervas of Tilbury whose definition of the Name is very deficient making the office meerly suppletory to the Count or Earl nor to Polidore Virgil who being by birth an Alien would obtrude a false opinion upon us that the offices of the Chancellors and Sheriffs were instituted since the Norman Conquest For evidence to the confutation of him we may read the Testimonies remembred by the most learned Selden in the subscription of King Edreds Charter to the Abby of Crowland there after Abbots Dukes and Counts follow Ego Afor vice Comes audivi ✚ And in another Saxon Charter to the same Abby there is this clause inserted Ego Livingus Clericus istud Chirographum manu meâ subscripsi Domino meo Theroldo tradidi which Records do indisputably I think subvert his Assertion The next Annotation upon our proconsulary Officer is the continuation of those that in elder time held it many years together as for example the Cornhills did in Kent whereby their own Sirname was discontinued and the officiary Name le Sheriff le Viscount swallowed up the other and the relict of Reginald de Cornhill le Viscount in a Concession of Land to the Chappel of Lukedale in Littlebourn is styl'd in the Latine Instrument Vice Comitissa Cantii and a Mannor of his in Minster in the Isle of Thanet has from this Sirname obtain'd the Title of the Sheriffs Court But when it was found inconvenient for one man to hold the place any long time in regard of his Account and other enormities emergent provision was made by Statute that none should serve two years together but should be two years at least devested of the Office ere he served again in the same County Touching the Sheriffs Letters of attendance injoyning all Arch-Bishops Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Bishops Barons c. to assist him it shews in Lankskip and Perspective afar off the Latitude anciently of his authority but since the institution of Lords-Lieutenants the Beams of his power have shone forth with a more dim and contracted light So much shall suffice for the explication of its Name as it is Officiary Now a word or two how it became Honorary because as from the Consul or Count Time and Royal Authority hath extracted the Princely Dignity of Earl which being for the most part enstated in elder times on the Kings kindred hath caused the use of that addition ever since to all of that rank So likewise the State and Degree of a Vicount hath a participation of that Attribute and are call'd Cousen by the Soveraign and in the Scrutiny made by the Chancellor of the Order of the Garter at every Feast of St. George during the time of Vespers if there were any stall void A Viscount is admitted as the lowest degree of Princes The first that under this Title had Parliamentary Dignity and Precedency of all Barons with us was John de Beaumont created Viscount-Beaumont in the 18 th year of Henry the sixth without any relation to the Office The Circle or Coronet of this Degree being by its figure distinguish'd from an Earls as a Marquesses is from a Dukes They that would take an exact survey of the official part of this ancient Minister in all its Dimensions and Appendages let them consult Dalton who has very exactly and usefully discovered to the world all the Ingredients which make up this Office I shall before I proceed to draw out the Catalogue of the Kentish Sheriffs represent to the world a summary List of Arch-Bishops Earls Bishops and others of high eminence which manag'd this Office either personally or virtually as well in other Counties as in Kent And first Queen Isabel had the Sheriffwick of Cornwall divers years before her Husband Edward the 2 d. was thrust out of the world by an unnatural death and some years under the Reign of her Son King Edward the 3 d. Margaret Widow of Edward Earl of Cornwall held this Office in the County of Rutland the five last years of Edward the first and as many years in the beginning of King Edward the 2 d. And after the next three years Margaret the wife of Peirce Gaveston Earl of Cornwall answer'd King Edward the 2 d. the Profits of that County Elizabeth Countesse of Salisbury had the County of Wilts committed to her Anno. 1216. the 21 of Henry the third and John Dacus was her substitute William Earl of Salisbury was Sheriff
easie Pronunciation hath melted it into Brograve which represents the Etymologie of the Name to have been in its Original perfectly Saxon. In the year 1479 there was a License granted as appears by the Records of Rochester to William Brograve by the then Bishop of that Diocess to erect an Oratory or Chapple at his Mannor-house of Kelseys the Vestigia or Reliques of which are yet obvious to an inquisitive Eye and from this William did the Title and possession in an even Current come down to Mr. Thomas Brograve who being not many years since deceased his Widow Mrs. Martha Brograve now in respect of Jointure enjoys the present Possession of it Foxgrove is the last place of Account in this Parish it had in elder times Proprietaries of this Sirname for I find John de Foxgrove paid respective Aid for it in the twentieth year of Edward the third at making the Black Prince Knight After this Family succeeded Bartholomew Lord Burwash and he held it at his Decease which was in the twenty ninth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 44. and from him it descended to his Son Bartholomew Lord Burwash who in the forty third year of the abovesaid Prince passed it away to Sir Walter de Paveley and in his Family it remained untill the latter End of Richard the second and then it was conveyed to Vaux of the County of North-Hampton and there made its abode untill the latter End of Henry the sixth and then it was alienated to John Grene Esquire and he died possest of it in fourth year of Edward the fourth and in this Family did the Title reside untill the Beginning of Henry the eighth and then it was demised to Beversea and Humphrey Beversea I find held it in the eighteenth year of Henry the eighth and his Descendant passed it away to Luke Hollingworth and he about the Beginning of K. Edward the sixth sold his Interest in it to Alderman Sir Jo. Oliff of London and he dying without Issue Male Joan matched to John Leigh of Addington Esquire was his sole Heir and in Right of this Alliance did it come down to Sir Francis Leigh late of East-Wickham whose Widow Dowager the Lady Christian Leigh is now in Possession of it Bexley and in ancient Deeds written Bekesley lies in the Hundred of Rokesley and did in Times of elder Inscription belong to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for Anno 805. K. Kenulfus gave Bexley to Arch-Bishop Vefred ad opus Ecclesiae Christi and his Successor to improve his Interest in this Mannor obtained a Market to be held weekly at this place upon the Tuesday and a Fair upon Holy-Rood-Day yearly in the ninth year of Edward the second as appears Pat. 9. Edw. 2. Num. 49. and here the Title it lodged untill it came to the Crown in the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth by Exchange with Tho. Cranmer then Arch-Bishop as appears by the Records of Christ Church and was passed away by King Iames to Sir Io. Spilman his Majesties Jeweller originally extracted out of Germany and he suddenly after conveyed it to that resplendent Luminary of Englands Antiquities Mr. William Camden Clarenceux King of Arms and he upon his Decease gave it to Brasennose Colledge in Oxford from whom the Lady Christian Leigh of East-Wickham holds it now as Lessee Blinden Court in old Deeds written Bladindon is the next object of our observation It was in elder Times the Possession of Jordanus de Bladindon or Blindon who about the first year of Richard the first passed it away to Walsingham in which Family it was resident untill the latter end of Henry the fourth and then it was carryed over by Sale to Ferbie of Pauls Crey and one of this Family about the Beginning of Henry the sixth transported it by the same Alteration to William Marshall and he not long after conveyed it to Rawlins but it setled longer here for it remained linked to the Demeasne of this Name almost untill our Grandfathers Remembrance and then it was by Purchase made the Inheritance of May who not many yeers since alienated his Concernment in it to Wroth and is at present part of the Demeasne of John Wroth Esquire descended from the ancient Family of the Wroths of Durants in Essex Hall Place in this Parish is the last place which summons our Remembrance It was in times of a more ancient Character the Inheritance of a Family called Athall the last of which was Thomas Athall who in the fourty first year of Edward the third conveyed it to Thomas Shelley of Gaysam in Westerham and in this Name after the Title like a fixed Inmate had for many Generations dwelt it came down to William Shelley Son of John Shelley Esquire who in the tweny ninth year of Henry the eighth passed it away to Sir John Champneys of London from whom it descended to his Grandchild Mr. Richard Champneys Esquire who some few yeers since alienated his Interest here to Mr. Robert Austin of London Brasted in the Hundred of Codsheath was a Mannor which anciently related to the Family of Clare who were Earls of Glocester and Hertford and held is in grand Serjeanty of the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury as they were originally and de Jure Stewards to the Lord Arch-Bishop at the Time of his Installment and Inthronization Ric. de Clare dyed possest of it in the forty seventh year of Henry the third and so did Gilbert de Clare in the twenty fourth year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 107. From whom it came down to Richard de Clare who in the nineteenth year of Edward the second ended in Margaret his sole Heir matched to Hugh de Audley who in her Right was not only Earl of Glocester but likewise Lord of this Mannor and enjoyed it in the twenty first year of Edward the third but he likewise going out in a Female Heir stiled Margaret She by matching with Ralph Stafford Earl of Stafford wedded the Title to his Inheritance nor did it dislodge or depart from it until it escheated to the Crown upon the Attainder of Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham who was convicted of high Treason in the thirteenth year of Henry the eighth where it had not long rested but the abovesaid Prince by Patent setled the Right of it on Sir Henry Isley who being interessed past recovery in the Design of Sir Tho. Wiat forfeited both Life and Estate to the Crown and then Queen Mary upon his Conviction granted it to John Lennard Esquire from whom it is now transported by Descent to his Successor Francis Lennard Lord Dacres who is the instant Lord of the Fee There is another Mannor and Seat in Brasted venerable enough for its Antiquity anciently called Stockets but now Crow-place it was so denominated from the Stockets which first held it Walter de Stocket and sometimes in old Deeds written Stock and Stoke possest it by the fourth part of a Knights Fee in the Time of Edward the
Denne who deceasing without Issue Male Margaret his only Daughter and Heir brought it over to her husband Edw. Hougham after whose death it is to devolve to two Daughters who are the surviving Issue of that Wife namely Elizabeth matched to Mr. Edward Rose of Chistlet and Ann wedded to Mr. John Betentham now of Canterbury The Dungeon is another Mannor in Canterbury It was formerly belonging to an ancient Family called Chich Ernaldus de Chich was a man of principal note under Henry the second Richard the first and K. John and the Aldermanry of Burgate in Canterbury did in elder times appertain to this Family Thoma Chich was was Bailiff of Canterbury 1259. and again in the year 1271. was a principal Benefactor to the Church of S. Mary Bredin in Canterbury whose Name in an old Character together with his Effigies are set up in the west Window as his Coat is likewise in Stone-work in the Chancell John Chich was Bailiff of Canterbury in the twenty third and again in the twenty sixth year of Edward the third in the year 1320. Robert Malling then Commissary of Canterbury gave Sentence upon clear Evidence by ancient muniments and otherwise that the Hospital of St. Laurence in Canterbury should not only receive the Tithes of the Mannor of the Dungeon but likewise of 300. Acres adjacient to it but this was not without the Tye or Tribute of some Remuneration for in Autumne John Chich who was then Lord of the Dungeon was to receive for his Servants five loaves of Bread two Pitchers and an half of Beer and half a Cheese of four pence and he himself was to receive unum par Cirocecarum ferinarum one pair of Holyday Gloves and one pound of Wax in Candles and for his Servants three pair of Gloves Thomas Chich this mans Son was Sheriff of Kent in the forty fourth year of Edward the third and held his Shrivealtie at the Dungeon but in Valantine Chich this mans great Grandchild not only the male line but likewise the possession of this place failed for he about the beginning of Edward the fourth passed it away to Roger Brent Esq and he died seised of it as appears by his Will recorded at Canterbury in the year 1486. But in this Family it was not long after this resident for in the beginning of Henry the eighth by an old Court Roll I find one John Butler of Heronden in Eastrye possest of it and he conveyed it to Sir John Hales Chief Baron of the Exchequer and when Leland visited Kent which was in the thirtieth year of Henry the eighth he lived here and from him is it now come down to his Successor Sir James Hales the instant Proprietarie of it The Moate alias Wyke is a third Mannor within the precincts of Canterbury and had owners of that Sirname For I read in Testa de Nevill that Stephen de VVyke possest it in the twentyeth year of Henry the third and paid respective Aid for it at the marriage of Isabel that Princes Sister and in the Book of Aid where there is an Enumeration of the ancient owners there is a Recital of Stephen de Wyke William le Taylour John Tancrey and Richard Betts who had an Interest in it but before the beginning of Richard the second all these Families were mouldred away and vanished For in that Kings Reign I find it by the Court Rolls of this place in the hands of Sir Richard de Hoo and Richard Skippe and they about the latter end of Richard the second by deed conveyed it to Simon Spencer and he some few years after alienated it to John Standford Gentleman who suddenly after Passed it away to Richard Smith in whose hands it had not long continued when the same Devolution brought it over to John Eastfield Esquire Son of Sir William Eastfield who was Knight of the Bath and Lord Maior of London in the year 1438. and from him it was by Sale carried off to William Rogers and he by a Fine levied in the thirty third year of Henry the sixth demises and sells it to Philip Belknap of Canterbury Esquire Maior of that City in the year 1458. and Sheriff of Kent in the thirty fourth year of Henry the sixth he married Elizabeth Daughter of John Woodhouse Esq by whom he had Issue Alice his only Daughter and Heir who was matched to Henry Finch of Nitherfield Esq Father of Sir William Finch Banneret who in his Mothers right was invested in the possession of the Moâ—t and from him is it now by Successive right devolved to the Right Honourable John Lord Finch created Baron of Fordwich by the late K. Charles when he was Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England St. Dunstans in Canterbury was the Ancient Seat of the noble Family of Roper VVilliam Rosper or de Rubra Spathâ for so the Name is written in old Dateless Evidences and Elnith his Wife the Daughter and Heir of Edward de Apuldore flourished in the Reign of Henry the third and were great Benefactors to the Priorie of Saint Martins in Dover Iohn de Rubrâ Spathâ or Rosper did eminent Service in Scotland under Edward the third for which that Prince rewards him and William Clifford as appears by a Deed recorded in the Earl of Dorsets Pedigree about the twenty ninth year of his Reign with the third part of those Forfeitures that were due from the Jews then inhabiting in London for the Violation of some Penal Statutes enected against them Edmund Son of Ralph Roper was an eminent Man in the Reign of Henry the fourth and Henry the fifth under whom he was Justice of the Peace for this County and died the third year of Henry the sixth 1433 and lies buried in this Church of St. Dunstans John Roper his Son and John VVestcliffe as the Records of this Family instruct me were Correctors and Surveyours of the Customes of the Cinque Ports in the ninteenth year of Henry the seventh Jo. Roper his Grandchild was Attorney General to Henry the eighth and Prothonotary of the Kings Bench as appears by the Inscription on his Monument in St. Dunstans Church 1524 and VVill. Roper who was Sheriff of Kent the first and second year of Philip and Mary and matched with Margaret Daughter of Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellor of England who as the Inscription on her Monument was Graecis Latinisque Literis Doctissima succeeded his Father in the Office of Prothonotary of the Kings Bench which he discharged with much of Fidelity and Care fifty four years and left it to his Sor Thomas Roper Esquire 1577 in which year he died and from this Thomas is this Mannor of St. Dunstans which for so many Centuries of years hath constantly confessed the Signorie of this Name now descended to his great Grandchild Mr. Edward Roper Esquire Capell in the Hundred of Folkstone was parcel of that Estate which celebrated the Family of Averenches to have been its Proprieraries which continued no longer in the
second granted them to Sir Robert Belknap the Judge upon whose Attainder they were granted in Fee to Robert Ballard Esquire Pincernae suo his grand Boteler That is the Mannors of Westcombe and Spittlecombe in Greenwich two Watermills in Detford with their Appurtenances in Charlton and Writle-mersh after which that Name continued a long time in this place of whom you may read more among the Sheriffs of Kent untill about the fourth of Philip and Mary Westcombe was altenated by Nicholas Ballard to John Lambert Esquire whose Successor Thomas Lambert not many years since alienated it to Hugh Forth from whom it is lately gon over by Sale to Mr ...... Biddulph of London Soon after the Conquest this Greenwich was parcell of the Possessions of the Bishop of Liseux in France and bore Service to Odo then Bishop of Baieux and Earl of Kent After the Mannor belonged to the Abbot of St. Petres of Gaunt in Flanders till such time as King Henry the fifth seising into his Hands by occasion of War the lands of the Priors Aliens bestowed it together with the Mannor of Lewsham and many other Lands also upon the Priory of the Brotherhood to the Monks of Shene which he had then newly erected to which it remained till the Time of King Henry the eighth who annexed it to the Crown unto which it now belongeth and is called the Honor East-Greenwich Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were both born here and King Edward the sixth a Miracle of Princely Towardnesse ended his Life in the same House King Edward the third 1376 in the fifty first year of his Reign founded the Religious House of Friers Aliens or Dominican Friers Sir John Norbury Knight high Treasurer of England is reckoned a Benefactor to the same after the Dissolution of this House and its Annexion to Shene by King Henry the eighth Another House of observant Friers was erected here by King Edward the fourth as we read in Jo. Rosse Circiter Annum Regni Edwardi quarti venerunt Fratres observantes Ordinis Minorum ad Greenwich habebant Cantariam Capellam Sancti Crucis And King Henry the seventh builded that House for them adjoyning to the Pallace which is yet there to be seen There are moreover in the Town two Colledges or Almes houses for the Sustentation of poor Persons the one builded by William Lambert Esquire which he named the Colledge of Queen Elizabeths poor People and as the Prying Adversaries of out Religion then observed was the first Protestant that built an Hospital The other standing by Thames-side was founded by Henry Howard Earl of Northampton Lord Privy Seal Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports and Knight of the Garter And inlarged and Beautified the Castle which is famous in the Spanish Fables from whence there is a most fair and pleasant Prospect open to the River winding in and out almost redoubling of it self the green Medows and Marshes underlying the Citty of London and Country round about Described by Berkley in his Euphormio And also for a L'env'oy to Greenwich you may read the Verses of Leland the Antiquarian Poet adjoyning to Greenwich Blackheath of which the Hundred taketh the name so called of the colour of the Earth or Bleacheath of the high and cold Situation for bleak signifieth cold Also Campus Martis it may well be called for besides the Burthen of the Danish Camps it hath born three rebellious Assemblies One in the time of King Richard the second Moved as shall be farther declared in Offham by John Tylar whom William Walworth then Maior of London slew with his Dagger in Smithfield and thereupon upon the Tradition comes that the City had given them for an Augmentation to their Eschochen a Dagger in the Dexter-point or Canton so to be born by them for ever Jack Cade that Counterfeit Mortimer and his Crew conducted the second who araying themselves here and passed to London where they did to Death the Lord Say and others and executed their malice upon the Records and Monuments of the Law Burning down the Office of Armes which was then kept at Cole-Harbour burning destroying their Rolls Registers and Books of Armory Their main Drift and Design being to bring in Parity And their Insurrection was here assembled by Michaell Joseph Black-smith and the Lord Audley under the Reign of King Henry the seventh at which time they and their Complices received their just Desert the Common Numbers of them being discomfited and slain and the Leaders themselves taken drawn and hanged Of this last there remaineth yet to be seen upon the Heath the place of the Smith's Tent called commonly his Forge and of all there the great grave-Hills of such as were buryed after the overthrow These Hills in the West-Country upon diverse Champions and Plains where is no small Store of the Like are called Barowes of the old English word Burghes which last word melted into Buryings being a Spring of the old Stock we do yet retain alive The first and last of these Commotions were stirred of Griese the Common people conceived for the Demand of two Subsidies Of which the one was unreasonable because it was taxed upon the Polls and exempted none The other was unseasonable for that it was exacted when the heads of the common people were full of Perkin Warbeck The third and middlemost grew upon a grudge that the People took for yielding the Dutchie of Aniou and Maine to the King of Sicily The coming of whose Daughter after that the King would needs have her to Wife notwithstanding his precontract made with the Earl of Armenac was not so joyfully embraced by the Citizens of London upon Blackheath wearing their red Hoods Badges and blew Gowns as in Sequele the Marriage and whole Government it self was known to be detested of the Country Commons by bearing in the same place Harnesse Bowes Bills and other Weapons Thus far the Story of Blackheath proves but sad and tragical That which remains is of a more glorious and splendid condition consisting of Ovations and Triumphs for when the Emperour of Constantinople came to require Aid against the Turks King Henry the fourth with all Princely respect went to meet him at this place and so conducted him to London And when King Henry the fifth returned from his victorious Conquest of France the Lord Maior and Citizens of London went forth in their best Equipage to attend his Reception at this place at which time the King made many Knights Bannerets And K. Hen. the eighth that excelled in all Triumphal matters met Anne Cleve daughter to the Dake of Cleve Graveney in the Hundred of Boughton was in the year of our Lord eight hundred and eleven by Archbishop Vlfred bought of King Kenwolfe as the Book of Christ-church sets it forth ad opus Ecclesiae Christi to the repair of the Cathedral In the year of Grace eight hundred and thirty Werhardus a Priest of much Power in England by the injunction of the Arch-bishop gave Graveney
Master or Conservator of her Jewells whose Son Sir Jo. Astley upon his Decease bequeathed it to his Nephew Sir Norton Knatchbull Knight and Baronet who is the instant Proprietarie of it Champions-Court is the second place of Account in this Parish It was in elder Times the Mansion and Demeasne of a generous Family whose Sirname was Campania and was certainly a Family of eminence in elder Times Robert de Campania is inserted in the Register of those Kentish Gentlemen who accompanied Richard the first to the Seige of Acon John de Campania his Grandchild obtained the Grant of a Market to Newenham weekly on the Thursday and a Fair yearly to continue the Vigil the Day of St. Peter and Paul and the Day after and was one of those Knights of Kent who was embarked in the Seige of Carlaverock in Scotland with Edward the first in the twenty eighth year of his Raign In Times of a younger Aspect the Name by Depravation and vulgar Use languished into Champion and so continued till it expired in Daughters and Coheirs one of which was Katharine Champion who by matching with Robert Corbett descended from the Corbetts of Morton Corbett in the County of Salop upon the Division of Champions Estate united this to his Revenue where it had not long rested but the same vicissitude brought this Name to determine in female Coheirs likewise two of which called Joan and Elizabeth were espoused to Samuell Slap and Ralph Hart. Samuell Slap had Issue Joan Slap who dyed childlesse and so this Mannor was cast into the Possession of Richard Hart Son of Ralph Hart the Successor of Richard Hart in our Fathers Memory alienated his Interest in it to Sir Henry Spiller and he not many years since conveyed all his Right and Title to it by Sale to Mr. Weckerlin descended from the Weckerlins a Family of good Ranke and Account in Upper Germany A third place of Note in Newenham is Sholand whih was in the Raign of H. the third as an old datelesse Deed discovers to us the Patrimony of Adam de Stomynton and after this Name went out the Bournes of Sharsted in Dodington not far removed from this place were about the twentieth year of Edward the third possest of this Lordship from them by purchase the Propriety was carried over to Chevin descended from the Chevins of Chevins-court in Marden and Thomas Chevin of this place married Thomasin Coheir of Champion of Champions Court in this Parish From Chevin the Interest of Sholand did descend by Sale to Maycott and from them by the same Fate to Adye a Family of Note and very much Antiquity as to the Name in this Track whose Right it had not long acknowledged but by the same Devolution the Title was invested in Steere from whom by Purchase it came over to Sayers descended from those of York-shire who in that Age our Fathers lived in sold his Concernment in it to Mr. Hugison of Dover in whose Heirs the Propriety of this place is at this instant resident Newington-Belhouse lies in the Hundred of Folkston and was in the Raign of King John and Henry the third the Possession of Hubert de Burgo Lord Chief Justice of England and from him it descended to his Son John de Burgo who in the fifty fifth year of Henry the third passed it away by Sale to Thomas de Belhouse by the Name of Newington juxta Hieth And probably this may be a Reason why this Family after they had adopted this Mannor into their own Name assumed a Coat which had some Affinitie with that of Hubert de Burgo videlicet Or upon a Bend Gules three Lozinges Argent and Gules which I suppose was done to preserve the Memory of him of whom it was first purchased But to proceed Sir Thomas de Belhouse great Grandchild of the above-mentioned paid respective Aid for this Mannor by the Name of Newington-Belhouse in the twentieth year of Edward the third at making the Black Prince Knight and died possest of it in the forty eighth year of that Princes Raign from whom a descendant Right brought it down to his Heir John de Belhouse who enjoyed it so narrow a space of Time that it is left upon Record that he died seised of it in the forty ninth year of Edward the third and Robert Knevit a younger Son of Sir John Knevit Lord Chancellor of England who had married the Heir Generall of this Family was found to be his Heir and it was this Robert or else probably his Son who in the seventh year of Henry the fourth had a Patent of Confirmation of Liberty of Free-warren to his Lands at Newington formerly granted to Thomas de Belhouse After the Line of the Knevits was extinguished at this place which was about the beginning of Henry the eighth this Mannor devolved to the Cloptons for Edmund Knevit of Stanwaymagna in Essex had three Sisters who were Coheirs to him and their Father Edward Knevit Esquire Thomasin the eldest was matched to Sir William Clopton of Kentwell in Suffolk for his second Wife and Katharine the second Sister was married to John Clopton Esq eldest Son of the above-said Sir William and Dorothy the third was matched to Thomas Carnaby but these desiring to Contract all their Patrimony within the Verge of Suffolk alienared this Mannor in the twenty seventh year of King Henry the eighth with much of their Land in the Mersh to Thomas Lord Cromwell who being attainted in the thirty second year of Henry the eighth this Mannor escheated to the Crown and lay couched in its Revenue untill the first year of Queen Mary and then it was granted to Edward Lord Clinton who in the last year of the above-said Princesse conveyed it with all its perquisites to Henry Herdson whose Grandchild Francis Herdson almost in that Age we entitle to our Fathers Remembrance alienated it to Mr. Henry Brockman Grandfather to the instant Proprietarie James Brockman Esquire Sene and Bithborough were two ancient Seats which related to the Knightly Family of Valoigns of whom I shall speak more in my Discourse of Petham but before the latter end of Edward the third this Family was extinguished and then one of the two Daughters and Coheirs upon the Distinction of the Estate parcells brought these two places to be the Inheritance of Sir Francis Fogge who lies buried Cross-legg'd in Cheriton-Church with the Arms of Fogge and Valoigns empal'd upon his Tombe and from him did the Propriety and Title in an uninterupted Channell stream down to George Fogge Esquire who alienated Sene in our Grandfathers Memory to Honywood and Bithborough to Mr. Henry Brockman who added much to the ancient Building so that it is now become the Seat of that Family Bertrams in Newington is so called because it was parcell of the Estate of Bertram de Crioll who died possest of it in the twenty third year of Edward the first and left it to Joan his Heir espoused to Sir Richard de
her Brother is now entered upon it Brabourne is the second place of Account The first whom I find possest it was Baldwin de Betun Earl of Albemarle Falcatius de Brent who so vigorously asserted the Cause and Quarrel of King John against his Barons and afterwards merited very much of his Son Henry the third at the Battle of Lincolne where a considerable part of those Forces which Lewis the Dolphin of France had transported into England to support the Confederacie of the Seditious Barons was dissipated and discomfited But afterwards all National Animosities being charmed into Slumber by a general Peace he desiring still to improve the Flame of War since from that he expected both Heat and Light seised on the Castle of Bedford which was not wrung from him without the Expence of much Blood and Treasure to expiate which Crime his Estate here and else where was in the fifth year of Henry the third forfeited to the Crown as being the Price of so great an Insolence And then the abovesaid Monarch granted it wholly to Baldwin de Betun Earl of Albemarle and Hawis his Daughter and Co-heir brought it to her Husband William Mareschall Earl of Pembroke but Gilbert Mareschall this mans Successor dying without Issue Roger de Bigod Earl of Norfolk in Right of Mawde his Mother who was his Sister and Heir entered upon it and he in the eleventh year of Edward the first gives it to Otho Lord Grandison After this Family was worn out I find by an ancient Court-roll one Walter de Pevenley or Pemley possest of it in the reign of Edward the third and he it is possible erected the House which in old Deeds is written Pevenley or Pemley-court But before the beginning of Henry the sixth this Family was extinguished and gone and then the Ashe's were the succeeding Proprietaries a Family which before were Lords of much Land in this Track and in ancient Deeds were written de Fraxino from their Habitation near some place planted with those Trees and it is probable derived their Descent from Thomas de Esse who was one of the Recognitores Magnae Assisae in the fourth year of King John as appears by the Pipe-rols of that Time and certainly to this Name did a considerable part of the Fabrick of the House owe its first Original as appears by the Coat in divers of the Windows videlicet Azure three Cheverons Argent In fine after this Seat and Mannor had for many years been resident in this Family it was about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth alienated to Sir ...... Boswell whose Grand-child dying without Issue his Sister the Lady Margaret Boswell is now become the Heir General of this place Rumpsted and in very old Evidences written Rumpshot was the Inheritance of a Family which was known by that Sirname It is superfluous to inform the World how many by old Deeds are represented to have been possessors of this place amongst whom Sir William de Rumpsted is most eminent who flourished here in the reign of Edward the third and as the constant and successive Tradition of the Inhabitants of this Parish is was Foster-father to William de Sevenoke who was found a desolate and forlorn Orphan in the hollow Body of an Oake and received both Reception and Education from the Charity and Benevolence of the above-mentioned Person In whose Lineage the propriety of this place did not long after settle for by an old Court-roll I find it in the reign of Henry the sixth in the Tenure of Nisell but this Family not long after determining in a Female Heir she by matching with Bere brought it to acknowledge it self to be of the Interest of this Family but staid not long in the Name for about the beginning of Henry the eighth it was made by purchase the possession of Peckham from whom not many years after by the same fatality it went away to Bedell Nicholas Bedell in the third and fourth of Philip and Mary demised it to John Stacy of Hollenden and John Stacy in the fourth and fifth of Philip and Mary conveyes it to Richard Lone and his Successor Mr. Richard Lone hath very lately by Sale transmitted his Interest here to Thomas Lambert formerly of West-Combe in Greenwich Esquire Knoll is the last place of Account in Sevenoke It had in Times of elder Inscription the same Owners with Brabourne and Seale not far distant as namely Falcatius de brent Baldwin de Betun Earl of Albemarle William Mareschall Earl of Pembroke and Roger de Bigod Earl of Norfolk who in the eleventh year of Edward the first granted it with Seale and much other Land which devolved to him in Right of Mawde his Mother who was Sister and Heir to her Brother Gilbert le Mareschall Earl of Pembroke to Otho de Grandison and in his Descendants did it continue until the beginning of Richard the second and then it was conveyed by Sir Thomas Grandison to Geffrey de Say yet I do not find that the possession of this place was entirely planted in Grandison for an Inquisition taken after the Death of Reginald de Cobham in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 62. Parte primâ represents him to have had some share or concernment in it yet how ever it were thus broken into parcels the Inheritance of this Mannor was wholly after this placed in Geffrey de Say as appears by some Court-rols which commence from the reign of Richard the second but he determining in Daughters and Co-heirs Joan one of them upon the Division of his Estate brought this as an Addition to the Patrimony of her Husband Sir William Fiennes and in this Family when the possession had had a Respite until the reign of Edward the fourth it was by Sir William Fiennes passed away by Sale to Thomas Bourchier Arch-bishop of Canterbury who added much of Pompe and Magnificence by a new Supplement or Superstructure to the ancient Pile or Fabrick and dying bequeathed it to the See of Canterbury as a convenient Pallace for his Successors but when William Warham Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the reign of Henry the eighth saw that the Grandeur of this Mansion was looked upon both with an Eye of Emulation and Envy by the Laity of those Times he to allay that Murmure and Regret in the twelfth year of the abovesaid Prince exchanged it with the Crown and here it rested until Edward the sixth in the second year of his reign granted it to Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset Protector of the Realm in the Minority of that Prince Who being convicted of Felony in the fourth year of that King it escheated back to the Crown and then it was in that year by a new Grant setled on John Dudley Duke of Northumberland but he being intoxicated with the Fumes of Ambition broke out into such treasonable and seditious practises against the Right and Title of Queen Mary that they could not be explated but with the Losse of his
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
of Diggs Court in Barham was upon his decease authoriz'd to discharge the said office for the remainder of the year Thomas Chich of the Dungeon in St. Mary Bredimans Parish in Canterbury was Sheriff of this County the third year of Henry the fourth Richard Cliderow of Gouldstanton in Ash neer Sandwich who was constituted in the Reign of Henry the fourth Admirall of the Seas from the Thames mouth along the Saxon shore to the West was likewise Sheriff of Kent the fourth and most part of the fifth year of the abovesaid Prince Tho. Swinbourn Esquire owner of much Land in the County of Essex was Sheriff of Kent the sixth year of Henry the fourth and kept his Shrievalty at Thevegate in Smeth Michael Horn of Horn place in Apuldore was Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Henry the fourth Edward Haut of Hauts place in Petham and of Bourn was Sheriff of Kent the eighth year of Henry the fourth William Snaith of Addington was Sheriff of Kent the ninth year of Henry the fourth Reginald Pimp of Pimps Court in East Farleigh Son of William Pimp of Pimps Court and Nettlested was Sheriff of Kent the tenth year of Henry the fourth John Darrell of Cale-Hill in little Chert eldest Brother of Sir William Darrell under Treasurer of England was Sheriff of Kent the eleventh year of Henry the fourth William Notbeame descended out of Suffolk where his Family was of generous rank but whose Residence was at Ash neer Sandwich was Sheriff of Kent the twelfth year of Henry the fourth and in the seventh year of Henry the fifth was return'd amongst those who did Portare arma antiqua William Cheney of Shurland in Shepey Son of Richard Cheney was Sheriff of Kent the thirteenth year of Henry the fourth in which year this Prince deceased Sheriffs of Kent under Henry the Fifth William Cheney above mentioned continued Sheriff of Kent the first year of Henry the fifth William Cliford of whom mention was formerly made was again Sheriff of Kent in the second and third years of Henry the fifth William Langley of Knolton was Sheriff of Kent the fourth year of Henry the fifth John Darrell of Cale-hill above recited was again Sheriff of Kent the fifth year of K. Henry the fifth Richard Cliderow of whom mention was made in the fourth and fifth years of Henry the fourth was now Sheriff again in the sixth year of King Henry the fifth John Burgh was Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Henry the fifth During this mans Shrievalty there came a special Writ from the King to elect out of the most fit and able Knights and Esquires of the County that bore Arms from antiquity twelve of the most sufficient to serve as Lances for defence of the Kingdome William Haut of Hautsbourne was Sheriff of Kent some part of the eighth and all the ninth year of K. Henry the fifth John Darrell of Cale-hill was Sheriff of Kent the tenth year of Henry the fifth in which year that successeful and triumphant Prince paid the last Debt he owed to Nature and the first which he owed to Sin Sheriffs of Kent in the Reign of Henry the Sixth John Darrell of Cale-hill who was Sheriff of Kent when K. Henry the fifth deceased continued Sheriff in the first year of Henry the sixth William Cheyney of Shurland who was Knighted in the ninth year of K. Henry the sixth was Sheriff of Kent in the second year of that Princes Government John Rykâ—ld of Estlingham in Frend bury neer Rochester was Sheriff of Kent the third year of K. Henry the sixth William Clifford of Bobbing who had been Sheriff of Kent in the first year of K. Henry the fifth was elected to take that Office in the fourth year of K. Henry the sixth William Colepeper of Preston in Alresford Son and Heir of Sir John Colepeper was Sheriff of Kent the fifth year of Henry the sixth Thomas Ellis of Burton in Kennington was Sheriff of Kent the sixth year of Henry the sixth William Scot of Scots Hall in Smeeth was Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Henry the sixth John Peche of Lullingston was Sheriff of Kent the eighth year of Henry the sixth John St. Leger of Ulcomb was Sheriff of Kent the ninth year of Henry the sixth John Guldford of Halden alias Lambin in the Parish of Rolvenden was Sheriff of Kent in the tenth year of Henry the sixth William Bures who held much Land at Bromeley and Greenwich and was descended from William de Bures who held part of a Knights Fee in Bromley the twentieth year of Edward the third At making the black Prince Knight was Sheriff of Kent the eleventh year of Henry the sixth Richard Woodville of the Moat in Maidston was Sheriff of Kent in the twelfth year of K. Henry the sixth William Clifford of Bobbing and of Shorn of whom mention is made twice before was now again chosen Sheriff the thirteenth year of Henry the sixth William Manston of Manston in the Parish of St. Laurence in the Isle of Thanet was Sheriff of Kent the fourteenth year of Henry the sixth James Fiennes of Kemsing and Seal afterwards created Lord Say and Seal and High Treasurer of England was Sheriff of Kent the fifteenth year of Henry the sixth Richard Waller of Gromebridge in Spelhurst who took Charles Duke of Orleans Captive at the Battle of Agin Court was Sheriff of Kent the sixteenth year of K. Henry the sixth Edward Guldford of Halden in Rolvenden was Sheriff of Kent the seventeenth year of Henry the sixth Gervas Clifton who married Isabel Widow of William Scot Esquire and lived upon his Wives Estate at Brabourn in Kent where he lies buried was Sheriff of Kent the eighteenth year of Henry the sixth John Yerde of Denton near Berham was Sheriff of Kent the ninteenth year of Henry the sixth John Warmer of Votes Crey was Sheriff of Kent in the twentieth year of Henry the sixth William Maries who lived at Ufton in Tunstal was Sheriff of Kent in the twenty first of Henry the sixth Thomas Brown Knight Treasurer to the House-hold of K. Henry the sixth was Sheriff of Kent in the twenty second year of that Prince William Cromer of Tunstal who married Elizabeth Daughter of James Lord Say and Seale was Sheriff of Kent the twenty third year of Henry the sixth This was that William Cromer who was barbarously assassanated by Jack Cade whilst he vigorously sought to oppose that Rebell in his Expedition towards London John Thornbury of Feversham was Sheriff of Kent the twenty fourth year of Henry the sixth William Isley of Sundridge was Sheriff of Kent the twenty fifth year of Henry the sixth William Kene who lived at Well Hall in Eltham in Right of Agnes his Wife Widow of John Tatersal was Sheriff of Kent the twenty sixth year of Henry the sixth Stephen Slegge of Wouldham near Rochester was Sheriff of Kent the twenty seventh year of Henry the sixth William Cromer who was
of a thousand Crowns on Sir Stephen de Cosington and Sir William his Son for their remarkable Service performed against the Enemies of his Crown and Scepter The last of this Family which held this Mannor was Sir J. Cosington who concluded in three Danghters and Coheirs about the the latter end of Henry the eighth matched to Duke Wood and Alexander Hamon and upon the Disunion of the Estate into Parcels the last by Female Interest was invested in Acris and his Successors remained Lords of the Fee untill the Beginning of K. James and then a Fatalitie like the former brought the Patrimony of this Family to be possest by two Daughters and Coheirs so that Sir Robert Lewknor having matched with Katharine who was one of them became in her Right entituled to this Mannor and left it to his Son Hamon Lewknor Esq who deceasing not long since hath transmitted it during the Minority of his Son to his Widow Dowager The Mannor of Brandred lies in this Parish and belonged to the Abby of St. Radigunds untill the suppression and then it was by Henry the eighth exchanged with the Arch Bishop of Canterbury in the twenty ninth of his Reign and remained parcel of that Patrimony which acknowledged the Signorie of that See untill these tempestuous Times shook it off Addington in the Hundred of Larkfield was as high as any Track of Evidence can transport me to discover the Inheritance of a noble Family called Mandeville and divers Deeds of a very venerable Antiquity being without date and now in the hands of Mr. Watton do attest Roger de Mandeville in those elder Times to have been Lord of the Fee but before the end of Edward the second this Family was vanished and had surrendred the possession of this place to Robert At Checquer in whom the possession was but of a narrow Date for hee not long after alienated his Interest in it to Nicholas Dagworth as is evident by this Record registred in the Book of Aid kept in the Exchequer De Nicholao de Dagworth pro uno Feodo Militis quod Roberius de Scaccario tenuit in Addington de Warreno de Montecanisio 40. s. That is Nicholas Dagworth in the twentieth year of Edward the third paid a respective Supply of 40. s. for his Mannor of Addington which both he and Robert At Checquer which enjoyed it before him held of the Honour of Swanscamp Castle as being the capital Seat of the Barony of Mountchensey under the Notion of a whole Knights Fee But in this Family the Title was a Volatile as in the former for before the going out of Edward the third I find it passed away from Dagworth to Sir Hugh Segrave and he in the seventh year of Richard the second alienated it to Richard Charles descended from Edward Charles Captain and Admirall of the Seas from the Thames mouth Northward in the reign of Edward the first as appears Pat. 34. Edwardi primi But he was scarce warm in his new Acquists but he expired in two Daughters and Coheirs Alice matched to William Snaith and Joan married to Richard Ormeskirk but this Mannor upon the Distinction of the Estate into Parcells was entwin'd with the Demeasne of Snaith and he dyed possest of it as the date of his Tombe in Addington Church informs me in the year 1409. but dyed without Issue-male so that his sole Daughter and Heir being wedded to Watton made it the Inheritance of that Family and here have they planted themselves ever since that Alliance and have performed many signal Services to this County by being invested with places of Trust as Justices of the Peace Commissioners of the Sewers and other Officers of the like Condition which hath much inforced and multiplied the eminent Reputation of this ancient Family Allington in the Hundred of Lark field is eminent for an ancient Castle within the Limits of it which as Mr. Darrell and Mr. Mersh do assert was erected by William de Columbariis or Columbers and this Mr. Darrell who was very curious in Disquisitions of this Nature more possitively affirms because in the eighth year of Henry the third when as appears by the Records of the Tower there was an exact Survey taken of all the Castles of England and of those who were either Proprietaries of them or else the respective Castellans or Guardians one of the above mentioned Family was found to be possessor of this Fortresse and was also Lord of the Mannor which was still annexed to the Castle but this Name was of no long continuance in the Tenure of either for about the latter end of Henry the third they came to own the Signorie of Sir Stephen de Penchester Lord Warden afterwards of the Cinque Ports to whom and to Margaret his Wife Daughter of the famous Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent King Edward the first granted a Licence in the ninth year of his Reign as appears by the Patent-Rolls of that Time to erect a Castle and to fortifie and embattle at Allington so that it seems it was only before Fortalitium some small Fortresse and could not be marshall'd under the just Notion of a Castle untill it had received new Symetrie and Dimensions by those Appendages and Supplements which were added to it by this great Man and having thus established this Pile it came to own his Name and is in some old Records called Allington Penchester and not undeservedly for in the eighth year of Edward the first he obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannor of Allington and also a Market Weekly on the Tuesday and a Fair yearly three days on the Vigil the day and day after St. Laurence but deceased without Issue Male so that after his Exit it came to acknowledge Stephen de Cobham who had married his Daughter and Coheir and he inocculated his own Name upon it and called it Allington Cobham which flourished severall Descents in this Family untill the beginning of Edward the fourth and then I find it in the possession of Brent but remained not long in this Name for in the eighth year of Henry the seventh John Brent passed away the Castle and Mannor of Allington to Sir Henry Wiat one of the Privie Councel to that Prince but his infortunate Grandchild Sir Thomas Wiat having by his Defection in the second year of Queen Mary forfeited it to the Crown it remained there untill Queen Elizabeth granted it to Jo. Astley Esq Master of her Jewels whose Son Sir Jo. Astley dying without Issue it came by Descent to Sir Jacob Astley created Lord Astley by the late King at Oxford whose Descendant does now enjoy the Possession of it Alkham in the Hundred of Folkston hath divers places in it of Account Malmains by vulgar Corruption of the word called Smalmains with Hollmeade which was ever accounted an Appendage to it are first to be considered In the twentieth year of Edward the third I find Thomas de Malmains Son of Nicholas de Malmains who
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
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
But left no Issue so that Joan his Kinswoman matched to Richard Haut became his Heir and he had Issue Richard Haut in whom the Male-line concluding William Isaac in Right of his Wife Margerie who was Daughter and Heir to the above-mentioned Richard entered upon his Estate here at Permested and about the Beginning of Henry the eighth passed it away by Sale to Edward Knevet of Newington Belhouse Esquire and his Daughters and Coheirs by joint Sale demised it to Tho. Lord Cromwell and he in the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth alienated it to Christopher Hales Esquire afterwards knighted first Attorney Generall and then Master of the Rolls under the abovesaid Prince and his Son Sir James Hales conveyed it away to Thomas Alphew aliàs Alphy Yeoman From this Man it came over by Sale in the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth to William Downe of Maidstone Draper and he in the sixth year of that Princesse transmitted it by the like conveyance to Doctour Vincent Denne Doctour of the Civil Law Grand-father to Mr. Vincent Denne of Grays Inne Esquire the present Lord of the Fee A Person to whose Conduct and supply this particular Survey ows a grateful Remembrance because by his Concurrent Aid it was guided along through all those Difficulties which might have probably intercepted it in its farther progresse Denhill in this Parish was not only the Seat but likewise the Seminary of a Family of eminent Note in this County Ralph de Den held much Land in Romney Mersh and likewise at Buckhurst in Sussex as appears by an old Roll now in the Hands of the Earl of Dorset about the twentieth of William the Conqueror and is styled in the Record Son of Robert Pincerna a Name imposed upon his Father from being as is probable either Butler or Sewer to Edward the Confessor an Office of no vulgar Account in those Times Sir Alured de Den flourished in the Raign of Henry the third and was a Person of signal Estimate in that Age for when the Laws of Romney Mersh were compiled by that venerable Judge Henry de Bath from which all England receives Directions for Sewers this Sir Alured and Nicolas de Haudloe were his Associates and Assistants in the Composure of them in the forty second year of Henry the third on Saturday next after the Nativity of St. Mary and which makes this Sir Alured de Den more remarkable he sealed even in that Age divided by so remote a Distance from us with three Leopards Heads couped and full faced which is the ancient paternal Coat of this Family Indeed if I should enter into a particular Discourse of all those Persons who have been originally extracted from this Family and were formerly eminent not only within the private Sphere of this County as being invested with the Commission of Justices of the Peace and other Offices of publique Trust and Concernment but likewise shone like Stars of the first Magnitude within the two Orbes of Divinity and the Law both Civil and Municipal the Survey of this Place which I intend to retrench within as narrow Bounds as may be must swell into a particular Treatise it is enough therefore to inform the Reader that it hath been so many Centuries of years folded up in the Propriety of Den. that there is no Gappe at all in the Succession between Ralph de Den the first of that Name and Tho. Den Esq the last who in a direct Line enjoyed it Nor hath it yet departed from the Name for the above mentioned Thomas lately deceasing without Issue-Male Vincent Donne of Grays-Inn Esquire collarerally issued out of this Family by matching with Mary his yongest Daughter and Coheir in Right of this Alliance is now in the instant Possession of it Kingsnoth in the Hundreds of Chart and Longbridge did in elder Times give Sear and Sirname to a Family which assumed its Denomination from hence who bore as appears by Seals appendant to their ancient Deeds Ermin upon a Bend five Cheverons and John de Kingsnoth who flourished here about the latter end of Edward the first sealed with that Coat and this Inscription encircles the Seal Sigillum Joannis de Kingsnoth Yet I find Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer who was attainted in the seventeenth year of Edw. the second had some Interest in this Mannor which upon his Conviction escheated to the Crown and rested there until Richard the second granted it out again to Sir Robert Belknap the Judge who had not long before purchased that proportion which Kingsnoth was concerned in So that by this Concession it came entirely to own the Signory of this Family But he being infortunately attainted and cast into Exile in the tenth year of the above said Prince this Mannor was annexed to the Revenue of the Crown and was lodged there until Henry the sixth in the twenty seventh year of his Raign granted some part of it to Sir Thomas Brown of Bechworth Castle in Surrey and with it a Charter to inclose a Parke which had Liberty of Free-warren annexed to it and likewise the more to endear him licensed this Town to hold a Fair yearly on Michaelmas Day but the principal part of it was conveyed by Sale to Cardinal Kemp who about the twenty eighth of Henry the sixth settled it on the Colledge of Wye where it remained until the Resignation of its Revenue into the Hands of Henry the eighth in the twenty ninth year of his Raign and he by Royal Concession made it the Demeasne of Thomas Lord Cromwell afterwards Earl of Essex Who being attainted of High Treason in the thirty second year of that Prince it escheated back to the Crown and then a Moiety of it in the thirty fifth year of his Government was granted to Sir John Baker from whom by hereditary Conveyance it was delegated and transmitted to his Successor Sir John Baker of Sisingherst Baronet who some few years since hath alienated his Concerment here to Mr. Nathaniel Powell of Ewherst in Sussex The other Moiety of it lay folded up in the Patrimony of the Crown untill the first year of Queen Elizabeth and then it was by that Princesse granted to her Kinsman Henry Cary afterwards created Baron Hunsdon from whom by the Channel of Descent it was transported to his Grand-child the Right Honorable Henry Cary Earl of Dover who in our Memory conveyed it to Sir Thomas Finch afterwards Earl of Winchelsey Father to the instant Proprietary the Right Honorable Heneage Finch now Earl of Winchelsey Munfidde in this Parish was originally the Seat of the Clere's written in their ancient Deeds le Clere. But as all Families have their Vicissitudes and Tombs and like the Sea which is circumscribed and shut in with a Girdle of Sand are fettered to a determinate Period so was this for about the latter end of Edward the third Henry le Clerc concluded in Susan le Clerc who was his Daughter and Heir and she by matching with Sir Simon Woodchurch annexed
Welle in this Parish which was alwayes under the Jurisdiction of Lay Proprietaries It was first the position of John de Welle sometimes written At Well from the position of his Dwelling which perhaps was in a bottom but this Man in the forty fourth year of Hen. the third made Ranulph Joremer his Feoffe in Trust who sold it for his Use to Reginald de Cornehill by whose Daughter and Heir it came to Garwinton of Beakesbourne and in this Name after it had been fixed some four Descents it went away to Haut for William Garwinton died without Issue and so Margaret his Kinswoman matched to Richard Haute who was a second stock of the Hauts of Bourne became his Heir but long the Right of it was not united to his Family For Richard Haut this Mans Son left likewise onely a Daughter and Heir called Margery who altered the Possession and brought it with Her to her Husband William Isaack who had by her Edward Isaack and he determined in two Daughters and Coheirs Mary married to Thomas Apulton of Waldingfield in the County of Suffolk and the other first matched to ....... Sydley and after to Sir Henry Palmer who by Donation from his Wife was endowed with the Fee-simple of Well Court and his Successor in our Father's Memory alienated it to Lievetenant Colonel Prude slain at the Siege of Maestricht who left it to his Son Mr. Searles Prude whose two Daughters and Coheirs are by his Will after his Widow's Decease entituled to the Inheritance Reginald de Cornehill in the forty fourth year of Henry the third exchanged Lands with John de St. Leger for Lands at Lukedale in Littlebourne where he founded a Chantry which was endowed with a new accession of Land by his Wife Matilda de Cornehill and was confirmed by Patent from Henry the third Lose in the Hundred of Maidstone was in old Saxon Records written Hlos which imports as much as the Lot or Portion It was as the Book of Christ-Church informs us given by Ethelwulf King of the South-Saxons to Sneta a Widow and her Daughter and they gave it back again to the Monks of Christ-Church in Canterbury to apparel them In the Conqueror's Time upon the general Survey recorded in Doonesday-Book it was accounted as part of the six Sullings of Ferneleigh Pimps Court that gave Name to the Knightly Family of the Pimps is in this Parish although they made Nettlested their more frequent place of abode William de Pimpe held this and other Lands by a whole Knights Fee in the twentieth year of Edward the third at the making the Black Prince Knight and from this William was John Pimpe Esquire who was Sheriff of Kent in the second year of Henry the seventh lineally descended who sold this Place to Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham Lord Constable of England whose dysastrous Fate having engaged him to make some dark Applications to a Wizard and a Monk about the Succession of the Crown Henry the eighth a Prince of much Jelousie and Fury like an Industrious Spider spun out Venome enough out of this unhappy Address of his to poyson him with the Guilt of High Treason and so made the forfeiture of his Life and Fortune pay the price of his Vanity upon whose Ruine his Estate was not long after his Death and Attaint which was in the thirteenth year of Henry the eighth by that Prince granted to his Confident and Favourite Sir John Rainsford who after a brief enjoyment of it passed it away to Sir Henry Isley who being attainted in the second year of Q. Mary for supporting by his Assistance and Concurrence the Defection of Sir Thomas Wiat this reverted to the Crown and the same Princess in the second year of her Government granted it by Patent to Sir John Baker whose Successor Sir John Baker Baronet hath lately passed it away to Thomas Floyd of Gore Court Esquire Luddenham in the Hundred of Middleton with the appendant Mannor of Bishops-Bush was a Branch of that spatious Revenue which did in these parts own the Northwoods for Possessors and Roger de Northwood in the forty first year of Henry the third amongst divers Parcels of Land which he altered from the Nature of Gavelkind into Knights Service of the which there is a particular Recapitulation in the Book of Aid changed ninety Acres of Mersh Land which lay partly in Iwade and partly in his Mannor of Luddenham into that Tenure After the Northwoods the Frogenhalls were Possessors of this place and William Frogenhall had this amongst other Lands in this Track which he died seised of in the eighth year of Richard the second his Son and Heir was William Frogenhall Father to Thomas Frogenhall the last of the Name at this Place for he left no Issue Male so that the Daughters became his Coheirs One of whom was Anne who married Thomas Quadring of London and so this place became hsi Inheritance as being her Proportion of Frogenhalls Estate but it quickly found an other owner for Joan Quadring his onely Daughter and Heir by marrying with Richard Dryland of Cokesditch in Feversham incorporated it with the Demeasn of that Family since which Alliance it hath by a constant Succession been fixt in the Possession of the Name of Dryland untill of late years by an Heir General it came to own the Signory of Kirton Luddesdowne in the Hundred of Taltingtrough was though now a petty obscure Village more noted formerly when it was the Patrimony of the Barons Montchensie of Swanscamp-Castle Warren de Montchensie one of them obtained a Charter of Free-Warren to this Mannor of Ludsdowne in the thirty seventh year of Henry the third afterwards this Mans Successor William de Monchensie held it and sat in Parliament as Baron of Swanscamp and dying in the year 1287 without Issue Male left this and diverse other Places to Dionys his Sole Daughter and Heir who was married to Hugh de Vere but died without Issue in the year of our Lord 1314 by which means the Title of this Place diverted to Joan de Montchensie Sister to William above-named and She matched in Marriage with William de Valentia Earl of Pembroke half Brother to King Henry the third and by him had Aymer de Valence who expired in two Female Coheirs one of whom called Isabel was married to Lawrence de Hastings who in her Right was afterwards Earl of Pembroke and Proprietary of the Fee-simple of this Place from whom it descended to his Grand-child John Hastings Earl of Pembroke who dying in the fourteenth year of Richard the second left his Estate in Kent in which this was involved to his two Kinsmen Reginald Grey and Richard Talbot and upon the Division of it this Mannor was lincked to the Patrimony of Grey and remained untill the Beginning of Henry the fixth interwoven with the Revenue of this Family and then I find it under the Signory of that eminent Peer and glorious Souldier Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury
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
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
of Shepbourn and in the thirteenth year of that Prince's reign had as appears Pat. 13. Edwardi primi Memb. 28. a Grant of a Market weekly to this place to be held on the Monday and a Fair for three Days Space at the Feast of St. Giles and this Adam de Bavent or else his Son was one of those eminent Kentish Gentlemen who was embarked with Edward the first in his Expedition into Scotland and was one of those who were created Bannerets at the Siege of Carlaverock in the twenty eighth year of his reign Roger de Bavent was summoned in the fourteenth year of Edward the second to sit in Parliamennt as Baron After whom I find no more mention of this Family as Possessors of this Mannor for it is probable the Religion and muffled Perswasion of those Times had so warped the Piety and Devotion of this Family that they setled it on the Priory of Leeds for by an old Rental of that Covent I find it wrapped up in their Demeasn in the reign of Edward the third and remained parcel of their Income until the general Shipwrack in the reign of Henry the eighth and then it was in the thirty sixth year of that Prince granted to Sir Ralph Vane and Anthony Tustham Esquire who not long after having passed away his Interest in it to Sir Ralph Vane it hath continued ever since to acknowledge the absolute Signory of this Family so that the right of it now rests in Sir Henry Vane Son and Heir to Sir Henry Vane Secretary of Estate to his late Majesty Fairlane is an eminent Seat in this Parish which likewise did confesse the Signory of the Family of Bavent but before the latter end of Edw. the third they had abandoned the Possession of it and then it came to confesse the Signory of Colepepers who remained Lords of the Fee untill the latter end of Henry the fourth and then it was transmitted by Sale to Chown in which Family after the Propriety had been constantly resident untill that Age which almost was circumscribed within the Verge of our Remembrance Sir George Chown the last of this Name at this place desiring to contract his Revenue solely within the Confines of Sussex alienated his Estate here to Sir Henry Vane Comptroller of his late Majestie 's Houshould and principal Secretary of Estate who having much beautified and adorned the ancient Fabrick with new Additions upon his late Decease bequeathed it to be enjoyed by his Lady Dowager Stelling in the Hundred of Lovingborough was with Wadenhall which lyes partly in this Parish and partly in Petham parcell of the Inheritance of the illustrious Family of Haut and William de Haut had Stelling and Wadenhall in the first year of Ed. the first and this above-mentioned VVilliam founded a Chappel at VVadenhall and dedicated it to St. Edmund the Saxon King of the East Angles and in this Family these Mannors continued untill the latter end of the reign of H. the sixth and then VVill. Haut lineally extracted from the above-said VVilliam conveyed Stelling to Humphrey Stafford Duke of Buckingham and this being forseited to the Crown upon the Attainder of his Grandchild Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham in the thirteenth year of Henry the eighth this lay enwrapped in the royal Revenue untill Queen Mary in the first year of her reign granted it with much other Land to Edward Lord Clinton who about the last year of that Princesse alienated it to Mr. Henry Herdson whose Grandchild Mr. Francis Herdson about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth passed it away to Mr. John Herdson his Uncle who dying without Issue disposed of it by Will to his Nephew Sir Basill Dixwell of Terlingham in Folkstone from whom by descendant Devolution it is now come down to his Heir General Mr. Basill Dixwell of Broom in Barham But VVadenhall remained in the Name of Haut untill by the Steps of several Descents it was wafted along to Sir VVilliam Haut one of whose two Daughters and Coheirs called Elizabeth being wedded to Sir Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury brought it to acknowledge the Interest of that Family and he having exchanged it with Edward the sixth it confessed the Signory of the Crown untill Queen Elizabeth in the forty second year of her reign granted it to Sir John Sotherton Baron of her Exchequer whose Heir in the memory of these Times gave up his Right in it by the Fatality of Sale to Mr. Benjamin Pere of Canterbury The Advowson of the two Parsonages or Rectories of Stelling and Vpper Hardres were granted to the Priory of Tunbridge in the twenty sixth year of Edward the third Pat. 3. part 2. Memb. 3. Selling in the Hundred of Street hath several places in it which cannot be declined without some Memorial Willmington and Somervill are the first that occurre and they gave Seat and one of them Sirname to a Family of Repute in that Age because I find they had Land in other places in the County Roger de Wilmington held the Possession of them at his Death which was in the eleventh year of Edward the third and left his Estate here and elsewhere to be shared between his four Daughters and Coheirs matched to Ordmere Bromming Brockhull and St. Laurence but upon the Division of the Estate these accrued to St. Laurence and in Right of paternal Devolution John St. Laurence Son of Thomas St. Laurence held these at his Decease which was in the tenth year of Richard the second and from him their right devolved to his Son Thomas St. Laurence whose Sole Daughter and Heir Katharine brought them to be the Inheritance of Sir William Apulderfield who about the latter end of Henry the sixth passed them away to Ashburnham and Till and the first of those having wholly setled his Right in them by Sale in Till they rested in this Family until the reign of Henry the eighth and then Peter Heyman Esquire having wedded the sole Inheritrix of Till they were transplanted into the Patrimony of that Family and from him the Propriety descended to his great Grandchild my worthy Friend Sir Henry Heyman Baronet lately deceased Haringe is a second place of Consideration it was as high as any Clew of Record can lead us the Possession of the Gurneys Hugh de Gurney who is in the Register of those who entered England with William the Norman held it under his Scepter In Ages almost of the next Step or Descent the Sharsteds had it and Robert de Sharsted who flourished under Edward the first Edward the second and dyed in the eighth year of Edward the third was possest of it at his Decease but this Name was suddenly worn out for in the Time subsequent to this Henry Brockhull of Brockhull in Saltwood enjoyed it who likewise had some Interest in Wilmington and Somervill which his Successor sold to Ashburnham and here the Propriety made its aboad untill the latter end of Henry the sixth and then it was conveyed to
Life and Forfeiture of his Estate and then this Seat upon his unsuccessful Exit returning to the Crown it was by the abovesaid Princess granted to her Cousin Reginald Poole Cardinal for his Life and a year after as he should by Testament dispose After his Death it reverts again to the Crown and then Queen Elizabeth in the third year of her reign grants it to Robert Dudley Earl of Leiceister and he the same year resigning it back into the Hands of his Soveraign it was by Lease made over to John Lennard of Chevening Esquire but the Fee-simple was by Royal Concession invested in the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth in Thomas Sackvill Lord Buckhurst and his Grand-child Richard Sackvill Earl of Dorset almost in our Remembrance conveyed the Fee-simple reserving it yet still in Lease to himself and his Heirs paying such a Rent-charge as is there specified for ninety and nine years to Mr. Richard Smith vulgarly called Dog-Smith who upon his Decease not many years since setled the propriety of it for ever upon St. Thomas Hospital in Southwarke The Honour of Sevenoke was granted by Queen Elizabeth to her Kinsman Henry Carey Lord Hunsdon in the first year of her reign from whom it devolved to his Grand-child Henry Carey Earl of Dover he passed it away by Sale to Richard Sackvill Earl of Dorset who alienated his Interest in it to Mr. Richard Smith who upon his above-mentioned Decease gave it with Knoll which both were exchanged and so united to the Royal Demeasne by William Warham to the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwarke Kepington is the last place considerable in this Parish which was wrapt up in that Demeasne which owned the Signory of the Lords Cobham of Cobham as appears by an Inquisition taken in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 62. Parte secundâ and after a Decursion of several Descents came by the Heir General of this Family to be possest by Brook whose Descendant about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth conveyed it to Burges and by his Sister and Heir it came over to Hanger who alienated it to Cowper and he not long since to Mr. Thomas Farnaby Spelherst in the Hundreds of Somerden Codsheath and Watchling stone hath many places in it of Repute First Grome-bridge which is a Chappel of Ease belonging to Spelherst and is dedicated to St. John it is in old Registers written Gromen-bridge and Gormen-bridge from some Saxon who was anciently Owner of it as Godmanchester in Huntingtonshire upon the same Account in old Orthography bears the Name of Gormonchester a Saxon having been possessor of it of that Denomination This Mannor in elder Times confessed the Dominion and Title of the Noble Family of Cobham Henry de Cobham and Joan his Wife obtained a Market to be observed weekly on the Thursday and a Fair three Dayes yearly videlicet the Vigil the Day of St. John Port-latine and the Day after as is manifest from an old Charter which I have seen whose Date commences from the fourteenth year of Edward the first the Market and Fair were kept where now the new Chappel is erected by the piety and expence of that Worthy Patriot John Packer Esquire late one of the Clerks of the Privy Seal After the Cobhams were departed from the possession of this place the Lords Clinton became by purchase Proprietaries of it and John de Clinton who was often summoned to fit as Baron in Parliament in the Time of Richard the second died possest of it in the twenty second year of that Prince Rot. Esc Num. 16. from whom the Title flowed in this Family until the latter end of Henry the fourth and then it was passed away to Waller of Lamberherst where and in Sussex they were before Masters of very ample Possessions for Thomas Waller and Katharine his Wife granted to Thomas Waller of Lamberherst his Father Richard Brenchley and John Brook all his Lands Messuages and Tenements in the Villages and Parishes of Rotherfeild Witheham Wadhurst Lamberhurst Little Horsted Alfricheston and Bucksted together with the moiety of the Advouson of the Church of Little Horsted as appears Claus 11. Richardi secundi in Dorso Memb. 35. Richard Waller Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the sixteenth year of Henry the sixth and kept his Shrievalty at Grome-bridge and was before Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in the twelfth year of that Prince This is that renowned Souldier that in the Time of Henry the fifth took Charles Duke of Orleans General of the French Army Prisoner at the Battle of Agin-court brought him over into England and held him in honorable Restraint or Custody at Grome-bridge which a Manuscript in the Heralds-Office notes to be twenty four years in the Time of which his Recess he newly erected the House at Grome-bridge upon the old Foundation and was a Benefactor to the repair of Spelherst Church where his Arms remain in Stone-work over the Church-porch but lest such a signal peece of Service might remain entombed in the Sepulchre of unthankful forgetfulness the Prince to convey the Memory of this glorious Action to Posterity assigned to this Richard Waller and his Heirs for ever an additional Crest videlicet the Arms or Escocheon of France hanging by a Labell on an Oake with this Motto affixed Hae Fructus Virtutis This Richard was great Grand-father to William VValler of Grome-bridge Esquire Sheriff of Kent the twenty second of Henry the eighth and he was Father to Sir VValter VValler who was Grand-father to Sir VVilliam VValler now possessor of Winchester-castle and Father of Sir Thomas Waller which Sir Thomas almost in our Fathers Memory passed away Grome-bridge to Thomas Sackville Earl of Donset whose Grand-child Edward Earl of Dorset not many years since conveyed it to John Packer Esquire Father to ...... Packer Esquire now possessor of this place There was a Chauntry founded at Grome-bridge in the thirty eighth year of Henry the third by VVilliam Russell and Hawis his Wife as appears by the first Book of Compositions in Registro Roffensi Hollands in this Parish next cals for a View It was in Ages of a very high Date the Patrimony of a Noble Family of that Sirname and are in the Chartularies of this Parish recorded to have been great Benefactors to the Church of Spelherst and were allied to Thomas Holland Earl of Kent who matched with Joan Daughter of Edmund of VVoodstock but before the beginning of Henry the sixth this Family was worn out and vanished and then the VVallers stepped into the possession in which Family the Right of it did many years reside until it was in our Fathers Memory alienated to Thomas Sackville Earl of Dorset from whose Successor it passed away by Sale to Lindsey and from him not many years since the like Revolution carried it off to Caldicot Ferbies is another Seat of no vulgar Consideration in Spelherst if we consider that it gave Sirname to a Family of important Account in this
Digge who promiscuously writ themselves in elder Times sometimes of Barham and sometimes of VVestwell as appears by many of their ancient Evidences and other Muniments yet extant In the reign of Edward the third there was one Adomarus de Digge who frequently writ himself of Westwell but whether it were he that was the Judge or not I cannot positively aver In fine after this place had for many Ages acknowledged the Signory of this Family it came down to John Digge in whom the Male-line ended so that his Female Heir being wedded to Henry Aucher annexed it to the Revenue of that Family and from him hath the Title by a Thread of many years been guided down to Mr. ...... Aucher Dean-court may be registered likewise in the Catalogue of the principal Mannors of this Parish It was in Times of elder prescription the Inheritance of Hussie who likewise was entituled to the possession of Dean-court in Wingham now the Mansion of the Oxendens by purchase from this Family Henry Hussie a man of great power as appears by that large Estate he was Lord of both at Wingham Lenham Boughton Malherbe and elsewhere died possest of this Mannor in the eighteenth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Numb 36. and from him did it in an even and an undivided Current glide along in this Name until the latter end of King Henry the eighth and then it was passed away by Sale to Milan in which Family the propriety of this place is now resident Nash-court is the next place in Westwell that cals for our Survey in old Deeds I find a Family that sometimes writ At Ash and sometimes Nash into which the former Name resolved who were possessors of it In Times of a lower Step that is in the thirty second year of Edward the third as appears by the close Roll of that year Rot. Esc Num. 94. Alanus de Hanekin held it but before the latter end of Richard the second this Family had quitted the possession by Sale to Brockhull of Calchill and was not long after that is about the twelfth year of Henry the fourth by Henry Brockhull conveyed to John Darell Esquire Sheriff of Kent in the eleventh year of Henry the fourth and Brother of Sir William Darell under-Treasurer of England and in this Name it was permanent until the last year of Edward the sixth and then it went away by Sale to Sharpe of Nin-house in great Chart and hath been now for five Descents resident in that Family Beamonston vulgarly called Beamston is partly situated in West-well and partly spread into East-well but the greatest part of the Demeasne is circumscribed within the Bounds of this Parish And in the twentieth year of Edward the third as appears by the Book of Aide was held by Thomas at More at making the Black Prince Knight But before the fourth year of Henry the fourth this Family was extinguished for at the Marriage of Blanch that Prince's Daughter as appears by the Roll of Blanch Lands kept in the Exchequer John Amias was possest of it and paid respective Aide for it as having purchased it of At-More and in this Name did it reside until the reign of Henry the seventh and then it was conveyed by Sale to John Moile Esquire Father to Sir Thomas Moile who left this with much other Land to Katharine his Daughter and Co-heir matched to Sir Thomas Finch in Right of which Alliance it is now devolved to be the Inheritance of his great Grand-child Hencage Finch the instant Earl of Winchelsey Perytowne lies likewise within the Limits of Westwell and is registered in the Catalogue of those Lands that William de Aldon died possest of in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third and continued chained to the Inheritance of this Family until about the twenty seventh of Henry the sixth it was passed away with much other other Land to Cardinal Kempe who setled it in the twenty eighth year of that Prince on his newly erected Colledge of Wye and rested there until the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth and then it was resigned into the Hands of that Prince and he in the thirty eighth year of his reign granted it to Thomas Cawarden or Carden Esquire and he not long after conveyed it by Sale to Sir John Baker of Sisingherst whose Successor Sir John Baker Baronet hath this present year 1657. alienated it to Nathaniel Powell of Ewherst in Sussex Esquire Woditon or Wolton is the last place of any Note in Westwell It was originally parcel of the Inheritance of a Family called Wolton or Woditon Ivo de Woditon held it in the year 1236. and left it to his Son John de Wolton who had Issue Richard de Woditon or VVolton a man of principal Note in the twentieth year of Edward the third who held both this Mannor and VVoditon by Berham which he held of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by Knights Service at making the Black Prince Knight And in this Man's Successors did the Propriety constantly reside until the latter end of Henry the sixth and then some part of it was conveyed to John Hampton and he about the beginning of Edward the fourth passed it away to Richard Rasel who died possest of it as appears by his Will in the twentieth of that Prince but there was some part remained unsold until William Wolton dying 1540 ordered it by his Deed to be passed away to Feoffees in Trust to discharge Debts which accordingly was performed and the Remainder conveyed to Rasell in the Descendants of which Name and Family the entire proprietie is at this instant remaining Werehorne in the Hundreds of Ham and Blackbourne was partly under the Jurisdiction of the Church and partly under the Signory of temporal and Lay Proprietaries that Moitie of it which was of secular Interest belonged to a Family called Bedford Rich. de Bedford obtained a Grant of a Market to it weekly on the Tuesday and a Fair of three days continuance at the Feast of St. Matthew as appears Cart. 52. Henrici tertii Memb. 12 which was renued and confirmed to the abovesaid Person in the eighth year of Edward the first and he in the seventeenth year of that Prince died possest of it as is manifest Rot. Esc Num. 20. But after him it was of no long date in the Tenure of this Family for in the reign of Edward the second I find it in the possession of Hugh de VVindlesore or VVindsor but was not long chained to their Patrimony neither for about the beginning of Edward the third it was alienated to Moraunt of Moraunts Court but about the beginning of Richard the second Sir Thomas Morant Son of VVilliam Moraunt Sheriff of Kent the twelfth and thirteenth year of Edward the third to whom that Prince issued out a Mandate that but one Bell should be rang in any Steeple towards the Sea-Coast in Kent determined in a Female Heir who was matched to James Peckham of Yaldham Sheriff of Kent