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
Warden of the Saxon Shore by Pancerollus in his Book called Notitia Provinciarum under the Name of Anderida and sometimes written Anderidos and here was the Castle which the Saxons called Andreds Ceaster and the great Wood which stretched out in length from hence into Hampshire 80. miles was named Andreds-wald and by the Britons Coid Andred other reasons are laid down for the Identity of the place extracted from the Name which the English Saxons gave it who termed it Brittenden that is The Britons Vale from whence the whole Hundred adjoyning is called Sellbrittenden that is The Britons Woody Vale. Here for Defence of the Coast against the Eruptions of Saxon Rovers the Romans placed the Prapositus Numeri Abulcorum and hither the River of Lymen long fince called Rother was sufficiently Navigable But soon after the Romans deserted Brittain it shrunk into Decay being ruined by the English Saxons and yet a marke of the Losse is covertly couched under the Name of the principal Mannor called Losenham of which something is to be remembred when we have done with the History of this place which I have thus abbreviated Hengist being fully determined to expell all the Britons out of Kent and thinking it would much conduce to the improvement of his Design to recruite his Army with Troops of his own Nation called Ella the Founder of the South-Saxon Kingdome and his three Sons with a strong Power out of Germanie and then gave a sharp Assault against this Anderida but was intercepted at that instant in his Designe by those vigorous Impressions which the Britons out of their Ambushments in the Woods then made upon him In Fine after many Prejudices and Losses both given and taken Hengist divided his Army and not onely discomfited the Britons in the adjacent wood but also at the same Time forced the City by Assault and became so enflamed with revenge that nothing but the Extinction of the Inhabitants by a publick slaughter and the totall demolishing of the Town could supersede or allay so great an Animosity The place lying thus desolate was shewed as Henry of Huntingdon reports many Ages after to inquisitive Passengers till in the year 791 King Offa gave this and other Lands to the Arch-bishop and Monks of Canterbury ad Pascua Porcorum for the Pannage of their Hoggs In the Time of the Conquerour the Arch-bishops and Monks of Canterbury held this Mannor of Newenden and it was rated in the extent of it but at one Sulling and was an Appendage to Saltwood and in the Patrimony of the Church did the Title of it remain locked up till the general Dissolution in the Raign of Henry the eighth and then it was unloosned and by Act of Parliament fastned to the Revenue of the Crown where till these infortunate Times it did successively continue Losenham in this Parish was the ancient Seat of the Auchers an eminent and numerous Family this was both in Kent Sussex Nottingham and Essex where they made Coppt-Hall by Epping the Seat and Head of their Barony and it is very probable they derive this their Name from Aucherus that was Consul or Elderman of Kent and led the power of the County wherewith at Richborough nere Sandwich he foiled and defeated the Danes as Alfred of Beverley writes In the Book called Nova Feoffamenta collected in the Raign of Henry the second it is there recorded that that Prince Rot. pipae de Scutagio Walliae An. 42 Hen. 3. gave William Fitz Aucher the fourth part of a Knights Fee in Essex called Lagfare Richard Fitz Aucher his Grandchild is in the Number of those Kentish Gentlemen who were engaged with Henry the third in his Expedition into Wales in the forty second year of his Raign Will. Fitz Aucher See Camdens Britannia pag. 307. another of this Family held the Mannor of Boseham in Sussex by Grant from William the Conquerour and his Rent-service or Acknowledgement was to pay into the Exchequer in whose Time he lived forty pound of tryed and weighted Silver Henry Fitz Aucher fills up the Roll or Inventory of those Kentish Gentlemen who assisted Edward the first at his Seige of Carlaverok in Scotland in the twenty eighth year of his Raign and for his Service there was made Knight Banneret Peter Aucher or Auger for so in old Records they are promiscuously written was Valet to King Edward the second an Office equivalent in its Trust and Dignity to those we called Gentlemen of the Bed-chamber to our late Kings and it seems was mistaken for a Knight Templer in the fourth year of that Prince because he nourished a spreading Beard in that Age an eminent Adjunct of that Order but Edward the second rectified this Mistake and affirmed that his diffused Beard did not evince he was a Knight Templer as appears Pat. 14. Hen. 2. parte secunda Memb. 20. And if it could any way multiply or improve the Eminence of a Family that was so deeply rooted in Antiquity before I could tell you that sundry of this Name and Family were Conservators of the Peace and concerned in other Comissions both to levy Taxes imposed by Parliament and to have Inspection into Sewers both in the Raign of Edward the third and Richard the second but I avoid the recital lest this Book might swell into too large a Bulk by these curious and unnecessary Disquisitions It is enough to inform you that after this Mannor had for many Centuries of years been wrapt up in the Patrimony of this Family it went away by Ann Sole Daughter and Heir of John Aucher of Losenham to Walter Colepeper second Son of Sir John Colepeper of Bayhall in Pepenbury from which Alliance Sir John Colepeper created Lord Colepeper at Oxford by the late K. Charles claims at this instant the Inheritance and Lordship of Losenham There was in this Parish a House of Carmelite Friers called so because they came from Mount Carmel in Palestine and was the first Seminary of that Order here in England who by their Rule were styled Brothers of Mary the blessed Virgin to whom this Covent was dedicated It was founded in the year of our Lord 1241 and in the twenty sixth year of the Government of Henry the third by Sir Thomas Alcher or Fitz Aucher for the Name was often promiscuously written so but never Albuser as Mr. Camden and Mr. Speed have printed it though I do not deny but such a person might be a Benefactor to the Foundation Newenham in the Hundred of Feversham was parcell of that Demeasn which related to the Abbey of Boxley and continued united to it till the Suppression by Henry the eighth and then it was granted by that Prince to Sir Thomas Wiatt in the twenty eighth year of his Government and he by his unhappy Defection in the first year of Queen Mary forfeited it to the Crown where it remained till Queen Elizabeth by royal Concession invested the Possession in her faithfull Servant John Astley Esquire
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
Rogers alienates it by Sale to Stephen Drayner and it is probable Rogers purchased it of Norton which Family as appears by the Feudaries Book held much Land here at Smerden and at or near Romden But to return In Drayner the Interest of this place was fixed until the seventeenth of Queen Elizabeth and then William Drayner passed it away by Sale to Sir Roger Manwood and he in the eighteenth year of that Princess alienates it again to Martin James Esquire Remembrancer of the Exchecquer and from him by the Devolution of successive and paternal Right it is now come down to acknowledge the Propriety of Mr. .... James Snergate in the Hundred of Aloe bridge celebrates the Memory of an Ancient Family styled Alarar Gervas Alarar was Captain and Admiral of the Fleet of Ships set forth and furnished by the Cinque-ports in the fourteenth year of Edward the first and Gervas Alarar was his Grand-child whose Widow Agnes Alarar was in possession of it at her Death which was in the forty second year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 1. But before the end of Henry the fourth this Family was shrunk into an Expiration and then Walter Moile who was a Judge in the reign of Henry the sixth succeeded in the Possession and he by a Fine levied in the thirtieth year of Henry the sixth demises it to Hugh Brent from whom about the latter end of Edward the fourth it was conveyed to Cheyney and in this Name it was fixed until Henry Lord Cheyney in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth alienated it to Henry Nevill Lord Aburgavenny who in the twenty ninth year of Queen Elizabeth dying without Issue-male Mary Nevill was found to be his Sole Inheritrix and she by matching with Sir Thomas Vane knit this Mannor to his Patrimony and his Son Francis Vane created Earl of Westmerland in the twenty second of King James alienated it in our Fathers Memory to Jackman who not long after sold it to Sir Edward Henden one of the Barons of the Exchecquer who upon his Decease gave it to his Nephew Sir John Henden whose Son and Heir Edward Henden Esquire now enjoyes the Signory of it Smeth in the Hundred of Bircholt hath in the Limits of it Scots-hall which is now and hath been for divers Descents the Inheritance of eminent Gentlemen of that Sirname whom I dare aver upon probable Grounds were originally called Balioll. William Balioll second Brother to Alexander de Balioll frequently writ his Name William de Balioll le Scot and it is probable that upon the Tragedy of John Earl of Atholl who was made prisoner by Edward the first and barbarously executed in the year 1307. whilst he endevoured more nobly then successfully to defend the gasping Liberty of Scotland against the Eruptions of that Prince this Family to decline the Fury of that Monarch who was a man of violent passions altered the Name of Balioll to that of their Extraction and Country and assumed for the future the Name of Scot. That the Sirname of this Family was originally Balioll I farther upon these Reasons assert First the ancient Arms of Balioll Colledge in Oxford which was founded by John Balioll and dedicated to St. Katharine was a Katharin-Wheele being still part of the paternal Coat of this Family Secondly David de Strabogie who was Son and Heir to the infortunate Earl abovesaid astonished with an Example of so much Terror altered his Name from Balioll to Strabogie which was a Signory which accrued to him in Right of his Wife who was Daughter and Heir to John Comin Earl of Badzenoth and Strabogie and by this Name King Edward the second omitting that of Balioll restored Chilham-castle to him for Life in the fifteenth year of his reign Thirdly the Earls of Bucleugh and the Barons of Burley in Scotland who derive themselves originally from Balioll are known at this instant by no other Sirname but Scot and bear with some inconsiderable Difference those very Arms which are at present the paternal Coat of this Family of Scots-hall Having thus traced out the Name I shall now represent a Scale of those eminent Persons who have either directly or collaterally been extracted from Scots-hall Sir William Scot who was knighted the tenth of Edward the third was Lord Chief Justice and Knight Marshal of England in the reign of that Prince Sir Robert Scot was Lieutenant of the Tower in the year 1424. Sir John Scot was Comptroller of the House one of the Privy Councel to Edward the fourth and Marshal of Calais Thomas Scot who was first Bishop of Rochester next of Lincolne Provost of Beverley Arch-bishop of York Lord Chancellor of England and Privy Councellor to King Edward the fourth altered his Name from Scot to Rotheram as being the place of his Education and Nativity but it is probable originally issued out from this Family Sir William Scot who was Son to Sir John above-mentioned was Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports Sir John Scot his Son was knighted by the Prince of Castile for signal Service performed by him against the Duke of Gueldres Sir Reginald Scot was Captain of the Castle of Callis Sir Thomas Scot was Commander in Chief of the Kentish Forces who assembled upon the plains by Northbourn to oppose the Spanish Invasion in the year 1588. All of which were either directly or collaterally Predecessors being of the same Family to Edward Scot now Proprietary of Scots-hall Esquire who was Son and Heir of Sir Edward Scot who was made Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of K. Charles Thevegate is a second Mannor in this Parish which was in elder Times the Inheritance of Gentlemen of no mean Account in this Track Robert de Passeley or Passelew for they are promiscuously so written was Treasurer of England under Peter de Rivallis in the reign of Henry the third as Mat. Paris in the Life of that Prince does record Edmund de Passeley was with Edward the second at Borough-Bridge in the seventeenth year as the Pipe-roll of that Time discovers and probably was instrumental in the Defeat given there to the Nobility then in Arms against that Prince and from him this Mannor did descend to John Passeley Esquire who in the reign of Edward the fourth determined in Elizabeth his sole Heir matched to Reginald Pimp Esquire who likewise had the Fate to conclude in a Female Inheritrix called Ann who was wedded to Sir John Scot of Scots-hall and Shee united Thevegate to the Revenue of that Family and from him is the Right of it by Descent transportted to his Successor Edward Scot of Scots-hall Esquire Smeth had the Grant of a Market procured to it by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the tenth year of Edward the third Shepebourn in the Hundred of Wrotham was the Patrimony of an ancient Family called Bavent whose principal Estate lay in Sussex and Surrey Adam de Bavent in the twelfth year of Edward the first obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannor
Book of Aide and the Book called Feoda Militum in the Exchequer do both inform us his Son was Gerard Braybrooke and his Grand-child was Reginald Braybrooke whose Heir Joan Braybrooke married to Thomas Brooke of the County of Somerset but whether this Reginald Braybrooke gave this Mannor to pious Uses or not and principally to the Abby of Leeds adjacent I cannot positively determine upon the Suppression it was granted as being parcel of the Demeasne of the Convent of Leeds by Henry the eighth in the thirty seventh year of his reign to John Tufton Esquire who passed it away by Sale to Mr. Richard Argall whose Heir Elizabeth Argall being married to Edward Filmer Esquire made it the possession of that Family and by a communicative Right from him does his Grand-child Sir Edward Filmer Son to Sir Robert Filmer lately deceased now hold the possession and propriety of it Sutton Valence and Chart by Sutton both lie in the Hundred of Eyhorne the last of which contracted the Appellation from formerly owning William de Valence Earl of Pembroke to be Lord of the Fee who certainly instituted that Castle that now even in its Reliques and Fragments with much of venerable Magnificence overlooks the Plain And when Aymer de Valence his Son concluded in a Female Heir Isabell she was wedded to Lawrence Lord Hastings who in relation to her became not only Earl of Pembroke but Lord of Sutton-Valence also and from him did it descend to his Grand-child John Hastings Earl of Fembroke the last Earl there of that Name who transmitted his Title of that place to Reginald Grey and Richard Talbot who flourished here about the reign of Henry the fourth and they had this Mannor by Testamentary Donation in the fourteenth year of Richard the second In the next Age subsequent to this I find the Cliffords of Bobbing-court to be the Proprietaries and to this Family was the Inheritance in a constant Union fastned till Nicholas Clifford Esquire deceased without Issue-male and left only one Daughter and Heir called Mildred who was first married to Harper secondly to More thirdly to Warren and lastly to Blount but she had only Issue by Harper and More for in her Right Edward Lord More of Mellifont in Ireland and Sir Edward Harper divided the Possession but the first desiring to contract his whole Revenue into Ireland and the other to make this adjacent to his principal Seat of Ruspar-hall in the County of Derby Sir Edward Harper alienated this to Sir Edward Hales Knight and Baronet and the Lord More Chart by Sutton to the same worthy Person Grand-father to Sir Edward Hales Baronet who not only enjoyes the Title of his Ancestors Dignity but that of the Possession in these places likewise Cheyneys-court in this Parish hath been adopted into that Name since it for many Descents acknowledged the Jurisdiction and propriety of that Family and I could unravel a Successive Series of many of that Name but that it is superfluous who were Lords of the Fee it is enough that Sir Thomas Cheyney sold it to Iden which Name suddenly after resolving into two Daughters and Co-heirs one matching with Brown and the other with Barton the last made it parcel of the Patrimony of that Family and when some years it had been continued in the possession of Barton it was in our Memory by Sale brought over to be the Demeasne of Wollett and it is now but whether by Purchase or by the Right of a Female Heir or not I cannot ascertain my self the propriety of Jordan Sutton at Hone lies in the Hundred of Acstane and gives Denomination to the whole Lath wherein it is situated It was long since a Mannor relating to the Revenue of the Knights Hospitallers who had here a Mansion-house called St. Johns where they often made their Retreat when they visited their other Demeasne Land which lay circumscribed within the Verge of this County but their Estate here was much inforced and improved by the Addition of the Mannor of Grandison which whether it came to them by Purchase or Donation from Thomas Lord Grandison who died the forty ninth year of Edward the third is incertain Upon the Suppression of the Alberge of these Knights of St. John of Jerusalem here in England their Revenue was assumed into the possession of the Crown and King Henry the eighth bestowed by Grant on Sir Maurice Dennis St. John's and to him does that magnificent and elegant Pile where now the Countess of Leicester makes her Residence owe the first Institution of its Shape and Beauty though it has been since extreamly inlarged by the Additions both of Bulk and Ornament by Sir Thomas Smith But to proceed St. Johns was conveyed from Sir Maurice Dennis by his Coheir to Thomas Cranfeild whose Grand-child Vincent Cranfeild has lately alienated his Right to Mr. Hollis of London Merchant Haly Sawters is another Mannor in Sutton in Hone a place though now obscure in it self and not re-presented to our Remembrance but by Annals and Record yet in elder Times it was raised up to a higher degree of Estimate when it had Proprietaries whose Nobility and Title added both Value and Lustre unto it The first of which Register whom I trace in Record to be entituled to the Possession was Laurence de Hastings Earl of Pembroke and he died seised of it in the twenty second year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 47. from whom the Title came down to his Son John de Hastings and he likewise was in the enjoyment of it at his Decease which was in the forty ninth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 70. After this Family had deserted the Inheritance I find Richard Fitz Allen Earl of Arundel to be invested in the Possession and he died in the Tenure of it in the one and twentieth year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 2. From whom it devolved to Joan his Daughter and Co-heir matched to William Beauchamp Baron of Aburgavenny whose Son Richard Lord Beauchamp dying without Issue Male Elizabeth his Sole Daughter espoused to Edward Nevill Baron of Aburgavenny in her Right be came his Heir and he in the sixteenth year of Edward the fourth died possest of this Mannor of Sawters And here for want of Light both from publick or private Record I cannot discover to my Reader or my self whether or not it passed away immediately from Nevill to Maio whom I find about the beginning of Q. Elizabeth to be planted in the Possession though the Affirmation of some old people of this Parish who derived that Knowledge they have of it from the Tradition of their Ancestors that assert it did Thomas Maio in the twenty eighth of Q. Elizabeth passed it away to Rich. Paramour and he presently after disposed of it by Sale to Sir Henry Brooke who conveyed it to Robert Wroth Esquire and he to Edmund Hunt Esquire who alienated Haly and Sawters to Mr. William Hewson in the thirty fourth year of
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
original In Ages of a lower step these Comites were frequently call'd Reguli In Cantia saith Malmsbury Omnis justitia laborabat sub cujusdam Gorongiregimine qui tamen sicut omnes Reguli insulae Vortigerno substernebantur Afterwards when Hengist had establish'd his Kentish Kingdome the Title of Earl began to commence in Otho and Ebusa Brothers to the abovesaid Hengist as the same Malmesbury observes in his Tract de Gestis Regum Cap. 3. And the Title of Earl was anciently expressed by the word Comes amongst the Saxons for to King Ethelberts Charter for the foundation of the Abby of St. Augustins cited by Reynerus there are these subscriptions Ego Hamigilus Dux laudavi and then Ego Ocea Comes consensi Ego Graphio Comes benedixi and there is an old Epitaph quoted by Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour the substance of which is this that Alwain which was Founder of Ramsey-Abby was Comes Aldermannus totius Angliae but in decursion of Time this word Eolderman being used by others besides those to whom it was proper and analogical it began to languish into disuse and the Title of Thane and Earl was assumed which last hath remained in force untill this day Now the relief of a Thane who was certainly an Earl by office rather then Title if he were of the first rank that is had the custody of some County under the King which he paid to the Crown was four Horses two sadled and two unsadled two Swords and four Spears and as many Shields And if he were of the second rank he paid two Horses one sadled and one unsadled one Sword two Lances as many Shields and fifty Marks in Silver sometimes if he were a Thane of an inferior rank he paid eight-pound and frequently three-pound The relief which an Earl paid constantly to the Crown after the Norman Conquest was as Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour does demonstrate out of severall Records was an Hundred pound Now the benefit which did accrue to the Count or Earl besides a Barren and naked Title to support the dignity of his Person in its due Magnificence and Splendor was the third penny arising out of the Profits of the County Algar Earl of Mercland as Dooms-day Book informs us had the third penny of the County of Oxford and the Borough of Stafford under Edward the Confessor And Mawde the Empresse when she created Milo Earl of Hereford assigned to him for the support of his Honor the third penny of that County Many examples of the like condition are discoverable in Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour whither I refer the Reader And as they had the third penny so they had frequently the Castle of the County annexed to their Title but when by experience the Kings of England were instructed how fatally pernicious it was to have so many local powers concurrent with theirs that by the strength of their retreat and the number of confederates and Partisans seem'd even to out-poise the Royal Authority it was by a Statute made in the 13 th year of Richard the 2 d. for the future interdicted and prohibited Now if you will enquire when Earls or Counts from being absolute became Feudal Sr. Henry Spelman in his Glossarie will tell you that it was Tempore Othonum sub excessu Merovinae stirpis in Galliâ that is about the year onet housand Now as concerning the Ensigns of Investiture with which the Earl was created it was anciently only with the Cincture of a Sword but about the latter end of Edward the first the Coronet began to be in use for Aymer de Vallence Earl of Pembrook who died in the 16 th year of Edward the 2 d. had one as appears by an instrument of William de Lavenham cited by Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour by which he acknowledges the receit of it from Sr. Henry Stacheden in the 12 th year of Edward the 2 d. Richard Earl of Arundel died in the 49 th year of Edward the 3 d. and by his last Will dated the fifth of December gives his Noblest and Richest Coronet to his Son the Lord Richard Fitz-allan his second to the Lady Joan his eldest and the 3 d. he bequeaths to the Lady Alice his youngest Daughter What the Counts Palatine were I shall now demonstrate they were taken immediately à Palatio from whence they assum'd their name and were customarily such as had the nearest relation to the Prince either by friendship or Affinity and to whose care and administration he did entrust such or such a Province and the more to improve and enable them in the discharge of their Duty did unite some privileges and Franchises to their office as erecting Courts of Judicature appointing Judges to sit in them and determine by signal decision upon causes both Criminal and Civil and others of the like nature that were of that luxutiant latitude that they had the Stamp and Character of something which resembled Regality fixt upon them He that will discover by example more of this honorary Title may read Mr. Seldens Titles of Honor whither to decline all superfluity of discourse I refer to the Reader I have now done with the Title I shall now proceed to unwind the Register of those who were Earls of Kent subsequent to Earl Godwin 1067 1 Odo Bishop of Baieux halfe Brother to William the Conquerer Lord chief Justice and Lord Treasurer of England 1141 2 William de Ipre 1227 3 Hubert de Burg Lord Chief Justice of England 1321 4 Edmund de woodstock Son to King Edward the first 1330 5 Edmund Plantaginet 1333 6 John Plantaget  7 Thomas Holland Earl of Kent in right of Joan his wife who was Daughter of Edmund of Woodstock 1360 8 Thomas Holland 1397 9 Thomas Holland Duke of Surry 1400 10 Thomas Holland Lord High Admiral of England 1461 11 Will. Nevill Lord Fauconbridge 1464 12 Edmund Grey Lord Ruthin Lord Treasurer of England created Earl of Kent by King Edward the 4 th  13 George Grey  14 Richard Grey  15 Reginald Grey  16 Henry Grey  17 Charles Grey  18 Henry Grey  19 Anthony Grey Clerk Parson of Burbage in the County of Leicester Grandchild of Anthony 3 d. Son of George Earl of Kent above mentioned  20 Henry Grey  21 Anthony Grey Earl of Kent now living 1658. but in his Minority Having represented in Prospect the Comites and Consules the Earls and Consuls which were originally to manage those Provinces subordinate to the Romane Government I shall now take cognisance of those which were anciently styl'd Vice Comites Proconsules and had care of the Provincial revenue in relation to which they were term'd Questores Provinciarum and the jurisdiction of some Causes only as our Sheriffs have of divers Actions Viscontiel and inquiry of Causes Criminal but not determination of them In the Saxon times they were sometimes call'd Ealdormen and in Latine Vice Comites which was applyed
much as the Tower of London they have been very high thick strong and well embattled the Matter of them is Flint marvailous and long Bricks both white and red of the British Fashion The Ciment was made of the Sea and small pibble There is a great likelyhood that the goodly Hill about the Castle and especially towards Sandwich hath been well inhabited Corn grâ—ws there in marvailous plenty and in going to Plough there hath been Time out of Mind and now is found more Antiquities of Romane Money then in any place else of England Surely Reason speaks that this should be Rutupinum for besides the Name somewhat toucheth the very near passage from Calis Cliffs or Calis was to Ratesborough and now is to Sandwich which is about a Mile off though now Sandwich be not celebrated because of Goodwin Sands and the Decay of the Haven There is a good Flight shot off from Ratesborough toward Sandwich a great Dike cast in a round Compass as if it had been for Defence of Men of War the Compass of the Ground within is not much above an Acre and it is very hollow by casting up the Earth They call this place their Little Borough within the Castle is a little Paroch Church of St. Augustine and an Hermitage I had Antiquities of the Hermit who is an Industrious Man not far from the Hermitage is a Cave where Men have sought and digged for Treasure I saw it by Candle within wherein were Conies it was so streight that I had no mind to creep far in In the North-side of the Castle is an Head in the Wall now sore defaced by the weather they call it Q. Berthas Head near to that place hard by the Wall was a Pot of Roman Money lately found Thus far He. The Ancient Lords of the Castle were the Earls of Oxford and Edward Earl of Oxford in the Beginning of Q. Elizabeth alienated it to Gant Ash juxta Faukham lies in the Hundred of Acstane anciently written Clacstane and was in elder Times the Inheritance of the Latimers William de Latimer held it in the thirtieth year of Edward the first and by the Royal Indulgence of that Prince obtained a Charter of Free-Warren to his Mannor of Ash which he held of Roger de Mowbray After the Latimers were worn out the noble Family of Grandison succeeded in the possession and Otho de Grandison held it as appears by the Book of Aid in the twentieth year of Edward the third at making the Black Prince Knight by the fourth part of a Knights Fee But after this there is little Evidence that it was long constant to the Interest of this Family for in the Reign of Richard the second it was wrapped up in the Demeasn of Cressel a Family that were entituled to a large Revenue both at Chiselhurst Hartley and elsewhere in this Track but it seems took no deep root at this place for in the fourth year of Henry the fourth the Knights Hospitalers held it at the Marriage of Blanch that Princes Daughter but whether they had it by Purchase or Exchange from Cressell the Record in the Exchequer does not specifie and here it became fixed and was esteemed as one of the principal Mannors relating to their Order in this County untill the Reign of Hen. the eighth and then in the thirty seventh year of that Prince not without much contest and strugling this was with the rest of their Revenue surrendred and being made parcel of the Income of the Crown K. Edw. the sixth about the second year of his Reign granted it to Sir Martin Bowes and he had Issue Will. Bowes who determined in two Daughters and Coheirs Eliz. matched to Will. Buggin and Ann married to Sir Edmund Fowler who divided his Patrimony and this upon the partition was united to the Revenue of Fowler and continues still to acknowledge his descendants for Proprietaries South-Ash is another Mannor in this Parish which had Owners in elder Times of that Name for in the Book of Aid I find that John at South-Ash paid an auxiliary supply for his Mannor of South-Ash at making the Black Prince Knight but it is possible this Mans original Name was Hodsoll and borrowed this Name from the Situation and Position of his Habitation which was Southerly and that which induces me to this Conjecture is that upon a perusall of the original Evidences I find that the Family of Hodsoll was long before possessors of this Mannor a particular Series of whom I could discover to the Reader but that I will not clog this Treatise with superfluities nor is this Mannor departed from the Signorie of this Name but is at this instant involved in the patrimony of Mr. William Hodsoll Hodsoll and Halywell are two other little Mannors in Ash whereof the last hath been the Seat of Hodsoll who borrowed their Sirname from the first many hundred years and in Relation to this assumed the bearing of three Stone Fountains two and one such as used to be dedicated to some Saint and were frequented anciently by such who reposed any Confidence in his vertue and miraculous efficacie whose Name they bore and of this Figure was â—hat Stone Well at Brackley commonly called St. Rumbals Well much frequented in the misty Times of Popery for the Cure of sore Eyes and other Maladies and that this was the ancient Coat of this Family is most certain for William Hodsoll who in severall Deeds writ himself Esquire both in the Reign of Henry the fifth and Henry the sixth sealed with the three stone Fountains only but now I know not upon what consideration the Fesse Wavee is added so that that the Coat is now Azure a Fesse Wavee between three stone Fountains Argent But to proceed as Hodsoll and Halywell have for so many Generations owned the Title of that Name and Family so hath no Vicissitude of Time so carryed off the Propriety of them but that they are still the present Demeasne of Mr. William Hodsoll North-Ash is another Mannor in this Parish which hath been accounted a Limb of the great Mannor of St. Johns at Sutton at Hone and upon the Suppression of the Alberge of the Knights Hospitallers here in England who for many hundreds of years had owed this Mannor was by Henry the eighth granted to Sir Maurice Dennis by whose Coheir it came to Wrote and he passed it away to Thomas Smith Esquire who upon his Decease gave it to his second Son Sir Tho. Smith in whose Descendants the Interest of it is wrapped up at present Scotgrove is the last place of Account in Ash it was in Ages of a very high Ascent the Estate of a Family called Torpell Mabilia Torpell Widow of John de Torpell who held it in the Reign of Henry the third dyed in the enjoyment of it in the Time of Edward the first as appears Rot. Esc Num. 27. In Times of a lower Gradation I find this Family vanished and then this Mannor came to be
Urnes and Vaults and dwelt in the Scene and Comprehension of Darkeness but when they were brought out into the Publick like Camphire they evaporated into the Air that fed them So the Primitive Christians who shone with such a bright and constant Beam in the Night and Agony of their Affliction when they were melted with the warmth and Sun-shine or a calme and prosperous Fortune began to slacken into Luxury and Excess Folly and Disorder and they that had dared Axes and Racks Wheels and Gridirons the Teeth of Beasts and the Fury of Men the Heat of Persecution and the Flame of Oblation and in brief had been inexpugnable to all the Artifices and Engines of Torture contrived by impious men fell afterwards cheaply and tamely like those who are smothered with Roses stifled with Perfumes and strangled with a silken Halter The second Cause that elder observations insinuate to us to have been the Reason of the Clergies deviation is that vast heap of temporal Treasure with which Constantine loaded the Bosome of the Church so that it may be truly affirmed Religio peperit Divitias Filia devoravit Matrem for Poverty though like a streight and narrow Girdle it does with its close and uneasie stricture pinch and afflict us yet it keeps the Garment from falling into Loosness and Disorder whilst superfluity of Wealth is apt to untie those Restraints which are cast upon the Will and unshackle those Fetters which are laid upon the sensual Appetite rendring our Thoughts vain and trifling foolish and impertinent and our undertakings wild and irregular making us soft and easie for the impressions of Vice but difficult and uncapable of the influences of Vertue and the nobler Designs of Religion For it is farther observable that from Riches evaporate the Fumes of Luxury and Ambition which like those Mists which exhale from the Crudities of a raw Stomach debauch the understanding and disorder Reason and muffle them up in 〈◊〉 Vaile and in a Cloud and they that view the Light of Truth which is the greaâ— Luminary in the Firmament of the Church through the Vapours of secular Interest are like those who take the Prospect of a Star through a gross vaporous Body of Air they behold it by the Chanel of so polluted a Medium they view it in an uneven and incertain Paralax The third Cause of the â—efection of Ecclesiastical Persons in the Church of Rome from the severer Obligations of their original Institution is this the Pope had newly entituled himself to a vast and uncircumscribed Power and found that there was an Obligation imposed upon him to support the Clergy in all their Excesses and vitious Sallies that so they might be obliged to engage the Pulpit and the Pen in the asserting of that Authority which the Western Emperors vainly endevoured by frequent Contests and Struglings to wring out of his Hands and reinvest in themselves and they looking up and discovering that he beheld their Disorders with a calm and an indulgent Brow let loose the Golden Reigns of Discipline and it is no wonder if at any Time the Bridle of Government be slackned when the Snaffle that should keep it steady and even hath lost its two Bosses Fear and Punishment But I have digressed I now return After the Suppression had entituled the Crown to this Maunor which formerly supported the Convent of Bilsington King Henry the eighth in the thirty seventh year of his Reign by Royall Concession made it the Inheritance of Sir Anthony St. Leger of Ulcombe in which Family the Title was permanent untill the beginning of Queen Elizabeth and then his Son Sir Warham St. Leger passed it away to Sir Francis Barnham of London Knight Sir Walter de Bernham was one of those who was at the seige of Carlaveock in Scotland with Edward the first in the twenty eighth of his Reign Knights and bore the Paternall Coat of this Family viz. Sables A plain Cross engrailed between sour Crescents Argent whose great Grand-childe Master Robert Barnham Esquire by Paternal devolution and descent does now claim the instant Signory of it Neither Bilsington in this Parish is that Mannor which anciently was held by a Family called Staplegate of Staplegate in Natindon who claimed to be the Kings chie Butler at his Coronation The first that I find possest of it was Edmund de Staplegate to whom it was derived by Purchase about the middle of Edward the third from Richard Fitz Allan Earl of Arundell whose Ancestors held it many years before and he having thus entered upon it by his Acquist dyed possest of it in the twenty ninth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 58 and left it to his Son and Heir Edmund de Staplegate and he in the first year of Richard the second put in his claim to be chief Butler at his Coronation as holding this Mannor by the Tenure of grand Serjeantry to discharge that Office to evacuate his claim Richard Earl of Arundell exhibits a Petition and Plea wherein he asserts that the Office of chief Butler was never annexed to this Mannor of Bilsington that his Family had enjoyed it both before the Possession and after the Alienation of it and therefore desired he might perform it that Solemn Day upon the discussion of the whole Controversie it was ordered that that Day the Earl of Arundell should discharge it with a salvo jure that it should not infringe the Right of Staplegate or any other that should pretend a Right or Title to it for the future But to proceed this Family held this Manor untill the Beginning of Henry the sixth and then the Fate of Sale carryed it away to Cheney and Sir John Cheney Knight was seized of it at his Death which was in the seventh year of Edward the fourth and from him was it wafted down by the Thread of Descent to his Successor Henry Lord Cheney who about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth alienated his Propriety in it to Sir Francis Barnham of London Knight from whom by Successive Right the Title is now devolved to his great Grand-childe Master Robert Barnham Esquire Birling in the Hundred of Larkfield was belonging when the great Survey of England was taken called Doomsday Book to one Ralph de Curva Spina and tha ancient Seat of those who were the possessors of it was at Comport or Comford Parke in this Parish but before the End of Henry the second the above mentioned Family was worn out and then I find a Family called Crescie to succeed in the Inheritance William de Crescie had a grant of Liberties in Birling in the fifth year of King John but his Name and Family after this did not long continue to possess them for before the Expiration of the long and tempestuous Reign of Henry the third it was departed from them and planted in th Revenue which did call that Family of Say Proprietaries the first of whom was William de Say who was one of those
who stuck so close to the Cause and Quarrel of Simon de Montfort the active Earl of Leicester after whose Ruine at the Battle of Evesham and the total Discomfiture and Dissipation of of his Forces in that signal Conflict he was found in the Register of those Kentish Gentlemen who were pardoned by the pacification at Kenelworth and died possest of it in the twenty third year of Edw. the first Rot. Esc Num. 48. and in some old Deeds it is called Caput Baroniae de Say now the vulgar opinion was formerly that that thirteen Knights Fees and a half made up a Tenure per Baroniam now how much in value a Knights Fee was was the Question in elder Times some affirming it to be 50 l. others 30 l. and diverse again but 25 l. but the common received opinion is which hath been generally allowed of by all our Law Books that it is in Estimate but 20 l. consisting of eight Carucates or Hides of Land for they are coincident allowing to every Carucate or Ploughed Land an 100. Acres which was anciently thought to be as much as one team of Oxen could plough up in a year but the Tenure it self which was compounded of these Knights Fees was altogether incertain for unless it be that Manscript stiled Modus Tenendi Parliamentum which is of no higher Age then the Reign of Edward the third there is no Record does state or fix it Walter de Meduana or Mayney Ancestor to the Mayneys of Linton held twenty Knights Fees as appears by the Red Book kept in the Exchequer Folio 84 yet was not under the Repute of a Baron Walter de Wahull had the possession of 30. Knights Fees and John de Port of 50. yet neither of them out of so vast a Tenure could multiply or inforce to themselves the Stile or Title of Baron whereas on the contrary Roger de Leybourn who marryed the Coheir of Vipont and was really a Baron makes a recognisance of his Service as appears by Kirkbies Inquest kept in the Exchequer and taken in the ninth year of Edward the first but for two Knights Fees and an half from all which recited passages is evinced that this Title of Baronage flowed only from the Favour and Indulgence of the Prince who by his Writ or Summons called those who had merited well by some worthy undertakings to this Dignity and Title and not from the vastness of their Patrimony though this did very much concurre afterwards to support their Baronage in its true Value and Lustre But to proceed Jeffrey de Say this Mans Successor had view of Franck Pledge here in the eighth year of Edward the third that is as appears by the Statute of Frank Pledge made in the eighteenth year of Edward the second he was to take Cognisance of those Disorders and Excesses in his Court Baron that were committed by those which held in Free-Soccage of his Mannor of Berling as well as of those which held in Knights Service or Villen age and this Jeffrey in the thirty third year of Edward the third dyed possest of this place Rot. Esc Num. 37. and left it to his Son William de Say who likewise was in the Tenure of it at his Death which happened in the forty third year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 43. Parte secunda and transmitted it to his Son John de Say who likewise held it at his Decease which was in the sixth year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 67. and from him did it devolve by descent to his Son and Heir Jeffrey Lord Say who about the latter end of Richard the second alienated his Interest here by Sale to Richard Fitzallan Earl of Arundell Lord Treasurer and Lord high Admirall of England from whom it came over to his Son Thomas Fitzallan Earl of Arundell and Lord Treasurer of England likewise who dying in the year 1416. without Issue Joan one of his Sisters matched to William Beauchampe summoned to Parliament as Baron of Aburgavenny in the sixteenth year of Richard the second became his Coheir and so he by this Alliance was acknowledged for Lord of the Fee but his Son Richard Beauchampe created Earl of Worcester in the year 1420 dying without Issue male in the ninth year of Henry the fifth Elizabeth his sole Daughter and Heir by matching with Edward Nevill who in her Right became Baron of Aburgavenny annexed Birling and Comfort Parke to his Revenue and he dyed possest of it in the sixteenth year of Edward the fourth and from him did it descend to his great Grandchild Henry Lord Aburgavenny who in the twenty ninth of Queen Elizabeth dying without Issue male gave it to his Kinsman Sir Edward Nevill afterwards Baron of Aburgavenny whose Grandchild John Nevill Lord Aburgavenny possesses now the Signory of it Bobbing in the Hundred of Milton was the ancient Seat of the illustrious Family of Savage Roger de Savage obtained a Charter of Free Warren to his Lands at Bobbing Milsted and elsewhere in the fifth year of Edward the second his Father Sir John de Savage was engaged with Edward the first at the remarkable Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland in the twenty eighth year of his Reign and there for his Signal Service was with Thomas Savage his Brother created Knight Banneret Sir Arnold Savage this mans Grandchild was Sheriff of Kent the fourth and ninth years of Richard the second and was afterwards Speaker of the Parliament in the second year of Henry the fourth as appeats by the late printed Abridgement of the Parliament Rolls preserved in the Tower and was one of the Privie Counsell to that Prince as appears by the private Evidences of this Family his Daughter Eleanor was first matched to Sir Reginald Cobham by whom she had no Issue and after was remarried to William Clifford Esquire Son of Sir Lewis Clifford Knight of the Garter descended from Clifford of Cliffords Castle in Herefordshire who upon the Decease of his Wifes only Brother this Sir Arnold Savage without Issue in her Right as Heir Generall entered upon his Estate here at Bobbing and was Sheriff of Kent in the fourth year of Henry the fifth and again in the thirteenth year of Henry the sixth his Kinsman Robert Clifford Esquire Brother to Richard Clifford first Arch-Deacon of Canterbury secondly Bishop of Worcester and thirdly Bishop of London was Knight of the Shire for Kent in the eighth year of Henry the fourth and lyes buryed in the middle Isle in the Body of Christ Church in Canterbury though now his Portraicture in Copper with the Inscription affixed with the many Coats declaring his Descent and Alliance are torn off and defaced the above mentioned William had Issue Lewis and John Lewis had Issue Alexander Clifford Esquire who was Sheriff of Kent the fifth year of King Edward the fourth and he had Issue Lewis Clifford Esq who was likewise Sheriff of Kent the thirteenth of Henry the seventh and from this Lewis was Henry
others so that being thus broken into Fragments it hath now lost the estimate of a Mannor and is to be entombed in Silence Hering-Hill is a place not to be forgotten having been in elder Times the Residence of a Family called Abell The first whom I find represented to us under a Character of estimate was Sir John Abell who was in the List of the Kentish Knights which were Assistant to King Edward the first at his Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland John Abell his Successor was a Judge as is manifest by the patent Rolls of the Tower in the eighth year of Edward the second and it is very probable that it was either this John Abell or his Father that obtained a Charter of Free-warren to the Mannor of Catford in Lewsham which was after sold to William de Montacute in the twenty third year of Edward the first In the Reign of Henry the fourth I find by the Registers of the Crown Office one Edward Abell to have been in Commission for the Peace and he lyes enter'd in Erith Church not in the Coemitery or Church-yard though I confesse upon a large square Plate of Wood there is a Register of those accurately enrolled who were Possessors of Hering-Hill from John Abell the Judge down to another John Abell who dyed possest of it about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth but the date is so violated by Time and the Impression of the injurious Elements that it is hardly visible much lesse intelligible the last of this Family at this place was John Abell who about the year 1611 joyning with his Father Samuell Abell alienated his Concernment here to Mr. William Draper whose Successor Mr ..... Draper now of the County of Oxford is the instant Proprietary of it Lesnes Abby was founded by Richard de Lucy Lord Chief Justice of England under H. the second in the year 1179 and dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr the Saint of Canterbury who as he had been above the Kings Will on earth was now above his Faith in Heaven being after his but early Canonization grown into such Veneration and Estimate that Orisons and Prayers Shrines and Altars Abbyes and Temples were offered up to his Name of which this was none of the least being a House of black Canons or Canons of St. Augustins This Richard de Lucy the Founder was Son of Richard who was Son of Roger de Chilham and he was Son of Fulbert de Dover who entred into England with William the Conquerour and changed his Name of Lucy to Dover of which first there is not only a Signiory or Lordship but likewise a Family at this instant remaining in France because he was one of those eight to whom certain Knights-Fees were assigned by William the Conquerour to be Assistant to John de Fiennes in the Guard of Dover Castle thus much for his Extraction Now for his Dignity he was not only Lord Chief Justice but likewise Protector of England in the twelfth year of Henry the second in his Absence in France which great Office he managed with so much Fidelity Prudence and Magnanimity that when the Earl of Boloign invaded this Island in the thirteenth year of the abovesaid Prince he was forced to retire with Shame Confusion and Losse which Action must certainly have improved his Name to a very high Estimate in the Opinion of those Times Yet notwithstanding he devested himself of that Pomp and Pageantry these great Offices had made him glitter with which Conquest that he made upon himself within was of more Importance then any he could have atchieved without and clouded himself in a Monks Cowle and became the Prior to that Covent he himself had erected and there likewise found his place of Sepulture And it is probable that those Coffins with Pourtraictures insculped which were discovered in a Grotto or Vault upon the breaking down the Foundation of this House in the Government of King James were the Exchequers which treasured up not only the Reliques of this Sir Richard de Lucy but likewise the remains of others of the same Family But to proceed the Prior of this place was in that Repute that it was customary for him as the Records of the Church of Rochester tell us to have his Induction into this place either by the Bishop immediately or else by some Proxie who represented the Bishop of Rochester's Person And in this State it continued untill Cardinall Wolsey laid the Foundation of his eminent Colledge of Christchurch in Oxford and thenwith the consent of the present Abbot in the year 1525 it was supprest and the Revenue of this Cloister being found in the Hands of the abovesaid Cardinal at his Death was by Henry the eighth united to the Income of the Crown where it dwelt untill it was granted to William Brereton Esquire who being engaged in the fatall Business of Katharine Howard was attainted and executed upon whose Tragedy it returned to the Crown and was in the thirty eighth of Henry the eighth granted to Sir Ralph Sadler and he not long after passed it away to Mr. Henry Cook in whose Successors the Possession was resident untill almost our Remembrance and then it was conveyed to Sir Thomas Gainsford of Crowherst in Surrey who not many years since demised his Right in it to Mr. Haws of London who dying lately without Issue hath setled it for ever on the Hospital of St. Bartholomews in Smithfield In the ninth year of Edward the second Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer obtained the Grant of a Market to Erith on the Thursday and a three Days Fair at St. Crosse and another three Days Fair the Monday Tuesday and Wednesday in Whitson Week Lesnes had by the Mediation of William de Wilton a Grant of a Market procured to be observed there on the Thursday and a Fair to continue yearly the Eve Simon and Judes Day and three Days after as is manifest Pat. 41. Henrici tertii Memb. 48. Estling in the Hundred of Feversham gave Sirname to a Family who had here an eminent Mansion called Northcourt the last of which Family was Ralph de Estling whose Daughter and Heir Alice de Estling about the Beginning of Ed. the first was matched to Fulke de Peyforer Custos of the Fleet and Westminster in London who in her Right became Lord of this place and in the thirty second year of Edward the first to inforce his Interest here obtained a Charter of Free-warren to this place and in this Family did it reside untill the latter end of Edward the second and then was Northcourt Denton and Plomford Mannors which came along to Peyforer with Northcourt were sold away to Roger Lord Leybourn and his Widow Juliana de Leybourn held them at her Decease which was in the first year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 86. And after her Decease they devolved to John de Hastings a Kinsman of Lawrence de Hastings Earl of Pembroke who was the first Husband of her Daughter and Heir
conveyed it by Grant to Sir Walter Henley and he in the thirty fourth year of Henry the eighth transmitted it by his Deed to Sir John Baker whose Successor Sir John Baker even in those Times which entrenched on our Remembrance passed it away to Mr ....... Cleyton of London Bewper is the second place of account in this Parish It was in elder Times an Appendage or Fragment of that Demeasn which did contribute to the Support of the Abby of Feversham and upon the Suppression of that Cloister or Seminary by Henry the eighth it was in the thirty fifth year of that Princes Reign granted to Sir Thomas Moil who not long after passed it away to Robert Prat. And his Son Master Franci Prat primo Elizabethae by Fine conveyed it to Mr Edward Bathurst who not many years after transplanted his Interest here by Sale into Sir Richard Baker Ancestor to Sir Jo. Baker of Sisinghurst Baronet who now by paternal Succession is entituled to the instant Signory of it Wallinghurst and Buckhurst are two petty Mannors which belonged to the Abby of Feversham but upon the Suppression of that Covent they were pared off and by Grant from Henry the eighth in the twenty ninth year of his Reign were enstated upon Thomas Lord Cromwell Earl of Essex But long he was not endowed with them for in the thirty second year of that Prince's Government he was bespattered and blasted with an Accusation of high Treason which the Subtlety of his Adversaries had woven so closely together that he was entangled in it and being attainted forfeited both his Life and Estate to the Fury I cannot say Justice of an incensed Prince Amongst the Ruines of his Patrimony these two places were comprehended and upon his Shipwrack it returned to the Crown And then King Henry the eighth by a new Grant in the same year they escheated passed them away to Sir John Baker of Sisingherst in Cranebroke from whom they are now come down to Sir John Baker Baronet his Successor Upper Peasridge was involved in that spatious Inheritance which fell under the Dominion of the Lord Badelesmer of whom I shall speak more at Leeds and when he by his Disloyalty had forfeited both Life and Fortune to the Crown this was enwrapt in the Escheat But was restored in the second year of Edward the third to Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer this Mans Son and he in the twelfth year of that Prince held it at his Death Rot. Esc Num. 44. But Giles his only Son dying without Issue his great Estate was split into parcells and this with some more of his Demeasne was allotted to Mawd his Sister and Coheir who was matched to John Vere Earl of Oxford and he in her Right was possest of it at his Death which was in the thirty fourth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 84. And in this Family did it reside untill the Beginning of Henry the fourth and then it was passed away by Sale to St. Leger to whose Patrimony it remained annexed untill the Government of Philip and Mary and then an Alienation like the former brought it over to Lone descended from the Lones of Lancashire where there is yet a House of the Name and being thus fixt in this Family the Possession continues still united to it Fordwich in the Hundred of West-Gate was given to the Abbot and Monks of St. Austins as the Annalls of that Convent testifie by King Edward the Confessor and was given ad Vestitum for Reparation of their Apparell And there is a Tradition that Hemp-Hall which was an Appendage to this Mannor did pay a quit-Rent in Hemp but certainly it must be then for the use of those secular persons which related as Officers and Servants to this Cloister for the Monks themselves being under the Rule of Bennet harrowed their Skin with Shirts of Hair and slept vestiti in their Apparell the more to tame and controle the Mutinies and Disorders of the Flesh But to advance After this Mannor which the Piety of former Ages had planted in the Revenue of the Church had for a large Decursion of Time owned no other Proprietary it was by the Dissolution in the twenty ninth of Henry the eighth emptied into the Income of the Crown where it lay untill Edward the sixth in the seventh year of his Reign granted it to Sir Thomas Cheyney and he not long after alienated his Concernment in it to John Johnson from whom it came over by Purchase to Paramour who passed it away to the Lady Elizabeth Finch Widow of Sir Moile Finch whose Son Thomas Finch Earl of Winchelsey almost in our Memory passed it away to John Finch Baron of Fordwich late Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England in the year 1640 and in him does the instant Signory of it reside Folkstone does contribute a Name to the Hundred in which it is situated The Mannor it self with the Mannor of Walton was given to the Nunnery by Eadbald King of Kent which it seems was of that Repute in those Times that Eanswide his Daughter was there vailed a Nun under the Rule of St. Bennet and Ermenred and Ercombert his Sons changed their hopes of a Crown into those of one more celestiall and folded up all their Earthly Glories in a Monastick Cowle which they assumed at this place under the Discipline of St. Bennet But this Cloister was some Ages after partly by the Fury of the Danes and partly by the Impressions of the Sea reduced into a heap of Ruines so that in the Reign of William the Conquerour William de Muneville laid the Foundations of a new Priory in another place of the Town which was much augmented afterwards by William de Averenches who had married his only Daughter But it seems upon the former Devastation of this religious Seminary the Mannor had returned to the Crown for in the year one thousand thirty and eight Canutus restored to Christ-church in Canterbury as the Records of that Covent do intimate this Mannor of Folkston which Athelstan Son of King Edward in the year nine hundred twenty and eight had formerly granted to them for the health of his Fathers Soul and to the Honor of Vlfhelme Arch-priest of Canterbury but with this Restriction he limits and bounds this his Concession that this Mannor thus returned to the Church should never be alienated by the Arch-bishop without the Consent of the King and the Covent of Christ-church who it appears joyned with William the Conquerour and the Archbishop of Canterbury and fastned it again to this Priory where it remained untill it was torn away by the Suppression in the Time of Henry the eighth and annexed to the Crown Afterwards that Prince in the thirtieth year of his Reign transplanted his Interest in it and Walton by Grant into Edward Lord Clinton and he the same year passed them away to Thomas Lord Cromwell Earl of Essex who being attainted in the thirty second year of the abovesaid Prince
this Mannor upon the total Suppression and Abolition here in England was in the seventeenth year of Edward the second united to the Revenne of the Knights Hospitalers and remained annexed to their Demeasne until the common Dissolution supplanted it and then King Henry the eighth granted it to Sir Thomas Cheyney who in the first year of Queen Elizabeth by Sale conveyed it to Mr. Thomas Finch from whom it is now by Descent come down to be the Inheritance of his Successor Mr. Thomas Finch Kingston in the Hundred of Kinghamford was one of those Knights Fees which was assigned to Fulbert de Dover for to be assistant to John de Fiennes in the Guard of Dover Castle And indeed it hath been disputable whether this or Chilham or both jointly were that which in Writings is styled the Honor of Fulberts William de Dover was Teste amongst the Magnates in the Charter of Mawd the Empress for creating Miles of Glocester Earl of Hereford and from this man did it descend to Richard de Dover who was base Son to King John and assumed that Name because he had matched with Roesia or Rose de Dover the Heir General of that Family But he dying in the Beginning of Henry the third Rot. Esc Car. Num. 237. lest it to Isabell his Co-heir wedded to David de Strabolgie Earl of Atholl whose infortunate Son John Earl of Atholl a man of an unbroken though a Calamitous Fidelity towards his Native Country of Scotland seeking to rescue the Liberty of that Nation from those Fetters which the Hand of Edward the first would have put upon it was in an unsuccesful Encounter taken Captive and offered up to the Fury of that Prince on a Gibber fifty Foot high at London saies Daniel at Canterbury saies an old Manuscript late in the Hands of Sir Dudley Diggs which last was rather the Stage on which his Tragedy was represented because that City was almost contiguous to his two great Mannors of Chilham and this of Kingston Upon his fatal and deplorable Exit aggravated because so much Virtue and Courage did rather seem to exact Chaplets and Laurels than so black and ruinous a Catastrophe this Mannor was linkt to the Crown untill King Edward the second in the fifth year of his Raign grants it to Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer Steward of his House but he not long after by an ingrateful Defection having forfeited it again to the Crown that Prince by a new Concession invests it for life in David de Strabolgie Earl of Atholl but after his Disease which was in the first year of Edward the third that Prince in the second year of his Raign restores it to Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer who dying without Issue left it in the twelfth year of Edward the third to his Son and Heir Giles who not long after deceasing likewise without any lawful Issue it came to be divided between his two Sisters and Co-heirs Margaret wedded to William Lord Rosse of Hamlake and Margerie matched to John Tiptoft but before the end of Edward the third this Family had wholly departed from this place and the entire Possession was surrendered up to Rosse For Thomas Lord Rosse dyed possest of it in the seventh year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 68. And from him did the Title slide down to his unhappy Successor Thomas Lord Rosse who was attainted in the fourth year of Edward the fourth and his Forfeiture brought it to the Crown where it rested untill the abovesaid Prince granted it to Roger Lord Wentworth And Margaret his Wife Widow of Thomas Lord Rosse in the eighteenth year of his Rule he conveyed it to him because he had been a great Supporter of his Partie and Title and then to her because she was Sister to John Tiptoft Earl of Worcester who was offered up as an Oblation by the Lancastrian Faction to his Cause and Quarrell and from this Roger did it come down to his Successor Richard Lord Wentworth who in the twenty first year of Henry the eighth demised it by Sale to Thomas Colepeper Esquire in which Family it continued untill the thirty fourth year of that Prince and then it was conveyed away to Sir Anthony Aucher whose Successor Sir Anthony Aucher of Bourne Baronet not many years since conveyed it by Sale to Mr. Gibbons of Westcliff who settled it in Marriage upon his second Son Dr. Gibbons not long since deceased in whose Descendants the Propriety is still resident Ilding in Kingston in Times of as high a Step as any Records can ascend to was the Garwintons of Bekesbourn as appears by that Signal Controversie commenced between Thomas de Garwintor and Theobald de Twitham touching some lands couched within the Verge of his Mannor of Ilding and the Question was so knotty and perplexed that Henry de Cobham Geffrey de Say Hugh de St. Leger Ralph de St. Leger Gile de Badelesmere Fulk de Peyferer Robert de Malevill Alexander de Rosse Robert de Gatton Robert de Campania Richard de Bere Henry de Sorne Henry de Enbroke Alured de Corton and other Gentlemen of prime Account in this Track were chosen Recegnitores magnae Assisae in the second year of King John by their Prudence and dextrous Conduct to soften and becalme this Difference But to go on after the Signory of this place had for many Ages been constant to this Family it devolved to Thomas Garwinton who dying without Issue in the eleventh year of Henry the fourth Richard Haut who had married Joan Garwinton his Heir Generall in her Right was entituled to the Possession of this place but his Son and Heir Richard Haut was the last which held it for Margery his Sole Inheritrix united it to the Inheritance of Isaack in which Name it stayed untill the Beginning of Henry the seventh and then it was transmitted by Sale to Diggs of Diggs-court in Berham and remained clasped up in their Revenue untill that Age which almost was concluded in the Circle of our Remembrance and then it was by Sale transplanted into Wilford so that the Lady Eliz. Wilford Widow Dowager of Sir Thomas Wilford is now by Right of Jointure in Possession of it Parmested is a third place which calls for a Survey it was as high as any Evidence drawn from Record will instruct me to discover the Inheritance of a Family which bore that Sirname for in diverse old Deeds which I have surveyed I find one Hugh de Permested to be a Witnesse which is very probable was Lord of this Place But before the latter end of Edward the second this Family was worn out and that of Garwinton planted in the Possession as appears by an old Fine levyed in the eighth year of Edward the third by Hugh Garwinton in which he passes away his Estate at Permested to Thomas Garwinton from whom it descended to his great Grandchild William Garwinton who dyed possest of it in the eleventh year of Henry the fourth Rot. Esc Num. 45.
as appears by the Escheat Roll of that year marked with the Number 76. and left Mawde de Twitham heir to his large Possessions in this County who by marrying with Simon Septuans of Checquer in Ash by Sandwich invested him not only in the Signory of Dean-Court but likewise in his other Demeasne which lay dispersed in severall Branches over this County and he had Issue by her Sir William Septuans who matched with Anne Daughter and Heir of Sir Nicholas Sandwich and had Issue by her John Septuans Esquire who likewise wedded Constance Daughter and Heir of Thomas Ellys of Sandwich and had Issue by her John his eldest Son to whom he gave Hells Twitham Chilton Molands in Ash and other Lands in Kent Thomas his second Son who had Dean-Court in Mepeham and other Lands in this County and Gilbert Septuans his third Son who had his Mannor of Chequer in Ash above-said and from them it is sometimes writ At Chequer and afterwards Harfleet for some eminent Service by him performed at a Town of that Name in Normandy as the private Evidences of this Family do seem to insinuate under the conduct of Henry the fifth and so Successively by Custome and Prescription this Name became hereditary to all of the Name of Septuans who were either directly or Collaterally linked in Alliance to this Gilbert And in the Name of Harfleet alias Septuans did the Inheritance of this Mannor of Dean-Court sundry Ages reside till some few years since it was by one of this Name alienated to Mr. Francis Twisden third Brother to Sir Roger Twisden of Roydon-Hall Knight and Baronet Merworth stands in the Hundred of Littlefield and gave Seat and Sirname to a worthy Family of Gentlemen whose Ancestor branched out from a Family called St. Laurence William de Merworth is in the Register of those Kentish Knights who were embarked with Richard the first at the Seige of Acon upon which it is probable the Crosse Corslets were taken into the paternall Coat of this Family In the fifteenth year of King John one Roger the Son of Eustace de Merworth brought a Quare Impedit against the Prior of Leeds for the Adyouson of the Church of Merworth Roger de Merworth obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannor of Merworth in the eighteenth year of Edward the first In the twentieth year of Edward the third as appears by the Book of Aid John de Merworth paid respective Aid for a whole Knight's Fee at Merworth and Crombery in Hadloe which he held of the Earl of Glocester at making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth year of Edward the third and an Inquisition taken after this mans Death for his Mannor of Merworth though the Inquisition for his Mannor of Maplescombe and other Lands was not taken untill the forty ninth of Edward the third finds John Malmains of Malmains in Pluckley to be his Heir who in the forty sixth year of Edward the third sells it to Humphrey Bohun Earl of Hereford and Essex and he about the beginning of Richard the second conveys it to Nicholas de Brembre Son of Sir John de Brembre who at the Battle of Trent as Mr. Selden relates in his Titles of Honour pag. 556. made himself eminent by a signall encounter with John de Beaumonour in the year 1350. And endevouring to support the prerogative of Richard the second in an Age wherin his Crime was too much Loialty against the Assaults of some of the Factious and Ambitious Nobility sunk under the waight of their Hatred and Opposition and being attainted of High Treason this in the tenth year of the abovesaid Prince Escheated to the Crown and the same King in the thirteenth year of his Raign granted it to John Hermensthorpe who immediately after conveyed it to Richard Fitzallan Earl of Arundell Lord Treasurer and Lord Admirall of England whose Son Thomas Fitzallan dying without Issue Joan one of his Sisters and Coheirs matching with William Beauchampe who was created by Writt Baron of Abergavenny in the sixteenth year of Richard the second knit this Mannor to the Patrimony of that Family where it continued till Richard Beauchampe this mans Son dying without Issue-male in the ninth year of Henry the fifth bequeathed it to Elizabeth his Sole Daughter and Heir who matched afterward to Edward Nevill Baron of Abergavenny from whom the Title both of the Barony and Merworth flowed down to his Great Grandchild Henry Nevill who died the twenty ninth year of Queen Elizabeth and left this Mannor to Mary his Sole Daughter and heir married to Sir Thomas Fane unto whom King James in the first Parliament which he held Restored Gave Granted and so forth the Name Style Title Honour and Dignity of Baroness le Despencer and that her Heirs Successively should be Barons le Desp neer for ever She had Issue by Sir Thomas Fane of Badsell in Kent Sir Francis Fane eldest Son Knight of the Bath whom King James in the twenty second year of his Raign December the 29. created Earl of Westmerland and Baron Burghurst being likewise by his Mothers Descent extracted from the female heir of that old Barony for Edw. le Despencer who maried Elizabeth Heir of Bartholomew Lord Burghurst and Rich. Beauchampe who married Isabell Daughter and Heir of Thomas Lord Despencer and his eldest Son Sir Mildmay Fane Knight of the Noble Order of the Bath now Earl of Westmerland doth not onely enjoy the Concomitant Titles of Despencer and Burghurst but the Mannor of Mereworth likewise with all the Royalties of it which were not inferiour to any which hathreceived Honour by its owners for it is holden in Chivalrie by an entire Knights Fee and a Free-warren which was formerly granted to it is yet extant and the Conveniences of a Park and Conies are not wanting Jotes-Court in this Parish of Merworth had as appears by severall old Deeds some without Date Owners who were written Jeotes and by contraction of the Name call'd Jotes but before the latter end of Richard the second this Family was crumbled away and gone and then it came to have the same possessors with Merworth as namely Fitz-Allan Beauchampe and Nevill the last of which who enjoyed it was Sir Tho. Nevil third Son of George Nevill Baron of Abergavenny which Sir Tho. was one of the Privy Councel to Henry the eighth and Speaker of the Parliament and he in the thirty third year of that Prince conveyed it by Sale to Sir Robert Southwell who in the thirty fifth year of Henry the eighth by the same Fatalitie passed it away to Sir Edmund Walsingham of Scadbery whose great Grandchild Sir Tho. Walsingham Knight hath not many years since alienated all his Concernment in it to his Son in Law Mr. James Masters Swanton-Court is the last place considerable in Merworth It lay couched in that Revenue which related to the Knights Hospitalers untill the publique Dissolution supplanted it and surrendred it to the Crown and K. Henry the eighth about
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
Q. Elizabeth whose Son Mr. William Hewson of London transmitted Haly with Sawters by Sale some few years since to Mr. Edward Badbie Grandisons is the last place remarkable in this Parish It was the ancient Inheritance of the noble and illustrious Family of Grandison before Otho de Grandison who was Governour of Jersey for life by Grant from Edw. the first in the fifth year of his Reign did transplant himself to Seale which he had purchased in the thirteenth year of that Prince William de Grandison this mans Son was likewise Lord of this place to whom K. Edward the second assigned the Value of 44 lb. yearly Rent out of his Mannor of Dartford in Exchange for the Mannor of Iden and other Lands in Sussex and from this Man did the Signory of this Mannor accrue by Descent to his Grand-child Sir Thomas Grandison who dying without Issue in the forty ninth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 62. left it partly to John de Northwood who had married Agnes his Sister and Co-heir and partly to Margaret his Lady Dowager who died possest of it in the eighteenth year of Richard the second but after her Exit the Title was not long permanent in Northwood for in the twenty first year of the Prince abovesaid Richard Fitz Allen Earl of Arundel held it and died that year possest of it And here I confess for want of Light and just intelligence I must make a Leap to the Reign of Henry the sixth and then I find it in the Tenure of Richard Nevill Earl of Warwick and it is probable it devolved to him by the Heir of Beauchampe After his Decease it became the Possession of George Duke of Clarence who had matched with Isabel his Daughter and Co-heir by whom he had Issue Edward Plantagenet Earl of Warwick who was offered up on an early Scaffold to the waking suspitions and weary Jealousies of those two politick Princes Henry the seventh and Ferdinand of Castile being invited to an escape from his long Duress in the Tower by the Arts and Stratagems of that eminent Impostor Perkin Warbeck But indeed those who have calculated this Action and surveyed the whole Scene of this Tragedy have discovered that his nearness to the Crown as being the last Relick of the Male-Line of Plantagenet was the cheiefest Ingredient in the severe Sentence of this infortunate Gentleman After his expiration this Mannor came over to be the Patrimony of his Sister Margaret Countess of Salisbury who was matched to Sir Richard Poole by which marriage this Mannor was annexed to his Demeasn and he had Issue by her Henry Poole who with his Mother was attainted in the Reign of Henry the eighth upon whose fatal Shipwrack Grandisons was in the thirty fifth of that Prince placed by Grant in his Brother Geffrey Poole who not long after passed it away to Sir Thomas Moile by whose Daughter and Co-heir it came to be the Inheritance of Sir Thomas Kempe and he about the tenth year of Q. Elizabeth conveyed it to Mr. Jo. Mabbe who not long after transmitted it by Sale to Sir Christopher Heron who about the beginning of K. James alienated his concernment here to Cole by whom not long after it was demised to Sir Thomas Smith second Son of Customer Smith of Westenhanger in the Heirs and Descendants of which Name and Family the Possession is still resident Hackstaple is likewise within the Bounds of this Parish and was as high as the reach either of private or publick Evidence can bring down any light to our knowledge the Killingworth's and here for an indivisible succession of Ages did the Possession fix and reside until at last the common Fate of Families brought this Name here at Hackstaple to find its interment or Grave in a Daughter and Heir for George Killingworth had an onely She-Inheritrix whose name was Elizabeth and she was matched with Christopher Eglesfield Gentleman so that Hackstaple in her right was intermingled with the Demeash of this Family and here some years did it by this Conjugall Knot appear fastned till lately the Possession received an alienation for Francis Eglesfield of London Son to Christopher Eglesfield some few years since sold it to Mr Christopher Searle T. T. T. T. TAningnton is situated in the Hundred of Bredge and Petham and in Times of a very ancient Inscription did own the Name and acknowledge the Signory of a Family called Wallis Richard de Wallis held it in the twenty first of Edward the first and as it appears by the Pleas of that year had a signal Contest with the Prior of St. Gregories in Canterbury about his Right to the Presentation of that Church After Wallis was worn out it fell under the Signory of a Family called Mesingham but it seems was not long resident in their Possession for about the beginning of Richard the second Nicholas Mesingham releases to Thomas Chich all his Interess and Right in Tanington and other Lands situated in Heckington and other places but here likewise was the Possession as brief and inconstant for before the Expiration of the Reign of Henry the fourth I find it by purchase from Chich and Wallis setled in the Tenure of Geo. Ballard and he died seised of it in the eighth year of Henry the sixth and in this Family did continue until the reign of Edward the sixth and then it was alienated by Nicholas Ballard Esquire to Sir James Hales of the Dungeon from whom the right by Successive Delegation is now transmitted to Sir James Hales the instant Lord of the Fee Terstan in the Hundred of Twyford was involved in the Revenue of the Crown until Eleanor Q. of England exchanged this and West-Farleigh with the Monks of Christ-Church for the eminent Port of Sandwich which Exchange Edward the first as appears by the Records of that Cathedral by his Charter fully strengthened and confirmed Yet though it was prop'd and supported by that Authority yet it could not be so fastened and riveted into the Ecclesiastical Patrimony but that that storm which arose in the reign of Henry the eighth tore it away and then that Prince in the thirty fifth year of his rule passed it away to Sir John Baker from whom it is now devolved by successive right to his descendant Sir John Baker of Sisingherst Knight and Baronet and he hath lately passed it away to Mr. Jasper Cleyton of London Barham Court in this Parish re-presents to our remembrance that it was once the Mansion or ancient residence of the noble and illustrious Family of Barham this Name was in Times of a very reverend Inscription written Fitz-Urse Randal Fitz. Urse was one of those four who were concerned in the Assassination of that turbulent and ambitious prelate Thomas Becket Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who though peradventure for his violent invasion made upon the royal prerogative of his Soveraign Henry the second might have deserved the Guerdon of an exemplary Death yet the manner of taking
peradventure may be attributed to the Evaporations of youth which is alwayes volatile and airy rather then to any setled and contracted Habit of vitious Distempers and mutinous passions which was lodged within Him But to proceed when Willesborough had by a successive thread of many Ages been guided along through several Descents down to John Brent he died and left John Brent his Heir who expiring without Issue Margaret his eldest Sister became the Inheritrix of all his possessions and she being matched with John Dering Esquire of Surrenden Dering this place by Female right became transplanted into the Patrimony of that Name and Family and Sir Edward Dering about the year 1635 conveyed it to Robert Scot of Canterbury Esquire whose Son and Heir Thomas Scot of Canterbury Esquire is now proprietary of it Wilmington in Hundred of Dartford resolves it self into two Mannors which exact a peculiar Cognisance and the first is Rue Hill so it was anciently written though now by vulgar Acceptation it is called Rowe Hill It was in Ages of a higher Track the patrimony of an illustrious and generous Family called Gise who were in those times as eminent for the largeness of their possessions as they were for the Antiquity of their Extraction and from hence were the Gises of the Counties of Hereford and Gloucester originally sprouted out Anselmus de Gise had a Charter of Free Warren granted to his Lands at Rue Hill in Wilmington in the twenty second year of Edward the first but it appears the Possession of this place invested and fortified with this Grant was not long after united to this Family for John Gise this mans Grand-child sold it to Nicholas Brember who in the twelfth year of Richard the second being blasted with an impeachment of high Treason fell an Oblation to the fury of those Lords who upon pretence of asserting the publick Liberty sought to fetter up the majesty and prerogative of their Prince within those narrow Restraints and Limits which they prescribed to empale it in and pare off the power of the Crown which like Sampson's Locks being shaved Kings remain like other men Upon his attaint Rue Hill resolved into the revenue of the Crown and King Richard the second in the fourteenth year of his reign granted it to Adam Bamme of London and in his Lineage was the Inheritance of it sundry Generations wrapt up till in our Grand-fathers memory it was alienated to Brett from whose successor the same Alteration rowled the possession not many years since into Smith The second is Highlands which was parcel of the Demeasn of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem and upon the Dissolution of their Alberge here in England was granted about the thirty fifth year of Henry the eighth to Sir Thomas Moile and Sir Maurice Dennis the last of which passed away his Concernment in it to Sir Thomas Moile by whose Daughter and Co-heir called Amy Moile it came to be possest by Sir Thomas Kempe who left it to his Son and Heir Sir Thomas Kempe who conveyed it to his Brother Mr. Reginald Kempe who in our Fathers memory passed it away to Lancelot Bathurst Esquire Father to Sir Edward Bathurst who is the instant proprietary of it Wodnesborough lies in the Hundred of Eastrie and spreads it self into many places of no despicable Account First there is Shelving which was as high as any Evidence can waft us to discover the Demeasn of Houghham of Hougham by Dover a Family rooted in as deep Antiquity as any in this Track Robert de Hougham is enrolled in an ancient Register of those Kentish Gentlemen who supported the cause and Quarrel of Richard the first at the Seige of Acon Sir Robert de Hougham his Son died possest of it in the second year of Edward the first and left Robert Hougham his Heir who determined in Daughters and Co-heirs so that Benedicta Houghham one of them being married to John Shelving this became his Demeasn where he erected a House upon which he fixed his Sirname and called it Shelving which in those Times was of considerable Repute though since by the frequent impressions of Age it is shrunk into Decay and Obscurity from Shelving one Moitie of it by Sale was transmitted to St. Leger and so continued distinguished in the Interest of it till both Shelving and St. Leger did by a mutual Concurrence pass away their joynt right in it to Dynley where it had not long been Seated but the like Fatality transferred the Possession of it to White and here the Title of it was as unfixt and unstable also for from this Family by purchase it was carried into the Revenue of Knight who in our memory altered his Interest in it by Sale to Mr. Solomon Hougham of Sandwich primitively issued out in a Collateral Line from Sir Robert Hougham upon whose late Decease his Son and Heir Mr. Richard Hougham is now possessor of it Ringleton does secondly exact some Remembrance It was anciently the Interest of Perot for Thomas Perot held it at his Death which was in the fourth year of Edward the third but when this Name was extinguished in a Daughter and Heir William Langley by matching with Her entituled himself to the Possession of this place in which Family the Inheritance for sundry Generations was settled till the Vicissitude of Time by Sale conveyed it into the Demeasn of John White who was originally a Merchant of the Staple and did by several Acts of exemplary Munificence evidence himself to be a liberal Benefactor to Canterbury But long it was not fastned to the Possession of this Name for his Successor alienated it to Butler of Heronden in Eastrie from which Family Ringleton by the same Mutation was brought to own the Possession of Neame and his Son Daniel Neame sold it to Spencer of Sandwich whose Successor Nicholas Spencer dying without Issue his Sister who was wedded to Hughs descended from Hughs of Middleton Stony in the County of Oxford who was branched out from the Hughs of North-Wales by a Relative right deduced from that Alliance has planted the present Possession in the Patrimony of that Name and Family Thirdly upper Hamwold may fall under a Disquisition because it was wound up in the Estate and Propriety of Greenshield whose principal residence was at Greenshield in Whitstaple corruptly called Grimgil where I have spoken more largely of this Family onely this I shall add that Henry Greenshield who died in the last year of Edward the fourth was a munificent Benefactor to the poor and other indigent and necessitous people of the Town of Sandwich to whom he bequeaths by his last Testament very liberal Donations for their relief and support After this Family of Greenshield was mouldered away at Hamwold I find the Elis's invested in the Possession but whether by Alliance or Purchase I cannot discover After they went out the Family of Francis was by Purchase from them seated in the Inheritance to whose Interest it was not many
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
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
Aid at the making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth year of Edward the third for sundry parcels of Land which he held in Kent and amongst the rest for his Lands at Cranebrook and in this Family was the possession of this place with that of Copton and Stone concentered till the latter end of Henry the seventh and then part of Sisingherst with Copton and Stone was sold to Mr. Tho. Baker Father to Sir John Baker Attorney General and of the Privy Counsel to Queen Mary and likewise Chancellor of the Exchequer and under-Treasurer who purchased the residue and raised that Magnificent Pile within the Park which now charmes with so much Delight the eyes of the Spectators and from this man by the channel of paternal and lineal Descent is the Inheritance of Sisingherst Copton and Stone emptied into Sir John Baker Baronet the instant Lord of the Fee Secondly Glastenbury is not to be forgotten since it is of so great a Name elsewhere and is called as the other is from Glastney the Saxon Idiome of Inis Witrin the Watry or Glassie place The House which stands in a Park is moated about and hath been for many Generations the capital Mansion of the ancient Family of Rokchurst ever since Stephen Rokehurst or Roberts of Curtesden and in old Records sometimes written Rokehurst Den in Goudherst about the beginning of Henry the fourth married Joan Sole Heir of William Tilley of Glastenbury whose Ancestors had flourished at this place as private Evidencs instruct me ever since the reign of Edward the first and in right of that Alliance became Lord of this Mansion This Stephen Roberts aliàs Rokehurst was Grand-child of William Roberts aliàs Rokehurst and that William was great Grand-child of William de Rokehurst who in the reign of William the Conquerour as the Evidences of this Family inform me came out of Anandale in Scotland into England and to preserve the memory of this man did the Family till the Government of Henry the seventh write Roberts alias Rokchurst till in the East window of the North Chancel of the Church of Cranebrook which was built by Walur Roberts Esq in that Princes Reign as also in most of his Deeds and Conveyences the alias was left out Coursehorne finds place to be remembred in the Map of Kent and then must not be forgotten here it hath been for above three hundred years as appears by private Records the Inheritance of Henley in an Escheat Roll taken in the seventeenth year of Edward the third and marked with the number 92. After the death of Richard Haudloe who it seems had Lands at Cranebrook there is mention of one Gerva Henley that was one of the Jury and concerned in the Inquisition But that which much improves the Fame of this Mansion is that it was the Cradle of Sir Walter Henley Serjeant at Law a man of eminent repute in this County in the Reign of Henry the eighth and by his three Daughters and Coheirs Elizabeth married to ....... Waller of Grome-bridge Hellen first matched to Thomas Colepeper of Bedgbury secondly to Sir George Somersett and thirdly to Thomas Vane of Burston and lastly Ann wedded to Richard Covert of Slaugham in Sussex knit those Noble Families together in one Alliance but Coursehorne did by Descent come over to his Brother Gervas Henley Esquire from whom Sir Thomas Henley now of Coursehorne is lineally extracted Another ancient place there is in Cranebrook called Hartridge the possession in times past of a worthy Family of that Sirname among them chiefly to be remembred is Thomas Hartridge for he was one of the Conservators or Justices of Peace in this County in the thirty fourth year of Edward the third when there was but eight only in the whole Shire It hath been since much honoured by the Will fords who by James Willsford a most worthy Senator of London derive themselves from the right ancient Family of Willsford of Willsford in Devonshire and are fairly spread from hence into many Branches both in this County and elsewhere and after it had thus for divers Descents been resident in this noble Family the Possession was in our Fathers remembrance united by purchase to the Patrimony of Tindall now of Sutton Valence Fifthly Betenham is not to be passed over in silence which is a Note worthy Place in this Parish that gave both Seat and Sirname to the Betenhams but when the eldest Line had only three Daughters and Coheirs matched to More Dering and Fisher who divided the Patrimony this in his Wifes right was annexed to the Demeasn of More and this after More had alienated his Interest in it came to acknowledge for Sole Owners the Roes of which Family was the right Noble Sir Thomas Roe Knight Chancellor of the most Noble Order of the Garter and of the Privy Councel to the late Kidg Charles and severall years Embassador to the Great Mogor Great Turk King of Sweden and lastly to the Princes of the Protestant Union in Germany in the year 1642. After which Negotiation most prudently transfacted he returned and died but in this Family it remained not long for in the remembrance of that Age our Fathers lived in it was by Sale demised to Mansfield in whom the Possession is at this present setled There are two places more which may be registred in this Inventorie The first is Plechinghurst which was an ancient Seat belonging to the Sharpeighs of Sharpeigh a Family of deep rooted Antiquitie in this Track Robert de Sharpeigh flourished here at Cranebrook about the beginning of Edward the first and was witness to a Deed of William de Brindens of Brinden In this Parish formerly the Linds and now the Holdens but this Deed is without Date another Robert Sharpeigh of Sharpeigh and Cranebrook as I find by an ancient Roll was in Commission as Justice of the Peace about the latter end of the Government of Henry the seventh But as all sublunary things are crushed and overturned by the wheel of an inconstant Vicissitude so by Consequence are our Possessions likewise for after this place had been for so many Descents the Inheritance of this ancient Family it was almost within the Verge of our Remembrance first alienated to Martin and by him not long since by Sale demised to Walter The second is Buckhurst which is the last place of Account within the circuit of this Parish If we go to trace the Antiquity of thse Families who were the ancient Proprietorrs of it we shall find that it acknowledged Hadloe and Buckhurst for its elder Possessors that the first had some concernment here not only the private Deeds and Muniments of this place do evince to us but likewise by an Inquisition taken after the decease of Richard de Hadloe by which it is evident he held some Estate here in the seventeenth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 32. And that the second Family had some Interest here not only the Authority abovesaid doth justifie
did the Cloister of Davington remain a Seminary of religious Women whilst their revenue without was the Fuel which supported and nourished the Flame on the Altar But when the reign of Henry the eighth approached which became decretory and critical to all these Nurseries of a lazy and speculative Devotion the demeasn which sustained this Covent was by Henry the eighth plucked away and in the eight and thirteeth year of his Government was by patent knit to the patrimony of Sir Thomas Cheyney And his Son Sir Henry Lord Cheyney in the eighth year of Q. Eliz. conveyed it by Sale to Jo. Bradborn descended as appears by his Seal affixed to his Deed by which he alienates it again in the tenth year of Q. Eliza. to Avery Giles from the Bradborns of Darbyshire But in this Family the residence of it was very brief and transitory for his Son Francis Giles in the twentieth year of Q. Eliza. passed it away to Mr. Jo. Edwards and from this Family though the Fate of purchase did not rend it away yet that of marriage did for this Jo. Edwards leaving only one Daughter and Heir called Ann she by matching with Io. Boade of Essex Esquire linked this to his revenue and from him it is descended to Mr. Io. Boade the present Lord of the Fee Little Davington or Davington-court not far distant from that house which was the Nunnerie was formerly wrapped up in that Demeasn which confessed the Dominion of the Earls of Atholl Lords of Chilham by whom the Mansion it self was built as their Arms in Stone-work in the great Hall before they were taken down by Mr. Tho. Mills did abundantly testifie and having for many years acknowledged their Signory at last it devolved to David de Strabolgie Earl of Atholl who dying without Issue-male in the forty ninth year of Edw. the third left it to Philippa one of his two Coheirs who was matched to Io. Halsham and from him did a successive Right bring it down to Sir Hugh Halsham his Grandchild who about the beginning of H. the sixth passed it away to Ja. Drylond who determined in one Daughter and Heir called Constance Drylond who was matched to Sir Tho. VValsingham of Scadbery Knight who in her right became possessor of it and transmitted it to his Son Sir Ja. VValsingham who was Sheriff of Kent in the twelfth year of H. the seventh and kept his Shrievalty at Davington and from him did it descend to his Grandchild Sir Tho. VValsingham who almost in our Grandfathers remembrance conveyed it by Sale to Simons and he not long after to Coppinger And his Son having about the beginning of K. James mortgaged it to Freeman they both joyned and by mutual Concurrence fixed their right in Mr. Tho. Mills of Norton who deceasing without Issue-male it came by Ann his Sole Daughter and Heir to be the Inheritance of Sir Io. Mill of South-hampton who conveyed it to his Brother Dr. Mill and he some few years past alienated it to his Kinsman Mr. Tho. Mill and he serled the propriety of it on his Son Mr. Tho. Mill who hath very lately transmitted all his Right in it by Sale to Tho. Twisden Esquire Serjeant at Law now of Brabourn in East-Malling Since my Writing of this I have discovered by an old Survey of Davington collected by Mr. Tho. Millâ— that Io. Lewknor of Sussex Esq had in the twenty first year of H. the sixth an Interess in Davington-court derived to him by Joan his Wife Sole Inheritrix of Sir Hugh Halsham which he not long after passed away to Mr. James Drylond Detling in the Hundred of Maidstone gave Name to a Knightly Family famous for Fortitude and Chivalrie in token whereof a Massie Lance all wrearhed about with thinn Iron place is preserved in the Church like that of VVillam the Conquerours at Battel in Sussex as the very Spear by them used and left as a memorial of their Atchivements in Arms and an Emblem also of their extraordinary Strength and Abilitie In which respect those in Bedington-Hall in Surrey celebrate the renown of the Carewes atchieved at Tilt and Turnament and that in Lullingston-Hall in Kent the like for the Peches As also that in Gerards-Hall in London upon which a Romance is drest up by the vulgar report fancying he was some Giant when the truth is he was of the Knightly Family of Gizors and Constable of the Tower and this his Capital Mansion was Castellated as the Seat of the Basings was another strenuous Family at Basings-Hall in London these matters allude much to the manner of the Romans whose Victories were aplauded and the Victors in their Triumphs extoll'd by Trophies and other Monuments and Ensigns of Honour as Pancirolus Rosinus and others have judiciously observed that have treated of these kind of Rituals But to return to the Subject from which this discourse hath diverted me in this Family of Detling did the Possession of this place for many Ages remain constantly seated till the beginning of the Reign of Edward the fourth and then John Detling written in some Old Deeds Brampton alias Detling transmitted it by Sale to Richard Lord Woodvill Lord of the Moat in Maidston not far distant created Earl of Rivers Lord Treasurer and Constable of England by his Son in law King Edward the fourth in the year 1466. whose Grandchild Anthony Woodvill Earl Rivers being attainted upon supposed Treason in the first year of Richard the third which was made so by that Usurper and those black Engins which he had raised upon him because he too cordially asserted the Interest of Edward fifth it escheated to the Crown and that Prince in the second year of his Government granted it to Sir Robert Brackenbury Lievtenant of the Tower who it seems disliking a Tenure which was caemented with Blood passed away his right immediately after to Richard Lewknor who had some estate here before by matching with Eleanor Coheir of Tho. Towne which Tho. Towne wedded to Bennett Heir of John Detling and this Richard Lewknor about the latter end of Henry the seventh gave it in franck Marriage with his Daughter to Hills Hills resolved into two Daughters and Coheirs one of which was married to Vincent and the other was matched to Martin and so upon the Division to avoid all Disorder and Confusion Detling was split into two Mannors one was called West-Court which accrued to Vincent and the other was termed East-Court which was annexed to the Demeasne of Martin Martin about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth sold East-Court to Webbe in which Name after it had for severall years been fixed it was in our Fathers Memory passed away to Smith who not many years since alienated it to Sir Edward Henden one of the Barons of the Exchequer who upon his Decease gave it to his Nephew Sir John Henden and from him it is now descended to his eldest Son Edward Henden Esquire But Westcourt was by Vincent passed away to Morton of Whitehorse in
of which Name which held this place was Tho. Chesman whose Female-heir Alice brought this Seat to her Husband Rob. Stodder Ancestor to Will. Stodder Esq not long since deceased who was proprietary of it A strange and marvellous Accident happened at this place upon the fourth day of August 1585 in a Field which belongeth to Sir Percival Hart. Betimes in the morning the ground began to sink so much that three great Elme-Trees were suddenly swallowed into the Pit the tops falling downward into the hole And before ten of the Clock they were so overwhelmed that no part of them might be discerned the Concave being suddenly filled with water the Compass of the hole was about 80. yards and so profound that a sounding line of fifty Fathoms could hardly find or feel any bottome ten yards distance from that place there was another piece of ground sunk in like manner near the high-way and so nigh a dwelling house that the Inhabitants were greatly terrified therewith Edenbridge in the Hundred of Westerham was ever esteemed a Chappel of ease to the Parish of Westerham The first that I discover by the beams of Record to have been possest of Edenbridge were the Stangraves who had here their capital Mansion which was known by their Name John de Stangrave obtained a Charter of Free-warren to Edenbridge in the twenty sixth year of Edw. the first Sir Rob. de Stangrave was his Son and Heir who was with Edw. the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland and there for his generous Service received the Order of Knighthood and dyed seised of Edenbridge and Stangrave the twelfth year of E. the third Rot. Esc Num. 52. After the Stangraves were vanished the Dynleys were setled in the Signory of these above-mentioned places Jo. de Dynley had a Confirmation of the Chatter of Free-warren to Eden-bridge in the fourteenth year of Edward the third and immediately after passed away his Interest here to Hugh de Audley Earl of Gloucester Lord of the Mannor and Castle of Tunbridge by whose Daughter and Heir the Lady Margaret Audley Stangrave and Edenbridge came to acknowledge the Signory of Ralph Stafford Earl of Stafford and he dyed seised of them in the forty sixth year of Edward the third and in this Family of Stafford as they were successively Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham was the propriety of these places resident untill the twelfth year of Henry the eighth and then Edward Duke of Buckingham Lord high Constable of England having unadvisedly consulted with a Monk and a Wizzard touching the Succession of the Crown fomented so Vast a Stock of Fears and Jealousies in the Brain of that Cautious Prince that they could not be extinguished but by his Blood which was poured out on a Scaffold as the last expiation of that Treason which was by Cardinal Wolsey pinn'd upon him and likewise of his Prince's Fury Upon this his untimely Exit his Estate escheated to the Crown and King Henry the eighth not many years after granted Westerham Eden Bridge and Stangrave which were parcell of the Confiscation to Sir John Gresham Knight from whom they by Descent are now devolved to Marmaduke Gresham Esquire who enjoys the instant Possession of them Delaware is a Seat of very venerable Account in this Parish It was the Seat of Gentlemen of that Name as high as the Reign of Henry the second as appears by old Evidences now in the Hands of Mr. Seyliard of which Robert de la Ware was the last who about the latter end of Edward the third went out without Issue-male so that Dionysia Delaware who was matched to William Paulin became Heir to this place In Paulin it remained constantly resident till the beginning of the Rule of Henry the sixth and then William Paulin determined in a Daughter and Heir likewise who was wedded to John Seyliard of Seyliard in Hever which is still in the Possession of Mr. Seyliard of Gabriells in this Parish and who descended from Ralph de Seyliard who flourished about the Reign of King Stephen In an old Pedigree of Seyliard now treasured up amongst the Evidences of Delaware there is enrolled the Coppy of a Deed without date by which Almerick d'Eureux Earl of Gloucester who flourished in the Reign of Henry the third demises Lands to Martin at Seyliard and other Lands called Hedinden to Richard at Seyliard who were Sons of Ralph from which Ralph John Seyliard Esquire now Proprietary of this anâ—â—ent Mansion of Delaware by a Steady and unbroken Current of many Descents in a Direct Line is originally extracted The Mannor of Sharnden in this Parish was parcell of that Estate which belonged to the Lords Cobham of Sterborough Castle not far distant and continued folded up in the Patrimony of this Family till the Government of Edward the fourth and then Thomas Lord Cobham of Sterborough deceasing without Issue-male Anne matched to Edward Lord Borough of Gainsborough became his Heir in which Name and Family the Title of this place successively streamed down till almost our Times and then the Lady Katharine Borough to whom it was assigned by Thomas Lord Borough her Husband to defray Debts and other Uses passed it away to Sir Edward Richardson Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench whose Grandchild the Lord Edward Richardson Baron of Cromartie in Scotland does now possesse the Signory and Inheritance of it Elham in the Hundred of Lovingborough is anciently written Helham which denotes the Situation of it in a Valley amongst Hills Though now the Magnificent Structures which in elder Times were here be dismantled and have only left a Masse of deplored Rubble to direct us were they stood yet in Dooms-day Book it is written that the Earl of Ewe a Norman and neere in Alliance to the Conquerour held it and left the Reputation of an Honour unto it as the Record of the Aid granted at the making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth of Ed. the third doth warrant For the Mannor of Mount adjacent to Elham is said to be held of the Honour of the Earl of Ewe by Knights Service In Testa de Nevill there is mention of Gilbert Earl of Ewe who then paid respective Aid in the twentieth year of Henry the third at the Marriage of Isabell that Prince's Sister From this Gilbert Earl of Ewe it went away to Edward eldest Son to Henry the third who obtained a Market and Fair to Elham by Charter in the thirty fifth of Henry the third and after he had fortified it with these Priviledges in the forty first year of the abovesaid Prince conveys it by Sale to Boniface of Savoy Arch-bishop of Canterbury Boniface to decline the Envy and Emulation of his English Opposites which he and the rest of those Forreiners and Aliens had contracted upon themselves by their practicall Turbulencies in the Managery of the principal Affairs of State under Henry the third passed it away by Sale to Roger Lord Leybourne a great Partisan and
Ancestor to Will. James aliàs Hastretcht Esquire thrice Knight of the Shire within the Circle of five years who by Paternall Derivation is now Lord of this Mannor of Eightam Before I leave this Discourse of Eightam I must inform the Reader of two things First that Edward the second in the ninth year of his Reign granted Licence to Will. de Inge the Judge to hold a Market here Weekly on the Monday and a Fair yearly at Eightham by the space of three days viz. the Vigill the day of St. Peter and Paul and the day after Secondly that the Family of James now Possessors of Eightam were originally called Hastrecht as being Lords of a place of that Name neer Gouda and were branched out from the ancient Family of Arkell Ex Autographis penes Do. Will. James as likewise was that of Bouteslaw both which Families bear the same Coat without any visible Distinction with Haestrecht viz. Argent two Barrs Crenelle or Counterembattel'd Gules three Pheon or Broad Arrow Heads in Chief Sables Roger James Son of Jacob van Hastrecht came out of Cleve whither his Ancestor a yonger Son of the Lord of Hastrecht had been chased by one of the Lords of Holland because his Father who likewise was forced to Drunen neer Huesden by that Count had been an eager Partisan of his enemy the Bishop of Vtretcht into England about the beginning of Hen. the eighth and being called after the Belgick mode Roger Jacobs the English by a more soft and gentle pronunciation filed off the roughnesse of the Accent and by melting it into a more narrow Volume contracted it into James By marriage the Family of Haestrecht and Arkell above mentioned are allyed to the eminent House of Wassenaer issued out from the ancient Counts of Holland as likewise to the Family of Waermont neer Leyden who matched with the Heir of Hastrecht of Drunen where this Family had for many Descents been planted ever since their first expulsion thither by the Earl of Holland who was Colonel of a Regiment of Foot and Drosart of Breda when it was under the Government and Scepter of the King of Spain St. Cleres is the second place of Note in this Parish it was formerly called Aldham as being for many years the Patrimony of that Family the last of which was Sir Tho. de Aldham who resolved into three Female Coheirs ....... matched to Newborough of the County of Dorsett Margery matched to Martin de Pecham and Isolda wedded to John St. Clere. Upon the partition of his patrimony this place was about the beginning of Ed. the third annexed to the Inheritance of St. Clere and so it becamein procedure of Time styled Aldham St. Cleres but Custome and vulgar Use did not long after file off the first Appellation so that it hath for diverse Generations been styled singly St. Cleres Isolda St. Clere Widow of this John did in the twentieth year of Edward the third pay respective Aid for her Lands at Eightham at the making the Black Prince Knight And in this Family did the Stream of Possession carry down the Possession of this place till towards the latter end of Henry the seventh and then it was alienated from this Name and setled in Richard Empson the grand Projector who had wire-drawn by his close and dextrous Artifices the Treasure of the Kingdome into such subtile Threads as he had almost wound it all into the Kings Exchequer But he being convicted of Felony for his many Excesses in the first year of Henry the eighth this was confiscated to the Crown and there it was not many years after by that Prince granted to Sir Thomas Bullen Knight of the Garter and created Earl of Ormond and Wiltshire in the year 1529 whose infortunate Son George Viscount Rochford being blasted with the black Aspersion of Treason which was multiplyed and inforced to that Bulke that the weight of it sunk him upon a Bloody and untimely Scaffold and then this Mannor upon the Death of his Father which was in the thirtyeth year of Hen. the eighth was seised on by the Crown as being setled before on him and his Heirs male of whom this unhappy Lord was the last Some few years after it was by Royall Concession from the abovesaid Prince made the Patrimony of George Moulton Esquire of Moulton in Hadloe a Man of high Repute in those Times and much interessed in the Favour of Henry the eighth whose Grandchild Robert Moulton Esquire almost in Times within the pale of our Remembrance alienated his Right in it to Sir John Sydley Knight and Baronet who hath upon the old Foundation erected that magnificent Pile which for the Grandeur Elegance and Majestick Aspect it carryes to the publick View surrenders a Priority but to few Structures in this County The Moat is the third and last place which summons our Remembrance It was in elder Times the Inheritance of Ivo de Haut who flourished in the Reign of King John and Henry the third his Grandchild was Henry de Haut who held this Mannor at his Decease which was in the forty fourth of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 34. his Grandchild was Nicholas Haut who was Sheriff of Kent in the ninteenth year of Richard the second Afterwards I find that Richard Haut Grandchild to this Man was Sheriff of Kent the eighteenth year of Edward the fourth and again in the twenty second year of the abovesaid Prince he was second Brother to Sir William Haut of Hautsbourne who was Sheriff of Kent in the sixth yeer of Edward the fourth and great Uncle to Sir William Haut But this Richard Haut having with John Fogge John Guldford Esquire John Darell Esquire James Horne of Westwell William Clifford Reginald Pimpe John Pimpe and Edward Poynings of Marsham or Mersham embarked himself in the Designs of Henry Earl of Richmond John Darell Esq and John Pimpe Esquire had the Grant of thirteen Mannors lying in Worcester-shire made to them which accrued to the Crown upon the Attaint of Humphrey Stafford Esquire in the second year of Henry the seventh as appears Origin Anni 2. Hen. 7. Rot. 17. in the Treasurers side in the Exchequer and the emotion of Henry Duke of Buckingham he was attainted in the third year of Richard the third as appears Rot. Par. de Anno 3. R. 3. Memb. 6. And then the Moat by the Favour and Indulgence of that Prince was conferred on Sir Rob. Brakenbury Lieutenant of the Tower but he enjoyed it not long for Henry abovesaid having triumphed in a Successeful Encounter at Bosworth field over Richard the third and all his Partisans this was restored to Richard Haut above-said in which Family it remained untill the latter end of Henry the seventh and then by an old Court Roll I find it in the Possession of Sir Richard Clement Knight who was Sheriff of Kent in the twenty third year of Henry the eighth he dyed without any legitimate Issue and lies entombed
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
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
old German practise is also asserted by Tacitus And that it was customary amongst the Danes Several Urns discovered in Jutland and Sleswick not many years since do easily evince which contained not only Bones but many other Substances in them as Knives peeces of Iron Brass and Wood and one of Norway a Brass guilded Jews-harp When this Custome of Burning of the Dead languished into Disuse is incertain but that it began to vanish upon the Dawning of Christianity as Vapors and Mists scatter before a Morning Sun is without Controversie but when the Light of it did more vigorously reflect like a Meridian Beam on all the gloomy Corners and Recesses of Paganism and Infidelity then this Use of Urn-Burial was wholly superseded and found a Tomb it self in the more sober and severer practise of Christianity And thus much shall be said concerning these Urns digged up at Newington The Mannor of Levenoke in this Parish ought in the last place to be taken Notice of but the Deeds being dispersed into the Hands of those who are Strangers both to this County and my Design I cannot give the Reader that satisfaction in this particular that I aime at Only thus much I can inform him that by an old Court Roll in the Hands of Mr. Staninough of this Parish lately deceased I discovered that in the Raign of Edward the third and Richard the second it was the possession of John Beau Fitz and it is probable by the Heir General of this Name it devolved to Arnold of Rochester and more to fortifie this some ancient Country people at my being there did assure me they had it by Traditional Intelligence from their Predecessors That that Knight purchased it of one Arnold but of that there is no certainty only this is positive that about the latter end of Henry the eighth that Knight enjoyed it and in this Name it remained until almost our Memory and then it was conveyed to Gouldsmith and he alienated it to Barrow whose Descendant having morgaged it to Mr. ...... Alston of London he very lately hath transplanted all his Right by Sale into Mr. ........ Lisle of Middlesex now deceased Nockholt in the Hundred of Ruxley was a Branch which was incorporated into the Revenue of the Lord Say William de Say died possest of it in the twenty third year of Edward the third and from this man was it transmitted to his Grand-child Geffrey Say who concluded in a Sole Daughter and Heir called Elizabeth who was married to William Fiennes Esquire and so in her Right was Nockholt united to the possession of this Noble Family from this man was Richard Fiennes descended who enjoyed this Mannor successively from him and married Joane the Sole Female heir of Thomas Lord Dacre of Hurstmonceaux in Sussex who was extracted from Edward Lord Dacre who was summoned to Parliament by the Title of Lord Dacre of Hurstmonceaux in the Raign of Edward the second and in her Right was this man summoned to Parliament by the Name of Richard Fiennes Lord Dacres in the Government of Henry the sixth And here did both the Barony of Dacre and the Inheritance of Nockholt continue till Gregory Fiennes Lord Dacres deceased in the thirty sixth year of Queen Elizabeth and left by Testament Margaret his Sister matched to Sampson Lennard Esquire he having no Issue Heir to his large possessions amongst which this Mannor was involved from Sampson Lennard who was created Lord Dacres in the second year of King James it is now come down by Successive Inheritance to be the instant Patrimony of his Grand-child Francis Lord Dacres the present Baron of Hurstmonceaux There are two other Mannors in this Parish but of small importance called Brampton and Shelleys-court or at Ockholt both which had Owners who engrafted their own Sirname upon them There is a recital in the Book of Aide of one John de Brampton who held Land at Nockholt and Ditton in the Raign of Edward the first From this Family Brampton came by a Female Heir to be the Inheritance of Petley who about the latter end of Henry the sixth conveyed it to Oliver alias Quintin and hath been for almost two Hundred years as appears by the Evidences now in the Hands of Mr. Robert Oliver of the Grange in the Parish of Leybourn in the Tenure and Possession of that Name and Family Shelleys Court called in the Evidences likewise at Ockholt was as high as the Raign of Edward the third as the originall Deeds now in the Hands of Mr. Rob. Austin of Bexley inform me the Inheritance of Shelley and remained united to the Possession of that Family till the Government of Queen Mary and then by Sale the whole Demise was passed away by Sir John Champneys Lord Maior of London by William Shelley the last of this Name at this place from whom it devolved to his Son Sir Justinian Champneys who left it to his Son Mr. Richard Champneys Esquire and he almost in the Remembrance of that Age we live in alienated his Concernment in it to the present Possessor Mr. Gooday of Suffolk Nonington in the Hundred of Wingham and Eastry hath diverse places in it of considerable Repute The first is Fredville called in old Deeds Froidville from its bleak and eminent Situation Times of an elder Inscription represent it to have been the Possession of Colkin vulgarly called Cokin who it is probable erected the ancient Fabrick and brought it into the Shape and Order of an Habitation this Family was originally extracted from Canterbury where they had a Lane which bore their Name being called Colkins Lane and likewise had the Inheritance or Propriety of Worth-gate in that City William Colkin founded an Hospital neer Eastbridge which celebrated his Name to Posterity and was called Colkin's Hospital he flourished in the Time of K. John and was a liberal Benefactor to the Hospitals of St. Nicholas St. Katharine and St. Thomas of Eastbridge in Canterbury as is recorded by Mr. William Somner in his Survey of that City Page 116. But to proceed John Colkin dyed possest of Fredvill the tenth of Edward the third and in his Posterity was the Title resident untill the latter end of Richard the second and then it was conveyed to Thomas Charleton and he by a Fine levyed the second of Henry the second transplants his Interest into John Quadring in whose Name it made its aboad untill Joan Quadring the Heir General of Thomas Quadring this man's Successor carried the Title along with her to her Husband Richard Dryland and he about the latter end of Edward the fourth alienated it to John Nethersole who by Fine levyed in the second year of Richard the third conveyed it to William Bois Esquire descended from I. de Bosco or de Bois so written in some old Copies of the Battle Abby Roll and in others R. de Bosco or de Bois who entered into England with William the Conquerour which William had Issue Thomas Bois who dying in the
and by Sale transmitts it to John Mew and from him about the latter end of Henry the fourth both these Mannors with all their Appendages were passed away to Iohn Tutsham and Nicholas Remkin of Eastmere but he determined in Alize Remkin his Sole Inheritrix who by matching with Thomas Rolfe of Tunbridge brought her Interest in Albans and Black-pits to be the Inheritance of that Family but long the Right of both these places continued neither in Rolfe nor Tutsham for about the beginning of Henry the sixth they were alienated by Sale to Thomas Stidulfe of Badsell Esquire and he by Deed bearing date 1463 that is about the third year of Edward the fourth settles them on his two Sons Robert and Henry Stidulfe and in the Deed there is a remembrance that they were purchased of Rolfe and Tutsham From Robert they descended to his Son Thomas Stidulfe who was Heir both to his Father and his Uncle but he concluded in a Daughter and Heir who was matched about the latter end of Henry the eighth to Richard Vane Ancestor to the right honorable Mildmay Fane now Earl of Westmerland who in Right of this Alliance now enjoys Black-pits but Albans was by Henry Vane Successor to the above-mentioned Richard in the year 1589 passed away to Roger Twisden of Roydon-Hall Esquire Grand Father to the instant Proprietary Sir Roger Twisden Knight and Baronet Eastmere is another Mannor in East-Peckham which acknowledged a Family called Remkin anciently to be its Possessors John Remkin was Father of Christian Remkin who held it as appears by an ancient Court-roll in the thirty fourth year of Edward the third and from him did it by paternal Vicissitude devolve to Nicholas Remkin in whom the male-line failed so that Alice his Sole Daughter became the visible Heir to his Estate and she by matching with Thomas Rolfe of Tunbridge knit this and other Land here at Great Peckham to his Patrimony but it did not long thus continue united for John Rolfe his Son in the sixth year of Henry the sixth conveys it to Richard Ruyton and he in the eighth year of the abovesaid Prince alienated it to William Hextall but he deceasing without Issue-male Margaret his Sole Daughter by her Inter-marriage with William Whetenhall originally descended from the ancient Family of Whetenhall of Whetenhall in Cheshire cast it into the Possession of that Name from whom it is now descended to my worthy Friend Thomas Whetenhall of Hextall Court Esquire Spilfted is a fourth Mannor in this Parish It was the Inheritance for diverse Ages as appears by the Evidences now in the Custody of Sir Roger Twisden of an ancient Family called Cayser the last of which Name who enjoyed this place was John Cayser who went out in Daughters and Coheirs one of which was wedded to Matthew Chetwind to whom this place upon the Separation of the Estate into parcells in his Wifes Right accrued and he after some small residence in the Possession passed away his Right by Sale in the one and fortieth year of Queen Eliz. to Roger Twisden Esq Grand-father to Sir Roger Twisden Knight and Baronet the instant Lord of the Fee a Person upon whom I need drop no other Character when I say that in these times when there is such a Damp and Astonishment by publick blastings and discouragements cast upon Literature He is both a Gentleman and a Scholler Here is likewise a Seat in Peckham very venerable for its Antiquity which in old Rolls is called Hextall Court and was the Mansion of Gentlemen of principal Account in this Track In a Deed without Date Simon de Hougham does demise certain pieces of Land to John de Hextall which lay within the Limits of the Parish of Hougham where anciently this Family enjoyed no contemptible Possessions as well as at East-Peckham The last of this Name at this place was William Hextall who dyed without Issue-male and left Margaret his only Heir who was matched to William Whetenhall Esquire in the raign of Henry the seventh descended from the ancient and illustrious Family of Whetenhall of Whetenhall in the County of Chester and so it was incorporated into the Income of that Family where it hath ever since remained so that it is now the present Inheritance of Thomas Whetenhall Esquire West-Peckham or Little Peckham in the Hundreds of Twyford and Littlefield was annexed to the Demeasne of the Knights Templars when John Colepeper founded a Praeceptory here for them in the year of our Lord 1 .... which upon the finall Extirpation and Dissolution of their Order here in England in the second year of Edward the second was granted to the Knights Hospitallers and was sometimes called a Praeceptory and sometimes a Commandry Now a Praeceptory was a Benefice in Kind and was termed so because this and all others of the same Capacity were possest by the more eminent sort of Templars whom the Chief Master created and called Praeceptores Templi A Commandry was some principal Mannor of the Knights Hospitallers wherein was placed some Brother of the Order who could not dispose of the Profits of it but was to mannage it only to the Use of the whole Fraternity deducting so much of the Revenue as might support his Livelyhood and Subsistence of which see more in Dr. Cowells Interpreter in his Notes and Comment upon the word Commaundry This upon the Suppression was by Henry the eighth in the thirty second year of his raign granted to Sir Robert Southwell afterwards of the Privy Councell to King Edward the sixth and Queen Mary who not long after alienated it to Sir Edmund Walsingham of Scadbery Lieutenant of the Tower from whom it came down by Descent to my Noble Friend Sir Thomas Walsingham his Great Grand-child who not long since passed it over by Sale to his Son in Law Mr. James Masters Oxenheath is an ancient Mannor in West-Peckham and was many Ages past the Demeasn of Colepeper Walter Colepeper dyed seised of it in the first year of Ed. the third Rot. Esc Num. And from him by Successive Transmission threaded together by many Descents did it devolve to ...... Colepeper who determined towards the latter end of Henry the seventh in three Daughters and Coheirs Margaret the eldest was matched to William Cotton of the County of Cambridge Joyce the second was wedded to Edmund Howard a younger Son of Thomas Duke of Norfolke who was Father to Katharine Howard one of the infortunate Wives of Henry the eighth and the third was espoused to Barham of Barham-court in Teston and these three Sisters shared his Inheritance and this upon the Partition was annexed to the Demeasn of Cotton whose Successor passed it away by Sale to Chowne of Faire-lane in which Name it did not long continue for Sir George Chowne in our Fathers Memory being desirous to abridge and contract all his Estate into the County of Sussex alienated this Seat to Nicholas Miller Esquire who upon his Decease bequeathed it to his
was represented to the World under that Notion as appears by very old Deeds without Date in the Hands of Mr. Bartholomew May too tedious here to recite In the twenty fourth year of Edward the first Isabell Wife of Henry de Apulderfield held it at her Death and in the Copy of the Inquisition Roll it is called Manerium de Newburgh but in Ages of a more modern Complexion it fell from its former Reputation and by Disuse shrunk into Neglect and Contempt and is now only eminent in that it was involved in that Estate that by Elizabeth Coheir of Sir William Apulderfield devolved to Sir John Phineux who finding his Sepulcher in Female Coheirs Jane one of them brought it over to her Husband John Roper Esquire and from him by paternal Efflux is the Title now wafted along to the right honorable Christopher Roper Baron of Tenham removed by no wide Distance from this place St. Johns is the last Mannor in Rodmersham to be taken Notice of though the First in its Degree of Eminence because it was a principal place belonging to the Knights Hospitallers An Order that was established and instituted by Gerardus but fenced in and empaled with New Orders and Rules by Raimundus a Podio lest debauched and softned by secular Interest in Decursion of Time they might have sallied out into some Disorder and Excesse At their first Installment they were to be eighteen years of Age at least and none who were without the Verge of that Time were capable of this Order they were to be neither of Jewish nor Turkish Extraction lest they might seem tacitly to wrap up those principles in their Blood which by their Vow they were engaged to destroy Their Pedigree or Genealogie was to be wholly Christian and that of no coorse but of a more refined Temperament for their Birth or Parentage was to be noble and that not to be sullied with the impure Tincture of Bastardy Yet even this Restriction had a gentler sense quilted into it for if they were the Natural Sons of Princes their Birth was enobled and the Rigor of the Rule was by so eminent a Descent softned and allayed and they made capable of this Order Then they were by a general Obligation to defend the Sepulchre of Christ to protect Pilgrims against the Eruptions of Infidels in their visits made to the Holy Land to foment no Clandestine Animosities by engaging in private Duells amongst themselves which were blasted with the Black Character of Illegality and if the Princes of Christedome were entangled in intestine Dissentions amongst themselves they were to shroud themselves under an impartial Neutrality lest they might destroy that Christianity which by Oath they were obliged to assert if they should embark in any impious Sidings or partial Combinations Lastly they were abstracted by their Vow of Poverty Chastity and Obedience from all secular Employments or Negotiations lest the Fumes of Temporal Interest might cloud their Eyes in their prospect towards the Sepulchre in order to which they were not to exercise any Mercantile Affairs or the Designs of Usury they were if possible to receive the Sacrament thrice every year and if not interrupted to hear Masse once a day I have now done with the Ingredients which made up their Vow I shall now come to the form of their Installment As for the Method of their Investiture it was cast into this Mould They had a Sword delivered to them intimating they should fight with Magnanimity and this was guarded with a Crosse Hilt to declare that they were in all Encounters to vindicate and maintain the Crosse and Sepulchre of our Saviour Then they were struck thrice over the Shoulders with that Sword they were invested with to insinuate that they should sustain all Contumelies and Indignities for the Cause and Defence of Christian Religion Then fourthly this Sword was wiped to instruct them that their Lives were to be assoiled from the Spot of all open and scandalous Impieties Fifthly they had guilt Spurs placed upon their Heels to shew first that all temporal Improvement of Wealth was to be cast behind the Designs of Piety and Religion or secondly to demonstrate that Riches were but the Glosse or Parjet but Honor and Vertue was the Solid Body designed by the Spur it self that was to support and sustain it Sixthly they had a lighted Taper put into their Hands by that to discover that by an eminent Integritie and exemplar Piety like the Irradiation of that Luminary they were to make themselves conspicuous to those who were involved in the Mists and Umbrages of a dark and gloomy Infidelity Lastly after these Formalities performed they were obliged to repair to Masse where I leave them Their Customary Habit was a black Cloak being the best Ensigne or Symptome of a solemne external Sorrow and on this was a Crosse potent between four Crosses Patee designing the five wounds of our Saviour they wore constantly when they appeared in publique a red Belt intimating they were at all times ready to bleed in Defence of the Crosse and Sepulcher and on that was fixed a white Crosse to manifest the Purity and Innocence of that Cause and Religion which was contended for This Order was first brought into England in the year of Grace 1100 by Jordan de Briset in some old Deeds written Brinset Lord of Well-hall at Eltham in Kent and Muriell his Wife who founded a House for them at Clerkenwell and dedicated it to St. John which afterwards became the Head of their Alberge here in England to which this Mannor continued united as parcell of their Demeasne untill the Dissolution in the Reign of Henry the eighth like a general Deluge swept it away and transported it into the Revenue of the Crown and that Prince by Royal Concession made it the Estate of William Pordage Esquire in whose Descendant Thomas Pordage Esquire the present Inheritance of it remains at this instant placed Rochester is a City which in elder Times was as eminent for its Antiquity as it was for its Strength and Grandeur and had not those violent Impressions which the rough hand of War formerly defaced it with demolished its Bulke and discomposed its Beauty it peradventure might have been registred at this day in the Inventory of the principal Cities of this Nation It was governed by a Port Reve until King Edw. the fourth in the second year of his Reign raised it into a higher Dignity and decreed by his royal Grant that it should thenceforth be governed by a Maior and twelve Aldermen and to this Monarch does this City owe much of its present Felicity a Prince certainly he was full of Complacence and Benignity of a munificent Mind and an obliging accostable Nature guilty onely of some humane Frailties common to all and adorned with many signal Virtues scarce resident in any one who did not voluntarily sail into that Sea of Blood which was let loose in the Civil War commenced between Him and the
Partisans of the House of Lancaster but rather was driven into it by the Tempest of his ill Fortune Having represented the City in its Modern Face or Aspect I shall now draw the Curtain something wider and discover its Pourtracture in its calamitous Sufferings occasioned by the Invasions not only of an entaged Enemy but likewise which is worse by the Onsets of its own incensed Prince and these two mixing together have much disordered the Ancient Glory and Splendor of it In the year 680. Eldred King of Mercia harrassed Kent and by an impetuous Inroad laid it wast And as particular Lamentations are not distinguishable in universal Groans so in this publick Depopulation of the County then Kingdome the Tragedy and Devastation acted by that Prince at that Time upon this City was not resented with that Regret as so deplorable Ruine might seem to exact which had it been singly poured out upon this City it could not have been repeated or rehearsed without a bleeding Heart and a weeping Eye In the year 986. King Etheldred infested Rochester with a Siege having entertained some discontent or disgust against the Bishop and would not dissolve his Leaguer until the said Bishop had expiated his Offence with the Sacrifice of an hundred pounds a Sum of importance in those dry Times though inconsiderable in these profuser ones of ours where commonly the pecuniary Supply that is extracted from the Subject is steeped in his Tears In the year 999. the Danes invaded Canterbury and though by the vigorous Resistance and Magnanimity of the Defendants their Assaults were made null yet at length by the treacherous Combination of an insidious Party within it was rather betrayed then subdued and miserably depopulated by the Barbarous Adversary the Signatures of which Devastation are yet visible and though the wideness of the Orifice which that wound had made be something closed up with the Hand of Time yet there is a huge Scar left to represent to Posterity the Greatness of the former Ruine After they had thus harrassed and defaced that City they to improve â—heir Victory advanced to Rochester where the Inhabitants astonished with an Example of so much Terror after some faint Opposition against the Danish Impressions and Onsets gave themselves up to Flight and this City to a Calamitous Depopulation In the year 1130. Henry the first with the Arch-bishop of Canterbury were present at the Consecration of St. Andrews Church in Rochester which was then brought to perfection having been before much empaired by the Iron Teeth of Time But then the Fury of the Elements began to enter into a Corrivalship or Competition with the Fury of Enemies for by a casual Eruption of an Accidental Fire the whole City almost found an infortunate Sepulchre in its own Ashes But it seems like a Phaenix it rose again into new Beauty and Order out of these Ashes and Embers but did not long continue in this Condition for in the year of Grace 1177. which was in the Time of Henry the second it was again assaulted by the Outrage and Fury of this implacable Element the Impressions and remaining Signatures of which Conflagration are obvious to the Inspection of an Inquisitive Eye even until this Day In the year 1225. it was by the Indulgent Bounty of King Henry the third invested with a Wall and that this Fortification might be of more Concernment it was likewise secured or fenced with a Ditch In the year 1251. A Solemn Tornament was held at Rochester wherein the English entered the Lists against those Strangers or Forrainers who having in that Age a great Concernment in the Eare of Henry the third had likewise a strong Interest in his Heart and by consequence a powerful Impression or Influence upon the publick Affairs of those Times wherein they managed the Honor of this Nation with so much Courage and Gallantry that they forced them with Shame and Confusion to retire into the City and as if that were not a Shelter of sufficient Importance to seek for their Security in the Castle The Castle THat there was in the Age before the Norman Invasion the Rudiments or if I may so say the Embrio of a Castle represented to the World under imperfect Lineaments or Dimensions here at Rochester is most certain For the Records of the Cathedral inform us that Egbert King of Kent in the year 763. gave certain Lands to Eardulfe Bishop of Rochester situate within the Wals of the Castle of that City which argues that there was some Trench or Fortification even in those Times which was in Strength by the Analogy of Proportion equivalent to the Fortresses of that Age and so might merit by Resemblance the Name of a Castle though the Bulk and Grandeur of it was added in Times of a more Modern extraction For in the Time of the Conquest I find that the Bishop of Rochester received Land at Alresford for Land at Rochester proportionate to it to erect a Castle on which was in all probability onely to enlarge the Boundaries of the old one which peradventure was thought too contemptible in those active Times to secure so important a Pass as this of Rochester was without the Additional Supply of some new Strength And that these Augmentations did acknowledge if not for their Founder or Author yet at least for their eminent Benefactor Odo Bishop of Bajeux and Earl of Kent half Brother to the Conqueror is without Controversie a man who was afterwards dignified and adorned with the Office of Lord Chief Justice of England a place of the most eminent Trust in that Age and which was often managed by the Kings of England personally themselves and from the Marble Seat in Westminster-hall did deliver their Decisions and Determinations of Law from whence in Ancient Seals and other Sculptures they are often represented to us sitting in Judicature upon this Marble Seat and hence result those Customary Expressions in Original Writs and other Processes Coram Nobis and Teste Rege and sometimes me Ipso apud Westmon and some other Phrases and Tearms in our Ancient Law-books of the same Complexion as namely such a one Allocutus est Nobis sedentibus supra Sedem Marmoream which justifies that the Kings of England did sometimes personally sit and assist in Judicature in that Court we now call the Upper Bench where like a great Orb or Glob of Light they dispersed their Beams of Mercy and Justice into all the parts of our English Horizon and dispelled all those Crievances which like so many Fogs or Clouds exhaled from corrupred Nature seemed to eclipse the Serenity of this Nation But I wander too much I now return This Accumulation of Offices and Dignities could not so ingage this above-mentioned Odo to the Interest of William Rufus his Nephew but that he first enwrapped himself in a Combination with some of the discontented Nobility whose Endeavors were to ravish the Scepter out of the Hand of that Prince and place it in
very infortunate in that intestine Discord which burst out between them and their own Bishop Gilbert Glanville who not only forcibly wrung from them their Goods Ornaments Writings and other Muniments but likewise devested them of a considerable Portion of their Lands Possessions and Priviledges which forced them to appeal to Rome for Redresse where they embroiled themselves in a tedious Law-Sute which engaged them to that vast expence that they were constrained to coin the Silver of Paulinus Shrine into Money to support them in so expensive and costly a Contest and this much embased for the future that Esteem which the World formerly had entertained both of the Piety and Sanctitie of the Monks of this Cloister But these Contests did not so much prejudice or endamage this Cloister within though accompanied with much Heat as the Devastation occasioned by the Element of Fire without for in the year 1130. when Henry the first with a great Convention of the Nobility and Bishops was then present to solemnize the Consecration of St. Andrews Cathedral and Church which was then newly finished a suddain Flame broke out whose Assaults upon this Covent did much deface and empare the Glory of the Ancient Fabrick And as if this impetuous Eruption had not been enough to diminish the Beauty of it there was another Fire in the year 1177. which was about the latter end of Henry the second which exercised its Fury upon it even to a total Depopulation of this Cloister yet after all these Disasters wherein it is disputable whether the Rage of men or that of the Elements were more destructive by the Charitable Beneficence and Piety of that Age it arose like a Phaenix more Beautiful and vigorous even out of its Embers and Ashes and continued in that condition until the general Dissolution in the reign of Henry the eighth and then that Prince having suppressed this Covent and torn off their Revenue upon their Ruines he established a Dean and twelve Prebends and endowed them for their future support with that Demeasne which for the principal part of it as namely Wouldham Halling Snodland Trottescliff Denton Longfeild Borestal Lidsing and Stoke in the Hundred of Hoo had been formerly annexed to the above-mentioned Cloister The Cathedral with the Bishoprick of Rochester united to it were founded and established by that pious Monarch Ethelbert King of Kent and the first Bishop to whom was entrusted the Pastoral Staffe or Crosier by Augustine the Apostle of the Saxons was Justus the above-mentioned Prince not only assenting unto this Election by his Presence but likewise contributing to the Support of the Person so chosen and his Successors by his liberal Beneficence And indeed it is remarkable that in all those Revolutions and Vicissitudes which have rolled and varied the Fate of things and Affairs since the Seeds of Christianity were sown so plentifully by the Hand of Augustine in this Island that the Chair of this Bishoprick was still fixed at Rochester whereas many others have in sundry parts of the Nation suffered divers Translations to other places then that where they at first were established and the Reason is because by the Order of William the Conqueror such Bishops as were before resident in Towns and Villages were forthwith to transplant their Seat into walled Cities and places of Defence the more to oblige the populacie not only to repair thither for the Exercise of Devotion but likewise to augment the Commerce and Bulk of those Cities by such numerous Assemblies but in this Command of his Rochester could not be interressed or concerned that was invested with a Wall or something equivalent to it long before the Age of the Conqueror I should now unfold a Catalogue of those Bishops that swayed the Crosier of this Sea beginning with Justus and concluding with John Warner the instant Bishop of this Diocess but this is so obvious both in Goodwin and a late Manual styled The Help to History that I shall only historically Record the most eminent of them and proceed The first of whom I find to be Justus who was translated from this Sea to that of Canterbury a Man whose Integrity of Life breathed out a noble perfume when he was living and his Body if we may credit the Fabulous and Superstitious Legend of that Age no less grateful an Odour when he was Dead for 't is reported that his Reliques being to be removed after their Enterment many years before cast forth not the Stench or Steam of Putrefaction but a Sent so odorous and fragrant that it did not annoy but exceedingly delight the Nosthrils of those who were present but indeed this might be possible without the Concurrence of a Miracle if we consider that those Remains of his might be rescued from the Fate of Corruption by the Adjuncts or Circumstances of Nard Balm Spicery and Perfume so that the Miracle seems to be imposed by the Monks on the Laity of that Age only to excite both their Devotion and Benevolence Paulinus who was the third Bishop who succeeded him converted Edwin King of Northumberland and Edelburga his Queen to Christianity and so justly merited the Title of Apostle of that Province for which he was recorded after his Death in the Register of Saints and had his Body so far ennobled that it was wrapt up in a silver Shrine Ithamar who next succeeded him had his Reliques likewise enshrined in after Times by Gandulphus Bishop of Rochester which was not only repaired but very much adorned and beautified by Bishop John his Successor because as the Book of Rochester intimates he was redeemed by touching his Reliques ab acerrimo Oculorum Dolore from some sharp Distillation which did afflict his Eye Arnostus was present at Pinenden-heath at the great Debate touching some Lands which were unjustly ravished away from the Church Gundulphus his Successor erected the white Tower in Rochester-castle and whereas he at his first Instalment found but six Canons in the Covent of St. Andrews he so liberally endowed it that he left it replenished with threescore Monks of the Order and Rule of St. Benedict Tobias whom I should have mentioned after Ithamar was as Harp feild out of the Records of Rochester a man very dextrous and skilful in the Tongues and a general Magazine of all other Learning both Divine and Humane beside Walter de Merton Lord Chancellor of England did not only found the Colledge of Merton at Oxford but likewise laid the Foundation of an imperfect Colledge at Maldon in Essex which by his Death was left unfinished He died in the year 1277. and lies buried in his own Church at Rochester to which in his Life Time he had been a Munificent Benefactor In Gratitude to whose Memory Sir Henry Savil and the Fellows of Merton Colledge erected a Magnificent Monument in the year 1599. over his Ashes which though it be much empaired both by Age and the injurious Affronts of these impious Times yet shall the Name of this
great man be the best Steward to his own Dust and when his Sepulchre it self shall lie enterred in its own deplored Rubbish this shall stand unto it self an everlasting Tomb and Epitaph Hamon de Heath was Confessor to Edward the second and a liberal Benefactor to this Church He built the House at the Mannor of Halling which in some Ancient Records is styled his Pallace Joannes de Scapeia or John de Shepey was Lord Treasurer of England three years Richard Young was a principal Contributor to the Reparation of the Church at Frendsbury and wholly glazed the Windows where not long since his pourtracture was exposed to the publick View a good Index not only to his Memory but likewise to the Remembrance of so pious a Work John Lowe was born in the County of Worcester and was a man in the Estimate of Bale who writ his Life not only of signal Piety but likewise an Exchequer of all manner of Learning John Fisher was a man of vast Knowledge which yet was Ruinous to him for asserting the Papal Supremacy when it was invested in Henry the eight by an Act of Parliament he offered up his Life on a Scaffold as a Sacrifice to that opinion Nicolas Ridley was a man of an inculpable Life and of a wide Knowledge who was so an irrefragable Assertor of the Protestant Religion that he gave himself up at Oxford to the Fury of Fire and Faggot for the Testimony of what he before had professed and hath by his exemplary Life and Death taught the Adversaries of Episcopacy this Lesson that it is possible that the Seed may be pure as well as the Soyl that is the persons of the Men as well as the Office may be incorrupt John Warner is the last who brings up this Catalogue in whom the instant Title of this Bishoprick is resident a man worthy of better Dayes yet fit for these who for his vast Encouragement of Learning in the best of Times and his pious Support of it in the worst cannot be mentioned without an Attribute There have in elder Times many Contests and Animosities broke out between the Bishops of Rochester and Worcester and the Fuel which fomented and supplied this Fire of Contention was that both these Prelates pretended to the Support of the Crosier before the Arch-bishop of Canterbury in all Processions and other Acts of publick and signal Solemnity but in Fine the Crosier or Pastoral Staff was fixed or setled in the Hand of the Prelate of Rochester and hath been by Prescription ever since united as a convicted and Inherent Priviledge to this Diocesse Before I wave my Discourse concerning this Bishoprick I must inform the Reader that there are some peculiars which are annexed to the Deanries of Croydon and Shorham and this hath entangled and engaged many in much Difficulty to trace out the last Wils and Testaments of those who deceased within the Confines and Precincts of these peculiars To unravel therefore these Niceties for the future I shall represent a just Scale of these excepted places out of the original Records of the Church of Rochester themselves that those which can find no satisfaction in the Registers of Canterbury or Records of Rochester may yet discover what they are in pursuit of in that Office wherein these are enrolled and filed But before I unwind their Catalogue I shall in brief wrap up what in former Times hath been delivered touching the Office of Rural Deans by Duarenus and others who have more copiously dilated themselves upon this Subject This Officer was certainly brought into the Church to supply the place of those whom Antiquity styled the Chore-Episcopi who were commonly Assistants to the Bishop For indeed where the Diocesse was of that vast Latitude and Extent that the Managery of so great a Trust was disproportionate to the Discharge of one single Person it was necessary that his Care should be supported by the mutual Counsel and concurrent Advice of others whose prudence might improve the Affairs of the Church and upon the going out of the above-mentioned Office as being obsolete and antiquated this of the Rural Dean came in And to him did the Bishop entrust an Inspection into the Lives of the Clergy and from him did receive an exact Account of Scandal in its whole Latitude and other vitious Excesses which might by an impious Connivance have added more blackness to the Cassock He was likewise by Delegation from the Bishop to take Cognisance of all Errors and Deviations from that which in that Age was reputed Orthodox Doctrine that neither the Foundation nor Superstructure of Religion might be assaulted And lastly where the Diocesse was wide and of a large Territory it frequently hapned that the Probate and Administration of sundry Testaments in divers places was committed to his Care and Sway and he was likewise entrusted with a Seal with the Name of the Bishop whose Office by Deputation he was to discharge and not his own insculped upon it which upon his Decease or relinquishing this Office was to be surrendered up into the Hands of the Bishop of the Diocesse for the Time being that he might dispose of it as he should judge convenient Thus much of the Rurall Dean the Peculiars of which I before promised a Catalogue are as follow Ainsford Rectory and Vicarage Bexley Vicarage Brasted Rectory Chiddingtone Rectory Chevening Rectory Cliff Rectory Crayford Rectory Darent Vicarage East-Malling Vicarage East-Peckham Vicarage Ferningham Vicarage Gillingham Vicarage Graine Vicarage Heys Rectory Hever Rectory Hunton Rectory Igtam Rectory Mepham Vicarage Northfleet Vicarage Orpington and St. Mary Crey Rectory Otford Chappel Pencehurst Rectory Sundrige Rectory Sevenoke Rectory and Vicarage Stansted Chappel Wrotham Rectory and Vicarage Having done with the Church I shall now descend to those Mannors which lie circumscribed within the Precincts and Verge of this City The first is Borestall which as Textus Roffensis denotes and signifies unto us was given to the Church and Monks of St. Andrews by Kenulfus King of Mercia and was as the Records of that Church testifie de Cibo eorum to support their Table with a constant supply of Diet and rested annexed to their Demeasne until the Fatality of the General Dissolution ravished it away and afterwards it was by Henry the eighth when he established a Dean and Chapiter upon the Ruines of this above-mentioned Priory linked unto that Revenue which he granted them for their future subsistence The second is Great Delce which had owners of that Sirname as is evident by Testa de Nevill and other Records both of a publick and private Stamp but it appears was not of any permanent continuance in this Name for before the middle of Edward the first it was gon from that and united to the Inheritance of Haspall Geffrey de Haspall enjoyed it at his Death under the Notion of the fourth part of a Knights Fee as appears by an Inquisition taken in the fifteenth year of Edward the first
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
as a Limb of the Estate thus acquired who in the fiftieth year of his reign setled it on the Abby of St. Mary Grace on Tower-hill of his Foundation and Endowment and having remained treasured up in the Revenue of that Cloister untill the general suppression it was then plucked off and by King Henry the eighth granted in the thirty first of his Reign to Thomas Green Esquire whose Descendant in our Fathers memory passed away his Concernment in it to Apsley Ham Sharpenash and West-court are three little Mannors situated within the Circuit of this Parish and were parcel of that Patrimony which related to the Abby of St. Augustins which upon the Dissolution of that Fraternity the vast Demeasn which appertained to it being more hainous in the Eyes of Henry the eighth than those Crimes and Offences though peradventure of a Complexion dark enough which were charged upon the Covent He I mean the Prince abovesaid ravished them away from the patrimony of the Church to incorporate and interweave them with the Revenue of the Crown where their Title and proprietie was not long lodged for K. Hen. the eighth conveyed them by Grant to Will. Hach descended from Hach of Aller in Devon who not long after passed them away to Tho. Green Esq written in his Deeds alià Norton where after the possession of them had some years continued the Interest of all these Mannors was by the Mutation of Sale transported into Aldersey Ancestor to Captain Terry Aldersey of Swanton Court in Bredgar now Lord of the Fee and Signory of these above recited places W. W. W. W. WAldershare in the Hundred of Eastry was in elder Times the Seat of an eminent Family called Malmains John de Malmains is recorded in an Ancient Roll of those Gentlentemen which entred England with William the Conquerour and engaged with him at the Battle of Battle John de Malmains as Mr. Fuller in his Ecclesiastical History does represent to us was Standard Bearer to the Norman Footmen and was joyned by William the Conquerour as an Assistant Knight to Otho one of the Monks of Ely Henry Malmains is registred in the Bed-roll of those Kentish Gentlemen who assisted Richard the first at the Siege of Acon See more of this Family of Malmains in the Catalogue of Sheriffs John de Malmains is registred in the Pipe rolls amongst those who were Recognitores Magnae Assisae in the reign of K. John a place of that Latitude of Trust and Authority that those who managed it were frequently selected out of the chiefest Knights and most eminent Gentlemen of the County Sir Nicholas de Malmains was engaged with Edward the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland in the twenty eighth of his reign and for his worthy undertaking there received the Dignity of Knighthood and from him did Waldershare descend to Nicholas de Malmains who died possest of this and much other Land in the twenty third year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 160. and from him descended Henry Malmains his Grand-child who dying about the beginning of Henry the fourth without Issue Male left his Estate here at Waldershare to Agnes his sole Daughter and Heir matched to Thomas Goldwell of Great Chart yet had this Henry a Kinsman called Thomas Malmains Son of John Malmains who had a considerable share of this Mannor of Waldershare which by his Heir General devolved to John Monins Esquire who about the beginning of Henry the sixth purchased all that Demeasn and Interest which Tho. Goldwell was entituled to here and so became sole Lord of Waldershare This John Monins was descended from John Monins who in the twentieth year of Edw. the third held Lands at Swink-field as appeats by the Book of Aid by the Title of Esquire and was allied to William Monings or Monins for in old Records they are written so promiscuously who was several times Knight of the Shire for Norfolk as appears by the Record in the Tower whose Title is De Expensis Militum in the time of Richard the second and John Monins this Mans Son was a person of so eminent Notice in this County that he obtained an Indulgence under the Seal of Sixtus the fourth bearing Date 1474 to carry along with him a Priest and a portable Altar for celebration of divine Offices in his necessary Journeyings and John Monins this Man's Grand-child and Son of Robert compounds with Tho. Hobbys in the twentieth year of Hen. the seventh for ten Marks as part of his Fine to be excused from being made Knight of the Bath at the creation of Henry his Son Prince of Wales Edward Monins Esq was Justice of the Peace for Kent the latter part of the reign of Henry the eighth and he was Ancestor to Sir William Monins who was made Knight and Baronet the twenty ninth day of June in the ninth year of K. James by the Name of Sir William Monings of Waldershare and from him is not onely this Title but likewise the signory of this Mannor now devolved by paternal right to his Son and Heir Edward Monins Baronet Walmer is a Member of Sandwich and so in no Hundred It was one of those principal Seats which owned the jurisdiction and signory of the noble and spreading Family of Crioll written frequently likewise Keriel The first whom I find to be possest of it was Matilda de Criol Widow of Simon de Crioll and she in right of Dower was in possession of it at her Death which was in the fifty second of Henry the third Rot. Esc Num. 34. The next of this Name whom the Beams of publick Record represent to me to be possessor of it was Nicholas de Crioll who enjoyed it at his Death which was in the thirty first of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 39. In Ages of a nearer Approach unto us Iohn de Crioll in the forty ninth year of Edward the third died seised of it and so did William Keriell in the first year of Henry the fifth Rot. Esc Num. 21. and left it to his Son Sir John Crioll of Sarre in Thanet who as an old Pedigree of this Family informs me was in eminent Command under Henry the fifth in his successful Expedition into France having the Conduct of several Kentish Squadrons at the Battle of Agincourt and died laden more with Honour then with Years in the ninth year of Henry the sixth and left Sir Thomas Crioll or Keriell Knight of the Gatter Heir both of his Estate and Virtues of whom because our Chronicles speak so much I shall not be silent He was Governor of Gourney in Normandy in the ninth year of Henry the sixth under John Duke of Bedford the Regent not farre from which Place he defeated the Earl of Britaine and in that discomfiture slew six Hundred and took two Hundred Prisoners In the fourteenth year of Henry the sixth the Duke of Burgundy infested Crotoy with a Siege which being successefully raised by the Lord Talbot Sir Thomas Keriell
the third and twelfth of Richard the second and was as the private evidences of this Family inform me originally descended from Hugh de Peckham who was Constable of the Castle of Rochester under K. John in the first year of his reign and he in her right became entituled to that Interest Moraunt had in this place and in this Family it remained until those Times which approached near the Confines of our Grand-fathers remembrance and then it was passed away to Ellis from whence in Opposition to the other Moitie which was of spiritual Concernment it was called Werehorne Ellis and from this Family not many years since it was carried off by Sale to Tufton in right of which purchase the right honourable John Earl of Thanet is now invested in the possession of it The other Moietie which belonged to the Church was given in the year of Grace 1010 by Elphegus Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the Monks of Christ-Church and was for the provision of their Garments And if you will discover how this was rated in the twentieth year of VVilliam the Conquerour the Record of Dooms-day Book will discover In Limwarled says the Note in Hundred de Hamme habent Monachi Sanctae Trinitatis de vestitu eorum 1. Manerium de VVerehorne 1. Sulling est appretiatum LXs. This Mannor being by the Monks and Prior of the Convent aforesaid surrendred into the Hands of Henry the eighth in the twenty ninth year of his reign it lay couched in the Demeasn of the Crown until the seventh year of K. James and then it was by Grant passed away to Tho. Paget and Thomas Twisden who in opposition to the other Moity which was of temporal Interess called this Werehorn Twisden and they not long after passed it away to Sir Thomas Tufton Grand-father to the right honourable John Earl of Thanet the instant Possessor of it Tinton in VVerehorne was a Mannor which anciently belonged to the Priory of Horton near Hieth but upon the suppression all its Demeasn being annexed to the Crown this was lodged there until the beginning of K. James and then it was by that Prince conveyed by Grant to Sir VVilliam Sidley of the Frierie in Alresford Grand-father to Sir Charles Sidley Baronet the present Lord of the Fee Capell in this Parish gave Seat and Sirname to a Family so called whose Demeasn lay spread into Ivie-Church Linton Boxley Horsmonden Capell by Brechley Capell in the Isle of Shepey and this Parish John de Capell flourished here in the reign of Henry the third who was as appears by the Leiger Book of Boxley an eminent Benefactor to that Covent and from him descended Sir VVilliam at Capell an eminent Knight of this County in the reign of Edward the third and Richard the second who left it to his Son Richard at Capell and he dying without Issue in the fifteenth year of Richard the second Sir John Orlanston in right of his Wife who was his Sister and Co-heir entred upon his Inheritance at this place and left it to his Son Richard Orlanston Esq who deceased without Issue in the seventh year of Henry the fifth and so upon the Division of the Estate VVilliam Scot who had espoused Joan one of the Sisters and Co-heirs was planted in the Inheritance of this place and from whom it is now devolved to be the possession of Edward Scot of Scots-Hall Esquire Ham is another eminent Mannor in this Parish which gives Name to the whole Hundred and was as high as the Ray of any Intelligence will guide us to discover folded up in the paternal Demeasn of the ancient Family of Orlanston VVilliam de Orlanston obtained a Charter of Free-Warren to his Lands at Orlanston VVerehorne and other places in the fifty first of Henry the third and being fenced in with this Immunity it came along by the Steps of Several Descents to Richard Orlanston Son of Sir John Orlanston who dying without Issue in the seventh year of Henry the fifth as is manifest Rot. Esc Num. 16. Joan one of his two Sisters matched to William Scot of Scots-Hall and Margaret the second wedded to William Parker of Parkers in this Parish became his two Co-heirs and upon breaking the Estate by mutual Division into parcels this in the second year of Henry the sixth was annexed to the Patrimony of Scot and from him did the Thread of successive Descent transmit to Mr. Edward Scot of Scots-Hall Esquire who still by paternal right enjoys the Inheritance of it Parkers is another Mannor which next summons our remembrance which afforded a Sirname as it gave an Habitation to a Family so styled Edward Parker held Lands in Werehore Westerham and other places at his Decease which was in the ninth year of Edward the second as appears Rot. Esc Num. 1.14 and in this Name was the Title and Inheritance constant until the reign of Henry the eighth and then I find by several Court-rolls one John Engham to be fixed by purchase in the possession and in this Family did it remain uninterrupted until the beginning of K. James and then it was by Sale conveyed to Taylor who not long after demised it to Collins from whom not long since it came by purchase to Squire and he not many years since passed it away to Dr. ...... Kingsley Arch-Deacon of Canterbury in whose Descendants the Proprietie of it is still resident Hampton Coclescombe is the last place considerable in Werehorne which gave Name originally to a Family which here had their Habitation and likewise were possessors of much Land at Westwell and other places and having lived here many Descents the possession of this place at last devolved to John Hampton who about the latter end of Edward the fourth passed it away to John May of Bibrook whose successor John May concluding about the latter end in a Daughter and Heir called Alice matched to John Edolph it came to be the Inheritance of that Family but did not long confess the Signory of it for this John Edolph deceased without Issue-male and left it to his sole Daughter Elizabeth matched to William Wilcock who expiring likewise in two Female Heirs Martha matched to Edward Ratcliff Doctor of Physick and Physitian to Q. Elizabeth and K. James and the second matched to William Andrews they divided this Mannor as parcel of his Inheritance William Andrews in the twenty ninth year of Q. Elizabeth demised his proportion to Rowland Bridges and Robert Philipson And Edward Radcliff alienated that part of it which accrued to him in the forty third year of Q. Elizabeth to Edward Rolt and Andrew Mersh Westerham gives Name to the whole Hundred wherein it is placed and was in elder Times the patrimony of a Family called Camville which was of some eminence in this Track William de Camville and G. de Camville entred England with VVilliam the Conquerour Thomas de Camville was one of the Recognitores magnae Assisae in the seventh year of K. John
demeasn at Halden in Dower with Mary his Daughter matched to Sir Hen. Sidney Lord Deputy of Ireland and Knight of the Garter a person of that Value and Eminence that he that would discover him represented in his best Features and proportion must view him in his Worthy and Signal undertakings in Ireland where he will find him better pourtraid than he can be by any faint or drowsie Attributes that drop from my humble and unequal pen and from him did this Mannor in right of this Alliance descend to his Grandchild the right honorable Robert Earl of Leicester who not many years since passed it away to Sir Edward Hendon one of the Barons of the Exchequer who upon his Decease gave it to his Nephew Sir John Hondon of Biddenden and he not long since alienated it to Mr. John Austin of Tenterden from whom it is lately devolved by Death to be now the possession of his second Brother Mr. Rob. Austin of Hall-place in Bexley Brocket is another Mannor in Ebeney which had possessors as appears by ancient Deeds of that Name who likewise were written in Evidences Brocket but whether the Brockets of Brocket-hall in the County of Hartford were descended from these or these from them I cannot discover But the greatest honor which this obscure Mannor hath acquired is that ever since the reign of Henry the fourth untill the thirtieth year of Henry the eighth it acknowledged the noble Family of Guldford and then it changed its proprietaries for that year it was by John Guldford Esquire conveyed to Sir John Hales Baton of the Exchequer from whom it is now come down to own the proprietary of his Descendant Sir Edward Hales of Tunstall Baronet The Island of Shepey comes next to be treated of It called by Ptolomie Toliatis in Latin Insula Ovium in Saxon Sceapige all agreeing in their Verdict that it was so named from its plenty of Sheep It is environed with the mixed Waters of the Thames and Medway on the West the Swale or Genlade on the South and the Main Ocean beats on the East and North more celebrated for the fertility of the Soil then Salurbity of Air which is grosse and thick causing Aguish Infirmities that keep long Residence they get possession Quinborough or rather originally Kingsborough as Konisbergh in Prussia is now corruptly called Quensborough acknowledged King Edward the third for the Founder who having wedded Philippa Daughter of William Earl of Henault and Holland and his occasions often calling him to passe into her Fathers Dominion whose Aid and Assistance he required in the great enterprise for the Recovery of his undoubted right to the Diadem of France heerected this strong and stately Fottresse for defence of the mouth of the Thames and his own secure Accomodation And because the Situation of this place was unhealthy he to allure Inhabitants in the year 1366 enobled the Town with a Charter of Incorporation wherein he indulges by Grant ample priviledges and Immunities unto it as namely to hold two Mercates weekly one on the Munday and the other on the Thursday and two Fairs yearly one at the Feast of St. James the other on the twenty fourth of March and to make Choice of Burgesses to send to Parliament The principal Architect and Surveyout of the work was William Wickham after Bishop of Winchester who had been formerly employed in that kind at the reedifying Windsor-castle when his good patron John de Vuedal was Constable there This man used to inscribe on the edifices thus erected this Inscription This made VVickham whereby some conceived he arrogated to himself the Cost and payment of the Structure and informed the King thereof but his ingenious exposition satisfied that Prince when he shewed him that by his Inspection and Insight into those matters he had obtained both his Ecclesiastical and secular promotions being made Bishop of Winchester first Keeper of the privy Seal and then of the King's Conscience his last Gradation or Ascent being to be Lord Chancellor of England When King Edward had perfected this Castle he instituted a Chief Governour who was for the future to carry the Title of Constable like as at Dover-castle and elsewhere The Catalogue of those who succeeded in that Command I have set down The care and cost of King Henry the eighth in the year 1536 to repair this place when he erected Fortresses for Defence of the Sea Coast drew this Eulogie from the Pen of Leland Castrum Regius editum recepit Burgus Fulmina dira Insulanos Tutos servat ab omni vel omni Constables of Quinborough Castle JOhn Foxly a valiant Souldier and faithful Servant to King Edward the third was the first Constable of Quinborough Castle which Office he received the thirty sixth of Edward the third 50. Edw. 3. John of Gaunt 8. Rich. 2. Robert de Vere 16. Rich. 2. Arnold Savage of Bobbing Court. 20. Rich. 2. William Scroop 1. Hen. 4. Sir Hugh Waterton 4. Hen. 4. Sir Jo. Cornwallis Lord Fanhope Knight of the Garter 10. Hen. 4. Thomas Arundel Arch-bishop of Canterbury 1. Hen. 5. Gilbert Vmfreville 28. Hen. 6. Humfrey Stafford Duke of Buckingham 1. Edw. 4. John Northwood Esquire ... Edw. 4. George Duke of Clarence 1. Rich. 3. Thomas Wentworth 2. Rich. 3. Christopher Collins 1. Hen. 7. William Cheyney 2. Hen. 8. Sir Francis Cheyney 3. Hen. 8. Sir Tho. Cheyney of Shurland Knight of the Garter 1. Reginae Elizab. Sir Robert Constable  Sir Edward Hobbie Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery Baron of Shurland and Knight of the Garter Minster is the next place of Account in this Island and is contracted from the Latin Word Monasterium from whence this Town hath its Appellation and may challenge the third place amongst our English Nunneries For Sexburga Daughter to Ercombert King of Kent to whom and the Virgin Mary the Church of this Parish is devoted and dedicated in the year 664 erected a Religious House at this place and liberally endowed it for the Sustentation of vayled Virgins The second was founded by Eanswith Daughter of Eadbald King of Kent at Folkston And the first had its Institution at Liminge likewise in this County by Eadburga and erected to the Honor of the Virgin Mary and St. Mildred But the Antiquity of this Cell and the Sanctity attributed to it by elder times could not so skreen or rescue it from the Heat of War but it was thrice sacked and dismantled by the barbarous irruptions of the Danes within lesse then an Age which by usual Account is said to be thirty year The first misfortune happened to it in the year 832 when thirty five Sail of them rived here and rifled it The second and third time was in the year 851 and then again in the year 855 by the Armies of them who wintered their Ships within this Island Besides these depredations the complices of Earl Godwin and his Sons in the Time of their proscription and exile which was in the year