second place to be considered of in this Parish it borrows its Sirname from Adam de Wierton who as appears by old Deeds which by the Antiquity of their Character seem to commence from the Reign of King Henry the third was Possessor of this place and having inocculated his own Name upon it it sprouted out not in loose Suckers and Excrescencies but in those who were by lineal Descent from him justly and successively entituled to the Propriety of this Mannor untill the latter end of Richard the second and then it was by Sale transmitted to Robert Purse and there is one of this Name but whether this Man or his Son I am incertain who was Lord of Wierton House who lyes buryed in Boughton Church in the North Isle with this Inscription on a Plate of Brasse affixed to the Wall Hic jacet Robertus Purse qui obiit 145 bona multa huic contulit Ecclesiae that is he built the Belfrey and the North Isle and those are the good Works registred in his Epitaph and over his place of Sepulture his Portraicture in painted Glass was preserved entire untill the eruption of the late intestine War and then the tempestuous and ill managed or rather overheated Zeal of these Times which like an overheated Brain still concludes in Madnesse disordered it into a Heap of Ruines after this mans Exit I do not find it acknowledged this Family long for Robert Purse this mans Son alienated it to Richard Norton and his Wife Margaret Norton lyes enterr'd within that Seat which belongs to Wierton House as the Date on her Tombstone instructs me in the year 1470 and in this Family did the Title for many Generations inhabit untill that Age which fell under our Cognisance and then it was demised by Sale to Sir Anthony St. Leger of Ireland who still is the Proprietary of it Holbrook is the last Place to be taken Notice of in this Parish it was anciently involved in the Demeasne of a Family which in ancient Deeds and Court Rolls were written Halbroke and bore as is evident in old Registers and Armorials Azure A plain Crosse between four Mullets Or Frettee of the first and having continued here many Descents about the Beginning of Henry the fifth languished away and then the Propriety of this place came to confesse the Signory of Haut of Hautsbourn and dwelt in their Patrimony untill Sir William Haut determined about the latter end of Henry the eighth in two Female Coheirs whereof Joan was matched to Sir Thomas Wiat and he in her Right was enstated in the Inheritance of this place and about the latter end of Edward the sixth the Contract being fortified with his Ladyes consent passed it away to Smith Ancestor to Mr. ....... Smith who still possesses it as part of his Inheritance Boughton Alulph or Aluff in the Hundred of Wye had this appellative Distinction united to its Name to intimate to us that in the Saxons Time it owned the Jurisdiction of one Alulphus a Saxon into whose Name to derive his Memory down to us it hath been ever since adopted But in the Ages after the Conquest it was wrapped up in the Estate of the ancient Family of Burgherst now vulgarly called Burwash Robert dâ— Burgherst is the first who is brought on the Stage by publick Record and presented to our Remembrance and he held it at his Death which was in the thirty third year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 41. and is amongst the Register of those who accompanied that Triumphant and Succesfull Prince in his fotunate Expedition against the Scots and he left it to his Son Stephen de Burgherst who in the second year of Edward the second obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannor of Boughton Aluff and in the third year of that Prince paid his Debt to Nature from whom it descended to his Son Stephen de Burwash who had a Renovation of the former Charter of Free-warren confirmed to this Mannor in the first year of Ed. the third his Son and Heirwas Bartholomew Lord Burgherst who had a Charter of Free-warren confirmed to all his Lands in which this was involved in the twelfth and sixteenth years of Edward the third and was certainly a Person of much Eminence in those Times for he is recorded by Daniell in his Chronicle to have been one of those to whom the abovesaid Prince committed the Conduct of his Army at the Battle of Crescy and was summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron as appears amongst the Summons of that Age he deceased in the twenty eighth year of Edward the third his Heir apparent was Bartholomew Lord Burgherst who was Lord Chamberlain of the Kings Household and was frequently summoned to sit as a Peere of the Realm by Edw. the third as it appears Registered in the late printed Abridgement of the Records of the Tower and he in the forty third year of Edward the third passed away this Mannor and much other Land to Walter de Pavely in Paveley the Possession was resident but untill the Beginning of Richard the second and then it was conveyed to Trivet but here it was of no long fixed continuance neither for Sir Thomas Trivet about the fifteenth year of the abovesaid Prince passed it away to Lewis Clifford from whom it descended to his Successor Lewis Clifford Esquire who in the twelfth year of Henry the sixth by a Fine then levied transplanted his right in it into William Wenlock and he not long after transmitted it by Sale to Richard Beauchampe Baron of Aburgavenny whose Son Richard Baron Aburgavenny concluded in Elizabeth Beauchampe his Sole Heir who was matched to Edward Nevil in her Right Lord of this Mannor whose Descendants constantly remained invested in the Inheritance untill the latter End of Henry the eighth and then it was alienated to Sir Thomas Moile and he dying without Issue Male Katharine his Daughter and Coheir fastned it to the Demeasn of her Husband Sir Thomas Finch where it hath ever since remained so constant and permanent that it now confesses the Signory of the right honourable Heneage Finch the instant Earl of Winchelsey Seaton Ulley and Potbery are three little Mannors lying within the Verge of this Parish the first of which held in grand Serjeantie of the Crown with this respective Service to be performed by the Lord of the Fee Esse vantrarius Regius quando Rex iverit in Vasconiam donec per usus fuerit pari Solutarum pretio 4 d. which wiser Heads who pretend to unravell the Intrigues and Criticisms of Law Latin interpret thus to be the Kings fore Footman when he shall go into Gasconie untill he hath worn out a pair of Shoes which cost 4 d. All these Mannors were wrapped up in the Demeasn of Crioll and Bertram de Crioll died seised of them in the twenty third year of Edward the first whose onely Daughter Joan being matched to Richard de Rokesley called in some old Records Sir
but the Name it self doth tacitly insinuate that this Mansion formerly gave Seat and Denomination to the Family of Buckhurst in times of a lower step that is in the Reign of Henry the seventh I find it in the Tenure of Drayner but how it devolved to this Family I cannot discover It is enough that it continued united to their Dimeasn untill the beginning of Q. Elizabeth and then it was conveyed to Alexander Coachman in whose Descendant the Signorie and Interest of it hath ever since been constantly resident Cranebroke had the Grant of a Market to be observed weekly there on the Saturday in the eighteenth year of Edward the first as appears Cart. Edw. 1. Num. 92. I had almost forgot to tell you that there is a place in this Parish called Holden which with Hawkeridge hath for some Centuries of years acknowledged the Holdens for its Proprietaries and are still united to the Patrimony of this Name and Family which for such a vast Succession of time hath been planted at Cranebroke There was a Chappell at a place called Milkhouse in the Eastern part of this Parish founded and endowed by John Lawless about the latter end of Henry the seventh which upon the generall Dissolation of Chantries and all other Religious Fraternities by Henry the eighth was by that Prince about the latter end of his Rule granted to Sir John Baker of Sisingherst not far distant whose Revenue is yet in the possession of Sir John Baker his Successor There was another Chappell founded at Sisingherst as the Evidences of that place do insinuate by John de Saxenhurst which was reedified by the late Sir John Baker and by a Deed delivered to John Bancroft Bishop of Oxford devoted to the Service of God and dedicated as it was before to St. John the Evangelist After the reception of this Instrument which was in the year 1637. it was by the same Bishop Consecrated first by a Prayer at the entrance of the Chappell then by others made at the Seats Pulpit and Communion Table the effect of all which was that God would accept of it for a House and likewise of the Prayers and Devotions that in that Oratorie were offered up by the faithful People of God to his Honour and Service Charing in the Hundred of Calehill is in Saxon written Cering and by that Name King Kenulf in the year 799. made Restitution of it to Christ Church in Canterbury at the humble request of Arch-Bishop Athelard for King Offa had taken it away from that Church in the time of Arch-Bishop Janibert and being thus regained to the See it continued so till the great Exchange made in the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth with that Prince by Arch-Bishop Cranmer the Fee-simple was planted in the Crown In the time of the Conquest in the Notitia of the Arch-Bishop and Cathedrals Lands because they held it in ancient Demeasn that is they had possest it long before the Conquest and a Mannor-house or Palace there it was called Proprium Manerium Archiepiscopi In the time of Edward the Confessor it went for eight Sullings or Plough-Lands but in the twentieth year of William the Conquerour it was rated in Domsday Book at seven Sullings because one Plough-Land was laid into his Demeasn The Church dedicated to St. Peter and Paul was anciently famous by a traditional relation which I am not much moved with for it wants the stamp of venerable Authority which did affirm that the Block on which St. John the Baptists Head was cut off was brought into England in the Reign of Richard the first and kept in this Church The first place of secular Interest which doth occurre is Pett the Evidences of this place now in the hands of Sir Robert Honywood do mention the Petts to be in Ages of a very high Assent that is about the Reign of Henry the third and Edward the first Proprietaries of it but publick Records reach no farther than Newcourt Lord of the Mannor of Newcourt not far distant Jeffrey de Newcourt Son of Walter de Newcourt paid respective Aid in the twentieth year of Edward the third for his Lands at Newcourt and Pett After the Newcourts were gone out the Hatches were by Purchase planted at Pett and Newcourt they were called so from their abode near some Gate or passage for one of them who was Possessor of these two places was written Hugh at Hatch from this Family by Sale about the latter end of Henry the seventh the right of Pett and Newcourt devolved to William Warham and in some Copies of Fines which I have seen by a false Transcription written William VVarren and this man sold them both again in the entrance of the Reign of Henry the eighth to Robert Atwater who determining in Mary Atwater his Sole Heir She by matching with Robert Honywood Esquire of Henewood in Postling wound up the Interest of these two places Pett and Newcourt into the Demeasn of that Family so that they now own Sir Robert Honywood his great Grandchild the Sole Proprietary of them Stilley is another little Mannor lying within Charing and was anciently enwrapt in the Revenue of Frene John de Frene who flourished in the Reign of Henry the third is mentioned in Testa de Nevill a Book collected in the twentieth year of that Prince to have paid Aid at the Marriage of the Kings Sider for Lands which he possest at Charing after in the twentieth year of Edward the third there is a recital in the Book of Aid of Sir Thomas de Brockhull Son of Sir William de Brockhull who paid an Auxiliary supply at the making of the Black Prince Knight for his Lands which he held at Saltwood Calehill Charing and other places in this County but after this the Possession was not long resident in this Family for Henry Brockhull this mans second Son to whom these Mannors of Stilley and Newland were assigned for livelyhood about the twelfth year of Henry the fourth transmitted them by Sale to John Darell Esquire Son of Sir William Darell who was extracted out of the right ancient and Knightly Family of the Darells of Sesay from whom Sir John Darell of Calehill and Lord of this Mannor of Stilley is originally and lineally issued out Wickins is another Mannor circumscribed within the Limits of this Parish it was originally the Patrimony of Brent a Family well endowed in this Track and certainly was as ancient a Seat of this Family as any which lay involved in their Revenue for John Brent Son of Robert de Brent of Charing paid respective Aid for Lands which he held here in the twentieth year of Edward the third and William Brent who was Son of Hugh Brent of Charing made his Will the twenty seventh year of Henry the sixth and disposed of this place to his Son Hugh Brent and this Hugh had Issue William Brent who composed his Testament in the tenth year of Henry the seventh and this William was great
originall and he having thus improved it transmitted his Right in it by sale some few yeers since to Mr. Philip Warwick Chiddingston in the Hundred of Somerden hath the Addition of Cohbam as being the Inheritance of the Lords Cobham of Sterborough Castle Henry de Cobham had in the ninth year of King John a Charter for all his Lands in Kent of which these at Chiddingston with the two little Mannors of Reynsley and Tihurst In Ages of a lower Step Reginald Lord Cobham who was summoned to Parliament as Lord Cobham of Sterborough in the twenty second year of Edward the third died possest of them in the thirty fifth year of that Prince Parte prima Rot. Esc Num. 62. And here the Right continued till in Thomas Lord Cobham this mans great Grandchild the Male Line failed and resolved into Ann Cobham who was matched to Edward Borough Lord of Gainsborough in the County of Lincoln whose Grandchild Thomas Lord Borough some fifty years since passed away his Right in Chiddingstone Reynsley and Tihurst which had devolved to him by his Grandmother to Stretfield whose Son deceasing without Issue Male they became the Inheritance of four Daughters and Coheirs matched to Dillingham Shetterden Powell and Taylor only Reynsley before his Death was sold to Mr. Christopher Knight whose Heir does now possesse it Burwash Court in this Parish was the Patrimony of the Lords Burgherst by vulgar Depravation of the Name called Burwash Stephen de Burwash had a Charter of Free-warren to all his Lands in Kent in the first year of Edward the second Robert de Burgherst or Burwarsh possest it at his Death which was in the thirty third year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 41. and his Son Bartholomew Lord Burwash in the forty third year of Edward the third by Deed passes away much of his Land in Warwick-shire and Kent to Walter de Paveley and Matilda his Wife in which this lay involved from Paveley it came down by Purchase to John de Bore Trivet and Vaux whose Successors conveyed Burwash to John Alphew in the Reign of Henry the sixth Alphews Coheirs were marryed to ....... Brograve and Sir Robert Read Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the Time of Henry the seventh who in his Wifes Right carried away Burwash as parcell of her Dower but this man determining likewise in Daughters and Coheirs Katharine one of them was wedded to Sir Thomas Willoughby second Son to Christopher Willoughbie of Eresbie which Sir Thomas was likewise Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Eliza. was matched to Sir Tho. Totihurst and a third was married to Th. Wotton Esquire Sir Thomas Willoughbie Esquire Son and Heir of Sir Tho. who joyned in a Fine with his two Uncles even now mentioned in the sixth year of Edw. the sixth and so by a mutuall Concurrence with them their united Concernment in Burwash was passed away to Mr. John and Mr. Robert Seyliard of Delaware in whose Name and Revenue the Title and Propriety of this place hath ever since kept so permanent an Aboad that it is still the Inheritance of Mr. John Seyliard now of Delaware Esquire Bore Place with the Mannor of Milbroke and Boresell was formerly the Inheritance as high as Henry the third of a Family which assumed its Sirname from hence and was called Bore and likewise took in to his Arms a Bore for his Cognisance in this Family the Right of these places successively dwelt till John Bore in the Time of Henry the sixth transplanted his Interest in them by Sale into John Alphew by whose Coheir they came over to her Husband Sir Robert Read and from him they went away by Katharine one of his Coheirs to Sir Thomas Willoughbie whose great Grandchild Percivall Willoughbie who having matched with Bridget one of the four Coheirs of Sir Percival Willoughbie of Notinghamshire devested himself of his Title to both these places to improve his Interest in that County and not many years since alienated them to Mr. Bernard Hide of London Esquire one of the Commissioners of the Custome House to the late King Charles whose Grandchild Mr. Bernard Hide is upon his Fathers late Decease now enterred into their Possession of Milbroke and Boreplace But Boresell now vulgarly called Bowsell was sold to Edmund Thomas of Whitley neer Sevenoke who is now in the enjoyment of it Chilham in the Hundred of Felborough was by William the Conquerour as the Pages of Doomsday Book instruct us assigned to Fulbert de Dover under the Notion of a whole Knights Fee for his Assistance and Association to John de Fiennes in the Guard of Dover Castle which eminent employment thus imposed upon him did induce him to wave his originall Sirname of Lucy and assume one derived from his Office yet Richard de Lucy this mans Son did it seems take up again his primitive Sirname for when King John by his Charter in the sixteenth year of his Reign Cart. 24. Num. 37. restores to Rose de Dover called in the Latin Record Rohesia the Castle of Chilham with all its Appendages he calls it there the Land which was her Grandfather Richard de Lucy's Inheritance This Rose de Dover was sometimes written in old Deeds de Lucy in Relation to which she sealed with three Pikes * Fishes called Lucii in Latin she matched with Richard base Son to King John by whom she had two Daughters and Coheirs Lora married to William de Marmion and Isabell espoused to David de Strabolgie Earl of Athol who in her Right became Lord of the Castle and Mannor of Chilham and transmitted it to his Son John Earl of Atholl who for his frequent Acts of Hostility and Rebellion against Edward the first in his Contest with the Scots being by the Fate of War made Captive was at Canterbury hanged on a Gibbet fifty Foot high that he might be as eminent in his Punishment as he was before conspicuous in his Crimes and being cut down halfe alive had his Head struck off and his Trunk cast into the Fire a Savage Manner of Punishment and hardly heard of before amongst us upon his Shipwrack and Confiscation of Estate it rested in the Demeasne of the Crown till King Edward the second in the fifth year of his Reign as appears Parte prima Pat. Edwardi secundi granted the Castle and Mannor of Chilham to Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer who quickly after lost it by his Perfidiousnesse and Disloyalty to that Prince so that it returned to the Crown and the abovesaid Prince as is evident by Pat. 15. 16. Edwardi secundi restores the Castle and Mannor with all the Goods and Chattels in it which belonged to Bartholomew Badelesmer to David de Strabolgie Grandchild to the first David for Life only which upon his Expiration was again united to the Royal Revenue and in the third year of King Edward the thirds Government it was by Patent granted to Bartholomew Badelesmer Son to the abovesaid Lord Bartholomew and
it is observable that in these Assemblies and in other Recorded by Sir Henry Spelman either the King immediately or else some Thane which was a Dignity equivalent to our English Baron who did Personate the Prince was joyntly President with the Bishop that as one took Cognisance of the Affaires of the Church so the other managed the Concernments and Interest of the State and this was done with much of Reason and Prudence in the original Constitution of these Synods for the mingling the divided Interests of the Laitie and Clergie together and making them mutually to interfere extinguished all jealousie and Emulation between them and by consequence all those black effects and inconveniences which are still the Retinue to those two Furies for we cannot be so Citizens of the Common-wealth but we must be Sons of the Church nor so Sons of the Church the Temporall and Spirituall Interest are so complicated together but we must in some relation be Citizens of the Common-wealth and what causeth annoyance to the one creates disturbance to the other for like Hippocrates Twins they laugh and mourn and live and die together But to proceed when this Mannor had for many Ages been incorporated with the Inheritance of the Church Henry the eighth judging the Clergie grown too Luxuriant in a wide Revenue prun'd off this and Malingden a Mannor which was ever an Appendage to Cliffe as two superfluous Excrescencies and engraffed them again in the Royall Demeasn but suddenly after Cliff was by this Prince granted to George Brooke Lord Cobham and he left it to his Son Sir William Brooke Lord Cobham who enstated it by entaile on his second Son George Brooke and in Defailance of Issue male by him surviving to the next Heir male of the Name after this man was beheaded at Winchester in the second year of King James this devolved to his Son Sir William Brooke who dying without Issue male in the year 1643. Sir Jo. Brooke now Lord Cobham became his Heir Malingden was by Queen Elizabeth granted to William Ewens who quickly after this Concession transferred his Interest in it by Sale to Brown from whom by as sudden a Decursion the Title by Purchase went in to Sompner who in Times which almost attaque our Remembrance sold it away to Hills Perry Court in Cliffe was always a Limb of the Revenue of the Family of Cobham and so for many Hundred years continued till Henry Brooke Lord Cobham being wound up in that fatal and mysterious Design of the noble but infortunate Sir Walter Rawleigh in the Time of King James forfeited this to the Crown but this Seat was by the abovesaid Prince after the Death of Frances Widow to the abovesaid Henry Lord Brook granted to Robert Cecill Earl of Salisbury in Reversion who married Elizabeth Brook this Lords Sister and his Son Will. Earl of Salisbury Knight of the Garter and Captain of the Band of Pentioners to his late Majesty passed it away by Sale to Bernard Hide of London Esq whose Grandchild Mr. Bernard Hide does enjoy the present Fee-simple of it Cardans is the last Mannor in Cliffe which untill the publique Dissolution tore it off belonged to the Charter-House in London and being thus ravished away was by Henry the eighth in the thirty first year of his Reign granted to Thomas Gethins from which Family not many years since it passed away by Sale to Oliver Leder and was lately if it be not still in the Tenure and Possession of that Name West-Clive vulgarly called West-Cliff in the Hundred of Bewsborough was the Patrimonial Inheritance of the Lord Cobham of Sterborough Castle in Surrey a younger Branch of the Lord Cobham of Cobham Reginald de Cobham second Son of John de Cobham was summoned to Parliament as Baron of Sterborough in the twenty second year of Edward the third and dyed possest of this Mannor and much other Land in Kent and Surrey in the forty fifth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 15. and so it remained interwoven for some Descents with the Demeasne of this Family till Thomas Lord Cobham this mans great Grandchild resolved into Ann Cobham who was his Female Heir who by being espoused to Edward Borough Lord Gainsborough linked this to his Demeasne and Propriety but it was unloosned in Thomas Lord Borough this Mans Grandchild who in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth alienated his Interest in it to Guibon whose Grandchild Mr Thomas Guibon is invested in the instant Possession of it Bere Court or Mannor in this Parish was formerly a parcell of the Demeasne of a Family who in times more ancient fell under this Denomination Williant de Bere was Bailiff of Dover and was to account the profits to the Constable of Dover Castle Anno secundo Edwardi primi Memb. 19. Anno quarto Edwardi primi Memb. 34. After this Family had waved the Possession of this place the Tookes were setled in the Inheritance and by a Decursion of many Ages have brought down the Inheritance to Mr. Charles Tooke who is the instant Possessor of Bere Cobham in the Hundred of Shamell afforded a Seat and Sirname to that noble and splendid Family * Sir Hen. de Cobham Sir Reginald de Cobham Sir Stephen de Cobham Sir Henry de Cobham le Uncle are enrol'd in the Register of those Knights who were assistant to K. Edward the first at the Seige of Crlaverock in Scotland in the twenty eighth year of his Reign who from hence borrowed the originall Denomination of Cobham and certainly this place was the Cradle or Seminary of Persons who in elder times were invested in Places of as signall and principall a Trust or Eminence as they could move in in the narrow Orbe of a particular County Henry de Cobham was one of the Recognitores magnae Assisae in the first year of K. John who were in some proportion equivalent to the Judges Itinerant for they took Cognisance of all Causes Criminal declared to be so by the Laws then in force and likewise determined in sundry Actions of a meer Civill Aspect either Reall Personal or Mixt Reginald de Cobham Son of John de Cobham was Sheriff of Kent from the Beginning of the thirty third year of Henry the third to the end of the fortieth year of the said Prince and was again Sheriff in the forty second year of the above mentioned Prince in which year he dyed and Roger de Northwood and his other Executors answered for the Remainder of the year Sir Henry de Cobham was Sheriff of Kent the twenty ninth thirtieth and part of the thirty first year of Edward the first he is written in the old Rolls of the Arms of the Knights of Kent Henry Cobham le Vncle that is he was Uncle to the Lord Cobham he lies buried in Shorne Church with his Portraicture armed in Mail and Crosselegg'd with a Barons Robes cast over but whether he were ever actually engaged in the Defence of the Crosse and
descended to John Bamme Sheriff of Kent in the second year of Richard the third And he gave it to his Daughter Katharine Bamme who passed it away by Grant to Kempe and Wiatt Sir Thomas Kempe sold his moiety to Sir Thomas Wiatt who having forfeited this to the Crown by his unhappy Defection in the second year of Q. Mary it lodged in the royal Revenue untill Queen Elizabeth in the twenty fourth year of her Rule granted it back again to the Lady Joan Wiatt and her Son George Wiatt Esq who in our Fathers memory alienated it to Hayward from which Name by the Heir Generall of this Family it is lately brought to acknowledge Mr. Will. De Lawn of London for its present Proprietary There was a Chappel belonging to Grench which upon the Inquisition returned into the Court of Augmentation but upon the Suppression in the Reign of Hen. the eighth was affirmed to have been erected by Sir John Philipott I confesse I have seen no other Record to evince any thing to the Contrary and therefore I acquiesce in that Testimony Vpbery is the last Mannor in Gillingham which was a Limb of that Demeasn which related to the Nunnery at Minster in Shepey and when the whirlwind of the common Dissolution in the Reign of Henry the eighth had shook this into the Revenue of the Crown that Prince in the thirty eighth year of his Reign passed it away by Grant as appears by the original Patent to Sir Thomas Cheyney whose Son Henry Lord Cheyney exchanged it with other Lands with Queen Elizabeth and shee as is manifest by the Patent now in the Custody of Brasen-nose Colledge granted it to Sir Edward Hobby who about the latter end of her Reign conveyed it to the Reverend Alexander Nowell Dean of Pauls and he dying without Issue in the year 1601 left it for ever to Brasennose Colledge in Oxford with this Proviso that one of his Alliance should hold it in Lease from that Society for ever paying to the Colledge an 100 Marks per Annum according to the Tenure of which Testamentary Restriction it is now enjoyed by Col. Tho. Blount of Wriklemersh Esquire Gillingham had a Market procured to it to be held weekly on the Thursday and a Fair to be observed yearly at the Feast of St. Crosse and seven days after by John Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the eleventh year of Edward the first as appears Cart. Num. 3. Lidsing is the last place of Account in this Parish it was in Ages of a higher Ascent the Inheritance of an ancient Family called Sharsted Simon de Sharsted possest it at his Death which was in the twenty fourth year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 42. In Ages of a lower Computation I find Roger de Say to be possest of it and he about the fiftieth of E. the 3d. gives it to Rob. Belknap the Judge who about the tenth year of Richard the second was by Sentence from Parliament exiled into Ireland for too vehemently asserting the Prerogative of the Crown which in the Estimate of those Times was thought to have opened those sluces too much which would have let in the Inundations of an arbitrary Power upon the people's Liberties But this Mannor was again restored by that Prince who looked upon this person as his Martyr to him as its ancient Possessor in the twenty second year of his Reign and he by his Deed bearing Date the eighth of October in the second year of King Henry the fourth gives it to the Priory of St. Andrews in Rochester for one Monk who was a Priest to celebrate Masse for ever for the Soul of his Father John Belknap and for the Soul of his Mother Alice Wife of the said John and likewise for the Soul of himself and all his Successors in the Cathedrall of Rochester This upon the Dissolution of the former Priory was by Henry the eighth upon his Institution of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester granted to them for their support and Alimony and rested in their Revenue untill these Times There was another Chauntry founded at Twidall by John Beaufits which he makes provision for by his last Will the twenty second of November in the year of our Lord 1433 and orders it to be dedicated to John the Baptist and likewise that one Priest should there celebrate Masse for the Soul of Himself his Wife Alice his Father John his Mother Isabell and his Uncle William Beaufitz the Seats in the Chappel and other Remains declare it to have been formerly a neat and elegant Piece of Architecture Here was a signall Encounter as the Annals of St. Austins testifie between Edmund Ironside and Canutus the Dane wherein after a Sharp Debate the Dane was broken and discomfited At Gillingham likewise as Thomas Robburn a Monk of Winchester testifies was acted that bloody Tragedy by Earl Godwin who slew all those Normans who arrived with Edward unto the tenth man for which his Name as well as his Conscience stands bespatter'd and stain'd with an indelible Character of Ignominy and Cruelty to all Posterity Goodwenston in the Hundred of Feversham was the ancient Seat of Chich. The first of Eminence was Ernaldus Chich who was a man of principall Account in the Reign of Henry the second Richard the first and King John nor were they more eminent here then they were at Canterbury where they had large Possessions and unto them did the Aldermanry of Burgate appertain Thomas Chich of Goodwenston was a prime Benefactor to the Church of St. Mary Bredmin in Canterbury where his Name together with his Effigies are in an old Character set up in the West-window as his Coat is likewise in the Chancel insculped in Stone-work He was Bailiff of Canterbury an Office not contemptible in those Times in the year 1259 and again in the year 1271. Thomas Chich this mans Son was Sheriff of Kent in the forty fourth year of Edward the third and held his Shrievalty at Goodwenston Thomas Chich this Mans Son was Sheriff of Kent likewise in the fifteenth year of Richard the second and he was Grandfather to Valentine Chich who matched with Philippa Daughter and Heir of Sir Robert Chichley Brother to Henry Chichley Arch-bishop of Canterbury but dyed without Issue-male so that his three Sisters and Coheirs wedded to Kemp Judde and Martin shared his Inheritance and by a joint Consent about the Beginning of Henry the eighth passed away their Estate here and at Ewell in this parish to Pordage of Rodmersham and from this Name about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth it passed away to Fagg descended from the Faggs of Willesborough where I find by the Court Rolls of the Mannor of Brabourne that one Andrew Fagge held Lands there of that Mannor in the Reign of Edward the third But to go on the Faggs had not long been planted in their new atchieved Purchase at this place when Robert Fagge concluded in two Daughters and Coheirs Ann who was matched to Sir
Richard de Capell this Man's Successor dyed possest of Capell Court in Werehorn and this here in the fifteenth year of Richard the second But after this Man's decease it did not long remain annexed to the Name for this Family expiring in a Female Heir shee by matching with Harlackenden of the Borough of Harlackenden in Woodchurch united it to the Patrimony of this Family and here it rested untill the Beginning of King James and then Deborah Sole Daughter and Heir of Walter Harlackenden a Branch of the abovesaid Stem by espousing Sir Edward Hales late of Tunstall deceased entwined it with his Demeasne upon whose Death it devolved to his Grandchild Sir Edward Hales now of Tunstall Baronet Cheyneys Court is a second place of Account in this Parish and had this Name imposed upon it because it lay folded up in the Revenue of that Name of that Family Alexander de Cheyney who flourished in the Raign of Henry the third and Edward the first in the ninth of which Prince's raign he was one of that Catalogue as appears by Kirkbie's Inquest kept in the Exchequer who was embarked in that successefull War which was commenced by that Monarch against the Welsh and dyed possest of this Mannor in the twenty fourth year of his Government After whose Decease it was constantly resident in this Family untill Henry Lord Cheyney Son of Sir Thomas Cheyney about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth passed it away by Sale to Mr. Richard Knatchbull whose Heir Generall Sir Norton Knatchbull Knight and Baronet extracted originally from thâ— Knatchbulls of Limne where I find the Name by Deeds very ancient is now in the Possession of the Demeasne but the Mannor was conveyed by Sale to Sir Walter Roberts More Court is a third place in Ivie Church which must not find its enterrement in Silence because it was the ancient Seat of the Moores now Barons of Mellifont in Ireland before they were transplanted into More-place in Benenden by matching with the Heir generall of Sir William Brenchley Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench under Henry the sixth and this is evident by a Fine levyed between John the Son of Thomas de Iden and John de More of Ivie-church so he is named in the Record by which the said John passes away Land to John de More of Rolvenden in the year of Grace 1280. And in this Family for many Generations was it constant and permanent untill the latter end of Henry the seventh and then the common Vicissitude of Purchase which like a Moath or Canker frets into ancient Titles brought it to be the Possession of Taylor and here it was settled untill in the second year of Edward the sixth as by an Exemplification now in the Hands of Thomas Taylor Esq is evident it was divided between William and John Taylor Gentlemen and they immediately after by a joint and mutuall Concurrence alienated their Interest here to Peter Godfrey Gentleman Great Grand-father to Sir Thomas Godfrey now of Hepington in Nether Hardres who is the instant Proprietary of it Iwade in the Hundred of Milton is a small Parish situated no great distance from the Swale which exposes it self to the injurious Impression of many Fogs and other sullen Vapours which exhale from the adjacent Marishes so that the Air becomming by these Mists contagious and unheathfull we must expect that it cannot be very populous nor contain many places in it considerable in their Account The only place of Note being Colshill-hall a place in its Name proportionate to its Position though formerly it had Owners of its own Appellation for in a Deed of William de Codshill who held Land at Middleton Bobbing and elsewhere and which bears Date from about the fiftieth of Henry the third I find one John de Colsted a Witnesse But in Times of no great distance from that Prince's Raign I find the Alefs or Alephs possest of it and to this Family does the ancient Shell or Fabrick of the House owe the principal part of its Structure especially that which by its Antiquity obliges the Eye to so much Regard and Veneration as is evident by the Hall which in diverse places is diaper'd with an A. and then a Leafe a Rebus which treasures up the Relique of the Name remaining unwritten And appears to be exceeding ancient by the Character calculated for the Raign of Edward the third From whose Time untill the Beginning of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth it continued knit to this Name of Alef and then Thomas Aleph the last of this Name being extinguished in a Daughter and Heir called Margaret matched to John Monins Esquire this by that Alliance became the Inheritance of that Name but made no long aboad in their Revenue for in our Grand-fathers memory it went away by Sale from Monins to Lewin and Lewin not many years since concluding in a Female Inheritrix she by being affianced to Rogers branched out from Rogers of Brianson in the West linked it to the Inheritance of that Family where it had as brief a Residence for Rogers not long since dying without Issue-male Elizabeth his only Heir by her espousalls with Charles Cavendish Lord Mansfield hath now interwoven it with the Propriety and Income relating to that eminent and illustrious Family K. K. K. K. KEmsing in the Hundred of Codsheath is a Parish which in Respect of its Circuit and Dimension is but despicable but in Relation to those Persons who in elder Times were Possessors of it it is not inferiour in its value to scarce any Parish in this Hundred The first that I find to be its Proprietary was Falcatius de Brent and he is mentioned in the Red-book kept in the Exchequer to have held it in the Raign of Henry the second and was Castellan likewise of Kemsing-Castle a place then of important Concernment though now it 's Skelleton it self be shrunk into such a desolate and neglected Masse of Rubbish that it would be now as difficult to trace it out or find it as it was formerly to conquer it And this Mans Son was that Falcatius de Brent so famous in our Chronicles for those wild Disorders and Sallies arising from those Boilings and Evaporations which were cast out by the Calentures of Youth rather then from any vitious Habit contracted from severall Acts of Excesse and riveted into his Soul Yet it seems these Excursions of his did so disgust King Henry the third that he made the Forfeiture of his Estate here pay the price of his Vanities Indeed that name his Misfortunes rather then his Treasons seem to Challenge And then that Prince in the sixth year of his Reign granted it with the Mannor of Sauters in Sutton at Hone to Baldwin de Betun Earl of Albemarle in Right of his Wife Hawis Daughter and Heir of William le Grosse Earl of Albemarle and Lord of Holdernesse And this Baldwin had by her two Daughters and Coheirs Hawis the eldest of them was married to
who in so many remarkable and triumphant Conflicts asserted the Interest of this Nation in France in the Raign of the abovesaid Prince and at last received a mortal Wound by a Splinter of a Window struck into his Face by a Cannon shot at the Siege of Orleans of which he died 1428 and left his Estate here to his Natural Son James Montacute * Ex vetustis Autographis penes Rich. Lea Arm. de Rochester so written in the Deed but in all our printed Books of Nobility falsly and corruptly John and he in the thirtieth year of Henry the sixth conveyed it by Deed to Thomas Davy Gentleman and he not many years after alienated it to Edward Nevill Baron of Aburgavenny from whom it was transported by Descent to his Successor Henry Lord Aburgavenny who dying in the twenty ninth year of Q. Elizabeth without Issue Male gave it to his second Brother Sir Edward Nevill from whom it is come down to his Descendant John Lord Aburgavenny the instant Proprietary of it Buckland in this Parish did acknowledge the Bucklands for its Heirs and Possessors who sometimes did inhabit at Preston in Shorham and sometimes at this place which however now obscure and despicable was of Credit when Sir John Buckland paid respective Aid for his Lands at Ludsdown at the making of the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth of Edward the third from Buckland by a Daughter and Heir some few Ages since it came over with Preston in Shorham to Folhill and in that Family is the Title still at this instant resident Lullingston in the Hundred of Axtan was in ancient Records written Lullingston Rosse for Anketellus Rosse held Lands here in the twentieth of William the Conqueror William de Rosse this mans Grand-child as appears by the Pipe Rolls held two Knights Fees in Lullingston in the first year of King John Alexander de Rosse this mans Son was one of the Recognitores magnae Assisae or of the grand Assise about the end of that Prince's Rule but not long after this the Possession of this place was not lincked to this Family for Lora de Rosse Sole Daughter to William de Rosse by matching with William de Peyforer fastned it to the Revenue of that Stock from whence it assumed the Title of Lullingston Peyforer but it quickly deserted both the Title and Possessor for Gregory de Rokesley Lord Maior of London in the seventh year of Edward the first purchased it of the abovesaid William and in the same year obtained a Charter Warren to his Lands at this place In the twentieth year of Edward the third John de Rokesley Son to Walter Rokesley and Grand-child to the before mentioned Gregory paid Aid for the Mannor of Lullingston which held by a whole Knights Fee at the making the Black Prince Knight In the thirty third year of Edward the third Sir John Peche purchased the Mannor of this John de Rokesley this Sir John was Son to Sir John de Peche who was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle and was called to Parliament among the Barons in the fourth year of Edward the third In the same year he bought Lullingston he obtained a Charter of Free Warren to his Lands there which was renewed and by Confirmation fortified in the thirty fourth and thirty fifth of Edward the third Sir William Peche was his Son and Heir whose Widow the Lady Joane Peche who died seised of this Mannor in the eleventh year of Henry the fourth lies entombed in St. Mary Woolnoth Church in London Sir John Peche was Son and Heir to them both Sir William Peche was Son and Heir to this Sir John who died at Lullingston 1487 and had two Children Sir John Peche Knight and Banneret who died sans Issue which Sir John was a man of exemplary Account being Lord Deputy of Calais and of signal Charity as is evident by his Munificence and Bounty towards the Poor for he founded the Alms-Houses at Lullingston and gave 500 lb. to other Pious Uses to be performed by the Grocers Company in London of which he was Free and Elizabeth marched to John Hart Esquire who in his Wife 's Right upon the Decease of her Brother enter'd into the Possession of the Premisses from whom it is transmitted to William Hart Esquire his great Grand-child who hath the instant Signory and Fee-simple of this Mannor of Lullingston M. M. M. M. MAidstone giveth Name to the whole Hundred wherein it is seated an elegant Town it is whether we consider it in respect of the uniform and regular Building or of the healthful Situation of it spreading it self out partly upon a Hill and partly upon a Valley which are interlaced with a smal River which hath its Original about Leeds and on the other side its Banks are washed with the waters of the Medway from whence it primitively borrowed its Name being in Saxon called Medwegston The Places of most eminence which are circumscribed within the Limits of it are First Buckland which is situated on the opposite Banck of the River upon the Knob or Knoll of an Hill of easie Ascent from whence it takes in a various and delightful Prospect of the adjacent Valley It was anciently part of the Demeasn of the Bucklands but whether it originally gave Seat and Sirname to them or not is not evident because there was another Place which likewise bore this Name at Luddesdowne and which also acknowledged it self to be Parcel of their Proprietie John de Buckland held it at his Death which was in the third year of Edward the third and his Son and Heir was Sir John Buckland who was a Person of remarkable Reputation and Note in this Track for he had Lands about Wouldham Halling Snodland Ludsdowne and Shoreham as well as at this Place After this Name went out the Lords Cobham were Proprietaries of Buckland and in this Family was the Possession guided along by an undivided Clew of several Ages till the infortunate Henry Lord Cobham about the entrance into the Raign of King James being with Sir VValter Raleigh and others entangled in a Design which the then present Power after a serious and solemn Debate adjudged treasonable he could not unravel himself out of it but with the Forfeiture though not of Life yet of Estate but this Mannor before his Attaint being settled upon his Lady Francis Cobham as part of her Jointure upon his Decease was granted by the Crown to her and the Reversion to Robert Cecil Earl of Salisbury in respect he had married Elizabeth Daughter to William Brooke Lord Cobham and Sister to this last Lord Henry and She shortly after by marrying with ....... Fitz Gerald Earl of Kildare settled the present Interest of it in him and He and his Countess being embarked in a mutual and joint consent with the above-mentioned Earl of Salisbury passed away their Right in it about the year One thousand six hundred and eighteen to William
the thirty second year of his Raign granted it to Sir Robert Southwell who in the thirty fifth year of that Prince conveyed it to Sir Edmund Walsingham of Scadbery whose Successor Sir Thomas Walsingham of the same place hath lately passed away all his Interest here to his Son in Law Mr. James Masters Roger de Merworth obtained a Market weekly and a Fair yearly to his Mannor of Merworth in the eighteenth year of Edward the first as appears by an old originall patent in the hands of the Earl of Westmerland Middleton is so called by Reason it is placed in the middle of the Shire and gives Name to the whole Hundred which is divided into five Baylywicks one whereof is called the Bailiwick of Shepey because it comprehends that Island Antiquity has set a noble Attribute upon it for in ancient Records it is styled Regia Villa de Middleton and here at Kemsley Downe derived from Campsley viz. the pastures where the Camp was kept Within the Parish of Middleton is the very place where in the Time of King Alfred Hasten the Dane that so much infested France arrived and fortified in such manner as he before had at Apuldore where he erected a Castle whose Fragments and Reliques are yet visible Our ancient Chroniclers inform us that this Town was in a good Condition till the Ragin of Edward the Confessor in whose days during the Disgust between him and Earl Godwin such as confederated with the Earl at home burnt the King's House here at Middleton a castellated Pallace beneath the Church whilst he and his Sons ransack'd and ruin'd many other places upon the Seacoasts and Skirts of the Shire In Times of a latter Date John de Burgo the elder had a Grant by Patent of the Mannors of Middleton and Marden in the second year of Edward the first and after Margaret Queen of England had a Grant by Patent likewise in the tenth year of Edward the second and after her Queen Philippa Wife to Edward the third had probably this Mannor in Dower for in the nineteenth year of that King's Raign as appears Pat. Anno 19. part prima memb 26. she grants it for some term of years to William de Clinton Earl of Huntingdon with all the Liberties annexed to it reserving only some royal Franchises which were so inherent to the Crown they could not be separated for an Annual Rent of 200. lb per Annum after his Time was expired it reverts to the Crown and there it remained for ought I can yet discover till the English Scepter was put into the Hands of K. James and then he grants the Mannors of Middleton and Marden for ever to Philip Earl of Pembroke not long since deceased There is within the Limitts of this Parish a Mannor called Northwood Chasteners which Name complies with the situation for it stands North from the Town in a Wood where Chest-Nut Trees formerly grew abundantly Stephen the Son of Jordan de Shepey desirous to plant himself out of the Island in some place not far distant built here a Mansion-house moated about Ez veteri Rot. penes Edo Dering Mill. Baronettum defunctum and a goodly well-wooded Park stored with plenty of Deere and wild Bores and had Licence from the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and religious Men of Christ-church to erect a Free-Chappell which some old People hereabouts who remembred it in the declining Age described to my Father when he visited Kent to be a curious peice of Architecture for Form and Beauty * Rog. de Northwood is listed in the Inventory of those worthy Kentish persons who were engaged with K. Ric. the first at his Seige of Acon in Palestine His Successor was Sir Rog. de Northwood who was ever fast and faithfull to H. the third and having always given himself to a military and martial Profession conceived it was ignominious to hold his Lands here by a lazy and unactive Socage Tenure and therefore in the forty first year of Henry the third changed them from Gavelkind to Knights Service He dyed in the thirteenth year of Edw. the first and his eldest Son Sir John Northwood succeeded both at Northwood and at Shorn and in the time of Ed. the first together with his eldest son Sir Jo. de Northwood was with that K. in his Wars in Scotland at the Seige of Carlaverock The Mannor of Shorn holding by this Tenure viz to carry a white Banner forty Days together at their own Charge when the King should make War in Scotland Sir Jo. de Northwood was called by Writ to sit in Parliament as Baron the first of Edw. the second and his Son John de Northwood was often summoned to sit as Baron in Parliament in the raign of Ed. the third Certainly a numerous Race of worthy Successors were Possessors of this Mannor of Northwood some of which lye buryed crosse-leg'd in Milton Church that had taken upon them to defend the Sepulchre of Christ or otherwise profest themselves for the Wars in the Holy Land And at last it devolved to John Northwood who as all things are wound upon a fixed and determined Period concluded in two Daughters and Coheirs one married to Barley of the County of Hertford and Joan the other was matched to Sir John Norton whose Ancestors were derived from one Nicholas de Norton who flourished in King Stephens Days and had much Land about Norton and Feversham as appears by the Book of St. Austins This Sir John Norton's Son for diverse remarkable Services performed in Flanders was knighted by Mary Queen of Hungary then Lady Regent of the Low-countries for Charles the fifth by the Name of Sir John Norton and his Grandchild Sir Thomas Norton some thirty five years since alienated it to Manasser Northwood Esquire collaterally branched out from the abovesaid John Northwood and his Son Mr. Robert Northwood passed away the Premises by Sale to Sir John Tufton third Brother to Nicholas Tufton Earl of Thanet whose second Son Sir Charles Tufton upon the late Decease of his eldest Brother Sir Benedict is now entered upon it Helmes or Holmes is a Mannor which is partly situated in Iwade and partly in Milton and had still the same Proptietaries as namely Savage and then Clifford whither for Satisfaction I referre the Reader only this I must add that about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth it was rent off by Sale and planted in the Revenue of Thompson Ancestor to Mr ...... Thompson of Royton Chappel in Lenham who is at this instant in the enjoyment of it Kempsley in this Parish puts in its Title to be of Roman extraction and there is something in the Name and in the Situation which does seem to support this originall nor hath Time with its destructive Impressions so defaced it but that there are some Reliques yet remaining of a Camp and other antiquated Fortifications Middleton in the fifteenth of Edward the first had a Market granted by that Prince to be held there
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
Burwash-court from whom it is now devolved by Descent to his Successor Mr. ...... Boughton The Abbot of St. Augustines to adde more eminence to this Mannor not only obtained a Charter of Free-warren to Plumsted in the thirty sixth year of Henry the third but likewise by Grant procured a Market to be held here weekly on the Tuesday and a Fair yearly three Dayes at St. Nicolas videlicet the Eve the Day and Day after both which were allowed before the Judges Itinerant in the seventh year of Edward the first Plumsted had anciently Laws and Ordinances for the better securing the Mounds and Banks of the Mersh against the Eruptions and Inundations of the Thames which almost were of the same Resemblance and Complexion with those of Romney Mersh A Scale of several Statutes are delivered to us by Rastall in his Abridgement which concerned the Inning and preserving of Plumsted Level The first was enacted in the twenty second year of Henry the eighth Cap. 3. and was printed The second was made in the fourteenth year of Queen Elizabeth and was never printed The third was ratified in the twenty third of Queen Elizabeth Cap. 13. and printed The fourth and last was confirmed in the twenty seventh year of Queen Elizabeth Cap. 27. and likewise printed Burwash-court is an eminent Seat in this Parish made more illustrious by being wrapped up in the Revenue of the Noble Family of Burgherst or Burwash Bartholomew de Burgherst died possest of it in the twenty eighth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 38. And left it to his Son Bartholomew Lord Burwash who in the forty third year of the above-said Prince coveyed it with much other Land to Sir Walter de Paveley Knight of the Garter in which Family it continued until the raign of Richard the second and then it was alienated to VVilliam Chichley Alderman of London who left it to his Son John Chichley by whose Daughter and Heir Agnes it came to be possest by John Tattershal of VVell-hall in Eltham who about the beginning of Henry the sixth conveyed it to Boughton in the Descendants of which Family it had a permanent aboad untill that Age that our Remembrance had an Aspect on and then it was passed away to Mr. Rowland VVilson of London and he upon his late Decease gave it to his Daughter and her Heirs who was first matched to Doctour ...... Crisp and now secondly to Colonel ...... Row of Hackney R. R. R. R. RAdigunds vulgarly called the Abby of St. Radigunds leads up the Van of this Register It was founded by Hugh the first Abbot who was before a Monk in the Priory of Christ-church in the raign of King Stephen as the Book of Christ-church and the Return into the Court of Augmentation made in the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth do both inform me Their Rule was derived from Austin Bishop of Hippo their Habit Black whence they are sometimes styled Black-Canons and sometimes Canons of St. Austins The Revenue which appertained to this Cloister lay not fat divided from this place as namely at Alkham Sotemore Combe Hawking Padlesworth and Pising where they had a Mannor as appears by an Inquisition taken in the thirty fifth year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 147. This upon the Dissolution lapsing with all its Revenue to the Crown King Henry the eighth exchanged Pising with Thomas Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury but the Mannor of St. Radigunds it self remained annexed to the Royal Revenue until Queen Elizabeth in the thirty second year of her raign granted it to Simon Edolph Esquire descended from the Edolphs of Romney Mersh where they were very ancient in whose Successor Sir ...... Edolph the propriety of this place is still resident Raculver in the Hundred of VVhitstaple had a Monastery founded here for Monks to live under the Rule of St. Bennet But the Mannor it self was given with all its Train of Appendages as namely Pasture Glebe Mersh-land and the adjacent Shore and estimated at twenty five Mansions or Cottages bis denis senisque estimatum Cassatis those are the words of the Record by King Eadredus in the year nine hundred forty and eight to the Sea of Canterbury in the presence of his Queen Edgiva and Arch-bishop Odo and if you will descry what Estimate it had in the Time of the Conqueror Doomes-day Book will afford you a discovery Raculf Tempore Edwardi Regis se defendebat pro VIII Sullings est appretiatum XL. lb. II. lb. V. s. tres Minutes that was a Coin I believe equivalent to our now English Pence minus Though the Church be now full of Solitude and languished into Decay yet when Leland made his Perambulation it was in a more splendid Equipage If you please to hear him he thus describes it The old Building of the Abby Church continues says he having two goodly spiring Steeples In the entring into the Quire is one of the fairest and most ancient Crosses that ever I saw nine Foot in height it standeth like a fair Columne The Basis is a great stone it is not wrought the second Stone being round hath curiously wrought and and painted the Images of our Saviour Christ Peter Paul John and James Christ saith Ego sum Alpha Omega Peter saith Tu es Christus Filius Dei vivi The sayings of the other three were painted Majusculis Literis Romanis but now obliterated The second Stone is of the Passion The third Stone contains the Twelve Apostles The fourth hath the Image of our Saviour hanging and fastned with four Nails sub pedibus sustentaculum The highest part of the Pillar hath the Figure of a Crosse In the Church is a very ancient Book of the Evangelies in Majusculis Literis Romanis and in the Borders thereof is a Crystal Stone thus inscribed Claudia Atepiccus In the North-side of the Church is the Figure of a Bishop painted under an Arch In digging about the Church they find old Buckles and Rings The whole Print of the Monastery appears by the old Wall And the Vicarage was made of the Ruines of the Monastery There is a neglected Chappel out of the Church-yard where some say was a Paroch-Church before the Abby was suppressed and given to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Thus far he But the greatest Honor which in elder Times did accrew to this Village was that King Ethelbert after he had founded the Abby of St. Austins removed his Residence from Canterbury and fixed his Pallace at this place which his Successors the Kings of Kent enobled by their presence but when this Kingdome was swallowed up in that of Mercia and Mercia afterwards in that of the West Saxons Reculver had the Grant of a Market procured to it on the Thursday by William Arch-B of Canterbury in the 7th of Edw. the second this Mansion of theirs found a Sepulcher likewise in their Ruines so that now we can trace it out no where but in Annals and
which yet courts the Eye of the Beholder to an Admiration of its former Strength with all the Services annexed to it to Sir Anthony Weldon of Swanscamp whose Son and Heir Ralph Weldon of Swanscamp Esquire is the instant Lord of the Fee There is much Land in this County held of this Castle whose Tenure is perfect Castleguard for upon the Day prefixed for the discharge of the quitt-Rent relating to it there is a Banner displaid and hung out anciently it was over the Castle-Wall and all those who are Tenants to this Mannor and are in Default by their non-Appearance and do not discharge their Customary Duties and Services the Penaltie imposed upon their Neglect is that the Return of every Tide of the adjacent River which finds them Absent doubles their Service or quitt-Rent The Bridge which is almost contiguous to the Root or Basis was anciently when the Frame was of Timber removed to a farther Distance and crossed the Stream over against the Hospital of St Maries at Stroude But this was by Simon de Montfort when he besieged Rochester ruined by Fire and although it was re-edified and repaired not long after yet some twenty years subsequent to this Misfortune it was swept away by Ice so that it appears the Elements entered into a Corrivalship or Competition which should make the most ruinous Impression on this infortunate Structure But after this that is in the raign of Richard the second all those above-mentioned Dysasters and Inconveniences which might again have assaulted the Bridge were for the future prevented for Sir Robert Knolles a Person who had improved and enhaunsed his Fame to the highest Degree of Eminence by his glorious and succesfull Managery of the English Affairs and Interest in France seeking to make himself as usefull to his Friends that is his Contrymen as he was before considerable to his Enemies mastered the Course of the River and somewhat nearer to the Castle as in a place more fit both for the Soliditie and fastnesse of the Soile as likewise for the breaking of the impetuousnesse of the Current erected the Bridge of Stone which is now visible fixed and established on one and twenty Arches and by this Victory over the Elements made his Triumphs more illustrious than he had done before by all the Conquests of his Adversaries for in these he only seemed to have out-gone all others but in this to have outdone himself Being thus fixed and Strengthned there was a Statute enacted in the one and twentieth year of Richard the second wherein there is Provision made for its future Security there being several parcells of Land which are mentioned in that Act tied and obliged for its continual Maintenance and Repair whensoever the Injuries of Time or those of the Elements should deface or impair it The Chappel or Chantry in old Records styled the Chantry of Rochester Bridge was founded in the year 1399 by Iohn de Cobham and was dedicated to the holy Trinity and was called at the first Institution All Souls Chappel because Prayers and other Orizons were there to be offered up for the Redemption and Health of all Christian Souls and likewise a Stipend or Exhibition was there setled for the Support and Maintenance of three Priests or Chaplains particularly to pray for the Souls of John de Cobham the Patron and Founder Sir Robert Knolles to whom the Bridge owed its primitive Establishment William Wangford and Eleanor his Wife Iohn Fremingham and Alice his Wife William Makenade and Sir William Rickhil and likewise for the Souls of some who were deceased before the Foundation of this Chappel as namely for the Soul of Iohn Buckingham formerly Bishop of Lincoln and Sir William Wall worth the eminent Lord Maior of London to whose Virtue and Valour London owes the Addition of the Dagger which was annexed as an Augmentation to the Arms of the City The Priory was founded by Ethelbert King of Kent and dedicated to the Honor of St. Andrew and stored with Monks who were to live under the Rule of St. Benedict though afterwards as Mr. Lambert out of the Book of Rochester observes they altered their Rule and conformed themselves to the Canon of St. Augustine Bishop of Hippo but were reduced again to the primitive Institution of St. Benedict in the year 1080 by Gundulphus then Bishop of Rochester in which Design he was aided and supported by Lanfranc the active Arch-bishop of Canterbury In Ages of an elder Inscription there were several Contests brake forth between the Monks of Christ-church in Canterbury and those of this Covent the first Strugling to bring the Election of the Bishop of Rochester into their Chapiter which the last Sticking close to their own inherent Rights and Priviledges endevoured to disannul and wholly to circumscribe his Election within the Precincts of their own Chapiter Two Presidents which represent to Posterity the whole State of this Controversie do occur in Record The first appears in the year 1227 when after the Death of Benedict the Bishop of Rochester elected to succeed him Henry Sandford a Man of exemplary Piety so that he was inculpable for his Life and of unfathomed Learning so that he was in that Age almost unparallelled for his Knowledge which could not stave off the Monks of Christ-church to justle the Election pretending that the pastoral Staffe or Crosier of Rochester de Jure ought to have been brought to their House after the Decease of the Bishop and that the Election was to have been made in their Chapiter This occasioned much Heat for the Monks of Rochester vigorously asserted their own Choice so that it was referred to the Decision of the Archbishop and he again put it over to the Umpirage of Delegates who hearing the parties concerned and poising the Allegations produced by either side to sustain the Justice of their own Cause they by a finall Determination declared the Right to reside in the Monks of Rochester But it seems this Fire was only allayed not extinguished for in the year 1238 it brake forth again and the occasion which gave Fuell to it was this The Monks of Rochester had elected Richard Wendover for their Bishop which so exasperated and disgusted the Monks of Christ-church that suspecting their own Power they more to inforce and multiply their Strength and evacuate that Election entituled Arch-bishop Edmund to their Cause But the Monks of Rochester disclaiming by a tame Remissenesse either to foment or palliate their own undoing appealed to Rome where after the chargeable Commencement of a three years Sute the Innocency and Justice of their Cause was recompensed with the Triumph of the Day upon which they returned home exalted with the Joy of their Successe and enacted in their Chapiter that the annuall Feast of St. Cuthbert on which Day they archieved this signal Conquest should be doubly solemnized both in their Church and in their Kitchin But as they were successefull in their rancounters with the Arch-bishop so they were
Inheritance of that Family and rested there until the first year of Henry the eighth and then it was passed away by Sale from Sir John Fogg Knight to Ralph Banister In Times of a lower Descent that is about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth I find it by Court-rols possest by Tucker who about the latter end of that Princess alienated his Concernment in it to Smith who in our Fathers Remembrance transplanted the Title by Sale into Doctour Fotherbie Dean of Cantorbury whose Son Mr. Charles Fotherbie continues now Proprietary of it Secondly Grove-place offers it self up to our Notice as being the Habitation of a Knightly Family called Grove who in old Deeds are sometimes written at Grove and sealed as appears by the Labells-affixed to their Evidences with three Escollops upon a Cheveron In the reign of Henry the sixth I find it devolved by Descent to Sir John Grove who was a great Benefactor to the Church of St. Peters in Sandwich where he lies buried with the Arms above-mentioned upon his Shield but not long after this Family determined in a Daughter and Heir who linked this Seat to the Inheritance of St. Nicholas who about the latter end of Edward the fourth conveyed it to Quilter in which Name it was resident until the latter end of Henry the eighth and then it was passed away to Linch and hath remained ever since incorporated into the Revenue of that Family so that at present it is come down to Mr. John Linch a Noble Confessor for the Interest of the Church and Protestant Religion There is a Family in this Parish called Omer which as appears by old Court-rols Tombs Deeds and other Evidences have been constantly resident almost four Hundred years Seasalter in the Hundred of Whitstaple did belong to the Priory of Christ-church but by whom it was given the Records of that Covent are silent only I find that it was part of that Revenue which supported their Diet and Table and likewise I discover that Pope Gregory the ninth in the tenth year of his Papacy by his Bull appropriated the Parsonage to the Priory above-mentioned and likewise was granted for the better improving their Lively-hood and Subsistence If you will see under what Notion it passed in the twentieth year of William the Conqueror Doomesday Book will inform you that it was valued upon the Terrier at two Carucats of Land and upon the Appraisment was rated at five pound This Mannor upon the Resignation of that Estate which related to the Convent abovesaid into the Hands of Henry the eighth was setled by that Prince on the newly erected Dean and Chapiter of Christ-church and there it remained until these calamitous Times Ellenden in this Parish belonged to the Abby of Feversham and was as the Lieger Book of that Covent informs me given to the Monks of that Cloister by John Ellenden and here it was incorporated and fixed until the publick Dissolution unhinged and unrooted it and planted it in the Crown and afterwards King Henry the eighth in the thirty fifth year of his Government granted it to Mr. Thomas Arden miserably afterwards assassinated by his Wife at Feversham and he the same year conveyed it to John Nedeham from whom it came over to his Son and Heir John Nedeham Gentleman and he in the thirty second year of Queen Elizabeth alienated it to Mr. Michael Beresford of Westerham who not long after passed it away to Sir George Newman Doctour of the Civil Law and Knighted in the sixteenth year of King James and from him by successive Right it is now descended to his Son and Heir George Newman of Rochester Esquire Seale in the Hundred of Codsheath was a Mannor which belonged to the Crown until the first year of King John and then it was passed away by Grant to Baldwin de Betun Earl of Albemard and Hawis his Daughter and Heir by matching with William Mareschall Earl of Pembroke incorporated it into his Demeasne but Gilbert Mareschall this mans Successor deceasing without Issue Roger de Bigod Earl of Norfolk in Right of Mawde his Mother who was Sister and Heir General to the abovesaid Gilbert was setled in the possession of this Mannor and he in the eleventh year of Edward the first by Gift or Donation transmits it to Otho Lord Grandison a man certainly of great power in those Times for as it appears Pat. 4. Edwardi primi he had a certain Agreement woven of sundry Articles and made between Henry the third and the King of Castile deposited in his Custody in the fourth year of Edward the first And in the fifth year of that Prince as appears Pat. 5. in seedulâ he had the Government of Jersey assigned to his Care during Life After this Family of Grandison went out which was about the Beginning of Richard the second for Thomas de Grandison dyed possest of Seale in the forty ninth year of Edward the third Parte prima Num. 62 the noble Family of Brian of Holoway in Devon was invested in the Possession and Sir William Brian or Briene for so he is styled on his Tomb dyed possest of it in the year 1395 and lyes buryed in Seale Church mailed in Armor with a Huntsmans Horn at his Head upon which the Conjecture of the Country is that he was a great Hunter when the Truth is it was placed there to signifie or denote the Tenure of some part of his Land which was in Cornage But to return the next Family which succeeded Brian in the Inheritance of Seale was the ancient Family of Fiennes and this as I find by some Court-rolls was in the reign of Henry the fourth and James Fiennes second Son of William Fiennes Esquire was the first of March in the twenty fifth of Henry the sixth summoned to the Parliament at Bury as Baron of Say and Seale but this place after this newly atchieved Honor continued not long in this Name for William Lord Say in the second year of Edward the fourth passed it away to Geffrey Boleyne Grand-father to Sir Thomas Boleyne who was made Knight of the Garter and Treasurer of the Kings House in the fifteenth created Viscount Rochford in the seventeenth and lastly raised to the Earldome of Wiltshire and Ormond in the twenty first of Henry the eighth but his infortunate Son George Viscount Rochford being beheaded and leaving no Issue it devolved to Queen Elizabeth in Right of Queen Anne her Mother one of the Sisters and Coheirs and she in the first year of her reign passes it by Grant to her Kinsman Henry Cary whose Grandchild Henry Cary Earl of Dover alienated it by Sale to Richard Sackvill Earl of Dorset who passed it away in our Fathers Memory to Richard Smith vulgarly called Dog Smith and he not many years since deceasing without Issue bequeathed the Fee-simple of it to St Thomas Hospital in Southwarke Hall-place in Seale is a second place of Account It was in the thirty sixth year of Edward the third as an
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
1052 landed in this Island and miserably harrassed it by filling all places with Ruine and Devastation Indeed Religion when it glitters with a splendid and full revenue is like the Pictures of the ancient Saints apparelled in rich Garments which some have been enticed to rob not out of ill Will to their Sanctity but love to their Shrines and Beauty of their Cloaths Persecution and the Robes of Humility were the Attire of the primitive Church and when she is dressed up in gaudy Fortunes it is no more then she merits Yet sometimes it occasions the Devil to cheat her of her Holinesse and impious men by an unjust and injurious Sacriledge to cheat her of her riches But I have digressed I now return into the Track of my Discourse and must inform my Reader that although the Glory of this Cloister was so bowed down and broken with these misfortunes that it appeared almost sunk in its own Calamities yet by the piety of subsequent Ages it was buoyed up again but more especially by the indulgent Charity of King Henry the fourth who in the first year of his reign confirmed their old priviledges and to those added by patent many new And in this Condition it continued untill the general Dissolution or Deluge and then it was by Henry the eighth in the twenty ninth year of his reign granted to Sir Thomas Cheyney and his Son Henry Lord Cheyney having in the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth exchanged it for other Lands with that Princesse she regranted it to Sir Edward Hobby who had matched with her Kinswoman Margaret Daughter of Henry Lord Hunsdon and his Son Sir Edward Hobby about the middle of King James passed it away to Mr. Hen. Richards and he upon his Decease bequeathed it to Gabriel Livesey Esquire and he almost in our Remembrance conveyed it to Sir John Heyward who setled it upon his two Feoffees in Trust Sir Francis Buller of Cornwall and Serjeant Clerk of Rochester for such Charitable Uses as they should think proportionate to that Conveyance The Mannor of Northwood is situated in this Parish which was the Inheritance of Jordanus de Scapeia for so he is written in old datelesse Deeds and he had Issue Stephen de Northwood who was the first whom I find in Record to have assumed this Appellation and he was Father to Sir Roger de Northwood who lies buryed in Minster Church with an Inscription affixed to his Monument which seems by its more modern Character to have been corrupted It is this Hic jacet Rogerus Northwood Miles sepultus ante Conquestum Indeed his Figure is fairly insculped in Brasse with that of his Lady Bona lying by him who was Sister and Heir of William de Wauton The vulgar upon a credulous errour every where affirm that all those who are thus buryed were enterr'd after the Conquest when it is certain that many were entombed in this posture many years before the Conquerour that had obliged themselves by Vow to defend the Crosse and Sepulcher of our Saviour against the Fury and Assaults of Infidels Sure I am the Tomb next to this appears to be far more ancient and of so venerable a Form that its like doth not occurre in any other place there is not any Letter of Inscription left only the Coat is a sure Testimony that it was one of the Ancestors of the Family of Northwood But to proceed John Norwood one of this House as the private Records of the Family testifie feasted H. the fifth at the Red Lion in Sedingbourne and the Wine amounted upon the wole account but to 9. s. and 9. d. Wine being then rated but at a penny the pint W. Northwood another of this Name and Family did signal Service at the Battel of Agincourt and afterwards at the Battel of Vernoile which was managed by John Duke of Bedford Regent of France He was Kinsman of John Northwood who was the last of this Name at this place for he about the latter end of Edward the fourth alienated it to VVilliam VVarner Esquire whose Son and Heir VVilliam VVarner about the Beginning of Henry the eighth demised it to Sir Thomas Cheyney and his Son Sir Henry Lord Cheyney having exchanged it for other Lands with Queen Elizabeth it remained with the Crown untill King James in the second year of his reign granted it to the right honorable Philip Herbert Earl of Montgomery and afterwards Earl of Pembroke Newhall is another little Mannor in Minster which Fulke Peyforer dyed seised of in the ninth year of Edward the second and from him it devolved by descent to be the patrimony of his great Grandchild Fulk Peyforer and his Sole Heir Julian carried it away to Thomas St. Leger of Ottringden whose two Female Coheirs being matched to Aucher and Ewias shared his Inheritance and about the reign of Henry the fifth passed it away by Sale to Cromer whose Successor VVilliam Cromer having about the latter end of Henry the eighth by some misdemeanor forfeited it to the Crown it was granted to one Stephen Graine in which Family it remained untill the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth and then it was alienated to Small from which Name the same Vicissitude not many years since carried it off to Luck who transmitted his Right in it to Mr. Henry Newton who hath lately demised it to Mr. Josias Gering of London Rishingdon is the last place of Account which is circumscribed within the Limits of Minster It was in the twenty third year of Edward the first wrapped up in the patrimony of Savage for at that time John de Savage obtained a Charter of Freewarrren to several of his Mannors in Kont in the Number of which this is registered for one but in the reign of Edward the third the possession was departed from this Family being purchased by Philippa Wife and Queen to Edward the third and setled upon the Hospital of St. Katharines neere the Tower in whose demeasn it hath layn involved ever since In the fourteenth year of the reign of Richard the second John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the King's Uncle was Lessee to that Hospital as appears Rot. Esc Num. 113. Which I mention to discover to the Reader that even in those Times Persons of the greatest eminence did not disdain to be Tenants for an Estate to an Hospital East-Church is the next place which comes to be considered Which though obscure in it self yet is made eminent by Shurland which is a Limb of this Parish and anciently did own a noble Family which bore that Sirname the last of which was Sir Robert de Shurland who was one of those Kentish Bannerets which were made by King Edward the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in the twenty eighth year of his reign and to whom the former Prince as a farther Symbol or Testimony of his Merit granted a Charter of Free-warren in the twenty ninth year of his reign to his Mannor of Shurland not long after which he deceased and
of Huntingdon and Cambridge the 16th and 17th of King John and Sheriff of Lincoln six or seven years together The Earls of Warwick were often Sheriffs of Warwick and Leicester-shire under Edward the 3 d. and also of the County of Worcester most part of that Kings Reign indeed the office of Sheriff was so frequent in that Family that it almost appear'd to be Hereditary to the Beauchamps Ralph Earl of Chester was Sheriff of that County the first of Henry the third and of the County of Lancaster the second year of the same King Walter Lord Arch-Bishop of York was Sheriff of Nottingham the fifty fourth and fifty fifth of K. Henry the third and Hugo de Stapleford was his Shire-Clerk Hillarius Bishop of Lincoln was Sheriff of Lincolnshire the ninth tenth eleventh twelfth and thirteenth of Henry the third and Ralph Regnald was his Shire-Clerk Hillarius Bishop of Chichester was Sheriff of Sussex and Surry the eight of Henry the second Richard Bishop of Salisbury was often Sheriff of the County of Dorset under Henry the third and of Hampshire at the same time Joceline Bishop of Bath was Sheriff of Somerset under Henry the third and Peter Bishop of Winchester the first eigth years of Henry the third Walter Bishop of Carlisle was frequently Sheriff of Cumberland under Henry the third and Robert his successor was often Sheriff of the same County under Edward the first and both of them had their Shire-Clerks Walter Bishop of Coventry and Liechfield was often in this office under Richard the first in the County of Stafford Ralph Abbott of Michelen was Sheriff of the Counties of Somersett and Dorset the seventh of Henry the third Many more Presidents of this Nature could be unfolded but I think these are competent Testimonies enough to discover both the Dignity and Eminence of this ancient and illustrous office only this may be deduc'd from these examples That some Counties heretofore were joyned with their next Neighbors for ease of the service as Sussex and Surry Devon and Cornwall Somerset and Dorset Hampshire and Wilts Warwick and Leicester Cambridge and Huntingdon Norfolk and Suffolk Essex and Hartford c. most of which were separated by Queen Elizabeth and the rest taken in sunder by the late King Charles I shall now endevour to unravel the Catalogue of the Sheriffs of Kent as I find them Registred either in the Pipe-Rolls or other Evidences and I have as much as posibly I could Recorded the places where they inhabited which will much improve and inforce that light which I am to distribute to the world in Relation to those places I am in my subsequent discourse to treat upon And first I find Osward a Saxon held divers Lands in Kent as Herst Hagalei Norton Chert Stepedon with Tunsdal and Tong during the Reign of Edward the Confessor all which Lands were in the Conquerors Time possest by Hugo de Port This Osward also held Delce Hadon Alneiton and Har Sham. He was Sheriff of Kent under the Confessor as appears by the prime Record of the Nation Domes day Book where speaking of Tarentford in Axtan Hundred it is thus entred Homines de in Hundredo testificantur quod de isto Manerio Regis ablatum est unum Pratum unum Alnetum unum Molendinum XX. acrae Prati c. Dicunt etiam quod Osward tunc Vicecomes praestitit ea Alestano Praeposito London modo tenet Heltus Dapifer Nepos ejus Hamo and as frequently Hanno Lord of Marourd in the Hundred of Littlefield and of Blen in the Hundred of Whitstaple and Lavinton in the Hundred of Downhamford of Estursete Briested now I take Brasted Nettlested Ditton and divers other Lands in Kent was Sheriff at the Time of the General Survey entred by the Conqueror into his Domes day Book The Records of Christ Church and the Deeds of the Hospital of St. Lawrence near Canterbury prove that Hamo Son of Etardes de Crevequer did in the Reign of Richard the first and K. John hold divers of the Lands if not all above recited He continued Sheriff as then was very usual during life which was enlarged untill about the middle of Henry the first for in the year 10111 which is the 11th of Henry the first Hugh Abbot of St. Augustins granted Bodesham and Smethetum to this Hamo Quod ipse as sayes the Deed si opus fuerit Ecclesiae mihi vel successoribus meis de praedictis in Comitatu vel in Curia Regis contra aliquem Baronem consulat adjuvet succurrat exceptis Dominis suis quorum Homo manibus suis fuerit At the same time this Hamo restored to the same Abby in the Town of Fordwich in this Form Hamo Cantii Vicecomes Henrici Regis Anglorum Dapifer timore Dei ductus reddo Deo Sancto Petro Apostolorum Principi Sancto Augustino Anglorum Apostolo Abbati Hugoni Fratribus ejusdem loci Villam de Fordwich Hanc Donationem meam per Psalterium Sancti Augustini per cultellum meum super principale Altare ejusdem Ecclesiae manibus meis misi c. William de Aynsford was Sheriff of Kent after Hamo in the Reign of Henry the first for in the Chartularies of St. Augustin in Canterbury I find a Transcript of the Kings writ thus Henricus Rex Anglorum Willielmo de Aynsford salutem fac juste habere Abbati de Sancto Augustino consuetudinem suam de Niwentonâ in Denariis Averiis operationibus c. And the Deed from William Son to Henry the first is here entred and imports as much as the former Willielmus Filius Regis Willielmo Vice Comiti de Kent salutem Fac recognosci per Homines Hundredi de Middletuna quas consuetudines in Villâ de Niventonâ c. This Family of Ainsford ended about Edward the first and one of this Name was Sheriff of London Norman Fitz Dering was Sheriff of Kent under K. Stephen unto whom Queen Maud directed her Writ concerning some Land given by her to the Nun Helmida ad faciendam Domum suam in Elemosinam apud Fauresham post Mortem ejus Volo saith the Queen ut Ecclesia Sanctae Mariae de Fauresham pro salute Domini mei Regis Stephani meâ Filiorum nostrornm Statu Regni nostri habeat praefatam Terram in perpetuum He and his Brother Godred Fitz Dering are Teste to a Deed of their Brother Osbert de Morinis so called because his Brother was a Fleming which Deed is Registerd in the Chartularies of Saint Augustins wherein he to that Abby gives six Acres and an half of Land in Thanet for the supply of a Light in the Chapel of St. Mildred within the Abby aforesaid Pro salute Animae suae Animi Uxoris ejus Ermelinae in Honorem Sanctae Virginis Mildrethae This Norman Fitz Dering held Lands at Ashford East Farleigh Lese Bircholt and Bedesham Rualonus or Ruallo de Valoigns was Sheriff of Kent
whom Godliness was great gain in the practical sense at once to charm the peoples Devotion and Benevolence But as if there were in the Vogue and Estimate of that Age a greater Degree of Sanctity entailed on the Church-yard then on the Sunday the holding either Market or Fair in that Place was by a Statute made in the thirteenth year of Ed. the first Chapter the sixth wholly interdicted and prohibited but though the Church-yard were thus empaled and fenced in with this new Law the Sunday lay open and exposed to all Disorder and Prophanation untill the Reign of Henry the sixth and then that pious Prince resenting with regret the many Enormities and other Excesses of a black Complexion which were occasioned by the Conflux of people assembled at these publick Meetings and which had foully stained and debauched the purity of this Solemn Festival did by Statute made and ratified in the twenty seventh year of his Reign Chapter the fifth for the future forbid the keeping of any Markets or Fairs in any Place whatsoever on the Sunday I shall now take a Prospect of all the Parishes Villages and Mannors which are circumscribed within the circle of this County but before I wade farther in this Discourse I shall represent upon what reasons or foundations Mannors were first instituted and established by example and resemblance of the King's policy in the institutions of Tenures saith Sir Francis Bacon The great men and Gentlemen of this Realm did the like so near as they could as for Example when the King had given to any of them two thousand Acres of Lands this party proposing in this place to make his Dwelling or as the old word is his Mansion-house or his Mannor-house did devise how he might make his Land a compleat Habitation to supply him with all manner of necessaries and for that purpose he would give of the uttermost parts of these two thousands Acres one hundred or two hundred Acres or more or less as he should think meet to one of his most trusty Servants with some reservation of rent to find a horse for the wars and go with him when he went with the King to the wars adding vow of Homage and the oath of Fealty Wardship Marriage and Relief This Relief is to pay five pounds for every Knights Fee or after the rate for more or less at the entrance of every Heir which Tenant so created and placed was and is to this day called a Tennant by Knights Service and not by his own person but of his Mannors of these he might make as many as he would then this Lord would provide that the Land which he was to keep for his own use should be plowed and his harvest brought home his House required his Park pailed and the like and for that end he would give to sundry other of twenty thirty forty or fifty Acres reserving the service of plowing a certain quantity or so many dayes of his Lands and certain Harvest works or dayes in the Harvest to labour or to repair the House Park Pail or otherwise or to give him for his provision Capons Hens Pepper Commin Roses Gilliflowers Spurs Gloves or the like or to pay him a certain Rent and to be sworn to be his faithful Tenant which Tenure was called a Soccage Tenure and is so to this day howbeit most of the plowing and Harvest services are turned into Money Rents the Tenants in Soccage at the Death of every Tenant were to pay Relief which was not as Knights Service is five pound a Knights Fee but it was and is still one years Rent of the Land and no Wardship or other profit to the Lord. The remainder of the two thousand Acres he kept to himself whith he used to manure by his Bondman and appointed them at the Courts of his Mannor how they should hold it making an Entry of it into the Roll of the Remembrances of the Acts of his Court yet still in the Lords power to take it away and therefore they were called Tenants at Will by Copy of Court Roll being in truth Bondmen at the beginning but having obtained freedome of their persons and gained a custome by use of occupying their Lands they now are called Copyholders and are so priviledged that the Lord cannot put them out and all through custome some Copyholders are for Lives one two or three successively and some Inheritances from Heir to Heir by custome and Custome ruleth these Estates wholly both for Widows Estates Fines Harriots Forfeitures and all other things Mannors being in this sort made at the first reason was that the Lord of the Mannor should hold a Court which is no more then to assemble his Tenants together at a time by him to be appointed in which Court he was to be informed by oath of his Tenants of all such Duties Rents Reliefs and Wardships Copy-holds or the like that had happned unto him which information is called a Presentment and then his Bailiff to Seise and Distrain for those Duties if they were denied or with-holden which is called a Court Baron and herein a man may Sue for any Debt or Trespass under Forty pound value and the Freeholders are to judge of the Cause up on proof produced upon both fides and therefore the Freeholders of these Mannors as incident to their Tenures do hold by Suite of Court which is to come to the Court and there to judge between no party and party in those perty Actions And also to inform the Lord of Duties Rents and Services unpaid to him from his Tenants By this course it is discerned who be the Lords of Lands such as if the Tenants die without Heir or be attainted of Felony or Treason shall have the Land by Escheat I now proceed to trace out the several Parishes of Kent and marshal them Alphabetically yet in this Scrutiny I have not tortured their Names untill by a nice and curious Anatomie they confessed themselves to be either of British Roman or Saxon Extraction because at once to decline and unravel this Difficulty I have cast them into a peculiar Register by themselves which shall stand as an Appendage to the Book and first therefore to go on I begin with Acris A. A. ACris is a small Parish lying in the Hundreds of Folkston and Lovingborough and was held in the twentieth of William the Conquerour by Anketellus de Rosse from which Name it passed away by Grant to the Cosentons of Cosenton in Alresford to hold of the Barony of Rosse and of his Mannor of Horton near Ferningham This Seat being thus annexed to the Demeasn of this Family came down to William de Cosington who is in the List of those Kentish Gentlemen whom K. John in the eighteenth year of his Reign by pardon absolved for having taken an Oath to Lewis the Dolphin of France Charles King of Navarre as the private Evidences of Cosington inform me in the year of Grace 1366. setled an annual Pension
posterity Potts Court in Babchild vulgarly called Petts Court was parcel of the Demeasn of the Priory of Dertford as appears by an Inquisition taken in the eleventh year of Edw. the fourth Rot. Esc Num. 69. and continued united to it untill the suppression in the Reign of Henry the eighth and then it was cast into the Revenue of the Crown where it lay untill Edward the sixth in the last year of his Reign granted it to Sir Thomas Cheyney whose Son Henry Lord Cheyney about the thirteenth year of Q. Eliz. passed it away to Samuel Thornhil Esquire in whose Descendant Line the Propriety of it is yet continuing Morris Court is a third place of Note in Babchild in elder Times it gave Seat and Sirname to a Family of that Denomination as appears by the ancient Muniments of this Seat but before the latter End of Henry the fourth this Family was vanished and then I find the Enghams setled by Purchase in the Inheritance and John Engham as appears by ancient Court Rolls held it in the Reign of Henry the fifth and Henry the sixth and after him did the Title by successive Inheritance transmit it self to his Posterity even untill those Times which grew near our Grand Fathers remembrance and then it was by Sale translated into Wolgate whose Ancestors had their Habitation at Wolgate Green in Throuley and after it had for some years acknowledged this Family for Proprietaries it was conveyed to Tilghman descended from the Tilghmans of Snodland from which Name it was again by as sudden a transmission alienated to Carselock of Feversham allied to John Carselock the last Abbot of the Priory there at the suppression of it and this Name being lately here by Defailance of Issue totally extinguished the Heirs of this Family as Knowler and others so designed by Testament do now possess it Badelesmer in the Hundred of Feversham was the Seat of that Family which for the great sway and influence they had once in this County although they have their Existence now only in Annals and History deserve a serious Remembrance Giles Lord Badelesmer as the Annals of St. Augustins instruct me was slain in the year 1258. in a Battell against the Welsh whilst he by endevouring to unite them to the English Scepter attempted to assault their Liberty and they as vigorously asserted it Guncelin de Badelesmer dyed possest of this Mannor in the twenty ninth year of Edward the first as appears Rot. Esc Num. 50. and lies buryed in Badelesmer Church with his Portraiture crosseleg'd cut in Wood and so much left of his Name as discovers to us that it is He who lyes there enterred and although there hath such a vast Interval or Decursion of Time intervened since his Sepulture yet neither hath Time nor our modern Zeal more fierce and ravenous then that so defaced it but that the Effigies insculped crosseleg'd is yet obvious visible and this I believe wil sufficiently refute the opinion of the vulgar who believe this Figure on the Tomb-stone to be the representation of some Giant and this Guncelin had Issue Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer that opulent and powerfull Baron of Kent who was witnesse to the Charter of Edward the second by which he confirms the Franchises and Priviledges of the City of London in the twelfth year of his Reign and there subscribes himself Steward of the Kings Hostell and was certainly a very eminent Person for in the year 1316 when Sir Richard de Rodney was invested with Knighthood by the abovesaid Prince the Ceremony of putting on his Spurs was performed by Maurice de Berkley and Bartholomew de Badelesmer but he had not been long swoln to this vast Dimension of power but their arose a Tempest which blasted all his blooming Glories for Isabel Wife and Queen to Edward the second having by severall good Offices performed between her Husband and his disobliged Barons so becalmed and softned all their Animosities that they became intombed in a mutuall Pacification was so inflamed at her denyall of Lodging and Accomodation in Leeds Castle by Thomas Colepeper the Castellan under Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer that she egged and pushed on the King to a Revenge which was done so effectually that the Death of the Castellan was the Expiation of so infortunate an Insolence and the Losse of the Head of the Lord Badelesmer taken Prisoner not long after neer Pontfrait and the forfeiture of his Estate paid the price of his Ambition and thus this magnificent Baron who like a streight and procere Elme grew tall in Title and like its luxuriant Branches did spread wide in the extent of his Power and Revenue was by this Storm supplanted and his Patrimony broken to peices being gathered up by escheat into the Royall Demeasne and in this Shipwrack did this Family lye involved untill the second year of Edward the third and then the indulgent Munificence of that Prince boy'd it up out of those Ruines wherein it appeared almost to have been sunk and by Patent restored him to his Estate here and elsewhere and he in a thankfull acknowledge to Heaven for this Restitution according to the Piety of those Times erected here a House for Black Canons or Canons of St. Augustins as the Record pat 13. Edw. 3. Memb. 6. doth amply testifie and dyed in the twelfth year of Edward the third and left his Estate to his only Son Giles Lord Badelesmere who dying without Issue his four Sisters Margery first marryed to William Rosse Lord Hamlake and then remarryed to Tho. Arundell Margaret matched to Sir John Tiptoft Elizabeth first wedded to William Bohun Earl of Northampton and afterwards to Edmund Mortimer Earl of March and Mawde espoused to John Vere Earl of Oxford became his Coheirs and that Land here at Badelesmer which was not before setled on the Monastery upon the partition was knit to the Patrimony of Vere and he dyed possest of it in the thirty fourth year of Edward the third and left it with the Title of Baron Badelesmer to his Successors one of which was Jo. Earl of Oxford who was attainted in the twelfth year of Edw. the fourth for supporting the House of Lancaster at the Battle of Barnet but was restored both in Blood and Estate but he never was possest of this Mannor for I find that upon the Suppression of this Cloister at Badelesmer it escheated to the Crown and then Henry the eighth granted it to Sir Robert Southwell and he in the second year of Edward the sixth alienated it to Sir Anth. Aucher and he upon his decease gave it to his Son Jo. Aucher who dying without Issue male Ann his sole Inheritrix brought it with her to her Husband Sir Humphrey Gilbert who about the middle of Queen Elizabeth alienated it to Sir Michael Sonds and from him is the instant Signorie devolved to Sir George Sonds Knight of the Bath There is another Mannor in this Parish of Badelesmer called Goddisland and gave Seat and Sirname
first and after this Name began to languish into Decay it was by a Daughter and Heir brought over to Crow extracted from the Crows of Norfolk who from the Reign of Richard the second held it in a continued Track of Succession even untill our Time and then it was passed away from Sir Sackville Crow by Sale to Sir Robert Heath who dyed Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench made so by the late King at Oxford whose Son and Heir Mr. ........ Heath Esquire is now entituled to the Signorie of it Bredge gives name to the whole Hundred wherein it is placed and in Times of a more ancient Date was clasped up within that Revenue which did augment the paternal Inheritance of Cheyney Sir Alexander de Cheyney as appears by ancient Muniments was possest of this place in the reign of Edward the first and is in the Register of those eminent persons who accompanied that Prince into Scotland and was for his important Service against that Nation made Bannerent by that King at Carlaverock in the twenty eighth year of his Government and from him did it by the links of severall Descents after a large Efflux of Time devolve to Henry Lord Cheyney who about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth passed it away to Mr. William Partrich Esquire whose Grandchild Sir Edward Partrich not many yeers since conveyed it to Mr. Arnold Brame of Dover descended from one of this Name who was Secretary to Charles the fifth Blackmanbury is a noted Seat in this Parish and had still the same Owners in Times of a more ancient Character with Garwinton in Bekesbourn as namely the Garwintons the last of which was Tho. Garwinton who held it at his Death which happened in the eleventh year of Henry the fourth and by the Heir Generall of this Family it devolved to Haut issued out from the Hauts of Hautsborne and when this Family determined the Female Heir brought this Seat to Isaac after Isaac was worn out of a great part of this Mannor of Blackmanbury it became the Possession of Henry Lawrence Esquire descended from the Lawrences of Dorsetshire and he held it as appears by a Court Roll in the thirty sixth year of Henry the eighth and in both these Families was the joynt Propriety of this Mannor resident untill about the middle of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and then the whole Demise was by mutuall Consent passed away from Isaac and Lawrence to William Partrich Esquire Grandfather to Sir Edward Partrich who not many yeers since conveyed it to Mr. Arnold Brame of Dover and he upon the Foundation of the ancient Fabrick hath erected that magnificent Pile which obliges the Eye of the passenger both to Admiration and Delight and which like a Phaenix seems to have arose more glorious out of its Ruines Bereacre is a third Mannor in Bredge which in the twenty first year of Edward the first acknowledged it self to be under the Signorie of Walter de Kancia as appears by an Inquisition taken at the same time after his Death Rot. Esc Num. 7. But before the twentieth year of Edward the third this Family was extinguished and then it became the Propriety of Bereacre who assumed his Name from this Mannor and John de Bereacre paid a respective Supply for it as appears by the Book of Aid at making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth year of Edward the third After Bereacre was gone out the Family of Lichfield was concerned in the Possession who likewise were Lords of much Land about Eastry Tilmanston and Betshanger and in this Name was the Title placed untill the twenty second year of Edward the fourth and then Roger Lichfield by Sale conveyed it to William Haut and he had Issue Richard Haut who left only Margery who by matching with William Isaac resigned up this Mannor to the Possession of that Family but long it was not planted in this Name for before the latter end of Henry the eighth it was alienated to Petit and Weeks and they again not many yeers after transmitted it by Sale to Nailor of Renvill from whom by the same Devolution it was almost in our Fathers Memory carryed down to Smith and Watkins Beauville alià s Bewâ—field or Whitfield lyes in the Hundred of Bewisborough is a small Parish mounted aloft on those Hills that run from Barham down to Dover Castle The Lord Giles Badelesmer anciently held it and gave it in Frank Marriage with his Daughter Elizabeth whom Jo. Northwood of Milton took to Wife and here it continued with the Interest of this Family severall Descents untill at last it devolved to John Northwood of Northwood in Milton abovesaid from which Name and Family the Fate of Sale took it off and brought it over about the latter end of Henry the eighth to Jo. Bois Esquire Ancestor to Mr. Io. Bois of Fredvill Esquire now living and in this Family the Possession is still resident The Mannor of Linacre is seated within the Circuit of this Parish and gave both Seat and Sirname to a Family so called and from whom Linacre that composed the Latin Grammar in the Reign of Henry the ninth was lineally extracted but this Name here was expired before the end of Henry the fourth and then by some Court Rolls I find that Iohn Monins was invested in the Fee and here for some Decursion of Time the Right and Interest of this Place did abide untill at length about the Beginning of Henry the eighth the Title by Sale fell under the Signory of Chelesford or Chelford from which Name the same Fate conveyed it to Mr. Io. Bois whose Successor Mr. Io. Bois of Fredville Esquire by descendant Right does now enjoy it East and West Berming in the Hundred of Twyford was in Times of a very high Ascent the Possession of a Family who derived their Sirname from this Place William de Bermeling dyed seised of it in the twenty second year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 27. and had likewise the Advowson of the Church after him Robert de Bermelin held it in the thirty first year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 123. When this Family was gone out the Freminghams came into the Possession Iohn Son of Ralph de Fremingham was in the enjoyment of them at his Death which was in the twenty third year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 145. and so was his Successor John Fremingham in the twelfth year of Henry the fourth Rot. Esc Num. 15. But after this I find no more of this Name interessed in the Possession the next Family which was invested in the Inheritance were the Pimpes a Name very eminent and no lesse ancient in this Track John Pimpe held them and Ledhock at his Decease which was in the ninth year of Henry the fifth Rot. Esc Num. 35. from whom the Title streamed down to Reginald Pimpe Esquire in whose Tenure they were at his Death which was in the sixteenth year of Henry the sixth from Pimpe
they were carryed away by Purchase to the noble Family of Stafford Dukes of Buckingham and Earls of Stafford in which Name they had not long continued when Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham in the thirteenth year of Henry the eighth being convicted of high Treason for consulting with a Wizard and a Monke touching the Succession of the Crown forfeited his Estate here and his Life together and then King Henry the eighth by royall Concession planted the Propriety of these Places in Sir John Rainsford one of his Privie Councell and his Son Sir Henry Rainsford passed them away to Sir Henry Isley and he having infortunately enwrapped himself in the unhappy Design of Sir Thomas Wiat an Attempt which was plausible and specious enough in the Intention of it as being enamel'd and guilded over with the glorious Pretences of asserting the Orthodox Religion and defending the publick Libertie against the Eruption of Strangers but very ruinous and disastrous in the Effects and Consequences of it as was very visible upon this worthy Person who in the first year of Queen Mary was convicted of high Treason and executed at Sevenoke where he dyed with as much Constancy and Alacrity of Spirit as he had lived with Integrity upon whose untimely Exit the Crown seised upon his Estate and that Princesse in the same year he was destroyed granted his Estate here to Sir John Baker her Attorney Generall from whom the Title and possession of Berming is flowed down to his Successor Sir John Baker Baronet who in Right of this Descent is now entituled to the Patrimony of both these Mannors Halls Place in this Parish gave Seat and Sirname to a Family so stiled who in ancient Deeds were written At-Hall from their Habitation at some more eminent Mansion but before the end of Edward the third this Family was vanished and the Signory of this Place surrendered to Colepeper of Preston yet some part of it I find by old Deeds was passed away to Clive which Jo. Clive about the seventh of Henry the fourth alienated to Peter Colepeper and he in the tenth year of the abovesaid Prince conveyed Hall Place to Sampson Mascall originally extracted from a place called Mascalls in Brenchley and in this Family the Possession was fixed untill the latter end of Queen Elizabeth and then it was conveyed to Alchorne the Cradle or Fountain of whose Family was at Alchorne in Rotherfield and in this Name is the Fee-Simple of this Place still resident though the use and profits of it be for a long Series of years made over to Mr ......... Cook late of Stepney and his Descendants West-Bere stiled so in Opposition to Bere in St. Margarets nere Dover with the Appendant Mannor of Hopland is situated in the Hundred of Blengate the last of which was not called so from the growth and production of Hops there formerly planted as the vulgar Tradition affirms the Introduction of Hops into this Nation being not of that Antiquity but from a Family exceeding ancient who as appears by Deeds without Date were in elder Times possessors of it but before the end of Edward the first this Family was mouldered away and and then the eminent Family of St. Lawrence who likewise were Lords of West-Bere by purchase from Hugh de Bere and about the latter end of Edward the first were invested in the Tenure of both claimed the propriety and Thomas St. Lawrence and John de Swalclive paid Reliefe for their Lands at West-Bere and Hopland as the Book of Aid instructs us in the twentieth year of Edward the third and in this Family of St. Lawrence did the Propriety of both these Mannors reside untill the Beginning of Henry the sixth and then Hopland was conveyed to John Isaac in which Name it was resident untill the latter End of Queen Elizabeth and then it was conducted down by Sale to acknowledge Tourney of Saltwood and he by a like Alteration transplanted his Interest in it not many years since into Steed but West-Bere came by the Daughter and Heir of this Family to Apulderfield and again by the Female Heir of Sir William Apulderfield to Sir John Phineux and he setled it on his second Brother the Heir Generall of whose Descendant not many years since being wedded to Sir John Smith it is now become the Possession of his Grandchild Philip Viscount Strangford Bersted in the Hundred of Eythorne was the Seat of the noble Family of Crevequer before they removed to Leeds Castle their Seat and Residence and in Doomsday Book where there is a particular Account taken what Mannors Hamon de Crevequer was possest of in the twentieth of William the Conquerour it is written Briested which could not be meant of Brasted which was the Signory and Possession of Gilbert de Clare in the Reign of Henry the first as appears by the Records of Christ-Church in Canterbury where this Earl and his Successors are said to hold the Mannor of Brasted as Senescalli Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis in sua Inthronizatione whereas this Mannor had never any such Tenure united to it and remained parcell of the Patrimoniall Demeasne of Crevequer untill Hamon de Crevequer having embarked himself in the Quarrell of Simon de Montfort Earl of Leicester made Shipwrack of his Estate here at Bersted which was wrung from him by Henry the third and though he was pardoned by the Pacification of Killingworth made in the fiftyeth of that Princes Reign yet I do not find that he was ever reinvested in Bersted so that it remained in the Crown untill the tenth year of Edward the second and then it was exchanged for other Land with Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer but he having by an ambitious Defection forfeited this and much other Land in the fifteenth year of Edward the second it lapsed back again by an early Confiscation to the Crown and lay involved there until the fourth year of Edward the sixth and then being looked upon as wrapped up in the Mannor of Leeds Castle as indeed it had been in Appendage unto that and the Castellans of it it was granted at that Time to Sir Anthony St. Leger from whom it descended to his great Grandchild Sir Warham St. Leger who about the latter end of King Iames exchanged it with Sir Richard Smith for Salmeston in the Isle of Thanet and two thousand pound in Money to poise the Exchange and make the Ballance even and he not long after passed it away to Sir Thomas Colepeper of Hollingbourn who hath lately enstated it on his Son and Heir Sir Cheyney Colepeper who is entituled to the present Signory of it Milgate in this Parish was anciently a Mannor though now by Intermission the Homage is lost and shrunk into Disuse and Oblivion It was in Ages of a more Antiquity the possession of a Family called Coloigne Robert de Coloigne was possest of it and the Record taken after his Decease will inform you that he dyed seised of it in the thirty fifth year of Edward
in his Glossarie will inform you Alodium est praedium liberum saith he nulli Servituti obnoxium quod opponitur Feudo nam olim Feuda non possent vendi sine consensu Domini At Alodium vero est quod per omnem haeredum seriem discurrit cuivis è populo etiam reclamante Domino dare possit aut venundari The result of all which is this that the word Alodium signifies a Free Inheritance or Patrimony not chained up to any particular Service whatsoever which hath the least Resemblace or symtome of servitude either by Custome Prescription or Law imprinted upon it and may in English be styled Free Soccage and which being transmitted and conducted along by an uninterrupted Series of Descent from Posterity to Posterity might be pawned mortgaged or alienated to any Person whatsoever whereas on the contrary Lands which were Feudal could not be passed away without the Lords consent And this agrees with the Municipal Laws of France which anciently styled those Persons whose Lands were fortified with that Tenure Leuds Francs id est Nobiles nullius Domini Imperio evocati Homines sui Juris non Feudalis id est nullo Feudi Gravamine coerciti vel restricti that is Men of a noble Extraction free and unrestrained whose Demeasns were not manacled and tyed up with the Obligations of any Tenure which was Servile as those whose Lands were Fendal But enough of this I shall now return to Benenden which as it gave Seat to the above mentioned Godricus so it seems his Descendants extracted there Sirname from thence and assumed the Denomination of Benenden and bare for their Armes in a Shield Azure a Lobster Or and certainly were of Account in this Track for John the Son of Roger de Benenden held a Knights Fee in Benenden in the twentieth year of Edward the third But as all Families are chained up to a fixed Period like the Sea which is it self bound in with a Girdle of Sand so had this its conclusion likewise for Joan Benenden the Heir General of this Name by matching with Sir William Brenchley Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas fastned this Mannor to his Inheritance and they both lie buried in Christ Church in Canterbury He died as the Date upon their Tomb for they slumber under one Marble insorms me in the year 1446 and She in the year 1453. But after his Decease the Title of this place did quickly acknowledge another Proprietary for the Heir General of this Family matched to More of More Court in Ivy-Church where having been many Generations they dislodged from so solitary an Habitation and planted themselves at Benenden where they erected a House and adopted it into their own Name by styling it More Court but though it still stand an Alphabet to the Memory of this Family by bearing their Sirname yet did it not many years after its first Institution and Frame acknowledge the Signory of this Family for John More Esquire in the first year of Q. Mary conveyed it to Mr. William Watts from whom by successive Right it is now come down to Mr. ......... Watts and owns him for its present Proprietary The Mannor of Hempsted in this Parish anciently that is about the twentieth year of Henry the third belonged as appears by the Book in the Exchequer called Testa de Nevil to Robert de Hempsted from whence he assumed his Sirname which could not make the Title long liv'd in his Family for about the Beginning of Edward the third I find it passed away to Echingham of Sussex and James de Echingham held it by the fourth part of a Knights Fee in the twentieth year of Edward the third at making the Black Prince Knight but after this the Title was not long constant to the Interest of this Family for about the Beginning of Richard the second I find it in the Hands of Sir Robert Belknap the Judge who being attainted in the tenth year of that Prince by the Malice and crooked Arts of a factious and insolent Nobility there was Survey taken of his Estate in the fourteenth year of his Reign and then this Mannor with the residue of his Estate escheated being annexed to the Crown it was by Richard the second granted to William de Guldford Sheriff of Kent in the eleventh year of that Prince descended from Henry de Guldford a great Benefactor to the Priory of Taning in the twenty eighth year of Edw. the first and who is mentioned in the Book of Aid to have held the Mannor of Wickham near Lidde in Kent by Knights Service in the twentyeth year of Edward the third and the abovesaid William having thus by the Favour of his Prince obtained this Mannor made it his Seat and transmitted it to his Successors who much improved it with the Supplement of Additional Buildings so that it hath not only formerly for many Generations continued to be the Seat of this Familie but is likewise a Mansion relating to this Name at this instant Great Maytham in Benenden was a Mannor which related to the Proprietie of the noble Family of Malmains whose principal Seat was at Malmains in Stoke in the Hundred of Hoo Nicholas Malmain Grandchild of John Malmain who likewise held this Mannor in the twentieth year of Henry the third paid a proportionate supply for Maytham at making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth year of Edw. the third and died possest of it in the twenty third year of that Prince But after this it was not long permanent in this Name for in the fourth year of Henry the fourth Nicholas Carew held it at the Marriage of Blanch that Princes Daughter and in his Family was the Title constant untill the latter End of Henry the eighth and then it was passed away to Thomas Lord Cromwell afterwards created Earl of Essex who being convicted of High Treason in the thirty second year of Henry the eighth it escheated to the Crown and that Prince in the thirty third year of his Rule granted it to Sir Thomas Wiatt who the same year conveyed it by Sale to Sir Walter Henley of Coursehorne the Kings Serjeant at Law and he not long after disposed of it to Thomas Colepeper of Bedgbury Esquire who had wedded Hellen one of his three Daughters and Coheirs and he in the last year of Edward the Sixth alienated some part of the Land which related to it to Richard Parker and Anthony Franklin but the Mannor it self rested in Colepeper of Bedgebury untill the late King granted it away not many years since to Alderman Wright of London as being forfeited to the Crowne because the Lord of it did not pay those Scots and Assessements which were laid upon him towards the Reparation of the Banks of the Mersh and by Margaret the Daughter and Coheir of the abovesaid Alderman is it now become the Inheritence of Mr. Richard Cordall of London Esquire Lowden or little Maytham is the last Mannor in this Parish and was
de Audley in right of his Wife Sister and Heir to the abovesaid Gilbert whom our Printed Books of Nobility call Isabell though in the Inquisition taken after his Death which was in the twenty first of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 39. She is styled Margaret entered upon the Inheritance of this place but the Fatality of the other Family did likewise cleave to this for the Spindle prevailed against the Spear Margaret being Sole Daughter and Heir to this Hugh Audley in whom the Name at this place met with a sad enterment and the Estate by her matching with Ralph Stafford Earl of Stafford found another Proprietary and he in her Right held it at his Decease which was in the forty sixth year of Edward the third and transmitted it to his Son Thomas Earl of Stafford who likewise was in the enjoyment of it at his Death which happened in the sixteenth year of Richard the second and from him was the Possession transported along by an unbroken Thread of Descent to Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham and Earl of Stafford a Man magnificent but infortunate who being accused of high Treason attainted and beheaded in the twelfth year of Henry the eighth and his Estate here confiscated in the thirteenth and rested in the Crown untill the abovesaid Prince in the thirty first year of his Reign granted it to Paul Sidnor and he not long after passed it away by Sale to William Lambert Esquire who setled it upon the Colledge of Alms people at Greenwich which is vulgarly called Q. Elizabeths Colledg with a Limitation reserved that the Heirs male of his Line might hold it in Lease for ever and in case they might fail that the last might dispose of it by Testament or Deed to whom he pleased by virtue of which Reservation Mr. John Lambert of Sevenoke Esquire is at this instant Lessee to the Colledge for this Mannor Bokinfold in this Parish is an eminent Mannor which belonged to that Chauntry and Chappel which was founded here by Hamon de Crevequer and confirmed as appears by the first Book of Compositions kept amongst the Records of the Church of Rochester with the Demeasne appertaining to it in the forty first year of Ed. the third and continued being thus forseited and secured by the Royal Charter untouched untill the generall Suppression and being dissolved the Revenue which anciently supported it was in the thirty first of Henry the eighth carried of by Grant to Paul Sidnor Esquire who not long after passed it away to Sir John Gates to whom it was again confirmed in the first year of Edward the sixth but he being infortunately attainted in the fourth year of the abovesaid Prince as being one of the Partisans of the Duke of Somerset to whose Service and for whose Cause he sacrificed his Head this returned to the Crown and dwelt in its Revenue untill Queen Elizabeth granted it away again to Katharine Tong who suddenly after alienated her Interest in it to Revell and he about the latter End of Queen Elizabeth passed it away to Colepeper from whom in our Fathers Memory it went away to Dyke and very suddenly from him again to Mr. Benedict Barnham by one of whose four Daughters and Coheirs it came to be the Patrimony of Soam who lately hath demised his whole Concernment in it to Mr. George Brown formerly of Spelmonden in Kent now of Buckland in Surrey There was formerly a Park at this Place for in the second year of Edward the second Bartholomew de Badelesmer held the Mannor and Park of Bockinfold in Fee by grant from that Prince and the advowson of the Free Chappel of the same and Edward the second in the nineteenth year of his Reign being on his way to France to do his Homage for the Dutchy of Apuitain suddenly drew back his Foot and retired to this Place where he reposed himself and caused many to be indicted for their unlawfull and irregular hunting in the Park at Bokinfold nor hath Time so dismantled or disparked it but that yet there are some Memorials or Vestigias remaining which attest the Truth of the Premises Criolls Court is another Manor in Brenchley which by Joan Daughter of Bertram de Crioll and Heir Generall of her Brother John de Crioll it came to Sir Richard de Rokesley and by his Daughter and Heir Joan to Thomas de Poynings whose Successor Sir Ed. Poynings dying in the twelfth year of Hen. the eighth without Issue or any collateral Alliance in the fourteenth year of that Prince it escheated to the Crown afterwards it was granted in the thirty first year of that Prince to Paul Sidnor Esquire employed as Agent to that Prince into Spain and he not long after alienated it to William Lambert Esquire who setled it upon the Colledge of poor people at Greenwich of his Erection with a Reservation that the Heits male of his Line might hold it in Lease for ever by virtue of which limitation it is now enjoyed by Mr. John Lambert of Sevenoke Esquire Parrocks in this Parish was anciently a Mannor relating to a Family of that Denomination which continued Lords of the Fee untill the latter end of Henry the seventh and then it was by Sale conveyed to William Hextall Esquire who dying without Issue male Margaret his sole Daughter and Heir brought this and much Land beside to be the Inheritance of William Whetenhall Esquire from whom the right of Descent wafted it down to his Successor Sir Richard Whetenhall who in the twelfth year of Queen Elizabeth demised it to William Brooke Lord Cobham who not long after passed it away to Sir Thomas Nevill Grandfather to the right honorable Mildmay Earl of Westmerland now Possessor of it Mascals Capgrove or Capgrave and Chekeswell are three Mannors in Brenchley also which as the Book of Aid informs me were in the tweneieth year of Edward the third in the possession of John de Capgrave and it is probable that John Capgrave an eminent Monk an Ornament to Learning and to the Priory of Christ Church who flourished in the year 1484 and is mentioned with so much Honour by Pitseus was descended from this man in whose Name these Mannors were not after this long permanent for as the learned and laborious Sidrach Petit does informe me in his Inquest of Kent they fell in the Reign of Richard the second under the Signory of Vaux whose Successor about the latter end of Henry the sixth alienated his Propriety in them to Humphrey Stafford Duke of Buckingham whose infortunate Grandchild Edward Duke of Buckingham being attainted in the twelfth year of Henry the eighth these with the Residue of his Estate escheated to the Crown from which not many years after they were passed away to Edward Ferrers Esquire and he conveyed his Right to Whetonhall who about the beginning of King James demised them to Ouldsworth who not long after sold them to Bartue and he almost in our Memory transmitted them by Sale to
Mr. Cha. Tucker Father to the present Owner The Rectory of Brenchley was given by Richard de Clare to the Canons of St. Mary Magdalen in Tunbridge and compounded with the Bishop of Rochester with this Provision reserved that the Rector for the Time being should pay two wax Tapers of four pound Weight to the Priory of Tunbridge at the Feast of St. Mary Magdalen The Mannor which was annexed to this Rectory was upon the Dissolution of this Cloister in the thirty first year of Henry the eighth granted to Paul Sidnor and he not long after passed it away to William Waller Esquire from which Family not many years since it was by Purchase invested in the Family of Courthop Moatlands was the Inheritance of a Family who extracted their Sirname from hence and were called Brenchley a Branch of which was Sir William Brenchley Lord Cheif Justice of the Common Pleas who founded a Chauntry or Chappel in the Navy of the Cathedral at Canterbury and dyed in the year 1446 without Issue nor did these Lands continue much longer in the Name for in the Beginning of Edward the fourth I find them in the Tenure of More who had matched with the Heir Generall and here the Propriety of this place remained interwoven with the Inheritance of this Family untill that Age which fell under our Fathers Remembrance and then it was transplanted by Sale into Roberts the Family with now possesses it There are two other Seats in this Parish which may deserve our notice the first is Cats-Place which gave Seat to Hugh de Cat and in Recompence took its Denomination from him and after the Title of it had lodged in this Name many Descents even until the Reign of Henry the sixth it was passed away to Tilden of Tildens Place in Marden and after the Possession had some Ages been united to their Interest it was some few years since unfastned and the Propriety of it carried over to Bassage The second is Vanes which yielded both Seat and Sirname to as Illustrious a Family as any in this Track Robert Vane or Fane for they are proimiscuously so written in ancient Rolls paid respective Aid for it at making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth of Edward the third and is from him by a continued Series still transported along in the Demeasn of this Name and Family so that here if my Light fail me not should I look for the original of that Noble Name and Family that since hath so fairly spread into so many several Branches issued primitively from this first original Stem Bredgar in the Hundred of Milton hath several places in it observable The first is Bexon from whence the Borough of Bexon or Bexon Street derives it self It gave Sirname to a Family in whom in clder Times the Inheritance was planted and there is yet extant in the Church Windows in coloured Glass a superannuated Portraicture mangled by rude hands and demolished almost by the Injuries of Time with this Inscription affixed to the pedestal Orate pro Anima Joannes de Bexon which discovers to us whose Effigies is represented by it this Iohn Bexon flourished in the Reign of Edward the second as appears by Deeds and Edward the third and had Issue Iohn Bexon likewise Rroprietary of this place after whom I can track no more of the Family at Bredgar In the Reign of Richard the second I find it invested in Tong who it is probable were extracted originally from Tong not far distant a Family of good estimate in this County for I find by some old Deeds that Semanus de Tong who in the sixteenth year of Richard the second was Tenant to the Maison le Dieu in Ospringe for Lands at Lurdinden in Challock sealed with a Bend cotised between six Martletts and sometimes with the Bend uncotised and from him are the Tongs who are now Possessors of this place originally descended Swanton Court was parcel of that Estate which claimed the Lords Leybourn for Proprietaries and from them descended to the Heir General of the Family Iuliana de Leybourn who dying in the forty third year of Edward the third without Kindred or without Issue either by Hastings or Clinton this upon a Defailance of both escheated to the Crown and King Edward the third in the fiftieth year of his Reign setled it upon the Abby of Grace upon Tower Hill in whose Reverue it rested until the Suppression of that Cloister and then it was by Henry the eighth in the thirty sixth year of his Reign granted to Christopher Sampson and he in the second year of Edward the sixth conveyed it to Sir Thomas Wiat and he being attainted in the second year of Queen Mary it returned by escheat to the Crown from whence by a new concession it came over to Reader who not many years since conveyed his right in it to Aldersey branched out from the ancient Family of Aldersey of Aldersey in Cheshire so that it is now the Inheritance of Terrey Aldersey Esquire The Colledge of Bredgar was converted from a Parish Church first into that we now call a Colledge by Robert then Parson thereof in the reign of Richard the second which was establishsd and ratified saith Harpsfield by Thomas Arundell Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and in this Capacity or posture it stood until the Dissolution and then being born away into the royal Revenue it was by Exchange with the Crown in the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth annexed to the revenue for the future of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury There is a place in this Parish called Mans as being in elder Times a Mansion of that Name as Deeds both of an ancient and modern Date do inform me which whether it were the ancient Seat of the Mans who have since been transplanted to Canterbury is uncertain onely it is very probable because it had Proprietaries of that Denomination that this was the Fountain whence this Family issued forth Brenset in the Hundred of Aloesbridge had still the same Proprietaries with Newington Belhouse near Hieth and therefore is called Newington Brenset and thither for farther satisfaction I shall refer my Reader only I must inform him that here is an old Mansion in this Parish which for several Descents was the Seat of the Edolphs before they were transplanted to Hinxhill and certainly in elder Times were of good Account in this County and writ their Names in old Deeds Edulf for so is Stephen Edulf written in an old Commission directed to him John Peckham and Martin Horne wherein they were made Collectors for the Cinque Ports in the sixth year of Richard the second but now this Family hath deserted this Place having not many years since alienated their Interest here to Mr. John Fagge of Rye Father to John Fagge of Wiston in Sussex Esquire to whose Revenue it remains now annexed Betshanger in the Hundred of Eastry was in elder Times the Patrimony of a Family called Marney or Marin for so the
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
came after to be the Possession of Roger Lord Leybourne and from him did descend to Juliana Leybourne his Sole Heir who matching with William Clinton Earl of Huntington made it his Inheritance but he deceasing in the twenty eighth of Edward the third without Issue and his Lady after dying and leaving no visibleor avowed Alliance knit to her by the indisputable tye of Consanguinity to claim it it escheated to the Crown and K. Richard the second in the twenty first of his Reign granted it to the Royal Chappel of St. Stevens in Westminster where it remained till the Dissolution and then it was granted in the second year of Edward the sixth to Sir Edward Wotton from whom by a successive Right of Descent it was transmitted to his great Grandchild Thomas Lord Wotton of Marley whose Widow the Lady Mary Wotton does at this instant possess it Lastly Chilston is an eminent Seat and Mannor likewise situated within the Precincts of this Parish In the fifty fifth year of Henry the third Henry Hussey had a Charter of Free-Warren to his Mannor of Chilston and his Grandchild Henry Hussey died seised of it in the sixth year of Edward the third and in this Family was the Inheritance in an undivided Succession resident till our Grandfathers Memory and then Henry Hussey by Sale translated the Proprietie into John Parkhurst whose Successor Sir William Parkhurst alienated it to Richard Northwood whose Son Mr. Oliver Northwood by the same transmission passed it over to Cieggat he very lately disposed of his Concernment in it to Mr. Manly of London who very lately hath conveyed it to Mr. Edward Hales Grandchild to Sir Edward Hales of Tunstal Knight and Baronet Buckland in the Hundred of Feversham was as Sidrach Petits Inquest into the Mannors of Kent informs me as high as the Reign of Henry the third the Possession of John de Buckland who it seems extracted his Sirname from hence and is likewise mentioned in Testa de Nevil to have held Land in this Track in the twentieth year of Henry the third But before the end of Edward the second this Family was vanished from this place and immediately after they were gone out the Frogenhalls of Frogenhall in Tenham were entituled to the Possession and Richard Frogenhall was seised of it at his Decease which was in the thirty fourth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 37. and from him did it descend to John Frogenhall Esquire who was with Edmund Brook Lord Cobham then Ceneral of the Kentish Forces under Richard Earl of Warwick at the Battle of North-Hampton where the House of Lancaster by that vigorous Assistance the Kentish men that day afforded the House of York received so fatal a Wound that all the Art of the Lancastian Partisans could hardly ever after close it and this Man had Issue Thomas Frogenhall who about the Beginning of Henry the seventh passed it away to Gedding and Thomas Gedding in the twenty fifth year of Henry the eighth held this Mannor and conveyed it by Deed to Henry Atsea of Herne and he in the thirtieth of Henry the eighth was possest of it at his Death and from him did the Thread of Descent guide the Title down to his Grandchild William Atsea who in the tenth year of King James conveyed it by Sale to ....... Saker of Feversham Gentleman whose Son Mr. Christopher Saker in our Fathers Memory alienated it to Sir Basill Dixwell of Terlingham in Folkstone Knight and Baronet who upon his Decease about the year 1641 gave it to his Kinsman Mr. John Dixwell Esquire in whom the Possession is still resident Buckland by Dover is situated in the Hundred of Bewsborough and was a Branch of that spacious and wide Demeasn which made the Patrimony of Hamon de Crevequer so considerable in this County and he held it at his Decease which was in the forty seventh year of Henry the third Rot. Esc Num. 33. Afterwards I find the Wilghebies or Willoughbies invested in the Possession and Thomas de Willoughbie was seised of it at his Decease which was in the seventh year of Edward the second But the Title had no long residence in this Family for in the Reign of Edward the third I find it in the Tenure of Barrie of Sevington for Agnes Wife of William Barrie was possest of it in Right of Dower as appears by an Inquisition taken after her Death in the forty eighth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 7. After the Barries were worn out the Callards or Calwards now vulgarly called Collard became Lords of the Fee a Family of deep Extraction in this Track and who were in elder Times entituled to the Possession of Land and Houses in Canterbury as appears by a Composition made between the Monks of St. Austins and those of Christ Church in the forty first of Edward the third recited by Mr. Somner in his Survey of that City Pag. 192. wherein it is mentioned that the Abby of St. Austins had purchased Land and Houses of Iohn Calward But to proceed after this Family had for divers Descents held this Mannor in a fair repute John Callard Esquire being one of those who accompanied Sir Henry Guldford of this County to serve Ferdinand of Castile in his War commenced against the Moors where for some Signal Service performed against those Infidels he had this Coat assigned to him and his Posterity by Clarenceux Benolt vid. Girony of six pieces Or Sables over all three Blackmores Heads decouped in our Fathers Memory they surrendred the Possession of this place by Sale to Fogge who not many years after passed away his Concernment in it by the same conveyance to Mr. William Sherman of Croyden Esquire Steward both to George Abbot and William Laud Successively Arch-Bishops of Canterbury Dudmanscombe is another Mannor in this Parish which in elder times made up the Revenue of the Priorie of St. Martins in Dover and continued annexed to that Cloister until the general Suppression and then being torn from the Church it was again exchanged with Thomas Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by Henry the eighth in the twenty ninth of his Reign and so remained wound up in the Demeasn of that Sea untill that ruinous and fatal popular Tempest which arose in these Times supplanted it and cast it into the Possession of a secular Interest Burham in the Hundred of Lark field is in Doomsday Book written Burgham and was in the twentieth year of William the Conquerour held by Ralph de Curva Spina In Ages of a lower Approach to us I find it under the Signorie of Jeffrey de Say and he died possest of it in the twenty third year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 48. and for the future remained so chained to the Propriety of this Family that it was esteemed Parcel of their Barony of Birling and when Jeffrey Lord Say in the Reign of Richard the second ended in two Female Coheirs one matched to John Lord Clinton
and the other called Joan wedded to Sir William Fiennes this upon the Division of the Estate accrued to Fiennes and coming again by the Heir General of Fiennes Lord Dacres to be possest by Leonard William Leonard Son and Heir of Fiennes Leonard a younger Branch of that House hath lately passed it away to Mr. Francis Barnham and Mr. Edward Maplesden There was in old Time a Fountain within the Limits of this Parish at a place called Haly-Garden venerable it was and of no small Account amonst the People who for the sanctitie they conceived was in it ascribed divine Attributes unto it as the Name imports for what we call Holy our Ancestors long time since styled Halyg as Halyfax in York-shire from holy Haire that that the People devoutly esteemed and frequently with blind credulity visited In the seventeenth of K. Richard the second the Friars Carmelites of Alresford obtained a Grant by Letters Patents to bring the Water from that Fountain in Haly-Garden to their Monastery in Alresford to what purpose they that will survey the Designs of the Monks of those Times may easily discover Burmersh in the Hundred of Worth was a Member of that Patrimony which in Times of a higher Calculation related to the Abby of St. Augustines in Canterbury and had here a Mansion called Abbots Court which is an Adjunct to this Mannor and had this Denomination imposed upon it because the Abbot of that Covent used to sojourn here when he came to survey that Demeasn which augmented the Revenue of that Abby and lay spread into Romney Mersh This Mannor upon the Surrender of the Patrimony of that Cloister into the Hands of Henry the eighth in the twenty ninth year of his Reign was in the thirty fifth of that Prince granted to William Finch Esquire whose Successor Sir Thomas Finch Earl of Winchelsey not many years since passed it away to Sir Ralph Whitfield Serjeant at Law whose Son and Heir Sir Herbert Whitfield is now Lord of the Fee C. C. C. CAnterbury hath so exactly in all the Parts and Limbs of it been described and surveyed by Mr. Somner that I should exceedingly eclipse the Labours of so inductrious a Pen if I should go about to Pourtray that in any contracted Landskip which hath been before represented to the Publick pencilled out in so large and exquisite a Volume Onely some few things are there omitted which in this Search I shall take notice of and so proceed The Augustine Friars or Convent of Black Canons in Canterbury was founded by Thomas de Bonington Pat. 17. Edw. secundi Memb. 18. Parte secunda The Prior of the Trinity in Canterbury was accustomed to receive two pence upon every Vessel of Wine coming into the Port of Sandwich Rot. Claus Hen. tertii Memb. 17. Baldwin de VVereval had a Charter in the second year of K. John for the Aldermanry of Westgate in Canterbury Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent had the Castles of Canterbury Dover and Rochester granted to his Custody Carta 12. Hen. tertii King Henry the third in the sixteenth year of his Reign at Canterbury took the Fealty of the Knights and Free Tenants of Kent as likewise of the Barons of the Cinque Ports K. Henry the third in the forty eighth of his Reign grants a Pardon for Life to Francis de Balsham for that She was hanged for Felony at Canterbury from nine of the Clock on the Munday till the rising of the Sun next Day and yet escaped with Life Pat. 48. Membra 24. I should not have mentioned this but that an Accident proportionate to this in all the Circumstances of it happened to one Ann Green who not many years since being hanged at Oxford for the supposed Murder of her Child miraculously escaped with Life King Edward the first Landed at Dover 1274 and restored divers Liberties to Canterbury which before were seised into the Hands of the Crown Pat. 4. Edw. 1. There was a Chauntry founded in St. Dunstans Church by John Roper for two Priests to celebrate at the Altar of St. Nicholas in that Church Pat. 4. Hen. 4. Parte prima Memb. 29. There was another Chauntry mentioned by Mr. Somner founded by VVilliam Brenchley Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench for one Priest to celebrate at the Altar of St. John Baptist in Christ Church for the support of which he gives one House in St. Elphage Parish and ten pound Rent issuing yearly out of his Lands at Bilsington Pat. 25. Hen. 6. pars 1. Memb. 15. The Mannor of Dodindale had originally owners of that Name for as Mr. Somner in his Survey of Canterbury out of the Records of St. Augustins instructs us Haymo the Son of Guido de Dodindale gave the Tithes of Dodindale to the Priory of St. Augustins But it seems it was but for certain years for in the Reign of Henry the second as the same Records testifie Robert de Marci gave the Tithes of this place to the Hospital of St. Laurence so far he in that laborious Peice of his hath exhibited to the publick view who were its ancient Possessors when it bore the Name of Dodindale now out of the private Evidences it must be my Task who were its Proprietaries since it carried the Name of Morton By a Deed without date Elias de Morton from whom it assumed the Name of Morton which hath clove to it ever since demises the Fee-simple of it to Hugh Fitzvinon a Family which had large possessions at Selling by Monks Horton whose Daughter Eugenia Fitzvinon passes it away by Deed to Nicholas de Twitham in the twentyeth year of Henry the third and he immediately after by a Deed not bounded with any date settles it in Robert de Polre but whether his Successor sold it to J. Chich or not is incertain because there is a vacancy or gap in in the private Evidences though the Records of St. Augustins make him to have some Interest in it in the year 1330. The next that I find to have been entituled to the possession were Hardres and Isaack who in the twenty second year of Henry the sixth conveyed it away to William Say for the use of Robert Rigdon but it seems the title did not long fix here for he in the thirty third year of the abovesaid Prince transmits all his concernment in it by sale to William Barton and John Whete and they by mutual consent in the eighteenth year of Edward the fourth alienate it to Edward Pargate who transmitted it to his Son and Heir John Pargate from whom descended Edward Pargate who in the twenty fifth year of Henry the eighth demises it to Peter Bruin and after the Title had many years united to this Family Henry Bruin dying without Issue gave it to his Sister Jane Bugge who in the first year of King James cast her Right by Sale into her Kinsman John Bruin who in the fifth year of that Prince by the same alienation translated the Title into William
of Lathbury in the County of Buckingham Nin-House shall not pass without some mention because it was the residence of John at Nin who is in the Register of those twelve Worthies who are pourtraied kneeling in Coat Armour in an ancient window in this Parish Church whose posteritie enjoyed it untill the beginning of Henry the sixth and then it was alienated to Sharpe and Wil. Sharpe mingled with the Ashes of his five Wives as the Inscription on his Sepulchral Stone instructs us rests in the nethermost part of the South Isle of this Church and as the Date endorsed on his Tombe informs us deceased in the year of Grace 1499. and from him did the Proprietie of this Mansion by the Devolution of sundry Descents come down to Mr ........ Sharpe lately deceased whose Heirs do still enjoy it Chevening in the Hundred of Codsheath had owners of that Name in times of higher Assent who were of no dispicable account Adam de Chevening was one of the grand Assise in the time of King John and had his residence here and likewise derived his Name from hence and the heirs of William de Chevening paid respective Aid for the Mannor of Chevening by the half part of a Knights Fee which Adam de Chevening formerly held of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the twentieth year of Edward the third at the making the Black Prince Knight when the Chevenings went away from the Possession of this place the Family of Delapole who were Lords of the Mannor of Pool in Southfleet were Seated in the Inheritance for John de Lapole held it in the tenth year of Henry the sixth but long after this did it not continue constant to this Name for by Sale the whole Demise was put into the Tenure of Isley and William Isley held it at his death which was in the fourth year of Edward the fourth Rot. Esc 34. and in the Demeasn of this Family was the Inheritance folded up till Sir Henry Isley in the Reign of Edward the sixth fixed the Proprietie of it by Sale in John Lennard Esquire who lies enterred in Chevening Church in right of which original Grant Francis now Lord Dacres his great Grandchild is invested in the present Inheritance of it Chepsted in this Parish was so called from the Market of Fish there long since used for there such as imported fish from Rye on the Sea-Coast thence called Rypers made their Stage and on fresh horses carried it to London Just as Chepe-Side and other places beginning with Chepe give Addition and Distinction from other Towns of like Name where Markets are kept That this Mannor had Proprietaries of this Name is evident for John de Chepsted Son of Cohn de Chepsted paid respect of Aid for this Mannor which was held by Knights Service of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the twentieth year of Edward the third at the making the Black Prince Knight the Heir of Chepsted as appears by an old Pedigree in the hands of Sir Sackvil Crow was matched to John de Bore and the Heir of Bore to Stockett who passed away Chepsted about the latter end of Henry the sixth to William Isley Esquire whose unhappy Successor Sir Henry Isley being attainted in the time of Q. Mary it escheated to the Crown where it hath ever since been resident Morants Court lies in Chevening likewise and contributed both Seat and Sirname to a Knightly Family who were Proprietaries of it King Edward the second in the fourteenth year of his Reign granted Charter-warren to Jurdan and William de Morant in all their Lands in Chevening Shoram Otfood Brasted Sundridge and Chidingston William de Morant was Sheriff of Kent the twelfth and thirteenth year of Edw. the third and had Issue Sir Thomas Morant whose heir General brought this Seat to Peckham in which Family the Title lay couched till our Fathers Memory and then it was demised to Blackswell who some few years since hath by Deed and other Conveyance setled his Right in it on Mr. Watson of the County of Oxford Chiselhurst in the Hundred of Rokesley hath several places within the confines of it of signal Account The first is Scadbery which had Owners of that Sirname which about the twentieth of Edward the third were extinguished for then John de Scadbery deceased without Issue male so that this ancient Seat devolved to be the Patrimony of Osmund de Walsingham descended from the Knightly Family of Walsingham in Norfolk who matched with Ann his sole Daughter and Heir and having planted himself in this County he began to sprout out and flourish into a Series of such worthy Successors that this Family was justly registred in the Catalogue of those who were esteemed the most ancient and eminent of this County having in this latter Decursion of Time been for six Descents Knights which that I may the better represent to the Reader the Splendor of this Family I shall destinctly name the first was Sir Thomas Walsingham who was born the third year of Henry the fifth and he had Issue Sir James Walsingham who was Sheriff of Kent the twelfth year of Henry the seventh whose Son and Heir was Sir Edmund Walsingham who was Lieutenant of the Tower twenty four years and he had Issue Sir Tho. Kinsman to Sir Francis Walsingham the famous Secretary of Estate to Queen Elizabeth Sir Thomas Walsingham was Son and Heir of Sir Thomas above mentioned and he had Issue Sir Thomas Walsingham who is the instant Proprietary of Scadbery Frogpool is another ancient Seat in this Parish which in Henry the thirds Reign confessed the Signory of a Family called Barbur Thomas le Barbur obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Lands in at Chiselhurst in the thirty eighth of the above named Prince But before the latter end of Edward the second this Family was moldered away and then it came to be possest by a Family called Cressell who were Lords of much Land about Hartley Faukham and other places in that Territory and bore for their Coat Armour as appears depicted in ancient Coloured Glasse in Chiselhurst Church Sables A Fesse Argent between three Chaplets Or John de Cressell in an old Survey of Rochester is remembred to have been a liberall Benefactor to this Church in the Reign of Edward the third and from the Government of that Prince does the Age of the above mentioned Coat seem to commence and this is the Reason why another John Cressell of this Family is in the seventh year of Henry the fifth recorded in the Register of those Qui portabant Arma antiqua Finally after the Propriety of this noted Mansion had continued so many Descents wrapped up in the Patrimony of this Family it was about the latter end of Henry the eighth transmitted by Sale to Dyneley and Sir John Dyneley in our Remembrance demised his Concernment in it to Mr. William Watkins to whose Care and industrious Expence the additional Building annexed to the ancient Structure does owe its
alienated both the Title and Demeasn to Allen and he in our Memory sold one moitie of it to Ford and setled the other proportion of it upon his Daughter and Heir who was matched to Giles Down-Court in Dodington is an ancient Mannor which in elder times owned the Signorie of Simon de Dodington who flourished here in the Reign of K. John and Henry the third and was entituled likewise to the Patronage or Advouson of the Church but he determined in an only Daughter called Matilda de Dodington who in the forty first of King Henry the third as appears by a Fine levied in that year passed away her Interest here to John de Bourne in which Family the Title many years after rested untill about the latter end of Henry the sixth it was conveyed to Dungate of Dungate-Street in Kingsdowne And Andrew Dungate the last of this Name at this place dying without Issue male his sole Daughter and Heir was marched to Killigrew who likewise about the entrance of Henry the eighth expired in two female Coheirs whereof one was wedded to Roydon the second to Cowland In Roydon The Pssession was but brief for he about the latter end of Henry the eighth alienated his Proportion to Adye a Name deeply rooted in this Track whose Successor Mr. John Adye still enjoyes the capitall Messuage or Mansion called Down-Court but the Mannor it self which accrued to John Cowland upon the Division of the Estate was by his Will made 1540. ordered to be sold to discharge Debts and Legacies and was according to the Tenure of the premises not long after conveyed to Allen Ancestor to him who is the instant owner of it Downe in the Hundred of Rokesley is so called from its eminent situation it was in times of elder Aspect the Habitation of a Family which passed under that Sirname Richard de Downe who flourished under Edward the first and Edward the second lies buried in the Chancell of the Church but with no date upon his Tombe Soon after this Family was expired the Petleys became Lords of the Fee and Stephen Petley is Recorded in the Book of Aid to have paid an Auxiliary supply for Lands at Down at making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth year of Edward the third and in this Family was the Title of this place successively wrapped up for many Generations untill about the latter end of Henry the eighth it melted away with the Name For Jo. Petley resolved into four Daughters and Coheirs Agnes the eldest was matched to Jo. Manning the second was espoused to Bird the third was wedded to Casinghurst of Valous and the fourth was married to Childrens and upon partition of the Estate this Mannor fell to be the Inheritance of Manning and in this Name for many years it remained constant untill in our Fathers Remembrance it went away by Sale to Sir Nicholas Carew of Beddington in Surrey and his Son Sir Francis Carew conveyed it to Ellis of London who not many years since alienated his Right in it to Colonel Richard Sandys third Son of Sir Edward Sandys of Northbourne but Down-Court was long before passed away by Manning to Palmer which was separated from the Mannor of Downe and singly sold by it self The Arms of Philipot and Petley are extant in the South-window of the Chancell with this Inscription affixed to the Pedestall of their two Pourtraicttures Orate pro Animabus Jo. Petley Christiana Uxoris Jo. Petley Aliciae Filiae Tho. Philipot ........ ac Parentum corum E. E. E. E. EGerton in the Hundred of Calehill hath two places within the Verge of it remarkable The first is Barmeling which was the Seat of a Family of that Sirname Robert de Bermeling and in old datelesse Deeds called Sir Robert de Barmeling he held it at his Decease which was in the fifty third year of Henry the third and left Issue William de Bermeling who was also in the enjoyment of it at his Death which was in the twenty second year of Edward the first and so did Robert de Bermeling who made his Exit the thirty first of Edward the first and here in this Family hath the Propriety by an undivided Track of Succession been so fixed and permanent that it is yet the unseperated Inheritance of this Name of Barmeling The second is Bruscombe This was a Branch of that Demeasn which formerly acknowledg'd the Chitcrofts for its Possessors a Name of very great Antiquity both here and at Lamberherst Agnes wife of Richard Chitcroft held it at her Death which was in the eighteenth year of Edward the second Rot. Esc Num. 198. After Chitcroft was worn out the Beaumonts were invested in the Possession and John de Bellemont or Beaumont deceased in the enjoyment of it in the twentieth year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 14. But not long after this the Title ebbed away from this Name and by a successive Channel of Vicissitude was powred into Baron a Family originally extracted out of the West where they are yet in being John Baron died seised of Bruscombe the second year of Henry the fifth The Family which succeeded this in the Inheritance upon their Recesse which was about the latter end of Henry the sixth were the Wottons of Boughton Malherbe in which Family the Title and Propriety hath been ever since so constantly resident that it still rests in the Descendants and Heirs of Tho. Lord Wotton of Marley Eltham in the Hundred of Black heath anciently called Ealdham did anciently belong in part to the King and partly to the Mandevills from whence it came to be called Eltham Mandeville King Edward the first granted that Moiety which belonged to himself to John de Vescy a potent Baron in the North in the ninth year of his Reign and in the twelfth year ennobles his former Concession and gives him a new Grant to hold a Market weekly and a Fair yearly at his Mannor of Eltham In the fourteenth year of the abovesaid Prince John de Vescy with his Knowledge and Consent made an Exchange with Walter de Mandevill for that Proportion of Eltham in which he was Interessed and gave the sixth part of the Mannor of Luton in Bedfordshire for one Messuage with the Appurtenances in Eltham and Modingham This John de Vescy died without Issue in the eighteenth of Edward the first and William his Brother succeeded in the Possession and was Lord Vescy and had Issue by Isabell Daughter of Robert Perington Widow of Sir Robert de Wells William de Vescy his lawfull Son born in the year 1269 who died without Issue in his Fathers life Time at Conway and was buryed at Malton Then William de Vescy having a base Son called William Vescy de Kildare born at Compston in the County of Kildare 1292 * Fines de Anno 24. Ed. primi VVill. de Vescy sold to Anth. Beck Bishop of Durham the Mannor of Eltham with the Appurtinances which Isabell the Widow of
the Church for diverse Ages untill the Title was by the Generall Dissolution dislodged and in the thirty fifth year of Henry the eighth was by Royall Concession from that Prince invested in Sir Walter Henley Serjeant at Law and a Man under an eminent Character in those Times from whom about the beginning of King Edward the sixth it passed away by Sale to Linch a Family of good Antiquity in Kent from whom the Linches of Lemster in Ireland are primitively descended and have been for some Descents seated at Linch Knock a Castle in that Province After the Linches the Gibs's about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth were by Purchase seated in the Inheritance and continued in it untill very lately the Title was unfixed and by the Transposition of Sale planted in Mr. Jaques of London Erith in the Hundred of Little and Lesness was a Mannor which was circumscribed within the Revenue of Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer that powerfull Baton whose Story I shall pencill out more exactly at Leeds-Castle but before him Guncelin de Badelesmer This Guncelin de Badelesmer was Justice of Chester See Mr. King's Vale Royall who lyes buried at Badelesmer with a fair Pourtraicture upon his Tomb cut out in Wood enjoyed it and held it at his Decease which was in the twenty ninth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 50. And this Guncelin was Son to Giles de Badelesmer who as the Annals of St. Austins informs us was slain at a Battell commenced against the Welsh in the year 1258 whilst he vigorously asserted the Interest of his Country against their wild Excursions But to advance where I first left off Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer before mentioned had such a particular Affection to this place that in the ninth year of Edward the second he obtained a Charter of Free-warren to this Mannor and suddenly after by his Confederacy with Thomas Earl of Lancaster and the rest of the Nobility knit together in Combination against that Prince forfeited his Estate and Life to the Crown And then Edward the second as appears by the Patent Rolls of that time in the fifteenth year of his Reign grants it for life to David de Strabolgie Earl of Atholl Son to the infortunate John Earl of Atholl who was offered up a Sacrifice to the Fury of Edward the first because he had done too little for him and too much for his bleeding and gasping Country of Scotland and this Earl held it at his Decease which was in the first year of Ed. the third Rot. Esc Num. 85. After his Death it reverts to the Crown and then King Edward the third not only reverses the Processe and Judgement issued out against Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer but likewise by Patent in the second year of his Reign restores this Mannor and diverse other Lands to Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer his Son And he dyed seised of it in the twelfth year of that Prince's Reign but left no Issue-male so that his four Daughters became his Heirs whereof Eliz. was one of them who was first matched to William Bohun Earl of Northampton and after to Roger Mortimer Earl of March to whose Patrimony this in his Wives Right upon the Quadripartite Division of this wide Estate was united and Edmund de Mortimer this Mans Son enjoyed it at his Death which was in the fifth year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 43. And left it to his Son Roger Earl of March and Ulster and he had Issue Roger Mortimer and Ann who married Richard Plantagenet de Conisburgh Earl of Cambridge second Son of Edmund of Langley Duke of York and this Richard Earl of Cambridge having involved himselfe with Henry Lord Scroop and Sir Thomas Grey of Northumberland in a Treasonable Design against the Life of Henry the fifth in the second year of his Reign as he was embarking at South-hampton for France there to justifie his Title to that Crown by the Power of the Sword was convicted and executed and left Issue Richard Plantagenet who was in the year 1426 created Duke of York and upon the Decease of his Mothers Brother Roger Mortimer Earl of March without Issue he became not only Heir to his Estate but likewise to that of his Right to the Crown which first had devolved to him and after his Death to this his Sister Ann Countesse of Cambridge Mother to this Richard Duke of York from Philppa Wife to Edmund Mortimer Earl of March their Grandfather which Philippa was sole Heir of Lionell Duke of Clarence third Son of Edward the third and elder Brother to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster fourth Son of that Prince from whom the Lancastrian Family had wiredrawn and spun out a forced usurped and distorted Title to the English Diadem Upon his Decease at the Battle waged at Wakefield where he found an untimely Sepulcher whilst he most vigorously disputed his Claim to the Scepter against the House of Lancaster this mannor with the Crown devolved to his Son King Edward the fourth and here it dwelt with the Royall Revenue untill King Henry the eighth in the thirty sixth year of his Reign passed it away to Elizabeth Countesse of Shrewsbury Widow Dowager of George Earl of Shrewsbury by whom she had Issue John who dyed unmarried and Ann first matched to Peter Compton Esquire by whom she had Issue Sir Henry Compton who was Heir to her Estate here at Erith and secondly wedded to William Earl of Pembroke Sir Henry Compton had Issue William created Earl of North-hampton in the sixteenth year of King James and Sir Thomas Compton who dying without Issue gave his Estate here which was setled on him by his Father upon his Marriage with Mary Countesse of Buckingham to his Nephew Sir William Compton a younger Son of Spencer Earl of Northampton who hath very lately alienated his Interest here to Mr. Lodowick of London Bedenwell in this Parish had formerly the Repute of a Mannor when it was the Inheritance of a Family called Boreford or more vulgarly Burford Rose de Burford held it at her Death which was in the third year of Edward the third Rot. Ese Num. 52. And afterwards I find James de Burford obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Lands at Bedenwell in Erith in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third After this Family was expired which was before the end of Richard the second it came to be the Possession of Draper descended from an ancient Family of that Name in the County of Notingham who concluded in a Female Heir For William Killom matched with the sole Daughter of John Draper by whom he obtained Bedenwell but with this Proviso that he should change his Name to Draper which hath been ever since both by Draper of Crayford and Draper of Hering-Hill in Erith punctually performed But since this solemne Stipulation Bedenwell in severall peices hath been sold to Turner Gainsford of Crowherst in Surrey who not many years since alienated his Proportion to Cholmeley and
inhabiting at Hougham not far distant and Robert de Hougham dyed seised of it in the forty first year of Henry the third In the Reign of Edward the second I find the Clintons possest of it and William de Clinton Earl of Huntington dyed seised of it in the twenty eighth year of Edward the third and from him it descended to his Kinsman John de Clinton great Grandfather to John Lord Clinton who about the Beginning of Henry the seventh sold it away to Davis from which Family by a Daughter and partly by Purchase it came over to Lessington and he in our Fathers Remembrance alienated his Concernment in it to Hopday whose Son is the instant Possessor of it Bredmer or Berdmer is the last place worthy any Consideration It is partly situated in Folkston and partly in Cheriton that there was a Family of this Name was most certain For in ancient Deeds and Court Rolls of Valoigns who was Lord of Cheriton after Scotton I find frequent mention of severall of this Name who held Land of this Family But in the Book of Aid I find William de Brockhull held the fourth part of a Knights Fee in Cheriton which was this in the twentieth year of Edward the third From this Name by Elizabeth Heir of Thomas Brockhull it came to be the possession of Richard Selling Esquire and here it rested untill the Beginning of Henry the eighth and then it was passed away to Edmund Inmith a Retainer to Thomas Lord Clinton who gave it to his second Son Edmund Inmith and he was extinguished in two Daughters and Coheirs one was married to Reyner and the other to Baker who in her Right shared this place and in the Reign of King James passed it away by Sale to Ben who holds the instant Possession of it G. G. G. G. DEptford in the Hundred of Blackheath and Lath of Sutton at Hone so called from the deep Channel of Ravens-purg'd The River that here slydeth into the Thames was heretofore called West-Greenwich from the turning of the River Thames in such a crooked Compass and the green Meddows adjacent Gislebert Magminot or Magminiot for he was a great Favorite to William the Conquerour was one of those eight Barons and Trustees that were joyned to John de Fiennes for the sure Guard of Dover Castle and were assigned competent Lands for the maintenance of that Service his Castle or Scite of his Barony hath been long time buryed in its own Ruines yet some remains of Stony Foundations make me conjecture it stood nere Says Court in Bromfield upon the Brow of the Thames Bank neere the Mast Dock where the Skeleton of Sir Francis Drake's Ship was layd up and in a very short time nothing left of her but the Fame of her Captain and Steersman cannot perish so long as History shall last But to return to the former Subject it may appear by the Quire of Dover Castle transmitted on Record in the King's Exchequer that it had the Reputation of a Barony and these Knights Fees were held of it Pevinton Kanc. duo Feeda Militum Estswale Kanc. unum Feedum Militis Davinton Kanc. duo Feoda Militum Cuckleston alias Cuckston Kanc. unum Feodum Militis Waldeswareschare Kanc. 3. Feoda Militum Leckhamsted-Bucks unum Feodum Kennington-Hert duo Feoda Militum Gothurst Northampton unum Feodum Militis Hertwell-Northampton duo Feoda Militum Brandiston-Suffolk duo Feoda Militum Hecchesham-Surrey duo Feoda Militum Whitfield Kanc. unum Feodum Militis Coudham-Kanc duo Feoda Militis Bredinghurst Kanc. unum Feodum Militis Thornham Kersoney tria Feeda Militum Bingbery Kanc. tria Feeda Militum Brickhill-Buck unum Feodum Militis Haec sunt Feoda de Baronia de Magminot quae tenentur de Willielmo de Say quae ipse tenet de Rege per Baroniam Et reddunt Wardam ad Castrum Dovoriae Per 32. Septimanas You may find mention of Walkelme Magminot in the Catalogue of the Lord Wardens But the Daughter and Heir of this Line was married to Say from whom it came to be called Says-Court which Name it still retaineth And was by reason of the Commodiousnesse of the Meadows belonging to it and Stalls there erected made a place in the Time of the late King for feeding Sheep and Oxen served by Composition for the Kings House William Duke of Suffolk held the Mannor of West-Greenwich and one Messuage in Deptford Anno 29. Hen. 6. by West-Greenwich which was ment by that which we now call Deptford Strand and by Deptford is ment the upper Town where a fair strong Stone Bridge lately erected doth acknowledge the sole Royal bounty of K. Charles by this Inscription This Bridge was re-edified at the only charge of King Charles in the fourth year of his Reign Anno Dom. 1628. In former Times it w as repaired at the Charge of the Contry adjacent For I find by a Record in the Tower Esc Anno. 20. Edw. 3. n. 66. Quod Reparatio Pontis de Depeford pertinet ad homines Hundredi de Blackheath non ad homines Villarum de Eltham Moding-ham Wolwich The Treasurer of the Navy hath here a commendable and convenient House for his Residence at the Dock to view the building and repayring the States Ships and what is most expedient for the Manufacture of Cordage Anchors and other Provisions for Ships by which means the Town is so greatly increased in small Tenements and the Statute for Cottages excepting Market-Towns and such places as are used for building of Ships that for number of Inhabitants and Communicants it may compare with diverse Counties in the Kingdome which great Increase of the Parish caused them to new build another Isle on the North-side the Church to which the East-Indian Company of Merchants were good Benefactors And the Chancel enlarged with beautifull Additions partly at the Cost of Sir William Russell Knight and Baroner Treasurer of the Navy and the circumspection of Doctor Valentine the late learned and worthy Incumbent of the place Adjoyning to the Church The Company of Navigators and Seamen incorporated by King Henry the eighth have a Hall or House for their meetings and Consultations Certainly the use of this Society is most considerable and commendable for the Common-wealth upon all Occasions may from them receive necessary Intelligence of all the Roads Waterings Depths and Conveniences of most part of the Maritime places in the Known World One thing more I have to mention and that is Hacham which was in K. Hen. the seconds Time the Seat of Hacham lying upon the Confines of Kent and Kent-fields or Kent-lands within this County as Kent-Hatch in Westerham is the very out-side of this Shire As that place towards Surrey called Kent-House designs the Bounderies of this County between Bekenham and Croydon Divers Inquisitions taken since that time have found Hacham to be in Kent And I believe the Mannor of Bredingherst before mentioned was formerly in this Shire which is now slipt into Surrey
that Prince it for some years encreased the Royal Revenue until David de Strabolgie Earl of Atholl the first that altered his Name from Balioll to Strabolgie having expiated his Fathers Disservices by being constant to the Party and Interest of Edward the second against the Eruptions of the Nobility which then bandied in Combinations against him had this with much other Land restored to him in the fifteenth year of that Prince from whom it descended to David de Strabolgie his Grand-child who dying in the forty ninth year of Edward the third left it to Philippa his Daughter and Co-heir matched to John Halsham of Sussex by whom she had Issue Hugh Halsham who about the Beginning of Henry the sixth passed it away to Sir Robert Scott Lievtenant of the Tower of London 1424. And he concluding in Alice Scott a Female Inheritrix she by matching with William Kempe Nephew of Cardinal Kempe linked it to the Demeasne of that Family and here it remained until Sir William Kempe about the latter end of Henry the eighth alienated it to Browning from which Family about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth it passed away by Sale to Mr. Robert Edolph whose Grand-child Mr. Robert Edolph dying in the year 1632. without Issue gave his Interest in it with Godchepes to his beloved Wife Cicelie Edolph remarried to Sir Francis Knowls of Reading and she passed away the Moiety of it the other proportion of it being invested in Mr. Thomas Edolph the third Brother with Godchepes now called Goodchepes to her Husbands second Brother Mr. Samuel Edolph who some few years since conveyed his Interest in Hinxhill with this by Testament to his Brother in Law Mr. John Angell of Croherst in Surrey to discharge Debts and Legacies and he that he might the more effectually perform the Contents of the Will hath lately passed away the Moiety of Hinxhill with Goodchepes to Edward Chowte of Surrenden Chowte in Bethersden Esquire lately deceased W. liham is another Mannor in Hinxhill which was folded up in the vast Demeasne of Crioll by whose Daughter and Heir it came to Rokesley and by the Female Inheritrix of Rokesley to Poynings in which Name it continued until the twelfth year of Henry the eighth and then Sir Edward Poynings dying without any lawful Issue after a signal and solemne Inspection by several Inquisitions into his collateral Alliance no Claim being laid unto his Estate this Mannor escheated to the Crown in the fourteenth year of that Prince and then King Henry the eighth by Grant passed it away to Sir Richard Damsell who not long after transmitted his Right in it to Goldhill who in our Grand-fathers Memory alienated it to Mr. Robert Edolph whose Grand-child Mr. Robert Edolph gave it with his Interest in Hinxhill and Goodchepes to his Wife Cicelie Edolph who passed away the Moiety to Mr. Samuel Edolph and he devised it by Will to Mr. Angell who hath transferred his Right in it by Sale to Mr. Edward Chowte The Farm called Godchepes or Goodchepes in this Parish for an unbroken Series of many Generations had Owners of that Sirname as appears by an Inquisition taken after the Death of Thomas Godchepe in the one and thirtieth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 47. and remained fastned to their Inheritance until the latter end of Henry the eighth and then by a strange and mysterious Fatality the Propriety of it was carried off to Barrow The Story is represented thus John Barrow being an Atturney was called to frame a Settlement by Deed of Thomas Godchepe and by his Direction was desired to insert eight Persons into the Deed who were successively to inherit his Estate and being asked by this John Barrow whether he should adde the Names of any more he was answered because there had formerly been reciprocal Obligations of Friendship between them that he should place his own next after those eight above mentioned It pleased the eternal Arbiter of humane Affairs so to order the vicissitude of things that those eight Persons recited in the Deed deceased without Issue so that his Estate here at Godchepe devolved to Barrow as his Heir at Law from whom by Elizabeth his eldest Daughter and Co-heir it came to Mr. Robert Edolph Hoo gives Name to the Hundred wherein it is situated and was a principal Branch of that Revenue which fell under the Dominion of Bardolfe Robert de Bardolfe held it under the Notion of a whole Knights Fee as appears by the red Book kept in the Exchequer in the Raign of Henry the second and from him it came down to Hugh Bardolfe who was rated for it after the same Account in the second year of Richard the first but Hugh Lord Bardolfe his Son not long after concluded in three Daughters and Co-heirs Mawde was matched to Nicholas Points Margaret was married to Robert Aguillon and Isolda was espoused to Henry Lord Grey of Codnor which divided the Inheritance of that Family at this Place But that Proportion of it which was annexed by this Alliance to Points and Aguillon was passed away by a Joint Sale to John de la Pole and he paid respective supply for his Lands at Hoo which were rated at half a Knights Fee at making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth year of Edward the third but before the latter end of Henry the fourth this Family was worn out and that Estate they held here was by Purchase involved and swallowed up in the Inheritance of Grey who before was entituled to the Moiety of this Mannor as descending from Henry Lord Grey of Codnor and Isolda his Wife Co-heir to Hugh Lord Bardolfe and in this Family did it continue until Henry Lord Grey of Codnor in the twenty second year of Henry the sixth dying without Issue Male left it to be Patrimony of Daughters and Co-heirs one of which brought it to be the Inheritance of the Lord Zouch but in this Family it had not long remained when John Lord Zouch having pursued the Interest of the House of Yorke did exemplifie his Zeal to it by his being embarked in the Cause and Quarrel of Richard the third in that signal and fatal Encounter at Bosworth Feild where the Title of the two Houses Yorke and Lancaster was put to the bloody Arbitration of the Sword for which after the Crown and Scepter by that happy Contest devolved to Henry the seventh he was in the first year of that Prince's Rule attainted and his Estate here granted to Sir Henry Wiatt one of the Privy Councell to the said Monarch whose infortunate Grand-child Sir Thomas Wiatt being likewise attainted in the second year of Queen Mary it escheated upon that Confiscation to the Crown and there was lodged until King James about the third year of his Raign granted it to Robert Earl of Salisbury whose Son Robert Earl of Salisbury sold it quarto Caroli to Sir Edward Hales Knight and Baronet from whom it is now come down to his Grand-child Sir Edward
this Prince pardoned for Forgery But to proceed After the Decease of Sir John Fogge who dyed in the seventeenth year of Henry the seventh it returned to the Crown and lay there untill Henry the eighth granted it to John Tufton Esquire Ancestor to the right honorable John Earl of Thanet who now by paternal Right claims the Possession of it Swinfort is a Mannor in Hothfield which afforded a Sirname to a Family so called but whether Sir Otho Swinfort Husband to Katharine Swinfort who was afterwards Concubine to John of Gaunt was extracted from this Family or not is incertain because I cannot discover they were ever of any Eminence In Henry the fifths Reign I find it in the Possession of Bridges descended from John at Bregg one of those eminent persons that are depicted kneeling in Coat Armour in a Window in Great Chart Church And there is a place in that Parish which still bears the Name of this Family and is called Bridge being divorced by no great distance from this Mannor and in this Family did the Propriety of this place continue untill the latter end of King James and then it passed away by Sale from Bridges to Sir Nicholas Tufton Father to the right honourable John Earl of Thanet the instant Owner of it Faulesley vulgarly now called Fausley and Fousley was the Patrimony of a Family which borrowed not only its Source and Extraction but its Denomination likewise from hence Sir John Faulesley was an eminent person in the Raign of Richard the second being frequently in his Time as appears by the late printed Abridgement of the Records in the Tower summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron but although this Family was made eminent by this worthy person who was an elder Branch of this Stem yet in succeeding Generations it began to crumble away into Obscurity and Decay and was at last ground to so narrow a proportion of Estate that about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth this Mannor which had so long been espoused to the Interest of this Name and Family was carried off by Sale to Drury in which Family it was resident untill the latter end of that Princesse and then it was alienated to Paris who immediately after conveyed it to Bull and he transplanted his Right by Sale again into the same Family from whom a like Vicissitude brought it to be the Inheritance of Sir Nicholas Tufton Father to the right honorable John Earl of Thanet now Possessor of it At Hothfield in a field not far removed from Ripley a Mannor belonging to Alexander Iden Esquire was Jack Cade that Counterfeit Mortimer who was mufled up in that Name by the House of York only to fathom the depth of the people's Affection to their Title which was to take its Rise from that person encountered and in a single Combat offered up to the Justice of Henry the sixth by the abovesaid Alexander Iden who was not only by that Prince recompensed with a considerable Reward for so important a piece of Service but likewise invested with the Honour of Knighthood the present Age wherein he lived admired him nor shall there be any History for the future which shall not Record him From the Heir Generall of this Family is Mr. George Brown Esquire lately of Spelmonden in Kent and now of Buckland in Surrey by his Grand-mother originally descended Hougham in the Hundreds of Bew borough and Folkstone gave Seat and Sirname to a Family of as reverend an Estimate for Antiquity as any in this Track Robert de Hougham dyed seised of it in the forty first year of Henry the third and left it to his Son * This Robert de Hougham was with Edw. the first at the Seige of Acon in Palestine Robert de Hougham who was Castellan of Rochester Castle in the Reign of Edward the first and dyed seised in the possession of this and the Custody of that in the second year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 14. But in the next Descent this Family was entombed in two Daughters and Coheirs one was married to John de Shelving and the other to Waretius de Valoigns who in her Right entered upon the Inheritance and in the fourteenth year of Edward the third obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannor of Hougham but enjoyed neither his new acquired Priviledge or Inheritance long for before the latter end of Edward the third he dyed and left a large Inheritance to be shared by his two Daughters and Coheirs one whereof was wedded to Sir Thomas Fogge of Toniford and the other to Thomas de Aldon to whose Revenue upon the Partition this was annexed and he was found in the enjoyment of it at his Death which was in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 10. Parte prima But here the Possession likewise before the end of Henry the fourth was as volatile and full of Vicissitude for by the Female Inheritrix of this Family it came to be the Demeasne of Heron who after he had some years owned the propriety of it alienated the Fee-simple to Phineux in which Name and Stem when it had for many Descents in a constant procedure flourished and had been productive of persons of the highest Office and Trust as they could be invested with in Relation to the Service of this County it was not many years since passed away from this Family and sold to Master Neview of Dover Little Hougham is a second Mannor in this Parish It was in Ages of a very high Ascent the Revenue of the ancient Family of Basing William de Basing held it at his Death which was in the ninth year of Edward the second Rot. Esc Num. 21. From whom it desceuded to his Grandchild John Basing who dyed in the Tenure of it in the seventh year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 6. After whose Decease it continued in the Name untill the Beginning of Henry the sixth and then it was alienated to Clive vulgarly called Cliffe a Family of eminent Account in the Counties of Salop and Essex and in the Possession of this Family it dwelt untill the latter end of that Prince and then by Purchase it was made the Patrimony of Hextall a Eamily who extracted their original out of Staffordshire and here it resided untill the latter end of Edward the fourth and then it was transmitted by a Daughter and Heir to Whetenhall who sold it to John Bois Esquire Ancestor to Jo. Bois of Fredville Esquire who is entituled to the present Signiory of it Maxton is a third place which must not be waved in this Discourse It was in elder Times divided between two Families called Madekin and Walsham Stephen de Madekin was not only Lord of Madekin in Denton and the Moiety of this place in the year one thousand seventy and seven but likewise Land at Canterbury as appears by Mr. Sompner in his Survey of that City page 415. And Will. de Walsham who in the thirty
seventh year was possest of the other Moiety of this place gave about that year by Charter some land to the Incumbent or Parson of St. Nicholas of Harbledown After these two Families had deserted the Inheritance I find the Archers about the Beginning of Edward the third to be entituled by Purchase to it and William le Archer so he is written in the Book of Aid paid an Auxiliary Supply for this Mannor in the twentieth year of Edward the third at making the Black Prince Knight but his Son VVilliam Archer in the twenty first year of Richard the second passes away his Right by Sale to John Alkham of Alkham a Family that had taken deep Root in Antiquity downwards and had a spreading Revenue upwards in this Track but before the end of Henry the seventh were consumed and crumbled away and then the next Family which succeeded in the Possession was Herman who was likewise owner of Mary-place in Crayford and in this Name did the Interest of it fix until the latter end of Queen Elizabeth and then it was alienated to Andrews who some few years after demised the Fee-simple to Pepper and he almost in the Verge of our Remembrance sold it to Sir Thomas VVilford of Ilden and he in our Memory alienated it to Richards of Dover Although the greatest part of this Mannor was of secular Concernment yet I find that the Prior of St. Martins in Dover had some Interest in it as appears by an Inquisition taken after the Death of John Atte-hall where it is proved in the sixteenth year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Numb 129. Parte secunda that he held Lands at his Death at Maxton of that Covent Siberston is the last place of Account in Hougham it gave Name in elder Times to a Family so styled for in an old Deed without Date in the Hands of Mr. Whittingham-Wood of Canterbury lately deceased I find Richard de Siberston demises it to John Monins and in another Deed I discover that John Monins Son of John Monins passes the third Part of his Mannor of Siberston to John Monins the elder in the thirty ninth year of Edward the third And this I think is Authority sufficient to evidence to the Publique that it was a parcel of that Estate that owned the Interest and Signory of that eminent Family in which it lay couched until the latter end of Henry the eighth and then it was by Sale transplanted into Pepper whose Successor in our Fathers Remembrance conveyed it to Moulton of Retherhed vulgarly called Redriff in Surrey in whose Descendants the Inheritance of it does still continue Hunton in the Hundred of Twiford celebrates the Memory of an ancient Family called Lenham who were once Proprietaries of it Nicolas de Lenham obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannour of Hunton in the forty first year of Henry the third but about the Beginning of Edward the third the Interest of it was departed from this Family for William de Lenham determined in Eleanor de Lenham his sole Inheritrix and she by matching with John Gifford wrapt up this and Bensted another little Mannor in this Parish which likewise was parcel of Lenhams Estate in the Demeasne of that Family and he and his Wife paid Releif for Hunton and Bensted in the twentieth year of Edward the third at making the Black Prince Knight But after this it was not long permanent in this Family for about the Beginning of Richard the second it was passed away with Bensted to John Lord Clinton who in the twenty eighth year of Edward the third was found Heir to his Cozen William Clinton Earl of Huntington for that Land which he held Jure proprio nativo not Jure uxoris Julianae de Leybourne in this County And the Effigies of this John and of his Grand child ...... Lord Clinton who paid Relief in the fourth year of Henry the fourth for his Mannor of Hunton at the Marriage of Blanch that Prince's Daughter have escaped the furious Barbarity of these Times and stand yet undemolished in the Church-Windows and from this last did it descend to John Lord Clinton his Successor who about the Beginning of Henry the seventh alienated the Fee-simple to Sir Henry Wiatt one of the Privy Councel to the said Monarch and his Son Sir Thomas Wiatt the elder died seised of it in the thirty fourth year of Henry the eighth and transmitted it with Bensted which his Grand-father likewise bought of the Lord Clinton to his infortunate Son Sir Thomas Wiatt who adhering too strictly to an unhappy Clause in the Testament of Henry the eighth which obliges his Councel not to suffer his Daughters to espouse any Forrainer involved him in that dysastrous Design which could not be expiated but by the Forfeiture of his Life and Estate in which this Mannor of Hunton being concerned it was in the second year of Queen Mary granted to her Atturney General Sir John Baker of Sisinghurst from whom the Title in the Stream of Succession lately glided down to his Heir General Sir John Baker Baronet Son and Heir to Sir John Baker Baronet not many years since deceased Burston is another Mannor in Hunton which is eminent for being the Seat of John de Burston which the Dateless Deeds that relate to this Family from the probable Conjecture of the Hand-writing which is calculated for the Raign of Henry the third record to have lived in that Prince's Time and there was Land likewise about Wye and Crundall that acknowledged the Jurisdiction of this Family for in the forty fifth year of Henry the third Waretius de Valoigns Knight makes a Release of his Title to some Lands in those Parishes to John de Burston and in this Family did this Seat remain for many Descents and was productive of men of no despicable Account in this Track amongst whom William Burston was returned in the twenty ninth year of Henry the sixth by Gervas Clifton then Sheriff inter illos qui portabant Arma Antiqua In the Raign of Henry the eighth Alderman Head of London was resident here and added much both of Building and Magnificence to this Fabrick but certainly it was only as Lessee for I cannot find that he was ever Proprietary of it for about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth it was sold by Burston to Sir Thomas Vane who upon his Decease gave it to his second Son ...... Vane from whom it descended to his Heir Sir George Vane whose Widdow Dowager the Lady ...... Vane is now in Possession of it Hunton had the Grant of a Market procured to it by Nicolas de Lenham on the Tuesday and a yearly Fair to continue five Dayes the Vigil the Day of the Assumption of our Lady and three Dayes after Pat. 41. Henrici tertii Memb. 7. Hucking in the Hundred of Eyhorne is involved in the Mannor of Hollingbourne and was enstated on the Prior and Convent of Christ-church when that by a munificent Donation
of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 59. in right of his Wife Juliana Sole Heir of Roger de Leybourn Lord of Leybourne Castle and she after him likewise was in possession of it at her decease which was in the forty third year of Edw. the third Rot. Esc Num. 47. But this after her departure for want of Heirs either direct or collateral escheating with a wide and opulent patrimony to the Crown it made its aboad there untill Rich. the second in the Beginning of his reign granted it to Sir Simon de Burley Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports and Knight of the Garter who being infortunately attainted in the tenth year of Rich. the second this Mannor by escheat reverts to the Crown and that Monarch in the eleventh year of his reign grants the Custody of Langley Park to William Arch-B of Cant. which his Grand-father K. Edw. the third had in the ninth year of his reign by a special Grant indulged to Will Lord Clinton and Julian his Lady licensed to be inlarged with 200 Acres of Land but the Mannor it self was granted to the Dean and Canons of St. Stephens in Westminster in the twelsth year of his reign as appears by an Inquisition taken at that time Rot. Esc Num. 159. and amply confirmed in the twenty first year of the abovefaid Prince as appears Pat. 1. Memb. 35. Parte tertia and remained folded up in their revenue until the general Suppression in the reign of H. the eighth dislodged the Title and planted it in the Crown and then that Prince by a new Concession made it the demeasn of Leven Buffkin descended from an ancient Family of that Name in Sussex and his Successor in our Fathers memory passed it away to Nat. Powel Esq and he not many years since demised his Interest in it by Sale to Sir Edw. Hales Knight and Batonet from whom it is now descended to his Grandchild Sir Edw. Hales of Tunstall Baronet Brising is another Mannor in Langley worthy the remembrance even in this that it gave Seat and Sirname to a Family of that denomination Sarin de Rising held in the twentieth year of Edw. the third and paid respective Aid for it at making the Black Prince Knight In times of a more modern Character the Astrys were invested in the possession And Jo. Astry held it at his decease as appears by an old Will in the fourth year of Edw. the fourth of this Family was Ralph Astry who was Sheriff of London in the first year of Richard the third and likewise William Astry who dyed seised of it in the thirty fifth year of Henry the eighth but after his Exit the Title was of no longer date in the Tenure of this Family for the Vicissitude of purchase about the Beginning of Edw. the sixth brought it from this Name to own the Signory of Leven Buffkin Esq one of the Justices of the Peace of this County and in his posterity did it reside until those Times which were of our Fathers Cognisance and then it was conveyed by Sale to Powel from whom not many years since the same revolution hath devolved it back into the possession of the instant proprietary Mr. Leven Buffkin Lee in the Hundred of Blackheath in Barbarous old Latine written Laga was the residence of an ancient generous Family called Bankwell and there is a place in this parish called Bankers by Corruption of the Name which in Orthography of more Antiquity and Truth was written Bankwells from whence certainly at first issued this Sirname In the thirty first year of Edward the first John de Bankwell had a Grant by the King's Charter to have Free-Warren to all his Lands in Lee Levesham and Bromley And in the return of John de Shelving High Sheriff of Kent in the sixteenth and part of the seventeenth year of Edward the second of all the Knights and men at Arms in this Connty William de Bankwell is mentioned in the second degree he dyed the twentieth year of Edward the third and left Thomas Bankwell his Heir who in the thirty fifty year of that Prince's Government deceased possest of Lee and a very large proportion of other Land in Modingham Sherfholt now I think corruptly called Shrawfield Littlecroft Bankers both in Lee Bromley Levesham Eltham Chiselhurst Detling Langshot and Wickham by Bromley and left three Sons according to the Custome of Gavelkind Heirs to his Inheritance which were John William and Robert Bankwell but upon the distinguishing the Estate into parcels Lee Bankers and Sherfholt now corruptly called Shrawfield fell to be the patrimony of John Bankwell and in this Mans Lineage did the Inheritance of these places divers years reside till the Name was circumscribed in a Female Heir who being wedded to John Arrapon brought this place to be an adjunct to his Inheritance And here I confess for want of information either from publick or private Record I am at a losse and cannot discover whether by Arrapon it was sold to the Crown and from the Crown transmitted to Woodvill or else immediately passed away by sale to Richard Woodvill Earl River who enjoyed it but upon his Son 's untimely death on a Scaffold at Pomfret being by the malice and subtlety of Richard the third blasted with an Aspersion of Treason that fatal Stroke which separated his Head from his Body divided his Estate here from this Name and Family and united it by Escheat to the Crown In whose Revenue it was resident until King Henry the eighth as is manifest by the original Patent granted it to Sir Thomas Wroteley In times of a more modern Aspect that is about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth I find it in the Tenure of Thomas Sackvill Lord Buckhurst but how it devolved to him I confesse I know not and from him it descended to his Grandchild Richard Sackvill Earl of Dorset who exchanged it with King James whose Successor King Charls sold the Royaltie and Fee-simple of it to Ralph Freeman Lord Maior of London who gave it in Marriage with his Daughter and Heir to Sir George Sonds of Leeze-Court in Shelvich Knight of the Bath who by a Right derived from that Match is the present Lord of Lee and its two Appendages Bankers and Shrawfield Leeds Town and Castle lies in the Hundred of Eyhorne and were by William the Conquerour in the twentieth year of his Reign as appears by the Text of Dooms-day Book assigned to Hamon de Crevequer whom he had constituted one of the Trustees to assist his Cousin John de Fiennes in the Conservation and Guard of Dover Castle who chose this for the Capital Seat of his Barony of Crevequer or decrepito Corde for so it is rendered in Latin and of Chetham near Rochester for of that place likewise he and his posterity sometimes writ themselves Barons and here erected a stupendous Castle which because it was environed with Water was called the Moat Hamon de Crevequer married Matilda Sole Daughter and Heir of William
together by a noble and generous Resistance against the Furious Impressions and Onsets of the Duke of Guise and the French Army who then pressed upon it with a straight and vigorous Seige But to go on after this Place had continued in the Name since the time of the first Concession even till ours it was lately by Sir Anthony Aucher of Bourne sold to Sir John Roberts of Canterbury East-Leigh was the Mansion of a Family which took their Denomination from hence and there is mention in the Book of Aid of William de Leigh and Robert de Leigh who held Land of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury by Knights Service in the twentieth of Edward the third when this Family was vanished and had deserted the Possession of this place which was about the Beginning of Edward the fourth the Allens who came from Borden and Sedingbourne were ingrafted into the Inheritance but enjoyed it not long for in the Age subsequent to the first Purchase it was alienated to Fogge who by as short and sudden a Vicissitude disposed of his Right in it to Cobbe of Cobbes-court not far distant in which Family the Title was as brief and as incertain as in any of the former for by them after a Possession of some few years it was alienated to Salkeld descended originally from the Salkelds of the North-riding in York-shire and Bishoprick of Durham Sibeton vulgarly called Sibton and Sifton is another Mannor which is contained within Lyminge It was of higher Calculation the Patrimony of Tibetot a Family of no mean Account both in the Counties of Leicester and Nottingham And Robert Tibetot was possest of it at his Death which was in the seventeenth year of Edward the third but after this Man I find no farther Remembrance of any of his Stock or Posterity at this place so that it seems his Son sold it to VValter Leigh or at Leigh of East-Leigh in this Parish who was likewise concerned in an Estate in Hertfordshire where he was conservator of the Peace in the first year of Richard the second and in this Family did it reside many years after For Tho. Leigh held it in Possession at his Decease which was in the seventeenth year of Henry the sixth but after his Death it was passed away to Allen where the Inheritance stayed not long for from them it went away by Sale into the Patrimony of Sir Jo. Hales who was Baron of the Exchequer in the raign of Henry the eighth whose Posterity an Age or two since alienated their Interest here to Salkeld Limne in the Hundred of Street in ancient Records written Limen is improved into a high Estimate from those many reliques and places of Antiquity which lie scattered within the Limitts of it And though now it carry with it an uncouth and desolate Aspect yet it was more flourishing in elder Times when Prince Edward Son to King Henry the third being then Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports at this place exacted an Oath of Fidelity of the Barons of the same to his Father against the Maintainers of the Barons War And at this Place or some other member of the Franchise to which the Court is adjourned from Shepway the Limenarcha or Lord Warden receiveth his Oath at his first Entry into his Office Berewick in this Parish was upon the Suppression of the Priory of Christ-church by King Henry the eighth re-enstated on the Arch-deacon of Canterbury who had here a Castellated Mansion long before that tempestuous Dissolution seated upon the Brow of a Hill and affording a delightful Prospect into France The Pages of Dooms-day Book represent it thus rated to us in the twentieth of William the Conquerour In Limwarled in Hundred de Strate habet Willielmus de Edesham de terra Monachorum 1 Manerium Berwick de Archiepiscopo quod tenuit Godridus Decanus pro Dimidio Sullingi se defendebat nunc similiter est appretiatum XI lb. Court at Street celebrates the Memory of the noble Family of Hadloe or Haudloe who as is manifest by ancient Records were in Times of a very high Ascent Lords of this Mannor * Nicholas de Hadloe is in the Rol of those Kentish Worthies who accompanied Richard the first to the Siege of Acon Nicholas de Hadloe had a Charter of Free-warren to all his Lands in Kent and the Grant of a market weekly and a Fair yearly to his Mannor of Court at Street in the forty first year of Henry the third John de Hadloe is in the Register of those Kentish Knights who accompanied Edward the first into Scotland and for his remarkable Service at the Seige of Carlaverock was made Knight and Banneret by that Prince in the twenty eighth year of his Raign In the tenth year of Edward the second a Licence or Patent was granted to John de Hadloe and Mawd his Wife to fortifie and embattle diverse Castles and Mannors in which this was couched In the first year of Edward the third he was summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron and left this Mansion thus solemnly ennobled to Nicholas de Hadloe in whom the Male-line expired so that Alice one of his Daughters and Coheirs upon the Partition of the Estate brought this to be the Patrimony of John Colvill and he in her Right held it at his Decease in the seventeenth year of R. 2 d. as appears Rot. Esc Num. 9. And from him did an uninterrupted Clew of paternal Succession transport it to Edward Colvill Esquire who in the thirty fifth year of Henry the eighth alienated it by Sale to Edward Thwaits Esquire and from him it did descend to Edward Thwaits who in the eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth conveyed it by Sale to Edward Jackman and in this Family did it reside until that Time which fell within the Circle of our Fathers Remembrance and then it was passed away to Sir William Hewett who upon his Decease by Testament setled it upon his third Son the instant Possessor Mr. Will. Hewet Bellaview Otterpoole and the Appendant Mannor of Wellop are all circumscribed within the Verge of Limne The first of which was both an eminent and ancient Seat of the Criolls before they translated themselves to Ostenhanger by matching with the Heir of Auberville and the two last were wrapped up in that Revenue which was as an Appendage both to support and enhaunce the Grandeur of it and went collectively together with Joan Daughter and Heir of Bertram de Crioll to Richard de Rokesley in the twenty third year of Edward the first and remained with this Family but untill the next Age and the same Vicissitude carried them off by Joan his Sole Inheritrix to Thomas de Poynings in which Name the Propriety resided untill the twelfth year of Henry the eighth and then they devolved by Successive Descent to Sir Edw. Poynings but he dying without any legitimate Issue and there being none of his Alliance that could by any collateral Affinity pretend any visible or manifest
Fremingham died seised of it in the thirtieth year of Edward the third and when this Family went out the Pimps of Pimps-Court and Nettlested by Purchase became Lords of the Fee from whom the same Fare brought it to acknowledge the Signory of the Isleys of Sundrich and here it continued till Sir Henry Isley in the Raign of Q. Mary being attainted of High Treason it became Confiscated to the Crown and She in the second year of her Government granted it to Sir Walter Henley Knight of Coursehorne in Cranbroke in whose Name and posierity the Possession has remained Successively planted till this Day Seventhly Chillington is not to be omitted because I find it in the Register of those Lands which acknowledged the Lords Cobham for Lords of the Fee And when John de Cobham had obtained a Charter of Free-warren in the seventeenth year of Edw. the third to all his Lands in Kent The Mannor of Chillington is Recorded in the Catalogue amongst them After them it came as the Court-rolls and private Evidences of this place inform me to acknowledge the Signory and Jurisdiction of the Mapelysdens of Digons and remained circumscribed in their Revenue till Queen Mary began to weild the English Scepter and then George Mapelysden being entangled beyond all retreat in the unsuccessfull Expedition of Sir Thomas Wyat miscarried in that Attempt and lost his Estate by Forfeiture to the Crown and Q. Mary granted it to Sir Walter and Gervas Henley Esquire who not long after sold his Interest in it to Nicholas Barham Esquire Serjeant at Law to Queen Elizabeth and his Successor alienated this place to Hawle of Wye whose Grandchild Mr. George Hawle lately deceased held the Fee-simple of it Lastly within the Ambute or Limits of Maidstone stands an ancient Castellated House called the Moate It did in times of great Antiquity relate to that Patrimony which confessed the Signory of the noted Family of Leybourne for Roger de Leybourne obtained the Grant of a Market weekly on the Tuesday and a Fair yearly to continue three Dayes at the Feast of St. Cross in the fifty first year of Henry the third as appears Pat. 51. Hen. tertii Memb. 10. But before the beginning of Edw. the third this Name was withered and shrunk into Decay at this place and then Bartholomew Lord Burghurst or Burwash Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and one of the first Founders of the Order of the Garter came to possesse it and Inhabited here in the twenty ninth year of Edward the third and possessed the Signory called Shofford on which the Castle stands and which one John de Shofford held by Knights-Service in the twentieth year as appears by the Book of Aid of Edward the third After the Lords Burghurst the Woodvills were possest of it and removed from Grafton in the County of North-Hampton where they had long continued and lived here A fair Monument of Woodvill on the North-side the Chancell of Maidstone-Church affirms it and when King Henry the sixth created Richard Woodvill Constable of the Isle of Wight a Baron of this Nation and elected him into the Order of the Garter his Style was Lord Rivers Grafton and De la Moat which Act of Grace and Favour mollified a Sentence and Fine of 1000. lb. imposed upon him for matching with Jaquet Daughter of Peter of Luxenbourg Earl of St. Paul Widow of John Plantagente Duke of Bedford without the Kings Licence But when King Edward the fourth had married Elizabeth his eldest Daughter being widow to Thomas Marquesse Dorcett he created him Earl Rivers and Lord of the Isle of VVight which Titles he had observed were concomitant in some of the Styles of the Lords Rivers or de Ripariis who were the Ancient Earls of Devon and assumed to bear in an Escocheon of pretence upon his own Atchievement the old Coat ascribed commonly to Baldwin de Ripariis Earl of Devon viz. Gules a Griphen Segreant Or which I note for Criticks in Armorie to descant on and return to the Historie of the Place When this good man for so he was noted to be was miserably massacred by Robert Ridisdale Captain of the Lewd People of North-Hampton-shire who took him at Edgcot-Field and struck off his head at North-Hampton Their Will being their Law and Mischief Minister to their wild Designs all his seven Sons who survived him died without Issue and then Sir Henry VVyat becomes owner of this place Grandfather to Sir Thomas VViat afterwards his Successor in the Possession of it whose dysastrous Tragedy is presented at Boxley upon whose untimely Exit Hugh VVarham in the second year of Queen Mary by Grant from the Crown enters upon it from whom Alderman Rither afterwards Lord Maior of London and known by the Name of Sir VVilliam Rither Purchased and Repaired it and left it to his Daughter and Coheir the Lady Susan Caesar whose eldest Son Tho. Caesar Esq and his Mother concurring together disposed of their Right in it by Sale to Sir Humphrey Tufton Knight second Son to Sir John Tufton Knight and Baronet and Brother to Nicholas Tufton Earl of Thanett who was Father to John the present Earl There was a Family Sirnamed de Maidstone whose Blazon upon a Monument in Vlcombe Church is Sables a Cheveron between three Cups covered Argent Crowned Or VVilliam de Maidston the Kings Valect being sent to the Court of Rome with certain Instruments and other expresses deceas'd in his Journey as appears Pat. Anno quinto Edwardi primi prima Pars. Pinenden-Heath confines upon Maidston and is eminent for the Punishment of Malefactors and the frequent Assemblies of Free-holders who here convene to elect such Persons for Knights of the Shire as may represent the County in Parliament But it was in elder times more famous for that great Convention of English and Normans who met there in the fourth year of Wil. the Conquerour to decide the great Controversie which then broke forth between Lanfranc Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Odo Earl of Kent touching some Lands and Priviledges which the said Arch-Bishop alleaged were by an unjust Usurpation by the above-said Odo ravished away from the Church which because it gives us a full Prospect of that exorbitant and wide power which the Clergie of those times did entitle themselves to I shall endevour to pourtray it in as Brief and narrow a Landskip as I have pencill'd it out by Textus Roffensis an old Book in Manuscript so called where it is more voluminously represented At Pinenden-Heath says Textus Roffensis in the fourth year of William the Conquerour there was an Assemblie of the gravest and discreetest of the English and Normans by a signall Decision and Debate to deternine of that Controversie which did formerly arise between Odo Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent touching some Lands and Priveledges which were detained from the Church by the said Earl and Lanfranc Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The said Dispute or Debate lasted three Dayes after the
was transplanted by Sale into John Norden who in our â—â—â—â—dfathers memory demised it to Pordage Predecessor to Mr ........ Pordage of Râ—â—â—ersham who is now entitled to the Fee-simple of it Mere-Court is a third place of Account in this Parish calle◠〈◊〉 from its Situation near the Sea which our Saxon Ancestors called Mere and is câ—â—â—â—marily used in that sense for any wast heap of Waters as Lakes and Pools that are 〈◊〉 all sides lockt in by the Land by the Dutch to this day But I cannot find that it evâ—â— had any Possessors that extracted their Sirname from hence for in the Raign of Edward the third I find Arnold de Savage held it and so did his Grandchild Eleanor Savage who was matched to William Clifford and he by this Alliance became invested in the Possession and in this Family did the Title lie couched untill the beginning of Henry the seventh and then I can track no farther Evidence of their Possession of this place In the Raign of Edward the sixth I find it to be invested in the Name of Croft and remained tied to the Patrimony of that Family untill David Crofts died in the twenty second year of Queen Elizabeth and left it to Jo. Croft Helen and Margaret his Daughters and they upon the death of their Brother who was an Ideot becomming Joynt-heirs to this place in the forty second year of Q. Elizabeth passed it away to Mr. Stephen Hulks who bequeathed it to his Son and Heir Mr. Jo. Hulks and he upon his Decease which was not many years since gave it to his second Son Mr. Charles Hulks who now is in Fruition of it N. N. N. N. NAtindon in the Hundreds of Bridge Petham and Whitstaple is an obscure Village not far remote from Canterbury and only calls for some Remembrance in this respect that the Mannor of Staplegate is situated within the Limits of it which was the Seat of an eminent Family which bore that Sirname who were Lords not onely of this Place but of much other Land in Romney Mersh and had certainly this Denomination ingrafted originally upon them because they collected the Kings profits and Customes arising out of the Staple of Wooll fixed at Staplegate in Canterbury The first of this Family whom I find eminent is Edmund Staplegate who paid respective Aid for his Mannor of Bilsington and his other Lands in Kent in the twentieth year of Edward the third at making the Black Prince Knight and he was Father to Edmund Staplegate who at the Coronation of Richard the second held that signall Contest before John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster then High Steward at that solemn Inthronization with Richard Earl of Arundell about the Office of Chief Butler as I have before mentioned in Bilsington But to return to that Discourse from whence this emergent Controversie did divert me Edmund Staplegate in the thirteenth year of Richard the second enjoyed this Mannor at his Death but after his Deeease the Title was not long liv'd in this Name for in the Raign of Henry the fifth and Henry the sixth as appears by the Testimony of ancient Court Rolls it was in the Possession of Leichfield who was Master of much Land about Tilmanston and Betshanger and in the twenty second year of Ed. the fourth it was by Roger Lichfield passed away by Sale to William Haut Esquire Father to Sir William Haut in whom the male-line determined so that by Elizabeth his Daughter and Coheir it came to be the Inheritance of Sir Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury who about the first year of Edward the sixth alienated it to Philip Chowte Esquire and from him the like Fate bore off the Title to Sir Anthony Aucher and he about the latter end of Edward the sixth disposed of his Right in it to Sir James Hales of the Dungeon Ancestor to Sir James Hales of the same place who not many years since demised the Premises to Mr. Smith of High-Gate upon whose late Decease the Title like a Pythagorean-Soul is transmigrated into his Heir Nettlested in the Hundred of Twyford was the ancient Seat of the noble and ancient Family of Pimpe William de Pimpe paid respective Aid for this Mannor and other Lands which lay not far distant from this place which he held by a whole Knights Fee at the making the Black Prince Knight the twentieth of Edward the third Reginald Pimpe was his Son and Heir and served out the Office of high Sheriff of Kent for him in the forty ninth year of Edward the third in which year he dyed It is probable that this William was knighted because there is a Tombe in Nettlested Church with this Inscription affixed to his Tombe-stone Hic jacet Domina Margareta de Cobham quondam Vxor Willielmi Pimpe Militis quae obiit 4 Septembris 1337. From whence it may be probably collected that the above recited William Pimpe though he is not mentioned as a Knight in the Register of the Sheriffs yet afterwards for some exemplary Services by him performed and managed might be invested with the Order of Knighthood From this Man in the continued Succession of a direct Line See more of Pimp in my Discourse of Sea-watches did Reginald Pimpe descend who determined in Ann Pimpe who was his Sole Heir and so this ancient Family which had under a venerable Character of Antiquity for so many Ages flourished at this place as the Monuments in the Church not yet dismantled do sufficiently evince was about the latterend of Henry the seventh extinguished and Nettlested fell under the Patrimony of John Scott of Scotts Hall from whom Edw. Scot Esquire is lineally extracted and in Relation to this Alliance is the instant Proprietary of Nettlested Lomewood is a second place of Account in Nettlested it belonged formerly to a Cloister of black Cannons in Oxford dedicated to St. Friswith which being suppressed by Cardinal Wolsey in the year 1525 when he intended to erect the magnificent Fabrick of the Colledge of Christ-church this Mannor was resigned up to the Crown and was by King Henry the eighth in the twenty seventh year of his raign granted to Sir Edward Nevill who gave it in Martiage with his Daughter Katharine Nevill espoused to John Roydon Esquire of Roydon-Hall in great Peckham and he determining in Elizabeth Roydon his Sole Heir she by matching with Roger Twisden Esquire planted it in his Revenue and from him hath the Interest of Descent transported it along to his Grandchild Sir Roger Twisden of Roydon Hall Knight and Baronet Newenden in the Hundred of Selbrittenden was erected in the place where the old Roman City of Anderida was situated and was called by the Britons Caer Andred very aptly by Leland styled in Latine Noviodunum from the Saxon Nywandun in English by Corruption called Newenden which in the original imports as much as The new Hill in the Valley This was that Station and City of the Romans mentioned in the Banner of the Count or Lord
Rokesley by whose Sole Inheritrix likewise called Joan it was linked to the Demeasn of Sir Thomas de Poynings from whom the Clew of Descent guided it down to Sir Edward Poynings who dying in the twelfth of Henry the eighth without any lawfull Issue or any visible kindred that could pretend a Title to the Estate it lapsed to the Crown and Henry the eighth granted it to Thomas Lord Cromwell upon whose attainder it being again escheated Queen Mary in the first year of her Rule granted it to Edward Lord Clinton who in the last year of that Princess passed it away to Mr. Henry Herdson whose grandchild Mr. Francis Herdson conveyed it by Sale to Mr. Henry Brockman in whose Grandchild Mr. James Brockman the instant Inheritance is fixed Blackose is another little Mannor in Newington which as Sadrach Petit's Inquest an Authentick Manuscript informs me was as high as the raign of Henry the third the Possession of Nicholas de Morehall a Family who were owners of much Land at Folkstone and elsewhere in this Track and in this Name did it continue untill the latter end of Richard the second and then it was transmitted by Sale to William Edwy who paid a proportionate Aid for it at the Marriage of Blanch Daughter of Henry the fourth in the fourth year of his raign from whence much of our Land in Kent which was rated at the same Time and upon the same Design hath assumed the Appellation of Blanch-Lands After Edwy went out which was in the raign of Edward the fourth it became the Possession of Wreake and Thomas Wreake as the abovesaid Sidrach Petit who lived in that Age instructs me exchanged it with Will. Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and continued annexed to the Demeasn of that See until the great Exchange made by Tho. Cranmer in the twenty ninth of Henry the eighth with that Prince and then it was made the Demeasn of the Crown and after some brief abode there was granted away to John Honywood Esquire Newchurch in Romney Mersh gives Denomination to the whole Hundred wherein it is situated and dilates and spreads it self into several places which call for some Remembrance The first is Peckmanston which was as high as the Rayes or Light of any Evidence can direct to a Discovery the Inheritance of the Lords Leybourne and was annexed to that vast Revenue which they entituled themselves to in this County and so continued till Sir Roger de Leybourne left this with much other Land to his Sole Daughter and Heir Juliana married to William Lord Clinton Earl of Huntington who dyed in the twenty eighth year of Edward the third but without Issue by this Lady who deceasing likewise not long after the Crown upon a Serious and solemne Disquisition discovering none that upon the Stock of any collateral Alliance could pretend to her Estate seised upon it as an Escheat and King Richard the second in the eleventh year of his Government granted it to the Abbey of Childrens Langley amongst whose Revenue it rested till the Dissolution of that Covent and after that King Henry the eighth by royal Donation planted the Possession in the thirty fifth year of his Raign in Sir Thomas Moile a Gentleman in those Times of principal Estimate in this County and of the Privie Councel to that Prince from whom by Amy his Daughter and Coheir it came suddenly after to be the Inheritance of Sir Thomas Kempe who in the raign of Queen Elizabeth sold it to Thomas Smith Farmer of the Customes to that Princesse and he bequeathed it to his third Son Sir Rich. Smith by whose Daughter and Coheir the Title and Right of it at this instant is lodged in Mr. Barrow of Suffolke Est-Bridge in this Parish is a second place which exacts our Remembrance This with Honychild in St. Maryes Parish likewise in Romney Mersh did anciently belong partly to the Abby of Bradsole ailà s St. Radigunds in Dover and partly to the Knights of St. Jo. which upon the general Suppression in the twenty ninnth year of H. the eighth of all religious Cloisters and Seminaries were swallowed up in the Demeasne of the Crown and lay there till E. the sixth granted them in Lease to Cuthbert Vaughan Esq who afterwards in the fourth year of Queen Elizabeth purchased the Fee-simple of them of the Crown and upon his Decease which happened not long after disposed of Honychild to his Son in Law Roger Twisden Esquire and Est-Bridge Sir Will. Twisden â—old Honychild to Sir Will. Sydley Grandfather to Sir Charles Sydley the instant Owner to his Wives Son Richard Dering Esquire in Right of which original Donation Sir Edward Dering of Surrenden Dering in Pluckley Baronet great Grandchild of this Mr. Richard Dering is present Possessor of this Mannor of Est-Bridge Thirdly Silwell in this Parish is not to be omitted it was in elder Generations an Appendage or Limbe which made up the Body of that plentifull Income which appertained to the Abbey of Boxley in this County and upon the Dissolution was with much other of the Church Demeasn by Henry the eighth granted to Walter Henley Esquire after created Sir Walter Henley and one of the Privy Councell to Henry the eighth and Edward the sixth But as though there had been some fatall malediction which like original Sin did cleave to the Possesssion he left no Issue-male to enjoy that large Patrimony he had thus archieved but concluded in three Daughters and Coheirs Elizabeth matched to William Waller of Grome-Bridge Helen first married to Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury Esquire Secondly to Sir George Somerset and Thirdly to Thomas Vane of Burston in Hunton Esq and then Anne wedded to Richard Covert of Slaugham in Sussex Esq who shared by these matches and alliances a considerable part of his Inheritance in which this Mannor of Sylwell was involved Newington in the Hundred of Milton has the Addition of Lucies prefixed before it to distinguish it from Newington in the Hundred of Street It was the Ancient Patrimony of the Noble Family of Lucy the first whom I find amongst Records of deep Antiquity was extracted out of Normandy within the Precincts of which Province or upon the Verge and Margent of it there is a Signory of that Name yet existent G. de Lucy so he is written in the most authentick Copies of the Battle Abby Roll entered England with William the Conqueror Fulbert de Lucy and in some old Registers written Sir Fulbert changed his Name of Lucy into that of Dover when he was by William the Conqueror made one of the Assistants to John de Fiennes in the Guard of Dover-Castle having fifteen Knights Fees assigned to him in that Track for the Support of his Dignity and Trust * See Seldens Titles of Honor pag. 644. William de Dover was one of the Magnates or Peers who was Teste to the Charter of Maud the Empresse whereby she creates Miles of Gloucester Earl of Hereford Hugh de Dover was Sheriff
Nephew Sir Nicholas Miller to whom we ascribe the new Additions which are set out with all the Circumstances both of Art and Magnificence and is now possest by his Son and Heir Hump. Miller Esquire Pencehurst is seated upon the utmost Boundary of the Lowy of Tunbridge and was an eminent Mansion of a very Ancient Family whose Sirname was Penchester of whom there is mention in the Great Survey of England taken in the twentieth year of William the Conqueror vulgarly called Doomes-day Book and in this Family did the possession reside until the two Daughters and Co-heirs of the famous Sir Stephen de Penchester who was Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of Dover Castle in the Raign of Edward the second and who died seised of it in the year of that Prince's Government Rot. Esc Numb ... divided the Inheritance Joane the eldest was matched to Henry Lord Cobham of Roundall in Shorne and she carried away Allington-castle Alice the other Daughter and Co-heir was wedded to John Lord Columbers and she had Pencehurst and other Lands for her proportion And he had Issue by her Thomas de Columbers who by his Deed dated at Pencehurst in the eleventh year of Edward the third passes away his Right in it to Sir John de Poultney and he in the twelfth year of the above-mentioned Prince obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannor of Pencehurst and in the twentieth year of Edward the third paid Aid for it at making the Black Prince Knight and held it at his Decease which was in the twenty third year of that Prince and left it to his Son William Poultney who immediatly after alienated it to Guy Lovain who had Issue Sir Nicolas Lovain who held Pencehurst in the forty fourth year of Edward the third and married Margaret eldest Daughter to John Vere Earl of Oxford re-married to Henry Lord Beaumont and after to Sir John Devereux Knight of the Garter Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports Constable of Dover-castle and Steward of the Kings House in the eleventh year of King Richard the second In the sixteenth year of whose raign he had Licence by Letters Patents to fortifie and embattel his Mansion-house at Pencehurst His Daughter and Heir was matched to Walter Lord Fitz-water from whom the Earls of Sussex descended and he had a Brother named Sir Walter Devereux from whom the late Earl of Essex was derived and the Arms of this Sir John Devereux were not long since extant in a Window on the North-side of Pencehurst Church But he only enjoyed this Mannor in Right of his Wife for after her Death it devolved to Philip St. Clere of Aldham St. Clere in Eightham who married Margaret Daughter of Sir Nicolas Lovain above-mentioned Sister and Heir to her Brother Nicolas Lovain who died without Issue And by her he had John St. Clere who passed away his Right here to John Duke of Bedford third Son to Henry the fourth and he enjoyed Pencehurst at his Decease which was in the fourteenth year of Henry the sixth but dying without Issue it came down to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester fourth Son of Henry the fourth who was strangled in the Abby of Bury by the procurement and practises of the Duke of Suffolke and he likewise going out without Posterity it returned to the Crown And Henry the sixth in the twenty fifth year of his raign granted it to Humphrey Stafford Duke of Buckingham whose infortunate Grandchild Edward Duke of Buckingham endeavouring by a specious Semblance of Vanity and Ostentation guilded with all the Cunning and Pompe of Magnificence to make himself popular and entering afterwards into Consultation with a Monk and another who pretended to the dark Art of Necromancy about the Succession of the Crown poured in so many Jealousies into the Bosome of Henry the eighth which were multiplied to the height of Treason by the malice of Cardinal Wolsey that nothing could allay or appease them but the Effusion of this mans Blood in the twelfth year of that Prince upon a Scaffold Upon whose infortunate Exit this Mannor escheated to the Crown and here it remained until King Henry the eighth granted it to his faithful Servant Sir Ralph Vane who being entangled with John Duke of Somersett in that obscure Design which was destructive to them both in the fourth year of Edward the sixth this was again seised upon by the Crown as escheated by his Conviction and remained with its Revenue until the above-said Prince in the sixth year of his Government by Royal Concession planted the Inheritance in Sir William Sidney his Tutor who was likewise Lord Chamberlain of his Houshold and one of his Privy Councel from whom it is descended to his great Grand-child the Right Honorable Robert Earl of Leicester designed Lord Lievtenant of Ireland by the late King Charles and he is the instant Proprietary of it Pencehurst Halymote is another little Mannor in this Parish and had still the same Owners with Pencehurst and upon the Tragedy of Edward Duke of Buckingham devolving by Escheat to the Crown lay couched in the Royal Revenue until the State not many years since passed it away by Grant to Colonel Robert Gibbons Pepenbury vulgarly called Pembury is seated in the Hundreds of Watchlingston and Twyford and contains within the Limits of it that noted Seat called Bayhall which was the Ancient Seat of the Ancient Family of Colepepers The first of which whom I find made eminent by Record is Thomas de Colepeper who was as appears by the Bundels of incertain years in the Pipe-Office one of the Recognitores Magnae Assisae in the raign of King John a place if we consider the Meridian of those Times for which it was calculated that is before the establishment of the Conservators of the Peace of eminent Trust and Concernment And certainly this man was Father of that Thomas Colepeper who was brought upon the Stage and his Tragedy represented at Leeds Castle where he was sacrificed to the Anger of Edward the second because he was a more faithful Castellan to the Lord Badelesmer then he was a Loyal Subject to his Soveraign and with his Life he lost his Estate here at Pepenbury Yet I find by the close Rols of the seventeenth year of Edward the second Memb. 5. that there was much of his Land here and in other places by the Indulgence of that Prince restored to his Son Thomas de Colepeper but yet the Mannor and this Seat remained lodged in the Crown yet certainly it was no contemptible parcel of Land that was granted back for Richard the second by Royal Concession gave Licence to Thomas Colepeper to inclose fifty Acres of Land into a Park at Pepenbury But to advance In the twenty fifth year of Henry the sixth the Crown devests it self of its Right to both these places and transplants it by Grant into Humphrey Stafford the Duke of Buckingham from whom they descended to his infortunate Grand-child Edward Duke of
this Family was mouldered away the Says of Coldham were interessed in the possession and Geffrey de Say possest it in the fifteenth year of Edward the second Rot. Esc Num. 20. The next Family in Succession to these was the Mowbrays and Elizabeth Wife of Thomas Duke of Norfolk and Daughter of Richard Earl of Arundell held it at her Decease which was in the third year of Henry the sixth Rot. Esc Num. 25. And so did her Son John Mowbray Duke of Norfolke who deceased in the eleventh year of Henry the sixth Rot. Esc Num. 129. And was descended from John Mowbray who held it as appears by ancient Court-rolls as parcel of the Barony of Bedford in the reign of Edward the second After the Mowbrays the Nevill Barons of Aburgavenny were invested in the Fee and remained seated in the possession until the reign of Q Elizabeth and then Henry Lord Nevill in the twenty ninth year dying without Issue-male it was disposed with much other Land to his Brother Sir Edward Nevill from whom it is now brought down to his Grandchild John Lord Nevill who enjoys the instant Inheritance of it Ridley in the Hundred of Acstane acknowledges it self to have been anciently a Branch of the patrimony of the Lords Leybourn and Rog. de Leybourn in the 55 th year of H. the third sells Ridley excepting the Advowson to Bartholomew VVodeton In which Family the Title was not very permanent for in the reign of Edward the third I find the VVallis's to have been its Proprietaries Augustin VVallis obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannor of Ridley in the twenty second year of Edward the third and dyed possest of it in the twenty eighth year of that Prince's Government Rot. Esc Num. 55. After the VVallis's were expired and vanished the Rickhills held this Mannor where it was not long constant for VVilliam Rickhill about the sixteenth of Henry the sixth conveyed it by Deed to Tho. Edingham or Engham who again in the ninteenth year of the abovesaid Prince passed it away by Fine to Robert Savery from which Name not many years after it came by the same Vicissitude to be the Inheritance of Bevill in whose Descendants it remained untill the Beginning of Henry the eighth and then it was by purchase fastned to the demeasn of Fitz and VValter Fitz by Deed whose dare commences from the twenty seventh of Henry the eighth conveyed it to Will. Sidley of Southfleet Esq Ancestor to Sir Charles Sidley Baronet to whom upon the late Decease of his Brother Sir William Sidley it owns for its present Possessor Ridlingswould is a Member of Dover Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer obtained the Grant of a Market to Ridling swould and a three Dayes Fair at St. Nicolas in the ninth of Edward the 2. as appears Pat. 9. Ed. 2. N. 57. and was parcel of the Honor of Fulberts and Fulbert de Dover held it as appears by Doomes-day Book in the twentieth year of William the Conqueror in Ages of a nearer Approach to us that is in the raign of Henry the third Richard de Dover and Roesia his Wife were possest of it as appears Ex Bundellis Annor incertorum Henrici tertii Rot. Esc Num. 237. When this Family went out the Badelesmeres stept in Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer that powerful Baron obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Lands here in the ninth year of Edward the second and was Steward too to the Houshold of King Edward the second as appears by a Confirmation of the Charter of the City of London which bears Date from that year of Edward the second and to which he as Teste writes himself Steward of the Kings Houshold but not long after being entangled in that Combination which was made by Thomas Earl of Lancaster and sundry other Barons against that Prince he forfeited both his Estate and Life as the price of that seditious Attempt but this with much other Land was restored to his Son Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer in the second year of Edward the third but he died without Issue in the twelfth year of that Prince Rot. Esc Num. 44. So that his large Revenue was proportionably divided between his four Sisters and Co-heirs whereof this was a Limb and fell in upon the partition to the Inheritance of John Vere Earl of Oxford by Matilda de Badelesmer and he held it at his Death which was in the fortieth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 38. But in this Family it did not long continue after his Exit for in the raign of Richard the second I find Robert Belknap possest of it and enjoyed it at his Death which was in the second year of Henry the fourth after his Return from his Exilement into Ireland whither he was banished for his too active asserting the Prerogative against the Liberty of the Populacie in the tenth year of Richard the second In the second year of Richard the third I find William Belknap Esquire was in the Fruition of it at his Decease Rot. Esc Num. 16. and from him did it devolve to his Successor Sir Henry Belknap in whom this Name was extinguisht so that his Estate was resolved into several parcels which came over to Alice his Daughter and Co-heir matched to Sir William Shelley Anne married to Sir Robert Wotton and Elizabeth wedded to Sir Philip Cooke of Giddie-hall in Essex and in these Families did the complicated Interest of this place remain concentered until that Age which fell under our Grand-fathers Cognisance and then it was by joint-Concurrence passed away to Edelph from whom it is brought down to Sir ...... Edolph who holds the present Signory of it Oxney-house in this Parish was an Ancient Seat of the Noble Family of Criol Matilda Widow of Simon de Criol died possest of it in the fifty second year of Henry the third and transmitted it to Bertram de Criol who held it at his death which was in the twenty third year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. After him his Son Bertram de Criol was setled in the possession but was not long liv'd after his Father for he died in the thirty fourth year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 37. and left it to his Brother John Criol who dying without Issue it was brought over to his Sister Joan Criol who by matching with Sir Richard de Rokesley made it the Inheritance of that Name and Family and was in possession of it at her Death which was in the fifteenth year of Edward the second Rot. Esc Num. 95. From whom it came down to Thomas Lord Poynings who had espoused Agnes one of the Coheirs of them two and in Right of this Alliance was his Successor Richard Lord Poyning found invested in it at his Death which was in the fifteenth year of Richard the second Parte prima Rot. Esc Num. 53. and left it to his Kinsman Robert de Poynings who passed it away by Sale to Tame and in the fourth year of
old Rentall discovers to me and farther none of the ancient Evidences do reach the Patrimony of Thomas Champneys and he makes it over in part to Sir William Wroth of Enfield and he in the second year of Richard the second alienated all his Right and Interest in it to Thomas Lovell but some part remained unsold untill the nineteenth of the abovesaid Prince and then it was wholly invested by Sale from Robert Champneys in the aforesaid Thomas Lovell and he by his Feoffees in Trust as namely John Osborne John Arnold Richard Marshall and John Atsheath conveyed it in the eleventh year of Henry the fourth to Thomas Theobald or Tebald and Mawde his Wife and so by this Purchase did it become the Inheritance of this Family and made its aboad here untill the twenty fourth year of Henry the seventh and then John Theobald alienated it to William Porter which Family it is probable were concerned in it before for in the tenth year of Edward the fourth I find John Alphey releases by Deed his right in Hall to William Porter Esquire and from William Porter abovesaid did the Title slow down in the Chanel of paternal Right to Mr. Andrew Porter who concluding in a Daughter and Heir called Elizabeth it is now by matching with her become the Patrimony of Mr. Peter Stowell Register of the Diocesse of Rochester Stidulfe is a third Mannor in Seale which afforded both Seat and Sirname to a Family so called Robert de Stidulfe is mentioned in Deeds without Date to have held this and much other Land in Seale In the thirty sixth year of Edward the third I find Reginald Stidulfe of Stidulfe accounts with Thomas Champneis for Land held of his Mannor of Hall And lastly I discover that William Stidulfe about the eleventh year of Henry the sixth by Sale conveyed it to William Quintin whose Son William changed the Name of Quintin into Oliver upon what Grounds I have discovered at Leybourn and in this Name was this Mannor lodged untill the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth and then it was passed away to Richard Theobald whose Son John exchanged it with his Kinsman Stephen Theobald who dying without Issue-male left two Coheirs Katharine matched to Edward Michell and Margaret wedded to David Polhill who shared his Inheritance and this upon the Division of the Estate augmented the Revenue of Michell and his Descendant Mr ....... Michell is now the Heir apparent of it Sedingbourn in the Hundred of Milton hath several places in its confines remarkable whereof Bayford and Goodneston first claim our Notice the last of which had a Castle whose Banks and Ruines are yet visible it anciently acknowledged the Family of Nottingham who likewise in elder Times were possest of Bayford for Proprietaries Robert de Nottingham flourished in the reign of Edward the first and dates several of his Deeds in the Beginning of that Prince's Rule apud Castellum suum de Goodneston Robert de Nottingham his Successor was Sheriff of Kent the forty eighth year of Edward the third and held his Shriovalty at Bayford in Sedingbourn in which year he dyed and was found to have held at his Death Lands at Sharsted Pedding in Tenham a place called Newland and another called la Herst Higham in Milsted Bixle in Tong now called Bex and lastly Goodneston and Babford now named Bayford in this Parish all which descended to his only Son John Nottingham whose only Daughter and Heir Eleanor Nottingham was matched to Simon Cheyney second Son of Sir Richard Cheyney of Shurland who brought all this spreading Revenue to acknowledge the Signory of this Family and the Coats of Cheyney and Nottingham viz. Azure six Lions Argent a Canton Ermin and Gules two Pales wavee Argent stand empaled in Milsted-church in coloured Classe But this Alliance though it much enhaunsed by additional improvement the Patrimony of Cheyney yet could not so strongly entwine the Interest of Bayford and Goodneston with this Name but that about the latter end of Henry the sixth they were conveyed away by Sale to Lovelace for Richard Lovelace of Queenhith in London a younger Branch of the Lovelaces of Bethersden made his Will the first of Aprill 1465 and there ordained that his Feoffees should make an Estate of his Mannors of Bayford and Goodneston in Sedingbourn which he had purchased of Cheyney to John Lovelace his Son and Heir which accordingly was performed and he invested in the Possession of them and from him did they by Descent devolve to his Crandchild Thomas Lovelace of Kingsdown who in the tenth year of Queen Elizabeth passed them away to Mr. Ralph Finch from which Family they went away by the same Revolution almost in our Fathers Memory to Alderman Garret of London who had Issue Sir John Garret of the County of Hertford whose Widow Dowager the Lady ..... Garret by right of Jointure now enjoys the Profits of both these Mannors Chilton is another Mannor in Sedingbourn which had Owners of this Sirname who likewise held another Mannor of this Name in Ash both which places William de Chilton held at his Death which was in the thirty first of Edward the first but after his Exit it did not long confesse the Propriety of this Family for about the Beginning of Edward the third it was demised by Sale to Corbie and Robert Corbie was possest of it at his Decease which was in the thirty ninth year of that Prince Rot. Esc Num. 9. and he had Issue Robert Corbie whose Sole Daughter and Heir Joan Corbie espoused Sir Nicholas Wotton twice Lord Maior of London by whom this Mannor and much other Land came by a fruitfull Augmentation to swell the Inheritance of this Family yet I find the Interest in Chilton was not solely lodged in Corbie for by ancient Deeds I discover that an old Family called Maris was concerned in some part of it likewise John de Maris held a Knights Fee in Wicheling and much other Land at Herietsham the twentieth year of Ed. the third as likewise the Mannor of Ackmere in St. Mary Crey in Castle-guard of Dover-castle and his great Grand-child William Maris was Sheriff of Kent the twenty first year of Henry the sixth and was Esquire to Henry the fifth and afterwards to Cardinall Kemp and lyes enter'd in Preston Church with so much of the Inscription left as may instruct the Reader that his Ashes slumber beneath the Tomb-stone yet before his Decease he had alienated his share in this Mannor to Nicholas Wotton Esquire from whom the united Interest of this place came down to Thomas Lord Wotton who not many years since setled it in Marriage on Katherine his eldest Daughter matched to Henry Lord Stanhop Son and Heir to Philip Earl of Chesterfeild lately deceased who still enjoyes the propriety of it In the year 1232. Henry Bishop of Rochester as Thomas Rudborne a Monk of St. Swithens in Winchester does relate came on a Sabbath Day with much exultation out of Sedingbourn Church
her Brother is now entered upon it Brabourne is the second place of Account The first whom I find possest it was Baldwin de Betun Earl of Albemarle Falcatius de Brent who so vigorously asserted the Cause and Quarrel of King John against his Barons and afterwards merited very much of his Son Henry the third at the Battle of Lincolne where a considerable part of those Forces which Lewis the Dolphin of France had transported into England to support the Confederacie of the Seditious Barons was dissipated and discomfited But afterwards all National Animosities being charmed into Slumber by a general Peace he desiring still to improve the Flame of War since from that he expected both Heat and Light seised on the Castle of Bedford which was not wrung from him without the Expence of much Blood and Treasure to expiate which Crime his Estate here and else where was in the fifth year of Henry the third forfeited to the Crown as being the Price of so great an Insolence And then the abovesaid Monarch granted it wholly to Baldwin de Betun Earl of Albemarle and Hawis his Daughter and Co-heir brought it to her Husband William Mareschall Earl of Pembroke but Gilbert Mareschall this mans Successor dying without Issue Roger de Bigod Earl of Norfolk in Right of Mawde his Mother who was his Sister and Heir entered upon it and he in the eleventh year of Edward the first gives it to Otho Lord Grandison After this Family was worn out I find by an ancient Court-roll one Walter de Pevenley or Pemley possest of it in the reign of Edward the third and he it is possible erected the House which in old Deeds is written Pevenley or Pemley-court But before the beginning of Henry the sixth this Family was extinguished and gone and then the Ashe's were the succeeding Proprietaries a Family which before were Lords of much Land in this Track and in ancient Deeds were written de Fraxino from their Habitation near some place planted with those Trees and it is probable derived their Descent from Thomas de Esse who was one of the Recognitores Magnae Assisae in the fourth year of King John as appears by the Pipe-rols of that Time and certainly to this Name did a considerable part of the Fabrick of the House owe its first Original as appears by the Coat in divers of the Windows videlicet Azure three Cheverons Argent In fine after this Seat and Mannor had for many years been resident in this Family it was about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth alienated to Sir ...... Boswell whose Grand-child dying without Issue his Sister the Lady Margaret Boswell is now become the Heir General of this place Rumpsted and in very old Evidences written Rumpshot was the Inheritance of a Family which was known by that Sirname It is superfluous to inform the World how many by old Deeds are represented to have been possessors of this place amongst whom Sir William de Rumpsted is most eminent who flourished here in the reign of Edward the third and as the constant and successive Tradition of the Inhabitants of this Parish is was Foster-father to William de Sevenoke who was found a desolate and forlorn Orphan in the hollow Body of an Oake and received both Reception and Education from the Charity and Benevolence of the above-mentioned Person In whose Lineage the propriety of this place did not long after settle for by an old Court-roll I find it in the reign of Henry the sixth in the Tenure of Nisell but this Family not long after determining in a Female Heir she by matching with Bere brought it to acknowledge it self to be of the Interest of this Family but staid not long in the Name for about the beginning of Henry the eighth it was made by purchase the possession of Peckham from whom not many years after by the same fatality it went away to Bedell Nicholas Bedell in the third and fourth of Philip and Mary demised it to John Stacy of Hollenden and John Stacy in the fourth and fifth of Philip and Mary conveyes it to Richard Lone and his Successor Mr. Richard Lone hath very lately by Sale transmitted his Interest here to Thomas Lambert formerly of West-Combe in Greenwich Esquire Knoll is the last place of Account in Sevenoke It had in Times of elder Inscription the same Owners with Brabourne and Seale not far distant as namely Falcatius de brent Baldwin de Betun Earl of Albemarle William Mareschall Earl of Pembroke and Roger de Bigod Earl of Norfolk who in the eleventh year of Edward the first granted it with Seale and much other Land which devolved to him in Right of Mawde his Mother who was Sister and Heir to her Brother Gilbert le Mareschall Earl of Pembroke to Otho de Grandison and in his Descendants did it continue until the beginning of Richard the second and then it was conveyed by Sir Thomas Grandison to Geffrey de Say yet I do not find that the possession of this place was entirely planted in Grandison for an Inquisition taken after the Death of Reginald de Cobham in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 62. Parte primâ represents him to have had some share or concernment in it yet how ever it were thus broken into parcels the Inheritance of this Mannor was wholly after this placed in Geffrey de Say as appears by some Court-rols which commence from the reign of Richard the second but he determining in Daughters and Co-heirs Joan one of them upon the Division of his Estate brought this as an Addition to the Patrimony of her Husband Sir William Fiennes and in this Family when the possession had had a Respite until the reign of Edward the fourth it was by Sir William Fiennes passed away by Sale to Thomas Bourchier Arch-bishop of Canterbury who added much of Pompe and Magnificence by a new Supplement or Superstructure to the ancient Pile or Fabrick and dying bequeathed it to the See of Canterbury as a convenient Pallace for his Successors but when William Warham Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the reign of Henry the eighth saw that the Grandeur of this Mansion was looked upon both with an Eye of Emulation and Envy by the Laity of those Times he to allay that Murmure and Regret in the twelfth year of the abovesaid Prince exchanged it with the Crown and here it rested until Edward the sixth in the second year of his reign granted it to Edward Seymour Duke of Somerset Protector of the Realm in the Minority of that Prince Who being convicted of Felony in the fourth year of that King it escheated back to the Crown and then it was in that year by a new Grant setled on John Dudley Duke of Northumberland but he being intoxicated with the Fumes of Ambition broke out into such treasonable and seditious practises against the Right and Title of Queen Mary that they could not be explated but with the Losse of his
third but alass neither the Nobleness of the Name nor wideness of the Franchise could keep this Family from departing from this place for about the latter end of Henry the fourth I find it in the Tenure of the eminent Family of Apulderfield but setled not long here for Sir William Apulderfield about the middle of Edward the fourth concluded in Elizabeth Apulderfield who was his Sole Daughter and Heir who by matching with Sir Jo. Phineux Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in the Reign of Henry the seventh made it his Demeasn but the Title of this place did not long fix here for he dying without Issue Male Jane his only Daughter became his only Heir who by espousing of Jo. Roper Esq of St. Dunstans in Canterbury linked it to the Demeasn of this Family from whom in a continued Current of descent the Proprietie of it is now flowed down to William Roper a Cadet or younger Branch of this Stem Shorne in the Hundred of Shamell was as high as the Reign of K. John the Patrimony of the Noble Family of Nevil Jordanus and in some old Deeds written Jollanus de Nevil held the Mannor of Shorne as appears by the Pipe-Roll of that year and John de Nevil was his Son and Heir who held this Mannor in the thirtieth year of Henry the third but after him I can track no farther Mention of this Family at this place for in the fifty fourth of Henry the third as appears by the Pipe-roll of that year I discover Roger de Norwood to be Lord of the Fee this was that Roger de Norwood who disdaining to have his Lands held in that Lazy and sluggish Tenure of Gavelkind changed it into the more active one of Knights Service in the fourteenth year of Henry the third still reserving to himself by that Licence by which he obtained a Grant of the first to reserve the ancient Rent whereby his Lands held even in the Time of the Conquerour and he in the thirteenth year of Edward the first died possest of this Mannor and all its Perquisites at Oisterland in Cliff and other places and left it to his Son and Heir Sir John de Norwood who together with his eldest Son Sir John de Norwood accompanied that triumphant Prince Edward the first in his Victorious Design undertaken against the Scots in the twenty eighth of his Reign The Mannor of Shorn holding by this Tenure viz. to carry a White Banner forty Dayes together at their own Charges whensoever the King should commence a War in Scotland as appears by an Inquisition taken after the Death of Roger de Norwood in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 23. Parte secundâ And this was customary not onely in England but elsewhere for Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour observes out of Prelusius's his Discourses upon the State of Poland in the year 1530 Albert Marquess of Brandenburg and Mr. of the Teutonick or Dutch Order in Prussia receives his Investiture into that Dutchy per Vexilli Traditionem by the Delivery of a Banner from the Hands of Sigismund K. of Poland and his Brother George at his being enstated in that Signory by this Ceremony was suo Fratrum Nomine Vexillum contingere in his own and the Name of his Brother to place his Hands upon the Banner and when the above-mentioned Banner was delivered to an Heir who had not his Title and Right free from the Claim of an ambiguous and perplexed Competition he was onely admitted ad Contactum Extremitatum Vexilli ejusdem to touch the utmost or extream parts of this Banner The Tenure which was annexed to this Investiture was this to assist the K. of Poland with an hundred Horse whensoever he should personally advance into the Field against an enemie But to return John de Norwood was the last of this Name whom I find setled in the Inheritance of Shorne and he enjoyed it at his Decease which was in the second year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 35. But before the latter end of the Reign of that Prince it was removed from the possession of Norwood and by Sale plac'd in the Noble and ancient Family of Savage of Bobbing Court but not long after Sir Arnold Savage determining in Eleanor his Sole Inheritrix who was first wedded to Sir Reginald Cobham by whom she had no Issue and after to William Clifford Esquire she by this Alliance united it to the patrimony of this last Family and here it lay involved until the beginning of Q. Elizabeth and then it was passed away by George Clifford to Nicholas Lewson Esquire Grand-father to Sir Richard Lewson of the County of Stafford who desiring to circumscribe and collect his scattered Interest which lay dispersed in several parcels in this County into the closer circumference of Staffordshire alienated this Mannor almost in our Remembrance with all its Adjuncts at Oisterland in Cliff and other perquisites and out-Skirts to Mr. Woodier of Rochester in whose Lineage and Name the Title of it at this instant lies treasured up Ockington in this Parish was a Limb that made up the Body of that Revenue which anciently did swell into so vast a Bulk and Dimension in this Track and acknowledged for proprietaries the Noble Family of Cobham as appears by an Inquisition taken in the sixth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 45. where Stephen de Cobham was then found to have been possest of it at his Death and from him was the Title in a successive stream of Descent wasted down to the Reign of Hen. the seventh and then it was by Sale transplanted into Sir Henry Wiat where it flourished being supported with the Sap and Verdure of so Noble a Family until the fourth year of Edward the sixth and at that Time it was by Sale torn off from this Name for then Sir Thomas Wiat alienated it to Sir Anthony St. Leger and he passed it away to George Brooke Lord Cobham about the seventh year of Edward the siâ—â—â— whose great Grand-child Sir William brooke Knight of the Bath dying in the year 1643 without Issue Male it cescended to Sir John Brooke restored to the Barony of Cobham by the last King in the year 1644 as being Reversioner in entail Roundal though now shrunk into neglected Ruines was in elder Times the first Seat of the noble Family of Cobham from whence upon its Decay they were transplanted to Cobham Hall and was the Cradle of Men very eminent in their respective Generations of whom take this brief prospect * Ex veteri Rotulo penes Ed. Dering Militem Bar. dejunctum Henry de Cobham is enrolled in the List of those Kentish Gentlemen who were concerned with Richard the first at the Siege of Acon * Rotulus Pipae de Scutagio Wallia Reginald de Cobham accompanied Henry the third in his expedition against the Welch in the forty second year of his Reign Sir Henry Sir
Reginald Sir Stephen and Sir Henry de Cobham who lies buried here at Shorne are in the Catalogue of those Kentish Knights who supported the Cause and Quarrel of Edward the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland in the twenty eighth year of his Reign Jo. de Cobham was frequently summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron in the Reign of Edw. the third Richard de Cobham was made Knight Banneret by Edward the third for his exemplary Service performed against the Scots as appears Pat. Edw. tertii Parte secunda Memb. 22. This Mannor escheating to the Crown upon the Attainder of Henry Lord Cobham in the second year of K. James it was by that Prince granted to Lodowick Duke of Lenox who upon his Decease bequeathed it to his Nephew James Duke of Lenox who being lately dead Esme Duke of Lenox his onely Son is now heir apparent of it Stowting lies in a Hundred which borrows its Name from this place In the reign of K. Iohn sundry ancient Records which have an Aspect upon that Prince's Time inform us that Stephen de Haringod was Lord of this Mannor and had the Grant of a Market to be held weekly at this place on the Tuesday and a Fair to be observed yearly for the space of two dayes viz. the Vigil and Day of Assumption of the Virgin Mary as is manifest Cart. 16. Joan. Num. 43. and died possest of it in the forty first of Henry the third But after this mans exit I can track no more of this Stem or Stock to have been proprietaries of it The next Family which was successively entituled to the possession was the noble Family of Burghurst or Burwash the first of which whom by some old Deeds I discover to have held this place was Bartholomew de Burwash who received the Order of Knighthood by Edward the first for his Noble and generous Assistance given to that Prince at the Seige of Carlaverock in the twenty eighth of his Reign and he had Issue Stephen de Burwash who obtained a Charter of Free-Warren to his Mannors Stowting Sifleston Ditton and Burwash in Chiddington in the first year of Edward the third and died possest of this Mannor and Hundred in the third year of that Prince's Government as appears Rot. Esc Num. 41. and from him did it descend to his Grand-child Bartholomew Lord Burwash who in the forty third of the abovesaid Monarch conveyed this Mannor with much other Land to Sir Walter de Paveley Knight of the Garter in which Family the possession was constant but until the beginnning of Richard the second and then it was passed away by Sale to Trivet from whom the same Fatalitie about the fifteenth year of that Prince brought it over to Sir Lewis Clifford and by Descent this devolving to his Successor Lewis Clifford he in the twelfth year of Hen. the sixth conveyed it by a Fine then levied to William Wenlock who not long after alienated his Right in it to Richard beauchampe Baron of Aburgavenny who had Issue Richard Beauchampe in whom the Male Line determined so that Elizabeth his onely Daughter and Heir being matched to Edward Nevill brought this Mannor and the Barony of Aburgavenny to be united to that Family and continued linked to the Demeasn of this Name until it was by Descent brought down to Henry Nevill Baron Aburgavenny who about the latter end of Henry the eighth passed it away to Sir Thomas Moile whose Daughter and Coheir Amy Moile united it to the Inheritance of her Husband Sir Thomas Kempe whose Son Sir Thomas Kempe setled it on his Brother Reginald Kempe and from him it descended to his onely Son Mr. Thomas Kempe who dying without Issue it came to be shared by his two Sisters and Co heirs matched to Denny and Clerk and they not many years since by mutual Concurrence and Assent alienated their joynt Interest here to Jenkins of Aythorne Stockbery in the Hundred of Milton celebrates the Memory of the illustrious Family of Crioll who lived here in Reputation amongst the eminent Gentry of this County and in the Recital of their Possessions in this Parish their Mansion was called a Castle and divers of their old Deeds bore Teste at their Castle of Stockbery Sir Nicholas de Crioll was the first that brought this Family into Repute and Eminence for he was one of those who accompanied Edward the first in the twenty eighth year of his Reign in his fortunate Attempt upon Scotland when after a pertinacious Siege he reduced the Castle of Carlaverock a piece in the repute of those Times held almost inexpugnable and for his signal Service in that Expedition was created Knight Banneret and died possest of this place in the thirty first of Edward the first and in this Name and Family did the Title of this place by an uninterrupted Current of Descent stream down to Sir Thomas Crioll Knight of the Garter eminent for several Services performed under the Scepter of Henry the sixth who being infortunately beheaded at the second battle of St. Albans whilst he endeavoured to support the Title of the House of York in the thirty eighth year of Henry the sixth determined in Daughters and Co-heirs one of which was wedded to Edward Bourchier who cast this Mannor into his possession and he in her Right died seised of it in the fourteenth year of Henry the seventh but after this it was not long constant to the Interest of this Family for in the twenty third year of the abovesaid Prince Robert Tate died seised of it by right of purchase And in the Descendants of this Name was the Possession involved by a long Series of years until those Times which almost fell under our Cognizance and then this Mannor was conveyed to Sir Edward Duke of Cosington in Alre sord whose Lady Dowager in Right of Joynture hath now the enjoyment of it The Mannor of Gillested in this Parish did formerly relate to the noble Family of Savage and was wrapped up in those Lands to which John de Savage Grand-child to Rafe de Savage who was with Richard the first at the Siege of Acon obtained a Charter of Free-Warren in the twenty third year of Edward the first and Arnold Savage Son of Sir Thomas Savage died possest of it in the forty ninth year of Edward the third and left it to his Son Sir Arnold Savage whose Daughter and Heir Elizabeth Savage was first matched to Reginald Cobham by whom she had no Issue and after to William Clifford Esquire second Brother to Robert Clifford who was often Knight of the Shire in the Reign of Henry the fourth whose Posterity in Right of this Alliance were possest of this place until the latter end of Hen. the eighth and then it was altenated to Knight Ancestor to Mr. William Knight upon whose Decease his sole Daughter and Heir Mrs. Frances Buck Widow of Mr. Peter Buck of Rochester lately deceased is now entred upon the Possession of it Cowsted
Sheriff of Kent in the thirty fourth year of Henry the eighth and again in the fifth year of Edward the sixth but being unhappily entangled in the dysastrous Attempt of Sir Thomas Wiat was upon the frustrating of that Designe and the Dissipation and Discomfiture of those Forces who were to support it in the second year of Queen Mary convicted and attainted of high Treason and executed at Sevenoke upon whose Tragedy this Mannor with all its Appendages escheated to the Crown but was the same year restored to his Son William Isley Esquire who was Sheriff of Kent part of the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth after whose decease the Title of this place which had so many Centuries of years like an Inmate dwelt in this Name and Family ebbed away to another Proprietary for in our Fathers Memory it was alienated by Sale to Brooker who not many years since passed it away to Mr. John Hide second Son to Mr. Bernard Hide one of the Commissioners of the Custome-house to his late Majestie Brook-place in Sundrich so called from its contiguous Situation neer some Drill of Water did acknowledge for many discents the Signory of Isley the last of whom who dyed possest of it was William Isley Esquire who held it at his Decease which was in the fourth year of Edward the fourth Rot. Esc Num. 34. After whose Exit it came to John Isley Esquire who not long after passed it away to John Alphew and he determinig in two Daughters and Coheirs one of them by matching with Sir Robert Read Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Henry the seventh linked it to his Patrimony but he likewise went out in four Daughters and Coheirs Katharine one of which was matched to Sir Thomas Willoughbie Lord Chief Justice likewise of the Common Pleas and so he in her right was possest of this place from whom it came down to his Successor Thomas Willoughbie Esquire who about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth conveyed it by Sale to Mr. Hoskins of Oxted in Surrey descended from an ancient Family of that Name in Hereford-shire whose Successor Mr. Charles Hoskins being lately deceased the Fee-simple rests now in his Son and Heir Hethenden or Henden is another Mannor in Sundrich which was folded up in the Demeasn of the powerful and illustrious Family of the Clares who were Earls of Gloucester and Lords of Tunbridge by whose Heir general it devolved to Audley and this Family by the same Fatality languishing into a Female Inheritrix she by matching with Stafford cast this Mannor into his Revenue and in this Name was the Propriety resident untill Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham was infortunately attainted in the thirteenth year of Henry the eighth it was by escheat annexed to the Demeasn of the Crown and made its aboad there untill King Henry the eighth in the thirty fifth year of his reign granted it to Sir John Gresham and he dyed possest of it in the first year of Queen Elizabeth after whose Decease it remained constant to the Interess of this Family until the latter end of Queen Elizabeth and then it was alienated to Sir Thomas Hoskins of Oxsted in Surrey in the Descendants of which Family the Signory and Propriety is at this instant remaining The Roman Fosse or Way which extended or stretched out it self from Oldborough in Igtham to Baston in Heys and afterwards to Woodcot in Surrey did cut thorough this Parish for not many years since in digging near Come-banke a Seat so called which did formerly relate to the Isleys and is situated in Sundrich were discovered many Roman Urns of an antick Shape and Figure from whence we may probably collect thus much that there was formerly erected some Fortresse at or near Combe-banke its Situation being fitted for such a Design by the Roman Generals to secure their forces in their March to Noviomagum or Woodcot against any Impression or Eruption of the Britons Sturrey in the Hundred of Blengate was a Mannor by a Prescription of many Generations wrapt up in the Patrimony of Apulderfeild a Family whom we shall have occasion often to mention thoroughout the Body of this Survey and here it continued till this Name met with its Tomb in a Daughter and Heir known by the Name of Elizabeth who was wedded to Sir John Phineux and although he likewise concluded in a Female Heir matched to John Roper Esquire who drew along with her a great portion of the Estate yet this still remained fixt in this Name and Family even till our Fathers Memory and then John Phineux Esquire died and left this and other vast possessions to his Daughter and Sole Heir Elizabeth Phineux who brought them over to her Husband Sir John Smith eldest Son of Sir Thomas Smith and Grand-father to Philip Smith Viscount Strangford who by Right planted in him by so worthy a Predecessor does entitle himself to the Interess and possession of it Mayton in this Parish though now of no great Importance yet formerly gave both Seat and Sirname to a Family that passed under that Appellation from whom by Sale the Inheritance was transplanted into Diggs where for some Descents without any Interval it made its abode till it was by Leonard Diggs Grand-father to Sir Dudley Diggs sold to Goodhugh by whose Daughter and Heir it became the Demeasne of Baggs which Name likewise going out here into a Daughter and Heir she by matching not long since to Farmer has made it to own him for its instant proprietary Sutton by Walmer lies in the Hundred of Cornilo and was the Inheritance of a good old Family called Stroude Peradventure it assumed its Denomination from the Shore not far distant and was sometimes in the Saxon Denomination called Strond and as often Stroude John de Stroude held it as the Book of Aide denotes in the reign of Edward the first and when this Family was worn out the next who were invested in the possession were the Criols and Nicholas Criol or Keriel held it at his death which was in the third year of Richard the second whose Grand-child Sir Thomas Keriel being an active Champion of the Cause and Quarrel of Edward the fourth against the House of Lancaster was slain in the second Battle of St. Albans where the Title of both Parties was put to the bloody decision of a Field who leaving only two Daughters and Co-heirs one matching with John Fogge Esquire incorporated this into his Revenue from whom by purchase the Right was setled in Whitlock where it tarried not long but was by the like devolution transplanted into Maycot from which Name the same Fate of Sale carried it into the possession of Stokes who in our memory by the like alienation transmitted his Interess here to Meryweather Sutton commonly called East-Sutton lies in the Hundted of Eyhorne and was formerly the Braybrookes Henry de Braybrooke one of the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports had Lands here and in this Track as the
Earls of Gloucester In the first year of Edward the first there was a Summons issued forth by Hugh de Bigod Earl of Norfolk and Governour of the Hundred of Hoo to injoyn Richard de Clare Earl of Gloucester to appear before him to assoil himself from such Accusations as should be objected against him which principally had an Aspect upon the War waged by him and Simon Montfort against Henry the third To which he alleadged in his Defence that he ought not to answer but before the Kings Justices of Eyre upon which a Commission was issued out in the third year of Edward the first to heare and decide the Controversie and Sir Stephen de Penchester and John de Rigate were the two Justices appointed by the King for the final determination of it and they upon a serious winnowing of the whole Matter in Debate did absolve the said Richard from the Crimes with which he had been unjustly bespattered and the rather because as to the principal part of them they had been before entombed in the pacification of Killingworth made in the fiftieth year of Henry the third After this I cannot find by that ancient Manuscript they style the Chronicle of Tunbridge that there was any signal Action commenced at this place because the Castle with all its perquisites not long after by the Heir of Audley coming into the possession of Stafford they planted themselves at Stafford-castle their principal residence and so this Fortress being neglected and deserted languished away insensibly into decay and ruine only in the reign of Edward the first I find that upon an Inquisition or Survey of the Priviledges of the Earls of Gloucester as they were Lords of Tunbridge it was concluded that the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had nothing to do within the Lowy or League That the Earl had Return of Writs Creation of certain Officers an especial Sessions in Eyre all which by Intermission are shrunk long since into disuse In the year 1264. to allay all emergent Controversie for the future Boniface the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Richard Earl of Glocester decreed that there should be a Perambulation made concerning their respective Bounds and it was not long after likewise concluded between the patties abovesaid that Earl Richard should hold his Mannor of Tunbridge and other Lands of the Arch-bishop by the Service of four Knights Fees and to be high Steward and high Butler which Office was likewise to be transmitted to his Successors at the Feast of the Arch-bishops Inthronization taking for their Service in the Stewardship seven competent Robes of Scarlet thirty Gallons of Wine thirty pound of Wax for his Lights Livery of Hay and Oats to feed fourscore Horse for two Nights the Dishes and Salt which should stand before the Arch-bishop in that Feast and at their departure the Diet of three Dayes at the Sole Expence of the Arch-bishop at four of their Mannors in any of the four Quarters of Kent wheresoever they pleased to fix ad minuendum sanguinem so they repaired thither with fifty Horses only To his Office of chief Butlership was allotted seven Robes like the former twenty Gallons of Wine fifty pound of Wax for furnishing out of Lights Livery for sixty Horse for two Nights the Cup wherewith the Arch-bishop should be served all the empty Hogsheads of Beer and for six Tun of Wine so many as should be drunk under the Bar also The Articles of which Composition in Times subsequent to this Compact were punctually performed between the Successors of either Party First in the year 1295. between Gilbert Earl of Gloucester and Robert Winchelsey next between the said Earl and Arch-bishop Reynolds then between Hugh Audley the Earl of Gloucester and the Arch-bishop John Stratford after that between Hugh Stafford Earl of Stafford to whom the Castle and Mannor of Tunbridge did devolve in right of the Heir General of Audley and Simon Sudbury and lastly between William Warham the Arch-bishop and Edward Stafford the last Duke of Buckingham of that Name in whose untimely Sepulcher these two great Offices found their final Enterment and he executed the Stewardship in his own person and the Butlership by his deputed Delegate Sir Thomas Bourchier Knight The Priory of Tunbridge was founded by Richard de Clare in the year of Grace 1191. and stored with Canons Regular or Canons of St. Augustins and dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen which upon the Petition of the Founder was confirmed by Pope Celestin in the same year it was erected In the year 1353. an unhappy Fire seised upon it which almost reduced the whole Structure into Ashes to ballance which Dysaster the Church of Leigh was appropriated to this Covent that by this additional support this Cloister thus defaced with Flame might again recover its former not only Bulk but Splendor likewise Somerhill is now an eminent Seat in this Parish and was certainly in elder Times allotted as a Mansion or place of Residence by the Earls of Gloucester to those Gentlemen who were Bailiffs of their great Chase called South-Frith one of whom was Richard de Philpot of Philpots in Leigh not far distant who flourished here in the reign of Henry the third and is written in an old Deed Balivus Forestae de Tunbridge sub Ricardo Comite de Clare After him I find one Nicholas Charles exercised this Office and flourished in it in the reign of Edward the second and when he went out divers of the Family of Colepeper and Vane who were Lords of much Land here about Tunbridge were successively invested in it whose Names it would be too tedious and impertinent to enumerate But to return That this Seat was anciently destined and devoted to the Uses above recited is very probable because it is situated on the Verge and exterior Margent of the Forrest and so by its commodious position had a peculiar Aspect upon those Affairs wherein this Chase and its Jurisdiction was concerned In fine after it had been subservient and ministerial for many hundred years to the successive Signory of the several Families of Clare Audley and Stafford it was in the thirteenth year of Henry the eighth by that infortunate person Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham who was crushed into an heap of Ruines by those dark and black Engins which Cardinal Wolsey that subtle Artificer of Mischief had raised upon him was with much other Land forfeited to the Crown and Queen Elizabeth about the middle of her reign by Royal Concession made it the Demeasne of her faithful Servant Sir Francis Walsingham principal Secretary of Estate who dying without Issue-male left it to his Daughter and Heir Frances who was first matched to the Invaluable Sir Philip Sidney secondly to Robert Earl of Essex and thirdly to Richard Burgh Earl of Clanrickard created Earl of St. Albans August the twenty third in the year 1628. to whose Son Vlike Burgh lately Earl of St. Albans and Clanrickard she bequeathed this Mannor of Somerhill Hilden is another
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
bore the same paternal Coat were known by the same Name and were both deduced from the same Root and Original Ex Autograph's penes Dom. Tho. Peyton Baronettum onely Peyton was the elder House Now the ground on which the Mutation of the Name was established was briefly this John de Peyton flourished in the reign of Henry the second and left four Sons whereof the three eldest were named John Robert and John to John the eldest he gave his Mannor of Peyton lying extended into Stoke Neyland Boxford and Ramsholt Parishes in Suffolk to Robert his second Son he gave his Mannor of Ufford lying in Suffolk likewise who altered his Name from Peyton and assumed that of Ufford a Name borrowed from that Signory of which he was become newly possessor and from him the Name of Ufford was communicated to the Earls of Suffolk and other persons of eminent Repure in those Generations wherein they flourished John de Peyton the third Brother by Deed without Date demises all his Interest in Boxford to his elder Brother John de Peyton by that Name he there calls him which justifies nor only the Antiquity but the Seniority of this Family of Peyton before that of Ufford And from John de Peyton the elder above mentioned are the Peytons of Cambridgeshire and Sir Tho. Peyton of Knolton Baronet originally descended Lidde in ancient Records written Hlyden is a second Mannor in Werd of considerable Account ever since it was given at the Request of Janibert the Arch-Bishop by K. Offa in the year 874 to the Monks of Christ-Church as the Records of that Church discover to me under the Notion of three Sullings or Ploughlands And the Instrument which confirmed this Donation was signed with the Marks that is Crosses of Offa the King Janibert the Arch-Bishop Kenedrith the Queen three other Bishops five other Abbots Duke Edbald and eleven other principal Persons or Noblemen And that this was the manner of Signature in elder Times that is the affixing of Crosses to all publick Instruments and other original Donations is most certain For Sealing came into England with Edward the Confessor who being bred up in Normandy in which Province and in France the Use of affixing Seals to Deeds had been in Use long before his Time introduced that Custome and way of Signature into this Nation as being more conspicuous and distinguishable than that of Crosses or those other wayes of confirming of Grants of Land either to the Church or to secular Uses which was either per Collocationem Gladii seu Cultelli supra Altare by the placing or laying a Sword or Knife upon the Altar whereby those which did make Donations of Land did tacitly insinuate that their Honour was involved in their Conscience or else per Traditionem Surculi vel stipitis which Custome is yet observed in our Copy-hold Land where Surrenders are made by delivery of a Turfe Twig or white Wand But sealing with Coats of Arms was not brought in untill the reign of Edward the first but were borne by persons of Honor on their Tabards or Surcoats two Examples of which I have seen one of William Warren Earl of Pembroke who in the second year of Henry the second sealed with the Figure of a Chivaler on Horseback his Caparisons Tabard and Shield being all Checquee the paternal Coat of this Family the other was of Richard Curzon of Croxall in Derbyshire who in the reign of King John stands in a Window pourtrayed in his Surcoat surmounted with a Bend charged with a Martlet And this was done in Imitation of the Heralds who wore the Arms of those Princes they servâ—d on their Tabards as Badges to distinguish them from the Heralds of other Princes either in the Time of War or Peace Indeed Seals in higher Ages were of that sacred Estimate that being lost they were decryed by the owners least they might be affixed to any surreptitious Instrument which might prejudice either their Fame or Estate And in the interval of their Absence or Losse the Owners abovesaid were accustomed to Seal with the Seal of the Bishop of the Diocess or else with that of the next adjacent Abbot all Deeds and Instruments either of Publick or private Interess But to return this Donation of Offa's though thus secured and strengthned could not shelter this Mannor from the Rage of ahat Tempest which in the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth like a Whirlwind caught it up in the Patrimony of the Church and drop'd it into the Revenue of the Crown where it lay untill Queen Elizabeth in the Beginning of her Raign passed it away by Grant to William Lovelace Esquire Serjeant at Law whose Son Sir William Lovelace not long after demised it by Sale to Sir John Smith Grand-father to Philip Viscount Strangford who now enjoys it Wickham Brews in the Hundred of Downhamford distinguished from other places of that Name by the Addition of the Sirname of Brews which Family were Lords thereof In the twentieth year of William the Conquerour Odo Bishop of Baion and Earl of Kent held this place of the Gift of his half Brother which was that Prince and Trendle Park adjoyning there was a Composition between the Arch-bishop and this Man for certain Land of the said Arch-bishop to be inclosed and included within the said Park at Trendley which signifies thus much unto us that Woodstock which boasts it self to be the first inclosed Park of England was not so ancient as this at Trendley In Times of a more modern Character that is in those which commence from the reign of Henry the third it acknowledged the Brewses Barons of Brember in Sussex to be its proprietaries who engrafted their own Name upon it which hath sprouted out and flourished upon it untill this Day William de Brewosa or de brewe held it and was several times summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron in the reign of King Edward the first and Edward the second and dyed in the ninth year of the last Prince Rot. Esc Num. 204. After this Family had deserted the possession which was about the Beginning of Edward the third it became the Inheritance of many of the most eminent Nobility of this Kingdome I shall represent them out of some ancient Court-rolls in a Compendious Series Edmund Plantagenet Earl of Kent held it in the fourth year of Edward the third William Longspey had it in the the twentieth year of the abovesaid Prince and paid an auxiliary supply for it at making the Black Prince Knight John Earl of Kent dyed seised of it in the twenty sixth year of Edw. the third Thomas Holland Earl of Kent and Joan his Wife Sister and Coheir of the abovementioned Earl were possest of it in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third Lucie Wife of Edmund Holland Earl of Kent was seised of it in the second year of Henry the sixth After whom it devolved to Edmund Mortimer Earl of March and he held it in the
lies entombed under an Arch in the Southwall with his pourtraicture insculped in a Marble in Minster Church whose Tomb is become the Scene of much Falshood and popular errour the vulgar having digged out of his Vault many wild Legends and Romances as namely that he buryed a Priest alive that he swam on his horse two miles thorough the Sea to the King who was then neer this Island on Shipboard to purchase his pardon and having obtained it swam back to the Shore where being arrived he cut off the head of his said Horse because it was affirmed he had acted this by Magick and that riding on hunting a twelvemoneth after his horse stumbled and threw him on the Scull of his former Horse which blow so bruised him that from that Contusion he contracted an inward impostumation of which he dyed and in memory of which an Horse Head is placed at his Feet which fictitious Story is rent into the disunion of so many absurd circumstances that I shall represent to the Reader the Foundation on which this fabulous Natrative was formerly established which is no more but this Sir Robert de Shurland above-mentioned being Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports and a man of eminent Authority under Edward the first obtained Grant of priviledge by Charter to have wrack of Sea upon his Lands confining on the Sea Shore neere Shurland now the extent of this Royaltie is evermore esteemed to reach as far into the Water upon a low ebb as a man can ride in and touch any thing with the point of his Launce and so you have the explication of this marvel and the couching either of whole Creatures or part of them at the Feet of worthy personages is most frequent both now and in elder Times that these inanimate Representations might be the Symbols or Hieroglyphicks to intimate to posterity those Virtues which were resident in them when alive But to proceed the abovementioned Sir Robert de Shurland having improved his Reputation with many noble and worthy Actions left That only to perpetuate his Name to posterity having no Issue-male to continue it for he left only one Daughter and Heir matched to W. de Cheyney of Patricksbourn Cheyney who was son and heir to Sir Alexander de Cheyney who is in the Inventory or List of those Knights Bannerets who were ennobled with that Dignity by E. the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in the twenty eighth year of his reign and in Right of this Match dyed possest of it in the eighth year of E. the third Rot. Esc Num. 58. And from him did it come down to his great Grandchild Sir John Cheyney who was Knight of the Garter and frequently Knight of this Shire in sundry Parliaments under the Government of Henry the fourth in the first year of whose reign as our Chronicles inform us he was sent Embassador to several forreign Princes to represent to them the Reasons or Motives which induced him to assume the English Diadem and in the first and second year of that Prince he was chosen Speaker of Parliament Sir William Cheyney another of this Family of Shurland was first a Judge and secondly Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench in the reign of Henry the fifth but the greatest Honour this Mannor atchieved was when it came to be possest by Sir Thomas Cheyney who was Knight of the Garter Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports Constable of Quinborough Castle and one of the Privy Councel to Henry the eighth and he had Issue Sir Henry Cheyney created Henry Lord Cheyney of Tuddington by Queen Elizabeth who having exchanged this Mannor of Shurland with that Princesse it remained with the patrimony of the Crown untill the second year of King James and then it was by royal Concession from that Prince made the Inheritance of Philip Earl of Montgomery and after of Pembroke upon whose late decease it is now come to confesse the Signory of his second Son Mr. James Herbert Kingsborough is another Mannor in this Parish whose Name tacitly intimates to us that it was involved formerly in the Revenue of the Crown and was the place which the Inhabitants frequented not only for the holding of a Court for the choice and election of the Constables of the Island but likewise here assembled to nominate and appoint those Wardens or Bailiffs that were to take Cognisance or Charge of the passage called King ferry which divides the Island and the main Land of me County this Mannor after it had for many Generations layn folded up in the royal Demeasne was by Queen Elizabeth granted to Mr. Henry Cary who about the Beginning of K. James passed it away to Swaleman whose Descendant is still entituled to the propriety of it Leisdon next offers it selfe up to our view which was parcel of that estate which acknowledged the noble and ancient Family of Grey or Rotherfield in Sussex for its ancient Owners The first which made this Family eminent was John de Grey who was frequently summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron in the reign of Edward the third and dyed possest of this Mannor in the thirty third year of that Prince Rot. Esc Num. 38. And so did Robert Grey his Successor in the second year of Henry the fourth After his Exit I do not find it long constant to the Signory of this Name for about the Beginning of Henry the sixth it was alienated to Lovell and by virtue of this purchase Sir William Lovell held it at his Death which was in the twenty third year of Henry the sixth After this Family had abandoned the possession the Cheyneys of Shurland were by purchase planted in the Inheritance and remained setled in the Fee-simple of it untill Sir Henry Lord Cheyney exchanged it with Queen Elizabeth Nuts called so vulgarly but in the ancient Court-rolls named Notts as being the Inheritance of a Family called Nott is a little Mannor in Leisdon which after it had for many descents acknowledged no other proprietaries but this Family about the Beginning of Edward the fourth was rent from them by purchase and transplanted into Bartholomew a Family which were Owners anciently of much Land about Lingsted Throuley and other places in that Track and continued Masters of this Lordship untill the reign of Henry the eighth and then it was conveyed to Sir Thomas Cheyney whose Son Sir Henry Cheyney about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth passed it away to Sampson a Family which had been possessors of Sampson-court not far distant many hundred years and were descended from William Sampson who was frequently summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron in the reign of Edward the first From Sampson it was again in our Fathers Memory carried off to Oâ—borne in the Descendants of which Family the right is still fixed Werdon is the last place of Account in this Island It was in times of an elder Inscription involved in the Inheritance of Savage of Bobbing and in the twenty third year of Edward
William le Marshall Earl of Pembroke to whom her Father gave with her in Marriage Kemsing Sawters and much other Land in this County but this Mans Successor Anselme le Marshall Earl of Pembroke dying without Issue Robert Bigod Earl of Norfolk by Mawd his Mother the Heir Generall of the Family as being Sister to Gilbert Marshall Earl of Pembroke entered upon the Estate of that Family here at Kemsing and he passed it away to Otho Lord Grandison with the Advowson of the Church of Kemsing in the eleventh year of Edward the first And after this Family was worn out I find the Says to Step into the Inheritance and Geffrey de Say held it at his Death which was in the forty third year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 24. Parte secunda From whom the Propriety flowed down to his Successor Geffrey Lord Say and he concluded in two Daughters and Coheirs whereof Elizabeth one of them was affianced to Sir William Fiennes who in her Right was invested in Kemsing and from him was the Title by Descent transported over to William Lord Fiennes Son of James Lord Fiennes and he in the second year of Edward the fourth passed it away to Sir Geffrey Bolein Great Grand-father to George Viscount Rochford who was beheaded and left no Issue in the Raign of Henry the eighth so that this upon his Father Sir Thomas Boleyn Earl of Wilts departure without any other Issue-male in the thirtieth year of Henry the eighth devolved to that Prince who seised upon it in Right of his Wife the infortunate Anne Bullen who was eldest Sister to the unhappy Viscount And here in the Revenue of the Crown did it lie couched until Queen Elizabeth in the first year of her Raign passed it away by Grant to her Kinsman Henry Cary Lord Hunsdon Son of William Cary Esquire of the Body to Henry the eighth and of Mary his Wife Sister to Q. Anne Mother to the above said Princesse and his Grandchild Henry Earl of Dover alienated his Right in it to Richard Earl of Dorset and he not many years since passed it away to Mr. ...... Smith vulgarly called Dog-Smith who upon his Decease settled the Fee-simple for ever on the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwarke There was an old Knightly Family which tooke their Sirname from this Parish and was styled Kemsing and their Coat was Argent a Fesse and Cheveron interlaced Sables now quatered by Mr. William Hart of Lullingston Esquire in Right of Peche who married the Heir General Kenardington in the Hundred of Blackborn is by Contraction called Kenarton and although it cannot much boast of the healthful situation thereof yet it hath had Lords and Owners of a very great Estimate Will. de Normannia held it in the Raign of K. John and part of the Raign of Henry the third as appears by the Pipe Rolls which relate to those Times and concern this County Rafe de Normanvill is registred in the list of those Kentish Gentlemen who were with Richard the first at the Seige of Acon in Palestine After him his Son Thomas de Normannia or Normanvill for so he is written in the ancient Rolls succeeded in the Possession of it but died in the eleventh year of Edward the first without Issue-male so that by his only Daughter and Heir it devolved to be the Possession of Sir William de Basing with the Mannor of Cockride likewise which was folded up in her Inheritance and was one of those Knights who accompanied King Edward the first in the twenty eighth year of his Raign in that succesful Expedition which he was ingaged in when he undertook the Conquest of Scotland After him William de Basing held it and was Sheriff of Kent in the eighth year of Edward the second and dying in his Shrievalty Margaret his Widdow accounted for the Profits of the County as the Records of the Pipe Office set forth Sir Thomas de Basing his Son died seised of it in the twenty third year of Edward the third and paid respective Aid for it under the Notion of a whole Knights Fee at making the Black Prince Knight and left it to John his Son a Child of eight years of Age who after was Knighted and died possest of it in the seventh year of Richard the second and left it to Thomas his Son and Heir then eleven years of Age and he had Issue Thomas likewise who dying without Issue John Basing his Uncle was found to be his Heir but was scarce planted in his new acquired Patrimony but he also in the twenty fourth year of Henry the sixth expired without Issue so that the Inheritance devolved to Alice his Sister matched to Thomas Mackworth as the Heir General of the Family And thus were the Basings at this Place extinguished who before they planted in Kent were registred amongst the prime Gentlemen of Middlesex Salomon de Basing was Sheriff of London the last year of King John Adam de Basing was Lord Mayor of London in the thirty sixth year of Henry the third and Robert de Basing succeeded in that Office in the seventh year of Edward the first and Basings-Hall ows both his Name and Foundation to this Family and John Stow in his Survey of London ascribes to them the Degree of Barons of the Realm But to return into that Path from whence this Discourse had diverted me After Mackworth which by Female Devolution was possest of this Mannor was worn out which was about the Beginning of Henry the seventh The Hornes of Hornes-place in this Parish were by Purchase settled in the Inheritance Gentlemen certainly they were of as eminent Account as any in this Territory and had been Proprietaries of this Seat for many Hundreds of years for one Ralph de Hurne of Kenardington was one of the Recognitores magnae Assisae in the Raign of King John Persons who before the Office of Justice of Peace was instituted did supply their Place and were much in Resemblance like the Grand Inquest at this Day being assistant both by their presence and concurrent Counsels to the Justices in Eyre in all the great Decisions which did relate to Causes Criminal emergent à tribus Forisfacturis or the three Forfeitures Murder Felony and Breach of the Peace But to proceed In this Family did the Propriety both of Hernes-place and Kenardington thus purchased of Mackworth lie rolled up together until the twelfth year of Queen Elizabeth and then Bennet Horne the Heir General of both these being matched to ...... Guldford a Romish Catholick he to decline the Oath of Supremacy fled beyond Sea with his Wife upon whose Recesse the Crown seised upon that Estate which had formerly accrewed to him in behalf of his Wife at this place as escheated upon the Statute of praemunire And the above said Princesse immediately after granted the Premises thus forfeited to Walter Moile of Buckwell Esquire Ancestor to Mr. Robert Moile who claims the present Signiory both of Kenardington