original In Ages of a lower step these Comites were frequently call'd Reguli In Cantia saith Malmsbury Omnis justitia laborabat sub cujusdam Gorongiregimine qui tamen sicut omnes Reguli insulae Vortigerno substernebantur Afterwards when Hengist had establish'd his Kentish Kingdome the Title of Earl began to commence in Otho and Ebusa Brothers to the abovesaid Hengist as the same Malmesbury observes in his Tract de Gestis Regum Cap. 3. And the Title of Earl was anciently expressed by the word Comes amongst the Saxons for to King Ethelberts Charter for the foundation of the Abby of St. Augustins cited by Reynerus there are these subscriptions Ego Hamigilus Dux laudavi and then Ego Ocea Comes consensi Ego Graphio Comes benedixi and there is an old Epitaph quoted by Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour the substance of which is this that Alwain which was Founder of Ramsey-Abby was Comes Aldermannus totius Angliae but in decursion of Time this word Eolderman being used by others besides those to whom it was proper and analogical it began to languish into disuse and the Title of Thane and Earl was assumed which last hath remained in force untill this day Now the relief of a Thane who was certainly an Earl by office rather then Title if he were of the first rank that is had the custody of some County under the King which he paid to the Crown was four Horses two sadled and two unsadled two Swords and four Spears and as many Shields And if he were of the second rank he paid two Horses one sadled and one unsadled one Sword two Lances as many Shields and fifty Marks in Silver sometimes if he were a Thane of an inferior rank he paid eight-pound and frequently three-pound The relief which an Earl paid constantly to the Crown after the Norman Conquest was as Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour does demonstrate out of severall Records was an Hundred pound Now the benefit which did accrue to the Count or Earl besides a Barren and naked Title to support the dignity of his Person in its due Magnificence and Splendor was the third penny arising out of the Profits of the County Algar Earl of Mercland as Dooms-day Book informs us had the third penny of the County of Oxford and the Borough of Stafford under Edward the Confessor And Mawde the Empresse when she created Milo Earl of Hereford assigned to him for the support of his Honor the third penny of that County Many examples of the like condition are discoverable in Mr. Selden's Titles of Honour whither I refer the Reader And as they had the third penny so they had frequently the Castle of the County annexed to their Title but when by experience the Kings of England were instructed how fatally pernicious it was to have so many local powers concurrent with theirs that by the strength of their retreat and the number of confederates and Partisans seem'd even to out-poise the Royal Authority it was by a Statute made in the 13 th year of Richard the 2 d. for the future interdicted and prohibited Now if you will enquire when Earls or Counts from being absolute became Feudal Sr. Henry Spelman in his Glossarie will tell you that it was Tempore Othonum sub excessu Merovinae stirpis in Galliâ that is about the year onet housand Now as concerning the Ensigns of Investiture with which the Earl was created it was anciently only with the Cincture of a Sword but about the latter end of Edward the first the Coronet began to be in use for Aymer de Vallence Earl of Pembrook who died in the 16 th year of Edward the 2 d. had one as appears by an instrument of William de Lavenham cited by Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour by which he acknowledges the receit of it from Sr. Henry Stacheden in the 12 th year of Edward the 2 d. Richard Earl of Arundel died in the 49 th year of Edward the 3 d. and by his last Will dated the fifth of December gives his Noblest and Richest Coronet to his Son the Lord Richard Fitz-allan his second to the Lady Joan his eldest and the 3 d. he bequeaths to the Lady Alice his youngest Daughter What the Counts Palatine were I shall now demonstrate they were taken immediately à Palatio from whence they assum'd their name and were customarily such as had the nearest relation to the Prince either by friendship or Affinity and to whose care and administration he did entrust such or such a Province and the more to improve and enable them in the discharge of their Duty did unite some privileges and Franchises to their office as erecting Courts of Judicature appointing Judges to sit in them and determine by signal decision upon causes both Criminal and Civil and others of the like nature that were of that luxutiant latitude that they had the Stamp and Character of something which resembled Regality fixt upon them He that will discover by example more of this honorary Title may read Mr. Seldens Titles of Honor whither to decline all superfluity of discourse I refer to the Reader I have now done with the Title I shall now proceed to unwind the Register of those who were Earls of Kent subsequent to Earl Godwin 1067 1 Odo Bishop of Baieux halfe Brother to William the Conquerer Lord chief Justice and Lord Treasurer of England 1141 2 William de Ipre 1227 3 Hubert de Burg Lord Chief Justice of England 1321 4 Edmund de woodstock Son to King Edward the first 1330 5 Edmund Plantaginet 1333 6 John Plantaget  7 Thomas Holland Earl of Kent in right of Joan his wife who was Daughter of Edmund of Woodstock 1360 8 Thomas Holland 1397 9 Thomas Holland Duke of Surry 1400 10 Thomas Holland Lord High Admiral of England 1461 11 Will. Nevill Lord Fauconbridge 1464 12 Edmund Grey Lord Ruthin Lord Treasurer of England created Earl of Kent by King Edward the 4 th  13 George Grey  14 Richard Grey  15 Reginald Grey  16 Henry Grey  17 Charles Grey  18 Henry Grey  19 Anthony Grey Clerk Parson of Burbage in the County of Leicester Grandchild of Anthony 3 d. Son of George Earl of Kent above mentioned  20 Henry Grey  21 Anthony Grey Earl of Kent now living 1658. but in his Minority Having represented in Prospect the Comites and Consules the Earls and Consuls which were originally to manage those Provinces subordinate to the Romane Government I shall now take cognisance of those which were anciently styl'd Vice Comites Proconsules and had care of the Provincial revenue in relation to which they were term'd Questores Provinciarum and the jurisdiction of some Causes only as our Sheriffs have of divers Actions Viscontiel and inquiry of Causes Criminal but not determination of them In the Saxon times they were sometimes call'd Ealdormen and in Latine Vice Comites which was applyed
of which Name which held this place was Tho. Chesman whose Female-heir Alice brought this Seat to her Husband Rob. Stodder Ancestor to Will. Stodder Esq not long since deceased who was proprietary of it A strange and marvellous Accident happened at this place upon the fourth day of August 1585 in a Field which belongeth to Sir Percival Hart. Betimes in the morning the ground began to sink so much that three great Elme-Trees were suddenly swallowed into the Pit the tops falling downward into the hole And before ten of the Clock they were so overwhelmed that no part of them might be discerned the Concave being suddenly filled with water the Compass of the hole was about 80. yards and so profound that a sounding line of fifty Fathoms could hardly find or feel any bottome ten yards distance from that place there was another piece of ground sunk in like manner near the high-way and so nigh a dwelling house that the Inhabitants were greatly terrified therewith Edenbridge in the Hundred of Westerham was ever esteemed a Chappel of ease to the Parish of Westerham The first that I discover by the beams of Record to have been possest of Edenbridge were the Stangraves who had here their capital Mansion which was known by their Name John de Stangrave obtained a Charter of Free-warren to Edenbridge in the twenty sixth year of Edw. the first Sir Rob. de Stangrave was his Son and Heir who was with Edw. the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland and there for his generous Service received the Order of Knighthood and dyed seised of Edenbridge and Stangrave the twelfth year of E. the third Rot. Esc Num. 52. After the Stangraves were vanished the Dynleys were setled in the Signory of these above-mentioned places Jo. de Dynley had a Confirmation of the Chatter of Free-warren to Eden-bridge in the fourteenth year of Edward the third and immediately after passed away his Interest here to Hugh de Audley Earl of Gloucester Lord of the Mannor and Castle of Tunbridge by whose Daughter and Heir the Lady Margaret Audley Stangrave and Edenbridge came to acknowledge the Signory of Ralph Stafford Earl of Stafford and he dyed seised of them in the forty sixth year of Edward the third and in this Family of Stafford as they were successively Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham was the propriety of these places resident untill the twelfth year of Henry the eighth and then Edward Duke of Buckingham Lord high Constable of England having unadvisedly consulted with a Monk and a Wizzard touching the Succession of the Crown fomented so Vast a Stock of Fears and Jealousies in the Brain of that Cautious Prince that they could not be extinguished but by his Blood which was poured out on a Scaffold as the last expiation of that Treason which was by Cardinal Wolsey pinn'd upon him and likewise of his Prince's Fury Upon this his untimely Exit his Estate escheated to the Crown and King Henry the eighth not many years after granted Westerham Eden Bridge and Stangrave which were parcell of the Confiscation to Sir John Gresham Knight from whom they by Descent are now devolved to Marmaduke Gresham Esquire who enjoys the instant Possession of them Delaware is a Seat of very venerable Account in this Parish It was the Seat of Gentlemen of that Name as high as the Reign of Henry the second as appears by old Evidences now in the Hands of Mr. Seyliard of which Robert de la Ware was the last who about the latter end of Edward the third went out without Issue-male so that Dionysia Delaware who was matched to William Paulin became Heir to this place In Paulin it remained constantly resident till the beginning of the Rule of Henry the sixth and then William Paulin determined in a Daughter and Heir likewise who was wedded to John Seyliard of Seyliard in Hever which is still in the Possession of Mr. Seyliard of Gabriells in this Parish and who descended from Ralph de Seyliard who flourished about the Reign of King Stephen In an old Pedigree of Seyliard now treasured up amongst the Evidences of Delaware there is enrolled the Coppy of a Deed without date by which Almerick d'Eureux Earl of Gloucester who flourished in the Reign of Henry the third demises Lands to Martin at Seyliard and other Lands called Hedinden to Richard at Seyliard who were Sons of Ralph from which Ralph John Seyliard Esquire now Proprietary of this anâ—â—ent Mansion of Delaware by a Steady and unbroken Current of many Descents in a Direct Line is originally extracted The Mannor of Sharnden in this Parish was parcell of that Estate which belonged to the Lords Cobham of Sterborough Castle not far distant and continued folded up in the Patrimony of this Family till the Government of Edward the fourth and then Thomas Lord Cobham of Sterborough deceasing without Issue-male Anne matched to Edward Lord Borough of Gainsborough became his Heir in which Name and Family the Title of this place successively streamed down till almost our Times and then the Lady Katharine Borough to whom it was assigned by Thomas Lord Borough her Husband to defray Debts and other Uses passed it away to Sir Edward Richardson Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench whose Grandchild the Lord Edward Richardson Baron of Cromartie in Scotland does now possesse the Signory and Inheritance of it Elham in the Hundred of Lovingborough is anciently written Helham which denotes the Situation of it in a Valley amongst Hills Though now the Magnificent Structures which in elder Times were here be dismantled and have only left a Masse of deplored Rubble to direct us were they stood yet in Dooms-day Book it is written that the Earl of Ewe a Norman and neere in Alliance to the Conquerour held it and left the Reputation of an Honour unto it as the Record of the Aid granted at the making the Black Prince Knight in the twentieth of Ed. the third doth warrant For the Mannor of Mount adjacent to Elham is said to be held of the Honour of the Earl of Ewe by Knights Service In Testa de Nevill there is mention of Gilbert Earl of Ewe who then paid respective Aid in the twentieth year of Henry the third at the Marriage of Isabell that Prince's Sister From this Gilbert Earl of Ewe it went away to Edward eldest Son to Henry the third who obtained a Market and Fair to Elham by Charter in the thirty fifth of Henry the third and after he had fortified it with these Priviledges in the forty first year of the abovesaid Prince conveys it by Sale to Boniface of Savoy Arch-bishop of Canterbury Boniface to decline the Envy and Emulation of his English Opposites which he and the rest of those Forreiners and Aliens had contracted upon themselves by their practicall Turbulencies in the Managery of the principal Affairs of State under Henry the third passed it away by Sale to Roger Lord Leybourne a great Partisan and
did the Cloister of Davington remain a Seminary of religious Women whilst their revenue without was the Fuel which supported and nourished the Flame on the Altar But when the reign of Henry the eighth approached which became decretory and critical to all these Nurseries of a lazy and speculative Devotion the demeasn which sustained this Covent was by Henry the eighth plucked away and in the eight and thirteeth year of his Government was by patent knit to the patrimony of Sir Thomas Cheyney And his Son Sir Henry Lord Cheyney in the eighth year of Q. Eliz. conveyed it by Sale to Jo. Bradborn descended as appears by his Seal affixed to his Deed by which he alienates it again in the tenth year of Q. Eliza. to Avery Giles from the Bradborns of Darbyshire But in this Family the residence of it was very brief and transitory for his Son Francis Giles in the twentieth year of Q. Eliza. passed it away to Mr. Jo. Edwards and from this Family though the Fate of purchase did not rend it away yet that of marriage did for this Jo. Edwards leaving only one Daughter and Heir called Ann she by matching with Io. Boade of Essex Esquire linked this to his revenue and from him it is descended to Mr. Io. Boade the present Lord of the Fee Little Davington or Davington-court not far distant from that house which was the Nunnerie was formerly wrapped up in that Demeasn which confessed the Dominion of the Earls of Atholl Lords of Chilham by whom the Mansion it self was built as their Arms in Stone-work in the great Hall before they were taken down by Mr. Tho. Mills did abundantly testifie and having for many years acknowledged their Signory at last it devolved to David de Strabolgie Earl of Atholl who dying without Issue-male in the forty ninth year of Edw. the third left it to Philippa one of his two Coheirs who was matched to Io. Halsham and from him did a successive Right bring it down to Sir Hugh Halsham his Grandchild who about the beginning of H. the sixth passed it away to Ja. Drylond who determined in one Daughter and Heir called Constance Drylond who was matched to Sir Tho. VValsingham of Scadbery Knight who in her right became possessor of it and transmitted it to his Son Sir Ja. VValsingham who was Sheriff of Kent in the twelfth year of H. the seventh and kept his Shrievalty at Davington and from him did it descend to his Grandchild Sir Tho. VValsingham who almost in our Grandfathers remembrance conveyed it by Sale to Simons and he not long after to Coppinger And his Son having about the beginning of K. James mortgaged it to Freeman they both joyned and by mutual Concurrence fixed their right in Mr. Tho. Mills of Norton who deceasing without Issue-male it came by Ann his Sole Daughter and Heir to be the Inheritance of Sir Io. Mill of South-hampton who conveyed it to his Brother Dr. Mill and he some few years past alienated it to his Kinsman Mr. Tho. Mill and he serled the propriety of it on his Son Mr. Tho. Mill who hath very lately transmitted all his Right in it by Sale to Tho. Twisden Esquire Serjeant at Law now of Brabourn in East-Malling Since my Writing of this I have discovered by an old Survey of Davington collected by Mr. Tho. Millâ— that Io. Lewknor of Sussex Esq had in the twenty first year of H. the sixth an Interess in Davington-court derived to him by Joan his Wife Sole Inheritrix of Sir Hugh Halsham which he not long after passed away to Mr. James Drylond Detling in the Hundred of Maidstone gave Name to a Knightly Family famous for Fortitude and Chivalrie in token whereof a Massie Lance all wrearhed about with thinn Iron place is preserved in the Church like that of VVillam the Conquerours at Battel in Sussex as the very Spear by them used and left as a memorial of their Atchivements in Arms and an Emblem also of their extraordinary Strength and Abilitie In which respect those in Bedington-Hall in Surrey celebrate the renown of the Carewes atchieved at Tilt and Turnament and that in Lullingston-Hall in Kent the like for the Peches As also that in Gerards-Hall in London upon which a Romance is drest up by the vulgar report fancying he was some Giant when the truth is he was of the Knightly Family of Gizors and Constable of the Tower and this his Capital Mansion was Castellated as the Seat of the Basings was another strenuous Family at Basings-Hall in London these matters allude much to the manner of the Romans whose Victories were aplauded and the Victors in their Triumphs extoll'd by Trophies and other Monuments and Ensigns of Honour as Pancirolus Rosinus and others have judiciously observed that have treated of these kind of Rituals But to return to the Subject from which this discourse hath diverted me in this Family of Detling did the Possession of this place for many Ages remain constantly seated till the beginning of the Reign of Edward the fourth and then John Detling written in some Old Deeds Brampton alias Detling transmitted it by Sale to Richard Lord Woodvill Lord of the Moat in Maidston not far distant created Earl of Rivers Lord Treasurer and Constable of England by his Son in law King Edward the fourth in the year 1466. whose Grandchild Anthony Woodvill Earl Rivers being attainted upon supposed Treason in the first year of Richard the third which was made so by that Usurper and those black Engins which he had raised upon him because he too cordially asserted the Interest of Edward fifth it escheated to the Crown and that Prince in the second year of his Government granted it to Sir Robert Brackenbury Lievtenant of the Tower who it seems disliking a Tenure which was caemented with Blood passed away his right immediately after to Richard Lewknor who had some estate here before by matching with Eleanor Coheir of Tho. Towne which Tho. Towne wedded to Bennett Heir of John Detling and this Richard Lewknor about the latter end of Henry the seventh gave it in franck Marriage with his Daughter to Hills Hills resolved into two Daughters and Coheirs one of which was married to Vincent and the other was matched to Martin and so upon the Division to avoid all Disorder and Confusion Detling was split into two Mannors one was called West-Court which accrued to Vincent and the other was termed East-Court which was annexed to the Demeasne of Martin Martin about the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth sold East-Court to Webbe in which Name after it had for severall years been fixed it was in our Fathers Memory passed away to Smith who not many years since alienated it to Sir Edward Henden one of the Barons of the Exchequer who upon his Decease gave it to his Nephew Sir John Henden and from him it is now descended to his eldest Son Edward Henden Esquire But Westcourt was by Vincent passed away to Morton of Whitehorse in
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
of Diggs Court in Barham was upon his decease authoriz'd to discharge the said office for the remainder of the year Thomas Chich of the Dungeon in St. Mary Bredimans Parish in Canterbury was Sheriff of this County the third year of Henry the fourth Richard Cliderow of Gouldstanton in Ash neer Sandwich who was constituted in the Reign of Henry the fourth Admirall of the Seas from the Thames mouth along the Saxon shore to the West was likewise Sheriff of Kent the fourth and most part of the fifth year of the abovesaid Prince Tho. Swinbourn Esquire owner of much Land in the County of Essex was Sheriff of Kent the sixth year of Henry the fourth and kept his Shrievalty at Thevegate in Smeth Michael Horn of Horn place in Apuldore was Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Henry the fourth Edward Haut of Hauts place in Petham and of Bourn was Sheriff of Kent the eighth year of Henry the fourth William Snaith of Addington was Sheriff of Kent the ninth year of Henry the fourth Reginald Pimp of Pimps Court in East Farleigh Son of William Pimp of Pimps Court and Nettlested was Sheriff of Kent the tenth year of Henry the fourth John Darrell of Cale-Hill in little Chert eldest Brother of Sir William Darrell under Treasurer of England was Sheriff of Kent the eleventh year of Henry the fourth William Notbeame descended out of Suffolk where his Family was of generous rank but whose Residence was at Ash neer Sandwich was Sheriff of Kent the twelfth year of Henry the fourth and in the seventh year of Henry the fifth was return'd amongst those who did Portare arma antiqua William Cheney of Shurland in Shepey Son of Richard Cheney was Sheriff of Kent the thirteenth year of Henry the fourth in which year this Prince deceased Sheriffs of Kent under Henry the Fifth William Cheney above mentioned continued Sheriff of Kent the first year of Henry the fifth William Cliford of whom mention was formerly made was again Sheriff of Kent in the second and third years of Henry the fifth William Langley of Knolton was Sheriff of Kent the fourth year of Henry the fifth John Darrell of Cale-hill above recited was again Sheriff of Kent the fifth year of K. Henry the fifth Richard Cliderow of whom mention was made in the fourth and fifth years of Henry the fourth was now Sheriff again in the sixth year of King Henry the fifth John Burgh was Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Henry the fifth During this mans Shrievalty there came a special Writ from the King to elect out of the most fit and able Knights and Esquires of the County that bore Arms from antiquity twelve of the most sufficient to serve as Lances for defence of the Kingdome William Haut of Hautsbourne was Sheriff of Kent some part of the eighth and all the ninth year of K. Henry the fifth John Darrell of Cale-hill was Sheriff of Kent the tenth year of Henry the fifth in which year that successeful and triumphant Prince paid the last Debt he owed to Nature and the first which he owed to Sin Sheriffs of Kent in the Reign of Henry the Sixth John Darrell of Cale-hill who was Sheriff of Kent when K. Henry the fifth deceased continued Sheriff in the first year of Henry the sixth William Cheyney of Shurland who was Knighted in the ninth year of K. Henry the sixth was Sheriff of Kent in the second year of that Princes Government John Rykâ—ld of Estlingham in Frend bury neer Rochester was Sheriff of Kent the third year of K. Henry the sixth William Clifford of Bobbing who had been Sheriff of Kent in the first year of K. Henry the fifth was elected to take that Office in the fourth year of K. Henry the sixth William Colepeper of Preston in Alresford Son and Heir of Sir John Colepeper was Sheriff of Kent the fifth year of Henry the sixth Thomas Ellis of Burton in Kennington was Sheriff of Kent the sixth year of Henry the sixth William Scot of Scots Hall in Smeeth was Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Henry the sixth John Peche of Lullingston was Sheriff of Kent the eighth year of Henry the sixth John St. Leger of Ulcomb was Sheriff of Kent the ninth year of Henry the sixth John Guldford of Halden alias Lambin in the Parish of Rolvenden was Sheriff of Kent in the tenth year of Henry the sixth William Bures who held much Land at Bromeley and Greenwich and was descended from William de Bures who held part of a Knights Fee in Bromley the twentieth year of Edward the third At making the black Prince Knight was Sheriff of Kent the eleventh year of Henry the sixth Richard Woodville of the Moat in Maidston was Sheriff of Kent in the twelfth year of K. Henry the sixth William Clifford of Bobbing and of Shorn of whom mention is made twice before was now again chosen Sheriff the thirteenth year of Henry the sixth William Manston of Manston in the Parish of St. Laurence in the Isle of Thanet was Sheriff of Kent the fourteenth year of Henry the sixth James Fiennes of Kemsing and Seal afterwards created Lord Say and Seal and High Treasurer of England was Sheriff of Kent the fifteenth year of Henry the sixth Richard Waller of Gromebridge in Spelhurst who took Charles Duke of Orleans Captive at the Battle of Agin Court was Sheriff of Kent the sixteenth year of K. Henry the sixth Edward Guldford of Halden in Rolvenden was Sheriff of Kent the seventeenth year of Henry the sixth Gervas Clifton who married Isabel Widow of William Scot Esquire and lived upon his Wives Estate at Brabourn in Kent where he lies buried was Sheriff of Kent the eighteenth year of Henry the sixth John Yerde of Denton near Berham was Sheriff of Kent the ninteenth year of Henry the sixth John Warmer of Votes Crey was Sheriff of Kent in the twentieth year of Henry the sixth William Maries who lived at Ufton in Tunstal was Sheriff of Kent in the twenty first of Henry the sixth Thomas Brown Knight Treasurer to the House-hold of K. Henry the sixth was Sheriff of Kent in the twenty second year of that Prince William Cromer of Tunstal who married Elizabeth Daughter of James Lord Say and Seale was Sheriff of Kent the twenty third year of Henry the sixth This was that William Cromer who was barbarously assassanated by Jack Cade whilst he vigorously sought to oppose that Rebell in his Expedition towards London John Thornbury of Feversham was Sheriff of Kent the twenty fourth year of Henry the sixth William Isley of Sundridge was Sheriff of Kent the twenty fifth year of Henry the sixth William Kene who lived at Well Hall in Eltham in Right of Agnes his Wife Widow of John Tatersal was Sheriff of Kent the twenty sixth year of Henry the sixth Stephen Slegge of Wouldham near Rochester was Sheriff of Kent the twenty seventh year of Henry the sixth William Cromer who was
Sheriff before in the twenty third was now again Sheriff in the twenty eighth year of Henry the sixth Gervas Clifton that had served this Office in the eighteenth year of this Kings Reign was called again to discharge in the twenty ninth of K. Henry the sixth Robert Horne of Hornes Place in Apuldore was Sheriff of Kent the thirtieth year of Henry the sixth Thomas Ballard of Horton near Canterbury was Sheriff of Kent the thirty first year of Henry the sixth John Fogge of Repton in Ashford Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the thirty second year of Henry the sixth Sir Iohn Cheyney of Shurland and Patricksbourn Cheyney was Sheriff of Kent the thirty third year of K. Henry the sixth Philip Belknap of the Moate in Canterbury was Sheriff of Kent the twenty fourth year of Henry the sixth Alexander Iden of Westwell who slew Iack Cade and married the Widow of Will. Cromer slain before by that Rebell was Sheriff of Kent the thirty fifth year of Henry the sixth John Guldford of Halden Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the thirty sixth year of Henry the sixth This Man flourished under the Scepter of Henry the sixth Edward the fourth under whom he was Sheriff and likewise Comptroller of his House-hold Richard the third at whose Coronation he was Knighted and lastly that of Henry the seventh by whom he was admitted as his Monument in the Middle Isle of the Body of Christ Church in Canterbury does attest into his Privy Councell Sir Gervas Clifton who formerly in the eighteenth and twenty ninth years of this Prince had managed this Place was again summoned to execute it in the thirty seventh year of Henry the sixth Sir Thomas Brown of Bechworth Castle in Surrey was again Sheriff of Kent in the thirty eighth year of Henry the sixth John Scot of Scots-Hall Esquire was Sheriff of Kent part of the year above mentioned He was afterwards Knighted by K. Edward the fourth and by him called to be of his Privy Councell Deputy of Callis and Comptroller of his House-hold Sheriffs of Kent under K. Edward the fourth John Isaack of Howlets in Patricksbourne was Sheriff of Kent the first year of King Edward the fourth Sir William Peche of Lullingston Knight was Sheriff of Kent the third and fourth years of Edward the fourth and had likewise the Custody of the Castle of Canterbury annexed to his Office as this Record does inform me Rex concessit Willielmo Peche Milititotum Comit. Cantii una cum Castro Cantuariensi ac constituit eum Vicecomitem Cantii ac ei concessit 40 libras Annuas quousque ei dederit 40 libras Annuas in speciali Taellio Haeredibus Masculis Pat. 2. Edw. quarti Parte secunda John Diggs of Diggs Court in Barham was Sheriff of Kent the fourth year or Edw. the fourth Alexander Clifford of Bobbing Court Son of Lewis Clifford Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the fifth year of K. Edward the fourth Sir William Haut of Hautsbourn Son of William Haut and Elizabeth his Wife Sister to Richard Woodvill Earl Rivers and Aunt to Elizabeth Woodvill Queen of England and Wife to K. Edward the fourth was Sheriff of Kent the sixth year of that Prince Sir Iohn Colepeper of Pepenbury and Bedgebury was Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Edward the fourth Ralph St. Leger of Ulcomb Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the eighth year of Edward the fourth Henry Ferrers of Chilesmore and Tamworth in the County of Warwick was Sheriff of the County of Kent in the ninth year of Edward the fourth He married Mawde one of the Coheirs of William Hextall of Hextall Place in great Peckham John Brumston of Preston near Feversham Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the tenth year of Edward the fourth This year the King likewise by his Letters Patents committed to his Custody the City of Canterbury Richard Colepeper of Oxenhoath in Little Peckham was Sheriff of Kent the eleventh year of Edward the fourth James Peckham of Yaldham in Wrotham was Sheriff of Kent the twelfth year of Edward the fourth Sir John Fogge of Repton in Ashford sometime Comptroller of the House to Edward the fourth was Sheriff of Kent the thirteenth year of that Prince John Isley of Sundridge Cousin and Heir Generall of William Isley who was Sheriff of this County the twenty fifth of Henry the sixth was Sheriff of Kent the fourteenth year of Edward the fourth Sir William Haut of Hautsbourn formerly mentioned was again Sheriff the fifteenth year of Edward the fourth John Green who lived at Scadbery in Chiselhurst in Right of his Wife Constance Widow of Sir Thomas Walsingham was Sheriff of Kent the sixteenth of Edward the fourth William Cheyney of Shurland Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the seventeenth year of Edward the fourth Richard Haut of the Moat in Ightham younger Brother to Sir William was Sheriff of Kent the eighteenth of Edward the fourth Richard Lee of great Delceâ— in Rochester was Sheriff of Kent the ninteenth year of Edward the fourth Sir John Fogge of Repton formerly mentioned was again Sheriff of Kent the twentieth year of Edward the fourth Sir George Brown of Bechworth Castle Son of Sir Thomas Brown was Sheriff of Kent the twenty first of Edward the fourth Richard Haut of the Moat in Ightham who served the Office of Sheriff of Kent the eighteenth of Edward the fourth was after he had been three years from the place according to the Statute made Sheriff of Kent again the twenty second year of Edward the fourth in which year this worthy Prince cast off the Luggage of humane Frailty by paying the last Debt he owed to Nature Sheriffs of Kent under Richard the Third Sir William Haut of Hautsbourn that had been Sheriff twice before in the Time of K. Edward the fourth was made Sheriff of Kent again in the first year of K. Richard the third from Michaelmass the twenty second of Edward the fourth to the ninth of April and then to the twenty third which day K. Edward the fifth fell an Oblation to the Avarice and Ambition of his usurping Uncle who cast trains no less for his Life then for his Crown and then again to the twenty fifth of June and from the twenty sixth of June untill the Michaelmass following Sir Henry Forrers supplied the place of Sheriff for him John Bamme Esquire of the Mannor of Grench in Gillingham descended from Adam Bamme Lord Maior of London was Sheriff of Kent in the second year of Richard the third Sir Robert Brackenbury of the Moate in Ightham was Sheriff of Kent the third year of Richard the third Will. Cheyney Esquire of Shurland was Sheriff of Kent the last year of Rich. the third Sheriffs of Kent under Henry the Seventh William Cheyney of Shurland Esquire Sheriff of Kent the seventh year of Edward the fourth and last of Richard the third continued in that Office the first year of K. Henry the seventh John Pimpe of Pimpes Court in Farleigh and Lose Esquire was Sheriff
Denne who deceasing without Issue Male Margaret his only Daughter and Heir brought it over to her husband Edw. Hougham after whose death it is to devolve to two Daughters who are the surviving Issue of that Wife namely Elizabeth matched to Mr. Edward Rose of Chistlet and Ann wedded to Mr. John Betentham now of Canterbury The Dungeon is another Mannor in Canterbury It was formerly belonging to an ancient Family called Chich Ernaldus de Chich was a man of principal note under Henry the second Richard the first and K. John and the Aldermanry of Burgate in Canterbury did in elder times appertain to this Family Thoma Chich was was Bailiff of Canterbury 1259. and again in the year 1271. was a principal Benefactor to the Church of S. Mary Bredin in Canterbury whose Name in an old Character together with his Effigies are set up in the west Window as his Coat is likewise in Stone-work in the Chancell John Chich was Bailiff of Canterbury in the twenty third and again in the twenty sixth year of Edward the third in the year 1320. Robert Malling then Commissary of Canterbury gave Sentence upon clear Evidence by ancient muniments and otherwise that the Hospital of St. Laurence in Canterbury should not only receive the Tithes of the Mannor of the Dungeon but likewise of 300. Acres adjacient to it but this was not without the Tye or Tribute of some Remuneration for in Autumne John Chich who was then Lord of the Dungeon was to receive for his Servants five loaves of Bread two Pitchers and an half of Beer and half a Cheese of four pence and he himself was to receive unum par Cirocecarum ferinarum one pair of Holyday Gloves and one pound of Wax in Candles and for his Servants three pair of Gloves Thomas Chich this mans Son was Sheriff of Kent in the forty fourth year of Edward the third and held his Shrivealtie at the Dungeon but in Valantine Chich this mans great Grandchild not only the male line but likewise the possession of this place failed for he about the beginning of Edward the fourth passed it away to Roger Brent Esq and he died seised of it as appears by his Will recorded at Canterbury in the year 1486. But in this Family it was not long after this resident for in the beginning of Henry the eighth by an old Court Roll I find one John Butler of Heronden in Eastrye possest of it and he conveyed it to Sir John Hales Chief Baron of the Exchequer and when Leland visited Kent which was in the thirtieth year of Henry the eighth he lived here and from him is it now come down to his Successor Sir James Hales the instant Proprietarie of it The Moate alias Wyke is a third Mannor within the precincts of Canterbury and had owners of that Sirname For I read in Testa de Nevill that Stephen de VVyke possest it in the twentyeth year of Henry the third and paid respective Aid for it at the marriage of Isabel that Princes Sister and in the Book of Aid where there is an Enumeration of the ancient owners there is a Recital of Stephen de Wyke William le Taylour John Tancrey and Richard Betts who had an Interest in it but before the beginning of Richard the second all these Families were mouldred away and vanished For in that Kings Reign I find it by the Court Rolls of this place in the hands of Sir Richard de Hoo and Richard Skippe and they about the latter end of Richard the second by deed conveyed it to Simon Spencer and he some few years after alienated it to John Standford Gentleman who suddenly after Passed it away to Richard Smith in whose hands it had not long continued when the same Devolution brought it over to John Eastfield Esquire Son of Sir William Eastfield who was Knight of the Bath and Lord Maior of London in the year 1438. and from him it was by Sale carried off to William Rogers and he by a Fine levied in the thirty third year of Henry the sixth demises and sells it to Philip Belknap of Canterbury Esquire Maior of that City in the year 1458. and Sheriff of Kent in the thirty fourth year of Henry the sixth he married Elizabeth Daughter of John Woodhouse Esq by whom he had Issue Alice his only Daughter and Heir who was matched to Henry Finch of Nitherfield Esq Father of Sir William Finch Banneret who in his Mothers right was invested in the possession of the Moâ—t and from him is it now by Successive right devolved to the Right Honourable John Lord Finch created Baron of Fordwich by the late K. Charles when he was Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England St. Dunstans in Canterbury was the Ancient Seat of the noble Family of Roper VVilliam Rosper or de Rubra Spathâ for so the Name is written in old Dateless Evidences and Elnith his Wife the Daughter and Heir of Edward de Apuldore flourished in the Reign of Henry the third and were great Benefactors to the Priorie of Saint Martins in Dover Iohn de Rubrâ Spathâ or Rosper did eminent Service in Scotland under Edward the third for which that Prince rewards him and William Clifford as appears by a Deed recorded in the Earl of Dorsets Pedigree about the twenty ninth year of his Reign with the third part of those Forfeitures that were due from the Jews then inhabiting in London for the Violation of some Penal Statutes enected against them Edmund Son of Ralph Roper was an eminent Man in the Reign of Henry the fourth and Henry the fifth under whom he was Justice of the Peace for this County and died the third year of Henry the sixth 1433 and lies buried in this Church of St. Dunstans John Roper his Son and John VVestcliffe as the Records of this Family instruct me were Correctors and Surveyours of the Customes of the Cinque Ports in the ninteenth year of Henry the seventh Jo. Roper his Grandchild was Attorney General to Henry the eighth and Prothonotary of the Kings Bench as appears by the Inscription on his Monument in St. Dunstans Church 1524 and VVill. Roper who was Sheriff of Kent the first and second year of Philip and Mary and matched with Margaret Daughter of Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellor of England who as the Inscription on her Monument was Graecis Latinisque Literis Doctissima succeeded his Father in the Office of Prothonotary of the Kings Bench which he discharged with much of Fidelity and Care fifty four years and left it to his Sor Thomas Roper Esquire 1577 in which year he died and from this Thomas is this Mannor of St. Dunstans which for so many Centuries of years hath constantly confessed the Signorie of this Name now descended to his great Grandchild Mr. Edward Roper Esquire Capell in the Hundred of Folkstone was parcel of that Estate which celebrated the Family of Averenches to have been its Proprieraries which continued no longer in the
Grandchild John de Cobham in the thirty sixth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 43. Parte secunda And in this Family and its Descendants did they settle until the Reign of Henry the sixth and then by an old Survey of Chalke I find them in the Hands of Brent and continued in their Possession until the eighth year of Henry the seventh and then Jo. Brent Esq conveys them as appears by a Fine levied in that year to Sir Henry Wiat and his infortunate Grandchild Sir Thomas Wiat having by an unsuccesseful Solleviation or Rising forfeited them to the Crown in the second year of Queen Mary they remained there until Queen Elizabeth in the thirty seventh of her Rule granted them in Lease to Sir Peter Manwood who passed it to Menfield and he to Mr. James Crispe but the Fee-simple still remained lodged in the Royal Revenue until the late King Charles passed it away to the City of London in the year 1630 and that City the same year they were granted conveyed them to Mr. James Crispe who upon his Departure disposed them by Testament to his two Sons Mr. Thomas Crispe and Mr. James Crispe Challock in the Hundred of Calehill hath two places in it which may deservedly come within the Register of those Mannors which are in this Survey to be recorded The first is Otterpley which was an eminent Seat belonging to the ancient Family of Apulderfield The first that I find of Note in any publick Record to have possest it was Henry de Apulderfield who had the Grant of a Market and Fayre to his Mannor of Apulderfield in Coldham in the thirty eighth year of Hen. the third and this mans great Grandchild Henry de Apulderfield was Sheriff of Kent the fiftieth of Edward the third and held his Shrievalty at Challock His House was near East-well in the Earl of Winchelseys upper Park called Apulderfields Garden which is now so obscured in its own Ruins that we now with Difficulty trace out its Sepulcher made up of its own complicated Rubbish but this Mannor as to some Proportion of it was passed away before he was Sheriff to Edmund de Hant who held it at his Decease which was in the forty fourth year of Edward the third but neither of these Families lasted longer then the Beginning of Richard the second for then I find it entirely invested in Richard Lord Poynings who in the eleventh year of that Prince was possest of it at his Death and left it to his Sole Heir Eleanor matched to Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland in whose Successors the Right was constantly fixed until the twenty third year of Henry the eighth and then it was conveyed by Henry Earl of Northumberland to Sir Thomas Cheyney William Walsingham and William Fitz-Williams and they immediately after re-conveyed it to Sir Christopher Hales and his Son Sir James Hales about the latter end of Henry the eighth alienated it to Sir Thomas Moile by whose Daughter and Coheir Katharine it came to be the Inheritance of Sir Thomas Finch unhappily Shipwract by New-Haven in France a Person who deserved a longer Life and not so dark a Fate from whom by paternal Descent it is now transmitted to the right honourable Heneage Finch now Earl of Winchelsey Loringden and Deane are places in Challock worthy of Consideration There is a Tradition very frequent amongst the Country people in this Track that Loringden now altogether desolate and full of solitude was once the Mansion of Gentlemen of this Name one of which should have waged Combate with one of the Apulderfields of Otterpley not far distant about building a Chappel in the Valley which was pretended by Loringden to be erected on Land that was of his Fee-simple but because this without some more solid Foundation to support then Fame and Vulgar Report will appear but legend I will re-present to you what the original Muniments and Evidences have discovered to me in Relation to those who were Possessors of this place That there was a Family which bore the Name of Lourdingden or Loringden is most certain for there is a place in Challock which yet continues the Name of Lorindens Forestal but when I consulted the private Evidences of this place I found upon a serious Disquition they reached no higher then Henry the fourth and in his Reign it acknowledged it self to be of the Propriety of Cadman a Family grown into a reverend esteem by a long Prescription in this Track but the Name of Dean continued in being till the Reign of Henry the sixth and was in very ancient Deeds some of which are not limited with any Date written At Dean and A Dean and in that Princes Reign was by Sale passed away to the above mentioned Family of Cadman in which Name both Loringdean and Dean remained clapsed up till the entrance of K. James and then by a Sole Daughter and Heir they went over to Plomer who almost in our Memory transferred his Right in both of them by Sale to Peirce The Church of Challock being fallen down was new erected by the Apulderfields as the Glass windows and Stone work in divers places embroider'd and diaper'd with the Voided Cross which was their paternal Coat Armour do more then sufficiently testifie Cranebrook gives name to the Hundred wherein it is seated a Town very populous in respect it was one of the first places where the Manufacture of Clothing was professed and practised being brought into England in Edward the thirds Reign who by proposing rewards and granting many Immunities trained Flemings into this Nation in the tenth year of his reign to teach the English that Art of Draperie or Weaving and making woollen Cloth which is esteemed at this day one of the Butteresse which sustains the Common-wealth and certainly for making durable Broad clothes with very good Mixtures and perfect Colours Cranebrook doth with the most that way excell The first place of note in it which obviates the eye is Sisingherst but more properly and truly written Saxenhurst and as Bittenden not far distant derives its Name from the Brittons so in most probability did this take and assume its Denomination from the Saxons In Testa de Nevil a Book kept in the Exchequer which is a memorial of those who holding their Lands in the Knights Service paid relief in the twentieth year of Henry third towards the Marriage of the Kings Sister There is mention of John de Saxenhurst who was taxed for his Lands here at Cranebrook which certainly was this Sisingherst with the two little Mannors of Copton and Stone which had alwayes the same Owners with Sisingherst In times of a more modern Character the Berhams by the Female Heirs of Saxenhurst were Lords of Sisingherst with its two adjuncts Copton and Stone Richard de Berham who was Sheriff of Kent in the forty fourth year of Edward the third was here resident and is written of this place and Henry de Berham this mans Father paid respective
cast into the Revenue of Denny by whose Daughter and Heir it is lately become the Demeasn of Mr. Robert Filmer second Son of Sir Robert Filmer of Sutton not long since deceased Winchcombe is an ancient Seat likewise in Crundall which ever since the Reign of Edward the second hath acknowledged the Carters as appears by private Evidences for its uninterrupted Proprietaries and is still in the Tenure and possession of that Name and Family Cuckston anciently written Cuckleston lies in the Hundred of Totlingtrough and was given to the Church of Rochester by Ethelwolfe Son of King Egbert See Textus Roffensis first Monarch of the English Saxons this King Ethelwolfe after his decease which happened to be about the year 857. was for his several and exemplary acts of Charitie and pious Munificence towards the Church of which Cuckston till these unhappy times ravished it away stood a visible Monument Recorded in the Register of Saints VVhornes-Place in this Parish was erected by Sir VVilliam VVhorne who was Lord Maior of London in the year 1487. upon which though he setled his Name he could not so fasten it to his Family but that the next Age by Purchase brought it over to Vane where the Title had not long fixt but the vicissitude of Sale alienated it to Barnewell who about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth sold it to Nicholas Lewson of the County of Stafford Esq whose Grandchild Sir Richard Lewson desirous to settle himself in his own County where a vaste Estate lay spread which had been transmitted to him from his Ancestors passed away this by Sale to John Marsham Esquire originally extracted from the Marshams of Norfolk where many years before they had flourished under no contemptible Estimate D. D. D. D. DArent in the Hundred of Acstane is very often written North-Darent it belonged in the Conquerours time to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury as the Record called Doomsday Book instructs me and was exchanged for the Mannor of Lambeth by Hubert Walter Arch-Bishop Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice with Gilbert Glanvill Bishop of Rochester in the year of our Lord 197. which exchange was afterwards confirmed by Richard the first Saint Margaret-Hills now united to this Parish had formerly a Church which being decayed and the Congregation diminished it was by Cardinall Pole in the year 1557. incorporated into Darent It was anciently and is so still distinguished by the Name St. Margaret-Hills which additionall Character it borrowed from a Family originally called Hells and then by Tradition and Vulgar corruption afterwards stiled Hills a Family which had large Possessions both here at Dertford and at Ash likewise by Sandwich John de Hells had a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannors of Hells and his Estate at Dertford in the seventeenth year of Edward the first and from this John de Hells did Sir Edmund Hills descend and he about the beginning of Edward the sixth alienated this Mannor to Lane whose Son Henry Lane went out in a Daughter and Heir called Martha who matched to Edw. Rolt descended from the Roults of Bedford-shire in Right of which Alliance Mr. Thomas Rolt his Grandchild is now invested in the Possession of this Place Dartford gives name to that Hundred wherein it is situated and before the Foundation of the Nunnerie was a Mannor which was wrapt up in the Demeasne of the Crown there was a Family called Tingewike which had it in Lease for when King Edward the third Pat. An. primi Edw. tertii Memb. 6. granted the Royalties of the Mannor of Dartford to Edmund of Woodstock Earl of Kent paying as a Rent-Service of 30. l. per annum it is mentioned in the Patent that he should hold them all in as ample a manner as Alice Tingewike formerly had done upon his decease it reverts to the Crown and the same King Edward in the year 1355. and in the fiftieth year of his Reign erects here a Nunnerie whose Lady-Abbess and the Nuns of the Covent were for the most part in succeeding times elected into this Cloister out of the noblest Families of the Nation Upon the suppression King Henry the eighth converted the House into a Palace for his own habitation and under that notion it continued till K. James by exchange passed it away to Robert E. of Salisbury who conveyed it to Sir Edw. Darcy whose Grandchild Edward Darcy Esquire descended from the noble Family of Darcy of Yorke-shire at this instant possesses the Fee-Simple of it The Mannor of Temple in this Parish was involved in that Revenue which was marshal'd under the Jurisdiction of the Knights Templers as the very Name doth seem to insinuate and upon the totall disannulling this order here in England was by a Statute made in the seventeenth year of Edward the second setled on the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem where it was fixed and constant untill the disbanding of that Order likewise in this Nation by King Henry the eighth and then it was annexed to the Patrimony of the Crown and rested there untill K. James exchanged it with Robert E. of Salisbury who sold it to Edw. Darcy Esq whose Grandchild Edw. Darcy Esq hath lately conveyed it by Sale to his Brother in Law Mr. Will. Gough The Mannor of Charles is Seated in this Parish and was a Branch of that Estate which fell under the Signorie of the ancient Family of Charles from whom it assumed its appellation Of this Family was Edw. Charles who was Captain and Admiral of the Fleet from the Thames-Mouth North-ward as appears Pat. 34. Edw. 1. after this Family had left the Possession of this place which was about the beginning of Richard the second Nicholas de Brember was planted in the Proprietie but he was scarce warm in his new atchieved Purchase but he fell under the guilt of high Treason only for being too fast in his Loyaltie and Faith to his Prince and too loose in his fidelity to his Country for there it seems that blind distinction had its first rise and growth which like some Alembeck distil'd and dropped the Power of the King distinguished apart from his Person upon the forfeiture of his Life and Estate together which was in the tenth year of Rich. the second It was by that Prince suddenly after conveyed by grant to Adam Bamme Lord Maior of London in which Family after it had for many Ages been seated it was as appears by an exemplification now in the hands of Mr. Took of Dartford transmitted by Sale to Death who about the latter end of K. James passed it away to Goldsmith of Marshals-Court in Creyford who some few years since sold all his Concernment in it to Mr. Tooks branched out from the ancient Family of the Tooks of Bere in West-Clive though since this Name setled at Dartford it hath by Depravation been called Tuke Horsemans-Place is a Mansion of good account likewise in Dartford in the sixteenth year of Edward the second I find it owned one Thomas
John de Vescy held for term of her Life begotten upon Dergavile his Concubine Daughter to Dunwald a petty Prince in Ireland he made a Feoffment of all his Lands in England to Anthony Beck Bishop of Durham to the use of William Vescy of Kildare his base Son and also infeoffed King Edward in Kildare in Ireland and in Sproxton in Scotland for Licence of his good Leave and Assent to the other Feoffment William de Vescy of Kildare was slain in the Warrs of Stripling in Scotland The King of England himself being then present in Person By which means the State being in the Bishop of Durham he disposed of Alnewike Castle in the North to Henry de Percy that had married Idonia de Clifford and considering that the Estate of Lands at Eltham came from the Crown the said Bishop reserving an estate for life disposed of them back again to the Crown he himself dyed there the twenty eighth of March 1311. In the fifth year of Edward the second and had bestowed great cost in building there The Stone-work of the outward Gate being Castle-like is a remnant of the work of that Time The Palace it self being much more modern and Augmented by several additions of the Kings of England who in a manner kept here their constant residence and here were made the Statutes of Eliham the precedents for Government of the Kinâ—s House to this day The Bishop of Durham being dead K. Edward the second kept his residence here 1315 9 Edw. 2. and his Q. was here brought to bed of a Son called John of Eliham K. Edward the third intending to give a princely reception to K. John of France which had been Prisoner in England and came over to visit the King 1363. and dyed before his return entertained him here at Eltham K. Henry the fourth kept his last Christmas at Eliham 1412. K. Henry the fifth his Son and Successor lay there at Christmas likewise when he was fain to depart suddenly for fear of some that had conspired to murther him K. Henry sixth made it his principal place of residence and granted the Tenants of the Mannor of Eltham a Charter of renovation of a Market in the seventeenth of his reign which containeth more ample priviledges than any such grant that yet I have seen as will be likewise evident to those who will peruse the original Record of that year in the Tower of London K. Edward the fourth greatly to his cost repaired the House Pat. Anno 21. Edw. 3. pars 2. Memb. 2. and inclosed Hornpark so called being the Site of the Mannor of West-horn which was anciently in the Kings Demeasne For King Edward the third in the twenty first year of his reign granted liberty to all his Tenants of this Mannor to be toll-free throughout England K. Henry the seventh set up the fair Front there towards the Moat and was usually resident there I find in a Record in the Office of Arms that he did usually dine in the Hall and all his Officers kept their Tables there and at such time as he created Stanley Baron Monteagle by reason of some Infection then reigning in and near the City of London none were permitted to dine in the Kings Hall but the officers of Arms who at the serving in the Kings second Course of meat according to the Custome came and proclaimed the Kings style and the style of the said new Lord. King Henry the eighth built much at Greenwich with Bricks made here at Eltham and then neglected this place yet he lived here sometime and kept a royal Christmass at this place 1515. There is an ancient place in this Parish called Henleys which in the time of King Edward the third was a Marnor belonging to John de Henley whose House was moated about the situation is yet extant below the Conduit-head but he dying without Issue it came by his guift to King Edward the third and was annexed unto the Mannor by William de Brantingham his Feoffee The Mannor East-horn and Well-hall was in the year 1100. possest by Jordan de Iriset or Brinset first establisher of the Order of Knights Hospitallers here in England In Ages of a lower Descent that is in the reign of Edward the third it was held by Iohn de Poultney and from that Family about the reign of Richard the second it devolved by Sale to Chichley Iohn Tatterst all married Agnes the Daughter of Iohn Chichley of Wolwich Son of William Chichley Alderman of London and by her had VVell-hall and East-horn he had Issue by her two Daughters Ann was married unto Sir Ralph Hastings and Margery was married unto Iohn Roper Esquire and Agnes their Mother was remarried to VVill. Kene who likewise had Issue by her from whom the Mansells of Wales are extracted and by this Descent are of the Blood and Kindred of Henry Chichley Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury Founder of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford but VVell-hall and East-horn were united to the patrimony of Roper and have continued here so fixed that they are the present Inheritance of Edward Roper Esquire To this Mannor the Chancel of St. Michael in the South-side of Eltham Church belongeth called sometimes Tatershalls Chancel In the windows the Matches before mentioned are impaled in Coloured glass The utmost extent of this Hundred East-ward reacheth to Shooters-Hill so called of the Thievery there practised where Travellers in elder Times were so much infested with Depraedations and bloody mischiefs that order was taken in the sixth of Richard the second for the enlarging the High-way according to the Statute made in the Time of King Edward the first so that they venter still to rob here by prescription Pat. 6. R. 2. pars 2. Mem. 34. and some have been so impudent to offer to engage the Sun shining at mid-day for the repayment of money called borrowed in a Theevish way to the great charge of the Hundred that still was in the Counter-bond and King Henry the fourth granted leave to Thomas Chapman to cut down burn and sell all the Woods and Under-woods growing and confining to Shooters-Hill Pat. 7. H. 4. pars 2. Memb. 12. on the South-side and to bestow the money raised thereby upon mending the High-way Surely Prince Henry his Son and Sir John Falstaffe his make-sport so merrily represented in Shakespear's Comedies for examining the Sandwich Carriers loading at this place were not the Surveyers Mottingham in the Hundred of Blackheath is a Hamlet and member to Eltham enjoying like priviledges which are annexed to both these places as being of ancient Demealn It was formerly written Modingham denoting that it was proudly situated for so we interpret Mod in old English It passed away from the Crown with the Mannor of Eltham to Jo. de Vescy and returned back again with it inhabited in the time of K. Edw. the third by the Family of Bankwell and after in the reign of H. the sixth by the Chesmans the last
of Edw. the second and Edw. the third whose great Grandchild Will. Garwinton dying without Issue Joan his Kinswoman matched to Richard Haut was in the ninth year of Henry the fourth found to be his Heir not only to this place but to much other Land in this Territory and she had Issue Richard Haut who concluded in a Female Heir whose Name was Margery who by matching with William Isaack linked this Mannor to his Revenue Thus farre this Manuscript Who were the Possessors since the Court-Rolls which do not ascend very high now in the Custody of Mr. Hugben discover The first Family which they recite is Hales and it remained in the Inheritance of that Name till towards the end of Queen Elizabeth and then it was by Sale transported over to Manwood who some few years after disposed of his Interest in it by the same Alienation to Sir Rob. Lewknor upon whose Decease it devolved to his Son Mr. Hamon Lewknor Esquire who hath upon his Death during the Minority of his Son left the Possession to be enjoyed by his Widow Bowick is a sixth place which must now come within the pale of this Discourse It was in Times of elder Inscription the Seat of the Lads who in diverse of their ancient Muniments and Evidences writ de Lad. Now if you will know where that place is seated I answer it is situated in Chart by Sutton where there is an ancient Farme which formerly had the Repute of a Mannor and is at this instant as it was in Ages of a higher Step known by the Name of Lads and was till almost our Grandfathers Memory in the Tenure of that Family after Lad was departed from the Possession of this Place the Nethersolls by Purchase were about the Beginning of Henry the seventh incorporated into the Possession and staid in it some few years and then alienated their Interest here to Aucher who about the latter end of Henry the eighth resigned the Title by Sale to Wroth in which Family it was resident until some few years since it was passed away to Elgar Oxroad is a seventh Mannor in Elham In a very old Court-Roll now in the hands of Mr. Shetterden of Eltham one John de Oxroad is represented to be the Possessor and in others of a more modern Complexion which bear date from Henry the fourth and so downwards untill the beginning of Henry the eighth the Hinckleys are discovered to us to be the Proprietaries of it and then this Name was extinguished in a Daughter and Heir for Isabell was the only Child of Thomas Hinckley who by espousing Joan Bene carried this place into the Possession of that Family where it was constantly fixed untill of late years the Title was by Sale transplanted into Mr. Daniell Shetterden of Eltham descended from the Shetterdens of Shetterden in great Chart which Land they have possest for diverse hundreds of years Ladwood is an eighth Mannor in this Parish written in old Evidences Ladswood from whence we may spin out a more then probable Conjecture that before the erecting the house by Rolfe it was a Wood belonging to Lad of Bowick but for some hundreds of years that is fince the latter end of Edward the third it hath constantly related to the Family of Rolfe a Name which Mr. Thinne conjectures in a Pedigree which he collected of this Family was contracted from the ancient German Name Rodolphus and Mr. Lambert in his Kentish Perambulation mentions one Rolph a Saxon who added much to the Castle of Rochester from whom it is not altogether improbable this Family which hath been so ancient at Elham might extract their first original Clavertie is the last place in this Parish which may exact our mention it did belong before the Suppression to the Knights Hospitallers and was one of those places in this Track which was a Commaundry to the more general Seminary of this Order planted at Edwell Upon the Dissolution of this Order here in England by Henry the eighth who condemned their Disorder and Luxury only to improve his own like the Lapwing who cries most when she is farthest off from her Nest this was added to the Demeasne of the Crown and King Edward the sixth granted it to Peter Heyman Esquire who was one of the Gentlemen off his Bedchamber and great Grandfather to Sir Henry Hamon Baronet who was the late Proprietarie of this Mannor of Claverty a person to whom if I should not affirm my self signally and extraordinarily engaged I deserved to be represented to Posterity under the darkest Complexion of Ingratitude Eightam Hamon de Crevequer held Eigtham in the Reign of K. John and then Sim. de Crioll in the Reign of Henry the third as appears by old Evidences vulgarly but corruptly and falsely called Ightam lies in the Hundred of Wrotham and hath that Denomination imposed upon it from the eight Hams or Boroughs which lie within the Verge of it The first is Eightham it self the second is Redwell the third is Ivie-Hatch the fourth is Barrow Green the fifth is St. Cleres the sixth is the Moat the seventh is Beaulies and the eighth and last is Oldborough which puts in its Claim to be of Roman originall for when Leland visited Kent which was about the beginning of Henry the eighth there was some Remains of an ancient Fortification and it is probable that this being the way which led to the great Roman Colonie at Noviomagum now called Woodcot in Surrey was at this place fortified upon all emergent occasions to secure their Retreat from any hostile Eruption The Mannor of Eightam it self was the Possession of William de Inge one of the Judges in the Reign of Edward the second this William de Inge was by his Country and Parentage of the County of Bedford and had Issue William de Inge who matched with Margery Daughter of Henry Grapenell and dyed seised in the fifteenth of Edward the second of this Mannor of Eightham his Daughter and Heir Joan was wedded to Eudo Lord Zouch of Harringworth and William le Zouch of Harringworth dyed possest of it in the fifteenth year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 64. And in this Name was the Propriety of this place for sundry Generations successively resident untill the beginning of Henry the seventh and then it was alienated to Sir Robert Read Serjeant at Law and Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas who not long after going out in four Daughters and Coheirs Dorothy matched to Sir Edw. Wotton Margaret married to Sir John Harecourt of Elnall in the County of Stafford Katharine wedded to Sir Thomas Willoughbie Lord Chief Justice of the Common pleas and Eliz. espoused to Tho. Totihurst Esq they divided his Inheritance and this Mannor upon the Distinction of it into parcells this was added to the Revenue of Willoughby from which Family in our Grandfathers Remembrance it passed away by Sale to Jam. descended from Jacob van Hastrecht who was anciently seated in Cleve
second granted them to Sir Robert Belknap the Judge upon whose Attainder they were granted in Fee to Robert Ballard Esquire Pincernae suo his grand Boteler That is the Mannors of Westcombe and Spittlecombe in Greenwich two Watermills in Detford with their Appurtenances in Charlton and Writle-mersh after which that Name continued a long time in this place of whom you may read more among the Sheriffs of Kent untill about the fourth of Philip and Mary Westcombe was altenated by Nicholas Ballard to John Lambert Esquire whose Successor Thomas Lambert not many years since alienated it to Hugh Forth from whom it is lately gon over by Sale to Mr ...... Biddulph of London Soon after the Conquest this Greenwich was parcell of the Possessions of the Bishop of Liseux in France and bore Service to Odo then Bishop of Baieux and Earl of Kent After the Mannor belonged to the Abbot of St. Petres of Gaunt in Flanders till such time as King Henry the fifth seising into his Hands by occasion of War the lands of the Priors Aliens bestowed it together with the Mannor of Lewsham and many other Lands also upon the Priory of the Brotherhood to the Monks of Shene which he had then newly erected to which it remained till the Time of King Henry the eighth who annexed it to the Crown unto which it now belongeth and is called the Honor East-Greenwich Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were both born here and King Edward the sixth a Miracle of Princely Towardnesse ended his Life in the same House King Edward the third 1376 in the fifty first year of his Reign founded the Religious House of Friers Aliens or Dominican Friers Sir John Norbury Knight high Treasurer of England is reckoned a Benefactor to the same after the Dissolution of this House and its Annexion to Shene by King Henry the eighth Another House of observant Friers was erected here by King Edward the fourth as we read in Jo. Rosse Circiter Annum Regni Edwardi quarti venerunt Fratres observantes Ordinis Minorum ad Greenwich habebant Cantariam Capellam Sancti Crucis And King Henry the seventh builded that House for them adjoyning to the Pallace which is yet there to be seen There are moreover in the Town two Colledges or Almes houses for the Sustentation of poor Persons the one builded by William Lambert Esquire which he named the Colledge of Queen Elizabeths poor People and as the Prying Adversaries of out Religion then observed was the first Protestant that built an Hospital The other standing by Thames-side was founded by Henry Howard Earl of Northampton Lord Privy Seal Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports and Knight of the Garter And inlarged and Beautified the Castle which is famous in the Spanish Fables from whence there is a most fair and pleasant Prospect open to the River winding in and out almost redoubling of it self the green Medows and Marshes underlying the Citty of London and Country round about Described by Berkley in his Euphormio And also for a L'env'oy to Greenwich you may read the Verses of Leland the Antiquarian Poet adjoyning to Greenwich Blackheath of which the Hundred taketh the name so called of the colour of the Earth or Bleacheath of the high and cold Situation for bleak signifieth cold Also Campus Martis it may well be called for besides the Burthen of the Danish Camps it hath born three rebellious Assemblies One in the time of King Richard the second Moved as shall be farther declared in Offham by John Tylar whom William Walworth then Maior of London slew with his Dagger in Smithfield and thereupon upon the Tradition comes that the City had given them for an Augmentation to their Eschochen a Dagger in the Dexter-point or Canton so to be born by them for ever Jack Cade that Counterfeit Mortimer and his Crew conducted the second who araying themselves here and passed to London where they did to Death the Lord Say and others and executed their malice upon the Records and Monuments of the Law Burning down the Office of Armes which was then kept at Cole-Harbour burning destroying their Rolls Registers and Books of Armory Their main Drift and Design being to bring in Parity And their Insurrection was here assembled by Michaell Joseph Black-smith and the Lord Audley under the Reign of King Henry the seventh at which time they and their Complices received their just Desert the Common Numbers of them being discomfited and slain and the Leaders themselves taken drawn and hanged Of this last there remaineth yet to be seen upon the Heath the place of the Smith's Tent called commonly his Forge and of all there the great grave-Hills of such as were buryed after the overthrow These Hills in the West-Country upon diverse Champions and Plains where is no small Store of the Like are called Barowes of the old English word Burghes which last word melted into Buryings being a Spring of the old Stock we do yet retain alive The first and last of these Commotions were stirred of Griese the Common people conceived for the Demand of two Subsidies Of which the one was unreasonable because it was taxed upon the Polls and exempted none The other was unseasonable for that it was exacted when the heads of the common people were full of Perkin Warbeck The third and middlemost grew upon a grudge that the People took for yielding the Dutchie of Aniou and Maine to the King of Sicily The coming of whose Daughter after that the King would needs have her to Wife notwithstanding his precontract made with the Earl of Armenac was not so joyfully embraced by the Citizens of London upon Blackheath wearing their red Hoods Badges and blew Gowns as in Sequele the Marriage and whole Government it self was known to be detested of the Country Commons by bearing in the same place Harnesse Bowes Bills and other Weapons Thus far the Story of Blackheath proves but sad and tragical That which remains is of a more glorious and splendid condition consisting of Ovations and Triumphs for when the Emperour of Constantinople came to require Aid against the Turks King Henry the fourth with all Princely respect went to meet him at this place and so conducted him to London And when King Henry the fifth returned from his victorious Conquest of France the Lord Maior and Citizens of London went forth in their best Equipage to attend his Reception at this place at which time the King made many Knights Bannerets And K. Hen. the eighth that excelled in all Triumphal matters met Anne Cleve daughter to the Dake of Cleve Graveney in the Hundred of Boughton was in the year of our Lord eight hundred and eleven by Archbishop Vlfred bought of King Kenwolfe as the Book of Christ-church sets it forth ad opus Ecclesiae Christi to the repair of the Cathedral In the year of Grace eight hundred and thirty Werhardus a Priest of much Power in England by the injunction of the Arch-bishop gave Graveney
this Mannor upon the total Suppression and Abolition here in England was in the seventeenth year of Edward the second united to the Revenne of the Knights Hospitalers and remained annexed to their Demeasne until the common Dissolution supplanted it and then King Henry the eighth granted it to Sir Thomas Cheyney who in the first year of Queen Elizabeth by Sale conveyed it to Mr. Thomas Finch from whom it is now by Descent come down to be the Inheritance of his Successor Mr. Thomas Finch Kingston in the Hundred of Kinghamford was one of those Knights Fees which was assigned to Fulbert de Dover for to be assistant to John de Fiennes in the Guard of Dover Castle And indeed it hath been disputable whether this or Chilham or both jointly were that which in Writings is styled the Honor of Fulberts William de Dover was Teste amongst the Magnates in the Charter of Mawd the Empress for creating Miles of Glocester Earl of Hereford and from this man did it descend to Richard de Dover who was base Son to King John and assumed that Name because he had matched with Roesia or Rose de Dover the Heir General of that Family But he dying in the Beginning of Henry the third Rot. Esc Car. Num. 237. lest it to Isabell his Co-heir wedded to David de Strabolgie Earl of Atholl whose infortunate Son John Earl of Atholl a man of an unbroken though a Calamitous Fidelity towards his Native Country of Scotland seeking to rescue the Liberty of that Nation from those Fetters which the Hand of Edward the first would have put upon it was in an unsuccesful Encounter taken Captive and offered up to the Fury of that Prince on a Gibber fifty Foot high at London saies Daniel at Canterbury saies an old Manuscript late in the Hands of Sir Dudley Diggs which last was rather the Stage on which his Tragedy was represented because that City was almost contiguous to his two great Mannors of Chilham and this of Kingston Upon his fatal and deplorable Exit aggravated because so much Virtue and Courage did rather seem to exact Chaplets and Laurels than so black and ruinous a Catastrophe this Mannor was linkt to the Crown untill King Edward the second in the fifth year of his Raign grants it to Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer Steward of his House but he not long after by an ingrateful Defection having forfeited it again to the Crown that Prince by a new Concession invests it for life in David de Strabolgie Earl of Atholl but after his Disease which was in the first year of Edward the third that Prince in the second year of his Raign restores it to Bartholomew Lord Badelesmer who dying without Issue left it in the twelfth year of Edward the third to his Son and Heir Giles who not long after deceasing likewise without any lawful Issue it came to be divided between his two Sisters and Co-heirs Margaret wedded to William Lord Rosse of Hamlake and Margerie matched to John Tiptoft but before the end of Edward the third this Family had wholly departed from this place and the entire Possession was surrendered up to Rosse For Thomas Lord Rosse dyed possest of it in the seventh year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 68. And from him did the Title slide down to his unhappy Successor Thomas Lord Rosse who was attainted in the fourth year of Edward the fourth and his Forfeiture brought it to the Crown where it rested untill the abovesaid Prince granted it to Roger Lord Wentworth And Margaret his Wife Widow of Thomas Lord Rosse in the eighteenth year of his Rule he conveyed it to him because he had been a great Supporter of his Partie and Title and then to her because she was Sister to John Tiptoft Earl of Worcester who was offered up as an Oblation by the Lancastrian Faction to his Cause and Quarrell and from this Roger did it come down to his Successor Richard Lord Wentworth who in the twenty first year of Henry the eighth demised it by Sale to Thomas Colepeper Esquire in which Family it continued untill the thirty fourth year of that Prince and then it was conveyed away to Sir Anthony Aucher whose Successor Sir Anthony Aucher of Bourne Baronet not many years since conveyed it by Sale to Mr. Gibbons of Westcliff who settled it in Marriage upon his second Son Dr. Gibbons not long since deceased in whose Descendants the Propriety is still resident Ilding in Kingston in Times of as high a Step as any Records can ascend to was the Garwintons of Bekesbourn as appears by that Signal Controversie commenced between Thomas de Garwintor and Theobald de Twitham touching some lands couched within the Verge of his Mannor of Ilding and the Question was so knotty and perplexed that Henry de Cobham Geffrey de Say Hugh de St. Leger Ralph de St. Leger Gile de Badelesmere Fulk de Peyferer Robert de Malevill Alexander de Rosse Robert de Gatton Robert de Campania Richard de Bere Henry de Sorne Henry de Enbroke Alured de Corton and other Gentlemen of prime Account in this Track were chosen Recegnitores magnae Assisae in the second year of King John by their Prudence and dextrous Conduct to soften and becalme this Difference But to go on after the Signory of this place had for many Ages been constant to this Family it devolved to Thomas Garwinton who dying without Issue in the eleventh year of Henry the fourth Richard Haut who had married Joan Garwinton his Heir Generall in her Right was entituled to the Possession of this place but his Son and Heir Richard Haut was the last which held it for Margery his Sole Inheritrix united it to the Inheritance of Isaack in which Name it stayed untill the Beginning of Henry the seventh and then it was transmitted by Sale to Diggs of Diggs-court in Berham and remained clasped up in their Revenue untill that Age which almost was concluded in the Circle of our Remembrance and then it was by Sale transplanted into Wilford so that the Lady Eliz. Wilford Widow Dowager of Sir Thomas Wilford is now by Right of Jointure in Possession of it Parmested is a third place which calls for a Survey it was as high as any Evidence drawn from Record will instruct me to discover the Inheritance of a Family which bore that Sirname for in diverse old Deeds which I have surveyed I find one Hugh de Permested to be a Witnesse which is very probable was Lord of this Place But before the latter end of Edward the second this Family was worn out and that of Garwinton planted in the Possession as appears by an old Fine levyed in the eighth year of Edward the third by Hugh Garwinton in which he passes away his Estate at Permested to Thomas Garwinton from whom it descended to his great Grandchild William Garwinton who dyed possest of it in the eleventh year of Henry the fourth Rot. Esc Num. 45.
Heir it came to be the Possession of Stringer and he ending likewise in a Female Heir she brought it to Scot a Cadet of Scots-Hall who suddenly after sold his Right in it to VVilcocks by whose two Daughters and Coheirs in the Memory of these Times it came to be divided between their two Husbands Bates and Knight The Mannor of Belgar or Belgrave is Situated likewise in Lidde it was given with the Mannor of Bilsington to the Priorie of Bilsington by John Maunsell the Founder of it and was exchanged by the Abbot and Canons for other Lands not long before the Suppression with VVilliam St. Leger by whom it was alienated to VVilliam Middleton and Edward Arthur who after they had been some small time Seated in their new Acquists by jont-consent passed away their Right in it to Sherley of Sussex who in our Fathers Memorie by Sale transferred the Inheritance to Abdy descended from the Abdys of Abdy-House in the Parish of VVaith in Yorke-shire whose Heir both to the Name and Belgar also is Sir Christopher Abdy a person who for his generall Knowledge may be called without the circumstance of Flatterie an Exchequer of humane Learning Scotney was the Seat of a Family so called for in the Book of Aid there is a recitall of one Richard de Scotney who held Lands in the Mersh not far distant afterwards it came to the Ashburnhams of Sussex but whether by Purchase or by Marriage of the Heir of Scotney is incertain though I rather believe it devolved to them by Marriage because Scotney in Lamberhurst divided by a remote distance from this place was likewise theirs from Roger Ashburnham it came to Henry Chichley Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and he by Gift tied it to his Foundation of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford to whose Revenue it remains at this instant time united Nod in this Parish of Lidde was for sundry Ages the Residence of the Derings before they were transplanted to Pluckley and here are Lands Situated within the Verge of this Parish which by an undivided prescription of many Ages have been named Derings and Derings-Mersh a certain Evidence to enforce the Antiquity of this Family But when they grew more delighted with the Situation of Pluckley than this place it was by ........ Dering in the fourth year of Philip and Mary alienated to Mr. Peter Godfrey of Lidde and Surrenden was tyed for his peaceable Possession in it Lastly here is Manerium Summi Altaris so it is written in old Latine Deeds or the Mannor of the high Altar which for many Hundreds of years has been united to the Vicarage But whether it were given to find Vestments for the Priest to Offociate in at the high Altar or for a supply of wax Tapers or for provision of Books to celebrate Mass with or lastly for all these Uses united and complicated together I know not because the original Instrument which fortified the Donation is lost and so both the Use and Doner are become incertain There was a Water in Lidde called Guestling whose Course the Prior of Christ-Church did by an Inquisition taken in the ninth year of Edward the second consult how to alter If you will discover what price was set on Timber in elder times an old Epitaph affixed to a Tomb-stone in Lidde Church will represent it to you The Inscription Recorded in old English speaks thus Of your Charity pray for the Soul of Tho. Briggs who died on the Feast of St. Leonard the Confessor the year of our Lord 1442. and did doe make the Roffe of this Chirch as far as 45. Copplings goeth which did cost 45. Marks Lidden in the Hundreds of Folkstone and Bewsborough was a Mannor which in elder Times made up that vast Patrimony which related to the Knights Templers in this County but upon the totall Extirpation of that Order here in England in the Raign of Edward the second it was by the Statute called Statutum de Terris Templariorum made in the seventeenth year of that Prince's Government settled by that solemne Act upon the Knights Hospitalers and remained treasured up in their Revenue untill the Disbanding and finall Dissipation of this Order in this Nation by Henry the eighth And then being by that Prince rent away it was in the thirty sixth year of the same Prince granted to John Wilde Esq for Life onely and the Remainder in Fee to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and his Successors for ever in whose Patrimony according to the tenour of the original Concession it lay involved untill that popular Tempest which arose in these Calamitous Times shook it off and cast it into a secular Interest Coclescombe and Swinkfield-Mennes were of the same Complexion with the former that is they were first enwrapped in the Demeasne of the Knights Templers and afterwards supplanted and fastned to the Revenue of the Knights Hospitalers to whose Interest it continued firme untill the Whirl-wind of the publique Suppression in the Raign of Henry the eighth ravished them away and then that Prince in the thirty third year of his Raign by Royall Concession made them the Inheritance of Edward Monins Esq from whom by Successive Devolution they are now come down to his Descendant Sir Edward Monins of Waldershare Baronet Swanton-Court is the last Place in this Parish which Summons our Remembrance It was as appears by private Deeds Muniments and other Authentick Testimonies the Seat and Habitation for severall Descents of a Family deeply rooted in this Track whose Sirname was Greenford and it is possible were originally extracted from a Mannor known by that Denomination in Middlesex who after they had flourished by a large Decursion of Time under a fair and unstained Estimate at this place transmitted the Proprietie of this Mansion to John Greenford Esquire in whom this Family found its Tombe and Period for he dying without Issue-male in the eleventh year of Edward the fourth Alice his Sole Daughter became his Heir and She by matching with John Monins Esquire linked this Seat to his Inheritance and to this Family and to his Descendants hath the Title ever since been so constantly wedded that it hath suffered no Divorce but remains at this instant united to the Patrimony of Sir Edw. Monins of Waldershare Baronet Lyminge lies in the Hundred of Court-At-Street and was anciently Famous for Land which was given here by Edbaldus Son of Ethelbert King Kent to his Sister Edburga upon which she erected a Nunnery and Dedicated it to the Honour of St. Mildred But the Mannor which belonged to it was upon the Suppression granted by Henry the eighth to the See of Canterbury and Arch-Bishop Cranmer in the twenty ninth of that Prince's Government exchanged it for other Lands with the Crown and the above-said Henry the eighth in the thirty sixth year of his Raign granted it to Sir Anthony Aucher who after in the Rule of Queen Mary was slain at Callis whilst he endevoured to make good that City and the English Interest
Welle in this Parish which was alwayes under the Jurisdiction of Lay Proprietaries It was first the position of John de Welle sometimes written At Well from the position of his Dwelling which perhaps was in a bottom but this Man in the forty fourth year of Hen. the third made Ranulph Joremer his Feoffe in Trust who sold it for his Use to Reginald de Cornehill by whose Daughter and Heir it came to Garwinton of Beakesbourne and in this Name after it had been fixed some four Descents it went away to Haut for William Garwinton died without Issue and so Margaret his Kinswoman matched to Richard Haute who was a second stock of the Hauts of Bourne became his Heir but long the Right of it was not united to his Family For Richard Haut this Mans Son left likewise onely a Daughter and Heir called Margery who altered the Possession and brought it with Her to her Husband William Isaack who had by her Edward Isaack and he determined in two Daughters and Coheirs Mary married to Thomas Apulton of Waldingfield in the County of Suffolk and the other first matched to ....... Sydley and after to Sir Henry Palmer who by Donation from his Wife was endowed with the Fee-simple of Well Court and his Successor in our Father's Memory alienated it to Lievetenant Colonel Prude slain at the Siege of Maestricht who left it to his Son Mr. Searles Prude whose two Daughters and Coheirs are by his Will after his Widow's Decease entituled to the Inheritance Reginald de Cornehill in the forty fourth year of Henry the third exchanged Lands with John de St. Leger for Lands at Lukedale in Littlebourne where he founded a Chantry which was endowed with a new accession of Land by his Wife Matilda de Cornehill and was confirmed by Patent from Henry the third Lose in the Hundred of Maidstone was in old Saxon Records written Hlos which imports as much as the Lot or Portion It was as the Book of Christ-Church informs us given by Ethelwulf King of the South-Saxons to Sneta a Widow and her Daughter and they gave it back again to the Monks of Christ-Church in Canterbury to apparel them In the Conqueror's Time upon the general Survey recorded in Doonesday-Book it was accounted as part of the six Sullings of Ferneleigh Pimps Court that gave Name to the Knightly Family of the Pimps is in this Parish although they made Nettlested their more frequent place of abode William de Pimpe held this and other Lands by a whole Knights Fee in the twentieth year of Edward the third at the making the Black Prince Knight and from this William was John Pimpe Esquire who was Sheriff of Kent in the second year of Henry the seventh lineally descended who sold this Place to Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham Lord Constable of England whose dysastrous Fate having engaged him to make some dark Applications to a Wizard and a Monk about the Succession of the Crown Henry the eighth a Prince of much Jelousie and Fury like an Industrious Spider spun out Venome enough out of this unhappy Address of his to poyson him with the Guilt of High Treason and so made the forfeiture of his Life and Fortune pay the price of his Vanity upon whose Ruine his Estate was not long after his Death and Attaint which was in the thirteenth year of Henry the eighth by that Prince granted to his Confident and Favourite Sir John Rainsford who after a brief enjoyment of it passed it away to Sir Henry Isley who being attainted in the second year of Q. Mary for supporting by his Assistance and Concurrence the Defection of Sir Thomas Wiat this reverted to the Crown and the same Princess in the second year of her Government granted it by Patent to Sir John Baker whose Successor Sir John Baker Baronet hath lately passed it away to Thomas Floyd of Gore Court Esquire Luddenham in the Hundred of Middleton with the appendant Mannor of Bishops-Bush was a Branch of that spatious Revenue which did in these parts own the Northwoods for Possessors and Roger de Northwood in the forty first year of Henry the third amongst divers Parcels of Land which he altered from the Nature of Gavelkind into Knights Service of the which there is a particular Recapitulation in the Book of Aid changed ninety Acres of Mersh Land which lay partly in Iwade and partly in his Mannor of Luddenham into that Tenure After the Northwoods the Frogenhalls were Possessors of this place and William Frogenhall had this amongst other Lands in this Track which he died seised of in the eighth year of Richard the second his Son and Heir was William Frogenhall Father to Thomas Frogenhall the last of the Name at this Place for he left no Issue Male so that the Daughters became his Coheirs One of whom was Anne who married Thomas Quadring of London and so this place became hsi Inheritance as being her Proportion of Frogenhalls Estate but it quickly found an other owner for Joan Quadring his onely Daughter and Heir by marrying with Richard Dryland of Cokesditch in Feversham incorporated it with the Demeasn of that Family since which Alliance it hath by a constant Succession been fixt in the Possession of the Name of Dryland untill of late years by an Heir General it came to own the Signory of Kirton Luddesdowne in the Hundred of Taltingtrough was though now a petty obscure Village more noted formerly when it was the Patrimony of the Barons Montchensie of Swanscamp-Castle Warren de Montchensie one of them obtained a Charter of Free-Warren to this Mannor of Ludsdowne in the thirty seventh year of Henry the third afterwards this Mans Successor William de Monchensie held it and sat in Parliament as Baron of Swanscamp and dying in the year 1287 without Issue Male left this and diverse other Places to Dionys his Sole Daughter and Heir who was married to Hugh de Vere but died without Issue in the year of our Lord 1314 by which means the Title of this Place diverted to Joan de Montchensie Sister to William above-named and She matched in Marriage with William de Valentia Earl of Pembroke half Brother to King Henry the third and by him had Aymer de Valence who expired in two Female Coheirs one of whom called Isabel was married to Lawrence de Hastings who in her Right was afterwards Earl of Pembroke and Proprietary of the Fee-simple of this Place from whom it descended to his Grand-child John Hastings Earl of Pembroke who dying in the fourteenth year of Richard the second left his Estate in Kent in which this was involved to his two Kinsmen Reginald Grey and Richard Talbot and upon the Division of it this Mannor was lincked to the Patrimony of Grey and remained untill the Beginning of Henry the fixth interwoven with the Revenue of this Family and then I find it under the Signory of that eminent Peer and glorious Souldier Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury
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
of Kent the eighth ninth tenth eleventh twelfth thirteenth and fourteenth years of Henry the second Sir Richard de Lucy was Lord chief Justice and Protector of England in the Raign of the above mentioned Prince of whom I have more largely discoursed at Lesnes in Erith * Ex veteri Rot. penes Edo Dering Mil. Baonettum defunctum Aymer de Lucy was with Richard the first in Palestine at the Seige of Acon and in Memory of some Signal Service manifested there in that holy Quarrel added the Crosse Crosselets unto his Paternal Coat which was before only three Pisces Lucii that is Pike Fish Geffrey de Lucy was frequently summoned to sit in Parliament as Baron in the Raign of Edward the first as the Rols of Summons which relate to that King's Time now preserved in the Tower sufficiently inform us This Geffrey with his two Brothers Aymery and Thomas de Lucy were engaged with Edward the first at the Seige of Carlaverock in Scotland in the twenty eighth year of his Raign and there received the Order of Knighthood They were Sons to Geffrey de Lucy who was constituted High Admiral of England in the Time of Henry the third as appears Pat. 8. Hen. 3. Memb. 4. William and Anthony Lucy both of this Family were frequently summoned to sit in Parliament as Barons in the Raign of Edw. the third In the sixth year of Edward the third Geffrey de Lucy who held Lucy's at his Death which was in the twentieth year of that Monarch had a Charter of Free-warren to this Mannor which priviledge was renued and confirmed by Henry the sixth to Sir Walter Lucy in the 27. year of his Raign in which year he dyed and left his estate here to his Son Sir Jeffery Lucy who with his Sole Daughter and Heir Mawd Lucy transmitted this Mannor to her Husband Sir William Vaux of the County of North-Hampton whose Son Thomas Vaux alienated it about the twenty seventh year of the Raign of Henry the eighth to Sir Roger Cholmeley a younger Branch of the Cholmeleys of Cholmeley in Cheshire from which Family in our Grand-fathers Memory it was by Sale passed away to Sead and from Sead by as quick a vicissitude it came over by purchase to Osborne by whom not many years since it was sold to Pagitt of London Tracies is a second place in this Parish which comes within this List it was in elder Times the Inheritance of a Family of that Appellation John de Tracy was Teste to an old Deed of Richard de Lucy which I have seen wherein he demises some Land to William de Frogenhall the Deed is without Date but by the Antiquity of the Character seems to commence from the Raign of Henry the third Whether these Tracies were extracted from the Tracies of Devon and Gloucestershire or not I cannot positively determine because these of Kent bore a different Coat from the other as appears by all old Ordinaries Vid. Argent two Bends between nine Escollops Gules After the Tracies had left the possession of this place which was about the Beginning of Henry the fourth the Colepepers of Bedgebury were by purchase seised of the Fee-simple of it but staid not long in the Fruition of it for in the Raign of Henry the sixth the Cliffords of Bobbing Court not far distant from whom by Sale in the Raign of Henry the eighth it fell under the Signory of Thomas Linacre Priest Frogenhall in this Parish likewise was a Branch of that wide Demeasne which lay diffused in this Territory and did acknowledge it self to be of the possession of the Ancient Family of Frogenhall whose Seat was in Frogenhall in Tenham but whether this were the Land which I mentioned to be by Deed transmitted to William de Frogenhall in the time of Henry the third by Sir Richard de Lucy I cannot positively determine though it was probable it was and that afterwards as was usuall in those Times to perpetuate the Memory of the Possessor William de Frogenhall fixed his own Name upon it And in this Family did the Possession continue till Thomas Frogenhall concluded in three Co-heirs of which Elizabeth was one who matched with John Northwood of Milton and so linked it to the Inheritance of that Family where it had not long remained when a semblable Fatality brought this Family likewise to expire in Daughters and Co-heirs so that this place came by Joane one of them to be the Fee-simple of Sir John Norton but was not long resident in this Family for he about the Beginning of Henry the eighth conveyed it to Thomas Linacre Priest above mentioned who dying in the seventeenth year of the above-recited Prince gave both Tracies and Frogenhall for ever to augment the Revenue of All-souls Colledge in Oxford The Mannor of Newington it self belonged as an Ancient Manuscript now in my Custody informs me to a Nunnery which was erected here in this Parish but by whom it was founded or endowed is unknown only this Manuscript I mentioned before rehearses a direful Tragedy which it cites as is pretended out of Thorn the Chronicler of St. Augustins and other old Manuscripts It was this Divers of the Nuns being warped with a malitious Desire of Revenge took the advantage of the Night and strangled the Lady Abbesse who was the Object of their Fury and passionate Animosities in her Bed and after to conceal so execrable an Assassination threw her Body into a Pitt which afterwards contracted the traditional Appellation of Nun-pitt but this barbarous offence being not long after miraculously discovered the Manuscript does not intimate how King Henry the third in whose Time this Tragedy was acted seised this Mannor into his Hands and having by Consent of the Church transmitted the Nuns who were culpable to the secular power by Death to make expiation for this Crime he sent the Guiltless Nuns into Shepey and after filled their Cloister with seven secular Canons four of which not long after as if some secret Impiety had lurked in the Wals of the Covent murdered one of the Fraternity upon which the King seises this Mannor again into his Hands which he had before given back to the support of this new instituted Seminary two parts of which laying in the Hamlet of Thetham by the two guiltlesse Canons with the approbation of Henry the third were assigned to the Abby of St. Augustins though some Writings more Ancient affirm them to be given under the Notion of two Prebendaries to that Covent by William the Conqueror and the other five parts of this Mannor were by the abovesaid Henry the third granted to his Lord Chief Justice Sir Richard de Lucy whose Son Almericus de Lucy saies the Manuscript did in the year 1278. exchange them with the Monks of St. Augustins And thus was this Mannor fastned to the Patrimony of the Church and so continued till the General Dissolution in the Time of Henry the eighth disunited it and linked it
and by Sale transmitts it to John Mew and from him about the latter end of Henry the fourth both these Mannors with all their Appendages were passed away to Iohn Tutsham and Nicholas Remkin of Eastmere but he determined in Alize Remkin his Sole Inheritrix who by matching with Thomas Rolfe of Tunbridge brought her Interest in Albans and Black-pits to be the Inheritance of that Family but long the Right of both these places continued neither in Rolfe nor Tutsham for about the beginning of Henry the sixth they were alienated by Sale to Thomas Stidulfe of Badsell Esquire and he by Deed bearing date 1463 that is about the third year of Edward the fourth settles them on his two Sons Robert and Henry Stidulfe and in the Deed there is a remembrance that they were purchased of Rolfe and Tutsham From Robert they descended to his Son Thomas Stidulfe who was Heir both to his Father and his Uncle but he concluded in a Daughter and Heir who was matched about the latter end of Henry the eighth to Richard Vane Ancestor to the right honorable Mildmay Fane now Earl of Westmerland who in Right of this Alliance now enjoys Black-pits but Albans was by Henry Vane Successor to the above-mentioned Richard in the year 1589 passed away to Roger Twisden of Roydon-Hall Esquire Grand Father to the instant Proprietary Sir Roger Twisden Knight and Baronet Eastmere is another Mannor in East-Peckham which acknowledged a Family called Remkin anciently to be its Possessors John Remkin was Father of Christian Remkin who held it as appears by an ancient Court-roll in the thirty fourth year of Edward the third and from him did it by paternal Vicissitude devolve to Nicholas Remkin in whom the male-line failed so that Alice his Sole Daughter became the visible Heir to his Estate and she by matching with Thomas Rolfe of Tunbridge knit this and other Land here at Great Peckham to his Patrimony but it did not long thus continue united for John Rolfe his Son in the sixth year of Henry the sixth conveys it to Richard Ruyton and he in the eighth year of the abovesaid Prince alienated it to William Hextall but he deceasing without Issue-male Margaret his Sole Daughter by her Inter-marriage with William Whetenhall originally descended from the ancient Family of Whetenhall of Whetenhall in Cheshire cast it into the Possession of that Name from whom it is now descended to my worthy Friend Thomas Whetenhall of Hextall Court Esquire Spilfted is a fourth Mannor in this Parish It was the Inheritance for diverse Ages as appears by the Evidences now in the Custody of Sir Roger Twisden of an ancient Family called Cayser the last of which Name who enjoyed this place was John Cayser who went out in Daughters and Coheirs one of which was wedded to Matthew Chetwind to whom this place upon the Separation of the Estate into parcells in his Wifes Right accrued and he after some small residence in the Possession passed away his Right by Sale in the one and fortieth year of Queen Eliz. to Roger Twisden Esq Grand-father to Sir Roger Twisden Knight and Baronet the instant Lord of the Fee a Person upon whom I need drop no other Character when I say that in these times when there is such a Damp and Astonishment by publick blastings and discouragements cast upon Literature He is both a Gentleman and a Scholler Here is likewise a Seat in Peckham very venerable for its Antiquity which in old Rolls is called Hextall Court and was the Mansion of Gentlemen of principal Account in this Track In a Deed without Date Simon de Hougham does demise certain pieces of Land to John de Hextall which lay within the Limits of the Parish of Hougham where anciently this Family enjoyed no contemptible Possessions as well as at East-Peckham The last of this Name at this place was William Hextall who dyed without Issue-male and left Margaret his only Heir who was matched to William Whetenhall Esquire in the raign of Henry the seventh descended from the ancient and illustrious Family of Whetenhall of Whetenhall in the County of Chester and so it was incorporated into the Income of that Family where it hath ever since remained so that it is now the present Inheritance of Thomas Whetenhall Esquire West-Peckham or Little Peckham in the Hundreds of Twyford and Littlefield was annexed to the Demeasne of the Knights Templars when John Colepeper founded a Praeceptory here for them in the year of our Lord 1 .... which upon the finall Extirpation and Dissolution of their Order here in England in the second year of Edward the second was granted to the Knights Hospitallers and was sometimes called a Praeceptory and sometimes a Commandry Now a Praeceptory was a Benefice in Kind and was termed so because this and all others of the same Capacity were possest by the more eminent sort of Templars whom the Chief Master created and called Praeceptores Templi A Commandry was some principal Mannor of the Knights Hospitallers wherein was placed some Brother of the Order who could not dispose of the Profits of it but was to mannage it only to the Use of the whole Fraternity deducting so much of the Revenue as might support his Livelyhood and Subsistence of which see more in Dr. Cowells Interpreter in his Notes and Comment upon the word Commaundry This upon the Suppression was by Henry the eighth in the thirty second year of his raign granted to Sir Robert Southwell afterwards of the Privy Councell to King Edward the sixth and Queen Mary who not long after alienated it to Sir Edmund Walsingham of Scadbery Lieutenant of the Tower from whom it came down by Descent to my Noble Friend Sir Thomas Walsingham his Great Grand-child who not long since passed it over by Sale to his Son in Law Mr. James Masters Oxenheath is an ancient Mannor in West-Peckham and was many Ages past the Demeasn of Colepeper Walter Colepeper dyed seised of it in the first year of Ed. the third Rot. Esc Num. And from him by Successive Transmission threaded together by many Descents did it devolve to ...... Colepeper who determined towards the latter end of Henry the seventh in three Daughters and Coheirs Margaret the eldest was matched to William Cotton of the County of Cambridge Joyce the second was wedded to Edmund Howard a younger Son of Thomas Duke of Norfolke who was Father to Katharine Howard one of the infortunate Wives of Henry the eighth and the third was espoused to Barham of Barham-court in Teston and these three Sisters shared his Inheritance and this upon the Partition was annexed to the Demeasn of Cotton whose Successor passed it away by Sale to Chowne of Faire-lane in which Name it did not long continue for Sir George Chowne in our Fathers Memory being desirous to abridge and contract all his Estate into the County of Sussex alienated this Seat to Nicholas Miller Esquire who upon his Decease bequeathed it to his
his Deed remits divers Services to Cicely Wife of Robert de Grencbold which were due from her to his Mannor of Swerdling William de Valoigns was Sheriff of Kent the third fourth fifth and sixth years of Edward the first and his Son Sir William de Valoigns was engaged with Edward the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland and for some remarkable Service there performed received the Order of Knighthood Henry de Valoigns was Sheriff of Kent in the fourteenth year of Edward the third and he had Issue Waretius de Valoigns in whom the Male-line failed so that his two Daughters one matched to Sir Thomas Fogge Grandchild to Otho Fogge who came out of Lancashire into Kent about the Beginning of Edw. the first and the other wedded to Tho. de Aldon became his Heirs and this upon the breaking of the estate into parcels fell to be the proportion of Fogge in which Name after it had for divers ages continued fixed it was in that Age we style our Grandfathers alienated to Spelman and this Family not many years since determining in a Female Heir it is now by matching with her become the Inheritance of Hadds Sapinton in Petham was the Inheritance of a Family called Bregge for in the forty second year of Edward the third I find Jo. Bregge conveys this Mannor to Sir Richard Atteleeze and he dying without Issue it descended to Marcellus Atteleeze who was his Brother and Heir at Law but he suddenly after expir'd and with him the Name in Daughters and Coheirs whereof Luce who was one of them was first matched to John Norton Esq and after to William Langley of Knolton whose Heirs about the latter end of Richard the second concurred in a joynt and mutual Bargain and Sale and passed away their Interest in this Mannor which was too much disordered and ravel'd whilst it lay thus mingled to George Ballard Esquire from whom by the Clew of several Ages the Title went along to Nicholas Ballard Esquire who about the latter end of Philip and Mary alienated it to Langford and from this Name the four Brothers joyning in the Sale in that Age which was circumscribed within our Fathers Remembrance it was carried off by Sale to Cranmer of Canterbury whose Son Mr. ........ Cranmer is by Descent successively entituled to the present Propriety of it Hauts-place in this Parish was the Fountain from whence that noble Family which fell under that Sirname originally streamed out which afterwards dispersed it self in sub-divided Rivolets over the face of this County Ivo de Haut the first of this Name that ancient Record represents to us is mentioned in a Book kept in the Exchequer called Liber de Terris Templariorum which is a Survey of those Lands that Order held in England in the year of Grace One thousand one hundred and eighty and there it is affirmed that he held this Mannor of Temple Waltham and from this Ivo de Haut did the Title in a never-ebbing Current of Descent glide down to Sir William Haut who was Sheriff of Kent in the sixteenth year and then again promoted to that Office in the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth and not long after deceased and with him the Name found its Funeral in two Daughters and Co-heirs one of which termed Elizabeth was matched to Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury Esquire to whom this place in the right of his Wife devolved And from his Family in the Age within the confines of our Grand-fathers Remembrance it was passed away by Sale to Salkeld who not many years since conveyed the Possession over to Bateman There was a Chauntry founded at Depden in this Parish as appears by a Manuscript in the Hands of Mr. Thomas Den Recorder of Canterbury lately deceased founded and endowed by William Gratian Priest in the Raign of Henry the fourth Whose Revenue upon the Dissolution of this Chauntry in the second year of Edward the sixth was granted to Jo. Come and Richard Almot who not long after passed it away to Wilt. Forbrasse Yeoman a Name in some old Deeds written Fortbrasse which argues it to be of French extraction and from this Family it was about the Beginning of K. James carried off by Sale to Gregory who within the Verge of some few years fast past alienated the Title to Sladden of Liminge Postling lies in the Hundred of Hene and was in Ages of a very high Ascent the Patrimony of the Noble Family of Columbers a Name in Times of elder Cognisance of very great reputation in the West of England Philip de Columbariis or Columbers held it at his Decease which was in the fifth year of Edward the first Rot. Esc Num. 5. But after him I discover no more of this Family at this place The next that is represented to be Possessor of it is Hugh de Audley and he held it as appears by ancient Court-rolls in the raign of Edward the second and Edward the third and passed it away to Delves of Delves Court in the County of Chester where it seems it had no long aboad for about the forty third year of Edward the third John de Delves alienates it to Richard Earl of Arundell for which the Earl is pardoned because he purchased it without License first obtained from the King as appears Pat. de An o 43. Edw. tertii Parte secunda Memb. septim And in this Family was it for many Generations fixed and resident until the thirty eighth year of Henry the eighth and then it was by Sale transmitted to Sir Anthony Aucher But the Tenure of it in this Family was brief and Transitory for about the Beginning of Q. Elizabeth it went away from this Name to Robert Cranmer Esquire Nephew to Thomas Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury who expiring in a Female Heir she brought it along with her to Sir Arthur Harris of Crixey in Essex from whom it is devolved to his Son and Heir Sir Cranmer Harris who holds the instant Possession of it Henewood is another Mannor in this Parish from whence the Honywood of Elmsted and those of Pett in Charing do extract their Sirname And Edmund de Honywood who in the raign of Hen. the third is remembred in the Front and Van of those in the Leiger Book of Horton Priory who were munificent Benefactors to that Covent is set down there to have been of Postling and as this Place was then so is it still through all that Flux and Decursion of Time which hath since elapsed wound up in that revenue which acknowledges the Signorie and Jurisdiction of this ancient Name and Family Pluckley in the Hundred of Calehill was originally a Mannor which owned the Arch-bishops of Canterbury for Lords of the Fee until Lanfranc Arch-bishop of Canterbury gave it to William Brother of John de Cobham who in the Grant is styled Miles Archiepiscopi not that he was ever any Knight or Souldier that attended upon him but that he granted him this Mannor to
Possession and transmitted his Concernment in it by Sale to Richard Charles and he enjoyed it at his Decease which was in the fifth year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num 92. And so did Nicholas Charles his Successor in the eleventh year of Richard the second Rot. Esc Num. 16. And Robert was his Son and Heir who dying without Issue it was united to the Demeasne of Richard Ormeskirk in right of Joan Sister and Heir of the above-mentioned Robert and he in the third year of Henry the fourth alienated it to Henry Perey Earl of Northumberland and he not long after passed it away to Rickhull in which Family it rested untill the seventeenth year of Henry the sixth and then it was by Deed conveyed from William Rickhull Esquire to Thomas Glover and Henry Hunt who had then the Custody or Guardianship of Rochester-Bridge and to the successive Wardens of it towards the Preservation and Reparation of its Fabrick for ever so that at this instant it is parcel of that Revenue which rescues this noble Structure from Decay and Ruin Nashenden next offers it self up to our Remembrance In the raign of Edward the second I find it entituled to the Possession of a Family called Aspall and in the twentieth year of Edward the third John Aspall paid respective Aid at making the Black Prince Knight But before the latter end of Richard the second this Family had surrendred the Inheritance of this place to Peckham the last of which Name which held it was John Peckham who as the Records of Rochester-Bridge informs me in the raign of Henry the sixth made it part of that Demeasn by Sale which was to support with its Income the Fabrick of Rochester Bridge in whose Revenue you may at this instant still find it resident Rolvenden gives Name to the Hundred wherein it is placed and is resolved into several places of eminent Consideration which do not only call for a Survey but even exact it The first is Halden called in Records the Mannor of Lambin alias Halden and the Reason of this Denomination is because it assumed the first part of this Name from Lambinus de Langham who held it under the Distribution of a whole Knights Fee as the Book called Testa de Nevill demonstrates in the twentieth year of Henry the third at the Marriage of Isabell that Prince's Sister at which Time he accounted so for it After this Family was departed from the possession of this place which was about the beginning of Edward the third the Haldens were by purchase setled in the Possession and William de Halden Son of John de Halden died seised of it in the fiftieth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 45. and left it to his Son John Halden but he expiring about the beginning of Henry the fourth in Joan his Daughter and Heir she by matching with John Guldeford Esquire made it parcel of his Patrimony and from him it devolved by Descent to Sir Richard Guldeford who was Knighted at Milford-haven by H. the seventh and was afterwards one of the Privy Counsel to that Prince In the eighth year of his reign he with Courage and Prudence opposed James Lord Audley and his Cornish Squadrons in that Eruption which they made upon this County and in the Battle waged near Deptfordbridge between King Henry the seventh and those Rebels represented such signal Testimonies of personal Magnanimity that he was by that Prince made a Banneret at Black-heath His Son Henry Guldeford Esquire in the first year of Henry the eighth went into Spain and engaged himself under Ferdinand and Isabella King and Queen of Castile and Aragon in their Wars commenced against the Moores and demeaned himself with that Fidelity and exemplary Resolution in all Conflicts entertained with those barbarous Infidels that upon the Reduction of the Province of Granada the above-mentioned Prince for his signal Service performed in his and the Christian Quarrel added to his Paternal Coat as an Augmentation A Pomgranet slipped upon a Canton being the Arms of that regained Province and likewise dignified him with the Order of Knighthood In the fourth year of Henry the eighth he was again invested with the abovesaid Order by that Prince and in the fifth of his reign he commanded one of the Royal Navy called the Regent in which Ship he acted Things worth the future Remembrance in that Sea-fight which was waged between the English and French near Brittain and in the same year as appears by the Original Patent bearing Date the twenty eighth of May he was made Standard-bearer of England and carried it at the Siege of Terwin His Son Sir Edward Guldeford in the fifteenth year of Henry the eighth received the Order of Knighthood for his Service at Tourney and was Captain of the Horse under the Duke of Suffolk at the second Siege of Terwin which was in the fifteenth year of that Prince and not long after reduced Boghan-castle taking the Advantage of the Winter which had sealed up the Marshes which environed it and made it almost inaccessible in a Frost In fine this worthy Souldier and Patriot dying without Issue-male left this Mannor of Halden to be enjoyed by Jane his Sole Inheritrix matched to John Dudley Duke of Northumberland and he having unhappily engaged himself in that ruinous Design which was to devest Queen Mary of the Royal Diadem and place it on the Head of the Lady Jane Grey wedded to his Son Guilford Dudley was in the first year of that Queen for that insolent Attempt which proved unsuccessful attainted and beheaded his Estate here being confiscated to the Crown the Mannor was given by that Princess to Sir John Baker her Attorney General Ancestor to Sir John Baker Knight and Baronet who at this Instant enjoyes the Mannor but the Demeasne of it was granted to Sir Henry Sidney whose Grandchild Robert Earl of Leicester not many years since conveyed it to Sir Thomas Smith of London whose Grand-child Robert Smith Esquire lately died possest of it There are twelve Denns which hold of this Mannor of Lambin aliàs Halden and at the Court-day elect twelve Officers called Beadles to collect the Quit-rents which relate to it The Names of them here ensue Midsell in Rolvenden Stallenden in Rolvenden Ramsden in Benenden West Bishoppenden in Benenden Folkinden in Benenden and Sandherst Holnherst in Benenden Elderherst in Halden and Tenterden Ilehinden in Woodchurch Mensden in Tenterden Strenchden in Tenterden Smeeth in Stone in the Isle of Oxney Blackbrooks and Pisenden in Witresham Casingham is a second place of Estimate In Ages of a very high Ascent I find it had Owners of the same Sirname for in Testa de Nevill I find that William de Casingham held the Mannor of Casingham now corruptly called Keinsham with Orlovingden another inconsiderable Mannor annexed unto it in the twentieth year of Henry the third and paid respective Aid for it accordingly under the Notion of the fourth part of a Knights Fee
Rogers alienates it by Sale to Stephen Drayner and it is probable Rogers purchased it of Norton which Family as appears by the Feudaries Book held much Land here at Smerden and at or near Romden But to return In Drayner the Interest of this place was fixed until the seventeenth of Queen Elizabeth and then William Drayner passed it away by Sale to Sir Roger Manwood and he in the eighteenth year of that Princess alienates it again to Martin James Esquire Remembrancer of the Exchecquer and from him by the Devolution of successive and paternal Right it is now come down to acknowledge the Propriety of Mr. .... James Snergate in the Hundred of Aloe bridge celebrates the Memory of an Ancient Family styled Alarar Gervas Alarar was Captain and Admiral of the Fleet of Ships set forth and furnished by the Cinque-ports in the fourteenth year of Edward the first and Gervas Alarar was his Grand-child whose Widow Agnes Alarar was in possession of it at her Death which was in the forty second year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 1. But before the end of Henry the fourth this Family was shrunk into an Expiration and then Walter Moile who was a Judge in the reign of Henry the sixth succeeded in the Possession and he by a Fine levied in the thirtieth year of Henry the sixth demises it to Hugh Brent from whom about the latter end of Edward the fourth it was conveyed to Cheyney and in this Name it was fixed until Henry Lord Cheyney in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth alienated it to Henry Nevill Lord Aburgavenny who in the twenty ninth year of Queen Elizabeth dying without Issue-male Mary Nevill was found to be his Sole Inheritrix and she by matching with Sir Thomas Vane knit this Mannor to his Patrimony and his Son Francis Vane created Earl of Westmerland in the twenty second of King James alienated it in our Fathers Memory to Jackman who not long after sold it to Sir Edward Henden one of the Barons of the Exchecquer who upon his Decease gave it to his Nephew Sir John Henden whose Son and Heir Edward Henden Esquire now enjoyes the Signory of it Smeth in the Hundred of Bircholt hath in the Limits of it Scots-hall which is now and hath been for divers Descents the Inheritance of eminent Gentlemen of that Sirname whom I dare aver upon probable Grounds were originally called Balioll. William Balioll second Brother to Alexander de Balioll frequently writ his Name William de Balioll le Scot and it is probable that upon the Tragedy of John Earl of Atholl who was made prisoner by Edward the first and barbarously executed in the year 1307. whilst he endevoured more nobly then successfully to defend the gasping Liberty of Scotland against the Eruptions of that Prince this Family to decline the Fury of that Monarch who was a man of violent passions altered the Name of Balioll to that of their Extraction and Country and assumed for the future the Name of Scot. That the Sirname of this Family was originally Balioll I farther upon these Reasons assert First the ancient Arms of Balioll Colledge in Oxford which was founded by John Balioll and dedicated to St. Katharine was a Katharin-Wheele being still part of the paternal Coat of this Family Secondly David de Strabogie who was Son and Heir to the infortunate Earl abovesaid astonished with an Example of so much Terror altered his Name from Balioll to Strabogie which was a Signory which accrued to him in Right of his Wife who was Daughter and Heir to John Comin Earl of Badzenoth and Strabogie and by this Name King Edward the second omitting that of Balioll restored Chilham-castle to him for Life in the fifteenth year of his reign Thirdly the Earls of Bucleugh and the Barons of Burley in Scotland who derive themselves originally from Balioll are known at this instant by no other Sirname but Scot and bear with some inconsiderable Difference those very Arms which are at present the paternal Coat of this Family of Scots-hall Having thus traced out the Name I shall now represent a Scale of those eminent Persons who have either directly or collaterally been extracted from Scots-hall Sir William Scot who was knighted the tenth of Edward the third was Lord Chief Justice and Knight Marshal of England in the reign of that Prince Sir Robert Scot was Lieutenant of the Tower in the year 1424. Sir John Scot was Comptroller of the House one of the Privy Councel to Edward the fourth and Marshal of Calais Thomas Scot who was first Bishop of Rochester next of Lincolne Provost of Beverley Arch-bishop of York Lord Chancellor of England and Privy Councellor to King Edward the fourth altered his Name from Scot to Rotheram as being the place of his Education and Nativity but it is probable originally issued out from this Family Sir William Scot who was Son to Sir John above-mentioned was Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports Sir John Scot his Son was knighted by the Prince of Castile for signal Service performed by him against the Duke of Gueldres Sir Reginald Scot was Captain of the Castle of Callis Sir Thomas Scot was Commander in Chief of the Kentish Forces who assembled upon the plains by Northbourn to oppose the Spanish Invasion in the year 1588. All of which were either directly or collaterally Predecessors being of the same Family to Edward Scot now Proprietary of Scots-hall Esquire who was Son and Heir of Sir Edward Scot who was made Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of K. Charles Thevegate is a second Mannor in this Parish which was in elder Times the Inheritance of Gentlemen of no mean Account in this Track Robert de Passeley or Passelew for they are promiscuously so written was Treasurer of England under Peter de Rivallis in the reign of Henry the third as Mat. Paris in the Life of that Prince does record Edmund de Passeley was with Edward the second at Borough-Bridge in the seventeenth year as the Pipe-roll of that Time discovers and probably was instrumental in the Defeat given there to the Nobility then in Arms against that Prince and from him this Mannor did descend to John Passeley Esquire who in the reign of Edward the fourth determined in Elizabeth his sole Heir matched to Reginald Pimp Esquire who likewise had the Fate to conclude in a Female Inheritrix called Ann who was wedded to Sir John Scot of Scots-hall and Shee united Thevegate to the Revenue of that Family and from him is the Right of it by Descent transportted to his Successor Edward Scot of Scots-hall Esquire Smeth had the Grant of a Market procured to it by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the tenth year of Edward the third Shepebourn in the Hundred of Wrotham was the Patrimony of an ancient Family called Bavent whose principal Estate lay in Sussex and Surrey Adam de Bavent in the twelfth year of Edward the first obtained a Charter of Free-warren to his Mannor
of Shepbourn and in the thirteenth year of that Prince's reign had as appears Pat. 13. Edwardi primi Memb. 28. a Grant of a Market weekly to this place to be held on the Monday and a Fair for three Days Space at the Feast of St. Giles and this Adam de Bavent or else his Son was one of those eminent Kentish Gentlemen who was embarked with Edward the first in his Expedition into Scotland and was one of those who were created Bannerets at the Siege of Carlaverock in the twenty eighth year of his reign Roger de Bavent was summoned in the fourteenth year of Edward the second to sit in Parliamennt as Baron After whom I find no more mention of this Family as Possessors of this Mannor for it is probable the Religion and muffled Perswasion of those Times had so warped the Piety and Devotion of this Family that they setled it on the Priory of Leeds for by an old Rental of that Covent I find it wrapped up in their Demeasn in the reign of Edward the third and remained parcel of their Income until the general Shipwrack in the reign of Henry the eighth and then it was in the thirty sixth year of that Prince granted to Sir Ralph Vane and Anthony Tustham Esquire who not long after having passed away his Interest in it to Sir Ralph Vane it hath continued ever since to acknowledge the absolute Signory of this Family so that the right of it now rests in Sir Henry Vane Son and Heir to Sir Henry Vane Secretary of Estate to his late Majesty Fairlane is an eminent Seat in this Parish which likewise did confesse the Signory of the Family of Bavent but before the latter end of Edw. the third they had abandoned the Possession of it and then it came to confesse the Signory of Colepepers who remained Lords of the Fee untill the latter end of Henry the fourth and then it was transmitted by Sale to Chown in which Family after the Propriety had been constantly resident untill that Age which almost was circumscribed within the Verge of our Remembrance Sir George Chown the last of this Name at this place desiring to contract his Revenue solely within the Confines of Sussex alienated his Estate here to Sir Henry Vane Comptroller of his late Majestie 's Houshould and principal Secretary of Estate who having much beautified and adorned the ancient Fabrick with new Additions upon his late Decease bequeathed it to be enjoyed by his Lady Dowager Stelling in the Hundred of Lovingborough was with Wadenhall which lyes partly in this Parish and partly in Petham parcell of the Inheritance of the illustrious Family of Haut and William de Haut had Stelling and Wadenhall in the first year of Ed. the first and this above-mentioned VVilliam founded a Chappel at VVadenhall and dedicated it to St. Edmund the Saxon King of the East Angles and in this Family these Mannors continued untill the latter end of the reign of H. the sixth and then VVill. Haut lineally extracted from the above-said VVilliam conveyed Stelling to Humphrey Stafford Duke of Buckingham and this being forseited to the Crown upon the Attainder of his Grandchild Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham in the thirteenth year of Henry the eighth this lay enwrapped in the royal Revenue untill Queen Mary in the first year of her reign granted it with much other Land to Edward Lord Clinton who about the last year of that Princesse alienated it to Mr. Henry Herdson whose Grandchild Mr. Francis Herdson about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth passed it away to Mr. John Herdson his Uncle who dying without Issue disposed of it by Will to his Nephew Sir Basill Dixwell of Terlingham in Folkstone from whom by descendant Devolution it is now come down to his Heir General Mr. Basill Dixwell of Broom in Barham But VVadenhall remained in the Name of Haut untill by the Steps of several Descents it was wafted along to Sir VVilliam Haut one of whose two Daughters and Coheirs called Elizabeth being wedded to Sir Thomas Colepeper of Bedgebury brought it to acknowledge the Interest of that Family and he having exchanged it with Edward the sixth it confessed the Signory of the Crown untill Queen Elizabeth in the forty second year of her reign granted it to Sir John Sotherton Baron of her Exchequer whose Heir in the memory of these Times gave up his Right in it by the Fatality of Sale to Mr. Benjamin Pere of Canterbury The Advowson of the two Parsonages or Rectories of Stelling and Vpper Hardres were granted to the Priory of Tunbridge in the twenty sixth year of Edward the third Pat. 3. part 2. Memb. 3. Selling in the Hundred of Street hath several places in it which cannot be declined without some Memorial Willmington and Somervill are the first that occurre and they gave Seat and one of them Sirname to a Family of Repute in that Age because I find they had Land in other places in the County Roger de Wilmington held the Possession of them at his Death which was in the eleventh year of Edward the third and left his Estate here and elsewhere to be shared between his four Daughters and Coheirs matched to Ordmere Bromming Brockhull and St. Laurence but upon the Division of the Estate these accrued to St. Laurence and in Right of paternal Devolution John St. Laurence Son of Thomas St. Laurence held these at his Decease which was in the tenth year of Richard the second and from him their right devolved to his Son Thomas St. Laurence whose Sole Daughter and Heir Katharine brought them to be the Inheritance of Sir William Apulderfield who about the latter end of Henry the sixth passed them away to Ashburnham and Till and the first of those having wholly setled his Right in them by Sale in Till they rested in this Family until the reign of Henry the eighth and then Peter Heyman Esquire having wedded the sole Inheritrix of Till they were transplanted into the Patrimony of that Family and from him the Propriety descended to his great Grandchild my worthy Friend Sir Henry Heyman Baronet lately deceased Haringe is a second place of Consideration it was as high as any Clew of Record can lead us the Possession of the Gurneys Hugh de Gurney who is in the Register of those who entered England with William the Norman held it under his Scepter In Ages almost of the next Step or Descent the Sharsteds had it and Robert de Sharsted who flourished under Edward the first Edward the second and dyed in the eighth year of Edward the third was possest of it at his Decease but this Name was suddenly worn out for in the Time subsequent to this Henry Brockhull of Brockhull in Saltwood enjoyed it who likewise had some Interest in Wilmington and Somervill which his Successor sold to Ashburnham and here the Propriety made its aboad untill the latter end of Henry the sixth and then it was conveyed to
Life and Forfeiture of his Estate and then this Seat upon his unsuccessful Exit returning to the Crown it was by the abovesaid Princess granted to her Cousin Reginald Poole Cardinal for his Life and a year after as he should by Testament dispose After his Death it reverts again to the Crown and then Queen Elizabeth in the third year of her reign grants it to Robert Dudley Earl of Leiceister and he the same year resigning it back into the Hands of his Soveraign it was by Lease made over to John Lennard of Chevening Esquire but the Fee-simple was by Royal Concession invested in the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth in Thomas Sackvill Lord Buckhurst and his Grand-child Richard Sackvill Earl of Dorset almost in our Remembrance conveyed the Fee-simple reserving it yet still in Lease to himself and his Heirs paying such a Rent-charge as is there specified for ninety and nine years to Mr. Richard Smith vulgarly called Dog-Smith who upon his Decease not many years since setled the propriety of it for ever upon St. Thomas Hospital in Southwarke The Honour of Sevenoke was granted by Queen Elizabeth to her Kinsman Henry Carey Lord Hunsdon in the first year of her reign from whom it devolved to his Grand-child Henry Carey Earl of Dover he passed it away by Sale to Richard Sackvill Earl of Dorset who alienated his Interest in it to Mr. Richard Smith who upon his above-mentioned Decease gave it with Knoll which both were exchanged and so united to the Royal Demeasne by William Warham to the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwarke Kepington is the last place considerable in this Parish which was wrapt up in that Demeasne which owned the Signory of the Lords Cobham of Cobham as appears by an Inquisition taken in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 62. Parte secundâ and after a Decursion of several Descents came by the Heir General of this Family to be possest by Brook whose Descendant about the beginning of Queen Elizabeth conveyed it to Burges and by his Sister and Heir it came over to Hanger who alienated it to Cowper and he not long since to Mr. Thomas Farnaby Spelherst in the Hundreds of Somerden Codsheath and Watchling stone hath many places in it of Repute First Grome-bridge which is a Chappel of Ease belonging to Spelherst and is dedicated to St. John it is in old Registers written Gromen-bridge and Gormen-bridge from some Saxon who was anciently Owner of it as Godmanchester in Huntingtonshire upon the same Account in old Orthography bears the Name of Gormonchester a Saxon having been possessor of it of that Denomination This Mannor in elder Times confessed the Dominion and Title of the Noble Family of Cobham Henry de Cobham and Joan his Wife obtained a Market to be observed weekly on the Thursday and a Fair three Dayes yearly videlicet the Vigil the Day of St. John Port-latine and the Day after as is manifest from an old Charter which I have seen whose Date commences from the fourteenth year of Edward the first the Market and Fair were kept where now the new Chappel is erected by the piety and expence of that Worthy Patriot John Packer Esquire late one of the Clerks of the Privy Seal After the Cobhams were departed from the possession of this place the Lords Clinton became by purchase Proprietaries of it and John de Clinton who was often summoned to fit as Baron in Parliament in the Time of Richard the second died possest of it in the twenty second year of that Prince Rot. Esc Num. 16. from whom the Title flowed in this Family until the latter end of Henry the fourth and then it was passed away to Waller of Lamberherst where and in Sussex they were before Masters of very ample Possessions for Thomas Waller and Katharine his Wife granted to Thomas Waller of Lamberherst his Father Richard Brenchley and John Brook all his Lands Messuages and Tenements in the Villages and Parishes of Rotherfeild Witheham Wadhurst Lamberhurst Little Horsted Alfricheston and Bucksted together with the moiety of the Advouson of the Church of Little Horsted as appears Claus 11. Richardi secundi in Dorso Memb. 35. Richard Waller Esquire was Sheriff of Kent the sixteenth year of Henry the sixth and kept his Shrievalty at Grome-bridge and was before Sheriff of Surrey and Sussex in the twelfth year of that Prince This is that renowned Souldier that in the Time of Henry the fifth took Charles Duke of Orleans General of the French Army Prisoner at the Battle of Agin-court brought him over into England and held him in honorable Restraint or Custody at Grome-bridge which a Manuscript in the Heralds-Office notes to be twenty four years in the Time of which his Recess he newly erected the House at Grome-bridge upon the old Foundation and was a Benefactor to the repair of Spelherst Church where his Arms remain in Stone-work over the Church-porch but lest such a signal peece of Service might remain entombed in the Sepulchre of unthankful forgetfulness the Prince to convey the Memory of this glorious Action to Posterity assigned to this Richard Waller and his Heirs for ever an additional Crest videlicet the Arms or Escocheon of France hanging by a Labell on an Oake with this Motto affixed Hae Fructus Virtutis This Richard was great Grand-father to William VValler of Grome-bridge Esquire Sheriff of Kent the twenty second of Henry the eighth and he was Father to Sir VValter VValler who was Grand-father to Sir VVilliam VValler now possessor of Winchester-castle and Father of Sir Thomas Waller which Sir Thomas almost in our Fathers Memory passed away Grome-bridge to Thomas Sackville Earl of Donset whose Grand-child Edward Earl of Dorset not many years since conveyed it to John Packer Esquire Father to ...... Packer Esquire now possessor of this place There was a Chauntry founded at Grome-bridge in the thirty eighth year of Henry the third by VVilliam Russell and Hawis his Wife as appears by the first Book of Compositions in Registro Roffensi Hollands in this Parish next cals for a View It was in Ages of a very high Date the Patrimony of a Noble Family of that Sirname and are in the Chartularies of this Parish recorded to have been great Benefactors to the Church of Spelherst and were allied to Thomas Holland Earl of Kent who matched with Joan Daughter of Edmund of VVoodstock but before the beginning of Henry the sixth this Family was worn out and vanished and then the VVallers stepped into the possession in which Family the Right of it did many years reside until it was in our Fathers Memory alienated to Thomas Sackville Earl of Dorset from whose Successor it passed away by Sale to Lindsey and from him not many years since the like Revolution carried it off to Caldicot Ferbies is another Seat of no vulgar Consideration in Spelherst if we consider that it gave Sirname to a Family of important Account in this
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
assaults his Rear with that Courage that he forced that Duke to a Disorderly Retteat leaving his Canon and Carriages behind him as the Reward of his Valour and Fortune In the twenty seventh year of Henry the sixth he was sent over into France with fifteen hundred men as a fresh supply to buoy up the sincking Affairs of the English in that Nation with which he recovered many pieces of strength but overlaid with Multitude in an Encounter at Formigney by the Earl of Clermont and the Constable of France after he had with unparallel'd Testimonies of personal Courage endeavoured to preserve the Fortune of the Day he received a Defeat the Enemy buying his Victory at so dear a rate that it almost undid the Purchaser Lastly his Fate cast him into that Civil Contest which broke out between the two Houses of York and Lancaster and being satisfied with the Justice of those principles upon which the first had engaged in Arms became an eager Assertor of its Claim to the Diadem and having enbarked himself with Richard Earl of Warwick then the Atlas of that Faction in defence of it at the second Battle of St. Albans perished in the Ruines of that Field and by an unstained though a Calamitous Fidelity became the great Example of Loyalty to the House of York And he dying without Issue-male one of his Daughters and Co-heirs by matching with John Fogge of Repton Esquire brought this Mannor upon the partition of the Estate between Fogge and Bourchier who wedded the other to be annexed to the Demeasn of that Family and upon his Decease it descended to his Son Thomas Fogge Serjeant Porter of Callis who dying without Issue-male Anne Fogge who was one of his two Daughters and Co-heirs Aregrim a Saxon held the Mannor of Minshull in Cheshire as Dooms-day Book testifies in the Time of the Conquerour ut liber homo first matching with William Scot and afterwards to Henry Isham brought this to be parcel of the Inheritance of her second Husband but his Son Edward Isham about the latter end of Q. Elizabeth concluding in Mary Isham his onely Inheritrix she by espousing Sir George Perkins united it to his Patrimony and he setled the Reversion of it after his Wives decease upon Mary his Daughter married to Sir Richard Minshull of Cheshire created Baron of Minshull 1642 descended from that eminent Souldier Michael de Minshul who for his glorious service performed in the Quarrel of Richard the first at the Siege of Acon had the assignment for ever of the Crescent and Star for the Coat-Armour of this Family And he and the Lady Mary Perkins concurring in a joynt Sale passed it away in the second of King Charles to James Hugison of Lingsted whose Son John Hugison Esquire by descendant right is entituled to the Possession of it Waltham in the Hundreds of Bredge Petham and Stowting was anciently a Member of that Revenue which acknowledged the Interess of the Knights Templers as appears by a Survey taken of this Mannor in the year of Grace one thousand one hundred and eighty and registred in the Book styled de Terris Templariorum which is preserved in the Remembrancers Office in the Exchequer and in that Survey there is mention made of Ivo de Haut who held Lands at that Time of Temple Waltham lying at Petham not far distant which justifies the Antiquity of that Name in this Track Upon the total suppression and extinction of this Order here in England on pretence of some prodigious Crimes stuck upon it which whether they were imaginary or real must be discussed in that Critical Day when the secrets of all Hearts and the Bottome of all Secrets shall be opened this Mannor of Waltham was in the seventeenth year of Edward the second by Grant invested in the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem commonly called the Knights Hospitalers and here in this Order it rested until the reign of Henry the eighth and then being dissolved by that impetuous Tempest which like a Hurricano fell upon this and all other Conventual Orders in this Nation it was swallowed up in the Revenue of the Crown and there lay couched till the latter part of Queen Elizabeth and then it was in the forty second year of her swaying the English Scepter granted to John Manwaring Esquire from whom by Hope Manwaring his Daughter and Heir the Interess went to Humphrey Hamond upon whose Decease she was re-married to Sir Robert Stapylton a Person who hath erected his own everlasting Tomb and Epitaph in those exquisite Translations of his of Pliny's Panegyrick to Trajan Juvenal's Satyrs and lastly Strada's History of the Wars and other Transactions of the Low Countries who by purchase from his Son in Law Mr. Manwaring Hamond holds the instant Fee-simple of it Eshmerfeild is another eminent Mannor in Waltham and cals for some Respective Account because in Ages of a higher pedigree it confessed it self in the Revenual of the signal Family of Crioll for Bertram de Crioll possest it at his Death which was in the twenty third year of Edward the first and though he expired in a Daughter and Heir yet it continued still in the Tenure of a younger House until Bennet Daughter and Co-heir of Sir Thomas Crioll who was slain at the second Battle of St. Albans brought it to her Husband John Fogge Esquire whose Son Thomas Fogge about the beginning of Henry the seventh alienated his Right and Concernment in it to Sir Thomas Kempe in which Family the Inheritance remained until the latter end of Queen Elizabeth and then it was passed by Sir Thomas Kempe this mans Grandchild to Roger Twisden Esquire whose Grandchild Sir Roger Twisden Knight and Baronet conveyed it to Sir John Ashburnham to whose Widow the Lady Ashburnham it accrued upon his Decease as having been before by speciall Compact made part of her Dower so that she at this instant hath the Use of the emergent profits and income of it Whetacre is another small Mannor that lies within the Circle of this Parish not worth the memorial were it not for a Family which extracted its Sirname from hence for I find Nigellus de Whetacre mentioned in the Book of Aide to have held Lands here in the twentieth of Edward the third In Times of a lower Date that is about the reign of Henry the sixth I find the Family of Hels or Hils descended from the Hels of Hels-court in Woditon to be planted in the possession and in this Name was the Interest of it constant until the beginning of Edward the sixth and then it was alienated to Prude whose Successor couveyed it to Alderman Cockain of London from whom the same Stream of Vicissitude carried it into Beacon Watringbury in the Hundred of Twiford was in Ages of a very high Gradation the Patrimony of a Family which enjoyed that Sirname and held not only the Mannor of Watringbury it self but Chart and Fowls which lie within the Precincts of this Parish
Digge who promiscuously writ themselves in elder Times sometimes of Barham and sometimes of VVestwell as appears by many of their ancient Evidences and other Muniments yet extant In the reign of Edward the third there was one Adomarus de Digge who frequently writ himself of Westwell but whether it were he that was the Judge or not I cannot positively aver In fine after this place had for many Ages acknowledged the Signory of this Family it came down to John Digge in whom the Male-line ended so that his Female Heir being wedded to Henry Aucher annexed it to the Revenue of that Family and from him hath the Title by a Thread of many years been guided down to Mr. ...... Aucher Dean-court may be registered likewise in the Catalogue of the principal Mannors of this Parish It was in Times of elder prescription the Inheritance of Hussie who likewise was entituled to the possession of Dean-court in Wingham now the Mansion of the Oxendens by purchase from this Family Henry Hussie a man of great power as appears by that large Estate he was Lord of both at Wingham Lenham Boughton Malherbe and elsewhere died possest of this Mannor in the eighteenth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Numb 36. and from him did it in an even and an undivided Current glide along in this Name until the latter end of King Henry the eighth and then it was passed away by Sale to Milan in which Family the propriety of this place is now resident Nash-court is the next place in Westwell that cals for our Survey in old Deeds I find a Family that sometimes writ At Ash and sometimes Nash into which the former Name resolved who were possessors of it In Times of a lower Step that is in the thirty second year of Edward the third as appears by the close Roll of that year Rot. Esc Num. 94. Alanus de Hanekin held it but before the latter end of Richard the second this Family had quitted the possession by Sale to Brockhull of Calchill and was not long after that is about the twelfth year of Henry the fourth by Henry Brockhull conveyed to John Darell Esquire Sheriff of Kent in the eleventh year of Henry the fourth and Brother of Sir William Darell under-Treasurer of England and in this Name it was permanent until the last year of Edward the sixth and then it went away by Sale to Sharpe of Nin-house in great Chart and hath been now for five Descents resident in that Family Beamonston vulgarly called Beamston is partly situated in West-well and partly spread into East-well but the greatest part of the Demeasne is circumscribed within the Bounds of this Parish And in the twentieth year of Edward the third as appears by the Book of Aide was held by Thomas at More at making the Black Prince Knight But before the fourth year of Henry the fourth this Family was extinguished for at the Marriage of Blanch that Prince's Daughter as appears by the Roll of Blanch Lands kept in the Exchequer John Amias was possest of it and paid respective Aide for it as having purchased it of At-More and in this Name did it reside until the reign of Henry the seventh and then it was conveyed by Sale to John Moile Esquire Father to Sir Thomas Moile who left this with much other Land to Katharine his Daughter and Co-heir matched to Sir Thomas Finch in Right of which Alliance it is now devolved to be the Inheritance of his great Grand-child Hencage Finch the instant Earl of Winchelsey Perytowne lies likewise within the Limits of Westwell and is registered in the Catalogue of those Lands that William de Aldon died possest of in the thirty fifth year of Edward the third and continued chained to the Inheritance of this Family until about the twenty seventh of Henry the sixth it was passed away with much other other Land to Cardinal Kempe who setled it in the twenty eighth year of that Prince on his newly erected Colledge of Wye and rested there until the twenty ninth year of Henry the eighth and then it was resigned into the Hands of that Prince and he in the thirty eighth year of his reign granted it to Thomas Cawarden or Carden Esquire and he not long after conveyed it by Sale to Sir John Baker of Sisingherst whose Successor Sir John Baker Baronet hath this present year 1657. alienated it to Nathaniel Powell of Ewherst in Sussex Esquire Woditon or Wolton is the last place of any Note in Westwell It was originally parcel of the Inheritance of a Family called Wolton or Woditon Ivo de Woditon held it in the year 1236. and left it to his Son John de Wolton who had Issue Richard de Woditon or VVolton a man of principal Note in the twentieth year of Edward the third who held both this Mannor and VVoditon by Berham which he held of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by Knights Service at making the Black Prince Knight And in this Man's Successors did the Propriety constantly reside until the latter end of Henry the sixth and then some part of it was conveyed to John Hampton and he about the beginning of Edward the fourth passed it away to Richard Rasel who died possest of it as appears by his Will in the twentieth of that Prince but there was some part remained unsold until William Wolton dying 1540 ordered it by his Deed to be passed away to Feoffees in Trust to discharge Debts which accordingly was performed and the Remainder conveyed to Rasell in the Descendants of which Name and Family the entire proprietie is at this instant remaining Werehorne in the Hundreds of Ham and Blackbourne was partly under the Jurisdiction of the Church and partly under the Signory of temporal and Lay Proprietaries that Moitie of it which was of secular Interest belonged to a Family called Bedford Rich. de Bedford obtained a Grant of a Market to it weekly on the Tuesday and a Fair of three days continuance at the Feast of St. Matthew as appears Cart. 52. Henrici tertii Memb. 12 which was renued and confirmed to the abovesaid Person in the eighth year of Edward the first and he in the seventeenth year of that Prince died possest of it as is manifest Rot. Esc Num. 20. But after him it was of no long date in the Tenure of this Family for in the reign of Edward the second I find it in the possession of Hugh de VVindlesore or VVindsor but was not long chained to their Patrimony neither for about the beginning of Edward the third it was alienated to Moraunt of Moraunts Court but about the beginning of Richard the second Sir Thomas Morant Son of VVilliam Moraunt Sheriff of Kent the twelfth and thirteenth year of Edward the third to whom that Prince issued out a Mandate that but one Bell should be rang in any Steeple towards the Sea-Coast in Kent determined in a Female Heir who was matched to James Peckham of Yaldham Sheriff of Kent
demeasn at Halden in Dower with Mary his Daughter matched to Sir Hen. Sidney Lord Deputy of Ireland and Knight of the Garter a person of that Value and Eminence that he that would discover him represented in his best Features and proportion must view him in his Worthy and Signal undertakings in Ireland where he will find him better pourtraid than he can be by any faint or drowsie Attributes that drop from my humble and unequal pen and from him did this Mannor in right of this Alliance descend to his Grandchild the right honorable Robert Earl of Leicester who not many years since passed it away to Sir Edward Hendon one of the Barons of the Exchequer who upon his Decease gave it to his Nephew Sir John Hondon of Biddenden and he not long since alienated it to Mr. John Austin of Tenterden from whom it is lately devolved by Death to be now the possession of his second Brother Mr. Rob. Austin of Hall-place in Bexley Brocket is another Mannor in Ebeney which had possessors as appears by ancient Deeds of that Name who likewise were written in Evidences Brocket but whether the Brockets of Brocket-hall in the County of Hartford were descended from these or these from them I cannot discover But the greatest honor which this obscure Mannor hath acquired is that ever since the reign of Henry the fourth untill the thirtieth year of Henry the eighth it acknowledged the noble Family of Guldford and then it changed its proprietaries for that year it was by John Guldford Esquire conveyed to Sir John Hales Baton of the Exchequer from whom it is now come down to own the proprietary of his Descendant Sir Edward Hales of Tunstall Baronet The Island of Shepey comes next to be treated of It called by Ptolomie Toliatis in Latin Insula Ovium in Saxon Sceapige all agreeing in their Verdict that it was so named from its plenty of Sheep It is environed with the mixed Waters of the Thames and Medway on the West the Swale or Genlade on the South and the Main Ocean beats on the East and North more celebrated for the fertility of the Soil then Salurbity of Air which is grosse and thick causing Aguish Infirmities that keep long Residence they get possession Quinborough or rather originally Kingsborough as Konisbergh in Prussia is now corruptly called Quensborough acknowledged King Edward the third for the Founder who having wedded Philippa Daughter of William Earl of Henault and Holland and his occasions often calling him to passe into her Fathers Dominion whose Aid and Assistance he required in the great enterprise for the Recovery of his undoubted right to the Diadem of France heerected this strong and stately Fottresse for defence of the mouth of the Thames and his own secure Accomodation And because the Situation of this place was unhealthy he to allure Inhabitants in the year 1366 enobled the Town with a Charter of Incorporation wherein he indulges by Grant ample priviledges and Immunities unto it as namely to hold two Mercates weekly one on the Munday and the other on the Thursday and two Fairs yearly one at the Feast of St. James the other on the twenty fourth of March and to make Choice of Burgesses to send to Parliament The principal Architect and Surveyout of the work was William Wickham after Bishop of Winchester who had been formerly employed in that kind at the reedifying Windsor-castle when his good patron John de Vuedal was Constable there This man used to inscribe on the edifices thus erected this Inscription This made VVickham whereby some conceived he arrogated to himself the Cost and payment of the Structure and informed the King thereof but his ingenious exposition satisfied that Prince when he shewed him that by his Inspection and Insight into those matters he had obtained both his Ecclesiastical and secular promotions being made Bishop of Winchester first Keeper of the privy Seal and then of the King's Conscience his last Gradation or Ascent being to be Lord Chancellor of England When King Edward had perfected this Castle he instituted a Chief Governour who was for the future to carry the Title of Constable like as at Dover-castle and elsewhere The Catalogue of those who succeeded in that Command I have set down The care and cost of King Henry the eighth in the year 1536 to repair this place when he erected Fortresses for Defence of the Sea Coast drew this Eulogie from the Pen of Leland Castrum Regius editum recepit Burgus Fulmina dira Insulanos Tutos servat ab omni vel omni Constables of Quinborough Castle JOhn Foxly a valiant Souldier and faithful Servant to King Edward the third was the first Constable of Quinborough Castle which Office he received the thirty sixth of Edward the third 50. Edw. 3. John of Gaunt 8. Rich. 2. Robert de Vere 16. Rich. 2. Arnold Savage of Bobbing Court. 20. Rich. 2. William Scroop 1. Hen. 4. Sir Hugh Waterton 4. Hen. 4. Sir Jo. Cornwallis Lord Fanhope Knight of the Garter 10. Hen. 4. Thomas Arundel Arch-bishop of Canterbury 1. Hen. 5. Gilbert Vmfreville 28. Hen. 6. Humfrey Stafford Duke of Buckingham 1. Edw. 4. John Northwood Esquire ... Edw. 4. George Duke of Clarence 1. Rich. 3. Thomas Wentworth 2. Rich. 3. Christopher Collins 1. Hen. 7. William Cheyney 2. Hen. 8. Sir Francis Cheyney 3. Hen. 8. Sir Tho. Cheyney of Shurland Knight of the Garter 1. Reginae Elizab. Sir Robert Constable  Sir Edward Hobbie Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery Baron of Shurland and Knight of the Garter Minster is the next place of Account in this Island and is contracted from the Latin Word Monasterium from whence this Town hath its Appellation and may challenge the third place amongst our English Nunneries For Sexburga Daughter to Ercombert King of Kent to whom and the Virgin Mary the Church of this Parish is devoted and dedicated in the year 664 erected a Religious House at this place and liberally endowed it for the Sustentation of vayled Virgins The second was founded by Eanswith Daughter of Eadbald King of Kent at Folkston And the first had its Institution at Liminge likewise in this County by Eadburga and erected to the Honor of the Virgin Mary and St. Mildred But the Antiquity of this Cell and the Sanctity attributed to it by elder times could not so skreen or rescue it from the Heat of War but it was thrice sacked and dismantled by the barbarous irruptions of the Danes within lesse then an Age which by usual Account is said to be thirty year The first misfortune happened to it in the year 832 when thirty five Sail of them rived here and rifled it The second and third time was in the year 851 and then again in the year 855 by the Armies of them who wintered their Ships within this Island Besides these depredations the complices of Earl Godwin and his Sons in the Time of their proscription and exile which was in the year
the third and twelfth of Richard the second and was as the private evidences of this Family inform me originally descended from Hugh de Peckham who was Constable of the Castle of Rochester under K. John in the first year of his reign and he in her right became entituled to that Interest Moraunt had in this place and in this Family it remained until those Times which approached near the Confines of our Grand-fathers remembrance and then it was passed away to Ellis from whence in Opposition to the other Moitie which was of spiritual Concernment it was called Werehorne Ellis and from this Family not many years since it was carried off by Sale to Tufton in right of which purchase the right honourable John Earl of Thanet is now invested in the possession of it The other Moietie which belonged to the Church was given in the year of Grace 1010 by Elphegus Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to the Monks of Christ-Church and was for the provision of their Garments And if you will discover how this was rated in the twentieth year of VVilliam the Conquerour the Record of Dooms-day Book will discover In Limwarled says the Note in Hundred de Hamme habent Monachi Sanctae Trinitatis de vestitu eorum 1. Manerium de VVerehorne 1. Sulling est appretiatum LXs. This Mannor being by the Monks and Prior of the Convent aforesaid surrendred into the Hands of Henry the eighth in the twenty ninth year of his reign it lay couched in the Demeasn of the Crown until the seventh year of K. James and then it was by Grant passed away to Tho. Paget and Thomas Twisden who in opposition to the other Moity which was of temporal Interess called this Werehorn Twisden and they not long after passed it away to Sir Thomas Tufton Grand-father to the right honourable John Earl of Thanet the instant Possessor of it Tinton in VVerehorne was a Mannor which anciently belonged to the Priory of Horton near Hieth but upon the suppression all its Demeasn being annexed to the Crown this was lodged there until the beginning of K. James and then it was by that Prince conveyed by Grant to Sir VVilliam Sidley of the Frierie in Alresford Grand-father to Sir Charles Sidley Baronet the present Lord of the Fee Capell in this Parish gave Seat and Sirname to a Family so called whose Demeasn lay spread into Ivie-Church Linton Boxley Horsmonden Capell by Brechley Capell in the Isle of Shepey and this Parish John de Capell flourished here in the reign of Henry the third who was as appears by the Leiger Book of Boxley an eminent Benefactor to that Covent and from him descended Sir VVilliam at Capell an eminent Knight of this County in the reign of Edward the third and Richard the second who left it to his Son Richard at Capell and he dying without Issue in the fifteenth year of Richard the second Sir John Orlanston in right of his Wife who was his Sister and Co-heir entred upon his Inheritance at this place and left it to his Son Richard Orlanston Esq who deceased without Issue in the seventh year of Henry the fifth and so upon the Division of the Estate VVilliam Scot who had espoused Joan one of the Sisters and Co-heirs was planted in the Inheritance of this place and from whom it is now devolved to be the possession of Edward Scot of Scots-Hall Esquire Ham is another eminent Mannor in this Parish which gives Name to the whole Hundred and was as high as the Ray of any Intelligence will guide us to discover folded up in the paternal Demeasn of the ancient Family of Orlanston VVilliam de Orlanston obtained a Charter of Free-Warren to his Lands at Orlanston VVerehorne and other places in the fifty first of Henry the third and being fenced in with this Immunity it came along by the Steps of Several Descents to Richard Orlanston Son of Sir John Orlanston who dying without Issue in the seventh year of Henry the fifth as is manifest Rot. Esc Num. 16. Joan one of his two Sisters matched to William Scot of Scots-Hall and Margaret the second wedded to William Parker of Parkers in this Parish became his two Co-heirs and upon breaking the Estate by mutual Division into parcels this in the second year of Henry the sixth was annexed to the Patrimony of Scot and from him did the Thread of successive Descent transmit to Mr. Edward Scot of Scots-Hall Esquire who still by paternal right enjoys the Inheritance of it Parkers is another Mannor which next summons our remembrance which afforded a Sirname as it gave an Habitation to a Family so styled Edward Parker held Lands in Werehore Westerham and other places at his Decease which was in the ninth year of Edward the second as appears Rot. Esc Num. 1.14 and in this Name was the Title and Inheritance constant until the reign of Henry the eighth and then I find by several Court-rolls one John Engham to be fixed by purchase in the possession and in this Family did it remain uninterrupted until the beginning of K. James and then it was by Sale conveyed to Taylor who not long after demised it to Collins from whom not long since it came by purchase to Squire and he not many years since passed it away to Dr. ...... Kingsley Arch-Deacon of Canterbury in whose Descendants the Proprietie of it is still resident Hampton Coclescombe is the last place considerable in Werehorne which gave Name originally to a Family which here had their Habitation and likewise were possessors of much Land at Westwell and other places and having lived here many Descents the possession of this place at last devolved to John Hampton who about the latter end of Edward the fourth passed it away to John May of Bibrook whose successor John May concluding about the latter end in a Daughter and Heir called Alice matched to John Edolph it came to be the Inheritance of that Family but did not long confess the Signory of it for this John Edolph deceased without Issue-male and left it to his sole Daughter Elizabeth matched to William Wilcock who expiring likewise in two Female Heirs Martha matched to Edward Ratcliff Doctor of Physick and Physitian to Q. Elizabeth and K. James and the second matched to William Andrews they divided this Mannor as parcel of his Inheritance William Andrews in the twenty ninth year of Q. Elizabeth demised his proportion to Rowland Bridges and Robert Philipson And Edward Radcliff alienated that part of it which accrued to him in the forty third year of Q. Elizabeth to Edward Rolt and Andrew Mersh Westerham gives Name to the whole Hundred wherein it is placed and was in elder Times the patrimony of a Family called Camville which was of some eminence in this Track William de Camville and G. de Camville entred England with VVilliam the Conquerour Thomas de Camville was one of the Recognitores magnae Assisae in the seventh year of K. John
and Geffrey de Camville was with Edward the first at the Siege of Carlaverock in Scotland in the twenty eighth year of his reign and there received the Order of Knighthood and here this Family concluded for afterwards I find this Mannor in the Hands of the Abbot of VVestminster who obtained a Market weekly to be held at this place on the Munday and a Fair yearly upon the Vigil the day and day after the Nativity of our Lady as appears Pat. 25. Edwardi tertii Num. 32. And here it remained with their revenue untill the Suppression of that Cloister in the reign of Henry the eighth and then being rent away by that Tempest it was in the thirty second year of that Prince granted to Sir Iohn Gresham which Concession was again confirmed to the Lady Beatrix Gresham Widow of Sir Thomas Gresham his Son by Queen Elizabeth from whom it is now devolved to Marmaduke Gresham Esq the Heir apparent of the Family Broxham is a place of eminent Account in this Parish Iohn de Insula or Isley was Lord of this Mannor and obtained a Charter of Free-warren here in the eleventh year of Edward the second After the Isleys were gon out the Ashways successively stept into the possession Stephen de Ashway obtained a Licence to inclose a Park here in the forty first year of Edward the third the Characters and Reliques of which are not so generally demolished and disparked by Time but that they are still obvious to a Curious eye yet this Priviledge could not fix it long in this Family for about the latter end of Richard the second I find it by Sale cast into the possession of Edward Lord Clinton who held it at his Decease which was in the first year of Henry the fourth Rot. Esc Num. 16. But here likewise the Title was as volatile and transitory for about the Beginning of Henry the sixth Iohn Lord Clinton passed it away to Thomas Squerie who was Lord of Squeries-court in this Parish and was descended from Iohn de Squerie whom I find by some old Evidences to have lived at Westerham in the Reign of Henry the third and it is possible either erected or very much augmented the Seat called Squeries-court The Arms viz. a Squirrel brousing on a Hasell-nut are depicted in very ancient coloured Glasse in Westerham-church but this Thomas above-mentioned dying in the seventeenth year of Henry the sixth without Issue-male Margaret his eldest Daughter matched to Sir William Cromer and Dorothy his youngest wedded to Richard Mervin of Fontels in Wiltshire became his two Coheirs and upon the division of the estate Squeries-court and Broxham were annexed to the patrimony of Cromer in which Family they made their aboad until the reign of Henry the eighth and then VVilliam Cromer Esquire having by some Delinquencie forfeited them to the Crown that Prince granted them to Thomas Cawarden or Carden Esquire from which Family about the middle of Queen Elizabeths reign they went off by Sale to Beresford who almost in our memory sold Squeries-Court to Sir George Stroud and he some few years since alienated it to Thomas Lambert Esquire who hath lately demised it to Mr ...... Leech but Broxham was conveyed to Mr. Tho. Petley of Vilston whose Grandchild Mr. ..... Petley is the Heir apparent of it Well-street and Gaysam in this Parish did anciently confess the two Families of Atwell and Shelley for its proprietaries William Atwell held Wellstreet as appears by an ancient Court-roll in the thirty fifth of Edward the third and Thomas Shelley in the forty sixth year of the same Monarch settles Gaysam by Testament on Thomas his Son and Heir who in the eighth year of Richard the second conveys it to his Son Thomas Shelley whose Descendant about the latter end of Henry the sixth demised it to John Potter and his Successor about the Beginning of Henry the fourth purchased VVellstreet of the Heirs of Cothull and is in the List of five of this Family who lye buried in Westerham-church and this Branch of the Name here was descended from Iohn Potter who held Lands at Dertford the twelfth of Edward the second and whose posterity continued Lords of these two places untill the Beginning of King James and then ...... Potter dying without Issue-male his only Daughter and Heir brought them to be the Inheritance of Sir Iohn Rivers of Chafford who not many years since demised his Interest in Well-street to Mr. Thomas Smith of Milk-street in London Scrivener Valons in this Parish was formerly the Mansion of a Family called in old datelesse Deeds de Valoniis and in English Valons but the greatest Honor which accrued to it was that Islip Abbot of VVestminster bought it in the reign of Henry the seventh of Casinghurst a Family which had been possest of it many Descents before and gave it to his Servant VVilliam Middleton who much improved it with Building And in his Family it was resident untill the latter end of Queen Elizabeth and then it was conveyed to James Verseline descended out of Flanders who gave it with his Daughter Anne Verseline to Peter Manning from which Family not many years since it passed away to Mr. Randall Manning of London whose Son and Heir Mr. Thomas Manning is now in the enjoyment of it Werd or Werth in the Hundred of Eastry is a Parish if you consider it in its precincts but narrow if in position low and unhealthful or if again in its number of Communicants not considerable but yet there are two places within the Ambuts and Boundaries of it which claim some consideration The first is the Mannor of Sandowne which was anciently the Perots who held this Mannor as the private Deeds of this Name and Family inform me as high as the Reign of Henry the third Thomas de Perot died possest of it in the fourth year of Edward the third Rot. Esc Num. 31. and then it was found fenced in and fortified with these priviledges It had Infangthef and Outfangthef Toll and Theam Sac and Soc Tumbrell and Pillory and other Franchises of the like Complexion but after this the Tenure was but of a brief Duration in this Name for the Female Heir of Perot brought this Mannor with much other Land to Langley of the County of Warwick and about the Reign of Henry the fifth there was a match between this Family and Peyton of the County of Cambridge which match at length brought this Mannor to descend to this Family For Edward Langley of Knolton Esquire deceasing about the beginning of Henry the eighth without Issue Sir Robert Peyton of Peyton Hall entred upon this and other Lands as his Heir at Law and he assigned it to his second Son John Peyton Esquire from whom it is now descended to Sir Thomas Peyton Baronet the instant proprietary of it Before I leave this Discourse of Sandowne I must inform the Reader that the Family of Peyton above mentioned and that of Ufford were primitively one and