Parishes: Stone

STONE,

CALLED in antient Latin deeds Stanes, and now usually Stone near Faversham, to distinguish it from two other parishes of the same name in this county, is the next parish south-westward from Luddenham.

It is but a small obscure parish, hardly known to any one, tho' situated close to the north side of the London road, a little beyond the 45th mile-stone, between Beacon and Judde hills, whence it extends to the waters of the Swale, its northern boundary. It lies in a low flat country, what uplands there are are very good and fertile, but by far the greatest part of the parish is marsh land, at the beginning of which is the manor house of Elverton, beyond which there is a large tract of them, near two miles in length, as far as the Swale; much of the lower part of the parish belongs to the family of Brydges, of Wotton.

The manors of Selgrave and Copton, aliasHamme marsh, claim over different parts of this parish, but THE PRINCIPAL MANOR in it is ELWERTON, written in Domesday, Ernolton, and in antient deeds Eylwartone, by which name it was given by king Edmund, son of queen Ediva, to the monks of Christ-church, in Canterbury, for the use of their rectory, and it was confirmed to them in the time of king Stephen, and archbishop Theobals, in the shrievalty of Ralph Picot, to be possessed by them without any additional burthens to be laid on it.

In the year 1227, anno 12 Henry III. archdeacon Simon Langton, with the consent of his brother, the archbishop, conveyed to the monks of Christ-church all the tithes of Eylwarton, great and small, lying within the precincts of the chapelry of Stone, which at this time pass under the name of dominical or demesne tithes, i. e. the tithes of the demesne of the manor.

King Edward II. in his 10th year, granted to the prior and convent of Christ-church, free-warren in all their demesne lands which they possessed in Eylwarton, among other places, at the time of the charter granted to them by his grandfather Henry III.

Robert Harthbrand, who became prior of Christchurch in 1338, anno 13 Edward III. among other improvements which he made to the possessions of it, inclosed the marsh land, called Elwarton marsh, belonging to this manor.

In which state this manor seems to have continued till the dissolution of the priory in the 31st years of king Henry VIII. when it was surrendered, among the rest of the possessions of it, into the king's hands, where it did not remain long, for the king settled it, by his dotation-charter, in his 33d year, on his new-created dean and chapter of Canterbury, part of whose possessions it now remains.

When this manor came into the possession of the dean and chapter of Canterbury, it was demised by them from time to time for three lives, at the old rent of thirty-two pounds. The Clarkes held it in the reigns of queen Elizabeth and James I. the Sidneys in the reign of Charles II. and till that of George II. after which it was held by the Tenisons, Anne, widow of Dr. Edward Tenison, bishop of Ossory, in Ireland, held it at her death in 1750. By her will she left her interest in it, after the death of Margaret, wife of Peter St. Eloy her daughter, to her grandson Thomas Tension, esq. afterwards of Sysonby, in Leicestershire, and he, in 1762, assigned it over to Samuel and William Smith, of London, merchants, who in 1774, again assigned their interest in it to Mr. John Waller, gent. of Faversham, the present possessor of it.

There was a chapel here, called the chapel of our Lady of Eylwarton.

THE BISHOP OF BAIEUX, at the time of taking the general survey of Domesday, was possessed of an estate at this place, which is thus described under the general title of his lands in it:

The same Ansfrid holds of the bishop (of Baieux) Ernoltun. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is three carucates. In demesne there is one, and eight villeins, with two carucates and an half. There are two salt-pits, and in the city of Canterbury one house of twentyone pence.

In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth four pounds, and afterwards forty shillings, now one hundred-shillings. This manor Burnod held of king Edward. Of this manor Rannulf held ten acres, which lie near the the city, and paid forty-two pence in the time of king Edward.

Four years after taking of the above survey, the bishop was disgraced, and all his estates were consicated to the crown; but how that above-mentioned has passed since, or who now possesses it, I have not been able to learn.

STONE is within the ECCLESIASTIAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Ospringe.

The church was always accounted as a chapel to that of Tenham, as appears by the Black Book of the archdeacon of Canterbury, and was given and appropriated with that church, as an appendage to it, in 1227, by archbishop Stephen Langton, to that archdeaconry. In which state it continues at this time, the archdeacon being appropriator of it, and the great and small tithes of it, excepting those of Elverton as above mentioned, included in the lease granted by him of the parsonage of Tenham, by the description of the chapelry of Stone, belonging to it.

The church or chapel of Stone has been for a long time desecrated; the foundations of it yet remain on the north side of the field, on the north side of the high London road, in the vale between Judde and Beacon hills. The shire or bridle road from Faversham to the top of the latter hill, goes close by the north side of it.

The walls of it have several Roman bricks mixed among the flints. The church seems to have been about thirty-two feet long, and the chancel twenty-four, and about twelve feet broad. By the remains of a piece of wall, the tower seems to have stood between the church and the chancel.

IT IS REMARKABLE, that in the dotation-charter to the dean and chapter of Canterbury, under the great seal, anno 33 Henry VIII. the rectory and vicarage of Stone, near Faversham, is granted to them instead of that of Stone, in the isle of Oxney, which is totally omitted, through they have enjoyed the latter ever since under that charter.