Parishes: Warehorne

WAREHORNE,

LIES the next parish south-westward. So much of it as is in the hundred of Ham, in which the church stands, is within the eastern division of the county, and lath of Shipway. So much as is in the borough of Great Kenardington, or Old Herlackenden, is in the hundred of Blackborne, western division of the county, and lath of Scray. That part which is in the hundred of Ham, below the foot of the clay-hill southward, is in the level of Romney Marsh, and in the liberty and jurisdiction of the justices of it. The rest of it is within the respective jurisdiction of the justices of the county, and within the district of the Weald.

THIS PARISH lies upon the clay-hills, near the western boundaries of them, an unhealthy, as well as unpleasant situation, partaking of the gross atmosphere of the Marsh, and the soil of it in general a deep miry clay. The village is built round a large green, called the Lecon, or more properly, the Lecton, on which is a handsome house, the property of Mr. Thomas Hodges, who lives in it, as his ancestors have for some generations past, bearing for their arms, Or, three crescents, sable, on a canton, argent, two bars wavy, azure, over all an anchor in pale, sable. At a small distance from the Lecon is Warehorne-green, and round it several houses, one of which is the parsonage, and another Tinton-house, Mr. Howland's, who lives in it. The church stands on the edge of the hill, overlooking the Marsh, which is at the foot of it. About a mile northeast from the church, over which the country is hill and dale, is the hamlet of Ham-street, close at the edge of the Marsh; part of which only is in this parish, and about a mile further in the Marsh, another small hamlet, called Hammill-green, through which is the usual high road, an execrable bad one, from this part of the Marsh to the upland country. This parish extends northward by a narrow slip between Shadoxhurst and Orlestone, as far as Sugar-loaf and Bromley-green, which is partly in it, all which is for the greatest part covered with coppice wood; and it extends again in like manner into the Marsh southward to Brookland, and joins Snave. All of it, above the Marsh, is within the Weald.

There are two fairs, one kept on Ham-street-green, on the 14th of May, for toys, and the other on the 2d and 3d of October, on Warehorne-green, the profits of which belong to the earl of Thanet, being a very large one for cattle.

The FIRST MENTION made of Warehorne is in a charter of king Egbert, who with king Ethelwulf his son, in 820, gave to one Godwine, two plough-lands, in a place called by the English, Werehornas, situated among the marshes, and it was bought for one hundred shillings in money, and, as the boundaries are expressed extended on the east part southward over the river Limen, unto the South Saxon limits. In the year 1010, archbishop Alphage was become possessed of this manor, which he gave that year to Christ-church, in Canterbury, towards the cloathing of the monks there, and he endowed it with the same liberties and privileges as their manor of Middleton was endowed with. After which this manor continued with the religious till the time of taking the survey of Domesday, in which record it is entered, under the general title of Terra Monachorum Archiepi, i. e. lands belonging to the monks of the archbishop, as follows:

In Hame hundred, the archbishop himself holds Werehorne. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is two carucates. In demesne there is one carucate, and six villeins, with three borderers having one carucate. There are twelve acres of meadow, and wood for the pannage of six bogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor, and afterwards, it was worth twenty shillings, and now sixty shillings,

Not long after which, the monks appear to have been dispossessed of this manor, which was held of the archbishop by knight's service, by Ansfrid de Dene, in the reign of king John. But this name was extinct here in the next reign of king Henry III. when Richard de Bedeford was become owner of it, and held it in like manner, and in the 52d year of that reign obtained the grant of a market to be held at it weekly on a Tuesday, and a fair for three days continuance at the feast of St. Matthew, which was renewed and confirmed to him in the 8th year of king Edward I. at which time he had a grant of free-warrenwithin his demesne lands here. He died possessed of it in the 17th year of king Edward I. After which it did not continue long in this name, for in the next reign of king Edward II. Hugh de Windlesore, or Windsor, was become possessed of it, from which name it was alienated, in the beginning of king Edward III.'s reign, to William de Moraunt, of Moraunt's-court, in Chevening, who was sheriff in the 12th and 13th years of that reign, to whom the king issued his precept, that there should be but one bell rung in any steeple near the sea coast. His son Sir Thomas Moraunt left an only daughter and heir Lora, who carried this estate first in marriage to Sir Thomas Cawne, of Ightham, and secondly to James Peckham, of Yaldham, in Wrotham, (fn. 1) in which name it continued till it was alienated to Haut, whose descendant Sir William Haut, of Bishopsborne, leaving two daughters his coheirs, Jane, the youngest, entitled her husband Sir Thomas Wyatt, of Allington, to it, as part of her inheritance, and he, in the 33d year of king Henry VIII. an act having passed for that purpose, exchanged it with the king for other premises, and it remained in the crown till queen Elizabeth granted it to Ellis, from which name it passed by sale to Thomas Paget and Thomas Twisden, and they not long afterwards alienated it to Sir John Tuston, knight and baronet, whose son Nicholas was created Earl of Thanet, and in his descendants, earls of Thanet, this manor has continued down to the right hon. Sackville, earl of Thanet, the present possessor of it. There is no house or court lodge on it.

TINTON, antiently called Tintenton, is a considerable manor, in the southern part of this parish, which, though the house of it is near the church, yet it lies for the most part within the level of Romney Marsh. This manor, after the Norman conquest, was given by the Conqueror to Hugo de Montsort. Accordingly it is thus entered in Domesday, under the general title of his lands, at which time it was reputed to lie in Blackborne hundred.

In Blacheburne hundred, Hugo himself holds Tintentone. Ulnod held it of king Edward, and then it was taxed for one suling, now for half, because it is without the division. The arable land is five carucates. In de mesne there are twenty eight carucates, and twenty-one villeins, with six borderers having seven carucates. There is a church, and nine servants, and three fisheries of five shillings, and thirty-eight acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of forty bogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth twelve pounds, and afterwards six pounds, now seven pounds. The same Hugo holds half a yoke, which five sochmen held and now hold, having one carucate there, with four borderers. It is and was worth always five shillings.

And in another place, under the title of the bishop of Baieux's lands,

In Adilovtesbrige hundred, the same Robert (de Romenel) holds of the bishop half a denne of the manor of Titentone, which Hugo de Montfort holds, and there he has land to the quantity of half a carucate, and one villein, with three borderers and half a carucate, and two fisheries of five shillings. The whole of this is and was worth fifteen shillings. This land is without the division of Hugo.

On the voluntary exile of Robert de Montfort, grandson of Hugh above-mentioned, in king Henry I.'s reign, his possessions came into the king's hands, who soon afterwards granted this manor of Titendenne, for so it was written, to Rob. de Ver, constable of England, and Adeliza his wife, daughter of Hugh de Montfort, and they jointly, in the early part of king Henry II.'s reign, having founded the priory of Horton, gave this manor to it. (fn. 2) This gift was afterwards confirmed by Henry de Essex, constable of England, and by king Stephen and pope Lucius afterwards; and in the 20th year of king Edward III. the prior of Horton appears to have held it of Dover castle, that is, of the king in capite, as of the Constabularie there. In which state it continued till the dissolution of it in consequence of the act of the 27th of king Henry VIII. when it came, with the rest of the possessions of it, into the king's hands, whence they were together granted, two years afterwards, to archbishop Cranmer, and they continued parcel of the Archbishop's possessions till the reign of queen Elizabeth, when they were by act again vested in the crown, where this manor staid only till the beginning of the next reign of king James I. when it was granted to Sir William Sidley, bart. of the Friars, in Aylesford, (fn. 3) in which name and family it continued down to Sir Charles Sedley, bart. of Nuthall, in Nottinghamshire, who some years ago alienated this manor to Mr. Jeremiah Curteis and John Waterman, attornies-atlaw, of Rye, and they soon afterwards conveyed the manor itself, with the courts and all privileges and immunities belonging to them, to Sir Edward Dering, bart. whose son of the same name is the present possessor of it.

BUT the court-lodge and demesne lands of this manor, were alienated by them to Mr. John Howland, gent. of this parish, who rebuilt the mansion of it, in which he afterwards resided. He left three sons, Harman, Clarke, and William, and a daughter Anne, who married Mr. Thomas Hodges, of Warehorne. On the division of his estates after his death, Harman Howland, the eldest, among other estates, became possessed of the mansion of Tinton, with part of the demesne lands, which he now possesses, and resides at it; and Clarke Howland, the second son, became possessed of the remainder of those lands, which still remain his property.

The MANORS OF HAM AND CAPEL lie within this parish, the latter among the woods near the northern boundary of it, and the former, though now obsolete, and its situation almost unknown, on the opposite side of the parish, somewhere near Ham-green, and was once of such note as to give name to the hundred itself. This manor was antiently part of the demesnes of the family of Orlanston, one of whom, William de Orlanston, obtained a charter of free-warren to his lands at Orlanston, Werehorne, and other places, in the 51st year of king Henry III. whose descendant Sir John Orlanston, about the beginning of king Richard II.'s reign, marrying the daughter of Sir William at Capel, and heir to her brother Richard at Capel, who died s. p. anno 15 Richard II. (whose ancestor John de Capel, resided here at his manor of Capel, in king Henry II.'s reign, and as appears by the leiger book of Boxley abbey, was a good benefactor to that house) became in her right entitled to the possession of that manor, which had then been for many descents in that family. He was succeeded in the possession of both manors by Richard Orlanston, esq. who died s. p. anno 7 Henry V. and left his two sisters his coheirs, the eldest of whom Joane, married to Sir William Scott, of Scotts-hall, entitled her husband to the possession of these manors, on the division of their inheritance between them; since which they have continued in the like succession of ownership as the manor of Orlanston heretofore described, down to the hon. WilliamHenry Bouverie, the present possessor of them.

PARKERS is another manor here, which antiently gave both surname and seat to a family of that name. Edward Parker held lands in this parish, Westerham, and other places, and bore for his arms, Argent, a chevron, ermine, between three mascles of the field. After his death anno 9 Edward II. this manor continued in his descendants until king Henry VIII.'s reign, when it appears by several court rolls that John Engham was become possessed of it, in whose family it remained till queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was by sale conveyed to Taylor, who not long after alienated it to Collyns, and John Collyns, esq. mayor of Hythe, died possessed of it in 1598, whose eldest son Giles Collyns soon afterwards sold it to Squire, and he, at the latter end of king Charles II.'s reign, passed it away to William Kingsley, D. D. of Ickham, and archdeacon of Can terbury, who died possessed of it in 1647, (fn. 4) on which it descended to his eldest son George Kingsley, of Christchurch, in Canterbury, in whose descendants, it remained till it was at length, about the year 1726, alienated to Mr. Thomas Hodges, gent. of this parish, who devised it to his younger son Joseph, and his eldest son Mr. Thomas Hodges, gent. now of Eleham, is the present owner of it.

Charities.

THERE are three fields in this parish, given by some person unknown, the annual produce of which is 14l. 4s. now in the occupation of Richard Howland and Samuel Rutton. The rents of it are distributed yearly by the churchwardens, in whom the land is vested, to such poor who receive no constant alms, but are distressed by old age, sickness, or any other misfortune.

The poor constantly relieved are about thirty, casually fifteen.

THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Limne.

The church, which is dedicated to St. Matthew, is a large handsome building, consisting of three isles and a chancel, all which are ceiled, and handsomely kept. At the west end is a square brick tower, built about twenty-six years ago, in the room of the old one, which fell down. There are five bells in it. There are but small remains of painted glass in the windows. Against the wall of the chancel is a head carved in stone, having a monks bonnet or cap on it; and at the spring of the lowermost arch of the north isle, is another somewhat like it. Against the wall of the chancel is a monument for John Coventry, rector, obt. 1681, arms, A fess, ermine, between three escallops. A stone, on which were the figures of a man and four children in brass, most of which are gone, excepting part of the man; and in the middle isle is a stone, with an inscription in brass, for Thomas Jekin, obt. 1438. In the church-yard are several tombs and memorials of the Hodges's, the most antient of which, legible, (for there are several of them otherwise) is for Thomas Hodges, anno 1703.

The rectory of Warehorne is in the patronage of the crown. It is valued in the king's books at nineteen pounds, and the yearly tenths at 1l. 18s. There are twenty acres of upland, and twenty acres of marsh glebe land. In 1588 here were communicants one hundred and sixty, and it was valued at one hundred and twenty pounds. It is now valued at one hundred pounds.

In the petition of the clergy, beneficed in Romney Marsh, in 1635, for setting aside the custom of 2½d. an acre in this parish, and two pence in every other parish throughout the Marsh, in lieu of tithe-wool and pasturage, a full account of which has been given before under Burmarsh, the rector of Warehorne was one who met on the occasion; when it was agreed on all sides, that wool in the Marsh had never been known to have been paid in specie, though the other tithes were paid or compounded for, and in proof of this custom, an acquittance, given by the rector in 1564, was produced as a proof of it. There is a modus of one shilling per acre on all the marsh land in this parish. (fn. 5) The woodland in it pays no tithe, as being in the Weald, as was determined in a suit between the rector and Mr. Chute, of Bethersden, for the recovery of tithe for his woodland in this parish.

The PRIORY of Horton was possessed of A PORTION OF TITHES, arising from their lands of Tinton, in this parish, which on the suppression of the priory, came into the hands of the crown, and was granted, with the rest of the possessions of it, to the archbishop, anno 29 Henry VIII. and though the scite of that priory, with the greatest part of the revenues of it, was regranted to the crown in queen Elizabeth's reign, yet this portion of tithes seems to have continued with the see of Canterbury, and to have gained the name of the rectory of Warehorne, which it still retains, and is now parcel of the possessions of his grace the archbishop.

Church of Warehorne.