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M.L. 

Gc 

942.2302 

R676d 

1572950 


W 


REYNOLDS  HISTORICAL 
GENEALOGY  COLLECTION 


ALLEN  COUNTY  PUBLIC  LIBRARY 


3  1833  00724  4095 


II* 


MraM-TTCE. 


A.  Bethel  Oiapel. 

IB.   'Die  VictuaHiiLe'  Qfhc  e . 

C .  ST  C  atherine  s  Hospital . 

D.  The  The  atce . 
F..  The  Star  Inn. 

F.  The  Water  "Works. 

G.  Restoration House. 
H.  The  Free  School. 
I.  The  Assembly  Rooms. 

~K.  Watts's  Alms  Houses. 

L.   The  fte  sbyterianMeethrg^. 

M.  The  Deanery; 

~S.  The  Cathedral. 

O.   S? Nicholas's  Church. 

P.  The Ensjs  Head Inu. 

Q.  The  Clock  Honse. 

"R.  The  Quakers  Meeting-. 

S.  The  Work  House. 

T.  The  Town  HaH. 

IT.  TheBuRInn. 

~V.   The  Crown  Inn. 

"W  The  Bridp-e"Wardens  House. 

o 

X.  The  Custom  House . 
T.  The  Tide  Mill. 
Z.  The  Casde. 


a.  S^Mare-arets  Church. 

b.  StMarg'arets  "Work  House. 

c.  The  Grammar  School. 

d.  Police  Office. 

....The  ancient  "Walls  of  the 
Citv  and  Castle. 


THE 

HISTORY  and  ANTIQUITIES 

OP 

ROCHESTER 

AND  ITS  ENVIRONS : 

TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED, 

A  Description  of  the   Towns,  Villages,  Gentlemen's  Seats, 
and  Ancient  Buildings, 

SITUATE  ON,  OR  NEAR  THE  ROAD  FROM 

LONDON  TO  MARGATE,    DEAL,  AND  DOVER. 


SECOND    EDITION, 

WITH  CONSIDERABLE  ADDITIONS  AND  IMPROVEMENTS. 


EMBELLISHED  WITH  ENGRAVINGS. 

As  the  Knowledge  of  Ancient  Things  is  pleasant,  so  is  the 
Ignorance  as  shameful,  and  oftentimes  exposes  Men  to 
the  Scorn  and  Contempt  of  Strangers. 

PREFACE  TO  SOMNER's  ANTIQ.  QF  CANTERBURY. 

ROCHESTER : 

PRINTED  AND  SOLD  BY  W.  WILDASH; 

SOLD  ALSO  BY  LONGMAN,  HURST,  REE3,  ORME,    AND  BROWN, 

PATERNOSTER-ROW,  LONDON  J    AND  ALL  BOOKSELLERS. 
I 

1817. 


1572950 

ADVERTISEMENT 

TO 

THE    FIRST    EDITION, 

Published  by  Mr.  T.  Fisher  in  1772. 


JlN  the  ensuing  work,  very  frequent  are  the  references  to  the 
Registrum  RofFense,  a  book  published  by  John  Thorpe,  esq.; 
from  the  accurate  MSS.  of  his  father  Dr.  Thorpe,  who  was  no 
less  eminent  for  his  knowledge  of  antiquities,  than  for  his  skill  in 
physic  :  it  would  be  ungrateful  in  the  editor  to  omit  acknowledging,^'  (I) 
how  much  labour  and  expence  he  has  saved,  by  having  an  opportu- 
nity of  examining  in  print,  this  curious  and  valuable  collection  of 
ancient  deeds.  He  is  likewise  obliged  to  the  reverend  Mr.  Aus- 
ten of  Rochester,  for  some  very  useful  and  entertaining  articles  of 
information;  and  it  is  not  without  regret  that  he  finds  himself  no$ 
at  liberty  to  insert  the  names  of  several  other  ingenious  and  learned 
gentlemen,  who/have  contributed  their  assistance  ;  and  especially 
of  one,  whose  name  would  do  honour  to  any  publication  ;  and  by  ^  0/ 
whose  friendly  communications,  the  editor  has  been  enabled  to 
give  a  clearer  and  more  circumstantial  account  of  some  part  of  the 
ecclesiastical  history  of  this  city,  and  the  neighbouring  district, 
than  he  could  otherwise  have  done. 


ADVERTISEMENT 

TO 

THE    SECOND    EDITION, 

Published  by  W.  Wildash  f«  1817. 


Ti 


HE  History  of  Rochester,  a  second  edition  of  which  is 
now  submitted  to  the  public,  has  always  been  esteemed  by  the 
learned  as  a  work  of  very  considerable  merit.  The  ingenious 
compiler  of  the  greatest  part  of  it,  at  least,  was  the  Rev.  Samu--*  Of 
It  Denne,  second  son  of  the  Rev.  John  Denne,  D.  D:  archdea- 
con of  Rochester,  a  gentleman  well  versed  in  History,  and  justly 
celebrated  as  a  learned  and  judicious  antiquary.  Since  its  first 
appearance  in  1772,  forty-five  years  have  elapsed,  during  which 
period  many  changes  have  unavoidably  taken  place,  and  many 
improvements  have  been  made,  in  the  city  and  its  environs,  which 
it  is  now  become  necessary  to  notice,  and  of  which  the  reader  will 
expect  some  account.  To  gratify,  in  some  measure,  this  reasonable 
expectation,  and  to  supply,  as  far  as  it  was  practicable,  the  de- 
ficiencies of  the  first  edition  are  the  sole  objects  of  the  publisher  of 
the  second.  He  has  accordingly  continued  the  history  down  to 
the  present  time,  and  endeavoured  to  render  it  more  acceptable  to 
the  general  reader  by  incorporating  with  it  many  interesting  par- 
ticulars, partly  selected  from  different  authors,  and  partly  derived 
from  various  other  sources.  Many  imperfections,  both  of  omis- 
sion and  insertion,  will  infallibly  occur  to  the  accurate  and  atten- 
tive reader.     Of  these  the  editor   is  truly  sensible  j  but  he  hopes 


that  they  will  not  form  a  charge  against  him  in  the  minds  of  liberal 
judges}  when  they  consider  all  the  impediments  to  the  attain- 
ment of  perfection  in  such  an  undertaking.  It  is  obvious  that  on 
such  a  multiplicity  of  subjects  as  the  History  or  Rochester 
embraces,  many  of  which  relate  to  the  transactions  of  remote 
ages,  correct  and  authentic  information,  even  if  attainable,  is  sel- 
dom to  be  attained  without  difficult  and  laborious  research:  and 
while  the  editor  acknowledges  with  gratitude  the  candour  shewn 
by  many  respectable  individuals  in  contributing  all  the  information 
in  their  power  ;  he  must  at  the  same  time  observe,  and  he  regrets 
to  make  the  observation,  that  in  a  few  particular  instances  com- 
munications have  not  been  bestowed  with  that  spirit  of  liberality 
which  might  have  been  expected.  The  public,  however,  may  be 
assured  that  he  has  adverted  to  every  attainable  source  of  intelli- 
gence within  his  knowledge,  and  used  his  utmost  diligence  to  pre- 
vent mistakes ;  that  he  has  spared  no  expence,  and  omitted  no 
labour  of  inquiry,  to  render  a  work  which  ranks  in  the  first  class 
of  local  histories  as  perfect  and  complete  as  it  was  in  his  power. 
With  what  success  his  endeavours  have  been  attended  it  becomes 
not  him  to  pronounce :  the  candid  and  judicious  reader  will  de- 
termine   for   himself,    and    to    his    determination   he    cheerfully 

submits. 

W.  W. 

Rochester,  November,  1817. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Ancient  Walls  and  Streets          -             -             -  •        -           1 

Civil  History         -             -                           -  6 
The  Castle         ---___         17 

The  Bridge            -              -             -              -  -         -         35 

The  Cathedral              -                              -               -  -         49 

The  Priory;  its  dissolution,  and  the  establishment  of  the 

Dean  and  Chapter                     -              -              -  67 

A  List  of  the  Bishops             -              -              .  -93 

A  List  of  the  Deans               -               -                -  -        1 92 

A  List  of  the  Archdeacons           -              -              -  -        198 

The  Grammar  School         -  202 

St.  Nicholas  Church       -  205 

St.  Catherine's  Hospital                    -  214 

Mr.  Watts's  Charity               -                   -  -                 218 

Mr.  Readye's  Gift            -  223 

Mr.  Gunsley's  Charity                  -  224 

Sir  John  Hayward's  Charity          -  225 

Mr.  Brooker's  Charity              -                   -  228 

Dr.  Lamplugh's  Gift              -                                -  -        ib. 

Sir  Richard  Head's  Charity              -              -  -                 229 

Francis  Brooke's  Charity         _""                            -  ib. 

The  Free-School             ...                 -  .       230 
Mr.  Plume's  Legacy         _____       238 

The  Bridge  Chamber                -  -        ib. 

The  Town-Hall              -             -             -             -  -       240 

The  Clock-House               -             -             -  241 

The  Poor  House  of  St.  Nicholas           -^            -  -       242 

St.  Margaret's  Church                    -  243 

Strood  Church              -              -               -               -  251 

Of  the  Government  and  Privileges  of  the  City  -          -       266 

The  City  Charter           -             -             -             -  -       270 


++■**+**■*> 


The  Oyster  Fishery  -  292 
A  List  of  the  Representatives  of  the  City  -  295 
The  Lives  of  Sir  Cloudesly  Shovel,  Sir  Joseph  William- 
son, and  Sir  John  Leake  -  299 
Bully  Hill  -  r«  -  -  305 
Present  State  of  Rochester  *  -  -  311 
Chatham  Church  ...  -  317 
The  Dock  Yard,  Barracks,  &c.  -  325 
St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital  -  -  -  340 
Sir  John  Hawkins's  Hospital  -  -  346 
A  Description  of  the  Towns  and  Villages  situated  on  and 

near  the  Road  from  London  to  Margate,  Sec.      -         -  355 


&ttfcftrftmf. 


.Ayerst,  R.  G.  Esq.  Shorne 
Ayerst,  Mr.  F.  Brompton- 
Adams,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Adam,   Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Adams,  Mr.  William,  Faversham 
Adams,  Mr.  J.  Tenterden 
Austen,  Mr.  E.  W.  London 
Alston,  Mr.   William,  Rochester 
Allfree,  Rev.  Mr.  Maidstone 
Acworth,  Mr.  William,  Luton 
Alexander,  T.  Esq.  Sittingbourn 
Ashenden,  Mr.  William,  Chatham 
Allen,  Mr.  W.  Hoo 

Best,  James,  Esq.  Chatham 

Bland,  W.  Esq.  Sittingbourn 

Barnett,  James,  Esq.  m.  p.  London 

Bradley,  A.  H.  Esq.  Gore  Court 

Brown,  Rev.  A.  Rochester 

Browne,  Rev.  S.  Rochester 

Baker,  Mr.  Alderman,  Rochester 

Baker,  Mr.  Samuel,  Hoo 

Baker,  Mr.  George,  Rochester 

Baker,  Mr.  Thomas,   Rochester 

Bentley,  Thomas,   Esq.  Higham 

Boghurst,  Philip,   Esq.  Gad's  Hill 

Brooke,  H.   VV.  Esq.   West  Mailing 

Brooks,  Mr.  John,  East  Mailing 

Baldwin,  W.  Esq.  Stede  Hill 

Boys,  Mr.  E.  Rochester 

Boys,  Mr.   E.  jun.   Rochester 

Boys,  Mr.  James,  London 

Barrow,  Rev.  F.  Rochester 

Burt,   Rev.  R.  Hoo 

Burton,  Rev.  C.  J.  Ash 

Burton,  W.  M.  Esq.  Brompton 

Brisley,  Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 

Brisley,  Mr.  J.  P.  Stroud,  Gloucestershire 

Brisley,  Mr.  William,  Gravesend 

Broome,  Mrs.  A.  Cliffe 

b 


SUBSCRIBERS. 

Bowles,  W.  Esq.  West  Mailing 
Bowles,  Mr.  John,  Dover 
Bryant,  Mr.  Jacob,  Chatham 
Blenkinsopp,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Bathurst,  Mr.  Charles,  Strood 
Blackiston,  Lieut,  r.  a.  Woolwich 
Bromley,  R.  Esq.  Stoke,  Devon. 
Bromley,  Mr.  James,  Rochester 
Bromley,  Mr.  E.  F.  R.  n.  Deptford 
Bromley,  Mr.  Samuel,  Deptford 
Bromley,  Mr.  J.  H.  Rochester 
Bromley,  Mr.  S.  F.  Deptford 
Bromley,  Mr.  R.  M.  Deptford 
Bromley,  Mr.  A.  F.  Deptford 
Batten,  Mr.  John,   Rochester 
Bond,  Lieut.  J.  r.  n.  Rochester 
Brown,   Mr.  J.  J.  Rochester 
Boucher,  Mr.  William,  jun.  Rochester 
Butcher,  Mr.  John,  Rochester 
Ballard,  Mr.  Isaac,  Rochester 
Benjamin,  Mr.  Henry,  London 
Brown,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Banks,  Mr.  Ralph,  Rochester 
Burr,  Mr.  Robert,  Chatham 
Budden,  Mr.  Rochester 
Baldock,  Mr.  Thomas,  jun.  Brompton 
Bond,  Mr.  B.  Rochester 
Brunker,  Mr.  T.  J.  Strood 
Beckett,  Mr.  Faversham 
Battyll,  Mr.  R.  C.  Rochester 
Bullard,  Mr.  J.  S.  Rochester 
Barnard,  Mr.  J.  Rochester 
Burnett,  Mr.  W.  Rochester 
Baldwin,  William,  Esq.  Harrietsham 

Calcraft,  John,  Esq.  m.  p.  London,  2  copies 

Comport,  Thomas,  Esq.  Stoke,  2  copies 

Comport,  Mrs.  Rochester 

Comport,  Mrs.  G.  Cooling 

Comport,  Michael,  Esq.  Halstow 

Carter,  Rev.  William,  d.  d.  Mountfield,  Sussex 

Chapman,  Rev.  Mr.  London 

Charles,  Mr.  T.  Maidstone 

Cobb,  Mr.  Robert,  Hollingbourn 

Cobb,  Mr.  L.  Halstow 

Cobb,  Mr.  Edward,  Faversham 


SUBSCRIBERS.  JL1 

Chaplin,   Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Chaplin,  Mr.  John,  Rochester 
Clements,  Mr.  Robert,   Rochester 
Clements,  Capt.  r.  m.  Chatham 
Conyers,  Miss,  Rochester 
Chatham  Friendly  Book  Society,  2  copies 
Chatham  Select  Book  Society 
Chittenden,  Mr.  T.  Brompton 
Cotton,  Mr.  George,  Rochester 
Clarke,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Chany,  Mr.  Chatham 
Church,  Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 
Chapman,  Mr.  Chatham 
Chambers,  Mr.  William,  Chatham 
Chidley,  Mr.  Rochester 
Cockburn,  Rev.  Mr.  Boxley 

Carvvardine,  T.  B.  Esq.  Earl's  Colne  Priory,  Essex 
Cornwell,  Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 
Cackett,  Mr.  John,  Chatham 
Cowee,  Mr.  Henry,  Rochester 
Cox,  Mr.  R.  Rochester 
Crawte,  Mr.  Stephen,  Rochester 
Cowtan  and  Colegate,  Messrs.  Booksellers,  Canter- 
bury, 3  copies 

Darnley,  Right  Hon.  the  Earl  of,  Cobham  Hall 

Davies,  Rev.  George,  Rochester 

Day,  D.  II.  Esq.  Rochester 

Dive,  Mr.  A.  P.  Kingsdown 

Dick,  Miss,  Rochester 

Ditchburn,  Mr.  Henry,  Gillingham 

Dickens,  Mr.  John,  Chatham 

Deane,  Mr.  Strood 

Deane,  Mr.  Sittingboum 

Dyke,  Mr.  J.  C.  Rochester,  2  copies 

Dalton,  Mr.  YYriUiam,  Rochester 

Dalton,  Mr.  Brompton 

Dobell,  Mr.  H.  Cranbrook 

Dadson,  Mr.  William,  Chatham 

Dry,  Mr.  Chatham 

Eveleigh,  Rev.  Mr.  Aylesford 
Earle,  Lieut.  S.  2nd  Light  Dragoons 
Etherington,  Mr.  A.  Chatham 
Ely,  Mr.  George,  Rochester 


Xll  SUBSCRIBERS. 

Ely,  Mr.  George,  Chatham 
Ely,  Mr.  Tonge 
Edmeades,  Mr.  Strood 
Edmeades,  Mr.  Thomas,  Chatham 
Essell,  Mr.  George,  Rochester 
Essell,  Mr.  William  F.  r.  n.  Rochester 

Friend,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 

Friend,  Mr.  Henry,  Rochester 

Friend,  Mr.  George,   India  House,  London 

Freeland,  Mr.  D.  Rochester 

Foord,  Mrs.  Chatham 

Foord,  Mr.  Robert,  Chatham 

Foord,  Mr.  John,  Chatham 

Francis,  Mr.  Charles,  Rochester,  2  copies 

Furrell,  Mr.  J.  Rochester 

Fidler,  Mr.  George,  Chatham 

Freeland,  Mr.  T.  Rochester 

Foottit,  Mr.  Chimney  Surveyor,  Maidstone 

Gillispie,  Lieut.  Col.  Chatham 
Gunning,  George,  Esq.  Frindsbury 
Gunning,  Mr.  George,  Frindsbury 
Gunning,  Mr.  Peter,  Strood 
Gunning,  Mr.  Robert,  Frindsbury 
Gunning,  Mr.  William,  Frindsbury 
Griffiths,  Rev.  J.  Rochester,  3  copie3 
Gibbs,  Mr.  John,  Strood,  2  copies 
Grayling,  T.  Esq.  Seldwich 
Graham,  J.  Esq.  New  Barn 
Godmond,  Rev.  S.  F.  East  Mailing 
Guy,  Mr.  George,  London 
Gill,  T.  Esq.  it.  n.  Tunstall 
Greenwood,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Greenwood,  Mr.  John,  Rochester 
Greenwood,  Mr.  Edward,  Rochester 
Greenwood,  Mr.  Joseph,  Halstead 
Gamon,  Mr.  G.  Rochester 
Gates,  Mr.  James,  Hoo 

Hulkes,  James,  Esq.  Tovil,  2  copies 
Hulkes,  T.  E.  Esq.  Rochester,  2  copies 
Heuslow,  Mr.  Alderman,  Rochester 
Henslow,  E.  P.  Esq.  Chatham 
Hargreaves,  Rev.  Mr.  Strood 


SUBSCRIBERS*  &U1 

Heritage,  William,  Esq.  Cranbrook 
Hodgson,  Capt.  S.  Chatham 
Hopkins,  Mr.  John,  Rochester 
Horsnaill,  Mr.  Thomas,  Strood 
Horsnaill,  Mr.  R.  jun.  Strood 
Harrison,  Rev.  W.  B.  Goudhurst 
Horn,  Mr.  John,  Bookseller^  Dover 
Horn,  Mr.  George,  Dover 
Hillier,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Hay  ward,   Mr.  Rochester 
Howes,  Mr.  George,  Rochester 
Hicks,  Mr.  George,  London 
Hulke,  Mr.  T.  M.  Deal 
Hedgcock,   Mr.  Rochester 
Hubbard,   Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 
Hadlee,   Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 
Hatch,  Mr.  James,  Strood 
Harrison,  Mr.  W.  T.  Chatham 
Hepbume,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Hall,  Mr.  J.  Rochester 
Herbert,  Henry  Arthur,  Esq.  Rochester 

Jordan,  Rev.  R.  Rochester 
Jones,  Rev.  J.  Rochester 
Jones,  Rev.  H.  J.  West  Peckham 
Jones,  Mr.  George,  r.  a.  Woolwich 
Jones,   Mr.  Richard,   London 
Joynes,  Rev.  R.  S.  Frindsbury 
Jefferys,  Mrs.  Rochester 
Jeffryes,  Mr.  E.  T.  Rochester 
Jarvis,  Mr.  T.  jun.  Brompton 
Jewel,  Mr.  J.  Chatham 

Kellett,   Henry,  Esq.  Westmili 
King,  Mr.  Alderman,  Rochester 
Kneeshaw,  Capt.  Rochester 
Kincaid,  Mr.  Cranbrook 

Law,  Rev.  J.  d.  d.  Archdeacon  of  Rochester 
Law,  .Miss,  Rochester 
Lomas,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 
Lemmy,  Mr.  T.  P.  Murston 
Law,  Mr.  George,  London 
Law,  Rev.  H.  Vicar  of  Standon,  Herts.  %  copies 
Liptrottj  Rev.  J.  Rector  of  Offham 
c 


X1T  SUBSCRIBERS. 

Larkin,  Mr.  Charles,  Rochester 

Larkin,  Miss,  Rochester 

Lake,  Mr.  William,  Wood-Street,  Sittingbourn 

Lake,  Mr.  John,  Radfield 

Lake,  Mr.  George,  Higham 

Lake,  Mr.  William,  Cobham 

Library  of  the  King's  School 

Lott,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 

L?Affan,  Dr.  De  Courcy,  Rochester 

Laws,  Mr.  Robert,  Chatham 

Laws,  Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 

Lloyd,  Mrs.  Rochester 

Lester,  Mr.  James,  Rochester 

Lockwcod,  Mr.  John,  Solicitor,  Rochester 

Menzies,  Rev.  W.  P.  Rochester 

Matthews,  Mr.  Alderman,  Rochester 

Manclark,  Mr.  Edward,  Rochester 

Murton,  Mr.  H.  J.  Rochester 

Mansfield.  Mrs.  Rochester 

Moulden,  Mr.  Thomas,  London 

Mawby,  Miss,  Rochester 

Mantell,  Thomas,  Esq.  f.  a.  s.  and  h.  s.  Dover 

Miller,  Mr.  George,  Chatham 

Morson,  Mr.  John,  Strood 

Moore,  Lieut,  r.  n. 

Morris,  Mr.  Chatham 

Nicholson,  Mr.  Alderman,  Rochester 

Nicholson,  Mr.  Alderman  S.  Rochester 

Nicholson,  John,  Esq.  Rochester 

Neville,  Hon.  and  Rev.  Mr. 

Newson,  Mr.  Samuel,  Rochester 

Naylor,  Mr.  E.  Rochester 

Naylor,  Mr.  Brompton 

Namroob,  Mr.  Sittingbourn 

Nice,  Mr.  Milton 

Nokes,  Mr.  William,  London 

Nokes,  Mr.  John,  Rochester 

Officers  of  the  Royal  Marine  Library,  Chatham 
Ogle,  Dr.  Brompton 
Otley,  Mr.  J.  Rochester 
Osborn,  Mr.  George,  Rochester 
Oakes,  Mr.  Henry,  Rochester 


SUBSCRIBERS. 

Prentis,  Mr.  Alderman,  Rochester,  2  copies 

Phelps,  Rev.  H.  D.  Snodland 

Patten,  F.  Esq.   Mayor  of  Rochester 

Prentis,  Mr.  Walter,  Cuxton 

Prentis,  Mr.  Edward,   Rochester 

Prentis,   Mr.  Henry,  London 

Pry  or,  Mr.  Alfred,  Seven  oaks 

Pryor,  Mr.  T.  Essex 

Parfect,  Mrs.  Rochester 

Pearce,  Rev.  T.  Sittingboum  t_  - 

¥oore^SEm&fc  Murston 

Page,  Mr.  Walter,  Rochester 

Parsons,  Mr.  P.  West  Mailing 

Penn,  Mr.  Robert,  Rochester 

Penn,  Mr.  W.  D.  London 

Prall,  Mr.  J.  Town  Clerk,  Rochester 

Prall,  Mr.  J.  jun.  Rochester 

Prall,  Mr,  Henry,  London 

Patten,  Mr.  Richard,  Rochester 

Patten,  Mr.  John,  Rochester 

Patten,  Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 

Patten,  Mr.  Francis,  Sheerness 

Pemble,  Mr.  William,  Cobham 

Parminter,  Mr.  John,  Brompton 

Pope,  Lieut.  G.  Brompton 

Prebble,  Mr.  Thomas,  Higham 

Puplett,  Mr.  R.  Rochester 

Pattison,  Mr.  C.  C.  Chatham 

Phillips,  Mr.  Brompton 

Rigden,  W.  Esq.  Faversham 

Robbins,  Mr.  Alderman,  Rochester 

Ross,  Mr.  Charles,  Sfoke  Newington 

Ross,  Mr.  Edward,  Frin(!sl)ury 

Ross,  Mr.  Stephen,  Maldon,  Essex 

Ross,  Mr.  T.  B.  Rochester 

Ross,  Miss,  Rochester 

Ross, Miss,  M.  Rochester 

Ross,  Miss  R.  Rochester  ' 

Reader,  Mr.  Samuel,  Bookseller,  Cranbrook 

Rye,   Mr.  Arthur,  Rochester 

Richardson,  J.  Esq.  London 

Richardson,  Mr.  W.M.  GilliHgham 

Rose,  Mr.  Thomas,   Rochester 

Roberts,  Mr.  W.  J.  London 

Rumbold,  Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 


XV 


XVI  SUBSCRIBERS. 

Rouse,  Khrkby,  and  Lawrence,  Messrs.  Booksellers^ 
Canterbury,  3  copies 

Strahan,  Rev.  G.  d.  d.  Prebendary  of  Rochester 

Stevens,  Mr.  Alderman,  Rochester 

Staines,  Rev.  W.  T.  Rochester 

Saunders,  Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 

Saunders,  Mr.  Charles,  Sittingbourrt 

Scott,  Capt.  r.  A.  Rochester 

Sidden,  Mr.  Samuel,  Rochester 

Simmons,  Mr.  James,  Rochester 

Senior,  Misses,  Sittingbourn,  2  copies 

Schnebellie,  Mr.  Rochester 

Selby,  Mr.  James,  West  Mailing 

Selby,  Mr.  Sheerness 

Sutton,  P^Esq.  West  Mailing 

Solomon,  Mr.  J.  Shorne 

Savage,  Mr.  John,  Cobham 

Salmon,  Mr.  John,  Rochester 

Saxton,  Mr.  Thomas,  Rochester 

Skillett,  Mr.  George,  Bromptort 

Sale,  Mr.  G.  Rochester 

Sale,  Mr.  R.  London 

Spencer,  Mr.  William,  Chatham 

Sharp,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 

Sharp,  Mr.  Richard,  Maidstone 

Styles,  Mr.  Robert,  Rochester 

Sayer,  Mr.  Richard,  Rochester 

Sittingbourn  and  Milton  Library 

Stroughill,  Mr.  William,  Chatham 

Sudweeks,  Mr.  Joseph,  Hoo 

Thompson,  Mr.  Alderman,  Rochester 
Thompson,  Mr.  Alderman,  C.  Rochester 
Thompson,  Sir  Thomas,   Bart.   Greenwich  Hospital, 

4  copies 
Torrington,  Right  Hon.  Viscount,  Yates  Court 
Twopeny,  Mr.  Edward,  Rochester 
Tribe,  Mr.  John,  Chatham 
Tribe,  Mr.  Thomas,  London 
Tribe,  Mr.  Joseph,  Chatham 
Tomkins,  Mr.  Edward,  Rochester 
Trollope,  Miss,  Rochester 
Tadrnan,  Mr.  Peter,  Higham 
Tadman,  Mr.  T.  Strood 
Tatum,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 


SUBSCRIBERS.  XVii. 

Turner,  Mr.  Rochester 

Townson,  Messrs.  C.  and  W.  Booksellers.  Chatham, 

2  copies 
Townson,  Mr.  John,  Strood 
Taylor,  Mr.  John,  Rochester 
Thomson,  Rev.  J.  B.  Luddesdown 
Tracy,  Mr.  A.  Brompton 
Tumey,  Mr.  W.  J.  Rochester 
Tuffill,  Mr.  Joseph,  Rochester 
Tyssen,  W.  G.  D.  Esq. 

Vaughan,  Dr.  Rochester 
Videon,  Mr.  G.  H.  Chatham 
Vinall,  Mr.  John,  Brompton 

"Willis,  Rev.  Thomas,  d.  d.  Prebendary  of  Rochester 

Weekes,  Dr.  Rochester,  2  copies 

Weekes,  Richard,  Esq.  Hurstperpoint,  Sussex 

Williams,  Rev.  W.  S.   St.  Mary's 

Wyatt,  Mr.  James,  Sheerness 

Wright,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 

White,  Mr.  r.  n.  Brompton 

Windeyer,  Mr.  A.  C.  Rochester 

Windeyer,  Capt.  u.  n.  Rochester 

Warren,  Mrs.  Chatham 

Wells,  Mr.  William,  Cobham 

AVildash,  Mr.  Isaac,  Davington 

Wildash,  Mr.  John,  Faversham 

Winch,  Mr.  Richard,  Faversham 

Woods,  Mr.  William,  Chatham 

Wood,  Mr.  Rochester 

Wood,  Mr.  Thomas,  Lewes,  Sussex 

Weekes,  Mr.  Thomas,  Brompton 

Whittle,  Mr.  William,  Brompton 

Webb,  Mr.  William,  Rochester 

Warde,  Rev.  Mr.  Yalding 

Watson,  Mr.  Nathaniel,  Rochester 

Wells,  Mr.  Thomas,  Chatham 

Wickenden,  Mr.  Thomas,  jun.  Rochester 

Waters,  Mr.  James,  Rochester 

Wood,  Mrs.  S.  Margate 

Warren,  Mr.  Z.  BookselleT,  Faversham,  2  copies 

Wickham,  Mr.  Thomas,  Maidstone 


Young,  Lieut.  A.  r.  n.  Rochester 
Young,  Mr.  Charles,  Rochester 


THE 


history  of  molester* 


►»<*<^ft~»>9< 


X  HIS  city  is  undoubtedly  veiy  ancient,  being  noticed  in  old  re- 
cords under  a  variety  of  names :  by  the  Britons  it  was  named 
Dourbryf,  Which  signifies  « a  swift  stream"  in  allusion  to  the 
rapidity  of  the  Medway,  which  runs  by  it.  The  Romans  by  giving 
it  a  latin  termination,  called  it  Durobrovis  and  Durobrovum,  and 
hy  the  Saxons  it  was  denominated  Hroffe,  and  Hroffe-ceaster 
from  which  by  contraction  it  obtained  its  present  name  of  Rochester- 
Leland  spells  it  Rosecestre  :  Ceaster  is  evidently  derived  from  Cas- 
trum,  a  Castle,  and  when  thus  used,  it  generally  implies  the  Romans 
having  had  upon  the  spot  a  military  station.  Bede  says  it  took 
its  name  from  one  Roffe,  who  first  built  here,  and  that  it  was  for- 
merly considered  rather  as  a  Castle  than  a  City,  and  accordingly 
he  styles  it  uthe  Kentishmens'  Castle." 

It  is  situated  on  an  angle  of  land  formed  by  the  current  of  the 
river  Medway,  which  coming  from  the  south,  runs  northward  until 
it  has  passed  by  the  city :  and  then  turning,  proceeds  nearly  to 
the  east. 

Rochester  has  never  been  very  extensive,  and  appears  to  be 
larger  now  than  it  was  formerly.  From  ancient  records  there 
seems  no  question,  but  this  city  was  walled  before  the  conquest. 
Its  natural  situation  on  an  angle  of  land,  by  a  large  river,  and  iri 
the  direct  road  from  East  Kent  to  London,  made  it  a  pass  of  some 


a 


2  HISTORY  OF 

importance,  and  induced  the  kings  and  generals  of  ancient  thne% 
to  improve  it  as  a  security  against  the  invasion  of  their  enemies. 

It  is  very  probable  the  Romans  made  this  use  of  it,  and  that 
their  highway  from  Canterbury  ran  through  this  city :  for  ort  a 
view  of  the  countiy  near  Rochester,  and  adjacent  to  the  river* 
this  appears  to  be  the  most  convenient  place  for  crossing  the  stream, 
especially  if  the  Roman  Road  (which  seems  to  be  the  general 
opiniou)  ran  by  Cobham  Park;  for  then  it  is  unreasonable  to  think, 
as  some  do,  that  it  went  round  the  point  of  the  river  by  Frindsbury 
Mill,  and  that  the  passage  was  at  Chatham,  even  supposing  there 
was  a  place  fordable  in  that  part  of  the  river.  It  is  therefore  more 
eligible  to  conclude,  that  the  great  Roman  Road  from  Richborough, 
Canterbury,  &c.  was  over  Chatham  Hill,  and  led  directly  through 
this  city.  Passengers  crossed  the  river,  perhaps  for  a  time,  by  a 
common  ferry  j  bnt  as  the  place  and  trade  increased,  the  importance 
of  this  pass  appeared  too  obvious  to  have  been  neglected ;  which 
induced  them  to  construct  the  wooden  bridge,  of  which  we  shall 
particularly  speak  hereafter.  The  building  of  the  ancient  wooden 
bridge  at  Rochester,  rather  than  at  the  supposed  ford  at  Chatham, 
is  a  strong  presumption  that  the  Roman  Way  ran  through  this  city, 
and  that  it  was  a  Roman  Station. 

Great  part  of  the  walls  of  this  city  still  remain,  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  of  its  being  walled  in  the  time  of  Ethelbert  I.  king  of 
Kent,  about  the  year  600 ;  for  in  a  grant  of  certain  lands,  ma J : 
by  him  to  support  the  church  which  he  had  built  at  Rochester, 
there  is  mention  made  both  of  a  wall  and  gate  :  also  in  the  reign  of 
Sigered,  about  the  year  762,  the  city  walls  are  mentioned :  and  ie 
a  variety  of  grants,  before  *he  conquest,  there  are  frequent  refer- 
ences to  the  walls  and  gates,  for  ascertaining  the  boundaries  of  lards 
or  bouses.     Vide  Reg.  Rolf. 

There  is  reason  to  think  that  great  part  of  the  present  wall  of  the 
city  is  on  its  original  foundation,  and  that  this  place  was  first  forti- 
fied by  the  Romans.  Several  Roman  bricks  were  to  be  seen  m 
different  parts  of  the  wall,  particularly  one  row  containing  About 
seven  bricks,  which  was  lately  very  conspicuous  towards  the  west 
end  of  the  north  wall. 


ROCHESTER.  3 

The  walls  are  built  nearly  according  to  the  four  cardinal  points, 
ajid  from  east  to  west  are  about  half  a  mile  distant,  but  from  north 
to  south  not  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  so  that  the  city  was  originally  in  a 
small  compass ;  which  will  account  for  its  being  called,  in  some 
grants,  the  castle,  as  appears  from  ancient  records. 

A  part  of  the  wall  forming  the  north  east  a.igle  is  still  entire, 
retaining  its  ancient  form,  height,  and  embrasures.  The  wall  in 
general  is  about  four  feet  in  thickness,  /and  on  the  east  side,  where 
it  is  entire,  the  height  is  about  thirty  feet.  The  interior  of  the  small 
tower  situated  in  the  same  angle,  does  not  appear  to  have  suffered 
much  from  the  ravages  of  time ;  the  entrance  to  it  is  from  Mr.  Hens- 
low's  garden,  through  an  arched  door- way,  to  the  right  of  which  is  a 
stone  flight  of  steps,  but  little  decayed,  leading  to  the  top:  it  has 
a  fire  place,  and  several  loop  holes ;  no  doubt  exists  of  there  having 
been  a  similar  tower  to  this  at  each  angle  of  the  wall.  On  the 
south  the  dimensions  of  the  wall  nearly  correspond  with  the  order  of 
king  Edward  I.  who  in  the  year  1290  gave  liberty  to  the  prior 
and  monks  of  the  Convent  of  Rochester  "  To  pull  down  part  of  the 
"  south  wall,  and  to  fill  up  the  ditch  without  the  wall,  on  condition 
tc  that  they  built  a  new  stone  wall  five  rods  and  five  feet  from  the 
u  former,  sixteen  feet  high  and  well  embattled,  to  stand  on  their  own 
'*  ground,  and  to  be  repaired  by  them."  This  new  work  is  said  to 
have  extended  from  the  east  gate  towards  Canterbury  to  the  gate 
of  the  Prior  towards  the  south,  and  to  have  been  in  length  fifty-four 
perches  fourteen  feet. 

It  is  not  easy  to  determine  precisely  concerning  this  new  wall ;  it 
seems  most  probable  that  the  whole  south  wall  was  carried  five  rods 
five  feet  to  the  southward,  to  give  the  prior  and  convent  more  room 
for  gardens,  vineyards,  <&c.  and  that  it  partly  inclosed  what  is  now 
called  the  Vines  Field,  near  the  bottom  of  which,  and  not  many 
yards  from  the  elm-trees,  are  marks  of  the  foundation  of  the  east 
wall.  The  present  south  wall  within  this  field  seems  to  be  the 
original  wall  which  the  monks  had  liberty  to  remove;  and  the  wall 
without  the  said  fielcbappears  to  be  that  which  they  then  built ;  itis 
indeed  about  twice  the  distance  from  the  old   wall  which   was  pre- 


4  HISTORY  OF 

scribed  by  the  grant,  but  the  monks  might  encroach  a  little  on  this 
occasion,  or  measure  from  the  outward  edge  of  the  broad  ditch  with- 
out the-  wall.  They  also  might  think  it  less  trouble  to  build  a  wall 
with  new  materials,  than  to  demolish  the  old  one,  for  that  purpose; 
they  might  therefore  permit  the  old  wall  to  continue  as  a  double 
security  to  their  property,  which  being  thicker  than  the  new  wall 
still  remains,  whilst  this  last  is  almost  entirely  demolished.  Its 
length  in  all  probability  extended  from  the  east  gate  round  the  south- 
easfcangle  of  the  said  field  called  the  Vines,  and  so  onto  the  south- 
west angle  in  the  road  to  St.  Margaret's,  near  which  in  the  old  wall 
probably  stood  the  Prior's  Gate. 

The  city  has  no  gates  at  present,  but  the  names  of  several  are  on 
record,  viz.  Broadgate,  afterwards  Eastgate,  which  stood  in  the 
High-street  near  the  Free  School,  is  mentioned  in  the  Textus  Roff. 
Part  of  the  portal  on  the  south  side  of  the  street  was  standing  in  the 
memory  of  several  persons  now  living.  Leland  in  his  itinerary  vol.  6, 
p.  10,  calls  it  "  a  marvellous  strong  gate,"  and  adds,  "  no  more 
"  gates  appeared  here  that  were  commonly  used."  Southgate  was 
near  Boley-hill,  in  the  road  to  St.  Margaret's  ;  the  gate  was  about 
nine  feet  wide,  the  arch  of  which  was  taken  down  in  the  year  1770, 
when  the  hooks  on  which  the  gates  hung  were  remaining  in  the  wall. 

There  was  another  gate  as  appears  by  the  Regist.  Rolf.  p.  565, 
called  Cheldegate,  this  seems  to  have  been  in  the  north  wall  of  the 
city  leading  to  the  marshes  by  the  side  of  the  river ;  for  it  is  certain 
that  Cheldegate  Lane  was  on  the  north  side  of  the  great  street,  and 
opposite  to  the  gate  now  called  College  Gate ;  as  appears  also  from 
Regist.  Roff.  p.  565;  where  it  is  asserted,  that  "  a  Gutter,  which 
c*  ran  down  the  College  Yard  into  the  street,  fell  afterwards  into  a 
<(  little  street  vulgarly  called  Bounds  Lane  or  Cheldegate  Lane.'* 
This  street  or  lane  is  now  called  Pump  Lane,  and  it  is  supposed  took 
the  name  of  Cheldegate  Lane  from  the  above  mentioned  Gate,  to 
which  it  directly  led ;  this  supposition  is  further  confirmed  by  the 
north  wall  of  the  city  being  called  Cheldegate  Wall  in  Reg.  Roff. 
which  appellation  doubtless  was  derived  from  the  gate  leading 
through  it. 


ROCHESTER.  5 

There  were  no  streets  of  any  account  within  the  walls  of  the  city, 
except  the  High  Street  and  Cheldegate  Lane  before  mentioned; 
Doddingherne  or  Dodingherne  Lane,  or,  as  it  implies  in  english, 
Deadman's  Lane  (a  name  which  it  probably  obtained  from  its  being 
a  boundary  to  the  cemetery),  seems  to  have  led  from  the  principal 
street  to  Boley  Hill.  St.  Clement's  street  was  near  St.  Clement's 
church,  now  called  Horse  Wash  Lane.  What  is  at  present  called 
St.  Margaret's  Street,  was  without  the  walls,  and  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  II.  A.  D.  1317,  termed  South  Gate  Street,  probably  from 
its  leading  from  the  South  Gate.  The  whole  street  of  St.  Marga- 
ret's is  included  in  that  division  of  the  city,  which  in  the  court-roll 
is  still  called  South  Gate  Borough. 

There  seems  to  have  been  formerly  a  market  place  between  the 
house  now  called  the  King's  Head  Inn  (which  has  been  so  distin- 
guished for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years)  and  a  lane  leading  to  the 
Castle,  first  known  by  the  name  of  Castle  Lane,  and  afterwards 
Epple  Lane  or  Apple  Lane.  The  pillory  was  fixed  in  this  market 
place,  where  it  opened  to  Castle  Lane. 

The  learned  compiler  of  the  History  of  Rochester  published 
in  1772,  assures  us,  that  he  was  informed  by  a  curious  gentle- 
man, that  in  a  copy  of  an  ancient  court-roll,  mention  is  made 
of  two  crosses  in  this  city;  one  in  honor  of  St.  William,  a  Scotch 
baker,  the  favourite  (because  the  profitable)  saint  of  the  monks  of 
the  neighbouring  Priory ;  but  it  is  uncertain  where  this  was 
erected.  The  other  was  called  the  Corn  Cross,  and  stood  in  the 
High  Street,  very  near  the  place  where  the  obelisk  pump  stood, 
before  it  was  removed  on  laying  the  new  pavement.*  At  this  cross 
used  anciently  to  be  held  a  Corn  Market,  which  has  long  been 
discontinued ;  the  doors  and  sides  of  this  market  were  removed  to 
the  Common,    and  converted  into  habitations  for  paupers. 

♦Mention  is  made,  in  the  charters,  of  two  other  crosses  within  the  liberties 
of  this  city,  one  called  Powle's  Cross,  situated  on  the  road  leading  from  Ro- 
chester to  Maidstone,  where  the  city  stone  now  stands;  the  other  in  the  crass- 
way  near  Strood  church,  leading  from  Rochester  to  Gravesend,  and  from 
C'uxton  to  Frindsbury. 


(J  HISTORY  OF 

There  was  formerly  a  Spring  or  Well  in  East  Gate,  called  after 
the  name  of  St.  Augustine,  who  erected  the  sees  of  Canterbury  and 
Rochester ;  and  was  •  probably  where  the  obelisk  pump  now 
stands. 


Civil  History  of  Rochester^ 


H 


.AVING  treated  of  the  antiquities,  extent,  walls,  and  gates, 
of  this  ancient  city,  we  now  proceed  to  its  civil  history ;  and  although 
there  is  no  doubt  of  the  existence  of  this  city  when  the  Romans 
possessed  the  island  (it  being  a  Roman  Station),  yet  we  do  not  find 
it  memorable  for  any  particular  events  in  that  period :  for  after 
Julius  Cffisar,  in  his  second  expedition,  had  defeated  the  united 
forces  of  the  Britons  near  Canterbury,  he  met  with  little  or  no, 
opposition  in  this  county,  the  Britons  retreading  to  the  more  inte- 
rior parts  of  the  island. 

When  Plautius  came  into  Britain  about  fifty  years  after,  that  is5i 
about  the  year  of  our  Lord  43,  he  met  with  no  resistance  in  Kent, 
the  seat  of  war  being  afterwards  carried  into  the  middle  and  north-, 
em  parts  of  the  island ;  and  so  continued  the  whole  time  the  Ro- 
mans remained  in  Britain,  which  was  until  about  the  year  440.  In- 
this  period  Rochester  and  many  other  cities  and  castles  were  buil^ 
by  this  enterprising  and  celebrated  people. 

Though  Rochester  was  undoubtedly  a  place  of  some  eminence 
in  the  time  of  the  Romans,  yet  it  is  remarkable  that  no  particular 
mention  should  be  made  of  it  in  the  historical  account  which  is 
given  of  a  famous  battle  that  was  fought,  near  fifteen  years  after 
their  departure,  between  the  Britons  and  Saxons,  about  two  miles 
south  of  the  city.  But  it  seems  to  have  been  more  distinguished 
after  the  rise  of  the  Saxon  heptarchy. 

This  remarkable  change  in  the  government  of  the  island  was 
introduced    by  Hengist  a  Saxon  general,    who  with  his  brother 


ROCHESTER.  7. 

Horsa  and  their  troops  were  called  into  Britain  by  king  Vortigernj 
to  assist  him  against  the  Picts  and  Scots.  These  Saxon  strangers 
by  force  and  fraud  soon  got  possession  of  the,  county  of  Kent,  Hen- 
gist  being  the  first  Saxon  king,  about  the  year  460. 

The  religious  worship  of  the  Saxons  was  idolatrous,  and  so  con- 
tinued until  the  latter  end  of  the  next  century,  when  Augustine  the 
monk,  and  several  others,  were  sent  by  pope  Gregory  the  Great 
to  preach  the  gospel  in  Britain,  about  the  year  596.  The  mission- 
aries landed  in  Kent,  where  Ethelbert  I.  then  reigned,  who  em- 
braced the  christian  religion  himself,  and  gave  Augustine  and  his 
brethren  great  encouragement. 

This  king  built  the  church  of  St.  Andrew  in  Rochester,  and 
made  it  a  bishop's  see,  by  which  he  raised  the  city  from  obscurity^ 
and  gave  it  a  distinguished  place  in  ecclesiastical  and  civil  history. 

About  the  year  676,  Lotharius  usurped  the  throne  after  the 
death  of  his  brother  king  Egbert,  and  in  prejudice  to  his  nephews 
became  the  ninth  king  of  Kent.  In  this  usurpation  he  committed 
great  excesses,  laying  the  country  waste,  without  any  respect  to 
churches  or  religious  houses.  He  particularly  plundered  the  city 
of  Rochester,  and  drove  bishop  Putta  from  his  see. 

Two  or  three  years  after  this,  while  the  bishop  was  absent,  and 
the  kingdom  embroiled  with  civil  commotions,  Ceadwalla  king  of 
Wessex  invaded  Kent,  and  made  Rochester  again  feel  the  miseries 
of  war  and  rapine. 

Either  this  Ceadwalla  of  Wessex  is  confounded  with  Ethelred 
king  of  Mercia,  Or  we  find  the  distressed  inhabitants  of  this  city 
and  county  again  exposed  to  all  the  horrors  of  War,  before  the  close 
of  the  century  we  are  now  speaking  of:  for  it  is  said  that  Ethelred 
king  of  Mercia  entered  Kent  while  Lothair  reigned,  who  died  in 
the  year  686,  and  spread  confusion  and  desolation  where-ever  he 
went.  The  country  had  bcarcely  recovered  itself  from  the  rapine 
of  former  invaders,  before  the  infliction  of  this  severe  calamity : 
Mr.  Phillipot  says,  that  "  This  city  drank  deep  of  the  bitter  cup, 
"  the  churches  and  monasteries  of  this  see  being  destroyed  in  au 
n  horrible  manner/'     After  this  it  does  not  appear  that  Rochester 


8  HISTORY   OF 

suffered  any  particular  scourge,  or  was  memorable  for  any  event^ 
during  the  <ime  of  the  heptarchy ;  and  although  Offa  king  of  Mer- 
cia,  about  the  year  759,  entered  Kent  with  an  army,  and  slew  Al- 
dric  the  king  with  his  own  hand  at  the  battle  of  Otford,  yet  the 
county,  by  submitting  to  him,  escaped  pillage. 

This  city  was  frequently  plundered  by  the  Danes,  who  Were  the 
most  ferocious  invaders  of  Great  Britain.  The  excesses  which 
were  committed  by  them  are  shocking  to  humanity.  In  the  time  of 
Ethehvolf,  an  indolent  and  superstitious  king,  the  Danes  landed 
at  Romney  in  Kent,  and  defeated  the  general  sent  to  oppose  their 
depredations.  The  year  following,  viz.  840,  they  ravaged  the 
county,  when  Canterbury  and  Rochester  felt  the  ellects  of  their 
barbarity,  and  hatred  of  the  christian  religion. 

But  the  English  were  amply  repaid,  in  his  illustrious  successor 
king  Alfred,  for  all  the  disgrace  they  had  suffered  under  his  father 
Ethelwolf.  Alfred  seems  to  have  been  sent  by  providence  for  their 
security  and  preservation.  He  was  a  wise  lawgiver}  an  intrepid 
soldier,  and  a  defender  of  his  country. 

From  this  time  the  Danes  infested  the  coast  almost  without  inter- 
mission. In  881,  a  large  body  of  these  banditti,  under  Hasting, 
having  ravaged  part  of  France,  visited  Great  Britain.  They  sailed 
up  the  Med  way,  and  laid  siege  to  Rochester  ;  and  that  they  might 
command  the  city,  cast  up  a  mount  before  it.  The  besieged,  who 
still  smarted  under  the  recent  wounds  which  had  been  given  by  those 
inhuman  monsters,  opposed  their  vigorous  efforts  until  Alfred  came 
to  their  assistance.  He  obliged  them  to  raise  the  siege,  and  drove 
them  from  the  county  with  great  loss. 

It  appears  from  the  laws  of  Athelstan,  that,  about  the  year  930, 
he  established  three  minting  houses  in  this  city,  two  belonging  to  the 
king,  and  one  to  the  bishop;  this  number  was  allotted  to  this  place, 
because  it  was  considered  as  a  principal  port.  We  cannot  discover  the 
number  of  years  that  money  was  coined  here ;  but  it  appears  from 
the  Textus  Roffcnsis,  p.  184,  186,  that  at  this  period,  there  were 
two  mint-masters  or  coiners  living  at  Rochester,  Gelduinus  and 
Rodbcrtus  ;  and  that  the  former  of  these  persons  was  a  benefactor  to 
the  bishop  and  monks  of  St.  Andrew. 


ROCHESTER.  9 

Rochester  seems,  for  a  season,  to  have  enjoyed  some  repose,  for 
we  find  no  account  of  any  attempt  against  it  until  the  3  ear  986  ; 
when  Ethelred  king  of  England,  (son  of  the  fair  but  cruel  Elfrida), 
"who  had  no  veneration  for  the  ecclesiastics,  quarrelled  with  the 
bishop  of  Rochester,  and  laid  siege  to  the  city ;  but  the  inhabitants 
making  great  resistance,  he  fell  on  the  patrimony  of  the  church  of 
St.  Andrew,  and  laid  waste  the  land  belonging  to  the  cathedral. 
Dunstan,  then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  patron  and  saint  of 
the  monks,  could  not  see  this  attack  on  the  church  without  great 
emotion.  He  interposed  in  her  behalf;  but  finding  his  intreaties 
ineffectual,  he  had  recourse  to  menaces,  and  threatened  the  king 
with  the  vengeance  Of  St.  Andrew,  whose  demesne  he  had  dared  sacri- 
legiously to  invade  :  but  his  brandishing  of  these  spiritual  weapons 
was  very  ineffectual,  for  the  king,  not  imagining  St.  Andrew  so  re- 
sentful as  the  bishop,  laughed  at  his  threats,  and  pressed  the  siege 
with  more  vigour.  Dunstan,  who  had  before  defeated  many  of  his 
enemies  by  a  pretended  miracle,*  could  not  by  any  religious  expe- 
dient, at  this  juncture,  save  his  friends,  but  had  recourse  to  a 
pecuniary  scheme,  arid  offered  Ethelred  a  sum  of  money,  on  con- 
dition that  he  would  raise  the  siege.  The  king  consenting,  the 
money  was  immediately  paid  to  him,  and  he  decamped,  regardless 
of  the  anathemas  which  Dunstan  poured  forth  against  him  for  his 
avarice  and  impiety. 

But  this  siege  was  trivial  to  what  the  wretched  inhabitants  suf- 
fered from  the  Danes  twelve  years  after.  In  999,  those  invaders, 
with  a  fleet  of  ships,  came  up  the  Med  way  as  far  as  Rochester. 
The  terror  they  struck  into  the  hearts  of  the  people,  by  their  un- 
heard-of barbarities,  exercised  in  various  parts  of  England  at  this 
time,  induced  the  inhabitants  to  leave  the  city,  so  that  they  met 
with  little  resistance ;  and,  having  plundered  Rochester,  they  de- 


*At  a  council  held  by  Dunstan,  to  promote  his  darling  scheme  of  monkery, 
when  he  was  warmly  opposed,  the  floor  gave  way,  except  where  the  arch- 
bishop sat,  and  crushed  many  of  hisopposers:  this  was  considered  by  the  monks 
Ss  a  mirrxii*.  but  the  primate  was  suspected  of  bring  (be  sirffte'r  of  it. 


]0  HISTORY  OF 

parted  into  East  Kent.     It  does  not  appear  tbat  this  city  evei'  made 
any  further  opposition  against  the  Danes. 

The  whole  kingdom  was  soon  after  involved  in  such  confusion, 
by  the  invasions  of  these  emigrants,  the  treachery  of  the  nobles, 
and  incapacity  Of  Ethelfed,  that  the  nation",  despairing  6f  the  re- 
covery of  its  liberty,  or  of  being  able  to  throw  off  this  foreign  yoke, 
tamely  submitted  to  the  ravages  of  the  enemy.  Almost  every  city 
throughout  England  opened  its  gates  upon  the  most  favourable 
terms  they  could  procure.  Rochester  was  reduced  to  the  same  ne- 
cessity, for  in  1011,  Ethelred  had  no  place  of  strength  in  his  hands 
except  London  and  Canterbury,  the  latter  of  which,  in  that  year, 
surrendered  to  the  besiegers,  but  not  without  a  vigorous  resistance 
of  twenty  days,  and  afterwards  suffered  the  most  horrible  excesses- 

After  this  the  English  made  but  a  few  faint  struggles.  In  1018, 
they  were  subject  to  Canute  the  Danish  king.  Thus  whatever 
views  archbishop  Dunstan  might  have  in  his  denunciation  against 
Ethelred,  the  event  of  providence  proved  as  calamitous  as  the  saint 
could  desire ;  and  had  it  not  involved  the  monks  and  bishops  in  the 
common  misery,  they  would  have  looked  on  it  as  the  vengeance  of 
heaven  for  his  trespassing  on  the  church  lands,  and  his  exactions 
from  the  bishop. 

In  this  state  Rochester  continued  until  the  conquest  of  England 
by  the  Normans  in  1066,  to  whom  it  submitted  .on  the  same  honor- 
able conditions  as  were  given  to  the  county  in  general.  Lambard 
says,  that  in  the  time  of  William  I.  this  city  (in  Doomsday  book) 
was  valued  at  one  hundred  shillings  a  year.* 

Odo  bishop  of  RayeuX  in  Normandy,  bastard  brother  to  the  con. 
queror,  being  created  earl  of  Kent,  took  up  his  residence  in  this 
county,  and  very  probably  in  this  city,  as  there  is  a  piece  of  land, 
by  the  dean's  house,  which  was  formerly  called  Odo's  Orchard. 
His  religious  profession  seems  to  have  been  only  nominal ;  for,  tho' 
a  bishop,  he  seized  on  divers  lordships  belonging  to  the  archbishop 

•Nearly  equal  to  seventy-five  pounds  of  our  present  money. 


ROCHESTER.  1 1 

af  Canterbury,  and  to  the  see  of  Rochester,  and  retained  them  in 
his  own  possession,  no  one  daring  to  oppose  him. 

In  the  following  reign  he  raised  a  rebellion  in  favour  of  Robert 
duke  of  Normandy,  and  was  besieged  in  the  castle  of  this  city  ;  at 
which  time  it  is  probable  the  city  itself  suffered  much :  but  of  this 
more  particularly  when  we  treat  of  the  castle. 

This  city  was  honoured  with  a  royal  visit  in  the  year  1130,  when 
Henry  I.  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  many  of  the  nobility, 
were  present  at  the  consecration  of  St.  Andrew's  church,  then  just 
finished  :  but  their  mirth  w&s  turned  into  sorrow,  by  their  being 
mournful  spectators  of  a  dreadful  conflagration,  which  broke  out 
on  the  7th  of  May,  and,  without  any  regard  to  the  majesty  of  the 
king,  grandeur  of  the  church,  or  solemnity  of  the  occasion,  laid 
the  city  in  ashes,  and  much  damaged  the  new  church. 

Kilburne,  and  others,  make  mention  of  a  great  fire  in  this  city 
on  the  3rd  of  June  1137:  it  had  but  just  recovered  from  these  re- 
peated disasters,  when  its  ruin  was  nearly  completed  by  another 
dreadful  fire  on  the  3rd  of  April  1177,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II. 
The  marks  of  this  deplorable  calamity  (Phillipot  says)  were  visible 
even  in  his  time,  viz.  in  the  seventeenth  century, 

The  city  recovered  very  slowly  from  these  successive  misfortunes  ; 
and  the  intestine  commotions  of  the  kingdom  happening  soon  after, 
in  which  Rochester  suffered  considerably,  as  will  appear  in  the 
history  of  the  castle,  it  was  half  a  century  before  it  became  of  any 
distinction ;  and  then  it  seems  to  have  been  indehted  to  the  royal 
bounty  of  king  Henry  III.  for  great  part  of  its  strength  and  beauty. 

This  king  is  said  to  have  invested  Rochester  with  a  wall  and 
ditch,  in  the  year  1225  :  but  this  only  implies  that  he  rebuilt  or  re- 
paired the  old  wall,  it  being  most  certain  (as  was  before  shewn) 
that  this  city  was  walled  at  least  500  years  prior  to  this  period  :  but 
doubtless  it  was  much  impaired  by  time,  by  foreign  and  domestic 
enemies,  and  by  the  late  conflagrations.  Henry  restored  the  walls 
to  their  former  condition,  and  probably  made  them  stronger  atid 
more  magnificent. 


12  HISTORY  OP 

This  king  seems  to  liave  had  the  honour  of  Rochester  much  at 
heart  for,  on  the  8th  of  December  1251,  he  held  there  a  solemn 
tournament,  which,  it  may  be  conjectured  was  in  the  fields  to  the 
south-east  of  the  city.  On  these  occasions  were  exhibited  the 
splendour,  courage,  address,  and  beauty  of  the  times.  In  the  feats 
of  chivalry  performed  at  Rochester,  the  English  entered  the  lists 
against  all  foreigners  without  exception  ;  and  in  this  field  our  coun- 
trymen discovered  their  aversion  to  the  impolitic  conduct  of  Henry, 
in  his  predilection  for  foreigners,  which  soon  after  threw  the  king- 
dom into  such  violent  convulsions  as  to  endanger  the  state.  In  this 
contest  the  English  gallantly  supported  the  military  character  of  the 
nation,  insomuch  that  their  antagonists  retreated  with  shame  into 
the  city  ;  and  such  of  them  as  were  conscious  of  any  malpractices, 
fearing  the  just  resentment  of  the  English  nobility  and  gentlemen, 
took  refuge  in  the  castle. 

Rochester  suffered  much  in  the.  civil  war  that  ensued  :  but  as  these 
things  chiefly  relate  to  the  castle,  we  shall  defer  them  until  we  re- 
late the  history  of  that  important  fortress. 

The  plague,  which,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  A.  D.  1349, 
and  1350,  made  great  devastation  in  most  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
proved  fatal  to  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  city. 

When  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  made  his  second  visit  to  England, 
A.  D.  1522,  it  is  very  probable  that  he  and  king  Henry  VIII. 
stopped  at  Rochester  on  the  second  of  June,  in  that  year ;  there 
being  a  minute  in  an  ancient  MS.  of  this  place,  that  these  illustrious 
personages  left  the  city  the  day  following,  and  proceeded  towards 
London.  Henry  VIII.  again  honoured  Rochester  with  his  royal, 
presence  the  latter  end  of  December  1540,  but  did  not  leave  it  with 
much  satisfaction.  Impatient  to  see  his  consort  Ann  of  Cleves, 
with  whom  an  alliance  was  contracted  by  a  treaty  of  marriage,  he 
hastened  to  this  city.  Her  picture  had  been  drawn  in  so  flatteri  ng 
a  manner  by  Hans  Holben,  that  Henry  grew  fond  of  her  at  a  dis- 
tance, and  conceived  a  very  high  idea  of  her  person.  Rut  on  tiiei 
first  visit  he  paid  to  her,  his  disappointment  was  such,  that  he  swore 
in  a  rage,  M  They  had  brought  him  a  Flanders  mare."     Henry, 


ROCHESTER.  13 

however,  so  far  recovered  his  temper  before  his  departure  from 
Greenwich,  that,  (the  season  probably  being  as  cold  as  his  love,) 
he  presented  his  intended  queen  with  a  suit  of  sable  for  a  new-year's 
gift* 

About  April  1556  Rochester  became  the  theatre  of  one  of  those 
horrid  scenes  that  disgraced  the  reign  and  religion  of  queen  Mary  I. 
John  Harpole  of  St.  Nicholas  parish  in  this  city,  and  Joan  Beach  of 
Tunbridge,  were  burnt  alive  as  heretics,  according  to  the  sentence 
of  Maurice  Griffin  bishop  of  Rochester,  for  denying  the  authority 
of  the  church,  and  the  transubstantiation  of  the  sacramental  ele- 
ments. 

The  illustrious  sister  of  queen  Mary  was  more  propituous  to  this 
city.  It  has  been  observed  by  many  historians  of  her  reign,  that 
travelling  from  one  part  of  the  kingdom  to  another,  was  a  favourite 
passion  of  Elizabeth  ;  and  in  order  to  gratify  this  laudable  inclination) 
she,  in  the  year  1573,  visited  various  places  in  the  counties  of 
Sussex  and  Kent.  Being  on  her  return  towards  the  metropolis  from 
this  tour,  her  majesty  came  on  September  the  eighteenth  to  Roches- 
ter, and  for  four  of  the  five  days  of  her  continuance  here  she  took 
up  her  abode  at  the  Crown  Inn  ;  but  on  the  last  day  Mr.  Watts  had 
the  honour  and  happiness  of  accommodating  her  at  his  house  on 
Boley  Hill.  There  is  a  traditional  story  of  this  royal  guest  having  giv- 
en the  title  of  Satis  to  this  mansion;  either  as  declaring  it  to  be  her 
opinion  that  the  apartments  were  sufficiently  large  and  commodious 
even  for  a  lady  pf  her  exalted  rank,  and  that  therefore  all  further 

*The  following  were  the  prices  of  labour  at  Rochester  at  this  period,  viz.  in 
the  year  1551,  and  may  be  depended  upon  as  authentic: 

To  a  carpenter,  for  ane  day's  wages        0    9| 

To  a  labourer,  for  a  day's  work      ------     -#   -0    8 

To  three  days  charges  of  a  messenger       ------26 

To  the  recorder  of  London,  for  his  counsel         -    -     -    -    3    4 

The  difference  between  the  price  of  labonr  then  and  at  present  is  seosibiy 
felt ;  and  it  is  worth  remarking,  how  much  the  fee  for  the  "  Labour  of  the  bead'* 
ha<  surpassed,  in  its  increase,  the  wages  of  "  The  work  of  the  hand." 


14  HISTORY  OF 

apologies  on  that  subject  from  the  master  were  needless;  or  as  ex- 
pressing her  satisfaction  at  the  treatment  she  had  received  in  it.* 

Archbishop  Parker  composed  in  latin  a  very  minute  detail  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  queen  passed  the  fourteen  days  she  resided  at 
Canterbury;  but  unfortunately,  Rochester,  on  this,  as  well  as 
many  other  occasions,  wanted  an  annalist  to  perpetuate  her  transac- 
tions while  she  was  in  this  city.  The  only  account  to  be  met  with 
is  comprised  in  three  short  sentences  towards  the  conclusion  of  his 
grace's  description  of  her  majesty's  progress,  from  which  the  before- 
recited  circumstances  arc.  extracted.  But  there  is  another  particular 
which  may  be  added,  as  a  necessary  inucudo  to  most,  of  our  modern 
travellers  in  all  ranks  of  life,  that  she  attended  divine  service,  and 
heard  a  sermon  at  the  cathedral  the  day  after  her  arrival.  And 
indeed,  in  all  her  journies,  this  protestant  princess  seems  to  have 
laid  it  down  as  an  invariable  rulCj  not  to  b,e  upon  the  road  on 
Sundays. 

When  we  consider  the  peculiar  talents  of  queen  Elizabeth  for- 
business,  and  her  close  attention  to  the  important  affairs  of  state,  we 
can  hardly  imagine  that  amusement  was  her  principal  motive  for  her 
long  continuance  in  this  place.  As  she  had  the  year  before  issued 
orders  for  an  increase  of  her  navy,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  she  was 
determined  to  be  an  eye-witness  how  far  her  commands  had  been 
executed  :  and  she  might  likewise  be  desirous  of  giving  after  a  care- 
ful survey,  proper  directions  for  the  security  of  her  tlect  whilst  in 
harbour,  and  for  the  enlargement  and  improvement  of  the  dockn 
yard. 

When  king  Charles  II.  returned  to  England,  after  the  death  of 
Cromwell,  he  was  received  at  Rochester  on  the  28th  of  May  ICiCOj 

*If  the  former  be  the  original  meaning  of  the  term,  the  strict  propriety  of  it 
cannot  be  disputed1;  otherwise  persons,  not.  much  disposed  to  cavil,  might  insi- 
nuate, that  had  the  queen,  instead  of  being  quite  so  sparing  of  her  Latin  word?, 
condescended  to  have  prefixed  Plus  to  Satis,  she  would  not  have  paid  a  higher 
compliment  to  Mr.  Watts  than  he  deserved  for  his  generosity,  nor  more  than 
was  reasonably  to  be  expected  from  so  accomplished  a  pnatess. 


R0CH1Z21LR.  15 

where  he  knijlitcd  Mr.  Francis  Clarke  (who  then  resided  in  that, 
antique  mansion  in  Crow  Lane,  now  the  property  of  Mr.  W. 
Prentis)  and  Mr.  W.  Swan,  both  of  them  gentlemen  of  the  county 
of  Kent.  The  mayor  and  corporation  of  this  city  presented  h'n 
majesty  with  a  silver  bason  and  ewer,  which  were  kindly  accepted. 
H  appears  from  an  entry  in  the  records  of  the  ctfy,  that  this* 
donation  to  the  royal  guest  was  purchased  by  a  voluntary  subscrip- 
tion of  the  principalinhabitantsof  Rochester,  for  it  was  ordered, 
'■'  That  if  the  subscription  should  prove  insufficient,  the  remainder 
i:  of  the  money  should  be  paid  out  of  the  chamber  of  the  city."  His 
majesty,  having  refreshed  himself,  went  to  Chatham  to  see  the 
Royal  Sovereign  man  of  war,  and  returned  to  the  house  of  colonel 
Gibbons,  in  Rochester,  where  he  rested  that  night.  In  the  morn- 
ing, he  was  presented  by  the  colonel  with  a  dutiful  and  loyal 
address  from  him  and  the  officers  of  his  regiment,  which  was  quar- 
tered in  this  city. 

The  dreadful  plague  that  almost  depopulated  London  in  the  year 
1655,  raged  much  in  this  city  ;  it  appearing  from  the  register  of 
St.  Nicholas,  that,  between  April  and  Christmas  above  500  corps 
were  interred  in  the  burying  ground  of  that  parish. 

In  December  1688,  James  II.  on  his  abdication  of  the  throne, 
came  to  this  city,  and  was  received  by  Sir  Rich.  Head,  in  the  house 
now  occupied  by  Mr.  C.  Thompson.  Being  requested,  by  the 
prince  of  Orange,  to  remove  from  Whitehall  to  Ham,  a  seat  of  the 
duchess  of  Lauderdale,  he  begged  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  re- 
move to  Rochester;  which  being  granted,  he  continued  here  a  week 
under  the  protection  of  a  Dutch  guard.  But  seeing  that  there  was 
no  probability  of  his  keeping  possession  of  the  throne,  and  that  he 
was  deserted  by  his  injured  subjects  ;  and  being  likewise  alarmed 
with  fear  of  his  personal  safety,  he  privately  left  the  city  the  last 
day  of  the  year,  and  embarked  for  France,  on  board  a  tender  in 
the  river,  which  was  at  that  time  employed  in  impressing  seamen. 
The  master  of  the  tender  was  one  Browne,  a  citizen  of  Rochester, 
who  landed  the  king,  the  duke  of  Berwick,  and  some  others  who 
accompanied  him,  at  Ambleteuse'  in  Picardy. 


16  HISTORY  OF 

This  city  gave  title  to  Humphrey  son  of  the  duke  of  Gloucester, 
■whom  Richard  II.  made  earl  of  Rochester  in  the  year  1396.  And 
perhaps  earl  HrolFe  before  the  Norman  conquest,  took  his  title  from 
this  city. 

Robert  Carr,  the  miuion  of  king  Jame3  I.  to  the  disgrace  of  this 
city,  was  made  earl  of  Rochester,  on  Easter  Monday,  in  the  year 
1611. 

In  the  year  1654,  lord  Wilmdt  Avas  created  earl  of  Rochester  by 
king  Charles  II.  then  in  exile :  he  left  the  title  to  his  son  John 
Wilmot,  who  is  distinguished  in  biography  for  the  licentiousness  of 
his  manners  and  obscenity  of  his  writings;  the  dangerous  tendency 
of  which,  he  was  convinced  of,  when  it  was  too  late  to  recall  them ; 
for  he  died  truly  sensible  of  Ills  irregularities,  in  the  year  1680, 
when  the  title  became  extinct ;  hut  was  again  revived  hi  the  person 
of 

Lawrence  Hyde,  second  son  6f  the  great  earl  of  Clarendon,  who' 
was  created  earl  of  Rochester,  on  the  29th  of  November  1682,  by 
Charles  II.  who  highly  favoured  and  honoured  him.  He  died 
May  the  2nd  1711,  and  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey,  leav- 
ing by  his  lady  Henrietta,  fifth  daughter  of  the  earl  of  Burlington, 
who  died  before  him,  one  son,  Henry,  and  four  daughters.* 

Henry  succeeded  his  father  as  earl  of  Rochester.  He  married 
Jane,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Leveson  Gower,  by  whom  he  had 
issue,  one  son,  Henry,  lord  viscount  Cornbury,  who  died  in  the 
year  1753,  a  short  time  before  his  father;  and  both  of  them  dying 
without  male  issue,  the  title  of  earl  of  Rochester  became  a  second 
time  extinct,  and  has  not  since  been  revived. + 


*Collins's   Peerage,  2nd  edition,  vol.  2,  p.  302. 
+Hasted's  History  of  Kent,  vol.  2,  p.  61, 


ROCHES lEfe*  If 


The  Castle. 


T> 


HE  venerable  remains  of  this  strong  fortification  naturally 
awaken  in  an  inquisitive  mind  a  desire  of  searching  into  the  history 
of  its  origin  and  grandeur,  together  with  the  various  vicissitudes  of 
fortune  by  which  it  has  been  reduced  to  its  present  abject  state. 

But  even  the  learned  and  most  accurate  inquirer,  in  exploring  the 
primaeval  state  of  this  castle,  will  meet  with  that  obscurity,  which, 
like  an  impenetrable  cloud,  darkens  the  earliest  periods  of  all 
history. 

Some  go  back  so  far  as  Julius  Caesar,  for  the  origin  of  this  castle. 
Kilbume  says,  "  That  Julius  Caesar  commanded  it  to  be  built  (ac- 
"  cording  to  the  Roman  order)  to  awe  the  Britons,  and  the  same 
"  was  called  the  castle  of  Medway.  But  time  and  tempests  bring- 
"  ing  the  same  entirely  to  decay,  Oesc  or  Uske  king  of  Kent, 
"  about  the  year  490,  caused  Hroff,  one  of  his  chief  counsellors, 
il  and  lord  of  this  place,  to  build  a  new  castle  upon  the  old  foun- 
"  dation,  and  hereupon  it  took  the  name  of  Hroffe's-ceaster." 

This  piece  of  history  may  justly  be  suspected;  for  Julius  Caesar 
staid  in  this  island  so  short  a  time,  and,  during  his  residence,  was 
so  harrased  and  perplexed,  that  it  is  very  improbable  he  should  en- 
gage in  any  regular  foitification  himself,  and  he  left  no  immediate 
successor  to  do  it  in  his  absence. 

But  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  Britons,  from  their  experience 
of  the  importance  of  this  passage  over  the  Medway,  might  erect 
some  fortification  to  secure  it  after  the  Romans  had  retired  to  the 
continent;  aid  when  the  legions  again  arrived,  in  the  time  of 
Claudius,  under  the  command  of  A.  Plautius,  they  might  improve 
it  to  a  regular  fort  or  castle;  for  such  a  place  there  certainly  was 
when  the  Itinerary  of  Antoninus  was  composed,   since  both  Dur©« 

D 


18  HISTORY   OP 

brivis*  (or  Rochester)  is  there  mentioned  as  a  Roman  station,  and 
the  Roman  Way  certainly  led  across  the  river  Medway,  near  this 
place. 

This  appears  more  certain  from  the  great  variety  of  Roman  coins, 
which  have  frequently  been  found  here:  viz.  of  the  emperors 
Vespasian,  Trajan,  Adriartus,  Antoninus  Pius,  Marcus  Aurelius, 
Maximus,  Aurelianus,  Constantius,  Constantine  the  great,  and 
others.  All  of  which  have  been  found  in  the  ruins  of  the  castle. 
Excepting  coins,  the  antique  curiosities  found  in  the  ruins  of  this 
ancient  fortress  have  been  but  few.  Mention  has  been  made  of  a 
large  sword,  said  to  have  been  dug  up  near  the  foundation  of  the 
west  corner  of  the  Tower,  and  to  have  remained  in  the  possession 
of  the  then  governor;  but  upon  enquiry,  we  are  inclined  to  suspect 
this  to  be  one  among  the  many  artifices  made  use  of  at  that  time,  to 
attract  visitors  to  the  Castle. 

This  fort  or  castle  might  also  have  been  rebuilt  in  the  time  of 
Uske  king  of  Kent,  about  the  year  480 ;  for  it  is  certain  there 
Was  a  castle  here  in  765,  when  Egbert  king  of  Kent  gave  a  certain 
portion  of  land  to  the  church  lying  within  the  walls  of  the  castle  of 
Rochester :  and  in  855,  Ethelwulf,  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  gave 
a  house  and  lands  to  one  Dunne  (his  minister)  that  were  situated  in 
"  meridie  castelli  Hrobi,"  which  we  apprehend  signifies  to  the  south 
of  the  castle  of  Rochester. 

But  it  is  objected  to  this,  that  the  whole  city  is  called  a  castle  by 
king  Otfa,  in  his  grant  to  bishop  Waermund,  who  is  therein  stiled 
"  Episcopum  castelli  quod  nominatur  Hrofteceaster."  And  again, 
that  the  extent  of  land  mentioned  by  Egbert,  viz.  M  unum  viculum 
"  cum  duobus  jugeribus  and  intra  mcenia  castelli,"  must  signify 
the  whole  city,  and  not  any  fort  or  castle  in  the  city. 

•  In  the  account  of  names  by  which  this  city  has  formerly  been  distinguished, 
we  omitted  to  mention,  that,  P.  Jovius,  in  Angliae  descriptione,  and  iElins 
A  Nebrissejisis  in  Dictionario,  baTe  imagined  that  Rochester  was  the  famous 
Rutupia%  which  is  so  often  mentioned  by  the  Roman  historians.  But  to  use 
the  expression  of  the  ingenious  and  elegant  writer  on  the  Antkjuitates  Rutupi- 
n»S  page  15;  "  these  learned  authors  must  have  been  in  a  draam,  wh«n  they 
"suggested  such  a  fanciful  conjeeture." 


ROCHESTER.  ]9 

This  certainly  is  a  strong  presumption  against  the  existence  of  a 
castle  at  Rochester  before  the  conquest;  to  which  may  be  added, 
that  there  seems  to  be  no  account  of  any  castle  or  citadel  in  the  des- 
criptions of  the  sieges  which  this  city  sustained  in  those  early  days, 
but  after  the  conquest  the  castle  is  always  noticed. 

Nevertheless  it  does  not  follow  that  these  objections  are  sufficient- 
ly cogent  to  induce  us  to  give  up  the  former  opinion ;  for  in  those 
ancient  writings  or  charters,  which  relate  to  the  church  of  Rochester, 
in  Rog.  Roff.  there  is  generally  a  distinction  made  between  the 
walls,  of  the  city,  and  the  walls  of  the  castle.  Thus  we  find  fre- 
quent mention  of  the  walls  of  the  city  towards  the  north,  or  south, 
or  east,  but  they  are  never  called  the  castle  walls  in  this  manner; 
the  city  wall  is  also  generally  expressed  by  the  word  u  Murus,"  but 
the  castle  wall  by  "  Mcenia." 

And  as  to  the  extent  of  land  within  the  castle,  viz.  "  unum  vicu- 
"  lum  et  duo  jugeribus,"  that  is,  one  little  street  and  two  acres ; 
we  imagine  the  present  walls  of  the  castle  inclose  as  much  as  is  there 
expressed,  and  the  ancient  fortress  might  be  something  larger. 

Again,  in  the  grant  of  Ethelwulf,  above  mentioned,  the  house 
aiid  lands  are  said  to  be  southward  of  the  castle  ;  there  is  also  men- 
tion made  of  two  acres  of  meadow  land,  and  "communionem  maris- 
ci,"  a  right  of  common  in  the  reeds,  which,  it  may  be  presumed, 
grew  in  this  meadow  by  the  river  side ;  from  all  which  it  may  be 
inferred,  that  this  house  and  land,  said  to  be  to  the  southward 
of  the  castle  of  Rochester,  was  at  the  west  end  of  the  city,  by  the 
river  side,  where  the  present  castle  stands. 

On  summing  up  these  particulars,  we  must  conclude,  that  there 
was  a  fortification  called  a  castle,  within  the  city,  on  this  spot, 
before  the  conquest,  although  much  less  strong  and  respectable, 
than  the  present  castle  has  been. 

In  the  year  884,  Hasting  the  Dane  besieged  and  much  damaged 
the  first  castle  ;  after  this  it  lay  a  long  time  desolate  and  neglected, 
'till,  as  Kilburne  says,  the  Conqueror  rebuilt  it,  and  garriioned  it 
with  500  soldiers^  but  proves  it  by  no  authority.     We  are  there- 


20  HISTORY  OF 

fore  inclined  to  believe,  with  Mr.  Lambard,  that  the  castle  (of  which 
there  are  some  remains)  was  the  work  of  William  the  Conqueror, 
who  erected  many  such  fortifications  in  England,  to  keep  the  peo- 
ple in  obedience  :  and  it  is  very  probable,  that  Odo  bishop  of  Bay- 
eux,  in  Normandy,  bastard  brother  to  William,  greatly  contributed 
to  the  work;  for  he  was  appointed  chief  justice  of  England,  and 
carl  of  Kent,  and,  it  seems,  resided  in  this  city.  This  conjecture 
is -confirmed  by  the  known  exchange  of  lands,  which  passed  between 
the  bishop  of  Rochester  and  William  I.*  The  bishop  having  land 
given  him  at  Aylesford,  in  lieu  of  a  piece  of  ground  in  Rochester, 
for  the  king  to  build  a  castle  on  :  and  we  are  inclined  to  think, 
that  this  piece  of  ground  was  the  two  acres  within  the  castle,  before 
mentioned,  given  to  the  church  of  Rochester,  by  Egbert  king  of 
Kent;  and  now  put  again  into  the  king's  hand,  that  he  might  re- 
build and  strengthen  the  fortifications.  This  exchange  gave  rise  to 
the  prevailing  notion,  that  Rochester  castle  stood  in  Aylesford 
parish. 

From  hence  we  may  conclude,  that  about  700  years  have  elapsed 
since  the  building  of  this  castle  :  the  remains  prove  it  to  have  been 
a  strong  fortification,  which  will  be  further  confirmed  when  we 
consider  the  number  of  sieges  it  formerly  sustained  :  but  before  we 
proceed  to  this  short  history,  it  will  not  be  improper,  first  to  des- 
cribe its  situation,  and  extent,  as  far  as  can  be  collected  from  its 
present  appearance. 

This  castle  is  placed  on  a  small  eminence,  near  the  river  Medway, 
just  above  Rochester  bridge,  and  consequently  is  in  the  south-west 
angle  of  the  walls  of  the  city.  It  is  nearly  of  a  quadrangular  form, 
having  its  sides  parallel  with  the  walls  of  the  city.  It  is  about  three 
hundred  feet  square  within  the  walls,  which  were  seven  feet  in 
thickness,  and  twenty  feet  high,  above  the  present  ground,  with 
embrasures.     Three  sides  of  the   castle  were  surrounded   with  a 

*GuIiclmus  primus  procul  dubio  construct,  legitur  enim  in  libro  Domesday, 
W  Episcopus  Rouecester  tenet  in  Elesforde  pro  escambio  terrae  in  quo  eastel-r 
"  lum  sedet.        Camd.  Brit.  p.  246,  edit.  1594. 


ROCHESTER.  21 

deep  broad  ditch,  which  is  now  filled  up :  on  the  other  side  runs 
the  Medway.  In  the  angles  and  sides  of  the  castle  were  several 
Square  towers,  some  of  which  are  still  remaining  which  were  raised 
above  the  walls,  and  contained  lower  and  upper  apartments,  with 
embrasures  on  their  tops. 

The  walls  of  this  castle  are  built  with  rough  stones  of  very  irre- 
gular forms,  cemented  by  a  composition,  in  which  are  large  quan- 
tities of  shells,  and  is  now  extremely  hard,  and  rise  to  the  height 
of  one  hundred  and  four  feet :  their  thickness  on  the  east  and  north, 
and  west  sides,  is  eleven  feet ;  but  on  the  south  it  is  increased  to 
thirteen  feet.  It  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  curious  speci- 
mens of  Norman  architecture  now  remaining  in  England  ;  and  the 
skill  and  ingenuity  exercised  in  the  construction  of  this  fabric,  are 
particularly  observable,  in  the  various  precautionary  contrivances, 
that  secured  the  entrance.  The  principal  entrance  was  on  the 
north-east,  which  was  defended  by  a  tower  gateway,  probably  de- 
signed to  command  the  passage  of  Rochester  bridge,  with  outworks 
at  the  sides  ;  a  remaining  part  of  which  has  recently  fallen.  From 
this  entrance  is  an  easy  descent  into  the  city,  formed  on  tw o  arches 
turned  over  the  castle  ditch. 

This  descent  from  the  castle  terminated  in  a  street,  which  in  the 
Reg.  Roff.  is  called  a  Venellam,  and  was  the  grand  avenue  from 
the  High  Street  to  the  Castle,  which  doubtless  procured  it  the  name 
of  u  Castle  Street,"  which  it  appears,  by  a  court  roll,  to  have  re- 
tained so  low,  at  least,  as  1576. 

But  what  chiefly  attracts  the  notice  of  a  spectator,  is  the  noble 
tower,  which  stands  in  the  south-east  angle  of  this  castle,  and  is  so 
lofty  as  to  be  seen  distinctly  at  twenty  miles  distant.  It  is  qua- 
drangular in  its  form,  having  its  sides  parallel  with  the  walls  of  the 
castle.  But  before  we  give  a  particular  description  of  this  tower, 
it  is  necessary  to  relate  what  passed  just  before  its  foundation  wai 
laid. 

The  castle  being  the  work  of  William  the  Conqueror,  it  is  pro- 
bable (as  was  before  observed)  that  his  half  brother  Odo,  bishop 
of  Bayeux  in  Normandy,  who  was  also  earl  of  Kent,  and  chief 


%2  HISTORY  OF 

justiciary  of  England,  resided  at  Rochester,  and  superintended  the 
work  of  the  castle. 

Odo  was  an  ambitious  turbulent  prelate,  of  which  his  brother 
could  not  be  ignorant,  for  he  had  stopped  him  in  his  intended  flight 
to  Rome,  whither  he  was  transporting  the  immense  treasure  which 
he  had  amassed  by  robbing  the  church,  and  oppressing  the  people : 
this  induced  William  to  send  him  prisoner  to  the  castle  of  Rouen, 
in  Normandy,  which  was,  about  live  years  before  the  death  of  that 
monarch. 

From  this  imprisonment  he  was  released5,  by  a  general  pardon, 
which  William  granted  just  before  he  died :  and  when  Rufus  as* 
cended  the  throne,  Odo  came  over  to  England,  and  solicited  the 
king  for  his  estates ;  which  were  granted,  and  with  them,  it  seems, 
he  received  all  his  former  honours,  and  places  of  trust,  amongst 
which  was  the  castle  of  Rochester. 

Neither  the  tie  of  duty  or  religion  could  secure  the  allegiance  of 
this  haughty  ecclesiastic  ;  for  in  the  second  year  of  Rufus,  viz.  1088, 
he  was  in  open  rebellion  against  him,  in  favour  of  William's  elder 
brother,  Robert  duke  of  Normandy ;  and  drew  over  to  his  party 
many  of  the  nobility  of  England. 

Rufus,  who  was  not  deficient  in  courage  or  conduct,  hastened 
to  stifle  this  flame  in  its  beginning ;  but  finding  his  subjects  not  so 
zealous  in  his  support  as  might  be  wished,  he  issued  a  proclamation 
to  this  effect,  u  That  whosoever  would  not  be  reputed'  a  niding,* 
u  should  repair  to  the  siege  of  Rochester."  This  artful  expedient 
had  the  desired  effect ;  for  the  youth,  abhorring  that  moss  reproach- 
ful name,  repaired  to  his  standard  from  every  quarter,  with  whose 
assistance  he  soon  took  the  town,  and  closely  besieged  the  castle 
for  the  space  of  six  weeks,  without  making  much  progress ;  but  a 
contagious  distemper  breaking  out,  the  besieged  offered  to  capitu- 

*  Various  have  been  the  conjectures  on  the  meaning  of  this  word:  the  most 
probable  is,  that  it  was  a  nick-name  for  those  possessed  of  a  mean,  dastardly 
spirit,  who  were  guilty  of  sacrilege,  and  rifling  the  dead.  Some  hare  suppos- 
ed that  our  English  word  ninny  is  derived  from  it ;  but  Dr.  Johnson  deduces  it 
from  the  Spanish  word  ninno,  signifying  "  a  fool  or  simpleton." 


ROCHESTER. 

late :  Rufus,  however,  would  grant  them  no  terms  for  some  time ; 
at  length,  through  the  persuasion  and  intreaties  of  many  of  his  rto<- 
bles>  he  permitted  them  to  march  out  with  their  horses  and  arm*, 
and  to  depart  the  kingdom,  with  the  forfeiture  of  their  estates ; 
but  Odo  he  sent  prisoner  to  Tunbridge  Castle,  and  afterwards,  on 
condition  of  his  leaving  the  realm,  gave  him  his  liberty. 

This  castle  seems  to  have  received  considerable  damage  by  this 
siege  ;  and  perhaps  the  prior  and  bishop  Gundulph  might  have  been 
somewhat  tardy  in  their  allegiance  to  Rufus  ;  at  least  the  king  seems 
to  have  entertained  suspicions  of  that  nature,  and  made  it  a  pretence 
to  extort  money  from  them,  for  he  refused  to  Confirm  a  grant  of  the 
manor  of  Hadenham  in  Buckinghamshire,  given  to  the  see  of 
Rochester  by  the  then  archbishop  Lanfranc  :  but  being  intreated  by 
Robert  Fitz  Hamon  and  Henry  earl  of  Warwick,  the  king  con- 
sented, on  Condition  that  Gundulph  (who  was  a  celebrated  architect) 
should  expend  601.  in  repairing  the  injuries  which  the  castle  had 
suffered  by  the  siege,  and  make  other  necessary  additions. 

Gundulph  accordingly  repaired  the  walls,  and  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  great  square  tower  before  mentioned,  which  is  still  called 
by  his  name,  and  has  proved  through  succeeding  ages  a  lasting 
toonument  of  his  fame 

We  cannot,  however^  think  that  Gundulph  finished  this  stupen* 
dous  work,  but  are  rather  of  opinion  that  it  was  the  labour  of  many 
years:  for,  in  the  year  1126,  king  Henry  L  by  advice  of  his 
council,  granted  to  William  Corbyl,  then  archbishop  of  Canterbu- 
ry, and  to  his  successors,  the  custody  of  this  castle,  and  the  office 
of  castellan  annexed  to  it,  with  free  liberty  to  build  a  tower  in  it  for 
himself;  that  is-*,  says  Phillipot,  "  Another  tower  correspondent  to 
<i  Gundulph's:"  but  we  imagine  this  to  be  the  same  tower,  it  being 
too  large  a  work  to  be  compleated  so  soon  as  these  accounts  seem  to 
intimate.  The  affair  of  Odo  was  in  the  year  1089:  Gundulph 
might  have  finished  the  repairs  of  the  castle  and  have  made  some 
progress  in  building  his  tower  about  the  year  1092,  by  which  time 
it  is  probable  he  had  expended  the  greatest  part  of  the  stipulated 
sum.   and  could  not  proceed  \}i  lii<-:  ihtenelM  project  of  the  tewetf 


24  history  or 

without  a  grant  of  money  from  the  crown,  but  it  does  not  appeaf 
that  any  such  aid  was  given  him* 

If  it  be  objected,  that  a  desire  to  perpetuate  his  name,  by  this 
noble  structure,  might  have  induced  the  bishop  to  hare  been  at  the 
whole  expence;  it  may  be  replied,  that  though  it  would  have  flat- 
tered his  ambition,  yet  it  is  improbable  that  he  should  seek  to  be 
eminent  in  so  expensive  a  work,  which  had  no  connection  with 
ecclesiastical  affairs:  the  bishops  of  those  days  in  general  confining 
their  attention  to  sacred  edifices. 

It  may  likewise  be  urged,  that  as  Gundulph  undertook  the  work  < 
more  by  compulsion  than  choice,  he  considered  the  sum  to  be  ex- 
pended as  an  unreasonable  tax  on  the  church,  and  therefore  would 
be  cautious  not  to  exceed  it.  And  supposing  he  had  employed  but 
one  hundred  men,  at  only  one  penny  a  day  wages,  the  whole  sum 
would  not  have  kept  them  in  pay  six  months,  in  which  time  they 
would  have  made  but  a  very  inconsiderable  progress  in  so  large  a 
building,  and  no  expence  allowed  for  materials. 

This  bishop  was  likewise  engaged  in  what  appeared  to  him  more 
important  works.  He  was  rebuilding  the  cathedral;  and  the  adjoin- 
ing monastery,  which  he  had  so  lately  founded,  engrossed  hi» 
thoughts  and  time.  He  was  also  at  law  for  the  recovery  of  several 
manors  which  belonged  to  the  see ;  to  which  may  be  added,  that 
his  revenue  was  but  small ;  from  all  which  considerations  it  may  be 
concluded,  that  Gundulph  did  not  carry  this  tower  to  the  height  it 
now  is.  He  died  about  twelve  years  after  it  was  begun,  leaving  it 
unfinished :  but  as  the  plan  and  foundation  were  laid  and  formed  by 
him,  it  has  ever  since  been  justly  called  Gundulph's  Tower. 

The  grant,  therefore,  of  king  Henry  I.  to  the  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  in  the  year  1 12G,  about  nineteen  years  after  Gun- 
dulph's death,  with  liberty  given  him  to  build  a  tower  in  the  castle, 
was  probably  with  a  view  to  the  completion  of  the  tower.  This  . 
conjecture  appears  the  more  reasonable,  if  we  consider  that  there  is 
not  the  least  trace  of  any  other  tower  similar  to  this  in  the  castle. 
It  is  also  very  remarkable,  that  the  tower  first  built  should  be  so 
intire  as  to  strike  a  beholder  with  admiration :  and  the  latter  tower 


ROCHESTER*  25 

(if  there  was  one)  be  not  only  thrown  down,  but  its  foundation  so 
effectually  erased,  as  not  to  be  discovered  by  the  strictest  search. 

It  deserves  also  to  be  remarked,  that  Henry  II.  in  a  charter, 
without  date,  says,  "  I  will  that  the  monks  of  Rochester,  and  their 
"  men,  be  freed  from  all  the  work  of  the  castle,  et  expeditione 
"  archi  sue  constructione  ;"%  by  which  it  is  evident,  that  the  tower 
was  then  building.  The  first  year  of  Henry  II.  was  28  years  after 
the  grant  made  to  the  archbishop,  with  liberty  to  build  a  tower, 
that  being  in  1126.  Vide  Regist.  Roff.  page  45. 

Having  given  very  probable  reasons  toconclude  that  Gundulph 
did  not  finish  this  tower,  and  that  no  other  like  it  has  ever  been 
built  in  the  castle;  we  now  proceed  to  give  some  account  of  the 
walls  and  apartments  of  this  once  very  important  and  stately  pile. 

The  tower,  is  quadrangular,  and  its  angles  nearly  correspond 
with  the  four  cardinal  points  of  the  compass.  It  is  about  seventy 
feet  square  at  the  base;  the  outside  of  the  walls  are  built  inclining 
inward,  somewhat  from  a  perpendicular,  and  are  in  general  twelve 
feet  thick. 

Adjoining  to  the  east  angle  of  this  tower,  is  a  small  one,  about 
two  thirds  the  height  of  the  large  tower,  and  about  twenty-eight 
feet  square.  The  grand  entrance  was  into  this  small  tower  by  a  no- 
bis flight  of  steps  eight  feet  wide,  through  an  arched  gateway,  about 
six  feet  by  ten  ;  the  arch*  is  adorned  with  curious  fret-work.  For 
the  greater  security  of  this  entrance,  there  was  a  drawbridge,  under 

X Expeditione  archi  sue  constructione;  though  according  to  Dr.  Thorpe,  an 
exact  transcript  of  the  original,  is  not  very  intelligible. 

*Tbe  stone  of  which  this  and  the  other  arches  in  this  building  are  form- 
ed, is  said  to  be  brought  fiom  Caen  in  Normandy.  The  coin  stones  are 
also  of  the  same  nature.  Formerly  vast  quantities  of  this  stone  were  brought 
to  England;  London  Bridge,  Westminster  Abbey,  and  many  oiher  edifices, 
being  built  therewith.  See  Stow's  survey  of  London*  edit.  1633,  p.  31,  32,  &c. 
See  also  Rot.  Liter  patent.  Norman,  de  anno  6  Hen.  V.  p.  1  m.  22.  "de 
quarreris  albae  petrae  in  suburbio  villas  de  Caen  anncxandis  dominio  regis 
pro  reparatione  ecclesiarum,  castrorum,  et  sortalitiorum,  tam  in  Anglia  quam 
in  Normannia.'"  See  also  Rot.  Normannia?,  de  anno  9  Hen.  V.  m.  31.  dors, 
"arrestando  naves  pro  transportatione  lapidum  ef  petrarum  pro  constructione 

£ 


26  HISTORY  OF 

which  was  the  common  entrance  into  the  lower  apartments  of  the 
great  tower.  These  lower  apartments,  were  two,  and  must  have 
been  dark  and  gloomy.  They  are  divided  by  a  partition  wall  five 
feet  thick,  which  partition  is  continued  to  the  top,  so  that  the 
rooms  were  twenty-one  by  forty-six  feet  on  each  floor.  In  the  low- 
er part  of  the  walls  are  several  narrow  openings,  intended  for  the 
benefit  of  the  light  and  air;  there  are  also  arches  in  the  partition 
wall,  by  which  one  room  communicated  with  the  other.  These 
apartments  seem  to  have  been  designed  for  store-rooms. 

In  the  partition  wall,  in  the  center  of  the  building  is  a  well  two 
feet  nine  inches  in  diameter,  neatly  wrought  in  the  walls,  which 
well  ascends  through  all  the  stories  to  the  top  of  the  tower,  and 
has  a  communication  with  every  floor. 

On  the  north-east  side  within  the  tower  is  a  small  arched  door- 
way, through  which  is  a  descent  by  steps  into  a  vault  Under  the 
small  tower ;  here  seems  to  have  been  the  prison  and  melancholy 
abode  of  the  state  criminals,  confined  in  this  fortress. 

From  the  ground  floor  there  is  a  winding  stair-case  in  the  east 
angle,  which  ascends  to  the  top  of  the  tower,  and  communicates 
with  every  floor;  it  is  about  five  feet  five  inches  wide,  the  cement 
still  retains  the  impressions  of  the  winding  centers  on  which  the 
arches  were  turned,  but  the  stairs  are  much  destroyed. 

abbatise  Sancti  Petri  de  Westminster  a  partibus  Cadomi."  Ibid.  m.  30.  pro 
domo  Jesu  de  Bethleem  de  Shene,  de  lapidibus  in  quarreris  circa  villain  de 
Cadomo  capiendis  pro  constructione  ecclesiae,  claustri,  et  cellarum  domus 
praedictae."  See  also  Rot.  Franciae  de  anno  35  Hen.  VI.  m.  2.  "pro  Salvo 
conductu  ad  supplicationem  abbatis  et  conventus  Beati  Petri  Wcstmonasterif 
pro  mercatoribus  de  Caen  in  Normannia,  veniendis  in  Angham  cum  lapidibus 
de  Caen  pro  aedineatione  monasterii  pnedicti.  Teste  Rege,  apud  Westra.  15 
die  Augusti."  See  also  Rot.  Francis  de  anno  38  Hen.  VI.  m.  23.  "  de  Salvo 
conductu  pro  nave  de  Caen  in  regnum  Angliae  venienda  cum  lapidibus  de 
Caen  pro  reparation  monas-terii  de  Westminster.  Teste  Rege  apud  West.  9 
die  Maii."'  Now,  however,  the  exportation  of  this  stone  out  of  France  is  so 
strictly  prohibited,  that,  when  at  is  to  be  sent  by  sea,  the  owner  of  the  stone, 
as  well  as  the  master  of  the  vessel  on  board  which  it  is  shipped,  is  obliged  to 
give  security,  that  it  shall  not  be  sold  to  foreigners. 


ROCHESTER.  27 

The  floor  of  the  first  story  was  about  thirteen  feet  from  the  ground  ; 
the  holes  in  the  walls,  where  the  timbers  were  laid,  distinctly  mark 
every  floor,  but  at  present  no  wood  remains  in  the  tower.  The 
joists  were  about  thirteen  inches  by  ten  inches  square,  and  about 
thirteen  inches  apart,  but  somewhat  less  in  the  upper  floors,*  and 
extended  from  the  outward  wall  to  the  partition.  In  the  west  an- 
gle is  another  stair-case,  which  ascends  from  this  floor  to  the  top  of 
the  tower,  and  communicates  with  every  room. 

The  rooms  in  the  first  story  were  about  twenty  feet  high,  and 
were  probably  for  the  accommodation  of  servants,  &c.  The  apart- 
ment on  the  north-east  side  in  the  small  tower  over  the  prison,  and 
into  which  the  outward  door  of  the  grand  entrance  opened,  was  on 
this  floor,  and  was  about  thirteen  feet  square  and  neatly  wrought; 
the  arches  of  the  doors  and  windows  being  adorned  with  fret-work. 
This  room  communicated  with  the  large  rooms  in  the  great  tower, 
through  an  arch  about  six  feet  by  ten,  which  was  secured  by  a  port- 
cullis; there  being  a  groove  well  worked  in  the  main  wall  quite 
through  to  the  next  story.  The  rooms  of  this  floor  also  communi- 
cated with  each  other,  by  arches  in  the  partition  wall,  and  there 
are  many  holes  in  the  outward  walls  on  every  side  for  the  admission 
of  light,  and  for  the  annoyance  of  the  enemy.  In  the  north  angle 
is  a  small  neat  room,  with  a  fire  place  in  it,  and  was  doubtless  the 
apartment  of  some  of  the  officers  of  the  fortress.  In  the  south  east 
side  is  a  small  door,  most  probably  for  such  as  were  not  admitted  at 
the  grand  entrance,  the  wall  within  this  dooris  peculiarly  construct- 
ed for  its  security. 

From  hence  you  ascend  to  the  second  story  or  third  floor,  on 
which  were  the  apartments  of  state,  and  here  the  workman  has 
shewn  his  greatest  skill.  These  rooms  were  about  thirtj  -two  feet 
high,  and  separated  by  three  columns,  forming  four  grand  arches 
curiously  ornamented  :  the  columns  are  about  eighteen  feet  in  height 
and  four  in  diameter. 

*  The  floor  timbers  of  the  castle  were  taken  down  and  sold  to  one  Gimmet, 
who  bought  them  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  brewhouse  on  the  common. 


28  HISTORY  OF 

There  are  fire-places  to  the  rooms,  having  semicircular  chimney 
pieces  ;  the  arches  of  which,  in  the  principal  rooms,  are  ornamented 
in  the  same  taste  with  the  arches  before  mentioned.  The  smoke 
was  not  conveyed  off  through  funnels  ascending  to  the  top  of  the 
tower,  but  through  small  holes  left  for  that  purpose  in  the  outer 
•wall  near  to  each  fire-place.  About  midway  as  you  ascend  to  the 
next- floor,  there  is  a  narrow  arched  passage  or  gallery  in  the  main 
wall,  quite  round  the  tower. 

The  upper  or  fourth  floor  was  about  sixteen  feet  high  :  the  roof 
is  now  intirely  gone  ;  but  the  stone  gutters,  which  conveyed  the  wa- 
ter from  it  through  the  wall  to  the  outside,  are  very  intire. 

From  the  upper  floor  the  stair-case  rises  ten  feet  higher,  to  the 
top  of  the  great  tower,  which  is  about  ninety-three  feet  from  the 
ground,  round  which  is  a  battlement  seven  feet  high,  with  embra- 
sures. At  each  angle  is  a  tower  about  twelve  feet  square,  with 
floors  and  battlements  above  them  :  the  whole  height  of  these  tow- 
ers is  about  one  hundred  and  twelve  feet  from  the  ground.  There  is 
in  the  tower  of  the  castle  wall  next  the  bridge,  a  funnel  or  space  in 
the  wall,  open  from  the  bottom  to  the  top,  supposed  to  have  been 
used  for  the  secret  conveyance  of  necessaries  from  the  river  into  the 
castle. 

From  this  elevation  there  is  a  pleasing  prospect  of  the  surround- 
ing country;  of  the  city  and  adjacent  towns,  with  their  public 
buildings  ;  the  barracks  and  dock-yard  at  Chatham  ;  the  meanders 
of  the  Medway  both  above  and  below  bridge,  even  to  its  confluence 
with  the  Thames,  and  down  into  the  Swin  :  on  such  an  ancient  pile, 
a  serious  mind  cannot  but  reflect  on  the  various  changes  that  have 
diversified  the  scene  below.  On  the  battles,  sieges,  pestilences, 
fires,  inundations,  storms,  &c.  which  have  agitated  and  swept  away 
the  successive  generations  who  have  inhabited  the  city  and  adjacent 
towns,  during  the  seven  hundred  years  which  have  elapsed,  since 
the  first  building  of  this  tower.  Considering  how  long  this  fabric 
has  been  neglected,  we  believe  there  are  few  buildings  in  England, 
of  equal  antiquity,  so  perfect :  nor  can  we  quit  this  venerable  pile, 
without  expressing  our  admiration  at  the  skill  and  ingenuity  of  the 


ROCHESTER.  29 

Reverend  architect  ;*  the  nice  contrivance  throughout  every  part  of 
the  building,  both  for  conveniency  and  strength,  must  strike  the 
eye  of  every  curious  beholder;  nor  can  a  person,  who  has  the  least 
taste  in  antiquities,  or  ancient  architecture,  spend  an  hour  more 
agreeably  than  in  surveying  this  curious  fabric. 

In  the  south-east  and  south-west  sides  of  the  great  tower,  are 
several  fissures  very  discernible,  from  the  top  to  near  the  bottom  : 
where  these  fissures  are,  there  appears  a  junction  of  more  modern 
work  particularly  in  the  inner-side  of  the  south-east  wall.  The 
facing  and  coin-stones  of  the  arches,  in  this  south  or  round  tower, 
are  not  of  the  Caen-stone,  which  is  used  in  all  the  other  arches  in 
this  building,  but  of  the  fire-stone,  the  produce  of  this  kingdom. 
From  these  and  other  appearances,  sufficiently  obvious  to  a  curious 
eye,  it  will  appear  evident,  that  this  part  of  the  building  is  not  of 
equal  antiquity  with  the  rest,  but  was  probably  rebuilt  after  the 
damages  the  castle  had  sustained  by  the  sieges,  in  the  reign  of  king 
John.  This  is,  we  think,  somewhat  confirmed  by  an  order  made 
in  the  tenth  year  of  Henry  III.  (viz.  in  1225,  about  ten  years  after 
king  John  besieged  it)  to  the  sheriff  of  Kent,  to  finish  the  great 
tower  in  Rochester  castle. 

From  a  dateless  rescript  in  Regist.  Roff.  it  appears,  that  there 
was  a  chapel  in  the  castle  ;  but  whether  in  this  tower,  or  in  what 
other  part,  we  cannot  determine.  It  was  named  the  King's  Chapel ; 
and  the  ministers  that  officiated  in  it  were  called  King's  Chaplains  ; 
their  stipend  was  fifty  shillings  a  year. 

We  shall  now  recite  such  parts  of  the  English  history  as  mention 
this  castle.  After  finishing  the  tower  above  described,  the  first 
circumstance  on  record,  is  the  imprisonment  of  Robert  earl  of 
Gloucester,  natural  son  of  Henry  I.  This  great  man  was  general 
and  counsellor  to  Matilda  in  her  opposition  to  king  Stephen;  and, 
in  the  year  1 1  41,   was  taken  prisoner  at  Winchester,  after  he  had, 

*ThatGundulph  was  the  greatest  architect  of  his  age,  may  be  safely  inferred, 
from  hW  superintending  the  building  part  of  the  tower  of  London.  See  the  ac- 
ewjnt  of  him  in  the  list  of  bishops,  in  this  work. 


30  miTORY  or 

by  his  gallantry  eft'ected  the  escape  of  his  sister  Matilda.  He  was 
committed  to  the  custody  of  William  de  Ypre,  who,  probably  was 
castellan  of  Rochester  Castle  at  that  time,  for  he  sent  him  a  close 
prisoner  to  this  fortress.  King  Stephen,  at  the  same  time,  was  in 
confinement  by  Matilda ;  and  very  soon  after  the  captivity  of  the 
earl,  the  king  was  exchanged  for  him. 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  this  castle  was  given  in  cus- 
tody to  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury  by  Henry  I.  in  1126,  but 
the  clergy  did  not  keep  it  long;  for  about  the  year  1163,  that 
haughty  primate  Thomas  Bccket,  among  the  many  insults  with 
which  he  treated  Ins  sovereign  king  Henry  II.  accused  him  with 
having  unjustly  deprived  him  of  the  castle  of  Rochester,  which  had 
been  formerly  annexed  to  the  archbishoprick. 

In  the  year  1215,  this  castle  was  a  subject  of  contention  :  for 
after  king  John  had  been  obliged  to  sign  the  famous  Magna  Charta, 
he  retired  to  the  Isle  of  Wight  with  a  few  friends,  in  order  to  con- 
cert measures  for  resuming  his  despotic  power,  and  quelling  the 
turbulent  spirit  of  his  barons.  To  accomplish  this,  they  agreed  to 
use  both  temporal  and  spiritual  weapons ;  certain  confidants  were 
therefore  dispatched  to  procure  assistance  from  France,  and  other 
agents  posted  to  Rome  to  purchase  the  thunder  of  the  Vatican. 

Both  these  schemes  succeeded;  a  body  of  foreign  troops  arrived) 
together  with  a  bull  from  pope  Innocent,  furiously  attacking  and 
nullifying  the  great  charter,  absolving  the  kins;  from  his  oath,  and 
denouncing  anathemas  against  the  barons  if  they  did  not  submit  to 
the  king  ;  at  the  same  time  enjoining  archbishop  cardinal  Langton 
to  see  these  orders  put  in  execution. 

Langton,  refusing  to  comply  with  the  pope's  commands,  was 
suspended;  and  the  nation  seemed  on  the  verge  of  a  civil  war. 
The  bishops  appointed  meetings  to  reconcile  the  parties,  but  they 
were  too  much  exasperated  to  listen  to  terms  of  accommodation. 
The  barons  seized  Rochester  castle,  and  committed  it  to  the  cus- 
tody of  William  De  Albinet,  a  gallant  nobleman. 

John's  first  step  was,  to  gain  this  strong  castle;  he  therefore 
invested  it  in  a  formal  manner,  and  carried  on  the  siege  with  vigour. 


ROCHESTER.  31 

The  barons,  sent  Robert  Fitz  Walter  to  the  relief  of  the  cattle; 
but  it  seems  the  king  had  so  secured  himself  by  breaking  down  the 
bridges  and  fortifying  all  the  passes,  that  Robert  could  not  interrupt 
his  operations,  or  was  afraid  to  attempt  it ;  for  having  marched  as 
far  as  Dartford,  with  an  army  double  the  number  of  John's,  he 
tamed  back,  and  left  the  castle  to  the  mercy  of  the  king. 

Notwithstanding  this,  De  Albinet  made  an  obstinate  defence, 
and  baffied,  for  three  months,  all  the  efforts  of  the  besiegers  :  dur- 
ing which  the  city  suffered  much ;  and  the  garrison  in  the  castle  was 
reduced  to  such  extremities,  that  they  ate  all  their  horses  :  at  length, 
the  walls  being  demolished  by  the  battering  engines  of  the  besiegers, 
and  having  no  prospect  of  relief,  they  were  obliged  to  surrender  at 
discretion. 

John,  fired  with  resentment  at  their  long  resistance,  was  about 
to  sacrifice  the  governor  and  the  whole  garrison,  to  gratify  his  re- 
venge ;  but  being  convinced  of  the  imprudence  of  such  a  step,  by 
some  of  his  courtiers,  he  sent  De  Albinet,  and  other  noble  prison- 
ers, to  different  fortresses ;  and  then  commanded,  that,  excepting 
the  cross-bow  men,  all  the  common  soldiers  should  be  hanged,  to 
strike  terror  into  the  minds  of  others. 

After  this  success,  he  marched  through  his  kingdom  like  a  tyrant, 
inflicting  horrid  barbarities  on  the  estates  and  dependents  of  those 
that  had  opposed  him :  in  the  mean  time  the  barons,  despairing  of 
retrieving  their  wretched  affairs,  by  their  own  strength,  took  the 
desperate  resolution  of  calling  in  a  foreign  aid :  they  applied  to 
Philip,  of  France,  who  was  easily  persuaded  to  help  them,  as  it 
favoured  his  interest.  lie  therefore  made  great  preparations  for  an 
invasion;  and  the  following  year  sent  his  son  Lewis  the  dauphin, 
with  a  large  force,  to  the  assistance  of  the  barons. 

Lewis  set  sail  with  a  fleet  of  seven  hundred  vessels,  and  landed 
at  Sandwich.  John,  being  unable  to  oppose  him,  retreated  to 
Winchester.  In  his  way  he  met  Gualo,  the  pope's  legate,  just  ar- 
rived in  England,  clad  in  the  Roman  panoply ;  and  hastening  to  ex- 
ert his  powers  on  the  sacrilegious  dauphin,  who  in  an  hostile  man- 
ner had  dared  to  invade  the  patrimony  of  St.  Peter,  (as  the  pope 


32  HISTORY  OF 

then  termed  this  island.)  When  Gualo  arrived  at  Lewis's  camp^ 
with  the  usual  moderation  of  the  Romish  church,  he  excommuni- 
cated Lewis  and  all  his  army.  Lewis  was  at  first  intimidated,  and 
made  some  concessions;  but  when  he  found  that  the  sun  was  not 
darkened,  that  the  elements  did  not  fight  against  him,  that  his  camp 
was  not  depopulated,  nor  his  match  impeded  by  this  popish  champi- 
on, he  boldly  set  him  at  defiance,  proceeded  in  his  expedition, 
and  invested  the  castle  of  Rochester,  which  having  suffered  consi- 
derably the  year  before,  he  soon  reduced.  He  then  hastened  to 
London,  and  compromised  the  barons  affairs.  That  year  king  John 
died,  and  Henry  III.  succeeded  him  ;  who  in  the  year  1228  gave 
Huberg  de  Burg,  justiciary  of  England,  the  custody  of  this  castle, 
together  with  those  of  Canterbury  and  Dover. 

The  next  shock  this  castle  sustained;  was  in  the  contest  be- 
tween Henry  III.  and  his  barons,  in  the  year  1204.  Henry,  as 
before  observed  in  the  civil  history,  had  too  great  an  affection  for 
foreigners.  This  favouritism  his  barons  highly  resented;  and  on 
every  occasion  shewed  their  disgust,  which  they  had  done,  not  only 
in  the  tournaments  held  in  this  city,  but  in  other  parts  of  the  king- 
dom. It  is  probable,  Henry  might  have  given  the  greater  encou- 
ragement to  foreigners,  as  he  found  the  barons  turbulent  and 
ungovernable:  for  they  obliged  him  just  before  this  period,  to  en- 
gage "  That  he  would  observe  the  statutes  of  Oxford,  deliver  the 
"  castles  into  'heir  hands,  and  cause  all  foreigners,  except  such  as 
"  they  approved  of,  to  depart  the  kingdom."  These  conditions 
were  so  mortifying,  that  it  is  evident,  Henry  only  temporized,  to 
get  released  from  the  tower,  in  which  (the  barons  being  in  posses- 
sion of  London)  he  was  close  confined.  But  when  he  was  at  liberty 
he  had  so  little  inclination  to  fulfil  the  agreement,  that  he  still 
retained  his  own  governors  in  the  castles.  Edward  earl  Warren 
had  Rochester  Castle,  and  was  furnished  with  men,  arms,  and 
provisions,  to  sustain  a  siege. 

Simon  Montford,  earl  of  Leicester,  a  nobleman  of  great  power 
and  popularity,  was  at  the  head  of  the  opposition  against  the  king  : 
he  watched  all  his  motions,  and  traversed  all   his  designs.     After 


ROCHESTER.  .33 

the  suspension  of  arras,  just  mentioned,  both  parties  agreed  to  take 
the  French  king  for  mediator;  accordingly,  Henry  and  prince  Ed- 
ward set  out  for  the  continent ;  but  Leicester  having  fractured  his 
leg  by  a  fall  from  his  horse,  could  not  follow.  This  mediation 
proved  unsuccessful,  by  an  excepting  clause  in  one  of  the  articles  of 
the  treaty,  which  the  barons  considered  as  subversive  of  their,  privi- 
leges, and  had  immediate  recourse  to  arms.  The  king,  therefore, 
assembled  a  s-trong  body  of  forces,  and  marched  to  Northampton, 
where  many  of  the  barons  were  assembled,  and  summoned  the  town 
to  surrender  :  on  their  refusal  he  broke  down  part  of  the  wall,  and 
stormed  the  town.  Simon  Montford,  son  to  the  earl  of  Leicester, 
making  a  sally,  was  thrown  from  his  horse,  and  taken  prisoner. 
The  barons,  being  disconcerted,  submitted  to  the  king's  mercy. 

Leicester,  hearing  of  this  misfortune,  put  London  in  a  proper 
posture  of  defence;  and  proceeded  into  Kent,  with  a  resolution 
to  besiege  Rochester,  which  was  then  in  the  king's  hands,  and 
governed  by  earl  Warren,  assisted  by  many  other  noblemen.  Be- 
ing arrived  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Medway,  with  a  great  force, 
he  found  an  army  ready  to  dispute  the  passage  of  the  bridge,  and  a 
pallisade  and  breast-work  thrown  up  on  the  opposite  side,  well 
lined  with  a  strong  body  of  the  inhabitants.  He  determined,  how- 
ever, to  engage  them ;  and  having  sent  Gilbert  de  Clare  to  attack 
the  town  on  the  south  side,  by  the  means  of  vessels  filled  with 
combustibles  he  seton  fire  the  bridge  and  tower  which  was  upon  it 
(both  being  made  of  wood),  and  in  the  hurry,  confusion,  and 
smoke,  occasioned  by  this  stratagem,  passed  the  river,  and  attacked 
the  enemy  with  such  success,  that  he  entered  the  city  ia  the  evening 
of  Good  Friday,  and  spoiled  the  church  and  what  was  left  of  the 
priory;  for  Roger  de  Leyborne  had  before  burnt  down  all  the  su- 
burbs, as  well  as  part  of  the  city,  and  the  priory.  He  next  made  a 
furious  assault  on  the  castle  :  but  the  brave  governor  and  his  associ- 
ates defended  every  inch  of  ground  with  so  much  ardour  and 
resolution,  that  although  Leicester  made  himself  master  of  some 
outworks,  yet  after  a  siege  of  seven  days  he  was  unable  to  succeed. 
Notwithstanding,    it  must  soon  have  submitted,  had  npt  Leicester 

J' 


34  HISTORY   OF 

been  obliged  to  draw  off  his  army  to  defend  London,  which  was 
now  threatened  by  Henry.  Leicester  left  a  few  forces  to  continue 
the  siege  of  the  castle,  but  these  were  soon  slain  or  put  to  night. 

Soon  after  this  siege,  viz.  on  the  fourteenth  of  May,  the  battle 
of  Lewes  in  Sussex  was  fought,  where  Leicester  gained  a  compleat 
victory;  king  Henry  himself,  prince  Edward,  and  the  king  of  the 
Romans,  were  taken  prisoners ;  and  the  war  was  concluded  for  the 
present  by  the  treaty  called  the  Agreement  of  Lewes. 

Henry  III.  gave  this  castle  to  Guy  of  Rochford,  one  of  his  foreign 
favorites,  but  he  being  banished,  it  reverted  again  to  the  crown. 
The  same  king,  in  his  forty-eighth  year,  intrusted  William  St.  Clare 
with  the  custody  of  this  castle,  whose  ancient  seat  was  at  Wood- 
lands in  Kingsdown  parish,  in  this  county ;  he  died  in  his  office  of 
castellan  that  year. 

In  the  second  year  of  Edward  I.  1274,  Robert  de  Hougham, 
lord  of  Hougham,  near  Dover,  died  constable  of  this  castle.  In 
the  year  following,  Robert  de  Septuans,  from  whom  the  Harfleets, 
of  East  Kent,  are  descended,  had  the  custody  of  it. 

Jn  1304,  Stephanus  de  Dene  was  constable  of  this  castle:  ha 
was  a  great  enemy  to  the  monks,  and  caused  them  to  be  taxed  for 
their  close,  Priestfield,  and  other  places  about  their  convent,  which 
was  never  done  before.  But  they  brought  it  to  a  trial  in  the  exche- 
quer, cast  the  governor,  and  got  him  turned  out. 

In  1328,  one  William  Skarlett  was  constable  of  Rochester 
Castle,  he  made  a  distrain  on  one  Simon  Sharstede,  for  lands  in 
Watringbury,  for  castle  guard. 

In  1382,  the  fifth  of  Richard  II.  while  the  nation  was  in  a  fer- 
ment, by  the  rebellion  of  Wat  Tyler,  Jack  Straw,  &c.  a  party  of 
the  rebels  besieged  this  place,  and  took  a  prisoner  out  of  it  by  force. 

In  1413,  William  Keriel  or  Criol,  died  governor  of  this  castle. 
After  him,  it  was  given  to  Thomas  lord  Cobham,  who  held  it  till 
his  death,  in  1472. 

Edward  IV.  who  began  to  reign  in  the  year  1461,  repaired  the 
walls  of  this  castle  and  of  the  city,  which  seems  to  have  been  the 
last  work  that  was  done  to  them.     From  that  period  they  have  been 


ROCHE6TER.  35 

neglected,  atvl  have  progressively  advanced  to  their  present  state  of 
decaj\  In  the  next  century,  the  castle  became  of  little  importance  : 
it  rested  among  tha  manors  of  the  crown,  until  James  I.  1610, 
granted  it  with  all  its  services  annexed,  to  Sir  Anthony  Weldon,  of 
Swanscombr.     It  is  now  the  property  of  the  earl  of  Jersey. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  an  attempt,  originating 
in  sordid  motives,  was  made  to  destroy  the  whole  of  this  venerable 
fabric  ;  but  this,  through  the  solidity  of  the  walls,  was  found  to  be 
too  expensive  an  enterprize,  and  was  therefore  abandoned  on  the 
same  principles  from  which  it  had  originated.  This  attempt  was 
made  on  the  eastern  side  near  the  postern  gate  leading  to  Boley 
Hill,  where  a  large  chasm  shews  the  effects  of  it. 

Much  land  in  this  and  other  counties  is  held  of  this  castle, 
whose  tenure  is  perfect  castle  guard ;  for  on  St.  Andrew's  day,  old 
stile,  a  banner  is  hung  out  at  the  house  of  the  receiver  of  the  rents ; 
and  every  tenant  who  does  not  then  discharge  his  proper  rent,  is 
liable  to  have  it  doubled  on  the  return  of  every  tide  in  the  adjacent 
river,  during  the  time  it  remains  unpaid. 

1572950 

The  Bridge. 


B, 


IEFORE  the  present  stone  bridge  was  built  at  Rochester,  over 
the  Med  way,  there  was  one  of  wood,  but  not  in  the  same  place,  it 
being  situated,  as  Lambard  expresses  it,  "  over  against  Strood  hos- 
pital," in  a  line  with  the  principal  streets  of  Rochester  and  Strood, 
and,  consequently,  in  a  more  eligible  situation,  if  the  bed  of  the 
river  was  equally  good. 

When  this  wooden  bridge  was  first  built,  cannot  accurately  be 
ascertained;  but  it  appears  to  have  been  very  ancient,  and  erected  a 
considerable  time  before  the  reign  of  king  John  :  accordingto  Stow, 
the  first  mention  of  a  bridge  in  this  place,  is  in  the  year  1213. 
Lambard  has  copied  several  regulatioQ<?  for  th^  rppairT  of  Rcfch«s- 


36  HISTORY  OF 

tor  bridge,  from  ancient  manuscripts  in  the  library  «of  Rochester 
cathedral,  collected  by  Ernulphus,  bishop  of  that  see:  he  was 
elected  in  the  year  1115,  and,  it  is  probable,  recorded  those 
regulations  as  ancient  customs  in  his  days.  An  abstract  from  this 
bishop's  memorandums  (which  are  written  in  Latin  and  Saxon)  may 
not  be  unentertaiuing  to  the  reader,  as  they  contain  a  curious 
account  of  the  length  of  the  wooden  bridge,  the  number  of  its  piers, 
the  materials  with  which  it  was  built,  and  the  method  by  which  it 
was-kept  in  constant  repair.  One  of  these  memorandums  was  taken 
from  an  ancient  record  at  Christ  Church,  Canterbury,  and  two 
others  from  St.  Andrew's,  Rochester,  and  are  entitled, 

Memorandums  plainly  shewing  by  whom  the  bridge 
at  Rochester  should  be  repaired,  as  often  as  it  is 
broken. 

"  The  first  land  p;er  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  shall  be  built 
"  or  repaired  by  the  bishop  of  Rochester;  to  plank  three  virgates 
"  or  yards,  and  to  lay  three  sullivas  or  large  beams  on  the  bridge  ; 
u  and  this  to  be  done  by  Borstale,  Cuckstone,  Frinsbury,  and 
"  Stoke.* 

"  The  second  pier  belongs  to  Gillingham  and  Chatham  j  they 
"  shall  lay  three  beams,  and  plank  one  yard. 

"  The  third  pier  belongs  to  the  abovesaid  bishop  of  Rochester  ; 
"  he  shall  lay  three  beams,  and  plank  two  yards  and  a  half,  and 
"  this  to  be  done  by  Hailing,.  Trottescliv-e,  Mailing,  Southfieet, 
"  Stanes,  Penenden,  and  Fakenham. 


♦Though  it  is  here  expressed,  that  the  bishop  of  Rochester  was  to  build  or 
r?pair  the  first  pier  of  the  bridge,  it  is  evident,  that  he  was  not  to  do  it  at  his 
ovefl  espence,  because  a  certain  number  of  parishes  or  hundreds  are  afterwards 
enumerated,  by  whom  it  is  said  that  it  must  be  done.  The  bishop  of  Rochester 
should  therefore  be  considered  as  the  patron  of  this  first  pier,  who  was  to  see 
that  it  was  kept  in  repair,  and  to  raise  contributions  on  the  parishes  or  hun- 
dreds there  specified  for  that  purpose.  This  remark  may  be  applied  to  the  ac- 
count of  the  succeeding  piers. 


ROCHESTER.  37 

'*  The  fourth  pier  is  the  king's;  and  he  shall  lay  three  beams 
"  and  plank  three  yards  and  a  half  to  be  done  by  Aylesford,  and 
"  by  all  the  hundred  pertaining  to  it,  and  by  those  on  the  hills, 
"  by  Ockley,  by  Smalland,  and  Cosington,  and  Dudsland,  and 
u  Gislardsland,  and  Woldham,  and  Burham,  and  Acclise,  and 
"  Horsted,  and  Farley,  and  Festan,  and  Chalk,  and  Honhirst, 
"  and  Edon,  and  Bouchold,  and  Lose,  and  Lillington,  and  Stock- 
"  bury,  and  Sineland,  and  Daleland,  and  Lechebundland. 

"  The  fifth  pier  belongs  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
"  he  shall  plank  four  yards  and  lay  three  beams,  and  this  to  be 
"  done  by  Wroth  am,  Maidstone,  Wattringbury,  Nettlested,  the 
"  two  Peckhams,  Hasclholt,  Mereworth,  Layborne,  Swantoa, 
u  Ofham,  Ditton,  and  Westerham. 

"  The  sixth  pier  to  be  done  by  Hollingborne  and  all  that  hundred 
"  which  belongs  to  it;  four  yards  to  plank,  and  four  beams  to 
"  lay. 

u  The  seventh  and  eighth  piers  belong  to  the  men  of  the  huu- 
(i  dred  of  Hoo ;  six  beams  to  lay,  and  four  yards  and  a  half  to 
"  plank. 

"  The  ninth  and  last  pier  belongs  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
"  bury,  which  is  the  west  end  ;  he  shall  lay  three  beams,  and  plank. 
"  four  yards :  this  to  be  done  by  Northfleet,  Clive,  Higham, 
w  Denton,  Milton,  Ludesdown,  Mepham,  Snodland,  Berlinj, 
"  Paddlesworth,  and  all  the  men  of  that  valley. 

"  These  shall  repair  the  bridge  at  Rochester,  whenever  it  is  bro- 
"  ken;  and  let  it  be  noticed,  that  all  the  beams  which  are  placed 
"  in  this  bridge  ought  to  be  of  large  dimensions,  that  they  may  well 
"  support  the  planks,  and  the  great  weight  of  all  those  thinga 
"  that  pass  over  them." 

The  preceding  extracts  are  the  substance  of  these  memoran- 
dums ;  but  the  originals  are  more  particular,  and  mention  certaia 
persons  by  name,  with  the  number  of  yokes  and  acres  belonging  to 
them,  according  as  they  were  taxed  to  the  work  of  this  bridge. 
They  observe  likewise,  that  some  persons  disputed  part  of  the 
contributions  demanded  of  them.     From  which  it  may  be  iaferred, 


38  HISTORY  OF 

that  these  regulations  were  ancient,  at  the  time  that  bishop  Ernul- 
phus  collected  them ;  for  these  disputes  might  probably  arise  from 
certain  indulgences  on  particular  occasions,  which  custom  had  af- 
terwards confirmed  into  a  law. 

By  these  ancient  records  it  appears,  that  the  bridge  consisted  of 
aine  pera;  or  piers  of  stone  and  earth ;  these  nine  piers  made  ten 
intermediate  spaces  in  the  length  of  the  bridge,  which,  according 
to  the  abovementioned  MSS.  was  twenty-six  yards  (or  rods)  and  a 
half,  equal  to  431  feet,  which  corresponds,  nearly,  to  the  present 
breadth  of  the  river  at  that  place. 

These  ten  divisions  were  each  forty-three  feet  from  the  centre  of 
one  pier  to  the  centre  of  the  other,  so  that  the  sullivas  *  or  beams 
here  mentioned  were  forty -three  feet  long.  The  beams  rested  on 
the  piers  of  stone  and  earth,  above  high  water  mark,  of  which 
there  were  twenty-eight.  Supposing  therefore  that  three  beams 
were  laid  in  parallel  lines  over  each  of  the  respective  divisions, 
excepting  the  two  extreme  arches,  where  two  might  have  been 
sufficient,  the  whole  number  will  then  be  regularly  arranged. 

Across  these  beams  were  laid  thick  planks,  which  compleated  the 
work.  We  cannot  ascertain  the  breadth  of  this  bridge,  but  think 
it  could  not  have  been  above  ten  feet.  There  was  a  wooden  tower 
erected  on  it,  called  a  fortification,  built  with'1,  marvellous  skill  ;" 
and,  it  is  probable,  was  near  the  east  end  of  the  bridge,  and  was 
used  as  agate,  for  the  defence  of  this  passage.  The  bridge  was 
secured  with  a  balustrade,+  which  with  the  tower  was  doubt- 
less kept  in  repair  by  Rochester  and  Strood. 

*  So  termed  from  the  Saxon  word  Syile,  which  we  yet  retain  in  the  term 
groundsille. 

+  But  it  may  be  conjectured,  that  this  balustrade  was  not  very  high,  and  of 
little  security  to  passengers,  because  it  was  accounted  dangerous  to  pass  the 
bridge  on  horseback;  as  appears  from  an  accident  which  happened  .#>ont  the 
time  of  Richard  I.  when  William  de  Elirtune,  son  of  viscount  Anfrid,  a  rash 
yonng  man,  not  alighting  from  his  horse,  as  was  customary,  the  beast  totfk 
fright  and  leaped  into  the  river,  by  which  accident  they  were  both  drowBed. 
Regirt.  Roff. 


ROCHESTER.  39 

It  is  probable,  that  the  money  for  erecting  this  bridge  was 
raised  in  the  same  manner  by  which  it  was  kept  in  repair,  via. 
by  a  taxation  on  the  adjacent  manors,  places  and  bounds,  accord- 
ing to  their  respective  value. 

These  places,  manors  or  bounds,  which  were  chargeable  with  the 
repairs  of  the  bridge,  were  accustomed  from  time  immemorial  to 
elect  two  men  from  among  themselves,  to  be  wardens  and  overseer* 
of  the  repairs  of  the  bridge. 

There  is  no  account  upon  record  of  its  being  destroyed  or  injured 
by  any  foreign  or  domestic  enemy,  'till  the  time  of  Henry  III. 
when  it  suffered  in  consequence  of  the  civil  commotions  betwixt 
that  monarch  and  his  barons.  Kilburn  indeed  says,  that  "  king 
John  attempted  to  burn  it,  when  he  besieged  De  Albinet  in  the 
Castle,  but  that  Robert  Fitz  Walter  put  out  the  fire  and  saved  it." 

In  the  year  1264,  on  Good  Friday,  this  bridge  was  much 
damaged  by  Simon  Montford,  earl  of  Leicester,  who  (as  before 
mentioned),  set  on  fire  the  bridge  and  tower  :  but  this  conflagra- 
tion consuming  only  the  wooden  materials,  it  is  probable  the  bridge 
was  soon  repaired. 

In  the  year  1177,  king  Edward  I.  commanded  the  Sheriff  of 
Kent  to  inquire  into  a  complaint  lodged  against  the  master  aiid 
brethren  of  Strood  hospital,  who  had  been  distrained  for  the  repair 
©f  the  head  of  Rochester  bridge,  next  their  own  house.  On  inqui- 
ry, it  appeared,  that  bishop  Glanville,  founder  of  the  hospital, 
had  built  a  stone  cjuay,  at  the  head  of  the  west  end  of  the  bridge, 
and  some  houses  on  the  quay,  with  money  which  he  had  collected 
from  various  places  for  that  purpose :  the  rents  of  these  houses, 
and  some  others  near  them,  he  appointed  for  the  repairs  of  the 
west  end  of  the  bridge,  assigning  them  to  the  master  and  brethren 
•f  the  hospital  for  that  purpose  ;  they  had  received  the  rents,  and 
maintained  the  repairs^  until  the  late  siege  of  Rochester  by  the 
earl  of  Leicester,  when  several  of  the  houses  given  to  the  brethren 
by  the  bishops  were  burnt ;  after  which  the  master  and  brethren  of 
the  hospital)  applied  the  remaining  materials  and  stones  of  the  quay 


40  HISTORY  OF 

to  the  repair*  of  their  chapel.  On  these  depositions  the  master 
and  brethren  lost  their  cause. 

In  12S1  there  was  a  long  and  severe  frost,  with  a  gre&t  quantity 
•f  snow  :  which  being  followed  by  a  sudden  thaw,  the  water  pour- 
ed from  the  adjacent  hills  into  the  river,  and  accelerating  the  rapi- 
dity of  its  stream,  the  floating  cakes  of  ice  were  carried  with  such 
Impetuosity  against  the  stone  piers,  as  to  sweep  some  of  them 
away,  and  considerably  damaged  the  remainder. 

After  this  frost,  the  bridge  continued  a  long  time  in  ruins.  Mr. 
Harris  says,  that  in  the  year  1293,  twelve  years  after  the  frost, 
a  the  budge  was  so  broken  and  out  of  repair  that  people  were 
"  obliged  to  go  overin  boats,  and  that  the  wharf  at  Rochester  was 
16  so  bad  that  all  vessels  used  the  wharf  at  Strood." 

The  bridge  appears  to  have  laid  several  years  in  this  ruinous  state  ; 
but  king  Edward  III.  meditating  a  war  with  France,  was  induced 
to  make  good  this  passage,  which  was  so  necessary  for  conveying  his 
army  to  Dover.  An  inquisition,  therefore,  was  taken,  A.  D.  1344, 
before  John  Vielstone,  the  king's  escheator,  for  the  county  of  Kent, 
by  the  oaths  of  twelve  men,  about  the  repairs  of  Rochester  bridge  : 
who  found,  that  the  expence  was  to  be  defrayed,  very  nearly,  by 
the  same  contributary  lands,  as  hath  been  already  related.  In  this 
Inquiry,  mention  is  made  of  a  draw-bridge  and  a  barbican,  the 
work  of  which  belonged  to  the  king  :  they  were  both  on  the  west 
side;  the  barbican  probably  was  a  guard-house  and  watch-tower, 
where  a  guard  was  posted  for  the  security  of  the  city;  and  the 
draw-bridge  might  be  over  the  west  arch  of  the  bridge,  to  draw  up 
on  the  approach  of  an  enemy.  It  was  found  also,  that  the  master 
and  wardens  of  Strood  hospital  were  to  repair  the  bridge  and  wharf, 
from  the  draw-bridge  to  the  west  end  of  it.  In  consequence  of  this 
examination,  it  is  presumed  that  bishop  Glanville  collected  the 
money,  with  which  he  built  the  wharf  and  houses.  This  contribu- 
tion was  principally,  levied  on  the  inhabitants  of  Northfleet,  Cliff, 
&C.  to  whom  the  west  or  ninth  pier  of  the  bridge  belonged ;  on 
rendition,  that  the  rents  of  the  wharf  and  tenements  should  re- 
lease them  from  any  future  taxations. 


ROCHESTER.  41 

In  this  inquisition  mention  is  made  of  a  small  place,  about  thirty 
feet  in  length,  adjoining  to  the  wharf  at  the  east  end  of  the  bridge, 
which  seems  to  have  been  two  small  wings,  one  on  each  side  of  {he 
entrance  of  the  bridge,  next  the  city,  with  wharfs  to  the  north  and 
south;  the  north  side  was  to  be  repaired  by  Frindsbury,  and  the 
south  by  Rochester. 

Soon  after  this  inquiry,  it  is  probable,  the  bridge  was  put  into  so 
good  repair,  as  to  admit  of  men  and  horses  passing  over  ;  but  after 
the  taking  of  Calais,  in  the  year  1347,  the  traffic  on  this  road  was 
so  considerable,  and  the  number  of  carriages  and  burdens  that 
necessarily  passed  was  so  great,  that  the  wooden  bridge  appeared 
insufficient  to  support  them  with  safety. 

In  what  year  the  present  stone  bridge  was  begun,  cannot  accu- 
rately be  determined  :  it  was,  however,  compleated  in  the  fifteenth 
year  of  Richard  II.  in  1392,  as  appears  by  a  statute  made  for  re- 
pairing and  supporting  the  new  bridge  at  Rochester,  in  which  sta- 
tute the  bridge  is  expressly  said  to  be  built  of  stone.  From  this 
record  it  may  be  conjectured  that  the  bridge  was  begurt  about  (he 
year  1387. 

Sir  Robert  Knolles  is  celebrated  for  being  the  founder  of  this 
bridge.  He  was  distinguished  both  by  his  courage  and  military 
preferments,  being  raised  by  degrees  from  the  rank  of  a  common 
soldier  to  that  of  a  general.  He  attended  Edward  III.  in  his  suc- 
cessful campaigns  to  France  ;  and  when  the  king's  affairs  declined 
by  the  ill  state  of  health  of  Edward  the  black  prince.  Sir  Robert 
was  sent  over  to  the  continent  with  an  army  of  thirty  thousand 
men.  He  advanced  into  the  heart  of  France,  and  extended  his 
conquests  as  far  as  the  gates  of  Paris.  In  this,  and  many  other 
expeditions,  he  acquired  great  riches,  and  returned  to  his  country 
laden  with  wealth  and  honour. 

Lambard  says,  Sir  Robert  built  this  bridge  with  "  the  spoils  of 
"  towns,  castles,  churches,  monasteries  and  cities,  which  he  burnt 


42  HISTORY  OF 

il  and  destroyed ;  so  that  the  ruins  of  houses,  &c.  were  called 
«  Knolles's  Mitres."* 

But  if  Sir  Robert  really  acquired  his  wealth  by  these  methods,  it 
must  be  acknowledged,  that  in  building  this  bridge  he  made  some 
kind  of  restitution,  even  to  the  subjects  of  the  country  which  he 
had  pillaged,  by  expending  the  money  in  a  public  work ;  and  in 
such  a  part  of  the  county  as  would  be  most  beneficial  to  them  in 
their  journey  from  Dover  to  London. 

Though  Sir  John  de  Cobham  joined  with  Sir  Robert  in  the  peti- 
tion to  parliament,  to  obtain  a  statute  for  the  repairs  of  the  new 
bridge  ;  yet  it  is  evident  from  the  concurrent  testimony  of  ancient 
authors,  that  it  was  built  chiefly  at  the  expence  of  Sir  Robert.+ 

This  bridge,  for  height  and  strength,  is  allowed  to  be  superior 
to  any  in  England,  excepting  the  bridges  at  London  and  Westmin- 
ster. It  is  above  five  hundred  and  sixty  feet  long  and  fifteen  feet 
broad,  and  has  been  much  improved  and  ornamented,  and,  in  many 
respects,  altered  for  the  better  within  the  last  fifty  years.  Three  of 
the  arches  have  been  rebuilt ;  both  the  entrances  rendered  more 
commodious,  and  the  bridge  itself  widened,  excepting  the  two 
middle  arches,  which  still  remain  in  a  very  dilapidated  state,  and 
the  passage  over  them  is  narrow  and  incommodious  for  passengers^ 

*Sir  Robert  Knolles  was  also  entrusted  by  the  same  monarch  with  the  cus- 
tody of  the  castle  of  Brest  in  Britany.  In  the  third  year  of  Richard  II.  he 
landed  at  Calais  with  an  army,  and  again  marched  through  France ;  in  the 
succeeding  year  he  led  on  the  citizens  of  London  against  Jack  Straw  and  his 
followers,  and  suppressed  that  dangerous  insurrection  :  nor  was  he  moFe  dis- 
tinguished by  his  military  prowess,  than  by  his  unbounded  munificence;  for, 
besides  this  bridge  at  Rochester,  he  founded  a  collegiate  church  at  Pontefract 
in  Yorkshire,  and  placed  a  master  and  six  or  seven  priests  in  it.  At  the  same 
place  he  erected  an  hospital  for  the  relief  of  thirteen  poor  men  and  women. 
He  also  enlarged  the  house  of  the  Friers  Carmelites  at  London,  and  repaired 
their  church.     He  died  A.  D  1407. 

+The  above-mentioned  petition  to  parliament  asserts  "  The  new  bridge  con- 
"  tains  in  length  more  than  the  old  bridge."  The  sum  of  the  parts  appropriated 
to  the  places,  manors,  &c.  for  the  repairs  in  future,  amounts  to  566  feet,  one 
inch,  and  half  a  quarter  of  an  inch. 


ROCHESTER,  43 

but  especially  for  carriages.  Prior  to  these  alterations  and  im- 
provements, there  was  on  each  side,  a  stone  parapet,  strongly  coped 
and  crowned  with  an  iron  balustrade,  part  of  which  is  yet  to  be 
seen ;  but  the  sides,  as  far  as  the  new  work  extends,  are  now  de- 
fended by  a  parapet  and  balustrade.  The  bridge  is  formed  of  eler 
ven  arches,  supported  by  piers,  which  are  well  secured  on  each  side 
by  sterlings.  The  largest  of  these  arches  is  above  forty  feet,  and 
most  of  the  others  above  thirty  feet  wide.  The  river  has  a  very  con- 
siderable fall  through  these  arches.  The  laying  the  foundation  of 
such  a  fabric,  the  piers  of  which  rest  upon  piles,  where  the  river 
is  so  deep,  and  the  flux  and  reflux  of  the  tide  so  strong,  rapid,  and 
impetuous,  must  have  been  a  very  arduous  undertaking,  and  a 
truly  noble  work  for  the  times  in  which  it  was  executed. 

The  present  bridge  is  about  forty  yards  nearer  the  castle  than  was 
the  old  one,  its  east  end  being  just  by  the  north-west  angle  of  the 
castle  wall.  The  motives  which  induced  Sir  Robert  to  alter  the  si- 
tuation of  the  bridge,  are  not  verj  apparent.  The  statute,  enact- 
ed for  the  repairs  of  his  new  bridge,  calls  it  a  "  better  place." 

Nothing,  however,  but  an  absolute  impracticability  of  rebuild- 
ing on  the  ancient  spot,  should  have  induced  the  founder  to  this 
removal  •  as  the  former  place  was  so  much  more  eligible,  on  ac- 
count of  its  being  in  a  direct  line  with  the  great  streets  of  Rochester 
and  Strood,  which  would  have  rendered  the  bridge  far  more  noble 
and  commodious,  than  it  is  in  its  present  situation.* 

At  the  east  end,  and  fronting  the  passage  over  the  bridge,  is  a 
chapel  originally  erected  by  Sir  John  de  Cobham,  the  same  who 
assisted  Sir  Robert  Knolles,  in  building  the  bridge.  The  chapel 
was  finished  soon  after  the  bridge,  in  1397  ;  but  it  will  be  further 
noticed  in  the  account  of  the  public  edifices  of  this  city.+ 

*  The  foundation  fcf  the  old  bridge  is  still  visible  at  low  water,  in  spring 
tides,  the  ground  there  being  frequently  dry. 

+  It  was  usual  with  our  pious  ancestors  to  erect  chapels  near  their  public 
edifices,  of  which  we  have  another  instance  in  the  chapel  that  was  erected  on 
the  ninth  pier  of  London  bridge,  by  the  master  mason,  who  endowed  it  with 
two  priests,  four  clerks,  &c. 


44  HISTORY  OF 

After  the  bridge  was  compleated,  Sir  Robert  Knolles  and  Sir 
John  de  Cobham  petitioned  the  king  in  parliament  for  a  statute  to 
support  their  new  structure  ;  and  as  the  bridge  was  considerably 
longer  than  the  former,  they  shewed  very  accurately  in  feet,  inches, 
and  quarters  of  inches,  the  proportion  of  the  repairs  belonging  to 
each  division,  according  to  the  former  ancient  regulations.  Agree- 
able to  which  it  was  enacted,  by  two  statutes,  one  made  in  the 
fifteenth,  the  other  in  the  twenty-first  year  of  Richard  II.  that  the 
bridge  should  be  repaired  by  the  divisions  there  specified ;  which 
specification  of  the  proportion  assigned  to  be  repaired  by  each 
division  may  not  be  unexceptable  to  the  reader,  especially  as  these 
statutes  are  still  in  force. 

Divisions.  Ft.  In.  Qrs.  Pts. 

I.  The  manors  of  Borstalle,  Cokilstane,  Frendes- 

bury,  and  Stoke,  shall  repair  from  the  east  arm 

of  the  bridge,  64     0     3     0 

II.  The  manors  of  Gillyngham  and  Chatham,  21     4     1     0 

III.  The  manors  and  places  of  Hallynge,  Trotis- 
clyve,  Mallynge,  Southflete,  Stone,  Pynyndene, 

and  Faukham,  53     4     2    2 

IV.  The  manors,  places,  and  bounds  of  Eylsford, 
and  its  whole  lathe,  those  upon  the  hills,  and  of 
Okie,  Ufenhalle,  Smalelande,  Consyntone, 
Dudeslande,  Gislardeslande,  Woldeham,  Rurg- 
ham,  Acclesse,  Herstede,  Farleghe,  Therstane, 

Chalke,  Henhurste,  and  Hothdone,  74     8     3     2 

V.  The  manors  of  Wrotham,  Maidestane,  Otter- 
yngbury^  Netilstede,  the  two  Peckhams,  Hesel- 
holte,      Mereworthe,     Lillebourne,    Swantone, 

Offeham,  Dittone,  and  Westerhame,  85     6     0     0 

VI.  The  manors,  places,  and  bounds  of  Hollyng- 

bourne,  and  the  whole  lathe  thereto  belonging,     85     6     0     0 

VII.  and  VIII.    The  manors  and  places  of  IIoo,       96     0     2     2 
IX.  The  manors  of  Northflete,    Gyve,  Heyham, 


ROCHESTER.  45 

Divisions.  Ft.  In.  Qrs.  pis. 

Dentone,  Meltone,  Lodesdone,  Mepeham, 
Snodelonde,  Bierlinge,  Padelesworthe,  and  all 
dwelling  in  those  valleys,  85     6     0    0 


The  "whole  length  of  the  bridge,        566     10    2 

The  aforesaid  statutes  further  enact,  that  the  said  persons,  ma- 
nors, places,  and  bounds,  should  be  considered  as  a  community ; 
and  give  them  power  to  choose  two  men  annually,  from  among 
themselves,  who  shall  be  called  wardens  of  the  new  bridge  at  Ro- 
chester, have  the  superintendency  of  it,  and  provide  for  the  repairs- 
It  was  also  permitted  them  to  acquire  lands,  &c.  to  the  amount  of 
two  hundred  pounds  a  year,  and  to  hold  them  as  wardens  of  the 
said  bridge.  They  were  to  be  accountable  to  certain  auditors,  ap- 
pointed by  the  community  to  examine  their  receipts,  disburse- 
ments, &c* 

*  Lands  and  tenements  proper,  belonging  to  Rochester  bridge,  in  the  reign  of 
Hen.  VJII. 

The  manor  of  Langden  was  given  by  the  bishop  of  Rochester,  and  others. 
The  manor  of  Little  Delce,  near   Rochester,  by   Mr.  Justice  Kitchell,  and 

others. 
The  manor  of  Rose  Court,  in  Greane,  by  king  Richard  II.  being  forfeited  to 

the  crown,  by  John  Cobham,  and  others. 
The  manor  of  Nashenden,  by  John  Peckham,  and  others. 
Tenements  in  Rochester,  by  the  King,  the  bishop  of  Durham,  and  others, 
Lands  and  tenements  in  Frensbury,  by  John  Double,  and  others. 
Lands  and  tenements  in  Dartford,  by  John  Trelingnam,  and  others. 
Lands  and  rents  in  the  isle  of  Shepey,  by  the  King,  and  others. 
Lands  in  Halstow,  by 
Lands  in  Hoo,  by 
Forty  marks  rent  out  of  Sharingden  and  Nesse,  in  the  isle  of  Elinley,  by  kiu  j 

Richard  II.  forfeited  by  John  Cobham,  &c. 
A  rent  of  eight  quarters  of  Barley,  out  of  Great  Delce,  near  Rochester. 
Lands  of  Mr.  Richard  Lee,  belonging  to  the  manor  of  .Nashenden. 
Seven  acres  of  laad,  at  Little  Delce. 
Sixteen  acre?,  at  Dartford. 


46  HISTORY  OF 

In  the  ninth  year  of  Henry  V.  A.  D.  1422,  a  statute  was  made 
confirming  the  two  former  acts,  and  enabling  the  wardens  to  pur-, 
chase  and  receive  lands,  tenements,  and  rents,  of  any  persons 
whatsoever,  and,  with  their  successors,  to  hold  them  for  ever,  for 
the  repairs  of  the  said  bridge.  They  were  permitted  also  to  have  a 
common  seal,  and  had  power  to  plead  in  any  court,  by  the  name 
of  the  wardens  of  the  new  bridge  at  Rochester. 

About  sixty  years  after  the  bridge  was  finished,  it  required  some 
repair:  for  in  the  year  1445,  the  prior  and  convent  of  Rochester 
gave  towards  the  bridge,  then  broken,  forty  shillings,  which  was 
toll-money  due  to  them  from  the  wardens.  And  in  the  following 
year,  king  Henry  VI.  made  them  a  present  of  some  ground,  on 
each  side  the  bridge,  with  the  house  called  Barbican^  for  its  better 
accommodation.  \ 

Mr.  Harris  relates  a  very  curious  anecdote  concerning  the  bridge, 
from  a  manuscript  written  originally  by  Sir  Roger  Manwood,  chief 
baron  of  the  exchequer,  in  the  year  1588,  and  at  that  time  one  of 
the  bridge  wardens.  "In  the  year  1489,"-  says  he,  "  Rochester 
M  bridge  being  much  broken,  and  out  of  repair,  John  Morton, 
"  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  published  a  remission  from  purgatory, 
"  for  forty  days,  of  all  manner  of  sins,  to,  all  such  persons  as 
"  would  give  any  thing  towards  its  repairs." 

From  hence  it  appears,  that  the  repairs  of  the  bridge  had  been 
much  neglected  in  the  hundred  years  it  had  stood :  and  that  the 
prelate  thought  it  an  object  of  too  much  importance,  to  be  neglect- 
ed any  longer.  Though  the  method  he  took  to  procure  money, 
may-appear  somewhat  extraordinary,  yet  it  seems  to  have  answered 
his  intentions ;  for  about  twenty  years  after,  archbishop  Warham 

Thirty  acres  of  salt  marsh  land,  at  Eastwick  and  Sparts,  near  IIoo  and  Greane. 
A  grant  from  the  King,  of  a  rent  of  five  pounds  per  annum,  from  the  hundred 

of  Blengate. 
The  manor  of  Southall,  alias   Tilbury,  in  Essex,  given  by  king  Richard  II. 

and  forfeited  to  the  crown.,  by  John  Cobham,  and  his  feoffees. 
The  chief  messuage  of  Cornhill,  in  London,  given  by  Richard  II. 
Other  tenements  in  London,  given  by  Wayingford,  and  others. 


ROCHESTER.  47 

adorned  great  part  of  the  coping  of  the  bridge  with  iron  bars  neat- 
}v  wrought ;  which  indicates  that  the  bridge  itself  was  at  that  time 
in  good  condition,  and  probably  the  iron  balustrade  was  put  up 
With  the  surplus  of  the  money  raised  by  Morton's  subscriptions. 

Archbishop  Warham  did  not  finish  this  work,  being  prevented 
by  death,  or  the  loss  of  his  prerogatives  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
and  the  succeeding  reigns  being  turhtrlent,  it  remained  unfinished 
"till  the  time  of  Mr.  Lambard,  A.  D.  1570.  When  it  was  corn- 
pleated,  does  not  appear,  but- probably  soon  after  he  wrote  his 
Perambulation. 

Notwithstanding  the  repairs  that  archbishop  Morton  had  given 
tli is  bridge,  about  the  year  1490,  in  the  beginning  of  queen  Eliza- 
beth's reign,  time  and  neglect  had  notalittle  contributed  to  its  decay. 
Mr.  Lambard  affirms,  that  "  the  revenue  of  the  bridge  was  con- 
M  verted  to  private  uses,  and  that  the  county  was  charged  with  a 
Ci  toll  and  fifteenth,  to  supply  this  public  want ;  yet  the  bridge 
li  went  out  of  repair,  and  was  threatened  with  absolute  destruc- 
«  tion." 

In  the  year  1573,  queen  Elizabeth  made  a  tour  into  Kent,  and5 
as  was  before  observed,  resided  five  days  at  Rochester.  Being 
informed  by  her  principal  secretary,  Sir  William  Cecil,  of  the  ruin- 
ous state  of  this  bridge,  she  was  pleased  to  grant  a  commission  to 
certain  lords,  to  Sir  William,  and  divers  knights  and  gentlemen  of 
the  county,  to  examine  the  defects,  and  find  means  to  remedy  them : 
and,  in  this  particular,  the  assiduity  of  the  chief  baron  of  her 
majesty's  exchequer  merits  commendation,  who,  surmounting  every 
difficulty,  projected  a  scheme  for  its  present  and  future  preservation  ; 
and  procured  the  statute  of  the  eighteenth  of  Elizabeth,  which  was 
made  for  the  perpetual  maintenance  of  Rochester  bridge,  by  which 
it  appears,  that  certain  rents  and  revenues  were  appropriated 
towards  its  repairs. 

This  statute  enacts,  that  on  the  morrow  after  the  general  quarter 
sessions  of  the  peace,  in  the  county  of  Kent,  next  after  Easter, 
the  wardens  and  commonalty  of  the  lands  contributory  to  the  repairs 
of  the  bridge,  as  many  as  conveniently  may,  shall  assemble  at  the 


48  HISTORY  OP 

castle  of  Rochester,  and  choose  two  persons  of  their  commonalty 
to  be  wardens  of  the  bridge,  residing  in  the  county ;  and  twelve 
persons  of  their  commonalty  to  be  assistants  to  the  wardens  for  one 
year,  and  thus  to  assemble  and  elect  in  the  said  place  annually 
for  ever. 

A  warden  elected,  and  refusing  to  serve,  forfeits  ten  pounds. 
The  wardens  have  power  to  appoint  officers  under  them,  with  such 
stipends  or  wages,  as  they  shall  think  necessary.  Every  year,  on 
Thursday  in  Whitsun  week,  the  two  late  wardens  shall  have  their 
accounts  audited,  in  presence  of  one  of  the  new  wardens  at  least, 
and  four  of  the  assistants;  who  were  ordered  to  meet  at  the 
Crown  Inn  near  the  bridge  at  Rochester,  or  at  any  other  conveni- 
ent place ;  no  contribution  was  to  be  demanded  from  the  ancient 
lands,  manors,  &c.  unless  the  new  fund,  or  lands  proper  proved 
insufficient  to  defray  the  expence. 

Nine  years  after,  A.  D.  1584,  the  new  fund  proving  inadequate 
to  the  necessary  repairs,  and  the  wardens  and  assistants  not  hav- 
ing sufficient  authority  to  levy  money  on  the  contributory  manors, 
&c.  a  statute  was  provided,  investing  them  with  full  power  to  as- 
sess the  lands  for  the  repairs  of  the  bridge,  and  to  distrain  in  case 
of  a  refusal. 

This  statute,  of  the  twenty-seventh  of  Elizabeth,  enacts,  that 
two  housholders,  at  least  from  every  parish  within  seven  miles  of 
the  bridge,  in  which  are  four  housholders,  shall  be  present  on  the 
day  of  electing  the  wardens  and  assistants,  under  the  penalty  often 
shillings;  and  that  the  wardens,  assistants,  and  inhabitants,  at 
such  annual  elections,  shall  defray  their  own  charges. 

The  day  of  election  proving  very  inconvenient,  it  Was  altered  by 
a  statute,  in  the  first  year  of  queen  Ann,  A.  D.  1702,  and  for  the 
future  appointed  to  be  on  Friday,  next  after  Easter  week. 

The  improvements  in  the  estates  belonging  to  this  bridge,  under 
the  excellent  management  of  the  present  and  late  wardens,  have 
proved  sufficient  for  its  repair,  without  any  assistance  from  the  con- 
tributary  lands,  for  many  years  past;  and  should  their  successors 
continue  equally  assiduous   and  upright  in  the  discharge  of  their 


,;/;  #e££«i  »/'&&*'•  ^/'"/'-<i/' 


ROCHESTER;  4g 

trust,  and  a  due  application  of  their  revenues,  we  may  indulge  a 
confident  hope  that  a  period  may  arrive,  when  the  surplus  of  these 
revenues  will  be  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  erect  a  new  bridge  on 
a  better  plan  than  the  present,  and  on  the  place  where  the  old 
bridge  originally  stood,  which  is  justly  considered,  in  regard  both 
to  beauty  and  convenience,  as  a  far  more  eligible  situation!  Near- 
ly forty  years  ago,  the  yearly  value  of  the  lands  proper,  is  stated 
to  amount  to  one  thousand  pounds  per  annum  *  There  can  be  no 
doubt  but  that  this  yearly  value  is  now  considerably  augmented, 
perhaps  more  than  doubled. 


The  Cathedral 

Bishoprick,  with  a  monastery  for  secular  priests,  was  found- 
ed  at  Rochester,  in  the  reign  of  Ethelbert,  king  of  Kent,  soon 
after  Augustine  the  monk  had  landed  in  the  isle  of  Thanet,  and 
preached  at  Canterbury.     This  part  of  Kngland  was  well   disposed 
for  the  reception  of  Christianity  by  the  zeal  a  d  exemplary  piety  of 
Bertha,  daughter  of  Caribert  king  of  Paris,  and  wife  of  Ethelbert. 
She  was  a  christian,  and  by  the  articles  of  her  marriage  enjoyed 
the  free  exercise  of  her  religion;  in  consequence  of  which  she  was 
attended  to  Kent  by  Luidhard,  a  prelate  of  great  learning  and  un- 
spotted life.     He  officiated  in  the  church  Of  St.  Martin's*  in  Can- 
terbury;  and,  by  bis  frequent  discourses   with   the  nobility,  had 
brought  over  several  persons,  in  the  king's  palace  to  the  profession 
of  Christianity:  so  that  when  Augustine  arrived  with  his   fellow 
missionaries  from  Rome,  he  found  Kent  well  prepared  to  listen  to 
bis  important  message.     This  propitious  event  happened  A.  D.  596. 
These  missionaries  had  such  success,  that  in  the  third  year  after 

*Hasted's  History  of  Kejit,  vol.  2.  p.  20. 

+A  temple  originally  built  uear  the  wall*  of  that  city,  by  the  Romans,  for 
tut  worship  of  idols. 

H 


50  HISTORY   OF 

their  landing,  no  less  than  ten  thousand  converts  were  baptized. 
Christianity  spreading  with  so  rapid  a   progress,  great  numbers  of 
edifices  w^re  shortly  erected  for  the  performance  of  religious  wor- 
ship.    The  first  church  at  Rochester  was  begun  about  the  year  of 
our  Lord  600,   hnished  four  years  afterwards,  and  dedicated  to  the 
honor  of  GOD  and  the  apostle  St.  Andrew.     This  building  suffered 
considerably  by  tune  and  the  ravages  of  foreign  enemies  ;  and  ap- 
pears to  have  had  but  few   repairs  until  about  1080,  when  bishop 
Gunddph  rebuilt  the  cathedral,  which  is  situated  about  fifty-four 
yards  south  of  the  high-street  ;*  it  consists  of  a  body  and  two  isles, 
one  on  each  side;  its  extent,  from  the  west  door  to  the  steps  as- 
cending to  the  choir,  is  fifty  yards,  and   from  thence  to  the  east 
windows  at'  the  upper  end  of  the  altar  fifty-two  yards  more,  in  all 
one  hundred  and  two  yards,  or  three  hundred  and  six  feet.     At  the 
entrance  of  the  choir  is  a  great  cross  isle,  the  length  of  which,  from 
north  to  south,  is  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  feet.     At  the  upper 
end  of  the  choir,  between  the  Bishop's  throne  and  the  high  altar, 
is  another  cross  isle,  which  extends  from  north  to  south,  ninety 

feet. 

The  west  front  extends  eighty-one  feet  in  breadth;  thearcljof 
the  great  door  is  doubtless  the  same  which  Gundulph  built ;  and  is 
a  most  curious  piece  of  workmanship,  every  stone  being  engraved 
Vith  some  device.  It  must  have  been  very  magnificent  in  its  origi- 
nal state,  its  remaining  beauties  being  sufficient  to  excite  the  atten- 
tion of  the  curious ;  it  is  supported  by  several  columns  on  each  side, 
two  of  which  are  carved  into  statues  representing  Gundulph's  royal 
patrons,  Henry  I.  and  his  queen  Matilda.  The  capitals  of  these 
columns,  as  well  as  the  whole  arch,  are  cut  into  the  figures  of  vari- 
ous animals  and  flowers.  The  key  stone  of  the  arch  seems  to  have 
been  designed  to  represent  our  Saviour,  sitting  in  a  niche,  a  book 

♦The  cathedral,  priory,  and  castle,  with  their  precincts,  covered  much  the 
greatest  part  of  the  city  on  the  south  side,  within  the  walls ;  it  is  also  very 
probable  that  the  scite  of  the  religious  edifices  which  how  remain  is  the  same 
it  was  originally. 


ROCHESTER.  51 

open  In  one  hand,  and  the  other  raised  as  in  the  act  of  benediction ; 
but  the  head  is  broken  off:  on  each  side  is  an  angel  inclining  tow- 
ards him  :  under  the  figure  of  our  Saviour,  are  twelve  other  figures, 
supposed  to  be  designed  for  the  twelve  apostles,  some  few  of  which 
are  perfect :  but  in  general  the  whole  arch  is  much  injured  by  time, 
$nd  the  more  merciless  hand  of  bigoted  zeal. 

On  each  side  of  the  west  door  is  a  square  tower  ;  that  on  the 
north  side  has  lately  been  rebuilt,  and  has  in  the  centre  niche,  on 
the  west  front,  a  very  ancient  figure,  supposed  to  be  the  statue  of 
bishop  Gundulph. 

After  passing  through  the  great  west  door,  you  descend  by  steps* 
into  the  body  of  the  church,  which,  with  the  side  isles,  is  sixty 
three  feet  in  breadth.  The  lower  part  of  the  nave  is  probably  all 
that  remains  of  the  fabric  raised  by  Gundulph,  and  this  is  judged 
to  baTe  been  of  his  construction,  from  the  variety  and  dimensions 
of  the  pillars,  and  from  the  circular  arches,  the  form  and  orna- 
menting of  which  exactly  correspond  with  those  in  the  castle-  The 
joining  of  this  part  with  that  nearest  the  choir,  is  sufficiently  evi- 
dent; and  the  pointed  or  ox-eyed  arches,  which  are  visible  within 
two  pillars  of  the  great  cross  isle,  are  marks  of  the  style  of  archi- 
tecture of  a  more  modern  date,  and  came  into  use  after  the  holy 
war.  The  roof  of  the  nave  seems  to  have  been  since  raised,  and 
all  its  windows  +  made  new  and  enlarged  at  different  times,  parti- 

*At  the  bottom  of  the  steps  is  a  large  stoDe,  on  which  has  been  fixed  the 
effigy  of  a  bishop,  with  inscriptions  and  ornaments  all  of  brass.  They  have 
long  since  been  worn  out,  or  taken  off;  the  nails  which  fastened  the  brass  work 
still  remain ;  it  is  not  improbable  but  this  stone  was  laid  by  Gundulph,  to  pre- 
serve the  memory  of  bishop  Tobias. 

+  It  appears  that  all  the  windows  of  this  church  were  not  compleated,  or  at 
least  had  not  glass  in  them,  A.  D.  1417,  because  on  the  3 1st  of  July  in  that 
year  a  country  vicar  was  enjoined,  by  way  of  penance  for  some  fault  not 
specified,  to  go  in  procession  to  the  cathedral,  and  to  glaze  at  his  own  ex- 
pence,  one  of  the  windows.  We  cannot  discover  whether  any  wiole  windows 
io  this  cathedral  were  ornamented  with  painted  glass;  it  is  however  certain, 
that  there  are  none,  or  at  least,  very  few  remains  of  it  to  be  perceived  at  pre- 
sent. In  one  of  the  lights  in  the  south-west  cross,  there  were  lately  some  re- 
mains of  the  arms  of  the  family  of  the  ijarsaam's,  ancestors  cf  the  present  lord 
Bomney.    As  no  traces  of thesra.e  eow  ta  fee  discerned*  we  conclude -that 


52  HISTORY  OF 

cuiarly  the  large  one  in  the  west  front,  on  each  side  of  which,  within 
the  church,  may  be  seen  the  remnants  of  the  arches  that  were  des- 
troyed at  the  enlargement  of  the  window.  The  roof  of  this  part 
of  the  building  is  now  flat,  although  from  the  feet  of  the  groins 
still  remaining  it  appears  as  if  this  part  of  the  church  was  originally 
vaulted.  The  pavement,  from  the  west  door  to  the  choir  steps, 
was  laid  after  the  restoration,  by  Mr.  Peter  Stowell,  who  expended 
in  this  useful  work  upwards  of  one  hundred  pounds.*  Over  the 
middle  of  the  great  cross  isle  stands  the  steeple,+  containing  six 
bells,  and  is  jn  height  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  feet.  On  the 
west  side  of  the  south  end  of  this  isle  is  a  chapel,  which  has  gene- 
rally been  called  St.  Mary's  chapel.  It  was,  till  the  dissolution  of 
the  priory,  th(^  chapel  of  the  infirmary,  and  the  altar  in  it  was 
dedicated  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  Feb.  28,  1240.  The  bishop's  con- 
sistory court  is  now  held  here ;  and  in  this  chapel,  early  prayers 
used  formerly  to  be  read.  Thomas  Trilleck,  Thomas  Brinton,  and 
Richard  Young,  bishops  of  this  see,  all  lie  buried  in  this  chapel,^ 
but  no  trace  remains  of  the  particular  place  where  they  were  inter- 
red. Although  this  chapel  appears  to  have  been  vaulted,  yet  it  is 
not  of  equal  antiquity  with  the  other  parts  of  this  fabric :  the  pillars, 
which  supported  the  arches,  are  in  a  style  of  architecture  different 
from  any  other  in  this  building,  and  are  composed  of  the  fire-stone. 
On  the  east  side  of  this  isle,  and  south  of  the  choir  leading  to  the 
chapter  room,  is  a  square  chapel,  usually  called  St.  Edmund's 
chapel.  In  the  south  wall  are  evident  marks  of  a  door,  which 
most  probably  opened  into  an  apartment  adjoining  to  the  dortor 
or  dormitory  of  the  priory,  called  the  excubitorium,    where  the 

they  were  removed,  or  more  probably  destroyed,  at  the  time  when  the  present 
stained  glass  windows  were  introduced. 

♦  It  was  principally  owing  to  this  gentleman,  that  the  dean  and  chapter, 
after  the  restoration,  recovered  many  of  their  books,  papers,  and  records, 
together  with  their  old  seal. 

t  It  was  rebuilt  in  1749;  and  is  covered  with  lead,  as  was  the  roof  of  every 
other  part  of  this  building. 

| For  the  authorities  on  which  the  places  of  interment  of  these  and  other 
bishops  of  this  sec  arc  founded,  see  the  list  of  bishops  in  the  following  part  of 
this  work. 


ROCHESTER.  $$ 

porter  used  to  keep  watch,  whose  business  it  was  to  call  up  the 
monks  on  their  nocturnal  devotions.  In  the  wall  behind  the  choir  i* 
a  stone  chest,  on  which  is  the  effigy  of  a  bishop  in  a  recumbent 
posture ;  the  head  is  entirely  gone  to  decay,  and  some  other  parts 
of  it  are  now  much  defaced;  this  is  supposed  to  be  the  monument 
of  John  de  Bradfield,  a  bishop  of  this  see,  whose  remains  were 
deposited  here  in  1283. 

From  this  chapel  you  descend  into  the  undercroft,  which  is  very 
spacious,  and  vaulted  with  stone.  There  were  altars  erected  here 
to  St.  Mary  and  St.  Catherine,  but  they  seem  not  to  have  been 
much  frequented :  consequently  these  saints  were  not  very  profit- 
able to  the  priests.  There  was  an  altar  here  dedicated  to  St.  Ed- 
mund,* built  and  well  endowed,  by  Geoffery  de  Haddenham, 
which  appears  to  have  been  of  some  considerable  reputation,  and 
was  most  probably  fixed  in  the  east  wall,  near  the  south  side  of  the 
foundation  of  the  church ;  very  evident  marks  of  a  large  altar 
having  been  erected  here  are  still  visible,  and  the  bason  for  the  holy 
water  remains  entire. 

From  Si.  Edmund's  chapel  you  proceed  towards  the  chapter- 
room,  near  the  entrance  into  which,  under  the  south  windows, 
were  two  very  old  stone  chests,  (one  only  of  which  remain,  the 
other  having  beep  removed  during  the  recent  repairs,)  raised  about  a 
foot  from  the  ground,  and  undoubtedly  the  repositories  of  an- 
cient bishops  :  on  the  tops  are  the  figures  of  antique  ci  osses.  Browne 
Willis  relates, t  that  the  lid  or  covering  of  one  of  them  being 
broken  off  by  the  rebels  about  the  year  1646,  a  crucifix  and  ring 
were  found  in  it.  This  eminent  antiquary  has  given  it  as  iiis  opinion, 
In  one  page  t  of  his  account  of  this  cathedral,  that  the  greatest  part 
of  the  monuments  were  defaced  ;  and  in  the  next,  that  all  the  in- 

*  Weever  and  Kilburn  are  both  mistaken  in  supposing  this  altar  to  have  been 
placed  in  the  body  of  the  chnrch ;  for  it  is  evident  from  the  Heg.  Roff.  p.  125, 
>t  was  *'  in  cryptis,"  in  the  undercroft. 

-f  See  his  history  of  mitred  pari,  abbies^  &c.  vol.  1.  p<  2fc8» 

ilbjd,  p.  2b6, 


54  HISTORY  or 

Sjcriptious   -were   demolished  during  the   civil  wars ;  but  it  is  rery 
probable  that  many  of  them  had   been  injured  at   the  time  of  the 
reformation,  the  rage  fqr  destroying  every  thing  decorated  with  a 
cross  was  such  at  that  time,  that  queen  Elizabeth  thought  it  neces- 
sary, in  the  second   year   of  her    reign,  to  issue  a  proclamation 
against  the  persons,  who  should   be  found  guilty   of  (his  offence: 
and  Fuller,  who,  in  his  church  history,  book  IX.  p  66.  printed 
this  proclamation,  has  observed,  that  her  majesty  to  give  the  great- 
er weight  to  her  orders,  signed  each  copy  with  her  own  hand.    The 
fury,  however,  of  those  pretended  reformers,  who  in  the  century 
before  last  subverted  the  civil  as  well  as  the  ecclesiastical  constitu- 
tion of  this  kingdom,  extended  to  this  cathedral ;  though   it  cer- 
tainly suffered  less  mischief  from  their  bigotry  than  some  others  of 
these  sacred  edifices.     This    is  evident  from  a   paper,    intituled^ 
"  Mercurius  Rusticus,"  published  in  1647,   where  the  author  gives 
us  the  following  account.    "  In  September  1641,  the  rebels,  coming 
to  Rochester,  brought  the  same  affections  which  they  express' d 
at   Canterbury;  but  in  wisdom  thought  it  not  safe   to  give  them 
scope  here,  as  there ;  for  the  multitude,  tho'  road  eP°ugh,.  yet 
were   not  so  mad,  nor  stood  so  prepared,  to  approve  such  hea- 
thenish practices.     By  this  means  the  monuments  qf  the  dead, 
which  elsewhere  they  brake  up  and  violated,  stood  untouched; 
escocheons  and  arms  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  remained  unde- 
faced;  the  seats  and  stalls  of  the  quire  escaped  breaking  down; 
only  those  things,  which  were  wont  to  stuff  up  parliament  peti- 
tions, and  were  branded  by  the  leaders  of  the  faction  for  popery 
and  innovations ;  in  these   they  took   liberty  to  let  loose  their 
'  wild  zeal:  they  brake  down  the  rails  about  the  Lord's   table,  o.r 
i  altar:  they  seized  upon  the  velvet  of  the    holy  table;  and,  ia 
1  contempt  of  those  holy  misteries  which  were  celebrated  on  the 
c  table,  removed  the  table  itself  into  a  lower  part  of  the  church. 
-'  To  conclude  with  this  farther  addition;  as  I  am  credibly   in- 
'  formed,  they  so  far  profaned  this  place,  as  to  make  use  ©f  it  in 


rochesterI  55 

C£  the  quality  of  a  tippling  house,  as  well  as  dug  several  saw-pits, 
Ci  and  the  city-joiners  made  frames  for  houses  in  it."* 

The  ancient  apartment  for  the  capitular  meetings  of  the  monks 
was  situated  south  of  the  altar,  as  is  also  what  is  now  applied  to  a 
similar  use  by  the  dean  and  prebendaries,  and  the  former  commu- 
nicated with  the  church,  by  the  door  which  leads  into  the  present 
chapter-room  ;  the  arch  of  this  door  seems  to  rival  the  great  west 
door  in  point  of  antiquity,  it  being  richly  carved  and  ornamented 
with  a  variety  of  figures,  which  have  been  much  injured  by  enthu- 
siastic despoilers,  and  defaced  by  a  White-wash,  very  injudiciously 
laid  on  this  and  many  other  parts  of  the  building.-r 

In  the  chapter-room,  is  a  small  collection  of  useful  books;  there 
is  no  fund  established  for  the  increase  of  this  library,  but  the  deau 
and  chapter  have  frequently  purchased,  out  of  the  church  revenue, 
several  volumes,  which  have  been  added  to  it.  An  excellent  regu- 
lation,^ was  also  made  several  years  ago,  and  has  been  strictly 
complied  with,  that  every  new  dean  and  prebendary  should  give 
towards  the  increase  of  the  library  a  certain  sum  of  money,  or  books 
to  that  value,  in  lieu  of  those  entertainments  which  were  formerly 
made  on  their  admission. §    In  this  library  is  a  valuable  and  curious 

*See  Rawlinson's  Antiq.  of  Rochester,  p.  118. 

+The  church  was  white-washed  in  1743-4,  when  the  choir  was  repaired  and 
beautified. 

JThis  regulation  was  made  while  Dr.  Prat  was  dean  of  this  cathedral.  This 
same  reverend  gentleman  presented  to  the  library,  a  large  book-case  which 
had  belonged  to  his  royal  highness  the  duke  of  Gloucester. 

§  Except  from  the  members  of  the  church,  there  have  been  but  few  donations 
to  tins  library :  two  legacies  however  ought  not  to  be  omitted,  one  of  twenty 
pounds,  from  John  Cason,  esq.  of  Wcdensborough,  who,  as  well  as  his  father, 
long  enjoyed  the  lease  of  that  manor  and  parsonage,  belonging  to  the  dean 
and  chapter  of  this  church :  the  other  was  also  a  bequest  of  the  like  sum  by 
Richard  Poley,  esq.  late  an  inhabitant  of  this  city.  In  the  younger  part  of 
his  life,  this  gentleman  had  been  secretary  to  Mr.  W.  Finch,  when  ambassador 
at  the  court  of  Sweden,  and  was  some  years  before  his  death,  appointed,  by 
that  nobleman,  to  an  honourable  employment,  in  his  majesty's  household.  He 
died,  Jan.  20,  1770,  and  lyeih  buried  at  the  feet  «f  ;he  steps  ascending  t«  the 


56  HISTORY  OF 

manuscript,  intituled,  li  Textus  Roffensis,"  compiled  chiefly  fay 
bishop  Ernulphus,  in  the  twelfth  century.  William  of  Malmsbnry 
makes  mention  of  this  manuscript ;  part  of  it  was  published  by 
Hearne  in  1720.  The  members  of  this  church  were  surreptitiously 
deprived  of  this  venerable  monument  of  antiquity,  nor  could  they 
for  two  years  discover  into  whose  hands  it  was  got ;  and  when  the 
person  was  detected,  he  peremptorily  refused  to  return  it.  The 
dean  find  chapter  were  therefore  obliged  to  apply  to  the  court  of 
chancery,  and  at  a  very  considerable  expence  obtained  a  decree  for 
the  restitution  of  it.  The  dean  and  chapter  were  in  imminent  dan- 
ger of  being  deprived  of  this  valuable  treasure  at  another  time  ;  for 
it  being  carried  to  London  by  Dr.  Harris,  it  unfortunately  fell  into 
the  Thames ;  nor  was  it  recovered  but  with  great  difficulty,  and  not 
without  sustaining  some  small  injury  from  the  water.  This  learned 
body  are  also  possessed  of  another  very  curious  manuscript,  judged 
by  some  intelligent  persons  to  be  more  ancient  than  the  Textus. 
It  is  intituled  "  Custumale  RoffenSe,"  the  principal  part  of  which, 
we  are  informed,  is  published  in  Mr.  Thorpe's  Regist.  RofF. 

The  altar-piece  is  plain,  but  very  neat,  and  made  of  Norway 
oak.  Dr.  Thomas  Herring,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  had 
been  dean  of  this  cathedral,  gave  fifty  pounds  towards  ornamenting 
it.  In  the  centre  of  the  altar-piece,  is  a  good  painting  from  the 
pencil  of  West,  of  the  angel  appearing  to  the  shepherds,  presented 
by  J  Wilcocks,  esq.  son  of  bishop  Wilcocks,  though  it  was  not 
discovrred  that  the  church  was  indebted  to  the  liberality  of  that 
gentleman,  for  so  beautiful  and  ornamental  a  decoration,  till  after 
his  decease. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  altar,  within  the  rails,  are  two  very 
ancient  tombs  of  two  bishops.  That  nearest  to  the  communion) 
table,  is  supposed  to  have  been  erected  for  bishop  Laurence  de  St. 

choir.  In  him  was  united  (he  gentleman  and  scholar.  By  his  benefaction  to 
the  library  of  this  cathedral,  he  discovered  his  inclination  to  assist  the  studious 
endeavours  of  those,  Mho,  may  be  animated  as  he  was,  with  the  laudable  de- 
sire of  excelling  ir  useful  literature. 


ROCHESTER.  5t 

Martin,  who  was  interred  in  this  cathedral,  A.  D.  1274.  The 
canopy  is  curiously  wrought  on  the  top'.  The  other  tomb  is  much 
defaced;  the  top  of  it  is  partly  of  modern  materials:  it  is  open  at 
each  end,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  erected  for  Gilbert  de 
Glanvill,  who  was  interred  in  this  cathedral,   A.  D.  1214. 

On  the  south  side,  near  the  communion  table,  is  the  tomb  of 
another  bishop,  seemingly  more  ancient  than  the  former,  which  is 
thought  to  have  been  erected  for  that  great  benefactor  to  this  church, 
bishop  Gundulph,  who  rebuilt  the  priory,  he  was  interred  A.  D. 
1 107.*  Near  to  this  tomb  is  another,  containing  the  effigy  of  a 
bishop,  in  a  recumbent  posture,  with  a  canopy  ort  the  top  of  the 
stone  coffin ;  this  effigy  is  very  perfect,  and  is  supposed  to  be  that  of 
Thomas  de  Inglethorpe,  interred  A.  D.  1291.  Adjoining  to  this 
tomb  is  the  confessionary,  consisting  of  three  divisions  of  arches, 
the  workmanship  of  which  is  very  neat.  It  is  embellished  with 
paintings  of  arms  between  each  division.  When  Browne  Willis 
surveyed  this  cathedral,  here  was  the  portrait  of  a  bishop,  finely 
drawn,  but  hot  the  least  vestigia  of  it  now  remain. 

The  choir  which  is  ascended  from  the  nave  by  a  flight  of  ten  steps, 
leading  through  a  plain  arch  in  an  un-omamented  stone  screen,  on 
which  rest  the  organ  gallery  and  the  organ,  is  nearly  five  hundred 
and  fifty  years  old,  being  first  used  at  the  consecration  of  Henry  de 
Sandford,  bishop  of  this  diocese,  A;  D.  1227.  William  de  Hoo, 
sacrist,  or  keeper  of  the  holy  things  in  this  church,  rebuilt  this 
choir,  with  oblations  left  at  the  tomb  of  William,  who  was  after- 
wards, A.  D.  1256,  canonized,  and  known  by  the  name  of  St. 
William.  Richard,  a  monk,  and  sacrist  (probably  successor  to 
William  de  Hoo)  built  the  south  isle  of  the  choir.  Richard 
Eastgale,  a  monk,  began  the  north  isle,  and  friar  William  of 
Axenham  finished  it.     The  roof  of  the  choir,  and  other  parts  of 

*  Whether  the  remains  of  this  bishop  were  deposited  oh  the  south  side  of  the 
altar,  in  the  large  stone  cheat  still  remaining,  or  under  a  stone  lying  before  the 
altar,  curious'W  wrought,  is  not  certain.  See  the  account  of  him  in  the  list  of 
bishops. 

I 


58  HISTORY  <5F 

this  building,  are  curiously  vaulted  with  stone,  the  columns  of 
which  are  all  of  marble,  brought  from  quarries  near  Petworth,  in 
Sussex ;  it  is  of  a  grey  colour,  with  a  cast  of  green,  thick  set  with 
shells,  chiefly  turbinated :  several  of  these  shells  are  filled  with  a 
white  spar,  which  variegates,  and  adds  to  the  beauty  of  the  stone  : 
its  texture  is  rather  irregular,  but  very  firm,  and  not  destitute  of 
brightness,  but  in  this  church  its  beauties  are,  in  general,  obscured  by 
the  injurious  white- wash.  The  old  ponderous  roof  covered  with 
lead,  and  depending  almost  entirely  for  support  on  the  thickness 
and  solidity  of  its  walls,  has  been  lately  removed,  and  replaced  by 
a  new  one  covered  with  blue  slate,  of  a  much  lighter  construction, 
and  of  less  elevation  than  the  former. 

The  choir  is  plainly  neat*  and  commodious:  very  considerable 
alterations  and  improvements  were  made  in  it,  at  a  large  expence, 
in  the  years  1742,  and  1743,  it  being  then  wainscoted,  new  pews 
erected,  and  the  whole  pavement  laid  with  Bremen  and  Portland 
stone  beautifully  disposed.  The  pulpit  and  seats,  were  then  furnish- 
ed, as  were  also  the  stalls  for  the  dean  and  prebendaries  which  are 
under  the  organ*  The  bishop's  throne,  which  is  opposite  the  pulpit, 
was  built  at  the  charge  of  the  late  prelate  Dr.  Wilcocks.  Over  the 
entrance  into  the  choir  was  an  ancient  organ,  which  Browne  Willis, 
when  he  surveyed  this  cathedral,  termed  "  a  sightly  organ"  ;  it  was 
erected  very  early  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  so  long  since  as 
1668  it  was  styled  "  an  old  instrument" ;  and  one  hundred  and 
sixty  pounds  were  then  paid  for  its  repair,  and  a  new  chair  organ. 
Jn  1791  a  new  organ  of  excellent  workmanship  built  by  Mr.  Green 
was  erected,  and  opened  by  Mr.  Banks  the  present  organist,  which 
for  fineness  of  tone  has  few  equals.  The  pipes  are  formed  into  clus- 
ters of  columns,  and  the  whole  is  crowned  by  pinnacles  and  finials 
which  produce  a  good  and  appropriate  effect.  The  front  of  the  or- 
gan gallery  towards  the  nave,  as  well  as  the  sides  of  the  entrance 
into  the  choir,  are  of  wood,  carved  in  imitation  of  the  pointed  style, 

♦Simplex  munditiis.    Hor. 


ROCHESTER.  59 

not  well  corresponding,  it  must  be  confessed,  with  the  general  cha- 
racter of  the  edifice. 

At  the  north  end  of  the  upper  cross  isle,  and  near  the  pulpit  is  a 
chapel,  called  St.  William's  Chapel,  whose  tomb  is  here  situated. 
It  is  probably  the  same  which  was  originally  called  St.  Mary's 
Chapel.  Frotn  an  instrument,  intitled,  "  Ordinatio  prima  ad  tum- 
bam  Sti  Willielmi,"  published  in  the  Regist.  Roff.  p.  549,  we  learn 
that  when  Haymo  de  Hethe  appointed  and  endowed  two  priests,  to 
pray  daily  for  the  souls  of  himself  and  succeeding  bishops,  and  for 
all  benefactor?  to  this  church,  he  directed  that  oifice  to  be  perform- 
ed near  the  tomb  of  St.  William,  at  the  altar  where  the  mass  of  the 
blessed  Virgin  Mary  hath  used  to  be  celebrated. 

From  the  bishop's  precaution  in  specifying  the  shrine  of  this  po- 
pular saint,  it  seems  probable  that  the  altar  appropriated  to  the  Vir- 
gin Mary  was  grown  out  of  repute,  and  that  of  St.  William  of  Ro- 
chester (like  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury)  had  not  only  drawn  from 
the  altar  of  Mary  much  the  greater  share  of  the  offerings  of  infatu- 
ated pilgrims,  but  likewise  deprived  her  of  the  dignity  she  had 
acquired  from  her  supposed  superintendency  of  this  chapel.  Her 
successor  William  was  also  in  his  turn,  displaced  at  the  reformation. 
Th  e  name  of  this  superstitious,  though  inoffensive  Caledonian  saint, 
is  now  sunk  almost  into  oblivion  'y  and  the  name  of  a  prelate,  who 
was  an  ornament  of  the  times  in  which  he  lived ;  the  happy  effects 
of  whose  sound  judgment  and  generosity,  succeeding  ages  have  ex- 
perienced, is  still  commemorated  in  this  part  of  the  ancient  fabrick3 

JEternumque  tenet  per  saecula  nomen. 

And  whilst  a  love  of  literature  shall  prevail  among  those  who  more 
especially  reap  the  fruit  of  his  munificent  endowment,,  and  they  shall 
from  motives  of  gratitude  persist  in  their  laudable  endeavours  to 
preserve  entiie,  a  monument,  raised  by  the  piety  of  their  predeces- 
sors, to  the  memory  of  the  first  founder  of  their  college  (the  model 
of  every  other  seminary  in  our  two  famous  universities)  the  name 
of  Walter  de  Merton  must  continue  to  enjoy  this  honorable  dis- 
tinction.    This  Bishop  was  interred  under  the  north  wall  of  the 


60  HISTORY    OF 

4 

chapel,  where  is  a  full  length  effigy  of  him  in  red  reined  marble, 
beneath  a  double  pointed  arched  canopy,  ornamented  with  vine 
leaves  and  acorns-  This  monument  was  executed  at  .Limoges  in 
France,  where  the  art  of  enamelling  which  anciently  contributed  to 
ornament  rich  tombs  was  then  flourishing.  The  whole  expence  of 
erecting  it,  as  appears  from  an  account  printed  by  Warton  in  his 
history  of  English  poetry,  was  671.  14s.  6d.  The  lower  part  was 
almost  destroyed  at  the  time  of  the  reformation,  and  the  present 
monument  which  appears  to  have  been  ornamented  by  the  original 
canopy,  was  executed  at  the  expence  of  the  Warden  and  Fellows 
of  Merton  College,  as  appears  by  the  following  inscription  in  front 
of  the  tomb. 

Waltero  de  Merton,  cancellario  Anglia;  sub  Henrico  tertio, 
episcopo  Roffensi  sub  Edwardo  primo  re.  unius  exemplo  omni- 
um quot  quot  extant  collegiorum  fundatori  ;  maximorum 
Europae  totious  ingeniorum  foelicissimo  parenti ;  custos  et  scho- 
lares  domus  scholarium  de  Merton  in  universitate  Oxon.  commu- 
nibus  collegij  impensis  debitum  pietatis  monumentum  posuere, 
anno  domini  1598.    Henrico  Savile  custode. 

This  monument  was  again  defaced  and  nearly  destroyed  by  the 
Fanatics  in  the  grand  rebellion,  and  was  again  restored  to  its  for- 
mer state  in  1662  by  the  warden  and  fellows  of  Merton  College, 
who  added  the  following  inscription, 

Hunc  tumulum  Fanaticorum  rabie (quae  durante  nupero  plusquom 
civili  bello,  prout  in  ipsatempla,  sic  et  in  heroum  sanctorum- 
que  reliquias  ibidem  pie  reconditas  immaniter  soeviebat)  defor- 
matum  atque  fere  deletum,  custos  et  scholares  domus  scholarium 
de  Merton,  in  Academia  Oxoniensi,  pro  sua  erga  fundatorem 
pietate  et  gratitudine  reolintegrabant,  Anno  Dom.  1662.  cus- 
tode dno.  Thoma  Clayton,  equite. 

It  was  cleaned  and  beautified  A.  D.  1770,  by  the  direction  of 
that  learned  body,  who  very  judiciously  ordered  the  white-wash  to 
betaken  off.  The  figure  of  this  bishop  Merton  lies  incumbent, 
having  his  mitre  on  his  head,  which  rests  on  an  ornamented  pillow. 


ROCHESTER.  61 

Oa.the  wall  behind  are  his  arms  and  purse  as  lord  Chancellor.  He' 
died  on  the  Tigil  of  St.  Simon  and  St.  Jude,  1277.  In  a  panne. I 
under  the  bishop's  feet  are  these  lines, 

Magne  senex  titulis,  Musarum  sede  sacrata 
Major,  Mertonidum  maxime  progenie. 

Hasc  tibi  gratantes  post  saecula  sera  nepotes, 
En  votivalocant  marmora,  sancte  parens. 

It  is  the  conjecture  of  an  ingenious  gentleman,  who  was  former-, 
ly  a  fellow  of  Merton  college,  that  the  writer  of  this  tetrastick,  at 
the  time  of  his  composing  it,  had  in  his  thoughts  the  following  well 
known  epitaph  of  Matthew  Paris  on  the  empress  Matilda, 

Ortu  Magna,  viro  major,  sed  maxima  partu 
Hie  jacet  Henrici  filia,  sponsa  parens. 

Adjoining  to  bishop  Merton' s  monument  is  a  large  stone  chest, 
much  defaced,  which  is  all  that  remains  of  St.  William's  shrine, 
that  brought  such  considerable  emoluments  to  the  monks  of  this 
priory*. 

Opposite  to  this,  in  the  same  chapel,  is  a  monument,  in  the  fora 
of  a  large  altar,  to  bishop  Lowe,  who  was  interred  in  this  chapel 
A.  D.  1467.  It  is  circumscribed  with  the  following  lines  in  old 
characters ; 

Miserere  Deus  anime  fr.    Johannis  Lowe  episcopi 

Credo  videre  bona  domini  in  terra  viventium. 

Santi  Andrea  et  Augustine  orate  pro  nobis. 

On  the  middle  of  the  tomb,  are  several  escutcheons,  in  which  are  as 
follows, 

I  H  C  est  amor  meus.     Deo  grass. 
At  the  bottom  of  the  tomb  are  these  words, 

Quam  breve  spatium  haec  mundi  gloria. 
Ut  umbra  hominis  sunt  ejus  gaudia. 

*For  the  history  of  this  saint,  see  the  account  of  Laurence  de  St.  Martin, 
in  the  list  of  bishops. 


62  HISTORY  OF 

At  the  east  end  of  this  chapel  is  an  isle,  enclosed  with  iron  rails, 
and  paved  with  black  and  white  marble.  In  the  north  end  of  this 
isle  is  a  beautiful  tomb  of  white  and  black  marble  and  alabaster, 
erected  to  the  memory  of  bishop  Warner,  who  was  interred  here 
A.  D.  1666.  On  the  south  side  of  this  isle,  and  opposite  to  the 
former,  is  another  tomb,  of  white  and  black  marble,  erected  for 
John  Lee  Warner,  archdeacon  of  this  diocese,  who  died  12th  of 
June  1679.  Between  the  two  east  windows,  in  the  same  isle,  is 
another  marble  monument,  in  memory  of  Lee  Warner,  esq*. 

From  this  chapel  is  a  descent  into  the  great  north  isle,  by  a  flight 
of  steps,  which,  being  much  worn,  bear  evident  marks  of  their  an- 
tiquity, and  are  a  convincing  proof  how  very  numerous  the  votaries 
must  have  been  who  formerly  resorted  to  the  shrine  of  St.  William. 
On  one  of  the  great  pillars,  in  the  north  isle,  is  a  compartment  for 
William  Strearon,  who  was  nine  times  mayor  of  Rochester,  and 
died  A.  D.  1609 :  the  epitaph  on  this  monument,  and  that  on  bi- 
shop Lowe's,  are  the  only  inscriptions  in  this  church  which  escaped 
the  ill  directed  zeal  of  the  first  reformers,  and  the  fury  of  those 
outrageous  innovators  in  the  last  century,  who  were  stimulated  by 
the  basest  motives+. 

Near  Streatons  monument,  behind  the  choir,  is  the  remains  of  an 
ancient  tomb  under  an  arch  :  Haymo  de  Hethe  was  buried  in  the 
north  side  of  this  church ;  but  whether  under  this  tomb,  or  on  the 
north  side  without  the  rails  near  the  altar,  where  are  some  remains 
of  a  monument,  cannot  be  determined. 

The  cathedral  contains  many  memorials  of  eminent  men,  com- 
posed in  elegant  and  classical  Latin,  which  are  given  at  length  in 
the  Regist.  RofF.  Besides  the  monuments  already  described,  there 
are  many  others,  venerable  for  their  antiquity,  and  curious  for  their 
workmanship,  a  minute  description  of  which,  would  exceed  the 

*The  inscriptions  on  all  these  monuments,  are  given  at  length,  in  the 
Regist.  Roff. 

+  It  appears  that  the  iron  and  brars  work  of  some  of  the  monuments  ami 
tombs  were  taken  down  and  sold  by  John  Wyld,  a  shoemaker,  of  Rochester. 


ROCHESTER.  63 

prescribed  limits  of  our  work.  There  are,  however,  two  of  modernt- 
date  which  deserve  particular  notice,  as  doing  credit  to  the  correct 
taste  and  professional  abilities  of  their  respective  sculptors.  We  al- 
lude to  two  superb  and  stately  monuments  erected  against  the  wall 
of  the  south  isle,  to  the  memory  of  the  late  John,  lord  Henniker, 
and  dame  Ann  Henrietta,  his  lady. 

The  monument  of  lord  Henniker  rises  in  the  pyramidal  form,  and 
is  about  sixteen  feet  high.  It  exhibits  a  sarcophagus,  at  the  sides  of 
which  are  full  length  figures  of  honor  and  benevolence  in  alto- 
relievo.  The  former  is  distinguished  by  appropriate  symbols,  and 
in  the  act  of  crowning  the  latter,  who  rs  known  by  a  pelican  which 
she  bears  in  her  hand.  At  the  side  of  benevolence  is  a  medallion 
of  the  deceased*,  with  a  coronet  and  unfolded  patent  of  peerage ; 
and  against  the  base,  which  supports  the  sarcophagus,  are  his  arms. 
Lord  Henniker  died,  April  18,  1803,  aged  79. 

The  monument  jof  lady  Henniker  is  wrought  in  Coade's  artificial 
stone,  and  corresponds  in  size  and  general  figure  with  that  of  lord 
Henniker,  exhibiting  a  sarcophagus  of  white  marble  between  two 
much  admired  figures  of  time  and  eternity  standing  on  a  bas  j  of  grey 
marble.     Lady  Henniker  died,  July  18,  1792,  aged  65. 

In  the  east  side  of  the  great  north  isle,  is  a  large  recess+,  in  which 
there  is  the  appearance  of  an  altar's  having  formerly  been  erected. 
The  receptacle  for  holy  water,  is  still  entire.  It  is  by  many  suppos- 
ed, that  the  altar  of  St.  Nicholas  was  situated  in  this  place  ;  but  if 
this  altar  had  been  fixed  here,  it  must  have  been  before  the  year 
1312;  for  it  appears  froru  a  judicial  act  (printed  in  the  Regist  Ron", 
page  545)  that  it  was  removed  about  that  time  into  the  upper  part 

•The  wig  which  ornaments  tbe  head,  though  not  so  large  as  Sir  Cloudesley 
Shovel's  in  Westminster  Abbey,  will  probably  remind  our  readers  of  tfrfse 
lines  of  Pope: 

M  That  live-long  wig,  which  Gorgon's  self  might  own, 

"  Eteraal  buckle  takes  in  Parian  stone." 

•» 

tDr.  Caesar's  monument  is  fixed  in  ibis  place. 


64  HISTORY  OF 

of  the  body  of  the  church,  near  the  steps  *  leading  into  the  choir. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  adjoining  parish  most  probably  resorted  to 
this  altar  till  their  church  was  completed :  but,  if  the  altar  of  St. 
Nicholas  was  not  in  the  north-west  cross  isle,  there  is  little  Teason 
to  doubt  of  there  being  some  altar  on  that  spot,  Where  masses  were 
occasionally  celebrated  :  for  it  appears  from  the  will  of  William 
Ryvers,  a  citizen  of  Rochester,  dated  August  28,  1496,  that  he  had 
directed  his  body  to  be  buried  in  the  cathedral,  before  the  crucifix 
(ante  crucem)  near  the  north  door  :  and  as  a  distinction  was  made 
between  the  high  altar  and  the  altar  of  Jesu,  and  a  legacy  left  to 
th6  latter,  before  which,  it  was  the  request  of  the  testator  to  be 
interred;  it  is  not  improbable,  that  the  altar  of  Jesu  might  have 
been  fixed  in  this  part  of  the  church. 

During  that  long  and  dark  period  in  which  our  ancestors  were 
slaves  to  popish  superstition,  they  crouded  all  their  places  of  divine 
worship  with  various  altars,  dedicated  to  different  saints,  many  of 
whom  possibly  never  existed.  In  this  church,  besides  what  havt> 
been  already  described,  were  altars  to  the  Trinity,  to  St.  Peter,  to 
St.  Paul,  to  St  Michael,  to  St  Ithamar,  to  St.  James,  to  St.  Ursula, 
and  t6  St.  Dionysius,  but  none  of  these  altars  seem  to  have  been  of 
reputation  among  the  people,  or  productive  Of  any  great  emolu- 
ments to  the  priests.  Neither  are  the  particular  spots  where  they 
wre  situated  to  be  easily  traced.  There  was  also  an  altar  to  the  ho- 
nnr  of  St.  Gyles,  and  the  offerings  made  to  it  were  granted  to  the 
hospital  of  St.  Bartholomew. 

The  following  extract  from  a  will  makes  mention  of  several  al- 
tars ;  and  as  it  is  in  other  respects  curious,  it  may  not  be  unaccept- 
able to  the  reader.  a  Richard  Qwykke,  surgeon,  by  will,  dated 
"  Nov.  18,  1501,  ordered  his  body  to  be  buried  in  the  cathedral, 
"  before  the  image   of  St.  Ursula,  and  bequeathed  to  the  altar  of 

*Tlie  word  in  the  original  is  Pulpitum,  which,  according  to  Mr.  Somrier, 
in  his  antiquities  of  Canterbury,  p.  91,  92,  signifies  grieces  or  steps.  "  Aud  he 
mentions  likewise  there  being  an  altar  placed  in  that  cathedral  between  tha 
na*e  and  the  choir.     See  also  part  II,  by  Mr.  Battcly,  p.  9,  and  27. 


ROCHESTER*  65 

il  St.  James,  in  the  said  church,  a  cloth  of  diaper  ;  to  the  altar  of 
"  St.  Ursula,  a  plain  towel,  marked  with  black  silk ;  to  the  altar 
"  of  Jesu,  and  of  St.  Ursula,  to  make  either  of  them  an  altar  cloth, 
"  a  fyne  shete ;  to  the  gentylmens  table,  in  the  hall,  to  wash  dai- 
(i  \y  therein,  a  bason  of  laton,  and  an  ewer  with  a  rose  in  the 
'  middle;  item,  3  sylver  spones,  an  ownce  of  broken  sylver,  and 
"  iii  s.  iu  money,  to  make  the  spones  in  the  fratrie  an  honest  dosyn  ; 
{i  item,  to  our  lady  in  Jeson,*  a  purse  of  gold,  and  beryl  and 
(i  coral  stones  to  be  broidered  about  it,  and  5d.  in  money ;  item, 
"  vi  s.  viii  d.  to  buy  a  marbyl  stone  to  lye  upon  his  grave." 

On  the  north  side  of  the  cathedral, +  between  the  two  cross  isles, 
is  an  ancient  tower,  which  is  generally  allowed  to  have  been  raised 
by  Gundulph.  In  after  times  it  was  called  the  five  bell  tower;  but 
a  late  antiquarian,  who  was  no  less  accurate  than  assiduous  in  his 
researches  into  the  history  of  the  ecclesiastical  fabrics  of  this  coun- 
try, has,  in  his  remarks  on  this  cathedra],  hinted  an  opinion  that 
the  bishop  had  not  designed  this  building  for  a  belfry,  but  for  other 
uses,  such  as  a  treasury,  or  repository  for  records.  This  conjec- 
ture is  confirmed  by  an  attentive  survey  of  its  size  and  construc- 
tion, the  walls  being  above  six  feet  thick ;  the  area  within  the 
walls  cannot  exceed  twenty-four  feet  square.  There  are  ap- 
pearances of  two  floors  having  been  laid  in  the  tower,  the  first  at 
about  twenty  feet  from  the  ground  ;  the  second  at  about  twenty- 
five  feet  from  the  first;  above  the  upper  floor  the  walls  rise  about 
twenty  feet,  so  that  the  height  of  the  tower  seems  to  be  about  six- 
ty-feet. Between  the  south  side  of  the  tower  and  that  part  of  the 
church  near  which  it  stands,  are  evident  marks  of  two  floors  having 
been  laid,  from  each  of  which  there  are  narrow  entrances  into  the 

*These  words  may  be  in  part  explained  by  a  legacy  of  Juliana  Hickes,  of 
Rochester,  who  directed  in  her  will,  dated  Sept.  9,  1493,  that  a  purse  of  gold 
be  offeryd  withe  the  botons  of  sylver  and  gilte,  to  the  byrth  of  Jesu  within  the 
chapel  of  our  Lady,  in  the  said  monastery. 

+  Mr.  Willis,  by  mistake,  says  it  is  on  the  south  side  of  the  cathedral.  See 
his  hist,  of  Mitred  Abb.  p.  286. 

K 


66  HISTORY  OP 

tower  but  these  seem  to  be  of  a  modern  date :  the  original  entrance 
appears  to  have  been  at  the  top  of  the  tower,  and  is  worthy  of  par- 
ticular notice.  In  an  angle  of  the  church  near  ten  feet  from  the 
tower  is  a  curious  winding  staircase  of  stone,  leading  to  the  roof  of 
the  church.  From  the  top  of  this  staircase  is  sprung  an  arch  extend- 
ing to  the  summit  of  the  tower,  the  entrance  therefore  into  the  tower, 
was  over  the  arch,  by  a  narrow  flight  of  stone  steps  still  remaining. 
The  singular  situation  of  this  staircase,  detached  from  the  building 
to  which  it  leads,  confirms  the  conjecture  that  this  tower  was  de- 
signed as  a  place  of  especial  security. 

As  there  are  no  sufficient  grounds  for  believing  that  this  tower 
was  ever  much  used,  it  seems  no  very  improbable  conjecture  that 
the  members  of  the  religious  societies  settled  here,  as  well  before  as 
since  the  reformation,  have  not  hitherto  found  the  want  of  so  strong 
and  spacious  a  building  for  the  safe  custody  of  their  archives  and  their 
wealth.  In  the  first  edition  of  this  work,  the  account  of  this  tower 
concludes  in  these  words :  "  May  the  present  reverend  and  learned 
"  gentlemen,  and  their  successors,  experience  the  necessity  of  fi- 
"  nishing  this  venerable  tower,  and  applying  it  to  the  uses  for 
"  which,  it  has  been  conjectured,  it  was  originally  intended."  So 
far,  we  regret  to  say,  is  this  ardent  wish  from  having  been  realiz- 
ed, that  a  part  of  this  antique  tower  has  lately  been  taken  down,  to 
supply  materials  for  the  repairs  of  the  church.  An  attempt  thus  to 
demolish  one  of  the  most  curious  and  interesting  specimens  of  an- 
cient architecture  at  present  remaining  in  England,  will  be  deep, 
ly  regretted  by  every  enlightened  antiquary;  and  imputed, 
however  unjustly,  to  such  sordid  and  selfish  motives,  as  are 
utterly  unworthy  of  so  respectable  a  body  as  the  dean  and  chapter 
of  Rochester.  We  must  however  observe,  that,  though  the  histo- 
rian of  Rochester,  entertained  the  idea  that  this  tower  was  origi- 
nally designed  for  the  preservation  of  records;  yet,  other  ingenious 
antiquaries  are  no  less  decidedly  of  opinion,  that  it  was  erected 
only  for  a  bell  tower.  A  careful  inspection  of  the  building,  they 
tell  us,  will  convince  any  intelligent  inquirer,  that  the  present  en- 


ROCHESTER.  6/ 

trance  from  below,  is  coeval  with  the  fabric  itself,  and  that  the 
pointed  arch,  which  it  now  opens  under,  is  an  innovation  of  later 
times. 


The  Priory ;  its  Dissolution  ;  and  the  Establishment 
of  the  Dean  and  Chapter. 

JL  HE  Priory,  as  well  as  the  church  of  Rochester,  was  begun 
about  the  year  of  our  Lord  600.  A  chapter  of  secular  priests  was 
first  placed  here,  which  king  Ethelhert  endowed  with  a  portion  of 
land  to  the  south  of  the  city,  called  Priestfield  ;  from  this  name 
Mr.  Lambard  conjectures  it  was  granted  for  the  support  of  the 
priests  :  he  also  gave  other  parcels  of  land  within  and  without  the 
Avails  of  this  city.  Exclusive  of  king  Ethelbert,  the  benefactors  to 
this  society  were  few,  and  some  of  their  gifts  of  little  value ;  the 
estates  which  these  seculars  enjoyed  were  moreover  frequently  plun- 
dered by  the  Danes*,  so  that  we  have  no  grounds  to  believe  their 
revenues  were  ever  more  than  sufficient  to  support  six  priests,  and 
at  the  conquest  they  were  certainly  reduced  to  five. 

Gundulph  compelled  these  men  to  leave  the  church,  and,  by  the 
advice  and  assistance  of  Lanfranc  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  ap- 
pointed in  their  room,  A.  D.  1089,  twenty  monks  of  the  order  of  St. 
Benedict,  who,  from  the  colour  of  their  outward  hahit,  were  gene- 
rally called  the  black  monks.  This  prelate  rebuilt  the  priory,  and 
obtained  very  ample  revenues  for  this  new  community;  and  he  had  be- 
fore his  death  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  members  of  it  increased 
to  upwards  of  threescore  +.  An  account  of  the  benefactions  the  re- 
gulars received  from  different  persons,  with  the  most  material  occur- 
rences  which  happened  to  them,  especially  their  frequent  disputes 
with  their  bishops,  shall  be  giveu  in  the  history  of  the  prelates  of 

"9ee  Regfist,   Roff.  p.  5.  +See  Regist.  Rcff.  p.  143. 


68  HISTORY  OF 

this  diocese.     Our  present  design  is,  to  inform  the  reader  of  the 
principal  transactions  in  the  ecclesiastical  institutions  of  this  place. 

A.  D.  1540,  the  monks  were  in, their  turn  dispossessed  of  a  set-r 
tlement  in  this  church,  which  they  had  enjoyed  for  more  than  four 
centuries  and  a  half,  from  the  time  of  the  removal  of  the  secular 
canons.  The  commission  to  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  impow^ 
ering  him  to  accept  the  surrender  of  this  religious  house,  with  ail  its 
appurtenances,  to  the  use  of  the  king,  his  heirs  and  successors,  is 
dated  on  the  twentieth  of  March ;  and  on  the  eighth  of  April  fol- 
lowing the  seal  of  the  convent  was  fixed  to  the  instrument  of 
resignation.  This  deed  was  executed  in  the  presence  of  a  master 
in  chancery,  and  is  probably  inrolledin  the  court  of  Augmentations. 
The  editor  of  the  first  edition  of  this  work  mentions  his  having  once 
seen  a  copy  of  it,  and  though  each  member  of  the  chapter  is  said  to 
have  subscribed  his  name,  the  prior  only  seems  to  have  signed  it,  and 
styles  himself  Walter  Boxley ;  but  in  the  charter  of  foundation  of 
the  present  collegiate  church  he  is  called  Vvaltcr  Phillips,  which  ap- 
pears to  have  been  his  usual  name.  The  instrument  mentions  the  una- 
nimity of  the  chapter,  and  that  they  did  this  act  deliberately,  vo- 
luntarily, and  freely;  their  souls  and  consciences  being  moved 
by  causes  just  and  reasonable. 

His  majesty  likewise,  in  the  preamble  of  the  charter  of  founda- 
tion of  the  present  dean  and  chapter,  asserts,  that  the  prior  and  his 
brethren  were  induced  to  make  this  surrender  by  some  special  and 
urgent  causes ;  but  the  principal  reason  undoubtedly  was,  that  they 
were  aware,  if  they  did  not  at  last  acquiesce  in  what  the  king  had 
manifestly  shewn  to  be  his  pleasure,  there  might  be  some  danger  of 
their  losing  not  only  their  properties  but  their  lives  :  whereas  by  a 
compliance  with  his  will  they  might  hope  to  secure  to  themselves 
some  future  marks  of  the  royal  favor*. 

*On  the  day  of  the  surrender  of  this  religious  house,  some  of  the  members 
of  it  had  respectively  the  following  pensions  assigned  them  by  the  king's  com- 
missioners. To  Rob.  Pylton,  Rob.  Smyth  impotent,  Will.  Albon,  ten  pounds 
each;  Nic.  Harrington  chauntry  preyst,    and  having  a  perpetuyte   in   the 


ROCHESTER.  69 

This  important  period  of  the  english  history  is  so  well  known, 
that  it  must  be  needless  to  enter  at  large  into  the  motives,  real  and 
pretended,  for  the  entire  dissolution  of  this  and  all  other  seats  of 
superstition  in  this  country ;  but  some  account  will,  perhaps,  be 
expected  of  the  merits  and  demerits  of  the  persons  who  resided  so 
long  in  this  place.  And  though,  in  discussing  this  point,  we  cannot 
promise  (to  adopt  an  observation  of  Mr.  Battely)  that  the  expressi- 
ons we  shall  use  will  be  always  as  u  Serious  and  as  grave,  as  if  we 
(t  ourselves  were  the  ghosts  of  some  of  these  old  monks,"*  yet, 
having  resolved  that  truth  and  candour  shall  guide  our  pen,  we 
hope  to  avoid  giving  all  just  ground  of  offence  to  the  manes  of  any 
one  of  those  sincere,  but  mistaken  enthusiasts,  who  formerly  lived 
here  sequestered  from  the  rest  of  their  species,  and  thought  the  most 
essential  part,  if  not  the  whole  of  religion,  consisted  in  acting 
contrary  to  nature. 

Previous  to  the  suppression  of  these  religious  houses,  two  general 
visitations  of  them  were  made  by  the  king's  command,  one  A.  D. 
1535,  the  other  about  two  years  after.  The  commissioners  reports 
of  the  state  of  this  convent  are  not,  we  belive,  extant.  Probably 
they  were  destroyed,  with  many  other  papers  of  the  like  kind,  in 
the  reign  of -queen  Mary.  Some  injunctions,  however,  delivered  by 
bishop  Wellys+  a  century  before,  inconsequence  of  a  strict  inquisition 

howse  thereof,  ten  pounds  thirteen  shillings  and  four-pence  during  his  lyffe, 
in  recompence  thereof  he  ys  appoynted  eight  pounds  thirteen  shillings  and 
fourpence ;  Owen  Oxforde  nothyng,  because  he  ys  appoynted  to  the  offyce  of 
under  sexten ;  Ant.  London  cellser,  ten  pounds ;  Tho.  Nevell  six  pounds  thir- 
teen shillings  and  four-pence;  Will.  Canterbury  one  hundred  shillings;  Rich. 
Chetham  one  hundred  shillings ;  Rob.  Bacon  chauntry  preyst  at  Northfleet, 
and  havyng  a  perpetuyte  of"  six  pounds  thirteen  shillings  and  four-pence  dur- 
yng  his  lyffe,  in  recompence  thereof  he  is  appoynted  one  hundred  shillings ; 
Nycholas  Spelherst  over  and  besides  the  offyee  of  high  sexten,  appoynted 
unto  hym  forty  shillings;  Thomas  Grey  over  and  beside  the  offyce  of  gospeller 
forty  shillings;  Thomas  Cox  over  and  besides  the  epistoler,  appoynted  unto 
hym  forty  shillings. 

♦Antiq.  of  Canterbury,  pt.  11.  p.  87.         +See  Reg.  W.  Wellys,  p.  150,  151. 


70  HISTORY   OF 

into  the  manners  of  the  monks  of  St.  Andrew,  are  a  sufficient  proof 
that  they  had  then  considerably  deviated  from  the  rules  of  St.  Be- 
nedict, and  that  the  bishop  thought  too  great  precaution  could  not 
be  used  to  prevent  their  again  violating  the  unwarrantable  vow  pecu- 
liar to  the  monastic  orders*. 

Whether  they  and  their  successors  obeyed  in  all  points  the 
salutary  admonitions  of  their  visitor,  may  be  questioned ;  but  there 
are  grounds  for  believing  that  this  society  had  not,  at  least  for  some 
time  before  its  dissolution,  been  guilty  of  those  unnatural  crimes 
charged  upon  the  members  of  other  fraternities  of  regulars,  and 
from  which  accusations,  many  of  them  were  never  able  to  exculpate 
themselves.  Their  extreme  backwardness  in  surrendering  this  old 
habitation,  will  incline  us  to  judge  more  charitably  of  their  actions. 
Had  they  been  thus  abominably  vicious,  a  consciousness  of  their 
being  justly  liable  to  the  severest  penalties  the  Ijtws  could  inflict, 
would  have  rendered  them  apprehensive  of  exposing  themselves,  by 
their  obstinacy,  to  the  resentment  of  their  merciless  prince.  And 
we  ought  to  recollect,  that  this  of  St.  Andrew  was  one  of  the  larger 
monasteries,  and  that  the  commissioners  accused  the  lesser  houses 
chiefly  of  more  flagrant  immoralities. 

Practices  superstitious  and  idolatrous,  prevailed  without  dispute 
in  all  these  societies;  and  every  one  of  them  pretended  to  be  pos- 
sessed of  a  shrine,  an  image,  or  a  relick,  endued  with  a  power  of 
working  miracles.  Within  less  than  a  century  after  the  foundation 
of  this  church,  many  wonderful  cures  are  said  to  have  been  wrought 
at  the  burial  place  of  St.  Ithamar;  and  the  extraordinary  and  fre- 
quent interposition  of  St.  William,  in  favor  of  the  numberless  vota- 

*A  profound  silence  within  several  apartments  of  the  monastery  was  ano- 
ther wise  rule  of  the  order  of  St.  Benedict:  his  disciples,  however,  in  this 
priory,  seem  not  to  have  honoured  their  unsociable  patron,  either  in  the 
observance  or  in  the  breach  of  this  institution  ;  for  the  first  of  the  bishop's 
regulations  plainly  indicates  that  the  monks  did  not  only  exercise  the  faculty 
of  speech  (the  singular  prerogative  of  a  man)  at  times  and  in  places  when  and 
where  lie  judged  they  ought  not;  but  had  made  a  practice  of  abusing  it  by 
licentious  and  idle  talk,  and  by  keen  invectives  against  each  other. 


ROCHESTER.  71 

rles  who  resorted  to  his  tomb,  was  a  most  plentiful  source  of  wealth 
to  the  monks  :  and  fortunate  was  it  for  them,  that  the  pope  con- 
sented to  the  canonization  of  this  harmless  Scotch  pilgrim,  for  pos- 
sibly no  religious  house  in  the  kingdom  was  more  destitute  of  won- 
der-working relicks.  Iu  that  long  roll  of  benefactious  printed  in 
the  Regist.  Roff.  p.  122,  from  a  MS.  in  the  British  Museum,  there 
occurs  only  a  little  phial  of  the  blood  of  that  martyr  to  his  bound- 
less love  of  power,  Thomas  Becket. 

The  hospitality  of  these  regulars  is  the  next  thing  which  requires 
our  attention;  and  they  must  have  had  many  opportunities  of  af- 
fording relief  to  travellers,  from  the  situation  of  the  priory  :  nor 
did  they  fail  to  use  this  specious  plea,  in  order  to  obtain  an  increase 
of  their  revenues.  That  the  bishops  of  this  diocese  so  readily  heark- 
ened to  their  solicitations,  some  of  the  country  clergy  Avill  ever 
have  cause  to  regret  ;  for,  the  better  enabling  the  monks  to  exercise 
this  commendable  virtue,  was  a  common  pretence  for  an  appropria- 
tion of  the  tythes  of  several  parochial  benefices.  But,  notwith- 
standing these  and  many  other  lucrative  acquisitions,  they  seem  to 
have  been  generally  very  necessitous  ;  and  though  it  is  certain  that 
their  poverty  must  be  attributed  partly  to  the  chargeable  litigations 
in  which  they  were  involved  to  maintain  rights  and  privileges,  some 
of  which  were  legal,  and  many  more  assumed;  it  is  equally  true, 
that  they  expended  considerable  sums  in  a  constant  and  liberal  dis- 
position of  alms.  The  annual  income  of  the  estates  belonging  to 
the  priory,  according  to  the  valuation  returned  into  the  exchequer, 
20th  of  Henry  VIII.  was  four  hundred  and  eighty  six  pounds  ele- 
ven shillings  and  live  pence  ;  the  state  of  its  finances  at  that  period, 
we  are  not  able  to  ascertain. 

Frequent  mention  is  made  of  very  large  debts  contracted  by  these 
regulars,  and  opulent  and  generous  benefactors  sometimes  freed 
fhem  from  their  incumbrances.  It  appears,  however,  from  the  an- 
swers to  several  articles  of  enquiry,  exhibited  at  an  episcopal  visita- 
tion held  in  1498,  that  twenty-four  monks  only  resided  at  that  time 
in  this  house  ;  and  these  being  little  more  than  a  third  part  of  the 


72  HISTORY  OF1 

number  settled  in  it  by  Gundulph,  the  diminution  was  probably 
owing  to  the  insufficiency  of  the  revenue  to  support  the  full  comple- 
ment. The  names  indeed  of  only  thirteen  monks  occur  in  the  list 
of  those  to  whom  pensions  were  granted  by  the  king's  commissi- 
oners. But  it  does  not  from  hence  follow,  that  the  number  of  them 
was  reduced  so  low.  For  several  of  them  might  willingly  embrace 
the  opportunity  then  offered,  of  being  released  from  the  vow  of  ce- 
libacy, and  in  that  case,  would  not,  we  believe  be  entitled  to  any 
allowance.  Though,  as  the  suppression  of  their  house  must  have 
been  foreseen  and  apprehended,  for  two  years  before  it  happened,  it 
is  not  likely,  that  within  that  period  they  should  be  solicitous  to  ad- 
mit any  members. 

But  there  is  another  point  of  view,  in  which  we  ought  to  consi- 
der these  disciples  of  St  Benedict,  viz.  their  literary  accomplishments. 
The  advocates  of  the  public  utility  of  these  monastic  institutions, 
seldum  fail  to  remind  us  of  their  being,  in  the  dark  ages  which  pre- 
ceded the  revival  of  true  science  and  true  religion,  schools  for  the 
education  of  youth,  and  to  boast  that  the  members  of  them  generally 
attained  to  an  extraordinary  proficiency  in  most  branches  of  useful 
knowledge.  In  this  priory  the  rudiments  of  grammar  were  taught 
"  occasionally ;"  this  term  is  adopted,  because  there  is  room  to  sus- 
pect, from  an  entry  in  the  consistorial  acts  of  bishop  Fisher,  whe- 
ther a  master  was  constantly  fixed  here  ;  and  it  may  be  likewise  a 
doubt,  how  far  these  monks,  were  qualified  for  the  discharge  of 
this  rule  of  their  order.  So  far  is  undeniable,  that  these  cloysters 
are  said  not  to  have  produced  oue  person  eminently  learned;  and 
bishop  Tanner,  if  we  are  not  mistaken,  has  placed  only  two  names 
in  the  class  of  authors,  Edmund  de  Haddenham,  and  William  Dean* 
The  work  of  the  former  is  styled  a  chronicle,  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world  to  the  year  1307  ;  but,  according  to   the  opinion  of 

*  See  Tanner's  Bibliothec.  Britan.  p.  368,  and  p.  222.  William  Dean  is 
styled  in  the  Regist.  Roff.  p.  349,  352,  William  de  Dene,  and  perhaps  ought 
not  to  be  recorded  as  a  member  of  this  convent,  for  he  subscribes  himself  a 
clergyman  of  the  diocese  of  Winchester,  and  a  notary  public,  by  virtue  of  aa 
appointment  from  the  holy  Roman  empire. 


ROCHESTER.  73 

this  celebrated  antiquarian,  every  part  of  it,  which  does  not  relate 
to  the  church,  is  transcribed  from  William  of  Malmsbury.  The 
labors  of  the  latter  comprise  the  annals  of  this  cathedral,  from  the 
year  1314  to  1348,  or  rather  the  history  of  bishop  Haymo  de  Hethe. 
Mr.  Wharton  has  published  in  his  Anglia  Sacra,  from  the  MSS. 
which  are  in  the  Cottonian  collection,  the  most  material  parts  of 
these  performances ;  and  some  of  the  articles,  omitted  by  that  in- 
dustrious compiler,  are  inserted  in  the  Regist.  RofF*. 

No  mention  is  made  of  more  than  one  writer  on  moral  and  reli- 
gious subjects  :  viz.  John,  prior  of  this  monastery,  who  wrote  a 
volume  of  theological  questions,  which  is  still  preserved  in  the 
library  of  this  church,  in  manuscript:  it  is  written  on  vellum,  with 
large  notes,  and  in  fine  preservation.  Mr.  Willis  has  indeed  re* 
marked,  that  Osbern  de  Shepey,  a  prior  of  this  church,  wrote 
many  books,  by  which  we  conclude  he  meant  to  dignify  him  with 
the  title  of  an  author  ;  but  the  passage  in  the  Anglia  Sacra,  to  which 
he  refers,  implies  no  more  than  that  this  monk,  who  had  formerly 
been  the  sacrist,  duly  discharged  that  office,  in  transcribing  and  pre- 
serving some  books,  or  rather  in  directing  these  works  to  be  donef. 

That  the  monks  should  be  little  versed  in  the  doctrines  and  duties 
of  the  holy  scriptures,  cannot  be  thought  surprising,  if  we  reflect 
on  their  want  of  the  necessary  instruments  of  this  knowledge ;  at 

*  John  Bearblock,  born  in  the  neighbourhood  of  this  City,  might  be  indebted 
to  this  priory  for  his  first  instructions  in  literature.  He  was,  in  the  year  1465, 
a  member  of  St.  John's  College,  Oxford,  where  he  took  his  degree  of  M.  A. 
and  appears  afterwards  to  have  been  a  fellow  of  Exeter  college.  He  was  a 
most  celebrated  draftsman,  and  made  a  very  accurate  sketch  of  this  city. 
While  he  Was  at  Oxford,  he  also  gave  distinguishing  marks  of  his  excellency 
in  this  art;  for  Thomas  Nele,  in  September  1565,  presented  to  queen  Eliza- 
beth a  book,  in  which  Bearblock  had  delineated  a  representation  of  all  the 
colleges  and  halls  of  that  university.  See  Tanner's  Bibliothec.  p.  82.  His 
delineation  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  seems  to  have  been  extant,  when  A. 
Wood  published  his  Athen  Oxon,  see  vol.    1,  col.   723  of  that  work. 

+  3ee  Willis's  Hist,  of  Conven.  Ch.  vol.  1,  p.  292.  Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  1,  p. 
3&3.     Regist.  Roff.  p.  121. 

1 


74  HISTORY  OF 

least  this  appears  to  have  been  their  hard  lot,  when  Hay  mo  de 
Hethe  was  raised  to  the  bishoprick  of  Rochester.  For  this  prelate, 
concerned  and  mortified  to  see  that  the  curates  and  penitentiaries 
of  his  diocese  were  so  ill  qualified  to  perform  the  proper  office  of 
their  profession,  committed  to  the  care  of  the  principal  members  of 
this  church  a  set  of  books,  to  which  the  neighbouring  clergy  might 
resort  for  information  and  improvement;  a  benefaction  that  would 
have  been  unnecessary,  had  not  his  lordship,  who  was  formerly  the 
prior,  been  aware  that  the  library  of  the  convent  was  very  meanly 
furnished.  The  books  given  by  Haymo  are  enumerated  in  the 
,    Regist.  Roff.  p.  127.  and  the  catalogue  does  not  dispose  one  to 

tf)  .  form  a  high  opinion  of  the  sacred  erudition  of  this  bishop.  Most  of 
the  volumes  consisted  of  decrees,  decretals,  and  provincial  consti- 
tutions, with  commentaries  upon  them.  There  was  one  book,  in- 
titled,  The  Scholastic  History  on  the  Bible ;  but  he  presented  no 
portions  of  scripture,  except  the  gospels  of  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Mark,  with  glosses.  And  indeed  it  appears  from  another  occur- 
rence recorded  of  Haymo,  that  he  was  a  more  able  canonist  than 
divine,  having  probably  more  frequently  perused  the  injunctions  of 
the  pope,  than  the  precepts  of  our  Saviour,  delivered  in  his  sermon 
on  the  mount.  For  he  must  have  been  persuaded,  that  christians 
would  in  their  devotions  "  be  heard  for  their  much  speaking,"  or 
he  would  never  have  directed  the  poor  people  of  the  hospital,  found- 
ed by  him  at  Hythe,  to  repeat  the  Lord's  prayer,  and  the  angel's 
salutation  to  the  virgin  Mary,  three  hundred  times  a  day.  See 
Regist.  Roff.  p.  414. 

It  is  related  of  Luther,  that  he  found  a  copy  of  the  bible,  which 
lay  neglected  in  the  library  of  his  monastery,  and  that  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  it  with  eagerness  and  assiduity.  But  desirous, 
as  some  of  the  monks  of  St.  Andrew  might  be,  to  have  recourse  to 
this  fountain  of  religious  wisdom,  there  were  but  faint  hopes  of 
their  being  as  successful  in  discovering  this  divine  source  within  the 
walls  of  their  convent,  even  after  a  diligent  search,  as  was,  by  ac- 
cident, that  eminent  reformer.     For  upon  a  careful  examination  of 

Of  jL,  the  catalogue  of  books  presented  at  different  periods  to  this  priory, 

i^iJty*  £W&*^  0*iV-**f  ro;  "*  6  '  ~ 


ROCHESTER.  75 

as  they  are  inserted  in  the  Regist.  RoflT.  it  seems  very  doubtful 
whether  the  members  of  this  society  were_  possessed  of  a  compleat  j  , 
copy  of  thejcriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  testament*;  or  if  they  '* 
were,  the  word  of  God  could  have  little  benefited  persons,  who  had 
probably  acquired  a  very  incompetent  knowledge  of  the  learned  lan- 
guages in  which  it  was  written.  And  these  religious  were,  no  less 
than  the  laity,  prohibited  the  reading  the  scriptures  in  their  own 
tongue.  A  proof  of  this  restriction  may  be  brought  from  the  con- 
sistorial  acts  of  bishop  Fisher,  A.  D.  1 528 ;  by  whose  direction  a 
prosecution  was  carried  on  against  William  Mafelde,  the  praecentor 
of  this  church,  for  not  delivering  up  to  his  diocesan,  in  obedience 
to  the  orders  of  cardinal  Wolsey,  published  in  the  adjoining  city,  a 
copy  of  the  gospel  translated  into  English  ;  and  the  only  method 
he  had  of  escaping  a  severe  sentence  for  this  heinous  crime,  was, 
by  informing  the  bishop  of  the  name  of  his  friend  who  had  purchased 
for  him,  this  inestimable  book.  This  monk  seems  to  have  been 
very  solicitous  to  prevent  a  discovery  of  his  having  any  part  of  the 
New  Testament  in  his  custody;  for  the  gospels  and  the  epistles  of 
St.  Paul  making  too  large  a  book  to  be  easily  concealed,  he  re- 
quested the  person  who  had  procured  them  for  him,  to  get  them 
bound  in  two  volumes.  Two-pence  was  the  sum  paid  for  this  alter- 
ation. 

The  little  regard  shewn  to  the  monks  at  the  time  of  the  suppres- 
sion of  their  community,  furnishes  more  presumptive  evidence  of 
their  having  made  but  a  small  progress  in  the  pursuit  of  religious 
tiuth.  Otherwise,  it* is  hardly  to  be  imagined  that  archbishop 
Cranmer,  who  was  a  patron  of  learned  men,  and,  by  whose  directi- 
on chieily  this  and  all  other  deans  and  chapters  of  the  new  foundati- 
on were  modelled,  would  have  suffered  their  merit  to  have  passed 
without  a  suitable  reward.  In  Canterbury  cathedral,  eight  preben- 
dal  stalls  out  of  twelve,  and  in  that  of  Norwich  five  out  of  six, 
were  filled  with  the  regulars  of  the  old  societies  in  those  cities;  but 

*  It  appears  from  Casley's  catalogue  of  MSS.  as  well  as  from  what  are  spe- 
cified in  the  Regist.    Rott'.  that  they  really  had  not  all  these  sacred  books. 

''l-flUi  d-^c^to.  tL(y'rfl>  Qutfif&tf/ls  {/¥/- '  Oj  -2-ll/j  A  />  A  $  -^ 


76  HISTORY   OF 

four  monks  only  remained  here,  and  they  were  appointed  to  the  in-, 
ferior  offices  in  the  church*. 

Upon  a  due  consideration  of  the  evidence  here  offered,  every 
unprejudiced  person  must  adjudge  the  monks  to  have  merited  that 
stricture  which  was  levelled  by  king  Henry  VIII.  at  the  regulars  in 
general,  "That  the  endowmeut  they  had  so  long  possessed  might  be 
"  turned  to  a  better  use  than  they  had  made  of  it ;  God's  word 
a  better  set  forth ;  children  brought  up  in  learning ;  clerks  nou- 
"  rished  in  the  university  ;  and  exhibitions  for  the  ministers  of  the 
"  church."  And  it  will,  we  trust,  be  admitted,  that  the  good  pur- 
poses, which  this  prince  intended  should  be  answered  by  a  different 
application  of  their  revenues,  have  ensued  from  that  portion  of  them 
with  which  he  endowed  the  present  collegiate  church+. 

It  has  been  already  mentioned,  that  this  priory  was  surrendered 
in  the  month  of  April  1540 ;  but  though  the  king  was  at  that  time 
authorized  by  the  legislature  to  erect  new  sees,  and  ecclesiastical 
corporate  bodies,  out  of  the  estates  belonging  to  the  old  religious 
communities,  more  than  two  years  passed  before  there  was  a  new 
establishment  in  this  place.  The  letters  patent  for  it  bear  date  Juue 
20,  33.  Hen.  VIII.  A.  D.  1542;  by  virtue  of  which  they  were  to 
consist  of  a  dean,  and  six  canons  or  prebendaries,  with  other  mi- 
nisters necessary  for  the  due  administration  of  divine  service  ;  and 
they  were  incorporated  under  the  title  of  "  The  dean  and  chapter 
"  of  the  cathedral  church  of  Christ  and  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary  of 
"  Rochester."  In  the  charter  of  this  foundation,  as  in  that  of  Can- 
terbury, a  reserve  was  made,  to  the  king's  use,  of  divers  buildings 
and  parcels  of  land ;  some  of  which  were,  and  others  were  consi- 
dered to  have  been,  within  the  common  precincts  of  the  monastery. 
Of  the  latter  sort  were  the  king's  chamber  ;  the  king's  chapel,  with 
a  garden  adjoining;  a  house  called"  the  armory,"  with  a  garden 
adjoining;  a  house  called  "  la  chambers  lodgings,"   with  a  garden 

*See  page  68. 

+See  the  preamble  of  the  statute  of  31  Henry  VIII.  c.  ix.  said  to  be  written 
J>y  the  king  himself.    Strype's  Eccles.  Mem.  vol.  1.  p.  350. 


ROCHESTER,  77 

2nd  tittle  orchard  adjoining  ;  also  a  piece  of  ground  called  "le  upper 
dich,  "  with  an  orchard  inclosed.  The  particulars,  thus  excepted, 
seem  to  have  been  more  peculiarly  of  royal  property,  as  having 
never  been  included  in  any  of  the  royal  grants  for  the  foundation 
and  enlargement  of  the  monastery.  However,  these  royal  possessi- 
ons, as  well  as  what  the  king  had  reserved  out  of  those  which  of 
right  belonged  to  the  convent  before  its  surrender,  were  all  of  them 
afterwards  assigned,  by  his  special  commission,  to  the  common  or 
separate  uses  of  the  dean,  prebendaries,  ministers,  and  members  of 
his  new  erected  cathedral,  and  still  continue  to  be  so  enjoyed  by 
them. 

A  deed  of  endowment  was  subjoined  to  the  charter  of  foundation. 
Accordingto  a  paper  printed  in  Strype's  Eccles.  Mem.  vol.  1.  p.  274, 
from  an  original  in  the  Cotton  collection,  which  is  said  to  have 
been  drawn  by  the  king  himself,  it  seems  to  have  been  his  majes- 
ty's intention  to  have  settled  on  this  church  the  revenues  of  the  old 
priory,  and  part  of  those  of  the  monastery  of  Leeds.  But  Henry 
certainly  altered  his  mind  ;  for  some  of  the  more  valuable  estates  of 
these  religious  houses  were  disposed  of  in  a  very  different  manner, 
and  the  deficiency  was  but  ill  supplied  from  what  had  belonged  to 
Boxley  Abbey  and  Newerk  Hospital  in  Strood.  To  this,  as  to  all 
the  other  collegiate  bodies  founded  in  this  reign,  were  annexed,  in. 
lieu  of  manors  and  lands,  the  impropriations  of  many  parsonages. 
Happy  would  it  have  been  for  the  country  clergy,  had  they  been  re- 
stored to  those  who  had  in  equity  the  best  title  to  them.  The  -vi- 
cars, however,  of  almost  all  the  parishes  here  referred  to,  were  con- 
siderable gainers  by  the  great  tythes  passing  into  the  hands  of  the 
governing  members  of  this  church,  being  indebted  to  them  for  some 
very  generous  augmentations.  The  revenues,  with  which  this  eccle- 
siast'u  ii  body  are  endowed,  are  not  in  charge  for  first  fruits  and 
tenths  ;  but  in  lieu  of  tenths.  King  Henry  reserved  to  the  crown 
the  yearly  payment  of  one  hundred  and  fifteen  pounds.  A  fee-farm 
rent  of  nine  pounds  six  shillings  and  eight  pence  was  afterwards  ad- 
ded to  this  composition,  for  divers  lands,  &c.  given  to  the  dean  and 


78  lilSTORY  OF 

chapter,  as  the  register  book  in  the  auditor's  office  expresses  it;  but 
where  these  lauds  were  situated,  and  the  time  when  granted,  is  not 
clear*. 

About  three  years  after  the  first  erection  of  this  new  society,  a 
body  of  statutes  for  the  government  of  it  was  signed  and  delivered 
to  the  church,  by  three  commissioners,  who  had  been  appointed  by 
Henry  VIII.  to  prepare  them  ;•  but  they  had  neither  the  sanction  of 
the  great  seal,  nor  were  they  indented.  And  the  want  of  these 
forms,  the  one  required  by  stat.  31.  Hen.  VIII.  c.  9.  and  the  other 
bvthe  charter  of  foundation,  has  formerly  subjected  the  members  of 
this  church  to  some  inconveniences.  The  differences,  however,  be- 
tween the  dean  and  prebendaries,  occasioned  thereby,  have  neither 
been  so  frequent,  nor  so  warmly  agitated,  as  those  which  have  un- 
happily prevailed  in  some  other  chapters  of  the  new  foundation +. 
Mention  is  made  by  bishop  Rennet  £  of  a  dispute  which  had  long 
subsisted  between  the  dean  and  prebendaries  of  Rochester,  though 
arbitrators  had  been  frequently  called  in  to  adjust  it. 

But  this  contest  did  not  proceed  from  any  supposed  invalidity  of 
the  statutes,  nor  from  any  doubts  as  to  the  interpretation  of  them. 
The  subject  of  it  was,  the  right  to  a  considerable  tract  of  ground 
which  joins  to  the  deanery  garden,  styled  at  different  periods  the 
king's  and  dean's  orchard,  and  which,  as  we  have  before  noticed, 
was  the  ancient  possessiou  of  the  crown,  and  might  probably,  for 
that  reason,  be  excepted  out  of  the  charter  of  foundation.  This 
ground,  some  deans  imagined,  had  been  granted  by  king  Henry's 
commissioners  to  their  separate  use,  whereas  the  prebendaries  insist- 
ed that  it  was  the  common  estate  of  the  chur.h.  And  the  affair 
had  from  various  causes,  become  in  a  course  of  years  so  intricate 
and  perplexed,  that  there  was  at  last  a  necessity  of  applying  to  a 

* Th is  fee-farm  rent  was  granted  by  patent  for  lives,  by  king  James  I.  to 
Sir  Edward  Holey,  and  others.  It  was  at  length  alienated  from  the  crown, 
and  the  right  to  it  is  vested  in  the  governors  of  Guy's  hospital. 

+  The  reader  may  meet  with  an  ar curate  account  of  the  history  of  this  mat- 
ter, in  Burn's  F.celes.  Law,  under  the  title  Doans  and  Chapters. 

^Vide  Register  and  Chronicle,  p    620. 


ROCHESTER.  7§ 

court  of  equity  tor  a  determination.  A  decree  was  given,  A.  D. 
1710,  by  the  lord  chancellor,  in  favour  of  the  Prebendaries  claim. 
Part  of  what  is  now  the  dean's  garden,  is  taken  out  Of  the  king's 
orchard;  a  lease  of  it  for  forty  years  was  granted  in  trust  by  the 
Chapter,  for  the  use  of  the  deans  of  Rochester,  soon  after  the  deci- 
sion in  chancery,  and  was  renewed  at  the  expiration  of  that  term. 
Bishop  Rennet  therefore,  who  seems  to  have  inclined  to  the  dean's 
side,  must  have  been  misinformed  as  to  the  real  merits  of  the  case. 

There  is  another  circumstance  relative  to  the  statutes  of  this 
church,  which  certainly  deserves  some  notice  in  a  history  of  it.  In 
the  annual  account  of  the  state  of  the  diocese  of  Rochester,  return- 
ed to  king  Charles  I.  by  archbishop  Laud,  A.  D.  1633,  it  is  said 
that  he  complained  to  the  king,  "  That  the  cathedral  sulfered  much 
a  for  want  of  glass  in  the  windows,  and  the  church-yard  lay  very 
M  indecently,  and  the  gates  down,  because  the  dean  and  chapter 
u  refused  to  be  visited  by  him,  on  pretence  that  the  statutes  were 
M  not  confirmed  under  the  broad  seal  "  To  which  the  king  wrote 
this  postill  in  the  margin,  "  This  must  be  remedied  one  way  or 
"  other,  concerning  which  I  expect  a  particular  account  of  you*." 
It  is  not  improbable  from  this  account,  that  the  archbishop  was  de- 
termined in  his  own  mind,  and  wanted  the  king's  orders,  to  im- 
power  him  to  give  a  new  body  of  statutes  to  this  church,  as  he  did 
afterwards  to  his  own  and  some  other  cathedrals.  But  if  we  reflect 
on  the  warmth  and  eagerness  of  the  archbishop's  temper,  we  shall 
not  perhaps  be  surprised  at  the  then  dean  and  chapter  rather 
choosing  to  be  governed  by  their  old  constitutions,  than  by  others 
of  his  framing. 

Besides,  the  dean  and  chapter  were  strictly  justifiable  in  oppos- 
ing a  scheme,  which  was  one  of  those  stretches  of  the  prerogative, 
for  which  that  reign  is  distinguished.  For  by  a  passage  in  the  reci- 
tal of  the  stat.  1.  Mary,  Sess.  3.  c.  9,  "such  rules  and  ordinances 
"  could  not  be  made  without  authority  of  parliament;"  and  the 
legislature  had  vested  queen  Mary   and   her   successor  with   this 

♦See  Rapin's  Act.  Reg.  p.  797. 


80  HISTORY  OF 

power,  during  their  natural  lives  only.  The  inefficacy  of  a  cooi- 
rnission  from  the  crown  for  this  purpose,  though  Under  the  broad 
seal,  was  so  generally  admitted  in  the  reign  of  queen  Ann,  that  an 
act  of  parliament  was  passed  at  that  time,  to  give  a  sanction  to  the 
statutes  which  had  been  used  in  any  of  the  foundations  of  Henry 
VIH.  from  the  restoration  of  king  Charles  II*.  It  seems  to  be  no 
unlikely  surmise,  that  archbishop  Laud  suspected,  that  if  he  per- 
sisted in  his  attempt  to  oblige  the  dean  and  chapter  of  Rochester  to 
receive,  from  him,  a  new  body  of  statutes,  he  might  have  the  mor- 
tification of  seeing  his  commands  disobeyed,  and  a  contempt 
shewn  to  the  authority  by  which  he  wanted  to  enforce  them  ;'  and 
that  this  was  the  reason  why  he,  for  once,  prudently  considering 
what  was  practicable,  as  well  as  what  ought,  in  his  own  opinion, 
to  be  donct,  waved  the  further  prosecution  of  a  scheme,  which  he 
certainly  had  much  at  heart.  But  though  the  dean  and  chapter 
opposed  archbishop  Laud  in  this  point,  they  submitted,  in  the  next 
year,  to  be  visited  by  him  as  their  metropolitan  \  and  his  Grace 
must,  whilst  exercising  this  office,  have  been  sensible  that  he  had 
been  rather  too  hasty  in  the  unfavorable  report  he  had  made  of 
them  to  their  sovereign.  If  the  church-yard  lay  in  an  indecent 
manner,  the  fault  was  not  in  them,  but  in  the  inhabitants  of  St* 
Nicholas,  Who,  by  the  original  articles  of  agreement  between  the 
city  and  the  priory,  on  the  building  of  their  church,  Were  to  keep 
Up  the  necessary  fences ;  and  as  the  parishioners  had  a  right  of 
resorting  to  the  church  as  often  as  they  pleased,  and  of  burying 
their  dead  in  the  coemetery,  gates  to  the  precincts  would  have  been 
extremely  inconvenient.  And  with  respect  to  the  imputed  neglect 
in  not  repairing  the  windows,  it  were  to  be  wished  his  Grace  had 
pointed  out  an  easy  method  of  keeping  them  entire.  For,  from 
the  churches  being  situated  in  a  sea-port  town,  notwithstanding 

*Se«  Burn's  Ecclesk  Law,  vol.  11,  p.  91.  Svo.  edit. 

+  A  learned  panegyrist  of  this  prelate  has  observed  of  him,  "  Ita  erat  semper 
"  animatus,  ut  quid  fieri  debuit,  potius  quam  quid  fieri  potuit,  meditaretur." 
Godwin  de  prasuL  edit,  per  Richardson,  ps  189) 


ROCHESTER*  %\ 

the  very  heavy  charge  annually  incurred  in  new  glazing,  passengers 
may  still  doubt  whether  any  care  is  ever  taken  to  remedy  these  de- 
fects. The  archbishop,  as  is  usual  upon  these  occasions,  issued 
interrogatories;  and  it  appears  from  the  answers  to  them,  which 
are  still  in  being,  that  the  dean  and  chapter  fully  vindicated  their 
conduct ;  by  shewing,  from  indisputable  evidence,  that  they  had 
paid  a  due  attention  to  the  fabric,  and  had  expended  upon  the  re- 
pairs of  it  very  considerable  sums  of  money.  But  one  of  the 
injunctions,  with  which  this  inquiry  was  closed,  discovers  a  pro- 
bable cause  of  his  Grace's  severe  stricture.  The  communion  table 
stood,  it  seems,  in  the  middle  of  the  choir :  this  was  ordered  to  be 
placed  at  the  east  end  in  a  decent  manner,  and  a  fair  rail  put  up  to 
go  across  the  chancel,  as  in  other  cathedral  churches*;  and  their 
having  neglected  of  themselves  to  make,  in  his  opinion,  so  impor- 
tant a  regulation,  might  create  in  him  a  suspicion  of  their  being 
puritanically  inclined. 

But  to  return  to  the  account  of  the  new  establishment  of  this 
church.  In  the  first  statute,  the  different  members  of  which  it  was 
to  consist,  are  enumerated:  viz.  a  dean  and  six  prebendariesT,  six 
minor  canons,  one  deacon,  one  sub-deacon:}:,  six  lay  clerks,  one 

*Thiu  was  one  of  the  first  alterations  made  by  Dr.  Laud  in  the  cathedral 
church  of  Gloucester,  after  his  promotion  to  that  deanery ;  and  it  appeared  to 
him  a  point  of  such  essential  consequence,  that  after  he  became  archbishop, 
his  vicar  general  had  directions  to  enjoin  the  observance  of  it,  in  every  church 
he  visited.     See  Coll.  Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  11.  p.  760,  762. 

-r There  was  once  an  intention  of  adding  a  seventh  prebend  to  this  cathe- 
dral, since  there  is  an  entry  in  the  bishop's  register  of  the  appropriation  of 
the  rectory  and  church  of  Rainham  to  this  use. 

$  In  the  account  of  pensions  settled  on  the  monks  of  the  priory,  page  6S 
mention  is  made  of  one  who  was  appointed  gospeller,  and  another  epistoler, 
but  no  such  offices  occur  in  the  statutes,  and  they  were,  we  conclude,  chang- 
ed for  those  of  deacon  and  sub-deacon.  It  was  probably  archbishop  Cranmer's 
intention,  that  the  two  former  should  be  the  title  of  these  ministers  of  the  ca- 
thedral; but  that  when  the  new  society  was  fixed,  he  was  over-ruled  in  this 
and  many  other  of  his  schemes  of  reformation,  by  the  other  commissioners,  if 
not  by  the  king  himself,  who  would  not  consent  to  lop  off  any  other  hranches 

M 


g2  HISTORY   OF 

master  of  the  choiristers?  eight  choiristers,  an  upper,  and  an  undeT 
master  of  the  grammar  school,  twenty  scholars,  six  poor  men,  a 
porter,  who  was  likewise  to  be  the  barber,  a  butler,  a  chief  cook, 
and  an  assistant :  and  a  yearly  exhibition  of  five  pounds  was  to  be 
paid  to  four  scholars,  two  of  them  to  be  members  of  each  university. 
All  these  persons  are  now  supported  out  of  the  revenues  of  the 
church,  except  a  deacon  and  sub-deacon,  a  butler,  cook  and  under- 
cook. The  two  first  have  been  disused  ever  since  the  reformation; 
and  the  other  three  are  no  longer  necessary,  there  being  no  com- 
mon table  kept  at  this  time.  The  prebendaries  discharge  in  their 
turn  the  office  of  vice-dean,  receiver,  and  treasurer ;  and  the  mi- 
nor canons  those  of  praecentor  and  sacrist;  and  there  are  besides,  a 
chapter  clerk,  auditor,  collector  of  the  quitrents,  and  a  steward  of 
their  courts,  who  is  likewise  their  counsellor.  By  the  charter  of 
foundation,  king  Henry  VIII.  had  reserved  to  himself  and  succes- 
sors the  right  of  appointing,  (and  in  the  statutes  he  expressed  it 
should  be  by  letters  patent  under  the  great  seal,)  the  dean,  who 
must  be  doctor,  or  at  least  bachelor  of  divinity,  or  doctor  of  law ; 
and  all  the  prebendaries,  who  must  have  taken  the  degrees  of  master 
of  arts,  or  bachelor  of  law*  The  dean  is  now  nominated  by  the 
king;  but  four  of  the  prebends  are  considered  to  be  in  the  gift  of 
the  person  who  is  entrusted  with  the  charge  of  the  great  seal.  One 
was  annexed  by  letters  patent,  dated  January  14,  12  Ann,  A.  D. 
1713,  to  the  provostship  of  Oriel  College,  in  Oxford,  and  this 
union  was  confirmed  by  parliament  the  same  year  :  and  king  Charles 
I.  by  letters  patent  dated  Dec.  6,  1637,  annexed  the  sixth  stall  to 
the  archdeaconry  of  Rochester.  The  power  of  appointing  the  six 
poor  men,  who  are  usually  termed  bedesmen,  was  also  reserved  to 
the  crown,  and  they  are  admitted  to  this  day  by  warrants  under  the 
royal  sign  manual.   The  words  of  the  statute,  as  to  their  qualifica- 

of  popery,  except  the  supremacy.  The  sub-deacon,  as  is  well  known,  is  one 
ef  the  five  orders  in  the  church  of  Rome,  which  were  justly  laid  aside  by  our 
fi rst  reformers.  And  by  the  XXIV.  canon,  according  to  the  advertisement 
published  Anno  7  Elizabethae,  the  gospeller  and  epistoler  were  to  assist  the 
principal  minister,  who  officiated  at  the  holy  communion.     ' 


> 

O 

i— i 


o 
o 
as 
<; 

as 

H 

C 
> 

r1 

ex: 


ROCHESTER,  83 

tion,  are  Tery  general,  for  they  include  the  poor,  the  infirm^  and  the 
aged,  whether  they  have  or  have  not  lost  their  limbs  in  war,  or  hare 
been  worn  out  in  the  public  service  of  their  country.  The  dean  ap- 
points the  inferior  servants  of  the  church;  but  the  minor  canons 
and  all  the  other  officers  are  elected  by  the  dean  and  chapter,  and 
the  former  to  prevent  being  removed  by  any  future  deans,  have  their 
patent  confirmed  under  the  great  «eal  of  this  society. 

Separate  habitations  were,  soon  after  the  foundation,  assigned  to 
the  members  of  this  church,  and  was  the  schedule  by  which  these 
were  fixed  remaining,  it  would  not  be  very  difficult  to  determine 
nearly  the  spot,  where  most  of  the  buildings  of  the  old  monaster)' 
stood.  But  it  is  lost;  the  only  allotment  to  be  met  with,  is  to  the 
dean  and  one  prebendary ;  and  no  other  light  can  be  thrown  upon 
this  matter  than  from  papers  and  leases,  most  of  them  of  a  much 
later  date.  The  grant  to  the  dean,  as  expressed  in  the  king's  com- 
mission,_  mentioned  in  a  former  page,  was  "  of  the  new  lodging, 
u  containing  two  parlours,  a  kitchen,  four  chambers,  a  gallery*, 
"  a  library  over  the  gate,  with  all  other  buildings  leading  to  the 
i'  house  of  John  Sympkins,  one  of  the  residentiaries,  with  a  garden 
u  adjoining,  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  king's  palace  ;  also  a 
li  place  for  wood  under  the  vestry  room  ;  a  stable  near  the  gate  of 
"  the  tower,  and  a  pigeon-house  in  the  wall  adjoining  to  the  vine. 
"  yard."  It  seems  veiy  clear,  that  the  apartments  and  the  garden 
here  assigned  to  the  dean,  had  belonged  to  the  prior,  for  his  separ- 
ate use+  ;  and  by  a  survey  of  the  premises  now  enjoyed  by  the  dean, 
we  are  inclined  to  believe,  that  some  further  additions  were  made 
out  of  those  buildings  which  the  king  had  still  reserved  to  the  crown, 
by  a  paper  annexed  to  the  commission.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  chief 
part  of  the  buildings  here  granted,  comprised  what  used  to  be  called 
the  old  deanery.     These  were  from,  and  probably  before  the  restc- 

*Ambulatorium  &  Musaeum. 

•tThe  prior  was,  however,  supposed  to  lie  in  the  dormitory,  Since  prior 
Alured,  who  was  abbot  of  Abingdon,  is  recorded  as  a  benefactor,  for  having 
made  a  window  in  the  dormitory,  u  Ultra  tectum  prions."  Res,  P»bu",  p.  KJK 


84  HISTORY  OF 

ration,  let  out  in  different  tenements,  and  made  a  portion  of  the 
revenue  of  the  preferment.  But  on  the  death  of  doctor  John  New- 
come,  the  executors  paid  full  dilapidations  for  them,  as  a  part  of 
the  dwelling-house;  and  when  that  long  contested  poiut  was  set- 
tied,  a  faculty  was  obtained  from  the  bishop  for  removing  them. 
What  apartments  were  before,  on  the  spot,  which  is  now  the  deane- 
ry, is  not  certain;  but  in  the  year  1640,  which  date  is  in  the  front 
wall  towards  the  garden,  the  center  part  was  rebuilt.  This  house 
was  in  the  civil  wars  granted  by  lease,  from  the  sequestrator,  to 
John  Parker,  esq.  who  perhaps  completed  the  apartments  in  it, 
which  are  mentioned  in  the  parliamentary  survey  to  have  been  un- 
finished :  and  it  does  not  seem  to  have  undergone  any  material 
change  'till  Dr.  Markham,  who  was  afterwards  appointed  succes- 
sively to  the  deanery  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  to  the  see  of  Ches- 
ter, and  to  the  arcbishopric  of  York,  engaged  in  a  large  repair  :  the 
two  wings  were  raised  by  him,  but  not  finished  before  his  removal 
to  Christ  Church  ;  and  upon  a  more  accurate  survey,  after  the 
promotion  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Newcome,  who  succeeded  Dr. 
Markham  in  this  deanery,  the  front  wall  of  the  centre  building  be- 
ing adjudged  to  be  insecure,  was  taken  down.  The  whole  was 
completed  by  Dr.  Newcome,  and  is  now  a  comfortable  and  elegant 
abode. 

A  reference  is  made  to  the  house  belonging  to  the  first  prebenda- 
ry*, in  the  foregoing  assignment  to  the  dean,  it  being  then  said  to 
be  inhabited  by  John  Symkin  (though  not  in  right  of  his  prefer- 
ment, for  he  was  nominated  to  the  fourth  stall)  :  this  house  is  now 
converted  into  tenements,  holden  by  lease  under  the  dean  and 
chapter,  and  was  exchanged  for  a  house  in  the  parish  of  St.  Mar- 

*The  first  prebendary  mentioned  in  the  charter,  is  Hugh  Aprice,  doctor  of 
laws  the  real,  though  queen  Elizabeth  was  the  nominal  founder,  of  Jesus 
College  in  the  University  of  Oxford.  He  was  a  native  of  Brecknockshire  in 
South  Wales;  and  was  very  eminent  for  his  piety,  knowledge,  and  munifi- 
cence, particularly  to  that  seminary  of  learning,  (quod  fundari  fecit,)  which 
he  caused  to  be  founded. 


ROCHESTER.  85 

garet's,  which  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  honourable  and  re- 
verend Jacob  Marsham?  D.  D. 

The  house  of  the  second  prebendary  adjoins  to  these  tenements : 
they  are  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  church,  and  have 
a  very  extensive  front  towards  the  High  Street.  While  the  mo- 
nastery continued,  the  sacrist's  apartments  were  on  this  spot :  the 
title  of  the  sextry  garden,  and  the  sextry  well,  occurs  frequently. 
Dr.   Thomas  Willis   is  the  present  prebendary  in  the  second  stall. 

The  house  contiguous  to  the  gate  leading  to  the  deanery,  one  of 
the  apartments  of  which  is  built  over  the  gateway,  is  the  abode  of 
the  third  prebendary,  now  the  honourable  and  reverend  Frederic 
Hotham,  M.  A.  The  house  was  rebuilt  by  the  late  prebendary, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Lawry,  soon  after  he  took  possession  of  this  prefer- 
ment. A  lodging  styled  the  wax  chandler's  chamber,  was  situated 
close  to  this  gate,  as  appears  by  a  lease  of  it  granted  the  seventh  of 
April,  1544,  to  Nicholas  Arnolde,  priest,  and  one  of  the  ministers 
of  the  cathedral  church.  He  was  to  hold  it  for  the  term  of  his  life  ; 
the  annual  rent  reserved  was  one  pound  of  wax  to  be  offered  on 
Good  Friday  unto  the  sepulchre  of  our  Lord  within  the  cathe-? 
dral*. 

Dr.  George  Strahan  has  in  right  of  the  fourth  prebend  t,  a  new 
house,  begun  by  the  reverend  Mr.  Foote,  and  finished  by  Dr. 
Strahan.     In  the  garden  belonging  to  this,  were  certainly  placed 

*  Rowland  Taylor,  LLD.  second  prebendary  in  this  third  stall;  who  had 
been  chaplain  to  archbishop  Cranmer,  and  preferd  by  him  to  the  rectory  of 
Hadley  in  Suffolk,  was  burnt  for  his  strict  adherence  to  the  protestant  profes- 
sion in  Feb.  1555,  at  Hadley.  When  Mr.  Lawry  was  presented  to  this  pre- 
bend, it  was  vacant  by  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Joseph  Butler,  at  that  time 
bishop  of  Bristol,  and  then  promoted  to  the  commendam  of  the  deanery  of  St. 
Paul's,  he  was  translated  in  1751  from  Bristol  to  the  bishoprick  of  Durham. 
He  was  the  author  of  The  Analogy  of  natural  and  revealed  Religion,  and  of  a 
volume  of  sermons  preached  while  he  was  chaplain  to  the  master  of  (he  rolls. 

+The  Rev.  Mr.  John  Upton,  whose  edition  of  Arrian's  rpictetus;  of  Spen- 
cer's Fairy  Queen,  and  his  observations  upon  Shakespear,  are  well  known  to 
the  learned  acd  icgesious,  was  prebendary  of  this  stall. 


86  HISTORY  OF 

the  cloysters,  the  dortor  or  dormitory,  and  the  refectory  or  hall  of 
the  convent.  It  is  very  probable  that  one  piazza  of  the  cloysters 
extended  to  the  ruins  of  the  old  chapter  house,  along  the  south  wall 
of  the  church,  the  roof  of  which  was  doubtless  in  part  supported  by 
the  corbyl  stones  which  project  from  the  church ;  another  piazza 
extended  along  the  east  wall  of  Dr.  Strahan's  garden  ;  but  the  roof 
of  this  piazza  from  the  chapter  house  was  not  of  the  same  height, 
with  the  other  piazza;  in  this  east  wall  are  several  arches,  which 
communicated  with  the  dean's  orchard ;  the  variety  of  niches  and 
curious  work,  still  remaining  on  the  east  wall,  are  strong  indications 
of  the  elegance  and  grandeur  of  this  venerable  pile.  The  ancient 
chapter  room  was  doubtless  very  spacious  and  magnificent ;  the  three 
upper  arches  still  remaining,  were  the  windows  towards  the  west ; 
the  area*  under  the  room  communicated  with  the  cloysters  through 
the  three  lower  arches,  which  are  chiefly  of  Caen  stone,  on  these 
arches  the  Artist  has  lavished  a  profusion  of  ornament,  almost  every 
stone  being  carved  with  some  resemblance  ;  on  the  centre  arch  are 
still  discernable  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac.  On  a  smaller  ad- 
joining arch  were  some  inscriptions  in  saxon  characters,  of  which 
the  following  letters  are  still  legible, 

""SRieSPeRCORNVS" 

MMHtt  ttkttf 

The  west  side  of  this  area  was  most  probably  occupied  by  the 
kHchen  and  other  inferior  offices,  where  is  a  small  tower,  doubtless 

*T'ie  walls  of  this  area  are  ornamented  in  the  same  manner  with  the  east 
wall  of  the  cloysters,  with  which  there  was  an  open  communication  through 
the  three  lower  arches ;  that  it  was  used  as  a  place  of  honourable  interment  is 
certain ;  bishop  Paulinus  is  expressly  said  by  Bede  to  have  been  buried  in 
secretario  B.  Apostoli  Andreae,  quod  rex  Ethelbertus  construxit.  A  skeleton 
was  dug  up  in  December  1766,  by  the  workmen  employed  in  digging  a  new 
cellar  for  the  deanery,  in  this  area,  under  the  old  chapter  house,  or  secreta- 
riura  of  the  priory,  the  skeleton  was  full  seven  feet  in  length,  the  skull  very 
intire  with  fine  teeth  quite  firm  in  the  jaws.  A  stone  coffin  was  also  cut  in 
sunder  in  1770,  by  workmen  employed  in  digging  a  drain  in  this  place,  bst 
the  corps  it  had  contained  was  mouldered  into  dust. 


ROCHESTER.  87 

the  gate  or  entrance  into  the  cloysters.  The  frater  or  great  hall  ap- 
pears to  have  been  to  the  south  of  this  gate ;  some  columns  and 
arches,  still  remaining  in  the  buildings  facing  the  minor  canons  hou- 
ses, favor  this  conjecture*.  The  king's  palace  appears  to  have  been 
near  the  south  wall  of  the  dean's  garden :  the  remnants  of  pillars 
and  foundations  lately  discovered,  shew,  that  considerable  buildings 
have  formerly  occupied  this  part  of  the  precincts,  the  walls,  if  not 
the  buildings  of  the  palace,  seem  to  have  extended  into  the  old 
ruins  mentioned  in  the  leases  of  the  houses  facing  the  east  end  of 
Minor  Canon  Row. 

At  the  south-west  extremity  of  the  church,  stood  the  almonry  of 
the  old  convent ;  but  after  the  change,  it  was  allotted  to  be  the  ha- 
bitation of  the  fifth  prebend,  now  Edward  Copleston,  D.  D.  Pro- 
vost of  Oriel  College,  Oxford.  This  house  having  been  long  con- 
sidered as  an  incumbrance  and  a  prejudice  to  that  part  of  the  fabric 
of  the  cathedral,  was  taken  down  ;  and  at  the  expiration  of  the 
lease  of  a  house  in  the  Vines,  holden  under  the  dean  and  chapter, 
now  in  the  occupation  and  possession  of  Mrs.  Porter,  that  house 
is  to  be  transferred  to  the  Provost  of  Oriel  for  the  time  being,  to  be 
converted  into  a  prebendal   house. 

To  the  sixth  prebend,  as  being  the  junior,  was  probably  allotted, 
on  the  first  partition,  the  meanest  and  most  inconvenient  apartments  : 
but  Dr.  Law,  the  archdeacon,  to  which  preferment  this  stall  is  an- 
nexed, is  now  much  better  accommodated  than  any  of  his  brether- 
en,  he  having  enlarged,  and  made  considerable  additions  to  the 
house.  The  original  habitation  belonging  to  this  prebend,  was  situ- 
ated near  the  west  end  of  the  Minor  Canon  Row,  and  is  described 
in  the  parliamentary  survey  as  consisting  of  three  low  rooms,  and 
four  upper  ones  :  but  this  building  was,  after  the  reformation,  pro- 
nounced to  be  ruinous  and  uninhabitable  >  and  by  lease,  dated  the 

*In  the  register  of  bishop  Langdon,  about  the  year  1425,  anti  in  the  regis- 
ter of  W.  Wode,  who  was  prior  A.  D.  1475,  mention  is  made  of  two  halls, 
ori3  called  the  great  hall,  for  the  bishop  is  said  to  have  been  walking  in  bis 
garden  on  the  west  side  of  the  great  hall  of  the  priory  and  convent ;  the  other, 
^fhich  ts  styled  gestenhall,  the  room  ie  which  the  guests  were  entertained, 


88  HISTORY  OP 

twenty-eighth  of  June  1661,  the  dean  and  chapter  demised  to  arch- 
deacon Lee  and  his  successors,  in  lieu  of  it,  a  house  in  the  Vines- 
This  grant  was,  on  the  eighth  of  July  following,  confirmed  by 
bishop  Warner,  as  visitor. 

It  appears  from  the  special  commission  of  Henry  VIII.  which 
has  been  cited  more  than  once,  that  it  was  the  design  of  the  founder 
to  have  suitable  lodgings  appropriated  to  the  separate  use  of  all  the 
other  ministers  and  officers  of  his  new  establishment.  But  having 
seen  what  poor  and  contemptible  habitations  were  assigned  to  the 
heads  of  the  society,  we  may  easily  conclude,  that  a  very  bad  pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  inferior  members  of  it.  The  precincts  of 
the  priory,  after  its  dissolution,  seems  indeed  to  have  been  a  scene 
of  confusion  and  devastation :  with  respect  to  the  edifices  designed 
for  the  grammar  school,  minor  canons,  lay  clerks,  &c.  the  thirty- 
sixth  statute  expressly  declares  them  to  have  been  a  pile  of  build- 
ings huge,  irregular,  and  ruinous  ;  and  in  order  to  enable  the  dean 
and  chapter  to  convert  them  into  places  of  decent  abode,  they  were 
allowed  to  apply  to  this  purpose,  for  five  years,  that  portion  of  the 
revenue  of  the  church  which  was  directed,  after  that  time,  to  be 
expended  in  public  works.  But  it  is  most  probable,  that  this  sum 
was  far  from  being  sufficient.  It  is  at  least  very  certain,  that  in  the 
year  1647  some  of  them  were  in  a  most  woful  condition;  for  the 
Canon  Row  is  thus  described  in  the  parliamentary  survey  taken  in 
that  year  ;  "  all  that  long  row  of  buildings  within  the  wall,  cortsist- 
"  ing  of  eighteen  several  low  rooms,  and  five  upper  ones,  in  which 
"  divers  old  and  decrepit  poor  people  inhabit,  that  did  belong  to 
"  the  cathedral  church."  As  the  fabric  of  the  cathedral  received, 
during  the  civil  warsj  unspeakable  damage  from  the  enthusiastic  fury 
of  pretended  reformers,  the  dean  and  chapter  were  not  able,  out  of 
their  scanty  revenues,  to  pay  a  proper  attention  to  that,  and  also  to 
rebuild  these  houses  :  which  being  judged  irreparable,  and  afford- 
ing only  an  harbor  for  indigent  and  disorderly  persons,  whereby  a 
heavy  charge  was  frequently  brought  upon  the  church,  they  were 
taken  down  in  the  year  1698,   all  the  minor  canons  having  giverJ 


ROCHESTER.  89 

{heir  consent,  and  bishop  Sprat  his  approbation,  to  this  measure. 
The  dean  and  chapter  allowed  to  the  former  an  increase  of  stipend 
for  house  rent ;  and  as  soon  as  their  circumstances  would  permit  of 
their  incurring  so  large  an  expence,  they  came  to  a  resolution,  of 
erecting  the  present  neat  and  convenient  habitations.  The  first 
order  of  chapter  for  carrying  this  design  into  execution,  was  dated 
July  17,  1721 ;  and  two  years  after  they  were  finished,  and  the 
bishop  assigned  to  each  minor  canon  his  proper  mansion.  The 
seventh  house,  at  the  east  end  of  the  row,  which  is  appropriated  to 
the  organist,  was  not  built  till  the  year  1735. 

There  were  three  gates  belonging  to  the  precincts  of  this  priory, 
viz.  the  Cceinetery  Gate,  which  seems  to  be  that  which  is  now  call- 
ed College  Yard  Gate ;  and  Which,  besides  its  original  name,  was 
denominated  Chertsey  Gate,  not  improbably  from  a  person  of  that 
name,  who  lived  in  Rochester.  Edmund  Chertsey,  gentleman, 
appear*-  to  have  been  possessed  of  a  tenement  not  far  distant  from 
it,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV. 

St.  William's  Gate  was  another  avenue  into  the  precincts  of  the 
priory  :  this  was  on  the  north  side  of  the  cathedral,  and  seems  to 
have  led  from  the  High  Street  directly  to  the  north  door  of  the 
church,  and  was  so  named  from  its  being  the  ready  way  to  St. 
William's  tomb,  and  was  in  the  place  where  there  is  at  present  a 
passage  called  Black- Boy- Alley.  The  Prior's  Gate  was  where 
the  grammar  school  now  is. 

Before  we  leave  the  precinct,  it  will  be  proper  to  take  a  view  of 
that  structure  with  some  remains  of  antiquity,  which  is  situated  in 
the  south-west  corner  of  this  district,  and  called  the  Bishop's  Pa- 
lace*. From  its  vicinity  to  the  church,  we  may  reasonably  sup- 
pose that  the  spot  on  which  these  tenements  now  stand,  was  the 
quarter  assigned  to  the  particular  use  of  the  bishops  of  Rochester, 
soon  after  the  establishment  of  the  cathedral ;  but  there  is  not,  for 
many  centuries  after  that  period,  any  certain  account  in  ancient 

*Nott  inhabited  by  Mrs.  Twopeny,  Mr.  Hussey,  and  othen. 

N 


90  HISTORY  OF 

writings  of  the  peculiar  place  of  abode  of  the  prelates  of  this  see* 
That  Gundulph,  following  the  example  of  his  patron  archbishop 
Lanfranc*,  raised  a  mansion  here  for  the  bishop,  at  the  time  of  his 
re-edifying  the  church  and  the  offices  of  the  priory,  is  most  probable, 
since  he  charged  the  manors  settled  by  him  on  the  monks  with  an 
annual  payment  of  several  kinds  of  provisions  to  himself  and  suc- 
cessors, in  order  to  enable  them  to  keep  up  hospitality  while  they 
were  in  residence.  It  is  not,  however,  said  he  was  a  benefactor  in 
this  respect;  nor  indeed  does  the  name  of  an  episcopal  habitation 
occur  for  near  fourscore  years  after  his  death,  when  bishop  Glanville 
is  recorded  to  have  rebuilt  what  had  been  burnt  down  by  one  of 
those  dreadful  fires,  which,  as  before  related,  laid  waste  the  greatest 
part  of  this  city.  What  attention  was  paid  to  the  mansion  of  the 
bishops  in  this  place,  during  a  much  longer  term,  we  cannot  dis- 
cover ;  but  bishop  Lowe  seems  to  have  re-edified  it,  one  of  his  in- 
struments being  dated  from  his  new  palace  at  Rochester,  27th 
March  A.  D.  1459+.  But  whether  it  was  that  the  building  was  not 
as  substantial  as  it  ought  to  have  been,  considering  the  use  for  which 
it  was  designed,  or  that  the  six  prelates  who  were  successively, 
within  forty  years,  promoted  to  this  see,  and  translated  to  a  better 
station,  neglected  to  repair  it;  it  certainly,  was  but  a  cold  and  un- 
comfortable habitation  when  bishop  Fisher  presided  over  this 
diocese. 

In  an  epistle  from  Erasmus  to  this  prelate,  which  we  have  trans- 
lated for  the  entertainment  of  our  readers,  that  elegant  writer  has 
given  us  no  very  favorable  description  of  the  state  of  this  palace  in 
the  year  1524. 

*Somner  in  his  Antiq.  of  Canterbury,  p.  101,  is  of  opinion  that  the  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  and  the  canons  of  that  church,  had  one  and  the  same* 
habitation,  till  after  the  days  of  Lanfranc:  but  the  only  ground  he  could  have 
for  that  surmise  was,  that  he  could  meet  with  no  account  of  a  separate  place 
of  abode  for  the  archbishop. 

+  See  Itegist.  Ron',  p.  4j7. 


ROCHESTER.  91 

Letter      DCXCVIII. 

M  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam,  to  John  bishop  of  Rochester,   greeting . 

"  Reverend  Prelate, 

16  It  was  with  the  utmost  concern  I  read  that  part  of  your  letter, 
Ci  wherein  you  express  your  wish,  of  ever  living  to  see  my  book 
"  arrive.  My  concern  was  still  heightened,  by  the  account  your 
u  servant  gave  of  the  ill  state  of  your  health.  Indeed,  you  do  not 
u  pay  sufficient  attention  to  that  tender  constitution.  I  shrewdly 
"  suspect,  that  the  state  of  your  health  principally  depends  upon 
"  'your  situation.  Give  me  leave  then,  to  act  the  part  of  a  physician. 
fi  The  near  approach  of  the  tide,  as  well  as  the  mud  which  is  left 
u  exposed  at  every  reflux  of  the  water,  renders  the  climate  severe 
"  and  unwholesome*.  Your  library  too  is  composed  of  thin  walls, 
"  which  let  in  through  the  crevices  a  subtile,  and,  as  the  physi- 
u  cians  term  it  strained  air,  which  is  highly  prejudicial  to  weak 
M  and  tender  constitutions.  Nor  am  I  unacquainted  how  much 
w  time  you  spend  in  your  library,  which  is  to  you  a  very  paradise. 

*Th«  expressions  here  used,  it  must  be  confessed,  are  very  applicable  to 
the  palace  at  Hailing,  but  the  circumstance  of  the  library  removes  every  doubt 
of  Erasmus  having  the  episcopal  mansion  at  Rochester  in  his  thoughts  when  he 
dictated  this  letter  to  bishop  Fisher;  suaee  it  appears  from  Bailey's  history  of 
this  prelate,  that  his  lordship's  library  at  Rochester  was,  "  so  replenished,  and 
*'  with  such  kinds  of  books,  as  it  was  thought  the  like  were  not  to  be  found 
"  agaiu  in  the  possession  of  any  one  private  man  in  Christendom."  The  same 
Author  observes,  that  the  king's  commissioners,  who  seized  the  elfectsof  bishop 
Fisher  after  his  being  attainted,  "  trussed  up  and  filled  with  his  books  thirty- 
<:  two  great  fats,  or  pipes,  besides  those  that  were  embezzled  away,  spoiled, 
"  and  scattered."  In  his  palace  at  Rochester,  was  deposited  likewise  a  large 
SHtn  of  money,  (viz.  four  hundred  pounds,)  a  gift  from  his'predecessor  to  himself, 
against  any  occasion  that  might  happen  to  the  bishoprick  ;  which  it  is  most  pro- 
bable he  used  to  keep  in  the  house  where  he  chiefly  resided;  the  king's  com- 
missioners found  likewise  a  coffer,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  this  superstitious 
prelate,  contained  a  much  more  valuable  treasure  than  that  of  money,  viz.  a 
•hirt  of  hair,  and  two  or  three  whips,  with  which  he  used  often  to  scourge  him- 
self. 


92  HISTORY  OF 

f i  As  to  my  own  part,  I  could  not  live  in  such  a  place  three  hours, 
f*  without  being  sick.  I  would  rather  choose  a  chamber,  that  was 
f*  well  floored  with  wood,  and  wainscoted,  for  the  exhalations 
u  which  arise  from  a  brick  pavement  must  needs  be  very  pernicious. 
"  I  am  well  aware,  that  death  itself,  is  no  way  terrible  to  thevir- 
"  tuous.  Yet  considering  the  scarcity  of  good  men,  the  church  in 
ci  general  cannot  be  but  greatly  interested  in  the  life  of  so  worthy  a 
ci  prelate,  ft  is  by  no  means  a  matter  of  equal  moment,  whether 
iC  Erasmus  is  in  health,  or  not,"  &c. 

This  unfortunate  cardinal  was  the  last  prelate,  who  as  far  as  we 
can  discover,  resided  much  in  this  city.  The  palace  was,  however, 
continued  to  the  bishops  of  Rochester,  by  the  charter  of  foundation 
of  the  new  establishment ;  and  by  the  same  this  church  was  ordain- 
ed to  be  for  ever  their  cathedral.  But  ever  since  the  reformation, 
not  only  this  house,  but  those  at  Trotterscliffe  and  Hailing,  have 
been  forsaken  for  the  palace  of  Bromley;  nor  can  we  be  surprized  at 
the  preference  given  to  this  last  mansion,  when  we  consider  the  de- 
lightful spot  on  which  it  is  fixed,  and  that  it  is  likewise  within  the 
diocese,  and  as  convenient  a  situation,  upon  the  whole,  for  the 
clergy,  as  any  of  the  other  places  of  abode.  The  consequence, 
however,  has  been,  that  these  have  been  leased  out  to  tenants ;  and 
indeed  the  revenue  of  the  see  of  Rochester  is  not  sufficient  to  keep 
more  than  one  house  in  repair,  if  more  than  one  were  necessary  for 
its  bishops. 

The  tenements  which  are  now  standing  at  this  place  were,  it  is 
supposed,  erected  by  the  persons  who  obtained  a  grant  of  the 
ground  during  the  civil  war:  and  before  this  alteration  the  whole 
mansion  must  have  been  in  a  deplorable  plight ;  for  the  commissi- 
oners who  surveyed  it  by  order  of  the  long  parliament,  A.  D.  1647, 
returned  the  value  of  it  as  follows,  at  the  extended  rent. 

1.  The  scite  of  the  palace,  containing, one  great  mes- 
suage, called  the  Palace,  where  the  bishop's  court  is    £.   s.    d. 
held,  estimated  twelve  pchs 4    0    Q 


ROCHESTER.  93 

£.  s.    d. 

2.  Four  rooms  in  the  tenure  of  Bathe 1     6     8 

3.  A  gallery  divided  into  2  rooms  and  4  chambers  . .      16     8 

4.  The  ward,  a  prison,  wash-house,  kitchen,  three 
rooms,  one  orchard  being  a  rood  of  ground,  and  one 
garden  of  ten  poles,  John  Walter,  steward,  with  the 
office  of  bailiff  and  bedle  to  all  the  manors  except  Brom- 
ley, and  the  keeping   of  the  gaol  granted  by  patent  for 

life 6     0     0 


12  13     4 


The  prison  which  was  formerly  a  part  of  these  buildings,  has 
long  since  been  disused;  and  nearly  on  the  same  spot  where  it 
stood,  was  erected  in  the  year  1760,  at  the  charge  of  Dr.  Pearce, 
an  office  for  the  use  of  his  Register. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  Francis  Head,  esq. 
of  this  city,  bequeathed  his  house  in  St.  Margaret,  to  the  bishop  > 
of  this  see,  for  the  better  accommodation  of  their  lordships,  when 
they  should  visit  this  part  of  their  diocese.  It  is  pleasantly  situated, 
the  gardens  are  kept  in  good  order,  and  command  a  most  delightful 
view  of  the  river  Med  way  and  the  adjacent  hills.  The  house,  out- 
buildings, and  gardens  were  much  improved  in  the  time  of  Mr. 
Frederick  Hill,  lessee  to  the  bishop. 


A  List  of  the  Bishops. 

JL  HE  diocese  of  Rochester,  of  whose  prelates  we  have  engaged 
ourselves  to  give  an  impartial  account,  is  the  smallest  of  any  in 
England.  The  whole  of  it  is  situated  in  the  western  division  of 
this  county,  being,  according  to  Lambard  severed  from  Canterbury 
diocese,  for  the  most  part  \>y  the  Medway-j  but  there  are  many 


94  HISTORY    OF 

churches  belonging  to  it  which  lye  to  the  east  and  south-east  of  thae 
river  ;  And  a  cursory  view  of  the  map  will  shew,  that  the  proper 
natural  boundary ■;  of  this  diocese  in  the  weald  of  Kent,  is  a  little 
stream  named  by  Phillipot,  the.Theyse*.  This  ecclesiastical  dis- 
trict is  subject  to  the  visitation  of  one  archdeacont,  and  contains  at 
present,  no  more  than  ninety-one  parishes.  These  are  included  in 
the  deaneries  of  Rochester,  Mailing,  and  Dartford.  That  of  Shore- 
ham  is  indeed,  properly  speaking,  a  part  of  this  diocese,  but  the 
clergy  of  it  are  subject  to  the  jurisdiction. of  the  archbishops  of  Can-, 
terbury ;  and,  in  like  manner,  two  parishes,  Freckenham  in  Suf- 
folk, and  Isleham  in  Cambridgeshire,  are  under  the  authority  of  the 
bishops  of  Rochester,  and  not  of  Norwich. 

By  the  straitness  of  its  income, 'as  well  as  by  the  narrow  limits  of 
its  district,  is  this  diocese  unluckily  distinguished  from  almost  every 
other  see  in  the  kingdom.  One  only  paid  a  lower  "  Rome-scott;" 
and,  if  we  except  the  Welch  bishopricks,  there  are  but  two  inferior 

*T!iis  Rivulet  is  in  the  map  published  in  1768,  by  Messrs.  Andrews,  Dury, 
and  Herbert,  called  the  Teise.  Near  Hunton  there  is  what  is  styled  a  twist  of 
it,  and  it  quickly  falls  into  the  Medway  at  Yaldiug.  All  the  parishes  from 
Hunton  to  Gillingham,  whose  churches  are  placed  on  the  banks  of  this  great 
river,  except  Maidstone,  are  within  the  diocese  of  Rochester. 
2li%?  '■H'fr't)  !%2  y  "l"Tbc  present  archdeacon  is  the  Reverend  John  Law,  D.  D. ;  and  long  may 
'he  continue  to  en  joy  a  station  which  he  adorns  by  his  amiable  qualities,  and 
the  duties  of  which  he  has  discharged  with  exemplary  diligence  and  fidelity 
for  fifty  years.  During  this  comparatively  long  period,  (a  period  much  longer, 
we  believe,  than  any  of  his  predecessors  have  held  this  archdeaconry,)  he  has 
proved  himself  on  many  occasions  an  able  and  zealous  defender  of  the  doctrine 
and  discipline  of  the  established  Church;  while  every  part  of  his  conduct  has 
been  marked  with  that  liberality  which  confers  dignity  upon  every  station,  and 
without  which  the  highest  cannot  command  it.  Benevolence  and  candour  uni- 
formly distinguish  him  in'private  life.  That  excellent  institution,  "  The  Cha- 
rity for  the  Widows  and  Orphans  of  Poor  Clergymen,"'  established  in 
this  diocese,  originated  with  him.  In  short,  as  a  dignified  clergyman  and  a 
scholar,  as  a  gentleman  and  a  christian,  Dr.  Law  commands  the  love  and  re- 
spect both  of  the  clergy  and  the  laity,  and  may  justly  be  denominated,  in  the 
language  of  the  poet, 

'•  The  gen'ral  fav'rite,  and  the  gen'ral  friend." 


rochesteh.  $j 

id  it  In  value,  in  the  king's  books.  For  some  time  before  the  con- 
quest, the  revenues  were  not,  as  has  been  shewn,  sufficient  for  the 
decent  maintenance  of  the  bishop  and  a  very  few  secular  clergymen  ; 
and  after  Gundulph  had  recovered  the  manors  and  estates  of  which 
the  church  of  Rochester  had  been  forcibly  deprived,  his  successors 
had  reason  to  complain  of  the  large  portion . of  them  he  injudiciously 
allotted  to  his  favorite  monks.  The  consequence  of  which  was, 
that  the  prelates  were  almost  constrained  to  solicit  the  appropri- 
ations of  some  parochial  benefices,  and  considerable  pensions  from 
a  much  greater  number,  in  order  to  enable  them  to  support  the  dig- 
nity of  their  station.  Nor  were  these  regulars  satisfied  with  the 
share  assigned  them  by  their  munificent  founder ;  they  frequently 
laid  claim  to,  and  sometimes  took  possession  of  what  was  reserved 
to  the  separate  use  of  their  diocesan,  and  for  a  long  course  of  years 
the  bishop  found  it  difficult  to  withstand  their  encroachments. 
But  the  right  to  those  articles  of  provision,  charged,  as  we  have  be- 
fore observed,  on  the  estates  settled  on  this  priory,  was  an  endless 
subject  of  dispute  between  the  members  of  it  and  their  spiritual  go- 
vernor. It  is  generally  styled  the  Xenium,  and  was  due  on  St. 
Andrew's  day  ;  and  as  the  chief  design  of  it  was  for  the  keeping  up 
of  hospitality,  the  monks  refused  to  pay  it,  if  the  bishops  happened 
to  be  absent  from  Rochester  at  that  festival.  The  bishops,  howe- 
ver, insisted  in  their  right  to  it,  in  whatever  place  they  might  be. 
And  as  the  regulars,  notwithstanding  the  corrupt  arts  they  made 
use  of  to  obtain  a  decision  in  their  favor,  were  constantly  defeated, 
it  is  rather  to  be  imagined  that  they  had,  like  many  other  of  their 
brethren,  either  forged  a  grant  to  answer  their  purpose,  or  that  the 
words  in  the  original  donation  were  capable  of  a  different  construc- 
tion from  what  they  put  upon  them.  As  this  provision  pension,  if 
we  may  be  allowed  the  expression,  is  of  a  very  singular  nature, 
many  of  our  readers  will,  perhaps,  be  entertained" with  a  sight  of 
this  piece  of  antiquity ;  and  for  the  sake  of  the  learned,  we  here 
present  it  in  the  original,  to  which  for  the  information  of  the  un- 
learned, a  translation  is  subjoined. 


96  HISTORY  OF 

De  Exenio  S.  Andreae  solvend'  epo  Roffen'  a  monachis  Roffen' 
secundum  ordinationem  Gundulfi. 

In  bibliothec.  Cotton.  Domitian.  A.  x.  9.  fol.  98,  a.  b. 

Ego  (Gundulfus)  constituo  de  possessionibus  que  ad  victum  ipso- 
rum  monachorum  ordinavi,  singulis  annis  michi  et  successoribus 
meis  festivitatem  St.  Andree  aplT  celebrantibus  exenium  deferendum 
hujusmodi ;  hoc  est,  de  Woldeham,  et  de  Frendsberia,  et  de  De- 
nitune,  et  de  Suthflete,  et  de  Stoke,  16  frescingas,  30  aucas,  200 
gallinas,  et  miilenarium  de  lampridis,  et  millenarium  de  ovis,  et  4 
salmones,  et  60  fasciculos  de  fursa ;  et  de  Stoke  unum  hopum  avene. 
Sed  de  piscibus,  &  de  Ovis  medietas  sit  eorum,  &  de  Lamthethe 
similiter  dimid.  millen'  de  lampridis  ad  opus  eorum.  De  Hedenham 
vero,  Talentem  20  solidos  de  piscej  in  cellarium  eorum  deferatur 
ct  ibi  equaliter  pirtitum,  medietas  eis  remaneat,  et  medietas  michi 
deferatur.  Si  vero  fortuitu,  quod  absit,  ego  aut  aliquis  successorum 
meorum  ad  festurh  aliqua  causa  defuerit,  ex  parte  Dei  et  mea,  pre- 
cipio,  ut  totum  illud  exenium  ad  curiam  beati  Andree  deferatur,  et 
consilio  prioris  et  fratrum  ecclesie  ad  honorem  festivitatis  in  usus 
advenientium  hospitum  et  pauperum  dispen'setur. 

Concerning  the  Xenium*  on  the  festival  of  St.  Andrew,  to  be 
giren  to  the  bishop  of  Rochester,  by  the  monks  of  that  place, 
according  to  the  institution  of  Gundulph. 

Cotton.  Domitian.  A.  x.  9.  fol.  98.  a.  b. 

"  I  Gundulph  do  appoint,  that  efery  year,  at  the  celebration 
"  of  the  feast  of  St.  Andrew  the  apostle,  there  be  reserved  to  me 
"  and  my  successors,  out  of  the  estates  which  I  have  assigned  for 
u  the  maintenance  of  the  monks,  such  a  xenium  as  is  here  speci- 

*  Xenium,  (derived  from  the  Greek  word  £ev;ov)  which  signifies  a  present  gi- 
ven to  any  person,  in  token  of  hospitality. 

The  articles  of  the  Xenium,  here  set  down,  differ  in  a  few  particulars  from 
these  inserted  in  Mr.  Thorpe's  collection  of  ancient  records,  p.  6.  In  the  last, 
the  manors  of  Woldh'sm,  &c.  were  to  pay  three  hundred  fowles,  and  sixty 
sbeavesof  corn;  and  the  manor  of  Stoke,  sixteen  seam  and  one  measure  of 
oat?. 


ROCHESTER.  97 

"  fied.  That  is  to  say  ;  from  Woldham,  and  from  Frendsbury,  and 
"  from  Denitune,  and  from  Southfleet,  and  from  Stoke,  sixteen 
"  hogs  cured  for  bacon*,  thirty-two  geese,  two  hundred  fowles, 
"  one  thousand  lampreys,  one  thousand  eggs,  four  salmon,  sixty 
"  bundles  of  furze;  and,  from  Stoke  one  measure  of  oats  ;  but  half 
u  the  fish  and  eggs,  to  be  the  monks  portion.  And  from  Lam- 
"  thethe,  fire  hundred  lampreys,  for  the  use  of  the  monks;  also 
u  from  Hadenham,  twenty  shillings  worth  of  fish,  to  be  carried  to 
"  their  cellar,  and  there  equally  divided  between  me  and  them. 
"  But  if  it  should  happen,  contrary  to  my  wishes,  that  I,  or  any 
"  of  my  successors,  shall  be  absent  from  the  feast,  then  in  God's 
"  name  and  my  own  I  order  that  the  whole  xenium  be  carried  to  the 
et  hall  of  St.  AndreWj  and  there,  at  the  discretion  of  the  prior  and 
'*  brethren  of  the  church,  be  distributed  to  the  strangers  and  poor, 
*'  in  honor  of  the  festival." 

If  the  merits  of  the  dispute,  so  long  agitated  between  the  prelates 
and  the  monks  of  St.  Andre w,  were  to  be  determined  solely  by  the 
words  of  this  deed,  the  conduct  of  the  latter  might  be  justly  vindi- 
cated ;  but  there  are  in  this  instrument  itself,  some  very  suspicious 
marks  of  its  authenticity.  We  shall,  however,  notice  only  one, 
which  is,  that  Gundulph  is  said  to  grant  to  the  monks  the  free  dis- 
posal and  presentation  of  the  vicars  of  all  the  churches,  &c.  whereas 
a  doubt  may  be  raised,  whether  any  vicars  were  settled  and  endow- 
ed for  some  years  after  the  death  of  this  bishop.  And  besides  it  is 
expressly  declared  in  the  Regist.  Temporal.  Roff.  fol.  107.  b. 
that  Gundulph  reserved  to  himself  and  his  successors,  the  payment 
of  this  xenium  yearly,  on  the  feast  of  St.  Andrew,  without  any 
terms  of  restriction,  u  sine  conditione."  It  seems,  therefore,  to  be 
most  probable,  that  this  xenium  was  an  agreement  between  the 

*  The  original  is  Frescinga,  the  true  meaning  of  which,  Sir  Henry  Spelman 
professes  himself  not  able  to  determine;  it  is  most  probable  it  implied  a  hog 
cured  into  bacon :  it  must  have  been  a  large  animal,  as  the  worth  of  it  was 
computed  to  be  two  shillings;  whereas  a  goose,  was,  at  that  time,  valued  at  no 
more  than  two-pence,  a  pullet  at  three  farthings.  Du  Cange  countenances  the 
fore-mentioned  sense. 


98  HISTORY  OF 

bishop  and  convent,  for  his  lordship's  quota  (when  absent)  of  the 
rents  appropriated  in  common  to  them,  for  hospitality  :  and  more 
particularly  on  the  feast  of  St.  Andrew,  to  whom  the  cathedral  was 
dedicated.  When  these  provisions  ceased  to  be  paid  in  kind,  is  not 
clear;  but  it  is  plain  from  some  passages  in  the  Regist.  Roff.  p.  124, 
125,  that  about  the  time  of  Haymo  de  Hethe  there  was  a  fixed  com- 
position of  four  pounds  twelve  shillings  and  nine  pence  for  all  the 
articles,  except  corn*,  which  was  to  be  estimated  according  to  the 
price  of  the  year;  and,  from  the  reformation,  the  whole  has  been 
reduced  to  a  neat  sum  of  ten  pounds. 

As  this  xenium,  and  the  pensions  reserved  to  the  bishops,  vrere 
not  capable  of  any  improvements,  the  proportional  income  of  this 
see  has,  in  a  course  of  years,  unavoidably  diminished.  One  piece 
of  good  fortune  has,  however,  certainly  attended  it,  in  not  having 
been  deprived  of  more  than  one  manor  out  of  those  few  which  be- 
longed to  it,  A.  D.  1267.  See  Regist.  Roff.  p.  63,  &c.  Mr. 
Wharton,  in  his  Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  l.p.  382,  has  suggested,  upon 
the  credit  of  the  writer  of  the  life  of  bishop  Fisher,  that  the  income 
of  this  see  amounted,  in  his  time,  to  three  thousand  pounds  per 
annum.  Either  the  author  or  the  transcriber  must  have  made  a 
material  mistake,  by  adding  one  cipher  too  much  ;  for  in  the  king's 
books  the  bishoprick  is  valued  at  no  more  than  three  hundred  and 
fifty-eight  pounds  four  shillings  and  nine  pence  half-penny;  and, 
like  many  other  ecclesiastical  benefices,  it  was  probably  over-rated, 
since  in  the  year  1595,  the  clear  annual  profits  of  it  did  not  exceed 
two  hundred  and  twenty  pounds.     Strype's  Annals,  vol.  4.  p.  226. 

But  small  as  have  been,  and  still  are,  the  revenues  of  this  see,  and 
confined  as  is  the  extent  of  its  district,  the  ensuing  catalogue  will 

*  In  this  agreement  there  is  one  article  mentioned  as  a  part  of  the  Xenium, 
which  doe3  not  occur  in  any  other  place.  Item  pro  xi  peciis  de  storcione  vs. 
vtd.  precium  pecie  vid.  What  the  word  "  Storcio"  means,  we  cannot  learn,  it 
is  not  to  be  met  with  in  Spelman's  Glossary  ?  but  from  its  being  placed  here 
between  two  fish  of  different  kind;,  may  it  not  be  conjectured  it  was  a  stur- 
geon ? 


ROCHESTER.  9-9 

evidently  shew,  that  many  of  the  prelates,  who  have  presided  over 
this  diocese,  have  been  inferior  to  few  of  their  brethren,  in  respect 
of  ability,  learning,  and  every  commendable  virtue.  And  the  rea- 
ders will  likewise  perceive  that  near  a  third  part  of  the  bishops  of 
Rochester  have,  for  their  merits,  been  translated  to  sees  more  am- 
ply endowed,  and  that  some  of  them  have  enjoyed  and  adorned  the 
highest  posts  in  the  church  and  state. 

I.  Justus,  who  had  been  sent  from  Rome  A.  D.  601,  to  assist 
Augustine  in  the  arduous  employment  of  preaching  to  our  ancestors 
the  important  truths  of  the  gospel,  was  constituted  the  first  bishop 
of  Rochester  A.  D.  604.  He  was  a  person  eminent  for  the  holiness 
and  integrity  of  his  life.  The  success  which  attended  his  first  pious 
endeavours  was  no  less  extraordinary  than  the  diligence  he  had  ex- 
erted*; and  he  was  afterwards  as  zealous  for  the  preservation  as  he 
had  been  for  the  propagation  of  Christianity.  But  on  the  death  of 
king  Ethelbert,  which  happened  in  617,  there  was  a  great  change 
in  ecclesiastical  affairs.  Edbald  who  succeeded  his  father  in  the 
kingdom  of  Kent,  abjured  Christianity  which  occasioned  a  general 
defection  among  his  subjects.  Justus  unable  to  stem  this  torrent, 
abdicated  his  see,  and  retired  to  France  :  but  in  the  next  year 
Edbald  was  reclaimed  from  his  apostacy  by  Laurence  archbishop 
of  Canterbury.  On  this  happy  change  Justus  returned  again  to 
Rochester,  and  exercised  his  pastoral  office  until  the  year  624, 
when  he  was  translated  to  the  see  of  Canterbury. 


*  It  was  observer!  in  page  49  of  this  work,  that  this  part  of  Englacd  was 
well  disposed  for  the  reception  of  Christianity,  but  the  writer  may  possibly  be 
censured  for  his  partiality,  were  he  to  take  no  notice  of  the  imputations  cast 
upon  the  people  who  lived  in  and  near  Rochester,  when  Augustine  engaged  ia 
the  arduous  task  of  converting  them.  They  were,  according  to  a  monkish  his- 
torian, so  much  given  to  idolatry,  that  the  word  of  God,  as  preached  to  them 
by  this  celebrated  missionary,  appeared  to  them  foolishness,  and  they  not  only 
treated  him  and  his  associates  with  the  most  opprobrious  language,  but  per- 
sonally insulted  them,  and  besmeared  their  garments  with  the  tr.ils  of  fishee. 
A  more  particular  account  of  this  story  with  the  legend  that  follotvi-  ia  ia:err- 
ed  in  Parker's  Antiq.  Brittan.  p.  578. 


100  HISTORY  OF 

II.  Romanus  succeeded  him  in  the  bishoprick  of  Rochester,  A.  D. 
624,  but  did  not  enjoy  it  long,  for  in  627,  travelling  to  Rome  with 
a  message  from  the  archbishop,  he  was  unfortunately  drowned. 

III.  His  successor  was  Paulinus,  the  saint,  who  came  to  England 
with  Justus.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  great  abilities.  He 
had  been  some  years  before  consecrated  bishop  of  York,  by  Justus, 
that  he  might  attend  Ethelburga,  the  daughter  of  king  Edbald,  who 
was,  in  624,  married  to  Edwin,  king  of  Northumberland.  He  was 
well  qualified  for  this  office;  and  about  two  years  after  he  was 
settled  in  Northumberland,  had  the  honor  to  baptize  Edwin,  and 
most  of  the  persons  in  his  court.  But  Edwin  being  slain  in  a  bat- 
tle with  Penda,  king  of  Mercia,  and  his  dominions  ransacked  by 
the  conqueror,  Paulinus  was  obliged  to  quit  his  see  ;  and,  arriving 
at  Rochester  about  the  time  Romanus  died,  was  made  bishop  in  his 
stead,  in  the  latter  end  of  the  year  633.  Here  he  continued  eleven 
years,  and  died  October  the  10th,  644,  and  was  buried  in  his  own 
church*. 

IV.  Ithamar  succeeded  him,  A.  D.  644  :  he  was  born  at  Canter- 
bury, and  was  the  first  Englishman  that  sat  in  this  see.  He  was  not 
inferior  to  his  predecessors  in  piety  or  learning.  He  died  A.  D. 
655,  and  was  buried  in  the  church  of  Rochester +. 

V.  Damianus,  a  south  Saxon,  succeeded  Ithamar,  in  656,  on 
whose  demise,  about  the  year  664,  the  see  was  for  some  time  vacant. 

VI.  Putta  was  at  length  consecrated  for  this  diocese,  by  archbi? 
shop  Theobald,  in  669.  He  was  a  man  eminent  for  his  private  vir- 
tues, but  ill  calculated  to  sustain  a  public  character.  When  he 
began  to  feel  the  weight  of  his  charge,  he  was  weary  of  his  bishop- 

*  Paulinus  was  buried  (according  to  Bcde,  lib.  3.  c.  14,  and  Wharton's  An- 
glU  Sacra,  p.  280)  in  the  vestry,  (secretario).  See  also  Rcgist  Roff.  p.  22,  35. 
His  body  was  afterwards  placed  in  a  silver  shrine,  by  archbishop  Lanfranc. 
His  epitaph  is  printed  in  AVeever,  p.  310,  and  in  the  history  and  antiquities 
of  Rochester,  by  Thomas  Rawlinson,  p.  21. 

+  Ithamar  was  buried  in  the  body  of  the  church,  but  removed  by  Gundulph, 
according  to  "VV'eever,  p.  311.  Phillipot  says,  that  his  shrine  was  ernamented 
by  bishop  John,  p.  290. 


ROCHESTER.  101 

rick,  and  desirous  to  resign  it.  But  he  was  soon  relieved  from  this 
burden  by  the  usurper  Ethelred,  king  of  Mercia,  who,  entering 
Kent  with  a  powerful  army,  pillaged  and  burnt  this  city,  damaged 
the  church  *,  and  wasted  all  the  country  :  this  was  in  676.  Some 
affirm,  that  bishop  Puttahad  retired  from  his  see  before  this  calami- 
ty happened ;  but  if  he  had  not,  it  was  about  this  time  that  he  went 
into  Mercia,  and  accepted  the  charge  of  a  parish,  under  Saxulf,  the 
bishop;  there  he  taught  music,  having  a  taste  for  musical  composi- 
tions. In  this  retirement  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life,  nor 
could  he  be  persuaded  to  return  any  more  to  his  bishoprick. 

VII.  The  see  of  Rochester  was  at  this  period  in  a  wretched  and 
desolated  state;  its  church  was  much  injured  by  fire;  and  its  bi- 
shop fled.  Theodore  the  archbishop  consecrated  Quichelm,  or 
Gulielmus,  as  Bede  calls  him,  bishop  of  Rochester,  about  the  year 
676.  This  prelate  finding  his  church  entirely  destitute,  and  the 
country  invaded  and  plundered  by  the  kings  of  Sussex  and  Wessex, 
did  not  continue  long  at  Rochester;  but,  having  appointed  one 
Gebmund  in  his  stead,  withdrew  to  a  more  agreeable  place. 

VIII.  Gebmund  accepted  it  about  the  year  681,  and  died  in  his 
office  A.  D.  69'2.  There  is  no  account  on  record  of  the  church  be- 
ing rebuilt,  though  it  is  said  to  have  been  burnt ;  it  seems  therefore 
probable,  that  it  was  not  rendered  unfit  for  divine  service. 

IX.  Tobias  succeeded  to  this  see  A.  D.  693  :  hs  was  an  English- 
man, and  was  well  skilled  in  the  Greek,  Latin,  and  Saxon  langua- 
ges ;  he  died  A.  D.  726,  and  was  buried  in  his  own  church+,  which 
is  a  proof  that  it  was  then  in  some  good  repair. 

*That  the  church  was  exceedingly  damaged  and  entirely  plundered,  is  ge- 
nerally allowed;  and  some  writers  have  supposed,  that  the  whole  fabric  was 
consumed  by  fire.  But  if  this  last  had  been  the  case,  it  is  rather  extraordinary, 
that  no  notice  is  taken  of  a  rebuilder,  'till  the  time  of  Gundulph.  i.  e.  for  four 
hundred  years:  we  read  only  of  the  new  erection,  and  of  the  repairs  of  some 
parts  by  different  bishops  and  benefactors;  as  for  instance,  St.  Paul's  portico 
was  raised  by  bishop  Tobias,  as  a  burying  place  for  himself. 

+  Tobias  was  buried  in  the  portico  of  St.  Paul,  within  the  church  of  St.  An- 
drew, which  ke  had  siade  for  the  place  of  his  interment,  Bede,  lib.  V.  c.  24.  It 


102  HISTORY   OF 

X.  Aldulph  succeeded  A.  D.  727.  This  prelate,  in  738,  obtain* 
ed  from  Egbert  king  of  Kent  the  manor  of  Stoke,  which  the  church 
possessed  for  many  years,  till  it  was  taken  from  them  by  the  Danes  ; 
but  restored  at  the  conquest.     This  bishop  died  in  the  year  741. 

XI.  Dun  or  Duina,  was  appointed  his  successor  in  the  same  year. 
This  bishop  was  present  at  a  provincial  council  held  at  Cliffe  near 
this  city,  in  September  A.  D.  747. 

XII.  Eardulph  succeeded  him  the  same  year,  during  whose  epis- 
copacy, the  church  of  Rochester  seems  to  have  recovered  from  its 
past  misfortunes,  by  the  countenance  and  assistance  of  several  prin- 
ces :  there  appears,  however,  great  confusion  in  the  grants  said  to 
have  been  made  to  the  church  at  this  period.  Offa  king  of  Mercia 
invaded  Kent,  and  disposed  of  things  at  his  pleasure.  He  and  Sige- 
red  king  of  Kent,  A.  D.  764,  gave  Frindsbury  and  Wickham  to  the 
church  of  Rochester  ;  and  Bromley  was  soon  after  added.  Sigered 
also,  A.  D.  762,  gave  land  to  the  church,  that  was  north  of  the 
monastery,  and  near  the  north  wall  of  the  city. 

XIII.  Dioran  succeeded  to  this  see  A.  D.  778.  To  him  Ethel- 
bert  king  of  Wessex  gave  land  north  of  the  city;  at  this  time  also 
Hailing  was  annexed  to  this  church. 

XIV.  Wermund  was  his  successor  A.  D.  788,  to  whom  in  the 
next  year  Olfa  king  of  Mercia  gave  Trottlescliffe  and  certain  lands, 
near  Rochester.     He  died  about  the  year  800. 

XV.  Beornmod  was  soon  after  his  decease  appointed  to  this  see 
by  archbishop  Ethalard.  In  the  year  838,  Kenwolf  king  of  the 
Mercians  gave  to  this  bishop,  Borstall ;  and  in  841,  Ethelwolf 
king  of  the  West-Saxons  gave  him  Snodland  and  Holeberg.  A 
profession  of  this  bishop's  faith  is  printed  in  the  Regist.  RofT. 
p.   1 9,  20. 

XVI.  Tadnoth  succeeded  to  this  see  A.  D.  841. 

XVII.  Bedenoth  was  the  next  bishop  of  this  see. 

i-s  not  certain  what  part  of  the  fabrick  the  portico  of  St.  Paul  was  in,  but  it 
was  supposed  to  have  been  near  the  west  door  and  of  course  was  pulled  down 
w  hen  Guadulph  bnilt  the  present  church.     See  page  51. 


ROCHESTER.  103 

XVIII.  Godwyn  I.  succeeded  him:  he  was  at  the  council  held 
at  Kingsbury  A.  D.  851,  and  was  probably  dean  of  London.  At 
this  period,  as  the  bishop  of  Llandaft"  remarks,  the  succession  of  the 
bishops  of  this  see  is  much  brokenj  which  shews  the  deplorable 
state  of  these  times ;  an  almost  impenetrable  obscurity  darkening 
the  history  both  of  church  and  state. 

XIX.  Cuthwolf  is  the  next  bishop  on  record,  to  whom  in  the 
year  868  Ethelred  king  of  England  gave  land  north  of  the  city,  in 
the  marshes  and  meadows  by  the  river  Med  way. 

XX.  Swithulf  succeeded  him.  In  880  Cuckston  was  given  to 
the  bishop  and  church  of  Rochester.  This  bishop  was  appointed 
one  of  the  guardians  of  the  realm  against  the  Danes,  who  then  in- 
fested the  coast,  and  besieged  this  city.  He  died  in  the  year  897, 
or  soon  after  the  plague. 

XXI.  Buiric  was  the  next  bishop  of  this  see* 

XXII.  Cheolmund  succeeded; 

XXIII.  Chineferth  or  Kyneferde  succeeded,  to  whom  king 
Ethelstane  gave  "  iucudem  monete,"  which  seems  to  be  the  privi- 
lege of  a  mint. 

XXIV.  Burrhic  succeeded  A.  D.  945.  In  the  first  year  of  his 
episcopacy,  king  Edmund  gave  to  him  and  to  the  church  of  Ro- 
chester, East  and  West  Mailing.  King  Eldred  also  gave  Freck- 
enham  to  this  bishop  for  the  augmentation  of  the  monastery  or 
church. 

XXV.  Alfstane  succeeded,  to  whom  Edgar  gave  Bromley.  In 
the  time  of  this  prelate  the  Danes  deprived  this  church  of  great  part 
of  its  revenues.     He  died  A.  D.  984. 

XXVI.  Godwyn  II.  succeeded,  who  seems  to  have  been  the 
same  that  Ethelred  II.  besieged  in  the  city  of  Rochester  ;  nor 
would  he  depart  until  he  had  extorted  from  the  bishop  one  hundred 
pounds.  He  also  deprived  this  church,  in  the  first  part  of  his  reign, 
of  some  of  its  demesnes.  But  he  afterwards  atoned  for  these  sacri- 
legious dilapidations,  as  appears  from  his  charter  dated  A.  D.  998, 
in  which  he  makes  restitution  to  the  church  and  bishop  Godwyn  of 


104  HISTORY  OF 

■what  he  had  taken  away,  and  in  very  strong  terms  laments  his  juve- 
nile impieties,  which  he  ascribes  to  the  advice  of  evil  counsellors, 
but  principally  of  one  Ethelsin,  whom  he  calls,  "  An  unhappy 
"  enemy  to  God  and  the  whole  people*."  See  Regist.  Roff. 
p.  191. 

XXVII.  Godwyn  III.  was  the  next  bishop  of  Rochester,  and 
is  supposed  to  have  been  the  same  who  was  taken  prisoner  with 
archbishop  Alphege,  when  Canterbury  was  surrendered  to  the 
Danes,  in  the  year  1011  ;  yet  there  is  a  Godwyn  mentioned  in  a  let- 
ter of  Edward  the  Confessor,  as  bishop  of  Rochester,  so  late  as 
the  year  i044.  He  must  therefore  have  been  bishop  of  this  see, 
thirty-three  years  at  least ;  but  hoiv  long  he  lived  after  this  date, 
does  not  appear. 

XXVIlIi  Siward,  abbot  of  Abingdon,  and  (according  to  Whar- 
ton) of  Chertsey,  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester  in  the  year 
1068,  so  that  it  is  probable  this  see  was  some  years  vacant,  being  im- 
poverished by  a  variety  of  misfortunes.  This  bishop  had  acted  ma- 
ny years  as  Vicar  to  Eldsin,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  tvas 
incapable  of  officiating  himself,  on  account  of  his  ill  state  of  health. 
In  the  discharge  of  this  office  he  was  suspected  of  misapplying  the 
revenues  of  the  church  ;  this  being  known  to  the  king,  he  refused  to 
give  him  the  see  of  Canterbury,  and  sent  him  to  Rochester;  where? 
acting,  as  before,  upon  motives  of  self-interest,  he  completed  the 
ruin  of  the  see ;  for  at  the  conquest,  in  the  year  1066,  there  were 
not  more  than  four  canons,  who,  being  hardly  paid,  depended,  for 
the  most  part,  on  the  alms  of  well  disposed  people.  Siward  was 
present  at  the  synod  held  about  Whitsuntide  1072,  begun  at  Win- 

'  •  The  year  1014  is  marked  on  one  of  the  beams  of  the  roof  in  the  nave  of  the 
church;  it  is  not  easy  to  account  for  this  date,  it  being  sixty  years  before  the 
time  when  Gundulph  is  said  to  have  rebuilt  it,  and  brings  us  back  to  the  reign 
of  this  prince:  the  date  agrees  with  the  time  of  his  repentance,  it  being  about 
two  years  before  his  death.  It  may  therefore  be  conjectured,  that  he  repaired 
this  church  in  atonement  for  his  former  injuries  to  it:  and  that  this  beam  was 
either  laid  in  bis  time,  or,  if  it  was  afterwards  replaced;  the  new  beam  might 
be  marked  with  the  same  date. 


ROCHESTER.  105 

Chester,  and  finished  at  Windsor.     When  he  died  is  uncertain  • 
most  writers  think  in  1075. 

XXIX.  Ernost,  or  Ernostus,  a  monk,  was  consecrated  to  this 
see  the  beginning  of  the  year  1076,  by  archbishop  Lanfranc,  in  order 
that  he  might  regulate  the  distracted  affairs  of  this  church  ;  but  he 
was  removed  by  sudden  death,  in  the  month  of  July  of  the  same 
year. 

XXX.  Gundulph  was  consecrated  bishop  of  this  see  by  arch- 
bishop Lanfranc,  March  19,  1077:  both  Lanfranc  and  Gundulph 
were  monksj  strongly  prejudiced  in  favor  of  their  own  fraternity  ; 
they  therefore  displaced  the  secular  canons  from  the  priory  of  Ro- 
chester, and  filled  it  with  monks  of  the  Benedictine  orders.  Gun- 
dulph was  not  so  much  distinguished  by  his  eminency  in  learning,  as 
by  his  remarkable  industry  and  unwearied  zeal  in  promoting  the 
interest  of  the  church.  Being  a  rigid  monk,  he  entertained  the 
utmost  contempt  for  the  married  priests*.  At  first  he  placed  only 
twenty  monks  in  this  priory,  but  before  his  death  they  were  in- 
creased to  sixty.  He  raised  money  sufficient,  through  the  assistance 
of  his  great  patron  Lanfranc,  to  rebuild  the  church  and  enlarge  the 
priory,  which  at  this  time  were  both  hastening  to  ruin  :  although 
he  did  not  live  to  finish  the  great  improvements  he  had  undertaken, 
yet  it  is  certain  he  laid  the  foundation  of  the  future  prosperity  of  this 
church  and  priory.  He  removed  the  bodies  of  his  predecessors, 
that  had  been  deposited  in  the  church,  into  some  part  of  his  new  fa- 
bric, which  he  compleated  first  for  that  purpose  ;  he  also  enclosed 
the  remains  of  Paulinus,  the  third  bishop  of  this  see,  in  a  curious 
shrine  of  silver,  and  procured  his  canonization,  A.  D.  1087.  Great 
numbers  of  devotees  repaired  to  this  shrine,  where  they  made  con- 

*  Notwithstanding  the  enmity  the  monks  bore  to  the  married  priests,  yet  did 
they  not  scruple  to  inter,  in  the  most  honorable  manner,  the  wife  of  Angeli- 
cas, priest  of  Chatham,  and  one  of  the  seculars,  whom  they  had  expelled  from 
this  priory:  on  this  occasion  the  prejudices  of  these  rigid  Benedictines  gave 
way  to  their  interest,  for  it  appears  from  the  Textus  Roff.  that  the  priest  pur- 
chased this  indulgence  for  the  dear  object  of  his  affections,  by  presenting  to 
the  society  a  mansion  which  produced  to  them  a  yearly  rent  of  one  shilling. 

P 


106  HISTORY  OF 

siderable  offerings,  insomuch  that  it  proved  a  fund  of  wealth  to  the 
church  and  monastery. 

Odo  bishop  of  Bayeux  in  Normandy,  and  half  brother  to  the 
Conqueror,  being  made  earl  of  Kent,  resided  in  the  castle  of  Ro- 
chester ;  his  rapacious  disposition  prompted  him  to  seize  on  the 
lands  of  the  churches  of  Rochester  and  Canterbury,  and  retain  them 
for  himself;  or  give  them  to  his  dependents  at  his  pleasure.  But 
Lanfranc  being  firmly  fixed  in  the  metropolitan  ehair,  appointed  by 
the  pope,  and  in  favor  with  the  king,  to  whose  son  he  was  precep- 
tor, was  determined  to  attempt  the  recovery  of  his  right.  In  conse- 
quence of  which  he  and  Gundulph  laid  their  grievances  before  his 
majesty.  On  their  representation,  William  summoned  all  the  men 
of  the  county  to  appear  on  a  fixed  day  at  Penenden  Heath,  and  such 
as  were  learned  in  the  ancient  laws  were  ordered  to  examine  into 
this  matter.  In  obedience  to  the  king's  edict  they  assembled,  and 
examined  evidences.  Goisfridus  bishop  of  Constance  being  presi- 
dent of  this  great  court ;  and  that  they  might  not  give  judgment 
precipitately,  the  whole  assembly  were  detained  three  days.  The 
result  was,  that  Lanfranc  and  Gundulph  recovered  from  Odo  and 
his  creatures  Detling,  Stoke,  Preston,  Dentune,  and  several  other 
manors  and  small  parcels  of  land.  The  Regist.  RofF.  places  this  af- 
fair in  the  short  time  of  bishop  Ernost ;  but  we  think  with  Lambard 
and  bishop  Godwin,  that  it  is  much  more  probable  to  have  happen- 
ed in  Gutiduiph's  time,  and  between  the  year  of  his  consecration, 
A.  D.  1077,  and  the  imprisonment  of  Odo,  in  the  year  1081. 

This  bishop  exchanged  with  Odo  three  acres  of  church  land  at 
Borstal,  for  three  acres  just  without  the  south  wall  of  Rochester. 
Odo  is  also  said  to  have  given  land  to  the  monks,  in  the  Vineyard 
of  Rochester  ;  which  seems  to  have  been  the  same  spot  that  is  now 
called  the  Vines-Field.  By  several  charters  in  the  Regist.  RofF.  it 
appears  that  the  monks  had  a  vineyard  in  that  quarter*. 

*Great  quantities  of  grapes  grew  here,  and  produced  fine  wines;  bishop 
Hay  mo  de  Hethe  presented  king  Edward  II.  (who  was  then  at  Bockinfold) 
with  a  taste  of  his  wine.     Worlidgc,  in  his  Treatise  on   Cyder  and  Wines,' 


ROCHESTER.  107 

William  I.  at  his  death,  gave  one  hundred  pounds  and  his  royal 
robe  to  the  church  of  Rochester*.     This  legacy  shews  that  the  king 
had  a  great  regard  for  bishop  Gundulph,  who,  being  an  architect, 
was,  says  Edmund  de  Haddenham,  employed  by  William  I.  and 
appointed  principal  surveyor,    in  building  the  great  white   square 
tower  in  the  Tower  of  London.     The  spirit  of  Gundulph,  and  his 
assiduous  attention  to  this  church,  appeared  from  his  conduct  at 
that  time  ;  for  while  he  was  engaged  in  that  work,  he  lodged  with 
Eadmer  Anhaende+,  a  burgess  of  London,  and  was  so  fortunate  as 
to  obtain  from  Anhaende  the  moiety  of  a  fishery  called  the  "Nieuve 
Uvere,"  during  the  lives  of  his  generous  host  and  his  wife,  and  the 
whole  of  it  after  their  decease,  with  all  the  land  and  houses  belong- 
ing to  them  in  London.     They  seem  to  have  been  satisfied  with  a 
very  moderate  compensation  for  this  valuable  grant :  for  their  whole 
request  was,  to  be  admitted  members  of  his  religious  society,  to  be 
interred  in  his  church  of  St.  Andrew,  and  to  be  indulged  with  an 
anniversary  solemnity  to  their  memory,  and  for  the   peace  of  their 
souls.     The  historian  remarks,  and  we  may  readily  believe  him,  that 
the  bishop  willingly  accepted  the  benefaction   on  these  terms  $. 

mentions  this  vineyard,  as  having  produced  excellent  wines.  A  gentleman 
indefatigable  in  his  researches  in  the  antiquities  of  this  diocese,  found  mention 
made  in  some  old  leases  of  very  considerable  quantities  of  black-berries  being 
delivered  to  the  bishop  of  Rochester,  from  sundry  of  his  tenants,  and  on  fur- 
ther inspection  it  appeared  they  were  used  to  color  the  wine  made  from  the 
grapes  growing  in  the  bishop's  vineyard. 

♦Equal  to  fifteen  hundred  pounds  at  this  time. 
+  See  Textus  Roll',  p.  212. 

^This  priory,  and  it  is  supposed  every  other  convent  in  the  kingdom,  ac- 
quired considerable  emoluments  upon  the  like  conditions.  Every  person  thus 
received  into  these  superstitious  fraternities,  hatla  right  given  them  under  the 
common  seal  to  partake  of  all  the  advantages  arising  from  the  masses,  &c. 
celebrated  in  the  society ;  and  as  much  good  was  supposed  to  accrue  to  these 
adopted  members,  as  to  the  brethren  themselves.  It  was  likewise  no  uncom- 
mon practice  for  persons  to  desire  to  be  clothed  in  the  habit  of  a  monk  in  the 
hour  of  their  departure  out  of  life;  but  this  dress  was  an  article  of  no  small 
expence  to  their  heir*. 


108  HISTORY  OF 

Henry  I.  confirmed  the  grant  of  this  fishery  to  the  church ;  and  in 
order  to  secure  to  the  monks  all  the  advantages  of  it,  the  fishermen 
were  by  the  king's  command,  restrained  from  the  exercise  of  their 
occupation  in  that  part  of  the  Thames  which  was  before  the  Nieuve 
JJvere,  under  the  penalty  of  a  forfeiture. 

Gundulph,  however,  and  his  crafty  brethren,  were  not  equally 
successful  in  all  their  bargains.  For  it  appears  from  the  Textus 
Roff.  that  the  latter  were  forced,  after  being  in  possession  of  a  par- 
cel of  land  at  Delce  for  some  years,  to  pay  ten  shillings  in  money, 
and  a  horse  of  that  value*,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  claim  of  the 
rightful  heir,  who  accused  them  of  being  usurpers.  And  the  bishop, 
with  all  his  address,  could  not  recover  the  manor  of  Stone,  'till  he 
presented  "VVIUiam  Rufus  with  fifteen  pounds  in  money,  and  a  mule 
that  was  worth  one  hundred  shillings. 

When  Rufus,  who  had  been  the  pupil  of  Lanfranc,  ascended  the 
throne,  Gundulph  and  the  archbishop  obtained  many  grants  in 
favour  of  their  churches.  Lanfranc  dying,  Gundulph  still  continu- 
ed in  favour  with  the  kingt  and  his  successor  Henry  I.  from  whom 

*  We  may  hence  conclude,  that  ten  shillings  was  the  common  price  in  those 
days  of  a  horse  for  husbandry  work :  which,  according  to  lord  Lytelton's  cal- 
culation, is  equivalent  to  about  77.  10s.  of  our  money.  By  the  same  method 
of  valuation,  a  mule  must  have  been  in  much  esteem,  for  that  presented  to 
Rufus  by  Gundulph  was  said  to  be  worth  one  hundred  shillings,  equal  to  seven- 
ty-five pounds  of  our  money.     See  Hist,  of  Hen.  II.  vol.  \,  p.  80.  8vo.  edit. 

+  The  very  learned  continuator  of  bishop  Godwyn's  Commentarius  de  Prae- 
sulibus  Angliae,  has  subjoined  a  remark  to  the  account  of  the  life  of  Gundulph, 
signifying,  that  of  all  the  English  bishops  he  was  the  only  one  who  adhered  to 
Anselm,  in  his  contest  with  William  Rufus,  when  that  primate  attempted  to 
raise  the  papal  jurisdiction  above  the  regal  prerogatives.  Dr.  Richardson  has 
not  intimated  his  voucher  for  this  anecdote;  but  supposing  the  fact  to  have 
been  as  represented  by  him,  we  may  fairly  conclude,  that  all  the  privileges 
and  emoluments  granted  to  the  church,  by  this  monarch,  were  obtained  by 
Gundulph  while  Lanfranc  was  living.  It  is  proper,  however,  to  observe,  that 
the  noble  historian,  referred  to  in  the  last  note,  has  expressly  declared,  upon 
the  authority  of  Eadmer,  that  all  the  bishops  disapproved  of  Anselms  attempt, 
advised  him  to  submit  to  the  will  of  his  sovereign,  and  deserted  that  haughty 
primate  when  they  found  he  was  inflexible.     Ibid.  vol.  1.  p.  103,  116. 


ROCHESTER.  109 

he  obtained  many  favors  for  the  monks;  among  other  privileges, 
king  Henry  gave  them  one  fourth  of  the  toll  of  Rochester  Bridge, 
whether  the  bridge  was  whole  or  broken.  He  also  established  a 
fair  at  Rochester  to  last  two  days.  viz.  on  the  festivity  of  St.  Pauli- 
nus,  and  the  day  preceding ;  for  which  two  days  the  king  granted 
to  the  monks  the  whole  toll  of  the  bridge.  They  and  their  servants 
also  used  the  bridge  toll-free.  He  permitted  them  likewise  to  vend 
their  merchandize  in  the  city,  after  the  king  and  his  servants. 

Bishop  Gundulph  founded  an  hospital  at  Chatham,  for  poor  peo- 
ple and  lepers,  dedicated  to  St.  Bartholomew ;  and  a  nunnery  at 
Mailing;  he  also  repaired  the  castle  walls  of  Rochester,  and  began 
the  large  white  tower  in  the  castle,  which  still  goes  by  his  name,  as 
we  have  already  observed. 

In  the  time  of  Gundulph,  Martin  the  chamberlain  of  the  priory 
of  Rochester  bailt  the  mill*,  said  to  be  under,  that  is,  below  the 
castle,  to  the  north  of  the  city.  In  fine,  this  prelate,  as  Mr. 
Lambard  remarks,  ^  never  rested  from  building  and  begging,  trick- 
"  ing  and  garnishing,  until  he  had  erected  his  idol  building  to  the 
"  wealth,  beauty,  and  estimatipn  of  a  popish  priory."  The  lite- 
rary acquirements  of  Gundulph  were  not  brilliant ;  but  his  skill 
and  judgment  as  an  architect  were  of  the  most  superior  order,  and 
he  had  the  advantage  of  having  them  kept  in  full  exercise.  In  the 
time  of  the  Conqueror  he  was  employed  to  construct  the  White 
Tower  in  the  tower  of  London,  and  in  the  reigns  of  his  successors, 
William  Rufus,  and  Henry  I.  he  built  the  greatest  part  of  the  ca- 
thedral, and  the  castle  of  Rochester:  and  founded  a  nunnery  for 
Benedictines  at  West  Mailing  in  this  county,  the  buildings  of 
which  are  also  attributed  to  him.  He  enjoyed  this  see  thirty-two 
years,  in  the  reigns  of  William  I.  and  II.  and  Henry  I.  He  died 
the  seventh  of  March  1107,  and  was  interred  in  his  episcopal  vest- 
ments, before  the  altar  of  the  crucifix,  which  was  always  raised  at 
the  intersection   of    the  cross  which  divided  the  nave  from  the 


*  The  mill  was  built  on  a  creek,  which  runs  between  the  marshes  and  part 
,©f  the  common. 


110  HISTORY  OF 

choir*.     His  festival  was  celebrated  by  the  monks  with  peculiar 
splendor. 

XXXT.  Rodolph  or  Ralph,  succeeded  to  the  bishoprick  of  Ro- 
chester. He  was  a  Norman  monk,  and  abbot  of  Say,  and  was 
consecrated  the  eleventh  of  August  1108.  This  prelate  was  sickly 
and  infirm,  and  yet  had  the  character  of  being  pleased  with  toys  and 
jests  to  such  a  degree  as  to  have  been  called  u  nugax,"  a  trifler. 
He  was  advanced  to  the  see  of  Canterbury  A.  D.    1114. 

XXXII.  Earnulph,  a  native  of  France,  was  the  next  bishop  of 
this  see.  Lanfranc  sent  for  him  to  England,  and  he  lived  some  time 
a  private  monk  at  Canterbury,  'till  he  became  prior  there :  after- 
wards he  was  presented  to  be  abbot  of  Peterborough,  and  lastly 
to  the  see  of  Rochester  A.  D.  1115.  He  was  a  very  active  indus- 
trious man,  ever  contriving  for  the  benefit  of  the  church.  He  gave 
to  the  monks  the  church  of  Hedenham  in  Buckinghamshire,  and 
built  a  dormitory,  refectory,  and  chapter-house  for  their  use.  He 
also  bestowed  a  variety  of  gifts  on  his  church  and  monastery,  which 
are  enumerated  in  the  Regist.  Roff.  p.  120.  He  died  the  19th  of 
March  1124,  aged  eighty-four  years.  He  is  said  to  have  made  a 
collection  of  many  ancient  manuscripts  which  are  yet  extantf . 

XXXIII.  John  archdeacon  of  Canterbury  was  consecrated  to 
this  see  May  1125.  He  built  the  church  of  Frinsbury,  and  chapel 
of  Strood,  of  stone,  from  the  treasury  of  Rochester  church,  and 
gave  both  church  and  chapel  to  the  cathedral  of  Rochester,  to  sup- 
ply wax  tapers  to  burn  continually  on  the  altar.  The  cathedral  of 
Rochester  was  finished  in  the  time  of  this  prelate,  and  he  had  the 
honor  to  dedicate  it,  at  which  were  present  the  king,  many  of  the 
nobility,  and  dignitaries  of  the  church  ;  this  was  on  the  7th  of 
May  1 1 30.  And,  as  was  before  related,  while  this  splendid  com- 
pany was  at  Rochester  the  city  took  fire,  and  suffered  considerably  : 
the  new  church  was  much  damaged  by  this  accident,  the  convent 
also  must  have  suffered  considerably,  as  the  monks  are  said  to  be 
hereby  dispersed  in  many  different  abbies  j    and  that  some  of  them 

*Denne,  in  Cust.  Roff.  p.  186.  +  See  page  66. 


ROCHESTER.  HI 

fesided  In  the  poor-house  at  Rochester  while  their  monastery  was 
repairing.  Historians  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  time  of  this  bishop's 
death:  but  it  is  most  probable  he  died  in  June  1137.  Just  after 
the  burning  the  church  and  priory,  one  Thomas  Nassenden,  senior, 
covered  the  chapter-house  at  his  own  expence,  and  gave  two  shil- 
lings, and  fourteen  seams  of  corn,  towards  the  repairs  of  the  church. 

XXXIV.  This  see  was  committed  to  the  care  of  John  bishop  of 
Say,  who  was  consecrated  in  the  middle  of  the  year  1137.  In  his 
time  the  church  and  convent  were  repairing :  but  John  behaved 
more  like  a  plunderer  than  a  pastor,  for  he  deprived  the  monks  of 
several  churches,  which  he  gave  with  the  archdeaconry  to  one  Ro- 
bert Pullum.     He  died  the  end  of  the  year  1 142  *. 

XXXV.  Ascelin  was  appointed  bishop  of  Rochester.  He  was 
a  monk,  like  his  predecessors,  and  appears  to  have  been  very  active 
and  strenuous  for  the  rights  of  his  church.  The  priory  being  now 
repaired,  the  monks  returned  to  their  former  habitation  ;  and  finding 
themselves  deprived  of  some  of  their  churches,  appealed  to  the  see 
Of  Rome,  directing  their  brethren  in  that  city  to  lay  all  that  had  been 
done  by  bishop  John,  before  the  pope.  Ascelin  repaired  to  the 
court  of  Rome  in  person  to  support  their  cause.  The  pope  attend- 
ed to  their  complaint ;  and  ordered  all  the  churches,  which  the 
monks  had  been  deprived  of,  to  be  restored  to  them.  It  was  to 
this  bishop  that  St.  Barnard  wrote  his  two  hundred  and  five  epis- 
tles :  Ascelin  died  January  23,  1147. 

XXXVI.  Walter,  archdeacon  of  Canterbury,  succeeded  him^ 
March  14,  1147,  and  held  this  see  thirty-five  years.  Walter  was 
brother  to  archbishop  Theobald,  and  appointed  by  him  archdeacon 
of  Canterbury,  and  was  excommunicated  by  archbishop  Eecket,  for 
assisting  at  the  coronation  of  Henry,  eldest  son  of  king  Henry  II. 
He  was  the  first  bishop  elected  by  the  monks   of  Rochester.     The 

*  Godwin  has  omitted  this  bishop ;  but  he  certainly  is  entitled  to  a  place 
among  the  prelates  of  this  see,  for  his  name  occurs  not  only  in  the  Textus,  and 
an  ancient  register  of  the  church  of  Rochester,  but  in  divers  old  catalogues  of 
Ihe  bishops.     See  Wharton's  Aug.  Sac.  vol.  1.  p,  343. 


112  HISTORY   OF 

archbishop  of  Canterbury,  until  this  time,  had  nominated  whom 
he  pleased  to  this  see.  Theobald,  the  archbishop,  bestowed  this 
privilege  on  the  convent.  Bishop  Walter  lived  very  peaceably  with 
the  monks  'till  within  seven  years  of  his  death,  when  there  happen- 
ed a  dispute  betwixt  them,  concerning  the  presentation  of  a  vicar 
to  Dartford,  but  it  was  soon  amicably  adjusted.  In  the  year  1177, 
five  years  before  his  death,  the  whole  city  and  church  of  Rochester 
is  said  to  have  been  consumed  by  fire  :  but  notwithstanding  the 
general  report  of  this  dreadful  accident  by  many  respectable  authors, 
yet  no  trace  of  it  is  to  be  found  in  any  ancient  charter  or  writings 
in  the  Registrum ;  which  contains  many  that  were  made  about  this 
time :  however  calamitous  therefore  it  was  to  the  city,  the  church 
and  convent  seem  to  have  had  but  a  small  share  in  this  severe  visi- 
tation.    Walter  died  the  twenty  sixth  Of  July  1182. 

XXXVII.  Gualeran,  Cr  Waleranj  archdeacon  of  Bayeux,  and 
domestic  chaplain  to  Richard,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  was 
elected  bishop  of  Rochester,  iri  the  presence  of  the  archbishop,  the 
ninth  of  November  1182.  This  prelate  hatd  certainly  no  high  opi- 
nion of  the  regulars,  if  what  is  reported  of  him  be  true,  that  he  had 
proposed  taking  a  journey  to  Rome,  iri  Order  to  Solicit  the  pope  for 
a  dismission  of  them  from  his  cathedral.  While  he  was  iri  this  city, 
making  the  necessary  preparations  for  his  intended  journey,  he  was 
seized  with  a  fit  of  illness,  which  proved  fatal  to  him,  August  29, 
1184.  Among  other  things  which  he  left  to  the  church,  were  a 
glossary  on  the  psalms,  and  St.  Paul's  epistles :  and  he  increased 
the  allowance  to  the  poor. 

XXXVJII.  A  monkish  historian  having  branded  as  detestable 
the  scheme  which  Gualeran  is  said  to  have  formed  in  his  own  mind, 
of  removing  the  members  of  that  order  from  his  church ;  it  can 
hardly  be  supposed,  that  they  were  much  concerned  at  the  unex- 
pected demise  of  their  bishop :  and  we  may  conclude,  that  they 
not  only  wished,  but  exerted  their  utmost  efforts,  to  supply  the 
vacancy  with  a  prelate  better  affected  towards  them.  In  giving,- 
however,  their  voices  for  Gilbert  de  Glanvill,  a  native  of  Northum- 
berland, and,  at  that  time,  archdeacon  of  Ltsieux  in  Normandy? 


ROCHESTER.  113 

they  were  either  deceived  themselves,  or  they  wanted  power  to 
confer  that  dignity  on  an  ecclesiastic,  who  they  had  reason  to  be- 
lieve would  be  firmly  attached  to  their  interest.  The  latter  seems 
to  have  been  the  case :  for  though,  as  has  been  before  observed, 
archbishop  Theobald  had  complimented  the  monks  of  Rochester 
with  the  privilege  of  chusing  their  own  bishop  ;  yet  it  may  be  prov- 
ed from  various  instances,  that  his  successors  considered  this  civil 
grant  as  a  mere  conge  d'elire,  and  expected  to  have  an  implicit 
deference  paid  to  their  recommendation.  That  Baldwin,  who  was 
then  metropolitan,  interposed,  and,  indeed,  that  he  used  a  greater 
influence  than  was  consistent  with  a  freedom  of  election,  is  evident 
from  the  following  circumstances.  The  monks  proceeded  to  this 
choice  in  the  presence  of  the  archbishop  at  Otford  *,  and  not  in 
their  own  chapter-house,  or  in  thafj  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury, 
where  business  of  this  kind  had  been  usually  transacted.  A  com- 
plaint was  afterwards  made  of  the  election  being  carried  on  at  a 
different  place,  and  in  a  different  manner,  from  what  it  ought  to 
hare  beent  and  besides,  Gervase  in  his  Chronicon  %  expressly  de- 
clares, that  the  archbishop  gave  this  see  to  his  own  clerk,  Gilbert  de 
Glanvill. 

If  the  monks  ever  entertained  a  favorable  opinion  of  their  new 
prelate,  it  was  of  short  continuance  :  for  a  dispute  soon  commenced 
between  them,  which  was  carried  on  with  uncommon  warmth  and 
virulence,  and  with  very  little  remission,  during  the  whole  of  Glan- 
vill's  administration.  Not  one  of  our  historians  has  given  an  im- 
partial account  of  the  origin  of  this  unhappy  dissension,  and  bishop 
Godwyn  has  professed  his  ignorance  of  the  cause.  But  light  may 
be  thrown  upon  this  hitherto  obscure  branch  of  the  history  of  this 
church,  by  attending  to  the  active  part  which  Glanvill  bore  in  a 
scheme  of  policy,  wisely  planned  about  this  period,  though  not  fol- 
lowed with  all  the  success  it  deserved. 

*  X.  scripto.  Diceto.  Mag.  Hist.  col.  629. 

t  See  Chron.  Gervase,  col.  1475,  \  Col.  1477, 


114  HISTORY  OF 

It  ir,  well  known  that  the  monks  arrogantly  assumed  the  appella- 
tion of  regulars,  and  it  is  no  less  evident  that  they  were  a  turbulent 
rac«  of  men,  and  the  most  zealous  advocates  for,  and  strenuous  sup- 
porters of  the  various  usurpations  of  the  popes  upon  the  regal  pre- 
rogatives. The  dreadful  effects  of  their  open  endeavors,  as  well  as 
secret  contrivances,  were  felt  with  reluctance  by  king  Henry  II. 
who,  perceiving  the  impracticableness  of  suppressing  at  once  the  au- 
thors of  them,  Consulted  his  prelates  on  the  proper  method  of  gra- 
dually diminishing  the  exorbitant  power  they  had  acquired.  And 
this  prince  seems  to  have  been  especially  solicitous  that  the  bishops 
should  prescribe  some  remedy  to  obviate  the  pernicious  consequen- 
ces, Which  he  foresaw  must  ensue,  from  the  privilege  he  had  unwa- 
rily granted  to  the  monks  of  Christ  Church  of  electing  their  own 
metropolitan.  The  advice  given  by  the  prelates  to  their  sovereign, 
principally  by  the  direction  of  the  archbishop,  was  to  erect  colleges 
near  to  the  cathedrals  occupied  by  the  regulars,  and  to  fill  them 
with  secular  canons,  an  order  of  ecclesiastics,  who,  he  had  found 
by  experience,  were  not,  in  general,  infected  with  principles  dan- 
gerous to  civil  government ;  and  whip,  being  besides  friends  to  the 
rights  of  the  national  clergy,  he  might  reasonably  hope,  would 
forma  powerful  barrier  against  the  incroachments  of  the  Roman 
pontifs. 

In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  archbishop  Baldwin  made  preparations 
for  founding  a  college  at  Hackington,  near  Canterbury,  an  insti- 
tution which  he  never  effected,  being  obstinately  opposed,  in  every 
step  of  his  progress  towards  the  establishment  of  it,  by  the  members 
of  his  own  church.  And  if  we  reflect  that  bishop  Glanvill  of 
Rochester,  and  Hugh  de  Nunant  bishop  of  Litchfield*,  were  the 
persons  chiefly  employed  by  his  Grace  to  reduce  the  contumacious 
monks  to  obedience  to  their  spiritual  governor,  and  to  chastise 
them  for  thwarting  and  counteracting  his  laudable  designs,  we  shall 
cease  to  wonder  that  those  prelates  should,  on  this  account  alone, 
become  obnoxious  to  all  these  religious  fraternities. 

*  See  Chronic.  Gervase,  col.  1514,  1517. 


ROCHESTER.  115 

But  by  a  direct  attack  on  the  monks  of  their  own  cathedrals 
they  rendered  them  their  implacable  enemies.  For,  not  satisfied 
with  the  assistance  giyen  to  the  archbishop,  those  spirited  prelates 
determined  to  execute,  as  far  as  was  in  their  power,  a  scheme  both 
acceptable  to  their  prince  and  beneficial  to  the  nation,  by  removing 
the  monks,  whom  they  considered  as  usurpers,  and  by  replacing  the 
secular  canons,  for  the  support  of  whom  their  churches  had  been 
originally  founded.  This  was  done  literally  speaking,  "  vi  et  armis," 
at  Coventry ;  and  it  appears  from  the  Regist.  RofF.  that  it  was  at- 
tempted, though  in  vain,  at  Rochester,  by  Glanvill. 

The  plea,  however,  used  by  this  bishop  was  very  artful  and  judi- 
cious ;  for  to  avoid,  if  possible,  giving  offence  to  the  pope,  he  assert- 
ed, what  was  the  truth,  that  Gundulph  had  dispossessed  the  secu- 
lars without  the  sanction,  or  even  privity,  of  the  Roman  see.  There 
were,  indeed,  other  causes,  which  concurred,  with  that  already 
mentioned,  to  increase  and  perpetuate  the  dispute  between  this 
prelate  and  the  monks.  The  several  articles  of  their  reciprocal  com- 
plaints are  specified  in  the  Registium,  p.  53,  from  which  it  is  evident 
that  these  like  all  other  regulars,  being  no  less  eager  than  willing  to 
disengage  themselves  from  the  canonical  obedience  they  owed  to 
their  diocesan,  had  aimed  at  depriving  him  of  those  privileges  and 
emoluments  which  their  founder  had  secured  to  his  successors  in 
the  see  of  Rochester ;  and  that  they  had,  in  direct  violation  of  the 
council  of  Lateran,  got  possession  of  various  portions  of  tithes  and 
pensions  from  churches  without  the  consent  of  the  ordinary. 

Glanvill  was,  however,  too  wise  and  too  resolute  to  rest  quietly 
under  these  usurpations;  nor  would  he  suffer  the  unwarrantable 
practices  of  the  members  of  his  cathedral  to  pass  uncensured  :  for 
they  were  obliged  to  acknowledge,  before  Hubert  Walter  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  many  bishops,  and  other  discreet  ecclesiastics, 
that  their  allegations  against  their  spiritual  governor  were  ground- 
less, and  to  submit  themselves  to  his  clemency  and  award  as  to  all 
the  points  which  had  been  contested  between  them. 

It  is  averred  by  the  monkish  historians,  whose  tales  later  writers 
have  implicitly  followed,  that  bishop  Glanvill,  iu  the  height  of  his 


116  HISTORY  OF 

resentment,  despoiled  this  priory  of  all  its  moveable  effects,  and  the 
church  of  its  ornaments,  as  well  as  of  a  considerable  part  of  its 
real  estate.  But  if  we  consider,  that  the  heavy  charge  of  their 
tedious  litigation  drove  the  monks  at  last  to  the  necessity  of  coining 
the  silver  shrine  of  St.  Paulinus,  we  must  rather  conclude  that, 
before  they  adopted  a  method  that  must  expose  their  society  to 
infamy,  they  had  themselves  converted  into  money  every  valuable 
article  belonging  to  them.  That  the  bishop  took  possession  of  no 
small  portion  of  the  real  estate  they  had  enjoyed,  is  very  certain ; 
but  then  it  ought  to  be  remarked,  that  they  had  no  legal  title  to  it. 
The  property  he  obliged  them  to  relinquish  consisted  principally  in 
presentations  and  ordinations  of  parochial  benefices,  fraudulently 
obtained.  Some  of  these  he  afterwards  suffered  to  be  appropriated 
to  their  use ;  not,  however,  'till  he  had  fixed  vicars  in  the  prefer- 
ments, with  a  more  ample  endowment  than  was  usually  granted  to 
those,  who,  as  they  were  charged  with  the  whole  duty  of  the  pa- 
rishes, had  an  equitable  claim  to  all  the  profits  of  them.  The  right 
of  patronage  to  several  other  livings  he  recovered  to  his  own  see  ; 
and  one  or  two  of  them  were  annexed  to  the  hospital  he  founded  at 
Strood,  for  the  support  of  the  poor. 

From  these  indisputable  facts,  we  may  venture  to  pronounce 
Grlanvill  to  have  been  a  vigilant  and  an  active  pastor  ;  nor  are  there 
proofs  wanting  of  his  deserving  the  appellation  of  a  benefactor  to 
the  church,  and  to  the  see.  By  way  of  recompence  for  a  small  piece 
of  marsh  land  granted  to  him  by  the  prior  and  convent,  in  order  to 
enlarge  the  scite  of  Newerk  hospital,  he  not  only  caused  a  new 
cloister  to  be  erected  at  his  own  expence,  and  furnished  their  church 
with  an  organ,  but  discharged  a  debt  of  thirty  pounds,  which  they 
had  probably  contracted  in  supporting  their  unjustifiable  contest 
with  him.  This  loan  had  been  borrowed  of  the  Jews,  the  sole  usur- 
ers of  those  days  ;  and  the  monks  were  under  the  greater  obligation 
to  their  bishop,  because  the  interest  due  upon  it  was  enormous*. 
Glanvill  likewise  gave  to  them  sundry  utensils  and  ornaments,  which 

*See  Regist.  Roff.  p.  633. 


ROCHESTER.  117 

are  enumerated  in  the  Registrum  *,  and  the  following  books,  viz. 
Bartholomajus  Adversus  Judeos,  and  the  Pentateuch,  in  two  vo- 
lumes. These  last  were  a  most  valuable  present :  for,  strange  as  it 
may  appear  in  this  learned  and  enlightened  age,  there  is  no  small 
reason  to  doubt,  whether  this  society,  though  instituted  principally 
for  religious  purposes,  were  before  possessed  of  this  part  of  the 
holy  scriptures. 

The  bishoprick  was  likewise  benefited  by  this  prelate :  for,  on 
his  promotion  to  it,  he  found  most  of  the  buildings  either  fallen 
down,  or  ruinous  ;  and  very  assiduous  was  he  to  put  them  in  an  ha- 
bitable and  decent  state.  He  rebuilt  his  palace  in  this  city,  which 
had  been  destroyed  by  fire,  and  he  erected  a  new  mansion  at  Lam- 
beth, of  which  frequent  mention  is  made  in  the  instruments  of  the 
bishops  of  Rochester.  It  was  formerly  called  Le  Place,  and  was 
built  on  a  spot  of  ground  he  secured  to  his  see,  before  he  would 
give  his  cousent  to  a  change,  long  depending  between  the  archbi- 
shop of  Canterbury  and  the  church  of  Rochester,  of  the  manor  and 
rectory  of  Darenth  for  those  of  Lambeth.  This  was  a  consideration 
he  might  reasonably  expect  in  lieu  of  an  ancient  right  the  bishops 
had  to  forage,  and  other  advantages  from  the  manor  of  Lambeth, 
whenever  their  affairs  called  them  to  London. 

His  lordship's  conduct  cannot,  however,  be  so  well  justified  in 
burdening  his  successors  in  the  parsonage  of  Lambeth  (for,  according 
to  the  Registrum,  p.  13,  he  was  rector  of  that  parish)  with  a  heavy 
pension  of  five  marks.  This  allowance  is  still  paid  :  but  the  house 
was  alienated  from  the  see  about  the  time  of  the  reformation.  It 
makes  at  present  part  of  the  revenue  of  the  bishoprick  of  Carlisle, 
and  has  changed  its  name  with  its  owner,  being  called  Carlisle 
House. 

As  the  character  of  this  prelate  has  been  so  much  misrepresented, 
and  even  grossly  calumniated,  by  the  monkish  historians,  from  a 
spirit  of  malevolence  and  rancor,  we  thought  it  requisite  to  enable 
our  readers  to  form  a  true  judgment  of  him,  by  laying  before  them 

"See  Regist.  Roff.  p.  121,  122. 


118  HISTORY  OF 

a  more  copious  detail  of  his  actions,  than  the  nature  of  this  work 
will  suffer  us  to  allow  to  the  account  of  many  other  very  excellent 
men  who  have  presided  over  this  church.  And  we  ought  to  add, 
that  one,  at  least,  of  his  cotemporaries  has  not  denied  him  that 
approbation  and  praise  which  he  seems  to  have  merited  ;  for  notice 
is  taken  of  him,  in  the  Registrum*,  as  of  a  person  of  distinguished 
knowledge,  and  whose  loss  would  be  regretted!.  It  is  also  certain, 
that  he  was  greatly  respected  and  highly  trusted  by  his  sovereigns, 
being,  according  to  bishop  Tanner,  raised  to  the  posts  of  justiciary 
and  chancellor.  This  eminent  writer  has  not  specified  his  authority 
for  asserting  that  this  bishop  was  invested  with  the  latter  honorable 
employment ;  but  mention  is  made  by  Madox,  in  his  History  and 
antiquities  of  the  Exchequer,  of  bishop  GlanvilPs  executing  the 
former  important  trusty.  He  had  likewise  the  honor  of  assisting 
at  the  coronation  of  king  John  and  his  queen,  at  Canterbury,  in 
the  year  1201. 

When  archbishop  Baldwin  departed  from  England,  on  his  expe- 
dition to  the  Holy  land,  he  committed  to  Glanvill  the  administra- 
tion of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  affairs  of  the  diocese  of  Canter- 
bury, and  of  all  other  churches  within  his  Grace's  jurisdiction. 
But  it  appears  from  the  grant  which  invested  him  with  this  extra- 
ordinary power  (printed  in  Regist.  Roff.  p.  50,)  that  in  the  dis- 
charge of  the  ecclesiastical  branch  of  it,  he  was  to  consult  three 
persons,  whose  names  are  there  mentioned ;  and  that  the  consent 
of  one  of  them,  at  least,  was  necessary  to  make  his  acts  valid.  And 
with  regard  to  the  management  of  all  temporal  matters,  he  was 
required  to  ask  the  advice  of  three  other  persons,  who  are  likewise 
particularly  specified. 

The  anonymous  author,  before  referred  to  in  the  Registrum, 
p.  11,    says,  that    Glanvill   was  bishop   of  Rochester  thirty-two 

*  Page  11. 

+  Bishop  Tanner,  in  his  Biblioth.  Britan.  p.  326,  remarks  of  this  prelate, 
that  lie  was  skilled  in  the  civil  and  canon  law,  and  that  there  were  some  ser- 
mons of  this  extant. 

X  Page  37S. 


ROCHESTER.  119 

years ;  but  this  must  be  a  mistake,  perhaps  only  of  the  press ;  since 
there  is  sufficient  evidence  of  his  being  consecrated  at  Canterbury 
the  29th  of  September  1185,  and  of  his  dying  the  24th  of  June 
1214*. 

The  malice  and  resentment  of  his  old  antagonists  the  monks  did 
not  expire  with  Glanvill.  But  for  his  harsh,  and,  as  they  termed  it, 
unjust  treatment  of  them  in  this  world,  they  not  only  wished  he 
might  suffer,  but  endeavoured  to  expose  him  to,  the  punishments  of 
the  next  life.  They  at  first  refused  to  let  the  body  of  so  profane  a 
person  be  deposited  in  their  cathedral ;  and  when  this  their  indecent 
opposition  was  frustrated,  they  would  allow  "  no  bringing  home 
4<  with  bell  or  burial"  but  committed  the  remains  of  this  venerable 
prelate  to  the  earth  without  any  of  those  funeral  ceremonies,  which, 
agreeably  to  the  superstitious  notions  of  that  age,  were  judged 
absolutely  necessary  towards  procuring  eternal  peace  and  happiness 
to  departed  souls. 

The  suspension  at  that  time  of  all  sacred  offices  by  the  papal  bull 
is  assigned  by  Edmund  de  Hadenhan,  as  the  reason  of  this  omission. 
He  mentions,  however,  this  excuse,  if  it  deserves  that  name,  with  an 
air  of  triumph  and  of  insult ;  declaring  it  to  be  a  token  of  divine 
vengeance  against  Glanvill,  that  he  was  debarred  the  benefit  of 
those  prayers  of  holy  church,  which  were  offered  up  even  for  here- 
tics and  treacherous  Jews  ;  and  that  the  spiritual  censure,  under 
which  the  nation  had  labored  for  seven  years,  should  be  withdrawn 
after  his  burial.  And  the  monks,  indeed,  must  have  been  very  im- 
patient to  avail  themselves  of  this  plea,  by  hastening  the  interment, 
when  they  found  they  could  not  prevent  the  remains  of  the  bishop 
from  being  deposited  in  their  church  ;  for  within  five  days  of  his 
death,  the  interdict  was  removedf. 

♦Gilbert  de  Glanvill  was  buried  on  the  north  side  of  the  high  altar,  under 
an  old  sloue  with  a  mitred  effigy,  Willis,  p.  287.  On  the  north  side  tf  the  ca- 
thedral, Wharton,  p.  347. 

tSee  Ar.glU  Sacra,  vol.  1.  p.  217,  and  Wilkin's  ConciL  vol.  I.  p.  14,5, 


120  HISTORY  OF 

The  charge  here  brought  against  these  narrow-minded  bigots  may 
be  farther  supported  by  what  must  be  admitted,  by  the  warmest 
friends  to  their  order,  to  be  most  unexceptionable  evidence;  their 
own  words,  as  delivered  in  the  following  no  less  ridiculous,  than 
uncharitable,  doggrel  lines  : — 

Glanvill  Gilbertus,  nulla  bonitate  refertus, 
Hie  jacet,  immitis  et  amator  maxime  litis  ; 
Et  quia  sic  litem,  dum  vixit,  solet  amare, 
Nunc  ubi  pax  nulla  est,  est  aptior  inhabitare. 

In  the  year  1199,  Ralph  de  Ross  was  elected  prior  of  the  mo- 
nastery ;  while  he  was  sacrist,  he  began  to  cover  the  church  with 
lead.     HeHas  the  next  prior  finished  it. 

XXXIX.  Benedict,  praacentor  of  St.  Paul's,  London,  Was  the 
next  bishop  of  Rochester.  His  election  was  ratified  at  Winchester, 
by  Stephen  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  January  1215,  being  the 
year  after  (he  interdict  had  been  removed  from  king  John  and  this 
kingdom  ;  as  an  old  French  charter  in  Regist.  Roff.  testifies,  p.  36. 

The  following  year,  after  Michaelmas,  king  John  besieged  the 
castle  of  Rochester,  held  by  his  barons,  at  which  time  the  church 
and  convent  suffered  severely  :  the  king  was  not  scrupulous  in  reli- 
gious matters.  Being  reconciled  to  the  church  of  Rome,  he  made 
very  free  with  her  daughters ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  bishop  of 
Rochester  had  joined  with  Pandulf,  the  pope's  legate,  in  anathema- 
tizing the  barons,  he  rifled  the  church,  destroyed  the  manuscripts, 
carried  off  the  plate  and  money  ;  and,  in  short,  left  not  so  much  as 
one  crucifix  standing  on  the  altars. 

Benedict  died  in  the  year  1226,  and  was  buried  in  his  own  cathe- 
dral the  twenty-first  day  of  December. 

XL.  Henry  de  Sandford,  archdeacon  of  Canterbury,  styled  the 
great  philosopher,  succeeded  to  this  bishoprick.  At  his  election 
there  happened  a  dispute  between  the  monks  of  Canterbury  and 
Rochester  :  the  former  insisting  that  the  pastoral  staff  of  Rochester, 
on  the  decease  of  the  bishop,  should  be  sent  to  Canterbury,  before 
the  monks  proceeded  in  their  election  :  this  was  opposed  by  the 


ROCHESTER.  121 

priory  of  Rochester,  and  disputed  before  the  archbishop  at  Maid- 
stone (at  St.  Paul's,  London,  according  to  some  writers),  and  refers 
red  to  his  determination ;  which  was,  that  the  monks  of  Rochester 
should  deliver  their  crosier  to  the  archbishop,  who  was  to  give  it 
to  the  prior  of  Canterbury,  and  he  to  Henry  de  Sandford:  thus 
determining  in  favor  of  Canterbury.  Henry  was  consecrated  the 
ninth  of  May  1227*. 

In  the  year  1228,  died  Stephen  Langton,  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. The  monks  of  that  city,  with  a  view  of  securing  their  own 
privileges,  immediately  chose  Walter  de  Hempsham  metropolitan  ; 
on  which  the  king  sent  the  bishop  of  Rochester  to  Rome,  to  set 
aside  the  election.  Henry  succeeded  in  his  negociation ;  Walter 
was  rejected;  and  Richard  Wethershed,  the  successor  of  Langton, 
was  consecrated  at  Canterbury,  by  the  bishop  of  Rochester,  June 
10,  1229.  This  was  not  done  without  a  scandalous  contention" 
between  Henry  and  Joceline  bishop  of  Bath,  about  the  right  of 
consecrating  the  new  archbishop.  Henry,  however,  obtained  that 
honor ;  and  Joceline  consecrated  the  bishops  of  Ely  and  London 
at  the  same  time,  king  Henry  III.  and  many  of  the  nobility  being 
present.     He  died  the  24th  of  February  1235+. 

*  This  was  the  bishop  of  Rochester  who  preached  a  remarkable  sermon  at 
SUtingbourn,  before  a  great  audience,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  archbishop. 
After  the  bishop  had  proceeded  some  time  in  his  discourse,  he  suddenly  ex- 
claimed in  a  rapture  of  joy,  "  Rejoice  in  the  Lord,  my  brethren  all,  and  know 
"  ye  assuredly,  that  of  late  there  departed  out  of  purgatory  Richard  some 
"  time  king  of  England,  Stephen  Langton,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  a 
"  chaplain  of  his,  to  go  to  the  Divine  Majesty  :  and  in  that  day  came  forth  no 
"  more  than  these  three  from  that  place  of  pains.  Fear  not  to  give  full  and! 
"  assured  faith  to  these  my  words,  for  this  is  now  the  third  time  it  has  been 
"  thus  revealed  to  me,  and  to  another  man,  and  that  so  plainly,  as  to  banish 
"  all  doubt  and  suspicion  from  my  mind."  From  this  specimen  of  eloquence, 
we  may  perceive  how  well  the  bishop  deserved  the  name  of  a  profound  philo- 
sopher, and  with  what  edifying  discourses  the  people  were  instructed  in  those 
days! 

+  Henry  de  Sandford  was  buried  in  his  own  cathedral.  Godwin  edit,  by 
techardson,  note,  p.  529. 

k 


122  HISTORY  OF 

itil.  Richard  de  Wendover,  rector  of  Bromley  in  Kent,  sue- . 
cceded  to  the  see  of  Rochester.  Being  elected  by  the  convent,  and 
presented  to  *  Edmund  the  metropolitan,  he  refused  to  confirm  the 
election,  alledging  that  it  was  his  prerogative  to  give  them  a  bishop. 
The  monks  appealed  to  Rome  as  usual,  and  triumphed  over  the 
archbishop,  after  a  contest  of  three  years:  at  which  time,  probably, 
they  were  released  from  the  obligation  of  sending  their  pastoral  staff 
to  Canterbury,  for  we  hear  no  more  of  this  contest.  Richard  was 
consecrated  November  21,  1238,  and  died  on  the  12th  of  October 
1250,  and  was  buried  in  the  church  at  Westminster  by  the  king's 
especial  command,  because  he  was  accounted  a  very  holy  and  pious 
man. 

XLII.  Laurence  de  St.  Martin,  chaplain  and  counsellor  to  king 
Henry  III.  was  the  next  bishop  of  Rochester.  He  had  been  ap- 
pointed president  of  his  majesty's  council,  and  procurator  in  all 
ecclesiastical  affairs  irt  the  year  1244.  He  Was  consecrated  to  the 
see  of  Rochester,  in  the  archbishop's  palace,  at  Gillingham,  on  the 
ninth  of  April  1251.  He  appears  to  have  been  at  Rome  A.  D.  1257, 
and  to  have  obtained  from  pope  Alexander  the  I  Vth  a  confirmation 
of  the  ecclesiastical  privileges  of  the  English.  Irt1  the  time  of  this 
prelate,  the  city  was  besieged  by  Montford  earl  of  Leicester,  who, 
on  Good  Friday  1264,  having  burnt  the  bridge,  passed  the  river 
in  the  smoke  and  confusion  occasioned  thereby,  whilst  St.  Clare 
entered  the  city  from  another  quarter.  The  enemy  entered  the 
cathedral  on  horseback  with  drawn  swords,  while  the  priests  and 
people  were  celebrating  the  passion  of  Christ ;  but  these  "  satellites 
of  satan,"  as  the  historian  terms  them,  paid  no  reverence  to  the 
temple  or  solemn  service  ;  they  robbed  the  church  and  the  cloisters 
of  their  gold  and  silver,  injured  the  monuments  of  the  dead,  abused 
and  slew  many  of  the  monks  and  citizens,  and  converted  this  vene- 

*  This  prelate  was  called  St.  Edmund.  The  monks  of  Canterbury  had  de- 
volved their  supposed  right  of  electing  a  bishop  of  Rochester  on  Edmund,  to 
revenge  themselves  on  the  convent  of  Rochester,  for  not  sending  to  them  their 
pastoral  staff  as  before-mentioned. 


ROCHESTER.  123 

rable  fane  into  a  filthy  stable.  Laurence,  in  order  to  compensate 
for  these  losses,  and  enrich  the  church,  had  recourse  to  a  stratagem., 
which  appears  to  have  exceeded  his  most  sanguine  expectations- 
Fifty  years  had  elapsed  since  the  church  was  despoiled  of  the  silver 
shrine  of  St.  Paulinus.  This  disgrace  was  now  almost  forgot;  it  was 
therefore  judged  practicable  to  revive  the  ancient  fame  and  splendor 
of  the  church,  by  some  new  similar  expedient.  A  proper  opportu- 
nity soon  offered  to  answer  the  purpose,  owing  to  an  accident  that 
had  some  years  hefore  happened  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Roches- 
ter. Qne  William  of  Perth,  in  Scotland,  by  trade  a  baker,,  was  so 
exceeding  charitable,  that  he  gave  every  tenth  loaf  of  his  own  mak- 
ing to  the  poor  ;  and  his  zeal  was  so  fervent,  that  he  engaged  him,, 
self  by  a  vow  (as  the  custom  then  was)  to  visit  the  holy  land.  He 
set  out  on  the  performance  of  this  obligation  in  the  year  1201,  and 
took  Kent  and  Rochester  in  his  way,  where  having  rested  a  few  days, 
he  departed  for  Canterbury  ;  but  he  had  not  gone  far  from  Roches- 
ter, before  his  servant  (very  fortunately  for  the  monks}  led  him 
out  of  the  highway,  robbed,  and  murdered  him.  The  servant 
escaped,  it  not  being  so  much  for  the  interest  of  the  church  to  find 
him  as  his  master,  whose  dead  body  was  taken  up  by  the  monks, 
and  brought  into  the  church  ;  aud  as  he  died  in  such  a  pious  dispo- 
sition of  mind,  he  was,  with  much  solemnity,  buried  hi  the  choir*. 
This  was  the  basis  of  bishop  Laurence's  scheme,  who  perceiving 
in  the  people  a  reverend  esteem  for  this  holy  pilgrim's  memory  and 
sepulchre,  which,  no  doubt,  was  artfully  cherished  by  the  monks., 
determined  to  procure  AVilliam's  canonization  from  Rome,  and  thus 
restore  his  chiych  to  its  ancient  wealth  and  honor,  The  first  fruits 
or  offerings  already  made  to  William,  as  a  holy  pilgrim,  gave  flatter- 
ing hopes  of  a  golden  harvest  from  William  the  saint  and  blessed 
martyr.  Laurence  went  himself  therefore  to  Rome,  in  the  year 
126G,  and  easily  obtained  the  canonization  of  William  from  the 
papal  court,  with  indulgences  to  all  such  as  offered  any  thing  at  St. 

*  At  lower  Delcc,  a  chapel  was  erected  and  dedicated  to  St.  William;  %om^ 
of  the  walls  are  jet  standing. 


124  HISTORY  OF 

William's  tomb  at  Rochester.  It  is  probable  the  body  was  moved 
at  this  time  from  the  choir  into  the  north  end  of  the  cross  isle, 
where  a  tomb  suitable  to  his  dignity  was  erected  over  it.  Mira- 
cles soon  followed  his  canonization,  at  least  it  was  so  pretended  : 
but  it  is  far  more  certain,  that  numbers  of  superstitious  pilgrims  paid 
their  devoirs  to  this  fictitious  saint,  and  offered  liberally  at  his  tomb. 

The  tomb  of  St.  William  is  shewn  to  this  day  near  the  tomb  of 
bishop  Merton.  It  consists  of  a  large  stone  coffin  of  Petworth  mar- 
ble, the  sides  and  top  are  decorated  with  ancient  ornaments,  but  no 
trace  of  any  inscription  is  now  discernable.  Thus  did  this  politic 
prelate  establish  a  rich  fund  of  wealth  to  the  monks,  which  continued 
for  almost  three  hundred  years.     He  died  the  third  of  June  1274*. 

XLIII.  Walter  de  Merton  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester 
the  twenty-first  of  October  in  the  same  year.  He  was  a  person  of 
great  abilities,  and  had  been  appointed  keeper  of  the  great  seal  the 
twelfth  of  May  1258,  during  the  indisposition  of  Wengham  ;  and 
A.  D.  1261  was  made  lord  chancellor,  without  the  privity  of  the 
barons,  and  had  an  annual  pension  of  four  hundred  marks  settled 
upon  him  on  his  dismission  from  office  ;  but  in  the  first  year  of  Ed- 
ward I.  A.  D.  1272,  the  regency,  in  the  absence  of  that  prince,  rais- 
ed him  again  to  the  same  high  office. 

He  was  a  munificent  patron  of  this  church,  obtaining  many  grants  in 
its  favor,  especially  the  manors  of  Cobhambery  and  Middleton,  which 
were  annexed  to  the  episcopate  ;  but  the  convent  was  not  enriched 
by  him.  Being  a  man  of  discernment,  he  soon  discovered  the  igno- 
rance and  hypocrisy  of  the  monks,  and,  from  his  own  experience, 
might  hope  that  a  revival  of  letters  would  expose  and  overthrow 
those  pernicious  societies.  He  accordingly  founded  a  college  at  the 
university  of  Oxford,  which  bears  his  name  to  this  day,  and  is  chiefly 
supported  by  this  prelate's  liberal  endowments.  The  Rochester  an- 

*  Laurence  de  St.  Martin  was  buried  in  his  own  cathedral,  near  the  great 
altar,  on  the  north  side.  Regist.  Spiritual.  Roff.  F.  fol.  69,  as  also  Wharton, 
vol.  1,  p.  351.  His  Effigy  lies  at  full  length,  upon  an  old  stone  chest,  with  a 
mitre  on  it,  on  the  north  side  of  the  altar.     Willis,  p.  287. 


ROCHESTER.  125 

nalist  mentions  the  benefactions  of  Walter  de  Merton  to  his  see,  and 
notices  without  the  least  expression  of  approbation,  his  munificent 
institution  at  Oxford.  But  be  does  not  forget  to  close  his  account 
of  this  bishop  with  informing  his  readers,  that  though  he  was  a  person 
of  so  great  authority  and  power,  he  neither  did  any  good  thing  for 
the  prior  and  the  convent  himself,  nor  was  the  instrument  of  procur- 
ing from  others  any  signal  favor.  This  prelate  died  on  the  27th  of 
October  1277*.  Kilburne  p.  228,  says,  but  it  is  uncertain  on  what 
authority,  that  "this  bishop  was  unfortunately  drowuedin  passing 
"  over  the  river  Medway  in  a  boat,  there  being  then  no  bridge." 

XLIV.  John  de  Bradfield,  a  monk,  praecentor  and  cellerer  of 
Rochester  church,  was  next  consecrated  to  this  see,  the  29th  of 
May  1278.  He  died  the  23rd  of  April  1283,  and  was  buried  in 
the  church,  near  the  excubitorium,  on  the  south  sidet. 

J  XLV.  Thomas  de  Inglethorp,  dean  of  St.  Paul's,  London,  and 
archdeacon  of  Middlesex,  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester  the 
26th  of  September  1283.  He  had  a  contest  with  the  prior  Thomas 
de  Woldlmm,  who  was  afterwards  bishop,  about  the  appointing  offi- 
cers to  the  monastery  ;  and  upon  his  demanding  his  xenium,  as  of 
right,  the  matter  in  dispute  was  decided  by  archbishop  Peckham, 
in  favor  of  the  prior  and  monks.  This  bishop,  however,  as  he  sub- 
mitted to  Peckhain's  determination,  is  allowed  by  Edmund  de  Had- 
enham,  to  have  been  a  praise-worthy  man,  mild  and  affable,  of  a 

*  See  the  account  of  his  monument,  p.  60. 

+  John  de  Bradneld  was  buried  in  his  own  church,  on  the  south  part,  near 
the  door  leading  to  the  dortor.  Wharton,  p.  352.  In  the  chapel,  formerly 
called  St.  Edmund's  chapel,  there  is  in  the  wall  behind  the  choir,  not  far  from 
the  steps  going  into  the  undercroft,  a  stone  chest,  or  something  like  it,  which 
must  therefore  be  the  monument  of  this  bishop. 

%  John  de  Kyrkeby,  archdeacon  of  Coventry,  was  elected  on  the  death  of 
bishop  Bradneld,  bat  he  refused  it  (says  Henry  Wharton,  in  his  lives  of  the 
bishops)  by  an  instrument  dated  June  16,  1283.  In  the  same  author's  defence 
of  pluralities,  he  remarks,  that  archbishop  Peckham  refused  to  confirm  th^ 
election  of  Kyrkeby,  and  indeed  caused  him  to  renounce  the  election,  because 
he  was  guilty  of  the  sin  of  plurality. 


126  HISTORY  OF 

cheerful  disposition,  and  given  to  hospitality  ;  and  that  he  may  be 
ranked  among  the  blessed.  He  died  the  12th  of  May  1291,  and 
■was  buried  in  his  own  church*. 

XL VI.  Thomas  de  Woldham,  Prior  of  Rochester,  was  next 
presented  to  this  see,  and  consecrated  at  Chatham  the  6th  of  Janu- 
ary 1291.  This  bishop  seems  to  have  been  very  charitably  disposed. 
By  his  last  will  he  appointed  John  Bludel,  master  of  Strood  Hos- 
pital, one  of  his  executors,  and  left  a  legacy  of  ten  shillings  to  the 
said  Hospital,  and  ten  marks  towards  building  saint  William's  tomb 
in  the  charch  of  Rochester;  from  which  it  appears,  that  the  saint 
increased  in  reputation.     He  died  on  the  28th  of  February  131 6+. 

XL VII.  Within  eighteen  days  after  the  death  of  Thomas  de 
Woldham,  the  monks  of  this  church,  having  obtained  leave  from 
the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  proceeded  to  a  new  choice,  and,  of 
thirty-five  present  on  the  occasion,  twenty-six  voted  for  their  priori, 
Ilaymo  de  Hethe,  who  had  been  chaplain  to  the  last  prelate.     It 

*  Thomas  de  Inglethorp  was  buried  near  the  high  altar  on  the  south  side, 
Wharton,  p.  353.  Nevvcourt  Repertorium  of  the  diocese  of  London,  vol.  J. 
p.  38. 

+  Thomas  dc  Woldham  was  probably  buried  in  his  cathedral.  Wharton, 
p.  357. 

+  Hay  mo,  apprehending  the  powerful  influence  of  some  great  men  in  favor 
of  two  of  his  competitors,  privately  sent  for  the  monks  of  Walton  in  Suffolk, 
(a  cell  dependent  on  the  priory  of  St.  Andrew)  and  by  that  means,  secured  a 
large  majority  in  his  favor. 

The  following  circumstances  relating  to  this  cell  may  not  be  unacceptable 
to  the  reader.  Towards  the  end  of  William  Rufus's  reign,  Roger  Bigod,  earl 
of  Suffolk,  gave  to  the  priory  at  Rochester  the  church  of  St.  Felix,  with  land 
in  the  parish  of  Walton,  in  Suffolk;  and  the  monks  of  St.  Andrew  quickly 
settled  therein  a  cell  of  their  own  members;  see  Regist.  Roff.  p.  2,  117,  and 
Tanner's  Notit.  Monast.  p.  512.  It  appears  to  have  had  different  names,  as 
Waletune,  Fylchestow,  Felixtow  or  Fylstow.  The  degree  of  subjection  this 
cell  was  under  to  the  priory  of  St.  Andrew,  cannot  be  absolutely  determined  ; 
but  it  seems  probable  it  paid  only  a  small  pension,  as  an  acknowledgement  of 
its  inferiority,  and  was  in  most  other  respects  independent.  Silvester,  who 
was  prior  of  St.  Andrew  in  the  year  1177  and  1178,  is  recorded  as  a  benefactor 


ROCHESTER.  \2T 

ought,  however,  to  be  observed,  that  this  application  to  the  metro- 
politan was  then  become  a  matter  of  form,  since  by  the  determina- 
tion in  favor  of  Richard  de  Wendover,  against  archbishop  Edmund, 
his  Grace  and  his  successors  were  prohibited  by  the  pope  from  in- 
terfering upon  any  future  vacancy*.  The  signal  victory  obtained 
by  the  monks  over  one  powerful  opponent,  did  not  however  secure 
to  them  that  freedom  of  election  which  they  certainly  flattered 
themselves  would  be  the  consequence  of  it.  They  found  to  their 
unspeakable  mortification,  they  had  excited,  perhaps  in  some  mea- 
sure by  this  appeal,  another  more  powerful  antagonist.  For,  during 
the  spice  of  upwards  of  orie  hundred  years,  there  were  only  two 
bishops  who  were  not  advanced  to  the  see  of  Rochester,  by  what 
was  termed  the  plenitude  of  the  papal  authority.  Haymo  was  one 
of  these  prelates  ;  but  though  he  was  chosen  March  16,  1316*,  he 
was  obliged  to  wait  twfr  years  and  a  half  before  he  could  procure  a 

to  this  cell,  by  having  built  there  "  IIostelerium,,'  an  apartment  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  strangers  ;  see  Regist.  Rofl'.  p.  121.  And  Haymo  de  Hethe,  in 
return  for  the  assistance  he  received  from  the  monks  of  Fylchcstow,  is  said  to 
have  visited  them  in  his  return  from  Isleham,  and  to  have  continued  with  them 
seven  days.  This  religious  house  was  suppressed  the  10«h  of  September  1528, 
and  in  December  following  given  to  cardinal  Wolsey,  towards  the  endowment 
of  his  intended  colleges :  but  the  grant  did  not  take  effect.  Bishop  Tanner, 
in  his  Notit.  Monast.  p.  220,  has  remarked,  that  in  some  few  years  after  the 
exchange  of  the  manor  of  Lambeth  for  that  of  Darent,  "  there  seems  to  have 
"  been  in  the  latter  place  a  priory  of  Benedictiue  Monks,  subordinate  to 
"  Rochester;*'  but  he  does  not  assign  any  ground  for  this  surmise. 

*  It  may  be  readily  supposed  that  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury  did  Bot 
willingly  yield  up  their  right  to  the  patronage  of  the  'see  of  Rochester.  It  is 
probable  they  avowed  this  claim  to  the  reformation,  and  it  is  certain  that  Abp 
Warham  was  styled  "  verum  ipsius  Roffen.  eccles.  patronum,"  Regist.  Roflf 
p.  577.  No  less  clear  is  it  from  the  deed  here  referred  to,  that  his  Grace  was 
at  that  time  entitled  to  the  administration  and  custody  of  the  temporalities,  as 
well  as  the  spiritualities  of  the  bishoprick,  when  it  was  vacant;  and  several 
of  his  predecessors  have  been  blamed  for  suspending  the  continuation  cf  a 
bishop  elect,  merely  that  they  might  the  longer  enjoy  the  profits  of  the  vacant1 
seei 


128  HISTORY  Otf 

confirmation  of  his  election ;  under  a  fictitious  plea,  that  the  p6pe 
(John  XXII.)  out  of  his  paternal  care,  had  provided  a  successor*. 

John  de  Puteoli,  a  native  of  France,  was  the  clergyman  whom 
{he  pontiff  pretended  he  had  raised  to  this  ecclesiastical  dignity.  He 
was  confessor  to  Isabella,  queen  of  Edward  II.  and  his  royal  mis- 
tress, who  espoused  his  interest,  sent  an  advocate  to  Avignon  to 
solicit  the  pope  in  his  favor.  The  king,  on  the  other  side,  pressed 
John  to  ratify  the  choice  made  by  the  convent.  This  unerring 
pontiff  was  exceedingly  amazed  at  receiving  from  Isabella  a  petition 
so  contrary  to  the  views  and  inclinations  of  her  lord.  But  her  agent 
possibly  offering,  at  first,  an  argument  the  most  Weighty  of  any  at 
the  papal  court,  the  pope  was  for  some  time  disposed  to  comply 
with  her  request.  But  afterwards,  even  when  her  majesty  had  pre- 
vailed on  the  fickle  monarch  to  renounce  his  former  application,  and 
to  patronize  her  confessor  (as  if  her  spirit  of  perverseness  and  ob- 
stinacy had  seized  his  holiness,)  orders  were  given  speedily  fof 
expediting  the  confirmation  of  Haymoi. 

There  being  in  the  register  of  this  bishop  an  acquitance  for  the 
payment  of  twenty  marks  as  a  pension  to'  the  see  of  Rome,  and  the 
first  of  the  kind,  we  believe,  to  be  met  with  in  the  history  of  this 
diocese;  it  seems  most  probable,  that  this  sum  was  the  considera- 
tion allowed  for  the  consent  of  that  avaricious  pontiff.  It  was  not 
however  the  only  charge  which  the  bishop  incurred  by  the  pope's 
interference  :  for  he  was  under  a  necessity  of  travelling  to  Avignon 
to  be  consecrated,  the  expence  of  which  ceremony,  in  fees  to  his 
holiness  and  the  officers  of  his  court,  amounted  to  more  than  one 
thousand  four  hundred  and  forty-one  FlorinsJ.     This  sum  fell  very 

*  See  Itegist.  Roff.  p.  113,  &c. 

+  See  Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  1,  p.  357,  &c.  Weever  (in  his  Antient  funeral 
monuments,  p.  314)  styles  Haymo  confessor  to  Edward  II.  but  does  not  quote 
liis  authority  for  this  assertion.  Edmund  de  Haddenham,  who  wrote  the  his- 
tory of  this  prelate,  does  not,  we  believe,  take  notice  of  this  circumstance. 

X  In  the  Chronicle  of  W.  Thorn,  printed  in  X.  Script,  col.  2152,  there  is  aii' 
Account  of  fees  paid  to  the  court  of v Rome  for  the  pope's  confirmation  of  tbA' 


ROCHESTER*  129 

little  shdrt  of,-  if  it  did  not  exceed,  one  year's  income  of  this  bishop- 
rick;  which  sum  Haymo  not  being  able  immediately  to  discharge, 
was  obliged  to  give  security  for  the  payment  of  it,  before  he  could 
obtain  the  usual  bulls  from  the  pope.  His  circumstances  were  so 
strait  as  not  to  allow  of  his  discharging  this  debt  for  almost  a  year 
and  a  half  after  his  consecration ;  for  this  ceremony  was  performed 
in  August  1319,  arid  the  acquittances  bear  date  the  13th  and  14th 
of  January  1321f. 

Haymo  was  unhappily  involved  in  various  disputes,  in  order  to 
maintain  the  privileges  and  revenues  which  his  predecessors  had  en- 
joyed ;  and  the  prosecution  of  these  must  have  occasioned  a  heavy 
expence.  For,  besides  the  opposition  made  by  the  pope  to  his  elec- 
tion, he  was  obliged  to  contest  the  claim  of  the  bishops  of  Roches- 
ter to  a  peculiar  jurisdiction  over  Isleham  and  Frekenham,  in  the 
diocese  of  Norwich,  which  were  granted  to  this  see  by  king  Alfred, 
A.  D.  895 1.  He  recovered,  in  the  court  of  king's  bench,  the  right 
of  advowson  to  the  rectory  of  Mixbufy  in  Oxfordshire  §.  And  it 
was  not  without  a  suit  that  the  rector  of  Lambeth  could  be  brought 
to  continue  the  payment  of  the  pension  settled  on  the  bishoprick  by 
archbishop  Hubert  |[.     He  ought  also  to  be  considered  as  a  benefac- 

abbot  of  St.  Augustine,  Canterbury,  which  fixes  each  florin  at  the  value  of 
three  shillings :  and  consequently  the  expence  to  the  bishop  was  upwards  of 
two  hundred  and  sixteen  pounds. 

*  Reg.  Haymo  de  Hethe,  fol.  41. 

+  Nor  was  this  the  only  difficulty  Haymo  had  to  struggle  with  on  first  enter- 
ing into  his  preferment.  The  buildings  were  become  dilapidated  and  despoil- 
ed of  the  implements  of  husbandry  and  utensils  belonging  to  them.  Thus 
embarrassed,  he  retired  with  a  very  small  family ;  and  not  having  a  sufficiency 
for  the  support  of  his  few  domestics,  the  clergy  of  his  diocese  supplied  him 
with  provisions  and  money.  The  voluntary  contributions  they  made  on  this 
occasion  were  a  most  convincing  proof  of  their  esteem  for  their  prelate,  and 
of  the  generosity  of  their  own  dispositions,  for  it  amounted  to  twelve  pence  in 
every  mark  of  the  annual  value  of  their  benefices.    See  Ang,  Sac.  v.  1 ,  p.  3P1 J 

i  Regist.  Roff.  p.  440---449.  §  Ibid.  p.  502—504, 

|  Regist.  Haymo  de  Hethe,  fol.  129,  197,  199. 

S 


130  HISTORY  OF 

tor  to  the  see,  from  the  extraordinary  care  he  took  of  the  buildings- 
belonging  to  it ;  and  he  is  particularly  reported  to  have  repaired, 
and  made  great  improvements,  at  his  palaces  of  Trotterscliffe  and 
Hailing,  where  he  frequently  resided*. 

The  parochial  clergy  were  greatly  indebted  to  him  for  endowing 
and  augmenting  several  vicarages.  He  was  also  a  benefactor  to  the 
cathedral  itself,  and  to  all  the  buildings  belonging  to  the  convent. 
In  the  year  1343,  this  prelate,  with  the  assistance  of  John  Shepey, 
the  prior,  caused  the  tower  of  the  church  to  be  raised  higher,  with 
wood  and  stone,  and  covered  with  lead.  Four  new  bells  were  pla- 
ced in  it,  and  the  names  of  Dunstan,  Paulin,  Ithamar,  and  Lanfranc, 
given  to  them.  The  following  year,  the  shrines  of  St.  Michael,  St. 
Paul,  and  St.  Ithamar,  were  new  made  with  marble  and  alabaster, 
which  cost  two  hundred  marks.  He  had  before  given  eleven  hun- 
dred marks  for  the  building  of  a  refectory,  and  other  useful  build- 
ings :  but  probably,  in  the  opinion  of  some  of  the  monks,  he  made 
them  an  inestimable  present,  when  he  offered  at  the  high  altar  a  mag- 
nificent mitre  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  which  he  had  purchas- 
ed of  the  executors  of  the  bishop  of  Norwich. 

Hethe,  now  called  Hythe,  a  town  which  gave  to  this  prelate  his 
birth  and  his  name,  was  favored  likewise  with  a  distinguished  token 
of  his  regard.  On  the  scite  of  the  house,  where  he  and  his  parents 
were  born,  he  erected  an  hospital  for  the  reception  of  ten  poor  per- 
sons of  both  sexes,  and  endowed  it  with  an  estate  in  land,  to  the 
value  of  ten  pounds  per  yeart.  The  indigent,  feeble,  and  aged, 
were  to  be  partakers  of  this  bounty,  and  he  has  required  the  ma- 
nagers of  this  charitable  institution  to  give  always  the  preference  to 
those  Avho  have  formerly  lived  in  affluence,  and  who  have  not,  as  far 
as  they  can  judge,  been  reduced  to  poverty  by  their  vicest. 

*  Haymo  is  recorded  to  have  built  the  great  hall  in  the  palace  at  Hailing, 
great  parts  of  the  walls  and  some  of  the  windows  of  which  are  still  remaining. 
Lambard  is  said  to  have  wrote  his  perambulation  of  Kent  in  this  palace. 

+  Regist.  lloff.  p,  413.         }  Tanner's  Notit.  Monast.  p.  225. 


ROCHESTER.  131 

Inconsiderable  as  was  the  revenue  of  this  diocese,  Haymo  held 
no  other  preferment  in  comraendam  with  it,  nor  was  he  ever  trans- 
lated to  a  more  beneficial  see.  Indeed,  according  to  the  represen- 
tation of  William  de  Dene,  he  must  have  been  rather  indifferent  as 
to  these  points.  Tn  the  year  1326,  as  Edward  II.  was  returning 
from  Leeds  to  London,  he  was  met  by  the  bishop,  near  Boxley. 
His  Lordship  accompanied  his  majesty  to  Rochester ;  was  frequently 
with  him  during  his  residence  at  the  lodgings  of  the  prior  of  St. 
Andrew,  and  attended  him  part  of  the  way  towards  Gravesend. 
The  king,  in  one  of  the  conversations  he  had  with  this  prelate,  ex- 
pressed his  surprize  that  Haymo,  who  had  done  such  signal  services 
for  him  and  his  minister  without  recompence,  should  never  have  soli- 
cited him  for  any  token  of  his  favor  ;  and  he  directed  the  younger 
Spencer  to  gratify  the  bishop  in  whatever  he  might  ask.  It  is  added 
by  the  Rochester  Historian,  that  this  minister  readily  engaged  to 
obey  his  royal  master's  commands,  and  admitted  that  Haymo  merited 
some  reward  for  his  faithful  attachment  to  his  sovereign*.  No  op- 
portunity probably  offered,  after  that  interview,  of  proving  the  sin- 
cerity of  these  promises ;  for  within  a  year  Spencer  was  executed, 
and  the  unfortunate  king  deprived  of  his  crown. 

If  we  give  credit  to  Godwin,  Haymo  de  Hethe  resigned  his  bi- 
shoprick  into  the  hands  of  the  pope,  A.  D.  1352.  But  was  not  this 
learned  author  mistaken  ?  That  the  bishop  offered  to  resign,  is  very 
probable :  it,  however,  seems  evident  from  the  register  of  archbishop 
Islip,  that  the  writ  for  taking  possession  of  the  temporalities  and 
spiritualities  of  this  see,  was  not  issued  'till  after  the  death  of  Hay- 
mo. The  writ  is  dated  the  29th  of  November  1352,  though  the 
bishop  had  been  dead  before  the  22d  of  October  preceding;  and  Le 
Neve  mentions,  from  the  Auglia  Sacra,  that  he  died  May  the  12th 
in  that  year.  It  is  almost  needless  to  remind  our  readers,  that  this 
is  not  the  only  instance,  since  the  conquest,  of  a  prelate  raised  to 
the  see  of  Rochester,  who   has  requested,    but  in  vain,  tobedis- 

*Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  1>  p.  3G5,  366. 


J32  HISTORY  OF 

charged  from  the  burden,  and  to  renounce  the  honors  of  episcopal 
pre-eminence  *. 

XLVIIL  John  de  Shepey,  prior  of  Rochester,  was  nominated 
to  this  see  by  papal  provision.  The  bull  was  dated  Oct.  22,  1352., 
and  he  was  consecrated  the  tenth  of  March  following  by  the  bishop 
of  Winchester,  at  the  priory  of  St.  Mary  Overee.  He  was  appoint- 
ed chancellor  of  England  A.  D.  1356,  and  executed  that  office  for 
two  years,  He  dedicated  a  chapel  to  St.  John  Baptist,  in  the  mo- 
nastery, and  appointed  Laurence  Stafford  chaplain  of  it  A.  D.  1358, 
to  whom  John  Cardone,  prior,  left  an  annual  rent  of  fourteen  marks. 
This  prelate  was  indebted  to  his  predecessor  in  this  see  for  his  edu- 
cation. By  his  direction  he  was  admitted  a  monk  of  St.  Andrew, 
and  most  probably  he  obtained,  likewise  by  the  influence  of  Haymo, 
the  first  office  in  this  religious  society.  The  character  drawn  of  bi- 
shop Shepey,  by  William  de  Dene,  is  very  favorable  as  to  his  dis- 
position aud  morals,  and  he  celebrates  his  excellency  in  various 
branches  of  science  and  literature+.  In  Tanner's  Biblioth.  Britan  J. 
the  discourses  which  pass  under  his  name,  and  which  may  be  still 
extant  in  new  college,  Oxford,  are  enumerated  ;  but  with  this  re- 
mark of  the  learned  prelate  upon  them,  that  he  seems  rather  to  have 
been  a  collector  than  an  author  of  sermons.  Bishop  Tanner  further 
remarks,  that  there  were,  in  MSS.  in  the  king's  library  at  Westmin- 
ster, two  short  pieces  of  John  Schepeye,  on  a  law  subject.  This 
bishop  died  the  19th  of  October  1360§,  at  his  house  at  Lambeth, 
called  La  Place,  By  his  will,  dated  September  21,  1360,  he  be- 
queathed one  hundred  marks  for  defraying  his  funeral  expences ;  the 
same  sum  towards  the  reparations  of  his  church  ;  and  one  hundred 
pounds  to  the  cellerer's  office  for  providing  necessaries, 

*  Haymo  de  Hethe  was  buried  in  his  own  cathedral  \  Kilburne,  p.  228,  by 
lihe  north  wall.     Weever,  p.  314. 

i  Anglia  Sacra,  vol,  1,  p,  372.  }  Ibid.  p.  666. 

|  John  de  Shepey  was  buried  in  the  cathedral.  Kilburne,  p.  228.  His  por- 
traiture was  on  the  wall  over  the  place  of  his  burial.     Weever,  p.  314, 


ROCHESTER.  133 

XLIX.  William  Wittlesey,  archdeacon  of  Huntingdon,  and 
doctor  of  Laws,  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester  the  tenth  of 
February  1361.  He  was  first  vicar  general  to  the  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  and  afterwards  dean  of  the  arches.  He  was  also  rec- 
tor of  Croydon  in  Surry,  and  of  Cliff  in  Kent.  He  was  translated 
to  the  see  of  Worcester  by  the  pope's  bull,  March  6,  1363,  to 
which  translation  he  consented  on  the  6th  of  April  1364.  He  was 
from  thence  raised  to  the  metropolitical  chair  of  Canterbury  A.  D. 
J368. 

L.  Thomas  Trilleck,  dean  of  St.  Paul's,  London,  and  brother 
to  John  bishop  of  Hereford,  was  designed  for  this  see,  by  the  pope, 
before  he  was  elected  by  the  monks,  and  was  consecrated  the  26th 
of  May  1364,  by  cardinal  Guido*.  He  died  about  Christmas 
J372f .  By  his  will,  dated  December  eleventh,  in  the  same  year, 
he  gives  ten  shillings  to  the.  prior  of  his  convent  at  Rochester,"  six 
shillings  and  eight-pence  to  each  monk  being  a  priest ;  and  three 
shillings  and  four-pence  to  every  other  monk. 

LI.  Thomas  Brinton  or  Brantone  succeeded  as  bishop  of  Roches* 
ter  in  1372.  The  monks  elected  John  de  Hertleye  or  Hertley,  their 
priort,  but  he  was  rejected  by  the  pope,  who  appointed  Brinton. 
He  was  some  time  a  Benedictine  monk  at  Norwich,  had  travelled 
much,  and,  going  to  Rome,  preached  several  learned  sermons  in 
Latin  before  the  pope  :  for  which,  and  other  exercises  in  which  he 
discovered  great  abilities,  he  was  :^'jcii  admired,  and  became  very 
famous.  Urban  made  him  his  penitentiary,  and  afterwards  confer- 
red on  him  this  see.  He  was  confessor  to  king  Richard  II.  and  a 
great  benefactor  to  the  English  hospital  at  Rome.  He  died  A.  D. 
J389§. 

*  Godwin,  edit,  per   Richardson,  p.  532. 

+  Thomas  Trilleck  was  buried  in  his  own  cathedral,  in  St.  Mary's  chapel. 
Willis's  MSS.     His  family  arms  are  in  Willis's  Survey,  vol.  1,  p.  516. 

X  This  monk,  as  also  Robert  de  Suthflete,  were  wardens  of  the  cell  of  Fil- 
chestowe,  at  the  time  of  their  election  into  that  office. 

§  Thomas  de  Brinton  was  buried  in  St.  Mary's  chapel,  near  bishop  Trilleck, 
Willis's  MSS, 


134  HISTORY   OF 

Lll.  William  de  Bottlesham,  born  at  Bottlesham  in  Cambridge- 
shire was  next  advanced  to  this  see  ;  John  Barnet,  who  was 
elected  by  the  monks,  being  rejected  by  the  pope.  Bottlesham  was 
a  preaching  friar,  and  doctor  of  divinity,  greatly  esteemed  for  his 
learning,  but  more  for  his  eloquence  in  the  pulpit,  which  procured 
him  the  favor  of  Richard  II.  who  advanced  him  to  the  bishoprick 
of  Landaff ;  from  whence  he  was  translated  to  this  see,  by  papal 
provision,  the  27th  of  August  1389.  He  is  said  to  have  been  bishop 
of  Bethlehem  in  1385.     He  died  in  February  1400. 

LTII.  John  de  Bottlesham,  chaplain  to  the  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, was  consecrated  to  this  see  the  fourth  of  July  1400.  He 
died  April  the  17,   1404*. 

LIV.  Richard  Young  was  his  successor  He  was  bishop  of  Ban- 
gor, and  obtained  a  translation  to  Rochester  from  pope  Boniface  ; 
but  tbe  pope  dying  within  two  months  after,  the  provision  was 
confirmed  by  Innocent  his  successor.  Richard  being  at  Bangor, 
was  detained  a  prisoner  (it  is  thought  by  some  of  the  Welch  rebels) 
and  prevented  from  visiting  his  new  see  :  and  as  the  bull  of  confir- 
mation did  not  arrive,  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  seized  on  the 
revenues  of  this  bishoprick,  and  refused  to  deliver  them  to  Richard's 
agents :  pope  Innocent  dying  in  the  interim,  the  bishop  was  obliged 
to  apply  to  pope  Gregory  XII.  before  he  was  regularly  translated. 
He  took  possession  of  his  see  at  Lambeth,  on  the  second  of  May 
1407.  This  bishop  was  a  principal  contributor  to  the  repairs  of 
Frindsbury  church,  near  Rochester  ;  he  entirely  glazed  the  windows, 
"where  not  long  since  (says  Phillipot)  his  portraitwas  to  be  seen.'* 
He  made  his  will  the  17th  of  October  1418,  and  died  before  the 
28th  of  the  same  monthi. 

LV.  John  Kemp,  doctor  of  laws,  and  archdeacon  of  Durham, 
was  elected  by  the  monks,  and  consecrated  bishop  of  this  see  in 

*Jahn  de  Bottlesham  was  buried  in  his  own  cathedral.  Godwin,  edit,  per 
Richardson,  p.  533,  note. 

i  Bishop  Young  was  buried  in  St.  Mary's  chapel,  on  the  south  side  of  the 
cathedral,  with  a  marble  stone  over  him.     Willis's  MSS. 


ROCHESTER.  135 

September  1419.  He  was  a  native  of  Wye  in  Kent,  at  which  place 
he  built  and  founded  a  college  of  priests.  He  was  translated  to 
Chichester,  the  28th  of  February  1421,  and  successively  filled  the 
sees  of  London,  York,  and  Canterbury. 

LVI.  John  Langdon,  sub-prior  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury, 
was  advanced  to  the  episcopal  office  by  the  pope,  November  17th 
1421,  and  consecrated  on  Trinity  Suuday  1422.  He  was  born  in 
Kent,  brought  up  at  Oxford,  admitted  a  monk  of  Christ  Church, 
Canterbury,  in  1398,  and  commenced  bachelor  of  divinity  in  1400. 
He  was  celebrated  for  his  great  learning,  especially  in  history  and 
antiquities.  He  wrote  a  chronicle  of  England.  He  went  to  the 
council  of  Basil  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1434;  one  hundred 
pounds  were  allowed  him  to  defray  the  expence  of  his  journey.  He 
died  there  on  the  30th  of  September  the  same  year.  His  body  is 
said  to  have  been  brought  to  London,  and  there  interred.  This 
bishop  was  a  benefactor  to  the  new  stone  Bridge  at  Rochester  ;  but 
he  was  accused  of  committing  waste  on  the  estates  of  the  see. 

LVII.  Thomas  Brown,  doctor  of  laws,  and  dean  of  Salisbury, 
was  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester  the  1st  of  May  1435*,  at 
Canterbury,  and  sent  to  supply  the  place  of  his  predecessor  at  the 
council  of  Basil,  where  he  greatly  exerted  himself.  He  was  declared 
bishop  of  Norwich,  by  the  bull  of  pope  Eugenius,  the  19th  of  Sep- 
tember  1436,  without  solicitation.  This  bishop  augmented  the 
vicarages  of  Kingsdown  and  Wilmington. 

LVIII.  William  Wellys  or  Wells,  abbot  of  York,  was  conse- 
crated to  this  see  on  Palm  Suuday  1436.  The  acts  recorded  during 
the  administration  of  this  bishop,  in  the  register  which  passes  under 
his  name,  are  a  proof  of  his  having  paid  great  attention  to  the  busi- 
ness of  this  diocese  ;  but  a  perusal  of  them  must,  at  the  same  time, 
convince  us,  that  his  mind  was  strongly  tinctured  with  the  prevail- 
ing superstitions  of  the  age.  For  a  monk  to  retain  to  his  separate 
use  any  worldly  goods,  was,  in  his  opinion,  a  species  of  idolatry  ; 

*  Register  ipsius 


\36  HISTORY  OP 

and  therefore,  -when  he  visited  his  priory,  in  order  to  deter  the 
members  of  it  from  being  again  guilty  of  so  heinous  a  crime,  he  en- 
joined, that  whoever  should  be  found,  in  his  last  moments,  posses- 
sed of  any  personal  property,  should  be  denied  the  privilege  of  burial 
among  his  brethren,  and  not  be  entitled  to  their  oblations  or  their 
prayers. 

The  day  of  the  death  of  bishop  Wellys  has  hitherto  been  a  matter 
of  doubt.  Bishop  Godwyn  asserts*,  though  "without  specifying  his 
authority,  that  this  event  happened  March  2,  1443-4.  But  Mr^ 
Wharton  +  has  shewn  this  cannot  be  true,  because  the  temporalities 
were  sequestered  by  order  from  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the 
twenty-sixth  day  of  February  preceding,  the  see  being  then  vacant; 
and  it  appears  from  the  consistory  acts  of  this  diocese,  that  he  died 
at  Trotterscliife  two  days  before.  He  was  interred  in  his  own 
cathedral. 

LIX.  John  LoWe,  t>.  D.  of  Oxford,  a  monk  and  provincial  of 
the  order  of  St.  Augustine,  was  translated  the  same  year  to  the  see 
of  Rochester,  from  St.  Asaph,  to  which  king  Henry  VI.  had  ad- 
vanced him,  on  account  of  his  great  learning,  and  frequent  zeal  in 
preaching.  He  was  born  in  Worcestershire,  and  was  early  received 
into  the  college  of  Worcester.  He  was  a  friend  to  literature ;  and? 
by  his  diligence,  preserved  several  copies  of  the  fathers  from  pe- 
rishing. He  died  September  30,  1467,  and  was  buried  in  his  own' 
cathedral,  near  bishop  Merton.  Bishop  Lowe  probably  rebuilt  (as; 
has  been  before  observed)  the  palace  at  Rochester. 

LX.  Thomas  Scot,  surnamed  Rotherham,  from  a  town  in  York- 
shire where  he  was  born,  was  the  next  bishop  of  this  see.  He  was1 
educated  at  King's  College,  Cambridge,  and  was  master  of  Pem- 
broke Hali.  King  Edward  IV.  whose  chaplain  he  Was,  gave  him: 
the  provostship  of  Beverley;  made  him  keeper  of  the  privy  seal ; 
and,  in  the  year  14G8,  bishop  of  Rochester:  from  hence,  A.  D. 
1471,  he  was  translated  to  Lincoln.  In  1474  he  was  made  lord 
chancellor,  and  afterwards  succeeded  to  the  archbishoprick  of  York. 

*  De  presul.  ed.  per  Richardson,  p.  535.      +  Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  1,  p.  380- 


ROCHESTER.  137 

LXL  John  Alcock  succeeded  him  in  the  see  of  Rochester.  He 
was  a  very  temperate  and  pious  man,  born  at  Beverley  in  York- 
shire, and  educated  at  Cambridge.  He  was  first  dean  of  the  king's 
chapel,  and  master  of  the  rolls,  and  afterwards  advanced  to  the  see 
of  Rochester  A.  D.  1472,  and  translated  to  Worcester  in  the  year 
1476,  and  from  thence  to  Ely.  He  was  chancellor  to  Edward  IV. 
and  Henry  VII.  *  and  converted  the  old  nunnery  of  St.  Radegund 
into  Jesus  College,  Cambridge.  Mr.  Bentham,  in  his  excellent 
history  of  the  Church  of  Ely,  informs  us,  that  he  Mas  a  privy  coun- 
sellor in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  and  employed  in  several  embas- 
sies by  that  prince :  that  he  was  preceptor  to  Edward  V.  was  a 
considerable  writer,  and  of  eminent  skill  in  architecture;  of  which 
there  is  a  beautiful,  but  ruinated  specimen,  in  the  chapel  of  Ely 
cathedral  that  bears  his  name+.    He  died  the  first  of  October  1500. 

LXII.  John  Russel,  D.  D.  archdeacon  of  Berkshire,  was  consei 
crated  bishop  of  Rochester  the  20th  of  September  1476.  He  was 
tutor  to  Edward  prince  of  Wales,  and  was  translated  to  Lincoln 
in  the  year  1480. 

LXIII.  Edmund  Audley,  A.  B.  of  the  ancient  and  noble  family 
of  lord  Audley,  and  canon  of  York,  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Ro- 
chester, October  the  1st,  the  same  year.  He  augmented  the  vicar- 
age of  St.  Margaret,  near  this  city,  A.  D.  1483,  and  was  translated 
to  Hereford  about  the  middle  of  the  year  1492. 

LXIV.  Thomas  Savage,  L.  D.  of  Cambridge,  canon  of  York, 
and  dean  of  the  king's  chapel,  Westminster,  was  appointed  to  the 
see  of  Rochester  on  the  3d  of  December  in  the  same  year  by  papal 
provision,  but  was  not  consecrated  before  April  1493,  there  was 

*  Before  the  revival  of  literature,  the  aera  of  which  was  about  the  same  time 
with  the  reformation  of  religion,  the  highest  offices  of  state  were  usually  borne 
hy  the  clergy,  who  were  possessed  of  almost  all  the  learning  of  those  times, 
and  their  knowledge  was  generally  limited  to  school  divinity,  and  the  civil 
and  canan  law. 

•f  Grainger,  vol.  1,  p.  55. 


138  HISTORY  OF 

more  of  the  courtier  than  bishop  in  this  prelate.  He  was  translated 
to  London  October  13,  1196,  and  afterwards  to  York. 

LXV.  Richard  Fitzjames,  S.  T.  P.  vicar  of  Minehead  in  Somer- 
setshire, warden  of  Merton  college,  Oxford,  and  almoner  to  king 
Henry  VII.  was  elected  to  this  see  by  the  convent,  and  consecrated 
by  archbishop  Merton,  on  the  22d  of  May  1 197.  He  was  translated 
to  Chichester  A.  D.   1504,  and  afterwards  to  London. 

LXVI.  John  Fisher,  D.  D.  master  of  queen's  college,  Cam- 
bridge, and  chancellor  of  that  university,  was  appointed  by  king, 
Henry  VII.  the  next  bishop  of  Rochester,  in  the  same  year.  He 
was  learned  and  pious,  but  a  bigot  to  the  church  of  Rome.  He  as- 
sisted Henry  VIII.  in  his  book  written  against  Martin  Luther, 
which  book  procured  to  the  king,  from  the  pope,  the  title  of  u  De- 
fensor fidei."  He  opposed  cardinal  Wolsey  in  his  demand  of  money 
from  the  convocation,  and  refused  to  sign  in  favor  of  Henry's  marri- 
age with  Ann  Boleyn.  He  countenanced  the  maid  of  Kent  in  her 
imposture.  Fisher  went  to  the  council  of  Lateran  in  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1512. 

Henry  VIII.  being  determined  to  shake  off  the  papal  yoke,  bi- 
shop Fisher  obstinately  refused  to  acknowledge  the  king's  suprema- 
cy in  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  this  realm,  for  which  he  was  imprisoned 
in  the  tower  of  London,  April  21,  1  534.  He  was  not  only  depriv- 
ed of  all  his  revenues,  but  stript  of  his  very  clothes,  and  without 
any  consideration  of  his  extreme  old  age,  he  was  allowed  nothing 
but  rags  which  scarcely  sufficed  to  cover  his  nakedness.  In  this 
condition  he  lay  in  prison  about  twelve  months,  when  Paul  III. 
willing  to  recompense  the  sufferings  of  so  faithful  an  adherent,  cre- 
ated him  a  cardinal,  though  Fisher  was  so  indifferent  about  this 
dignity,  that  even  if  the  purple  were  lying  at  his  feet,  he  declared  be 
would  not  stoop  to  take  it  up.  This  promotion  proved  fatal  to 
him  :  Henry  exasperated  at  the  pope's  countenancing  his  rebellious 
subjects,  ordered  judgment  to  proceed  against  Fisher,  and  took  off 
his  head  before  the  cardinal's  hat  arrived.  He  was  beheaded  near 
the  tower,  June  the   22,  1535:   his  body  was  buried  in  Barking 


ROCHESTER.  139 

Church,  London  and  his  head  set  upon  London  bridge  ;  his  body 
was  afterwards  removed  by  Mrs.  Roper  to  the  tower  chapel  * 
He  was  remarkable  for  learning  Greek  of  Erasmus  in  his  old  age. 

Bishop  Fisher  was  offered  the  bishopricks  of  Lincoln  and  Ely ; 
but  far  unlike  many  of  his  predecessors  as  well  as  successors  in  this 
see,  and  following  the  rule  of  the  primitive  church,  he  would  never 
change  his  bishoprick  for  a  better.  He  used  to  call  his  bishoprick 
his  wife,  and  would  sometimes  say  in  the  latter  end  of  his  life,  that 
"  he  would  not  change  his  little  old  wife  to  whom  he  had  been  so 
"  long  wedded  for  a  wealthier."  "Though  others"  said  he  "have 
"  larger  revenues,  I  have  fewer  souls  under  my  care  ;  so  that  when 
■"  I  shall  have  to  give  an  account  of  both  which  must  be  very  soon, 
"  I  would  not  desire  my  condition  to  have  been  better  than  it  is." 
When  persons  were  sent  down  to  Rochester  by  order  of  the  court 
to  seize  the  bishop's  effects,  among  other  things  they  found  in  a  pri- 
vate place  in  his  oratory  a  wooden  chest,  strongly  bound  about  with 
iron  hoops,  and  double  locked.  The  privacy  of  the  place  and  the 
very  careful  and  secure  manner  in  which  the  chest  was  fastened, 
made  them  immediately  conclude,  that  it  must  contain  some  consi- 
derable treasure.  But  they  were  exceedingly  disappointed,  when 
upon  lifting  up  the  lid  of  this  valuable  chest,  they  found  the  whole 
contents  to  be  a  hair  shirt,  and  two  or  three  whips  with  which 
the  bishop  used  to  discipline  himself +. 

Before  we  conclude  our  account  of  this  prelate,  we  must  not 
omit  to  mention  an  extraordinary  occurrence  in  his  family,  which 
gave  occasion  to  the  passing  of  a  very  remarkable  act  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII.  It  is  thus  related.  In  the  year  1530,  bishop 
Fisher  and  his  family  nearly  escaped  being  poisoned.  One  Richard 
Rouse,  who  was  acquainted  with  his  cook,  came  into  his  kitchen, 
and  while  the  cook  was  gone  to  fetch  some  drink,  made  use  of  that 
opportunity  to  throw  a  great  quantity  of  poison  into  the  gruel  which 
was  prepared  not  only  for  the  bishop  and  his  family,  but  for  the 
neighbouring  poor.    He  could  eat  nothing  that  day  and  so  escaped ; 

*  See  Athen.  Oxon.  vol.  1,  p.  41.  +  Bailee's  life  of  Fisher,  p.  203. 


140  HISTORY  OF 

but  of  seventeen  persons  who  eat  of  it,  one  Mr.  Bennet  Curwin, 
and  an  old  widow  died,  and  the  rest  never  perfectly  recovered  their 
health.  Upon  this  occasion  an  act  was  made,  which  declared  poi- 
soning to  be  high  treason,  and  adjudged  the  offender  to  be  boiled 
to  death  ;  and  this  severe  punishment  was  accordingly  inflicted 
upon  Rouse  in  Smithfield.     The  act  was  afterwards  repealed*. 

LXVII.  John  Hilsey,  D.  D.  was  nominated  by  the  king  to  this 
sec,  within  a  few  months  after  the  execution  of  bishop  Fisher.  Mr. 
Wharton  alledges  that  he  was  not  consecrated  before  1537  f;  but 
the  learned  author  must  have  been  mistaken  as  to  this  point,  since 
the  temporalities  of  the  bishoprick  were  restored  to  him,  October 
4,  1535  t-  He  had  studied  at  Cambridge,  but  was  admitted  to  the 
degree  of  Dr.  of  divinity  at  Oxford  in  1532 ;  being  probably  at  that 
time  prior  of  the  Dominican  friars  in  London.  This  prelate  was 
judged  to  be  inclined  to  the  reformation  ;  and  he  certainly  gave  a 
mortal  blow  to  the  cause  of  popery,  when  he  exposed,  in  a  sermon 
at  St.  Paul's  cross,  the  fraudulent  tricks  practised  in  the  religious 
houses  with  their  images,  and  particularly  the  "crucifix  of  Boxley 
in  Kent,"  commonly  called  the  "  rood  of  grace,"  which  he  brake 
in  pieces,  and  shewed  the  springs  by  which  all  its  motions  were 
made.  This  rood  of  grace  was  a  wooden  figure,  or  crucifix,  the 
work  of  a  needy  carpenter,  to  which  many  pilgrimages  had  been 
made,  and  with  which  the  priests  for  a  long  time  deluded  their 
credulous  and  silly  followers.  Bishop  Burnet  thus  describes  it §. 
"  It  was  observed  sometimes  to  bow,  and  to  lift  itself  up,  to  shake 
"  and  to  stir  the  head,  hands,  and  feet,  to  roll  the  eyes,  move  the 
"  lips,  and  bend  the  brows :  all  which  were  looked  upon  by  the 
*  abused  multitude,  as  the  effects  of  a  Divine  Power."  Bishop 
Hilsey  was,  however,  a  zealous  advocate  for  some  of  the  corrupt 
doctrines  of  the  church  of  Rome  :  this  appears  from  his  defence  of 
the  sacrament  of  confirmation,  which  is  printed  at  large  by  Mr. 
Strype,  in  his  appendix  to  the  first  volume  of  his  Ecclesiastical  me- 

*  Harrington's  ancient  Stat.  p.  406.  +  Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  1,  p.  383. 

J  Rymcr,  Feed.  vol.  14,  p.  553.         §  Hist.  Reform,  vol.  1,  p.  242. 


ROCHESTER.  141 

noirs'*.  For  a  particular  account  of  the  writings  of  bishop  Hilsey, 
we  refer  our  readers  to  Tanner's  Biblioth.  Britan.  p.  404.  He  died 
A.  D.  15381. 

LXVIII.  Nicholas  Heath,  D.  D.  of  Cambridge,  almoner  to 
king  Henry  VIII.  was  consecrated  bishop  of  this  see  April  4th 
1540,  and  was  the  first  prelate  of  the  new  foundation.  He  held  the 
rectories  of  Shoreham  and  Cliff  in  Kent,  in  commendam  with  his 
bishoprick ;  he  likewise  had  a  licence  to  enjoy  the  same  privilege 
for  five  years  after  his  translation  to  the  more  valuable  see  of  Wor- 
cester, which  was  A.  D.  1543;  afterwards  he  became  archbishop 
of  York. 

LXIX.  Henry  Holbeach,  D.  D.  of  Cambridge,  first  prior,  and 
afterwards  dean  of  Worcester,  having  been  consecrated  suffragan 
bishop  of  Bristol  A.  D.  1537,  was  removed  to  Rochester,  and  con- 
firmed June  18,  1544.  He  held  the  rectory  of  Bromsgrove,  with 
the  chapel  of  Norton  in  Worcester,  by  commendam.  He  was 
translated  to  Lincoln  in  the  year  1547. 

LXX.  Nicholas  Ridley,  D.  D.  of  Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge, 
some  time  fellow  of  university  college,  Oxford,  afterwards  master 
of  Pembroke  Hall  aforesaid,  prebendary  of  Canterbury  and  West- 
minster, vicar  of  Hearn  Hill  in  Kent,  and  of  Soham  in  Cambridge- 
shire, was  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester  the  4th  of  September, 
1547,  and  translated  to  London  12th  of  April  1550;  bishop  Bonner 
being  removed  from  that  see  at  the  time  the  church  service  was 
reformed.  But  Mary  obtaining  the  crown,  bishop  Ridley,  who  had 
been  a  principal  instrument  in  the  late  reformation  of  the  church  in 
the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  soon  fell  a  victim  to  papal  vengeance. 
The  merits  of  Cranmer  towards  queen  Mary  during  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.  had  been  considerable;  and  he  had  successfully  em- 
ployed his  good  ofhccs  in  mitigating  the  severe  prejudices  which  that 
monarch  had  conceived  against  her.  But  the  active  part  he  had 
taken  in  promoting  her  mother's  divorce,  as  well  as  in  conducting 

*  Ibid.  p. 231. 

r  John  Hilsey  was  buried  in  his  own  cathedral.     Wood,  Oxon.  vol.  J,  p.  51. 


142  HISTORY   OF 

the  reformation,  had  made  him  the  object  of  her  hatred.  He  had 
also  preached  a  sermon  to  convince  the  people  of  Lady  Jane  Grey's 
title  to  the  crown,  an  affront  which  sunk  deep  into  the  queen's 
mind.  He  was  a  very  learned  man,  indefatigable  in  his  labour  to 
promote  the  reformation,  and  had  a  considerable  hand  in  the  liturgy 
of  the  church  of  England,  which  was  first  compiled  and  read  in 
churches,  by  command  of  Edward  VI.  In  his  disputes  with  the 
Roman  Catholic  Divines,  he  forced  them  to  acknowledge  that 
Christ  in  his  last  supper,  held  himself  in  his  hand,  and  afterwards 
eat  himself.  To  complete  his  fame,  he  sealed  the  truths  of  the 
blessed  gospel  contained  in  the  protestant  doctrine,  with  his  blood. 
He  was  burnt  alive  at  Oxford,  with  good  old  Latimer,  the  modern 
Polycarp,  the  16th  of  October  1555.  These  two  prelates  cele- 
brated for  learning  and  virtue,  supported  each  other's  constancy  by 
their  mutual  exhortations.  Latimer  when  tied  to  the  stake,  called 
to  his  companion,  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  brother  :  we  shall  this  day 
"  kindle  such  a  torch  in  England,  as  I  trust  in  God,  shall  never 
"  be  extinguished."  The  executioners  had  been  so  merciful  (for 
that  clemency  may  more  naturally  be  ascribed  to  them,  than  to  the 
religious  zealots)  as  to  tie  bags  of  gunpowder  about  these  prelates, 
to  put  a  speedy  period  to  their  tortures  :  the  explosion  immediately 
killed  Latimer,  who  was  in  extreme  old  age;  Ridley  continued 
alive  during  some  time  in  the  midst  of  the  flames*. 

LXXI.  John  Ponet,  or  Poynet,  D.  D.  succeeded  bishop  Ridley 
in  this  see.  He  was  nominated  to  it  by  the  king,  on  the  11th  of 
May  1550,  consecrated  at  Lambeth  chapel  on  the  29th  of  June, 
and  the  day  following  took  possession  of  the  temporalities.  He 
was  a  native  of  Kent,  and  finished  his  education  in  Queen's  College, 
Cambridge.  His  extraordinary  learning  and  merit  recommended 
him  to  the  notice  of  archbishop  Cranmer,  who  is  said  to  have  con- 
sulted him  frequently  in  many  points  relating  to  religiont.     This 

*  Burnet,  vol.  2,  p.  318. 

+  See  Strype'a  Memoirs  of  archbishop  Cranmer,  p.  422. 


ROCHESTER.  143 

prelate  had,  according  to  Rymer*,  licence  to  hold,  in  commendanj 
with  his  bishoprick,  the  vicarage  of  Ashford  in  Kent,  the  rectories 
of  Towyn  in  Merionethshire,  and  of  St.  Michael's,  Crooked  Lane, 
London,  with  the  ninth  stall  in  the  church  of  Canterbury  :  about 
the  time  of  his  promotion,  an  order  of  council  was  made,  that  no 
bishop  should  for  the  future  be  allowed  commendams,  excepting 
Mr.  Poynet ;  and  the  reason  assigned  for  this  indulgence  to  him 
was,  his  having  no  house  to  dwell  int.  He  was  translated  to  the 
see  of  Winchester  in  March  1551,  and  on  the  accession  of  Queen 
Mary  retired  out  of  England,  and  died  at  Strasburgh  in  Germany 
the  1  1th  of  April  1556. 

LXXII.  John  Scory  was  appointed  to  this  bishoprick  on  the 
translation  of  Dr.  Poynet :  the  latters  patent  for  conferring  this 
dignity  upon  him  were  dated  April  26, 1551,  and  he  was  consecrated 
August  30th,  the  same  year;};.  He  was  made,  by  archbishop  Cran- 
mer,  one  of  the  six  preachers  in  Canterbury  cathedral ;  and  was 
probably,  on  account  of  his  excellence  in  this  part  of  his  clerical 
office,  appointed  in  Lent  1551  to  preach  before  the  king.  He  was 
translated  to  the  see  of  Chichester  May  the  23d  1552,  and  after- 
wards promoted  to  the  see  of  Hereford.  He  died  June  26,  1585. 

LXXIII.  The  bishoprick  of  Rochester  continued  Aacant  almost 
three  years  after  the  removal  of  Dr.  Scory  to  Chichester,  but  the 
19th  of  March  1554,  a  conge  d'elire  was  granted  to  the  dean  and 
chapter,  with  a  letter  from  queen  Mary,  recommending  Maurice 
Gryilith  to  be  the  successor  of  the  late  prelate ;  and  he  was  con- 
firmed bishop  of  Rochester  April  the  8th,  the  same  year  §.  He  was 
born  in  Wales,  and  educated  among  the  Dominicans  at  Oxford, 
and  was  at   the  time  of  his  election  archdeacon  of  this  diocese,  a 

♦Feeder,  vol.  xv.  p.  240.  +  Strype's  Eccles.  Mem.  vol.  2,  p.  524. 

^  Strype's  Memoirs  of  archbishop  Cranmer,  p.  267. 

§  Rapin's  Acta  Reg.  p.  445.  According  to  Godwin  he  was  consecrated 
April  the  1st,  and  Le  Neve  asserts  the  same  upon  the  authority  of  Reg.  Cant. 
-if  so,  what  Rapin  styles  the  confirmation,  was  probably  the  writ  for  the  resti- 
tution of  the  temporalities. 


144  HISTORY  OF 

prebendary  of  the  church,  rector  of  St.  Magnus  by  London  bridge, 
and  of  Southfleet  in  Kent,  and  chancellor  and  vicar  general  to  the 
bishop:  and  there  is  reason  for  believing  that  he  had  a  liberty  of 
retaining  most  of  these  benefices  with  his  new  preferment.  Fuller 
has,  after  his  quaint  manner,  drawn  his  character  in  these  words  : 
"  His  diocese  was  but  of  small  extent ;  but  that  flock  must  be  very 
"  little  indeed,  out  of  which  the  ravenous  wolf  cannot  fetch  some 
"  prey  for  himself:  Morris*  the  bishop  played  the  tyrant :"  and 
truly  did  he  deserve  these  and  many  more  equally  severe  terms  of 
contempt  and  obloquy,  since  the  fires,  which  consumed  the.  first 
martyrs  to  the  protestant  cause  in  that  merciless  reign,  were  kindled 
by  his  direction.  Christopher  Wade  and  Margery  Polly  were 
among  these  unhappy  victims  of  his  barbarous  zeal ;  who  in  July 
1555  patiently  endured  this  excruciating  kind  of  death  in  the  gravel 
pits  near  Dartford.  John  Harpole  of  Rochester  and  Joan  Beach 
of  Tunbridge  suffered  likewise  at  the  stake  by  his  orders  on  April 
1st  1556.  This  prelate  and  his  chancellor  also  eagerly  sought  the 
life  of  William  Wood,  baker,  at  Strood,  but  Providence  delivered 
him  from  their  hands.  About  Midsummer  1555  the  judges  held  the 
assizes  at  the  bishop's  palace  in  the  college  yard.  The  court  was 
held  in  the  area  before  the  palace  ;  and,  as  the  season  was  very 
warm,  the  sail  of  a  ship  was  extended  from  the  wall,  to  screen  them 
from  the  sun  beams.  At  this  time  John  Pemmell,  fisherman,  and 
John  Bailey,  glover,  both  of  Strood,  were  brought  before  the 
court,  and  accused  of  neglecting  to  attend  the  public  service  of  the 
church,  and  particularly  of  not  appearing  at  mass  :  but,  while  the 
aiFair  was  depending,  the  wind  arose,  and  obtained  such  power 
over  the  sail  as  to  pull  down  part  of  the  wall  to  which  it  was  fas- 
tened, and  hurt  some  persons  who  were  on  the  bench,  upon  which 
the  judges  arose  and  departed,  and  the  men  were  set  at  liberty. 

*  Fuller's  Church  Hist.  b.  VIII.  p.  18.  Mr.  Strype  writes  his  name  Grifiyr, 
but  likewise  observes  that  he  was  commonly  called  Mores.  Eccles.  Mcir1. 
>ol.  S  p.  116. 


ROCHESTER.  145 

Many  persons  are  said  to  have  been  carried  off  in  the  year  1559 
by  a  pestilential  fever  and  quartan  ague,  distempers  which  then 
raged  in  different  parts  of  England,  and  seized  those  mostly  who 
Were  advanced  in  life;  and  it  is  remarked  by  Mr.  Collier*,  as  an 
extraordinary  circumstance,  that  thirteen  bishops  died  within 
twelve  months.  One  of  this  number  was  bishop  Gryffith,  who 
died  on  the  20th  of  November,  having  survived  only  three  days  his 
cruel  and  bigotted  sovereign,  and  was  interred  with  great  pomp  in 
his  parish  church  of  St.  Magnus,  on  the  30th  of  the  same  month. + 

LXXIV.  The  next  consecrated  prelate  of  the  diocese  of  Roches- 
ter, was  Dr.  Edmund  Gheast,  some  time  fellow  of  King's  college, 
Cambridge;  consecrated  March  24,  1559,  and  made  almoner  to 
Queen  Elizabeth  at  the  same  time.  He  held  the  archdeaconry  of 
Canterbury  and  rectory  of  Cliff  in  commendam  with  this  see,  and 
was  one  of  the  persons  employed  in  reviewing  the  liturgy  in  the  year 
1559.  This  prelate  was  translated  to  Salisbury  24th  December, 
1571,  and  died  the  20th  February  1578. 

LXXV.  Edmund  Freake,  D.  D.  dean  of  Salisbury,  was  con- 
secrated bishop  of  Rochester  on  the  13th,  and  enthroned  in  person 
on  the  22th  of  March  1571.  He  was  great  almoner  to  Queen 
Elizabeth ;  and  held  the  rectory  of  Purleigh,  in  Essex,  and  the 
archdeaconry  of  Canterbury  in  commendam.  He  was  translated 
to  Norwich  in  1 576,  and  afterwards  to  Worcester.  He  died  in 
March  1591,  and  was  buried  in  that  cathedral,  where  a  sumptuous 
monument  is  erected  to  his  memory.     He  bore  the  character  of  a 

*  Eccles.  hist.  vol.  2.  p.  405. 

+  Edmund  Allen,  B.  D.  was  nominated  to  the  bishoprick  of  Rochester,  soon 
after  the  death  of  Gryffith.  He  was  a  native  of  Norfolk.  Being  a  firm  pro- 
testant,  upon  the  succession  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  he  was  appointed  one  of  her 
chaplains  and  had  the  honor  of  receiving  from  her  majesty  a  commission  to 
act  as  her  ambassador,  but  at  what  court  is  not  mentioned ;  but  he  died  before 
his  consecration,  and  was  buried  August  30th,  1559,  in  the  church  of  St. 
Thomas  the  Apostle,  in  London.  Mr.  Allen  is  generally  allowed  to  have  been 
a  man  of  abilities,  and  of  great  erudition;  and  as  he  was  the  bishop  elect  of 
this  see,  we  thought  it  not  proper  to  omit  his  name. 

U 


146  HISTORY  OF 

pious,  learned,  and  grave  divine,  and  was  a  zealous  assertor  of  the 
discipline  of  the  church. 

LXXVf.  John  Piers,  D.  D.  was  elected  bishop  of  this  see,  April 
10th,  1.576,  confirmed  the  14th  of  the  same  month;  and  consecrated 
the  next  day  at  Lambeth.  This  prelate  was  first  a  fellow  of  Mag- 
dalen College,  Oxford,  and  elected  May  23d,  1570,  master  of 
Baliol  College  in  that  University.  On  October  4th,  1567,  he  had 
been  appointed  dean  of  Chester  ;  and  these  two  last  preferments,  it 
is  likely,  he  resigned  upon  his  being  admitted  to  the  deanery  of 
Christ  Church,  February  28th,  1570-1.  This  station  he  also  quit- 
ted when  he  was  raised  to  the  see  of  Rochester.  In  a  letter  writ- 
ten to  the  lord  treasurer,  soliciting  that  Dr.  James  might  be  the 
new  dean,  that  learned  society  extol  the  humanity,  liberality,  and 
beneficence  of  their  governor,  who  was  to  be  removed  from  them, 
and  testified  that  he  was  learned  himself,  and  had  been  the  instrument 
of  the  progress  of  good  learning  in  their  house.  This  bishop  held, 
in  commendam  with  this  see,  the  deanery  of  Salisbury ;  in  which 
preferment,  as  well  as  in  this  diocese,  he  had  succeeded  Dr.  Freake ; 
and  had  also  a  licence  of  plurality  for  Laingdon,  in  the  diocese  of 
London,  and  for  Fillingham  in  that  of  Lincoln.  He  was  likewise, 
as  well  as  his  predecessor,  great  almoner  to  Queen  Elizabeth, 
which  office  he  enjoyed  many  years,  being  in  high  esteem  with  her 
majesty;  and  it  is  Fuller's  remark,  that  he  must  have  been  a 
wise  and  good  man,  whom  that  thrifty  princess  would  intrust  with 
distributing  her  money*.  He  was  translated  to  Salisbury  A.  D. 
1577,  and  to  the  archbishoprick  of  York,  A.  D.  1588,  and,  dying 
September  28,   1594,  was  buried  in  that  cathedral. 

LXXVIL  John  Yonge,  D.  D.  (so  spelt  on  his  tomb-stone)  was 
nominated  to  this  diocese  by  the  queen,  on  the  translation  of  Dr. 
Piers.  The  conge  d'elire  was  dated  January  29th,  and  he  was 
elected  February  18,  1577;  on  the  15th  of  March  following  he 
was  confirmed,  and  on  the  16th  of  the  same  month  was  consecrated 
at  Lambeth.     The  rectory  of  St.  Margaret,  New  Fish-street,  Lon- 

*  Church  Hist.  Book  IX.  p.  223. 


ROCHESTER.  147 

don,  of  which  city  Dr.  Yonge  was  a  native,  was  probably  the  first 
ecclesiastical  benefice  he  enjoyed  ;  and  he  was  afterwards  collated 
to  the  living  of  St.  Giles,  Cripplegate,  we  believe,  by  bishop  Grin- 
dal,  whose  chaplain  he  was  for  several  years.  A.  D.  1564,  when 
this  prelate  was  admitted  to  his  degree  of  doctor  of  divinity  at  Cam- 
bridge, by  proxy,  Dr.  Yonge  preached  for  him  the  latin  sermon  at 
the  commencement;  *  and  the  mastership  at  Pembroke-hall  in  that 
university  being  vacant  in  1567,  by  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Whitgift, 
the  fellows  of  that  society  elected  him  into  that  office  on  the  recom- 
mendation of  his  right  reverend  patron,  who,  as  he  highly  valued  him 
for  his  piety  and  learning,  afterwards  preferred  him  to  a  stall  in  the 
church  of  Southwell.  In  the  year  1581,  Aylmer,  bishop  of  London, 
was  very  desirous  to  have  him  removed  to  Norwich  ;  and  the  reason 
assigned  by  that  active  prelate  for  this  request  is  thus  expressed  in  a 
letter  to  lord  Burleigh  ;  that  bishop  Yonge  "was  for  his  quickness  in 
"  government,  and  his  readiness  in  learning,  the  fittest  man  for  that 
"  diocese  that  he  knew,  and  especially  to  bridle  innovators,  not  by 
"  authority  only,  but  also  by  weight  of  arguments  +."  This  trans- 
lation never  took  place  ;  and  the  bishop  of  Rochester,  in  not  con- 
senting to  it,  seems  to  have  given  ©ftence  to  the  treasurer;  his  lord- 
ship's plea,  however,  for  his  refusal,  was,  that  he  must  have  acquies- 
ced in  the  outrageous  spoils  that  had  been  made  of  the  revenues  of 
the  see  of  Norvvich£.  Dr.  Yonge  had  a  dispensation  to  hold  in  com- 
mendam,  with  the  bishoprick  of  Rochester,  the  benefices  ofSt.Muge 
and  Wouldan,  a  prebend  in  Westminster-abbey,  and  one  in  the 
church  of  Southwell  §;  but  he  was  not  permitted  to  enjoy  them 
quietly  :  for  a  complaint  was  carried  to  lord  Burleigh  of  the  extreme 
penuriousness  of  the  bishop,  with  a  view  possibly  of  spiriting  up  the 
treasurer,  who  was  before  dissatisfied  with  his  behaviour,  to  deprive 
him  of  some  of  these  preferments.  As  that  minister  paid  an  atten- 
tion to  these  ill-natured  reports,  our  prelate  thought  it  necessary  to 

*  Strype's  life  of  archbishop  Grindal,  p.  S10. 

i  Strype's  life  of  bishop  Aylmer,  p.  90. 

|  Strype's  Annals,  vol.  4,  p.  226.        ^ Ibid.  vol.  2,  p,  15\, 


148  HISTORY  OF 

wipe  oft'  these  aspersions  on  his  character :  in  a  letter,  therefore,  to 
the  noble  lord,  he  clearly  proved,  from  a  fair  representation  of  his 
receipts  and  disbursements,  that  the  stories  propagated  of  his  avarice 
and  want  of  hospitality  were  groundless  and  malicious  ;  since  he  had 
for  a  long  time  consumed  very  near  three  out  of  four  parts  of  his  yearly 
income  in  meat  and  drink  only,  whereas  it  was,  in  the  opinion  of 
some,  a  want  of  true  (economy  to  expend  more  than  one  third  part 
in  these  articles  of  house-keeping  *. 

According  to  the  valuation  delivered  in,  the  annual  revenue  of  this 
see,  clear  of  all  tenths  and  subsidies,  did  not,  in  the  year  1595,  exceed 
two  hundred  and  twenty  pounds,  the  dignity  therefore  of  this  high, 
station  could  not  be  supported  without  some  additional  preferments : 
and  perhaps  it  has  not  escaped  the  observation  of  several  of  our  rea- 
ders, that  the  bishops  of  Rochester  have  held  in  commendam  at  least 
two  parochial  benefices;  so  far  therefore  as  the  practice  can  be  justi- 
fied by  precedent,  a  late  instance  of  a  similar  kind  may  be  defended. 
And  indeed  from  a  petition  presented  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  A.  D, 
1559,  by  archbishop  Parker,  and  many  others  of  his  right  reverend 
brethren,  for  the  uniting  of  the  rectory  of  Cliff  to  the  see  of  Roches- 
ter +,  it  appears,  that  these  prelates  did  not  think  these  preferments 
incompatible.  He  died  at  Bromley,  April  10th  1605,  in  the  71st 
year  of  his  age,  and  was  buried  in  the  chancel  of  that  church  J. 

LXXV1II.  William  Barlow,  D.  D.  succeeded  bishop  Yonge 
in  this  see,  being  elected  to  it  May  23,  1605.  He  was  confirmed 
June  27th,  consecrated  the  30th  of  the  same  month,  and  enthroned 
July  25th  following.  He  was  born  at  Barlow  in  Lancashire,  and 
appears  to  have  been  a  fellow  of  Trinity-hall,  Cambridge.    He  was 

♦Strypc's  Annals,  vol.  4,  p.  226. 

+  Ibid.  vol.  1,  p.  98.  The  aha  of  archbishop  Laud  was  to  have  sinecures,  if 
possible,  annexed  as  perpetual  comniendams  to  the  small  bishopricks,  which 
he  effected  for  Bristol,  Peterborough,  St.  Asaph,  Chester,  and  Oxford.  Bio- 
graphical Dictionary,  under  the  article  Laud. 

X  For  a  more  particular  account  of  this  bishop  and  his  writings,  the  reader 
is  referred  to  Wood's  Athen.  Oxon.  and  Strype's  life  of  archbishop  VYhitgift. 


ROCHESTER.  149 

chaplain  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  also  to  archbishop  Whitgift,  with 
whom  he  remained  till  that  prelate's  death ;  his  Grace  collated  him 
to  the  rectory  of  St.  Dunstan's  in  the  east,  and  he  occurs  likewise 
a  prebendary  of  St.  Paul's.  He  was  installed  prebendary  of  West- 
minster December  3,  1601;  on  June  10,  1602,  dean  of  Chester; 
and  as  Mr.  John  Winter,  the  person  whom  he  succeeded  in  the 
seventh  stall  in  Canterbury,  died  January  7,  1605,  he  was  proba- 
bly nominated  to  that  canonry  the  beginning  of  that  year.  Bishop 
Barlow  presided  over  this  diocese  very  near  three  years,  being 
elected  to  the  see  of  Lincoln  May  21,  1608,  and  died  suddenly  at 
his  palace  of  Buckden,  September  7,  1613.  This  prelate  was  an 
excellent  and  a  learned  preacher,  and  was,  when  dean  of  Chester, 
employed  by  archbishop  Whitgift  to  write  an  authentic  relation  of 
the  famous  conference  held  at  Hampton-court,  January  14,  1603, 
and  the  two  following  days,  before  King  James.  He  was  likewise 
the  author  of  several  other  books,  of  which  the  reader  will  find  an 
account  in  Wood's  Ath.  Oxon. 

LXXIX.  Richard  Neile,  D.  D.  of  St.  John's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, was  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester,  October  9,  1608, 
and  held  the  deanery  of  Westminster  in  commendam.  This  prelate 
was  translated  to  the  see  of  Litchfield  and  Coventry,  and  afterwards 
removed  to  the  archbishoprick  of  York.  The  reader  may  see  a  far- 
ther account  of  this  bishop  in  the  history  of  Westminster  Abbey, 
by  Mr.  Widmore,  p.   147. 

LXXX.  John  Buckeridge,  D.  D.  was  elected  bishop  of  this 
diocese,  December  29,  1610,  but  not  confirmed  until  June  8,  1611; 
the  reason  of  this  delay  is  not  specified.  He  received  the  first  rudi- 
ments of  his  learning  at  Merchant  Taylor's  school,  and  was  elected 
from  thence  to  St.  John's  College,  in  Oxford,  A.  D.  1578,  where 
he  became  fellow,  and  was  chosen  president  of  that  society  June 
18,  1605.  He  appears  to  have  been  possessed  of  the  following 
preferments ;  of  the  rectories  of  Tambridge  in  Essex,  and  of  North 
Kil worth  in  Leicestershire,  of  a  canonry  in  the  church  of  Hereford, 
of  the  vicarage  of  St.  Giles,  Cripplegate,  of  the  archdeaconry  of 


150  HISTORY  OF 

Northampton,  and  of  a  canonry  of  Windsor.  How  many  of  these 
preferments  he  enjoyed  at  the  same  time,  and  which  of  them  he 
held  in  commendam  with  this  bishoprick,  we  cannot  determine. 
He  was  translated  from  hence  to  Ely  July  15,  1628,  died  May  23, 
1631,  and  was  buried  the  31st  of  that  month,  in  the  parish  church 
of  Bromley  in  this  county.  There  is  no  inscription  over  his  grave ; 
but  from  a  table  of  gifts,  fixed  on  the  wall  of  that  church,  it  ap- 
pears thai  he  bequeathed  twenty  pounds  to  the  poor  of  that  parish*. 
He  was  also  a  benefactor  to  St.  John's  College,  in  Oxford,  to  which 
society  Mr.  Arthur  Buckeridge  presented  a  picture  of  his  right 
reverend  ancestor,  which  hangs  in  their  common  hallt. 

The  character  of  this  prelate  is  thus  drawn  by  bishop  Godwin. 
"  That  he,  as  well  by  writing  as  by  preaching,  sedulously  main- 
"  tained  the  truth  of  the  gospel;  and  that  he  had  not  long  since 
w  published  a  book  against  the  power  of  the  pope  in  temporal  mat- 
u  ters,  which  could  his  predecessor  bishop  Fisher  have  perused,  he 
"  never  would  have  lost  his  life  in  defence  of  a  doctrine  so  notori- 
61  ously  false.  That  there  was  then  a  John  bishop  of  Rochester 
"  to  oppose  to  another  John  prelate  of  the  same  see,  a  Buckeridge 
a  to  a  Fisher ;  that  the  arguments  urged  by  the  former  were  so 
"  clear,  and  so  satisfactory,  that  they  could  not  be  answered  by  a 
"  thousand  Fishers."  For  a  more  circumstantial  account  of  the 
character  and  writings  of  bishop  Buckeridge,  the  reader  is  referred 
to  Wood's  Athen.  Oxon.  vol.  1,  p.  557,  and  Echard's  History  of 
England,  p.  451. 

LXXXI.  Walter  Curie,  D.  D.  was  promoted  to  the  see  of  Ro- 
chester on  the  translation  of  Dr.  Buckeridge.  He  was  born  at 
Hatfield  ;  was  fellow  of  Peter  House  in  Cambridge ;  and  appears  to 
have  been  vicar  of  Plumsted,  in  the  diocese  of  Roc  hester,  A.  D. 
1608,  which  benefice,  however,  he  resigned  that  year,  probably  on 
his  being  presented  to  the  rectory  of  Bemerton  in  Wilts,  or  of  Mii- 
denhale  in  Suffolk,  of  both  which  parishes  he  is  said  to  have  been  in- 
cumbent.    The  dignities  he  enjoyed  in  the  church,  previous  to  his 

*  Regist.  Roff.  p.  814.        t  Rawlinson's  Antiq.  of  Rochester,  p.  92. 


ROCHESTER.  151 

being  seated  on  the  episcopal  bench,  were  the  prebends  of  Lyme  and 
Hastock  in  the  cathedral  of  Sarum,  which  he  afterwards  held  in  coui- 
mendam  with  the  bishoprick  of  Rochester,  and  the  deanery  of  Litch- 
field, in  which  preferment  he  was  installed  March  24,  1620,  being, 
we  believe,  at  that  time,  chaplain  to  king  James.  A.  D.  1629  he 
was  translated  to  the  see  of  Bath  and  Wells,  and  November  16, 
1632,  confirmed  bishop  of  Winchester.  An  excellent  character  is 
delivered  down  to  us  of  this  prelate  :  that,  as  a  parish  minister,  he  was 
holy  in  his  conversation,  and  endeavoured,  as  far  as  was  in  his  power, 
to  remedy  the  disorders  of  those  committed  to  his  charge  ;  that  he 
was  likewise  charitable  and  hospitable,  and  made  it  his  constant  em- 
ployment to  compose  differences  among  his  neighbours,  and  gained 
many  dissenters  to  the  church  by  his  wise  discourses,  and  the  mild- 
ness of  his  behaviour.  No  greater  proof  need  be  brought  of  his 
having  exercised  the  authority  of  a  bishop  with  justice  and  moderation 
than  that  the  leaders  of  the  popular  faction,  who  hated  his  function, 
offered  no  rudeness  or  incivility  to  his  person,  though  he  had  been 
very  zealous  in  the  royal  cause,  and  remarkably  active  during  the 
siege  of  Winchester  ;  these  zealots,  however,  deprived  him  of  his 
ecclesiastical  preferments ;  and  he  refusing  to  take  the  covenant, 
was  not  allowed  to  compound  for  his  private  estate.  He  must  there- 
fore have  been  reduced  to  great  straits  before  his  death,  which  hap- 
pened at  Subberton  in  Hampshire,  about  the  year  1650.  An  ac- 
count of  the  life  of  this  prelate  was  published  in  London,  8vo.  1712, 
in  which  he  is  mentioned  as  almoner  to  king  Charles  I. 

LXXXIL  John  Bowie,  D.  D.  formerly  a  fellow  of  Trinity  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  and  who  had  in  July  1620  been  installed  dean  of 
Salisbury,  was,  on  the  translation  of  Dr.  Curie,  elected  bishop  of 
this  see,  and  consecrated  February  7,  1629.  He  died  October  9, 
1637,  and  was  buried  in  St.  Paul's  cathedral.  The  return  made  by 
archbishop  Laud  to  king  Charles  I.  of  the  state  of  this  diocese,  in 
the  year  1634,  implies  a  censure  of  this  prelate  for  his  remissness  in 
the  discharge  of  his  episcopal  office ;  for  his  Grace  informs  the  king, 
that  he  found  the  town  of  Mailing  and  that  whole  deanery  very 


152  HISTORY  OF 

much  out  of  order;  he  adds,  however,  that  he,  by  the  lord  bishop's 
command,  had  settled  them*. 

LXXXIII.  John  Warner,  D.  D.  was  the  successor  of  Br* 
Bowie,  being  elected  bishop  of  this  see,  November  13,  1637.  He 
was  confirmed  January  11th  following;  consecrated  on  the  14th; 
installed,  by  proxy,  on  the  21st  of  the  same  month;  and  had,  the 
day  after,  restitution  of  the  temporalities.  It  is  probable  that  he 
was  born  in  the  parish  of  St.  Clement  Danes,  in  London  ;  but  it  is 
certain  that  in  the  year  1599,  being  then  sixteen  years  of  age,  he 
was  entered  a  member  of  Magdalen  College  in  Oxford,  and  became 
afterwards  a  fellow  of  that  society.  The  first  ecclesiastical  prefer- 
ment he  seems  to  hare  possessed,  was  the  rectory  of  St.  Michael's, 
Crooked  Lane,  in  London,  to  which  he  was  admitted  June  17, 
1614,  as  he  was  to  that  of  St.  Diouis,  Backchurch,  September  26, 
1625.  Archbishop  Abbot  collated  him  to  the  first  stall  in  the  ca- 
thedral of  Canterbury  +  about  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1616,  and 
in  1633  he  was  nominated  to  the  deanery  of  Litchfield. 

Bishop  Warner  is  pronounced  by  an  historian  of  his  age,  to  hare 
been  a  very  able  as  well  as  zealous  defender  of  the  ecclesiastical 
constitution  of  this  country,  at  a  period  when  the  most  violent  at- 
tacks against  it  unhappily  prevailed  :  and  there  is  sufficient  evidence 
to  prove  his  meriting  this  character.  So  high  was  the  opinion  his 
right  reverend  brethren  entertained  of  his  judgment  and  assiduity  t, 

*  See  Collier's  Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  2,  p.  762.  Sec  also  Wood,  Athen.  Oxon. 
vol.  I.    Fasti  p.  200,  for  an  account  of  the  writings  of  bishop  Bowie. 

+  Mr.  Battely,  in  his  Antiq.  of  Canterbury,  p.  11,  p.  124,  has  not  menti- 
oned the  date  of  Mr.  Warner's  being  admitted  to  this  preferment ;  but  we 
suppose  it  to  be  about  the  time  inserted  in  the  text,  because  Henry  Airy,  who, 
according  to  Mr.  Battely,  was  his  immediate  predecessor  in  this  stall,  and  who 
probably  was  also  provost  of  Queen's  College  in  Oxford,  died  Oct.  10,  1616. 

J  A  circumstance  related  by  bishop  Burnet  concerning  our  prelate,  is  a  very 
strong  proof  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  him  by  archbishop  Laud;  for  that 
unfortunate  ecclesiastic,  apprehensive  of  consequences  which  might  ensue  from 
the  impeachment  brought  against  him,  on  its  being  delivered  at  the  bar  of  the 
lords,  entrusted  bishop  Warner  with  the  keys  of  his  closet,  that  he  might  des- 


Rochester.  153 

ihat  when  they  were  impeached  by  the  house  of  commons  for  an 
attempt  to  establish  a  body  of  canons  without  the  authority  of  par- 
liament, he  was  the  prelate  unanimously  fixed  on  to  solicit  the  as- 
sistance of  council,  who  would  have  spirit  enough  to  shew,  that 
though  the  conduct  of  the  bishops  might  not  have  been  strictly  jus- 
tifiable, yet  that  their  offence  was  not  of  so  heinous  a  nature  as  to 
subject  them  to  a  premunire,  which  was  the  point  aimed  at  by  the 
commons.  Mr.  Fuller  has  likewise  remarked,  that  our  prelate  was 
the  last  bishop  who  exerted  the  powers  of  his  eloquence,  to  pre- 
serve to  his  order  their  ancient  right  of  sitting  in  parliament*. 

Not  long  before  the  death  of  Charles  I.  bishop  Warner,  at  the 
command  of  the  king,  wrote  a  treatise  against  the  ordinance  for  the 
sale  of  church  lands,  which  was  printed  in  the  years  1646  and  1648, 
in  quarto  :  and  he  afterwards  published  several  sermons,  at  his  own 
no  small  hazard,  against  the  murder  of  his  sovereign.  +  But  neither 
his  lordship's  learned  arguments,  nor  his  discourses,  availed  any 
thing  at  a  time  when  justice,  equity,  and  reason,  were  obliged  to 
submit  to  force  :  for  he  and  his  brethren  were  despoiled  not  only  of 
their  spiritual  revenues,  but  suffered  in  their  temporal  property,  and 
his  royal  master  fell  a  sacrifice  to  the  merciless  rage  of  some  of  his 
enthusiastic  subjects. 

As  bishop  Warner  was  one  of  the  nine  prelates  who  lived  to  see 
the  re-establishment  of  the  ancient  church  polity,  he  was  of  course 
employed  in  the  Savoy  conference  ;  and  Mr.  Baxter  Mould  insinuate 
that  he  was  rather  indifferent  about  the  points  discussed  in  that  as- 

troy  or  put  out  of  the  way  all  papers  that  might  either  hurt  himself  or  any  body 
else.  Among  the  writings  thus  removed,  it  is  believed  the  original  Magna 
Charta,  passed  by  king  John,  in  the  Mead  near  Staues,  was  one;  which  bishop 
Burnet  says  was  afterwards  found  among  bishop  Warner's  papers,  and  which 
colonel  Lee  presented  to  him:  but  he  adds,  that  of  the  conveyance  there  is  no- 
thing but  conjecture.  Hist,  of  his  own  times,  vol.  1,  p.  32.  See  also  Fuller's 
Church  Hist.  b.  xi.  p.  183. 

*  Church  Hist.  b.  11.  p.  194. 

+  See  Biograph.   Britan.  p.  4159,  &c.  see  likewise  in  this  useful  work  an 
account  of  some  other  learned  performances  of  this  bishop. 

X 


154  HISTORY  or* 

sembly,  for  he  says  he  was  only  once  or  twice  there,  and  never,  a^ 
he  heard,  interfered ;  but  surely  no  unprejudiced  person  can  be  sur- 
prized that  a  clergyman,  who  was  more  than  fourscore  years  of  age,- 
should  not  be  constant  in  his  attendance  on  public  business,  and  not' 
very  forward  to  assume  an  active  part* 

This  prelate,  as  far  as  we  can  discover,  never  held  any  preferment  in 
commendam  with  this  see,  nor  did  he  want  an  additional  benefice, 
since  he  seems  to  have  enjoyed  a  very  ample  fortune,  and  though  he 
made  a  most  excellent  use  of  it,  he  could  not  escape  detraction  from 
those  who  were  enemies  to  his  function :  for  they  accused  him  of 
excessive  covetousness.  Of  the  injustice  and  malice  of  this  imputa- 
tion he  fully  convinced  a  friend,  who  had  freeTy  communicated  to 
him  the  censures  of  the  world,  by  shewing  a  list  of  necessitous 
clergymen  ejected  from  their  preferments,  among  whom  he  had  dis- 
tributed eight  thousand  pounds  *  ;  and  indeed  very  few  instances  are 
to  be  met  with  of  persons  who  have  devoted  such  large  sums  of  money 
to  pious  and  charitable  uses.  He  in  his  life  time  expended  five  hun- 
dred pounds  in  making  and  re-making  as  his  will  expresses  it,  that 
beautiful  and  elegant  font  which  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  nave  of 
Canterbury  cathedral,  and  he  bequeathed  to  that  dean  and  chapter 
five  hundred  pounds  more  to  be  bestowed  in  books  for  their  late 
erected  library  +.  A  gift  and  a  legacy  towards  the  repair  of  his  own 
cathedral  amounted  to  one  thousand  pounds,  and  in  his  will,  he 

*  See  Bishop  Rennet's  life  of  Mr.  Somner,  prefixed  to  that  author's  treatise 
of  Gavelkind,  p.  1 12. 

+  Bishop  Kennet,  in  the  work  before  referred  to,  has  made  a  material  mis^ 
take  with  regard  to  this  last  legacy,  in  asserting  that  it  was  left  to  the  dean 
and  chapter  of  Rochester;  and  the  learned  editor  of  Godwin  de  praesul.  and 
indeed  every  other  person  that  has  taken  notice  of  bishop  Warner's  benefacti- 
ons, copying,  we  suppose,  from  bishop  K.  have  propagated  the  error.  But 
the  words  inserted  in  the  text  are  transcribed  from  the  will.  It  was  requisite 
to  clear  up  this  point,  in  order  to  obviate  any  reflection  that  might  be  cast 
upon  the  governing  members  of  this  church  for  having  but  a  small  collection  of 
books,  though  they  had  received  more  than  a  century  ago  so  large  a  bequest 
for  the  increase  of  their  library. 


ROCHESTEH.  155 

added  fifty  pounds  to  a  former  benefaction  of  the  like  sum  to  the 
church  of  St.  Paul.  He  had  before  his  death  presented  Magdalen 
College,  Oxford,  with  one  thousand  three  hundred  pounds  for  books, 
and  he  left  to  that  society  fifty  pounds  more  to  be  applied  to  the  same 
use.  Four  scholarships,  with  an  allowance  of  twenty  pounds  to 
each,  were  founded  in  Baliol  college,  for  young  persons  born  in  Scot- 
land; and  the  bishop's  design,  in  this  institution,  was,  as  is  suggested 
by  a  learned  writer,  to  preserve  in  North  Britain  a  succession  of 
clergymen  well  affected  to  the  episcopacy  of  the  church  of  England. 
His  lordship  shewed  also  his  regard  to  the  parochial  ministers  of  his 
own  diocese,  by  bequeathing  two  thousand  pounds  for  purchasing 
impropriations  towards  the  augmentation  of  the  smallest  vicarages 
in  it. 

But  the  most  honorable  memorial  entailed  on  the  name  of  bishop 
Warner,  is  his  munificent  foundation  for  the  support  of  twenty 
relicts  of  loyal  and  orthodox  clergymen.  This  prelate  directed  his 
executors  to  raise  out  of  his  personal  estate  a  building  proper  for 
their  reception  and  he  charged  his  manor  of  Swayton  with  an  annual 
payment  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  of  which  sum  every  widow 
twas  to  receive  yearly  twenty  pounds;  and  the  remaining  fifty  pounds 
were  for  a  stipend  to  the  chaplain,  who  was  always  to  be  appointed 
from  his  own  college.  The  bishop  had  also  expressed  a  desire  that 
this  hospital  should  be  fixed  as  near  as  conveniently  might  be  to  the 
cathedral  of  Rochester;  but  there  being  a  necessity  for  applying  to 
the  legislature  for  an  explanation  of  some  parts  of  the  will  which 
were  rather  obscure,  and  of  others  not  quite  practicable,  the  exe- 
cutors obtained  leave  to  build  upon  any  other  spot  within  the  dio- 
cese that  they  thought  proper.  The  only  reason  mentioned  in  the 
act  of  parliament  for  the  alteration,  is,  that  not  any  healthful  or 
convenient  place  could  be  found  for  the  purpose  near  the  cathedral*. 

*  The  person  who  penned  thu  petition  seems,  as  well  as  Erasmus,  to  have 
formed  a  most  tremendous  notion  of  the  unwholesomeness  of  this  piace,  from 
its  vicinity  to  the  sea.  It  is  proper,  therefore,  to  inform  our  readers,  that 
these  prejudices  are  groundless,  and  to  assure  them  that  this  is  a  very  healthy 

;OOt. 


156  HISTORY  OP 

This  hospital  or  aims-house  was  accordingly  built  near  Bromley  in 
Kent,  and  has  ever  since  been  known  by  the  name  of  Bromley 
college.  There  was,  however,  a  defect  (if  that  word  can  be  de- 
cently used  in  the  account  of  so  noble  an  institution)  in  the  bishop's 
original  plan;  for  by  a  clause  of  his  lordship's  will,  so  much  was 
to  be  reserved  out  of  the  widows  exhibitions,  as  woiUd  be  necessary 
to  keep  the  building  in  good  repair,  which  must,  in  general,  have 
been  a  larger  drawback  upon  their  small  income  than  they  could 
well  sustain  ;  the  parliament,  therefore,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
defalcation,  charged,  most  certainly  with  the  consent  and  approba* 
tion  of  the  heir  at  law,  the  said  manor  of  Swayton  with  the  additi- 
onal sum  of  five  pounds  for  repairs  :  and  as  this  fund  was  thought 
to  be  too  scanty  for  the  maintenance  of  so  large  a  building,  lord 
chief  justice  Bridgman,  who  was  an  executor,  immediately  gave  to 
it  two  hundred  pounds,  with  which  the  trustees  purchased  a  fee 
farm  rent  of  ten  pounds  :  but  as  this  revenue  is  very  insufficient  for 
the  purpose,  the  trustees  have  at  times  been  much  embarrassed  how 
to  preserve  the  college  in  a  decent  and  substantial  state,  and  were, 
near  ninety  years  ago,  under  a  necessity  of  soliciting  voluntary 
contributions  towards  it  from  the  clergy  of  the  diocese,  and  of  the 
churches  of  the  peculiar  jurisdiction  of  Shoreham.  The  incumbents 
of  these  parishes  were  more  especially  called  upon  to  defray  this 
expence,  because  their  widows  if  in  want  of  such  a  charity  would 
have  the  preference.  The  kindness  of  benefactors  have,  hitherto, 
made  a  second  application  of  this  nature  needless,  and  in  the  list 
of  those  well-disposed  persons,  Mr.  archdeacon  Plume,  archbishop 
Tenison,  Joseph  Wilcocks,  esq.  the  son  of  the  late  bishop  of  this 
diocese,  and  Mrs.  Wolfe,  the  mother  of  the  truly  heroic  and  patri- 
ptic  general  of  that  name,  ought  not  to  pass  unnoticed.  * 

But?  next  to  the  founder  of  this  charitable  establishment,  the 

*  Mrs.  Street  late  of  Dartford  in  Kent,  bequeathed  three  hundred  pounds  to 
Bromley  College ;  but  the  good  intentions  of  the  testatrix  have  been  unhappily 
defeated  by  her  having,  from  inadvertency,  charged  the  legacy  on  '<  a  real 
gstate," 


ROCHESTER.  157 

widows,  who  are  and  shall  be  elected  to  partake  of  the  fruits  of  it, 
are  more  particularly  indebted  to  that  most  worthy  and  beneficent 
gentleman  the  reverend  Mr.  William  Hetherington,  of  Northcray 
in  this  county  ;  who  not  long  sines  settled  upon  them  a  fund  of  two 
thousand  pounds,  the  interest  of  which  is  to  be  applied  every  winter 
in  providing  them  with  two  articles  of  life  that  are  more  essentially 
necessary  in  that  inclement  and  dark  season  of  the  year. 

A  grateful  regard  to  the  memory  of  bishop  Warner,  and  to  those 
generous  persons  who  have  forwarded  his  laudable  scheme,  prompted 
us  to  lay  before  our  readers  this  circumstantial  account  of  the  cha- 
rity ;  nor  will  we  disown  that  the  hope  of  exciting  others  to  imitate 
their  examples  was  a  motive  for  enlarging  on  this  subject.  The 
inscription  on  the  tomb  of  Walter  de  Merton  implies,  as  has  been 
remarked,  that  the  learned  society  founded  at  Oxford,  by  that  emi- 
nept  ecclesiastic,  was  a  model  of  every  other  college;  and  it  is,  we 
believe,  strictly  true,  that  this  charitable  institution  of  a  prelate, 
who,  at  the  distance  of  almost  four  hundred  years,  succeeded  him 
in  the  same  see,  and  whose  remains  are  deposited  in  the  same  quar- 
ter of  the  church,  was  the  first  of  the  kind  not  only  in  England,  but 
perhaps  in  Europe.  With  a  view  of  encouraging  so  beneficent  a 
design,  the  act  of  parliament  for  settling  the  charitable  uses  devised 
by  bishop  Warner  granted  a  power  to  all  person  or  persons,  &c.  to 
build,  with  the  consent  of  the  trustees,  additional  apartments  to 
Bromley  college,  and  to  allot  lands  for  the  maintenance  of  these 
new  inhabitants,  so  as  that  the  sum  for  each  widow  shall  not  exceed 
twenty  pounds  per  year :  no  increase  has,  indeed,  been  made  in 
consequence  of  this  permission:  but  the  bishop's  plan  has,  however, 
been  followed  in  other  dioceses.  At  Winchester  and  at  Salisbury 
there  are  endowments  of  a  similar  nature,  but  with  a  smaller  allow- 
ance ;  the  one  founded  by  bishop  Morley,  the  other  by  bishop 
Ward. 

The  learned  prelate,  who  is  the  subject  of  this  article,  was  no- 
minal bishop  of  this  see  for  twenty-nine  years;  but  he  was  not 
suffered  to  discharge  the  duties  of  it,  nor  to  receive  its  revenues, 


158  HISTORY   OF 

for  much  the  greater  part  of  that  time.  He  arrived  at  an  advanced 
age,  dying  at  his  palace  at  Bromley,  October  14,  1666,  in  his  86th 
year.  His  lordship  desired  to  have  his  body  interred  in  the  cathe- 
dral of  Rochester,  and  a  grave-stone  to  be  laid  over  his  remains 
with  no  other  inscription  than  *  Hie  jacet  cadaver  Johannis  War- 
neri,  totos  annos  xxix.  episcopi  Roffen.  in  spem  resurrectionis." 
In  this  instance,  however,  and  in  this  only,  his  executors  did  not 
comply  with  his  request.  For,  from  the  most  commendable  mo- 
tives, they  erected  in  Merton  chapel  a  monument  to  his  memory, 
with  an  epitaph  too  long  to  be  here  inserted,  but  which  the  reader 
will  find  in  the  Regist.  RofFen.  and  in  Rawlinson's  Antiquities  of 
this  church.  Bishop  Warner  was  the  only  prelate  from  bishop  Lowe 
to  this  present  time,  who  has  been  buried  in  this  cathedral*. 

*  Of  ninety-three  prelates  raised  to  this  see,  we  cannot  discover  the  names 
of  more  than  twenty-three  whose  remains  are  deposited  in  this  church ;  of  these 
the  monuments  of  four  only  can  be  fixed  with  any  degree  of  certainty,  viz. 
Merton,  Bradfield,  Lowe,  and  Warner.  A  much  fewer  number  in  proportion 
(being  only  three,  viz.  Lowe,  Hilsey,  and  Warner)  have  been  buried  here  for 
the  last  three  hundred  years,  than  in  all  the  time  which  had  before  passed  from 
the  foundation  of  the  church.  This  may  be  attributed  to  the  following  causes  ; 
— that,  during  this  more  early  period,  but  four  were  translated  to  other  bishop- 
ricks,  whereas  from  Lowe  to  Spratt  there  were  only  six  who  died  possessed  of 
this  small  diocese;  that  bishops  Spratt,  Atterbury,  Bradford,  and  Wilcocks, 
holding  the  deanery  of  Westminster,  in  commendam  with  this  see,  they  and 
their  friends  might,  on  that  account,  have  given  a  preference  to  Westminster 
Abbey,  and  that  no  bishop  since  the  reformation,  as  far  as  we  can  learn,  has 
resided  for  any  considerable  time  at  Rochester  or  Hailing,  but  at  Bromley. 
The  same  reason  may  be  assigned  why  no  archbishop  since  cardinal  Pole  has 
been  interred  in  Canterbury  cathedral.  Mr.  Brown  Willis  in  his  survey,  p. 
289,  conjectures  that  the  dean  and  other  dignitaries  of  this  cathedral  have  been 
likewise  buried  elsewhere,  because  he  found  so  very  few  monuments  erected 
to  their  memory  in  this  church:  we  have  not  indeed  grounds  for  believing, 
upon  written  evidence,  that  any  one  dean  was  interred  here,  but  there  is  a 
traditionary  story,  that  the  body  of  Walter  de  Phillips  who  was  the  last  prior 
and  the  first  dean,  lies  in  the  church;  the  place  of  his  sepulture  is  however 
very  doubtful,  the  only  direction  he  gave  by  his  will  relative  to  it,  beimg 
''where  God  should  appoint."    Three  archdeacons  only  appear  to  have  heen 


ROCHESTER.  159 

LXXXIV.  Dr.  John  Dolben  was  elected  bishop  of  this  see 
November  13,  1666,  after  being  confirmed  in  king  Henry  VII'S 
chapel  at  Westminster  November  22d,  was  consecrated  at  Lambeth 
the  25th.  He  was  descended  from  an  ancient  family  in  North 
Wales,  born  at  Stanwick  in  Northamptonshire,  educated  at  West- 
minster school,  and  at  Christ  Church  College  in  Oxford.  The 
parliamentary  visitors  deprived  him  of  his  studentship  in  this  soci- 
ety ;  nor  probably  did  he  expect  any  favor  from  these  pretended 
regulators,  since,  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war,  he  had 
served  as  ensign  in  the  king's  army  at  the  battle  of  Marston-Moor, 
and  had  been  wounded  in  the  defence  of  York ;  for  which  wound 
he  was  obliged  to  keep  his  bed  twelve  months  afterwards. 

He  entered  into  orders  A.  D.  1656,  and  assisted  Mr.  (afterwards 
bishop)  Fell,  in  keeping  the  service  of  the  church  of  England  during 
those  turbulent  and  perilous  times.  When,  king  Charles  II.  re- 
turned, Mr.  Dolbcn's  sufferings  in  the  royal  cause,  and  his  zealous 
attachment  to  the  ecclesiastical  constitution  of  his  country,  met  with 
due  rewards.  He  was  immediately  appointed  clerk  of  the  closet  to 
his  Majesty,  and  installed  canon  of  Christ-church  July  27,  1660. 
On  the  29th  of  April  1661,  he  was  collated  to  the  prebend  of  Ca- 
dington  Major  in  the  church  of  St.  Paul,  and  he  was  one  of  the  per- 
sons who  signed  the  original  book  of  common  prayer  which  pass- 
ed the  convocation  December  20.  the  same  year  ;  and  December  2? 

inferred  in  this  fabric;  Dr.  Tillesley,  who  died  in  1624,  Dr.  Lee  Warner  who 
died  June  12,  1679,  and  Dr.  John  Denne  who  died  August  5,  1767 :  whose  re- 
mains are  deposited  in  the  south  cross  isle  of  the  nave:  but  the  names  of  fifteen 
prebendaries  may  be  traced  who  have  been  buried  here.  It  is  the  less  extra- 
ordinary that  so  few  deans  should  have  been  interred  in  this  church,  because 
half  the  number  who  have  enjoyed  that  preferment,  have  been  advanced  to 
the  episcopal  bench,  11  in  England,  and  1  in  Ireland;  and  Dr.  Balcanquall 
and  Dr.  Turner  were  removed  one  to  the  deanery  of  Durham,  amd  the  other  to 
that  of  Canterbury  :  with  regard  to  the  archdeacons,  it  may  likewise  be  ob~ 
served  that  they  had  no  place  of  residence  allotted  to  them  in  Rochester,  before 
the  year  1637,  when  king  Charles  I.  annexed  a  prebendary  to  that  dignity. 
for  Tillesley  was  seated  in  the  fifth  and  not  the  sixth  stall. 


.  160  HISTORY  OF 

1664  he  was  chosen  prolocutor  of  that  ecclesiastical  assembly. 
Dr.  Dolben  was  admitted  archdeacon  of  London  October  11,  1662, 
and  presented  November  15th  the  same  year  to  the  vicarage  of  St. 
Giles's  Cripplegate,  and  on  the  3d  of  December  following  was  in- 
stalled dean  of  Westminster.  He  was  also  lord  almoner  to  the  king. 
His  parochial  benefices  he  resigned  in  1663  ;  but  held  the  deanery 
in  commenHam  with  the  bishopriek  of  Rochester.  As  dean  of  West- 
minster, he  was  particularly  careful  of  the  fabric  of  that  venerable 
abbey,  and  influenced  the  chapter  to  make  the  support  of  that  build- 
ing an  equal  sharer  with  the  prebendaries  in  their  dividends  of  fines. 

On  the  16,  of  August  1683,  he  was  advanced  to  the  archbishoprick 
of  York  ;  in  which  place  he  had  formerly  behaved  well  as  a  soldier, 
and  now  exerted  himself  as  a  prelate  with  great  spirit  and  industry. 
But  his  labors  were  soon  ended  for  he  died  April  11,  1686,  and,  (as 
it  is  expressed  on  his  epitaph)  "  Eodem  die,  quo,  praeeunte  anno, 
"  sacras  synaxes  in  ecclesia  sua  cathedral!  septimanatim  celebran- 
"  das  instituerat — In  senatu  et  ecclesiis  eloquentiae  gloria,  in  dio- 
"  csesibus  suis  episcopali  diligentia  venerandus."* — It  may  not  be 
improper  to  add  his  character  as  transcribed  from  a  MS.  of  Sir 
William  Trumbull's  own  hand-writing,  now  in  the  possession  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Brook  Bridges  of  Ortingbury  in  Northamptonshire. 

"  He  was  an  extraordinary  comely  person,  though  grown  too 
a  fat — of  an  open  countenance,  a  lively  piercing  eye,  and  a  majes- 
"  tic  presence.— He  hated  flattery;  and  guarded  himself  with  all 
"  possible  care  against  the  least  insinuation  of  any  thing  of  that 
"  nature,  how  well  soever  he  deserved.  He  had  admirable  natural 
"  parts,  and  great  acquired  ones. — For  whatever  he  read,  he  made 
"  his  own,  and  improved  it.  He  had  such  an  happy  genius,  and 
"  such  an  admirable  elocution,  that  his  extempore  preaching  was 
"  beyond  not  only  most  of  other  men's  elaborate  performances, 
"  but  (I  was  going  to  say)  even  his  own.  I  have  been  credibly 
"  informed,  that  in  Westminster  Abby,  a  preacher  falling  ill  after 

*  His  remains  were  interred  in  York  cathedral,  in  which  church  there  is  a 
monument  erected  to  his  memory. 


ROCHESTER.  161 

u  he  had  named  his  text,  and  proposed  the  heads  of  his  intended 
W  discourse,  the  bishop  went  up  into  the  pulpit,  took  the  same  text, 
(i  followed  the  same  method,  and  I  believe  discoursed  much  better 
i(  on  each  head  than  the  other  would  have  done. 

u  In  the  judgment  he  made  of  other  men,  he  always  preferred 
Ci  the  good  temper  of  their  minds  above  all  other  qualities  they 
"  were  masters  of:  And  it  was  this  single  opinion  hehad  of  my  in- 
i(  tegrity,  which  made  him  the  worthiest  friend  to  me  I  ever  knew 
*4  — I  have  had  the  honor  to  converse  with  many  of  the  most  emi- 
11  nent  men  at  home  and  abroad,  but  I  never  yet  met  with  any  one 
a  that  in  all  respects  equalled  him — He  had  a  large  and  generous 
"  soul,  and  a  courage  that  nothing  was  too  hard  for  ;  when  he  was 
te  basely  calumniated,  he  supported  himself  by  the  only  true  heroism , 
il  if  I  may  so  phrase  it,  I  mean  by  exalted  Christianity,  and  by 
*'  turning  all  the  slander  of  his  enemies  into  the  best  use  of  studying 
<(  and  knowing  himself ;  and  keeping  a  constant  guard  and  watch 
**  upon  his  words  and  actions,  practising  ever  after  (though  hardly 
"  to  be  discovered,  unless  by  nice  and  long  observers)  a  strict  course 
a  of  life,  and  a  constant  mortification. 

*  Not  any  of  the  bishops  bench,  I  may  say  not  all  of  them,  had 
"  that  interest  and  authority  in  the  house  of  lords  which  he  had. 
(i  He  had  easily  mastered  all  the  forms  of  proceeding.  He  had  stu- 
(i  died  much  of  our  laws,  especially  those  of  the  parliament,  and  was 
**  not  to  be  brow  beat  or  daunted  by  the  arrogance  or  titles  of  any 
"  courtier  or  favorite.  His  presence  of  mind  and  readiness  of  elocu- 
u  tion,  accompanied  with  good  breeding  and  an  inimitable  wit,  gave 
u  him  a  greater  superiority  than  any  other  lord  could  pretend  to 
"  from  his  dignity  of  office.  I  wish  I  had  a  talent  suitable  to  the 
u  love  and  esteem  I  have  for  this  great  good  man,  to  enlarge  more 
<c  upon  this  subject — and  when  I  think  of  his  death,  I  cannot  for- 
"  bear  dropping  some  tears,  for  myself,  as  well  as  for  the  public. — ■ 
"  For  in  him  we  lost  the  greatest  abilities,  the  usefullest  conversa- 
"  tion,  the  faithfullest  friendship,  and  one  who  had  a  mind  that 
"  practised  the  best  virtues  itself,  and  a  wit  that  was  best  able  to 


162  HISTORY  OF 

"  recommend  them  to  others,  as  Dr.  Spratt  well  expresses  it  in  his 
"  life  of  Mr.  Cowley." 

LXXXV.  Francis  Turner,  D.  D.  was  elected  bishop  of  this  see 
Sept.  15,  1683,  and  consecrated  November  the  11th  following.  He 
•was  the  son  of  Dr.  Thomas  Turner,  successively  dean  of  Rochester 
and  Canterbury  ;  and  having  received  his  education  in  Winchester 
School,  was  elected  from  thence  to  New  College  in  Oxford,  of  which 
society  he  of  course  became  fellow,  and  commenced  A.  B.  April  14, 
1659  ;  A.  M.  January  14  1662,  and  D.  D.  July  6,  1669.  He 
occurs  rector  of  Therfield  in  Herts,  and  was  a  considerable  benefac- 
tor to  that  parish,  but  the  time  of  his  admission  to  it  we  do  not  know. 
December  6,  1669,  he  was  collated  to  the  prebend  of  Sneating  in 
the  church  of  St.  Paul,  and  was  afterwards  a  canon  residentiary  in 
that  cathedral.  Having  regularly  taken  all  his  degrees  at  Oxford, 
it  is  rather  extraordinary  to  find  him  placed  at  the  head  of  a  college 
in  Cambridge,  but  according  to  Le  Neve  he  was  elected  master  of 
St.  John's  College  in  that  university  April  11,  1670.  How  soon  he 
was  made  chaplain  to  James  duke  of  York  does  not  appear,  but  he 
was  long  in  the  family  of  that  prince,  who  had  a  great  esteem  for  him. 
A  cotemporary  historian  mentions  that  his  chief  merit  consisted  in 
having  zealously  opposed  the  scheme  for  excluding  his  royal  master 
from  the  crown.  Bishop  Turner  had  a  dispensation  to  hold  in  com- 
mendam  the  deanery  of  Windsor,  in  which  he  had  been  installed 
but  a  few  months  before  his  election  to  this  see,  as  also  the  rectory 
of  Hasely  in  Oxfordshire,  which  was  then  vacant ;  but  he  possessed 
these  preferments  but  a  very  short  time,being  translated  to  the  bishop- 
rick  of  Ely  August  23,  1684.  He  had  the  honor  of  preaching  at 
the  coronation  of  James  II.  All  his  former  merits  did  not  however 
screen  this  prelate  from  the  resentment  of  his  sovereign,  when  he, 
archbishop  Sancroft,  and  five  more  of  their  brethren,  dared  to  petition 
him,  tho'  in  the  most  humble  manner,  not  to  insist  upon  their  pub- 
lishing a  declaration,  in  which  the  king  had  unwarrantably  assumed 
a  power  of  dispensing  with  the  law  of  the  land.  For  this  pretended 
libel  these  venerable  ecclesiastics  were  imprisoned  and  prosecuted, 


ROCHESTER.  163 

and  would  probably  have  been  sentenced  to  a  severe  punishment, 
had  not  an  upright  and  firm  jury  acquitted  them. 

This  bishop  was  one  of  the  spiritual  lords  who,  after  that  unfor- 
tunate and  bigotted  monarch  had  withdrawn  himself,  signed  with 
many  temporal  peers  an  application  to  the  prince  of  Orange  to 
pursue  his  kind  endeavors  for  the  future  security  of  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  their  countrymen ;  and  he  was  the  only  bishop  who 
attended  the  prince  with  that  address*.  But  when  the  national 
assembly,  which  was  convened  in  compliance  Avith  it,  had  declared 
the  throne  to  be  vacant  by  the  abdication  of  James,  and  had  pre- 
sented the  crown  to  their  glorious  deliverer  and  his  illustrious  con- 
sort, he  refused  to  acknowledge  their  sovereignty,  from  an  empty 
notion  he  had  adopted,  that  there  was  a  divine  and  hereditary  right 
inherent  in,  the  abdicated  monarch;  and  in  the  conference  between 
the  two  bouses  upon  the  use  of  the  term  P  abdicated,"  he  was  one 
who  vehemently  pressed  for  an  alteration  of  it+  :  the  as  absurd 
doctrine  of  non  resistance  and  passive  obedience,  it  is  probable,  he 
did  not  at  that  time  believe]: ;  it  is  at  least  certain,  that  in  another 
instance,  of  his  not  requiring  his  clergy  to  read  the  declaration,  his 
practice  did  not  correspond  with  that  belief. 

Bishop  Burnet,  in  his  sketch  of  the  character  of  our  prelate, 
vouches  for  his  sincerity,  but  pronounces  him  to  have  been  too  de- 
fective in  judgment^.  As  arguments  the  most  clear  and  indisputa- 
ble could  not  rectify  his  misapprehensions  of  the  origin  and  extent 
of  regal  prerogatives,  there  are  very  few  at  present  who  will  not 

*  Echard's  hist.  p.  1130. 

+  See  Rapin's  Hist.  vol.  2.  p.  788.  This  author  has  stated  the  bishop's  rea- 
sons for  giving  a  preference  to  the  word  "deserted,"  and  exposed  the  futility 
of  them. 

JThat  he  had  formerly  adopted  that  idle  ridiculous  notion,  appears,  how- 
ever, from  his  answer  to  the  duke  of  Monmouth,  who  just  before  his  execution 
had  declared  himself  a  protestant  of  the  church  of  England ;  viz,  "  That  to  be 
"  a  member  of  that  church,  he  must  believe  the  doctrine  of  non-re»istance." 
Rapin's  Hist.  vol.  2,  p.  749. 

§  Burnet's  Hist,  of  hU  own  times,  vol.  1,  p.  $90. 


164  HISTORY  OP 

a<*ree  with  the  right  reverend  author,  that  he  was  not  blessed  with 
a  sound  judgment;  but  as  he  suffered  the  loss  of  his  ecclesiastical 
dignity  and  revenue,  from  a  conscientious  regard  to  the  oath  he  had 
taken  to  James,  we  ought  not  to  doubt  of  his  being,  in  this  case,  a 
man  of  integrity.  Upon  a  review,  however,  of  his  conduct  pre* 
vious  to  the  settlement  of  king  William  and  queen  Mary  on  the 
throne,  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  with  it,  unless  upon  the  old  pre- 
judice of  divine  and  indefeasible  right,  his  entering  into  a  corres- 
pondence with  the  exiled  monarch  and  his  queen ;  and  sending  to 
them,  "  from  himself,  his  elder  brother,  and  the  rest  of  the  family, 
"  assurances  full  of  duty  in  words,  with  a  promise  of  shewing  it  by 
"  their  actions.1' 

The  discovery  of  these  treasonable  letters*  gave  king  William  an 
occasion  of  filling  the  vacant  sees  ;  a  step  he  had  declined  taking 
for  more  than  a  year ;  in  hopes  that  the  deprived  bishops  might  be 
prevailed  upon  to  submit  to  the  new  established  government.  Dr. 
Patrick  was  appointed  to  succeed  bishop  Turner.  He  did  not  die  till 
November  2d,  1700,  and  was  buried  at  Therfield  in  Herts.  This 
bishop,  besides  his  coronation  sermon,  which  is  in  print,  published 
eight  other  discourses  on  particular  occasions. 

LXXXVI.  Thomas  Sprat,  D.  D.  was,  immediately  on  the  trans- 
lation of  archbishop  Dolben  to  York  nominated  to  the  deanery  of 
Westminster,  and  became  his  successor  in  this  diocese  within  little 
more  than  twelve  months,  the  see  being  again  vacant  by  the  promo- 
tion of  bishop  Turner.  The  election  was  made  October  7th,  1684, 
and  he  was  consecrated  November  2d  following.  He  is  said  to  have 
been  the  son  of  a  clergyman,  and  to  have  been  born  at  Tallaton  in 
Devonshire.  After  receiving  the  rudiments  of  his  education  in  a 
private  school,  he  was  removed  A.  D.  1651,  to  Wadham  college  in 
Oxford,  of  which  society  he  was  admitted  a  scholar  the  next  year  ; 
and  having  taken  his  degrees  in  arts,  was  chosen  a  fellow  of  the 
same.  When  he  entered  into  deacons  orders  does  not  appear ;  but 
he  was  ordained  priest  by  Dr.  Wren  bishop  of  Ely,  March  10th, 

*  Burnet's  Hist.  vol.  2,  p.  69,  71. 


ROCHESTER,  165 

I660-€l*.  Notwithstanding  the  first  poem  Mr.  Sprat  published, 
was  an  eulogy  to  the  memory  of  that  most  renowned  prince,  as  he- 
styles  him,  Oliver  Cromwell;  he  had  the  address  and  the  good 
fortune  to  ingratiate  himself  with  two  sovereigns,  whose  royal  parent 
had  been  deprived  of  his  crown  and  of  his  life  by  the  object  of  his 
boundless  panegyric,  and  to  obtain  from  both  of  them  preferments 
of  profit  and  dignity.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  duke  of  Bucking, 
ham,  to  whom  he  was  chaplain,  recommended  him  to  the  notice 
of  Charles  II.  and  when  a  person  of  his  ingenuity  and  lively  turn  in 
conversation  had  once  got  a  footing,  he  must  make  his  way  to  ad- 
vantage in  the  court  of  that  witty  and  gay  monarch.  The  same 
brilliant  qualities  could  not  indeed  have  been  equally  serviceable 
under  the  reign  of  his  successor;  but  our  prelate  could  adapt  him- 
self to  the  times  :  and  having  in  several  instances  shewn  a  willing- 
ness to  forward  the  illegal  measures  of  James  JI.  he  was  counte- 
nanced and  rewarded  by  that  prince,  though  possibly  not  in  so 
liberal  a  manner  as  he  might  imagine  his  obsequious  services  had 
merited. 

The  first  ecclesiastical  preferment  Mr.  Sprat  had,  was  the  prebend 
of  Carleton  cum  Thurleby  in  the  church  of  Lincoln,  of  which  he 
took  possession  October  20,  16G0f,  on  the  presentation  of  the  king. 
We  do  not  discover  that  he  ever  had  any  parochial  cure,  except  that 
of  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  to  which  he  was  nominated  by  the 
dean  and  chapter  of  Westminster,  while  one  of  the  prebendaries  of 
that  collegiate  body.  In  this  dignity  he  was  installed  February  22, 
1668J;  as  he  was  January  4,   1680,  canon  of  Windsor§.     These 

*  Rennet's  Register,  vol.  1,  p.  881. 

+  Rennet's  Register,  p.  286.  If  this  author  has  not  made  a  mistake  in  the 
dates  he  has  fixed  for  Mr.  Sprat's  entering  into  priests  orders,  and  for  his  being 
^stalled  a  prebendary  of  Lincoln  cathedral ;  he  could  be  only  a  deacon  wheo 
this  dignity  was  conferred  upon  him. 

t  He  accumulated  the  degrees  of  B.  D.  and  D.  D.  July  3,  1669. 

§  It  was  in  this  year  that  Dr.  Burnet  and  Dr.  Sprat  were  appointed  to 
preach  before  the  mouse  of  commons  on  a  fast  day,  one  in  the  morning,  the 
other  in  the  afternoon.  The  former  had  the  thanks  of  that  house  for  his  dis- 
course;  but  Dr.  Sprat,  having  in  bis  sermon  insinuated  his  fears  of  the  unduti- 
fulnessofthe  commons  to  the  king,  they  were  so  highly  oflendad  that  they 
would  not  pay  him  the  same  compliment. 


166  HISTORY   OF 

preferments  he  quitted  on  his  promotion  to  the  deanery  of  the  for- 
mer church,  September  21,  1683,  which  honorable  post  he  held  in 
commendam  with  the  see  of  Rochester.  He  was,  after  the  acces- 
sion of  king  James  to  the  throne,  first  appointed  his  clerk  of  the 
closet,  and  in  1685  dean  of  the  royal  chapel.  It  is  a  surmise  of 
bishop  Burnet*,  and  no  improbable  one,  that  he  might  flatter  him- 
self he  should  a  third  time  tread  in  the  steps  of  archbishop  Dolben, 
and  that  some  intimations  had  been  thrown  out  that  he  should  like- 
wise succeed  that  prelate  in  York.  But  these  hopes,  if  ever  he 
entertained  them,  were  imaginary ;  unless  he  could  have  digested 
all  the  religious,  as  well  as  political  tenets  of  his  bigotted  sovereign; 
for  the  great  sees,  as  they  became  vacant,  were  kept  so  till  the 
king  could  venture  to  fill  them  with  furious  Roman  catholics,  and 
it  was  imagined  that  he  designed  to  raise  to  this  metropolitlcal  chair 
his  confessor  and  counsellor  father  Petre. 

The  cruel  reflections  cast  by  bishop  Sprat,  in  his  account  of  what 
was  called  the  Rye-house  plot,  on  the  memory  of  William  lord 
Russell,  having  created  that  prelate  many  enemies,  he  found  it  ne- 
cessary to  recant  them  as  publicly ;  and  in  acknowledging  that  he 
was  over  influenced  by  his  superiors  to  insert  what  was  against  his 
judgment,  he  betrayed  his  want  of  spirit.  And  if  at  the  time  he 
wrote  these  strictures  he  was  not  so  well  acquainted  with  his  lord- 
ship's true  character  as  he  was  afterwards,  and  really  lamented  his 
fall,  why  did  he  not  acquire  better  information,  before  he  accused 
that  illustrious  patriot  of  uttering  in  his  last  moments  "  the  most 
enormous  falshoods."  For  Dr.  Tillotson  and  many  other  unexcep- 
tionable witnesses  could  have  assured  him  that  that  young  nobleman 
"  was  a  person  of  great  probity,  and  had  a  constant  abhorrence  of 
"  falshood."+ 

In  the  ecclesiastical  commission,  revived  in  this  reign  for  the 
more  speedy  and  effectual  establishment  of  popery,  our  bishop  acted 
for  more  than  two  years,  and  it  is  universally  agreed  that  he  always 
voted  on  the  milder  side  :  but  on  August  25th,  1688,  he  withdrew 

«  History  of  his  own  times,  vol.  2,  p.  676.      +  Birch's  Life  of  Tillotson,  p.  113- 


ROCHESTER.  167 

from  their  meetings.  The  reason  assigned  by  him  for  this  defection 
was,  that  he  perceived  the  commissioners  were  determined  to  proceed 
against  such  of  the  clergy  as  had  not  complied  with  the  king's  orders, 
in  publishing  the  declaration ;  and  that,  though  he  had  from  con- 
science submitted,  yet  he  would  not  be  instrumental  in  punishing 
those  of  his  brethren  who  had,  from  the  same  principle  disobeyed. 
Many  have,  however,  imagined  that  his  lordship  foresaw  the  ap- 
proaching change,  and  that  this  might  be  his  chief  motive  for  re- 
tiring*. But  as  his  having  ever  accepted  such  an  unwarrantable 
appointment  had  rendered  him  obnoxious,  he  was  again  obliged  to 
aim  at  a  vindication  of  his  conduct.  And  whosoever  peruses  our 
prelate's  second  letter  to  the  earl  of  Dorset,  written  a  little  after  the 
revolution,  must  admit  that  if  the  cause  was  a  bad  one,  the  defence 
of  it  was  plausible,  and  penned  in  a  masterly  manner. 

But  it  was  not  on  this  occasion  alone  that  a  readiness  to  execute 
the*  commands  of  King  James,  when  notified  to  him  under  the  great 
teal,  subjected  bishop  Spratt  to  the  mortification  of  confessing,  that 
he  had  not  paid  a  due  attention  to  the  legality  of  what  was  required 
of  him.  An  instance  of  his  being  rather  too  precipitate  occurs  in 
the  history  of  this  church.  The  deanery  being  vacant  by  the  death 
of  Dr.  Castilion,  the  king  nominated  for  his  successor  Mr.  Simon 
Lowth,  a  clergyman  of  the  diocese  of  Canterbury,  for  whom  his 
majesty  had  a  great  regard  on  account  of  his  loyalty,  and  the  high 
notions  he  had  adopted  of  the  power  and  dignity  of  the  church. 
The  letters  patent  were  passed  very  expeditiously ;  and  though  it 
was  not  specified  in  them  that  Mr.  Lowth  was  a  graduate,  the  bi- 
shop, upon  receiving  from  him  what  he  judged  a  sufficient  proof  of  his 
being  a  master  of  arts,  hastily  instituted  him,  and  issued  a  mandate 
for  his  induction,  though,  as  was  shown  in  a  former  page,  the  sta- 
tutes of  this  body  expressly  assert,  that  the  dean  must  be  at  least  a 
bachelor  of  divinity.  Some  days  after,  the  bishop  discovering  the  mis- 
take, into  which  he  said  he  had  been  drawn  from  knowing  that  the 
degree  of  a  master  of  arts  was  all  that  was  required  to  qualify  a  person 

*  Echard's  Hist,  of  England,  p.  1100. 


168  history  or 

to  be  dean  of  Westminster,  wrote  a  pressing  letter  to  the  chapter  clerk, 
directing  him,  as  privately  as  possible,  to  request  the  prebendary 
in  residence  not  to  give  Mr.  Lowth  possession  under  the  instruments 
he  would  bring  with  him*  And  when  his  lordship  found  that  that 
clergyman  insisted  upon  being  installed,  he  recalled  and  annulled 
the  institution,  and,  in  the  most  solemn  maimer,  intreated  the  dean 
and  chapter  with  all  brotherly  charity  to  have  such  a  tender  regard 
to  their  own  oaths  and  his,  as  not  to  receive  Mr.  Lowth  till  he  was 
duly  qualified**  This  revocation  and  prayer  were  executed  in  the 
most  formal  manner  November  28,  1688;  and  from  the  date  of 
them,  viz.  two  days  after  the  king's  returning  from  Salisbury,  on 
finding  that  those  whom  he  took  for  his  friends  had  deserted  to  the 
prince  of  Orange^  and  the  very  day  on  which  writs  were  issued  for 
calling  a  new  parliament;  it  is  not  difficult  to  assign  a  reason  for 
the  bishop's  solicitude  and  earnestness  in  this  matter. 

About  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1692,  his  lordship  and  several 
other  persons  were  charged  with  treason  by  three  men,  who  had 
forged  an  association  under  their  hands ;  one  of  these  desperate  vil- 
lains had  artfully  contrived  to  drop  this  pretended  association  in  a 
flower  pot,  in  one  of  the  parlours  of  the  bishop's  house,  that  it 
might  be  found  by  the  king's  messengers.  He  then  laid  an  infor- 
mation against  his  lordship;  and  the  paper  being  discovered,  he  was 
put  under  confinement.  But  when  the  matter  was  examined,  the 
forgery  appeared  so  gross,  that  the  bishop  was  immediately  dis- 
charged. 

This  prelate  died  of  an  apoplexy  at  his  palace  of  Bromley,  May 
20,  1713,  and  was  interred  in  Westminster  Abbey,  where  there  is 
a  monument  erected  with  an  inscription  very  favorable  to  his  me- 
mory, written  by  bishop  Smalridge.  But  bishop  Burnet  has  sketched 
his  character  in  these  few  words  t:    u  His  parts  were  very  bright  in 

*  Mr.  Birch  in  his  life  of  archbishop  Tillotson,  p.  63,  says,  that  Mr.  Lowth, 
Could  not  obtain  possession,  for  want  of  the  degree  of  doctor  of  divinity,  but 
Mr.  A.  Wood,  to  whose  Fasti  Oxon.  he  refers,  was  misinformed* 

+  History  of  his  own  times,  vol,  2,  p.  629, 


ROCHESTER.  169 

a  his  youth,  and  gave  great  hopes  ;  but  were  blasted  by  a  lazy  li- 
"  bertine  course,  to  which  his  temper  and  good  nature  carried  him, 
"  without  considering  the  duties,  or  even  the  decencies  of  his  pro- 
"  fession."  Such  is  the  character  given  of  him  by  Burnet ;  but 
Burnet  and  he,  as  Dr.  Johnson  observes,  were  old  rivals*.  He 
certainly  was  a  person  of  great  sharpness  of  wit,  and  in  elegance  of 
style  both  in  his  writings  and  discourse  inferior  to  none.  At  first 
he  cultivated  the  muses,  but  left  them  to  study  and  improve  the 
beauties  of  the  English  language,  of  which  he  became  one  of  the 
greatest  masters,  as  his  works  sufficiently  prove.  As  a  poet  he 
does  not  rank  very  high.  a  Besides  a  few  poems  his  works  are, — 
"  The  History  of  the  Royal  Society, — The  Life  of  Cowley, — The 
u  Answer  to  Sorbiere, — The  History  of  the  Rye-house  Plot, — The 
"  Relation  of  his  own  Examination, — and  a  volume  of  Sermons. 
a  It  has  been  observed,  with  great  justness,  that  every  book  is  of 
"  a  different  kind,  and  that  each  has  its  distinct  and  characteristic 
"  excellence+." 

LXXXVII.  Francis  Atterbury,  D.  D.  succeeded  Dr.  Sprat  in 
this  see,  being  elected  June  24th,  confirmed  July  4th,  and  con- 
secrated the  following  day  A.  D.  1713.  He  was  a  younger  son  of 
Dr.  Lewis  Atterbury,  rector  of  Middleton,  or  Milton  Keynes,  in 
Bucks,  and  was  born  in  that  pariah.  From  Westminster  school, 
where  he  had  the  first  part  of  his  education,  he  was  elected  to  Christ 
Church  in  Oxford,  in  the  year  1680  ;  and  while  a  member  of  this 
learned  society,  he  had  the  honor  of  being  tutor  to  that  accomplished 
young  nobleman  Mr.  Charles  Boyle,  afterwards  earl  of  Orrery  ; 
and  he  is  generally  thought  to  have  given  great  assistance  to  his  pupil 
in  the  well-known  controversy  with  Dr.  Bentley  concerning  the 
genuineness  of  Phalaris's  epistles.  Mr.  Atterbury  commenced 
A.  M.  1687  ;  and  in  that  year  he  distinguished  himself  as  an  able 
and  strenuous  advocate  for  the  protestant  religion,  by  publishing  an 
answer  to*  some  considerations  on  the  spirit  of  Martin  Luther,  and 

*  Lives  of  the  Poets,  vol.  2,  p.  274.  t  Ibid.  p.  275. 

+  The  considerations  on  "  The  spirit  of  Martin  Luther,  &c."  were  published 
under  the  name  of  Mr.  Abraham  Woodhead,  an  eminent  papist  of  those  times ; 

Z 


170  HISTORY  OF 

the  original  of  a  the  reformation."  An  academic  life,  from  its 
want  of  variety,  must  have  been  irksome  and  insipid  to  a  person  of 
his  active  and  aspiring  temper;  and  it  accordingly  appears  from  a 
letter  to  his  father,  dated  October  24th,  1690,  "  that  he  repined  at 
"  his  hard  luck,  to  be  pinned  down  to  a  nauseous  circle  of  small 
"  affairs,  that  could  neither  divert  nor  instruct  him,  when  he  was 
"  sure  that  he  was  made  for  another  scene  and  another  sort  of  con- 
((  versation."  He  continued,  however,  at  the  university  till  after 
the  death  of  his  father,  which  happened  in  1693,  when  having  been 
unsuccessful  in  his  attempt  to  succeed  him  as  rector  of  Milton,  which, 
in  his  application  to  the  earl  of  Nottingham  the  patron,  he  pretended 
was  the  utmost  of  his  ambition  and  his  wishes,  he  resolved  to  push 
his  fortune  by  coming  up  to  London.  It  was  hardly  probable  that 
a  clergyman  of  his  fine  genius,  improved  by  study,  with  a  spirit  to 
exert  his  talents,  should  remain  long  unnoticed  ;  and  we  find  that 
he  was  soon  appointed  chaplain  to  King  William  and  Queen  Mary. 
He  was,  likewise,  presently  after  his  settling  in  town,  elected 
preacher  at  Bridewell,  and  lecturer  of  St.  Bride's,  which  last  office 
he  resigned  in  December  1698.  Mr.  Atterbury  was  collated  to  the 
archdeaconry  of  Totness  January  29th,  1700,  by  Sir  John  Trelaw- 
ney,  bishop  of  Exeter  ;  and  in  1707  was  appointed,  by  the  same, 
canon  residentiary  in  that  church.  He  intimates,  in  his  dedication 
to  that  prelate,  prefixed  to  the  first  volume  of  his  sermons,  that 
these  favors  were  bestowed  upon  him  for  his  honest  endeavours  to 
retrieve  the  synodical  rights  of  the  clergy :  And  it  was  for  u  his 
"  happily  asserting  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  English  convoca- 
"  tion,"  as  the  vote  of  the  university  expresses  it,  that  that  learned 
body  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  doctor  of  divinity  by  diplo- 
ma, without  doing  exercise,  or  paying  fees. 

Upon  the  accession  of  Queen  Anne,  A.  D.  1702,  he  was  appoint- 
ed  her  chaplain,   installed  dean  of  Carlisle,  October  4th,  1704, 

who  wrote  several  tracts  in  defence  of  the  church  of  Rome :  but  the  true  au- 
thor was  Mr.  Obadiah  Walker,  master  of  university  college,  &c.  See  Biogr'. 
Brit.  vol.  I,  p.  265. 


ROCHESTER.  171 

made  preacher  of  the  Rolls  in  1709,  and  chosen  prolocutor  of  the 
lower  house  of  convocation  November  25th,  1710.  As  he  was  a 
determined  and  a  virulent  tory,  he  had  no  prospect  of  rising  higher 
in  his  profession  while  the  queen  was  under  the  influence  of  the 
whig  administration ;  but  upon  their  being  supplanted,  his  merits 
with  Mr.  Harley,  the  leader  of  the  opposite  party,  procured  for  him 
first  the  deanery  of  Christ-Church,  into  which  preferment  he  was 
admitted  August  27,  1711:  and  he  was  by  the  same  interest  seated 
on  the  episcopal  bench,  and  had,  as  well  as  his  predecessor,  leave 
to  hold  in  commendam  with  this  bishoprick  the  deanery  of  West- 
minster. Very  pertinent  is  the  remark  made  by  Dr.  Burnet*,  that 
he  was  thus  promoted  and  rewarded  for  all  the  flames  "  he  had 
u  raised  in  our  church."  The  author  of  the  memoirs  of  this  prelatet 
taking  notice  of  the  contention  excited  in  Christ  Church  by  the  im- 
perious anA  despotic  government  of  Dean  Atterbury,  and  of  its 
being  thought  advisable  to  remove  him  in  order  to  restore  tranquil- 
lity to  that  society,  justly  observes,"  that  this  was  a  new  method 
*'  of  obtaining  preferment,  by  indulging  such  a  temper  as  least  of 
"  all  deserved  it." 

But  so  highly  was  bishop  Atterbury  esteemed  by  the  queen,  and 
by  the  most  obnoxious  of  that  faction,  whom  the  author  |  of  the 
last  history  of  England,  not  much  to  the  honor  of  the  illustrious 
personage  he  intended  to  compliment,  is  pleased  to  style  her  favorite 
ministry,  thajt  it  was  generally  imagined  our  prelate  would  have 
been  translated  to  the  see  of  Canterbury,  had  a  vacancy  happened 
before  the  demise  of  her  majesty  ;  but  that  event  proved  fatal  to  his 
ambitious  views.  And  from  the  marks  of  personal  disrespect 
shewn  to  him  by  the  successor  of  his  royal  mistress,  the  bishop  was 
himself  very  sensible,  that  his  hopes  of  promotion  from  that  quarter 
were  groundless.  Stung  therefore  by  his  disappointment,  he  re- 
fused to  set  his  hand  to  a  declaration  that  had  been  signed  by  all 
his  brethren,  except  one,  testifying  their  abhorrence  of  a  rebellion  ex-. 

*  History  of  his  own  times,  vol.  2,  p.  630.  +  Stackhouse,  p.  &?„ 

I  Dr.  Goldsmith,  vol.  4,  p.  187. 


1 72  HISTORY  OF 

cited  to  support  the  claim  of  a  popish  pretender  to  the  crown  ;  and, 
what  was  almost  as  extraordinary  in  aprotestant  prelate,  he  suspend- 
ed for  three  years  a  very  ingenious,  learned,  and  worthy  clergyman, 
Mr.  Gibbin,  curate  of  Gravesend,  for  having  accommodated  the  Dutch 
troops,  who  were  brought  over  to  quell  this  intestine  commotion, 
with  the  use  of  that  church,  at  an  early  hour,  when  their  service 
could  not  interfere  with  that  of  the  parishioners. 

Resentment  stimulated  the  bishop  to  oppose  constantly  in  the 
house  of  peers  the  measures  of  the  court,  and  some  of  the  most 
violent  and  rancorous  protests  were  drawn  by  him.  His  abilities, 
with  an  unceasing  assiduity,  must  have  rendered  him  a  very  trouble- 
some antagonist  to  the  ministers*  ;  but  at  length  he  gave  them  an 
opportunity  of  retaliating  fully  the  trouble  he  had  occasioned,  by 
engaging  in  a  treasonable  correspondence  with  the  adherents  to  the 
pretender.  Though  the  caution  used  by  his  lordship  could  not  se- 
cure him  from  being  detected,  it  prevented  the  ministers  obtaining 
sufficient  evidence  to  convict  him  capitally  :  and  as  they  could  not, 
by  any  law  in  force,  inflict  such  punishment  upon  him  as  his  crimes 
deserved,  there  was  a  special  law  enacted  to  depriye  him  of  his  pre- 
ferments and  to  sentence  him  to  perpetual  banishment.  The  bill 
began  in  the  lower  house,  and  was  passed  there  by  a  great  majority. 
Leave  was  given  to  the  bishop  to  justify  himself  if  he  could,  to  the 
commons  ;  which  permission  he  would  not'  accept.  However,  af- 
ter being  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  from  the  24th  of  August  1722, 
to  the  6th  of  May  in  the  following  year  (that  being  the  day  appoint- 
ed for  the  first  reading  of  the  bill  in  the  house  of  peers)  he  was 
brought  to  their  lordships  bar  in  order  to  make  his  defence  ;  and  he 

*  It  is  believed  that  pains  were  taken  to  conciliate  him,  and  that  Mr.  Wal- 
pole  expostulated  with  him  in  a  friendly  manner,  thus :— "  Why  do  not  you 
"  restrain  yourself  in  the  house?"  "  I  cannot." — "  Then  why  not  stay  away  ?" 
"  I  have  no  excuse."' — "Yes,  my  lord,  say  you  have  got  thegout.''  "  I  cannot." 
"  You  may,  I  often  do.  Be  quiet,  and  I  engage  to  give  you  privately  5000/. 
"  per  annum,  to  which  you  shall  succeed  till  Westminster  falls."  This  good 
advice  and  generous  intention  were  rejected,  and  Walpole  in  revenge  ruined 
a  man  whom  he  admired.    The  means,  however,  were  despicable. 


ROCHESTER.  173 

did  not  fail  to  exert  all  his  powers  of  eloquence  (and  very  great  they 
were)  with  which  he  was  endowed,  in  attempting  to  exculpate  him- 
self from  the  heavy  offence  laid  to  his  charge.  He  had  likewise,  a- 
mong  his  judges,  many  zealous  and  able  friends  :  some  possibly 
from  an  affection  to  the  cause  in  which  the  prelate  had  engaged, 
and  many  more  from  an  unwillingness  to  see  a  precedent  established 
which  they  apprehended  might  be  of  dangerous  consequence.  The 
nation  looked  upon  Atterbury  as  their  martyr,  and  he  received 
more  homage  in  the  tower  than  was  often  paid  to  the  throne.  Pub- 
lic prayers,  it  is  said,  were  offered  up  for  his  safety  in  some  of  the 
churches  in  London  and  Westminster,  and  a  print  Mas  published 
exhibiting  him  with  a  portrait  of  archbishop  Laud  in  his  hand,  which 
termed  him 

"a  second  Laud, 
"  Whose  christian  courage  nothing  fears  but  God." 

And  Pope,  who  idolized,  has  thus  apostrophized  him  : — 

"  How  pleasing  Atterbury's  softer  hour, 

"  How  shines  his  soul  unconquer'd  in  the  tower." 

But  we  are  inclined  to  believe  that  there  were  very  few,  if  any, 
who,  after  the  proof  offered  by  the  intercepted  letters,  though 
written  in  a  cypher,  with  many  other  corroborating  circumstances, 
were  really  persuaded  of  his  being  falsely  accused  of  the  fact  imputed 
to  him.  The  bill  passed  the  house  of  lords  on  the  10th  of  May  by 
a  majority  of  eighty-three  to  forty-three,  and  on  the  27th  of  the 
same  month  received  the  royal   assent*.  .  The  bishop  embarked  on 

*  Dr.  Goldsmith,  in  his  History  of  England,  vol.  4,  p.  245,  observes,  that 
a  noble  lord,  who  patronized  the  cause  of  the  right  reverend  prisoner,  turning 
to  the  episcopal  bench,  said,  "  he  could  hardly  account  for  the  inveterate  ha- 
M  tred  and  malice  which  some  persons  bore  to  the  ingenious  bishop  of  Roches- 
*'  ter,  unless  it  was,  that,  infatuated  like  the  wild  Americans,  they  fondly 
"  hoped  to  inherit  not  only  the  spoils,  but  even  the  abilities  of  the  man  they 
"  should  destroy."  To  pass  by  this  quaint  allusion,  the  bishops  surely  merited 
praise  rather  than  censure  for  joining  heartily  with  a  majority  of  the  temporal 


174  HISTORY   OF 

board  the  Aldborough  man  of  war  June  18,  1723,  and  landed  the 
Friday  following  at  Calais.  When  he  went  on  shore,  having  been 
informed  that  lord  Bolingbroke,  who  had,  after  the  rising  of  the 
parliament,  received  the  king's  pardon,  was  arrived  at  the  same 
place  in  his  return  to  England,  he  said,  with  an  air  of  pleasantry, 
"  Then  I  am  exchanged  :"  and  it  was  in  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Pope 
upon  the  same  occasion,  "  a  sign  of  the  nation's  being  cursedly 
"  afraid  of  being  over-run  with  too  much  politeness,  when  it  could 
"  not  regain  one  great  genius,  but  at  the  expence  of  another."  It 
would  require  a  nice  judgment  to  determine  whether  the  nation  was 
in  a  political  view  benefited  by  this  exchange ;  but  if  the  question 
be  considered  in  a  literary  or  religious  view,  the  balance  was,  by 
the  return  of  the  noble  lord,  greatly  against  us.  The  prelate  was 
little  inferior  to  the  peer  with  respect  to  abilities,  and  certainly  su- 
perior to  him  in  learning ;  and,  except  when  he  deviated  into  sub- 
jects foreign  to  his  profession,  he  rarely  converted  his  natural  and 
acquired  knowledge  to  an  improper  use,  and  very  frequently  em- 
ployed his  masterly  pen  in  vindicating  the  doctrines  and  enforcing 
the  practice  of  the  duties  of  Christianity.  But  a  very  ingenious 
writer  *  has  remarked,  "  the  temporal  happiness  and  the  civil  liber- 
u  ties  and  properties  of  Europe,  having  been  the  game  of  the  earliest 
44  youth  of  lord  Bolingbroke,  no  sport,  as  it  should  seem,  could  be 
"  more  adequate  to  the  entertainment  of  his  advanced  age,  than  the 
M  eternal  and  final  happiness  of  mankind."  Our  prelate's  extraor- 
dinary talent  as  a  preacher  will  appear  to  the  greatest  advantage 

peers,  in  fixing  a  public  mark  of  infamy  on  a  prelate  who  was  a  disgrace  to  his 
order;  and  the  insinuation  of  their  being  biassed  by  any  such  lucrative  and 
mean  motives  as  were  there  suggested,  was  groundless ;  for  only  one  was  to 
be  benefited  by  the  deprivation  of  bishop  Atterbury  ;  and  that  one  having  had 
reason  to  believe  that  he  should  be  translated  to  the  first  see  that  became  va- 
cant, which  was  more  convenient  than  that  he  enjoyed,  in  order  to  guard 
against  such  an  aspersion,  absented  himself  from  the  house  of  lords  on  every 
day  that  the  question  concerning  the  fate  of  that  unfortunate  prelate  was 
discussed. 

*  Mr.  Henry  Fielding. 


ROCHESTER,  ]  75 

from  the  just  encomium  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  author  of  the 
Tatler,  vol.  2,  No.  66,  which  we  need  not  recite,  because  the  book 
is  so  generally  read.  "  He  is  deservedly  accounted,"  says  Dr. 
Blair,*  "  one  of  the  most  eloquent  writers  of  sermons.  His  style 
'f  is  neat  and  chaste,  and  more  beautiful  than  that  of  most  writers 
(i  of  sermons.  In  his  sentiments,  he  is  not  only  rational,  but  pious 
w  and  devotional,  which  is  a  great  excellency."  The  abilities  of 
bishop  Atterbury  were  certainly  of  the  most  splendid  description, 
and  blazed  forth  at  a  very  early  age,  which  is  proved  by  his  Latin 
version  of  Dryden's  Absolom  and  Achitophel,  and  a  translation  of 
some  of  the  odes  of  Horace.  His  vindication  of  Luther,  already 
mentioned,  written  when  only  21  years  of  age,  evinced  his  powers 
as  a  controversialist. 

Bishop  Atterbury,  while  in  exile,  resided  principally  at  Paris* 
and  died  in  that  city  17th  of  February  1731-2.  His  body  was 
brought  over  to  England,  and  interred  very  privately  in  Westmin- 
ster Abbey  the  12th  of  May  following.  Upon  the  urn,  which  con- 
tained his  bowels,  was  inscribed  •'  in  hac  urna  depositi  sunt  cineres 
"  Francisci  Atterbury,  Episcopi  Roffensis."  But  there  is  no  me- 
morial over  his  grave;  nor  could  there  well  be  any,  unless  his 
friends  would  have  consented  (which  it  is  most  probable  they  refus- 
ed to  do)  that  the  words  implying  him  to  have  died  bishop  of  Ro- 
chester, should  have  been  omitted  on  his  tomb.  He  was  buried  ia 
a  vault  which  in  the  year  1722  had  been  prepared  by  his  direction. 
For  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Pope  dated  April  6th,  he  writes  as  follows : 
"  I  am  this  moment  building  a  vault  in  the  abbey  for  me  and  mine. 
"  I  am  to  be  in  the  abbey,  because  of  my  relation  to  the  place; 
u  but  'tis  at  the  west  door  of  it;  as  far  from  Kings  and  Caesars  as 
,iC  the  space  will  admit  of."  It  is  perhaps  impossible  not  to  condemn 
his  conduct,  though  the  ministry  of  that  time  were  thought  to  have 
acted  towards  him  with  unnecessary  rigour ;  and  their  indecency  to 
the  remains  of  departed  greatness,  in  arresting  the  progress  of  his 
corpse,  opening  the  coSin,  and  treating  it  with  all  possible  irreve- 

*  Blair's  Lect.  vol.  2,  p.  309. 


1  76  IIISTORY  OP 

rence,  by  the  agency  of  custom-house  officers,  under  the  pretence 
of  searching  for  contraband  French  brocades,  and  Flanders  lace^ 
cannot  be  defended. 

LXXXVIII.  Dr.  Samuel  Bradford,  the  subject  of  the  following 
memoir,  was,  oti  the  deprivation  of  the  last  bishop,  translated  from 
the  diocese  of  Carlisle  to  that  of  Rochester.  He  was  elected  June 
22,  1723,  and  held  in  commendam*,  with  this  see,  the  deanery  of 
Westminster.  This  learned  and  amiable  divine  was  the  son  of  a> 
citizen  of  London,  and  born  in  the  parish  of  St.  Ann,  Black-friars, 
December  20,  1652.;  He  went  first  to  St.  Paul's  school,  and  there 
likewise  completed  that  part  of  his  education ;  but  some  of  the 
intermediate  time  he  passed  at  the  Charter-house,  during  the  plague, 
and  till  the  former  school  which  had  been  burnt  down  in  the  great 
fire  of  London  was  rebuilt.  Mr.  Bradford  was  admitted  a  member 
of  Benet  college,  in  Cambridge,  A.  D.  1669;  he,  however,  quitted 
that  university  without  taking  a  degree,  having  some  scruples  with 
respect  to  the  subscriptions,  oaths,  arid  declarations  required  upon 
that  occasion.  Being  unwilling,  from  the  same  conscientious  mo- 
tives, to  enter  into  holy  orders,  he,  upon  his  return  home,  followed 
his  studies  with  a  view  to  the  profession  of  physic  j  but  this  pursuit 
he  soon  relinquished,  and  closely  applied  his  thoughts  and  literary 
labors  to  that  of  divinity,  a  branch  of  knowledge  which  was  much 
more  adapted  to  his  natural  inclination.  And  having,  by  a  careful 
and  assiduous  examination  of  the  scriptures,  and  a  free  conversation 
with  some  of  the  best  and  most  skilful  clergymen  of  the  age,  removed 
those  scruples  which  had  perplexed  his  mind,  he  procured,  by  means 
of  archbishop  Saucroft,  a  royal  mandate  for  the  degree  of  master  of 
arts.  But  being  diffident  how  far  he  might  have  resolution  to  exe- 
cute the  ministerial  office  with  fidelity,  in  that  season  of  trial  which 
seemed  to  be  approaching,  he  declined  engaging  in  it,  and  rather 
chose  to  undertake  the  charge  of  a  private  tutor  in  gentlemen's  fami- 
lies. He  resided  usually  in  the  country  ;  but  whenever  he  was  in 
town,  he  kept  up  his  acquaintance  with  the  city  clergy,  and  made 
one  in  their  private  meetings  for  carrying  on  the  controversy  against 
popery. 


ROCHESTER.  \fj 

After  the  revolution,  Mr.  Bradford  being  strongly  pressed  to  en- 
ter into  orders  by  many  persons  who  knew  him  to  be  well  qualified 
for  the  sacred  function,  he  consented,  and  was  admitted  by  bishop 
Compton  deacon  in  June,  and  priest  in  October,  1690.  In  the  be- 
ginning of  the  following  year,  the  governors  of  St.  Thomas's  Hos- 
pital in  Southwark,  nominated  him  to  be  minister  of  the  church 
belonging  to  that  charitable  foundation.  He  was  recommended  to 
these  gentlemen  by  Dr.  Tillotson,  then  dean  of  Canterbury,  and 
twelve  other  eminent  divines*,  as  a  person  of  great  abilities  and 
learning,  an  excellent  preacher,  a  man  of  a  very  sober,  pious,  and 
prudent  conversation,  and  in  all  things  conformable  to  the  church 
of  England.  Archbishop  Tillotson,  soon  after  Mr.  Bradford's  set- 
tling in  Southwark,  entrusted  him  with  the  education  of  two  grand- 
sons, and  the  rectory  of  St.  Mary  le  Bow  falling  vacant,  his  Grace 
collated  him  to  it  November  21,  1693. 

Mr.  Bradford  was  successively  chaplain  to  king  William  and 
queen  Ann.  To  the  former  he  was  appointed  A.  D.  1698,  and  he 
was  nominated  in  the  next  year  preacher  of  the  lecture  founded  by 
the  truly  honorable  Mr.  Robert  Boyle.  The  excellent  discourses 
delivered  by  him  upon  this  occasion  being  in  print,  it  is  needless  to 
expatiate  on  the  merits  of  them.  They  have  indeed  ever  received 
applause  from  the  learned  and  judicious  part  of  mankind  ;  and  it 
Ought  not  to  pass  unnoticed,  that  when  archbishop  Tenison,  renew- 
ed the  deed  of  this  wise  and  religious  institution,  Dr.  Bradford  was 
named  for  a  trustee ;  his  grace  plainly  shewing,  by  this  mark  of 
distinction,  that  he  thought  the  person,  who  had  by  his  sermons  so 
well  fulfilled  the  intentions  of  the  generous  donor,  ought  to  be  in- 


*  Viz.  William  Asaph  (Lloyd);  Edward  Wygorn  (Stillingfleet);  Edward 
Fowler  (afterwards  bishop  of  Gloucester);  Richard  Kidder,  dean  of  Peterbo- 
rough (afterwards  bishop,  of  Bath  and  Wells);  Thomas  Williams  (afterwards 
bishop  of  Chichester);  Charles  Alston  D.  D.  Samuel  Barton  B.  D.  Samuel 
Freeman  D.  D.  (afterwards  dean  of  Peterborough);  S.  Masters  B.  D.  J.  Sharp 
D.  D.  (afterwards  archbishop  of  York);  Thomas  Tenison  D.  D.  (afterwards 
archbishop  of  Canterbury);  William  Stanley  D.  D.  (afterwards  dean  of  Stj 
Asaph.) 

2  A 


1  fS  itisf  orV  or 

Tested  with  a  power  ofdeciding  on  the  qualifications,  and  of  reward- 
ing the  endeavours,  of  those  who  should  be  appointed  to  carry  on' 
tho  same  admirable  design.  Another  instance  which  may  be  offer- 
ed of  the  opinion  entertained  of  hisjudgment  in  pulpit  compositions, 
was,  his  being  fixed  upon  to  revise  and  correct  some  of  the  posthu- 
mous sermons  of  archbishop  Tillotson  ;  an  employment  he  must 
have  undertaken  with  a  melancholy  kind  of  pleasure  ;  concerned  on 
reflecting  that  the  world  was  deprived  of  the  most  reverend  author  ^ 
before  he  had  time  to  give  the  finishing  stroke  of  his  masterly  pen 
to  productions  so  well  calculated  to  instruct  and  reform  ;  yet  happy 
in  being  permitted  to  pay  this  tribute  of  respect  to  his  friend  and 
patron,  whom  he  esteemed  and  admired  while  living,  and  whose 
memory  he  always  reverenced. 

Queen  Ann  visiting  the  university  of  Cambridge  in  the  year  1705  : 
he  had  the  honor  of  being  created  doctor  in  divinity  with  docto? 
Fleetwood,  afterwards  bishop  of  Ely,  and  several  other  clergymen. 
A  prebend  of  Westminster  was  conferred  on  him  A.  D.  1707,  and 
so  early  as  the  year  1710  he  was  named  to,  and  accepted  by  her 
majesty,  for  the  bishoprick  of  St.  David's.  An  intimation  was  given 
to  him,  and  in  words  which  were  construed  to  imply  a  promise,  that 
he  should  be  permitted  to  hold  his  prebend  in  commendam  with 
this  see ;  but  upon  the  change  of  the  ministry,  which  soon  followed 
the  trial  of  Dr.  Sacheverel,  this  indulgence  was  refused,  and  he  was 
not  even  allowed  to  keep  the  rectory  of  Bow.  The  circumstances, 
therefore,  of  his  family  made  it  requisite  for  him  to  decline  that 
seat  upon  the  episcopal  bench.  It  seems  to  be  no  improbable  con- 
jecture, that  the  uniform  attachment  Dr.  Bradford  had  constantly 
shewn  to  the  principles  on  which  the  revolution  was  established, 
and  to  the  interests  of  the  illustrious  house  of  Hanover,  was  the 
great  bar  to  his  promotion  at  that  time.  His  repulse  was,  however, 
a  disappointment  and  a  mortification  to  his  friends,  and  not  to  him- 
self ;  for,  entirely  satisfied  with  the  preferments  he  then  enjoyed, 
he  sought  not  an  higher  station,  though  his  merit  and  his  interest 
with  those  in  power  not  long  after  raised  him  to  it. 


ROCHESTER.  •      179 

In  May  1716  he  was  elected  master  of  Benet  College,  and  in-X/// 
April  1718  our  prelate  was  advanced  to  the  bishoprick  of  Carlisle 
The  latter  dignity  was  vacant   of  course  on   his  translation   fee 
diocese  of  Rochester,  and  the  former  office  he  resigned  with 
more  than  a  year  after  that  event.     This  bishop  died  at  the  deanery 
house  of  Westminster  May  17,  1731,  and  his  remains  are  deposited 
in  that  abbey.     On  the  west  wall  of  the  north  cross  of  the  church, 
not  far  from  the  place  of  his   interment,  is  a  monument   erected  to 
his  memory,  with  an  inscription  justly  expressive  of  his  character,  as 
many  persons  who  had  the  happiness  of  his  acquaintance  have  fre- 
quently acknowledged.     Having  notgiven,  for  vant  of  room,  atvan- 
script  of  epitaphs  that  have  already  appeared  in  print,  we  shall  only 
observe,  that  this  represents  bishop  Bradford  to  have  been  in  public 
life  a  true  friend  to  the  civil  and  religious  liberty  of  hi:  country,  a 
conscientious  and  able  parish  minister,  and  an  exemplary  prelate  ; 
and  in  his  private  relations,  upright,  candid,  benevolent,  beneficent, 
and  of  a  temper  most  agreeable  to  the  original  mildness  of  his  profes- 
sion.    In  every  view,  then,  this  excellent  person   may  be  said  to 
have  lived  and  died  an  ornament  to  his  station  and  to  human  nature*. 

LXXXIX.  Joseph  Wilcocks,  D.  D.  succeeded  Dr.  Bradford  in 
this  diocese.  He  was  educated  at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford +, 
where  he  had  the  happiness  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  long  friendship 
with  the  benevolent  and  charitable  Mr.  Boulter,  afterwards  primate 
of  Ireland,  whose  epitaph  maybe  seen  adjoining  to  that  of  bishop 
Bradford  in  Westminster  abbey. 

He  was  ordained  by  bishop  Sprat,  and,  while  he  was  yet  a  young 
man,  wentchaplain  to  the  English  factory  at  Lisbon.     In  thatplace, 

*  The  account  of  bishop  Bradford  is  principally  taken  from  the  reverend 
Mr.  Master's  history  of  Benet  College  in  Cambridge.  And  the  same  learned 
author  has  inserted  a  complete  catalogue  of  the  different  sermons  and  tracts 
published  by  this  prelate. 

+  Dr.  Wilcocks  was  chosen  a  demy  of  this  society  at  the  same  election  with 
Dr.  Boulter  and  Mr.  Addison.  From  the  merit  and  learning  of  the  persons 
elected,  this  was  commonly  called  by  Dr.  Hough,  president  of  the  college, 
f  The  Golden  election."     See  Biog,  Diet.  Supp,  Art.  Boulter. 


180  HISTORY  OF 

as  in  all  the  other  scenes  of  life,  he  acquired  the  public  love  and 
esteem,  and  was  long  remembered  there  with  grateful  respect.  One 
instance  of  his  virtue  it  may  not  be  improper  to  recite.  Though  he 
never  had  the  small-pox  himself ;  yet,  when  that  terrible  distemper 
broke  out  in  the  factory,  he  still  courageously  attended  the  sick 
and  dying  ;  thus,  though  in  a  very  humble  station,  practising  the 
the  same  ardent  charity  which  the  famous  bishop  of  Marseilles,  some 
few  years  after,  exerted  in  a  much  larger  sphere. — On  his  return 
from  Lisbon,  he  was  appointed  chaplain  to  George  I.  and  preceptor 
to  the  princesses,  daughters  of  George  II.  In  the  year  1721,  he 
became  bishop  of  Gloucester,  where  he  repaired  the  episcopal  palace, 
for  a  considerable  time  before  uninhabited,  and  thus  was  an  instru- 
ment of  fixing  the  residence  of  future  bishops  in  that  see. 

He  was  translated  A.  D.  1731  to  this  diocese,  and  at  the  same  time 
appointed  dean  of  Westminster.  The  magnificence  of  the  western 
front  of  that  abbey  may  be  considered  as  the  splendid  monument  of 
his  remarkable  zeal  in  promoting  public  works,  suitably  and  in  pro- 
portion to  his  station  in  life.  He  would  doubtless  have  been  equally 
zealous  inadorningand  enlarging  his  cathedral  at  Rochester,  if  there 
had  been  any  reason  to  hope  for  a  national  assistance  in  the  under- 
taking :  but  Rochester,  though  one  of  the  most  antient  sees  in 
England,  is  not  the  place  of  the  coronation  or  burial  of  kings.  Its 
episcopal  revenue  also  is  remarkably  small.  Yet  seated  in  this  little 
diocese,  he  declined  any  higher  promotion,  even  that  of  the  archbi- 
shoprick  of  York  :  frequently  usiug  the  expression  of  his  ancient 
predecessor  bishop  Fisher,  "  Though  this  my  wife  is  poor,  yet  I 
*'  ought  not  to  think  of  changing  her  for  one  more  opulent." 

It  may  be  needless  to  recite  his  many  virtues:  we  apprehend 
they  are  deeply  engraven  in  the  memory  of  several  persons  now 
living.  There  was  nothing  in  him  affected :  innocence  and  chear- 
fulness  accompanied  him  continually.  His  favorite  maxim  was,  to 
do  as  much  good  as  he  could.  At  Bromley  he  was  particularly 
careful  to  keep  bishop  Warner's  house  of  charity  in  excellent  repair, 
advancing  frequently  out  of  his  own  pocket  the  pensions  to  the  poor 
widows.     He  kept  also  the  episcopal  house  and  gardens  there  in. 


ROCHESTER,  \g\ 

remarkable  neatness;  that  was  his  constant  amusement,  even  when 
he  was  drawing  near  his  latter  end,  nor  could  entertain  expectation 
of  enjoying  them  himself  any  longer.  He  was  constant  in  his  resi- 
dence on  this  diocese ;  and,  in  the  fatigue  of  his  last  visitation  of 
it,  received  the  blow  which  finished  his  life,  being  then  about 
eighty-two  years  of  age. 

It  may  be  proper  to  add  some  few  lines  of  that  funeral  oration 
which  with  much  truth  was  spoken  over  his  bier,  in  the  college  hall 
at  Westminster,  according  to  the  custom  of  that  place. — "  Longura. 
"  esset  persequi  multiplicem  eruditionem,  colloquiorum  amoenitates 
"  et  sanctissimi  senis  jucunditatem.  Supervacuum  esset  memorare 
Ci  qualis  erat  in  ami eo rum  commerces,  qualis  in  ecclesia,  qualis  in 
"  republica ;  qua  fuerit  humanitate,  qua.  modestia,  qua  in  respu- 
"  endis  honoribus  constantia.  Quod  vero  auditu  erit  praecipue 
"  fructuosum,  id  dicam:  neminem  fuisse  magis-  parato  et  forti 
"  animo  aut  in  preferenda  diuturni  morbi  aegritudinc,  aut  in  con- 
u  tempiando  eo,  qui  instabat,  e  rebus  humanis  excessu,  omnia 
''  habuit  provisa  et  meditata.  Nulla  animi  molestia,  nulla  querela, 
<'  nulla  cpllabentium  virium  deploratio  ;  donee  paulatim  consump- 
u  tus  tranquillam  aniniam  expiravit." 

XC.  The  next  in  the  catalogue  of  the  bishops  of  this  diocese,  is 
the  right  reverend  Dr.  Zachary  Pearce;  who,  after  receiving  the 
rudiments  of  his  education  in  Westminster  school,  was  elected  to 
Trinity  college  in  Cambridge,  of  which  society  he  was  likewise 
chosen  a  fellow.  In  February  1719,  lord  chancellor  Macclesfield 
presented  this  learned  divine,  being  at  that  time  his  lordship's  chap- 
lain, to  the  rectory  of  St.  Bartholomew  behind  the  Royal  Exchange  ; 
and  this  benefice  he  ceded  on  his  being  promoted  in  January  1723-4, 
by  his  noble  patron,  to  a  much  larger  and  more  important  parochial 
cure,  the  vicarage  of  St.  Martin's  in  the  fields.  Dr.  Pearce  had  in 
the  latter  end  of  the  year  1721,  been  appointed  one  of  the  chaplains 
in  ordinary  to  king  George  I.  and  attended  in  the  same  capacity  on 
the  late  king.  When  Dr.  Herring  was  nominated  to  the  bishoprick 
of  Bangor,  as  it  was  at  first  imagined  that  the  deanery  of  this  ca- 
thedral, which  he  then  enjoyed,  would  become  vacant,  Dr.  Pearce 


182  HISTORY   OF 

was  mentioned  by  queen  Caroline  for  the  successor ;  but  that  amia- 
ble prelate  being  permitted  to  keep  a  preferment  which  was  most 
agreeable  to  him,  and  which  on  his  rising  to  a  higher  station  in  the 
church  he  quitted  with  regret,  her  majesty's  intention  in  favour  of 
our  present  diocesan  did  not  take  place.  He  was,  however,  installed 
dean  of  Winchester  August  4,  1739,  and  had  the  honor  of  being 
elected  prolocutor  of  the  lower  house  of  convocation  November  28, 
1744.  Our  prelate  was  appointed  to  the  see  of  Bangor  December 
29,  1747,  and  held  in  commendam  with  it  the  vicarage  of  St.  Mar- 
tin's. He  continued  in  these  preferments  till  the  year  1756,  when 
on  the  death  of  Dr.  Wilcocks  he  succeeded  that  bishop  in  this  dio- 
eese  and  in  the  deanery  of  Westminster.  In  the  latter  preferment 
he  was  installed  May  4th,  and  in  the  former  July  9th,  that  year. 
In  1763,  the  bishop  being  then  73  years  old,  and  finding  himself 
less  fit  for  his  station  as  bishop  and  dean,  informed  his  friend  lord 
Bath  of  his  intention  to  resign  both.  When  the  bishop  made  this 
request  to  his  majesty,  and  acquainted  him  with  the  grounds  of  it, 
he  added,  that  he  was  desirous  to  retire  for  the  opportunity  of  spend- 
ing more  time  in  his  devotions  and  studies,  and  that  he  was  of  the 
same  way  of  thinking  with  a  general  officer  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 
who  observed  that  every  wise  man  would,  at  the  end  of  his  life,  wish 
to  have  some  interval  between  the  fatigues  of  business  and  eternity. 
The  king  said  he  would  consult  some  proper  persons  among  his  ser? 
vants,  about  the  propriety  and  legality  of  it.  About  two  months 
after  he  sent  for  the  bishop  and  told  him  that  lord  Mansfield  saw 
no  objection  to  his  resignation,  but  that  lord  Northington  was 
doubtful.  His  majesty  sent  again  at  some  distance  of  time  to  the 
bishop,  and  told  him  he  must  think  no  more  about  resigning  the 
bishoprick. 

In  the  year  17G8,  having  just  obtained  his  majesty's  consent,  he 
resigned  his  deanery,  which  he  had  held  for  twelve  years,  and 
which  was  nearly  double  in  point  of  income  to  his  bishoprick,  which 
he  was  obliged  to  retain.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  deanery  by  Dr. 
Thomas,  who  had  been  for  many  years  his  sub-dean  there. 


ROCHESTER.  183 

In  1773,  in  her  seventieth  year,  died  his  wife*.  The  children 
they  had  died  very  young,  and  her  departure  made  a  void  in  his  life^ 
which  it  was  not  possible  to  supply.  About  a  fortnight  after  her 
funeral,  he  lamented  his  loss,  spoke  of  her  again  in  the  evening, 
and  from  that  time  mentioned  her  no  more  in  his  family. 

The  bishop  in  the  same  year,  having  confirmed  at  Greenwich, 
seven  hundred  persons,  was  so  much  exhausted,  that  he  was  the 
next  day  unable  to  speak,  and  never  regained  his  former  readiness 
of  utterance.  From  that  time  he  gradually  decayed,  and  his  power 
of  swallowing  was  almost  lost.  Being  asked  how  he  could  live 
with  so  little  nutriment,  "I  live,"  said  he,  "upon  the  recollection 
"  of  an  innocent  and  well-spent  life,  which  is  my  only  sustenance." 
He  died  at  Little  Ealing  in  1774,  in  his  eighty-fourth  year,  and  was 
buried  by  the  side  of  his  wife  at  Bromley,  where  a  monument  is 
erected  to  his  memory.  His  epitaph,  reciting  his  preferments,  con- 
cludes, "  He  died  in  the  comfortable  hope  of  (what  was  the  chief 
t6  aim  of  all  his  labours  upon  earth,)  the  being  promoted  to  a  hap- 
a  pier  place  in  heaven." 

He  left  by  his  will  several  legacies  to  private  persons  and  to  public 
charities.     To  the  college  at  Bromley  founded  for  twenty  widows 

*  The  fiftieth  year  of  their  union  they  celebrated  as  a  year  of  Jubilee ;  on 
which  occasion  they  were  complimented  by  a  friend  in  the  following  elegant 
stanzas:— 

"  No  more  let  calumny  complain, 
"  That  Hymen  binds  in  cruel  chain, 

"  And  makes  his  subjects  slaves : 
"  Supported  by  the  good  and  wise, 
"  Her  keenest  slander  he  defies, 

"  Her  utmost  malice  braves. 

"  To-day  he  triumphs  o'er  his  foes, 
"  And  to  the  world  a  pair  he  shews, 

"  Though  long  his  subjects,  free  : 
"  Who  happy  in  his  bonds  appear, 
"  And  joyful  call  the  fiftieth  year 

*•  A  year  of  Jubilee." 


184  HISTORY  OF 

of  clergymen,  insufficiently  provided  for  (the  revenues  being  scan- 
ty), he  left  50001.  not  to  increase  the  number,  but  to  augment  the 
happiness,  of  the  society. 

He  was  undoubtedly  a  person  of  much  learning,  and  of  distin- 
guished taste  and  judgment,  as  his  numerous  publications  both  as  a 
divine  and  a  critic  sufficiently  prove.  The  diligence  of  his  early 
studies  appeared  by  its  effects.  During  his  residence  at  Cambridge, 
he  wrote  in  the  8th  vol.  of  the  Spectator,  No.  572,  a  humorous 
essay  on  quacks ;  and  No.  633,  a  serious  dissertation  on  the  elo- 
quence of  the  pulpit.  Cicero  de  Oratore  was  published  by  him 
when  he  was  A.  B.  and,  Cicero  de  Officiis  when  he  was  dean  of 
Winchester.  In  the  year  1724,  he  dedicated  to  the  earl  of  Mac- 
clesfield, Longinus  on  the  Sublime,  with  a  new  Latin  version  and 
notes.  After  his  death  were  published  his  Commentary  on  the  four 
Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  on  St.  Paul's  first  Epistle  to 
the  Corinthians;  and  a  selection  of  his  sermons.  Nor  was  his  at- 
tention confined  solely  to  the  learned  languages  ;  when  Dr.  Bentley 
published  his  imaginary  emendations  of  Paradise  Lost,  he  wrote  in 
opposition  to  them  a  full  vindication  of  the  established  textt 

XCI.  John  Thomas,  D.  C.  L.  was  the  next  bishop.  He  was 
born  in  the  year  1712,  and  was  the  son  of  the  reverend  John  Tho- 
mas, vicar  of  Brampton  in  Northumberland.  From  Carlisle  school 
where  he  received  his  grammatical  education,  he  Mas  sent  to  Queen's 
College,  Oxford,  and  entered  a  commoner.  Having  completed  his 
terms,  he  put  on  a  civilian's  gown,  and  became  an  assistant  in  a 
classical  academy  in  Soho  Square.  In  this  useful  situation  he  ac- 
quitted himself  with  so  much  credit,  as  to  attract  the  notice  of  Sir 
William  Clayton,  bart.  who  appointed  him  tutor  to  his  younger 
son.  To  his  introduction  to  the  Clayton  family,  in  which  he  is 
supposed  to  have  continued  some  years,  he  was  indebted  for  his  fu- 
ture elevation.  Through  Sir  William's  interest  he  obtained  in  1738, 
the  rectory  of  Bletchingley  in  Surrey,  a  living  in  the  gift  of  the 
crown,  the  rectorial  house  of  which  he  made  his  principal  residence 
for  thirty-six  years,  viz.  till  the  time  of  his  promotion  to  the  episco- 
pal bench.     In  1741,  he  took  the  degree  of  B.  C.  L.  and  proceeded 


ROCHESTER.  185 

D.  C.  L.  in  1742.  In  i748,  he  was  appointed  the  king's  chaplain*; 
in  1754,  prebendary  of  Westminster;  in  1762,  sub-almoner;  in 
1766,  vicar  of  St.  Bride's,  London.  In  1768,  Dr.  Thomas  was 
promoted  to  the  deanery  of  Westminster,  which  bishop  Pearce,  as 
has  been  before  related,  had  resigned ;  and  on  the  death  of  that 
prelate  in  1774,  he  was  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester.  On 
taking  possession  of  his  bishoprick,  he  expended  upwards  of  3000/. 
including  1400/.  which  he  received  for  dilapidations,  in  repairing 
and  rebuilding  the  ancient  palace  at  Bromley,  which  he  found  in  a 
very  ruinous  state,  and  in  laying  out  and  embellishing  the  episcopal 
demesnes,  which  he  executed  in  a  manner  equally  creditable  to  his 
liberality  and  good  taste.  He  visited  his  diocese  in  1776,  and  again 
in  1780  :  but  the  infirmities  of  old  age,  and  the  inevitable  decays  of 
nature,  almost  rendered  him  incapable  of  any  laborious  duty  for 
some  years  previous  to  his  dissolution,  which  came  on  very  gradu- 
ally, and  did  not  take  place  till  he  had  nearly  completed  his  81st 
year.  He  died  August  22,  1793,  and  was  buried  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  where  a  neat  monument  is  erected  to  his  memory,  with  an 
elegant  inscription  in  Latin,  composed  by  one  of  the  first  scholars 
of  the  aget. 

In  this  amiable  prelate  appeared  all  the  efficacy  of  religious  prin- 
ciple. In  his  manners  the  purity  of  the  christian  was  adorned  with 
the  urbanity  of  the  gentleman.  Let  it  be  recorded  to  his  honour 
that  though  his  relations  were  numerous,  yet  his  private  charities 
were  large  and  extensive.  To  most  of  the  public  charities  which 
immortalize  the  generosity  of  this  nation,  he  was  a  liberal  subscriber. 
And,  as  he  had  been  remarkable  for  many  good  works,  while  liv- 
ing, so  he  appropriated  in  his  last  will,  a  considerable  portion  of 

*  On  the  accession  of  George  III.  Dr.  Thomas  retained  his  situation  of  chap- 
lain in  ordinary,  by  his  majesty's  express  commands.  On  the  back  of  the  lord 
chamberlain's  letter  of  appointment,  under  the  hand  and  seal  of  his  Grace  the 
duke  of  Devonshire,  is  endorsed  this  memorandum.  N.  B.  "  By  the  king's 
"  order,  and  without  any  application." 

+The  late  Dr.  Vincent,  dean  of  Westminster. 

2    E 


186  HISTORY  OF 

the  property  of  which  he  died  possessed,  to  charitable  purposes, 
Among   many  other  benevolent  legacies,  he    left  600/.  viz.  100/. 
each,  to  six  charitable  corporations  of  which  he  had  been  a  member; 
He  also  vested  in  trustees'*  1000/.    of  his  capital  stock  in  the  three 
per  cent,  reduced   annuities,  to  found  two  exhibitions  of  fifteen 
pounds  per  annum  each,  at  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  to  be  held  by 
two  sons  of  clergymen,  who  have  been  educated,  for  two  years,  at 
least,  at  the  free-school  of  Carlisle,  or  at  the  public  school  of  St» 
Bees.     Clergymen's  sons  from  the  former  school  have  the  prefer- 
ence, and  the  exhibitions,  which  are  tenable  for  the  term  of  four  or 
seven  years,  commence  from  the  time   of  admission   into   Queen's 
College.     To  these  bequests   several  considerable   sums  might  be 
added,  due  on  bonds  and  notes  from  different  friends  and  acquain- 
tances, but  by  will  remitted  to  them,  amounting  in  all  to  about 
5000/. 
tl  1  J?     His  lordship's  posthumous  sermons  and  charges  were  published  in 
two  volumes  8vo.  in  1796,  by  his  nephew  and  executor,  the  Rev. 
///-*,G.  A.  Thomas,  rector  oJf^Woolwich,  to  which  is  prefixed  a  life   of 
the  bishop,  extending  nearly  to  two  hundred  pages,  written,  it  must 
be  confessed,  neither  with  judgment  nor  elegance.     If  this  good  bi- 
shop's discourses  do  not  rank  among  the   first  productions  of  this 
species  of  composition,  they  are  not  deficient  in  merit.     Their  gene- 
ral characteristic  seems  rather  to  be  sound  and  plain  sense,  than  any 
peculiar  force  or  brilliancy  either  of  conception  or  language. 

Bishop  Thomas  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife  was  lady  Ann 
Blackwell,  widow  of  Sir  Charles  Blackwell,  and  daughter  of  his 
early  patron,  Sir  William  Clayton,  whom  he  married  in  1742,  and 
with  whom  he  lived  in  an  enviable  state  of  happiness  and  harmony 
till  her  death  in  1772.  In  1775,  he  made  a  second  fortunate  mar- 
riage with  lady  Yates,  widow  of  Sir  Joseph  Yates,  one  of  the  judges 
of  the  King's  Bench. 

XCII.  Samuel  Horsley,  D.  D.  succeeded  bishop  Thomas.  He 
was  the  son  of  the  Rev. Horsley,  minister  of  St.  Martin's 

*  The  trustees  are  the  bishop  of  Carlisle,  the  dean  of  Carlisle,  and  the  pro- 
vost of  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  for  the  time  being,  and  their  successors. 


ROCHESTER.  187 

in  the  fields,  and  was  born  in  the  year  1733.  Having  laid  the 
ground-work  of  his  education,  partly  at  a  private  seminary,  and 
partly  at  Westminster  school,  he  removed  to  Trinity  Hall,  Cam- 
bridge, and,  without  neglecting  other  branches  of  polite  learning, 
applied  himself,  while  in  the  university,  chiefly  to  the  study  of  the 
mathematical  sciences.  In  the  prosecution  of  these  studies,  he  not 
only  carefully  read  the  writings  of  the  most  acute  modern  mathema- 
ticians, but  also  made  himself  master  of  the  profound  and  intricate 
reasonings  of  the  ancient  geometers.  At  the  usual  time  he  took  his 
bachelor's  degree  in  civil  law,  and  entered  soon  afterwards  into 
holy  orders.  Hjaving  taken  the  degree  of  master  of  arts,  he  accepted 
an  invitation  to  accompany  lord  Guernsey,  eldest  son  of  the  earl  of 
Aylesford,  as  his  private  tutor  to  Oxford,  where  he  became  a  mem- 
ber of  Christ  Church,  and  received  the  degree  of  doctor  of  laws. 
While  at  Oxford  he  printed  at  the  Clarendon  press,  his  edition  of 
the  "Inclinations  of  Apollonius,"  a  geometrical  work  of  conside- 
rable value,  but  exceedingly  abstruse.  Previously  to  his  time, 
mathematical  learning  had  been  in  little  repute  at  Oxford  ;  but  since 
that  period,  this  important  branch  of  human  knowledge,  without 
which  the  character  of  the  scholar  is  never  complete,  has  received 
that  attention  from  this  celebrated  university,  which  it  so  well  de- 
serves. On  leaving  Oxford,  Dr.  Horsley  came  to  London,  where 
he  was  elected  fellow  of  the  11  oval  Society,  of  which  also  he  was 
chosen  secretary  in  1773,  and  continued  to  serve  that  office  for 
some  years,  with  the  greatest  credit  to  himself,  as  well  as  benefit 
to  the  scientific  world.  In  1771  the  earl  of  Aylesford  presented 
him  to  the  living  of  Aldbury,  to  which  was  added  the  same  year  by 
the  bishop  of  Worcester,  the  rectory  of  St.  Mary,  Newington.  Jn 
1776,  he  published  proposals  for  a  complete  and  elegant  edition  of 
the  works  of  the  immortal  Newton,  which  appeared  in  1779,  in  four 
quarto  volumes,  with  an  elegant  dedication  to  the  king  in  Latin. 
In  178.2,  that  excellent  and  observing  prelate  bishop  Lowth,  whom 
he  is  said  to  have  assisted  in  his  learned  labours,  presented  him  to 
the  valuable  living  of  South-Weald  in  Essex,  and  also  appointed  him 


188  HISTORY    OF 

archdeacon  of  St.  Albans.     This  latter  situation  brought  him  into 
general  notice;   the  circumstances  of  which  may  be  thus  related. 

The  celebrated  Dr.  Priestley  published  in  1783,  his  "History  of 
"  the  corruptions  of  the  christian  church,"  the  principal  design  of 
which  was  to  overthrow  the  Catholic  doctrine  respecting  the  divi- 
nity of  our  Saviour.  In  the  same  year  Dr.  Horsley  delivered  a 
charge  to  the  clergy  of  the  archdeaconry  of  St.  Albans,  in  which  he 
controverted  with  much  learning  and  ability  the  Socinian  position, 
that,  "The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  not  maintained  in  the 
"  church  for  the  three  first  centuries."  He  also  charged  Dr.  Priest- 
ley with  having  taken,  without  acknowledgment,  the  whole  of  his 
argument  from  Zwicker,  and  other  eminent  Socinians  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  This  discourse,  with  an  appendix  explaining  and 
confirming  the  positions  contained  in  it,  was  published  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  clergy  who  heard  it :  and  no  sooner  had  it  made  its 
appearance,  than  Dr.  Priestley,  who  had  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer, 
attacked  it  in  a  series  of  letters  containing  all  his  former  positions 
expressed  in  a  more  confident  tone  than  before :  Dr.  Horsley  in  his 
answer,  which  was  also  in  the  epistolary  form,  noticed  the  frequent 
slips  in  quotation  from  the  ancient  Greek  fathers  which  Dr.  Priest- 
ley had  made,  and  also  pointed  out  numerous  instances  in  which  he 
had  erroneously  translated  their  language,  and  mistaken  or  pervert- 
ed their  meaning.  But  he  did  not  content  himself  with  merely 
exposing  the  doctor's  mistakes:  he  followed  up  the  attack  by  a 
great  variety  of  proofs  in  behalf  of  the  common  belief  drawn  from 
the  early  fathers  of  the  church,  and  the  purest  ecclesiastical  writers. 
In  1789,  Dr.  Horsley  collected  his  letters  or  tracts  relative  to  this 
controversy,  and  published  them  in  one  volume  with  some  additions. 
The  lord  chancellor  Thurlow  was  so  struck  with  the  elegance  of 
language,  the  depth  of  reading  and  research,  and  the  clo-seness  of 
reasoning  which  these  tracts  exhibit,  that  he  frankly  observed  to  a 
friend,  "That  man  deserves  to  be  a  bishop,  and  he  shall  be  one; 
"  for  they  who  defend  the  church,  ought  to  be  supported  by  the 
"  church."  Accordingly  in  1786,  Dr.  Horsley  obtained  from  lord 
Thurlow,  without  either  solicitation  or  expectancy,  a  prebend  in  the 


ROCHESTER.  189 

cathedral  church  of  Gloucester;  and  the  year  following,  the  same 
steady  and  unsolicited  patron  elevated  him  to  the  episcopal  bench, 
on  the  translation  of  Dr.  Smallwell  from  the  see  of  St.  David  to  that 
of  Oxford.  May  preferment,  for  the  interests  of  religion,  and  the 
honour  of  patronage,  be  always  so  worthily,  and  so  judiciously, 
bestowed  !  He  had  now  an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  learning 
and  eloquence  in  the  house  of  lords,  which  he  frequently  did  to 
great  advantage.  In  his  diocese  his  conduct  was  truly  praise-wor- 
thy, applying  himself  with  great  zeal  and  activity  to  correct  many 
shameful  abuses,  to  enforce  the  regular  performance  of  public  wor- 
ship, and  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  inferior  clergy.  On 
the  great  struggle  made  by  the  protestant  dissenters  in  1790,  to  ob- 
tain a  repeal  of  the  corporation  and  test  acts,  a  pamphlet  appeared, 
written  with  such  boldness  and  elegance  on  the  side  of  the  church, 
that,  though  anonymous,  all  parties  concurred  in  attributing  it  to 
the  bishop  of  St.  David's  ;  nor  were  they  wrong  in  their  conjecture. 
The  year  following  he 'made  a  conspicuous  figure,  inconsequence 
of  his  primary  charge  to  the  clergy  of  his  diocese,  in  which  he  main- 
tained the  orthodox  doctrine  professed  by  the  church  of  England, 
of  "Justification  by  faith  alone."  Many  replies  were  made  to  this 
charge,  and  some  controversy  was  excited  by  it,  in  which  the  bi- 
shop did  not  engage.  In  1794  he  was  translated  to  the  bishoprick 
of  Rochester,  holding  with  it  the  deanery  of  Westminster,  both  va- 
cant by  the  death  of  bishop  Thomas.  His  conduct  here  was  marked 
with  the  same  vigilance  and  activity  as  before.  In  his  office  as  dean 
of  Westminster  he  made  many  excellent  regulations :  in  his  diocese 
he  was  indefatigable.  Having  presided  over  this  see  till  1802,  he 
was  advanced  to  the  bishoprick  of  St.  Asaph.  He  had  already  pub- 
lished a  new  translation  of  Hosea  with  a  learned  commentary  and 
notes,  and  was  now  deeply  engaged  in  a  work  on  the  prophesies  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testament:  but  the  end  of  this  learned,  labori- 
ous, and  useful  life  was  now  approaching.  In  the  autumn  of  1806, 
he  was  seized,  while  at  Brighton,  with  a  disorder  in  his  bowels, 
which  in  a  few  days  terminated  in  a  mortification,  of  which  he  died 
on  the  4th  of  October  1806.    He  left  at  his  decease  in  a  state  nearly 


|90  HISTORY  OF 

prepared  for  publication,-*  Treatise  with  notes  on  the  Pentateuch, 
and  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testament,-a  Treatise  on  the  Pro- 
phets,-a  Translation  of  the  book  of  Psalms  with  critical  and  ex- 
planatory notes,-and  a  Life  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton. 

The  name  of  Horsley  will  always  stand  pre-eminent  among  those 
of  the  present  age  who  have  contributed  to  enlarge  the  bounds  of 
human  knowledge.     His  talents  were  so  versatile,  that  wherever  he 
turned  his  attention,  he  was  sure  to  take  precedence  and  rise  to  ex- 
cellence.     In  the  several  parts  of  useful  knowledge  and  critical 
learning  he  had  no  superior  and  few  equals.     As   a   mathematician 
he  was  highly  respectable.    Besides  the  works  already  specified,  he 
is  the  author  of  many  learned  and  ingenious  performances  on  philo- 
sophical, mathematical,  and  critical  subjects.     His  edition  of  Eu- 
clid's Elements  and  Data,  and  his  treatise  on  the  elementary  parts 
of  mathematics,  drawn  up  for  the  use  of  the  junior  students  at  Ox-. 
ford,  are  prepared  with  great  precision  and  neatness.     But  it  is  in 
the  department  of  theology  that  his  name  will  stand  highest  with 
posterity.     In  his  episcopal  charges,  all  of  which  have  been  pub- 
li.hed,  he  combated  in  forcible  language  and  with  great  power  of 
argument,  the  prevailing  error,,  whether  political  or  religious,  of 
the  momentous  times  in   which  he  lived.     His  sermons,  three  to. 
lumes  of  which  have  been  selected  and  published   since  his  death, 
consist,  with  few  exceptions,  of  masterly  disquisitions  on  points  of 
difficult  and  abstruse  investigation,  and  afford  unequivocal  proofs,  of 
a  strong  energetic  mind,  enriched  with  various  and  extensive  learn-. 

ing. 

But,  above  all,  his  successful  labours  against  Priestley,  will  al- 
ways be  recorded  with  gratitude  by  the  church  of  England;  and 
his  productions  in  this  controversy  will  always  be  read  as  standard 
works,  and  admired  as  models  of  just  and  powerful  reasoning.  Priest- 
ley possessed  considerable  address  in  stating  and  colouring  his 
reasonings,  and  made  an  ostentatious  display  of  ransacking  anti- 
quity where  common  readers  could  not  follow  him.  Horsley  ac- 
cepted the  gauntlet  which  he  threw  down,  engaged  him  in  regular 
combat,  beat  him  almost  at  every  point,  and  forced  him  from  his 
strong-holds. 


th^MtwFzv-,  /OJ  ,353  z=to#*aj{jz/fy  9TZ,   x,  3"<?/ 


/ 


ROCHESTER.  ]91 

His  lordship  was  twice  married.  By  his  first  wife  he  had  a 
daughter  who  died  young,  and  a  son,  Heneage  Horsley,  rector  of 
Grisford  in  Denbighshire,  prebendary  of  St.  Asaph,  and  chaplain 
to  the  Scotch  Episcopalian  Church  at  Dundee.  By  his  second  wife 
he  had  no  child. 

XCIII.  Thomas  Dampier  D.  D.   dean  of  Rochester,  succeeded 
bishop  Horsley.     He  was  the  son  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dampier,  many 
years  under  master  of  Eton  school,  and  afterwards  dean  of  Durham. 
He  was  educated  at  Eton  school,  from  whence  he  was  elected  to 
King's  College,  Cambridge,  where  he  proceeded  A.  B.  1771,  A.M. 
1774,  D.  D.  per  literas  regias  1780.     From  the  rectory  of  West-'*  ^ 
meon,  Hants,  to  which  he  was  instituted  in  1773,  he  was  promoted 
in   1776  to   the   mastership  of  Shelburn  Hospital  in  the  county  of 
Durham  :  and  in   1778,  to  the  twelfth  prebend  in  the  cathedral 
there.     In  1782,  he  became  dean  of  Rochester,  and  on  the  trans- 
lation of  bishop  Horsley  to  St.  Asaph  in  1802,  bishop  of  that  see. 
On  the  death  of  bishop  Yorke  he  was  advanced  to  the   see  of  Ely, 
and  died  at  Ely  House  in  London  in  May  1812.     Ably  as  he  was  &/// 
known  to  have  conducted  himself  in  the  various  situations  in  which 
he  was  placed  :   yet  in  the  History  of  Rochester  his  virtues  merit  a 
more  particular  recital.     Throughout  a  period  of  twenty  years  he 
resided  much  at  the  deanery ;  where  he  lived  With  great  hospitality, 
and  was  universally  respected  and  esteemed.    Through  his  exertions 
a  new  and  excellent  organ  was  erected  in  the  cathedral :  and  great 
improvements  were  made  in  the  choir,  by  erecting  stalls  for  the 
dean  and  prebendaries^  as  well  as  by  beautifying  the  screen.     His 
literary  attainments  were  pre-eminent.     He  was  a  firm  and  judici- 
ous supporter  of  our  Ecclesiastical  Establishment,  and  in  his  death 
the  church  of  England  lost  a  friend,  who  by  his  abilities,  temper, 
and  discretion,  was  peculiarly  qualified  to  protect  it  against  errone- 
ous doctrines,  and  any  of  the  attacks  of  its  adversaries.     Few  men 
were  more  beloved  and  regarded  than  this  excellent  prelate  :  and  no 
one  could  die  more  lamented. 

Walker  King  D.  D.  succeeded  to  this  bishoprick  on  the  promo- 
tion of  bishop  Dampier  to  the  see  of  Ely    in  1 80£     He  was  for- 
(/ )jV  plaint,  tffomu*? $-&***fahyu  faufi  f^ai ,/ />rr/2J  $"2,  '  2?     S~&f 


1  92  HISTORY  OF 

merly  a  member  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  where  he  took 
the  degree  of  M.  A.  in  1775,  and  accumulated  the  degrees  of  B.  D. 
and  D.  D.  in  1778.  For  several  years  he  was  preacher  to  the  hon- 
ourable society  of  Gray's  Inn,  and  also  private  secretary  to  the  late 
Duke  of  Portland,  which  occasioned  his  elevation  to  the  episcopal 
dignity.  In  1793,  he  published  two  sermons  preached  before  the 
society  of  Gray's  Inn.  All  that  we  are  enabled  further  to  add,  is, 
that  he  is  the  present  bishop  of  this  see,  and  the  94th  in  succession 
from  the  first  erection  of  it  by  St.  Augustine  in  the  year  604.  We 
sincerely  hope  that  the  time  is  far  distant,  before  a  larger  and  more 
detailed  account  of  this  much  respected  prelate  will  be  necessary. 

A  List  of  the  Deans. 

ALTER  Phillips,  the  last  prior,  on  the  surrendry  of  this 
monastery  into  the  king's  hands,  was,  by  the  foundation  charter 
of  the  dean  and  chapter,  dated  June  18th,  anno  33  Henry  VIII. 
appointed  the  first  dean  thereof.     He  died  in  1570. 

Edmund  Freake,  S.  T.  P.  was  installed  April  10,  1570,  and 
quitted  this  deanery  on  being  consecrated  bishop  of  Rochester  on 
March  9,  1571. 

Thomas  Willoughby,  S.  T.  P.  and  prebendary  of  Canterbury, 
was  installed  June  23,  1574,  and  died  August,  19,  1585. 

John  Coldwell,  M.  D.  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  was 
installed  January  7,  1585,  and  vacated  this  preferment  on  his  being 
consecrated  bishop  of  Salisbury,  December  26,  1591. 
ffj  J*t     Thomas  Blague,  S.  T.  B.  miutor  of  Pure  Tlnll  and  rector  of  Ban- 
gor, was  installed  February  1,  1591,  and  died  in  October  1611. 

Richard  Milbourne,  A.  M.  rector  of  Cheam  in  Surry,  and  vicar 
of  Sevenoaks,  was  installed  December  11,  1611,  and  quitted  this 
deanery  on  being  consecrated  bishop  of  St.  David's,  July  9,  1615. 

Robert  Scott,  S.  T.  P.  and  master  of  Clare  Hall,  was  installed 
July  13,  1615.     He  died  in  December  1620.  -  /   z/*     1 


ROCHESTER*  ]93 

Godfrey  Goodman,  a  native  of  Essex,  and  fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  then  master  of  Clare  Hall,  Cambridge,  afterwards  preben- 
dary of  Westminster,  rector  of  Kemmerton  in  the  county  of  Glou- 
cester, and  West  Isley  in  the  county  of  Berks,  and  S.  T.  P.  was 
installed  January  6,  1620,  and  vacated  this  preferment  on  his  being 
consecrated  bishop  of  Gloucester,  March  6,  1624. 

Walter  Belcanquall,  a  native  of  Scotland,  and  S.  T.  P.  was  in- 
stalled March  12,  1624.  He  was  first  fellow  of  Pembroke  Hall, 
Cambridge,  then  master  of  the  Savoy.  He  resigned  this  deanery 
on  being  promoted  to  that  of  Durham  in  1638. 

Henry  King,  S.  T.  P.  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  archdeacon  of 
Colchester,  residentiary  of  St.  Paul's,  and  canon  of  Christ  Church, 
was  installed  Feb.  6,  1638,  and  quitted  this  deanery  on  his  being 
consecrated  bishop  of  Chichester,  Feb.  16,  1641. 

Thomas  Turner,  S.  T.  P.  canon  residentiary  of  St.  Paul's,  Lon- 
don, rector  of  St.  Olave's,  Southwark,  and  of  Fetcham  in  Surry, 
was  installed  Feb.  26,  1641,  and  resigned  this  preferment  on  being 
made  dean  of  Canterbury  in  1643. 

Benjamin  Laney,  S.  T.  P.  master  of  Pembroke  Hall,  vicar  of  So- 
ham  in  the  county  of  Cambridge,  rector  of  Buriton  in  Hants,  and 
prebendary  of  Westminster  and  Winchester,  was  installed  July  24, 
1660,  and  vacated  this  preferment  on  being  consecrated  bishop  of 
Peterborough  at  the  latter  end  of  that  year. 

Nathaniel  Hardy,  S.  T.  P.  rector  of  St.  Dionis  Backchurch, 
archdeacon  of  Lewes,  and  rector  of  Henley  upon  Thames,  was  in- 
stalled December  10,  1660.  He  died  at  Croyden,  June  1,  1670, 
and  was  buried  in  the  church  of  St.  Martin's  in  the  fields,  of  which 
church  he  was  vicar. 

Peter  Mew,  S.  T.  P.  succeeded  in  1670.  He  had  been  canon  of 
Windsor,  archdeacon  of  Berks,  and  president  of  St.  John's  College, 
Oxford.  He  quitted  this  deanery  on  being  consecrated  bishop  of 
Bath  and  Wells  at  the  end  of  the  year  1672. 

Thomas  Lamplugh,  S.  T.  P.  was  installed  March  6,  1672.  He 
was  first  fellow  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  then  principal  of  Al- 

2c 


ig4  HISTORY  OF 

ban  Hall,  and  vicar  of  St.  Martin's  in  the  fields.  He  quitted  this 
deanery  on  being  consecrated  bishop  of  Exeter,  November  12,  1676. 
John  Castilion,  S.  T.  P.  prebendary  of  Canterbury,  and  v1Car  of 
Minster  in  Thanet,  was  installed  November  15,  1676.  He  died. 
Oct.  21,  fl68S,JBt.  75.  ancLwas  buried  in  G^grbracathedral. .    ;^ 

prebendary  of  this  church,  and  rec^r  cTLexb^rne.mJhis  county. 
He  died  June  20, 1706,  at.  67,  and  was  buried  in  Leyborne  church. 
Samuel  Pratt,  S.  T.  P.  clerk  of  the  closet,  succeeded  to  this  dean- 
ery in  1706.  He  was  canon  of  Windsor,  vicar  of  Twickenham, 
and  chaplain. of  the  Savoy  Chapel      He  died  November  14,   1723, 

aet.  71.  " 

Nicholas  Claggett,  S.  T.  P.  rector  of  Brington  in  the  county  of 
Northampton,  and  of  Overton  sinecure  in  the  county  of  Hants,  and 
archdeacon  of  Buckingham,  succeeded  to  this  deanery  in  January 
1724.  He  quitted  it  on  being  promoted  to  the  bishoprickof  St.  Da- 
vid's in  January  1731. 

Thomas  Herring,  S.  T.  P.  was  the  next  dean,  of  whom  see  an 
account  in  the  following  page. 

William  Bernard,  S.  T.  P.  prebendary  of  Westminster,  succeed- 
ed as  dean  of  this  church  in  1743,  but  resigned  it  next  year,  on 
being  promoted  to  the  see  of  Raphoe  in  Ireland,  from  whence  he 
was  "translated  to  the  bishoprick  of  Derry  :  and  dying  in  England 
in  1768,  was  interred  in  Westminster-abbey  ;  of  which  church  he 
had  been  prebendary  before  his  advancement  to  the  deanery  of 
Rochester. 

John  Newcombe,  S.  T.  P.  Lady  Margaret's  lecturer  of  divinity,, 
"*'  and  master  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  was  made  the  next 
dean  of  this  church  in  1744.  He  had  supplied  the  divinity  chair 
at  Cambridge  with  great  reputation,  during  the  latter  part  of  Dr. 
Bentley's  life,  then  regius  professor,  who  for  several  years  before 
his  death  had  retired  from  all  public  business.  This  dean  bequeath- 
ed by  his  last  will  one  hundred  pounds  to  the  repairs  of  the  cathe- 
dral. He  was  happy  many  years  in  the  strictest  mutual  affection 
of  the  conjugal  state?  with  a  most  accomplished  lady  :  her  modesty 

(/j  jj w/$$M ■  <mtd*HJ  x ,  l?iiff3 -?Fd 3T*  tdl/t 37  p  « 


ROCHESTER.  195 

and  humility  always  strove  to  conceal  the  great  powers  and  extra- 
ordinary improvements  of  her  mind.  But  no  person  of  discern- 
ment could  be  long  acquainted  with  that  excellent  woman,  without 
esteeming  her  one  of  the  most  perfect  pieces  of  human  nature.  He 
diecf  Ma*ch  10,^1765,  and  was  succeeded  in  this  deanery  by 

William  Markham,  L  L.  D.  and  prebendary  -of  Durjiam,  who 
was  appointed  to  it  in  1765.  He  was  a  great  Toeaefactor  to  the 
deanery  house,  the  two  wings  of  which  were  erected  by  him,  but 
were  not  finished  before  his  quitting  this  preferment  for  the  deanery 
of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  which  he  did  in  Oct.  1767. 

Benjamin  Newcombe,  S.  T.  P.  and  rector  of  St.  Mildred's  in 
the  Poultry,  succeeded  him  in  Oct.  1767.  He  was  afterwards 
vicar  of  Lamberhurst,  and  died  at  Rochester  in  Aug.  1775. 

Thomas  Thurloe,  D.  D.  master  of  the  temple  was  installed  dean 
of  Rochester  Nov.  8,  1775.  He  was  promoted  to  the  bishoprick  of 
Lincoln  in  1779,  and  translated  to  Durham  in  1789.  He  died  in 
June  1791.     His  successor  in  this  deanery  was 

Richard  Cust,  D.  D.  who  in  1782  was  removed  to  the  deanery  of 
Lincoln. 

Thomas  Dampier,  D.  D.  succeeded,  of  whom  see  an  account  in 
the  list  of  bishops. 

Samuel  Goodenough,  D.  D.  succeeded  Dr.  Dampier  in  1802. 
In  1808  he  was  promoted  to  the  bishoprick  of  Carlisle,  and  is  the 
present  bishop  of  that  see.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  deanery  of 
this  cathedral  by 

William  Beaumont  Busby,  D.  D.  who  is  the  present  dean. 

In  the  above  list,  that  amiable  prelate  Dr.  Thomas  Herring,  is 
mentioned  as  dean  of  this  church  ;  and  though  the  compilers  of  this 
work  have  been  confined  to  such  narrow  bounds  as  do  not  admit  of 
a  particular  account  of  the  deans  of  Rochester,  many  of  whom  have 
been  eminent  men  ;  yet  to  pass  over  unnoticed  so  excellent  a  person 
as  archbishop  Herring,  would  be  inexcusable  in  the  judgment  of  all 
impartial  and  good  men.  He  was  the  son  and  only  surviving  child 
of  a  pious  and  worthy  divine  Mr.  John  Herring,  many  years  rector 


196  HISTORY  OP 

of  Walsoken,  in  the  county  of  Norfolk;  and  had  his  first  educa-? 
tionat  the  school  at  Wisbech,  under  Mr.  John  Carter,  who  filled, 
afterwards,  with  great  reputation,  the  place  of  second  master  in  the 
great  school  at  Eton,  and  was,  after  quitting  the  school,  fellow 
and  vice-prcvost  of  Eton  college.  Mr.  Herring  was  admitted,  in 
June  1710,  at  Jesus  college,  Cambridge,  under  the  tuition  of  Dr. 
Warren,  afterwards  archdeacon  of  Suffolk,  where  he  continued 
till  he  took  his  degree  of  A.  B.  but  removed  to  Benet  college  in 
July  1714,  of  which  he  was  chosen  fellow  in  1716  ;  after  taking 
his  degree  of  A.  M.  in  1717,  he  entered  into  priests  orders,  and 
was  successively  minister  of  Great  Shelford,  Stow  qui,  and  Trinity 
church  in  Cambridge  ;  and  in  1722,  Dr.  Fleetwood,  then  bishop  of 
Ely,  presented  Mr.  Herring  to  the  rectory  of  Rettingdon  in  Essex, 
October  1st;  and  on  the  7th  of  December  removed  him  to  that  of 
Barley  in  Hertfordshire  ;  in  1724  he  took  the  degree  of  B.  D.  In 
1726,  on  the  death  of  Dr.  Lupton,  the  society  of  Lincoln's  inn 
chose  him  for  their  preacher;  about  the  same  time  he  was  appoint- 
ed king's  chaplain;  and  in  1728  commenced  D.  D.  at  Cambridge; 
and  was  afterwards  presented,  by  Sir  William  Clayton,  toJ;he  rec« 
tory  of  Bletchingley,  in  the  county  of  Surry,  having  been  first  pre- 
sented by  the  king  to  the  rectory  of  Allhallows,  Upper  Thames 
Street,  in  the  city  of  London,  which  he  gave  up  without  taking 
institution.  In  1731  he  was  promoted  to  the  deanery  of  Rochester, 
which  he  held  to  the  year  1743;  and  from  the  year  1737,  in  com- 
mendam  with  the  bishoprick  of  Bangor.  In  1743,  on  the  death  of 
archbishop  Blackburn,  Dr.  Herring  was  translated  from  the  bishop- 
rick of  Bangor  to  the  metropolitan  see  of  York,  to  the  great  benefit 
of  that  most  considerable  diocese ;  as  well  as  to  the  security  of  the 
whole  kingdom,  for  the  timely  defence  of  which,  he  interposed  in 
the  most  spirited  manner  in  the  speech  delivered  before  the  great 
assembly  of  the  nobility,  gentry,  and  clergy,  which  was  convened 
at  York,  September  24th,  1745,  by  his  instigation,  upon  the  defeat 
of  the  king's  forces  at  Preston  Pans ;  when  the  whole  nation  seemed 
(o  be  thrown  into  a  state  of  despondency;   an  association  was  here= 


ROCHESTER.  19/ 

upon  entered  into  at  York ;  and  a  subscription  made  to  the  amount 
of  forty  thousand  pounds,  to  raise  troops  for  the  defence  of  the 
county,  and  from  thence  that  generous  spirit  for  the  defence  and 
support  of  our  religion  and  liberties  spread  throughout  the  whole 
kingdom:  and  though  the  archbishop,  by  his  spirited  conduct,  and 
strict  adherence  to  his  religion,  his  king^  and  his  country,  was 
pointed  out  as  a  mark  to  the  utmost  rage  of  popish  cruelty,  had  the 
designs  of  the  rebels  from  Scotland,  and  of  the  malignant  party  in 
England  succeeded;  yet  he  courageously  resided  in  his  diocese 
throughout  all  the  confusions  of  the  winter  of  1745:  while  the  re- 
bels were  in  the  heart  of  England;  nor  did  he  remove  to  town  till 
after  the  happy  aud  glorious  defeat  of  that  rebellion,  by  the  bles- 
sing of  providence  upon  the  arms  of  his  royal  highness  William. 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  in  the  battle  of  Culloden,  April  1746.  His 
grace,  it  is  well  known,  was,  without  his  own  seeking,  and  with 
the  greatest  reluctance  on  his  side,  removed  from  the  archbishop- 
rick  of  York  to  that  of  Canterbury,  uptm  the  death  of  archbishop 
Potter,  in  1747;  and,  after  having  presided  in  that  highest  station 
of  the  church  with  that  humility  and  condescension  which  was  con- 
sistent with  the  most  real  dignity,  he  died  at  Croydon,  March  13th, 
1757,  of  a  consumption  and  dropsy,  and  was  as  exemplary  in  his 
patient  submission  to  the  divine  will  under  a  long  and  painful  ill- 
ness, as  he  had  been  for  every  virtue  through  the  whole  course  of 
his  life.  Those  who  knew  him  may  with  confidence  declare,  that 
both  his  charity  and  piety  were  genuine,  and  from  the  heart.  And 
the  greatest  of  all  examples,  the  only  perfect  one,  that  of  our 
blessed  Saviour,  was  the  rule  of  life  which  he  had  always  before 
him  :  and  those  important  words  of  his  heavenly  master  influenced 
his  actions,  a  Ye  are  my  friends,  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  command 
"  you  ;"  aud,  after  a  life  conducted  by  that  instruction,  he,  with 
the  piety  and  the  hope  of  a  christian,  invoked  in  his  last  hours,  as 
he  had  been  used  to  do  in  the  days  of  his  health  ; — u  The  God, 
"  even  the  father  of  our  lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  father  of  mercies, 
"  and  the  God  of  all  comfort." 


198  HISTORY  OF 

He  was  consistent  with  himself  through  every  part  of  his  life; 
and  higher  advancements  in  station,  even  unto  the  highest,  only 
caused  him  to  exert  the  virtues  of  charity  and  humility  in  a  more 
exemplary  manner.  His  condescension  to  his  brethren  of  the  cler- 
gy, down  to  the  lowest  stations,  hath  made  his  memory  most  dear 
both  in  the  north  and  south  of  England,  and  in  those  parts  of 
Wales  where  he  once  presided.  No  prelate  ever  felt  with  a  more 
tender  compassion  for  the  wants  and  distresses  of  the  inferior  cler- 
gy ;  he  felt  indeed  with  a  true  christian  benevolence  for  the  wants 
and  distresses  and  sufferings  of  all  his  fellow  creatures,  and  largely 
contributed  to  the  relief  of  numbers  in  his  life  time,  and,  by  the 
charitable  bequests  in  his  will,  his  good  works  followed  him  be- 
yond the  grave.  His  unfeigned  modesty  prevented  all  attempts  of 
doing  justice  to  his  character  upon  the  marble,  which  covers  his 
remains  in  the  south  chancel  of  Croydon  church  ;  but  it  is,  with- 
out exaggeration,  expressed  in  the  following  words,  which  are  for 
the  most  part  taken  from  an  inscription  on  the  tomb  of  another 
prelate,  who  lived  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  : — 

"  Vitaeque  ac  morum  turn  gravitate,  turn  suavitate  eximius  :  ex- 
ci  teriori  corporis  decore  spectabilis ;  politiori  sermonis  elegantia 
a  prasstans ;  concionator  idem  disertissimus  ;  haeresin,  et  hypocri- 
"  sin,  validissime  perosus ;  potioribus  animi  dotibus  adornatus ; 
"  memoria  nempe  fideli,  ingenio  felici,  judicio  acri.  Etinrerum 
"  administratione  prudentia  et  fortitudine,  cum  respublica  pericli- 
li  taretur,  admirabili ;  pro  patria ;  pro  rege  optimo,  patriae  patre 
"  integerrimo;  pro  fide  pura,  et  defascata  ecclesiae  Anglicanae 
u  vere  Christianas ;  mori  non  detrectans." 


A  List  of  the  Archdeacons. 


A 


NSCHITILLUS,  who  enjoyed  this  dignity  about  the  year  1089 
Herewyse  possessed  this  dignity  in  the  reign  of  K.  Henry  I. 
Robert  Pull  was  admitted  to  it  about  the  year  1140. 
Paris  was  archdeacon  in  1176,  on  the  resignation  of  the  former. 


ROCHESTER.  199 

Roger  De  Weseham,  about  1238  ;  he  was  also  dean  of  Lincoln, 
and  resigned  this  archdeaconry  in  1215,  on  being  made  bishop  of 
Litchfield  and  Coventry. 

William  De  Trippolaw,  about  1245. 

William  de  §ancto  Martino,  about  1267.     He  died  in  1274. 

••Jdhn  de  Sancto  Dionysio,  in  1280.  He  was  one  of  the  King's 
chaplains,  master  of  the  rolls,  and  rector  of  Bodiham  in  the  diocese 
of  Norwich. 

Roger  Lovel  enjoyed  this  dignity  in  1307. 

William  Read  was  archdeacon  of  this  diocese,  and  was  made  bi- 
shop of  Chichester,  in  1369. 

Roger  Denford  possessed  it  in  1395. 

Richard  Broun,  alias  Cordon,  died  possessed  of  this  dignity  in 
1452. 

Roger  Rotherham  was  possessed  of  it  in  1472,  having  been  a 
prebendary  of  the  church  of  Lincoln,  which  he  seems  to  have  resign- 
ed on  taking  this  preferment. 

Henry  Sharpe,  L  L.  D.  in  1486. 

Henry  Edyall  was  archdeacon  in  1495.  He  had  been  collated  to 
the  prebend  of  Gala  Minor,  in  the  church  of  Litchfield,  in  1480. 

Nicholas  Metcalfe,  S.  T.  P.  succeeded  him.  He  was  prebendary 
of  Lincoln,  and  rector  of  Woodham  Ferrers  in  Essex;  he  was  mas- 
ter of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  for  twenty  years,  and  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  July  4,   1537. 

Maurice  Griffith  succeeded  in  1537,  and  resigned  this  preferment 
in  1554,  on  his  being  made  bishop  of  this  see. 

John  Bridgewater  succeeded  Jan.  1,  1560,  being  then  rector  of 
Wotton  Courtney :  he  was  afterwards  rector  of  Lincoln  College, 
rector  of  Luccomb,  canon  residentiary  of  Wells,  and  rector  of  Por- 
lock;  all  which  he  resigned  in  1574,  being  a  Roman  Catholic,  aud 
retired  to  Rheims,  where  it  is  said  he  became  a  Jesuit. 

John  Calverly,  of  All  Souls  College,  succeeded  in  1574,  and 
dying  in  July  1576,  was  buried  at  Beckenham  in  this  county,  of 
which  church  he  was  rector. 

Ralph  Pickover,  S.  T.  P.  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  was  install- 


200  HISTORY  OF 

ed  July  5, 1576. '  He  was  sub-almoner  to  the  Queen,  and  in  1580 
was  preferred! o  a  canonry  of  Christ-church,  Oxford,  and  afterwards 
to  the  archdeaconry  of  Salisbury,  on  which  he  resigned  this  dignity, 
aiid  was  succeeded  by 

Thomas  Staller,  S.  T.  ^^1^4 ^^'ht^jj^ 
street,  was  installed  July  5,  1593.     He  died  in  1606/  *^<^ 

Thomas  Sanderson,  S.  T.  P.  of  Baliol  College,  Oxford,  was  in- 
stalled Aug.  1,  1606. 

Richard  Tillesley,  S.  T.  P.  and  rector  of  Stone  and  of  Cookstone 
in  this  diocese,  was  the  next  archdeacon.  He  died  in  Nov.  1621, 
and  was  buried  in  Rochester  cathedral. 

Elizeus  Burgess,  S.  T.  P.  was  installed  Nov.  24,  1621,  during 
whose  time  K.Charles  I,  by  his  let.  pat.  Dec.  6,  1636,  annexed 
the  6th  stall,  or  prebend  of  the  church  of  Rochester,  to  this  arch- 
deaconry ;  of  which,  as  well  as  his  other  preferments,  he  was  de- 
prived in  the  time  of  troubles  by  the  Fanatics.  He  was  also  pre- 
bendary of  Ely,  vicar  of  Canewdon  in  Essex,  and  rector  of  South- 
fleet  in  this  county.  He  died  in  1652,  and  was  probably  buried  at 
Southfleet. 

John  Lee,  S.  T.  P.  had  this  dignity  conferred  on  him  in  1660. 
He  was  the  son  of  Thomas  Lee,  of  London,  by  Anne,  daughter  of 
John  Warner,  bishop  of  Rochester,  and  wrote  himself  afterwards 
Lee,  alias  Warner.     He  died  about  the  month  of  June  1670. 

Thomas  Plume,  S.T.  P.  was  installed  June  10,  1679.  He  was 
likewise  vicar  of  East  Greenwich.  He  died  Nov.  20,  1704,  jet.  74, 
and  lies  buried  in  Longfield  church-yard  in  this  county. 

Thomas  Spratt,  A.  M.  succeeded  in  1704.  He  was  the  son  of 
the  bishop  of  this  see  of  the  same  name.  He  was  likewise  preben- 
dary of  the  churches  of  Winchester  and  Westminster,  rector  of 
Stone,  and  vicar  of  Boxley,  in  this  county.  He  died  May  10,  1720 
jet.  41,  and  was  buried  near  his  father  in  Westminster-abbey. 

Henry  Bridges,  S.  T.  P.  brother  of  James,  Duke  of  Chandois, 
was  appointed  his  successor,  May  20,  1720,  and  died  May  10, 
1728,  aet.  54.  He  was  rector  of  Agmondesham  in  the  county  of 
Bucks. 


ROCHESTER.  201 

Samuel  Bradford,  A.  M.  son  of  the  bishop  of  this  see,  succeeded 
him,  being  appointed  June  the  13th  the  same  year.  He  was  rector 
of  Newcastle  upon  Tyne,  and  died  July  13th  following.!'/ 'Z^  - 

John  Denne,  S.  T.  P.  was  appointed  his  successor  July  18th 
following.  He  was  rector  of  St.  Leonard's,  Shoreditch,  and  after- 
wards rector  of  Lambeth  ;  both  which  he  held  at  his  decease.  He 
died  August  5,  1767,  aet.  74,  and  lies  buried  in  this  cathedral. 

John  Law,  S.  T.  P.  was  his  successor,  and  is  the  present  arch- 
deacon of  this  diocese.  He  is  perpetual  curate  of  Chatham,  and 
now  holds  the  rectory  of  Westmill  in  the  county  of  Herts,  with 
that  of  Much  Easton  in  the  county  of  Essex,  by  dispensation. 

Of  this  venerable  archdeacon  we  have  already  spoken  in  a  note, 
p.  94  ;  and  it  may  not  be  improper  to  add,  in  confirmation  of  what 
is  there  stated,  that  the  clergy  of  this  diocese  have  recently  ex- 
pressed their  general  sense  of  his  merits,  and  their  unanimous  appro- 
bation of  his  conduct  in  that  dignified  station  to  which  he  has  been 
so  long  an  ornament,  by  presenting  him  with  an  elegant  silver  vase 
of  considerable  value,  on  which  is  the  following  appropriate  in- 
scription :—  WW;  />•*)  *&MWhi  T^l^S 

JOHANNI  LAW,  S.  T.  P. 

Archidiacono  Roffensi ; 

Ecclesiaj  Anglicanae, 

Cujus  purioris  discipline  rationem, 

Cujus  officia  et  fidem, 

Turn  concionandi  gravitate  et  copia, 

Turn  vita  et  moribus  illustravit, 

Defensori  spectatissimo; 

Venerando  huic  eidem  suo 

Plus  quadraginta  octo  annos 

Fautori,  Monitori,  Duci, 

Unde  nee  viduis,  quod  solitudini  opem  ferat, 

Nee  liberorum  orbitati,  ad  quod  confugiat  deest : 

Archidiaconatiis  Roftensis  Clerus 

Hoc  pii  et  grati  animi  munus 

Observantiae  ergo 

D.  D.  D. 

A.D.    MDCCCXV,  9  r/V/^v "7 

2d  i  .  i 


202  HISTORY  OF 


The  Grammar  School. 

X  HE  school  and  house  for  the  upper  master  joins  to  the  gate  »f 
the  church  precincts,  leading  towards  St.  Margaret's,  and  the  room 
over  that  gate  belong's  to  the  master's  house.  This  school  was 
founded  by  Henry  VIII.  with  an  appointment  of  an  upper  and  an 
under  master,  and  of  twenty  boys  called  "  King's  Scholars  ;"  to  be 
educated  on  the  foundation,  with  a  yearly  allowance,  which  they 
hare,  each  of  them,  from  the  church.  The  school  was  established, 
according  to  the  woids  of  the  charter;  "  Ut  pietas  et  bonae  literae 
"  perpetuo  in  nostra  ecclesia.  suppullescant,  crescant,  et  fioreant ; 
"  et  suo  tempore  in  gloriam  Dei;  et  reipublicae  commodum,  et 
"  ornamentum  fructificent." 

Henry  VIII.  endowed  this  school  with  four  exhibitions,  to  be 
paid  by  the  church  to  four  scholars  ;  two  of  them  to  be  of  Oxford, 
and  two  of  Cambridge  ;  which  exhibitions  of  five  pounds  a  year  to 
each  person,  they  enjoy  till  they  have  taken  the  degree  of  A.  M. 
provided  they  continue  members  of  the  universities,  and  have  not 
the  good  fortune  to  be  elected  fellows  of  their  respective  colleges. 

The  other  benefactor  to  this  school  was  Robert  Gunsley,  Clerk, 
rector  of  Titsey,  in  Surry,  who  by  his  will,  dated  December  15th, 
1618,  bequeathed  to  the  master  and  fellows  of  University  college, 
Oxford,  sixty  pounds  per  annum,  for  the  maintenance  of  four  scho- 
lars, to  be  chosen  from  the  free-school  of  Maidstone,  and  from  this 
grammar-school,  natives  of  the  county  of  Kent ;  who  are  to  be  al- 
lowed chambers  and  fifteen  pounds  a  year  each  ;  the  preference  to 
be  given  to  his  own  relations,  particularly  to  those  of  the  name  of 
Ayerst.* 

*  The  scholars  who  have  been  sent  from  this  school,  on  Mr.  Gunsley *s  foun- 
dation, are  as  follows.     (Note  F.  K.  signifies  founder  s  kinsmen.) 
F.  K.     Thomas  Ayerst,  elected  for  the  first  choice,  November  17th,  1648. 


ROCHESTER.  203 

At  this  school  the  reverend  William  Ayerst,  D.  D.  late  pre- 
bendary of  Canterbury,  received  the  first  part  of  his  education, 
under  Paul  Baristow,  M.  A.  The  doctor  was  secretary  to  the 
embassy  at  the  congress  for  the  treaty  of  peace  held  at  Utrecht  in 
the  year  1712.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  great  politeness  and  learn- 
ing; and  much  esteemed  among  persons  of  the  first  rank  aud 
distinction,  who  were  his  contemporaries. 

The  late  reverend  M.  Jonathan  Soan,  master  of  this  school  had 
the  happiness  to  educate  Mr.  John  Pilgrim,  a  most  amiable,  learned 
and  ingenious  youth  ;  who  was  removed  from  hence  to  St.  John's 
college  in  Cambridge.  Rapid  and  extensive  was  the  progress  he 
made  in  the  different  branches  of  learning,  which  are  assiduously 
cultivated  in  that  ancient  seminary.  But  unhappily  for  his  family 
and  friends,  though  not  for  himself,  since  young  as  he  was,  he  was 
exemplarily  virtuous,  and  religious ;  his  days  were  soon  numbered. 
He  died  in  the  year  1753  of  a  lingering  disorder,   the  effects  pro- 

F.  K.     Thomas  Deane,  May  3,  1659. 

F.  K.     James  Deane. 

F.  K.     Edward  Deane,  December  21,  1671. 

Thomas  Allen,  June  4,   1686. 
F.  K.     Thomas  Ayerst,  August  31,  1691. 

James  Dixon,  July  24,  1693. 
F.  K.     Gunsley,  John  Ayerst,  March  8,  1700. 

John  Walsall,   February  2,   1704. 

James  Hales,  April  24,  1716. 

Francis  Gibson,  March  24,  1720-21. 

Henry  Swinden,  September  14,  1T22. 

William  Dormer,  June  17,  1735. 
F.  K.     Francis  Gunsley  Ayerst,  October  12,  1744. 

Austen  Gammon,  September  16,  1749. 

Edmund  Faunce,  February  15,  1753. 

Richard  Fletcher,  February  27,  1756. 

James  Allett  Leigh,  1789. 

George  Davies,  November  1803. 
We  would  willingly  have  continued  the  list  down  to   the  present  time;  but 
we  cannot  find,  on  the  most  diligent  enquiry,  that  any   regular  account  of  the 
scholars  who  have  been  sent  to  the  university  from  this  school  subsequently  to 
tfie  year  1756,  is  preserved. 


204  HISTORY   OF 

bably  of  too  intense  an  application  to  his  studies,  but  not  before  he 
had  been  favored  with  one  of  the  highest  marks  of  distinction,  the 
university  of  Cambridge  confers  on  such  of  her  members  who  excel 
in  philosophic  sciences,  and  had  also  obtained  one  of  the  honorary 
rewards  judiciously  instituted  in  the  preceding  year  by  its  illustrious 
chancellor,  the  late  duke  of  Newcastle,  in  order  to  encourage  the 
advancement  of  classical  knowledge. 

Mr.  Soan  might  also  justly  boast  of  having  had  for  his  scholar  the 
late  worthy  and  eminent,  Richard  Leigh,  esq  ;  recorder  of  this 
city  :  whose  death  was  a  loss  justly  lamented  by  this  town,  and  by 
his  country. 

Among  the  young  men  who,  have  been  sent  to  the  universities 
from  this  school,  Mr.  John  Hodges,  son  of  John  Hodges,  esq.  of 
Nethersole  house,  Barham,  near  Canterbury,  is  entitled  to  par- 
ticular notice.  He  entered  at  university  college,  Oxford,  where  he 
so  distinguished  himself  by  his  attainments  as  a  scholar,  and  parti- 
cularly by  his  proficiency  in  classical  learning,  that  he  had  the 
honour,  on  taking  the  degree  of  B.  A.  in  the  present  year  1S17,  of 
being  ranked  in  the  first  class. 

This  royal  grammar  school,  which,  since  its  foundation,  has  sup- 
plied the  universities  with  many  excellent  scholars  besides  those 
above-mentioned,  and  to  which  many  respectable  members  of  the 
community  have  been  indebted  for  their  education,  is  at  present  in 
avery  florishing  situation.  The  upper  master  is  the  reverend  John 
Griffiths  A.  M.  late  fellow  of  Queen's  college,  Oxford,  who  for  some 
years  has  conducted  the  school  (  the  fame  of  which  has  been  more 
widely  diffused  during  the  time  that  hehas  presided  over  it,  than  at 
any  former  period,)  with  much  credit  to  himself,  and  with  much 
advantage  to  his  numerous  scholars.  His  predecessor  was  the 
reverend  Evan  Rice  A.  M.  of  Pembroke  college.  Oxford,  under 
whose  care  he  himself  had  been  educated,  and  upon  whose  death  in 
1801,  he  succeeded  to  the  school.  The  assistant  master  is  the  Rev. 
James  Jones,  rector  of  Kingsdown,  in  this  county. 


ROCHESTER.  205 


St.  Nicholas  Church. 


T, 


HE  churches  of  St.  Nicholas,  St.  Margaret,  and  Strood,  are  the 
only  three  now  standing  within  the  liberties  of  the  city  of  Roches- 
ter; but  mention  is  made  in  the  Regist.  Roff.  of  one  dedicated  to 
St.  Mary  ;  and  that  there  was  another  to  St.  Clement,  appears  from 
various  waitings  of  a  much  later  date.  That  of  St.  Mary  was  placed 
without  the  wall  in  the  south  east  quarter  of  the  city,  on  a  piece  of 
land  called  the  "  Healve  aker,"  which  was  given  by  Ethel  wolf  king 
of  the  West  Saxons,  with  the  consent  of  Ethelstan  king  of  Kent,  to 
duke  Ealhere*.  The  church  of  St.  Clement  was  not  suffered  to  go 
to  decay+,  or  rather  was  not  applied  to  ause  different  from  what  it 
was  originally  designed  for,  till  after  the  reformation,  when  the 
parish  was  united  to  that  of  St.  Nicholas.  This  last  is  probably  the 
more  ancient  parish  ;  the  name  of  it  occurs  as  early  as  the  time  of 
Gundulph  :  and  from  the  expressions  used  by  that  prelate,  it  should 
seem  that  there  was  a  district  under  that  denomination,  prior  to  the 
conquest!.  The  inhabitants  of  it,  however,  had  not  any  peculiar 
church  for  many  centries  after,  but  they  had  a  right  to  offer  their 
devotions  at  an  altr.r  in  the  cathedral  which  was  styled  "  the 
parochial  altar  of  St.  Nicholas."  Some  have  thought,  and  it  was 
indeed  a  claim  avowed  by  the  monks,  that  their  right  reverend 
patron  and  protector  had  settled  on  them  not  only  all  the  tythes  of 
the  parish,  but  all  the  profits  of  the  altar  ;  however,  the  words  of 
this  suspicious  grant  imply  no  more,  than  that  the  prior  and  convent 
were  to  present  to  the  bishop  the  clerk  who  should  officiate  at  it. 
And  when,  after  a  tedious  suit  at  the  court  of  Rome,  pope  Coelles- 

*  See  Regist  Roff.  p.  23. 

■t  A  rate  for  the  reparation  of  this  church  was  ordered  to  be  made  at  the 
archdeacon's  visitation,  October  25,  1329. 

\   See  Regist.  Roff.  p.  6. 


206  HISTORY  OF 

tine,  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  bishop  Ascelin,  granted  a  bull  of 
restitution  to  the  convent  of  St.  Andrew,  of  many  churches  of  which 
archdeacon  Robert  Poleyn  had  forcibly  deprived  them  ;  the  altar 
of  St.  Nicholas  is  said  to  have  been  restored  to  Jordan  the  chaplain, 
as  if  he  had  been  the  person  more  immediately  interested*.  During 
the  cccl«6iastical  administration  of  Walter,  who  sat  in  this  see  from 
the  years  1147  to  1182,  the  religious  certainly  obtained  an  appro- 
priation of  this  altar  +  :  this  grant  was  set  aside  by  Glanvill  ;  who 
reserved,  or,  more  properly,  restored  to  the  bishops  of  Rochester, 
the  right  of  collating  a  clerk  to  this  parish  ;  but  in  order  to  heal  the 
rupture  which  had  long  subsisted  between  him  and  the  monks,  he 
consented  that  they  should  quietly  enjoy  an  annual  pension  of  forty 
shillings,  which  was  to  be  paid  to  them  quarterly,  by  the  incumbent 
for  the  time  being!;  and  as  it  is  termed  "  A  due  and  accustomed 
pension,"  we  conclude  that  the  officiating  chaplain,  on  his  appoint- 
ment to  that  office,  had  always  agreed  to  pay  them  that  sum,  in  con- 
sideration of  his"  being  permitted  to  receive  all  the  emoluments  of  the 
cure.  From  the  time  of  Glanvill,  the  patronage  of  this  living  has 
remained  in  the  bishops  of  this  see  ;  and  a  list  of  the  vicars,  with 
very  few  interruptions,  may  be  deduced  from  the  year  1319. 

In  the  account  of  the  cathedral,  already  given  in  this  work, 
p.  G3 ;  it  was  intimated  that  the  quarter  of  the  church,  in  which 
the  altar  of  St.  Nicholas  was  originally  placed,  could  not  be  ac- 
curately determined  ;  but  the  reader  was  apprised  of  its  being  re 
moved  into  the  upper  end  of  the  nave,  not  far  from  the  steps  leading 
into  the  choir.  As  this  change  was  made  without  the  privity,  or 
undoubtedly  without  the  consent  of  the  parishioners,  it  occasioned 
an  altercation  between  them  and  the  monks  ;  but  the  difference 
was  at  length  compromised,  as  it  appears  by  a  judicial  act  dated  the 
Cth  of  April,  1312,  and  printed  in  the  Regist.  Roff.  p.  545  ;  some 
of  the  terms  were,  that  "  neither  the  vicar  nor  his  substitute  should, 
"  without  notice,  celebrate  mass  at  that  altar,  except  on  Sundays 
"  and  on  the  festival  of  All  Saints  ;  St.  Nicholas;  the  nativity  of 

*  See  Regist.  Roff.  p.  8. 

i  Ibid.  p.  43  and  528.     J   Ibid.  p.  529,  143. 


ROCHESTER.  207 

*  our  Lord  ;  and  of  the  purification  of  the  virgin  Mary  ;  and  that 
"  even  on  those  days  they  should  officiate  at  an  hour  that  would 
"  least  interfere  with  the  time  of  the  monks  performing  their  religi- 
"  ous  services."  The  vicar  was  indeed  permitted,  if  he  pleased, 
to  preach  to  his  flock  on  the  four  principal  feasts,  and  even  on 
Sundays  ;  but  this  duty  was  to  be  discharged  immediately  after 
mass  was  ended.  Every  parishioner,  on  being  convicted  of  a  breach 
of  the  rules  established  in  this  agreement,  was,  for  each  offeuce,  to 
forfeit  four  shillings,  which  fines  were  to  be  applied  towards  de- 
fraying the  expences  of  the  holy  war.  It  is  plain  from  this  instance 
and  from  other  circumstances  which  might  be  specified,  that  much 
inconvenience  and  trouble  must  unavoidably  have  ensued  to  the 
monks,  from  the  right  which  the  inhabitants  of  this  parochial  district 
had  to  frequent  the  altar  of  St.  Nicholas  ;  and  yet  so  desirous  were 
the  former  of  keeping  the  latter  in  a  state  of  dependence  on  the 
mother  church,  that  though  in  this  deed  there  is  a  kind  of  promise 
from  the  prior  and  his  chapter  to  accommodate  the  parishioners  with 
a  piece  of  ground  on  whioh  they  might  erect  a  church  for  their  sepa- 
rate use,  more  than  an  hundred  years  passed  before  this  favor  could 
be  obtained.  The  spirited  conduct,  however,  of  bishop  Yonge, 
and  the  interposition  of  archbishop  Chichely,  to  whose  arbitration 
all  parties  consented  to  submit,  at  length  prevailed  over  the  pride 
and  obstinacy  of  the  monks  ;  and  the  inhabitants  were,  by  a  com- 
position dated  March  7,  1421,  suffered  to  finish  a  church,  the  walls 
of  which  had  been  raised  several  years  before,  in  the  north  side  of 
the  cemetery.  This  agreement  is  inserted  in  the  Regist.  Rolf.  p.  5G3, 
to  which  book  we  refer  the  curious  reader,  as  we  have  only  room  to 
take  notice  of  some  of  the  principal  articles  of  it. 

And  by  the  first  article  of  the  agreement,  the  inhabitants  of  this 
parish  were  on  no  account  to  enlarge  without  leave  of  the  convent, 
the  original  building,  except  by  the  addition  of  a  belfry*,    at  the 

*  When  a  belfry  was  first  erected  is  not  clear,  certainly  not  before  1552; 
because  Alicia  Hunt  bequeathed  by  her  will,  which  was  dated  in  that  year, 
four  marks,  to  he  paid  by  her  executors.  "  In  inchoatione  fabrica*  ramna- 
"  nilis  eccles.  St,  Nich.  Roffen. 

• 


208  HISTORY  OF 

north  west  end  of  the  ehurch  ;  and  the  hours  were  ascertained  on 
which  they  were  permitted  to  ring  the  bells.  The  parishioners 
were  to  renounce  their  old  claim  of  performing  divine  offices  at  the 
altar  of  St.  Nicholas  within  the  cathedral ;  but  as  a  mark  of  their 
obedience  to  that  church,  they  were  to  attend  the  celebration  of 
mass  on  the  day  of  its  dedication  ;  and  the  vicar  was  likewise,  as 
formerly,  to  bear  the  host  in  the  procession  of  the  monks,  on  some 
particular  days  of  the  year.  As  solemn  processions,  in  that  super- 
stitious age,  were  judged  to  be  an  essential  part  of  religious  service  ; 
and  as  the  district  allotted  to  the  parishioners  was  very  confined, 
the  monks  consented,  that  they  should,  after  walking  round  the 
north-east  side  of  St.  Nicholas  church,  enter  into  the  cathedral  at 
the  door  of  the  north  cross,  and  pass  out  of  it  again  at  the  north 
door  leading  into  the  church-yard.  The  inhabitants  were  to  be  per- 
mitted to  bury  in  this  part  of  the  cemetery,  on  paying  a  certain  fee 
to  the  servant  of  the  convent,  whose  duty  it  was  to  dig  the  graves  ; 
bnt  they  had  a  right  to  inter  their  dead  in  the  other  ground,  with- 
out making  any  acknowledgement  ;  however,  almost  all  the  fences 
of  both  church-yards  were  to  be  repaired  and  renewed  at  the  charge 
of  the  parish.  That  this  article  of  the  composition  was  not  well 
observed,  is  evident  from  sundry  presentments,  in  the  bishop's  court, 
against  the  church-wardens  and  inhabitants  for  their  neglect  of  it  ; 
and  in  the  year  1514,  the  vicar  was  prohibited  the  performing  of 
divine  offices,  because  the  hogs  were  suffered  to  enter  daily  into 
this  consecrated  ground,  and  destroy  the  graves  of  persons  who  were 
interred  therein.  A  difference  arose  between  the  convent  and  the 
parishioners  of  St  Nicholas,  soon  after  the  finishing  their  church, 
from  their  attempting  to  erect  a  porch  at  the  west  end.  The  monks 
were  to  be  commended  for  putting  a  stop  to  this  work,  as  it  was  a 
direct  violation  cf  the  original  agreement,  and  particularly  as  the  new 
building  must  have  obstructed  the  passage  leading  from  the  cemetery 
gate  to  the  cathedral,  and  to  the  entrance  into  the  priory.  They 
applied  to  the  bishop  for  a  redress  of  this  grievance  ;  and  his  lord- 
ship, having  cited  the  church-wardens,  the  Mayor,  and  some  of  the 
citizens,  to  appear  before  him?  they  promised  that  the  porch  should 


ROCHESTER.  209 

be  immediately  removed.  No  description,  as  far  as  we  can  learn, 
is  extant  of  this  church  ;*  but  it  appears  from  the  copy  of  the  will 
of  Thomas  Shemyng,  dated  September  1 523,  that  there  were  several 
chapels,  or  at  least  different  altars  on  which  lights  were  constantly 
burning.  For  after  directing  his  body  to  be  buried  in  the  chancel 
of  our  Lady  in  St.  Nicholas  church  ;  and  having  bequeathed  ten 
shillings  to  the  high  aultar  for  his  tythes  forgotten,  he  gives  to  the 
Lady-light  in  the  body  of  the  church  three  shillings  and  four  pence, 
to  the  lights  of  St.  George,  St.  Erasmus,  S».  Nicholas,  and  St.  An- 
thony, ten-pence  each,  and  to  the  lights  of  the  aultars  of  the  Trinity 
and  St.  Joone,  the  same  sum.  The  testator  was  in  other  instances 
a  benefactor  to  this  church;  he  gave  thirty  shillings  to  the  best  be- 
hoofe  of  it,  and  fifteen  shillings  to  the  reparation  of  the  steeple;  he 
likewise  bequeathed  a  fine  surplice  of  eight-pence  an  ell,  and  to  the 
chainging  of  organnes  five  shillings.  The  church,  having  stood 
nearly  two  hundred  years,  became  so  dilapidated  that  in  1620  a 
complete  and  thorough  repair  was  absolutely  necessary  to  preserve 
it  from  total  ruin.  And  although  over  the  west  door  is  an  inscribed 
tablet  purporting  that  this  church  was  rebuilt  in  the  year  1624, 
which  account  is  corroborated  by  an  entry  in  the  register  ;  yet  the 
appearance  of  the  building  itself,  as  well  as  the  brief  issued  for  its 
repairs,  and  other  documents  evince  its  extreme  fallacy.  + 

The  building,  having  undergone  a  state  of  repairs  so  complete 
that  it  might  almost  be  considered' as  an  entire  new  structure,  was 
a  second  time  if  consecrated,  Sept.  24,  1624,  by  Dr.  John  Bucke- 
ridge,  bishop  of  Rochester  :§  it  extends  in  length  from  east  to  west 
one  hundred  feet,  and  from  north  to  south  sixty  feet  :  it  is  a  very 
substantial  building ;  the  stone  walls  are  of  a  considerable  thickness, 
and  supported  on  all  sides  by  buttresses;  it  consists  of  a  nave   and 

*  There  was  certainly  an  entrance  from  the  south,  see  Regist.  Roff.  p.  565. 

t  Beauties  of  England,  vol.  8,  p.  655. 

J  It  appears  to  have  been  consecrated  on  the  18th  of  December,  1423  ;  see 
Regist.  Roff.  p.  570. 

^  On  the  following  day  the  like  ceremony  was  performed  on  an  additional 
burial  ground. 

2e 


210  HISTORY  OF 

two  isles,  the  isles  are  divided  from,the  nave  by  two  ranges  of  lofty 
stone  columns,  from  which  spring  the  Gothic  arches  that  support 
the  roof;  the  church  is  spacious,  and  extremely  well  constructed 
for  public  worship.  In  the  chancel  is  a  very  handsome  wainscot 
altar-piece  of  the  Corinthian  order,  finely  enriched  ;  this  altar-piece 
was  given  by  Edward  Bartholomew,  esquire,  A.  D.  1706  ;  the  same 
gentleman  gave  for  the  use  of  this  church,  2  silver  flaggons,  and  a 
patten  of  thirty  pounds  price.  From  a  list  of  benefactions  near  the 
altar-piece  it  appears,  that  Edward  Harlow,  in  1609,  gave  a  gilt 
cup  for  the  service  of  the  communion  :  Francis  Brooke,  esq.  in  1703 
gave  a  large  silver  plate  for  collecting  the  offerings  at  the  commu- 
nion :  Henry  Austen,  gentleman,  in  1704,  gave  two  very  handsome 
and  large  common  prayer  books  to  be  placed  at  the  communion 
table.  In  three  of  the  north  windows  are  the  arms  of  several 
families  painted,*  in  good  preservation.  Near  the  west  door  is  a 
very  ancient  stone  font,  with  the  word  CRISTJAN  round  it  in 
ancient  capitals.  At  the  ncrth-west  angle  ofthe  church  is  a  square 
embattled  tower  containing  two  bells.  There  are  but  few  monu- 
ments or  inscriptions  of  any  considerable  antiquity  in  this  church, 
two  only  are  preserved  of  what  were  in  the  former  fabric  ;  one  is  an 
inscription  on  a  brass  plate  fixed  in  the  north  wall,  to  the  memory 
of  Thomason  Hall,  who  died  the  30th  of  August,  1575;  the  other 
is  a  flat  stone  lying  in  the  chancel,  which,  by  an  inscription,  appears 
to  have  been  laid  down  in  1577.  There  are  several  elegant  monu- 
ments of  a  later  date,  one  in  particular  erected  near  the  west  door,  to 
the  memory  of  George  Gordon,  esq.  late  a  merchant  of  this  city. 
The  ground  of  the  niche  and  tympan  of  the  pediment  are  jasper 
marble.  The  embellishments  are  statuary  marble  elegantly  executed. 
Among  the  monumental  inscriptions,  the  most  curious  is  one  on 
a  fair  marble  monument  on  the  west  wall,  in  Latin,  interspersed 
with  Greek  quotations  from  scripture,  a  copy  of  which  we  shall 
here  insert : — 

*  The  arms  in  the  north  window  in  the  chancel  are  those  of  John  Cobham, 
esquire  and  alderman  of  this  City,  who  set  up  this  window  at  his  own  charge 
in  1621,  the  year  in  which  the  church  was  finished. 


ROCHESTER-  211 

Infra  hunc  locum 

Dormiunt  in  pace  beatam  domini  Jesu  Epiphaniam 

Praestolantes,  Philippus  Bartholomeus,  generosus, 

Et  Sara  uxor  ejus  dilectissima;  vixerunt 

~Eu<pp6*!>.'c,  h-.ia.tuq  iCj  iCcrtQwc,     Tit.  II. 

Obierunt  eodem  anno  tv  zlfv.vT)  *}  evQxvcccr'.a. 

Hasc  24.  Apr.  169C.     llle  5.  Aug.  seq.  &  jam 

In  tumulo  conditi  sunt,  ucrvsp  o-Troc. 

fipi/itof  Kara,  xenplv  §£p(£oj£Ey6$.       Job  V. 

Civ  avaSewpfcvlsf  T»)V  £«oaj-iv  t>jc  «'v«rfo£ri;-, 

MifAiivSt  rqvairri.     Hee.  XIII.     Alonumentum 

Hoc,  pietatis  ergo,  posuit  Leonardus 

Bartholomew,  filius  ipsorum 

Unicus  jam  supentes. 

It  has  been  already  mentioned,  that  the  parish  formerly  called 
St.  Clement  is  united  to  this  of  St.  Nicholas ;  but  the  date  of  the 
consolidation  cannot  be  absolutely  determined,  as  no  public  instru- 
ment relating  to  it  is  extant.  Dr.  Harris,  iu  his  history  of  Kent, 
says,  it  was  done  by  act  of  parliament  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. 
but  as  no  special  law  for  that  purpose  occurs  in  the  statute  book 
during  the  reign  of  that  prince,  it  seems  most  probable  that  the 
junction  was  effected  by  the  37th  of  Henry  VIII.  c.  21.  (A.  D. 
1546),  by  which  churches  might  be  united,  where  one  of  them  is 
not  above  the  yearly  value  of  six  pounds,  particularly  in  corpora- 
tions, with  the  consent  of  the  chief  magistrate.  And  there  is  one 
circumstance  which  inclines  us  to  believe  that  this  consolidation 
was  made  soon  after  the  passing  of  that  statute;  for  the  living  of 
St.  Clement  being  vacant  in  February,  1538,  by  the  death  or  ces- 
sion of  John  Harrope,  the  last  rector  collated  to  it,  the  parish,  as 
appears  from  the  consistorial  acts,  was  served  by  different  curates 
to  154G,  but  from  that  date  no  mention  is  made  of  any  assistant 
clergyman.  A  considerable  part  of  the  walls  of  this  church  is  still 
remaining  at  the  entrance  into  the  lane  formerly  called  St.  Cle- 
ment's, but  now  Horsewash-lane  ;  the  east  end  or  chancel  is  visi- 
ble; the  south  wall,  or  a  part  of  it;  is  now  the  front  of  three  houses 


212  HISTORY  OF 

almost  opposite  to  Bridge-lane,  "and  the  north  wall  forms  the  back 
of  these  houses:  the  width  of  the  church  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  above  forty  feet,  and  a  row  of  pillars  and  arches  extended  from 
east  to  west  at  about  fourteen  feet  from  the  north  wall.  Adjoining 
to  the  north  wall  of  the  church  was  the  church-yard,  which  had  be- 
come private  property,  A.  D.  1580,  as  appears  from  an  entry  in  a 
court  roll ;  and  according  to  another  minute  in  the  same  roll,  the 
garden  of  the  parsonage  Mas  situated  at  no  great  distance  from  the 
mill  ditch,  and  the  north  wall  of  the  city.  In  a  former  part  of  this 
work,  p.  43,  mention  was  made  of  a  chapel  being  erected  at  the 
east  end  of  the  bridge  by  Sir  John  Cobham.*  It  was  called  "  Al- 
lesolven  chapel, "+  and  three  chaplains,  to  be  appointed  by  the 
wardens  of  the  bridge,  were  to  officiate  in  it.  They  were  to  have 
apartments  in  the  houses  contiguous  to  the  chapel,  in  which  they 
were  to  be  constantly  resident,  and  each  of  them  was  to  receive  an 
annual  allowance  of  six  pounds.  These  stipends  were  to  be  de- 
frayed out  of  estates  appropriated  to  the  repair  of  the  bridge  ;  but 
there  being  a  deficiency  in  these  revenues,  on  an  application  to  king 
Henry  VI,  that  prince,  in  1421,  granted  to  the  chaplains  a  yearly 
fee  farm  rent  of  one  hundred  shillings,  which  the  abbey  of  St.  Aus- 
tin's, in  Canterbury,  used  to  pay  to  the  crown  for  lands  in  this 
county.^  The  pious  founder  of  this  chantry  designed  it  chiefly  for 
the  use  of  travellers,^  and  as  it  was  situated  within  the  parish  of 
St.  Clement  ;  he  took  every  possible  precaution  that  the  rectors  of 
that  district  should  not  be  sufferers  by  this  institution.  Some 
months  previous  to  the  endowment,  ||  articles  of  composition  were 
signed  by  John  Tutnor,  of  Lambeth,  the  incumbent  at  that  time, 

*  On  the  ground  where  the  chapel  stood,  a  very  neat  stone  building  was 
erected  by  the  wardens  of  the  bridge  in  1735;  the  upper  part  of  this  building 
is  termed  the  bridge  chamber,  and  it  is  here  the  wardens  hold  their  meetings. 
On  the  front  of  the  building  are  the  arms  of  several  benefactors  to  the  bridge. 

+  See  Regist.  Rolfen.  p.  555.  J  Ibid.  p.  573. 

§  There  was  a  chantry  on  the  Strood  side  of  the  river  adjoining  to  the  bridge, 
built  for  the  same  use.     See  Reg.  Henry  Holbeach,  fol.  42.  b. 

||  See  Regist.  Roffens.  p.  557. 


ROCHESTER.  213 

and  David  Whyte,  chaplain,  by  which  it  was  stipulated,  among  other 
things,  that  all  the  oblations  made  in  the  new  erected  chapel  should 
be  delivered  to  the  rectors.  The  profits  of  this  benefice  being  very 
small,*  it  was  necessary  to  secure  to  the  incumbents  everv  emolu- 
ment of  this  kind,  and  when  masses  and  other  superstitious  cere- 
monies of  the  Roman  church,  were  abolished,  there  was  no  longer 
a  sufficient  income  for  the  support  of  a  minister;  and  this  was  the 
reason  of  the  parish  of  St.  Clement  being  annexed  to  tiiat  of  St. 
Nicholas,  after  the  commencement  of  the  reformation.  Another 
union  or  addition  seems  to  be  now  wanting  ;  for  the  proportional 
value  of  this,  as,  of  most  town  livings,  being  much  diminished,  the 
annual  profits  are  an  inadequate  allowance  for  the  trouble  of  so 
populous  and  laborious  a  cure.  As  the  net  income  of  it  exceeded 
fifty  pounds  in  the  reign  of  queen  Anne,  when  a  valuation  was  mad<5 
of  all  parochial  benefices,  the  vicars  were  not  only  debarred  the  ad- 
vantage of  an  augmentation  from  the  bounty  of  that  princess,  but 
also  remained  subject  to  a  heavy  charge  of  first  fruits  and  tenths. + — ■ 
The  bishops  of  Rochester  are,  us  before  observed,  the  patrons  of  St. 
Nicholas  ;  ac(S  their  lordships  having  likewise  in  their  disposal 
several  small  livings  in  the  neighbourhood  of  this  city,  it  will  most 
probably  be  hereafter  found  expedient  to  collate  the  vicar  of  this 
parish  to  one  or  other  of  those  benefices.  A  house  was  allotted  to 
the  incumbents  some  centuries  ago ;  it  was  situated  not  far  from  the 
free-school;  and  a  piece  of  ground  which  belonged  to  it  extends  to 
the  north  wall  of  the  city.  This  old  house,  which  was  exchanged 
for  the  present  vicarage  house  on  Boley-hill,  was  taken  downseve- 

*  The  income  of  this  rectory  must  have  been  very  trifling,  as  it  never  T?as 
in  charge  for  first  fruits  and  tenths,  nor  was  it,  as  far  as  appears,  ever  subject 
to  an  assessment,  except  of  one  shilling  in  the  year  1533,  towards  defraying  the 
expence  of  a  proctor  for  the  convocation :  whereas  A.  D.  1523  the  senior  priest 
of  this  chapel  was  taxed  at  six  pounds,  thirteen  shillings,  and  four-peuce  and 
the  other  two  at  six  pounds  each. 

+  Anno  20  Edward  I.  A.  D.  1291,  St.  Nicholas  was  rated  only  at  five 
marks :  by  the  variation  taken  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  it  was  raised  to 
twenty  pounds,  eight  shillings,  and  nine-peiue. 


214  HISTORY  OF 

ral  years  ago,  and  Mr.  Alderman  Stevens's  brewhouse  is  built  on 
the  spot  where  it  formerly  stood.  A  quit  rent  of  one  shilling  and 
fight  pence  per  year  is  paid  for  it  to  the  dean  and  chapter  of  Ro- 
chester, as  lords  of  the  manor  of  Ambree. 


St.  Catherine's  Hospital,  in  Eastgate. 


Ai 


.MONG  other  charitable  foundations  in  this  city,  is  that  of 
St.  Catherine's  hospital,  built  and  endowed  so  early  as  1316,  by 
Symon  Potyn,  master  of  the  Crown  inn.*  Pity  it  is,  that  no  other 
well  disposed  persons  of  this  neighbourhood,  or  county,  have  in  so 
long  a  time  added  their  beneficence  to  the  increasing  of  the  very 
scanty  revenue  of  this  charity  ;  except  one  gentleman  who  will  be 
mentioned  in  the  close  of  this  article  :  and  it  were  the  rather  to  be 
wished;  as  the  poor  persons  in  this  hospital,  who,  with  that  small 
addition,  have  not  a  sufficiency  for  the  necessary  support  of  life,  in 
these  times,  are  yet  considered  as  disqualified  for  receiving  a  farther 
relief  from  the  parish,  or  from  other  charities.  The  design  of  this 
institution  will  appear  from  the  will  of  the  founder,  which,  as  it  is 
in  many  respects  curious,  is  here  inserted. 


THE    LAST    WILL    OF   SYMOND    POTYN. 

JLN  the  name  of  God.  Amen.  In  the  worship  and  reverence 
of  almightie  God  oner  Lord  Jhesu  Christ,  and  his  moder  saint 
Marie  the  blessed  virgine,  and  all  hollie  saintes  of  paradice,  I 
Symond  Potyn,  dwellinge  in  the  inne  called  the  Crowne  in  saint 
Clementes  parishe  of  Rochester,,  have  ordeined  an  howse  with  the 
appurtenaunces  called  the  Spittell  of  saint  Katherine  of  Rochester 
in  the  suburbe  in  Eastgate,  with  suche  chardge  that  if  it  happe 
anie  man  or  woman  of  the  cittie  of  Rouchester  to  be  visited  with 

*  Simon  Totin  appears  to  have  represented  (his  city  in  sev«n  parliaments  in 
the  reigns  of  Edward  I.  and  II. 


ROCHESTER.  215 

lepre,  or  other  suche  diseases  that  longe  to  impotence,  -with  un- 
power  of  povertie,  there  sholde  be  receaved  in  the  same  spy  tell, 
and  there  for  to  abide  be  almes  of  all  christien  people,  and  the 
foresaide  lepires,  or  other  pouer  mendicantes  after  my  daye  in 
thyme  cominge  that  theare  now  be,  and  theie  that  shalbe  in  the 
same  spitell,  shalbe  under  the  governaunce  and  correction  speciali 
of  the  vicary  of  saint  Nicholas  of  Rouchester,  and  the  heires  of 
me  the  same  Symond  Potyn,  dwellinge  in  Crowne  afforesaide,  and 
be  John  St.  Denys  and  his  heyres,  and  be  the  bayley  of  the  same 
cittie  for  time  beinge.  Fyrst,  the  saide  vykerie  and  other  persons 
shall  make  and  ordeine  the  priour  in  the  same  spytell,  and  after 
him  remeve,  if  lawful  cause  askith,  and  put  in  an  other  person 
able,  and  theie  shall  chargdeall  other  that  there  shalbe  dwellinge, 
that  theie  shalbe  good  and  true  and  obeisant  unto  theire  priour, 
and  that  theie  shall  do  his  commaundementes  at  all  times  to  theire 
power,  also  the  gooddes  that  theie  take  of  almes  well  and  trulie 
theie  shall  deliver  them  to  theire  priour,  so  that  the  priour  deliver 
and  departe  the  foresaide  gooddes  amonge  them,  eyerie  parson 
after  the  quantitie,  so  that  the  spytell  have  his  parte  as  it  comes 
to,  for  chargies  that  longe  thereto ;  also  the  men  or  the  wemen 
of  the  aforesaide  spytell,  shall  not  passe  nor  departe  outeofthe 
spytell  withoute  leave  askinge  of  their  priour.  Also  that  none  of 
them  be  oute  of  the  spytell  after  the  sonne  goinge  doune,  but  if  it 
be  for  the  profite  of  the  priour,  and  all  other  persons  of  the  house; 
also  that  none  of  them  haunt  the  taverne  to  go  to  ale,  but  when 
theie  have  talent  or  desier  to  drynke,  theire  shall  bye  theare 
drinke,  and  bringe  yt  to  the  spiteil ;  also  that  none  of  them  be 
debator,  baretor,  dronkelew,  nor  rybawde  of  his  tounge,  nor  of 
other  misrule  nor  evell  governaunce,  and  if  anie  be,  the  priour, 
with  tweyne  good  men  of  Eastgate,  shall  com  to  the  vicarie,  and 
other  persons  aforesaide,  and  make  there  complainte,  and  then 
the  vicarie,  and  other  persons,  shall  put  them  oute  of  the  same 
spittle  for  evermore,  withoute  anie  thing  takinge  with  them  but 
theare  clothinge  and  their  bedde  ;  also  theie  shall  have  in  chardge 
that  at  certeine  hower  at  morn,  and  an  other  bower  at  even,  be 


216  HISTORY   OF 

4  assignement  of  their  priour,  theie  shall  saie  in  eyerie  hower  our 
*  ladie  sawter,  for  the  prosperitie  of  our  liege  lorde  the  kinge  of 
4  Englande,  and  all  the  readme  of  Englande,  and  for  the  good  state 
4  of  the  same  Symond  while  that  he  live,  and  for  his  sowlle,  and 
4  all  christien  when  he  is  ded,  and  to  kepe  the  same  reule  or  better, 
'  be  discretion  of  good  conscience  of  the  vicarie  and  persons  affore- 
4  saide  now  and  evermore.  Dated  in  the  feast  of  Christmas  in  the 
4  yere  of  our  lorde  Jhesu  Christ  m.ccc.xvi.  reigninge  our  lorde 
4  kinge  Edvvarde  called  of  Carnarvan,  the  Sonne  of  kynge  Edwards 
4  the  fyrst  after  the  conquest.' 

This  Hospital  escaped  at  the  reformation,  and  continued  to  be 
used  according  to  the  will  of  the  founder,  superstition  excepted  ; 
but  toward  the  close  of  the  last  century,  abuses  having  arisen  a 
complaint  was  lodged  against  the  persons  concerned  by  the  church- 
wardens and  overseers  of  the  parish  of  St.  Nicholas,  that  the  hospi- 
tal of  St.  Catherine  was  in  a  ruinous  condition,  and  like  to  go  to 
decay  ;  the  revenue  being  reduced,  by  the  mayor  of  the  city  and 
the  vicar  of  St.  Nicholas  letting  the  leases  for  small  sums,  and  lor  a 
long  term  of  years.  On  this  representation  a  commission  of  inquiry 
was  ordered  by  the  high  court  of  chancery  to  be  held  at  the  Bull 
iun  in  Rochester,  29th  January  1704;  and  on  full  proof  of  the  mal- 
practises  complained  of,  they  obliged  the  lessees  to  deliver  up  their 
leases,  and  accept  tham  for  a  shorter  time,  and  pay  one  hundred 
pounds  towards  putting  the  said  hospital  in  proper  repair,  and  in 
defraying  the  chargas  of  suing  out  and  prosecuting  the  said  com- 
mission. "  They  also  decreed  and  adjudged,  that  for  the  preventing 
44  abuses  of  the  same  charity,  for  the  future  ;  all  new  leases  to  be 
let  of  the  possessions  of  the  said  hospital,  or  any  part  thereof,  shall 
"  be  let  by  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  the  said  city  of  Rochester, 
44  under  their  common  seal,  by  and  with  the  consent  of  the  vicar  of 
*'  the  said  parish  of  St.  Nicholas,  for  the  time  being,  as  one  of  the 
M  patrons  of  the  said  hospital;  and  that  no  lease  be  hereafter  let  for 
44  any  longer  term,  than  for  one  and  twenty  years  ;  and  that  in  every 
44  such  lease  there  be  reserved,  for  the  me  of  the  said  hospital,  yearly 
"  so  much  rent  at  the  least,  as  twofull  third  parts  of  the  real  andim- 
44  proved  value  of  such  demised  premises  shall  bona  £de  be  worth. 


ROCHESTER.  %lf 

K  Except  only  in  such  cases,  where  any  lease  or  leaseSj  shall  be  let 
11  of  any  waste  or  unbuilt  ground  ;  upon  which  occasion  it  shall  be 
"  lawful  for  the  encouraging  of  new  building,  to  let  the  same  for 
44  any  term  not  exceeding  forty  years: — They  also  decreed,  that  the 
"  dean  and  chapter  of  the  cathedral  church  of  Rochester,  together 
u  with  the  mayor  of  Rochester,  and  vicar  of  St.  Nicholas,  shall  be 
u  the  patrons  and  visitors  of  the  said  hospital.  The  provider  of 
K  the  other  charitable  estates  of  this  city,  to  account  for  the  reve- 
c'  nue  and  disbursements  of  the  said  hospital." 

This  hospital  was  situated  near  the  Star  in  Eastgate,  and  was  re- 
built in  1717.  It  is  now  converted  into  cottages,  and  in  1§05,  a 
new  hospital  was  erected  more  commodious  than  the  former,  and  in 
a  more  airy  and  healthy  situation,  on  the  north  side  of  the  Canter- 
bury-road,  opposite  to  King-street,  Troy  town.  It  contains  twelve 
convenient  apartments  occupied  by  the  same  number  of  poor  people 
who  have  a  certain  allowance  of  coals,  candles  and  money,  annually 
out  of  the  proceeds  arising  from  the  original  endowments,  and  from 
donations  that  have  since  been  made,  after  a  deduction  of  the  ex- 
pences  necessarily  incurred  in  the  casual  repairs  of  the  hospital  and 
the  apartments  therein.  Over  the  middle  entrance  is  a  stone  tablet 
on  which  is  this  inscription 

THE  ANCIENT  HOSPITAL 

of 

SAINT  CATHERINE 

Founded  in  EAST-GATE  by  SYMOND  POTYN, 

of  the  CROWN-INN  in  this  City, 

Ann:  Dom:  1316. 

Was  removed  to  this  Spot,  and  this  Building  erected, 

Ann:  Dom:  1805 

With  a  Legacy  of  the  late  THOMAS  TOMLYN  of  this  City,  gent; 

To  which  was  added  a  Donation  by  the  Executors  of 

the  late  JOSEPH  WILCOCKS,  Esq. 

Alderman  Bayley  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  by  his  will  dated  14th 

April  1752,  gave  three  hundred  pounds  to  Mr.  Robert  Chapman,  of 

Rainham,  and  William  Gordon,  Esq.  of  this  city,  in  trust,  &c.  for 

the  poor  of  St.  Catherine's.     By  a  deed  of  trust  dated  20th  August 

1774,  Chapman  and  Gordon  to  perpetuate  the  trust,  assigned  four 

2  p 


218  HISTORY  OF 

hundred  pounds,  being  the  above  three  hundred  pounds,  and  One 
hundred  pounds  which  Gordon  had  given  and  collected  by  subscrip- 
tions, to  the  mayor  and  citizens,  which  is  now  standing  in  their 
names  in  the  three  per  cent  consols,  and  the  interest,  twelve  pounds 
per  annum,  is  received  by  the  provider,  and  each  of  the  twelve  poor 
inhabitants  of  this  hospital  receive  an  equal  share  of  the  dividend. 

Mr.  Watts's  Charity. 

JtVICHARD  WATTS,  esq.  of  Rochester*,  in  queen  Elizabeth's 
time,  dwelt  in  a  house  called  Satis,  on  Bolly-hill,  in  the  parish  of 
St.  Nicholas,  in  this  city,  which  house  is  now  the  property  of 
Samuel  Baker,  esq.  His  noble  charity  to  the  poor  of  this  city  will 
appear  by  the  following  summary  of  his  will,  dated  the  22d  of  Au- 
gust lq79.  He  gave  unto  his  wife  Marian  all  his  lands,  tenements, 
annuities  and  freehold  estates  whatsoever,  for  her  widowhood; 
and  if  she  married  again,  then  he  gave  her  an  annuity  of  twenty 
marks  for  her  life,  chargeable  on  his  said  estates ;  and  after  her 
marriage  or  death  he  willed,  that  his  principal  house  called  Satis^ 
with  the  house  adjoining,  the  closes,  orchards,  gardens,  and  appur- 
tenances, his  plate  and  household  furniture,  should  be  sold ;  and 
after  some  legacies  pard  thereout,  the  residue  to  be  placed  out  at 
interest  by  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  Rochester,  and  the  interest  and 
profits  to  be  employed  to  the  perpetual  support  of  an  alms-house 
then  erected  and  standing  near  the  market  cross  in  Rochester,  and 
that  there  be  added  thereto,  "  Six  several  rooms  with  chimneys  for 
"  the  comfort,  placing,  and  abiding  of  the  poor  within  the  said  city  ; 
"■  and  also  to  be  made  apt  and  convenient  places  therein  for  six 
"  good  matrices  or  flock  beds,  and  other  good  and  sufficient  fur- 
"  niture,  to  harbour  or  lodge  in  poor  travellers  or  wayfaring  men, 
"  being  no  common  rogues  nor  proctors,  and  they  the  said  way- 
"  faring  men  to  harbour  and  lodge  therein  no  longer  than  one  night 

*  Richard  Watts,  esq.  represented  this  city  the  second  parliament  in  the 
reign  of  queen  Elizabeth. 


ROCHESTER.  219 

u  unless  sickness  be  the  farther  cause  thereof*  and  those  poor- 
u  folks^there  dwelling,  should  keep  the  same  sweet,  and  courteously 
"  intreat  the  said  poor  travellers  ;  and  every  of  the  said  poor  tra- 
"  vellers,  at  their  first  coming  in  to  have  four-pence ;  and  they 
"  should  warm  them  at  the  fire  of  the  residents,  within  the  said 
u  house,  if  need  be."  And  further  to  support  the  said  house,  and 
to  purchase  flax,  hemp,  yarn,  wool,  and  other  necessary  stuff  to  set 
the  poor  of  the  city  to  work,  he  gave  to  the  mayor  and  citizens  all 
other  his  lands,  tenements,  and  estates  for  ever.  The  annual  rents 
of  these  lands,  &c.  at  the  time  of  his  making  his  will,  amounted  to 
thirty  six  pounds  sixteen  shillings  and  eight-pence :  and  his  next 
and  immediate  heirs  had  authority  to  inspect  the  accounts  of  the 
charity  every  four  years.  The  leases  were  not  to  exceed  twenty 
one  years.     The  will   was   proved  the  20th   of  September,    1579. 

How  rogues  and  proctors  became  coupled  together  in  this  good 
man's  interdiction,  we  are  not  satisfactorily  informed.  The  reason 
vulgarly  assigned  as  his  motive  for  excluding  proctors  from  the 
benefit  of  his  charity,  and  thus  fixing  a  lasting  stigma  on  the  legal 
profession,  is,  that  when  on  the  continent,  he  was  affected  with  a 
severe  illness;  and  having  employed  a  proctor  to  make  his  will, 
found  upon  his  unexpected  recovery,  that  the  villanous  advocate  had 
placed  himself  in  too  advantageous  a  point  of  view,  and  being  of 
opinion  that  "  charity  begins  at  home,"  had  perverted  his  employ- 
er's benevolent  intentions,  and  given  to  himself  that  which  was  de- 
dicated to  God  and  to  pious  uses.  An  ingenious  writer  however,  has 
suggested,  and  with  much  greater  probability,  that  the  word  proctor 
or  procurator,  was  the  designation  of  those  itinerant  priests,  who 
in  the  reign  of  queen  Elizabeth,  had  dispensations  from  the  pope  to 
absolve  the  subjects  of  that  princess  from  their  allegiance. 

Mrs.  Watts,  the  sole  executrix,  married,  after  six  years,  to  one 
Thomas  Pagitt ;  and  certain  doubts  arising  about  the  will  of  Mr. 
Watts,  an  agreement  was  entered  into  between  the  parties,  "  By 
which  the  late  Mrs.  Watts  was  to  keep  Satis,  the  furniture,  &c. 
And  in  consideration  of  this,  she  was  to  pay  one  hundred  marks 
towards  repairing  the  alms-house,  to  pay  all  the  moneys  willed  by 


220  HISTORY  OF 

Mr.  Watts,  to  clear  the  lands  bequeathed  of  all  claims,  and  to 
convey  other  lands  to  the  yearly  rent  of  twenty  pounds."  And 
the  mayor  and  citizens  agreed  to  purchase  hemp,  &c.  to  set  the 
poor  to  work,  and  to  provide  for  travellers  as  directed.  The  mayors 
succeeding  are  to  provide  a  sufficient  citizen,  within  ten  days  after 
they  are  sworn,  whose  business  it  shall  be  to  receive  and  disburse 
the  yearly  profits  under  the  name  of  provider  :  which  provider  is 
to  deliver  an  annual  account  of  the  receipts  and  disbursements  to  the 
dean  and  chapter,  or  to  the  bridge  wardens.  The  poor  residing  in 
the  house  are  to  be  put  in  by  the  mayor  for  the  time  being. 

In  this  state  the  charity  continued  until  the  year  1672,  when 
the  parishes  of  St.  Margaret's  and  Strood  complained  in  chancery, 
by  Sir  Heneage  Finch,  attorney  general,  that  they  had  no  share  of, 
nor  benefit  from,  Mr.  Watts's  charity,  left  for  the  poor  of  the  city 
of  Rochester,  although  part  of  their  parishes  were  in  the  liberties 
and  precincts  of  the  said  city.  They  shewed,  that  the  estate  at  Lon- 
don was  leased  by  Mr.  Watts  in  his  life  time,  for  ninety-nine  years, 
at  eight  pounds  per  annum,  which  lease  expired  in  1658  ;  and  from 
improvements  made  during  the  lease,  it  then  yielded  to  the  mayor 
and  citizens  of  Rochester  two  hundred  pounds  per  annum  ;  and 
that  from  the  estates  in  Chatham  they  received  fifty  pounds  per 
annum  above  the  original  value*.  Notwithstanding  the  defendants, 
the  mayor  and  citizens  alledged,  that  no  part  of  those  parishes 
were  within  the  city,  or  the  ancient  walls  or  limits  thereof;  yet  a 
decree  in  that  court  was  made,  ordering  that  St.  Margaret's  parish 
should  receive  thirty  pounds  a  year  till  the  lease  of  ninety-nine  years, 
pf  the  estate  at  Chatham,  expired  ;  afterwards  they  should  receive 
six  parts  out  of  thirty,  which  shall  from  time  to  time  be  made  by 
any  improvement  of  rents,  &c.  over  and  abovethe  said  thirty  pounds. 
It  decreed  to  the  parish  of  Strood  twenty  pounds  on  the  same  con- 
dition, and  when  the  said  lease  expired,  four  parts  of  thirty  of  the 

*  The  original  annual  value  of  the  estate  in  Chatham,  left  by  Mr.  Watts,  is 
|n  the  decree  said  to  be  twenty  marks,  equal  to  thirteen  pounds  six  shil^Bg^ 
and  eight-pence. 


ROCHESTER,  221 

improved  rents,  together  with  the  twenty  pounds  per  annum,  And. 
the  remaining  twenty  parts  were  decreed  to  the  mayor  and  citiiens 
of  Rochester  for  the  relief  of  travellers,  and  other  charitable  uses. 
The  parishioners  of  Chatham,  on  account,  we  suppose,  of  the  small 
amount  of  the  annual  income  of  this  charity  in  1672,  did  not  unite 
with  the  parishioners  of  Strood  and  St.  Margaret's  in  their  application 
to  the  court  of  chancery  ;  nor  did  they  take  any  steps  to  obtain  any 
part  of  the  revenues  arising  from  it,  till  the  17th  of  June,  1808, 
when  they  filed  a  bill  in  chancery  claiming  a  share  in  proportion 
to  that  part  of  Chatham  within  the  liberties  of  Rochester.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  application,  the  lord  chancellor  declared  that  he 
did  not  mean  to  disturb  the  former  decree  ;  and  at  the  same  time 
intimated  his  intention  of  taking  adequate  portions  from  St.  Nicho- 
las, Strood  and  St.  Margaret's,  to  be  applied  to  the  use  and  benefit  of 
the  parish  of  Chatham,  as  soon  as  the  amount  of  the  rents  and  profits, 
which  have  been  accumulating  during  the  time  that  the  suit  has 
been  pending,  shall  be  ascertained.  A  final  adjustment  is  expected 
to  take  place  in  a  short  time.  The  estates  of  this  excellent  charity 
are  now  so  far  improved  as  to  amount  to  upwards  of  two  thousand 
pounds  per  annum,  exclusive  of  a  dividend  of  one  hundred  and  six 
pounds  four  shillings  and  three-pence,  on  a  capital  of  three  thou- 
sand five  hundred  and  thirty-nine  pounds  stock  in  the  three  per  cent 
consols,  being  the  produce  of  the  sale  of  certain  estates  which  belong- 
ed to  this  charity  in  Room  lane,  and  which  were  purchased  by  the 
board  of  ordnance  in  order  to  enable  them  to  widen  and,  improve 
the  new  military  road  which  they  were  then  making.  The  receipts 
and  disbursements  are  regularly  inspected  by  the  committee  of 
charitable  uses.* 

The  house  appointed  for  the  reception  of  the  poor  travellers,  is 

*  The  committee  of  charitable  uses  was  first  established  in  1693,  by  mutual 
agreement,  between  thje  mayor  and  other  ttoe  governing  members  of  this  city 
on  one  part,  and  the  freemen  on  the  other;  it  is  composed  of  two  aldermen, 
two  common  council  men,  and  five  freemen;  all  which  are  chosen  annually  by 
the  jury  of  the  court  leet,  held  on  the  day  of  swearing  the  mayor, 


222  HISTORY  OP 

situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  High-Street,  and  is  probably  the 
original  building.  A  very  considerable  sum  was  expended  by  the 
mayor  and  citizens,  on  its  repair  in  1771.  Agreeably  to  the  bene- 
Tolent  design  of  the  donor,  poor  travellers  have  lodging  and  four- 
pence  each*;  and  that  this  charity  may  be  the  more  generally 
known,  the  following  inscription  is  fixed  over  the  door : — 

RICHARD  WATTS,  Esqr. 

by  his  will  dated  22,  Aug.  1579, 

founded  this  charity, 

for  six  poor  travellers, 

who  not  being  Rogues,  or  Proctor?, 

may   receive  gratis,    for  one  Night, 

Lodging,    Entertainment, 

and  four  pence  each. 

In  testimony  of  his  Munificence, 

in  honour  of  his  Memory, 

and  inducement  to  his  Example, 

NathI"  Hood,  Esqr.  the  present  Mayor 

has  caused  this  stone, 

gratefully  to  be  renewed, 

and  inscribed, 

A.D.  1771, 

That  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  this  city  have  not  been  wanting 
in  setting  a  due  value  on  so  liberal  a  benefaction,  is  evident,  not 
only  from  the  attention  they  pay  to  the  building,  and  in  seeing  the 
generous  design  of  the  testator  duly  performed;  but  in  1736  they 
gave  a  fresh  expression  of  their  gratitude,  in  causing  a  very  hand- 
some mural  white  marble  monument  to  be  erected  to  his  memory, 
on  the  south  side  of  the  door  entering  into  the  choir  of  Rochester 
cathedral.     This  monument  is  remarkable  for  exhibiting  a  real  bust 

*  On  the  file  of  orders  made  to  the  provider,  or  officer  who  distributes  the 
groats,  is  the  following  remarkable  one,  bearing  date  in  the  year  1677  : 

"  Brother  Wade, 

"  Pray  relieve  these  two  gentlemen,  who  have 
"  the  King's  Letters  Recommendatory,  and  give  them  twelve-pence  a  man, 
41  and  four-pence  a  piece  to  the  other  five." 

"  John  Cony,  Maior." 


ROCHESTER;  223 

of  the  deceased,  executed  during  his  rife-time,  and  afterwards  pre- 
sented by  Joseph  Brooke,  esq.  whose  family  had  become  possessed 
of  Mr.  Watts's  house  by  purchase.  The  bust  is  represented  with  a 
bald  head,  short  hair,  and  a  long  flowing  beard,  under  which  is 
the  following  inscription  : — 

Archetypum  hunc  dedit 
Jos.  Brooke,  de  Satis,  Armr. 

On  the  marble  monument  beneath  it : 

Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Richard  Watts,  esq.  a  principal  bene- 
factor to  this  city;  who  departed  this  life  Sept.  10,  1579,  at  his 
mansion-house  on  Bully-hill,  called  Satis,  (so  named  by  Q.  Eliza- 
beth of  glorious  memory,)  and  lies  interred  near  this  place,  as  by  his 
will  doth  plainly  appear.  By  which  will,  dated  Aug.  22,  and 
proved  Sep.  25,  1579,  he  founded  an  alms-house  for  the  relief  of 
poor  people,  and  for  the  reception  of  six  poor  travelers  every  night, 
and  for  imploying  the,poor  of  this  city. 

The  mayor  and  citizens  of  this  city,  in  testimony  of  their  grati- 
tude and  his  merit,  have  erected  this  monument,  A.  D.  1736, 
Richard  Watts,  esqr.  then  mayor. 


Mi\  Readge's  Gift. 


A, 


.LEXANDER  READYE,  of  Sherborne,  in  the  county  of 
Gloucester,  minister  of  the  word  of  God,  by  a  deed  of  gift,  dated 
December  9,  1613,  gave  to  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  Rochester 
the  sum  of  fifty  pounds,  to  be  by  them  employed  in  the  manner  fol- 
lowing. "  The  mind  of  the  said  Alexander  Readye  is,  that  the 
u  mayor  of  the  said  city  for  the  time  being,  the  two  junior  aldermen, 
u  and  the  four  senior  common  councilmen,  do,  on  Tuesday  in 
u  Easter  week,  appoint  four  young  men,  two  decayed  citizens, 
"  tradesmen  living  in  the  said  city,  and  two  other  ancient  com- 
66  moners  there,  of  honest  name,  householders,  and  two  poor 
"  maidens  of  good  conversation,   bom  within  the  said,  city  and 


£24  HISTORY  OF 

"  suburbs  thereof,  to  hare  the  use  of  the  said  sum  of  fifty  pounds 
"  for  the  term  of  four  years."  The  persons  receiving  the  money  to 
provide  each  two  bondsmen,  for  the  repayment  of  the  respective  five 
pounds;  and  to  appear  themselves  on  every  Easter  Tuesday,  at  the 
Town-hall,  to  pay  to  the  mayor,  &c.  there  present,  for  every  five 
pounds,  the  sum  of  twenty-pence,  until  the  expiration  of  the  four 
years,  when  the  principal  is  to  be  repaid,  and  the  mayor,  junior 
aldermen,  and  the  senior  common  council  are  to  nominate  other 
persons,  to  receive  and  use  the  said  five  pounds,  agreeably  to  the 
afore-recited  directions.  The  several  twenty-pences  received  are, 
in  the  same  deed  of  gift,  directed  to  be  disposed  of  as  follows : — 
"  To  the  mayor  of  the  said  city  for  the  time  being,  sixteen- 
"  pence ;  to  the  said  two  youngest  aldermen,  and  to  the  four  eldest 
"  of  the  common  council  then  being  with  the  said  mayor,  the  said 
u  Tuesday  in  Easter  week,  one  shilling  each  ;  to  the  town  clerk5 
66  tAVenty-pence  ;  to  the  mayors  servant  which  shall  call  or  warn 
M  the  persons  aforesaid,  four-pence,  for  his  paynes  therein  taken  ; 
u  and  six  shillings  to  be  given,  by  appointment  of  the  mayor,  &c. 
"  to  twelve  of  the  poorest  and  needyest  persons  of  the  alms  house, 
li  at  their  pews  in  the  parish  church,  after  evening  prayer,  the  next 
"  Sabbath  ;  and  the  other  sixteen-pence  residue,  to  remain  amongst 
u  the  company  before  nominated,  towards  a  drinking." — The  deed 
of  gift  is  directed  to  be  read  in  the  town-hall  on  every  Easter  Tues- 
day after  dinner,  and  before  evening  prayer  at  the  meeting  of  the 
mayor,  two  junior  aldermen,  and  four  senior  common  council. 


Mr.  Gunsley's  Charity. 

XVOBERT  GUNSLEY,  clerk,  by  his  will,  dated  the  last  day 
of  June,  1618,  gave  to  his  beloved  friend  George  Holman,  and  tor 
his  heirs  for  ever,  his  rectory  and  parsonage  of  Broadhempston  in 
the  county  of  Devon,  and  all  lands,  tythes,  and  commodities  thereto 
belonging ;  to  the  intent  that  the  said  George  Holman  should  pre- 


ROCHESTER.  £25 

sently  after  his  decease  procure  a  licence  of  mortmain,  and  should 
convey  and  assure  the  same  to  such  person  and  persons  as  should  be 
thought  adviseable,  to  and  for  the  relief  and  comfort  of  the  poor 
people  inhabiting  in  the  parishes  of  Maidstone  and  Rochester;  one 
half  part  of  the  rents  and  profits  thereof  among  the  said  poor  people 
of  Maidstone,  and  the  other  half  part  among  the  said  poor  people 
of  Rochester,  by  equal  portions;  to  be  bestowed  in  bread  every 
Sabbath-day  to  feed  them,  and  in  clothes  to  cover  them,  as  the  rents 
and  revenues  thereof  would  extend  and  amount  unto  every  year. 

The  licence  of  mortmain  was  afterwards  procured,  and  the 
rectory,  parsonage,  and  premises  conveyed  accordingly ;  the  sum 
of  seventy-five  pounds  (being  one  half  part  of  the  present  rents 
and  profits  thereof)  is  bestowed  and  distributed  to,  and  among 
the  poor  people  of  Rochester,  pursuant  and  agreeably  to  the  will  of 
the  donor.  This  makes  a  portion  of  the  bread  which  is  distributed 
in  St.  Nicholas's  church,  after  sermon,  every  Sunday  in  the  after- 
noon. 


Sir  John  Haj/ward's  Charily. 


S, 


>IR  JOHN  HAYWARD,  knight,  by  a  deed,  dated  the  30th! 
of  August  1635,  directed,  that  if  any  overplus  remained  of  his 
personal  estate,  after  his  debts  and  legacies  were  paid,  Avhatever  it 
should  be,  he  willed  that  his  executors  might  employ  it  towards  the 
relief  of  the  poor  inhabiting  such  parishes  as  his  executors  thought 
proper,  of  which  St.  Nicholas's  parish  in  Rochester  to  be  one. 

Accordingly,  by  an  indenture  dated  the  28th  of  November  1651, 
the  trustees  of  Sir  John  Hay  ward's  estate  settled  fifty  pounds  per 
annum  for  the  poor  of  St.  Nicholas's  parish,  to  be  paid  from  and  out 
of  the  manor  of  Minster,  and  certain  messuages,  lands,  &c.  in  the 
isle  of  Sheppy.  This  was  for  the  sole  purpose  of  erecting  a  work- 
house, ox  otherwise  for  setting  on  work  and  employing  the  poor  peo- 
ple and  inhabitants  of  the  said_parish  ;  and  raisiug  and  continuing  a 
stock  of  money  and  provisions  for  that  purpose. 

2  G 


226  HISTORY  OF 

These  Sheppy  estates  increasing  in  their   rents  and  profits  from 
time  to  time,  Francis  Barrell,  esq.   residuary  trustee  of  Sir   John 
Hay  ward's  estate,  in  the  year  1718,  caused  to  be  purchased  out  of 
the   said   increased   profits,  six  hundred  and  thirty-six  pounds  of 
principal  stock  of  the  South   Sea,  to  be  disposed  of  as  he  the  said 
Francis  Barrell  should  appoint.     He  accordingly  transferred  the 
said  six  hundred  and  thirty-six  pounds  to  the  mayor  and  citizens  of 
Rochester,  for  the  perpetual  support  of  three  charity  schools  "For 
a  teaching  and  instructing  of  poor  children  in  the  principles  of  the 
"  christian  religion,  and  reading  and  other  things,"   to  be  called 
Sir  John  Hayward's  charity  schools.     Two  of  these  schools  were 
directed  to  be  in  St.  Nicholas  parish,  one  for  teaching  twenty  poor 
boys  of  that  parish  to  write,  &c.  the  master  to  have  twelve  pounds 
per  annum.     The  other  for  twenty  poor  girls  of  the  said  parish,  the 
mistress  to  have  eight  pounds  per  annum.     The  other  school  to  be 
in  Strood,  the  schoolmaster  or  mistress  to  have   ten   pounds  per 
annum,  for  teaching  thirty  poor  children  of  that  parish  and  Frinds- 
bury.     If  any   surplus  should  arise  from  the  interest  of  the  said 
sum,  when  these  stipends   are  paid,  it  is  to  be  laid  out  in  buying 
books,  or  otherwise  to  the  advantage  of  the   schools,  &c.     And  if 
any  deficiency ;  Mr.   Barrell  humbly  requested  it  might  be  made 
good  from  the  fifty  pounds  per  annum  above-mentioned.     By  some 
rules  and  orders  Mr.  Barrell  made  for  the  perpetual  establishment 
of  the  said  schools,  he  directed  "  The  boys  to  get   by  heart  the 
church  catechism,  some  of  the  psalms  of  David,  and  the  morning 
and  evening  private  prayers  from  the  whole  duty  of  man,  and  to  be 
taught  to  read,  write,  and  the  common  rules  of  arithmetic.   That  the 
masters  do  read  prayers  to  the  children  morning  and  evening  out  of 
the  common  prayer  book.     The  girls  to  be  taught  to  read,  and  the 
use  of  the  needle.     The  children  admitted,  are  to  be  such  only 
whose  parents  are  not  able  to  put  them  to  school  at  their  own  ex- 
pence,  and  none  to  be  admitted,  until  they  shall  be  six  years  of  age. 
The  mayor,  recorder,  late  mayor,  senior  alderman,  town  clerk  of  the 
city  for  the  time  being,  and  the  ministers  of  the  respective  parishes, 
to  be  perpetual  governors.     The  city  provider  to  receive  the  divi- 


ROCHESTER.  227 

dends  and  pay  the  masters  and  mistresses."  There  are  no  build- 
ings erected  for  these  schools,  but  the  children  are  taught  in  the 
respective  houses  of  their  masters  and  mistresses. 

The  six  hundred  and  thirty-six  pounds,  by  additions  in  lieu  of 
dividends,  and  by  several  additions  made  by  the  said  Francis  Bar- 
rell,  esquire,  have  increased  to  the  sum  of  one  thousand  one  hundred 
pounds,  and  stands  in  the  company's  book  in  the  name  of  the 
mayor  and  citizens  of  Rochester,  in  trust  for  Francis  Barrell,  esq. 

The  above-mentioned  sum  of  fifty  pounds  per  annum  was  regu- 
larly paid  to  the  overseer  of  St.  Nicholas,  and  appropriated  to  the 
use  of  the  poor  of  that  parish,  till  the  year  1790,  when  J.  Buller, 
esq.  M.  P.  one  of  the  trustees,  filed  a  bill  in  chancery,  the  object 
of  which  was  to  obtain  a  justification  of  himself  in  withholding  this 
annual  payment  from  the  overseer  of  St.  Nicholas  in  future,  con- 
ceiving that  the  application  of  it  by  that  parish  was  contrary  to 
the  intention  of  Sir  John  Hay  ward. 

A  scheme  has  since  been  laid  before  the  master  by  the  same 
trustee,  endeavouring  to  shew  that  the  whole,  with  the  exception 
of  a  trilling  sum  to  be  allowed  yearly  to  St.  Nicholas  parish,  was 
entirely  at  his  own  disposal,  and  intended  to  be  laid  out  at  Credi- 
ton  in  Devonshire,  the  place  where  he  resided.  Upon  this  repre- 
sentation, the  master  made  a  report  authorising  him  to  build  a  house 
of  industry  at  Crediton,  and  to  appropriate  the  remainder  of  the 
income,  after  a  deduction  of  twenty  pounds  perannum  to  be  applied 
to  the  apprenticing  of  two  boys  in  the  parish  of  St.  Nicholas,  to  the 
support  of  it.  This  house  of  industry  is  now  completed,  and  cost 
two  thousand  four  hundred  pounds.  In  consequence  of  an  appli- 
cation to  the  court  of  chancery  the  master's  report  has  been  set 
aside  and  the  parishioners  of  St.  Nicholas  have  been  allowed  to 
make  their  claim.  The  matter  in  dispute  is  now  awaiting  the 
decision  of  the  Lord  Chancellor;  but  what  the  final  result  will  be 
we  presume  not  to  determine.  The  produce  of  the  estates  in  Miu- 
ster,  Sheppy,  &c.  which  have  lately  been  sold,  is  at  this  time  five 
hundred  pounds  per  annum. 


228  HISTORY  OF 


Mr.  Brooker's  Charity. 

.A.RTHUR  BROOKER,  Esquire,  by  his  will  dated  the  25th  of 
May  1675,  gave  to  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  this  city,  an  annuity 
of  four  pounds  a  year  issuing  out  of  a  messuage  and  lands  in  the 
parish  of  Allhallows  in  the  hundred  of  Hoo,  in  Kent ;  twenty 
shillings  whereof  he  directed  to  be  paid  yearly  to  the  minister  of  St. 
Nicholas  to  preach  an  annual  sermon  in  that  parish  church,  on  the 
day  he,  Mr.  Brooker,  should  be  buried,  and  with,  and  out  of  the 
remaining  three  pounds,  to  distribute  among  the  poor  people  of  the 
same  parish*,  one  shilling  per  week,  in  bread,  upon  every  Sunday 
in  the  afternoon,  and  the  residue  of  the  said  three  pounds,  which 
amounts  to  eight  shillings,  to  be  given  among  such  poor  people,  the 
day  whereon  the  annual  sermon  shall  be  preached. 


Dr.  Lamplugh's  Gift. 


D, 


R.  LAMPLUGH,  bishop  of  Exeter,  and  sometime  dean  of 
Rochester  catheOral,  by  a  deed  of  gift  dated  the  20th  of  June  1678, 
out  of  his  great  bounty  and  good  will  to  the  city  of  Rochester,  gave 
fifty  pounds  to  the  mayor  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  the  dean  of 
Rochester  cathedral,  the  recorder,  the  senior  and  junior  aldermen, 
and  the  chapter  clerk  in  time  being,  for  ever,  in  trust,  to  be  lent  to 
such  young  men,  being  freemen,  tradesmen,  and  inhabitants  within 
the  said  city,  as  shall  be  nominated  by  the  persons  above-men 
tioned  ;  no  sum  lent  to  any  one  person,  to  be  less  than  five  pounds, 
nor  more  than  ten  pounds  ;  the  persons  receiving  the  money,  to 
give  such  security  as  the  nominators  shall  approve  of;  to  be  repaid 

*  At  {he  discretion  of  the  churchwardens  and  overseers  thereof. 


ROCHESTER.  229 

within  four  years :  the  nominators  to  meet  in  the  town-hall  on 
every  Tuesday  in  Whitsun  week,  and  the  receiver  to  pay  twenty  - 
peDce  for  every  five  pounds  ;  which  interest  is  to  be  disposed  of  in 
the  manner  following  :  to  each  of  the  trustees  so  attending  ovi 
Whitsun  Tuesday,  one  shilling  ;  to  the  town  clerk  of  the  said  city 
(for  making  and  re-making  the  said  bonds,  provided  he  make  them 
clear  of  all  expences  to  the  persons  to  whom  the  money  is  lent)  five 
shillings  ;  to  the  mayor's  sergeant  for  assembling  the  persons, 
eight-pence  ;  the  remainder  to  be  disposed  of  to  such  impotent 
persons  as  the  said  nominators  shall  think  fit. 


Sir  Richard  Head's  Charity. 


& 


>IR  RICHARD  HEAD,  Bart,  by  will  bearing  date  the  tenth 
of  September  1689,  gave  several  messuages,  or  cottages,  and  lands, 
in  the  parish  of  Higham,  to  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  Rochester, 
to  bestow  the  rents  thereof  in  the  first  place  in  keeping  the  said 
messuages  in  repair ;  and  the  residue  in  providing  bread  to  be 
weekly,  upon  every  Sunday  in  the  afternoon,  distributed  in  St. 
Nicholas's  church,  to  and  amongst  the  most  necessitous  poor  of 
that  parish,  by  two  shillings  per  week  in  such  bread  :  and  the 
overplus  at  the  year's  end  to  be  divided  amongst  four  of  the  most 
ancient  poor  men,  and  four  of  the  most  ancient  poor  women  of  the 
same  parish. 

This  charity  yields  at  present  the  clear  yearly  sum  often  pounds. 


Francis  Brooke's  Charity. 


Fi 


RANCIS  BROOKE,  gentleman,  a  town  clerk  of  this  city,  in 
1697  released  and  discharged  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  and  from  a 
debt  of  fifty  pounds,  then  due  and  owing  from  them  to  him,  in  con- 
sideration of  their  paying  an  annuity  of  four  pounds  for  ever  out  of 


230  HISTORY  OF 

the  revenue  of  their  city  estates,  to  be  distributed  by  the  committee 
of  charitable  uses ;  which  sum  is  distributed  by  them  at  their 
annual  meeting  on  the  24th  of  January,  to  poor  persons  inhabiting 
within  the  said  city. 


The  Free- School. 


Si 


>IR  JOSEPH  WILLIAMSON,  knight,  one  of  the  representa- 
tives in  parliament  for  the  city  of  Rochester*,  by  his  will,  dated 
the  16th  day  of  August  1701,  and  proved  the  17th  of  October  fol- 
lowing, bequeathed  "five  thousand  pounds,  to  be  laid  out  by  his 
M  executors  in  purchasing  of  lands  or  tenements  in  England,  for  and 
"  towards  the  building,  perfecting,  carrying  on,  and  perpetual 
"  maintaining  of  a  free-school  at  Rochester,  and  of  a  schoolmaster 
t(  or  schoolmasters  for  the  instructing  and  educating  the  sons  of 
"  the  freemen  of  that  city,  towards  the  mathematics,  and  other 
"  things  that  might  fit  and  encourage  them  to  the  sea-service,  or 
'*  arts  and  callings  leading  or  relating  thereto." 

This  legacy  was  to  be  appropriated  to  the  intended  charity,  when 
the  testator's  Kentish  estates  were  sold,  which  was  directed  to  be 
done  as  soon  as  convenient  after  his  decease,  but  the  claimants  were 
not  entitled  to  any  interest  during  the  time  they  remained  unsold. 

The  mayor  and  citizens  made  many  applications  to  the  executors 
during  the  first  two  years  after  Sir  Joseph  Williamson's  death,  soli- 
citing them  to  take  in  hand  this  noble  work ;  which  they  delayed 
to  do,  availing  themselves  of  the  discretionary  power  vested  in  them 
by  the  testator,  and  at  this  time  the  freemen's  sons  were  in  a  worse 
situation  than  before  their  benefactor's  decease,  he  having  for  many 
years  employed  a  schoolmaster  to  instruct  them  at  his  own  expence. 

In  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1703,  the  mayor  and  citizens  applied 
to  the  attorney  general  of  the  high  court  of  chancer}',  to  exhibit 

»  Sir  Joseph  Williamson  represented  this  city  in  three  parliaments  in  the 
reign  of  king  William  III. 


ROCHESTER.  231 

into  that  court  a  bill  of  complaint  or  information  against  the  execu- 
tors, for  what  they  thought  a  manifest  breach  of  the  trust  reposed 
in  them  by  the  said  testator ;  as  it  appeared  the  delaying  the  sale  of 
the  Kentish  estates  was  apparently  to  the  advantage  of  one  of  the 
executors,  who  was  principally  interested  in,  and  had  possessed 
himself  of,  the  greatest  part  of  the  real  estate  of  the  deceased. 
This  cause  was  long  depending  in  chancery,  not  that  there  was  any 
doubt  of  the  citizens'  right  to  the  legacy,  but  to  the  time  or  mode 
of  payment ;  for  as  the  executors  had  had  a  reasonable  time  to  make 
sale  of  the  said  lands,  whether  they  ought  not  to  be  compelled  to 
allow  the  petitioners  interest  on  the  said  sum  of  five  thousand 
pounds.  And  that  nothing  might  be  wanting  in  the  mayor  and 
citizens, in  1707,  they  opened  a  subscription  to  enable  them  to  pro- 
secute this  suit,  and  in  July  1708  obtained  a  decree  which  was  to 
this  effect.  "  That  some  small  portions  of  the  said  Sir  Joseph 
"  Williamson's  Kentish  estates  lying  in  Frindsbury,  Shorne,  and 
"  Higham  (being  appraised  and  valued  to  the  approbation  of  both 
M  parties)  should  be  immediately  transferred  to  certain  trustees  in 
"  the  said  decree  mentioned,  and  that  the  residue  of  the  said  legacy 
li  should  be  paid  at  stated  times  to  the  said  trust,"  which  indeed 
in  the  end  was  complied  with,  but  not  Avithout  great  trouble  to  the 
gentlemen  who,  to  their  lasting  honour,  took  the  lead  in  this  affair. 

The  court  of  chancery  likewise  confirmed  the  following  rules, 
orders,  and  constitutions,  for  the  settling  and  perpetual  governing 
of  the  said  school  and  charitable  foundation  : — 

"  First,  That  the  lands  and  estates,  purchased  or  settled  for  the 
(i  use  of  the  said  charity,  shall  be  conveyed  to  trustees  and  their 
"  heirs,  under  the  trusts  hereafter  mentioned  ;  and  under  the  fur- 
u  ther  trust,  that  the  three  last  survivors  shall  transmit  and  convey 
"  to  others,  so  as  that  the  trust  may  be  perpetuated  :  and  that  the 
u  present  trustees  be  two  senior  aldermen,  two  senior  common 
"  counselmeu  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  Leonard  Bartholomew, 
(i  Robert  Conny,  and  William  Belcher,  esquires,  Richard  Head, 
"  Charles  Finch,  and  John  Browne,  gentlemen." 


232 


HISTORY  OF* 


"  Secondly,  That  there  shall  be  constant  ordinary  governours  of 
the  said  school  and  charitable  foundation;  and  that  John  Boys, 
Thomas  Addison,  and  Joseph  Hornsby  during  the  terra  of  their 
natural  lives,  and  the  mayor  of  the  city  of  Rochester  for  fhe 
time  being  for  ever,  the  dean  of  Rochester  for  the  time  being  for 
ever,  the  recorder  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  for  the  time  being  for 
ever,  the  master  of  the  Trinity  house  and  the  commissioner  of 
Chatham  dock  for  the  time  being  for  ever,  the  eldest  prebendary 
of  the  church  of  Rochester  at  any  time  resident  there,  Doctor 
John  Harris  prebendary  of  Rochester  during  his  natural  life,  th© 
late  mayor  and  eldest  alderman  of  the  said  city  for  the  time  being 
for  ever,  the  two  members  of  parliament  for  the  said  city  for  the 
time  being  for  ever,  the  two  wardens  of  Rochester  bridge  for  the 
time  being  for  ever,  and  the  town  clerk  of  the  said  city  for  the 
time  being  for  ever,  shall  be  the  ordinary  governours  of  the  same. 
"  Thirdly,  That  the  most  reverend  father  in  God  the  lord  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  primate  and  metropolitan  of  England  and 
his  successors,  the  right  honourable  William  lord  Cowper  lord 
high  chancellor  of  Great  Britain  and  his  successors  the  lords 
high  chancellors  or  lords  keepers  of  the  great  seal  of  Great 
Britain,  the  right  reverend  father  in  God  Thomas  lord  bishop  of 
Rochester  and  his  successors,  and  the  lord  or  proprietor  of  Cob- 
ham  hall  and  park  for  the  time  being,  shall  be  the  extraordinary 
governours  and  visitors  of  the  said  charitable  foundation  :-  who 
shall  have  the  general  oversight  of  the  affairs  of  the  same ;  with 
power  to  act  in  any  case  where  the  ordinary  governours  fail  in 
their  duty ;  and  finally  to  determine  any  differences  or  contests 
that  may  arise  between  the  ordinary  governours  and  other  the 
subordinate  officers  of  the  said  charitable  foundation." 
"  Fourthly,  That  the  ordinary  governours  do  make  and  alter 
such  rules,  orders,  and  constitutions,  from  time  to  time,  for  the 
good  ordering  and  governing  the  said  mathematical  school  anc\, 
charitable  foundation,  as  they  shall  find  necessary  and  conveni- 
ent, and  shall  be  approved  of  by  the  extraordinary  governours." 


ROCHESTER;  &3;j 

{( Fifthly,  That  the  ordinary  governours  have  power  to  choose 
u  the  upper  master  and  under  master  or  usher  of  the  said  mathe- 
u  matical  school ;  and  to  censure,  or  suspend,  or  deprive  them  i 
"  and  to  hear  and  determine  at  their  yearly  visitations  any  com* 
"  plaint  touching  the  breach  of  orders  or  rules  of  the  said  school; 
"  and  to  determine  any  disputes  or  differences  that  shall  arise 
"  between  the  said  upper  master  and  the  said  under  master  or 
"  usher." 

"  Sixthly,  That  Mr.  Stephen  Thornton,  be  the  upper  master, 
il  and  Mr.  George  Russell  the  under  master  or  usher,  of  the  said 
*'  mathematical  school  :  and  that,  when  the  revenues  of  the  charity 
(i  estates  are  sufficient,  the  yearly  salary  of  the  upper  master  shall 
"  be  one  hundred  pounds  per  annum,  and  of  the  under  master  or 
"  usher  forty  pounds  per  annum :  but,  when  the  revenues  fall 
i(  short,  the  Ordinary  governours  are  to  direct  and  regulate  at  their 
"  annual  visitation  the  respective  salaries  of  the  said  masters, 
"  having  regard  to  the  abovesaid  proportions  in  lessening  and 
"  abating  the  same." 

"  Seventhly,  That  upon  the  death,  resignation,  or  removal  of 
"  either  of  the  masters  of  the  said  school,  the  mayor  of  the  said 
"  city  shall  cause  immediate  notice  thereof  to  be  given  or  sent 
"  to  all  the  ordinary  governours ;  to  the  end  that  a  new  election 
"  may  be  made  before  the  end  of  two  months,  and  not  until  the  end 
"  of  one  month,  after  such  death,  resignation,  or  removal :  and 
u  shall  also  cause  publick  notice  in  writing  of  the  intended  day  of 
"  election  of  such  new  master  or  usher  to  be  affixed  upon  the  door 
"  of  the  school  house  fifteen  days  before  the  day  of  election  ;  and 
*'  that  copies  of  each  notice  shall  also  be  given  or  sent  to  the  houses 
"  of  all  the  ordinary  governours.  And  that  no  person  shall  be  ca- 
M  pable  to  be  chosen  upper  master  of  the  school,  unless  he  shall 
Ci  produce  to  the  said  governours  a  sufficient  testimonial  or  certificate 
tc  of  his  being  fitly  qualified  for  the  said  employment,  under  the  hands 
"  of  the  mathematick  professors  of  geometry  or  astronomy  of 
"  either  of  the  universities  of  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  either  of  the 

2  H 


234  HISTORY  OF 

"  mathematick  masters  of  Christ's  hospital,  the  secretary  of  the 
"  royal  society,  or,  for  the  time  being,  the  Regius  Professor  of 
"  astronomy  at  the  royal  observatory  at  Greenwich,  or  any  two  of 
"  them.  And  that  in  all  such  elections  all  the  ordinary  governours 
i(  shall  have  votes  ;  and  such  of  them  as  are  absent  to  be  allowed 
"  to  vote  by  proxy  in  writing;  and  the  election  to  go  according  to 
"  the  majority  of  votes  ;  and  the  governour,  who  presides,  to  have 
"  a  casting  voice  in  case  of  equality." 

"  Eighthly,  That  if  the  ordinary  governours  shall  not  choose  a 
K  master  or  usher,  after  any  vacancy,  within  the  space  of  two 
"  months,  then  the  extraordinary  governours  may  choose  such 
li  master  or  usher  with  all  convenient  speed ;  so  as  that  such  upper 
"  master  be  a  person  qualified  as  aforesaid." 

"  Ninthly,  That  the  number  of  the  ordinary  governours,  re- 
u  quisite  at  any,  meeting,  to  act  in  all  common  and  ordinary  cases 
li  be  five  at  the  least." 

u  Tenthly,  That  no  master  or  usher  be  suspended,  or  deprived, 
u  or  displaced,  but  upon  due  notice  given  to  all  the  ordinray 
w  governours,  and  a  day  appointed  to  consider  of  and  determine 
"  of  the  case;  in  which  all  to  have  votes." 

u  Eleventhly,  That  the  ordinary  governours  do  once  at  the  least  in 
"  every  year  visit  the  school,  and  cause  the  boys  to  be  examined, 
"  npon  every  Tuesday  next  after  the  feast-day  of  St.  John  Baptist, 
"  commonly  called  midsummer-day.  And,  for  that  purpose,  that 
Ci  the  said  governours  shall  yearly  choose  and  appoint  some  proper 
"  person  to  be  examiner  of  the  said  school ;  and,  in  default  of  such 
"  particular  choice  and  appointment,  either  of  the  mathematick 
"  masters  of  Christ's  hospital  to  be  examiner.  And  that  the  go- 
"  vernours  be  allowed  to  appoint  a  gratuity  to  be  given  to  such 
li  examiner  of  the  said  school,  not  exceeding  four  pounds  in  any 
"  one  year  :  and  that  a  visitation  dinner  be  provided  at  the  school 
a  house  for  the  said  governours,  not  exceeding  the  sum  of  four 
"  pounds  ;  and  that  the  usher  do  give  the  said  governours  notice  of 
"  of  the  day  of  such  annual  visitation." 


ROCHESTER.  235 

(i  Twelfthly,  That  no  lease  be  let  of  any  part  of  the  charity  es- 
ic  tate  for  above  twenty-one  years ;  so  that  the  most  rent  be  reserv- 
"  ed  that  can  be  got  for  the  same.  And  that  the  upper  master  of 
"  the  said  school  and  committee  of  charitable  uses  of  the  said  city 
'*  (if  any)  be  first  made  acquainted  with  all  treaties  for  any  such 
"  leases,  and  before  any  contract  be  made  for  the  same  :  and  that 
"  the  said  upper  master  and  five  or  more  of  the  said  governours  do 
"  sign  all  such  leases,  to  testify  their  consent  and  approbation 
"  thereof." 

u  Thirteenthly,  That  the  city  provider,  or  receiver  of  the  pub- 
"  lick  charities  of  the  said  city,  do  receive  the  rents  of  the  charity 
u  estates  settled  upon  this  foundation,  and  pay  the  same  accord- 
"  ing  to  the  stated  orders  of  the  ordinary  governours.  And,  for 
"  that  purpose?  that  the  mayor  and  citizens  do  covenant  with  the 
u  said  trustees  that  he  shall  do  the  same  gratis ;  and  that  he  shall 
i{  not  only  give  an  account  of  the  revenues  of  this  charity  among 
"  the  other  charities  of  the  said  city  to  the  said  committee  of  chari- 
"  table  uses,  and  the  dean  and  chapter  of  Rochester,  and  the 
"  wardens  of  Rochester  bridge,  but  shall  likewise  be  obliged  by 
16  bond,  with  sufficient  sureties,  to  give  a  distinct  account  thereof 
if  to  the  said  governours  at  their  annual  visitation." 

The  school  room  is  spacious  with  a  good  house  adjoining  for  the 
master.  It  is  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  high  street  without  the 
city  wall,  close  to  the  spot  where  the  east  gate  of  the  city  formerly 
stood.  Unfortunately  the  foundation  of  a  great  part  of  the  building 
was  laid  on  the  rubbish  that  filled  up  the  moat  which  surrounded 
the  wall,  and  the  builders  not  having  taken  the  precaution  to  lay  it  on 
piles  or  planks  to  prevent  its  settling,  the  fabric  from  time  to  time 
has  given  way,  and  been  attended  with  great  expence  to  the  charity. 
It  is  now  rendered,  however,  by  the  timely  and  judicious  adminis- 
tration of  repairs  a  very  firm  and  substantial  edifice  ;  and  suph, 
by  the  good  management  of  the  trustees  in  letting  the  estates,  is  the 
flourishing  state  of  its  revenues,  which  amount  at  present  to  upwards 
of  five  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  per  annum  ;  that  the  charity 
has  been  long  since  cleared  of  every  iucumbrance,  and  the  masters 


236  HISTORY  OF 

have  received  for  some  years  a  handsome  gratuitous  addition  to 
their  original  salaries.  The  annual  salaries  of  the  present  upper 
and  under  master  are  three  hundred  pounds  and  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  respectively.  The  remainder  of  the  annual  revenues 
is  expended  in  the  casual  repairs  of  the  school,  and  for  the  benefit 
and  accommodation  of  the  scholars  who  are  taught  in  it.  On  a 
stone  tablet  over  the  door,  above  which  are  the  arms  of  the  founder, 
\s  the  following  inscription  : — 

Dnus  Josephus  Williamson,  Eq.  Aurat, 

Hanc  Scholam, 

Mathematicis  Disciplinis  dicatam, 

Classi  Britannic^ 

Juvernum  subinde  pullulantium  seminarium, 

Futuram, 

Sumptu  proprio  extrui, 

Ac   annuo    salario    dotari, 

Testamento  jussit. 

JOHANNES  BOYS,  THOMAS  ADDISON, 

JOSEPHUS  HOR-NSBY,  Armigeri, 

Peragendum  curavere. 

A.  Ch.  MDCCVIII. 

On  this  foundation  many  respectable  characters,  particularly  in, 
the  navy,  have  received  the  early  rudiments  of  instruction.  That 
eminent  mathematician,  Mr.  John  Colson,  who  succeeded  Sir  Isaac 
Newton  in  the  mathematical  chair  at  Cambridge,  was  the  first  mas- 
ter. He  had  for  his  pupil  that  celebrated  actor,  David  Garrick, 
who  while  under  his  tuition  at  this  school,  shewed  the  early  dawn- 
nings  of  his  great  genius,  several  instances  of  which  were  long  re- 
membered by  many  in  Rochester.  The  present  master  is  Mr. 
Benjamin  Hawkins,  elected  in  1816,  whose  father  Mr.  Joseph 
Hawkins,  held  the  same  situation  fifty  years. 

Whilst  we  bear  willing  testimony  to  the  strict  integrity  with 
whkh  the  trustees  expend  the  rents  and  profits  arising  from  the 
estates,  with  which  the  school  is  so  amply  endowed,  in  promoting 
every  improvement  that  can  conduce  to  the  comfort  of  the  master, 
and  the  accommodation  of  the  scholar ;  ^e  cannot  forbear  express? 


ROCHESTER,  237 

ing  an  earnest  wish  that  neither  private  partiality,  nor  the  recom- 
mendations of  interest  may  ever  be  permitted  to  operate  to  the  pre- 
judice of  this  useful  charity  ;  but  that  on  any  future  occasion 
whenevei  a  vacancy  in  the  mastership  shall  occur,  the  place  may  be 
filled  by  that  candidate  who  shall  best  acquit  himself  on  a  general 
examination  of  all  the  competitors.  Such,  it  appears  to  us,  was 
evidently  the  intention  of  the  founder :  and  it  is  undeniable  that 
when  the  important  office  of  education  is  not  confided  to  persons  of 
competent  abilities,  and  duly  qualified  to  discharge  it ;  charitable 
foundations,  to  which  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  rising  generation 
must  be  indebted  for  the  means  of  instruction,  will  cease  to  be 
beneficial,  and  to  answer  those  valuable  ends  for  which  they  were 
wisely  and  piously  intended. 

Governors  mid  Trustees  of  the  Free-school. 

EXTRAORDINARY  GOVERNORS. 

Lord  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Lord  High  Chancellor  of  Great  Britain. 
Lord  Bishop  of  Rochester. 
Lord  or  Proprietor  of  Cobham  Hall. 

ORDINARY  GOVERNORS. 

The  Mayor  of  Rochester. 

The  Dean  of  Rochester. 

The  Recorder  of  Rochester. 

The  Master  of  the  Trinity  House. 

The  Commissioner  of  Chatham  Dock. 

The  Eldest  Resident  Prebendary. 

The  Late  Mayor. 

The  Eldest  Alderman. 

The  Two  Members  of  Parliament  for  Rochester. 

The  Two  Wardens  of  Rochester  Bridge. 

The  Town  Clerk. 


238  HISTORY  OP 

TRUSTEES. 

The  Rev.  John  Law,  D.  D.  William  Twopeny,  Esq. 

Henry  Edmeades  the  Elder.  Henry  Edmeades,  Jun.  Esq. 

George  Smith,  Esq.  James  Edmeades,  Esq. 

Samuel  Tufnel  Barrett,  Esq.  Thomas  Harman,  Esq. 

Samuel  Baker,  Esq.  Francis  Market,  Esq. 


Mr.  Plume's  Legacy. 

I  HOMAS  PLUME,  archdeacon  of  Rochester,  by  will  dated 
the  20th  of  October  1704,  bequeathed  to  the  city  of  Rochester, 
fifty  pounds,  to  be  paid  within  a  month  after  his  decease,  to  be  lent 
upon  good  security,  by  the  mayor  and  aldermen,  to  five  poor  trades- 
men, for  ever,  gratis :  which  fifty  pounds  were  paid,  by  the  execu- 
tors of  Dr.  Plume,  to  John  Wright,  esq.  mayor  of  this  city,  to  be 
applied  to  the  purpose  of  the  will. 


The  Bridge  Chamber. 


Ti 


HE  Bridge  Chamber,  or  Record  Room,  is  a  neat  building  of 
Portland  stone,  with  a  portico  beneath,  occupying  the  site  of  the 
western  porch  of  a  chapel,  or  chauntry,  that  was  founded  by  the 
potent  baron  John  de  Cobham,  at  the  time  of  the  building  of  the 
bridge.  The  chapel  is  now  a  dwelling  house,  and  the  entrance  of 
it  is  through  a  portico  nearly  opposite  to  the  east  end  of  the  bridge. 
In  the  apartment  above  the  portico  the  muniments  of  the  bridge  are 
kept ;  and  over  the  gate-way  of  the  Crown  Inn  is  the  audit  cham^ 
ber,  in  which  the  wardens  and  assistants  hold  their  meetings.  A 
considerable  part  of  the  stone  mouldings  of  the  gothic  door  of  the 
thapel  is  in  good  preservation,  and  on  each  side  of  the  door  are 
mouldings  of  the  west  windows  that  had  also  pointed  arches.  Tra- 
ces of  the  old  windows  in  the  east  and  south  walls  are  discernible 


ROCHESTER.  239 

ia  the  yard  of  the  same  Inn.  The  chapel  was  designed  principally 
for  the  use  of  travellers  ;  three  chaplains  were  appointed  to  officiate 
in  it,  who  were  to  have  a  salary  of  six  pounds  each  yearly,  payable 
from  the  receipts  of  the  bridge  estates.  By  the  rules  established  by 
the  founders  there  were  to  be  three  masses  said  every  day ;  the  first 
between  five  and  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  second  between 
eight  and  nine,  the  third  between  eleven  and  twelve,  to  the  end 
that  travellers  might  have  an  opportunity  of  being  present  at  these 
divine  offices,  this  being  the  principal  cause  for  which  the  chantry 
was  endowed.  At  each  mass  there  was  to  be  a  special  collect  for 
all  the  living  and  dead  benefactors  to  the  bridge  and  chapel,  and 
for  the  souls  of  the  founder  and  his  lady,  of  Sir  Robert  Knolles  and 
his  lady,  whose  names  were  to  be  recited.  This  chapel  was  called 
Alle-solven,  or  All  Souls :  it  appears  to  have  ceased  to  be  a  place 
of  divine  worship  by  disuse,  rather  than  from  legal  dissolution  :  for 
'*  I  find,"  says  Mr. Thorpe,  who  mentions  this  circumstance,*  "by 
iC  a  plea  in  the  Exchequer,  that  in  the  nineteenth  of  Elizabeth,  the 
u  Queen's  attorney  general  sued  the  wardens  of  the  bridge  for  the 
a  sum  of  five  hundred  and  thirteen  pounds,  being  the  amount  of 
l(  eighteen  pounds  per  annum  (which  used  to  be  paid  to  the  chap- 
"  lains,)  for  twenty-eight  years  and  a  half,  then  last  past ;  which 
"  sum  was  at  that  time  presumed  to  be  forfeited  and  due  to  the 
li  Queen  by  virtue  of  the  Act  of  1st  Edward  VI.  for  dissolving 
iC  chantries,  &c.  But  it  not  appearing  to  the  jury  that  any  service 
"  had  been  performed  there,  nor  stipend  paid  to  any  chaplain  or 
"  chantry  priest,  for  officiating  there,  for  five  years  next  before  the 
"  passing  that  Act,  (according  to  the  limitation  therein  specified,) 
w  a  verdict  was  grven  for  the  wardens." 

Over  the  centre  window  of  the  Record  Room,  in  which  are  de- 
posited the  archives  of  the  bridge,  are  the  arms  of  Sir  Robert 
Knolles,  and  John  de  Cobham,  with  a  lion  passant  guardant,  or, 
(part  of  the  city  arms,)  in  chief;  above  is  a  mural  crown  ;  and  be- 

*  Custumale  Roffense,  p.  150. 


240  hist oiiv  off 

low,  the  motto,  Publica  privatis.     Immediately  beneath  the  winJ 
dow,  is  this  inscription  : — 

Custodes  et  communitas 

Pro  sustentatione  et  gubernatidne 

Novi  pontis  Roften. 

Hanc  porticum 

Ad  munimenta  sua  conservanda 

Instaurari  fecerunt. 

MDCCXXXV. 

Below  this,  on  a  kind  of  band,  continued  along  the  middle  of  the 
building,  are  seven  small  shields  cut  in  stone,  in  resemblance  of  the 
same  number  that  stood  in  front  of  the  ancient  porch,  and  were  too 
much  corroded  by  the  weather  to  be  placed  up  again.  On  these 
shields  are  the  arms  of  Richard  II.  and  of  his  uncles,  John  of 
Gaunt,  Edmund  of  Langley,  and  Thomas  of  Woodstock,  &c.  in 
whose  time  the  chapel  was  built.  On  the  common  seal  of  the  war- 
dens and  commonalty,  is  a  view  of  the  bridge  in  its  ancient  state, 
with  a  draw  bridge  in  the  centre,  and  Rochester  castle  near  the 
east  end  :  on  another  seal  belonging  to  them,  is  a  curious  represen- 
tation of  God  the  Father,  seated  in  a  rich  gothic  chair,  or  throne^ 
and  supporting  the  figure  of  our  Saviour  on  the  cross:  round  the 
verge  are  these  words  : 


The  Town-Hall. 

JL  HIS  building  was  first  erected  in  1687,  it  is  a  handsome  brick 
structure  supported  by  coupled  columns,  of  stone,  in  the  Doric  or- 
der; the  area  under  it  was  paved  with  Purbeck  stone,  at  the  ex- 
pence  of  Sir  Stafford  Fairborne*,  A.  D.  1706:  adjoining  to  the 

*  Sir  Stafford  Fairborne  represented  this  city  in  two  parliaments  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne. 


ROCHESTER.  241 

back  part  of  the  area  is  the  gaol  of  this  city.  The  entrance  into 
the  hall  is  by  a  spacious  stair  case,  the  ceiling  of  which  is  curiously 
ornamented.  The  hall  is  forty-seven  feet  in  length,  and  twenty- 
eight  in  width;  the  ceiling  is  curiously  enriched  with  trophies  of 
war,  fruits  and  flowers,  with  the  arms  of  this  city,  and  of  Sir 
Cloudsley  Shovel,  at  whose  expence  it  was  done  in  1695.  The  whole 
is  executed  in  a  masterly  manner.  At  the  upper  end  of  the  hall  are 
full  length  portraits  of  king  William  III.  and  queen  Anne,  the 
former  was  given  by  Sir  Joseph  Williamson,  the  latter  by  Sir 
Stafford  Fairborne,  and  both  are  original  paintings  of  Sir  Godfrey 
Kneller.  Against  the  upper  end  of  the  frout  wall,  is  the  portrait  of 
Sir  Cloudsley  Shovel.  Sir  John  Jennings  and  Sir  Thomas  Colby, 
are  ranged  on  the  same  side.  At  the  lower  end  of  the  hall  are  the 
portraits  of  those  two  eminent  benefactors  to  this  city,  Sir  Joseph 
Williamson  and  Mr.  Watts.  Sir  John  Leake  is  the  first  portrait 
within  the  back  wall ;  Sir  Thomas  Palmer,  and  Sir  Stafford  Fair- 
borne  follow  in  the  same  line.  These  portraits  are  all  finely  execu- 
ted by  the  most  eminent  masters  of  that  age.  All  public  business 
respecting  the  government  of  this  city  is  transacted  in  this  hall,  and 
here  also  the  judges  have  frequently  held  the  assizes  for  this  county. 


The  Clock-House. 

J_  HIS  building  is  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  High-Street 
and  on  the  spot  where  it  now  stands  was  the  ancient  Guildhall  of 
this  city,  as  appears  from  a  court  roll  in  1540.  The  present  build- 
ing was  erected  at'  the  sole  charge  and  expence  of  Sir  Cloudsley 
Shovel,  knight*,  A.  D.  1706  ;  the  front  is  built  with  brick,  and  is 
exceeding  neat.  Sir  Cloudsley  Shovel  also  gave  the  clock,  which  is 
of  excellent  workmanship.     By  a  deed  of  gift  he  confirmed  the 

*  Sir  Cloudsley  Shovel  represented  this  eity  in  three  parliaments  in  ike  reign 
of  king  William  HI.  and  in  one  parliament  in  th.e  reign  of  queen  Anne. 

2   I 


242  HISTORY  OP 

house  and  clock  to  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  this  city  for  ever. 
The  original  dial  being  much  decayed,  it  was  taken  down  in  1771, 
and  the  mayor  and  citizens  caused  the  present  elegant  dial  to  be 
erected;  they  also  added  the  minute  hand  to  the  clock,  and  fixed 
up  a  larger  bell;  the  arms  of  Sir  Cloudsley  Shovel  are  placed  over 
the  dial. 


The  Poor  House  of  St.  Nicholas  Parish. 


T. 


HIS  is  a  large  brick  building,  situated  on  the  common ;  it 
was  erected  in  1724.  Sir  Thomas  Colby*  gave  five  hundred 
pounds ;  Sir  John  Jennings  gave  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
towards  erecting  houses  for  the  reception  of  the  poor  in  the  parishes 
of  St.  Nicholas,  St.  Margaret,  and  Strood  ;  of  this  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds,  five  hundred  were  appropriated  to  the  erecting 
this  building;  in  it  the  poor  of  St.  Nicholas  parish  are  supported, 
and  such  as  were  able  to  work,  were  formerly  employed  in  spinning 
worsted  and  yarn.  This  employment,  for  what  reason  we  knownot, 
has  been  discontinued  for  several  years.  If  it  were  found  impracti- 
cable to  employ  the  poor  in  this  species  of  industry,  it  is  much  to 
be  lamented  that  some  other  occupation  has  not  been  substituted 
in  its  place,  and  that  so  many  persons,  whom  age  and  infirmity 
.have  not  rendered  incapable  of  contributing  something  to  their  own 
support,  should  at  present  be  maintained  in  this  poor-house  wholly 
at  the  expence  of  the  parish,  and  in  a  state  of  idleness  and  inacti- 
vity. 

*  Sir  Thomas  Colby  represented  this  city  in  one  parliament  in  the  reign  of  king 
George  I.  and  Sir  John  Jennings  represented  this  city  in  four  parliaments  in 
the  same  reign. 


ROCHESTER.  243 


St.  Margaret's  Church. 

JLN  the  time  of  Gundulph,  and  for  almost  a  century  after,  what 
is  now  styled  the  parish  of  St.  Margaret  was  dependent  upon  that 
of  St.  Nicholas  ;  and  as  long  as  that  inferiority  subsisted,  the  chapel 
of  the  one  underwent  the  same  changes  with  the  altar  of  the  other*. 
A  separation  was,  however,  made  by  bishop  Glanvill,  who  granted 
the  church  of  St.  Margaret,  with  all  the  profits  of  it,  to  the  hospital 
of  St.  Mary,  which  he  had  founded  in  Strood  ;  reserving  only  a 
payment  of  half  a  mark  per  year  to  the  priory  of  Rochester,  instead 
of  the  oblations  which  the  members  of  that  religious  house  used  to 
receive  from  it+.  Notice  has  been  more  than  once  taken  in  this 
history,  of  the  heavy  complaints  brought  against  this  prelate  by  the 
monks  of  St.  Andrew,  for  his  arbitrary  and  unjust  treatment  of  them  ; 
and  whoever  is  acquainted  with  the  avaricious  and  encroaching  spi- 
rit of  those  regulars,  must  be  aware,  that  no  pains  would  be  want- 
ing in  order  to  recover  the  estates  and  churches  which  they  pretend- 
ed had  been  wrested  from  them.  Fruitless  were  their  attempts 
while  Glanvill  lived ;  but  after  his  death  they  had  some  success  in 
their  applications  to  the  court  of  Rome,  A.  D.  1239.  In  conse- 
quence of  a  letter  from  pope  Gregory  IX.  the  dispute  between  the 
convent  and  the  hospital  was  referred  to  arbitrators,  who,  cancelling 
what  they  pronounced  to  be  a  forced  composition  made  by  the  bi- 
shop and  priory,  not  only  decreed  a  restitution  of  the  church  of 
St.  Margaret  to  the  monks,  but  granted  to  them,  out  of  the  tythes 
of  Aylesford,  an  additional  pension  of  eighteen  marks,  to  the  two 
to  which  they  were  before  entitled]:.  The  master  and  brethren  of 
the  hospital,  being  dissatisfied  with  this  determination,  appealed  in 

*  Regist.  Roff,  p.  6,  8,  48.  t  Regist.  Roff.  p.  50.  178. 

|  Anglia  Sacra  V.  1.  p.  349. 


244  HISTORY  OP 

their  turn  to  Innocent  IV.  who  appointed  Richard,  a  cardinal  dea- 
con with  the  bishop  of  Praeneste,  to  enquire  into  the  merits  of  the 
point  contested  ;  and  the  former,  by  an  instrument  (the  original  of 
which  is  now  remaining  among  the  archives  of  the  church  of  Ro- 
chester, with  the  cardinal's  seal  appendant  to  it)  confirmed  the 
first  agreement  entered  into  by  Glanvill  and  the  monks*.  An  end 
was  not  however  put  to  this  dispute  by  this  award ;  for  it  appears 
that  Alexander  IV.  the  successor  of  Innocent,  adjudged,  March 
11th,  in  the  second  year  of  this  pontificate,  A.  D.  1256,  that  the 
church  of  St.  Margaret  should  for  the  time  to  come  belong  to  the 
priory,  and  that  the  hospital  should  not  hereafter  be  subject  to  any 
imposition  of  the  church  of  Aylesfordf .  This  decision  was  final. 
The  appropriation  of  the  parish  of  St.  Margaret,  and  the  right  of 
presenting  a  vicar,  was  enjoyed  by  the  monks  till  the  dissolution 
of  their  convent ;  and  king  Henry  VIII.  settled  the  same,  by  his 
charter  of  endowment,  on  the  present  dean  and  chapter. 

As  St.  Margaret's  was  a  subordinate  district,  it  seems  rather  sur- 
prizing that  there  should  be  within  it  a  building  consecrated  to  re- 
ligious purposes,  when  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Nicholas  were  obliged 
to  perform  their  devotions  at  an  altar  in  the  cathedral.  But  it  is 
very  clear  from  the  passages  in  the  Regist.  Roff.  before  referred  to, 
that  there  was  certainly  a  church  or  chapel  (for  both  terms  are  in- 
discriminately used)  in  this  quarter  soon  after  the  conquest ;  though 
the  time  of  its  being  erected  is  unknown,  as  are  also  the  dimensions 
and  almost  every  other  circumstance  relating  to  it.  There  is  the 
same  difficulty  in  discovering  the  period  at  which  this  edifice  was 
rebuilt ;  but  the  names  of  some  few  benefactors  to  one  or  the  other 
of  these  churches,  and  to  the  parish,  are  not  sunk  into  oblivion. 
In  the  year  1361,  Thomas  de  Woldeham,  bishop  of  Rochester,  be- 
queathed thirteen  shillings  and  four-pence  to  the  repairs  of  the 
church,  and  twelve  shillings  to  the  poor.  John  Derham,  who  had 
been  vicar,  gave  also  a  legacy  of  one  pound  six  shillings  and  eight 

*  Regist.  Roff.  p.  70.  +  Ibid.  p.  560. 


ROCHESTER.  245 

pence,  about  the  year  1445,  to  the  fabric*;  William  Goldherd 
left  in  his  will,  A.  D.  1447,  six  shillings  and  eight-pence  for  his 
burial  in  the  church  ;  and  William  Clerke  of  Southgate,  in  this  pa- 
rish, bequeathed  twenty-pence  towrards  making  of  seats.  Thomas 
Shemyng,  whose  legacies  to  St.  Nicholas  have  been  already  menti- 
oned, was  likewise  a  benefactor  to  this  parish,  giving  to  it,  by  his 
will,  a  torch,  two  surplices,  and  a  rochett;  and  directing  a  house 
in  it  to  be  sold,  the  money  whereof  was  to  find  a  priest  to  sing  in 
the  church,  so  long  as  it  would  last,  for  his  own  soul,  the  soul  of 
John  Bote,  Joan  his  wife,  and  the  soul  of  John  Carden. 

Though  the  church  or  chapel  of  St.  Margaret,  as  dependent  upon 
the  parochial  altar  of  St.  Nicholas,  had  been  given  to  the  priory  by 
Gundulph,  the  monks  did  not  acquire  an  appropriation  of  all  the 
profits  of  it,  till  Waleran  was  bishop  of  this  diocese  ;  but  after 
they  had  obtained  this  indulgence,  as  the  oblations  were  paid  to 
them,  it  seems  most  likely,  that  instead  of  settling  a  curate  upon  it, 
the  duty  of  the  parish  was  from  time  to  time  discharged  by  those 
members  of  their  society  who  were  in  orders.  And  it  is  equally 
probable,  that  while  the  hospital  of  St.  Mary  in  Strood  enjoyed 
the  revenue  of  this  church,  the  same  method  was  adopted  of  sup- 
plying the  cure,  by  one  of  the  priests  of  that  charitable  foundation. 
However,  within  a  few  years  after  the  convent  recovered  possession 
of  St.  Margaret,  a  yicar  was  certainly  appointed,  for  William 
Talevaz  occurs  under  that  title  so  early  as  the  year  1272. 

By  the  taxation  made  of  all  ecclesiastical  benefices  in  the  reign 
of  king  Edward  [.  this  vicarage  was  estimated  at  four  marks  per 
year  ;  and  as  this  general  valuation  was  always  considered  as  one 
most  rigorous  and  oppressive  to  the  clergy,  we  may  suppose  that 
this  poor  preferment  was  rated  to  the  extent  of  its  annual  income; 

*  About  this  period  the  church  seems  to  have  been  in  a  dilapidated  state. 
In  November  1414  the  prior  and  convent  were  presented,  at  the  visitation,  for 
their  neglect  of  the  roof  and  east  window  of  the  chancel;  and  in  1447,  there 
was  an  order  issued  from  the  bishop's  court,  requiring  the  churchwardens  to 
repair  the  roof  of  the  church  within  a  year. 


240  HISTORY  OF 

nor  do  the  incumbents  seem  to  have  acquired  any  increase  of  their 
profits  till  the  year  1401,  when  a  composition*  was  entered  into 
between  the  prior,  with  his  chapter,  and  John  Eastgate,  who  was 
the  vicar  at  that  time.  As  one  of  the  articles  was,  that  the  vicar 
should  receive  the  small  tythes  of  three  manors,  as  well  as  of  the 
other  lands  within  the  parish,  it  is  probable  that  the  convent  had  be- 
fore received  all  the  tythes,  both  great  and  small,  of  these  manors+; 
and  as  they  were  manors  of  a  large  extent,  this  was  a  considerable 
diminution  of  the  profits  of  the  vicarage.  The  prior  and  his 
brethren  reserved  to  themselves,  by  this  deed,  the  tythes  of  mills 
and  of  all  their  demesne  lands ;  but  in  order  to  make  the  vicar 
some  compensation,  they  granted  him  an  annual  allowance  of  three 
quarters  of  wheat,  and  of  the  same  quantity  of  barley;  and  one 
bushel  of  every  quarter  of  this  grain  was  to  be  heaped  up.  It  was 
further  stipulated  that  this  vicar,  and  his  successors,  should  be  con^ 
tent  with  this  portion  assigned,  and  never  require  of  the  monks  any 
encrease  of  it.  Edmund  Hatefield,  who  was  a  successor,  did  not 
however  consider  this  clause  as  obligatory  upon  him  ;  for  in  the 
year  1488  he  petitioned  the  bishop  for  an  augmentation,  and  his 
lordship  very  soon  granted  his  reasonable  request.  The  instrument 
of  this  augmentation  is  printed  in  the  Regist.  Ron",  p.  578,  in  which 
from  the  bishop's  having  enumerated  the  various  articles  of  which 
the  vicar  should  receive  the  tenth,  one  would  be  apt  to  imagine 
there  had  been  some  disputes  between  the  convent  and  the  vicars, 
which  were  small  tythes.  His  lordship  likewise  determined  that 
the  tythe  of  mills  should  belong  to  the  incumbent,  that  the  prior 
and  convent  should  pay  him  an  annual  pension  of  three  marks,  and 
one  more  quarter  of  wheat  and  barley  than  was  reserved  in  the 
former  composition  ;  and  he  reserved  to  himself,  and  his   successors 

*  See  Regist.  Roff.  p.  559. 

+  Those  of  Neschenden,  and  the  great  and  little  Delce:  all  the  tythes  of 
these  districts  had  been  granted  to  the  monks  of  St.  Andrew  before  they  ob- 
tained the  appropriation  of  this  parish,  as  Neschenden  was  a  chapel  dependent 
on  St.  Margaret. 


ROCHESTER*  '  247 

in  the  see  of  Rochester,  a  power  of  augmenting  or  diminishing  the 
profits  of  the  vicarage,  as  should  be  found  expedient. 

The  securing  to  the  vicar  a  part  of  his  allowance  in  corn  was  a 
wise  precaution,  against  the  inconvenience  which  must  arise  from 
the  payment  of  a  fixed  sum  of  money,  the  value  of  which  will  de- 
crease in  the  course  of  years.  Of  this  advantage  an  incumbent*  of 
this  parish  was  not  sensible,  or,  if  he  was,  he  from  interested  views 
deprived  his  successors  of  it.  For  by  an  agreement  he  made  with 
the  dean  and  chapter,  April  24,  1582,  he  consented  to  take  an 
annual  payment  of  five  pounds  six  shillings  and  eight-pence,  instead 
of  the  pension  in  money  and  corn,  granted  by  the  composition  of 
bishop  Audley.  This  vicarage  is  rated  at  ten  pounds  in  the  king's 
books. 

The  present  building  consists  of  one  nave,  extending  near  one 
hundred  feet  in  length,  but  does  not  exceed  one  quarter  of  that  ex- 
tent in  width;  in  the  south  side  are  two  chancels,  erections  of  a 
much  later  date  than  the  body  of  the  church  ;  that  towards  the  east 
end  was  built  and  long  supported  by  the  Leas,  the  proprietors  of 
Great  Delce,  who  lie  interred  in  a  large  vault  under  this  chancel ; 
but  since  that  manor  has  become  the  property  of  other  families, 
the  repair  of  this  part  of  the  fabrick  has  devolved  on  the  parishion- 
ers. The  property  of  the  pews  in  the  chancel,  at  the  east  end,  is 
in  the  descendants  of  Sir  Francis  Head,  bart.  who  keep  it  in  repair 
by  virtue  of  their  enjoying  the  great  tythes  of  this  vicarage.  At  the  west 

*  John  Ready  was  the  name  of  this  person.  The  alteration,  even  at  the 
time  of  making  it,  was  very  prejudicial  to  the  vicar,  since  he  accepted  ten  shil- 
lings only  in  lieu  of  a  quarter  of  wheat  and  a  quarter  of  barley  ;  whereas,  ac- 
cording to  bishop  Fleetwood  in  his  Chronicon  Pretiosum,  the  average  price  of 
that  quantity  of  the  former  grain  was  eight  shillings,  and  five  shillings  of  the 
latter.  But  he  has  in  the  deed  of  release  probably  assigned  the  true  motive  for 
this  action,  viz.  for  "  other  benefits  and  benevolences  by  the  said  dean  and 
"  chapter  on  me  the  said  John  Ready  bestowed.1"  Some  recompence  has 
however  been  made  for  this  hard  bargain  by  the  successors  of  that  dean  and 
chapter,  in  settling  on  the  vicarage  a  larger  augmentation  than  on  any  other 
church  in  their  patronage. 


248  HISTORY  OF 

end  is  a  tower  containing  five  bells;  in  this  quarter  of  the  church 
is  a  small  gallery  erected  by  the  parishioners,  A.  D.  1681,  under 
which  stands  a  very  ancient  font.  The  principal  entrance  into  this 
church  is  through  an  ancient  arched  porch  on  the  south  side.  On 
the  east  wall  in  the  south  chancel  is  an  ancient  bust  of  a  man  with 
robes,  and  an  earl's  coronet  on  his  head*.  In  the  nave  before  the 
pulpit  is  a  flat  stone  with  the  effigy  of  a  man,  and  an  inscription  on 
a  brass  plate,  so  ancient  as  1450.  In  the  chancel  is  another  flat 
stone,  on  which  is  fixed  a  brass  plate  with  a  chalice  on  it, 
these  letters  I  H  C,  and  an  inscription  denoting  the  interment 
there  of  "  Syr  James  Robert  Prest,  which  decessyd  23  Sept.  1540:" 
excepting  these  two  inscriptions,  there  are  none  other  remaining  of 
any  considerable  antiquity.  There  are  some  flat  stones  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  church,  on  which  brass  plates  have  been  fixed,  and 
in  other  respects  appear  to  be  ancient,  but  the  inscriptions  are 
iutirely  obliterated :  several  neat  marble  monuments,  of  a  later 
date,  are  erected  in  different  parts  of  this  fabricr .  In  two  of  the 
north  windows,  and  in  the  east  window,  are  some  small  remains  of 
painted  glass. 

Adjoining  to  the  north  wall  of  the  church-yard  is  a  piece  of 
ground  which  has  probably  belonged  to  the  incumbents  of  this 
parish  from  the  first  settlement  of  the  vicarage.  An  ancient  court- 
roll  mentions  their  being  possessed  of  it  in  the  year  1317  ;  and  ac- 
cording to  a  deed  printed  in  Regist.  Roff.  p.  548,  a  messuage  situa- 
ted upon  it,  and  all  its  appurtenances,  had  been  assigned  to  them  by 

*  Harris  makes  mention  of  a  crown  and  coronet  being  dug  up,  towards  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  this  church-yard,  the  edge  of  which  was  set 
round  with  small  precious  stones. 

-r  Opposite  the  pulpit  is  a  marble  monument,  with  curious  sculpture,  to  the 
memory  of  Capt.  Percy,  a  descendant  of  the  Northumberland  family,  who 
served  forty-seven  years  in  the  royal  navy,  and  was  in  a  variety  of  memorable 
actions  from  1700  to  1740.  His  escapes  from  many  very  imminent  dangers  are 
recited  on  the  monument.  On  the  north  side  is  a  very  elegant  marble  monu- 
ment erected  in  1771,  to  Robert  Wilkins,  esq.  of-this  parish. 


ROCHESTER;  249 

the  prior  and  convent  of  Rochester,  with  the  ordination  of  the 
bishop.  The  vicars,  we  are  told,  now  hold  it  of  the  dean  and 
chapter's  manor  of  Ambree,  on  paying  a  small  acknowledgement ; 
but  by  the  instrument  just  referred  to,  the  master  and  brethren  of 
Newerk  hospital  granted  it  in  the  fifth  of  Edward  III.  A.  D.  1331 
to  John  Folkstone  the  then  vicar,  and  his  successors,  upon  a  quit- 
rent  of  two  shillings  per  year,  and  one  shilling  for  a  relief  on  the 
death  of  a  vicar.  The  house,  being  from  age  become  irreparable, 
was  taken  down  ;  and  a  convenient  and  substantial  dwelling  erect- 
ed in  the  room  of  it,  the  reverend  Mr.  Lowth,  the  then  vicar ? 
having  for  several  years  previously  deposited  with  the  dean  and 
chapter,  an  annual  sum  towards  defraying  the  charge  of  this  com- 
mendable work.  The  dilapidated  state  of  many  buildings  on  our 
ecclesiastical  benefices^  and  the  mean  condition  of  a  much  greater 
number,  has  long  been  a  subject  of  public  as  well  as  private  com- 
plaint and  concern.  This  Worthy  clergyman  seems  to  have  adopted 
a  very  judicious  plan,  which,  if  encouraged,  would  in  some  degree 
prevent  the  growth  of  this  evil ;  and  if  a  scheme,  which  has  been 
tried  with  success  in  Ireland,  had  also  in  this  country  the  sanction 
of  the  legislative  authority,  probably,  in  a  course  of  years,  few 
parishes,  in  comparison,  that  had  the  advantage  of  a  healthy  situa- 
tion, and  the  profits  of  which  were  sufficient  for  the  decent  support 
of  resident  ministers,  would  be  destitute  of  a  proper  habitation  for 
them.  The  law  of  a  neighbouring  kingdom,  here  alluded  to,  is  that 
which  allows  to  an  incumbent,  on  his  resigning  his  preferment,  or 
to  his  representatives  in  case  the  vacancy  is  made  by  his  death,  a 
certain  proportion  of  the  sum  he  has,  with  the  consent  of  the  ordi- 
nary, expended  in  building  or  rebuilding  a  house  upon  his  benefice. 
But  perhaps  it  might  be  better  to  give  a  clergyman  the  option  of 
either  of  these  plans,  as  it  may  best  suit  his  convenience  or  his  cir- 
cumstances. 

Excepting  the  share  of  Mr.  Watts's  charity  which  this  parish  en- 
joys, the  donations  to  itappear  to  have  been  veryfew.    A.  D.  1526^ 

2  K 


250  HISTORY  OF 

John  Wryte,  vicar  of  this  parish*,  invested  in  trustees,  for  the  use 
of  the  inhabitants,  about  half  an  acre  of  land,  called  at  that  time 
"  Culver  Ha  we  :"  by  the  boundaries  as  set  forth  in  the  Regist. 
RofF.  p.  586,  it  seems  to  be  that  waste  spot  of  ground,  part  of 
which  is  now  added  to,  and  the  remainder  adjoins  to  the  south  wall 
of,  the  church-yard;  and  it  was  near  the  road  leading  to  Bos- 
tall,  designed  as  a  place  of  exercise  and  recreation  for  the  parish- 
ionerst. 

Robert  Gunsley,  clerk,  by  his  will  dated  June  30,  1618,  left  to 
the  poor  of  this  parish  a  piece  of  land  in  the  parish  of  Hoo,  contain- 
ing six  acres  and  one  rood,  which  now  lets  at  the  yearly  rent  of 
seven  pounds.  Thomas  Manley,  esq;  by  will  dated  November  10, 
1687,  left  to  the  poor  widows  of  this  parish,  ten  shillings  per  annum 
to  be  given  in  wheaten  bread.  This,  with  Mr.  Gunsley's  donation 
is  distributed  in  bread  to  the  poor  of  this  parish,  on  the  Sundays  in 
Lent. 

John  Baynard,  esq.  who  died  July  9th  1792,  at  the  age  of  eighty 
eight  years,  among  other  considerable  benefactons  to  various  chari- 
table institutions,  bequeathed  by  his  will  three  hundred  pounds  to 
the  Sunday-school  in  St.  Margaret's,  and  also  one  hundred  pounds 
to  the  poor  of  the  said  parish  who  do  not  receive  alms. 

Mr.  Henry  Barrell  of  this  parish  gave  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  pounds  six  shillings  and  eight-pence  in  the  three  per  cent. 
India  annuities,  which  produce  four  pounds  per  annum  to  teach 
eight  children  to  read. 

Edward  Dockley,  gent,  by  his  will,  dated  I lth  February  1786, 
bequeathed  seven  pounds  per  annum  (part  of  the  interest  on  three 
hundred  pounds  stock  in  the  three  per  cent  consols)  to  be  given  in 
bread  to  the  poor  of  this  parish  on  the  several  Sundays  in  Lent. 

*  Mr.  Wryte  occurs  also  as  vicar  of  Raynham,  and  of  Lyjigsted  in  this  coun- 
ty. He  was  buried  by  his  own  directions,  ante  sanctum  sacramentum  in  ec- 
cles.  sua  paroch.  St.  Margaretae. 

+  A  copy  of  the  grant  of  this  piece  of  land  is  preserved  among  the  parochial 
papers  in  St.  Margaret's  church. 


ROCHESTER.  251 

On  the  west  side  of  the  street  is  a  poor-house,  erected  in  the  year 
1724,  for  the  reception  of  the  needy  and  indigent  poor  belonging  to 
this  parish  :  towards  the  building  of  which,  two  hundred  pounds 
were  appropriated  out  of  the  seven  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  given 
by  Sir  Thomas  Colby  and  Sir  John  Jennings. 


Strood  Church. 


o, 


FFA  king  of  the  Mercians,  and  Sigered  king  of  Kent,  A.  D. 
764,  granted  to  Eardulph,  bishop  of  Rochester,  a  considerable 
quantity  of  land,  with  its  appurtenances,  in  Eslingham,  otherwise 
Frendsbury*.  We  may  conclude  from  a  passage  in  the  Regist. 
Roffen.t  that  there  was  no  church  in  this  quarter,  during  the  first 
part  of  Gundulph's  administration;  probably  the  old  fabric  had 

*  See  Text.  Roff.  p.  72,  and  152.     In  some  pages  of  the  Textus  Roffensis, 
and  of  the  Registrum  Roffense,  these  terms  are  promiscuously  used,  and  in 
others  they  signify  different  districts,  but  it  is  certain  that  from  the  conquest, 
if  not  before,  Eslingham  was  only  a  part  of  tbc  parish,  and  dependent  on  the 
manor  of  Frendsbury.     James  Best,  esquire,  is  now  possessed  of  this  subordi- 
nate manor,  and  it  is  said  pays  a  quit-rent  for  it  to  the  dean  and  chapter  of 
Rochester,  as  lords  of  the  manor  of  Frendsbury.     There  was  a  chapel  of  Es- 
lingham in  tbe  time  of  Gundulph,  which,  being  rebuilt,  was  dedicated  to  St. 
Peter,  by  bishop  John,  the  second,  between  the  years  1137  and  1144.     It  is 
still  standing,  but  is  now  converted  into  an  oast  house.     The  learned  editor  of 
the  valuable  collection  of  ecclesiastical  records,  so  often  cited  in  this  book, 
supposes  Frendsbury  to  have  been  formerly  styled  Eseling,  as  well  as  Esling- 
ham; see  Reg.  Roff.  p.  344;  but  the  deed  published  by  him  seems  to  relate  to 
the  parish  of  Eastling,  near   Ospringe,  in  this  county.     The  instrument  we 
mean,  is  a  decree  of  archbishop  Islip,  concerning  an  arrear  of  a  pension  due 
from  the  rpctor  Peter  St.  John,  to  the  convent  at  Ledes,  in  which  his  grace 
mentions  the  parish   to  be  in  his  own  diocese.     Reg.  Roff.  p.  371.     Besides 
Frendsbury  had  been  for  almost  a  hundred  years  before  the  date  of  this  deci- 
sion, appropriated  to  the  see  of  Rochester,  and  the  church  served  by  a  vicar 
endowed. 

+  Regist.  Roffens.  p.  8, 


Q52  HISTORY  OF 

been  destroyed  by  the  Danes,  for  one  could  hardly  imagine  so 
large  a  district  to  have  been  destitute,  for  near  three  centuries,  of  a 
place  of  public  worship.  Whether  Gundulph  raised  any  edifice  here 
for  this  use,  is  not  quite  certain  ;  if  he  did,  it  was  constructed  of 
such  slight  materials,  that  within  twenty  years  after  his  death, 
Paulinus,  the  sacrist  of  the  priory  at  Rochester,  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  rebuild  it  with  stone*.  John,  the  successor  ofEarnulph 
granted  Frendsbury  with  the  chapel  ofStrood  annexed  to  it,  to  the 
monks  of  this  society  ;  and  the  patronage  of  this  church  was  one 
of  the  presentations  which  these  regulars  complained  had  been  un- 
justly taken  from  them  by  bishpp  Glaqvill.  Strood  continued  as  a 
chapel  of  ease  to  Frendsbury,  till  after  the  foundation  of  the  hospital 
of  St.  Mary  in  this  parish,  when  that  prelate  being  of  opinion  that 
the  chapel  was  conveniently  situated  for  the  brethren  of  this  chari- 
table institution,  he,  with  the  consent  of  Robert  Pullus  or  Poleyn, 
Tector  of  Frendsbury  and  who  was  also  at  that  time  archdeacon  of 
the  diocese,  converted  it  into  a  parochial  church,  and  settled  it  on 
this  new  fraternity.  The  words  in  the  instrument  are,  "  that  the 
church  of  St.  Nicholas  in  Strood  should  be  constituted  a  mother 
church,  and  have  a  burial  ground  allotted  to  itj."  By  this  assign- 
ment the  bishop  intended  to  discharge  it  from  every  mark  of  depen- 
dence on  Frendsbury ;  for  the  right  of  sepulture  was  one  of  the 
chief  parochial  privileges,  and  was  generally  the  last  granted  to  any 
subordinate  district.  It  is  uncertain  at  what  time  this  chapel  Was 
erected;   and  very  little  information  can  be  obtained  from  ancient 

*  See  Regist.  Roffen.  p.  118.  It  appears  from  the  page  of  the  Registrum, 
here  referred  to,  that  Paulinus,  the  sacrist,  built  this  church  ;  but  in  page  110 
pf  this  history,  that  work  was  attributed  to  bishop  John :  the  truth  seems  to  be, 
that  Paulinus  built  the  church  with  the  approbation  and  countenance  pf  John. 

+  See  Regist.  Roff.  p.  117. 

$  Ibid.  p.  632.  There  appears  to  have  been  in  or  near  this  town  a  parochial 
church,  dedicated  to  St.  Martin ;  for  in  some  of  the  instruments  pf  Glanvill's, 
donation  to  his  hpspital,  he  settles  pn  it '«  Ecclesiam  beati  Nicholia  de  Strodes, 
II  cum  parochia,  qua?  consuevit  esse  sancti  Martini."  Regist.  Roff.  p.  105. 


ROCHESTER.  253 

writings  concerning  the  changes  it  has  undergone.  There  appears 
however,  to  have  been  in  it  a  chancel,  dedicated  to  the  Trinity,  and 
another  chancel,  or  altar,  to  St.  Mary  ;  which  last  was,  A.  D.  1512 
ordered  at  the  bishop's  visitation  to  be  repaired  by  the  parish. 
About  the  year  1446,  Jane  May  hew  having  charged  her  executors, 
out  of  the  produce  of  her  effects,  to  glaze  the  window  in  the  belfry, 
they  were  presented  in  the  consistory  court,  for  not  having  fulfilled 
her  will.  And  William  Rye  bequeathed  not  long  after,  a  legacy 
for  erecting  a  battlement  on  the  south  isle  of  the  church.  In  1298, 
the  master  of  Neweik  hospital  gave  a  piece  of  land,  called  La  Sand- 
pete,  for  enlarging  the  cemetery;  and  about  the  middle  of  the  17th 
century,  the  church-wardens  of  this  parish  were  tenants  of  the 
manor  of  Bon  cakes  for  a  f-pot  of  ground  styled  Le  Sandpete,  and 
Le  Playing  place  adjoining  to  the  church-yard,  on  which  some 
cottages  had  been  built  for  the  use  of  the  inhabitants15.  When 
bishop  Glanvill  separated  this  parochial  district  from  Frendsbury 
hegranted  to  the  master  and  brethren  of  his  new  hospital,  for  their 
own  use,  all  the  oblations,  and  profits  of  it,  except  the  tythe  of 
grain+;  and  they  were  to  present  to  the  ordinary  a  priest,  either  out 
of  their  own  society,  or  a  stranger,  who  was  to  officiate  in  the 
church:|:.  The  cure  seems  generally  to  have  been  supplied  by  one 
of  the  brethren;  but  if  they  appointed  a  chaplain,  who  was  not  of 
their  fraternity,  he  had  only  a  fixed  stipend  for  his  support.  In 
the  consistorial  acts,  instances  occur  of  the  master  of  the  hospital 
suing  not  only  for  tythes,  but  for  mortuaries,  a  kind  of  oblation 
which  was  most  usually  paid  to  the  officiating  clerk.  The  vicarial 
dues  of  this  parish,  as  having  been  a  part  of  the  revenue  of  Newerk 

*  This  appears  to  be  that  valley  to  the  north  of  the  church-yard,  on  part  of 
which  the  poor-house  is  built. 

+  Mr.  Phillipot  conjectures  that  the  tythe  of  grass  only  was  excepted;  he 
was  however,  not  well  vers'd  in  vicarial  endowments  not  to  be  apprised 
that  "  Bladum"  usually  signifies  in  these  writings  all  sorts  of  corn.  See  Vill. 
Cant.  p.  328. 

J  See  Regist.  Roffens.  p.  632. 


254  HISTORY  OF 

hospital,  were  settled  by  king  Henry  VIII.  on  the  dean  and  chap- 
ter of  Rochester  ;  and  they  have  ever  since  nominated  a  curate, 
who  is  licensed  by  the  bishop.  This  reverend  body  have,  however, 
acted  more  generously  towards  the  curates  of  Strood,  than  did  the 
old  proprietors  of  this  living ;  for  they  have  constantly  demised  to 
the  minister  a  lease  of  all  the  emoluments  of  the  benefice,  on  paying 
an  annual  rent  of  one  penny. 

The  old  church  was  a  spacious  building,  consisting  of  a  nave  and 
two  isles,  extending  from  east  to  west  upwards  of  one  hundred  feet, 
and  in  width  fifty  feet.  In  the  chancel  at  the  east  end  was  a  hand- 
some altar-piece  of  the  Corinthian  order,  which  is  now  placed  in 
the  chancel  of  Frindsbury  church,  to  which  it  was  presented  by  the 
parishioners  of  Strood,  in  consideration  of  their  having  been  indulged 
with  the  privilege  of  attending  divine  service  there  once  every  Sun- 
day, during  the  time  of  taking  down  and  rebuilding  their  own 
church.  On  the  south  side  of  the  altar  were  some  recesses,  con- 
sisting of  arches  supported  by  pillars  of  Pet  worth  marble;  there 
were  also  some  appearances  of  an  ancient  altar  having  been  former- 
ly erected  here.  On  the  north  side  of  the  chancel  was  the  vestry 
room;  and  under  this  part  of  the  fabric  were  the  remains  of  an  an- 
cient charnel  house.  In  the  south  isle  was  a  small  stone  chapel 
built  in  1607,  which  belonged  to  the  Gother  family  formerly  of  this 
town*;  in  the  pavement  of  this  chapel  were  some  fragments  of  Mo- 
saic work.  The  principal  entrance  into  the  old  church  was  at  the 
south  door,  through  a  large  gothic  arch  of  Caen  stone ;  this  door 
and  the  walls  of  the  chancel  appeared  to  be  by  much  the  most  anci- 
ent part  of  the  fabric.  The  tower  at  the  west  end  still  remains  en- 
tire ;  and  was  thoroughly  repaired  and  beautified  when  the  church 
was  rebuilt,  with  the  additional  ornament  of  a  turret  of  Portland 
stone,  eighteen  feet  high.  In  it  are  six  bells;  five  of  which  were 
re-cast,  and  a  sixth  bell  added,  at  the  expence  of  the  inhabitants 
A.  D.  1765. 

*  The  Coal  wharf  next  to  Strood  change,  is  charged  with  an  annuity  of  five 
shillings,  to  be  paid  to  the  churchwardens  of  this  parish,  for  the  vault  under 
this  chapel. 


ftOCHESTEft,  %5fr 

This  dncient  and  venerable  edifice  having  stood  about  sit  hundred 
and  eighty  years*  was  become  in  many  parts  so  decayed,  and  in 
such  a  ruinous  condition,  that  it  became  necessary  to  take  it  down 
entirely.     Accordingly,  in  1812,  an  Act  of  Parliament  t  was  ob- 
tained for  pulling  down  and  rebuilding  the  church,  and  for  other 
purposes  therein  recited.     For  the  purpose  of  carrying  this  act  into 
effect  twenty-four  trustees  were  appointed.     The  perpetual  curate 
of  Strood,  the  churchwardens  and  overseers  for  the  time  being,  and 
their  successors,  are  trustees  by  virtue  of  their  situation  and  office  : 
the  rest,  under  certain  restrictions,  and  with  certein  qualifications, 
are  to  be  elected  by  the  inhabitants,  «  occupying  houses  respeo 
•<  tively  assessed  to,  and  paying  the  king's  taxes  and  poor-rates, 
"at  the  rent  or  value  of  ten  pounds  a  year,  and  upwards."     Un- 
der this  act  the  trustees  were  invested  with  full  power  "  to  pull 
"  down  and  rebuild  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  church  in  such  a 
"  manner  as  they  should  think  proper  :"  and  it  is  enacted  that  "it 
"  shall  be  lawful  for  any  seven  of  the  trustees  or  more  of  them,  to 
"  make  a  rate  not  exceeding  two  shillings  in  the  pound,  for  the 
"  purpose  of  repairing  and  rebuilding  the  church,  and  for  the  pay- 
"  ment  of  the  several  sums,  annuities,  and  interest  charged,  or  to 
"  be  charged,  on  such  rate  and  assessment."     It  is  enacted  also,- 
that  "  the  trustees,  or  any  thirteen  and  more  of  them,  shall  have 
"  power  to  borrow  any  sum,  or  sums  of  money,  not  exceeding 
;  seven  thousand  pounds,  upon  credit  of  the  rates  and  assessments 
"  for  repairing  or  rebuilding,  completing  and  finishing  the  church, 
"  tower  and  cemetery ;  and  by  writing  under  their  hands  and  seals, 
"  to  assign  all,  or  any  part,  of  the  said  rates  and  assessments  to 

*  See  our  account  of  John,  archdeacon  of  Canterbury,  thirty-third  bishop 
of  this  diocese,  p.  HO* 

+  This  act  is  intituled--"  An  Act  for  enlarging  the  present  or  providing  a 
"  new  work-house  for  the  use  of  the  parish  of  Strood,  in  the  county  of  Kent ; 
"  for  better  governing,  maintaining,  and  employing  the  poor  of  the  said  pa- 
"  rish;  and  also  for  repairing  or  rebuilding  the  church  and  tower  of  the  same' 
r  parish,  and  for  other  purposes  relating  thereto." 


256  HISTORY  OF 

"  such  person  or  persons  as  shall  advance  any  money  thereon,  as 
"  a  security  for  the  principal  monies  to  be  advanced  with  lawful 
4<  interest."  In  case  the  trustees  should  think  it  advisable  to  raise 
all,  or  any  part,  of  the  money  for  the  purposes  of  this  act,  by 
granting  annuities  for  lives,  instead  of  assignments  as  aforesaid;  it 
is  further  enacted,  that  "  it  shall  be  lawful  for  any  thirteen  or  more 
"  of  them  to  grant  an  annuity  or  annuities  for  one  or  two  lives, 
u  and  not  exceeding  ten  pounds  per  cent,  per  ami.  to  any  person 
"  or  persons  who  shall  advance  money  for  the  absolute  purchase  of 
M  any  annuity  or  annuities." 

In  pursuance  of  this  act,  the  old  church,  with  the  exception  of 
the  tower,  was  wholly  taken  down,  and  the  present  neat  and  spa- 
cious edifice  erected  on  the  site  which  it  originally  occupied.  This 
new  church,  both  in  its  external  and  internal  construction,  bears 
evident  marks  of  elegance  and  taste  ;  and  exhibits  that  kind  of  sim- 
plicity so  much  to  be  preferred  to  the  crowded  and  ill-disposed  or- 
naments frequently  found  in  structures  of  this  class.  Its  form  is 
that  of  an  oblong  square,  in  length  within  seventy-nine  feet,  and 
in  breadth  fifty-six  feet :  the  height  to  the  ceiling  is  thipty-one  feet. 
The  entrance  is  on  the  south  side  through  a  handsome  porch  as- 
cended by  a  flight  of  steps :  at  the  east  end  is  a  semicircular  recess 
for  the  altar.  The  attention  which  is  uniformly  paid  to  the  preser- 
vation of  this  beautiful  fabric,  and  to  the  decent  appearance  of  the 
cemetery  belonging  to  it,  is  creditable  to  the  parishioners,  and 
merits  great  commendation.  There  were  a  few  monuments  in  the 
old  church ;  but  as  they  exhibited  nothing  either  remarkable  or  cu- 
rious, they  have  not  been  replaced  in  the  new  one,  but  are  depo- 
sited in  the  tower,  where  they  are  carefully  preserved.  Many  of 
the  grave-stones  in  the  floor  were  also  broken :  even  those  which 
escaped  damage,  were  afterwards  so  capriciously  removed  by  the 
workmen,  that  scarcely  one  of  them  can  be  said  to  cover  the  re- 
mains of  the  person  whom  it  was  intended  to  commemorate. 

The  expence  of  rebuilding,  completing  and  finishing  the  church, 
tower,  and  cemetery,  exceeded  eight  thousand  five  hundred  pounds, 


ROCHESTER.  25F 

and  was  defrayed  partly  by  borrowing  three  thousand  four  hundred 
pounds  on  annuities,  and  by  giving  securities  on  the  rates  to  the 
amount  of  four  thousand  two  hundred  pounds,  and  partly,  by  a 
public  subscription  which  produced  one  thousand  two  hundred  and 
fifty-four  pounds.  Towards  this  subscription  the  inhabitants  of 
Strood,  to  their  honour  be  it  recorded,  contributed  three  hundred 
and  twenty-fire  pounds ;  and  the  remaining  part  of  it,  viz.  nine 
hundred  and  twenty-nine  pounds,  was  raised  by  voluntary  contri- 
butions from  divers  benevolent  and  well-disposed  persons  residing 
in  the  neighbouring  parishes,  who  by  the  assistance  thus  seasonably 
afforded  to  a  parish  of  small  extent  and  greatly  burdened  with  poor.; 
to  enable  them  to  rebuild  their  church,  evinced  a  spirit  of  liberality, 
which  can  never  be  sufficiently  commended,  and  a  zeal  for  the 
support  of  the  established  religion  highly  deserving  of  imitation 
on  similar  occasions. 

In  this  church  is  preserved  a  book  containing  a  regular  detail  of 
the  churchwardens  accounts,  from  1555,  to  1763,  (an  omission  for 
a  very  short  period  excepted,)  on  a  careful  inspection  of  this  book 
it  is  evident  that  every  part  of  the  ancient  fabric  was  erected  prior 
to  the  former  of  these  periods*  For  shingling  the  steeple,  repairing 
the  bells,  and  keeping  up  the  fence  of  the  church  yard  are  the  prin- 
cipal charges  which  occur  in  the  first  four  hundred  years. 

In  a  garden  opposite  to  the  ehurch-yard  was  found,  some  years 
since,  an  ancient  bell  metal  seal  of  an  oval  form,  about  an  inch  and 
an  half  in  length;  the  basket,  or  cradle  wrought  figures,  represent 
our  Saviour  extended  on  the  cros-s,  and  an  half  length  figure  of  a 
monk,  or  saint,  placed  underneath  in  a  nich  ;  on  the  verge  was  this 
inscription,  in  ancient  character  "  Sigillum  decani  decanatus  de 
Burcester,"  as  this  seal  undoubtedly  belonged  to  the  priory  of  Bur- 
cester,  now  Bisseter,  in  Oxfordshire,  it  is  rather  extraordinary  it 
should  be  found  at  this  place. 

In  the  month  of  May  1772,  some  pieces  of  ancient  English  coin 
were  found  in  an  old  hedge  row,  a  very  little  south  of  the  ascent  to 
Strood  hill ;  and  from  under  the  root  of  a  decayed  elm,  a  larger 

2  L 


258  HISTORY  OB* 

quantity  of  the  same  treasure  was  discovered  »  all  the  pieces  which 
the  compiler  of  the  first  edition  of  this  work  saw,  were  coined  in  the 
reigns  of  Elizabeth,  James,  and  Charles  I.  nor  can  we  learn  there 
were  any  of  a  later  date ;  it  is  therefore  most  probable  that  this 
money  was  secreted  here  during  the  civil  wars. 

Some  account  will  probably  be  expected  of  the  ancient  hospital 
in  this  parish,  which  has  been  frequently  mentioned  in  the  foregoing 
pages ;  but  as  it  has  been  dissolved  for  upwards  of  two  hundred 
years,  a  summary  detail  of  the  principal  matters  and  occurences  re- 
lating to  it  will  be  sufficient.  The  building  *  was  placed  on  the 
north  side  of  the  street,  towards  the  west  end,  and  the  scite  of  it 
still  retains  the  name  of  Newerk ;  a  word  compounded  of  new 
work,  the  appellation  given  it  on  its  first  erection,  and  by  which  it 
was  long  after  distinguished.  Agreeably  to  the  spirit  of  the  age 
when  Glanvill  lived,  it  was  inscribed  conjointly  to  the  honor  of 
God,  and  of  the  glorious  virgin  Mary,  and  dedicated  to  what  were 
then  esteemed  pious  as  well  as  charitable  uses.  Masses  were  to  be 
said  in  it  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul  of  the  founder  and  the  souls  of 
his  predecessors  and  successors,  and  of  all  benefactors  to  the  end 

*  The  scite  of  the  hospital  is  so  covered  with  modern  buildings,  that  very 
little  of  the  ancient  fabric  is  to  be  seen.  Behind  the  houses  which  now  occupy 
this  spot,  are  two  arches  of  the  Caen  stone,  one  of  which  appears  to  have  led 
from  the  hospital  to  the  chapel;  some  thick  walls  of  that  part  of  the  building, 
which  it  may  be  conjectured  was  appropriated  to  this  use,  are  still  remaining  ; 
there  is  also  a  low  arched  door  way,  which  leads  from  the  hospital  into  the 
orchard  behind  it.  This  orchard  is  the  highest  piece  of  ground  belonging  to 
the  Newerk  estate,  and  still  retains  the  name  of  an  orchard,  although  there 
are  no  trees  remaining  in  it,  except  one  elm.  Near  the  garden  fence  which 
bounds  this  orchard  to  the  north  west,  is  a  well  at  about  one  hundred  yards 
distant  from  the  hospital,  which  unquestionably  supplied  it  with  water,  as 
leaden  pipes  of  a  very  ancient  construction  have  been  dug  up,  lying  in  a  direct 
line  from  the  well  to  the  hospital.  This  well,  now  affords  a  constant  supply 
of  fine  water  to  Mr.  French's  garden,  and  several  other  houses  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood. Mr.  French,  besides  conveying  the  water  to  the  other  houses,  pays 
an  annual  acknowledgement  to  Mr.  Thomas  Hulkes,  who  holds  this  estate  by 
lease  from  the  dean  and  chapter  of  Rochester. 


ROCHESTER.  259 

of  time  ;  and  the  same  antichristian  service  was  to  be  also  celebrated 
for  the  reformation  of  Christianity  in  the  holy  land,  and  for  the  re- 
demption of  king  Richard  I.  who  had  been  taken  prisoner   in  his 
return  from  the  crusade.     This  was  the  superstitious  and  excepti- 
onable part  of  the  institution;  the  other  branch  of  it  reflects  a  last- 
ing honour  on  the  memory  of  the  founder,  and  shews  him   to  have 
possessed   an  humane  and  charitable    disposition.     To  the  instru- 
ment of  endowment  he  prefixed  that  passage  in  St.  Matthew's  gospel 
ch.  xxv.  v.  35,  30,  u  I  was  an  hungred  and  ye  gave  me  meat,"  &c.  and 
he  signified  his  earnest  desire  to  have  a  constant   attention  paid  to 
this   merciful  rule,  in  directing,   that,   after  a  sufficient  allowance 
made  for  the  support  of  the  ministers  and  servants  of  the  hospital,  the 
residue  of  the  profits  of  the  estates  settled  upon  it  should  be  applied 
in  relieving  the  sick,  the  impotent  and  the  necessitous,  whether  they 
were  neighbours  or  travellers*.     In  none  of  the  old  deeds  relative 
to  this  hospital  is  the  date  specified  when  they  were  executed  by  the 
founder,  but   certainly   not   before  the  king's  imprisonment ;  and 
several  of  the  donations  were  confirmed  by  his  majesty  at  Worms, 
and  there  attested  August  14th,  in  the  4th  year  of  his  reign,   A.  D. 
1193,  by  William   Longchampe,   bishop    of  Ely,  his  chancellort. 
The  society  was   composed  originally  of  a   master,,  two  priests, 
two  deacons,  two  subdeacons,  and  necessary  servants;  and  the  im- 
propriations of  the  churches  of  Aylesford,  St.  Margaret,  and  Hail- 
ing, and  of  the  small  tythes  of  Strood,  made,  at  first,  the  principal 
part  of  their  revenues.     Several  other  benefactions  to  this  hospital 
are  mentioned  in  the  Regist,  RofF.  p.  641,  &c.     Glanvill  reserved 

*  Vid.  Regist.  Roff.  p.  631.  Hospitals  were  about  this  period  designed  ori- 
ginally for  the  entertainment  of  travellers,  especially  of  pilgrims,  and  were 
on  that  account,  situated  near  a  high  road.  Of  this  kind  was  the  hospital  of 
Eastbridge  in  Canterbury,  which  is  still  remaining;  and  bishop  Glanvill,  by 
his  use  of  the  phrase,  "  a  remotis  transeuntes,"'  seems  to  have  had  chiefly  in  his 
thoughts  the  reception  of  pilgrims,  or  of  soldiers  who  were  returning  from  the 
holy  wars. 

f  Vid.  Regist.  Roff.  p.  640,  641. 


260  HISTORY   OP 

to  himself,  and  his  successors  in  the  see  of  Rochester,  the  right  of 
nominating  the  masters;  and  exempting  all  the  members  of  the 
hospital  from  archideaconal  and  decanal  *  jurisdiction,  he  sub- 
jected them  solely  to  the  authority  of  the  popes,  the  archbishops  of 
Canterbury,  and  the  bishops  of  the  diocese.  In  the  reign  of 
Edward  I.  the  bailiffs  and  citizens  of  Rochester  demanded  certain 
tolls  and  customs  from  the  master  for  the  hospital  and  lands  adjoin* 
ing ;  but  upon  an  application  to  the  king,  a  writ  was  issued  in 
favour  of  this  charTty,  and  six  of  the  citizens  were  summoned  to 
Westminster,  and  ordered  to  restore  to  the  hospital  the  money  they 
had  illegally  distrained.  The  point  in  dispute  was,  whether  the 
land  was  in  the  manor  of  Frendsbury,  in  the  hundred  of  Shamel,  or 
within  the  liberty  of  the  city. 

From  the  first  establishment  of  this  house  of  charity,  a  perpetual 
jealousy  subsisted  between  the  governing  members  of  it,  and  the 
monks  of  St.  Andrew;  for  these  could  never  forget  that  theirpriory 
had  been,  in  their  judgment,  arbitrarily  despoiled  of  a  part  of  their 
revenues  towards  the  endowment  of  it.  Differences  and  altercations 
were  therefore  very  frequent,  and  on  one  occasion  the  dispute  was 
not  terminated  without  blows.  Mr.  Lambard  has  given  an  account 
of  this  affray,  interspersed  as  usual  with  many  embellishmentsf . 
The  story  is  briefly  as  follows.  A.  D.  1291,  there  having  been  in 
this  part  of  the  kingdom  a  very  long  drought,  the  whole  convent 
made  a  religious  procession  to  Frendsbury,  about  the  beginning  of 
June,  in  hopes  by  that  ceremony,  and  offering  a  mass  in  that 
church,  of  obtaining  from  heaven  a  more  favorable  season  for  the 
fruits  of  the  earth.  The  wind  being  adverse  to  them  as  they  went, 
and  withal  very  tempestuous,  the  monks  were  extremely  incom- 
moded in  their  walk,  and  all  the  ensigns  of  their  pageantry  discom* 
posed.  With  a  view  therefore  of  shortening  the  way,  and  of  avoid- 
ing many  of  the  inconveniences  to  which  they  had  been  exposed, 
they  in  their  return  desired  leave  of  the  master  to  pass  through  his 

*  Of  the  rural  deans.  f  Perambulation  of  Kent,  p.  365,  &c. 


ROCHESTER.  261 

orchard,  which  he  readily  granted.  Two  of  the  brethren  were 
much  offended  with  their  governor  for  consenting  to  this  request, 
aware  probably  of  the  encroaching  temper  of  the  regulars,  and  ap- 
prehensive of  their  hereafter  claiming  as  a  right  what  they  now 
asked  as  a  favour.  They  therefore  secured  the  postern  which  opened 
into  the  street,  and  determined,  with  the  help  of  some  persons 
whom  they  had  called  to  their  assistance,  to  obstruct  by  force  the 
progress  of  the  monks,  if  they  persisted  in  coming  forward.  A 
smart  rencounter  was  soon  the  result  of  this  opposition,  in  which, 
according  to  Lambard,  the  disciples  of  Benedict  were  worsted  :  but 
Edmund  de  Haddenham  rather  supposes  the  monks  to  have  been 
victorious  ;  he  admits,  however,  that  they  never  again  attempted  to 
pass  in  procession  the  same  way.  It  must  be  almost  needless  to 
intimate  to  many  of  our  readers,  that  this  historical  relation  exhibits 
a  curious  specimen  of  the  craftiness  of  the  monks  of  St.  Andrew, 
and  of  their  assiduity  to  inculcate  on  the  minds  of  the  ignorant 
multitude  a  belief  of  the  superior  excellence  and  prevalency  of  their 
prayers.  They  had  probably  learnt  from  observation  and  experi- 
ence, that  about  the  solstice  there  is  frequently  a  very  rainy  season; 
and  they  certainly  judged  from  the  appearance  of  the  sky,  and 
from  the  winds  blowing  with  so  much  violence  from  the  west  and 
north  west  quarter,  that  there  would  be  a  change  of  weather  very 
speedily.  This  then  was  the  critical  time  for  them  to  offer  up  their 
powerful  intercession  for  a  blessing  from  heaven. 

When  Haymo,  not  long  after  his  promotion  to  this  bishoprick 
visited  this  hospital,  he  complained  heavily  of  the  irregularities  of 
some  of  the  former  masters,  and  of  their  having  dissipated  a  consider- 
able part  of  its  revenues.  As  the  state  of  it  was,  according  to  his 
representation,  so  bad,  as  to  threaten  immediate  ruin  to  the|society, 
it  is  rather  extraordinary  that  he  should  postpone  for  ten  years  the 
publishing  of  his  regulations  for  the  better  government  of  it.  By 
these,  he  made  a  material  alteration  in  the  plan  fixed  by  Glanvill ; 
for  he  ordered  that  the  community  should  consist  of  a  master  and 
four  brethren,  who  were  all  of  them  to  be  in  priests  orders,  and  he 


262  HISTORY  OP 

enjoined  them  strictly  to  observe  the  rules  of  St.  Austin* ;  whereas 
it  appears  to  have  been  the  intention  of  the  founder  to  allow  the 
members  of  this  hospital  a  greater  degree  of  liberty,  most  probably 
from  the  ill  opinion  he  had  of  the  regulars,  and  his  dislike  to  their 
mode  of  discipline.  Haymo  upon  this  occasion  indicated  another 
token  of  his  partiality  to  the  monks  over  whom  he  had  formerly 
presided,  since  he  directed  the  master  and  brethren  of  the  hospital 
to  wear  the  cross  of  St.  Andrew  on  their  outward  garment ;  and 
his  reason  for  requiring  them  to  bear  this  mark  of  distinction,  in- 
terpreted without  doubt  by  the  monks  to  be  a  sign  of  their  depen- 
dence upon  their  convent,  was,  that  this  house  of  charity  had  been 
ejidowed  out  of  the  revenues  of  the  church  of  Rochester. 

The  act  of  parliament  for  granting  to  the  king  all  chantries,  hos- 
pitals, &c.  did  not  pass  till  the  yeir  1545  ;  but,  according  to 
bishop  Burnett,  a  method  had  been  taken  sometime  before  of  ob- 
taining a  resignation  of  several  of  these  fraternities.  Newerk  hos- 
pital was  yielded  up  in  this  manner  ;  and  the  dependance  of  it  on 
the  priory  of  St.  Andrew  seems  to  have  furnished  a  plausible  pre- 
tence to  the  king's  commissioners  for  encouraging  a  resignation  of 
the  former  into  the  hands  of  the  latter,  that  the  estates  belonging 
to  both  of  them  might  be  invested  in  the  crown  by  one  deed.  For 
about  nine  months  before  the  dissolution  of  the  convent  was  com- 
pleted, John  Wylbor  the  master,  and  one  of  the  brethren,  at  the 
request,  as  the  instrument  expresses  it,  of  Edward  Northe,  esquire 
and  by  a  licence  from  the  king,  surrendered  to  the  prior  and  con- 
vent the  scite  of  the  hospital,  with  all  its  appurtenances.  The 
estates  of  this  community  were,  at  the  time  of  the  suppression, 
valued  at  fifty-two  pounds  nine  shillings  and  ten-pence,  and  it  is 
generally  imagined  that  the  whole  of  them  were  settled  by  Henry 
VIII.  on  the  dean  and  chapter  of  Rochester. 

Exclusive  of  the  share  of  Mr.  Watts's  charity,  the  following 
benefactions  have  been  made  to  this  parish.  In  1632,  Anthony 
Young  and  Jacob  Pemble  assigned  to  several  parishioners  of  this 
parish,  in  trust  for  the  use  of  the  poor  thereof;  four  several  parcels 

*  Regist.  Roff.  p.  637.  +  Vol.  1,  p.  223. 


ROCHESTER.  263 

of  laud,  three  of  which,  containing  six  acres,  are  contiguous  to  each 
•ther,  in  the  parishes  of  Hoo  and  Frendsbury,  and  now  lets  for  the 
yearly  rent  of  fifteen  pounds*. 

William  Furner,  by  will  dated  May  13,  1721,  charged  his 
messuage,  situated  opposite  the  Angel  in  Strood,  with  the  annual 
payment  of  forty  shillings,  to  the  minister  of  Strood  for  the  time 
being,  to  be  by  him  distributed  in  bread  to  twenty  of  the  most  ne- 
cessitous poor  widows  in  this  parish  ;  he  afterwards  released  this 
messuage  from  the  charge,  and  fixed  it  on  three  other  messuages, 
situate  in  Cage  lane,  in  this  parish.  Sarah  Phillips,  by  will  bear- 
ing date  the  24th  of  June,  1740,  bequeathed  fifty  pounds  to  the 
minister,  church-wardens,  and  overseers  of  Strood,  in  trust,  to  be 
by  them  put  to  interest,  the  profits  arising  from  which,  to  be  laid 
out  in  bread,  and  distributed  on  the  eighth  of  November,  yearly, 
in  the  parish  church  of  Strood,  to  the  most  industrious  poor  people 
not  taking  alms  of  the  said  parish. 

In  1721  the  parishioners  of  this  parish  appropriated  the  fifty 
pounds  per  annum,  which  they  then  received  from  Mr.  Watts's 
charity,  for  six  years  towards  the  erecting  a  house  for  the  reception 
of  the  poor  of  this  parish  :  in  1724  fifty  pounds  was  allotted  tow- 
ards the  compleating  this  building,  out  of  the  seven  hundred  and  fif- 
ty given  by  Sir  Thomas  Colby  and  Sir  John  Jennings,  as  is  menti- 
oned in  p.  242  of  this  work:  a  very  handsome  and  spacious  brick 
building  was  erected  on  part  of  the  laud  belonging  to  the  parish, 
called  Le  Sand  Pete  f . 

*  The  other  piece  of  land  mentioned  in  this  assignment,  is  described  as  a 
piece  of  woodland,  called  Park-dale,  containing  one  acre,  situated  in  the  pa- 
rish of  Strood,  adjoining  to  Newerk  wood,  towards  the  east;  to  Reedfieid,  to 
the  west ;  to  Stockdale  wood,  to  the  north ;  to  Upfield,  towards  the  south. 
There  is  a  memorandum  of  Sir  Joseph  Williamson,  the  proprietor  of  Cobhaui 
hall,  paying  rent  for  it  in  1698. 

+  The  reverend  Caleb  Parfect,  then  minister  of  this  parish,  drew  up  some 
very  excellent  regulations  for  the  well  governing  this  house,  and  employing 
the  poor  therein. 


264  HISTORY  OP 

About  half  a  mile  south  of  Strood  church,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Medway,  is  situated  an  ancient  building  called  the  temple*.  The 
manor  on  which  this  farm  house  stands,  derives  its  name  of  temple 
manor  from  having  been  possessed  by  the  monks  and  brethren  of 
the  militia  of  the  temple  of  Solomon,  called  the  knights  templars 
of  the  teutonic  order,  who  had  a  noble  mansion  on  this  spot  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  II.  This  gift  was  confirmed  to  them  by  king  John. 
King  Henry  III.  A.  D.  122?,  gave  this  house  with  the  manor  and 
lands  thereto  belonging,  to  the  masters  and  brethren  of  this  order, 
in  whose  possession  it  continued  not  quite  a  century:  for  in  the 
feign  of  Edward  II.  these  unfortunate  templars  under  pretence  of 
their  leading  a  vicious  course  of  life,  were  seized  and  imprisoned, 
and  their  land  and  goods  confiscated;  but  as  it  is  well  known  that 
they  had  amassed  much  wealth  and  furniture  not  to  be  met  with  in 
the  coffers  of  the  dissipated  and  profligate,  there  is  too  much  reason 
to  suppose^  that  if  it  was  for  any  sin,  it  was  for  that  of  avarice  that 
they  were  thus  visited  by  the  hand  of  rapine.  Be  this  as  it  may,  in 
the  sixth  year  of  that  reign,  anno  1312,  the  order  was  dissolved. 
Pope  Clement  V.  granted  the  whole  of  their  lands  and  goods,  to 
another  religious  order,  called  the  knights  hospitallers.  Those 
lands  although  confirmed  to  them  by  the  king,  were  yet  at  least  the 
greatest  portion  of  them,  dealt  out  to  his  friends  and  favourites 
among  the  laity.  This  abuse  induced  the  succeeding  pope  John  to 
thunder  out  his  bulls,  curses,  and  excommunications,  in  no  gentle 
degree  against  earls,  barons,  knights,  and  such  other  laymen  as  be-  . 
came  possessed  of  them  ;  and  in  the  next  year  the  sovereign  relent- 
ing, they  were  devoted  to  their  former  pious  uses,  and  became  again 
the  sole  property  of  the  knights  hospitallers  of  Jerusalem.  From 
those  knights,  the  king  (Edward  the  second)  by  some  means  or 
other  obtained  a  grant  of  the  fee-simple  of  their  lands,  in  the  eigh- 
teenth year  of  his  reign  ;  and  in  consequence  directed  the  sheriff*  of 
Kent  to  take  the  same  into  his  hands,  and  account  for  them  in  the 
exchequer.     Edward  III.  gave  this  manor  to  Mary  countess  of 

*  It  is  now  a  farm  house  in  the  occupation  of  Mr.  Buck. 


ROCHESTER*  265 

Pembroke,  who  bestowed  it  on  the  abbess  and  sisters  minories  of 
St.  Clare  of  Deny  abbey,  in  Cambridgeshire,  in  whose  possession 
it  continued  till  the  dissolution  of  religious  houses  in  the  reign  of 
king  Henry  VIII.  when  it  became  the  property  of  that  prince,  by 
whom  it  was  granted  to  Edward  Eglington,  esq.  who  the  same  year 
sold  it  to  lord  Cobham  ;  in  whose  family  it  continued  till  his  un- 
fortunate grandson  forfeited  it  to  king  James  I.  who  gave  it  to  Ce- 
cil earl  of  Salisbury;  since  which  time  it  has  been  transferred  to 
different  gentlemen  and  is  now  the  property  of  Mr.  Thomas  Whit- 
aker  of  this  county.  Only  a  small  part  of  the  mansion  remains, 
which  is  converted  into  a  farm  house,  where  one  large  room,  up 
stairs,  which  overlooks  the  river,  appears  to  be  of  the  time  of  Eli- 
zabeth, and  has,  since  that  period,  undergone  little  alteration.  Be- 
neath this  building  is  a  spacious  vault  of  stone  and  chalk,  in  which 
the  knights  templars  occasionally  assembled  ;  and  though  of  very 
ancient  date,  is  yet  in  a  very  perfect  state  of  preservation.  Its 
walls  are  of  great  thickness,  and  the  groined  arches  have  suffered 
little  from  the  depredations  of  time. 

The  liberties  of  the  city  of  Rochester  extend  over  part  of  this 
parish  ;  the  remainder  is  in  the  north  division  of  justices  of  the  lathe 
of  Aylesford,  and  in  the  hundred  of  Sham  well.  A  considerable 
fair  is  annually  held  here  on  the  26th  of  August,  by  grant  from  the 
dean  and  chapter  of  Rochester,  it  continues  three  days.  Adjoin- 
ing to  the  turnpike  gate  in  this  parish,  is  the  angel  inn  ;  and  there 
is  ground  to  believe,  that  on  the  same  spot  there  has  been  a  house  of 
public  entertainment  with  the  same  sign,  for  upwards  of  three  hun- 
dred years. 

John  Harris,  S.  T.  P.  and  F.  R.  S.  to  whose  history  we  have  of- 
ten had  occasion  to  refer  in  the  course  of  this  work,  was  perpetual 
curate  of  thisparish.  Of  his  descent  we  have  not  been  able  to  ob- 
tain any  satisfactory  information  :  the  place  of  his  education  is  said 
to  have  been  Cambridge.  His  preferments  were  considerable  ;  for 
he  had  the  rectory  of  Banning  in  this  county,  which  he  resigned  for 
St.  Mildred,_Bread-Sjreet,_London ;  the  perpetual  curacy  of  Strood, 
and  a  stall  in^ocj^tex^aUigdral.     Besides  several  single  sermons, 

2  M 


266  HISTORY  OF 

he  published  a  "  Collection  of  Voyages  and  Travels  with  a  num- 
ber of  engravings."  The  first  volume  of  his  "  History  of  Kent," 
a  most  inaccurate  work,  made  its  appearance  in  1719,  a  few 
months  after  his  death.  He  spent,  says  Hasted*,  eight  years  in 
making  collections  for  a  history  of  this  county ;  but  did  not  live  to 
see  the  fate  of  his  transcripts.  What  progress  the  doctor  had  made 
towards  his  second  volume,  which  was  never  published,  cannot  be 
known :  dying  insolvent,  his  papers  were  dispersed,  and  though 
diligent  enquiry  has  been  made,  it  has  never  been  ascertained  what 
became  of  them.  His  Lexicon  Technicum  is  esteemed  the  best  book 
of  that  kind  in  Europe.  He  also  published,  in  1697,  a  "  Treatise 
on  the  Theory  of  the  Earth."  "  A  Treatise  of  Algebra,"  in  1702. 
A  "  Translation  of  Pardic's  Geometry  into  English,"  which  has 
gone  through  several  editions;  and  u  Astronomical  Dialogues,"  the 
third  edition  of  which  appeared  in  1795.  Dr.  Harris  was  undoubt- 
edly a  man  of  learning  and  abilities,  and  was  much  distinguished  as 
a  fellow,  vice-presid^t^And. secretary of  the  Royal  Society;  but 
was  ever  involved  in  distress  from  the  most  masked  imprudence. 
He  died,  Septejnber  7,  1719,  at  the  seat  of  the  widow  of  his  friend 
and  patron,  the  benevolent  Benjamin  Godfry,  esq.  of  Norton-court ; 
at  whose  expence  he  was  buried  at  Norton  without  any  memorial. 


Of  the  Government  and  Privileges  of  the  City. 


S, 


'0  early  as  the  conquest,  this  city  appears  to  have  been  governed 
by  a  chief  magistrate,  who  in  the  Textus  RofF.f  is  stiled  Prasposi- 
tus,  but  by  Phillipot  is  called  Port-reeve.  The  first  charter  was 
granted  by  Henry  II.  A.  D.  1165,  who  empowers  the  citizens  to 
have  a  guild  merchant]:,  under  the  government  of  their  chief  magis- 
trate, who  is  here  named  Propositus  civitatis,   and  grants  many 

*  Preface  to  the  History  of  Kent,  p.  iv. 

+  Fol.  189.        See  Harris's  Hist,  of  Kent.  %  Gilda  Mercatoria. 


ROCHESTER.  267 

other  privileges,  liberties,  and  customs  ;  which  are  afterwards  con- 
firmed by  Henry  III.  in  a  charter  dated  the  6th  of  February  1265, 
where  it  is  said, IC  That  for  the  faithful  service  which  the  citizens 
u,  hare  done  for  us,  and  for  the  damages  and  losses  which  they 
"  have  sustained  in  our  obedience  in  the  time  of  trouble  had  in  our 
kingdom,"  the  citizens  were  remitted  eight  pounds  out  of  the 
twenty  pounds  which  had  been  paid  to  the  crown.  An  exemption 
was  also  granted  from  stallage  and  murage  through  England,  with 
liberty  to  have  a  fore-market  within  the  said  city,  and  the  return 
of  all  writs.  These  privileges  were  confirmed  by  Richard  II.  in  a 
charter  dated  the  6th  of  April,  1378;  by  Henry  VI.  in  a  charter 
dated  the  14th  of  July,  1438  ;  and  another  dated  the  1st  of  January 
1446;  by  Edward  IV.  in  a  charter  dated  the  14th  of  December 
1460,  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign*.     This  charter  recites,  "  That 

*  In  the  records  of  this  city  is  preserved  the  expence  of  William  Mynghara, 

who  was  mayor  in  the  year  1460,  when  this  charter  was  obtained,  and  styles 

himself  "  the  fyrst  mayer  as  for  the  cety."     Some  extracts  from  this  account 

may  not  be  unacceptable  to  the  curious  reader. 

s.      d. 
Fyrst  he  payde  on  the  same  nyte  thatt  he  was  sworon,  and  toke  hys 

charge  ;  for  the  sowper  thatt  was  made  for  all  the  borgyse  of  the 

cety;  thatt  ys  to  saye,  for  brede                  -  xii. 

For  2  nekys  of  moton,  for  2  sohollderys  and  for  2  bryst  of  moton       -  xii. 

For  3  capanys              -_-__..  Xvi. 

For  3  dabys      --------  \). 

For  4  conyys                -             ------  x. 

For  8  peyyr  of  pejoyns             ------  viii. 

For  6  pasttyys  of  guysye          -            -            -            -            -            -  xii. 

For  16  galonys  of  bere  and  ale  -  -  -  -  -    ii. 

For  a  pottell  and  a  quarte  of  red  wyne            -            -            -            -  ix. 

Also  y  payde  for  Harry  Maryotty's  labor  for  he  was  coke      -  ii. 

Also  he  payde  on  the  17  day  of  Nowembyr  for  the  dyner  thatt  he  had 

on  the  seconde  corte  day  yn  hys  yere;  for  brede                 -            -  viii. 

For  1 1  galonys  of  bere  and  ale            -----  csvi. 

For  befe  and  porke  for  to  sethe  and  for  to  rost  ix. 

For  won  gose  and  for  2  pyggys  -----       xviii. 

For  7  costardys            ,---.--  x. 


268  HISTORY   OF 

«  considering  the  city  to  be  more  defensively  fortified  against  the 
«  resistance  of  our  enemies,  desirous  to  invade  our  kingdom  of 
"  England  we  do  grant  to  the  citizens  of  the  city  of  Rochester, 
»  and  their  successors,  that  they  shall  be  of  one  mayor  and  citizens 
«  one  body  perpetual,  and  one  community  perpetual,  in  fact  and 
"  name,  and  have  a  perpetual  succession,  and  that  the  then  baylifF 
"  be  from  thence  mayor  until  Monday  next  after  the  feast  of  St. 
«  Michael  following.— That  they  may  purchase  lands,  &c.  and 
«  plead  and  be  impleaded  in  any  court  whatsoever.— May  have  a 
«  common  seal  for  the  business  of  the  city.— The  day  of  election  of 
"  mayor  to  be  on  Monday  next  after  Michaelmas  day.  Such  may- 
"  or  to  take  an  oath  of  office.— On  the  death  or  removing  of  the 
"  mayor,  to  elect  another.— That  the  mayor  shall  constitute  and 

s.     d. 

Also  he  payde  on  the  26  day  of  Apryll  for  the  dyner  thatt  was  had 
att  the  sessthonys  daye ;  for  brede  -  vl"- 

For  a  leg  and  a  loyne  of  wele  and  for  2  rybbys  of  befe  -  -  xiv. 

For  a  cowpyll  of  chekenys  and  for  a  capany  -  -  v  -         xni. 

For  3  costardys  and  for  spysery  1X» 

On  the  23  day  of  Octobyr  Jfor  a  pottell  of  rede  wyne  thatt  he  sente 

on  to  my  lorde  of  Rowchester  yn  to  the  palyse  vi. 

For  a  pottell  of  raynysh  wyne  thatt  was  sente  on  to  the  hondyr 
schrewe  of  Kente  thatt  he  maye  be  frendely  on  to  the  selyng  of 
the  endentorys  for  the  borgpgys  of  the  parlemente  v. 

He  payde  on  to  the  clerke  of  the  markett  for  bycawse  thatt  he 
sohwlde  be  frendely  on  to  the  towne,  and  thatt  he  myte  hawe  of 
hym  swnd  hondyrstandyng  of  hys  hosyse  by  hys  cokys  and  for 
knowlech  of  hys  weytys  and  mesurys  -  ill.    iiii. 

He  payde  on  to  my  lorde  of  Warwykewhatt  tyme  thatt  hewente  on 
to  sandewech  for  to  take  hys  charge  of  the  wardeyne  schyppe  of 
5  portys,  2  galonys  of  rede  wyne  -  -  -  -    ii. 

Also  he  payde  on  the  8  day  of  Apryll  for  a  galon  of  rede  wyne  on  to 
my  lorde  Abergavcyne  and  my  lorde  Cobham  when  yey  satt  here 
for  hoysthers  --.___-  xii, 

For  my  expensys  and  my  manys  yn  and  owte  to  London  and  agene 
for  to  axe  ownseyle  agenyst  the  schrewe  of  Kentt,  for  lewe  of  the 
fraye  thatt  was  yn  Strode  for  the  resstyng  of  John  Sehetarde  yn 
owr  frawnchyse        --.....        xx'ri, 


ROCHESTER.  269 

u  have  so  many  sergeants  at  mace  as  shall  be  necessary. — The 
u  mayor  and  citizens,  on  the  day  of  election  of  mayor,  to  elect  a 
"  coroner,  and  two  citizens  to  be  constables. — The  liberties  and 
"  precincts  of  the  city  to  extend,"  as  will  appear  in  the  charter 
granted  by  Charles  I. — "  Mayor  and  citizens  to  have  all  wrecks  of 
"  the  sea  and  fish  caught  within  the  liberty. — Mayor  shall  have 
*'  power  to  assize  bread,  &c. — That  the  mayor  and  citizens,  and  all 
il  men  residing  within  the  city,  shall  be  free,  through  England,  of 
"  all  toll,  passage,  pannage,  lastage,  stallage,  taliage,  carriage,  pei- 

s.      d. 
He  payde  on  seynte  Lawrans  hewen  yn  August  for  the  dyner  thatt 

we  had,  for  bredfe  and  ale  and  here  -  viii- 

For  halve  a  boschell  of  hoysterys       -----  H. 

For  a  syde  of  sallte  fysch         ------  iiii. 

For  4  pastyys  of  helys  -  -  -  -  .   -  -         viiii. 

For  4  costardys  __._-__  yi. 

Forbcttyr  and  for  fceggys         ------  iiii. 

For  perys,  and  for  appelys  and  nott5rs  ii. 

For  a  pottell  of  rede  vvyne,  for  by  cawsc  of  John  Arowe  and  hodyr 
learnyd  men  thatt  was  there  att  thatt  dyner  -  -  -  vi. 

Payde  on  to  Margery  Rowlande  for  the  heyre  of  all  the  yere  for  the 
mase  thatt  he  had  of  her       -  -  -  -  -  -    ii. 

He  payde  to'Jolin  ftyporiden  of  the  heyltae  nail  yn  London  for  hys 
labore  to  make  us  a  boke  owte  of  frensch  yn  to  latyne,  and  owte 
of  latyne  yn  to  hyngglysch  for  the  yn  query  of  all  manner  of 
thynggys  thatt longere  on  to  the  justyseof  pese,  for  to  yn  query  upon   vi.  viii. 

For  3  capanys  the  whych  was  yewe  on  to  Thomas  Amore  for  a  pre- 
sente  thatt  he  schwllde  be  owyr  frende  yn  getyng  of  owyr  frawn- 
chyse  --_-.___        xviii. 

Also  he  payde  on  the  23  day  of  Nowembyr  the  tyme  thatt  y  wente  on 
to  London  for  the  frawnchyse,  for  a  dyner  thatt  was  madeyn  brede 
strete,  att  the  whych  dyner  Thomas  Amore,  and  Sweranden  of  the 
chawnsery,  and  all  owyr  mene  where;  there  was  take  att  thatt 
dyner  a  wyse  amonge  them  all  of  the  swpplycatonys  thatt  were 
made  on  to  the  kynge  for  the  frawnchyse,  whethyr  they  were  sew- 
erly  made,  or  nott ;  and  for  to  carre  theym  where  thatt  any  sawte 
was ;  where  y  payde  att  thatt  tyme  for  theyre  dyner  -  -    iiii.    x. 

To  Sweranden  for  the  makyny  of  a  copy  of  owyr  frawnchyse,  to  put 

up  on  to  the  kynggys  hynesse  -  li if .  iiii. 


270  HISTORY  OF 

"  sage,  piccage,  tronago,  pontage,  coinage,  anchorage,  and  warf- 
"  age,  and  of  suits  to  be  done  at  county  shires  and  hundreds.— 
"  Mayor  and  citizens  to  have  the  goods  of  outlaws,  self-murderers, 
«  felons,  &c— To  hold  a  court  of  portmote  from  fifteen  days  to  fif- 
«  teen  days,  and  have  cognizance  of  all  pleas.— The  mayor  to  re- 
"  turn  all  writs  and  precepts. — Mayor  and  citizens  to  have  all  fines 
"  and  amerciaments,  deodands,  &c. — Likewise  have  a  view  of  frank 
u  pledge,  and  a  court  of  pipe-powders  ;  and  a  fair,  called  St.  Dun- 
"  stan's  fair,  on  the  19th  of  May,  to  continue  three  days. — Ali- 
"  cence  to  build  upon  the  Eastgate,  and  a  grant  of  herbage  without 
"  the  city  walls,  and  in  the  castle  ditch. — The  mayor  and  a  person 
"  learned  in  the  law,  to  be  justices  of  the  peace,  who  shall  hear  and 
"  determine  felonies,  &c.  and  punish  delinquents. — Mayor  and  ci- 
"  tizens  residing  within  the  city,  liberties,  and  precincts,  not  to  be 
u  put  on  any  juries,  &c.  against  their  will,  out  of  the  city." 

These  privileges  were  confirmed  to  the  citizens  by  Henry  VIII. 
jn  a  charter  dated  the  14th  of  April  1510 ;  by  Edward  VI.  in  a 
charter  dated  the  30th  of  May  1547;  by  queen  Elizabeth,  in  a 
charter  dated  the  11th  of  November  155S;  by  James  I.  in  a  char- 
ter dated  the  11th  of  September,  1603;  and  by  Charles  I.  in  a 
charter  dated  the  11th  of  August  1630,  wherein  he  ratifies  and 
confirms  the  before  mentioned  charter  of  Edward  IV.  and  all 
other  charters  whatsoever  granted  to  this  city  ;  as  this  is  the  char- 
ter by  which  the  city  is  now  governed,  we  shall  present  our  readers 
with  a  copy  of  it  at  large. 


THE  CHARTER  OF  THE  CITY  OF  ROCHESTER, 

CHARLES^  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  England,  Scotland, 
France,  and  Ireland,  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  fyc.  to  all 
to  whom  these  present  Letters  shall  come,  greeting. 

X\_NOW  ye  now,  that  we  of  our  special  grace,  and  of  our  cer- 
tain knowledge  and  meer  motion,  have  g^jen,  granted,  and  con-* 


ROCHESTER.  271 

firmed,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  do 
give,  grant,  and  confirm,  to  the  aforesaid  Mayor  and  citizens  of 
the  city  of  Rochester  aforesaid,  and  to  their  successors,  all  and  all 
manner  of  liberties,  franchises,  immunities,  exemptions,  privileges, 
acquittances,  and  jurisdictions,  whatsoever,  which  the  Mayor  and 
citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid  now  have,  hold,  use,  and  enjoy;  or 
the  Bailiff  and  citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  or  the  citizens  of  the 
city  aforesaid,  or  any  of  them,  or  their  predecessors,  by  what  name 
soever,  or  by  what  names  soever,  or  by  whatsoever  incorporation, 
or  by  pretence  of  whatsoever  incorporation  hitherto  they  have  had, 
held,  used,  or  enjoyed,  or  ought  to  have  had,  held,  used,  or  enjoyed 
of  a  state  hereditary,  by  reason,  or  by  pretence  of  any  charters  or 
letters  patents  by  any  of  our  progenitors  or  predecessors,  late  kings 
or  queens  of  England,  iu  any  wise  heretofore  made,  granted,  or 
confirmed,  or  by  whatsoever  other  lawful  means,  right,  or  title, 
custom,  use  or  prescription,  heretofore  lawfully  used,  had,  or  ac- 
customed, although  the  same,  or  some,  or  any  of  them,  or  any 
heretofore,  were  not  used  or  abused,  or  were  to  have  been  discon- 
tinued; or  although  the  same,  or  some  of  them,  or  any  of  them, 
are,  or  have  been  forfeited  or  lost ;  excepting  all  and  all  manner  of 
rents,  services,  sums  of  money,  and  demands  whatsoever,  which  to 
us,  or  any  of  our  progenitors  or  ancestors,  or  to  any  other  person, 
or  to  any  other  persons,  for,  or  in  respect  of  the  premises,  or  of  any 
of  them,  or  of  any  heretofore  they  have  accustomed  to  render  or 
pay,  and  now  ought  to  render  and  pay. 

Wherefore  we  will,  and  by  these  presents  for  us,  our  heirs,  and 
successors,  firmly  enjoying,  do  command  and  charge,  that  the  afore- 
said Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  and  their  successors, 
may  have,  hold,  use,  and  enjoy,  and  fully  and  wholly  may  and 
shall  be  for  ever  able  to  havef  hold,  use,  and  enjoy  all  liberties, 
free  customs,  privileges,  authorities,  franchises,  immunities,  ex- 
emptions, customs,  jurisdictions,  and  acquittances  aforesaid,  ac- 
cording to  the  tenor  of  these  our  letters  patents,  without  any  occa- 
sion or  impediment  of  us,  or  of  our  heirs  or  successors,  or  of  any 


272  HISTORY  Of 

other  of  our  officers,  or  ministers,  or  of  our  heirs  or  successors 
whomsoever.  Being  unwilling  that  the  same  Mayor  and  citizens 
of  the  city  aforesaid,  or  their  successors,  or  any  of  them,  or  any 
by  reason  of  the  premises,  or  of  any  of  them,  by  us,  our  heirs  or 
successors,  justices,  sheriffs,  escheators,  admirals,  coroners,  or 
others,  our  bailiffs  or  officers  of  our  heirs  or  successors  whomsoever, 
be  therefore  occasioned,  molested,  vexed,  grieved,  or  in  any  wise 
troubled.  Willing,  and  by  these  presents  charging  and  command- 
ing, as  well  the  treasurer,  chancellor,  and  barons  of  our  exchequer 
at  Westminster,  and  others  our  justices  and  officers,  and  of  our  heirs 
and  successors,  as  our  attorney  general  for  the  time  being,  and 
every  of  them,  and  all  others  our  officers  and  ministers,  and  of  our 
heirs  and  successors  whomsoever;  that  neither  they,  nor  any  of 
them,  nor  any  whatsoever  writ,  or  summons  of  Quo  Warranto,  or 
any  whatsoever  other  writ,  writs,  or  our  processes  against  the 
aforesaid  Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  or  their  succes- 
sors, or  any  one  or  more  of  them,  for  any  causes,  things,  matters, 
offences,  claims,  or  usurpation,  or  for  any  of  them,  by  them,  or 
their  predecessors,  or  any  of  them,  due,  claimed,  used,  attempted, 
had,  or  usurped,  before  the  day  of  the  making  of  these  presents, 
may  prosecute  or  continue,  or  shall  make  or  cause  to  be  prosecuted 
or  continued,  or  any  of  them  shall  make  or  cause.  Willing,  also, 
that  the  Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  or  their  succes- 
sors, by  some  or  any  justices,  officers,  or  ministers  aforesaid,  in 
or  for  due  u*e,  claim,  or  abuse  of  any  other  liberties,  franchises, 
privileges,  immunities,  exemptions,  or  jurisdictions,  within  the  city 
aforesaid,  limits,  or  precincts  of  the  same,  before  the  day  of  the 
making  of  these  our  letters  patents,  be  in  no  wise  molested  or  hin- 
dered, or  be  compelled  to  yield  to  the  same,  or  some  or  any  of 
them. 

And  whereas,  by  the  humble  petition  of  the  said  Mayor  and 
citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  we  are  informed,  that  some  defects, 
ambiguities  and  imperfections  are  found,  and  be  in  the  charters  and 
letters  patents  aforesaid ;  and  that  the  limits  of  the  city  aforesaid 
by  ancient  names  and  bounds,  and  now  not  certainly  known,  are 


ROCHESTER.  273 

expressed  in  the  same  charters;  some  also  in  the  same  contained;, 
not  fully  expressed,  nor  were  grunted  with  words  fit  enough  for 
the  good  and  wholesome  regimen,  government,  and  profit  of  the 
same  city ;  and  thereupon  they  have  most  humbly  besought  us, 
how  far  we  would  please  to  exhibit  and  extend  our  royal  grace  and 
munificence  to  the  said  Mayor  and  citizens  in  the  premises. 

We  the  Petition  of  the  said  Mayor  and  citizens,  graciously 
favoring ;  and  being  willing  (as  much  ds  in  us  lies)  that  from  hence- 
forth for  ever  our  peace  be  kept,  and  that  our  people  there  residing, 
and  others  thither  resorting,  by  certain  and  undoubted  means  what- 
soever, be  ruled  and  governed,  and  that  other  deeds  of  justice  be 
there,  without  further  delay,  observed.  Of  our  special  grace,  and 
of  our  certain  knowledge  andmeer  motion,  we  have  willed,  ordain- 
ed, constituted,  declared,  and  granted;  and  by  these  presents,  for 
us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  do  will,  ordain,  constitute,  declare, 
and  grant,  that  the  aforesaid  city  of  Rochester,  in  the  said  county 
of  Kentj  from  henceforth  for  ever,  be,  and  shall  be  a  Free  City  of 
itself;  and  that,  the  Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  same  city,  by  what- 
soever name,  or  by  whatsoever  names  they  have  heretofore  been 
incorporated,  and  whether  they  have  been  heretofore  incorporated 
or  not,  and  their  successors,  from  henceforth  for  ever,  be,  and 
shall  be,  by  the  vigour  of  these  presents,  one  body  corp®rate,  and 
politic,  in  thing,  deed,  and  name  ;  by  the  name  of  the  Mayor  and 
citizens  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  in  the  county  of  Kent,  and  the 
same  by  the  name  of  Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city  of  Rochester 
in  the,  county  of  Kent,  one  body  corporate  and  politic,  in  thing, 
deed,  and  name,  really  and  to  the  full,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  suc- 
cessors, we  do  erect,  make,  ordain,  constitute,  confirm,  and  de- 
clare, by  these  presents ;  and  that  by  the  same  name  they  may  have 
perpetual  succession  ;  and  that  they,  by  the  name  of  the  Mayor 
and  citizens  of  the  city  of  Rochester  in  the  county  of  Kent,  be^ 
and  shall  be  to  perpetuity,  for  times  to  come,  persons  fit  and  capa- 
ble in  the  law,  to  have,  purchase,  receive,  and  possess  lands,  tene- 
ments, privileges,  jurisdictions,  franchises,  and  hereditaments,   of 

2   N 


274  HISTORY  OF 

whatsoever  kind,  nature,  or  quality  they  shall  be,  io  them,  and 
their  successors,  in  fee  and  perpetuity.  And  also,  goods  and  chat* 
tels,  and  other  things  whatsoever,  of  whatsoever  kind,  nature,  or 
quality  they  shall  be  :  also,  to  give,  grant,  let,  and  assign  lands* 
tenements,  and  hereditaments,  goods  and  chattels,  and  all  other 
deeds  and  things,  to  be  done  and  executed  by  the  name  aforesaid; 
and  that  by  the  same  name  of  the  Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city  of 
Rochester,  in  the  county  of  Kent,  they  shall  and  may  be  able  to 
plead,  and  be  impleaded ;  to  answer,  and  to  be  answered  ;  to  de- 
fend, and  to  be  defended,  in  whatsoever  courts,  places,  and  seats ; 
and  before  what  judges  soever,  and  justices,  and  Other  persons,  and 
our  officers,  and  of  our  heirs  and  successors,  In  all  suits,  plaints* 
pleas,  causes,  thiDgs,  matters,  and  demands  whatsoever ;  real, 
•personal,  or  mixed,  of  what  kind,  nature,  or  quality  soever  they 
be,  in  the  same  manner  and  form  as  our  other  lieges  of  this  our 
kingdom  of  England,  persons  able  and  capable  in  the  law,  shall, 
and  may  be  able  to  plead,  and  be  impleaded ;  to  answer,  and  be 
answered:  defend,  and  be  defended;  and  to  have  and  purchase* 
retain,  possess,  give,  grant,  and  demise.  And  that  the  Mayor 
and  citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  and  their  successors,  may,  for 
ever*  have  a  common  seal*,  to  serve  for  the  doing  of  their  causes 
and  business,  and  of  their  successors  whatsoever  :  and  that  it  shall 
and  may  be  lawful  for  the  same  Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city 
aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  and  their  successors,  the  same  seal, 
at  their  pleasure,  from  time  to  time,  to  break,  change,  and  new 
make,  as  it  shall  seem  better  unto  them  to  be  done. 

And  further,  of  our  most  bountiful  and  special  grace,  and  of  our 
certain  knowledge  and  meer  motion,  we  do  grant  to  the  aforesaid 
Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  and  their  successors, 
and  also  for  our  heirs  and  successors,  we  do  constitute  and  ordain* 
that  the  aforesaid  city  of  Rochester,  and  the  circuit,  precincts,  and 

*  The  present  seal  of  this  corporation  (of  which  we  have  given  an  engrav- 
ing) is  a  most  curious  piece  of  sculpture,  and  is  conjectured  to  be  as  ancient 
as  the  first  charter,  granted  by  Henry  II.  1165.  On  the  one  side  is  SU  An- 
drew on  the  cfoss,  and  on  the  other  the  castle  of  Rochester. 


ROCHESTER.  275 

the  jurisdiction  thereof,  by  land  and  water,  from  henceforth 
be,  and  do  extend  and  stretch  out  themselves,  and  shall  and  may- 
be able  to  extend  and  stretch  out  themselves  forth  from  the  said 
city,  by  land,  unto  a  certain  hospital,  commonly  called  Saint  Bar- 
tholomew's, and  a  wharf  of  the  said  hospital,  over  against  the 
water  of  Medeway,  in  circuit ;  that  is  to  say,  unto  King's-forowe, 
and  Shereaker,  and  Lance-lane,  unto  Horsted-street,  otherwise 
Horsted  farm ;  from  thence,  in  circuit,  by  the  lane  which  lies 
between  the  land  or  place  where  the  messuage  heretofore  of  Gilbert 
Striche,  and  William  Horsted  was  built,  unto  a  certain  stone, 
called  a  mark  stone,  standing  in  the  king's  highway,  leading  from 
Rochester  aforesaid,  unto  Maidstone,  heretofore  called  by  the  name 
of  Kenelingescrowch,  otherwise  Powlescross;  and  from  thence 
usque  montem  Molendini,  called,  in  English,  Mill-hill,  nigh  to 
Nashinden  ;  and  from  thence,  in  circuit,  unto  a  certain  stone, 
standing  opposite  to  the  king?s  highway,  leading  to  Wouldham, 
near  the  farm  called  Ringed,  and  from  the  said  stone,  into  the  water 
of  the  Medeway  there  ;  and  also,  from  the  city  aforesaid,  unto  a 
certain  cross,  built  or  placed  in  Littleborowe,  in  via  compitali,  in 
English,  a  crossway,  in  the  town  of  Strood,  leading  from  Roches- 
ter aforesaid,  unto  Grave?end  ;  and  from  Cuxton,  unto  Frindsbury ; 
so,  in  circuit,  about  Littlebury  aforesaid,  unto  the  aforesaid  city  of 
Rochester  ;  and  also,  by  the  water  of  Medeway  aforesaid,  that  is 
to  say,  from  Shirenasse,  unto  Hawkwood,  as 4n  the  before- recited 
letters  patents  is  expressed,  and  as  there  heretofore  they  were  used 
and  accustomed. 

And  further,  we  will,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs 
and  successors,  we  do  grant  to  the  aforesaid  Mayor  aad  citizens, 
and  their  successors,  that  they  and  their  successors,  from  hence- 
forth, for  ever,  may  have  and  exercise,  and  shall  and  may  be  able 
to  have  and  exercise  all  the  aforesaid  liberties,  pririledges,  immuni- 
ties, franchises,  exemptions,  and  jurisdictions  of  the  city  aforesaid, 
as  well  by  land  as  by  water,  in  all  and  singular  places  within  the 
meets  and  bounds  aforesaid,  and  in  all  and  singular  the  aforesaid 


276  HISTORY  OF 

places,  mentioned  to  be  within  the  aforesaid  liberty,  limits,  and 
precincts  of  the  city  aforesaid.  And  further,  we  will,  and  by 
these  presents,  for  us,  and  our  heirs,  and  successors,  we  do  grant  to 
the  aforesaid  Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  and  their 
successors,  that,  from  henceforth  for  ever,  there  be,  and  shall  be, 
within  the  city,  aforesaid,  one  of  the  more  honest  and  discreet  citi- 
zens of  the  city  aforesaid,  in  form  undermentioned  in  these  presents 
to  be  elected,  who  shall  be,  and  shall  be  named  Mayor  of  the  city 
aforesaid  ;  and  that  likewise  there  be,  and  shall  be  within  the  city 
aforesaid,  eleven  honest  and  discreet  citizens  of  the  said  city,  in 
form  also  undermentioned,  to  be  elected,  who  shall  be,  and  shall  be 
called  Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid ;  and  that  likewise  there  be 
and  shall  be  in  the  city  aforesaid,  twelve  other  honest  and  discreet 
citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  in  manner  beneath  expressed,  to  be 
elected,  who  be  and  shall  be  called  Assistants  of  the  same  city. 

We  will  also,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  suc- 
cessors, we  do  grant  to  the  aforesaid  Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city 
aforesaid,  and  to  their  successors,  that  the  Aldermen  and  Assis- 
tants of  the  city  aforesaid,  and  their  successors,  for  the  time  being, 
may  be,  shall  be,  and  shall  be  called  the  Common  Council  of  the 
city  aforesaid,  and  that  they  shall  be  from  time  to  time  Assistants, 
and  aiding  to  the  Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being, 
in  all  causes,  things,  and  matters,  touching,  or  any  wise  concern- 
ing, the  city  aforesaid. 

And  further,  we  will,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heics, 
and  successors,  we  do  grant  to  the  aforesaid  Mayor  and  citizens  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  and  their  successors,  that  the  Mayor  and  com- 
mon council  of  the  city,  for  the  time  being,  or  the  major  part  of 
them  (of  whom  we  will  the  Mayor  for  the  time  being  to  be  one)  to 
this  purpose  being  met  in  the  Guild-hall  of  the  city  aforesaid,  or  in 
some  other  convenient  place  within,  the  city  aforesaid,  or  precincts 
thereof,  may  have,  and  shall  have  full  power  and  authority  of  com- 
posing, constituting,  ordaining,  making,  and  establishing,  from. 
time  to  time,  such  reasonable  laws,  statutes^  and  ordinances  what- 


ROCHESTER.  277 

soeyer,  which  to  them  shall  seem  to  be  good,  wholesome,  profit- 
able, honest,  and  necessary ;  according  to  their  sound  directions, 
for  the  good  ruling  and  government  of  the  citizens,  merchants^ 
artificers,  and  inhabitants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being, 
and  for  the  declaration  in  what  manner  and  order  the  said  Mayor, 
Aldermen,  and  Assistants,  and  all  and  singular  the  citizens,  mer- 
chants, artificers,  inhabitants,  and  residents  of  the  same  city,  iri 
their  offices,  mysteries,  and  businesses,  within  the  city  aforesaid, 
limits,  and  precincts  thereof,  shall  have  behaved  and  used  them- 
selves, and  otherwise,  or  otherwise  for  the  further  good  and  public 
profit  of  that  city,  and  for  the  victualling  of  the  same  ;  and  also  for 
the  better  preservation,  government,  disposition,  placing,  and  de- 
mising of  lands,  tenements,  possessions,  revenues,  profits,  and  he- 
reditaments to  the  aforesaid  Mayor  and  citizens,  or  to  their  pre- 
decessors heretofore  given,  granted,  assigned,  or  confirmed ;  or  to 
them  and  their  Successors  hereafter  to  be  given,  granted,  or  assigned  ; 
and  other  matters  and  causes  whatsoever,  the  city  aforesaid,  or  the 
State,  right,  or  interest  of  the  same  city,  touching,  or  in  airy  wise 
concerning.  And  that  the  said  Mayor  and  Common-Council  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  or  the  major  part  of  them  (of 
Whom  We  will  the  Mayor  to  be  one)  as  often  soever  as  they  shall 
compose,  make,  ordain,  or  establish  such  laws,  statutes,  and  ordi- 
nances, in  form  aforesaid,  may  impose  and  assess  such  reasonable 
pains,  penalties,  and  punishments,  by  imprisonment  of  body,  or  by 
fines  and  amerciaments,  or  either  of  them,  towards,  and  upon  all 
delinquents  against  such  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances,  or  some  or 
any  of  them,  as,  and  which  to  the  said  Mayor  and  Common  Coun- 
cil for  the  time  being,  or  the  major  part  of  them,  as  aforesaid,  shall 
seem  to  be  reasonable  and  requisite  :  and  that  the  Mayor  and  citi- 
zens of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  by  their  officers  or 
ministers,  shall,  and  may  be  able  to  levy  and  have  the  same  fines 
and  amerciaments,  to  the  behoof  and  use  of  the  Mayor  and  citizens 
of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  and  their  successors,  with- 
out the  impediment  of  us,  our  heirs  or  successors,  whomsoever  ;  all 


278  HISTORY  OF 

and  singular  which  laws,  statutes,  and  ordinances,  as  aforesaid  to 
be  made  we  will  to  be  observed  under  the  pains  in  the  same  to  be 
contained,  so,  notwithstanding  that  such  laws,  statutes,  ordinances,' 
imprisonments,  fines,  and  amerciaments,  be  not  repugnant,  or  con- 
trary to  the  laws,  statutes,  customs,  or  rights  of  our  kingdom  of 
England, 

And,  for  the  better  execution  of  our  grants  aforesaid,  in  this  be- 
half, we  have  assigned,  named,  constituted,  and  made,  and  by 
these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  do  assign,  nomi- 
nate, constitute,  and  make  our  beloved  Anthony  Allen,  to  be  now 
Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid,'  and  to  be  the  first  and  modern  Mayor 
of  the  aforesaid  city ;  willing  that  the  said  Anthony  Allen  shall 
be,  and  shall  continue  in  the  office  of  Mayor  of  the  same  city,  from 
the  making  of  these  presents,  until  Monday  next  after  the  feast  of 
St.  Michael  the  Archangel,  now  next  following,  in  and  from  the 
same  day,  until  one  other  of  the  Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid, 
for  the  time  being,  to  the  same  office  is  preferred,  and  shall  be 
sworn  according  to  the  ordinances  and  constitutions  expressed  in 
these  presents  and  declared,  if  the  same  Anthony  Allen  shall  so 
long  live.  Also,  we  have  assigned,  named,  constituted,  and  made, 
and  by  these  presents,  we  do  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors, 
assign,  name,  constitute,  and  make  our  beloved  George  Wilson, 
Thomas  Fance,  (the  elder)  Robert  Soane,  John  Dufiel,  John  Cob- 
ham,  (the  elder)  John  Dulinge,  John  May,  John  Code,  Thomas 
Austen,  Phillip  Ward,  and  William  Crispe,  now  to  be  called  or  re- 
puted Aldermen  of  the  said  city  aforesaid,  and  to  be  the  first  and 
modern  Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid ;  and  that  the  aforesaid  An- 
thony Allen  after  his  departure  from  the  office  of  Mayoralty  afore- 
said, shall  be  one  of  the  aforesaid  eleven  Aldermen,  in  the  place  of 
him  who  shall  then  be  elected  into  the  office  of  Mayor,  all  the., 
aforesaid  Aldermen  to  continue  in  the  office  aforesaid  respectively, 
during  their  natural  lives,  except  in  the  mean  time  for  some  reason- 
able cause  some  of  them  shall  be  amoved,  or  any  of  them  shall  be 
amoved  by  the  Mayor  and  majorpart  of  the  Aldermen  and  Assist- 


ROCHESTER.  2/9 

ants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being.     Also,  we  have  as* 
signed,  named,  constituted,  and  made,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us 
and  our  heirs,  we  do  assign,  nominate,  constitute,  and  make  our  be-     -_ 
loved  Thomas  Ivett,  John  Rockewell,  Jacob  Robinson,  John  Puc- 
kle,  Thomas  May,  Edward  Mapstone,  Richard  Head,  Oliver  Hol- 
liman,  Thomas  Fance,  (the  younger)  George  Robinson,  Francis 
Mericke,  and  Nathaniel  Busher,  citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  to' 
be  and  shall  be  the  first  and  modern  Assistants  of  the  city  aforesaid^ 
to  continue  in  their  office  aforesaid  respectively  during  their  natu- 
ral live9,  unless  any  of  them  shall  be  amoved,  or  some  of  them  shall 
be  amoved  by  the  Mayor  and  major  part  of  the  Aldermen,  and  of 
the  rest  of  the  Assistants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being; 
And  further  we  will,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs 
and  successors,  we  do  grant  to  the  aforesaid  Mayor  and  citizens 
of  the  city  aforesaid,  and  their  successors,  that  they,  from  time  to 
time,  for  all  times  perpetually  to  come,  may  have,  and  shall  have 
power  and  authority  yearly,  and  every  year,  on  Monday  next  be- 
fore the  feast  of  Saint  Matthew  the  Apostle,  to  assemble  in  the 
Guildhall  of  the  city  aforesaid,  or  in  some  other  convenient  place 
within  the  same  city,  according  to  their  discretions  to  be  limited, 
and  on  the  same  Monday,  to  name  and  elect  one  of  the  Aldermen 
of  the  city  aforesaid,  although  he  shall  be  a  victualler,  or  inn-keep- 
er^ to  become  and  to  be  Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid,  notwithstand- 
ing any  statute  to  the  contrary ;  which  said  Mayor,  so  from  time  to 
time  to  be  named  and  elected,  having  taken  his  corporal  oath  on 
Monday  next  after  the  feast  of  Saint  Michael  the  Archangel,  before 
the  last  Mayor  his  predecessor,  the  office  of  Mayor  of  the  same  city 
for  the  time  being,  for  one  whole  year,  from  thence  next  following, 
(if  he  shall  so  long  live)  we  will  to  havej  hold,  and  exercise ;  and 
further,  until  one  other  of  the  Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid,  in 
due  manner  and  form,  shall  be  preferred  and  sworn  to  the  Mayor 
of  the  same  city.     And  if  it  shall  happen  the  said  now  Mayor  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  or  any  other  Mayor  of  the  said  city,  for  the  time 
being,  at  any  time  hereaftcr5  within  one  year  after  that  he  shall  be 

lZ  o 


2go  HISTORY  Of 

Id  Lstants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  be.ng,  or  the  ma- 
or  Pt    of  thero,  we  m  by  them  to  be  amoved)  that  then  and  so 
°Z  it  shad  and  may  be  lawful  for  the  citizens  of  the  «  y  afore- 
S  «  *  time  being,  within  some  convenient  time  then  next 
toll  wing  the  death,  amotion,  or  departnre  of  the  same  Mayor,  to 
semble  themse.ves,  and  to  elect  to  name  one  of  the  Aldermen  of 
ffie  city  aforesaid,  to  be  Mayor,  and  for    Mayor   of  the  my 
afore  said,  in  place  of  the  same  Mayor  so  dead,  or  from  his  office 
amoved  orde'parte-,  and  that  he  into  the  office  of  MayoraUy  so 
efocted  and  preferred,  having  first  taken  his  corporal ^oath  before 
two  or  more  of  the  Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesa.d,  for  the  tune 
being,  to  execute  that  office  well  and  faithfully;  the  same  office 
may  have  and  exercise,  during  the  residue  of  the  same  year,  and 
from  thence  until  one  other  to  that  office  in  form  aforesaid,  in  due 
manner  shall  be  elected,  preferred,  and  sworn;  and  so  as  often 
as  the  case  shall  so  happen. 

And  whensoever  it  shall  happen  some  or  any  of  the   Aldermen 
of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  to  die,  or  from  his  office 
or  their  offices  to  be  amoved  or  depart,  which  said  Aldermen,  and 
every  of  them,  or  any  one  for  any  reasonable  eause,  at  the  discre- 
tion of  the  Mayor,  and  the  rest  of  the  Aldermen  and  Assistants  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  or  the  major  part  of  them 
(of  which  the  Mayor  shall  always  be  one)  we  will  to  move  and  to 
be  amoved,  that  then,  and  so  often  it  may   be  well  lawful,  and 
shall  be  lawful  for  the  aforesaid  Mayor,  and  the  rest  of  the  Alder- 
men and  Assistants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  or  the 
major  part  of  them  (of  which  the  Mayor  as  aforesaid  we  will  to  be 
one)  within  convenient  time  after  the  death  of  such  Alderman,  or 
Aldermen,  or  from  that  office  respectively  amoved  or  departed, 
one  other  or  more  others  to  be  Alderman  or  Aldermen  of  the  city 
aforesaid,  of  the  Assistants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being, 


ROCHESTER.  281 

to  nominate,  to  elect,  and  to  prefer,  to  supply  the  aforesaid  num- 
ber of  eleven.  Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid ;  and  whensoever  it 
shall  happen  some  or  any  of  the  Assistants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for 
the  time  being,  to  die,  or  to  be  amoved,  or  to  depart  from  his  office 
or  their  offices,  which  said  Assistants^  and  every  or  any  of  them, 
for  any  reasonable  cause,  we  will  to  amove  and  to  be  amoved,  at 
the  discretion  of  the  Mayor,  Aldermen,  and  of  the  rest  of  the  As- 
sistants of  the  city  aforesaid,  or  of  the  major  part  of  them  (of  whom 
we  will  the  Mayor  to  be  one)  that  then,  and  so  often  it  may  well  be 
lawful,  and  shall  be  lawful  for  the  aforesaid  Mayor,  Aldermen, 
and  the  other  Assistants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  or 
the  major  part  of  them  (of  whom  the  Mayor,  as  is  aforesaid,  we 
will  to  be  one)  within  convenient  time  after  the  death  of  such  As- 
sistant or  Assistants,  or  from  the  amoving  or  departure  from  the 
office  of  Assistant  respectively,  one  other  or  more  others,  to  be 
Assistant  or  Assistants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  of  the  citizens  of  the 
city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  to  nominate,  to  elect,  and  to 
prefer,  to  supply  the  aforesaid  number  of  the  twelve  Assistants  of 
the  city  aforesaid. 

And  we  will,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us  and  our  heirs,  and 
successors,  do  constitute,  and  ordain,  that  the  aforesaid  Anthony 
Allen  above-mentioned  in  these  presents,  to  be  Mayor  of  the  city 
aforesaid,  shall  take  his  corporal  oath  upon  the  holy  gospel  of  God 
before  two  or  more  of  the  Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the 
time  being,  to  execute  that  office  well  and  faithfully  ;  to  which  two 
Aldermen,  or  more  of  the  said  Aldermen  we  do  truly  grant  full 
power  by  these  presents,  of  giving  and  administering  such  an  oath 
as  is  aforesaid^  to  the  aforesaid  Anthony  Allen,  without  any  other 
commission  in  this  behalf  to  be  procured ;  and  that  as  well  the 
aforesaid  persons  above  in  these  presents  nominated,  to  be  the  first 
and  modern  Aldermen  and  Assistants  of  the  city  aforesaid,  and 
the  aforesaid  Anthony  Allen,  after  his  departure  from  the  office  of 
Mayor  aforesaid,  and  also  all  others  in  that  office,  from  time  to 
time  hereafter  for  ever  to  succeed,  shall  take,  and  every  one  of 


•ly*^ 


282  HISTORY    OF 

them  shall  take  their  corporal  oath  upon  the  holy  gospel  of  God, 
before  the  Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  to  exe- 
cute their  offices  respectively,  well  and  faithfully  in  all  things,  and 
through  all  things,  touching  or  concerning  their  offices.  And  that 
all  and  singular  Mayors  of  the  same  city  hereafter  to  come,  or  into 
the  office  of  Mayoralty  of  the  city  aforesaid  to  be  elected,  shall 
take  their  corporal  oath  upon  the  holy  gospel  of  God,  before  the 
last  Mayor,  his  predecessor  for  the  time  being,  to  execute  the 
office  of  Mayor  of  the  same  city  well  and  faithfully.  And  that 
therefore,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  we  do  give  and  grant 
to  the  Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  full  power 
and  authority  of  administering,  from  time  to  time,  the  aforesaid  oath, 
without  any  other  warrant  or  commission  to  be  procured  or  obtained 
from  us,  our  heirs  or  successors ;  nevertheless,  in  case  of  death, 
amoving,  or  departure  of  the  Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the 
time  being,  within  the  year  wherein  they  ought  to  exercise  the 
office  of  Mayor  of  the  same  city,  we  do  give  and  grant,  for  us,  our 
heirs  and  successors,  full  power  and  authority  to  two  or  more 
Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  of  administer- 
ing a  corporal  oath  upon  the  holy  gospel  of  God,  to  every  Mayor 
in  the  place  of  him  so  dead,  amoved,  or  departed,  from  time  to 
time  to  be  elected,  to  execute  that  office  well  and  faithfully,  with- 
out any  other  commission  or  warrant  to  be  procured  or  obtained 
from  us,   our  heirs  or  successors. 

And  further,  we  will,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs 
and  successors,  we  do  grant  to  the  aforesaid  Mayor  and  citizens  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  and  their  successors,  that  they  and  their  succes- 
sors, from  henceforth,  for  ever,  may  have,  and  shall  have,  within 
the  city  aforesaid,  one  discreet  man,  learned  in  the  laws  of  England, 
who  shall  be,  and  shall  be  named,  Recorder  of  the  city  aforesaid  ; 
aod  we  have  assigned,  nominated,  created,  constituted,  and  made, 
and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  and  our  heirs  and  successors,  we 
do  assign,  nominate,  create,  constitute,  and  make,  our  beloved 
Jlenry  Clarke,  Esq.  learned  in  the  laws  of  England,  now  Record- 


ROCHESTER.  283 

er  of  the  city  aforesaid,  or  so  named,  or  reputed  to  be,  and  shall 
be  the  first  and  modern  Recorder  of  the  city  aforesaid,  to  continue 
in  the  same  office  during  his  natural  life,  to  be  exercised  by  himself, 
or  by  his  sufficient  deputy  learned  in  the  laws  of  England:  and 
that  from  time  to  time,  and  at  all  times,  after  the  death  of  the  said 
Henry  Clarke,  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for 
the  time  being,  or  the  major  part  of  them  (of  whom  we  will  the 
Mayor  to  be  one)  at  the  good  pleasure  and  will  of  the  said  Mayof 
and  Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  or  of  the 
major  part  of  them,  (of  whom  the  Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for 
the  time  being  we  will  to  be  one)  may,  and  shall  be  able  to  elect, 
nominate,  and  to  prefer  one  other  man,  discreet  and  learned  in  the 
laws  of  England,  from  time  to  time,  to  be  Recorder  of  the  city 
aforesaid ;  and  that  he  who  so  as  is  preferred  to  be  Recorder  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  after  the  death  of  the  aforesaid  Henry  Clarke, 
or  after  the  aforesaid  Henry  Clarke  shall,  of  his  own  accord,  leave 
the  said  office  of  Recorder,  may,  and  shall  be  able  to  have,  to 
enjoy,  and  to  exercise  that  office  of  Recorder  of  the  city  aforesaid, 
during  the  good  pleasure  of  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  the  city 
aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  or  of  the  major  part  of  them,  (of  whom, 
the  Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  we  will  to  be 
one)  shall  first  take  a  corporal  oath  before  the  Mayor  of  the  city 
aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  to  execute  that  office  well  and  faith- 
fully ;  to  which  said  Mayor  truly  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time 
being,  we  do  give  and  grant,  by  these  presents,  full  power  and  au- 
thority, for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  of  administering  such  an 
oath,  as  aforesaid,  to  every  Recorder  of  the  city  aforesaid,  in  form 
aforesaid,  hereafter  to  be  elected,  without  any  other  commission,  or 
warrant,  to  be  procured  or  obtained  in  that  behalf,  from  us,  our 
heirs  or  successors. 

And  further,  we  willf  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs  and 
successors,  we  do  grant  and  confirm,  to  the  aforesaid  Mayor  and 
citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  and  their  successors,  that  the  Mayor 
of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  and  two  Aldermen  of  the 


284  HISTORY  OF 

same  city,  by  the  Mayor  for  the  time  being,  from  time  to  time,  to 
be  nominated  and  appointed,  or  some  two  or  more  of  them,  before 
the  same  Mayor,  and  two  or  more  of  the  same  Aldermen  in  our 
court  of  Portmote  of  the  city  aforesaid,  from  fifteen  days  to  fifteen 
days,  to  hold  all  pleas,  really,  personally,  and  mixt,  within  the  said 
city,  liberty,  and  precincts  aforesaid,  heretofore  arisen,  and  hereaf- 
ter to  arise,  by  bills  and  plaints,  in  the  same  court,  to  be  levied 
and  affirmed,  and  the  persons  whomsoever,  against  whom  such  bills 
and  plaints  in  the  said  court  it  shall  happen  to  be  prosecuted  or 
amoved,  by  their  ministers,  to  be  summoned  by  their  lands,  goods, 
and  chattels,  to  be  attached  and  distrained  ;  and,  as  the  case  shall 
require,  by  their  bodies,  and  goods,  and  chattels,  within  the  city, 
liberty,  and  precincts  aforesaid,  by  a  due  process  of  law,  to  be  ar- 
rested and  attached,  and  to  cause  the  bodies  to  be  committed  to  pri- 
son, and  all  such  pleas  to  hear  and  determine,  and  to  render  judg- 
ment thereupon,  and  executions  thereupon,  they  shall,  and  may  be 
able,  to  cause  to  be  done,  by  their  ministers  for  ever. 

And  further,  we  will,  and  by  these  presents,  for  us,  our  heirs, 
and  successors,  we  do  grant  to  the  aforesaid  Mayor,  and  citizens  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  and  their  successors,  that  the  Mayor  and  Record- 
er of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  and  the  mostantient  Al- 
derman of  the  said  city,  for  the  time  being,  and  every  person  who 
doth  exercise,  or  hereafter  shall  exercise  the  office  of  Mayoralty  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  that  is  to  say,  every  predecessor  of  every  Mayor 
of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  during  one  whole  year,  af- 
ter he  shall  depart  from  the  office  of  his  Mayoralty,  from  henceforth 
for  ever,  jointly  and  separately,  be,  and  shall  be  justices,  and  keep- 
ers of  our  peace*,  and  of  our  heirs  and  successors,  and  may  have, 

*  For  many  years  a  dispute  subsisted  between  the  city  and  the  church ;  the 
former  claiming  by  virtue  of  some  royal  charters,  a  right  of  jurisdiction  coa^- 
trary  to  the  privileges  granted  and  secured  by  several  kings  to  the  latter. 
This  difference  was  however  compromised  A.  D.  141S,  as  appears  from  a  deed 
printed  in  the  Regist.  Rolf.  p.  575,  &c.  by  which  it  was  agreed,  that  all  tenants 
and  servants  of  the  church  living  within  the  city,  should  be  subject  to  the  au- 
thority of  the  mayor.    It  was  further  stipulated  that  the  mayor   should  not 


ROCHESTER.  285 

and  shall  have,  power  and  authority  to  our  peace,  and  of  our  heirs 
and  successors ;  and  also  to  the  statutes  and  ordinances  at  Winches- 
ter, Northampton,  and  Westminster,  for  the  conservation  of  the 
same  peace,  and  to  the  statutes  and  ordinances,  there,  and  at  Cam- 
bridge, concerning  hunters,  workmen,  artificers,  servants,  ostlers, 
beggars,  and  vagabonds,  and  all  other  begging  men,  who  call  them- 
selves travelling  men ;  and  likewise,  to  the  statutes  and  ordinances 
at  Westminster,  in  the  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry  the  fourth,  late 
of  fact,  and  not  of  right,  king  of  England,  the  first  and  second, 
concerning  liveries  of  signs,  fellowships,  knights,  esquires,  or  valets, 
and  other  liveries  of  cloth,  overmuch  given,  neither  the  same  live- 
ries in  any  wise  used.  And  also,  to  a  certain  statute  made  against 
Lollards,  in  the  Parliament  of  Henry  the  fifth,  late  of  fact,  and  not  of 
right,  king  of  England,  at  Leicester.  And  also,  to  another  certain 
statute,  likewise  made  in  the  Parliament  of  the  said  Henry  the  fifth, 
held  at  Westminster,  concerning  counterfeiting,  clipping,  washing, 
and  other  falsity  of  the  money  of  our  land;  and  also,  to  all  other 
ordinances  and  statutes,  made  and  to  be  made,  for  the  good  of  our 
peace,  and  of  our  heirs  and  successors,  and  in  the  quiet  rule  and  go- 
verning of  our  people,  and  of  our  heirs  and  successors,  in  all  and 
singular  their  articles,  within  the  city,  liberty,  and  precincts  afore- 
said, according  to  the  force,  form,  and  effect  of  the  same,  to  keep^ 
and  cause  to  be  kept;  and  to  chastise  and  punish  all  those  whom  they 
shall  find  delinquent,  against  the  form  of  the  ordinances  and  statutes 
aforesaid,  or  of  any  of  them,  even  as  according  to  the  form  of  the 
ordinances,  and  of  the  same  statutes,  it  shall  be,  to  be  done,  and  to 
cause  all  those  who  shall  threaten  some  or  any  of  our  people,  or 
of  our  heirs  and  successors,  coucerning  their  bodies,  or  of  burning 
of  their  houses,  to  come  before  them,  to  find  sufficient  security  of 

presume  to  exercise  any  authority  within  the  precincts,  unless  requested  by 
the  bishop  or  the  prior:  but  that  the  mayor,  as  often  as  he  came,  not  only  to 
the  parish  church,  but  to  the  cathedral  on  festival  days,  might  be  permitted  to 
have  his  maces  borne  before  him :  and  in  case  the  king  should  ever  give  a 
sword  to  the  corporation,  the  mayor's  serjeant.  might  be  aho  suffered  to 
tear  it, 


286  HISTORY  Oti 

the  peace,  or  of  their  good  behaviour,  towards  us,  and  our  people, 
and  of  our  heirs  and  successors  ;  and  if  they  shall  refuse  to  find 
such  security,  then  to  cause  them  to  be  kept  in  safety  in  our  prison, 
and  of  our  heirs  and  successors,  of  the  city  aforesaid,  until  they 
shall  find  such  security. 

And  further,  that  they,  from  henceforth,  forever,  be  our  justices, 
and  of  our  heirs  and  successors  ;  and  that  they,  or  two  or  three  of 
them,  (of  whom  the  Mayor  or  Recorder  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for 
the  time  being,  we  will  to  be  one)  may  have,  and  shall  have,  full 
power  and  authority  to  enquire,  by  the  oath  of  honest  and  lawful 
men,  of  the  city,  liberty,  and  precincts  aforesaid,  by  whom  the  truth 
of  the  matter  may  be  better  known,  of  all  manner  of  murders,  man- 
slaughters, felonies,  poisonings,  inchantments,  witchcrafts,  magic 
art,  trespasses,  forestalled,  regrators,  ingrossers,  and  extortions, 
Within  the  city,  liberty,  and  precincts  aforesaid,  by  whomsoever,  or 
howsoever  done,  or  committed,  and  which,  from  henceforth,  shall 
there  happen  to  be  done ;  and  also  of  all  and  singular  other  things 
within  the  city,  liberty,  and  precincts  aforesaid,  howsoever  done,  at- 
tempted, or  committed,  and  which,  from  henceforth,  there  shall 
happen  to  be  done,  attempted,  or  committed,  whereof  it  ought,  and 
is  wont,  and  shall  be  ought,  by  the  keepers  of  out  peace,  and  of 
our  heirs  and  successors,  of  our  justices,  and  of  our  heirs  and 
successors^  assigned,  and  to  be  assigned,  to  enquire  of  such 
murders,  manslaughters,  felonies,  offences,  trespasses,  and  evil 
deeds,  in  any  county  of  our  kingdom  of  England^  by  virtue  of  the 
ordinances  and  statutes  aforesaid,  heretofore  made,  and  from  hence- 
forth to  be  made,  according  to  the  force  and  effect  of  our  letters  pa- 
tents, and  of  our  heirs  and  successors, to  them  thereof  made,  and  to 
be  made,  and  to  all  and  singular  the  premises,  and  other  things 
whatsoever,  within  the  city,  liberty,  and  precincts  aforesaid,  done, 
attempted,  or  committed,  and  from  henceforth  to  be  done,  attempt- 
ed, or  committed ;  which,  by  such  the  keepers  of  our  peace,  and  of 
our  heirs  and  successors,  and  of  our  justices,  and  of  our  heirs  and 
successors,  assigned,  and  to  be  assigned,  to  hear  and  determine  such 
felonies,  trespasses,  and  evil-deeds,  in  any  county,  by  virtue  of  the 


ROCHESTER.  2S7 

ordinances  and  statutes  aforesaid,  and  of  the  letters  patents  afore- 
said, ought,  and  are  wont,  and  shall  be  ought   to  be    discussed, 
and  terminated,  by  the  same  Mayor,  Recorder,  the  most  ancient 
Alderman,  and  the  last  Mayor's  predecessor,   or   two  or  three  of 
them  {of  whom,  we  will,   the  Mayor,  or  Recorder,   for  the  time 
being,  to  be  one)  to  hear  and  determine,   according  to  the  law  and 
custom  of  our  kingdom  of  England,  and  the  form  of  the  ordinances 
and   statutes  aforesaid :  and  that  the  Mayor  and  Recorder  of  the 
city  aforesaid,  and  the  most  ancient  Alderman  of  the  city  aforesaid, 
for  the  time  being,   and  every  last  predecessor  of  every  Mayor  for 
the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  during  one  year  after  that  he 
shall  depart   from  the  office  of  Mayoralty,  or  any  two  or  three  of 
them  (of  whom  the  Mayor  or  Recorder  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the 
time  being,  we  will  to  be  one)  from  time  to  time,  hereafter  be,  and 
shall  be  our  justices,  and  of  our  heirs  and  successors,  to  the  goal 
delivery  of  the  city  aforesaid,  of  prisoners  therein,  being  from  time 
to   time,  according  to  the  laws  and  customs,  and  statutes  of  our 
kingdom  of  England ;  so  that  all   writs,  precepts,  and  other  war- 
rants for  the  premises,  and  every  of  the   premises  to  be   made,  be 
directed  to  the  ministers  of  the   aforesaid  Mayor,  and  by  the  same 
ministers  be  executed,  without  any  writ  or  warrant  to  the  sheriff  or 
Coroners  of  Kent  to  be  thereof  in  any  wise  directed;  so  also  that 
the  keepers  of  our  peace,  and  of  our   heirs  and  successors,  and  our 
justices,  and  of  our   heirs  and  successors,   assigned,  and  to  be  as- 
signed, to  hear  and  determine  such  murders,  man-slaughters,  felon- 
ies, trespasses,  and  evil-deeds,  in  the  county  of  Kent,  done  or  com- 
mitted,  or  to  be  done  or   committed,   may  not   enter,  nor  any  of 
them   may  enter,  nor   thereupon   in   any    thing  may  intermeddle, 
nor  any  of  them  in  any  wise  may  intermeddle,  within  the  city  and 
precincts  aforesaid,  to  do  any  thing  which  belongs  to  such  a  keeper 
or  justice  of  peace  to  be  done. 

We  will,  notwithstanding,  and  our  intention  is,  and  by  these 
presents,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  we  do  constitute,  and  or- 
dain, that  the   aforesaid  Anthony  Allen,  now  Mayor  of  the  city 

2  p 


288  HisTotiv  oP 

aforesaid  before  he  may  be.  admitted  to  the  execution  of  the  office 
of  Mayor  or  of  a  justice  of  peace,  within  the  city  aforesaid,  limits 
and  precincts  thereof,  shall  take  his  corporal  oath,  upon  the  holy 
gospel  of  God,  to  execute  the  office  of  May brj  and  of  a  justice  of 
peace,  within  the  city  aforesaid,  the  limits  and  precincts  thereof, 
well  and  faithfully ;  and  also,  that  the  oath  in  that  behalf  by  the 
laws  and  statutes  of  this  our  kingdom  of  England,  provided  requisite 
to  be  taken  from  the  justices  of  peace,  before  two  or  more  of  the 
Aldermen  of  the  city  aforesaid :  to  whom  truly  Aldermen,  or  two 
or  more  of  them,  we  do  give  and  grant  full  power  and  authority  by 
these  presents,  of  giving  and  administering  such  an  oath  as  is  afore- 
said, to  the  said  Anthony  Allen,  without  any  commission  or  further 
warrant  to  be  procured  or  obtained :  and  also,  that  as  Well  the 
aforesaid  Henry  Clarke  above-mentioned  in  these  presents,  to  be 
Recorder  of  the  city  aforesaid,  as  also  all  other  Recorders  of  the 
city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being  hereafter  to  come^  before  they 
may  be  admitted  to  the  execution  of  the  office  of  a  justice  of  the 
peace  within  the  city  aforesaid,  or  any  of  them  may  be  ad- 
mitted, shall  take,  and  every  of  them  shall  take  his  and  their 
corporal  oath,  upon  the  holy  gospel  of  God,  well  and  faithfully  to 
execute  the  office  of  a  justice  of  the  peace,  within  the  city  afore- 
said, liberty  and  precincts  thereof,  and  also  the  oath  requisite  to 
be  taken  in  that  behalf  by  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  our  king- 
dom of  England,  provided  for  the  justices  of  the  peace,  before  the 
Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid,  for  the  time  being :  to  such  truly 
Mayor,  for  the  time  being,  we  do  give  and  grant  by  these  presents, 
for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  full  power  and  authority  of  giving 
and  administering  such  oath  as  is  aforesaid,  to  the  said  Recorder, 
as  well  present  as  to  come,  for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  and 
that  without  any  commission,  or  any  other  warrant  in  this  behalf 
to  be  procured.  And  that  all  and  singular  Mayors  of  the  city 
aforesaid,  for  the  time  being,  and  hereafter  to  be,  before  they  are 
admitted,  or  any  of  them  be  admitted  to  the  execution  of  the  office 
of  Mayor,  or  of  a  justice  of  the  peace  within  the  city  aforesaid, 


^ROCHESTER.  ^89 

shall  take  and  every  of  them  shall  take  their  corporal  oath, 
upon  the  holy  gospel  of  God,  well  and  faithfully  to  execute  the 
office  of  Mayor,  and  of  a  justice  of  the  peace  within  the  city  afore- 
said, the  liberty  and  precincts  thereof,  and  the  oath  provided  in 
that  behalf  by  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  our  kingdom  of  Eng- 
land, requisite  to  be  taken  by  the  justices  of  the  peace,  before  the 
last  Mayor  of  the  predecessor  of  every  Mayor  hereafter  to  be 
respectively,  or  two  or  more  of  the  Aldermen  of  the  said  city 
for  the  time  being  ;  to  such  truly  Mayor  of  the  city  aforesaid  for 
the  time  being,  or  two  or  more  of  the  Aldermen  of  the  same 
city,  for  the  time  being,  we  do  give  and  grant  by  these  presents, 
for  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  full  power  and  authority  of  giv- 
ing and  administering  such  oath  as  aforesaid,  to  every  Mayor  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  to  be  named  and  elected,  by  virtue,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  true  intention  of  these  presents,  without  any  com- 
mission or  further  warrant  to  be,  in  any  wise,  procured  or  obtained 
from  us,  our  heirs  and  successors. 

And  further,  we  will,  and  of  our  more  bountiful  special  grace, 
and  of  our  certain  knowledge,  and  meer  motion,  we  do  grant  to 
the  aforesaid  Mayor  and  citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  and  to  their 
successors,  that  the  nomination,  election,  amotion,  and  swearing 
of  all  and  singular  other  officers  and  ministers  of  the  city  aforesaid, 
from  henceforth  for  ever,  be  and  shall  be  done  in  such  and  the 
same  manner  and  form,  as  in  the  same  city  heretofore  hath  been 
used  and  accustomed  :  to  that  intent,  that  there  be  express  mention 
of  the  true  yearly  value,  or  of  the  certainty  of  the  premises,  or  of 
any  of  them,  or  of  other  gifts  or  grants,  by  us,  or  by  any  of  our 
progenitors,  or  of  our  predecessors,  to  the  aforesaid  Mayor  and 
citizens  of  the  city  aforesaid,  heretofore  made,  or  in  no  wise  made 
in  these  presents,  either  by  any  statute,  act,  ordinance,  provision, 
proclamation,  or  restitution,  heretofore  had,  made,  declared,  or- 
dained, or  provided;  or  any  other  thing,  cause,  or  matter  what- 
soever, to  the  contrary  thereof,  in  any  wise  notwithstanding.  In 
witness  whereof,  we  have  caused  these  our  letters  to  be  made  pa- 


290  HISTORY  OF 

tents.     Witness  myself,  at  Canbury,  the  seventh  day  of  August, 
in  the  fifth  year  of  our  reign. 

By  Writ  of  the  Privy  Seal, 
WOLSELEY. 

£.    s.     d. 
Taxed  at  a  Fine  of vi.  xiij.  iiij, 

THO.  COYENTRYE,  C$. 


Besides  the  fair  held  by  charter,  on  St.  Dunstan's  day ;  which 
is  now  held  annually  on  the  30th  of  May,  another  fair  has  been 
held  by  prescription,  long  before  any  charter  was  granted,  on  St. 
Andrew's  day,  and  now  .begins  yearly  on  the  12th  of  December; 
on  the  first  day  of  each  fair  are  sold  chiefly  cattle,  &c.  the  fairs 
continue  three  days  each.  A  market  is  held  on  every  Friday  in 
the  area  under  the  hall,  and  is  well  supplied  with  great  plenty  of 
poultry,  and  other  articles  from  the  country  adjacent. 

This  city  has  long  been  preserved  from  those  dreadful  conflagra- 
tions, which  formerly  so  frequently  laid  it  in  ruins.  The  greatest 
that  has  happened  for  some  centuries  past,  was  that  which  broke 
out  on  Saturday,  December  the  17,  1768,  about  twelve  o'clock  at 
night,  on  the  north  side  of  the  street,  near  the  town  hall ;  it  burnt 
with  great  fury,  and  in  the  space  of  three  hours,  laid  ten  houses 
fronting  the  street  in  ruins.  The  distress  of  the  sufferers  was 
greatly  mitigated  by  a  generous  subscription  opened  at  a  meeting 
in  the  town  hall,  on  the  20th  of  the  same  month ;  where  every 
peccant  humour,  that  had  been  engendered  by  a  late  contested 
election,  gave  place  to  a  noble  emulation  of  excelling  in  beneficence. 
John  Calcraft  and  William  Gordon,  esquires,  members  for  the 
city,  opened  the  subscription  by  a  donation  of  twenty-five  pounds 
each,  and  in  a  few  days  the  sum  of  six  hundred  and  forty-one 
pounds  two  shillings  and  nine  pence,  was  collected  by  a  committee 


ROCHESTER.  291 

appointed  for  that  purpose,  and  distributed  to  those  who  sustained 
the  uninsured  loss. 

At  one  of  the  meetings  respecting  the  above  subscription,  a  scheme 
which  had  for  some  time  been  in  agitatiou,  for  paving  and  lighting 
the  streets  of  this  city,  and  adjacent  towns  was  proposed;  the  in- 
habitants of  Chatham  and  Strood  were  invited  to  join  in  a  petition 
to  parliament,  for  carrying  this  desirable  work  into  execution  :  the 
latter  readily  acquiesced  ;  but  the  former  refused,  though  repeated- 
ly solicited. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1769,  Mr.  Gordon  presented  a  peti- 
tion to  the  house  of  commons,  for  this  purpose  ;  a  bill  passed  the 
house,  and  received  the  royal  assent  in  the  ensuing  spring.  But  as 
the  inhabitants  of  Chatham  had  refused  to  join  in  this  useful  work, 
the  act  enabled  the  commissioners  to  make  a  new  road  from  Star 
Lane  in  Eastgate  to  Chatham  hill,  leaving  the  town  of  Chatham 
on  the  left  hand.  The  intrigues  of  a  certain  attorney,  who  had 
not  been  made  a  principal  in  the  business  occasioned  this  refusal; 
and  though  the  people  of  Chatham,  discovering  the  folly  of  their 
conduct,  obtained  a  separate  act  for  paving,  &c.  their  town,  within 
three  years  afterwards,  the  mischief  was  then  done ;  for  the  new 
road  made  by  the  inhabitants  of  Rochester,  being  far  more  commo- 
dious than  that  which  went  through  Chatham,  occasioned  all  the 
transit  and  road  trade  to  be  carried  to  the  former  city. 

For  the  conveniency  of  the  new  pavement,  lighting,  and  watch- 
ing, the  inhabitants  are  subjected  to  the  easy  annual  rate  of  one 
shilling  in  the  pound  of  the  rack  rents,  of  which  two-thirds  are 
paid  by  the  landlords,  and  the  remaining  third  by  the  tenants. 
Although  the  town  of  Strood  is  so  considerably  benefited  by  the 
new  pavement,  yet  in  consideration  of  the  large  share  of  statute 
work  belonging  to  that  parish,  the  rate  levied  on  the  inhabitants  is 
still  easier,  nine-pence  in  the  pound  being  the  whole  annual  sum, 
paid  between  the  landlords  and  tenants,  in  the  same  proportion  as 
at  Rochester.  A  toll  gate  is  also  erected  at  Strood,  and  another  on 
the  new  road,  the  revenues  of  which  are  appropriated  to  this 
work. 


292  HISTORY  OF 


The  Oyster  Fishery. 

iN  several  of  the  creeks  and  branches  of  the  Medway,  within 
the  liberty  of  this  city,  is  an  oyster  fishery,  for  the  conducting  of 
which,  there  is  a  company  of  free  dredgers,  established  by  pre- 
scription, time  out  of  mind,  subject  to  the  authority  and  govern- 
ment of  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  this  city.  In  the  year  1729,  an 
Act  of  Parliament  was  obtained  u  For  the  better  ordering  and 
u  governing  this  fishery,  for  making  them  secure  under  the  protec- 
f*  tection  of  the  said  mayor  and  citizens,  and  for  confirming  and 
"  settling  the  power  and  jurisdiction  of  the  said  mayor  and  citizens 
u  over  this  fishery,  and  the  free  dredgers  thereof."  The  mayor 
and  citizens  have  power  once  or  oftener  in  every  year,  to  hold  a 
court  of  admiralty,  to  which  the  dredgers  are  summoned  by  the  prin- 
cipal water  bailiff,  and  a  jury  is  appointed  from,  amongst  them, 
which  jury  hath  power  to  make  rules  and  orders,  for  the  times  when 
the  oyster  grounds  shall  be  opened  and  shut,  and  the  quantity  of  oys- 
ters to  be  taken  by  each  dredgerman,  on  each  day  of  dredging;  and 
also  for  the  preservation  of  the  brood  and  spat  of  oysters,  and  for 
otherwise  regulating  the  said  fishery;  the  jury  are  also  empowered 
to  impose  such  fines  for  the  breach  of  any  such  rules  and  orders  as 
shall  be  approved  of,  and  confirmed  by  the  mayor  and  citizens,  to 
whose  use  all  forfeitures  shall  be  applied.  Every  person  is  free  of 
this  company  after  having  served  seven  years  to.  a  free  dredgerman. 
Every  free  dredgerman  at  the  expiration  of  his  apprenticeship  to  pay 
to  the  mayor  and  citizens  six  shillings  and  eight-pence;  he  is  also 
to  pay  yearly  on  the  15th  of  October  six  shillings  and  eight-pence 
for  the  use  of  the  said  mayor  and  citizens. 

By  the  aforecited  act,  the  mayor  and  citizens  agreed  to  retain  ten 
pounds  out  of  the  said  six  shillings  and  eight  pences,  for  their  trou- 
ble and  expence  in  holding  the  admiralty  court ;  and  the  surplus  to 
be  applied  to  the  common  good  of  the  oyster  fishery,  in  such  man- 


ROCHESTER.  293 

ner  as  the  jury  shall  direct.  Any  person  catching  oysters  in  this 
river,  not  free  of  the  fishery,  is  styled  a  "cable  hanger"  and  liable 
to  such  penalty  as  the  mayor  and  citizens  shall  impose.  The  com- 
pany frequently  buy  brood  or  spat  from  other  parts,  which  they  lay 
down  in  this  river,  where  they  soon  grow  to  maturity.  Great  quan- 
tities of  these  oysters  are  sent  to  London  and  Holland,  and  trans- 
mitted into  Westphalia  and  the  adjacent  countries. 

Most  of  our  coasts  produce  oysters  in  great  abundance,  but  the 
coasts  chiefly  celebrated  are  those  of  Essex  and  Suffolk.  They  are 
dredged  up  by  means  of  a  net  with  an  iron  scraper  at  the  mouthj 
that  is  dragged  by  a  rope  from  a  boat  over  the  beds.  As  soon  as 
taken  from  their  native  beds  they  are  stored  in  pits  formed  for  the 
purpose,  furnished  with  sluices,  through  which,  at  the  spring  tides, 
the  water  is  suffered  to  flow.  This  water  being  stagnant,  soon  be- 
fcomes  green  in  warm  weather,  and  in  a  few  days  afterwards  the 
oysters  acquire  the  same  tinge,  which  renders  them  of  greater  value 
in  the  market :  but  they  do  not  acquire  their  full  quality,  and  be- 
come fit  for  sale,  till  the  lend  of  six  or  eight  weeks. 

The  principal  breeding  time  of  oysters  is  in  April  and  May,  when 
they  cast  their  spawn,  or  spats,  as  the  fishermen  call  them,  upon 
rocksj  stones^  shells,  or  any  other  hard  substance  that  happens  to 
be  near  the  place  where  they  lie,  to  which  the  spats  immediately 
adhere.  These  till  they  obtain  their  film  or  crust  are  somewhat  like 
a  drop  of  a  candle,  but  are  of  a  greenish  hue.  The  substances  to 
which  they  adhere,  of  whatever  nature,  are  called  cultch.  From 
the  spawning  time  till  about  the  end  of  July  the  oysters  are  said  to 
be  sick,  but  by  the  end  of  August  they  become  perfectly  recovered. 
During  these  months  they  are  out  of  season,  and  are  bad  eating. 
This  is  known,  on  inspection,  by  the  male  having  a  black,  and  the 
female  a  milky  substance  in  the  gill. 

In  the  month  of  May  the  fishermen  are  allowed  to  take  the  oys- 
ters in  order  to  separate  the  spawn  from  the  cultch,  the  latter  of 
which  is  thrown  in  again  to  preserve  the  bed  for  the  future.  After 
this  month  it  is  felony  to  carry  away  the  cultch,  and  otherwise  pu- 
nishable to  take  any  oyster,  between  whose  shells,  when  closed,  a 


294  history  of 

shilling  will  rattle.  The  reason  of  the  heavy  penalty  on  destroying 
the  cultch,  is,  that  when  this  is  taken  away,  the  ouse  will  increase, 
and  muscles  and  cockles  will  breed  on  the  bed  and  destroy  the  oys- 
ters, from  their  gradually  occupying  all  the  places  on  which  the 
spawn  should  be  cast.  There  is  likewise  some  penalty  for  not 
treading  on  and  killing,  or  throwing  on  shore  any  star-fish  that  are 
seen,  which  are  very  destructive  to  the  oysters,  by  inserting  their 
rays  between  the  shells,  when  they  are  open,  and  destroying  the 
animals  within. 

Oysters  are  not  reckoned  proper  for  the  table  till  they  are  about 
a  year  and  a  half  old ;  so  that  the  brood  of  one  spring  are  not  to  be 
taken  for  sale  till  at  least  September  twelve-months  afterwards.  When 
younger  than  these  happen  to  be  taken  in  the  dredge,  they  are  al- 
ways thrown  into  the  sea  again.  The  fishermen  know  the  age  of 
oysters  by  the  broader  distances  or  interstices  among  the  rounds  or 
rings  of  the  convex  shell. 

The  oysters  in  the  pits  of  course  always  lie  loose,  but  on  their 
native  beds  they  are  ingeneral  fixed  (from  the  time  they  are  cast)  by 
their  under  shell ;  and  their  goodness  is  said  to  be  materially  affect- 
ed by  their  being  laid  in  the  pits  with  the  flat  shell  downwards,  not 
being  able  in  this  position  to  retain  sufficient  water  in  the  shell  for 
support. 

The  French  assert,  but  apparently  without  proof,  that  the  En- 
glish oysters  which  are  esteemed  the  best  in  Europe,  were  originally 
procured  from  Concalle  bay  near  St.  Malo.* 

*  Bingley's  Animal  Biography,  vol.  3.  p.  336, 


ROCHESTER.  295 


A  List  of  the  Representatives  of  this  City. 


T. 


HIS  city  has  sent  two  representatives  to  parliament,  from  the 
first  institution  of  those  assemblies  ;  a  list  of  such  gentlemen  as  have 
represented  this  city,  from  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  is  here 
inserted.  They  are  chosen  by  the  freemen,  who  are  in  number  at 
present  about  nine  hundred  and  eighty. 

1660.  John  Marsham,  esq.  and  Peter  Pett,  esq. 

1661.  Sir  Francis  Clarke,  knt.  and  Sir  William  Battey,  knt. 
1667.     Richard  Head,  esq.  and  alderman  of  this  city,  in  the  room 

of  Sir  William  Battey,  deceased. 
1678-9.  Sir  John  Banks,  Sir  Richard  Head,  barts. 
1679.     Ditto,  and  Francis  Barrell,  esq. 
1680-1.  Ditto,  and  Sir  Francis  Clarke. 
1685.     Ditto,  and  Ditto. 

1688-9.  Sir  John  Banks,  and  Sir  Roger  Twisden,  barts.* 
1689.     Sir  Joseph  Williamson,  knt.  and  Francis  Clarke,  esq. 
1691.     Caleb  Banks,  esq.  in  the  room  of  Francis  Clarke,  esq. 
1695.     Sir  Joseph  Williamson,  knt.  and  Sir  Cloudesly  Shovel,  knt. 
1698.     Ditto,  and  Ditto. 

1700.  Ditto,  and  Ditto. 

1701.  Francis  Barrell,  esq.  and  William  Bokenham,  esq. 

1702.  Edward  Knatchbull,  esq.  and  William  Cage,  esq. 

1705.     Sir  Cloudesly  Shovel,  knt.  and  Sir  Stafford  Fairborne,  knt. 

1707.  Sir  John  Leake,  knt.  in  the  room  of  Sir  Cloudesly  Shovel, 

deceased. 

1708.  Sir  Stafford  Fairborne,  knt.  and  Sir  John  Leake,  knt. 
1710.     Sir  John  Leake,  knt.  and  William  Cage,  esq. 
1713*^  Ditto,  and  Ditto. 

*  In  the  minute  book  of  this  corporation  there  is  an  entry  made  of  these  two 
gentlemen  being  recommended  by  the  prince  of  Orange, 

2   Q 


296  HISTORY  OF 

1714.     Sir  Thomas  Palmer,  bart  and  Sir  John  Jennings,  knt. 

1718.     Sir  John  Jennings,  knt.  re-elected. 

1721.     Sir  Thomas  Palmer,  bart.  and  Sir  John  Jennings,  knt.* 

1723.  Sir  Thomas  Colby,  knt.  in  the  room  of  Sir  Thomas  Pal- 
mer, bart.  deceased. 

1727.     Sir  John  Jennings,  knt.  and  David  Polhill,  esq. 

1731.     David  Polhill,  esq.  re-elected. 

1734.     Nicholas  Haddock,  esq.  and  David  Polhill,  esq. 

1741.     Nicholas  Haddock,  esq.  and  Edward  Vernon,  esq. 

1741-2.  David  Polhill,  esq.  in  the  room  of  Edward  Vernon,  esq. 
who  had  made  his  option  for  Ipswich  in  Suffolk. 

1746.  Sir  Chaloner  Ogle,  knt.  in  the  room  of  Nicholas  Haddock, 

esq.  deceased. 

1747.  Sir  Chaloner  Ogle,  knt.  and  David  Polhill,  esq. 

1750.     The  Hon.  John  Bing,  esq.  in  the   room  of  Sir  Chaloner 

Ogle,  deceased. 
1754.     Nicholas  Haddock,  esq.  in  the  room  of  David  Polhill,  esq. 

deceased. 
1754.     The  Hon.  John  Bing,  esq.  and  Nicholas  Haddock,  esq.+ 
1757.     Isaac  Townsend,  esq.  in  the   room    of  John   Bing,  esq. 

deceased. 
1761.     The  Hon.  Thomas  Parker,  commonly  called  Thomas  lord 

Parker,  and  Isaac  Townsend,  esq. 

1764.  Sir  Charles  Hardy,  knt.  in  the  room  of  Thomas  lord  Par- 

ker, then  earl  of  Macclesfield. 

1765.  Grey  Cooper,  esq.*  in  the  room  of  Isaac  Townsend,  esq. 

deceased. 

*  William  Withers,  esq.  was  a  candidate  at  this  election :  the  numbers  were 
for  Sir  Thomas  Palmer,  bart.  313;  Sir  John  Jennings,  393;  William  Withers, 
esq.  296. 

I  The  earl  of  Middlesex  was  a  candidate  at  this  election.  The  numbers 
were,  for  Admiral  Byng,  313;  Nicholas  Haddock,  esq.  387;  Earl  of  Middle- 
sex, 91.     The  last  candidate  was  not  at  the  poll. 

I  John  Calrraft,  esq.  was  a  candidate  at  this  election.  The  numbers  were, 
for  Grey  Cooper,  esq.  268  ;  John  Calcraft,  esq.  235. 


ROCHESTER.  297 

1768.     John  Calcraft,  esq.  and  William  Gordon,  esq.* 

1771.  Vice  Admiral  Pye,  in  the  room  of  William  Gordon,  esq. 

resigned. + 

1772.  G.  Finch  Hatton,  esq.  in   the   room   of  John  Townsend, 

esq.  deceased. 

1774.     R.  Gregory,  esq.  and  G.  F.  Hatton,  esq.t 

1780.     G.  F.  Hatton,  esq.  and  R.  Gregory,  esq.§ 

1784.     Sir  C.  Middleton,  and  N.  Smith,  esq.|| 

1790.     G.  Best,  esq.  and  Sir  R.  Bickerton.** 

1792.  N.  Smith,  esq.  in  the  room  of  John  Calcraft,  esq.  de- 
ceased.++ 

1794.  Admiral  Sir  Richard  King,  in  the  room  of  N.  Smith,  esq. 
deceased. 

1796.     Sir  R.  King,  and  the  Hon.  H.  Tufton.tt 


*  Admiral  Geary  was  a  candidate  at  this  election.  The  numbers  were,  for 
John  Calcraft,  esq.  313;  William  Gordon,   esq.  308;  Admiral  Geary,  292. 

+  Richard  Smith,  esq.  was  a  candidate  at  this  election.  The  numbers  were, 
for  vice  Admiral  Pye,  293;  Richard  Smith,  esq.  154. 

J  Admiral  Pye  was  a  candidate  at  this  election.  The  numbers  were,  for  R. 
Gregory  esq.  350;  G.  F.  Hatton,  esq.  293;  Admiral  Pye,  252. 

!)  N.  Smith,  esq.  was  a  candidate  at  this  election.  The  number  were,  for 
G.  F.  Hatton,  Esq.  331 ;  R.  Gregory,  esq.  319;  N.  Smith,  esq.  270. 

||  G.  F.  Hatton,  esq.  was  a  candidate  at  this  election.  The  numbers  were, 
for  Sir  C.  Middleton,  70;  N.  Smith,  esq.  61;  G.  F.  Hatton,  esq.  44. 

**  The  Marquis  of  Titchfield  was  a  candidate  at  this  election.  The  numbers 
were,  for  G.  Best,  esq.  367;  Sir  R.  Bickerton,  322;  the  Marquis  of  Titchfield, 
243. 

tf  Sir  Richard  King  was  a  candidate  at  this  election.  The  numbers  were, 
for  N.  Smith,  esq.  229;  Sir  R.  King,  253. 

+  $  G.  Best,  esq.  and  John  Longley,  esq.  were  candidates  at  this  election  : 
the  numbers  were,  for  Sir  R.  King,  286;  Hon.  H.  Tufton,  186;  G.  Best,  esq.  77; 
John  Longley,  esq.  30. 


298  HISTORY  OF 

1802.  Sir  W.  Sydney  Smith,  and  James  Hulkes,  esq.* 

1806.  John  Calcraft,  esq.  and  James  Barnett,  esq.t 

1807.  Sir  T.  B.  Thompson,  and  John  Calcraft,  esq4 
1812.  Sir  T.  B.  Thompson,  and  John  Calcraft,  esq. 

1816.  Sir  T.  B.  Thompson's  seat  was  declared  vacant  in  conse- 
quence of  his  having  been  appointed  Treasurer  of  Green- 
wich Hospital,  and  James  Barnett,  esq.  was  returned 
in  his  roora.§ 

Many  eminent  men  have  at  different  periods  represented  the  ci- 
ty of  Rochester,  among  whom,  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel,  Sir  Joseph 
Williamson,  and  Sir  John  Leake,  are  peculiarly  distinguished.  The 
two  former  have  a  particular  connection  with  this  city,  not  only  as 
its  representatives  in  parliament,  but  as  munificent  benefactors  to  it. 
It  is  presumed  therefore  that  the  following  brief  memoirs  of  each  of 
these  illustrious  persons  will  not  be  unacceptable  to  our  readers. 


*  G.  Smith,  esq.  son  of  the  late  N.  Smith,  esq.  and  James  Roper  Head,  esq. 
were  candidates  at  this  election :  the  numbers  were  for  Sir  W.  S.  Smith,  423; 
James  Hulkes,  esq.  417;  G.  Smith,  esq.  45;  J.  R.  Head,  esq.  10. 

+  Sir  W.  S.  Smith  was  a  candidate  at  this  election:  the  numbers  were,  for 
J.  Calcraft,  esq.  575;  J.  Barnett.  esq.  393 ;  Sir  W.  S.  Smith,  382.  Upon  a  pe- 
tition being  presented  to  the  House  of  Commons  against  the  return  of  James 
Barnett,  esq.  a  select  committee  decided  that  he  was  duly  elected. 

$  Sir  Thomas  Trigg  was  a  candidate  at  this  election  :  the  numbers  were,  for 
Sir  T.  B.  Thompson,  381  ;  John  Calcraft,  esq.  361  ;  and  Sir  T.  Trigg,  306. 

^  Sir  T.  B.  Thompson  offered  himself  again  a  candidate:  the  numbers  were, 
for  J.  Barnett,  esq.  408;  for  Sir  T.  B.  Thompson,  406.  Ob  a  petition  to  the 
House  of  Commons  against  the  return  of  James  Barnett,  esq.  as  one  of  the 
representatives  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  a  select  committee  determined  Feb. 
26th  1817,  "  that  at  the  last  election  of  a  citizen  to  serve  in  parliament  for  the 
"  said  city,  the  returning  officer  closed  the  poll  prematurely,  and  that  the 
"  said  election  was  a  void  election  :"  in  consequence  of  which  determination 
a  new  writ  was  ordered,  and  James  Barnett,  esq.  was  returned  without  op- 
position. 


ROCHESTER.  299 

Sir  Qoudesley  Shovel,  who  raised  himself  to  the  first  command  at 
sea  by  his  industry,  valour,  skill  and  integrity,  was  born  at  Clay  a 
town  of  inconsiderable  note  in  the  county  of  Norfolk.  His  pa- 
rents, who  were  in  very  indigent  circumstances,  bound  him  an  ap- 
prentice to  a  shoemaker,  from  whom  he  absconded  in  order  to  enter 
the  navy,  in  which  his  attention  and  diligence  under  Sir  John  Nar- 
borough  raised  him  from  cabin  boy  to  lieutenant;  and  he  seemed 
only  to  be  known  to  be  loved  from  the  sovereign  to  the  sailor. 
Charles  II.  gave  him  proof  of  his  personal  regard.  James  II.  en- 
deavoured by  his  attention  to  gain  his  fidelity;  but  that  misguided 
King  was  equally  incapable  of  serving  others,  or  of  saving  himself. 
William  III.  knighted  him  on  board  the  fleet  at  Portsmouth,  when 
he  advanced  admiral  Herbert  to  the  earldom  of  Torrington,  entrust- 
ed his  royal  person  to  his  care,  and  gave  him  his  commission  of  rear 
admiral  of  the  blue  with  his  own  hand.  Prince  George  of  Den- 
mark introduced  Shovel  to  his  consort  Queen  Ann,  who  paid  him 
every  mark  of  regard,  and  her  majesty  declared  when  he  was  no 
more,  that  u  she  had  lost  the  ablest  seaman  in  her  service."  When 
a  Lieutenant  under  Admiral  Narborough,  at  Tripoli;  in  Ireland 
against  James  Jl. ;  and  against  France,  in  the  Mediterranean,  we 
find  him  cool  and  brave,  always  equal  to  the  exigency  of  the  mo- 
ment ;  nor  did  he  ever  consider  any  danger  or  difficulty  too  great  to 
be  surmounted.  Plain,  open  and  honest,  he  wished  to  obtain  no 
credit  by  aspersing  the  conduct  of  others.  In  short,  the  whole 
kingdom  joined  in  loving  the  man,  who  had  no  aim  but  to  advance 
the  glory  of  the  nation.  When  before  his  sovereign,  the  Emperor 
Charles,  or  the  King  of  Portugal,  the  same  attentive,  plain,  but 
pleasing  behaviour  distinguished  him.  But  when  splendour  was 
necessary,  he  did  not  deny  it  to  others  :  and  once  entertained 
the  Duke  of  Savoy  on  board  the  Association  with  sixty  covers,  an 
attendance  of  sixty  halberdiers,  and  placed  an  armed  chair  of  state 
under  a  crimson  velvet  canopy  for  the  Duke,  in  such  appropriate 
order,  that  his  Royal  Highness  said  at  dinner,  "  If  your  Excellency 
"  had  paid  a  visit  to  me  at  Turin,  I  could  scarcely  have  entertain- 
li  ed  you  so  well."     This  great  man  was   lost   on  the  rocks  of 


.300  HISTORY   OF 

Scilly,  in  the  night  between  the  22d  and  23d  of  October,  1708, 
when  but  47  years  of  age.  His  body  being  cast  ashore,  was  after- 
wards stripped,  and  ignobly  buried  in  the  sand  ;  but  the  wretches, 
who  had  taken  an  emerald  ring  from  his  finger,  being  arrested,  they 
were  compelled  to  discover  where  his  remains  were  laid ;  whence  they 
were  conveyed  in  the  Salisbury  to  Portsmouth,  embalmed,and  brought 
by  Lady  Shovel's  order  to  his  house  in  Soho  Square.  The  May- 
or of  Portsmouth,  with  the  Aldermen  in  their  formalities,  attended 
the  procession  to  the  limits  of  their  jurisdiction.  The  soldiers  were 
under  arms,  minute  guns  were  fired;  and  every  other  demonstration 
of  respect  was  shewn,  that  a  grateful  and  afflicted  people  could 
give.  These  attentions  were  renewed  whilst  he  lay  in  state,  and 
continued  till  his  interment  in  Westminster  Abbey,  where  her  Ma- 
jesty ordered  a  magnificent  monument  to  be  erected  to  his  memory, 
which  if  it  do  no  credit  to  the  taste,  is,  at  least,  expressive  of  the  grati- 
tude of,  the  nation.  The  duties  of  the  husband,  the  father,  the  friend, 
and  the  relation,  were  excellently  performed  by  Sir  Cloudesley, 
who  always  gave  in  charity  more  than  was  expected  ;  and  was  al- 
ways munificent  to  merit  even  beyond  his  princely  income.  He  left 
by  the  widow  of  his  patron,  Sir  John  Narborough,  two  daughters  : 
one  married,  successively,  to  Lord  Romney,  and  the  Earl  of 
Hyndford;  the  other  to  Sir  Narborough  D'Aeth,  Bart. 

When  the  Association  sunk,  the  following  gentlemen  perished 
with  the  Admiral :  his  son-in-law,  Sir  John  Narborough,  and  his 
brother,  Mr.  James  Narborough ;  Mr,  Trelawney,  son  of  the 
Bishop  of  Winchester ;  and  several  other  young  persons  of  quality, 
with  nine  hundred  seamen  of  all  stations  ;  of  whom  not  an  indi- 
vidual survived  to  tell  to  what  the  fatal  accident  was  owing.* 

In  the  form  of  prayer  prepared  by  Archbishop  Tenison,  to  be 
used  "  for  imploring  the  divine  blessing  on  our  fleets  and  armies," 
in  the  month  of  April,   1807,  an  unguarded  expression,  "  the  rock 

*  The  author  of  the  life  and  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  8vo.  1738,  attributes 
this  misfortune  to  the  ceremony  of  toasting  their  arrival,  after  a  perilous 
cruise  in  the  Mediterranean. 


ROCHESTER.  301 

of  oar  inight,"  unluckily  slipped  in,  which  the  wits  of  that  time 
did  not  fail  to  recollect,  and  of  which,  when  the  melancholy  catas- 
trophe is  considered,  they  made  an  unwarrantable  application  in 
the  following  epigram,  laid  on  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel's  tomb  in 
Westminster  Abbey  : — 

As  Lambeth  pray'd,  so  was  the  dire  event, 

Else  had  we  wanted  here  a  monument ; 

That  to  our  fleet  kind  heaven  would  be  a  rock, 

Nor  did  kind  heaven  the  wise  petition  mock  ; 

To  what  the  Metropolitan  did  pen, 

The  Bishop  and  his  Clerks  replied,   Amen.* 

Sir  Joseph  Williamson  was  the  son  of  a  clergyman,  in  Cumber- 
land, and  educated  at  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  probably  for  the 
same  profession  ;  but  he  preferred  politics.  This  preference  might 
be  occasioned  by  having  the  great  Locke  for  his  tutor,  from  whom 
young  Williamson  received  so  much  information,  and  gave  his 
mind  such  a  direction  from  his  lessons,  that  he  became  a  very  emi- 
nent legislator,  and  a  still  greater  statesman.  He  represented  Thet- 
ford  and  Rochester  in  several  parliaments ;  and  his  interest  was  so 
decided  that  he  was  sometimes  returned  for  both  places  ;  and  yet 
it  was  his  abilities  that  procured  him  that  interest,  having  in  the 
commencement  of  his  political  career,  neither  riches  nor  alliances 
to  give  him  such  a  preference.  Charles  II.  appointed  him  clerk  of 
his  papers  of  the  privy  council  in  ordinary,  and  knighted  him,  Ja- 
nuary 24,  1673.  On  the  11th  of  August,  1674,  the  same  monarch 
made  him  one  of  the  principal  secretaries  of  state,  and  a  privy 
counsellor.  Sir  Joseph  continued  an  able  minister  during  the  re- 
mainder of  that  reign.  In  1678,  when  politics  ran  very  high,  the 
commons  committed  him  to  the  tower  :  Charles  sent  for  the  mem- 
bers of  the  house  of  commons  to  the  banqueting  house,  where  he 
told  them  "though  you  have  committed  my  servant  without  ac- 

*  The  rocks  of  Srilly  are  called  by  the  people  of  the  country,  and  by  ma- 
riners in  general,  the  Bishop  and  ?nn  Clerks. 


,302  HISTORY  OF 

"  quainting  me,  yet  I  intend  to  deal  more  freely  with  you,  and  ac- 
"  quaint  you  with  my  intention  to  release  my  secretary  ;  "  which  he 
accordingly  did  before  they  had  time  to  prepare  their  intended  ad- 
dress against  his  liberation  ;  so  that  when  it  was  presented,  the  an- 
swer was,  It  is  too  late.  The  impolitic  course  pursued  by  James  II. 
he  seemed  well  aware  would  end  in  his  ruin.     William  III.  employ- 
ed and  confided  in  him.     In  the  reign   of  Charles  he  had  been  a 
plenipotentiary  at  Ryswick  and  Cologne;  and  William  in  1697, 
sent  him  to  the  court  of  France.     Though  the  public  service  de- 
manded his  first  attention,  yet  it  did  not  so  much  engross  him,  but 
he  had  leisure  for  the  study  of  literature  and  the  sciences.     He 
presided  over  the  Royal  Society.    A  considerable  part  of  his  wealth 
was  expended  in  useful  charities,  or  in  promoting  learning  ;  and  the 
places  which  returned  him  to  parliament  received  much  of  his  boun- 
ty.    At  his  death  he  left  6000/.  to  the  college  where  he  had  been 
educated ;  and  in   this  city,  as  our  readers  are  already  informed, 
he  founded  the  free  mathematical  school ;  an  act  of  munificence 
which  endears  his  memory  to  every  citizen,  and  which  will  extend 
its  beneficial  influence  to,  and  claim  the  gratitude  of,  future  gene- 
rations.    He  gave  fourteen  pounds  per  annum  to  Thetford  for  ap- 
prenticing boys,  and  an  exhibition  for  a  poor  scholar  at  Cambridge. 
To  the  corporation  he  presented  "  The  Statutes  at  Large ,•"  and  to 
the  school,    eleven  folio  books.      He  also  presented  an  elegant 
sword  and  mace  to  the  mayor  and  corporation;  and  in   1680,  built 
the  court  of  common-pleas,  and  a  grand-jury  chamber  adjoining 
the  old  guildhall.     This  excellent  man  died  in  October,   1701,  and 
Mas  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey.     He  married  Catherine,  only 
sister  and  heir  of  Charles  Stuart,  duke  of  Richmond  and  Lenox, 
K.  G.  Mho  was  widow  of  Henry,  lord  O'Brian,  eldest  son  and 
heir-apparent  of  Henry,  earl  of  Thomond.     They  had  issue.     Sir 
Joseph  devised  part  of  his  great  estates  to  her;  but  she  held  them 
only  a  month,  dying  in  the  November  following.     Her  share  there- 
fore went  to  her  daughters  and  co-heirs,  the  children  of  her  former 
marriage.     The  remainder  of  Sir  Joseph's  estates  were  devised  by 
him  to  his  friend  and  executor,  Mr.  Joseph  Hornsby. 


ROCHESTER.  363 

Sir  John  Leake,  son  of  captain  Richard  Leake,  master  gunner 
bf  England,  was  born  at  Rotherhithe.  His  bravery  was  always 
crowned  with  success  :  particularly  in  1689,  when  he  commanded 
the  Dartmouth,  and  relieved  Londonderry,  by  Kilmore  castle.  In 
1702,  as  commodore,  he  took  and  destroyed  fifty- one  sail  of 
French  vessels  with  all  their  settlements.  In  1704,  he  forced  the 
fleet  of  that  nation  from  the  coast  of  Malaga,  relieved  Gibraltar 
twice  J  burning  and  taking  thirteen  sail  of  French  men  of  war.  In 
1705,  he  saved  the  important  fortress  of  Gibraltar  from  the  com- 
bined attacks  of  France  and  Spain.  The  services  which  our  admi- 
ral rendered  the  besieged,  procured  him  a  letter  of  thanks  and  a 
gold  cup  from  the  prince  of  Hesse  Darmstadt,  governor  of  the  gar- 
rison. In  1708,  he  relieved  Barcelona,  in  which  was  Charles, 
afterwards  emperor,  who  claimed  the  Spanish  dominions;  took 
ninety  sail  of  corn  ships ;  and  in  the  same  year,  conquered  Car- 
thagena,  Aljcant,  the  isles  of  Majorca,  Minorca,  Ivica,  and  Sar- 
dinia. On  his  return  to  London  he  was  not  only  received  with  the 
loud  acclamations  of  the  people,  but  caressed  in  the  most  public 
manner,  both  by  the  lord  high  admiral  and  the  Queen ;  the  former 
presented  him  with  a  diamond  ring  of  the  value  of  400/.  and  a  gold 
hilted  sword,  and  her  majesty  ordered  him  a  gratuity  of  1000/. 
As  a  further  reward  for  his  brilliant  services,  he  was  raised,  in  1710 
from  a  rear  admiral  to  be  commander  in  chief  of  the  fleet,  and 
made  a  lord  of  the  admiralty.  Returning  soon  afterwards  into  the 
Mediterranean,  he  was  extremely  active  in  the  service  of  his  sove- 
reign and  her  allies.  He  had  the  honour  of  convoying  the  queen  of 
Spain,  consort  of  king  Charles  III.  from  Genoa  to  Barcelona ;  for 
which  service  her  majesty  presented  him  with  a  diamond  ring 
worth  300/.  after  which  he  reduced  the  islands  of  Sardinia  and 
Minorca.  The  city  of  Rochester  returned  him  one  of  her  mem- 
bers of  parliament,  in  the  room  of  the  brave  Shovel  who  was  lost  at 
sea.  He  represented  this  city  in  the  parliaments  of  1708,  1710  and 
1713;  but  to  the  indelible  disgrace  of  the  ministers  of  George  I. 
they  shamefully  deprived  this  valiant,  faithful,  and  successful  naval 
commander  of  all  his  places.     From  that  period  he  lived  in  great 

2  R 


304  HISTORY  OP 

seclusion,  alternately  at  his  seat  of  Beddington,  and  a  small  house 
he  had  built  at  Greenwich,  where  he  died,  August  21,  1720,  aged 
64  years  ;  and  was  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  St.  Paul's,  Deptford. 

He  acted  with  as  much  integrity,  as  great  valour,  and  as  pro- 
found nautical  skill,  as  any  of  the  numerous  commanders  who 
grace  our  naval  annals.  Christian  Lady  Leake  died  in  1709,  by 
whom  he  had  issue,  Elizabeth,  married  to  Mr.  Blake  ; — and  cap- 
tain Richard  Leake,  whose  nativity  being  cast  by  his  grandfather, 
it  v/as  foiind  that  he  would  be  "  very  vicious,  very  fortunate,  and 
very  unhappy  ;"  which  was  verified  by  his  obtaining  a  captain's 
commission  very  early,  gaining  more  prizes  than  his  father  had  ever 
taken,  yet  ruining  himself  by  his  vices  so  completely,  that  he  de- 
pended on  his  parent  for  support.  Sir  John,  painfully  perceiving 
the  imprudence  of  both  his  children,  and  that  they  had  no  issue, 
settled  his  fortune,  reversionally,  upon  his  brother-in-law,  Stephen 
Martin,  esq.  a  captain  in  the  navy,  and  an  elder  brother  Of  the 
Trinity  House,  who  had  served  with  him  a  great  number  of  years. 
Captain  Martin,  brother  to  Lady  Leake,  added  the  surname  of 
Leake  to  his  own,  which  his  posterity  still  retain. 

That  eminent  naval  officer  Sir  William  Sydney  Smith  knt.  whose 
atchievements  at  the  siege  of  Acre  will  be  emblazoned  in  the  annals 
of  this  country  to  the  latest  ages,  was  a  representative  of  this  city 
from  the  year  1802  to  1806. 

In  enumerating  the  naval  heroes  who  have  had  the  honour  of  re- 
presenting this  city,  it  would  be  unpardonable  to  pass  unnoticed 
her  late  representative,  the  gallant  Sir  Thomas  Boulden  Thompson, 
the  present  treasurer  of  Greenwich  hospital.  In  the  battle  of  the 
Nile,  August  1,  1798,  he  had  the  command  of  the  Leander  of  50 
guns  ;  and  as  long  as  that  signal  and  unparalleled  victory  shall  be 
recorded  in  history,  so  long  will  the  intrepidity  and  professional 
judgment  of  Sir  T.  B.  Thompson,  which  so  essentially  contributed 
to  it,  be  remembered  to  his  honour.  A  few  days  after  this  memor- 
able engagement  he  set  sail  for  England  in  the  Leander  with  dis- 
patches conveying  the  glorious  intelligence  to  Europe.  Unfortu- 
nately in  his  return  he  was  met  by  Le  Genereux?  a  French  ship  of 


Rochester,  305 

74  guns  and  700  men,  to  which,  notwithstanding  the  feeble  and 
crippled  state  of  the  Leander  and  her  great  inferiority  both  in  men 
and  guns,  he  resolved  to  give  battle.  Prudence,  perhaps,  might 
have  dictated  a  quiet  surrender;  but  the  hero  of  the  Nile  could 
not  brook  submission  to  an  enemy  however  irresistible.  After  a 
contest  of  several  hours,  as  severe  and  bjoody  as  any  which  occurs 
in  the  naval  annals  of  this  kingdom,  he  was  obliged  to  surrender  to 
superior  force.  In  this  surrender  however  every  thing  honourable, 
but  victory,  was  obtained.  On  his  exchange  and  return  to  his 
country,  he  met  with  the  praises  of  his  countrymen,  and  a  flatter- 
ing reception  from  his  sovereign,  who  honoured  him  with  knight- 
hood, and  testified  the  fullest  approbation  of  his  conduct.  He 
afterwards  lost  a  leg  in  the  service  of  his  country  at  the  battle  of 
Copenhagen,  April  2,  1801,  where  he  had  the  command  of  the 
Bellona  of  74  guns. 


Bully  Hill 


J\. 


VERY  concise  account  is  given  of  Bully  or  Boley-hill*,  in 
the  foregoing  pages ;  and  as  it  is  thought  to  deserve  a  more  circum- 
stantial relation,  the  compiler  has  desired  the  favor  of  some  of  his 
friendly  assistants  to  take  the  trouble  of  again  revising  those  books 
and  MSS.  from  which  there  were  the  least  hopes  of  extracting  any 
new  light.  The  points  principally  aimed  at  by  this  review,  were — 
the  tracing  out  the  changes  there  have  been  Ln  the  property,  and 
the  use  of  this  spot  of  ground — the  ascertaining  at  what  time,  and 
by  whom,  the  mount  was  thrown  up — and  the  discovering  whence 
it  derived  a  denomination  by  which  it  has  been  distinguished  for 
many  centuries.  How  far  this  research  may  have  answered  the  end 
proposed  by  it,  must  be  left  to  the  decision  of  the  intelligent  and 
candid  reader. 

*The  hill  is  generally  pronounced  Bully,  but  in  the  oldest  writings  in  which 
the  term  occurs,  it  is  spelt  Boley. 


306  HISTORY  QF 

In  the  first  donation  made  by  king  Ethelbert  tp  the  church  of 
Rochester,  A.  D.  600,  this  prince  is  said  to  haye  granted  to  that 
body  all  the  land  on  the  south  side  of  the  city,  extending  from  the 
river  Med  way  to  the  east-gate*.  And  in  the  year  765,  Egbert  pre- 
sented to  that  religious  society  one  hamlet  or  small  street,  and  two 
acres  of  land  within  the  walls  of  the  castle+.  The  line  of  the  walls, 
of  the  city  and  castle  at  these  early  periods  cannot  be  easily  fixed  ; 
but  it  is  plain,  that  under  one  or  the  other  of  these  grants  the 
monks  of  St.  Andrew  were  entitled  to  the  greater  part,  if  not  the 
whole  of  that  ground  which  incloses  the  present  tower,  and  of  that 
styled  Bully  Hillt 

Whether  the  secular  clergy,  who  inhabited  this  priory  before  the 
conquest,  enjoyed,  at  the  time  of  that  revolution,  the  possession  of 
these  two  parcels  of  land,  is  not  clear ;  but  Gundulph,  not  long 
after  his  being  raised  to  this  see,  certainly  recovered  the  property  of 
them,  with  many  other  larger  and  more  valuable  estates,  which  had 
been  wrested  from  the  church.  For  the  bishop  of  Rochester  is  re- 
corded, in  Doomsday  book,  as  holding  lands  in  Aylesford  parish  §? 
for  exchange  of  the  ground  upon  which  the  castle  stands :  and  if 
We  are  not  mistakeu,  Gundulph  received  from  Odo  bishop  of 
Bayeux,  while  governor  of  that  fortress,  in  lieu  of  the  other  tract  of 
ground,  three  acres  of  land  adjoining  the  convent,  which  the  monks 
afterwards  cultivated  as  a  garden.  Gundulph's  release  to  the  king 
for  this  ground  is  printed  in  the  Regist.  Roff.  p.  526.  And  from 
the  terms  in  which  it  is  expressed,  it  is  not  unlikely,  that  though 
the  two  bishops  had  entered  into  an  agreement  relative  to  this  mat- 

*  Regist.  Roff.  p.  3.  +  Regist.  Roff.  p.  16. 

$  When  Mr.  Brooke,  who  was  formerly  proprietor  of  part  of  the  hill,  filled 
up  the  castle  ditch,  by  lowering  the  surface  of  the  hill,  the  workmen  found 
many  Roman  urns  and  Lacrymatories  near  them,  which  Mr.  prooke  presented 
to  that  learned  antiquarian  Dr.  Thorpe,  then  living  in  Rochester,  and  there  is 
no  doubt  but  it  was  the  burying  place  of  the  Romans  during  the  time  of  their 
being  stationed  at  or  near  Rochester;  which  is  a  further  proof  that  Bully-hill 
was  without  the  limits  of  the  city. 

§  Camden's  Brit,  by  Gibson,  p.  23J. 


ROCHESTER.  307 

teT,  the  exchange  was  not  fully  compleated  till  after  the  imprison- 
ment of  Odo,  by  William  Rufus.  As  that  prelate  was  an  officer  of 
skill  and  experience,  he  could  not  but  perceive  how  necessary  it 
was  to  the  person,  who  had  the  custody  of  the  castle,  to  have  a 
spot  of  ground,  from  which,  if  occupied  by  the  enemy,  the  garri- 
son must  be  greatly  annoyed  :  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  of  the 
hill  itself  having  been  originally  thrown  up  with  an  hostile  intent. 
Dr.  Harris,  in  his  history  of  Kent,  observes,  that  perhaps  it  was 
the  mount  cast  up  by  the  Danes,  who  besieged  this  city  in  the 
year  885.  But  whoever  compares  with  attention  the  passages  of 
the  several  ancient  historians  who  have  related  this  fact,  will  we 
are  inclined  to  believe,  think  it  something  more  than  probable  that 
this  was  the  work  of  those  frequent  invaders  of  our  island.  For 
the  satisfaction  of  such  of  our  readers  as  may  be  desirous  of  ex- 
amining these  passages  they  are  added  in  a  note*.  We  shall,  how- 
pver,  ofFsr  a  remark  or  two,  which  have  occurred  to  us  on  the  peru- 
sal of  these  extracts.  The  first  is,  that,  besides  the  mount  which 
we  suppose  the  Danes  to  have  thrown  up,  and  which  possibly  is 

*  Dani  de  Franciaredeuntes,  urhem  Roffensemobsiderunt,  ac  "  arcem  contra 
portas  construxerunt."     Chron.  Joh.  Bromton,  x.  script,  coll.  812. 

Altera  vero  turma  rediens  in  Cantiam  civitatem  Rovecestre  obsidit,  sed  viri- 
Jiter  repugnantibus  civibus,  superveniens  rex  Elfredus  cum  exercitu  paganos 
ab  obsicNone  compulit  ad  naves,  "  relicta  ibi  arce  quam  ante  portas  praedictae 
extrnxerant  urbis."     Hoveden  Ann. 

Altera  turrna  ad  Britanniam  veniens  Cantiam  adiit,  quae  Rofecestre  dicitur; 
P  ante  hujus  portam  castellum  pagani  fecerunt,"  nee  tamen  civitatem  expug- 
nare  potuerunt.  Adveniente  subito  rege,  ad  naves  suas  Dani  confestim  confu- 
giunt  concussi  terrore,  "  relicta  sua  arce,  &c."  Simeon  Dunelm  hist.  x.  script. 
p.  ISO. 

Venerunt  ad  Rovecestriam:  et  civitatem  obsidentes,  ceperunt  facere  ibi 
"  aliam  firmitatem."     Huntindon  hist. 

Altera  pars  porrexit  ad  Hrofeceaster,  obsiderunt  autem  earn  civitatem,  et 
ipsi  extruxeruut  circa  earn  "aliud  propugnaculum,"  cives  nihilominus  urbem 
defenderunt,  quosque  iElfridus  rex  superveniret  cum  copiis.  Turn  se  contulit 
exercitus  ad  suas  naves,  "  diniisso  inunimento."    Chron.  saxon.  sub  anno  885. 


SOS  HISTORY  OF 

now  nearly  of  the  same  height  it  was  originally  they  seem  to  have 
erected  upon,  or  within  it,  a  tower  or  fort;  and  that  this  was  the 
work  which  they  had  not  time  to  remove,  because  the  unexpected 
approach  of  Alfred  obliged  them  to  retire  to  their  ships  with  the 
utmost  precipitation.  And  as  "  aliud  propugnaculum,"  and 
"  alias  firmitas,"  another  fortress,  is  the  expression  used  by  the 
compiler  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  and  by  Henry  Huntindon ;  does 
not  this  corroborate  the  opinion  which  has  most  generally  prevailed, 
that  there  was  a  castle  then  standing  not  far  from  the  spot,  upon 
which  what  is  called  Gundulph's  tower  was  afterwards  raised*? 
But  from  a  passage  in  the  Textus  Roff.  one  would  be  apt  to  suspect 
that  this  old  castle  was  constructed  partly  of  wood  and  partly  of 
Stone ;  and  that,  to  secure  it  from  fire,  the  wood  was  covered  with 
raw  hides.  For  the  castle  which  Cfundulph  built  by  the  command 
of  William  Rufus,  was  to  be  entirely  of  stpne.f 

When  the  crown  had  obtained  q.  legal  title  to  this  ground,  we 
may  conclude  that  neither  labour  nor  expence  would  be  spared  in 
fortifying  it ;  and  some  skilful  persons,  who  have  surveyed  it  care- 
fully have  been  of  opinion,  that  the  wall  of  the  city,  which  before 
the  conquest  is  supposed  to  have  stood  between  the  castle  ditch  and 
the  mount,  was  after  that  period  carried  round  the  hill.  As  the 
fortress  itself  became  by  degrees,  from  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  of 
little  importance,  the  mount  was  no  longer  necessary  as  an  out- 
work to  it ;  and  indeed  there  are  grounds  for  believing  that  liberty 
had  been  allowed  some  years  before  of  erecting  houses  upon  it. 
That  monarch's  charter  to  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  Rochester  is 
dated  A.  D.  1460,  the  first  year  of  his  reign|;  and  by  virtue  of  it, 
they  obtained  a  right  to  a  view  of  frank  pledge,  and  also  to  hold  a 
court   of  pie-poudre  §  in  a  certain  place  called  the  Boley  within 

*  See  p.  19.  +  See  Textus  Roff.  p.  144. 

$  See  the  charter  of  this  city,  p.  267,  268,  &c. 

$  By  the  court  of  pie-poudre,  whenever  any  difference  arises  concerning 
bargain  and  sale,  either  in  the  fair  or  market,  the  mayor  has  power  to  take 
with  him  two  discreet  citizens  on  Bully-hill,  and  there,  upon  hearing  the  mcr 
rits  of  the  cause,  they  have  a  power  immediately  to  decide. 


Rochester.  309 

the  suburbs  of  the  city.  This  is  a  separate  court  leet  from  that 
holden  in  the  guildhall  of  this  city,  and  the  inhabitants  of  this 
small  district  are  to  appear  before  the  recorder  of  the  city  as  steward 
of  the  court  of  the  mayor  and  citizens,  which  is  annually  held  on 
the  Monday  after  St.  Michael;  who  then  appoints  an  officer,  called 
the  baron  of  the  Bully,  for  the  year  ensuing,  by  presenting  him 
with  the  staff  of  office ;  for  no  oath  of  office  is  required,  it  being 
thought  the  baron  was  the  first  officer  under  the  governor  of  the 
castle  before  the  court  leet  was  instituted,  and  is  supposed  to  be 
the  person  to  whose  care  the  security  of  it  was  intrusted  under  the 
governor  of  the  castle  ;  for  it  is  most  likely  that  this  might  be  the 
case  when  the  governor  permitted  houses  to  be  built  on  the  hill, 
and  was  the  cause  of  making  it  a  separate  court  leet.  The  court 
is  holden  under  the  elm-tree,  at  the  east  end  of  the  hill.  The 
housholders  of  the  several  tenements  on  this  spot,  are  generally 
appointed  to  the  office  of  baron  in  succession. 

Whence  the  hill  itself  derived  the  appellation  of  "  Bully  or  Bo- 
ley  ,"  is  a  point  that  has  often  puzzled  antiquarians,  and  as  it  may 
not  be  unacceptable  to  many  of  our  readers  to  be  acquainted  with 
the  different  surmises  which  have  been  formed  relating  to  it,  we 
will  state  them  in  few  words.  A  learned  gentleman  was  willing  to 
deduce  it  from  the  greek  word  £^*i  *;  nor  was  this  a  bad  guess,  if 
we  regard  only  the  suitableness  Of  the  sound  and  of  the  sense  :  but 
a  question  put  by  an  eminent  etymologistf,  upon  a  similar  conjec- 
ture, would  be  equally  pertinent,  viz.  how,  at  the  time  we  must 
suppose  this  name  to  have  been  given,  could  the  Greeks  communi- 
cate to  these  northern  parts  of  Europe  any  knowledge  of  their  Ian-, 
guage  ?  The  declension  of  learning  in  England,  from  the  beginning 
of  the  eighth  century,  may  be  ascribed  to  the  incessant  ravages  of 
the  Danes,  who  were  not  only  an  illiterate,  but  a  barbarous  race  of 
men ;  and  so  gross  was  the  ignorance  of  our  countrymen  in  the 
time  of  Alfred,  that  that  prince  is  said  to  have  declared  he  knew  no 

*  Jactus,  a  casting  up. 

+  Skinner  in  Etymologico  Linguae  Aiiglicause,  ad  vocon  Arf.fi- 


310  HISTORY  OF 

priest  south  of  Thames,  that  could  turn  a  piece  of  Latin  into  Eng- 
lish. As  little  reason  is  there  to  believe  that  the  monks  settled  in 
this  priory  by  Gundulph  were  acquainted  with  a  particle  of  the 
Greek  tongue;  To  read  well,  and  to  excel  in  chanting  their  pray- 
ers   is  mentioned  by  Earnulph^  as  their  chief  qualification.* 

Those  however  who  are  dissatisfied  with  a  Greek  original,  may 
perhaps  approve  of  deriving  Bully  from  the  Latin  word  Bulla,  a 
seal,  which  corresponds  nearly  as  to  the  sound  ;  nor  is  there  much 
variation  in  the  manner  of  writing  it :  and  were  there  sufficient 
grounds  for  supposing  that  the  title  was  given  at  the  time  of  the 
exchange  of  the  lands  between  Gundulph  and  Odo,  a  circumstance 
that  then  probably  occurred,  will  account  for  the  choice  of  this 
term.  Seals-,  as  is  well  known,  were  rarely  used  by  our  princes 
before  the  conquest!;  and  might  not  this  mode  be  first  used  in  this 
neighbourhood  on  the  king's  part,  in  executing  the  deed  relating 
to  this  agreement  ? 

In  the  opinion  Of  others,  Boley  is  Only  a  corruption  of  the  French 
words,  beau  lieu,  a  fine  situation,  from  the  beautiful  prospect  of 
the  river  and  adjacent  country,  and  such,  without  dispute,  this 
small  district  enjoys.  But  perhaps  at  last,  the  name  of  a  man  may 
have  given  a  denomination  to  this,  as  well  as  to  many  other  tracts 
of  ground,  and  according  to  Camden  J,  there  was  a  Nobleman  of 
Norman  extraction  called  Bulley,  ~\>r  Busley^  who  fortified  a  castle 
in  Derbyshire;  and  though  there  is  no  tradition  remaining  of  it,  yet 

f  Textus  Roffen.  p.  143. 

+  Edward  the  Confessor  is  generally  allowed  to  have  been  the  first  of  the 
kings  of  England  who  confirmed  Charters  and  Patents  under  a  broad  seal;  see 
Speed's  Hist,  of  Great  Britain,  p.  399.  The  difference  in  the  method  of  con- 
v  tying  land  before  and  after  the  conquest,  as  far  as  the  members  of  the  priory 
of  St.  Andrew  were  interested  in  it,  is  thus  specified  in  the  Regist.  RofF.  p.  2. 
"  itaec  omnia  prsedicta  data  fuerunt  ante  adventutn  Normannorum  in  Anglian 
in  codicillis,  at  post  adventum  facte  sunt  donationes  in  chartis."  In  which 
passage,  though  the  use  of  seals  is  not  directly  expressed,  it  seems  to  be  implied. 

}  Brittan.  p.  584.  The  same  author  at  p.  990,  mentions  there  being  i« 
"Westmoreland,  a  castle  called  "Buley  Castle." 


ROCHESTER^  3l 1 

brie  of  this  family  might  have  signalized  himself  in  one  or  more  of  the 
military  exploits  which  have  in  former  clays  been  transacted  on  this 
spot,  and,  by  affixing  his  name  to  it,  have  flattered  himself,  but  in 
vain,  to  have  perpetuated  to  future  ages  this  memorial  of  his  valour. 
The  writer  is  aware,  that  perhaps  the  whole  of  this  disquisition 
may  be  deemed  insignificant  by  some  nice  critics,  and  that  they  may 
be  inclined  to  ridicule  the  latter  part  of  it  especially,  as  the  whim- 
sical and  frivolous  surmises  Of  minute  antiquarians.  Nor  can  he 
indeed  venture  to  promise  that  any  real  and  substantial  advantage! 
will  ever  result  from  the  determination  Of  the  points  here  discussed  ; 
unless  it  should  be  a  means  of  ensuring  to  the' future  inhabitants  of 
this  little  district  those  privileges  and  exemptions  which  their  pre- 
decessors had  enjoyed  for  many  centuries.  But  though  no  profit 
should  accrue  to  any  single  person,  yet,  if  any  of  his  readers  do, 
from  the  perusal  of  these  few  pages,  receive  a  small  share  of  infor- 
mation and  amusement,  he  flatters  himself  that  he  shall  not  be 
censured  for  the  pains  he  has  taken  in  order  to  oblige  them.  Art 
attempt  to  gratify  the  harmless  inquisitiveness  of  one  another  is 
surely  commendable.  And  of  the  great  number  of  travellers,  who 
every  year  enjoy  the  opportunity  of  viewing  and  admiring  the 
beauties  of  this  elegant  and  engaging  rural  recess,  situated  not  far 
from  the  centre  of  three  populous  towns,  how  few  are  there,  whom 
curiosity  does  not  prompt  to  enquire  into  the  ancient  history  of  it, 
and  who  do  not  express  a  desire  to  learn  the  original  of  so  singular 
a  name  as  that  of  Bully-hill  ? 


Present  State  of  Rochester. 


Ai 


.S  the  preceding  part  of  this  work  has  been  chiefly  confined  to 
the  antiquities  and  public  buildings  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  of 
which  a  circumstantial  account  has  been  given,  a  few  observations 
descriptive  of  its  present  state,  and  pointing  out  the  eligibility  of  its 
situation,  may  not  be  unacceptable  to  the  curious  reader. 

2   s 


312  HISTORY   OF 

The  city,  which  has  been  gradually  increasing  of  late  years,  con- 
sists principally  of  one  wide  well-paved  street  of  considerable  length, 
railed  the  High-Street,  having  several  bye-lanes  on  each  side  of  it. 
The  extreme  boundaries  of  the  High-Street  are  the  river  Medway 
and  the  bridge  on  the  west,  and  the  town  of  Chatham  on  the  east. 
Rochester,  by  its  situation  in  a  valley,  is  peculiarly  sheltered  from 
storms.  The  air  is  salubrious,  and  instances  of  longevity  are  as 
frequent  here  as  in  most  towns.  The  town  is  well  supplied  with 
provisions  of  every  kind,  and  with  plenty  of  fish  from  the  Medway. 
Water  is  conveyed  in  pipes  from  an  excellent  spring  near  the  Vines 
field,  to  the  houses  of  the  respective  inhabitants.  Possessed  of  one 
of  the  finest  rivers  in  Europe,  this  city  may  be  thought  advantage* 
ously  situated  for  trade ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  it  ever  enjoyed 
the  benefit  of  any  manufacture.  The  chief  ships  which  deliver  at 
this  port  are  colliers,  wine  and  east  country  ships,  with  various 
stores  for  the  use  of  the  dock-yard.  Here  is  an  establishment  for 
the  customs  as  one  of  the  out  ports,  and  also  an  excise-office :  the 
former  is  under  the  direction  of  a  collector,  a  deputy  comptroller, 
surveyor,  &c.  and  the  latter  is  under  the  superintendance  of  a  su- 
pervisor and  other  inferior  assistants.  The  city  contains  many  re- 
spectable private  houses,  constructed,  for  the  most  part,  of  brick 
in  the  modern  style  ;  but  a  few  still  retain  an  antique  appearance, 
being  built  of  wood  and  plaster,  and,  according  to  the  practice 
which  prevailed  in  former  ages,  with  stories  projecting  over  each 
other.  In  the  High-street,  besides  a  number  of  good  shops  in 
almost  every  branch  of  trade,  are  three  capital  and  spacious  inns, 
which  for  their  good  accommodations,  as  well  as  for  their  antiquity, 
may  vie  with  the  first  in  England.  Nearly  on  the  same  spot  where 
the  Crown  now  stands,  has  been  an  inn  distinguished  by  the  same 
sign  upwards  of  five  hundred  years,  it  having  been  kept  by  Simon 
Potyn,  the  founder  of  St.  Catherine's  hospital,  A.  D.  1316.  It 
also  appears  from  court-rolls  that  on  the  same  spot  where  the  Bull 
and  the  King's  Head  now  stand,  there  have  been  houses  of  public 
entertainment  distinguished  by  the  same  signs  for  above  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years.     Among  the  sources  of  agreeable  amusement 


ROCHESTER.  313 

in  this  place  may  be  reckoned  the  Assembly  Rooms,  in    Free- 
School-Lane  ;  the  Phoenix  Circulating  Library  and  Reading  Room 
which  are  furnished  with  a  valuable  collection  of  modern  books, 
and  regularly  supplied  with  the  principal  London  and  county  news 
papers  ;  the  Theatre  in  the  Canterbury-road  built  at  the  sole  charge 
of  the  late  Mrs.  Sarah  Baker  in  1791,  and  now  the  property  of  her 
son-in-law,  Mr.  Dowton,  the  celebrated  comedian  of  Drury-Lane, 
under  whose  management  it  is  generally  opened  a  few  months  in 
every  year  for  theatrical  performances.  In  the  river  nearly  opposite 
to  the  victualling  office  is  stationed,  during  the  summer  months,  a 
commodious  Floating  Bath  which  receives  the  salt  water  every  tide, 
and  has  every  accommodation  for  bathing  on  very  reasonable  terms. 
Here  are  three  Meeting  Houses  for  dissenters  of  different  denomi- 
nations,  viz.  Methodists,  Unitarians,  and  Quakers.     To  the  north 
west  of  the  Canterbury- road  is  Troy-Town,  which  though  compa- 
ratively of  yesterday,  having  been  wholly  built  within  memory,  i3 
now  very  populous,  and  consists  of  four  tolerably  regular  streets. 
This  place  derives  its  name  from  the  late  John  Cazeneuve-Troy, 
esq.  an  eminent  wine-merchant  in  Chatham,  who  was  the  ground 
landlord.     It  stands  on  a  fine  eminence,  and  is  much  esteemed  for 
the  salubrity  of  the  air.     As  the  ground  is  chiefly  let  on  building 
leases  for  ninety-nine  years  at  a  small  reserved  rent,  the  houses  in 
general   are   neatly  and  substantially  built.     Between   Rochester 
and  Chatham,  on  the  south-side  of  the   High-street,  is  St.  Marga- 
ret's Bank,  so   called  from   its  being  in  the  parish  of  St.  Margaret, 
which  rises  several  feet  above  the  carriage-road  in  three  divisions, 
and  commands  a  very  beautiful  prospect  of  the  river  Medway,  the 
shipping  lying  in  the  harbour,  and  the  adjacent  country.     On  the 
north-side    of  the  High-street  is  Rochester  common,  on  which  a 
Cattle-Market,  well  supplied  with  cattle  of  every  description  from 
the  surrounding   country,  is   held  every    fourth   Tuesday   in  the 
month.     On  the  same  common  also,  and  adjoining  to  the  river,  is 
Mrs.  Ross's  shipyard,  in  which,  since  the  commencement  of  the 
late  war,  have  been  built  the  Vigo  and  Sterling  Castle,  third  rates 
of  74  guns  each,   the  former  of  which  was  launched  in  1810,  and 


314  HISTORY  OF 

the  latter  in  1812,  and  four  frigates,  and  five  sloops  of  war.  In 
the  area  under  the  Court-hall  is  a  market  every  Friday  for  poultry, 
butter,  pigs,  garden-stuff,  earthen  ware,  &c.  and  in  the  Clock- 
house  a  corn-market  is  held  every  Tuesday,  at  which,  though  a 
very  recent  establishment,  much  business  in  the  corn  trade  is  now 
transacted.  The  two  annual  fairs  mentioned  in  a  preceding  page, 
which  were  formerly  held  in  this  city  and  continued  three  days 
each,  having  gradually  declined,  and  almost  come  to  nothing,  have 
been  discontinued  for  several  years.  In  several  parts  of  the  city 
and  its  environs  are  some  very  agreeable  residences  for  small  gen? 
teel  families ;  and  in  the  neighbourhood  are  several  rural  and  plea- 
sant walks,  particularly  on  the  banks  of  the  Medway,  on  the  roa'd 
to  Borstal,  and  on  the  new  road.  The  two  latter  walks  especially 
command  the  most  delightful  and  extensive  views  of  the  river  Med- 
Way,  and  the  surrounding  country,  which  from  their  beautiful 
Variety  must  be  seen  to  be  properly  appreciated.  From  the  sum- 
mit of  the  quadrangular  tower,  which  constitutes  the  principal  part 
now  remaining  of  the  venerable  castle,  is  a  grand  and  extensive 
prospect  of  the  river  Medway,  comprising  views  both  above  and 
below  the  bridge,  even  to  its  conflux  with  the  Thames.  The 
tower  itself  is  so  conspicuous  an  object  as  to  be  discernible  at  the 
distance  of  twenty  miles.  Rochester  is  strongly  fortified  on  the 
south  side  agreeable  to  the  modern  system.  Fort  Pitt,  a  strong 
fortress,  situated  on  the  summit  of  the  rising  ground  contiguous  to 
the  new  road  on  the  south,  and  partly  in  the  parish  of  St.  Marga- 
ret, and  partly  in  that  of  Chatham,  was  erected  since  the  re-com- 
mencement of  hostilities  in  1803  :  it  was  originally  intended  for  a 
military  hospital.  Not  long  afterwards,  viz.  in  1812,  Fort  Clarence 
a  little  to  the  westward  of  St.  Margaret's  church,  was  built,  and  a 
broad  deep  ditch  extending  from  the  river  to  the  Maidstone-road, 
and  defended  by  a  rampart,  with  pasemates  for  troops  and  maga- 
zines for  powder,  was  completed  at  the  same  time  ;  these,  in  con- 
junction with  Chatham-lines,  are  considered  as  a  regular  series  of 
fortified  positions  commanding  the  river,  and  extending  from  Gil- 
lingham  fort  tp  the  right  bank  of  the  Medway  above  Rochester 


ROCHESTER.  315 

The  number  of  genteel  families  resident  in  this  city  and  in  the 
neighbourhood,  its  Ticinity  to  Chatham-yard,  the  barracks,  &c. 
and  the  thoroughfare  between  London  and  France  render  the  streets 
agreeably  populous.  Few  places  at  the  distance  of  thirty  miles 
from  London  have  a  more  frequent  intercourse  with  that  great  city. 
Exclusively  of  Seven  coaches  which  set  out  every  day  from  Roches- 
ter to  Loudon,  there  are  carriages  of  every  description  almost  con- 
tinually passing  between  London,  Dover,  Deal,  Margate,  &c. 
which  greatly  facilitate  the  communication  with  the  capital.  The 
intercourse  of  the  inhabitants  w  ith  the  royal  navy,  victualling  office, 
and  other  branches  of  the  shipping,  prove  a  continual  source  of 
wealth  and  employment  to  them,  many  of  whom  are  induced  to  re- 
side here  on  these  accounts.  The  number  of  inhabitants,  most  of 
whom  are  engaged  in  trade  and  maritime  occupations,  as  ascertained 
under  the  population  Act  in  1810  was  9010,  that  of  houses  1551. 
The  first  edition  of  this  history  which  appeared  in  1772,  was  an 
early  production  of  the  first  printing-office  established  in  this  city  : 
there  are  now  three  printing-offices. 

For  the  benefit  of  trade  an  Act  was  obtained  in  1781  to  establish 
a  court  of  requests,  for  the  more  easy  and  speedy  recovery  of  small 
debts  under  the  value  of  forty  shillings,  within  the  city  of  Roches- 
ter, and  the  several  parishes  of  Strood,  Frindsbury,  Cobham, 
Shorne,  IJigham,  Clifte,  Cooling,  High-Halstow,  Chalk,  Hoo, 
Burham,  Wouldham,  Hailing,  Cuxstone,  Chatham,  Gillingham, 
and  the  Ville  of  Shcerness,  in  the  county  of  Keut.  By  a  subse- 
quent Act  passed  in  1808,  the  powers  of  this  court  were  extended 
to  the  recovery  of  small  debts  not  exceeding  five  pounds.  By  this 
Ad  sixty-four  commissioners  were  appointed.  The  mayor,  recor- 
der, aldermen,  and  assistants  of  the  city,  for  the  time  being,  are 
constituted  commissioners  :  the  rest  are  to  be  inhabitants,  house- 
holders, and  resident  in  six  different  parishes,  viz.  five  in  St.  Ni- 
cholas, live  in  St.  Margaret's,  five  in  Strood,  four  in  Frindsbury, 
twelve  in  Chatham,  and  eight  in  Gillingham.  And  it  is  enacted 
that  "  If  any  person  herein  before  appointed  a  commissioner,  (ex- 
"ceptthe  mayor,  recorder,  aldermen,  and  assistants  of  the  said  city,) 


316  HISTORY  OF 

"  or  any  person,  who  shall  hereafter  be  chosen  and  appointed  a 
"  commissioner,  in  pursuance  of  this  act,  shall  die,  or  be  chosen 
"  one  of  the  assistants  of  the  said  city  of  Rochester,  or  shall  cease 
«  to  be  a  householder,  or  remove  out  of  the  parish  wherein  he  re- 
<*  sided  at  the  time  of  his  being  appointed  or  chosen  a  commissioner 
«<  as  aforesaid,  or  shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  act  as  a*  commission- 
"  er  for  the  space  of  one  whole  year :  that  then,  and  in  every  such 
"  case,  the  inhabitants  of  the  parish  for  which  such  commissioner 
"  was  first  appointed,  assembled  at  the  vestry  to  be  holden  for 
"  such  parish,  in  the  Easter  week  then  next  following,  for  the 
"  purpose  of  appointing  churchwardens  and  overseers  of  the  poor, 
"  shall  chuse  and  appoint  another  fit  and  proper  person,  being  an 
"  inhabitant,  householder,  and  resident  within  the  same  parish, 
"  to  be  a  commissioner  in  the  room  and  stead  of  the  commissioner 
"  dying,  being  chosen  one  of  the  assistants  of  the  said  city  of  Ro* 
fi  Chester,  ceasing  to  be  a  householder,  or  removing  out  of  the 
"  parish,  or  refusing  or  neglecting  to  act  as  aforesaid :  and  every 
li  such  appointment  shall,  by  writing,  under  the  hands  of  the 
u  churchwardens  and  overseers  of  the  poor  of  such  parish,  present 
u  at  the  time  of  chusing  and  appointing  such  commissioner,  be 
u  certified  to  the  said  commissioners  at  their  then  next  court  to  be 
"  holden  in  pursuance  of  this  act :  but  in  case  no  such  election 
"  shall  be  made,  or  no  such  certificate  thereof  shall  be  produced 
"  to  the  said  commissioners  as  aforesaid ;  that  then  the  said  com- 
a  missioners,  or  any  three  or  more  of  them,  are  hereby  authorized 
"  and  required  to  appoiut  another  fit  and  proper  person,  bsing  an 
"  inhabitant,  householder,  and  resident  within  the  parish,  in 
a  which  the  person  whom  he  shall  succeed  shall,  at  the  time  of  his 
"  appointment,  have  resided :  and  every  person  who  shall  be  ap- 
"  pointed  a  commissioner  by  the  vestry  as  aforesaid,  and  whose 
"  appointment  shall  be  certified  by  the  said  churchwardens  and 
"  overseers  as  aforesaid ;  and  also  every  person  who  shall  be  ap- 
"  pointed  by  the  said  commissioners,  or  any  three  or  more  pf 
u  them,  in  pursuance  of  this  act,  shall  have  the  same  power  and 
u  authority  in  all  respects,  to  act  in  the  execution  of  this  act,  as 


ROCHESTER.  317 

i(  if  he  had  been  originally  named  and  appointed  a  commissioner 
u  in  and  by  this  act." 

M  Provided  always,  and  be  it  further  enacted,  that  no  person 
"  (except  the  mayor,  recorder,  aldermen,  and  assistants,  of  the 
"  said  city)  shall  act  as  a  commissioner  in  the  execution  of  this 
"  act,  unless  at  the  time  of  his  acting  he  shall  be  an  inhabitant, 
u  householder,  and  resident  within  the  said  city,  or  the  several 
"  parishes  of  Saint  Nicholas,  Saint  Margaret,  Strood,  Frindsbury, 
f  Chatham,  and  Gillingham,  aforesaid,  and  shall  be  in  thea  ctual 
"  possession  and  enjoyment  of  a  real  estate  of  the  clear  yearly  va- 
"  lue  of  thirty  pounds  above  reprizes,  or  shall  be  possessed  of  a 
<s  personal  estate  to  the  amount  or  value  of  five  hundred  pounds." 

A  competent  number  of  the  commissioners  sit  every  second  Fri- 
day in  the  month  in  the  Court-hall,  to  hear  all  cases  of  debt  not 
exceeding  five  pounds,  which  they  examine,  as  is  usual  in  courts  of 
this  description,  in  a  summary  way,  by  the  oath  of  the  parties,  or 
their  witnesses,  "  and  make  such  order  therein,  as  is  consonant  to 
"  equity  and  good  conscience." 

In  closing  our  history  of  Rochester,  we  have  great  satisfaction 
in  announcing  the  projected  alteration  and  improvement  of  the 
bridge.  A  contract  has  been  entered  into  with  the  wardens  to  pull 
down  the  two  middle  arches,  and  to  construct  one  entire  arch  in 
their  place  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing  year.  By  these  means  the 
obstructions  by  which  travellers  and  carriages  are  so  frequently  in* 
commoded  in  passing  over  this  part  of  the  bridge  will  be  removed  ; 
and  the  navigation  under  it,  which  at  present  is  both  difficult  and 
dangerous,  will  be  effected  in  safety  and  with  little  inconvenience. 


Chatham  Church. 
Jev  Xt!.hd) /&u  y'-Z  '7  %  2'  2  Z   Ff 

VyHATHAM  was  formerly  styled  Ceteham  and  Cettham,  but 
mention  is  only  twice  made  of  this  place  in  the  Textus  Roffensis, 
viz.  at  page  181,  where  iEgelricus,  a  priest  of  Cettham,  is  recorded 


318  *  HISTORY  OF 

as  a  benefactor  to  the  monks  of  St.  Andrew;  and  at  page  214, 
•where  there  is  a  copy  of  a  grant  from  king  William,  to  the  same 
community,  of  a  piece  of  ground,  which,  though  situated  within 
the  garden  of  the  convent,  belonged  to  the  baliwick  of  Cettham. 
In  Domesday  Book  it  is  called  Ceteham,  and  is  described  as  having 
"  a  church  and  six  fisheries,  value  twelve  pence.'1  This  name  is 
supposed  td  be  derived  from  the  Saxon  Avord  cgtc,  a  cottage,  and 
ham,  a  village,  i.  c.  the  village  of  cottages.  This  district  is  of  a 
considerable  extent,  and  must  have  been  of  some  consequence,  be- 
cause conjointly  with  Gillingham  it  gives  a  denomination  to  a  hun- 
dred. But  the  members  of  a  neighbouring  priory  not  having  had 
any  more  donations  in  that  quarter,  the  taking  further  notice  of  it 
was  foreign  to  the  main  design  of  Ernulphus,  in  compiling  his  cu- 
rious MSS.  We  are,  from  his  silence,  absolutely  in  the  dark  as  to 
the  names  of  the  persons  who  were,  in  the  time  of  the  Saxon  mo- 
narchs,  the  chief  proprietors  of  the  lands  in  this  parish  ;  it  seems, 
however,  most  probable,  that  the  lord  of  the  manor  of  Chatham 
espoused  the  cause  of  Harold,  and  that  he  was  deprived  of  his  es- 
tate for  his  loyalty  to  that  unfortunate  prince.  The  ground  for 
this  conjecture  is,  that  not  long  after  the  conquest  it  appears  to 
have  been  part  of  the  possession  of  Hamdn  de  Crepito  corde,  alius 
Crevecceur,  a  Norman  knight,  who  attended  William  in  his  suc- 
cessful expedition  to  England;  and  was  the  founder  of  the  potent 
and  illustrious  family  of  the  Crevecceur's,  who  frequently  styled 
themselves  Domini  de  Cettham,  and  made  this  the  head  of  their 
barony  and  principal  residence,  till  the  erection  of  Leed's  castle  by 
Robert  Crevecceur,  fourth  in  descent  from  Hamon.*  His  grand- 
son joined  with  the  barons  against  Henry  III.  when  the  manor  was 
seized  on  with  others  of  his  estates;  and  though  Crevecceur  himself 
was  subsequently  restored  to  the  king's  favour,  Chatham  was  re- 
tained by  the  crown.  Edward  II.  in  his  eleventh  year,  granted  it, 
in  exchange  for  other  lands,  to  Bartholomew,  Lord  Badlesmere, 
from  whose  family  it  passed  by  a  coheiress,  to  John  Tiptoft  •  and 

*  Philipot's  Vill.  Cant.  p.  104. 


ROCHESTER.  31 ^ 

from  him  also  by  a  coheiress  to  Sir  Philip  le  Despencer.  Margery 
his  daughter  and  heiress,  married  Roger  Wentworth,  esq.  whose 
descendant,  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth  of  Nettlested  in  Suffolk,  had 
summons  to  parliament  in  the  twentieth  of  Henry  VIII.  He  died 
in  the  fifth  of  Edward  VI.  when  Lord  Chamberlain  of  the  King's 
household,  and  was  succeeded  by  Thomas,  Lord  Wentworth,  who 
was  twice  appointed  deputy  of  Calais,  and  who  alienated  this 
manor  in  the  eighth  of  Elizabeth,  since  which  it  has  passed  through 
various  families  by  purchase  and  otherwise,  and  is  now  the  property 
of  W.  Coleman,  esq.  The  yearly  rental  of  this  manor  about  eighty 
years  since  was  as  follows  : — The  markets  at  2/.  10*.  per  week, 
130/. ;  two  fairs  40/.;  lands  56/. ;  woods  30/. ;  quit  rents  23/.  10s. ; 
ground  rents  100/.;  houses  150/.     Total  529/.  15s.  per  annum*. 

At  what  period  a  church  was  erected  in  this  district,  cannot  be 
discovered  :  for  the  reason  assigned  in  the  account  of  Frendsbury, 
it  may  reasonably  be  concluded  that  there  was  a  sacred  edifice  here 
many  years  before  the  time  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  ;  and  it 
is  not  unlikely,  but  that  the  duty  of  it  might  have  been  discharged 
by  the  members  of  the  priory  at  Rochester,  whom  Gundulph  after- 
wards expelled  from  that  house.  iEgelricus,  the  priest  of  Cett- 
ham  just  mentioned,  was  certainly  a  canon  of  the  church  of  St.  An-* 
drew. 

Lords  of  manors,  by  having  built  or  endowed  a  place  of  public 
worship  upon  their  demesnes,  acquired  a  right  of  nominating  to  the 
bishops  of  the  diocese  the  incumbents  who  were  to  officiate  in  them  ; 
but  many  of  these  lay  patrons  devolved  this  trust  upon  the  monas- 
teries, from  a  persuasion  that  the  religious  orders  were  the  most 
proper  persons  to  be  invested  with  the  exercise  of  it;  and  not  a  few 
of  them  were  desirous  of  augmenting  with  the  tythes  and  oblations 
of  these  benefices  the  revenues  of  the  regular  societies  they  had 
founded.  This  was  the  case  with  respect  to  Chatham  :  for  Robert 
de  Crevicoeur,  the  descendant  ofthacHamon,  whose  services  his 
royal  master  had  rewarded  with  the  manor  of  Ledes;  as  well  as  of 

*  Hasted,  vol.  2,  p.  67. 
2    T 


320  HISTORY  OF 

Chatham,  having  settled  at  the  former  place,  A.  D.  1119,  a  priory 
of  black  canons,  granted  to  them,  for  the  welfare  of  his  own  soul, 
and-of  the  soul  of  his  uncle  Hainon  Dapifer,  the  church  of  Chatham, 
and  of  six  other  churches  situated  on  his  estate.*  The  monks  soon 
secured  to  their  own  use  all  the  profits  of  the  parish  of  Chatham  ; 
and  as  William  (Corboyl)  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  John  the 
first  bishop  of  Rochester,  Were  the  prelates  who  agreed  to,  and 
confirmed  this  appropriation,  it  must  have  taken  place  between  the 
years  1122  and  1136:+  Dr.  Harris  was  therefore  mistaken  in  his 
acconut  of  this  church  having  ever  belonged  to  Feversham  abbey, 
for  that  religious  house  was  not  founded  till  1147.  No  obligation 
was  laid  upon  the  impropriators  to  endow  a  vicar  upon  this  prefer- 
ment ;  the  grant  indeed  to  them  was  more  extensive  than  was  cus- 
tomary in  any  age,  for  the  cure  was  always  to  be  supplied  by  one 
of  the  canons  of  Ledes  abbey,  whom  the  prior  should  appoint;  and 
though  it  was  directed  that  he  should  profess  canonical  obedience  to 
the  ordinary,  yet  after  he  was  admitted  the  prior  might  remove  him 
at  his  pleasure.*  After  the  dissolution  of  this  religious  society,  the 
church  of  Chatham  was  settled  on  the  dean  and  chapter  of  Roches- 
ter, and  it  has  ever  since  been  supplied  by  a  curate  licenced  by  the 
bishop  on  their  nomination,  who  enjoys,  by  lease,  at  a  penny  a  year, 
all  the  small  tythes  and  vicarial  dues  of  the  parish. 

The  church  of  Chatham  was  dedicated  to  the  virgin  Mary;  but 
the  first  edifice  which  was  probably  erected  there,  was  destroyed 
by  fire,  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  though  by 
what  means  this  calamity  happened  does  not  appear.  In  order  to 
enable  the  inhabitants  to  rebuild  it,  a  papal  letter  of  indulgence 

*  Regist.  Rotf.  p.  209,  Robert  de  Creviceeur  granted  also  to  the  same  reli- 
gious house,  for  the  like  superstitions  use,  almost  all  the  rights  and  profits  of 
the  fair  at  Chatham,  p.  210. 

+  See  Regist.  Roff.  p.  210. 

X  Ibid.  p.  214,  &c.  The  canon  who  officiated  in  this  church  was  generally 
styled  "Custos  vel  guardianus"  (warden)  a  very  uncommon  name  for  the  clerk 
who  was  entrusted  with  the  cure  of  a  parish. 


ROCHESTER.  321 

was  published  in  the  year  1352;  by  which  his  holiness  granted  to 
all  sincere  penitents  confessed,  who  should  contribute  their  assis- 
tance to  so  pious  a  work,  a  relaxation,  for  a  year  and  forty  days,  of 
the  penances  enjoined  them.* 

The  east  end  of  the  church,  now  standing,  is  nearly  all  that  re- 
mains of  the  building  raised  by  the  pope's  brief.  The  north  and 
south  isles  are  of  a  later  date.  The  royal  dock-yard  having  been 
much  enlarged,  drew  great  numbers  of  inhabitants  into  the  parish  ; 
in  1635.  The  commissioners  of  his  majesty's  navy,  repaired  the 
church,  rebuilt  and  enlarged  the  west  end,  and  erected  the  steeple. 
In  1707  the  gallery  over  the  south  isle  was  built  by  commissioner 
St.  Loo,  of  Chatham  yard,  for  the  use  of  the  navy  and  ordinary. 
This  church  was  almost  entirely  taken  down  in  178S,  and  rebuilt 
on  extended  dimensions  ;  the  expences  being  partly  defrayed  by  a 
brief,  and  partly  by  parochial  contributions.  Notwithstanding 
these  endeavours  to  accommodate  the  inhabitants,  they  are  much 
straitened  for  room  ;  nor  can  this  church  be  made  capable  of  con- 
taining the  number  of  inhabitants  who  reside  in  this  populous  pa- 
rish. As  the  far  greatest  part  of  what  is  now  called  the  town  of 
Chatham  has  been  built  since  the  reign  of  queen  Elizabetht;  and  as 
the  whole  village  of  Brompton,  a  part  of  which  is  in  this  parish, 
has  been  built  within  the  last  century,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  a  place  for  public  worship,  erected  more  than  four  hundred 
years  ago,  should  prove  so  disproportionate  to  the  persons  who 
have  a  right  to  assemble  therein. 

The  present  church  is  a  neat  edifice  nearly  square  :  the  galleries 
are  spacious  and  uniform,  and  the  light  happily  disposed  through- 
out the  fabric ;  the  east  end  is  adorned  by  a  handsome  wainscot 

*  Reg.  J?  de  Shepey,  fol.  257,  b, 

+  The  most  ancient  street  in  this  town  is  supposed  to  be  that  situated  on  the 
rising  ground  south  of  the  church,  the  houses  of  which  were  taken  down  when 
the  fortifications  were  made,  at  the  commencement  of  the  late  war.  In  1579, 
when  Mr.  Watts  bequeathed  his  charity  to  Rochester,  a  part  of  his  bequest 
was  the  ground  lying  from  the  San  tavern  to  Globe  Lane  in  this  parish,  which 
at  that  time  was  an  orchard. 


322  HISTORY  OF 

altar-piece.  The  west  wall,  though  greatly  altered  and  modern, 
ized,  formed  a  part  of  the  ancient  Norman  church,  and  still  exhi- 
bits on  the  inside  some  remains  of  circular  arches  with  zig-zag 
mouldings. 

In  pulling  down  the  old  church,  among  the  materials  with  which 
the  cast  window  had  been  filled  up,  were  discovered  several  beau- 
tiful fragments  of  sculpture,  richly  painted  and  gilt,  of  free-stone 
and  marble.  Among  these  fragments  was  a  headless  figure  of  a 
virgin  and  child,  having  a  mantle  fastened  across  the  breast  by  a 
fibula,  set  with  glass  in  imitation  of  precious  stones.  This  was,  in 
all  probability,  the  figure  of  our  Lady  of  Chatham,  who,  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  times,  was  highly  celebrated  for  her  miracles; 
and  of  whom  the  reader  may  find  a  curious  relation  in  Lambard's 
Perambulation  of  Kent,  p.  236. 

In  the  old  chancel  on  the  south  side,  was  one  of  the  most  elegant 
triple  stone  seats,  that  has  yet  been  noticed*.  The  covings  of  the 
arches  were  ornamented  with  trefoils  and  quaterfoils,  beautifully 
sculptured,  with  laurel,  oak,  vine,  and  rose  branches.  The  whp}e 
back  part  of  the  eastermost  stall  was  wrought  into  oak,  vine,  and 
other  branches  intertwined  ;  the  leaves  and  fruits  being  executed  in 
a  superior  style :  various  animals  were  represented  devouring  the 
fruits  ;  and  among  them  appeared  a  goat,  a  dog,  a  parrot,  a  ser- 
pent, and  a  man  in  a  tunic  and  girdle,  as  if  watching  them  from 
between  the  branches. 

In  digging  a  grave  in  the  church-yard,  in  the  year  1772,  a  petri- 
fied human  hand  was  found,  grasping  the  brass  hilt  of  a  sword. 
The  hand  was  partly  mutilated,  and  all  the  other  parts  of  the  body 
were  perished,  as  well  as  the  blade  of  the  sword  :  it  was  afterwards 
deposited  in  the  Leverian  Museum.  The  tumuli,  and  other  sepul- 
chral remains,  prove  this  vicinity  to  have  been  a  burying  place  in 
the  time  of  the  Romans.  In  digging  within  the  opposite  chalky 
cliff  of  Frindsbury,  there  was  discovered  a  few  years  since,  at  a 

*  An  engraving  of  these  seats,  but  coming  far  short  of  the  beauty  of  the 
original,  has  been  published  in  the  third  volume  of  the  Monumenta  VetustQ. 


ROCHESTER.  323 

distance  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  feet  from  the  surface,  a  leaden  coffin 
n  the  ancient  circular  form,  with  a  cross  on  the  side,  and  a  number 
of  figures  indented  thereon  in  the  form  of  large  cockle  shells.  The 
coffin  was  broken  to  pieces  in  digging  it  out ;  but  within  it  was 
found  a  small  vessel  about  seven  inches  high,  evidently  formed  of 
Roman  earth,  and  containing  about  a  pint.  It  is  now  in  the  pos- 
session of  Samuel  Ireland,  esq.  author  of  (i  Picturesque  Views  of 
the  River  Medway,"  &c.  How  this  coffin  came  to  be  inclosed  in 
a  mass  of  chalk  cliff,  and  at  such  a  great  distance  from  the  surface, 
is  a  matter  of  astonishment,  and  more  than  we  can  any  way  ex- 
plain. 

Most  of  the  monuments  and  other  sepulchral  memorials,  that 
were  in  the  old  church,  were  replaced  when  the  new  one  was 
erected.  At  the  west  end  near  the  south  door,  is  the  effigy  of  a 
man  to  the  middle,  in  statuary  marble,  with  an  inscription  denot- 
ing the  interment  there  of  Kenrick  Edisbury,  esq.  who  died  the 
27th  of  August  1638.  In  the  belfry  is  the  effigy  of  a  man  in  a 
praying  posture,  dressed  in  an  habit  of  queen  Elizabeth's  time. 
Excepting  on  one  flat  stone  in  the  nave,  there  is  not  any  inscripti- 
on in  this  church  antecedent  to  the  sixteenth  century.  There  are 
but  few  of  the  monumental  inscriptions  that  require  particular  no- 
tice. Among  these  is  an  inscription  for  Steven  Borough,  one  of 
the  four  principal  masters  in  ordinary  of  the  navy  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth.  He  was  born  at  Northam,  in  Devonshire,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1525,  and  died  in  July  1584.  "  He  in  his  life  time  discovered 
"  Muscovia  by  the  northern  sea  passage  to  St.  Nicholas  in  the  year 
"  1553.  At  his  setting  fourth  of  England  he  was  accompanied 
u  with  two  other  shippes,  Sir  Hugh  Willobie  being  admirall  of  the 
"  fleete,  who  with  all  the  company  of  the  said  two  shippes  were 
"  frozen  to  death  in  Lappia  (Lapland)  the  same  winter.  After  his 
"  discoverie  of  Roosia,  and  the  coosts  thereto  adjoyning,  to  wit, 
u  Lappia,  Nova  Zembla,  and  the  country  of  Samoyeda,  etc.  hee 
"  frequented  the  trade  to  St.  Nicholas  yearlie  as  the  chief  pilot  for 
"  the  voyage,  untill  he  was  chosen  for  one  of  the  fowre  principal 
**  piasters  in  ordinarie  of  the  queen's  majestic  royallnavv,  where- 


324  HISTORY   OF 

«  in  bee  continued  being  imployed  as  occasion  requir'd  in  charge 
"  of  sundrie  sea  servises  till  the  time  of  his  death." 

On  the  north  wall  are  two  large  tablets,  on  which  the  following 
donations  to  this  church  and  parish  are  inscribed.  Mr.  John  Pyham 
late  minister  of  this  parish,  gave  to  this  church  a  silver  flagon  and 
two  silver  plates,  A.  D.  1636.  Mr.  Benjamin  Ruffhead,  their 
majesties  anchor-smith  at  Chatham  dock,  gave  to  this  church  the 
branch  and  iron  work,  A.  Q.  16.89.  Mr.  Benjamin  Ruffhead  gave 
also  to  the  church  a  silver  bason,  A,  D.  1694. 

Sir  Edward  Gregory,  knt.  late  commissioner  of  his  majesty's 
navy  at  Chatham,  by  his  last  will,  did  bequeath  unto  the  minister 
and  churchwardens  of  the  said  parish,  aud  their  successors  for  the 
time  being,  in  trust  for  the  poor  thereof,  one  hundred  pounds,  to  be 
placed  out  at  interest,  and  the  said  interest  to  be  distributed  at 
their  discretion  among  the  most  necessitous  families  of  the  said 
parish ;  and  forasmuch  as  the  same  was  received  of  his  executor,  and 
placed  out  in  the  South  Sea  capital  stock  in  the  year  1714,  and  re-, 
mained  there  until  1720,  at  which  time  the  same  was  sold  out  foF 
750  pounds  ;  therefore  for  the  better  establishing  the  said  charity, 
an  estate,  commonly  called  Pett's  Farm,  lying  and  being  in  the 
parish  of  Burham,  in  this  county,  was  purchased  therewith  contain-* 
ing  a  messuage  and  32  acres  of  land ;  which  is  now  let  to  lease  for 
twenty-one  years,  at  25^.  per  annum.  An  allotment  from  the 
common  of  Burham  was  made  since  the  granting  of  the  last  lease, 
in  1807,  o."  five  acres  and  a  half  of  land,  which  the  tenant  has. 
agreed  to  hold  for  the  remainder  of  the  term  at  the  annual  rent  of 
one  shilling. 

Thomas  Manley,  esq.  in  1687,  charged  his  farm  of  Waldeslate 
with  the  annual  payment  of  ten  shillings  to  this  parish  for  ever,  to 
be  distributed  in  bread  to  poor  widows  frequenting  divine  service. 

For  the  reception  of  the  poor  of  this  parish,  which  are  generally 
numerous,  a  very  spacious  building  was  erected  in  1726  :  the  expence 
of  this  necessary  work  was  defrayed  by  a  voluntary  subscription 
among  the  inhabitants. 


UOCHESTER.  325 


The  Dock-Yard. 


To 


the  inhabitants  of  this  island,  so  famous  for  its  naval  power^ 
a  concise  account  of  the  royal  dock-yard  must  be  acceptable.  This 
arsenal  appears  to  have  been  of  little  consequence  until  the  reign  of 
queen  Elizabeth;  but  that  wise  princess,  convinced  of  the  impor- 
tance of  a  naval  force;  so  early  as  1560,  in  the  second  year  of  her 
reign,  paid  particular  attention  to  this  yard,  and  gave  directions  for 
building  Upnor  Castle  for  its  defence :  that  she  visited  it  in  person 
1573,  has  already  been  intimated  in  a  former  part  of  this  work;* 
and  to  such  perfection  did  it  arrive  in  her  reign,  that  Mr.  Camden 
extolled  it  "  As  the  best  appointed  arsenal  the  sun  ever  saw." 
King  Charles  I.  much  improved  on  Elizabeth's  plan :  he  erected 
several  considerable  storehouses  ;  enlarged  the  scite  of  the  yard  ; 
and  made  some  new  docks  for  floating  the  ships  in  with  the  tide. 
His  son  Charles  II.  on  May  28,  1660,  visited  the  dock,  to  see  the 
Royal  Sovereign  man  of  war,  which  had  been  lately  built  there : 
but  in  the  reign  of  this  prince,  it  was  in  imminent  danger  of  being 
destroyed  :  this  nation  being  then  at  war  with  the  Dutch  ;  Admiral 
De  Ruyter,  with  fifty  sail  of  ships,  came  to  the  Nore,  and  dispatch- 
ed Van  Ghent  with  seventeen  sail  to  attack  Sheernes?,  which  place 
he  took  on  the  10th  of  June  1667,  though  it  was  gallantly  defend* 
ed  by  Sir  Edward  Spragge.  Van  Ghent  blew  up  the  fortifications 
and  burnt  the  store-houses,  to  the  amount  of  40,000/.  He  then 
sailed  up  the  river  Medway.  The  famous  Monk,  duke  of  Albe- 
marle, had  secured  the  river  as  well  as  the  short  space  of  time  would 
permit :  but  a  strong  east  wind  and  spring  tide  brought  on  the  enemy 
with  resistless  force  ;  a  chain  was  presently  broke,  and  the  Matthi- 
as, Unity,  and  Charles  V.  three  Dutch  ships  taken  in  the  war,  and 
placed  to  guard  the  chain,  were  immediately  burnt  by  Van  Ghent, 

*  See  page  13. 


32Q  HISTORY  OF 

to  take  off  that  mark  of  dishonour  from  his  country ;  and  pressing 
forward  between  the  sinking  ships,  he  brought  six  of  his  men  of 
war  and  five  firaships,  on  the  13th  of  June,  before  Upnor  Castle.. 
Major  Scot  who  commanded  there,  gave  them  as  warm  a  reception 
as  the  indifferent  state  of  the  fortress  would  admit  of,  and  was  well 
seconded  by  Sir  Edward  Spragge,  who  had  escaped  from  SheerneSs, 
and  annoyed  the  enemy  from  a  battery  at  Cockham  wood.  The 
Dutch,  however,  seized  the  hull  of  the  Royal  Charles,  and  on 
their  return  burnt  the  Royal  Oak,  and  much  damaged  the  Loyal 
London^  and  the  Great  James.  Captain  Douglas,  who  command- 
ed the  Royal  Oak,  was  burnt  in  his  ship,  although  he  might  easily 
have  escaped  ;  "It  was  never  known"  (said  this  intrepid  captain) 
«  that  a  Douglas  left  his  post  without  orders." 

Van  Ghent  returned  and  joined  admiral   De  Ruyter,  with  his 
squadron,  having  lost  but  two  ships  in  this  expedition,  which  ran 
on  shore  and  were  burnt  by  his  own  people;  he  made  use  of  eight 
fireships,  and  by  his  own  account  lost  one  hundred  and  fifty  men*. 
The  city  of  London  was  in  the  utmost  consternation,  apprehending 
the  Dutch   would  sail  up  the  Thames  ;  to  prevent  which,  thirteen 
ships  were  sunk  at  Woolwich,  and  four  atBlackwall;  platforms 
were  raised  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  mounted  with  cannon ; 
every  place  was  filled  with  confusion.     De  Ruyter,  instead  of  pro- 
ceeding up  the  Thames,  sailed  round  to  Portsmouth  and  Plymouth, 
but  could  do  nothing  against  those  places;  he  then  returned  east- 
ward,  beat  a  small  squadron  of  ships  before  Harwich,  and  kept  the 
coast  in  continual  alarm.     It  appears  by  the  account  of  the  duke  of 
Albemarle,  that  the  whole  of  this  disgrace  and  misfortune  was  ow- 
ing to  the  wilful  neglect  of  Sir  Phineas  Pet,  commissioner  of  Chat- 
ham yard  ;  for  which  he  was  impeached  by  the  House  of  Commons, 
but  means  being  found  to  screen  him,  it  came  to  uothing+. 

*  In  the  church  book  of  St.  Nicholas,  Rochester,  is  a  charge  made  for  bury- 
ing several  dead  corps  driven  on  shore  after  this  engagement  with  the  Dutch. 

+  Echard's  Hist,  of  Eng.  p.  838. 


Rochester;  3%f 

This  celebrated  dock  yard  which  has  been  considerably  enlarged, 
and  received  many  additional  improvements  within  these  few  years, 
occupies  an  "extensive  area  on  the  south-east  banks  of  the  river. 
Including  the  ordnance  wharf,  it  measures  about  a  mile  in  length  ; 
and  is  surrounded  by  a  high  wall,  and  defended  on  the  land  side 
by  strong  fortifications,  principally  of  modern  origin.  The  en- 
trance is  by  a  spacious  gateway  flanked  by  embattled  towers.  The 
houses  of  the  commissioner  and  principal  officers  are  large  and 
handsome  buildings ;  and  the  Various  Offices  for  managing  the  dif- 
ferent departments.of  the  yard,  especially  those  which  were  erected 
in  1811,  for  the  principal  clerks  and  officers  are  extremely  neat  and 
commodious,  and  well  become  the  opulence  of  the  nation  and  the 
importance  of  the  navy.  In  the  store-houses,  one  of  which  is  660 
feet  in  length,  are  deposited  prodigious  quantities  of  sails,  rigging, 
hemp,  flax,  pitch,  tar,  rosin,  and  all  other  necessaries  for  the 
equipment  and  building  of  ships.  The  coils  of  cordage,  the  heaps 
of  blocks,  and  the  innumerable  articles  requisite  for  the  service, 
are  arranged  in  exact  order,  so  that  in  times  of  emergency  they  can: 
all  be  taken  out  without  confusion  :  and  every  department  b  eing 
under  the  superintendance  of  proper  officers,  the  business  is  so  much 
accelerated  that  even  a  first  rate  man  of  war  has  often  been  equipped 
for  sea  in  a  few  weeks.  The  principal  mast-house  is  nearly  240 
feet  long  and  120  wide  :  some  of  the  masts  deposited  here,  are  three 
feet  in  diameter,  and  forty  yards  in  length]*  the  timbers  to  form 
the  masts  are  constantly  kept  floating  in  two  spacious  basins  con- 
structed for  that  purpose.  The  new  rope-hottse  is  1110  feet  long, 
and  nearly  50  feet  wide,  in  which  cables  of  all  dimensions  are 
twisted,  some  of  which  are  120  fathom  long,  and  22  inches  round  : 
the  labour  of  making  these  cables  is  partly  executed  by  machines. 
The  sail-loft  is  70  yards  long,  and  the  other  work-shops  are  of  pro- 
portional extent.     The  wet  docks  are  four  in  number,  all  of  Avhich 

*  What  is  remarkable,  those  long  firs  are  so  susceptible  of  souud,  that  a 
Watch  placed  against  one  end  may  be  heard  to  beat  very  distinctly  by  an  ear 
applied  to  the  other  end. 

2   U 


$28  HISTORY  OF* 


are 


sufficiently  capacious  for  first  rates.  A  new  stone  dock  is  ndw1 
forming  upon  a  much  larger  scale  than  any  of  the  others.  Here  also 
are  six  slips,  or  launches,  on  which  new  ships  are  constantly  built. 
The  smith's  shop,  where  anchors  of  all  sizes,  some  of  which  weigh 
nearly  five  tons,  are  constantly  made,  contains  about  40  forges. 
The  dock-yard  chapel  built  for  the  accommodation  of  the  officers, 
artificers,  and  shipwrights  and  their  families,  was  completed  in  1811, 
and  is  reported  to  have  cost  upwards  of  9000?.  It  is  a  neat  plain 
structure  of  brick,  and  the  interior  is  extremely  light,  elegant  and 
pleasing. 

At  the  north-east  extremity  of  the  Yard  some  new  works  have 
lately  been  constructed,  commonly  called  the  Saw-mills,  projected 
and  executed  by  that  modest  and  persevering  mechanic,  Mr.  Brunei, 
who  has  effected  as  much  for  the  mechanic  arts  as  any  man  of  his 
time.  The  Saw-mills,  as  their  name  imports,  are  employed  in  Con- 
verting the  fir  timber  Used  ih  the  service  of  the  Yard  into  planks  of 
boards ;  and  are  erected  on  an  eminence  about  35  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  lowest  part  of  the  yard.  To  the  ground  on  the  north 
side  of  the  Mill,  which  is  appropriated  to  the  stowage  of  timber,  balks 
are  floated  from  the  river  by  means  of  a  canal  which  runs  operi 
about  250  feet :  this  canal  on  entering  the  rising  ground  becomes  a 
tunnel  in  length  about  300  feet,  and  empties  itself  into  art  elliptical 
basin  the  length  of  which  is  90  feet,  the  breadth  72  feet,  and  the 
depth  44  feet.  The  operation  of  raising  the  timber  from  this  basin 
is  worthy  of  observation ;  and  the  steady,  though  quick,  motion 
with  which  it  ascends  is  truly  astonishing.  We  have  witnessed  a 
balk  60  feet  long,  and  16  inches  square,  raised  to  the  top  of  the 
standard  60  feet  in  the  space  of  20  seconds  !  The  Saw-mill  is  con- 
structed  upon  a  very  extensive  scale  ;  and  the  mechanism  of  it  may 
be  reduced  to  three  principal  things ;  the  first,  that  the  saw  is 
drawn  up  and  down  as  long  as  is  necessary,  by  a  motion  communi- 
cated to  the  wheel  by  steam  :  the  second,  that  the  piece  of  timber 
to  be  cut  iuto  boards  is  advanced  by  an  uniform  motion  to  receive 
the  strokes  of  the  saw ;  for  here  the  wood  is  to  meet  the  saw,  and 
not  the  saw  to  follow  the  wood,  therefore  the  motion  of  the  wood 


ROCHESTER.  329 

and  that  of  the  saw  immediately  depend  the  one  on  the  other  :  the 
third,  that  where  the  saw  has  cut  through  the  whole  length  of  the 
piece,  the  whole  machine  stops  of  itself,  and  remains  immoveable  ; 
lest  having  no  obstacle  to  surmount,  the  moving  power  should  turn 
the  wheel  with  too  great  velocity,  and  break  some  part  of  the  ma- 
chine. 

The  room  which  contains  the  machinery  is  ninety  feet  square, 
and  covered  with  a  light  roof  of  wood  and  wrought  iron  which 
adds  very  much  to  the  internal  beauty  of  the  building.     In  this 
room  are  fixed  eight  saw-frames,  and  two  circular  saw  benches, 
besides  windlasses  and  capstans  for  supplying  the  frames  with  the 
wood  to  be  cut :  all  which  are  put  in  motion  by  a   very  elegant 
Steam-engine  equal  to  the  power  of  thirty  horses.  Each  saw-frame 
is  entirely  independent  of  theothers,  and  is  capable  of  carrying  from 
one  to  thirty  saws.     The  number  of  saws  put  into  a  frame  will  de- 
pend on  the  number  of  cuts  that  are  to  be  made,  and  may  be  ari- 
ranged  at  different  distances  according  to  the  thickness  required. 
The  supplying  the  saws  with  timber  may  be  regulated  at  pleasure, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  wood,  or  the  number  of  cuts;  though 
the  saws  always  make  the  same  number  of  strokes,  vi^.  about  80 
in  a  minute.     The  drags  which  convey  the  timber  to  the  saws,  be* 
sides  their  progressive,  have  a  retrograde,  motion,  and  roll  back- 
wards when  the  timber  is  cut.  There  are  likewise  various  ingenious 
contrivances  for  holding  the  timber  while  it  is  sawn,  and  also  fpr 
the  purpose  of  following  the  natural  bends  of  the  wood  when  requi- 
site.    Two  of  the  saw-frames  are  appropriated  to  deal-slitting,  an 
operation  which  is  performed  with  amazing  dispatch,  and  with  the 
greatest  precision.     We  have  seen  at  one  frame,  two  deals  ten  feet 
in  length,  slit  into  four  boards  in  the  short  space  of  ten  minutes : 
and  the  two  frames  have  produced  in  six  days,  working  only  7| 
hours  each  day,  34,000  superficial  feet  of  timber.     All  the  frames 
are  supplied  with  timber  by  means  of  windlasses  worked  by  the 
power  of  the  steam-engine,  which  draw  the  timber  from  the  outside 
of  the  Mill  to  the  sides  of  the  frames.     By  means  also  of  certain 
mechanical  combinations  adapted  to  the  framing  of  the  roof,  each 


330  HISTORY  OP 

frame  has  the  power  of  supplying  itself  with  wood,  and  of  removing 

it  when  cut. 

Some  very  extensive  water-works  for  the  service  of  the  >ard  are 
ponnected  with  the  Steam-engine.  Iron  pipes  are  laid  at  different 
parts  of  the  Yard,  and  on  them  at  certain  distances  are  fixed  fire 
pocks,  which,  when  required,  will  throw  a  jet  d'eau  above  the 
highest  buildings.  From  these  pipes  all  the  offices  and  houses  in 
the  Yard  are  constantly  supplied  with  water.  We  would  willingly 
dwell  longer  on  the  utility  and  excellence  of  these  ingenious  works  ; 
but  they  are  so  far  beyond  the  ideas  of  the  most  fertile  imagination, 
that  any  description  of  them  without  plans,  and  consistent  with 
pur  limited  pages,  must  be  very  imperfect.  They  must  be  seen  to 
be  sufficiently  admired. 

In  time  of  war  the  number  of  artificers  and  labourers  employed 
in  and  about  this  Yard  exceeds  3000  :  and  the  regular  mode  in 
which  each  branch  of  business  is  conducted  for  the  public  service, 
jnust  be  highly  gratifying  to  every  well-wisher  to  his  country. 

The  Royal  Sovereign,  a  first  rate  of  100  guns  was  built  here 
just  before  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.  who  visited  the  dock  for 
the  purpose  of  seeing  that  ship  soon  after  his  return.  The  new 
Royal  George  of  100  guns  was  also  built  here  in  the  year  1788, 
and  was  the  first  ship  of  that  rate  ever  launched  from  a  slip.  Seve- 
ral first  rates  have  since  been  built,  among  which  are  the  Royal 
Charlotte  of  100  guns,  the  Ville  de  Paris  of  110  guns,  and  the 
Howe  of  120  guns. 

The  Trafalgar  and  Prince  Regent  of  120  guns  each  are  now 
building. 

The  principal  officers  of  the  Yard  are  a  resident  commissioner, 
who  has  three  clerks  under  him,  a  clerk  of  the  cheque,  a  master 
shipwright  and  three  assistants,  a  master  attendant,  a  storekeeper, 
a  clerk  of  the  survey,  a  clerk  of  the  rope-yard,  a  master  rope-maker, 
a  master  mast-maker,  a  master  boat-builder,  a  master  joiner,  a 
master  black-smith,  a  master  mason  and  bricklayer,  a  master  house 
parpenter,  a  master  painter,  a  surgeon,  a  boatswain,  and  warden. 


ROCHESTER.  331 

The  ordnance  wharf  occupies  a  narrow  slip  of  land  below  the 
chalk  clift"  between  the  church  and  the  river.  It  was  the  original 
dock-yard,  and  is  now  not  unfrequently  called  the  old  dock.  The 
guns  belonging  to  the  ships  in  the  river  are  here  deposited  in  regular 
tiers,  some  of  which  weigh  sixty-five  hundred  weight  each  :  the  names 
of  the  ships  to  which  they  belong  is  marked  upon  them,  and  also 
the  weight  of  the  metal.  Great  quantities  of  cannon  balls  are  to 
be  seen  in  several  parts  of  the  wharf  piled  up  in  large  pyramids ; 
and  great  numbers  of  gun  carriages  are  laid  up  under  cover.  The 
armory  also  is  a  curious  assemblage  of  every  kind  of  hostile 
weapons  arranged  in  admirable  order,  such  as  pistols,  cutlasses, 
pikes,  pole-axes,  &c.  The  principal  officers  in  this  department  are 
a  storekeeper,  a  clerk  of  the  cheque,  a  clerk  of  the  survey,  under 
whom  are  two  extra  clerks,  and  other  servants. 

Previously  to  the  year  1760,  the  defence  of  this  vast  naval  maga- 
zine was  entrusted  chiefly  to  guard  ships  stationed  in  the  river,  and 
to  forts  erected  on  its  banks ;  but  especially  to  that  of  Sheerness 
which  after  the  attempt  of  the  Dutch  in  1667  had  been  enlarged  by 
new  fortifications,  mounted  with  heavy  cannon.  Upnor  Castle 
had  also  been  built  by  Queen  Elizabeth  in  the  third  year  of  her 
reign;  but  as  a  place  of  national  defence  it  seems  not  to  have  an- 
swered any  purpose  whatever  It  is  now  a  considerable  magazine 
for  the  use  of  the  navy,  and  the  governor  has  the  command  of  all 
the  forts  on  the  river  except  Sheerness.  Charles  I.  also  erected  a 
small  fort  for  the  defence  of  the  river,  below  Gillingham,  on  the 
marshes  skirting  the  Medway  :  but  this  though  enlarged,  and  some- 
times dignified  with  thsname  of  Gillingham  castle,  was  never  of 
material  service.  In  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  two  acts  of  parlia- 
ment were  passed  for  the  better  security  of  Chatham  yard,  and 
other  docks  ;  yet  hardly  any  thing  more  was  at  that  time  effected, 
than  the  purchase  of  some  lands  and  houses  that  were  situated  im- 
mediately adjacent  to  the  ordnance  wharf.  At  length,  in  the  year 
1758,  when  the  country  was  threatened  with  a  French  invasion,  a 
new  act  was  passed  for  the  purchase  of  additional  lands,  and  the 
erection  of  such  works  as  might  be  necessary  to  secure  this  impor- 


332  HISTORY  OF 

tant  arsenal  from  the  attempts  of  an  enemy.  The  extensive  fortifi- 
cations called  the  Lines  were  immediately  commenced,  and  were 
continued  from  the  banks  of  the  Medway  above  the  ordnance  wharf 
round  an  oblong  plot,  of  ground,  measuring  above  half  a  mile  in 
breadth,  and  a  mile  in  length,  to  beyond  the  extremity  of  the  dock- 
yard, where  they  again  join  with  the  river,  During  the  American 
war  these  fortifications  were  repaired  and  augmented  at  a  great 
expence,  and  defended  by  a  strong  redoubt  constructed  on  the  sum- 
mit of  the  hill  towards  the  south-east.  In  the  year  1782,  an  act 
passed  for  the  purchase  of  lands  and  the  further  security  ofthis 
depot,  in  consequence  of  which  many  important  additions  have 
since  been  made ;  and  particularly  during  the  last  war,  immense 
sums  were  expended  in  extending,  improving,  and  strengthening 
these  works  of  defence,  and  much  new  ground  was  taken  in  for 
that  purpose.  The  lines  are  defended  by  ramparts,  pallisadoes, 
and  a  broad  deep  ditch,  and  with  the  exception  of  Portsmouth,  may 
now  be  considered  as  the  most  complete  and  regular  fortress  in  the 
British  islands.  That  fortifications  judiciously  placed,  and  not 
disproportioned  to  the  object  which  they  are  intended  to  secure,  are 
the  solid  base,  on  which  rest  the  permanent  prosperity  and  military 
power  of  a  nation,  we  do  not  pretend  to  deny  :  but  whether  these 
in  Rochester  and  Chatham  are  of  sufficient  national  importance  to 
justify  the  profuse  expenditure  of  the  public  money  which  their 
construction  has  occasioned  ;  or  whether  they  are  to  be  regarded 
merely  as  expensive  play-things,  as  monuments  of  folly,  and  a 
national  disgrace,  are  questions  much  agitated,  and  which  we  feel 
ourselves  incompetent  to  decide.  The  garrison  consists  of  five  com? 
panies  of  soldiers,  and  a  battalion  of  artillery. 

Within  the  area  inclosed  by  the  Lines,  besides  the  naval  esta- 
blishments, are  included  the  village  of  Brompton,  the  church  of 
Chatham,  the  upper  and  lower  barracks,  the  artillery  barracks, 
casemate  barracks  for  the  invalids  stationed  there  for  garrison  du- 
ty, spacious  magazines  for  powder,  &c.  The  village  of  Brompton, 
which  is  partly  in  the  parish  of  Chatham,  and  partly  in  that  of 
Gillingham,  is  pleasantly  situated  on  the  summit  of  the  high  ground 


ftOCHESTER.  333 

to  the  south-east  of  the  Yard,  and  commands  a  delightful  view  of 
the  river  in  its  various  directions.  It  consists  of  about  500  houses 
nearly  all  of  which  must  have  been  built  within  the  last  century,  as 
there  is  good  ground  for  believing  that  the  first  building  erected 
here  was  a  house  of  public  entertainment  distinguished  by  the  sign 
of  the  Sun  in  the  Wood,  built  about  16§5.  The  lower  barracks 
are  spacious  and  uniform  buildings  of  brick,  inclosing  a  large  qua- 
drangular area.  The  upper  barracks,  which  stand  near  Brompton, 
are  also  of  brick,  and  extremely  spacious  and  convenient.  They 
rise  one  above  another  on  the  acclivity  of  the  hill,  having  inclosed 
Courts,  occupying  a  considerable  tract  of  ground. 

The  new  Artillery  barracks,  adjoining  to  Brompton  on  the 
east,  which  in  elegance  of  architecture  are  much  superior  ei- 
ther to  the  upper  or  lower  barracks,  were  built  in  the  year 
1804  for  1200  men  and  officers  in  proportion.  They  form  three 
sides  of  a  quadrangle,  containing  apartments  for  the  officers,  lodg- 
ings for  the  privates,  with  ranges  of  stabling,  &c.  The  east  front 
is  left  open  for  the  purpose  of  exercise.  The  situation  is  remarka- 
bly healthful  and  pleasant;  and  the  view  from  hence  is  rich  and 
extensive,  comprising  the  river  Thames  in  the  distance,  a  fertile 
and  varied  combination  of  objects  composed  of  hills  and  dales, 
together  with  the  meandring  of  the  Medway  beneath. 

The  Artillery  hospital,  a  respectable  brick  edifice  on  the  north 
east  of  the  upper  barracks,  was  erected  in  1809,  and  contains  wards 
for  the  reception  of  100  patients,  with  convenient  apartments  and 
offices  for  the  medical  establishment,  attendants,  &c.  It  is  situ- 
ated on  an  agreeable  elevation,  and  makes  a  simple,  elegant  and 
beautiful  appearance  from  several  points  of  view  in  the  environs  of 
the  three  towns. 

From  the  variety  of  Roman  remains  that  were  dug  up  in  forming 
the  Lines,  &c.  it  seems  probable  that  the  Romans  had  a  Castrum 
JEstivum  in  this  vicinity  :  that  they  had  a  burial  place  here,  we 
have  already  remarked  in  our  account  of  Chatham  church.  Mr. 
Douglas,  who  was  a  captain  in  the  engineer  company  at  the  time 
of  making  the  fortifications,  opened  upwards  of  100  graves,  and 


334  HISTORY  OF 

made  drawings  and  notes  of  his  discoveries,  of  which  afterwards  he 
gave  particulars  in  his  Noenia  Britannica.  Many  of  the  grave* 
were  found  iu  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  the  Lines,  towards 
Upberry  farm ;  and  the  appearances  of  several  of  them  excited  a 
suspicion  that  the  ground  had  been  originally  covered  with  small 
tumuli,  which,  in  subsequent  times,  might  have  been  levelled  by 
the  plough.  In  these  graves  many  human  skeletons  of  both  sexes 
were  found  entire;  together  with  swords,  spear-heads,  beads  of 
various  colours,  the  umbo  of  a  shield,  different  pieces  of  armour, 
a  bottle  of  red  earth,  an  urn  filled  with  ashes,  great  numbers  of 
Roman  coins,  the  impressions  mostly  obliterated,  and  other  anti- 
quities. Pieces  of  Roman  tile,  an  iron  ring,  and  many  fragments 
of  urns,  paterae,  lachrymatories,  and  other  vessels  were  also  dug 
up:  the  urns,  &c.  were  formed  of  different  kinds  of  earth;  some 
of  them  being  of  a  fine  coralline  red,  others  of  a  lead  colour,  and 
the  larger  ones  of  a  coarse  black  earth,  mixed  with  sea-sand,  as 
appears  from  fragments  of  shells  still  remaining* 

On  breaking  up  the  ground  for  constructing  the  redoubt  already 
mentioned  in  1779,  the  workmen  met  with  a  strong  foundation  of 
a  building,  in  some  parts  not  more  than  four  or  five  inches  below 
the  surface,  but  in  others  somewhat  more  :  its  depth  Was  about  six 
feet  and  a  half,  and  its  width  twelve.  On  removing  the  earth  this 
was  discovered  to  be  the  outward  wall  of  a  range  of  small  apart- 
ments, the  largest  not  exceeding  ten  feet  square :  the  floors  were 
about  four  feet  and  a  half  below  the  surface  of  the  ground.  The 
inner  walls  were  done  in  fresco,  with  red,  blue,  and  green  spots  : 
and  among  the  rubbish  were  fragments  having  broad  red  stripes, 
and  others  with  narrow  stripes  of  different  colours.  The  founda- 
tions of  a  large  building  were  also  discovered  on  the  west-south-west 
^ide  of  the  former ;  these  were  traced  within  the  redoubt  as  far  as 
the  rampart  thrown  up  from  the  ditch  would  permit,  but  nothing 
particular  was  found.  Among  the  rubbish  dug  up  in  forming  the 
contiguous  works,  numerous  Roman  coins  were  met  with,  one  of 
which  was  of  the  empress  Faustina,  and  another  of  the  emperor 
Claudius  in  good  preservation. 


ROCHESTER  353 

In  the  throwing  up  these  ramparts  a  very  curious  silver  Greek 
Coin  was  found  by  the  late  Mr.  Earl  Austen  ;  it  is  well  preserved 
and  not  the  least  worn,  of  very  high  and  fine  relievo.  It  represents 
a  most  curious  head  of  Minerva,  armed  in  a  skull-cap,  and  on  the 
reverse  an  Owl,  with  a  sprig  of  laurel  on  the  left  side,  and  these 
letters  on  the  right,  thus,  a©e.  which  signify  Athens  or  Athens. 
Athena?  was  a  city  of  Greece,  so  termed  from  'aSwj,  Minerva,  (the 
goddess  thereof).  The  Owl,  an  emblem  of  wisdom,  was  always 
her  attendant.  In  regard  to  the  aforesaid  letters  on  the  coin,  a  ©  e, 
it  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  use  of  e  (epsilon)  for  h  or  »  (eta)  is 
assigned  by  the  society  of  Antiquaries,  (in  the  first  vol.  of  their 
Archceologia,  printed  in  1770,  in  4to.  p*  151)  to  the  50th  Olym- 
piad, which  answers  to  the  year  before  the  Christian  aera  578,  and 
this  may  possibly  bfe  the  mark  of  the  antiquity  of  this  Attic  coin. 
How  it  could  be  found  in  the  above  spot,  is  not  easy  to  conjecture, 
forasmuch  as  Dr.  Plot's  supposition  of  the  Roman  road  going  that 
way  directly  from  Stroodj  seems  much  to  be  doubted,  if  not  abso- 
lutely impossible,  by  means  of  any  ford  or  shallow  whatever.  The 
engraving  of  this  coin,  here  given,  was  from  the  drawing  of  Mr.  3: 
Skinner,  a  gentleman  of  Chatham,  who  was  presented  with  a  silver 
palette  by  the  society  of  arts. 


Chatham  is  a  large  and  populous,  but  irregular,  and  ill  built, 
town,  extending  along  the  banks  of  the  Medway,  and  up  to  Chat-i 
ham-hill;  and  consisting  principally  of  one  long  street  with  many 

2  x 


3,36  HISTORY  OF 

branching  allies.  Chatham,  Rochester,  and  Strood,  which  are* 
commonly  called  the  Three  Towns,  form  one  continued  street  of 
above  two  miles  in  length.  Previously  to  the  passing  of  the  Act 
in  1772,  for  paving,  lighting,  &c.  of  this  town,  it  was  one  of  the 
most  disagreeable  in  Kent ;  even  the  High -street  being  full  of  an- 
noyances, and  the  road  dangerous.  Many  improvements  hare 
since  been  made,  and  it  has  greatly  increased  both  in  extent  and 
population  since  the  commencement  of  the  late  war  ;  but  the  streets, 
in  general,  are  still  irregular  and  narrow.  A  terrible  and  destruc- 
tive fire  broke  out  in  that  part  of  the  town  now  called  Hammond 
Place  on  the  30th  of  June  1800.  The  flames,  fomented  by  a  vio- 
lent easterly  wind,  laid  waste  and  consumed,  notwithstanding  eve- 
ry effort  to  subdue  them,  about  seventy  houses  in  the  short  space 
of  three  hours.  Shortly  after  this  calamitous  occurrence,  the  pre- 
sent elegant  houses  were  rebuilt,  and  this  part  of  the  High-street 
considerably  widened.  Most  of  the  houses,  as  we  have  already 
observed,  have  been  erected  since  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  as  the 
progressive  increase  of  population,  arising  from  the  naval  and  mili- 
tary establishments,  rendered  additional  buildings  necessary.  Here 
is  a  very  considerable  market  on  Saturdays,  which  is  well  supplied 
with  meat  and  other  articles  from  the  adjacent  country.  Two  fairs 
are  also  held  here  on  May  15th  and  September  19th  and  each  con- 
tinues three  days  ;  but  they  are  now  but  little  frequented,  and  are 
almost  fallen  into  disuse.  The  inhabitants  are  chiefly  employed  in 
the  dock-yard,  or  in  trades  connected  with  maritime  pursuits. 
Their  number  as  returned  under  the  population  Act  of  1810, 
amounted  at  that  time  to  12,652,  independent  of  the  soldiery:  the 
number  of  houses  was  returned  at  2221 ;  but  the  inhabitants  and 
consequently  the  number  of  houses  have  increased  considerably 
since  that  period. 

Chatham,  like  Rochester,  has  been  frequently  visited  by  our 
sovereigns.  James  I.  knighted  many  gentlemen  here  in  July, 
1604;  and  on  Sunday,  August  10,  1606,  he  again  visited  this 
town,  accompanied  by  his  Queen,  Anne  of  Denmark,  her  brother 
Christian  IV.  prince  Henry,  the  chief  officers  of  state,  privy  coun- 


ROCHESTER.  337 

sellors,  and  many  of  the  nobility.  The  ship  named  the  Elizabeth- 
James  had  been  magnificently  decorated  to  receive  the  royal  guests, 
who  dined  on  board  ;  the  provisions  being  dressed  in  a  great  hoy 
called  the  kitchen,  which  was  stationed  in  the  midst  of  a  bridge  of 
masts,  about  six  feet  wide,  that  was  continued  from  the  ship  to  the 
shore,  a  distance  of  240  yards.  On  the  departure  of  the  royal  vi- 
sitors, a  tremendous  peal  was  fired  from  nearly  twelve  hundred 
pieces  of  ordnance,  all  discharged  on  a  given  signal. 

Near  the  entrance  of  Chatham  from  Rochester  in  the  parish  of 
the  former,  but  in  the  liberties  of  the  latter,  stands  the  King's  Vic- 
tualling Office,  from  which  his  majesty's  ships  lying  at  Chatham, 
Sheerness,  and  the  Nore,  are  supplied  with  provisions.  It  is  com- 
posed of  several  extensive  ranges  of  building,  appropriated  to  the 
important  concerns  of  victualling  the  navy;  and  includes  spacious 
slaughtering  and  curing  houses  for  beef  and  pork,  a  bake-house,  a 
cooperage,  &c.  The  principal  officers  are  an  agent-victualler,  a 
store-keeper,  and  a  clerk  of  the  cheque. 

Beyond  the  victualling  office  on  the  same  side  of  the  High-street, 
is  an  ancient  mansion  now  in  the  occupation  of  Mr.  Morson  an  at- 
torney, which  formerly  belonged  to  the  Petls,  the  celebrated  ship- 
builders in  the  reigns  of  James  I.  Charles  I.  and  Charles  II.  The 
chimney-piece  in  the  principal  room  is  of  wood  curiously  carved, 
the  upper  part  being  divided  into  compartments  by  caryatydes  :  the 
central  compartment  contains  the  family  arms,  viz.  a  fesse,  a  lion 
passant  guardant,  between  three  pellets.  On  the  back  of  the  grate 
is  a  cast  of  Neptune,  standing  erect  in  his  car,  with  Tritons  blowing 
conches,  &c.  and  the  date  1650. 

Chatham  gave  the  title  of  baron  to  John  the  great  duke  of  Ar- 
gyle,  and  the  titls  of  earl  to  the  right  honourable  W.  Pitt,  esq. 

John  duke  of  Argyle  was,  on  November  26,  1705,  created  ba- 
ron of  Chatham  and  earl  of  Greenwich  in  this  county  to  him  and 
his  heirs  male.  On  April  30,  1719,  he  was  created  duke  of 
Greenwich.  He  died  in  October  1743,  without  male  issue,  so 
that  the  above  titles  became  extinct.  He  was  a  nobleman  of  shining 
qualifications  for  the  senate  and  the  field,  whose  character  would 


338  HISTORY  OF 

still  have  been  made  illustrious,  had  not  some  parts  of  his  conduct 
subjected  him  to  the  suspicion  of  selfishness  and  inconstancy.* 

William  Pitt  first  earl  of  Chatham,  viscount  Pitt  of  Burton 
Pynsent  in  the  county  of  Somerset,  a  lord  of  the  privy  counsel, 
and  F.  R.  S.  was  the  youngest  son  of  Robert  Pitt  of  Baconnock  in 
Cornwall,  esq.  by  his  wife  Harriot,  sister  of  John  Villiers  earl  of 
Grandison  in  Ireland,  and  grandson  of  Thomas  Pitt,  esq.  who  was, 
in  the  reign  of  queen  Anne,  governor  of  Fort  George,  Madras, 
where  he  purchased  for  48,000  pagadoes,  or  20,400  pounds  ster- 
ling, that  celebrated  fine  diamond  weighing  127  carrats,  which  he 
sold  to  the  king  of  France  for  135,000^.  and  which  is  about  the 
size  of  a  pigeon's  egg,  and  thereby  got  the  distinguished  epithet  of 
DiamondrPitt.  His  lordship  represented  Old  Sarum  in  the  ninth 
parliament  of  Great  Britain,  Seaford  in  the  tenth,  Aldborough  in 
the  eleventh}  and  the  city  of  Bath  in  the  twelfth,  till  advanced  to, 
the  peerage.  He  enjoyed  many  considerable  posts,  at  different 
times,  in  the  last  reign  j  and  on  December  4,  1756,  was  appointed 
secretary  of  state,  which  post  he  held  till  October  1761.  Upon 
his  resignation,  his  lady  Hester  Pitt,  sister  of  Richard  earl  Temple, 
whom  he  had  married  in  1754,  was  created  baroness  of  Chatham 
with  the  remainder  of  baron  Chatham  to  her  heirs  male ;  and  an 
annuity  of  3000J.  was  conferred  on  him,  during  his  own  life,  and 
that  of  his  lady,  and  their  eldest  son.  About  the  same  time  a  large 
estate  was  also  bequeathed  to  him  by  Sir  William  Pynsent,  of 
Burton  Pynsent,  in  Somersetshire,  in  reward  of  the  unspeakable 
pervices  he  had  done  to  his  country.  On  July  30,  1766,  on  a 
further  consideration  of  his  services,  he  was  created  viscount  Pitt, 
of  Burton  Pynsent  in  the  county  of  Somerset,  and  earl  of  Chatham, 
jn  the  county  of  Kent,  with  remainder  to  his  heirs  male. 

This  illustrious  nobleman  filled  many  of  the  higher  departments 
pf  the  state  with  such  honour  to  himself,  such  glory  to  the  nation, 
and  so  greatly  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  sovereign  and  his  people, 
as  never  any  minister  in  Great  Britain  had  before  experienced.    In 

*  Smpjlet's  Hist,  of  Epg.  vol.  3,  p.  127. 


ROCHESTER.  339 

consequence  of  the  wisdom  of  his  councils,  and  the  vigour  and 
promptitude  of  his  decisions,  British  valour  reigned  triumphant  in 
every  part  of  the  globe.  He  died  on  the  11th  of  May,  1778,  at 
Hays  in  the  county  of  Kent  in  the  70th  year  of  his  age. 

As  lord  Chatham  had,  whilst  in  the  public  service,  neglected  his 
own  interests  ;  and  though  he  had  the  greatest  opportunity  of  en- 
riching himself,  had  not  accumulated  opulence  for  his  family,  am- 
ple provision  was  made  by  parliament  for  the  descendants  of  so 
honest  and  able  a  minister.  On  the  21st  of  May,  1778,  a  bill 
passed,  in  consequence  of  a  message  from  the  crown,  for  annexing 
4000/.  a  year  to  the  title  of  the  earl  of  Chatham,  while  it  continued 
in  the  descendants  of  the  deceased  statesman.  The  munificence  of 
parliament  was  completed  by  a  vote  of  20,000/.  for  the  payment  of 
his  debts.  The  body  lay  in  state  two  days  in  the  painted  chamber, 
and  was  interred  at  the  public  expence,  and  with  great  solemnity 
jn  Westminster-Abbey.  But  the  posthumous  honours  of  lord 
Chatham  were  not  confined  to  the  houses  of  parliament,  which  he 
had  adorned,  instructed  and  dignified  by  his  eloquence  :  the  com- 
mon council  of  London  petitioned  the  house  of  commons  and  the  , 
throne  for  the  honour  of  receiving  his  remains,  and  interring  them 
in  the  cathedral  of  St.  Paul,  thus  rendering  the  noblest  edifice  ia 
the  British  dominions,  the  depository  of  one  among  the  noblest 
subjects  in  the  empire.  These  petitions  were  unsuccessful;  orders 
having  already  been  given  for  the  interment  in  Westminster- Abbey. 
They  erected,  however,  a  superb  monument  to  his  memory  ia 
Guildhall. 

He  had  by  his  wife,  the  lady  Hester  Pitt :  I. — John,  the  present 
earl  of  Chatham,  born  September  10,  1755,  married,  July  9,  1783, 
Mary-Elizabeth  Townsend,  second  daughter  of  Thomas,  first  vis- 
count Sydney.  He  has  no  male  issue.  II. — Hester,  born  Octo- 
ber 18,  1756,  married  December  19,  1774,  Charles  late  earl 
Stanhope,  died  July  18,  1780,  leaving  issue.  III. — Harriot,  born 
April  14,  1758,  married  September  28,  1785,  Edward-James,  son, 
of  the  first  lord  Elliot,  died  September  24,  1786,  leaving  one 
daughter.     IV. — William,  bona  May  28,  1759,  at  a  time  when 


340  HISTORY  OF 

lord  Chatham's  glory  was  in  its  zenith,  and  of  whom  his  father 
used  frequently  to  say  that  he  would  one  day  increase  the  glory  of 
the  name  of  Pitt.  The  prediction  was  fully  verified.  He  was  at 
the  head  of  his  sovereign's  councils,  with  a  short  interruption,  for 
twenty-two  years :  and  never  was  the  force  of  the  British  character 
tried  by  such  dangers,  or  graced  by  more  splendid  atchievements 
than  under  the  administration  of  this  illustrious  statesman.  Whe- 
ther he  be  considered  with  respect  to  his  splendid  talents,  his  unri- 
valled eloquence,  or  the  singular  events  which  occurred  during  the 
time  that  he  presided  at  the  helm  of  state,  he  will  always  be  regard- 
ed as  the  most  eminently  conspicuous  prime  minister  that  modern 
Europe  has  ever  beheld.  He  died  universally  regretted,  January 
23,  1806,  and  was  buried  at  the  public  charge;  a  monument  was 
erected  to  his  memory  in  Westminster- Abbey,  and  40,000/.  voted 
by  parliament  for  the  payment  of  his  debts.  V. — James-Charles, 
born  April  24,  1761,  died  in  1780. 


St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital. 


O 


UR  Saxon  ancestors  dedicated  many  buildings  to  what  they  es- 
teemed pious,  and  very  few  to  charitable  uses  solely.  The  accurate 
bishop  Tanner  has  not,  Ave  believe,  noticed  so  many  as  six  hospitals 
established  by  them.  But  we  ought  not  to  conclude  from  this 
omission,  that  they  were  regardless  of  such  of  their  fellow  creatures 
who,  while  labouring  under  the  various  calamities  incident  to  human 
nature,  must  be  unable  to  help  themselves.  In  general,  it  was 
their  intention  that  the  poor  should  be  supported  out  of  the  revenues 
of  the  religious  societies  ;  and  the  members  of  almost  all  these  houses 
were  enjoined  by  the  rules  of  their  respective  orders,  and  the  ex- 
press directions  of  their  founders  and  benefactors,  to  relieve  the 
wauts  and  distresses  not  only  of  the  necessitous  and  infirm  people 
in  their  neighbourhood,  but  of  travellers  also.  It  is  not,  however, 
unlikely,  that  several  of  these  communities  did  not  pay  the  strict  re- 


ROCHESTER*  341 

gard  they  ought  to  these  injunctions,  and  that,  in  order  to  remedy 
the  inconveniences  which  had  arisen  from  their  neglect,  the  plan, 
was  more  frequently  adopted  of  founding  and  endowing  hospitals  : 
the  income  of  which  was  to  be  principally  employed  in  works  of 
charity.  Thus  far  is  certain,  that  within  one  hundred  years  after 
the  conquest  fifty-nine  hospitals  were  erected  in  this  kingdom,  and 
that,  before  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  they  were  increased 
to  one  hundred  and  thirty-one. 

The  leprosy,  a  disorder  which  was  very  prevalent  in  Europe 
during  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  and  the  spreading  of  which 
is  doubtless  to  be  attributed  to  the  amazing  resort  of  the  inhabitants 
of  this  part  of  the  world  to  the  hot  countries  of  the  east,  was  a  cause 
of  the  establishing  many  of  these  hospitals.  Some  persons  have  con- 
jectured that  they  amounted  in  Christendom  to  fifteen  thousand  :* 
but  without  implicitly  assenting  to  so  vague  a  calculation,  it  is  very 
clear  that  in  England  there  was  hardly  a  large  city,  or  a  capital 
town,  near  which  there  was  not  one,  at  least  of  these  lazar-houses 
erected  ;  we  indeed  find  none  within  the  walls,  for  as  the  distemper 
was  so  violent  as  to  be  judged  infectious,  the  unhappy  persons  afflict- 
ed with  it  were  sequestered  from  all  public  commerce. 

Gundulph,  A.  D.  1078,  the  year  after  his  being  advanced  to  the 
see  of  Rochester,  founded  one  of  the  first  of  these  hospitals  that 
was  raised  in  this  country+.     In  some  writings  the  hospital  is  men- 


*  See  Chambers's  dictionary,  article  Leprosy :  the  compiler  of  which  refers 
to  Matthew  Prior,  as  his  voucher  for  this  fact. 

+  See  Tanner's  Notit.  Monast.  p.  211.  Archbishop  Lanfranc  certainly 
founded  an  hospital  for  Lazars,  at  Harbledown  near  Canterbury  ;  see  Somner's 
Antiq.  part.  I.  p.  42:  but  as  the  date  of  its  constitution  is  not  mentioned  by 
that  author,  we  cannot  determine  whether  it  was  prior  or  subsequent  to  this  of 
Gundulph.  St.  James's  hospital,  near  Westminster,  is  said  to  have  been  founded 
for  the  maintenance  of  Leprous  women  long  before  the  conquest;  but  that 
judicious  antiquarian,  bishop  Tanner,  has  in  his  Notit.  Monast.  p.  297,  ex- 
pressed his  doubt  of  the  truth  of  this  traditionary  story.  The  report  of  its 
being  designed  at  that  early  period  for  the  reception  of  persons  afflicted  with 
that  loathsome  disease,  is  of  itself  a  very  suspicious  circumstance* 


342  HISTORY  6P 

tioned  to  be  at  or  neat-  Rochester,  but  in  other  deeds  it  is  fixed  id 
the  parish  of  Chatham ;  and  the  fact  seems  to  have  been,  that  the 
apartments  of  the  hospital  were  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  city, 
and  that  the  chapel  belonging  to  it  was  placed  in  the  adjoining  dis- 
trict.* The  hospital  was  dedicated  to  St  Bartholomew,  and  was 
instituted,  as  several  deeds  express  itj  fOrthe  reception  of  poor  and 
leprous- persons.  It  consisted  of  a  head,  who  was  styled  custos  or 
warden^  but  more  frequently  prior ;  and  of  brethren,  who  had  the 
denomination  of  canons ;  the  nurriber  of  these  last  is  no  where 
specified.  Very  small  were  the  revenues  settled  by  the  bishop  on 
this  community ;  but  it  appears  by  an  ancient  manuscript  ledger  of 
the  hospital,  that  there  were  several  grants  and  confirmations  made 
to  them,  both  by  the  crown  and  by  private  persons  in  the  reigns  of 
Henry  III.  Edward  III.  and  Henry  IV.+  However,  with  these 
additions  the  annual  income  was  far  from  being  sufficient  for  the 
support  of  its  members  ;  and  the  society  must  have  been  dissolved, 
had  not  the  monks  of  St.  Andrew  contributed  liberally  towards 
their  subsistence.  The  poor  brethren  received  weekly  and  daily 
allowances  of  provision  from  the  convent;  and  the  oblations  and 
profits  of  two  altars  in  the  cathedral,  viz.  those  of  St.  James  and  St. 
Giles,  were  appropriated  to  their  usej.  They  had  besides  the  privi- 
lege of  collecting  the  alms  of  the  persons  who  dined  at  the  bishop's 
table  on  the  day  of  his  installation,  and  the  cloth  which  covered 
the  table  was  their  perquisite.§ 

As  the  same  prelate  was  the  founder  both  of  the  convent  and 
hospital,  it  was  rather  to  be  expected  that  he  should  recommend 

*  The  hospUal  of  St.  Bartholomew  is  mentioned,  in  the  charter  granted  by 
king  Edward  the  IV.  to  the  mayor  and  citizens  of  Rochester,  as  one  of  the 
boundaries  of  their  jurisdiction ;  and  we  suppose  this  building  to  have  been  on 
the  south  side  of  the  street  near  the  chapel,  because  we  may  conclude  that  the 
place  of  religious  worship  of  mimbers  of  infirm*  persons^  many  of  whom  labour- 
ed uuder  an  infectious  disease,  would  ndt  be  erected  at  any  considerable 
distance  from  their  dwelling; 

+  See  Tanner*  Notit.  Monast.  J  Cdstuinale  Roff.  p.  85.  89-U1. 

S  See  Regist.  RoflenS.  p.  131. 


ROCHESTER.  343 

these  distressed  objects  to  the  attention  and  care  of  those  who,  by 
his  munificence,  were  so  well  able  to  relieve  and  assist  them.  And 
Gundulph  seems  likewise  to  have  invested  the  prior  and  the  monks 
with  a  degree  of  authority  over  the  brethren  of  this  house  of  charity; 
such  it  is  plain  from  an  inquisition  taken  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI. 
(when  an  attempt  was  made  to  prove  this  hospital  to  have  been 
founded  by  some  of  the  king's  progenitors,)  that  the  priory  of  St. 
Andrew  had  the  power  of  admitting  the  brethren  into  the  hospital;* 
and  long  before  that  time  an  entry  occurs  in  an  old  register,  of  the 
place  of  chaplain  to  the  same  being  granted  by  the  prior  and  con- 
vent jointly  under  their  common  seal.t  But  notwithstanding  this 
dependence,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  hospital's  being  a  corpo- 
ration distinct  from  the  priory  ;  for  especial  grants  were  made  to 
them,  and  .the  warden  or  prior  and  the  poor  brethren,  were  tenants 
to  the  convent,  as  they  are  still  to  the  dean  and  chapter,  for  lands 
held  of  one  of  the  manors  belonging  to  the  church.  They  also 
demised  their  estates  in  a  corporate  capacity,  and  have  from  time 
immemorial  been  possessed  of  a  common  seal. 

The  dissolution  of  the  priory  was  most  sensibly  felt  by  these 
poor  brethren;  for  the  supply  constantly  administered  to  them  by 
that  religious  house  being  withdrawn,  they  had  no  other  resource 
but  the  revenue  of  their  small  estate,  which  probably  did  not  much 
exceed  thirteen  pounds  per  year.  Mr.  Lambard  might  therefore 
well  describe  it  to  be  in  his  time  a  poor  shew  of  a  decayed  hospital  ;t 
and  according  to  a  return  made  to  a  commission  in  the  beginning  of 
the  reign  of  queen  Elizabeth,  it  was  at  that  time  in  so  low  a  state  as 
to  be  occupied  by  only  two  impotent  persons. §  By  the  statute  of 
37  Hen.  VIII.  c.  4.  most  of  the  hospitals  in  this  nation  were  given 
to  the  crown  ;  or  at  least  for  some  years  after  the  passing  of  that  act, 
such  an  interpretation  was  put  upon  some  of  the  clauses  of  it  which 
were  indeed,  and  perhaps  designedly  expressed  in   general  terms, 

*  See  Regist.  Roff.  p.  137.  +  See  Reg.  Spir.  Roff.  f.  fol.  84.  a. 

f  Perambulat.  p.  364.  $  Registers  of  bishop  Heathe,  &e.  fol.  91,  a.  b, 

Q    Y 


,3  11  HISTORY  Of 

that  few  could  escape  being  suppressed  if  the  possessions  they  erf* 
joyed  Mere  of  sufficient  value  to  be  a  temptation  to  a  needy  and  ra- 
pacious courtier.  The  poverty  of  St.  Bartholomew's  hospital  was 
probably  the  cause  of  its  preservation  during  the  reigns  of  Henry 
and  of  his  son.  But  as  soon  as  there  was  a  prospect  of  a  part  of 
the  estate  belonging  to  it  being  improvable,  it  attracted  the  hotfce  of 
some  avaricious  persons.  The  lands  lying  contiguous  to  the  hospital 
and  those  chiefly  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  were  what  they  aimed* 
to  secure  ;  and  the  alteration  in  the  value  of  this  ground  was  entirely 
owing  to  the  establishing  of  a  royal  dock-yard  in  the  neighbourhood, 
which  occasioned  in  a  few  years  such  a  conflux  of  people  to  Chat- 
ham that  it  became  necessary  to  erect  booses  for  their  accommoda- 
tion. 

While  queen  Elizabeth  was  on  the  throne,  various  were  the  at- 
tempts made  to  deprive  the  hospital  of  this  land,  and  particularly 
about  the  year  1579  a  suit  was  commenced  in  the  exchequer  against 
the  brethren  ;  but  a  stop  seems  to  have  been  put  to  it  by  lord  treasur- 
er Burleigh,  on  an  application  from  Dr.  Yonge,  who  at  that  time 
presided  over  this  diocese.  The  letter  written  by  the  bishop  upon 
thisbusinesstothat  eminent  statesman,  is  printed  in  Strype's  annals, 
vol.  11.  p.  588,  from  which  it  appears,  that  the  pretence  of  their 
being  concealed  lands  was  the  plausible  reason  for  this  attack. 
This  groundless  plea  (for  such  it  certainly  was,  as  the  lands,  with* 
the  value  of  them,  had  been  certified  into  the  court  of  augmentation) 
was  again  set  up  some  years  after  the  accession  of  king  James  L 
and  a  grant  made  of  them  by  that  monarch  to  different  persons,  at 
the  nomination  of  James  viscount  Doncaster.  The  tenants  of  the 
houses  built  not  long  before  upon  a  considerable  part  of  this  ground, 
being,  in  consequence  of  this  grant,  summoned  to  attend  Mr. 
Cooke,  an  able  and  an  upright  lawyer,  and  at  that  time  one  of  lord 
Doncaster's  counsel,  in  order  to  assign  their  reasons  why  they 
should  not  surrender  up  their  leases,  applied  to  Dr.  Scott,  the  then 
dean  of  Rochester,  for  his  advice  and  assistance;  and  by  his  di- 
rection Mr.  Thomas  Lee,  the  counsellor  of  the  dean  and  chapter, 
appeared  for  the  tenants  and  the  brethren.     Upon  a  full  hearing  »f 


ROCHESTER.  34,5 

the  merits  of  the  ease,  it  being  evident  that  they  were  not  concealed 
lands,  nor  dedicated  to   superstitious  uses,  Mr.  Cooke   expressly 
declared,   that  the  crown  could  not  be  entitled  to  them  under  the 
before-mentioned  statute,  unless  it  could  be  shewn  that  the  hospital 
had  ever  paid   first-fruits  to  the  king  for  them;  but  this  was  a  tax 
with  which  they  never  had   been  charged,  because  they  were  the 
possessions    of  a   lay   society.     However,  the  patentees,  and  the 
claimants  under  them,  were  unwilling  to  abide  by  this  opinion,  and 
for  a  long  time  the  litigation  between  them  and  the  brethren,  was 
continued  in  various  modes,  the  progress  of  which  the  reader  will 
find  in  the  Regist.  Roffen.  p.  224,   226,  but  at  length  it  was  re- 
ferred by  the  court  of  chancery  to  arbitrators,  one  of  whom  was 
the  celebrated  John   Selden,  esquire  ;  and  they,  about  the  year 
1627,  determined  the  right  of  the  lands  in  question  to  be  in  the  hos- 
pital.    Lady  Bingley,  the  widow  of  Sir  Richard  Ringley,  who  had 
been  surveyor  of  the  navy,   was  the  person  principally  benefited  by 
the  patent  at  the  time  of  the  award  ;  and  it  was  thought  by  the  ar- 
bitrators the  shortest  and  the  best  method,  to  allow  her  a  compen- 
sation for  her  pretended  interest  in  the  estate.     This  money,  accor- 
ding to  the  paper  just  referred  to  in  the  Regist.  RofF.  was  advanced 
by  dean  Balcanquel,  and  this  and  the  other  charges  of  the  contest 
were  afterwards  reimbursed  by  fines  paid  by  the  tenants  on  renew- 
ing their  leases.    The  estates  of  this  community  have  ever  since  been 
enjoyed  by  the  deans   of  Rochester,  as  governors  and  patrons  of 
the  hospital  and  the  brethren  of  the  same.     There  were  formerly 
only   three  brethren  ;  one  of  whom  was  always  a  clergyman,  and 
officiated  as  the  chaplain.     But  in  the  year  1718,  dean  Pratt  made 
an  alteration  in  this  respect,  by  appointing  the  reverend  Mr.  Tho- 
mas  Brereton  to  be  the  second  chaplain,  and  he  was  likewise  to 
enjoy  the  privileges  and  emoluments  of  a  brother :  and  at  present  the 
society  consists  of  four  brethren,  two  of  whom  are  in  orders. 

The  chapel  now  standing  was  erected  at  different  periods :  the 
most  ancient  part  is  the  east  end,  which  is  probably  the  remains 
of  the  original  structure;  it  is  a  small  circus,  with  stone  walls  near 
three  feet  thick,  having  three  narrow   Gothic   windows,  and  is 


346  HISTORY  OF 

roofed  with  stone  ;  from  hence  a  chancel  extends  to  the  west  six- 
teen feet  anrl  from  north  to  south  twenty-seven  feet,  though  not  of 
equal  antiquity  with  the  circus,  yet  this  part  of  the  building  is  also 
very  ancient :  in  the  south  side  is  an  arch  which  formerly  contained 
the  receptacle  for  holy  water.*  This  part  of  the  building  appears 
to  have  demised  ;  for  dean  Pratt,  when  dean,  purchased  at  a  high 
rate  the  remainder  of  a  lease  of  it  that  was  then  subsisting  :  he  was 
also  a  benefactor  to  this  part  of  the  building,  by  repairing  it  and 
new  flooring  it ;  he  also  new  ripped  it,  and  was  at  other  expences 
in  wainscoting  it,  and  setting  up  pews.  From  this  chancel  the 
building  is  continued  farther  to  the  west,  forty-four  feet  in  length, 
and  seventeen  in  width ;  this  part  of  the  structure  was  new  built 
about  the  year  1743,  at  the  sole  expence  of  William  Walter,  of 
Chatham,  esq.  one  of  his  majesty's  justices  of  the  peace  for  the 
county,  who  was  a  very  respectable  character,  and  both  in  his  life 
time  and  at  his  decease  was  a  great  benefactor  to  the  poor  of  that 
place.  The  scite  of  the  ancient  chapel  did  not  extend  so  far  to  the 
west  as  it  does  at  present,  by  about  twenty-four  feet:  the  addition 
was  made  by  the  beneficent  gentleman  last  mentioned,  who  pur- 
chased the  unexpired  lease  of  three  tenements ;  and  on  the  ground 
where  they  stood,  erected  the  west  end  of  the  present  building, 
with  its  steeple.  This  gentleman  entirely  pewed  this  newly  erected 
part  of  the  chapel,  and  was  in  other  respects  a  considerable  bene- 
factor to  it. 


Sir  John  Hawkins's  Hospital. 

JL  HE  fund,  usually  styled  the  Chest  at  Chatham,  the  produce  of 
which  is  regularly  appropriated  to  the  relief  of  sailors,whohave  been 
maimed  in  the  service  of  the  crown,  was,  according  to  Mr.  Cam- 

*  The  stone  bason  appropriated  to  this  use  was  by  Mr.  Walter,  fixed  in  the 
north  wall,  and  is  still  to  be  seen  as  you  ascend  the  chapel  steps:  the  ground, 
from  this  stone  to  the  west  end  was  occupied  by  the  houses  pulled  down  by  Mr. 
Walter. 


ROCHESTER.  347 

den,  planned  by  Sir  Francis  Drake,*  And  Sir  John  Hawkins.  +  By 
this  scheme,  which  was  set  on  foot  in  the  memorable  year  1588, 
after  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  armada,  the  seamen  who  belonged 
to  the  royal  navy,  voluntarily  agreed  lf  to  have  defalked  out  of 
li  their  monthly  wages  for  ever,  the  following  sums,  viz.  out  of 
"  the  wages  of  every  mariner,  seaman,  and  shipwright,  receiving 
"  ten  shillings  per  month,  or  more,  sixpence  per  month  ;  out  of 

*  Sir  Francis  Drake,  before  he  had  the  royal  sanction  for  his  depredations, 
was  a  famous  freebooter  against  the  Spaniards.  Queen  Elizabeth  made  no 
scruple  of  employing  so  bold  and  enterpriziug  a  man  against  a  people  who 
were  themselves  the  greatest  freebooters  and  plunderers  amongst  mankind. 
He  was  the  first  Englishman  that  encompassed  the  globe.  Magellan,  whose 
ships  passed  the  South  Seas  some  time  before,  died  in  his  passage.  In  1587, 
he  burnt  one  hundred  vessels  at  Cadiz,  and  suspended  the  threatened  invasion 
for  a  year ;.  and,  about  the  same  time,  took  a  rich  East  India  carrack  near  the 
Terceras,  by  which  the  English  gained  so  great  insight  into  the  trade  of  that 
part  of  the  world,  that  it  occasioned  the  establishment  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany. In  1588  he  was  appointed  vice-admiral  under  lord  Effingham,  and  ac- 
quitted himself  in  that  important  command  with  his  usual  valour  and  conduct. 
In  the  year  1597,  he  and  Sir  John  Hawkins  undertook  an  important  expediti- 
on against  the  Spanish  settlements  in  America  ;  and  they  took  with  them  six 
ships  of  the  Queen's,  and  twenty  more,  which  either  were  fitted  out  at  their 
own  charge,  or  were  furnished  them  by  private  adventurers.  But  he  met  not 
with  the  same  good  fortune  which  had  attended  his  former  enterprises  in  those 
parts.  He  was  repulsed  by  the  Spaniards  at  Darieh,  where  from  the  intem- 
perance of  the  climate,  the  fatigues  of  his  journey,  and  the  vexation  of  his 
disappointment,  he  was  seized  with  a  distemper,  of  which  he  died,  28th  Janu- 
ary 1595.  Re  married  the  only  daughter  of  Sir  Philip  Sydenham,  of  Brimpton 
in  the  county  of  Somerset. 

+  Sir  John  Hawkins,  one  of  the  most  renowned  seamen,  and  bravest  officers 
in  Europe,  was  born  at  Plymouth  in  the  year  1520,  and  was  the  son  of  captain 
William  Hawkins,  the  first  Englishman  who  made  a  voyage  to  Brazil.  Cap- 
tain John  Hawkins,  in  1565,  got  the  first  potatoes  for  ship  provisions  from  the 
inhabitants  of  Santa  Fe,  in  New  Spain,  and  introduced  the  root  into  Ireland, 
whence  it  was  further  propagated  through  all  the  northern  parts  of  Europe. 
He  was  also  the  first  Englishman  that  engaged  in  the  slave  trade.  His  first 
voyage  to  the  West  Indies,  in  that  trade,  was  in  the  year  1562.  He  had  three 
ships  under  his  command,  viz.  the  Solomon  of  120  tons,  the  Swallow  of  IGp, 


348  HISTORY  OF 

"  the  wages  of  every  gommet  receiving  seven  shillings  and  sixpence 
"  per  month,  fourpence  per  month  ;  and  out  of  the  wages  of  every 
Si  boy  receiving  five  shillings  per  month,  threepence  per  month : 
*c  for  the  perpetual  relief  of  such  mariners,  shipwrights  and  sea- 
H  farina  men,  as,  by  reason  of  hurts  and  maims  received  in  the 
"  service  were  driven  to  great  distress  and  want." 

It  was  also  agreed  that  the  sums  thus  collected,  should  be  dis- 
tributed, from  time  to  time,  under  the  superintendance  of  the 
principal  sea-officers ;  the  overplus  to  be  deposited  in  a  strong 
chest  with  five  locks,  the  keys  of  which  were  to  be  kept  in  separate 
hands.  The  benefits  of  this  arrangement  becoming  more  strikingly 
apparent  with  the  lapse  of  years,  Charles  II.  granted  to  the  Chest 
twelve  acres  of  marsh  lands,  called  Delce,  situated  near  Rochester  ; 
and  before  the  year  1672,  the  funds  were  increased  u  by  fourpences 
('  and  twopences  deducted  from  the  wages  of  all  seamen,  for  the 
i(-  pay  of  chaplains  and  surgeons  of  the  navy  in  such  ships  where 
'*  none  were  borne;  and  in  1688,  the  fines  and  mulcts  imposed 
*'  by  naval  court-martials  were  added  by  a  grant  of  James  II." 

Upon  this  basis  the  concerns  of  the  Chest  have  been  carried  on 
without  any  material  alteration,  till  the  abuses  and  mismanagement 
of  this  noble  charity  occasioned  its  removal  to  Greenwich,  except- 
ing that  the  shipwrights  no  longer  contributing ,  were  excluded 
from  receiving  any  benefit  from  the  fund.  The  average  number  of 
pensioners  deriving  relief  from  the  Chest  during  the  last  thirty  years 
is  about  5000  yearly;  the  annual  amount  of  each  pension  being 
regulated  by  a  kind  of  scale  proportioned  to  the  hurt  sustained  ; 

and  the  James  of  40  tons;  avid  the  crews  of  these  vessels  consisted  of  about  one 
hundred  men.  He,  with  Drake  and  Forbisher,  who  were  reputed  to  be  three 
of  the  best  sea-officers,  of  their  age,  in  the  world,  acted  as  vice-admirals  under 
Charles,  lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  on  board  the  fleet  prepared  to  repel  the 
Spanish  armada;  and  was  knighted  by  that  nobleman  who  was  at  that  time  the 
high  admiral  of  England,  for  his  skilful  and  gallant  conduct  in  that  expedition. 
After  having  signalized  himself  in  several  expeditions  to  the  West  Indies,  he 
died  in  that  against  the  isthmus  of  Darien,  which  also  proved  fatal  to  Sir 
Francis  Drake,  and  was  buried  in  the  element  where  he  acquired  his  fame. 


ROCHESTER.  349 

but  where  the  hurt  or  wound  has  not  been  so  severe  as  to  deprive 
the  party  of  the  power  to  obtain  a  livelihood,  nor  been  attended 
with  the  loss  of  limb,  or  deprivation  of  eye-sight,  a  small  sum  is 
given  in  full  satisfaction  for  the  injury  sustained,  called  Smart 
Money.  The  process  of  obtaining  relief  of  any  kind,  is  by  the 
claimant  procuring  a  certificate,  or  smart  ticket,  from  the  surgeon 
of  the  ship,  countersigned  by  the  captain,  and  other  sea-officers, 
stating  his  name  and  age,  with  the  grounds  of  his  claim,  &c.  which 
being  presented  to  the  governors  of  the  Chest,  the  party  is  exa- 
mined, and  the  relief  awarded  as  above.  The  principal  abuses  on 
which  the  commissioners  of  naval  inquiry  in  1802,  recommended 
the  removal  of  this  Chest  to  Greenwich,  and  the  placing  it  under 
the  direction  of  the  first  lord  of  the  admiralty,  the  comptroller  of 
the  navy,  and  the  governor  and  other  officers  of  Greenwich  Hospi- 
tal, arose  from  the  destructive  system  of  agency,  by  which  the 
pensioners  were  generally  deprived  of  a  considerable  share  of  their1 
allowances.  The  estates  of  the  Chest  were  also  let  considerably 
under  value,  and  in  some  instances  proved  a  real  loss,  instead  of 
contributing  to  augment  the  funds  :  these,  therefore,  the  commis- 
sioners recommended  to  be  sold,  and  the  produce  to  be  vested  in 
the  funds.  The  stock  now  belonging  to  the  Chest  in  the  three  per 
cent,  consolidated  annuities,  amounts  to  nearly  300,000/.  of  which 
10,000/.  was  given  a  few  years  ago  by  a  person  unknown,  who  at 
the  same  time  bestowed  a  like  sum  on  Greenwich  Hospital. 

But  it  is  not  in  this  instance  alone  that  seafaring  persons,  em- 
ployed in  the  king's  service,  have  reason  to  commemorate,  with 
gratitude,  the  good  deeds  of  Sir  John  Hawkins ;  for,  not  satisfied 
with  having  promoted  this  excellent  scheme,  by  his  advice,  his  au- 
thority, and  example,  this  humane  and  public-spirited  officer  found- 
ed and  endowed,  at  his  own  costs,  an  hospital  in  this  town,  to  be  a 
comfortable  retreat  for  poor  decayed  mariners  and  shipwrights. 
The  building  for  their  reception  appears,  from  an  old  inscription 
cut  in  the  wall  over  the  entrance  into  the  present  mansion,  to  have 
been  finished  in  the  year  1592.     And  on  the  27th  of  August  1594, 


,350  HISTORY  OF 

queen  Elizabeth,  at  the  request  of  the  founder,  granted  a  charter* 
of  incorporation,  by  the  name  of  "  The  governors  of  the  hospital 
of  Sir  John  Hawkins,  knight,  in  Chatham."  The  society  were 
always  to  consist  of  twenty-six  governors,  of  which  number  four 
only  were  to  be  elective,  and  the  others  were  to  be  invested  with 
this  trust,  by  virtue  of  their  respective  offices.  These  are  recited  as 
follows  in  the  charter :  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  bishop 
of  Rochester,  the  lord  high  admiral,  the  lord  warden  of  the  cinque 
ports,  the  dean  of  Rochester,  the  treasurer,  comptroller,  surveyor, 
and  clerk  of  the  acts  of  the  navy,  six  principal  masters  of  mariners, 
two  principal  shipwrights,  the  master  and  wardens  of  the  Trinity 
house,  for  the  time  being,  and  their  successors.  At  the  election  of 
any  new  governor,  there  must  be  five  governors  who  dwell  in  the 
county  of  Kent,  present  in  the  capital  house  of  the  said  hospital; 
and  one  of  the  principal  officers  of  the  navy,  one  of  the  six  masters 
of  mariners,  one  of  the  principal  shipwrights,+  and  one  of  the  mas- 
ters and  wardens  of  the  Trinity  house,  are  to  be  four  of  the  five 
governors. 

The  qualifications  required  in  an  elective  governor  are,  that  he 
be  of  the  full  age  of  twenty-one  years,  have  his  residence  in  the 
county  of  Kent,  and  that  he  be  seized  of  a  real  estate  within  the 
same,  of  the  annual  value  of  one  hundred  shillings  at  least. 

Power  was  given  by  this  deed  to  Sir  John  Hawkins,  and  others, 
to  assign  and  bequeath,  and  a  licence  to  the  governors  to  purchase 
and  take,  lands,  tenements,  and  hereditaments,  that  did  not  exceed 
the  clear  yearly  value  of  one  hundred  marks,  i.  e.  sixty -six  pounds 
thirteen  shilling  and  four-pence  per  annum.  And  it  reflects  alast- 
ing  honor  on  the  character  of  this  worthy  knight,  that  he  in  his  life 
time,  and  while  he  seems  to  have  been  blessed  with  health  and  vigour 

*  This  charter  is  kept  in  the  chest  belonging  to  this  charity;  is  extremely 
well  written,  and  in  fine  preservation. 

+  The  commissioner,  the  two  master  attendants,  and  the  master  shipwrights 
of. Chatham  yard,  are  now  always  governors  of  this  charity,  the  other  present 
goyernors  are  George  Best,  esq.  the  reverend  John  Law,  D.  D.  archdeacon  of 
Rerbester,  William  Twopcny,  esq.  and  William  Hussey,  esq. 


ROCHESTER;  351 

to  have  enjoyed  his  fortune,  conveyed  to  this  house  of  charity  the 
lands  and  tythes  which  he  intended  for  the  poor  inhabitants  of  it ; 
the  rents  of  which  then  amounted  to  sixty-six  pounds  a  year.* 

During  the  life  of  Sir  John  Hawkins,  he  alone  was  to  appoint 
the  poor  mariners  and  shipwrights,  who  Were  to  be  received  into  the 
hospital  :  the  proper  officers  for  the  management  of  the  same  were 
to  be  constituted  by  him ;  and  he  had  the  sole  pother  of  doing  all 
other  acts  for  the  regulation  thereof.  After  his  decease,  the  right 
of  nominating  the  poor  persons,  and  the  officers,  devolved  upon 
the  governors;  and  none  of  their  acts  were  to  be  valid,  unless  the 
major  part  of  such  of  them,  as  should  then  dwell  within  the  county 
of  Kent,  were  present ;  and  it  was  likewise  directed,  that  one  of 
each  of  these  four  officers  and  governors,  whose  attendance  is  requir- 
ed at  the  choice  of  a  new  governor,  should  be  of  the  number.  But 
in  making  statutes  and  ordinances  of  the  government  of  the  hospital, 
&c.  the  bishop,  or  the  dean  of  Rochester  for  the  time  being,  must 
be  one  of  the  five  governors  present. 

The  beneficent  founder  did  not  long  survive  the  institution  of 
this  charitable  society,  for  he  died  November  21,  lS^,  in  sight  of 
the  island  of  Porto  Rico,  in  the  Spanish  West-Indies^  on  board 
the  Garland  man  of  war ;  and  three  years  after  his  decease,  the 
whole  number  of  the  governors  established  a  body  of  statutes.  As 
they  were  informed  that  Sir  John  Hawkins  had  declared  his  inten- 
tion concerning  some  few  points,  these  they  wisely  adopted,  and 
added  such  other  rules  as  appeared  to  them  to  be  necessary  and  ex- 
pedient. Twelve  +  pensioners  were  settled  in  the  hospital,  and  a 
weekly  stipend  of  two  shillings  was  to  be  paid  to  each  poor  person. 
This  allowance  was  more  liberal  than  the  annual  revenue  would  at 
that  time  admit  of,  so  that  in  the  year  1609  it  was  found  requisite 
to  reducs  the  number  of  pensioners  to  ten. 

*  The  lands  were  styled  Old  Garlands,  situated  in  Essex,  and  were  worth 
fifty  pounds  a  year,  and  the  tythes  of  Welling,  in  the  parish  of  East  "Wie&ham, 
amounted  to  sixteen  pounds,  but  now  let  at  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  pounds 
per  annum. 

•f  The  number  mentioned  in  the  charter  Mas  ten  or  more. 

2  £ 


352  HISTORY   OF 

The  estate  has  been  siuce  considerably  improved  by  the  faithful 
and  judicious  management  of  the  present  governors,  and  the  poor 
men  have  reaped  the  benefit  of  it ;  for  the  stipend  of  the  men  is  aug- 
mented to  three  shillings  and  sixpence  per  week  ;  they  are  like- 
wise allowed  a  chaldron  of  coals  yearly.  No  person  is  eligible, 
•who,  while  in  the  service  of  the  royal  navy,  has  not  been  maimed 
or  disabled,  or  otherwise  brought  to  poverty ;  and  if  at  the  time  of 
being  chosen  he  is  married,  unless  his  wife  be  at  least  fifty  years  of 
age,  she  is  not  permitted  to  cohabit  with  her  husband  in  the  hospi- 
tal. But  pensioners  widows,  who  are  arrived  at  this  age,  may 
continue  in  the  hospital,  as  long  as  they  remain  single,  and  they 
are  entitled  to  a  weekly  allowance  of  two  shillings  and  sixpence. 
A  pensioner  forfeits  his  place  in  the  hospital  by  marrying  after  his 
election.  By  the  sixteenth  statute  a  deputy  governor  was  always 
to  be  appointed  under  the  common  seal  of  the  hospital ;  he  was  to 
inhabit  the  principal  house  belonging  to  it,  and  to  have  forty  shil- 
lings yearly  fee.  In  the  year  1722,  the  portal  of  this  hospital  was 
rebuilt,  and  all  the  houses  thoroughly  repaired,  and  by  direction 
of  the  governors,  the  old  inscriptions  were  continued ;  that  over 
the  gate,  on  the  outer  side,  is  in  the  following  words  : 

u  The  poor  you  shall  always  have  with  you  :  to  whom  ye  may 
"  do  good  yf  ye  wyl." 

And  over  the  gate  on  the  inner  side  is  this  passage  from  Deute- 
ronomy, chapter  15:  "Because  there  shall  be  ever  some  poor  in 
"  the  land,"  therefore  I  command  thee,  saying,  "  Thou  shall  open 
"  thyne  hand  unto  thy  brother,  that  is  needy  and  poor  in  the 
"  land." 

It  is  evident  that  the  founder  of  this  hospital,  by  fixing  in  a  con- 
spicuous part  of  the  walls  of  it  these  admonitions  to  charity,  in- 
tended to  awaken  in  the  minds  of  passengers,  sentiments  of  pity 
and  compassion ;  and  one  may  reasonably  suppose  that  he  hoped 
to  excite  those  of  his  own  profession  at  least,  who  had  been  suc- 
cessful in  the  world,  to  enlarge  and  improve  upon  a  plan  calculated 


ROCHESTER.  353 

for  the  support,  in  the  decline  of  life,  of  a  body  of  men  useful  to 
the  community,  and  to  whose  laborious  and  perilous  assistance 
they  were  chiefly  indebted  for  the  wealth  they  had  acquired.  But 
if  this  was  the  expectation  and  laudable  aim  of  Sir  John  Hawkins, 
they  have  been,  in  a  great  measure  ineffectual.  For  though,  since 
the  establishing  of  this  institution,  very  ample,  nay,  noble  fortunes 
have  been  made  by  naval  officers  in  the  service  of  the  crown,  the 
name  of  Robert  Davis  is  almost  the  only  one  who  stands  recorded 
as  a  benefactor ;  and  it  was  by  the  direction  of  dame  Elizabeth 
Narborough  (afterwards  Shovel)  whom  this  honest  and  able  seaman 
had  prudently  appointed  his  sole  executrix,  and  the  dispenser  of 
his  effects,  that  much  the  greater  part  of  the  money  he  had  be- 
queathed for  charitable  purposes  was  allotted  towards  the  relief  of 
this  decaying  foundation. 

The  governors  enjoined  public  worship  to  be  performed  morning 
and  evening,  in  the  hospital ;  and  every  pensioner  who,  without 
leave  of  the  deputy  governor,  was  absent  at  the  stated  hours,  in- 
curred by  the  tenth  ordinance,  a  penalty  of  four  pence.  It  was 
likewise  recommended  to  the  incumbent  of  the  parish  of  Chatham, 
once  in  every  quarter  of  the  year,  to  examine  at  the  church,  in  the 
afternoon  of  some  Sunday  or  holiday,  the  poor  of  the  said  hospital : 
and  if,  upon  trial,  he  found  any  that  could  not  repeat  the  prayers 
appointed  for  their  use,  nor  were  able  and  willing,  after  one  quar- 
ter's monition,  to  learn  and  say  them,  they  were  to  be  expelled 
for  ever  from  the  hospital,  unless  "  disabled  by  the  right  use  of 
tongue,"*  or  extreme  age  of  eighty  years  or  more.  Two  shillings 
and  sixpence  was  to  be  the  sum  allowed  to  the  minister  every  time 
the  poor  were  so  examined.  There  has  been,  however,  for  a  long 
time  an  alteration  in  this  respect.  At  present  four  guineas  a  year, 
charged  on  this  mansion  house,  which  the  governors  of  this  useful 
establishment  hold  by  lease  from  the  members  of  St.  Bartholomew's 
hospital,  are  paid  to  those  brethren  of  it  who  are  in  orders  ;  and 
the  service  stipulated  is,  that  they  shall  preach  every  Sunday,  in, 

*  Thus  expressed  in  the  original. 


354  HISTORY  &c. 

the  chapel  belonging  to  their  own  society,  and  once  in  every  quar- 
ter instruct  the  poor  persons  in  Sir  John  Hawkins's  hospital  in  the 
truths  of  the  christian  religion.  Dean  Pratt  fixed  this  annuity  in 
the  year  1718. 


A 
DESCRIPTION 

OF   THE 

TOWNS    AND    VILLAGES, 

SITUATED    ON    AND    NEAR   THE   ROAD  FROM 

LONDON  to  MARGATE,  $c. 


D 


'EPTFORD  is  the  first  town  in  this  road,  and  is  situated  about 
four  miles  from  London  Bridge  ;  it  is  divided  into  lower  and  upper 
Deptford :  the  road  through  the  upper  town  lies  over  a  stone  bridge, 
which  extends  across  the  small  river  Ravensbourn.  The  lower  town 
is  ranged  on  the  bank  of  the  Thames.  The  town  of  Deptford  has 
been  so  much  enlarged  within  the  last  century,  that  it  was  found 
necessary  to  erect  another  church,  which  is  a  spacious  and  hand- 
some building.  Deptford  is  remarkable  for  its  spacious  Dock 
Yard,  where  second  and  third  rate  ships  may  always  be  seen  upon 
the  stocks.  Its  whole  extent  is  thirty-one  acres;  and  about  fifteen 
hundred  artizans  are  constantly  employed  in  it. 

About  one  mile  from  Deptford  is  Greenwich,  commonly  distin- 
guished in  writings  by  the  name  of  east  Greenwich,  situated  on  the 
margin  of  the  Thames.  The  church,  now  a  very  noble  structure, 
was  rebuilt,  in  the  last  century,  from  the  fund  for  building  fifty 
new  churches.  It  was  in  ancient  times  dedicated  to  St.  Elphege, 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  is  reported  to  have  been  martyred 
by  the  Danes  A.  D.  1012.  The  Royal  Hospital,  so  well  known, 
is  situated  partly  on  the  ground  where  formerly  stood  a  royal 


356  GREENWICH. 

palace,  called  Placentia ;  of  the  front  of  which,  next  the  water,  a 
print  was  published,  several  years  ago,  from  an  ancient  drawing,  by 
the  Antiquarian  Society,  In  that  old  palace,  Mary  and  Elizabeth, 
the  two  Queens,  daughters  of  Henry  VIII.  were  born,  and  there 
the  pious  king  Edward  VI.  died.  King  Charles  II.  began  to  build 
this  superb  structure,  and  finished  one  wing  at  the  expence  of 
36,0001.  King  William  III.  erected  the  other  wing;  queen  Anne, 
and  king  George  I.  continued  this  work ;  but  king  George  II.  fi- 
nished this  grand  design.  Part  of  the  west  and  south  fronts  were 
of  brick,  with  rustic  ornaments  of  stone  work;  but  have  been  en- 
tirely cased  with  stone.  The  present  establishment  of  Greenwich 
hospital  consists  of  a  master  and  governor,  a  lieutenant-governor, 
four  captains,  and  eight  lieutenants,  with  a  variety  of  officers  of 
the  hospital;  2410  pensioners,  149  nurses,  and  3000  out-pension^ 
ers.  The  number  of  persons  residing  within  the  walls,  including 
officers,  &c.  amounts  to  nearly  2600.  The  park,  observatory,  and 
many  elegant  buildings  on  each  side  the  park  are  worthy  of  attenti- 
on. The  observatory  is  situated  on  the  highest  ground  in  the  park, 
and  was  erected  by  Charles  II.  who  allotted  it  for  the  use  of  an  as- 
tronomer royal,  whom  he  placed  here  with  a  competent  salary  for 
his  maintenance.  This  edifice  is  completely  furnished  with  mathe-> 
matical  and  optical  instruments  to  answer  the  design  of  its  institu- 
tion. From  Mr.  Flamstead  who  was  the  first  astronomer  royal, 
this  observatory  took  the  name  of  Flamstead  House,  by  which  it  is 
now  commonly  known.  The  town  is  populous,  and  the  inhabitants 
in  general  persons  of  fashion,  or  in  easy  circumstances.  Here  is  a 
market  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays. 

Eastward  of  Greenwich  park  and  Maize-hill,  beyond  Sir  John 
Vanbrugh's  buildings,  is  West  Comb,  an  house  and  paddock,  and 
delightful  gardens,  commanding  a  most  extensive  prospect  over  the 
Thames  into  Essex  and  Middlesex.  Blackheath,  which  lies  on 
the  summit  of  the  hill  above  Greenwich  to  the  south,  is  about  one 
mile  in  length,  with  the  five-mile  stone  in  the  middle  of  it.  It  is 
always  pleasant  in  winter  as  well  as  summer,  when  the  weather  is 
favourable  for  walking  or  riding  j  with  the  richest  prospects  on  all 


CHARLTON*  357 

sides.  It  hath  been  famous  for  various  scenes  of  war,  rebellion, 
and  festive  solemnities,  in  the  ancient  history  of  this  nation.  On 
the  east  of  the  heath,  is  Morden  college,  founded  by  Sir  John 
Morden,  a  Turkey  merchant,  who  died  in  1708  ;  and  left  his  whole 
estate  in  trust  for  the  benefit  of  decayed  Turkey  merchants,  for  the 
reception  of  whom  he  finished  this  college  in  his  life  time  ;  and  the 
charity  took  place  in  its  full  latitude  after  the  death  of  lady  Mor* 
den,  who  also  was  a  benefactor  to  it.  The  gentlemen  who  are  ad- 
mitted into  this  society  must  reside  in  the  house:  there  is  an  ele- 
gant chapel,  and  an  handsome  salary  and  house  for  the  chaplain  : 
there  are  also  apartments  for  a  treasurer.  On  the  south  of 
Blackheath,  about  half  a  mile  to  the  left  of  the  six-mile  stone,  is 
the  village  of  Charlton,  which  hath  a  very  handsome  church  of 
brick,  in  which  are  several  fine  monuments.  As  you  approach  the 
village  you  are  struck  with  admiration  at  a  stately  Gothic  mansion 
built  by  Sir  Adam  Newton,  baronet*,  who  had  been  preceptor  to" 
Henry  prince  of  Wales,  the  son  of  James  I.  The  two  last  earls 
of  Egmont  inhabited  this  house  many  years  ago.  On  the  south 
side  of  Blackheath  lies  the  pleasant  village  of  Lee,  chiefly  inhabi- 
ted by  genteel  families,  and  having  several  pleasant  mansions  in  the- 
vicinity.  The  manor  has  been  the  property  of  various  noble  fami- 
lies, and  now  belongs  to  lord  Sondes.  Lee-Place  was  for  upwards 
of  a  century  the  seat  of  the  Boone  family,  one  of  whom,  Charles 
Boone,  esq.  with  Mary  his  wife,  founded  an  alms-house  and  school 
here,  and  endowed  it  with  lands  and  rents,  the  proceeds  of  which 
now  amount  to  between  seventy  and  eighty  pounds  annually.  The 
strait  Toad  from  London  to  Maidstone  is  through  Lee  village. 

Between  the  parish  of  Lee,  Eltham  and  Chislehurst,  is  an 
hamlet  called  Modingham,  in  which  is  a  small  seat  of  the  late 
lord  Apsley,  with  pleasant  grounds  about  it ;  the  beauty  of  the 
whole  is  owing  to  his  lordship's  improvements;  and  here  is  also  a 
very  old  mansion  which  belonged  to  the  ancient  family  of  the  Stod- 
dards.     Between  the  village   of  Lee,  and  the  summit  of  the  hill, 

*   See  Dr.  Birch's  life  of  prince  Henry. 


,$58  wdoLWictt. 

next  Blackheath,  is  the  pleasant  villa  formerly  inhabited  by  the 
Fludyers,  and  lately  by  the  dowager  Lady  Dacre,  daughter  of  Sir 
Thomas  Fludyer  :  she  died  a  few  years  ago.  On  the  summit  of  the 
hill  next  the  heath  stands  the  ancient  church  of  Lee,  very  small. 
The  church-yard  is  neat,  much  ornamented  with  costly  monuments 
of  statuary  and  black  marble.  The  great  astronomer  Dr.  Edmund 
Halley  lies  buried  here  under  a  plain  table  tomb,  with  an  inscrip- 
tion of  some  length  in  Latin.  In  the  church,  on  the  north  of  the 
communion  table  is  a  stately  arched  monument  of  alabaster ,  sup- 
ported with  columns  of  blade  marble  of  the  Corinthian  order,  in 
commemoration  of  Bryan  Annesley,  esq.  gentleman  pensioner  to 
Queen  Elizabeth  :  his  effigy  in  armour,  and  that  of  his  wife  Audrey 
in  the  habit  of  the  times,  lie  under  an  elliptic  arch,  ornamented 
with  a  Mosaic  pattern  studded  with  roses. 

Lewisham  is  a  pleasant  village  upon  the  Tunbridge  road,  south 
west  of  Blackheath  ;  and  a  little  beyond  the  five-mile  stone  upon 
that  road.  Upon  the  declivity  of  Blackheath,  next  Lewisham,  is 
the  Free  School,  for  the  benefit  of  several  parishes  in  the  hundred, 
of  Blackheath.  It  is  situated  upon  a  very  fine  and  healthy  spot. 
It  was  founded  in  the  last  century  by  Abraham  Colfe,  vicar  of 
Lewisham,  who  bequeathed  other  charities  to  the  parish  of  Lewis- 
ham. The  present  handsome  church  was  erected  about  the  year 
1774.  Lewisham  is  now  the  property  of  the  earl  Of  Dartmouth, 
whose  seat  on  Blackheath  is  within  the  bounds  of  this  parish; 

Near  the  seventh  mile  stone,  on  an  eminence  to  the  west  of 
Shooters-hill,  is  a  triangular  brick  building  erected  by  Lady  James 
to  the  memory  of  Sir  William  James  her  husband,  who  was  in  the 
service  of  the  Hon.  East  India  Company.  Its  singular  appearance 
excites  the  attention  of  every  traveller,  and  may  be  seen  at  the  dis- 
tance of  many  miles  round  this  part  of  the  country. 

The  town  of  Woolwich  is  situated  two  miles  to  the  left  of  the 
seventh  mile  stone,  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames.  The  church  is  a 
handsome  brick  building  in  a  conspicuous  situation.  Woolwich  is 
famed  for  its  iine  Docks  and  Yards,  as  also  for  its  vast  magazines 
of  guns,  mortars,  bombs,  cannon  balls,  and  other  military  stores. 


ELTHAM.  359 

In  the  lower  part  of  the  town  is  the  Warren,  now  called  the  Royal 
Arsenal,  where  upwards  of  seven  thousand  pieces  of  ordnance; 
have  been  laid  up  at  one  time.  Here  also  is  the  house  where 
bombs,  carcases,  and  grenades  are  prepared.  Adjoining  is  a  very 
fine  common  on  which  are  built  most  spacious  barracks  for  the  roy- 
al artillery,  and  an  academy  for  the  instruction  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  cadets,  who  are  taught  the  first  principles  of  mathe- 
matics, fortification,  military  plan-drawing,  French,  fencing,  and 
dancing.  There  is  also  a  small  academy  in  the  royal  arsenal  for  the 
accommodation  of  about  sixty  cadets.  This  institution  is  prepara- 
tory to  that  on  the  common,  as  no  cadet  can  be  admitted  into  the 
latter  till  he  has  passed  through  the  former.  The  number  of  mas-* 
ters  who  are  employed  in  the  two  academies  is  about  twenty  ;  at 
the  head  of  whom  is  John  Bonnycastle,  esq.  author  of  several  ex- 
cellent introductory  works  in  various  branches  of  mathematics. 

One  mile  to  the  right,  on  the  other  side  of  the  road  up   Shoot- 
er's-hill}  is   the   town   of  Eltham,  on  an  eminence ;  formerly  a 
royal  residence  :  some  part  of  the  ancient  palace  still  remains  ;  par- 
ticularly a  stately   hall  very  perfect.     The  manor  is  in  grant  from 
the  crown  to  Sir  John  Shaw,  who  was  created  a  baronet  in   1G65> 
in  reward   for   his    having    lent    large     sums   of    money    to   the 
King  before   the   restoration.      The    street    of    Eltham    consists 
chiefly  in  houses  of  families  of  genteel  fashion.     Eltham  Lodge 
is  a  respectable  mansion,  standing  in  the  great  park  which  formerly 
belonged  to  the  palace,  and  includes  an  area   of  two  miles  in  cir- 
cumference.    The  parish  register  records  the   burial   of  Thomas 
Dogget,  the  eminent  low  comedian,  who,  dying  in  1721,  bequeath- 
ed a  coat  and  silver  badge  to  be  rowed  for  annually  On  the  first  of 
August.     In  the  church-yard  is  the  tomb  of  the  celebrated  George 
Howe  D.  D.  bishop  of  Norwich,  who  died  in  1792.     The    church 
contains  some  ancient  monuments.     Eight  miles  from  London  is 
Shooter's  hill,  from  the  elevated  top  of  which,  is  a  pleasant  and  ex- 
tensive prospect. 

Between  the  tenth  and  eleventh  mile  stone,  is  the  small  village* 

3  A 


360  CRAYFORD. 

of  Welling ;  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the  right  of  the  eleventh  mile  sfdn<? 
is   Danson'  hill,   on  which  stands  the  seat  of  John  Johnson,  esq. 
This  beautiful  structure  was  designed  by  the  ingenious  Mr.  Taylor, 
(the  great   architect  of  the  Bank.)     About  two  miles  to  the  left  of 
the  eleventh  mile  stone,  are  the  small  remains  of  the  famous  abbey 
of  West-well   or  Lesness,  founded  by  the  mistaken  piety  of  Rich- 
ard De  Lucy,  lord  chief  justice  of  England  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II. 
Richard  afterwards  became   prior  of  his  own   abbey,    where  it  is 
imagined  he  and  others  of  his  family  were  buried  ;  in  removing  part 
of  the  foundation  of  this  abbey  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  a  vault  was 
discovered,  in  which  were  several  coffins  with  portraitures  on  them  ; 
theremains  probably  of  this  singular  lord  chief  justice  and  his  family. 
Cardinal  Woolsey   suppressed  this  abbey,  to  assist  him  in  found- 
ing  his  new  college  of  Christ   Church  in   Oxford.     From  Bexley 
heath,  in  the  extensive  valley  on  the  right,  is  seen  the  village  and 
church  of  Bexley,  with  several  villas,  among  which  is  Footscray 
place,  the  seat  of  Benjamin  Harence  esq. ;  this  magnificent  structure 
is  built  in  imitation  of  lord  le  Despenser's  house  at  Mereworth,  in  this 
county.     The  manor  of  Bexley  was  in  the  possession  of  that  great 
antiquarian  Mr.  William  Cambden,  who  bequeathed  it  towards  the 
support  of  an  history  professorship  at  Oxford.     Crayford  is  a  small 
town,  in  which  is  a  stone  bridge  over  the  river  Cray.     This  place  is 
famous  for  a  battle  fought  near  it,  between   the  Britons  and  Saxons 
commanded  by  Hengist  A.  D.  457,  in  which  the  Britons  were  over- 
thrown.    There  are  many  deep  caverns  in  the  earth  near  this  town, 
which  are  supposed  to  have  been  hiding-places  in  those  days  of  bar- 
barism.    The  Roman  station   called  Noviomagnus  is  imagined  to 
have  been  near  this  place.     Great  quantities  of  linen  are  bleached 
and  printed  at  Crayford. 

Fifteen  miles  from  London  is  the  ancient  and  pleasant  town  of 
Dartford,  situated  on  the  rivulet  Darent,  over  which  is  a  good 
stone  bridge.  It  is  a  post  town,  and  the  first  stage  on  the  Kent- 
ish road.  It  affords  good  entertainment  for  travellers  in  its  com- 
modious inns.  The  marriage  solemnity  between  Isabella,  sister 
of  Henry  III.  and  Frederic  emperor  of  Germany,  was  celebrated 


DARTFORD.  361 

here.  King  Edward  III.  founded  a  nunnery  in  this  town,  which 
became  famous  for  the  dignity  of  its  devotees.  At  the  time  of  the 
reformation,  king  Henry  VIII.  converted  it  into  a  palace  for 
himself  and  successors.  Queen  Elizabeth  in  her  way  from  Roches- 
ter to  Greenwich,  resided  in  this  palace  two  days;  it  was  alienated 
from  the  crown  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  The  knights  templars  also 
had  a  mansion  in  this  town.  The  mills  for  the  manufacture  of  that 
dangerous  composition  gunpowder,  belonging  to  Messrs.  Andrews 
and  Pigou,  stand  on  the  river  Darent  about  a  mile  from  Dartford 
on  the  right.  On  the  same  river,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  town 
on  the  south,  a  paper-mill,  supposed  to  be  the  first  mill  of  that 
kind  in  England,*  was  erected  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  by  John 
Spelman,  a  person  of  German  extraction,  who  was  jeweller  to 
th^  queen.  He  received  the  honour  of  knighthood  from  king 
James  I.  :  he  also  obtained  a  patent  and  an  annuity  of  200^. 
from  Charles  I.  to  enable  him  to  carry  on  that  manufacture.  In 
the  year  1590,  Godfrey  Box  of  Leigh,  erected,  a  little  below 
the  church,  the  first  mill  for  slitting  bar  iron  for  the  purpose 
of  converting  it  into  wire.  The  church  is  spacious,  and  contains 
some  ancient  monuments.  There  are  two  burying  grounds  belong- 
ing to  this  parish  ;  one  of  which  is  situated  on  a  hill,  but  there  are 
no  traces  when  that  ground  was  first  applied  to  that  use.  A  con- 
siderable corn  market  is  held  on  Saturdays  ;  and  a  fair  on  the  2nd 
of  August,  for  horses  and  black  cattle. 

Near  the  read  from  Dartford  is  a  large  common  called  Dartford 
Brink,  where  Edward  III.  held  a  solemn  tournament  in  the  year 
1331.  The  strife  between  the  families  of  York  and  Lancaster  be- 
gan here,  when  Richard  Plantagenet,  duke  of  York,  &c.  A.  D. 
1452,  brought  together  on  this  spot  an  army  of  10,000  men.  At 
present  it  is  the  theatre  of  more  peaceful  scenes,  as  appears  by  the 

*  The  suppocition  that  this  paper-mill  was  the  first  in  England  is  a  mistake. 
Paper  made  at  Hertford  by  John  Tate,  jun.  was  used  in  a  book  printed  about 
the  year  1591.  Tate's  paper-mill  is  thought  to  have  been  that  which  is  now 
called  Sele  Mill:  a  meadow  adjoining  to  it  has  still  the  name  of  Paper-Mill- 
Mead. 


362  GREENHITHE. 

booths  erected  on  a  part  of  it,  in  which  the  spectators  behold  the 
great  cricket-matches  that  are  played  on  this  agreeable  spot, 

Haifa  mile  to  the  left  of  the  seventeenth  stone,  is  the  venerable 
church  of  Stone,  which  has  in  it  several  ancient  monuments.  The 
mansion  called  Stone  castle  is  to  the  right  of  the  road  :  the  ancient 
structure  is  gone  to  ruin;;,  and  a  modern  building  erected  in  its 
place  which  is  now  the  habitation  of  T.  Talbot,  esq.  Greenhithe 
is  a  romantic  situation  on  the  bank  of  the  Thames,  on  the  left  are 
a  number  of  large  pits,  from  which  are  shipped  innumerable  tons  of 
chalk  and  lime.  Beyond  the  eighteenth  mile  stone,  on  the  left, 
may  be  discerned  through  the  trees  the  much  admired  villa,  Ince 
Grice,  or  Ingress,  as  it  is  commonly  pronounced.  The  prioress 
and  nuns  of  Dart  ford  were  possessed  of  this  house,  and  of  course  it 
came  to  the  crown  upon  the  dissolution  of  that  religious  communit;  : 
it  has  since  passed  to  many  proprietors.  The  late  John  Calcraft, 
esq.  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  city  of  Rochester,  possessed  it, 
and  expended  a  considerable  sum  of  money  in  improving  and  embel- 
lishing the  estate.  Jt  now  belongs  to  government.  The  house  is 
very  convenient,  and  the  gardens  beautifully  romantic :  from  a 
spacious  and  elegant  room  at  the  west  end  of  the  house,  as  well  as 
from  various  parts  of  the  gardens,  the  eye  is  entertained  with  views 
of  the  river  and  the  Essex  shore,  that  are  perfectly  enchanting  :  and 
upon  the  whole  it  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  spots  on  the  bank  of 
the  Thames. 

The  country  about  Greenhithe  and  Swanscomb  is  famous  for  be- 
ing the  rendezvous  of  the  Danish  free-booters,  who  drew  their 
fleet  in'o  the  inlet  or  rivulet  that  formerly  was  pretty  deep  be- 
tween the  hiils,  on  which  Northfleet  and  Swanscomb  are  situated  : 
the  latter  place  derives  its  name  from  a  captain  of  those  barbarians, 
called  Swein,  who  there  pitched  his  camp,  and  from  whom  it  was 
denominated  Swcin's  camp.  There  remain  still  several  small  hills 
cast  up  by  these  free-booters,  and  called  sconces,  being  stations  for 
a  small  number  of  men  employed  as  centinels,  when  their  camp 
was  here.  The  ascent  from  this  valley  to  Northfleet  is  now  made 
very  easy,  and  much  improved.     The  village  of  Northfleet  is  on  th& 


GRAVESEND.  363 

eminence  between  the  twentieth  and  twenty- first  mile  stones,  and 
is  very  ancient,  for  it  is  found  recorded  in  Doomsday  book.  The 
church  contains  several  ancient  monuments. 

To  the  left  of  the  twenty-second  stone  is  the  town  of  Gravesend, 
situated  on  the  bank  of  the  Thames  :  it  is  a  populous  and  flourish- 
ing town;  but  the  streets  are  narrow,  and  the  pavement  bad. 
Gravesend  has  changed  its  situation  since  the  great  increase  of  trade 
in  this  nation,  and  approached  nearer  the  river,  as  the  chief  sup- 
port of  its  inhabitants.  The  town  was  burnt,  and  several  of  its 
inhabitants  captivated,  by  the  French  and  Spaniards,  who  invaded 
this  part  of  the  country  with  row  gallies,  in  the  year  1380.  The 
church,  in  its  ancient  state,  stood  near  the  high  road,  but  now  is 
nearer  the  river  :  it  is  a  new  and  elegant  building;  to  the  erecting 
of  which  his  late  majesty  contributed  liberally.  The  former 
church,  and  great  part  of  the  town,  wers  consumed  by  tire  in  the 
year  1727. 

King  Richard  II.  granted  to  the  men  of  Gravesend  and  Milton 
(an  adjacent  parish)  the  exclusive  privilege  of  conveying  passengers 
from  Gravesend  to  London.  This  charter  has  been  confirmed  by 
succeeding  princes,  under  various  regulations,  to  this  day.  They 
go  to  London  with  every  flood  tide,  and  return  from  Billingsgate 
with  the  ebb.  Their  departure  from  each  place  is  regulated  by 
ringing  a  small  bell  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  Great  numbers  of  people 
use  this  passage,  the  boats  being  very  safe  and  commodious:  the 
fare  is  eighteen-pence.  There  are  coaches  which  attend  the  tides, 
and  go  from  Gravesend  to  Rochester  and  Chatham,  the  fare  of 
which  is  three  shillings.  There  was  anciently  a  chapel  in  this  town, 
and  it  is  supposed  to  have  stood  where  the  New  Tavern  is.  The 
gardens  near  this  town  are  remarkable  for  producing  excellent  as- 
paragus, great  quantities  of  which  are  sent  to  London.  All  ships 
outward  bound  are  obliged  to  stop  here,  until  they  have  been  vi- 
sited by  proper  officers  for  their  clearance.  This  part  of  the 
Thames  is  defended  by  Tilbury  Fort,  which  is  on  the  shore  opposite 
to  Gravesend;  and  a  platform  at  the  lower  part  of  this  town, 
mounted  with  several  small  cannon.     This  town  was  incorporated 


364  SHORNE. 

with  Milton,  by  queen  Elizabeth,  by  the  name  of  port-reeve,  (but 
now  mayor)  jurats,  and  inhabitants  of  Milton  and  Gravesend. 
The  town-house  is  a  handsome  building;  it  was  erected  in  the 
year  1764:  under  it  a  market  is  held  on  Wednesdays  and  Satur- 
days, and  a  fair  on  the  23rd  of  April,    and  the  24th  of  October. 

A  little  to  the  left  of  the  twenty-fifth  mile  stone,  is  the  church 
of  Chalk,  over  the  entrance  into  which  are  some  very  preposter- 
ous figures:  in  it  is  nothing  remarkable  but  the  monument  of 
William  Martin,  esq.  dated  1416.  Haifa  mile  to  the  right  of  the 
twenty-sixth  stone,  is  the  pleasant  village  of  Shorne  :  the  church 
has  several  ancient  monuments  in  it.  Near  this  place  is  Cobham 
hall,  an  ancient  and  noble  structure,  the  original  mansion  of  the 
Cobham  family,  but  now  the  residence  of  the  earl  of  Darnley.  In 
a  large  room  m  this  house  are  the  arms  of  queen  Elizabeth,  and  a 
memorandum  of  her  having  been  entertained  there  by  the  then  pro- 
prietor of  this  seat :  here  is  an  extensive  park  well  stocked  with 
deer.  In  Cobham  church  are  several  ancient  and  curious  monu- 
ments of  the  Cobham  family.  Near  the  church  is  a  college,  found- 
ed about  the  year  1389,  by  John  de  Cobham,  and  suppressed  by 
Henry  VIII.;  but  it  was  founded  anew  on  a  reformed  plan,  by  Sir 
William  Brooke  (lord  Cobham)  A.  D.  1597.  Twenty  poor  per- 
sons with  their  families  are  admitted  into  this  college,  from  the  ad- 
jacent parishes.*  On  the  left  of  the  hill  beyond  the  twenty-sixth 
stone  is  Lamb's  Wood,  the  property  of  lord  Darnley,  in  which 
stood  Merston  chapel :  it  is  numbered  in  Acton,  with  the  ecclesia 
destructa.  The  king  presents  to  this  rectory.  Contiguous  to  this 
is  the  parish  of  Higham,  where  was  a  nunnery  of  the  Benedictine 
order.  Near  this  place  are  the  remains  of  the  ancient  town  of  Clive 
at  Hoo,  uow  called  Cliff,  by  many  writers  supposed  to  have  been 
the  Cloveshoe,  where  so  many  councils  were  held  during  the  Saxon 

*  The  proprietor  of  Cobham  hall  sends  one  ;  the  wardens  of  Rochester 
bridge,  as  presidents,  of  this  college,  send  one;  the  remaining  eighteen  are 
sent  from  the  following  neighbouring  parishes;  Cobham,  three;  Shorne,  two; 
Cooling,  one;  Strood,  two;  Hoo,  three;  Cliff,  one;  Chalk,  one;  Gravesend, 
one;  Higham,  one;  St.  Mary's,  one;  Cuckstone,  one;  Hailing,  one 


RAI&HAM.  365 

heptarchy.  Not  far  from  Cliff  is  Cooling  castle,  erected  by  John 
lord  Cobham  about  1380  ;  it  being  granted  to  him  by  Richard  IL 
■which  grant  he  caused  to  be  cut  on  a  large  stone,  and  placed  on  the 
front  of  the  castle  ;  part  of  it  is  still  visible.  This  castle  was  a 
place  of  considerable  strength,  and  surrounded  by  a  deep  moat. 
Two  round  towers  which  formed  the  entrance,  are  still  standing,  as 
are  some  fragments  of  towers  erected  for  its  defence  in  different 
parts  of  the  walls.*  The  pious  and  intrepid  Sir  John  Oldcastle, 
■who  in  the  reign  of  Henry  V.  fell  a  victim  to  papal  cruelty,  resided 
in  this  castle  ;  part  of  it  is  now  a  farm  house,  in  the  occupation  of 
Mr.  Hughes.T 

Near  the  twenty-seventh  stone  is  Gad's  hill,  supposed  to  have 
been  the  scene  of  the  robbery  mentioned  by  Shakespear  in  his  play 
of  Henry  IV.  A  small  distance  to  the  left,  appears  on  an  emi- 
nence the  Hermitage,  the  seat  of  T.  Bentley,  esq. ;  and  close  to  the 
road,  on  a  small  ascent,  is  a  neat  building  erected  by  Mr.  Day.  In 
descending  Strood  hill  is  a  fine  prospect  of  Strood,  Rochester  and 
Chatham,  of  which  a  circumstantial  account  has  been  given  in  the 
preceding  pages. 

In  the  river  Medway,  and  within  the  ports  of  Rochester,  is 
Standgate  creek,  so  well  known  for  ships  performing  quarantine. 

Between  the  thirty-fourth  and  thirty -fith  mile  stones  is  the  vil- 
lage of  Rainham.  In  the  church  are  several  ancient  monuments, 
and  an  elegant  marble  statue  of  Nicholas  Tufton,  earl  of  Thanet, 
belonging  to  whose  family  there  is  a  very  curious  vault.  The  thirty- 
seventh  stone  stands  in  the  ancient  town  of  Newington,  near  which 
was  a  Roman  station.     In  this  place  was   a  nunnery,  which  was 

*  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt,  who  in  1553  rose  in  rebellion  against  queen  Mary, 
assaulted  this  castle,  and  broke  open  the  gate;  but  it  was  defended  with  such 
vigour  by  lord  Cobham  who  then  possessed  it,  that  Sir  Thomas  was  obliged  to 
relinquish  his  attempt. 

t  We  have  some  reason  to  think  Sir  John  FalstatF,  of  truly  comic  memory, 
inhabited  Cooling  castle,  and  that  his  name  was  Oldcastle;  as  appears  in  an 
old  manuscript  of  Shakespear's  Henry  IV.  See  Theobald's  Shakespear. 


.366  MILTON. 

suppressed  after  the  nuns  had  murdered  their  abbess.  The  churcn 
is  Iar<*e  and  fair :  in  it  are  several  monuments  both  ancient  and 
modern,  and  a  flight  of  stone  steps  to  a  place  which  was  formerly 
a  rood  loft.  In  this  parish  is  a  hill  called  Caricolhill,  which,  with 
Key-street  adjacent,  some  imagine  derive  their  names  from  Caii 
Collis,  i.  e.  Caius's  hill;  it  is  thought,  by  antiquarians,  some  great 
actions  were  performed  here  by  Caius  I.  Caesar.  About  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  beyond  Nevvington,  on  the  left,  is  Standard  hill,  where 
tradition  says  the  Roman  Eagle  was  once  displayed  :  adjoining  is 
Crockfield,  so  named  <from  the  great  number  of  Roman  pots,  urns, 
and  other  vessels  found  in  it  ;  a  considerable  quantity  of  coins 
and  other  Roman  antiquities  have  also  been  found  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  this  town. 

Half  a  mile  to  the  left  of  the  fortieth  stone  is  the  ancient  and 
loyal  town  of  Milton,  situated,  as  it  were,  on  the  waters  of  a  fine 
rivulet,  at  the  head  of  a  creek  that  runs  into  the  Swale,  which  se- 
parates the  Isle  of  Sheppey  from  the  main.  Antiquity  has  dignified 
it  by  calling  it,  "  The  royal  town  of  Middleton."  When  king 
Alfred  divided  his  kingdom  into  hundreds  and  shires,  Milton  was 
in  his  possession,  and  therefore  was  so  denominated :  It  was  ho- 
noured with  a  royal  palace,  which  was  situated  neat  where  the 
church  at  present  stands,  about  a  mile  north-east  Of  the  town  :  It 
was  a  flourishing  place  until  the  reign  of  Edward  the  confessor; 
nor  do  we  read  of  its  being  injured  by  the  Danes,  although  it  must 
have  been  visited  by  them :  in  the  same  reign,  A.  D.  1053,  earl 
Godwin,  who  had  been  banished,  came  hither  and  burnt  the  palace 
and  town  to  ashes.  Milton  church  is  a  large  handsome  building; 
there  was  a  church  in  this  place  very  early,  for  Sexburga,  the 
foundress  of  the  nunnery  at  Minster  in  Sheppey,  is  said  to  have  ex- 
pired in  the  church  porch  of  Milton,  about  the  year  680:  it  con- 
tains several  ancient  monuments  of  the  Norwood  family.  The 
town  is  governed  by  a  portreeve,  who  is  annually  chosen  on  St. 
James's  day.  There  is  a  good  oyster  fishery  in  the  Swale,  belong- 
ing to  this  town  ;  the  oysters  are  much  esteemed  in  London.  A 
market  was  granted  by  king  Edward  I.  A.  D.  1287,  and  continues 


SITTINGBOURN.  367 

on  Saturdays  :  a  fair  is  held  on  the  '21th  of  May.  Within  a  mile 
to  the  east  of  the  church  is  a  large  open  field  or  marsh,  called 
Kelmsley  down,  derived,  it  is  imagined,  from  Campsley  down,  or 
the  place  of  camps,  because  there  the  Danes  under  Hasting,  in  892, 
encamped  on  their  arrival  from  France  with  eighty  ships.  On  the 
east  side  of  the  down  are  the  remains  of  a  castle,  said  to  have  been 
built  at  that  time  by  those  free-booters  ;  it  is  now  called  Castle  ruff. 
All  that  appears  of  this  fortress  at  present,  is  a  square  piece  of 
ground  surrounded  with  a  large  moat.  On  the  opposite  side  of 
Milton  creek,  and  about  half  a  mile  north  of  Sittingbourn,  are  the 
poor  remains  of  Bayford  castle,  said  to  have  been  raised  by  the 
good  and  vigilant  king  Alfred,  to  secure  the  country  from  the  ex- 
cursions of  the  Danes,  while  they  rendezvoused  on  Kelmsley  downs. 
The  moat  and  a  small  part  of  the  east  wall  are  still  visible. 

Between  the  fortieth  and  forty-first  stones  is  situated  the  town  of 
Sittingbourn,  which  is  a  post  town,  has  in  it  several  good  inns,  and 
formerly  had  a  mayor  and  a  market,  but  has  neither  at  present.  It 
has  two  fairs,  one  on  Whit-Monday,  and  the  other  on  the  10th  of 
October.  The  church  is  large  and  handsome  :  it  had  in  it  several 
ancient  monuments,  which  have  been  injured  by  a  fire,  that  burnt 
the  inside  and  roof  of  the  church,  in  the  year  1763.  It  is  said  to 
have  had  an  organ  in  queen  Elizabeth's  days.  There  has  been  an 
inn  in  this  town,  with  the  sign  of  the  Red  Lion,  for  upwards  of 
four  hundred  years.  Mr.  Philipot  takes  notice,  that  about  the 
year  1420,  king  Henry  V.  was  entertained  at  the  Red  Lion,  in  Sit- 
tingbourn, by  John  Norwood,  esq.  at  Avhich  time  the  bill  for  wine 
amounted  to  nine  shillings  and  nine  pence,  it  being  one  penny  a 
pint. 

On  the  road  from  Sittingbourn  is  a  view  of  the  Isle  of  Sheppey 
and  Minster  church,  in  which  are  several  ancient  monuments  :  near 
the  church  are  the  remains  of  a  nunnery.  The  cliffs  in  this  island 
are  celebrated  for  their  fossils,  petrified,  and  pyritical  productions. 
The  forty-second  stone  stands  in  the  village  of  Bapchild  :  arch- 
bishop Brightwald  held  a  synod  here,  A.  D.  692;  in  memory  of 
which  a  chapel   or  oratory  is   said  to  have  been  erected  :  a  stone 

3    B 


3ft8  OSPRINGE* 

wall  about  sixty  feet  long,  on  the  left  side  of  the  road,  is  the  re- 
mains of  this  building,  which  was  used  as  a  resting  place  by  the 
pilgrims  who  travelled  to  St.  Thomas  Becket's  shrine  at  Canter- 
bury. Haifa  mile  to  the  left  of  Bapchild,  is  the  village  of  Tong, 
near  which  are  the  vestigia  of  an  ancient  castle,  said  to  have  been 
built  by  llengist  and  Horsa  about  the  year  450  :  part  of  the  south 
•wall  is  discernible  within  the  large  moat  that  surrounded  the  castle. 
A  corn  mill  has  been  erected  on  the  moat  for  upwards  of  two  hun- 
dred years :  several  urns,  a  brass  helmet,  a  sword,  &c.  have  at 
different  times  been  dug  up  within  the  area  of  the  castle.  A  little 
to  the  right  of  Green-street  is  Linsted  Lodge  the  seat  of  lord 
Teynham.  Near  the  forty-sixth  stone,  on  a  pleasant  eminence,  is 
a  mansion  called  Judd's  house,  built  about  the  year  1652,  by  Da- 
niel Judd,  a  committee  man,  and  one  of  the  sequestrators  :  here 
was  a  mansion  long  before ;  the  moat  that  almost  surrounded  it 
still  continues.  This  seat  is  at  present  the  residence  of  Sir  Samuel 
Achmuty,  bait. 

Between  the  forty-sixth  and  forty-seventh  stone  is  the  village  of 
Ospringe,  with  a  stream  of  clear  spring  water  running  across  it. 
On  the  north  side  of  the  street  are  some  faint  traces  of  the  Maison  de 
Dieu,  which  was  formerly  in  great  repute.  It  was  founded  by  Lucas 
de  Vienna,  for  the  use  of  the  knights  templars.  The  kings  of  Eng- 
land, in  their  frequent  journies  to  their  foreign  dominions,  were 
entertained  in  this  house.  On  the  south  side  of  the  street  was  an 
hospital  for  lepers  and  diseased  people,  part  of  which  still  remains. 
It  was  supported  by  the  templars  house.  Ospringe  church  is  an 
ancient  fabric,  dedicated  to  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  and  standing 
about  half  a  mile  from  the  village  on  the  south  :  it  had  formerly  a 
circular  tower  built  with  flints,  at  the  we9t  end,  which  fell  to  the 
ground  while  the  bells  were  ringing  to  celebrate  the  return  of  king 
William  from  Flanders,  on  the  11th  of  October,  1695.  On  the 
stream  which  flows  throngh  this  village,  and  afterwards  falls  into 
Faversham  creek,  are  some  extensive  gunpowder  works,  both  be- 
longing to  government,  and  in  private  hands.  A  neat  range  of  bar* 
racks  for  infantry  has  been  recently  built  in  this  village. 


FAVERSHAM.  369 

Half  a  mile  to  the  left  of  Ospringe  is  the  ancient,  large,  and 
pleasant  town  of  Faversham.  In  a  charter  of  Kenulph,  king  of 
Mercia,  dated  812,  it  is  called  the  king's  little  town,  and  seems  to 
hare  been  a  royal  residence  at  that  time.  King  Stephen  built  an 
abbey  here,  A.  D.  1148,  to  which  Matilda  his  queen  was  a  great 
benefactress.  Godfrey,  king  of  Jerusalem,  a  relation  of  the  king, 
sent  him  a  piece  of  the  real  cross  of  Christ,  which  was  deposited 
in  this  abbey.  King  Stephen,  his  queen  Matilda,  and  Eustace 
their  son,  were  interred  here.  At  the  suppression,  it  was  valued 
at  two  hundred  and  eighty  six  pounds  twelve  shillings  and  sixpence 
per  annum.  Nothing  remains  of  this  fabric,  except  an  inner  gate 
and  some  walls.  The  church  is  large  and  handsome,  with  a  good 
organ  therein,  and  several  ancient  and  modern  monuments.  There 
appears  to  have  been  a  church  here  before  the  conquest,  but  origi- 
nally without  pews.  Rushes  weiv  procured  to  strew  the  church  in 
summer,  and  straw  in  winter,  for  the  people  to  kneel  on  :  which  L 
conveys  a  barbarous  idea  of  the  ancient  places  of  divine  worship. ! 
Faversham  is  now  in  a  flourishing  state,  being  the  chief  port  for  this 
part  of  the  county  ;  it  is  situated  on  a  rivulet  which  falls  into  the 
mouth  of  the  Swale,  and  has  an  oyster  fishery.  The  dredgers  have 
a  peculiar  law  among  them,  which  obliges  a  person  to  marry  before 
he  can  be  free  of  the  grounds.  The  town  is  an  appendage  of  the 
town  and  port  of  Dover.  It  is  governed  by  a  mayor,  jurats,  and 
commonalty ;  has  a  market  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays  ;  and 
two  fairs,  one  on  the  25th  of  February,  and  the  other  on  the  12th. 
of  August.  A  large  powder  manufactory  subsisted  near  this  town 
as  early  as  the  time  of  queen  Elizabeth.  This  town  has  been  great- 
ly improved  within  the  last  forty  years  :  in  1773  it  was  laid  open  to 
the  London  road  by  a  spacious  avenue ;  and  all  the  contiguous 
roads  have  been  since  widened,  and  rendered  more  commodious. 
The  streets  also  have  been  new  paved  and  lighted  under  the  provi- 
sions of  an  Act  of  parliament  obtained  in  1789.  Many  of  the 
houses  are  large  and  handsome;  and  the  inhabitants  derive  part  of 
their  amusements  from  a  respectable  Assembly  Room,  and  a  Thea- 
tre.    To  the  north-west  of  the  town  on  the  other  side  of  the  ri?u» 


370  HARBLEDOWN. 

let,  is  the  chapel  of  Davington,  where  was  an  eminent  nunnery. 
It  was  founded  soon  after  the  abbey  of  Faversham,  in  the  reign  of 
king  Stephen,  A.  D.  1153.  The  chapel  of  this  ancient  religious 
house  is  now  the  parish  church.  To  the  south  of  the  town,  near 
the  road,  is  the  small,  but  neat  church  of  Preston,  in  which  are 
some  monuments  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  old. 

At  some  distance  to  the  right  of  the  high  road  is  Lees  Court,  the 
elegant  seat  of  lord  Sondes  ;  and  to  the  left  of  the  forty-ninth  stone 
is  Nash  Court,  the  handsome  and  pleasant  seat  of  the  Hawkins's 
family,  with  a  balustraded  terrace  on  its  top,  fronted  with  a  green 
park,  in  which  are  beautiful  plantations.  The  fiftieth  stone  is  in 
the  long  street  of  Boughton.  The  church  is  half  a  mile  to  the  right 
in  which  are  several  ancient  monuments ;  it  has  three  isles  and  a 
good  stone  tower,  but  the  spire  fell  down  towards  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Boughton  hill  on  the  top  of  which  is  the 
fifty-first  stone,  in  ancient  times  was  counted  a  forest  and  called 
the  Blean ;  it  extended  four  miles  towards  Canterbury,  and  was 
infested  with  boars  and  bears.  There  is  a  beautiful  prospect  on 
every  side  from  the  summit,  the  high  steeple  of  Canterbury  cathe- 
dral appears  directly  in  the  road.  Between  the  fifty-fourth  and 
fifty-fifth  stones  is  the  ancieut  village  of  Harbledovvn  ;  the  church 
is  situated  on  a  hill  west  of  the  street.  Opposite  to  the  church  is 
the  hospital  and  chapel,  originally  built  and  endowed  by  archbi- 
shop Lau franc,  about  the  year  1080:  it  was  for  the  benefit  of  poor 
lepers.  This  was  the  place  that  formerly  held  the  precious  relick, 
called  St.  Thomas  Becket's  slipper,  neatly  set  in  copper  and  chry.s- 
tal,  mentioned  by  Erasmus.  The  numerous  pilgrims  to  the  shrine 
of  St.  Thomas  used  to  stop  here,  and  kiss  his  slipper,  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  their  more  solemn  approach  to  his  tomb.  Since  the  refor- 
mation, this  hospital  is  continued  for  the  relief  of  poor  persons. 

The  city  of  Canterbury  is  situated  fifty-six  miles  from  London, 
and  stretches  itself  to  a  great  extent,  in  a  beautiful  and  fruitful  val- 
ley, with  the  river  Stour  running  through  it,  in  two  clear  and  use- 
ful streams.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  walled  in  the  time  of  king 
Ethelbert,  about  the  year  600.     In  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  A.  D. 


CANTERBURY.  371 

13S0,  the  walls  were  repaired,  at  which  time  the  ditches  are  men- 
tioned to  be  deep,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  broad.  This, 
however,  must  have  been  only  the  beginning  of  a  repair  ;  for  in  the 
following  reign,  A.  D.  1400,  the  whole  city  was  taxed  for  their 
repair  :  the  compass  of  the  walls  is  said  to  have  been  five  hundred 
and  eighty-two  perches,  which  is  nearly  two  miles.  On  the  walls 
were  twenty-one  small  towers,  and  seven  gates,  besides  posterns. 
There  are  now  only  six,  and  a  great  part  of  the  wall  is  in  a  ruinous 
state.  The  castle  is  a  venerable  structure,  built  in  form  of  Gun- 
dulph's  tower  in  Rochester  castle,  and  about  the  time  of  the  con- 
quest. It  is  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the  city,  but  is  in  ruins. 
Besides  the  cathedral,  there  are  sixteen  parish  churches  in  this  city, 
the  whole  of  which  is  divided  into  six  wards,  which  are  named  after 
the  six  city  gates.  Here  were  also  a  priory,  a  nunnery,  and  three 
religious  houses  for  the  augustine,  black,  and  grey  friars.  The 
knights  templars  had  a  mansion  in  this  city.  It  likewise  contained 
nine  hospitals,  three  of  which  are  dissolved.  Here  is  a  free  schoolj 
and  three  charity  schools. 

The  cathedral,  called  Christ's  Church,  is  a  fine  piece  of  Gothic 
architecture  ;  it  is  situated  in  a  spacious  square  towards  the  east 
side  of  the  city,  and  is  built  in  the  form  of  a  cross  ;  about  five  hun- 
dred feet  long,  seventy-four  broad,  exclusive  of  the  cross  isle,  and 
eighty  feet  high.  From  the  middle  of  the  building  rises  a  beautiful 
tower  two  hundred  and  thirty- five  feet  high  called  Bell  Harry. 
This  magnificent  cathedral  is  erected  where  a  christian  church  stood 
before  the  Saxons  governed  in  Kent :  that  church,  with  his  adjacent 
palace,  Ethelbert  gave  to  Augustine  the  monk,  soon  after  he  ar- 
rived to  preach  the  gospel  in  Britain.  Augustine  dedicated  it  to 
Christ,  and  made  it  a  cathedral  monastery  about  the  year  600.  In 
the  year  1011,  this  cathedral  was  rifled,  and  set  on  fire  bv  the  sa- 
crilegious Danes;  archbishop  Agelnoth  re-edified  it  about  the  year 
1023.  In  this  prelate's  time  kiug  Canute  the  Dane,  to  atone  for  his 
many  crimes,  gave  his  golden  crown,  with  many  other  donations, 
to  tiiis  church,  to  assist  in  its  repair.  But  about  twenty  years 
afterwards  it  suffered  by  another  fire,  so  that  archbishop  Lanfranc 


372  CANTERBURY. 

pulled  it  entirely  down,  and  began  to  rebuild  it  from  the  founda- 
tion ;  it  was  dedicated  by  archbishop  Ralph,  A.  D.  1114. 

Soon  after  Lanfranc's  death,  archbishop  Anselm  began  the  mag- 
nificent choir;  but  dying  A.  D.  1109,  and  the  see  remaining  va- 
cant five  years,  Conrade  the  prior  carried  on  and  completed  the 
work  in  such  a  superb  manner,  that  it  was  denominated  Conrade's 
glorious  choir;  but  its  glory  was  soon  defaced  by  a  fatal  fire,  com- 
municated from  some  adjacent  houses,  on  the  fifth  of  September 
1174,  which  burnt  from  Bell  Harry  to  the  east  end  of  the  church. 
In  ten  years  after,  it  was  rebuilt  and  finished,  and  the  houses  by 
which  it  had  been  fired  were  removed.  The  choir  that  was  finished 
at  that  time,  viz.  in  1184,  still  remains,  and  is  almost  600  years 
old.  Simon  Sudbury,  archbishop  of  this  see,  rebuilt  the  two 
wings  of  the  cross  on  each  side  the  great  tower :  about  the  year 
1380,  he  also  took  down  the  nave  or  body  of  the  church,  but  was 
slain  by  the  rebels  before  he  rebuilt  it.  It  was  carried  on  by 
Courtney,  and  finished  by  archbishop  Arundel  in  1410.  St.  Dun- 
stan's  steeple,  so  named  from  a  large  bell  that  hung  in  it,  is  at  the 
south  west  corner  of  the  church,  and  was  built  by  archbishop 
Chicheley  about  the  year  1420.  The  opposite  spire  steeple,  called 
Arundel  steeple  also,  from  its  bells,  is  as  old  as  the  nave  of  the 
church.  The  steeple  built  by  Lanfranc  was  rebuilt  as  it  now  ap- 
pears by  prior  Goldston,  and  archbishop  Warham,  about  the  year 
1500.  St.  Andrew's  and  Anselm's  towers,  at  the  east  end  of  the 
church,  are  the  most  ancient  part  of  this  most  venerable  building. 

There  are  many  ancient  monuments  in  this  church,  some  in  very 
good  condition  ;  among  which  are  those  of  Henry  IV.  and  his 
queen,  A.  D.  1413;  and  Edward  the  black  prince.  There  was 
also  a  famous  monastery  belonging  to  this  cathedral,  containing, 
it  is  said,  one  hundred  and  fifty  benedictines ;  the  cloysters  and 
chapter  house  belonging  to  it,  are  on  the  north  side  of  the  church, 
and  are  of  the  same  age  as  the  body  of  it.  In  this  chapter  room, 
A.  D.  1171,  king  Henry  II.  either  through  piety  or  policy  suffered 
the  audacious  monks  to  vent  their  insolence  on  his  royal  back  Avith 
a  scourge.     This  monastery  was  dissolved  in  1539;  and  there  are 


CANTERBURY.  373 

now  belonging  to  this  cathedral,  a  dean,  archdeacon,  twelve  pre- 
bendaries, six  preachers,  six  minor  canons,  twelve  lay  clerks,  ten 
choiristers,  two  masters,  fifty  scholars,  and  twelve  alms-men.  In 
the  windows  of  this  fabric  are  some  fine  remains  of  painted  glass, 
and  underneath  it  the  French  and  Walloon  congregation  have  a 
church. 

The  ruins  of  St.  Augustine's  monastery,  or  abbey,  ars  without 
Burgate,  to  the  east  of  the  city.  The  abbey  was  built  by  Ethel- 
bert,  given  to  Augustine,  and  richly  endowed  by  the  donations  of 
many  kings  and  queens.  At  the  west  end  of  the  abbey  is  Ethel- 
bert's  tower,  which  is  thought  to  have  been  used  as  a  belfry  and 
steeple,  and  to  have  been  so  called  from  a  large  bell  named  from 
that  king.  It  was  built  about  the  year  1047,  and  is  now  much 
decayed.  Near  the  ruins  of  this  abbey,  are  those  of  Pancras 
chapel,  which  was  an  idol  temple,  and  probably  built  by  the  Ro- 
mans, or  soon  after  their  time,  from  the  Roman  bricks  still  to  be 
seen.  Augustine  consecrated  it  for  christian  worship.  This  abbey 
and  chapel,  with  its  precincts,  occupied  a  large  compass  of  ground, 
-which  is  surrounded  by  a  high  wall,  the  two  grand  entrances  into 
which  are  still  remaining.  To  the  east  of  this  monastery  is  St. 
Martin's  church,  famous  for  its  antiquity,  it  being  built  by  the 
believing  Romans,  and  rebuilt  and  used  by  Bertha,  Ethelbert's 
queen,  for  christian  worship,  before  Augustine  came  into  Eng- 
land ;  and  was  the  first  place  that  missionary  said  mass  in,  after 
his  arrival.  Bertha  is  said  to  have  been  buried  in  the  porch  with 
her  husband  Ethelbert.  There  are  rows  of  Roman  bricks  yet  to 
be  seen  in  it :  It  had  a  bishop  before  the  conquest. 

This  city  was  formerly  governed  by  the  archbishop ;  the  king 
had  a  praefect,  who  possessed  but  very  little  authority.  It  is  now 
governed  by  a  mayor,  recorder,  a  sheriff,  twelve  aldermen,  and 
twenty-four  common  council  men.  A  court  is  held  every  Monday 
in  the  guildhall,  for  civil  and  criminal  causes,  and  every  other 
Thursday  for  the  government  of  the  city.  The  Town  Hall  fs  a 
respectable  edifice,  and  has  been  partly  rebuilt  in  forming  the  new 
street :  it  contains  some   good  portraits.     The  public  Assembly 


,"574  CANTERBURY. 

Rooms,  at  the  corner  of  St.  Margaret's  in  the  High-Street,  were 
erected  bv  subscription  of  the  gentlemen  of  East  Kent.  The  Can- 
terbury Theatre  is  a  handsome  edifice  standing  in  Prince  of  Orange 
Street:  it  was  first  opened  in  the  year  1790.  The  Kent  and  Can- 
terbury Hospital  is  an  elegant  and  commodious  brick  building,  the 
first  stone  of  which  was  laid  in  June,  1791.  The  original  promo- 
ter of  this  establishment  was  William  Carter,  esq.  M.  D.  whose 
plans  were  liberally  seconded  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  county. 
Upwards  of  5000  persons  have  been  relieved  by  this  charity  since 
its  first  institution.  In  the  eastern  part  of  the  abbey  precincts  is 
the  new  county  Gaol  lately  built  on  an  ingenious  plan,  by  which 
the  different  classes  of  prisoners  will  be  kept  separate;  and  the 
extension  of  crime,  which  constantly  takes  place  wherever  promis- 
cuous communication  is  allowed,  wiil  be  effectually  prevented. 

About  three  hundred  yards  from  the  castle  to  the  south-east,  is 
a  high  artificial  mount  of  a  circular  form,  bounded  on  the  south  by 
the  city  wall.  It  is  called  Dane  John,  or  Dungeon  Hill,  and  its 
origin  has  been  generally  assigned  to  the  Danes,  though  supposed 
by  antiquaries  to  be  a  work  of  a  more  distant  period.  In  the  years 
1790  and  1791,  the  sides  of  the  hill  were  cut  into  serpentine 
walks,  so  as  to  admit  of  an  easy  ascent  to  the  summit ;  and  were 
also  connected  with  a  terrace  formed  upon  the  top  of  the  high  ram- 
part within  the  wall,  and  extended  to  the  length  of  upwards  of  six 
hundred  yards.  Additional  walks  have  been  made  in  the  adjacent 
field,  and  a  double  row  of  limes  planted  at  the  sides  of  the  princi- 
pal one,  which  is  about  three  hundred  and  seventy  yards  long,  and 
unites  with  the  terrace-walk  at  each  end.  These  alterations  were 
executed  at  the  sole  cost  of  the  late  James  Simmons,  esq.  book- 
seller and  banker  of  this  city.  Several  Roman  and  other  ancient 
coins  were  found  in  filling  up  the  ditch,  together  with  a  spear- 
head, and  some  brass  or  bell-metal  spurs.  The  plantations  and 
walks  were  repaired  about  1802,  at  the  expence  of  the  corporation 
to  whom  the  ground  then  belonged,  and  by  whom  it  was  then 
"  appropriated  in  perpetuity  to  the  public,  and  endowed  with  the 
u  sum  of  60/.  annually,  payable  out  of  the  city  chamber,  for  the 


FORDWICH.  375 

li  Constant  maintenance  and  support  of  the  terrace,  walks  and 
"  plantations."  In  the  year  following,  a  stone  pillar  was  erected 
on  the  top  of  the  mount  by  subscription,  as  a  memorial  of  the  pub- 
lic services  of  Mr.  Simmons,  and  particularly  of  his  "  generosity  in 
"  adapting  this  field  and  hill  to  the  public  use."  The  views  of  the 
city  and  surrounding  country  froni  the  summit  of  this  hill  are  ex- 
tremely fine ;  and  it  has  now  become  the  most  fashionable  prome- 
nade in  Canterbury. 

The  population  of  this  city  has  greatly  increased  since  the  com- 
mencement of  the  late  war,  and  the  erection  of  permanent  barracks 
for  the  military,  on  the  high  road  to  Thanetj  about  half  a  mile  from 
North-gate.  The  royal  Cavalry  Barracks  were  built  of  brick,  in 
the  year  1794,  at  the  expence  of  about  40,000^.  including  the  pur- 
chase of  sixteen  acres  of  ground.  Near  these,  additional  barracks 
for  2000  infantry,  were  erected  in  1798,  and  have  since  been  made 
a  permanent  station  for  detachments  of  the  royal  horse  and  foot 
artillery.  The  present  number  of  inhabitants  is  supposed  to  be  be- 
tween 12  and  13,000,  and  the  number  of  houses  about  2000.  Here  is 
a  market  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays  :  there  are  also  several  an- 
nual fairs  for  toys  and  pedlary,  in  the  different  parishes  of  Canter- 
bury, mostly  held  on  the  days  of  the  Saints  to  whom  the  respective 
churches  are  dedicated  ;  but  the  principal  fair  and  statute  for  hir- 
ing servants  is  held  on  October  10th  in  the  cattle  market  of  this  city. 

About  half  a  mile  to  the  left,  from  the  northgate  of  Canterbury, 
is  St.  Stephen's -Church,  or  Hackington,  near  which  is  the  seat  of  Sir 
Edward  Hales,  bart.  At  this  place  archbishop  Baldwin  attempted 
to  build  a  college,  but  was  defeated  in  his  design  by  the  monks  of 
Christ  Church.*  Fordwich  is  a  member  of  the  town  and  port  of 
Sandwich,  and  situated  near  the  Stour.  It  is  incorporated  by  the 
name  of  the  mayor,  jurats,  and  commonalty  of  the  town  of  Fordwich, 
and  enjoys  the  same  privileges  as  the  cinque  ports  :  this  town  is 
famous  for  excellent  trout.  Sturry  is  two  miles  from  Canterbury, 
and  contains  a  neat  church.     Near  six  miles  from  Canterbury  is 

*  See  page  114. 

3  c 


;j76  reculver. 

Upstreet ;  from  whence  you  descend  on  Sarre  wall,  Cast  up  On  the 
marshes,  which  have  been  formerly  overflowed  by  the  Wantsum, 
the  stream,  that  separated  the  isle  of  Thanet  from  the  main  ;  this 
stream  was  formerly  three  furlongs  broad,  but  at  present  is  con- 
tracted to  a  small  ditch.  Three  miles  on  the  left  is  Reculver,  the 
ancient  Regulbium  of  the  Romans,  situated  on  a  rising  ground,  on 
the  west  side  of  the  Yenlade  or  north  mouth,  and  close  by  the  sea 
shore.  Severus,  emperor  of  Rome,  is  said  to  haTe  built  a  castle 
here,  like  that  of  Richborough.  Great  quantities  both  of  Roman 
and  Saxon  curiosities  have  been  found  here.  Reculver  was  a  royal 
town  ;  Ethelbert,  king  of  Kent,  had  a  palace,  and  resided  here, 
as  did  many  of  his  successors.  Ercombert,  king  of  Kent,  granted 
land  to  Bassa,  an  English  Sason  lord,  to  build  a  monastery  here, 
about  the  year  650.  The  present  church  is  very  ancient,  and  had 
in  it  a  sumptuous  choir.  The  large  west  door  was  very  noble  in  its 
primitive  state  ;  over  it  were  two  lofty  spires,  known  by  the  name  of 
the  two  sisters;  which  were,  when  standing  entire,  o^ great  service 
to  mariners. 

The  isle  of  Thanet  is  celebrated  for  being  the  door  through  which 
arts,  science,  and  divine  knowledge  entered  into  this  happy  island. 
The  ancient  Britons  called  it  Richborough  isle,  from  its  vicinity  to 
the  city  of  that  name.  The  Saxons  denominated  it  Thanet,  from  a 
word  in  their  language  that  signifies  fire ;  conjectured  to  have  been 
so  named  from  the  many  beacons  erected  in  it,  to  give  warning 
against  the  common  enemy.  It  is  about  nine  miles  long,  and  eight 
broad,  and  in  general  very  fertile.  The  small  village  of  Sarre  is 
the  first  place  a  traveller  comes  to  in  this  island  :  this  was  formerly 
a  large  town,  endowed  with  the  privileges  of  the  cinque  ports,  and 
it  still  belongs  to  Sandwich  ;  the  passage  into  the  island  is  at  this- 
place,  over  a  narrow  stream.  To  the  left  of  the  road,  and  six  miles 
from  Margate,  is  the  church  of  St.  Nicholas,  which  is  a  handsome 
building,  but  there  are  no  monuments  in  it  prior  to  the  year  1500. 
About  the  same  distance  from  Margate,  to  the  right  of  the  road,  is 
the  small  town  of  Monkton  or  Monktown,  so  called  from  its  being 
the  property  of  the  monks,  who  usually  resided  in  this  place.  There 


MINSTER.  377 

are  collegiate  stalls  in  the  church,  and  the  heads  of  several  priors 
in  the  remains  of  painted  glass  in  the  windows.  The  church  has 
been  larger  than  it  now  is.  Here  are  no  monuments  prior  to  A.  D. 
1554.  Birchington  is  a  member  of  the  town  and  port  of  Dover. 
The  church  is  a  neat  building,  and  contains  several  ancient  and 
modern  monuments  of  the  Queke  and  Crispe  families,  yrho  resided 
at  the  ancient  mansion  in  this  parish,  called  Quekes  or  Quex.  At 
this  house  king  William  III.  used  to  reside,  until  the  winds  favour- 
ed his  embarking  for  Holland.  A  room,  said  to  have  been  the  bed 
chamber  of  this  royal  guest,  is  still  shewn,  together  with  an  adjacent 
enclosure  in  which  his  guards  encamped.  On  the  right  hand,  near 
the  marshes,  about  four  miles  from  Margate,  is  the  ancient  but  small 
town  of  Minster.  Domneva,  daughter  of  Ei  eomberr,  king  of  Kent 
built  and  founded  an  abbey  at  this  place,  about  the  year  670,  and 
furnished  it  with  veiled  virgins  to  the  number  of  seventy  ;  herself 
becoming  the  first  abbess :  Mildred,  her  daughter,  succeeded  her; 
and  so  far  excelled  her  mother  in  piety,  that  she  was  canonized  a 
saint,  and  the  nunnery  ever  after  was  called  by  her  name.  It  was 
destroyed  by  the  Danes  about  the  year  990.  Minster  church,  which 
is  the  most  ancient  in  the  island,  is  a  handsome  structure,  consist- 
ing of  three  isles :  it  has  eighteen  collegiate  stalls  in  the  choir 
On  the  floor,  and  in  the  church  porch,  are  several. large  flat  grave- 
stones which  are  very  ancient.  In  the  last  century  a  pot  of  Roman 
silver  coins  was  ploughed  up  near  Minster  ;  the  coins  were  chiefly 
of  Lucius  Aurelius  Verus.  Between  Minster  and  Margate  is  Cleve- 
court,  an  elegant  building  belonging  to  G.  llannam,  esq.  Beyond 
Minster  also  are  those  downs  so  celebrated  by  Mr.  Lewis,  for 
affording  very  extensive  and  delightful  prospects  :  Canterbury  ca- 
thedral, the  isle  of  Sheppey,  the  Essex  shore,  Dover  cliffs,  and 
the  town  of  Sandwich,  may  be  each  distinctly  discerned  from  this 
pleasant  spot.  From  these  downs  (as  the  monks  inform  us)  start- 
ed Domneva's  deer,  which  ran  in  an  irregular  course,  quite  across 
the  island,  in  the  ancient  maps  of  which  this  tract  is  marked. 
King  Egbert  gave  Domneva  so  much  ground  as  the  deer  would  run 
over  at  one  course;  which  cut  off  the  east  end  of  the  island,  where 


378  DANDELION. 

Bite  built  her  nunnery.  This  tract,  from  the  name  of  her  daughter, 
was  called  St.  Mildred's  Lynch,  and  was  a  bank  of  earth  thrown 
up  describing  the  ancient  bounds  of  the  two  great  manors  of  Monk- 
ton  aud  Minster:  and  is  yet  visible  in  some  places. 

You  next  pass  by  the  poor  remains  of  the  chapel  of  Wood,  about 
a  mile  from  Margate.  It  is  a  limb  of  the  town  and  port  of  Dover, 
and  is  supposed  to  take  its  name  from  its  ancient  sylvan  situation. 
Between  the  Cliff  and  Wood  chapel  is  Dandelion,  the  seat  of  the 
very  ancient  family  of  Dent  de  Lyon,  which  may  be  traced  from 
Edward  I.  through  many  generations;  some  of  this  family  lie  in 
Margate  church.  The  last  male  heir  of  this  family  died  in  1445, 
when  his  estates  were  conveyed,  by  the  marriage  of  his  only  daugh- 
ter, to  the  Petits,  whose  descendants  sold  Dandelion  to  Henry  Fox, 
lord  Holland,  who  transferred  it  to  his  second  son,  the  late  Charles 
James  Fox,  esq.  since  which  it  has  become  the  property  of  Willi- 
am Roberts,  esq.  in  right  of  his  wife,  the  sister  of  the  late  John 
Powel,  esq.  The  gate-house  of  the  ancient  residence  of  the  Dan- 
delions is  yet  standing,  and  in  tolerable  preservation.  It  is  em- 
battled and  built  with  alternate  courses  of  bricks  and  flints,  having 
a  small  square  tower  at  each  angle.  Over  the  greater  entrance  is  a 
shield  of  the  arms  of  Dandelion;  viz.  sable,  three  lions  rampant, 
between  two  bars,  dancette,  argent ;  and  at  the  spring  of  the  arch 
of  the  lesser  entrance  is  a  demi-lion  rampant,  with  a  label  issuing 
from  his  mouth,  inscribed  Daundelyonn  in  Saxon  characters. 
The  grounds  of  this  ancient  seat  have  been  converted  into  a  tea-gar- 
den, and  place  of  resort  for  summer  visitants  to  Margate  and  Rams- 
gate  ;  for  whose  entertainment  a  public  breakfast  is  given  every 
Wednesday  throughout  the  season,  which  is  followed  by  dancing 
and  other  amusements.  The  walks  afford  some  fine  prospects  of 
the  sea,  and  adjacent  country.  Near  this  place,  in  the  year  1724, 
were  found,  in  digging  a  way  to  the  sea,  about  two  feet  uuder  the 
surface,  twenty-seven  instruments  made  of  bell-metal,  of  various 
lengths  and  breadths,  some  about  seven  inches  long,  and  two  broad, 
with  a  hollow  at  one  end  for  a  wooden  haft ;  they  are  supposed  to 


MARGATE.  379 

have  been  chizzels  used  by  the  Roman  soldiers:  Mr.  Lewis  has 
given  an  accurate  drawing  of  them. 

Margate  is  a  large  and  scattered  place,  built  on  irregular  ground  : 
part  of  it  being  Aery  elevated,  while  the  other  part  stands  in  a  bot- 
tom descending  to  the  sea.  The  houses  are  principally  of  brick, 
and  many  of  them  are  large  and  handsome  edifices.  This  place, 
which  has  become  one  of  the  most  fashionable  and  best  frequented 
watering-places  in  the  kingdom,  has  obtained  its  principal  celebrity 
within  the  last  fifty  or  sixty  years,  before  which  it  was  only  a  small 
fishing  town  irregularly  built,  and  the  houses  generally  old  and  low. 

It  is  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the  isle  of  Thanet,  within  a 
small  bay,  in  a  breach  of  the  cliff",  where  is  a  gate  to  the  sea,  from 
whence  it  has  its  name  ;  it  is  seventy-two  miles  from  London,  and 
about  sixteen  from  Canterbury.  As  Margate  is  a  limb  of  the  port 
of  Dover,  the  mayor  is  represented  here  by  a  deputy.  In  summer 
It  is  a  pleasant  and  agreeable  situation.  Its  principal  street  runs 
north  and  south  near  a  mile  in  length,  and  terminates  at  the  pier, 
with  a  gentle  descent,  by  which  means  the  streets  are  always  neat 
and  clean.  On  the  wharf  are  several  bathing  rooms,  where  the 
company  resort  to  drink  the  water,  and  from  whence  they  enter 
into  the  machines,  which  arc  afterwards  drove  out  two  or  three 
hundred  yards  into  the  sea,  under  the  conduct  of  careful  guides. 
There  is  a  door  in  the  machine,  which  being  opened,  they  descend 
into  the  water,  by  means  of  a  ladder  :  an  umbrella  of  canvas  is  let 
down  which  conceals  them  from  public  view.* 

The  general  recommendation  given  by  medical  men  to  sea-air 
and  sea-bathing,  and  the  fashion  which  so  extensively  spread 
among  all  ranks,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  of 
spending  some  portion  of  the  year  at  a  watering-place,  have  been 
the  grand  causes  of  the  extension,  and  progressive  improvements, 
of  this  town.  As  the  number  of  visitors  increased,  the  buildings 
for  their  accommodation  were  rapidly  augmented  ;  the   land-hold- 

*  Benjamin  Beale,  a  quaker,  was  the  inventor  of  these  curious  and  useful 
machines. 


380  MARGATE. 

ers  rightly  judging  that  the  speculation  would  not  be  unsuccessful. 
Among  those  who  took  the  lead  were  Mr.  Cecil,  Sir  Edward  Hales, 
and  Sir  John  Shaw,  from  the  former  of  whom  Cecil-Square,  which 
was  built  by  these  and  some  other  gentlemen,  about  the  year  1769, 
received  its  name.  At  the  south  corner  of  this  square  stand  the 
Assembly  Ptooms,  which  command  a  delightful  prospect  of  the  sea. 
They  form  a  handsome  building  of  the  Ionic  order,  with  Venetian 
windows,  entablature,  and  cornice  :  on  the  ground-floor  is  a  good 
Billiard,  and  a  Coffee-Room,  several  dining  parlours,  and  a  piaz- 
za, extending  the  whole  length  of  the  building,  and  supported  by 
a  range  of  duplicated  Doric  columns.  On  the  first  floor  are  the 
Tea  and  Card-Rooms,  and  the  Bail-Room  :  the  latter  is  a  very  ele- 
gant apartment,  supposed  to  be  the  largest  in  England,  measuring 
eighty-seven  feet  in  length  and  forty-three  in  breadth  ;  the  walls 
are  tastefully  ornamented  with  various  stuccoed  compartments,  and 
festoons  of  flowers  encircling  girandoles  and  mirrors  ;  at  the  west 
end  of  the  room  is  a  handsome  orchestra,  with  wings  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  spectators  :  five  large  and  elegant  chandeliers  are 
suspended  from  the  ceiling.  On  the  upper  story  is  an  extensive 
suit  of  lodging  rooms.  The  number  of  subscribers  to  these  rooms 
has  amounted  to  nearly  1500  in  a  season.  Adjoining  to  this  build- 
ing is  the  Royal  Hotel,  which  is  very  handsomely  fitted  up  for  the 
reception  of  the  best  company.  Shortly  after  the  erection  of  Cecil 
Square,  Hawley-Square  was  built  on  a  contiguous  field,  then  be- 
longing to  Sir  Henry  Hawley,  bart.  Opposite  to  Cecil-Square  is 
Union  Cresent,  a  very  regular  pile  of  buildings.  Another  square 
called  Neptune-Square  has  been  recently  erected  in  a  place  called 
the  Fort,  where  there  is  a  small  battery  mounted  on  the  improved 
construction.  Various  new  streets  and  ranges  of  houses  have  been 
raised  within  the  last  thirty  years,  and  scarcely  a  year  passes  with- 
out some  additions  being  made.  Besides  several  spacious  hotels 
and  different  inns  for  the  reception  of  visitors,  here  are  many  pri- 
vate boarding  houses  where  company  may  be  well  accommodated. 
In  short,  here  is  every  requisite  to  render  this  place  a  genteel  and 
delightful  summer  residence. 


MARGATE.  381 

The  bathing  rooms  are  situated  on  the  western  side  of  the  High- 
Street,  near  the  harbour  :  these  are  seven  in  number,  and  were  con- 
structed for  the  use  of  the  company  intending  to  bathe,  who  enter 
the  machines  in  the  order  in  which  their  names  have  been  inscribed' 
on  a  slate  in  the  lobby.  The  bathing  place  is  a  fine  level  and 
sandy  shore,  which  extends  under  the  cliffs  for  several  miles,  and  at 
proper  times  of  the  tide  forms  a  most  pleasant  walk.  Besides 
these  bathing  rooms  there  are  four  marble  warm  baths  filled  with 
water  from  the  sea,  which  may  be  adjusted  to  any  temperature  on 
giving  a  short  notice.  They  are  said  to  have  a  very  salutary  effect. 
That  the  poor  might  be  enabled  to  participate  in  the  advantage  of 
sea-bathing,  a  general  sea-bathing  Infirmary  has  been  established 
at  West-Brook  near  this  town  by  subscription.  The  first  stone  of 
this  building,  which  is  plain  and  neat,  was  laid  on  the  twenty. first 
of  June,  1792.  The  church  which  is  dedicated  to  St.  John  the 
Baptist,  which  was  the  ancient  name  of  the  parish,  is  a  spacious 
edifice,  standing  on  an  elevated  spot :  the  monuments  in  it  are  nu- 
merous and  several  are  of  considerable  age.  It  was  formerly  a 
chapel  to  Minster  church,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  built  about 
the  year  1050,  and  made  parochial  since  the  year  1290.  In  the 
year  1787,  a  Charity  School  was  built  near  Ilawley-Square,  for 
eighty  children,  forty  boys  and  forty  girls,  who  are  educated  and 
clothed  by  the  voluntary  subscriptions  of  the  inhabitants,  aided  by 
the  donations  of  numerous  visitors  who  resort  hither.  In  the  same 
year  a  spacious  Theatre  Royal  was  built  near  the  east  corner  of 
Hawley-Square,  at  the  expence  of  about  4000/.  the  exterior  is 
wholly  devoid  of  ornament;  but  the  interior  is  ornamented  in  a 
handsome  style,  somewhat  on  the  plan  of  that  of  Coveut  Garden. 
Other  sources  of  public  amusement  are  found  in  the  Libraries,  of 
which  there  are  several  good  ones  in  this  town :  the  principal  of 
these  is  Bettison's  in  Hawley-Square,  which  is  fitted  up  in  a  very 
elegant  style. 

The  Margate  boats,  or  packets,  which  are  employed  for  the  con- 
veyance of  passengers,  baggage,  &c.  to  and  from  London,  are  com- 
raodiously  fitted  up  for  the  purpose  ;  and  the  passage  is  frequently 


382  MARGATE. 

made  in  the  course  of  from  nine  to  eighteen  and  twenty-four  hours. 
Ei<dit,  or  nine,  and  sometimes  more  of  these  boats  are  in  constant 
employ  every  season,  sailing  and  returning  daily.  The  season  be- 
n-ins on  the  fourth  of  June,  and  terminates  with  the  last  ball-night, 
in  October. 

Here  is  a  pier,  originally  of  wood,  carried  out  to  the  eastward  in 
a  circular  form,  for  the  security  of  the  shipping.  This  pier  is  built 
where  nature,  by  a  cove  in  the  cliff,  seemed  to  direct,  and  is  very 
ancient :  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  it  was  much  decayed,  but  in 
Elizabeth's  reign  certain  rates  on  corn,  &c.  landed  or  shipped  here, 
Were  imposed  for  the  repairs  of  it :  notwithstanding  this  it  was  kept 
but  in  an  indifferent  state  ;  for  in  1662  it  was  in  ruins,  and  conti- 
nued in  a  very  imperfect  condition  till  a  complaint  was  made  to 
Parliament  in  the  year  1724,  in  consequence  of  which  an  Act  was 
granted,  which  empowered  the  inhabitants  to  collect  certain  duties 
on  all  ships  trading  to  or  from  the  pier.  Wardens  were  also  invest- 
ed with  proper  authority  to  receive  and  expend  the  money.  Un- 
der this  Act  the  pier  was  maintained  till  the  year  1787,  when  an 
application  to  Parliament  being  intended  for  the  improvement  of 
the  town,  it  was  thought  expedient,  at  the  same  time,  to  provide  for 
the  reparation  of  the  pier,  and  an  Act  was  obtained  for  that  purpose, 
as  well  as  for  ascertaining,  establishing,  and  recovering,  certain  du- 
ties, agreeable  to  a  schedule  then  prepared,  in  lieu  of  the  ancient 
and  accustomed  droits.  Two  years  afterwards,  in  1799,  another 
Act  was  passsd  to  amend  the  former  by  increasing  the  rates  and  du- 
ties, that  the  commissioners  might  be  enabled  to  make  further  and 
necessary  improvements.  Under  these  Acts  the  pier  has  been  re- 
built with  stone,  and  extended  so  as  to  enlarge  the  harbour,  and 
form  a  more  complete  security  for  shipping.  The  cross  also,  as  it 
is  commonly  called,  which  extends  from  the  pier  towards  the  north, 
has  undergone  similar  alterations.  This  pier  is  the  most  fashionable 
promenade  in  Margate;  being  finished  with  a  parapet,  breast  high, 
it  is  perfectly  safe,  and  is  the  general  resort  of  the  company  before 
and  after  bathing.  In  an  evening  also,  and  at  the  times  of  the 
coming  in  or  going  out  of  a  packet,  as  the  Margate  passage-boats 


king's  gate.  383 

are  called,  it  is  frequently  crowded  with  a  most  motley  group,  in 
which  persons  of  all  descriptions  are  indiscriminately  blended. 

The  average  quantity  of  corn  annually  shipped  from  this  port  for 
the  last  four  or  five  years,  has  amounted  to  about  24,000  quarters. 

At  a  small  distance  from  Margate  is  a  breach  in  the  cliff  formerly 
called  Bartholomew's  gate,  but  now  King's  gate.  It  appears  frorri 
an  inscription  over  the  portal,  that  Charles  II.  with  his  brother 
James  duke  of  York,  landed  here  on  the  30th  of  June  1683,  and 
ordered  it  from  that  time  to  be  called  King's  gate.  Near  this  place 
is  a  seat  built  by  lord  Holland  in  imitation  of  an  Italian  villa,  with 
a  noble  portico  fronting  the  sea.  It  contains  several  elegant  apart- 
ments, with  a  variety  of  marble  columns,  busts,  vases,  &c.  brought 
from  Italy.  His  lordship  has  also  erected  with  chalk  stones  several 
buildings  resembling  Gothic  towers,  convents,  &c.  in  ruins,  and 
planted  ivy  round  them  to  increase  the  deception.  Near  this  seat 
are  Hackendown  banks,  or  the  field  of  battle  axes,  being  the  place 
where  a  fierce  battle  was  fought  in  the  year  854,  between  the  Danes 
and  Anglo  Saxons,  which  conflict  was  so  near  the  cliff,  that  many 
fell  into  the  sea;  and  some  historians  say,  that  both  commanders 
were  slain,  and  the  victory  doubtful.  Here  are  two  barrows  or 
hills  of  earth,  thought  to  have  been  the  tombs  of  certain  great  offi- 
cers killed  in  that  battle.  The  largest  of  these  barrows  was  opened 
in  the  year  1743,  and  the  smaller  in  the  year  1765,  by  order  of  the 
late  Henry  lord  Holland  :  they  were  both  found  to  contain  bodies 
bent  together  and  thrust  into  graves  dug  out  of  the  chalk,  a  little 
below  the  surface,  but  not  above  three  feet  long.  Several  earthen 
urns,  containing  about  two  or  three  quarts,  were  also  found,  in 
which  were  ashes  and  charcoal,  bnt  they  would  not  bear  the  air. 
Lord  Holland  has  erected  a  monument,  with  an  inscription  in  the 
style  of  antiquity,  to  perpetuate  this  action. 

About  half  a  mile  to  the  south  of  King's  gate,  is  the  North 
Foreland  Light-House,  for  the  direction  of  ships  by  night,  to  secure 
them  from  the  Goodwin  Sands,  and  this  head  laud.  It  was  for- 
merly built  of  wood,  but  being  burnt  down,  the  present  strong  flint 
octagon  was  erected  about  the  beginning  of  the  last  century ;  at  its 

3  D 


384  DRAPERS. 

top  was  an  iron  grate,  on  which  a  large  coal  fire  blazed  all  night.  The 
li<dvt  was  continued  in  this  state  till  the  year  1793,  when  the  build- 
ing was  repaired,  and  heightened  by  two  stories  of  brick-work. 
The  cod  fire  has  also  been  changed  for  patent  lamps,  having  mag- 
nifying lens,  each  twenty  inches  in  diameter,  contained  in  a  small 
room,  or  lantern,  under  a  dome,  coated  with  copper  to  prevent 
fires.  These  lamps  are  regularly  lighted  every  evening  at  sun-set, 
and  continue  burning  till  day-break;  and  are  so  brilliant,  that  in 
clear  weather,  the  light  is  visible  at  the  Nore,  a  distance  of  ten 
leagues.  A  gallery  surrounds  the  light-room,  from  whence  the 
views  are  very  extensive  and  beautiful ;  and  particularly  so  when: 
the  Downs  are  full  of  shipping.  This  Light-House,  as  well  as 
those  at  the  South  Foreland,  belongs  to  Greenwich  Hospital ;  and 
every  British  vessel  sailing  round  this  point,  pays  two-pence  per 
ton,  and  every  foreign  vessel,  four-pence  per  ton,  towards  its 
support. 

Not  far  from  Margate,  at  a  place  called  Drapers,  is  an  hospital 
founded  by  Michael  Yoakley  of  St.  John's  parish.  It  was  built  in 
1709,  and  consists  of  ten  dwelling-houses  ;  one  of  which  is  appro- 
priated for  an  overseer,  and  the  other  nine  for  poor  men  and  women 
of  the  adjoining  parishes.  They  are  allowed  coals,  and  enjoy  a 
weekly  stipend.  This  institution  being  entirely  calculated  for  the 
relief  of  indigence,  not  for  the  encouragement  of  idleness;  the 
founder  in  his  will  has  specified  the  qualifications  of  such  as  are  to 
be  admitted ;  they  must  be  industrious,  of  a  meek,  humble,  and 
quiet  spirit.  The  paupers  are  chiefly  quakers.  About  a  mile  and 
a  half  from  Margate,  are  the  manors  of  Dane,  and  Salmanston, 
wh"ere  are  the  remains  of  two  chapels.  The  former  manor  belong- 
ed to  Sir  Henry  Sandwich,  who  held  it  of  the  abbot  of  St.  Augus- 
tine, and  had  a  licence  from  him  to  build  a  chapel  for  the  use  of  his 
own  family.  It  was  erected  about  the  year  1230:  ruins  of  it  may 
be  still  seen  in  an  open  field  near  the  public  road.  It  was  formerly 
resorted  to  by  the  inhabitants  of  Fleet  and  Vincent,  as  well  as  by 
the  lord  of  the  manor  and  his  family  ;  and  it  may  be  concluded, 
that  there  were  anciently  more  tenements  in  this  part  of  the  country: 


ST.  PETER.  385 

this  opinion  is  farther  confirmed  by  the  number  of  wells  which  have 
been  found  here.  The  other  manor  which  is  at  Salmanston  Grange, 
and  near  the  former,  belonged  to  the  monastery  of  St.  Augustine. 
When  the  monks  held  this  estate,  they  ploughed  the  land  with  the 
assistance  of  lay-brethren,  and  used  the  mansion  house  as  a  country 
retirement :  here  they  built  a  chapel  and  infirmary,  the  ruins  of 
which  are  still  visible.  Nash  Court  is  a  large  and  ancient  house. 
Mr.  Lewis  saw  a  date  on  a  sand-stone  in  the  wall,  which  was  1 108. 
In  the  window  of  the  hall  were  painted  a  mitre  and  pastoral  staff", 
with  the  arms  of  the  monastery  of  Christ  church,  Canterbury. 
This  seat  was  formerly  held  of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and 
was  the  property  of  the  Godwintons,  of  Beaksborne. 

Proceeding  towards  Ramsgate  you  pass  through  the  village  of  St. 
Peter,  which  is  about  two  miles  from  Margate.  This  pleasant  vil- 
lage is  a  member  of  the  cinque  port  of  Dover,  (the  mayor  of  which 
appoints  a  deputy  here),  and  is  subject  to  its  civil  jurisdiction.  The 
church  is  elegant;  it  is  built  of  flint,  and  being  placed  on  an  emi- 
nence is  a  sea  mark.  It  was  formerly  a  chapel  belonging  to  Minster. 
About  a  mile  to  the  eastward  of  St.  Peter's,  and  within  that  parish, 
is  Bradstow,  or  Broadstairs,  situated  within  a  bay  of  the  clhT. 
Here  was  formerly  strong  gates  and  a  port  cullis,  walled  on  each 
side  with  flints,  in  order  to  prevent  the  inroads  of  privateers  :  for 
as  the  eastern  parts  of  the  isle  of  Thanet  are  only  accessible  at  these 
narrow  passages  called  Stairs,  they  were  generally  defended  in 
this  manner:  these  gates  were  erected  about  the  year  15G0,  the 
remains  of  the  portal  and  walls  are  still  to  be  seen.  At  a  little  dis- 
tance from  this  gateway  is  a  pier  built  of  timber  for  the  security  of 
the  fishery  :  this  pier  has  been  frequently  injured  by  storms,  and  as 
the  revenue  for  its  support  and  preservation  is  but  small,  the  in- 
habitants of  Broadstairs  have  been  sometimes  obliged  to  solicit  the 
subscriptions  of  the  public,  which  in  consideration  of  its  commercial 
utility,  have  been  liberally  promoted.  From  the  dues  being  in- 
sufficient to  keep  the  pier  and  harbour  in  repair,  an  Act  was  ob- 
tained in  the  thirty-second  of  his  present  majesty,  for  granting  public 
aid  for  that  purpose  ;  yet  the  desired  improvements  have  not  yet  been 


386  BROADSTAIRS. 

made,  the  trade  to  this  port  having  greatly  decreased,  through  vari- 
ous causes.  Near  the  gates  are  the  ruins  of  a  chapel,  in  which  was 
an  linage  called  our  Lady  of  Broadstairs,  who  was  not  only  rever- 
enced on  the  land  but  on  the  water;  the  sailors,  by  lowering  the 
top-sails  of  their  ships,  saluted  her  as  they  passed  by.  Broadstairs 
has  of  late  years  become  %  very  thriving  and  fashionable  watering 
place,  and  many  new  houses  have  been  erected  here,  which,  in  the 
summer  season,  are  inhabited  by  families  of  the  first  respectability. 
At  the  distance  of  about  three  leagues  from  the  cliff,  are  the 
Goodwin  Sands,  which  extend  in  length  from  north  to  south  about 
ten  miles,  and  in  breadth  are  almost  two  miles,  forming  a  bank, 
which,  in  some  measure,  secures  the  downs,  but  is  in  general  very 
destructive  to  navigation  ;  shipwrecks  being  frequent  here  and  on 
the  coast.  Though  the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent  port  towns  have 
been  justly  censured  for  plundering  the  distressed;  yet  it  must  be 
acknowledged  that  the  crime  is  not  a  little  extenuated,  by  their  en- 
terprizing  attempts  to  save  the  lives  of  the  unfortunate  mariners,  at 
a  crisis,  when  they  evidently  hazard  their  own.  We  cannot  speak 
with  any  certainty  concerning  the  origin  of  these  sands,  it  has  been 
conjectured  that  they  were  inhabited  islands  within  these  twelve 
huudred  years,  and  part  of  earl  Goodwin's  estate,  but  were  swal- 
lowed up  by  an  earthquake,  or  overflowed  by  an  inundation :  but  if 
either  of  these  catastrophes  had  happened  in  the  period  abovementi- 
pned,  it  would  certainly  have  been  described  in  less  ambiguous 
terms.  Neither  is  it  credible  that  there  should  have  been  such 
islands,  for  no  mention  is  made  of  them  by  historians,  in  ancient* 
records,  or  in  the  annals  of  St.  Augustine  and  Christ  church,  Can- 
terbury; which,  without  doubt,  would  have  enjoyed  some  part  of 
them,  if  they  had  been  more  than  imaginary,  and  as  fertile  as  re^ 
presented.  I-     It  seems  to  be  the  general  opinion,  that  the  Goodwin 

*  In  Doomsday -book  there  is  particular  mention  made  of  the  islands  in 
Kent,  Thanet,  Sheppey,  &c.  but  it  is  quite  silent  with  respect  to  the  Good- 
win island. 

+  Mr.  Soumer  is  of  opinion  that  the  appearance  of  these  sands  is  an  event 


RAMSGATE.  387 

Sands  are  more  soft  and  porous,  than  those  along  the  neighbouring 
coast,  in  consequence  of  which  so  many  ships  are  almost  instanta- 
neously lost.  But  this  is  a  mistaken  notion,  for  these  sands  are 
always  hard,  and  are  as  tenacious  as  any  other.  Ships  are  indeed 
soon  swallowed  up  at  high  water,  if  they  hold  together,  by  reason 
of  their  violent  agitation.  All  heavy  bodies  resting  on  sand,  when 
put  into  motion,  will  work  gradually  downward,  and  their  descent 
will  be  in  proportion  to  the  degree  of  motion. 

Ramsgate  is  situated  in  a  cove  of  the  chalky  cliff.  It  was  anci- 
ently an  obscure  village,  built  for  the  conveniency  of  the  fishery, 
but  has  of  late  years  been  much  improved  and  enlarged,  owing  to  a 
successful  trade  which  the  inhabitants,  since  the  year  1688,  have 
been  concerned  in,  to  Russia,  and  the  east  country.  The  town, 
which  is  built  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  is  well  paved  and  lighted,  and 
has  a  market  place,  erected  of  late  years,  adjoining  to  the  High 
Street,  near  which  is  an  extensive  library,  news-room,  &c.  and 
there  is  also  another  library  near  the  harbour.  The  Assembly  and 
Card  Rooms  form  a  very  neat  fabric  fronting  the  harbour.  Many 
genteel  families  repair  annually  to  Ramsgate,  in  the  bathing  season, 
as  there  are  machines  and  attendants  here,  as  at  Margate,  but  not 
in  so  great  numbers.  The  sands  are  not  so  level,  nor  do  they  ex- 
tend so  far  as  at  Margate  ;  but  the  town  is  justly  considered  as  be- 
ing more  agreeable  to  such  as  come  hither  for  healfh,  rather  than 
for  company  and  pleasure.  King  Henry  VII.  by  letters  patent 
united  Ramsgate  to  Sandwich  within  whose  jurisdiction  it  still  con- 
tinues.    The  mayor  of  Sandwich  appoints  a  deputy  for  this  town, 

much  later  than  the  time  of  earl  Goodwin.  He  thinks  that  they  Mere  occasi- 
oned by  a  violent  inundation  iu  great  part  of  Flanders  and  the  low  countries, 
where  considerable  tracts  of  land  were  laid  under  water,  which  caused  a  recess 
of  the  sea  on  this  coast,  and  the  emergency  of  these  sands:  but  this  notion 
seems  very  improbable,  because  if  the  water  had  covered  tiiem  to  such  a  depth, 
as  is  supposed  by  this  hypothesis,  it  would  have  drowned  all  the  level,  together 
with  the  town  of  Sandwich.  Before  this  inundation,  it  is  supposed,  by  some 
authors,  that  these  sands  were  covered  by  the  water  to  such  a  depth  as  to  ad- 
mit of  ships  sailing  safely  over  them  at  all  times. 


388  RAMSGATE. 

the  inhabitants  of  which  pay  a  proportion  of  the  land  tax  levied  on 
the  town  to  which  it  is  subject.  The  parish  church  is  at  a  place 
called  St.  Lawrence,  about  a  mile  from  Ramsgate,  and  stands  upon 
a  hill,  it-is  a  handsome  building  with  a  lofty  and  square  tower  in 
the  middle  of  it.  Formerly  it  was  a  chapel  depending  on  Minster, 
but  in  1275,  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  consecrated  the  church- 
yard, and  made  the  church  parochial :  a  chapel  of  ease  elegantly 
plain  was  built  in  1785. 

In  the  22d  of  George  II.  an  act  of  parliament  was  obtained,  for 
making  a  new  harbour  at  Ramsgate.  It  was  begun  in  the  year 
1750,  but  on  account  of  many  interruptions,  arising  from  various 
unforeseen  causes,  was  not  completely  finished  till  of  late  years:  it 
is  formed  by  two  noble  piers,  which  are  objects  well  worthy  the  at- 
tention of  every  stranger.  The  entire  length  of  the  East  pier,  in- 
cluding its  flexures,  or  angles,  amounts  to  nearly  2000  feet :  the 
"West  pier  is  about  1500  feet:  the  width  of  the  entrance  is  240  feet. 
The  general  breadth  of  the  piers  is  twenty-six  feet,  including  a  strong 
parapet  which  defends  the  outer  sides  from  the  sea.  The  area  of 
the  harbour  is  nearly  circular,  and  comprehends  about  forty-six 
acres.  The  piers,  basin,  &c.  are  chiefly  constructed  with  Purbeck 
and  Portland  stone,  principally  the  latter.  In  the  bathing  season, 
the  piers  are  frequently  crowded  with  company,  particularly  the 
East  pier  which  then  becomes  a  favourite  promenade.  The  sea 
views,  especially  of  the  shipping  in  the  Downs,  are  very  fine  :  in 
good  weather  the  cliffs  of  Calais  may  be  seen,  though  at  the  dis- 
tance of  thirty  miles.  The  home  views  include  the  towns  of  Sand- 
wich and  Deal,  together  with  some  striking  features  of  the  uplands 
and  fruitful  vallies  of  East  Kent.  Near  the  north  end  of  the  West 
pier  is  a  massy  frame-work  of  timber,  including  a  stair-case,  called 
Jacob's  Ladder ,  forming  a  communication  from  the  top  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  cliff:  this  was  erected  in  1754.  The  duties  payable 
towards  the  maintenance  of  this  harbour  are  collected  from  all  ves- 
sels passing  through  the  Downs.  All  ships,  whether  navigating  to 
the  east  or  west  of  the  Goodwin  Sands,  are  now  charged  :  vessels 
between  twenty  tons  and  throe  hundred,  pay  two-pence  per  ton  : 


fcBBSFLEET.  389 

every  chaldron  of  coals,  and  every  ton  of  stones,  are  rated  at  from 
three-pence  to  three-pence  halfpenny.  Since  the  completion  of  the 
harbour  the  shipping  trade  has  been  much  improved.  The  sums 
expended  in  its  construction,  are  stated  to  amount  to  between  six 
and  700,000?. ;  but  this  bears  hardly  any  proportion  to  the  proper- 
ty saved,  and  the  number  of  valuable  lives  which  have  been  pre- 
served to  their  families,  and  to  their  country,  by  its  means.  Be- 
tween the  years  1792  and  1802,  anew  Light-House  of  stone,  with 
Argand  lamps  and  reflectors,  was  erected  on  the  head  of  the  West 
pier.  A  dry  Dock  has  also  been  formed,  and  store-houses  erected 
for  every  necessary  purpose.  Boat-building  and  the  repairs  of  ship- 
ping after  heavy  gales  of  wind,  are  also  carried  on  here,  and  occa- 
sionally to  considerable  extent.  In  the  reign  of  queen  Elizabeth 
it  appears  that  there  were  only  twenty-five  inhabited  houses  and  a 
proportionate  number  of  inhabitants.  In  1783,  the  population 
amounted  to  1800  individuals,  and  in  1801,  to  3300. 

Cliff-end  is  about  two  miles  from  Ramsgate,  from  whence  turn- 
ing southward,  and  proceeding  towards  Sandwich,  you  soon  ar- 
rive at  that  celebrated  place  of  antiquity  called  Wippedsflet,but  now 
Ebbsfleet.  It  is  a  little  creek  or  bay,  about  three  miles  from  Sand- 
wich, and  little  more  than  a  mile  from  Richborough  castle.  There 
seems  formerly  to  have  been  a  commodious  haven  at  this  place,  as 
we  find  it  famous  for  the  landing  of  the  Saxons  under  Hengist,  and 
the  missionaries  who  attended  Augustine.  Without  this  supposition 
it  is  difficult  to  assign  a  reason  for  their  not  disembarking  at  Sand- 
wich, which  was  a  celebrated  port  on  tliis  shore,  long  before  the 
arrival  of  these  persons.  This  haven  might  probably  have  ran  as 
far  as  the  town  of  Stonar,  and  was  called  the  haven  of  Stonar,  for 
such  an  inlet  is  mentioned  by  ancient  writers.  On  the  right  are  the 
venerable  remains  of  Richborough  castle,  about  two  miles  from 
Sandwich,  and  one  from  the  sea  shore  :  they  are  separated  from 
the  isle  of  Thanet  by  the  river  Stour,  which  runs  close  by  them. 
This  place  was  undoubtedly  the  Rhutupiaa  of  the  ancient  Romans, 
and  was  a  city  of  some  importance  while  they  held  this  island.  WTe 
cannot  think,  however,  that  the  Portus  Rhutupcnsis  of  the  Romans 


590  RICHBOROUGH. 

should  be  confined  to  this  place,  but  rather  believe,  with  Dr.  Plot, 
that  the  whole  of  the  Wantsum,  from  Reculver  to  Sandwich, 
which  pints  the  isle  of  Thanet  from  the  continent,  was  called  by 
that  name,  as  the  whole  Kentish  shore  opposite  to  France,  was 
called  "  Rhutupinum  litus."  The  castle  of  Richborough,  being 
situated  on  an  eminence  close  by  the  river  Stour,  or  the  ancient 
Wantsum,  commanded  that  passage  from  Northmouth  to  the 
downs  :  so  that  no  vessel  could  escape  the  sight  of  the  garrison  in  its 
way  to  London  from  the  continent,  unless  it  went  round  the  Fore- 
land. It  is  uncertain  when  the  foundation  of  this  castle  was  laid : 
it  is  said  to  have  been  finished  in  the  time  of  Severus,  A.  D.  180. 
The  area  within  the  walls  is  four  acres  three  quarters  one  perch  and 
a  third.  The  walls  are  eleven  feet  thick,  but  are  so  demolished 
that  the  original  height  is  indeterminable  :  they  are  in  some  parts 
about  twenty-six  feet  high.  The  exterior  surface  of  the  walls  is  di- 
vided into  stories,  each  story  comprizing  seven  or  eight  courses  of 
facing  stones,  whose  figure  is  a  parallelogram,  and  each  finished 
with  two  courses  of  very  thin  Roman  bricks.  The  inner  part  of 
the  wall  is  a  promiscuous  composition  of  flints,  chalk,  pebbles  and 
mortar.  This  fortress  had  two  gates,  a  large  one  in  the  middle  of 
the  wrest  wall,  and  a  small  one  in  the  north  wall.  Over  the  north 
gate  was  the  figure  of  a  woman's  head,  cut  in  stone,  which  Leland 
saw  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  but  much  defaced.  At  a  small 
distance  from  it,  are  some  remains,  which  are  supposed  to  have  been 
an  amphitheatre,  built  by  the  Romans.  The  city  (as  Bede  calls  it) 
seems  to  have  been  very  populous  in  the  time  of  the  Romans,  and 
much  frequented,  as  it  was  the  common  port  of  arrival  out  of  Gaul. 
It  was  also  a  place  of  some  distinction,  during  the  government  of 
the  Saxons  ;  and  here  it  has  been  supposed  Ethelbert  I.  had  a  palace. 
From  the  dissolution  of  the  heptarchy,  we  may  date  the  declension 
of  this  port :  it  being  neglected  inconsequence  of  a  change  of  go- 
vernment; the  incursions  of  the  Danes,  and  a  material  alteration 
in  the  passage  of  the  Wantsum,  might  also  contribute  to  the  des- 
troying its  importance,  which  was  considerably  diminished  soon 


STONAR.  391 

after  the  Norman  conquest.*  A  great  number  of  Roman  coins,  and 
other  reliques  of  antiquity  have  been  found  here,  particularly  a 
brass  cock,  the  emblem  of  iEsculapius,  which  was  dug  up  within 
the  castle.  Broken  walls  are  at  present  the  only  remains  of  this 
once  celebrated  fortification,  which,  however,  merit  the  inspection 
of  the  curious. 

Proceeding  towards  Sandwich,  you  pass  by  a  manufactory  of 
salt,  established  upwards  of  fifty  years  ago,  by  Mrs.  Rook.  You 
next  arrive  at  the  spot  where  formerly  flourished  the  town  of  Stonar, 
another  melancholy  instance  of  the  poet's  observation. 

"  He  builds  too  low  who  builds  beneath  the  skies." 

Where  the  lofty  spire  once  raised  its  head,  and  the  dwellings  of 
the  inhabitants  were  arranged,  no  vestiges  remain.  The  place  is 
now  only  to  be  distinguished  by  a  heap  of  stones,  and  two  solitary 
habitations.  The  scite  of  this  ancient  town  is  raised  very  little 
above  the  surrounding  marshes,  which  in  spring  tides  are  often  over- 
flowed. Admitting,  therefore,  that  the  water  had  been  but  three 
feet  higher  than  it  is  at  present,  it  would  have  drowned  the  level 
where  the  town  of  Stonar  was  situated ;  especially  if  we  consider 
that  the  Wantsum  was  at  that  time  of  sufficient  breadth  for  large 
fleets  to  pass  through  it,  in  their  way  to  London.   This  we  observe, 

*  Mr.  Somner  in  his  treatise  of  the  Roman  ports,  &c.  gives  the  following 
account  of  a  chapel,  in  the  centre  of  the  castle,  called  Richborough  chapel. 
"  One  Sir  John  Saunders,  says  he,  a  prebendary  of  Wingham,  (then  a  college 
"  of  secular  canons)  parson  of  Dymchurch,  and  vicar  of  Ash,  in  his  will  dated 
"  1509,  thus  mentions  this  chapel;  item,  I  bequeath  to  the  chapel  of  Rich- 
"  borough,  one  portuys  printed,  with  a  mass  book,  which  was  Sir  Thomas's 
"  the  old  priest;  item,  to  the  use  of  the  said  chapel  twenty  shillings  to  make 
"  them  a  new  window  in  the  body  of  the  church."  This  probably  was  a 
chapel  of  ease  for  the  use  of  some  of  the  neighbouring  inhabitants,  but  depen- 
dent on  the  mother  church  at  Ash,  and  continued  till  the  reformation,  when  it 
went  to  ruin.  The  spot  where  it  stood  is  still  visible.  Mr.  Leland  says  there 
was  an  hermitage  in  the  castle,  and  that  he  conversed  with  the  hermit.  Not 
far  from  the  hermitage  was  a  cave  where  men  had  dug  for  treasure.  He  looked 
into  it  with  a  candle  and  saw  some  rabbits,  but  found  it  was  too  narrow  for 
him  to  enter. 

3   E 


,392  STONAR* 

to  shew  the  improbability  of  the  opinion,  which  some  respectable? 
persons  have  adopted,  that  the  Goodwin  Sands  have  been  discovered 
by  the  loss  of  a  great  depth  of  water  on  this  shore.  But  one  ob- 
jection may  be  made  to  this  hypothesis,  What  can  have  occasioned 
so  great  an  alteration  in  the  depth  and  breadth  of  the  river?  The 
principal  cause  seems  to  be  this.  The  Wantsum  was  formerly  a 
large  aestuary,  and  as  long  as  the  sea  continued  to  flow  at  the  north 
mouth  on  the  east  of  Reculver,  it  increased  the  rapidity  of  the 
stream,  and  cleared  the  channel  of  those  sands  which  were  collect- 
ed together  at  the  mouth  of  it.  But  when  the  river  was  deprived  of 
this  considerable  force  of  water,  the  valley  through  which  it  passed, 
by  the  continual  accession  of  mud  and  sand,  was  raised  on  each  side 
above  the  height  of  the  tides ;  by  which  means  the  Wantsum  was 
contracted  within  narrower  limks  :  and  as  the  water  left  the  land, 
the  lords  of  the  manors  embanked  it;  a  practice  which  contributed 
still  more  to  lessen  the  stream.  At  present  the  Stour  seems  to  be 
reduced  to  an  invariable  breadth  and  depth,  which,  without  some 
extraordinary  event,  may  long  continue  so,  as  they  are  proportion- 
ate to  the  quantity  of  water  it  receives,  and  the  rapidity  of  the  cur- 
rent. 

The  town  of  Stonar  was  situated  opposite  to  Sandwich,  and  pro- 
bably reached  to  the  shore  of  the  Wantsum  on  that  side.  The 
church  stood  on  a  small  eminence  about  half  a  mile  from  the  river, 
a  few  rods  to  the  east  of  the  great  road;  but  there  are  no  visible 
remains  of  it  at  present.  Stonar  seems  to  have  been  populous  in  the 
time  of  William  II.  A  court  being  held  there  by  the  justices;  a'f 
this  court  it  was  agreed  between  the  men  of  Lunden  (or  Sandwich) 
and  the  men  of  Stonar,  that  the  abbot's  privileges  should  extend 
from  the  shore  to  the  middle  of  the  water,  or  Wantsum.  This 
charter  was  confirmed  by  Henry  I.  and  king  Stephen.  Various 
were  the  disputes  between  the  abbot  of  St.  Augustine  and  the  men  of 
Stonar,  because  the  latter  would  not  submit  to  the  authority  of  the 
former,  do  service  in  his  court,  or  acknowledge  that  their  tene- 
ments belonged  to  the  barony  of  St.  Augustine.  In  1368  the  may- 
or of  Sandwich,  and  certain  men  of  the  town  of  Stonar,  were  sued 


STONAR.  393 

for  a  trespass,  by  Robert  de  Stoke,  sheriff  of  Kent.  But  they  re- 
fused to  answer  in  his  court,  alledging,  that  as  they  enjoyed  in 
common  the  privileges  of  the  Cinque  ports,  they  would  plead  only 
in  the  court  of  Shipway :  on  which  refusal,  they  were  committed 
to  prison;  and  it  was  adjudged,  that  the  town  of  Stonar  belonged 
to  the  abbot.     They  were  released,  on  paying  him  a  fine. 

Notwithstanding  this  defeat,  it  appears  that  the  Stonar  men  ac- 
complished their  design  soon  afterwards,  and  were  made  members 
of  the  Cinque  port  of  Sandwich.  Indeed  several  authors  assert 
that  Stonar  belonged  to  this  port  from  the  time  of  Edward  the  con- 
fessor ;  but  this  cannot  be  reconciled  with  the  foregoing  legal  pro- 
cess. It  seems  evident,  however,  that,  long  before  the  year  1368, 
the  mayor  of  Sandwich  exercised  certain  juridical  powers  in  this 
town  ;  and  also  the  office  of  judge  of  the  crown,  commonly  called 
coroner.  It  was  usual  with  the  mayor  of  Sandwich,  soon  after  he 
was  elected,  to  cause  the  common  town  horn  to  be  blown  at  cer- 
tain places  in  the  town  of  Stonar,  and  summon  the  inhabitants  to 
assemble  at  a  time  and  place  appointed  ;  at  which  assembly  the  may- 
or chose  a  fit  person  to  act  as  his  deputy  in  that  town,  who  was  in 
all  things  to  perform  the  office  of  mayoralty,  except  in  giving 
judgment,  which  was  to  be  done  by  the  mayor  himself,  within  the 
liberties  of  the  town  of  Stonar. 

In  the  year  1385  the  town  received  a  fatal  blow,  from  which  it 
never  recovered.  It  was  first  plundered  and  afterwards  burnt  by 
the  French.  Such  was  the  effect  of  this  conflagration,  that  when  it 
was  visited  by  archbishop  Parker,  in  1569,  there  were  neither 
houses  nor  communicants.  Mr.  Lewis  says,  that  in  the  archbishop's 
acts  of  visitation  for  that  year,  there  is  this  entry  : — 

"  Stonard  rectoria  ex  patronatu  Henrici  Crispe  militis, 

"  Rectoria  vacat  per  mortem  ultimi  rectoris  ibidem, 

"  Sunt  in  dicta  parochia  domicilia,  >  _ _  ...  „ 
r  '  £  Nulh." 

"  Communicatees  j 

This  may  be  called  an  epitaph  on  the  departed  town  ;  to  which  may 
be  added  whet  Dr.  Plot  has  left  in  manuscript  about  the  year  1693, 


394  SANDWICH. 

•which  is  quoted  by  Mr.  Harris.  "  The  ruins  of  the  town  of  Stonar 
"  did  remain  till  within  the  memory  of  man,  and  took  up  many 
"  acres  of  ground,  but  were  lately  removed  to  render  the  ground 
"  fit  for  tillage ;  and  so  much  of  them  as  could  not  be  put  to  ano- 
"  ther  use,  composed  that  bank  which  remains  between  the  two 
"  houses,  whereof  that  house  next  the  creek  borders  upon  the  old 
M  town ;  the  other,  which  is  more  remote,  being  of  a  later  erec- 
<<  tion,  but  both  called  Stonar." 

Sandwich  is  near  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  sea,  eight  miles  from 
Margate,  twelve  from  Canterbury,  ten  from  Dover,  and  five  from 
Deal.  It  is  very  irregularly  built,  and  has  the  appearance  of  great- 
er antiquity,  perhaps,  than  any  other  in  this  county.  The  streets 
and  lanes  are  mostly  narrow  and  inconvenient;  though  some  con- 
siderable improvements  have  been  made  under  an  Act  passed  in  1787, 
for  new  paving,  lighting  and  cleansing  this  town.  Strand-Street, 
which  reaches  from  Canterbury-gate  to  Sandown-gate,  might  have 
been  made  a  commodious  thoroughfare ;  but  at  present  it  is  broken, 
into  many  disagreeable  angles.  High-Street,  Fishers-Street,  and 
Delph-Street,  are  the  broadest  and  most  airy,  in  which  are  several 
good  houses.  This  town  was  formerly  divided  into  eight  wards; 
but,  since  the  year  1437,  it  has  been  divided  into  twelve  wards,  or 
districts,  each  under  the  jurisdiction  of  a  jurat,  who  nominates  a 
constable,  and  a  deputy  constable.  The  walls  of  the  town,  which 
were  made  by  the  throAving  up  the  earth,  are  nearly  in  the  form  of 
a  parallelogram,  and  are  about  five  furlongs  in  length  from  east  to 
west,  and  two  and  a  half  from  north  to  south  ;  at  the  foot  of  which 
is  a  wet  ditch  of  considerable  breadth.  They  command  a  pleasant 
and  extensive  view  of  the  adjacent  country.  In  these  walls  are 
Several  semicircular  projections  which  overlook  the  ditches,  there 
were  also  some  pieces  of  ordnance,  which  being  quite  unserviceable, 
have  been  lomr  since  removed.  The  river  and  quays  are  on  the 
north  side  of  the  town.  There  are  several  gates  belonging  to  it, 
some  of  which  are  in  a  ruinous  condition.  On  the  east  side  is 
Sandown-gate,  through  which  is  the  road  to  Deal :  on  the  south 
wde  is  New-gate,  which  leads  to  Dover;  and   Woodnesborough- 


SANDWICH.  395 

gate  in  the  road  to  that  once  famous  village :  on  the  west  side  is 
Canterbury-gate,  through  which  lies  the  road  to  that  city  :  on  the 
north  side  is  Davis  or  David's-gate,  at  one  end  of  which  is  a  watch 
tower,  called  the  Barbican,  and  at  the  other  end  the  custom  house. 
It  is  directly  opposite  the  new  bridge,  over  which  is  the  avenue  into 
the  isle  of  Thanet :  a  little  below  this  is  Fisher's-gate,  which  faces 
that  part  of  the  river  where  was  formerly  a  ferry,  which  before  the 
erection  of  the  bridge,  was  the  only  passage  into  the  island.  There 
was  likewise  a  gate  called  Gregory  Ive's-gate,  at  the  bottom  of 
Love-lane ;  and  Pillory-gate,  adjoining  to  the  Dolphin-Quay  :* 
Canterbury-gate,  which  opened  by  a  pointed  arch  flanked  by  round 
towers,  was  pulled  down  about  the  year  1784  :  Woodnesborough 
gate,  Sandown-gate,  and  New-gate  were  demolished  soon  after. 
Fisher's-gate,  the  only  one  that  now  remains,  is  an  ancient  mean- 
looking  fabric,  opening  towards  the  water,  at  a  short  distance  from 
the  bridge.  On  the  noith-east  angle  of  the  walls  was  an  ancient 
tower  called  the  Bulwark.  It  was  about  twenty  feet  high,  thirty 
feet  long,  and  twenty  feet  broad,  embattled  on  the  top.  It  com- 
manded the  harbour,  and  was  formerly  used  as  a  look-out  house, 
but  being  much  decayed  was  taken  down  many  years  ago.  It  ap- 
pears from  the  remains  of  fortifications  about  this  town,  that  it  was 
anciently  a  place  of  great  strength  ;  and,  before  the  use  of  cannon, 
was  capable  of  enduring  a  vigorous  siege.  Sandwich  has  been  es- 
teemed the  most  famous  of  all  the  ports  in  England ;  and  is  thought, 
by  many  respectable  authors,  to  have  been  the  landing  place  gene- 
rally used  by  the  Romans,  and  inhabitants  of  the  ancient  city  Rhu- 
tupia?.  But  it  is  probable  that  both  Sandwich  and  Richborough 
vjere  understood  by  that  appellation ;  Sandwich  having  been  the 
port  for  landing  and  embarking,  and  Richborough  the  garrison  for 
the  troops.  Near  the  mills  at  Ash  is  a  Roman  burying  ground  ; 
from  which  it  seems  reasonable  to  conclude,  that  the  Roman  road 
from  Canterbury  ran  by  this  place,  and  proceeded  from  thence  by 
Brook-street  to  Richborough  castle. 

*  In  a  very  ancient  charter,  mention  is  made  of  ITunter's-gate,  but  it  seems 
difficult  to  ascertain  the  place  where  it  stood. 


396  SANDWICH. 

No  proof  is  to  be  drawn  against  the  antiquity  of  this  town  from 
the  assertion  of  Mr.  Soinner,  that  its  present  name  does  not  occur 
in  any  writing  till  the  year  979.  About  thirty  years  after  this  pe- 
riod, the  writer  of  the  life  of  queen  Emma,  who  is  supposed  to 
have  lived  in  the  time  of  Canute,  calls  Sandwich  the  most  famous 
of  all  the  ports  of  England,  from  which  it  is  evident,  that  it  is  much 
more  ancient  than  the  name  it  now  bears. 

Tne  Saxons,  who  succeeded  the  Romans,  having  erected  a  king- 
dom in  this  county,  added  considerably  to  the  importance  of  this 
town.  It  seems  not  only  to  have  been  the  landing  place  from  the 
continent,  but  the  port  where  all  ships  generally  stopped  in  their 
way  from  thence  to  London.  About  this  time  it  was  called  Lun- 
den-vic,  a  name  which  it  probably  derived  from  the  circumstance 
above  mentioned,  and  which  it  held  during  the  continuance  of  the 
heptarchy.*  The  heptarchy  being  dissolved  by  Egbert  about  830, 
this  town  suffered  considerably  in  its  trade ;  for  the  court  removing 
from  Canterbury  to  London,  commerce  was  of  consequence  con- 
ducted through  other  channels.  But  notwithstanding  this  decrease 
of  its  trade,  it  still  continued  to  be  a  port  of  some  importance. 
Here  the  whole  naval  force  of  the  kingdom  did  frequently  rendez- 
vous in  the  time  of  the  Saxon  and  Danish  kings  of  England.  About 
the  year  688,  Mildred,  abbess  of  Minster  and  Thanet,  obtained 
from  the  king  of  Kent  the  custom  levied  on  all  ships  in  this  port. 
Her  mother  Domneva,  who  built  the  abbey  of  Minster,  founded  a 
nunnery  in  this  town,  near  St.  Mary's  church,  about  the  year  640. + 

*  In  confirmation  of  this  opinion,  Mr.  Somner  quotes  part  of  a  law  made  by 
Lotliair  and  Eadric  kings  of  Kent,  respecting  the  commerce  of  this  place. 
"  If  any  Kentish  man  shall  buy  any  thing  in  Lunden-vic,  let  him  take  unto 
"  him  two  or  three  honest  men,  or  the  king's  portrieve  to  witness,  &c."  The 
port  called  Lunden-vic,  in  this  mandate,  was  undoubtedly  the  same  which  is 
mow  called  Sandwich. 

+  In  the  general  survey  of  England,  made  by  order  of  the  Conqueror,  Sand- 
wich is  thus  described  in  Doomsday  book.  "  Sandwich  is  a  manor  of  the 
"  holy  Trinity  (Christ  church)  and  is  to  supply  the  monks  with  apparel.  It  is 
"  both  an  hundred  in  itself,  and  renders  the  king   service  at  sea,  as  does 


SANDWICH.  397 

In  the  year  121 G,  the  barons  having  invited  the  French  to  as- 
sist them  against  king  John,  Lewis,  Dauphin  of  France,  set  sail  for 
England  with  a  fleet  of  near  seven  hundred  vessels.  They  arrived 
at  Stonar  on  the  21st  of  May,  where  meeting  with  no  resistance 
they  sailed  into  the  port  of  Sandwich,  which  they  plundered  and 
burnt.  King  Edward  I.  commiserating  this  ancient  port,  which 
began  to  decline  in  consequence  of  the  above  mentioned  calamity, 
removed  the  woolstaple  from  Queenborough,  and  established  it  at 
Sandwich,  1280  :  he  also  granted  a  new  charter  to  Sandwich,  and 
endowed  it  with  many  privileges.  During  the  contention  betwixt 
the  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster,  Charles  VII.  of  France  equip- 
ped two  fleets  to  annoy  the  English  coast ;  one  of  them,  under  Sir 
Peter  Bressy  came  to  Sandwich,  landed  four  thousand  men,  August 
2S,  1457,  pillaged  the  town,  killed  the  mayor,  and  destroyed 
great  numbers  of  the  inhabitants.  The  mayor  of  Sandwich  bears  a 
black  wand  to  this  day,  which  it  is  imagined,  is  in  commemoration 
of  this  tragical  event.  Many  of  the  hugaenots,  who  fled  to  Eng- 
land from  the  persecution  of  the  Duke  de  Alva,  settled  in  this  town: 
here  they  established  a  manufacture  of  flannels,  which  were  former- 
ly in  so  great  repute,  as  to  be  exported  in  large  quantities  ;  but  the 
manufacture  is  now  gone  to  decay. 

In  Sandwich  are  three  parish  churches,  St.  Clement's,  St.  Mary's, 
and  St.  Peter's.  There  was  formerly  a  fourth  in  the  south-west 
part  of  this  town,  dedicated  to  St.  James,  but  there  are  no  remains 
of  it  at  present.     The  church-yard  is  still  inclosed,  and  is  used  for 

"  Dover;  while  the  king  held  it  the  men  of  the  town  rendered  to  him,  for 
"  their  customs,  fifteen  pounds  (equal  to  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  pounds 
"  at  present).  But  when  the  archbishops  and  monks  obtained  it,  they  rendered 
"  forty  pounds  and  forty  thousand  herrings.  In  the  last  year  it  rendered  fifty 
"  pounds  and  herrings  as  before,  and  this  year  it  should  render  seventy  pounds, 
•'  and  herrings  as  before.  In  the  time  of  Edward  the  confessor,  there  were 
"  three  hundred  and  seven  dwelling  houses  in  it,  but  now  there  are  seventy- 
,;  six  more,  in  all  three  hundred  and  eighty-three."  From  this  record  it  ap* 
pears  that  Sandwich  was  then  in  a  flourishing  state,  increased  in  population, 
and  was  much  employed  in  the  herring  fishery. 


398  SANDWICHi 

the  interment  of  strangers.  St.  Clement's  church  is  in  the  east  part 
of  the  town,  and  situated  upon  higher  ground  than  the  rest.  It  is 
a  large  and  ancient  structure,  and  much  resembles  the  Norman 
style  of  architecture;  particularly  the  tower,  which  is  considerably 
older  than  the  rest  of  the  building.  The  church  consists  of  three 
isles,  which  are  very  spacious.  It  was  not  ceiled  till  within  these 
seventy  years,  and  has  since  been  improved  and  beautified.  In  the 
chancel  are  twenty  ancient  stalls,  which  were  used  by  the  brother- 
hood  of  the  church  of  St.  Clement,  to  whom  the  corporation  used 
to  allow  six  shillings  and  eight-pence  for  the  maintenance  of  a  pro- 
cession when  the  image  of  St.  George  was  yearly  carried  about  the 
town.  The  church  is  a  vicarage  in  the  patronage  of  the  archdeacon 
of  Canterbury,  and  rated  in  the  king's  books  thirteen  pounds  six- 
teen shillings  and  ten-pence  halfpenny ;  certified  value,  seventy- 
seven  pounds  ten  shillings  and  four-pence. 

St.  Peter's  church  is  situated  in  the  middle  of  the  town.  It  for- 
merly consisted  of  three  isles,  but  only  two  are  remaining  at  pre- 
sent. In  1661  the  steeple  fell,  and  beat  down  with  it  the  south 
isle,  and  a  small  part  of  the  body  of  the  church.*  Some  of  the 
outer  wall  is  still  standing,  where  are  to  be  seen  the  remains  of  the 
handsome  monument  of  Sir  John  Grove,  of  Grove  place,  in  the 
parish  of  Staple.  He  built  the  south  isle,  which  is  now  demolished, 
at  his  own  expence,  about  the  time  of  king  Henry  VI.  The  church 
ts  a  rectory,+  and  the  right  of  presentation  is  alternately  in  the 
crown  and  corporation  of  Sandwich.  Its  yearly  value  is  twenty- 
eight  pounds;  in  the  king's  book,  eight  pounds.     In  this  church 

*  It  is  thus  recorded  in  the  parish  register.  "The  13th  of  October,  1661, 
"  St.  Peter's  church  fell  down.  That  day  the  same  year  was  a  sabbath-day, 
"  there  were  two  sermons  preached  there  that  day,  and  it  fell  down  within 
"  six  or  seven  hours  after  the  people  were  gone  home,  presently  after  one 
"  quarter  of  an  hour  past  eleven  o'clock  at  night." 

+  In  the  time  of  Charles  I.  the  corporation's  right  of  presentation  was 
questioned  by  the  crown;  but  on  examining  the  customal  and  other  ancient 
records  of  the  corporation,  the  lord  keeper  and  attorney  general  were  satisfied, 
and  acknowledged  the  right. 


SANDWICH.  399 

are  the  bodies  of  several  eminent  personages,  and  founders  of  chapels 
and  hospitals,  of  whom  Thomas  Ellis  and  Margaret  his  wife  are 
distinguished  for  their  charitable  benefactions  ;  they  founded  a 
charity,  and  endowed  it  for  the  support  of  three  priests,  &c. 

In  the  year  1272,  Henry  Cowfield,  an  Almain,  founded  a  priory 
of  white  friars,  called  Carmelites.  Their  house  was  in  this  parish, 
the  foundations  of  which  are  now  discernible  in  the  lands  called 
the  Friars.  The  gate  of  the  priory  opened  into  Motesole,  and  the 
side  walls  of  the  avenue  leading  from  thence  to  the  house  remain  to 
this  day.  St.  Mary's  church  it  at  the  west  end  of  the  town,  near 
the  river.  It  is  a  lofty  building,  has  no  steeple,  and  consists  of 
One  large  isle,  and  a  small  one  on  the  north  side.  The  large  isle 
contains  a  spacious  area,  which,  with  its  gallery,  renders  this* 
church  the  most  commodious  place  of  worship  in  Sandwich. 
The  ceiling  is  of  wood,  and  the  chancel  elegant.  It  is  a  vi- 
carage, of  which  the  archdeacon  of  Canterbury  is  proprietor  and 
patron,  value  forty  pounds  ;  in  the  king's  books,  eight  pounds  one 
shilling  and  a  half-penny.  The  foundation  of  this  church  appears 
io  be  very  ancient,  for  it  is  said  to  have  been  burnt  by  the  Danes  in 
1009;  and  rebuilt  by*  Emma,  queen  to  Ethelred  II.  and  Canute 
the  Great.  It  was  afterwards  destroyed  by  the  French,  in  the 
reign  of  Richard  II.  and  was  rebuilt  by  Sir  William  Leverick,  of 
Ash,  who,  with  Emma  his  wife,  were  buried  in  the  north  side  of 
the  body  of  the  church,  in  an  arched  sepulchre,  in  the  wall.  In 
this  church,  as  well  as  in  St.  Peter's,  was  a  chantry  founded  by 
Thomas  Ellys,  and  endowed  with  lands  for  the  maintenance  of 
three  priests,  who  were  to  celebrate  divine  service  every  day,  for 
the  good  of  his  own  soul,  and  the  souls  of  his  parents,  his  ances- 
tors and  benefactors.  Besides  these  chantries,  there  were  in  this 
town  two  hermitages,  one  in  the  parish  of  St.  James,  and  the  other 
in   St.  Mary's.*     The  last  hermit  which   belonged  to  the  former 

*  In  1592  the  hermitage  of  St.  Mary  was  made  the  habitation  of  a  school- 
master, and  so  continued  about  eighty  years,  when  it  stood  for  a  small  time 
untenanted.  One  Thomas  "Wrake  being  afterwards  appointed  to  teach  an 
hospital  school,  which  was  founded  by  the  will  of  David  Turner  for  the  educd- 

3   F 


400  SANDWICH. 

parish  was  one  John  Steward,  who,  on  the  suppression  of  religion's 
houses,  was  appointed  to  the  vicarage  of  St.  Mary. 

Near  Canterbmj -gate,  is  a  free  grammar  school,  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  sons  of  the  freemen.  It  was  fouuded  by  Sir  Roger  Man- 
wood  in  1563.*  Sir  Roger  was  a  native  of  Sandwich,  and  lord 
chief  baron  of  the  exchequer  in  the  reign  of  queen  Elizabeth.  It  is 
supposed  to  have  been  built  on  the  spot  where  formerly  was  a  nun- 
nery, which  was  destroyed  by  the  French  when  they  burnt  St.  Ma- 
ry's church.  Some  part  of  the  materials  were  probably  applied  in 
building  this  school.  It  was  endowed  by  Robert  Trapes,  and  his 
wife,  with  the  privilege  of  sending  two  scholars  to  Lincoln  college, 
Oxford.  The  master  of  the  school  is  generally  the  resident  minis- 
ter of  St.  Mary's  church,  and  is  allowed  an  annual  salary.  There 
is  likewise  in  this  town  a  school  for  the  instruction  of  thirty  poor 
boys  and  as  many  girls  :  it  is  supported  by  subscription.  The  mas- 
ter and  mistress  have  a  yearly  allowance.  The  master  of  this  cha- 
rity school  has  also  the  care  of  what  is  called  the  town  school,  es- 
tablished for  the  education  of  six  boys,  by  David  Turner,  who 
demised  three  tenements  for  that  purpose. 

There  are  three  hospitals  belonging  to  Sandwich,  the  principal 
of  which  is  St.  Bartholomew's,  situated  about  a  furlong  without 
the  town.     It  is  enclosed  with  a  stone  wall,  in  which,  on  the  side 


tion  of  poor  children,  was  allowed  this  hermitage  for  his  residence.  We  have 
seen  a^ertificate,  signed,  in  1672,  by  Barth  Coombs,  mayor  of  Sandwich,  the 
churchwardens  of  St.  Mary's  parish,  and  iwo  other  persons,  representing, 
that  as  it  was  exempt  from  parochial  duties,  it  was  not  liable  to  pay  hearth 
money,  or  any  imposition  of  the  like  nature.  This  was  probably  in  conse- 
quence of  a  dispute  between  the  occupant  and  collector  of  the  king's  tax. 

*  The  scheme  for  erecting  a  free-school  in  Sandwich  originated  with  the 
mayor  and  jurats  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1563,  and  was  begun  by  a  vo- 
luntary subscription  of  them  and  the  inhabitants.  Queen  Elizabeth's  charter 
of  foundation,  by  the  name  of  "  The  free  Grammar  School  of  Sir  Roger  Man- 
Wood,  in  Sandwich,"  is  dated  the  first  of  October,  in  the  fifth  year  of  her 
reign,  that  is,  in  October  1563.  The  subscription  of  the  inhabitants  amounted 
to  two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  pounds  thirteen  shillings  and  six-pence. 


SANDWICH.  401 

next  the  road,  is  a  large  gate.  Within  the  wall  is  a  stone  chapel 
and  sixteen  convenient  tenements  for  the  use  of  the  brethren  and 
sisters,  who  are  generally  widows  and  decayed  tradesmen.  To 
each  house  is  annexed  a  small  garden.  Every  member  is  allowed 
wood  and  stubble  for  firing,  and  receives  about  eighteen  pounds  an- 
nually. Divine  service  is  performed  in  the  chapel  once  a  year,  on 
the  feast  of  St.  Bartholomew,  when  an  anniversary  sermon  is  preach- 
ed on  the  occasion.  The  founders  of  this  house  were  Thomas 
Cromphorn  and  Matilda  his  wife  ;  of  the  ancient  family  of  De 
Sandwich.  It  was  established  about  the  year  1190;  and  in  1349 
Edward  III.  at  the  request  of  John  Gybonn,  granted  to  this  hos- 
pital the  profits  of  a  ferry  into  the  isle  of  Thanet.  By  a  patent  in 
the  sixteenth  year  of  Richard  II.  1693,  it  appears,  that  this  hospi- 
tal was  appropriated  for  twelve  persons,  and  was  endowed  with  one 
messuage  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  acre*  of  land  in  the 
parish  of  Wodnesborough.  The  profits  of  the  ferry  were  farmed  at 
the  yearly  rent  of  sixty-two  pounds  sterling,  which  annual  sum,  on 
the  building  of  a  bridge  over  the  river  Stour,  was  allotted  by  par- 
liament to  be  paid  to  the  master,  brothers,  and  sisters  of  the  said 
hospital,  out  of  the  monies  arising  from  the  tolls  of  tiie  bridge. 
The  mayor  and  jurats  of  the  town  of  Sandwich  were  appointed  its 
governors,  and  all  vacancies  are  filled  up  by  the  mayor  for  the 
time  being.* 

*  Either  by  the  will  of  the  founders,  or  by  ancient  usage,  at  the  induction 

of  a  new  member,  which  is  conducted  with  no  little  ceremony,  the  following 

fees  are  paid  at  his  or  her  admission; 

£.   s.    d. 
To  the  common  profits  of  the  hospital,   --...--     6  13     1 

To  each  brother  and  sister,  nine-pence,      ------0  12     0 

To  the  mayor,       --, -    -     0  13     4 

To  each  jurat,  one  shilling,      .--...-..-0120 

To  the  town  clerk,      -- 068 

To  the  common  wardsman,       ...---...-034 

To  the  Serjeants  at  mace,  two  at  twenty-pence  each     -     -    0    3     4 

To  the  crier,      --- 010 

And  formerly  to  the  ferryman,      ---------010 

9     6    0 


402  SANDWICH. 

The  other  two  hospitals  are  near  the  corn  market ;  one  of  which 
is  dedicated  to  St.  Thomas,  and  the  other  to  St.  John  the  baptist, 
They  are  said  to  have  been  founded  by  Thomas  Ellys,  in  the  year 
1400  :  but  this  is  a  mistake.  The  hospital  or  house  of  St.  John 
the  baptist,  is  of  a  more  ancient  foundation.  In  a  charter  dated  an- 
no dccimo  sexto  Edwardi  I.  Filii  Henricilll.  anglias  regis  that  is, 
in  1287,  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  the  house  of  God  and  saint 
John  in  Sandwich  are  mentioned.  Thomas  Ellys  might  afterwards 
have  made  some  considerable  additions  to  the  building  or  endow- 
ments, and  from  thence  derived  the  title  of  founder.  In  saint  Tho- 
mas's hospital,  twelve  poor  persons  are  allowed  about  ten  pounds 
a  year  each,  with  an  apartment.  St.  John's  hospital  supports  six 
only,  who  are  paid  annually  four  pounds  each.  All  the  vacancies 
in  the  former  are  filled  by  feoffees,  and  in  the  latter  by  the  mayor. 
St.  John's  house  was  a  poor  endowment  from  the  beginning.  Dis- 
trest  and  intirm  travellers  were  relieved  and  entertained  in  it. 
Cloaths  and  bedding  were  provided  for  them;  and  if  they  died, 
they  were  buried  at  the  expence  of  the  hospital.  Certain  of  the  bro- 
thers asked  alms  every  Sunday,  in  the  churches  within  the  town, 
to  buy  meat  for  their  Sunday's  dinner.  Another  brother  was  as- 
signed to  beg  fish  of  the  fishermen.  Another  was  sent  out  with  an 
ass,  begging  within  the  county  of  Kent,  who  sometimes  would  ren- 

To  every  freeman  that  appears  at  the  hospital  at  the  time  of  admission,  and 
claims  it,  four-pence  each. 

Every  memfier,  at  his  or  her  institution,  takes  an  oath,  that  they  will  in  a}\ 
things  conform  to  the  rules  of  that  house,  up-rising  and  dqwn-lying. 

This  hospital  was  formerly  a  more  confined  building.  It  appears  from  the 
customal  of  Sandwich,  that  there  were  sixteen  chambers  under  one  roof,  besides 
a  bake-house,  a  kitchen,  and  an  hall.  The  remains  of  the  old  building,  at 
this  day,  point  out  its  situation  and  extent.  Every  brother  and  sister  then 
paid  on  admission  from  ten  marks  to  ten  pounds  sterling;  and  when  any  one 
died,  the  moveables  became  the  property  of  the  hospital.  They  maintained 
three  priests:  each  received  five  marks  out  of  the  rents  of  tenements  in  Sand- 
wich, belonging  to  the  hospital.  The  mayor  and  jurats  were  visitors  of  these 
priests,  appointed  them,  and  deprived  them  of  their  office,  if  they  were  found 
(indigno?)  unworthy. 


SANDWICH.  403 

der  clear  to  the  hospital,  above  his  expences,  one  mark,  and  fre- 
quently ten  shillings.  They  were  allowed  all  forfeitures  of  fish  and 
flesh,  incurred  by  breach  of  the  ordinances  of  the  town  of  Sand- 
wich, and  all  hogs  running  about  the  streets,  and  ail  kind  of  fowls 
swimming  in  the  Delph.  They  had  likewise  the  advantage  of  keep- 
ing a  standard  bushel,  by  which  strangers  might  ascertain  the  good- 
ness of  their  measures. 

Before  the  erection  of  the  new  bridge,  there  was  a  ferry  from 
Sandwich  into  the  isle  of  Thanet.  The  river  is  now  about  thirty 
yards  broad  at  high  water,  over  which  travellers,  horses,  and  car- 
riages, were  conveyed  in  a  flat-bottom  boat.  A  guard  was  an- 
ciently placed  there  for  the  security  of  this  passage.  But  in  the 
year  1756,  in  the  mayoralty  of  Solomon  Ferrier,  esq.  the  present 
bridge  was  begun  ;  and  finished  in  the  following  year.  Large  con- 
tributions were  raised  for  carrying  on  the  work.  John  Cleveland 
and  Claudius  Amyand,  esq.;  who  were  at  that  time  members  in 
parliament  for  this  ancient  cinque  port,  subscribed  two  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  each.  In  J 757  lord  Conyngham,  who  was  elected 
to  serve  in  parliament  for  the  town,  gave  towards  it  five  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds.  Doctor  Hay  a  succeeding  representative,  con- 
tributed three  hundred  pounds,  and  Sir  George  Oxenden  one  hun- 
dred. The  bridge  is  built  with  stone,  having  an  arch  on  each  side, 
and  a  passage  between  for  the  larger  vessels  that  use  this  port.  The 
middle  arch  is  of  wood,  divided  into  two  parts,  which  are  hung  near 
]y  in  equilibrio,  by  which  means  they  are  easily  drawn  up  or  let 
down.  The  passage  over  the  stone  part  of  the  bridge  is  secured  by 
a  parapet  wall  on  each  side,  and  the  wooden  arch  by  Chinese  rails. 
It  is  a  work  of  considerable  utility,  not  only  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Sandwich  and  the  isle  of  Thanet,  but  to  the  eastern  part  of  the 
county  of  Kent,  and  to  the  public  in  general ;  the  ferry  having  been 
very  inconvenient  and  dangerous,  and  of  no  spall  obstruction  to 
trade. 

The  Fish-market,  which  consists  principally  of  shops,  is  a  hand- 
some square;  but  the  avenues  leading  to  it  are  indifferent,  except- 
ing that  from  the  Corn-market,  which  is  another  square,  much 


.J04  SANDWICH. 

larger  than  the  former,  but  inferior  to  it  with  respect  to  the  build- 
ings. Near  the  west  side  of  this  square  is  the  Town-Hall,  which 
is  a  very  ancient  structure.  All  public  business  is  transacted  in  the 
lower  court:  over  which  is  the  council  chamber.  In  the  upper 
story,  were  kept  the  cucking-stool,  and  wooden  mortar  formerly 
used  in  this  town  for  the  punishment  of  scolds.  The  execution  of 
felons  condemned  to  death  within  this  hundred,  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  probably  much  earlier,  was  by  drown- 
ing ;  and  in  the  year  1315,  complaint  was  made  against  the  prior 
of  Christ  Church,  for  "  that  he  had  directed  the  course  of  a  certain 
"  stream,  called  the  Gestlyng,  so  that  felons  could  not  be  executed 
"  for  want  of  water."  In  1630,  a  woman  was  hanged  without 
Canterbury -gate,  for  witchcraft:  in  1644,  another  woman  was  ex- 
ecuted for  the  same  imaginary  crime  ;  and  in  1695,  a  third  woman, 
condemned  for  a  similar  alleged  offence,  only  escaped  punishment 
in  consequence  of  an  Act  then  passed  for  a  general  free  pardon. 
Sandwich  claims  jurisdiction  over  Deal,  Ramsgate,  Fordwich,  Sarre, 
and  Brightlingsea  in  Essex,  which  are  members  of  this  cinque  port. 
It  used  to  furnish  five  ships  complete  for  service.  This  town  was 
anciently  incorporated  by  the  name  of  the  barons  of  the  town  and 
port  of  Sandwich  ;  but  at  present  is  incorporated  by  the  name  of  the 
mayor,  jurats,  and  commonalty.  It  sends  two  members  to  parlia- 
ment, who  still  retain  the  ancient  name  of  barons  of  the  cinque 
port  of  Sandwich.  The  present  barons  are  Sir  Joseph  Sydney 
Yorke,  K.  C.  B.  and  Joseph  Marryatt,  esq.  The  freemen  of  the 
cinque  ports  have  the  privilege  of  sending  a  certain  number  of  their 
own  members  to  support  the  royal  canopy  at  a  coronation.  Besides 
the  mayor,  there  are  twelve  jurats  and  twenty-four  common-couu- 
cil  men,  a  town-clerk,  two  treasurers,  and  other  inferior  officers. 
The  mayor  is  annually  chosen  by  the  resident  freemen,  and  such  as 
have  not  been  out  of  the  liberties  one  year  and  a  day.  The  mayor 
is  elected  on  the  Monday  following  the  feast  of  St.  Andrew,  when 
every  elector  after  having  given  his  vote,  receives  one  shilling.  Till 
t lie  year  1683,  the  mayors  were  always  elected  in  St.  Clement's 
church.     When  any  business  is  to  be  transacted  in  the  town-hall, 


SANDWICH.  405 

the  freemen  are  summoned  to  appear  by  the  sound  of  a  brazen  horn, 
which  is  of  great  antiquity,  and  is  blown  by  the  town;cryer,  early 
in  the  morning,  at  different  parts  of  the  town.  The  legitimate 
children  of  freemen,  whether  male  or  female,  born  within  the  li- 
berties, are  free;  and  every  alien  marrying  a  freewoman  has  a  right 
to  the  freedom  of  this  port.  The  trade  of  this  town  chiefly  consists 
in  coals,  fir,  timber,  deals,  &c.  with  which  the  country  is  supplied. 
Here  also  are  shipped  corn,  malt,  fruit,  and  seeds,  for  London  and 
other  markets.     The  seeds  raised  from  this  soil  are  in  much  repute. 

Sandwich  receives  two  hundred  pounds  a  year  from  the  trustees 
of  Ramsgate  pier,  in  order  to  cleanse  the  harbour  from  any  nuisance 
occasioned  thereby.  The  town  is  for  the  most  part  supplied  with 
water  from  a  narrow  stream  called  the  Delph,  which  runs  through 
it.  Here  is  a  market  on  Wednesdays  and  Saturdays,  and  a  fair 
on  the  4th  of  December,  which  continues  two  market  days.  The 
shrimps  which  are  caught  near  this  town  are  remarkably  excellent. 
There  are  several  good  inns  in  Sandwich,  and  many  wealthy  inhabi- 
tants. Here  is  also  a  large  and  elegant  Assembly  Room,  which  has 
been  built  upwards  of  fifty  years.  Since  the  construction  of  the 
bridge,  and  the  resort  to  Margate  as  a  bathing-place,  the  town 
has  been  more  frequently  visited  by  strangers;  a  tour  from  thence 
to  Sandwich,  Deal,  Dover,1  &c.  being  a  pleasant  and  agreeable 
excursion.  Among  the  occurrences  at  Sandwich,  nay  be  mention- 
ed that  several  smart  shocks  of  an  earthquake  were  felt  here,  in 
the  months  of  April  and  May,  1579  ;  and  that  the  plague  has  at 
different  times,  ravaged  this  town  with  considerable  violence,  par- 
ticularly in  the  years  1G36,  1637,  1641,  and  1666  :  in  the  latter 
year,  upwards  of  of  380  persons  became  its  victims.  The  great 
storm  of  November,  1703,  did  damage  in  Sandwich  to  the  estimated 
amount  of  3000/. 

Between  Sandwich  and  Deal  is  a  large  tract  of  land  called  the 
Downs,  part  of  which  is  level,  and  part  mountainous.  Here  are 
those  remarkable  eminences  which  Mr.  Cambden  says,  were  in  his 
tune  called  Rome's  work;  now  they  are  known  by  the  name  of 
Sand    Hills;    commencing;  near   Sandowu    castle,    and  stretching 


406  DEAL. 

toward  Sandwich,  along  the  sea  shore.  The  surface  is  in  gene- 
ral a  fine  white  sand,  or  thin  covering  of  heath.  On  this  coast 
it  is  generally  supposed  that  Caesar  landed  in  both  his  expe- 
ditions to  Britain.  Sandown  castle  is  a  regular  fortification, 
erected  on  the  shore  within  a  mile  of  Deal.  This  fortress 
consists  of  an  immense  round  tower  in  the  centre,  connect- 
ed with  four  semicircular  outworks.  Or  lunettes ;  the  whole  be- 
in°-  surrounded  by  a  deep  fosse,  with  additional  defences  or  bat- 
teries opposite  to  the  sea:  the  entrance  is  by  a  draw-bridge  on  the 
land  side.  The  upper  part  of  the  centre  tower  contains  a  spacious 
cistern  for  water;  below  which  is  a  large  vaulted  apartment,  bomb 
proof,  for  the  garrison.  Some  repairs  have  recently  been  made  in 
this  castle:  it  is  under  the  government  of  the  Lord  Warden  of  the 
Cinque  ports.  The  Sand-Downs,  which  give  name  to  this  fabric 
extend  from  Peperness  to  Deal,  a  distance  somewhat  more  than  five 
miles  :  their  general  breadth  is  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  Deal 
castle  stands  at  a  little  distance  from  the  naval  storehouse  at  the 
southend  of  the  town,  and  is  built  on  a  similar  plan  to  that  of 
Sandown.  Near  this  fortress,  but  in  Walmer  parish,  extensive 
barracks  have  been  erected,  both  for  cavalry  and  infantry ;  and 
also  a  royal  military  and  naval  hospital.  Beyond  Deal  castle  is 
Walmer  castle,  which  stands  close  to  the  sea-shore,  and  commands 
a  beautiful  view  of  the  Downs  and  the  coast  of  France.  This  for- 
tress is  appropriated  to  the  Lord  Warden  of  the  Cinque  ports,  for 
whose  residence  the  principal  apartments  were  newly  fitted  up  some 
years  ago.  These  three  fortresses  were  built*  on  the  coast  by  Henry 
VIII.  to  secure  it  from  the  hostile  intentions  of  his  enemies. 

Deal  is  a  considerable  maritime  town  about  five  miles  to  the 
south-west  of  Sandwich,  standing  close  to  the  sea  shore,  which  is  a 
bold  and  open  beach,  and  defended  from  the  violence  of  the  waves 
by  an  extensive  bank  of  beach-stones  and  pebbles  that  the  sea  itself 
lias  thrown  up.  It  is  divided  into  upper  and  lower  Deal :  the  for- 
mer is  the  most  ancient;  the  latter,  having  had  its  existence  from 
the  increase  of  trade,  has  arisen  wholly  within  the  two  last  centu- 
ries. The  town  consists  principally  of  three  long  and  narrow  streets 


DEAL;  40? 

running  parallel  to  each  other  nearly  in  a  north  and  south  directi- 
on. The  houses  are  mostly  of  brick,  and  irregular;  but  in  the 
buildings  that  have  been  erected  of  late  years,  greater  attention  has 
been  paid  to  uniformity.  Deal  was  formerly  governed  by  a  deputy 
and  assistants,  appointed  by  the  mayor  and  jurats  of  Sandwich  ; 
and  this  mode  continued  till  the  eleventh  of  William  III.  anno 
1699,  when,  after  a  strenuous  opposition  from  the  corporation  of 
Sandwich,  the  inhabitants  of  Deal  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  charter, 
by  which  their  town  was  constituted  a  free  town  and  borough  of 
itself;  and  its  local  government  vested  in  a  mayor,  twelve  jurats, 
twenty-four  common-council  men,  a  recorder,  town-clerk,  and 
inferior  officers.  There  is  nothing,  however,  in  the  charter  of 
Deal,  that  abrogates  the  prescriptive  rights  of  the  magistrates  of 
Sandwich,  who  have  still  a  concurrent  jurisdiction  with  the  magis- 
trates of  Deal ;  and  the  inhabitants  of  Deal  serve  on  juries  at  Sand- 
wich as  before  the  charter. 

The  church,  which  is  dedicated  to  St.  Leonard,  is  in  upper  Deal, 
a  pleasant  village^  about  one  mile  westward  from  the  town.  The 
great  increase  in  the  extent  and  population  of  lower  Deal,  about 
the  beginning  of  the  last  century,  and  its  distance  from  the  parish 
church,  occasioned  the  inhabitants  to  commence  the  building  of  a 
chapel  of  ease  by  subscription  in  1707;  but  the  sums  subscribed 
being  insufficient,  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  obtained  in  the  year 
1712,  by  which  a  duty  of  two  shillings  was  laid  on  every  chaldron 
or  ton  of  coals,  or  culm,  brought  into  the  town  till  the  first  of  May, 
1727,  to  be  applied  to  the  building,  finishing,  and  adorning  the 
said  chapel,  &c.  The  chapel  was  consecrated  in  June,  1716,  to 
the  honour  of  St.  George  the  martyr:  the  whole  expence  of  erecting 
it,  and  inclosing  the  burial-ground,  which  includes  about  two 
acres,  was  2554^.  It  is  a  brick  building,  the  interior  measuring 
eighty-five  feet  by  fifty  :  the  roof  is  of  timber-work,  curiously 
carved,  wholly  supported  on  the  side  walls. 

In  this  town,  as  at  Dover,  and  in  the  isle  of  Thanet,  is  an 
establishment  of  pilots  for  the  more  safe  conveyance  of  shipping 
into  and  out  of  the  Downs,  and  up  the  rivers  Thames  and  Med- 

3  G 


108  DEAL. 

May:  the  charges  of  piloting  are  regulated  by  the  tonnage.  Here 
is  also  a  naval  storehouse,  under  the  direction  of  a  clerk  of  the 
cheque,  and  a  storekeeper ;  and  an  officer  of  the  customs,  under  a 
collector,  comptroller,  &c.  The  East  India  Company  have  an 
agent  constantly  resident  here. 

The  channel,  road-stead,  or  anchorage-ground,  called  the 
Downs,  is  immediately  opposite  to  Deal,  its  southern  boundary 
being  formed  by  the  Goodwin  Sands.  Its  width  is  about  six  miles, 
and  its  length  about  eight :  its  general  depth  varies  from  eight  to 
ten  fathoms.  This  is  the  common  rendezvous  of  the  East  India 
and  other  fleets,  both  on  their  homeward  and  outward  bound  voy- 
ages. In  particular  states  of  the  wind  nearly  four  hundred  sail  of 
shipping  have  rode  at  anchor  here  at  one  time :  and  when  the 
Royal  Navy,  the  East  and  West  India  fleets  lie  in  the  Downs,  the 
sea  prospects  from  the  beach  are  eminently  beautiful,  especially  at 
sun-rise. 

Various  improvements  have  been  made  at  Deal  since  the  year 
1790,  when  an  Act  passed  for  paving,  lighting  and  cleansing  it: 
and  of  late  years  convenient  accommodations  for  visitors  in  the 
bathing  season  have  been  made.  Most  of  the  inhabitants  are  em- 
ployed in  maritime  occupations,  or  in  providing  supplies  of  food 
and  necessaries  foivthe  shipping  that  anchor  in  the  Downs.  Some 
portion  of  them  also,  though  by  no  means  to  so  great  an  extent  as 
formerly,  are  engaged  in  smuggling.  Under  the  charter  granted 
by  king  William,  the  inhabitants  hold  two  markets  weekly  on 
Wednesdays  and  Saturdays  ;  and  two  fairs  annually  on  the  5th  of  . 
April,  and  the  10th  of  October. 

About  a  mile  from  Sandwich,  at  a  small  distance  from  the  road 
which  leads  to  Dover,  is  the  village  of  Wodnesborough  ;  the  church 
contains  memorials  of  the  Paramour  and  Ileyre  families.  Near 
the  church  is  a  remarkable  eminence,  supposed  to  have  been  raised 
by  the  Saxons  as  a  pedestal  for  their  idol  Woden,  which  stood 
upon  it,  and  from  which  the  place  derives  its  name.  About  half 
a  mile  to  the  right  of  Ileyre  is  the  little  village  of  Eastry,  which 
must  have  been  a  place  of  sojfne  distinction,  and  the  residence  of 


DOVER.  409 

some  of  the  Saxon  kings  of  Kent.  The  church  is  a  large  building, 
and  some  parts  of  it  Aery  ancient :  in  the  chancel  are  eight  stalls, 
which  were  occupied  by  some  religious  fraternity,  of  whom  there' 
remains  no  memorial.  Here  is  a  large  cattle  fair  on  the  4th  of 
October.  About  three  miles  from  Sandwich,  and  half  a  mile  to 
the  left  of  the  road,  is  the  village  of  Northbourn.  In  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII.  here  were  ruins  of  an  old  stone  building,  said  to  have 
been  king  Egbert's  palace.  Leland  says,  in  breaking  down  a  wall 
a' dark  cell  was  discovered,  in  which  were  the  skeletons  of  two 
children,  one  of  which  had  a  large  pin  stuck  through  its  scull. 
From  which  discovery,  it  has  been  imagined,  that  the  young  kins- 
men of  the  tyrant  Egbert  resided  here,  and  were  murdered  at  this 
residence,  instead  of  Eastry,  as  is  ffecorded.  Six  miles  and  a  half 
from  Sandwich,  and  half  a  mile  to  the  right  of  the  road,  is  the  vil- 
lage of  Waldershare.  The  church  is  small,  but  contains  some  good 
monuments  of  the  ancient  family  of  Monins,  who  were  lords  of  the 
manor.  In  a  separate  chancel,  built  by  Sir  Robert  Furnese,  bart. 
is  a  noble  monument  of  Sir  Robert's  father,  well  executed  in  marble. 
In'  this  parish  is  the"  elegant  and  pleasant  seat  of  the  earl  of  Guil- 
ford ;  to  the  west  of  the  house  is  erected  an  high  belvidere,  which 
commands  a  beautiful  and  extensive  viewT  of  the  country.  Opposite 
to  lord  Guilford's  seat,  half  a  mile  to  the  left  of  the  road,  are  the 
remains  of  West  Langdon  abbey,  "which  was  founded  by  Sir  Wil- 
liam de  Auberville,  knight,  in  the  reign  of  Richard  I.  for  monks 
of  the  Premonstratensis  order,  and  dedicated  to  St.  Mary,  and  St. 
Thomas  martyr  of  Canterbury.  It  was  suppressed  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII. 

Dover  is  situated  in  a  valley,  with  very  high  cliffs  o'n  each  side, 
it  being  the  only  place  in  the  south  foreland  cliff's  where  any  rivulet 
runs  into  the  sea.  The  appearance  of  this  town  is  singular,  and 
from  the  hills  above  it  has  a  most  interesting  and  romantic  aspect. 
It  appears  to  consist  of  three  long  streets  extending  in  different 
directions  and  meeting  at  one'  point  in  the  centre.  The  town  is 
divided  into  two  parts  of  nearly  equal  size,  connected  by  a  long 
narrow  street  called  Snaregate-Street  from,  the  lofty  rocks  which  in.  ' 


410  DOVER. 

many  places  seem  to  overhang  the  houses,  and  threaten  those  who 
pass  below  with  instant  destruction.  The  upper  and  most  ancient 
part  is  called  the  Town,  the  lower  part  the  Pier.  The  extent  of 
Dover  from  the  old  Maison  Dieu,  or  present  victualling  office,  to 
the  extremity  of  the  houses  on  the  pier  is  upwards  of  a  mile.  It  is 
probable  that  the  sea  came  up  much  higher  formerly  than  it  does  at 
present  ;  for  anchors  and  planks  of  ships  have  been  dug  out  of  the 
ground  above  the  town.  Dover  claims  great  antiquity,  and  was 
doubtless  one  of  the  Roman  ports  in  this  county.  It  was  a  town 
of  great  repute  in  the  time  of  Edward  the  confessor,  when  it  was 
the  principal  of  the  Cinque  ports;  and  was  defended  by  a  strong 
embattled  wall,  which  included  a  space  of  about  half  a  mile  square 
and  in  which  were  ten  gates;  though  not  a  trace  of  any  of  them 
now  remains,  excepting  a  part  of  Cow-gate.  The  walls,  Mr.  Har? 
ris  says,  from  some  ancient  manuscripts  which  he  saw  at  Sandwich, 
were  the  work  of  the  Emperor  Severus.  There  were  formerly 
seven  churches  in  Dover,  but  five  of  them,  viz.  St  John's,  St. 
Nicholas,  St.  Peter's,  St.  Martin's  le  Grand,  and  St.  Martin's  the 
less,  are  demolished,  and  only  two  remain,  viz.  St.  Mary's  and  St. 
James's :  St.  Martin's  le  Grand  was  the  mother  church  of  this 
town.  The  present  market  place  was  St-  Martin's  church-yard, 
This  church  derived  its  origin  from  king  Lucius,  A.  D.  180.  Ed- 
bald,  son  of  Ethelbert,  king  of  Kent,  built  a  college  near  it,  for 
twenty  four  secular  canons.  The  church  was  rebuilt  by  archbishop 
Corboyl,  about  the  year  1130;  and  the  canons  were  turned  out, 
and  replaced  by  benedictine  monks,  by  archbishop  Theobald ; 
from  which  time  it  was  called  the  priory  of  St.  Martin,  and  by 
Henry  II.  given  to  the  arshbishops  of  Canterbury.  St  Martin's 
church  had  such  superiority  over  the  other  rhurches  and  chapels  of 
Dover,  that  none  of  their  priests  might  sing  mass  till  St.  Martin's 
priests  had  begun.  The  priory  was  suppressed  in  the  reign  of  Hen-; 
ry  VIII.  at  which  time  the  church  was  taken  down  A.  D.  1546  by 
Messrs.  Buffkin  and  Nethersole  ;  the  bells  given  to  the  chamber  of 
Dover.  About  the  same  time  St.  John's  church  was  demolished  ; 
for  Mr.  Nethersole  had  the  lead  that  covered  that  church,  and  one 


DOVER.  411 

Plane  of  London  had  the  land  and  two  tenements  appertaining  to  it. 
St.  Mary's  church,  which  is  at  present  standing,  was  erected  by  the 
prior  and  convent  of  St.  Martin,  and  by  them  given  to  the  town. 
It  is  a  handsome  structure,  consisting  of  three  isles.  The  improve- 
ments it  has  lately  undergone,  by  taking  down  the  middle  pillar 
on  each  side,  and  erecting  new  pews  in  the  body  of  the  church, 
give  it  a  much  more  light  and  airy  appearance  than  it  was  hitherto 
accustomed  to  command.  It  contains  many  monuments  and  ar- 
morial hearings.  In  this  church,  to  the  subversion  of  all  order  and 
decency,  the  courts  arc  held  for  electing  representatives  in  parlia- 
ment and  mayors  for  the  corporation.  St.  James's  church  anciently 
belonged  to  the  castle  of  Dover.  It  has  been  materially  improved 
within  these  few  years.  In  this  church  are  opened  the  courts  of 
chancery  or  admiralty  for  the  Cinque  ports  and  their  members, 
at  which  the  Lord  Warden  or  his  deputy  presides.  After  opening 
they  are  now  usually  adjourned  to  the  Antwerp  inn.  There  were 
two  hospitals  and  a  house  for  the  knights  templars  in  this  town. 
The  hospital  of  St.  Mary,  and  the  templars  house,  called  Maison 
de  Dieu  ;  were  founded  by  Hubert  de  Burg,  earl  of  Kent,  for  the 
support  of  poor  people  and  travellers,  and  was  similar  to  the  hos- 
pital at  Osprinze.  The  house  of  the  knights  templars  appears  to 
have  been  a  noble  structure,  and  fit  for  a  royal  residence ;  for  in 
this  place,  says  Stow,  A.  D.  1213,  king  John  signed  that  infamous 
agreement  between  him  and  Pandulph,  the  pope's  legate,  by  which 
he  submitted  himself  and  his  kingdom  to  the  pope.  The  hospital, 
and  Maison  de  Dieu,  were  situated  at  the  extremity  of  the  town. 
Henry  VIII.  and  queen  Mary  appropriated  the  house  for  a  victual- 
ling office,  for  the  use  of  the. navy.  The  other  hospital,  called  St. 
Bartholomew's,  was  for  the  benefit  of  leprous  persons,  and  was 
built  by  the  monks  of  St.  Martin's  priory,  and  subjected  to  the 
prior  of  that  convent.  Mr.  Harris  relates  from  the  Dering  manu- 
script, that  on  a  small  piece  of  chalky  cliff  at  Dover  there  was  an 
old  chapel  then  inhabited  by  a  poor  seaman,  and  called  the  chapel  of 
our  lady  of  Arcliffe.  Sir  Edward  Dering  imagined  this  to  have 
been   the   chapel  formerly  called  the  chapel  of  our  lady  of  pity, 


<Jll2  DOVER. 

■which  was  built  by  a  northern  nobleman,  who  was  in  great  danger 
of  being  lost  by  shipwreck  near  this  place.  In  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.  the  vestments  and  utensils  of  this  small  place  were  valued  at 
two  hundred  marks,  some  being  of  cloth  of  gold,  and  others  richly 
rmbroidered. 

Dover  Castle  is  built  on  the  extremity  of  the  stupendous  cliffs 
■which  form  the  eastern  barrier  to  Dover  town  and  harbour,  and  is 
so  large  as  to  contain  thirty-five  acres  of  ground.  There  has  been 
a  fortification  on  this  spot  ever  since  the  Romans  possessed  this  is- 
land, and  it  was  of  great  repute  among  the  Saxon  kings:  it  was 
thought  a  very  important  object  by  William  the  Norman ;  and 
through  a  course  of  ages  succeeding  kings  built  new  towers,  and 
increased  its  natural  strength  to  such  a  degree,  that  in  Henry  the 
third's  time  it  was  called  the  key  and  barrier  of  the  whole  realm. 
This  castle  contains  a  curious  specimen  of  ancient  fortification,  and 
is  well  worthy  of  attention.  St.  Martin's  le  Grand  is  said  to  have 
been  situated  here,  for  the  service  of  the  royal  palace,  which  was 
in  the  castle ;  here  is  a  tower  at  the  west  end,  which  with  the 
church  bears  evident  marks  of  great  antiquity.  The  bells  which 
-were  in  it  were  removed  to  Portsmouth  by  Sir  George  Rook.  There 
is  a  well  in  this  castle  three  hundred  and  sixty  feet  deep,  lined  to 
the  bottom  with  free  stone.  In  the  castle  they  shew  two  very  old 
keys,  a  sword,  and  a  brass  trumpet,  said  to  have  been  used  in  the 
time  of  Julius  Caesar.  Here  is  a  brass  gun,  supposed  to  be  the 
longest  in  the  world,  it  was  presented  to  queen  Elizabeth  by  the 
States  of  Utrecht:  it  carries  a  ball  of  fifteen  pounds  weight,  is 
twenty-two  feet  long  and  is  said  to  throw  a  ball  seven  miles.  Up- 
on the  breech  of  the  gun  are  the  following  lines  in  old  Dutch,  viz, 

Brceck  sevret  al  mure  ende  wal 

Bin  ic  geheten  ; 
Doer  berch  en  dal  boert  minen  bal 

Van  mi  gesmeten. 

Of  which  the  following  is  a  translation  : — ■ 

O'er  hill  and  dale  I  throw  my  ball ; 
Breaker,  my  name,  of  mound  and  wall. 


DOVER.  413 

The  touch-hole  is  of  gold,  and  has  suffered  considerably  by  the 
hand  of  violence  in  endeavouring  to  pick  it  out.  There  are  several 
curious  devices  upon  it:  it  is  entirely  unfit  for  use.  The  earthquake 
which  shook  this  part  of  the  county  on  April  6,  1580,  threw 
down  part  of  the  cliff,  and  some  outworks  of  this  castle,  next  the 
sea.  Upon  the  hill,  opposite  to  the  castle,  was  formerly  a  Pharos, 
or  watch-tower,  part  of  which  remained  a  few  years  ago  :  it  was 
called  the  Devil's  Drop,  and  likewise  Bredonstone.  The  site  of  it 
is  now  occupied  by  a  redoubt.  At  the  Devil's  Drop,  the  Constable 
of  Dover  castle  and  Lord  Warden  of  the  Cinque  ports  is  sworn 
into  his  office. 

The  Barracks  in  Dover  castle  were  formerly  estimated  to  contain 
about  1000  men,  but  accommodations  are  now  made  for  a  much 
greater  number.  New  works  have  been  recently  formed  for  the 
defence  of  this  important  fortress,  consisting  of  different  batteries 
furnished  with  a  very  formidable  train  of  artillery,  casemates  dug 
in  the  solid  chalk-rock,  magazines,  covered-ways,  and  various  sub- 
terranean communications  and  apartments  for  the  soldiery.  Light, 
and  air  are  conveyed  into  these  apartments  by  well-like  apertures 
cut  in  the  chalk,  and  by  their  openings  carried  through  the  face  of 
the  cliffs.  A  new  road  lias  also  been  made  under  the  direction  of 
the  board  of  ordnance,  from  the  town  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  (where 
it  unites  with  the  Deal  road,)  in  a  direction  to  be  commanded  by 
the  batteries  :  a  branch  of  this  road  turns  to  the  right  nearly  oppo- 
site to  Gatton  Tower,  and  enters  the  castle  by  a  new  bridge  and 
gate.  On  the  top  of  the  hill  on  the  west  side  of  the  castle  is  a  cir- 
cular camp  which  has  been  surrounded  by  a  single  ditch  and  ram- 
part, both  of  which  are  very  apparent;  though  the  former  is  partly 
filled  up,  and  the  latter  much  broken.  A  little  to  the  south  of  the 
castle  is  Shakespeare's  Cliff,  which  has  derived  its  name  from  the 
sublime  description  of  this  spot  in  that  poet's  tragedy  of  King  Lear. 
Dover  pier  is  an  ancient  work;  several  princes,  have  expended 
great  sums  to  render  it  of  general  use,  but  to  very  little  purpose, 
till  the  reign  of  queen  Elizabeth  ;  when  a  scheme  was  proposed  to 
build  a  pier  of  clay,  chalk,  &c.  which  was  begun  and  completed. 


4IJ  DOVER. 

in  the  year  1583,  and  answered  the  purpose  effectually.  Since 
that  period  it  has  undergone  many  repairs  and  alterations  ;  and  va- 
rious regulations  and  !aWs  have  been  enacted  to  defray  the  expence 
of  keeping  it  in  a  good  condition.  The  revenues  of  the  harbour, 
by  many  favourable  circumstances,  have  greatly  increased:  the  ex- 
penditure has  nevertheless  exceeded  the  income ;  but  the  harbour 
is  at  this  day  in  a  respectable  condition,  and  is  undergoing  great  im- 
provements by  the  addition  of  a  very  useful  dry  dock.  Ships  of 
400  or  500  tons  may  now  enter  in  safety  ;  the  depth  at  springtides 
being  between  eighteen  and  twenty  feet,  and  at  neap  tides  about 
fouiteer. 

During  the  war  which  ended  in.  1783,  the  hills  which  immedi- 
ately overlook  the  town  were  fortified.  Four  guard-houses  were 
built,  defended  by  ramparts,  and  lines  of  modern  defence,  which 
extended  a  considerable  distafice  on  the  adjacent  bills.  On  these 
lines,  seventy-two  pieces  of  cannon  were  mounted.  In  the  late  war 
the  plan  of  fortifying  the  heights  of  Dover  was  renewed  to  a  much 
greater  extent  than  on  any  former  occasion.  The  Western  heights 
above  the  town  were  occupied  with  permanent  works',  having  good 
ditches  and  walls  of  masonry,  and  ample  casemated  Cover  for  the 
garrison,  and  every  species  of  store.  The  harbour  was  thus  pro-; 
tected  by  a  fortified  position,  extending  from  the  castle  to  Shakes- 
peare's Cliff.  Under  the  Eastern  redoubt  and  near  the  edge  of  the 
cliff,  are  handsome  well-built  barracks  for  the  accommodation  of 
part  of  the  garrison.  Dover  is  incorporated  by  the  name  of  the 
mayor,  jurats,  and  commonalty  of  the  town  and  port  of  Dover,  and 
sends  two  members  to  parliament.  Freedom  is  acquired  by  birth, 
marriage,  servitude,  and  burgage  tenure  :  the  acquired  franchise  by 
marriage  ceases  with  the  death  of  the  wife,  and  that  by  tenure,  with 
the  alienation  of  the  freehold.  Dover  has  received  many  favours 
from  dift'erent  princes,  one  of  which  was  the  privilege  of  a  licensed 
packet  boat  to  France  ;  on  account  of  the  narrowness  of  the  chan- 
nel, it  is  become  the  general  place  of  embarkation  for  that  kingdom, 
and  arrival  from  thence.  With  a  leading  wind,  passengers  will 
frequently  reach  Calais  in  three  hours :  the  shortest  passage  ever 


DOVER.  415 

known  was  made  in  two  hours  and  forty  minutes,  the  distance  be- 
ing nearly  seven  leagues  and  a  half.  In  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  the 
fare  from  France  for  a  single  passenger,  in  summer  time,  was  set- 
tled at  sixpence,  and  a  shilling  in  winter.  The  number  of  inhabi- 
tants of  the  two  parishes  of  Dover  including  the  inmates  who  have' 
not  a  settled  residence,  the  garrison  of  Dover  Castle  and  the 
Heights,  may,  with  much  probability,  be  fixed  at  from  18  to  20,000. 
Of  late  years,  and  particularly  in  the  bathing  season,  this  place  has 
become  the  favourite  summer  residence  of  many  respectable  fami- 
lies. The  attractions  are  numerous,  and  the  prospects  particularly 
interesting.  In  Snaregate-Street  is  a  Theatre  built  by  subscription 
in  1790,  which  also  answers  the  purpose  of  an  Assembly  Room. 
The  Albion  Library,  in  the  same  street,  was  established  in  1782, 
and  contains  upwards  of  3500  volumes,  in  every  branch  of  English 
literature,  selected  with  the  greatest  attention.  The  Apollo  Li- 
brary, in  Kingrs-Street,  also  contains  a  good  collection  of  books, 
and  the  London  papers  are  supplied  daily  for  the  use  of  subscribers. 
The  Inns  are  numerous,  and  in  several  of  them  the  accommodati- 
ons are  in  the  first  style:  these  are  principally  situated  near  the 
pier  and  harbour.  A  market  is  kept  here  on  Wednesdays  and 
Saturdays,  and  a  fair  on  the  22d  of  November,  which  continues 
three  market  days.  Dover  is  fifteen  miles  from  Canterbury,  ten 
from  Sandwich,  and  seventy-one  from  London.  Besides  the  Dover 
and  Paris  mails,  eight  daily  coaches,  viz.  five  in  the  morning  and 
three  in  the  evening,  set  out  for  London,  and  return  the  following 
day. 

Dover  is  the  principal  of  the  Cinque  ports,  on  which  we  shall  in 
this  place  make  a  few  observations.  It  appears  from  antiquity, 
that  the  coasts  of  Kent  have  been  under  a  peculiar  guard  from  the 
time  of  the  Romans,  who  had  an  officer  residing  in  this  county, 
called  the  lieutenant  of  the  Saxon  shore.  He  had  under  him  a 
strong  body  of  horse  and  foot,  to  secure  the  country  from  the  in- 
cursions of  barbarians,  especially  the  Saxons,  who  much  infested 
Britain.  This  practice  was  continued  by  the  Britons,  after  the  de- 
parture of  the  Romans ;  this  officer  was  by  them  called  the  viceroy; 

3  H 


416  DOVER. 

and  Camden  informs  us,  that  king  Vortigern  conferred  that  impor- 
tant office  on  Hengist  the  Saxon,  who  soon  afterwards  made  himself 
the  first  king  of  Kent.  In  the  time  of  the  heptarchy,  when  the 
Saxons  had  established  themselves  in  Britain,  an  officer  of  this  sort 
was  less  necessary  :  but  it  is  probable,  that  when  the  Danes  infest- 
ed the  coasts,  the  ancient  discipline  was  revived ;  for  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  the  confessor,  some  of  the  ports  are  mentioned  ;  and  Mr. 
Lambard  says,  in  that  reign,  Dover,  Sandwich,  and  Romney  were 
discharged  from  almost  all  kinds  of  impositions  and  burdens,  in 
consideration  of  service  done  by  them  at  sea  ;  and  it  seems  probable 
that  earl  Goodwin  was  at  that  time  lord  warden  of  the  ports.  It 
appears  that  William  the  Conqueror  attended  carefully  to  this 
branch  of  national  defence  ;  he  nominated  five  ports  for  this  ser- 
vice, and  gave  their  officer  the  title  of  lord  warden  of  the  Cinqne 
ports.  The  names  cf  these  ports  are  Hastings,  Hythe,  Romney, 
Dover,  and  Sandwich  :  Winchelsea  and  Rye  were  not  added  to 
them  until  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  A.  D.  1260,  and  were  only  ap- 
pendages to  the  port  of  Hastings.*     They  claim  the  honor  of  support* 

*  The  freemen  of  these  towns  were  anciently  called  barons,  and  arc  to  this 
day  summoned  to  the!  common  assemblies  by  that  name.  The  cinque  ports, 
and  their  dependents,  are  nominated  in  the  following  order,  in  an"ci6ntreeords, 
■where  is  also  a  specification  of  their  respective  service  : 

1.  Hastings,  with  its  dependents,  Seaford,  Pevensey,  Hoderfey, 
"Winchelsea,  Rye,  lham,  Bekesbourn,  Grenge,  Northil,  and 
P.ulverhithe,  -  -  -  -     21   ships. 

2.  Romney,  with  its  dependents,  Bromehill,  Lede,  Estnestone, 
Dengemaries,  and  old  Romney,        - 

3.  Hythe,  with  its  dependent,  West  Hythej  -  *■  - 

4.  Dover,  with  its  dependents,  FolkSfone,  Faversham,  and  St. 
Margaret's,  not  for  the  land,  but  for  the  goods  and  chattels, 

5.  Sandwich,  with  its  dependents,  1'ordwich,  Re-culver,  Sarn», 
ajid  Deal,  not  for  the  soil  but  for  the  goods,  ... 

The  ships  were  (o  have  twenty-one  men,  and  a  boy  in  each.  They  owed  to 
the  king,  ou  summons  yearly,  fifteen  days  service  together,  at  their  own  costs 
and  tharges,  accounting  that  the  hist  day  in  which  they  spread  their  sails  to 
go  towards  the  place  appointed  by  the  king;  and  after  the  fifteen  days  were 
expired,  ihey  were  to  attend  on  the  king's  will,  and  to  be  paid  by  him.     In 


5 

sh 

ijps. 

5 

sh 

ips. 

21 

shi 

.ps. 

5 

shi 

ps. 

BUCKLAND.  417 

ing  the  canopy  which  at  a  coronation  is  borne  over  the  sovereign, 
and  afterwards  to  dine  at  the  uppermost  table,  on  the  king's  right 
hand:  the  canopy,  staves,  Ssc.  are  their  fee.  Thirty-two  barons 
or  inhabitants  of  the  ports  used  to  be  summoned  for  this  purpose, 
whose  expcnces  were  borne  by  the  port;  but  at  present  they  usually 
depute  their  members  of  parliament  to  that  honorable  office.  Be- 
sides a  variety  of  privileges  which  the  cinque  ports  enjoyed  in  their 
separate  bodies,  they  had  the  privilege  of  sending  bailiffs  to  the 
general  court  which  met  at  Shipway,  where  they  acted  in  an 
united  capacity.  There  the  lord-warden  was  sworn;  all  infringe- 
ments on  their  privileges  were  punished  ;  and  there  they  fined  their 
own  members  who  had  sued  persons  in  other  courts  contrary  to 
their  charter.  At  this  court  they  had  a  power  to  make  bye  laws  for 
the  common  good  of  the  Cinque  ports,  and  for  regulating  the  her- 
ring fishery  at  Yarmouth,  which  was  under  their  jurisdiction. 
This  court  was  called  guestling*,  or  the  brotherhood,  and  is  yet 
kept  up,  but  its  importance  is  dwindled  into  an  empty  formality. 

Within  a  mile  of  Dover,  in  the  road  to  Canterbury,  is  the  small 
village  and  church  of  Buckland,  with  the  seventieth  mile  stone  from 
London  bridge  standing  in  the  street;  there  is  nothing  worthy  of 
notice  in  the  church.  About  a  mile  and  half  to  the  left  of  this  vil- 
lage are  the  ruins  of  Bradsole,  or  St.  Rhadagund's  Abbey.  It  was 
founded  by  Hugh  its  first  abbot,  and  filled  with  monks  of  the 
Premonstratensis  order,  which  religious  society  was  instituted  by 
St.  Norbert,  about  the  year  1119.  Lambard  says,  at  the  suppres- 
sion it  was  valued  at   ninety-eight  p'ounds  a  year.     Between  the 


process  of  time  other  places  was  added  as  members  to  these  ports ;  for  in  a 
charter  to  the  cinque  ports,  granted  by  king  Charles  II.  A.  D.  1672,  Mar- 
gate, Goresend,  Birchington,  Woodchurch,  and  St.  Peter's,  all  in  the  isle  of 
Thanet,  with  Kingsdowne  and  Ringwolde,  are  counted  members  of  the  port 
of  Dover.  And  Walmer,  Ramsgate,  Stonar,  and  Brightlingsea  in  Essex,  are 
counted  members  of  the  port  of  Sandwich.  Rye  also  is  counted  by  itself,  and 
hath  for  an  appendage  the  town  and  hundred  of  Tenterden  in  Kent. 


*  A  court  of  guestling  was  held  in  the  year  1771, 


418  1JARHAM. 

.sixty-eighth  and  sixty-ninth  stones  on  the  road,  is  the  small  village 
of  Ewell.  This  place  is  remarkable  for  having  been  the  residence  of 
the  knights  templars,  who  had  a  grand  mansion  here,  which  pro- 
bably was  situated  about  half  a  mile  to  the  right,  wher,e  now  is  a 
place  called  the  Temple.  J.  M.  Fector,  esq.  has  lately  erected  an 
elegant  picturesque  mansion  here,  which,  when  the  gardens  and 
surrounding  grounds,  which  have  recently  been  planted  with  an 
infinite  variety  of  trees,  shrubs,  &c.  have  attained  a  proper  degree 
of  maturity,  will  form  a  most  delightful  residence. 

Proceeding  towards  Canterbury  and  passing  the  sixty -third  stone 
you  enter  Barham  Downs  celebrated  at  present  for  the  annual 
horse  races  which  are  there  exhibited.  Several  villages,  and  elegant 
gentleman's  seats  are  situated  on  the  right  and  left  of  these  downs; 
on  the  right  is  an  eminence,  on  the  left  a  beautiful  vale,  in  which 
runs  a  small  branch  of  the  river  Stour.  On  the  right  is  Den-hill 
house  and  gardens,  the  seat  of  John  Harrison,  esq.  To  the  left  of 
the  downs  and  of  the  sixty-second  stone,  is  the  village  of  Barham 
which  gives  name  to  this  delightful  spot.  The  church  has  in  it 
some  monuments  of  the  Diggs  family,  who  resided  at  Diggs  court 
in  this  parish.  To  the  left  of  the  sixty-first  stone  is  the  small  vil- 
lage and  church  of  Kingston. 

On  Barham  Downs  is  the  scite  of  an  ancient  camp,  with  three 
ditches  round  it,  which  some  conjecture  to  be  the  work  of  Julius 
Caesar,  on  his  second  expedition  to  this  island.  About  the  year 
1212,  king  John  encamped  here  with  an  army  of  sixty  thousand 
men  to  oppose  the  French  ;  who  threatened  him  with  an  invasion. 
Simon  Montford,  earl  of  Leicester,  also  drew  up  a  large  army  on 
these  downs,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  Many  other  scenes  of 
war  and  peace  have  passed  too  numerous  to  particularize.  To  the 
left  of  the  sixtieth  stone,  near  the  river,  is  the  village  of  Bishops- 
bourn,  so  called  because  it  was  given  by  king  Kenulph,  at  the  re- 
quest of  archbishop  Athelard,  to  the  priory  of  Christ  Church.  In 
the  church  are  several  good  monuments,  particularly  that  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Richard  Hooker,  author  of  the  Ecclesiastical  polity, 
who  was  rector  of  this  parish.     At  the  north  end  of  the  downs  is 


BEAKESBORNE.  419 

the  village  of  Bridge,  in  which  stands  the  fifty-ninth  stone.  The 
place  took  its  name  from  a  bridge  over  the  Stour  which  runs  through 
it.  Near  a  mile  to  the  right  is  the  small  village  of  Patwcksboum  ; 
formerly  it  had  the  name  of  Cheney,  and  was  the  residence  of  the 
noble  family  of  Cheney,  before  they  removed  to  Shorland  in  the 
isle  of  Sheppey.  The  church  is  a  building  of  considerable  antiqui- 
ty, its  south  door  is  arched  with  stone,  and  carved  with  a  variety 
of  figures.  Near  this  village  is  that  of  Beakesborne.  There  was 
a  chantry  in  this  church,  founded  in  1314,  which  was  translated 
to  Cokyn's  hospital  at  Canterbury,  in  1362.  The  archbishops 
had  here  a  small  but  elegant  palace,  some  remains  of  which  are 
still  to  be  seen.  This  place  anciently  belonged  to  the  cinque  port 
of  Hastings,  and  enjoyed  the  same  privileges.  Richard  de  Beke 
held  certain  lands  by  grand  sergeantry  to  find  one  ship  each  time 
Henry  III.  passed  the  sea.  Near  Beakesborne  is  Howlets,  which 
was  formerly  a  seat  of  the  Hales  family,  and  was  purchased  of  Sir 
Philip  Hales,  by  Isaac  Baugh,  esq.  an  East  Indian,  who  rebuilt 
the  mansion,  and  in  1799,  sold  it  with  three  hundred  acres  of 
land,  to  Cholmely  Dering,  esq.  the  present  owner,  second  son  of 
the  late  Sir  Edward  Dering,  bart.  The  house  is  not  an  unhandsome 
building,  having  a  portico  of  the  Doric  order  in  front;  and  the 
surrounding  scenery  is  very  picturesque.  It  is  the  residence  of 
George  Gipps,  esq. 


THE    END. 


Wildash,  Printer, 
Rochester, 


9 


4 


ERRATA* 

Page     13.  line  12.  for  propituous  read — propitious 
Page     32.  line     6.  for  match  read— march 

Page     60.  line     6    from  the  bottom,  for  reolinte  grab  ant  read- 
red  in  tegrabant 
Page  211.  line  14.  for  supentes  read— superstes 
Page  314.  line  23.  for  agreeable  read — agreeably 
Page  323.  line     2.  for  n  read— in 
Page  338.  line     1.  for  made  read — more 

Page  346.  line     6.  for  have  demised  read— have  been  demised 
Page  359.  line     5    from  the  bottom,  for  Howe  read— Home 
Page  365.  line  22.  for  Jith  read  fifth 


! 


h