It hath the ruins of an ancient caftle, which reckons them and the Arficks to have been the founders.

There is another feat, in this parish, of venerable antiquity, called Arkefden, whose owners bore the fame for their firname, and were of the number of the grand affize, in king John's time; after them, the Cobhams were possessors of it, and Reginald de Cobham had license, the fourteenth of Edward the third, to caftellate his house, and paid respect of aid for the fame, the twentieth of Edward the third, at the making the Black Prince knight: from the Cobhams of Sterborough, it came by the heir general, to the lord Burgh or Borough, from whom, by fale, it devolved its right on Sir Samuel Leonard, father of Sir Stephen Leonard, which Sir Stephen enjoys it at this day.

Southcourt and Mayfield, are two manors lying in the precincts of this parish, and did anciently relate to the archbishop of Canterbury, from whom by exchange they paffed over to Dunham, and from that family to the Wiats, in which name and family they remained, till upon the attainder of Sir Thomas Wiat, they eicheated to the crown, which by grant invested their right and interest in J. Leonard of Chevening, from whom they are now come down to be the poffeffion of Sir Stephen Leonard of West Wickham.

There is yet another ancient seat within the verge of this village, whose name is Maplescombe, and partly situated in this, and partly in Kingsdown. This place, although it now carries a defolate aspect, by reason of its ruin and depopulation, was anciently of a high repute and estimate. William de Chellesfield (he whom I suppose lies interred in Halsted church) held it (as Testa de Nevil informs me) in the twentieth year of Henry the third, but his family had not been poffefsed of it, until the latter end of Edward the second, when the viciffitude of fale carried the title off, to Rokesley of Rokesley in North Crey, and Roger, the fon of Thomas de Rokesley, held the lordship by a whole knight's fee, in the twentieth year of Edward the third, of Richard de Roffe of Horton Kerbie, and he held it of the fucceffor of Robert de Arsick, and he of the king, yet I find fome part of it, to have acknowledged the fignory of the family of Merworth; for Roger de Merworth, in the eighteenth year of Edward the first, obtained a charter of free-warren, to his lands at this place; and in the fortieth year of Edward the third, John de Merworth, this man's grandchild, was by purchase, wholly invested in the pofieffion, and held it at his decease, which was in the forty-ninth year of that prince, and John de Malmains was his heir, who passed it away to Nicholas de Brember, of whom I shall speak more at Merworth; and he being attainted in the tenth year of Richard the second, there was a return made in the twelfth of that prince, that he held this manor at his conviction, upon which, that prince, in the thirteenth year of his reign, granted it to John de Hemensthorpe, and he, not long after, passed it away to Richard Fitz Allen, earl of Arundel, and his son Thomas earl of Arundel, dying without issue male 1416, Joan, one of his fifters and co-heirs, brought it to be the poffeffion of her husband William Beauchamp, Baron of Abergavenny, whose son like. wise dying without issue male, in the ninth of Henry the fifth, Elizabeth his fole inheritrix, united it to the patrimony of Edward Nevil, and in his descendants did the title remain, until our fathers remembrance, and then it was conveyed to Lovelace, and is now by Margaret, fole heir of Richard Lovelace, annexed to the demeansne of Mr. ** ** Cooke, of Lanham in Suffolk.

Eastball, in this parish, was parcel of the revenue of Rokesley of Rokesley, but when Sir Richard de Rokesley determined with the name, in a female inheritrix: he left two daughters his co-heirs, Anne the eldest wedded to Sir Thomas de Poynings, and Joan the younger married to Hugh de Patefnul. She, by marrying with Sir Thomas de Poynings, intituled that name to the propriety and jurifdiction of this place, in which family it continued until the fourteenth year of Henry the eighth, and then, it being found after a serious inquifition, that Sir Edward Poynings, who deceased the twelfth year of that prince's government, had neither lawful issue, nor any collateral alliance, which could start a title to his eftate, it escheated to the crown, in whose demeasn this manor was locked up until king Henry the eighth granted it to Sir Roger Cholmeley, who fuddenly

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denly alienated his interest here, to Sir Martin Bowes; and he, the first year of Edward the fixth, conveyed it again to Percival Hart Esq; of Lullingston, in whote fucceffor, William Hart Esq; of Lullingston, the title is now resident.

Littlemote and Petham, are two manors likewise in this parish, which augmented the revenue of Sibell, a family of deep antiquity as any in this track, who were for many hundred years, poffefsed of Petham, and of the house which is called Littlemote likewife, as is evident by their coat armour, viz. a tyger viewing himself in a mirrour, or spigel, both carved and embossed very anciently in wood, as likewife, represented to the view, in old coloured glass, though much of the land that relates to this manfion, devolved to Sibell about the beginning of Henry the leventh, by the heir of Cowdale, whose arms, viz. argent, a chevron, gules, between three bulls-heads, cabosed, fables, both empailed and quartered with this family, are yet visible in many places of the house; finally, after these two places had fo many defcents, been fastened to this family, they came down at last to John Sibel Efq; who concluded in a female heir, called Elizabeth, married to Mr. Robert Bosvil, ancestor to Thomas Bosvil Esq; who, in right of this alliance, is now heir apparent to the fignory of them.

There is one part of the church called Arfick's Chancel, and divers lands hereabouts, are held of the honour of Arfick by knights service, and Robert de Arsick, that came in with William the conqueror, was one of those that were affiftants to John de Fiennes, for the fecure guard of Dover castle. He had eighteen knights fees assigned to him, of which, these lay in Kent, viz. Fremingham (i. e.) Farning. ham, one knight's fee, Mayplescombe, one knight's fee, Nutsted in Kent, one knight's fee, Combe in Kent, one knight's fee, Bekewel in Kent, one knight's fee. The rest lay more in Oxfordshire, and some in Dorset, Wilts, and Lincolnshire. In the reign of Henry the second, Manasser de Arsick was of eminent note, in the county of Oxford, and Mr. Camden, in defcribing that county, affirms the principal feat of their barony, to be at Coggs, and that the daughter and heir was married to Hubert de Burgo, who was earl of Kent.

ALHALLOWS, in the hundred of Hoo, with the appendant manor of Shawsted, did anciently celebrate the memory of Delapole. John de la Pole held it in the twentieth year of Edward the third, and paid a respective supply for it, at making the black Prince knight, and in this family, was the poffeffion permanent until the reign of Henry the fourth, and then it was tranfmitted, by sale, to Zouch of Haworth, written in ancient court-rolls and other muniments de la Zouch; and here the title was resident until it was by descent, wafted along to John lord de la Zouch, who being a great assertor of the cause and quarrel of Richard the third, against Henry the seventh, like fome noble fabrick, in whose joints the rain hath dwelt, and fupplanted the contextures of its pillars, fell under the misfortune of his royal master, and funk in the ruins of the fatal field of Bosworth, and in the first year of Henry the seventh, being attainted by parliament, his patrimony escheated to the crown, and then that prince granted his eftate here to his faithful partisan, Sir Henry Wiat, whom he had newly taken into his private councels, and from him, did `it successively come down to his grandchild Sir Thomas Wiat, whose estate here, was much improved and augmented by the addition of Windlehill, another manor in this parish, which, as appears Rot. Efc. Num. 82. did in the forty feventh year of Edward the third, belong to the abbot of Reding, and upon the fuppreffion of that cloister, by Henry the eighth, was, by his liberal conceffion, made parcel of his inheritance, and remained so until the reign of queen Mary, and then being attainted, and convicted of high-treason, in the second year of that princess, his eftate here fell back to the crown, and continued there until king James, in the beginning of his reign, passed away Shawsted and Windlehill to the city of London, and they again, by their trustees, invested the propriety of them by sale, in Sir William Garaway of London, father to Sir Henry Garaway knight, in whose descendants the title of them is still resident.

Place-House, in this parish, is secondly to be remembered, which was anciently part of the demeain of the illuftrious family of the Pimps of Pimps-court in the pa

rish of Loose near Maidston, and Philip de Pimp was one of those men at arms, which the prior of Rochester was to furnish out for the guard of the seacoast at Genlade or Yenlade, in the hundred of Hoo, in the eleventh year of Edward the third. In times of a more modern inscription, I find Thomas Pimpe the elder, to be buried in Alhallows in Hoo, and that he made his will the twenty seventh of Auguft, (as appears by the Repertory of Rochester diocess) and in the fourteenth of Edward the fourth, William and John were his fons; Elizabeth unmarried, Margery lady prioress of Malling, and Alice a nun there. Sir William Hampton about that time, bought much land of him; he (I mean this Sir William) was lord mayor of London in the time of Edward the fourth; but whether this place was part of this purchase or not, there is no light from any public intelligence that can illuftrate it; certain I am, that the Coppingers immediately almost after this time became poffeffof the place, and the propriety is now by female right, of a daughter and heir of a branch of these Coppingers, refolved into Sir Harbotle Grimston of Essex.

ALRESFORD, anciently written Aiglesford, hath places of confiderable animadversion within the limits and boundaries of it. The priory, or rather now the skeleton of it, was founded by Richard lord Grey of Codnor, Anno Domini 1240, in the twenty fifth of Henry the third, for Carmelite or White Friers, in honour of the Virgin Mary; the mother of this lord was Ifolda, daughter and co-heir of Hugh Bardolph, lord of Hoo in Kent, from whom he inherited fair poffeffions in this county, and many of his pofterity, in relation to that particular, were buried in the conventual church of this monastery. Upon the fuppreffion, it was granted, with the royalty of it, by Henry the eighth, to Sir Thomas Wiat, from whom it descended to his fon Sir Thomas Wiat, upon whose defection, this being, with other land, escheated to the crown, queen Elizabeth granted it to Mr. John Sidley, and he bequeathed it to his brother Sir William Sidley, and from that name it was lately passed by sale, unto Sir Peter Ricaut, whose heir 1657, conveyed it by the fame viciffitude to Mr. Caleb Banks of Maidston.

Tottington and Eccles, two manors in this parish, anciently belonged to the family of Rokesley, by one of whose heirs general, it came to Poynings, and Richard lord Poynings, the eleventh of Richard the second, held the manor of Tottington, which with Eccles, one of his successors, in the time of king Henry the fixth, gave in frank marriage with his daughter, to James Palmer Efq; of the Courtlodge in Snodland, whose posterity after they had held them some space of time, fold them to Warcup, defcended from the Warcups of Westminster, in which name, the tenure was not long resident, for by sale, it was alienated to Sidley of Southfleet, and his successor fuddenly after, by the like fatality, invested Ricaut in Eccles, and Madox in Tottington.

Cofington, is a seat of much eminence in this parish, and gave residence and firname, to a knightly family of the fame. And king Edward the first rewarded Sir Stephen de Cosenton, whom he had made banneret, in the twenty eighth of his reign, for his signal service at Calaverock in Scotland, with a charter of free warren to all his lands at Cosenton Acris, and South Burton, vulgarly called South Blabden in Elham in Kent. The manor itself, holdeth by knights service of the barony of Rosse of Horton Kirby, from whom they received it by ancient feoffment, and bear, in similitude of their lords, the Rosses, the same charge in their arms, viz. azure three rofes, or. The arms of Rosse being, or, three roses gules; but when, in the beginning of Henry the eighths government, the fatality of time had concluded this family in three daughters and co-heirs, married to Duke, Hamon, and Wood; this manor of Cofenton, accrued by co-partition to Duke, in which name it hath ever since refided. There was a free chapel belonging to this mansion founded, as private evidences advertise me, by Sir Stephen de Cofenton, which is now crumbled into so defolate an heap of rubbish, that we can hardly trace out its ruins, even amidst its ruins. There was another free chapel in this parish, annexed to Tottington by Richard lord Poynings, in the eleventh year of Richard the second, which hath been

1

fo

Rd. fon of Malger de Rokesley, gave tithes of Tottington, to the priory of Rochester: see Textus Roffenfis,

so dismantled by the impressions of time, and the fury of the elements, that there is very little testimony or evidence remaining, that this oratory ever had a being.

Preston, in this parish of Alresford, is a feat of that venerable antiquity, and hath for fo many defcents, been incorporated into the demeasn of Colepeper, that it is questionable, which is the ancient cradle or feminary of this family, either Bayhall in Pepenbury, or Preston in Alresford. Sir Thomas Colepeper, as the old evidences and muniments of this name instruct me, was of this family, and was governor of Winchelsey, under Edward the second, by whom he was beheaded, for defending that town in behalf of the barons, then combined in an hoftile league againit him. Walter de Colepeper flourished under Edward the first and Edward the fecond, and fealed with a bend engrailed, which is still the paternal coat-armour of this family; which I the rather mention, because these deeds are the first of that nature which I have feen, since sealing with coats of arms grew customary in this nation, and argues him to be a man of eminence in this county, as did that spreading revenue, likewife, of which he died possessed, not only here, but at Farleigh, Peckham, Wrotham, and divers other places, in the first year of 'Edward the third. John Colepeper was a judge in the reign of Henry the fixth, and concluded in a daughter and heir, who, by matching with Harrington, added a confiderable supplement to the paternal revenue of that noble family. I shall not more dilate myself in this discourse, it is enough, that I inform my reader, that this ancient feat, which hath been for so many centuries of years under the signiory of this name, is yet so constant to the interest of this family, that it is at this instant, knit to the inheritance of Sir Richard Colepeper, baronet.

Roes Place in Alresford, pretends to a deep root in antiquity likewise, as being the feat and original of the ancient family of Roe, and from hence, the Roes of Chafford in Ashurst, those of Effex, and he that was lord mayor of London, have primitively in a full channel flowed out; and in this family was the possession lodged, until that age we styled our grandfathers, and then it was carried off by fale to Taylor; which family, not many years fince, concluding in a female inheritrix, she, by matching with Warcup, hath espoused the poffeffion of this place to that name and family.

Near this place, Vortimer the valiant British king, gave battle to Hengift the Saxon, after he had given a victorious overthrow to the Britons at Creyford; in which conflict Horsa and Catigern, brethren to both the generals, were flain, and the Saxons repulfed into the ifle of Thanet, their first assigned habitation, not daring to enter and reinvade the continent whilst Vortimer survived. Catigern was interred in that plain which spreads itself on the hangings of that hill, which looks down on Cosenton, where to this day his monument remains, being four vast stones pitched somewhat after the manner of Stonehenge on Salisbury plain, but of greater breadth than they, though not so thick or long, whereby it appears like a small sheepcote, and is vulgarly stiled Citf-Cotehouse, which is graphically here imitated. The like monuments was erected for Horsa, at Horsted near Rochester, which storms and tempefts, under the conduct of time, have utterly extinguished.

ASH

See PLATE, Figure. II.

ASH by Sandwich, lies in the hundred of Wingham, and contains many places within its precincts very confiderable. The first is Welmestone which is situated partly in this parish, and partly in Wingham. Though it be now obfcure, it was in elder times made more confpicuous, by being one of the seats and residence of the noble family of Septuans. William de Septuans or Sepuans, was in the possession of it at his death, which was in the twenty fifth year of Edward the third, Rot. Efc. Num. 5. and in this family did the title of this place, by the steps of several defcents, pass along until the latter end of Henry the eighth, and then it went from this family by exchange for other land, to Sir Walter Henley, who not long after conveyed the demean land or manfion-house to Alday, and the manor itself to Solley; in Al. day the demifed premises had not been long refident, when they were sold to Mr. Benedict Barnham, by one of whose four co-heirs, the fec-fimple devolved to the earl of Castle-haven, whose defcendant conveyed it to Brigham.

Goshall