DESTROYED CHURCHES OF NEW ROMNEY.

THERE has been considerable misapprehension, respecting the parish churches in New Romney. Hasted says that, "at the time of the dreadful tempest, which caused its ruin, in King Edward I's reign, it is said to have had in it five parish churches, a priory, and an hospital for the sick."* He repeats a similar statement subsequently, saying "there were certainly four other Parish churches besides the present one of St. Nicholas," and he enumerates them (p. 462) as those of St. Laurence, St. Martin, St. John, and St. Michael.

Leland, however, is more accurate. Writing in the time of Henry VIII, he says, "where there were three great parishes and churches sometime, is now scant one well maintained." Entries in the Town records confirm Leland's statement. In the twenty-first year of Henry VII, John Crosse and Michael Bonevassalle were bound over to keep the peace, on pain of forfeiting 13s. 4d., "unto every of the three chirchis."+

The fact seems to be that there were five sacred edifices in New Romney, but only three parish churches; and, for more than six centuries, the three parishes have formed but one ecclesiastical benefice under one Vicar. Hasted errs, in stating that the parishes were first united about the beginning of Henry VIII's reign. In 1282, as in 1373, and for an unknown time previously, the Vicar of Romney was vicar of the church of St. Nicholas, to which the churches of St. Martin and St. Laurence were appendant chapels. Why New Romney contained three civil parishes,

*Hist. of Kent, viii. 448-9.

Hist. MSS. Commission, Fifth Report, p. 552a.

Archbishop Peckham's Register, folio 53a, and MS." M. 371" in Library of Dean and Chapter of Canterbury.

forming one Ecclesiastical Benefice, it is impossible for us to say, at this distance of time.* The other sacred edifices, in New Romney, were not parochial, in any sense. One of them was the chapel of the House or Priory of St. John the Baptist, which possessed a large cemetery or churchyard;† and the other was the chapel of the Lepers' Hospital, dedicated to Saints Stephen and Thomas, Martyrs.

ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH.

The earliest church was, without doubt, the church of St. Martin. We trace it back for more than eleven hundred years. In A.D. 740-1, Ethilberht, alias Eadberht, King of the Kentishmen, granted to the Priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, a fishery, which was established in the mouth of the river Liminaea, or Limenea, together with that portion of ground in which was situated the oratory of St. Martin, and together also with the houses of the fishermen, one-fourth part of the arable around the same place, and pasture (for one hundred and fifty cattle that bear burdens) extending from the marsh, called Bisceopeswic, to the wood called Ripp, or Rhip, and to the boundaries of Sussex; just as romanus presbyter held it for the church of St. Mary in Liminlaea.‡

From this Saxon church of St. Martin, the Hundred of St. Martin's took its name. The addition of Pounteney to the name of that hundred was of later date. The Hundred of St. Martin's, Pounteney, could not have been so called until the Advowson and Rectory of Romney (named without any prefix, in the grant) had been given (in A.D. 1264) to the Cistercian Abbey of Pontigny. That Abbey was closely connected with the See of Canterbury. In it Thomas à Becket

* The union of the three parishes under one vicar may have taken place when the Advowson and Parsonage of Romney were bestowed upon the Abbey of Pontigny. This occurred in 1264, when Boniface was Archbishop of Canterbury. He succeeded Archbishop Edmund Rich (St. Edmund of Pontigny), who was buried in Pontigny Abbey.

In 1511-12, Richard Richarde of Old Romney, paid to the Jurats of Romney 20d. for permission to make a way to his barn, which stood near the churchyard of St. John the Baptist.-(Hist. MSS. Commission, Fifth Report, p. 550.)

Charters 86, and 1003, in Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, vols. i., 103; v., 46. The latter charter does not mention romanus presbyter.

found refuge, from December 1164 to Easter 1166. Thither did Stephen Langton retire, during the reign of King John. There, also, did Archbishop Edmund Rich pass the latter days of his life, and there was he buried in 1242; whence he has since been known as St. Edmund of Pontigny. In consideration of the hospitality, thus rendered by the Abbey, Archbishop Langton granted to it a pension, of fifty marks per annum, charged upon the Church of Romney. Archbishop Edmund increased the gift; and Archbishop Boniface gave to the Abbey the entire benefice of Romney.* The nickname "Pounteney" soon became familiarly identified with the name of Romney, and it would seem that the entire area, of the three united parishes, of New Romney, was sometimes called the parish of Pounteney. In 1399, we find an Inquisition stating that Laurence Pabenham, and his wife Elizabeth, possessed a rentcharge (of 32s. and 20 hens) in Saint Martins-in-Pountney, Yvechurch and Old Romene.† The Rectory-house of Romney, called Pounteney Alienigenus, was let on lease, in 1450. In 1459, Stephen Porter of Ivechurch, bequeathed land lying in the parishes of St. Mary Marsh, Hope, and Pountenay.§ In 1471, Robert Stuppeny of Ivechurch left land in St. Thomas's Innings "in the parish of Pountenay." In 1473, John Ely died seised of lands in Pounteney-St. Laurence and Romney Marsh.|| Other nicknames for St. Martin's also occur, as in 1398 the Archbishop's Manor of Aldington was said to have members in Sanct' Martin' de North'ne, et South'ne. They, however,

are occasional, the name Pounteney is more persistent.

St. Martin's Church stood, at no great distance, northward from the church of St. Nicholas. Its site, now part of the vicar's glebe, contains 2 acres, 1 rood, 31 perches.

Its churchyard is mentioned in the Municipal Archives

* For these facts, I am indebted to the courtesy of Canon J. C. Robertson, who refers, for them, to Martene's Thesaurus Anecdotorum, vol. iii., 1241, 1250-1, 1255.

† Ing. p. m. 22 Ric. II, No. 37.

A grange, two barns, and a stable, in Spytelstrete, formerly called Bouremannys Bernis, were included in the lease. Hist. MSS. Commission, Fifth Report, p. 543.

$ Cant. Consistory Book, ii. p. 1.

Inq. p. m., 13 Ed. IV, No. 40.

Ing. p. m., 21 Ric. II, Forfeiture Bundles, No. 7, x.

for A.D. 1404, and it was certainly in use fifty-seven years later. John Pundherst, making his will in 1461, desired to be buried in St. Martin's churchyard. He bequeathed 20s. to buy an Antiphonal for that church, and he desired that, on the day of his interment, six chaplains, in addition to the vicar of Romney, should celebrate mass for the benefit of his soul. Each of them was to receive 20d. for his trouble. One of the side chancels, in St. Martin's Church, was dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. In it was a picture, or image, of St. Martin and St. Mary, before which Nicholas Holle, in 1477, directed that two tapers should be kept burning, for one year. There was a Fraternity or Guild of St. Mary, among the parishioners of St. Martin's, who used this chancel of Our Lady, and kept a light burning therein.

Other lights, which the people kept up, were placed before the altar of The Cross, the altar of St. Peter, and the altar of St. Katherine, in this church. In 1474, Geoffrey Sharpe of Romney desired to be buried in the church of St. Martin before the altar there. Various testators, in neighbouring parishes, evinced their veneration for the church of St. Martin by leaving small bequests, either to its High Altar, or to its Fabric.

Nevertheless, in 1511, it was reported at Archbishop Warham's Visitation, that there was great fear lest the chancel should fall down from decay, and complaint was made that it was not repaired. The Vicar of Romney appeared in the name of the Proprietaries, and said they were not bound to repair the chancel of St. Martin's church.

At the same Visitation, it appeared that certain sheep were the property of this church, and that Vincent Finch, to whom they had been let out to farm, was dead, and had left no effects. Thus the church funds lost the value of the sheep.

Eventually, the municipal authorities of New Romney petitioned Archbishop Cranmer to permit either St. Martin's or St. Nicholas to be pulled down, because the town was too small to support both churches. On the 27th of May, 1549, the Archbishop, consequently, authorized the destruction of St. Martin's. Mr. Henry B. Walker has shewn to me the account of money received from the sale of the materials of the old

church. From that account, we learn that the tower had contained five bells, which weighed 46 cwt. The bell metal was worth £48 4s., and the bells seem to have been transferred to the tower of St. Nicholas church. The roofs of St. Martin's church had been covered with lead, which realised the large sum of £69 2s. 6d. Among the items sold, were a rood loft with a ceiling over it, a partition, two tomb stones, and an altar, all from the chancel of Our Lady; the woodwork from the vestry, the font and its cover, the pulpit, a stone bench, two forms and a long settle, a chest, a table, a desk, two doors, a cross stone, twenty-nine rafters, two torches, two pricket candlesticks; stones, from three buttresses, from the porch and from the walls, and a quantity of paving tiles. The total receipts were £136 16s. 10d. Plate and jewels, of St. Martin's and St. Nicholas churches, unneeded for the Reformed Ritual, had been sent by the Jurats to Canterbury in 1538-9, and sold for £65 11s. Od.

The comparative degradation suffered by this, most anciently founded, Church of St. Martin, is very remarkable. It was certainly made subservient to the newer foundation, of St. Nicholas, by or before the middle of the thirteenth century.

In looking for some possible cause, I observe that Martinmas was the season in which arose the first of the great storms, that ruined the port of Romney. Matthew Paris, and Matthew of Westminster, both say that, in 1236, on the day after the Festival of St. Martin, and on the day week after, a violent storm of wind so raised up the waves of the sea, that in the marshes a great number of human beings perished. Somner tells us that the effects of this storm brought the steward of Aldington Manor to Romney and Appledore and Winchelsea, to take measures for saving the country. Men of Romney would, thenceforward, associate St. Martin, and his Festival, with the ruin of their port. Did this occasion the neglect of St. Martin's Church?

ST. LAURENCE CHURCH,

From the terms of the petition presented to Archbishop Cranmer in 1549, and from the recorded sale of plate "of

VOL. XIII.

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