What we know about Vigfús Ívarsson Hólm's immediate family connections amounts, in short, to this. His mother was named Margaret; she was the daughter of Össur, and is supposed to have been of a Norwegian family. Vigfús's wife was Guðríðr, daughter of Ingimund. Of their children only three are mentioned in Icelandic records, Ivar, who married Sophia, daughter of the greatest north-country nobleman of the time, Lopt the Mighty of Möðruvellir; Margret, who married Thorvald, one of Lopt's many sons; and Erlendr, for whose soul the mother gives a manor ad pios usus in a (misdated) Charter of 1407 (Arn. Magn. No. 238, 4o, fo. 246.) Ivar was slain by the attendants of the Danish Bishop Jón Gerreksson of Skálholt, whose episcopal career terminated in a sack sunk down in a river; but Margret became mother of a family which still flourishes in various branches in Iceland. (I myself happen to be a lineal descendant from one of Thorvald's brothers, Orm Loptson.) Vigfús Ívarsson Hólmr is mentioned for the first time in Icelandic annals in 1389, and then as hirdstjóri, or governor of the country. During the following years he is referred to not unfrequently, and mostly as occupying the highest offices in the island. In 1393 he had the unpleasant mission to fulfil at the Althing on behalf of Queen Margaret of Denmark, to attempt the enforcement of new taxes on the inhabitants, and his popularity is attested to by the resolution which the diet passed :-that they would, for the sake of Vigfus, give a certain amount, once for all, but it should not be called a scat or tax, nor should it ever be demanded again. In 1415, king Eric of Pomerania invested the then Bishop of Skálholt, Arni Olafsson, with the governorship of the country. On learning this, Vigfús Ívarson Hólmr, in the summer of the same year, betook himself on board one of six English traders, then lying in the harbour of Hafnarfjord, and sailed with sixty 'lasts' of fish and a great quantity of precious things away to England. In the following October we find him, as the littera fraternitatis testifies, on his pious errand at Canterbury. We are left entirely in the dark as to how Vigfús managed to substantiate his claim to blood relationship with the great Cantuarian Saint; but that he did it by means of some other logic than that of his substantial offerings, I myself am inclined to believe. We have seen, that the names of Vigfus's mother, wife, and three children who are known in Icelandic annals-Margret, Guðríðr, Margret, Ívar, Erlendr-are in absolute agreement with the Canterbury document:-Margareta, Gutreda, Juarius, Ellendrus. The name of Gudrid's father, Ingimundr, reappears here in the form of her son's name, Edmundus. The other children, who are unknown in Iceland, must have either died young, or else left the country to live abroad. It would seem as if all the members of the family who are mentioned in this letter were alive at the time it is dated (1415). Vigfús himself died in A.D. 1429. I shall have more to say on this subject in vol. ii. of "Thomas Saga." This is not the only pilgrimage mentioned of the kind from Iceland to Canterbury. Some twenty to twenty-five years after the death of Archbishop Thomas, Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson, an Icelandic chief, repaired to the Saint, with an offering consisting of a couple of walrus teeth, the ivory of the North, and much wealth besides. Apparently he founded a chapel in the cathedral, and acquired the Saint's special protection.* The relation between Iceland, on one side, and Saint Thomas of Canterbury,-the literature relating to him especially-on the other, forms not the least interesting chapter of mediæval ecclesiastical literature. Yours most truly, University Library, Cambridge. EIRÍKR MAGNÚSSON. *"It so fell in Dyrafirth at a spring-mote, when Raven was there, that a walrus came upon the shore, whereupon people set on it to wound it, but the whale plunged into the sea and sank, the wounds having penetrated into the hollow of the body. Then people went in ships to the spot, and made grapnels, trying to drag the whale ashore, but without avail. Then Raven made a vow to the holy bishop Thomas, promising him, in order that the whale might be secured, the teeth of the whale fixed in the head (=the scull with the teeth in), if they should succeed in getting the whale ashore. As soon as the vow was made, no difficulty had they to bring the whale to land. Next to this, Raven went away, and he with his crew brought his ship into harbour in Norway. That winter Raven was in Norway. In the spring he went west to England, and visited the holy Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, and brought the holy Thomas the teeth; and there he spent his wealth towards a temple, and commended himself to their prayers." (Sturlunga, vol. ii., 277.) CHURCHES IN ROMNEY MARSH. I. OLD ROMNEY CHURCH. MISLED by the prefix, in the name of Old Romney, we expect to find in its church of St. Clement traces of the oldest foundation in this district. Upon a close examination, however, nothing is to be seen here of a date earlier than the middle of the twelfth century, if so early, and it becomes evident that the west end of St. Nicholas Church,* at New Romney, is older than any part of this building. Turning to the history of the place, for an explanation, we find that St. Clement's Church stands within a Hundred called St. Martin's, and this fact at once suggests that there was an older church dedicated to St. Martin. A Saxon charter of A.D. 740-1 proves that such was the case. St. Martin's Church stood in what we call New Romney, where, likewise, there was a third church, dedicated to St. Laurence. Of its foundation we know nothing; but, if we may be guided by the analogy of similar dedications, we should infer that the church of St. Laurence was founded before that of St. Clement. Thus, such light as history throws upon the matter serves to confirm the impression conveyed by the architectural features of Old Romney Church, as at present seen. It leads us to believe that the church of St. Clement, in the little village of Old Romney, was not founded until after the erection of all three of the parish churches of the important town which we call New Romney, but which throughout the middle ages had no prefix to its name, being known simply as Romney. *The tower of St. Nicholas Church seems to have been first built about the end of the eleventh century. In the following century (circa 1160-1200), its height was increased, and its remarkable tower aisles were added, at base. Thirty years ago, a writer in the Ecclesiologist,* who expected to find here some traces of Saxon Architecture, was unwillingly forced to the conclusion that the ground-plan of St. Clement's Church is Romanesque, with Middle-Pointed additions. Not knowing the history of the district, he suggested that the fabric had been rebuilt, about A.D. 1150. Probably the actual date of this edifice may be two or three decades later than that. Mr. Basil Champneys was, like that writer and ourselves, disappointed in finding here no visible traces of early architecture. Observing, in the east wall, some stones of a size smaller than the rest, he puts the despairing query, "Could that small portion be Saxon ?" It seems to be most probable that St. Clement's Church was built by the heiress of the De Romenel family, Aubrey de Romenel, who married William de Jarpenville. She survived both her husband and her son-in-law (Thomas FitzBernard, who married her only child Alice); so that in 1212 her grandson Ralph Fitz-Bernard was acting as her representative. The patronage of this benefice remained with her descendants, during two centuries and a half after that period. As this is one of the few churches in Romney Marsh, of which the advowson remained in lay hands, for several centuries, it becomes interesting to trace its descent, especially as its possessors were families so renowned in history as the Badlesmeres, the De Roos, and the Scropes. Aubrey de Jarpenville survived until 1225-6, when her widowed daughter Alice Fitz-Bernard succeeded to her advowson and manors. We have no records of the rectors' names until February, 1287-8, when Robert Bernard,† a sub-deacon, was presented by the patron, Alice's great-grandson Ralph Fitz Bernard, who again exercised the right of presentation in June, 1289, when he appointed Henry Pancok.‡ When Ralph Fitz-Bernard died, in 1305-6, his grandson and heir Thomas Fitz-Bernard succeeded, but he left no issue. Consequently this advowson passed to that great, but unfortunate noble Bartholomew de Badlesmere, whose mother was Margaret Fitz-Bernard, sister or aunt of Thomas. The patronage * Vol. ix., p. 343. † Archbishop Peckham's Register, fol. 37. Ibidem, fol. 40. of Old Romney was then upon the point of passing out of lay hands; as Lord Badlesmere desired to appropriate it to a Religious House, which he proposed to found at Leveland. His project however was not carried out. During Lord Badlesmere's absence in the north of England, where he was acting with the Barons, who combined for the overthrow of the Despencers, favourites of Edward II, a peculiar appointment was made for Old Romney Church. On the 28th of August, 1321, Archbishop Reynolds authorized John de Chelmuresford to be "commended" to the Rectory, on the presentation of Gilbert de Chelmuresford, clerk. Within two months from that day, the King was besieging Lord Badlesmere's Castle of Leeds, near Maidstone, which was surrendered to him on the 1st of November, 1321. Lady Badlesmere and her children were sent to the Tower of London, as prisoners; and not long afterwards Lord Badlesmere himself was taken. He was beheaded; his head was fixed over the Burgate at Canterbury, and his estates were forfeited. During this period, John Salerne, of Winchelsea, was instituted to the benefice of Old Romney by Archbishop Reynolds. After the powerful Lord Badlesmere had been beheaded, in 1322, his young son Giles de Badlesmere was permitted to succeed to this, and other, property of his father, in 1328. He, however, died within ten years, and then his four sisters became his heirs, in 1338. Their names are remarkable, from the fact that the eldest and the youngest bore the same baptismal name. They were Margaret senior, Matilda, Elizabeth, and Margaret junior. So far as we can learn, the two Margarets seem jointly to have shared the right of patronage of St. Clement's, Old Romney. The younger Margaret de Badlesmere (aged 23 in 1338) married Sir John Tibetot, who presented Thomas de Alston to the benefice in January, 1354-5.‡ In June of the same year William de Stanford became rector.§ Names of succeeding rectors are lacking until William Byggynges was instituted in August, 1409,|| having been presented by Sir *Archbishop Reynolds' Register, folio 28. † Ibidem, 30. Ibidem, 269'. |