of the church of Bisshoppesbourne, and the convent of St. Gregory at Canterbury, concerning the great and little tithes of the demesne land of Henry de Burcham, in the time of Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, who decreed that the said John de Ross, and his successors, should take all the said tithes, and pay annually to the said convent vj marks. Dated at Lambeth 2 Ides of Aug.

In 1335 the Hospitallers' Chapter presented Nicholas Hales* Vicar.

The value of the Church and living is thus given (1338): "Ecclesiat de Burgham valet per ann. . . . . xx marcas que ordinantur pro robis, mantellis, et aliis necessariis, Prioris ecclesie," etc.

In the year 1400 Robert Frodsham was appointed to the living.

In§ 1509 the Hospitallers disposed of the living, or Rectory, to Thomas Dowcra, for xxxli vj.§

manors

COCCLESCOMB IN THE HUNDRED OF Beausberg.

Cocclescomb,|| near Lidden, formed one of a group of which went to form the Barony of Maminot, held by Hugo de Montfort by Knight Service to the King for the defence of Dover; after Montfort's disgrace it became escheated to the Crown, who granted it to William de Say, by whom it was held in the 38 of Henry III.** Geffery's second son married the sister and coheir of Walkeline Maminot.++ His son Geffery married Alsie, one of the daughters and coheiresses of John de Cheney. John, the last of the Says, died in his minority 6 Richard II. In the time of Edward I. Ralph de Cestreton appears to have held it, and was succeeded in it by Stephen de Bocton, soon after which it became part of the possessions of the Knights of

*Reg. Roff., p. 198.

Reg. Roff, p. 199.

✦ Larking, p. 124.

§ Philpot, p. 92, mentions the existence of a fountain in this parish called Haly Garden, much esteemed for its medical virtues.

Domesday Book, p. 26. **Arch. Cant., Vol. XII., p. 129.

VOL. XXII.

Hasted, vol. viii., p. 128. †† Dugdale, Bar., vol. i., pp. 511, 512.

R

the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, its lands forming part of the possessions of Swynfeld A.D. 1338.*

In the assessment of Kent Finest on the knighting of the Black Prince, it appears that the Master of the House in Dover did not return xx for the half knight's fee which the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem held in Cocclescomb, in answer to the rescript of the King, as it was held as a free and charitable gift direct from the Crown.

TERENTEFORD OR DERTEFORD, now Dartford.

King William‡ holds in Terenteford: it answers for one suling and a half. There is the arable land of 40 teams, in demesne there are two teams and 142 villeins with ten borderers, and 53 teams, three serfs and one mill, of meadow 22 acres, of pasture 40 acres, of wood eight small and three large denes, two hythes or ports there. In the time of King Edward it was worth 60 pounds, and as much when Haimo the Sheriff received it. It is now apprised by the English at 60 pounds, but the reve, a Frenchman who holds it to farm, says that it is worth four score and ten pounds, yet he himself renders from the manor 70 pounds weighed, and 111 in pence of twenty to the ore, and seven pounds, and 26d by tale, besides that he renders to the Sheriff 100%.

The men of the Hundred (Achestan) testify that one meadow and one alder bed have been taken away from the King's manor, and one mill and 20 acres of arable land and as much meadow as pertains to ten acres of arable land, all which were in King Edward's farm while he lived. These are worth 20; they also say that Oswald the Sheriff mortgaged them to Alestan the Reve of London, and now Helt the Sewer and his nephew hold them.

They also testify that Hageli, which answers for half a suling, has been taken away from this manor. The Sheriff held this land, and when he lost the Shrievalty, it remained in the King's farm after the death of King Edward, now Hugh de Port holds it with 54 acres of arable land. All this is worth

* Hasted, vol. viii., p. 128. Domesday Book, p. 4.

† Arch. Cant., Vol. X., p. 130.

15 pounds. From the same manor of the King six acres of land have been taken away, and a certain wood, which the same Oswald (the Sheriff) put out of the manor by mortgage of 40. The Bishop of Rochester holds the church of this manor which is worth 60, and there are three chapels.

In the time of Henry II.* the Sheriff of Kent accounted to the King for the manor, as well as in the first year of King John, when the Templars under Gilbertus† are mentioned as holding one carucate, valued at 12 marcs, to which Nicholas fitz Twytham added a rental of 15. This portion afterwards became known as the Temple Manor. In the fourth year of Henry III. William, Prior of Rochester, granted to Alan Martel, Master of the Temple, half an acre of land in Darteford. The brethren of the Temple appear at one time to have made an arrangement with the Prior of Dartford to let the Salt Marshes.§

Contemporary with the Templars the Knight Hospitallers of St. John were settled on the adjoining manor of Sutton, founded by Robert de Basing in the time of King John and endowed with lands in Sutton at Hone, Dartford, and Hagel.

On the suppression || of the Order of the Templars (1313) their lands were given to Robert de Kendal, to hold during the King's pleasure, he to account for them to the King's Exchequer for the profits, and it so continued until the seventeenth year of the same reign, when at a Parliament holden at Westminster the estates were handed over to the Prior and the brethren of the Knight Hospitallers of St. John, who, as we have seen, at that time had a preceptory in Sutton, and held other lands in Darteford.

In the time of Haimo,

Bishop of Rochester, 33 Edward III., the Church of Dartford, dedicated to the Holy

* Dugdale, Mon., vol. ii., pp. 52, 544. † Charter granted by Henry II.

§ Nero, E, vi., p. 25.

Cott. MS., Nero, E, vi.

The suppression of the Order of the Templars was effected in the first year of Edward II. (A.D. 1307), at the instigation of Pope John, on account of their vast possessions and superstitious wickedness and crimes which they committed. Thomas le Archer died in 1329. The transfer of lands only took place about 1333 in the Priorate of Leonardus de Tybertis, some four or five years afterwards. (Kembler, Introduction, p. lvii.)

¶ Thorpe, Reg. Roff., p. 120.

Trinity, is mentioned as paying to the Hospitallers the sum of 45 marcs.

It had also an endowment from Laurence, Bishop of Rochester, in 1253, who reserved the greater tithes for his own use, and gave the smaller tithes of 40 marks for the maintenance of the Vicar, which arrangement was confirmed by Bishop Woldham in 1299, who provided a vicarage with 21 acres of land called King's Marsh in Dartford; and it was subsequently enriched by Robert Winchelsea, Archbishop, with tithes of hay from the Salt Marsh in Dartford and 4 yearly due from the Knight Hospitallers to the Bishop.*

Hasted mentions that Thomas le Archer (1328), Prior of the Hospital of St. John, Clerkenwell, granted the land to farm to one of the Cobham family-that they should have done so three years before they had legal Parliamentary possession seems somewhat strange except on the supposition that the Cobham family had been instrumental in procuring these lands of the Crown for the Hospitallers: the lease was contingent upon the Parliamentary grant being obtained. This appears probable, as in the return subsequently made by Leonardus de Tybertis to the Grand Master in 1338, we find under the heading of Dartford: "That there is one carucate with meadows and pasture, and it was let to Ralph de Cobham, Knight, and his wife for life, under the Common Seal in the time of Thomas le Archer."+ The interest in these lands (according to Hasted) appears to have descended to John, son and heir of Henry de Cobham, who obtained a charter of free warren within all his demesne lands in Dartford; though a quit-rent was probably paid on this as on other properties granted on lease.

For instance, in the eleventh year of Richard II. (1388), in the time of John Raddington the Prior and brethren of the Hospital let to Idonye, late the wife of Nicholas Brembre, Knight and Citizen of London, the whole of Dart

*Cott. MS., Nero, E.

+ Hasted, vol. xi., p. 302.

Sir Nicholas Brambre, Citizen and Grocer, had been elected Lord Mayor of London 1386, but having been implicated with the Archbishop of York, Lord Salisbury, and others of misleading the King, was accused of treason and beheaded on Tower Hill. (Falyam Ch., p. 534.)

ford manor, formerly appertaining to the Templars,* with all rights and appurtenances which had been recently held by John Strodeye, a Citizen of London, of the Prior and brethren of the Hospital of St. John from the Festival of St. Michael the Archangel next ensuing, for a term of 38 years, for a rental of 15 mares of silver, at the Feasts of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Barnabas in equal portions, and rendering to the said Prior and brethren with all faithful service of the manor, etc.

It seems somewhat difficult to reconcile the statement made by Hasted and that of the document last quoted, which is given in extenso in the Cottonian MS. in the British Museum, unless this occurred after the decease of Ralph de Cobham or his sons, but so it is; and it further appears from the same MS. that the said Idonye granted an underlease of the above-mentioned manor for the remaining term of years to Nicholas Toche de Stanlake and Alice his wife.

There is an Inquisition in the third year of Henry IV. :

In the third year of Henry IV. an Inquisition§ of the lands and tenements in Derteford was ordered on the next Monday after the Festival of St. John the Baptist, "before John Colepeper, William Hesill, Thomas Lodelowe, John Urban, John Crepyn, John Martyn, and Thomas Appleton, in virtue of letters patent from the King, on the xvi day of July in the year above mentioned. A jury of twelve (whose names are mentioned) present and say, upon their oath, that the Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England holds in the manor of Derteford Ivi acres pertaining to their manor of Sutton, of which William Danvers held in farm under the same Prior.

"And that the said Prior of the Hospital of St. John's hold xlvj acres pertaining to their manor of the Temple in Derteford, of which William Cave was the tenant.

"And that the Prior of Rochester holds in the same manor vij acres, and that the manor of Clayndon had vj and a half acres. "That the heirs of Richard, late Lord Ponynges, holds iiij acres pertaining to the manor of Rokesle.

A valuation of the Templars' possessions in Dartford in the twenty-ninth year of Edward I. will be found set out in a paper communicated by the Rev. R. P. Coates in Archæologia, vol. ix., wherein they are given as being at that time xxiiij xv ijd inde xvma xxxiij 9 per brevo vocala, i.e. exempted.

+ Nero, E, iv., p. 259.

§ Cott. MS., Nero, E, vi., fol. 260.

Ibid., iv.,

p. 260.