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may be utilized both for residential and defensive purposes, and at the same time be provided with a chapel, in which masses might be celebrated for his near kinsmen who were executed on the taking of Leeds Castle in 1321-a circumstance which appears to have been fresh in the minds of both branches of the family.

We have but to refer to Sir Geoffery's will to see the esteem and regard which he entertained for the Prior. It is dated "die lune next after the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary A.D. 1389," and attested at Croydon on the 5th of January 1390, and is as follows :—

XXs.

"I* Galfrid Colpeper of West Peckham make my will in this manner. In the first place I leave my soul to Almighty God, the Blessed Mary, and all his Saints, and my body to be buried in the Parish Church of West Peckham aforesaid. Also I leave to the Prior of Leeds my best silver cup and cover and twelve spoons that he may pray for my soul and the soul of Walter my father. Also I leave to each of the Canons there xl. Also I leave to the parish Church of West Peckham cs. Also I leave to the Vicar there xxs. Also I leave to the Vicar of Wrotham x'. Also to the Vicar of Hadlow xla. Also to the Carmelite brothers of Ailesford Also to William Aungi v marks of current money. Also to Walter Aungi v marks. Also to William Godere x3. Also to the Parish Church of Schyngledewell† a new chalice. Also to each poor person attending my funeral one penny. Also to Richard son of Isabel Musten vis viiid. Also to John at Thane my servant x marks current money. Also I will that there be six poor people for holding six torches round my tomb on the day of my funeral, and that each of them have one coat. And that this my will may be faithfully carried out I appoint as my executor the Reverend lord and my particular friend Emericus Prior of Leeds and John my son. . . . . Also I leave to Thomas at Crouch kinsman of Master John Colpeper vijs. Also I leave to Margaret my sister xls. And the rest of my goods not before bestowed I leave to John my son and Katharine his wife.”

*Lambeth Palace Library, Courtney, f. 235.
+ Shinglewell, by Ifield.

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Sir John, his son, died circa 1413, leaving his wife Katherine alive, to whom he bequeathed his Manor of Oxenhoath.* This will was proved at Lambeth on the 10th day of October 1414. Hasted+ tells us that he was the founder of the Priory of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem at West Peckham.

Oxenhoath, of which the Manor of Old Sore was an outlying portion, continued to be held by the Colepeper family for many generations, until Sir Thomas of Preston alienated it to Nicholas Miller towards the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

Prior to the erection of the parish church at Plaxtol by parliamentary authority in 1648, the chapel of Old Sore was utilized for Church services by those residing in the immediate neighbourhood under the charge of the vicar of Wrotham or his curate.

It seems to me that a lingering tradition of the untimely fate of Walter and Richard Colepeper, and the deeply-rooted grief of the Colepeper family, may be the cause of its still retaining the singular name of "Old Sore," an old English expression signifying§ grief.

Near the east door in West Peckham Church on a gravestone is the following inscription in black-letter:—

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Vie jacet · Johanes · Colepeper · miles .... unus
Justiciarius · Domini · Regis · Communi · Banco
et Katri . . . . obijt · xxxe die · mensis · Augustí
anno · Domini · MCCC . . . . animabus

...

· propicietur Deus Amen.

By the side of the Communion table is an altar-tomb,|| with the inscription in black-letter:

Orate pro animabus Willielmi Culpeper qui quidem Willielmus obit. . . . die anno Dom' MCCCCXVEZ et domina Elizabeth obit . . . . anno Dom. MCCCCLX . . . . Quorum animabus propitietur Deus Amen . . .

....

....

* Lambeth Palace Lib: ary, Chichelie, fol. 265". Ibid., 23, 4, 5.

...

† Vol. v., p. 63.

§ Promp Parvalocum, Camden Society's Publications, vol. liv., p. 405.

Thorp, Roff., p. 877.

WAGES PAID AT MAIDSTONE IN QUEEN ELIZABETH'S REIGN.*

TRANSCRIBED BY

REV. C. EVELEIGH WOODRUFF, M.A.

RATES OF WAGES sett forth by the Quenes highnes proclamacon, accordyng to the tenor & forme of the Statute in that case ordeyned & made in her Maties high courte of parlyament holden at Westm' in the fyfth yere of her most Gracyouse Reigne, and proclaymed at the towne of Maydeston the thursdaye beyng markett daye & the xxiijrd day of September in the seid fyfth yere of the Reigne of or seid most dredde souereign ladye Elizabeth by the grace of God Quene of Englande ffrance & Ireland Defendor of the ffaith and in the yere from the Incarnacon of oure lorde Jesus Christ M'CCCCCLXIIJ Robert Balfer then beyng Mayor of the seid Towne of Maydeston.

Labourers by the daye from Easter till Michaelmas wt mete & drynke iiijd & finding hym self ixd. ffrom Michaelmas till Easter wt mete & drynke iijd & fyndyng hymself vjd.

Mowers by the daye wt meate & drynke vjd fyndyng theym selfs xja. Mowers by the acre wt owte meate & drynke otes va, grasse xja, barley vjd.

Mowers of grasse in mershe grownde rd wt owte mete & drynke xvd. Mowers by the acre wt meate & drynke in Tenett in the seid Counte,

otes & barley iiijd wt owte mete and drynke viijd, laying uppon bands byndyng & coppyng the acre of otes viijd, barley xd. Reapers by the daye. The man reaper wt meate and drynke vja, and fyndyng hymself xja.

The woman reaper, wt meate and drynke iiija, and fyndyng her self vija. Reapers by the Acre. The reapyng byndyng & coppyng of wheate

& Rye by the acre in the upland, wt owte vittells ijs wt meate & drynke xiiija.

And in the marshe wt owte vittells iijs iiijd, and wt meate & drynke in the marshe ijs.

* Transcribed from the original preserved amongst the Records in the Kent Archæological Society's Rooms at the Maidstone Museum.

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