have been an Early English apartment, lighted by long lancet windows, containing a gallery, a pulpit, and an organ. Adjoining the refectory was the buttery, entered by a doorway from the entrance hall. This chamber is lighted by a fine modern bay window, and a small square-headed window in the west wall, through which, I am told, doles were given.

The various lay-owners of Davington from time to time have made many alterations and additions. John Edwards did much to make the place a comfortable domestic dwelling. The Bennetts added some bedrooms and a laundry over the kitchen which now occupies the ground where the north alley of the cloisters formerly stood. These rooms are built against, and entirely cover the clerestory windows on the south side of the church. After the death of the last of the Bennetts who lived here, the place became much degraded. On the outside of the doorway leading into the old buttery there remained a very suggestive notice: "John Bennett Turner, licensed to sell Ale, Beer, Cider, etc." Almost every room was occupied by a different family. The entrance hall had its arched entrance bricked up, and was used sometimes for a coal-house, and at others for a receptacle for rubbish.

A dilapidated wooden fence enclosed the churchyard orchards and paddock.

The services of the church were naturally irregular. There was a celebration of the Holy Communion once a year, and that on Christmas-day. The body of the church was used for all kinds of secular work. Sometimes it was the shelter into which the farmer could turn the teeming ewes at the lambing season; at other times the church was used as a repository of contraband goods.

In 1845, the owner, Thomas Willement, Esq., turned out the numerous inmates, cleaned and thoroughly repaired the walls, reopened the old entrance doorway, built a drawing room on the foundation of the old refectory, and transformed the buttery into a library; cleared out large quantities of rubbish, and, as far as possible, tried to restore things to their former sanctity and order.

In the tower was a single cracked bell, familiarly known as "Matilda Longsound;" this was replaced by a new peal

of three, cast by Taylor and Sons of Loughborough. Each bears the words, "Thynke and Thanke," the motto of Willement.

As one might expect, during the restoration of the church and buildings, and since that time, objects of interest have been discovered. The most important was a brigandine head-piece found lying on the top of an old wall, and between two wall-plates which support the gutter-plate between the gables. The wall appears to be about the age of Edward VI., the roof over it of the time of Henry VIII. "It is a head-piece formed of a series of small iron plates overlapping each other, and quilted between two pieces of canvas. The metal plates are square, with the angles taken off to admit of the thread passing between and across them, and thus render them secure and immovable."*

An ancient bill-head has been dug up in the grounds, and the button and tip of the scabbard of a sword; these latter are of bronze. Various keys and encaustic tiles have been found, and a globular earthenware vessel with a neck or spout of about 6 inches long was dug up from under the floor of the prioress' parlour. A number of coins and tokens of no great rarity have, from time to time, been turned up. A small figure of a bishop in his robes, standing on a bracket and surmounted by a canopy, was found among some debris; this has been set up in the cloister, but, alas! it has been painted and grained.

A capital of a pilaster has also been found, having carved upon it the arms of Edward IV., viz., Quarterly, 1 and 4, a cross patonce between five martlets, for Edward the Confessor; 2 and 3, France and England quarterly. Supporters -On the dexter, a lion; on the sinister, a bull. These supporters, I imagine, refer to the white lion of Mortimer, Earl of March, and the black bull with horns, hoofs, etc., of gold, to the badge of the house of Clare, or Clarence, through which family the line of York derived their right to the throne.

The cross opposite the west door of the church was raised from the bottom of Faversham Creek. On the trans* Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. iii., p. 263.

verse bar in front is incised the words, "Margēt Warmecoort." It appears from the roll of possessions of the priory 35 Henry VIII. that one "Thomas Warnecote," as it is there written, paid to the owner of Davington Priory the rent of a house "in which William Norton dwelt, in West Street." The shaft which now supports the cross is formed of portions of various twisted columns of marble, from the ruins of Faversham Abbey.

LIST OF PRIORESSES OF THE NUNNERY OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE AT DAVINGTON, as given by Mr. Willement in his History of Davington, App., vi.

Lucy de Apuldrefield, resigned 3 Kal. November 1350.
Margaret Borstall, appointed 2 Nones November 1350.
Isabella Northoo, election confirmed September 26, 1383.
Loreta Sorender, died 1 March 1436.

Alice Lindesey, election confirmed 1436.

Joan. . . ., living November 30, 1498.

Matilda Dynemarke, who died 11 March 26 Hen. VIII., 1534, is mentioned in the report of the Escheator 27th of the same reign. This prioress, with one nun Elizabeth Audle, and one lay-sister Sybilla Monyngs were the last of the establishment.

The habit of the nuns of Davington was that of the Benedictine order; a black coat, cloak, cowl and veil.

INCUMBENTS OF DAVINGTON CHURCH.

RICHARD MILLES, A.M., July 12th, 1625. He was presented by the King's letters patent to the rectory, or chapelry, of Davington. (Rym. Fod., vol. xviii., p. 647.)

FRANCIS WORRAL, inducted 1666. He was presented to the living by Margaret Bode, widow.

JOHN SHERWIN, A.M., ob. January 17, 1714. He was rector of Luddenham, and patron and proprietor of this church, in which he lies buried.

In the churchyard is a monument bearing the following inscription:

VOL. XXII,

U

Ad hunc parietem se condi voluit

de Luddenham, Rector.

JOHANNES SHERWIN, A.M. Ecclesiæ { de Devington, Patronus.

Favershamiæ natus

Oxoniæ institutus
Ubique in pretio habitus

utpote qui doctus, abstemius, pacificus, pius,
Quodque non reticendum

In re musica peritissimus ;
cujus ingenii venustatem

ne ipsa quidem canities potuit deterere,
Obiit 17mo die Januarii An. D. 1715.
Etatis suæ 74.

He was buried 24 January 1713-4 (Dav. Reg.).

THOS. LEES, Junior, A.M., March 9, 1713, ob. September 1728. His father was Rector of Goodneston.

Faversham.

ROBERT HARRISON, A.M., ob. 1755.

and Perpetual Curate of Oare.

Davington from the year 1729.

He is buried at

Also Rector of Luddenham

He held the incumbency of

ROBERT HALKE. Incumbent from 1766 to 1779.

FRANCIS FREDERICK GIRAUD, A.M., 1781, resigned 1794. Also Vicar of Preston and Curate of Oare.

Vol. XXI., p. 151.)

GEORGE NAYLOR, Incumbent from 1794 to 1799.

(Vide Arch. Cant.,

After the death of G. Naylor there does not appear to have been an official appointment. Joshua Dix would seem by the Registers to have officiated from 1812 to 1832 with tolerable regularity, and John Birt, D.D., Vicar of Faversham, from 1833 to 1847. Since the regular celebrations of services beginning in 1849 the following gentlemen have been Incumbents:

HENRY COSGRAVE, M.A., of Trinity College, Dublin, was appointed in 1849 by T. Willement, Esq., to the incumbency. He held the living till 1856. He was buried in the churchyard on 14 November 1857. On the memorial stone is the following inscription:

Here lie the mortal remains of the Revd HENRY COSGRAVE, A.M., late Minister of this Parish, who died on ix November 1857, aged 70 years.

JAMES HENRY TOMLINSON BLUNT, M.A., of Exeter College, Oxford, was appointed to the incumbency of Davington December 31, 1856. He resigned in 1860. He became a Chaplain in India. He is now Rector of Braceborough in the diocese of Lincoln. Mr. Blunt married at Davington Church, 16 August 1864, Fanny E. Giraud of Faversham, a sister of the Town-Clerk of Faversham, F. F. Giraud, Esq. MAXIMILIAN NUNES of King's College, London, was Incumbent of Davington for scarcely one year, namely, from January 23 to September 7, 1861. He died suddenly on 7 September 1861, aged 30 years. He married 7 June 1859 Catherine, daughter of Henry Kendall, Esq., Surgeon, of Newmarket, in co. Cambridge.

JOSEPH WEST BRAMAH, M.A., of Merton College, Oxford, was Incumbent of Davington from 25 March 1862 to his death on 26 July 1884. He lies buried in the churchyard. The inscription on his monument is as follows:

Have mercy, Lord—

Sacred to the memory of
JOSEPH WEST BRAMAH,

Clerk in Holy Orders,

:

who died July 26th, 1884, aged 64 years.

"I am the resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord." "By Thine Agony and bloody sweat, by Thy Cross and Passion, by Thy precious Death and Burial, by Thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension and by the Coming

of the Holy Ghost, good Lord deliver us." "Where I am there shall also My servant be." In the church is a small brass plate bearing the following inscription:

In the graveyard of this Church lie buried the mortal remains of JOSEPH WEST BRAMAH, M.A., Clerk in Holy Orders, Incumbent of this Parish from 1862 to 1884. He died July 26th, 1884, aged 64.

EDWARD MOORE, M.A., of Christ Church, Oxford, was preferred to the living of Davington by Mrs. West Bramah. He was an Honorary Canon of Canterbury 1867 to 1886; Rector of Frittenden in the county of Kent from 1848 to 1869; and Rural Dean of West Charing. He retained the incumbency

* In the church is a small brass bearing the following inscription: "The Rev. Maximilian Nunez, Minister of this Church from 1860 to 1861. He died suddenly Sept. 7th, 1861, aged 30."