there were a hundred and seventy-five houses of these canons and canonesses (a later creation) in England and Wales.
Upon certain brethren of this order, Gilbert de Aquila, the third of that name, bestowed his donations, with the assent and goodwill of his Lord, Henry III, King of England, for his soul's health, and that of Isabella his wife, his children, brothers, and sisters, predecessors, and heirs. The charter (as given in the Monasticon) conveys to them all his lordship of Michelham, and his park of Pevensey,[1] with the men, rents, escheats, and other appertenances, together with twenty-four acres of marsh land in "Haylsham," and twenty acres of meadow in "Wilendune;" pasture in the Dicker, the Broyle,[2] in Legton (Laughton), and other woods in Sussex, for sixty beasts, and pannage for one hundred hogs; with timber for constructing and repairing their church and other buildings, wood for fuel and fences, and bushes to make their hedges; also the advowsons of the churches of Haylesham and Legton.[3] All these he gives for a pure and perpetual alms.
To this charter, which is without date, Gilbert sets his seal in the presence of many witnesses, among whom are named Simeon de Echingham, Wm. de Munceux, Jordan de Saukevill, Walrond Maufe,[4] John Gulafre, Robt. de Horstede, Robt. de Manekesye, Richd. de la Gare, and Simon de Burgedse.
He afterwards added, by a separate deed, the manor of Chintinges, in the parish of Seaford.[5]
In the Roll to which I have referred, as fixing the date of this priory, it is said that the founder "amortizavit" these lands, &c. to the Prior of Hastings i.e. "gave them in mortmain," for the purposes of his new foundation; as land so alienated to a corporate body of spiritual persons could never revert to the lord, the donor lost in consequence all the customary
- ↑ The manor is now styled that of "Michelham Park Gate," with some allusion doubtless to the park here granted.
- ↑ Ancient names still remaining; the latter (Broleum) signifying a chase, or tract of open woody ground, something between a forest and a park, the harbour of wild animals preserved for sport.
- ↑ In the Episcopal Reg. of Chichester is a deed giving Bishop Ralph de Neville's formal consent to this appropriation. He styles himself "by the mercy of God the humble minister of the church of Chichester." Lord Campbell, however, in the Lives of the Chancellors, vol. i, p. 127, gives a striking instance of his extreme arrogance and insolence towards a superior.
- ↑ The knightly families of Echingham, Herstmonceux, and Saukevill, appear frequently in these ecclesiastical transactions. One of the Maufes (William) was a benefactor to Otteham; another (Andrew) is presently a donor to Michelham.
- ↑ A fine farm belonging to the Earl of Chichester, still called Chinting.
