. of his woodreeves. Also pasture for their animals near the forest, with the other men of Bradhurst.
Agnes de Montacute, her demesne land in Hertfeld and Cuden, with a capital messuage, rents, and all other appertenances.
Sir Waltee de Letton, and Gunnora, his wife, land* called " Gregges-
lond," in Cowden, with meadows, woods, and all things else thereto belonging ;
also all that land belonging to them in fee, which had been previously
granted by A. de Montacute, quit of the court service which the said land
, had been accustomed to render at their court of Tiches (Ticehurst ?).
Wm. Russbl, and Lucy, his wife, a tenement in " Holewyche," with
capital messuage, lands, woods, rents, meadows, and other appertenances, in
Hartfield, (now "Holly wish Farm," the property in 1 8 3 5 of Lieut. Gen. Maitland).
I Thos. de Wtckenden a field called " Warefeld," in Cowden, as it is
' enclosed with hedges, ditches, and water."
Warefield — now called Warelands — consists of twenty-five acres, chiefly meadow, at Kent- water, on the stream which there
. separates Kent from Sussex ; where banks and sluices show that it has formerly been irrigated. It pays to the college in East Grinstead a small sum yearly, a proof that it belonged to the Sackvilles in 1608. Wickenden is still a common name in that vicinity, but confined to the labouring class.
I There is now in Cowden no chief manor, but only some sub- infeudations of little value. Two farms, called the Upper and Lower Priory, are beyond doubt the gift of Agnes de Monta-
j cute and the " Greggeslond " given by Sir Walter de Letton
. and the Lady Gunnora. ^^
In the seventh year of Edward I, to put a check upon the
' excessive accumulation of property in the hands of the clergy, — ^who are computed to have possessed according to some accounts a third, according to others nearly a half of the
I whole lands of England, — was passed the statute of Mortmain, whereby it was rendered unlawful to give lands to ecclesiastics,
f or for the latter to receive them, without license from the crown.
From this time all such .grants required that license to give
them validity ; and in the following patents, extracted from
the Tower Records,^* it is always formally given,^^ to various
^3 The whole of this Cowden property London. Some of these MSS. are ten
now belongs to the Rev. Thomas Harvey, yards long, consisting of several skins of
incumbent and patron of the rectory, by parchment joined together, and requiring
whom the above information respecting it great care in the imroUing ; while from
was courteously communicated in answer the crabbed writing and pale ink, being
to my inquiries. six hundred years old, they are difficult
1* I owe Mr. Blaauw many thanks for and tedious to decipher,
the trouble he has kindly taken in making ^^ " Statuto de terris et tenementis ad
these extracts for me &om the ancient manum mortuam non ponendis edito
Patent Bolls preserved in the Tower of non obstante."
