22d March, 1675, leaving a name famous for all time in Westmoreland and Craven.[1]
It has since descended in regular succession by the heirs male until the decease of John Frederick, third Duke of Dorset, in 1825, and was carried in marriage, in 1839, by his grace's eldest daughter and co-heir, to William Pitt, the present Earl Amherst.
It will be observed that several portions of the ancient estate of the priory were alienated by Mr. Morley during his ownership; and in the sale to Mr. Pelham reservation was made of Wannock and other farms, which have never since been re-united to the main estate. The manors of Down-Ash and Sharnefold were doubtless among the lands of which the quantities only are mentioned in the deeds of gifts before cited, without notice of the names by which they were known; the former is in the parish of Hailsham, and belongs to the Earl of Waldegrave; the latter, with Ditton in Westham, to the Earl of Burlington.[2] Chinting, Knockhatch, Cowden, and Hollywish, it has been already remarked, have also passed into different hands; and though the manor of Brighthelmstone-Michelham belongs to the noble owner of the demesne lands of the priory, yet I believe it is in consequence of a re-acquisition, after it had been early separated from the other appendages of the monastery. It appears that this small manor in Brighton was one of those allotted for the maintenance of Anne of Cleves after her divorce from Henry. Upon her death in 1557, being resumed by the crown, it so continued till granted by Queen Elizabeth to Thomas Sackville, Baron Buckhurst, who, as we have seen, became also possessed by purchase of the site and manor of Michelham, and thus again brought these properties together.
There is one considerable manor mentioned among the early endowments which was severed from the rest not long after the dissolution, the manor of "Isenhurst" or Isinghurst, as it is now called, given by Thomas de Burton and his wife. This manor comprises parts of Mayfield and Waldron; and, next to Bivleham, is the most important in that half-hundred of Loxfield-Camden, both being holden of the crown in chief.
