Thomas à Becket temp. K. Henry II; and to this establishment Cokyn's Hospital, standing near, was afterwards united. (Ib. VI, 691.) —That of St. John Baptist, called Northgate Hospital from its situation without that gate, owes its origin to Archb. Lanfranc. A.D. 1084. (Ib. VI, 763.)—The hospital of St. Laurence in the south-east suburb of the city was founded by Hugh, abbot of St. Augustin's, A.D. 1137, for leprous monks. (Ib. VI, 763.)—St. Mary's Hospital was instituted before 1224 by Simon de Langton, archdeacon of Canterbury. (Ib. VI, 763.)
A.D. 1011, Canterbury was besieged and taken by the Danes, who made prisoner the archbishop, and murdered him the following year at London, because he would promise them no money, and forbade any thing to be given for his ransom. (Gibs. Chron. Sax. 141, 142.)
In the city wall at Worthgate, now walled up, which was the ancient road from Castle street to Chilham, is a Roman arch. (Nichols's Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, I, 1790.)
59. Capel.—Is only a chapelry to Tudely, the vicar of which place is instituted thereto "with the chapelry of Capel annexed." (Hasted and Clergy List.) However Capel is styled a vicarage; but the parish evidently was formed out of Tudely, which nearly or quite surrounds it.
The north wall of the church is covered with plaster, but seems ancient, judging from a small, narrow, round-headed window, remaining therein; the rest of the building is of different dates, the south side being very modern brickwork. The church is dedicated to St. Thomas the Martyr (see Kilburne), and is mentioned, 7th of K. Edward II, together with Shipbourne, as chapels attached to the church of Tonbridge (Reg. Roff.) See the Note on the latter place.
60. Capel le Ferne.—This cure is annexed to Alkham. The church is small, though it has a tower, with no exterior indications of a chancel, which is formed internally by a screen of three E.E. arches, extending between the north and south walls, the wall above being perforated by an opening (shaped like the upper portion of a large pointed-arched window) over the centre arch. The chancel contains a piscina and two sedilia. In the north wall of the nave, immediately westward of the chancel screen, and close beneath the wall plate, is a small triangular window, of singular shape, resembling one formed of portions of a large window. It is similar to, but more acute-angled than, the example in Bloxam. (Goth. Archit. 221.)—
