276
NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2B.iv.ocr.,i9i8.
ceased to be chandler to the College in or
about 1478, it may be inferred that he died
then.
. . 13. In the windows of the Westgate there are now some stained-glass shields. One of them bears for arms Argent, two lighted tallow candles with twisted butts, in saltire, proper, and the inscription is "Scutum Rici Kente nuper maioris ciuitatis Wynton." Another shield of like character bears the arms of another mayor, Henry Smart, who is known to have died in 1489 (see 9 S. xi. 333). Richard Kent's shield seems to denote that he too, like John Kent, was a chandler.
14. It is a remarkable fact that neither John Kent nor Richard Kent nor Henry Smart is mentioned in that old list of raayors of Winchester which is printed in the ' History and Antiquities of Winchester ' (J. Wilkes, 1773), vol. ii. pp. 283 et seq. But the earlier portions of that list have been frequently criticized, and would seem to be quite untrustworthy. Kirby (' Annals,' p. 191) pointed out that the list does not contain Richard Bowland, who is styled Mayor of Winchester in one of our Account - rolls. Unfortunately, Kirby assigned the roll in question to the year 1448. It is really of 1457-8. As for Henry Smart, I learn from a College cartulary, once known as " Registrum rubrum," fol. 15, that two of the witnesses to a deed of Aug. 27, 12 E. IV. (1472), relating to pre- mises in Colebrook Street, Winchester, were Henry Smart, then mayor of the city, and John Kent, " chaundeler," then Alderman of Colebrook.
15. The same cartulary informs us, fol. 20, that Thomas Kent was one of the executors of the will (dated Nov. 2, 1433) of Agnes, late wife of John Arnold in the soke oi Winchester, and previously wife of John' Turnour, carpenter of the said soke. More- over, one Henry Kent, of St. Thomas's parish, Winchester, became a Scholar of the College in 1448. He had previously been a Commoner (Hall Book, 1448-9).
16. From what I have said it is evident that there was a family of Kent which throve at Winchester in the fifteenth century, and Simon Kent may have been a member thereof who settled at Reading. As Headbourne Worthy Church is only about a mile and a half from Winchester, it does not seem strange to me that his son John Kent's brass should be there, though I know not the precise reason why that particular church was chosen for it. The
' Victoria History of Hants,' however, states
(vol. iv. p. 426) that a building known as
" Kent's Alley House," belonging to the
corporation of Winchester, and " tradi-
tionally connected " with our Scholar, John
Kent, was standing in Headbourne Worthy
as late as 1839. See also Kirby's ' Annals,'
p. 182.
17. One of several much-worn stones outside the church porch bears the name of a John Kent who died, if I have read the faint inscription aright, in 1710. A cross near the north-west corner of the church- yard marks the resting-place of three members of a Kent family, one of whom died as recently as 1907. The porch con- tains a list of parishioners " now serving with the King's forces," and " A. Kent " is one of them.
18. The College has long owned some property in Headbourne Worthy parish, but was not owning it when John Kent died in 1434. It was part of the gift which Dr. Hugh Sugar, Treasurer and Canon of Wells Cathedral,* made to the College in 1480, for the endowment of his obit. Hence we have his arms (three sugar-loaves sur- mounted by a doctor's cap) in the vaulted ceiling of Thurbern's Chantry.
H. C. Winchester College.
John Kent entered Winchester College as a Scholar in 1431, and died 1434 ; his parents were probably rich, and thus able to afford the extra fee payable to the parish priest when a burial took place within the chancel of a church.
It is probable also that the Kent family held property at Headbourn ; for so late as 1839 a house there belonging to the corporation of Winchester was known as Kent Alley House. E. BEAUMONT,
Author ' Ancient Memorial Brasses.'
129 Banbury Road, Oxford.
In ' A History of the Municipal Church of St. Lawrence, Reading,' by the Rev. Mr. Kerry, 1883, p. 158, we read :
" On a marble gravestone in the chancel, 1 Hie jacet Johannes Kent quondam Burgensia de Reding : et Johanna uxor eius. Quorum animabus propicietur Deus. Amen.' He gave 13. towards the re-roofing of the church in 1410. He died about the year 1415.
" Mr. F. J. Baigent in his article on ' Sheriffs' Seals ' in The Herald and Genealogist states that this John Kent occurs as plaintiff in an action in the borough court of the city of Winchester
- Not Dean, as stated ante, p. 255.
