Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/175

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NOTES TO KENT.
137

same to be "rectoria in perpetuum—non vicaria—a rectory for ever, not a vicarage;" which was accomplished after some opposition from the monks of the priory. (Reg. Roff., 560.) In the same collection (528) St. Nicholas is thus coupled with St. Margaret. "Altare Sancti Nicolai" (in the cathedral) "quod est parochiale cum ecclesia Sancte Margarete, que sicut capella ad predictum altare pertinere dinoscitur. The altar of St. Nicholas, which is parochial, with the church of St. Margaret, which as a chapel is known to belong to the said altar." The first church (of St. Nicholas) was consecrated 18 December, 1423; being ruinous in 1620, it was taken down, and the present structure was consecrated 24 September, 1624. Beside those now standing (namely, St. Nicholas and St. Margaret) two other churches are mentioned in this town. St. Clement's (which appears in Val. Eccl.) now desecrated and destroyed, but vestiges are spoken of as then existing in Horsewash, formerly St. Clement's, Lane. The last rector died in February, 1528. St. Mary's parish was situated without the east gate of the city. The church existed A.D. 850. (Reg. Roif. 23.) When it was desecrated is not known. (Hasted.) St. Mary's church is thus noticed in a charter of Ætheluulf, king of the West Saxons, dated as above. "In orientali plaga extra murum civitatis Hroffi, in meridia parte, quod multum notum est, et in ilia terra est aecclesia dedicata in honore Sanctae Mariae uirginis." (Cod. Dipl. II, 36.)—Eastgate hospital in this town was founded by Simon Potyn, A.D. 1316. (Monast. VI, 764.) A chantry at the bridge (that is, not upon the bridge, but at the eastern end, abutting on, or part of, the Crown Inn) was founded A.D. 1393 to be called "Allesolven" (All Souls) "chapell." (Reg. Roff. 555.) (Val. Eccl.) names the "Cantaria pontis Roffensis."

The following list of churches is copied from Hearne's Textus Roffensis, 228 to 231. No date is annexed, but the document next but one before it, signed by King Henry I, belongs to the year 1103 (224 to 227); and the third deed following, the others having no date, is marked A.D. 1143; so that, if, which appears to have been the intention of Hearne, the extracts are arranged with some regard to chronological order, the list must have been compiled in the first half of the twelfth century. However the arrangement is not strictly chronological, because at 208 there is a deed of A.D. 1145. It will be perceived, that a few of the names cannot be identified, though the remainder may be recognised with tolerable certainty. It must also be