Glimpses of Our Ancestors in Sussex
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..•• .-•^T-— !|f Glimpses OF OUR Sussex Ancestors SBCOJVD SERIES. ILLUSTRAI'1-JD "••^-•^-w ^^ Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Glimpses of our Ancestors in Sussex AND Gleanings in East and West Sussex. Printed i;t Fakncombe & Co., Lewes. The Pelham Monument, in St. ]\Iichael's Church, Lewes. GLIMPSES OK OUR ANCESTORS in SUSSEX; AND GLEANINGS IN EAST & WEST SUSSEX. BY C H ARLE S FLEET, ^' Author of Tales and Sketches,^' "The City Merchant," 6^c. ILLUSTRATED. ' ' I have some rights of memory in this County,' Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me." — Sliukipeare. SECOND SERIES. LEWES: " " FARNCOMBE & CO., PRINTERS, EAST SUSSEX NEWS OFFICES. 1883. P R E FA C E HE favor with which the first Volume of Glimpses of our Ancestors in Sussex was received by the Public and the Press has encouraged the Author to issue a Second Volume, partly devoted to the same class of subjects which fill the first volume and partly to subjects of a more descriptive and topographical character. Trusting that an equal measure of indulgence will be extended to this as was received by the former publication, the Author leaves it to the kind judgment of the Public. 1C59?SS ERRATUM. Noble Sussex Family," read,— At page 13, line 27, of "A "This Ducal Pelham married the Lady Mary Godolphin, the Duke of "a grand-daughter of John Churchill, great "Marlborough." DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY THOMAS PELHAM (EARL OF CHICHESTER), Lord Lieutenant of the County of Sussex. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Pelhavi Monument in St. MichaeVs Church, Lewes. Frontispiece. PAGE Burning the Martyrs before the Star Hotel, Leives .... 73 '' A Cottage of The Colony" 194 The Manor House of the Challoners 194 East Mascalls : The Road Fro?jt 216 East Mascalls : The River Front 216 CONTENTS. GLIMPSES OF OUR ANCESTORS IN SUSSEX. 1. A Noble Sussex Family: The Pelhams i 2. The Percies in Sussex 17 3. The Shirleys of Wiston 25 4. The Ancestor of the Shelleys : Sir John Hawkwood 34 5. Ups and Downs of Sussex Families 45 6. The Sussex Martyrs 54 7. The Quakers in Sussex 76 ' 8. Hermits in Sussex 91 9. Race Tracks in Sussex 97 10. Royal Visits to Sussex 113 11. The Great Noble and the Yeoman in Sussex . 129 • 12. Christmas in Sussex in the Olden Time . 151 13. The Knights Templars in Sussex 164 14. Liberty of Speech in Sussex in Past Days .... 171 15. A Sussex Sedition: An Episode of Brambletye . 179 16. Witchcraft in Sussex . 184 17. The Antiquity of Brighton as a Health-Resort . 187 i8. An Institution of the Past 191 ii. Contents. GLEANINGS IN EAST AND WEST SUSSEX. PAGE " 1. LiNDFiELD : Its Colony," Church, Schools, &c. 194 2. East Mascalls and its Owners 216 3. MiDHURST, COWDRAY, EASEBOURNE, AND WOOLBEDING . 222 4. Trotton, the Birth-place of Otway 240 5. "Up the Arun :" Houghton and Amberley .... 247 6. "By the Rail" to Pulborough, and "By the River AND Road "to Fittleworth 255 7. Bosham : Its Past and Present 268 8. Middleton : The Fight of Sea and Land .... 275 9. Pagham and its Harbour 282 10. A Sussex Sporting District: Charlton and Singleton 291 11. Cricket in Sussex 300 GLIMPSES OF OUR ANCESTORS, &c. A Noble Sussex Family. in Sussex or j^i|f^/ HE FAMILIES, elsewhere, who can trace their descent from a follower of the Conqueror may, at the present day, be counted " on our fingers. They are, indeed, few and far between." The Wars of the Roses made sad havoc with them. The Seventh Henry did not spare them. But it was Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the ruthless minister of Henry VIII., who put the finishing stroke to the work of destruction —almost of extermination. Then fell those deadly blows on the old nobility which drew from one of them. Lord Darcy, as he stood at the Royal Council " Board, the fierce and despairing hope that, ere thou (Cromwell) die, though they wouldst procure all the noblest heads within the realm to be stricken off, yet there shall one head remain that shall strike off thy head." The hope was realized; but not less effectual was the fatal work, and when England at length settled down into something like peace and social order, it was with a newly-created order of nobility. "Those families," says Hallam, "who are now deemed the most considerable, will be found, with no great number of under the Tudor exceptions, to have first become conspicuous the Fitz- line of kings." The Russells, the Cavendishes, williams all date from that period. Even the Howards and B Glimpses of Our Ancestors. the Stanleys are comparatively modern families, only emerging from obscurity by virtue of alliances with older and higher houses. a few and Sussex can still There are, however, exceptions ; boast amongst the noble families who reside on its soil two or three who carry back their origin to almost the earliest historic period. First and foremost amongst these stand the Pelhams, the representative of whom in Sussex (for the family extends into other counties), the Earl of Chichester, holds the highest official rank in the county, that of Lord Lieutenant, and fills a place in the respect of his fellow-Sussexians which none of his forefathers over-topped. It is an open question whether the Pelhams came in with the Conqueror or whether they are of Saxon descent. The latter theory is favoured, and was doubtless suggested, by the Anglo-Saxon etymology of the family name, Pelham signifying in Anglo-Saxon a settlement or estate surrounded with pales. But that only serves to connect the family with a place, and to point to the common circumstance of the family assuming the name of the place. Now, it is well determined that amongst the followers of William the Conqueror was William, Baron of Bec-Crespin, in Normandy, who received, as his portion of the spoils of victory, twenty-five lordships in Hert- " fordshire, one of which bore the title of Pelham," and this descending to his second son, Ralph, that branch of the " family assumed the distinctive title of Pelham," which, by an easy process in those days, quickly passed into the family name. Thus, Ralph de Pelham, in 1 165, held a Knight's fee in Hertfordshire from the Bishop of London, and his son was Hugh de Pelham, and he had a numerous family, one of whom fell back on the old patronymic of de Bee, and, in 1194, was defendant in a suit for IMiddleton, Cambridgeshire, which his father, Ralph de Bee, or Pelham, had in 1068 held from Picot of Cambridge, and which the said Robert Picot now claimed. Thus the connection between, or rather the identity of, the de Bees and the de Pelhams is clearly shown. They were A Noble Sussex Fa7nily. de Bees in Normand)', de Pelhams in England, taking both names from their lands, as the good old fashion was, when land made the man—at least, the free man. To proceed with the Pelham genealogy. In 121 8, Petrus or Peter de Pelham returns to his allegiance as such. His elder son, Walter de Pelham, lived in the reign of John, and he, too, was a defendant (the Normans always were fond of ! in a suit for dower the of litigation ) brought by widow Ralph Fitz-Hugh. In 11 99 there were further law proceedings between Walter and Elias de Pelham on the one side and the Abbot of Eynesham on the other. The sons of Walter de Pelham lived (but whether they flourished or not we do not know, though, as a rule, Pelhams always did flourish) in the reign of Henry III. If a Walter Pelham mentioned in the Peerages as living in 1265 were one of them, they had flourished. But several members of the family are mentioned about 1272. And it is curious that at this period the de Bees and the de Pelhams again come together; Walter de Pelham (probably the son of him of 1265) holding from Walter de Bee, styled le Chamberlain, two hides of land in Cottenham; and from this Walter de Pelham, who became Lord of Pelham, came all the succeeding branches of the Pelhams as they figure in the English Peerage. Henceforward the family tree grew up straight and broad, and without a rotten branch in it. It was in the reign of Edward I. that the Pelhams began to hold land in Sussex, chiefly in its eastern extremity, at Hailsham, Huseye (near Pevensey), Ashton, Waldron, &c. The reason of their migration from Hertfordshire to Sussex is not known; but in the 14th century their Sussex lands extended a length of three miles from Hailsham to Horseye, including what are called "the Lands of the Eagle"—the meaning of which high-sounding title the late M. A. Lower (in the genealogical memoir of the Pelhams drawn up by him) " declares he does not quite understand, though they must * have been a portion of the great Lordship or Honour of the Eagle,' the caput BaronicB of which was Pevensey." Not Glimpses of Our Ancestors. many years later the office of Constable of Pevensey Castle (the most important fortress, and a Royal one, in the east of Sussex) was conferred on a Pelham. The Pelhams now begin to stand out as warriors and statesmen. With the third Edward had recommenced the struggle between England and France which for loo years was to call out all the energies and consume the feudal resources of both countries until they both lay at the feet of absolute Sovereigns, preparatory to the appearance upon the scene of the people.