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MR. DELVES, now (1663) Vicar of Bexhill, was instituted by the committee for probation of ministers, 1655. One, MR. COWPER, supplied the vacancy till MR. [EDWARD] NATHEBY, instituted by Bishop King of Chichester, 1660.

Mr. BOWYER instituted 16 by Bishop Juxon, Archbishop of Canterbury, “ratione visitationis Metropol:" on Feb. 11, 1662.

The registers and the Bishop's institution books, both name as the next vicar.

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On the second leaf of the register is recorded a bequest of Mr. John Wenham, late of More-hall, deceased, of £4, to be distributed amongst the poor of Ninfield, January 26, 1667. Several other donations with their distribution are also recorded.

On the third leaf appears: "The Revd. Mr. Tho. Delves, somtime vicar of this parish, and now vicr. of Bexhill, gave two pewter flaggons to the Church of Nenfield, to be used at the Holy Eucharist. The said Mr. Delves, in the yeare of our Lord, 1666, gave unto the said Church one new pulpit cushion of green broad cloth with silk fringe and tassells.

The green carpet for the table, the surpliss and the great chest in the chancell, to put the utensils that belong to the Church in, were bought at the cost of the parishioners. The chest and carpet was bought in the yeare of our Lord 1666, and the surpliss in 1670. One pewter bason for the font was bought at the charge of the parish by William Easton, churchwarden, March 25, 1674."

16 Mr. Bowyer, who was subsequently Vicar also of Sandhurst, was buried at Ninfield, on 28th Oct., 1681, two of his children having been there buried on the 11th of the preceding month of Sept.

17 He was again instituted 12th April, 1682. He also held Catsfield, and was bu. 27th Feb., 1707.

18 He was Curate in 1722., Reg., and

was bur. at Burwash 24th Jan., 1768. On the first leaf of the Register are some obliterated notes, with a pen drawn through; but it can be made out that Mr. Christian, 1732, an Irishman by birth, was, for certain irregularities, ordered by Bishop Hare to depart the Diocese.-Robert Tennant, Curate, 1735.

Then follow the entries as to the bells already printed.19

In 1670 the following memorandum appears:-"On Monday night, the 26th day of December, 1670, there was a strange and unexpected tempest of thunder and lightning to the amazement of all that heard it, which burnt down a stack of about 20 loads of hay, and one great barn full of corn, of one Robert Wildings, in the parish of Bexhill; 8 quarters of barley out of 30 that was thrashed was saved; all the rest with wheat and pease was burnt."

The old book of marriages, which extended from 1559 to 1663, is not to be found.

Among the burials are entered:

1669. June 3, Joseph Tysehurst, a boy, "who on Whitsunday morning fell from climbing a magpyes nest, and was smothered in a pond of mud, heels sticking upright.

1670. January 5th, was buried Mary Dubbins, a mayd of Ashburnham, who had bin lame in ber backe 12 years, and confin'd to her bed for the last 2 or 3 years of her life, not being able without the assistance of her neighbours to turn or help herself, haveing about 12 runing sores in her back, and yet she held out thro' God's mercy with patience unto admiration to the end.

1673. Sept. 24th, was buried William Iden, housekeeper, there being no knell, the bells being all taken down to be new hanged to goe on the sally.

1673. Nov. 28th, Elizabeth, daughter of John and Alice Bowyer departed this life, and was buried December 1st, her knell being the first that was rung since the bells were hanged upon the sally.

1674. Sept 14, was buried Edward Brown, of Catsfield, who was by accident killed in stening of the church-house well at Nenfield, by a fall of the bucket, the eye of the rope that the chain did hang in, and part of the chain broke also.

1675. Memorandum on April 3rd, being Easter Eve, Edward Cartwright hanged himself, and was buried on April 5th, at that corner of Crouch Lane that leads to Lunesfords Cross, and so to Bexhill and Hastings.

Upon which Mr. Sharpe makes this note, "hence probably the popular superstition in the neighbourhood that this lane is haunted."

In the year 1678, from the 1st of August, the Act for burying in woollen was in force.

1687. April 5th, buried Elizabeth Hamman, servant to Thomas Jinner, who died by her dame's much beating her with a housse flush; the Crowner being set upon her, and the jury finding by the ill looks of the ded corps, and by the witnesses, gave their opinion that the dame was guilty of her death, whereupon she was sent to the goal, there to continue to the next sizess, who was then acquitted.

19 Suss. Arch. Coll., vol. xvi., p. 163.

Mr. Sharpe further observes that the register at this period is so ill-kept, and so carelessly written, as to be scarcely legible, and that nothing else appears worthy of record; but there were many leaves cut out, and every appearance of its having been extremely ill-used.

At the end of the book is "The Terrier of Ninfield," dated 1st March, 1745, and signed by R. Sampson and Wm. Budd, churchwardens, and states the glebe to consist of "a barn and a field containing half an acre: and a green half an acre more or less."

Among those who, on 20th May, 1681, inhabited the parish which had been so poverty-stricken in the middle of the 14th century, we find many persons following trades,20 which shows a far more flourishing state, whilst the Ironworks were in progress in the neighbourhood. There were 2 tanners, 1 innkeeper and shoemaker, 1 shoemaker only, 2 builders, 1 mercer, 3 tailors, 1 wheelwright, 1 joyner, carpenter, and fiddler, 1 carpenter only, 1 miller, 1 blacksmith, 1 weaver, 1 farrier; Mr. Nathaniel Mill, formerly Mr. John Sone, schoolmaster; 1 cooper, 1 tripe wife, 1 sawyer and carpenter, 1 sawyer only, and one bricklayer.

21

Mr. Bowyer has entered a note in the register, under the date of 13th May, 1671, that Mr. John Sone, A.B., Catherine Hall, Cambridge, began to teach or instruct youth in the chancel by the leave and request of J. B. This is an early and favourable record of the care taken by a vicar for the education of his parishioners.

W. D. C.

20 Addl. MS., No. 6356, p. 31.

12 There was a weaver resident at

this period in many of the parishes in East Sussex,

OLD SEALS OF THE CINQUE PORTS,

AND

NOTICES OF THE BARONS: TEMP. EDW. III.

BY THOMAS ROSS, Esq.

SINCE the publication of the first volume of the Sussex Archæological proceedings, impressions of two seals of greater antiquity than those engaved have fallen into my possession, viz., a seal of the ancient town of RYE, and the Bailiff's seal of HASTINGS, before Elizabeth, in 1588, granted them a Mayor; and illustrations are now given.

The seal of RYE is appended to a deed dated at Rye, 16th February, 1354 (28th Edward III.), and made between Walter Bydendenn and Paul Portesmouth, wardens of the Church of Mary, of Rye, who, with the consent of the Mayor and commonalty, gave, granted, and confirmed to William Tayllour, son of William, a messuage with the appurtenances which Robert Vycent, junr., formerly had from William atte Wysche, Chaplain, next the property of Roger Cornman and James Simon on the east, to the tenement of John Grove on the south, to the King's Street on the west, and to the place formerly of Alice de Hethe and the King's Street on the north, paying 2' yearly. The deed is witnessed by Henry Goldyene, then Mayor, Walter Salerne, John Corbolt, Benedict Sely, Walter Lucy, Robert Schepman, John Grabber,

and others.

The obverse has the sail furled instead of spread, with the moon and sun above the yard; in the forecastle is a man rowing; and both castles differ from the seal now in use.

The reverse shows a Church with a central tower, and two end towers. The Virgin and child are above the doorway. The architecture is of an older date than that on the seal now used, and seems to represent a Church with transepts, of more noble proportions than the present, and possibly the Church as it stood before it was burnt by the French. The inscription is also different.

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