now is by so many others, which, in those remoter periods, were themselves comparatively insignificant, if not unknown. Hastings, the principal of the Cinque Ports, is the chief town of the rape which takes its name from it. It is situated upon the sea-coast, near the eastern extremity of Sussex, in 50° 34' N. Lat. and 0° 37′ E. Long.; distant from London sixty-four miles. This rape lies on the east side of the county, encompassed on the east and south by the sea; is bounded by the rape of Pevensey on the west, and by the county of Kent to the north. It contains thirteen hundreds, comprising together forty sub-divisions, or parishes. The names of the hundreds are as follow; viz.: Goldspur, Staple, Shoyswell, Henhurst, Hawksborough, Netherfield, Foxearle, Battel, Baldslow, Gostrow, Nenfield, Guestling, and Bexhill. The word Rape, according to respectable authorities on the subject, is a corruption of the Latin word ripa, a bank or shore, and is a term peculiar to the county of Sussex. Its application here, if this etymology be correct, may be deemed perfectly just and appropriate, from the contiguity of the lands it comprises to the sea-shore, and to which the inhabitants of the different parts of it would naturally assign the additional denominations of the different places where they applied it. Thus, the ports or harbours of Chichester, Arundel, Bramber, Lewes, Pevensey, and Hastings, have severally given names to their respective shores or rapes; and the names became extended to so much of the inland county as lay within each shore. The whole of the rape (1) of Hastings, with the manor, was held by the earls of Eu, a Norman family, descended from a natural son of Richard Duke of Normandy. Robert, the first earl, to whom it was given, was one of the Conqueror's chief counsellors, and had many other large estates, settled on him by William. In the year 1069, A. R. 3d of William I., Humphrey de Tilleul was governor of Hastings; but, on his refusing to stay in England, when the king stood in most need of his (1) Burrell MSS, in the British Museum. services, that prince so much resented his conduct, as to confiscate his estate; nor could he be prevailed with to restore the lost honors to his heirs. Yet, it appears, from the same notice, (1) that "Robert de Roclint, son of Humphrey de Tilleul, one of the sons of Anfrid the Dane, was governor of the fortress the Conqueror erected at Hastings." These possessions appear to have continued in the family of the Earls of Eu, until the 29th of Henry III., when William of Eu, adhering to the King of France, (2) they became forfeited to the crown, and were given by Henry to his son Edward I. The antiquity of Hastings is traced, by various authorities, to a very remote period. The county of Sussex, it is said, belonged to the principality of Regni; and, during the Roman government, was included in their province of Britannia Prima. From its contiguity to the part of Kent where Julius Cæsar first landed, in his invasion of Britain, it must, we may presume, have been among the first parts of his conquests in the island. Its boundaries were extensive; to the south extending to the channel, and northward to the Thames and Severn. The Roman name of Hastings is stated, by the Editor of Mag. Brit. page 498, to have been Anderida; but from what authority it does not appear. Hastings, called by the Saxons Hastinga, derives its etymology, according to Camden, of high authority in matter of antiquarian research and enquiry, from a Danish pirate of the name of Hasting, who, it is stated, built small fortresses at the points where he landed for plunder. This pirate seems to have carried his predatory excursions to the coasts of Essex and Kent, where he is stated to have built also several small fortresses. Its antiquity may be likewise inferred from its having been a place of importance as far back as in the Saxon Heptarchy, when Sussex belonged to the kingdom of the South Saxons, and was established, as such, a. d. 491. In the 31st of the reign of Offa, A. D. 792, Berodaldus, one of A TERRA ECCLE ISCANNENS. Jublesrelinsestid In dmo é una car 7c. uh i min hu xl i.caf De ifto an ren Robe de hafanges. u Ind- dumið de abbe. -rea Ofori de comite TR.E. tenue cp's defil 7m lễ 17 18 his generals, gave to the monastery of St. Dionysius, a part of his possessions in Sussex, viz. Hastings and Pevensey, with their marshes, for the service and support of its establishment. It would appear to have advanced progressively to increased national consequence, through a period of upwards of 500 years, since we find that, in A. D. 924, it had a mint established in it during the reign of Athelstan. This monarch is stated to have been the first of the AngloSaxon kings who instituted laws for the regulation of the coinage. It appears from these, that, shortly after his accession to the crown, he founded royal mints at various cities and towns in his kingdom, among which are mentioned, Chichester, Lewes, and Hastings; and that, among the warders, or moneyers, as they were then termed, ordained for the several mints he then established, one was assigned to Chichester, two to Lewes, and one to Hastings. It is, however, observed, that no specimens of the coinage of any of these, as of many of the other cities and towns, have hitherto been discovered.(1) Hastings is but slightly mentioned in Domesday Book. (2) It seems to have been closely connected with a place called (1) "Ruding on coins." (2) Domesday Book, one of the most ancient and memorable records is the register, from which judgment was to be given upon the value, tenure, and services of land therein described. It appears to have been known by various other names; such as Rotulas Wintonia, Scriptura Thesauri Regis, Liber de Wintonia and Liber Regis. The exact time of William I. undertaking the survey is differently stated by historians. But it would appear it was at a time subsequent to the total reduction of the island to his authority, and is supposed to have been completed about 1086. William was acquainted by this with an exact knowledge of the property of the crown by the forfeitures of the lands of the English nobility who fell at the battle of Hastings; and was thus enabled to remunerate his Norman followers by the grants of their immense confiscated possessions. What time this record was removed from Winchester to Westminster does not appear. It was deposited among the valuable records in the Chapter-house in 1696, where it now remains, under the custody of John Caley, Esq.; through whose kind permission I have been enabled to give an exact Fac Simile.-See the annexed plate. |