(One of ye Vicar's Choralls Mr. Hunt, a receiver of their rents.) The totall of the said Rents are p. Ann. xiij' viija. Sussex. The Mannor of Coombe cum Gregories. The quitt rents due to the lord of the said Mannor from the ffreeholders wthin the parishes of Wadhurst and Mayfeild holding of the said Mannor by free soccage tenure and payable at Micas only are p. Ann. xxj3. The Courts baron fines and amerciamts of Court Herriotts reliefes and all other proffitts and p'quisites within the said Mannor are estimated commnibus Annis x'. Freeholders. Richard Taylor holdeth freely a certaine farme and lands in William Cruttall holdeth freely certaine lands called Wilcocks Gibbs in Wadhurst contayning by estimacon one hundred acres by the rent of Thomas Manser holdeth freely a tenement and one acre of land in Wadhurst contayning by estimačon one hundred acres The total of the aforesaid rents is.. Memorandums. iij. iiija ij' x' iiija iiija xvi There is a Court Baron belonging to the said Mannors of Combe and Gregories kept at the will of the Lord. The said Mannors have been ioned together-one court kept for them both at once under the stile of the Mannor of Coombes cum Gregories in regard of the fewenesse of the tennants to either of them. There are releifes payable by the said tennants upon every descent or allienation. The herriotts payable by the tennants for their lands tenements and hereditaments are the best beast and the benefitt thereof to the Lord is comprehended in the value of the proffitts of Court. Indorsed Sussex. The Mannor of Sharenden.'"'* *Suss. Arch. Colls., Vol. XXV. In 10th James I. (1612) all the clergy in certain deaneries were called up to register the arms they could furnish. There is a paper in the British Museum, inscribed, "A rolle of the severall Armors and furniture with theire names of the clergie within the Arch Deaconry of Lewes and Deanery of South Malling with the Deanery of Battell in the County of Sussex, Rated and appoynted the 11th day of March A.D. 1612, by the Right Reverend Father in God, Samuell, Bishoppe of Chichester." Amongst other names may be seen "Maighfeld, Mr. Jo. Lucke, Vicar, a corselet furnished. 66 Heathfield, Mr. Reginald Burden, a corselet furnished.” * The Subsidy Roll of the 22nd James does not distinguish the different parishes, but gives all the inhabitants of Loxfield-Baker together; the names are as follows: "Mr. Jo. Maynard, pastor, Mr. Thomas Haughton, Mrs. Katherine Aynscombe and Thos. Aynscombe, gent., Mrs. Jane Stolyon, Richard Wemshurst, Thos. Westgate, Robert Martyn, John Relfe, Richard Marchant, Tho. Booreman, Richard Carpenter, Jo. Muddle, Jo. and Tho. Burges, Tho. Maynard, Tho. Moone, Will. Durrell, Esq., Jo. Dunmoll, Senr., William Johnson, gent., William Bryan, gent., William Courthopp, gent., Jo. Barham of Butt, Jo. Barham of Shoosmythes, Robert Winborne, gent., Jo. Saunders, Ed. Benge, Michael Throckmorton, Tho. Ballard, gent., Nicho. Barham, Tho. Saunders, Mrs. Burton, widow, Mrs. Maplesden, widow, Alice Sauders, widow, Anne Baker, widow, Nicholas Saunders, Tho. Kindgwoodd, Richard Marckwicke, Richard Weston, Thomas Lucke, Richard Lucke, Alex. Collin, Tho. Sheapherd, Will. Terry, Will. Barham, Lampkins, Jo. Wood, Peter Trice, Tho. Bate, Tho. Russell, Jo. Longley, Pennybridge, Andrew Skinner, Will. Yonge, Jo. Weston, for the heirs of Nich. Puxty's lands, Tho. Maynard, Jo. Lucke, Tho. Weston, Highfeld, widow, Crowhurst, Jo. Longley, Mousehall, Hugh Lucke, Tho. Packham, Will Maynard's wid., Gregory Sawyer, Richard Barham's wid., Widow Burd, and Jo. Burd. Lessors Tho. Sawyer, Mr. Stephen Panckhurst, Thos. Wickersham, Robert Relf. : Sessors: Thomas Daye, Richard Ballard, gent., Jo. Dunmoll, gent., Alex. Butcher. Collector, THOMAS BURGES." The total was £22 13s. Od., of which sum Stephen Panckhurst paid the highest amount; William Durrell and William Johnson come next on the list. * Harl. MSS.; also mentioned in Burrell MSS. CHAPTER XII. SIR HENRY NEVILL, upon first coming into possession in 1596, held the lordship or manor of Mayfield in its entire state, consisting then of the Manor extending over Mayfield (Bibleham excepted), Wadhurst, and part of Lamberhurst; the Manor House or Palace of Mayfield, the advowsons, great tithes, and waste and woodlands, within the manor. By an indenture of 14th August 1597, he sold to Thomas Aynscombe, Esq., all the waste lands in Mayfield, Wadhurst, and Lamberhurst (excepting such as were in the great thoroughfares through the three parishes, viz., from Lamberhurst and Bewlbridge to Sparrows Green, thence to Tidebrook and Ticehurst, and from Tidebrook to Rendhurst Wood, thence to Mark Cross, and the town of Mayfield; thence to Hadley Down and Duddesland, and from Mayfield to Argose Hill, and thence to Rotherfield). These waste lands, with the above exceptions, were thus vested in the Aynscombe family; and Thomas, the purchaser, died possessed of them in 1606, when they descended to his son, Thomas Aynscombe, who by a deed 11 February, 10 James (1613) sold a portion to Thomas Edwards of Faircrouch in Wadhurst, citizen and mercer of London, who appears to have held his courts for the said lands. By another indenture 27 March, 1611, Thomas Aynscombe sold to William Courthope of Wadhurst, gent, another piece of waste or woodland in Buckling wood, part of that which his father purchased from Henry Nevill. The residue he died possessed of, and by will dated 1617 bequeathed his "wastes in the highways of Wadhurst and Mayfield" to his son Thomas, who died in 1649, leaving them also by will to his son Thomas Aynscombe, upon whose decease without issue in 1667, his brother, Henry Aynscombe became his heir. By an indenture 16 August, 1597, Sir Henry Nevill (then Henry Nevill, Esq.) sold the Rectory of Wadhurst to Thomas Aynscombe, whose son by an indenture 29 March, 9 James (1612) sold it to William Fowle of Lightlands and Riverhall. The advowson of Wadhurst was also sold by Nevill to Aynscombe, and it continued in the latter family until Thomas Aynscombe by deed of gift, in or about the year 1668, conferred it on Wadham College, Oxford, which continues to present. It is recorded that this deed of gift was made in gratitude for the care and attention the only son of the donor had received at the college during an illness which terminated fatally. By an indenture 6 May, 1598, Sir Henry Nevill sold to Sir Thomas May (then Thomas May, Esq., of The Franchise, Burwash) for the consideration of £6,387, "all that the Manor of Mayfield and all houses etc. and all the glass and wainscott of the chief Manor House or mansion house of the said manor. All that late disparked Park and impaled ground commonly called Mayfield park in Mayfield aforesaid,* and all and every the messuages and all that the Rectory of Mayfield aforesaid, with all the glebe lands tythes oblations etc. together with the advowson right of patronage donation and free disposition of the Vicarage of Mayfield aforesaid, and all that the manor of Battersden, also Penny Bridge etc., except Frankham Park, the Rectory of Wadhurst, and the advowson of the Vicarage, other than the rent of £12 and other services reserved upon a grant made by the said Henry Neville by deed indented to Thomas Aynscombe, gent., George Charlton Clerk and William Turke, and except all grants of waste grounds copyhold lands by the said Henry to other persons in fee other than the rents and services, and except all other lands tenements and hereditaments that were parcel or reputed parcel of the copyhold lands or waste grounds of the said manor and heretofore granted by the said Henry to Thomas Aynscombe gent. other than the rents services and reliefs reserved thereupon and except all such common or pasture as was belonging or appertained to the manor of Penny Bridge in any of the waste grounds belonging to the Manor of Mayfield, and which rents reliefs services reserved upon the excepted lands tenements hereditaments etc. then the said Henry Neville grants to the said Thomas May his heirs and assigns for ever." (Sir Henry Nevill died in 1615.) Sir Thomas May was the father of the poet and historian of the Long Parliament, who, it has been said, was born at Mayfield in 1595. This could scarcely have been the case; his name, however, does not appear in the Burwash registers, though they contain entries of the birth of brothers born both before and after himself. He must certainly have lived at the Palace from early childhood to manhood. It is said, his mortification at not being appointed Poet Laureate, after the death of Ben Jonson, was the real cause of his breaking with the Court; certain it is, that either on this account or from * There were two parks, those of Mayfield and Frankham. political conviction his loyalty began to cool, and at the outbreak of the Civil Wars he associated himself with Sir Thomas Fairfax and the republican party. He was appointed secretary to the Parliament, when he was commissioned to write his "History of the Long Parliament." This noted book bears evidence of its being by no means a labour of love. Speaking of the Civil Wars in his Preface, he truly speaks of these scenes of blood as a "Warre as cruel, as unnatural, that hath produced as much rage of swords, as much bitterness of pens, both publike and private, as was ever knowne." The book brought him into great disfavour with the Royalists, who afterwards wreaked their spite upon his bones. He died at the age of fifty-five, and met his death in a curious manner, having tied the strings of his nightcap so tightly under his chin that suffocation ensued. By order of Parliament he had a magnificent public funeral in Westminster Abbey, and a large monument was erected over his grave. However, soon after the Restoration, his remains were dug up and flung into a pit near St. Margaret's Church, and his monument was also cast aside. Long before the outbreak of the war, however, Sir Thomas May's widow and son had sold his lands at Mayfield to John Baker of Mayfield, gent., by indenture dated November 17, 1617, and from this period the Palace, or Mayfield Place as it came to be called, was the chief residence of the Baker family. East Sussex was not much affected by the Great Rebellion, but it seems to have taken chiefly the side of the Parliament. The principal inhabitants of Mayfield certainly did so. When we consider that Mr. John Baker was appointed by the Parliament as one of the sequestrators for Sussex; that Mr. Maynard, the vicar, who was presented by Mr. Baker, belonged to the Assembly of Divines, and preached a sermon at St. Margaret's, Westminster by order of the Long Parliament; that Mr. Aynscombe of Aylwins was married to a daughter of John Goring; and that Mr. Herbert Morley, the celebrated general of the Parliamentary troops, owned land and ironworks at Bibleham, it will be seen how great must have been the influence for that side. Papers in the Public Record Office show that any Sussex Royalists' estates were at the mercy of the sequestrators appointed in April, 1643. Among those appointed for Sussex were, Sir Thomas Pelham, Anthony Stapley, Herbert Morley, Thomas Whitfield, John Baker, Herbert Hay (nephew of Colonel Morley) and Herbert Springate. It was ordered that the estates of all persons who had raised, or should raise, arms against the Parliament, or had assisted in any way the King's M |