Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

Coll. horse welcomed them with drakes and musketts, sending some 8 or 9 men to hell (I feare), and one trooper to Arundel Castle prisoner, and one of Capt Evenden's men to Heaven; all this while the enemy held the Castle, and a party seised Whiston House within a mile of Bramber bridge. But att laste Sir William comeing and tooke Arundel Towne with 140 prisoners to boote, whearof 60 beare armes for the Parliament, the rest are sent to London. Our Wiston Cavaileirs left the house, and fled for theire lives, and in theire march at Findon left 3 carts loaden with plunder, the which we with a party of 12 horse we fetched home, and refreshed our weary souldiers. . . We have fortified Arundell as strong as ever you saw a thing. It is worth noteing to see how our Easterne gentry come to comfort our pouer Collonell, and to shew theire thankfullness to our noble Waller. I shall write theire number in figures nott thousands, except three 000 ciphers will doe it. Thus Christian brethren you se Jacob's God never said to you: "Seeke ye me in vaine." You se answered praiers comes home crowding. pray you remember him in your praiers whoe hath vowed himself an orator for you. I cannott omitt one thing. Imediately after the yeilding of the Castle, 3 holonders rune aground, a Dunkirk man of war richly laden with Hollands and lockrams and threed plush with 24 piece of ordnance. The holonder perceiveing us neare (it was 3 miles from Shoarham) they onely desired the ship and gave Sir William Waller the prize, the which they have and now carts are carrying it to Arundell. Its hoped the generall will furnish Arundell Castle with gunns, butt this mercy made our men break sabbath, and soe instead of thankfulness for the Castle, it proved a snaire unto us to prophane the sabbath. Thus have I given you an acompt of what I promised you; my paper bids me break of. Commend me to all my deare friends and I shall forever rest your brother in Christ

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

I

"JOHN COULTON.

"Cler under Captaine William Morley. Ffrom my quarters at South lanceing, January 8th, 1634."

There was a great scarcity of small coin at this period. On the accession of James I. leaden tokens among tradespeople must have been pretty general. Before 1613, several schemes were proposed for coining small money (farthing tokens) in copper, until Lord Harrington obtained a grant for the issue of royal tokens; these appear to have been issued by several succeeding patentees. On March 1st, 1634, royal farthing tokens were directed to be made "with such a distinction of brass as will make them to be known from all others, and thereby prevent the people from being deceived by counterfeits." The great number issued and the many imitations of them at last put a stop to their currency. In the reign of Charles I. the troubled state of the kingdom prevented the government from paying proper attention to the coinage, and the great need of small

change caused private tradesmen to issue their own tokens. No pieces of this description appear to have been put in circulation earlier than about 1648; the yearly issue gradually increased up to the year 1672, when they were forbidden by royal proclamation. Two tradesmen of Mayfield had dealings on a large enough scale to warrant the issue of their own tokens. One of these was William Weston, whose coins have his name and the words "The Grocers Arms" on the one side, and "In Mayfield, 1667," on the other. The second token was Clement Read's. His halfpennies bear his name and a wheat sheaf on the one side, and the words "Of Mayfield, 1652, C.V.R." on the other. The vicar has specimens of these coins, and very likely there may be others in the parish, whose possessors may be much puzzled as to what these old halfpennies and farthings can be. Clement Read seems to have been a man of considerable importance in the parish; he was churchwarden for many years when Mr. Maynard was vicar, and a volume published of Mr. Maynard's sermons was dedicated to some of the Baker family, to Clement Read (who married a Miss Baker), and other parishioners.

CHAPTER XIII.

AFTER the Restoration, it is probable that a period of peaceful prosperity followed for Mayfield, when all its principal houses were the homes of iron-masters, who were large employers of skilled labour. There are therefore no stirring events to chronicle, but the history of the iron industry in Sussex is full of interest.

Many people are aware of the fact that at one time there were extensive iron-works in this county, and that there were forges in the parish of Mayfield; but so few traces remain of this great industry, that it is difficult to realize in the least the busy scene that this part of the country must for some centuries have presented.

The strata producing iron ore lie in the central portion of the Wealden formation, in the vast beds of sandstone called the "Forest Ridge," and known as the "Hastings sand." The beds run in a N.W. direction from Hastings, by Ashburnham, Crowborough, Ashdown Forest, Tilgate Forest, and St. Leonard's Forest-the tract formerly covered by the great forest of Anderida.

The earliest period at which Sussex iron was worked is unknown. That the Romans had workings was first conclusively proved by Dr. Prince of Crowborough and the Rev. E. Turner in 1844. Dr. Prince says in a letter to the writer, dated Feb. 16, 1895:

"So long ago as 1844 I was one day riding along the road from Buxted to Crowborough, when I saw a man emptying a cart-load of cinders upon the wayside, and as they rolled out of the cart, I noticed that some pottery was mixed therein. I asked the man to give me a few pieces, as I thought they had a rather unusual appearance. Before going home I took them to a well-known antiquary, the late Rev. E. Turner of Maresfield, who at once pronounced them to be Samian ware. He at once became very interested in the find, and arranged with me that I should drive him to the spot on the next morning, and this arrangement was carried out. I then took him to the field (on Old Land Farm close to Buxted, but in Maresfield parish) where some men were digging these cinders, and we had not been there long before a Roman coin was turned up,

which was a very important clue. As my time was wholly occupied with my profession, I left further investigation wholly in the hands of Mr. Turner."

Mr. Turner published an account of this find in Vol. II. of Sussex Arch. Colls. The bed of "cinders" (refuse from the furnaces, largely used for road mending) covered several acres, and was, in places, as deep as ten feet. Many remains of a Roman settlement were uncovered. A Roman grave, with broken pottery had been laid bare before the spot was visited by Dr. Prince and Mr. Turner; and foundations of buildings had been discovered about two years previously. So numerous were the remains of Roman pottery that scarcely a barrow was filled with cinders that did not contain many fragments. There were also coins and other articles, which were afterwards exhibited at a meeting of the Sussex Archæological Society. The Romans-here at all events-seem to have been imperfectly acquainted with the art of smelting, for these cinders contained a far greater proportion of metal than those of other beds in the neighbourhood, and were therefore more valuable for road-making. At Framfield, at Chiddingly, and at Seddlescombe, Roman remains have been found in cinder beds. At Seddlescombe, the cinder bed itself was only discovered by accident; for all knowledge of iron-works having existed there had been lost. It is not at all improbable that the iron of Sussex was wrought before the Romans set foot on the soil; for the inhabitants of Britain must have been well acquainted with the metal. Not only do we hear of the scythes attached to the wheels of their war chariots, but these also could not have been made without the use of iron tools. Cæsar mentions that iron rings of a certain weight were used as money by the people, and that the iron of which they were made was produced in the maritime regions. These "maritime regions" were in all probability the wealds of Kent and Sussex. History is silent on the subject as to whether the Saxons continued the works upon the old sites, unless we accept the legends of St. Dunstan and his forge. The trade, if in existence here at the time of Domesday Book, must have been unimportant, since no mention is made in it of Sussex iron, though the iron-works of other counties are noticed.

The earliest known record of the iron trade in these parts is a grant made by King Henry III. to the town of Lewes. This grant, which is dated 1266, empowers the inhabitants to raise tolls for the repair of the town walls after the battle. Every cart laden with iron from the weald for sale paid one penny toll, and every horse-load of iron half that sum. From that period we have constant notices,

however slight, of the history of the manufacture. In 1290 a payment was made for the iron-work of the monument of Henry III. in Westminster Abbey to Master Henry of Lewes. In 1300, according to the historian Stowe, the ironmongers of London made a complaint to the Lord Mayor, that the smiths of the weald brought in irons for wheels which were much shorter than they ought, according to custom, to be, to the great scandal and loss of the whole trade of ironmongers, and required a remedy, which was granted accordingly. In the thirteenth year of Edward II. Peter de Walsham, sheriff of Surrey and Sussex, made a provision of horse-shoes and nails of different sorts for the use of the army sent against the Scots. The number furnished on this occasion was 3,000 horse-shoes, and 29,000 nails, and the expense of their purchase from various places within the sheriff's jurisdiction, and their delivery in London, was £14 13s. 10d. Perhaps the oldest existing specimen produced by our foundries is an iron grave slab in Burwash Church, which has on it a cross and the inscription" Orate P[ro] Annema Jhone Colins." The lettering is Lombardic, and is probably of the fourteenth century. The so-called relics of St. Dunstan at Mayfield, which were at one time kept in the church, are now at the convent, with the exception of the hammer, which was lost at the time of the restoration of the buildings. The hammer was an undoubted specimen of mediæval work. The anvil and tongs are considered by antiquaries to be of later dates. The massive handrail of the old stone staircase which was removed, was another specimen of very early manufacture. The iron monumental slabs in the pavement of the church are none of them earlier than the seventeenth century.

It has generally been considered that the first iron cannon cast in England was made at Huggett's furnaces in Buxted and Mayfield in 1543. An old rhyme commemorates the fact that

"Master Huggett and his man John
They did cast the first cannon,"

but Professor J. Starkie Gardner, in his paper read before the Society of Antiquaries, and published in Vol. LVI. of "Archæologia," shows pretty conclusively that an earlier date must be given. He says:

"As a fact, nothing trustworthy as to the first invention or introduction of cannon into Europe is known, but its earliest recorded use is by the English, who appear to have employed it in the invasion of Scotland under Edward III. in 1327, at the siege of Cambray 1338, and at Tournay a year later. At Quesnoy, 1339-40, Edward's engines, with powder and wildfire, are noticed in the French Chronicle of London.""

6

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »