successor of Islip in the following year. The Archbishop's registers show that he remained at Mayfield until 1380, when he exchanged the living for that of Horsted Keynes, and that he died in 1383.

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Archbishop Langham, on depriving Wycliffe of the wardenship, gave it as his reason that the nomination had been made when Islip was incapacitated by weakness, both of body and mind, for the transaction of business, and it therefore ought not to be considered final. The details of his illness and its cause are thus given. In January, 1362, the Archbishop was riding from Otford to Mayfield, when, at a point between Sevenoaks and Tunbridge, his horse stumbled, and fell with him "in a wet and miry lane, whereby he was made wet all over, in which pitiable state he rode on without changing of clothes." When, at noon, he arrived at Mayfield, being very weary, he fell asleep, still in his damp garments, in a "certain stone chamber." From which especial mention of a stone chamber it is inferred that even at this period some portions of the palace were still only of wood. The stone portions, which included sleeping chambers, may have been erected by Islip himself not long previously. He awoke feeling ill, but took his usual place at the dinner-table; a difficulty of speech followed, and he was found to be suffering from a paralytic stroke. His mind continued unaffected, and it was during the time of forced inaction which followed that he drew up the statutes of his college. He remained at Mayfield until July of the year following, when, "gently in a litter," he was conveyed to Charing. Later, again, he was able to visit Canterbury, but did not stay there. He lived chiefly at Charing until his return to Mayfield in August, 1354. We can imagine how the invalid Archbishop and the vicar became closely drawn together during the long months of his residence here, and how it was, when Wodehall's turbulent conduct at Canterbury Hall caused Islip much trouble during the ensuing year, he appointed this tried friend, who was close at hand, in his place.

While incapacitated from business by his accident, Islip summoned his nephew, William Whittlesey, Bishop of Rochester, to his assistance, who celebrated two ordinations at Mayfield for him, also one on the 15th February, 1365, in the room in which the dying prelate was lying. A few days after this, the Archbishop caused himself to be removed to the oratory adjoining this chamber, and for the last time, himself performed this ceremony. Though he lingered on for two months, this was the last effort to perform a sacred office. He died here on the 26th of April, 1366, and on the 2nd of May he was buried in the nave of Canterbury Cathedral,

as he had desired, without public ceremony, and with as little expense as possible.

Simon Langham, his successor, although he only held the primacy for about two years, visited Mayfield at least twice, and was here throughout the summer of 1368. During his visit in the spring of 1367, he held two ordinations, and one in the spring of the year following. There is a deed of his dated Mayfield, July 4th, 1368; also another bearing date August 31st of the same year.

The succeeding Archbishop, William Whittelsey, Islip's nephew, spent little of his time here, although he is presumed to have completed the buildings commenced by his uncle.*

One deed of his bears date Mayfield in 1369, and he held two ordinations in the years 1370 and 1371.

Simon Sudbury must have been here at the earliest period of his primacy; for the first folio of his register contains three appointments made here in August, 1375. He also visited Mayfield again during the three following summers.

William Courtenay, who succeeded him, was at Mayfield in April, 1382, when he received his writ to attend Parliament. He held ordinations in September and December; and spent a great part of the next year at the Palace, also holding two ordinations. He was here in 1385 and 1387; deeds of his are dated here. The spring and summer of 1391 again found him at Mayfield. His last visit appears to have been during the months of September, October and November, 1393, when he celebrated ordinations, which is the last record we have of this ceremony being performed within the walls of Mayfield Palace. A great fire in 1389 had reduced the town and a great part of the church to ashes, but spared the Palace.

Archbishop Arundel was here in 1396, and again in 1400, when he spent the summer at the Palace; as he did in 1403. In 1406, he was again here in July; and in 1409 passed both summer and autumn at the Palace. No instruments of any importance were signed by him here, however; and the same may be said of his successor, Chichele, who, at the several periods he visited Mayfield, remained but a short time, and whose last visit was in August, 1437, six years before his death.

One of the incidental notices of Mayfield, as apart from the Palace, in the fifteenth century, showing that among its tradespeople, it boasted a tailor of some repute, is found among Inquisi

Courthope MSS. Coll. of Arms.

tions to prove the full age of wards. Among the witnesses to prove the age of Roger de Fiennes at Hurstmonceaux, and that he was baptized in the church there on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14th September), 1407, was one William Mershman, who remembered facts and dates because he was living with William Taylour, tailor, of Mayfield: and was sent to Hurstmonceaux with the gowns and apparel of the Lady Elizabeth, mother of the said Roger, against her purification.*

* It was customary for a mother to wear a new gown for her churching.

E

CHAPTER IV.

THE two succeeding Archbishops, Stafford and Kemp, appear to have made Croydon and Lambeth their chief places of abode.

The Rebellion of Jack Cade took place during the former's primacy. In the Royal Proclamation he is certainly said to have been "born in Ireland," from which most historians have assumed him to have been an Irishman; evidence, however, points to the probability that he was a native either of Mayfield or of Heathfield; but that before the rebellion he had been both in France and Ireland (whether as soldier or outlaw is nowhere given), whence arose the belief that he was Irish. None of the early chroniclers throw much light on the question of his birthplace; Holinshed merely calls him "a certain young man of goodly stature and pregnant wit." Speed, in his "History of Great Britain," says that he had been in the service of Sir Thomas Dacre (son of Lord Dacre of Baily Park, Heathfield), who also joined the rising.

The name of Cade has been known for centuries in the neighbourhood. It first appears in the subsidy rolls of 1328, when the grant of a twentieth was made to the King in Parliament held at Northampton, when the names of Matthew and Robert Cade are given among inhabitants of Mayfield and Wadhurst. In the roll of 1332, when the subsidy of a tenth was collected, Robert, William, John, and Richard Cade, are mentioned. In 1852, there were Johns (two), Robert, William, and Matthew Cade, also John le Cade. In 1523 we find Ellen Cade; also in 1558-9, John Cade, with lands worth 40s. We can trace the family later still from deeds at Sunny Bank. The first of these, dated 1591 is a grant from Henry Nevill, Lord of the Manor, of lands in Mayfield to "Richard Cade of Maighfeld, yoman," 81 acres in all, bounded on the east and north by lands already his property (Long's Farm). In the second deed the same Richard Cade conveys to trustees" a barne and six peeces of meadow pasture land and wood whereof the first and second sometime were one, and nowe devyded into two peeces, and are called Longefeld, and the third Frogehole, the fowerth the Stonefeld, the fift the