St. Mary Hoo - Cliffe History

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St. Mary Hoo by Edward Hasted

1797 AD

ST.   MARY'S, HOO.

NORTH   EASTWARD from Halstow, lies St. Mary's, distinguished from   others of the same name in this county, by the addition of
at Hoo ,   and near Rochester, both which are frequently used in deeds   relating to it.
There are two parishes mentioned in   the Textus Rossensis, by the names of Ordmæres circe de Hou ,   and Deremannes circe   de Hou , which certainly   mean this parish, and that of Alhallows adjoining. I should   imagine the former was the name belonging to this parish of   St. Mary.
THE CHURCH of St. Mary's, with the village   adjoining to it, is situated about half a mile from the   marshes, which extend as much farther towards the river   Thames, which is its northern boundary. It lies much lower   and more level than the adjoining parish of Halstow; the   soil of it is in general more fertile, and not so much   subject to gravel, though about Combe, which is situated   midway between St. Mary's church and the marshes, the land   is poor, and much covered with furze and heath. It is in   other particulars of much the same description as the other   parishes in this hundred.
The MANOR of St. Mary's   Hoo, which is held of the paramount manor of Hoo, was,   together with the mansion, called St. Mary's-hall, antiently   part of the possessions of the family of Bardolf; and on the   division of the estates of Robert Bardolf among his five   nieces and coheirs, this manor fell to the share of Hugh   Poinz, in right of Maud his wife, who was one of them. (fn.   1) His descendant, Sir Nicholas de Poinz, sold it to William   de Halden, who died possessed of it in the 50th year of king   Edward III. in whose family it remained till the reign of   king Edward IV. when William de Halton, as the name was then   spelt, in the 8th year of that reign, alienated this manor   to William Lemyng, citizen and grocer of London. He was   succeeded in this manor by Sir John Brooke, lord Cobham, who   in the 7th year of king Henry VII. conveyed it by sale to   Sir Robert Read, afterwards made chief justice of the common   pleas, who died about the 10th year of king Henry VIII.'s   reign, (fn. 2) and on the partition of his lands among his   four daughters and coheirs, this manor was allotted, among   other premises, to the daughters and coheirs of his daughter   Mary, then deceased, by her husband, Sir William Barentyne;   and on a further partition of her share among them,   Margaret, one of her daughters, became entitled to this   manor, which she carried in marriage to Sir John Harcourt,   of Elnall, in Staffordshire. (fn. 3) They, in the 30th year   of Henry VIII. exchanged the manor of St. Mary's with John   Wiseman, gent. for the priory of Ronton, in Staffordshire,   who died possessed of it in 1558, leaving three sons; (fn.   4) of whom, Ralph, the second son, succeeded to the manor of   St. Mary's Hoo, and was knighted in 1603. He was of   Rivenhall, in Essex, where he died in 1608. The family of   Wiseman bore for their arms, Sable, a chevron, between   three cronels of tilting spears, argent .   This branch of Rivenhall, bore the chevron ermine .   His descendant, Sir William Wiseman, of Riven-hall, was   created a baronet in 1660. He alienated this manor, at the   latter end of the reign of king Charles II. to captain John   Daniel; his arms were, Argent, a pale fufilly sable ;   whose sole daughter and heir carried it in marriage to Mr.   Thomas Faunce, gent. of St. Margaret's, Rochester; whose   son, Tho. Faunce, esq. was of Sutton-at-Hone, and succeeded   his father in this manor, and bore for his arms, Argent, three lions rampant   sable, ribboned argent .   In 1735, he married Jane, daughter of Edmund Barrell, A. M.   prebendary of Rochester, by whom he had two sons, Edmund,   vicar of Sutton-at-Hone; and Thomas, town major of Quebec;   and three daughters, Anne, married to John Tasker, esq. of   Franks; Mary, to Alured Pincke, esq. of Sharsted; and Jane   to William Hey, esq. chief justice of Canada, and a   commissioner of customs. The Rev. Edm. Faunce, the eldest   son, married Anne, sister of James Chapman, esq. of Paul's   Cray hill, by whom he had a daughter Anne, married to Mr.   Stephen Lee, of Doddington; and one son, Mr. Edmund, Faunce,   who is now entitled to the inheritance of this estate. Among   the Harleian manuscripts, in the British museum, No. 590–1,   is part of a roll, containing a survey of the marsh of Kent,   with pictures of several of the manor houses, and among them   this of St. Mary's, then belonging to the lord Cobham.
NEWLAND'S is a reputed manor in this parish, which was as high as any   evidence can be traced, the inheritance of the family of   Somer, since vulgarly called Somers, (fn. 5) who bore for   their arms, Vert, a   fess dancette ermine.
Richard le Somer made his will, as appears by the   records of the church of Rochester, in the year 1347, and   died possessed of this manor and other lands in Halstow,   Higham, Leigh, and elsewhere in this county, from whom it   descended to John Somer, who was chancellor of the exchequer   in the reign of Henry VI. and from him again to Jeffry   Somer, who left two sons, William, who possessed the manor   of Newland's, and Thomas, whose descendants were of Halstow.   William was knighted, and thrice employed by queen   Elizabeth, as public ambassador to foreign states, His son,   John Somer, clerk, was of St. Margaret's, Rochester, and   left two daughters his coheirs, of whom Maria, the eldest,   married first Thomas Peniston, and afterwards Sir Alexander   Temple, the latter of whom, upon the partition of their   estates, became entitled to this manor, whose heir, about   the time of the death of king Charles I. conveyed it by sale   to the treasurers of the chest for sick and maimed seamen,   at Chatham, in whom the possession of this manor and estate   now remains.
There is no court belonging to this   manor, which is held of the manor of St. Mary's.
COOMBE is a manor here, which soon after the conquest was in the   possession of Wlfward de Hou, surnamed Henry, who became a   monk of the priory of St. Andrew, in Rochester, and   afterwards gave to that priory the half of his tithes in   this parish, and the third part of his substance after his   death, to which his wife and his son Robert, and his   brothers Hereward, Siward, and Edward, freely consented.   (fn. 6)
How this manor passed afterwards I have not   found till the reign of Henry VIII. when Sir Tho. Wyatt, of   Allington castle, was owner of it; and he, in the 34th year   of it, conveyed it, among other premises, to that king; and   it seems to have remained in the crown till queen Elizabeth   granted it to Sir Thomas Walsingham.
At the beginning   of the reign of king George II. about the year 1732, this   manor of Combe, was purchased by the trustees, of the rector   of St. George's church, Bloomsbury, London, with part of a   sum of money allotted at the first erection of it, in 1731,   towards the support of the rector, which money was directed   to be laid out in the purchase of lands and tenements, in   fee simple, as a perpetual fund for the maintenance of the   rector, and his successors.
Edward Vernon, D. D. was   the first rector of this church, and as such possessed and   resided frequently at this manor; he died in 1761. His   successor, as rector of Bloomsbury, was Charles Tarrant,   D.D. afterwards dean of Peterborough, who finding it a very   unprofitable estate, by reason of the great annual expence   of the sea walls belonging to it, obtained an act in 1765,   to enable him to sell it. In pursuance of which it was   afterwards conveyed to David Lesley, esq, and Mr. John   Proby; the former of whom soon afterwards died, leaving his   two nieces, Frances and Sarah Meekes, his coheirs, who about   the year 1773, joined with the heirs at law of Mr. John   Proby, then deceased, in the conveyance of this manor, to   Owen and William Meredith, of Rochester; the latter of whom,   on the death of his brother, in 1780, possessed the whole of   this estate, which he sold in 1786, to the Rev. Richard   Hancorn Duppa, of Hollingborne; whose devisee, Richard Duppa   Duppa, esq. of that place, is the present owner of it.
The PORTION of TITHES above mentioned, since called COOMBE PORTION ,   given to the priory of St. Andrew, Rochester, by Wlfward,   surnamed Henry, remained part of the possessions of that   priory, at its dissolution in the 32d year of king Henry   VIII. when the same was surrendered into the king's hands,   who the next year settled this portion of tithes, among   other premises, by his dotation charter, on his new-founded   dean and chapter of Rochester, where the inheritance of it   now remains.
On the dissolution of the deans and   chapters, after the death of king Charles I. this portion of   tithes was, in 1649, surveyed, when it was returned, that   the portion of tithes, called Combe, alias Coome, and also   usually called St. Mary's, arising from lands, sometime   before belonging to the crown of England, called Combe, with   the tithe of ten fields and closes lying in St. Mary's, Hoo,   containing, by estimation, one hundred and eighty-four   acres, the improved rent of which was 10l. 14s. per annum,   was let by the late dean and chapter, anno 16 Charles I for   twenty-one years, at the yearly rent of fourteen shillings   per annum. The lessees of it, under the dean and chapter,   have been for some time the owners of Combe manor as above   mentioned, the present lessee being Ri
chard Duppa Duppa,   esq.
CHARITIES.
HENRY   WHITE, formerly of Chalk (who lies buried under an altar   tomb in this church yard) by his will, in 1622, devised 2l.   per annum to the poor of this parish, not receiving alms,   payable on St. Andrew's day; and he gave yearly sums to the   poor of Chalk, Cowling, and Stoke.
The parish of St.   Mary's, Hoo, has the right of nomination to one place in the   New College of Cobham, for one poor person, inhabitant of   this parish, to be chosen and presented so, and by such, as   the ordinances of the college have power to present and   elect for this parish; and if the parish of Higham should   make default in electing, then the benefit of such election   devolves to this parish.
ST. MARY'S
is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese and deanry of Rochester. The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is   a small building of one isle and a chancel. In this   church, in the nave, an inscription for Thomas Lukyn, obt.   1412, and Joane his wife. In the church yard is a tomb, partly sunk in the ground, for Henry White, a   benefactor to this parish, and others in this neighbourhood.
This church was formerly esteemed but as a chapel to the   church of St. Warburgh, Hoo, as appears by the instrument of   bishop Laurence, in 1274, recited more fully before, being   pensionary to that church, beyond memory, as to its mother   church, in the payment of half a marc yearly. This pension   continued part of the revenues of the priory there till the   dissolution of it in the 32d year of Henry VIII. when it was   surrendered into that king's hands, who the next year   settled it, by his dotation charter, on his new erected dean   and chapter of Rochester, part of whose revenues it now   remains. Notwithstanding the above decree of bishop   Laurence, the patronage of this church seems to have passed   in the same chain of ownership that the lordship of Hoo did,   and on a dispute concerning the right of presenting to this   rectory, on a vacancy in 1501, Sir William de la Pole, in   right of his wife Catherine, formerly wife of Sir Henry lord   Grey, who had in his life time presented to it, brought his   claim before the bishop's official, to establish his right   to it, and it was decreed to him by the definitive sentence   of the official; after which this patronage continued in the   possession of the proprietors of the manor of Hoo till Sir   Edward Hales, bart. in the reign of king Charles II.   alienated it; and after some intermediate owners it was   conveyed to Chapman, whose heirs sold it to Richard   Fletcher, A. M. rector of this church, whose son, the Rev.   Richard Fletcher, sold it, in 1786, to the Rev. Robert Burt;   whose widow, Mrs. Sarah Burt, is now entitled to it.
In the year 1476, a suit was commenced before the bishop's   official, against Richard Fletcher, rector of St. Mary's, by   the rector of the adjoining parish of Halstow, for the   recovery and establishment of certain tithes, as rector of   the parish of Halstow, which claim was then established to   him, by the definitive sentence of the official, as has been   already recited fully under that parish.
This rectory   is valued in the king's books, at 16l. 12s. 1d. and the   yearly tenths at 1l. 13s. 2½d.
On the dissolution of   deans and chapters, after the death of king Charles I. a   survey was taken in 1650, of the several ecclesiastical   livings in this diocese, by which it appeared, that here was   a parsonage presentative, worth 83l. 13s. per annum, Sir   Edw. Hales, patron; and Mr. Tracy, who had been sequestered   from Bredherste, incumbent.
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