Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/116

80 (preserved in the Text. Roff., see the Note on Rochester) "Lillecirce" is mentioned, and likewise " Heahham," (230), which last name seems intended for Higham; but we do not know of two churches in the parish, unless one belonged to the nunnery, noticed below. In (Val. Eccl.) however we find the chantry of Higham named in addition to the vicarage.—A nunnery here, called Lillechurch, was founded (by K. Stephen, Hasted) before A.D. 1151. (Tann. Notit. Monast. Kent, XXXIV, in Monast. IV, 378.)

160. .—This place now, as ever, ranks merely as a chapelry in Saltwood parish, though even (D.B.) speaks of the "Borough" of Hithe, but as lying within the manor of Saltwood.—Leland imagined Hithe church to stand on the site of an abbey, and that ruins of the conventual buildings remained in his time, but if so, they have long disappeared. He also states, that formerly there were four (other) parish churches in Hithe, namely, St. Nicholas, Our Lady, St. Michael, and West Hithe, and that vestiges of them and their churchyards existed in his days. This is not (fully) confirmed by other writers. The present church is dedicated to St. Leonard. (Hasted.) Kilburne too mentions the demolition of four churches here, but with a variation as to the titles, as, St. Mary, St. Nicholas, St. Michael, and St. Bernard. Since he afterwards describes West Hithe, of which he declares the church to have been called St. Mary's, it is probable that in both instances he alludes to the same building.

The hospital of St. Andrew (Kilburne names it St. Bartholomew) in Hithe was founded jointly by Hamo, bishop of Rochester, and the commonalty of the port of Hithe, temp. K. Edward III. (Monast. VI, 709.) The charter of the foundation of the above, A.D. 1336, contains an allusion to another hospital for lepers in the borough. (Tann. Notit. Monast. Kent, XXIX, 3, in Monast. VI, 764.) The hospital of St. John in Hithe is not mentioned previous to A.D. 1562. (Ib.)

161. .—This chapel (in the parish of Tenterden) was first licensed by Archbishop Warham 5 May, 1509, in which year liberty was granted to bury here bodies cast by the sea on the shore, "infra predictum oppidum de Smallhyth." (Hasted.) This would imply that the sea, or an estuary at least, then reached to the spot, which appears hardly credible.

162. .—The vicar of this place is named in (Val. Eccl.), and it still stands as a vicarage in the (Clergy List.) The ruins of the church (toward the end of the last century)