Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/283

Rh they covered, pulled down other more considerable remains of the old episcopal mansion, which included walls of unusual thickness.

"Here, says Tanner, seems to have been a church, or monastery, built to the honour of St. Andrew in the time of Offa, king of the Mercians. The allusion is to Vol. VI of the present edition, p. 1163, num. vii, where Ferring is incidentally mentioned. There appears to have been some remains of this house in a free chapel or peculiar jurisdiction, which continued here all the time of K. Edward III. See Pat. 10 Edw. III, p. 1, m. 40 vel 41." (Monast. VI, 1624.) The other notice above referred to is in a charter of "Aldwlfus, dux Suthsaxonum," dated "anno incarnationis Domini nostri Jesu Christi DCCXI," naming "ecclesiam Sancti Andreæ, quæ sita est in terra quæ vocatur Ferring." (Ut sup. VI, 1163.) To me however it seems a matter deserving of consideration, whether the place intended may not have been Frant, which, as the Note below will prove, was sometimes called Ferring; and Rotherfield, to which Frant belonged till a comparatively recent date, being now only partially severed, is connected with the period of K. Offa by Berhtwald's donation of the manor to the abbey of St. Denis; refer to the Note on Rotherfield. In fact I conceive it most probable, that the convent erected at Rotherfield is identical with the "church or monastery of St. Andrew," mentioned above as existing at Ferring, and that the latter name really signifies Frant. Possibly on a critical examination of the original documents with this doubt in recollection the appearance of other names in the context might nearly or quite settle the question which place is meant. To the above allusions should be added, that a charter of Osmund of Sussex recites his having been requested by his count Walhere to grant him a small portion of land for the purpose of erecting a monastery, in accordance whereto he bestowed a spot called Ferring. "Ego Osmundus, rogatus a comite meo Walhere, ut sibi aliquantulam terram ad construendum in ea monasterium largiri dignarer; cuius precibus accommodans eandem terram, de qua suggerere uidebatur, pro remedio animae meae imperpetuum libenter impendo, id est xii tributarios terrae quae appellatur Ferring, cum totis ad eam pertinentibus rebus, campis, siluis, pratis, fluminibus, fontanis, et siluatica Coponoraet Titlesham." (Cod. Dipl. V, 49.) Whether the name, Ferring, belongs to the existing parish so called, or to Frant, might probably be ascertained by identifying the appellations "Coponora et Titlesham." If the term "