Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/304

246 about the beginning of the fourteenth century. In the village many stones may be observed, which have been previously used, and there was in my possession, brought from Kingston, a mutilated capital of Norm, character, apparently early, which may have belonged to a church.—Among the charters of William, third Earl Warenne, is a grant by Petrus Vicecomes of an acre of land at "Kyngeston"—we may presume this place—"ad ecclesiam faciendam—et tu Hugo vicecomes fac monasterium Si Pancratii saysiri ad opus ecclesiæ." (Chartulary of Lewes Priory.) Kingston and Iford vicarages form one cure. 149. .—The two churches are described in (D.B.) as in different portions of the manor. See the Note on Southwick.

149. near Ferring.—Great part of this parish, the church included, is believed to have been absorbed by the sea, the remainder containing only about four hundred acres of land. It is now, though nominally a rectory, annexed to the vicarage and parish of Ferring. The old register still exists, reaching from A.D. 1570 to 1660, after which last date there is no further entry; whence we may conjecture, that the church ceased to be used in 1661. The register is styled that of "the chapel" of Kingston. In the remaining portion of this parish, near the sea, the vicar of Ferring possesses about an acre and a half of glebe, in shape very long and narrow, which has been suggested as the possible site of the destroyed church, but no foundations nor vestiges of masonry are visible in the field, which moreover is separated from the road by another much larger inclosure, without any appearance of an ancient lane. A map of the early part of the seventeenth century places "Kingston chapel" in a line with land now existing untouched by the sea; and a similar entry occurs in Hondius' map of A.D. 1610, in Kip's about 1670, and Camden's. A tradition of the country points out certain rocks in the sea, below high-water mark, as the site of the old church; but this seems to be a mere conjecture. It is more probable perhaps, that it stood in the neighbourhood of the field above mentioned, where, on either side of the road, it is quite evident there were formerly several houses. A resident of Ferring almost an hundred years old (September, 1848) who has known the district nearly, if not quite, all his life, can give no traditionary information as to the situation of the church, or the date of its desecration; and it may be pronounced rather singular, that all knowledge of these facts should be completely