Residences of the Bishops of Rochester

( 131 ) RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. [NOTE.—The following papers, all, except the last one, from the pen of the late Canon A. J. Pearman, appeared in the Rochester Diocesan Chronicle for November and December 1905, January, February and September 1906, October 1908, and August 1909 respectively. They are reprinted here, with slight revision, in the belief that they are worthy of some more permanent place than the ephemeral pages of a periodical. The last paper of the series was contributed by the Revv. G. A. Tait and H. Percy Thompson, who have kindly rewritten and expanded it for publication in Archceologia Cantiana.—ED.] I.—ROCHESTER. At the outset it should be remarked that the term residence is adopted advisedly, because " Palace. " in strictness applies only to a Bishop's house, situated in his cathedral city. Nothing can be said with certainty as to the spot on which the Saxon Bishops of Rochester lived. Bede speaks of Putta in 673 as " Bishop of the castle of the men of Kent called Rochester," implying, it would seem, that the city was a strong place, and was also the abode of the Bishop. Ecgberht, King of Kent, in 765 granted to Eardulf of Eochester, " his faithful minister and bishop, land within the walls of the castle," so that the Bishops possessed property on which they could reside. The suggestion has been made by Mr. Clark (Mediceval Military Architecture, ii. 420) that the mount known as Boley Hill was thrown up in order to afford them such personal security as was found necessary at Sherborne. In Norman times it is clear that Gundulf had a dwelling at Rochester, for mention is made of his " aula," and it is stated that, in the last stage of his illness, he was carried into the monastery, "wishing rather to die, not as a bishop in the house of the more exalted, but as a monk and among the monks, in a more humble place." Some have thought that he lived in the tower on the north side of the K 2 132 RESIDENCES OT? THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. Cathedra], which bears his name, and was built before any part of the existing church. He may have done so for a while, and then removed to tho south-west corner of the Precinct, where, beyond doubt, the Episcopal Palace stood for several centuries, aud where, divided into two dwellings, there remains, on the line of the Roman wall of the city, a stone edifice about seventy feet in length, which unmistakably contains materials—tufa and Caen-stone—employed at an earlier date than that to which the bulk of the building belongs. When Gilbert of Glanville succeeded to the See in 1185, he "found the bishopric very ill-furnished, with mean and destroyed buildings; he shewed the solicitude of a Martha, and, in the first place, erected the Cathedral huuses, which had perished in the fire." Of his successor, Benedict, it is recorded that he " made all the halls belonging to the Episcopate," so that he may have carried on the work begun by Gilbert. In 1412, Bishop Yong decreed a temporary union between the benefices of Lullingstone and Lullingstane, from his " palace at Rochester." In 1459, Bishop John Lowe dated an agreement at his "new palace in Rochester." It is not likely that he erected an entirely new building, but that he remodelled and enlarged, on the eastern side, the structure of his predecessors. The existing edifice, while containing, as has been said, materials which must have been previously used, corresponds in a great degree to the style in vogue in Bishop Lowe's day. Two of the windows, a window label and the ceiled roof which covers the whole, are of the fifteenth century. The Palace is again mentioned in connection with proceedings concerning the election of "William Tisehurst to the Abbey of Lesnes, which took place 4th April 1513, "in the chapel within the palace of the reverend father in Christ, the Lord John, by divine permission Bishop of Rochester, situated within the precinct of the monastery." The next we hear of it is in a letter written by Erasmus in 1542. He had been on a visit to his friend Eisher and could not find words too strong to express his disapproval of the palace, as being too near the tidal river and with windows admitting an unwholesome air. On the 4th of July 1527, Cardinal Wolsey, on his way to France as an ambassador, was lodged iu the Palace, and in a letter written on the following day to Henry VIII., declared himself to have been " right lovingly and kindly entertained " by the Bishop. Seven years after, Eisher was committed to the Tower. Erom the inventory of his goods taken by royal command, we learn that the " house " as it is termed, conRESIDENCES OP THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. 133 tained : " his own bedd chamber," having a " great study within it," a "north ptudye," a "south galorye," a " chapell in the sh'.e of the south galory," a " brode galary," an " olde gaiery," a " warderobe," a " lytle study beside the wardrobe," a "great chappell," a "little chamber nexte the same," a "great chamber nexte the same," an "olde dynyng chamber," a " halle," a "parlor," a '' chamber nexte the same," a " clerk of the kytchyns chamber," " William Smadle's chamber," " Maister Wilson's chamber," a '• brew hous," a " cookes chamber," a " keching," and an " entre besides the kichyn." The rooms were probably arranged round three sides of a courtyard, facing north, with a garden behind, which would agree with the view of 1719 in Harris's Kent. The east wing, if it. existed, must have been demolished when the easternmost of the three houses, now on College Green, was (cellars excepted) rebuilt from the foundations. By the charter of 20th June, 33 Henry VIII., constituting the new Dean and Chapter, the whole of the large messuage, commonly called '• The Bysshopps Palayce," with all other lands and tenements held in right of the bishoprics, were assigned to Nicholas Heath, the Bishop, and his successors. Whether the house was out of repair, or had been let on lease, does not appear, but Bishop Poynet, who succeeded in 1550, was exempted from the order that no bishop should hold any benefice in commendam on the ground that he had no Episcopal palace, and was licensed to retain his other preferments until Lady Day, 1555. Half a century later, James I., accompanied by his brother-inlaw Christian IV. of Denmark, visited Rochester, and was lodged at the Palace, which, in 1635, was described as " though little, yet lively and handsome," and containing an armoury. In the return made to the Parliamentary Commissioners of 1647, the Episcopal property at Rochester is said to consist of " one great messuage called the Palace, where the Bishop's Court is held, four rooms in the tenure of Bathe, a gallery divided into 28 rooms and 4 chambers, the ward, a prison, wash-house, kitchen, three rooms, one orchard, and one garden." It was sold in 1649 to Charles Bowles and Nathaniel Andrews for £556 13s. 4<£ In all probability it was soon after this that the alterations were made, which changed the character of the place. At the Restoration, the property reverted to the Bishop, but was not again used by him as a residence. We are told that, in the leases granted for fives, the last dated 134 RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. 9th December 1826, the new houses are described as " all those four tenements now and for many years past made into and used as three tenements, which were erected where the Palace of the Bishop of Rochester stood, till the same were demolished in the Great Rebellion." The lessees of 1826 were Mrs. Twopenny and her son, the late Mr. Edward Twopenny, afterwards of Tunstall, who, in the next year, purchased the mansion from Bishop King. In 1836 Mr. Twopenny bought his mother's share, and, in 1870, sold the whole, with some additions, to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in order that it might become part of the new endowment of the Dean and Cha pter. The walls of the two houses are three feet thick, and the passages and cellars, extending to the third, are very massive. A few years ago,* some finely-carved capitals and shafts of columns, which might have belonged to the chapel, were dug up in the course of repairs to the western house; and the gable end, facing Boley Hill, presents some interesting features. In 1760 a registrar's office was built on the site of the Prison, by Bishop Pearce. While the houses on College Green remain, the name of the " Old Palace" should not be applied, as is commonly done, to the house in St. Margaret's Street. As the property of the Bishop in the Cathedral city, to which, in the absence of any other suitable residence, he might have come, had he chosen, it might more aptly be called the new Palace. It belonged to Erancis Head, Esq., eldest son of Sir Richard Head, Bart, (from whose house in the High Street James II. finally left England), and was settled by him, in 1678, subject to his wife's life interests, on the Bishop of Rochester and his successors, " in case the Church of England does continue so governed by Bishops of the true Protestant Eaith, for the maintenance of hospitality, near the Cathedral Church, and for an invitation to his Lordship and his successors to preach once in every year in the Parish Church of St. Margaret's, and one other time every year in the Parish Church of St. Nicholas, not so much in remembrance of me, a poor and unworthy benefactor, as for an incitement to others, who are more able to be more ready to do good to the present Church of England and to those who belong thereto." Mr. Head was buried in St. Margaret's Church, and in a few years the bequest took effect, but for one reason or another no attention was paid to the testator's wishes, and the property was let on lease until it fell into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and * This passage, it should be remembered, first appeared in. Novemher 1.9Q5. RESIDENCES OF THE B'tS'HOPS OF ROCHESTER. 135 was by them sold to the late Rev. Robert Whiston, formerly master of the King's School, to whose family it now belongs. I believe that Dr. Thorold once hired it for a month, but with that exception it is probable that no Bishop of Eochester has ever slept in it. The older part of the house has an attractive front of flint and woodwork, ornamentally arranged. It contains a fine staircase and chimney-piece, and some good panelling, and commands from the upper rooms a pleasant view of the river; but this later portion, built by Mr. Whiston for the purpose of his private school, does not harmonise with the rest. Satis House, the Bishop's present residence, is the property of the Foord family, and has no ancient connection with the See, unless there be any truth in the suggestion, for which no documentary evidence can be produced, that Boley Hill was thrown up for the protection of the Saxon Bishops. It stands on the site of a mansion, represented, in a plan of 1717, as of considerable size, with a turret and an archway leading apparently into a yard. In 1573 it belonged to Richard Watts, the founder of the " Six Poor Travellers," and a benefactor to the city, which he represented in Parliament. Here he entertained Queen Elizabeth on the last day of her visit to Rochester, when, in answer to his apologies for the insufficiency of the accommodation, she is said to have used the word " satis " only, by way of signifying her approval. Since that time the house has been known as " Satis." It subsequently became the property of Alderman Woodyer; then, in 1698, of Francis Brooke, whose grandson Joseph Brooke, Recorder of Rochester, having rebuilt it, sold it in 1785 to John Lougley, Esq., also Recorder of the city, father of the late Dr. Longley, successively Archbishop of York and of Canterbury. Satis is, on the whole, the most attractive residence in Rochester, though, without the addition of the adjoining house or houses, it scarcely meets the requirements of a Diocesan Bishop. In the garden and among the outbuildings are traces of the older mansion. It should be added that the " Satis House " of Dickens' Great Expectations is identical with "Restoration House," and must not be confounded with the house occupied by the Bishop. IL—LONDON. Eor some centuries the Bishops of Rochester possessed a house at Lambeth. The Manor had been granted by the Countess Goda, sister of Edward the Confessor, to the Church of Rochester, and 136 RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. having reverted for a while to the Crown, was restored to its former owners by King William Rufus. Whatever building stood upon it was probably but a lodge, occupied by the steward who managed the land for the Countess, and afterwards by the monk or monks who performed the same duty for the Priory. It would of course contain apartments, which might be used by the Lady, the Prior, or the Bishop, on a visit to London. In 1189 or 1190 Archbishop Baldwin obtained, by exchange, 24 acres of the property and a part of the "Court." His successor, Hubert Walter, negotiated a further exchange, giving the Manor and advowson of Darenth, with land at Cliffe, iu return for the Church and Manor of Lambeth. The business was concluded by Richard I. At this time the Bishop of Rochester, Gilbert of Glanville, held the Rectory of Lambeth with his See, and was entitled to certain accommodation when he required it. He therefore made his sanction to the transfer conditional on a pension of five marcs being secured from the Rectory to the Bishopric, and the grant of a piece of ground near Lambeth Church on which to build a house. On the spot so reserved, " where never before the Bishop of Rochester had a mansion of his own," Gilbert erected a town residence for himself and his successors. It was known as " La Place," or at any rate from its re-erection by Bishop Hamo of Hythe until 1500; after which the Bishops dated from their " house in Lambeth Marsh." It was there, while sitting at the table in his chamber that, in October 1326, Hamo heard the tumult of the mob who dragged the Bishop of Exeter from St. Paul's to Cheapside and beheaded him; and thence that, alarmed for his own safety, he immediately fled on foot into Kent. There, too, Bishop Eisher was nearly poisoned by his cook, who infused a deadly drug into the soup he was making, and caused the death of seventeen members of the household and of two poor people who had applied for charity. La Place was conveyed by Bishop Heath, in 1540, to the Crown, iu exchange for a house in Southwark, and granted by Henry VIII. to the Bishop of Carlisle. Thenceforth it was known as Carlisle House. The Parliament sold it, in 1647, to Matthew Hardyng, but at the Restoration it reverted to the See of Carlisle. After passing through many changes, becoming in turn a pottery, a tavern, a dancing saloon, a private dwelling, and a school, it was pulled down in 1827, and the site and grounds were covered by about eighty small houses, including Allen and Homer Streets, and parts of Carlisle Lane and Hercules BuildRESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS Oft ROCHESTER. 13? ings. Before they were built over, the grounds were encompassed by a high and strong brick wall which had in it a gate of ancient form opening towards Stangate. A smaller back gate in the south wall had over it two keys in saltire, and something resembling a mitre for crest. Two bricks, one upon the other, served for a shield. In the garden was standing, in the middle of the eighteenth century, a mulberry tree, which bore an excellent crop during the summer of 1753. It shaded nearly fifty yards in circumference; and between 400 and 500 pottles of fruit were gathered off it in one season. As a residence " La Place " had its drawbacks, for it was so situated that access to it could hardly be obtained without trespassing on the archiepiscopal premises, which caused frequent disputes between the officers and domestics of the two prelates. At length, in 1357, Archbishop Islip granted Bishop John of Sheppey a licence to build a bridge across a creek at Stangate, for the convenience of a more ready approach from the Thames. The second Town house attached to the See of Rochester stood very near to the church of St. Mary Overie, Southwark, and in close proximity to Winchester House, with its park of 60 acres. I have not met with any description of Rochester House. It does not seem to have been in use more than sixty years, having been taken down in 1604. The site is now covered by the Southwark Market House, built under the provisions of* an Act of Parliament obtained about 1750. The Bishops of Rochester who held the Deanery of Westminster obviously required no other town house than that with which their decanal office supplied them. The others would make their own arrangements. Dr. Murray lived, when iu London, in Chester Square. On his appointment to the See in 1891, Bishop Davidson took up his residence in Kennington Park Road; as did Bishop Talbot in 1895, until the completion of the new " Bishop's House " on the east side of Kennington Park, now the episcopal residence of the new Diocese of Southwark. III.—STONE BY DARTFORD. Bishop Lawrence of St. Martin complained in 1256 that he and his predecessors, being so much nearer to London than many other prelates, were obliged to attend State ceremonies, to their great cost and inconvenience: and Bishop Fisher in 1517 expressed his 138 RESIDENCES OF THE BISHORS OF ROCHESTER. regret that, when he had arranged to visit his Diocese, there came suddenly a message from the Court that he must be present at some triumph or public entry. On such occasions the Bishop going to, or returning from, town, would usually, in those days of slow travelling, rest at his Manor-house of Stoue by Dartford, where from Saxon times the See had possessed property. Ethelred II., in 995, gave Stantune, by which name Stone was then known, to Godwyn, Bishop of Rochester. In Domesday, in an enumeration of the lands belonging to the Bishopric, it is entered as Estanes. A valuation made during the reign of Henry III. describes the estate as consisting of 236 acres of arable, worth 3rf. an acre; 14 acres of marsh, worth 6d. an acre ; a mill, worth 10s. per annum, and certain dues and rents bringing the total annual value to £24 8s., from which 40s. had to he deducted for necessary repairs- I t is also said that there should be left in stock on the premises, at the death of a Bishop, one cart horse of the price of 10s., four stallions, four oxen, six cows, one bull, one hundred ewes, three rams, twenty-four hogs, one boar, one cart with iron tires, and one carter, and that the land should be sown at the cost of the executors of the deceased. On property of this scale there would of course be a residence together with the needful buildings; but the first definite mention of such is a record that Bishop Gilbert de Glanville between 11S5 and 1214 rebuilt at Stone all that had been consumed by fire. It was at Stone that Bishop Thomas of Inglethorpe in 1284 received the request of Archbishop Peckham to " reconcile " Bow Church, defiled by the murder of one Duckett, a goldsmith, who had fled thither for refuge. Iu 1321 Bishop Hamo of Hythe stopped at Stone on his return from the meeting of Parliament, and there bestowed his formal benediction on Roger of Dartford, the newly elected Abbot of Lesnes. There, too, he kept the Christmas of 1322, and there he refreshed himself after his flight from La Place in 1326. Seven years afterwards, in 1333, having inspected a window, no longer existing, which he had placed in the chancel of Dartford Church, he proceeded to Stone for the purpose of ordering the construction of a new wall required as a protection against the encroachment of the Thames; and in 1337 he expended a considerable sum in repairing the manorial buildings which stood near the churchyard, on its western side. Hasted, writing in the latter half of the eighteenth century, says: " The house has long been inhabited by the farmer of the demesne lands. • RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. 139 The only remains of the ancient mansion, which seems never to have been dignified with the name of a palace, is the great chimney in the centre." Soon after the Reformation the Bishops of Eochester practically ceased to live anywhere in the Diocese except at Bromley, and let their other residences with the lauds attached to them. In 1660 Sir John Young, Knight, was the Bishop's tenant in Stone for three lives. The property in question continued to be treated in this manner, until, having passed into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, it was sold by them in 1856, and thus finally alienated from the See with which it had been connected upwards of 850 years. The patronage of the Rectory, however, still remains with the Bishop. The two last Rectors were sons of the Bishop of the Diocese for the time being, William Walker King, Archdeacon of Rochester, and Frederick William Murray, an Honorary Canon of the Cathedra], through whose exertions the beautiful Church (probably erected during the episcopate of Lawrence of St. Martin, and by the mason of the chief portion of Westminster Abbey) was "restored " by Mr. G. E. Street. IV—TROTTE8CLIFEE. Another Manor-house of the Bishops of Rochester, at which some of them frequently resided, was at Trottescliffe or TrosJey, as it is commonly called, near Wrotham. If we are disposed to wonder why the occupants of so poor a see burdened themselves with so many dwelling-places, we must remember that they could hardly avoid it. When rents were paid not in money, but in kind, and means of transport were few, the most obvious course for landed proprietors was to consume the produce of their estates on the spot. And so we find that the nobles in the Middle Ages were accustomed to move from one of their manors to another, remaining in each so long as the supplies from the barn, the fold, the dovecot and the fishpond sufficed for the wauts of their retainers. They went, in short, to the stores which could not conveniently come to them. This partly explains why the Archbishop of Canterbury, for instance, whose possessions were widely scattered, had many more residences than would appear needful or desirable from the modern point of view. In the year 788 Offa, King of Mercia, gave six ploughlands, called Trottesclib, to the Church of Rochester and Wereuiund the ' 140 RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OJF ROCHESTER. bishop. The property was lost during the Danish Wars and not recovered until 1076. It was bounded on the east and south by Birling, on the west by Wrotham, and on the north by Meopham, with rights of pannage in the Weald. On the division of revenues between Gundulf and the monks, Trottescliffe was assigned to the Bishop " for the support of his table." It may be supposed that, soon afterwards, some buildings were erected there for his use. Whatever they may have been, they required renovation at the hands of Gilbert de Glanville in 1185, and were by him rendered much more convenient. In the reign of Henry III. the estate was valued at £8 Os. 5%d., viz., 200 acres of arable at 4sd. per acre, £3 6s. 8d., meadow and wood worth £1, and rents £3 13s. 91c?., and the necessary outgoings for repairs at £10 10s. In 1360 the value had risen to £15. Bishop Hamo of Hythe, having resided during Lent 1322 at Hailing, kept Easter at Trottescliffe, and caused some additions—a bakehouse and cowhouse—to be made to the house, which he had previously visited in November 1320. He came again in the spring of 1324, and on 2nd March admitted the newlyappointed Rector of Cuxton to deacon's orders in the parish church, where also he held another ordination on 11th April 1327. The year 1328 he passed chiefly at Trottescliffe, superintending the erection of a new chamber for the Bishop, another for his clerks, and a kitchen, as well as the high walls round the court, which the disturbed state of the country made only too necessary. There too, in his private chapel, he celebrated Mass on May 16th, 1339, before ordaining as an acolyte Robert de Brundissch, who had been instituted to the rectory of Woolwich nine days before; and there, in 1340, he held an enquiry concerning the non-residence of the Rector of Mereworth. In 1342 he spent twelve months at Trottescliffe, when he caused the Church to be repaired, as well as his own dining-hall and dormitory. In 1350, being " old and deorepid," he remained there the whole year. Indeed, so attached was he to this rural spot that it was one of the charges brought against him at the visitation of the Archbishop in 1330, that he passed his time at Hailing and Trottescliffe instead of making the circuit of the diocese. His successor Bishop John of Sheppey kept the Christmas of 1353 at Trottescliffe, as we may infer from the fact that on St. Thomas's Day of that year he held an ordination in the chapel of the manor house, at which four youths received their first tonsure. On the 11th April in the following year, in the same RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. 141 chapel, Bishop John admitted John de Tychemarsh to the rectory of North Cray, on the presentation of Sir Robert de Northwode. In 1388 Thomas Brinton, Bishop of Rochester, signed a decree at Trottescliffe concerning the founder's augmentation of his college at Cobham. In the next century, 1425, we find Bishop Langdon summoning Thomas Halle of Rochester to appear before him in Trottescliffe Church to answer a charge of heretical teaching against pilgrimages and the veneration of images. Later, in 1440, Bishop William Wells ordained there four acolytes and a sub-deacon, Marmaduke Skelton, the rector of the parish. Bishop Wells died in the manor house in February 1444, and no less than five of the Bishops made their wills within its walls. Hasted tells us what he also says of Stone, that "the Bishops of Rochester continued to reside occasionally at this palace till some years after the Reformation, about which time this, as well as the rest of their ancient manors and mansion houses in this county (excepting Bromley), were leased out by them for lives or years to different tenants, in which state the manor and mansion-house of Trottescliffe continue at this time. The family of Whitaker " has for some generations rented it, and has "resided at the manor-house. Thomas Whitaker, Esq., was Sheriff in 1743, as was his son in 1758, and both kept their shrievalty at this place." The property subsequently passed into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and was by them sold to the late Mr. Wingfield Stratford, of Addington Place, at whose death it was purchased by C. J. Soper Whitburn, Esq. Within living memory there were considerable remains of the episcopal residence, in the shape of a very rambling house, with a multitude of adjoining outbuildings, but these have all been swept away, and the house converted into an ordinary farm-house, with no marks of its former state but the high pitch of some of the rooms, and an old gate-way. V—HALLING. In Turner's Domestic Architecture of England, the well-known work published by Parker in 1851, it is stated, concerning Hailing: " The Bishops of Rochester had a palace here, of which there remains a gate-house and some walls of the hall and the chapel : these are said to be part of the work of Bishop Hamo de Hythe, between 1320 and 1330." The statement, however, refers to a con. 142 RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. dition of things which probably had ceased to exist nearly a century before 1851. Eor Hasted, writing in 1778, says : " The palace stood at a small distance from the church, near the banks of the Med way; in 1715 there was great part of the ruins of it remaining, as the chapel, the hall, and a gate, with the arms of the See of Rochester in stone: in which state it nearly remained till within memory, but within these twelve years it has been destroyed for the sake of the materials. There is a view of the ruins as they were not many years since in Grose's Antiquities. There was in a niche over the outside of the chief door, in 1720, the figure of Hamo de Hethe, dressed in his episcopal habit, in stone, about two feet high and elegantly finished. It was soon afterwards blown down in a great storm of wind, but escaped damage by falling on some grass. I t was afterwards presented to Dr. Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester." The last trace of the building was removed not long ago, in order, I believe, to widen the road. So far as can be judged from the old engraving, the Chapel stood parallel to the nave of the Church, between the latter and the river: the bulk of the mansion being to the east and having the gate-house on the north. The whole, with the bending river and the spire of the Church, forms a very picturesque group. Near the House, and adjoining the churchyard, was a vineyard, from which, in 1325, Hamo of Hythe sent a present of wine and grapes to Edward II. It was the duty of the Bishop's tenants to collect blackberries and carry them to his mansion to exchange for an equal quantity of clean grain, and also, if necessary, to furnish a man from each house to pick the grapes, in return for food to be supplied three times a day. The blackberries were probably mixed with the grapes to enrich the colour and sweeten the taste. The earlier history of Hailing is not very clear. It is said that Egberth, King of Kent, with the consent of his nobles, gave ten ploughlands in Hailing, with all their appurtenances, to Bishop Dioran and the church of Rochester, together Avith seven dennes in the Weald: a gift confirmed, among other witnesses, by King Heaberth and Archbishop Jaenberth. But the names aud dates do not agree with the received history of the period, and, in any case, it appears that during the Danish invasion the bishops of Rochester lost possession of their property, whenever and from whomsoever acquired; and did not recover it until after the Norman Conquest, and then only in part, In Domesday, Hailing is said to be held by RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. 143 the Bishop of Rochester. " The arable land is seven carucates. In Demesne there are three carucates and fifteen villeins, with nine borderers having six carucates. There is a church and two servants, and 30 acres of meadow and wood for the pannage of five hogs " We do not know by whom the first buildings on the episcopal property were erected, but there was a residence upon it previously to 1184, for in that year the Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard, Becket's successor, died there. Lambarde tells us that the Archbishop, being at his manor of Wrotham, had " a moste terrible dreame, or vision, in his sleep. It seemed to him that a verie grave and reverend personage came to his bedside by night, and demanded of him in a loude voyce, ' who art thou ?' with which noyse, when the Archbishop awaked, and for feare answered nothing, it added moreover, ' Thou art he that hast scattered the goods of the Churche committed to thy charge, and therefore I will scatter thee,' and so with the woord vanished out of sight. The Archbishop arose in the morning, and having intended a journey to Rochester, addressed himself thitherward: but this vision continually presented itself before the eye of his minde, and so troubled him, that for ease of his inward griefe he began to disclose the whole order of it to suche as were in his companie : whereof he had no sooner made an end, but he was forthwith stricken with such a horrour, and chille colde, that he was driven of necessitie to alight at Hailing, in his way, where in great torment he ended his lyfe, the next daye following." The house in which His Grace died was in such bad repair that Gilbert de Glanville, on his succession to the See in 1185, was obliged to take it in hand as well as the other residences belonging to the bishopric. In 1316 it was again in poor condition, for Bishop Thomas of Wouldham, by his will dated in that year, left all his timber at Hailing and elsewhere to replace the fallen roof and otherwise repair the hall. Hailing appears to have been the favourite abode of Hamo of Hythe. He spent the whole summer of 1322 at it, superintending the repairs and improvements he thought it advisable to carrv out. The new hall occupied a year and fifteen weeks in building, and entailed the large outlay for the time of £120. There he kept St. Andrew's Day in 1324, entertaining a party which included Henry of Cobham and many persons of distinction in the county, as well as Abbots and Priors. To the hall he added, in the follow144 RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. ing summer, a new chapel, a chamber, and a high wall to enclose the Court on the side towards the graveyard. It was from Hailing that, in 1329, he issued a mandate for the excommunication of certain parishioners of Brenchley who absented themselves from the church and injured it. And there he drew up the document in which, 30th April 1346, after saying that he had " noticed with sorrow that many of the clergy, though men of good lives and far from ignorant, were not able through want of suitable books properly to discharge their duties as penitentaries and parish priests," he went on to announce his gift to the Chapter of Rochester of a number of books, intended for the use of any who might wish to consult them in the Cathedral, and in moving language begged the librarians not "by ill-will or churlishness to throw any impediment in the way of this effort for the welfare of souls." In the next century the manor house of Hailing was the scene of Bishop Lowe's death. It occurred about eleven o'clock in the morning of September 30th, 1467, and is thus touchingly described in the book of his Oonsistorial Acts : " All night he had laboured in prayer and watching. Then rising, and sitting in his chair, as it were made new for the occasion, and placed before the chimney in his parlour, in the midst of his chaplains, servants, and officers, who were praying for and in attendance upon him, he expired as if sleeping, and without a groan yielded up his spirit most purely to his Creator, whose soul may the same God receive to His glory." On his tomb in the Cathedral are the words in Latin, " Jesus is my Love Thanks be to God," and the epitaph, " Lord have mercy on the soul of Bishop John Lowe. I trust to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. St. Andrew and St. Augustine, pray for us." Bishop Fisher occasionally resided at Hailing, and there is still extant the inventory of his goods there taken in 1534, on the occasion of his committal to the Tower by Henry VIII. Bishop Scor3r, in the reign of Edward VI., granted a lease of the manor and house for 99 years to Robert Dean, Esq., of Rochester, whose only child, Silvester, carried them in marriage to William Dalison, Esq., and, after his death, to her second husband, William Lambarde, the famous author of The Perambulation of Kent, published in 1576. On the wall in Hailing Church is a curious brass representing Silvester Lambarde in a large bed, with her two Dalison children standing on the one side, and on the other the four Lambardes, two RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. 145 of them lying in a cradle. She died in childbirth on 1st September 1587. During her life Mr. Lambarde occupied the mansion, but subsequently returned to his former home at Greenwich, where he died in 1601. Sir Maximilian Dalison afterwards lived at Hailing, but his grandson removed to West Peckham. In Hasted's time the Dalisons were still the Bishop's lessees. Since then the property has been finally alienated from the See, and the house destroyed. VI.—BROMLEY. When the Bishop of Rochester first obtained a grant of land at Bromley no one could foresee how valuable property in that neighbourhood would one day become. The soil was naturally healthy, but unproductive, abounding in broom, more picturesque than profitable. In 1255 the arable land did not repay the cost of cultivation, and a later return speaks of its " sterility." Little could it be imagined that it would ever fetch anything like hundreds of pounds an acre. The early history of the connection of the Bishops with Bromley is not very clear, but there seems no doubt that King Edgar, in the ninth year of his reign, 967, granted to St. Andrew and the Church of Rochester ten hides of land at Bromleage. His son Ethelred caused it to be laid waste, in consequence of a dispute with the Bishop, and bestowed a portion of it on one of his ministers. In 988, however, he restored six out of the ten ploughlands to the Church, which enjoyed possession until the Conquest, when Odo of Bayeux, the Conqueror's half-brother, obtained this with other property belonging to the See. It returned to its 2'ightful owners after the assembly at Penenden Heath in 1076. In the Domesday Survey the Bishop of Rochester is said to hold Bronlie, from which time down to our own days his successors continued to be the owners of the manor, with the exception of an interval of a few years, 1648—1660, when Augustine Skinner purchased it for £5665 lis. lid. from the Parliamentary Commissioners. He lost possession, however, at the Restoration. Some buildings would of course be necessary on so considerable an estate, but the first mention of any occurs in 1185, when Bishop Gilbert de Glanville, on his succession to the See, proceeded to make the " Cathedral houses at Hailing, Trottescliffe and Bromley more suitable to the purpose YOL. XXXIII. L 146 RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. for which they had been erected." After the Reformation the Bishops of Rochester lived chiefly at Bromley, though the palace at Rochester was in occasional use until the end of the reign of Charles I. Atterbury laid out £2000 on the house at Bromley, and refused to accept anything for " dilapidations " from the executors of his predecessor Sprat, who had spent much upon it. "But the greatest benefactor to it was Bishop Wilcocks, whose reparation of the buildings, and improvements of the garden and grounds, were executed with no small cost and elegance." The folio edition of Hasted's History of Kent contains an engraving of the house, taken before the year 1756, in which the gable of the old chapel is shewn to have been surmounted by a globular stone ornament, and similar stones are represented upon the tops of two small pinnacles which flank it. Some ornamental water, outbuildings, and a view of the grounds and timber of the surrounding park, are comprised in the picture. In the foreground are representations of (presumably) Bishop Wilcocks and two other figures. The first house and gardens probably did not cover a larger space than two acres, and were surrounded by a moat. The masonry supporting the ancient drawbridge, the remains of which consisted of a rude mass of flint and chalk, cemented together by mortar, which had become as hard as stone, were discovered by Mr. Child some years since, about forty-five yards north of the present house ; and it was then impossible to open the ground to the south without meeting with foundation walls, the lower portions of which were constructed of blocks of chalk. No account of important alterations exists till 1669, when the Archbishop granted a licence to Bishop Sprat to " demolish and take away" the old " Chappell," which was " wainscotted eight foote high with oake wainscott" and ornamented with the " oldfashioned small panels." This chapel adjoined the gate-house and was separate from the mansion, a room within which, thirty-nine feet long, was proposed as a substitute for the old chapel; and on October 30th, 1701, it was consecrated. This room, a low chamber with small windows, fitted in the usual way for the celebration of Divine Service, remains on the left side of the existing entrance, and is older than (at any rate anything above ground ol) the present house, which was built in 1775 by Bishop Thomas, and is a plain mansion of red brick with stone dressings. It contains a RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. 147 large entrance hall, with a good staircase of dark oak. In the library is a chimney-piece bearing the arms of the Bishop impaling those of the See. Standing in a small park, studded with fine elms and approached by an avenue of limes, the house presents a dignified and attractive appearance. The late owner, Mr. Coles Child, who bought the property about 1845, when Bishop Murray removed to Danbury, improved the house by building a new kitchen, and erecting a colonnade on the side towards the lake, as well as a porch, in which he inserted some modern stained glass representing the scene in Rochester Cathedral when the chaplain of John of Frindsbury, Rector of Bramley, made his way to the High Altar and excommunicated his Bishop by name. More than one Bishop of Rochester died at Bromley. About the time of the Feast of the Purification 1316, Thomas of Wouldham sickened. The Prior Hamo of Hythe, between whom and the Bishop ill-feeling had existed, thereupon hastened to Bromley, and falling prostrate before the dying man, begged forgiveness and absolution. The request was graciously received, and the two chief ecclesiastics of the diocese parted in a Christian spirit of peace. Bishop Johu Yonge died at Bromley 10th April 1605, and was buried in the chancel of the Church, where, during some recent alterations, a coffin, probably containing his remains, was found. His funeral, it appears from the Register, did not take place until May 14th. Bishop Sprat died at Bromley 20th May 1713, but was buried in Westminster Abbey. Bishop Pearce died at Ealing, where he usually spent the winter, in 1774, and was taken for burial to Bromley. During his episcopate he was accustomed to have " public days " when he entertained those of his friends and neighbours who chose to attend. The same custom was observed at Lambeth until the end of Archbishop Howley's life in 1848. As might be expected, we hear of ordinations held in the chapel of the house. Bishop Piers, for instance, during the year 1577 held no less than fourteen ordinations, chiefly at Bromley, but the number of candidates ordained at once never exceeded two. Of two events which occurred at the Palace mention must be made. First: Roger Forde, Abbot of Glastonbury, a man of great learning and eloquence, was killed here in the episcopate of Lawrence of St. Martin, 1261, while oti a journey which he had undertaken in defence of the rights of his church. Secondly : In 1692 a skilful forger, Robert Young, a prisoner in Newgate, tried to L 2 148 RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. ingratiate himself with the Government by discovering a pretended plot for the restoration of James TT. He drew up a paper to which he appended the signatures of Lords Marlborough, Cornbury, and Salisbury, and of Archbishop Sancroft and Bishop Sprat. The next thing was to get the paper into a hiding place in the house of one of the persons implicated. An accomplice was therefore sent to Bromley, who, unable to obtain access to any other apartment, dropped the paper into a flower-pot standing in a room near the kitchen. Information was then given to the Privy Council that if search were made at Bromley, especially among the flower-pots, a treasonable document would be found. Thereupon the Bishop of Rochester was taken into custody, and removed to the Deanery of Westminster. Both his houses were overhauled, but nothing discovered. The following day he was brought before the Council, and in ten days allowed to return to Bromley. In the meanwhile the accomplice paid another visit to Bromley, and taking the paper from the place where he had hidden it, and where it had been overlooked, brought it back to Young, whose wife carried it to the Secretary of State. Finally the Bishop and his accusers were confronted and the truth came out. To the end of his life Sprat observed the anniversary of the day with gratitude to the Almighty for his escape. Later in the year he published a full account of what was known as " The Flower Pot Plot." Hasted says : " There is a well in the Bishop's grounds, near his garden, called St. Blaise's well, which, having great resort to it antienfly, on account of its medicinal virtues, had an oratory annexed to it, dedicated to that saint. It was particularly frequented at Whitsuntide, on account of a remission of forty days enjoined penance to such as should visit this chapel and offer up their orisons therein on the three holy days of Pentecost. This oratory falling to ruin at the Reformation, the well likewise came to be disused, and the site of both in process of time was totally forgotten, and continued so till the well was again discovered in the year 1754, by means of a yellow ochrey sediment remaining in the tract of a small current leading from this spring to the corner of the moat, with the waters of which it used to mix. In digging round the well there were found the remains of the old steps leading down to it, made of oak-plank, which appeared to have lain underground a great many years. The water being a good chalybeate was, by the Bishop's orders, secured " against contamination RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOFS OF ROCHESTER. 149 and inclosed, "in hopes it might prove beneficial to such as should drink it. Since which numbers of people, especially of the middling and poorer sort, have been remarkably relieved by it from various infirmities and diseases, which were not only afflicting, but some of them dangerous." Over the rediscovered well a rustic temple; supported by six pillars and covered with thatch, was erected. The little building, having fallen into decay, was restored by the late Mr. Coles Child, but perished in the heavy snow storm of 1887. The well itself still exists, though it is no longer frequented for its medicinal properties. I t would seem, from the correspondence of Bishop Atterbury, that there was iu his day a sun-dial, probably on the wall at the Palace, bearing the inscription, found elsewhere, Vivite, ait, fugio. Writing to Pope from Bromley, 25th May 1712, he says : " You know the motto of mj sun-dial. I will, as far as I am able, follow its advice, and cut off all unnecessary avocations and amusements." In another letter the following epigram occurs :— " Vivite, ait, fugio Labentem tacito quisquis pede conspicis umbram Si sapis, hoec audis: ' Vivite, nam fugio' Utilis est oculis, nee inutilis auribus umbra: Dum tacet, exclamat, ' Vivite nam fugio.' Whoso on hushed foot mark'st the gliding shade If wise thou hearest, ' Live ye, for I fly,' To eyes and ears the shadow lends its aid, Silently crying, ' Live ye, for I fly.' " Of course no trace of the dial n©w remains. Anyone who wishes further information concerning Bromley should consult a paper by Dr. Beeby in Vol. XI I I . of Archceologia Cantiana: another by Mr. Philip Norman in Vol. XXIV.: Antiquarian Jottings by Mr. George Clinch; [and lastly a paper by Mr. Philip Norman in this Volume]. VII.—BISHOP'S COURT, SEVENOAKS. Since the foregoing articles have not confined themselves exclusively to permanent See houses, they may be supplemented by a short account of Bishop's Court, Kippington, without entering into the question of its permanency, or otherwise, as an official residence for the Bishops of the Diocese. 150 RESIDENCES OF THE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. Kippington—or as it was then written, Keppington—is found in the fourteenth century as forming part of the estates of Reginald de Cobham, who lived at Sterburgh Castle, Edenbridge, and died in 1362, during the reign of Edward III. A grandson, Sir Thomas Cobham, bequeathed the property to his daughter Anne, who, by her marriage with Sir Edmund Borough of Gainsborough, conveyed it to the Borough, or Brook, family. Sir William Borough, their grandson, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, sold the estate which had for upwards of two hundred years been, in male or female line, in the possession of the Cobhams, to a certain Robert Burgess, of Leigh. Burgess's sister brought it by marriage into the family of Hanger, who sold it to the Cowpers, the latter in their turn parting with it in 1636 to Thomas Earnaby. This man, according to Anthony a, Wood, was the leading grammarian, rhetorician, poet and classical scholar of his time, his works gaining high appreciation, not only in his own country, but from the most eminent scholars on the Continent. He had a school in London, which, owing to his high reputation, rapidly grew in numbers and renown, so that "more eminent men in Church and State issued thence" than from any similar establishment in England. Having purchased the estate of Kippington, to which he afterwards added further lands at Otford and at Horsham, Earnaby transferred his school from London. During the Civil Wars he suffered much persecution, being suspected of favouring and aiding the Royalists. This is quite probable, since we read of the " three hundred noblemen and gentlemen " who had been passing through his hands. In 1647 he died, at the age of 72, and was buried in the chancel of Sevenoaks Church. Francis Farnaby, a son of Thomas Earnaby, was granted a coat of arms for his services to the Royal family, and Charles, his son, was knighted in 1716. He acted as High Sheriff of Kent 1720, and in 1726 was created a Baronet. Sir Thomas, his heir, was in his turn succeeded by Sir Francis Earnaby. Sir Francis, who for many years was an M.P. for Kent, rebuilt Kippington House. His successor, Sir John Farnaby, Bart, (of Kippington and Wickham), on removing to Wickham Court in this county, sold Kippington in 1796 to Francis Motley Austen, who left the property to his son Colonel Thomas Austen, M.P. for West Kent 1846-1847. Colonel Thomas Austen's second wife was a sister of Cardinal Manning, RESIDENCES OF TflE BISHOPS OF ROCHESTER. 151 whose family was living at Combe Bank, Sundridge. An incident that may be worth recording happened in the time of Colonel Austen. On the occasion of the acquittal of Queen Caroline in 1820 great rejoicings were held in Sevenoaks. Colonel Austen refused to take part in these, whereupon all the windows of Kippington House were smashed by the populace of Sevenoaks. It may also be of interest to note that the famous authoress, Miss Jane Austen, was a member of this family. Colonel Thomas Austen was succeeded by his nephew John Francis Austen, who in 1865 sold the house and grounds to William James Thompson, who, like his predecessor already mentioned, served as High Sheriff of the county in 1888, having in 1880 built Kippington Church, of which his son is the present Vicar. In 1907 the geographically central position of Sevenoaks led to Kippington becoming by lease the residence of the 101st Bishop of Rochester, and the name of " Bishop's Court" was adopted instead of that of Kippington House.