Preston Church, next Faversham

( 126 ) PEESTON CHURCH, NEXT EAVEESHAM. BY CANON SCOTT ROBERTSON. THIS church, dedicated to St. Catherine, has been much changed during the past forty years.* A fragment of stone, still preserved in the church, with Saxon carving upon it, suggests that there was a church here long before the Conquest. Before the reign of Alfred the Great, the principal manor in this parish was given to "Wulfred, Archbishop of Canterbury, in A.D. 822, by Cenulph, King of Mercia, who had made Kent a tributary kingdom. During the years following it acquired the name of the Priests-tun, and in A.D. 941 it was restored to the Church of Canterbury, by King Edmund and his family, for the use of the Monks of the Archbishop. It was then called Trestentun. The Saxon Ecclesiastics would not have left their tenants here without a church wherein to worship. All traces of that church, except this fragment, have vanished. The Norman church here, from about A.D. 1100 to 1200, was in plan a straight line. It had a simple nave and a simple chancel, without any aisle whatever. Probably there was a bell turret at the west end. The northern wall of that church remained standing for 700 years. It was pulled down in 1866, and Mr. Clark then found, in its masonry, remains of the original Norman windows, high * Both arcades in the nave are modern. That on the south was built in 1853-5, under the direction of Mr. R. C. Hussey, a well-known architect, to replace two broad and bare Early English arches that had been pierced through the old Norman wall. The entire north aisle is modern. It was built in 1866-7 from the designs of Mr. Joseph Clark, as were the porches, both north and south; the top of the tower and its spire, and turret-stair (to the belfry) which stands upon the site of an old lean-to erection. The Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, in 1855, placed the chancel in the hands of their surveyor and architect (Mr. Austen) for restoration. He designed the east window of four lights which had been made for insertion in Canterbury Cathedral. Mr. Austen also restored the sedilia and piscina (beautiful works of the Decorated style of architecture), and unfortunately he misinterpreted the portions of oarved work which had become decayed and detached. The gables and pinnacles now seen above the sedilia are entirely the result of Mr. Austen's imagination. The old horizontal string which formed the original top or cresting of the sedilia remains untouched, but it is unhappily obscured by Mr. Austen's additions. In 1866 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners completed the repair of the chancel, and their architect (Mr. Christian) laid bare the unwrought stone in the chancel walls. That unwrought stone had originally been covered with plaster, which no doubt had been ornamented with coloured designs in fresco or distemper. Outside the chancel's south wall, there seems to have been a small erection with lean-to roof just east of the tower. This was removed at the restoration. This recapitulation of the modem work visible to the eye enables us to understand how the ohuroh grew to its present plan and appearance. — H E,Ds\tjE- oeur- PRESTON, CHURCH OF ST KATHERINE. BY FAVERSHAM. / Fragment of Angljc-Haxan carvuuj. circa A.J). BOO. 2. Carsrd siotuy frag/ruttf.-. area* A.D. OOO. 3 Ranrgfa statu* efgl h'atheciac, circa. A.D 1150. I-.'THQ-S-FURNlvAt, S* HOLIOBn C t. PRESTON CHURCH. 127 up, and widely splayed. The southern wall of the simple Norman church did not entirely disappear until 1855, when Mr. Hussey inserted the existing south arcade. In fact, I am not sure that it entirely disappeared, even then. It is highly probable that a blank piece of wall at the south-west of the nave may still contain some of the Norman masonry of the twelfth-century church. About A.D. 1200, or a little later, additions were made to the plan of the church throughout. The chancel seems to have been lengthened, and the existing lancet windows were inserted in its north and south walls during the thirteenth century. A tower was built on the south of the nave at its eastern end. The south wall of the nave was pierced with two pointed arches, and a south aisle was added. That was the plan of the church (nave with south aisle, southern tower, and an aisleless chancel) in 1290, when a foreigner (Gaucher de Dolina), who had been Eector of Preston, was deprived of the benefice. Probably he was an Italian priest who, by the Pope's Dispensation, had been non-resident. A local clergyman was appointed to succeed him, called Symon of Paversham. His actual surname was Marchaunt. He had been ordained an acolyte in September 1283 by Archbishop Peckham, in Paversham Church. This Symon was ordained sub-deacon and deacon at Booking, in September 1290, his title for deacon's orders being the rectory of this church. Not long after the appointment of this young and active native of Paversham, many improvements were made in tbe church. They were in that style of architecture which we call " Decorated," and may have been carried out during the reign of Edward the Second. In the chaucel, the beautiful sedilia and piscina, with their carved diaper, in stone; a chaneel window in the south wall, near its western end; a piscina in the tower's north wall, just outside the chancel screen; southern windows in the aisle; and two canopied tombs, one north of the nave and another north of the chancel, were all inserted during the Decorated period of English architecture. The carved work upon the sedilia is very good indeed. So is the fragmentary base of an image of St. Catherine, which stands upon a bracket inserted into the east wall of the south aisle. The Saint's figure is lost, but her emblem, a Catherine wheel, is carved twice among the foliage at her feet. The south-west window of the chancel is so good an example of Decorated work, that it was engraved by Mr. Parker in his Glossary of Architecture. The south doorway of the church and the north doorway of the tower are of the fourteenth century. Of the two Decorated tombs we have no history. That in the chancel is well carved, and was probably used as an Easter Sepulchre. That in the nave's north aisle, which is quite plain, was moved from the north wall of the nave when the north aisle was built. The grave beneath it contained the bones of a tall man. They were reverently buried beneath the old tomb on its new site. In the south aisle, a chantry altar was screened off from the nave, and from all who entered the aisle by the south door, by parclose 128 PRESTON CHTJRCH. screens of wood. A section of the moulded upper beam of the western parclose may still be seen in the south wall of the aisle. In the west wall of that south aisle the old Tudor window, now seen there, was inserted in 1866, when the north aisle was built. It had been originally in tbe north wall of the nave, towards its eastern end, where it was perhaps placed to give light to the pulpit, which formerly stood against the north Avail, about midway between its east and west ends. The arch seen in the south aisle's west wall had no connection with this window. It is formed from moieties of two different arches. They may have been brought from the west wall of the nave. When the present west wall of the nave was recased with stone and flint, in 1857, the great window was taken out, and its stonework repaired and reset. Above that window were discovered remains of two arches of former windows, one above the other. They may have been built into the aisle's west wall. In November 1399 Archbishop Arundel collated to the benefice of Preston the Eev. John Sturrey. This incumbent seems to have been an enterprising builder. In the Vicarage house, at the west end of the churchyard, he established a little chapel. Its east window had coloured glass, representing St. Anthony (with his emblem, the pig) and St. Catherine, as we learn from Lewis's History of Faversham (Appendix p. 28). Beneath the two saints was a kneeling figure of Mr. Sturrey, the Vicar. He was represented in a purple cope, and from his lips issued a prayer addressed to St. Catherine, " Virgo Katherina peccantibus esto benigna." In the tracery of the window appeared the arms of Archbishop Arundel, the patron who collated Sturrey to this benefice, and a shield bearing the arms of the Dryland family, whose residence was at Cooksditch, in Paversham. During the fifteenth century, probably, the rood screen was erected, and a staircase to the rood loft was inserted within the tower. The base of the rood screen still remains. Two ancient benches, with poppy head finials of this period, are still in use in the chancel. The poppy head on the north side is ruder and more modern than that on the south. Many tiles (probably of the fifteenth century) found in various parts of this church have been collected and placed together in the floor of the chancel. At what period the tower suffered the loss of its spire, and when the south porch was taken down, we do not know. The existing south porch aud the spire upon the tower are modern restorations. In the tower are three bells, of which the largest diameters are 19| inches, 22 inches, and 25 inches. The second in point of size, inscribed " Love G-od 1575," is the oldest of the three. "When the west wall of the church was under repair a small wooden box was found some distance north of the west door. It contained a little dust only and it broke in pieces when touched. The only ancient glass in this church is now in the northeast window of the chancel (behind the Boyle monument), wherein it was reset by Mr. Willement. The modern stained glass in the windows of the chancel is the work of Clayton and Bell, All these WILL OP WM. DE MAKENADE. 12 9 windows were inserted as memorials, three of them by the Perkins family, one by Mr. Osborne Barnes, and one by the family of Mr. Wilks of Davington Hill. Outside the south door of the church was buried, in 1407, the owner of an estate which, like him, is still called Macknade. This gentleman by his will, proved on the 18th of May 1407, directed that his body should be interred nude, without wrapping or covering of any kind, in the parish churchyard here, outside the entrance to the south door of the church. According to the custom of that period, he made arrangements intended to benefit his soul. His bequests for this purpose are more numerous, and more remarkable, than those of any other person whose will I have read. To the Churchwardens of Preston he bequeathed ten cows, desiring that out of the money derived from farming them a taper should annually be kept burning at the Easter Sepulchre,* in the church, from Good Eriday morning to the hour of the Eesurrection of our Lord. In order that prayers might be said for his soul by a large number of people, be bequeathed 12d. to each and every prisoner for felony then in custody within the gaols of Canterbury, Eochester, Maidstone, Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Eomney, Paversbam, and within Canterbury Castle. To each and every prisoner for debt, in those gaols, he bequeathed 20d. To obtain prayers for his soul, within the Monastic Houses of this county, he bequeathed £23 to that number of small establishments. This amount was to be distributed, in sums of £1 each, to " the Eeligious " of Dover Priory, St. Gregory's Priory (Canterbury), of St. Eadegund's Abbey, and that of Langdon, to the Nuns of Shepey and of Dartford Priory, to the Dover Domus Dei, Bilsington Priory, and that at Horton, to Bayham Abbey, to Combwell Priory, to the Carmelite Priars at Sandwich, at Aylesford, and at Lossenham, to the Augustinian Priars at Canterbury, the Nuns at Davington, to Ospringe Domus Dei, Cobham College, Modynden House of the Holy Trinity, to the Nuns of Malling Abbey, Lesnes Abbey, and " Tunbridge" Priory. He bequeaths £46 14s. 8d. to be divided among the greater Monastic Houses of Kent. These greater Houses were not to share equally. He apportioned to the Prior and Convent of Christ Church at Canterbury £10; to the Abbot and Convent of St. Augustine at Canterbury 10 marks (£6 13s. 4d.); to the Abbot and Convent of Paversham £6 13s. 4d.; to the Minor Priars of Canterbury £5 ; to the Preaching Priars of Canterbury £3. Por houses in the diocese of Eochester he makes his bequests of two kinds:—to the Prior of Eochester £2, to the other religious there £5; the Abbot of Boxley £ 1 6s. 8d., to the other religious there £2 ; the Prioress of Higham £1, to the other religious there £2 ; the Prior of Leeds £1, to the other religious there £2. To the brethren of every Hospital in Canterbury he bequeaths 13s. 4d., and a similar sum to every Hospital of the Poor that stood upon the highroad between Boughton Blean and Deptford. * The tomb in the north wall of the chancel, about midway between the east end and the chancel aroh, was probably used as Sepulchre at Easter. TOD. XXI. K 130 PRESTON CHTJRCH. That the highway between Boughton Blean and Ospringe may be put into good repair, he bequeaths £10; thus bespeaking the prayers of many who travelled over that road. This testator William de Makenade left a widow, Margeria, surviving him, and she was to share his household utensils equally with his grandson (nepos) Thomas de Bromston. This grandson and heir was a co-executor of the will, the other executors being John Drylond, senior (of Cooksditch), John Brynkeley, senior, and John Sturrey, Vicar of Preston. William de Makenade left legacies to his two brothers, viz. £2 to Peter Makenade and £2 to Thomas Makenade. The testator (whose body was buried in 1407 at the south door of Preston Church) had suffered much from the Eebels, connected with Wat Tyler, in 1381. On the 10th of June in that year they entered his premises at Macknade in Preston, and he barely escaped with his life.* His kinsman Stephen Makenade was driven from his house, called " The Lymost" at Preston, by the Eebels who destroyed his goods and chattels. A fine monumental brass in the chancel bears the effigies of Valentine Baret, of Perry Court, and of Cecilia, his wife, a daughter of Marcellus at Lese, and a co-heir of Eichard at Lese, of Sheldwich. He died in 1440 on the 20th of November, and she in 1442(3) on the 11th of March. This gentleman's family had possessed Perry Court for a century, but he had no son. His only daughter, Joane Baret, married John Darell of Calehill. Their descendants, Darells of Calehill, possessed Perry Court until the reign of Henry VIII. The name of Valentine Baret's family was perpetuated by Valentine's younger brother John, who married Alice de Bel house, an Essex heiress. Their descendant, the Lord Newburgh, adopted his kinsman, Eichard Lennard, and the family of Barrett-Lennard in Essex thus keeps before the modern world the ancient name of the Barets, of Perry Court, in Preston. Valentine Baret, in right of his wife, presented an incumbent to the Free Chapel of St. Stephen in the parish of Selling, in January 1436(7). The site of that Chapel is not now known. Another monumental brass was placed in the chancel by Master Wilham Lee, who became Vicar of Preston in June 1438, having been Eector of Halden up to that time. The brass commemorated his sister, and bore a Latin inscription which is thus translated:— Here lieth Emmola Lee (sister of Mr. William Lee, vicar of this church) who died 31st of October 1440. On whose soul God have mercy. In the chancel lies a very fine monumental brass in memory of William Mareys, who died on the 31st of August 1459. The armour worn by Mr. Mareys proves that he was what modern society would call " a smart man." He was undoubtedly a courtier. He had * Archaologia Cantiana, III., 90. CF. KCLL. PHOTO. PROCESS. • Pun PRESTON BY FAVERSHAM. Tomb of Roger Boyle and, Ids wife, erected, by their sons Richard, first. Earl, of Cork, anil, John,, Bishop of Cork, at Ihe north east rorner of tlie j-arh' English, Cfuuicel. TOMB OP THE PATHER OP THE EARL OP CORK. 131 been an honoured esquire of King Henry V., aud after that king's death he filled a similar position in the suite and household of Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England, to whose household he probably belonged when he died. How came this smart gentleman to live at Preston, and to be buried here ? There was a lady in the case. That lady was Joan, the wealthy widow of Thomas Bromston, mentioned above, the owner of Macknade in Preston. She had been born at Sharsted, of which manor her father, Bartholomew Bourne, was the lord. William Mareys was a native of Harrietsham. Possibly Joan Bourne aud he had been friends from childhood. At all events, when she became a widow she wedded Mareys, and brought him to Macknade to share her home. He seems to have died in the prime of life. His wife survived him for six years; his brother Thomas (Eector of Stourmouth) lived until 1472, and his sister, Theobalda Evyas, still later. His widow Joan probably caused this monumental brass to be placed here. From the lips of his effigy issued Latin words which mean " I will sing the mercies of the Lord for ever ;" on the stone slab the words " Mercy Jesu " are twice repeated. She herself was buried here beside her first husband, Thomas Bromston, iu the churchyard. Macknade had been inherited by Thomas Bromston from his grandfather, William de Makenade. The handsome marble monument on the north side of the chancel (beneath the easternmost window on that side) was erected in 1629 by Eichard, first Earl of Cork, to the memory of his father and mother. It shews their two figures recumbent upon an altar-tomb. Their two sons, John Boyle, Bishop of Cork (1618—20), and Eichard Boyle, Earl of Cork (1620—43),Viseount of Dungarven, Baron of Youghall (1616—43), are seen kneeling beside the tomb; the bishop at the east end, the earl on the west. Along the southern front of the tomb are smaller effigies of a third son, Hugh Boyle, slain in the wars abroad, and of two daughters, Elizabeth, wife of Piers Power, and Mary, wife of Sir Eichard Smyth. This tomb was erected 53 years after the death of the earl's father, Eoger Boyle, and 43 years after the death of the earl's mother Joan (nee Naylor). The inscription to their memory runs thus: " Here lyeth entombed the body of Eoger Boyle, late of this parish of Preston, esquire, who descended of the ancient and worthy family of the Boyles in Herefordshire, as also of Joan his faithful and loving wife, daughter of John Naylor, of Canterbury, gentleman, who as they lived and loved together so were both here buried together, leaving three sonns and two daughters here under depictured." Eoger Boyle died on the 24th of March 1576, aged only 47, his youngest son, Hugh, having been baptized here on the 4th of May previous. He had married in 1564, so that he and his Joan lived and loved together during thirteen years at most. His eldest son was John, tlie bishop; his second son, Eichard, the earl, was only ten years of age when his father died, having been born at Canterbury in 1566. His mother survived until March 1586. She lived to see her son enter upon University life at Benet (now Corpus Christi) College in Cambridge, and select the K 2 132 PRESTON CHURCH. law as a profession. Finding at the Middle Temple that he could not afford to complete a course of legal study he entered the service of Sir Eoger Manwood, a well-known Chief Baron of the Exchequer. But his mother died two years before her son went to Ireland. He says he arrived at Dublin on Midsummer Eve 1588, and in writing his True Remembrances he speaks lovingly of the good mother whom he had buried here in Preston. " The great Earl of Cork," as he was commonly called, wrote: "When I first arrived (in Dublin) all my wealth was but £27 3s. Od, in money, and two tokens which my mother had given me:—viz. a diamond ring, which I have ever since worn, and a bracelet of gold worth about £10." We may hence infer that an enduring influence for good had been exerted over the young son by the lady here interred who was so affectionately remembered by him. Happy son to have such a mother! Happy mother to hare such a son! From the couple here buried sprang a race of able useful men, who served their country well, and were greatly honoured. Their two sons became peers of Ireland. Of their grandsons four became peers and the firth was Eobert Boyle, the famous philosopher. Each of the five achieved special renown; they were distinguished as the Eich, the Valiant, the Wise, the Just, the Philosopher. In their descendants were vested the Earldoms of Cork, of Burlington, of Orrery, and of Shannon. Carlton House, the London residence of George IV., when Prince Eegent, was bequeathed to Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of George III., by a grandson of this worthy couple. He had been created Lord Carleton in 1714, but he died unmarried in 1725. It is believed that Eoger and Joan Boyle, progenitors of this distinguished race of men, resided in Preston Plouse—but this is not perfectly certain. If so their residence was a timber-framed edifice of a well-known Kentish type. It stood until 1788, when John Bax, Esq., having purchased it from Mr. George Smith (his father, Mr. Thomas Smith, junior, purchased Preston House, in 1769, from Mrs. Sarah Philpot, nee Dawes), pulled down the ancient house and built the red-brick mansion which still exists near the church, and nearly opposite to the Vicarage house. Two children, members of the Boyle family, were subsequently buried bere. One, a boy nine years of age, who died at Canterbury in 1675, on the 9th of April, was Eichard, eldest grandson of tbe second Earl of Cork, who had been created Earl of Burlington also. Had he lived this lad would have been third Earl of Cork and second Earl of Burlington, as the boy's father Charles, Lord Clifford and Dungarvau, died before the earl his father. The other was a little girl, aged seven, Charlotte Isabella Boyle, granddaughter of Edmund, seventh Earl of Cork and Orrery. She died in June 1816, at Sheerness, where her father, the Hon. Courtney Boyle, was Commissioner in the Dockyard. A mural monument upon the east wall of the nave, north of the chancel arch, bears kneeling effigies in miniature of Thomas Finch, of Preston House (who died in 1615), and bis wife Bennet (nee Maicott) who died in 1612(3). This mural monument was erected by his nephew John, son of Clement Pinch, of Grovehurst, in Milton. PRESTON BY FAVERSHAM. MONUMENTAL BRASSES (Marrys I4SS: Barret. 1442.) PRESTON CHTJRCH. 133 Mr. Thomas Finch had in his lifetime placed here a monumental brass bearing the effigy of his wife Bennet, the young widow of Mr. William Norton, of Heme Hill, and the heiress of her father, William Maicott or Mayeott, of Faversham. She married him on October 31st 1566, and they lived together forty-six years until she died, aged 68, on the 13th of Pebruary 1612(3). Their only child John Pinch (born in 1575) died young. Consequently her husband (by his will dated the 8th of October 1615) made his nephew, John Finch, of Grovehurst, iu Milton, his heir, and left to him Preston House. He mentions in his will that his niece, Benet Pinch, had married Edward Hales, and that Eeginald Knatchbull was his brother (being a son of his father's wife, Alice Knatchbull, by her first husband). Thus we find that Mr. Thomas Pinch was closely connected with some of the best families in Kent—those of Hales, Knatchbull, Mayeott, and Norton. Preston House had belonged to William Mayeott. The Finches were connected with this parish for many years.* John Pinch died here, and Mary his widow, having married Thomas Southouse, the elder, esquire, was brought hither to be buried at the end of June 1677. During the life of Thomas and Bennet Pinch other members of the Pinch family were also here. In 1598 Thomas, and in 1600 Eichard, sons of Anthony and Anne Finch, were baptized here. Another monumental brass in the chancel bore an effigy with an inscription in Latin to this effect:— Here lieth Eichard Boorne son of John Boorne of Eastling which Eichard died 28th of April 1473 on whose soul God have mercy. Amen. Later monumental brasses were memorials of (i.) Elizabeth Crux (daughter of J. Crux) who died 25th of December 1622, in the 14th year of her age; (ii.) and of the Eev. Peter Jackson—inscribed :— Here lyeth the bodie of Peeter Jackson Minister of God's Worde and Preacher thereof in this Church for 30 years together, who departed this life ye 24th of January 1616. This stone is layd at the cost of Thomassin his wife. Blessed are they eternallye That in the fayth of Christ doe dye. Mr. Peter Jackson seems to have been Vicar of Preston scarcely 22 years (April 1595 to January 1617); probably he had previously officiated as curate, during the incumbency of his predecessor, the Eev. Laurence HoUenden. Mr. HoUenden was remarkable for * In the time of Queen Elizabeth, William Pinch of Lynsted purchased Perry Court from Christopher Roper. Catherine Pinch his only child, who married Sir Drue Drury, possessed Perry Court when she died in 1601. William Pinch's elder brother, John, had occupied Holmeston in Paversham, but he migrated to Fordwich, and died there in 1585. Into Holmeston went Thomas Pinch, son of John and nephew of that William who bought Perry Court. Nicholas, another son of John Pinch and nephew of William, ultimately inherited Holmeston and also some land at Davington. 134 PRESTON CHURCH. being married in this his own church in 1588 to one of his parishioners, Mary Willcox. Several vicars here held the benefice for periods as long or longer. Mr. John Gamlin, 31 years (1684 to 1715), Mr. George Sykes, 50 years (1715—66), Mr. Giraud, 45 years (1766—1811), and Mr. James Peto, 41 years (1837—1878). Mr. Sykes aud his sister left to this parish several benefactions. He was one of the Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral, and Eector of Eayleigh in Essex, as well as Vicar of Preston. He was buried here in June 1766, aged 81. In October 1663 the income of the Vicar of Preston was about £60 per annum. Preston contained but 14 families; they were farmers and husbandmen. The Vicar then was the Eev. Francis Worrall, who held also the Vicarage of Faversham. He resigned the town benefice in 1665, and in 1667 accepted (together with Preston) the benefice of Graveney, which was also worth about £60 per annum. Mr. Worrall was described as a young man, good, able, and well esteemed. In 1758 the Eev. George Sykes (Vicar) reported, in reply to the queries of .Archbishop Seeker, that Preston contained only 17 houses, in which no family of note then resided. The parish (one mile broad from east to west; and three miles long from north to south) was cut into two parts by the town of Faversham. It then contained no Sectaries and no Papists. The Viear, residing in the glebe house, gave one service with a sermon every Sunday; one week in the morning and the next week in the afternoon. He catechized in Lent any children who would attend. He administered the Holy Communion four times in the year, to 12 or 18 communicants. The parish possessed £30, the annual interest of which was applied to the cost of teaching children to read. It also possessed one acre of land which the churchwardens in 1697 let on lease at 15s. per annum for 99 years. Not until after the Peace of 1814 did Preston begin to grow iu population. Since that period successful efforts have been made to minister to the larger population of the parish by the enlargement of this building, by economizing space in reseating the church, and by the erection of a new church in the outlying portion called the Brents, upon the other side of Faversham Creek.