The Chapel of St John the Baptist, Smallhythe

134 a distance from their parish church. It would no doubt 'be licensed from time to time as a chapel of ease :to the parish church of Tenterden, and, standing near the waterside, was doubtless used frequently by seafaring men and strangers. Our early county historians have but little to say on the subject. Kilburne* appea1·s to be the :first to mention it, and he writes : " In Tenterden parish at Smalhith is a chapel (still used and maintained) and (by tradition) is said to have been founded by one Shepherd." He is followed by Dr. Harris, t who, after alluding to the manor of Lights N otind(\n in Tenterden, and the founding of a chantry there, goes on to say, " This chapel or chantry of Lights) I believe, was formerly a little church) and is so described in old 1naps; and in Dugdale's map of Romney Marsh is called 'Small Light,' and now in Symonson's map of ·Kent (16,59) ' Small Hit.he.' " Dearn, writing nearly a century later,t 9.uotes Harris, and• adds: "But the Doctor is here evidently in error, mistaking and confounding the chapel of Smallhithe with the chantry spoken of above (Lights Chantry), of which it is not probable there were any remains in his time, as the. site of it is now a matter of conjecture alone." It may be noticed that though each of these writers were more or less resident within a radius of fifteen to twenty miles,§ yet neither succeeded in discovering or effectually tracing the origin of Smallhythe chapel. Feeling that its history has been somewhat neglected, I have endeavoured to gather some material toward supplying that omission. The earliest reference which I have is, singularly enough, to be found in the records of the Corporation of New Romney,11 and OCClll'S in connection with ship-building. In the Chamberlain's * Kilburne's Topog,rapl,,ie (1659), p. 271. , , t Hi$t. of Ifrnt, I. (l'il9), p. 312. :t A.n account of the Weald of Kent, by 'r. D. W. Dearn (1818), p. 283. § Kilburne was married at Tenterden "upon the foure and twentieth