Bishop Bower's Visitation took place in 1724; and the following relates to the living of Hurstperpoint :

Patron, Sir John Shaw, of Eltham, Knt., Bart.-Rector, Jeremiah Dodson, A.M., instituted in Feb. 1701-2.-Six bells, one a little cracked.-The chancel repaired by the rector.— Mr. Litchford, some time rector, gave £100 to purchase land, the rent to be divided amongst ten industrious persons with large families. The parsonage-house rebuilt by the rector.An annuity of £4 given by Mr. alias Dog Smith to the poor. -100 families, of which two are Quakers, and one Anabaptist.-Glebe Land, about five acres, including the parsonage garden. A portion of tithes, granted to Lewes Priory,1 now in the hands of Mr. Richard Whitpayne, of Hurstperpoint, about £24 per annum.

1 This was taken from the following estates, and was two parts in three of the

tithe corn:

Danny lands

Acres.

250

25

10

22

60

15

6

72

24

75

3

737

The tithes from these lands were possessed by the owners of Pakyn's estate, until the Rev. Dr. Dodson, the late rector, purchased them of Mr. Soale's executors, and annexed them to the living.

The old church is supposed to have been built by Simon de Pierpoint in the time of Edward III. Mr. Hamper thinks the only relic of the church mentioned in Domesday is the font, which is very ancient.

"The existing edifice," to use Mr. Hamper's words, written thirty years ago, "consists of a nave with gallery at west end, south aisle and gallery, a small north transept, and two chancels; that which ranges with the south aisle is called the Danny Chancel. At the west end is a substantial tower containing six bells, a clock, and a set of chimes (but this last harmonious musician, through age and infirmity, is now silent), above which rises a wooden shingled spire of considerable height.

"The roof is curiously ornamented with various devices, carved in wood, of lions, eagles, fleurs-de-lis, keys, arrowheads, portcullises, true-lovers' knots, crowns, circular arches, compasses, cinquefoils, and the arms of the Pierpoint family.

sword on his left side, his plain shield placed over his left shoulder.

"In the same chancel was an effigy in stone of a warrior, represented in plated armour of the fourteenth century, his head resting on his helmet, visor lifted up, at his head a lion, at his feet a dog. It had been gilt, and the gilding appeared fresh in many places, and the colours, red and green, were vivid in various parts; at the head of the tomb was a shield of arms which appeared to be Or, a chief gules. There are also slight traces of a lion rampant. This would seem to indicate that the effigy represented Simon de Pierpoint, who died temp. Edward III., and whose arms were Argent, a lion rampant sable, semée of cinquefoils.1

In the Burrell MSS. is an extract from a letter of the Rev. Mr. Beard to Sir William Burrell, dated "Danny, May 3, 1777," in which, speaking of the two stone effigies, he says:

"There are no arms upon either, though there have been upon the monument surrounded by iron rails, but being only emblazoned, not engraved, they are obliterated.-N.B. On taking down the side of the pew which obscured the altar part of the monument, I observed the third shield from the head to be a lion rampant, arg.; and on examining the figure minutely there appears to have been depicted on the breast

1 The engravings are from drawings obligingly furnished by the Rev. C. H. Borrer.

an eagle displayed gules. I have some suspicion that the figure and the monument on which it rests originally belonged to different persons.

"When Sir William Burrell visited this church some years ago, he was anxious to know the name and rank of the warrior who was deposited in the tomb; in consequence of which, some boards, &c., that were placed before it were removed by his orders, when three shields were discovered upon one side of the tomb; but unfortunately, to the great disappointment of that eminent antiquary, the arms and colours were so entirely defaced that nothing could be discovered of what family he was.'

The Rev. Mr. Beard says, tradition assigns the aforesaid monument to the founder of the church, who also gave name to the parish; with which Sir William Burrell is inclined to coincide.

At the extremity of the wall which divides the chancel, is a vacant space, which appears as if intended for an effigy of the saint to whom the church was dedicated.

There is a piscina and stone seat on the south side of the chancel, representations of which and the font were given by Mr. Hamper in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1806, as also an east view of the church. There is a good drawing of the church in Sir W. Burrell's collection, and a coloured engraving on a map of Hurstpierpoint published some years ago. The present handsome edifice was erected about fifteen years ago, from designs of Sir Charles Barry.

Some short account of other families connected with Hurstpierpoint, not hitherto mentioned, may appropriately conclude this paper.

The WHITPAYNES were a family of considerable note in the time of Queen Elizabeth; one of them contributed £25 for the defence of the kingdom during the Spanish invasion. A Captain Whitpayne and a Lieutenant Whitpayne, of Hurstperpoint, are noticed as officers of the trainbands in the time of Charles I.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the LUXFORDS flourished in the parish, as a wealthy and numerous yeomanry

1 Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxv. page 1112.

family. It is probable that this populous Sussex race derived its name from Loxfield, an extinct parish in Buttinghill hundred, and which gave name to the hundred of Loxfield-Dorset. Persons of the name are mentioned in the Subsidy Roll. temp. Edward III.

The family of NORTON possessed property in the parish from the time of Elizabeth, and perhaps earlier, to the end of the last century, and bore the rank of gentry, sealing with a coat of arms (three swords ending in a point). There was a family of this name, which might have been akin, in West Sussex, in the fifteenth century, a deed of one of whom was found in the church chest of Portslade, and is given in Cartwright's Bramber Rape, to which was attached a seal with armorial bearings.

The family of WICKHAM at one time occupied a good position among the yeomanry of the parish, and the name is still common. It is scarcely doubtful that they derived their name from the Wickham (now styled Clayton-Wickham and Hurst-Wickham) in Domesday Book, which was held under William de Warren, by the family of Wattville, from whom they may be descended; and as the latter family bore two chevrons for their coat armour, which was the basis of that of William de Wykeham, it is not improbable that the ancestry of that celebrated personage might be found in the early Wickhams, a clue worthy the attention of genealogists in the elucidation of a much-controverted and obscure subject.

A branch of the ancient and wide-spread Sussex family of BEARD, of the rank of gentry, flourished here for several generations. In later times they lived at Mansion House, in Hurst Street, the property and residence of the late Richard Weekes, Esq., F.S.A.

The connection of the family of DODSON with Hurstpierpoint has subsisted for five generations-from the Rev. Jeremiah Dodson, rector, to the present John George Dodson, Esq., M.P., who is a considerable landowner in the parish, and son of the late Right Hon. Sir John Dodson, Knight, Judge of the Prerogative Court, Dean of Arches, and formerly M.P. for Rye, who lies buried in the church.