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Mass in the Abbey of Malling. The Palmers continued tenants of the manor of Snodland, but Holloway Court changed into the hands of the Tylghmans, whose family lived into the seventeenth century we give an extract of their registers from the parish church of Snodland :

1559. Richard Tylghman and Margaret Valentine were married 10th July. 1563. Joane, ye wife of William Tylghman, was buried 20th September. 1567. William Tylghman and Dorothy Reynolds were married 11th August. 1572. Dorothy, ye wife of William Tylghman, gent, was buried November 21st. 1576. Whetenhall Tylghman, ye sonne of William, was baptised September 4th. 1578. Dorothy Tylghman, daughter of William, was baptised January 10th. 1581. Oswald Tylghman, sonne of William, was baptised October 11th. 1582. Charles Tylghman, sonne of William, was baptised October 18th. 1584. Lambert Tylghman, sonne of William, was baptised April 12th. 1586. Lambert Tylghman, the son of William Tylghman, gent, was buried 21st November.

1586. Lambard, ye sonne of William Tylghman, gent, was baptised August 18. 1587. Gervise Olyver, ye sonne of John Tylghman, was baptised 31st January. 1592. Armigill and John, ye sonns of Christopher Tylghman, were baptised 23rd April.

1592. John, the son of Christopher Tylghman, the 3rd of June.

1593. William Tylghman was buried the 24th of February.

1607. Whetenhall Tylghman and Eleanor Kemsing were married the 4th day

of February.

1608. Mary, the daughter of Whetenhall Tylghman, was baptised 11th day of December.

1608. Charles Tylghman was buried the 25th of May.

1611. Buried was Edward Tylghman, gent, the 23rd day of the same (December).

1613. Buried was Mrs. Tylghman, the wife of Edward Tylghman, gent, the 23rd day of October.

1625. Joseph Tylghman, son of Whetenhall Tylghman, was baptised the 2nd day of January.

1627. Baptised was James, the son of Whetenhall Tylghman, March 2nd. 1632. The thirtieth of December Mrs. Ellen Tylghman, wife of Mr. Whetenhall Tylghman, was buried.

1633. Benjamin Tylghman, son of Whetenhall Tylghman, was baptised Jany. 25th.

1643. Elynour, the daughter of Isaacke Tylghman, was baptised the 16th day of June.

1644. Isaac Tylghman dyed December ye 21st, and is buried under the great Chancel window, at the East End, in Snodland Churchyard, noaw if we can make any guess, his father, Whetenhall Tylghman of this parish, gent, is deposited. 1645. Elizabeth, the daughter of Isaacke Tylghman, baptised 14th day of July.

The parishes of East and West Malling continued during this period under the quiet sway of the nuns. By means of the records of Rochester, we learn that in 1425 Cecilia Batisford was abbess; and in 1479 Catharine Skefton. In the year 1493, when Joane Moone was abbess, Thomas Savage, then Bishop of Rochester on the death of Thomas Cook, having appointed John Whitmore as his successor, issued an inquiry into the patronage, value, and other circumstances

of the Prebend of the Great Mass of the High Altar in the monastery of West Malling, anno domini 1493. Twelve persons are said to have been on this court of inquiry, and are represented to the Bishop as worthy of faith. The clerics, described domini, are William Spayne de Offham, Thomas Hundbache de Nettilstede, John Punkar de Barmynge, William Millys de Leybourne, Master Thomas Revell, rector, Nicholas None (Vicar de Ealdynge), and the rest laity. The inquiry determined that John Perot finds the place vacant, and appoints John Whitmore. Those high clerical dignitaries, styled Prebends of the High Mass, are given us pretty regularly during this period in the records of Rochester: they are Thomas Wall, 1402; Thomas Gloucester, 1426; Thomas Compton, on death of last, 1444; Richard Stone, 1447; Daniel Everard, 1455; Thomas Cook, died 1493; John Whitmore, 1493; Thomas Nevill, 1499; Richard Adams, died 1522; Robert Dokett, 1522; John Bamborough, 1522; Henry Fletcher, 1524.

Of other chapels we find little mention during this period, except that in 1406 John Chesterfield succeeds John Gold at the hermitage of Longsole. In 1453 Reginald Herbe is licensed to it, and John Rodes to the same in 1462, after which there is no more record of this chapel having a minister.

Of the chaplains of St. Laurence, in Halling, we have John Perot, who was Rector of Snodland in 1453, chaplain previous to Robert Sharpe, who was appointed in 1518; this last was succeeded by Richard Back, who in 1531 was succeeded by Robert Truelove, who was appointed rector of Snodland; after him there are no more chaplains of St. Laurence.

TH

CHAPTER VII.

TUDOR TIMES (1509-1603).

HE period of the Reformation, which caused the dissolution of monasteries in 1539, could not be without interest in a district so greatly under ecclesiastical control as Malling Valley, since so many churches and properties found in this way new masters. Moreover, from getting hold of the fair lands of the Church, Bluff King Hal, who was one who had always an eye to his own interest, learnt that many people had properties in various parts of the country superior to the royal demesnes, and therefore did not hesitate to deprive them of such, either by giving an inferior property for them, or, if the whim seized him, he prevented any further opposition by executing them. We shall speak of the various properties in this valley, and their owners, under the different divisions of gentlemen fortunate enough to pass through this stormy period altogether free; then of those who, though they escaped the rapacity of Henry VIII., could not, like the Vicar of Bray, change their religion at pleasure, or had to bow to the greediness of England's merrie monarch; and lastly we shall show the various hands into which our ecclesiastical properties got, and also the different changes that took place in our churches during this stormy century. Of those who appear to have been amongst the most fortunate, in that they retained their properties all the way through, we find in this district the Wattons of Addington, the Colepeppers of Preston Hall, and the Nevills of Birling. The Wattons continued throughout this period serving their country, as justices of the peace and commissioners of the sewers, according to Hasted; but they have left no record of either obtaining even a knighthood from the sovereign, or possessing amongst their family a single man that was noted either for his position in the ecclesiastical military, or literary world. Quietly their beautiful lands descended from father to son, and quietly were their bodies buried in the pretty church. Edmund Watton was the squire of Addington at the beginning of this period, and died in 1527. George Watton gave away the living in 1533, but he is not mentioned in the Watton monument, though Thomas Watton, son of Edmund, is, who died in 1580, and was succeeded by his son Thomas. To these two last the

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