240 XAVESTOCK. IN OLDEN DAYS ; 



guests were to be admitted to the Sacrament of the Altar, but all his 

 servants were to go to the mother Church throughout the year. 

 And for this grant, the said Founder and his wife and heirs were 

 yearly to give to the mother Church, two wax candles, each weighing 

 a pound, one of which was ordered to be offered in the Vigil of the 

 Purification and the other in the Vigil of the Assumption of our 

 Blessed Lady before Vespers.-^ 



In 1255, i.e., in the next generation, we find the same William 

 and Joan, paying to Ralph son of Stephen de Navestock, 

 of whom more hereafter, a certain sum of money in lieu of 

 customary services due from land which they held from him. 

 The original dedication of the mother church above referred 

 to was probably lost sight of — an additional proof of its antiquity. 

 It was no doubt either re-dedicated early in the thirteenth century 

 in the name of St. Thomas-a-Becket or the name of that Saint was 

 then assigned to it. In later years, as in the case of so many other 

 Churches, " a-Becket " was either forgotten or purposely put on one 

 side and "Apostle" illegally substituted. We may gain some idea of 

 the condition of the Church and its services during the lifetime of 

 William de Breante, who, as we have seen, was still living in 1255, 

 irom a list of the ornaments described in a Visitation made in 1251.--' 



Thus we find, beside the high altar, it contained two others, 

 dedicated respectively in the names of the Blessed Virgin and 

 St. James. Some of the vestments were even then so old as to be 

 useless. The Books in use were the " Missal," the " Legends," the 

 " Antiphonal," the " Graduale," and the " Manuale." Among the 

 vessels are enumerated a silver chalice and an ivory pyx, ampullae, 

 a thurible, and a chrismatory. I have evidence in favour of my 

 supposition that the chancel of such church was pulled down and 

 rebuilt and a south aisle added in or about 1350. 



The holding of Stephen de Navestock, son of Robert, son of 

 Richard, is again interesting in more ways than one. Thus in the 

 first place Richard de Navestock carries us back to the period of 

 William de Marci — only a generation after the Conquest — when in all 

 probability he was the lessee or occupier of the water-mill which 

 stood on the site of that now, and since the sixteenth century, known 

 as Shonke's Mill, and situated in this parish. At any rate, such 



21 Liber A S. Paul's, as quoted by Morant. 



22 Since reading this present paper I have learned that Dr. Sparrow Simpson, the well-known 

 Librarian of St. Paul's, is about to edit for the Camden Society a volume of ancient documents 

 connected with his Cathedral, in which the full text of such Ornaments will appear. 



