HISTORY OF HARTING. 37 



Tunbridge, via Petworth, to Porchester. On this 

 occasion the king was entertained at Durford for a 

 day, when his expenses amounted to 10 : 6 : o. 

 (Pat. Rolls.) 



The reign of Edward III. is, perhaps, the most in- 

 teresting to us as a village in all antiquity. It is the 

 reign from which the rise of the great middle class is 

 dated ; and the annals of Harting are somewhat rich 

 in materials for a local survey of this epoch. The 

 measures of land and of money become now identical 

 with our own ; and the parish, with its inhabitants, 

 industries, and church, happens to be defined with 

 unusual clearness and detail in the ancient records. 

 I have therefore determined to quote at some length. 

 The materials disclosed will be interesting, not only 

 as a standard of comparison with the present time, 

 but also with the previous surveys of Ed. Confessor 

 and Domesday. 



1341 (15 Ed. III.) In the Nonae Roll a return is 

 made for Harting at Chichester, on the Wednesday 

 after St. Gregory, March 12. The Rector of Harting 

 is here stated to have a messuage or house, worth 

 annually 30 shillings, and pasture or glebe sufficient 

 for 12 oxen, &c. The Vicarage, a remarkable ap- 

 pendage for so early a date, has a house and garden, 

 value one mark. No less than five men of indepen- 

 dent means are then living in Harting, at this time 

 a considerable place : Lawrence Dorkyng, Egid 

 Lylemot, William Smith, John Wycher (a name still 

 extant in the neighbourhood), and Thomas Atebred. 



1344. This year is remarkable as seeing three 

 parsons at Harting. We learn this from an entry in 

 Bishop Adam de Orleton's Register at Winchester, for 

 our Chichester Registers do not commence till 1399. 

 Richard de Newebury, rector of Hartynge, exchanged 

 livings with the great William de Edyndon on the 

 23rd of May, who again exchanged Harting with Mr. 

 (dominus) John de Crocford for the prebendary of 



