SELBORNE HUNDRED 



EMPSHOTT 



orders with dogtooth labels. All capitals have well- 

 executed foliage, and square abaci moulded like those 

 in the arch at the north-west of the chancel. The 

 middle pillar of the arcade is octagonal and the other 

 two round, while the responds have each had three 

 shafts, which remain at the east, but the middle shaft 

 of the west respond has been cut away and its capital 

 replaced by a corbel. The tooling on the arches is 

 diagonal, except on the soffits. 



The south arcade differs from the north in having 

 its arches worked with larger stones and rather coarser 

 chamfers, and the tooling is vertical. The arrange- 

 ment of the pillars is the same, but the responds have 

 no shafts, and only a moulded corbel to take the inner 

 order of the arch. The capitals have no foliage, like 

 those on the north side, but that of the first pillar 

 from the east has a late form of scallop, the middle 

 pillar a plain hawksbill section, and the third is worked 

 with hollow flutings. The side walls of the aisles, as 

 has been said, have been rebuilt close to the arcades, 

 and contain windows which may be, in part, of ancient 

 date, but are mainly of the date of the rebuilding. 

 The four on the north are all single pointed lights, 

 the eastern window having a Jacobean quarter-round 

 moulding, and on the south are three windows, two 

 lancets and one two-light window. One of the 

 lancets and the two-light window have the same 

 Jacobean section, and the latter has a blank quatre- 

 foil in the head. In the west bay on this side is 

 a pointed archway with square jambs, blocked, with 

 a single-light window set in the blocking. There 

 is nothing to show whether a door has ever been 

 hung here. 



At the west end of the nave is a wide pointed arch 

 of a single order, and in it a very good wooden screen 

 with a cresting of pierced strapwork inclosing a shield. 

 On the screen is the inscription, ' The gift of James 

 Medecaulfe 1624,' and the arms on the shield are 

 those of Metcalfe; vert, three calves gules, quartering 

 four other coats. 



The porch has small windows on the north and 

 south, their heads being those of twelfth-century lights 

 re-used, and a plain pointed west doorway with a panel 

 over it inclosing a date of which the first numeral 

 only is left. 



Over the west end of the nave is a wooden bell- 

 turret with a shingled spire. It is open to the church 

 below, and the part immediately above the nave roof 

 is glazed between the upright timbers, lighting the 

 west end of the nave in a very satisfactory way. Its 

 east side is carried on a seventeenth-century truss, 

 probably part of the work done in 1624, and the 

 turret is perhaps of the same date. The rest of the 

 nave roof is modern, of fifteenth-century style, and 

 the chancel roof is the same. Part of a Jacobean 

 pulpit stands at the west end of the nave, and a panel 

 from it is worked into the modern reading desk. The 

 altar rails and table are of the seventeenth century, 

 and in the nave are a good number of open benches 



with sunk trefoiled pnnels in the ends, of fifteenth or 

 early sixteenth-century date. 



The font is of Purbeck marble, with a square bowl 

 ornamented with five shallow round-headed arches on 

 each side, and carried on a central and four angle 

 shafts. Its date is c . 1 1 90. It has a wooden cover 

 dated 1624. On either side of the east windows of 

 the chancel are remains of late painting in black, a 

 floral design apparently of seventeenth-century date. 



The plate consists of a silver cup and paten of 1620, 

 a paten of 1829, and a plated cup of old Sheffield 

 make. 



In the bell-turret are two bells, of 1627 and 1897. 

 The earliest register dates from 1718 to 1795, and the 

 second from 1754 to 1812. The churchwardens' 

 accounts date from 1754. 



The chapel of Empshott was 

 4DrOWSON granted in free alms by Ralph son of 

 Gilbert and Constance his wife to 

 the priory of Southwick, probably soon after its found- 

 ation in H33, 30 and was confirmed to them by Papal 

 Bull between 1159 and Il8l. 31 In 1242 a compact 

 was made between the prior and convent of South- 

 wick and the prior and convent of Selborne concern- 

 ing the tithes of Empshott. The prior and convent 

 of Southwick, by reason of their rights in the chapel 

 of Empshott, were to have all the great and small 

 tithes owed by the lord of the manor of Empshott, 

 together with half the small tithes of the villeins of 

 Empshott, while the prior and convent of Selborne 

 were in the name of the parish church of Selborne 

 by reason of parochial rights owned by them in the 

 chapel of Empshott ' to have the other moiety of 

 small tithes of villeins.' M In virtue of this agreement 

 the prior of Selborne claimed the moiety from Gilbert 

 vicar of Empshott in 1283, and by the judgement of 

 the prior of Southwark, the papal delegate, the prior's 

 right was established, and Gilbert was condemned to 

 pay 20 marks for the tithes of which he had deprived 

 them." The vicarage was ordained in 1333.** The 

 church remained in the hands of the house of South- 

 wick as late as 1535, since it was entered in the Valor 

 Ecclesiasticus as appropriated to the priory of South- 

 wick." Between 1535 and 1537 it was evidently 

 granted away by the priory, and does not appear on 

 the Ministers' Accounts. 36 In 1590 Elizabeth granted 

 the free chapel or church of Empshott to William 

 Tipper and others, 37 and confirmed the same in 1 592.'' 

 In 1595 she granted the same to John Wells and 

 Henry Best, 39 who conveyed to Richard Norton and 

 George Leicester. 40 George Leicester sold to Richard 

 Norton in 1596,*' and in 1597 Richard Norton con- 

 veyed to William Brice. 4 * The latter in 1 60 1 con- 

 veyed back to Richard Norton," and from that time 

 the church and advowson followed the same descent 

 as the manor of Empshott (q.v.) until 1803, when 

 John Butler of Havant made release of it to his 

 brother the late Rev. Thomas Butler, by whose repre- 

 sentatives it is held at the present day. 



80 Add. MS. 33282, fol. 202. This preceded the confirmation made by Pope 

 manuscript gives extracts made in 1831 Alexander (i 159-81) 

 from a chartulary in the possession of 

 Thomas Thistlethwayte of Southwick 

 Park. The charter giving Empshott Chapel 71 

 to Southwick is not dated, but must have 



81 Ibid. fol. 61. ' Ibid. fol. 200. 

 88 Selborne Chart. (Hants Rec. Soc.), i, 



84 Winton. Epis. Reg. Orlton. 



85 Vahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 12. 



88 Mins. Accts. 30-3 1 Hen. VIII, Ac. 

 Roll. *> Pat. 32 Eliz. pt. 4, m. 1. 



88 Pat. 34 Eliz. pt. 4, m. 21. 



89 Pat. 37 Eliz. pt. n, m. 37. 



40 Close, 39 Eliz.pt. n, m. 15. 



41 Ibid. " Ibid. 

 48 Close, 43 Eliz. pt. 14, m. 10. 



1 9 



