FINCHDEAN HUNDRED 



CHALTON 



age in its present shape, and on the outer face of the 

 north wall a window of two uncusped lights is to be 

 seen, anciently blocked, as on the inner face of the 

 wall where it should show is a large late thirteenth- 

 century wall painting in two tiers, the upper repre- 

 senting St. Hubert taming the Lycanthrope, a man- 

 headed monster, and the lower the story of the death 

 of St. John the Baptist. On the lower parts of the 

 painting are a number of scratched inscriptions of 

 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, among others the 

 name of St. Hubert and a Latin inscription of several 

 lines to our Lady. The chancel arch is pointed, of 

 one order with a chamfer on the edge. The nave is 

 lighted from the north by two ' churchwarden ' win- 

 dows with wooden frames, and from the south by 

 two square-headed sixteenth-century windows, each 

 of two four-centred lights without cusps. In the west 

 wall, set centrally with the nave before its southward 

 enlargement, is a pointed doorway, probably of the 

 fourteenth century, and over it a small eighteenth- 

 century porch of flint and brick. Externally there 

 is little detail. The earliest walling on the north 

 side of the church is of regularly-set flintwork, the 

 sixteenth-century masonry on the south side being of 

 coarser rubble with sandstone quoins, on one of which 

 is an incised sun-dial. The roofs are red-tiled, and 

 the bell-turret has a short spire finished with a 

 copper ball. The church is ceiled on the underside 

 of the rafters, the tie-beams being cased with eigh- 

 teenth-century boarding. There is a west gallery to 

 the nave, and the seating remains much as it was at 

 the end of the eighteenth century, with high box- 

 pews at the east end of the nave, and narrow upright 

 benches of the most uncomfortable description towards 

 the west. Below the bell-turret the nave is ceiled at 

 the level of the tie-beams, access to the loft thus 

 formed being by a trap-door at the south end, but 

 whether this arrangement is as old as the widening of 

 the nave is not clear. 134 The pulpit is of early seven- 

 teenth-century date, with arched panels and scrolled 

 brackets to the book-board, but it has been repaired in 

 the eighteenth century, and the tester above seems to 

 be of this date, as well as other details. The font is 

 octagonal with quatrefoiled panels on the bowl, exactly 

 like that at Chalton, and doubtless of the same date. 

 In the turret is one bell, uninscribed. 



The advowson of the church of 

 JDrOWSONS CH4LTON probably belonged to 

 the various lords of the manor of 

 Chalton until 1102, when Robert de Belesme earl of 

 Shrewsbury and Arundel was expelled from the 

 country and deprived of all his honours and estates. 

 As has been shown above, Henry I granted the 

 manor as parcel of the honour of Leicester to Robert 

 de Beaumont, but retained the advowson, which 

 remained with the crown until the reign of Henry II, 

 who granted it to the 'abbey which Robert earl of 

 Leicester had made and founded at Eiton ' (Nuneaton, 



co. Warw.)." 6 From this time the prioress, prior, and 

 convent of Nuneaton were patrons of the church, 137 

 and received from it an annual pension of 9 marks. 138 

 After the dissolution the advowson remained the pro- 

 perty of the crown 139 until 1613, when, on the death 

 of Thomas Nevill, Edward earl of Worcester pre- 

 sented Richard Ball, alleging that the advowson had 

 been included in the grant of the manor made by 

 Henry VIII in 1 542 to William earl of Southampton 

 in tail male with contingent remainder to William, 

 Lord Herbert, 140 who succeeded to the peerage as earl 

 of Worcester in 1549. The king presented William 

 Todd the same year, and on the bishop's refusal to 

 admit him brought a quare impedit against the bishop, 

 the earl, and Richard Ball for preventing him from 

 presenting to the church. The following year, how- 

 ever, he unaccountably stayed all proceedings, and by 

 letters patent confirmed the estate which Richard had 

 in the church. 111 The title of the earl was confirmed 

 in 1618, when James I granted the advowson to him 

 and his heirs and pardoned ' all intrusions, invasions, 

 and ingresses of, in, or on it, made heretofore by him or 

 William, Lord Herbert, without legal right or title.' 141 

 On the death of Richard Ball in 1632, Godfrey Price 

 was presented by Charles Jones and William Morgan, 

 to whom the earl had granted the next voidance of 

 the church by a deed dated i626. 143 Charles I, how- 

 ever, presented William Todd, and while the case was 

 proceeding between him and the earl the living was 

 served by two curates appointed by the bishop, whose 

 wages were paid by the sequestrators out of the corn 

 from the glebe-land. 144 Ultimately Dr. George Gil- 

 lingham, the king's chaplain, made a private arrange- 

 ment with Godfrey Price, and recovered the king's 

 right to the rectory from 'the hands of a powerful 

 adversary,' for which service he was promised the 

 nomination of his successor. 145 In 1645 the advowson 

 was granted to Oliver Cromwell," 6 who deprived 

 Dr. Gillingham of the rectory and presented John 

 Audley in his stead. Dr. Gillingham was persecuted 

 from place to place and took shelter for some time at 

 Southampton, but was at last driven thence likewise. 

 However, he outlived his troubles, and at the Resto- 

 ration was reappointed ; 'John Audley, intruder, 

 being turned out.' 147 On his resignation in 1668 

 Charles II presented Dr. Gillingham's son-in-law. 

 Dr. Barker, in answer to his petition. 148 In the same 

 year Henry marquis of Worcester petitioned for a re- 

 grant of the advowson, 149 but did not obtain it until 

 1670, in which year the king settled it on him and 

 his heirs for ever after the death or removal of 

 Dr. Barker. 150 The advowson then followed the 

 descent of the manor until early in the nineteenth 

 century, 151 when Jervoise Clarke-Jervoise sold it to 

 King's College, Cambridge. The latter sold it 

 towards the end of the last century, and it is at 

 present in the gift of Mrs. Pearson Strange. 



IDSWORTH was originally a chapelry dependent 



185 On its west face are the royal arms of 

 Geo. III. 



186 Dugdale, Mon. (znd ed.}, i, p. 519. 

 This gift was confirmed by Pope Alex- 

 ander III (ibid. p. 520). 



W Egerton MS. 2033, fol. 9, and Eger- 

 ton MS. 2034, fol. 36 and 73 ; Wykeham'i 

 Reg. (Hants Rec. Soc.), i, 183 and 199. 



188 Egerton MS. 2032, fol. 46, and Cal. 

 cfPaf. Pel. i, 330. 



189 In spite of the letters patent of I 5 5 8, 

 granting it to John bishop of Winchester 



(Pat. 5 & 6 Phil, and Mary, pt. 4, m. 

 6 and 7), and the letters patent of con- 

 cealment of 1576, granting it to John 

 Farneham. Thus Queen Elizabeth pre- 

 sented John Constantine in 1583, and 

 Thomas Nevill in 1584. 



140 Exch. Bills and Answs. Hants, 

 Chas. I, No. 49. 



Ibid. 



Ibid. Pat. 15 Jas. I, pt. 17, No. 3. 



143 Exch. Bills and Answs. Hants, 

 Chas. I, No. 49. 



109 



1M Exch. Dec. and Ord. Mich. 8 Chas. I, 

 (Ser. 3), xii, fols. 211 and 212. 



146 Cal. ofS.P. Dam. 1668-9, PP- 93 and 

 113. 



46 Pat. 21 Chas. I, pt. i, m. 74. 



147 Chalton parish registers. 



148 Cal. of S.P. Dam. 1668-9, PP- 93 

 and 98. 



14 Ibid. pp. 113 and 438. 



140 Ibid. 1670, pp. 36 and 143. 



"l Inst. Bks. (P.R.O.). 





