A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there 

 seems to have existed side by side with this Heath 

 House another messuage called Heath House, which 

 was held by copy of court-roll of the manor of 

 Mapledurham. Edmund Marshe of Preston Can- 

 dover, who had purchased it from Stephen Vachell 

 and Mary his wife, 89 the owners of the manor of 

 Weston, in the parish of Buriton, sold it in 1608 to 

 Thomas Antrobus of Lincoln's Inn, 90 who died seised 

 of it in i622. 9 ' In the latter part of the seventeenth 

 and the beginning of the eighteenth century it was 

 the residence of the Jacobite family of Matthews. 9 * 

 It seems impossible to discover when they parted with 

 it, but it was before 1800, for in that year it was 

 occupied by Captain Kidson. Colonel Hylton JollifFe 

 purchased it about i829, 93 since when it has remained 

 in the possession of the JollifFe family. It is at 

 the present day the residence of Captain the Hon. 

 William Sydney Hylton JollifFe, great-nephew of 

 Colonel Hylton JollifFe, who purchased it from his 

 nephew, Lord Hylton, in 1904." 



The church of ST. PETER, 

 CHURCHES PETERSFIELD, consists of chancel 

 32 ft. by 14 ft., with modern vestry 

 and organ chamber on the north, nave 61 ft. 3 in. 

 by 1 6 ft. 6 in., with north and south aisles, 16 and 

 17 ft. wide respectively, north porch, and engaged 

 west tower 16 ft. 6 in. by 17 ft. All measurements 

 are internal. It is a fine building, of great interest 

 for several reasons, and its earliest parts are not later 

 than the beginning of the twelfth century. The 

 church to which they belong was cruciform, with 

 an aisleless nave 41 ft. by 16 ft. 6 in., central 

 tower 1 6 ft. 3 in. square, north transept of prac- 

 tically the same dimensions, south transept somewhat 

 longer from north to south, and a chancel whose 

 length and eastern termination are uncertain. This 

 church also had a second tower at the west, a very 

 interesting fact which brings it into relation with the 

 normal English type of the larger eleventh-century 

 churches. Its details are not so early as those of the 

 central tower and transepts, and the building was 

 doubtless spread over a number of years as funds could 

 be obtained for the work, but the church must have 

 stood complete with its two towers for some con- 

 siderable time before the enlargements next to be 

 noticed. 



About 117080 the church was enlarged by the 

 addition to the nave of north and south aisles of the 

 full width of the transepts, and carried up to the west 

 face of the west tower, the nave walls being pierced 

 with arcades of three bays. The west walls of the 

 transepts must have been pierced, or perhaps removed, 

 at this time. No structural change seems to have 

 been made, beyond the insertion of windows, in the 

 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but in the fifteenth 

 century the upper stage of the west tower was either 

 added or rebuilt, and as many of the stones used in 



this work have worked details like those in the chancel 

 arch and the arcade above, it is possible that at this 

 time the west wall of the central tower was taken 

 down and its area thrown into the nave. The north 

 and south walls of the tower were left standing, though 

 probably lowered, and the north wall at any rate so 

 remained till 1731, when it was destroyed, and the 

 arcade continued up to the east respond of the north 

 arch of the tower. The same thing happened to the 

 south wall, but whether at this date or not is not 

 recorded. The north arcade of the nave was also 

 altered, perhaps at this time, 95 by the moving of its 

 pillars, probably in the interests of galleries, so that it 

 had two narrow arches at the west and two wide ones 

 at the east. In modern times they have been reset 

 and more evenly spaced. 



The chancel has at the east a modern triplet of 

 windows in twelfth-century style, replacing a five -light 

 fifteenth-century window. In the north wall is a late 

 twelfth-century round-headed light, now blocked by 

 the vestry roof, with inner jamb-shafts continued as a 

 roll round the head of the window, unbroken except 

 for a fillet on the springing-line of the arch. Oppo- 

 site to it in the south wall is a pair of modern round- 

 headed lights, and below them modern sedilia and a 

 piscina. West of the north window is a doorway 

 with a four-centred head, opening to the vestry, and 

 there seems to have been a late twelfth-century door- 

 way opposite to it on the south, set in a wide pilaster 

 buttress. In the west bay of the chancel are arched 

 recesses on either side, perhaps for quire seats ; the 

 arrangement is old, a single-light fourteenth-century 

 window being set in the southern recess. On the 

 north the recess is pierced with a modern arch open- 

 ing to the organ chamber. 



The chancel arch, formerly the east arch of the 

 central tower, is a fine and rich example of early 

 work, with a slightly stilted semicircular arch of two 

 orders, the outer of which has a large roll and hollow 

 and a double line of zigzag, while the inner is a 

 modern restoration, with a plain edge-roll. A wide 

 label with two rows of billets runs round the arch. 

 The jambs have engaged shafts to the outer order on 

 the west, with early bases and volute capitals, and 

 larger shafts to the inner order, projecting for more 

 than half their diameter from the responds, as in 

 the eleventh-century work at Winchester Cathedral. 

 The capitals have cabled neckings, and are carved with 

 flat early leaf-work and volutes at the angles, and the 

 abaci are hollow-chamfered below, with an enriched 

 vertical face above. The inner shafts of the chancel 

 arch are corbelled off a little below the capitals, and 

 are modern copies of old work. Over the chancel 

 arch is a very fine piece of early detail ; three tall 

 round-headed openings, the central one looking only 

 into the chancel roof, and the other two inclosing 

 windows. Each has tall jamb-shafts with volute capi- 

 tals barely projecting beyond the line of the shafts, 



"Add. MS. 33278, fol. 172*. The 

 date is cut off. In a recusant roll of 

 1590 Stephen Vachell, 'gentleman and 

 recusant,' is described as of Heath House 

 near Petersfield (Gasquet, Hampshire Re- 

 cusants, 26), and in 1597 'The fardest 

 parteof the lane next Petersfield Heath' 

 was in the tenure and occupation of 

 Stephen Vachell (Add. Chart. 27947). 



90 Close, 5 Jas. I, pt. 1 1, m. 6. Thomas 

 Antrobus was descended from William 

 Antrobus of Antrobus (co. Ches.). His 



pedigree is given in liar/. Soc, zxii, pp. 

 123-4. He married Elizabeth, daughter 

 of Sir Richard Norton of Rotherfield (co. 

 Hants). 



91 By his will dated 1622 he left money 

 for the foundation of the almshouses 

 which still bear his name. 



84 A History of Petersfeld, by the Rev. 

 J. Williams, p. 24. 



Thit family was probably descended 

 from the Glamorganshire family of that 

 name. A certain Richard Matthews was 



118 



seated at Stanstead (co. Sussex) in the early 

 part of the seventeenth century. His son 

 George and his grandson Richard also 

 lived at Stanstead. All his descendants 

 remained Roman Catholics, and migrated 

 to Cadiz about 1 700 (Berry's Suss. Gen. 9). 



98 Information supplied by Captain the 

 Hon. William Sydney Hylton JollifFe. 



94 Information supplied by Lord Hylton. 



9fi The Churchwardens' Accounts show 

 that a gallery was erected on the north 

 side of the church in 1760. 



