A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



towards Henry, for whom a contempt was felt which was probably well 

 voiced by John and William Merfeld of Brightling, who ' in the open 

 market the Sonday in the feste of Seynt Anne the xxviii yer of our 

 saide sovereyn lorde falsly seide that the kynge was a naterell foole and 

 wolde ofte tymes holde a staff in his handes with a bird on the ende 

 playing therewith as a Foole.' ^ This enmity was clearly shown by the 

 action of William Hovell of Sutton, gentleman, Richard Seynt of 

 Pulborough, clerk, and a number of others who assembled at Chichester 

 and issued proclamations summoning all the county on pain of death to 

 join them in deposing the King and his lords/ The further aim of 

 communism was also prominent. Thus John Clipsham, carpenter, and 

 about a hundred others met in the woods near Hastings and elected 

 captains and masters to depose the King, ' proposing as Lollards and 

 heretics to hold all things in common ' ; and similar instances occurred 

 at Horsham, Eastbourne and many other places. The election of 

 ' captains ' was a noticeable feature of the rising ; Cade himself was 

 ' the captain of Kent,' and one John Cotyng, yeoman, ' calling himself 

 captain of Burwash,' headed an attempt to break up the abbot's fair at 

 Robertsbridge. The sheriffs tourn at Battle and the leet court at 

 Sedlescombe were also broken up, and some of the gentry were 

 attacked, one of the household of John Oxenbridge being killed. Sir 

 John Pelham's chaplain being assaulted and laid up for six weeks, and 

 William Frenyngham's house at Waldron being plundered of precious 

 stones and other goods and himself held to ransom.^ 



A large contingent from Sussex evidently joined Cade's Kentish 

 followers in their successful march on London, for after the rebels had 

 been expelled from the city over four hundred Sussex men are named 

 in the pardons issued on 7 July. That the rebels were no disorganized 

 rabble is evident from these names, which include the Abbot of Battle 

 and Prior of Lewes, with all their monks and servants, twenty-three 

 gentlemen, of whom the most considerable were Bartholomew Bolney 

 of West Firle, Colbrond of Wartling, Lunsford of Battle, Parker and 

 Rakeley of Willingdon, Selwyn of Selmeston and Wolf of Ashington, 

 the bailiffs and burgesses of Lewes, Seaford and Pevensey, the 

 constables and inhabitants of eighteen hundreds and all the men of eight 

 parishes.* 



On the receipt of this general pardon Cade's followers broke up 

 and returned to their homes, leaving him with only a handful of the 

 more desperate at Rochester, whence he fled on 1 1 July, and being 

 pursued by Alexander Iden, sheriff of Kent, was overtaken and slain in 

 a garden at Heathfield. An attempt appears to have been made to 

 revive the insurrection in Sussex by one Thomas Skynner, but no details 

 of this second rising are preserved.^ 



For some little time there is little to record; in 1455 a commission, 

 including the Earl of Arundel, Lord Delaware and Sir Richard Fenys, 



' Anct. Indictments, 122. 2 Ibid. ' Ibid. 



* Suss. Arch. Coll. xviii. ^ The Antiquarian Magazine, iii. 168, 



