A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



In some ways the collegiate churches may claim to be the most inter- 

 esting class of religious establishments in Sussex. The canons of the cathedral 

 of Chichester were the direct successors of those of Selsey, dating back almost 

 to the foundation of Christianity in this district ; the college of South 

 Mailing traced its pedigree back to the seventh or eighth century, and that 

 of Bosham, though remodelled in the twelfth century, was the successor of 

 one that flourished before the Conquest. At Hastings secular canons were 

 introduced shortly after the Norman Conquest, and even at Arundel, where 

 the college was only founded in 1392, there had been a similar establishment 

 in Saxon times. 



The alien houses present several remarkable features. The abbey of 

 Fecamp acquired lands in Rye and Winchelsea and Steyning from Edward 

 the Confessor. At the latter place they had control of a small college of, 

 apparently, three canons under a dean or ' provost ' ; their principal agent, 

 however, was the ' bailiff' of Warminghurst. A similar 'bailiff,' of 

 Atherington, managed the estates of the Abbey of Seez, who had also a cell 

 in the priory of St. Nicholas, Arundel. The abbey of Troarn had a small 

 priory at Runcton, but soon made it over to its daughter priory of Bruton in 

 Somerset. At Wilmington there was a priory whose head was in charge of 

 all the English estates of the abbey of Grestein. Marmoutier, or rather its 

 daughter, St. Mary of Mortain, had land at Withyham where there was a 

 ' prior ' resident. Finally, there was at Lyminster a small house of nuns 

 under the abbey of Almenesches. The lands in Beddingham and Hooe 

 belonging to the abbey of Bec-Hellouin do not seem ever to have constituted 

 a priory, although so spoken of after the suppression of the alien 

 houses ; l and the claims of Treport to the free chapel of Hastings are 

 shadowy and appear never to have been acknowledged. 2 A mysterious 

 ' prioress of Nonyngton ' appears amongst the alien religious on the Pipe 

 Rolls of 15-25 Edward III as paying for her temporalities in ' Nonyngton ' ; 

 she may be the 'prioress of Novynton,' ' Noveton,' or ' Neweton,' who held 

 i 3-r. 8</. of rent in ' New' ' according to the Taxatio? But unless this is a 

 corruption of ' Nunminster ' which was the early name for the nunnery of 

 Lyminster, her identity remains undiscovered. 



The two classes of ' solitaries,' namely hermits and anchorites, seem to 

 have been numerous in this county and demand a passing note. The 

 ' hermit ' often had definite duties, such as the care of a bridge, ford, or 

 causeway, as in the case of Simon Cotes, the site of whose hermitage is still 

 known in Westbourne. This hermit by his will, made in 1527, left his 

 house and the chapel which he had built ' in the honor of Almighty God and the 

 Holy Confessor Saint Antony,' to be a dwelling for a professed hermit, who 

 was to see to the ' maynteynence of the breggys and hyways ' which he 

 had made. 4 Hermits seem also to have settled in abandoned chapels ; thus 

 in r 459 the former leper hospital at Arundel was occupied by a hermit, 6 and 

 in 1405 indulgence was given to those assisting Richard Petevyne hermit of 

 the chapel of St. Cyriac in Chichester, 6 which had belonged to the alien 

 abbey of Troarn, 7 and was occupied by a recluse in I247. 7 " In 1272 Peter 



1 Pat. 35 Hen. VI, pt. ii, m. 6. ' See article on the college of Hastings, below. 



Taxat'w EccL (Rec. Com.), 140. < Suss. Arch. Coll. xii, 80. 



1 Tierney, Hist, of Arundel, 679. 6 Chich. Epis. Reg. Reade, fol. 14. 



' Cal. Doc. France, 170. " Mun. of Dean and Chap. Chich. < Liber Y,' fol. 135*. 



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