A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



Child on the left knee, in the right hand a fleur- 

 de-lis. Overhead a carved and trefoiled canopy. 

 In base, the corbel elegantly carved with 

 foliage. Legend : 



165 Dirif : EX : LIGNO : UIRIDI : BOXGVIA : 



DIGNO : NO?E : NA I CRESCIT : VTVTIB ' 

 ATQ VIRESCIT 



A seal of one of the priors is attached to a deed 

 of 1421 ; circular, showing two figures (possibly 

 SS. Mary and Elizabeth) under a canopy. 166 

 Legend : 



SIGILLVM . JOH'lS . D* . BOSGRAVE 



The oval seal of the sub-prior in 1254 shows 

 the Virgin and Child, with a kneeling figure 

 beneath. 167 Legend : 



. SUPPRIORIS . DE . BOXGRAVE 



4. THE PRIORY OF SELE 168 



William de Braose, soon after he had obtained 

 his extensive fief in Sussex, appears to have built 

 the church of St. Nicholas at Bramber as a chapel 

 to his castle, and to have founded there a small 

 college of secular canons, under a dean. In 

 1073 he endowed this college with the church 

 of Seeding and the tithes of a large extent of his 

 lands in Shoreham, Southwick, Washington, 

 Findon, Thakeham and the neighbourhood. 169 

 William appears also to have claimed the right 

 of burial for his church, but about 1086 the 

 abbey of F&amp successfully contested this 

 claim, and Herbert the dean (of Bramber) had 

 to restore the bodies buried at his church and 

 the fees taken for their burial. 170 



Either in or before January, 1080, William 

 de Braose granted to the abbey of St. Florent, 

 Saumur, the church of Shipley, land at An- 

 nington, a vacant prebend in the church of 



185 B.M. xxxv, 97, A, B, C. The impression B has 

 subjects of the windows of the obverse of an older 

 type, and somewhat differently treated. At the side 

 of our Lord's head, in the upper niche, the letters 

 A O ; in each of the upper niches of the -sides, a 

 monk's head in profile ; in the base, over the figure 

 of St. Blaise, the inscription S' Bias . . . 



166 Mun. of Magd. Coll. Oxon. ' Findon,' No. 48. 



I6r Ibid. 'Southwick,' Nos. 16, 22. 



168 Dugdale, Man. iv, 668-71 ; Suss. Arch. Coll. x, 

 100-128. To the kindness of the Rev. H. A. Wilson, 

 librarian of Magd. Coll. Oxon, I am indebted for 

 access to the Chartulary of Sele and the great store of 

 original deeds preserved in the college muniments. 

 These have been excellently calendared by Dr. Macray, 

 and transcribed by Dr. Bloxam, late vicar of Seeding; 

 many of the most interesting are printed by Cart- 

 wright in his Hist, of the Rape of Bramber, 224-35. 

 and are referred to below by the numbers there 

 attached to them. 



'" Cal. Doc. France, 405. 17 Ibid. 38. 



St. Nicholas Bramber, with the reversion of the 

 whole church after the death of the canons then 

 there. 171 One or two monks were to be sent 

 over and if this endowment should be increased 

 by himself or any other person sufficiently to 

 support an abbey, one should be established there 

 under the control of the abbot of St. Florent. 

 Accordingly a priory was established at the 

 church of St. Peter at Beeding, or Sele as it was 

 thenceforth called, some time before 1096, about 

 which date Philip son of William de Braose 

 confirmed his father's gifts to St. Florent. 172 By 

 1150 the priory's possessions in Sussex included 

 the churches of Sele, Bramber, Washington 

 (which had been obtained by exchange for that 

 of Shipley), Old and New Shoreham and the 

 chapel of St. Peter ' de Veteri Ponte ' on the 

 bridge between Bramber and Beeding. John 

 de Braose in 1220 confirmed the grants of his 

 ancestors and added other tithes and privileges, 

 and in 1282 his son William gave to the priory, 

 in exchange for the tithes of Shoreham, land at 

 Crockhurst in Horsham, the right of fishing in 

 his river as far as Bramber Bridge, and the use of 

 a ferry if the bridge should be impassable at any 

 time. 173 This William also in 1282 for a pay- 

 ment of ^40 forgave the monks certain offences 

 not specified and took them under his protection 

 again. 174 There were many other small gifts 176 

 made at various times, but the priory was never a 

 rich one, and at the time of the Taxation of 

 Pope Nicholas its temporalities only amounted 

 to 26 12s. io^. 176 An extent of the priory 

 made in 1370 shows a total gross income of 

 ji45 10*. lo^., 1 ' 7 but the value of its possessions 

 in 1535 was only ^91 i2s. lod. gross and 

 64 51. 6d. clear. 178 



Being an alien house Sele was frequently 

 seized into the king's hands during the wars 

 with France in the fourteenth century, and in 

 1295, when all aliens were ordered to remove 

 from the coast, it was only at the intercession of 

 William de Valence and other influential men 

 that the prior of Sele was allowed to remain in 

 his house. 179 At last in 1396 Richard II allowed 

 the priory to be naturalized, 180 the only remaining 

 link with St. Florent being an annual payment 

 of 1 1 marks made to the abbey. 



171 Ibid. 3967. Bramber church was surrendered 

 by the abbot of St. Florent to the abbey of Fecamp, 

 who in return gave up all claim to the church of 

 Beeding (ibid. 405) ; apparently W. de Braose re- 

 covered the church from Fecamp and restored it to 

 St. Florent (ibid. 38). 

 78 Ibid. 401. 



"* Cartwright, op. cit. xiii. IM Ibid, xviii. 



175 Suss. Arch. Coll. x, 116-18. 



176 Tax. Eccl. (Rec. Com.), 141. 



177 Dugdale, Man. iv, 669. 



178 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 282. 

 '"Close, 23 Edw. 1,4^. 



180 Cartwright, op. cit. xxvii. 



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