A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



HOUSES OF PREMONSTRATENSIAN CANONS 



16. THE ABBEY OF OTHAM 1 



The abbey of St. Mary and St. Laurence was 

 founded about 1180 by Ralph de Dene, who 

 granted his land and chapel of Otham in Hail- 

 sham parish with other lands and rents in the 

 neighbourhood to establish a house of Premon- 

 stratensian canons. The endowment was aug- 

 mented by his son Robert de Dene, who gave 

 his manor of Tilton in Selmeston ; and by Ela, 

 the founder's daughter, who married first Jordan 

 de Sackville and afterwards William de Marci ; 

 amongst other things she granted a yearly rent 

 of 6d. for the bettering of the meals of the 

 convent on St. Laurence's Day. The most con- 

 siderable benefactors however were the family of 

 Brade or Helling, who lived at 'the Broad' in 

 Hellingly ; various members of this family gave 

 lands in the neighbourhood of Hellingly, and 

 Rikeward Brade gave the advowson of the 

 church, which had been founded and endowed 

 by his father and uncle ; in return for their 

 liberality they had the privilege of presenting to 

 one of the canonries, Wybert Brade being thus 

 received as a canon on the presentation of Ralph 

 Brade his nephew. The only other grant which 

 need be mentioned here is that of Robert Falconer 

 of Wooton, who gave 6 acres of land called 

 Yeldelond on the Lewes road to provide lights 

 on the day of St. Laurence for the souls of his 

 father and mother and of Maud, his wife, who 

 was buried at Otham. 



The bleak and unhealthy situation of Otham, 

 out in the marshes and even now hardly acces- 

 sible in winter, and the poorness of their endow- 

 ments soon rendered life so unbearable that the 

 canons began to consider the desirability of 

 removing ; the first site offered was the church 

 of Hellingly, suggested by Rikeward de Brade, 

 whose brother Randolph put forward the alter- 

 native of ' Melgrave ' in Hellingly. About 1207, 

 however, Sir Robert de Turnham began to build 

 an abbey at Bayham on the borders of Kent and 

 Sussex, and Ela de Sackville, as patroness, gave 

 leave for the transference of the canons from 

 Otham thither. This cannot have taken place 

 before 1208, as Jordan, the only known abbot 

 of Otham and first abbot of Bayham, was still 

 abbot of Otham in December, I2O7. 2 After 

 the removal Otham sank to the position of a 

 grange, a canon no doubt being frequently resi- 

 dent there to act as bailiff of the farm and to 

 serve the chapel, which was evidently kept up, 



1 This account is condensed from the detailed his- 

 tory of the house in Salzmann, Hist. ofHailsham, 173 



'93- 

 1 Cat. of Chart, of Abbey ofRobtrtsbridge, No. 63. 



as in 1404, when the abbot of Bayham let the 

 manor of Otham to Henry Baker and John 

 Drew, special reservation was made of all the 

 offerings at the altar there, and of the image of 

 St. Laurence in gold, silver, and wax, as well as 

 of a room and stable with free access when 

 required. 



A cast of a seal is ascribed to this house in the 

 British Museum Catalogue* but the evidence for 

 this ascription is unsatisfactory. 



17. THE ABBEY OF BAYHAM 4 



It has just been related in the history of the 

 abbey of Otham that about 1208 the canons of 

 that abbey were transferred to Bayham, on the 

 borders of Kent and Sussex, where Sir Robert de 

 Turnham was establishing a monastery. Hither, 

 too, Sir Robert brought the canons of the small 

 Premonstratensian house of Brockley in Dept- 

 ford, of which he was patron. The two con- 

 vents were united under Jordan, previously abbot 

 of Otham, and their respective endowments 

 combined, Bayham thus holding the church of 

 West Greenwich and various lands and rents in 

 Kent as well as the Sussex property originally 

 given to Otham. Further grants were made by 

 the founder of lands in Yorkshire and elsewhere, 

 and these were increased from time to time by 

 other benefactors, so that in 1291 the abbey's 

 possessions in Sussex were valued at 37 2s. 4^., 

 with an additional 35 from other counties. 



While many of the gifts received were un- 

 hampered by conditions, many others carried 

 with them obligations of a religious nature 

 such as the maintenance of a canon to pray for 

 the donor's soul, as in the case of a grant by 

 Sybil de Icklesham 6 or secular. Of the latter 

 a good instance is the corrody granted to Simon 

 Payn, who had given the convent 150 acres of 

 land in Friston, in 1290. By this the canons 

 covenanted not only to support Simon and his 

 wife for the rest of their life, making the usual 

 detailed allowance of food, beer, clothing, &c., 

 but also to support his son Henry, a crippled 

 clerk, who was to minister to them so far as his 

 health allowed, to teach his two younger sons 

 some trade within the precincts until they could 

 support themselves, to give certain moneys to his 

 four daughters, and to pay off various debts. 6 In 



86 



' Vol. i, 588. 



4 Dugdale, Men. vi, 910-15 ; Suss. Arch. Coll. ix, 

 145-80; Add. MSS. 6037, a transcript of the 

 chartulary which was amongst the burnt Cottonian 

 MSS. 



4 Chartul. No. 45. Ibid. fol. 9. 



