A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



subsequently bestowed upon the archbishop of 

 Canterbury by Baldred, king of Kent, about 823, 

 but as he was not at the time in full possession of 

 the kingdom the grant was held to be invalid, 

 and had to be renewed in 838 at the council of 

 Kingston *>y the kings Egbert and Ethelwolf. 179 

 Nothing more is heard of the foundation until 

 the Domesday Survey, which shows the canons 

 of St. Michael holding 4 hides of Mailing Manor 

 and the estate of Stanmer, rated at 20 hides ; as 

 they are here spoken of as canons it is clear that 

 the Benedictine monks for such the inmates of 

 Aldult's monastery would probably have been 

 had been replaced by seculars. 



About 1150 Archbishop Theobald refounded 

 the college, building a new church, and endowing it 

 with all the tithes of his manor of South Mailing 

 and its appurtenances. 180 Of the collegiate church 

 thus established the nominal head was the arch- 

 bishop, who held the prebend of Mayfield, but 

 active control was vested in the dean, who was 

 also rural dean of South Mailing deanery, con- 

 taining the churches of Ringmer, Framfield, 

 and Southeram, which were prebendal, Cliffe, 

 Buxted with Uckfield chapel, Edburton, Ifield, 

 Mayfield, Stanmer, Wadhurst, and Glynde. 

 The church of West Tarring with Patching 

 was also at first attached to this deanery, but 

 was after the thirteenth century put under that 

 of Pagham. The dean was required to be con- 

 stantly resident, and the three canons, who held 

 the offices of precentor, chancellor, and treasurer 

 respectively, had to reside forty days every 

 year, 180 " but this obligation rapidly became merely 

 nominal, the prebends being bestowed upon 

 wealthy pluralists and papal nominees whose 

 sole connexion with the college lay in the pay- 

 ment of stipends to their vicars. 181 Originally the 

 profits of the churches of Mailing, Southeram, 

 and Framfield had been divided between the 

 dean and canons, that of Ringmer being held by 

 each in turn for a year, but under Archbishop 

 Chicheley Mailing church was assigned to the 

 dean, Southeram to the precentor, Ringmer to 

 the chancellor, and Framfield to the treasurer. 183 

 Two other officials of the church were the 

 penitentiary and the sacrist, who were obliged 

 to reside, and obtained their income mainly from 

 oblations and certain special tithes, though the 

 sacrist's office was further endowed in 1275 with 

 certain lands and rents which had been left by 

 the vicar of Ringmer to found a chantry, but 

 had proved insufficient for the purpose. 183 Each 

 canon had to maintain a vicar, and the rector of 

 Buxted had to provide a sub-deacon of good 

 character and voice to serve with the vicars. 184 



171 Cart. Sax. No. 421. 



1SO Suss. Arch. Coll. v, 1 30. 



180a Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Winchelscy, fol. 69. 



181 See Cal. of Papal Let. pastim. 



" Early Chan. Proc. bdle. iz, No. 85. 



183 Suit. Arch. Coll. v, 136. M Ibid. 137. 



The deans and canons from an early period had 

 each a separate manse with a garden, 185 but the 

 vicars had no fixed residence, but lived in such 

 houses as they could obtain in the neighbour- 

 hood, until in 1515 Archbishop Warham ordered 

 the erection of a suitable manse for their use. 186 



In spite of its antiquity this college has 

 singularly little history attached to it ; beyond 

 its frequent occurrence in the archbishop's regis- 

 ters as the place from which letters were dated 

 or where ordinations were held few notices of it 

 occur. The statutes revised by Archbishops 

 Stafford (1443) and Warham (1515) have already 

 been dealt with, and the visitations held in 1 298 187 

 and I3y6 188 contain only injunctions of a tech- 

 nical nature ; this absence of history, though 

 disappointing to the chronicler, may be taken 

 as evidence of the satisfactory morality of the 

 establishment. It must be remembered that 

 the prebends were mostly held by ecclesiastics 

 who made no endeavour to reside on the spot, 

 even the deanery being occasionally bestowed 

 upon persons who could not execute the duties, 

 as in 1395 when the pope dispensed Richard 

 Courtenay, the archbishop's nephew, then in his 

 fourteenth year, to hold the deanery of South 

 Mailing with canonries of Chichester, Bos- 

 ham, Lincoln, London, Wells, and Wilton. 188 

 The deanery was indeed a sufficiently valuable 

 benefice to attract the attention of Cromwell, 

 who demanded the patronage of it from the 

 prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, during the 

 vacancy of the primacy in I534. 190 



South Mailing College was valued in 1535 at 

 j45 12s. $%d. clear, 191 and was suppressed in 

 I 547> 192 ' ts s ' te anc l possessions being granted to 

 Sir Thomas Palmer, 193 but recovered by the arch- 

 bishop in 1553 upon petition showing that the 

 college had only held of the archbishopric as 

 tenants at will. 194 Surveys were made in 1555 of 

 the dilapidated church with its six bells, its lead, 

 its ' xxix marbyll stones wherein werre Images 

 and scrypturs of brasse,' and its stone and 

 timber. 195 



DEANS OF THE COLLEGE OF SOUTH MALLING 

 William de Bosco, occurs I23O 196 



Nicholas de Wich, appointed 1261 



187 



85 Ibid, xxi, 161. '""Ibid, v, 136. 



187 Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Winchelsey, fol. 6<)b. 



188 Ibid. Sudbury, fol. 49. 

 169 Cal. Papal Let. iv, 510. 



190 L. ana 1 P. Hen. Vlll, vii, 763. 



191 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 337. 

 191 Susi. Arch. Coll. xxi, 164-8. 



193 Ibid. 169-72, 174-8. IM Ibid. 173-4. 



195 Ibid. 181-5. 



198 Cott. MS. Vesp. F. xv, fol. 310'. 



197 Cal. Papal Let. \, 377. 



118 



