A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



rich marsh pastures, recovered from the sea either by natural or by artificial 

 means, has more than compensated the county for the loss of ports which 

 modern shipping must early have outgrown. 



With the decay of maritime importance the energy of the population 

 tended more and more to transfer itself to the iron industry of the Weald, 

 and in the seventeenth century even the agricultural interest gave way to 

 some extent before this promising source of wealth ; Camden, writing at the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century, stated that a great deal of meadow 

 ground had been converted into lakes and wells to turn mills; 7 and the grand 

 jury of the sessions of the peace held at Lewes in October, 1661, said that 

 the manufacture had given employment to 'many 1000 of poore people 

 farmers and others.' 8 



Already, however, signs of decay were not wanting, and in the same 

 petition the jurors struck a prophetic note when they complained that the 

 industry ' being once lost can never be recovered, depending on growth of 

 woods, which being once grubbed will never be replanted.' 9 With the 

 destruction of the timber the number of the iron-works gradually dwindled, 10 

 and at the close of the eighteenth century Sussex was almost wholly dependent 

 upon its agricultural wealth, though the rise of the south coast watering 

 places within the next few years brought its town life once more into 

 prominence. 



Another feature of no small interest in the economic history of the 

 county is the late survival of local peculiarities, probably occasioned by its 

 strongly defined natural boundaries and the isolation due to the dense northern 

 forest. Amongst these peculiarities the existence of the rapes, the prevalence 

 of the custom of Borough English, the use of the ' wista ' as a land measure, 

 and the possible existence of the eight-virgate hide are the most important. 11 

 In an early volume of the Collections of the Sussex Archaeological Society 12 is 

 a list of some one hundred and thirty-five manors where the copyhold lands 

 descend by Borough English to the youngest son or daughter, with slight 

 variations in default of male issue. Thus in Pevensey ls the inheritance 

 passed to the youngest son by the first wife, whose wardship during minority 

 belonged to his mother, unless he inherited from her, in which case the 

 kinsfolk (parentes] of his father acted as guardians ' ad voluntatem pueri, et 

 cum voluerit de custodia exire habebit terram suam deliberatam sine aliquo 

 impedimento.' 



With regard to the Sussex land measures, the ' wista ' and the ' daie 

 work ' seem to be the most frequently used after the hide and virgate. The 

 ' daie work ' was apparently equal to 4 perches, 1 * but the content of the 

 ' wista ' does not seem to have been so definite, being spoken of as equivalent 

 to a quarter of a hide, half a hide, 4 virgates, or i virgate indiscriminately. 

 The usual practice would seem to have been, however, to use the terms 



7 Camden, Britannia (ed. Gough, from ed. of 1607), i, 185. 8 Add. MS. 33058, fol. 81 et seq. 



'Ibid. 10 Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 204. " V.C.H. Suss, i, 359-60. 



11 Vol. vi, 179-89. The writer claims that this list is by no means exhaustive. 



13 P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. R. 666. This is a survey of 1353, another taken in 1293 (R. 663) says that 

 the minor shall be in the wardship of his mother until he is of full age, and makes no mention of the peculiar 

 customs attaching to maternal inheritance. 



14 Add. MS. 6348, fol. 255, and map of Hamerden, in the custody of Messrs. Hunt, Curry & Nicholson, 

 from information given by Mr. L. F. Salzmann. Probably the 'dietas' of Add. Ct. R. 31261 (Bishopstone) 

 admits of translation as 'daywork.' The daywork was a measure in Essex and Kent also. 



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