A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



Chichester rape. 828 A return of Petworth charities is annexed with a state- 

 ment that all the funds were properly applied. 823 



In the year 1631 fifty children were apprenticed in the rape of Chiches- 

 ter, and ejghty in the rape of Arundel, 22 * thirty were apprenticed from the 

 parishes of Battle, Burwash, Hooe, and Heathfield in the four months pre- 

 ceding July, 1632, and during the same period twenty-seven rogues were 

 whipped in that district, and sent to their birth-place or last abode. 226 The 

 return from Hastings rape in July, 1663, mentions the apprenticing of thirteen 

 children during the year 1632, but the justices evidently felt that the state of 

 their division still left much to be desired. ' We have had as great care as 

 we can of the ridding of the country from rogues and vagabonds,' they wrote, 

 ' and we conceive good hopes that we shall by our diligence hereafter bring 

 the country about us to better conformity and more agreeableness to his 

 Majesty's orders and directions.' 226 



The succeeding years saw a considerable improvement in the good order 

 of the county. In October, 1633, there were in the Wealden division of 

 Pevensey rape ' not a fourth part of the rogues ' that there had been pre- 

 viously ; in the Downish division of the same rape only two were punished 

 between June and October, 1634 ; and in Bramber in that year, as well as in 

 1633, very few were to be seen or heard of ; the poor in every parish were 

 sufficiently relieved, and there were no ' disordered ' ale-houses. 227 At this date 

 one ale-house was considered sufficient for a country village, and for a market- 

 town ' the same number of inns as have anciently been there.' 228 In 1636 

 there were said to be two in Arundel, Petworth, Horsham, Cliffe, Steyning, 

 East Grinstead, Battle, and Brighthelmston, three in Rye, four in Midhurst, 

 five in Lewes (if the borough so chose), and six in Chichester. 229 



With the passing of the more immediate stress of famine rogues and 

 vagabonds seem to have increased again to some extent. In the Wealden 

 division of Pevensey forty-six were punished in 1637 and seventy-seven in 

 1638, and in the rapes of Lewes and Arundel the numbers returned for 1637 

 were thirty-five and forty-seven respectively. 230 This may possibly have 

 been occasioned by some feeling of discontent being aroused when there 

 was no longer any need to make the same special provision for the poor as 

 had been done during the scarcity, or possibly with the passing of immediate 

 anxiety vigilance had been somewhat relaxed, with the result that a fresh 

 outburst of disorder subsequently occurred. 



Socially the period from about 1500 to the Commonwealth, and more 

 particularly during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth, was one of 

 luxury and ceremonial magnificence, the service of a great lord's house, as set 

 forth in Lord Montague's regulations for his household at Cowdray in 1595, 

 being an ornate ritual. So far was the dignity of the nobleman upheld at 

 Cowdray that not only was the table laid for dinner with an elaborate cere- 



*" S.P. Dom. Chas. I, vol. 191, No. 45. Unfortunately no figures are given. 



*** These were, one hospital in the parish erected by one Thomas Thompson for twelve poor people, 

 endowed with the annual rent of I oo marks, the rent of one house given by Edward Hall for the ' breeding 

 up of poor children to school,' being 4 ; and the rent of other houses given by other men towards the relief 

 of the poor to the value of 8 a year, with a stock of money of 100. 



" S.P. Dom. Chas. I, vol. 210, No. 92 ; 220, No. 41. ni Ibid. 220, No. 19. 



"* Ibid. 243, No. 19. K Ibid. 247, No. 46 ; 250, No. 43 ; 265, No. 33. 



* Ibid. 250, No. 42. m Suss. Arch. Coll. xxxiii, 272. 



" S. P. Dom. Chas. I, vol. 364, No. 125 ; vol. 395, No. 1 8. 



196 



