A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



At this period poaching affrays were particularly prevalent. In 1327, on his complaint that 

 certain evil-doers had hunted and carried away deer, hares, rabbits, and pheasants from his parks of 

 Worth, Cuckfield, Ditchling, and from his free chase of Cleres and his warren of Lewes, John de 

 Warenne was granted a commission of oyer and terminer to try them. 141 Three years later a 

 similar commission was obtained in regard to like offences committed in Worth and the other 

 parks. 143 Durrant Cooper speaks of timber from this forest having been supplied for the church of 

 Worth, about the middle of the thirteenth century. 143 In 1337 the sheriff had orders to deliver to 

 the Constable of the Tower of London two large oaks from the forest of Worth, which John de 

 Warenne had given to the king for making the beams of a certain great engine in the Tower. 144 



Outside the forest itself there was plenty of timber in the various parks and woodlands of the 

 rape of Lewes. Even the small manor of Hamsey must have contained a good supply at this 

 period, since William de Say sold to the prior of St. Pancras three hundred trees, half of the number 

 oaks, half fewers.' 146 



John de Warenne was the last of his line, and to him succeeded Richard Fitzalan, earl of 

 Arundel, as lord of the forest of Worth and all other possessions of the Warennes. As with his 

 predecessor his forest, parks, and chases suffered much from the inroads of poachers, and so in 1379 

 we find him obliged to prosecute a large band of malefactors, who, led by the parson of Ripe, had 

 raided his forest-land and parks and carried off hares, rabbits, and pheasants. 146 The execution of 

 this earl in 1397 was followed by the forfeiture of his estates. In the patent conferring them 

 upon Thomas, duke of Norfolk, is mention among other lands and manors of ' Worth, with its 

 two parks,' doubtless the Great and Little parks within the forest. 147 In the succeeding reign, in 

 1411, a subsidy roll states that Thomas, earl of Arundel and Surrey, held, inter alia, Worth, with 

 its parks and chases, ' worth nothing beyond reprises,' a statement which affords some idea of the 

 cost of foresters' and parkers' wages, the repair of pales, fences, and banks, and the provender 

 of deer. 148 



The chase of Cleres, meanwhile, appears to have come into other hands, since in 1363 John 

 Dymok died possessed of it, 149 but it came again under its former lordship, for John, duke of Norfolk, 

 possessed it by right of marriage, in the reign of Edward IV, dying seised of ' Cleres Chacea,' as well 

 as of the manor and forest of Worth. 160 



On the attainder of Thomas, duke of Norfolk, in 1546, his estates were bestowed on Thomas 

 Seymour, lord admiral, and among them the forest of Worth. In less than a year and a half he, in 

 his turn, was attainted, and his property seized by the crown. Consequent upon this an inventory m 

 was made which shows that ' Thomas Michell, gent, Raynger ther,' had ' for his fee per diem by the 

 year lx 9 - x d - . . . . also the herbage and pannage of the said Forest and Parke, by patent, during 

 his leif.' Two keepers, Robert Monke and Robert Cowstock, had ' yerely for their wages, every of 

 them xl 8 - with the kepyng of serteyne cattail ther.' 



In Queen Mary's reign Sir Richard Sackville was master of the game in the forest of Worth, 

 with the modest salary of 3. Under him was Robert Monk in the south ward, with a fee of 

 j^2 ; Robert Coulstock in the north ward, Robert Brown in the west ward, and Christopher Somer 

 in the east ward, each with the same fee as Monk. 152 About this period the earliest date being 

 uncertain we begin to meet with the place-name ' Tilgate,' applied to part of Worth Forest, but 

 whether it be to the moiety held by the Middleton family by grant from the queen, or to the 

 other half in possession of the Eversfields, it is not easy to determine. But from this period the 

 name ' Tilgate Forest ' appears to be as frequently used as Worth for this woodland, until eventually 

 it almost superseded the more ancient Worth. In this manner it seems to have been used in a 

 settlement made in 1639 by Thomas Covert on his wife Diana, in jointure, of ' Tilgate,' described 

 as lying in Worth, Crawley, Slaugham, Balcombe, and Cuckfield. Subsequently Sir Walter 

 Covert died seised of Tilgate, held of the king in capite by knight service. 153 In the period 

 of the Civil War such of the estates in this forest-land as were owned by Royalists were either 

 sequestered or compounded for ; and in some cases the woodlands hereabouts suffered waste ; 

 tenants of the Parliament, in most cases, being under no restrictions against felling timber. 154 At 

 Slaugham Park John Covert was allowed to compound for his estates ; those of John Middleton 

 in Worth forest-land were sequestered, albeit Thomas Middleton, his relative, was one of the 

 sequestrators appointed for the county. 



In the northern part of Worth Forest, not far from Crabbet Park, was a wild tract of land 

 called Copthorne, now Copthorne Common, much frequented in the seventeenth and eighteenth 



111 Pat. I Edw. Ill, m. 26. l * Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 46. 143 Suss. Arch. Coll. viii, 237. 



114 Close, 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 32. " 5 Misc. Bks. (P.R.O.) B f, fol. 89, No. 3. 



u 'De Banco R., Mich. 3. Ric. II, m. 477, 243. "' Pat. 21 Ric. II, m. n. 



" Subs. R. 13 Hen. IV. '" Inq. p.m. 37 Edw. Ill, No. 22. lso Ibid. 17 Edw. IV, No. 59. 



151 Suss. Arch. Call, xiii, 129. " (Burrell) Add. MS. 5684, fol. 432. 



143 Parks and forests of Sussex, 207. '" Royalist Comp. (ist Ser.), vol. 43, fol. 91. 



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