born in 1733, and was educated at Westminster School, under the Reverend Dr. Nichol. He was entered as a fellow commoner at Saint John's College, Cambridge, where he took the degrees of LL.B. in 1755 and of LL.D. in 1760 He married Sophia, eldest daughter of Charles Raymond, Esq., of Valentine House in Essex, who was created a baronet May 4, 1774, with remainder to William Burrell, Esq., and his heirs male, by Sophia his wife. Sir William was elected Fellow of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies in 1756, chosen Member for Haslemere, in Surrey, May 10, 1768, and appointed a Commissioner of Excise in 1774. He was seized with a paralytic stroke in August, 1787, which took away his speech for a time; but though he recovered his voice, he totally lost the use of his left arm; and the continual ill state of his health occasioned the resignation of his seat at the Board of Excise in 1791. In 1790, he purchased the Deepdene, near Dorking, of Charles, eleventh Duke of Norfolk, the air of which was peculiarly favourable to his shattered constitution, which, however, was too much affected to hope for perfect recovery; and although he was enabled for a time to enjoy the society of his friends, he sunk at length under the repeated attacks of his disorder. Sir William, from an early period of his life, appears to have turned his thoughts towards writing the history of Sussex, a county in which his family had long resided, and for which he felt a peculiar predilection. The ground might be said to be almost new, as Camden, in his Britannia, scarcely enters upon the Weald of Sussex, and consequently his account can only be viewed as an outline of its character, which, however, is wonderfully accurate, considering the state of the roads in the time of Queen Elizabeth. In the pursuit of his purpose, Sir William had drawings made by Lambert, Grimm, and other artists, of all the churches, and of every thing remarkable or curious in the county, every part of which he personally inspected, and in the course of years his manuscripts became extremely voluminous. His health, during the last nine years of his life became so precarious, that he was precluded the possibility of arranging his papers for publication, and finding that his mind, as well as body was injured by intense application, he determined to bequeath them to the British Museum, in the hope that they might prove the basis upon which some future Antiquary might publish a history worthy of the county'. Extract from the will of Sir William Burrell, Bart., dated December 9, 1790:-" And I bequeath my fifteen folio volumes of manuscript, and my eight large folio volumes of drawings, ex ecuted by Grimm and Lambert, relating to the County of Sussex, to the Trustees of the British Museum, for the time being, upon condition that my family and their descendants, may have free THOMAS WOOLLGAR, Was born on the 17th of November, 1761, at Deal, in Kent, from which place his parents removed to Lewes about two years afterwards. He was educated at the Grammar School, under the Rev. Robert Austin, and the Rev. James Casley, and immediately entered upon commercial pursuits, in which the early part of his life was chiefly engaged. During the intervals of business, he studied medicine and natural history; to the former science he became so much attached that he would have adopted it as a profession, had circumstances been favourable. In August, 1794, he married Anne, only daughter of Mr. John Webb, and became a partner with Mr. Stephen Weller, both of them old and respectable inhabitants of Lewes. Four years after this, he retired altogether from an occupation which daily became less congenial to his habits, intending to devote himself to literary and scientific researches. In this view he was in some measure disappointed. He had shewn himself to be a man of sound and impartial judgment, of easy access, and of willingness to render advice and assistance where needful; and it is not surprising, that in consequence of such qualities, he was very soon called upon to take an active part in various public concerns, and to become an efficient member of the several local trusts and commissions. His many services on these occasions will be still in the recollection of his cotemporaries. In private affairs too, his aid was solicited in various complicated executorships and arbitrations. The intervals of his time were employed in the researches of antiquarian topography and of natural history. To his labours in the former department, the pages of the present work bear ample testimony; and in the latter, particularly in Botany, his acquirements were very considerable. Although he was in the constant habit of noting down the results of his inquiries, he rarely ventured to submit them to the public eye, his whole performance in that way being limited to a few contributions to the Gentleman's Magazine, and to Dr. Smith's English Botany. Mr. Woollgar experienced in 1815 a severe loss in the death of his wife, a woman of most amiable character, whose removal caused a blank in his enjoyments that even time could not supply. Three years after that event, an hepatic abscess brought him in a few months to the brink of the grave, from which attack he recovered, only to linger in painful infirmity for three years longer, at the end of which period, (the 22d of December, 1821), his constitution sunk under the burthen. His remains were interred in a vault at Southover, on which occasion a deputation from the Lewes Library Society testified their respect for their deceased president, by attending the funeral. Mr. and Mrs. Woollgar had been inhabitants of All Saints from the time of their union, and in the church of that parish a tablet is inscribed to their memory. They left a son and a daughter'. The reader is referred to a short biographical | his family, or even of any inhabitant of the town,) notice of Mr. Woollgar, (which was written and in the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1822, or printed wholly without the knowledge of any of the Annual Biography and Obituary for 1821. CHAPTER XIX. OF THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY OF LEWES. As it is in contemplation to publish, at the earliest convenient opportunity, a Supplement to the present volume, containing a topographical and historical account of the district around Lewes, to the extent of several miles, it will in this place be unnecessary to particularize the numerous villages and manors in the vicinity. The parishes of Malling and Hamsey, however, which may be regarded in some degree as connected with the borough, shall be briefly noticed; and the town of Newhaven, which for its importance as a sea-port, and as lying at the mouth of the river by which the borough is enriched, may, without impropriety, be here introduced. I shall also break through the limits assigned for this volume, by briefly noticing the noblemen's seats within a few miles of the town. MALLING PARISH. MALLING is situated within the rape of Pevensey, and in the hundred of Ringmer. The parish is bounded on the east by Glynde and Ringmer, on the west by the river Ouse, and on the south by Beddingham. In the early Saxon periods a church is said to have been erected here, which was dedicated to St. Michael the archangel, but by whom it was built, antiquaries differ. Some have attributed the foundation to the West Saxon King Ceadwalla'; others haue ascribed it to Adelwalch, Duke or Governor of Sussex. Long before the Norman conquest, the manor and church were certainly vested in the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church was a collegiate one, and in Domesday the Canons of Malling are recorded to have held four hides in the manor. Whoever was the original founder of the church, it is certain that in the early Norman times the establishment was enriched by the Archbishops of Canterbury, in whose collation, and under whose immediate jurisdiction, the Dean and Prebendaries were till the surrender, 10th March, 1545. The church appears to have been enlarged, or perhaps re-built, in the time of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, who lived in the reign of Stephen, for by him it was consecrated, and its endowment augmented. The next benefactor to the collegiate church was Thomas à Becket. He confirmed to the church and college the grants of his predecessor Theobald, and further enriched it with a dominical house and lands. What became of the revenues of the church from the time of the dissolution of the college to the period of its being granted by the crown, is not material; a small share probably got safe into the Exchequer. An inquisition to inquire into the value issued in the 27th of Elizabeth, and in the 30th year of her reign, the rectory, and parsonage, and the appurtenances lately belonging to the College of South Malling, were granted to Brandthwaite, of Bromley, to be held in capite by knight service. This patent was, however, surrendered to the queen in the following year, as appears by the Close Rolls 27 m., and in 33 Elizabeth the property was granted to Thomas, Lord Buckhurst tenend. in libo et commun. soccagio, &c. In 21 James I., Richard, Earl of Dorset, in consideration of 7007. paid by John Stansfield, of the Cliffe, near Lewes, towards discharging the debts of the said earl, conveyed to the said John Stansfield, "All that the rectory and parsonage of South Malling, and also all messuages, houses, edifices, buildings, barns, stables, pigeon houses, yards, orchards, gardens, glebe-lands, tythes of corn, hay, wool, lamb, milk, and all other tenths, as well great as small predial tythes, oblacions, obventions, fruits, emoluments, commodities, and profits to the said rectory belonging; and also that capital mansion-house, late belonging to the Dean of Malling," &c. Richard Evelyn, the father of the celebrated John Evelyn, having married Eleanor, the daughter and heiress of John Stansfield, became, in right of his wife, seized of this property; and on the 10th of October, 1637, he demised it (with some exceptions) to W. Kemp, of South Malling, yeoman. The estate descended to his son William, whose daughter married William Russel, M.D., and at the death of Dr. Russel, his eldest son William, who assumed the name of his grandfather, Kemp, and who was much distinguished at the bar, succeeded to the estate. At his death, the property was sold, and is now divided amongst several proprietors.-The Deanery is possessed by Henry Campion, Esq. The above property formed but a small part of the possessions of the College of South Malling. The bulk of the estates was granted by Elizabeth, in the thirty-third year of her reign, to William Typper and Robert Dawe; for in a deed dated the 22d of December in that year, the queen gives and grants unto them, their heirs and assigns, amongst divers other lands and tenements, "All that her College of South Malling, in the county of Sussex, and all those her lands, tenements, hereditaments, with the appurtenances in Stanmer, in the county of Sussex, and elsewhere, whatsoever to the said college belonging or appertaining, or parcel of the possessions thereof late being; to have and to hold," &c. In 1592 Typper and Dawe sold a portion of this property to John Whiting, of Ditchling, and Richard Shorswell, of Wivelsfield, Clerk, and this portion now forms part of the Cliffe church estate. When Mr. Stansfield purchased of the Earl of Dorset the rectory and parsonage of South Malling, the church appears to have been in a very ruinous state, insomuch that it was found requisite to pull down the old building and erect on its scite the church which is now standing. The new edifice was begun in the year 1626, and one of the first stones was laid by Mr. John Evelyn'. It was completed in 1628, when a petition was forwarded to the Archbishop of Canterbury, praying that divine service and the celebration of the sacrameuts, might be allowed to teke place in the newly erected edifice, without the inhabitants being subjected to the to the trouble of a new consecration. Their request was granted by the Archbishop. The benefice is still a stipendary curacy of twenty pounds per annum, with which it was endowed by Mr. Stansfield. The population of 1801 1811 1821 182 males, 166 females, Total 348-Houses 48 The two stones at the bottom of Pl. XXIII. fig. 2., were found about the year 1748, in the churchyard at Malling. The stones were laid upon each other, and enclosed a human scull. HAMSEY. The manor and parish of Hammes, Hammes Say, or Hamsey, is in the hundred of Barcombe, and in the rape of Lewes. It is situated about two miles north of the borough of Lewes. The benefice is a rectory, valued in the king's books at 16l. 12s. 8d. The church is of considerable antiquity, but the tower seems to have been built at a much earlier period than the body of the church; on each front, in the centre of the cornice, is a grotesque head. In the interior of the edifice is a noble gothic arch of Caen stone, opening from the tower steeple to the body of the building, now filled up with a gallery, and visible only from the belfry. About the communion table are several ancient grave stones, of grey Sussex marble: the brass inscriptions are missing. Within the communion rails stands a very ancient raised monument, enriched with gothic ornaments. has been frequently whitewashed, by which the neatness of the carving is much injured. There is no inscription to point out the individual for whom it was raised and the shields in front are quite plain and smooth. The monument was probably erected for one of the family of the Says; although the profusion of gothic ornaments, would appear to denote a period somewhat later than that in which they flourished Irrotni. 4o Maii, 1591. The mansion still called the Deanery, and now the residence of Henry Campion, Esq., stands on the scite of the ancient Deanery of the College of South Malling. Some portions of the original building are yet to be traced. The fish ponds attached to the ancient establishment have been filled up. 1627" About this time was the consecration of the church of South Malling, near Lewes, the building whereof was chiefly procured by my grandfather, who having the impropriation, gave twenty pounds a year out of it to this church. I after wards sold the impropriation. I laid one of the first stones at the building of the church, which was consecrated by Bishop Field, Bishop of Oxford, the sermon being preached by Mr. Coxhall, afterwards minister there.”—Evelyn's Memoirs, i. Mr. Evelyn is certainly mistaken in the time of the conseeration. The petition of the inhabitants, praying for liberty to perform public worship without a new consecration of the place, is dated 1628, and the consecration did not take place till some years afterwards. |