History of Church -3

Post date: Mar 04, 2012 7:52:54 PM

Extract from Parish magazine of September 1910. See also History of Church and History of Church 2

24. In the May number of the Parish Magazine, 1909, I published a first Paper on this subject. Soon after that date the Rectorial Tithe was conveyed to the Rev. and Mrs. G. M. Livett, and I took the opinion of Counsel, Mr. Kemp, on certain points raised in paragraphs 11 and 23 of the aforesaid Paper. According to that opinion the chancel of Wateringbury Church with all rights and obligations of possession passed to Lord Falmouth by purchase of " Canons Lands and Parsonage of Wateringbury," and the alienation of the Rectorial Tithe to Mr. Stockdale gave no rights over the chancel to Mr. Stockdale or his successors in title.* Mr. Kemp states his opinion that the insertion in the conveyance to Lord Falmouth of a clause, copied from the old leases of Canons Court and Lands granted by the Dean and Chapter of Rochester (referred to in paragraph 6 of my Paper), laying upon the purchaser the obligation of repairing the chancel from time to time, was quite unnecessary.

25. I have also been fortunate in obtaining from the late Secretary of the Church Building Society a copy of the plan of the Church showing the proposed addition of the south aisle in 1856, and the arrangement of seats at that time. This plan, together with one of 1883/4, I purpose to have framed and hung in the vestry. And, moreover, I have been able to collect further evidence about the old square pews of the chancel, which, like the Wateringbury Place pew in the nave (at the east end, opposite the pulpit, which was then on the south side of the nave), were replaced by the existing seats in 1856. The chancel-pew on the north side was regularly occupied by the tenants of Canons Court, while that on the south side was occupied, no doubt at the invitation of Alderman Lucas, who was the lessee of Canons Court, by Mr. Elvy, who lived at the Limes, and the tenants of other houses owned by the alderman. After abolition of the big pews, Mr. Sam. Lucas (who then lived at the Red House) and his tenants of Wateringbury Place occupied the new seats on both sides of the chancel, and his other tenants, including Mr. E. J. Goodwin of Canons Court, sat in the new seats placed on the site of the Wateringbury Place pew in the nave. That arrangement accounts for the assignment of the first three long pews near the existing pulpit to Canons Court, the Red House and the Limes. It is interesting to be able to add that the recovered plan of 1856 confirms in a remarkable manner the conjectural description of the old

north aisle and its arch and seating arrangements given in paragraph 15 of the former Paper.

*This makes necessary a correction in paragraph 20, ... lines 7 and 9, of the Paper of May, 1909 : for words " the rectorial tithe " read " Canons Court." And, in paragraph 21, Aldn. Lucas should have founded his claim on the fact that he was Lessee of Canons Court, rather than of the Great Tithes, which would not have affected his claim had they been reserved by the Dean and Chapter.