Terrier of Vicarage (1695)

Post date: Dec 05, 2019 7:33:2 PM

Copy terrier of Vicarage Wateringbury, 1695

(Kent archives P385/3/11)

Wateringbury

1695

A terrier³ of all the Glebe⁴ lands houses gardens and orchards belonging to the Parsonage and Vicarage of the parish of Wateringbury made in the ? th day of October Anno Domini 1695 according to the best of our knowledge whose names are hereunder written ,

Inprimis to the parsonage there is now in the occupation of Sir Thomas Style Baronet⁶belonging to the Dean & Chapter of Rochester a manor and Lordship called and known by the name of Cannon Court⁵ being one dwelling house with other outhouses & buildings one garden one orchard with other lands arable pasture meadow & woodland containing by estimation seven score acres more or less part whereof is Glebe land but how much we know not.

Item belonging to the said parsonage in the occupation of the said Sir Thomas Style all the tithe of Corn in the said parish of Wateringbury except a certain parcel of land called and known by the name of Lillie² and also certain ancient Garden ??? now lying in the open fields of all which so far as we can learn the Vicar hath always received the Corn tithes.

Item to the Vicarage⁷ now in the possession of James Hunter¹ one dwelling house with a stable one orchard one piece of land containing in all by estimation two acres more of less abutting to the King’s highway north and East and to the lands of the said Sir Thomas Style on the south and the land of John Brewer esq on the West.

Item to the said Vicarage belongeth the pasturage of the Churchyard and all the tithe corn of the above excepted parcel of land called Lillie² containing by estimation fourscore acres more or less. Also all the corn tithes of all the above excepted Garden ???? which the Vicar so far as we can learn hath always enjoyed.

Item to the said Vicarage belongeth all the tithes of hay and wood hops hemp flax wool and fruit together with all other petty tithes arising in the said parish of Wateringbury whasoever without any custom composition or prescription against the payment of them in kind.

James Hunter¹ ……Vicar

Thomas Stone ……Churchwardens

John Betts

Notes:

1. James Hunter was installed as vicar in 1695 serving until his death in December 1729.

2. Lillie is Lilly Hoo (near the Beltring Hop Farm) which was a detached part of the village until the 19th century. Probably originally in Anglo Saxon/early medieval times a den in the Weald used by Wateringbury villagers to feed their pigs on acorns. In the Tithe Survey (1839) Lilly Hoo was measured at 83 acres.

3. Terrier is a term used to mean an inventory or record, "a register of the lands belonging to a landowner, originally including a list of tenants, their holdings, and the rents paid, later consisting of a description of the acreage and boundaries of the property."

4. Glebe was the land owned by the Church to provide an income for the vicar of a parish.

5. Cannon Court was one of the 4 medeival Wateringbury Manors with a right to hold a manor court. The others were Wateringbury (Place), Westbury and Chart. Cannon Court was subject to a parliamentary survey in 1649.

6. Thomas was a very common name for the Style family who owned Wateringbury Place from 1625 until c.1830 and again from the late 1940s until 1978. This Thomas Style died in 1702 and his family details are recorded on a tombstone, now covered by staging, near the pulpit in the church.

7. The document makes a distinction between the parsonage and the vicarage. The distinction is intended as Thomas Style lived in the Parsonage whereas James Hunter lived in the vicarage. Probably the vicarage was a predecessor house to The White House, built in 1731 by George Charlton.