Singlecross Hundred (Part)

A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2, Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) Including Horsham. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1986.

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'Singlecross Hundred (Part)', in A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2, Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) Including Horsham, (London, 1986) pp. 128. British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol6/pt2/p128 [accessed 18 March 2024]

SINGLECROSS HUNDRED (Part)

SINGLECROSS hundred, originally a detached portion of Steyning hundred, was separate by 1493, (fn. 1) though in 1524 (fn. 2) and 1538 (fn. 3) it was still listed as part of that. Its description as a half-hundred in 1651 (fn. 4) seems to be an aberration. The place called Singlecross or Shinglecross, mentioned from 1304, (fn. 5) was on Horsham common, near the modern Star inn at Roffey. (fn. 6) The hundred always descended with the rape. (fn. 7)

In 1598 Singlecross included the tithings of Shortsfield (in Horsham), Warnham, Sedgewick (in Nuthurst), Ifield, and Coombes in the Wold and Washington in the Wold (both in Horsham). The headborough of Shortsfield, however, appeared only for form's sake and made no presentment. (fn. 8) Marlpost in Horsham was said to be in Loxfield hundred in 1592 and in Tarring hundred in 1627-8 (fn. 9) and 1830. (fn. 10) Ifield was still included in 1651 (fn. 11) but not afterwards, and Washington in the Wold is not heard of again. In 1823 the tithings were Warnham, Sedgewick, Shortsfield, and Coombes in the Wold. (fn. 12) Horsham borough was extra-hundredal until its abolition in 1835; (fn. 13) thereafter it was included in the hundred. (fn. 14)

A hundred court was held by 1493. (fn. 15) In 1598 and 1600 two views a year were held, at which the repair of ditches and cases of highway encroachment were dealt with. (fn. 16) The court was called the view and court baron of the hundred and manor in 1695, when a tenant of former waste land in Rusper was admitted. Between 1705 and 1715 the view was held annually in autumn. (fn. 17) In 1651 the place of meeting was Horsham, (fn. 18) between 1786 and 1802 the Star inn, Roffey, and during the next decade other rural inns in Horsham parish. (fn. 19) An alderman and a bailiff served in 1598, and a constable then (fn. 20) and later. (fn. 21)

Footnotes

  • 1. Arundel Cast. MS. M 838, rot. 1.
  • 2. S.R.S. lvi. 62-6.
  • 3. Arundel Cast. MS. M 279.
  • 4. S.A.C. xxiii. 238.
  • 5. P.R.O., JUST 1/933, m. 1.
  • 6. Ibid. E 134/27 Eliz. I Hil./1, rot. 9; Roffey man. ct. bk. 1783-1934, in possession of Messrs. Cotching & Son, Horsham, p. 48.
  • 7. Cf. V.C.H. Suss. vi (1), 4-5.
  • 8. Arundel Cast. MS. M 280, rott. IV.-2, 4.
  • 9. S.A.C. xxxviii. 148, 151.
  • 10. Dallaway & Cartwright, Hist. W. Suss. ii (2), 334.
  • 11. S.A.C. xxiii. 238.
  • 12. E.S.R.O., QCR/2/1/EW 3; cf. Arundel Cast. MSS. M 303-8.
  • 13. e.g. Arundel Cast. MS. M 279; Census, 1801-31; Dallaway & Cartwright, Hist. W. Suss. ii (2), 334.
  • 14. Census, 1841-51. Reference to a Horsham hund. corresponding to the ancient par. in 1929 seems a mistake: P.N.Suss. (E.P.N.S.), i. 221; cf. V.C.H. Suss. i. 538.
  • 15. Arundel Cast. MS. M 838, rot. 1; cf. ibid. A 433, f. 5.
  • 16. Ibid. M 280, rott. 4, 7; M 281.
  • 17. Ibid. M 303-8.
  • 18. S.A.C. xxiii. 239.
  • 19. Horsham Mus. MS. 243.
  • 20. Arundel Cast. MS. M 280, rott. 4, 7.
  • 21. S.R.S. liv. 37; E.S.R.O., QCR/2/1/EW 3; Horsham Mus. MS. 243.