59. THE COLLEGE OF SOUTH MALLING (fn. 1)
Aldulf, prince or duke of the South Saxons,
about the year 765, gave lands in Stanmer,
Lindfield, and Burleigh for the endowment of a
monastery in honour of God and St. Michael,
which he had apparently already established at
Malling. (fn. 2) He was therefore commemorated in
the list of benefactors as the first founder of
the college. (fn. 3) The manor of Malling was
subsequently bestowed upon the archbishop of
Canterbury by Baldred, king of Kent, about 823,
but as he was not at the time in full possession of
the kingdom the grant was held to be invalid,
and had to be renewed in 838 at the council of
Kingston by the kings Egbert and Ethelwolf. (fn. 4)
Nothing more is heard of the foundation until
the Domesday Survey, which shows the canons
of St. Michael holding 4 hides of Malling Manor
and the estate of Stanmer, rated at 20 hides; as
they are here spoken of as canons it is clear that
the Benedictine monks—for such the inmates of
Aldult's monastery would probably have been—
had been replaced by seculars.
About 1150 Archbishop Theobald refounded
the college, building a new church, and endowing it
with all the tithes of his manor of South Malling
and its appurtenances. (fn. 5) Of the collegiate church
thus established the nominal head was the archbishop, who held the prebend of Mayfield, but
active control was vested in the dean, who was
also rural dean of South Malling deanery, containing the churches of Ringmer, Framfield,
and Southeram, which were prebendal, Cliffe,
Buxted with Uckfield chapel, Edburton, Ifield,
Mayfield, Stanmer, Wadhurst, and Glynde.
The church of West Tarring with Patching
was also at first attached to this deanery, but
was after the thirteenth century put under that
of Pagham. The dean was required to be constantly resident, and the three canons, who held
the offices of precentor, chancellor, and treasurer
respectively, had to reside forty days every
year, (fn. 6) but this obligation rapidly became merely
nominal, the prebends being bestowed upon
wealthy pluralists and papal nominees whose
sole connexion with the college lay in the payment of stipends to their vicars. (fn. 7) Originally the
profits of the churches of Malling, Southeram,
and Framfield had been divided between the
dean and canons, that of Ringmer being held by
each in turn for a year, but under Archbishop
Chicheley Malling church was assigned to the
dean, Southeram to the precentor, Ringmer to
the chancellor, and Framfield to the treasurer. (fn. 8)
Two other officials of the church were the
penitentiary and the sacrist, who were obliged
to reside, and obtained their income mainly from
oblations and certain special tithes, though the
sacrist's office was further endowed in 1275 with
certain lands and rents which had been left by
the vicar of Ringmer to found a chantry, but
had proved insufficient for the purpose. (fn. 9) Each
canon had to maintain a vicar, and the rector of
Buxted had to provide a sub-deacon of good
character and voice to serve with the vicars. (fn. 10)
The deans and canons from an early period had
each a separate manse with a garden, (fn. 11) but the
vicars had no fixed residence, but lived in such
houses as they could obtain in the neighbourhood, until in 1515 Archbishop Warham ordered
the erection of a suitable manse for their use. (fn. 12)
In spite of its antiquity this college has
singularly little history attached to it; beyond
its frequent occurrence in the archbishop's registers as the place from which letters were dated
or where ordinations were held few notices of it
occur. The statutes revised by Archbishops
Stafford (1443) and Warham (1515) have already
been dealt with, and the visitations held in 1298 (fn. 13)
and 1376 (fn. 14) contain only injunctions of a technical nature; this absence of history, though
disappointing to the chronicler, may be taken
as evidence of the satisfactory morality of the
establishment. It must be remembered that
the prebends were mostly held by ecclesiastics
who made no endeavour to reside on the spot,
even the deanery being occasionally bestowed
upon persons who could not execute the duties,
as in 1395 when the pope dispensed Richard
Courtenay, the archbishop's nephew, then in his
fourteenth year, to hold the deanery of South
Malling with canonries of Chichester, Bosham, Lincoln, London, Wells, and Wilton. (fn. 15)
The deanery was indeed a sufficiently valuable
benefice to attract the attention of Cromwell,
who demanded the patronage of it from the
prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, during the
vacancy of the primacy in 1534. (fn. 16)
South Malling College was valued in 1535 at
£45 12s. 5¾d. clear, (fn. 17) and was suppressed in
1547, (fn. 18) its site and possessions being granted to
Sir Thomas Palmer, (fn. 19) but recovered by the archbishop in 1553 upon petition showing that the
college had only held of the archbishopric as
tenants at will. (fn. 20) Surveys were made in 1555 of
the dilapidated church with its six bells, its lead,
its 'xxix marbyll stones wherein werre Images
and scrypturs of brasse,' and its stone and
timber. (fn. 21)
Deans Of The College Of South Malling
William de Bosco, occurs 1230 (fn. 22)
Nicholas de Wich, appointed 1261 (fn. 23)
Reginald de Gressenhale, occurs 1287, (fn. 24) died 1293 (fn. 25)
John de Berewyk, appointed 1293, (fn. 26) occurs
1310 (fn. 27)
William de Swanton, occurs 1314, (fn. 28) 1326 (fn. 29)
Nicholas Wardedyeu, appointed c. 1327, died
c. 1333 (fn. 30)
John de Aylesbury, occurs 1353, (fn. 31) died
1357 (fn. 32)
John de Echingham, appointed 1357, (fn. 33) died
1371 (fn. 34)
John Pateney, appointed March, 1371, (fn. 35) exchanged April, 1371 (fn. 36)
Richard de Apulderham, appointed and exchanged April, 1371 (fn. 37)
Thomas Ocle, appointed 1371, (fn. 38) exchanged
1375
Giles de Wyngremouth, appointed 1375, (fn. 39) died
1380
Adam de Wykemer, appointed 1380, (fn. 40) died
1385 (fn. 41)
John de Kirkeby, appointed 1385, (fn. 42) occurs
1392 (fn. 43)
Richard Corteney, occurs 1395 (fn. 44)
Henry Winchestre, appointed 1399, (fn. 45) exchanged 1406
William Piers, appointed 1406, (fn. 46) died 1439 (fn. 47)
Thomas Hanwelle, occurs 1458, (fn. 48) 1462, (fn. 49)
died 1473 (fn. 50)
Thomas Edmond, died 1481 (fn. 51)
Thomas Brent, appointed 1481, (fn. 51) died 1515
Robert Wykes, appointed 1515 (fn. 52)
John Piers, occurs 1535, (fn. 53) died 1536
Thomas Heritage, appointed 1536, (fn. 54) died
1537
Nicholas Heth, appointed 1537, (fn. 55) resigned
1540
Robert Peterson, appointed 1540, (fn. 56) surrendered 1547 (fn. 57)
A fragmentary example of the collegiate
seal shows that it bore the winged figure of
St. Michael. (fn. 58)