SOUTHWICK
Seuewic (xiii cent.); Suwic, Suthwyk (xiv cent.);
Southwike (xvi cent.).
The parish of Southwick consists of well-wooded
and undulating country and contains 725¼ acres of
wood. A part of the Forest of Bere lies to the north,
and there are many detached woods and copses.
Southwick Park also covers a wide area. The road
which skirts the north-west of the park passes through
the midst of the Forest of Bere, and in its progress
north to the hamlet of Denmead traverses some
beautiful wooded country. The parish is well
watered by the River Wallington and its tributaries,
and contains seventeen acres of water. The south
boundary follows the east of Portsdown for about a
mile and a half, and one of the forts on the ridge is
named after the parish. The village lies almost in
the centre of the parish, to the east of the junction of
the Wallington with one of its tributaries, the main
village street running parallel with the south-western
boundary of the park and containing many picturesque
half-timbered houses. The church of St. James
stands just outside the park to the west, facing a
second street which runs westward to join the Wickham road, the vicarage being near the junction of the
roads. Bridge House, below Newman's Bridge, is
very prettily situated, and there are many other
delightful views of river-scenery in the parish.
The remains of Southwick Priory, a house of Black
or Austin canons, founded by Henry I in 1133, and
in which, in 1445, Henry VI was married to Margaret of Anjou, lie in the extreme south-west corner
of Southwick Park, and would doubtless repay a careful investigation. The buildings were not entirely
destroyed at the suppression, but converted into a
house, like those of Titchfield and Mottisfont. There
is a record that in Richard Norton's time Dryden's
play 'The Spanish Friar' was performed in the
frater. In course of time parts of the old work
became ruinous, and in the beginning of the nineteenth century the house was rebuilt, and much of
the monastic building finally disappeared in the process. Till this date a great chapel with fourteen
windows on each side, attributed to William of Wykeham, is said to have remained standing. The new
house was burnt in 1838, and the present building was
begun shortly afterwards. Southwick House, the
residence of Mr. Alexander Thistlethwayte, is pleasantly situated in the centre of the park, which is
finely timbered. The great room of the house is
called the Old Playhouse. The stream running
through the south of the park is artificially widened
for the greater part of its course.
Wanstead Farm, which represents what is left of the
so-called manor of Wanstead, lies to the north-east of
the park, Lye Heath and Lye Heath Farm to the east. (fn. 1)
Belney Farm, Great Belney Copse, and Little Belney
Copse mark the site of the manor of Belanney, and
Newlands Farm in the east represents the manor of
Newlands. In the south-eastern extremity of the
parish is a part of Purbrook Heath. The schools,
which stand immediately opposite the church, were
built about 1845, and are supported by Mr. Alexander
Thistlethwayte.
The soil is clay and loam; the subsoil chalk. The
chief crops are wheat and other cereals. The area is
3,866 acres of land and 17 acres of water, the proportions of land in the parish being as follows:
1,502½ acres of arable land, 1,790 acres of permanent
grass, and 724¼ acres of woodland. (fn. 2)
The following place-names occur in 1538:
"Steynynge, Drawlegges, Pontein Lee, Amery Croft,
Cockesdell, Stapull Crosse, (fn. 3) Offwell (which still survives in Offwell Farm), Little Russhams, Halecroft,
Beeters, Plashet and Astele Mead, (fn. 4) and in 1775
Shorts Meads and Edwards Meads. (fn. 5)
MANORS
The earliest mention of SOUTHWICK seems to be in the year 1133,
when Henry I founded a priory of
Austin canons at Portchester, (fn. 6) assigning to them by
the foundation charter the manor of Candover, a
hide of land in Applestead,
and a hide of land in Southwick. (fn. 7)
Southwick Priory. Argent a chief sable with two roses argent therein.
The priory was removed
from Portchester to Southwick
between 1145 and 1153, and
this land with the addition of
other lands acquired by grant
of Richard de Boarhunt and
Gilbert de Boarhunt during
the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries evidently became
the manor of Southwick, (fn. 8)
which remained in the hands
of the prior and convent until the time of the
Dissolution. (fn. 9)
After the Dissolution the site of the priory church
of Southwick was granted to John White, (fn. 10) servant to
Sir Thomas Wriothesley, (fn. 11) in 1538, and eight years
later the manor and church of Southwick were granted
to Sir Thomas Wriothesley that he might alienate
them to John White. (fn. 12) On the death of John White
in 1567 the manor passed to his son and heir
Edward. (fn. 13) In 1580 Edward died, leaving a son and
heir, John, (fn. 14) who, in 1606, settled the manor on his
daughter and co-heir Honor on her marriage with
Sir Daniel Norton, (fn. 15) and they
came into possession of the
manor on the death of John
White in the following year. (fn. 16)
Southwick, the Church from the South
Sir Daniel Norton died
seised of the manor in 1636,
leaving a son and heir, Richard,
who had married Anne daughter of Sir William Earle. (fn. 17)
Richard died 10 December,
1732, (fn. 18) and his daughter and
heir Sarah married Henry
Whitehead ; they had two
children Richard and Mary.
Richard died young, 25 December, 1733, leaving all his
estates to his nephew Francis Thistlethwayte, son of
his sister Mary, who had married Alexander Thistlethwayte in 1717 and died before 1728. (fn. 19) Francis
Thistlethwayte of Southwick took the name of
Whitehead, and died 30 March, 1751, leaving his
estates to his elder brother
with remainder to his younger
brother, Robert Thistlethwayte. From that time the
manor has remained in the
hands of the Thistlethwayte
family ; Mr. Alexander Thistlethwayte of Southwick Park
being lord of the manor at
the present day.
White of Southwick. Azure a cross quarterly ermine and or between four falcons argent with a fret between four lozenges azure on the cross.
Thistlethwaite. Or a bend azure with three pheons or thereon.
Numerous liberties and immunities, together with free
warren in their demesne lands
of Southwick, were granted
to the prior and convent in 1320 and 1445. (fn. 20)
A fair, together with a weekly market, was granted
to the priory by charter of 18 April, 1235.
It was changed in 1513 from the vigil of the
Assumption of the Blessed Mary to the feast of St.
Philip and St. James the Apostles and the two following days ; because the date of the original fair was
damaging to the neighbouring fairs. (fn. 21) In 1343 John
le Hunte and his wife Juliana were holding two mills
in Southwick. In 1381 it was stated that the priory
water-mills and dovecote in Southwick were of no
value. (fn. 22)
At the time of the Domesday Survey William
Mauduit held two hides less one virgate of land, which
Alvric had held as one manor from King Edward,
and also one hide of land which Fulcold held from
him. (fn. 23) It seems possible that either of these two
parcels of land may have become later the manor of
BELANNEY (Belamy, Belney) in Southwick, which
was held of William Mauduit in the thirteenth
century.
The overlordship of the manor probably passed
from the Mauduits, with the extinction of the male
line of the family at the end of the fourteenth
century, to the prior of Southwick, from whom the
manor was held in the fifteenth century. (fn. 24)
William de Belanney died seised of half a fee in
Belanney in 1263, which he held of William Mauduit,
and in consequence of this tenure William Mauduit
claimed the custody of the lands and heir of William
de Belanney. (fn. 25)
Baldwin de Belanney held one fee in Belanney in
1346: and in 1350 (fn. 26) and in 1359 (fn. 27) the same
Baldwin granted the manor of Belanney to Henry
Sturmy of Elvetham and Margaret. (fn. 28) The manor
remained in the hands of the Sturmys for more than
fifty years, and was then granted by Sir William
Sturmy in 1416 to Sir William Hankford and Robert
Hall, probably as trustees. (fn. 29)
In 1428 Richard Holt held one fee in Belanney
which Baldwin de Belanney had formerly held (fn. 30) ; and
died seised of the manor in 1457 (fn. 31) ; but it is not
known how it passed to the Holts. Joan, widow of
Richard Holt, who afterwards married Constantine
Darrell, held the manor in dower after the death of
her late husband, until her death in 1495, when on
the partition of the property between her granddaughter Lora, wife of Thomas, earl of Ormond, and
her daughter Elizabeth, wife of John Pound, the
manor of Belanney passed to the latter, (fn. 32) who died
seised of it in 1511. (fn. 33) Elizabeth was succeeded by
her son and heir William, who died in 1525, leaving
the manor to his second son, another William (fn. 34) ; and
on the marriage of his granddaughter Mary with
Edward White of Southwick (fn. 35) it passed into the
hands of the Whites, and subsequently followed the
descent of the manor of Southwick (q.v.).
A grant of free warren in his demesne lands of
Belanney was made to Henry Sturmy and his heirs
in 1359. (fn. 36)
Courts leet for the manor are mentioned as late as
1803. (fn. 37)
The so-called manor of NEWLANDS in Southwick was part of the possessions of Southwick Priory
at the time of the Dissolution. (fn. 38) It was then granted
to John White of Southwick in 1546, (fn. 39) and from this
date follows the descent of Southwick manor (q.v.).
It is now represented by Newlands Farm in Southwick. It must originally have formed part of Peter
de Cosham's serjeanty in Cosham, for in the thirteenth
century the prior of Southwick held by serjeanty a
virgate and a half at Newland, out of the land which
the abbot of Titchfield had obtained from Peter de
Cosham (see under Cosham). (fn. 40)
As early as the middle of the thirteenth century
the family of Wanstead held land at WANSTEAD, (fn. 41)
in Southwick, of the king by the service of finding a
man to serve for eight days in time of war at Portchester Castle. (fn. 42) They continued to hold this land
until 1453, when John Wanstead died seised of lands,
tenements, and rent in Wanstead, his heirs being his
two sisters, Agnes, the wife of John Joye, and Joan,
the wife of John Kentyshe. (fn. 43) The estate, however,
does not appear to have been described as a manor
until the year 1495, when Sir John Dawtry died
seised of it, held by the same service, leaving a son
and heir, Francis, under age. (fn. 44) It is possible that the
lands may have passed to the Dawtrys by the second
marriage of the surviving co-heir of John Wanstead
with Sir John Dawtry. However this may be, Sir
Francis Dawtry sold the manor in February, 1541–2,
to Richard Bennett of Portchester, and Agnes his
wife. (fn. 45) Agnes survived her husband, and in 1548
settled the manor on her married daughter, Margaret
Tichborne, from whom it passed ten years later to
Agnes's son, John Maryner, (fn. 46) and thence in 1593 to
Peter son of this John. (fn. 47)
Peter Maryner died in March, 1614, leaving the
manor to his only daughter Mabel, wife of Edmund
Plowden. (fn. 48) In the following spring Dorothy Maryner and Edmund Plowden and his wife Mabel conveyed the manor to John Waller and Francis Plowden
evidently as a settlement. (fn. 49)
From the beginning of the seventeenth century the
Whites were holding the rectory, advowson, and lands
in Wanstead, (fn. 50) which passed with the marriage of
Honor White to the Nortons (fn. 51) ; and from the
Nortons to the Thistlethwaytes. The Thistlethwaytes evidently bought up the whole manor from
the heirs of the Plowdens, for Alexander Thistlethwayte and his wife Mary were seised of it in
1768 (fn. 52) ; and it has remained in their family until
the present day.
CHURCH
The church of ST. JAMES has a
chancel with north chapel, nave with
north aisle and south porch, and a west
tower over the last bay of the nave. Its oldest details
are evidently re-used material from the ruins of Southwick Priory, but the eastern angles of the chancel seem
to be of thirteenth-century date, and the south
and west walls of the nave have fourteenth-century
features.
The chancel was remodelled by John White in
1566, as an inscription above the east window records:
IOHANNES WHYTE ARMIGER PATRONUS HUIUS ECCLESIE
ET DÑS MANERII
HANC FENESTRAM ET OPUS FIERI FECIT ANNO
DÑI 1566.
The window in question is of three trefoiled lights
with tracery which might be taken for fifteenth-century work, but the two contemporary windows on
the south, the eastern of which has the date 1566 on
the dripstones of its label, are of three square-headed
lights with ovolo mullions of Renaissance detail. Over
the eastern of these two windows is a panel of early
seventeenth-century character, with three divisions
enclosing heraldry, in the first a Moor's head, in the
second a quartered coat with sable, a lion or in the
first quarter, and in the third sable a lion or.
At the north side of the chancel is the tomb of
John White and his second wife, and west of it a
four-centred sixteenth-century arch, to the north chapel.
There is no chancel arch, and the north jamb of
the opening to the nave is cut back. A beam spans
the chancel at the west, with a plastered partition
above it, on which is the Creed.
The nave has a north arcade of two wide bays and
one narrow eastern bay, of the same detail and date as
that on the north of the chancel, and the north aisle
and chapel seem to be coeval with it, being lighted
by square-headed windows with uncusped four-centred
lights. The east window is of four lights, and the
three on the north and one on the west of two lights.
The external north-east angle of the old aisleless
nave, projecting into the north chapel, has been cut
back, and the upper part carried on the fine thirteenth-century capital of a clustered column of Purbeck
marble, doubtless from the priory church.
At the east end of the south wall of the nave is a
recess spanned by a late twelfth-century moulded and
pointed arch, obviously re-used, and in the back of the
recess is a window of two cinquefoiled lights, perhaps
eighteenth-century work, with a later mullion. To
the west of it is a tall window, c. 1330, of two trefoiled
ogee lights, and beyond it a plain south doorway
opening into a long and narrow vestry, which has
developed from a porch, and has in the southern half
thirteenth-century wall arcades of three bays, on east
and west, with Purbeck marble capitals on the west,
and in one instance on the east also, doubtless more
relics of the priory.
The west end of the nave is occupied by a gallery
carried on twisted wooden columns, and at the west
by four big wooden posts, which may once have supported a wooden bell-turret, replaced apparently in
the sixteenth century by the existing plain masonry
tower. The east wall of this tower is built on a round
arch spanning the gallery, with narrow side arches, the
southern of which contains the stair to the gallery,
and the other its continuation to the belfry. The
west wall of the nave is of the first half of the fourteenth century, with a central west doorway of two
continuous orders with a moulded label, and a three-light window over it with net tracery. The lower
part of the wall is faced with chequers of stone and
flint, and there are heavy angle buttresses. The church
is full of tall deal pews, with a large 'squire's pew' on
the north side of the chancel. The pulpit is, however,
of oak, a half octagon in plan, at the south-east of the
nave, with a good cornice and fluted upper panels. The
altar-rails have eighteenth-century twisted balusters,
and the east end of the chancel is panelled, with a
large eighteenth-century painted altar-piece in the
middle.
The font at the south-west of the nave, c. 1200, is
octagonal, of Purbeck marble, with two shallow roundheaded arcades on each face. It stands on a modern
octagonal base.
John White's tomb, already mentioned, is a Purbeck marble altar-tomb with panelled sides, with the
brass figures of himself and his second wife, Katherine
Pound, on the upper slab, with their arms and figures
of six sons and four daughters. The tomb dates from
1548 or soon after, when his wife died, the date of
his own death (1567) being filled in afterwards. The
inscription which runs round the edge of the slab is in
English, and of very beautiful lettering. There have
been brass shields in each panel of the sides of the tomb,
but only those on the south remain, bearing respectively White, (fn. 53) White impaling Pound, and Pound.
The stone canopy of the tomb is dated 1566, having
evidently been set up by White when he was altering
the chancel, and is of Renaissance character, with a
central pediment and columns on either side, surmounted by smaller pediments. A small figure
holding a shield stands on each pediment, and the arms
of White and Pound, with the White crest, a horse's
head, are repeated in the spandrils and on the shields.
With the Pound arms are quartered (2) Argent three
fleurs-de-lis azure, for Holt, (3) Argent a cheveron
between three eagles' legs razed sable, for Braye, and
(4) Argent a cross engrailed gules, for Tiptoft.
On the north wall of the north chapel is a brass
plate to Anne, first wife of John White, and widow
of John Pound of Drayton, the date of her death
being lost.
There are four bells, said to have been brought
from the old church of St. Lawrence, Portsmouth.
The treble, by John Wallis of Salisbury, is inscribed
'Praise God, 1600,' and the tenor, inscribed 'Searve
the Lord,' is of the same date and by the same
founder. The second is a mediaeval bell, c. 1440, by
a London foundress, Joanna Sturdy, and is inscribed
'Sancte Paule Ora Pro, Nobis.' The third, bearing
'In God is my hope, 1623,' is by an uncertain founder
I.H., whose bells are common in the district.
The plate is silver-gilt, given in 1691 by Richard
Norton, and consists of a communion cup, a standing
paten, two flagons, an almsdish and a rat-tail spoon.
The registers begin in 1628, the entries up to
1812 being contained in six books.
ADVOWSON
Southwick Church was assessed in
1291 at £10, tithes £1. (fn. 54) At the time
of the Dissolution the rectory of
Southwick was in the hands of the prior and convent, (fn. 55)
and was granted, with the site of the priory, to John
White in 1538, when he immediately pulled down
the conventual church. (fn. 56)
The advowson followed the descent of the manor
(q.v.), and, with the manor, is now in the hands of
Mr. Alexander Thistlethwayte. The living is a vicarage consolidated with Boarhunt.
There was evidently a church at Wanstead in
Southwick in the beginning of the fifteenth century,
the advowson of which was in the hands of the prior
and convent. (fn. 57)
The rectory was in the possession of the priory at
the time of the Dissolution, (fn. 58) and from this date the
advowson of the rectory has followed the descent of
the manor of Southwick (q.v.).
CHARITIES
In 1599 Honor Wayte, by will, gave
to the poor of this parish 20s. yearly,
to be paid out of the manor of Denmead, to be distributed amongst the aged sick and
needy poor people.
The annual sum of 20s. is duly paid and distributed
in money among ten parishioners.
In 1837 John Soaper, surgeon, by will, proved this
date, bequeathed £400 new three per cents., and
directed the interest thereof to be laid out in bread
for distribution to the poor on 25 January each year for
ever. The Trust Fund now consists of £390 8s. 1d.
consols, with the official trustees, the dividends of
which are given away in bread.