BLACKMANSTONE.

IS the next parish north-eastward from Orgarswike, lying in the level of Romney Marsh, and within the liberty and jurisdiction of the justices of it. In Domesday it is written Blachemenestone, which name it took from one Blacheman, the Saxon owner of it. Tune signifying in Saxon, an estate or territory.

IT is very small, having no house within it. The court-lodge has been down for many years, a looker's hut being all that remains on the scite of it. The church was situated close on the other side of the road to it, of which there are only two or three stones remaining. The lands of it are mostly marsh, some of which are ploughed up, and the whole of it much the same as that of Orgarswike, last-described. This parish is assessed, with that of Dimchurch, to the relief of the poor, in which latter, whenever there are any, they are kept and maintained.

The MANOR OF BLACKMANSTONE, at the time of the Norman conquest, was wrested from the Saxon proprietor of it, and given, with many other estates and manors in this neighbourhood, to Hugo de Montfort. Of him this manor was held by one Hervey, as appears by the survey of Domesday, taken in the 15th year of the Conqueror's reign, in which, under the general title of the lands of Hugo de Montfort, abovementioned, it is thus entered:

Herveus holds of Hugo, Blachemenestone. Blacheman held it in the time of king Edward the Confessor, and it was taxed for half a suling. The arable land is two carucates. In demesne there are . . . . and three villeins, with ten borderers with one carucate. There is a church and one servant. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth four pounds, and afterwards three pounds, now six pounds.

On the voluntary exile of Robert de Montfort, grandson of Hugo, in the reign of king Henry I. the seignory of this manor, among the rest of his possessions, came into the king's hands, of whom it was afterwards held by a family named De Marinis, one of whom, Albericus de Marinis, held it in capite by knight's service, in the 12th and 13th years of king John, holding it of the castle of Dover, being part of those knights fees which made up the barony called the Constabularie there. Roger de Maryns died possessed of it in the 16th year of king Edward III. when it was found that Henry Haut was his next heir. In the 20th year of which reign, Joane, widow of Roger de Maryns held a third part of this manor in dower, on whose death three years afterwards, Henry Haut became possessed of the entire see of it, together with the advowson of the church. (fn. 1) His descendant Sir William Haut, of Bishopsborne, left two daughters his coheirs; of whom Jane, the youngest, marrying Sir Tho. Wyatt, of Allington, he in her right became entitled to this manor, with the advowson of the church, which, in the 33d year of king Henry VIII. an act having passed for that purpose, he exchanged with the king for other premises, and it remained in the crown till queen Elizabeth, in the 29th year of her reign, granted it to Roger Parker, esq. one of her pages, who not long afterwards conveyed it by sale to Sir William Hall, of Bibrooke, in Kennington, whole eldest son Nevill Hall, esq. alienated it, in the 6th year of king Charles I. anno 1630, to Sir Edward Hales, knight and baronet, of Tunstall, in whose descendants it continued down to Sir Edward Hales, bart. now of St. Stephen's, who passed it away in 1788 to George Gipps, esq. as he did to John Shoesmith, esq. whose heirs are now entitled to it. There is no court held for this manor. There are no parochial charities.

BLACKMANSTONE is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Limne.

The church has been in ruins for a long time past, and was so in the 26th year of king Henry VIII. appears by the valuation of it in the king's books taken that year.

It is a rectory, and was formerly appendant to the manor, and continued so till coming into the hands of the crown from Sir Thomas Wyatt, by exchange in the 33d year of king Henry VIII. the king granted it next year to archbishop Cranmer, and it has remained parcel of the see of Canterbury ever since, his grace the archbishop being the present patron of it. It is valued in the king's books at four pounds, and the yearly tenths at eight shillings. (fn. 2) In 1588 it was valued at sixteen pounds, communicants none.

Church of Blackmanstone.

Footnotes