Parishes: Oxney

OXNEY,

IN antient records written Oxene, lies at the northeast bounds of this hundred, the next parish adjoining northward from St. Margaret's at Cliffe. The borsholder is chosen at the court leet for the hundred of Bewsborough.

THIS SMALL PARISH has nothing remarkable in it, it is much the same in its situation and appearance as those already described in this part of Kent, lying bleak and much exposed. The lands consist of open uninclosed corn fields, the soil of which is chalk, and much of it very poor. The court-lodge, called Oxney-house, is the only one in the parish.

THE MANOR OF OXNEY was in early times in the possession of the family of Auberville, who held it by knight's service of Hamo de Crevequer, as of the manor of Folkestone. Sir William de Auberville, of Westenhanger, held this manor in king Richard I.'s time, whose grandson of the same name left an only daughter and heir Joane, who marrying Nicholas de Criol, brought him this manor, and his descendant Sir Nicholas de Criol, or Keriel, died possessed of it in the 2d year of king Richard II. and his son William Keriel alienated it to Robert Tame. After this family was become extinct here, the Sedleys, of Southfleet, became possessed of it, in whom it continued down to John Sedley, esq. of Southfleet, one of the auditors of the exchequer, in king Henry VII.'s reign, who added much to the building of the court-lodge here; in the younger branch of whose descendants, seated at Scadbury, in that parish, this manor continued down till at length the descendant of them, Sir Charles Sedley, bart. of Nuthall, in Nottinghamshire, passed it away by sale to Rose Fuller, esq. of Sussex, who died possessed of it in 1777, s. p. and gave it by his will to John Trayton Fuller, esq. who married his niece, and he is at this time the possessor of it. There is no court held for this manor.

There are no parochial charities. The poor of this parish are maintained with the poor of the adjoining one of St. Margaret at Cliffe, this parish paying after the rate of one third, and that of St. Margaret the other two thirds towards the relief of the poor of both parishes.

OXNEY is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Sandwich.

The church, which was dedicated to St. Nicholas, has been long since desecrated. The walls of it still remain; it has a roof, and is now made use of as a barn. This church was antiently part of the possessions of the family of Auberville, owners likewise of the manor as above-mentioned, one of whom, Sir William de Auberville, senior, in king Richard I.'s reign, having founded West Langdon abbey, gave this church to it in pure and perpetual alms, which gift was afterwards confirmed by his descendants Simon de Auberville, or Albrincis, and Nicholas de Criol.

After which this church continued with the abbey to which it was appropriated, till the dissolution of it in the 27th year of king Henry VIII.'s reign, when it was, among the rest of the possessions of the abbey, granted in the 29th year of that reign to the archbishop, who not long afterwards exchanged the scite of the abbey and other possessions of it, among which was the advowson and appropriation of this church, with the crown, whence it was not long afterwards granted to the family of Sedley, owners of the manor of Oxney likewise, since which the tithes and other emoluments of this desecrated church have continued vested in the owners of the manor down to the present time, John Trayton Fuller, esq. being the present proprietor of them.

There was a yearly payment to the curate of this church reserved to it in king Henry VIII.'s grant of the scite and lands of Langdon abbey, which shews the church was not at that time desecrated. The chamberlain of St. Augustine's abbey paid yearly to the abbot of Langdon, or to whomever for the time being should administer divine offices to the abbot and convent's tenants of Oxene, three bushels of barley. (fn. 1)

Archbishop Walter granted licence to the canons of West Langdon, to serve in this church, among others, which thereupon became afterwards esteemed as a perpetual curacy. (fn. 2)

James Jeken, the tenant of the court lodge, is the present lay rector, and receives the tithes of this parish.