This favorable impression of the grave bench was turned to a good account, for, on 28th November, 29th Elizabeth, (1586) the queen granted the following estates to the mayor, jurats, and commonalty of Winchelsea, to hold as of her manor of East Greenwich, in free and common soccage, paying certain small free rents to the Receiver General for Sussex, half-yearly at Michaelmas and Lady-day, with powers of distress, &c.1 Property, the former owners of which are not named. Messuage and premises in the Strand Name of tenant at time of the grant. Thomas Swallowe Mayor and Jurats Common passage, called Winchelsey Ferry Three acres of hanging wood in St. Leonard And all those seven messuages or tenements for- Property, formerly part of the Dissolved Monastery or The King's green in Winchelsea, containing twelve acres Four acres in Winchelsea One acre in St. Leonard A mill A windmill in Winchelsea, near the King's green A messuage and two gardens in the twentyfourth quarter Two acres near St. Giles' church Land in Winchelsea, in first quarter House and apple orchard in ninth quarter Two messuages and two gardens in fourteenth quarter 1 Grant now among Corporation Records. Mayor and Jurats Mayor and Jurats Ashburnham Pecke The names of the tenants seem to indicate the principal inhabitants at the time, and include many good families. A messuage and one acre in the Strand, called Half an acre of land, and two acres in St. Francis Bolton Goddard White Robert Pearce A house, called the Storehouse, in the Strand Thomas Fane Thomas Egleston Thomas Swallow A messuage and garden in twenty-eighth quarter A messuage and garden in thirteenth quarter Another messuage and garden in thirteenth quarter A garden in seventh quarter A garden in second quarter Another garden in twentieth quarter A garden in eighth quarter A garden Another garden in eighth quarter A garden in twenty-first quarter An orchard in twenty-fourth quarter A garden at the Strand A garden in ninth quarter A garden at the Strand Richard Whiblye Edmond Weekes Robert Gouldsmythe Goddard White Richard Waterman John Parle Thomas Swallow John Pearle John Love Two acres of land in St. Leonard, juxta Winchelsea A barn in tenth quarter A barn or stable in tenth quarter Another barn or stable in thirteenth quarter Property given for the perpetual sustentation of A messuage and seven acres of arable land in Thomas Egleston Thomas Woodland John Allen John Durrante Goddard White John Pearle |