situation he held of officiating minister of All Saints' Parish."
Note.- "Titus Oates, the ministerial informer, so notorious in the reign of Charles II., appears by an entry in the church books dated January 4th, 1673, to have been officiating minister in All Saints' Church. The entry of his Baptism in 1619 also appears in the register, although nearly illegible, and is presumptive proof that he was a native of Hastings. His father was Rector of All Saints, and having been chaplain to Colonel Pride, probably obtained the Church during the ascendancy of the Puritans. It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that Titus Oates was the discoverer as he said, the inventor, as the general voice of history has decided, of the so-called Popish Plot, and the means thereby of consigning Lord Stafford and fourteen ether persons to a violent death, in the reign of Charles II. After the accession of James II., Oates was convicted of perjury, and the sentence passed upon him was so savage and illegal, and, moreover, executed with such severity as to produce the belief that he was not intended to survive it. After the Revolution 111 1688, he was pardoned and admitted to a pension of £400 a year, being probably considered as a martyr to the Protestant cause. He died in 1705, in the communion of the Baptists, by whom, however, he seems to have been looked upon as a suspicious character." Diplock's Handbook to Hastings, 1846.
Miss Mary Matilda Howard, a writer of reputed ability, and the author of A Handbook for Hastings and St. Leonards (published by William Diplock, Hastings, 1866), was born in 1805 and resided in the town for many years, says (p. 48), lt On the left hand, a little way up the hill (Old London Road), at the southern extremity of the avenue, near a gate opening into a meadow (Torfield), is a building which occupies the site of the house once famous as the abode of Titus Oates, whose father was Rector of All Saints' in 1660. Titus Oates was in all probability born at Hastings, the entry of his baptism being in the Parish register of All Saints for 1619."
This house has been drawn by several artists there is one by S. Prout, 1815, in the Suss. Arch. Coll., vol. 14, p. 106 and it occupied the site now covered by stables and workshops at the north entrance to High Street, adjoining the wicket gate to Torfield at the bottom of Old London Road. The late Rev. W. C. Sayer-Milward, to whom the property belonged, believed this to be so. It was once occupied by Mr. Edward Milward, and in the "Collier Letters," it is stated that Mr. John Collier owned the three houses, which were called the upper, lower, and middle houses, this house was probably referred to as the upper, the "Mansion", known as "Old Hastings House," the lower, and "Torfield House," the middle house. By collectors this house is generally referred to as Titus Oates' house, although in some of the guide books he is said to have lived in All Saints' Street. These give no reference as to the site. I have, however, communicated with the Editor of the -
