his Atlas, it is reported to have been a city in the time of the Romans, included with Rye, under the land of Staninges. It was, as appeareth by a Charter of Henry III. given by Edward the Confessor to the Abbot and Monks of Fischamp, or Feckam, in France, and afterwards granted and confirmed by King William and King Henry, with their liberties, free customs, pleas, plaints, and causes ; but after that, by King Henry III. in the 31st year of his reign, exchanged with the said Abbot and Monks for the Manor of Chilceham, or Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, and taken into his own hands.
The site of the first town, called by this name, is supposed to be near the Comber Point, upon a spot which is now overflowed. Tradition informs us that about the middle of the 13th century, the inhabitants were driven by the sea from this situation ; and an old book, without a title-page, which was lately[a] in the possession of a respectable inhabitant, has the following passage : - " In -
Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named "Notes", but no corresponding <references group="Notes"/> tag was found
