forty-four years to her existence.
In 1828, the year when St. Leonards was commenced, William Whyborn, then of Holy Trinity, was married to Jemima Hutchings, at Hollington church, and in the same year at the same church, John Whyborn, of St. Mary Magdalen, was married to Sophia Standen (1809-1867). In 1850, William Whyborn, who died at Ore, in his 83rd year, was buried at St. Leonards. In the preceding year (1849) a son of Jeremiah Whyborn, named Jeremiah Charles, who followed the occupation of a gardener, died in his 29th year, at one of the semi-detached cottages that his father helped to build. This deceased son, only the year before, was married, also at Hollington church, to Jemima Bissenden, a dressmaker, who survived the death of her husband till 1875, when at the age of 67 (47 years after her marriage) her spirit also made its exit from its mortal tenement. I have thus dealt somewhat minutely with the Whyborn family, because there was another family of the same name in the same parish, to the support of whom as paupers, Mr. Jeremiah Whyborn, as an overseer and ratepayer, had to contribute. So far as I have investigated their pedigrees, they were two distinct families; and, as I may have at a later occasion to show, the Whyborn recipients of relief cost the only three or four ratepayers, in cash and kind, not far short of a thousand pounds.
As Jeremiah Whyborn died before his lease of the Poor-land expired, it was for a time carried on by his brother Thomas, together with Messrs. Ransom and Ridley, the noted ship-builders, of Hastings. It ultimately merged into the occupancy of the last-named firm in 1829, who were still the lessees in 1834, the year now under review, and so continued until about 1840.
I suppose it is known only to a very few persons now living that the 55 acres, or thereabouts, of the Magdalen Charity Land received, in 1834, an addition of 8 acres, 2 roods and 21 perches. This was effected by the Corporation consenting to exchange the so-called Jocky field of 3a. 2r. 30p. for 10a. Or. 35p. of the Horntye field; thus leaving the first-named difference of over three acres in favour of the Charity. The applicant agreed to pay all costs, and Ransom and Ridley, the lessees, promised to pay an addition of £7 per year. It may be here also said that when Mr. Newnham-Collingwood purchased the Bohemia farm in 1823 (not 1824 as previously stated) he offered the Corporation a large farm at Bexhill, for which he was then in treaty, in exchange for the whole of the Magdalen Charity Land. The offered land was said to be more than an equivalent in the number of acres, but the Corporation declined to entertain the proposal, under the belief that such an exchange would not benefit the Charity. Taking a view at the present time of the enormous increase in the value of the Charity, even if the Corporation had heen gifted with prescience, they could not have arrived at a better decision.
While having the Magdalen Charity under review I may say that the Corporation of Hastings appointed a committee to enquire into the local charities generally, as they had done in 1832 (see numerous details in Chapter VIII) and in their report it was shown that the Magdalen land, at that time leased by Ransom and Ridley was better used and the fences were better kept up than were those of the other charities. It was in this same year, 1834, that the Magdalen Charity Committee delivered the following interesting report:-
“That they have caused the records of the Corporation to be searched and have made such other searches at some of the public offices in London and of the rolls of the Manor of Gensing as they were able to do without incurring considerable expense, in order to ascertain when and how the estate called the Magdalen Lands came into possession of the Corporation; and although they have reason to believe from the results of those enquiries that it was given, with other estates, by the charter of Queen Elizabeth, yet they cannot satisfy themselves that it was certainly granted by that charter.
“That they beg to submit, in an appendix to this report, copies of the extracts and other information on the subject which they have found for the consideration of the Corporation.
“That it appears, however, clear to your committee that for a very long time, and as early as the year 1610, the rents of the said estate have been received by the Corporation and applied to the same charitable uses as at present; also to have been divided in the same proportion between the parishes of St. Clement and All Saints as they now are.
“That it moreover appears that within the last 20 years the sums in which the rents have been distributed by the churchwardens among the poor have been very much reduced in amount, and the number of objects increased in the same proportion, so that the sum now paid to each family seldom exceeds 2/- at a time, and is often 1/6 or 1/- and is therefore become of comparatively little service to the many persons among whom it is divided.
“That after giving the subject the best consideration, your committee find it very difficult to point out any other scheme for the application of the rents than that which has for so long a period been adopted and which was found to be useful and beneficial to the objects of the Charity before the late more extended distribution took place; they, therefore, recommend that the church-wardens of the respective parishes be directed to apply the proportion of the said rents among the poor in sums of not less than 5/- and not more than 10/- to each family; that they make a list of proper objects, yearly, and submit the same for approval of the Mayor and jurats in November of every year; and that in selecting objects they prefer old and infirm persons and such poor persons as maintain themselves without parish relief.
“Appended to the report is copy of an old deed of the widow Petronilla de Cham.
“Also in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Gensing the said Hospital is charged for 12 acres of land by way of quit rent, 6d. a year from the time of Edward VI. to the 30th of Elizabeth; and in a survey of the said manor taken in the Ist and 2nd of Elizabeth the said Hospital or Prior of the same is returned among the freeholders of the said manor; and again, in the 30th of Elizabeth, and is in each case charged at 6d. In the commencement of the reign of James at a court of the said manor, the Mayor and Jurats of Hasting are presented for lands late of the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, then in the occupation of James Hunt; and the said Mayor and Jurats are continued on the roll to the present time, and pay the said 6d. a year to the said manor. The charter of Queen Elizabeth was granted in the 31st year of her reign, wherein she gave to the Corporation, inter alia, all those lands, tenements and hereditaments called Magdalen Land and Church Fields, with the appurtenances, situate and being in Hasting or within its Liberties. In the year 1604 it appears by the records of the Corporation that at an assembly they agreed to let to James Hunt, the house, barn and lands called the Mawdlyn on a new lease, and it appears he was tenant of the same farm even before that period.”
One can hardly suppose that either the present or any future generation will be more successful than the before-named committee in discovering the original benefactor of this Charity.
The Magdalen Hospital and Chapel Barn
The story - which has only tradition for its support - is that some Frenchman having been saved by Hastings fishermen from being drowned gave the land in question, or the greater part of it, for the benefit of the poor of St. Clement's and All Saints. This might have been in the 12th or very early in the 13th century, but a period before the commencement of the existing local records. But in the committees appended deed of gift mentioned in their report it would appear that whatever part of the 55 acres and 31 perches constituted the original gift, there was at a later date attached to the Hospital built thereon 5 additional acres by the widow de Cham. In the still unfinished story of The Premier Cinque Port, Chap. C11., the old deed, divested of its superfluous verbality and put into modern orthography appears as follows:-
“Let men, present and future, know that I, Petronilla[a] De Cham, of Hasting, in lawful power of my widowhood, have given by my present deed, and have confirmed to the Brothers and Sisters of the “Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene 5 acres of my land in the parish of St. Margaret, adjoining the land of William de Walderne and of the said Brothers and Sisters on the eastern part, that of Gilbert of Gensing on the western part, my own land on the southern part, and the land of the Brothers and Sisters on the northern part, in perpetual alms for the salvation of my soul and the souls of Godard, Matilda, Robert, William, Richard and Henry, and for the souls of my heirs, relations and friends, the aforesaid 5 acres of land, with the precincts, to be held by the Brothers and Sisters for ever. And the said Brothers and Sisters have granted for themselves and successors that I, Lady Petronilla, and all the aforenamed shall be participators in the masses, vigils and prayers in the said Hospital for ever. And that this my gift may have perpetual confirmation, I have strengthened this deed with the impression of my own seal; and for the greater faith in the promises I have procured for this deed the seal of the King’s Commonalty of the illustrious Barony of Hastings, in full Hundred thereof, held on Sunday, the feast of St. Benedict, in the twenty-second year of the reign of King Edward, with these as witnesses — William of Waldern, Bailiff of Hasting, Henry de Meleward, and many others."
From this document we learn that not only was Willliam de Walderne the Hastings Bailiff in 1294-5, but that the hospital contiguous to his lands was also a religious institution.
In 1626 the Rev. Jermie Woodman was rector of St. Clement's, Hastings, and in that year, on the 1st of October, it was recorded that Nicholas Cooke was buried at -
Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named "Notes", but no corresponding <references group="Notes"/> tag was found
