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Pevensey in Sussex County England History and GeographyPEVENSEY, a parish and a member of the town and port of Hastings, locally in the lowey and rape of Pevensey, county of SUSSEX, 6 miles (S.E. by E.) from Hailsham, and 60 (S.E. by S.) from London, containing 292 inhabitants. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Lewes, and diocese of Chichester, rated in the king's books at £18. 7. 8½., and in the patronage of the Chancellor of the Cathedral Church of Chichester. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is in the early style of English architecture. The manor of Pevensey is in ancient records styled the honour of Aquila, or the Eagle. Somner considers this to have been the Anderida of the Romans; it was by the Saxons called Peowensea, by the Normans Pecensel, and is now vulgarly pronounced Pemsey. It is known to have been anciently much resorted to as a sea-port, and various historical circumstances connected with it occur so early as the invasion of England by Sweyn, King of Denmark, and again, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, when Godwin, Earl of Kent, is stated to have taken several ships from it. It is distinguished as the place of landing of William the Conqueror, in 1066; who thence proceeded to, and fortified, Hastings castle, previously to the conflict which took place at Battle, eight miles distant. On ascending the throne, William gave Pevensey to his half-brother, Earl Robert, who fortified it with a noble castle, now in ruins. It subsequently reverted to the crown, and was, by Henry I., bestowed on Gilbert de Aquila, from whom it afterwards assumed the name of the Honour of the Eagle, the castle being esteemed the head of that honour. The lordship afterwards passed through several hands: John of Gaunt had a grant, in tail general, of the castle and leucata of Pevensey, from whom it descended to the king, in the person of his son and heir, Henry IV. It was, by the latter, given to Sir John Pelham, and continued in that family till disposed of by the late Lord Pelham to its present proprietor. It lies in the parishes of Pevensey, Halysham, Westham, and Boxhill. Pevensey is at present a small village, standing on a rivulet which runs into Pevensey bay. Its decline from the importance it once possessed has been, like several other places in this neighbourhood, principally owing to the receding of the sea, from which it is now a considerable distance, being only accessible to small boats, which crowd up the stream on which it is situated: it has still a corporation, consisting of a bailiff, jurats, and commonalty. A fair for live stock is held on the 5th of July. Here is a National school for children of both sexes. The remains of Pevensey castle, an interesting relic of antiquity, are situated on a craggy steep, commanding a beautiful view of the adjacent country. The external walls are circular, and enclose an area of seven acres, being, together with the towers, tolerably entire for the height of twenty-five feet: they display throughout abundance of Roman bricks, affording the strongest presumption of there having originally been a Roman fortress on the spot. Tradition informs us, that the rock on which the castle is built was once on a level with the sea; and, from fossils and shells of various sorts, occasionally met with about the base, the account is most probably true. The Duke of York, in the reign of Henry IV., was for some time confined within the walls of this castle. Andrew Borde, in Latin Perforatus, physician to Henry VIII., and, from his jocularities, thought to have given origin to the appellation of 'Merry Andrew,' was a native of this village. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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