Pevensey (St. Nicholas)

PEVENSEY (St. Nicholas), a parish, and a member of the town and port of Hastings, in the union of Eastbourne, locally in the lowey and rape of Pevensey, E. division of Sussex, 6 miles (S. E. by E.) from Hailsham, and 60 (S. E. by S.) from London; containing 323 inhabitants. Somner considers this to have been the Anderida of the Romans; by the Saxons it was called Peofensea, by the Normans Pevensel, and at present its name is vulgarly pronounced Pemsey. It was 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: in the reign of Edward the Confessor, in 1049, Godwin, Earl of Kent, is stated to have taken several ships from it. Pevensey is also distinguished as the place of landing of the Conqueror, who hence proceeded to Hastings, previously to the decisive conflict at Battle. On ascending the throne, William gave Pevensey to his half-brother, Earl Robert, who protected it with a noble castle, now in ruins. It subsequently reverted to the crown, and was bestowed by Henry I. on Gilbert de Aquila, from whom the district afterwards assumed the name of the "Honour of the Eagle," the castle being esteemed the head of that honour. Henry I., in 1101, encamped here with a large army, to oppose his brother Robert, Earl of Normandy, who was supposed to design an invasion of the kingdom. In the 14th century John of Gaunt had a grant, in tail general, of the castle and leucata of Pevensey, and from him the lordship descended to the king, in the person of his son and heir, Henry IV. It was given by the latter to Sir John Pelham, and continued in that family till 1415, since which period it has been in various hands: in 1730 it was purchased by the Hon. Spencer Compton, ancestor of the present proprietor, the Earl of Burlington. The lordship lies in the parishes of Pevensey, Hailsham, and Westham.

Pevensey is now a small village, standing on a rivulet which runs into Pevensey bay. Its decline from the importance it once possessed, like that of other places in the neighbourhood, has been principally owing to the receding of the sea, from which it is now a considerable distance. Sessions for the liberty are held quarterly: over the prison, which is a small building, is the townhall. The parish contains 4351 acres, whereof 225 are common or waste; the surface is level, and was much subject to inundation previous to a late improvement in the drainage, but the tract over which the sea formerly flowed, called Pevensey Level, now comprises some of the richest fattening pastures for cattle in England. The village has still a corporation, consisting of a bailiff, jurats, and commonalty. A fair for live-stock is held on the 5th of July. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £18. 7. 8½.; patron, the Chancellor of the Cathedral of Chichester: the vicarial tithes have been commuted for £1153, and there are 80 acres of impropriate glebe, and 10 of vicarial. The church is chiefly in the early English style, and has three aisles, a chancel covered with ivy, and a large and low tower; in the chancel is a handsome monument to John Wheatley, Esq.

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 inclose an area of nine acres, being, with the towers, tolerably entire for the height of twenty-five feet; they display throughout an 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, being occasionally met with, the account is probably true. The Duke of York, in the reign of Henry IV., was for some time confined within the walls of this castle; as was also Joan of Navarre, widow of Henry IV., who, with her confessor Friar Randal, was accused of a design to destroy the king, Henry V. James I. of Scotland likewise suffered captivity here. In 1840, on removing some earth within the castle, a great many brass coins, in a series extending over the reigns of six or seven Roman emperors, were discovered. Andrew Borde, physician to Henry VIII., and who, from his jocularities, is thought to have given origin to the appellation of "Merry Andrew," was a native of the village.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.