Romney, Old (St. Clement)

ROMNEY, OLD (St. Clement), a parish, in the cinque-port liberty of Romney, union of Romney-Marsh, lathe of Shepway, E. division of Kent, 1¾ mile (W. by N.) from New Romney; containing 122 inhabitants. The town had a good and much frequented haven prior to the Conquest; but in the reign of Edward III. it sustained considerable damage from violent tempests, and its harbour became choked up and obstructed. The parish comprises 2535 acres, of which a small part is arable and the remainder pasture. The living is a rectory, in the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury, valued in the king's books at £15. 19. 2.; net income, £260. The church is a neat structure. An hospital for lepers, founded by Adam de Chorring, and dedicated to St. Stephen and St. Thomas à Becket, was in the fourteenth century converted into a chantry, and in 1481 was annexed to the college of St. Mary Magdalene, in Oxford. There was also a cell subordinate to the abbey of Pountney, in France.