Tong (St. Giles)

TONG (St. Giles), a parish, in the union and hundred of Milton, Upper division of the lathe of Scray, E. division of Kent, 2 miles (E. by N.) from Sittingbourne; containing 212 inhabitants. It consists of 1618 acres, of which 45 are in wood. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 6. 8.; patron, W. Baldwin, Esq.; appropriator, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The great tithes have been commuted for £522. 10., and the vicarial for £205; the glebes comprise respectively 7 and 2 acres. The church has a steeple on the south side. Here was a castle in which Hengist surprised King Vortigern and his nobles, the latter of whom he massacred, and the former kept prisoner till he surrendered his kingdom: of this fortress the ditch and keep-mount still remain, at a short distance south of the church. At Pukeshall, in the parish, was an hospital dedicated to St. James.