Chichester Sussex Family History Guide

Table of Contents

Parishes in Chichester

Parish History

Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales 1895

Chichester, a city and a diocese in Sussex. The city stands at the junction of Stane Street with the Roman road to Porchester, on the rivulet Lavant and on the L.B. & S.C.R., 69 miles from London, 1¼ ENE of the head of Chichester harbour, 9 N of Selsey Bill, 18 ENE of Portsmouth, and 28 W of Brighton. A line from Midhurst 12 miles north was opened in 1881. The city is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence a few miles south of the South Downs, and is nearly surrounded by the Lavant. A small harbour with a quay, to which vessels of 180 tons can come in at high tides, is 1¼ mile distant at Dell Quay.

History. —Chichester was the Regnum of the Romans,. The capital of the ancient Regni, the headquarters of Flavius Vespasian. A strongly-walled Roman station was built on the site, and a subordinate station formed not quite a mile to the north. The main station seems to have had connection with the Pudens and Claudia of Martial and of 2 Tim. iv. 21, and has furnished a rich harvest of Roman relics, while the subordinate station is still traceable in the lines of embankment. Roman pavements, urns, and coins have been found in all parts of the city. A Roman pavement underlies the graveyard of St Andrew’s Church; Roman tiles were found plentifully in the walls of St Olave’s Church at a recent restoration; a piece of fine red Samia pottery was found in 1830 at St Pancras churchyard, and a remarkable inscription recording the dedication of a temple to Neptune and Minerva was found in 1720 at St Martin’s Lane, and is now preserved at the Duke of Richmond’s neighbouring seat of Goodwood. Regnum was burned in 478 by the Teutonic invader Ella, restored by Ella’s son Cissa, king of the South Saxons, and named after him Cissaceaster, signifying “Cissa’s camp,” and modernised into Chichester. The citizens repelled the Danes in 876 and 900. The city, with 83 manors, was given by William the Conqueror to Roger de Montgomery, Earl of Alenyon. A castle was built in the NE quarter by the earl, but is now thoroughly extinct. The city acquired such consequence from the earl’s sway that it immediately became the seat of a diocese in lieu of Selsey. Its walls were repeatedly restored and strengthened, but they witnessed few of the calamities which assailed so many other cities, and being occupied by the Royalists in 1642 they proved insufficient to resist a besieging force under Sir William Waller more than ten days. Queen Elizabeth visited Chichester in 1573.

Streets and Walls. —The city comprises four principal streets named after the cardinal points, and meeting in the centre. The view in East Street looking towards the cathedral is very striking, and views in West Street beyond the cathedral and in Canon Lane are good. A brick house in West Street, and some houses in the upper part of South Street, are said to have been built by Wren. A section opening from East Street, having four streets of its own and called the Pallant, is the Archbishop’s Peculiar. The city gates were at the ends of the four principal streets, but have been long removed. Considerable portions of the walls remain with semi-circular towers at intervals, and very pleasant public walks have been formed within them, planted. with trees, and overlooking the environs.

Public Buildings. —The City Cross, at the junction of the four principal streets, was erected in 1502 by Bishop Storey, is an octagonal structure in Decorated English, and comprises central pier, side piers, flying buttresses, pinnacles, and surmounting open turret. The Guildhall, near the end of North Street, was originally the chapel of a Grey friary, alleged to have been founded by Roger de Montgomery, but probably of earlier date, and given at the dissolution to the city corporation, and it is of Late Early English character, and contains very beautiful sedilia. The park around it is used for cricket, archery, and other amusements, and includes a circular mound of Roman origin, which may have been surmounted by a tower or connected with the early defences of the city walls. The corn exchange is an elegant modern erection, built by subscription at a cost of £10,000. The Episcopal palace is an ancient structure, renovated and enlarged in 1725, and again in 1880. It has a square kitchen with grand timber roof, a hall with heraldic timber ceiling, and an Early English chapel with sexpartite ceiling and a fine fresco of the Virgin. The museum in South Street contains an interesting collection of antiquities found in the neighbourhood and of local natural history. Other public buildings will be noticed in subsequent paragraphs. There are a working men’s club and institute, a literary society, and a mechanics’ institute. The barracks, situated in the New Broyle Road, consist chiefly of a number of wooden buildings with accommodation for about 400 men. There is a garrison chapel attached. The keep is a fine brick structure, and is used as a store for the arms and accoutrements of the militia.

The Cathedral. —The cathedral was founded in 1072, renovated after a fire in 1114, rebuilt after another fire in 1187, renovated and extended at various subsequent periods, subjected to a general renovation in years following 1847, and terribly damaged by the fall of its steeple in February, 1861. A resolution was promptly taken to rebuild the steeple and complete the restoration at an estimated cost of £50,000. This was entirely carried out at the end of 1867. The building consists of a nave of eight bays and five aisles, a transept with chambers instead of aisles, an aisled choir of three bays, an aisled presbytery of two bays, a Lady chapel of four bays, a central steeple, a west porch, a south-west tower, the fellow of which in the north-west was destroyed by Waller’s troops, and a campanile standing detached on the north. The nave is 156 feet long, 91½ wide, and 62½ high, the choir 105 feet long, 59 wide, and 60 high, the presbytery 56 feet long, the Lady chapel 62 feet long, 20½ wide, and 22 high, the transept 131 feet long and 34½ wide, the central steeple 271 feet high, the south-west tower 95 feet high, the campanile 120 feet high, the entire edifice 380 feet long. The campanile is the only English example of a detached belfry adjoining a cathedral. The original character was Norman, and the present one is mainly English, of periods from the Early to the Perpendicular. The nave has a vaulting of stone, a triforium of two round arches, and a clerestory of triplets in each bay; the choir has in the east end three lancet windows, with a rose of seven foliated circles in the gable; the presbytery has a triforium of pointed arches; the south transept has a fine Decorated window of seven lights with a marigold in the gable; the central steeple has a square tower rising 42 feet above the vaulting, and an octagonal spire rising 32 feet above the tower, and the campanile is crowned with an octagonal lantern. An organ screen of three arches was originally an oratory built in 1447. The throne and the pulpit are recent. Portraits of kings and bishops were on the walls of the south transept, and chalices and heads of pastoral staffs are preserved in the Lady chapel. The chief monuments are Norman coped-stones of Bishops Ralph, Seffrid, and Hilary, effigies of Bishops Sherborne, Eickingale, St Richard, and Langton, effigies of an earl and two countesses of Arundel, a medallion of Collins by Flaxman, and a statue of Huskisson by Carew. The cloisters, which were thoroughly restored in 1890, adjoin the south side of the nave, and are Perpendicular English and of three alleys, and have at the south-east angle a chapel of St Faith, founded in the 12th century, and now used as a dwelling-house. The cathedral is the only one in England which can be seen from the sea, and its tall spire acts as a landmark

Livings and Churches. —The livings in the city or connected with it are the rectories of All Saints, St Andrew, St Martin, St Olave, St Pancras, and St Peter the Less, the vicarages of St Peter the Great and St Bartholomew. Value of All Saints’ annexed to that of St Andrew, £175, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Chichester and the Archbishop of Canterbury alternately; of St Bartholomew’s, £300, in the gift of the Bishop of Chichester; of St John’s, £225; of St Martin’s, £85, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Chichester; of St Olave’s, £70, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Chichester; of St Pancras’, £264, in the gift of Trustees; of St Paul’s, £276, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter; of St Peter the Great, £270, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter; of St Peter the Less, £38, in the gift of the Bishop. All Saints is the Church of the Pallant or Archbishop’s Peculiar. St Andrew’s Church in East Street stands over a Roman tessellated pavement, lying 4 or 5 feet below it, and contains the ashes of the poet Collins and a monument of John Cawley, father of Cawley the regicide. A house adjoining it has interesting relics of the poet Hayley. St Martin’s Church was rebuilt by Mrs Deare, and has a monument of her. St Olave’s Church was rebuilt in 1310 and restored in 1852, and retains traces of very early work, including a small door, which possibly may be Roman. St Pancras Church was built in 1750 on the site of one destroyed in the Civil War, and was enlarged with an aisle and otherwise improved in 1869. The church of St Peter the Great was formerly the north transept of the cathedral, but since 1852 is a new separate erection in the style of the 14th century. It was enlarged in 1881. St Bartholomew’s Church, like that of St Pancras, was rebuilt on the site of one destroyed in the Civil War. St John’s Church is a neat octagonal structure. St Paul’s was erected in 1836 in the Early English style; it was enlarged in 1882, and the towel-was restored in 1883. There are Congregational, Baptist, Unitarian, Wesleyan, Quaker, and Roman Catholic chapels.

Schools and Charities. —The diocesan school for the training of schoolmistresses, situated beyond the city walls on the north, was founded in 1850 by Bishop Otter, bears the name of the Otter Memorial, is a handsome building in the Collegiate style of the 15th century, after designs by Butler. There is a middle class school for girls attached to this college. The Vicar’s Hall, near South Street, was founded for a collegiate body towards the end of the 14th century, still contains an ancient lavatory and reader’s pulpit, and is now used as a schoolroom. The grammar school was founded in 1497 by Bishop Story for the education of the sons of freemen of the city, and numbers among its pupils Archbishop Juxon, who was a native, the poet Collins, Selden, and Hurdis. Whitby’s free school was founded in 1702 by Oliver Whitby, Esq., gives maintenance and education to 45 boys, and has an endowed income of about £1700. St Mary’s Hospital, a short way east of North Street, was founded as a nunnery about the middle of the 12th century, passed soon into the character of an hospital, maintains 8 poor persons, and next to the cathedral is the most interesting edifice in the city, having a Perpendicular English gateway, a refectory of the 14th century 83 feet long, a chapel of the same period 47½ feet long, with fine traceried windows, sacristy, oak stalls, sedilia, and piscina, and a rich decorated oak screen, separating the refectory from the chapel. St James’ Hospital was founded originally for lepers, and has an endowed income. Deare’s almshouses were founded in 1806 by Mrs Deare. Hardham’s charity was founded by Hardham the tobacconist, a native of the city, for “ease of inhabitants in payment of poor rates,” and yields about £685. The total amount of endowed charities is considerable. The infirmary, in a beautiful situation outside the city, was erected in 1826 by subscription and afterwards enlarged, and is supported at an annual cost of about £1600. There are also a dispensary and a workhouse. The city has an excellent supply of water, and a good system of drainage was carried out in 1893-94.

Trade &c. —The city has a head post office, three banks, and several good inns, is a seat of sessions, and publisher three weekly newspapers. Markets are held on Wednesdays, and there is a fair on Oct. 20. Manufactures of copper work, wooden ware, and malt liquors are carried on, and considerable business in agricultural produce and live stock is done. The city was formerly a bonding port, with a registered tonnage of nearly 2000, chiefly in small coasting vessels, but it now does by railway much of the traffic which it then did by sea. Races are held in July at Goodwood.

The Borough. —Chichester was chartered by King Stephen. It is now governed by a charter granted by James II., and has a mayor and municipal corporation. The city is divided into three wards, namely, the south, East, and West. It formerly sent two members to Parliament, afterwards only one, and by the Redistribution of Seats Act in 1885 it was disfranchised. The area of the city in 1891 was 1888 acres; and the population, 7830. In 1893 the boundaries were extended, and the number of inhabitants in the wider area is nearly 10,000.

The Diocese. —The See was founded in 681 at Selsey, and removed in 1072 to Chichester. It has had among its bishops St Wilfrid, who taught the use of the fishing-net; Seffrid; who was deposed; Hilary, who demurred to the constitutions of Clarendon; Lord Chancelllor Neville, Sir Richard Chaudos de la Wyche, Lord Chancellor Langton, Lord Chancellor Stratford, Lord Privy Seal Moleyns, the Arian Pecock, the munificent Sherborne, Andrewes, Montague, Gunning, Patrick, the poet Henry King, Manningham, and Hare the opponent of Hoadly. The dignitaries include the bishop, a dean, two archdeacons, a chancellor, a treasurer, four canons residentiary, twenty-eight prebendaries, and two minor canons. The income of the bishop is £4200, of the dean £1000, each of the residentiary canons £500, of the archdeacons £200. The diocese is nearly conterminate with Sussex, and is divided into the archdeaconries of Chichester and Lewes. It comprehends part of the ecclesiastical parishes of Flimwell and Frant (in Kent); part of the ecclesiastical pariah of Copthorne (in Surrey), and the entire county of Sussex, except part of the ecclesiastical parishes of Alfold and Bramshott (in the diocese of Winchester); Felbridge (in the diocese of Rochester) and Lamberhurst and King Charles the Martyr, Tunbridge Wells (in the diocese of Canterbury). The population of the diocese in 1891 was 549,472.

Chichester Parliamentary Division or South Western Sussex, was formed under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and returns one member to the House of Commons. Population, 54,360. The division includes the following: — Arundel —Amberley, Angmering, Arundel, Barnham, Binsted, Burpham, Climping, Eastergate, East Preston, Felpham, Ferring, Ford, Houghton, Kingston, Leominster, Littlehampton, Madehurst, Middleton, Northstoke, Patching, Poling, Rackham (hamlet), Rustington, Slindon, South Stoke, Tortington, Walberton, Warningcamp, Yapton; Chichester — Aldingbourne, Appledram, Binderton, Birdham, Bosham, Boxgrove, Chidham, Compton, Donnington, Earnley, Eartham, East dean, Eastlavant, East Marden, East Wittering, Funtington, Hunston, Merston, Midlavant, Newfishbourne, North Marden, North Mundham, Oving (part), Pagham, Racton, Rumbolds Wyke (part), St Bartholomew (part — Chichester), St Pancras (part —Chichester), Selsey, Sidlesham, Singleton, South Bersted, Stoughton, Subdeanery (part), Tangmere, Up Marden, Up Waltham, Westbourne, West-dean, Westhampnett, West Itchenor, West Stoke, West Thorney, West Wittering; Steyning (the part in the union of Thakeham) —Ashinton, Findon, Sullington, Storrington, Thakeham, Warminghurst, Washington, Wiston; Chichester municipal borough.

Source: The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England and Wales 1895 by Brabner, John Henry Fryden

Parish Registers

Marriage Allegations

The following people from Surrey have been recorded in the Hampshire Allegations for Marriage Licences granted by the Bishop of Winchester 1689 to 1837.

Alms, James, of Kingston, 25, b., & Margaret Alms, of Chichester, co. Sussex, at Portsmouth, 12 Jan., 1781. James Alms, of Chichester, Esq., bondsman.

Parish Records

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