some place not far distant, built here a Mansion-house, moated round, and a goodly well-wooded park, stored with plenty of deer and wild boars; and had license from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and religious men of Christ Church, to erect a free Chapel, which some old people hereabout, who remembered it in the declining age, described to my father to be a curious piece of architecture for form and beauty." This Stephen assumed the name De Northwood, or Northwode; and Roger de Northwood, his son, occurs in the list of Kentish gentlemen who were engaged with Richard the First at the siege of Acon, in Palestine: this Roger lies buried in the Church of Minster, together with the Lady Bona, his wife, by whom he had issue, Sir Roger de Northwood, a firm adherent to Henry the Third, and who, in the forty-first of that Sovereign, procured the tenure of his lands in Kent, to be changed from Gavel-kind to Knight's service. His son and successor, Sir John de Northwood, accompanied Edward the First to Scotland, and was knighted at the siege of Carlaverock. He was Sheriff of Kent, in the twentieth, twenty-eighth, thirty-third, and thirtyfourth, of the same reign; and in that of Edward the Second, received summons to Parliament from the sixth to the twelfth year of the latter Sovereign: several of his descendants had also the same honor: but at length the male line of this branch of the family becoming extinct in the reign of Henry the Eighth, this Ma nor was allotted, on a division of the inheritance, to a co-heiress, then the wife of Sir John Norton, Knt, who became possessed of it in her right. This gentleman was knighted in the Low Countries by the Emperor Charles: he was Sheriff of Kent in the fifth of Henry the Eighth; and on his death, in 1534, was buried in Milton Church. The last of this family that resided at Northwood, was Sir Thomas Norton, Knt. who was Sheriff in the seventeenth of James the First: three years afterwards, he sold this Manor to Manasses Northwood, Esq. of Dane Court, in Thanet, who was descended from a collateral branch of its ancient owners. His son sold it to Sir William Tufton, of Hothfield, Bart. in the reign of Charles the First; since which it has had a variety of possessors. *Villare Cantianum, p. 258. Edit. 1776. ISLE ISLE OF SHEPEY. THE ISLE OF SHEPEY, with the two smaller Isles of Elmly and Harty, which it includes, is about thirty-two miles in circumference, and contains the six Parishes of Minster, Queenborough, Eastchurch, Warden, Leysdown, and Elmly. The nar row arm of the sea called the Swale,* which separates it from the main land, and is still navigable for vessels of 200 tons burthen, was in ancient times considered as the safest, and as such, was the usual passage for shipping coming round the North Foreland into the Thames. When the Wantsume, which separated the Isle of Thanet from the rest of Kent, was also navigable, this channel, besides being the most sheltered, must have been likewise the most direct way from the Downs to London; but as that water became progressively choaked up by the sands, and as the increase in the size of ships enabled them the better to withstand the violence of the waves, the Swale was gradually deserted, and is now only used by the vessels immediately employed in the trade of this part of Kent. The Isle of Shepey was called by the Saxons Sceapige, as sup posed, from the great numbers of sheep that were constantly fed here. The southern skirts are low and marshy, but the interior is diversified by small eminences. The cliffs, which extend to the direct length of about six miles, are principally composed of a loose friable marle, abounding in Pyrites; and fossils, both native and extraneous: their greatest height, which is on the north side, is about ninety feet. At the east end is a long Beach, called Shellness, from being entirely composed of the fragments of shells thrown up by the sea. The cliffs belong to the three Manors of Minster, Shurland, and Warden; the owners of which let them to the copperas-makers, who employ the poor inhabitants to collect the Pyrita, or copperas-stones, which are continually washed out of the cliffs This water, which is about twelve miles in length, appears to have been once considered as a part of the Thames cliffs by the force of the waves; and are of various forms, as globular, botryoid, oblong, &c. Their external covering is a ferruginous coat; within they are of a striated texture, commonly radiated from a centre. The Ludi Helmontii also abound in these cliffs; they are in general of a compressed form, from twelve inches to two feet and a half long, and covered with a thick crust of indurated clay.* Where the clay is most tenacious, Selenites are found of several varieties. Large nodules of petrified wood, retaining the appearance and grain of oak, are likewise met with in the cliffs, and on the shores; as well as a vast number of fruits, nuts, &c. but as these are always saturated with pyritical matter, they very soon fall to pieces.+ Animal remains have also been found here of many different kinds; as the thigh-bones, tusks, and grinders of an elephant; two species of tortoises; the heads, tails, and palates, of fish; the teeth and vertebræ of sharks; crabs, lobsters, shells, &c.‡ The humidity of the atmosphere, and the noxious vapours that sometimes arise from the marshes, render the living in this Isle very unpleasant, except in the upland parts, where the country is agreeably diversified by hill and dale. Fresh water is also extremely scarce, hardly any part of Shepey having any supply but from the clouds; Sheerness and Queenborough excepted, where the inhabitants are supplied from deep wells, excavated with great labor. The roads are good, owing to the large quantities of fine gravel, procured from the pits on the sea beach. The Isle is entered on the land side by means of three Ferries, two of which are These Pyrita were first used for the making of copperas in the time of Elizabeth: about the year 1579, one Matthias Falconer, a Bra banter, "did try, and drew very good brimstone and copperas out of certain stones gathered in great plenty on the shore near unto Minster.” Many hundred tons of copperas are now exported annually. + One of the best ways of preserving them, perhaps, is to coat them over with a small quantity of the purest glue. An account of these was published at the end of the Planta Favershamienses, by E. Jacob, Esq. of Faversham, are for foot passengers and cattle; the other is for carriages, horses, &c. The latter is called the King's Ferry, and is the passage commonly frequented, it being cost-free to all travellers, excepting on Sundays, on Palm-Monday, Whit-Monday, St. James's Day, and Michaelmas Day; and after eight o'clock at night. The expense of maintaining it, together with the sea-wall, and wharf, and the highways through the marshes, is defrayed by assessments made on the occupiers of lands, &c. The ferry-boat is moved forward by means of a cable about 150 fathoms in length, which crosses the water, and is fastened on each side. The Ferry-keeper has a house to reside in, and has the exclusive privilege to dredge for oysters, within the distance of sixty fathoms, on each side the cable.** The very convenient situation of the Isle of Shepey for the devastating pursuits of the Danes, occasioned it to be made their accustomed place of rendezvous; and they sometimes wintered here during the course of the ninth century. The inhabitants were then but few, and chiefly congregated in the neighbourhood of Minster, where Sexburga, widow of Ercombert, King of Kent, had founded a Nunnery, which, after being several times plundered by the invaders, was at length, in a great measure, destroyed, and the Nuns dispersed. The large Tumuli in the lower, or southern, part of the Isle, and which are termed Coterels by the countrypeople, are supposed to cover the remains of different Danish chiefs, who were slain in battle during their piratical incursions. The years which have been particularly recorded as those wherein these marauders were most active here, are 832; 849; 851; and 854:† in the year 1016, King Canute is said to have collected the scattered remains of his army in this Isle, after his defeat in the vicinity of Otford, by Edmund Ironside, SHEERNESS, For some particulars of the Agriculture of the Isle of Shepey, see p. 440, 441. +"The whole Isle," says Lambard, "was scourged by the Danes, whome I may well call, as Attila, the leader of the like people, called himself, Flagellum Dei, the whip or flaile of God, three times within the space of twentie years, and a little more." SHEERNESS, THE principal place in the Isle of Shepey, though only a chapelry to Minster, is now an important maritime and market town. It is situated at the extreme southern point of the Isle, and in the reign of Charles the First, was no more than a watery swamp, or morass; but being afterwards judged essential to the security of the river Medway, the entrance of which it effectually commands, it was fortified soon after the Restoration of Charles the Second. On the breaking out of the Dutch war, as the Medway was then the grand station of the Royal fleet, the general discourse turned on the importance of this spot; and the King is stated to have himself undertaken the erection of a strong Fort here;* for which purpose, he made two journies hither in the beginning of the year 1667, and having seen the work commenced, left it to be completed under the superintendence of his chief Engineer, Sir Martin Beckman, and one of the Commissioners of the Orduance. From some cause or other, however, the new works were still in a very unfinished state, when the Dutch made their memorable attempt upon the shipping in the Medway, in the month of June following. -Only twelve guns were then mounted, and these were soon silenced, and the works beat to the ground, by the enemy's fleet; which immediately landed a number of men, who took possession of the fort, whilst the fleet again weighed, and proceeded up the river. Had the activity of the Dutch been equal to their courage, by far greater mischief would have been done than was really effected; but after destroying the shipping as high up as Upnor Castle, they abandoned the enterprise, and on their return, re-embarked the troops which they had landed here, and made sail for the coasts of Essex and Suffolk, which they kept in alarm for some time. This event rendered the necessity of a strong fortification on this spot extremely apparent, and a regular fortress was immedi ately built, and mounted with a line of large and heavy cannon: at the same time, several smaller forts were constructed on the different Hasted's Kent, Vol. II. p. 654. Fo. |