240
NAVESTOCK IN OLDEN DAYS ;
guests were to be admitted to the Sacrament of the Altar, but all his
servants were to go to the mother Church throughout the year.
And for this grant, the said Founder and his wife and heirs were
yearly to give to the mother Church, two wax candles, each weighing
a pound, one of which was ordered to be offered in the Vigil of the
Purification and the other in the Vigil of the Assumption of our
Blessed Lady before Vespers.21
In 1255, i.e., in the next generation, we find the same William
and Joan, paying to Ralph son of Stephen de Navestock,
of whom more hereafter, a certain sum of money in lieu of
customary services due from land which they held from him.
The original dedication of the mother church above referred
to was probably lost sight of—an additional proof of its antiquity.
It was no doubt either re-dedicated early in the thirteenth century
in the name of St. Thomas-a-Becket or the name of that Saint was
then assigned to it. In later years, as in the case of so many other
Churches, "a-Becket" was either forgotten or purposely put on one
side and "Apostle" illegally substituted. We may gain some idea of
the condition of the Church and its services during the lifetime of
William de Breante, who, as we have seen, was still living in 1255,
from a list of the ornaments described in a Visitation made in 1251.22
Thus we find, beside the high altar, it contained two others,
dedicated respectively in the names of the Blessed Virgin and
St. James. Some of the vestments were even then so old as to be
useless. The Books in use were the "Missal," the "Legends," the
"Antiphonal," the "Graduate," and the "Manuale." Among the
vessels are enumerated a silver chalice and an ivory pyx, ampullae,
a thurible, and a chrismatory. I have evidence in favour of my
supposition that the chancel of such church was pulled down and
rebuilt and a south aisle added in or about 1350.
The holding of Stephen de Navestock, son of Robert, son of
Richard, is again interesting in more ways than one. Thus in the
first place Richard de Navestock carries us back to the period of
William de Marci—only a generation after the Conquest—when in all
probability he was the lessee or occupier of the water-mill which
stood on the site of that now, and since the sixteenth century, known
as Shonke's Mill, and situated in this parish. At any rate, such
21 Liber A S. Paul's, as quoted by Morant.
22 Since reading this present paper I have learned that Dr. Sparrow Simpson, the well-known
Librarian of St. Paul's, is about to edit for the Camden Society a volume of ancient documents
connected with his Cathedral, in which the full text of such Ornaments will appear.