The Ancestral Villages of the Alchin Family
East Malling
The earliest known reference to East Malling occurs
in the charter of a grant of land at neighbouring West Malling by King
Edmund to the Bishop of Rochester (AD 942-946). In defining the bounds
the charter mentions east mealinga gemaera (“the boundary of East
Malling”). After this fleeting reference there is silence until 1086 and
the Domesday survey.
The Domesday Book entry is brief, yet
sufficiently informative to illustrate the development of
the manor. Under the lands of the Archbishop of Canterbury,
in the Lathe of Aylesford and the Hundred of Larksfield, is
recorded:
“The Archbishop himself holds in Demesne Metlinges (East
Malling). It defends itself for 2 sulungs. The land is
for 7 ploughs. In demesne are 3 ploughs. And 38 villeins
with 12 bordars have 5 ploughs. There is a church. And 5
serfs. And 2 mills at 10 shillings. And 21 acres of meadow.
Woodland for 60 swine.
In total value, in the time of King Edward it was worth
9 pounds. The same when received. And now as much. And yet
it renders 15 pounds.
At what date the manor came into the
possession of the Archbishop of Canterbury is now unknown.
After the turmoil of the Danish invasions, and a decade in
the hands of Odo of Bayeux (the Conqueror’s half-brother),
the neighbouring manor of West Malling was restored to the
Bishop of Rochester in 1076. Gundulph, who was Bishop from
1077 to 1108, founded the Benedictine abbey and convent there
in the reign of William Rufus. Saint Anselm, Archbishop of
Canterbury from 1093 to 1109, granted the manor of East Malling
to the Abbess and nuns of West Malling with whom it remained
until their dispossession under the Dissolution of Religious
Houses in 1538 by Thomas Cromwell acting under the orders
of Henry VIII.
The rental roll for the manor of East
Malling dated 1410 still survives. There is no mention of
the Alchin family, who at the time were probably living further
south on the Kent / Sussex border. There is no doubt however
that if the parish records for the next 200 years between
1410 and 1610 had survived then we would be able to trace
our descent via the female line from at least one of the families
recorded on the rental roll.
(Above: Parish map of East Malling with
places named
in the 1410 rent roll in italics)
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The introduction to the 1410 East Malling manor roll
follows:
“Rental of Estmallying, except New Hythe, made and renewed in full
Court held there on the day of Saint Katherine the Virgin in the twelfth
year of the reign of Henry the Fourth since the Conquest of England.
It is agreed between the Lady Isabel Ruton, Abbess of Westmallying and
the Convent of the same place, and all the tenants there, that any acre
written below as best land pays on the day of the Nativity of the Lord
1 penny halfpenny, and on the day of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin
Mary 1 penny halfpenny. And any acre written below as medium land pays
on the day of the Nativity of St John
the Baptist 2 pennies. And any acre written below as poor land pays
on the day of St Michael the Archangel 1 penny, Fealty Suit of Court.
And any acre which has been relieved (inherited or the lease transferred)
pays a fourth part of the sum of the annual rent. And it is finally
agreed that the aforesaid tenants elect among themselves two tenants
in the Court held there next after the Feast of St Michael the Archangel,
of whom one, at the choice of the aforesaid Lady Abbess, will do the
duties of Reeve for one whole year, the which Reeve will carry out all
the orders of the Courts and the procurement for them as demands require…….
And on whatever day the Court is held there he shall have a meal with
the Steward, or two pence, at the choice of the Lady Abbess or her deputy.
And that all other customary rents and the sum total are annulled for
ever.”
The East Malling parish register records that in 1757
there were 217 houses occupied by 249 families and the population of the
village was therefore probably around 1000 people.
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