whom this chapel was built. Kilburne says it is supposed to have been founded by one Shepherde. It was possibly erected for the accommodation of the inhabitants there, who had to keep it in repair. We are told that the upper part of the road leading from Tenterden to Smallhythe was known as Broad-Tenterden, and at one time formed the most populous part of it. This chapel was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and licensed by a faculty from Archbishop Warham (May 5, 1509), on the petition of the inhabitants, on account of the distance from the parish church, the badness of the roads, and periodical floods. In this faculty (on the eve of the Reformation) there is a grant of forty days' indulgence to all who should contribute towards the support of the chapel and chaplain. The right to present to it was at first vested in the Vicar of Tenterden, but it is now enjoyed by the householders of Dumborne. The chaplain (now incumbent) is maintained by the rent arising from a small farm, and in bygone times a room was erected over the farmhouse for his residence. There appears to have been a haven at one time at Smallhythe, for we find

a precept from Edward III to the bailiff complaining that the masters and mariners of ships coming there cast the lastage of their vessels into the port, whereby the passage had become so narrow that ships could not enter. The sea came up here as late as the reign of Henry VIII; as a faculty was granted, in 1509, to bury in the ancient chapel yard at Smallhythe the bodies of those who were cast by shipwreck on the sea-shore.
   Amongst the few records possessed by the Corporation, is a minute books, in which passing events appear to have been entered in chronological order. Here we find this entry: "6 Henry VIII [A.D. 1514-15], the which year Smalithe was burnt on the last day of July." Did the fire include the chapel, which had only been erected six years? About thirty-five years after the fire, and in the reign of Edward VI, interrogatories were issued (which may be seen amongst the papers of the Court of Augmentation) to ascertain whether this was a chapel of ease or not, its distance from Tenterden, and other particulars.