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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 57  1944  page 11

Sidelights on the Rectors and Parishioners of Reculver from the Register
 of Archbishop Winchelsey
by Rose Graham, C.B.E., D.Litt., F.S.A., F.R. Hist.S

similar offerings and tithes and the land belonging to those chapels and the same to the vicar of the chapel at Herne. The three vicars had each to maintain a suitable assistant priest. The vicars of St. Nicholas with All Saints and of Herne were bound to pay pensions of £3 3s. 4d. and £2 repectively to the vicar of Reculver. They were under an obligation to come in procession with the assistant priests and the parishioners of the chapels to the mother church on Whit Monday, and to be present for the procession and office of the mass on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (September 2nd).
   The parishioners of the mother church were held responsible for repairing or rebuilding the chancel and providing service books and ornaments in accordance with their laudable custom in the past. The vicar of Reculver was bound to fulfil the obligation which he previously bore for Reculver and the chapel of Hoath. The vicars of St. Nicholas with All Saints and of Herne had the obligation to provide service books and ornaments and to repair or rebuild the chancels of their chapels. Whenever the tax of a tenth should be levied on the assessment of the undivided vicarage in 1291, the Archbishop fixed the contributions at 12s. 1d. for the vicar of Reculver, 11s. 4d. for the vicar of St. Nicholas with All Saints, and 9s 11d. for the vicar of Herne to make the total of £1 13s. 4d.
   The right of presentation to the three vicarages was 

reserved to Master Nicholas of Tingwick and his successors. The Archbishop instituted John de H. to Reculver, Andrew de Grantesete to St. Nicholas and All Saints, Hugh de ? to Herne;1 all of them owed canonical obedience to the rector.
  It is unlikely that Master Nicholas then resided in the rectory at Reculver. In 1309 Bishop Simon of Gaunt, who had given him six years leave of absence from his rectory of Coleshill to study at Oxford, presented him with a small prebend, and three years later promoted him to the well endowed prebend of Bedwyn, assessed at £50 a year with a house in Salisbury Close.2 In 1314 Archbishop Reynolds satisfied himself that Nicholas was entitled to hold the rectory of Reculver in pluralism with Coleshill.3 His interest lay in the promotion of sound learning at Oxford, and as he was in secure possession of his preferments he became a benefactor of the University.4 In 1321 he obtained a license for a grant in mortmain of two properties described as messuages in the town of Oxford for the perpetual endowment of two masters in arts to superintend the grammar schools. In
  1 The bottom of the leaf of the Register is damaged.
   Register of Simon of Gaunt, II, pp. 708, 749, 792.
   3 Register of Reynolds, f. 105.
   A. G. Little, "Grammar Schools of Oxford", English Historical Review, VI, pp. 152, 153.

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