point of fact, there was no sanction in John Walter’s will against failure to supply the dinner, although it was still being given and was to be for many years to come.
   In the course of this dispute, a volume of the Ash registers made, perhaps uniquely, an unauthorised exit from the parish. Rolls had evidently wanted to see what it said about the charity and the book was lent to him, probably by Amos James Fletcher of Rands House, who was one of the Ash churchwardens. By blatantly misrepresenting the views expressed by the Charity Commissioners, Rolls had gained some initial support from Mr Salwey, who was at the time rector of both Ash and Fawkham, and from Fletcher and his co-churchwarden, William Mungeam of Ash Court; Fletcher, indeed, seems to have remained his ally throughout. The Hartley churchwardens, for their part, were not impressed. Nor, for very long, were Mr Salwey and Mr Mungeam.
   When the rector learnt what had happened, he sent a boy with a letter requesting the return of the register, which was ‘of great value and should never have been taken out of the parish’. Rolls replied with his 

compliments and the comment that as the register was of such value, it would not be prudent to entrust it to the boy.⁴  He would, he said, give it to Mr Fletcher on the morrow, when an adjourned meeting of churchwardens was to take place. In the event, only Mr Mungeam joined Rolls on that occasion and he, presumably, took back the register. He had first had to deal with a suggestion from Rolls that the churchwardens should threaten distraint on Cropper’s farming tenant, one of a much respected local family who had tilled Pennis Farm for more than eighty years. That outrageous proposal Mungeam rejected out of hand.
   One result of Rolls’ activities was that the coats and gowns did not arrive until after Christmas, but although coming late they met with general approval. A Hartley churchwarden, William Allen of Hartley Court, who in the meantime had learnt the true state of affairs direct from the Charity Commission, thought the garments very superior for the purpose intended. Even so, a cry for help came to Rolls from Rands House when it was found that the gown given