Charles Callis Western, who was born on the 9th of August, was created Baron Western, on the 28th of January, 1833. He died, unmarried, in 1841, when, his brother being dead, the title became extinct.
Chapter XIV.
THE PARISH CHURCH, ST. NICHOLAS.
This sacred edifice is situated upon a hill north west of the town, about 160 feet above low-water mark. It is a structure of great antiquity, and was originally dedicated to St. Nicholas, Bishop of Mira, in Lycia, who lived about the commencement of the fourth century, and was the reputed patron of fishermen, on account of the following naval miracle recorded of him in the legends of that country: A certain Lycian vessel being in great danger during a storm at sea, the affrighted crew invoked the aid of this pious prelate, and lo! to their amazement and comfort, a venerable personage appeared amongst them, and exclaimed, “Here I am, for ye called me.” With his help, the ship was successfully managed until the storm subsided; and then their miraculous assistant vanished. The mariners had no sooner reached the port, than they enquired for Bishop Nicholas, and were directed to the cathedral, where they beheld in him the identical person to whom they owed their safety. His feast is held on the 6th day of December, and used to be celebrated with devout dependence by the mariners of Brighthelmston, before the Reformation. But in the spirit of pious avarice or cunning, the Virgin Mary was, in process of time, made joint tenant with St. Nicholas, in the patronage of this church. “The second dedicator,” says Dunvan, “seems to have shrewdly considered that Nicholas could not, either as a saint or a gentleman, object to so fair and exalted a partner; and that in case any of the seafaring inhabitants of the parish were at any time in danger, either their Holy Patron, or more Holy Patroness, would most probably be at leisure to step to their succour.”
This church was given by Ralph de Cheney to the Priory of Lewes, in the reign of Stephen. But it appears from the terms of an award or arbitration between Richard de Wich, Bishop of Chichester, and William de Ruslous, Prior of St. Pancras, near Lewes, made in 1252, still extant in the episcopal archives at Chichester, that the priory obtained no full possession of this church before that period. By this award, as soon as the then Rector of Brighthelmston should die, or resign the living, the Prior of St. Pancras was to appoint a Vicar there, who was to have all the offerings of the altar, as far as they belonged to altarage, and the small tithes, viz., those of mills, sea-fisheries, mortuaries, wool, lambs, cheese, cows, calves, hogs, colts, geese, hens, eggs, flax, hemp, and of every thing that grows in gardens, except wheat and barley. He was also to have the third of the tithe of hay, and a convenient mansion assigned him. To encourage a crusade, in consequence of the capture of Acre by the Soldan of Babylon, Edward I. granted to Pope Nicholas IV. the tenths of all the monasteries and churches in England, and in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica Anglæ et Walliæ auctoritate P. Nicholas, 1291, occur these entries:—
| £ | s. | d. | ||
| ‘Eccl’ia de Brighthelmston | 20 | 0 | 0 | |
| Vicar’ ejusdem | 5 | 0 | 0 | P’or Lewens. |
The Vicar of Brighton was at one period saddled with a yearly pension of seven shillings and sixpence to the Vicar of Hove; and in this state the Vicarage continued, the impropriation of the great tithes vesting in the Priory of Lewes, till the suppression of that monastery, in 1538. The impropriation and patronage of this parish were granted by Henry VIII. to Lord Cromwell, his Vicar-General, who in that year, 1538, ordered a public register of baptisms and burials to be kept at Brighthelmston, and in every other parish of the kingdom.
On the death and attainder of Cromwell, the church was conferred by Henry to his repudiated queen, Anne of Cleves, and on the death of that princess, in 1557, it again reverted to the crown. In the reign of Elizabeth, the patronage and impropriation were severed, the former being attached to the see of Chichester; and so it continues to the present day. There is a great tithe on Brighton, of small extent, now belonging to Thomas Attree, Esq., Queen’s Park, Brighton, as Lay-Rector, and it formerly belonged to Thomas Read Kemp, Esq., as Lay-Rector.
The church is built of cut flints and grouting of lime and coarse sea-sand, with stone coignes. The old map picture of 1545, represents the church as cruciform, and the tower circular: probably errors of the artist, whose design was doubtless more to illustrate the prominent features of the scene,—the attack upon and burning of the town,—than the architectural details of the buildings. The sacred edifice consists of a body, chancel, and a somewhat low embattled tower, surmounted by a sloping roof, in the centre of which is a cast-iron standard, in which is a flagstaff that may be raised or lowered at pleasure. An arrow vane is on its top. Formerly, within the last half-century, the vane was represented by a gilt fish, doubtless intended as the representation of a dolphin; but in 1796 a visitor, considering that the figure bore more resemblance to a shark than any other fish, penned the following verses upon it:—
Say, why on Brighton’s church we see
A golden shark display’d,
But that ’twas aptly meant to be
An emblem of its trade?Nor could the thing so well be told
In any other way:
The town’s a Shark that lives on gold,—
The Company its prey.
A musical peal of eight bells was cast in 1777, by Mr. Rudhall, ironmonger, of the firm Rudhall and Dudlow, North street, Brighton, now Langworthy and Reed, at his foundry, at Bristol. The tenor bell, which is pitched in the key F, weighs 1,500 pounds. The belfry had a peal previous to that date, as in the vestry minutes of October 25th, 1736, is the order:—