“This parish is extensive, stretching full five miles from north to south, and in some parts more than four in width. Ticehurst, Rotherfield, Frant and Mayfield form its boundaries. The village is inconsiderable, and is distant from Tunbridge Wells six miles, and from London forty-two. The road from Battle to the Wells passes through it. The population, in 1831, was 2,256.

The landed property of the parish is chiefly held by the Marquis of Camden and George Courthope, Esq.  Maple Hurst Cottage is the residence of Major Haly.

The surface is hilly, and diversified with wood. Wheat, oats, barley, and beans are produced in average quantities from the soil, which varies considerably in quality. The parish contains 10,170 acres, of which 464 were, in 1833, devoted to the growth of hops.

The parish is nominally divided into six parts, which are called quarters, viz: Town-quarter, Conseywood-quarter, Weak-quarter, Faircrouch-quarter, Bivelham-quarter, and Reseden-quarter [sic]. High Town, in this parish, was, as early as the reign of Henry VII, the property and residence of the family of Maunser, and so continued for several centuries. It afterwards passed to John Newington, Esq., of the Ticehurst family, and from him to the family of Baker, of Mayfield.

Faircrouch was an ancient house, built of the same sandstone as the church, but was in a state of decay a century and a half ago.  The family of Whitfield had formerly considerable property here, which on the marriage of Martha, daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Whitfield, with Richard Ballard, of Horton, Kent, passed to that family.

Another ancient family was that of Dunmoll, who resided and had considerable property here. On the death of the last Dunmoll, the property passed to his daughters and co-heiresses, one of whom married Thomas Mercer, Esq., of Hawkhurst, the other Thomas Hickes, Esq. It afterwards became the sole property of Mr. Mercer, whose son, John Dunmoll Mercer, Esq., dying 1832, S.P., the property passed to the descendants of his sister and heiress, Elizabeth, who married Samuel Durrant, of Hawkhurst, Esq.

The living is a vicarage in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was rated in Pope Nicholas’ taxation at nine marks, and is valued in the king’s books at £15. 1s. ½d. It is in the patronage of the warden and fellows of Wadham College, Oxford, to whom it was given by one of the family of Ayniscamp, the former owners. The present incumbent is the Rev. Robert Barlow Gardener. There is no land, a small plot only excepted, belonging to the vicarage.

The church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, is partly in the early and partly in the later style of English architecture. It is large but very dark. It consists of a chancel, nave, and side aisles, with galleries. It has a high and shingled spire, in which are six musical bells.

[then follows a series of monumental inscriptions from the church]

Of the ancient family of Barham who for upwards of two centuries resided here, Mr. Nicholas Barham, an eminent lawyer, gained the most notoriety. Being destined for the bar, he received a liberal education, and having distinguished himself at the university, entered at one of the inns of court. He did not long remain in obscurity, but soon rose to considerable eminence on the Oxford Circuit. Devoting great attention to his profession, and possessing commanding talents, great industry, and considerable eloquence, he was brought under the notice of Queen Elizabeth’s government, and ultimately advanced to the station of Queen’s Serjeant. It is whilst in this latter office that we find the materials for an estimate of his character.
As Queen’s Serjeant, it was a portion of his duty to arrange and apply the evidence on all state prosecutions; and this duty he performed on the occasion of the important trial of Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk, for high treason, in the court of the Lord High Steward of England, on the 16th January, 1571-2. In the Harleian Collections are preserved some MS. notes, which appear to have been written by him previously to the trial, for the purpose of arranging his own thoughts and enabling him to apply the evidence to the indictment so as to be clearly understood by his peers; which show at once the care and attention with which he devoted himself to his profession, and the discrimination and acuteness with which he applied all the trivial circumstances of the case so as to form a connecting link of evidence; and in his selection from depositions, he evinced his zeal for the interests of the court rather than what, in our own times, would be considered a fair and impartial epitome.

Throughout the trial he proved himself to be not only an intelligent and well-read lawyer, but also a gentleman of considerable attainments. In one part, however, of the evidence he, in accordance with the custom of the crown lawyers of the time, in his anxiety to serve the interests of his employer and gloss over what might bear against his side of the question, most stoutly denied that the rack was applied to a witness named Bannister, although by a letter from Sir Thomas Smith to Lord Burleigh, dated 20th September, 1571, preserved amongst Mardin’s State Papers, the fact of the application of torture is distinctly avowed. With this single exception, we fully acquiesce in the praises bestowed on his talents by his contemporaries.
He died a very few years afterwards at the assizes of Oxford, in 1577, of the extraordinary gaol-fever particularly described by Camden, and mentioned by other historians.

There are several charities in this parish: one was given by Thomas Whitfield, of Worth. It consisted of three almshouses and twelve cord of wood for six poor families yearly, and £10. per annum being a rent charge for the use of the poor.  William Kitchenham, in 1670, left £5. to the poor, and a rent charge of 10s. per annum for the relief of the most ancient poor, and 10s. for a sermon on Ascension Day for ever. In 1685, Thomas Young bequeathed £1. per annum for the same purpose. Another rent charge of one pound a year for the poor was left by Samuel Plaisted, in 1760.  In 1730, John Barham, Esq., left a rent charge of £5. for the education of twelve poor children. The master’s salary is augmented by a further annuity of £5. from the inhabitants. Mr. Barham also left twelve two-penny loaves to twelve poor persons who receive no relief from the parish, to be distributed every Sunday after evening service.

The registers commence in 1604, but are defective during the Commonwealth. [p 412-415]