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old settlement called Mundelingeham" (B.C.S.
190). This cannot refer to Little Mongeham itself and there can hardly
be any doubt that it was East Sutton which was then acquired by the
Abbey. We do not know whether there was a homestead in the area at this
time but, if there was not, we may feel reasonably certain that the
Abbey speedily provided one and named it as the South Farm of Little
Mongeham. It seems to have been part of the Mongeham as described in
Domesday Book, i.e. a subordinate section of that manor.
2. SUTTON AT HONE.
In 1066 a great man called Levenot (i.e. Leofnoth) was
living at Sutton. We know from the Textus Roffensis that there was a
church there, and it was certainly the place of assembly of the lathe of
Sutton, which argues at least a reasonable amount of local
accommodation. Nevertheless Sutton at Hone is not separately described
in Domesday Book but is included in the general description of Dartford
Manor. Its church, together with those of Wilmington and Hawley, made up
the "three small churches" recorded in D.B. as part of the
Royal Manor of Dartford. There is therefore no doubt that in 1086 Sutton
was a dependency of Dartford Manor in the southern part of whose
territory it lay. The post-conquest history in relation to Dartford
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difficult to trace because Sutton Church was given to
the Priory of Rochester by Gundulf and the Manor was presented to the
Knights of St. John before the year 1200.
3. SUTTON VALENCE.
The history of this Manor goes back to the year 814 when
King Coenulf gave to Earl Suithnoth one aratrum next to the wood called
Caert, i.e. the Chart (B.S.C. 343). A contemporary endorsement,
"Tunes Boc," shows that this aratrum was at Town Sutton alias
Sutton Valence. We do not know when the name Sutton was first used but
it was certainly before the Conquest, for Sutton is a separate Manor in
Domesday Book. Since the suth-tun could not be south of itself we must
look for some place, probably a parent Manor in Saxon times, and still
is in many places, known as the Chart. It extends along the sand hills
from Great Chart in Kent westward to Churt in Surrey. So much of it as
remains in the neighbourhood of Sutton Valence is called the King's
Wood. There is evidence that this wood belonged to the Manor of
Faversham, which was a Royal Manor. The first item of evidence is the
fact that the Manor of Kingsnoth (sometimes corrupted to Kingsnorth) in
Ulcombe and Boughton Malherbe was always a detached Borough of the
Hundred of Faversham. The second |