Gorringe's Auctioneers Spring Fine Sale 2022

Lot 79
° A Collection of deeds and
documents relating chiefly
to Kent, 1264-1654, from the
collection of Thomas Godfrey
Godfrey-Faussett (1829-1877)
Thomas Godfrey Godfrey-
Faussett (for whom see the
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography), the son of the
professor of divinity at Oxford,
was a barrister who in 1866
moved to Canterbury as auditor
to the Dean and Chapter; in 1871
he became District Registrar
of the probate court in the city.
Godfrey-Faussett was the
great-grandson of the Kentish
clergyman-antiquary Bryan
Faussett (1720-1776), and it was
to the study of the antiquities of
the county that he devoted his
leisure time. The 85 documents
forming this collection can be
divided into two groups – 36
charters relating to Pluckley and
Little Chart, mostly with intact
seals, and ranging in date from
1290 to 1469; and 49 charters
and other documents relating
to Kent (45), Essex (2) and
London (2). The endorsements
on both groups demonstrate
that the entirety of the first and
the majority of the second had
formed part of the archive of the
Dering family of Surrenden in
Pluckley. The charters in the first
group have place-names and
personal names underlined in
red ink, and are endorsed with
a numerical reference in violet
ink characteristic of the Dering
sale at Puttick and Simpson
on 13 July 1865; in that they
closely resemble Dering charters
at Kent Archives, U350 and
U1823. Many of the deeds and
documents in the second group
must also have originated in
the Dering archive – many have
endorsements in the hands
of Sir Edward Dering (1598-
1644), antiquary and religious
controversialist (see ODNB),
relating both to the contents
of the documents themselves
but also to his antiquarian,
religious and topographical
research; in one case he has
stitched together two unrelated
documents to serve as a
medium for a pedigree of the
descendants of John Johnson
of the Isle of Thanet. The
collection has many highlights,
the first of which must be the
rare opportunity to acquire ten
intact lots, amounting to 36
medieval charters, from the
renowned Surrenden Dering
archive. The second group
includes two counterpart leases
by Thomas Chillenden, prior of
Christ Church Canterbury, one
of two tenements with solars
attached on the west side of
the great gate of the prior and
convent in the parish of St
Bartholomew, London, 1406.
There are five original wills with
notes of probate endorsed,
1416-1471, one of which was
granted by peculiar jurisdiction
of Wingham College in 1450
and bears a fine impression of
its seal, which is also appended
to a lease by the provost
(archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s
younger brother Edmund) and
canons of Wingham of a farm in
Wingham, 1542. An inventory
of the goods of Robert Jull of
Denton, appraised at £39 17s 1d
on 13 April 1585, is also included
in the collection. No manorial
documents are included in the
collection; a complete list of all
85 documents is available in our
online listing.
Gorringe’s are grateful to
Christopher Whittick, former
senior curator at the Sussex
Record Office, for his valuable
research and description of this
important early archive
£25,000 - 35,000
22