ACCORDING to an ancient tradition preserved in this family, and sanctioned in the official books of the Heralds, the Scrases came from Denmark, and held lands in Sussex before, and at the time of, the Conquest. So far, however, as I have been able to investigate the matter, I find no documentary evidence of this statement. Domesday Book and other early records of the Norman period make no mention of the name.

It is asserted in Horsfield's History of Sussex, that from 1282 to 1284, Nicholas de Scrase was high-sheriff of the county (Horsf. vol. ii, page 264); but in the list of sheriffs, as usually printed, the name of Nicholas de Gras occurs as the holder of the shrievalty in the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th years of King Edward the First. A Walter LE Gras or Grace also was sheriff in 10th and 11th Edward II. At an earlier period, John Cras appears as a contributor to the subsidy granted to the king in 1296, as an inhabitant of

VIII.

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Hove, near Brighton. It is not at all improbable, however, that the names variously written de Gras, le Gras, and Cras may have been identical, and that the more modern Scras or Scrase is a corruption or modification of it. It has also been suggested that the latter may possibly be a contraction of the great Norman appellative of Scures or d'Escures. The tradition of the ante-Norman origin of the family is not to be wholly disregarded: Tradition is acknowledged by all true antiquaries as but an "uncertain voice," but still research sometimes remarkably confirms the authenticity of oral testimony; and the legal maxim, "De non apparentibus et de non existentibus eadem est ratio," does not apply to this sort of inquiries. It is not therefore necessary to deprive an ancient Sussex race of its cherished belief, and I shall certainly not undertake the onus probandi of their not being as old as the rude but romantic ages of Guthrum, Sweyn, or Canute.

A good degree of antiquity may however be safely attributed to the family of Scrase. In the Inquisitiones Nonarum of temp. Edward III (1341), John Scras was one of the parishioners of Plumpton who made the return of the "ninths' of sheaves, fleeces, and lambs for that parish to the royal commissioners, as a subsidy towards carrying on the war with France; and it is remarkable that from that date-the earliest which I have been able with certainty to attach to the namethe main stock and the principal branches of the family have ever had their chief habitat on, and in the immediate vicinity of, the South Downs; a district which, as I have elsewhere1 had occasion to observe, possesses, in a remarkable degree, the quality of retaining its denizens throughout a long series of generations, and fixing them, as by some unconquerable spell, within its charming limits.

"Nescio quâ natale solum dulcedine captos

Ducit, et immemores non sinit esse sui.'

It is chiefly in the parishes immediately northward and westward of Brighton that we find the family located from the fifteenth century almost to the present day. Hangleton, West Blatchington, Preston, Patcham, Pyecombe, and the neighbouring parishes, have been for some centuries their residences.

1 Contributions to Literature, p. 166.

The pedigree of Scrase, as recognized by heraldic authority, commences with Rychard Scras, who, from a document hereafter to be quoted at length, appears to have held the office of "Valet to the Crown" (Valettus ad Coronam) under Edward the Fourth. The word valet or valettus has undergone considerable degradation: it was not anciently applied as now to a servant holding the position of a personal attendant upon a man of fortune, but to "young gentlemen of great descent and quality' "2 who attended upon the person of the king. This Rychard Scras resided at Hangleton, and was buried at Preston, near Brighton, where some years since was discovered a brass plate inscribed with a memorial for himself, his son, and grandson, thus:

"Here lyeth buried Rychard Scrasce late of Hangelton Gentelmã whiche died in the yeare of our lorde god one. 1499.

"Here lyeth buried Rychard Scrasce of Bletchington Gentlemã whiche died in ye yeare of our lord god one. 1519.

"Here lyeth buried Edward Scrasce of blechington Gentelma who died in ye yeare of or lord 1579.”*

The reason why Preston was selected as the burial-place of the family seems to have been, that the church (the remains of which still exist within the ambit of the manor-house) of West Blatchington was, if not utterly desecrated, at least in a ruinous condition. At what period divine service ceased to be celebrated in this building I cannot discover. Horsfield (Hist. Sussex, vol. i, page 158) asserts that it was standing in 1724, that it consisted of a "north and south chancel (!)

2 Jacob's Law Dictionary, in voc. "Valet, Valect, or Vadelet." Coke upon Lyttelton, speaking of challenging jurors, says (156, a), "but if the sheriff be a Vadelect of the Crowne, or other . . . servant of the King, there the challenge is good." 3 Probably at Hangleton Place.

4 This plate, which measures 13 inches by 6, is now in the possession of the daughter of the late representative of the

male line of Scrase. The inscriptions were all evidently cut at the same time and by the same hand--probably towards the end of the sixteenth century. Singularly enough, the date assigned for the death of Edward Scrase is 1579, whereas he is known to have died in 1576; his will having been both dated and proved in that year.

with a steeple containing five bells." He adds that only "the outside walls are now in existence;" but the slightest examination of these walls shows clearly enough that the church consisted of a nave, with a chancel of equal width, and no tower. The western end has two Norman windows, and there are two windows and a doorway of later date in the south wall. In the Visitation of Bishop Bower, made in the

very year mentioned by Horsfield, there is no entry whatever relating to the church, which proves that it was not then made use of for sacred purposes. Mr. Rowland, in his privately-printed History of the Family of Nevill (1830), says, "No duty has been done for nearly two centuries." According to the tradition of their descendants, the Scrases adhered to the ancient faith some time after the Reformation, and as the tenants of the mansion, and those of some half-dozen dependent cottages, constituted the entire population of the parish, it is not likely that any pains would be taken to maintain the fabric, especially when so many churches existed within the compass of two or three miles. The parish has long been ecclesiastically united with Brighton.

5 The walls measure externally about 57 feet by 21. The engraving at the end

A few words may here be said of the manor-house, so long identified with the history of the Scrases. The remains have been so much altered to suit the taste and convenience of successive occupants that little can be inferred as to its original form and dimensions. The principal indications of antiquity are, the relics of a trefoil-headed window on the north side, and a buttress at the north-west angle. A projection northwards is traditionally said to have been the chapel in which the Scrases of old performed their devotions. On the south side of the house is an ancient well, two hundred and forty feet in depth, the wheel of which is made to revolve by the introduction of a donkey, after the manner of a squirrel in its cage.

Mr. Rowland, in quoting the inscriptions cited above (which he erroneously states to have been dug up in West Blatchington church), remarks, that "it is a curious fact that the Scrase family have been from that period always tenants of the farm. The present Mrs. Hodson is the grand-daughter of a Scrase, and her relation, Mr. Scrase, occupies also the adjoining farm of Lord Abergavenny at Patcham. As the Nevills became proprietors in 1435, it is highly probable that the ancestors of the present tenants were tenants to the illustrious Beauchamps, before the Nevills acquired it by marriage. It may be presumed that no other landlord in England could show a tenantcy of such antiquity."6

Richard Scras, the son of the "valettus," settled at West Blatchington, under a devise for the term of fifty-seven years, of the manor of Blatchington-Weyfield, from George Lord Abergavenny. In 27th Henry VIII this nobleman died seized of the manor, which was afterwards reconveyed to Edward the son of Richard Scrase, whose descendants continued to reside upon it for several generations.

This Edward Scrase, who is styled "of BletchingtonWeyfield, Gentleman," made his will 25th April 1576. He directs his body to be buried in the church of Preston, and in consideration thereof gives to that church thirteen shillings and four pence. To the parish of Hove he gives ten shillings. To John his younger son he bequeaths £20 a year out of his

6 Some litigation arose out of this Rec.) vol. i, A. a. 8, 32, and S. s. 18. lease. See Proceedings in Chancery (Publ.