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SACKVILLE COLLEGE. |
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When the building was commenced is now unknown. It is supposed that much of the stone and timber used came from Buckhurst, the old mansion there being dismantled about this time. The earliest date recorded is 1619, which is on the knocker that used to adorn the great door, and also on a triangular shield in the hall, inscribed, "I pray Grod bless my lord of Dorset, and my ladie, and all their posteritie. Ano. do. 1619." The College was evidently in use by this time; we know it was on April 11th, 1622, for the parish registers record the first burial from Sackville College on that date. A contemporary document says:—
Richard Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, was, after the death of his father, the third Earle of Dorset of that family, and is now living Anno. 1622. Hee finished the aforesaid College beganne by his father, and new built our Lady Chappell at Withyham. in Sussex, where his Ancestors lye buried.
A draft of a Bill laid before the House of Lords on February 14th, 1620-1, recited, "The executors of the will have bought lands and have begun to build at East Grinstead; but the College or Hospital has not been incorporated, and the endowment intended to be given thereto is liable to uncertainty in consequence of entails and incumbrances of the Earl's estates." The Act for establishing the College was not passed until 1624, though the first draft of the Bill had been laid before the House of Lords ten years earlier and read a first time. The Charter of Incorporation, still preserved in the College, was granted it by Charles I., on July 8th, 1631. The statutes governing the College, and based on the provisions of the founder's will, were approved in the same year. They forbade any inmate to " lodge or receive any person in the house, or secretly entertain any stranger; " to ever be out, without permission, for more than twelve hours at a time, or to ever secretly use " any dicing, carding, or unlawful games for any money or money's worth." The last rule, however, was relaxed at Christmas-time, for then they were allowed to play publicly, but "in noe sort in any corners or private rooms." Regular fines were to be imposed for secret |
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