Page 102 - 3rdPub1

The Blaker Society © Cuckfield, Nuthurst parish lay in a different hundred (Singlecross) and rape
NUTHURST

Nuthurst is five miles west of Cuckfield. Despite its proximity to

(Bramber), and in a different ecclesiastical jurisdiction — Chichester

of such registers, in 1538, in contrast to many of the surrounding parishes.
1
The township of Nuthurst is recorded in the 1327 lay subsidy returns :
archdeaconry. Nuthurst parish registers survive from the time of the institution
2
19 people were assessed for tax, at amounts for 8d to 3s 6¾d, as part of
3
Steyning hundred. There is no Blaker listed, although there is a Robto Blachol
at 2s and Willo ate Blakestrod at 10¼d. In the 1332 return for Steyning
hundred, Nuthurst does not appear as such, but some of the same inhabitants
5
appear under ‘Villat de Cherleton & Shrottesfeld’ . Similarly, Nuthurst seems
4
to have been included in the ‘Villata de Cherleton’’ in Steyning hundred of
6
Bramber rape in the 1379 poll tax returns.

Richard Blaker

Neither Nuthurst nor Singlecross hundred is mentioned as such in the
1524 and 1525 lay subsidy rolls for Bramber rape , and as the returns are intact,
7
taxpayers from Nuthurst must be included under some other heading. Looking
at the Chichester Consistory probate indexes, we find, for instance, a William
8
Brussher, carpenter, of Nuthurst, with a will proved in 1553. Brussher is an
unusual surname, and in the 1524 returns for West Grinstead, in West Grinstead
hundred, there is a ‘Wyllyam Brussher’ assessed at £3 6s 8d. This is towards
9
the end of the West Grinstead return; five entries earlier is a ‘Thomas a Dene of
Rouspar’. Rusper is another parish later included in Singlecross hundred. Above
this is:

Rychard Blakyer 10 [£]3

There is no will or administration for this Richard in the Chichester archives
11
(Lewes start generally too late) or the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.

1 Villat’ de Nothurst
2 Sussex Record Society x
3 There is no mention of ‘Singlecross hundred’ as such in the 14th-century lay subsidy returns or the poll tax.
4 p. 270
5 names that have since disappeared
6 PRO E 179/189/25. British Academy, The Poll Taxes of 1377, 1379 and 1381. Part 2. Lincolnshire-
Westmorland. Edited by Carolyn C. Fenwick, 2001, Oxford, 589. These entries occur that might be abbreviated
or misread forms of Blaker:
588a Johanna Blake, Warnham
590a Johanna Blake, Coombes, servant
592e Robert Blake, West Grinstead
7 PRO E 179/189/126 and /134, Sussex Record Society lvi
8 British Record Society xlix p. 56
9 West Grinstead adjoins Nuthurst on the south
10 with footnote: ? Clavyer. There is a rare surname Clovier in Sussex. We need to check this