House, there was a monastery of the Friars Heremites of St. Augustine, the Chapel whereof is yet standing.
This town was burned by the French, in the reign of Richard II. and again in that of Henry VI. in which it is supposed the old Records and Charters of the Town perished ; because none older than his 27th year, except some fragments, are to be found.
By the same conflagration, the Old Church, it is thought, suffered also ; and this, now standing, built since : the former stood near to Ipres Tower, on the spot yet called the Old Churchyard. Henry VJI. visited Rye in the third year of his reign, as did Queen Elizabeth in the year 1573. In the year 1563 a pestilence carried off, in the months of August, September, and October, 562 persons. Afterwards, it was replenished by the French, who sheltered themselves here from the massacres in France in 1572 ; and in 1582, the French inhabitants in Rye conlisted of 1534 persons. It suffered severely by another plague in 1596, and again in 1625 : and by the small-pox in 1634 and 35, -
