BAPCHILD, a parish in the hundred of MILTON,
lathe of SCRAY, county of KENT, l: mile (E. S. E.) from
Sittingbourne, containing 307 inhabitants. The living
is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Canterbury, rated in the king's books at £8,
endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200
royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Dean and
Chapter of Chichester. The church, dedicated to St.
Lawrence, is principally in the early style of English
architecture, with modern insertions. Ecclesiastical
councils were held here during the Saxon Octarchy,
in commemoration of one of which, convened under
Archbishop Brightwald, in 794, an oratory, or chapel,
was erected, of which there are still some remains.
There is a small endowment for the education of poor
children.