WYE, a parish (formerly a market-town) in the hundred
of WYE, lathe of SORAY, county of KENT, 4 miles
(N. E.) from Ashford, and 56 (E. S. E.) from London,
containing 1508 inhabitants. The town is pleasantly
situated near the right bank of the river Stour, over
which is a stone bridge of five arches, and consists of
two parallel and two cross streets neatly built: on the
river a little above the bridge is a corn-mill. The market
has been long discontinued, but there are fairs on
the 29th of May and the 11th of October. The living
is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese
of Canterbury, endowed with £600 parliamentary grant,
and in the patronage of the Earl of Winchilsea. The
church, which is dedicated to St. Martin and St. Gregory,
and anciently belonged to Battle abbey, was rebuilt and
made collegiate by John Kemp, a native of this town, first
Bishop of Rochester, and afterwards Cardinal, who, in
1431, founded a college for a master and Secular canons,
the revenue of which at the dissolution was valued at
£93. 2. It was a beautiful cruciform structure, with
a central tower surmounted by a spire, and had all the
usual parts of a large collegiate church; in 1572, the
spire was injured by lightning, and having been restored,
fell in 1685, and destroyed a portion of the east end
of the church, which was partly rebuilt in 1701, but on
a much smaller scale. There is a place of worship
for Wesleyan Methodists. The free grammar school
was founded by grant from Charles I. of the rectories
of Boughton-Aluph, Beuset, and Newington, and other
premises, to Robert Maxwell and his heirs, for affording
classical instruction to the poor children of parishioners;
for which £16 a year is paid to a master, but there are
no children on the foundation. An exhibition, originally
of £10 per annum, to Lincoln College, Oxford,
was attached to this school by Sir George Wheeler, in
1723, which was augmented to £20, in 1759, by his son,
the Rev. Granville Wheeler: in default of candidates
from this establishment, it is open to any other grammar
school in the kingdom. A free school for children of
both sexes was founded and endowed, in 1708, by
Lady Joanna Thornhill; the present annual income is
£193. 10. 6., for which fifty boys and sixty-one girls
are now instructed, the school being open to all children
of the poor, who are nominated by the trustees, consisting
of the ministers of Wye and the four adjoining parishes,
and the heirs of three other persons; the salary
of the master is £40, and that of the mistress is £25,
per annum. In 1723, Sir George Wheeler devised the
ancient collegiate buildings and lands for the respective
residences and schools of the master of the grammar
school and the master and mistress under Lady Thornhill's
charity: these establishments, therefore, now
occupy the college green, the former the south, and
the latter the north, side. An almshouse for the residence
of six poor persons was founded by Sir Thomas
Kempe.