HAWKHURST, a parish partly in the hundred of HENHURST, rape of HASTINGS, county of SUSSEX, but chiefly in the eastern division of the hundred of BARNFIELD, lathe of SCRAY, county of KENT, 5 miles (S.s. w.) from Cranbrooke, containing 2250 inhabitants. The living, formerly a vicarage rated in the king's books at £ 12. 10., is now a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Canterbury, endowed with & 1000 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £1100 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Dean and Canons of Christ Church, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Lawrence, is a spacious edifice in the early style of English architecture, with portions in the decorated style. In 1718, Sir Thomas Dunk bequeathed land for the site, and £2000 for the erection and endowment, of a school and six almshouses, the former for the instruction of twenty poor boys in reading, writing, and arithmetic, with accommodation for the master, the latter for six inmates: this endowment was subsequently augmented by William Richards; the net annual income of the school is £216. 6. 10.; thirty boys are instructed, and the stipend of the master is £ 62 per annum: the surplus of the income is appropriated to the maintenance ofthe pensioners, and fotf repairs. A fair is held on August 10th for cattle and pedlary. An estate called Fowlers was the residence of Richard Kilburne, an eminent lawyer and magistrate, and author of the Survey of Relit, in 1659.