SWINGFIELD, a parish in the hundred of FOLKESTONE,
lathe of SHEPWAY, county of KENT, 5 miles
(N.) from Folkestone, containing 304 inhabitants. The
living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry and
diocese of Canterbury, endowed with £200 private benefaction,
and £800 royal bounty, and in the patronage
of Sir J. G. Bridges, Bart. The church is dedicated to
St. Peter. A preceptory of Knights Templars was
founded here before 1190, to which Sir Waresius de
Valoniis and others were considerable benefactors; it
subsequently became part of the possessions of the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and, at the dissolution,
had a revenue of £87. 3. 3. On Swingfield common,
during the agitations of 1745, the neighbouring
nobility, gentry, and yeomen, to the amount of several
thousands, accoutred with arms and ammunition, assembled,
to oppose an expected invasion on the coast
of Kent.