Sittingbourne / Saedingburga / Sedingbourne / Sœdingburna / Sidyngborne / Sittingborn / Sittingborne

No entry found for Sittingbourne in the Domesday survey. Baptismal font here noted in Gough (1792): "octagon, charged with two roses, a cluster of acorns, Canterbury impaling in a border ingrailed a lion rampant quartering cheque, instruments of the Passion, a cross flory, and a modern inscription." Halsted (1798) writes: "The church of Sittingborne belonged to the Benedictine nunnery of Clerkenwell, to which it was appropriated before the 8th year of king Richard II.[i.e., 1385] [...] The church, which is dedicated to St. Michael, is a large, handsome building, of three isles and two chancels, and two cross ones; at the west end is a tower beacon steeple, in which is a clock, a set of chimes, and six bells. On the stone font, which is an octagon, are the arms of archbishop Arundel, a shield, having on it a cross story; and another with the emblems of Christ's crucifixion on it." The font and the eight motifs on the sides of the octagonal basin are illustrated in a drawing [ca.1800?] by Thomas Fisher entered in the Catalogue of Drawings & Museum Objects of the Society of Antiquaries of London [http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/specColl/SoA_images/detail.cfm?object=1538] [accessed 13 January 2008]. Noted in Pigots Directory of Kent (1840): "enriched octagonal font of great beauty". Lewis' Dictionary of 1848 reports "an enriched octagonal font" that survived the fire of 1762 [the font, the walls and little else remained of the building]. Glynne (1877) identifies the arms on the shield as Archbishop Arundel's, the others as Instruments of the Passion. Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a heraldic baptismal font bearing the arms of Archbishop Arundel (1397-1414). In Newman (1976): "Font. Octagonal, on a thick buttressed stem. Leaf patterns (one a delightful design of oak leaves and acorns) alternate with shields on the bowl. Arms of Archbishop Arundel (1396-1414) on one shield."