Selham

SELHAM (or SULHAM) is a village and parish, 3½ miles east from Midhurst, in the Western division of the county, Easebourne hundred, Midhurst union and rural deanery, Petworth county court district, and in the rape, diocese and archdeaconry of Chichester. The church of St. James is a small building in the Anglo-Norman style, and consists of a nave, chancel, and south aisles: it has been recently restored and is now a very beautiful structure internally, with rich stained glass windows: an Anglo-Norman arch, separating the nave from the chancel, is a valuable specimen of the architecture of that period. The register commences in 1656. The living is a discharged rectory, value £150 per annum, in the gift of the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford, and held by the Rev. Robert Blackburn, M.A., of that college. The manor is placed in "Domesday Survey" under the lordship of Hamesford. During the reign of Edward the Confessor it was held by Earl Godwin: after the Conquest it was bestowed on Earl Montgomery: in the reign of Henry II. it was held as of the house of Arundel by William de Perci: it subsequently passed to the Montagues, from thence to W. S. Poyntz, Esq., and is now the property of the Earl of Egmont. The parish comprises 1,042 acres, and in 1861 had 123 inhabitants. [Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867.]