Bilsington, a parish in Kent, on the Military Canal, and partly in Romney Marsh, 3 miles ENE of Ham Street station on the S.E.R., and 6 SSE of Ashford, under which it has a post office; money order and telegraph office, Ham Street. Acreage, 2844; population, 367. The manor of Bilsington-Inferior was given to the Earls of Arundel, in the time of Edward III., on the tenure of serving the king as butler at Whitsunday, and belongs now to the Hallidays. A priory of Augustinian canons was founded on Bilsington-Superior about 1253, by John Mansell, provost of Beverley, and the manor connected with it was held by a tenure similar to that of Bilsington-Inferior. Remains of the priory still stand, partly appropriated into a farmhouse, on high ground, commanding a good view over the marsh. The living is a vicarage, consolidated with the rectory of Bonnington, in the diocese of Canterbury; net value, £182. The church is good, and was well restored in 1883.
