Goddard Oxenbridge

As a major landowner, both by inheritance and by his first marriage, he had extensive estates to manage but his status also made him eligible for public duties.

[2] On 24 May 1522, he was one of the knights summoned to join the Papal legate, Cardinal Wolsey, at Canterbury and then to proceed to Dover to greet the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.[1] Dying on 10 February 1531,[1] he was buried at Brede and his tomb, now in the church of St George, bears his armoured effigy.

His will, proved on 27 October 1531, disposed of his property which included manors, advowsons and lands, most rural but some urban, in Beckley, Brede, Brightling, Burwash, Catsfield, Crowhurst, Etchingham, Ewhurst, Guestling, Hastings, Icklesham, Northiam, Ockham, Peasmarsh, Playden, Rye, Salehurst, Snailham, Southwark (including the White Horse inn), Ticehurst, Udimore and Winchelsea.

The story says that Goddard Oxenbridge's life was ended when in a drunken state he was sawn in two with a wooden saw at Groaning Bridge by children who believed in the rumours.

It was then that smugglers took over the house and spread rumours that it was now haunted by Oxenbridge's ghost, and either concocted the tale or built upon it about his former child-eating habits.