THE PLACE-HOUSE, or Woodchurch house, is a seat situated at a small distance eastward from the church, and was the habitation of a family who took both their surname and original from it. Anchitel de Woodchurch was possessed of it about the time of the Conqueror, and gave for his arms, Gules, three swords, erected in pale, argent. His grandson Roger de Woodchurch, is the first that is mentioned in the antient deeds, without date, of this estate, and his grandson Sir Simon de Woodchurch, is in the register of those Kentish gentlemen who accompanied king Edward I. in his victorious expedition into Scotland, where he was knighted, with many others of his countrymen. But in him the name, though not the male line, determined; for by matching with Susan, daughter and heir of Henry le Clerk, of Munsidde, in the parish of Kingsnoth, who brought a large inheritance into his family; his successors, out of gratitude to those who had added so much splendour, and annexed so plentiful a revenue to their name, altered their paternal appellation from Woodchurch to Clerke; and in several of their deeds subsequent to this match were written, Clerke, alias Woodchurch.