WILMINGTON, a parish, with a village, in Eastbourne district, Sussex; 1 mile S of Berwick r. station, and 5½ NW of Eastbourne. It gives the title of Baron to the Marquis of Northampton; and it has a post-office under Hurst-Green. Acres, 1,744. Real property, £1,756. Pop., 250. Houses, 47. The property is not much divided. A Benedictine priory, a cell to Grestein Abbey in Normandy, was founded here, in the time of William Rufus, by the Earl of Mortaigne; and was given by Henry V. to Chichester cathedral. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Chichester. Value, £111.* Patron, the Duke of Devonshire. The church has Norman portions, and is good.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))