BILSINGTON, a parish in East Ashford district, Kent; on the Military canal, and partly in Romney marsh, 3 miles ENE of Ham-street r. station, and 6 SSE of Ashford. It has a post office under Ashford, and a fair on 5 July. Acres, 2,843. Real property, £4,057. Pop., 360. Houses, 75. The property is divided among a few. 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 Cosways. A priory of Augustinian canons was founded on Bilsington-Inferior, 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 in the diocese of Canterbury. Value, £52. Patron, W. Cosway Esq. The church is good.

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