_Vincent Kidder_ (Vol. iv., p. 502.).--The ancestors of this personage
resided at a house called the "Hole," in the parish of Maresfield. In
the time of Henry VII., and earlier, they held the office of bailiffs of
the Forest of Ashdown, otherwise called Lancaster Great Park. I believe
that most of the existing families of Kidder are branches of this parent
stock. From a branch long settled at Lewes sprang Dr. Kidder, Bishop of
Bath and Wells, who lost his life in the great storm of 1703. I believe
that the Irish branch had previously been settled in London. A third
branch settled in the American colonies in the seventeenth century, and
has produced a highly respectable and wealthy progeny still resident in
the New England states, and elsewhere. I have at hand materials for a
complete pedigree of the Sussex or elder line of the family, down to the
time of its extinction. Perhaps your correspondent will communicate with
me on this subject by a private letter.