Some local history & geography here.
Wellingham and Norlington are two of the 'burroughs' of the parish of Ringmer [old settlements assembled to create the parish of Ringmer]. Norlington is next to a large (2,000acre) common- deerpark called The Broyle, also in Ringmer.
Sir Thomas Springett, was eldest son of a wealthy Lewes lawyer, Herbert Springett, who had prospered as local factotum for Sir Thomas Sackville, later Lord Buckhurst, later 1st Earl of Dorset, who became immensely wealthy as Lord Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I. Herbert Springett bought and rebuilt a mansion called Broyle Place, tucked in to the eastern side of the Broyle, on the far eastern boundary of Ringmer parish. buying it from the Langworth family. The Langworths were ironmasters from Buxted, but had strong connections to the Elizabethan theatre scene in London. Herbert Springett established his sons at Broyle Place as members of the county gentry. He has a memorial in the Springett chapel of Ringmer church which shows him in Puritan dress and claims he spent his life assisting widows and orphans (hopefully not the way he made so much money).
Richard Amherst succeeded Herbert Springett as Sussex lawyer/steward to the Sackville/Dorset family, managing their manors.
The Sackville/Dorsets best known house was the former royal palace of Knole, Kent, (now in the care of the National Trust) but they also owned manors across Sussex, including the former-royal manor of Ringmer. They also held the lease, from the Crown, of the Broyle, where they were masters of the game.
John Hart's master was I think the 3rd Earl of Dorset, a national figure, though without the political clout of his grandfather. His executors were the two senior lawyers in the local Sackville/Dorset patronage network. What was John HART's role? I think he was a bit lower down the hierarchy, described only as a yeoman when in 1590 he purchased a house called Dunstalls in Norlington borough, tucked into the western side of the Broyle. John Hart junior sold it in the 1640s to one of Sir Thomas Springett's younger sons (Thomas Springett of Plumpton was another younger son) but Edward Hart, gent, was still living there as tenant in the 1662 hearth tax, when with 8 hearths it was the largest house in Norlington. For comparison Broyle Place had 30 hearths, typical cottages and farmhouses 1-4 hearths.
What did John Hart do for the Earl of Dorset? Probably something to do with the Broyle, of which the Earl was Master. He wasn't the huntsman/park keeper in charge of the deer - there were two of them, and they lived in lodges in the Broyle itself. He might have had some supervisory role, but most probably he was in charge of the wood business. He is identified as woodward of the Broyle in two May 1609 letters in the Cecil papers at Hatfield House written by Sir Henry GULDEFORDE to the Earl of Salisbury, then Lord Treasurer. HART the woodward was then 'in Town', and GULDEFORDE thought he should be hauled before the attorney general to account for all the tree felling going on. DORSET was Master of the Game, with the right to hunt the Broyle deer, but not to cut down timber, which belonged to the crown, and over which GULDEFORDE (a relative of the GAGE family who owned the adjoining Plashett Park) had oversight. This was the height of the Wealden iron industry, which had a massive demand for charcoal, created by itinerant workers who felled and burnt coppice wood for the purpose. We know from other sources that in the 16th/17th centuries most of the timber growing in the Broyle was replaced by coppice, but that as the industry declined from the late-17th century the timber was allowed to re-grow. Woodward was not necessarily a full-time job. John HART had a certain amount of land outside the Broyle himself, so doubtless combined this with a bit of farming.
