From Kelly’s Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867
RACTON is a small parish, 7 miles north-west from Chichester, in the Western division of the county, Westbourne hundred and union, Chichester rape, county court district, diocese and archdeaconry, and rural deanery of Boxgrove, bounded on the west by Hampshire, and on the north, south and east by Stoughton and Westbourne. The living is a rectory, with the chapelry of Lordington annexed, joint annual value £225, in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Chichester, and held by the Rev. Frederick Henry Arnold, B.A. The soil is inclined to chalk and marl. The Earl of Dartmouth, Mrs. Dixon, and Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, G.C.B., are the chief landowners. The population in 1861 was 95; the area is 1,180 acres, assessed at £1,255.
LORDINGTON is an ancient chapelry and hamlet belonging to this parish.
Parish Clerk, George Souter.
Letters through Emsworth, which is the nearest money order office
Hornby Commander Geoffery Phipps
Hipkin John Painter, farmer