with those of Cobhambury point to the fact that both manors
had a common owuer.
The only rentals of the manor now preserved are, it is believed,
those for 1634 and 1649, which are given in Appendix No. 3, p. 127 ;
these were annexed to the Court Bolls for Cobhambury, but they
do not give any particulars of the ownership of the manor.
From these rentals it would seem that there were no demesne
lands in the manor, and this agrees with the statement in Domes-
day, quoted and translated above, " in do'io nihil est." The total
of the quit rents is stated in the later of the two rentals to amount
to 32 shillings (there is some small error apparently, or the receipts
do not come to quite that sum for this particular year), but it does
not differ very much from the Domesday statement.
The manor is always reputed to lie in Cobham, and is, as such,
included among the lands held to be contributory to the repair of
VOL. XXVII. I
114 COBHAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC.
Kochestcr Bridge. Hasted also states this, but so far as can be
made out now it would seem that the lands held of the manor which
paid the quit reuts were, at any rate for the most part, situate in
Frindsbury parish.
Among the deeds and documents relating to Cobham, preserved
at Hatfield,* are many rentals and terriers of the possessions of the
suppressed Cobham College which, after the suppression of the
College, were granted to Lord Cobham, and a good part of which
on the attainder of his descendant, Sir Henry Brooke, Lord Cob-
ham. in the 1st James I., were granted by the Crown to Sir Bobert
Cecil, afterwards Lord Cranbourne and Earl of Salisbury. In one
of these rentals, dated 29 September 1572 (Cecil MSS. Accounts
107), there is a description of the lands in Hoden and Hey ton which
seem to shew that these were in fact in Frindsbury ; the short
description is as follows : —
Of Thomas Bettes for the farm of a parcel of land lyinge
in Fringesbury called Hoden Myl Hill per aim. xviii 1 '.
Of William Pate for the farme of II acres of land in
Fringesbury — the one acre lyeth at Newe-land and the
other at greet lande in Heyton Fyldes per ami. ii s vii d .
Of Ed ward, e Chamber for a little parcell of land lyinge
at Byll Streete at the common well there per anu. ii d .
and in the same rental there is in the account of "the whole
veares rents of the freeholders or quitt rents belonginge to the
Colledge of Cobham '29 September 1572 " the following, among
other entries : —
Fringeshery rent for Hoden Fee.
Of the heires of Willm. Chamber for the rent of these
lands per aim. vi s .
Of Willm. Mansfylde for rent of two halfe acres of
lande lying in Hoden Fee per aim. xii d .
Hey ton Fee.
Of William Standeley for rent of II acres of lande
lyinge together in a fylde between Duckdcane and Hum-
borowe hill per aim. vi s vi d .
Of the same for the rent of II acres of lande lying
under Windegate hedge per aim. xii d .
• - reral references we made in this Paper to the Cecil MSS. preserved at
Hatfield, which contain a great Dumber of deeds relating to Cobham ; and also
1.. the Catalogue <>l the Dering DISS, sold by Messrs. Sotheby in 1865, which
also gh Dd ['articular- of many Cobham documents.
COBHAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC. 115
Of Thomas Monke, gent., for rent of 4 acres of land
uiiilcr Trindel] Hill per aim. ij\
Of Walter Richardson Eor renl of 5 acres and 2yeardea
of lande in Duckdeane per aim. ij- i
Of Symond Hutehen for rem of 3 yeardes of land at
Hansel! Hill per aim. uijH-
These entries of 1572 (and others couM he supplied), when
compared with the manor rolls of L634 ami K;i!). shew, 1 think
clearly, that the lands which paid the miit rents to the manor were
in Frindsbury parish, ami in all probability these were situate near,
and mighl lie identified with., lands in the hamlet of Frindsbury,
which is known to this day as Haydon Street. In Aimm:m>i\
K i. p. L28, there is copied a fuller description of the lands of this
manor in Frindsbury, with their boundaries, as they were in 1572.
The courts for the manor of Hoden have long ceased to be held.
There is a house called " The Mount " in Cobham, on Hie Earl of
Darnley's Cobham Hall estate. It is in a most picturesque situa-
tion, about halt' a mile from the hall and in the midst of a beautiful
wood ; it may, perhaps, occupy the site of the former manor house.
For many years it has been the dwelling of the head gamedvecper
on the estate.
COBHAMBTJBY.
Tin's is an ancient manor Lying on the south-east part of the
parish, as Henhurst does on the south-west ; it is not mentioned in
Domesday. The devolution of the manor is given fully by
Hasted (folio edition, vol. i., pp. -497 — 99). Shortly after the pub-
lication of his work, and in the last days of the eighteenth century.
the manor was purchased by the Earl of Darnley, and his successors
stili possess it.
Hasted, of course, records that it became in the thirteenth cen-
tury part of the possessions of Walter de Morton (Bishop of
Kochester, 1274 — 7s), but he does not explain how. that with it. or
out of part of it, that prelate, or some successor ^\' his, established
and endowed a prebend in the Church of Cobham. There can be
no doubt (though Hasted does not refer to it) thai the manor, or
part id' the rents arising from it, must have been so appropriated.
Probably the bishops retained the manor and granted the prebendal
income from the rents, or retained BOme of the iands, as they are
so often referred to in the old terriers as "lands of the bishop."
The bishops' registers, preserved in the Consistory Court, do not
I 2
11G COBHAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC.
begin until 1319, so no infotmation is obtainable from that source
as to this arrangement.
The earliest entry in these registers appears to be the collation
by the Bishop of Rochester (Havnio de Hythe) on 20 December
1313 of Benedict de Folstone to the prebend of Cobhnmbury, being
then vacant by the resignation of John Cad .... [illegible] (Rochester
Registers, vol. i., p. 209). A record of a further collation by Bishop
John de Shepey occurs on 1 August 134G (Rochester Registers,
vol. i.. p. 223 v0 ) ; Master Richard, the son of Simon of Sutton, was
then admitted. Again, on 28 April 1397, it is recorded {Rochester
Registers, vol. ii., p. 101) that Bishop Win. de Bottlesham admitted
and collated James Bere, Clerk (in the Cathedral Church of
Rochester), to the prebend of Cobhambury, it being then
vacant.
On 6 August 49 Edward III. (1375) (British Museum Harleian
Charters, 43, I. 31) there is a record of a lease from Thomas
Brvnton, Bishop of Rochester, to the Master and Chaplains of
Cobham College of five acres and a half of land, part of Cobham-
bury Manor, setting out the boundaries ; the grant of this lease by
the bishop seems to support the view that the bishops retained part
at any rate of the manor, as possessions of their see.
The first record in these registers relating to the induction or
of the admission of a prebendary of Cobhambury to the Collegiate
Church of Cobham is on 28 July 1494, in the time of Bishop
Thomas Savage (Rochester Registers, vol. iv., p. 14), where the
admission is recorded of John Clerk to the prebend of Cobhambury,
vacant by the resignation of Richard Nikke, and there follows the
form of the mandate given by the bishop for his induction. Again,
in the British Museum (Harleian Charters, 43, I. 33) there is the
record of a mandate from the Bishop of Rochester (Fitz James) to
Master John Barker (? Baker), then Master of Cobham College,
for the induction of Master William Horsey, D.D., who had been
instituted to the prebend of Cobhambury; this is dated from the
bishop's manse, near Lambeth Marsh, 17 November 1502.
In the British Museum (Harleian Charters, 5, G. 37) there is a
record of a lease granted by William Horsey, clerk, to the Master,
etc., of Cobham College, of his prebend of Cobhambury for five
years at the rent of 2G shillings and 8 pence ; it is dated 7 Novem-
ber 20 Henry VII. (1504).
There are other entries which, 1 think, make it quite clear that
a prebend was founded out of the estate of Cobhambury to support
COBHAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC.
117
a chaplain or prebendary in the College or Church of Cobham, and
i hat he took his stall in the Church with the other fellows.
There is evidence that although Cobham College was dissolved
in or about L535, the prebendaries of Cobhambury still were
inducted to their prebends in Cobbam Church bo late as the 1st and
2nd Phil, and .Mary (1554); thus, there are entries in the Bishops
of Rochester Registers (vol. v., pp. 5G and 5s) that one Richard
South was appointed prebendary iu the place of Bartholomew
Bowsfield (deprived), and that he was afterwards inducted. The
dale and the circumstances under which the prebend was dissolved
H§i
TKTI
1
j
WL
COBHAMBUKY, FEOM THE SOUTH-EAST.
From a photograph by Mr. E. C. Yoi'BNs.
and the mauor transferred to the Lord Cobham are not ascertained
at present.*
There is a tradition that there was, in ancient days, a chapel in
Cobhambury, but I find no record of it. Most of the chapels or
chantries in the diocese, whether in private houses or used publicly
tor divine service, paid a " Chrism " rent to Rochester Cathedral, but
Cobhambury does not appear in the list of these chapels in the Tcxlus.
* The Valor EcclesiasHctu gives the annua] value of the manor as £5 11>. M..
aud of the prebeud itself, £2.
US COBHAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC.
The late Earl of Daruley (the seventh Earl) kindly lent me the
rolls of the manor of Cobhambury then in his possession. I made
copies, and I have selected that one which gives the fullest informa-
tion of the lands held of this manor (it is printed in Appendix Xo. 5,
p. 1-9), and I have added to it | Appendix Xo. 6, p. 130) a list of the
freeholders of Cobhambury — the date of this last is about the end
of the reign of Queen Elizabeth or the early part of James I. (Cecil
M>S. Legal, 224 8) — and (Xo. 7) some extracts from a still earlier
rental of the manor, 39 Henry VI. (1461), taken from the British
Museum (Harleian Eoll, C. 19).
Part of the manor house still exists. It is a small unpretentious
farm house, to which a new front was added apparently about
a century ago, perhaps when the fourth Earl of Daruley bought it.
A further addition has been made lately. The old part of the house
has the ordinary low pitched rooms, with long and heavy beams of
oak or chestnut protruding from the ceilings. A very thick and
massive chimney of brick occupies the centre of the house, and the
floors of the small rooms on the second storey are of rough oak, now
almost black from age and wear ; this part of the house probably
dates back to the sixteenth century. A photograph has been taken of
the older part of the house, and is shewn in the preceding engraving.
COBHAM OH COBHAM HaLL.
This, of course, is by far the largest and most important of the
manors in Cobham, but, it so happens that all the lands, or nearly
all, are in demesne. They comprise the great park and all the
extensive woods. The other lands belonging to the manor, if not
in the lords' hands, were no doubt let, as they are now, as farms to
agricultural tenants. Hasted does not mention that any Courts
Baron were held in his time, or before, for this manor — and though
he uses the term '-The Manor'' (vol. i., p. 499), it would appear
that he did so in the general sense of the word, meaning a consider-
able or manorial estate ; but there are records among the Cecil MSS.
at Hatfield shewing that in the sixteenth century Courts Baron were
held, and that there were some lands, although rather insignificant
in value, held by freehold tenants of the manor. Indeed, the
manor, in respect of the freehold tenants and the quit rents they
paid, and the services they had to render, was of so small account
that it was not considered necessary to held a separate court for it,
and one court at least was held (2 April 15 Elizabeth) for the
three manors, Cobham Hall, Cobhambury, and "Vyannes" together.
COBHAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC. 119
The Homage, or freeholders of the manors, then sworn to serve
on this jury for these three manor courts, were altogether six. Of
these, five were sworn for the manor of Cobham Hall. Two of
those five and one other freeholder, making three together, were
sworn Eor Cobhambury, and one only, who was on both the other
juries, for " Vyannes." There was only one presentment for
Cobham Hall. The jury presented that William Payne, by the
death of his father, and of another relative to whom his father had
succeeded, was entitled to a certain messuage and land in Cobham
Street, and of an acre of land in Eastfield, the boundaries whereof
respectively are given, and further averred that the tenements were
held of the manor of Cobham Hall by fealty, suit of courts, and at
the annual rent of Id., and thereupon the said William Payne was
admitted tenant and paid his relief, that is to say, one halfpenny,
being one-eighth part of his rent, and he made fealty (que quidem
p'missa tenent. de man'io de Cobham Hall p' fidel. sect-ad-cur and
redd, annal. iiij' 1 , unde d'eus Will's Payne admissus est tenent, &
vadiavit releviu' scilt ob. id est octav. p's redd', & fee. fidel).
This of course is sufficient to shew, and no doubt other similar
extracts could be given, that there was a manor and a manor court
for Cobham Hall, although the tenants were, under the circum-
stances before described, few, and their lands of small value com-
paratively with the great demesne lands of the manor.
It need hardly be said that there is a manor house ; the stately
Hall is known so well. There is a view of it in our Vol. XL
In the year 1719 proceedings were being taken for a partition
of the Cobham Hall estates, but these were put an end to by the
first Earl of Darnley purchasing the whole. There is added in
APPENDIX No. 8, p. 132, an extract from the report of the com-
missioners for the proposed partition, limited, so far as possible, to the
portion of the estates which was in Cobham. In some of the farms
and woods other parishes are mixed up. This document again shews
that Cobham Hall was a manor, and the manor itself with the waste
lands and the quit rents are included and valued.
" Vy andes " Manor.
This so-called manor uses a name which frequently appears in
Cobham records. It was probably derived from a former owner
or occupier, and the manor house seems to have been on a site not
far from the south-west corner of the meadow on which the
Parsonage stands.
120 COB HAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC.
Extracts from the Dering Collection and Cecil MSS. and the
records of the British Museum refer to this place or name rather,
as far back as 1299.
There is mention of a Conveyance in that year (No. 113 Dering
Mss. Catalogue) from Wlword, Clerk, of Cobham to Robert
Wyande, of a tenement in Cobham. Under the same number there
are also two other grants, temp. Henry II. : Sir Henry de Cobham,
junior, knight, to Robert Vyaund, confirming lands in Cobham, and
(Xo. Ill) a deed of 1302, Alice, widow of Ralph Carectar, confirms
a messuage, etc., to Robert Wyande. In another deed of 1325
(the same number) the name is spelt " Vyaund," and in 1338 there
are two deeds between Robert Vyaund and Sir John de Cobham j
in the same year Robertus Vyannde is mentioned as being assigned
an office as " Hobeler " under Sir John de Cobham and others for
the guarding of the Kentish coast at Tenlade (Vantlet) at Hoo
{Text us Sqfensis, p. 237). In 1370 the property is first referred to
as an estate or manor called Vyaundys (Dering MSS. Catalogue,
Xo. 127), and by another deed in the same year Henry Hauk
and others granted to Reginald de Cobham a right of way between
the chantry and " Vyaunds."
In the Cecil MSS. in 1163 (Court Rolls, 11 6) Vyands is
mentioned as a manor belonging to Cobham College, and in 1517
(Accounts, 116/39), and again in 1573 (Court Rolls, 14/12), there
are mentions of the Court Rolls of the manor.
In dealing with the manor of Cobham Hall it has been
mentioned that in 1572 one court day sufficed for holding the courts
of Cobham Hall, Cobhambury, and of this manor, and that on this
occasion one freeholder only was BWorn on the Homage, and that
there were no presentments at that court for Vyands. The rental
for Cobham College lands of the same year, when this manor, with
the other former possessions of that College, belonged to Sir
William Brooke, Lord Cobham, described Vyance (it is spelt in all
sorts of different ways) thus : " off Gilbert Voting for the farme
cawled the Viance and the laudes thereon letten per aim. xv" x s
tour hennes " (Cecil MSS. Accounts, 167), and there is nothing
Baid in that rental as to any quit rents belonging to the manor.
There are. however, preserved at Hatfield references to a series
of earlier Court Bolls, from l'l l to L519 inclusive (while the College
( 'obham was still in possession of its estates), which shew that in
each of those years a Court Baron was held for this manor and for
Cobhambury. They are memoranda only and not the actual Court
COBHAM AND ITS MANOKS, ETC. 121
Eolls. Taking the first year as an example of the others, it gives
the following account of the lines awarded for the absence of the
tenants from the courts to which they had been summoned as
tenants to give their attendance and counsel on the Homage
(Cecil MSS., General 33/8, Accounts 116/39) :—
Thomas Brooke Milite duo de Cobham q. fecit defalt ad hanc.
cur. io' ipse. in. m. hij d .
Abbe de Berinondsey p. con. def. iii.j' 1 .
Johe Javings p. con. def. iiij d .
Willo. Sprever p. con. def. iiij d .
Rico Sprever p. con. def. iiij d .
Joh. Holt p. con. def. iiij d .
Ten. terr. super Robti. Dobbes voc. Jakes haw p. con. def. iiij d .
Ten unius messuagii, &c, nuper Petri Horney p. con. def. iiij d .
which shews that at this time, and there are similar records of the
later courts, each freeholder in default of attending and giving his
counsel was fined Id. Beliefs also were presented and were paid
on alienation or change of ownership, and there can be no doubt,
therefore, that in early times this was a manor.
The manor has long ceased to exist as such. The mauor house
has been done away with, and the exact site of it is no longer
known ; the lands were merged in other estates of the earls of
Darnley, and in 1851 the b'th Earl transferred the lands, or some
of them, including probably the site of the house, by way of
exchange to Thomas Wells, Esq. The name had got corrupted, and
it was described as " Fiance " farm in a question about boundaries,
etc., with Cobham College in the early part of the nineteenth
century.
NOETH COUET MASOB.
North Court is also referred to as a manor. It was on the north
side of Cobham Street and, probably, not far from the spot where the
Oast House, opposite to Holly Cottage in Battle Street, now stands.
In 1369 North Court. Cobham, with all the goods and chattels
and lands and tenements belonging thereto, were conveyed to the
College (Dering MSS. Catalogue, No. 126). In the rental of the
Cobham College estates for 1572 it is thus described: "of John
Andrewes for the farm of North Court in Cobham per ann. vi u ,
2 qr. of wheat, 6 capons, 21 chekins." In the taxation referred to
hereafter it is called (a.d. 1135-6) " North Court Manor." There are
122 COBHAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC.
mentions of some Court Rolls (Cecil MSS. Court Rolls, 14/6)
relating to the manor in 1493, but it is doubtful if ever there were
any freehold truants, which, in addition to a Court Baron and other
neeessarv adjuncts, is one of the requisites of a manor. It cannot
be a manor at law " if it wanteth freehold tenants," that is, tenants
of lands lying within or holden of the manor who have a freehold
estate therein (we are not speaking now of copyholds) and render
fealty and services or pay a definite perpetual rent in lieu thereof.
Mere ordinary tenants at rack rents do not suffice to make it one;
it cannot exist without a Court Baron, and it must be " time out
of mind.''
The taxation record above referred to gives the taxation of all
the parish of Cobham for the tax known as "the fifteenth " in the
year a.d. 1435-6 (British Museum, Harleiau Roll, D. 5). It shews
the names of most of the principal parishioners at that time
(Appexdix Xo. 9, p. 133) ; it gives also the relative values of the
manors in Cobham — thus, Cobham Hall or Lordship is taxed 33s. 8d.,
Henhurst Manor at 20s., "Vyander or Viaundez" at 7s., and North
Courte Manor at -4s. " Hoden fee " is not included, which confirms
the suggestion that the lands of that manor were not in Cobham
parish ; neither is Cobhambury named, although the tenant may be
one of those who are taxed. It gives about sixty names or tenants
altogether, and includes some which for a long period flourished in
Cobham — the Gryrdelers, G-ermyns, Dobbes, Staces, Sprevers, etc.,
all long since vanished.
In Vol. VII. of Arcliceologia Caatiana there is a list (p. 269) of
Cobham men who received pardon for their participation in the
"Jack Cade" rebellion in 14-30. Two, the first named, Richard
Joskvn and John Joskyu, are not in the 1435 list; all the seven
others do appear in that list, although their surnames are not spelt
in quite the same way and their Christian names differ. The
Joskyns no doubt are of the same family as the person whose name
still preserved in Jeskyns' Court, a house referred to above.
'^Dobbes," in the list of 1435, is no doubt of that family whose name
in the same manner is preserved in Dabbs' Place, a house not far
from Jeskyns 1 Court. There is one name only in the list of L435
which still lives in the parish to-day, that of Ussher. Thomas
dasher wan there assessed at (id. for his house. There are more
than one family in Cobham now who hear this name, though they
now spell it " Usher"; they may have migrated for a time, but the
name occurs again in 1631 and afterwards in the Cobham College
COBIIAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC. 123
accounts, and is constantly met with towards the end of the
eighteenth century and since. Mr. Robert Usher is now Warden
of the College and acts as our respected Parish Clerk.
The name of Joskin or Jeskyn frequently occurs in deeds and
records of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and they must
have been people of some position and influence in the parish.
One of the family is mentioned as supplying sand for building
operations at Meopham so far back as 1451 (Vol. X.. p. 317), and
again in the rental of 1461 (see Appendix No. 7, p. 131).
It might seem to some almost a heresy to end a paper about
Cobham without one word of Charles Dickens, who has clone so
much by his writings to make the parish famous. Curiously
enough, the opportunity presents itself in this singular circum-
stance, that among the names of the marshes belonging to the
Cobham Hall estates not in Cobham, but in an adjacent parish, are
some which, in the document of 1719 (part of which forms
Appendix No. 8), are called " Pick Wick."*
* At the date of the Cobham College terrier, 29 Henry VIII., these marshes
were called " Pykworthe." In 1719 the name had become " Pickwick."
124
COBHAM AND ITS MANORS, ETC.
APPENDIX No. 1.
Lands in Hen hurst Manor subject to Tithe.
An Account of the Several Totals of Arable and Pasture Lands,
etc., in the Manor of Henuurst, within the Parish of Cobham
in the countv of kent, in the occupations of the several
Tenants hereunder Mentioned as by Map and Survey taken
in the Year 1770.
M* Staples
Dab's Place
M rs Comports
M rs Preble's
M r Hubble's
M* Holsworth
M r Hayes
M r Gunning's Wheat
Shaw in old Roman Road
Wood having several occupiers
M r Holmes' part of Common Field, Fallow
The Several Roads
Total
Acres.
Roods.
Per
284
22
2
1
18
20
38
2
21
110
1
26
12
1
37
23
2
30
2
2
19
1
3
5
25
2
11
6
2
28
14
560
3
An Accot of Arable Land in the Manor of Henhurst, within the
Parish of Cobham tn the County of Kent, subject to pay
Tithes to the Dean and Chapter of Rochester and the Rector
of Cobham as by Survey taken in the Year 1770, one Moiety
of which belongs to the Dean and Chapter and the other
to the Rector of Cobham.
c
ontent
in
Acres.
Roods.
Per.
M* Staple's Land — M r3 Comport, oi
cupier
Taylor's Shot
Wheat.
16
1
24
31 33 â–
Beans.