Edward Hasted 1799
The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent
Vol IV.
[p. 147]
LITTLE BETSHANGER,
is an estate in the western part of this parish, which was anciently accounted a manor, and had
[p. 148]
once owners of the same name; one of whom, Ralph de Betshanger, was possessed of it in K. Edward II's reign, whose descendent, Thomas de Betshanger, in the 20th year of the next reign of K. Edward III, paid aid for it as half a knight's fee, which Ralph de Betshanger before held in this parish and Betshanger of the Abbat of St. Augustine. Soon after which, Roger de Cliderow appears, says Philipott, to have been proprietor of it, by the seals of old evidences, which commenced from that reign, the shield on which is, upon a chevron, between three eagles, five annulets. Notwithstanding which, it appears by the grave-stone over his successor, Richard Clitherow, esq; in Ash church, that the arms of these Clitherows were, Three cups covered, within a bordure ingrailed or; at least that he bore different arms from those of his predecessor. Richard Clitherow kept his shrievalty for this county, at his seat at Goldstanton in Ash, in the 4th and part of the 5th years of K. Henry IV's reign (k), and in the 7th year of it was constituted Admiral of the seas from the Thames mouth westward (l). His descendant Roger Clitherow died without male issue, leaving three daughters his coheirs; of whom, Joane, the second, married John Stoughton, of Dartford, second son of Sir John Stoughton, knt. Lord Mayor of London (m). After which, this estate was alienated from this family to Gibbs, from which name it passed again into that of Omer (n); in which it staid, till Laurence Omer, of Ash, gent. leaving an only daughter and heir Jane, she carried it in marriage to Thomas Stoughton, of Ash, afterwards of st. Martin's, Canterbury, gent. son of Edward Stoughton, of Ash, the grandson of John Stoughton, of Dartford, the former possessor of this estate (o). He died in 1591, leaving three daughters his coheirs; of whom, Elizabeth married Thomas Wild, of St. Martin's, Canterbury, esq; Ellen married Edward Nethersole, gent. and Mary married Henry Paramore, of St. Nicholas, gent. and they by a joint conveyance passed it away to Mr. John Gookin, who about the first year of K. James, alienated it to Sir Henry Lodelow, knt. and he again, in the next year of K. Charles I, sold it to Edward Boys, of Great Betshanger, esq; (p) whose descendant Edward Grotius Boys, dying without issue in 1706, gave it by his will to his kinsman Thomas Brett, LL. D. who not long afterwards alienated it to Sir Robert Furnese, of Waldershare, bart. and his son Sir Robert Furnese, of the same place, bart. died possessed of it in 1733, as did his son Sir Henry two years afterwards, under age and unmarried; upon which this estate, among the rest of his property, by the limitations of his grandfather's will and his father's settlements, became vested in his three sisters, as coheirs of their father, in equal shares, in coparbenary in tail general, with such remainders over as the same was limited to. After which, by a decree of the Court of Chancery, and agreement between the sisters, a writ of partition was executed, anno 9 George II, by which this estate was wholly allotted, among others, to Anne, the eldest sister, wife of John, Viscount St. John (q), which partition was confirmed by an act of Parliament passed next year (r).
Their son, Frederick, Viscount St. John, succeeded to this estate on his father's death, and on the decease of his uncle, Henry, Viscount Bolingbroke, in 1751, to that title likewise, and dying in 1787, his eldest son, George, Viscount Bolingbroke, became possessed of this estate (s), which he sold in 1791, to Mr. Thomas Clark, miller, the present owner of it (t).
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TITHERY
The tythes of this estate of Little Betshanger, as well great as small, belonged, with those of Finglisham [sic] in this parish, to the Abbat and Convent of St. Augustine, and were assigned in the year 1128 to the cloathing of the monks there; and after the dissolution of the monastery were granted together to the Archbishop of Canterbury, part of whose revenues they remain at this time (u).
Mr. Boteler, of Eastry, found near Little Betshanger, the plant astragalus glycyphyllos, wild liquorice, or liquorice vetch, which is very scarce, and has never been observed by him any where else.
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(k) His name was usually spelt Cliderhowe, as appears by the writ, anno 1 Henry V, by which he had, with others, the custody of the temporalities of the Archbishopric. See Rym. Foed. vol. ix, p.117. He was again Sheriff in the 6th year of K. Henry V. He was Knight of the Shire in the 8th and 9th years of K. Henry IV. William Clitherow, another of this family, served Parliament for for Romney several times in K. Henry V.'s reign, and for Hythe in the 26th year of K. Henry VI.'s reign; and another Richard Clitherow, for Romney, in K. Henry V.'s reign, and several times in the reign of K. Henry VI.
(l) Philipott, p. 76. Spelman's Glossary, p. 16. In those times the office of Admiral was divided, sometimes into three, but most commonly into two divisions; one beginning at the Thames mouth, was Admiral of the northern seas; the second was Admiral from the Thames mouth westward; and the third had command of the Irish seas. - But at the above time, K. Henry IV, in his 8th year reduced it under one person, and granted it with more ample privileges and authority to his brother, John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset.
(m) See Ash, vol. iii. of this hist. p. 677, 690. Visitation of the co. of Kent, pedigree Wild. Philipott, p. 76.
(n) Mr. Petit Foedary his Book of Kent.
(o) Visitation of the co. of Kent, anno 1619. Pedigree, Wild.
(p) Philipott, p. 76.
(q) In Hilary Term, anno 1736, Anne St. John and John Viscount St. John, her husband, suffered a recovery of their undivided third part of this inheritance. See vol. ii. of the history, p. 793.
(r) In this act, and schedule annexed to it, this estate is thus described: a messuage or farm, called Little Betshanger, with appurtenances, in Betshanger and Northborne, containing 206 acres, and lands in Worth, Norborne, and Great Mongeham; all which were purchased formerly by Sir Henry Furnese, of Thomas Brett, LL. D and Letitia Brett, widow; all which together contained 242 acres, and were of the annual value of 85l.
(s) See a full account of this family, vol. i. of this hist. p. 83, and vol. iii, p. 354.
(t) This estate pays for 208 acres, being all that is in Norborne parish, to Finglesham tithery. It is of the annual value of about 130l. The house is large, and has been the residence of gentlemen; a family of the name Boys, has inhabited it for many years.
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(u) See Finglesham, below. Dec. Script. Thorn, col. 1799.