Post by Les on Nov 18, 2018 6:26:33 GMT
East Sutton Church
photos.app.goo.gl/JaAXwuwqRWCf7BQQ7
East Sutton Park is located about 1 mile from Sutton Valance, and about 7 miles East of Maidstone,
Kent, England.
814
The Saxons were the first known people to settle at this place in 814 A.D., however, Iron Age and
Roman artifacts have been located in the area. A Roman road between Maidstone and Lympne
passed through Sutton Valence.
1066
Town Sutton is mentioned in the Doomsday Book when the town was owned by Leofwine Godwin,
a half brother to King Harold. Leofwine was killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
1086
William the Conqueror had granted Town Sutton to his half-brother, Odo Fitz Hubert, the Bishop of Bayeux
by 1086 when the Doomsday Book was written. Apparently Odo “sub-let” the lands to Adam Fitz Hubert.
Odo's lands were confiscated for being too ambitious and he was imprisoned until 1087. On release he was
defeated at the Battle of Rochester.
1166
The Norman two-story stone keep and bailey fortress ruins of Sutton Valence Castle are all that is left of this
small 12th Century structure built by Baldwin de Bethune, Count of Albermarle. He acquired the property in
1166 and probably rebuilt a wooden castle with stone. The castle was abandoned in the 14th Century to
crumble away. Baldwin de Bethune died in 1212.
1221
Baldwin de Bethune’s widow was forced by King John to marry Fulke de Breaute who became the next
owner of the village. Fulke de Breaute obtained a charter for an annual Fair for the village in 1221.
Apparently he was a violent man and was exiled for committing atrocities.
Baldwin de Bethune’s daughter, Alicia, married William Marshall, Earl Pembroke, but she died in 1225 and
her husband then married Eleanor, the sister of King Henry III. After William Marshall died, his widow,
Eleanor married Simon de Montfort and brought the manor into that marriage.
1265
Simon de Montfort and Eleanor then owned Sutton. The castle and its lands were seized in 1265 after Simon
de Montfort foolishly criticized King Henry III for his excesses, when Montfort was defeated and killed at the
Battle of Evesham.
King Henry III then gave the village and lands to William de Valence in 1265, his half-brother. The town name
then became known as Sutton Valence in his honor.
1344
Aymer de Valence, the son of William de Valence inherited the property at his fathers death. Aymer married
Mary St. Pol but the union was childless. Aymer de Valence died in 1344 and the property went to Agnes
Mortimer, a sister of Aymer, who married Laurence Hastings, 1st Earl of Pembroke.
1397
St. Peter and St. Paul Church is dated to the 14th Century. It has a Jacobean pulpit. The font is late 13th
Century. The Filmer (1629) and Argall brass can be found adjutant to the East Sutton Park Manor buildings.
Rita Greenfield says in her manuscript on page 13, that King Richard II conveyed East Sutton Church to the Priory at Leeds.
1401
The Hastings family owned the village in 1344 and it was called Sutton Hastings for a few years but the name
reverted back to Sutton Valence. The village of Sutton Valence was sold around 1401 by the Hastings family
to pay ransom for Lord Grey of Ruthin, a family member, from his Welsh captor, Owain Glendown.
1413
Sutton lands were conveyed to Richard Brigge in 1413. He was a Lancaster King of Arms (a Herald). This appears to be the
will of the same gentleman: "Richard Brygg, alias Lancaster rex armorum.—To be buried in the conventual church. Bequests
for masses to be said for his soul here and in two other churches. Witnessed by John Walden. A.D. 1415". (25 d, Moore.)
.
(See also Lambeth Wills, 331 d, Chichele.) (fn. 41) From: 'Abstract of wills', The records of St. Bartholomew's priory
[and] St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield: volume 1 (1921), pp. 528-57.
URL: www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=51766
1416
Sutton lands conveyed to Thomas Bittiller and Thomas Bank.
1418
The Clifford’s obtained Sutton Valence in 1418 and after owning it for 130 years, they sold it to the Argall /
Filmer family. This statement is from: www.suttonvalence.org.uk/his/framehistsummary2.html however,
Rita Greenfield states in her manuscript, Life and Times of East Sutton Park, 1066 AD to 1994 AD, there are
many other owners that she found in her research in the Kent Archives,
1431
Sutton lands conveyed to Richard Darell, from the Darell Family who owned Scotney Castle for 350 years until 1778.
Rita Greenfield says, "It was during Sir Richard's ownership of East Sutton that the first ever house was built.
This is the grey stone building with the clock which is on your right as you come up the drive, being built about
1432 with the clock being added in the 18th century. It originally had a little sort of turret on the top as can
be seen in photographs taken before the war but it became unsafe and had to be removed."