 | This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia.(April 2017) |
Horsmans Place [lower-alpha 1] was an estate and an early Elizabethan mansion situated in Dartford, Kent, England.
Thomas Horsman, the estate's namesake, inherited the mansion by marriage in 1420.
The Elizabethan mansion was built on the site of an existing building by John Bere in 1551. After the estate had been sold off in small lots and the mansion had suffered years of neglect, it was demolished and replaced by a smaller house in the late 18th century.
The principal front of the mansion faced the west, and was originally approached by an avenue of lime trees from Short-Hill, near the Spital-house. Some of the tree stumps remained until the 1780s. A long gallery ran along the whole front of the mansion, into which the several apartments opened. A large court in front of the mansion nearly extended across the present street, rendering the road narrow and inconvenient; but on rebuilding the house, James Storey set back his walls in a line with the rest of the street. Hasted says on the gateway, entering the court, were the initials of the founder, J. B. [John Bere] and the date 1551. [1]
At the time it was demolished a record of this family appeared on an oaken beam, to the following effect, "soli deo honor et gloria Jhon Beer, in the yer of our Loyd mcccccxxxviii. [lower-alpha 2] On the pulling down of the gate-house, a part of the materials, with some of the letters of the inscription, were purchased by an inhabitant of Horton Kirby, and affixed on the walls of his house, where they were still to be seen in 1844. [1]
In the reign of Edward II (1307–1327), the manor was owned by Thomas de Luda. Towards the end of the reign of Edward III (1327–1377) it had passed to John Horsman, and it is likely that he built a large new dwelling. It is after this building that the manor gained its name. [2]
Tomas Horsman, John Horsman's son and heir, died without children at the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. So, he willed the estate to his widow Margaret. She remarried to a Mr. Shardlow, and upon her death c. 1640 bequeathed it to her kinsman Thomas Brown, whose daughter and sole heir Katherine, annexed it to the patrimony of Robert Blague, one of the Barons of the Exchequer. They had a son Barnaby Blague who inherited the estate and sold it to John Bere in 1541. [2] [3]
In 1551, John Bere rebuilt the mansion and gatehouse, and on the latter inscribed his initials, and the time of its erection. He married twice. His first wife was Alice, daughter and heir of William Nysell, of Wrotham; his second wife was Joan, or Johanna Egglefield, by whom he left two sons and two daughters. His eldest son Henry inherited Horsmans Place but died two years later, and the estate passed to his brother Nicholas. Edward Bere, his younger son and last remaining descendant, died leaving the estate to John Twisleton, a grandson and direct descendant of Alice, Edward's aunt. [4] John Twisleton was created a baronet by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell in 1658, but that baronetcy passed into oblivion at the restoration.
John Twisleton had four wives. By his third wife, Elizabeth (died 1762), eldest daughter and co-heir of James, Viscount Saye and Sele, he left an only daughter, first the wife of George Twisleton, of Wormesly in Yorkshire, and secondly of Robert Mignon. John Twisleton died in 1682, having bequeathed the manor and seat to his nephew, John, eldest son of his younger brother Philip (during the English Civil War a Roundhead colonel). [5]
This John (died 28 July 1721) usually resided at Horsmans Place, and throughout his long life appears to have taken much interest in the welfare of Dartford. The estate passed to his nephew John Twisleton (died in 1757 without issue). There was a court case between two relatives of the last deceased owner, Thomas Cockshutt and John Twisleton (died 1763) over possession of Horsmans Place. The case was tried at Maidstone, in 1758, and John Twisleton was adjudged to be entitled to the estate in Dartford. [6] [lower-alpha 3]
John Twisleton died leaving three sons, the eldest of whom was killed in Germany the same year. His brothers became entitled to their father’s estates, as heirs in gavelkind. On a partition of the estates, Horsmans Place fell to the share of the second son, Thomas, a colonel in the guards, afterwards Lord Saye and Sele. Thomas sold Horsmans Place in 1768 with the rest of the estates in Dartford, to Thomas Williams and Thomas Smith. [6]
The property comprised a great number of houses and a considerable portion of the lands in Dartford. Williams and Smith broke up the holding and sold it in separate portions at a great profit. [6] They sold the mansion to Richard Leigh (died 1772), serjeant-at-law, upon whose death the house was inherited by his son Richard. [lower-alpha 4]
Richard Leigh the younger waited until his mother vacated the premises in 1780, and then while it was advertised to be sold, let the unoccupied mansion fall into a dilapidated state. It was rented in 1784 by James Storey, originally an artillery driver, who came to Dartford while the camp existed on Dartford Heath. Being a very industrious man, he was employed and patronised by several gentlemen in the town and commenced a market garden business in the garden opposite the mansion. [7] He resided in the house for about a year before sub-letting it to the Rev. William Wiseman, master of the Grammar School. When Wiseman left, Storey moved back in, but finding the premises much too large and greatly dilapidated, he obtained Mr. Leigh's consent to replace the mansion with a house of smaller dimensions better adapted for his business. Eventually, James Story purchased the house and remaining land. [1] [lower-alpha 5] [lower-alpha 6]
Addington Palace is an 18th-century mansion in Addington located within the London Borough of Croydon. It was built close to the site of an earlier manor house belonging to the Leigh family. It is particularly known for having been, between 1807 and 1897, the summer residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury. Since the 1930s most of the grounds have been occupied by Addington Palace Golf Club. Between 1953 and 1996 the mansion was occupied by the Royal School of Church Music. It was later used as a wedding and events venue.
Baron Saye and Sele is a title in the Peerage of England held by the Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family. The title dates to 1447 but it was recreated in 1603. Confusion over the details of the 15th-century title has led to conflicting order for titleholders; authorities such as Burke's Peerage and Debrett's Peerage do not agree on whether or not the 1447 creation is still extant.
Earl of Chichester is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The current title was created in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1801 for Thomas Pelham, 2nd Baron Pelham of Stanmer.
Earl of Lonsdale is a title that has been created twice in British history, firstly in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784, and then in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1807, both times for members of the Lowther family.
Trerice is an historic manor in the parish of Newlyn East, near Newquay, Cornwall, United Kingdom. The surviving Tudor manor house known as Trerice House is located at Kestle Mill, three miles east of Newquay. The house with its surrounding garden has been owned by the National Trust since 1953 and is open to the public. The house is a Grade I listed building. The two stone lions on the front lawn are separately listed, Grade II. The garden features an orchard with old varieties of fruit trees.
William Vaughan was an English landowner, farmer and philanthropist who lived in the mid-16th century in the Dartford and Erith area of north-west Kent. He was one of the yeoman to King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I, but is remembered today mainly for his role in the founding of Dartford Grammar School.
Chandos Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh was a British landowner and minor poet. He was Lord of the Manor of Hunningham.
Sir Thomas Scott, of Scot's Hall in Kent, was an English Member of Parliament (MP).
John Rashleigh II of Menabilly, near Fowey in Cornwall, was an English merchant and was MP for Fowey in 1588 and 1597, and was High Sheriff of Cornwall in 1608. He was the builder of the first mansion house on the family estate at Menabilly, near Fowey, Cornwall, thenceforth the seat of the family until the present day. Many generations later the Rashleigh family of Menabilly in the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 was listed as the largest landowner in Cornwall with an estate of 30,156 acres (122.04 km2) or 3.97% of the total area of Cornwall.
Ingress Abbey is a Neo-gothic Jacobean-style country house in Greenhithe, Kent, England, built in 1833 on the site of an earlier Palladian-style house.
James Fiennes, 2nd Viscount Saye and Sele was an English peer and MP at various times between 1625 and 1660, when he succeeded his father and entered the House of Lords.
Nettlehirst or Nettlehurst was a small mansion house (NS365504) and estate in the Parish of Beith, near Barrmill in North Ayrshire, Scotland. The house was built in 1844 and burned down in 1932.
Ballymoyer House, now demolished, was an 18th-century country house which stood in a 7000-acre demesne in the townland of Ballintemple, some 5 km north east of Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.
John Twisleton, of Horsmans Place, Dartford, Kent was created a baronet by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. He was Sheriff of Kent.
Philip Twisleton, born c. 1616, died 13 June 1678, was a member of the landed gentry from North Yorkshire, who served as a colonel in the New Model Army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
The Venerable Frederick Fiennes, 16th Baron Saye and Sele, MA (1799–1887) was Archdeacon of Hereford from 1863 to 1887.
Nappa Hall is a fortified manor house in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, England, described by English Heritage as "probably the finest and least-spoilt fortified manor house in the north of England". It stands 1-mile (1.6 km) east of Askrigg, overlooking pastures leading down to the River Ure. A single-storey central hall sits between two towers, a four-storey western tower and a two-storey eastern tower. The four-storey tower has a turret, lit by slit vents, for a spiral staircase that climbs to crenellated parapets. The taller tower retains its original windows, but sash windows were inserted in the 18th century in the lower two-storey block which housed the kitchen and service rooms, at the opposite end of the hall. In the 17th century, an extra wing was added. The battlements are served by a single stair consisting of 70 stone steps.
Grove Place is a Grade I listed building in Nursling, Hampshire. The building was originally a country house and was converted into a lunatic asylum in the 19th century, subsequently used as a farmhouse, and then converted back into a private house before becoming a school in the 1990s, then redeveloped as retirement accommodation in the early 21st century.
Little Fulford was an historic estate in the parishes of Shobrooke and Crediton, Devon. It briefly share ownership before 1700 with Great Fulford, in Dunsford, about 9 miles (14 km) to the south-west. The Elizabethan mansion house originally called Fulford House was first built by Sir William Peryam (1534-1604), a judge and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. It acquired the diminutive epithet "Little" in about 1700 to distinguish it from Fulford House, Dunsford and was at some time after 1797 renamed Shobrooke House, to remove all remaining confusion between the two places. Peryam's mansion was demolished in 1815 and a new house erected on a different site away from the River Creedy. This new building was subsequently remodelled in 1850 in an Italianate style. It was destroyed by fire in 1945 and demolished, with only the stable block remaining today. The landscaped park survives, open on the south side to the public by permissive access, and crossed in parts by public rights of way, with ancient large trees and two sets of ornate entrance gates with a long decorative stone multiple-arched bridge over a large ornamental lake. The large pleasure garden survives, usually closed to the public, with walled kitchen garden and stone walls and balustrades of terraces. The park and gardens are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The estate was the home successively of the families of Peryam, Tuckfield, Hippisley and lastly the Shelley baronets, in whose possession it remains today.
Vennerslund is a manor house located 11 km northwest of Nykøbing on the island of Falster in southeastern Denmark. The estate has belonged to the Grandjean family since 1809. The new and old main buildings were both listed on the Danish registry of protected buildings and places by the Danish Heritage Agency on 13 April 1950. The estate has a total area of 1010 hectares and borders Guldborgsund in the west.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain :Philipot, John (1776), Villare Cantianum: Or, Kent Surveyed and Illustrated ..., W. Whittingham, p. 128 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain :Dunkin, John (1844), The History and Antiquities of Dartford, with Topographical Notices of the Neighbourhood, John Russell Smith, pp. 295–