Quarry House on Frindsbury Hill

( 169 ) QUARRY HOUSE, ON FRINDSBURY HILL. BY A, A, ARNOLD, A NOTICE of the :fine old house known -as the Quarry House, near Rochester, in the parish of Frindsbury, appeared in .Archceologia Oantiana, Vol. XVI., pp. 285-288, accompanied by an admirable drawing by Mr. Arthur Baker. The house was visited by several members of our Society at the recent Annual Meeting held at Rochester in 1886 ; and others have since inspected it. The author of the paper observed (p. 287) that very little of the history of this house is known ; he mentions the tradition or suggestion that the house may have been built by Thomas, Lord Cromwell, in the reign of Henry VIII., but himself maintained that this was not possible, as the house could not, in the opinion of careful observers, have been ,built until Lord Cromwell had been dead at least fifty years. Canon Scott Roberts0n, who was the writer of the paper, a,lso stated his opinion, that the house was probably "more Jacobean than Elizabethan." Something has, since the publication of our last volume, been found as to the date of the building of this house, and it appears to corroborate in a very marked and satisfactory manner the conclusions of our Honorary Secretary. The house itself stands on land which has for many centuries been part of the possessions of the Wardens of Rochester Bridge. The conveyance of the property to the Wardens, in trust £or the support and maintenance of the Bridge, is not now among the archives;* it was probably * Many of the original grants of lands to the Wardens of Rochester Bridge and other valuable evidences were sent up in 1575 to Sir Roger Manwood, the head of the Royal Commission then sitting, for his examination; they appear never to have been returned. There is a memorandum by Dr. Thorpe, now extant, stating the fact, and deploring it. 170 QUARRY HOUSE, ON FRINDSBURY HILL. dated in or soon after the seventeenth year of Henry VI. (1438), as there is in their possession a record of a licence of that date to the Wardens to hold this, with Little Delce and other estates, in mortmain. Some earlier deeds relating to this property are in the possession of the Wardens, and among them the following:- " Monday before the £east of St Gregory 10 Edwd III., 1335-6. Jolzn Shotur of Strood to G1·ego1·J/ atte Mersche. Grant of ½ acre and 2 daywerks of land in ffrens berie 'in loco ·vocato ffastyngilyclie.' "Wednesday in the £east of St Calixtus 29 Edward III., 1355. William Gailfrey and Helen his wife of Strood to John Welshe of ffrensberie. Grant of ½ acre 0£ land in Vastyngeilyche in fee. "Thursday after the £east of St Michael 6 Rich. II., 1382. Robert P'lcot of ffrensberie to John Walsche. Grant of 7 daywerkes of marsh in JJ'astynenilyche adjoining the marsh of the Almoner of Rochester in fee." .A.t the date* of the grant of the Licence in Mortmain of 1438, above referred to, the lands in Frindsbury then granted to the Bridge were vested in Thomas Chichele, citizen of London, and were described as : " xiiijd acres and an half of loud and .... acres of M'rshe with th'appurtenances in ffrins berie." In a survey and valuation of the Bridge Estates in the 22nd Henry VII. they are thus described: ".ffrenesbery-It: pro tenement. in ffrensbery voc. lyme-house alias vocat. Whalches per ann. xxvi8 viijd.'' These names, "Lyme-house,"t "W alches" or "Welshes," and " Fasting-ditche" are names applied or used in the de.scriptions of the property, and by which it continued to be known and to be described until the middle of the last century, when a new survey and plan were made of the property and a more modern description was adopted. The earliest rolls of the Bridge accounts give simply the * The licence to alien to the Wardens was granted 17 Henry VI. (Thursday before the feast of St. Margaret Virgin); a heavy fine was required by the Ohancery for issuing it, and therefore a petition was presented by the Wardens for relief, and praying that the licence might be granted to them free of expense. The petition to King Henry VI. begins thus: " Besechen right mekelye your poor bedemen Thomas Glover and Henrie Hunte, Wardens of the Bridge of Rouchester." It seems to have been successful, and the grant of Delce at any rate-which was included with Frindsbury in the licence-was made on the Monday next after the feast of St. James in the same year, 17 Henry VI. t That part of the Medway which bounds these properties on the south, is still designated, and known as "Limehouse Reach." QUARRY HOUSE, ON FRINDSBURY HILL. 171 name· of the parish and situation of each property, and the amount of the yearly 1·ent. For the object of this paper it is not necessary to ref er to them ; but we can take the survey made in 1575 of the Bridge Estates, by order of Sir Roger Manwood, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and his colleagues, the commissioners acting under a commission granted by Queen Elizabeth (the second commission granted by that Sovereigu) for the affairs of the bridge, as the starting-point. In that survey, which was very carefully made by two of the commissioners themselves, and considered in draft, and revised at two meetings before it was :finally adopted, the description of the estate at Frindsbury is as follows:- " Jfirma in Frenes'burye. "Thomas Bettes tenet ad voluntatem unum horreum et unum clausum terre arabilis vocatum Lomepittfield dicto horreo adjacens continens per estimacionem v acras. Tres parcella terre arabilis jacentes in quodam campo jacente inter Je chalk pittes ibidem et Fastinge Ditche in tribus separalibus locis ibidem continentis per estimacionem iii acras et dim. unum parcellum terre arabilis vocatum Welches jacentem ex parte orientali venellro ducentis ad le Horsemarshe continentem per estimacionem ii acras dim. unum parcellum marisci salsi vocat; Horse-marshe jacentem ex: parte orientali prrodicti terre vocate W elches continentem per estimacionem viii acras -unum parcellum terre arabilis jacentem supra le Cliffe ex parte boreali de Meadway Water ibidem continentem per estimacionem unam acram, ac unum parcellum terre vocatum le Chalk Pitts cum uno parvo Oottagio et uno le Lyme-kiln in eodem edifi.catis continentem pe1• estimacionem iii acras et reddit inde per annum. xl vi s. viii d." " The said Barne is verye moche decayed in the thatching· and walles of the same-sufficient chalk is reserved in the Pittes ·there £or the mayntenauce of' the Bridg." From this record it appears that in 1575 there was nothing like a mansion, or house of the character of the existing Quarry House, on the Bridge land. According to the Rentals, Bettes, the tenant in 1575, continued to hold the property for a few years, but in 1583 the rent of £2 6s. 8d. for that year is mentioned to be paid by "Thomas Thomsonne," aud two years afterwards he is himself entered in the Rental, that is for 1585, as holding· the property. It is then described as "a tenement and certain landes belonging to the same in the parishe. of ffrinsberie 172 . QUARRY HOUSE, ON FRINDSBURY HILL. called the lime-house, wh he holdeth by lease, sometime in the occupation of Thomas Bets; yearlie value ijli vj8 viijd.'' The rentals from 1585 to 1597 shew no alteration either in the description of the estate or in the name of the tenant, but in the latter year the tenant's name is for the :first time entered as Thomas Thompson the elder; he most probably died about that year, as in the rental for 1598 the tenant is entered as " Elizabeth Thompson, wydowe." And in the next year, 1599, Elizabeth Thompson (there spelt Tompson) obtained a lease from the Wardens of the property for 21 years at the rent of £3 6s. 8d., being an increase of 20s. per annum above the previous rent.* She continued tenant until 1612, when she was succeeded by one Walter Thompson (probably a son), who obtained a further lease for 21 years from 1611 at the same rent.t He seems to have occupied the property until 1615, when for one year, for 1615 only, the name of Best, so well known in our couuty, appears as the tenant. Probably Mr. Best was a trustee or * The full description of the property in the lease of 1599 is as follows : " All that one messuage or tenement with the kitchin barne and stable wth sixteene acres o:f land arable and pasture more or lesse and eight acres of salte mershe more or lesse with all and singular the appurts. whatsoever all wh11 demysed premises are now in the tenure and occupacion of her the said Elizabeth Tompson and are part of the possessions belonginge unto the said Bridge of Rochester and of the said demysed premises the foresaid messuage or tenement kitchin barne and stable and sixteene acres of arable and pasture land more or less are situate lying and being together at a certain place called Fasting-Ditche with1n the p'she of "ffrindsburie aforesaid and being intermingled with six acres of land there in the holdinge of the Right Honourable the now Lord Cobham or his assignes doe abut and bound to a certain m3late and effects of the value of £300, besides her own "wearing apparell, jewells and ornaments of the body," to the value of £100 more. Her second husband, "Thomas Sympson," must have been an opulent citizen-a second George Heriot. She alleges of him in her bill that he was possessed of the lease of his house in Cheapside, which cost him £1000, and of the lease of certain tenements in Goldsmith's Alley in Redcrosse Street, which brought him in £30 a year, and besides of" divers j ewells, emeraldes, pearles, dyamond rings, pendant dyamonds, and other jewells and precious stones set in gould, and collers of esses (sic), and other thingis appertayning to the trade of a jeweller and gouldsmith, to the value of ten thousand pounds." t These "belongings" of this lady were thus described in the award : " Wastecoates, one edged with golde lace; one blacke taffatie gowne and kyrtle; one damaske petticote with fobbys, golde laced; fower peares of gloves and one peare of sheetes; one taffetie petticote ; a silk grogram, gowne and kyrtle lettered; a gowne and kyrtle of silke callendbarsh, and a little peace of the same stuff; an QUARRY HOUSE, ON FRINDSBURY HILL. 175 In the year 1634, while in her second widowhood, she surrendered her former lease, and obtained a new lease of the "property from the Bridge Wardens for 21 years, at the increased rent of £4 a year; in this lease the house is describ.ed as "heretofore erected and builded by Thomas Thomson, gent., her former husband." . . All the leases of the property at Frindsbury contain a reservation to the Bridge Wardens of "the right to dig and take away chalk from the chalk-pits there for the repa,irs of the Bridge;" this reservation is first mentioned in the survey of 1575, and the leases a,lso shew that there were intermingled with the Bridge lands some detached pieces of freehold upland and mars4 land, being parts of the Manor of Islingham, which did not belong to the Bridge estate, but were apparently always occupied by the same tenant. These detached and intermingled pieces, which formerly belonged to Lord Cobham (so stated in the lease to Eliz. Thompson of 1599), were afterwards purchased by Thomas Thompson, the builder of the Quarry House, and were part of his property which his widow recovered · in the Chancery Suit against the representatives of her second husband Sympson, About the year 1635 she was married, for the third time, to Mr. John Woodgreene,-K· two years afterwards she was again a widow; and as soon after her second widowhood she went to l􀁾w with her husband's sons, so now, in her third widowhood, she appears to have had serious quarrels and old gowne of wrought velvett; two ffanns with silver handles; three pairs of stockings; a pair of roses, and a mourning hat-band; ruffs, cuffs, aprons, and devers parcells of small wearing lynnen ; also beaver hatt and one hat-band of ribbin with six and thirty small gold and enamelled buttons with a pearle upon eaoh button; one little booke of the oom'on prayer; one brasse ohaffing-dishe, and one old J akett; a ribbon girdle with seed pearlys, and five knotts ; and one olde trunok; and a large Bible ; a large tapestrie coverlett; seaven narrowe pieoes of newe oloth ; doth for towells, about three yards (long) a piece; two cupboard cloths of Penthagas (?); two cupboard olothes of networke; a short dyaper table oloth; two oupboard oloths, one laced and one playne; three towells whereof one dyaper; nyne dyaper napkyns; eight flaxen stryped napkMs; eight coursse napkins; twelve edge-worke buttons with a pearle upon each button, six enamelled white and six red; thirteene small buttones with a pearle; a bracelet with amethies and pearle, and one other bracelett with Cornelians and .Ellitropian beaded." [Elitropian; query for Heliotrope, "a transluoid agate, of a lively leek green colour, spotted with red." Vide Dieulafait On Precious Stones,] * Mr. Woodgreene was one of the benefactors of Frindsbury parish, and "in 1682 devised a tenement and orchard at Higham Ridgeway in trust to lay out the rent in white bread to be given to the poor." 176 􀀕UARRY HOUSE, ON FRINDSBURY HILL, differences with the Bridge Wardens. It would seem from a petition presented some years afterwards by Mr. Atkins, that the principal cause of the quarrel was about the tl.igging of chalk; probably she may have been led to think that the Bridge workmen were digging it from her own freehold lands; at any rate she went again to Chancery, and brought her landlords the Bridge Wardens to the bar of that Court. There are many entries in the rolls of accounts from 1641 to 1644 as to the expenses incurred by the Wardens in the suit of Woodgreene v. Wardens, etc., of Rochester Bridge, · but the records of the case are not now in the Wardens' possession. The Wardens were, however, successful in their defence to the suit, and Mrs. W oodgreene next appears as soliciting them to grant her another renewal of her lease. This petition is not dated, but was evidently received-and rejected-by the Wardens in the year 1650 ; her existing lease would run out at Lady Day 1655, and she was evidently most anxious to obtain the renewal of it. No doubt she must have felt a difficulty in approaching her landlords after her lawsuit with _them, but she makes the best of it, and throws the blame on Peter Philcott. The petition, which is partially obliterated, reads thus:- " To the Right W or11 the Wardens and Com'naltie of the landes contributorie to the repaire of Rochester Bridge. "The humble petition of Ellioner [Woodgreene] widowe. "Sheweth " That yor petr hath beene tenant to yor W orsPP• of the capitall messuage with the appurts. wherein she nowe dwelleth (built at the charge of Thomas Thompson gen. her former husband) and of certaine lands cont. about 16 acres therewth demised situate and being in the parish of ffrendsburie in the countie of Kent by and under a lease therof made to yor petr about 14 years since at the yearly rent of£4. " Synce wh by the insinuatn and practice of one Peter Philcott the Indenture purporting the said lease hath beene imbezilled and for sev'll years last past detayned from yor petr and by meanes of the said Philcott yo• petr hath been exposed to sev'rall unnecessarie suits w11 yo• W orPP• and to great trouble and expense much agt her own ynclinac'on and expresse order, to her great disquiett and ympoverishm't, '' Yo• petr ys now an humble suitor that yo• W orsPP• will please to grant unto her a new lease of the said messuage and lands for the term of 21 years at the said yearlie rent of £4 or wth as little encrease therof as may be. "ffor wh she shall have great cause to declare your noblenes [ J bound to pray," etc. "It is not thought fit to take this peti'on into consideratn untill the original lease be produced and surrendered unto us. Ap1 y0 26, 1650. A. MILLER, GEo, Durm, RICHARD Lm􀀰, WM, .PAYNETER, AUG, SKINNER, WM, JAMES," QU.A.RRY HOUSE, ON FRINDSBURY HIL:{i. 177 The petition was rejected, as the note upon it shews, and it was ordered that the old lease should be allowed to run out and be surrendered. The Bridge Wardens obtained repossession of the estate upon the breach of some covenant, in 1654, that is one year before the lease of 1634 to Mrs. Thompson expired, and no doubt their old tenant Mrs. Woodgreene must by that time have been dead. They granted a lease of it to their clerk, Mr . .A.tkins, at the increased rent of £5 per year. Upon this, Mrs. W oodgreene's representative and executrix, Miss Lucy Carmarden, or Carmarthen (for the name is spelt both ways), again petitions the Wardens for relief. In her first petition she avers that there "hath bin bestowed by the said Ellinor and her husband nere £500 on the said house and lands." In the second petition she refers to her counsel having attended the Bridge Wardens' meeting, and, "as she humbly conceives, made it clerely and evidently appear to y�mr worships that (at the least) the mesne profitts an