What Archbishop Bourchier acquired in his 1456 Knole transaction

WHAT ARCHBISHOP BOURCHIER acquired IN HIS 1456 KNOLE TRANSACTION

stephen draper

In 1456 Archbishop Thomas Bourchier had particular reasons for pur-chasing the manor of Knole and its appurtenances from William Fiennes, the son of James Fiennes, ‘the great extortioner of Kent’ who died in Jack Cade’s rebellion. Bourchier also purchased various lands in the parishes of Sevenoaks, Seal and Tonbridge, some of which were clearly to provide building materials such as stone for his great manor house of Knole. The archbishopric already owned lands and rents in Sevenoaks, the archiepiscopal residence being nearby Otford Palace. The archbishop did not have a residence in Sevenoaks until Bourchier bought Fiennes’ manor. Knole was Bourchier’s personal home until his death when he bequeathed it to the archbishopric. In this paper the indenture of 1456 by which Bourchier bought Knole is analysed in detail and the location and character of the various associated properties examined.

F.R.H. du Boulay found substantial documentary evidence relating to Bourchier’s purchase of the Knole estate and published his analysis in two separate volumes of Archaeologia Cantiana.¹ Since their publication, further relevant archive documents have become available and the recent Inspired by Knole project has added to our knowledge of the transaction.

The Bourchier Indenture

Research for this paper started with the discovery that Bourchier’s contract to purchase all William Fiennes’ properties in Sevenoaks is freely accessible in the Kent History and Library Centre archives. Many of the myths about Bourchier’s purchase stem from the use of quotations from it that are either partial or out of context, or both. A transcription is reproduced here in full (Fig. 1). It declares that it is an indenture dated 30 June 1456 between Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, and William Fiennes, Lord Say of the Seal.²

Bourchier, newly appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury, needed a residence that had ready access to London and was on a healthy site. Knole’s situation was ideal: on a breezy hill, in good hunting terrain, with arable land not far away, and next to a main road from the south coast to London.

On vellum, the indenture has 19 lines of text, very short for such an important document and, rather unusually, is written in English. Indentures have the same text written on each half, with a security inscription in large letters across the middle. The parties sign and seal one half each, then an irregular wavy line (the indent) is cut through the inscription. The parties take away the part signed by the other. Any later dispute can be checked by matching the two halves together. In this case, the security inscription is ffenys, the old spelling for the Fiennes family name.

The Bourchier indenture is an escrow agreement setting out the stage payments and what had to be done, by when, to cover them. As usual, there is very little punctuation, new sentences are introduced by a capital letter, and the next item in a list by a capitalised ‘And’. The lists are nested and the transcription shows this by the degree of indentation. There are no frills, no additional titles, and all is ‘plainly bargained and sold’.

A bundle of properties was being transacted, starting with ‘the manor of Knolle, with the appurtenances’, its outbuildings and farmsteads; all plots of land; rights to hunt in the forest, appoint officials, and receive payments and services. Next are listed some lands and tenements which Fiennes had accumulated, but which were still named after their previous owners: Panters, Josez,³ Frenches, Skeles and John Smith (aka Mills). The last two names are written with a thicker nib and are out of line with the rest of the text, so it is clear that a blank was left and filled in later, perhaps suggesting haste. Skeles’ forename is blank. Fig. 2 shows the parish boundaries of Sevenoaks and Seal and the location of the various properties in the Knole transaction.

The indenture then notes the inclusion of all building materials ‘being or lying within’ the properties. Here Bourchier was being careful to keep everything clear and above board, as Fiennes’ father had a reputation for trickery in property deals. Timber and lead could be taken from a building by the seller and reused elsewhere, leaving the walls standing but unusable. Fiennes could not remove building materials so the Knole buildings would be intact. ‘Stone … being or lying within’ the properties encompassed stone still underground, such as that at John Cartier’s quarry in Seal, where the materials, but not the land, were included.

The escrow procedure by which Bourchier could secure the properties by staged payments (and check the documents before final payment) is set out in the indenture as follows:

 On signature, Bourchier would pay 100 marks to Fiennes.

 Before 20th July Fiennes would hand over an estate of Fee Simple (full control) of all the properties to Bourchier’s nominees and their heirs and assigns, that is, not just for their lifetime, but permanently, and to them, not to them acting as attorneys for Bourchier.

 Fiennes binds his heirs to this agreement also, so they can’t claim it was just a deal for their father’s lifetime.

 Before 20th July Fiennes had to deliver all deeds, indentures and muniments connected with the estate.

 20 days after Fiennes had handed over both the estate and the documentation, Bourchier would pay the remainder of the whole sum of 400 marks. Bourchier’s clerks thus had time to check all was in order.

 The final clauses are standard for the end of a deed, again binding Fiennes and his heirs to the agreement, and confirming a consideration of £100 Sterling had been paid. This is a surprise, as this is 50% more than the 100 marks that was specified just four lines above.

 The parties confirm that they are signing and sealing interchangeable, i.e. identical, halves of the document.

 The surviving indenture in KHLC is Bourchier’s half, so bears Fiennes’ signature. The bottom of the vellum has been folded well over the signature and the seal ribbon put through a slot so that the signature could be checked, but not altered with a quill (Fig. 3).

 Fiennes’ seal is small, a signet ring, rather than a ceremonial seal.

This is a concise but thorough contract. Details of the properties involved and proof of ownership are left to the batch of documents to be handed over and reviewed before final payment. This condition is the reason so much is known about the assembling of the Knole estate. Lambeth Palace Library (LPL) holds the charters, Carte Miscellanee (CM), of the archbishops of Canterbury from the 12th century. CM V and X contain 340 documents, of which 130 are the original Knole deeds delivered by William Fiennes in accordance with the indenture.

The Knole Estate

Knole had been in the possession of an archbishop of Canterbury previously, first mentioned in his accounts in 1259,⁴ one of a number of substantial holdings paying rent in cash or kind. The LPL CM V and X deeds show that from 1274 a Robert de la Knole (whose career included being in the service of the archbishop, as bailiff), was busy enlarging his estate. Some deeds reveal Robert’s purchases of named crofts, fields, tenements, or other properties on his own account. This resulted in a patchwork of properties, rented out to tenants who worked the land and ran the businesses. In 1292 Robert bought shops, booths and plots in Sevenoaks market. These remained part of the estate for at least 300 years.⁵

After the death of Robert de la Knole, the estate was acquired and further enlarged by the Grovehurst family, then by the Ashburnhams. By 1365 Roger Ashburnham had acquired all the inherited shares, which stayed with his heirs until 1419.

In 1419 Thomas Langley, Bishop of Durham, wanted to buy property outside the bishopric for the benefit of his family. In March 1419, Langley arrived in Sevenoaks with his retinue, including his household Treasurer, Nicholas Hulme, whose role included surveying properties and assessing and costing necessary works. Hulme and John Thoralby, another trusted agent of Langley’s, were in the Court of Common Pleas in April, paying Thomas Ashburnham 200 marks for Knole (Fig. 4).⁶

Unusually, both the court’s and the purchaser’s parts of the final concord for this purchase survive. The property was to be held for the benefit of Henry Langley, presumably a close relative of the bishop, and Henry’s heirs. It comprised 5 messuages, 500 acres of arable, 3 acres of meadow, 300 acres of wood, and rents of 60s. in Sevenoaks, with the homage and all services of 50 named tenants. Thoralby and Hulme added to the Sevenoaks estate, purchasing ‘land called Hardinges’ in 1420⁷ and ‘a plot of land in Waterden’ in 1429.⁸

Knole was maintained at Bishop Langley’s expense, but he never visited, and it is not known if Henry ever lived there. The bishop died in 1437, and Hulme was an executor for the bishop as well as a trustee of Knole. In May 1444 Hulme and Henry Langley appointed attorneys to deliver seizin to Henry’s daughter Elizabeth and her husband, Ralph Leigh.⁹

In June and October 1446, Ralph and Elizabeth appeared in the Court of Common Pleas, recording a final concord to the effect that Knole now belonged to James Fiennes, knight (Fig. 5).¹⁰ Since 1419, the property had increased by 10 acres, now totalling 813 acres. Half the tenants listed had the same names as those 27 years previously. The concord states: ‘Ralph and Elizabeth have acknowledged the tenements and rent to be the right of James, and have rendered the tenements to them [sic] in the court’. It sounds as though Fiennes was already in possession of Knole before the final concord. Rendering the tenements in court, rather than by taking seizin, was unusual, and the price, 100 marks, only half what Langley had paid. William Fiennes may have been concealing his father’s strongarm tactics by omitting his section of the Leigh concord from the deeds he delivered.

Tenants and Properties

The protection afforded by a powerful lord may well explain why several of the families who sold land to Robert de la Knole’s growing estate, then within the archbishop’s writ, stayed on the land and appear in the list of tenants decades later. Their names can be used to locate parts of the property that Bourchier bought.

Both the 1419 and 1446 final concords for Knole include, in the list of what was being bought, ‘the homage and all services’ of a list of tenants, 50 in 1419 and 39 in 1446, of whom 22 are present in both lists. The 1419 list gives the trades of three tenants: Baldwin Fisher, fletcher, Thomas Mellere, p[o]ulter[er]; Walter Becher, sowter.¹¹ They were probably tenants of the marketplace shops bought by Robert de la Knole, twelve of which were still part of the estate in 1587. A significant part of Sevenoaks market still follows the fifteenth-century layout, with shops from c.1450 still standing.¹²

In James Fiennes’ purchase, Knole had 510 acres of arable land as well as woodland. The land on which Sevenoaks town and Knole stand was described by Hasted as having ‘much waste ground in it, which is a dreary barren sand … being in general covered with heath and furze, with some scrubby wood interspersed among the hills, which are high’.¹³ 

The northern part of the Parish is the lower, rich and fertile Vale of Holmesdale. When Robert de la Knole was building his estate, much of Holmesdale was occupied by large freeholders. He acquired properties at Rotherden (Riverhead) and Brittains, sometimes rented by weavers, where there was sufficient water for a fulling mill, but little else was available in Holmesdale. The parishes of Sevenoaks and Seal also extend some distance south of the Greensand Ridge (Hasted’s high hills) into fertile Wealden farmland which contains a number of small watercourses. These zones are marked on Fig. 2.

The names of some of the tenants indicate that much of Knole’s arable land was in the Weald. Medieval family names are often preserved in place names, especially farms, in the 1841 tithe maps and apportionments.¹⁴ After 1841 the rapid expansion of population and settlements makes place-name links less reliable. The tithe maps and apportionments for Sevenoaks, Seal and Tonbridge contain places bearing nine of the more distinctive tenants’ names from the 1419 and 1446 Concords, which are marked on Fig. 2:

John Romchede John Nisell

Robert Frenche Roger Elsy

John French John Bore

Thomas Pantere Thomas Wykehirst

John Romchete

Of these names only French matched any other place in the three parishes.¹⁵ Also marked are the Chandlers of Tonbridge, who had also owned the 100 acres of Joces in Sevenoaks throughout the 1420s. In 1326, Joces was described as comprising ‘Undereuere and Supereuere’,16 which sounds like Underriver and an area above it. The properties now known as Riverhill and St Julians are just inside the Sevenoaks parish boundary, beside the main Hastings road, and rise from the north of Underriver to the crest of the Greensand Ridge. Riverhill is adjacent to Panters and by 1459 Joces and Panters were leased as a single entity to one tenant.¹⁷ This makes Riverhill a possible location for Joces. The Ashburnhams had added lands in Undereuere to the Knole portfolio.¹⁸

In 1480, Bourchier made an agreement with John Morton, Bishop of Ely and his successor at Canterbury, about the land Bourchier would leave to the See of Canterbury and the uses to which it would be put. The lands already mentioned were included, plus properties in Leigh, Chiddingstone and Penshurst (which is south of Leigh).

Every one of these locations and properties is south of the Ridge, in the Weald. As the indenture describes the lands of John Smith as lying in Sevenoaks and Tonbridge, they are likely to have been in the same area. A large proportion of the arable land bought by Bourchier seems to have been in the Weald, to the south of Knole.

Quarries and Ragstone

Bourchier also bought all the stone in John Carter’s quarry in Seal. John Carter is named as tenant in Seal of 20 acres of James Fiennes’ land, from whom Fiennes extorted excessive rent in 1449. The 1841 Tithe Apportionment (TA) for Seal has seven pieces of land named Quarry. Six of these are in an area still known as Carter’s Hill,¹⁹ and with a road called Carter’s Hill running up through it.

The TA Quarries are shown on the map, and also superimposed on the LiDAR image in Fig. 6. They are on the shallower slope at the foot of the scarp and the LiDAR shows broken, rocky surfaces, different from the fields around.²⁰ All these quarries cut into a bed of Kentish Ragstone used for building at Knole and throughout Sevenoaks. Bourchier’s accounts show that some ragstone for his new Knole tower was transported from Panthurst, where there is evidence of a quarry. The houses at Riverhill and St Julian’s are shown on the tithe map and are just below areas that show evidence of similar, shallow quarrying before the houses were built, so well before 1841. If Riverhill is the site of Joces, the availability of stone would help explain why Joces was highly valued.²¹

Works at Knole

Once Bourchier had possession of the Manor of Knole in July 1456, his men made an immediate start to work on the buildings. The bailiff and receiver of the Bailiwick of Otford, which included Sevenoaks, Otford and Knole, kept consolidated accounts, of which three years’ survive.

The Michaelmas 1455 to Christmas 1456 accounts record, in only 5 months, major expenditure of £26 on ‘repairs to the Manor of Knole, which manor the Lord Archbishop recently bought from the Lord of Say’.²² Purchases included tiles, nails, shingling, lime, sand and sawn timber and planks, but the bulk of the expenditure was for leadwork.²³ Repairs are mentioned three times in this year’s accounts. The workmen were involved in carpentry, tiling, leadwork, plastering etc., and the materials are those used for repair, rather than construction.²⁴ In 1460-61 payments were made to several craftsmen who can only have worked on otherwise-completed buildings, including a glazier, paid a substantial sum ‘for glass windows, with solder and other necessary expenses’.²⁵

The recent Inspired by Knole project identified a possible manorial great hall pre-dating Bourchier’s Great Hall. It is a substantial building with a very grand roof, parts of which are now known as the pigeon loft and old kitchen.²⁶

Accounts for Christmas 1462 to 1463 specify new building at the Manor of Knole six times, which totalled £104 9s. 7d.²⁷ and included payments for digging and preparing stone at the quarry. Building work continued for some years, as shown by a 1467 payment for ‘carriage of 30 loads of stone for the new tower at Knolle from Panters to the Manor’.²⁸

During the first years of Bourchier’s ownership of Knole, it is clear that there were significant Manor buildings which were retained and repaired. The very large amount of lead, plus tiles and shingles, suggests that roof repairs were a major part of this work. At least seven years of large-scale and expensive work then took place on new buildings, including digging, preparation and carriage of stone, masonry and carpentry.

By 1469-70 the only development work taking place at Knole was the construction of the park paling, which may have been completed then because it does not appear in the following two years’ accounts.²⁹

The Park

There is no record of a park at Knole before Bourchier’s time, and no record of him, previous owners, nor his agents obtaining a licence to impark. From 1466 there are two quitclaims³⁰ for the transfer (normally a sale) of pieces of land within Knole Park to Bourchier’s clerks, one of which places an obligation on the seller to keep open ‘the new way outside the park’. These documents show that by January 1466:

 Knole Park existed,

 it included old roads,

 new ways had been created around it,

 the manor was buying plots of land within the park.

In 1468 there is a further deed yielding to Bourchier’s agents the use of an enclosed piece of land and wood within Knole Park.³¹ All is consistent with a newly established park comprising mainly lands already owned by the manor and a process of acquisition of use or ownership of the remaining lands within the Park.

What Bourchier did with Knole

Bourchier’s registers show that he frequently stayed at the Archbishop’s palace in Otford, a short ride from Knole, from May 1456 onwards. He first stayed at Knole in March 1459, and only from 1464 did he stay there for appreciable periods. Knole became his favourite house, his only residence in his later years.³² Again, this is consistent with a period of over two years to repair the existing buildings and make them habitable, then about five years of intensive new building works until the whole manor house was fully ready for occupation.

In his will, dated three days before his death on 30 March 1486, Bourchier left Knole to the See of Canterbury.³³ The ODNB states: ‘Margaret Paston had remarked in 1469 that he was an old man who might happe to dye at any moment, but he lived on for seventeen more years ... in 1480, feeling the effects of age, Bourchier appointed a suffragan’³⁴ and began preparations to bequeath Knole for the benefit of the archbishopric. John Morton, Bishop of Ely and successor as archbishop, declared that the uses of the properties would be in accordance with the terms of Bourchier’s will (Fig. 7).³⁵

The properties were ‘the manors of Knole, Retherden, Panters, and Bretons, 5 messuages, 780a. arable, 60a. meadow, 250a. pasture, 195a. wood, and rent of £5 19s., two cocks, 20 hens and two cattle, with appurtenances in Sevenoaks, Leigh, Penshurst, and Chiddingstone, and half the manor of Slobbe with appurtenances in Sevenoaks’.³⁶ Retherden (Riverhead), Panters (Panthurst), and Bretons (Brittains) were all part of Bourchier’s original purchase and much developed by him, here accorded the status of manors. The Tonbridge properties in Bourchier’s original pur-chase were omitted. Documents relating to the manor of Slobbe appear in the arch-ives, it was absorbed into the Knole estates in 1466³⁷ and not mentioned after 1480.

In the 1456 indenture, Bourchier’s agents (feoffees) took seizin of Knole, so Morton and the feoffees made a deed of grant to Bourchier³⁸ and he appointed attorneys to take seizin on his behalf.³⁹

Conclusion

Table 1 shows all the Knole lands documented in this paper. By 1419 the Knole estate owned over 800 acres around the house, at Brittains and Riverhead, and in the Weald. Holdings included five messuages and a dozen shops in the Sevenoaks market (Fig. 8). In 1456 Bourchier bought an estate of at least 1,000 acres from William Fiennes, taking care that ownership was proven and paying a fair price.

During Bourchier’s ownership there was a large reduction in woodland, which may reflect clearance in the park to create more grassland for riding and hunting.

The existing buildings were substantial, as demonstrated by the cost and quantities of materials required to repair them and the two to three years duration the repairs took. This was dwarfed by Bourchier’s building project, which made the house essentially what it is today, and cost around twice the purchase price of the entire estate.⁴⁰ Finally, Bourchier created a substantial park around the house, making a magnificent base for his important role throughout the Wars of the Roses, and his permanent home in his later years.

endnotes

¹ F.R.H. Du Boulay, 1950, ‘A Note on the Rebuilding of Knole by Archbishop Bourgchier’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 63, 135-139; Du Boulay, 1974, ‘The Assembling of an Estate: Knole in Sevenoaks, c.1275 to c.1525, Archaeologia Cantiana, 89, 1-10.

² Kent History and Library Centre [hereafter KHLC] U1450/T4/17 ‘Indenture of agreement to buy Knole, 30 June 1456’.

³ This is the only traceable occurrence of the phonetic spelling ‘Josez’. Other documents name the tenement with variations of ‘Joces’, i.e. the former property of one Joce.

⁴ Lambeth Palace Library [hereafter LPL; all LPL references are catalogue entries due to the library’s move to its new building and Covid-19 delays], CM XIII/6i On the dorse: a rental of honey, hens, ploughs and money in Petham, Orpington, Cliffe, Meopham, Knole, Ightham, Chartham, Bocking, Godmersham, Fairfield, Great and Little Chart and, outside Kent, Wells, Walworth Woodton, Charlwood, Cheam, Monks’ Risborough, Hatton, Monks’ Eleigh, 9 December 1259.

⁵ In 1587 Knole was responsible for maintenance on 12 shops or shambles in Sevenoaks market. Essex Record Office D/DL C43/ 1/1 Lennard Papers, Vol. I Item 19, original, with a transcript.

⁶ The National Archives [hereafter TNA] CP 25/1/113/290: Kent Feet of fines for 7 Hen V: 276-300, number 283. Translation: Duncan Harrington, 2012 Feet of Fines for the Reign of King Henry V, p. 235 (http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/Records/KRNS5-3.pdf).

⁷ LPL CM X/57 10 July 1420.

⁸ LPL CM X/85 20 May 1429.

⁹ LPL CM II/37 Letter of attorney, Henry Langley and Nicholas Hulme appoint Thomas Jakelyn and Ralph Morton to take seizin of the manor of Knole ... to Ralph Legh esq. and Elizabeth Langley his daughter. (15 May 1444.)

¹⁰ TNA CP 25/1/115/319, number 648. 19 June and 6 October 1446. James Fiennes, notorious ‘extortioner of Kent’, was hated by the people of Kent for a number of reasons, including strongarm tactics in the acquisition of property. He had been High Sheriff of Kent and of Sussex and abused his power.

¹¹ A sowter is a shoemaker.

¹² ‘Two small, two-storeyed and jettied timber-framed buildings, discovered in 1982 when a building fronting the present-day Shambles was being renovated, had probably been shops c.1450-1530. Their arrangement indicated the position of lost alleyways, perhaps from the time when the market stalls were laid out in grid fashion, with walkways between them. Some of the stalls were quite small; for example, in 1492 a rent of one halfpenny was paid for a stall only c.2m x 60cm. But rents of up to one shilling suggest that some shops were much larger. South of the market there was a pond to provide water for livestock.’ Kent Historic Towns Survey: Sevenoaks, Archaeological Assessment Document, December 2004, Kent County Council, p. 11.

¹³ Edward Hasted, ‘Parishes: Seale’, in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent, vol. 3 (Canterbury, 1797), pp. 51-59. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-kent/vol٣/pp٥١-٥٩ [accessed ١١ June ٢٠٢١].

¹⁴ Eric J. Evans and Alan G. Crosby, Tithes: Maps, Apportionments and the 1836 Act: a guide for local historians, British Association for Local History (Salisbury, 1997), p. 30.

¹⁵ There are several other Frenches farms in the extraordinarily large parish of Tonbridge, the one marked is the only one near the Sevenoaks border, the others are farther to the south and east.

¹⁶ LPL CM V/157, Quitclaim of right by John Joce of Brabourne to William Moraunt and John of Vicleston in all his father’s lands in Sevenoaks, viz. Undereuere and Supereuere, except the two plots called Valdtegh and Constenene, 30 Nov. 1326.

¹⁷ Du Boulay, 1974, ‘By 1459, Brittains was being leased for £6 10s. p.a. to a local man for five years renewable, and Joces’ and Panthurst to another for £7 6s. 8d.’, p. 9.

¹⁸ LPL CM X/66 9 Nov. 1377.

¹⁹ In 1841 the area marked as Carter’s Hill included that now known as One Tree Hill.

²⁰ Once the railway arrived in Sevenoaks large amounts of ragstone were used in the expansion of the town, and it is likely that some of this came from the large quarries that are cut deep into the steeper slope above the older quarries, as shown on the LiDAR.

²¹ 100 marks for Joce’s 100 acres in 1379, compared to 200 marks for Knole’s 803 acres in 1419.

²² Du Boulay, 1950, 137, translated by the author.

²³ Ibid., p. 138. Three foderis (19.5 cwt each), plus 14 cartloads of prepared lead from Lambeth Palace, plus more new lead bought in London, together with money for the melting and drawing of the lead.

²⁴ Du Boulay, 1950, p. 136.

²⁵ Alden Gregory, 2010, ‘Knole: An Architectural and Social History of The Archbishop of Canterbury‘s House, 1456-1538’, ph.d. thesis, University of Sussex, p. 47.

²⁶ Nathalie Cohen and Frances Parton, 2019, Knole Revealed (National Trust), pp. 34-38.

²⁷ 2020 equivalent project labour cost of £712,900 according to Measuringworth.com.

²⁸ Charles J. Phillips, 1929, History of the Sackville Family (Earls and Dukes of Dorset), Together with a Description of Knole, Early Owners of Knole and a Catalogue Raisonné of the Pictures and Drawings at Knole (2 vols., London etc; II, p. 335), who gives the reference as Lambeth Roll, No. 543, 6 Edward IV [1467], II, p. 335.

²⁹ Though these accounts are not very detailed. Gregory, 2010, p. 74.

³⁰ LPL CM X/76, Quitclaim of right. William Quyntyn of Sevenoaks to Mr. John Stokes, Mr. Robert Kyrkeham, clerks, John Clerk, a baron of the Exchequer, John Brymston and Nicholas Gaynesford esquires, William Duraunt and Alexander Wode, gents., in 17 acres, 2 daywerkes and half of a fourth part of a ‘jugum’ called Hendelwelle, lying on the ancient way from Blakhalle to Knokbeche, inside Knole park, and on the new way outside the park to Walderhothe, which William is bound to keep open. 12 Jan 1465-6.

LPL CM V/39 Quitclaim of right by John Walder, senior, of Sevenoaks, to Mr. John Stokes and Mr. Robert Kyrkeham, clerks, and others, of right in a piece of Inlond in Knole Park. 12 Jan. 1465-6.

³¹ LPL CM X/79, ‘Feoffment to uses. John Bele of Sevenoaks to William Tyrell knight, Nicholas Gaynysford, John Brymston esq., John Rodman, Roger Heth and Thomas Nysell of an enclosed piece of land and wood in Knole park next to Blakehalleland on the north. Christmas 1468’. As John Bele appears as a tenant in both the 1419 and 1446 Final Concords, it seems likely that, in this deed, he was giving up his lease of this piece of land.

³² Du Boulay, 1950, p. 136.

³³ Clark, L., Bourchier, Thomas (c.1411-1486), Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 14 Jun. 2021, from: https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-2993.

³⁴ Ibid.

³⁵ TNA E 41/75 10 July 1480.

³⁶ Ibid.

³⁷ LPL CM V/174, Letter of attorney to deliver seizin to John Stokes of the manor of Slobbe in Sevenoaks, John Rowe and Robert Drylond appoint George Houton and Thomas Nysell. 12 Aug 1466.

³⁸ TNA C 143/454/21 19 Edward IV (1479-80).

³⁹ KHLC U1450/T7/86 1480.

⁴⁰ Six+ years at £100 a year, £600 or 900 marks in total.

Fig. 1 A Transcription of the Bourchier Indenture.

Fig. 2 Map showing the parishes of Sevenoaks, Seal and Tonbridge, and locations of the bundle of properties in the Bourchier transaction (italicised). The green line shows the escarpment of the Greensand Ridge and the brown the southern limit of Holmesdale. Agricultural zones described.

Fig. 3 The indenture unfolded. KHLC U1450/T4/17 Indenture of Agreement to buy Knole, 30 June 1456. (Photo by S. Draper.)

Fig. 4 The Ashburnham - Bishop of Durham sale. TNA CP 25/1/113/290 No. 283. (Photo by S. Draper.)

Final Concord. Purchase by Bishop of Durham’s agents from Thomas Ashburnham of Knole: 5 messuages, 500 acres of arable, 3 acres of meadow, 300 acres of wood, 60s. rent and rent of 14 hens with appurtenances, in Sevenoaks, with the homage and all services of 50 tenants [listed]. 30th April 1419. Paid 200 silver marks [£2.2M].

Fig. 5 The Leigh - Fiennes sale. TNA CP 25/1/115/319 No. 648. (Photo by S. Draper.)

Final Concord. Purchase by James Fiennes, knight, from Ralph and Elizabeth Leigh of Knole: 5 messuages, 510 acres of arable, 3 acres of meadow, 300 acres of wood, 60s rent and rent of 17 hens with appurtenances in Sevenoaks, with the homage and all services of 39 tenants [listed]. 6th October 1446. Paid 100 silver marks [£1.3M]. The tenements were rendered to James in court, not by seizin.

Fig. 6 Lidar image of quarry area. Named quarries shaded pink.

Seal Parish Quarry names, 1841 (left to right): High House Quarry, Quarry Shaw,

Quarry Field, Upper Rooks Quarry Mead, Rooks Quarry Field, Breeches Quarry Shaw.

Fig. 7 Undertaking to use Knole in accordance with Archbishop Bourchier’s will. TNA E 41/75. (Photo by S. Draper.)

Declaration that the uses of the properties will be in accordance with the terms of Bourchier’s will, by John [Morton] Bishop of Ely and nine others. 10 July 1480. The properties were: ‘manors of Knole, Retherden, Panters, and Bretons, 5 messuages, 780a. arable, 60a. meadow, 250a. pasture, 195a. wood, and rent of £5 19s., two cocks, 20 hens and two cattle, with appurtenances in Sevenoaks, Leigh, Penshurst, and Chiddingstone, and half manor of Slobbe with appurtenances in Sevenoaks’.

TABLE 1. DOCUMENTED LAND AREAS of Knole properties

	Knole (1419)	Knole (1446)	Joce’s (1447) [in 1379]	Panter’s, French’s, Smith’s	Acquired 1456	Knole + Estates (1480)
Buildings	5 messuages	5 messuages	Tenement	Lands, tenements	Manor, Tenements	4.5 Manors, 5 messuages
Arable (acres)	500	510	[80]	?	590+	780
Meadow (acres)	3	3	[9]	?	12+	60
Pasture (acres)						250
Wood (acres)	300	300	[11]	?	311+	195
Total Acres	803	813	[100]	?	913+	1,285
Price Paid {Today}	200 marks {£2.2M}	100 marks {£1.3M}	?? [{£1.5M}]	??	400 marks {£5.2M}
Acquired by	Langley	James Fiennes	James Fiennes	James Fiennes	Bourchier	See of Cant’bury

Fig. 8 A Sevenoaks market alley. Buildings to left dated to c.1450. (Photo by S. Draper.)