Reviews

( 221 ) REVIEWS. TWYSDEN AND TWISDEN. The Family of Twysden and Twisden. Their History and Archives. From an Original by Sir John Ramskill Twisden, 12th Baronet of Bradbourne. Completed by C. H. Dudley Ward, D.S.O., M.C. 8vo. vii and 483. With 18 illustrations and 7 pedigrees. John Murray. 1939. 18s. SOME interest in these two famous Kentish families with theh common origin, although now extinct in Kent, will still remain with us through the bequest to the Society by the last of the Twisdens of a valuable series of famhy portraits. These, by a happy arrangement with the East Mailing Research Station, are to remain in Bradbourne HaU, the old home of the Twisdens. Roydon HaU and its close connection with the Twysdens came before the Society in the review in Vol. L of Mr. A. R. Cook's A Manor through Four Centuries. In the present volume we have the Diary kept by Lady [IsabeUa] Twysden between 1645 and 1651, and now there is this sumptuously produced book which has been so competently edited and completed by Mr. Dudley Ward. The twelfth and last Twisden baronet must have been a most industrious and painstaking coUector of everything to do with the two branches of his fanhly, as even the merest glance through this book shows. In spite of its length and the amount of genealogy, there is much fascinating reading in the ups and downs of the famihes, but this cannot be a complete record of the Bradbourne branch, as its papers were destroyed in 1841 by Thomas Law Hodges and his wife. The book begins with a chapter on the materials for a history of the famihes and on the dispersal and later history of the documents. The origin of the famhy is discussed from a Roger who died in 1464 or 1465 ; and there are long 222 REVIEWS. accounts of estates that belonged to Twysdens before they became possessed of Roydon Hah through marriage with the Roy dons. Again through intermarriage we hear much of the Culpepers, while there are chapters on the Roydons themselves. A full account is given of the Sir Roger who brought so much trouble on to himself for his part in the "Petition of Kent " of 1641-2, his subsequent imprisonment, and his financial and estate worries through the proceedings of the Committee for Sequestrations. There is also a detailed and critical bibhography of his pubhshed work and MSS. so far as they can be traced. The most important of his hterary efforts was his Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores Decern which included William Thome's Chronicle of St. Augustine's Abbey, and which has been made available to this generation in the translation by our late member, Mr. A. H. Davis. In this connection we must not forbear to mention the name of the Rev. Lambert Larking, one of the old stalwarts of our Society, who was connected by marriage with the Twysdens, bought much at the break up of the estate in 1834, and recorded much of the family history. As the Twysdens began to go downhill through their unbusiness-like habits and theh spendthrift families, stories of wild behaviour became connected with them. One of the most peculiar was told of Philip, the third son of Sir Wilham Twysden, who became rector of Crayford in 1737 at the age of 24. Later, when Lord Chesterfield became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Philip as an attractive young man accompanied him as his private chaplain and " was high enough in the good graces of his fastidious patron to be offered the Bishopric of Raphoe, to which he was consecrated in 1746 ". He then married a second time and, like many Irish eighteenth century bishops, was both absentee, gay and extravagant. He died a bankrupt in 1752, kiUed, as one story goes, by a highwayman on Hounslow Heath, but by another as a highwayman himself on the point of robbing a doctor who had stayed the night at Roydon ; and who had been warned by a footman to look to his pistols. This the doctor did, found the charges had been withdrawn, and re-loaded them. The story goes on : REVIEWS. 223 " Presently the coach got upon Wrotham Heath. Two masked men rode up and stopped the coachman. One of them pointed his pistol at the doctor, saying : ' I shah shoot you if you move ! ' The doctor pointed his pistol at the man and said, ' I shah shoot you if you come nearer ! ' The man came up quickly and fearlessly—the doctor fired— the man fell dead. " The doctor got out of the coach to examine the dead man, removed his mask, and found he was the Bishop, the brother of his host of the preceding night! " The Twisden branch became famous through the rise of Thomas who, born in 1602, made his name at the Bar, and after some vicissitudes, including imprisonment, was after the Restoration made a Judge of the King's Bench, and in 1666 created a baronet. He in his official capacity came into close touch with both John Bunyan and George Fox and, according to the narrative, found it hard to keep his temper in the legal controversies raised by those great conscientious objectors. Sir Thomas retired from the Bench in 1678 with a pension of £500 either as " too virtuous for the place he held ", " almost worn out by old age and painful disorder" or " antiquated". He had bought Bradbourne as an ancient moated house about 1656, and so it seems to have remained tiU his grandson rebuUt it, only using a smaU part of the original structure in foundations. The new house was ready for occupation in 1715. The fourth baronet succeeded in 1723. There was a famhy tradition that on his travels in Spain he eloped with a nun from a convent and was pursued and shot in the back at Granada by one of the monks. Almost from this date there is the commencement of the decay of the fanhly. Unhappy family relationships, uncontroUed tempers, a secret marriage which was not later acknowledged as legitimate, and unbusiness-hke methods, even misuse of funds, aU had theh part. A chUd (John) of the secret marriage became heir to the title, but it was usurped by his uncle and used by the latter's son. Honourable feelings had prevented John when old enough from claiming his rights but he eventuaUy did so on the death of his cousin, although 224 REVIEWS. he declined to use the title which he had not the means to keep up in appropriate state. There is a rather pathetic account near the end of the book of five daughters of Captain John Twisden hving at Bradbourne in its reduced state on such frugal fines that, in spite of age and iU-health, they continued to work at the upkeep of the pleasure grounds. It had become fixed in theh minds as a necessary condition of theh continued residence. W.P.D.S. A SATJNTEE THROUGH KENT. A Saunter through Kent with Pen and Pencil. Volume XXXII. By Charles Igglesden. (Offices of the " Kentish Express ", Ashford.) THE thirty-second volume of Sir Charles Igglesden's series takes his readers along that beautiful spur of the North Downs which turns seaward at Chilham. Of the villages he visits Shadoxhurst alone hes nearer Ashford, a little south of the group which includes Hastingleigh, Crundale, Elmsted, Petham and Waltham. " The district ", says the author, " is one of the most thinly populated parts of Kent and therein hes its charm." Long may his words ring true, and those steep vaUeys and wooded heights, and the great chaUc shoulders where scarce wild flowers star the turf, keep theh sohtude unspoilt. The churches of the region are ancient buildings but not of outstanding archaeological interest. The author notices the restorer's hand in red brick patchings—the porch at Shadoxhurst, the tower at Hastingleigh, a great buttress at Elmsted. The size of the churches in such lonely places impresses him ; Elmsted particularly, " capable of seating worshippers of a town rather than a hamlet ". Elmsted is, by the way, the mother-church of Hastingleigh and itself the daughter of Waltham. The manor houses of the district are perhaps more noteworthy than the churches in which their owners are commemorated on innumerable mural tablets. Crundale House (1660) and Hunt Street (Early Tudor and Elizabethan) REVIEWS. 225 have been carefully restored. The latter was once known as " Kate's FoUy ", a certain Kate Carter having unaccountably fled there from her relations at Godmersham. No date is given, but Jane Austen should have immortalized the good lady. Tremworth Manor, the Saxon Dromwida, has been mainly rebuilt; an ancient porch, bearing the arms of the Kempes, former owners, and some carved doorposts, stiU remain, and many Saxon rehcs have been found in the vicinity. Elmsted was the home of the Honeywoods from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. From Henry II onwards they had lived at Newington and Postling, and were known as the Henewoods. A stretch of parkland near Evington House recaUs the cricket matches they were in the habit of arranging, many years ago, when the stakes played for were high. The Honeywoods pulled down Evington Court, the home of theh predecessors the Gay famhy—who had " carved nosegays of flowers in the window-frames " as a play upon theh cheerful name—and built a gloomy mansion in its place, now also demohshed. Petham has a fine old dwelling known as the Thatched House. Swarling Manor, originaUy Haut's Place, with a long history, is rebuilt, but in a hoUow of the hiUs just off Stone Street stands Dane Chantry, with its chapel and ornamental brickwork in herring-bone pattern. For those who delight in old-world characters, many are brought back to life in these pages, from the Reverend John Bateman of Petham, an Oxford undergraduate at eighty years of age and a famous herbahst, to the Witch of Swarling Downs. She sawed off a lad's leg bitten by a snake, but " probably saved his life, for he grew to manhood and worked in the fields with a wooden leg ". Those who are interested in place-names wiU appreciate the explanation of Shadoxhurst Docks, while the derivation of Penny Pot from the Celtic Pen y wlk (Head of the Mound) may be new to some. Toke Wood, we are told, was locaUy pronounced Took Wood. " Local pronunciation", says the author, " is 226 REVIEWS. strange in many Kent districts ; a traveUer wishing to find his way to Hastingleigh must ask for Ass-en-he." This, however, preserves the correct emphasis, but a seventeenth century document printed on page 27 goes half-way and gives the spelling Hastinghgh. The footnote on page 19, " An ob was a halfpenny ", reads oddly and requires expansion. D.G. NATLBOtrBNES. The Intermittent (or Nailbourne) Streams of East Kent. By F. C. Snell. Hunt, Snell & Co., Canterbury. 1938. 8vo. 2s. THIS smaU book of 71 pages deals with a subject which has created wonder for countless ages, has led to much speculation and old wives' tales, and been scientificaUy explained at least since 1865 when Mr. G. W. Johnson pubhshed a paper " On the Bourne of Croydon ". It might be worth observing here that although this book deals with a very hmited area the flows are not pecuhar to East Kent chalk, as the author avers ; and it would have been of much greater value if more attention had been given to the other areas where the phenomenon is weU known, and to some of the scientific hterature in which there has been treatment of the subject. Thus on the geological and Kentish side the work of Mr. W. Whitaker on the London Basin (1872) should have been consulted and on the more general and historical side such papers as that by Mr. Baldwin Latham in 1904 on Croydon Bourn Flows and Dr. Christopher Packe's essay of 1743 on the vaUeys and waterways of East Kent. With these criticisms it may be stated that the observations and statistics the author has recorded, with some consideration of the various theories that have been advanced to explain the intermittentness of the streams, is valuable, and a work weU worth pubhshing. Thus he reviews and dismisses the cavity theory (underground reservoirs in the chalk) as against the saturation theory, and then goes on to deal with the three outstanding naUbournes of the area—the REVIEWS. 227 Elham, Petham and Alkham examples—and makes some reference to the Croydon Bourn and the Misbourn of Buckinghamshhe. Other names for these flows are Winterbourn (used in the W.) and Eylebourn. This latter may be only NaUbourne with the N dropped, but Skeat gives Naylborne in use in 1480. The second part of the book is a record by the author and other observers of the actual dates when the springs broke forth, theh volume of water and the distance they flowed. Here the records would have been more valuable if ah those relating to a certain bourne had been kept together. The average date of their appearance is early in January. The statistics are carried down to 1936. The author closes with a useful summary of the subject, with additional facts relating to the rainfall. There is unfortunately no map or index. W.P.D.S. NUMISMATICS. Site-finds from Richborough, including a Scattered Hoard of diademed Minimi. By Harold Mattingly and W. P. D. Stebbing. (Numismatic Chronicle, Fifth Series, No. 74.) THIS record of the second of the great Richborough post- Roman coin hoards is very welcome. The radiate hoard has aheady been pubhshed, and this diademed hoard forms a useful thhd to those discovered by Dr. Wheeler at Lydney and Mr. O'NeUl at Bourton-on-the-Water. The authors deal with the hoard from the numismatic point of view and do not attempt to give any close date for its burial. It consists of over 1,200 coins, the examination and description of which must have occupied many and often wearisome hours. Casual coins are found everywhere at Richborough and some of these 1,200 have probably no connection with the hoard. Moreover, the composition suggests that we may have here more than one hoard hidden near one another. Two-thirds of the number are totaUy indeterminate. This is natural, as many are as smaU as 3 miU. in diameter, and others consist 228 REVIEWS. of cut up fragments of larger coins. Most of the recognizable reverses are derived from those of coins of the famhy of Constantine, by far the most common being the weU-known EEL.TEMP .BEPABATIO (warrior spearing faUen horseman), some have definite figure types though they cannot be referred to any special coin, while an appreciable number show a similar style to that found on Saxon sceattas. Both sides of 54 coins are iUustrated, but poor striking of the design does not make for good reproduction, although this might have been better. I have noted two smaU printing errors. On page 114, the Cohen reference for the GaUienus coin should be c. 423, not 243, and for the Victorinus coins M. and S. V. 2, p. 395 should be p. 396. BEBTBAM W. PEABCE, M.A., F.S.A. ASHEOBD WILLS. Ashford Wills. Being Abstracts of the Wills of the People of Ashford, Kent, A.D. 1461-1558. Compiled by Arthur Hussey. Published by the Ashford Urban District Council. Headley Brothers, Ashford. 1938. 8vo. 5s. THE wills were compUed from the original documents in the old Canterbury Probate Office by Mr. Arthur Hussey, of Wingham, who has done so much work in making Kentish wills available to the student. His pubhc spirit in presenting his MS. to Ashford, and the same spirit which has induced the Urban District Council to publish these records, is to be highly commended. Ashford Wills should prove useful to many local famihes as showing how they became entitled to lands or houses stiU in theh possession; and they are of general interest as presenting a clear picture to modern eyes of the standard of living arrived at in a typical country town in Tudor days. Some of the wills were originaUy written in Latin, and have been translated by Mr. Hussey. In many cases the quaint phraseology and spelling of the period have been retained, but an introduction by Mr. Herbert Jeans helps to make the volume easy reading. REVIEWS. 229 The influence of the Church on the daUy hves of the people is made apparent on every page. The inclusion of the hst of Ashford Vicars and of details relating to the Parish Church from 1282 to 1549, with dates of probate of the wills, and a glossary, makes the volume a valuable contribution to Kentish history. The names of many local famihes appear in the wills in some capacity or other. A comprehensive index facilitates the tracing of names, the spelling of which may have changed in the course of centuries. J. SUDLOW. Wills and their whereabouts. By B. G. Bouwens, M.A., M.I.A.E., M.I.M.T. 8vo. 85 pages. Paper cover. Price 8s. 9d., postage id. A VERY handy reference book giving information as to the classes and range of registers and documents to be found in the Probate Registries of England and Wales, with an index of Parishes and Townships. It also contains some useful hints on making abstracts of Wills. Owing to the high cost of printing it is reproduced in " Replika " of the original, which was hand-written. This is unfortunate as a book of this nature is needed for quick reference. The origmal, however, has been very carefuhy written and its production is a lasting testimony to the Author's untiring energy and devotion to this important subject. F.W.T. GENEALOGY. A Thousand Ancestors. By L. H. and B. Q. Bouwens. 8vo. 1935. THIS is a loose-leafed book the leaves being punched and tied together with fancy cord, thus filing for easy reference coUected data relating to the family of Bouwens and their direct alliances. For the purpose of review the book might be divided into two parts. 230 REVIEWS. Part 1. A short explanatory preface foUowed by a quantity of genealogical charts on printed forms. Part 2. A coUection of Abstracts of Wills, Chancery and other Proceedings, extracts from Parish Registers and other relevant material arranged in alphabetical order of surname with a reference number to the pedigree in the first part. (Note.—This reference number appears to be an " X " number, but it would have been clearer had it been so marked as there are many repetitions of numbers on the forms—see below.) The forms are arranged in three groups " bottom ", " middle " and " upper " and provide for four generations on each form by means of squares which are numbered. Roman figures are used to represent the fine of generation. The " bottom " group (letterpress in blue ink) is numbered thus : III 1. II III 2. 1. D III 3. II I I I 4. I I I . n " Middle " group.—Similar forms but with the letterpress in red ink and one form for each ancestor in the IVth line of generation amounting to 8 forms in aU. These carry the ancestry back to the Vllth line of generation and the numbers are continued through aU the forms in each fine of generation. " Upper " group.—SimUar forms but the letterpress is in black ink. One form for each ancestor in the Vllth line of generation is provided maldng 64 forms in aU. These carry the ancestry back to the Xth fine of generation and the REVIEWS. 231 numbers are continued through ah the forms in each hne of generation. The numbering is from left to right as foUows : " Bottom " group. 8 squares numbered IV 1 to IV 8. 4 squares „ III 1 to III 4. 2 squares „ II 1 to II 2. 1 square „ II. " Middle " group. 64 squares numbered VII 1 to VII 64. (8 Forms). 32 squares „ VI 1 to VI 32. 16 squares ,, V 1 to V 16. 8 squares „ IV 1 to IV 8. " Upper " group. 512 squares numbered X 1 to X 512.l (64 Forms). 256 squares „ IX 1 to IX 256. 128 squares „ VIII1 to VIII128. 64 squares „ VII1 to VII 64. In aU marriages the husband's name is given first. This being so every odd number represents a male and every even number a female. It whT also be noticed that the first-half of the total in any line of generation refers to the paternal side and the other half to the maternal side of I 1. The general lay-out of the forms does not appear to be altogether new but the method adopted in bringing together aU important material bearing on the subject in alphabetical order of surname with the addition of the pedigree number for reference is exceUent. F.W.T. 1 Numbers X 89 to X 96 are in reverse order and X 340 is given as X 304, these, however, appear to be printer's errors.