The Astleys of Maidstone

THE ASTLEYS OF MAIDSTONE Upon Ehzabeth's succession to the throne he returned home and in 1558 was rewarded with the appointment of Master of the Jewel House, an office which carried an annual stipend of £50. Two years later on 8th January, the Queen granted to Astley and his wife Catherine " the Queene's servants " the office of " Keeper of the manor of Elsinge in Endefeld co. Middlesex ", to which in the following May was added the grant of " Keeper of the house and mansion called Seynte James near Westminster co. Middlesex, keeper of the Wardrobe there and of a garden and close next the mansion betwixt it and the road from London to Kensyngton ". Additional duties were to be " bailiff of the fair called Seynt James Fayer and of lands in the parishes of St. Margaret Westminster, St. Martin by Charing Crosse and St. Giles in the Fields, to the north of the road from Charing Crosse to Knightbridge; wages 8a a day and profits ".1 On the 10th August, 1568, as a further mark of Royal favour, the Queen granted him a lease in reversion to hold by Knight's Service for 30 years at an annual rent of £100 2s. 7d. of the Castle and Manor of Alhngton.2' At the same time she also granted him certam lands and premises in Aylesford and much of the parish of Boxley including the Abbey. On the 8th July, 1581, John Astley purchased from his brother Thomas of Dartford,3 a Privy Councillor, for £500 " ah that capital messuage or chief mansion-house commonly called or known by the name of the Old Palace, with appurtenances, in Maydestone, and the malt house commonly called the Old Palace stable, and. the land called old stable close, and Palace mead and dovehouse, and the Palace pound and Palace close".4 The late Lord Conway's account of AUington Castle5 seems to indicate that despite the repair work carried out to the structure by the Wyatts, father and son, at the date of the lease to John Astley, much of the fabric was in a pretty poor state. This may have influenced him in his acquisition of the Old. Palace as a family home. Be this as it may from this time commenced the close Astley association with the town of Maidstone which was destined to continue until the early years of the eighteenth century. In 1520 Sir Henry Wyatt, father of the poet, had received the grant " of free warren in his demesne lands of the manors of Alyntone etc," but upon the granting of the lease to John Astley the lands were deforested.6 It must therefore have been subsequent to 1568 that 1 Cal. Patent Bolls, 2 Eliz., Part VII. 2 Arch. Cant., XXVIII, pp. 357-8 3 Thomas Astley had estates granted to him by Edward VI in Dartford, Gravesend, Milton and Cobham (see Hasted, Vol. I). He also held certain lands and tenements in the parishes of Hoo and Iwade as will appear later from the terms of his WiU. 1 J. M. Bussell, The History of Maidstone. 6 Arch. Cant., XXVIII. 6 Ibid., p. 368. 2