BISHOPSBOURN E, which lies three and a half miles east of Canterbury
is mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1086 as ‘Bournes’. This is a
reference to the boume [or stream] called the Little Stour, which rises in
the park at Bourne and flows through Bridge and Patrixbourne.

Although the magnificent double avenue of about 280 elm trees which
once clothed the slope was cut down in l945, possibly to help alleviate the
chronic paper shortage which then prevailed, the beauty of the prospect
remains quite outstanding. This is an English country gentleman’s
residence par excellence. In its present incarnation it represents the work
of a former officer of Wellington’s army in the Peninsula, William
Andrews Nesfield [l793-l88l]. Nesfield began by painting gardens in
watercolours and ended by transforming them in person. The natural

successor to such great landscapers as Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, he
undertook the work here from l848 at the behest of Bourne’s then owner,

Matthew Bell, the two men working in the closest possible harmony.

‘Boume Park had originally been laid out about 1700 on rigid if effective
geometrical lines, with an avenue leading up to each front. Two of these
survived until the second World War: the broad one up the slope at the
back, and the lime avenue from the south front to Bishopsboume Church.
Originally, another avenue ran on the axis of the front door. Nesfield
dammed up the stream to form a lake, the base of which the approach road
crossed by means of a pretty classical bridge. The avenues flanking the
house were softened by the planting on either side of the front of screens
of mixed hardwoods and evergreens with some new stately cedars as
outriders on the gentle slope of sward as it rises from the lake. The effect,
though essentially pictorial and of the 19th century, beautifully emphasises
by contrast the architectural qualities of the house. The transformation
from landscape to geometry reflected the changed bias of the age and
created something in harmony with English ideals of freedom in place of
something derived ultimately from centralised Continental autocracies. The
sense of freedom and good neighbourliness which permeates the English
countryside is in great measure due to these ideals having been the social
and aesthetic aims in the period of its creation. Nesfield was responsible
for the geometric terrace on the south side. In the view from the house,
Barham Down was opened up by felling a plantation that blocked it. A hop
garden, reputed to be the oldest in East Kent, and famous for its yields,
still adjoins the park.

 

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We know that Bourne Park stands on or close to the site of a more ancient
dwelling purchased by Sir Anthony Aucher who was active during the
reign of Henry VIII. Aucher attended the Court as hundreds like him
before and since — with the intent of preferring himself and getting on in the

world. He married Elizabeth Hatton, the daughter of Queen Elizabeth’s
famous ‘Dancing’ Lord Chancellor, Christopher Hatton.

Sir Anthony Aucher held for a time the office of Master of the Jewels. He
was also Surveyor of Victuals at Boulogne. Following the dissolution of
the monasteries, he was well placed to pick up former ecclesiastical
properties and to sell them on, usually at a handsome profit. Among these
was the Manor of Bishopsboume, formerly held by the See of Canterbury
but which the placatory Archbishop Cranmer sold to King Henry.

Several letters of Aucher’s, addressed from Bourne after l545, not only
demonstrate that he took up residence here almost as soon as he acquired
the property, but also furnish irrefutable evidence that there was a house of
some substance situated either on the site of the present one or about two
hundred yards to the west. The former theory was endorsed by Christopher

Hussey who, when writing of Bourne in ‘Country Life in December 1944

stated that: ‘some peculiarities in the plan and shape of the present house
suggest that an older one may be incorporated in it’. The ‘peculiarities’
mentioned by Hussey were probably the unusual dimensions — ll6ft 6ins.
breadth with a depth of 47ft 4ins. — a parallelogram with similar fronts,
which would suggest the incorporation of an older dwelling.

Further evidence that the house incorporates a Tudor one is that the front
door does not open into the middle of the hall, as was then the rule, but at
the side of one end, according to an older custom which suggests that it
preserves the arrangement of a previous building. Further evidence is to be
found in the fireplace of Bethesden marble in the hall. Bethesden marble
was much used in early l7th century Kentish houses, patterned in the
customary techniques of chipping away the background and polishing the
raised surface that stands out black against the grey recesses. In the oval
shield of the chimney-piece is an heraldic bird. This is odd, not least
because the Aucher crest was a bull’s head. What we have here would
appear to be the ‘falcon on a lure’ which was the crest of one of Dame
Elizabeth Aucher’s Hewitt ancestors, a rich merchant in Elizabethan times.

When the house was acquired by l\/Iatthew Bell in the 1840s, soon after
Queen Victoria had come to the throne, it was in a very dilapidated state.
Jolm Shaw the Younger, who in 1832 had succeeded his better—known

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father as architect to Christ’s Hospital, was commissioned to put it to
rights. The architect of Wellington College, Berkshire, among the repairs

he undertook was the re~setting of the stone string—course beneath the
ground—floor windows. In the course of this work:

on the back of one of the stones taken out was found part of a coat of

arms carved in bold relief Fortunately we happened to be on the spot" at
the time and told the masons to preserve any others which might befound

with similar carving. Three others were discovered, the four making a
complete shield.

The coat—of-arins was that of the Poynings family, owners for two
generations of the great castle of Westenhanger, which the Poynings had
acquired during the reign of Henry VIII. In l70l it is recorded to have
been pulled down and the materials sold. ‘Many other pieces of sculptured
stone were found at Bourne, so it is evident that Lady Aucher built this

house for her son at that time and drew on the sale of the Westenhanger
ruins for its stonework’.

Although the house is very distinguished, we know nothing of the man
who designed it. Some suggestion has been made that it may have been
Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect of Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace,
although this seems unlikely, not least because Vanbrugh built on a much

grander scale. [The wits proposed for him the epitaph; ‘Lie heavy on him,
earth] For he/ Laid many a heavy load on thee’.]

Bourne Park is akin to many smaller houses that prosperous squires and
yeomen of East Kent were then building; and it was probably raised by a
local master—mason, who must have been no mean architect.

The chimney-piece is evidently early l7tl1 century, but how it got here is a
mystery. In all probability, Lady Aucher introduced it from her former
home, Westenhanger Castle, when that building was demolished in l70l.

The Auchers of Bonnie [and Otterden] served as High Sheriffs for Kent.
The family was staunchly royalist during the war with parliament and for
this, at the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, Sir Anthony Aucher had
been rewarded with a baronetcy. By his first wife he had seven sons, all of
whom predeceased him. At the age of sixty—seven he married secondly,
Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert Hewytt of the parish of St. Martin—in-
the-Fields, London. By this lady, who was almost thirty years his junior,
Sir Anthony produced two sons. When he died in l692 he left gaming

debts amounting to £10,000, equivalent in modem money to a little over a
million pounds.

His widow, Elizabeth, left to bring up four young children, faced ruin.
Being a woman of strong character, she set to managing the 200-acre
estate of Boume herself. She did so with such success that by 1704 she

had settled £8,600 of her husband’s debts of honour. She had also
improved the value of the estate.

Dame Elizabeth Aucher was trustee of the Bourne Estate on behalf of her
10-year-old son, Sir Anthony Aucher, who had also inherited his late
father’s baronetcy. Sadly, the young Sir Anthony died in 1694, just two
years after his father. His title and estates now passed to his brother, Dame
Elizabeth’s second son, Sir Hewitt [or Hewytt] Aucher, who was then just
eight years old. It was for Hewitt Aucher that his widowed mother, Lady
Elizabeth, constructed Bourne Park in 1704. She lived to regret the act.

How was this house disposed when first built up? Lady Aucher devoted
the whole north end of the house to office quarters. To the right of the hall
was a small study, with a passage behind it, giving access to the servants’
hall. In the north-west corner was the kitchen and the pantiy.
Corresponding to the hall, on the west side, was the original dining-room,

with the morning—room at the south—west corner beyond the main stairs,
the drawing room being in the south-east corner.

The staircase is an admirable and unusual example of Queen Anne
carpentry, with fluted walnut columns for balusters and newels. Their use
as newels, in conjunction with turned balusters, was common. Other
examples can be found at Barjam Court nearby. Although their use
throughout, with capitals of Ionic and Doric character, is unusual, another
example of this it to be found at Hawnes in Bedfordshire, constructed circa
1725. The staircase ceiling is a wonderful example of Queen Anne
plasterwork. As with that of the 1norning—room, it has elaborate stucco
enrichment, in this case of an oval wreath with scrolled spandrels and a
cove hung with floral festoons and four armorial shields. The latter bear
the Aucher and the Hewitt arms, except that over the windows where, the
plasterwork being in decay, the opportunity of its renewal in 1848 was

taken to substitute a shield showing the arms of the family of Matthew
Bell.

The morning-room ceiling is more advanced in design. Well-modelled
reliefs of children, representing the Seasons, are introduced into the

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corners, but the character and the execution of the scroll-work, though
disposed with more freedom than in the traditional pattern of the staircase
ceiling, can be matched piece by piece there, leaving no doubt that the

same craftsman executed both. The comices of several other rooms are
similarly decorated.

As was then the common course, Dame Elizabeth Aucher fully expected to
manage the Bourne Estate during the minority of her son, Sir Hewitt
Aucher. To aid her in this she married on 21 January 1694 her estate clerk,

Thomas Hunt, who very inconveniently died about four years later. He lies
buried in Bishopsboume Church.

Hewitt Aucher was a delicate boy and Dame Elizabeth refused to allow
him to be sent away to school, preferring to engage a tutor, so that he
might be taught at the family seat of Bourne. This privilege was not

extended to his sisters, Elizabeth and Hester who, being female, were
considered to be in less want of an education.

Nonetheless, about 1698, when Hewitt Aucher was thirteen years of age,
he was sent to Cambridge, to attend the University. This proved to be a
great mistake which his mother came to rue bitterly because it was during
his time at Cambridge that this impressionable boy fell under the malign
influence of a tutor, Dr. John Corbett. As Ian Taylor has written in his
memorable monograph of the Aucher family, it was John Corbett ‘who
was to upturn’ Dame Elizabeth’s ‘plans and create the devastating family

rift, which was never to be healed, and which marred the meritorious
history of the Aucher family’.

A Shropshire-born Doctor of Law: ‘It was John Corbett who patiently
enquired into the family circumstances. It was John Corbett who
questioned the conduct of Dame Elizabeth, and it was Jolm Corbett who
awakened in Hewytt the sense of injustice, and determination to remedy
the mismanagement of the estate which Sir Hewytt accused his mother of
perpetrating. During the years following 1707 Bourne was an unhappy

place where anxieties ran high, tensions were extreme, and bitterness
acute’. ‘

The truth of what really happened during this dreadful period in the history
of Boume will now never be fully known. Sir Hewytt granted Dr Corbett a
virtual power of attorney. Armed with this the Doctor descended on
Bourne and demanded from Dame Elizabeth the surrender of all account
and estate books. He used the information which he claimed these

 

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contained to levy against her a charge of gross mismanagement of the
estate and of the ‘unnecessary’ rebuilding of Bourne Park. She was forced
to submit to a personal examination of her financial affairs. At this Corbett
declared that Dame Elizabeth owed her son at least £10,000 in restitution.
He also declared that the annuity of £660 a year bequeathed to her by her
late husband was not a valid bequest and that in future she should be paid
£160 a year only. As Ian Taylor rightly points out: ‘The pain of the

examination and the social, emotional and financial consequences are
difficult to imagine’.

There was worse to come. Even the reduced annuity of £160 which was
granted to her on the understanding that ‘if she should part with everything
all should be well betwixt her and her son’ was based on a ‘treacherous
assurance’. It was not paid with any degree of regularity and in
consequence Dame Elizabeth was reduced to near penury. In l7ll she
was further disadvantaged when Dr Corbett married her elder daughter,
Elizabeth, who by this stratagem passed into the enemy camp. In the year
of her daughter’s marriage, Dame Elizabeth’s plight was so desperate that
she was forced to sell her personal possessions. The year following she
had to adopt the humiliating expedient of presenting herself in person at
Boume to seek shelter. She had nowhere else to go. As Taylor records:

The few months which followed must have been the most wretched in
the life of the now elderly Dame Elizabeth Aucher. She was treated with
loathing by her son and her daughter, as well as with contempt and
hatred by her son-in-law [who had not in accordance with the custom of
the day requested her permission to marry her daughter]. Dame
Elizabeth was an outcast in the very home which she had built for her
son. She had less status than the servants  She had neither power no
position, she was ‘not permitted to eat at table’, but survived on the left-
oversfrom the meals of her own family, secretivelyfed to her by anxious
but sympathetic servants below stairs,‘ who feared for their security if
discovered helping Dame Elizabeth. Had it not been for the kindness, the
emotional support, and the material generosity of the Reverend Dr.
George Thorpe, Rector of St. Mary ’s, Bishopsbourne, who had been a
family friend as well as the local parson since 1679, in supplying her
meals several days each week, her poverty and wretchedness would have
been even worse.

The dreadful state of affairs could not continue, and in 1713 Dame
Elizabeth again left Bourne to reside in Canterbury, and with reluctance
but necessity presented a petition in Chanceryfor the restoration of her

entitlements under the clauses of her late husband ’s will, and for due

compensation for the ill treatment by her son, by Corbett, and by her
daughter, Corbett ’s wtfe, Elizabeth.

It was later alleged that Corbett had treated Dame Elizabeth in a
peremptory manner and that both he and Hewytt had adopted ‘a very
unnatural and cruel attitude’ toward her. Her attempts to have an

unbiased party examine the aecsounts were refused, Corbett claiming so/e
right to determtne the Issue.

In the second year of the reign of George I, the case came before the Lord
Chancellor. After a three—day hearing, he found in favour of Dame
Elizabeth on 22 June 1715. He determined that ‘Corbett was a friend of Sir
Hewytt and had no regard for the interests of Dame Elizabeth; that Corbett
used her with great hardship  by his demands and threats to her  and
terrified her ...’ He also found that Dame Elizabetlfs agreement to forego
the original £660 due to her under her husband’s will and accept the lower

figure of £160 ‘was caused by her being a moaning and grieving woman
from all the hardships she had endured’.

Hewytt and Corbett were ordered to present proper accounts to the Court.
When they failed to do so the Court appointed an official ‘to receive all
rents and profits of the estate, and pay the same to Dame Elizabeth
Aucher’. In 1716 the Court finally awarded Dame Elizabeth the sum of
£24,695, equivalent in modern money to £2,082,000. This award so
incensed Corbett and Sir Hewytt that they ‘had the temerity to appeal to
the House of Lords’ in the hope of getting it set aside. The appeal was
dismissed and Dame Elizabeth had, so to speak, jumped the last fence to
win. ‘Bourne Mansion House’ however, continued the property of Sir
Hewitt, who with his sister and brother—in—1aw continued to manage its
operation.

Dame Elizabeth never returned to Bourne. It is believed that she lived in
financial comfort in Canterbury until her death, which is said to have been
‘at a grand old age’. In a last act of spite, her son refused to allow her
remains to be interred at Bourne. All knowledge of their last resting place
is now lost.

The weak and foolish Sir Hewitt Aucher died 4 June 1726, aged forty,
having never married, when the family baronetcy became extinct. In the
absence of a male heir, Sir Hewitt was succeeded by his sister, Elizabeth.
According to the law of that time Boume thereby came into the possession



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of her husband, the loathsome Dr Corbett, who thus achieved what he had
always wanted — to make himself Master of Bourne both in title and in fact.
He lived on here for ten years more, until his death in 1736, aged about
f1fty~five, when he was interred in St. Mary’s Church, Bishopsbourne.
Elizabeth, his widow — Dame E1izabeth’s treacherous daughter — continued
here with her children and her son—in—law, Stephen Beckingham, until she
followed her husband to the grave, aged eighty—two, in September 1764.

Elizabeth Corbett bore her scheming husband five children - all daughters.
The eldest of these joint co—heiresses, Mary Catherine, married Stephen
Beckingham of Grays Inn as his second wife. Beckingham it was, with his
shrewd 1awyer’s brain, who bought up the shares in the house and estate
of his sisters-in—law. Interestingly, his first marriage [to Mary Cox in 1729]
is the subject of one of Hogarth’s earliest and most delightful
‘conversation pieces’, now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It
has not been seen on English soil since the Conversation Pieces Exhibition
held at No.25 Park Lane, London, in 1930. According to a tablet in the
church, Mary Cox died 4 October 1738.

Beckingham who occupied Bourne as squire until his death in 1756, came
from a family long established in Essex where his ancestor, also called

Stephen Beckingham, had constructed Beckingham Hall at Tolleshunt
Darcy in 1543.

Our Stephen Beckingham whose father, Ralph, was also of Grays Inn,
specialised in cases before the Court of Chancery, the most protracted of
the three divisions of the High Court of Justice. Cases here took so long to
resolve that the phrase ‘to get a man’s head into Chancery’ became a
popular Victorian saying and meant that once a person was so situated the
lawyers ‘might pummel him as much and as long as they choose’. Dickens
alluded to the exhausting nature of Chancery proceedings in Bleak House,
citing the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, based on a true dispute which
lasted eighty years. If Stephen Beckingham was able to protract his
dealings for even one tenth this time he almost certainly died a rich man.
His life, however, was not without its tragedies. In May 1749 he was
forced to have his daughter, Sarah, committed as a lunatic.

When Stephen Beckingham died in 1756, he bequeathed Bourne to his
son, also called Stephen, also a Grays lnn lawyer. The younger Stephen
Beckingham [1729-1813] seems not to have cared much for Boume. He
chose to reside either in London, where he had a house in Knightsbridge,