L3 1,1376

SHURLAND HOUSE.

‘ BY REV. J. CAVE-BROWNE, M.A.
THE Isle of Sheppey would seem to have comprised two
Manors, that of Shurland representing the paramount Lord-
ship, while that of Northwode occupied a mesne position,
the former combining the entire island, for the earliest
recorded holder of it was styled “ J ordanus de Scapeia,” as
being Lord of Sheppey. A descendant of his, Sir Stephen,
assumed the name of Northwode, having apparently taken
up his abode in that manor—house; an.d to his descendant,
Sir John de Northwode, and his wife Joan the still remaining
brasses in the Church of Minster are ascribed, though they
were long believed to have been to the memory of his father,
Sir Roger de N orthwode, who had been a very liberal bene-
factor to the Abbey and the Church.

But the glory of the Northwode branch seems to have
been always subordinated to, and was soon to be eclipsed by,
the greater eminence of the House of Shurland, in whom our
interest at present centres.* The first member of this
branch which rose to any distinction was Sir Jeffery de
Shurland, who was in high favour with Henry I. ; but it was
his son, Sir Robert de Shurland, who gave the great notoriety
to the name, whose monument, with the strange accompani-
ment of the horse’s head, has been fully described in the
account of the Abbey Churchxr

Now if we could attach any reliance to the record given
by a very popular chronic-ler-—or rather graphic, if somewhat
imaginative, expositor of our old chronicles—Tom I11goldsby,;t
this Sir Robert de Shurland was a most redoubtable Knight,

* This Paper was read in the hall of Shurland House on the occasion of
the Archaeological Congress in 1896.
1- Vol. XXII., p. 157. I The Legend of the “ Grey Dolphin.”


 

 

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SHURLAND HOUSE. 87

and to—day, standing on the site of his Baronial Hall,
you might be tempted to ask me “Where is the door-

step at which his memorable boots were wont to stand? ‘

Where the hook on which his mighty sword yclept ‘Tickle
Toby ’ hung ‘P ”

But, alas ! I regret that I cannot satisfy your very natural
and reasonable request, for the simple reason that the house
of Sir Robert de Shurland survives only in name. Not a
vestige of the thirteenth century building remains; all has
long since disappeared to make room for a house still bearing
the old name, and almost more historic as the residence of
the Cheney fami1y.*

Sir Robert de Shurland had no son to perpetuate his
name, or perhaps outdo his fame. An only daughter Mar-
garet, marrying a young Kentish knight, Sir William
Cheney of Patricksbourne, carried the estates thither, and it
is of the Cheneys as Lords of Shurland that we have now
to speak.

Sir Alexander, the father of Sir William Cheney, had
been brother-in—ar1ns with Sir Robert de Shurl-and, and both
had been dubbed Knigl1ts—Banneret by Edward I. for gal-
lantry at Carlaverock. The Cheney family had no mean
record to shew during the fourteenth and fifteenth and early
part of the sixteenth centuries, embracing the period between
the reigns of Edward III. and Henry VIII. No less than
ten. times had members of the family represented the
County of Kent alone in Parliament, while Shurland House
had been the scene of at least eight Shrievalty banquets
given by a Cheney. Of these it may be well to give a few
details.

Sir Robert Cheney, the son of Margaret de Shurland, was
three times elected Knight of the Shire for Kent——in the
years 1348, 1351, and 1357. His grandson Sir William
represented the county in 1416, and the following year was
appointed by Henry V. Justice, and ten years after by
Henry VI. Chief-' Justice of the King’s Bencha“ His son,

“ Under its varying forms of Chene, Cheney, Cheyney, and Chayney.
T Philipot/s Villare Ccmtianum, p. 382; Foss’s Judges of .En_ql¢md.


  

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SHURLAND HOUSE;

   
 

  also Sir John, sat for the county in 1449, while his grand-
,s§_>,I,1,,again a Sir John, has a still more prominent place in
1 the history of his country. He not only sat for the county,

but was also Speaker of the House of Commons. A staunch
Lancastrian, he was made a Knight-Banneret by Henry VII.
for his gallant conduct at the battle of Bosworth Field, and
two years after had the further honour of being made a
Knight of the Garter and created Baron Cheney of Shur-
land. Leaving no son, the title became for a time extinct,
and the estates passed on his death in 1496 to his nephew
Thomas, the son of his younger brother William. Under

him the star of the House of Cheney rose to its zenith, and

culminated in a visit of Royalty to Shurland House. It was
this Sir Thomas Cheney whose costly monument, so rich
with emblazonry of alliances direct and indirect, forms so
conspicuous an ornament in Minster Church. Along its
verge may still be traced more or less completely the record
of the several posts of honour to which his plasticity of
character raised him. Beginning his public life as a favourite
of the then all—powerful Wolsey, he was in 1520 admitted as
one of the six Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, then a
Privy Councillor; in 1539 Treasurer of the Royal Household
and a Knight of the Garter; Warden also of the Cinque
Ports, Constable of Queenborough Castle, and Lord Lieu-
tenant for Kent.* It seemed not to matter who was on the
Throne, whether Henry or Edward, Mary or Elizabeth,
he adapted himself to each, and retained his ofiices in the
Council and the Household under all. He was the while
adding manor to manor, chiefly as gifts from his Royal
patron, such as the suppressed Priories of Faversham,
Davington, and Fordwich, the historic Castle and lands of
Chilham, besides many other Kentish manors, holding
withal the ancestral estate of Patricksbourne Cheney. In
addition to these he owned the wealthy manor of Todding-
ton in Beds, which came to him through his Wife, the
daughter of Sir William Broughton. These all helped to
swell the Shurland rent-roll, and enabled him to entertain

* Am-lzwologia Cantiana, Vol. XXIL, p. 161.

 

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snuntann HOUSE. 89

with fitting magnificence Henry VIII. and the fair but frail
Anne Boleyn in 1532.

Before this Royal visit, and possibly in anticipation of
the honour, Shurland House was expanded out of materials
of which he had despoiled the noble old Castle of Chilham,
until it became no unworthy place in its enlarged proportions
for the reception of, and as a resting place for, the greatest
of the Tudor monarchs in one of his progresses. Then
apparently, as the accompanying plan suggests, a wing on
either side spread out from the central gateway which, with
its flanking towers and their newel stairs, claims a somewhat
earlier date. Then came the banqueting hall on the east of
the main court, the dormitories on either side, one court
after another, till the whole range spread over several acres,
comprising no less than nine quadrangles, enclosed within
high stone walls with the chapel in the far south-east corner,
the whole forming a worthy mansion for a man who was
styled “ Strenuus Miles.”

This visit of Henry was probably prompted by the whim
and the vanity of that beautiful siren Anne Boleyn, then in
the heyday of her beauty and power, in her desire to see
the whilom abode of an ancestress of her own, for an aunt
of hers had married a Cheney. It was a whim which her
then infatuated adorer could not but gratify, and a loyal
subject, the recipient of so many favours, could not but
accept at whatever cost.

A Royal progress, however, in those days involved an
expenditure which could hardly fail to draw deeply on the
resources of even a wealthy noble; and Sir Thomas, if all the
more proud, was all the poorer for the distinguished presence
of Royalty even for two days. It was doubtless a gorgeous
spectacle which the Lord of Shurland Castle provided for
the King in that truly baronial abode; but it was a short-
lived glory that then floated over Shurland House. Forty
years after this lordly mansion had sunk into a neglected
dilapidated rarely—tenante‘d country house. Like so many
others, it is a sad tale to tell.

Sir Thomas lived just to see Elizabeth ascend the Throne,
and on his death in 1559 was succeeded by his son Sir Henry


   

til ‘wealthy Lord Wentworth.* Sir Thomas had married

; the rich heiress of Toddington in Bedfordshire,‘ where he

had a princely estate, but Shurland had still retained charms
for him. Not so with Sir Henry; not all that Kent could
offer him was to be compared in his mind with Toddington
domain, so he resolved to make that his home, and to make
it eclipse Shurland House. Here he erected what he
describes as “ a noble mansion; ” and not to be left
behind by his father’s visit of Royalty, succeeded in attracting
Elizabeth on two occasions (in 1563 and 1573) to honour him
by including Toddington in one and another of her Pro-
gressessf In reward for his lavish hospitality the Queen
revived in his person the title which had lapsed on the death
of his great-uncle Sir John, and attached to it the name of
his estate,'raising him to the Peerage as “ Lord Cheney of
Toddington.” But in his case it was a still more fatal
honour; it involved a still more costly sacrifice; it added
fuel to the fire of reckless display, in which he indulged to
such an extent as to become known as “The Extravagant
Lord Cheney.” The result was easy to foresee—he lived
a spendthrift and died little better than a beggar. That pile
which his father had accumulated and left to him was fast
crumbling away; the estates which had made him one of the
wealthiest of Kentish gentry were rapidly dispersed; manor
after manor disappeared from his rent-roll; even the beloved
and vaunted Toddington shared the general decay, and so
utter had that decay become that Lysons says of it,
“ nothing but the kitchen remains.”

Meanwhile Shurland House felt the sad consequences of
the change. Even to the ears of Elizabeth came up the bitter
cry of a neglected tenantry. Where the grand old Knight
Sir Thomas had kept in his house “ ordinairilie eight score
serving men besides retayners, gentlemen, and others that
were ready for all tymes of service, or danger of invasion,
numbering at the leaste to 400 persons,’ ’I by the year 1570

‘ Col1ins’s Peerage in loco.
1 Nicholl’s Progresses of Elizabeth, vol. i., p. 33.
1 State Papers, Domestic Series (Elizabeth), vol. lxxv., p. 43.

 

 

 

.*\’s

SHURLAND HOUSE. 91“

Shurland House was standing empty, farm houses had fallen
into decay, the island itself was well-nigh depopulated,* the
land lay uncultivated, and the defences of the coast were
perilously exposed. Such was the state of things when the
Manor of Sheppey a.nd Shurland House, which had for so

many generations gone together, were separated-—~when the

old ancestral home, of which Shurlands and Cheneys had
been so proud, by some process of exchange reverted to the
Crown.

Elizabeth at once saw the exposed and undefended
condition of the island, and realizing the danger, set herself
to restore, if it were possible, its prosperity, and to strengthen
its fortifications. She had heard that many towns in Flanders
and France were maintaining a large population, as well as
creating a very remunerative industry, by the manufacture
of leatherq“ Now the Isle of Sheppey still retained its fame
as a producer of sheep ;i its pelts (or plucked wool), its
sheepskins, and lambskins she determined to turn to account ;
they should become a source of revenue, and bring together
by traffic with the Continent a seafaring population.§
Already a “ Merchaunte Stranger,” one Andreas or Andrew
de Loo (or Delow, as sometimes called), had obtained a licence
for leather production in the neighbouring Isle of Grain.
Why should not the licence be extended to Sheppey, and
a monopoly of restricted sale be established here‘? This
would soon bring together a class not only of manufacturers
and traders, but a body of men who miglit be utilized for

* “ Thomas Fluds thinks decreased population c'-msed by heavy rating (2000
acres unoccupied)/’—~ -Siate Papers, Domestic Series (Elizabeth), vol.lxxv., art. 40.

1' Slate Papers, Domestic Series (Elizabeth), vol. lxxv., p. 36, art. 1.

1 Old Lambarde, in his own quaint style, bears testimony to the value of
the sheep of this island in his day (1579). “ 'Whether the shiepe of this Realme
were in price before the coming of the Saxons or no, they be now (God be
thanked therefore) worthy of great estimation, both for the exceeding finenesse
of the flese, which passeth all other in Europe at this day, and is to be
compared with the ancient delicate wooll of Tarent-um, or the Golden Fleese
of Oochis itself, and for the abundant store of flocks.”——— Pemmbulations,
p. 250. '

§ State Papers, Doinestio Series (Elizabeth), vol. lxxv., art. 38. In addition
to its repute as a pasture-ground for sheep, we can trace back its present fame
for producing honey to an early period, for one William Sygor in the year 1466
in his will leaves lzee-Hoes and bees for the support of a light of the Virgin
Mary-——“ apiariurn cum apibus.”


    
  

 

 the Fortsfincreasing the revenue by export
‘convert the island from being as it then was, an
,ent;~op Weakness, into be source of strength———“ To trans-
port, subject to payment of custom, not more than 4000
sheep-felts, 2000 sheepskins, and 4000 lambskins.”1'
“.Wha.t,” perhaps some of you will be tempted to ask, “has

‘this to do with Shurland House ? ” A great deal. In a leasei

granted by Elizabeth in 1580 is a stipulation that the tenant
farmer shall convert “ten of the outer chambers or romes of
the said house into tenements, and newe-build on the
premises five other tenements, and in them to place ten able
men to serve with caliver, pike, bowe, and such other like
wepon for the defence of the island . . . . and in the residue
of the said house some honest and sufiicient person with his
family to dwell,” and it shall be lawful “for her Majesty, if
she please, to take down and sell certayne of the outer
houses there, being superfluous.” Thus was Shurland House
turned for a time into a barrack, and the last-quoted clause
explains how in the course of time the old mansion fell into
its present condition.

Shurland House remained with the Crown until the
beginning of the reign of James I., when (in 1605) he con-
ferred what is termed in the Grant “the Capital Mansion of
Shurland to his beloved and faithful servant Philip Herberte,
Knight,” the younger son of the Earl of Pembroke, whom
he created Lord Herbert of Shurland and Earl of Mont-
gomery. His elder brother William dying without sons, he
succeeded to the family E-arldom of Pembroke in 1630, was
made Lord Chamberlain to Charles I. in 1625 and Chancellor
of the University of Oxford in 1641, and was the last to hold
the oflice of Constable of Queenborough Castle. He married
as his second wife the famous Ann, Countess of Dorset, of
Whom the following anecdote is Worth telling. Whell
Sir Joseph Williamson, the Secretary of State to Charles II.,
wrote to her, naming a candidate whom he wished her to
nominate for her pocket-borough of Appleby in Westmore-

* State Papers, Domestic Series (Elizabeth), vol. lxxv., art. 4.
1' Iln’d., art. 38.
it IIn'd., vol. ccxiv., pp. 18, 19.

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SHURLAND HOUSE.

land, the Countess replied, “I have been bullied by an
usurper ; I have been neglected by a Court; I will not be
dictated to by a subject.”

The history of Shurland House began with the traditional
enterprise of the dauntless Baron Sir Robert. It may ap-
propriately close with the anecdote of the equally dauntless
Countess.