Stockbury

Stockbury - Roy L Hales photo

Stockbury was one of the important parishes in Our Kentish Genealogy.

Stockbury is on the road connecting Maidstone (6 miles to the West) and Sittingbourne (4 miles to the east). There was once a motte and bailey castle, erected after the Norman conquest. All that remains is a mound beside the parish church of St Mary Magdalene, which was built during the late 12th century and attached to the priory of Leeds prior to Henry VIII's dissolution of the Catholic church. Tradition asserts that the original village of Stockbury was beside the church, but was relocated, a mile to the west, during the great plague of 1348. The population was 433 in 1801 and 481 in 1921.

"The parish has always been dominated by the agricultural industry and the hamlets within the parish developed around the farmhouses. Today the parish contains 29 listed buildings of which 18 are farmhouses of agricultural buildings, many of which date from the 15th century agricultural Revolution ... Sixty years ago Stockbury was great cherry growing country with many acres established orchards, coupled with new plantations under sown with grass for sheep production. It was also a production region for dairy farming, with a number of small herds in close proximity to the village ..." - Ann Rich (ed) STOCKBURY A STROLL THROUGH THE PAST, pp 4,7

During the Anglo-Saxon era, the eastern segment of this parish was part of the Royal estate at Milton Regis. This heritage is preserved in the name "Stockingberge", Old English for "Woodland pasture of dwellers at the outlying farmstead," and the fact this area has been part of the hundred of Milton throughout most of the historic era.

Stockbury Manor (in the Hundred of West Milton)

After the Norman conquest (1066), the manor of Stockbury was given to William the Conqueror's half brother Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who was made the . According to the Domesday Book:

“Ansgot also holds Stockbury from the bishop (of Bayeux) It answers for two sulings. Land for 3 1/2 ploughs. Land for .. in Lordship, one plough. Five villagers with nine smallholders have two ploughs. here is a church, 2 slaves, and one mill at 64 pence. pence. Woodland, 15 pigs. Value before 1066 and later for the pannage of fifteen hogs. In the time of king Edward the Consessor, and afterwards, £4; now £6. (prior to the Norman conquest) Aelfeva held it of king Edward.”

Odo was one of Prince Robert’s foremost supporters in the Civil War that broke out after William the Conqueror's death. This led to the 6-week-long siege of Rochester castle (1088 A.D.), only 13 miles from Stockbury. King William II exiled his uncle and bestowed Stockbury manor on Roger de Auberville. His descendant, William de Aubervill held Stockbury manor in 1192 ( anno 4 Richard I), around which time the de Savage family held a subordinate manor in the Western part of Stockbury (Yelsted). Another William de Aubervill held Stockbury in the 36th year of Henry III (1251/52), owing the king a knight’s service.

According to Hasted, "He left an only daughter and heir Joane, who carried it in marriage to Nicholas de Criol, a man of eminence in his time, who attending Edward I. at the siege of Carlaverock, in Scotland." This union must have actually occurred a generation, for another Nicholas de Criole (died between Nov 1271 and Feb 1272) is listed as holding Stockbury in the 38th year of Henry III (1253/54). His son, also named Nicholas de Criol (died 1303), helped capture Caerlaverock in 1300. In 1312 a third Nicholas de Criol (spelled "Oriel") remarked that the village of Stockbury had an annual fair and cattle market (where the three Squirrels pub now stands) "from time out of mind." His name is also found in the list of the castle of Dover's constables, "Nicholas de Criol - 1313/14." As the Criols held Stockbury for a knight's service and were one of the families called upon to supply Dover's garrison with troops, they undoubtedly sent some of the villagers from Stockbury. However the Criols abandoned Stockbury's castle in favour of their chief residence at Westenhanger. The most famous member of this family was Sir Thomas Kirial, who was a prominent English general during the final stages of the Hundred Year's War in France and became a Yorkist supporter during the Wars of the Roses. He was constable of Dover castle 1031/39 and Lieutenant of Calais until 1442. Sir Thomas Kyriel was in command of the English army defeated at Formigny in 1450. Though there is no mention of his name during Cade's rebellion (1450), only four Stockbury residents are listed among the 3,500 (primarily residents of Kent) subsequently pardoned. Sir Thomas Kyriel marched to the rescue of Sandwich, when French raiders pillaged the town in 1457. The enemy promptly withdrew after he approached. Kyiel and Lord Bonville were entrusted with the care of the captive King Henry VI during the Second battle of Second Battle of St Albans (17 Feb 1461). The simple minded monarch was reputedly laughing and singing as he watched his wife, Queen Margaret, defat the Yorkists. Both Kyriel and Bonville were themselves captured, when the Lancastrians rescued their king. As they had been kind, Henry VI promised to be merciful. His wife had other ideas: Kyriel and Bonville were beheaded.

Thus the manor fell into possession of John Bourchier, who had married Kirial's daughter Elizabeth. He was one of the knights who assembled his followers on Penenden Heath too early, during the ill fated rising against King Richard III in 1483. He subsequently fled to join Henry Tutor in France. Bourchier ws one of the two hostages left in France, as a surety for the 40,000 live loan from the French court, when Tutor landed in England to win the throne in the Battle of Bosworth (1485). John Bourchier subsequently served as constable of Dover 1485/88.

Hasted sketches an outline of the manor's subsequent history (which you can access here). All that remains of the motte and bailey castle, erected in Odo's era, is a mound beside the church of St Mary Magdalene

The Land Beyond the Church (in the Hundred of West Milton)

Many of our families appeared in a what the parish register calls "the land West of the church."

In her book, BREDGAR, HISTORY OF A KENTISH PARISH (p 15), Helen Allison describes a legal suit from 1244, that members de Dene family had reading 204 acres spread across nine parishes. William and his brother Robert de Dene were allowed to occupy the land, but henceforth paid their kinsman Nicholas de Dene an annual rent of money, wheat and barley. The segments of this property of special interest to us:

• Norton Green, originally called North Dean, in Stockbury parish
• South Green, originally called South Dean, in Stockbury parish
• Dean's Hill, in Bredgar parish
• Dean's Bottom, in Bredgar parish