Warlike Riot in Wateringbury (1596)

Post date: May 20, 2011 9:55:11 AM

Kent Assize records show:

On 5 July 1596, George Delahey, (gent), Thomas [unknown], blacksmith, Richard Thome, brickmaker, Antony Delahey, gent, Hugh Ward, yeoman, John Davy, husbandman, Richard Wilmott, yeoman, and Thomas Oliffe, jnr, blacksmith, of Wateringbury, were indicted at Maidstone Assizes for riotous assembly and unlawful entry. On 10 March 1596 they, and others unknown to the number of eleven, assembled in a warlike manner at Wateringbury and forcibly entered 'Wilmotts', a 15 acre tenement belonging to Richard Cole of Wateringbury. Verdict unknown.

At Kent archives there is the following record of the Quarter Session.

Geo. Delahay, gentleman, Anth. Delahay, gentleman, Rich. Wylmor, tailor, Rich. Thorne, husbandman, John Moyse, husbandman, Geo. Gryffyn, husbandman, all of Wateringbury and Wm. Boothe of Teston, husbandman, for assembling riotously at a house called Westburies, for assaulting John Pattenden¹, gentleman, at Wateringbury and also Thos. Cropp and Geo. Pattenden. QM/SI/1597/8/1 27 Feb 1596/7

George Delahey inherited Wateringbury Place (not the current building) from his father Nevil and later sold it to Richard Wilkinson. He was the wealthiest man in Wateringbury, paying with his mother 2 shillings a month to the 1586 poor rate assessment. However, this obviously did not protect him and his wife, Margaret, had previously been indicted before the Sevenoaks and Rochester Assizes in 1588 (see Wateringbury group prosecuted for not going to church).

Notes:

1.John Pattenden: nearly a century later in 1664 the hearth tax records John Pattenden as Borsholder.

For another 'riot' in sixteenth century Wateringbury go to Wateringbury riot.