Lady Elizabeth Style prosecuted (1640)

Post date: Dec 29, 2011 11:34:12 AM

J.S. Cockburn's edition of Kent Assize records shows:

At Maidstone Assizes of 15 July 1640 there was the indictment (ref 1840) of Lady Elizabeth Style of Wateringbury, widow, 'for maintaining a cottage at Wateringbury from 10 Mar 1639 to 20 Mar 1640 without the 4 acres of land stipulated by statute'.

This was followed by a writ distringas at the 24 July 1646 Maidstone Assizes.

Poulton’s Statutes, 1608, state that 31 Eliz Ch 7 (1589/90), An Act against erecting and maintaining of cottages, has a provision that ‘ No person may build or erect ... unless he do assign 4 acres of ground at the least ..'. This law was connected with Elizabethan attempts to control vagrancy, but requiring 4 acres of land was a virtual impossibility. Its application at this date against, Elizabeth, widow of Sir Thomas Style, smacks of political opportunism. Sir Thomas was the second Style (after Oliver) at Wateringbury Place and had been raised by the king to the baronetcy in 1627 so he was clearly associated with the royalist faction. Sir Thomas died in 1637. Lady Elizabeth Style, the daughter of Robert Foulkes, died in 1650. Her portrait by Robert Peake from about 1620 is shown below, followed by a tablet in Wateringbury Church.

Residents of Wateringbury Place seem to have had brushes with the law in many centuries: see Bribery at Wateringbury Fete , Wateringbury group prosecuted for not going to Church, War-like riot.

For more information on the Style family see: Wateringbury and Nettlestead landowners oppose making Medway navigable; Wateringbury man elected Rochester Bridge warden.