Fredville is in neither the Doomesday Book nor Archbishop Pecham’s 1283-86 survey of the Manor of Wingham. The name is said to derive from the old French : freide ville , meaning a cold place, from its cold, wet, low position, however, an alternative origin is more likely as Fredville’s situation does no really fit this description.

Adjoining Fredville to the south is Benvilles, both have the same ending and, therefore most likely, similar origins, both possibly deriving from a personal name pre-fix; possibly Frida, Frijas, Freja, Alfridda or Aelfred in Fredville’s case, and the suffix feld: a field or open space in Old English. In the old Kentish dialect an F was pronounced as a V, E as an I and the last letter of the word often dropped, thus giving vil, therefore ‘A field of sheep’ would be pronounced as ‘ a vil a ship’ ( double E being pronounced as I). The expression ‘ spoiling the ship for a ha’peth of tar’ actually refers to treating sheep for maggot infestation with tar, not water-proofing a ship. Dialectal evolution through the centuries from Freydevill in 1266 via Fredvyle and Fredfield (used in a letter from Henry Oxenden to his mother, Katherine, in 1639) to the present Fredville is perfectly feasible. Benvilles may be linked to Ben Hill near Bishopsbourne, possibly once having the same owner, or owners with similar names..

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To the marriage of my three daughters, Elen, Mary and Elizabeth £40 each, also 100 ewes each the which their uncle Sir Edward Ringley bequeathed them. My four sons Thomas, William, Vincent and John £20 each at their age of 21. That Edward Boyse (sic) be coadjutor to his mother in the administration of this my Will, but not to meddle as Exor, and he to have £20. Edward, my eldest son….. to suffer his mother and Aunt Margaret to have their dwelling whilst the live in the mansion of Fredfields with free coming and going into a chamber commonly called the ‘Nursserye’ with the cambers over the buttery, also allow his mother to take half the profits of the Wind Hill (Mill?).

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Fredville is a manor in this parish, which in ancient deeds is sometimes written Froidville, from its cold situation, which is both low and watery. It was held of the castle of Dover, as part of those lands which made up that barony of Maminot, afterwards, from its succeeding owners, called that barony of Saye. In the reign of king Edward I, it was held, in manner as above mentioned, by John Colkin, in whose posterity it remained till the later end of king Richard II’s reign, when it was conveyed by sale to Thomas Charleton, and he, by fine levied anno 2 Henry IV. passed it away to John Quadring, whose descendant Thomas Quadring leaving an only daughter and heir Joane, she carried it in marriage to Richard Dryland, and he, about the latter end of king Edward IV. alienated it to John Nethersole, who by fine levied in the 2nd year of king Richard III. conveyed it to William Boys, esq. of Bonnington, and he died possessed of it in 1507, and by his will gave this manor to his eldest son John Boys, esq. of Fredville. His descendant Major Boys, of Fredville, being a firm loyalist, suffered much by sequestration of his estates. He had seven sons and a daughter, who all died s. p. Two of his eldest sons, John and Nicholas, finding that there was no further abode at Fredville, to which they had become entitled, departed each from thence, with a favourite hawk in hand and became pensioners at the Charter House , in London. Before which they, in 1673, sold it to Denzil, lord Holles, from whose descendant it afterwards came to Thomas Holles, duke of Newcastle, who in 1745 sold it to Margaret, sister of Sir Brook Bridges, bart. of Goodnestone, and she in 1750, marrying John Plumptree, esq. of Nottinghamshire, he became in her right possessed of it. He was descended from a family who had been long settled in that county, who bore for their arms, Argent, a chevron, between two mullets in chief, and an annulet in base, sable. He served in Parliament for Penryn, in Cornwall, and afterwards for Nottingham. By his first wife he had no issue; but by his second, daughter of Philips Glover, esq. of Lincolnshire, he had one son John Plumptree, esq. married to Charlotte, daughter of the rev. Jeremiah Pemberton, of Cambridgeshire; and a daughter, married to R. Carr Glynn, esq. He rebuilt this seat, in which he afterwards resided, and dying in 1791, was succeeded by his only son John Plumptree, esq. before mentioned, who now resides in it.

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In 1300 the Fredville estate was held by Dover Castle and consisted of the manor house and approximately 300 acres. By a fine levied in about 1485 Dryland and Wetherford conveyed the estate to William Boys of Bonnington who died possessed of it and was succeeded by his son William, died 1508, and who’s brother Thomas, was Captain of Deal Castle. William left the manor house of Sherbertswell, later Upton Wood, given in 944 by King Edmund to St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, to his grandson. It later came into the possession of Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Boys of Fredville, the same Sir Edward, a High Sheriff of Kent, who as a Commissioner began extensive works on Dover Harbour.

Sir Edward Boys gave 40/- from fifteen acres of land in Nonington and Barfrestone to be distributed yearly amongst the poor of Nonington parish. William boys of Tilmanstone, third son of William of Nonington, left legacies in Nonington and Tilmanstone for the use of three poor inhabitants of the parish for ever, to each of whom he directed was to be given annually four bushels of wheat. This legacy still existed in 1802. To Nonington church he gave a legacy to provide two poor house keepers with two houses and one and a half acres of land with a sack wheat each at Christmas. Now administered (1926) by four Trustees of Nonington (the Nightingale Trust).

Sir Edward Boys the Younger in the early 1600’s was M. P. for Sandwich and Dover.

William Hasted in his History quoted above, refers to Major John Boys suffering severely for his Royalist sympathies in the English Civil War, whereas he was, in fact, a Parliamentarian and according to William Boys’ 1802 biography and pedigree of the family ‘by his own extravagance he much encumbered and wasted the estate of Fredville’.

In 1658 Major John Boys and son Nicholas mortgaged the manor of Elmington (Elvington) and the appurtenances of Nonington, Eythorne and Wymblingswold and the avowedson of the Church at Eythorne to Thomas Turner, the Major’s brother-in-law, for £ 1,550.00, the mortgage being renewed in 1668. In July 1673 ‘the mansion house called Fredville, wherein the said John Boys then lived and lands ect. Unto the said manor belonging and situated in the several parishes of Nonington, Barfrestone and Knowlton together with a farmhouse called Frogham farm and several closes thereunto belonging containing two hundred acres, which farm was already mortgaged to one William Gilbourne’ were conveyed to Lord Holles, Duke of Newcastle, as security for an advance of £ 3,000.

It would appear none of this money was repaid as the Kings Bench at Southwark imprisoned the Major and son Nicholas for many years with Nicholas dying in 1687 and Major John Boys, then an octogenarian, in March 1688. James Boys, one of the Major’s younger sons, tried without success in 1689 to retrieve the estates. Fredville was sold in 1745 to Margaret, sister of Sir Brooke Bridges, Bart., of Goodnestone, on her marriage in 1750 to John Plumptree, Esq., of Northampton (sic) who became in her right possessed of it as her dowry.

Referring to the rebuilding of Fredville manor house in the mid-1700’s the author records that the manor was rebuilt on the old flint foundations of the previous house by John Plumptree, senior, where he died in 1791, aged 79, and was succeeded by his son John Plumptree who resided there until 1800. Little of the original house remained except for the cellars and the covered-in well in the centre of the old kitchen, a secret passage was said to lead from the house to the wood where an old ice-house stood (and still does very much intact), with its old oak door, sunk twenty feet into the ground. Half of this door was stolen, in her opinion possibly for fire-wood, when mining commenced near by (with the rest disappearing at a later date).

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Mrs. Boys Behrens records the ‘well known’ legend of the White Horse (possibly the origin of the name of the ale-house next to St. Mary’s Church, Nonington) which apparently appeared (and so therefore still does) in a wooded part of the estate on wild and stormy nights, galloping around in a frantic search for shelter. She also mentions a second legend of a faithful hound that had belonged to a daughter of the house and had been buried in the wood near the house and was then ‘still said to visit the house, but, finding all happy and well’ would then, and again, presumably still does, return to its home.

The left picture is of the tennis courts at the front of the house. The players are girls attending the school which occupied the house from the 1920’s until the second world war.

The left picture shows The rear of the mansion, to the left is the walled garden, which still stands but is now used mainly for the rearing game birds. The terrace is also still visible but is very over grown.

Extracts from vol. VIII of ‘The beauties of England & Wales’ by Edw. Wedlake Brayley published in 1808.

‘Fredville:- for nearly two centuries the principle seat of the Boys family which was alienated in the time of Charles II to Denzil, Lord Hollis whose descendant Thos. Holles, Duke of Newcastle sold it to Margaret, sister of Sir Brooke Bridges Bt. of Gunston (Goodnestone). She married John Plumptre, M. P. For Nottingham and his son, by a second marriage, is now the owner. The present owner added to the house built by Miss Bridges and paled in a large circuit of ground ornamented with plantations’.

The manor, she notes, stood at the end of a long avenue of trees but only a few oaks then remained (in 1926), the largest oaks were called the ‘King Fredville Oak’, which had a large bough broken off in 1924, and "The Ancient Bear’ and that they stood near to the house and were known to have been flourishing in 1554. Fredville gardens then also contained, in her opinion, the finest magnolia tree in England.

"The well known ‘Majesty’ oak is close to the terrace (of the house); it is 36 ½ feet in girth (4 ½ feet above ground) and may be 1,000 years old. At a little distance is the chestnut avenue in which the ‘Step’ tree and two others are notable. Further in the park is the famous horn beam, which has a ‘spread’ of over 100 feet; and perhaps this is the most notable of all. It is possibly 500 years old".