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NONINGTON AND THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR CROMWELLS COMMISSION IN KENT 1655-57 THE COMMISSION WAS ESTABLISHED TO CONTROL AND PUNISH ANTI-CROMWELL / PARLIAMENT LAND-OWNERS IN THE KINGDOM. SIR EDWARD BOYS OF FREDVILLE, AND HIS SON JOHN BOYS. ESQ., LIEUTENANT OF DOVER CASTLE AND INHERITOR OF FREDVILLE ON HIS FATHERS DEATH IN 1646, WERE STAUNCH PARLIAMENTARIANS AND BOTH ON THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE FOR KENT. EDWARD BOYS OF BETTSHANGER, DIED 1649, AND HIS SON JOHN BOYS, GENT, AND A MEMBER OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT OF 1640 TO 1660, WERE ALSO BOTH PARLIAMENTARIANS, OTHER BRANCHES OF THE FAMILY WERE FOR THE KING, AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE COUNTY WAS DIVIDED BY THE CIVIL WAR. THE FOLLOWING LOCAL LAND OWNERS FROM NONINGTON AND NEIGHBOURING PARISHES WERE LISTED AS SUSPECT PERSONS REQUIRED TO BRING PARTICULARS OF THEIR ESTATES OR SECURITY FOR THEIR PEACEABLE DEMEANOUR TO THE COMMITEE. LT. COL., SIR JOHN BOYS OF BONNINGTON AND CHRISTOPHER BOYS OF UFFINGTON. BOTH IN GOODNESTONE PARISH.JEREMY GAY, GENTLEMAN, OF PAULES, NEAR CANTERBURY, ALSO TENANT OF THE HOLT STREET ESTATE, NONINGTON, THEN OWNED BY THE BOYS’ OF FREDVILLE, NONINGTON. ANTHONY AND FRANCIS HAMMOND OF ST. ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON, LISTED AS BEING AMONGST THE LEADERS OF THE REVOLT. SIR THOMAS PEYTON OF KNOWLTON COURT, LIEUTENANT GENERAL OF THE INSURRECTIONIST TROOPS. WILLIAM SWANNE OF KNOWLTON. ********* FRANCIS AND ROBERT HAMMOND WHOSE PORTRAITS HANG IN THE BEANEY INSTITUTE, CANTERBURY. COLONEL FRANCIS HAMOND, BORN 1584, THE SON OF EDWARD HAMMOND OF ST. ALBAN’S COURT, NONINGTON. WITH HIS BROTHER, ROBERT, HE JOINED SIR WALTER RALEIGH’S EXPEDITION TO SEARCH FOR GOLD IN GUYANA IN 1616. DURING SERVICE IN THE GERMAN WARS, (THE THIRTY YEARS OF 1618-48), HE IS REPUTED TO HAVE FOUGHT FOURTEEN SINGLE-HANDED COMBATS. DURING THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR HE ACTION WITH THE ROYALIST EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND, LEADING THE FORLORN HOPE (THE FIRST TROOPS TO ATTACK AN ENEMY POSITION, THEREFORE WITH ONLY A SLIGHT CHANCE OF SURVIVING AN ACTION), AT THE BATTLE OF EDGEHILL, WARWICKSHIRE, IN 1642. COLONEL ROBERT HAMOND, THE SON OF EDWARD HAMMOND, AS ABOVE, CHRISTENED 23RD JUNE 1587 AT ST. MAY’S, NONINGTON. WITH HIS BROTHER, FRANCIS, HE JOINED SIR WALTER RALEIGH’S EXPEDITION TO SEARCH FOR GOLD IN GUYANA IN 1616 A VERY EXPERIENCED SOLDIER, SERVING WITH THE ROYALIST EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND BEFORE BEING COMMISSIONED TO RAISE A ROYALIST FORCE IN THE CIVIL WAR AS PART OF THE 1648 KENTISH REVOLT WHICH HAD ITS ORIGIN IN THE CHRISTMAS DAY RIOTS OF CANTERBURY IN 1647 WHICH LED TO THE PETITION OF KENT TO PARLIAMENT. HE SUCCESSFULLY RAISED AN INFANTRY REGIMENT OF A THOUSAND MEN WHICH HE LED IN A NUMBER OF ACTIONS INCLUDING THE SIEGE OF COLCHESTER, WHERE HE CAPTURED BY PARLIAMENTARY FORCES. ROBERT WAS LATER CAUGHT AGAIN IN IRELAND AND SUBSEQUENTLY SHOT ON CROMWELL’S ORDERS. MAJOR JOHN BOYS OF FREDVILLE DETAILS FROM: ‘UNDER THIRTY-SEVEN KINGS’, A HISTORY OF THE BOYS FAMILY OF BONNINGTON, FREDVILLE, & OTHER EAST KENT TOWNS AND VILLAGES, BY LILLIAN BOYS BEHRENS, PUBLISHED 1926. WILLIAM HASTED IN HIS HISTORY OF KENT, REFERS TO MAJOR JOHN BOYS OF FREDVILLE AS 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. |
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