Boughton Place - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Boughton Place, formerly Bocton Place or Bocton Hall, is a country house in Boughton Malherbe

Boughton Malherbe

For other "Boughtons" in Kent see Boughton under Blean; Boughton Malherbe; and Boughton MonchelseaBoughton Malherbe is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, England, situated between Maidstone and Ashford...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England. It is the historic home of the Wotton family and birthplace of Sir Henry Wotton

Henry Wotton

Sir Henry Wotton was an English author and diplomat. He is often quoted as saying, "An ambassador is an honest gentleman sent to lie abroad for the good of his country." -Life:The son of Thomas Wotton , brother of Edward Wotton, 1st Baron Wotton, and grandnephew of the diplomat...

(1568–1639), ambassador to Venice under James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

History

A fortified manor house

Manor house

A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

was built on the site in the 1340s by Robert Corbie. Through the marriage of his grand daughter Joan to Nicholas Wotton, Lord Mayor of London in 1415 and 1430, the house became the property of the Wotton family. The Wottons retained ownership of the house until it passed into the Stanhope family when it was willed by Charles Kirkhoven, 1st Baron Wotton

Charles Kirkhoven, 1st Earl of Bellomont

Charles Henry Kirkhoven, 1st Earl of Bellomont was a Dutch-born Irish peer, known as Lord Wotton from 1649-1680....

to Charles Stanhope, younger son of his half brother Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield PC was a peer in the peerage of England.-Personal life:He was the son of Henry Stanhope, Lord Stanhope and his wife, Katherine Wotton. He inherited the title of Earl of Chesterfield on the death of his grandfather in 1656...

. Charles Stanhope changed his name to Wotton and on his death in 1704, the house passed to his elder brother Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield was an English nobleman, the eldest son of Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield, by his third wife, the former Lady Elizabeth Dormer....

. The fourth earl

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield PC KG was a British statesman and man of letters.A Whig, Lord Stanhope, as he was known until his father's death in 1726, was born in London. After being educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he went on the Grand Tour of the continent...

sold the house in 1750 to Galfridus Mann, twin brother of Sir Horace Mann

Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet

Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet KB , diplomat, was a long standing British resident in Florence.-Biography:...

of nearby Linton Hall

Linton Park

Linton Park, formerly Linton Place or Linton Hall, is a large 18th-century country house in Linton, Kent, England. Built by Robert Mann in 1730 to replace an earlier building, the house and estate passed through the ownership of several members of Mann's family before coming into the Cornwallis...

in Linton

Linton, Kent

Linton is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. The parish is located on the southward slope of the Greensand ridge, south of Maidstone on the A229 Hastings road....

. On Galfridus Mann's death, it passed to his son Sir Horatio Mann

Sir Horatio Mann

Sir Horatio Mann, 2nd Baronet was an English MP. He is remembered as a member of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire and a patron of Kent cricket. He was an occasional player but rarely in first-class matches....

MP, who also inherited his uncle's baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

cy and Linton Hall in 1786.

In 1771, Sir Horatio's sister Catherine married James Cornwallis

James Cornwallis, 4th Earl Cornwallis

James Cornwallis, 4th Earl Cornwallis was a British clergyman and peer.Cornwallis was the third son of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis and his wife, Elizabeth...

. Cornwallis later became Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry and was briefly the 4th Earl Cornwallis. His son, James Mann, 5th Earl Cornwallis

James Mann, 5th Earl Cornwallis

James Mann, 5th Earl Cornwallis , known as James Cornwallis until 1814 and as James Mann between 1814 and 1823 and styled Viscount Brome between 1823 and 1824, was a British peer and Tory politician....

, inherited Boughton Place and it remained in the Cornwallis family until it was sold by Fiennes Cornwallis, 1st Baron Cornwallis

Fiennes Cornwallis, 1st Baron Cornwallis

Colonel Fiennes Stanley Wykeham Cornwallis, 1st Baron Cornwallis CBE, TD, JP, DL,, was a British Conservative politician.-Early life:...

to John Kitchin in 1922.

Building

The house is the remaining part of a larger courtyard house, much of which has been demolished. The first part was constructed in the 1520s and was added to and enlarged in the 1550s and 1580s and alterations were made in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is a two-storey building aligned roughly north-south with an attic

Attic

An attic is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building . Attic is generally the American/Canadian reference to it...

floor in the roof. It is built mostly of local rag-stone

Rag-stone

Rag-stone is a name given by some architectural writers to work done with stones which are quarried in thin pieces, such as the Horsham sandstone, Yorkshire stone, the slate stones, but this is more properly flag or slab work. By rag-stone, near London, is meant an excellent material from the...

with a tiled roof and stone framed windows in a variety of sizes, but also has later sections constructed of red brick. The interior features some 16th century moulded plaster ceilings, but historic timber panelling

Panelling

Panelling is a wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials....

dating from the 1520s was removed from the house in 1923 and taken to the United States.

The house is a Grade I listed building and an adjacent cottage and oast house

Oast house

An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning hops as part of the brewing process. They can be found in most hop-growing areas and are often good examples of vernacular architecture...

are listed Grade II.

History

Building

See also