Medieval
For anyone tracing the early story of Leigh, the starting point is a book rather than a building. Villare Cantianum, a survey of Kent drawn up by Thomas Philipot, who died in 1682, devotes two pages — pages 214 and 215 — to the parish, and almost everything we know of Leigh before 1550 comes down to us through it. The work is often referred to simply as the Kent survey, and it carried the authority of a family steeped in county history. Thomas's father, John Philipot, who lived from roughly 1589 to 1645, had compiled a catalogue of the high sheriffs of Kent, and the son plainly inherited both the materials and the appetite for such labours. Much later, Lawrence Biddle took up the story where Philipot leaves off in his book Leigh in Kent 1550-1900, but the medieval centuries belong to the survey.
Philipot records that Leigh lies within the Lowey of Tunbridge, and that its name was sometimes written West-Leigh — a form also known as West-Leigh alias Pauls. The parish, he tells us, formerly belonged to the Penchesters, a family whose roots go back to the very beginning of written English history, for Paul de Penchester held lands in Leigh and in Penshurst according to Domesday Book. The most celebrated of the line was Sir Stephen of Penchester, who served as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and as Constable of Dover Castle — offices that placed him at the centre of the defence of the realm. Sir Stephen left two daughters and co-heirs, and through them the inheritance was divided: Joan Penchester married Henry, Lord Cobham of Roundall in Shorn, while her sister Alice Penchester married John Lord Columbers.
It is from this point that the manor's descent becomes a tangled tale of marriages, inquisitions and royal favour. An inquisition taken around 1330 assigned the manors of West-Leigh and Penshurst among the heirs, and Sir Thomas de Columbers appears as heir of John de Columbers and Alice. Sir Thomas did not long retain the property: he passed his interest to Sir John de Poultney in about 1339. Poultney was a figure of national standing, having served as Lord Mayor of London, but he was dead by roughly 1350. After him the property was held by Sir Nicholas Lovain, who is thought to have married Margaret, the widow of Sir John Poultney — though Philipot's wording leaves some room for doubt. What is clearer is that a further inquisition, around 1371, shows Nicholas Lovain holding the property as heir. He died without issue, and the inheritance then passed to his sister, Margaret Lovain. She married Philip St Clere of Aldham St Clere — Philip being the son of John St Clere, and it was this St Clere couple who sold the property to the Crown in about 1409.
The manor of West-Leigh thus became a royal possession, and Henry IV received it by that sale. He bequeathed it to John, Duke of Bedford, his third son, a man of the highest importance in the realm, who acted as Lord Regent during the minority of Henry VI. Bedford, like so many owners of this manor before and after him, died without an heir. The estate then came to John's fourth brother, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester — a duke whose end was violent, for he was killed by William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, dying at the Abbey of Bury. He too left no heir, and so the manor passed on once more: in 1447, the 25th year of Henry VI's rule, the king granted it to Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham.
The Staffords held it through the Wars of the Roses and into the Tudor age, but their tenure ended in disaster. Around 1522 Edward Stafford was accused of High Treason, and he lost life, title and estate together. Henry VIII granted the forfeited property to Sir Rafe Vane, yet the same fate overtook the new owner: Sir Rafe was executed in 1551, and the manor returned to the Crown by escheat. Finally, in about 1553, Sir William Sydney was granted the manor — and with him we cross the boundary of our period.
Philipot's pages also preserve the memory of a manor within the parish called Philipotts, a name that clearly reflects his own family's connection to Leigh. A deed relating to it, dated circa 1300 in the 28th year of Edward I, records that John de Philipott demised land to Robert Charles, who was bailiff of the forest of Tunbridge. Generations later, Thomas Philipott's daughter and heir Alice married John Petley; the Petleys had four daughters and coheirs, one marrying into the Children family and another daughter and heir carrying Polhill.
One more estate touches the parish: Hollenden, whose demesne spreads into Leigh. It was long part of the patrimony of the Fremingham family — Ralph de Fremingham had obtained a Charter of Free Warren in 1271, the 55th year of Henry III, covering several manors in Kent. By Henry IV's reign Hollenden was held by the Cheyneys, and parcels of the manor were known as Cheyneys Fields. Late in Henry VIII's reign the manor was alienated to Waller, and from Waller it passed to the Crittenden family. Separately, part of the Hollenden demesne lying in Leigh was conveyed to the Stacy family around the start of Henry VII's reign; the Stacys in turn alienated this land to Turner, who demised it to James Pelset. Such is the web of ownership that Philipot untangles for us — a small parish caught up in the great currents of medieval England.