Minster in Thanet, Kent Begars Bushe 1566

A deed dated 1566 records, 1a. At Fyldes Court Wood, ½a. At Dunstreet Way, 1 rood “called Begars Busshe lying to the King’s highway towards the South, to the lands of Robert Alcok towards the East and West and to the lands of Robert Spracklyng twoards the North”.  The seller is Henry Pettit of Birchington, probably the Henry Pettit, son of John, born before 1523 at Birchington who died in 1568, though possibly the Henry Pettit, son of Valentine, born about 1520 at Dent-de-Lion, Margate. The purchaser is “Galfride Sandwell” of “Mynster”.

Minster in Thanet was just north of the River Wansum. Dun Street is a olloway recorded in 1410 but probably much older, near Mount Pleasant. In 1563 there were fifty-three households.

Hasted wrote:
“THORNE, or as it is vulgarly called, Thourne, is a manor in this parish, situated about a mile southward from Powcies above mentioned, being so named from the quantity of thorny bushes growing on and about it. This manor was antiently the seat of a family which took their name from it, one of them, Henry de Thorne, was owner of it in the year 1300”.
This may be evidence of the state of the ground in that part of the parish, but I can’t place the Begars Busshe in that part, so any connection is speculative.

This site may be the source of the later Beggars Bush at Birchington, a village just north of Minster. The collection of Minster Deeds also include land is Washeter field sold in 1556. According to Hasted Waschester was an estate bought by Jeffry Sandwell of Monkton, with other lands in Minster, Monkton and Birchington, which were later combined with the a farm called Acol, which is midway between Minster and Birchington villages. Geoffrey Sandwell is recorded in the archives as a juror in Minster in Thanet in 1601 but there is litigation over his estate by 1617. Galfride is used elsewhere as an alternate for Geoffrey, so it seems likely this is the same person (or possibly father & son).  so it is possible that the site in Minster in Thanet was in the same ownership as the site in Birchington.

Sources

Business Records of G. C. Solley & Company, Estate Agents of Sandwich, Cat. Ref. EK/U1507, Title Deeds, Minister in Thanet, ref. EK/U1507/T15 – date: 1566

Canterbury Cathedral Archives CCA-U3-76/5/A/6

Hasted, Edmund,’Parishes: Minster’, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 10 (1800), pp. 264-294. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63623 Date accessed: 01 May 2011.

Thanks

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Posted: May 1st, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Acol, Birchington, Kent, Minster in Thanet, early sites | No Comments »