J. Holland, Delᵗ. on Stone, by W. Walton. M. & N. Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ.
CHARLTON HOUSE, KENT
CHARLTON HOUSE,
KENT.
HARLTON—according to Philipott, “anciently written Ceorleton, that is the town inhabited with honest, good, stout, and usefull men, for tillage and countrye businesse,” the name being derived from the Saxon word Ceorle, a husbandman, “from which radix ‘Churle’ cometh,” and so Churleston, whence Charlton—is a village in Kent distant seven miles from London, and standing on the summit of a hill, which commands an extensive view of the Thames, and the opposite shores of Essex county.[39] In the reign of Edward the Confessor, the Manor was held by two brothers, Godwin and Alward; the Conqueror bestowed it upon his half brother Odo, Bishop of Baieux; subsequently, it came into the possession of Robert Bloett, Bishop of Lincoln, who gave it, about the year 1093, to the Prior and Monks of Bermondsey. After the suppression of that Monastery, it passed into the hands, severally, of Sir Thomas White, Anne Lady Parry, and Thomas Fortescue. In 1604, it was granted by James the First to John Earl of Mar, by whom it was sold immediately afterwards to Sir James Erskine, who re-sold it, in 1607, to Sir Adam Newton; his son, Sir Henry Newton, (who had taken the name of Puckering,) “a great royalist who suffered much by sequestration,”[40] alienated it in 1659, to Sir William Ducie,[41] afterwards Viscount Downe, by whose representatives it was disposed of to Sir William Langhorne, an East India merchant; from him, failing male issue, inherited “his kinswoman,” Mrs. Margaret Maryon, widow, whose son John bequeathed it to his niece, whose daughter Jane inheriting, conveyed it by marriage to Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, Bart., whose grandson, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, Bart., now possesses the estate.
The Wilsons are a family of great antiquity, descended from William Welson or Wilson, chancellor to William the Conqueror:—From Thomas Wilson, of Elton, in Yorkshire, 1250, was descended Sir Thomas Wilson, Knight, LL.D., Dean of Durham, principal Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth; not only an able statesman, but one of the most eminent scholars of that age. He was knighted and made Dean of Durham and Master of St. Katherine’s, near the Tower, by Queen Elizabeth, in reward for important and continued services. The baronetcy was conferred, in 1660, upon his descendant, William Wilson, of East-bourne, son and heir of John Wilson, of Sheffield-place, Sussex, for his fidelity and distinguished conduct on the side of the monarchy, during the civil wars. The present baronet is the eighth in succession; a magistrate for Kent, Sussex, and Surrey; a deputy-lieutenant, and captain in the West Kent Militia; and was High Sheriff of Kent in 1828. Sir Thomas is also Lord of the Manor of Hampstead, where he inherited considerable property.
The Manor House of Charlton was built by Sir Adam Newton, between the years 1607 and 1612. Sir Adam was tutor to Prince Henry, the son of James the First; and, according to contemporary authorities, it was erected for the Prince, a statement which receives confirmation from the royal arms placed over one of the recesses of the saloon, while the plume of ostrich feathers—the cognizance of the Prince—occupies a similar position opposite.[42] Evelyn speaks of it as “a faire house built for Prince Henry.”[43] The interest of Charlton House is greatly enhanced by the fact that here was formed the mind of the estimable youth; here he was trained to virtue. After the lamented death of his beloved pupil, Mr. Newton, “though made treasurer to Prince Charles, spent the remainder of his days chiefly in study and retirement.”