HAM

THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS—FRIDAY, 20 JUNE, 1902.
OUR VILLAGES

LVI.-HAM

Ham is a small parish with an area of 321 acres, containing 16 houses, and 61 inhabitants. The Church and village is situated 2* miles south from Sandwich, and it. adjoins the parishes of Worth, Ash, Betteshanger, and Northbourne. The population of the little place has fluctuated rather curiously. A hundred years ago it was 29; ten years later, in 1811, it was 42; in 1821 it had dropped to 26; in 1831 it had risen to 38; in 1841 it had fallen to 24. Prom that point it has steadily risen, during the last fifty years the census returns being: 36 in 1851; 47 in 1861; 53 in 1871; 57 in 1881; 62 in 1891: and 61 ill 1901. The decline of one shown at the last census is more than accounted for by the fact that there were then 3 of the 16 houses in the parish unoccupied.

HISTORY OF HAM.

In the days of Edward the Confessor three Thanes held the lands of the parish of Ham for the King, but at the Conquest their possession were given to Odo, the Conquerors half-brother, who was made Earl of Kent, and his tenant was Osbern, son of Letard, who also had a holding of about. 120 acres in Northbourne. The name of the place is written in Domesday Book “ Hama,” and in several early records it is called King Ham. When Oclo was disgraced and his estates confiscated, the lands of the parish of Ham were assigned to Hugh de Port for his service, under John de Fienes, in the defence of Dover Castle, the lands forming part of the Barony of Port. In the reign of Henry II. Sir William de Norfolk was Lord of the Manor. In the reign of Henry III. the Manor of Ham was held as a knight’s fee by John de St. John, a descendant of Sir William, and it was held under him by John Fitzbernard, who, becoming the principal holder, was succeeded by Ralph Fitzbernard, whose heir and successor, in Edward I.'s reign, was Henry de Sandwich, and then Ralph de Sandwich. After these it came into the possession of Juliana de Leybourne, the Infanta of Kent, who died possessed of it in the year 1368, she leaving no heir to her vast estates, they, including the Manor of Ham, went to the Crown, but early in the succeeding reign of Richard II., that monarch granted the Manor to Sir Simon de Burley, Lord Warden of the •Cinque Ports, but he being executed for treason in the year 1387, Richard II., just before he was deposed, in the year 1399, settled it on the Prior and Canons of Chiltern Langley, in Hertfordshire, and it so remained until the Priory was suppressed in the year 1539. In 1540 Henry VIII. granted it to Richard, Bishop of Dover, to hold until he should recenve some ecclesiastical benefice of the annual value of £100. The Bishop obtained a benefice in the year 1545, and the King granted the Manor of Ham to Sir Thomas Moyle, who alienated.it in 1549 to Sir Robert Oxenbridge, who already possessed some land in the parish. He owned the whole of the Manor, and his descendants about the year 1600 sold it to Mr. Edward Boys,

• of Betteshanger. , The other hinds referred to had been a separate estate from the days of John Fitzbernard, and had passed through the hands of various owners, including Sir Thomas Fogge, the Sergeant Porter of Calais, and from him it came to Si|p Robert, lOxenbridge, who united the Manor. From Edward Boys and his descendant, Edward Grotius Boys, the estate passed by will to the Rev. T nomas Brett, rector of this parish, and he sold it to Sir Henry Furnese, Bart., of Waldershare, and his son, Sir Robert Fumese, died possessed ¦ of it in the year 1733; and by marriage with his daughter Anne, it became the property 9f 'Viscount St. John, and descended to his r grandson. Viscount Bolingbrolce, who sold ft to Mr. Thomas Petman, of Eastry. Such in brief, is the story of the Manor of Ham and its owners from the Saxon period to the nineteenth century. Several important personages have held the Manor in those nine centuries. But it does not appear that any of the more prominent personages owneld ’the MJmor ever resided at Ham, the Manor House never having been more than a farmstead. The principal residence in the parish is Updown House, very pleasantly situated near Bettes'ian-•ger, but that was first fitted up as a gentleman’s residence by Captain Thomas Fagg, of Dover, who purchased it from Mr. Thompson, of Waldershare. He died possessed of it in the year 1748, and whs buried at Ham Church. Upiown House was sold after Captain Fagg’s death to B>?r George •Oxenden, of Dean, who resided there and made some improvements. Bin s'*n, Mr. 'Oxenden, sold it to Mr. Matthew Collett who spent much money in farther beautifying it, and in laying out several plnn'a-•tions around it, purchasing an ad; unir.g farm for that purpose. He die I possessed of it in the year 1777, and was buried in the nave of Ham Church. i.isvi lnv continued to reside at Updown House, and she added to the estate by purdi-ism* a small farm from Sir Edward Dering, Bart., but very soon after she sold the wiic.le t f it to Mr. John Mi net Fectrr, banker, of Dover. He, in 1786, enlaiged the property by purchasing Updown Farm. Besides adding to the extent of the estate, he further improved the seat and emparked the lands around it. He kept up Updown House for many years for his own use, but only occasionally resided there, and it continued the property of the Mi nets till about forty years ago ; but it was ;et to Sir Neol Harris, who resided there; and dying m 1860, was interred at Ham Church. Afterwards Updown House became the property and residence of the late 3ir Walter C. James, Bart., the first Lord Northbourne; and subsequently of the Hon. Walter H. .James, the present Lord Northbourne, whose principal seat is Betteshanger House. HAM OF TO-DAY.

Ham is a very pleasant rural spot. The Church is the centre of interest in the small parish. The houses, which are 16 all told, are rather scattered, sc- that there is 5c»rcelv the appearance of a village West Street is close upon its borders, but cannot be accounted1 a part of Ham, being, attached to Northbourne The principal houses are Updown House. Ham House. Hnm Farm. Updown Farm, and a row of cottages a little south of the Church, one of which is occupied by the Parish Clerk The situation is elevated. Me Churchyard commanding a view of Sandwich and Worth. | while a deep and extensive depression of marsh lands intervene between it and the sea The country between the village and Northboume is open and pleasant, and on ¦the north-west a way leads to the commanding eminence overlooking the Lynch at Eastry, while another road more westerly leads to Updown House, i country seat which for beautv of situation and extent of the prospect is deservingly a inured For a general description of the parish Hasted a account of it may be quoted, for although written a hundred years ago. it reo-’ires verv little correction to-day. That Kentish historian says:—“The parish of Ham lies at the northern boundary of the uplands of East Kent, so far it is both pleasant and
healthy, having beautiful views of the adjoining open country, the town of Deal, and beyond, the Downs and the rest of the Channel as far as the coast of France. The village, having the Church adjoining to it, has only four houses. It is pleasantly situated on high ground, the hill sloping towards the north-east. There are about 500 acres of land in this parish, the soil of which is in general fertile, consisting partly of chalk and partly of rich, loamy earth. The grounds, which are mostly arable, are open and unenclosed, at the extremity of which, towards the east, is the high road to Deal. Northward of the village the ground falls towards Ham Bridge, over the South Stream, which directs its course towards Hackling, Worth Chapel, and so on to Sandwich, through which town its runs into the River Stour. In this part of the parish the lands are marshy and pasture, and the country becomes damp in a foggy, unwholesome air. About three-quarters of a mile southward from the village is the hamlet of Updowne. This parish is about a mile-and-a-nalf from north to south, and not much more than half-a-mile the other way. There is no fair.” To bring this up-to-date it is only necessary to say that the estimate of 500 acres is 180 acres more than the actual area, while the houses put down as four should have been five, eleven having been added during the last century. Ham has no industry but agriculture, the conditions for carrying on lan£ culture profitably being favourable, the land being in good condition and near to good road® communicating directly with important towns, ports, and railways.

HAM CHURCH.

The Church at Ham, dedicated to St. George, is a small and ancient building, and at no time in the history of the parish did it need to be large, for at the Conquest there does not appear to have been but one villein on the land, with two borderers and two servants. Probably there was no Church at all at that time. There is no definite date given for the origin of Ham Church, but it is mentioned that this Church was gi anted by Archbishop Baldwin, about the year 1186, at the petition and presentation of Sir William de Norfolk, then Lord of the Manor, to the Prior and Convent of Ledes (otherwise Leeds), in pure and perpetual alms, and after which, in the year 1235, Archbishop Edmund Rich granted to them a perpetual benefice of forty shillings a year from this Church. This lien by the Convent on the revenue of the Church at Ham continued up to the Reformation, but the actual annual sum paid was only twenty shillings a year. It seems very probaole that Sir William de Norfolk, who was lord of the soil at the time, built this Church about the year 1180, and that it was in virtue of his outlay upon it that he petitioned for it to be granted to the Convent of ledes, in which he had a great interest. What service the Priory gave in return for this income is not on record, but seeing that the Priory of Chiltern Langley had the land and the Priory of Ledes a lien on the tithes, probably the maintenance of Divine Services was kept up by Priests sent from those religions houses, for there does not appear to have ever been a Parsonage in the parish of Ham. The Church as it stands now consists of a nave, chancel, south porch, and western turret containing one bell. The chancel is, no doubt, ancient, but not of such great antiquity as the nave, for it appears that the Church originally consisted of the nave only, for there is on the north wall at the eastern end of the nave an aumbry, and in the south wall opposite a piscina, and it seems as though the altar originally stood against a wall which occupied the space now opened for the chancel arch. The chancel has a fine east window of stained glass as a memorial to the Thompson and Harrison families, formerly of Up-down House. In front of the Communion table and between it and the chancel arch are several stones in the floor in memory of the Curling and Bunce families, who were at Updown in the early part of the 18th Century, their remains being interred in a vault at the east end of the chancel. A side window in the chancel is to the memory of the Rev. Charles Dale, Rector, who died in 1876 The floor of the nave is considerably lower than the level of the ground outside, there being three steps at the south entrance. This, doubtless, comes from the ground outside having been gradually raised by the burial of the dead for nearly a thousand vears. To prevent dampness arising from the lewness of the interior, a trench has in recent yeras been dug round the outer walls. In the centre of the nave there is a stone in the floor to the memory of Thomas Fagg. of Updown House, Ham, who died 22nd April, 1784 aged 65 years ; also in memory of his daughter, Lydia Fagg. murdered by her maid, 28th May, 1737, aged 22 months.

THE 8TOKY OF LITTLE LYDIA.

This stone recalls a Dover narrative which, in the early part of the Nineteenth Cen-turv, was printed in a small chap-book and made the subject of a ballad. We have also seen the same story woven into a French romance in a book published in Paris, the narrative being founded on the fact engraved on this Ham Church memorial, therefore it will not be out of place here to give the substance of the narrative. It is said that the maid, nmed Hannah, had set her cap at Captain Fagg. her master, with some encouragement from the latter, according as the story runs. The mistress observing her maid’s conduct, upbraided her in no measured terms, whereupon the girl determined to vent her revenge on the parents through little Lvdia, the child, of whom she had had charge. On the 28th May, 1737, the morning after the scene between the mistress and maid, as dawn was breaking, a woman was seen to glide mysteriously out of the house of Captain Fagg in Dover, with a bundle concealed under her shawl. She went at a rapid pace up Snargate Street, and passed over the wooden bridge which at that time spanned the stream that separated the top of Snargate Street from the Promenade, called the Ropewalk. it being necessary to cross the bridge and the Ropewalk to reach the .sea shore Just as the dawn was breaking she turned her steps towards the mole, "here she sat down on the sand. She opened her bundle, which contained a little girl a«leep. but which the movement woke up. The child was little Lydia, and she ^3|edhertonuC“eSVane. nX turned her face away, being unable to bear the gaze of the child, and for a time she was irresolute; but the dashing spray of the waves aroused her from her stupor.

| She seized Lydia, as if going to bathe her, but instead of placing her quietlv m the water as she was used to do, she threw her into the sea as far as her strength permitted. The breaking waves rolling in rarried the child back towards the shore, 5?,d the extended her little arms to Hannah. who turned her back on her. The woman’s first thought after venting her venepeance on the little one was suicide; chn however, swooned on the shore, nnd coming to herself, arose in terror, taking refuee bv flieht. She ran up the shore past the Castle, under the cliff, and staved not- till she came to a cave* near St. Margaret’s Bav, where sbe hid herself, abandoned to despair. This cave, it seems..was frequented by sportsmen, and a party ot
them coming along, Captain Fagg amongst the number, found her there. Captain Fagg addressed her: “Why, Hannah! why are you here? I left you in Dover.” Hannah replied, “Take me before my judges.’’ “Don’t take any notice of her/’ Captain Fagg remarked to his companions, “she is mad.” “I have been mad," the girl replied. “ but now I am a criminal. Take me before my Judges.’ The Captain went to raise her up, when she shrank from him in horror. “ Don’t touch me,” said she, “I ain a criminal. I have killed little Lydia Captain Fagg was terror stricken. * Don’t say that," he cried. “Swear it is not true’’ “ft is true.” Hannah reiterated; “I have killed Lydia/' The narrative says that on realizing the fact, Captain Fagg fainted, and the other men present arrested Hannah, and taking her along the shore by the Castle, conducted her to Dover; and it. being Saturday, a market day, the throng of people who had heard of the child being missing, crowded round the culprit with threats of violence. A few weeks later, some 50,000 persons assembled round a scaffold, when a way was made in the crowd for an open waggon in which there was a woman, pale and worn, at the sight of whom the crowd shouted “Vengeance !” while the woman cried as she passed, “Pity me ! I am not wholly bad —forgive me, my father and my mother !” So she passed to her doom. Such is the story as it was told in Dover: and whether true or not in its minor details, the essential facts, of which the stone in the floor of Ham Church still bears silent witness, were grim realitites.

Of Ham Church there is little more to record. The present Rector of the parish is the Rev. Canon Bliss, who is also Rector of Berteshanger. The sacred edifice is now in an excellent state of repair, having been restored in the year 1861 and further restored in 1879, three years after Canon Bliss became rector. At the entrance to the church yard is a lych gate erected in 1880. The churchyard has several memorials, but the principal ones seem to be for those who are now forgotten, or perhaps were never known by many of the present residents in the parish.