Coleman family of Chitcombe in Brede - Wick and Carltons Farms and woodland in Udimore...

The purchase of 1867 consisted of four separate titles, which had been assembled by William Woodhams of Udimore, yeoman, between 1799 and 1807

Wick Farm consisted of six freehold tenements held of the manor of Udimore (XA32/18). The farm as purchased in 1867 was probably as shown on a map of the estate of the Woodhams family - Hammonds, Wick, Carltons and Fagg Farms - drawn in 1838 (AMS 5777). That map suggests that the boundaries between those properties had been adjusted at a fairly recent date

There is no deed of purchase in the bundle, but a list of the deeds (AMS 6199/11/23) makes clear that the conveyance was executed on 11 May 1867

Wick Farm in Udimore and Brede, purchased by William Woodhams in 1799

In 1734, Wick Farm was described as

A house, barn, stables, malthouse, 13 pieces of upland, one of brookland and four of marshland (120a), with one piece of woodland (12a), occupied by William Woodhams

On 8 and 9 February 1734, Wick Farm was settled on the marriage of William Henley, eldest son of Bowyer Henley of Otham in Kent, esq, and his wife Mary, with Dorothea, a daughter of William and Elizabeth Singleton and niece of Edward Turner, esq; an estate in Kent was also included in the settlement (AMS6454/15/46)

Bowyer Henley's will of 23 September 1740 was proved in PCC on 31 December 1742; Mary Henley died intestate on 25 November 1752. By his will of 22 June 1752, William Henley left his real estate to his only son William; he also left six daughters: Dorothea wife of Beversham Filmer, esq, who died without issue, Elizabeth wife of William Horne, clerk, Ann Henley, Mary Henley, Priscilla wife of Richard Hammett, clerk and Bridget Henley. Administration with the will annexed was granted to William's widow Dorothea on 23 June 1762 (AMS6454/15/43, 44)

William Henley was declared a lunatic under a commission issued in 1781 and his estate committed to his brother-in-law William Horne. In Hilary term 1786 a bill was filed in Chancery by Richard and Priscilla Hammett and Bridget Henley in order to obtain payment of a sum of £4000 secured by the settlement of 1734 to the younger daughters of the marriage. The matter was referred to Master Wilmot by a decree of 31 May 1786 whose report of 24 July ordered that the sum, with costs, was to be raised by a mortgage of a 500-year term created for that purpose by the settlement of 1734 (AMS6454/15/46, 47)

On 26 July 1786 the term was mortgaged to Edward Montague of Simmonds Inn, London, esq, a master in Chancery, Andrew Gother of Shorwell, IOW, clerk, and Eleazer Davy of The Grove, Suffolk, esq, for £4162 6s 3d. Dorothea Henley died in March 1785, and on 26 July 1786 a further sum of £762 7s 5d was advanced by Montague. Gother and Davy to pay a £500 legacy bequeathed to her by her husband, and legacies in her own will (AMS6454/15/46)

On 2 January 1788 the mortgage was assigned by Montague (now of Lincolns Inn), Gother and Davy, with the approval of William Henley's committee in lunacy William Horne of Otham, clerk, to Peter Holford, esq, master in Chancery, for £4924 13s 8d (AMS6454/15/1)

William Henley had made a will before his lunacy, leaving his estate to his wife, Dorothea Hannah Louisa Harriet, countess Berghausen who, however, predeceased him in October 1793

Wick Farm in Udimore and Brede, purchased by William Woodhams in 1799

William Henley died on 6 June 1798, and an administration with the will annexed was granted to his nephew William Horne the younger, his two surviving sisters, Priscilla Hammett and Bridget Henley, having renounced (AMS6454/15/44, 46)

On 22 June 1799, Thomas Rashleigh of Hatton Garden, Mx, gent, acting on behalf of Priscilla Hammett, Bridget Henley and William Horne, agreed to sell Wick Farm to the occupier, William Woodhams of Udimore, yeoman, for £3771 14s 2d. Wick was described as a house, cottage, buildings and 125a 2r 9p land, of which 8a was hop-ground and 33a of marsh lay in Tillingham Level; it was subject to quitrents amounting to £1 0s 3d to the manor of Udimore (AMS6454/15/2)

On 20 August 1799 Richard E N Lee, Rashleigh's partner, wrote to Cooper and Hill of Lewes, attorneys acting for Woodhams, to say that William Henley had had an illegitimate son many years before his marriage; this was corrected in another letter of 5 December to the effect that Henley's wife had had an illegitimate son before he married her. Rashleigh and Lee undertook to provide a copy of the settlement executed on 1 and 2 November 1799 on the marriage of William Horne the younger with Maria Whitear of Hastings, spinster, with the purpose of barring dower in the estate, and also provided a copy of the mortgage of 1786 and a pedigree of the Henley family from Bowyer Henley (d 1742) to 1799 (AMS6454/15/3-8)

The conveyance was executed on 26 and 27 December 1799 by William Horne the younger of Otham, clerk, Priscilla Hammett of Bideford, Devon, widow and Bridget Henley of Bideford, spinster; John Woodhams of Udimore, gent, acted as trustee for William Woodhams, and the term created by the settlement of 1734 was assigned to Thomas Cooper of Udimore, gent, in trust for William Woodhams (AMS6454/15/9, 10)

Carltons Farm in Udimore, purchased by William Woodhams in 1800

In 1716, Carltons was described as

A messuage, and eight pieces of land and wood (16a), occupied by Thomas Freebody; N: Bowyer Henley esq; W: Mr Elfred's heirs; S: Udimore - Rye road; E: Knellstone Wood

On 9 November 1715, John Freebody of Udimore, gent, mortgaged Carltons to Alice Kytt of Rye, widow, for £100. On 6 and 7 April 1716 John's widow Elizabeth and son Thomas Freebody of Udimore, gent, conveyed the farm to Alice Kytt on the payment of a further £100 (AMS6454/15/11, 12)

On 27 and 28 June 1716 Alice Kytt settled the property on her marriage with John Beaver of Rye, yeoman; the trustee, Edward Wilson of Rye, clerk, was to hold in trust for the issue of the marriage, with remainder to himself and Alice's nephew John Ruck of Rye, butcher as trustees for sale for the benefit of Alice's sister Jane Company, widow, Jane's son Richard Company, John Ruck, his son Thomas Ruck, daughter Hannah Ruck, Alice's niece Elizabeth wife of Abraham Kennett the younger of Rye, butcher, Alice's niece Mary and nephew Robert, children of her brother Robert Baker, to John, son of her brother John Baker, and to her nieces Mary Midmore and Elizabeth Noakes (AMS6454/15/13, 14)

John and Alice Beaver died without children, and were predeceased by Jane and Richard Company, Thomas and Hannah Ruck, Mary Baker and Mary Midmore. On 21 and 22 June 1734 Edward Wilson and John Ruck sold Carltons, occupied by William Woodhams, to Nathaniel Pigram of Rye, gent, for £220. The beneficiaries of the settlement - Richard Baker of Ticehurst, farmer, Robert Baker the elder of Goudhurst, farmer, John Ruck of Chevening, butcher, Abraham Kennett the younger of Rye, butcher and his wife Elizabeth, Robert Baker the younger of Goudhurst, husbandman, John Baker of Hastings St Clements, farmer, Thomas Beal of Ticehurst, fellmonger and his wife Elizabeth (formerly Noakes), William Seal of Rye, mariner, (son of Mary Baker deceased by William Seal) and Thomas Fuller of Bexhill, labourer (son of Mary Midmore deceased by Thomas Fuller), were also parties to the conveyance (AMS6454/15/15)

On 22 March 1765, Jane Underwood of Rye, widow, one of Nathaniel Pigram's two sisters and co-heirs, granted a six-year lease of Carltons (a house, oasthouse and 18a) to Thomas Woodgate of Udimore, husbandman, at £15; the lease contains detailed farming covenants and field-names (AMS6454/15/16)

Jane Underwood was survived by her sister Eleanor Beaver, widow, whose daughter Jane, a spinster in July 1770 when she executed a release for legacies in the wills of Nathaniel Pigram the elder and younger, was by June 1773 the wife of Thomas Holford of Rye, surgeon, and the widow of Thomas Frewen of Rye, gent (AMS6454/15/48)

Thomas Holford was survived by his wife Jane and two daughters, Charlotte and Elizabeth. On 25 and 26 May 1798 a settlement was made on Charlotte's marriage with Thomas Barlow Higgens of Hambledon, Hants, esq, of which James Megaw of Rye, surgeon, was the trustee, and on 5 July 1799 a settlement was made on Elizabeth's marriage with William Watts, esq, a lieutenant in the first Northamptonshire Militia, of which Daniel Pope of Rye, clerk, was the trustee (AMS6454/15/17, 18)

On 29 and 30 May 1800 Mr and Mrs Higgens, Mr and Mrs Watts (now of Lambs Conduit Street, Mx) and their trustees sold Carltons, described as a house, barn, stable and 16a, formerly occupied by John Spilsted and Thomas Pelham and later by Thomas Woodgate, to the occupier, William Woodhams of Udimore, gent, and his trustee William Durrant of Rye, gent, for £500. The vendors and Jane Holford, widow, entered a £1000 bond to secure the title against claims under the will of Jane Holford's uncle, Nathaniel Pigram of Rye, gent, including a £10 annuity bequeathed to Nathaniel Pigram, goldsmith (AMS6454/15/17-19)

Ashenkicker Wood (49a 3r), Little Austens Wood (5½a) and Great Austens Wood (50a 3r) in Brede, purchased by William Woodhams in 1801

These woods formed part of the estate of Samuel Gott of Egerton in Goodmersham, Kent, esq, which by 1795 had passed, as described in AMS6454/11/2, to Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Edward Knatchbull and the trustees appointed under a private Act of 1795 to effect a partition of the estate

On 1 November 1785, Nathaniel Furner made a survey of the fence around the woodland in Brede belonging to Henry Thomas Gott, esq, which was transcribed by a member of the Bourne family. After the purchase by William and John Woodhams, references to 'our wood' and 'my father' were annotated 'Mr John Bourne' [the owner of Kicker Wood - see AMS6454/15/29-41 (AMS6454/15/20)

On 13 and 14 February 1801 the three woods were conveyed by Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Edward Knatchbull and their several trustees to William Woodhams of Udimore, gent, and his trustee Charles Kennett of Rye, grocer, for £3061; the timber and underwood had been valued at £2629 by Edward Ades the younger and John Neve on 18 December 1800 (AMS6454/15/21-26)

The purchase had in fact been made by William Woodhams and John Woodhams jointly, and on 2 June 1803 the £2 16s land-tax charged on the woods was redeemed by them both (AMS6454/15/27)

John Woodhams wished to sell his moiety to William Woodhams, and the woodland was valued at £5350 2s by Edward Ades and Charles Hoad shortly before his death. On 14 December 1820 his executors, Catherine Woodhams, W Cooper Woodhams and George Bray, acknowledged receipt of half that sum from William Woodhams (AMS6454/15/28)

Kicker Wood (4a 0r 38p) in Brede, purchased by William Woodhams in 1807

When the wood was purchased, with other land, by John Bourne of Brede in 1768, copies of several earlier documents, certified by William Marshall of Cliffords Inn, were provided by the vendor, and illustrate the descent of the title from 1732

For a map of Thomas Mercer's woods in Brede, including Kicker (called Ashenkicker) Wood, by John Stonestreet, 1743, see FRE 7986

The will of Joseph Mercer of Maidstone, yeoman, written on 25 July 1732 when he was 70, was proved in PCC. He left three pieces of wood in Brede, in his own occupation, to his son Thomas Mercer. As well as property in Kent, Mercer also bequeathed a barn, land and wood called White Down and a brook called Crab Brook, both in Westfield and occupied by Nicholas Jemson, to his eldest son Robert Mercer, charged with a £400 legacy to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of William Browning. Joseph Mercer also recited that he had examined an entry in the court rolls of Battle manor relating to copyhold land which he had purchased from Peter Farnden's heirs, and to which his son Robert had been admitted; in 1652 Farnden had obtained a licence to demolish buildings, fell timber and lease the land and all the waste adjoining it (AMS6454/15/29)

Thomas Mercer of Maidstone's will of 22 November 1743 was proved in PCC on 26 March 1745. He left his woodland in Brede to his daughter Susannah, with remainders in the case of her death before achieving her majority (AMS6454/15/30)

A settlement was executed on 27 June 1755 on the marriage of Susannah Mercer then of Charterhouse Square, London, with John Dowding of Bucklersbury, London, gent; the trustees were Susannah's guardians, John Brook of Northiam, yeoman, and Andrew Robbins of Ludgate Hill, London, laceman. The parties covenanted that Susannah, within six months of her majority, would convey her estate to trustees. With the exception of woodland in Brede amounting to 14½a, the entire estate, which is described in great detail, lay in Kent. On 5 and 6 September 1758, in fulfilment of the covenant, John and Sarah, then of St Thomas the Apostle, London, conveyed the estate to Andrew Robbins and Bedwell Law of Ave Mary Lane, London, bookseller, as trustees of the settlement (AMS6454/15/31-34)

John Dowding was dead by 1767, leaving Susannah a widow with four daughters - Susannah (9), Ann (8), Esther Martha (7) and Harriet; in that year, a private act of parliament was promoted to permit the sale of the estate, despite the infancy of the heirs (AMS6454/15/35). The act vested the estate in Thomas Jordan of Goodmans Fields, Mx, esq, and Francis Gregg of Dowgate Hill, London, gent, who on 28 and 29 September 1768 were joined by Susannah Dowding, now of Ave Mary Lane, in a conveyance of the Brede woodland to John Bourne of Brede, yeoman, for £359 10s. The deed was endorsed with the name and valuation of each wood - Lazyfield Wood (£85 10s), Goldfrenges Wood (£173) and Kicker Wood (£101) (AMS6454/15/36, 37)

The will of John Bourne the elder of Brede, proved in PCC on 28 January 1794, bequeathed a piece of marshland in Pevensey Level purchased of William Apps and the three pieces of woodland in Brede to his son John Bourne (AMS6454/15/38)

In October 1797 John Bourne sold Goldfrenges Wood to George Sloman, miller, and a note of the sale was endorsed on the deed of 1768 (AMS6454/15/37). On 17 February 1798 John Bourne mortgaged the remaining woodland (8a), and a house, barn, stable and 12a called Pattletons in Brede (once occupied by Thomas Firminger, then Thomas Bridger, now JB and his tenant John Selmes - detailed bounds) to Thomas Lamb of Rye, esq, for £400 at 5% (AMS6454/15/39)

Articles on the marriage of John Bourne with Elizabeth Summers of Brede, widow, were executed on 30 July 1802. Bourne covenanted with Christopher Hoad of Icklesham, gent, to settle a £26 annuity on Elizabeth, and that part of his freehold house at Brede Hill which was occupied by Mr Smallfield, a schoolmaster (the other part was occupied by Samuel Vennell), should she survive him (AMS6454/15/40)

On 20 and 21 February 1807 Bourne sold Kicker or Ashenkicker Wood (4a 0r 38p) to William Woodhams of Udimore, gent, and his trustee William Durrant of Rye, gent, for £300, of which £250 was paid to Thomas Phillips Lamb of Mountfield Lodge, Rye, esq, executor of Thomas Lamb's will, in discharge of the mortgage of 1798. A covenant for the production of the deed to John Bourne in respect of Lazyfield Wood, which he retained, was endorsed on the deed of 1768 (AMS6454/15/41, 42; 15/37)

The whole estate

Early in the 1820s certified copies of the wills of Bowyer Henley and William Henley, former owners of Wick Farm, were obtained; the paper is watermarked 1822 (AMS6454/15/43, 44)

On 21 and 22 July 1829, William Woodhams mortgaged Ashenkicker and Austens Woods to Ann Haddock of Rye, spinster, and her trustees William Watson (her nephew) and John H Lardner of Rye, gents (her brother-in-law), for £3000 (AMS6454/15/50)

By his will of 16 December 1829, William Woodhams of Tufton Place, Udimore, appointed as trustees Thomas Cooper Langford of Udimore, gent, and William Morris the younger of Iden, gent. He left a messuage, cottage, outbuildings and 132a called Wick, with land called Carltons (16a) and Gothams (38a) in his own occupation, in trust for his grand-daughter Mary Emily Woodhams for life, with remainder to her children, and a cottage and garden, woods called Ashenkicker, Little and Great Austens and The Kicker in Brede, The Channel Marsh (6a 2r 10p) and Ferry Marsh (7a 1r 13p) in Winchelsea, in trust for his grand-daughter Eliza Woodhams for life, remainder to her children (AMS6454/15/45)

The will also included bequests of a messuage, outbuildings and 313a 0r 16p freehold and copyhold called Pelsham, in Peasmarsh and Rye, occupied by his daughter-in-law Catherine Woodhams, widow of his son William Cooper Woodhams, in trust for his grand-daughter Sarah Jane Woodhams for life, with remainder to her children; land called Fagg (109a) in Udimore, Grovers Farm Peasmarsh (32a 3r 7p, freehold and copyhold of the manors of Herstmonceux and Iden), marshland (31a 0r 23p) in Icklesham and four leasehold cottages in Weymans or Dumb Womans Lane, Rye, in trust for his grand-daughter Catherine Cooper Woodhams; five leasehold cottages in Brede, occupied by William Foreman, Joseph Larkin, William Sutland, James Whiteman and James Noakes, in trust for his grandson Richard William Woodhams at 21 (AMS6454/15/45)

By a codicil of 16 December 1829 Woodhams instructed that part of a messuage and 51a called Buttons in Peasmarsh, with its tithes, which he had recently bought from George Bray (surviving devisee of George Woodhams), after his sale of the house, outbuildings and part of the land to Herbert Barrett Curteis, was to form part of his residuary estate. He also appointed his nephew Jeremiah Smith of Cadborough in Rye, gent, executor and trustee in the place of Morris, who had expressed the wish to retire (AMS6454/15/45)

On 22 and 23 April 1839, Woodhams' trustees raised £7000 by a mortgage of Wick, Carltons and the woodland (detailed description) to Herbert Barrett Curteis of the Hermitage in Peasmarsh, esq, and Benjamin Thomas Halcott Cole clerk, rector of Warbleton, to whom Watson and Lardner, having proved Ann Haddock's will in PCC on 27 April 1838, assigned the 1829 mortgage of the woodland (AMS6454/15/50)

Abstracts of title to the whole estate were drawn by Lardner and Dawes of Rye in 1845, perhaps in contemplation of the marriage of Mary Emily Woodhams with William Baldwin (AMS6454/15/46-50)

They mortgaged the estate to Catherine Woodhams on 18 July 1853 - AMS 6199/11/23

The abstracts were corrected and certified for copying by Domville Lawrence and Graham on 12 April 1867 (AMS6454/15/46-50), and the estate conveyed to Horace and Carlos Coleman of Chitcombe in Brede on 11 May 1867 - AMS 6199/11/23

On 30 May 1882 Henry Edwards Paine and Richard Brettell, both of Chertsey, esqs, lords of the manor of Udimore, released the seignory of eight freehold tenements for a payment of £150 by Horace and Carlos Coleman; six of the tenements comprised Wick Farm, and the remaining two related to parts of Tibbs Farm (AMS6454/15/51, 52)

In 1899, Wick and Carlton Farms were sold to G M Freeman and Ashenkicker Wood to Messrs Miller - AMS 6199/11/23