Additional Hussey Manuscripts, 1597-1959

This collection of documents of the Hussey family of Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst, consisting in the main of nineteenth and early twentieth century estate and family papers and correspondence, supplements the two other collections of Hussey MSS in the Archives Office, U409 and U1006. The first of these is constituted mainly of manorial documents, title deeds and maps, dating between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries; while the second collection is mainly title deeds between c.1750 - 1870.

Deposited by: Mrs. E. Hussey, Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst

The Hussey family, who trace their ancestry back to Hubert de Huse, who was thought to have come to England in the time of William the Conqueror, have owned Scotney Castle and estate since 1779 when it was sold to Edward Hussey, eldest son of Thomas Hussey, esq., of Burwash, County Sussex. It had for the previous three hundred years, with a very short exception, been owned by a branch of the Darell family. Another and more senior branch of this family were resident at Calehill, Little Chart.

Scotney Castle is a moated castle, which was, according to Edward Hasted in his History of Kent c.1790, named after the family of de Scoteni, a noted member of which family, Walter, resided there in the reign of Henry III. The castle was superseded as a dwelling place in 1837, when Anthony Salvin, the architect, designed a new house for Edward Hussey on higher ground, overlooking the picturesquely 'ruinated' castle, and the carefully landscaped grounds. Details of Salvin's work here, and on the Hussey chapel in Lamberhurst Church, are included among the Estate Papers, and Maps and plans.