| Kent
has a long tradition of being a rebellious county, a tradition of
which I think it is proud. Ignoring the resistance mounted by Kentish
people to the invasions of Julius
Caesar (55 & 54 BC), Claudius
(AD43) and William,
Duke of Normandy (1066), there is, in the Kentish
race, a strong rebellious character manifest by various uprisings from
1381 to 1830.
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Six
outbreaks of unrest may be distinguished:
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| The
Peasants' Revolt 1381 |
Jack
Cade,s Rebellion 1450 |
| Buckingham's
Rebellion 1483
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Wyatt's Rebellion 1554
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| The
Kentish Revolt 1647-48 |
Agricultural
Labourers, Unrest 1830
("Swing Riots") |
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| Wyatt's_Rebellion
in January 1554 again arose in Maidstone
(he lived at Allington
Castle)
in protest at the Catholic Mary Tudor's(1) religious policies and her
betrothal to the equally Catholic Philip, King of Spain
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| Neither
of the above involved men of E. Kent
and of the Wingham area, in particular. All the other
rebellions/uprisings did so.
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| Peasant's
Revolt - 1381
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| The
most serious of the rebellions, from the Government of the
day's point of view was the extraordinary Peasants'
Revolt of 1381
- a rising by mainly Kentish and Essex
people of largely humble
origins, against an unpopular government and particularly against
recent heavy government taxes and certain prominent government
officials. The general details are well-known. Wat
Tyler
and John
Ball in Kent raised a large peasant army (some say 100,000 in strength) and marched
on London to meet the
King
Rchard II. The situation was extremely serious for
the King and his government.
Archbishop
of Canterbury, Sudbury
(the builder of the
Westgate in Canterbury)
was hauled out of the Tower
of London together with other prominent Royal officials (Sudbury was also
Chancellor of England
)
and summarily executed. Richard II eventually appeased the rebels and
promised them reforms and pardons and they melted back to the Kent and
Essex countryside. There were subsequent severe Government reprisals and of
course the reforms never took place.
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| Locally
several prominent local citizens in Canterbury and the surrounding district were killed by the rebels. The jury
presentments for the subsequent trials exist for Kent and for the Hundreds of Wingham and
Eastry (given jointly) and the Jurors found
that: |
| "Laurence Smyth of Chylendenne and
John Gunne, of Monkton, maliciously and against the peace, made insurrection at
Chilendenn against our Lord the King and his people, and continued
that insurrection till .... 15th June, and they say that Richard atte
Denn (?Deane) violently and maliciously killed William Wottone, at
Wotton. And they say that John de Feveresham and Sarah his wife made
complaint against John Twytham and John Clerk of Preston
concerning a certain trespass."
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The four Constables of Wingham
were named as Thomas de Gwodnestone, William atte Ware,
Robert
Kylera and Henry Peny and the two Warders as
John Gustone and
John Kedyntone.
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Jack Cade's Rebellion
- 1450 |
| In contrast, Jack
Cade's Rebellion in May-June 1450
consisted of respectable upper middle class
support for a rebellion aimed against oppressive
local officials, particularly William Cromer, Sheriff
of Kent. It largely involved people from W.
Kent and the Weald
but there were sizeable contingents from the
Hundreds of Eastry, Wingham, Preston , Petham
and the Isle
of Thanet . Cade's forces camped at Blackheath,
withdrew toward Sevenoaks
and defeated a Royalist force there, killing Sir
Humphrey Stafford. They then returned to London
and were masters of the City for 3 days, the
King (Henry
VI) having fled. They executed Lord
Saye whose seat was Knole
and who was Constable of Dover
Castle. Eventually Cade's forces were driven
out of London by its citizens and the revolt
melted away when free pardons were offered
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| The pardons issued still survive
and include for the whole of Kent, one knight,
18 esquires, 74 gentlemen and several hundred
yeomen. Two
gentlemen of Wingham were involved ‑ James Hope
and
John Oxenden
and the two constables at the time were James Cluterynden
and Richard Pury. More noteworthy
is the mention of a citizen of Wingham in
Shakespeare (Henry IV Part 11, Act IV, Scene
11);
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|
Goerge Holland
and John Bevis are at Blackheath |
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HOLLAND: |
I
see them! There's Best's son, the Tanner of Wingharn |
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BEVIS: |
He
shall have the skins of our enemies to make dog's leather
of |
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| The
Kentish Revolt of 1647-48
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| The
Kentish Revolt of 1647-48 occurred during the aftermath of the
Civil
War between Charles
I and Parliament. It was really a
revolt by local Kentish gentlemen against the misdeeds of the
Committee and not, initially, a rebellion against central government.
Also known as the Plum Pudding Riots,
because they were sparked (at least in part) by Cromwell's
attempts to ban Christmas. By
May
1648 there were reported to be 10,000 under arms but these were
eventually defeated piecemeal by General
Fairfax with 7,000 trained
soldiers of the New_Model_Army.
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| The
local gentry involved were under the leadership of Sir Thomas Peyton
of Knowlton Court and Sir Richard Hardres of Upper Hardres.
Associated with them were 20 closely related families including the
Oxindens of Deane (just S. of Wingham) and Sir Thomas Palmer of
Wingham, and of the lesser families, the Austens of Eastry, the
Paramores of Paramore in Ash
and
the Houghams of Ash.
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| Agricultural
Labourers, Unrest 1830
("Swing Riots") |
| The
last of the Kentish risings was in 1830 when the
so called "Swing
Riots"
occurred. These came about largely as a result
of the introduction of mechanical Threshing
machines which put agricultural labourors out of
work, in combination with a series of poor
harvests in the later 1820's and 1830 itself,
which had many agricultural labourors an their
families fighting for survival from starvation.
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| Although
the riots eventually involved 20 or more counties in Southern and
Eastern ,
Kent
(inevitably!) was the first with the disturbances. Initially there had
been sporadic acts of incendiarism in W. Kent
around Orpington
but on
28th
August 1830 at
Upper
Hardres the first threshing machine was destroyed by a gang of
men from Elham,
later joined by men from Lyminge
and Stelling.
The destruction
increased over the ensuing weeks and by late October over 100
machines, mainly
in E.
Kent
had been destroyed. Further acts of incendiarism occurred in W.
Kent and the burning
spread to E. Kent , Michael Becker's property
at Ash being gutted. Such was the fear of local farmers that some
voluntarily destroyed their own machines and this occured in Wingham
although the parish had not yet received any visits from the rioters.
Over the next weeks and months the rioting spread west and north to
affect most of S. and E.
England . Much alarm was caused by these riots but they
eventually died down during 1831. Sentencing of the prime offenders
was severe - in the whole country 644 were jailed, 252 were
sentenced to death of which 19 were executed, and 481 were transported
to Australia and
of these totals, 48 Kentish men were jailed, 5 were sentenced to death
and four were executed (more than any other county) and 25 were
transported.
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| Local
events are quite well recorded. The following incidents occurred:
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| 5.10.30
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Ash
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Arson
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| 25-26.10.30
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Ash-Wingham
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Destruction threshing machine
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| 9.11.30 |
Preston |
Destruction threshing machine
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| 9.11.30
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Wingham
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Destruction threshing machine
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| 11.11.30
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Eastry |
Destruction threshing machine
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| 11.11.30
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Wingham
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Destruction threshing machine
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| 29.11.30
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Wingham
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Destruction threshing machine
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| 4.12.30
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Wingham
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Arson
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27.8.31
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Wingham
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Destruction threshing machine
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| Top |
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| |
| (1)
This is Queen
Mary_I_of_England (1516 - 1558) who was the daughter of Henry VIII
and Catherine of Aragon)
and married Philip II of Spain.
1n 1554. |
| This is not the same
person as Mary
Tudor, Queen of France
(1496 - 1533) |
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|
