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Elizabeth Selby’s text

Our Comments

p.20

Vicars of Teynham Church: “1663. Henry Eve. Also Vicar of Linsted, Midley and Buckland. Known as the “Farming Doctor” (D.D.?). He owned two farms in Linsted, two in Buckland, two or three in Tenham, estates at Newington and in London, “enough, the people say, for any three farmers in this country, tho’ they sit up late and rise early”. (Archaeologia, Vol. XX, p.187) He lived at Sundries in Linsted, then called Edwards, and was buried at Linsted in 1685. He was a profiteer of the Commonwealth period and frightened the Vicar of Lynsted out of his Parish and probably his predecessor at Teynham also.”

“Sundries” is now known as Sunderland Farmhouse.

Henry Eve donated the candelabra that hangs in Lynsted church today

p.25

“St Andrews: The site of this building was given by Mr.James Lake, of Newlands, and it was called the Working Men’s Club and Institute. It is situated on the hill in Greenstreet, Teynham.  In 1869 it was altered to form a Chapel of Ease in connection with S.Mary’s, Teynham, for the use of the dwellers in Greenstreet, as the population had so much increased. It was enlarged in 1872, and the seating and a harmonium were provided by the congregation. £29.5 used to be raised annually by pew rents; these are not now paid.  There are brasses to Mr James Lake, Dr. Pritchard and James Frederick Honeyball.”

This building no longer serves a community purpose and has passed into private hands.

Population changes in the area can be tracked on our census summary page.

p.25

Teynham Churchwardens’ and Overseers’ Accounts: “In 1816 £6.13.3 was paid to Wm. Maytum of Lynsted for “mending, plastering and whitening inside and painting windows”. Possibly the gallery was put up about then, as an 1827 entry gives £1.6, a year’s salary, to Streatfield for “looking after the children in the gallery”.”

pp 27-31

Wars, Rebellions, Crimes and Manor Fines: Teynham, Lynsted and Greenstreet feature heavily in the local history of the various Kent Rebellions of the 14th and 15th centuries. The whole of North-East Kent was deeply involved in “Wat Tyler’s Rebellion”. Names from Lynsted mentioned in “Jack Cade’s Rebellion” (1450). Amongst those pardoned for participation in “Jack Cade’s” Rising is mentioned the name of Adam Greenstrete as were many from Lynsted and Teynham.

p.28

1600’s: “During the Wars of Charles I and the Commonwealth times, the whole Manor and Hundred were evidently in confusion (the majority supported the King).  On May 9th, 1645, Christopher Roper fourth Lord Teynham was asked to report at the House of Commons as a recusant, and in 1648 he had to agree to the sale of a portion of his lands sequestered for recusancy.” In 1656, Simon Greenstreet and Leonard Smith are mentioned as suspected recusants (adherents of Roman Catholicism rather than the established church).

The family of one member of our Society Committee signed Charles I death warrant! A bad move it turned out too!

p.30

1603 - Manor Court.  Joseph Wyllocke, of Bumpit, was fined 3/4 for making an “affraye att Greenstreet” upon one William Donnard, and was further declared outlaw at the suit of one George Mykes of Canterbury for two or three years.”

p.31

“In 1837 occurred what is called the “Courtenay” Riot. Courtenay was really a man called John Nicholas Thom and was said to be mad, but he undoubtedly obtained a following in all the villages of North-East Kent and old people have told me they remembered seeing him march through Greenstreet with a large following armed with scythes, sickles, flails, sticks, etc., on their way to a meeting in Sittingbourne.  His portrait was in many houses fifty years ago, and he was looked on as a deliverer by the agricultural labourer who was then suffering from bad times.

p32

The Great War (First World War - 1914-18): “Most of us who lived in the London Road remember the enormous traffic of the first few weeks, starting in August 4th quite early with cars laden with reservist sailors cheering on their way to join their ships at Chatham , and the poor little Boy Scouts who were set to guard each telegraph pole!
Many of us remember a rumple at night, and forty London buses on their way to the front in 1914.
The so-called “Russians” were seen passing Teynham Station - in this case reservist Marines on their way to Deal.
Again, in 1915 a rumble awoke us and was found to be the first Zeppelin raid which gave us our first shock of bombs dropping, this time over Sittingbourne.
A worse occasion was the Fokkers dropping bombs over Chatham in 1917.  The sound of air raids became too painfully common. For a whole week in 1917 the familiar “Take cover - air raid” was heard every night, but no bomb was dropped in any of the parishes.
....Our windows rattled for days before the July 1st attack on the Somme in 1916, and the rumble of guns could be heard any still summer evening for four years.
The Armistice came to a tired neighbourhood in the throes of a terribly bad influenza epidemic, but I well remember starting for Glovers Hospital just after the maroons had gone at 11 o’clock on November 11th and seeing aeroplanes from Eastchurch flying to and fro with long streamers floating behind, and all the people of Greenstreet running out of their homes, waving their hands and shouting, “Is it really true?”

MORE TO FOLLOW.  For now, we are working only on the Greenstreet area, but Selby is a magnificent source for the whole Hundred. Feb 2006