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The Hodsolls were not generally long-lived,
and all too often quite the contrary, but they were, overall, a prolific
family. By the end of Elizabeth’s reign they had spread into other
Kentish parishes, notably to nearby Wrotham and Ightham, and in the
seventeenth century branches of the family were established in Plaxtol and
Shipbourne. By the end of that century, or very early in the next, they
had also arrived in Hadlow. The registers of all those parishes have
Hodsoll entries, some in considerable number. As to Ash, Hodsoll entries
continue throughout the whole period of the ancient registers with a
multiplicity beyond the wit of ordinary man to unravel.1
It is seemly that the first entry in the Ash registers is of
a Hodsoll; Thomas of that ilk ‘was buryed the 17th day of Aughust in the
yeare aboue said’, that being the year 1553. Thomas was probably head of
the family and the father of William Hodsoll of South Ash, gent. (‘William
I’), who lived on until 1586. In the Lay Subsidy of 1570-71 William I
was assessed in landes x li, on which |
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the tax payable was 13s.4d.; his was the highest
assessment in the parish.2
Leaving no son, William I was succeeded by his nephew of the
same name (‘William II’). One or the other of these two must have been
responsible for the wall paintings in the dining room at South Ash Manor
and probably one of them added to that ancient building its two-storeyed
porch.3
William II married a widow named Eleanor Parker, by whom he
had a numerous family and who survived, him some fifteen years. He died in
1616, leaving to Eleanor, amongst other things, an annuity of £50, a
rather back-handed gift of ‘the summe of twenty seaven poundes two
shillinges & sixpence wch her sonne Mr Richard
Parker dooth owe vnto me, to bee payd to her by the sayd Richard’, 'my
ridinge nagge or geldings & ye ridinge furniture wch
my sayd wyfe doth vae when shee rydeth or iornyth abroad’ and the
obligation to board his son William (‘William III’). Other of his
legacies included gifts for his younger |