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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 14  1882  page 48

The Early History of Tenterden by Robert Furley, F.S.A.

King was resolved that the laws should be respected, regardless of the rank of the offender, and he compelled Gaveston to quit England, and prohibited the young Prince from approaching the Court for some months; so he spent a portion of his time in Kent, keeping at a respectful distance from his royal father, who had then (1305) a country seat at Newenden, and was fishing and shooting in Kent. The Prince remained for some days at Tenterden, and there wrote five or six letters to his family and friends, which have been preserved. In them he shews great anxiety to obtain the King's forgiveness. One's curiosity is aroused respecting the spot where he dwelt.
   Tradition says that Pitlesden (standing on the northern side of the present High Street) once belonged to the renowned Earl Godwin, who resided there (?); and that there the Prince took up his abode. My informant was my late respected friend, Mr. Joseph Munn, to whom it had been handed down.
   The necessities of the sovereign were now supplied by Aids, being assessments upon those who held of him or 

some inferior lord, by knight, or military service. Edward II caused a return to be made of the hundreds, and the villes or towns in them, for the purpose of a military levy. This return is called "Nomina Villarum." In it, the King's name appears as lord of the hundred of Tenterden, and the archbishop, the prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, and Sir John de Segrave, and Sir Richard de Rokesle as lords of the ville or town. The last-named persons were at this time two of the leading gentry of Kent.
   I propose next to notice some of the principal estates in Tenterden and their earliest proprietors.
   Heronden (which belonged to an old family of that name, passed into the family of Curteis, and is now held by Mrs. Croughton) may, I think, be classed, with Pitlesden, amongst the first of the denes which possessed family residences. More interest, however, attaches to Pitlesden already referred to, from the fact that Sir John Dudley, afterwards Duke of Northumberland (who was attainted and beheaded in the reign of Queen Mary), inherited it (with Kenchill) in

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