Sharsted Court - History

History

According to Edward Hasted, the 18th-century historian of Kent, the manor then known as Sahersted formed part of the estate of Odo de Bayeux at the time of his fall from grace in 1080. It is not known what type of structure existed on the site at that time however the building is within ancient woodland and may have been a mediaeval lodge.

The manor of Sharsted was recorded in 1174 as a subsidiary manor within the Hundred of Teynham and held directly from the Archbishop of Canterbury. During the reign of Edward I the manor was in the possession of John de Sharsted and then Sir Simon de Sharsted. A Simon de Sharsted is also noted as having been imprisoned in the Tower of London. Robert de Sharsted is recorded in the Kent Hundred Rolls of 1275 as a sheriff of the Lathe of Faversham, and an early tomb in the Sharsted Chapel in the church at Doddington) bears the name of 'Richard de Sharsted' dating his death to 1287.

Robert de Sharsted died in 1320 leaving only a daughter as an heir. The property transferred then to John de Bourne of Down Court, Doddington - whose father was Sheriff under Edward III. According to some sources, Sharsted was at that time occupied by Robert de Nottingham. It is speculated that John de Bourne was one of the knights known to have held Leeds Castle against Edward II in 1314 and, as a result, his lands were forfeited to the Crown. They were restored by Edward III in 1327 with the exception of Sharsted Court. The widow of Robert de Nottingham (who died in 1374 and is presumed to have been allowed to keep Sharsted until his death) was left a section of the house.

During the reign of Henry VI, Bartholomew de Bourne inherited Sharsted Court, which continued in the Bourne family for the next two hundred years. According to Hasted, early in the 17th century James Bourne conveyed the estate to Abraham Delaune, the son of Dr. Gideon Delaune, a Huguenot physician and theologian and founder of the Apothecaries' Hall. Abraham's grandson, Colonel William Delaune transformed Sharsted in 1711 adding the brick front and the gazebo at the end of the raised terrace.

Since Colonel Delaune had no children of his own, Sharsted passed to his nephew, Gideon Thornicroft, in 1739. Just three years later Thornicroft died, leaving the property to his mother. Again, just two years later, she bequeathed the estate on her death to her two unmarried daughters, Dorcas and Elizabeth. On 1759 Dorcas left Sharsted to the great-grandson of Sir William Delaune, Alured Pinke. The property subsequently passed to Alured's wife; in 1839, Mary Pinke bequeathed Sharsted to her great-nephew, Captain Edmund Faunce, who is noted in Bernard Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain as Edmund Faunce of Sharsted. In 1864, his son Chapman Faunce added 'Delaune' to his surname and changed the spelling to Faunce-De-Laune. It is Chapman Faunce-De-Laune who is believed to have begun the yew topiary that still exists today. During the late 19th century tobacco was grown on the property, which was also depicted in prints in the Illustrated London News. By the early 20th century, Sharsted Court was recorded in the Sittingbourne, Milton and District Directory of 1908 as being "a typical English park of some 250 acres".

By 1949 however the property was empty. Alured Faunce De Laune died around that time leaving the property to a son in South Africa who declined it due to the expense of maintaining the property from afar. The Ratzer family bought it during the 1950s, however, in common with a number of large country estates which became expensive to maintain, the house was at risk of being demolished. However, in 1966 the Court came into the possession of Canon Wade and his son Anthony Wade whose family included Virginia Wade, Wimbledon tennis champion in 1977. As of 2007, the house remains in the hands of the Wade and Shepley families who have undertaken extensive restoration of the house and gardens. The house was also licensed for civil weddings in Kent and provided occasional conference facilities. Sharsted Court no longer hold these functions and the last of the weddings took place in 2008.