The Auchers
About the Aucher Family
There are two Aucher monuments in Otterden Church - John Aucher of 1502 and James Aucher of 1508.
In the mid-16 century, Otterden belonged to Sir Anthony Aucher. After the Dissolution in 1543 he was one of the principal recipients of Henry VIII's largesse, being one of the Commissioners of Kent. He collected a number of manors and other holdings, mostly in this part of Kent, one of which was Eversley, a small Charing manor.
In 1537-1539 a State Document on the Lands of Dissolved Religious Houses refers to 'Rents in Munketon parish'.
In 1541 the rents of the free tenants in Monketon were 8s.10d which compares with the free tenants of Broadfield who were paying 20s. It means that Monketon was less than half the size of Broadfield, which itself is not thought to have been a large parish in the south of the Otterden manor.
1552. More state papers held at the Public Record Office have an entry headed 'Rents of the free tenants in the parish of 'Munketon'. It records:
'And of 1s.5d for the rent of certain land called Munketon Deane which Anthony Auchyer free holds to be paid at the said feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel equally by the year. Total 1s.5d.'
This is further proof that Munketon was part of Otterden Manor by this date.
There is an account of Sir Anthony receiving a Silver Table that had stood on the High Altar at Canterbury probably under orders from Edward VI. In 1556 he was involved in administering the late priory of Christ Church in Canterbury for which he was paid £6.11s.4d a year. He died at Calais in 1558.
In 1604 there was an Act in Parliament (Harl.MSS.NO.6847) for the sale of the lands of Sir Anthony Aucher and others, to raise money to pay their creditors. It stated that Sir Anthony Aucher (who was surely a descendant of the Sir Anthony who died at Calais) and Sir Thomas Hardes had gone beyond seas to avoid their creditors, having first fraudulently conveyed their lands to others for their own use. The actual date when the lands were transferred is not stated but it could well relate to the next item which indicates that the Lewen family were at Otterden before 1602. It was a well known ploy to transfer land to friends you could trust, to administer the land on your behalf (or 'the use of'). The land could not then be sold away from the first owner.
1602. A report on the Administration of Kent Wills, lists the Wills of Anna Lewen of Otterden, a widow and her son John, both of whose wills were administered by Anna's brother, Sir Francis Goldsmith, on 2 November 1602. (vol.18. p40)
In 1648 a Sir Anthony Aucher is listed as of Bishopsbourne, a Royalist in the Kent Rising of that year.
1661. Details from a Feet of Fine describing the extent of the Manor of Otterden
Hilary Term (begins on 20 January) 1662. (vol.11. p.253)
Sir Justinian Lewen who, when he died in 1620, was lord of the manor of Otterden. (Hasted, vol.V. p537). His daughter and heiress was married to Charles, Duke of Richmond, who sold Otterden in January 1662 to George Curteis. The Fine registering the ownership describes the manor as "Otterenden and Boardfield".
The Fine is in Latin but transcribed reads as follows: "Seven houses, two (duar') cottages, seven granaries/barns, seven stables, one dovecote, nine gardens, eight orchards, 400 acres land (t're), 40 acres meadowland, 200 acres woodland and forest pasture and all other appurtenances in Otterden alias Otterenden, Boardfeild, Muncton, Stallesfeild alias stalkesfeile, Witchlinge, Doddington, Eastlinge alias Iselinge, Newnham and Lenham and also the rectories of Otterden alias Otterenden, Boardefeild and Munckton with appurtenances and also of the advowsons of the churches of Otterenden alias Otterenden, Boardfeild and Munckton."
This means that Muncton, however spelt, belonged to Otterden in 1662, so that Hasted's statement that Muncton was held by the Deloune (De Laune) family for "many years" must be taken to mean for about 100 years, as Hasted was writing in the late 18th century.
In the 18th century, Sir George Curteis held Otterden until 1702, and his only son George Curteis died in 1710 leaving a daughter Anne. She married Thomas Wheler, eldest son of Sir George Wheler, prebendary of the church of Durham, who was the son of Col.Charles Wheler of Charing.
Sir Anthony Aucher: linked to the murder of Thomas Arden?
Was there more than met the eye in the 1551 murder of Thomas Arden at his Abbey Street home in Faversham? Was it a put-up job? Was the real culprit not his wife, Alice, but someone else - a big player on the contemporary political scene, perhaps? Was the real explanation for the crime that the victim had become too big for his boots, and needed to be eliminated?
Probably we shall never know, but the finger has sometimes been pointed at Sir Anthony Aucher, of Otterden Place. He was a local man who - like Arden's patron, Sir Thomas Cheyne, of Shurland, on the Isle of Sheppey - had prospered during the turbulent years that marked the end of Henry VIII's reign. He, like Cheyne, had made enough quick and easy money to build himself a handsome new house in Hampton Court style, and almost on Hampton Court scale.
The link is through John Green, described variously as a 'tailor' and one of Aucher's 'servants'. This certainly would not have meant he occupied some menial position in his master's household. More likely he was some kind of PA, helping to look after Aucher's business interests and running errands for him.
He paid 5s. for his freedom of Faversham in 1542/3. When a new Borough Charter was needed in 1546 to fill the administrative vacuum left by the dissolution of Faversham Abbey eight years earlier, Arden, with his high-level London contacts, secured it, and Green was one of the signatories.
The conventional story is that Alice, Arden's unfaithful wife, turned to Green for help after the failure of her earlier attempts to procure his murder. But perhaps it was Green who at Aucher's instigation offered his services? He was said to have a personal grudge against Arden, and this would have fired his enthusiasm.
Certainly after a chance meeting at Rainham with the professional assassin Black Will, it was Green who invited him to supper at Gravesend and offered him £10 (the equivalent of £3,000 today) to kill him. And kill Arden Black Will certainly did. Green was tracked down, and duly executed for his part in the crime - but if his master was involved he did not incriminate him.
Aucher, like Arden himself, had a meteoric career, starting life as a modest local landowner but rapidly establishing himself as a reliable administrator and building up useful Court connections following his appointment to the staff of Thomas Cromwell, secretary of state.
In the late 1530s he was in charge of improvements to naval facilities at Dover and went on to undertake important work around England's French bridgehead at Calais. Also an entrepreneur, he built the big Aucher, which he leased as a warship to the Crown. He was rewarded with a knighthood in 1547 following the coronation of the boy-king Edward VI. Ultimately he overplayed his hand, secretly pocketing funds which belonged to the Crown. He was killed in action when the English lost Calais in 1558. His grand-daughter and ultimate heir, Anne, was to carry what remained of his estates to her husband, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the explorer.
Not too much of his huge Otterden mansion remains today. It was slimmed down in 1788 and given a Georgian 'new look'. Only 14 years later came second thoughts, and the architect was asked to re-front it in late Tudor style. New bricks were specially made from moulds taken from discarded genuine Tudor bricks on site. With its impressive battlements, the end-product was pleasing, if not entirely convincing.
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