Sissinghurst Castle - origins of?

[king william]

I am in New Zealand and have just watched part of the BBC documentary about Sissinghurst Castle. I am descended from the Barham family of Kent and Sussex, they were rather wealthy iron-masters. As a result they have been fairly well-recorded though their wills and land deals.
I have always had the information that some early Barham ancestors were born in Sissinghurst Castle - John Berham was born there in 1370, his father Richard died there in 1418 and his father Henry died there in 1349.
However, I had checked out the history of the castle and found it was owned by the Baker family, so I just thought that maybe they lived in a manor in Sissinghurst.  Now on delving further, I find that the Barham/de Berham/de Bereham family did live there and on-sell it to the Baker family.
Can anyone in the know give me a more detailed life of the castle - I would guess that there is a lot of information about such a famous property. I did see in the last programme that the owner was interested in possible medieval walls under the ground. I also saw a drawing of how much bigger the castle used to be and wonder when that was.
King William aka Robin

[Hollander]

It might be worth looking at this link, King William.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/search.aspx?query=sissinghurst+castle

Quite a bit to wade through though.

[king william]

Finbar,
Many thanks for your helpful reply - through this site I h ave verified that Sissinghurst was in the hands of the Berham family through a marriage with a female descendent of the original family of Saxenburst. Richard de Berham lived there in the time of Edward 111 and Richard's dates were 1345 to 1418 which does fit.
Richard's wife was Constance Gibun so maybe she was descended from the Saxenburst line.
I would be interested to know how much of a castle it was back in the late 1300's and early 1400's when my lot married into the Saxenburst family. Maybe it was only a manor house back then, although Richard de Bereham appeared to be a man of note - he was a "Commissioner of Array in view of imminent invasion by the French" and "Commissioner of Array for defense of the realm while the king is in foreign parts" - that is from a record held at Westminster.
Many thanks
Robin

[dayvida]

Hope you're still pursuing the Barham/Sissinghurst connection.  As to what remains from the Barhams' tenure on the property, Baker tore down the old medieval Barham manor, reserving the brick for his "new" construction.  If you visit Sissinghurst today, note the trademark gatehouse towers.  The brick utilized for this structure was all that remained of the Barham castle.  The site of the old manor is the open field that's just beyond the water garden at the opposite end of the main grounds from the gatehouse.  This was pointed out to me during a visit there in May of this year.  If you make it there, be sure to visit nearby Cranbrook, where you can see the Barham arms incised on the tower at the front of the church.  You'll see the same fess used at Barham village, south of Canterbury and site of the first Barham Court, as well as at the church at Wadhurst, E. Sussex, Barham Court at Teston west of Maidstone, and at Chillington Manor (now the town museum) in Maidstone proper.  All related branches of the same Fitz Urse/de Bereham/Berham/Barham family.  I descend from the "cadet" line settled at Wadhurst, whose representative Thomas Barham--son of John Berham 'the Ironmaster of Woodlandes and Buttes" near Wadhurst--settled at Boughton Monchelsey, Kent s/o Maidstone around 1560, and died there in 1595.

[king william]

Dayvida, many thanks for this information, I don't think my chances of visiting Sissinghurst are very high as I live in New Zealand. I am very interested in my family history and I am descended from Ann Barham baptised in 1618, daughter of Nicholas and Mary Barham. She married jOhn Elliott in 1646.
As far as I can see my Ann is a great granddaughter of John Barham, iron master born in 1500. He married Thomasyne.
If I ever get there I will certainly take a look at the gatehouse towers and open field.
I wonder if anywhere there is a painting of the old manor house as I bet it was not a small affair, it would have been a manor house of some size.
Great to hear from you, we must be cousins about 10 times removed.
Robin

[dayvida]

I did run across an artist's rendering of the old Barham hall at Sissinghurst, and will try to run it down.  Can you outline for me your descent from John Berham/Barham "the Ironmaster" & Thomasine?  I'll need to run to my notes on that group--which largely rely on Fitzgerald-Uniacke's long piece in the Sussex Archaeological Collection Vol. 56.  It was mainly focused on the Barhams at Great Shoesmiths in E. Sussex, descended from Iron John.  While in E. Sussex, we did the Wadhurst Walk, about a 4 mile loop around Wadhurst village, which took us right up to Shoesmiths.  Took a couple of nice photos of the house and surrounding farm, and have tried to attach one below--sadly its a 10Mb image and exceeds the limit.  I can email it to you as an attachment if you like.  Also visited nearby Bayham Abbey, from where you can see the forge sites operated by the Barhams along the iron seam that runs through that part of Sussex, between Frant, Lamberhurst, and Wadhurst.  The church in Wadhurst has something like 20 or so iron tomb slabs, many for the Barhams, and more than any other church in England.  The old manor at Great Buttes--home of John the Ironmaster--is long gone, though the name applies to a not-so-great house on the same site between Wadhurst and Lamberhurst.

John and Thomasine would have been 12th gr-grandparents.  My descent up to the trans-Atlantic "jump":

John Berham==Thomasine __?

Thomas Barham of Wadhurst and Boughton Monchelsea, Kent==Mildred Franckelyn Roberts (widow of George Roberts, and d/o Thomas Franckelyn)

Robert Barham Sr. of Boughton Monchelsea, Kent==Susanna Sare, d/o Thomas Sare of Norton, Faversham, Kent

Robert Barham Jr. of Boughton Monchelsea, Kent, and Holborn, Middlesex, London==Katherine Filmer, d/o of Sir Edward Filmer of East Sutton, Kent

Charles Barham of Boughton Monchelsea, Kent, and Holborn, Middlesex, London>>>>>to Virginia ca. 1653, planter, militia captain, sheriff for Surry Co., VA.  Removed late in life to James City Co.  His Surry plantation lay about 6 miles south of Jamestown, on the south shore of the James River and about 4 miles downriver.

Oh...BTW...."dayvida" is just a contraction of David A.--first name and middle initial.  Got into the habit of using that since my AOL days.

From Charles, the line continues to my maternal grandmother, Myrah Hunter Barham of Sussex Co., VA (1885-1969)

[king william]

Dayvida,
I would just love to have an artist's view of Barham Hall, it would be awesome to add to the history page.
My line is from my great grandmother Annie Catt who emigrated to NZ in 1872. There are gaps going back as I am just showing you how the line went from Catt to Barham.
Annie was a daughter of William Catt of Battle, Sussex.
This is my Barham line and is through my Catt line as follows:
1.. William's grandfather was James Catt who married Ann Ashdown in 1775.
2..Ann's great grandfather John Ashedowne married Ann Elliott in 1672.
3.. Ann Elliott was a daughter of John Elliott and Ann Barham who married in 1646.
4..Ann Barham was a daughter of Nicholas Barham and his cousin Mary Barham. I have the signature of this Nicholas through having ordered the film from the local LDS centre here to verify exactly who the parents of Ann were, even though I had been told it, I wanted to see it for myself and there at the bottom of the page was the signature of Nicholas in his capacity as church clerk.
I have a photo of the very impressive Chillington Manor which is now the Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery, but if you could locate a painting of the old Barham Hall and email it to me I would love it.
You could send me a private message on this site and I will reply to it with my own email,
Nice to hear from you again.
Robin

[Patches]

Just thought I'd say Hi even (though this is a rather old helpful post), I'm feeling a bit swamped with my Barhams
My line very briefly is:
Edward Dadswell m Elizabeth Elliot
John Elliot m Ann Barham
Nicholas Barham m Mary Barham (Holland)
John Barham m Mary Courthope
so now I'm looking at John Barham's parent and a line that seems to end up in Sissinghurst Castle and beyond.  I'm guessing the line back to Fitz Urse is correct and has been thoroughly research by lots of more able people than myself (history is not my thing) but where to start (staring at John thinking it too bigger task lol)
Anyway just thought I'd say hello
Deb