SEVEN-OAKS, a market-town and parish in the
hundred of CODSHEATH, lathe of STITTON at HONE,
county of KENT, containing, with the chapelry of Riverhead,
and the liberty of Weald, 3942 inhabitants, of which
number, 2114 are in the town, 17 miles (W.) from Maidstone,
and 24 (S. E. by S.) from London. This place, which
in the Textus Roffensis is written Seovan Acca, is supposed
to have derived its name from seven large oaks
which stood upon the eminence on which the town is
built: the period of its origin is uncertain, and the
only historical event connected with it is the defeat and
death of Sir Humphry Stafford, by Jack Cade and
his followers, when sent to oppose the rebels by
Henry VI., in 1450. The manor, formerly an appendage
to Otford, and as such belonging to the see of
Canterbury, was conveyed, about the time of the dissolution
of the monastic establishments, by Archbishop
Cranmer to Henry VITL, and it subsequently became
the property of the Dukes of Dorset. The town is situated
on the ridge of hills which crosses the county,
separating the Upland from the Weald, or southern part,
near the river Darent, in a fertile and beautiful part
of the country; it is well built, being divided into two
principal streets, and is most respectably inhabited,
being generally esteemed a very desirable place of residence.
There are some silk-mills in the neighbourhood.
The market is on Saturday, principally for corn; and
there is also a market on the third Tuesday in every
month, for cattle, which is very numerously attended;
the fairs are on the 10th of July and the 12th of October,
the latter being also a statute fair. The town is
under the jurisdiction of the county magistrates: a
bailiff, high constable, and several inferior officers, are
chosen annually at a court leet, but their authority embraces
little more than the superintendence of the charities.
The petty sessions for the lathe of Sutton at
Hone are held here; and a court of requests, for the recovery
of debts not exceeding £5, the jurisdiction of
which extends throughout the hundreds of Codsheath,.
Somerden, Westerham, and Wrotham, and the ville and
liberty of Brasted. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the
assizes were held in the ancient market-house, near
the middle of the High-street, and also two or three
times at subsequent periods.
The living comprises a sinecure rectory and a vicarage,
in the exempt deanery of Shoreham, which is
within the peculiar jurisdiction of the Archbishop
of Canterbury; the rectory is rated in the king's
books at £13. 6. 8., and the vicarage at £15. 3. 1.,
both being in the. patronage of the Rev. Thomas Sackvine
Curteis, The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is
a spacious and handsome edifice at the southern end
of the town, and on so elevated a situation as to
be a conspicuous object many miles around. A new
church, or chapel, with a house for the minister, was
erected a few years since in the Weald liberty, by Lord
Amherst and Multon Lambard, Esq.; it will contain
about two hundred persons, and is endowed with £200
private benefaction, and £2100 parliamentary grant:
another, which will accommodate six hundred persons,
is being erected by the same persons, in the Riverhead
liberty: the right of presentation to both, after
the decease of the founders, will be vested in the viear.
The Baptists have two places of worship, and the Supralapsarians
and Wesleyan Methodists one each. The'
free grammar school was founded and endowed by Sir.
William Seven-oake, usually written Sennocke, in 1432;
who, having been deserted by his parents, was brought
up by some charitable persons, and apprenticed to a
grocer in London, from which humble station he rose to
be lord mayor of that city, and its representative in.
parliament, and left a portion of his wealth to found,
this school and an hospital for decayed elderly trades-
people. Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to the school,
which places the management in the hands of the wardens
and assistants of the town, who are elected an-
nually, and appoint the master; and it is in consequence
called " The Free Grammar School of Queen
Elizabeth." It has seven, scholarships; four of £15
per annum each, founded by direction of the court of
Chancery, in 1735, from the surplus of money received
under this endowment in the hands of the trustees,
in any college at either of the Universities; two of £ 12
a year each, founded by Lady Boswell, in Jesus' College,
Cambridge; and one of £4 per annum-, founded
by Robert Holmden, paid by the Leather-sellers' Company,
at either University; in default of scholars from
this school, that at Tonbridge has the right to appoint
to the three last-named scholarships. The income at
present derived from Sir "William Sennoclce's endowment,
including some additions to it, particularly that of
Anthony Pope, in 1571, is between £700 and £800 per
annum, of which sum, exclusively of repairs, &c., of the
house, £ 50 a year is appropriated as a salary to the
master, who has also a house and excellent premises;
about seven boys are generally on the foundation. Lady
Margaret Boswell founded a school, in 1675, for educating
poor children of the town, with funds for apprenticing
them: the present income is nearly £700
per annum, from which a considerable deduction is
made for repairing the sea wall at Burnham Level
which, on an average of six years, amounted to upwards
of £200 per annum: a new school-house was
erected, in 1827, on the site of the former, at an. expense
of about £2000, defrayed by savings from the
income, and nearly three hundred children are instructed
on the National system: a premium of £12 is
given, as an apprentice fee, with each boy on leaving
the school, the number of whom averages about six
yearly. In the almshouse founded by Sir William
Sennocke are thirty-two persons,- who are maintained;
and sixteen out-pensioners receive an. allowance from
the endowment.