THORNHAM, (Kent) 2 m. and half N. E. of Maidstone, had a castle on the brow of that called Goddard-Hill, not far from Binbury, on which it is said Roman urns have been found; from whence some think the castle was built by the Romans, as others do by the Saxons, or at least that it is as old as their time; but Kilburn says it was founded in K. Stephen's R. by Sir Leonard Goddard. The manor anciently bel. to the Thurnhams, one of whom, in the R. of Rich. I. settled it on Lingfield college in Surry; but at the Diss. Edw VI. granted it to Sir Edw. Wotton, whose ancestor, Sir Nicholas, had good part of this manor in the R. of Henry IV. by marriage of the heiress of Robert Corbie. Sir Edward left the whole to his great grandson Thomas Ld. Wotton, whose daughter, on whom he settled it at her marriage with Henry Ld. Stanhope, sold it after her husband's death to Mr. Godden of London.