"Sir Thomas Cheney was a man of great account in his time; 7
Henry VII., he was Sheriff of this county, and served in
Parliament for it 6 Edward VI., and 1, 2, and 5, Queen Mary. He
was elected a Knight of the Garter in the reign of Henry VIII.,
by whom he was appointed Constable of Queenborough Castle,
Governor of Rochester, Warden of the Five Ports, and Treasurer of
the Household, in which office he continued in the next reign of
K. Edward VI., of whose Privy Council he was one, and at his
death, espousing the cause of Queen Mary, he was again made
Warden of the Five Ports. Queen Elizabeth continued him Treasurer
of her Household, and made him of her Privy Council. He resided
at Shurland, the mansion of which he had new built, with great
hospitality and sumptuous housekeeping, till the time of his
death, which happened in the Tower on Dec. 8, in the first year
of that reign, and was buried with great pomp and magnificence in
a small chapel adjoining the parish church of Minster in the Isle
of Sheppey. He had been twice married, first to Fridwith,
daughter and heir of Sir Thomas Frowike, Lord Chief Justice of
England, by whom he had issue one son John, married to Margaret,
daughter of George Nevill, Lord Abergavenny, and three daughters
at length his coheirs, Katherine married to Sir Thomas Kempe,
knt., Frances to Nicholas Crispe, Esq., and Anne to Sir John
Perrott, knt. His second wife was Anne daughter and coheir of Sir
John Broughton of Toddington, in the county of Bedford, knt., by
whom he had an only son Henry, who became his heir.
"He was buried in great state in a chapel which had been the
Conventual church, adjoining to the north-east part of the parish
church of Minster, but his son Henry, Lord Cheney, having on 22
October, 1581, anno 24 Elizabeth, obtained a license to remove
the coffins and bones of his father and ancestors from thence, he
having sold the materials of the said chapel to Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, and placed them in the parish church, the coffin of his
father was, among others removed, and deposited in the north
chancel of it where a handsome monument was erected over him."
Sir Henry Cheney, knt., his only son and heir, was of Toddington. He
married Jane, daughter of Thomas Wentworth of Nettlested, Suffolk,
created Baron Wentworth in 1529, and Lord Chamberlain of the Household
to Edward VI.; by his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Andrew Fortescue,
knt.
Sir Henry was created by Queen Elizabeth BARON CHENEY OF TODDINGTON,
by Writ of Summons dated 6 May, 1572, and had summons to Parliament
from 8 May, 1572, to 15 October, 1586.
Hasted, speaking of this nobleman and his Kentish possessions,
narrates,--
"Henry Cheney, Esqr., succeeded his father at Shurland, among his
other Estates in this County, and in the third year of Queen
Elizabeth he had livery of it with the rest of his inheritance;
in the fifth year of it, he kept his Shrievalty for this County
at his seat, in which year he was knighted, in the fourteenth
year of that reign he was created Lord Cheney of Toddington in
the County of Bedford. By his expensive method of living he
acquired the name of "_the extravagant Lord Cheney_," and before
his death had dissipated the great possessions which his father
had left him and died without issue 30 Elizabeth, anno 1587.
However, long before his death, having removed to Toddington,
where he had built a most magnificent seat, he exchanged the
manor and seat of Shurland, with other estates in the
neighbourhood of it, with the Queen, and the fee of it remained
in the hands of the Crown, till King James I., in his second year
granted it to Philip Herbert, younger brother of William, Earl of
Pembroke, who the next year was created Lord Herbert of Shurland,
and Earl of Montgomery. Sir Thomas Cheney--his father--seems to
have had some foreknowledge of his son's future extravagance, for
by his last will he devised his lands and manors to his son Henry
and the heirs of his body, remainder to Thomas Cheney of Woodley,
Esqr., and to the heirs male of his body, upon condition, that he
or they or any of them should not alien or discontinue.
"Henry, Lord Cheney was possessed of much land in this parish,
which with all the rest of his estates, through his profuse
manner of living he was obliged to alienate from time to time.
"The Cheneys bore for their arms, _Argent, on a bend sable, three
mullets or_, which coat on their marrying the heiress of
Shurland, they bore in the second place. But the Lord Cheney bore
his own coat in the first place, and that of Shurland second, and
afterwards those of Shottesbroke, Broughton, Beard, Foster,
Pevre, Loring, Beaple, Blaine, Manseck, Perrott, Hemgrave,
Stonham, Burgat, Barneck, Neame, Engaine, Dawbney, Denston, and
Wanston. For his supporters, _Two Thoyes vert, spotted gules and
or, collared and chained or_. Sir Thomas Cheney bore for his
crest, _on a wreath argent and vert, two horns of a bull argent
on the curled scalp or_;--but the Lord Cheney changed it to '_a
Thoye passant, collared with a ducal collar or_. Arms of
Shurland, _Azure, five lions rampant argent, a canton ermine_,
which arms are on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury
Cathedral.'"
Lord Cheney was one of the peers who sat on the trial of Mary, Queen
of Scots. He died without issue in 1587, leaving the whole of his
remaining property to his widow. He erected a magnificent seat at
Toddington, concerning which Lysons adds,--
"Lord Cheney built a noble mansion at Toddington, about half a
mile from the church, of which nothing now remains but the
kitchen, which is remarkably spacious, having two fireplaces,
each twelve feet in width, and a few rooms fitted up as a farm
house. The greater part of the building was pulled down by the
Earl of Strafford about the year 1745. It appears by an antient
plan of the house (in 1802 on a fire-screen at the farm) that it
occupied four sides of a quadrangle, at each corner of which was
a turret; the north and south fronts were two hundred and ten
feet in length, the chapel was thirty feet by twenty-four, the
tennis court was sixty-five feet in length, and a marble gallery,
fifty-eight."
Thus this fine edifice shared the fate of its predecessor erected by
the Peyvres, from whom, through Broughton who married their heiress,
Lord Cheney inherited the manor of Toddington, by marrying the heiress
of Broughton.
From the dismantled earthly home of the extinct Cheneys to the final
one appointed for all, is but the natural sequence of this world's
history of human life. The olden possessors of Toddington,
successively Peyvre, Broughton, and Cheney, are all gathered together
in death, in the south transept of the church. Of them, and the fate
of their memorials, a few words.
The Peyvres were an antient family, holding the manor of Toddington,
as early as the reign of Henry III. Paulinus Peyvre, Steward of the
Household to Henry III., was, says Lysons,--
"a man of mean origin, and when he went to Court, was not
possessed of two carucates of land; but by means lawful and
unlawful, (as Matthew Paris observes) acquired such wealth, that
he soon became possessed of five hundred carucates; a most
insatiable purchaser of lands (says the historian) and a most
incomparable builder. Not to speak of those in other places, his
house at Toddington was like a palace, with a chapel, chambers,
and other buildings, covered with lead, which raised the
admiration of all beholders. His workmen are said to have
received a hundred shillings, and more than ten marks for their
wages."
So much for the grandeur of Paulinus Peyvre's mansion, and then the
same authority significantly adds,--
"The site of this noble mansion is not known. Near the church at
Toddington is a mount called Conger Hill, which seems to have
been the keep of a castellated mansion, and there are
considerable earthworks near it. This might have been the site of
Sir Paulinus Peyvre's mansion. This favourite of fortune died in
1251."
Thus perished the mansion of the Peyvres, and it is curious to
reflect, a like fate awaited the noble building erected by their
successors the Cheneys. It was Mary, daughter of Thomas Peyvre, sixth
in descent from Sir Paulinus, that brought the property to her husband
Sir John Broughton, and his daughter and coheir Anne to Sir Thomas
Cheney.
The Peyvres are buried in the south transept of Toddington church,
which was antiently a Chantry, as there is a piscina in the south-east
corner.
Continuing his description, Lysons (writing in 1806) thus speaks of
the then shameful condition of the transepts and monuments of this
fine old church,--
"In the south transept are some antient monuments of the Peyvres
as appears by their arms: one of them was a crusader. In the same
transept are monuments of Anne, wife of Sir Thomas Cheney,
K.G.--1561,--Henry Lord Cheney, 1587,--and his widow, Jane Lady
Cheney, 1614. On each of these were the effigies of the deceased,
now much mutilated lying on the ground, mingled with the broken
ornaments of the tombs, and the dung of birds and bats. The north
transept which was the burial place of the Wentworths is not in a
much better condition. The costly monument of Henrietta, Lady
Wentworth, the Duke of Monmouth's mistress, who died in 1686, on
which her mother who survived her ten years, directed the large
sum of two thousand pounds to be expended, and another monument
which appears to have been no less costly in memory of Lady Maria
Wentworth, who died at the premature age of eighteen, in 1632,
are in a state little better than those of the Cheneys. The
windows of the aisle being without glass, and the roof much
decayed, they are daily receiving much injury, by being exposed,
to the ravages of the weather, and the depredations of children."
Notwithstanding the damage the Cheney monuments have sustained through
this miserable neglect (they were buried in the same transept) the
interesting memorials of the Peyvres have not suffered quite so badly.
There are three effigies to them, and the indents on some brassless
stones in the floor. One figure is a crusader, he is considerably
mutilated, was originally a very fine example, on his shield are
sculptured the arms of Peyvre,--_On a chevron, three fleurs-de-lys_.
Under monumental arches in the south wall are, singly, two
well-preserved and most interesting effigies. The knight in chain and
plate armour, with bascinet. He wears a rich baudrick, and his surcoat
is embroidered with the arms of Peyvre. A lion is at his feet, and
angels support the head, holding with one hand an inscribed label
which passes across the neck of the effigy under the chin, an unusual
arrangement. The lady is in long robes, with rich reticulated
head-dress. These figures being sheltered by the arches over them,
have not suffered so much by exposure to the weather as did the
unprotected effigies of the Cheneys.
It should be mentioned that the transepts have of late for a long
period been roofed and restored, and the remains of the monuments
carefully got together and looked after.
Sir Thomas Cheney, K.G., who married Anne Broughton of Toddington,
appears to have been buried as before mentioned in Minster church, in
the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, where he held the manor of Shurland, as
descendant of that family.