MERSHAM & MERSHAM HATCH

 The village has been the home of the Knatchbull family since the times of Henry VIII . In 1638 Sir Norton Knatchbull founded Ashford Grammar School , to which pupils were not admitted until they could read the bible in English, he was also the M.P. for Romney.

In the early 1800's Sir Edward Knatchbull served under Walpole in the Whig government. In 1830 another Sir Edward became M.P. for Romney and served under Peel in his government of 1841.

The Manor House, which stands next to the church. Grade I listed. 

List Entry Number: 1233281.

Early to mid C14, altered late C18, extended mid C19. 

St. John the Baptist. 

to be found on a tie-beam in the chancel is a carved head of Joan, Countess of Kent, who was married to the Black Prince, son of Edward III at Windsor in 1361.

Above the screen is a corbel of possibly thirteenth-century date which depicts a bishop, and which could be part of an earlier door or window. 

There is a fine Royal Arms of 1751. 

The south chapel contains many memorials to the local Knatchbull family whose ancestral home, Mersham-le-Hatch stands to the north of the village. 

The Knatchbull Family

This image shows a traditional English funeral hatchment featuring the coat of arms and motto "IN CRUCIFIXA GLORIA MEA" (My Glory is in the Cross) associated with the Knatchbull family (Barons Brabourne / Earls Mountbatten of Burma).

 Features elements including three cross-crosslets fitchée between bendlets (Knatchbull) and quarterings associated with allied family lines such as Hugessen.

The Knatchbull chapel at the east and of the south aisle

1865 charitable endowment for the Parish of Mersham.

Accumulated surplus funds from parish subscriptions deposited in the Ashford Savings Bank under the joint names of Fanny Catherine, Lady Knatchbull (of Provender) and Catherine Hughes (of Newhouse)

.An additional contribution of £70 sterling given by the late Mrs. Elizabeth Fagge of Hythe. Total Investment: The combined total of £140 sterling was invested into £154 18s. 3d. Consolidated Three Percent Bank Annuities held by the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds as a perpetual endowment.

Purpose of the Charity: The interest is applied by the Rector of Mersham for the benefit of poor women of good character, inhabitants of the parish, needing assistance, distributed at the Rector's discretion.

Names at the Bottom:

Charlotte Hodson

Sarah Hughes (Newhouse)

Fanny Hughes

A few years ago, the ladies of Mersham knitted the entire village! The knitted church (with qa wedding progress) has pride of place inside the real thing.

The Knatchbull chapel in the south aisle:

. 

"The Parish of Mersham" or related land/bequest details.

Details a legal or charitable grant/bequest of property, land shares, or monetary provisions for the benefit of the parish or local poor/church upkeep (referencing third parts of property, houses, or land in Kent).

Dated at the bottom 30 June 1777. 

Sir Norton Knatchbull (1569-1636)

Founder of the Ashford Grammar School - Dr Wilks' Hall, The Churchyard, Ashford, Kent, TN23 1QC

A Member of Parliament during the reign of Charles I, Sir Norton Knatchbull founded the borough’s first grammar school at the Dr Wilk’s Memorial Hall, so that local boys could get an education.

During the reign of Henry VII, Knatchbull’s ancestor, Richard Knatchbull of Lympne, bought Mersham Hatch, four miles south-east of Ashford. In February 1593, Norton Knatchbull unexpectedly inherited his family’s estate, after the death of his half-brother and nephew, Thomas.

In 1600 Knatchbull was appointed to the bench and was knighted in April 1604. Between 1606 and 1607 he served as sheriff of Kent and in 1610 he became the first member of his family to sit in Parliament, after being returned for Hythe at a by-election in October 1609.

the wall monument to Lady Bridget Knatchbull (c. 1570–1625) 

Lady Bridget Knatchbull (née Astley), wife of Sir Norton Knatchbull. She died on November 4, 1625. 
Designed and carved by the master sculptor Nicholas Stone in 1626 for the sum of £30.

a monumental ledger stone inscription dedicated to Grace Knatchbull (wife to Sir Edward Knatchbull, Baronet), located at St. John the Baptist Church in Mersham, Kent.

Grace Knatchbull (née Legge), wife of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 7th Baronet.
Death Date: December 1771 (exact day weathered/obscured, though historical records note the memorial commemorates her passing in 1771).
Age at Death: 69 years 
She was the daughter of William Legge and wife of Sir Edward Knatchbull (1704–1789), 

Next to the Knatchbull coat of arms is a memorial tablet dedicated to Helena Regina Frederika, Lady Brabourne, located in Kent, England.She was (born November 8, 1853 in Vienna, Austria; died at Mersham-le-Hatch on November 15, 1918; buried at Smeeth). 
Erected by: Her husband, Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen, 4th Lord Brabourne and 13th Baronet (1863–1933)

She was born Helena Regina Frederica von Flesch-Brunningen, an Austrian-born British peeress.

Children: Include Rudolf Michael Herbert Knatchbull, 5th Baron Brabourne (1895–1939).

white marble memorial plaque framed in black stone and topped with a heraldic crest, dedicated to The Right Honourable Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet (1781–1849).

Died May 24, 1849, at Mersham Hatch (aged 67 years)
Buried May 31, 1849, in the chancel of his maternal ancestors in the parish church of Lynsted (Kent)
Notes that at his charge in 1846, the monuments in the chancel were restored.

Sir Edward Knatchbull (9th Baronet): A prominent British politician, Tory/Ultra-Tory Member of Parliament for Kent, and Paymaster of the Forces under Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel.
Location: 

Sacred to the Memory of MARY KNATCHBULL,
second Daughter and Coheiress of William Western Hugessen
of Provender, in the County of Kent, Esqr by Thomazine his Wife, Daughter of Sir John Honywood, Bart.
She was married to Edward Knatchbull Esqr., only Son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, of Mersham Hatch in the said County, Bart. by whom she had two Sons, Edward and Norton Joseph.
She departed this Life May 24th 1784 in the 25th Year of her Age.

Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen, 4th Baron Brabourne and 13th Baronet of Mersham-Le-Hatch.
Birth Date: November 27, 1863.

Knatchbull-Hugessen was a director and later the chairman of the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa and was primarily a businessman. He died while journeying from Cape Town, where he had business interests, to London aboard the SS Caernarvon Castle in February 1933, aged 69
Buried at sea, 325 miles south of the equator, on February 16, 1933.
Epitaph: "From hope and fear set free"

He was an English cricketer, and later a British peer. He succeeded to the title Baron Brabourne in 1915, following the death of his nephew Wyndham Knatchbull-Hugessen. Knatchbull-Hugessen also inherited the Knatchbull Baronetcy, of Mersham Hatch, after the death of another cousin, Sir Wyndham Knatchbull, 12th Baronet, in 1917

the memorial plaque of Patricia Edwina Victoria Knatchbull (1924–2017), the 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma

Loving wife of the 7th Baron Brabourne, mother of seven, and Colonel-in-Chief of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI).
Inscription: "A life of loyal devotion to family, friends and those in need." 

Baroness Brabourne (née Mountbatten; 14 February 1924 – 13 June 2017), was a British peeress and third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. 

She was the elder daughter of Admiral of the Fleet the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (formerly Prince Louis of Battenberg) and of heiress Edwina Ashley. She was the elder sister of Lady Pamela Hicks, the first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and first cousin once removed King Charles III. She was a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

Lady Mountbatten succeeded her father as Countess Mountbatten of Burma when he was assassinated in 1979, as his peerages had been created with special remainder to his daughters and their heirs male.

Patricia was in the boat which was blown up by the IRA off the shores of Mullaghmore, County Sligo, in August 1979, killing her 14-year-old son Nicholas; her father; her mother-in-law, the Dowager Baroness Brabourne; and 15-year-old Paul Maxwell, a boat-boy from County Fermanagh. 

She, her husband, and their son Timothy were injured but survived the attack. Following the incident the Countess became Patron and, later, President of The Compassionate Friends, a self-help charitable organisation of bereaved parents in the UK.

John Ulick Knatchbull, CBE, 7th Baron Brabourne, 16th Baronet
Dates: 9th November 1924 – 22nd September 2005
Film and Television Producer, Educationalist, Conservationist

In the late 1940s, shortly after leaving the army, Brabourne began working as an assistant production manager for certain television productions, mostly based on war-related themes.

 He graduated to the role of production manager by the early 1950s, and finally became a producer in his own right in 1958, with Harry Black a romantic story set in India, with war as the distant context. 

This was followed by Sink the Bismarck! (1960). War, empire and India were recurrent themes in his work, and A Passage to India (1984) is among his films. His other motion pictures include Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Death on the Nile (1978), and Little Dorrit (1988).

In 1970, he founded Mersham Productions, a production house named after his family seat in Kent, which produced many of his works thereafter. He served as a director of Thames Television (later chairman) and Euston Films from 1978 to 1995, and a director of Thorn EMI from 1981 to 1986.

John Brabourne received two Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, as producer of Romeo and Juliet (1968) and A Passage to India (1984).

Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen (1886–1971) Prominent British diplomat, civil servant, and author.

Served as H.M. Minister to the Baltic States (1930–1934) and Iran (1934–1936), Ambassador to China (1936–1938), Ambassador to Turkey (1939–1944), and Ambassador to Belgium and Minister to Luxembourg (1944–1947). Best remembered historically for the "Cicero" spy affair during World War II.
Born 26 March 1886; died 21 March 1971.

Mary Knatchbull-Hugessen (née Gilmour) (1890–1978):Role: Daughter of Sir Robert Gilmour of Liberton and Craigmillar, Baronet.
Born 9 September 1890; died 14 July 1978.

Lieutenant Maurice Astley Knatchbull-Hugessen, M.C. (1888–1916):Role: Brother of Sir Hughe; served as a Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards. Awarded the Military Cross (M.C.).
Born 18 May 1888; killed in action at Lesbœufs, France, on 25 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.

Reginald Bridges Knatchbull-Hugessen (2nd son of the late Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Knatchbull,                                                     9th Baronet, and Fanny Catherine)
Born February 19, 1831; died January 28, 1911
Served as rector and vicar in local parishes, including rector of West Grinstead, Sussex, where he was buried.

Reginald Tatton Knatchbull-Hugessen

Third son of Rev. Reginald Bridges Knatchbull-Hugessen and Maria

Died at Nairobi, British East Africa (now Kenya), on June 8th, 1911
Age 33 years
Erected By: His surviving brothers and sisters

The Family: The Knatchbull family has been tied to Mersham Hatch since the 15th century.
Joan Elizabeth Knatchbull (1731–1801) was the daughter of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham, 5th Baronet (referred to on the plaque as "the first [Sir Wyndham Knatchbull Wyndham]").
Her brother was Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham, 6th Baronet (referred to as "the last"), a prominent Whig MP for Kent who famously commissioned a portrait by Pompeo Batoni during his Grand Tour before passing away unmarried at the age of 26 in 1763.

Norton Cecil Michael Knatchbull, 6th Baron Brabourne, 15th Baronet of Mersham Hatch, Lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards.
Elder son of the 5th Baron Brabourne.
Born: February 11, 1922.
Wounded and captured in North Africa / Italy in March 1943; later escaped from a prison train, was recaptured, and was executed/shot by the enemy while a prisoner on September 15, 1943, at the age of 21.
Originally buried at Bronzolo, North Italy, and afterwards moved to the British Empire War Cemetery, Padua.

Doreen Geraldine Knatchbull (née Browne), C.I., D.St.J., wife of the 6th Baron Brabourne and daughter of the 6th Marquess of Sligo.
Born May 29, 1896; died August 28, 1979 (aged 83).
She died from injuries sustained on August 27, 1979, during a Provisional IRA bomb attack in Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ireland, which also killed her 14-year-old grandson, Nicholas Knatchbull, and her family member Lord Mountbatten (aged 79).

Michael Herbert Rudolph Knatchbull, G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., M.C., 14th Baronet and 5th Baron Brabourne. 
Born 8 May 1895; died 23 February 1939 at Government House, Calcutta, at age 43.
Buried in St. John’s Churchyard, Calcutta (Kolkata), India.
MP for Ashford: October 1931 – February 1933
Governor of Bombay: December 1933 – September 1937
Governor of Bengal: November 1937 – June 1938 and October 1938 – February 1939
Viceroy and Acting Governor-General of India: June – October 1938 

Jane Monins Knatchbull.
Features a carved coat of arms (Knatchbull/Monins impalement) flanked by putti (cherubs) and topped with a traditional knight's helm and crest.
Apron/Base: Sculpted with winged cherub faces (mortuary or putti imagery) characteristic of late Stuart funerary art.
Secondary Plaque: Directly below is a modern memorial tablet commemorating Doreen Geraldine Knatchbull, Baroness Brabourne (who died in 1979).

Richard Knatchbull of Mersham (c. 1554–1590/1), eldest son of Richard Knatchbull and Joanne Sheafe. 
a classical wall monument featuring an armed knight kneeling in prayer before a faldstool (prayer desk), flanked by strapwork pilasters and an enriched frieze with armorial bearings.

The Hughes Family

THIS TABLET IS ERECTED IN MEMORY OF
EDWARD HUGHES GENT.
OF NEW HOUSE IN THIS PARISH WHO DIED
ON THE 29TH OF JULY 1823 IN THE 79TH YEAR
OF HIS AGE LEAVING HIS WIDOW ELIZABETH
ELDEST DAUGHTER OF TURNER MARSHALL ESQ.
WITH THREE SONS AND EIGHT DAUGHTERS
SURVIVING WHO FEELINGLY DEPLORE THE LOSS
OF A MOST AFFECTIONATE AND EXEMPLARY
HUSBAND, PARENT AND FRIEND.
ALSO IN MEMORY OF
ELIZABETH HIS WIFE, WHO DIED
BELOVED AND LAMENTED,
THE 26TH OF JANUARY 1836,
AND OF MARIANNE THEIR THIRD DAUGHTER.
SHE DEPARTED THIS LIFE APRIL THE 7TH 1841.

ALSO IN MEMORY OF
CATHERINE, FIFTH DAUGHTER OF EDWARD
AND ELIZABETH HUGHES SHE DIED SEPT 11 1863.
ALSO IN MEMORY OF CHARLOTTE FOURTH DAUGHTER OF
EDWARD AND ELIZABETH HUGHES WHO DIED AT NEWHOUSE
JANUARY 2ND 1872, RELICT OF THE LATE HENRY HODSON OF
LEWES WHO WAS ALSO BURIED AT MERSHAM.
ALSO IN MEMORY OF
SARAH SEVENTH DAUGHTER OF
EDWARD AND ELIZABETH HUGHES LATE OF
NEWHOUSE WHO DIED JANUARY 8TH 1873.

ALSO IN MEMORY OF
FANNY EIGHTH DAUGHTER AND YOUNGEST CHILD
OF EDWARD AND ELIZABETH HUGHES
LATE OF NEW HOUSE IN THIS PARISH

Edward Hughes was a prominent local farmer, grazier, and hopgrower in Mersham who occupied Newhouse (an early 18th-century mansion connected to the Turner Marshall family).

These memorial tablets commemorate members of the Hughes family of Smeeth Hill House in Smeeth, Kent: 

Top Tablet: Commemorates Dr. Henry Marshall Hughes, M.D. (third son of Edward Hughes Esq. of Smeeth Hill House), who was a Fellow and Censor of the Royal College of Physicians, Physician to Guy's Hospital, President of the Hunterian Society, and died on October 21, 1858, aged 51 years. 

Bottom Tablet: Commemorates The Rev. William Hooker Hughes, B.A. (late of Oriel College, Oxford, and second son of Edward and Mary Dann Hughes of Smeeth), who departed this life on October 9, 1828, aged 24 years.