CUCKFIELD PARK - THE RESIDENCE OF E.M.PRESTON

Country Life - March 22nd 1919

Henry Bowyer’s will, proved in 1589, contains many interesting references to Cuckfield Park and its furniture. He says: 

“I commend my soul into the handes and tuition of my heavenly father to be placed with his sense in his kingdom….. Concerning my corruptible and sinful flesh.     …. I commit the burial to the discretion of my executors, over which I will have no manner of pomp and glory which I leave till I ryse again at the last day.

Above all things I charge my son that he faithfully serve God, and reverently embrace the Gospel of Christ. Whereas I joined my son Henry purchaser with me in these lands wherein I have builded my new dwelling house and in divers others landes in Cuckfield being parcell of the Manor of Cuckfield, notwithstanding in consideration of other landes, leases, ironworks and woodes which I give unto my said son. My Will is that as long as Elizabeth my wife shall continue widow she shall dwell (because I know that she will be a great staye to my son) in this my dwelling house in Cuckfield parke, and there to have two fitt chambers one with a chimnie, and the other adjoining to eat with out the chimnie, i.e. the new wainscott chamber in the stone building, and also a lodging convenient for one manservant in the lodge: item she shall have the bed of down in the chamber she now lieth in with pillowes, coverlets and blankets; and meat and drink at convenient times for herself and two maides, and pasturage for a horse; I gave her my haye ambling nag which I bought of my brother Simon and my black young mare, and sixteen payers of sheets, eight towells and eight dozen of napkins, all her jewells and apparel, a cup of silver I had of Mr Haterye, a spoon of silver guilt my uncle Robert gave at the birth of my son Francis, six other spoons, and her little silver sault, two brass pots of 10 and 6 gallons, two mammetts, <i.e. figures, probably fire dogs>, of iron and water, the chafyn dishe, and oven all of iron, my best needlework chayre; and £40 a year. 

The remainder of the will details his request for various relatives, such as “to my son Henry for angells for a ring, and 2 to his wife, and £10 to his son at his marriage”, to his servant, and “for repairing the highways about Cuckfield Towne £10,” to the poore of Cuckfield £10, et cetera et cetera. 

The widow Elizabeth Bowyer, for whose provision he was so thoughtful, survived him a dozen years, and his only surviving son Henry (Thomas and Francis, the two elder having died some years before) died childless on May 23, 1606. In his will, which was made only two days before his death, he follows his father in making good provision for his widow. First of all he leaves £100 “towards the relief of such godly poore ministers”, whose names he has made known to his wife, to be distributed at her discretion. Then “To Fromabove Henlye”, (note the puritan name), “my nephew £50…..” “Unto everyone of my sister Gorringe’s children a gold ring of the value of 20 shillings, and to the youngest….” here is a very pleasing touch, “little Tom in view of his prettie jests wherewith he did often re-create my mind £10…..” One pictures the childless uncle doting upon his sisters children. He proceeds “I make my kind loving wife lady Dorothy my soul executrix and give her full power to take, fell, cutte, corde, sell away and dispose to her most profitt all the woods and trees growing on the manor of Wellbarrowe, and the land called Tinsley and Oldlands during the terme of three years nexte ensuing towards the payment of my debts and legacies.… 

The Lady Dorothy remarried within two years of Henry Bowyer’s death i.e. in 1607, “the worshipful John Sherllie Knight, widower”, as he is described in the Register, and a couple resided at Cuckfield Park, in preference to Saint John Shirley's house in Isfield. He had had two sons and seven daughters by his first wife, and the younger children he brought to Cuckfield on his second marriage. So John died in 1631, and the lady Dorothy in 1640, and the estates passed then to Sir Thomas Hendley, and nephew of Henry Bowyer, her first husband. 

There are a pretty phrase or two in Lady Dorothy’s epitaph on the fine marble to in Isfield Church: “She was a merit beyond most of her time; for her purse was open to a prophets name: her pitty was the clothing of the poorer her piety the mother of her practice: the devotions were her daily offerings to God: her mercy sure against condemnation, and all her minutes were about steppes to heaven. It is pleasant to think of this lovely character in the lovely setting of Cuckfield Park and its house.

A feature that belongs to the elder Henry Bowyer’s work in the previous century is the wonderful enriched plaster ceiling in the Library. The groundwork of the design is in moulded rib work geometrically disposed, and upon this is arranged a remarkable series of armorial bearings and badges of the families connected with the house and manor, together with the Royal Arms of Elizabeth. Thus, there are a knight on horseback with the De Warrenne Chequers; the bull of the Nevills; the oak-spray of the Fitzalans; the rampant lion; the tiger sejeant (the crest of the Bowyers); a mermaid; a pomegranate; a Fleur de Lys; a boy holding sprays of foliage; two serpents and the emblem of Aesculapius. The arms of Sergison, which are repeated in various parts of the house, as on the arch leading from the hall to the staircase, are: Argent, on a chevron, between three dolphins naiant, embowed, Sable, a plate between two Fleur de Lys of the Field. The Crest, a dolphin naiant, embowed, Sable, pierced with an arrow Argent, transversely vulned, Gules. Other heraldry appears in the glazing of the staircase window. This remarkable ceiling is probably by the same hand as one that is preserved in the room behind Watkins, the grocery shop in Arundel.

To the Shirleys succeeded the Henleys, Sir Thomas Hendley, and nephew of the second Henry Bowyer, coming to reside at Cuckfield in 1640. He was succeeded by his third son, Walter, made Baronet in 1661, and High Sheriff 1662. There is but little to record of this family’s tenure; their records are to be found in the church monuments and registers. We pass on at once to the Sergisons.

Part three to follow....