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The Fowles are a Kentish family and became connected to the Man family through the marriage in 1819 of Louisa Caroline Fowle (1795 - 1878) to Harry Stoe Man (1783 -1824). Two further Man - Fowle marriages occurred in the following generation with that of Harry Edward Julius Man who married his cousin Henriette Fowle and William Lionel Man who married Mary Fowle Starnes. The picture left is of the church at Nettlested. The large tomb to the right of the church doorway is that of John Fowle's second wife Margaret Baldock and three of their children; there is no mention of John. To read the tomb inscriptions click here. John and Margaret were married on September 13, 1720 in Shipbourne. John is the great grandfather of Louisa Caroline Fowle. Family tradition claims that John Fowle of Nettlested was the great great grandson of Sir John Fowle of Sandhurst. The descent runs as follows: Sir John of Sandhurst had a son Alexander who married on April 14, 1603, Dorothea Wastnes and they had a son John of Sandhurst. This John married on June 23, 1624, Anne Wildigos. This descent is found in the Visitation of Kent (see below). John and Anne are then supposed to have had a son Thomas the father of John of Nettlested. However there are problems with the dates on this descent which have to be resolved. The Fowle family occupied a series of farms in the Maidstone area such as Fant House in Fant, Half Yoke Farm near Yalding (Thomas Fowle), The Parsonage and Yew Tree Farms at Boxley (William Fowle), and Cobtree Manor Farm (Edward Fowle). Half Yoke was owned by Louisa Caroline's eldest brother Thomas who may not have had heirs as the farm and other property were sold after his death. To view the auction announcement in the Times on August 21 1854, click HERE. Also in The Times of November 25, 1841 is a case brought by the widow of George Fowle. (George is Louisa's brother).
Louisa Caroline was born at Cobtree Manor, Aylseford, Kent, the home of her father Edward Fowle (1751 - 1802) and mother Ann Pattenden (1750 - 1835). The Fowle family resided at Cobtree Manor, from 1780 - 1831 and it was then sold to Charles Milner of the nearby Preston Hall Estate which it then formed a part. Cobtree Manor was later occupied by Mr. William Spong who rented it from Charles Milner. It was during the time of the Spong's residence that Charles Dickens came to know the 'Manor' and its occupants. It is said that he based his description of Dingley Dell, the home of the Wardle family in The Pickwick Papers, on Cobtree. The Wardle family in turn may have been based on the Spong family, not the Fowles who had long since left the manor. However it has sometimes been difficult to dissuade members of the Man family that the Fowles were not known to Dickens. In 1828 Louisa Caroline Fowle was given six hundred pounds by her mother Ann (Pattenden) Fowle with which money she bought Halstead Hall. A genealogy of the Fowle family can be viewed on request. Among some family papers a poem to Louisa Caroline has been preserved. Some Fowle wills have been digitized in PDF as follow:
A search of the Boxley parish registry has revealed the following note on the circumstances surrounding the baptism of Louisa Caroline Fowle which can be read here.
Fowle – From Monumental Inscriptions Boxley. These are provided by Bernard Thompson and Andrew Man who found these inscriptions not on the actual graves, which are very weather worn, but rather in a manuscript produced at the turn of the 20th century in which was copied down the following.
Edward Fowle 1751 married Ann Pattenden 1750 and his brother William Fowle 1755 had a long term relationship with Mary Pattenden 1762 but never married her. Mary's four children were all christened as Pattenden thus Mary 1806 and William 1802 were known by the name Pattenden. According to the book 'Boxley, the story of an English Parish' by David Hook and Robin Ambrose published in 1999, although William never married Mary, he acknowledged her children as his. On page 180 it says that her bastard son William later took the surname of Fowle after his father died in 1815. We have the following on William Pattenden who became Fowle. He was born in 1802, his father William Fowle died in 1815 when according to the book on Boxley the son William took the name Fowle. In 1817 christened as William Pattenden born 1802 illegitimate son of Mary. 1833 - 1839 his children christened as Pattenden alias Fowle, farmer of Boxley 1839 buried under the mill with his father, later buried in churchyard (Boxley book), presumably as Fowle, no death as Pattenden has been found.
High tomb (in the N panel) Sacred to the memory of Elizabeth Ann FOWLE wife of Mr. John Fowle of this parish who departed this life September 13th 1799 aged 85 years. Left issue five sons and two daughters. Also Edward son of the above died March 1st 1800 aged 5 years. Likewise George their son died November 2nd 1800 aged 11 years. Also Elizabeth Ann their daughter died June 29th 1803/5 aged 18 years. [Nothing apparent on the top or other sides]
A search of the Church of Latter Day Saints International Genealogical database at http://www.familysearch.org web site had produced 6 Fowle boys christened between 1748 and 1764 and they are: John Fowle (1748), Thomas Fowle (1750), Edward Fowle (1751), William Fowle (1755), Robert Fowle (1761) and George Fowle (1764). The film batch number is 8336130. Edward is the husband of Ann Pattenden and the father of Louisa Caroline Man. John Fowle is the father of Henriette Marie Fowle who married her second cousin Harry Edward Julius Man. Henriette's brother, Edward, was involved in a lengthy divorce proceeding about which a number of items have been found such as Edward's appeal reported in the Calcutta Law Reports. An office copy of Edward's will has also been located and can be read here. In the divorce case Edward Fowle was represented by his second cousin Edward Garnet Man, who was also his sister's brother in law. The following detailed account of the divorce has been obtained and will be digitized soon:
After the divorce Rebecca Fowle returned to England with her daughter Emily. In her will Charlotte leaves all her money - 42,981 pounds - (quite a lot for then) - to her doctor - James Cameron and his wife Mary Louisa. Charlotte owned a house at 109 Blenheim Crescent, Notting Hill, West London which was also willed to the Camerons and where she died on 3 August, 1913, aged 76. Emily received just ten pounds and so mother and daughter must have had some kind of 'falling out'. In 1884 Emily married a man called Dudley White in London and they went on to live in Wandsworth (see 1891 census) and later in Southsea. When it came to making their wills, Emily, who died first, left her estate to the Countess Ruth Metaxa while her husband left his to a gardener. Emily was born in France in 1857 and Dudley in Marylebone in about 1860. They did not have any children. (see note at the end of this page on Dudley White). From the Monthly magazine of 1815: Died at Boxley, whilst sitting in his chair, in good health, after having eaten a hearty dinner, and drunk a bottle of wine, Wm. Fowle, gent. 59. He was a man of very eccentric habits, and has in his will directed, that his body shall be deposited in a niche of the wall of a room under his windmill, at Boxley; and the parties to whom he has bequeathed his property are to enjoy it on condition only of obeying his directions for the disposal of his body. They were of course complied with ; and, from their eccentricity, the funeral drew together a considerable concourse of people. The following lines were composed by the deceased for his epitaph, and are to be inscribed on his tomb:
"Underneath this little mill From the Monthly repository of theology and general literature, Volume 10 - Eccentric Funeral. - On Friday last, the remains of William Fowle, Gent, of Boxley, were interred, according to his will, under part of a windmill upon his estate. The funeral was respectably attended by his executor and relatives, and was conducted with a solemnity well according with the awful circumstance of sudden death ; and the eccentricity of selecting such a spot for the occasion drew together a considerable assemblage of persons. On arriving at the mill, the coffin was carried into the building, and the Rev. Mr. Harris, of the Society of Unitarians, in the open air addressed the persons assembled on the singular request of the deceased, and after some religious reflections on the uncertainty of human life, and the particular instance of it which had called them to that spot, Mr. Harris repeated a prayer, and concluded with the Pater noster. The body was then committed to its silent abode ; and the following epitaph (the deceased's own composition) is to be placed on his tomb : " Underneath this little mill Lies the body of poor Will ; Odd he liv'd, mid odd he died. And at his burial no one cried." M. Chron. April 11. [Below the Mill in which William Fowle was interred. The mill no longer exists]
Above is a clipping from the Oxford Journal dated Sept 25 1830 based on article from the Maidstone Gazette outlining how Richard Fowle (see his grave above) accidentally shot himself while out hunting. Below: A Footnote to History. Poor Ella Jarrett committed suicide in November 1933. She was the great, great, great, granddaughter of Robert Pattenden whose sister Anne was the mother of Louisa Caroline Fowle.
William Fowle's will (notes) Source: Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Probate 10 Oct 1840. William Fowle of Boxley, farmer, will dated 19 Sep 1833. To be buried in vault as my late father was at the mill in the field called the poor field, part of my estate at Boxley. Wife Isabella, Brother in law William Sharp Avery of Boxley, yeoman, trustee Edward Simmonds of Woodchurch, salesman and farmer, trustee. Property in Boxley, Aylesford, Chatham, Gillingham and Strood. Witnesses: H A Wildes - B Harrison - Jos'h Harrison, clerks to Mr Wildes, solicitor, Maidstone. Codicil dated 25 Mar 1836. Witnesses: Thomas Fumer - William Dickin - H A Wildes.
NOTES ON DUDLEY WHITE. Dudley White married Emily Fowle the daughter of Edward Fowle and Charlotte Rebecca Webster. Dudley has been found in the Admission Registers of St. Paul's school where he is listed as follows: Dudley Stuart Septimus White, aged 9, son of Thomas W., gentleman farmer, 48, Portland Place. 1877. Clerk in a Solicitor's Office. We know from the probate record that he was a solicitor. Dudley's family has been found on the 1871 Census. He is aged eleven and his mother is the widow of a landowner. Dudley is indeed the seventh child and the family is living at 52 Portland Place. He and all his siblings were born at Wateringbury, Kent. Although Dudley White does not appear on the 1861 census what that census record does tells us is that Dudley's father was born at Yalding, Kent, a center of Fowle family habitation. It also shows the names of Dudley's siblings including Louisa Elizabeth (1851-1896) of whom more below. We also know that Dudley's mother was Louisa Frances Winton (d. 1905) the daughter of the William Winton of Halland Park, Sussex. The identity of the 'Countess Ruth Metaxa', to whom Emily (Fowle) White left her entire estate, was at first puzzling but it turns out that Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Emily's sister-in-law Louisa Elizabeth White's. On 14 November 1871 Louisa E. White married the very long named Andrea Rushout Northwick Prescod Metaxa-Anzolato, (8th count Metaxa) who was the eldest son Jean Baptiste (count Metaxa of the Ionian Isles). Andrea was born in 1844. The Count and Countess Metaxa had two children: 1. Andrea Francis Cochrane Andrew METAXA , (9th Count Metaxa) who was born on June 13, 1874 at Malling, Kent and who on December 5 1900 married Ruth ANKETELL-JONES. The count died on February 16, 1903, on the Isle Of Wight at the age of 28 years. Thus it is this Ruth who is Emily's beneficiary. Andrea and Ruth had a son: Count Andrea Dudley Richard Metaxa who was born on 20 January 1902. Ruth and her husband have been found on the 1901 census.
From Who's Who 1905 - METAXA, Andrea, The Count; b. 23 Mar. 1841; m. 1871,
Louisa Elizabeth, d. of late Thomas White of Congelow, Yalding, Kent (d. 1896).
Educated at Cheltenham. Special war correspondent, 1870. Publications: Round the Wight in an
Open Canoe; Journal of a Tour in the Mediterranean; Walking Tour through Isle of
We should also note that among the names of the White family of Yalding
is one Alfred Starnes White and Thomas Starnes White. This may indicate a connection to
the family of Mary Fowle Starnes who
married William Lionel Man
and whose father, Laurence Starnes, was a farmer in Yalding. The White family
lived at Wateringbury Hall, near Maidstone; and Congelow in Yalding.
According to one source Samuel White of Yalding, married Anne daughter of
James Starnes, Esq. of Congelow. Samuel died in 1837 leaving a son, A brother of Dudley's was George Meryon White-Winton, who was a lawyer and who was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and who matriculated 20 January 1871, aged 18; B.A. 1874, M.A 1880, barrister-at-law, Inner Temple, 1877. He assumed his mother's maiden name as an additional surname 1905. A sister of Dudley's - Helena - married a son of the Marquis of Huntly as follows: From The Churchman 1882 - MARRIED: On September 27th, at All Saints' church, Margaret street, London, England (choral service), by the Rev Archibald White, chaplain of All Saints' church Baden-Baden, brother of the bride, Hubert George Gordon, son of the late Lord Cecil Gordon, and grandson of the ninth Marquis of Huntly, to Helena, daughter of Thomas White, Esq. of Portland Place, London, Congelow, Yalding, and Wateringbury Hall, county Kent, England. American papers please copy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Robert Fowle (see the description of his accidental death below)
Louisa Caroline (Fowle) Man
There is also a Margaret Pattenden who married in St George Hanover Square,
London in 1790 to George Fowle as a result three Pattenden girls all sisters
married three Fowle brothers. Unfortunately, no suitable christening records for
Ann, Mary or Margaret have been located. Left is Boxley church.
