Lady Margaret Boswell
Margaret Bosville was born in the autumn of 1595. A few weeks after her birth, her parents, their many servants and friends made the uphill mile-long journey from their home at Bradbourne (near the junction of the roads we know today as Betenson Avenue and Robyns Way) to St Nicolas church, for the baptism of their daughter.
Margaret was the eldest of three children, born to Raph and Mary Bosville. She had a brother, Leonard, who was two and a half years younger, and a sister Jane, born in 1599.
Mary was devoted to her family and church, and by 1620 it must have seemed likely that she would remain a spinster. However, romance blossomed with William Boswell, an important diplomat, and at the age of 34 she was married at St Nicolas Church.
In 1630, Margaret gave birth to her only child, a son called James. Sir William Boswell became Ambassador to the states of the United Provinces at The Hague. So his wife, at the age of 38, became Lady Margaret Boswell, the name that is so well known in Sevenoaks today.
Sir William died on 2 April 1650. With the civil war over, the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell ruling England and the fate of the Bradbourne Estate still undecided, Lady Margaret returned to England, having lost her husband, son and proper home.
In 1660 she acquired farm lands called Halliwell or Hollywell in Essex for the sum of £2, 695. It was this property that in 1675 was transferred to trustees for the setting up of the Lady Boswell’s Charity.
Lady Margaret Boswell died on 24th August, 1682, at the age of eighty eight.
Lady Boswell's School
From the settlement of Hollywell Farm came the following trust:
“£30 p.a. for a schoolmaster to “in some convenient place… keep an English Schoole and therein diligently teach… the Church of England Catechism, Reading the English tongue and in writing and casting accounts, fifteen of the poorest children born in the said parish”. The trustees were to “have respect to” children of poor widows who were ancient inhabitants. The salary of the master was to be £12p.a. “and not above”, he was “from time to time (to) be displaced and putt out and another elected and chosen in his room”.
An “English Schoole” was one where the 3 R’s were taught to some standard and the children would have stayed at school to about fourteen, when they would have been ready to be apprenticed. Teaching the Catechism was then normal. It is from this clause that we derive today’s status as a Church of England Aided School.
Stephen Landen is the first known master and he taught from a room in his house. There is little evidence of the school in these early days, but Stephen Landen, later followed by his son, continued to give lessons to 15 of the town’s poorer children. No doubt many considered it folly to teach illiterate children to read, write and even cast accounts. However the plain fact is that the object of the charity schools was to teach a child to read, to learn the catechism, to give him a Bible to read from and to teach him the precepts of Christianity, in order to set him on the right path for his own salvation.
The square ragstone building in London Road, home to the school for nearly 150 years, was built in the summer of 1818. It was originally intended for 150 boys downstairs with one master and 150 girls upstairs with one mistress. It is difficult to imagine how so many children could possibly be accommodated in this builing, however fortunately it never reached these numbers.
In 1972 Lady Boswells moved to a brand new building on its present site. The facilities were spacious and the beautiful grounds continue to be enjoyed by today’s generation. |
