Stephen (or Steven) Carlton (or Charlton or Carleton) was born in Northbourne, Kent in 1564. 

• Stephen married Mary Stookes (or Stockes) on 21 October (or 21 November) in Northbourne, Kent in 1603.

• Mary (Stockes) was born in Halifax, Yorkshire and was christened on 18 April, 1585, the daughter of Francis Stockes, the only record of him being recorded as her father at the time of her birth.

• Stephen and Mary were the parents of; Ann (27/01/1604), WILLIAM (1610-1683), Stephen (1612-1671), Thomas (1614)

• Mary (as Marey) was buried on 13 or 16 April 1630 and Stephen died the same year. Both are buried at the Ash Parish in Kent.

 

  Despite some claims that Stephen Carlton was born in Lower Hardres, the most discernible birth entry (family search) stipulates, or records the event as being at Northbourne, Kent.

  Known to be the youngest of seven children, with no more information available than that, Stephen’s father, John, died when he was seven years old. As per his wishes, John was buried in nearby Lower Hardres, very near the city of Canterbury, some 25km’s from Northbourne.

  His mother, Alice, died three years later and was also buried in Lower Hardres.

  I have to speculate here that - as he was only ten when his mother passed - Stephen may have returned to Northbourne to live with an elder sibling. For it was almost 30 years later before he appears on the radar again. 

  Aged 39, he married 18 year old Mary Stookes (sometimes Marey or Marye, sometimes Stockes), also in Northbourne and presumably at the parish church of St. Augustine’s. Their first child, Ann, was born the following year, 1604, likely within a calendar year of their marriage.

  Parentally wise, Mary’s father is recorded as Frances (or Francis) Stockes, with no dates regarding his birth or death and no mention of his wife, Mary’s mother. Her christening on 18 April 1585, in Halifax, Yorkshire, appears to be the only traceable mention of Frances.

  There is a christening of a Francis Stockes in Rothwell, Yorkshire in 1581, 31 km’s from Halifax. Could this possibly be a brother of Mary’s? Stookes, Stockes, Stocks, there are a few of them listed in the vicinity, but Frances’ only association is Mary…and vice-versa.

 

  Northbourne had belonged to Eadbald, a Saxon king of Kent who, in AD 618, gave the Manor and land to the Abbot of St Augustine's, Canterbury, in whose ownership it was still recorded in Domesday Book. 

  Northbourne Manor became Crown property at the Dissolution and in 1540, Henry VIII gave it - in exchange for other property - to Archbishop Cranmer. It reverted to the Crown and was gifted, in 1561, by Elizabeth I to her foster brother, Edward Sanders. 

 

  The roots of the Anglo-Saxon name ‘Hardres’ came from the hamlets of Upper or Lower Hardres, near Canterbury. Both parishes date back to Saxon times (785), where they were collectively known as Haredum. 

  By the Domesday Book of 1086, the parishes were known as Hardes, both being held by Bishop Odo of Bayeux. Collectively they could offer around 5 ploughs together with pig-populated woodland. 

  The place names literally mean ‘place at the woods’, from the Old English ‘harad’.

  The parish of Lower Hardres lies in central eastern Kent, about 5 kilometres south of the city of Canterbury. It sits ‘a half mile’ east of Watling Street. a former Roman Road (now B2068) connecting Canterbury with the ancient port of Hythe, an old market town and civil parish on the edge of the Romney Marsh, directly south.

  The parish was on the small side for Kent, it covered just under 1,200 acres and would have supported a population of about 250 parishioners. The economy of Lower Hardres would have been earned largely from farming and it remains largely a rural settlement, to this day.

  Lower Hardres is sited at around 70 metres above sea level, in gently rolling countryside. Local heights rise gently westwards, to reach almost 110 metres on Chartham Downs. 

  It is drained largely by field drains and there is little actual surface drainage. What there is, is headed northeastwards to join first the Nail Bourne, then the Little Stour to reach the North Sea through the port of Sandwich. 

  St Mary's church sits on the eastern side of the village. Sadly, it is not some mediaeval masterpiece, as the original church was demolished in the Georgian era and the present house of prayer erected in the early 1830s.