aving been in a medieval reenactment society for a year or
so I wanted to be part of
fighting unit however
I didn't want to join an existing unit or household as most of the
ones in our society were already quite large. I also wanted something local to me and the three friends I joined
the society with. So with these thoughts I took the first step and did some research into the past of Stone Castle (now a the regional
offices of a large cement manufacture and still bearing the later architectural designs of a Georgian builder).
The period that I wanted to look at was the War of the Roses. Who owned the castle in this time? And what did he do during the
continued unrest that flourished at the time? These were the questions that I wanted to answer the most, and with a bit of help from
a few like-minded friends in the society (who were later recruited to the fighting force) I found out a lot more than I bargained
for.
After spending a couple of afternoons visiting my local library and the local 13th
century church at Stone, I had come up with a lot of information about the local area. I discovered that a fortification has been
on the site of Stone castle since the 11th century and that it was owned by the Northwoods who were the lords of Stone until the early
part of the reign of Henry VI. At which point the whole estate (some 40 acres) was sold to the Butivant's (or Bonivant).
Richard Butivant - a mercer of London - owned the castle until he died in the 37th year of the reign of Henry VI (1459).
At that point it passed on to his son Nicholas, who died on October 20th 1510 and is buried in Swanscombe church (now converted
to flats so no more to be learnt there!).
On purchasing the castle the Bonivants found
that like all the other large landowners in the area (Dartford), they had to contribute a number of men to fight for the bishop of
Rochester. Richard was responsible for gathering half a knight’s fee. The Appleton family (who owned Littlebrook Manor)
and the Cotton family (who also had land in Stone) both had to present a quarter of a knights fee each; and with the
half fee from the Bonivants, this made up the knights fee for Dartford. A smallish force of men (perhaps as few as 15 - 20) who
would be sent off to war at the Bishop's whim. If there were no prevailing hostilities, these men were used to guard Rochester
Castle for four weeks a year. However it must be made clear that as far as the research shows they weren’t fighting for the church
just the bishop.
