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at Ash in 1591 to one William Parker, but, if so, must
soon have been left a widow. Dorothy was later married to Thomas Hodsoll
of Ightham, a nephew of William I of South Ash, and had by him a numerous
family.3
Thomas Maxfield’s first wife died in June, 1595 and, a year
later, he married Joan Walter, who was a daughter of Thomas Walter of
Pennis and sister of the John Walter who was to found the Walter charity.4
He died nine years later, on 12 September 1605.
If the Master’s degree of William Baker, the incoming
rector, fell short of the scholastic achievement of his predecessor, there
was one respect in which Maxfield and Baker were in like case; each had
married a daughter of Thomas Walter. For Baker, marriage had also brought
preferment; in 1597, his father-in-law had presented him to the rectory of
Fawkham, which he was to hold for the rest of his life. At Fawkham
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of his children were christened, Thomas in 1598,
Dorcas in the following year and Elizabeth in 1604 and Thomas, who lived
but hours or days, was buried.
Two years before he went to Fawkham, Baker had become vicar
of Darenth and, three incumbencies being too much of a good thing, he now
relinquished that cure. Darenth was but a poor living and, with the
responsibilities of a young family, he was no doubt glad to abandon it for
Ash. His new appointment gave rise to a general post, with Joan Maxfield
returning to Fawkham and William and his wife Anne moving thence to Ash.
It cannot often happen that one sister succeeds another as chatelaine of a
rectory.
The Baker entries in the Ash registers are, in some
instances, impossible to disentangle from those of another family of the
same name who were then living in Ash. All too clear, however, is the |