2. Lamienby & Goldwell

1495 The first recorded owner of the estate was Thomas Lamienby or Sparrow, the Deputy Reeve of the Manor of Bexley. A reeve was an official appointed by a lord to manage his estate and in this capacity he would have had great influence locally and it is probable that because of his position he was given or was able to acquire the Lamorbey estate.
1513 When Thomas died he bequeathed the estate to his daughter Agnes. In 1515 she and her husband James Goldwell built a 'good house' there, completed by their son who called it Lamienby-Goldwell.

Goldwell family tree.jpg

1608 The Goldwell family’s Lamorbey estate included a 54 acre farm at Blackfen. This later got passed around as fortunes rose and fell. In the 18^th century landowners bought up parcels of land to convey their wealth, political power and social status. William Steele enhanced his Lamorbey estate by buying up land in Blackfen in 1745.
1664 John Goldwell, grandson of James and Agnes, was assessed for an astonishing ten chimneys in the Hearth Tax of 1664. In the later part of the seventeenth century the Goldwell family sold the estate, which then passed through a number of different owners (the James family, Nicholas Warren, Thomas Foster(1715) and finally William Steele) and tenants included Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Southampton although there is very little information regarding his occupancy.

In England, hearth tax, also known as hearth money, chimney tax, or chimney money, was a tax imposed by Parliament in 1662, to support the Royal Household of King Charles II. One shilling was liable to be paid for every firehearth or stove, in all dwellings, houses, edifices or lodgings, and was payable at Michaelmas, 29 September and on Lady Day, 25 March. The tax thus amounted to two shillings per hearth or stove per year. From 1664, everybody whose home had more than two hearths was liable to pay the tax, even if otherwise exempt, and changes were made to reduce the scope for tax avoidance.

Being assessed therefore for ten chimneys would have been quite a burden on the occupier.

Lamorbey House history

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