Culpeper Connection with
Mereworth, Kent, England

Mereworth

Culpepper Connection

Elizabeth Culpeper, born about 1546, the daughter of Thomas Culpeper of Bedgebury^9b, married Sir Thomas Fane of Mereworth Castle.

Mereworth Castle

After the Fane's ownership of the castle, Colin Campbell (d. 1729), rebuilt it to be one of the most beautiful houses in England. Now owned by an Arab, it is not actually a castle at all but a faithful interpretation of Palladio's Villa Capra (also called the 'Villa Rotunda').

Location: Just west of the intersection of the A-26 and A-228.

National Grid Coordinates: TQ 670 533

St. Lawrence Church

Ancient Parish in Mereworth.
Original registers from 1560.

Mereworth

1831 Topographical Dictionary
MEREWORTH, a parish in the hundred of LITTLEFIELD, lathe of AYLESFORD, county of KENT, 5 miles (S.E.) from Wrotham, containing 711 inhabitants. The church, dedicated to St. Lawrence, was rebuilt by John, Earl of Westmorland: it is a very handsome structure, with a fine Corinthian portico, and surmounted by a lofty spire: the whole edifice is constructed of different sorts of stone, and the eastern window is of painted glass, collected for the purpose by that nobleman. The grazing land in this parish is supposed to breed the largest oxen in England, some of them having exceeded three hundred stone. This parish is bounded on the north by the Hurst woods.