Chapter 2: Matthew Fagg

First, we need to know more about Matthew Fagg, for whom Exmouth House was built. In the lease for the land on which it is built, dated 29 August 1817, about which more will be said later, he is intriguingly described as ‘Matthew Fagg of Hackney in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman’, and something will be said about his Hackney connection below. Beyond this, certain basic biographical information about him is available from the online website, ancestry.co.uk. This reveals that Fagg was born in 1765 at Lydd, Kent, and baptised there on 16 October 1766 (Lydd is a small town on Romney Marsh). It further records his marriage to Ann Mittell in 1792; the death of his brother, John Fagg, on 13 May 1812; of his mother, Susannah Hobbs, at Lydd, on 21 July 1813; and of his sister, Elizabeth, also at Lydd, in about 1839. Then, we have his will, comprising PROB 11/1918/268-70, made on 26 April 1838: he died on 2 June 1839, and the will was proved on 15 November that year. This describes him as ‘of Lydd in the County of Kent Grazier’, leaving his wife, Ann, in possession of his house, presumably in Lydd, and providing her with an annuity during her lifetime, which was to continue after her death to his daughter Lydia. It also set up a trust for his daughter Eliza, wife of Charles Deudney of St Leonards, and mention is made of his sons, Matthew William Fagg and John Fagg.

Unfortunately, nothing is currently known of Matthew Fagg between his christening in 1766 and the year 1798: what he was doing, and where, therefore remains something of a mystery. In 1798, however, he returned to Lydd. The churchwardens’ poor rate records survive from the mid-eighteenth century onwards and Matthew Fagg does not initially appear (though one William Fagg does, disappearing only in 1821, to be replaced by John: it should be noted that Fagg is quite a common Kent name). But from 30 June 1798, Matthew Fagg appears, with a property valuation of £8.0.0, being described as landlord himself (William was always a lessee of others). The valuation of his property goes up to £19.0.0 in 1813, £69.5.0 in 1819 (of this £40.0.0 is described as ‘late Mouns’ or something similar, evidently relating to its former owner, as with other such entries in the rate books) and £86.5.0 in 1824; it stays at that level till 1834, the last extant rate book.4

Matthew Fagg's premises at Lydd. No 76 on the 1837 Lydd tithe map (c) Kent Archives and Local History Service

Fagg also appears in the tithe apportionment and map for Lydd: the agreement for commutation of tithes for the parish is dated September 1837, and the apportionment evidently shortly preceded this. Fagg owned 98 acres of meadow and grassland and lived in a premises that is marked on the map - a house, stables, garden and yard with the reference 76.5 I have tried to locate this from its position on the map: it could be a nondescript mid-late 18th-century house that is still extant, but there has clearly been a lot of demolition so it may not survive.

On the Lydd front it is worth adding that Fagg seems not to have been a real grandee of the place -- i.e., not like such families as the Dennes, Finns and Russells who have wall tablets in the church -- and he does not appear in the vestry minutes. His burial in the north western slip of the churchyard is recorded in Leland Duncan’s list of monuments in Lydd churchyard; the tomb was also said in the list to commemorate his widow, Ann, who died in 1852.6 It is indeed the case that a tombstone exists near the extreme north-west corner of the churchyard on which the name ‘Matthew Fagg’ can still be faintly discerned: this now lies on its back and the top corner is broken off, and, although the words can still just be made out, it is only a matter of time before the weather will erode them completely. The lower part of the tombstone is already completely decayed, and there is no longer any sign of the inscription to Ann. Leland Duncan also lists other Fagg graves in the north-west section of the churchyard, and Fagg-related inscriptions can still just about be made out on other fallen stones. The principal Fagg tomb that is easily to be found in the churchyard is on the south side of the church and is to an Ann Fagg who married John Terry and died in 1870, who might have been related in some way to Matthew (though she could equally easily relate to the William and John Fagg who also lived in Lydd: as already noted, Fagg is a common Kentish name).

4 Kent Archives P237/4/2; P237/11/1-3.

5 For the map see Kent Archives DCb/T/O/L/11B. For the apportionment see The National Archives, IR29/17/233, on Tithe Apportionment microfilm no. 25 at Kent Archives and Local History Centre.

6 Leland L. Duncan, Monumental Inscriptions in the Churchyard and Church of All Saints, Lydd, Kent, ed. Arthur Finn (Kent Archaeological Society, 1927).