Description:Amongst Sir John Leveson’s personal papers is a document listing all of the lands which he owned. The document reflects the extent of the Leveson family’s wealth and influence as landowners at this time.
The first property Sir John lists is ‘my Dwelling house called Shornes Place in Kent with all my landes in Halling’. In addition, the document also lists ‘one Cottage in Limestreete London’. Aside from the properties which he kept for his own use, it is significant that many of Sir John’s properties were rented out to Bishops and Lords, suggesting that the properties must have been substantial and suitable for men of a high social status. He notes that some of his Kentish lands were ‘holden of the Bishop of Rochester’, for which he received twenty pounds per year. In addition, Sir John states that he owned ‘that parte of Westcourte…in Chattham’ which was rented to ‘Mr Barker the Lord of Chattam’. He adds that the property was worth rent amounting to forty pounds per annum.
The document reveals that Sir John owned a number of ‘Mannors’ and also many farms with attached lands. He refers to a number of ‘Tenements and a cottage with the lands’ in ‘Wouldham’. The document also mentions eighty acres of land in ‘Salt Marsh’, and other tenements with lands attached, including ‘The parsonage of Cobham’ and ‘The Mannors of Leighborne’.
Like many of the earlier Leveson family wills, Sir John refers to lands which have been passed down the Leveson family from previous generations. However, it is significant that Sir John sold much of the inherited land. One entry states ‘my Ancient Inheritance in the County of Staffs is all soulde by me, and there remanes unsoulde only one Cottage in…Wolverhampton’. Following Vice Admiral Sir Richard Leveson's death in 1605, Sir John was entrusted with the Vice Admiral's properties in Staffordshire and Shropshire.