Rev Stephen Sackett BA Oxf, MA Camb

Rev Stephen Sackett, vicar of Blean, Kent, son of John Sackett and Ann/Agnes Sampson, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet, Kent^G, on 10 November 1605.¹ He died aged 73 and was buried at Blean^G on 13 December 1678.² He married first at Great Mongeham, Kent^G, on 16 July 1632, Alice Frisby, daughter of Samuel Frisby and Sarah Abbot, having obtained a licence from Canterbury three days earlier.^3,4 Alice was baptized at St John in Thanet^G on 29 October 1615.⁵ She was a sister of Sarah Frisby who married Stephen's brother John. Alice died aged about 31 a few months after the birth of her seventh child and fifth daughter Anne (who herself survived but a few days longer) and was buried at Blean^G on 10 August 1647.⁶ Stephen married second at St Mary the Virgin, Bishopsbourne, Kent^G, on 13 December 1652, Marie White.⁷
     Stephen was admitted to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, on 20 July 1621 at the age of 15, having matriculated that year from his school at St John in Thanet. He was awarded a BA degree in 1624/25 and an MA in 1628. He was awarded a further BA degree at Oxford University on 25 June 1631.⁸
     Stephen was vicar of St Cosmos in Blean from June 1631, and of West Hythe from November 1633, until his death in 1678.⁹ He appears to have visited his second parish only rarely, one such occasion being when he baptized his granddaughter Mary White in 1664. In the 1660s he recorded that the church was defaced, that there was no burial place, and that Lympne church, where the West Hythe registers should be kept, itself had no minister. In 1644 he paid Hearth Tax in the Hundred of Whitstable for four hearths, presumably the Blean rectory.¹⁰
     An account of Stephen's incumbency of his second parish at West Hythe appears in Archaeologia Cantiana, "Vicars of St. Mary, Westhythe":
     Rev Stephen Sackett was involved with his brother Rev John Sackett as defendants in an action in the Court of Chancery, London, in 1650, involving a dispute over ownership of the leasehold of properties. A summary of the court proceedings is given under Rev John's entry.
     In 1659 Stephen made a marriage settlement on his daughter Damaris a few days before her marriage to James White, executing an indenture of feoffment in favour of James White.¹¹ (It is conjectured that James may have been the son of Stephen's second wife Marie White.)
     Stephen was named as a beneficiary in his father's will made at St Peter in Thanet^G on 8 February 1623/24.¹²
     Stephen was named as a beneficiary in his mother's will made at Swalecliffe, Kent^G, on 31 January 1630/31.¹³ By his father's will, Stephen was to inherit the farm at Reading Street on reaching 21 and the farm at Boars Hill after the death of his mother Ann. In her will, she accordingly left Stephen the residue of her estate and appointed him executor.
     Stephen made his will at Blean^G on 9 December 1678, listing as beneficiaries his wife (unnamed); his daughters Damaris, Mary, Patience and Sarah; his grandson James White; and his granddaughter Patience White. He left to his wife "all she had brought on marriage plus £5", to each of his daughters and grandchildren he left twenty shillings, and the residue of his estate was to go to his eldest daughter Sarah.¹⁴ The will was proved in the Archdeaconry Court of Canterbury^G on 18 December 1678.