Our branch of the Kemsley family came from Maidstone and the nearby regions. For many generations our people worked in Vinter Park's, an 1800 acre estate which was ringed by a fence that had gates on the north, south, east and west sides. They lived in the lodge at the north gate and controlled access to this estate. When my sister Amy visited there in the 1950's, this farm was going to be sold in parts by the Crown because the last of two old maid sisters had just died. Even though the Kemsleys have been in England since at least 892 A.D., we have only been able to trace our family back to a Stephen Kemsley in 1706. He was my great, great, great grandfather.

Vinters Park, Maidstone, Kent, England
Vinters Park is the clearing in the middle of the map. The North Gate would have been by the red pin.

Jesse & Martha Kemsley, Vinters Park, Maidstone, Kent, England

My grandfather, Jesse, was the gatekeeper of Vinter Park's north gate (see present day map below). He and my grandmother Martha Ann Tree were both born in Burham, Kent, England and both died in Maidstone, Kent, England. They had 13 children: 10 boys and 3 girls. One son, Phinehas, died on April fools day.

They lived in a very old and large two story Queen Elizabethan style stone house, or lodge, at the North Gate of the 1800 acre farm in Maidstone. There are three bedrooms on the second floor. My father, Jesse, who was a boy at this time, slept in a small room off from the other two. To get into his room he had to climb a ladder that had one leg shorter than the other. It was located on the steep staircase that led to the other rooms and had no handrail to hold onto, but rather a large rope from the bottom to the top which was used to pull oneself up by. The rest of the children slept in the other two bedrooms.

Vinters Park, Maidstone, Kent, England

This fuzzy digital snapshot of a computer screen can be used as a guide in identifying the locations in the the original, hi-res satellite photo -- only a click (on the photo) away. TerraServer does not allow one to copy these satellite images without cost. The first time at their site, you'll need to download and install the Macintosh & Windows browser "plug-in" found at their site in order to view the original image. This simple installation is well worth the effort -- the photo of our ancestral stomping grounds is moving.

When my sister Amy visited the house in the 1950's she noted that little had changed from the time my father was a boy. The lower floor was unchanged except for a new scullery. The house had neither electricity nor water except for what collected in an chistern in the scullery when the rain ran off the house into it. There were rock walks around the house, a place about three feet deep where the coal bin was, and an outside toilet. Beautiful flowers were blooming in the front yard while in the rear were rolling hills with many large oak trees, with sheep lying down in the shade. Also at the side of the house was the old well with water as cold as ice. The bucket, which was pulled up by turning the wheel, was like a sieve. It must have been the same one father used. Across the road is an old barn where my father once rode bundles of grain down the steps from the attic.

Closeup of Vinter's Park, Maidstone, Kent, England
Jesse & Martha Kemsley lived here

This Maidstone web site relates this information about this estate, which was within what is now called the Vinter's Valley Nature Reserve:

Once part of a large 18th Century estate belonging to famous paper-maker James Whatman, the reserve is an oasis tucked between Vinters Park and Grove Green housing estates and several large schools. It is home to a wide range of animals and plants.

First Generation Americans

Jesse Reuben Kemsley Branch

Jesse Reuben Kemsley was born on 20 August 1857 in Boxley, Kent, England while his parents lived in that house at the North Gate of Vinter's Park. He was 3 years old (in England) when the American Civil War started in 1860, and was 7 when it ended and the slaves were set free. He was also still in England when the great pioneer wagon trains and land give aways started where many settlers traveled from the eastern American coast to settle the Great Plains. While still a young man, Jesse Reuben helped on the farm that his father, Jesse, was the overseer of.

Coming To America (1875)

In 1843, 14 years before Jesse Reuben Kemsley was born in 1857, William Kemsley of Gillingham, Kent, England (just a few miles north of Bredhurst and Maidstone), his wife Anne Chambers Kemsley and five of their six children immigrated to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and his brother William followed in 1849. This stared the South African branch of the family.

At one time Jesse Reuben Kemsley wanted to go to Australia with his cousin (ca. 1873-4; possibly ancestors of Tim Kemsley, who currently lives in Australia), but his father refused to sign the necessary papers for him to leave. A year or so later when he got a chance to go to America with Charles Gilbert of Green Grove, his father consented if he would promise to come back in two years because he thought it would help his health. Jessee had TB and would have lived only a short time if he stayed in the cold damp climate of England. Most of his family had already died from it. Just think, we could have been Australians or South Africans rather than Americans.

Jesse Reuben Kemsley

Jesse Reuben Kemsley came from England by boat in 1875 at the age of eighteen, one year after the great grassshopper plague came to Kansas and Nebraska. On the long voyage over to America he became very seasick. Because he had been a pipe smoker since a very early age, someone brought him his pipe and tobacco thinking that it might make him feel better if he smoked. The thought of smoking sickened him even more, so he threw his pipe and tobacco overboard. He never smoked again.

Upon arriving in New York, he learned that many people from Kent County lived up in Baldwinsville, near Syracuse, Lake Ontario and the finger lakes. So he went there and found the King and Dapson families. The Dapsons had two boys and a daughter who had married one of the eight King boys. The only King girl, Eliza, eventually became my father's first wife (Amy's mother).

Jesse Reuben Kemsley's immigration to America started a significant, though not sole, branch of American Kemsleys.

Mark Edward Kemsley Branch

Jesse & Martha Kemsley's son, Mark Edward Kemsley, moved to California in ???.

Alfred Joseph Kemsley Branch

Jesse & Martha Kemsley's brother's gson, Alfred Joseph Kemsley, moved to Seattle in ??? and changed his name to Kensley because "there were already too many Kemsleys in the world." Some of his descendants bear the name, Kensley Rosen.

Legends 'n Lore

The Maidstone Iguanodon, 1840

Just to peak your curiosity, a direct quote from The Maidstone Iguanodon, 1840, one page from the more extensive Paper Dinosaurs, 1824-1969: An Exhibition of Original Publications From the Collections of the Linda Hall Library web site:

In 1834, in a stone-quarry in Maidstone, a blast revealed a mass of rock containing the fossil bones of a gigantic animal. Gideon Mantell came into possession of the fragments, which he united into a single slab. One tooth was present, which identified the animal as an Iguanodon, and in addition there were two thigh bones, each nearly three feet long, and assorted other leg bones, bones of the fore- and hind-feet, and several vertebrae, ribs, and collar bones. The slab was placed on display in Mantell's personal museum, where it became known as the "Mantle-piece" (see illustration at right). John Martin used it as the basis for his restoration (see item 3), and Gideon Mantell made his own private reconstruction, which was never published, but which we reproduce here

Visit the site, they have several great photos of the Iguanodon's bones.

Leeds Castle

Just six miles southeast of Maidstone... learn more at Britannia Web Site and Brian Gottlieb's scanned postcard.

The Witch Trials

Witch trials and executions were conducted here...

Miscellaneous

A Topographical Dictionary of England relates (p.304):

MILTON next SITTINGBOURNE, a market town and parish in the hundred of MILTON, lathe of SCRAY, county of KENT, 12 miles (N.E. by E.) from Maidstone, and 40 (E. by S.) from London, containing 2012 inhabitants. This town was anciently called Middletun, a Saxon appellation, indicative of its central position in the county, and also ìthe king's town of Milton, having probably been, in early ages, the place of residence of the kings of Kent, as well as a part of the demesne of the crown.

Yahoo's Maidstone listings.