Badlesmere (usually corrupted into Basmere), a parish in Kent, 4 1/2 miles S of Faversham station on the L.C. & D.R. It has a post office under Faversham. Acreage, 781; population of the civil parish, 134; of the ecclesiastical, 232. The manor belonged, in the times of Edward I. and Edward II., to the potent family of De Badlesmere; was forfeited by the attainder and execution of John Earl of Oxford and Baron Badlesmere ; and passed into the possession of the family of Sondes, now represented by Lord Sondes. A house of regular canons was founded in the 13th year of Edward II. by Bartholomew de Badlesmere. The living is a rectory, united to the rectory of Leaveland, in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £323 with residence. Patron, Lord Sondes. The church is a small, plain, Saxon structure in good condition.
