Barham, a village, a parish, and downs in Kent. The village stands in a valley, under the downs, about 3 1/2 miles SW of Adisham, on the S.E.R., 6 SE of Canterbury, and 76 from London. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office under Canterbury. The parish comprises 4698 acres; population, 1014. The subsoil is chiefly chalk. The manor belonged early to the see of Canterbury, and was held by Reginald Fitzurse, one of Thomas a Becket's murderers, and afterwards by Fitzurse's descendants till the time of James I. The principal residences are Broome Park, the seat of the Oxenden family, and Barham Court, the seat of the Dering family. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Canterbury; gross value, £750 with residence. Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is Early Decorated English, and has a lofty spire and some neat monuments. It was well restored in 1886. Digges the mathematician had connection with the parish, and Admiral Sir T. Thomson was a native. The downs extend from SE to NW along the line of Wathng Street, and are about 3 miles long. Numerous barrows are on them, of times from early British to later Saxon, showing them to have been scenes of many ancient public events. King John with his army of 60,000 men encamped on them in 1213, prior to resigning the crown; Simon de Montford assembled his troops on them in the time of Henry III., to oppose the landing of Queen Eleanor; Queen Henrietta Maria, after her landing at Dover in 1625, was met on them by the flower of the English nobility; lastly, several regiments lay posted on them in the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, to oppose his threatened invasion from Boulogne. Traces of the camp of these regiments, and also a small square ancient camp, still exist.
