"The families came from South Scotland in the 1500's. There was always fighting among the chiefs in those days, and our folks were on the losing side in one scrimmage. The father and a son were imprisoned and executed, and 3 sons, Robert, Benjamin and Alexander, escaped to England. Presumably they came by ship to the Thames Estuary, and then went up the North Downs to a tiny hamlet called Stalisfield, right away from everywhere. It is still quite "out of the world", and no main roads go near it. It is about 6 miles E of Harrietsham. The sons, or grandsons, of the first comers, moved down into the valley at Harrietsham in the 1500's and there the descendants have been ever since. There were Robt. Benjamin and Alexander Bottles, and a Ferdinando! of all names. My father had brothers Robt. and Benjamin, and an uncle Ferdinando. All that history was in a diary kept by one of them, but they did not say where they had come from, nor their name, so we do not know
"1. if their name was Bottle, which is a place name met with in the North. Bootle, is "Bottle" really, and there are villages such as Wallbottle and Newbottle. Bottle means a building.
"2. They might have taken the name because they were builders, or
"3. their crest was 3 blue cornflowers, which country people call "blue bottles", and the 3 brothers might have been called "3 blue bottles" and so got the name. So you can choose which you like, for we don't know. The family were always skilled wood workers, as well as builders. Our 2nd cousin Edward at Harrietsham is one of the very few "Master Carvers" left. He does splendid wood carving - did memorials after the last war - in churches. Of course, that is only a hobby, because there's not enough wanted to pay anyone to do it nowadays. The family were always educated - could read and write and mostly kept diaries and records, which have disappeared with a very few exceptions. Aunt did not set out to give me any history of the family, but things came out incidentally from time to time, like the following, which is not really anything to do with the family, but which interested me. We were out for a walk and Aunt pointed and told me that London was straight there. She knew exactly because of an account in an old diary of where they saw the Fire of London (1666 was it?). In the diary it said that one night they saw a big fire, and, as usual, all the ablebodied men went along to help fight it but they couldn't get near it, and as far as any of them went, men from there had gone on farther, and those who had returned, said it was as far away as ever, and folks at the end of their journey had gone off and no one knew where it was, and it must be a dreadful fire. No news came next day, and at night the fire was far worse, and they all were terrified, as they thought it must be the end of the world, and the flames of Hell spreading towards them. So they all gathered on a hill, and spent the night in prayer. Of course, they couldn't think of anywhere large enough to make such a blaze. Next day, the news came through that London was on fire and they were mightily relieved. The diary mentioned exactly where they saw it, so that's how Aunt knew. I don't think the family had any special history - just settled there and worked as builders and so on. They intermarried with farmer's daughters and that kind for the most part. Aunt was very proud of her "Kentish Yeoman" descent, which I didn't understand until I was very much older. Her mother was pure "Kentish Yeoman" for generations and previous Bottles had married similarly.
"I have made a table of the family so far as I know it. I'm not sure if the first one was Benjamin or Robt Thos. Benjamin might have been a generation before. Whoever it was married twice and his son by the 1st marriage was Robt. Thomas from whom we are descended. There were one or two daughters, and sons and daughters by the 2nd marriage. That was where the property was lost because of a dispute over the will. Our family wouldn't have got it, tho'.
"I'm not sure about the order of my aunts and uncles. Robt and Harriet were the eldest and my father and Alec were the youngest, but I don't know if I've got the three middle ones right. Robert, the eldest, was working away from home, and only came for weekends. It was miles away and no trains or other means of getting - only walking. He went back one Sunday and got caught in a bad thunderstorm and soaked. He couldn't get in his lodgings at once as the folks were out, and the weather turned very cold after the storm, and he got thoroughly chilled, and no one to trouble about him, and no one did until he was too ill to recover - being away from home. Rachel left home when she was 14, and later was maid to an officer's wife and went to the Barbadoes with her and later married again and went to India, so neither father nor aunt nor Uncle Alec saw her after she was grown up. She was twice married. Isobel was the first, and Maud and her sisters by the second husband. Isobel was brought up by aunt Harriet, as her mother returned to the Barbadoes after losing the father. I saw Isobel when I stayed with Aunt. She lived in Maidstone. Betty was about 3 years old at the time, and she and her husband went to Australia soon after. I liked her and her husband, and Betty of course. Her two elder boys both joined up in the last war, and one was killed at Gallipoli and the other in France. I remember Isobel was so thankful the other boy was only 15 so not old enough to go. She had 3 or 4 girls altogether. I only heard of her through Aunt Harriet. Her half sister lived in England. I believe Aunt Rachel came to England but after my father died we lost touch with Aunt Harriet to some extent, and it wasn't till I was older that I wrote to her much again. I was only 16 when father died, and we couldn't afford to go and see her, until I was earning. Mother and I went once or twice for a day or two then. Aunt Harriet told me of my cousin Maud. The other two were married and lived elsewhere, but Maud lived in London (Her parents were dead). Then at Aunt's funeral we met for the first time, although I had written to her before, and we liked each other very much and kept in touch and visited occasionally until her death. I saw one sister of hers once, but that's all I know of them. Both had children. Daughters don't seem to count in our family tree, do they? I know my grandfather had a sister, for Aunt took me to see her in Maidstone. She was over 93, and I should have thought she was only in her 70's. I remember my surprise at hearing she was 90 - and she lived some time after. She was as alert and upright as possible and talked about the family and my father and me.
"Our family was known as a long lived family, nearly all lived to 70 and over, and mostly, it was a stroke, or heart attack, that took them off. One, I know insisted on climbing a plum tree when he was nearly 80, and he fell - the branch broke - and he was fatally hurt. Aunt said plum trees were known to be treacherous like that. That's the Bottle family. My grandmother Rachel (nee Beken) came from the Weald of Kent. Her ancestors were yeoman farmers for generations. The family always went in for biblical names - tho' they wern't Puritans. She had a brother Benjamin, too. Aunt Harriet used to stay at a married sister of hers - also married to a farmer whose farm had been in the family since the year 1. I was far more interested in her account of the life there and of the farm than in names of relatives or history. The thing that struck me most was that they had a big salt cellar on the table for meals, and the family sat "above the salt" and the servants and men below, which custom had descended from hundreds of years ago. They were almost self supporting - in the way of food - only had to buy groceries did baking and brewing themselves as well as ordinary dairy work.
"Aunt also told me of her mother's tales of the smugglers for their home lay in the way the smugglers went from the coast inland. That is history - not just our history - so I'm not bothering with that. Also, Aunt had a ghost story about grandmother's uncle or cousin that I remember well. Would you care to hear it? - or about the smugglers or anything? If so, I'll tell you. That sort of tale interested me far more than names and dates of unknown people. There were tomb stones in Harrietsham Churchyard with dates in the 1600's and 1700's - Robt Thomases and their wives, who were our ancesters. Our grandfather was the eldest son of the eldest son all the way down, other sons went off into the world. I saw one letter written in the 1700's by one who went to Cambridgeshire. I haven't said anything about your father and his brothers and sisters and father because I expect you know far more than I do about them. I don't know dates of birth and death of most of the folks as you see.
"If there is anything you'd like to hear about more fully, I'll tell you if I know it. So ask me about anything or anyone. "Oh - many of the houses at Harrietsham have A.B. and A.T.B. somewhere on them, showing they were built by one or other of the family - and possibly, owned by them as well."
Comments by John Bottle:
This was Lillian Annie Bottle [2625, Tree 200] 1876 - 1963, writing, probably to her nephew Edward Kelvin Bottle [0109] and probably during or just after World War 2.
The visits to Aunt Harriet must have taken place in about 1888 when Lilian Annie [2625] was about 12. Aunt Harriet [2832] would then have been about 56.
What happened to the diaries dating back to the 1500's?
What happened to the letter written in the 1700's by the Cambridgeshire Bottle? Was this Richard [3752, Tree 710], died 1742, innholder in Tempsford?
What was the ghost story?