According to
Edward Hasted, the 18th-century historian of
Kent, the manor then known as
Sahersted formed part of the estate of
Odo de Bayeux at the time of his fall from grace in 1080. It is not known what type of structure existed on the site at that time however the building is within ancient woodland and may have been a mediaeval lodge. The manor of Sharsted was recorded in 1174 as a subsidiary manor within the
Hundred of
Teynham and held directly from the
Archbishop of Canterbury. During the reign of
Edward I the manor was in the possession of John de Sharsted and then Sir Simon de Sharsted. A Simon de Sharsted is also noted as having been imprisoned in the
Tower of London. Robert de Sharsted is recorded in the
Kent Hundred Rolls of 1275 as a sheriff of the
Lathe of Faversham, and an early tomb in the Sharsted Chapel in the church at
Doddington) bears the name of 'Richard de Sharsted' dating his death to 1287. During the reign of
Henry VI, Bartholomew de Bourne inherited Sharsted Court, which continued in the Bourne family for the next two hundred years. According to Hasted, early in the 17th century James Bourne conveyed the estate to Abraham Delaune, the son of
Gideon Delaune, a
Huguenot apothecary in the service of King James I's wife, Ann of Denmark, and founding benefactor of the
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries. Abraham's grandson, Colonel William Delaune (afterwards MP for
Kent from 1715 to 1722) transformed Sharsted in 1711 adding the brick front and the gazebo at the end of the raised terrace. Since Colonel Delaune had no children of his own, Sharsted passed to his nephew, Gideon Thornicroft, in 1739. Just three years later Thornicroft died, leaving the property to his mother. Again, just two years later, she
bequeathed the estate on her death to her two unmarried daughters, Dorcas and Elizabeth. On 1759 Dorcas left Sharsted to the great-grandson of Sir William Delaune, Alured Pincke. In 1864, his son Chapman Faunce added 'Delaune' to his surname and changed the spelling to Faunce-De-Laune. During the late 19th century
tobacco was grown on the property, which was also depicted in prints in the
Illustrated London News. By the early 20th century, Sharsted Court was recorded in the
Sittingbourne, Milton and District Directory of 1908 as being "a typical English park of some 250 acres". By 1949 however the property was empty. Alured Faunce De Laune died around that time leaving the property to a son in South Africa who declined it due to the expense of maintaining the property from afar. The Ratzer family bought it during the 1950s, but, in common with a number of large country estates which became expensive to maintain, the house was at risk of being demolished. However, in 1966 the Court came into the possession of Canon Wade and his son Anthony Wade whose family included
Virginia Wade,
Wimbledon tennis champion in 1977. As of 2007, the house remains in the hands of the Wade and Shepley families who have undertaken extensive restoration of the house and gardens. The house was also licensed for civil
weddings in
Kent and provided occasional conference facilities. Sharsted Court no longer holds these functions and the last of the weddings took place in 2008. ==Architecture==