Stephen de Pencester was Warden of the

Cinque Ports The confederation of Cinque Ports ( ) is a historic group of coastal towns in south-east England – predominantly in Kent and Sussex, with one outlier (Brightlingsea) in Essex. The name is Old French, meaning "five harbours", and alludes to ...

when the first authoritative list of Cinque Ports Confederation Members was produced in 1293. Pencester was

Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is the name of a ceremonial post in the United Kingdom. The post dates from at least the 12th century, when the title was Keeper of the Coast, but it may be older. The Lord Warden was originally in charge of the ...

for 32 years, his tenure finishing in 1299 when the Baron de Burghersh was elected; it is reasonable to assume he began his administration in 1267. Pencester was married to Margerie (a great-granddaughter of

Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent ( , ; – before 5 May 1243) was an English nobleman who served as Chief Justiciar of England (1215–1232) and Justiciar of Ireland (1232) during the reigns of King John and his son and successor King Henry I ...

). When she inherited the parish of Tunstall in Kent. They resided both at Allington and

Penshurst Penshurst is a historic village and civil parishes in England, civil parish located in a valley upon the northern slopes of the Weald, Kentish Weald, at the confluence of the River Medway and the River Eden, Kent, River Eden, within the Seveno ...

. When Pencester died in 1303, Margerie then married to Robert de Orreby. After her death, an inquest found that she had inherited the parish of Tunstall and this parish passed to her daughters (of Pencester): Joane, the wife of Henry de Cobham, of Rundale, and Alice, wife of John de Columbers. An effigy of Pencester is on display in Penshurst village's St John the Baptist church, in the Sidney family chapel, and the Pencester-owned

Penshurst Place Penshurst Place is a historic building near Penshurst, Kent, south east of London, England. It is the ancestral home of the Sidney family, and was the birthplace of the great Elizabethan poets and courtiers, siblings Mary Sidney and Philip ...

estate before the Baron's Hall was built by the new owner of the estate, Sir John de Pulteney in 1341.

References

* Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports 13th-century English people 13th-century English Navy personnel Year of birth missing 1303 deaths {{UK-gov-bio-stub