William Langham (1589-1651), the son of John Langham of Northampton, moved to London in 1619 and then to Burwash in Sussex circa 1625. He built Bateman's near Burwash of local sandstone and the tiles of the hipped roofs and six chimney stacks were made from Weald clay. The date over the entrance porch of 1634 places when it was built. Langham had created a substantial estate based on the mansion at Bateman's when he also purchased the manor of Burgherssh [Burwash] and tenements across East Sussex from Benjamin Wybarne, esq. in 1630 and indeed Bateman's may be built on the demesne land of that manor. In addition, Langham leased Dudwell Park, Halton Farm and the manors of Burwash and Poundsford from Sir John Pelham.

On the death of William Langham in 1651 his estate and Bateman's passed to his heir Alice Langham, daughter of his brother Edward Langham of Northampton. She married Joseph Newington (1606-1686) of Witherenden in Ticehurst on 1st October 1657 at Burwash and they sold the manor of Burwash to Edward Polhill, esq. and Anthony Knightsbridge, esq. in 1664. The Newingtons sold Bateman's to John Butler at some point prior to their death - Joseph in 1686 and Alice in 1687.

ref: East Sussex Record Office - AMS5982 and Sussex Record Society - Sussex Manors in the Feet of Fines

John Butler (d 1722) of Burwash was a successful timber merchant whose business of felling, converting and selling timber, primarily oak, to such customers as H.M. Navy earned him a considerable fortune. He puchased numerous properties and woodlands in Brightling and Burwash including Hamplace, Dudwell Mill and Bateman's. He also constructed the timber framed building Rampyndene in the High Street, Burwash in 1699. On his death on 27^th October 1722 his two sons inherited his properties - Hamplace to John Butler born 1704, Bateman's to Thomas Butler (1706-1737) and Dudwell Mill to them both:-

Item I give and bequeath unto my son John Butler and to his heirs and assignees forever all that Messuage Barn Brewhouse Garden Oasthouse yard Stable buildings lands and premises called Hamplace and all the household goods and Stuff as it now stands in the said house
Item I give and bequeath unto my son John Butler and my son Thomas Butler and to their heirs or assignees forever all my Copyhold Messuages Lands and premises called Dudwell Mill and Lands with the appurtenants thereunto belonging which I lately bought of Mr John Wyatt and now in the occupation of Matthew Chittenden Miller
Item I give and bequeath unto my son Thomas Butler and to his heirs or assignees forever all those buildings Gardens Orchards Lands and premises now in the occupation of my sons John Butler and Thomas Butler called or known by the name of Lanebridge Meriham and Highland which I lately purchased of Joseph Newington Gentleman

ref: Will of John Butler, Burwash - probate July 1723; East Sussex Record Office - DUN 42/9A & AMS5982/1; and Sussex Record Society Window and House Tax Assessments 1747

Richard Johnson shopkeeper sold the Bateman's estate in March 1773 to the Salehurst shopkeeper John Freeland (1732-1811) of Hurst Green for £950; the property was then described as 'a house and land (80 acres) called Bateman's, Lanebridge, Merihams and Highland formerly occupied by Rogers, then John Langridge and now Elizabeth Langridge'. In 1785, John Freeland is recorded as owner/occupier of Bateman's with a Land Tax value of £23. Two years later, in March 1787, he conveyed the estate (upon which he had built a house occupied by Sutton) to Robert Pattenden (1754-1821), yeoman for £1,050 borrowed from his step-father, John Freeland. Robert Pattenden had married John Freeland's stepdaughter Mary Blundell (1757-1789) in 1785 and already occupied a windmill which he had built on the land.

Robert Pattenden and family lived at Batemans until his death in June 1821. He married four times - Mary his first wife died in 1789 and bore four children two of whom died in infancy; his second wife, Frances Squiers he married in 1791 but she died two years later along with their only son John; and his third wife, the widowed Margaret Johnson, he married in 1794 and she bore him four children before she died in 1804; and finally his fourth wife, the widowed Ann Blackford he married in 1806 but there were no children and she outlived him and died in 1829. Robert and his first three wives and two of the children from the first marriage are buried at St. Bartholomews Church in Burwash.

Robert Pattenden's son John continued to farm at Bateman's as a tenant. He married Mary Glyde Reeves in 1824 and she, now widowed, and children are on the 1841 census as the farmer at Bateman's Farm

ref: East Sussex Record Office - AMS5982/1

In 1838 Richard Smith Appleyard sold Bateman's and its remaining land for £1,400 to the Rev. Joseph Gould, who was rector of Burwash from 1840 until his death in 1866. His executors sold the estate for £5,300 to Thomas Miller Whitehead of Duke Street, London who, in 1886, sold to Albert Jarvis who, in 1892, sold to John Alexander Macmeikan, of Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire who, in 1897, sold to Alexander Carron Scrimgeour, of Maida Vale. Rudyard Kipling bought Bateman's and its land, Park House watermill and part of Dudwell Farm from Alexander Carron Scrimgeour for £9,300 on 28 July 1902.

ref: East Sussex Record Office - AMS5982/1

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay on 30th December 1865 the son of Professor John Lockwood Kipling and Alice Macdonald who had married earlier that year prior to John taking his postion in Bombay as architectural sculptor at the School of Art and Industry. Rudyard was christened as Joseph Rudyard Kipling but always known by his second name which was often shortened to Rud or Ruddy. When Rudyard was five he and his sister Alice were sent home to England to live with a foster family in Southsea. He was educated there and then at the United Services College at Westward Ho! near Bideford in Devon.

In 1882 Rudyard went back to India and returned to England in 1889 when he gained literary success with "Barrack-Room Ballads." He married Caroline Starr Balestier in 1892 and settled in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA where he wrote "Captains Courageous" and "The Jungle Books." In 1896 the Kipling family came to Rottingdean, Sussex where he wrote "Kim", "Stalky &Co.," and "Just So Stories." In 1902 the family settled at Batemans, Burwash where he spent the rest of his life and wrote "Puck of Pook's Hill" and "Rewards and Fairies.". He gained the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 and the Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Literature in 1926.

Rudyard Kipling died on 18th January 1936 and his ashes are buried at Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. His autobiography "Something of Myself" written the year before was published posthumously.