Sir John Baker was born in Sissinghurst circa 1488, the eldest child of Richard and Joan Baker and grandson of Thomas and Benet Baker of Cranbrook. The Bakers of Cranbrook were wealthy landowners in the Weald of Kent.

Sir John was educated at Cranbrook and was in chambers at the Inner Temple in London by June 1506 at the age of 18. He retained a life-long connection with the Inner Temple and was appointed Governor of the Inn twelve times between 1532 and 1557. His career developed into high office in the time of Henry VIII when he was Under-Sheriff of London in 1520, Recorder of London in 1526, Attorney-General in 1536, elected to the Privy Council in 1540 and Chancellor of the Exchequer (or as known then Chancellor of the Court of First Fruits and Tenths and Keeper of the Privy Seal of that Court) in 1540. Throughout the rest of Henry VIII's reign Sir John is active in the politics of the time and was named as one of the trustees of Edward VI in the 1547 will of Henry VIII.

When Queen Mary came to the throne in 1553, Sir John is Chancellor of the Exchequer and member of the Privy Council and he retains these roles throughout her reign. It is during this time that Sir John aquires the acronym "Bloody Baker" for his role in the persecution of reformers - in particular John Bland, Vicar of Adisham and Edmund Allin, a miller from Frittenden - who were subsequently condemned to death. There is some controversy over the extent of Sir John Baker's role but over the years the Bloody Baker name has stuck.

Circa 1520 Sir John had married Catherine Sackville the daughter of Richard Sackville of Withyham in Sussex. Her brother was married to Margaret, sister of Sir Thomas Bullen, the father of Queen Anne Boleyn. It is probable that this relationship had a bearing on Sir John's future career. Catherine died within a few years and circa 1525 Sir John married the widowed Elizabeth Barrett who was the daughter and heiress of Thomas Dyneley, lord of the manor of Wolverton in Hampshire. Sir John and Elizabeth had six children.

Within a month of the death of Queen Mary, Sir John Baker died on 23rd December 1558. He was buried at St Dunstan's Church at Cranbrook in the family vault and in 1736 a monument to him and the Baker families was erected in the church.

Victoria Mary (Vita) Sackville-West, poet, novelist and gardener, was born on 9th March 1892 at Knole, Sevenoaks, the only child of Lionel Edward Sackville-West (1867-1928), and his wife and first cousin, Victoria Josefa Dolores Catalina Sackville-West (1862-1936), the illegitimate daughter of Sir Lionel Sackville Sackville-West (1827-1908) and the Spanish dancer Josefa Durán (known as Pepita).

Vita grew up at Knole House and her early experiences there, including her often difficult relationships with other Sackvilles, were to have an important bearing on her writings. In 1913 she married the diplomat and broadcaster Harold Nicholson. They lived in London and at Long Barn, a house near Knole, between 1915 and 1930 where she wrote many of her early books (including Knole and the Sackvilles in 1922 and the pastoral poem The Land in 1926 which was awarded the Hawthornden Prize) and where she and her husband developed and experimented with their first garden. In 1930 they bought the ruined Sissinghurst Castle and spent many years creating Sissinghurst Gardens including the famous White Garden, Rose Garden, Orchard, Cottage Garden and Nuttery - now run by the National Trust. Her attachment to Knole led to her publishing English Country Houses in 1940 and records her love for such houses from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. She wrote extensively about gardening including a weekly column for the Observer from 1946 until 1961.

Vita was a prolific writer from an early age. But it was in the 1930s that she published her best known work The Edwardians (1930), All Passion Spent (1931), Family History (1932) which portrayed English upper-class manners and life, and Pepita (1937) which recalls her early life and her relationships with her mother and grandmother.

Throughout her life Vita's private life led to numerous affairs including Violet Trefusis (daughter of Mrs Alice Keppel the mistress of Edward VII), Evelyn Irons and Hilda Matheson. She was also very close to Virginia Wolfe about whom she wrote Seducers in Ecuador (1924) to which Wolfe responded with Orlando (1928).

In 1948 she was appointed a Companion of Honour for her services to literatures and in 1955 was awarded the gold Veitch medal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In later life she became reclusive at Sissinghurst and in 1961 became ill with stomach cancer and died there on 2 June 1962. She was cremated and buried in the Sackville family vault at Withyham, Sussex.

After her death, her son Nigel published Portrait of a Marriage in 1973. It was based on an autobiographical manuscript found in Sissinghurst and written when Vita was 28 - in 1920

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