page_title: Larkfield Priory Hotel
section_title: The Wigan family
hierarchical_section_title: Larkfield Priory Hotel / The Wigan family
caption_attribution_description: English: Reverend William Lewis Wigan, owner of Larkfield House, East Malling
context_page_description: Larkfield Priory Hotel is a hotel, restaurant, bar and function venue in Larkfield, Kent. It benefits from being on the A20 London Road and is just 4 miles north west of the county town of Maidstone.
context_section_description: Reverend William Lewis Wigan (1817-1876) built Larkfield Priory (then called Larkfield House) in the 1850s. He was born in 1817 and was the son of John Alfred Wigan of Clare House, East Malling. He was educated at Eton and obtained a Degree at Cambridge University in 1840. He became the Vicar of East Malling in 1847. Two years later in 1849 he married Caroline Ramsay Akers (1820-1910) who was the daughter of Aretas Aker of Malling Abbey. The couple had five sons and two daughters.
  William died in 1876 and his wife Caroline continued to live at the house with her two daughters Eliza and Isabella who both remained unmarried. Her son William Lewis Wigan (1853-1940) also lived with them for several years before his marriage. In 1892 there was a fire at the house which damaged part of the house but the front remained untouched. Two photos taken before and after the fire show that the house is still substantially the same as it was in the 1850s.
  William their son was married in 1894 and moved to Clare House to live with his new bride Laura Carr daughter of the Rector of Barming. Caroline died in 1910 and the house was rented for the next 20 years.
caption: Rev William Lewis Wigan
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