Zion Baptist Church - Pembury Road, Tonbridge

We were able to visit the Zion Baptist Church on Pembury Road, Tonbridge during our time in Kent. Ann Nye and Sophia Nye donated the money to have this little Church built in 1867.

Foundation stone of Zion Baptist Church, Tonbridge

The Nye family had apparently been participating in the Baptist church for a number of generations, and as such were considered under British law to be "non-conformists" - that is, they did not conform to the Church of England.

According to Pastor Tim Fields, a new Baptist congregation was started in Tonbridge and did not have a meeting house. In 1867, Winchester Farm - then owned by Sophia and Ann Nye - had an extremely abundant harvest, from which the Nye sisters donated £250 to entirely fund the construction of the Zion Baptist Church on Pembury Road, Tonbridge.

Pastor Tim Field has been pastor of the church for 12 years, and has spent considerable effort and funds to restore and maintain the church during that time. He was thrilled to meet descendants of the Nye family and graciously allowed us to view the interior and took the photo of us together.

Janice Nye Lutz and Michael Bouy at Zion Baptist Church, Tonbridge

Nye family headstones at Borough Green Baptist Church

Janice Nye Lutz with graves (L to R) of sisters Sophia and
Ann Nye, their brother Thomas Cotton Nye,
and their parents John and Ann Nye.
Borough Green Baptist Church, Kent - August 2010

Through a happy chain of circumstances, we were advised by Pastor Tim Fields at the Zion Baptist Church in Tonbridge that the founders of the church, Ann and Sophia Nye, were buried at a place called Borough Green.

On our last day in Kent, we travelled to Borough Green and found the Baptist Church. What a thrill when we came across the gravestones of not only Ann and Sophia, but their brother Thomas Cotton Nye and their parents John and Ann Nye.

Their headstones are for the most part still readable and we were delighted to photograph them and transcribe them in August 2010.

The headstone of John Nye who was christened 26 January 1784 at Leigh, Kent, England and his wife Ann Randall who was christened 1 August 1784 at Penshurst, Kent, England is inscribed as follows:

PEACE

JOHN NYE

WHO DIED MAY 1______

ALSO ANN NYE

WHO DIED MAY 31 1858

AGE 75

The head stone of Thomas Cotton Nye who was christened 4 August 1811 at Penshurst reads as follows:

IN MEMORY OF 

THOMAS COTTON NYE 

OF MAIDSTONE KENT 

YOUNGEST SON OF JOHN AND ANN NYE 

WHO DIED _________(unreadable date)

Ann Nye was Christened 3 October 1813 at Hadlow, Kent and her sister Sophia Nye who was Christened 6 April 1817 have the following inscription on their headstone:

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF

SOPHIA NYE

OF WINCHESTER FARM HADLOW KENT

YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF 

JOHN AND ANN NYE

WHO DIED MARCH 20 1876

AGED 59 YEARS

ALSO OF ANN

SISTER OF THE ABOVE SOPHIA NYE

WHO DIED DECEMBER 3 1882

AGED 69 YEARS

SWEETLY SLEEP DEAR SAINT IN JESUS

THOU WITH US SHALT WAKE IN DEATH

HOLD HE CANNOT THOUGH HE SIEZE US

WE HIS POWER DENY BY FAITH

Michael Bouy with the gravestones of his 5th great grandparents and 3 of their children 

Borough Green Baptist Church cemetery

In front of the Nye home

This is the duplex house where the family of John and Ann Randall Nye lived - 92 Higham Lane, Tonbridge, Kent.

The brother, Thomas Nye, lived in the left half of the house at 90 Higham Lane.

The top photo was taken in August 2010, the second one was taken in 2002 and the third one is from an unknown date and was the old original farm house evidently taken from the back of the house. Between 2002 and 2010 the house was remodeled with an addition on the right side of the photograph.

When the Nye family lived here from about 1840 to 1882, it was called Winchester Farm and was considered part of the village of Hadlow.

Click here to see interior photos.

The current owners advised us that the house was formerly surrounded by fields and orchards, and the land was subdivided in the 1970s and incorporated into Tonbridge.

When John and Ann Nye died, the farm passed into the hands of their daughters, Sophia and Ann Nye.

Janice Nye Lutz at the Nye family home, August 2010