Our heritage

At Thomson Snell & Passmore we are justifiably proud of our history and tradition of service, quality and results. Here is an anecdotal tour through over 400 years of legal service.

We can trace our roots to 1570 when Nicholas Hooper, a Curate at Tonbridge Parish Church, set himself up as a "scrivener and drafter of documents", drawing up Wills, charters and indentures.

When Nicholas Hooper set to work Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne, the daughter of local girl Anne Boleyn from Hever, whose relationship with Henry VIII was to have far-reaching consequences for England as a whole.

In 1570 as Hooper sharpened his quills, Elizabeth I was excommunicated by the Pope and life for English Catholics became very difficult. Nearby Ightham Mote, owned by the Selby Family, famous Catholics, had its own priest-hole, a secret escape route hidden behind a chimney, and secret chapel protected by no less than five locks. A decade later, Pope Gregory XIII stated that it would "be no sin to rid the world of such a miserable heretic", increasing fears that Elizabeth might be assassinated.

Hooper celebrated his first decade in business as Sir Francis Drake, aboard the Golden Hind, returned triumphant to England, nearly three years and some 36,000 miles after circumnavigating the globe.

A Hooper parchment bond for a property at Hadlow still exists and Nicholas's intricate copper plate handwriting is also much in evidence in the will he drew up for Thomas Lamparde, yeoman of Tonbridge, later in 1593. Both documents now reside in the Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council archive. It was Nicholas's son John, aged just 15, who witnessed the will. The father's skills were passed on as young John joined Nicholas in the business.

In 1604, the year Christopher Marlowe, Canterbury's most famous son, completed his classic Dr Faustus, and two years before Tunbridge Wells' Chalybeate Spring was discovered, John Hooper himself drew up a 'Town Lands' endenture in respect of 30 acres in Tonbridge. The rents and profits from the land were to be spent on the upkeep of the town's important bridges over the Medway. In 1633 it was realised that the poor state of Tonbridge's bridges was due to the successive embezzlement of the funds by Town Wardens raised through the 'Town Lands' Trust!

John Hooper took over the practice on the death of his father in 1618 and went on to become parish clerk of Tonbridge, being noted for his artistry in drawing up and decorating official documents. It was a case of 'from father to son' again when John's son George succeeded him in 1641 - purchasing a new family home in Swan Lane. The road is now called East Street, and what later became Thomson Snell & Passmore had an office there centuries later.

The 1640s were troubled times; Parliament was flexing its muscles against Charles I and Civil War loomed. Picking the wrong side could spell death for a fledgling business. George Hooper did not subscribe to Parliamentary finances during the Civil War and hence is thought to have been a Royalist sympathiser. As a town Tonbridge remained staunchly Parliamentarian and, given the growth of the Hooper business at a time when Royalists tended not to flourish, it is believed the canny George switched sides. George's son, also named George, joined his father in the firm, with the pair witnessing deeds together by the latter part of the 17th Century.

With the restoration of the monarchy George 'the second' continued to grow the family business, taking an active role, at the age of 80, in Charles II's 'River Medway Navigation Company'. Through this the Medway became more navigable for the movement of ordnance and timber for the Crown, and also for corn, hops, wool and leather down the river, as well as moving coal, lime and stone upstream.

Unfortunately, George never saw the impact of his work as he died before the river was 'opened' officially in 1741. George had sent his sons, John and George, to Tonbridge School, to groom them for a career in the law and both sons are known to have witnessed documents. John died early and his brother George followed in his father's footsteps on George senior's death in 1744. Among the provisions of the Will was £40 for a "water engine" to protect the church and fight local fires and a further 20 shillings per year to buy wine for the Court Leet, as long as it met at the Rose and Crown, Tonbridge.

A common theme running through the genealogy of Thomson Snell & Passmore has been its 'Georges'. Another George - George Alchin - entered the fold as son-in-law of George Hooper 'the third', who died in 1752, having passed the business on to his son George, 'the fourth', the last of the Hoopers to participate in the firm.

With the death of the last male Hooper, another local family, the Scoones, took over the business and in particular Thomas, a former Tonbridge School student who had been articled to George Alchin. He later acquired the clerkship of the Medway Navigation Company, thereby continuing the firm's century-long connection with the river. Thomas also became steward of the manors of Frant, Southborough and Rusthall, the latter giving him significant influence at the successful 'new visitor attraction' - The Pantiles.

Thomas Scoones died in 1786 and was succeeded by his son William. William went on to have 14 children, of whom two - William and John - joined him as partners in the firm, which was known by the time of William's death in 1822, as Scoones and Sons.

The honour of announcing locally the accession to the throne of the new King William IV in 1830, and that of Queen Victoria in 1837, fell to John Scoones, who retired in 1836.

Another Scoones son had been instrumental in the formation of Tonbridge's first bank, which ran from 1792 until put out of business in 1812 by the monetary crises caused by Britain's foreign wars. William Scoones junior became Cornet of the Tonbridge troop of the Kent Yeomanry Cavalry serving across Kent, Sussex and Surrey against the Napoleonic threat.

William junior, who was a founder member of the Kent Law Society and elected president in 1820, played an important part in bringing the first gas lighting to the streets of Tonbridge in 1836. On the death of his brother, William took on a new partner, Brighton man Sydney Alleyne, changing the firm's name to Scoones and Alleyne. The subsequent death of William's son Francis in 1858, saw the 112 year involvement of the Scoones family in the Tonbridge firm ended.

Continuing the Scoones' tradition of public works Sydney Alleyne was appointed to the Tonbridge Sewer Committee in 1866 to help tackle the town's poor drainage: a sewer on the east side of the High Street fell the wrong way causing raw sewage to accumulate rather than flow into a nearby stream! But it was not until the local Board of Health came into being in 1870 that anything was done.

In Tunbridge Wells, unconnected at this time to the Tonbridge practice, were two other legal firms, one well established, and one fresh on the scene.

In 1910, William Tristan Templar, nother former Tonbridge School student, set up a practice in Tunbridge Wells. Although a modest company in terms of size it was joined by Leonard Wolfe Passmore and the firm became known as Templar & Passmore. In World War One, Tristan Templar undertook duty in the office of Custodian of Enemy Property in London and Germany, leaving his partner to run the business.

The firm underwent a period of transition and expansion with the arrival of new partners and resultant name changes. The old firm of Nicholas Hooper was now called Walker, Freer & Brown while Templar & Passmore had taken over the Tonbridge practice of E B Harris. It was not until 1946 that Walker, Freer & Brown and Templar & Passmore were amalgamated to create Templar, Thomson & Passmore, with offices in Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and London. Among new partners who joined was John F W Passmore, who had passed his solicitors intermediate examinations while a Prisoner of War at OFLAG 79 in Germany and a friend he made in his prison days, Gerald Infield, who had been captured at Arnhem in 1944, who joined the firm as partner in 1957.

Snell & Company, established in 1857 by Frederick William Snell, moved from London to Tunbridge Wells in 1920, bringing the practice and its commercial legal expertise to the town. Snell's eldest son Frederic Alford entered the firm in 1875 and continued to work until the age of 96, making him the oldest practising lawyer in England at his death in 1954.

In 1968 it was realised that the increasing complexity of the law demanded the establishment of a bigger, unified firm. As a result Snell & Co and Templar, Thomson & Passmore, both operating from Lonsdale Gardens, Tunbridge Wells, as well as offices in Tonbridge, Cranbrook, Crowborough and Ticehurst , amalgamated under the name Thomson, Snell & Passmore - 398 years after Nicholas Hooper had first put quill to parchment as a 'scrivener and drafter of wills'.

Today, more than 430 years later the firm has a team of 220 people working from offices in Tunbridge Wells and Thames Gateway. We are keenly aware of the firm's impact on the community over the centuries. We appreciate that our rich heritage also creates a duty to ensure the wellbeing of the firm for future generations. We foster many fond memories of colleagues who have gone before us in recent years.

The firm has commissioned two publications in the past celebrating our heritage. The "First Four Hundred" was published in 1970 and is a fascinating and scholarly account of the history of the firm written by Margaret Blatcher. In 1995 "425 years of service" was published (if you wish to download an electronic copy of these please be patient as they are large files, in particular the first).