Interesting connections with Northbourne and other dissident preachers, sympathetics and prominent people.

• Henoch Clapham was vicar of Northbourne from 1607-1614, a former Separatist leader who later returned to the Church of England. In 1609, Sir Edwin Sandys denounced the vicar Clapham who had been assigned there by the London church authority.
• Sir Edwin Sandys was a British statesman and one of the founders of the proprietary Virginia company of London, which in 1607 established the first permanent English settlement in the colony of Virginia, at Jamestown. In addition, he assisted the Pilgrims is establishing their colony at Plymouth Massachusetts by lending them 300 pounds without interest. Northbourne court was granted to Sir Edwin Sandys, on whom at the same time was conferred the honour of knighthood.
• Richard Hooker (March 1554 – November 3, 1600) was an Anglican priest and an influential theologian.  Hooker's emphases on reason, tolerance and inclusiveness considerably influenced the development of Anglicanism. He was the co-founder (with Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker) of Anglican theological thought. Friend of Sir Edwin Sandys. In 1595, Hooker became Rector of the parish of St. Mary's. Bishopsbourne is 13 miles from Northbourne.
• In 1614 James AUSTIN was assigned as the Northbourne Church Incumbent replacing Henoch CLAPHAM. The incumbent of a benefice, usually the parish priest, held the assets and income. The incumbent has legal possession of the church and glebe for the term of his office, but shares with the churchwardens the responsibility for them. Formerly, an incumbent rector would enjoy the assets and receive all the tithes of a parish, but might appoint a vicar to discharge all the spiritual duties of the office at a lesser salary.
• In the early 1600s John Austen of ‘Cottenton’ Court, Northbourne, was thought to be one of the largest yeoman farmers in the area. Austins were a prominent family in the area.  No relationship has yet been established with the Austin's of Staplehurst/Cranbrook.

Inside the Parish church is the tomb of Sir Edwin Sandys (died 1629).

• Sir Edwin was the treasurer of the Virginia Company and is famous for drawing up the constitution of the American state of Virginia. This established the principle that people should be governed and taxed by their own consent through an elected assembly.