[1] Founded by Archbishop of Canterbury William Courtenay in 1395 as part of a new College of All Saints, the church replaced an earlier one on the site dedicated to St Mary.

[3] To cover the cost of building the college, Courtenay obtained a bull to levy a charge of fourpence in the pound on all ecclesiastical revenue raised in his archbishopric.

The church became the parish church for the whole of Maidstone and the college's estate was granted to George Brooke, Baron Cobham but was forfeited to the crown in 1603 when his grandson, Henry Brooke, the 11th Baron Cobham, was charged with high treason for his part in the Main Plot against James I.

[2] In the reign of Charles I the college became the property of Sir Edward Henden and later passed into the family of the Earls of Romney.

[1] It has a nave six bays long with aisles on the north and south sides with a clerestory running the length of the church.

On the south side is a chapel originally for the use of the Fraternity of Corpus Christi, a local lay community.