[1] In August 2011 a hoard of more than 350 bronze weapons, tools, ornaments and other objects dating to the late Bronze Age was found in a field at Boughton Malherbe by two metal detectorists.

The objects are of types that are unusual in southern Britain, but are common in northern and north-west France and therefore it is thought that the objects were made in France and later brought to southern Britain where they were subsequently buried in about 875–800 BC.

[2] The manor of Boughton Malherbe is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

By the reign of King John, it was held by the de Malherb family and then passed by inheritance and marriage to the Wotton family, including the Tudor courtier Sir Edward Wotton.

Many of the Wottons are buried in the Church of St Nicholas, including Lady Katherine Wotton and her husbands, Lord Stanhope (d.1634) and Daniel O'Neill (d.1664), an Irish army officer, politician and courtier.