John Lennard, Esquire, was a member of the "Humanist Generation", born 1461-1482. For his family seat, he purchased the manor of Wickhurst, in Sevenoaks, for £1,200 in 1533.
Knole is an English country house in the town of Sevenoaks in west Kent, surrounded by a 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) deer park. One of England's largest houses, it is reputed to be a calendar house, having 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances and 7 courtyards. It is remarkable in England for the degree to which its early 17th-century appearance is preserved, particularly in the case of the state rooms: the exteriors and interiors of many houses of this period, such as Clandon Park in Surrey, were dramatically altered later on. The surrounding deer park is also a remarkable survivor, having changed little over the past 400 years except for the loss of over 70% of its trees in the Great Storm of 1987.
The house was built by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, between 1456 and 1486, on the site of an earlier house belonging to James Fiennes, the Lord Say and Sele, who was executed after the victory of Jack Cade's rebels at the Battle of Solefields.