BAYHAM, a hamlet in Frant parish, Sussex; on the verge of the county, on the river Tun, 4 miles ESE of Tunbridge-Wells. A Premonstratensian abbey was removed hither, in 1200, from Otteham or Otham, and largely endowed by Robert de Thurnham and Ela de Sackville; was given, at the dissolution, to Cardinal Wolsey; passed afterwards to the Montagues; and was purchased, in 1714, by the ancestor of Marquis Camden. The Marquis has now a villa here, amid beautiful grounds; and takes from the place the title of Viscount. The ruins of the abbey, comprising the church and some contiguous buildings, in a state of tolerable preservation, stand in the grounds, and show interesting features of decorated early English and some decorated additions.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))