The Manor of Freckenham

The Lords of Freckenham

The Bishops of Rochester have been Lords of the Manor from the time King Alfred the Great gave the property to Bishop Burricus in the year AD 895. The Bishops were the Lords of Freckenham for several hundred years, from the 9th century to the 16th century.

By 1537, Bishop John conveyed the manor to Sir Ralph Warren and his wife Christina. Sir Ralph was Lord Mayor of London and he appointed Edward Crome and Nicholas Wilson as his Trustees. Joan, daughter to Sir Ralph, married Sir Henry Cromwell. His son and heir, Sir Oliver Cromwell, alienated the manor in 1600 to Sir Stephen Soame. He died in 1619 and was succeeded by his son Sir Thomas Soame. Sir Thomas, who was knighted by King Charles I of England in 1641, had been Sheriff of London in 1635, and MP briefly in the Short Parliament (April-May 1640), and then in the Long Parliament from 1641. He was Alderman for Ventry and then of Cheap from 1640 to 1651, when he was deprived by the republican government. He was reinstated in 1660 on the Restoration of King Charles II of England. He died in 1670, aged 88.

The manor appears to have devolved on his two daughters, Bridget, married to Robert Russell of Freckenham, and Cicely, who re-married as her second husband Thomas Cage. She conveyed her share of the Lordship to her brother-in-law Robert Russell. Meanwhile, she directed her executors to give £500 to her son, Seckford Cage. The law then was that a wife's property became her husband's on their marriage and, consequently, Thomas Cage refused to make the transfer. Seckford Cage took his father to Chancery Division and sued him for the money, which was granted by the Court in 1680.

Robert Russell sold the manor to Sir Samuel Clarke, who was created a Baronet in 1698. He came from Snailwell, Cambridgeshire, and married Mary, daughter of Major Robert Thompson, of Newington Green, Middlesex (North London). Sir Samuel died in 1719. He was succeeded at Freckenham by his son, Sir Robert, 2nd Baronet who represented Cambridge in Parliament in 1717. A younger son Samuel died in his father's lifetime, but there were three daughters, Mary, the third, being important for our descent of the Lordship. She married Arthur Barnardiston, youngest son of Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, 23rd in lineal descent of his family. Sir Robert died in 1746, and was succeeded as 3rd Baronet by his son, Sir Samuel Clarke, who died in 1753. The Baronetcy and the Lordship passed to his brother, Sir Robert, who died in 1770. The last in the male line of the Clarkes was Sir Arthur, the 6th Baronet, who died in 1806 without issue. At this point, the entail of the 2nd Baronet's Will came into action again and the Lordship of Freckenham became the property of Nathaniel Barnardiston, the son of Arthur Barnardiston and Mary Clarke.

Since that time the Barnardiston Family have owned the Manor passing it to rightful heirs for more than two centuries until recently, when Professor Nathaniel Geoffrey Barnardiston CBiol MRSB, great great nephew of Major-General Nathaniel Walter Barnardiston CB MVO, grandson of Geoffrey Barnardiston JP FLAS, and son of Colonel Nathaniel Montague Barnardiston passed the Lordship of Freckenham to Datu Sadja Matthew Pajares Yngson GCPS KCR FRSA who is the current Lord of the Manor and the first Lord of non-English descent.

The 70th Lord of Freckenham

Ambassador Datu Sadja Matthew Pajares Yngson DCPS KCR FRSA

Many say that Matthew Pajares Yngson is a multifaceted individual and a proficient person wearing many hats. This is probably because he carries with him more than 20 years of combined technology, television, radio, print, news, entertainment, philanthropic, diplomatic and international business experience starting his career at a very young age and never stopping since. He is a national of both the Republic of the Philippines and the Commonwealth of Dominica who has gained multi-cultural experiences and influences throughout the years. As a Dominican, he is also a Commonwealth citizen under Schedule 3 of the British Nationality Act 1981.

By the age of 21, he was already one of the youngest movers and shakers in the business, technology and charitable scene. He established Iskul.Org (“school org”) in the year 2000 which provided free technology services to students and student organizations from all over the Philippines. It became the largest non-profit student related organization in Southeast Asia during its time working with the likes of JobStreet.com, Cathay Pacific and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to name a few. Achieving all of this by 2002, he earned acknowledgement as the first Filipino member of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). This also led him to receive recognition from international universities including receiving an Honorary Master’s Degree in Science with majors in Applied Science & Technology (honoris causa). He was one of the youngest members of the Philippine Computer Society and the Philippine Internet Commerce Society. He was part of the lobbying group that pushed the current Philippine E-Commerce Law (Republic Act No. 8792) into existence with the help of the late Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay’s son, former Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and other IT professionals. As a former member of the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines, he graduated the Certified Digital Public Relations Program exclusively offered by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines and the Ateneo-JWCC Graduate School Center. He is still involved in technology as an advocate of responsible social media use.

He officially started his broadcast media professional career on FM radio during his collegiate days (as Matt Montoya of Monster Radio RX93.1) and even while on radio, he held positions on and off-air. His progression in the industry led him to another high rating radio station, Magic 89.9 DWTM while career transitions also led him to join the early days of U-Radio 107.9 DZUR. He was formerly a Producer and Announcer on DZRJ-AM 810khz from 2010-2014, producing the program called Inside Motoring, a program focused on motoring and road safety. Since 2015, he has been with DZME-AM 1530khz as Executive Producer and Radio Presenter hosting a weekly public service program with Mr. Patrick Tulfo of the Tulfo broadcasting family.

His crossover from radio to television became natural. As a diverse talent, his first official full-time television hosting stint was in 2003 for a program on the Solar Sports channel called Race Hour. In the 2005 College Champions League, he took part in the sports series shown on NBN Channel 4 working with other notable local talents. It was in 2004 when he was given the unique opportunity to work with ABS-CBN’s Studio 23 channel on one of their lifestyle programs called Stoplight TV as its Host and Executive Producer. The program lasted 12 years with broadcast airings not only in the Philippines but also all over Asia, U.S.A., Canada, Europe and the Middle East. It won numerous awards including the 2013 Hyundai Brilliant Film Awards – People’s Choice Award, the 2012 Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines - Motor Media Awards - Best Motor Show Coverage for Broadcast and the 2006 and 2009 Henry Ford Awards for Excellence in Journalism - Best Automotive Television Feature. Moving this television career forward, in 2014, the ASEAN Basketball League commissioned him to be their Live Broadcast Managing Consultant working in different Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.

As an entertainment professional, he has achieved proficiency for numerous live events throughout his extensive career. Music, being one of his first love, allowed him to continue honing this talent by being a Club DJ then moving forward as a professional Hypeman/MC of several superclubs and dance halls. He is fortunate to have been recognized by prestigious award giving bodies for this talent including nomination to the 2010 Philippine Hip Hop Awards as “MC of the Year” and in 2012 and 2013 as “Hypeman of the Year” at the Wave 89.1 Urban Music Awards.

In the course of his broadcast career, he also fell in love with writing, making him polish and sharpen his journalist skills by writing on a wide range of topics. He was the first Tech Editor for Tech & Tuner Magazine, a sub-title of C! Magazine. He was formerly a Lifestyle Writer for Toyz for the Boyz Magazine, previously a Lifestyle Correspondent for Impact Golf Magazine and a former Contributing Writer for Summit Media’s Sports Interactive Network Philippines (SPIN.PH). From 2011-2015, he was the Editor-In-Chief of Pinoy Speed sa mga Pahayagan (Filipino Speed on Newspapers) which syndicated content for several newspapers. He was also given the brief opportunity to be the Editor-in-Chief of Stuff Magazine Philippines, the local edition of Stuff UK Magazine. From 2013-2018, he was an opinion Columnist for the Philippines’ No. 1 daily tabloid newspaper, Bulgar. He has since shifted to contributing articles to international publications including Investment Migration Insider (Hong Kong), Modern Diplomacy Magazine (Europe) and The Diplomat Magazine (Asia-Pacific). He has also been invited to contribute for The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, a journal established in 1910 relating to the Commonwealth of Nations.

Despite having a varied professional career, he is also an enterprising individual engaged in other ventures. These include a board position in Receivers & Liquidators Inc., a firm engaged in debt collections for financial institutions. He also co-owns an aesthetic clinic, Skinworld Philippines, and was a former director of EDSA Realty Inc., a small real estate firm. He also headed Stoplight Event Services, an event promotions and talent management outfit. In recent years, he briefly ventured into Investment Migration and Global Business Expansion in cooperation with his family’s law firm which assisted him in establishing international business companies in the U.S. and U.K. His father, who graduated top ten and cum laude from the University of the Philippines, founded the Yngson & Associates Law Firm in 1984 focusing on business and corporate law since its inception. His brother, who studied at St. John’s University in New York, concurrently heads the firm.

As a public-spirited individual that has had copious experiences in life, he informally counseled troubled teenagers he met in the entertainment industry as a non-traditional Life Coach, guiding them towards a better and more focused future through engagements in a positive lifestyle. This life-changing benevolent initiative for the youth has led him to receive recognition from different religious and non-profit organizations. These include being awarded with an Honorary Ecclesiastical Doctorate in Counseling and admitted as a non-practicing Brother of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of the Spanish Orthodox Church and Ecumenical Apostolic Chaplain Service.

The Free Republic of Liberland, a non-UN startup state in Central Europe currently undertaking global recognition through the provisions of the Montevideo Convention appointed him in 2016 as the official Diplomatic Representative to lead the Representative Office in the Philippines. The country is an observer of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) which include Taiwan and Kosovo among its members. In 2019, as the mutual recognition process is proceeding with the Republic of Somaliland, another UNPO member, he was elevated and assigned by the Liberland government to be the Regional Diplomatic Representative (Ambassador-at-Large) for Southeast Asia.

In late 2016, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Eastern Caribbean-Southeast Asia Economic and Cultural Chamber (EC-SEA Chamber), an inter-regional non-governmental organization recognized by the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS). The EC-SEA Chamber engages in commercial diplomacy to help increase economic development and improve lives in six (6) independent Eastern Caribbean countries namely Antigua & Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines. This effort is more important now with the rebuilding needed for Barbuda and his adopted country of Dominica after hurricanes devastated both islands.

After the desolation brought about by the 2017 hurricane season, he instituted the Caribbean ASEAN Voluntary Council for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in December of the same year after realizing the need to further push for action with regards to climate change, SDGs, and its long-term economic effects to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other similarly impacted countries. The Caribbean ASEAN Council focuses on bridging the mutual challenges of Southeast Asia and the Caribbean to the rest of the world. It is a socio-civic volunteer program that aims to serve thirty-four (34) island countries and overseas territories in the Caribbean region and the ten (10) members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Council has been accepted as a Lifetime Member of CIVICUS - the World Alliance for Citizen Participation and registered with the NGO Branch of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA).

In 2018, he was officially accepted as one of 80 participants chosen from the 53 countries of the Commonwealth to take part in His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Study Conferences – CSC Global Leaders Progamme first established in 1956 for selected leaders across the Commonwealth. Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal is the President while His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent is a Trustee. As one of only two participants representing the Caribbean, he was given the rare opportunity to meet with Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, The Princess Royal, and with Her Excellency The Right Honourable Patricia Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, the 6th Secretary-General of the Commonwealth.

For his advocacy in spreading monarchist ideals of peaceful continuity and economic development, His Majesty Sultan Muedzul-Lail Tan Kiram, the 35th Sultan of Sulu and North Borneo and son of the late Sultan Moh. Mahakuttah Abdulla Kiram, appointed him as Secretary General and Royal Ambassador of the Sultanate of Sulu. As a holder of a royal office of Sulu, he was made a senior noble and bestowed the lifetime title of “Datu Sadja”. For his continued voluntary service to the Tausug people of Sulu, he was bestowed the Raj of Tambulian Island and granted the title of "Rajah of Tambulian" by His Majesty Sultan Muedzul-Lail Tan Kiram. Scholars roughly compare the noble title of Datu with that of a Duke in European monarchies. The indigenous Muslim Sultanates in the southern Philippines exercise their de jure sovereign rights protected by the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Philippine Republic Act No. 8371, the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997. The Royal Sultanate of Sulu has also been recognized by other royal families around the globe.

For his support to the Caribbean region and the people of Haiti, the non-reigning Imperial House of Haiti has also awarded Amb. Yngson the title of honour of “Baron de Saint-Lyé”. A legitimate claimant, the Prince of Saint-Marc, is the successor of the dynastic rights of Emperor Faustin I, who reigned from 1849 to 1859 as the last monarch of Haiti. The Republic of Haiti currently does not recognize these dynastic rights formally, but many others including members of the Haitian government support this claim.

Amb. Datu Sadja Yngson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, an elected Member of Chatham House – the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a Supporter of the Royal Commonwealth Society, and former member of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations. He is also a member of the following institutes; the Chartered Management Institute, the Institute of Leadership and Management, the Caribbean Corporate Governance Institute, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, and Honorary Consultant of the Chartered Institute of Professional Financial Managers - Asia Pacific Region. He is also a co-founder and the Chairman-Designate of the Manila Branch of the Royal Society of St. George, a royally chartered organization whose Patron is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The venerable gentleman is a Knight Commander in the Order of the Knights of Rizal, a Grand Cordon of the Royal and Hashemite Order of the Pearl of Sulu, an Honorary Fellow of the Real Sociedad de Armigeros de España, a Member of the Manorial Society of Great Britain, a Member of the Real Liga Naval Española, an Honorary Senator of the Royal Scientific Senate for Humanity, Health & Development Affairs of the Kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara in Uganda and was awarded a “Medal for Outstanding Contributions and Efforts for Peace, Education and Cultural Diplomacy” by the Association of the Representatives of Bunyoro-Kitara.

The Lords of Freckenham from the year AD 895 to present. In the photo is Prof. Nathaniel Geoffrey Barnardiston CBiol MRSB, Lord of Thorndon Parva and Staverton-cum-Bromswell and former Lord of Freckenham together with Amb. Datu Sadja Matthew Pajares Yngson DCPS KCR FRSA, the 70th Lord of Freckenham.