Halstead Saint Margaret Marriage Register 1839-1920

 The Marriages of Halstead are a curiousity because an Ecclesiastical error in the 1880's meant that the use of a chapel licensed for burials was developed into the the parish church and the Ancient parish church was demolished in 1880/1881. Subsequent marriages were taking place in a building which had no rights for Church marriage due to a failure to transfer that right from the Ancient Parish Church. 119 marriages which took place until 1919 were technically invalid rendering many of the population of Halstead illegitimate. This was resolved by a 1920 Act of Parliament which validated these marriages and licensed the church for marriages.

The rural parish of Halstead was one of farmers fruitgrowers and shepherds. It is 1.4 miles from the railway station at neighbouring Knockholt which was constructed and opened in 1876 as "Halstead for Knockholt" station on the 1868 South Eastern Railway line from Orpington to Sevenoaks and Tonbridge. The marriage register includes many entries for railway workers resident in Halstead from Station staff to platelayers and Engine Drivers. One railway family connected to Halstead through a marriage includes an interesting occupation here.

The register contains a printed invitation to all men of the village to assemble as part of the preliminary mobilisation for the First World War. It has been used absently mindedly to make a note on the reverse. The subsequent entries reflect not only service in the Army and Navy but Halstead women serving in the Territorial Force Nursing Service. Marriage of Canadians from The Ontario Canadian Hospital Orpington are also noteworthy.

My transcript of this marriage register has been completed and is being prepared for publication at Kent Online Parish Clerks in due course.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

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Occupation Signal Carpenter

 Railway families were the life work of the late  Bob Rubie A.G.R.A. A.G.P. who assisted many to trace their railway family history. As a colleague of Bob's for several years his enthusiasm for the South East of England has often influenced me as I transcribe records for publication online at Kent Online Parish Clerks. I think Bob taught me through his appreciation of some of the humblest railway occupations to think about the 24 hour nature of work on early railways. Bob had worked as a signalman at most signal boxes between Hither Green and Orpngton. He was on duty at Hither Green signal box at the time of the Hither Green rail crash. It is fitting that he is buried at Hither Green Cemetery alongside the railway. As I recall Bob had a fascination with early railway signalling and the construction of the wooden railway signal box and miles of wiring connecting it to signal posts.

On 20 September 1896 Frank Roots marries at Halstead Saint Margaret  Kent,his occupation is given as Stoker.His father Thomas Roots occupation is given as Signal Carpenter. The work of creating installing and fitting signals is a seldom remembered part of railway construction and maintenance. I imagine that the miles of metal cabling involved in signalling would fall to a Railway Signal Fitter.

Thomas Root was born at Tunbridge Kent;his son Frank was born at Capel Kent and his son James elsewhere. The family reside in Deptford in both the 1881 and 1891 census but had previously moved about as reflected by the birthplace of the Root children. It seems likely that Thomas Root had been in railway employment throughout his working life as he is described as a Railway Signal Fitter in the 1881 census and a Signal Carpenter in 1896.

His son's birth at Capel (near Father Frank's birthplace of Tunbridge Wells) was at a period when the family did not remain as there is no baptism recorded until Frank is found in the Baptismal Register at All Saints Deptford on 8 August 1883 over a decade after his birth in early 1872. This suggests that Frank Roots work involved signalling work across the railway.

In the 1891 census whilst living with his four siblings in Deptford Frank aged 18 is employed as an Engine Cleaner and appears to have followed his father in Railway employment;in 1896 his occupation as Stoker might also be rail employment. His Elder brother James aged 21 in 1891 is described as Watchmaker and Jeweller.

The marriage at Halstead is one of over a hundred marriages which were not legalised until a 1920 Act of Parliament regularised the Eclesiastical error made when the Saint Margaret's Church was opened in it's present building in 1881. It had previously been a chapel and burial ground licensed for burials. The failure to licence the Church for marriages resulted in many of Halstead's children being technically illegitimate. Marriages between 1881 and 1920 were affected. My transcript of the Saint Margaret Halstead Marriage Register 1839-1920 has been completed and is being prepared for publication in due course.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Seal Saint Peter and Saint Paul Kent

 My transcript of the burial register for Seal 1813-1872 is now available online at  Kent Online Parish Clerks parish page.

Saints Peter and Saint Paul is a fine example of a mediaeval church which has been updated in subsequent centuries and has some fine memorials particularly to the Earls of Camden and their families.

The new Kent Online Parish Clerks parish page includes the burial transcripts with links to the Leland Duncan Monumentatal Inscriptions held by Kent Archeological Society and links to photographs of Monumental Inscriptions. For searchers these resources combined on the parish page represent additional assistance.

I have already had feedback from those who have found these combined resources useful. I hope to extend coverage of burial and other transcripts for Seal in future.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020 

Hever Railway deaths

My transcript of Hever Kent burial register for publication at Kent Online Parish Clerks has lead me to research a number of railway deaths between 1867 and 1888.
The line which opened to the public in 1888 was a branch line from a junction south of Edenbridge at Hurst Green. The line ran south of Hever Station  under Mark Beech in Hever parish by means of the Mark Beech tunnel to Cowden station see Derek Hayward's images.
The present day Hever Station buildings are no longer manned but in private commercial ownership. Views of the former goods yards north and south of station platforms and the straight line to Edenbridge Town station can be found at Derek Hayward's website.
The landowner's locally had been insistent that the railway companies involved should provide high quality buildings and the presence at Mark Beech of a local brickmaker and farmer and meant that brick and local stone ensured that durable and sizeable station buildings and goods yards were a feature of the construction. Althought passenger travel began in October 1888 a great deal of construction had preceded this and the Mark Beech tunnel which has both left and right track curves and deep ventilation shafts required a substantial workforce. Views inside the tunnel including an image of a ventilation shaft are available on Adrian Backshall's blog.
In the Hever burial register the small village has four readily identifiable burials.
On 31 August 1867 Henry Sneyers a 37 year old "Railway worker killed by an accident when residing at Hever" was interred. The presence of Belgian Railway construction workers is in contrast to the construction work at both Polhill and Sevenoaks where Irish and foreign workers were opposed in strike action which threatened to delay the Sevenoaks Tunnel.
The subsequent three deaths in the period when construction would have been at its height are self explanatory and indicate that a hutted encampment was housing men at Hever.
On 2 June 1886 Samuel Shepherd was buried. He was about 45 years of age "a Navvy". I wonder whether this Samuel is the prisoner in the 1881 census of Nottingham Prison inmates which suggests he may originate from Hucknall a mining district in Notttinghamshire.
On 25 February 1887 Abraham Brown alias Smith is buried aged 24 of Stanhoe Lynn, an area of Kings Lynn.
On 27 October 1887 Joseph Varney of the Railway Huts aged 25 is buried.
It is interesting that Mark Beech houses a family whose husband and father gives his occupation in the 1881 census as Colliery Instructor. A native of Hanley Staffordshire William Boyle had resided in Edenbridge a year earlier when his daughter was born there.
Sadly these construction deaths were not the only ones on the line. To the south of Mark Beech tunnel lies Cowden Station and the site on the line of the 1994 Cowden rail crash.
As in the series of Sevenoaks and district burial registers a small village in the case of Hever a mile distant from it's station has in the parish churchyard a number of graves relating to railway construction. The coming of the railway brings into the parish employment including line maintence work and a Station Master.
My transcript of the Hever burial register is available at Kent Online Parish Clerks Hever parish page Hever Burials 1813-1904.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

The 1808 Murder of John Humphrey at Hever

On Wednesday 18 May 1808 Mister John Humphrey Junior of Hever Castle Kent was murderd by an unknown robber;he died on Tuesday 24 May 1808.

The Maidstone Journal dated 31 May 1808 reported that the victim had been accompanied by George Holmden and Richard Keeys.

The Hever parish register records that he was buried by affidavit on 30 May 1808. This page of the burial register replaced the original which was heavily blotted and smudged. The same fate happens to the post 1812 register when the Rector does not complete entries. Reverend John Claus de Passow had become Rector in 1799 and this was his first burial of a murder victim although he was unfortunate in having to refer several deaths to the Kent Coroner see my blog about William Goodwin. my transcript of the hever Register of Burials is available at Kent Online Parish Clerks Hever Parish page and here.

John Humphrey Junior was a farmer, one of the farming family who farmed the largest farms on the Hever estate. Hever Castle was occupied by the Humphrey family and John Junior was amongst other families occupying the lodges and castle itself. He had been to market at Westerham and was returning home on a footpath when he was shot by his assailant. 

The Coroner on this occasion held the hearing at Hever Castle.The verdict of the Coroner's Jury was that he had been murdered by "some person unknown" and it appears that despite rewards offered and reported in the Maidstone Journal and widely syndicated throughout England no evidence identified the murderer.

John Humphrey's widow remarried Henry Rowed on 18 November 1809 at Saint Botolph Bishopgate London.  Suspiciously Henry Rowed was a farmer who took on her murdered husband's tenancy from 1809-1818. There are reports of a haunting at Hever Castle supposedly the widow of John Humphrey being haunted by him.

In the Hever archives there is a letter of 1898 alledging that the farmer who married her "knew more of the matter than he ought" and refers to an exorcism involving Red Sea water and candles by local clergy. This is the stuff of many old buildings in England and it no doubt interests visitors to Hever Castle and is an addition to the Castle history. 

In the 1841 census Henry Rowed is farming at Hopkins near Dormansland Lingfield aged 70

Mary Rowed was buried at Hever on 22 December 1849 aged 78;she was resident at Lingfield Surrey at the time of her death. It appears her husband died in 1850. Both Mary and Henry indicated to the census enumerator that they were born in Surrey. 

Was Henry Rowed a likely killer? He seems to have farmed elsewhere before and after his tenancy at Hever and apart from local gossip is there any suspicion about his suggested motive for killing in order to marry a widow. If he had been guilty of murder would he at the time of his wife's death have made arrangements for burial at Hever rather than Lingfield? 

As so often "some person unknown" committed murder and was never discovered.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

William Goodwin found hanging in Hever Kent

In November 1822 The Rector of Hever received a Coroner's Warrant to bury the remains of an unknown male found hanging in a wood in the parish of Hever Kent. Reverend John Claus de Passow buried the remains on 6 November and took care to record the subsequent identification of the badly decayed body.
The Coroner's Jury recorded a verdict of "found hanging" and a farmer called Chalker from Lingfield reported that after a lengthy period of employment as a day labourer at Lingfield William Goodwin had suddenly quit the farm on 12 June 1822.
William Goodwin was believed to have been a farmer in Suffolk but little more was reported of his arrival at Lingfield and no one knew of his subsequent whereabouts.
"The corpse found in the wood was so much gone to decay that the features were not distinguishable;but the shoes on the feet,an handkerchief ,the hat and a small snuff box in the jacket pocket are all known to have belonged to this William Goodwin" records Reverend de Passow in the detailed burial entry.
Reverend John Claus de Passow  was one of the Alumni of Trinity College Oxford who earned his MA in 1796 and BA in 1799 when he became Rector of Hever. He remained there until his death on 23 February 1850.
Of the Rector we have in the 1905 account of Church Warden John Eastman Historic Hever The Church that he was a friend to travellers and would "waive his fee if he could have the first kiss from the bride" in accounts given by creditable witnesses. He was also absent from the parish due in this account to "monetary difficulties". The Maidstone Journal reported in 1838 that part of his living had been sequestrated but his name was allowed to remain on the voter's list. Ecclesiastical sequestration satisfied a debtor since the Bishop's appointment of a sequestrator ensures that the civil debt is being repaid and enables the Rector to continue in office and avoid bankruptcy.

This colourful figure was known on more than one occasion in winter to say to the small congragation "My Friends. Old Harry's warm ale will no doubt suit you far better than my cold prayers; We will I think adjourn." See 1905 booklet Historic Hever the Church

Image Julian P Guffog reuse under Creative Commons Licence
My transcript of the Hever burial register for Hever Saint Peter 1813-1904 deposited at Kent Library and Archives at Maidstone reference P184/1/E/2  is now online at Kent Online Parish Clerks Hever Parish page or here..

Henry Mantell
Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk
Kent Online Parish Clerks

Riverhead Saint Mary Burial Register 1864-1908

Riverhead Saint Mary had accommodated Sevenoaks burials in the burial ground as one of the Liberty districts of Sevenoaks. In 1864 it began as a parish to record burials and accommodated many deceased from the Chevening/Riverhead parish boundary who were Chevening parish residents as well as Dunton Green residents who chose burial there rather than Otford and those in North Sevenoaks which were ecclesiastically within the district parish of Saint John the Baptist always referred to in this register as Saint John's district. The original district parish church dates from 1858 but was extended during the 1900's It occupies a corner site of Saint John's Hill and Quaker Hall Lane

Image thanks to Sevenoaks Directory

The early years of this register contain many deaths associated with the railway construction at Tubb's Hill which was to form an extremely long cutting leading to the north portal of the Sevenoaks Railway Tunnel. The cutting was to house the first Sevenoaks station named Tubb's Hill on completion. Huts for workers and dependants resulted in concern about lack of sanitation,smallpox ( the Sevenoaks Pest House was full) and accidents and injuries caused to local workers who were engaged on the unskilled surface labour see  my blog Sevenoaks Railway Tunnel deaths. The South Eastern Railway found it expedient to convey injured tunnel workers to hospital at Guy's and under scrutiny by the local press a number of deaths were not buried locally. The youngest death recorded at the Railway huts Sevenoaks road is two months old and the oldest  male 51. The Riverhead register is therefore a significant record relating to railway work in the Sevenoaks area.

The railway expansion at Dunton Green to provide a branch line terminus for the Westerham branch also involved a large brick passenger tunnel to conect the main line platform to the branch. It is therefore not surprisinf to find deaths at Dunton green associated with the railway.

Dunton Green had prior  to the period of railway construction been long associated with Brick pottery and tile production; this register also refers to huts at the Quarry and accommodation associated with extraction of sand. The register refers to the establishment of a district parish in 1890 and the 1889 construction in local brick of Saint John the Divine church Dunton Green. lacking burial ground Dunton Green parish burials took place at Riverhead. There are two Dunton Green burials entered at Riverhead and then cancelled with entry that they are duplicated in the Dunton Green new parish register but since no burial register was deposited at the County Record Office when the church was deconsecrated the intended 1890 record does not appeat to have survived. I have recorded the two entries in my transcript. The church building is now in private ownership and is a desinated monument Kent Monument listing.

On 16 December 1907 the Riverhead burial of Robert George Savage age 35 from Otford took place "killed on the railway at Riverhead". A report of the inquest into the death appears in the Kent and Sussex Courier of the 20 December 1907. A note had been left for his wife which the jury examined. The body had been mutilated by a train striking a standing Savage and causing a fatal haemmorhage on the surface of the brain;the left arm had also been severed above the elbow, the left leg partially severed at the knee. The railway company could not identify which train had struck the deceased. The jury found that there was no evidence how he came to be in a deep cutting on the railway line at distance from public highway or the state of his mind at the time and recorded a verdict that he had met his death by being struck by an engine, He was employed as butler to Mister Gore Lambarde at Otford. The household had moved from Bradbourne Hall to Otford during his three years service to Gore Lambarde.

The transcript is now available at Kent Online Parish Clerks Riverhead parish page or at Riverhead Burials 1864-1908. 

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Sevenoaks Railway Tunnel Deaths 1863-1868

My transcripts of burials in the churchyards of  Sevenoaks have identified a number of burials of workers on the construction of Sevenoaks Railway  Tunnel and deaths at the "Railway Hub" housing workers. The true number of deaths may evade the burial registers due to removal from the district.
Unlike the Polhill Railway tunnel through the chalk of the North Downs throughout it's length the surveyors and engineers who produced the Sevenoaks tunnel very accurately encountered severe obstacles in construction. The tunnel which lies a little south of Tubbs Hill station (nowadays Sevenoaks Station) runs north-south for a distance of 1 mile 1693 yards  and is on the line to Tonbridge. On completion in 1868 it was the fifth longest railway tunnel in Britain and remains today the thirteenth longest.
The geology of porous rock beds of Greensand ridge Kentish ragstone sands and silt known as hassock ( referred to as assig by the miners) blue clay called "bine" locally was unknown before construction commenced and the volume of water to be encountered proved extremely problematic. There was a further delaying factor in the form of a landowner who was a knowledgeable litigant and the conduct of the engineering gave ample scope for legal claims.
It is interesting to compare the civil engineering work in the same area in the 1960's to construct the Sevenoaks bypass which forms the A21 London-Hastings road which was affected by landslides and water flows from the spring line and porous beds.
Rainfall records only commenced in the 1860's and heavy rainfall during construction on ground with artesian water in difficult geology provided treacherous conditions for the immense construction by the South Eastern Railway Company,
In 1862 Parliament approved a bill which specified that work would be complete within 5 years; I will return to the litigation by one of the landowners who gave permission later.
In late May 1863 construction surveying began the first death is recorded in November 1863 and there are six deaths I have located in burials in the town. In the Riverhead Saint Mary Burial register it is clear that in the absence of a hospital in Sevenoaks the injured were evacuated by train to Guy's Hospital in London and this had the effect of  dispersal of fatalities to avoid local newpaper reporting on the progress of construction. Another record worthy of consideration is that the Sevenoaks Pest House was full during construction due to smallpox.Newspaper reports suggest that conditions in the worker huts were spreading contagious diseases although the contractors were anxious to avoid this.
Two strikes hindered work although these appear related to opposition to employment of irish navvies as a local riot against Irish travellers during fruitpicking had taken place. Many of the unskilled workforce employed on the large cutting at the Sevenoaks end of the construction were local agricultural workers unaccustomed to the hard physical labour and dangers of the cutting.
The first death recorded is that of  William Leaver aged 17 a local man cause of death drowning in a sump at the foot of a shaft. The Tubbs Hill cutting and portal resulted in many broken bones when local labourers steering wooden barrows were climbing behind a horse gin hawser.In January 1865 a death caused by "flying timber" to a man called Hoare was reported in the local press. In February 1865 John Stevens aged 17 was killed by a fall down a shaft. On 21 August 1866 local press reported an head injury to a man called Basby when a brick fell down a shaft and six men were required to hold him down on the trip to Guy's Hospital London.  In August 1868 Henry Garton aged 23 was killed in a tunnel. The fate of "Basby" is unknown and unrecorded and illustrates how injured removed from Sevenoaks may hide the true number of deaths.
Two types of worker were recruited by gangers granted approval by the main contractor. Local Labourers worked above ground and were recruited as they were free from fruit picking and agricultural labour;their work was unskilled and they were particularly at risk of broken limbs and falls in wet conditions especially on cutting sides. Thirteen shafts were numbered from the southernmost end of the tunnel north to Tubbs Hill where a large cutting framed the portal. This cutting longer than most and therefore particularly hazardous during construction.
The shafts were dug by hand with either a horse gin or steam engine (or both in combination) hauling a skip for waste material or water. As the shaft deepened the wooden shuttering would be removed and bricklayers would add brick as the shaft descended. Below ground,miners would prop and use black powder to blast rock and install wooden stages for bricklayers to work along tunnels if water pumps could provide sufficent drainage.
Three brickyards using  the "bine" clay from the shafts produced the bricks to be laid.
Water was a constant problem and men would often work waist deep with water entry from above in ten hour shifts night and day to advance the removal of material in their section.
Other skilled workers recruited to work as masons,miners,explosive men,timbermen and outside the tunnels carters,smiths engine drivers  ostlers and experienced horse gin operators.
The resulting tunnel is horseshoe shaped with fine stone portals at either end and is a single tunnel designed for two track operation and has 24 feet 8 inches span. The  The original ballast was formed by shingle from Dungeness. The water problem forced the bricklayers and surveyor to install metal sheeting behind the brickwork which in places is five bricks deep.

Image fair use Network Rail Media Centre
The Lambarde family were one of the most prominent Sevenoaks families and were one of the three Sevenoaks landowners with whom the South Eastern Railway entered into Heads of Management Agreements. William Lambarde was to enter litigation with three grievances which litigation entered Chancery proceedings until a day before the Parliamentry Act clause of five years completion was due; he reached agreement and authorised use of his land. The terms of the financial settlement were not disclosed.
My transcripts of the Parish Registers of  Saint Nicholas Parish Church Sevenoaks and Riverhead Saint Mary which contain burials from the Tunnel Construction are now available at Kent Online Parish Clerks website.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Leigh Saint Mary the Virgin parish Kent

For many the village and parish of Leigh in Kent is a source of mispronunciation. The correct pronunciation is  "lie".The name of the village which has settled with the Leigh spelling nowadays but the parish registers are recorded for Lyghe and indicate the pronunciation of the name.
The parish neighbours Chiddingstone and Penshurst and the De L'isle /Sidney families were significant landowners. The Parish is often linked to nearby Tonbridge which as neighbouring parish and market town is frequently mentioned in burial registers.
Leigh was the site of an industrial site  historically significant in the manufacture of gunpowder.

The burial register identifies residents of the site of "Powder Mills" which had worker cottages and a large dwelling for the site manager. The history of the site and it's development as an extremely rare surviving industrial site in Southern England are detailed in The Powder Mills Leigh Historical Society.
The manufacture of black powder or gun powder was dangerous and buried at Leigh are those who died durng explosions which were often reported at the time or coroner's inquest in newspapers.
The burial registers also offer evidence  of a long established parish poorhouse and Poor House land and cottages in the parish. Even after the formation of Poor Law Unions there is evidence of burials from the Poor-house in Leigh.
The passage of the 1834 Poor Law Act lead to Leigh joining the shortlived Edenbridge Union Workhouse at Bough Beech. The Poor Law Commissioners proposal for Leigh to join the Sevenoaks Poor Law Union eventually is accepted but it is notable that Leigh Vestry remain active in caring for the Poor and relatively little evidence of use of the Sundridge Workhouse unless for medical or nursing care. A detailed history of caring for Leigh's poor is available at Leigh and District Historical Society
The 1851 census of the occupancy of the former Leigh Workhouse buildngs 1851 census entries for Leigh Workhouse indicates the extent of use of parish resources. The parish doctor was Workhouse Medical Officer at Sundridge  the Sevenoaks Union Workhouse.
My transcript of the burial register from 1813-1853 is being prepared for publication on the Kent Online Parish Clerks website in due course.



© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Sevenoaks Saint Nicholas Burial Register 1813-1846

The burial register for Sevenoaks contains 2400 burials for Sevenoaks Town Liberty, Riverhead Liberty and Weald Liberty.
The Ancient parish during the course of this register erects two chapels of ease  at the Weald in 1821 and Riverhead in 1831. The Weald Chapel was dedicated to Saint George and saved inhabitants of Sevenoaks Weald the long climb up the hill to Saint Nicholas Parish Church. The chapel built with funding of the Lambarde family and Lord Amherst included a house for a perpetual curate and included 10 acres of land.
Many entries for the Weald Liberty in the Saint Nicholas burial register record burials certified by the curates of Saint Georges as burials at the Weald burial ground. These are denoted as Weald liberty of Sevenoaks W in the register and my transcript.

The second chapel at Riverhead is important as burials from the Sevenoaks Parish Workhouse at Saint John's Hill  are recorded as Riverhead Liberty or Sevenoaks R in the burial register. The Sevenoaks parish Workhouse was in fact the district Workhouse for most parishes surrounding the town. The Riverhead Chapel also had a clergy house and perpetual Curate and funded by Lord Amherst and the Lambarde family and had land for burials.

Also during the early years of the burial register Thomas Sackville Curteis Vicar of Sevenoaks had granted permission for part of the Glebe land to provide much needed burial land for Saint Nicholas to be brought into use.

My transcript can be found via a link on the newly created Sevenoaks parish page at Kent Online Parish Clerks or here.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Reverend Edward Henry Lee Rector of Chiddingstone 1875-1893

One aspect of research in archives is the discovery of something unexpected about an individual from unintended neglect or forgetfulness. On opening the Chiddingstone burial register from 1813 onwards one such discovery is made.
Reverend Henry Lee was appointed Rector of Chiddingstone in 1875 and it is probable that in handling the burial register he was locating the earlier burial of a family member to locate the burial place for a later burial as the burial register reference P89/1/E/2 at Kent Archives and Library Maidstone covers the years 1813-1847.
There is evidence of his search for members of the Eagleton family burials on a folded sheet of paper which is  on the reverse publicity for a private publication by the Reverend Henry Salkeld-Cooke BA 5 Agnes Street Burdett Road Mission Priest and Curate  of  Saint Pauls Bow Common in East London.
Perhaps to mark a place in the register he used the envelope which was to hand addressed to him as Reverend E Lee Chiddingstone Edenbridge. He left for posterity the delights of a sample McDougall's Insecticide Sheet and publicity for this and McDougalls manure.There are several publicity and testimonial sheets in addition to these. It appears that the letter is sent in the 1890's toward the end of Reverend Lee's life.

Edward Henry Lee was born on 16 March 1818 and baptised on 18 March 1818 at Saint Mary Newington Surrey. He graduated from New Inn Hall Oxford BA in 1841 although his Oxford alumni record appears as Henry Edward Lee. He married Mary Elizabeth Holmes on 30 September 1851.
 From 1850-1869 he was Curate in Charge at Cliffe before he became Vicar of Boughton under Blean 1869-1875. Whilst at Cliffe his efforts to restore and improve the church including addition of bells are recorded in Archeologica Cantiana XL, 158. Three of his four children are born at Cliffe Mary 1854,Harry Holmes 1856 and Alice 1859;in Chiddingstone the couple appear in the 1881 census at the Rectory Chiddingstone.
He died at Chiddingstone 7 November 1892 age 74 and is buried there with his wife Mary Elizabeth who died 21 April 1904 aged 86. Her entry in the burial register at Chiddingstone indicates that she lived at Grosvenor House Westerham which since 1954 has been a grade II* listed building in Westerham.
I find this insight in to the life of Reverend Lee quite touching. It is in my mind the only example of an English burial register deposited in an archive to contain a sheet of "self acting insecticide sheet" unless anyone knows of another.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Reverend Thomas Sackville Curteis Rector and Vicar of Sevenoaks Kent

The Curteis lineage can be traced back to William Curteis Bailff of  Tenterden in 1521 from whom the dynasty of Curteis Vicars of Sevenoaks descend.
Thomas Sackvlle Curteis and his cousin the Reverend Thomas Curteis MA JP for Kent born  1780 at Tenterden (who married Sarah Anne Lipscomb at Wilbury in Yorkshire) were both descendants of William Curteis.
Thomas Sackville Curteis graduated from Jesus College Cambridge and on appointment at Sevenoaks on 20 December 1751 united the office of Rector and Vicar. He succeeded his father Thomas Curteis who had been installed in 1716.The same family held the position for 190 years!
In 1769 he fell foul of  a mob of people who believed him to be the author of new regulation about the militia. The mob chased him out of a meeting at The Crown Hotel to the old Rectory which was damaged. Curteis fled across fields to Knole but the mob pursued him there until charged on horseback by a Captain Smith. The ringleaders were caught and punished and the riot ended. (page 39 Notes on the Parish Church of Saint Nicholas Sevenoaks by John Rooker MA Vicar of Sevenoaks 1910).
Sevenoaks had through his efforts a new set of bells recast and rehung in 1769 but by the 1800's the fabric of the church was in a dangerous state despite various efforts to maintain the structure. The opening statement in an Act of Parliament reads "it is become dangerous for the inhabitants to attend Divine Service therein;and the Tower of the said church is also in a dangerous and ruinous state". Curteis had been notably absent from Vestry meetings organised by the Parish Clerk. During work on the building a collapse nearly claimed the life of one of the builders. The Act of Parliament succeeded in 1811 and enabled funding for a parish church reconstruction.  Curteis had allowed part of the Glebe land to form a much needed graveyard extension in 1810/1811.

The vestry minutes record an uneasy relationship between Curteis and the town's inhabitants perhaps his memory of events at the hands of the mob in 1769 and criticism of the state of the Church influenced his attitude.
Reverend Thomas Curteis MA  succeeded him as Vicar of Sevenoaks upon his death in 1831.
Thomas Sackville Curteis and his wife are both buried at Sevenoaks.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Reverend Edward Repton MA Vicar of Shoreham

Reverend Edward Repton was the son of Humphry and Mary Repton (Clarke) and was baptized 25 June 1782 at Norwich Norfolk. He married Mary Ellis Herbert at Loughton Essex on 27 November 1808 and died on 6 August 1860 at Saint Leonards on Sea Sussex age 78.
He graduated from Magdalen College Oxford with a B.A. in 1804 and with a M.A. in 1806.
He was Rector at Maningsby Lincolnshire in 1817,curate at Saint Philip Chapel Regent Street Westminster in 1820 and was Prebendary Canon of Westminster in 1838 and Chaplain to the House of Commons. In 1843 he became Vicar of Shoreham upon the death of  Reverend Robert Price BA.
Shoreham Church has a war memorial under a window of the Choir vestry recorded and illustrated at war memorials online. His three sons are the subject of the Repton memorial and died in the British East India Company Campaigns 1757-1858 .
Edward is buried at Shoreham together with his wife Mary Ellis Repton who died 13 March 1875 Georgiana Ewart Repton who died 8 May 1848 and Edward Pakenham Repton who died aged 34; the memorial crosses within an enclosure are recorded by Leland Duncan in his survey of Shoreham prior to 1919 see Kent Archeological Society.
My transcript of two volumes of Shoreham burial registers are now online at the Shoreham Parish page of Kent Online Parish Clerks Shoreham Parish.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Reverend Robert Price BA vicar of Shoreham

Transcription of a parish register can become arduous if the person making original entries was unfamilar with the concept of knib and ink. The Reverend Robert Price on the other hand was the transcriber's dream. He is the only person to enter Shoreham burials from 1817 until his death;the remainder of burials in the register that preceded his entries are also meticulously and neatly inscribed by a curate; after Robert's death sadly penmanship is a stranger! My transcript of the 1813-1850 Shoreham Burial Register is now  available at the Kent Online Parish Clerks Shoreham page Shoreham Burials 1813-1850. A second register of Shoreham burials is also available online Shoreham Burials 1850-1889.
Robert Price was born in London the only son of James Price a London merchant according to Diocese of Rochester records and Cambridge University Alumni information. He gained his BA at Cambridge in 1796 and the same year became Curate at Saint Martin Outwich where he married Grace Ross. He served from 1796-1810 at Saint Martin Outwich London.
Robert Price was ordained a Deacon by the Bishop of London on 14 August 1796 and a priest by the Bishop of Rochester on 19 September 1802. He became a prebend of Durham in 1804 and one of three Canons nominated in 1807 to have episcopal oversight of Salisbury Diocese.
He served from 1802-1816 as curate of Croydon until he was appointed Vicar of Shoreham and instituted there on 8 June 1816 by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster who gave him the living. He served for 29 years until his death on 21 December 1842. His wife Grace entered Bromley College established for the widows of clergy and remained resident there until her death on 22 February 1862 aged 78. I have previously transcribed Grace's funeral account from Dunns undertaking business at Bromley Market Square which was paid by her son James  and details her coffin and conveyance to Shoreham for burial see two items for Grace Price funeral. In Bromley the surgeon who attended her was outfitted for attendance at the funeral and the parish church bell was tolled as the hearse and attendant coach and pair left Bromley for Shoreham.
The family burial plot at Shoreham also includes their son James Price a landscape painter who died 24 June 1879 aged 74. On 16 December 1817 the Shoreham register records the baptism of William Price to Robert and Grace;Robert baptises his own son.
The family appear in the 1841 census as resident at the Vicarage Shoreham. James Price aged 30 is unmarried and still lives with his parents;his sister Grace is aged 25 and William is aged 20. The 1841 census records that neither James or Grace were born in Kent. Grace married in 1863 at Sealkote India Thomas Wilson BA.
It appears likely that both elder children were born  in London or Croydon,during their father's ministry in those parishes.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Reverend George Bridges Lewis Vicar of Kemsing

Kemsing was from the fifteenth Century a church with a curate; the Vicar of Seal lived at Seal and had responsibility for supervising curates at Kemsing. This arrangement changed in 1874 when Reverend George Bridges Lewis was appointed Vicar.
George Bridges Lewis was born on 5 March 1824 at The Close Salisbury Wiltshire.He was the only son of  William Wiliam Lewis of Woburn Place London. He was privately baptised on 14 March 1824 at his grandfather's home and his baptism is recorded in the register of  Saint Andrew Holborn London.
He is found in the 1841 census of Bradford Wiltshire to be a pupil of the Reverend James Bliss. He was later educated at Eton before entering Oriel College Oxford earning a BA in 1846 deacon in 1849 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1850 at Winchester by the Archbishop of Canterbury Doctor John Bird Sumner. He gained his MA in 1853 at Oxford.
I first encountered his entries in Sundridge registers he served as curate at Sundridge from 1849-1852. Before his arrival he had married Mary  Rebecca Madeline Sutherland on 8 June 1848 at Croydon.Sadly Mary died on 17 November 1850 at Hastings Sussex. He was to remarry twice again.
From 1853-1857 he was curate at Malden in Surrey and his entry in the 1851 census suggests that he lived there with the Vicar Reverend William C Stapylton Vicar of Malden cum Chassington.George is recorded as a visitor in the census and described as Curate in that parish.
In 1857 and until 1875 he was Perpetual Curate of Northaw Hertfordshire and in 1873 he became Vicar of Kemsing.
In the Kemsing burial register there are two unique entries
interment of combatants from the battles of Otford
the extraordinary baptism of a deceased infant
He died aged 80 in 1905 at The Close Salisbury in Wiltshire and was buried  on 13 January 1905 at Salisbury Cathedral.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

The Extraordinary Kemsing Baptism of a Deceased Infant

On 7 March 1885 a daughter was born to John and Susan Vaughan of Noah's Ark Kemsing. As I transcribed  the Kemsing burial register for 1885 there is a very detailed description by the Vicar George Bridges Lewis of subsequent events. I have the impression that both infant and child mortality in the hamlet of Noah's Ark was extremely high and wonder what was the cause of so many deaths.
John and Susan notified the Vicar of their desire for the baby to be baptised and a Sunday date was set for the Baptism at Saint Mary Kemsing. However the baby died before Sunday,and what followed was the most extraordinary record I have ever encountered in transcription work since 1968.
"2 April 1885  attended the burial of an infant... I used such service as deemed expedient"
Reverend George Bridges Lewis meticulously records even what ecclesisastical clothing he did and did not wear "no surplice ".
"I received the party at the porch and read ....then entering the church I stood on the north side of the font with the coffin west of me closely." After baptizing  the child's body "then to the grave" where the form of burial was carried out.
"I did so much because of the intention of the parents to have brought the child to baptism which was frustrated by its sudden death otherwise I should not have admitted the coffin to the Church at all Oh!!!"
I wondered why in so many infant burials private baptism was not thought expedient in a hamlet with such infant mortality and whether the extraordinary baptism caused the Vicar to examine his conduct. There are a number of possible interpretations of that Oh and three exclamation marks!
the detailed entry for this event can be found at the foot of page 68 of the register of burials from 1813-1911 and is numbered entry 544. There is no entry for the child in the Kemsing Baptisms register for the year and not unusually for the hamlet no birth or death registration takes place in the March quarter but an Ada Vaughan is registered in the June quarter. The burial register contains no name for the child.
The same volume during George Bridges Lewis period as Vicar includes the battles of Otford interments conducted by him.
My transcript of the Kemsing burial register is now complete and is being prepared for publication at Kent Online Parish Clerks in due course.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Kemsing 1880 interment from the Battle of Otford 776 or 1016

In 776 the battle of Otford took place  see  Wikipedia Battle of Otford (776) .
In a detailed entry in the Kemsing Burial register Kemsing Saint Mary 1813-1911 held at Kent Archive and Library Maidstone (reference P205/1/E/1) there is an account of the interment service held to bury in consecrated ground two skeletons believed to be from the battle.
On 18 December 1880 a plough had disturbed the bones which were found in "field number 24 on the ordinance map 750 years west of the West End" of  Saint Mary Kemsing. "The skeletons were lying one with feet to the east the other close by with feet to the West - a spearhead was afterwards found."
Reverend George Bridges Lewis the Vicar of Kemsing goes on to record "Probably they are remains of mankind at one of the battles of Otford at Danes Field a mill west of Otford in 1016".
There is no further account of what if any action was recorded by the local Coroner or of any archaeological investigation The second battle at Otford in 1016 is cited by the vicar as being probable for the Kemsing skeletons see Saxon Otford wikipedia.
On 24 December 1880 the two humans remains placed "with reverence" in a box and "interred in the churchyard near the North fence due north of the north buttress of the nave" had several prayers and collects as part of the ceremony conducted by the Vicar and assisted by the Parish Clerk.

Image Wikipedia
My transcript of the Burial register will be published at Kent Online Parish Clerks Kemsing parish page in due course.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Sundridge Aerodrome Coombe Bank Farm

There are very few aircraft hangars in England that predate the 1914-1918 war but Sundridge has the oldest airplane hangars in the country and they are Historic Listed buildings see Historic England Images and the 1988 Grade 2 listing.
Serge de Bolotoff was a Russian Prince who designed the the two seater biplane the De Bolotoff SDEP which was manufactured at Sundridge.
De Bolotoff claimed to be the fifth person in the world to fly in a powered aircraft and he had attempted to build and fly an aircraft to fly across the English Channel to contest a prize offered in 1908 by the Daily Mail.
An interesting illustrated history of his aircraft types is here.
His aircraft production at Sundridge halted in 1927 when de Bolotoff Engineers ceased manufacture. However the aerodrome continued to use the hangars during World War 2 as an aircraft recovery unit handling damaged aircraft. After the war the hangars with the addition of a concrete wartime addition became farm buildings until in 1988 because of their significance they were listed by Historic England.
Many years ago I spent nearly a year visitng  Kingswood House in Dulwich one day a week. The mansion and grounds by the 1970's had been acquired by Southwark Council. In the 1950's a large London County Council housing development encroached onto the  grounds and and the mansion was developed as a council library and was used by community groups. A Day centre for the elderly was developed by the council on the ground floor and terrace. The building is currently used as a wedding venue.
Prince Serge Vincent Constantinovitch de Bolotoff was born in 1889 in Saint Petersberg Russia the child of Constantine de Bolotoff and Princess Marie Wiasemsky. In 1908 he took a sublease of Kingswood House in Dulwich from the owner the estate of John Lawson Johnston the inventor of Bovril.
The Princess his mother and he moved into Kingswood House with his sister  and two brothers. The staff included 7 live in servants (including three hospital nurses) an unspecified number of outdoor servants and two gardeners who occupied the lodge. Despite all this his name did not appear on the lease and the de Bolotoff mother and son did not finance the lease;payments were made by loans from others. The situation arrived in Court and the judge found against the family who were forced to leave Kingswood House in a scandal of publicity.
In 1914 after successful arms trade with Russia the de Bolotoffs lived for a time at Kippington Court Sevenoaks a grand house in seven acres.
However financial scandal followed and the withdrawal of  backing for de Bolotoff Engineers brought the collapse of the business in 1927.
In August 1918 the daughter of Harry Selfridge Rosalie Selfridge married Serge. The recent TV series Mister Selfridge brought the de Bolotoff name to the public again.
Serge was constantly in court defending financial actions against his mother and himself. However his memory is preserved as an early aviator at Coombe Farm.
He is buried at Putney Vale Cemetery see Find a Grave

  © Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Sundridge Paper Mill Kent

One of the largest industries in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Kent was paper making. The demand for white paper after 1754 in particular was enormous as every parish was required to record marriages in a printed register and this and the need for paper banknotes created a large demand and various parts of Kent responded. From 1813 Parish registers were required to conform under an act of George III to maintain standard form Baptismal and burial registers and Church of England Dioceses purchased from London stationery printers  all of the records for each parish in England. Other faiths also needed to record and the demand for white paper increased.
Sundridge Mill provided paper for another major customer namely the Bank of England for over a century and it was therefore a major industry in the area.
A map of the mill is included in a collection of Chevening material held at Kent Archives and Library Maidstone under reference P88/28 papers presented by the Barham family to the parish of Chevening. The Mill had a long mill pond and was an extensive range of buildings. As a water powered mill it could not compete in the last half of the nineteenth century with the larger paper mills which were steam powered elsewhere in Kent such as Dartford.
The Sundridge Baptismal registers transcribed for Kent Online Parish Clerks reveal the number of heads of Households described as paper makers or foreman to the manager. The population of Sundridge not engaged in agriculture or trade were employed at the Mill and it would represent the largest year round employment in the parish.
The mill buildings were converted to a laundry in 1910 and the water wheel removed to enable steam power to be generated for the Laundry. The mill pond was destroyed by a bomb in 1940 and in 1969 the derelict buidings were demolished. Nowadays there is no sign of the site; the land is waterlogged marsh at the side of the Westerham to Sevenoaks section of the A25 on the approach to Sundridge.
Such images as survive are in postcard form and a selection of them is found in the catalogue of  Mills Archive.
My Sundridge transcripts are being prepared for publication at Kent Online Parish Clerks Sundridge parish page in due course.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Otford Saint Bartholomew Transcripts of Parish Registers

I continue my ramble along the Pilgrim's Way parishes as I transcribe parish registers for publication on the Kent Online Parish Clerks parish page for each parish.
Otford is a village which I have visited numerous times over the last 40 years since I left London to reside in Kent. I was fascinated to discover the remains of  a lost Palace of Henry VIII which is a scheduled monument and other old houses including a manor House. I'll begin this blog though by looking at the history of the parish church of Saint Bartholomew and then return to Henry VIII and the palace.
Originally Shoreham Parish was extensive and included Otford and Dunton Green. A chapel of Ease was needed and built at Otford at the end of the Saxon period and the beginning of the Norman influence;the nave is the oldest part of the building and dates from the 11th century with a tower added in  the 12th century. The present building is Grade 1 listed building and it's listing details the centuries of adaptation Listed building register.
The earliest register has an interesting story and as I progress the transcript series for the parish I will return to tell that.
For the present I am transcribing the burial registers as here as in other Pilgrims Way parish records there is traveller history. Travelling families often followed the Pilgrims Way as they fulfilled seasonal work. The Otford burials include seasonal workers and their children and convey the passage of workers.
I am grateful to Kent Churches you tube images of the Church and it's history.

Otford is on the River Darent as it flows north here past Shoreham and the river and the flood plain and marsh play an important part in the history of the  Lost Palace of Henry VIII detailed here. The present day remains of the Palace described n the 19th century burial register as Otford "Castle" by one curate give little idea of the real size of the Palace. This presentation and modelling convey much better what life was like in 1514 and the importance of the hunting ground.

 My transcript of the burial register is at Kent Online Parish Clerks Otford Parish page which includes other record sources for the parish Otford Burials 1813-1871.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Reverend George D'Oyly Rector of Sundridge

George D'Oyly was born 31 October 1776 at Buxted the son of the Rector of Buxted Matthias D'Oyly who was also Archdeacon of Lewes, George was privately educated and then admitted to Corpus Christi Cambridge  where he graduated in 1803 after distinction earning both a B.A. and in 1803 an M.A. later a B.Divinity and 1821 Doctor of Divinity. As reflected in his Wikipedia page he became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815. He was a distinguished academic theologian and biographer and in 1820 he became rector of both Lambeth and Sundridge. He published with Reverend Mant a version of the English Bible which is still valued by Antiquarians and Church of England scholars to this day. Many of his sermons are also available in print. His distinction in society and withing the Church of England echoes the achievements of members of the D'Oyly family in others walks of life.
He had been chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury and traditonally the Rectory at Lambeth was subsequently given but the Archbishops triangle of Rectors at Chevening,Brasted and Sundridge  were also in his gift and D'Oyly became Rector of Sundridge until his death.
I first encountered his work in Lambeth and his infuence in the foundation and development of King's College London. I was researching on behalf of a client in the parish records of Lambeth and discovered that many of Lambeth's churches were brought about through his efforts. It is appropriate therefore that he is buried there with a suitable memorial.
In transcribing Sundridge records I became aware that his wife resided at Sundridge and his children are baptised there by him. His celebration of baptisms marriages and burials are regular although his curates carry out more of this work as he fulfils the duties of Rector in both parishes.Sundridge also had a chapel at Ide Hill licensed for baptisms so he effectively led a clergy team to meet the needs of a large rural parish.
He died on 8 January 1846 and was buried at Lambeth Church.
Wikipedia has this image of an 1846 engraving signed by D'Oyly whose influence on recordkeeping in the Sundridge register meant that his curates strove hard to keep up. It has been a joy to transcribe the baptismal register and to see surviving Bishop's Transcripts so clearly recorded.

 My transcript of the Sundridge registers is being prepared for publication in due course at Kent Online Parish Clerks Sundridge Parish Page.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Sevenoaks Poor Law Union Baptisms in Sundridge Parish

The Sevenoaks Poor Law Union was formed in 1835 and comprised the parishes of Brasted,Chevening,Chiddingstone,Cowden,Edenbridge,Halstead,Hever,Kemsing,Leigh,Otford,Penshurst,Riverhead,Seal,Shoreham,Sundridge,Weald and Westerham. Prior to this several of these parishes had been part of the Penshurst Union which was shortlived  and the building of a workhouse at Bough Beeches near Chiddingstone for paupers from Chiddingstone,Cowden,Edenbridge,Hever,Leigh and Penshurst. Violent opposition to this workhouse building resulted on one occasion when the Riot Act was read and the crowd dispersed. The building completed in 1836 was sold by 1838 and these parishes became part of Sevenoaks Union.
The Sevenoaks Poor Law Guardians took the view that the Saint John's Hill premises were adequate and resisted the Poor Law Commissioners efforts have a new workhouse built. In the winter of 1840/1841 inspection of the Sevenoaks premises resulted in heavy censure of the provision and the Guardians relented and the new Workhouse bult at Sundridge to house 500 inmates at a cost of £12,000 opened on 19 September 1845. The former premises at Sevenoaks Saint John's Hill were demolished  in 1846.
Kent Archive and Library hold a register of baptisms from 1846-1932 under reference G/Se/Wlb1 and I hope to transcribe this in due course when Covid 19 restrictions are relaxed.
The Union Workhouse at Sundridge did not have a chapel although a room was used for religious services and some baptisms were carried out there. This practice was without approval of the Church of England and when the practice came to light the Archbishop of Canterbury deemed these to be illegal. In a front page of the Sundridge parish Register of Baptisms 1834-1852 the following explanation for the sharp increase in baptisms for the year 1849 is offered:-
"the great increase this year is to be partly  attributed  to Union Poor House.The Archbishop's Secretary having stated that public baptisms were illegal there as the room used for a chapel there is not licensed for baptisms".
The Sundridge  parish baptism register contains as a result the following numbers
1845 30
1846 30
1847 31
1848 46
1849 62
1850 50
1851 75
The register of baptisms from 1834-1852 is therefore unusual as the parish included the chapel at Ide Hill which was licensed for baptisms. The practice was for the churchwardens at Ide hill to ensure that a copy of baptisms there was furnished to Sundridge to incorporate into the parish register before the end of December when the Registry at Rochester required a return for Bishop's Transcripts. There is therefore a sequence of Sundridge Baptisms followed by the annual total of Ide Hill baptisms. This results in some entries being deleted and loss of some parts of pages to accommodate the Ide Hill entries.
I have encountered similar problem with the Bromley Poor Law Union chapel licensed for baptisms and the chaplain there not communicating the number of entries needed in the Farnborough parish register see Farnborough Saint Giles Baptismal Register.

Sundridge burial registers also reflect deaths at the Workhouse including a small number of  Sundridge parishioners who died at the workhouse.

My transcript of Sundridge Baptismal registers for Kent Online Parish Clerks is being prepared for publication in due course.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Brasted Saint Martin 1813-1858 Burials

My transcript for this volume of burial records is being prepared for publication at Kent Online Parish Clerks in due course.
The parish includes Brasted,Brasted Chart Toy's Hill and some entries from Emetts which at the time was farmed.
The record begins with impeccable clarity during the period of Reverend John Gibbons as Rector. There is an example of Bishop's Transcript collection in the form of two entries on a cut sheet of transcript. There are omissions in some years which are picked up by the process of return to the Rochester registry.
However in 1822 Reverend Jones arrives as curate. Reverend Jones had become familiar to me in the Sundridge burial register. His particular talent apart from faint and blotted entries is misspelling surnames of the prominent members of the parish  and demonstrating his familiarity with parts of the district. His "Goaters Common" for Goathurst Common in both the Ide Hill and Sundridge registers illustrates his approach to surnames. I had therefore to examine Monumental Inscriptions to make sense of many of his burial entries. Some of his entries can only be replicated as they appear but are unlikely spellings. His last entry is in 1833 when order returns to record keeping in the register.
Exhumation of human remains in consecrated ground is rare and requires a Bishop's faculty. In the case at Sundridge authority was obtained from the Archbishop of Canterbury. The child had died in Italy and was buried in January 1832 some months after the death at Florence before 17 November 1831. On application by the deceased's brother Captain E H Turton the Archbishop of Canterbury acceded to the request and on 27 January 1853 the Archbishop's agent authorised and supervised the exhumation of Robert's remains for the purpose of reinterment by the Rector of  Kildale Yorkshire.  The Turton family home was Upsall Castle.
From 1844 it became practice to record the date of death in marginal entry although in the 1850's this ceases near the end of the register. All local deaths with rare exceptions contain this information and only those deaths outside the parish in hospitals or Bromley Union workhouse prevent such detailed record.
There are a number of Coroner's order burials and unknown travellers. The large number of cholera deaths in the parish in the 1854/5 are in contrast to neighbouring Sundridge which records the absence of cholera.  The outbreak could be an outlying cluster from the Broad Street oubreak in London.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

The Burial of Alfred Kemp at Sundridge Kent

Alfred Kemp was buried at Sundridge on 10 January 1886 age 39. The entry in the burial register contains a neat marginal entry "cruelly murdered by a soldier of unsound mind at Farningham".
In fact Alfred was one of two murder victims at the hands of an Army pensioner called John Knocker who committed the double murder at the Greyhound Inn Sutton at Hone.
Alfred Kemp was the first to die his throat cut in the presence of a witness who was seated with him but managed to escape and summon police. Knocker approached the landlord David Smith and attacked him and killed him. Both men's bodies were discovered by another lodger who had been in bed upstairs after Knocker had left. Knocker had begun to walk to Dartford and there he was apprehended by a constable with blood stained hands but with no weapon. He confessed to the constable that he was responsible and willing to be hanged.
The Hemel Hempstead Gazette of Friday 8 January 1886 contains a report of the double murder and Knocker's subsequent court appearance for a capital offence. However he did not receive a sentence of capital punishment and as the Sundridge burial register suggests he was found to be of unsound mind.
Alfred Kemp was a bricklayer's labourer and was lodging at The Greyhound. He and another lodger James Stroude a bootmaker were seated quietly drinking together when at ten o'clock David Smith had served Knocker and closed his doors for the night. About fifteen minutes later Knocker calmly got up and cut Kemp's throat;Stroude escaped through the back door and called out to Smith and went to call for help.
Knocker had served in the Army for 25 years and had lodged at The Greyhound for about four months. He was born at Chatham in Kent. He had an amicable relationship with both the landlord and his fellow lodgers. At the inquest Mrs Smith said he had left on Christmas Eve and  had returned from his holiday "a different man".
Knocker on his court appearance to face trial for murder at Maidstone Assizes had application made by Mister Dickens  without objection from Knocker to be remanded to appear at Lewes so that enquiries could be made by a competent person into his state of mind.The application was granted and Knocker appeared at Lewes Assizes on 24 May 1886 when he was ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure for murder in strict custody as insane. On 2 June 1886 a Home Office order for removal of a criminal lunatic to Broadmoor was issued to the Governor of HM Prison Lewes and the Superintendent of Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
John Knocker was detained at Broadmoor for the rest of his life. He died at Broadmoor on 24 October 1928; his case notes remain closed to public examination until 2029. His case file is held at Berkshire Record Office reference D/H14/D2/1/1278 and covers dates from 1886-1928. His death was subject of an inquest by the Reading Coroner and his death certificate is recorded on the basis of the Coroner's Certificate that he died of natural causes as a result of myocardial degeneration and senility. He is described as "Of the Greyhound Inn Sutton at Hone Kent inmate of Broadmoor Asylum formerly a soldier". His burial was at Broadmoor in the burial ground at the foot of the hill and within the Victorian brick walls of the Criminal Lunatic Asylum. This area is now grassed over and landscaped.

David Smith was buried at Saint John the Baptist Sutton at Hone on 10 January 1886.
Alfred Kemp was born at Chevening apparently the only son of William and Mary Kent. On the night of the 1881 census of  number 7 Martin's Row Sundridge he was living at home with both his parents and was employed in Sundridge at the Old Mill as he is recorded as working as a labourer in a paper factory, There is an irony that within five years his fellow lodger and murderer was working in a paper mill.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Ide Hill Saint Mary the Virgin burial register 1853-1918

As part of the southern area of Sundridge parish the district of Ide Hill, Goathurst Common, Toys Hill was recognised as being sufficiently distant over hilly terrain as to require a chapel to serve the needs of the district. The Bishop of London who lived in nearby Sundridge built a small chapel at Ide Hill in 1807 and years later on his demise  Reverend Matthew Bloxham Incumbent of Ide Hill Chapel was interred in the floor of the Chapel aged 71.
The chapel was demolished in the 1860's and the much larger present day Church of Saint Mary The Virgin was built in 1865. It  has been described as the highest church in Kent
The history and images of the highest point in the County of Kent are captured in this Kent Churches video.

The burial register for the parish commences in1853 and continues to 1918. It therefore records the last year of the chapel use and continues during the construction of the more modern parish church.
As with many parts of  the Kent Weald close to East-West corridors there is evidence of traveller populations. Goathurst Common and the predominantly agricultural settlements provided seasonal work. The register contains burials of travellers found in tents and people from Chiddingstone and Hever travelling on foot to the Union Workhouse at Sundridge to the north of Ide Hill.
The hamlet of Toys Hill is within the neighbouring parish of Brasted but many residents of the ridge which links them chose to be buried at Ide Hill, Some burials from Bough Beech and Chiddingstone are also found and the occasional burial from Hever to the south.
Octavia Hill donated land at Toys Hill and this is now managed by the National Trust. Ide Hill also includes Emmetts Garden which until 1860 was farmed land. In 1890 the land was purchased by Frederick Lubbock a banker and plantsman. His borther Sir John Lubbock who became the first Baron Avebury was an acknowledged expert on ants and was no doubt fascinated by the large anthills which gave rise to the "Emmetts" (ants)  name. This is also part of the National Trust land and forms a footpath through Toys Hill to the Chartwell National Trust estate which attracts many visitors.
My transcript of the burial register is being prepared for publication at Kent Online Parish Clerks website for publication on a newly formed Ide Hill parish page in due course.
Researchers for Ide Hill burials are strongly urged to consult the transcript for Sundridge burial registers at Kent Online Parish Clerks as Ide Hill burials were frequently held at Sundridge before 1853 and there is therefore the possibility of burials at Sundridge.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Sundridge Saint Mary Burial Register 1813-1851

The register is archived at Kent Archive and Library Maidstone and is an interesting piece of social family and parish history. The Parish itself is six miles long and at the narrowest width one mile. On the northern border it follows a part of the Pilgrims Way along the ridge line.

It is also traveresed by the River Darent and what is now the A25 but was a major route from Westerham to Sevenoaks during the years of this register.
Helpfully at the start of the register inside a blank page an annual total of burials was recorded.
The entry for 1849 records that the drop from the previous year total of 44 for 1848 to a total of 23 for 1849 was due to "a severe visitation of cholera from which this parish was mercifully preserved".
This is very useful for historical purposes because the early years of the register refer to burials of children and elderly adults from The Parish Poorhouse confirming that in addition to the Sevenoaks Workhouse (at Saint John's Hill) for Sevenoaks parish and district  Sundridge also accommodated its poor in the parish. The earlier 1777 parliamentary report records that up to 40 persons could be accommodated in the parish.
After 1834 the Sevenoaks Poor Law Union was established and Sundridge was able to elect 2 Guardians to the Union Board. Initially the Board of Guardians received poor from Sundridge at the old Saint John's Hill site,which they had expanded and resisted the Poor Law Commissioner's recommendation to erect a purpose built Workhouse. Over the early 1840's the Board of Guardians faced increasing demands to erect a new purpose built Workhouse. Several inadquacies at the Saint John's Hill site were criticised following an inspection after the 1840/1841 winter which identified overcrowding and illness amongst children as particulary unacceptable. The inspection report makes grim reading and the Sevenoaks Board of Guardians were compelled to seek a site to erect alternative accommodation, The site chosen is in Church Hill Sundridge. Unusually and possibly because of it's rural location many of the buildings survive transferring from Union to National Health Service Hospital in 1948 retaining the original infirmary buildings. When the NHS closed the hospital and disposed of the land the original buildings were still retained in the conversion to private residential homes within a gated community.
The Sundridge burial register therefore records pauper burials before the 1840's and after 1843 refers to Sundridge Union Workhouse or more appropriately Sevenoaks Union paupers. As is usual with parishes in which a  Union Workhouse is located any paupers requiring burial which cannot be returned to parish of origin within the Union are to be buried there. Sundridge churchyard therefore contains burials for very young infants including one child who was intended to be returned to Bolton in Lancashire and referred to as a "casual Pauper". The Union workhouse did not build cells for "Casual" paupers until 1896. This population of men and women "on the tramp" would arrive 15-20 daily according to Guardians minute books in mid afternoon. Until the 1896 buildings they would be accommodated for up to 3 nights on the site. They were required to bathe and their clothing would be fumigated and stored. George Orwell describes this "spike" as having the worst reputation in Ingland although he found conditions acceptable as he writes in Down and Out in Paris and London.
The register also reflects that two additional settlements at Goathurst Common and Ide Hill were for parts of the year cut off from the church at Sundridge. A large group of burials each year are from this part of the parish.  The Bishop of London constructed a chapel and burial ground in 1807. In 1853 a burial register for Ide Hill was created. I have transcribed both registers for Kent Online Parish Clerks and they will be published in due course. It is possible to find some family members from Ide Hill and Goathurst Common buried in Sundridge after the creation of Ide Hill Saint Mary the Virgin as a parish although the larger number of burials take place at Ide Hill . Family graves at Sundridge would have been used until they were full subsequent graves were at Ide Hill.
The 1807 chapel at Ide Hill was replaced by the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in 1865 and this became a separate parish,

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

The Murder and Mutilation of Mrs Sarah Freeman at Broke Farm Halstead

The burial register of Halstead contains  an entry for the burial on 30 October 1848 of the body of an unknown woman found murdered near Broke and supposed to be about 43 years old.
 The area of Broke has altered a great deal; the former London- Hastings road took a different course to the modern A21. Broke Farm and Broke Lodge (which remains today) formed land to the side of  an isolated stretch of the Highway. The body was found in a field at Broke Farm police recovered some items from nearby hedges.
The body had been mutilated and police flyers about the murder provided little information for the Coroner's inquest held at the Cock Inn. However as reported in the Daily Chronicle two brothers John and Thomas Chapman attended in the belief that their sister was depicted in the police flyer. The Chapman brothers had not seen each other for some years one residing in Southborough Tunbridge Wells the other in London. Their sister had married and was Mrs Sarah Freeman but had been estranged for several years from her husband who was a contractor on railway construction. Although John and Thomas Chapman hesitated to identify her body Thomas recognised her small plaid shawl. Two other women who responded to the police appeal identified the shawl and another item thrown into a hedge as belonging to Mrs Sarah Freeman who had been living in Maidstone with another man but had left him. These two witnesses described an argument with an Irish women in which blows were exchanged.
Sarah Freeman was also recognised to have stayed at the Cock Inn at Halstead in recent months.
It appears that the Coroner released the body for burial in the absence of positive indentification by her brothers or any other witness. No one was ever identified as the murderer who mutilated her body.
The burial took place in the old churchyard at the ruined Halstead Place church site (demolished 1880) and it is no longer possible to determine whether the burial was marked in any way.
Spare a thought for the murder victim lost somewhere in the old site.
My transcript of the Halstead Burial register is available at Kent online Parish Clerks Halstead page.


© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

Halstead Saint Margaret Kent

To trace the history of the parish of Halstead one has to consider the now demolished Halstead Place which was lost in 1952 due to dereliction see  Lost Heritage It is believed that on this site was an Anglo-Saxon church which was replaced in the 13th century by what was a chapel for Halstead Place. The parish was a small and poor one; the living for a priest was much smaller than Chevening Otford or Shoreham nearby. The old church remained until it was pulled down in 1880/1881. It's remaining ruined walls and burial ground are a scheduled ancient Monument see ancientmonuments website.
My transcript of the burial register for Saint Margaret 1813-1920 for Kent Online Parish Clerks therefore includes burials in the old churchyard which still has gravestones standing. The stones are not scheduled but the ground beneath them is. In 1855 a new graveyard was consecrated and a burial chapel was built. In 1880/1 the chapel was extended to form the  present church which formed the burial ground from 1855. Leland Duncan noted Monumental Inscriptions 4 August 1919 and recorded that the old ground at Halstead Place was in very poor condition. His notes are valuable at Kent Archeological Society.
Marriages which took place in the parish church were taking place in a building which had no rights for Church marriage due to a failure to transfer that right from the Ancient Parish church. 119 Marriages which took place until 1919 were technically invalid rendering many of the population of Halstead illegitimate. This was resolved by a 1920 Act of Parliament which validated these marriages and licensed the church for marriages.

The Kent Churches video captures the history and images of the churchyard and 1881 building which retains several features from the older building.
Halstead was a strawberry growing area which attracted traveller families and seasonal workers also to the hop yards. Although on top of the North Downs it lay adjacent to the Pilgrims Way. The burial register reflects deaths amongst seasonal workers and traveller families.
The author Edith Nesbit lived at Halstead Hall for three years in 1870's when she was a child. She liked to sit on the banks of the railway line and watch the digging of the long tunnels for the railway line. Halstead station was renamed Knockholt station after confusion arose with Halstead in Essex. These childhood memories and recollection of the railway building were to form themes in her classic novel "The Railway Children". Although the burial register records many accidental deaths and a murder victim there appear to have been no railway fatalities in the construction.
The "new" burial ground was soon fully occupied  and an extension was needed;the register starts to record how may graves were full systematically to make the case. There is an entry which records the dedication by the Bishop of Rochester of the extension on 20 November 1914.
My transcript of part of the complete register 1813-1929 is the first transcript for the parish page at Kent Online Parish Clerks for the years 1813-1820 due to international privacy laws publication of the remaining years will be held until 2029.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

The Burial of Jesse Delani Laurence at Chevening Kent

As my transcript of the Chevening burial register from 1813-1866 is being prepared for publication online at Kent Online Parish Clerks Chevening page one of several traveller burials in the parish is worthy of comment.
The register records the burial on 9 June 1858 of fifteen month old Jesse Delanie Laurence. The registration of death records the second given name as spelt Delani. Chevening is one of the Pilgrims Way parishes and was a useful route to travel East or west as it avoids the steep inclines  of the North Downs to the north of the ancient route.
For a number of years in Kent parishes I have located a number of eighteenth and nineteenth century Black servants,bareknuckle boxers and travelling fair people as well as Asian people. It has frustrated me to hear the mistaken assumption that Kent parishes do not contain Black family history. Perhaps it is only the record transcriber who can provide such insights!
Jesse was recorded in the parish register as "Travelling through the parish a black child" at death and could have been travelling with her parent (s) either for seasonal work or as part of a travelling fair.
One reason for Kent Online Parish Clerks interest in the Pilgrim's Way parish burials is to help traveller research to locate family member's burials. Some years ago our Cudham burial register helped one Showman's Guild member locate the burial plot in Cudham Churchyard through the parish office and erect a memorial for a family member. For a quarter of a century the family had been looking elsewhere and then a google search by name located my transcript.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020

The Earth Museum and Darwin's Apprentice-The John Lubbock Collection

In 1980 when I moved to live in Farnborough Kent  one of the first places I discovered was Bromley Museum in Orpington. I was by this point in my life an experienced genealogist and record transcriber and archive researcher. The museum displays lead me to discover the John Lubbock collection and the history of High Elms Downe the country home of Sir John Lubbock Baronet. I was fascinated by the collection of stone flint and other minerals fashioned by "Stone Age" hands into implements. Over the years two excellent Museum Directors educated visitors about the collection
In 2012 I volunteered as a Kent Online Parish Clerk for Downe and in 2019 for Farnborough.
Sadly Bromley Museum was closed to the public and its collection in storage became less accessible. The John Lubbock Collection which is extensive was reduced to a display case to illustrate the array of countries John Lubbock had visitd himself on his travels or been given by other archaeologists and collectors of ethnographic cultural items.
The John Lubbock gallery within a corner of Bromley Historic Collections is seldom visited despite the best efforts of a part time curator to involve student and history groups.
I was very happy to read Doctor Janet Owen's book entitled Darwin's Apprentice several years ago when it was published. Janet as a young teenager had volunteered at Bromley Museum and handled collection items. She later used the collection to form her Durham University PHD thesis 2010 The Collecting Activities of Sir John Lubbock which can be read online in a PDF file Durham e theses
Doctor Janet Owen went on to found The Earth Museum and I now have the opportunity to volunteer for the Earth Museum mapping project to add the complete Lubbock Collection online and tell the remarkable story of this international resource.
John Lubbock natural scientist, politician,banker,entomologist,social reformer,archaeologist and anthropologist has been correctly described as Darwin's apprentice and Doctor Owen in her book traces three stages of the apprenticeship:

1. Prior to 1859 when Darwin published On the origin of the Species.
2. John's collection of objects as supporting evidence of Darwin's theories
3. the latter part of John's life when the large collection served as a traditional museum collection at High Elms Downe.

The "Catalogue of my Collection" contained handwritten details of acquisitions over a thirty year period. There are number of articles on the Earth Museum website which introduce online Sir John Lubbock and his travels to acquire items  see The Earth Museum website.
It seems only fitting that I now volunteer to bring the places,objects and stories of this collection to a worldwide online audience and contribute to the development of the Earth Museum website development. I am looking forward to handling and describing the objects of this internationally important collection. Our first training session has been held and Bromley Historic Colections curator Jane Cameron will be directing volunteers to begin work in March 2019.

© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020