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