James Price Landscape Painter

 During transcription of Shoreham burial registers now published online at Kent Online Parish Clerks Shoreham Burials 1813-1850 I discovered my first reference to a Shoreham based Landscape Painter called James Price. I wrote about his father's career here but the Covid 19 restrictions and the decision to close archives with staff working remotely inhibited my ability to research more about this man. There were a number of census possibilities but James Price is a common British name.

James lived with  the rest of his family in the 1841 census at Shoreham Rectory and is aged 30 and unmarried. He was born at Croydon on the 19 October 1805 whilst his father was curate at Croydon and is likely to have been baptised by his father at Croydon on 18 May 1806 although I have not had access to the original record. This eliminates another Price family found at the same period in the Croydon register who lived in the Mitcham part of the parish.

The Bank of England have in their art collection some of his landscapes possibly commissioned. The British Museum also has some of his work. There is one work which appears to be a view of Shoreham from the high ground of Filston Lane looking down the Darenth Valley with the Parish Church featured.

I was left with a conclusion that James might have entered employment at the Bank of England but the Bank of England Archive was closed and relevant record searches were not possible by Archivists working from home. I am extremely grateful to the Bank of England Archive staff who during a break in lockdown managed to locate in their admission registers confirmation of James's place and date of birth. At age 20 he was admitted to employment as a clerk of the Bank of England and was "single and free from debt" and described as living wholly with his father at the Rectory at Shoreham. This information is contained in reference M5/408 Committee for Examination of Clerks for Election:Qualification Reports (19 July 1814-13 February 1829) held at the Bank of England Archive.

He married  and the couple are found in the 1851 census at 3 Sydney Place Brixton. James aged 45 is a clerk in the Bank of England  and he and his wife Sarah born at Pentonville Middlesex have 8 children the youngest Eleanor Agnes is seven months old and they employ a nurse and two other resident domestic staff.

After his father's death and his mother's funeral James proves to be an elusive figure but his paintings have entered national collections and are also from many parts of England. He died in 1879 and is buried with both his parents at Shoreham. There is no entry in the burial register to indicate where he lived. However his death certificate records his death aged 73 at 14 Woodlands Villas Blackheath and his death is certified as due to General paralysis. His daughter Eleanor Agnes registered the death and appears to have cared for him in his later years.

James is one of the more interesting all male Bank of England Clerks in having a landscape art career which features in National collections.The art world record of him is incorrect having much later birth year in his brief biography.

It is interesting that he chose to be buried with both his parents at Shoreham and he appears to have identified completely with his home at The Rectory and life with his parents in the parish.

© Henry Mantell Downe Online Parish Clerk 2013-2021

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