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