FYI ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Duncan Harrington <history.research@btinternet.com> Date: Mon, Mar 7, 2011 at 10:15 AM Subject: [KFHS] Thanet Obituaries To: kfhs-members@lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com Whilst some members may already be aware of this index there may be others that do not and may welcome the information. Duncan Harrington, FSA, FSG, LHG, Ashton Lodge, Church Road, Lyminge, Folkestone, Kent UK. Tel:  01303.862368.   Website: http://www.historyresearch.co.uk THE THANET OBITUARY  1655-1850 There are two known copies of The Thanet Obituary in existence:  1. A leather-bound book of 271 folios, hand-written by John Boys, a Margate solicitor, giving full details of monumental inscriptions in the parishes of the Isle of Thanet which he recorded during the period 1809-1834. Boys' description of his own work reads as follows: "An obituary of persons in all the parishes in the Isle of Thanet as recorded upon their monuments and tombstones...recorded 1809, 1815, 1823, 1830. By 1830 scarcely one third of the 1809 survey could be found, and many had become illegible." Further entries were added after 1830; one survey is noted as having been made in 1837, and there are details of burials as late as 1844. This copy of the Obituary found its way into the library of William John W.Mercer of Margate, who died in 1926; subsequently it became the property of F.William Cock, M.D., F.S.A., of Appledore, Ashford, Kent, and was purchased by John Titford in May, 1988.  This copy contains approximately 4000 entries, taken from the following burial grounds: MARGATE (Parish church; Calvinist Dissenters; Baptists; Roman Catholics); RAMSGATE (Parish church; Baptist Old Burial Ground; Baptist New Burial Ground); St.PETER THE APOSTLE (Parish church; Baptists); St.NICHOLAS; BIRCHINGTON, St.LAWRENCE; MINSTER; MONCKTON.  2. A leather-bound book of 435 numbered pages, most with numbers on rectos only. This is John Boys' own copy, with his bookplate. Notes in pencil indicate that further surveys were made in the October of 1844 and in 1850. Entries are especially neatly written, sometimes containing additional or corrected information when compared with the Mercer/Cock copy, above. At the back of the book is a page covered with very faint pencil writing and a page of ink-written statistics, headed: "The following summary of the foregoing contents will show the comparative healthiness of each parish." The reverse of the front free endpaper carries the following note: "These pencilled memoranda were made by my late father, on the occasion of his opposing the inspector on the introduction of the Local Board of Health Bill - on my death or other disposition this book must be delivered to my eldest or second son as the case may be". Initials of J.H.B. [?], 5 March 1862. This copy was purchased by John Titford in June 1997.  This copy contains 5000 or more entries. The burial grounds featured are as for the Mercer/Cock copy, above, with the addition of: St.PETER (Baptists); St.NICHOLAS (Wesleyan, up to 1896).  Details of inscriptions usually include: name, date of death, age, observations. Family groups are frequently featured together on one inscription, and further details are often given, such as a person's place of origin, the place where he or she died, details of a married woman's parentage, etc. Some inscriptions taken from within churches go back to the fifteenth century, but the main series of inscriptions on outdoor memorials dates from the mid seventeenth century. Most entries are eighteenth or nineteenth century in date.  A typical basic entry would read:  John Adams. 17 Aug. 1738. Aged 68. Mary wife of John Adams. 29 Apr. 1700. Aged 48. Henry her son. 22 March 1710. Aged 33. [All the above on one headstone].  Fuller or more exotic entries would read:  Thomas Feathers, a private in the 2nd.West York Militia who fell in a well at this place and was killed. 8 Dec. 1798. Aged 28. Headstone erected by the non-commissioned officers and privates of the same regiment.  James, son of Richard Ayles, died a prisoner of war at Mentzs in Germany. 27 Oct. 1806. Aged 45.  James Foard [Brasher] godson of Roger & Sarah Foard. He died of a fever in the West Indies. 22 May 1794. Aged 18.  *************************************************************************** SEARCHES can be made in both copies of the Obituary.  Please send £9.00 plus a generous-sized stamped addressed envelope for details of up to THREE surnames. The price is the same no matter how many individuals of a given surname are located.  Please send £3.00 for each additional surname  to John Titford, Yew Tree Farm, Hallfieldgate, Higham, Derbys. DE 55 6AG . -- Posted to list: KFHS-members@lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com List Info: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/mailman/listinfo/kfhs-members Kent FHS web site: http://www.kfhs.org.uk For help: http://www.mno.org.uk - if desperate email kfhs-list-admin@weald.org.uk