For some reason that I have yet to figure out, I have a copy of a marriage register entry from St Peter's in Thanet, for Ann CULMER (widow) and Stephen PHILPOT, signed by John PIGOTT, vicar. The copy is dated 1808, but their marriage was in 1781. It was amongst my father's things, but I have no idea if it's anything to do with our family or just that he collected ephemera from Broadstairs and St Peter's. I have sent a scan to one person researching CULMER and if anyone else would like a copy, just let me know. Best wishes Elizabeth Suzannah Foad wrote: >I think you could look through the Isle of Thanet and the Mariner rootsweb >Mailing list archives and find a few people also researching this family if >you have not been contacted alreday > >There is a book which could you help you, regarding the main shipbuilding >branch of the White >family which is David L Williams' book 'White's of Cowes - White's Built, >Well Built' publ Silver Link Publishing 1993 ISBN 0 85794 011 3 > >Some info below found by googling! >Good luck >Suzannah > > >Reference to the Culmer family is found in the pages of a Thanet history >book, Mockett's Journal (1836) by John Mockett (1775~1848). Mention is made >by Mockett of the will of a Richard Culmer, a carpenter in 1434. Shortly >thereafter, in 1440, an archway was built by George Culmer across a track >leading down to the sea, where the first wooden pier or jetty was built in >1460. A more enduring structure was to replace this in 1538. >The Culmers nestled their boatyard on these protected sands. It was in 1538 >that the road leading to the seafront, known as Harbour Street, was cut into >the rough chalk ground Broadstairs is built upon. This was accomplished by >the local shipwright George Culmer. Going further in defence of the town, he >built the York Gate in 1540, a portal that still spans Harbour Street, and >which then held two heavy wooden doors that could be closed in times of >threat from the sea. By 1795, York Gate needed repair to repel any threat >from the French Revolutionary Wars; the subsequent renovation was undertaken >by Lord Hanniker in the same year as the first lightship was placed on the >Goodwin Sands. >A brief outline of the history of Broadstairs Pier is given in Broadstairs, >past and present, which mentions a storm in 1767, during which Culmer's work >was all but destroyed. At this time it was of considerable importance to the >fishing trade with catches as far afield as Yarmouth, Hastings, Folkestone, >Dover and Torbay and elsewhere being landed. It had become so indispensable >that the Corporations of Yarmouth, Dover, Hythe and Canterbury with >assistance from the East India Company and Trinity House subscribed to its >restoration with a payment of £2,000/~ in 1774. >Maritime history > > >With the closure of the Culmer-White boatyard at Broadstairs in 1824, >boatbuilding operations were transferred to the Isle of Wight where the firm >of J. Samuel White became established. >It has been suggested that news of the loss of the Irish Packet Royal >Adelaide with 250 lives, on the sands off Margate on April 6, 1850, prompted >old Thomas White to present one of his lifeboats to his home town of >Broadstairs that summer. A ballad was written to celebrate the occasion, >Song of the Mary White. The lifeboat saw its first use on March 6, 1851 when >the brig Mary White became trapped on the Goodwin Sands during a severe gale >blowing from the north. >In 1841, 44 mariners were recorded as resident in Broadstairs, nine of these >being specified as fishermen, and of course the residual boat-building >activity that remained after the Culmer~White yard closed still continued, >though there were only four shipwrights recorded in the census: Solomon >Holbourn and Joseph Jarman among them. > > >Richard Culmer >Sir Richard Culmer ( 1612- 1633) was the eldest son of Sir Henry Culmer >(~1574- 1633), the first Baron Culmer . Sir Henry, himself a son of a Henry >Culmer, had married Mary Baldwyn in 1602, and was created a Baron by King >Charles I in 1630. >Richard Culmer was the son of Sir Richard Culmer by his first wife and was >born in 1640/1. Richard was buried in the parish church of Monkton, on the >Isle of Thanet. Of his legacies was the endowment on Broadstairs of an area >of six acres of ground for the poor of the parish. The name survives to this >day as 'Culmer's Allotment.' > >Richard Culmer had been educated at Oxford and established himself as a >Puritan Minister of some note. > >In 1643 Culmer obtained the living of the parish of Chartham , where he soon >became unpopular. As a General serving under Oliver Cromwell he became quite >notorious, so disliked that the parishioners of Harbledown objected, that so >long as it was not Culmer they cared not who ministed unto them. > >He had been known to have despised William Laud, who had him committed to >the Fleet for refusing to read 'the Book of Sports' after his services in >Church. > >Already disliked he delighted in his promotion as a Commissioner to oversee >the demolition of superstitious ( Catholic) monuments, and set about his >task at Canterbury with enthusiasm, so much so that his parishioners would >openly flock to attack him, to the extent that soon he had to carry out his >task with Cromwell's Soldier's to protect him. > >For his services to Parliament he was offered the living of the parish of >Minster in Thanet in 1644, where his parishioners had locked the church >against him at his ordination, when he attempted to break in to the church >he was mobbed and beaten. So despised was he that the parish refused to pay >tithes to support him, but then offered his arrears if he would but go away! > >He later found himself under arrest in London, and asked why he had >destroyed the figure of Christ in the Cathedral windows, and not that of the >Devil, he merely replied that Parliament's orders were for the removal of >the same and made no reference to Satan. > >Described as 'odious for his zeal and fury' he survived in his position >until shortly before the Restoration of Charles II. > >He had married in 1639 to Miss Beeson, and again twenty years later to a >Dutch woman, the widow Mrs. Bocher of Haarlem in Holland, the country in >which he died in 1669. > > > >From: "Barbara Callcott" <barbara_callcott@yahoo.com.au> >To:ISLE-OF-THANET@rootsweb.com >Subject:[Isle-of-Thanet] WHITE, CULMER, FENNER, Broadstairs > > >I am new to the list. I am trying to trace my ancestors who were >shipbuilders at Broadstairs. >Susannah FENNER (abt 1736 to 1822) married in 1754 to John(3) WHITE (1732 - >1801) . >John (3) was the son of Mary CULMER (abt 1692 to 1768) married in 1714 to >John (2) WHITE (1693 - 1781). > >I have been told that Susannah FENNER was also descended from CULMERs. >I am hoping that someone may be able to help with information about these >families and how they are related. > >Thanks >Barbara Callcott > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ISLE-OF-THANET-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > >