An extremely interesting evening with five members giving short 5/10mins talks about their ancestors.
Dave Gammon told us about his 2x Great Grandfather Stephen Gammon a man from an ordinary family who lived in the Blean/Tyler Hill area. Stephen worked with his father in the pub next door also in a butchers and a shop. Stephen became the Overseer of the Blean Union, a Councillor. He also founded the Tyler Hill Baptist Church after the horse taking the family to worship in Canterbury collapsed. Realising many of his neighbours also had the journey each Sunday gave him the idea to have a branch in Tyler Hill. Dave passed around a photograph of the church which was used for over a 100 years before closing and also an image of Stephen and his wife. Dave ended by saying that he really admired Stephen and would have loved to have met him.
Margaret Gibson said of her ancestor Isaac Downes that although she would like to meet him there were aspects of his life that makes her think perhaps she would not? Isaac was committed to Norwich Gaol not once but twice. First for the theft of pollards (wood left after pruning) and then for entering a plantation with a gun. His accomplice was caught but Isaac managed to avoid capture for a couple of days. He was tried at the Assizes where his sentence was 2 years imprisonment. After the first year one of the local squirearchy wrote to the Secretary of State as he felt that Isaac should not have been tried at the Assizes but by the Magistrates court which would have given him a lighter sentence. During her research Margaret had come across many letters written by the ‘great and the good’ discussing the matter.
Valery Lilley the ancestor she would like to have met was her 8 x Great Grandfather Richard Peverell of Boscobel House in Shropshire. Despite being so long ago Val had found a portrait of him. Richard’s great claim to fame was being the main person who helped the 21 year old Prince Charles Stuart (later King Charles III) escape. He hid the Prince in the Oak Tree and in his house when Cromwell’s army came to search for the Prince. Richard helped Prince Charles to disguise himself by cutting his hair and giving him his clothes as Richard and Charles were both tall. Val went on to talk about the Smith Charity founded by Alderman Henry Smith of London who left money for poor kith and kin in perpetuity. The charity still pays out today but you have to prove your lineage to Henry back to 1627. Val said the payment today is exactly the same amount as it was originally.
David Wood talked about Gerald his 2nd cousin twice removed who was exceptionally sensitive, abhorred animal cruelty and hated war. Despite his elder and younger brothers both serving in the forces he was a contentious objector in WWI. He was an academic at Cambridge University and knew several members of the Bloomsbury Set. Many of the people he mixed with that David mentioned and had images of are household names to this day. People such as D H Laurence, Rupert Brook etc. Despite being gay Gerald eventually married and from letters between them David said they were obviously very fond of each other.
LucyAnn Curling told us about her 5th x Great Aunt Elizabeth Oakeley who was first married to Francis Kelly who brought home young officers one of which was Charles Napier (later Lt. General Sir Charles Napier. Charles became enamoured of Elizabeth whilst she was still married and rebuffed his advances. But when she became a widow Elizabeth married Charles, undoubtedly within the usual year and a day mourning period and despite Elizabeth being about 20 years older than Charles. Charles had a mistress Anastasia on Kefalonia, one of the Greek Islands, which were under British protection at the time. Anastasia had a child by Napier and there was a second daughter on the way at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth. He was involved with setting up a school for girls possibly for his daughters by Anastasia. LucyAnn’s research led her to two archives which held Napier’s papers which had been of great help in researching Elizabeth and other members of her family that Napier.
Report by Tricia Baxter,Hon. President of Canterbury Branch