Dr David Wright

Clearance at the IHGS at Northgate in Canterbury continues as we prepare to sell one quarter of the building and receive a generous legacy of the William Marsh Harvey antiquarian library. Whatever duplicates there are will be added to our own our enormous collection of extra books for some kind of ongoing grand sale during the summer. Our Diamond Jubilee Awards Day and Celebrations are now fixed for July 31 and preparations are now underway. Zoom tutorials and lectures continue to draw very healthy audiences. 

My own consolidated Canterbury Probate Index which brings together grants of probate and administration from all courts for the city parishes is now well advanced. Once sorted it will be interesting to be able at a glance to see all the inhabitants of one parish, the occupants of the various almshouses, or perhaps all the Canterbury silkweavers in one go. The first tranche will cover c.1720-1858. 

Having for years dreamt about writing a parish history I have at last settled on Reculver. Judicious purchasing of reference works has reminded me how much background reading to the sources is necessary before undertaking a venture of this nature, although at 67 I hope to have long enough to complete it, DV ! One plus point of course is that unlike most places whose recorded history might begin with Domesday Book at the earliest, here we start with the Roman fort of Regulbium and the important Anglo-Saxon church of St Augustine founded in A.D. 669. Thus there is much to consider between then and the intrusive and unsightly modern caravan site so horribly close to such venerable remains. It is just as well that the site is guarded by English Heritage for otherwise what would be left in a another generation? I have already witnessed partial destruction and losses since my own childhood. Sic transit gloria mundi.

From Newsletter 231:  Dr. David Wright, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Society of Genealogists. He is well known to genealogists for his East Kent Probate Index as well as for his several books on Kent genealogy, including Tracing Your Kent Ancestry which was published in 2016. David has been a genealogical lecturer for many years and is a specialist in Medieval Latin. Alongside his love of genealogy he has a keen interest in the history of Anglo-Saxon and Mediaeval England.

I am currently translating a series of interesting borough charters for the Kentish Cinque Port town of Hythe, all from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, and typically a rich source of placenames and surnames.

My consolidated Canterbury probate index, 1700-1858, draws together both wills and administrations as well as the relevant PCC wills form the supreme court in London. It will be sorted by surname, address/parish and occupation, and should prove a fruitful source for local researchers. It will appear on my website later this year.

I am delighted to announce that from August I shall take up a new position as Principal at the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies in Canterbury. The Institute is strongly focussed on education and achievement by examination results, of which there is already an impressive run over many years.

​In September I shall start teaching classical Latin for beginners at Blean Village Hall near Canterbury. Full details will appear in the U3A summer programme. Do come and learn the basics which will of course be exceptionally useful for looking at many earlier genealogical documents.

Tuesday 1st October - Brisbane
Tweed Gold Coast Family History Society, South Tweed Sports Club, 4 Minjungbal Drive, Tweed Heads South

• 1.30 The English Workhouse

Saturday 5th October - Brisbane
Genealogical Society of Queensland, 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Queensland 4122

• 9.00-11.30 English palaeography seminar reading documents of the 16th to 18th centuries

Monday 7th October - Canberra
Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra, 41 Templeton St, Cook, A.C.T. 2607
All day seminar:

• Genealogical History and Geography;
• The English Workhouse;
• Parish Registers;
• Problem Solving

​Friday/Saturday 11,12 October - Sydney
'Exploring The Past' Conference, Ku-ring-gai Historical Society, Knox Grammar School, Pacific Highway, Wahroonga, NSW 2076

• Friday 11 October, 2.00-2.45, English Palaeography Seminar
• Saturday 12 October, 9.30-10.15, Genealogical History and Geography
• Saturday 12 October, 2.30-3.15, The English Workhouse

Thursday 17th October - Melbourne
Genealogical Society of Victoria, Level 6, 85 Queen St, Melbourne 3000

• 10.00-11.00 Genealogical History and Geography
• 11.30-12.30 Researching in Kent

Friday 18 October - Melbourne
Mount Waverley Library, 41 Miller Crescent, Mount Waverley, Victoria 3149

• 10.30-12.00 Overview of Principal English Sources and problem solving

Sun. 20th October - Melbourne
Family History Connections, 1/41 Railway Rd, Blackburn, Melbourne 3130

• 11.00 Parish Registers
• 1.00 The Parish Chest

Tuesday/Wednesday 22, 23 October - Adelaide
South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society, 201 Unley Rd, Unley, S.A.

• Tuesday 22 October, 7.00-9.00pm English Palaeography Seminar
• Wednesday 23 October, 7.30 The Parish Chest

Do please get in touch for more details and perhaps the possibility of further speaking appointments.

​On 23 March 2019 over 50 people attended Christ Church University, Canterbury, for a one-day colloquium to mark the 350th anniversary of the death of one of the city's greatest sons, the antiquary and notary public, William Somner (1606-1669). An exhibition of some of his surviving books and manuscripts in the cathedral archives was followed by a plenary session of five distinguished speakers.

After an introduction by Dr David Wright (whose 'Life of William Somner' will appear in Archaeologia Cantiana over 2019/2020), the proceedings opened with Professor Jackie Eales setting the scene by describing life in Somner's Canterbury and some of the sources available to researchers. Then Avril Leach spoke on Somner's first masterpiece, 'The Antiquities of Canterbury' of 1640, perhaps the best of all the early English borough histories, describing in detail the corpus of surviving first editions.

After lunch Dr Rachel Fletcher gave much fascinating information on Somner's second masterpiece, the Anglo-Saxon- Latin- English Dictionary of 1659, rightly emphasising Somner's key contribution to the study of Old English in the seventeenth century. She was then followed by Dr David Shaw on 'Somner's Books', a predictably engrossing treatment of purchases for his own library, his gifts to the cathedral library, prices paid and scholarly provenances.

The day's proceedings concluded with Professor Kenneth Fincham, who with customary vigour and clarity described the complex relationship between Somner and Archbishop William Laud, and also noted the problems encountered by scholars in differentiating between a father and son with the same name.

The colloquium was a worthy remembrance to a Kentish scholar with far more than just a local, or even national, reputation.