Newsworthy Articles

Genealogists' Magazine Vol.33 No.11

City of Canterbury Consolidated Probate Index

by David Wright, MA, PhD, FSA, FSG, FHG
My new City of Canterbury Consolidated Probate Index includes wills and administrations for at least 1720 to 1858 and is sorted by surname, parish and occupation. Researchers may now wish to extract perhaps all bachelors; all inhabitants of a particular parish; or all members of the city's silkweaving fraternity.

A detailed article about the index appears in the September 2021 Genealogist's Magazine.
September 2021

Trustee of the Maison Dieu Museum Trust

I have recently become a Trustee of the Maison Dieu at Ospringe, just outside Faversham.

​This was originally a sizeable mediaeval hospital foundation lying on the Roman Watling St between Dover and London and in the past would have catered for the many mediaeval pilgrims making their way to Becket's shrine at Canterbury.

​The earliest records relate to grants of corn and building materials by Henry III in 1234 and were followed by a royal charter in 1246.
Today the main surviving building is in the care of English Heritage. It is on three floors and boasts a fine range of museum artefacts within the impressive upper rooms. It is open on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from 2-5 until the end of October.
06 September 2021

Writing a parish history, Reculver

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.
25 April 2021

Appointed I.H.G.S. Principal

The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies is an independent educational charitable trust established to provide full academic facilities for training and research in the study of the history and structure of the family. It was established in Northgate, Canterbury, in 1961 by Cecil Humphery-Smith.
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.
"Having lived (almost) within the shadow of Northgate all my life, and consequently knowing many of the past and present staff as well as numerous former employees who are now distinguished genealogists in their own right, it is with a sense of slight foreboding that I shall formally enter the august portals of the Institute as its Principal on August 3. Not quite fully behind me are careers in philately, the classics, history, genealogy, translating, teaching, writing and lecturing, some of which I shall hope to bring to bear to my daily duties in Canterbury. Genealogy still remains a huge passion after 45 years, and I note with considerable pride the splendid IHGS educational classes and courses currently on offer - all still very much needed, especially as the Internet means our subject is now a little less earthbound than it used to be. Alas, I cannot fool myself that I shall be able to equal Dr Richard Baker's long tenure in the post, but I arrive with a fresh pair of eyes and enthusiasm to see what may lie ahead for the Institute as it enters its diamond jubilee year."
02 August 2020

Australian Lecture Tour 2019

​After a considerable gap David Wright is pleased to announce that he is undertaking his fourth Australian tour and second genealogical lecture circuit in October 2019.  There are sixteen dates starting in Brisbane (October 1 and 5), proceeding to Canberra (October 7), the Sydney conference (October 11 and 12), Melbourne (October 17, 18 and 20) and Adelaide (October 22 and 23).

He is talking on a variety of subjects including parish registers, the workhouse, and genealogical geography and history, as well as giving practical seminars in the interpretation and reading of old documents.
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​He is looking forward to catching up on old friends and acquaintances and meeting many more.
30 September 2019

William Somner Colloquium 
​350th Anniversary Conference & Exhibition
Saturday, 23rd March 2019
​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.
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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.
25 March 2019