John Kemp 1797 – 1862
I wrote about Henry Newland, tailor and church
band leader, in a previous post. Henry married Frances (Fanny) Kemp in 1871. She
was the thirteenth of fourteen children, eleven of whom survived to adulthood.
She was born in Gravesend, Kent in 1846. Her parents were John Kemp and
Elizabeth (maiden name Thurlow).
John Kemp was a
Thames waterman. Watermen working on the River Thames between Windsor and
Gravesend were required to become members of the Company of Watermen and
Lightermen. Membership was granted after the completion of a seven-year
apprenticeship, which was to commence between the age of 14 and 20 years.
The company was
founded for watermen in 1514, and it became necessary for lightermen to join
from the early 1700s. Watermen ferried passengers along and across the Thames,
either by rowing boat or sailing boats known as Thames wherries. They wore
distinctive red coats, and the wherries had red sails. Lightermen conveyed
goods and loaded and unloaded ships.
Roads around London were very poor and until
the 1700s, the ancient London Bridge was the only bridge crossing the Thames. Water
transport was a very useful means of getting around. Then things started to
change. Westminster Bridge was built in 1738; Battersea Bridge opened in 1771.
Vauxhall Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Southwark Bridge and others followed in the
1800s.
During the
early 1800s vast amounts of noxious waste were being discharged into the Thames
from businesses along its banks. The invention of the flushing toilet made
things a lot worse. “Night soil” had previously been contained in cesspools and
privies and was collected by night soil men on a regular basis for use as
fertiliser on the fields. This method of disposal was overwhelmed by the
flushing process of the new toilets and raw sewage ended up in drains intended
for rainwater. These emptied straight into the Thames. Water sources such as
pumps were sometimes contaminated by the sewage, giving rise to all sorts of
horrible diseases, including cholera and typhoid.
The long, hot
summer of 1858 gave rise to “The Great Stink” when the smell from the river
became unbearable. Queen Victoria was overcome by the smell when taking a trip
to view Brunel’s new ship, The Great Eastern, which was moored at Deptford.
Fortunately, she had a bouquet of flowers to sniff! Shortly afterwards she set
off to the Isle of Wight to escape the miasma. Her less affluent subjects were
left to cope as best they could.
The newly
rebuilt Houses of Parliament were badly affected by the stink and curtains were
soaked in lime chloride in an attempt to reduce the smell. Lime chloride was
also pumped into the Thames itself and seems to have had some effect. MPs were
spurred into action and Joseph Bazalgette was tasked with building a new sewage
system for London.
It is said that
watermen had a reduced life expectancy due to contact with all the pollutants
in the river.
Paddle steamers
became thorns in the sides of watermen and took away much of their business. At
Gravesend some watermen found work rowing passengers from the steamers to and
from shore. This new line of work was soon put into jeopardy by a proposal to
build a pier. A bill was passed giving permission for the pier to be built and
on the 22nd of June 1833 the watermen rioted! They attacked a
temporary jetty at the Town Quay and the local militia were brought in to break
up the disturbance.
The Town Quay
Pier was completed in 1834, and Royal Terrace Pier, a private venture, was
built nearby. Royal Terrace Pier undercut Town Quay Pier’s prices, resulting in
Town Quay Pier going bankrupt.
Kemp Watermen.
John Kemp. – Stanley Newland’s great-grandfather.
John Kemp was
apprenticed to his father, John Bull Kemp on 28/11/1811 and was awarded his
freedom on 27/6/1822.
John’s son,
Aaron Benjamin Kemp was apprenticed to him on 8/6/1843. Another son, William
Warren Kemp was also a waterman according to census records, but I can’t find
his apprenticeship record in the indexes. The rest of John’s sons seem to have
become tailors, which is presumably how his daughter, Fanny, met Henry Newland.
John seems to
have been quite a feisty character and reports about him appeared in the
newspaper on a couple of occasions.
South Eastern
Gazette 28/2/1837
“COLD BATH, -
On Monday a waterman named Kemp, in attempting to board the Gem, on her arrival
from London, missed his hold and fell overboard; but met with no other
misfortune than that of a cold bath – no very comfortable thing by the way at
this time of the year. The watermen of Gravesend possess a singular and daring
courage that would astonish the rest of their fraternity, plying between
Windsor and Yantlet Creek, and would not disgrace the old and experienced
boarders who fought under the gallant Nelson. We wonder that accidents among
them do not more frequently occur. “
The West Kent
Guardian 20/7/1839 recounts how John Kemp and Elias Pulling, watermen, were charged
with unlawfully and feloniously stealing four bales of hay. Six bales of hay
were being delivered to a ship, the Cherokee, which was moored at Gravesend. Four
bales were swept away when the delivery boat was swamped by the swell of a
steamer. These bales were subsequently discovered on a wharf belonging to a Mr
Rackstraw. Kemp and Pulling refused to allow the removal of the hay without a
payment of 10 shillings. Goods reclaimed from the river should have been handed
over to the water bailiff. There was no evidence to say that this would not
have been the case and there was evidence that Kemp had been to the Cherokee to
inform the captain that the hay had been recovered. The case was dismissed.
The South
Eastern Gazette 27/4/1847 reported that Elias Pullen (presumably John Kemp’s
partner in crime above!) had taken John Kemp to court to answer a charge of
assault. Pullen was well known to the court. On a preceding Saturday he had
been at the Town Quay. The pier-master threatened to have Pullen locked up for
annoyance if he did not go away.
Pullen claimed
that Kemp had abused him. Kemp said that he was owed four shillings and that he
would “pay him over the face and eyes”. He immediately hit Pullen on the head. An
injury to Pullen’s nose was still visible. Mr Atkins, the pier-master said that
Pullen insulted everybody and aggravated Kemp. He did not see the blow but
heard Kemp say that Pullen had robbed him of 4 shillings. Both parties were “in
liquor”. The defendant (Kemp) was ordered to pay 7s/6d costs.
John Bull
Kemp 1755 – 1829. Stanley
Newland’s 2X great-grandfather.
John was
apprenticed to his father, Thomas Kemp in 1769.
Three of his
sons were apprenticed to him, Thomas in 1801, John (our ancestor above) in 1811
and Aaron in 1819.
Thomas Kemp 1727
– 1775. Stanley
Newland’s 3X great-grandfather.
Thomas was
apprenticed to his father, another Thomas in 1741.
His son John
Bull Kemp (above) was apprenticed to him in 1769.
Thomas Kemp
about 1700 – about 1764. Stanley
Newland’s 4X great-grandfather.
I don’t know
who Thomas’s parents were.
Thomas was
apprenticed to Robert Tuton in 1715.
His son Thomas (above)
was apprenticed to him in 1741.
Richard Kemp
born about 1690.
The first Kemp
surname to appear in the Gravesend indexes, presumably a brother of Thomas
(above).
The Watermen’s
apprenticeship bindings have been indexed by Robert Cottrell. There are 17
Kemps listed in Gravesend over the years up to 1945. I haven’t listed the later
ones. There are 82 Kemps in the index for the whole of the Thames, though it
looks as if some of these have been listed twice.