Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION SIX.
THE MAYORS AND THEIR TIMES.
IX. FROM THE PAVING COMMISSION. 1778 TO 1835.

The introduction of the Paving Commission in 1778
was a conclusive proof that Dover was in a very bad way
in respect to its sanitary arrangements and general local
government. Nothing could have been more distasteful to
the old governing clique than to let in forty outsiders, some
of whom had been their keenest critics, to take part in the
government of the Town. But the dose had to be swallowed.
The streets were narrow and crooked; there was no town
drainage except what emptied directly into the river or the
docks. The surface of the streets was unpaved, their general
form being that of a gutter with a channel for the rainfall
down the middle. Other towns, which had been in an
equally bad condition owing to the inability of old
Corporations to carry out sanitary reform, had applied to
Parliament for the appointment of local governing bodies
called Paving Commissioners, endowed with statutory powers,
and Dover was bound to follow suit, or sacrifice the pros-
pect, then coming into view, of making seaside attractions
a source of benefit to the town. Such were the causes
which led to the promotion of the Dover Paving Acts.

1777 Matthew Kennett (213) 1778 Thomas Stringer (214)

(213) Matthew Kennett took the leading part in framing the
Dover Paving Act of 1778, vrhich became law during his Mayoralty.

(214) Thomas Stringer was the first of the Stringer family
who made a prominent figure in Dover. His residence was Castle
Hill House. Victoria Park was then called Stringer's Field.
1779 John Latham 1780 T. B. Lane

1781 Henry Jelly 1782 Phineas Stringer (215)

(215) Phineas Stringer was a son of Thomas Stringer. He
married the daughter of Richard Rouse, a former Mayor, and so
inherited Mr. Rouse's country residence, Archer's Court.

1783 James Hammond 1784 James Gunman

1785 T. B. Lane 1786 Thomas Boyton (216)

(216) Thomas Boyton served in the Navy during the Jacobean
Rebellion and was for some time a prisoner at Perth. After the
Scottish War he became surveyor of Customs at Dover, which ofiBc^
he held in 1786, when he waa Mayor.



3l8 ANNALS OF DOVER

1787 Robert Thompson (217)

{217) Robert Thompson was Mayor but one year.

1788 John Latham 1789 James Gunman

1790 Henry Jelly 1791 Matthew Kennett (218)

(218) This Mathew Kennett was the son of Matthew Kennett
who was Mayor in 1777.

1792 Robert Westfield (219) 1793 William King (220)

(219) Robert V/estfield, Mayor in 1792, had been Town Clerk.
He was also Clerk to the Court of Brotherhood, and Clerk to the
Dover Paving Commissioners.

(220) William King was a ship builder, his building yard
being on the bsach where the South Eastern Railway Station now
is. He built ships for the Passage, and a good many of the smaller
ships that were in the actions that Nelson fought.

1794 T. B. Lane 1795 Thomas Mantell (221)

(221) Sir Thomas Mantell, who was Mayor six times between

1795 and 1824, was a Surgeon, born at Chilham. In early life he
settled in Dover as a Surgeon, but ceased to practice in 1793 when
he was appointed agent at this port for prisoners of war. After the
War he held the post of .agent for the Mail Packets during the
remainder of his life. He married Miss Oakley, a lady of literary
ability. He was knighted for long services in connection with
the Passage. He read the Riot Act when a body of smugglers came
from Folkestone and the Marsh towns to liberate smugglers from
Dover Gaol, which they succeeded in doing. He laid the founda-
tion stone of a new prison. He did his best to keep the town
quiet when Queen Caroline landed at Dover in 1820, when there was
groat papular excitement. His act, best remembered, was the laying
of the foundation stone of the New Bridge (which is still called
New Bridge) in June, 1800.

1796 Robert Finnis (222) 1797 William Knocker (223)

(222) Robert Finnis was a timber merchant, who bad his
residence and timber yard at Finnis's Hill. He also had a timber
yard where Camden Crescent now is.

(223) William Knocker was Mayor four times between 1797
and 1832. During his first Mayoralty in 1798 the men of Dover
wore formed into eight Volunteer Companies, and William Knocker,
the Mayor, was the Captain of one of them.

1798 William King I799 Thomas Mantell

1800 T. B. Lane 1801 George Stringer (24)

(224) George Stringer was Mayor at the time of the Peace
Proclamation m May, 1802, and had a grand illuminated trans-
parency shown in front of his house on Castle Hill exhibiting the
figure of Peace.

1802 Williarr Knocker 1S03 Jonathan Osborne (225)

(225) Jonathan Osborn was an iron founder. In the year
i8no, when the Three Gun Battery was dismantled, he bought and
melted down the historic three guns.



THE MAYORS AND THEIR TIMES 319

1804 Robert Walker (226) 1805 Phineas Kennett (227)

(226) Robert Walker was the senior partner of Dolphin Lane
Brewery. Towards the end of his first Mayoralty, in August, 1805
the soldiers Regulare and Volunteers stood to arms for three or
four nights along the shore waiting to resist the Invasion, which
did not occur.

(227) Phineas Kennett was Mayor when the guns, twenty-four
and twelve pounders were landed at Dover to arm the Martello
Towers, which were then being erected round the coast from Folke-
stone to Lydd.

1806 Robert Hunt (228)

(227) Robert Hunt, during his first Mayoralty, read the Riot
Act, when a mob tried to release smugglers from the Court Hall.
The Mayor committed the smugglers and sent them under an escort
of Dragoons to Newgate Prison.

1807 William King 1808 Edward Thompson (229)

(229) Edward Thompson had a quiet time as Mayor, but he was
a Jurat in 1S20 when the Dover rioters broke open the Dover Gaol,
and, was wounded by a stone thrown while the Riot Act was being
read.

1S09 Thomas Mantell iSio George Dell (230)

(230) George Dell was a surgeon, son of Captain Dell, of the
Mail Packet Service.

181 1 Edward Thompson 181 2 Thomas Mantell

1813 James Walker (231) 1814 Henshaw Latham (232)

(231) James Walker was Mayor in 18 14, when the Allied
Sovereigns landed at ArchclifE Fort at the end of the rei-insular
War. He was the managing partner of Messrs. Walker's Dolphin
Lane Brewery.

(232) Plenshaw Latham was Mayor three times. He was the
managing partner of Latham's Bank. In his first Mayoralty he
organised a general subscription for the wounded and widows of the
slaia in the Battle of Wuterloo.

1 81 5 George Stringer 18 16 Jonathan Osborne

1 81 7 William Knocker 181 8 Robert Walker

1819 Thomas Mantell 1820 George Dell

1821 Henshaw Latham 1822 John Jeken (233)

{27^) John Jeken was Mayor when the foundation stone of the
York Sll-eet Almshouses was laid, the Mayor being the Master of the
Almshouse Charity.

1823 Jos. Webb Pilcher (234)

(2341 Joseph Webb Pilcher presided at the first public meeting
held to promote the construction of the South-Eastern Railway from
London lO Dover. In his last Mayoralty the Corporation purchased
the Maison Dieu to convert it into a Town Hall.



320 ANNALS OF DOVER

1824 Thomas Mantell 1825 John Finnis (235)

(235) John Finnis, Mayor in 1825, was a timber merchant and
builder, son of Robert Finnis, a former Mayor. By a local Act of
Parliament passed in his Mayoralty, the Corporation obtained power
to remove the election of Members of Parliament and Mayors from
St. Mary's Church to the Court Hall.

1826 George Stringer 1827 John Shipdem (236)

(236) John Shipdem was Mayor in the years 1827 and 1835.
At the end of his second Mayoralty he handed " the badge of his
place " to a new Mayor selected under the Municipal Corporations
Act of 1835. John Shipdem, who resided at the Round House. Town-
wall Street, had been a Dover official nearly fifty years. He was
Town Clerk from 1791 to 1826, and Register of the Harbour from
1806 until his death in 1840.

1828 Mattliew Kennett (237) 1829 H. P. Bniyers (238)

(237) Matthew Kennett, chosen Mayor in 1828, was the last of
the Kennett family in the Mayoralty.

(238) Henry Pringle Bruyers was a French Canadian, and
married Jane Laurie, daughter of Mr. John Minet Factor, sen., and
he was a captain of one of the Dover Mail Packets.

1830 Henshaw Latham 1831 John Coleman (239)

(239) John Coleman was a surgeon residing in Coleman's Pier
Mansion in Strond Street. He was Mayor when the Parliamentary
Reform Act came into force, and disfranchised 800 out-dwelling
freemen.

1832 William Knocker 1833 J. W. Pilcher

1834 William Cocke (240)

(240) William Cocke was Mayor six times. He was so popular
amongst the working people of Dover that after his last Mayoralty
he was presented with a £50 gold watch and an illuminated address
raised by a shilling subscription.

1835 John Shipdem



THE MAYORS AND THEIR TIMES 32 1