6 Market Street

Margate

https://whatpub.com/doggett-coat-badge

Above photo kindly sent by Lee Bradbury.

Above photo June 1988, kindly sent by Philip Dymott.

Above photo, circa 2013, kindly sent by Debi Birkin.

Above photo taken with permission from Saunders family web.

Above sign left, October 1986, sign right, October 1991. With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

Previously the "King's Arms" the pub changed name after being renovated in 1975. The name was changed to the "Doggett Coat and Badge" to honour previous licensee G A Sparks, who in 1958 won the annual Thames Lightermans Race.

On 1st August 1716 Thomas Doggett established an endowment for an annual race. He died in September 1721 and a plaque at St John's Church Eltham, where Thomas Doggett is buried, states he died “a pauper". However his South Sea stock was certainly worthless by 1721 and he was known to have had legal disputes over the Drury Lane Theatre. But, Thomas Doggett’s Will dated 10th September 1721 would not suggest he died a pauper and William Burling, an American Professor, writes that Doggett's retirement years saw large changes in his personal affairs when he married a gentlewoman with some £20,000 fortune.

Examination of the records of Court Minutes at the Fishmonger’s Company, record on 6th October 1721 that Mr Lutton offered on behalf of Thomas Doggett’s executors, a Coat and Badge with an endowment if the Fishmongers' Company would take on the race, to be rowed annually on 1st August.

 The winner also automatically becomes a Queen's Waterman, on call for occasions of Royal Pageantry.

Michael Mirams informs me that the pub closed in 2013, and is still empty today (Jan 2015). However What Pub says (June 2017) it has been turned into a shop.

Above photo, 2018, kindly sent and annotated by Debi Birkin.

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