Colonial heritage at Rochester Cathedral
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Contested heritage
The Church Buildings Council and Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England issued the 2021 Guidance for Contested Heritage in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and ensuing debate on memorialisation and heritage representation. The guidance focuses on the issue of the tangible memorialisation of people or events connected with racism and slavery, but the topic of heritage encompasses the vast range of surviving history and artefacts and how these are interpreted. Here we present the topic as an opportunity to explore aspects and persons in the past that have previously been underrepresented in the written and archaeological record, or have perhaps been squeezed out of public interpretation programs by dominant narratives, with the aim of opening these stories for further research.
The Cathedral collections do not feature the kinds of overt racialised imagery of some church and cathedral collections, but does include one of the largest collections of memorials to casualties of colonial-era military campaigns of any British cathedral, from almost every continent at the height of the British Empire. Towards our aims of opening the Cathedral collections for further study to as diverse of a range of researchers as is practical, we have begun this project to reinvestigate this corpus and to provide access to this history freely online.
Rochester Cathedral is one of twenty ‘medieval cathedrals’ in Great Britain. But of course it is actually a complex of architecture, artefacts, collections and history that at its earliest is about halfway through its 1,419th year. Most of its history is, unsurprisingly, to be found in the centuries after its construction and even after the dissolution of the Priory. The Cathedral predates by centuries a unified England, the short-lived North Sea Empire of the eleventh century, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the United Kingdom and the British Empire. Being a ‘medieval cathedral’ the bulk of its historical and achaeological research, its heritage interpretation and learning programmes perhaps inevitably focus on medieval origins. At Rochester the lie of the heritage landscape has also meant, beyond the similarly medieval Rochester Castle, the focus for civic heritage celebrations has often been on the era of its most famous resident Charles Dickens in the mid-nineteenth century. Subsequently the Early Modern period is squeezed between two dominant narratives, and ripe for reinvestigation.
17th and 18th centuries
This project began by assessing one of the most obvious questions relating to Black History at the Cathedral. The origins of the name of a passageway/alley to the north of the Cathedral, known variously as St Williams Way or Black Boy Alley, had yet to be investigated. This study was revealing as, unlike in many cases around the country, difinitive (or as close to as we can say) evidence for the origins of the name for Rochester’s Black Boy Alley can be identifed.
Rochester’s Black Boy Alley: origin and heritage
‘Black Boy…’ can be found in the names of many UK pubs, roads and pathways but it has an obscure origin. Rochester’s Black Boy Alley was once bordered on its west side by the Black Boy Inn, with its roots in the English Civil War (1642–1651).
Though the name became deeply racialised over time and in different regions this origin was not colonial in nature. It also seems unlikely that at Rochester the name of the Black Boy Inn served to deliniate clientiel based on race, if the paucity of identifiable persons of colour in the baptism and burial registers can be seen as representative. One burial is recorded of ‘a black’ in the 18th century, and two baptisms. It may be that others to be buried were afforded their indistinguishable christian names, but so far no histories have yet come to light of any resident community of black or other ethnic groups within Historic Rochester during the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, unlike the rich history of the long-standing communities in London, persons passing through the port of Gravesend, and increasing numbers of navy personnel at Chatham Dockyards.
Baptisms, marriages and burial registers
Facsimile and transcriptions of the baptism, marriage and burial registers of Rochester Cathedral.
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Concurrent with this project, reinvestigations of the archives of Cambridge University and Canterbury Cathedral, similarly with the hindsight afforded by the Black Lives Matter and Contested Heritage debate, has opened the public discussion to patterns of investments in the slave trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was apparently not until the early eighteenth century that the Chapter of Rochester Cathedral found itself in the position to invest in the ballooning South Seas Company.
South Sea Company investments, 1715-1720
The archives of the Dean & Chapter include a collection of early 18th-century stock and dividend receipts and accounts evidencing an extensive financial legacy from investments in two of the largest slave-trading companies in history.
The South Sea and East India Company investments in the eighteenth century made the Dean & Chapter stakeholders in the growing colonial economy, which outlasted the abolition of the slave trade in Britain and overseas. This can come as a surprise today, as several key figures in the Abolitionist movement were Anglican ministers.
The Reverend Canon Dr Gordon Giles introduced prominent Anglican cleric and slavery abolitionist John Newton. Talk delivered at the Black History Month event ‘The Amazing Grave of a Divine God’ at Rochester Cathedral.
The Church Missionary Society
Over the nineteenth century the wider Church, and its new missionary wing the Church Missionary Society, would become core components of the colonial project throughout the vast British Empire.
Bishop Samuel Adjai Crowther (c. 1809-1981)
The Reverend Belinda Beckhelling introduced Bishop Samuel Adjai Crowther, the first African Anglican bishop of West Africa. From the notes of Arnold Awoonor.
Military memorials
Shortly after the Royal Engineers and Royal Sappers and Miners unified into the Corps of Royal Engineers in 1855, their headquarters moved from the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, to Chatham. The Cathedral became the mother church of the Corps of Royal Engineers and most of its military memorials result from this connection. Nevertheless the careers of some of the earliest nineteenth century memorials at the Cathedral offer fascinating insights into the British Empire and its colonial administration.
The earliest military memorials at the Cathedral date from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, often men of high rank or physicians to the forces. Their lives and careers are first-hand insights into the administration and conflicts of the British Empire. Their careers took them around the world, such as that of Sir William Franklin and James Forbes, IG (d.1837), both commemorated in a memorial in the South Nave Transept. Forbes had a long history serving in the Napoleonic wars and in the Peninsula, receiving the rank of physician to the forces and taking charge of the hospital erected at Colchester for the sick and wounded of Waterloo. He was successively superintendent of Chelsea Hospital and medical director at Chatham. Forbes also served in the West Indies, Nova Scotia, and Canada, and was appointed principal medical officer in Ceylon (Gentlemen’s Magazine February 1838).
The careers of officers of the Royal Engineers occassionally incorporated projects in Canada. Captain William Walton Robinson, RE was the son of Col. W. Robinson, chief R.E. officer of the N.W. Boundary Commission under the Arbitration Treaty and also between the British Provinces of North America and the USA and of the survey of the Trunk Railway of Canada. He later had an extensive career as an engineer in India.
Major Samuel Anderson, CMG, RE (1839-1881) had a career spanning several continents as a surveyor, on the North American Boundary Commission for surveying and marking out from the Pacific to the summit of the Rocky Mountains the boundary on the 49th parallel, for example. The duty that brought him most into the public notice, however, was that of chief astronomer to the British Commission for the definition of 900 miles of North American frontier in 1872-4. The expedition was frought with difficulties from the terrain and weather and also came under repeated attack from Native American tribes.
William Augustus Burke, MD (d. 1836) and Colonial India's Lock Hospitals
William Augustus Burke, MD, is commemorated by a memorial in the North Nave Aisle. Burke was Inspector General of Army Hospitals including those in Colonial India.
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Ens. Francis Robinson (d.1849), the son of a Cathedral Canon, is commemorated in the North Nave Aisle. Robinson served in the 56th Bengal Native Infantry and was killed at Chillianwallah, now part of modern-day Pakistan, on the 13th of January 1849. The military memorials in the North Nave Aisle accumulated with casualities of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Today, those lost in campaigns on the Indian subcontinent shortly before and during the period of Direct Rule in India comprise the largest collection of memorials at the Cathedral. Capt. Samuel Read (d.1857) of the 83rd Regiment was killed at Jeerun, near Neemuch. William Robert Moorsom (d.1858) of the 13th Light Infantry was killed at Lucknow. His memorials was placed by officers of the 52nd Light Infantry. Moorsom is featured in the painting ‘The Relief of Lucknow (Barker 1857). Capt. Herbert Cooper d.1858, ‘…died at Husseerabad in the East Indies, where he was on service with his Regiment, on the . 13th. of July . 1858’.
Several veterans of the mutiny are also commemorated. A memorial to Col. Andrew Macpherson (d.1893), XXIV Regiment in the South Nave Aisle records Macpherson: ‘Served Throughout The Punjab Campaign 1848-49, And Was Dangerously Wounded At Chilianwala. During The Indian Mutiny He Commanded A Detachment In A Severe Action At Jhelum For Which He Received The Thanks Of The Commander-In-Chief. He subsequently Raised the XXII Regiment Of Punjab Infantry, Which He Commanded Until The Close Of The Campaign, And Was Promoted For His Distinguished Services’. Prominent General John Ballard C.B., L.L.D (d.1880) was another distinguished veteran, commemorated in the South Quire Transept. In 1857-8, During The Indian Mutiny, He Held The Same Post With The Rajputana Field Force And Malwa Division Of The Indian Army. In 1861, He Was Appointed Mint Master At Bombay And Subsequently, In Addition, Chairman Of The Bombay Post Trust; The Former Post He Held Until His Retirement From The Service In 1879.’
Several Royal Engineers had long careers in India, such as Captain William Walton Robinson, RE (d. 1887). Lieutenant Fairfax Norman Hassard, RE (1848-1875) died of smallpox during the execution of his duties on the Indore State Railway.
Commemorations include veterans and casualties of campaigns in other areas of East and South East Asia. A brass plaque in the South Quire Transept records the dedication of the stained glass window above 'In Memory Of Captain William Innes, Royal Engineers, Who Was Killed On November 7th. 1875 When Engaged In The Attack Of A Stockade At Perak, In The Malay Peninsula.
Lt. Robert Dury (d.1885) of the ‘2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers, attached to the XI Regiment, Bengal Infantry. ‘In action at the head of his men during the Assault on Minkle Burmah on the 17th.’ Gen. Sir Richard Harrison G.C.B., C.M.G. (d.1931) was Colonel Commandant, Royal Engineers. Harrion fought at Scutari during the Crimean War in 1856, and took part in the Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny and in the regions of Rohilkhand and Awadh. He was later sent to China, taking part in the Second Opium War. Present in the Battle of Taku Forts (1860) and its following capture. Fought at the battle of Ulundi. Commanded a British contingent in Transvaal. Served at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. Colonel of staff during the Nile Expedition. He was extensively decorated during his later years (a biography is on Wikipedia).
Maj.-Gen. Francis Kelly C.B., C.M.G., G.O.C. (d.1937) commemorated in the North Nave Aisle took part in the Burma expedition and the Tirah Campaign at the North West Frontier in India. Served as assistant adjutant-general in Quetta District, Commander of the Karachi Brigade in 1905 and Commander of the Ahmednagar Brigade in 1907. After that he became Commander of British Troops in South China in 1913 and General Officer Commanding 69th (2nd East Anglian) Division in November 1915 during the First World War before retiring in 1918.
Sir James Browne K.C.S.I., C.B (d.1896) is commemorated in the North Quire Aisle. Known as "Buster Browne", he was a prominent British military engineer and administrator in British India. ‘…died at Quetta on 13th June 1896, when Agent to the Governor General of India in Beluchistan’. Col. John Pennycuick CSI (d.1911) is commemorated in a memorial in the South Nave Transept. ‘Late President Of The Royal Indian Engineering College, Coopers Hill [Royal Indian Engineering College]. Served as a member of the Madras Legislative Council. Undertook several irrigation works which included the masonry dam of Mullaperiyar on the Periyar River. "I am going to be only once in this earthly world, hence I need to do some good deeds here. This deed should not be prorogue nor ignored since I am not going to be here again".
Many memorials are to those that served and fell in a series of conflicts and expeditions over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Africa and the Middle East. Proximity to Chatham Dockyards has also resulted in a number of memorials of Royal Marines and other branches of the Army and Navy through the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Colonel Richard Home (1837-1879), leader of the Ashanti Expedition 1873-74 in what is now southern Ghana, is commemorated by a window in the Presbytery. Another window is dedicated to Royal Engineers casualties.
Captain Richard Nicholls Buckle and other casualties of the Anglo-Ashanti wars, 1873-1874
A window in the Presbytery is dedicated to Captain Richard Nicholls Buckle and other Royal Engineers casualties of the Ashanti Expedition 1873-74 in what is now southern Ghana.
Colonel Anthony William Durnford, RE is commemorated by a stained glass window in the South Nave Aisle. Durnford was killed at the battle of IsandhIwana in 1879, part of the Anglo-Zulu War. Colonel J. R. M.Chard V.C, RE is commemorated in the memorial in the North Quire Aisle. Chard is famous as battle of Rorke’s Drift, depicted in Richard Attenborough’s film Zulu. Lieutenant R.da Costa Porter is commemorated by a memorial in the North Nave Aisle. Porter was present at the battle of Ulundi before his untimely accidental death in Malta.
Three Canadians of the Royal Military College of Canada serving with the Royal Engineers are commemorated in a memorial in the North Quire Aisle. Captain William Grant Stairs achieved fame for his part in the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition through the Ituri Rainforest along the Congo River. The expedition came to be celebrated for its ambition in crossing "darkest Africa" and notorious for the deaths of so many of its members and the disease unwittingly left in its wake.
Major General Charles George Gordon C.B. is commemorated with casualties of the Egypt and Sudan Campaigns (1882-1885) by a window and plaque in the South Nave Transept. Captain Ernest Frederic David (d.1898) serving with the Egyptian Army was in command of the 4th Brigade of the Dongola Expeditionary Force (1896), part of the Anglo-Egyptian conquest of Sudan. R. Polwhele and E.H.S. Cator, Lieutenants Royal Engineers died on service in the Sudan, 1896-7. Sappers who were killed in the Sudan Expedition (1897-1898) are commemorated by a plaque on the west wall of the South Nave Aisle to the left of the main Royal Engineer Memorial.
The collection of memorials to the Royal Engineers was occassionally supplemented by those of other prominent military officials and engineers. General Sir Richard Harrison, GCB, CMG, (1837-1931) is commemorated by a memorial in the South Quire Aisle, above which a banner once hung. Harrison was Colonel Commandant of the Royal Engineers. He fought at Scutari during the Crimean War in 1856, took part in the Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and in the regions of Rohilkhand and Awadh. Later sent to China, taking part in the Second Opium War. Present in the Battle of Taku Forts (1860) and its following capture. Battle of Ulundi. Command a British contingent in Transvaal. Served at the Battle of Tel el-Kebir in the 1882 Anglo-Egyptian War. Colonel of staff during the Nile Expedition. Extensively decorated during his later years. Brigadier General Sir George Bohun Macauley, KCMG, KBE, CB (d. 1940) had a long administrative career in Egypt in the early twentieth century.
In 1895 the territories subject to the British South African Company were named Rhodesia. In March 1896 the Matabeles revolted. Among the actions which took place was the attack on Makoni's kraal in August, under Col. Alderson. In this engagement Captain Haynes was killed. The casualties of the Kentish regiments who fell in the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, are commemorated by a memorial in the South Nave Aisle. The Anglo–Boer War was a conflict from 1899 to 1902 fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa. Captain Henry Jameson Powell Jeffcoat DSO and Captain Arthur Bysse Molesworth, also casualties of the conflict, are commemorated by a memorial in the Lady Chapel.
The upper central window of the South Quire Transept was ‘inserted By the Officers of the Corps of Royal Engineers, In memory of their Brother Officer Captain John William Gill Who, when proceeding on Public Service into the Desert of Sinai, was treacherously slain by Bedouins…’. Captain James Dundas, VC is commemorated by a stained glass window and plaque in the South Quire Transept. Dundas lost his life during General Roberts’ advanced on Kabul in the autumn of 1879.
A group of Sikh names, the ‘Native Sappers and Miners’ commemorated in the 1888 Royal Engineers memorial, are the only non-christians and persons of colour identified to date commemorated at the Cathedral in the nineteenth century.
The Last Stand of Lieutenant Henn and his Sappers
The story behind the names of the ‘Native Sappers and Miners’ commemorated in the 1888 Royal Engineers memorial mosaic at the west end of the Nave.
Lieutenant Archie M. A. Harris, RE (d. 1889) was shot in pursuit of a Pathan Robber on the Afghan Frontier, on 11th October 1889. General John Ballard, 'Distinguished Himself Greatly In The Russian War Of 1854-6, In The Defence Of Silistria, At The Siege Of Sebastopol, At The Occupation Of Kertch, And In Omar Pasha's Campaign In Mingrelia, Including The Battle Of The Ingour, Where He Commanded A Turkish Brigade When Only A Subaltern Of Engineers He Received The Honorary Rank Of Lieutenant-Colonel In The Turkish Army. The Military Companionship Of The Order Of The Bath, And The Third Class Of The Order Of The Medjidie. In 1856-7, He Served As Assistant Quartermaster General With The Persian Expeditionary Force…’ The window depicts Christ accompanied by two disciples speaks to Martha and Mary before the raising of Lazarus.
Heritage
The living heritage of the Early Modern and Modern periods can feel more challenging to engage with. Many of our national identities, institutions and family ties extend back to or had their genesis in this recent past. Indeed, the transfer of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997 marked for many the end of the five centuries of the British colonial project. Almost every topic that needs broaching in understanding these episodes and items in the Cathedral collections demands the incorporation of differing perspectives and narratives, often in disagreement or sometimes outright incompatible. In some ways we can feel less secure discussing this era, in which the wealth and diversity of the record can seem to us to suggest the events are more multifaceted and the ‘facts’ harder to determine, as the record grew to encompass (though not necassarily represent) the whole planet.
The objects of our study being what they are, it is inevitable that it is almost exclusively history as told through the British Empire - the world seen through the eyes of its citizens, shareholders, engineers, officers and administrators. It is not enough to say there are two sides to this story, there are several billion. Only by appreciating this and opening these stories for further investigation can we hope to make sense of this global heritage, stepping beyong the grand narratives of conflicts and discerning authentic voices from the past.
Any ‘history of Rochester Cathedral’ is shorthand for the works and records of a great many individuals and groups, conforming to shared principles and knowledge, or revealing a remarkable level of autonomy in their decision making and in seeking their aims, to the benefit or detriment of others. It serves nobody’s interests for these stories to be forgotten. To this end, the topic of Contested Heritage is not an attempt at a revision of history, but an exploration of the stories we feel have value in our understanding of the past, of our of world today, and in shaping our future.
Jacob Scott
Heritage Officer
