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Cooling M.I.s & other information with Index of names at end
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Monumental Inscriptions of St James Church, Cooling - recorded by D. E. Williams 2011

Introduction

St. James at Cooling is a much visited church, now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It's associations with Charles Dickens, who lived at nearby Higham, have made it familiar to people all over the world. The churchyard is believed to be the setting of the opening chapter of Great Expectations. Although it is more likely that the location in the novel was a composite, I think Hoo St. Werburgh churchyard is more authentic. The Comport children's Body Stones are identified by many as those of Pip's siblings. Small Body Stones are not uncommon, there are also six to Comport children in High Halstow churchyard. Because of their near status as a "national treasure", I felt rather inhibited from handling them too much and subsequently I have relied on other sources, not all accurate, to identify them all.
   There are not many monuments of great age in the churchyard, the population has probably always been small, many of the medieval parishioners would have been retainers from the castle. The area was considered unhealthy due to the proximity of the marshes and occurrences of ague. The oldest monuments in the churchyard are those to the Prebbles, and they did not live here, but at Cobham and Cliffe.
   As at St. Mary Hoo, the village did not expand, as it's neighbour Cliffe did. Although most of the housing is modern, the churchyard and it's setting remains a green oasis of quiet timelessness.
   I have laid out the lines of the inscriptions exactly as on the originals, where parts are missing or I have used material from the Registers and other sources, I have used brackets, thus [    ]

Section A    interior of church. Inscriptions are arranged alphabetically.

Section B    churchyard pre-1930 graves only. Inscriptions are arranged alphabetically.

Index of Names - from gravestones only

Locate the name you are interested in and note the letters/numbers following. Using the links below, jump to the Section containing the letter/number. Click on Edit at the top left of your screen, and from the drop down menu, click on Find on this page and type in the name. The cursor will jump straight to the name, highlighting it. Be sure to click on Next at the top, in case the name occurs again.  Happy ancestor hunting.
   Be sure to use the same method to search for any other names that you are interested in not listed below, that might be in the wills, census, directory information.

Sections       A  1 to 14       B  15 to 55

Names Index
ACOME 3, 37
ASSHETON 4

BAKER 26
BALLS 15, 16, 17
BATCHELOR 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
BELLAMY 23
BROOKE 1

CHILD 24
COMPORT 2, 25
COUSINS 27
CROUCHER 28

EDWARDS 25

FAULKNER 29
FILMER 30, 31
FORBES 32
FULLER 33

GATES 42
GATTON 25, 26, 27
GRANT 34

HINDS 35
HODSHON 36
LEAVER 3, 4, 37, 38
LUPO 5
LYNCH 14
MARSH 21
MONK 6
MUGGERIDGE 7
MURTON 8, 9, 39, 40

OVERRRIGHT 42

PAINE 5
PICKERING 10
PREBBLE 43, 44, 45

SMITH 46-49
SOLOMON 51
SPARKS 11, 12
SPEARMAN 50

TERRY 15, 52, 53
THOMPSON 27
THURSTON 11

WILLOUGHBY 13
WODYEARE 14
WOOD 54, 55

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