Emigration to the U.S.A. from Sandhurst, Kent 1826-1828 Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 73 1959 page 235

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Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 73 - 1959 page 235
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Continued

Bexley Church Two references in my paper "Bexley Church: Some Early Documents" in Arch. Cant., LXXII need correction. On p. 41 n. 2 the reference should be to the article on " Earthworks in Joydens Wood, Bexley" by A. H. A. Hogg in Arch. Cant., LIV (1941), not to Dr. Gordon Ward. On		p. 47, n. 1 the description "Canterbury Assize Roll 369 "should read" P.R.O. Justices Itinerant Roll 369, membranes 36-7 ". The latter correction I owe to the kindness of Mr. C. A. F. Meekings, Assistant Keeper and Librarian of the Public Record Office. F. R. H. Du Boulay
Emigration to the United States of America (U.S.A.) from Sandhurst, Kent 1826-1828 - Noreen C. Holmes
In the first thirty years of the nineteenth century poverty in the rural districts of southern England was worse than anything which had been known for many, many decades. The village of Sandhurst, Kent, was no exception to the general rule. Up to 1760 the largest amount of money paid out in any one year in relief to the poor was £200; by 1800 it had reached over £2,000. The average amount paid out for this village of about eight hundred and fifty people for the first thirty years of the century was £1,679 p.a., 1803 being the lowest year with £1,047, and 1822 the highest with £2,333. In these circumstances it is not surprising that many agricultural workers turned their gaze overseas, and where their parishes were prepared to help with their fares many families decided to emigrate. The first intimation that anyone was wishing to go to the		United States from Sandhurst comes from the Parish Request Book of 1822, the year in which disbursements from relief were to stand at their highest. Here, under the date 6th April, is entered as a request "George Fuller to America ", and the terse reply in the margin "Cannot be at the expence ". Eighteen months later there is a note with no comment. "George Fuller and family request to go to America. William Vitler wife and two children do. Samuel Simonds (single) do." But it was not to be until 1826 that George Fuller and Samuel Simmonds got their desire. (We hear no more of the Vitler family.) In the intervening years both men had applied to the parish for relief from time to time, though neither of them with the frequency of some other famlies.

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