Researches and Discoveries

299 RESEARCHES AND DISCOVERIES St tHOmAS bECkEt AND tHE pIlgRIm SOuVENIRS IN CANtERbuRy’S COllECtIONS Saint thomas becket’s brutal martyrdom and the subsequent mass pilgrimage movement generated an exceptionally large range of pilgrims’ souvenirs. pilgrim badges directly associated with the saint have been discovered in locations throughout Britain and stretch across every corner of the Continent, reflecting the infectious spread of his cult.1 by the mid thirteenth century he had become one of the most popular saints in medieval Europe.2 Souvenirs first took the form of ampullae (a small flask filled with miraculous water purportedly mixed with becket’s blood) hung around the pilgrim’s neck and swiftly developed into badges that were pinned onto clothing or affixed to a pilgrim’s staff.3 these hand-held objects both established one’s status as a pilgrim and recorded the experience of pilgrimage for the bearer. Some souvenirs were perceived to possess apotropaic powers which could, for example, heal the sick and/or grant successful harvests.4 they further acted as symbols among long distance travellers of a shared pilgrimage experience underlining becket’s international appeal.5 On average, these badges do not exceed the length of one’s index finger and, as an object type, pilgrim signs (their contemporary name) are one of the earliest examples of mass-production in European material culture.6 these tiny tangible objects provide an unparalleled insight into the devotional habits of ordinary pilgrims. the analysis in this article builds on the invaluable work of the leading scholar in this field, Brian Spencer – ex-keeper of the medieval Collections at the museum of london – who created a detailed catalogue of the rich badge collection held there.7 the City of Canterbury holds a large, but relatively unknown, collection of pilgrims’ souvenirs. Overall, there are a total of 282 such items currently stored in the beaney House of Art and knowledge.8 this article provides an overview of these remarkable medieval souvenirs with a focus on their form, function, and provenance. It places particular emphasis on the badge types displaying an image of St thomas becket and the most prominent amongst these, in terms of the greatest surviving number of designs, are those which depict the head of the saint. Exploring the Canterbury Corpus After a careful inspection of the Canterbury collection the details of each individual souvenir were recorded and entered into a database as follows: Approximate dating Dimensions: in millimetres type of material rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 300 Find-spot, where known Condition, rated on a scale of poor (damaged/unidentifiable) to excellent (complete/identifiable) brief description In addition, each souvenir within the collection has been photographed. this database allows a thorough analysis of the Canterbury Collection and an external comparison with other established souvenir collections such as those in the museum of london and the british museum. Find spots Each pilgrim badge conveys its own unique story – of the craftsman who designed, cast and sold it, as well as the journey of the pilgrim who purchased, wore and eventually disposed of it – only for it to be rediscovered again. the vast majority of pilgrim souvenirs discovered across the Continent have been found at the bottom of rivers.9 the beaney collection items were found both in the River Stour at Canterbury and the thames in london.10 Three separate find-spots have been identified along the River Stour.11 One of these locations was Westgate (Map 1, point A), where a bifurcated section of the Stour exits the city. the discovery of badges at this site here appears to indicate that pilgrims deposited some of their souvenirs immediately upon leaving the city. Other examples were found along the river opposite Eastbridge Hospital (Map 1, point b), undoubtedly a busy location for Canterbury visitors since Eastbridge acted as a popular guesthouse for pilgrims. the third location was by the greyfriars Chapel (Map 1, point C), which suggests pilgrims regularly made a stop there. many scholars have speculated on the reasons pilgrims would throw their personal souvenirs into rivers. One explanation widely offered is that the action was an intentional expression of devotion.12 If these particular items were purchased for map 1 map of Canterbury showing locations where pilgrim badges found. Ordnance Survey limited, (last accessed August 2019). Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2017. A B C Canterbury Cathedral rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 301 their apotropaic powers then their placement in water might have been seen as a means of guaranteeing safe passage over water on their journey home.13 that said, there is no concrete evidence that confirms this action as an accepted ritual and art historian Jennifer lee has asserted that, without any such evidence, it is impossible to make any assumptions about a ritualistic habit.14 There are also significant numbers of secular badges found mixed with the pilgrim signs in rivers which raises doubt that this was solely a ritual act.15 Other possible explanations for the presence of so many badges in riverbeds may be simple accident or the disposal of waste products by local craftsmen.16 Manufacture medieval badges were made from either pewter or lead-alloy, both of which were a combination of inexpensive metals.17 Undoubtedly, their shiny silver finish would have appealed to the contemporary pilgrim and encouraged their decision when choosing which badge to purchase; indeed, ‘Ech man set his sylver in such thing as they liked’, according to the fifteenth-century Tale of Beryrn, a narrative following Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the Canterbury Interlude.18 they were easy and quick to produce, affordable for all types of pilgrims and, using a mould, the manufacturer could readily meet the demands of the crowds of pilgrims visiting Canterbury.19 In fact, as present day replications have confirmed, it only takes a matter of seconds to cast a pilgrim’s badge.20 Artisans would carve out their design onto a stone mould, of which two examples survive in the Canterbury Collection. One, a complete mould, shows a standing figure of Becket blessing with his left hand and holding his archiepiscopal staff in his right. A second, broken example, simply depicts a corner of a souvenir with an inscription which reads ‘TOMA’ (Fig. 1). Despite the damage of this particular mould, the pattern on the stone matches Fig. 1 Fragment of a souvenir mould, c.1260-1280 (60 x 45mm). (Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Museums and Galleries.) rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 302 the decoration depicted on one of the earliest souvenirs within the Canterbury Collection in the form of an ampulla (Fig. 2). their identical designs demonstrate an example of a local mould alongside the finishing product. Types of Badges In the Canterbury collection, 109 souvenirs portray the popular local saint (see Table 1). Concurrently, amongst the 173 items not directly depicting becket, there are a selection of signs that reflect other local Canterbury cults. For example, there are 18 items associated with the Virgin and Child which could relate to the Chapel dedicated to Our lady of the undercroft located in the centre of Canterbury Cathedral’s Crypt. These particular badges are in the form of a crescent moon (Fig. 3), fleur-de-lys symbols, or square framed.21 Similarly, a badge depicting an ostrich feather and scroll represents the Black Prince, Prince Edward of Woodstock (1330- Fig. 2 Ampulla depicting Saint thomas Becket, 1270-1349 (78 x 75 x 20mm). (Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Museums and Galleries.) Fig. 3 Virgin and Child in crescent moon, c.1500- 1540 (26 x 20mm). (Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Museums and Galleries.) rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 303 1376), whose tomb is located in the Cathedral’s trinity Chapel and would have neighboured becket’s shrine.22 moreover, an additional badge of an iron comb is connected to Saint blaise; the comb was an instrument of his gruesome martyrdom and, like becket, he had relics located in Canterbury Cathedral.23 Furthermore, the corpus includes souvenirs devoted to creating noise, such as a Canterbury bell, a rattle and a whistle.24 Whilst other secular signs display nature scenes in the shape of trees and birds. In the Canterbury badge corpus, there are at least 12 different types of badges relating to Becket (Table 1). The ‘Becket’s head’ group is undeniably the most popular of these types with 58 items in this category. meanwhile, the second largest type that survive in association with the saint are the ‘becket encircled’ badges with a total of 18 artefacts currently stored in the collection and they typically depict the saint’s head in a circular frame. One of the rarest types shows an incomplete scene from Becket’s martyrdom where only Edward Grim (died c.1189) is visible (Fig. 4). Grim was a monk who witnessed (and was injured at) the event and who is often identified in Becket’s martyrdom illustrations; indeed, he wrote a compelling vita of becket.25 the iconography of this fragmentary badge is similar to the imagery on three examples of the five surviving ampullae which show the saint kneeling in prayer at the altar whilst facing the knight who is holding his sword (Fig. 5). tAblE 1. tHE bADgE typES IN tHE CANtERbuRy COllECtION badge type beaney House of Art and knowledge Collection Originally in Heritage museum Collection* total Ampulla 2 3 5 becket in architectural frame 0 1 1 becket bell 1 0 1 becket coin 0 1 1 becket encircled 18 0 18 becket’s glove 4 0 4 becket’s head 35 23 58 becket’s initial 5 0 5 becket’s martyrdom 1 0 1 becket mould 1 1 2 becket in a square 1 0 1 becket in a star 2 0 2 possible becket** 9 1 10 Total Becket related 79 30 109 Non-becket pilgrim badges/ fragments 171 2 173 Grand total 250 32 282 *See endnote 8. **Damaged/broken pieces yet to be categorised. rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 304 Fig. 4 broken martyrdom scene depicting grim at the altar, c.1350-1399 (52h x 25mm). (Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Museums and Galleries.) Fig. 5 Ampulla depicting Saint thomas Becket’s martyrdom, 1250-1279 (50 x 55mm). (Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Museums and Galleries.) Dating of Badges the Canterbury Collection ranges in date from the thirteenth century until the early sixteenth century, thus spanning the whole period of the becket pilgrimage movement. Dating these signs requires a number of different approaches. The findrESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 305 spot location of each souvenir is a vital source for determining their dates, as other artefacts excavated from the same area can contribute to accurate dating.26 In addition, badges within the collection can be cross-examined in terms of their iconographic and stylistic features, with other larger established souvenir collections such as those in brian Spencer’s catalogue of the museum of london pilgrim souvenirs and secular badges.27 Art historian Sarah blick has shown that it was common to combine the facial characteristics of pointed noses with large almond-shaped eyes during the second half of the fourteenth century.28 moreover, another particularly useful tool for dating the becket badges is to compare the patterns of archiepiscopal clothing with the attire of the figures illustrated on the signs. A final technique suggested by Michael Mitchiner’s rich catalogue of souvenirs implies that size can be a contributing factor as they tended to become smaller and flatter in fashion over time, perhaps due to economic factors.29 yet, due to the fragile nature of these hand-held artefacts, many were damaged, and therefore it is often difficult to assess their original size. Analysis of the Head badges of Saint thomas becket As we have seen, the most popular design that survives in the collection depicts the head of St thomas becket. the 58 badges follow an image that portrays a bustlength portrait of the saint, who is forward-facing, expressionless, wearing a jewelled mitre and dressed in a decorated archiepiscopal cope around his shoulders. Figs 6-8 demonstrate this typical design whilst simultaneously revealing their variations; the head badge in Fig. 6 reflects the stoic saint, with a large forehead, tight curls of hair that fall on either side of his face and a cross at the apex of the mitre, whereas Fig. Fig. 6 Jewelled mitred head badge of Saint thomas becket c.1490-1499 (53 x 28mm). (Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Museums and Galleries.) rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 306 7 depicts a heavily bejewelled design with similar but narrowed features, and Fig. 8 incorporates the same characteristics with an additional inscription tHOmAS along the bottom border of the sign. Fig. 7 Decorated head of Becket, 1400-1490 (38 x 28mm). (Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Museums and Galleries.) Fig. 8 Head badge of becket with inscription ‘tHOmAS’, c.1400-1499 (70 x 36mm). (Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Museums and Galleries.) rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 307 The Becket heads differ in size and style, yet each design shares parallels. These intricate similarities indicate that the tiny portable head badges all stem from a reputed likeness of the head reliquary that once contained the skull of the saint, which was located in the far eastern end of Canterbury Cathedral in the Corona Chapel before it was destroyed in 1538.30 the designs of these head badges can be compared with contemporary descriptions, such as by Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) who wrote that ‘there, in a little chapel, is shown the whole figure of the excellent man, gilt, and adorned with many jewels’.31 pilgrims who owned a becket head badge therefore carried a commemoration of the head reliquary they had witnessed and a piercing image of the saint’s face.32 Additionally, the corpus contains an array of head badge designs which depict the familiar bust-length silhouette of becket with slight variations in the form of added frames. Some becket heads, for example, are framed in a six-point star, a square frame, a broken micro-architectural frame, or are encircled with an inscription. These latter designs tend to be smaller in size (with the exception of one) and on average, their circumference spans 24mm. the inscription, in latin lombardic script, reads CAPVT THOMAE ‘Thomas’ Head’ (Fig. 9).33 the incorporation of text on souvenirs (even when the words were illegible, or where the characters form the illusion of letters) indicate a degree of literacy among some pilgrims.34 Other examples within the Canterbury Collection include the illuminated initial of the letter ‘t’ for thomas, and a head badge with THOMAS inscribed along the bottom border of the design (Fig. 8). Fig. 9 Head of becket encircled in a frame with inscription, c.1320-1399 (26 x 23mm). (Reproduced courtesy of Canterbury Museums and Galleries.) the sample of souvenirs stored in the Canterbury Collection discussed here give some indication of the variations that survive. much scope remains for further study of the iconography of these objects, particularly amongst the 173 non-becket badges and fragments within the corpus. It is intended that this initial study and its database will be developed into a working catalogue for the benefit of the Beaney museum and form a platform for further analysis of these precious artefacts. As material objects, they are vital resources for an understanding of the rituals and routines of pilgrims in Canterbury. rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 308 acknowledgments An investigation into the Canterbury Collection of pilgrim souvenirs would not be possible without the generous access granted by the beaney House of Art and knowledge and in particular by Craig bowen, the Collections manager. Dr Emily guerry and Dr Rachel koopmans have both played a key role in exploring ideas about the badges and their local history. there is no doubt that without the aforementioned scholars this study of the Canterbury Collection would not be possible – the author offers her grateful thanks to them. lucy splarn bibliography Abbot, Edwin, St. Thomas of Canterbury: His Death and Miracles (London: Adam and Charles black, 1898). Altman, Nathaniel, Sacred Water: The Spiritual Source of Life, (New Jersey: Hidden Spring, 2002). barlow, Frank, Thomas Becket (London: The Bath Press, Avon, 1986). borenius, tancred, St Thomas Becket in art (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1932). brent, Cecil, ‘pilgrims’ Signs’, Archaeologia Cantiana, xiii, 1880, 111-115. butler, John Richard, The quest for Becket’s bones: the mystery of the relics of St Thomas Becket of Canterbury (London: Yale University Press, 1995). Duggan, Anne, Thomas Becket (London: Hodder Education, Hachette Livre UK, 2004). FitzStephen, William, ‘Vita Sancti Thomae’, Reading Medieval Latin, trans. by keith Sidwell (Cambridge: CUP, 1995). gelin, marie-pierre, ‘the Cult of St thomas in the liturgy and Iconography of Christ Church, Canterbury’, in The Cult of St Thomas Becket in the Plantagenet World, c.1170-c.1220, ed. by Paul Webster and Marie-Pierre Gelin (Woodbridge: The Boydell press, 2016), 53-80. Heale, martin, ‘training in Superstition? monasteries and popular Religion in late medieval and Reformation England’, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 58 (2007), 417-439. Heslop, t.A, ‘medieval Seals as Works of Art’, in Seals and Status: The Power of Objects, ed. by John Cherry, Jessica Berenbeim and Lloyd de Beer (London: British Museum, 2018), 26-34. Jeffs, Amy, ‘Disciplining the Digital: Virtual 3D Reproduction, Pilgrim Badges, and the Stuff of Art History: Introduction’, British Art Studies, 6 (2017). [last accessed August 2018.] Jeffs, Amy, ‘Pilgrim Souvenir: Ampulla of Thomas Becket’, British Art Studies, 6 (2017). [last accessed July 2018] koopmans, Rachel, ‘Visions, Reliquaries, and the Images of ‘becket’s Shrine’ in the miracle Windows of Canterbury Cathedral’, Gesta, 54 (2015), 37-57. marks, Richard, Image and devotion in late medieval England (Stroud: Sutton Publishing limited, 2004). moore, Simon, ‘medieval badges’, Antique Collection (1981), 15-18. Ochota, mary-Ann, Britain’s Secret Treasures (London: Headline Publishing Group, 2013). pollard, Alfred William, Fifteenth century prose and verse (Westminster: Archibald Constable and Co. ltd, 1903). Slocum, kay brainerd, Liturgies in Honour of Thomas Becket, (Toronto: University of toronto press, 2004). rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 309 Slocum, kay brainerd, The Cult of Thomas Becket: History and Historiography through Eight Centuries (New York: Routledge, 2019). Smith, Charles Roach, ‘On pilgrims’ Signs and leaden tokens’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 1 (1846), 200-212. Spencer, brian, ‘pilgrim Souvenirs’, Miscellanea, 2 (1988), 34-48. Swanson, Robert Norman, Religion and Devotion in Europe c.1215-1515 (Cambridge: Cup, 1995). Webb, Diana, Medieval European Pilgrimage, 700-1500 (New York: Palgrave, 2002). Woodruff, C. Eveleigh, ‘The financial aspect of the cult of St. Thomas of Canterbury’, Archaeologia Cantiana, xliv (1932), 13-32. references 1 Richard gameson, ‘the early imagery of thomas becket’, in Pilgrimage: The English Experience from Becket to Bunyan, ed. by Colin Morris and Peter Roberts (Cambridge: CUP, 2002), pp. 46-89 (p. 83). 2 Anne Duggan, ‘the Cult of St thomas becket in the thirteenth Century’, in St Thomas Cantilupe, Bishops of Hereford: Essays in his Honour, ed. by Meryl Jancey (Hereford: The Friends of Hereford Cathedral, 1982), pp. 21-44 (pp. 29-30). 3 Jennifer lee, ‘beyond the locus Sanctus: the Independent Iconography of pilgrims’ Souvenirs’, Visual Resources, 21 (2005), pp. 363-381 (p. 363). 4 brian W. Spencer, ‘medieval pilgrim badges: Some general observations illustrated mainly from English sources’, in Rotterdam Papers: a contribution to medieval archaeology, ed. by J.g.N. Renaud (1968), pp. 137-153 (p. 144). 5 Janet Shirley, Garnier’s Becket: translated from the 12th-century Vie Saint Thomas le Martyr de Cantorbire of Garnier of Pont-Saint-Maxence (Phillimore & Co., 1975), p. 157. 6 megan H. Foster-Campbell, ‘pilgrimage through the pages: pilgrims’ badges in late medieval Devotional manuscripts’, in Push Me, Pull You: Imaginative and Emotional Interaction in Late Medieval and Renaissance Art, ed. by Sarah Blick and Lauran D. Gelfand (Boston: Brill, 2011), pp. 227-276 (p. 230). 7 brian Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1998); brian North lee, ‘the Expert and the Collector’, in Beyond Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges: Essays in Honour of Brian Spencer, ed. by Sarah Blick (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2007), pp. 4-16 (p. 5); Sarah blick, ‘Reconstructing the Shrine of St thomas becket, Canterbury Cathedral’, Journal of Art History, 72 (2003), pp. 256-286. 8 It is important to note that during the recording of information the 282 badges were held at two Museums. The majority were stored at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge (250) and the remaining 32 were on display at the Canterbury Heritage museum, which is now closed to the public (2019). Together, they establish the Canterbury Collection and are now all united at the Beaney, Canterbury museums and galleries. 9 Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges, pp. 24, 37. 10 Ibid., p. 1. 11 An unpublished letter dating from 1987 currently held in the Beaney Museum offers an insight into the events that led to the recovery of such a substantial collection and are significant in authenticating the find-locations of the badges. This correspondence between the curatorial teams at the museum of london and the City museum, Canterbury discloses that the building of a wall near the Stour River triggered metal detector volunteers to search the riverbed there. 12 gary R. Varner, Sacred wells a study in the history, meaning, and mythology of holy wells and waters (Algora Publishing, 2009), p. 72. 13 Igor Noël Hume, Treasure in the Thames (London: Frederick Muller Limited, 1956), p. 144. 14 Ibid.; Jennifer lee, ‘medieval pilgrims’ badges in rivers: the curious history of a non-theory’, Journal of Art Historiography, 11 (2014) 1-11 (p. 10). 15 lee, ‘medieval pilgrims’, p. 6. rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 310 16 Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges, p. 39; lee, ‘medieval pilgrims’, p. 6. 17 Geoff Egan and Frances Pritchard, Medieval finds from excavations in London: Dress Accessories c.1150-c.1450 (London: H.M.S.O, 1991), p. 17; Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges, p. 39. 18 H. Snowden Ward, The Canterbury Pilgrimages (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1904), p. 152; Anon., ‘the Canterbury Interlude and marchant’s tale of beryn’, The Canterbury Tales: Fifteenth-Century Continuations and Additions, ed. by John M. Bowers (1992), [last accessed September, 2019], lines 170-174. 19 brian Spencer, Medieval Pilgrim Badges from Norfolk (Norfolk: Norfolk Museums Service, Witley press, 1980), p.7; Sarah blick, ‘Comparing pilgrim Souvenirs and trinity Chapel Windows at Canterbury Cathedral: An Exploration of Context, Copying, and the Recovery of lost Stained glass’, Mirator (2001), pp. 1-27 (p. 9). 20 For a video tutorial on the method of casting a pilgrim badge, see: [last accessed September 2019] a youtube clip produced by the university of Cambridge in collaboration with the paul mellon Centre for Studies in british Art and lionheart Replicas. 21 michael mitchiner, Medieval Pilgrim & Secular Badges (London: Hawkins Publications, 1986), p. 100; Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges, p. 157. 22 Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges, p. 276. 23 Ibid., p. 178. 24 Ibid., pp. 179, 182. 25 Ibid., p. 37. 26 Ibid., p. 28. 27 Ibid. 28 Sarah blick, ‘king and Cleric: Richard II and the iconography of St thomas becket and St Edward the Confessor at Our lady of undercroft, Canterbury Cathedral’, in Beyond Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges: Essays in Honour of Brian Spencer, ed. by Sarah Blick (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2007), 182-200 (p. 183). 29 mitchiner, Medieval Pilgrim & Secular Badges, p. 155. 30 Denis bethell, ‘the making of a twelfth-century relic collection’, in Popular Belief and Practice: Papers Read at the Ninth Summer Meeting and the Tenth Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, ed. by G.J. Cuming and Derek Baker (Cambridge: CUP, 1972), pp. 61-72 (p. 71); Spencer, Pilgrim, p. 102; Jonathan Foyle, Architecture of Canterbury Cathedral (London: Scala Publishers ltd, 2013), p. 92. 31 Anon., ‘Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536): Dutch Priest, Theologian, Humanist & Writer’, Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society (CHAS), [last accessed September 2019], para 1 of 3; Erasmus Desiderius, Pilgrimages to Saint Mary of Walsingham and Saint Thomas of Canterbury, trans. by John gough Nichols (Westminister: John Bowyer Nichols and Son, 1849), p. 51. 32 paul binski, ‘thomas becket and medieval Cult of personality’, The Annual Cathedral Archives and Library Lecture (Canterbury: June 2017). 33 Spencer, Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges, p. 107. 34 bredehoft, thomas A., ‘literacy Without letters: pilgrim badges late medieval literate Ideology’, Viator, 37 (2006), 433-445 (p. 434). rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 330 Scotland, born in Dunfermline and a graduate of the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews. He was a great friend to those who look after the material heritage of Canterbury, and those who study its history and archaeology. He believed strongly in the importance of continued collecting to keep collections alive. Very sadly, ken never saw the map: it arrived in Canterbury nearly two months after his death on 28 September. the ‘Hales palace’ Estate map awaits further study, for what it can tell us about the topography of Canterbury and land use in the city, for how it can inform archaeological study and for its place in the story of map-making in Canterbury. After only four years since its existence first became known, it is back home. acknowledgement the author would like to thank Dr Alex kent, Reader in Cartography and geographic Information Science at Canterbury Christ Church university, for his comments on a draft of this article. cressida williams 1 For an assessment of its significance, see Victoria Morse, ‘The Role of Maps in Later Medieval Society: Twelfth to Fourteenth Century’, in David Woodward (ed.), The History of Cartography, vol. 3 (2007), available at https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/HOC_V3_Pt1/HOC_VOLUME3_ Part1_chapter2.pdf [accessed Nov 2020]. 2 See, for example, Frank Woodman, ‘the Waterworks Drawings of the Eadwine psalter’, in Margaret Gibson, T.A. Heslop, and Richard W. Pfaff, eds, The Eadwine Psalter: Text, Image, and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-Century Canterbury (London, 1992). 3 Woodman, op. cit., p. 177. 4 See Sarah bendall, Dictionary of Land Surveyors and Local Mapmakers of Great Britain and Ireland 1530-1850 (British Library, 1997); Anne Oakley, ‘The Hill family of Canterbury, St Paul, mapmakers’, in Margaret Sparks (ed.), The parish of St Martin and St Paul Canterbury: historical essays in memory of James Hobbs (Canterbury, 1980); Alex Kent, ‘Thomas Hill’s map of lyminge, 1685’ in Lyminge: a history (2014), available at https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/282134556_Thomas_Hill%27s_Map_of_Lyminge_1685 [accessed Nov 2020]. ExAmplES OF kENtISH DIAlECt IN JAmES blACkmAN’S lEttERS tO tHE gOVERNOR OF NEW SOutH WAlES, 1806 preserved in the manuscripts of the king Family papers at the State library of New South Wales, Sydney, are two four-page autograph letters written by an anonymous correspondent who signed his name ‘b’, and were addressed to the governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King; the first dated 17 May 1806, and the other thereafter undated, and concerned the illicit distillers and ‘Drinking companyes’ prevalent at this period in the region of Richmond Hill, on the Hawkesbury River. The original identity of the author’s name in the first letter has been deliberately erased with ink – presumably by the governor himself – and the second letter is signed ‘Your Hum(b)le Obed(ien)t Serv(an)t B’. Despite the anonymity of these letters there are at least two sources of internal information that allow for an identification of the author as a James Blackman. James Blackman was born in Deptford (in 1759) and from about 1782/84 he rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 331 served as a civilian in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich in ‘a place of the utmost trust and Confidence’.1 On the 3 December 1785 he married Elizabeth Harley (1765- 1842), and in 1790 she gave birth to their first child Samuel (1790-1843), and from about this time the family began to live on a farm near to Elizabeth father’s estate at Shooter’s Hill, in the parish of Eltham.2 Here four more children were born, James jnr (1792-1865), John (1795-1860), Elizabeth (1798-1849), and William (1800-1854). In 1801 blackman and his family emigrated to the Colony of New South Wales as free settlers, leaving aboard the convict transport Canada on the 21 June and arriving in the Colony on the 14 December. possibly as a result of the large family that accompanied him, he was not settled immediately and so the governor ‘gave him one of the cottages attached to government House to live in until he could secure a home for himself’.3 before being settled James was appointed by the governor as Superintendent of Agriculture at the new settlement at Castle Hill, ‘to direct the labor of the prisoners employed at cultivation on the public Account’,4 and was in charge of about 300 convicts. He received a land grant on the 31 march 1802 of 100 acres in the District of mulgrave place at Richmond Hill, along the Hawkesbury River,5 and by the middle of the year he had already cleared 12 acres, 4 of which were planted with wheat, 5 with maize.6 His appointment at Castle Hill only lasted one or two years before he was ‘obliged to retire ... his Health becoming so Impaired’.7 James blackman wrote phonetically and the orthographic characteristics of his language display the influence of his native Kentish dialect as well as influences from other neighbouring dialects, and also evinces archaisms inherited from earlier 18th-century speech. His level of written literacy is typical of military-based education at the end of the 18th century. the era in which blackman was writing is almost at the fin de siècle of Early modern English, and his written dialect displays characteristics of both the 18th century, as preserved in Samuel pegge’s Alphabet of Kenticisms, and Collection of Proverbial Sayings used in Kent (1735- 36),8 and the first quarter of the 19th century, as preserved in John White Masters’, Dick and Sal at Canterbury Fair: A Doggerel Poem (Canterbury, c.1821).9 two of the most distinctive characteristics of this period of the kentish dialect: th- > d- (Pegge-Skeat 57 §5, Parish-Shaw vi, Ellis V 131) and v- > w- (Pegge-Skeat 57 §3, 61 §3, Parish-Shaw vi, Ellis V 132), are nowhere displayed in Blackman’s letters, and it may be surmised that these were considered as solecisms that were taught to be avoided when learning how to write, or was influenced by the London dialect. blackman’s letters may also be compared to those of the convict margaret Catchpole (Nile, 1801), who wrote phonetically in the adjacent Suffolk (Ipswich) dialect, and who was a direct contemporary of blackman and likewise lived in the Richmond Hill district. In his later years blackman’s writing style developed into standard English, and two autograph letters addressed to the Colonial Secretary, April-may 1824,10 contain almost no trace of his original phonetic writing style, with the exceptions: (329) off = of, Royal Arssinal = Royal Arsenal, (330) usal = usual, and (333) Memorialst = memorialist. the written form of blackman’s letters displays several vowel alternances broadly characteristic of the transitional period of the kentish dialect at the fin de rESEArCHES AND DISCOVErIES 332 siècle of the 18-19th centuries (although not all of the alternances were uniquely exclusive to kentish). An edition of these unique letters is published on the kAS website together with a full phonological analysis of the kentish dialect contained therein. darren hopkins 1 SRNSW CS 4/1836A, Fiche 3078 (pre-27 April 1824): n70a, p. 329 ‘Previous to his coming to this Colony was in the Royal Arssinal [sic] in Woolwich for Seventeen years’, 4/1836A, Fiche 3078 (early May 1824): n70a, p. 333, ‘having served in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, for 19 years’. 2 Windsor and Richmond Gazette, 6 Nov 1931, 5. 3 Ibid. 4 SRNSW CS 4/1836A, Fiche 3078: n70a, p. 329; HRA 1.3: 404, 646, 748. 5 Land Grants: 151. 6 1802 Muster: Ag304. 7 SRNSW CS 4/1836A, Fiche 3078: n70a, p. 329. 8 Walter W. Skeat, ‘Dr. (Samuel) Pegge’s MS. Alphabet of Kenticisms, and Collection of proverbial Sayings used in kent’, Archaeologia Cantiana, ix (1874), 50-116. 9 parish-Shaw: xii-xxiv. 10 SRNSW CS 4/1836A, Fiche 3078 n70a, pp. 329-333.