Number 17 – Spring 2021 CHATHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY Medway Chronicle 'Keeping Medway's History Alive' ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Medway's Jewish Community ● Walter Brisac Chatham Town FC ● A “Custer Avenger” 1 CHATHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY meets at St Stephen©s Church, Maidstone Road, Chatham, ME4 6JE on the second Wednesday of each month except January and August. Doors open at 7:15pm and the meeting starts at 7:30pm. News and information about Chatham Historical Society is available on the website: http://chathamhistoricalsoc.chessck.co.uk Officers of the committee President Vacancy Chairman Len Feist Hon Secretary Catharina Clement Hon Treasurer Barry Meade MEDWAY CHRONICLE is published by Chatham Historical Society. Editor Christopher Dardry Contributors as credited throughout the magazine. Views expressed by contributors do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Society. Copyright remains with the authors. The Editor welcomes articles for inclusion in future issues of the Medway Chronicle. Please submit text and images in electronic form by email to [email protected] or on paper to the editor at any of the society©s meetings. (The editor prefers email.) The Medway Chronicle is produced with the financial support of MEDWAY COUNCIL. Front cover: Chatham Town FC. Winners of the 1935-36 Kent Amateur League. 2 Index Victor Chidgey...............................................................................................................................................4 The beginnings of the Medway Jewish community.......................................................................................5 Walter Brisac: Exploding the myth..............................................................................................................13 The Early Morning Rush..............................................................................................................................20 History of Chatham Town Football Club 1882 - 1940................................................................................21 A “Custer Avenger”: The Story of a Chatham Baker’s Son.........................................................................30 High Halstow...............................................................................................................................................38 3 Victor Chidgey by Len Feist Members of the Chatham Historical Society and Lower Medway Archaeological Research Group attended the funeral of Victor Charles Chidgey, who had been Chairman of both, held at Medway Crematorium, Blue Bell Hill on Monday 1st March 2021. Vic, as he was generally known, was born in Hackney and grew up to be a very independent man and worked as an electrician, which afforded him time to travel. He was very interested in history and archaeology, becoming a member of the above two societies, and would often give talks on his interests. His enthusiasm for his work will be missed. Vic was born on 2nd March 1943 and died on 26th December 2020 aged 77. 4 The beginnings of the Medway Jewish community by Irina Fridman Officially Jews did not reside in Rochester and had not visited it since their expulsion in 1290. However, it would be reasonable to presume that as Jews lived in London, some would have passed through the area or even lived in the city since the Reformation. Watling Street has been the main thoroughfare connecting London with the continent since Roman times. There are simply no records that could shed light on the matter. The only surviving information we have is about a Jewish musician from Italy, originally invited to court by Henry VIII. Thomas Lupo, a violinist and composer, seems to have lived in Gillingham after 1620 until his death at the end of 1627. His son, Theophilus, who replaced him as court violinist from 16 February 1628 probably also lived within the manor of Gillingham. However, the inhabitants of Rochester and the surrounding area were probably familiar with the stories and plays by Chaucer, Marlowe and Shakespeare about the Jew as a bogeyman. As if to confirm their fears, the first official newspaper story, published shortly after the readmission, was about a murder. `On Tuesday, 15 October 1661, a prince of Transylvania, Cossuma Albertus, who had been on a visit to King Charles II, was approaching Rochester in his chariot. The vehicle got stuck fast in the mire near Gads Hill, within a mile from Strood. The Prince resolved to sleep in his coach. According to the report of Mercurius Publicus newspaper for October, 1661, ªwhile the Prince was fast asleep, his coachman, Isaac Jacob, a Jew, about midnight takes the Prince©s hanger from under his head, and stabs him to the heart; and calling to his aid his companionÐwhose name was Casimirus Karsagi Ð they both completed the tragedy by dragging him out of the carriage, cutting off his head and throwing the mutilated remains into a ditch near at hand. The two men having possessed themselves of a large sum of money which the Prince had about his person, then took back the carriage and horses to Greenhithe, where they left them "to be called for." On the following Saturday, an arm of the murdered Prince was brought by a dog belonging to a Doctor of Physic of Rochester, who was riding by the spot, whereupon search being made, the other remains were discovered. Not long afterwards the Jew and the footboy were both taken in London, and being brought before the Lord Mayor, the footboy confessed the whole murder. They were tried at Maidstone Assizes before Sir Orlando Bridgman and were sentenced to be executed.' 5 The prince was buried with great solemnity in Rochester Cathedral. Rochesterians' worst fears were confirmed. But if the city could not construct physical walls against the Jews, they could build political and corporate ones. On 6 September 1673, Rochester Corporation passed by-laws, forbidding he non-residents, or foreigners, to trade within the city; similarly, freemen of Rochester were not permitted to employ foreigners in any capacity. Jews were permitted to settle in England without any restrictions, but it would be an exaggeration to say that they were welcomed by many. Having fled from persecution in their countries, and hopeful for a peaceful life, Jews were nevertheless fearful of their new surroundings. Hostility of local populations only reminded them of the countries they left. Conversion was viewed by some as a pragmatic solution for survival. The first reference to Jews in the area appears already on 19 February 1674. Rochester Cathedral's officer records the alms given: [one shilling] `to a poor Jew lately made a Christian, by order of Dr Dixon'. It was further seven years before another reference to Jews, on 24 June 1681, stated: `To the relief of a Jew turned Christian.' It seems the record-keeping was lax, as the names of the Jews are not known. The next year brings us the first names. On 17 January 1682 one shilling was `given to Thomas Abraham a Jew newly converted' and a 4 April record states: `Paid 2s to John Alexander a converted Jew by the Dean's order and the Vice Dean.' Each record appears in the long list of people who received alms. Some of those people were passing through Rochester on route to somewhere else, as the description next to their names stated. Others lived in the vicinity. Nothing in the above records hints that those Jews were mere travellers, passing through the area. The absence of any description next to their names tells us that they were the first Jewish residents of Rochester, and their poverty suggests their Ashkenazi origin. By the end of the 17th century, Rochester had acquired a commercial rival. The neighbouring small settlement of Chatham, which had only 200 people living within its boundaries in 1568, developed into an important governmental town with an estimated population of 2,100. Its own rapidly expanding royal dockyard offered numerous opportunities for making a living and, as a result, the poverty levels were much lower than in many other Kentish towns. While the citizens of Rochester `basked in their winter sunshine of tradition, enjoying the advantages and suffering the ills pertaining to antiquity, Chatham possessed no traditions, and no local precedents impeded its development.' Its 6 occupants spoke a different tongue alien to the Kentish natives. As the historian James Presnail writes: `Chatham was a colony of the New England set down in the midst of the Old, a pioneer township separated from the long-established by the forbidding barriers of change.' It raised expectations for toleration, opportunities for work and a possibility to blend in with the environment. Rochester 1720 No synagogue existed in the area, and there was no possibility of registering a birth of a child. However, a registration was necessary for legal purposes. The heirs of the property were required to prove their legitimate descent. To do so they needed to procure depositions from midwives who had attended their mother's confinement, from other family members and from the neighbours and attested by a notary. So, it became quite a common practice for Jews to pay the local clergy for the entry of their births and marriages in the registers of the local parish church. Indeed, the registers of St Mary's Church in Chatham record the baptisms of the children of a certain Moses in September 1677, April 1683 and June 1687, and the children of Moise in April 1678, May 1680, December 1684 and February 1688. We also find the marriages of William Levy in 1694 and Isaac