JOHN LEWIS AND THE HISTORY OF THE ISLE OF TENET.

This book was the first history of the Isle of Thanet parts of it have been used in almost every subsequent history of the area. First published in 1723 in an edition of according to the verso of the title page of not more than 150 copies. Here I have reprinted the second edition as it is greatly expanded having an extra 85 pages. The second edition appeared in 1736 apparently in two different sizes of paper. There was a proposal made by Mr. Boys, solicitor of Margate to do a new edition in about 1810 but nothing appears to have come of it.
That makes this printing of 2005 the third edition. It’s a considerable time to have to wait 269 years between editions.

It is the grail of Thanet history books, the maps are so attractive that it is difficult to find a copy with them all still present. I know of three copies of the 2nd edition that are for sale at the time of writing two at £440 and £485 respectively both appear to have bits missing and an absolutely super copy at £1000 buyer beware. As far as I am aware my copy that I have scanned for this reprint is complete in every respect. People are already asking for the odd map or plate to complete their own copies.

JOHN LEWIS was born at Bristol, Aug. 29, 1675, and educated at the grammar school of Poole, in Dorsetshire; from thence he proceeded to Exeter College, Oxford, where he took his bachelor's degree in Arts, and was soon after ordained deacon by Bishop Compton; about the close of the century, he took upon him the cure of Acryse, and lived at the same time in the family of Philip Papillon, Esq., to whom his behaviour rendered him so acceptable, that, although he had left the parish, and was then chaplain to Paul Foley, Esq., upon the death of the incumbent he was presented to the living, Sept. 4, 1699. He now applied himself to repair a dilapidated parsonagehouse, as well as to discharge his pastoral duties with all diligence; he found a kind friend in Archbishop Tenison, who had heard a good character of him, and granted him the sequestration of the little rectory of Hawkinge, near Dover, 1702. It was at this time that his acquaintance began with Mr. Johnson, of Margate, who recommended him for his successor in that laborious cure; but his old friend and patron Mr. Papillon, being unwilling to part with him, he excused himself to the archbishop at that time; afterwards, upon the resignation of Mr. Warren, he accepted it in 1705 ; in 1706, he was collated to the rectory of Saltwood, with the chapel of Hythe, and the desolate rectory of Eastbridge; but, being here disturbed by a dispute with a neighbouring squire, his patron removed him to the vicarage of Mynstre, where he re-built the parsonagehouse in a more elegant and commodious manner.

A Sermon that he had preached at Canterbury Cathedral on Jan. 30, being severely reflected upon, he printed a defence, which was so highly approved of by Archbishop Wake, that he rewarded him with the mastership of Eastbridy Hospital; from that time he was continually employed on his various publications and correspondence with the" literary men of his time. He died Jan. 16, 1746, and, at his own desire, was buried in the chancel of his church at Mynstre. Besides his Histories of the Isle of Thanet and Faversham, he wrote a great number of Sermons, Theological Pamphlets, and Biographies. He also left numerous manuscripts, which are scattered about in public and private libraries. Among others, he left Memoirs of his Life, written by himself, which was lately in the collection of Mr. Heber, then in the hands of the Rev. Thomas Streatfield, now in the British Library.

It was Lewis's misfortune to live in a time of much party violence, and, being a moderate man, he met with ill usage, from both parties, particularly from the clergy of his own diocese. He was so diligent a preacher, that, we are told, he composed more than a thousand sermons. He was always of opinion that a clergyman should compose his own sermons, and therefore ordered his executor to destroy his stock, lest they should contribute to the indolence of others. Having no family (for his wife died young without issue), he expended a great deal of money on his library, and the repairs of his dilapidated parsonage-houses, and was, at the same time, a liberal benefactor to the poor.


The Rev. Roger Huggett, of Stone, in Thanet, the contemporary and friend of Lewis, was strongly attached to the study of Antiquity, Heraldry, and Topography. His own copy of the History of Tenet, second edition, quarto 1736, the margins of which were covered with MS. Notes and Illustrations, was left as an heirloom to his family. This volume had been lost for several years, and was at length discovered to be in the possession of Mr. R. Freeman, who, as appears by advertisement in the Kentish Gazette, Aug. 11, 1809, was about to publish a third and improved edition. By the exertion of Mr. Boys, it was recovered and restored to a descendant of the family.

He would have had access to the Cathedral library in Canterbury (this contained and still does one of the best collections of Kent history).

This was my fourteenth publication and I found my confidence had increased to the point where I could offer it in three inexpensive volumes without excuse. I have found that the previous reprints of older books on Thanet (an antiquarian book strictly speaking is one published before 1810) have had a market among those who have original copies, its always handy to also have a copy that you can make notes on, leave on the train, spill coffee red wine etc. on.

I found reading Lewis a delight, he speaks across a gap in time of 300 years still interesting and amusing the reader with an interest in local history. We are, on this small island extremely lucky to have had an antiquary of his calibre.

The reading of a good antiquarian book is very different from the reading of a modern book. I and many of my customers, find that after the initial realisation that time is indeed another country and that the writer is trying to communicate with indeed a foreigner, we have become addicted to this foreign narcotic.

When Rev. Lewis talks of a pound 1l it is the equivalent in value to about £80 today.

From David Hannaford the archivist of Margate Public Library.

I have fished out large paper 2nd ed & how fascinating it is! The manuscript in front signed Peter Thompson of Bermondsey (publisher) 15th Feb 1760 records 170 small paper and 19 large paper copies of the 2nd edition sold to Mr John Osborn of Turville Court Bucks, son of John Osborn late bookseller of Paternoster Row. Later in the ms Thompson accounts for costs to printers, engravers etc and lists some of the purchasers.Total number published was 250. A pencilled note (presumably Parker) notes that of these only 20 were large paper.

Large paper copies were sold at 21 shillings and the small at 14 shillings.

Thompson poignantly writes "Mr Lewis died 1746. Mr John Osborn died. Mr Ames died 7th October 1759. so that I am the only person living this 15th feb:1760 that was concerned with printing this 2nd edition as witness my hand Peter Thompson".

Best wishes David.

Criticism in the eighteenth centenary was even more robust than in the nineteenth

Of this book The Antiquities of Thanet, Thomas Alien, Vicar of Murston, sometime Fellow of University College, writes to his friend Thomas Heame, the antiquary, of Edmund Hall that "it has only an indifferent character and is a poor performance." Heame refers to "that vile, silly Pimp, that vile wretch, Lewis the Pyrate, the same poor writer that drew up and published Wicliffs Life. He is a Wiclivist, Calvinist, Puritan & Republican, and hath wrote and published divers other things of no manner of Esteem among honest learned men. Lewis has the character of a rogue and a villain."

It was at this time quite easy for a minister to live off the income of his parish while using curates, deacon churchwardens, etc to do the work. The standards of the time were very different to today. To quote the article by Canon Shirley who studied the records of the Canterbury diocese. Patten of Whitstable kept a mistress and did not pay his debts; Bourn of Ash was "allied to the sons of Eli" ; Roberts of Queenborough, ale-house sot and debtor, "so impudent as nothing is like him"; Bate of Chilham, "proudest and stiffest man" in the diocese, allowing corpses to lie unburied for want of fees; Burroughs of Kingston, "most horribly covetous" ; Ansell of Stowting and Cade of Sellindge, Jacobites and taven-brawlers; Edward Dering of Charing who fought his own sister at the Swan Inn and threw her "head-cloaths" into the fire; Hobbs of Dover, who amassed pluralities; Isles of New Romney a notorious sot and Jacobite; Nicholls of Fordwich who preached that George was a Foreigner, a Lutheran, and a Beggar-"a wicked, swearing. Lying, Drunken man".

John Lewis was Vicar of St. John's in Margate from 1705 to 1746. Archbishop Wake's private notebook (Notitia Dioces Cantuar,) now in Canterbury Cathedral Library describes Lewis as, a conscientious studious hardworking jolly good chap. "vir probus, doctus, diligens; concionator bonus.