Dear Nicola

I wonder if you could help? I'd like to contact someone who's studied the history of the parish and who might be able to answer some family history queries for me.

Specifically, I have a couple of ancestors, William and Ann McGLASHON, who came down from Scotland c1800 for work on the construction of East India and London docks between 1800 and 1805 or thereabouts. They then turn up in Iwade parish where they are the subject of 3 entries in the parish registers, ie the burial of an infant daughter, Mary Ann, in 1807, the baptism of a son David in 1812 and the baptism of a daughter Mary in 1817 when they are said to be resident in Chetney Hill. I know that Mary Ann was baptised at Bromley St Leonard (now part of Poplar in east London) on 2 July 1806, so I can place their arrival in Iwade within 15 months.

I had assumed that, in view of William's involvement in dock construction in what became the East End, the family may have been drawn to the Iwade area because of work at Chatham during the Napoleonic Wars. If so, then I imagine work probably dried up there after 1815 and that William would have had to seek other work. Is it possible that he might have been involved in marshland reclamation work in the late 1810s which might have explained their residence in a remote place like Chetney Hill? If not, was anything else going on in that part of the parish at the time, or was it just the area where the very poorest parishioners ended up living?

If there is anyone you could refer me to I'd be most grateful! I can be contacted at the above email address (susantudor-coulson@blueyonder.co.uk) or on 01527 516771 or 07778 061418.

Thanks and kind regards

STC