Tenterden & District Local History Society
"Memento Mori" The front cover of Dr Jeremiah Cliff's
Death Notebook: a nationally valuable medical and
demographic record, compiled in Tenterden 1712 - 1740.
Dr Cliff is buried in St Mildred's Churchyard.
Dr Cliff's Notes:
Here is a True and perfect and exact list as I have been Able to take In an Alphabeticall Order of all those Persons, Men, Women and Children, that have Dy'd in Tenterden, Beginning March the (?) 18th 1712/3 or thereaboutes, with their names, their Agis as nigh as could be guest at, and what day of the Month and year they dy'd of and also what distemper they dy'd of and also who was their docters that did [for] them in the Time of their sickness.
In the eleventh century during the reign of Edward the Confessor, five ports in the south-east of England joined together into a confederation for mutual protection and trade privileges. Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich were the original five ports; they were subsequently joined by Lydd, Faversham, Folkestone, Deal, Tenterden, Margate and Ramsgate which became known as ‘Limbs’ of the Cinque Ports; and then Rye and Winchelsea, designated as ‘Ancient Towns’.
Not only did they help each other but they also helped the Crown: in return for providing men for the King’s ships they received significant municipal benefits.