Tuesday 15 February 2011

Westminster Wedding

What a pleasant experience it was to visit the Westminster Archives last week! They are located on the top floor of a modern red brick building, only a few minutes walk from London's Westminster Abbey.

I'd gone to the archives because I spotted a reference online to a marriage of James Kisbee in the Church of St Margaret. It turns out that St Margaret's is immediately next door to Westminster Abbey and, presumably, must have had some elevated status as a result! The parish register of the 1770's was a lovely document, also including a contemporary hand written index of all surnames.

James Kisbee married Catherine Holme in July 1774. He is most likely to be the same James Kisbee as the one was employed by the Duchess of Montagu. James knew the famous black writer, Ignatio Sancho, who ran a grocery business in Westminster.

James and Catherine produce a daughter later in 1774 but afterwards the trail runs dry. Either they moved to another parish, or maybe something untoward happened to Catherine?