Although the painting of the Coat of Arms of George II shown above is not strictly speaking a memorial, it does help to illustrate part of the purpose of this page which is to show how information can be gleaned from inside a church. This is a large and impressive painting which hangs in the Northwest corner of the Church and on it are the names of the two Church Wardens in 1751, John Eve and Edward Hughes. Although many of us as genealogists have families made up of "Ag. Labs." there are some with connections to some of the more powerful families in the land. It is not unusual for these memorials in local churches actually provide extensive family history detail from well before the time of Civil Registration if we take the time to look closely. I have included pictures and transcipts below from two of the Knatchbull memorials in this Church as examples although not many of us can aspire to being as well connected as this. To have been able to afford to be remembered by way of a memorial inside a Church would have required a certain amount of wealth but even so, these tablets can often represent quite a cross-section of the local community. Notice the careful listings of the names of the wives and of children and/or the number of children in each marriage. Even those families needed wives for their sons or husbands for their daughters who would often have come from other land owning or perhaps farming families in the area. Following this are details from the much more recent War Memorials. On the final tablet, this time listed with two of his fellow parishioners, is the name of another Knatchbull descendant, The 6th Lord Brabourne, who died in the service of his Country:
	The inscription on this early memorial reads as follows: "HEERE LIETH THE BODY OF RICHARD KNATCHBVLL OF MERSHÂ ESQVIRE WHO DIED Ye 20th OF IANVARY 1590: BEINGE OF Ye AGE OF THIRTY SIXE YEERES• HE WAS THE ELDEST SONNE OF THAT RICHARD KNATCHBVLL, WHO LYETH AT Ye ENTRANCE TO THIS CHAVNCELL , WHO HAD TWO WIVES. THE FIRST WAS IOANE SHEAFE, BY WHOM HE HAD TWO SONNES, THIS RICHARD, & IOHN, & FOWRE DAVGHTERS ALICE, ANNE, ELIZABETH & KATHERINE, THE SECOND WAS SVSAN GREENE, BY WHOM HE HAD FOWRE SONNES, NORTON, THOMAS, IOHN, GEORGE, AND TWO DAVGHTERS, VRSVLA.& MARIE• THE ISSVE MALE BY IOANE SHEAFE WERE THVS MATCHED, THIS RICHARD MARRIED ANN SCOTT Ye SECOND DAVGHTER OF Sr. THOMAS SCOTT Kt. BY WHOM HE HAD THOMAS KNATCHBVLL, & IOHN MARRIED ELIZABETH SCOTT Ye FOVRTH DAVGHTER OF THE SAID Sr. THOMAS SCOTT, WHO DYED WITHOVT ISSVE• THE ISSVE MALE BY SVSAN GREENE WERE THVS MATCHED, NORTON HAD TWO WIVES, THE FIRST, ANNE WENTWORT, Ye ELDEST DAVGHTER OF PAVL WENTWORT OF EVRNEHAM IN Ye COVNTY OF BVCK: ESQr. HIS SECOND WIFE WAS BRIDGET THE SECOND DAVGHTER OF IOHN ASHLEY ESQr. WHO WAS MASTER OF Ye IEWELL=HOWSE, & A GENT. OF Ye PRIVIE CHAMBER TO QUEENE ELIZABETH• THOMAS MARRIED ELMOR Ye THIRD DAVGH=TER OF Ye SAID IOHN ASHLEY, BY WHOM HE HAD SEVEN SONNES, RICHARD, NORTON, FRANCIS, THOMAS, ASHLEY, IOHN, GEORGE, & FOWRe DAVGHTERS, BRIDGET, MARGARET, SVSNNA, & ALICE• IOHN DIED VN=MARRIED, GEORGE MARRIED IOANE GILBERT THE DAVGHTER OF THOMAS GILBERT ESQr. WHO DIED WITHOUT ISSVE•" (For more detail on the Scott family, see the pages about Brabourne)
	This second Memorial is in the Knatchbull Chapel and reads as follows: SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF SIR EDWARD KNATCHBULL, BART. WHOSE REMAINS ARE DEPOSITED IN THE FAMILY VAULT. FOR UPWARDS OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS HE PRESIDED AS CHAIRMAN OF THE QUARTER SESSIONS FOR EAST KENT. WHILE DURING THE SAME TIME, BY A FAITHFUL AND HONEST DISCHARGE OF HIS DUTIES, HE FULLY JUSTIFIED THE CONFIDENCE PLACED IN HIM BY THE FREEHOLDERS OF THE COUNTY, AS ONE OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVES IN PARLIAMENT. HE WAS A KIND HUSBAND AND AFFECTIONATE FATHER, AND DIED DEEPLY LAMENTED. BORN MAY 22nd 1758, DIED SEPTEMBER 19TH, 1819. BY MARY HUGESSEN HIS FIRST WIFE, HE HAD TWO SONS, BY FRANCES GRAHAM HIS SECOND WIFE, FOUR SONS AND FOUR DAUGHTERS, BY MARY HAWKINS HIS THIRD WIFE, TWO SONS AND EIGHT DAUGHTERS. HE WAS SUCCEEDED BY HIS ELDEST SON BY HIS FIRST WIFE, AFTERWARDS THE RIGHT HONBLE SIR EDWARD KNATCHBULL.
	With a lot less detail but recorded at a time when many young men will have "disappeared" from the normal parish registers, memorials to those that gave their lives in the two World Wars can sometimes help to find a missing ancestor: TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN EVER GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE MEN OF THIS PARISH WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1918 SIDNEY A.L. BARHAM EDWARD W. GODDEN WALTER G. HOWLAND ELGAR H. HOWLAND CHARLES S. LEE ANDREW L. MACLAREN JOHN H. REID GEORGE D. ROLFE FRED SHRUBSOLE PERCY L. SMITH HORACE M. SWINERD RICHARD J. SWINERD If you're lucky, although not in this case, the regiments and/or service in which the individual served are also recorded. (See Nonington)
	Following the WWI Memorials, there are often short and less ornate Memorials to men who fell in the Second World War: AND IN THE SECOND GREAT WAR 1939 - 1945 PETER E. APPS      GEORGE D. GRIGGS NORTON, 6th LORD BRABOURNE