Unfortunately, Royal Navy service records did not begin until 1854 and there is therefore no way to confirm that he was a deserter.

Intriguingly, Jane’s father was the parish clerk and her mother’s maiden name was Hammond.

Oh! Yes ….. and who told me the story?….. direct descendants of George Hammond Kervill, one of the sons born on the wrong side of the bed!

when and how did it happen

If we read Longcroft’s 19th century account, it is said that the event happened "on a Saturday before Christmas Day on the following Monday". During the time of the Reverend Kilick (1800-1838) there are only 5 occasions when 23rd December was a Saturday. Also only one of those occasions, 1837, occurred after the births of the illegitimate children. Therefore, if the story recounted through our family is true, it points to 1837 as the year of the deed. This would change the Tom Kervell, Parish Clerk, to Jane’s brother, Thomas, as their father had died in 1830. Their mother, Martha Hammond (what relation was she to Henry Hammond?) was alive until 1842.

I brought this story to the attention of Angela Bromley-Martin, a well known historian of Bosham. She agreed to do some investigating amongst parish records and has brought our Family's version of the story to the attention of the present vicar and Tim McCann of the West Sussex Records Office. Early responses from the Records Office indicated that they can find no missing Parish Registers but other Parish Papers, which would include bastardy records, are missing. If Henry was responsible for the deed, these would probably be the papers he would have targeted.

Amongst the Family and some people from Bosham the papers that were burned are thought to have been very old papers written in an unknown language, maybe Norman, French or Viking. Reverend Killick was thought not to be able to read the language and regularly got his parish clerk, our hapless Tom, to fetch the 'papers' for the reverend's visitors to view and, hopefully, translate. That was until Tom got fed-up with the constant requests and is said to have 'lit the match'!

Tim McCann of West Sussex Records Office considers the old language theory to be unlikely and responded - " I am afraid that I don't go along with the Viking idea, or French for that matter. We all learned Anglo Norman French as part of our archival training, but I doubt if I have seen half a dozen documents in Anglo-Norman French in my thirty-five year archival career. No, Latin is more likely though one would have expected the vicar to have recognized it. But the fundamental problem remains, if Tom Kearvell burned the records, what did he burn? Since the parish records seem to have survived."

Mind, our Tom may have burned the old language evidence! If he truly did and the papers really were old Viking - the significance of the loss would be immense.