Acol

Acol, or Wood, a ville in Thanet, Kent;  3 miles southwest of Margate.  Acres, 1,176.  Population in 1861, 260. ¹

Acol or Ville of Wood is a small parish and rural village, 3-3/4 miles southwest by west from Margate and 2 miles north of Minster, in the cinque port liberty of Dover.  The parish contains 1,420 acres of land, and at the last census had a population of 232 souls, and 52 houses.  Population in 1801, 145; in 1831, 292.  Rateable value, £2,141.

The principal land owners are the Dean and Chapter, John Powell Powell, Esq., Rev. G. W. Sicklemore, and John Friend, Esq..

The chapel of Woodchurch stood about one mile north-east from Acol;  it was dedicated to St. Nicholas, and was standing and used as a place of worship in the year 1563.  The Vicar of Monkton, to which church this was a dependent chapel, was bound by the endowment of his vicarage to find a chaplain, to celebrate in this chapel on Sunday and every Wednesday and Friday;  for which duty he had paid him £3 14s 4d. yearly.  The parsonage of this church is united with that of Birchington, but the church has long been desecrated.  The ruins are still to be seen a little south-west of the farm dwelling at Woodchurch, this being the only dwelling here, and the rest of the houses being at the Ville of Acol, anciently called Millburgh, nearly a mile from it, and the same distance from Birchington;  it is likely this chapel was so far suffered to go to decay as at length to fall down.  The foundations are of considerable extent, measuring 84 feet in length and 56 in breadth;  a mound in the centre appears to be the ruins of the tower.  The tithes are commuted, the appropriate to the Dean and Chapter, for £635, and the vicarial for £137.

A fair is held at Acol for toys, on May 30th. ⁴

For additional information about Acol see also the Acol Village History website.

¹ John Marius Wilson, comp.  The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales. (London, England: A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).

² Edward Hasted, ed. and comp.  The town and parish of Acol: Town and manors, The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 4 (1798), pp. 260-307.

³ William Page, 1861-1934, ed.  The Victoria County History of Kent, vol. 3, p. 359.(London, England: The St. Catherine Press, Stamford Street, Waterloo, S.E., 1932).

⁴ Samuel Bagshaw, ed.  History, Gazetteer and Directory of Kent. Vol. II, pp141-142.(Sheffield, Yorkshire: pr. by G. Ridge for Bagshaw, 1847).

Acol Bibliography

-- various. 'Archaeologia Cantiana'. Publisher: Kent, England: Kent Archaeological Society, various dates.  [Note:  The following volumes can be found on archive.org:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (1876), 11, 12, 13 (1880), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32, 34, 35, vol. 1907 supplement.]

• General references to Acol: vol. , pp.
• Currently in revision

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Calendar of the patent rolls preserved in the Public Record Office--Edward II, Vol. 1. 1307-1313'Each volume has own index. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Great Britain, Public Record Office. 'Inquisitions and assessments relating to feudal aids : with other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office, A. D. 1284-1431', Vol. 3. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Great Britain, Exchequer. 'The book of fees commonly called testa de nevill, pt. 3'. The Book of fees contains information about the holdings of feudal tenants. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Hall, Hubert, 1857-1944. 'The Red book of the Exchequer - Liber rubeus de Scaccario, Vol. 3'. The Red book of the Exchequer was a register intended to preserve important documents comprising charters, statutes of the realm, public acts (Placita), private deeds and ordinances, correspondence. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Glencross, Reginald Morshead. 'Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Vol. 1. 1559-1571'. Publisher: Genealogical Society of Utah d.b.a Historical Books on FamilySearch; http://www.familysearch.org.

Hasted, Edward. 'The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent; Containing the antient and present state of it, civil and ecclesiastical; collected from public records, and other authorities: illustrated with maps, views, antiquities, etc. The second edition, improved, corrected, and continued to the present time'. 12 volumes. Publisher: Canterbury: Printed by W. Bristow, 1797-1801. URL: British History Online

Hussey, Arthur. 'Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, mentioned in Domesday book, and those of more recent date'. Publisher: London J.R. Smith,(1852).

Letters, Dr. Samantha. 'Kent', Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 (2005).  URL: British History Online.

Page, William, 1861-1934, ed.. 'The Victoria history of the county of Kent'. Publisher: London: Constable (1908).  URL: British History Online

Sharp, J. E. E. S., ed.. 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward I, File 39', Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 2: Edward I. Published:(1906), pp. 315-323.  URL: British History Online.

Sharp, J. E. E. S., ed.. 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry III, File 45', Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Volume 1: Henry III. Published:(1904), pp. 296-302.  URL: British History Online.

Location of Records

The following list of records is not intended to be exhaustive.  There are many records that are awaiting discovery in archive offices throughout Kent and England.  This list is intended only to set out those records that are available via at least two relatively easy-to-access avenues.  If you have used or discover a record that would be of benefit to other researchers, that is not on this list, please send me an email with the details of the archive - name, address and archival call number.

Census | Church of England | Non-Conformist | Parish chest | Workhouse and Poor Law | Land | Assizes and Sessions | School

Census

Church Records, Church of England

Church Records, Non-Conformist

Parish chest records

Workhouse and Poor Law Records

Land Records

Assizes and Sessions Records
(poor laws, jail terms, oaths, and other municipal and public records)

School Records