MARVELS OF THE MINSTER: Many gravestones and memorials were lost when the area around Croydon’s parish church was redesigned in the 1960s to allow the construction of the Roman Way dual carriageway. One such stone commemorated the Hemmans family. DAVID MORGAN tells their story

The entrance to the Minster’s churchyard and many clues to history
On the Hemmans family memorial in the churchyard of what was once known as the Croydon Parish Church had the following information: “Samuel Hemmans, late of Chatham Dockyard, d June 14th 1819 aged 74, Ann his widow d Oct 22, 1833 aged 81, Susannah Hinton her sister, d Dec 18th 1845, Samuel Hood Hemmans, Lieut. R.N. d at Ceylon, May 2 1854 aged 62, Mary Eliza Hemmans, d Feb 15th 1872, aged 81, Thos. Hinton Hemmans, Lieut.-Colonel d Nov 17th 1873, aged 79, Ann Hemmans, d April 1 1875 aged 75.”
The lives of the two Hemmans brothers, Samuel Hood Hemmans and Thomas Hinton Hemmans, provide rich examples of military life in war-dominated early 19th Century England.
Strean’s Victorian book Croydon In The Past has a note beside the family’s memorial entry. It said that the Hemmans family were originally from Mitcham, where they ran a brewery in Lower Mitcham. He also wrote that William Hood Hemmans, the brothers’ grandfather, was churchwarden of Mitcham Parish Church in 1820 and that his name was cast on one of the bells. William was buried right by Mitcham Church together with his wife.
That memorial refers to “other family members who lie in sacred places”. Continue reading →
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