Parish News; May 2023 - Who was Peter Kinton?

Who was Peter Kinton?

One of the oldest Memorials in All Saints' Church was on the south wall of the chancel. It was dedicated to the memory of 'Peter Kinton, a merchant of Bristol', who had died on 24th February 1733/34 at the age of 82.

This information comes from a 1990s transcription of an 1822 document. An antiquarian called Sir Thomas Phillips dedicated himself to travelling around Wiltshire, recording all the church monuments in the county at that time. Unfortunately, the memorial no longer appears to be in the church; it was possibly removed during the restoration of the church in 1849-1851. *(Or perhaps I am wrong? – please get in touch if you know where it is.)

One tends to think of Sutton Benger in the early 1700s as being some sort of backwater, with little contact with the 'outside world' or 'the big city'. But a number of records testify to the fact that there was regular trade and contact with Bristol. So who was ‘Peter Kinton, of Bristol’? What sort of merchant was he, and why was he in Sutton Benger? And why was he important enough to warrant a Monumental Inscription?

The surname is certainly not one that is recorded anywhere else in the local Parish Registers, other than the Burial Register for 27 Feb 1733, which shows him as 'Peter Keynton, widdower'. A brief search on-line shows another possible variant of his name as 'Kineton' but I have found nothing else about him. Oh well, another of life's little mysteries…

For more details on the church, the memorials, and the renovations of 1849-1851, see Kay Taylor: Sutton Benger from Saxon Times to the Dawn of the 21st Century; (ELSP, 2000).

If you want to help in any way, either by researching the history or by testing the walking / cycling routes on foot or by cycle, please get in touch at: hello@bengertrails.co.uk