FAMILY
John appears to be the s/o Robert Quaife & Anna Wagon, christened in Hawkhurst during 1716.
THE HAWHURST GANG
John Quaife was a teenager when the most notorious of Kent's 18th century smuggling gangs burst onto the scene in 1735, and he was in Bredgar a year after the crackdown in which their leaders were hung. At their height, the Hawkhurst gang controlled much of Kent's southern coast and are said to have been able to assemble 500 men in an hour. They started out with considerable public support, especially in John Quaife's home village (Hawkhurst). Their downfall followed a change in public opinion.
Though this followed murder of a customs officer (William Galley) and his informer (Daniel Chater), the gang had become far too violent. They attacked a patrol of dragoons, which had seized some of the tea they were smuggling, in 1740. Six years later a joint operation with gangs from Folkestone and Sussex, involving eleven and a half tons of tea and 350 pack horses, turned nasty. After the fracas was over, the Hawkhurst gang was in possession of more than 40 pf the loaded packhorses belonging to Folkestone. When the village of Goodhurst organized a militia company to defend it against the gang's deprivations, in 1747, the Hawkhurst gang responded with violence. This time they were driven off, after three of their members were killed.
In 1748 the government issued a list of gang members wanted for murders, burglaries and robberies in Sussex. This was published in the London Gazette and informants were offered a royal pardon as well as royal pardon and a £50 reward for every smuggler captured. Four of the leaders were hung in 1749.
NORTH TO BREDGAR
We will probably never know if John Quaife was connected to the gang, or disgusted by all the upheaval, It is almost 23 miles from Hawkhurst to Bredgar where he married Ann Crowhurst on Aug 4 1750.
It is almost 23 miles from Hawkhurst to Bredgar. John Quaife arrived as a stranger in the parish.
So were did wife's family, the Crowhursts, who are evidenced in the land assessments between 1747 and 1751. They may have come from Hadlow, almost as distant as Hawkhurst. Their sole entry in the parish registry was Ann's marriage to John Quaife.
John Quaife became a respectable tenant farmer in Bredgar. He witnessed the marriage of Nicholas Cook & Elizabeth French in Stockbury on Oct 15. 1767.
The 1781 assessment shows him renting three parcels.
John Quaife, "farmer," was buried in Bredgar on Feb 27, 1790. His wife, Ann, lived until 1802.
CHILDREN WITH CHRISTENING RECORDS
CHILDREN WITHOUT CHRISTENING RECORDS