Amongst the relatively uncommon Christian names which aid the research of some of the many Hills of East Kent is Hercules. I am told that one can be found in fourteenth century pipe rolls, and it may well be that there are manorial records surviving with references to one or more, but the earliest for whom records are readily available is my probable 11 x great grandfather, who was probably born around 1552, and who certainly died in 1595.

From him descend at least another 14, possibly one or two more. The relationship between these can be viewed in the following tree:

Due to the good survival of Parish Registers for Canterbury Diocese compared with many parts of the country, and the survival of ATs and BTs that fill in most of the gaps, together with most (but not all) of these now being indexed online it is unlikely many are missing.

In the C18th five Hercules were buried in Canterbury (including Harbledown); there are only four who it is clear lived there. I have not seen images of all the entries and it is possible that some of the four have the wrong burial associated with them. I suggest that the fifth was Hercules 7, as I have found no other burial that could be his. However, he had a brother who was a seaman, and whose will suggests that the family lived in the Ramsgate part of St. Lawrence Parish; it was therefore quite likely that Hercules 7 was also a seaman of some sort and could have died at sea or in some distant port.

If that were the case the surplus Canterbury burial could be another grandson of Hercules 8. He had a number of sons, but there were quite a few Hills families in Canterbury at the time, and it is difficult to be sure of the fate of those with more common names. (Others with more interest than I have may find it achievable, I certainly have not tried to reconstruct all the Canterbury families of that time).

Hercules 3 (otherwise Archilaus) possible led the most interesting life, and he is probably the Hercules who engenders the most interest. In settling in Rochester after his return he could just about be said to be in West Kent (depending on whether you consider the Medway or the Diocesan border divides the county). Either way, the records do not survive so well, and he may have had a son called Hercules.

Others have suggested that it was Hercules 2 or his son Hercules 4 who settled for a time in Scituate in America before returning to England to live in Rochester. Whilst it is clear that it was the same Hercules who went to America and then settled in Rochester, I have seen no positive evidence that it was Hercules 3 who did so. However, evidence for both Hercules 2 and 4 being in England at the time a Hercules was in America would seems to rule them out, and therefore by a process of elimination I believe it must have been 3.

My research into these Hercules is not quite complete. In particular I hope to look at:

• The probate inventory of Hercules 1, which should give more of a picture of his life than that given by just the will.
• Church Court records concerning Hercules 2, and his daughter or niece Frances. Care of the latter would seem to have to devolved to him and his brother Augustine on the death of their brother  William.
• The will of Hercules 3 (I have part of it, but not the whole).  
• Whether there is any record regarding the death of Hercules 4 (he may well have died during the short period when there is a gap in Boughton under Blean burial register, and being during the interregnum there are no ATs / BTs for the period. I hope the documentation concerning the minister assigned to the parish after him may show how the vacancy had arisen).
• The somewhat peripatetic life of Hercules 5 (a case in the Canterbury Archdeaconry Court in which he was one of the defendants may tell us more, and I think he also left a probate inventory).