A Virtual Museum - Your Town, the Borough and its History
The monument on Telegraph Hill is in memory of Charles Larkin (1775 – 1833), a Rochester auctioneer, for his work in promoting the Parliamentary Reform of 1832.  This reform gave the vote to every occupant of a house with a rental value of more than £10.  It was not entirely successful for (to an existing electorate of about 435,000 in England and Wales) it added less than 250,000 new voters and actually cut out some who had voted before.

Charles Larkin died aged 58 on 12 September 1833 at his home on Boley Hill, Rochester.  He had been a liberal and one of the most prominent political characters in this country.  He was interred in the family vault at Gillingham. Benjamin Horne of Mereworth repaired the monument in 1869.


The inscription on the monument reads:

‘The Friends of Freedom in Kent erected this Monument to
the memory of
CHARLES LARKIN,
In grateful testimony to his fearless and long
Advocation of
Civil and Religious Liberty
And his zealous exertions in promoting the
Ever Memorable Measure of
Parliamentary Reform
AD 1832’