A silver medal, which dates back to 1826, is to be donated to an Island museum following a Facebook campaign to buy it on eBay.

The rare piece of history was discovered for sale online and it was posted on the Queenborough Community social networking group by Islander Terry Brown.

It was shared on the Sheppey History Page which led to a crowd funding appeal to bring the item back to Sheppey for Queenborough’s Guildhall Museum.

Maggie Keen, Michael Trimmer, Roger Betts, Tim Bell, Robert Poppe, Lee Ewart, John Gevaux-Ross, Derek Pearce, Terry Brown, Matthew Brown, Nicola Stokes, Geof Reed, Brown’s Boat Yard, Beverly Nolker, Clive Browne and Melvin Hopper all chipped in towards the £175 needed.

The medal was one of 144 handed out following the election of wealthy London stockbroker John Capel as MP of Queenborough. John Capel distributed medals to everyone who voted for him, 144 people in all. The medal was given to a dredgerman named William Winch.

Queenborough used to be a rotten borough, so called because it had a relatively small electorate and was therefore viewed as having unfair influence in the House of Commons.

Mr Capel successfully helped to finance Queenborough oyster fishermen in a long running legal dispute with the Mayor and Corporation of Queenborough.

A policy of excluding them from the dredging founds unless they agreed to a set of oppressive by-laws had been in place, leading to widespread unemployment and poverty.

Lin Vine, manager at the museum, believes the mayor at the time may have been Thomas Young Greet, who was accused of accepting bribes and mismanaging funds from Queenborough Fisheries Trust.

She said: “I thought it was absolutely amazing. It restores your faith in the fact that there are other people who are out there who are interested in the heritage of the Island.

“The museum pledged some money and I did respond to say that it would be great to have the funds.

“Before I knew it they seemed to be getting money in left, right and centre.

“It’s change my impression of Facebook that it can be used for positive responses rather than all the negative things we hear about.”

Another of the medals in the series has been found online and a campaign may be formed to try to track down all 144 of the medals.