Curious Epitaphs Part 13

Correct he read and sung so well; His words distinct, his voice so clear, Till eighteen hundred and fiftieth year.

Death cut the brittle thread, and then A period put to his Amen.

At eighty-two his breath resigned, To meet the fate of all mankind; The third of May his soul took flight To mansions of eternal light.

The bell for him with awful tone His body summoned to the tomb.

Oh! may his sins be all forgiv'n And Christ receive him into heav'n.

From the churchyard of Ratcliffe-on-Soar, we have a curious epitaph to the memory of Robert Smith, who died in 1782, aged 82 years:--

Fifty-five years it was, and something more, Clerk of this parish he the office bore, And in that s.p.a.ce, 'tis awful to declare, Two generations buried by him were!

In a note by Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt, F.S.A., we are told that with the clerkship of Bakewell Church, the "vocal powers" of its holders appear to have been to some extent hereditary, if we may judge by the inscriptions recording the deaths and the abilities of two members of the family of Roe, which are found on gravestones in the churchyard there. The first of these, recording the death of Samuel Roe, is as under:--

To The memory of SAMUEL ROE, Clerk Of the Parish Church of Bakewell, Which office He filled thirty-five years With credit to himself And satisfaction to the Inhabitants.

His natural powers of voice, In clearness, strength, and sweetness Were altogether unequalled.

He died October 31st, 1792, Aged 70 years.

| died | aged SARAH his third wife | 1811 | 77 CHARLES their son | 1810 | 52

He had three wives, Millicent, who died in 1745, aged 22; Dorothy, who died 1754, aged 28; and Sarah, who survived him and died in 1811, at the age of 77. A gravestone records the death of his first two wives as follows, and the third is commemorated in the above inscription.

MILLICENT, Wife of Saml Roe, She died Sepr 16th, 1745, aged 22.

DOROTHY, Wife of Saml Roe, She died Novr 13th, 1754, aged 28.

Respecting the above-mentioned Samuel Roe, a contributor to the _Gentleman's Magazine_ wrote, on February 13th, 1794:--

"Mr. Urban,

"It was with much concern that I read the epitaph upon Mr. Roe, in your last volume, p. 1192. Upon a little tour which I made in Derbyshire, in 1789, I met with that worthy and very intelligent man at Bakewell, and, in the course of my antiquarian researches there, derived no inconsiderable a.s.sistance from his zeal and civility. If he did not possess the learning of his namesake, your old and valuable correspondent, I will venture to declare that he was not less influenced by a love and veneration for antiquity, many proofs of which he had given by his care and attention to the monuments in the church, which were committed to his charge; for he united the characters of s.e.xton, clerk, singing-master, will-maker, and school-master. Finding that I was quite alone, he requested permission to wait upon me at the inn in the evening, urging, as a reason for this request, that he must be exceedingly gratified by the conversation of a gentleman who could read the characters upon the monument of Vernon, the founder of Haddon House, a treat he had not met with for many years.

After a very pleasant gossip we parted, but not till my honest friend had, after some apparent struggle, begged of me to indulge him with my name."

To his careful attention is to be attributed the preservation of the curious Vernon and other monuments in the church, over which, in some instances, he placed wooden framework to keep off the rough hands and rougher knives of the boys and young men of the congregation. He also watched with special care over the Wendesley tomb, and even took careful rubbings of the inscriptions.

While speaking of this Mr. Roe, it may be well to put the readers of this work in possession of an interesting fact in connection with the name of Roe, or Row. The writer above, in his letter to Mr. Urban, says, "If he did not possess the learning of his namesake, your old and valued correspondent," etc. By this he means "T. Row," whose contributions to the _Gent.'s Mag._ were very numerous and interesting. The writer under this signature was the Rev. Samuel Pegge, rector of Whittington, and the letters forming this pseudonym were the initials of the words, T[he]

R[ector] O[f] W[hittington].

Philip Roe, who succeeded his father (Samuel Roe) as parish clerk of Bakewell, was his son by his third wife. He was born in 1763, and succeeded his father in full parochial honours in 1792, having, we believe, for some time previously acted as his deputy. He died in 1815, aged 52 years, and was buried with the other members of the family. The following curious inscription appears on his gravestone:--

Erected In remembrance of PHILIP ROE who died 12th September, 1815 Aged 52 years.

The vocal Powers here let us mark Of Philip our late Parish Clerk In Church none ever heard a Layman With a clearer Voice say "Amen!"

Who now with Hallelujahs Sound Like him can make the roofs rebound?

The Choir lament his Choral Tones The Town--so soon Here lie his Bones.

"Sleep undisturb'd within thy peaceful shrine Till Angels wake thee with such notes as thine."

Also of SARAH his wife who departed this life on the 24th of January 1817 aged 51 years.

Cuthbert Bede, B.A., says, "As a boy I often attended the service at Belbroughton Church, Worcestershire, where the parish clerk was Mr.

Osborne, tailor. His family had there been parish clerks and tailors since the time of Henry the Eighth, and were lineally descended from William FitzOsborne, who, in the twelfth century, had been deprived by Ralph FitzHerbert of his right to the manor of Bellem, in the parish of Belbroughton. Often have I stood in the picturesque churchyard of Wolverley, Worcestershire, by the grave of its old parish clerk, whom I well remember, old Thomas Worrall, the inscription on whose monument is as follows:--

Sacred to the Memory of THOMAS WORRALL, Parish Clerk of Wolverley for a period of forty-seven years.

Died A.D. 1854, February 23rd.

Aged 76 years.

He served with faithfulness in humble sphere, As one who could his talent well employ.

Hope that when Christ his Lord shall re-appear, He may be bidden to His Master's joy.

This tombstone was erected to the memory of the deceased by a few of the parishioners in testimony of his worth.

April, 1855. Charles R. Somers c.o.c.ks, vicar.

It may be noted of this worthy parish clerk that, with the exception of a week or two before his death, he was never once absent from his Sunday and week-day duties in the forty-seven years during which he held office.

He succeeded his father, James Worrall, who died in 1806, aged seventy-nine, after being parish clerk of Wolverley for thirty years. His tombstone, near to that of his son, was erected 'to record his worth both in his public and private character, and as a mark of personal esteem--h.l.F.H.&W.C.p.c.' I am told that these initials stand for F.

Hurtle and the Rev. William Callow, and that the latter was the author of the following lines inscribed on the monument, which are well worth quoting:--

If courtly bards adorn each statesman's bust, And strew their laurels o'er each warrior's dust Alike immortalise, as good and great, Him who enslaved as him who saved the state, Surely the muse (a rustic minstrel) may Drop one wild flower upon a poor man's clay; This artless tribute to his mem'ry give Whose life was such as heroes seldom live.

In worldly knowledge, poor indeed his store-- He knew the village and he scarce knew more.

The worth of heavenly truth he justly knew-- In faith a Christian, and in practice too.

Yes, here lies one, excel him ye who can; Go! imitate the virtues of that man!"

A memorial record on the church of Holy Trinity, Hull, is as follows:--

In memory of JOHN STONE Parish Clerk 41 years Excellent in his way Buried here 26 May 1727 Aged 78.

First amongst notable s.e.xtons is the name of Old Scarlett, who died July 2, 1591, at the good old age of ninety-eight, and occupied for a long time the position of s.e.xton of Peterborough Cathedral. He buried two generations of his fellow-creatures. A portrait of him, placed at the west end of that n.o.ble church, has perpetuated his fame, and caused him to be introduced in effigy in various publications. Says a writer in the "Book of Days": "And what a lively effigy--short, stout, hardy, and self-complacent, perfectly satisfied, and perhaps even proud, of his profession, and content to be exhibited with all its insignia about him!

Two queens had pa.s.sed through his hands into that bed which gives a lasting rest to queens and to peasants alike. An officer of Death, who had so long defied his princ.i.p.al, could not but have made some impression on the minds of bishop, dean, prebends, and other magnates of the Cathedral, and hence, as we may suppose, the erection of this lively portraiture of the old man, which is believed to have been only once renewed since it was first put up. Dr. Dibdin, who last copied it, tells us that 'Old Scarlett's jacket and trunkhose are of a brownish red, his stockings blue, his shoes black, tied with blue ribbons, and the soles of his feet red.

The cap upon his head is red, and so also is the ground of the coat armour.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD SCARLETT, THE PETERBOROUGH s.e.xTON.]

The following lines below his portrait are characteristic of his age:--

You see OLD SCARLETT'S picture stand on hie; But at your feet here doth his body lye.

His gravestone doth his age and death-time shew, His office by heis token[s] you may know.

Second to none for strength and st.u.r.dy lymm, A scare-babe mighty voice, with visage grim; He had inter'd two queenes within this place, And this townes householders in his life's s.p.a.ce Twice over; but at length his own time came What he for others did, for him the same Was done: no doubt his soule doth live for aye, In heaven, though his body clad in clay.

The first of the queens interred by Scarlett was Catherine, the divorced wife of Henry VIII., who died in 1535, at Kimbolton Castle, in Huntingdonshire. The second was Mary, Queen of Scots, who was beheaded at Fotheringay in 1587, and first interred here, though subsequently transported to Westminster Abbey.

Our next example is from Bingley, Yorkshire:--

In memory of HEZEKIAH BRIGGS, who died August 5th, 1844, in the 80th year of his age. He was s.e.xton at this church 43 years, and interred upwards of 7000 corpses.

[Here the names of his wife and several children are given.]

Here lies an old ringer, beneath the cold clay, Who has rung many peals both for serious and gay; Through Grandsire and Trebles with ease he could range, Till death called a Bob, which brought round the last change.

For all the village came to him When they had need to call; His counsel free to all was given, For he was kind to all.

Ring on, ring on, sweet Sabbath bell, Still kind to me thy matins swell, And when from earthly things I part, Sigh o'er my grave, and lull my heart.