Amongst the most curious of the many peculiar epitaphs which are to be
found in the quiet resting-places of the departed are those placed to the
memory of parish clerks and sextons. We have noted at various times, and
at different places, many strange specimens, a few of which we think will
entertain our readers.
In the churchyard of Crayford is a grave-stone bearing the following
inscription:--
Here lieth the body
OF
PETER ISNELL,
Thirty years clerk of this Parish.
He lived respected as a pious and mirthful man, and died on his
way to church to assist at a wedding,
On the 31st day of March, 1811,
Aged 70 years.
The inhabitants of Crayford have raised this stone to his cheerful
memory, and as a tribute to his long and faithful services.
The life of this clerk, just three score and ten,
Nearly half of which time he had sung out "Amen;"
In youth he was married, like other young men,
But his wife died one day, so he chanted "Amen."
A second he took, she departed--what then?
He married and buried a third with "Amen."
Thus his joys and his sorrows were treble, but then
His voice was deep bass, as he sung out "Amen."
On the horn he could blow as well as most men;
So his horn was exalted to blowing "Amen."
But he lost all his wind after three score and ten,
And here, with three wives, he awaits till again
The trumpet shall rouse him to sing out "Amen."
In addition to being parish clerk, Frank Raw, of Selby, Yorkshire, was a
grave-stone cutter, for we are told:--
Here lies the body of poor Frank Raw,
Parish clerk and grave-stone cutter,
And this is writ to let you know
What Frank for others used to do,
Is now for Frank done by another.
The next epitaph, placed to the memory of a parish clerk and
bellows-maker, was formerly in the old church of All Saints,
Newcastle-on-Tyne:--
Here lies Robert Wallas,
The King of Good Fellows,
Clerk of All-Hallows,
And maker of bellows.
On a slate head-stone, near the south porch of Bingham Church,
Nottinghamshire, is inscribed:--
Beneath this stone lies Thomas Hart,
Years fifty eight he took the part
Of Parish Clerk: few did excel.
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.
In the same county, 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 space, 'tis awful to declare,
Two generations buried by him were!
In a note by Mr. Llewllynn 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 grave-stones 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 grave-stone 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
assistance 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 sexton, 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," &c. 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 grave-stone:--
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.
Our genial friend, Cuthbert Bede, B.A., author of "Verdant Green," tells
us, "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 reappear,
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 Cocks, 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
weekday 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!"
First amongst notable sextons 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 as sexton of Peterborough Cathedral. He buried two
generations of his fellow-creatures. A portrait of him, placed at the west
end of that noble church, has perpetuated his fame, and caused him to be
introduced in effigy in various publications. Dr. Robert Chambers in his
entertaining work, the "Book of Days," writes: "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 passed 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 principal, 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.'"