Fulham Old and New

It is somewhat strange that the epitaph-most likely composed by the Bishop himself— makes no mention of the deceased's ecclesiastical preferments. The probable explanation is that Robinson did not think that his life work was that of the Church.

The tomb has been well preserved, thanks to Miss Lætitia Cornwallis, the Bishop's beloved stepdaughter, who, by her will, dated 2 May 1733 (P.C.C. proved 3 Feb. 1740-1), left

"The sum of £50 the interest whereof to be forever annually paid on the 7th day of November to such poor person for the time being of the Parish of Fulham in Middlesex as the Minister of the said Parish for the time being shall see fit on condition that such pcor person doe constantly keep the said Bishop's Tomb in the Churchyard there cleane and preserve the same and the Railes about it as much as may be from damage or spoyle, and dɔe once in euery three yeares new paint the said railes."

When not required, the income from this legacy was to be devoted to the poor. The investment of this legacy and its accumulations amounted to £179 6s. 11d. New Consols. The tomb was, until recent years, repaired out of this income, but the fund is now absorbed in the United Charities Scheme.

Mrs. Robinson, the Bishop's second wife, died at her house near Westminster Abbey, 29 Dec. 1747, and was interred in her husband's vault at Fulham, 26 Jan. 1747-8. The Church Registers record:

1723. Dr. John Robinson Lord Bishop of London.

bu. 19 Apl.

RANDOLPH.-Beneath an altar tomb of Portland stone, enclosed with rails, adjacent to the Vicarage garden, lie the remains of Bishop Randolph. On the west side is the following inscription:

"Under this stone lics deposited all that is Mortal of that eminent Prelate | John Randolph | Who was born July 17, 1749, and died July 28, 1813. | Too soon for the Church & his Country and lamented by all who have any 1 respect for high resplendent Talents & Qualities. It was his lot to be placed in various & arduous Stations, But he shone conspicuous in all. His learning was deep and | accurate, his Taste correct, his Judgment sound, his Industry | indefatigable, his Piety sincere, his Firmness unshaken, his integrity uncorrupt. | At Oxford, where he filled the Chairs of Poetry, the Greek | Language and Divinity, his Name has long been enrolled amongst the most illustrious of her sons, his Theological Lectures especially | were so admirable, that if the laborious discharge of his other sacred Duties, had not deprived him of leisure to revise them | for Publication, they would have constituted the most durable | Monument of his Fame. | At the age of 50 being raised to the bench, he governed in | succession the Sees of Oxford, Bangor & London, having declined a still more exalted station in Ireland, Nor did he disappoint the great and general Expectations that were formed of him.* No Man | knew better than himself the Doctrines, the Discipline, the Rights | and the whole Constitution of the Church of Englard, & no Man in | these Times was more watchful, more courageous, or more able | to defend them. In him therefore the Church has prematurely lost an undaunted Champion of Orthodoxy and one of her firmest | Bulwarks against innovation & Change, such was the Divine will. May those who were directed and animated by his Counsels whilst he was alive, persevere in the same principles and still reverence his Example & Authority now that he is dead.”

On the north side is the following:

"Also Sacred to the Memory of Henrietta, | Daughter of the above named John Randolph, | Bishop of London; who died 14th August 1860 Aged 68 years."

Above the inscription to Dr. Randolph are carved his official arms, vist. :

Dexter: The see of London; Sinister: On a cross five mullets pierced (Robinson).

The Church Registers record :

1813. John Randolph Bishop of London, Fulham, aged 64

* Perhaps a satirical reference to the inscription on the tomb of Bishop Hayter.

bu. 5 Aug.

The Rev. W. Wood, on 23 Mar. 1820, invested a sum of £42 Navy Five per Cents., the first charge on which was the annual payment of £1 Is. for the maintenance of the tomb of Bishop Randolph. Subsequently, by a writing, dated Apl. 1834, he increased the sum to £1 5s., for the cleaning of his own tomb, in addition to that of Dr. Randolph.

GIBSON. The table monument to Bishop Gibson lies just southwards of that of Bishop Robinson. On a flat stone which surmounts the tomb, which is enclosed with rails, is the following:

“Edmundus Gibson D.D. | Londinensis Episcopus | Obiit 6 Sept. Anno Dom. | 1748 | Ætat. 79.”

At the west end are the official arms of Bishop Gibson, as on his monument in the Church. At the east end is his domestic coat, vist.:

Three storks rising (Gibson), on an escutcheon of pretence a lion rampant (Jones).

The Church Registers record:

1748. The Rt. Rev. Father in God Edmund Bishop of London.

bu. 17 Sept.

In this vault are also interred the bodies of the Rev. Christopher Wilson, Bishop of Bristol (d. 18 Apl. 1792), Anne Wilson (d. 16 May 1789) his wife, daughter of Bishop Gibson, Richard Wilson (d. 12 May 1787) and Christopher Wilson (d. 25 May 1842), sons of Bishop Wilson, and Sophia Wilson (d. 18 Oct. 1848), wife of Christopher Wilson.

Bishop Gibson's tomb was repaired in 1836 at the expense of the family of the Rev. N. Hill, of Snailwell, near Newmarket, a descendant of the Bishop. It was again restored in 1898.

Hook.—A small upright stone bears the following brief inscription to the memory of Hook, the renowned humorist :

"Theodore Edward Hook, died 24th August 1841, in the 53rd year of his age."

The Church Registers record :

1841. Theodore Edward Hook, Fulham, aged 52 .

bu. 30 Aug.

One or two unsuccessful efforts have been made to raise a fund for the erection of a more imposing monument to Hook's memory.

LISLE.-Fixed against the east wall of the Church is a small stone inscribed :

"Here lyeth the bodey of | Richard Lisle gent = who | Departed this lif one the | 24 daye of Ivly 1665 ¦ in the 62 yeares of his age | Anno Domini.”

In a list of recognizances to the Council of State, 29 May 1650 (Calendar of State Papers) appears the name of Richard Lisle of Fulham, gent., bound in the sum of £500 to appear when required and to be of good behaviour. In 1659 he was fined £2 for suffering "vnlawfull games in his howse."

CORNWALLIS. On the same wall of the Church is a tablet containing a long inscription to the memory of Thomas Cornwallis, who died 16 July 1703, aged 33, son of Sir Francis Cornwallis and Elizabeth his wife. He married Emma, daughter of Sir Job Charlton, kt. and bart. This lady married, as her second husband, Dr. John Robinson, whose vault is close at

hand. In the Cornwallis vault are also interred the remains of two of his children, Emma, who died in 1714, and Lætitia (Letitia) who died in 1740. It was this Lætitia Cornwallis who left a legacy for the repair of the tomb of her stepfather, Bishop Robinson. The body of Thomas Cornwallis was originally interred in the Parish Church of St. Giles in the Fields, but, on the rebuilding of that structure, it was removed to Fulham. The inscription is given in full by Faulkner. When, in 1861, Mr. Walter Rye copied the epitaph, only a part of it could be read. Mr. Rye notes:

Exactly over this slab a water pipe has been placed that drains the roof of the church, and owing to the continual passage of water, the inscription has become nearly illegible."

WITHERS.-Near the monument to the memory of Bishop Robinson is the railed altar tomb of the Withers family, containing the remains of Sir William Withers, knight, to whom there is the following epitaph written on the top slab:

(Translation: Here lies what is mortal of William Withers, knight, who, having discharged the duties of several civic offices of the City of London, at length attained the Mayoralty in the year 1707: which office he carried out with as great credit to himself and benefit to the State as an honest man and withal an excellent citizen could do. He died 31 Jan. 1720, aged 70. William Withers, gentleman, who died 29 Oct. 1768, aged 52, desired that his own remains might be laid beside those of his grandfather.)

Above this inscription are the following arms:

A chevron between three crescents (Withers). Crest: On an esquire's helmet a demi-hare issuant.

The coat is repeated, in colour, on the rails on either side of the grave.

There are also buried in this vault Lady Margaret Withers (d. 1711), wife of Sir William Withers, kt., Col. William Withers (d. 18 Nov. 1772), his son, Mrs. Elizabeth Withers (d. 1727), wife of Col. Wm. Withers, and William Withers (d. 29 Oct. 1768), grandson of Sir William, etc.

Col. Withers, as we have elsewhere stated, by his will, dated 1722, left a rent charge of £5 for keeping clean and in repair the monument which he erected to the memory of his father, Sir Wm. Withers. When not required, the testator directed that the money should be distributed among the poor of Fulham.

In this vault are also buried some of the Ravenshaw family connected by marriage with the Withers family. On the north side of the tomb is the following:

"In this vault | are deposited the Remains of Thomas William Ravenshaw, Esqre, eldest son of John Goldsborough Ravenshaw, Esqre, and of Elizabeth, | only daughter of William Withers, Esqre. He departed this life August 14th 1842, | aged 66 years."

And on the south side:

"Hic jacent Reliquiæ | Joannis Goldsborough Ravenshaw, | qui obijt Jun. 6 A.D. 1840, .Etatis 63. Itemque uxoris eius Hannæ, quæ obiit xxx Nov. MDCCCLXII, | Annos nata LXXVIII.”

(Translation: Here lie the remains of John Goldsborough Ravenshaw, who died 6 June 1840, aged 63: also his wife Hannah who died 30 Nov. 1862, aged 78.)

And on the west side:

"Sarah, widow of Colonel | Thos W. Ravenshaw, June 15th, 1878, | Aged 89 | R.I.P.

John Goldsborough Ravenshaw was Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company. Thomas William Ravenshaw, who was a Colonel in the Berks Militia, was his brother. They were two of the five sons of John G. Ravenshaw, of Old Bracknell and Bath, by Elizabeth, only child of William Withers, of Dummer, co. Hants, and Fulham.

CHILD.

PLOT H.

Beneath a railed altar tomb of marble is the vault of the Child family. On the south and north sides of the tomb are sculptured, as the insignia of his mayoralty, the civic cap, sword, mace and chain of Sir Francis Child the elder. At either end are his arms, vist. :

(At the east end) A chevron engrailed ermine between three birds; on an escutcheon of pretence a chevron between three leopards' faces. (At the west end) On a knight's shield a bird (headless, perhaps a chough) perched on a piece of rock.

On the top of the tomb is the following inscription:

"In a Vault under this Tomb is | Deposited the Body of | St Francis Child Knt & Alderman | and President of Christ Church Hospit. in London who departed this life Oct. | ye 4 1713 Etat. 71. He was Lord Mayor | in the year 1699 & in 1702. He was Chosen One of the Four Citizens to Serve for the | Said City in the first Parliament of the | Reign of Queen Anne. | He married Elizabeth the only daughter & | Heiress of William Wheeler, Goldsmith, By | whom he had twelve sons and three daughters. | The Bodies of his sons James and William | and of his daughter Martha, wife of Anthony Collins | Esq. are removed from the church into this vault.”

This tomb was repaired in 1841 by the Countess of Jersey, a lineal descendant of Sir Francis Child. It was also repaired by Child's Bank in 1882.

VASLET. A flat stone by the south wall of the Church is inscribed:

(pr)obitatis pietatis et urbanitatis | .

The last two lines of the epitaph are now nearly obliterated.

(Translation: Here lies Louis Vaslet, of French descent, an Englishman by naturalization and by sympathy, who. after having bestowed great pains upon the teaching of the young through a period of 45 years, at last departed this life on 12 June in the year 1731, aged 65 He had two wives: first Mary, daughter of Claude Barachin, who died 10 Jan. 1704-5, and was buried in the churchyard of the church which bears the name of St. Giles in the Fields; secondly, Catharine, daughter of Charles Testard, who died 29 April 1730, aged 56, and who rests in this vault with her father, her son Testard Louis, who died 21 Mar. 1730-1, aged 25, and her husband. Here lies also Catherine Edwards, daughter of the above named Louis Vaslet, and widow of John Nodes and Oliver Edwards, esquires. She died 10 Sept. at the age of 9c

probity, piety and urbanity ..

At the bottom, interposed between the last seven lines, are the arms of Vaslet, vist. :

An anchor erect in pale; on a chief 3 mullets.

* Faulkner gives the year, now quite illegible, as 1766, but this would make her only ten years younger than her father.

The Vaslet stone was originally on the top of a large table monument, at one end of which was the following:

The sides were inscribed :

“Within this tomb rest the remains of Richard Price, Esq., of Michael's Place, Brompton, ob' Jany 22nd 1807 Ætat. From an early love of his Maker he led a life of Piety and Benevolence, and felt in his last hours what is expressed in his Essay, page 125.

71.

"This marble is inscribed to his memory by his relict, Margaret Mary, daughter of John Nodes, Esq.”

The stones round this grave are now lost.

WODEHOUSE.—A brick tomb records the name of Philip Wodehouse (d. 21 Jan. 1838), Vice-Admiral of the White, second son of John, first Lord Wodehouse, of Kimberley, co. Norfolk.

The Church Registers record:

1838. Vice Admiral The Honble Philip Wodehouse, Chelsea, aged 65

bu. 27 Jan.

PLOT I.

NUTKINS. An upright stone, carved with a winged head, records the names of James Nutkins (d. 1 Feb. 1745) and of Robert and Elizabeth Nutkins, father and mother of James Nutkins.

END OF VOL. I.

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Fulham Old and New: Being an Exhaustive History of the Ancient ..., Volume 1