On the south wall of the belfry, on the ground floor stage, is the following inscription respecting the Cambridge Chimes.

Erected  A.D.   1865 The   Revd   H.  A.   Marsh

 

Vicar

 

Cambridge Chimes

G. & F. Cope & Co

Added Jubilee year   1897

Makers
Radford, Nottingham.

Also  respecting the  bells  we  find :—

This peal of 5 bells was rehung in a new frame made /suitable to contain 6 bells and the fourth bell recast A.D. 1868/

 

H.  A.   Marsh

Vicar

P.

J.

Whitington

B. Chamberlain 

Churchwardens.

In the vestry is a curious painting on wood representing David playing the harp. It has a central sliding panel and was used in the west end gallery days for announcing the numbers of the hymns.

The vestry roof is old and of the Perpendicular period; so is the nave roof, which bears several shields along the central intersections, one being Stanhope, and eastwards of Stanhope there is a good representation of a dog.

Some of the nave label-stops are worthy of notice. On the north side is a woman wearing a brank and on the south a man, open-mouthed.

The registers date from 1624 only; the earlier ones are missing.

The pulpit is a fine piece of modern work in memory of Jane Clark, of Heage, and her daughter, Agnes Ann.

The work is by Mr. Eames. The sculptured figures are—Christ on the cross in the centre panel; to the left St. Agnes holding a lamb; to the right St. Anne and the Virgin Mary depicted as mother and child.

MONUMENTS IN TUXFORD CHURCH.

Mr. Standish also read the following paper, prepared by Miss M. H. Towry Whiter-Part of the manor of Tuxford was purchased in 1560 by Thomas White of Collingham, Ruddingston, Cotgrave, Preston, Stone, Kynwadeston, and Woodhead, grandson of John White of Collingham, registered in a list of the gentry of Notts., taken by the King's Commissioners, 12 Henry VI. (1433). This Thomas married, sometime before 1553, Agnes, third daughter of Richard Cecil, of Burghley and Essingdon, Master of the Robes to King Henry VIII., and Constable of Warwick Castle. Richard Cecil was father of the well known William, Lord Burghley, the famous statesman. Thomas died 26th October, 1580, and was buried at Tuxford. All the heads of this House of White have since, with one exception (Thomas, 14th April, 1638), been buried at Tuxford. John, his son, was knighted by James I. on June 9th, 1619, and was High Sheriff of Notts, in 1623. Sir John White purchased the remainder of the manor of Tuxford. He was born in 1558, the year of Queen Elizabeth's succession, and he died 25th December, 1625, the year of King James the First's demise. His wife, Dorothea, whom he married in 1590, erected in the family private chapel in Tuxford Church "a fair tomb " of alabaster, leaving a space in the inscription for the date of her own death, which has never been inserted. She died in May, 1653, and was buried on the 29th. Her will is dated 5th May. The inscription on the monument is:—

Hic jacet Johannes White, miles, filius et haeres
Thomae White, armig. servi quondam
Philippi et Mariae, regis et reginae Angliae
Et Agnetis Cecill, sororis Willielmi Cecill
Baronis de Burghleigh summi Angl. Thesauri
Qui quidem Johannis obiit in festum nativitatis domini
Anno 1625
Dorothea uxor charissima praedicti Johannis White Filia Johannis Harpur de Swarkestone in com. Derb. militis in piam posteritatis memoriam et spem certain futurae Resurrectionis monumentum hoc posuit. obiit Die anno.

In a niche in the monument, under a canopy made in the thickness of the east wall of the chapel, lies the effigy of Sir John, full length, with ruff and armour. The recess is about 1¼ft. deep. Without the canopy, on a lower level, lies the effigy of the lady, with ruff, gold chain, and embroidered dress, all elaborately worked in alabaster. The remains of gilding are visible on the links of the chain, and on the cushions on which the heads of the two figures recline. The fragments of a cherub kneeling at their feet remain. Within the canopied recess above the figures are two tablets of black marble, with the inscription, flanked by pillars and surmounted by a sword, helmet, and death's head. Above the niche is alabaster ornamentation supported on two pillars, and surmounted by the family arms, gules, a chevron vaire between three lioncells rampant or, crest, an eagle sable rising out of a ducal coronet or. The monument is about 13ft. high and 7½ft. in breadth.

This Dorothea was the daughter of Sir John Harpur, of Swarkston, "one of the most considerable gentlemen of Derbyshire," High Sheriff in 1580. Her grandmother was Jane, heiress of Finderne. "From the times of Edward I. to those of Henry VIII., when the male line became extinct, and the estate passed by the marriage of the heiress to the Harpurs, the House of Finderne was one of the most distinguished in Derbyshire. Members of it won their spurs in the Crusades, and at Cressy, and at Agincourt. Their territorial possessions were large, they were High Sheriffs, Rangers of Needwood Forest, Custodians of Tutbury Castle." Her uncle was Robert Pierrepoint, Earl of Kingston; her cousin-german his son, the Marquis of Dorchester, "who attended his Royal master, Charles I., through all his troubles." The Harpur pedigree can be traced fourteen generations anterior to Dorothea, Lady White. There are few alabaster tombs now surviving in England. They are all supposed to have been executed by workmen from Italy or France. There is one at Chenies; of the Russell family, and one made for Edward Burnett, 1590, in the chancel of Sibthorpe Church. Another, of Sir John Williams and his wife, in the chancel of Thame Church. The chapel is shut off from the church by an iron grille, the key of which is kept at Wallingwells. Below the chapel are two vaults, the second having thirty niches, of which twenty are filled. All the more ancient burials of this family were in the older vault of the chapel, or "under the quyre." The first burial in the second vault was in 1818. Thomas White (1667-1732), of Tuxford, who married the heiress of Wallingwells, "lies under the high altar at Tuxford." The chapel was extended some time ago by a faculty. There are some graves of the Stanhopes of Rampston in it, covered by a large carved stone.

Marble monument of Capt. Charles Laurence White.

This brave young officer was born 19th September, 1782; was ensign 3rd Guards, January, 1804; afterwards lieutenant. He was slain in a sortie from Bayonne, whilst besieging the citadel, 14th April, 1814. He was the youngest son of Taylor White, of Wallingwells, and Sara Woollaston. A large packet of letters, written by him during his campaigns, is preserved at Wallingwells. These are written in a natural and candid style, and paint in every line the writer's amiable disposition, gaiety, courage, and spirit. These letters mention his cousin, Thomas Taylor Worsley, being wounded at the storming of Badajoz. A musket bullet struck him in the front of the neck and went round inside the skin, coming out at the back. He was six feet four, and his height saved his head. He was invalided to England with a twisted neck. At Waterloo a bullet struck the other side of his neck in exactly the same way, and set his head straight.

Note.—Since writing the above paper, I find that I was mistaken in supposing that alabaster tombs are few in England. Of these tombs and their effigies we possess a magnificent series, and the chief centres of industry seem to have been in the Midlands. See Arch. Journal, vols. x. and lxi.) With respect to the Sibthorpe example, read for Edward Burnett, Edward Burnell.—M.H.T.W.

All the arrangements for the excursion were most happily carried out by Mr. Fellows. The long journey via Mansfield was avoided by some of the members on their return, as in the evening they found a convenient train by the Great Northern line.

Gargoyle